Questions on healing skills.

[___]

Overall, which do you think is more effective?

And how useful are skills like Renewal or the shapshifter skills like Better Odds?

I haven't played much with Renewal, but I'm not too impressed with Refresh, which is like it's mid-younger brother (Camaraderie being the youngest and weakest). The main problem being that Refresh requires your unit to be in isolation, but Renewal doesn't have that restriction. Personally I think Lifetaker is the best assuming you can reliably remove enemy units. Sol is not too reliable but it does have the advantage that it can trigger during enemy turns. I haven't played too much with the Hoshidan skills or the animal skills (mostly just Sol and Lifetaker) so I wanted to know your thoughts on those (also, if you have played around with Amaterasu, I'll like to know how that one plays too).

Finally, this is just sort of the specific question(s) I had, but I was wondering if it wouldn't be too repetitive to make another thread about a topic similar to this one (healing) but on a broader sense? If you don't think so, I'll go ahead and post what I had in mind as a new topic.

Edited November 5, 2016 by ___

[Shadow Mir]

I consider Renewal best - Sol pretty much fell from grace after Radiant Dawn, Lifetaker and Amaterasu are level 15 skills and thus come 2 l8, and Better Odds and Even Better have poor distribution.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[___]

Hmm, I'll definitely play around with Renewal now see how it goes. And unfortunately true, lv15 skills come too late in the game...

[Light Strategist]

At the end of the day, it comes down to how much the unit needs to heal at any one time and whether or not you need lots of health in short bursts, lots in general or overall coverage on the enemy's turn (in Sol's case).

Since you've been running Sol and Lifetaker together, I'd just suggest you swapping Sol for Renewal. Assuming you don't get hurt when activating Lifetaker, that's 80% health regen in 1 turn without staves factored in. However, that's just me. Play around a bit and see what works for you.

I consider Renewal best - Sol pretty much fell from grace after Radiant Dawn, Lifetaker and Amaterasu are level 15 skills and thus come 2 l8, and Better Odds and Even Better have poor distribution.

But... isn't Renewal a Level 15 skill still? It's been a while since I last played Fates...

[Shadow Mir]

But... isn't Renewal a Level 15 skill still? It's been a while since I last played Fates...

Nope - it got pushed forward to level 5, replacing Rally Luck, which got moved to level 10 unpromoted.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[kcirrot]

I like Renewal so much that I went to the trouble of earning it on every character. It takes a lot of pressure off my healers who can focus on just those who are really hurting.

[SylvieLeo]

If you're not adverse to buying skills from other people's castles, then Amaterasu is definitely worth the money for Azura and Mitama, both of whose personal skills can combine with Amaterasu for extra HP back for surrounding units. Actually, it might be good to buy Amaterasu for all your healers, since they're usually standing behind other units anyway!

Personally, I'm a fan of Lifetaker, especially on speedier units who don't have high strength/defense but can finish off an enemy by doubling. By doing so, they can recover whatever damage they did receive while attacking. However, the only downside is that Lifetaker activates only on Player phase. I can see a skill like Vengeance (hit harder during Enemy phase) working really well with Lifetaker (get back HP on Player phase).

Edited November 6, 2016 by SylvieLeo

[Prince Xander of Nohr]

Over all I find Renewal to be the most useful. Sol is ok, but it has higher priority over Luna which I have on literally every single character so I find it just gets in the way. Better Odds/Even Better are decent, but I feel that they just get outclassed by Renewal considering it heals every turn. I will say however, both of the beast skills on Kanna is absolutely ridiculous. Life Taker is good on fast glass cannons like Charlotte and Ophelia. Amasteru is a weak supportive skill on its own, but becomes amazing when stacked with other supporting skills such as Healing Descant, Inspiration, rally skills, and all of the princesses personal skills.

[eclipse]

For staffbots, the best healing skill is Live to Serve, followed by Amaterasu. I really like Amaterasu on Shigure, since it turns him into a staffless healer.

For mostly everyone else, it's Lifetaker. The exception are units that don't gain a XHKO advantage off of restoring 50% of their life, in which case Renewal is better.

[SalShich10N]

It depends, I've found Renewal to be rather useless in practice. 30% of HP is kinda low, you won't fully heal any major wound and units that can get the skill Renewal do not face combat anyways. Lifetaker would be cooler if it also worked on the enemy turn, but it at least circumvents any damage you take from counterattacks, and allows its wielders to ram themselves at Counter/Countermagic enemies with impunity. Sol is useful if you manage to get its proc rate high since you can heal on your opponents turn, when you take damage. On staffers Live to Serve allows you to use your healer for a single attack lure, given they can survive it, and also make combat medics like Felicia much more independent and reliable.

One healing skill combo that I like is Azura's passive when stacked with Amaterasu. She ends up giving Renewal to up to 4 units at once, which is pretty significant, as she can heal multiple allies this way for just existing.

[NekoKnight]

As others have said, before you get to endgame or cheat by buying skills the best healing skills are Renewal, Even Better, Better Odds and Live to Serve (for staff users, obviously). Sol is still a worthy skill but Renewal is the more reliable option.

[Shadow Mir]

It depends, I've found Renewal to be rather useless in practice. 30% of HP is kinda low, you won't fully heal any major wound and units that can get the skill Renewal do not face combat anyways. Lifetaker would be cooler if it also worked on the enemy turn, but it at least circumvents any damage you take from counterattacks, and allows its wielders to ram themselves at Counter/Countermagic enemies with impunity. Sol is useful if you manage to get its proc rate high since you can heal on your opponents turn, when you take damage. On staffers Live to Serve allows you to use your healer for a single attack lure, given they can survive it, and also make combat medics like Felicia much more independent and reliable.

One healing skill combo that I like is Azura's passive when stacked with Amaterasu. She ends up giving Renewal to up to 4 units at once, which is pretty significant, as she can heal multiple allies this way for just existing.

Ehh, this is just me, but as I see it, Renewal's always active, which is more than can be said for Sol, which runs into the problem of being chance based, in addition to being dependent on the damage I do. Edited November 7, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Dragonslayer9x]

In general I like having Azura be the passive healing bot. She tends to be slightly behind the fight as a dancer, so I give her Amaterasu and Inspiration. It's like having renewal on all units within 2 (plus it stacks with renewal) and it's also like having both a Sakura and a Hinoka in range of all those units too. If you need more healing give your units within Azura range renewal or lifetaker (probably not both as it is a tad overkill)

[Ebony]

Overall, which do you think is more effective?

And how useful are skills like Renewal or the shapshifter skills like Better Odds?

Honestly it depends.

I usually find Lifetaker is better on offensive characters like Corrin, Ryoma, or Camilla. That being said I have a Shiro with Renewal, but that's because Lifetaker doesn't activate with other -Taker skills and I have him with Magictaker. If you're really stuck on which one to use, I usually default to Renewal. It's also what I pass down to Kana.

[Jedi]

I prefer Sol over Renewal because its not once a turn, generally the units who get Sol have enough skill to constantly activate it.

Such as my first HM run of Conquest where my Ninja Laslow with Sol soloed the Foxes partly thanks to him activating Sol literally every ten seconds.

Lifetaker is probably the best, Sol is generally ok, and renewal is overall meh.

[Shadow Mir]

I prefer Sol over Renewal because its not once a turn, generally the units who get Sol have enough skill to constantly activate it.

Such as my first HM run of Conquest where my Ninja Laslow with Sol soloed the Foxes partly thanks to him activating Sol literally every ten seconds.

Lifetaker is probably the best, Sol is generally ok, and renewal is overall meh.

Personally, I disagree on Sol since it's unreliable on two counts - first, the healing is based on the damage you do, meaning unless you luck out with a critical hit or get lucky when facing a squishy, you can only expect enough healing for minor wounds at best, and second, you can still miss, and then you're SOL (pun NOT intended). And as I stated earlier, Lifetaker loses points for being a level 15 skill in a game where I generally won't be able to take advantage of them until the game's nearly over.

[___]

Thanks every one on your thoughts and opinions! Really just wanted to say that before this thread goes down to history.

[Light Strategist]

Lifetaker doesn't activate with other -Taker skills

I'm 90% certain it does.

EDIT: I'm 100% certain it does. I just tested it. Lifetaker and Speedtaker both triggered for the same kill.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Light Strategist

[Emblem Blade]

Now that I'm back after several months I believe...

It depends, I've found Renewal to be rather useless in practice. 30% of HP is kinda low, you won't fully heal any major wound and units that can get the skill Renewal do not face combat anyways. Lifetaker would be cooler if it also worked on the enemy turn, but it at least circumvents any damage you take from counterattacks, and allows its wielders to ram themselves at Counter/Countermagic enemies with impunity. Sol is useful if you manage to get its proc rate high since you can heal on your opponents turn, when you take damage. On staffers Live to Serve allows you to use your healer for a single attack lure, given they can survive it, and also make combat medics like Felicia much more independent and reliable.

One healing skill combo that I like is Azura's passive when stacked with Amaterasu. She ends up giving Renewal to up to 4 units at once, which is pretty significant, as she can heal multiple allies this way for just existing.

Problem is that Renewal can work on an entirely passive skill set while:

*Sol restores the units HP equal to half the damage it deals to the enemy. You need to hit very hard if you're going to get a decent HP recovery. Sol got nerfed pretty hard since RD where it had its last moments of glory (HP restored = damage opponent received). Attacking an enemy who has less than 20 HP with Sol (Awakening/Fates) isn't worth it if the damage they can inflict is too much.

*Lifetaker would be awesome if it worked on any phase instead of just the units turn of action. Sadly, it only works if your unit KO's the enemy and your unit survived. 50% HP recovery is awesome though even with a sour condition.

*Attacking an enemy with Counter or Countermagic is one thing, you might survive although the recoil damage will most likely bypass your Miracle and KO you if your HP is equal or below the recoil damage you would take. Attacking an opponent with both of said skills with a magical-based weapon (even magic-melee weapons aka Shining Bow, Levin Sword, Bolt Axe/Naginata) will make you take 200% damage if you went into a direct (1-tile non-diagonal distance) combat against that opponent and that's about as much of a death sentence on some opponents who can tank and counter-defeat that unit of yours. Of course both Counter skills got nerfed so they only work if the one attacking the unit that has either/both of those skills triggers them (unless the one attacking the one with the Counter skills is an enemy with Dragonskin/Divine Shield in which case Counter/Countermagic fails completely).

Not going to go into detail with the potential skill sets Renewal fits into since there's quite a lot...