"Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread

[wizzard of soz]

@Kaden

fair enough, but they still have to build around getting a special off (though Quick Riposte on tanks is pretty sweet regardless of specials), whereas a speedster can just slap on Speed!Glimmer and call it a day. then again, more speedy characters usually have less attack, and a lot of tanks have more attack (thus the damage from a special not being as much a necessity), so i suppose it balances out. and on the other hand, if you're slow enough and tanky enough, you can rely on getting doubled to get your special off, aha. 

with the A slot competing for a lot of the most popular skills, i wonder how Heavy Blade would compete though. and Guard is quite niche, especially compared to the all-purpose Quick Riposte. i can't see it picking up that much, especially when it has even less forgiveness HP threshold-wise relative to QR. but i mean, i get what you're saying, there are definitely ways for slow tanks to get their skills off. 

when you say you'll shut up but you just can't

@ILikeKirbys

for me i seem to see a lot of mages in the arena, so it definitely helps me out, even at the expense of defense which, as you pointed out, T-Adept does pretty much cover. swordies pink him for like 0-5 damage, which ain't bad at all. i also have a T-Adept 2 Robin, but i actually like it because there've been a lot of times where a green could've (mostly due to my stupidity rather than necessity, i'll be honest) murdered him, but left him at like 2 health. but yeah even with only T-Adept 2 and -Res i bet he can take on Red Mages or at least tank some hits.

yeah that's true. i just have an hankering towards balanced jack of all trade units that can take on anything. well, on the flipside, Xander with his rangedness may be able to KO green mages and archers in return if he can tank a hit, especially if he has QR on him and up. but yeah when you have a Reindhart to take care of things...so many things, damn you Blue Eraser...then it's not too crucial. still, i've been pretty impressed with my 4* Xander with how much he can tank regardless of WTA.

as for Aegis, i can't really see why not. either Aegis or Sacred Cowl, depending on how your personal experience weighs the value of low CD vs more protection. since your Stahl is focused on killing/walling greens and probably does it just fine without an offense/melee defense skill, it seems like either would be good. 

Edited May 10, 2017 by wizzard of soz

[Kaden]

57 minutes ago, LordFrigid said:

Nobody serious about the Arena is giving Lilina Defiant Res. Even +4 is dubious unless you're running Rauðrblade/+ (which probably doesn't need a special). If you're giving her a Defiant, it should be Atk, which applies on every attack, not just on a special proc.

Debuffs are kinda hard to assume as well, especially on a squishy mage. If you're comfortable leaving Lilina in someone's range, she prooobably doesn't even need a special to take them out. Seal skills and Shuriken users not named Poison Dagger/+ are virtually non-existent, from my experience...and Poison Dagger will almost certainly OHKO her.

Overall, I don't see any reason to not take Draconic.

I was just providing examples of what would happen if either of her stats were affected by buffs and debuffs and what would happen. So, best case and worst case scenario.

Iceberg using a higher percentage means it can get stronger very quickly if resistance is buffed, but Hone Attack is more practical and versatile, so Draconic Aura and Lilina's damage in general would be boosted regardless.

[bethany81707]

So, I'm planning a crazy team involving three mages working in tandem, and that made me curious... what colours are better for the initial charge, and then for the cleanup? I imagine it's not a clear question, but I'm curious to see if there's a general answer.

[LordFrigid]

17 minutes ago, Kaden said:

I was just providing examples of what would happen if either of her stats were affected by buffs and debuffs and what would happen. So, best case and worst case scenario.

I can respect analyzing best/worst, but I would also make some note about how likely those cases actually are. Basing a recommendation off of an unlikely set of best/worst cases (since you did end up recommending Iceberg)...well, I wouldn't do it, personally. Maybe it's just me.

23 minutes ago, Kaden said:

Iceberg using a higher percentage means it can get stronger very quickly if resistance is buffed, but Hone Attack is more practical and versatile, so Draconic Aura and Lilina's damage in general would be boosted regardless.

Agreed on both counts.

[Arcanite]

25 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

So, I'm planning a crazy team involving three mages working in tandem, and that made me curious... what colours are better for the initial charge, and then for the cleanup? I imagine it's not a clear question, but I'm curious to see if there's a general answer.

There isn't a general answer. One can apply the Showdown mentality, though:

What is my enemies "switch in" to _____?

Who do I need to kill for _____ to sweep their team?

Who poses an imminent threat to my team as long as they're alive?

Who do I have to take a hit from ______?

Why can't I land high jump kick

But you get the point. Ask yourself who runs through your team no matter what, and then you build from there.

[Kaden]

@LordFrigid, I think I just subconsciously recommended Iceberg for two reasons: one, Lilina's resistance is >= 30 and two, I remember seeing stuff like "give Lilina Iceberg, it's ironic, but she gets more damage out of it than Bonfire." So, it became something like this: Iceberg, Lilina, Iceberg, Lilina, Iceberg, Lilina. Oh, wait, Lilina's total attack is >= 50 and Hone Attack is a staple buff. Oops.

That said, I do prefer having offensive and defensive buffs if possible, but the meta is generally about ORKO'ing stuff so while it would be neat to take very little to no damage and laugh, it doesn't always work if it gets your team killed because specials can ignore WTD.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Kaden

[bethany81707]

9 minutes ago, Arcanite said:

There isn't a general answer. One can apply the Showdown mentality, though:

What is my enemies "switch in" to _____?

Who do I need to kill for _____ to sweep their team?

Who poses an imminent threat to my team as long as they're alive?

Who do I have to take a hit from ______?

Why can't I land high jump kick

But you get the point. Ask yourself who runs through your team no matter what, and then you build from there.

Hm... I'm going to want to find someone who can rend through a Nino-like build, then. It doesn't specifically have to be Nino, but that's the basics.

EDIT: Basic runthrough of the one-v-all calculator suggested my main concerns are Hector and Kagero. This makes me think I should either choose a more defensive red tome user (as opposed to Lilina) or make sure Lilina has access to the best buffs to keep Hector down.

Kagero, I imagine requires reasonable buffs and maybe a proc ready.

Edited May 10, 2017 by phineas81707

[LordFrigid]

6 minutes ago, Kaden said:

@LordFrigid, I think I just subconsciously recommended Iceberg for two reasons: one, Lilina's resistance is >= 30 and two, I remember seeing stuff like give Lilina Iceberg, it's ironic, but she gets more damage out of it than Bonfire. Iceberg, Lilina, Iceberg, Lilina, Iceberg, Lilina. Oh, wait, Lilina's total attack is >= 50 and Hone Attack is a staple buff. Oops.

That said, I do prefer having offensive and defensive buffs if possible, but the meta is generally about ORKO'ing stuff so while it would be neat to take very little to no damage and laugh, it doesn't always work if it gets your team killed because specials can ignore WTD.

lol yeah, the Bonfire thing is rather ironic. I like running defensive buffs too, though idk how much of that is determined by the fact that the core of my Arena team is Eirika, Nino, and Azura. Def buff does come in handy, actually...I stuck Rally Defense on Eirika and it's quite nice for helping Azura fend off all of those nasty swords...and ofc Fortify Res is great for letting Nino eat max-Atk (bar goad-stack) Reinhardt alive.

[Arcanite]

24 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

EDIT: Basic runthrough of the one-v-all calculator suggested my main concerns are Hector and Kagero. This makes me think I should either choose a more defensive red tome user (as opposed to Lilina) or make sure Lilina has access to the best buffs to keep Hector down.

Kagero, I imagine requires reasonable buffs and maybe a proc ready.

All hector needs is a slightly buffed desperation proc'd Nino (usually how I do it since he's always the last to arrive anyway, even with his wings of Mercy cause I always One round or one shot the other enemies to be sure he never proc's it) 

Kagero is a threat, and it may get dicey on the defense tiles. She may be able to kill Nino on the counter attack, but as long as Nino is

1. Buffed enough or

2. Faster and in desperation range

You should be able to handle it fine.

[bethany81707]

1 minute ago, Arcanite said:

All hector needs is a slightly buffed desperation proc'd Nino (usually how I do it since he's always the last to arrive anyway, even with his wings of Mercy cause I always One round or one shot the other enemies to be sure he never proc's it) 

Kagero is a threat, and it may get dicey on the defense tiles. She may be able to kill Nino on the counter attack, but as long as Nino is

1. Buffed enough or

2. Faster and in desperation range

You should be able to handle it fine.

Yep- as it turns out, adding the default buffs (Nino's Hone Attack and Linde's Fortify Resistance) gave Lilina the victory over both targets.

Now comes the hard part: figuring out my bill. 42,000 feathers just for Nino's Gronnblade+ and Linde's Blarblade+. There'll be a lot of SP involved, too.

[Katrisa]

10 hours ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Can I just say that I appreciate the color-coding? It makes everything looks so much cleaner. 

Thanks.  I was in a weird mood and decided to marker up the post.   I'm enjoying my horse emblem too much right now.  Its overly easy to build with a wad of feathers.. given so many core members, one from each color are literally handed out to us.  Well... Xander was a bit of a tough fight for his 4 star unit.  But so worth it!

10 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

There aren't any red mages that are really worth building a magic counter killer towards unless you're really worried about Tharja.

Peri, Abel, and Cain have the best offensive stats among the melee cavalry units and shouldn't have any difficulty running a Life and Death Brave build. Peri, Abel, and -HP Cain (at +10, only Peri and -HP Abel) have HP low enough to use Ardent Sacrifice to activate Desperation as well as provide healing for Fury tanks like Xander and Eldigan.

If you really need a magic counter killer, you probably actually want Sapphire Lance Jagen instead for his higher Res and HP. I'm pretty sure his lower offensive stats are still enough to kill any of the red mages as long as he has Quick Riposte up, and his better bulk and Sapphire Lance should make up for the damage he takes from being double attacked.

I agree on the lack of red magic and the fun thought of LoD Brave ;-).  I forgot about Cain being decent.  My friend loves her Peri though, with that crazy hair ;-)

2 hours ago, ScarletSylph said:

@Katrisa My team is Xander, Ursula(w blarblade), gunter(for buffs), clarine. This will probably change once Camus comes out. I do have a cecilia but I don't really have anyone to pass TA or death blow so I didn't use her in the team.

I've already 5* Xander and he is much better than when he was a 4* just because of his distant counter. So far he has been ORKO anything that attacks him as I level him. No regrets in upgrading him.

Awesome Scarlet.  Xander is really sexypants.  I honestly haven't had to give him a B slot yet even with his horrible speed, because his defense is just so darn high.  And my Cecilia passes +6 Def/Res to him so he literally takes no damage from most melee reds and all greens.  I do have to say the choice between Fury and SChroms +2 Def/Attack was super hard... Personally the +2Def/Attack was the right choice, because Cecilia stays glued to his butt.  But I can definitely see where Fury can be comical when Xander gets +4 Attack/Speed and or +6 Attack/Speed buffs.  

I used Gunter for a while while building up my horse team and he's actually not that terrible.  He would actually be pretty darn good with Distant counter and an Emerald Axe... but I don't really need that roll with Cecilia running amok.

GL on your team!

[MaskedAmpharos]

2 minutes ago, Katrisa said:

Thanks.  I was in a weird mood and decided to marker up the post.   I'm enjoying my horse emblem too much right now.  Its overly easy to build with a wad of feathers.. given so many core members, one from each color are literally handed out to us.  Well... Xander was a bit of a tough fight for his 4 star unit.  But so worth it!

The problem for me is the "wad of feathers". I just have so many other units that I want to promote first (or fodder to promote for skills) that I don't have nearly the feathers necessary to 5* my horse emblem team. And that's not even taking into consideration 5*ing skill fodder for the horsies. So many feathers ;___;

[bethany81707]

All right... I have a Navarre I'm willing to sacrifice, and for this, I'm considering dropping Shanna as well. However, I'm not sure how good Desperation is at lower levels. Should I wait to be able to get Desperation 3 for both Nino and Linde (I think Lilina's a little slow for it), or is Desperation 2 fine for Linde (she's got Ardent Sacrifice to play with, and I'm fine on Furies).

[MaskedAmpharos]

20 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

All right... I have a Navarre I'm willing to sacrifice, and for this, I'm considering dropping Shanna as well. However, I'm not sure how good Desperation is at lower levels. Should I wait to be able to get Desperation 3 for both Nino and Linde (I think Lilina's a little slow for it), or is Desperation 2 fine for Linde (she's got Ardent Sacrifice to play with, and I'm fine on Furies).

Desperation is one of those moves where it actually really matters that you get the 3 version instead of 2 (unlike some other skills where it's fine if you only have 2 like Quick Riposte or Swordbreaker) because it's often tricky to get fragile mages like Nino and Linde safely into Desperation 2 range without getting them killed whereas Desperation 3 is a lot safer (and can be even safer if you use Ardent Sacrifice to bring their HP down instead of combat). 

[bethany81707]

1 minute ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Desperation is one of those moves where it actually really matters that you get the 3 version instead of 2 (unlike some other skills where it's fine if you only have 2 like Quick Riposte or Swordbreaker) because it's often tricky to get fragile mages like Nino and Linde safely into Desperation 2 range without getting them killed whereas Desperation 3 is a lot safer (and can be even safer if you use Ardent Sacrifice to bring their HP down instead of combat). 

I had hopes. Ah well, Linde needs a lot of SP anyway- perhaps it's better that she has to wait.

Any suggestions for Lilina's B Skill? I'm thinking she's too slow for Desperation anyway, but aside from a *breaker, I can't think of what else she could benefit from.

Also, Fury for everyone?

[MaskedAmpharos]

Just now, phineas81707 said:

I had hopes. Ah well, Linde needs a lot of SP anyway- perhaps it's better that she has to wait.

Any suggestions for Lilina's B Skill? I'm thinking she's too slow for Desperation anyway, but aside from a *breaker, I can't think of what else she could benefit from.

Also, Fury for everyone?

A breaker works out perfectly for her imo. I generally go with Swordbreaker since she already deals with green units just fine. 

I'm not sure how much you're willing to invest in Lilina, but an optimal set for her would be an inherited Raudrraven+ from Henry and Triangle Adept. If you're only going with her default Bolganone, then Fury is fine. 

Either Fury or Life and Death works for Linde. 

[bethany81707]

10 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

A breaker works out perfectly for her imo. I generally go with Swordbreaker since she already deals with green units just fine. 

I'm not sure how much you're willing to invest in Lilina, but an optimal set for her would be an inherited Raudrraven+ from Henry and Triangle Adept. If you're only going with her default Bolganone, then Fury is fine. 

Either Fury or Life and Death works for Linde. 

Everyone wants Swordbreaker. Klein wants it, Sharena wants it, Lilina wants it... I wish I hadn't sacrificed that unknown-but-non-zero amount of Sullys before SI was revealed. Add it to the pile of skills I'll be wanting from blue orbs.

...I'm actually going for -blade on her. At the moment, this looks like

Rauorblade/Rally/Special/Fury/Swordbreaker/Aura
Gronnblade/Rally/Moonbow/Fury/Desperation/Hone Attack
Blarblade/Ardent Sacrifice/Special/Fury/Desperation/Fortify Resistance

With a bonus unit that'll be a Sharena with Fensalir/Rally Attack/Luna/Speed +1/Swordbreaker/Fortify Defence one out of three times.

In other words, I call it "Blade Emblem".

And yes, I am aware Tharja is probably better than Lilina at this, so don't bother pointing that out.

[MaskedAmpharos]

7 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

Everyone wants Swordbreaker. Klein wants it, Sharena wants it, Lilina wants it... I wish I hadn't sacrificed that unknown-but-non-zero amount of Sullys before SI was revealed. Add it to the pile of skills I'll be wanting from blue orbs.

...I'm actually going for -blade on her. At the moment, this looks like

Rauorblade/Rally/Special/Fury/Swordbreaker/Aura
Gronnblade/Rally/Moonbow/Fury/Desperation/Hone Attack
Blarblade/Ardent Sacrifice/Special/Fury/Desperation/Fortify Resistance

With a bonus unit that'll be a Sharena with Fensalir/Rally Attack/Luna/Speed +1/Swordbreaker/Fortify Defence one out of three times.

In other words, I call it "Blade Emblem".

And yes, I am aware Tharja is probably better than Lilina at this, so don't bother pointing that out.

Klein's a colorless unit that has the luxury of running whatever breaker your team needs him to run. Swordbreaker is the most common suggestion because there are so many sword units, but if you already have people that handle swords (such as your Linde), then running something like Lancebreaker on Klein is just as effective as Swordbreaker. 

Sharena actually wants either Quick Riposte or Lancebreaker since she deals with sword units quite easily as is. QR is favored over Swordbreaker to grant her the same ORKOs on swords while also giving her more combat strength against lance users. Lancebreaker further makes her better at dueling lances at the cost of causing her to lose out on some sword ORKOs for units she can't quite double (like Ryoma), though she generally takes such little damage from them that she can easily finish them off the following turn. 

While Swordbreaker is more worth it on Sanaki if she's running a raven set (simply because, with enough buffs, she can OHKO many sword units), I think it's still worth using on a blade set to secure ORKOs without needing to stack a ton of buffs on her. Alternatively, since Nino and Linde are too fragile, you could have Sanaki be the archer counter of the team with Bowbreaker (though you still don't want her taking hits from Brave Bow units). It's best to have Nino/Linde just ORKO archers, but having the option to bait and tank on enemy phase is also nice. I think ultimately I still prefer Swordbreaker on her though.

Edited May 10, 2017 by MaskedAmpharos

[Ice Dragon]

11 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

A breaker works out perfectly for her imo. I generally go with Swordbreaker since she already deals with green units just fine. 

I'm not sure how much you're willing to invest in Lilina, but an optimal set for her would be an inherited Raudrraven+ from Henry and Triangle Adept. If you're only going with her default Bolganone, then Fury is fine. 

Either Fury or Life and Death works for Linde. 

@phineas81707

You might need to switch to G Tomebreaker if you end up seeing Spring Camilla often and don't have another answer for her. Neutral Spring Camilla with Life and Death 3 and a Hone Fliers buff still has a respectable 43 effective Atk against a red unit with Triangle Adept 3 on top of 36 Spd unmatched by any red tome other than Tharja.

[bethany81707]

2 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Klein's a colorless unit that has the luxury of running whatever breaker your team needs him to run. Swordbreaker is the most common suggestion because there are so many sword units, but if you already have people that handle swords (such as your Linde), then running something like Lancebreaker on Klein is just as effective as Swordbreaker. 

Sharena actually wants either Quick Riposte or Lancebreaker since she deals with sword units quite easily as is. QR is favored over Swordbreaker to grant her the same ORKOs on swords while also giving her more combat strength against lance users. Lancebreaker further makes her better at dueling lances at the cost of causing her to lose out on some sword ORKOs for units she can't quite double (like Ryoma), though she generally takes such little damage from them that she can easily finish them off the following turn. 

While Swordbreaker is more worth it on Sanaki if she's running a raven set (simply because, with enough buffs, she can OHKO many sword units), I think it's still worth using on a blade set to secure ORKOs without needing to stack a ton of buffs on her. Alternatively, since Nino and Linde are too fragile, you could have Sanaki be the archer counter of the team with Bowbreaker (though you still don't want her taking hits from Brave Bow units). It's best to have Nino/Linde just ORKO archers, but having the option to bait and tank on enemy phase is also nice. I think ultimately I still prefer Swordbreaker on her though.

Things I'm happy to hear: Klein and Sharena probably love this new synergy, particularly as they share a team.

Things I'm not so happy to hear: the thought that the 5* Tharja that resulted in Blade Emblem's birth could've been a Sanaki that made Blade Emblem better. I'm not denying Sanaki is superior to Lilina- I'm annoyed I'm forced to settle.

At any rate, I'm going to sit on this until the EXP event blows over and I can get more SP before grinding happens (ideally, I want them to have their blades first).

[MaskedAmpharos]

3 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

Things I'm happy to hear: Klein and Sharena probably love this new synergy, particularly as they share a team.

Things I'm not so happy to hear: the thought that the 5* Tharja that resulted in Blade Emblem's birth could've been a Sanaki that made Blade Emblem better. I'm not denying Sanaki is superior to Lilina- I'm annoyed I'm forced to settle.

At any rate, I'm going to sit on this until the EXP event blows over and I can get more SP before grinding happens (ideally, I want them to have their blades first).

Omg no no no I'm sorry I messed up! I meant to say Lilina instead of Sanaki but got it mixed up because I also just got out of the mage gauntlet thread. 

Lilina is just as good of a blade tome user as Sanaki. Their stats are nearly identical: they have the same base attack, and the difference between their base speed is a single point. Using Lilina isn't inferior to using Sanaki at all, outside of character preference! So go out and blow stuff up with your adorable little Lilina <3

[bethany81707]

1 minute ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Omg no no no I'm sorry I messed up! I meant to say Lilina instead of Sanaki but got it mixed up because I also just got out of the mage gauntlet thread. 

Lilina is just as good of a blade tome user as Sanaki. Their stats are nearly identical: they have the same base attack, and the difference between their base speed is a single point. Using Lilina isn't inferior to using Sanaki at all, outside of character preference! So go out and blow stuff up with your adorable little Lilina <3

Thank goodness. I had the impression of Sanaki superiority from the wiki table, but those stat gains were minor even to me: and Lilina's got a whole extra rarity for gathering SP.

[Roflolxp54]

OK, less than 24 hours until we can get the omikuji event gifts (10 orbs + 5K feathers)!

[bethany81707]

3 minutes ago, Roflolxp54 said:

OK, less than 24 hours until we can get the omikuji event gifts (10 orbs + 5K feathers)!

I'll give 2K of those to Odin and save the rest for the 20K I need to make Odin 5*.

...I never thought I'd say that about him. Ah well, his quote "SO EXCITED" is at least apt.

Hey, I need 70K feathers for Blade Emblem, but I'm slowly plodding along up to.

(Also, was that meant to go to General?)

[Zero1k]

I have the 3* Xander from the GHB, and I'm going to get him to 5* while giving him other skills. Problem is, all of the skill fodder is 3*, so I'll need feathers to promote all of them. Since they're four units, and I'll still need feathers to promote Xander, I'll need 30k feathers to have him completely built.

I currently have 17k feathers, so who should I promote first? The units for skill fodder or Xander?