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

[LuxSpes]

28 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

For Tharja? Definitely +Spd. You can make up the Atk loss with -Blade buffs, easily.

I changed the wording of my post and I completely forgot to mention who I was talking about, which is Julia.

[MrSmokestack]

2 minutes ago, LuxSpes said:

I changed the wording of my post and I completely forgot to mention who I was talking about, which is Julia.

Ok then. +Atk would be better since Julia wants G Tomebreaker or Quick Riposte anyways.

[Ice Dragon]

19 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

Ok then. +Atk would be better since Julia wants G Tomebreaker or Quick Riposte anyways.

@LuxSpes

Depends on which targets need to die (namely Ephraim, possibly Sharena) and what passive A skill you have available to you and what support options you have.

If she's going to be the only green unit on your team, she probably wants to be able to kill Fury Ephraim, which requires either +Atk and Death Blow (needs 2 more Atk to guarantee a kill on suboptimal +HP or +Res) or +Spd and Darting Blow (needs 1 more Spd to guarantee a kill on optimal +Spd).

+Atk and Fury kills -Res or -HP, but needs a buff to Atk to kill neutral. +Spd and Fury needs a +4 buff to Spd to kill all Ephraim.

+Atk and Fury kills vanilla Sharena, but needs a +2 buff to Atk to kill Fury Sharena. +Spd and Fury needs a +3 buff to Atk to kill Sharena (or a +7 buff to Spd). +Atk and Death Blow kills Sharena handily. +Spd and Darting Blow needs a +4 buff to Spd to kill Sharena.

 

God, Julia's stats are annoying to work with.

[Zeo]

What's a good build for Athena, particularly a +DEF/-RES one? Her Speed is excellent and attack is respectable, Wo Dao+ and Moonbow are a perfect combo but I'm not entirely sure what her skillset should be, everything has a draw with her because her spread is so odd. She's as tanky as Chrom, faster than Lucina, stronger than a lot of characters in her speed tier but remains... middle of the road in a way.

Sturdy Blow 2 gives +DEF Athena a solid 35/35 for ATK and DEF with 38 speed. She's doubling a lot of things and taking very little damage from greens in return, probably finishing them with Moonbow. Thing is... I'm not sure if that is even the best A skill for her, or B skill while we're at it. With a +SPD Athena things would be simple with 41 speed eclipsing everything but the fastest units, but with 38 you need to figure things out. So Looking at her skill possibilities.

A Skills:

Spoiler

Darting Blow 3: 44 Speed (47 With +SPD) means she's doubling almost everything under the sun and if Moonbow Procs it's likely going to die, she loses durability and damage at the same time doing this though, Sturdy Blow works together with Wo Dao+ to help with both her otherwise lukewarm ATK and helps bolster her already respectable defense. 

Death Blow 3: 2 extra points of attack when I'm losing 4 points of DEF... I know in the world of player phase nuclear warheads that attack is everything and it would be a different story if she was +SPD or maybe +ATK, but at +DEF It's not as necessary I don't think.

Fury 3: Pretty standard, kind of boring but it nets her a few more kills than Sturdy Blow 2 at the cost of 6 HP per round. Better enemy phase as well.

Life and Death 3: Typical. Nets her the most kills and turns her into a player phase cannon. With her already low HP pool though this spells her doom if she's attacked of course. I think a build like this wants +ATK though. 

Swift Sparrow 2: Probably the best choice for my situation, or perhaps in my opinion. She's powerful when she needs to be: Attacking, can still take punishment, can double what she needs to double and finish the job in most situations, particularly green tome users.

 

B Skills:

Spoiler

 

Desperation: her sturdiness is void with this skill, 38 speed isn't enough to double everything reliably (particularly the most dangerous mages) and it turns Sturdy Blow into Death Blow 2 basically. You'd have to swap it out with Life and Death which... I'm not interested in doing when 2 other characters want it more. I honestly don't think it's a very good skill for her.

G Tomebreaker 3: Turns out she OHKO's all green mages already. This may be nice to keep from being cheesed by Nino. But a skill for one character may be a bit much.

Swordbreaker 3: She wins a lot more duels she doesn't already win with this. And it gives her a better enemy phase as well.

Vantage: It's nice if she has Moonbow ready for a surprise kill, otherwise not worth it.

Seal Skills: Pass.

 

Swift Sparrow or LnD3 is probably the best for what I'm trying to do, but I'll probably keep Katarina if I find her and B!Cordelia and Kagero have already placed orders on LnD. Regardless, throw builds at me.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Zeo

[MrSmokestack]

@Zeo This is the set I've been working with:

Spoiler

Spread: 36 / 49 / 43 / 26 / 16

-Wo Dao+

-Life and Death 3

-Desperation 3

-Hone / Spur Skill

-Reposition / Ardent Sacrifice

-Moonbow

-Quick Pulse

1 CD Moonbow gives you quite a bit of bonus damage to work with in tandem with Wo Dao+, and there's always Reciprocal Aid on an ally to bring her into Desperation range.

LaD really does beat out all of her other options.

Edited June 15, 2017 by MrSmokestack

[Zeo]

30 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

@Zeo This is the set I've been working with:

  Hide contents

Spread: 36 / 49 / 43 / 26 / 16

-Wo Dao+

-Life and Death 3

-Desperation 3

-Hone / Spur Skill

-Reposition / Ardent Sacrifice

-Moonbow

-Quick Pulse

1 CD Moonbow gives you quite a bit of bonus damage to work with in tandem with Wo Dao+, and there's always Reciprocal Aid on an ally to bring her into Desperation range.

It's beautiful, but it's the standard LnD/Desperation combo which B!Cordelia wants more right now. She wins 119 fights with that build (with +DEF, with +ATK it goes up.). I wish I had Swift Sparrow. For now I think I'm going to go with Sturdy Blow 2/Swordbreaker 3/Whatever for now. She wins 87 fights and can only be slain by Sully (without SI of course). Respectable enough for now until resources open up. After Cordelia is finished, we'll see about outfitting Athena with a more powerful build.

...Even LnD2 cleanly beats all of her other options. Maybe I'll *4 a Hana for her actually... kinda dissapointing that the thing that made her unique is overshadowed by the standard LnD/Desp combo that almost any other unit can use in her speed tier. She's better than Lyn though, which I'm not sure how I feel about.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Zeo

[LuxSpes]

2 hours ago, MrSmokestack said:

Ok then. +Atk would be better since Julia wants G Tomebreaker or Quick Riposte anyways.

This is what I thought as well, but I saw +Spd being touted as her best Boon.

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

@LuxSpes

Depends on which targets need to die (namely Ephraim, possibly Sharena) and what passive A skill you have available to you and what support options you have.

If she's going to be the only green unit on your team, she probably wants to be able to kill Fury Ephraim, which requires either +Atk and Death Blow (needs 2 more Atk to guarantee a kill on suboptimal +HP or +Res) or +Spd and Darting Blow (needs 1 more Spd to guarantee a kill on optimal +Spd).

+Atk and Fury kills -Res or -HP, but needs a buff to Atk to kill neutral. +Spd and Fury needs a +4 buff to Spd to kill all Ephraim.

+Atk and Fury kills vanilla Sharena, but needs a +2 buff to Atk to kill Fury Sharena. +Spd and Fury needs a +3 buff to Atk to kill Sharena (or a +7 buff to Spd). +Atk and Death Blow kills Sharena handily. +Spd and Darting Blow needs a +4 buff to Spd to kill Sharena.

 

God, Julia's stats are annoying to work with.

She's currently the only green unit on my team and I always make sure to have Hone Atk 3 and Hone Spd 3 on other people in the team. I'ma bit short on death blow (only 2 Hawkeye), but the +Atk one already has Fury and I have plenty of Darting Blow fodder. The other thing that might help me with my decision is the bane, since the +Atk one is -Res while the +Spd is -Def. 

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

11 minutes ago, LuxSpes said:

This is what I thought as well, but I saw +Spd being touted as her best Boon.

+Spd is better than +Atk for the Fury build, since she goes all the way up to 30 Spd, getting doubled way less.

[MrSmokestack]

@Zeo Sturdy Blow isn't really a fantastic skill for a unit with Athena's spread. Min-maxing stat boosts tends to pan out better than trying to prop up both offense and defense. Of course, you're more than free to try something different if that's what you want.

I don't worry myself too much with giving units "standard" builds; as it is, a Wo Dao-boosted Quick Pulse Moonbow is pretty nice and a proper offensive build can more fully flesh out its potential.

@SatsumaFSoysoy G Tomebreaker / Bowbreaker exist, although her Spd is more relevant if you're running Quick Riposte instead.

[Zeo]

@MrSmokestack Maybe you're right. The calculator certainly isn't lying about wins and losses, even her enemy phase is better. I'll just use Sturdy Blow until I can get her LnD2, that's as good as it'll get for me right now. Desperation is also reserved for 2 or 3 other characters and right now I have 0 Shannas. So Swordbreaker 3 will have to do.

Player Phase nuking is pretty much the name of the game. It's what I wanted from the beginning, then the game gave me a bunch of defensive units...

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

20 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

G Tomebreaker / Bowbreaker exist, although her Spd is more relevant if you're running Quick Riposte instead

I know, I run both of those depending. But +Spd lets her get away with something else instead.

Edited June 16, 2017 by SatsumaFSoysoy

[LuxSpes]

18 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

 

@SatsumaFSoysoy G Tomebreaker / Bowbreaker exist, although her Spd is more relevant if you're running Quick Riposte instead.

I do remember seeing on the mass duel simulator that the +Spd variant fared better with Fury/QR than the +Atk version.

[MrSmokestack]

40 minutes ago, LuxSpes said:

I do remember seeing on the mass duel simulator that the +Spd variant fared better with Fury/QR than the +Atk version.

My main issue with Quick Riposte is the lack of consistency against green tomes, which most people tend to run Julia for. But with both spreads and sets you net some coverage while losing others, so the choice depends on how well her teammates can cover her bases honestly.

[Vajra]

For Tiki (Y), would it be more beneficial for her to inherit Triangle Adept or Fury for her passive A skill? Is it team comp and/or build dependent? 

Mine has the +ATK/-RES nature; equipped with Lightning Breath, Quick Riposte, Reposition, and Bonfire; and is always run alongside Ninian with Fortify Dragons. This is for a non-Dragon Emblem team. 

[MrSmokestack]

1 minute ago, Zhu Qiao said:

For Tiki (Y), would it be more beneficial for her to inherit Triangle Adept or Fury for her passive A skill? Is it team comp and/or build dependent? 

Mine has the +ATK/-RES nature; equipped with Lightning Breath, Quick Riposte, Reposition, and Bonfire; and is always run alongside Ninian with Fortify Dragons. This is for a non-Dragon Emblem team. 

If Julia is an issue, Young Tiki can use Triangle Adept and check her very well along with the other skills in her set. If not, Fury is a fine choice. Who else are you running?

[Vajra]

1 minute ago, MrSmokestack said:

If Julia is an issue, Young Tiki can use Triangle Adept and check her very well along with the other skills in her set. If not, Fury is a fine choice. Who else are you running?

In the same team, I use Ike and Ephraim, though I sometimes switch out Ike for Ryoma. 

[MrSmokestack]

5 minutes ago, Zhu Qiao said:

In the same team, I use Ike and Ephraim, though I sometimes switch out Ike for Ryoma. 

If you don't mind the loss of coverage against blues, Young Tiki wants Triangle Adept more since with it and Fortify Dragons she takes negligible damage from max buffs LaD Nino, freeing your Distant Counter red to check other threats. How does your team deal with blue threats?

[Vajra]

19 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

If you don't mind the loss of coverage against blues, Young Tiki wants Triangle Adept more since with it and Fortify Dragons she takes negligible damage from max buffs LaD Nino, freeing your Distant Counter red to check other threats. How does your team deal with blue threats?

Hmm... I relied solely on Ike and Ephraim's high attack stat to dispose of frail blue mages. Both are also equipped with Quick Riposte. Against blue melee units, I use Ephraim as a physical wall, especially since he's +DEF, to withstand attacks and hoping for Bonfire to trigger, though this only works for so long.

Would it be better to use Hector instead of Ephraim in this case? Although I would no longer have a clear answer to help Tiki versus Falchions, I believe Ike should able to hold his own against them? 

Edited June 16, 2017 by Zhu Qiao

[MrSmokestack]

1 minute ago, Zhu Qiao said:

Would it be better to use Hector instead of Ephraim in this case? Although I would no longer have a clear answer to help Tiki versus Falchions, I believe Ike should able to hold his own against them? 

Ike seems like the weak link here actually, since Adept Tiki checks greens better already.

Generally speaking, I prefer a ratio of 1 red / 1 green / 2 blue, stacking the more popular or more meta color.

[Vajra]

8 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

Ike seems like the weak link here actually, since Adept Tiki checks greens better already.

Generally speaking, I prefer a ratio of 1 red / 1 green / 2 blue, stacking the more popular or more meta color.

All right. I have no problem ditching Ike. With that, the first three units of my group would look something like this. 

Tiki (Y), Ninian, Hector. 

Now I have to decide if my second blue unit should be Ephraim, Nowi, or Reinhardt. The only other green units at 5* I have are Fae and a blade Cecilia. 

[MrSmokestack]

28 minutes ago, Zhu Qiao said:

Now I have to decide if my second blue unit should be Ephraim, Nowi, or Reinhardt. The only other green units at 5* I have are Fae and a blade Cecilia. 

Triangle Adept Nowi has no issues dealing with enemy Falchions as well as any other reds that give Hector trouble, but running her would leave your team without a ranged unit. Reinhardt fits better especially since you have a Dancer.

[Clarine]

If I may ask, how does the so-called "Colour Sniping" summoning method function? Such a technique is ever so curious yet I simply cannot understand how such percentages for summoning specific characters operates. If one if to enlighten me regarding this technique, I would be ever so grateful.

[Arcanite]

8 minutes ago, Clarine said:

If I may ask, how does the so-called "Colour Sniping" summoning method function? 

Every focus has a certain amount of heroes, and depending on the color of each of those heroes, the chances of pulling a 5 star of that color increases because a chunk of percentage is dedicated to pulling that focus character!

Like in the wyvern banner from the second gauntlet. Pulling green from there was an approximate 15% chance of a 5 star because 4 green units were part of the focus!

I used to do full pulls, but now that I started hunt summoning I realized how epic it is XD

[Party Moth]

I don't know if this has been covered in the prior 193 pages (most likely), but people seem to praise Xander as a great unit. Even with Horse Emblem he hasn't quite been performing well for me, though I haven't put any skill inheritance on him just yet. What builds are you guys running for him?

[Vaximillian]

1 minute ago, Party Moth said:

What builds are you guys running for him?

The most common—I think—is A: Fury, B: Vantage or Quick Riposte, special: Bonfire.

Fury improves his offences and defences overall and helps get into Vantage zone quicker; Quick Riposte lets him double-counterattack (he’s slow and can’t double stuff naturally unless on a horse team); Bonfire operates off his massive 37 Def (40 with Fury). If he is doubled, Ignis might work too (it will trigger on the second QR-counter) but it is not praised as much as Bonfire.