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

[LordFrigid]

43 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Since you're doing a lot more research than me, and I'm LAZY. . .

How do things stack up when Caeda is attacked by a green unit, with either weapon?

I had to do the research: Caeda's low Atk wasn't something I wanted to just shove a low Mt weapon like the Brave Sword on without first making sure the build was usable =P .

Off the top of my head, I want to say that's a slightly unfair question, since obviously the Brave Sword's performance on the EP isn't going to be as good as on the PP, and the rest of the set regardless of weapon (Swift Sparrow, Desperation) screams "Player Phase build" as it is, but here goes...

The Brave set wins less (8 vs 30), loses less (28 vs 42), and has more draws than (116 vs 80) the Ruby set against neutral, no-inheritance opponents. A few observations about those matchup lists:

• The big difference in the sets is that a lot of the wins that Ruby gets (and a reasonable-sized chunk of the losses, as well) are draws for the Brave set.
• Notably, the Brave set does not pick up any losses from reds that the Ruby set does not have as well.
• The larger loss count for Ruby is almost certainly blues who need that TA advantage to land the KO.
• The higher KO count for Ruby is made up solely of green units that the Brave set either 1) cannot double due to the Spd drop or 2) would need 3-4 hits to land the KO without the Triangle Adept effect, which isn't happening on the EP.

So if your goal is to have a real EP matchup spread, Ruby's is better, though I wouldn't call it "good" by any stretch of the imagination. If your goal is just to set up Desperation for future turns, they're pretty similar.

Edit: totally missed the part about exclusively green units. My bad there. Feel free to just take the 4th note as the answer, in that case.

Edited August 2, 2017 by LordFrigid

[eclipse]

1 minute ago, LordFrigid said:

I had to do the research: Caeda's low Atk wasn't something I wanted to just shove a low Mt weapon like the Brave Sword on without first making sure the build was usable =P .

Off the top of my head, I want to say that's a slightly unfair question, since obviously the Brave Sword's performance on the EP isn't going to be as good as on the PP, and the rest of the set regardless of weapon (Swift Sparrow, Desperation) screams "Player Phase build" as it is, but here goes...

The Brave set wins less (8 vs 30), loses less (28 vs 42), and has more draws than (116 vs 80) the Ruby set against neutral, no-inheritance opponents. A few observations about those matchup lists:

• The big difference in the sets is that a lot of the wins that Ruby gets (and a reasonable-sized chunk of the losses, as well) are draws for the Brave set.
• Notably, the Brave set does not pick up any losses from reds that the Ruby set does not have as well.
• The larger loss count for Ruby is almost certainly blues who need that TA advantage to land the KO.
• The higher KO count for Ruby is made up solely of green units that the Brave set either 1) cannot double due to the Spd drop or 2) would need 3-4 hits to land the KO without the Triangle Adept effect, which isn't happening on the EP.

So if your goal is to have a real EP matchup spread, Ruby's is better, though I wouldn't call it "good" by any stretch of the imagination. If your goal is just to set up Desperation for future turns, they're pretty similar.

I'll put this in context of how I play.

What I want out of my units is the ability to either completely destroy a lot of things on their turn, absorb a bunch of hits, or be able to specialize.  Caeda isn't going to do the first one, and the second one is contingent on the map being full of magic units. That leaves the last one, which is color specialization.  Her low base Atk means that she's not going to bust open Hector's armor in one hit (w-what do you mean that Marth objects?).  Her high Speed means that she'll most likely double.  This IMO points to a unit that is best used to hit twice, hard - in other words, a Desperation build.  Brave Sword works against that, since it drops Speed by a considerable amount.

Next up, the defense question.  Any unit of mine should be able to bait, even if it means having Leon tank slower sword guys.  For that purpose, Ruby works better for me, since Caeda has no business baiting blues, and the damage reduction from WTA should allow her to safely enter Desperation (unless she's tanking default F!Robin or something).  On Flier Emblem, Caeda's job is to buff the rest of her allies while pulling green units and the odd red mage, so someone more competent can steal the kill.  Thus, a Ruby Sword suits my purposes a lot better.

Those numbers are quite helpful, and I've come to the conclusion that if I ever decide to slap a Brave Sword on Caeda, it will be with Life and Death, Swordbreaker, and a prayer.  Thanks for the research~!

[Posaydal]

What sort of unit archetypes would you use for each stage in Squad Assault?

I'm also having difficulty clearing stage 3 (Roy stage), and tips?

[bethany81707]

It suddenly occurs to me I'm not entirely sure on Dark Aura's effect.

Would one liken it to "Hone Melee" or "Cymbeline+"

[Vaximillian]

5 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

It suddenly occurs to me I'm not entirely sure on Dark Aura's effect.

Would one liken it to "Hone Melee" or "Cymbeline+"

It’s more like Cymbeline+, but for melee units.

Hone Unit_Type increases both Atk and Spd, while Cymbeline works as Hone Atk only.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Vaximillian

[bethany81707]

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

Cymbeline+.

Hone Unit_Type increases both Atk and Spd, while Cymbeline works as Hone Atk only.

...You spend waaaay too much time in Horse Emblem.

And doesn't Cymbeline Hone after an attack while Hone Attack works at the start of a turn? Or am I confused about Cymbeline, too?

[Vaximillian]

2 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

...You spend waaaay too much time in Horse Emblem.

And doesn't Cymbeline Hone after an attack while Hone Attack works at the start of a turn? Or am I confused about Cymbeline, too?

Horse Emblem is love. I got Olwen yesterday. Olwen is love.

Yes, Cymbeline hones after Sanaki attacked. Dark Aura, like regular Hone, works at the start of a turn.

[bethany81707]

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

Horse Emblem is love. I got Olwen yesterday. Olwen is love.

Yes, Cymbeline hones after Sanaki attacked. Dark Aura, like regular Hone, works at the start of a turn.

...I honestly thought it was after attack this whole time.

...Sonya, Alm, hopefully Celica... you're going to have fun come next Tempest.

[Bartozio]

2 hours ago, Posaydal said:

What sort of unit archetypes would you use for each stage in Squad Assault?

I'm also having difficulty clearing stage 3 (Roy stage), and tips?

This thread might give you some ideas:

The last page also has a video of Mkv clearing the whole thing with only 3* units, so if you're having trouble with a specific stage you could try copying that strategy.

[mampfoid]

I just pulled a +ATK -RES Ninian (sigh), is that a better IV than my +SPD -DEF Ninian got? I'm not sure if i should merge those two, or if i should give Fortify Dragons to either Fae, Nowi or Tiki.

[bethany81707]

2 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

I just pulled a +ATK -RES Ninian (sigh), is that a better IV than my +SPD -DEF Ninian got? I'm not sure if i should merge those two, or if i should give Fortify Dragons to either Fae, Nowi or Tiki.

I'll leave the question of better nature to an expert, but if you have done any skill inheritance on your original Ninian and the new one is better, merge. If the old one is better or you have done no skill inheritance, consider inheritance (merges may still be valuable, but less so).

[Bartozio]

13 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

I just pulled a +ATK -RES Ninian (sigh), is that a better IV than my +SPD -DEF Ninian got? I'm not sure if i should merge those two, or if i should give Fortify Dragons to either Fae, Nowi or Tiki.

I think +Spd is better. Ninian is never going to be a heavy damage dealer anyway (if you give her TA she can deal with red units decently, but that about it), and her main role should be dancing for your allies anyway. +Spd helps her survivability though, in case she does get hit. @Ice Dragon is more the person to ask this to though.

In regard to merging vs fodder, it really depends on your future plans. Using her as Fortify Dragons fodder is only useful if you want to build a dragon team at some point (or use multiple dragons at once at the very least), while merging is only useful if you plan to use her in the arena quite a bit.

[mampfoid]

Thanks for the replies, @phineas81707 & @Bartozio

My original Ninian got Dark Breath+ recently. I've got a dragon team as a long term project (5* Ninian, 4* Fae, 4* Nowi, 5* -ATK Y!Tiki (or 4* A!Tiki)), but chances are low that i will use them as my arena team soon. Perhaps future Dragon Spurs will be better than Fortify Dragons? 

Edited August 3, 2017 by mampfoid

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, mampfoid said:

I just pulled a +ATK -RES Ninian (sigh), is that a better IV than my +SPD -DEF Ninian got? I'm not sure if i should merge those two, or if i should give Fortify Dragons to either Fae, Nowi or Tiki.

1 hour ago, mampfoid said:

Thanks for the replies, @phineas81707 & @Bartozio

My original Ninian got Dark Breath+ recently. I've got a dragon team as a long term project (5* Ninian, 4* Fae, 4* Nowi, 5* -ATK Y!Tiki (or 4* A!Tiki)), but chances are low that i will use them as my arena team soon. Perhaps future Dragon Spurs will be better than Fortify Dragons? 

When using an enemy-phase dragon team, Ward Dragons would be more useful than Fortify Dragons, but 2× Hone Dragons with 2× Fortify Dragons is likely the most ideal setup, especially because dragons tend to be slow and Lightning Breath+ has low Atk, and there are times where you're going to need to initiate an attack yourself and you won't be in range of all of the buffs.

+Spd is generally preferred on Ninian because her Atk is so low, and +Spd helps prevent double attacks from fast opponents. I think +Spd is better offensively, as well, since it allows her to double attack the slower and bulkier red units and kill with Triangle Adept (because she can't kill anything in a single hit), but it's been a while since I last ran the numbers.

If you aren't approaching your 1,000-unit limit, you can always just hold onto both copies for now until you decide what to do with them.

[Xenomata]

I've been staring at KageroChart Calculator for the past hour trying to figure something out for this +Def -HP Olwen I pulled, and I've still got nothing, She is numerically inferior to Reinhardt in every way when she is using Dire Thunder (which, if I'm trying to remain under budget I'd probably wanna do), with all she really has going for her being Speed, which means crap when you have a Brave weapon.

I don't have the resources or desires to even want to try and make a good Olwen, not with this nature anyways, but I figure that since I have her I may as well try to use her (even though I've said in the past that Olwen has no reason to even be a 5* exclusive, let alone be a Dire Thunder user). The most I can figure is, assuming I want to keep Dire Thunder, try to find the time to get her Life and Death 3, Watersweep 3, and Phantom Speed (Life and Death brings her up to 34 Spd, Phantom Speed to 39, and Watersweep lets her attack any distant attacking units with less than 38/42 Spd. Darting Blow 3 would be cheaper, but then she is losing effectively 10 attack for one more point in speed, and Death Blow 3 wouldn't give her the speed needed to trigger Watersweep 3), then just bide my time til I can get an Olwen with a better nature, but I don't even have Phantom Speed or the feathers/orbs to 5* Hana/Soren or try to summon a 5* Jaffar/Soren. Windsweep 3 might be another option to let her deal with Ryoma, Xander, and Ike safely, but I don't think they even have the Res to survive Dire Thunder in the first place, so...

Also Blarblade+ is off the table. Nothing against it, but I am strictly talking "Dire Thunder only"

I guess I'm just talking a hypothetical "one day maybe probably not really TBH" scenario, but assuming I'd want to let Olwen keep Dire Thunder, is there anything I could possibly do to make her even slightly effective with it, or am I listing the best set she could possibly run with DT? Maybe one day I just wanna be the rebel that can say "yeah, I decided against using Reinhardt in favor of Dire Thunder Olwen and I've yet to be disappointed", even though--

We apologize for the inconvenience, but this user has laughed himself out of the room.

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I've been staring at KageroChart Calculator for the past hour trying to figure something out for this +Def -HP Olwen I pulled, and I've still got nothing, She is numerically inferior to Reinhardt in every way when she is using Dire Thunder (which, if I'm trying to remain under budget I'd probably wanna do), with all she really has going for her being Speed, which means crap when you have a Brave weapon.

Olwen [+Atk, -HP/-Def/-Res] (Dire Thunder, Ardent Sacrifice/Reposition, Draconic Aura/Luna, Life and Death 3, Desperation, Hone Cavalry/Fortify Cavalry) is her best set with Dire Thunder. She's meant to be run with Hone Cavalry buffs on her to put her Atk high enough to deal considerable damage and Spd high enough to double attack. Unlike Reinhardt, Olwen is dependent on having buffs up.

The set's a bit less effective without +Atk or +Spd, but it's still manageable.

[Xenomata]

8 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Olwen [+Atk, -HP/-Def/-Res] (Dire Thunder, Ardent Sacrifice/Reposition, Draconic Aura/Luna, Life and Death 3, Desperation, Hone Cavalry/Fortify Cavalry) is her best set with Dire Thunder. She's meant to be run with Hone Cavalry buffs on her to put her Atk high enough to deal considerable damage and Spd high enough to double attack. Unlike Reinhardt, Olwen is dependent on having buffs up.

The set's a bit less effective without +Atk or +Spd, but it's still manageable.

Well that's better than the answer I was expecting, which was "it's impossible without Horse Emblem". I mean you did say that, but I did enter your set into the calculator with only +4 Attack/Speed and the results were only slightly worse than +6 Attack/Speed, with +6 being 138 - 6 - 8 compared to +4 being 132 - 6 - 14.

... still a shame that Rein is still better in just about every scenario because he doesn't need to hover around his team to get the best results...

[Ice Dragon]

16 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Well that's better than the answer I was expecting, which was "it's impossible without Horse Emblem". I mean you did say that, but I did enter your set into the calculator with only +4 Attack/Speed and the results were only slightly worse than +6 Attack/Speed, with +6 being 138 - 6 - 8 compared to +4 being 132 - 6 - 14.

... still a shame that Rein is still better in just about every scenario because he doesn't need to hover around his team to get the best results...

I commonly use a 2+2 team composition, which lets you run one buff for each pair and doesn't lock you into using a team of all the same movement type.

[Vaximillian]

1 hour ago, Xenomata said:

 Phantom Speed (Life and Death brings her up to 34 Spd, Phantom Speed to 39…)

Phantom Spd doesn’t increase your Spd per se, it only influences calculations for sweeps.

[mampfoid]

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

When using an enemy-phase dragon team, Ward Dragons would be more useful than Fortify Dragons, but 2× Hone Dragons with 2× Fortify Dragons is likely the most ideal setup, especially because dragons tend to be slow and Lightning Breath+ has low Atk, and there are times where you're going to need to initiate an attack yourself and you won't be in range of all of the buffs.

+Spd is generally preferred on Ninian because her Atk is so low, and +Spd helps prevent double attacks from fast opponents. I think +Spd is better offensively, as well, since it allows her to double attack the slower and bulkier red units and kill with Triangle Adept (because she can't kill anything in a single hit), but it's been a while since I last ran the numbers.

If you aren't approaching your 1,000-unit limit, you can always just hold onto both copies for now until you decide what to do with them.

Thanks for helping out again! I'm far, very far from that 1,000-unit limit, thus I'll follow your advice and keep both copies for some time. Especially since my dragon team is far from being ready and I don't want to sacrifice her to a dragon who won't make it into the final team eventually.  I yet have to give her TA, I'm waiting for another Roy. 

[Ae†her]

I recently got a 5* Klein (+Atk/-Def). I don't know if I should get him to Lvl 40 and just leave him be, or if I should sacrifice him for Brave Bow+ to my B!Cordelia (-Atl/+Spd). I also have the option of promoting certain units, those being a 4* +Atk/-HP Kagero, a lurking 3* +Atk/-Res Cherche(with a Brave Axe+ fodder available for her), and a 4* Effie that's +Atk/-HP. Right now I need someone who can provide a significant advantage over mages, and units with mediocre defense in general) for a new team I'm trying to make. This team so far has Lucina (-HP/+Atk), B!Cordelia (+Spd/-Atk), Ephraim(-HP,+Res), and Spring Camilla(-Atk/+Spd). I don't know what would be best for me currently, so can someone advise me on what the best course of action may be?

Edited August 3, 2017 by Logos

[MrSmokestack]

25 minutes ago, Logos said:

I recently got a 5* Klein (+Atk/-Def). I don't know if I should get him to Lvl 40 and just leave him be, or if I should sacrifice him for Brave Bow+ to my B!Cordelia (-Atl/+Spd).

I also have the option of promoting certain units, those being a 4* +Atk/-HP Kagero, a lurking 3* +Atk/-Res Cherche(with a Brave Axe+ fodder available for her), and a 4* Effie that's +Atk/-HP. Right now I need someone who can provide a significant advantage over mages, and units with mediocre defense in general) for a new team I'm trying to make. This team so far has Lucina (-HP/+Atk), B!Cordelia (+Spd/-Atk), Ephraim(-HP,+Res), and Spring Camilla(-Atk/+Spd). I don't know what would be best for me currently, so can someone advise me on what the best course of action may be?

1. +Spd -Atk Bride Cordelia with a Brave Bow actually has a better matchup spread than +Atk -Def Klein when both run Life and Death 3. Death Blow 3 has worse results for both so overall Bride Cordelia is better to invest in. Even so, I wouldn't suggest dumping his Brave Bow for her since all he really needs to have a comparable performance to her is that Life and Death investment. If you're set on not using him period, he gives Quick Riposte 3 which is currently 5* exclusive, so if one of your mains in arena uses QR you might want to grab that instead to improve your score. You can get Brave Bow from Gordin and Death Blow from Klein as a 4* anyway.

2. Vantage Kagero is a good choice if you want a unit dedicated for checking mages, but I can't give a more detailed answer unless you can provide the sets you're running for your current team members.

• Off the top of my head, Spring Camilla with Gronnblade is much more effective on a flier team with access to Hone and Fortify Fliers, but Gronnraven + Triangle Adept offers a fairly physically bulky blue check as well.
• Lucina is a solid red sword all around, and you can't go wrong with picking her.
• Ephraim, Eirika, and Delthea tend to be run for the support they offer -Blade mages, which I assume is what you're trying to do here with Spring Camilla, assuming she has Gronnblade?
• Bride Cordelia is broken

Your current team seems fine as is though, at least to me.

Edited August 3, 2017 by MrSmokestack

[Zeo]

So that fateful ever reccuring question has reared it's head again. By monday I'll have enough feathers for another *5. Things are quite a bit different this time around though. I have a lot more coverage over things I need (not hurting for a blue mage, no shortage of green units anymore, etc) so this time around I'm not as resolute in what I need to do, last boost was Camus so now my much smaller list.

1. Soren (+1, +ATK/-RES) (Cecillia for Gronnraven+)

Currently Soren has been serving as my #2 Green mage with Nino in the primary spot. But right now his biggest use has been to soak up hits with bulked up HP (HP+5 A Skill and HP+3 Seal) and kill lances with Lancebreaker. He also chips out a red every now and again since he's not running TA. But he's honestly always been a bit lack luster. Giving him superior coverage with Gronnraven+ would definitely help him improve and it would give me my first Raven user. Maybe then he won't need to be so inflated on HP and I can run something like Fury or Close Counter and really make him a problem. I have 4 Cecillias and they are all Neutral or -ATK so it's not like I'll miss any of them. All that and it just kinda feels right to give him the Raven tome. It always has, that and I don't really care about Boey or Merric even though they are probably better candidates, plus I don't know if or when I'll ever pull them and I'm not really trying to.

2. Olivia (+SPD/-RES)

I know that everyone always says you shouldn't promote Olivia but mine happens to have a pretty nice boon/bane combo and I'm in quite a few situations she needs to take a hit or kill and the extra stats would be amazing. Yeah she needs Ruby Sword+ but the regular Ruby sword has served me well and Silver Sword+ is fine in the meantime. With Fury 3 she's hitting 39 speed which is pretty respectable. She's a long term character who will always be useful, even if I pull Ninan or Azura I don't see why it's pointless to make a character you'll use forever stronger. She deserves the promotion.

2. Cecillia (Neutral)

She is an incredibly underwhelming unit, she lacks a boon/bane and she wants Nino's tome but she's respectable with Cav buffs and I have them all, plus with Xander/Jagen/Gunter/Ursula as my cav team it could really use a boost and Camus will be replacing Jagen so Cecillia replacing Gunter while waiting on Rein to swap out Ursula would be quite a bit of progress. In a nutshell it's a step towards Cavalry emblem but I'll probably never use her outside of that because lolbadstats and Soren is a much better Raven user.

3. Matthew (Neutral)

I'm building an ultimate Matthew and he's currently *4. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him but there's a 90% chance he's getting Close Counter and Bonfire, only thing is he probably wants another weapon and his lack of natures actually really hurts him so I'm on the fence about it and considering putting him on the backburner. Only thing is while he's super common for some people, I rarely see a Matthew ever. I get Wrys and Azama all day long.

4. Sophia (+ATK/-SPD)

My current Raven project. Sophia needs a Raven tome, TA3 and either Quick Riposte, Swordbreaker or Renewal. It's a nice investment as she's plenty bulky and it gives me a *5 Red tome which I currently have 0 of and it gives me coverage that would be perfect for say the upcoming BHB: Cecillia & Lillina. Only thing is the TT Banner is coming up and pulling Celica would cut my need for a *5 Red in half if not more, plus Sophia needs the Raven+ tome in order to work and that's another 20k feathers. In the meantime I have an incredibly subpar *5 Red mage that's among the worst in the game.

5. Sophia (Henry for Raourraven+)

The tome in question which is the entire point. Thing is with the tome she's comparable but inferior to Sophia with her normal tome+ at *5. Maybe a little niche but ultimately not that great and I'm still missing a solid red mage. She really just needs it all.

There's other things like Donnel for Brave Lance+ for Effie, Hana for LnD3 for Bridelia (I have LnD2) but those things aren't very important to me at the moment. I'm also solid for the next TT so I don't need to spend feathers for bonus units either.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Zeo

[Kaden]

Was there ever a consensus for Ardent Sacrifice or Reciprocal Aid for a Falchion and Renewal 3 build? AS would be safer in a sense they could stay at higher HP, but they might heal too fast with Falchion and Renewal 3 while RA would be better if you just want a massive heal, but if you're not careful, they might not be able to heal back up in time.

Just asking for future reference since I don't exactly remember when a post on this was made or by who. Kind of thinking of doing a Dr. Falchion build for masked Lucina since it would help with getting rid of units for space and she'd actually have skills, but if I could have had it my way, I would rather do a Dr. Marth build since he's pretty balanced. Alm, eh, I don't know what I would want to do with him, but a +Spd one with a Phantom Speed seal could work his default set very well, Chrom seems like someone who should be built into a hard-hitter and I kind of want to do a Brash Assault Chrom just for kicks, and both Lucina and masked Lucina might be better of being hyper-offensive. Basically, the others have niches they could fulfill better while Marth is the jack of all trades, so let's him do something more support-y even though Dr. masked Lucina would be a fine build.

[Arcanite]

1 minute ago, Kaden said:

Was there ever a consensus for Ardent Sacrifice or Reciprocal Aid for a Falchion and Renewal 3 build?

I did that build on my Alm

Reciprocal Aid helps WAAAAAAY more