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

[bethany81707]

1 minute ago, Bartozio said:

Ah, guess I read that wrong then, my bad.

It could also be I wrote that wrong (it seemed weird when I reread it).

Anyway, hoping Olivia/Fae/Linde/Askr goes well. Might put some inheritance on Delthea later. Probably not Blarblade. Also need Hone Speed fodder.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

The problem with brave-sword is that, between Chrom, Lucina (and Hana, to a lesser extent---she does worse than Lucina in terms of matchup spread because she has to take Escutcheon due to less min-maxed defense stats), and Alfonse, no one else really runs brave-sword good enough to be worth a 5* sacrifice. Chrom covers the low speed, sky-high attack build, Lucina covers the mix offense role, and Alfonse covers the low speed, sky-high attack build, except he's a bonus unit 1/3 of the time. (This means Chrom, interestingly enough, usually doesn't run the brave-sword build, because Alfonse does it good enough, while also being a bonus unit.)

I do not think Hana needs Escutcheon until you get to higher merge levels. 16 losses does not sound too bad. Surprisingly, Lucina does better with her Falchion than a Brave Sword with no merges.

Hana +Atk -Res
Brave Sword, Luna
Life and Death, Swordbreaker
Player Phase 128:16:8
Player Phase [Escutcheon] 125:3:24
Player Phase [Merge +10] 119:12:21
Player Phase [Escutcheon, Merge +10] 119:3:30

Lucina +Atk -Res
Falchion, Moonbow
Life and Death, Swordbreaker
Player Phase 129:5:18
Player Phase [+Spd] 128:5:19
Player Phase [Merge +10] 122:3:27
Player Phase [+Spd, Merge +10] 124:3:25

Lucina +Spd -Res
Brave Sword, Luna
Life and Death, Swordbreaker
Player Phase 127:10:15
Player Phase [Merge +10] 127:5:20

[DehNutCase]

38 minutes ago, XRay said:

I do not think Hana needs Escutcheon until you get to higher merge levels. 16 losses does not sound too bad. Surprisingly, Lucina does better with her Falchion than a Brave Sword with no merges.

Hana +Atk -Res
Brave Sword, Luna
Life and Death, Swordbreaker
Player Phase 128:16:8
Player Phase [Escutcheon] 125:3:24
Player Phase [Merge +10] 119:12:21
Player Phase [Escutcheon, Merge +10] 119:3:30

Lucina +Atk -Res
Falchion, Moonbow
Life and Death, Swordbreaker
Player Phase 129:5:18
Player Phase [+Spd] 128:5:19
Player Phase [Merge +10] 122:3:27
Player Phase [+Spd, Merge +10] 124:3:25

Lucina +Spd -Res
Brave Sword, Luna
Life and Death, Swordbreaker
Player Phase 127:10:15
Player Phase [Merge +10] 127:5:20

Escutcheon beats out Luna for Hana once you get at least 4 points worth of attack or speed buffs (4 points of attack beats it, and 4 points of speed has Escutcheon at only 1 less win than Luna), the thing about Hana is that, like Cordelia, she doesn't actually need her special to kill things, her offensive spread is sky high to begin with, so what's preventing her ORKOs is getting one shot on the counter---Lucina doesn't have this problem because of her 8 higher physical bulk.

Also, why the hell are you running +Spd Lucina with a breaker? The whole point of breaker is that you no longer need to inflate your Spd to get doubles, so Spd becomes far less valuable than +Atk.

 

Edit: wait a bit on my numbers, I think I did some calcs wrong. (I think I left a +4 speed on Lucina on accident, her advantage over Hana should be very minimal.)

+Atk/-Res, Brave Sword+, L&D, no B-slot, hp seal, Luna Lucina gets, with +4/+4 buffs: <I thought this was with +4/+0 for some reason, must've messed up somewhere.

142 W, 6 L, 4 D

+Atk/-Res, Brave Sword+, L&D, no B-slot, atk seal, Luna Hana gets, with +4/+0 buffs:

134 W, 14 L, 4 D

+Atk/-Res, Brave Sword+, L&D, no B-slot, atk seal, Escutcheon Hana gets, with +4/+0 buffs:

137 W, 3 L, 12 D

(Luna & Hp seal gets 133 W, so it's not really worth considering for Hana.)

Double Edit: Actually, turns out, the best Hana sets and the best Lucina sets are actually more or less identical, I just remembered wrong because Lucina happened to be slightly better with her best sets with the +3/+4 buff from a Restoration L.

+3/+4 seems to heavily favor Lucina over Hana for some reason, but if you manage to get +4/+4 their numbers return to being near identical (same wins, but Hana dies less because she's running Escutcheon.)

This is because +3/+4 seems to perform identically for Lucina with either the +3 Hp seal & Luna, and only gives the Moonbow Pulse combo 2 more wins, whereas Hana gets 4 wins from going from +3/+4 to +4/+4, which ties up the amount of wins. (They all max out around 142 wins at +4/+4, but Luna, Hp Seal, Lucina hits the 'peak' sooner.) I'll have to play around a bit more to see how merge levels on enemies affects this.

Lucina can pick up some wins if you buff her defenses, whereas Hana either has too little (Luna), or too much (Escutcheon), for a +4 defense buff to matter, but expecting something like +4/+4/+4 or +3/+4/+4 is unrealistic for an infantry unit.

End Edit.

 

 

The key about 'almost perfect' offensive units that dumped res rather than def or hp is that they can take bulk in order to get better offenses, thanks to the fact that they won't need Escutcheon to survive OHKOs. This is the same reason that Abel will out-perform Peri past a certain point.

Of course, sheer glass cannons like Hana have the advantage of being slightly better before buffs (this is also the situation where Luna out-performs Escutcheon on Hana etc.), but +4 to Atk isn't exactly difficult.

 

I usually don't run numbers with breaker sets, because the B-slot isn't always free. (Maybe you want desperation, maybe you want a mobility skill, or maybe even Renewal for some reason like long ass tempest trial runs where you can't guarantee 2HKOs.)

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by DehNutCase

[Dayni]

So, I have a bunch of inheritance lying around after finishing my training up a bunch of 3* units to sacrifice. All of what's left is 4* and are worth passing on skills to, but I don't know to who. I've also got some who I have ideas about but could hear good alternatives as well.

Roy (Obviously Triangle Adept)

2 Hinatas (Fury fodder)

Chrom (He's got Sol, Defiant Defence and Spur Defence. Who'd want that?)

Draug (He's going to pass Ward Armour when I get Sheena/Effie)

Stahl (I mean, he has Def +3. He has Swap. He has Ruby Sword. But who wants those?)

Palla (Planning on giving Michalis Goad Fliers and Moonbow once he has Spur Att/Spd 2 from someone else)

A!Tiki (Bonfire. Just, Bonfire.)

Lilina (I have 2, and I'm not sure which has better Boon/Bane (+Def/-Res and +HP/-Def). The max level one has G!Tomebreaker too, but I'd be passing Spur Attack or her Special.)

2 Henrys (He's got Ignis, RaudorRaven and G!Tomebreaker. He's got a lot of fodder options.)

Seliph (Brash Assault 2 and Rally Speed. A good combo imo.)

M!Corrin (Dragon Fang and Defence +3 are my main options here.)

Lon'qu (Vantage. No need to explain, but I don't know what non-Hector/Ryoma units want it)

Edited August 5, 2017 by Dayni

[XRay]

Just now, DehNutCase said:

Escutcheon beats out Luna for Hana once you get at least 4 points worth of attack or speed buffs (4 points of attack beats it, and 4 points of speed has Escutcheon at only 1 less win than Luna), the thing about Hana is that, like Cordelia, she doesn't actually need her special to kill things, her offensive spread is sky high to begin with, so what's preventing her ORKOs is getting one shot on the counter---Lucina doesn't have this problem because of her 8 higher physical bulk.

Also, why the hell are you running +Spd Lucina with a breaker? The whole point of breaker is that you no longer need to inflate your Spd to get doubles, so Spd becomes far less valuable than +Atk.

+Atk/-Res, Brave Sword+, L&D, no B-slot, hp seal, Luna Lucina gets, with +4/+0 buffs:

142 W, 6 L, 4 D

+Atk/-Res, Brave Sword+, L&D, no B-slot, atk seal, Luna Hana gets, with +4/+0 buffs:

134 W, 14 L, 4 D

+Atk/-Res, Brave Sword+, L&D, no B-slot, atk seal, Escutcheon Hana gets, with +4/+0 buffs:

137 W, 3 L, 12 D

(Luna & Hp seal gets 133 W, so it's not really worth considering for Hana.)

 

The key about 'almost perfect' offensive units that dumped res rather than def or hp is that they can take bulk in order to get better offenses, thanks to the fact that they won't need Escutcheon to survive OHKOs. This is the same reason that Abel will out-perform Peri past a certain point.

Of course, sheer glass cannons like Hana have the advantage of being slightly better before buffs (this is also the situation where Luna out-performs Escutcheon on Hana etc.), but +4 to Atk isn't exactly difficult.

 

I usually don't run numbers with breaker sets, because the B-slot isn't always free. (Maybe you want desperation, maybe you want a mobility skill, or maybe even Renewal for some reason like long ass tempest trial runs where you can't guarantee 2HKOs.)

I set the calculator to +Atk in the beginning but I wanted to make sure I am not missing anything so I set it to +Spd to double check. Without buffs, +Spd gives better ratios. Unless the unit uses Blade tomes, I usually do not consider buffs.

I prefer Breakers over all others for the higher kill count. In my opinion, getting more kills is more important since the vast majority of the time, killing something and Assisting the attacker away is better than Wings of Mery/Escape Route/Drag Back. I only use Desperation if Breakers do not improve a unit's kill count.

[DehNutCase]

17 minutes ago, XRay said:

I set the calculator to +Atk in the beginning but I wanted to make sure I am not missing anything so I set it to +Spd to double check. Without buffs, +Spd gives better ratios. Unless the unit uses Blade tomes, I usually do not consider buffs.

I prefer Breakers over all others for the higher kill count. In my opinion, getting more kills is more important since the vast majority of the time, killing something and Assisting the attacker away is better than Wings of Mery/Escape Route/Drag Back. I only use Desperation if Breakers do not improve a unit's kill count.

Note, I messed up a bit on the calcs, the best Lucina & best Hana sets are nearly identical after +4/+4, Lucina just happened to 'peak' sooner at +3/+4. (Going from +3/+4 to +4/+4 does nothing for her.) Edit:... And I just realized I'm ignoring the +6/+4 Delthea option, lul. Double Edit: Which turns out not to matter anyway, both Hana and Lucina have already peaked at +4/+4, +6/+4 does nothing for either of them, though it does let Lucina go Escutheon for more wins.

The only wins that a breaker would get are vs. other breaker (only relevant vs. other swords) or Wary fighter users, which is more a meta thing---S-breaker does nothing for Lucina vs. default Zephiel because Reprisal explodes her, but Hana manages to tank it with Escutcheon. (+4 buff to defense lets Lucina get Zephiel, but expecting triple buffs is very unrealistic on infantry.)

 

The thing is, you pretty much have to consider buffs to notice that Escutcheon out-performs Luna, bulk beating damage only happens very late, when you can ORKO most of the cast already, meaning the only things that avoid the ORKO are the things that OHKO on the counter. A theoretical 38/38 base unit could probably run Escutcheon before buffs, but no one currently has that kind of spread. Also, only considering buffs for -blades while ignoring them for other units is exceedingly unfair to other units, since you aren't even giving them the same buffs you give to -blade units, but that's neither here nor there.

Edited August 5, 2017 by DehNutCase

[bethany81707]

14 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Note, I messed up a bit on the calcs, the best Lucina & best Hana sets are nearly identical after +4/+4, Lucina just happened to 'peak' sooner at +3/+4. (Going from +3/+4 to +4/+4 does nothing for her.) Edit:... And I just realized I'm ignoring the +6/+4 Delthea option, lul. Double Edit: Which turns out not to matter anyway, both Hana and Lucina have already peaked at +4/+4, +6/+4 does nothing for either of them, though it does let Lucina go Escutheon for more wins.

The only wins that a breaker would get are vs. other breaker (only relevant vs. other swords) or Wary fighter users, which is more a meta thing---S-breaker does nothing for Lucina vs. default Zephiel because Reprisal explodes her, but Hana manages to tank it with Escutcheon. (+4 buff to defense lets Lucina get Zephiel, but expecting triple buffs is very unrealistic on infantry.)

 

The thing is, you pretty much have to consider buffs to notice that Escutcheon out-performs Luna, bulk beating damage only happens very late, when you can ORKO most of the cast already, meaning the only things that avoid the ORKO are the things that OHKO on the counter. A theoretical 38/38 base unit could probably run Escutcheon before buffs, but no one currently has that kind of spread. Also, only considering buffs for -blades while ignoring them for other units is exceedingly unfair to other units, since you aren't even giving them the same buffs you give to -blade units, but that's neither here nor there.

Short version: give my Hana Escutcheon? I'm not sure how reliably she'll be partnered with a Hone Attacker in multi-team challenges, but...

[XRay]

2 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Note, I messed up a bit on the calcs, the best Lucina & best Hana sets are nearly identical after +4/+4, Lucina just happened to 'peak' sooner at +3/+4. (Going from +3/+4 to +4/+4 does nothing for her.)

The only wins that a breaker would get are vs. other breaker (only relevant vs. other swords) or Wary fighter users, which is more a meta thing---S-breaker does nothing for Lucina vs. default Zephiel because Reprisal explodes her, but Hana manages to tank it with Escutcheon. (+4 buff to defense lets Lucina get Zephiel, but expecting triple buffs is very unrealistic on infantry.)

The thing is, you pretty much have to consider buffs to notice that Escutcheon out-performs Luna, bulk beating damage only happens very late, when you can ORKO most of the cast already, meaning the only things that avoid the ORKO are the things that OHKO on the counter. A theoretical 38/38 base unit could probably run Escutcheon before buffs, but no one currently has that kind of spread. Also, only considering buffs for -blades while ignoring them for other units is exceedingly unfair to other units, since you aren't even giving them the same buffs you give to other units, but that's neither here nor there.

I have not used Lucina very much outside of the first Tempest Trials, but I run melee Breakers on almost all my units besides Nino and Cecilia. Being able to knock out a few extra enemies of the same color is pretty important to me, so I imagine it would be the same for Lucina.

I guess it is unfair to other units, but buffs are not always guaranteed especially if you need to divide your team to divide the enemy team. Blade tomes have dibs on buffer/Dancer/Singer support for obvious reasons, and my other two units cannot always rely on buffs from each other since I run Savage Blow on a lot of my glass cannons.

[DehNutCase]

14 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

Short version: give my Hana Escutcheon? I'm not sure how reliably she'll be partnered with a Hone Attacker in multi-team challenges, but...

Ice Dragon had a nice thread about Escutcheon Hana somewhere in the archives, but, really, Hana's one of those units that you can give whatever special you like on her, since her offensive spread carries her matchups anyway.

Basically: Just give her whatever's convenient. Even nonsense like Ignis would work since she her special isn't too important for her matchups (you get like 5 wins from Escutcheon compared to naked, at least after something like +6/+4 from Delthea, and Luna does literally nothing.).

12 minutes ago, XRay said:

I have not used Lucina very much outside of the first Tempest Trials, but I run melee Breakers on almost all my units besides Nino and Cecilia. Being able to knock out a few extra enemies of the same color is pretty important to me, so I imagine it would be the same for Lucina.

I guess it is unfair to other units, but buffs are not always guaranteed especially if you need to divide your team to divide the enemy team. Blade tomes have dibs on buffer/Dancer/Singer support for obvious reasons, and my other two units cannot always rely on buffs from each other since I run Savage Blow on a lot of my glass cannons.

Eh... buffs should be given to the people that use them the best, in my opinion, rather than the people that get the most from them. It's kind of like the difference between giving a Seth or Titania a energy drop rather than Est or Donnel, yeah, Est and Donnel get the 'bigger' percentage boost, but the unit that's already good would be putting that stat boost to more use. (A -blade tomer gets +18/+6 from a Hone Cav, but Camus, for instance, still trumps less optimized units like Cecilia with just +6/+6 compared to +18/+6 because of his better color and spread.)

Edit: Seth and Titania might be bad examples, Jagen and Gunter might be better ones.

 

Regarding breakers, the very best offensive units gain literally nothing from offensive specials or B-slots past a certain point (after +6/+4, Hana gets exactly 0 wins from Luna compared to no special). And you don't need to be at the level of 'this skill is completely useless' to consider replacing it, anyway, since it's not competing with an empty skill slot, it's competing with other skills. (Cancel Affinity should be the go-to B-slot for raw matchup spread, anyway.)

Edited August 5, 2017 by DehNutCase

[MrSmokestack]

@Dayni

Quote

• Triangle Adept- Units with low Atk dedicated to checking one color and only that color. Examples include Nowi, Julia, Sophia, Xander, and Ephraim.
• Fury- All-around useful passive skill that can be your go-to if you don't have anything else that works. Dancers like it since it props up their defenses in an emergency. Has fine synergy with Desperation. Nino
• Sol
• Defiant Defense
• Spur Defense- If you have nothing else to use this is a good fall-back for the C passive. It really depends on what your team needs. Give it to a unit that is not defending so they can help their allies defend for them.
• Ward Armour- 3 stacks of Ward Armor breaks the game.
• Def +3
• Swap- Off-tank units with 1-2 counter like Ryoma, Nowi, and Xander that tend to be the first to meet the enemy in an arena match.
• Ruby Sword- See Triangle Adept.
• Goad Fliers- 3 stacks of Goad Fliers breaks the game.
• Moonbow- Meme skill/10. Blade mages like it since it actually gives them a viable proc skill they have a chance of using in most maps, since the 3 CD ones get bumped up to 4 and are thus harder to use. Other than that, you can pair it with a unit that has Quick Pulse Reinhardt for the 1 CD Moonbow on an arena defense team. There's also dedicated buffing units and dancers that rarely see combat, so they can get some use out of it too.
• Bonfire- Def cap of 30 or more, unless Draconic Aura does more damage for that unit, which requires roughly 50 Atk. That's really it.
• Spur Atk 3- See Spur Def 3. Arguably more useful in general though.
• Growing Flame
• Ignis- Good for a Killer / QR / QP counterkilling set, which Oboro and Lukas are fantastic users of. For horses, you have Heavy Blade Xander and Distant Counter Eldigan.
• Raudrraven- Use with Triangle Adept for excellent coverage against colorless and the other color of your choice. See Sophia.
• G!Tomebreaker- Generally used to check enemy Ninos. Cecilia and Julia get some use out of it since they tend to get outsped by her normally.
• Brash Assault 2
• Rally Speed
• Dragon Fang
• Vantage- Any unit with 1-2 range counter.

Feel free to ignore whatever is in strike-through. If you're interested in seeing why...

Spoiler

• Sol is alright for Tempest Trials rather than arena, but you might as well would be using Aether in that scenario since you have access to CD acceleration anyway.
• Defiant Skills are all mediocre with the exception of maybe Atk, but no matter what you tend to see these on gimmick builds. Raw stat-up skills like Fury, LaD and Atk+ / Spd+ tend to be better
• See above
• High CD, overkill damage, and can proc enemy Vantage? No thank you.
• Only Lyn in particular really wants this, and even then you want it at max level. Most units will just die on the counter before getting a follow-up attack off.
• Rally Assists are most common on dedicated buff units like Eirika and Ephraim--Delthea is debatable. Since Hone Spd is already a passive that exists, Rally Defense tends to work better for the assist since Fortify Res 1 is a seal already.
• High CD, overkill damage. Pretty decent for Tempest Trials though.

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by MrSmokestack

[Jingle Jangle]

One thing that confused me for a while was to  utilize  Lilina her fullest. Currently I have a 4* (+atk, -res) version of her. I know she is a powerhouse, but she is just not strong enough to one shot units, plus it's difficult for she to double units.. Any build ideas would be appreciated.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Jingle Jangle

[DehNutCase]

Defiant skills are basically the worst +3 to one stat skills ever, since that's how much you getting compared to just slapping a Hone 'whatever' on another unit.

(And lul if the unit is melee (Delthea) or non-infantry (class buffs))

[bethany81707]

11 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Basically: Just give her whatever's convenient. Even nonsense like Ignis would work since she her special isn't too important for her matchups (you get like 5 wins from Escutcheon compared to naked, at least after something like +6/+4 from Delthea, and Luna does literally nothing.).

So Sol wasn't a complete waste, just mostly a waste (doesn't mesh well with Desperation). I guess I'll save the SP for her Brave Sword and Savage Blow.

And yes, I am aware the concept of my 35/37/40/39 Hana wanting to save her ridiculous SP cache nearing 2000 just by her grinding is laughable.

[SSbardock84]

What are the dates for the summoning sessions that are coming up and what are they, for the ones we know about?

Edited August 5, 2017 by SSbardock84

[XRay]

31 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Eh... buffs should be given to the people that use them the best, in my opinion, rather than the people that get the most from them. It's kind of like the difference between giving a Seth or Titania a energy drop rather than Est or Donnel, yeah, Est and Donnel get the 'bigger' percentage boost, but the unit that's already good would be putting that stat boost to more use. (A -blade tomer gets +18/+6 from a Hone Cav, but Camus, for instance, still trumps less optimized units like Cecilia with just +6/+6 compared to +18/+6 because of his better color and spread.)

Regarding breakers, the very best offensive units gain literally nothing from offensive specials or B-slots past a certain point (after +6/+4, Hana gets exactly 0 wins from Luna compared to no special). And you don't need to be at the level of 'this skill is completely useless' to consider replacing it, anyway, since it's not competing with an empty skill slot, it's competing with other skills. (Cancel Affinity should be the go-to B-slot for raw matchup spread, anyway.)

I guess I can switch out Savage Blow for buffs and try it out a little more.

Cancel Affinity only works if the enemy has Triangle Adept. Outside of Raven tomes, I do not see Triangle Adept very often and I have not encountered Raven mages much either. Celica and BB!Cordelia needs Swordbreaker to double/quad attack fast, merged sword units. Reinhardt needs Lancebreaker get a few extra blue kills. Axebreaker does nothing for Nino and Cecilia when they use Blades and gets buffed if I remember correctly, so I give them Desperation.

Edited August 5, 2017 by XRay

[IHaveTheSacredStones]

8 hours ago, mcsilas said:

What's a better B skill for a +Res/-Spd Sheena? Quick Riposte or Wary Fighter?

One factor to note is I never pulled a Hector in this account, so I won't be able to give her Distant Counter or anything like that. She's also 4 star, and she's pretty low on the priority list of 5 star promotions, but her boon/bane is pretty good.

With Wary Fighter, I was getting annoyed by the amount of things doubling her for Armour Quests. Plus I have this crazy idea of using her to bait Defense teams, with Wary Fighter, barring Axebreaker, she won't get ORKOed. I may be planning on giving Reinhardt Wings of Mercy so it activates when Sheena's Wary Fighter breaks- would this be a good novelty idea for a Defense team? If so I'll go Wary Fighter? (I have 2 more spare Zephiels)

Otherwise I know Quick Riposte has good synergy with Ignis/Glacies and Killer Axe, but I'll only have up to level 2 and I only have 2 Subakis that may go to other people that really need it.

Distant Counter would be great with Quick Riposte... barring that, if you just want to bait with her, then the Wary Fighter would be a good idea and the pair with WoM Reinhardt could be cool although as a mounted mage he will likely not be using WoM so much  and it could maybe be better used on someone else. If you pair her with a melee unit with WoM, Sheena can bait a mage, drop below 50, and then your melee unit can come in, especially since melee units have lower range and so appreciate WoM a lot more than Reinhardt would. If you had something warp-healing Linde possible to make though, that could be a great partner as she will swoop in, kill and heal Sheena back to Wary Fighter range.

Another cool idea though it probably wouldn't be totally efficient: Sheena, with her killer axe, -Spd and Quick Riposte would be able to actually make relatively good use of a 5 charge special like Aether or one of the AoE ones. If she gets attacked by a melee enemy that can double her and not die on her first counterattack (so most axe or lance users), 4 actions will be used in that one round of combat, getting the 5 action special to go off on Sheena's first attack at the beginning of your next turn. Obviously this build would be best with Distant Counter so it could work against mages too, but something like Triangle Adept (to keep you in QR range after fighting blues) or stat-boosting abilities will work as well.

[Dayni]

49 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

 

Quote

• Triangle Adept- Units with low Atk dedicated to checking one color and only that color. Examples include Nowi, Julia, Sophia, Xander, and Ephraim. (I've heard about Fae being a good option as well)
• Fury- All-around useful passive skill that can be your go-to if you don't have anything else that works. Dancers like it since it props up their defenses in an emergency. Has fine synergy with Desperation. Nino (So Azura is a good user of it then?)
• Sol (Would rather not spend 20k for just Aether to be honest, though the idea does make sense. Who'd even want Aether?)
• Defiant Defense (Besides some builds I had read about, I do see that as well. I'd argue Defiant Speed, but I wouldn't be actively passing that onto units)
• Spur Defense- If you have nothing else to use this is a good fall-back for the C passive. It really depends on what your team needs. Give it to a unit that is not defending so they can help their allies defend for them. (Bit of a shame Crumb has Spur Def 2 max at 4*)
• Ward Armour- 3 stacks of Ward Armor breaks the game. (Then would it be good to leave on Zephiel? He's already been learning Hone Armour, but this could be better)
• Def +3 (Not worth much unless you're really uncomfortable with Fury)
• Swap- Off-tank units with 1-2 counter like Ryoma, Nowi, and Xander that tend to be the first to meet the enemy in an arena match. (Actually, that's neat to read, Xander could use that)
• Ruby Sword- See Triangle Adept. (Can a +Spd Ogma use this?)
• Goad Fliers- 3 stacks of Goad Fliers breaks the game. (Of course, but who's most broken with it behind them?)
• Moonbow- Meme skill/10. Blade mages like it since it actually gives them a viable proc skill they have a chance of using in most maps, since the 3 CD ones get bumped up to 4 and are thus harder to use. Other than that, you can pair it with a unit that has Quick Pulse Reinhardt for the 1 CD Moonbow on an arena defense team. There's also dedicated buffing units and dancers that rarely see combat, so they can get some use out of it too. (Don't really have most of these options barring Odin, whose stats don't add up)
• Bonfire- Def cap of 30 or more, unless Draconic Aura does more damage for that unit, which requires roughly 50 Atk. That's really it. (Is Gray a good option for this then? Training one with +Def in advance of TT)
• Spur Atk 3- See Spur Def 3. Arguably more useful in general though. (Yeah, though the unit I'd be passing it from would likely be given to Michalis as part of the plan with Palla)
• Growing Flame (Yeah, this one is mostly for clearing unprepared enemies, I wouldn't be wanting to use it on enemies with Vantage anyway though)
• Ignis- Good for a Killer / QR / QP counterkilling set, which Oboro and Lukas are fantastic users of. For horses, you have Heavy Blade Xander and Distant Counter Eldigan. (Wish I had spare Heavy Blade skills then.)
• Raudrraven- Use with Triangle Adept for excellent coverage against colorless and the other color of your choice. See Sophia. (Would a fast Red tome user benefit from it as well? Asking as I have no Tharjas to pass blade tomes at present)
• G!Tomebreaker- Generally used to check enemy Ninos, but Cecilia and Julia get some use out of it since they tend to get outsped by her normally. (So keep for good Julias/Cecilias then? Is Sophia a decent user or is there a skill beside QR for her?)
• Brash Assault 2 (Alright, good to know. Would a unit like Oboro not benefit from it though?)
• Rally Speed (Why do you say it's a debatable skill for Delthea?)
• Dragon Fang (True, true. Springcina still uses it fine. But if you're saying it works for 50 Att+, Hector could use it himself as well, or is Bonfire that much more worthwhile because it's 3 charges?)
• Vantage- Any unit with 1-2 range counter. (So is Xander better off with this or something like Quick Riposte?)

Just commenting in response in brackets. Thanks for the explanations though, does put it into perspective.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Dayni

[IHaveTheSacredStones]

8 hours ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

Are there any characters that really like having Renewal? I have a 5 star -ATK Jakob that I don't feel like using, and Renewal is a pretty good skill. I did the healer Falchion build with Masked Marth, so she already has Renewal 3. I have a +ATK Alm who might like it, but I'm not sure having 2 Falchion healers is a good idea. I saw a build somewhere for Sharena that involved Renewal, but I know she prefers a -breaker skill. 

Similarly, (I asked this a while back, but I might as well go ahead and try once more) are there any characters that really want a brave sword? Alfonse, Laslow, and Hana come to mind. I've got a spare Cain, and I'm just making sure there isn't anyone else I could pick from. 

Go for Hana with the Brave Sword! At least if she is +Spd or +Atk as with LaD, great speed and attack, all she needs is Desperation, Threaten Def or Spd, and Luna to build her quad-Hana set.

Otherwise I would actually give it to Alphonse as being a main character, he is almost guaranteed to be repeatedly useful for Arena and certain quests and giving him a Brave Sword is the easiest way to make him usable.

As for the Renewal, Hector is probably the next bet as his weapon gives him Quick Riposte which both frees up his B slot AND makes him reliant on keeping his health high to be good. Any other characters that have non-B slot skills that require high HP and tanks that you aren't using a breaker skill on are good candidates as well.

[IHaveTheSacredStones]

Thoughts on my Leo build? He is +HP/-Spd so I have him with Raurraven+, Quick Riposte, Reposition and Glacies currently. I chose Glacies over Iceberg due to Leo's tendency to get doubled as with 19 speed and Quick Riposte, he has a very high tendency to use four actions in a single round of combat, setting up Glacies for an OHKO in the next turn. He has Triangle Adept at the moment as well and he will probably be getting Hone Cavalry once he gets the SP for it.

He works really well against non-blue mages and archers, but my dilemma is that I also have a +Spd/-Def Takumi that is gathering dust on the bench at the moment. Takumi served me really well in the early days of the game and with SI, he got Vantage and kept wrecking shit and I gave him some support skills like Rally Attack and Hone Spd to avoid having too many red units when I rely on Eirika for buffs.

Part of me really wants to feed Takumi to Leo for Close Counter as it would make Leo even better, but at this point I'm not sure if it's worth sacrificing the Takumi I put so much work into so long ago...

[MrSmokestack]

@Dayni

Quote

1. Fury- So Azura is a good user of it then?
2. Sol (Would rather not spend 20k for just Aether to be honest, though the idea does make sense. Who'd even want Aether?)
3. Ward Armour- Then would it be good to leave on Zephiel? He's already been learning Hone Armour, but this could be better
4. Ruby Sword- Can a +Spd Ogma use this?
5. Goad Fliers- Of course, but who's most broken with it behind them?
6. Bonfire- Is Gray a good option for this then? Training one with +Def in advance of TT
7. Raudrraven- Would a fast Red tome user benefit from it as well? Asking as I have no Tharjas to pass blade tomes at present
8. G!Tomebreaker- So keep for good Julias/Cecilias then? Is Sophia a decent user or is there a skill beside QR for her?
9. Brash Assault 2 (Alright, good to know. Would a unit like Oboro not benefit from it though?)
10. Rally Speed (Why do you say it's a debatable skill for Delthea?)
11. Dragon Fang (True, true. Springcina still uses it fine. But if you're saying it works for 50 Att+, Hector could use it himself as well, or is Bonfire that much more worthwhile because it's 3 charges?)
12. Vantage- So is Xander better off with this or something like Quick Riposte?

1. Yes.

2. It's great for raising your arena score since it gives the most points out of the other proc skills available, due to its SP cost. Really, anyone can use it.

3. If you're not running Goad Armor I suppose. Hone is also fine since it's not exactly difficult to keep your teammates together in an Armor team.

4. No, don't do that. Ogma is tied with Hana for best Brave Sword user, easily, especially with LaD.

5. Brave weapon fliers like Cordelia make great use of Goad. You want Hone and Fortify if you're running a -Blade mage flier though.

6. If you're keeping Zanbato, he can use Bonfire just fine. I'd prefer Draconic Aura if you can buff his Atk since he's very close to matching Bonfire's extra damage.

7. Depends on who it is. Sanaki and Lilina can use it just fine but Sophia is the best out of the three because of her higher base Def for tanking arrows. Katarina, for example, doesn't want it as much.

8. Sophia can use G Tomebreaker just fine, but Quick Riposte is a good option too. I'd prefer the latter if I ran her, mostly to save G Tome for something else.

9. Oboro is an enemy phase unit, not a player phase one. She relies on defensive tiles to take near-zero damage so she shouldn't be near the HP threshold for Brash if you're using her correctly. Quick Riposte gives her an easier time firing off her proc skill with Killer / QR / QP.

10. Not Rally Speed, just Rally assists in general. Her tome gives +6 Atk to infantry and breath users, and she can run Hone Spd as her C and Fortify Res as her seal for a better buff set than Ephraim or Eirika for anything besides mages. Even Drive Atk 2 is a good C to keep if you're running a budget build.

11. Bonfire or even Ignis is still better for Hector damage-wise. Vantage Bonfire is a common build to see on arena defense if he isn't using Wings of Mercy.

12. Xander can use either passive, but I tend to use him defensively so I run Quick Riposte instead.

[IHaveTheSacredStones]

On 8/3/2017 at 11:00 PM, Zeo said:

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.

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 eithe

Another thought for Olivia is that if you played Tempest Trials, you could give her Tobin's Armorslayer+ so she can kill Hector, Draug, Sheena if she doesn't carry Granni's Shield, break Zephiel's Wary Fighter and still do her anti-green job relatively well although she would take more damage from green mages.

Either way she is definitely worth the promotion as it will just make her generally better which will be very nice for you in the future of the game as you are indeed almost guaranteed to keep using her.

Also, I just used my most recent 20000 feathers to promote Henry and the Raurraven+ inheritence is so nice (Leo loves his new book). Olivia or Henry would be my top 2 out of your given options.

[Tragonight]

Quick question, how many flags do we get daily? Not including those from quests.

[Vaximillian]

2 minutes ago, Tragonight said:

Quick question, how many flags do we get daily? Not including those from quests.

Five flags every day during the gauntlet.

[Extrasolar]

Hey, so what are the optimal setups for Horse Emblem and Flier Emblem, as far as team composition and SI goes? I have a ton of mounted and flying units, and am not exactly sure what combinations of units and skills are the best.
 

[XRay]

2 hours ago, IHaveTheSacredStones said:

Thoughts on my Leo build? He is +HP/-Spd so I have him with Raurraven+, Quick Riposte, Reposition and Glacies currently. I chose Glacies over Iceberg due to Leo's tendency to get doubled as with 19 speed and Quick Riposte, he has a very high tendency to use four actions in a single round of combat, setting up Glacies for an OHKO in the next turn. He has Triangle Adept at the moment as well and he will probably be getting Hone Cavalry once he gets the SP for it.

He works really well against non-blue mages and archers, but my dilemma is that I also have a +Spd/-Def Takumi that is gathering dust on the bench at the moment. Takumi served me really well in the early days of the game and with SI, he got Vantage and kept wrecking shit and I gave him some support skills like Rally Attack and Hone Spd to avoid having too many red units when I rely on Eirika for buffs.

Part of me really wants to feed Takumi to Leo for Close Counter as it would make Leo even better, but at this point I'm not sure if it's worth sacrificing the Takumi I put so much work into so long ago...

If you are going for a Raven build on Leo, I would add Triangle Adept and replace Glacies with Moonbow. Against ranged units, Moonbow activates during every Enemy Phase fight.

1 hour ago, Extrasolar said:

Hey, so what are the optimal setups for Horse Emblem and Flier Emblem, as far as team composition and SI goes? I have a ton of mounted and flying units, and am not exactly sure what combinations of units and skills are the best.
 

The best cavalry team I can think of is Olwen, Leo, Cecilia, and Reinhardt/Dancer/Singer. The previous three should run Blade builds while Reinhardt can run his normal Dire Thunder build. You can switch out Reinhardt or any one of them for a Dancer/Singer for more flexibility.

The best flier team is SF!Camilla, NS!Corrin, Palla, and Cordelia/Cherche/Dancer/Singer. The previous two can run Blade builds, Palla/Cordelia/Cherche can run Brave builds, Palla can also run Ruby Sword builds, and you can switch out a flier for a Dancer/Singer for more flexibility.

Edited August 5, 2017 by XRay