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

[DefyingFates]

1 hour ago, Ether said:

Febail is still good fodder for PNFU alone. Spd/Res Hexblade is... it's fine as a filler t4 skill, it just isn't ideal. The way to look at it is, in order for the hexblade effect to do more for you than having another skill in A that has +7 atk, then the enemy needs to have 7 or higher excess defense compared to their res. There are plenty of enemies that this will apply to, and some it will apply to in excess, but the problem is... that just brings s/r hexblade up to par with skills like Swift Sparrow 3 or Solo 4, which aren't really considered more than filler if you have nothing better at this point in time. In order to match damage with, say, Finish, the enemy needs to have 12 more defense, and you still have no answer for the healing from Finish. Sure the +7 res lets you take less damage from magic foes, but finish will heal you vs every enemy type.

Gotcha. I may as well inherit both to her then, even if I don't use Hexblade. I'm pretty sure Bonus Doubler is in the F2P pool...

1 hour ago, Ether said:

As for menaces vs Oaths, Oaths are generally better. Menaces don't let you do super long dancer/warp engagements due to the range on the debuffs, and oaths have a higher floor(+9 pretty much always vs +6, and potential +6/-6 if you specifically attack the debuffed target), not to mention the warp utility. Menaces are still fine, and more accessible, but I would pick Oath over Menace most of the time. Distant solo does lessen the impact of the warp a bit for player phase engagements, but keeping within 2 to satisfy both oath and solo is pretty easy for EP.

Thanks! Now I'm really hoping the very next Attuned Skill isn't Spd Oath Echo but I'm pretty sure I have at least one source of A/S Oath 4 right now so I can just focus on Lumera for now. What alternate A Skill would you suggest for Nino when it comes to regular gameplay? I confess I've never paid much attention to mage units and the ones I have seen I'm pretty sure all just used Ideal skills.

P.S. I'm thinking of doing something with Arion too. I have an Alfred but figured A/D Catch 4 and A/D Near Trace from F!Gustav would be a good starting point. I don't have any T4 Guidance skills though, what would his best C Skill be? Lumera and Nino are my priorities at the moment though, so I'm not too fussed about this guy at the moment.

[Ether]

39 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Gotcha. I may as well inherit both to her then, even if I don't use Hexblade. I'm pretty sure Bonus Doubler is in the F2P pool...

Thanks! Now I'm really hoping the very next Attuned Skill isn't Spd Oath Echo but I'm pretty sure I have at least one source of A/S Oath 4 right now so I can just focus on Lumera for now. What alternate A Skill would you suggest for Nino when it comes to regular gameplay? I confess I've never paid much attention to mage units and the ones I have seen I'm pretty sure all just used Ideal skills.

P.S. I'm thinking of doing something with Arion too. I have an Alfred but figured A/D Catch 4 and A/D Near Trace from F!Gustav would be a good starting point. I don't have any T4 Guidance skills though, what would his best C Skill be? Lumera and Nino are my priorities at the moment though, so I'm not too fussed about this guy at the moment.

Remote Sparrow or AS Finish are probably your best bets for general use A skills. If you don't have them, anything that boosts Attack and Speed will generally work, each has their own caveats. Swift sparrow gives slightly less Atk, Solo requires solo condition, Unity is weaker unless you're being hit with debuffs, Push can turn itself off if you get hit hard(Flare lessens this a bit, but you can still potentially get into less than ideal situations), Ideal works fine but maintaining 9/9 won't always be feasible, 7/7 still compares well enough to most second tier choices.

As for Arion, taking a look at him, he already gives himself field buffs in Atk/Def and charge, so waiting for something like AD Oath to exist or giving him AD menace isn't as obvious a choice as it would normally be. Maybe Atk smoke from Gustav instead of the trace? I don't know too much about Arion myself so I can't say too much aside from theorycraft.

[DefyingFates]

45 minutes ago, Ether said:

As for Arion, taking a look at him, he already gives himself field buffs in Atk/Def and charge, so waiting for something like AD Oath to exist or giving him AD menace isn't as obvious a choice as it would normally be. Maybe Atk smoke from Gustav instead of the trace? I don't know too much about Arion myself so I can't say too much aside from theorycraft.

I can do that. Flow N Trace would still be a good B Slot skill right?

46 minutes ago, Ether said:

Remote Sparrow or AS Finish are probably your best bets for general use A skills. If you don't have them, anything that boosts Attack and Speed will generally work, each has their own caveats. Swift sparrow gives slightly less Atk, Solo requires solo condition, Unity is weaker unless you're being hit with debuffs, Push can turn itself off if you get hit hard(Flare lessens this a bit, but you can still potentially get into less than ideal situations), Ideal works fine but maintaining 9/9 won't always be feasible, 7/7 still compares well enough to most second tier choices.

Hmm. It's so infuriating that we still don't have any AS Finish 3 sources (and that the skill inherit cap hasn't been increased after all this time). I suspect Push or Swift Sparrow 3 will be my best options for the time being then. Yay.

[Ether]

7 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I can do that. Flow N Trace would still be a good B Slot skill right?

Hmm. It's so infuriating that we still don't have any AS Finish 3 sources (and that the skill inherit cap hasn't been increased after all this time). I suspect Push or Swift Sparrow 3 will be my best options for the time being then. Yay.

Flow N trace would work, but since he doesn't want to swap from his Prf to Qiang, it's a bit of an unfortunate inherit, Gambit or GB4 are probably his best B slot options but both are pretty rare.

Yeah, young Becca is still the only Finish 3, hopefully we get a mainpool or at least a grail option soon. At least Finish 4 is dropped on enough units that it's not too unreasonable to hope to snag it off of new folk dropping or reruns of recent units.

[DefyingFates]

Just now, Ether said:

Gambit or GB4 are probably his best B slot options but both are pretty rare.

Thanks for the heads-up! I have a spare B!Robin, but I'm really hoping for someone I know I won't regret building. And considering Robin has both AS Finish AND Gambit 4...

1 minute ago, Ether said:

Yeah, young Becca is still the only Finish 3, hopefully we get a mainpool or at least a grail option soon. At least Finish 4 is dropped on enough units that it's not too unreasonable to hope to snag it off of new folk dropping or reruns of recent units.

Here's hoping! Though we really do desperately need a buff to skill inheritance.

[Ice Dragon]

22 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Is this still the case now that Atk Oath Echo is a thing? For example, while I don't think I have Spd Smoke 4 fodder at the moment, I did consider a meme Dodge tank build with it, Vital Astra and Close Call 4 with NFU as a Seal, but that's probably too gimmicky to work. (Maybe Peony's Atk/ Spd Unity instead of Distant A/S Solo too?)

The main reason to use Atk/Spd Oath 4 (or Atk/Spd Pledge) is because of the additional +3 Atk/Spd in combat that both skills come with. As long as the unit doesn't have a glaring need for a specific other skill in that slot (like a mobility skill, Time's Pulse, etc.), you almost always want a skill that grants an in-combat stat boost in the C slot.

In the long run, the best setup (with existing skill series) would be Atk/Spd Pledge + Def Oath Echo / Res Oath Echo. Pledge is there to give you the in-combat boost to Atk/Spd, while the Oath Echo is there to give you the teleportation without stepping on each other's toes.

 

22 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

UPDATE: Turns out I had a spare Flame!Lyn. Would Lumera prefer the guaranteed DR from Godlike Reflexes over the 30% from Vital Astra? Thanks again, all!

Godlike Reflexes is only really viable on a unit that has both the Slaying effect and either +1 Special charge rate or Special Spiral (or an equivalent effect). You need to be able to guarantee that the skill will be fully charged at the start of every round of combat (except the first if the first round of combat is on player phase instead of enemy phase).

 

22 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Speaking of Sonya, considering she doesn't have an effect that scales off of Atk like Plumeria did, would her tome be good on older units like og!Nino and if I did would Atk/Res Ploy 3 work on her? I'll definitely be spending a lot of Orbs on this banner so I'll probably have a Peony to spare for fodder even if I'm also foddering her to Lumera too. Maybe Atk/ Spd Unity for general content and G Duel Infantry 4 if I need a ranged option in Arena? I have more Pents than I know what to do with.

Nino should do fine with Arcane Caliburnus. She'll miss out on getting the Litrblade effect from her base weapon, but the extra Spd and being able to more reliably land a Special should make up for it.

Atk/Res Ploy 3 isn't great on her because her Res stat isn't particularly high. Even with Resplendent boosts, she has a maximum of 34 neutral Res with max Dragonflowers before merges and skills, which hits only 40 visible Res with merges and G Duel Infantry 4. While that'll hit most enemies (44 visible Res or lower), it misses pretty much every slow Res-based tank (as those typically have 50+ visible Res) and even has a decent chance to miss Brave Corrin, as a +10+5 Brave Corrin has 45 neutral Res.

You can, of course, give up more Spd to run Still Water 3 or Phantom Res 3 in the Sacred Seal slot to help out and rely on Arcane Caliburnus's guaranteed follow-up, but it'll be even harder to contest any fast unit that has Null Follow-Up.

However, I think it's better to build her with a more normal build instead (Remote Sparrow / Mag. Null Follow / Atk/Spd Oath 4).

 

If you're looking for a good unit to make use of Sonya's Atk/Res Ploy 3, Bastian is by far the best unit for a single Sonya inheritance (and also the best recipient of Arcane Caliburnus in general). He has the highest Atk and highest Res among all viable candidates for Arcane Caliburnus (matching Brave Soren in Atk and only 1 point short in Res) and also has a base stat total high enough to not need G Duel Infantry 4 (180-181 after the first merge bonus) to max out his Arena score.

He'll probably want to run something like this:

Bastian [+Atk / +Res]
Arcane Caliburnus [Res]
[Assist]
Flare
Remote Mirror / Atk/Res Finish 4 / Fireflood Boost 3 / Still Water 4
Escape Route 4 / Null C-Disrupt 4 / Guard 4 / Mag. Null Follow / Sabotage A/R 3
Atk/Res Ploy 3
[any skill that boosts Atk/Res] / Still Water 3 / Phantom Res 3

No real order for slashed skills. Just make sure they play nice with each other and don't duplicate any of the effects that don't stack.

Remote Mirror, Null C-Disrupt 4, and Guard 4 grant percentage damage reduction in case you don't want to rely only on debuffing opponents' Atk stats into the ground.

Remote Mirror is obviously for player-phase use only, whereas the other options for the A slot are active on both phases.

Finish 4 obviously doesn't play nice with Escape Route 4.

 

EDIT:

12 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

P.S. I'm thinking of doing something with Arion too. I have an Alfred but figured A/D Catch 4 and A/D Near Trace from F!Gustav would be a good starting point. I don't have any T4 Guidance skills though, what would his best C Skill be? Lumera and Nino are my priorities at the moment though, so I'm not too fussed about this guy at the moment.

Areone [+Atk / +Def]
Heired Gungnir
[Assist]
Aether / Ignis
Atk/Def Clash 4 / Atk/Def Catch 4 / Sturdy Surge
Gambit 4
Atk/Def Hold / Guidance 4 / Soaring Guidance
[any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Def]

You don't really need Atk/Def Hold, as Atk/Def Rein 3 is good enough. The only advantage of Atk/Def Hold is 1 extra range for the debuff, so unless the Hold will boost your score by enough to matter, you can just run Rein until A/D Rein Snap is released.

Aether gives a bigger Gambit boost and scores better. Ignis gives better performance if you have a teammate that can grant +1 Special charge rate, but comes at a cost of Arena score.

Brash Assault 4, Guard Bearing 4, and A/D Near Trace are all decent alternative options for the B slot and let you run Ruptured Sky on him instead of Aether. Guard 4 is also an option (until we get Caldera Boost 3).

Edited October 16, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[DefyingFates]

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

The main reason to use Atk/Spd Oath 4 (or Atk/Spd Pledge) is because of the additional +3 Atk/Spd in combat that both skills come with. As long as the unit doesn't have a glaring need for a specific other skill in that slot (like a mobility skill, Time's Pulse, etc.), you almost always want a skill that grants an in-combat stat boost in the C slot.

 

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Godlike Reflexes is only really viable on a unit that has both the Slaying effect and either +1 Special charge rate or Special Spiral (or an equivalent effect). You need to be able to guarantee that the skill will be fully charged at the start of every round of combat (except the first if the first round of combat is on player phase instead of enemy phase).

Thanks!

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Nino should do fine with Arcane Caliburnus. She'll miss out on getting the Litrblade effect from her base weapon, but the extra Spd and being able to more reliably land a Special should make up for it.

Atk/Res Ploy 3 isn't great on her because her Res stat isn't particularly high. Even with Resplendent boosts, she has a maximum of 34 neutral Res with max Dragonflowers before merges and skills, which hits only 40 visible Res with merges and G Duel Infantry 4. While that'll hit most enemies (44 visible Res or lower), it misses pretty much every slow Res-based tank (as those typically have 50+ visible Res) and even has a decent chance to miss Brave Corrin, as a +10+5 Brave Corrin has 45 neutral Res.

And got it! I'll just focus on her Spd. Besides, Atk/Spd Oath 4 will still work with Iris' Tome too, won't it? So I can always swap back if I need to (I'm thinking of changing her +Eff refine I had before to +Spd in the process). I do feel bad about getting rid of her Prf after all!

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

However, I think it's better to build her with a more normal build instead (Remote Sparrow / Mag. Null Follow / Atk/Spd Oath 4).

Unfortunately I still don't have a Remote Sparrow to spare, so I'll just stick with G Duel Infantry or an easier to get skill for now.

I don't plan on building Bastian anytime soon, but I'll keep the suggestion in mind! Who knows, maybe we'll get a GHB/ TT+ Green Mage who'll just be begging for a copy of Sonya's kit, like K!Soren did for Plumeria.

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Areone [+Atk / +Def]
Heired Gungnir
[Assist]
Aether / Ignis
Atk/Def Clash 4 / Atk/Def Catch 4 / Sturdy Surge
Gambit 4
Atk/Def Hold / Guidance 4 / Soaring Guidance
[any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Def]

I think I have Atk/Def Rein 3 so this build looks good to me! Unfortunately I'm pretty sure my only source of A/D Clash is R!Lif and I'm not sure if I should give his sword to og!Eirika since she may be too slow for Devourer and even then I don't want to waste either his or F!Chrom's other fodder...

Speaking of Clash though, the FE8 HoF has been confirmed to be L!Ephraim, L!Eirika, Y!Innes and W!Artur.

Do Ephraim and Eirika just want Clash and Menace skills (A/D for him, A/S for her) along with Ruptured Sky or would Eirika want Flared Sparrow? I assume Innes just wants that Nino build you suggested with Phys FU instead.

Thanks again! I guess I'll be doing a lot of building and summoning over the next few days.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

Speaking of Clash though, the FE8 HoF has been confirmed to be L!Ephraim, L!Eirika, Y!Innes and W!Artur.

Do Ephraim and Eirika just want Clash and Menace skills (A/D for him, A/S for her) along with Ruptured Sky or would Eirika want Flared Sparrow? I assume Innes just wants that Nino build you suggested with Phys FU instead.

The official announcement hasn't been made yet, but we can probably safely assume that skills up through Legendary Alear should now be available (since the previous one didn't add anything new, and the one before that added skills through Freyr). Notably, this means we now have access to Desperation 4, Atk/Spd Pledge, and all of the CYL banner skills.

Not listing exclusive skills because there's no reason to grab them from Hall of Forms if you're keeping the unit (unless you haven't refined the weapon yet and want to save dew on the refine).

The Assist slot can be anything with maximum SP. I typically prefer one of Rally Atk/Spd+ or Harsh Command+, but use whatever suits your play style best.

Legendary Eirika [+Spd]
Petalfall Blade+ [Spd]
[Assist]
Ruptured Sky
Flared Sparrow / Atk/Spd Clash 4 / Distant A/S Solo
Gambit 4 / Desperation 4
Alarm Atk/Spd

Storm Sieglinde [unique], Lunar Brace II, and Galeforce are more optimal; however, it's obviously best to grab skills that are harder to get in those slots.

While the Canto effect from Alarm is obviously not necessary due to Lunar Brace II having a better Canto effect, Alarm is still the preferred skill in the C slot due to the in-combat stat boost (same reason Oath 4 and Pledge were recommended for Lumera previously).

Legendary Ephraim [+Atk]
Hare's Lance+ [Def / Atk]
[Assist]
Ruptured Sky
Atk/Def Clash 4
Gambit 4 / Brash Assault 4 / Desperation 4 / Flow Desperation / Flow Near Trace 3
Alarm Atk/Def

Basically identical notes as for Eirika, but replace the Eirika's skills with the corresponding ones for Ephraim.

Winter Artur [+Res]
Teacake Tower+ [Res]
[Assist]
Armored Floe
Fireflood Boost 3 / Def/Res Unity
Special Fighter 4
D/R Far Save 3

The addition of Arcane Caliburnus makes things a bit weird for Artur because it overlaps Artur's B options quite a bit. And if it wasn't already clear, he should be switching his weapon to Arcane Caliburnus [Res] as soon as possible.

Special Fighter 4 is still the preferred B skill due to its healing effect, even if its Special acceleration won't stack with Arcane Caliburnus. However, Vengeful Fighter 4 and Guard 4 also have effects that are at least somewhat worth considering.

Def/Res Unity is really only useful for Aether Raids, but it's harder to get than Distant Def 4, which is more generally useful (although it doesn't play nice with Teacake Tower if you don't have Arcane Caliburnus). Fireflood Boost 3 isn't the correct stat combination, but it's the only Boost 4 skill currently available and is decent enough if aren't being haunted by the increasingly prevalent bows and daggers.

Young Innes [+Spd]
Whitecap Bow+ [Spd]
[Assist]
Ruptured Sky / Deadeye
Flash Sparrow / Remote Sparrow / Atk/Spd Hexblade / Atk/Spd Finish 4
Phys. Null Follow / Brash Assault 4 / Desperation 4 / Escape Route 4
Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Pledge

Innes is a bit interesting because Whitecap Bow+ [Spd], Whitewind Bow+ [Spd], Arcane Nastrond [Spd], and Arcane Darkbow [Spd] are all really strong and are very much competitive with Bow of Frelia due to all of them granting a larger boost to Spd, and it'll be a while before Bow of Frelia finally gets a refine since we haven't even gotten to the first set of children yet. Whitecap Bow is the only one that's actually available from Hall of Forms, though, so that's the one being recommended.

The skills for each slot depend entirely on what you have in other slots and the weapon you intend to run. Obviously, don't run skills that render the unique bonuses from another skill slot useless (like Desperation 4 making Remote Sparrow's damage reduction mostly useless). It's worth noting that Brash Assault 4 is still usable with Arcane Nastrond even though you're doubling up on guaranteed follow-ups because the damage boost from Brash Assault is really good and still worth considering.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[DefyingFates]

47 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Not listing exclusive skills because there's no reason to grab them from Hall of Forms if you're keeping the unit (unless you haven't refined the weapon yet and want to save dew on the refine).

If I do get either twin I'll likely just merge them with the copy I already have, so I can afford to fish for alternate skills, thanks!

49 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Legendary Eirika [+Spd]
Petalfall Blade+ [Spd]
[Assist]
Ruptured Sky
Flared Sparrow / Atk/Spd Clash 4 / Distant A/S Solo
Gambit 4 / Desperation 4
Alarm Atk/Spd

Are you suggesting Gambit 4 just because it's a premium skill? It only grants 20% DR... which I suppose is still a good amount, to be fair. Thank you for suggesting builds for all four of them!

A quick question about the new Peony: I know Cross Spurs are extremely niche already, but is A/S Unity a good skill to inherit onto units or should I just use her to copy Flared Sparrow and A/S Oath 4 from my spare Gullveig?

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

Are you suggesting Gambit 4 just because it's a premium skill? It only grants 20% DR... which I suppose is still a good amount, to be fair. Thank you for suggesting builds for all four of them!

Normally, you'd obviously be running Lunar Brace II, but in the event that you need to switch it to Gambit 4 for a map, you'll also want to switch her Special to either Dragon Fang (if you need a functional Special and are running a weapon with +1 Special charge rate, like Storm Sieglinde or Arcane Devourer) or Aether (if you don't need a functional Special or if you have some way to make up for the 1 point of additional cooldown needed to activate it on each round of combat).

 

6 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

A quick question about the new Peony: I know Cross Spurs are extremely niche already, but is A/S Unity a good skill to inherit onto units or should I just use her to copy Flared Sparrow and A/S Oath 4 from my spare Gullveig?

Atk/Spd Unity is a pretty niche skill since without debuffs it grants fewer points of stats than most other relevant A skills. All of the other relevant A skills except for the Distant Counter skills all grant strictly more stats when the unit doesn't have debuffs.

The only times when you'll want to use it over something else are in game modes where debuffs are common (namely Aether Raids and Arena) or when you're running Grand Strategy, and even then, it's really only reliable on enemy-phase units and teleporters due to the positioning condition.

I would definitely recommend using her to duplicate an A skill that is better for general use (Flared Sparrow, Atk/Spd Clash 4, Distant A/S Solo, etc.).

[DefyingFates]

26 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Normally, you'd obviously be running Lunar Brace II, but in the event that you need to switch it to Gambit 4 for a map, you'll also want to switch her Special to either Dragon Fang (if you need a functional Special and are running a weapon with +1 Special charge rate, like Storm Sieglinde or Arcane Devourer) or Aether (if you don't need a functional Special or if you have some way to make up for the 1 point of additional cooldown needed to activate it on each round of combat).

That makes more sense, thank you!

27 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Atk/Spd Unity is a pretty niche skill since without debuffs it grants fewer points of stats than most other relevant A skills. All of the other relevant A skills except for the Distant Counter skills all grant strictly more stats when the unit doesn't have debuffs.

The only times when you'll want to use it over something else are in game modes where debuffs are common (namely Aether Raids and Arena) or when you're running Grand Strategy, and even then, it's really only reliable on enemy-phase units and teleporters due to the positioning condition.

I would definitely recommend using her to duplicate an A skill that is better for general use (Flared Sparrow, Atk/Spd Clash 4, Distant A/S Solo, etc.).

Thank you very much! By the same token, I assume it's fine to use Triandra just for Atk/Spd Clash, or are her other skills really useful to inherit too?

[Ice Dragon]

29 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Thank you very much! By the same token, I assume it's fine to use Triandra just for Atk/Spd Clash, or are her other skills really useful to inherit too?

Flow Refresh 4 is actually pretty decent for units that want both the Null Follow-Up effect and percentage damage reduction and get neither from their weapon. It's still a somewhat niche skill, but it's more generally useful than Atk/Spd Unity at the very least. The passive healing also allows units to run a more offensive A skill instead of Surge Sparrow when sustain is necessary (and is also good for sustain on Galeforce units since they couldn't use Surge Sparrow for sustain in the first place).

Spd/Def Hold is not terribly useful since Spd/Def Rein 3 is usually good enough, but if you can eventually get S/D Rein Snap on her, it would be good to let her duplicate that, too.

[DefyingFates]

6 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Flow Refresh 4 is actually pretty decent for units that want both the Null Follow-Up effect and percentage damage reduction and get neither from their weapon. It's still a somewhat niche skill, but it's more generally useful than Atk/Spd Unity at the very least. The passive healing also allows units to run a more offensive A skill instead of Surge Sparrow when sustain is necessary (and is also good for sustain on Galeforce units since they couldn't use Surge Sparrow for sustain in the first place).

Spd/Def Hold is not terribly useful since Spd/Def Rein 3 is usually good enough, but if you can eventually get S/D Rein Snap on her, it would be good to let her duplicate that, too.

So you're saying I need to wait for another B!Seliph to fodder Clash to someone? Boo... I'll keep an eye out for anyone who can use Flow Refresh though, thanks for the tip!

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

So you're saying I need to wait for another B!Seliph to fodder Clash to someone? Boo... I'll keep an eye out for anyone who can use Flow Refresh though, thanks for the tip!

Off the top of my head, Legendary Eliwood, Harmonized Caeda, and Sumia all would do well with Flow Refresh 4. All three of them have Canto on a different skill slot, and none of them have the Slaying effect on their weapon, so they need to take a counterattack to land a 2-cooldown Special and therefore can't run the safer Flow Desperation and still reliably land a Special. Eliwood and Caeda also have the convenience of already having Flow Refresh 3.

It also works well on a setup with Arcane Downfall + Galeforce / Aether + Flow Refresh 4 + Alarm Atk/Spd, though the inheritance to get to this build is pretty inefficient, and we don't actually have any axe cavalry with a modern high Spd stat that doesn't already have a good exclusive weapon (Desert Kris is the fastest, and he's not even that fast anymore).

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Off the top of my head, Legendary Eliwood, Harmonized Caeda, and Sumia all would do well with Flow Refresh 4. All three of them have Canto on a different skill slot, and none of them have the Slaying effect on their weapon, so they need to take a counterattack to land a 2-cooldown Special and therefore can't run the safer Flow Desperation and still reliably land a Special. Eliwood and Caeda also have the convenience of already having Flow Refresh 3.

I have Eliwood and don't use him, but I'll keep this in mind too.

P.S. I assume this is also the best build for a more recent Green Mage like Teatime Tailtiu? I really wish that name rhymed.

13 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

However, I think it's better to build her with a more normal build instead (Remote Sparrow / Mag. Null Follow / Atk/Spd Oath 4)

 

[Ice Dragon]

4 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

P.S. I assume this is also the best build for a more recent Green Mage like Teatime Tailtiu? I really wish that name rhymed.

Not strictly the best, but this is basically the cookie-cutter build for any fast infantry tome unit that doesn't have a special gimmick to build around. Everything else is pretty much a side-grade.

Mag. Null Follow is the easiest general-use premium B skill to get since you're pretty much always going to grab it from Brave Soren at the same time that you grab Flare (and if you're using Ophelia or Sonya to duplicate Flare, then you'll also always have it available for the same reason).

There are quite a few other cookie-cutter options with different B skills depending on what you want to do with the unit (all of these assume an Arcane weapon for simplicity of listing alternate options):

• Flare + Remote Sparrow + Mag. Null Follow + Atk/Spd Oath 4
  • This is the vanilla cookie-cutter build.
  • With Arcane Euphoria, you can replace the A skill with Atk/Spd Finish 4 if you don't need the additional damage reduction.
  • With any weapon other than Arcane Caliburnus, you can replace the C skill with Atk/Spd Pledge to counter Guard or land Flare on opponents that can't counterattack.
• Flare + Atk/Spd Finish 4 + Desperation 4 + Atk/Spd Pledge
  • Desperation 4 is generally safer than damage reduction, but you lose a counterattack to charge your Special.
  • With Arcane Caliburnus, replace the C skill with Atk/Spd Oath 4.
  • With any other weapon, you can alternatively run Flash Sparrow + Atk/Spd Oath 4 or Ruptured Sky + Atk/Spd Oath 4 if you want teleportation.
• Flare + Atk/Spd Finish 4 + Brash Assault 4 + Atk/Spd Oath 4
  • This gives you a bunch of additional damage on your follow-up from Finish 4 and Brash Assault 4.
  • The more damage you take from the opponent's counterattack, the more additional damage you get, so you'll get more mileage if both the unit's Def and Res are low instead of having lopsided defenses.
  • You can replace the A skill with Remote Sparrow for more safety.
  • With any weapon other than Arcane Caliburnus, you can replace the C skill with Atk/Spd Pledge to counter Guard or land Flare on opponents that can't counterattack.
• Flare + Remote Sparrow + Escape Route 4 + Atk/Spd Pledge
  • This gives you Canto.
  • With Arcane Euphoria, you can replace the A skill with Atk/Spd Finish 4 if you don't need the additional damage reduction.
  • With Arcane Caliburnus, replace the C skill with Atk/Spd Oath 4.
  • With any weapon other than Arcane Caliburnus, you can also replace the C skill with Atk/Spd Oath 4 if you want teleportation before taking damage.
• Flare + Remote Sparrow + Special Spiral 4 + Atk/Spd Pledge
  • This lets you land Flare on both attacks (starting from the second round of combat unless you have Pulse support) and fully nullify percentage damage reduction.
  • With Arcane Euphoria, you can run Atk/Spd Finish 4 + Atk/Spd Pledge or Flash Sparrow + Atk/Spd Oath 4 if you don't need the additional damage reduction.
  • With Arcane Caliburnus, replace the C skill with Atk/Spd Oath 4.
• Flare + Atk/Spd Finish 4 + Special Spiral 4 + Atk/Spd Oath 4
  • This is the standard one-hit-kill build for Flare. You need 2 stacks of Pulse from any source to have Flare charged for the first round of combat.
  • With Arcane Eclipse, you can replace the C skill with Infantry Pulse 4 or Time's Pulse 4 to not have to rely on Pulse support from a teammate.

Atk/Spd Oath 4 on any of the above builds that have it can be replaced with Def/Res Smoke 3 if you want Pathfinder support and can pass up on some combat performance.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[DefyingFates]

8 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Not strictly the best, but this is basically the cookie-cutter build for any fast infantry tome unit that doesn't have a special gimmick to build around. Everything else is pretty much a side-grade.

Mag. Null Follow is the easiest general-use premium B skill to get since you're pretty much always going to grab it from Brave Soren at the same time that you grab Flare (and if you're using Ophelia or Sonya to duplicate Flare, then you'll also always have it available for the same reason).

There are quite a few other cookie-cutter options with different B skills depending on what you want to do with the unit (all of these assume an Arcane weapon for simplicity of listing alternate options):

Ooh, there's so much here, thank you very much! I don't have either of those A Skills to spare, but I'll keep these builds in mind!

P.S. Has Tailtiu been in the Limited Combat Manuals yet? The FEH wiki only goes up to June of this year 😕 Thanks again!

Edited October 17, 2023 by DefyingFates

[Humanoid]

23 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

P.S. Has Tailtiu been in the Limited Combat Manuals yet? The FEH wiki only goes up to June of this year 😕 Thanks again!

We're only up to Lucius right now, so Robin, M Shez and Donnel are next in line before Tailtiu appears in February.

[DefyingFates]

17 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

We're only up to Lucius right now, so Robin, M Shez and Donnel are next in line before Tailtiu appears in February.

Thanks! I didn't realize the seasonals were still that far back. My bad! So yeah, I guess I still have plenty of time to get some good A skills for her before merging her becomes optimal. And that's assuming we don't get some other F2P GHB/ TT+ Green Mage first!

[Sil/phire]

How would Deirdre look with in a Blazing Wind build with the following:

Arcane Caliburns

Still Water

Special Spiral

Time's Pulse

Still Water Seal

I want to know if she'll be able to fire off Blazing Wind before having to trade hits in combat but i have never used this type of build before so i don't know if it's actually possible and i dont want to fodder off my only unit with Time's Pulse 4. If she can't use Blazing Wind right off the bat, I'm not going to bother trying this build out.

Btw, why is it that Brash Assult 4 combined with NFU Sacred Seal still can't double enemies like Fallen Mareeta? I used both on my Deirdre but while farming book 2 for orbs i came across this happening against multiple units I encountered in the maps, I'm bitterly disappointed I had to spend as many orbs as i did chasing Brash Assult and foddering off a great unit like S!Shamir for a skill that doesn't do what it's intended to even with the seal that's supposed to allow it to work.

[Ice Dragon]

6 hours ago, Sil/phire said:

I want to know if she'll be able to fire off Blazing Wind before having to trade hits in combat but i have never used this type of build before so i don't know if it's actually possible and i dont want to fodder off my only unit with Time's Pulse 4. If she can't use Blazing Wind right off the bat, I'm not going to bother trying this build out.

You need a minimum of 3 stacks of Pulse to activate Blazing Wind on the first round of combat with Arcane Caliburnus (and any other weapon with the Slaying effect).

Time's Pulse provides 1 stack, but that's all you're getting since Special Spiral doesn't activate before the first round of combat, and Time's Pulse only activates if the unit's cooldown is at maximum, so you can't get more than 1 cooldown from it.

If you want the unit to be self-sufficient, you'll need Infantry Pulse 4 instead of Time's Pulse since Infantry Pulse 4 activates on every turn regardless of the unit's current cooldown, which means Blazing Wind will be ready at the start of turn 3 if you have no other Pulse effects (turn 2 if you also have Quickened Pulse in the Sacred Seal slot).

You can also run Pulse effects on teammates (Gerik's weapon, Askr's exclusive passive, etc.).

 

7 hours ago, Sil/phire said:

Btw, why is it that Brash Assult 4 combined with NFU Sacred Seal still can't double enemies like Fallen Mareeta? I used both on my Deirdre but while farming book 2 for orbs i came across this happening against multiple units I encountered in the maps, I'm bitterly disappointed I had to spend as many orbs as i did chasing Brash Assult and foddering off a great unit like S!Shamir for a skill that doesn't do what it's intended to even with the seal that's supposed to allow it to work.

Null Follow-Up nullifies "effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks" and "effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks".

Mareeta's Null Follow-Up is nullifying Brash Assault's guaranteed follow-up. Nullifying a guaranteed follow-up is not the same as follow-up prevention, and so your own Null Follow-Up does nothing to stop this effect.

"Effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks" refers specifically to the effect that is worded "[unit / foe] cannot make a follow-up attack" and to no other effect.

[DefyingFates]

The best I've been able to get for L!Eirika's C Skill is Alarm Spd/ Def. I've got Gambit 4 so are there any Seals or potential Echo skills that could compensate for the missing Atk if I can't get Alarm Atk/Spd by the end of the HoF event? Thanks in advance!

[Ether]

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

The best I've been able to get for L!Eirika's C Skill is Alarm Spd/ Def. I've got Gambit 4 so are there any Seals or potential Echo skills that could compensate for the missing Atk if I can't get Alarm Atk/Spd by the end of the HoF event? Thanks in advance!

I mean, there's Triandra's death blow echo but we'll likely get more echo options coming up. As for seals, the general options of blade session, as solo, as catch etc all apply, although hopefully you'll manage to hit alarm before we run the event out.

[Ice Dragon]

37 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

The best I've been able to get for L!Eirika's C Skill is Alarm Spd/ Def. I've got Gambit 4 so are there any Seals or potential Echo skills that could compensate for the missing Atk if I can't get Alarm Atk/Spd by the end of the HoF event? Thanks in advance!

The +3 Atk from Alarm Atk/Spd isn't going to make or break the build, and the +6 Atk stat bonus can always be made up for with team support. I wouldn't worry too much about it if you can't get it, and in the worst-case scenario, Alarm Atk/Spd is available from Nerthuz, who has scheduled reruns, and from Eitr, who is a Rearmed Hero with a low-priority weapon, and Rearmed Heroes do get moderately frequent reruns, even if they aren't particularly predictable.

The only real way to "compensate" for the lower Atk is to run Blade Session in the Sacred Seal slot over the more commonly used Solo or Catch. The reason why this is the only option that I think actually counts as compensation is because it grants more stats without costing an additional skill slot. Instead, the cost of running Blade Session is more restrictions to activate the effect, as it's only active on player phase and requires 2 allies to have ended their turns. Basically, you get to patch up the missing stats at the cost of versatility.

As far as Echo skills, the only one that Eirika can equip right now is Death Blow Echo, and I don't think it's worth giving it to her just to make up for having the wrong stats on Alarm. Unless you're swimming in resources, Death Blow Echo is better used on a slow player-phase-only unit (mostly units with Brave weapons).

[DefyingFates]

On 10/28/2023 at 9:08 PM, Ether said:

although hopefully you'll manage to hit alarm before we run the event out.

Fingers crossed, thanks for the support!

23 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

The only real way to "compensate" for the lower Atk is to run Blade Session in the Sacred Seal slot over the more commonly used Solo or Catch.

I do have a Blade Session 3 I never use, so I'll keep this in mind if the above doesn't come to pass. Thanks again, you two are great!

23 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

As far as Echo skills, the only one that Eirika can equip right now is Death Blow Echo, and I don't think it's worth giving it to her just to make up for having the wrong stats on Alarm.

Imagine if the next Attuned Hero pair we get come with Fury 2 and Alarm Atk Echo or something xD