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

[Ice Dragon]

5 minutes ago, Raybrand said:

I think fury stops you from being otk'd, like my ike with fury 3 has 35 def so he can tank lance units and hit back hard due to his high atk, having a staff user on your team for chain battles mitigates the the long term affect of self damage, life and death is better on ranged units as you can control who initiates on them better but I gave fury 3 to linde because of desperation

Fury gives you +3 bulk on the first hit and +3 Spd to avoid being double attacked. Offensively, it's +3 Atk and +3 Spd.

Life and Death gives you a bigger offensive boost at +5 Atk and +5 Spd at the cost of decreasing your defenses. However, for any unit using Desperation, as long as you still have the bulk to survive the first counterattack, you live forever.

Contrary to potentially popular belief, the easiest way to activate Desperation is not Fury recoil or Ardent Sacrifice. It's taking a counterattack. In Chain Challenges and Tempest Trials, it's not difficult to find an opponent that you can hit at weapon triangle advantage and can counterattack you for enough damage to bring Desperation up.

 

10 minutes ago, Raybrand said:

I think its funny how you bring up the term 'immortal' I gained an appreciation for def stat because my +def hector has been a god send, it has made me realise the importance of having a tank unit.

High Def doesn't make a unit immortal. Most offensive units have Atk values around 50-55 Atk (60-80 for Litrblade users) after buffs, and most defensive units have defensive stats around 35-40 Def and 30-35 Res before buffs. Without additional support from defensive buffs (Ward Armor, Fortify Cavalry, fortification tiles) or healing or Atk mitigation from Triangle Adept, tanks simply cannot survive enough hits to live through endurance game modes. Heck, even a short map can overwhelm tank without the proper support or build by stacking a lot of one color.

Truly immortal units fall into two buckets:

1. Units with massive defensive stats with proper support and
2. Units that never get attacked.

The first covers things like Sheena with three stacks of Ward Armor standing on a fortification tile (62/58 defenses, 77/72 effective defenses against blue) or Triangle Adept Mystery Tiki with Fortify Dragons (63/58 effective defenses against green).

The second covers Life and Death Desperation (Brave weapon) users and Death Blow Brave weapon users. The best way to avoid damage is to never get hit, the best way to avoid taking damage on enemy phase is to not be there to be attacked, and the best way to not be attacked is for the enemy to be dead.

 

 

I'm staring at Sheena's effective defensive stats against blue and am still in disbelief. Holy shit.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Raybrand said:

I think fury stops you from being otk'd, like my ike with fury 3 has 35 def so he can tank lance units and hit back hard due to his high atk, having a staff user on your team for chain battles mitigates the the long term affect of self damage, life and death is better on ranged units as you can control who initiates on them better but I gave fury 3 to linde because of desperation

Why not just kill the enemy first before they can attack you? Player Phase glass cannons has a much higher chance of taking no damage on Player Phase than Enemy Phase units on Enemy Phase. In fact, Enemy Phase units are guaranteed to take damage if you use Fury. By replacing Enemy Phase units with Player Phase units, eliminating the constant drain in HP, you can ditch the staff healer and use a Falchion healer who can contribute offensively.

Staff users are terrible in the Arena when they lower your score and they do not contribute to offense. Healing is irrelevant when mages with sky high attack kills almost anyone they sneeze at.

The best Tharja and Nino will always outperform the best Ike and Hector:

Tharja +Spd -Def
Rauðrblade
Life and Death, Swordbreaker
Max Eirika Buff
Player Phase 141:4:7

Ike +Atk -Res
Ragnell, Moonbow
Fury, Quick Riposte
Max Eirika Buff
Enemy Phase 131:5:16

Nino +Spd -Res
Gronnblade
Life and Death
Max Eirika Buff
Player Phase 135:11:6

Hector +Atk -HP
Armads, Moonbow
Distant Counter, Guard
Max Eirika Buff
Enemy Phase 121:7:24

And those ratios only tip in Player Phase glass cannons' favor the higher the merge levels go.

Units like Ike, Hector, Xander, and Camus are substitutes for Blade mages that you do not have, not replacements.

Edited July 30, 2017 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

14 minutes ago, XRay said:

Ike +Atk -Res
Ragnell, Moonbow
Fury, Quick Riposte
Max Eirika Buff
Enemy Phase 131:5:16

Hector +Atk -HP
Armads, Moonbow
Distant Counter, Guard
Max Eirika Buff
Enemy Phase 121:7:24

You're going to want to start using max Delthea buff for melee units now since +6/4/4/2 is going to be better than +3/4/4/2.

[XRay]

6 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

You're going to want to start using max Delthea buff for melee units now since +6/4/4/2 is going to be better than +3/4/4/2.

Ike +Atk -Res
Ragnell, Moonbow
Fury, Quick Riposte
Max Delthea Buff
Enemy Phase 138:4:10

Hector +Atk -HP
Armads, Moonbow
Distant Counter, Guard
Max Delthea Buff
Enemy Phase 126:6:20

It is an improvement, but Blade mages still outclasses them with a weaker buff.

[Ice Dragon]

8 minutes ago, XRay said:

It is an improvement, but Blade mages still outclasses them with a weaker buff.

I wasn't so much saying that Delthea would make them stronger than Litrblade users so much as that the Renais buff combination is now outdated for melee units.

Edited July 30, 2017 by Ice Dragon

[XRay]

19 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I wasn't so much saying that Delthea would make them stronger than Litrblade users so much as that the Renais buff combination is now outdated for melee units.

Ah, okay.

[DehNutCase]

2 hours ago, MrSmokestack said:

Min-maxed Atk and Spd beat out middling stats all around when it comes to raw matchup results.

Actually, that's wrong. High defense matters for physical units because you get better matchups if you can drop Escutcheon for Luna or something. Camus has comparable results to +Atk Peri, and Abel has better matchups when they're all using the L&D Brave Lance+ build for that reason.

 

Mind, defense and hp are still very weak offensive stats, since they only matter for taking counters, but people with just below tip-top offenses but decided to keep def rather than res consistently does better outside of desperation range. (Which matters more for arena, where battles are short enough that non-desperation matchups matter---someone has to take the first combat even if you're ardent sacrificing.)

Edit:

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Truly immortal units fall into two buckets:

1. Units with massive defensive stats with proper support and
2. Units that never get attacked.

Don't forget Reinahrdt. ; )

You're basically Immortal if you Vantage OHKO 90% of the cast with the bulk not to be OHKOd by 80% or so.

(Leo and S!Camilla come close as well, but neither of them are blue.)

Edited July 30, 2017 by DehNutCase

[Ice Dragon]

8 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Don't forget Reinahrdt. ; )

You're basically Immortal if you Vantage OHKO 90% of the cast with the bulk not to be OHKOd by 80% or so.

(Leo and S!Camilla come close as well, but neither of them are blue.)

But does it really count as them attacking you if they never actually get a chance to attack?

[DehNutCase]

11 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

But does it really count as them attacking you if they never actually get a chance to attack?

That just means they sucked at this whole 'attacking' thing. Maybe they should've class changed to Reinhardt rather than whatever other, inferior, class they were in before.

: p

[MrSmokestack]

13 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Actually, that's wrong. High defense matters for physical units because you get better matchups if you can drop Escutcheon for Luna or something. Camus has comparable results to +Atk Peri, and Abel has better matchups when they're all using the L&D Brave Lance+ build for that reason.

I see what you mean, but it depends on what stats you keep and what stats you dump.

See Sophia vs Lilina and Sanaki for the Raven set. Sophia arguably runs the set better than both despite having both lower Atk and lower Res because she chose to dump Spd rather than keep a mediocre Spd tier that doesn't help her defensively, giving her better survivability against physical greens that otherwise power through her competitors with ease.

Abel, Peri, and Camus all have very minute 1-point differences in their offensive stats though, while Chrom, Xander, and Legion all have substantial stat distributions with the exception of HP. How well does Legion's Spd tier serve him in practice?

[DehNutCase]

42 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

Abel, Peri, and Camus all have very minute 1-point differences in their offensive stats though, while Chrom, Xander, and Legion all have substantial stat distributions with the exception of HP. How well does Legion's Spd tier serve him in practice?

Peri has 4 on Camus---remember that I'm comparing =Camus to +Atk Peri.

 

And remember that +Atk Raven has 1 more Atk on Legion at the cost of 2 or 3 points of bulk for single hits. Which, incidentally, means perfect Raven is almost strictly better than Legion, because he can run Hp 3 seal to make up for the bulk difference---which is actually better than Atk 1 for Raven. 

Chrom performs similarly to Raven for the bulk reason. (They're within 1 win of each other whether you go no buffs or +6/+4 (Delthea), at least for the Luna special.)

Xander's not even close, though, because his 32/30 offenses are unsalvagable for a Brave-axe set.

42 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

I see what you mean, but it depends on what stats you keep and what stats you dump.

See Sophia vs Lilina and Sanaki for the Raven set. Sophia arguably runs the set better than both despite having both lower Atk and lower Res because she chose to dump Spd rather than keep a mediocre Spd tier that doesn't help her defensively, giving her better survivability against physical greens that otherwise power through her competitors with ease.

Leo.

Being on a horse overrides silly considerations like 'min-maxing' in terms of stats. For raw offense sets his -blade set has comparable offenses at +6 all stats to Celica with +3 all stats (this is true whether she's running -blade or Ragnarok), and for defensive builds, his spread, while not min-maxed to Sophia's level, is 'close enough' that the fact it's much easier to buff him means there's really no reason not to only use Leo if you need a red mage.

(I mean, you'd need to run two other cavalry as well, but Camus is spectacular, and Reinahrdt is Reinhardt. With the current state of the game, there's no reason not to just toss horse emblem at everything---it's like they made a FE game where horses had 9 move to everyone else's 6, while having around 30% better Atk stat and comparable everything else and expected the game to be balanced in terms of classes.)

 

Digression aside, though, Sophia and Sanaki are two completely different units. Comparing Sanaki, Lilina, and S!Leo is interesting, Sanaki to Sophia, not so much. (There's simply no reason, ever, to go -raven on someone with paper thin def---what are you taking raven for, Genny?)

Between Sophia, Leo, Henry, and Tharja are the real choices for TA Raven. Tharja is the offensive choice, where TA-3 hopefully pushes her to a 3HKO, letting her abuse her offenses to sweep---she's a different class of unit even if she went TA -Raven. Henry is nearly impossible to use because he pumped so much stats into hp, but that does let him run panic ploy utility while still fufilling his 'murder archers, axes, and really shitty green mages' role TA Raven is meant to do. (He might want to pack either guard or renewal rather than G-tomebreaker like Sophia, however---he can leverage panic ploy to stop fully buffed S!Camilla from wrecking his ass, unlike Sophia who doesn't have the hp.)

Leo, as I've mentioned, is a horse, and thus strictly superior to all other options simply by riding his horse.

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by DehNutCase

[eclipse]

But in the end, this is a mobile game featuring a bunch of FE characters, so short of min-maxing for top-tier arena rewards, there's nothing stopping you from getting the most out of your favorite characters. . .which is why my next 20,000 feathers are going to a -Spd Tharja.  Raigh really wants that tome of hers, and I give zero shits about the matchup numbers (he's either ORKOing or not, and if it's the latter, I will work around it).

Next question: I can't pull Bonfire fodder to save my life, so until I do, what else can Leon do in terms of battle proc?  Ignis exists, but it's literal overkill.

[bethany81707]

8 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

+10 HP, +4 all other stats, double EXP and SP.

And this is for 20% heroes, too? I kinda want to run Alm/Delthea/Sonya/some other unit just for the buffs, even though Alm is maxed on Merit.

[MrSmokestack]

1 minute ago, eclipse said:

Next question: I can't pull Bonfire fodder to save my life, so until I do, what else can Leon do in terms of battle proc?  Ignis exists, but it's literal overkill.

Definitely Luna. 15 damage is about the same as what he would be getting with Bonfire at neutral.

[Vaximillian]

2 hours ago, eclipse said:

But in the end, this is a mobile game featuring a bunch of FE characters, so short of min-maxing for top-tier arena rewards, there's nothing stopping you from getting the most out of your favorite characters. . .which is why my next 20,000 feathers are going to a -Spd Tharja. Raigh really wants that tome of hers.

I gave a scarlet sword to my Scarlet Sword, showering him with feathers in the while. And recently I spent 44k on Ursula, and it’s still not enough.

It’s great to be able to build your favourites.

2 hours ago, phineas81707 said:

And this is for 20% heroes, too? I kinda want to run Alm/Delthea/Sonya/some other unit just for the buffs, even though Alm is maxed on Merit.

I suppose so. The stream showed Celica as an example, but she is a 40%. Wait and see, I guess?

[bethany81707]

5 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

I suppose so. The stream showed Celica as an example, but she is a 40%. Wait and see, I guess?

Eh, if Alm doesn't get the bonus, someone else can run for extra Merit.

So what are some skills Delthea and Sonya might find attractive? EDIT: Delthea is +Res -Spd while Sonya is +Atk -HP. Delthea knows Dragon Fang and all skills for both are learned.

Edited July 31, 2017 by phineas81707

[Xenomata]

So if there's a GHB unit that I don't use, don't think I'll ever use, doesn't have that many useful SI fodder skills, and is generally considered "eh", is there any real issue with sending them home over letting them rot, never seeing any use?

Edited July 31, 2017 by Xenomata

[XRay]

20 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

So if there's a GHB unit that I don't use, don't think I'll ever use, doesn't have that many useful SI fodder skills, and is generally considered "eh", is there any real issue with sending them home over letting them rot, never seeing any use?

I would not send them home or sacrifice them unless you are already maxed out at 1,000 characters. They could set GHB units as bonus units for the Tempest Trials or whatever new mode they come up with.

[Xenomata]

32 minutes ago, XRay said:

I would not send them home or sacrifice them unless you are already maxed out at 1,000 characters. They could set GHB units as bonus units for the Tempest Trials or whatever new mode they come up with.

That... seems mean, even considering they rerun some GHBs, though on the other hand the last GHB bonus unit, FemRobin, was only 20%, the same as whatever Askr unit was a bonus unit, so...

[mcsilas]

45 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

That... seems mean, even considering they rerun some GHBs, though on the other hand the last GHB bonus unit, FemRobin, was only 20%, the same as whatever Askr unit was a bonus unit, so...

There's no Askr unit in the next Tempest Trials (rip I was training Anna) but Berkut is 20% bonus who was the last GHB

so yeah Askr unit isn't always guaranteed anymore in Tempest Trials cass

[eclipse]

3 hours ago, Xenomata said:

So if there's a GHB unit that I don't use, don't think I'll ever use, doesn't have that many useful SI fodder skills, and is generally considered "eh", is there any real issue with sending them home over letting them rot, never seeing any use?

Rule 1 of gacha gaming: Keep a spare copy of everything, especially things that you think aren't worth it.  I occasionally use F!Robin as Tomebreaker material, but one extra copy will forever stay in my barracks, ready to deploy should the need arise.

[DraceEmpressa]

I have a question on how -Blade tomes works. Do they add up damage without calculation of enemy's res and WTA, or atk? and if a unit received Hone Atk buff, do they still receive the blade tome effect? 

[Bartozio]

4 minutes ago, DraceEmpressa said:

I have a question on how -Blade tomes works. Do they add up damage without calculation of enemy's res and WTA, or atk? and if a unit received Hone Atk buff, do they still receive the blade tome effect? 

-Blade tomes calculate added damage before taking WTA into account (as is done with every buff I'm pretty sure). For instance, if Nino has had a hone speed buff and attacks an Alphonse, she will deal the following damage:

Nino's attack = 46. the speed buff gives her a +4, so that's 50 attack. weapon triangle disadvantage means she does 50*0.8 - (Alphonse's RES) = 40 - 22 = 18 damage.

Hone attack buffs also count as buffs, so giving a -Blade tome user an attack buffs gives them an effective +8 to attack.

[Zangetsu]

Regarding gamepress summon simulation? How accurate is it supposed to be because I'm getting nowhere as good results as the website keeps telling me.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Zangetsu said:

Regarding gamepress summon simulation? How accurate is it supposed to be because I'm getting nowhere as good results as the website keeps telling me.

Please keep in mind that those are simulations based on probability, not something that is actually guaranteed. The only way for any sort of "guarantee" for the game and the simulator to match each other either is to do a lot of summons, as large sample sizes are less impacted by RNG.