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

[daisy jane]

20 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

The order doesn't matter unless you're managing SP.

The latter. They have the same offense, but he trades 6 HP for 3 Def and 4 Res, which is a good trade since he has good bulk..

okay thanks just making sure :)
I just wanted ensure i kept the speed boost that i gave the neutral, while now making tana hard hitting.

[XRay]

3 hours ago, daisy jane said:

thanks,! yah she's  + def/-spd. (I am pretty sure is what i recorded. yup. double checked. that's what i have)
I did pull an extra robin today so i can give up a bonfire for her. I was also going to run Close Def (which she has), Quick Ris 2 and Atk Smoke 3. which i gave her from Kaze. but i could wait on that. Hmm. who has a slaying lance? (Or is that something i can refine for her out of her toolkit)

For -Spd, the results are more mixed, so I would just go with whichever build is more economical for you or whichever role you need more. Slaying is more of a mixed Spd+Def tank and it is better for higher tier Arena, while Reprisal is more of a traditional Spd tank and is better for lower tier Arena.

Slaying
Enemy Phase [Filtered Full] 99:18:51
Enemy Phase [Sundere] 48:50:28
Enemy Phase [DPT] 14:14:12

Reprisal
Enemy Phase [Filtered Full] 103:13:52
Enemy Phase [Sundere] 40:48:38
Enemy Phase [DPT] 11:15:14

Sumias

Spoiler

Sumia (Ylissean Travelers) (5★ +def -spd)  
Weapon: Slaying Lance+  
Refine: Slaying Lance+ - Def Bonus  
Assist: Reposition  
Special: Bonfire  
A: Sturdy Stance 2  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
S: Close Def 3  

— — — — — — —

Sumia (Ylissean Travelers) (5★ +def -spd)  
Weapon: Reprisal Lance+  
Refine: Reprisal Lance+ - Spd Bonus  
Assist: Reposition  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Kestrel Stance 2  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
S: Darting Stance 3 

Filtered Full

Spoiler

ENEMIES - FILTERED FULL LIST  
Include: melee, red, blue, green, gray, physical, magical, infantry, cavalry, flying, armored, staff, nonstaff  
Rarity: 5★  
Merge: +5  
Boon: +spd  
Special: Moonbow  
Replace Special: true  
A: Fury 3  
Replace A: true 

You can get Slaying Lance from Nephenee, but she is more valuable as Wrath fodder in my opinion. If you do not mind promoting a 4* to 5*, Catria, Gwendolyn, Lukas, Peri, and Shanna got Killer Lance.

[daisy jane]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

For -Spd, the results are more mixed, so I would just go with whichever build is more economical for you or whichever role you need more. Slaying is more of a mixed Spd+Def tank and it is better for higher tier Arena, while Reprisal is more of a traditional Spd tank and is better for lower tier Arena.

Slaying
Enemy Phase [Filtered Full] 99:18:51
Enemy Phase [Sundere] 48:50:28
Enemy Phase [DPT] 14:14:12

Reprisal
Enemy Phase [Filtered Full] 103:13:52
Enemy Phase [Sundere] 40:48:38
Enemy Phase [DPT] 11:15:14

Sumias

  Reveal hidden contents

Sumia (Ylissean Travelers) (5★ +def -spd)  
Weapon: Slaying Lance+  
Refine: Slaying Lance+ - Def Bonus  
Assist: Reposition  
Special: Bonfire  
A: Sturdy Stance 2  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
S: Close Def 3  

— — — — — — —

Sumia (Ylissean Travelers) (5★ +def -spd)  
Weapon: Reprisal Lance+  
Refine: Reprisal Lance+ - Spd Bonus  
Assist: Reposition  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Kestrel Stance 2  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
S: Darting Stance 3 

Filtered Full

  Reveal hidden contents

ENEMIES - FILTERED FULL LIST  
Include: melee, red, blue, green, gray, physical, magical, infantry, cavalry, flying, armored, staff, nonstaff  
Rarity: 5★  
Merge: +5  
Boon: +spd  
Special: Moonbow  
Replace Special: true  
A: Fury 3  
Replace A: true 

You can get Slaying Lance from Nephenee, but she is more valuable as Wrath fodder in my opinion. If you do not mind promoting a 4* to 5*, Catria, Gwendolyn, Lukas, Peri, and Shanna got Killer Lance.

thanks much. if it makes her better, i don't mind. I don't know if i'll ever get another Sumia and make her more atk or speedy so yah if having a slaying lance on her makes more sense - that i can do. I very rarely promote units for like "a thing" (though i have to do it for Tiki for Aether). and if i get more Klines i might stop with the "discount QR 2 LOL and just suck it up and slap 3 on them  (we really need someone who has QR3 at 4). 


One more question. 
now that i have a + 2 Summer Tana (+atk, and now + spd) how do i build her?
do i just keep her tool box? not a lot of suggestions out there on gamepress

[XRay]

1 hour ago, daisy jane said:

thanks much. if it makes her better, i don't mind. I don't know if i'll ever get another Sumia and make her more atk or speedy so yah if having a slaying lance on her makes more sense - that i can do. I very rarely promote units for like "a thing" (though i have to do it for Tiki for Aether). and if i get more Klines i might stop with the "discount QR 2 LOL and just suck it up and slap 3 on them  (we really need someone who has QR3 at 4). 

You can also use Fury as a budget A skill. Sturdy Stance and Kestral Stance and their equivalent Atk/Def Bond and Atk/Spd Bond are not exactly plentiful unless you are a whale.

Quick Riposte 2 is fine. I would not bother with 3 unless you are using the unit in Arena or Arena Assault Team 1.

1 hour ago, daisy jane said:

now that i have a + 2 Summer Tana (+atk, and now + spd) how do i build her?

Generally, all Player Phase units are built the same way, with some variations if you are building a Brave nuke or a Firesweep nuke.

Spoiler

This is your regular performance build for melee units and mages:
Nature: +Atk/Spd, -HP/Def/Res
Weapon: Wo [Spd] — Slaying [Spd] — Blade tome
Special: Moonbow — Glimmer (for Blade mages that do not face tanks)
A: Atk/Spd Solo — Life and Death — Swift Sparrow — Fury
B: Desperation
Sacred Seal: Speed +3 — Attack +3 — Heavy Blade — Flashing Blade
*You can also run Brazen Atk/Spd, Atk/Spd Push, and Darting Blow on the A slot, but these three skills have some serious issues holding them back. Brazen Atk/Spd completely trashes your first and most important round of combat in exchange for superior performance for second (and less important) rounds of combat and beyond; Atk/Spd Push got sustainability issues since it requires 100% HP to activate and it reduces your HP after combat; Darting Blow is generally a very weak budget option, as Fury is often but not always better.

High Atk but low Spd nukes generally run Brave builds, but fast nukes can run this too; there are lots of variations of this build, but this is the most basic and important one:
Nature +Atk, -HP/Spd/Def/Res
Weapon: Brave
Special: Moonbow
A: Death Blow
B: (any skill) — Chill — Breaker — Hit and Run — Wings of Mercy
Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade — Quickened Pulse

Firesweep builds are usually for fliers since they can take advantage of Hit and Run the best, but any unit with high Spd can run this well; fast archers also run this build, but they do cannot use Hit and Run:
Nature: +Atk/Spd, -HP/Def/Res
Weapon: Firesweep
Special: Moonbow — Luna — Galeforce
A: Atk/Spd Solo — Life and Death
B: Hit and Run — Poison Strike — (any skill)
Sacred Seal: Speed +3 — Attack +3 — Heavy Blade — Flashing Blade — Poison Strike

Since SA!Tana already came with Atk/Spd Push, I would just leave it on her, but if you want to swap it out, Fury and Life and Death are good budget options. If you want a pimped out SA!Tana, then I would go with Atk/Spd Solo.

[daisy jane]

3 minutes ago, XRay said:

You can also use Fury as a budget A skill. Sturdy Stance and Kestral Stance and their equivalent Atk/Def Bond and Atk/Spd Bond are not exactly plentiful unless you are a whale.

Quick Riposte 2 is fine. I would not bother with 3 unless you are using the unit in Arena or Arena Assault Team 1.

Generally, all Player Phase units are built the same way, with some variations if you are building a Brave nuke or a Firesweep nuke.

  Hide contents

This is your regular performance build for melee units and mages:
Nature: +Atk/Spd, -HP/Def/Res
Weapon: Wo [Spd] — Slaying [Spd] — Blade tome
Special: Moonbow — Glimmer (for Blade mages that do not face tanks)
A: Atk/Spd Solo — Life and Death — Swift Sparrow — Fury
B: Desperation
Sacred Seal: Speed +3 — Attack +3 — Heavy Blade — Flashing Blade
*You can also run Brazen Atk/Spd, Atk/Spd Push, and Darting Blow on the A slot, but these three skills have some serious issues holding them back. Brazen Atk/Spd completely trashes your first and most important round of combat in exchange for superior performance for second (and less important) rounds of combat and beyond; Atk/Spd Push got sustainability issues since it requires 100% HP to activate and it reduces your HP after combat; Darting Blow is generally a very weak budget option, as Fury is often but not always better.

High Atk but low Spd nukes generally run Brave builds, but fast nukes can run this too; there are lots of variations of this build, but this is the most basic and important one:
Nature +Atk, -HP/Spd/Def/Res
Weapon: Brave
Special: Moonbow
A: Death Blow
B: (any skill) — Chill — Breaker — Hit and Run — Wings of Mercy
Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade — Quickened Pulse

Firesweep builds are usually for fliers since they can take advantage of Hit and Run the best, but any unit with high Spd can run this well; fast archers also run this build, but they do cannot use Hit and Run:
Nature: +Atk/Spd, -HP/Def/Res
Weapon: Firesweep
Special: Moonbow — Luna — Galeforce
A: Atk/Spd Solo — Life and Death
B: Hit and Run — Poison Strike — (any skill)
Sacred Seal: Speed +3 — Attack +3 — Heavy Blade — Flashing Blade — Poison Strike

Since SA!Tana already came with Atk/Spd Push, I would just leave it on her, but if you want to swap it out, Fury and Life and Death are good budget options. If you want a pimped out SA!Tana, then I would go with Atk/Spd Solo.

 

 

thanks v. much :) 
I do have one more Sothe to do L+D
and i have exactly one extra Shanna for Desperation. i'll sit on this one for a bit but i'll always try to keep this in mind :)
I do have Tharja so i could contemplate the bladetome build. 

thanks for the advice re: QR. sometimes i do (I mean i use Tiki all the time and she has QR2, but i figure as i don't really generate feathers that quickly i want to be careful on what i promote (I know theoretically the better units i have the faster i can make some more up but still) 

[colossus86]

Can phantom speed cause a unit to become the target of Chill Spd?

[XRay]

1 hour ago, colossus86 said:

Can phantom speed cause a unit to become the target of Chill Spd?

I am not too sure. Here is the Phantom Spd article from the wiki.

"There are currently no skills that compare the unit's Spd with an ally's Spd. Chill Spd 3 directly selects the unit with the highest Spd; it does not compare the team's units pairwise to decide which unit has the highest Spd."

Based on the language, it seems like it does not factor in Phantom Spd. I will test it out and see.

Yeah, I just tested it in Book II Chapter 5: Part 2 with Sharena and Anna. Sharena got 32 Spd and got Phantom Spd, which should boost her Spd to 42. Anna got 41 Spd with Fury equipped, but she is the one who is target by enemy FH!Celica's Chill Spd.

Edited November 2, 2018 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, colossus86 said:

Can phantom speed cause a unit to become the target of Chill Spd?

7 minutes ago, XRay said:

I am not too sure. Here is the Phantom Spd article from the wiki.

"There are currently no skills that compare the unit's Spd with an ally's Spd. Chill Spd 3 directly selects the unit with the highest Spd; it does not compare the team's units pairwise to decide which unit has the highest Spd."

Based on the language, it seems like it does not factor in Phantom Spd. I will test it out and see.

No, it doesn't. I've done this test before on one of the story maps with Dark Celica on it.

Phantom Spd will not affect the target of Chill Spd.

[XRay]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Phantom Spd will not affect the target of Chill Spd.

Yeah, that kind of sucks, especially if you want one of your cheerleaders to be Chill Spd bait in Arena. Wish they would reword the skill description to reflect that.

[Vaximillian]

@XRay @Ice Dragon

How can Phantom Spd be reworked so that it isn’t completely useless outside of exactly two instances (sweeps)?

How can Pass be reworked so that it isn’t completely useless outside of exactly one instance (AI cavalier reinforcements)?

At least Obstruct had one niche use in some Legion clears, I dunno. They haven’t even made Pass into a seal; even they know how useless it is.

[Ice Dragon]

5 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

How can Phantom Spd be reworked so that it isn’t completely useless outside of exactly two instances (sweeps)?

It works on the additional damage on Vassal's Blade and Gigascalibur and on the Spd check for Flashing Blade (namely for weapons that have Flashing Blade on them).

 

5 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

How can Pass be reworked so that it isn’t completely useless outside of exactly one instance (AI cavalier reinforcements)?

Make it a Sacred Seal. Pass is and always will be shit on a standard skill slot.

However, you can make it stupidly annoying on an Arena defense team when in combination with Galeforce.

[Jingle Jangle]

How can a 4th tier version of boost skills be improved and complete with other popular a slots?

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, Jingle Bells said:

How can a 4th tier version of boost skills be improved and complete with other popular a slots?

Make it two stats and implement Phantom HP as a Sacred Seal. That's how horribly out-classed they are as skills. Blow, Stance, Bond, and Solo skills are more reliable and provide a comparable stat boost to two stats instead of one.

[XRay]

3 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

How can Phantom Spd be reworked so that it isn’t completely useless outside of exactly two instances (sweeps)?

Make it affected by Chill Spd and/or give it a bigger increase. +10 Spd sounds nice a year ago, but with all the Spd creep today, a unit with a middling 30+ Spd would not be able utilize Sweeps very well against newly 40+ Spd units. I think Spd +15 would be good in my opinion.

11 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

How can Pass be reworked so that it isn’t completely useless outside of exactly one instance (AI cavalier reinforcements)?

Movement +1.

Maybe ignore terrain movement penalties and can pass through obstacles.

1 minute ago, Jingle Bells said:

How can a 4th tier version of boost skills be improved and complete with other popular a slots?

In my opinion, at the very least, make them all worth the same amount of SP. I still see stuff like Distant Counter Ayras and if she ran Swift Sparrow instead of Distant Counter, she would have been a lot more threatening as I would not be able to use my BH!Lyn to bait her as casually. Maybe Distant Counter does trip up other offensive teams, but for me, Distant Counter on the A slot might as well just be empty since any player running a merged Player Phase ranged team should have invested in Firesweep nukes by now, and if the player is running melee units, Distant Counter is basically just an empty skill slot.

[Ice Dragon]

3 minutes ago, XRay said:

In my opinion, at the very least, make them all worth the same amount of SP.

That would make them more popular, but they would still suck just as horribly as they do now.

[DehNutCase]

2 hours ago, Jingle Bells said:

How can a 4th tier version of boost skills be improved and complete with other popular a slots?

Boost just needs to scale better, is all. The most comparable to boost skills are L&D skills:

L&D carries a cost of 5 def, 5 res, meaning your bulk needs to be good enough to survive one hit after -5/-5, or else you need a way to make it so your bulk flat out doesn't matter. (Firesweep, Sacae's, Desperation if you have a easy way to trigger it without dying, etc.) L&D 3 gives you ten stat points.

Boost carries a hp cost to be reliable---and, because the best stat to boost is Atk, and it's most important when you're facing high bulk, which usually means high hp, targets, the stat boost has to be gigantic enough that it's worth paying stat points into a sub-optimal stat like hp. Boost 3 gives you 6, which is only 1 more than L&D gives in a single stat, and 4 less than L&D gives in total.

 

+8 Atk on level 3 Atk boost and +10 Atk on level 4 Atk boost and it should be more or less fine. (+10 on level 3 and +12 on level 4 would be ideal, to reflect the fact that PvE dudes have so much hp that it takes enormous sacrifice to pass the hp check, but +10, +12 would mean hp heavy brave users 2HKO literally everyone in Arena, where hp doesn't scale nearly as fast.)

[Syllabear]

Hi, first post here! I have a question question; does Res Tactic buff take into account when ploying? I want to give my Sheena ploy skills but her resistance is kind of middling, so does visible buff help her ploying?

[daisy jane]

okay for this months bound battle. - i am determined to get all the orbs. haha including the Anna/Sharena orbs (WHY DO I ALWAYS NOT PROMOTE THEM.). anyway
would the arena assault abuse thing work here?
(low attack someone  in the first round and a Nowi or Tiki shows up and BLAMO?)

maybe not.. LOL though i keep getting weaponless Kanas...(again)

Edited November 3, 2018 by daisy jane

[Usana]

Well my luck is both great and terrible. It just started raining Halloween Myrrhs on me. But . . . I am not sure if anything beats my +RES/-HP one.

 

First I was escastic to see that 25 attack. Until I saw 9 Defense. So +ATK/-DEF kinda defeats the point. Pretty sure this one is just a merge fodder.

Second I got a +SPD/-RES one. 180BST bin and fewer doubles, but this isn't exactly ideal. Given my trouble making score in arena even those 2 extra points in unit score are appealing to me. Plus it actually seems to perform surprisingly well against similar merges, though that might just because she is so powerful period. May also be good in PvE where there aren't quite as speed stacked enemies.

Finally I have a +DEF/-HP. Which I am not too escastic about. She normally has enough defense for me, but maybe folks will say this is best. It does appear to have a few areas where it performs best.

 

Mass duel seems to indicate that my current +RES/-HP performs the least well, But I do really like having both defenses up so high. Plus since I had no DC fodder I went and gave her Fortress DEF/RES. Would almost seem a waste to drop her res after that. Particularly since I am pretty sure losing the Res would deny her the ability to kill L!Tiki. Yeah, not her job but I like having options. But the simulators say that shouldn't be happening anyways. Not sure how she was doing it last season for me.

 

 

[Ice Dragon]

5 hours ago, Syllabear said:

Hi, first post here! I have a question question; does Res Tactic buff take into account when ploying? I want to give my Sheena ploy skills but her resistance is kind of middling, so does visible buff help her ploying?

"No" for the case you're probably thinking of.

When "at start of turn" effects activate, calculations are done in the following order:

1. Your buffs from the previous turn expire.
2. All stat comparisons are performed.
3. All new effects activate (including ones that don't have a stat comparison).

Since the Ploy comparison against opponents occurs after the previous turn's effects expire and before the new Res Tactic activates, you won't have that benefit when trying to hit enemies. Note, however, that all enemies' field buffs and debuffs are taken into account during calculation, though.

[mampfoid]

There is no Ophelia analysis yet, so I'm fishing for opinions here. 

Pulled a +ATK/-RES copy today and I'm thinking how to make her better. Won't use her in Arena/AA, solely for pve content. 

Her A-Skill is kind of semi-useless compared to Death Blow and Swift Sparrow. 

33 SPD is not the most, so I'm unsure if Swift Sparrow or LnD would be wasted on her. 

Should I change her special to Astra or a different AoE special? 

Too bad she is blue like Odin, would have loved to run them together. 

[Ice Dragon]

18 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

There is no Ophelia analysis yet, so I'm fishing for opinions here. 

Pulled a +ATK/-RES copy today and I'm thinking how to make her better. Won't use her in Arena/AA, solely for pve content. 

Her A-Skill is kind of semi-useless compared to Death Blow and Swift Sparrow. 

33 SPD is not the most, so I'm unsure if Swift Sparrow or LnD would be wasted on her. 

Should I change her special to Astra or a different AoE special? 

Too bad she is blue like Odin, would have loved to run them together. 

My personal pick for a build is

Ophelia [+Atk, -whatever]
Missiletainn
Reposition / Draw Back
Blazing Wind / [any other Blazing AoE Special]
Life and Death 3
Special Spiral 3
[whatever C skill]
Hardy Bearing 3 / Attack +3 / Quickened Pulse (if there aren't enough mages on the team)

Why Life and Death? Combat buffs don't work on AoE Special skills' damage and Life and Death gives the highest visible boost to Atk. Life and Death 3 is therefore a total of +12.5 damage on the Special and first hit, whereas Death Blow 4 is only 8 damage on the first hit.

Edited November 3, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[mampfoid]

11 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Life and Death 3

[...]

23 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Combat buffs don't work on AoE Special skills' damage

 

Ok, check. 

(Always forget Blow skills are combat buffs).

11 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Special Spiral 3

I'd love to get my hands on that skill, even if it ignores Galeforce. Unfortunately my Special Spiral count is currently at 0. 

I don't dislike the idea of her Chill RES, especially since Desperation is in high demand. 

16 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Blazing Wind / [any other Blazing AoE Special]

Are AoE specials generally better in most situations than Astra? Both would struggle against RES tanks. 

[Ice Dragon]

18 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

Are AoE specials generally better in most situations than Astra? Both would struggle against RES tanks. 

The main reason to use an AoE Special is because of Special Spiral. Landing the AoE Special at the start of the round of combat puts you back at 3 cooldown, your first attack puts you at 2, and Special Spiral then fully charges it after combat.

If you were using Astra instead, it's your first attack that activates Astra, meaning you don't get that 1 point of Special charge, and you're left with 1 cooldown remaining after Special Spiral activates.

Additionally, AoE Special skills ignore the weapon triangle since it's based on the difference between your Atk and the opponent's Def/Res rather than on the actual damage dealt. Since either option is likely to overkill regardless at weapon triangle advantage, you may as well improve your match-ups at weapon triangle disadvantage.

As for the case of Res tanks, AoE Special skills ignore the opponent's combat buffs, too, meaning you don't have to deal with things like Barrier Blade, Distant Def, Warding Breath, and whatnot, whereas Astra does. Fortress Res, Fortress Def/Res, Res refines, and field buffs are pretty much all you need to worry about, and that's a much smaller list of skills that you need to deal with.

 

Without Special Spiral, you can still get the first-round AoE Special to land, which is nice, but you won't get another one out for a while. That said, it's probably still worth it to boost the damage of your first round of combat.

To that effect, I think Chill Res is a good option for her B skill, and if you do want to get another Special out, you can try Heavy Blade as a potential option for the Sacred Seal slot (though that means you'll still have to do the second round of combat without a Special).

Edited November 3, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Additionally, AoE Special skills ignore the weapon triangle since it's based on the difference between your Atk and the opponent's Def/Res rather than on the actual damage dealt. Since either option is likely to overkill regardless at weapon triangle advantage, you may as well improve your match-ups at weapon triangle disadvantage.

That's true, Astra is more often overkill than useful. Too bad since I like to see  special attack art of her and in general. 

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

meaning you don't have to deal with things like Barrier Blade, Distant Def, Warding Breath,

Again, that's something I have to keep in mind more often. 

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Without Special Spiral, you can still get the first-round AoE Special to land, which is nice, but you won't get another one out for a while. That said, it's probably still worth it to boost the damage of your first round of combat.

[...] and if you do want to get another Special out, you can try Heavy Blade as a potential option for the Sacred Seal slot (though that means you'll still have to do the second round of combat without a Special).

Perhaps it's worth to switch to Draconic Aura/Heavy Blade seal then?

Ophelia wouldn't profit anymore from allied mages, but if doubling the opponent she could proc DA each round of combat.