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

[Ice Dragon]

30 minutes ago, Lemmy said:

Any suggestions on anything to add/change? 

Nope.

[DefyingFates]

10 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Yeah, Worldbreaker definitely helps.

😄

10 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Neutral is definitely better since it'll be a better merge base in case you do decide to merge them. And yeah, she'll get HP, Atk, and Spd on her first merge, which is better than the HP Asset.

And thanks again! Despite getting a second copy of Grima, I think I may end up using an A!Fjorm manual to give B!Hector Hardy Fighter instead. Am I right in saying V!Lucina, V!Ike and W!Manuela are the only ones who'd benefit from A/S Near Save? I only have V!Lucina of the three and don't want to give her a Save when they're still so rare she already has one. Well, I also have BK but I don't see anyone recommending him for stuff these days so I assume he's not a good choice for it either 😕

 I'm just paranoid about using up the Grimas since she's the only source of A/S Near Save is all, unfortunately. I know it's nearly impossible for us to get a speedy armor unit in a future GHB or TT+ too, but still...

[Ice Dragon]

5 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

And thanks again! Despite getting a second copy of Grima, I think I may end up using an A!Fjorm manual to give B!Hector Hardy Fighter instead. Am I right in saying V!Lucina, V!Ike and W!Manuela are the only ones who'd benefit from A/S Near Save? I only have V!Lucina of the three and don't want to give her a Save when they're still so rare she already has one. Well, I also have BK but I don't see anyone recommending him for stuff these days so I assume he's not a good choice for it either 😕

 I'm just paranoid about using up the Grimas since she's the only source of A/S Near Save is all, unfortunately. I know it's nearly impossible for us to get a speedy armor unit in a future GHB or TT+ too, but still...

I'd also add Winter Sothis, Winter Hilda, and Picnic Felicia to that list, but all three of them are lower in priority than Valentine Lucina, Valentine Ike, and Winter Manuela for the time being.

Sothis can switch out her weapon for Arcane Grima (which would come free with A/S Near Save), though I wouldn't recommend doing so unless you have a lot of resources since she's scheduled to get a refine to her base weapon pretty soon (Duo Hector is next in line, followed by Duo Marth and Winter Sothis on the same banner). I'm expecting her to get a refine that's intended for Far Save (along with A/S Far Save being released on a new unit at around the same time or sooner, such as on the upcoming Winter banner), so it's best to wait and see.

Hilda is only one point slower than Valentine Ike, but is significantly easier to merge due to being a 4-star unit. However, she doesn't have access to an Arcane weapon yet, unlike Ike and Manuela. On the other hand, her color gives her an advantage against Brave Seliph and Brave Eirika compared to the two sword armors.

Felicia has a gigantic Spd stat with the boost from her weapon and also already has damage reduction from it. Her Res comparison condition is a bit iffy, though that can be made up for with Mythic blessing stat boosts if you have the corresponding Mythic Heroes and actually use them. If you aren't getting Res from her blessing boosts, she's still getting +11 Spd from her weapon before accounting for the Res comparison stats and can viably give up a Spd boost in the A slot for Still Water, especially if you're getting Spd from her blessing boosts, though that's obviously expensive and less optimal of a setup and might also be overkill since there aren't that many melee units that you actually need that much Res for. Regardless, she's the least reliable of these options, but I think she's still a viable option for A/S Near Save.

 

As far as recommendations go, you should definitely test out Lucina without A/S Near Save and see if her performance with her default A/D Near Save is already sufficient before committing A/S Near Save to her.

From experience, my +10+10 Lucina [+Spd] (Ally Support with Valentine Robin, but no Summoner Support, and only sometimes has Spd from blessing boosts) functions fine with her default A/D Near Save, but I don't have the experience to know how she'll hold up without the extra Spd from merges and whatnot.

[DefyingFates]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

As far as recommendations go, you should definitely test out Lucina without A/S Near Save and see if her performance with her default A/D Near Save is already sufficient before committing A/S Near Save to her.

From experience, my +10+10 Lucina [+Spd] (Ally Support with Valentine Robin, but no Summoner Support, and only sometimes has Spd from blessing boosts) functions fine with her default A/D Near Save, but I don't have the experience to know how she'll hold up without the extra Spd from merges and whatnot.

Will do, thanks! Thankfully we still have two days before the season ends so hopefully I'll be able to throw together a tentative AR-D team to see how she performs. To be honest I'm still surprised that XRay dismissed B!Edelgard in favor of her - is Edelgard really not good in AR-D, even post-refine?

P.S. Does anyone know if there are any good resources out there for AR tier lists (and/ or AR maps)? Gamepress has one, but it just throws everyone into a single list with no distinction between AR-O and AR-D. Thank you in advance!

Edited October 22, 2022 by DefyingFates

[Xenomata]

On 10/21/2022 at 4:36 AM, Ice Dragon said:

Lantern Breath (Halloween Kurthnaga), Serenity Breath (Halloween Naga), and Surprise Breath (Halloween Nils) are the best non-Arcane inheritable dragon weapons right now:

• Lantern Breath grants Guard, but its stat modifiers are only to Atk, so you don't get any extra points of Res for Dragon Wall calculations.
• Serenity Breath grants follow-up prevention, which is weaker than Guard, but is still useful, but it has a modifier for Res, which gives you 5 more points towards Dragon Wall.
• Surprise Breath doesn't have any non-stat effect, but it applies a fairly large modifier for Atk and Res. You can easily get the equivalent of +13 Res on units with good base Res (40 visible Res).

Surprise Breath is probably the strongest of the three since you can offload Guard to the A slot (if you're not running all three of Distant Counter, Dragon Wall, and Quick RIposte) or to a teammate, but Lantern Breath and Serenity Breath are still strong options and are arguably easier to get since they don't need Grails (and because Nils isn't in the Grail shop yet).

Without Arcane Grima, you're forced to run a guaranteed follow-up on either the B slot or Sacred Seal slot, which means if you also want to run Dragon Wall, you're stuck putting Distant Counter in the A slot instead of as a Sacred Seal if you want to run the skill.

Would I assume from your words that the Distant Counter effect (for dragons at least) is better delegated to the SS slot instead of the A slot, even if using one of the upgraded DC skills that grants stats?

My Halloween Naga does now have Arcane Grima, so she doesn't need to worry about using a skill slot on Dragon's Ire or Quick Riposte. So I guess I'll be saving the extra Surprise Breath fodder for when I build another ver.1 dragon up. Also:

23 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Quick question to see what other people's opinions are while I continue to fail to pull Halloween Female Corrin:

Atk or Res Asset for Halloween Naga with Arcane Grima?

A Res Asset is obviously better for tanking with Dragon Wall, but Halloween Naga has the highest base Atk stat of all dragon fliers and can easily run a more offensive build when equipped with Arcane Grima. Plus, I'm unsure if the extra 3 Res from an Asset will actually matter all that much when she's getting 9 Res from Arcane Grima [Res], 7-9 Res from Atk/Res Catch 4, and 4 Res from Atk/Res Rein 3 when compared to the extra 4 Atk she could get from an Atk Asset.

It's not going to be a huge additive to her damage, but since Arcane Grima has that additional 15% of Atk as damage I personally think the Atk asset is going to have slightly more returns than the Res asset. Or at least it'll lead Naga to landing more OHKO's than with the alternative.
It's what I decided to go with anyway.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Xenomata

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

Will do, thanks! Thankfully we still have two days before the season ends so hopefully I'll be able to throw together a tentative AR-D team to see how she performs. To be honest I'm still surprised that XRay dismissed B!Edelgard in favor of her - is Edelgard really not good in AR-D, even post-refine?

It's not that Brave Edelgard is bad. It's that Rearmed Robin and Valentine Lucina are just the best Near Save units in the game right now.

There's still an argument to use Edelgard over Lucina if your Edelgard is significantly merged and your Lucina is not, though it sounds like @XRay is making the assumption that the two are equally invested (which is probably not a good assumption since Edelgard has significantly more availability due to being released earlier, being released on the most hyped banner of the year, being rerun more often, and being in the standard summoning pool).

 

The main issue with Edelgard is that even though she has a lot of skill effects on her weapon and exclusive skill, a lot of those effects are there to offset the fact that she's pretty much guaranteed to be doubled. Since a lot of builds rely on the fact that a unit will double and will therefore back-load damage onto the follow-up attack, Edelgard has to account for a lot more shenaniganry than Robin and Lucina, who can simply prevent the follow-up attack entirely and deal with the usually weaker initial attack.

That said, Brave Edelgard is probably the best slow Near Save unit right now and is probably better than the weaker fast Near Save units (Winter Sothis, Winter Hilda, and Picnic Felicia). I'm not sure how she compares to the two fast Arcane Eljudnir armors.

 

16 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Would I assume from your words that the Distant Counter effect (for dragons at least) is better delegated to the SS slot instead of the A slot, even if using one of the upgraded DC skills that grants stats?

It depends, but in general, yes. The primary advantage of running Distant Counter (D) is the fact that the A slot has access to stat skills with non-stat skill effects, whereas the Sacred Seal slot does not, and gaining non-stat skill effects is often more valuable than gaining a few extra points of stats. Running a stat-boosting Distant Counter with a stat-boosting Sacred Seal is generally less effective than running Distant Counter (D) with one of the tier-4 A passive skills (Stance, Defense, Unity, Finish, etc.).

The only times I can see Distant Counter (D) not being used over a stat-boosting Distant Counter is if you need a different Sacred Seal for whatever reason (Quick RIposte, Null Follow-Up, etc.) or if the unit has a weapon that already provides all of the skill effects you want (though even in that case, Unity or Finish are probably still more worthwhile since their effects stack with similar effects). Or if you don't have access to the good A skills, but do have access to the stat-boosting Distant Counter skills for whatever reason.

 

16 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

It's not going to be a huge additive to her damage, but since Arcane Grima has that additional 15% of Atk as damage I personally think the Atk asset is going to have slightly more returns than the Res asset. Or at least it'll lead Naga to landing more OHKO's than with the alternative.
It's what I decided to go with anyway.

Yeah, the pretty much guaranteed 4 extra damage (plus the 0.6 extra damage from the percentage boost) feels more impactful than 3 Res, which basically has no effect if the opponent's Res is already low enough that you're getting the maximum effect from Dragon Wall. Even though Halloween Naga's base Res isn't super high, she already has every excuse to be stacking Res with her passive skills since she doesn't need Spd.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[XRay]

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

Will do, thanks! Thankfully we still have two days before the season ends so hopefully I'll be able to throw together a tentative AR-D team to see how she performs. To be honest I'm still surprised that XRay dismissed B!Edelgard in favor of her - is Edelgard really not good in AR-D, even post-refine?

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

There's still an argument to use Edelgard over Lucina if your Edelgard is significantly merged and your Lucina is not, though it sounds like @XRay is making the assumption that the two are equally invested (which is probably not a good assumption since Edelgard has significantly more availability due to being released earlier, being released on the most hyped banner of the year, being rerun more often, and being in the standard summoning pool).

She is good, just not good enough. Between running a fast tank or a slow tank, fast tanks are almost always better.

The only thing that would tip things in favor for a slow tank is if the slow tank is able to address a glaring weakness that the fast tank cannot. For example, Chrom: Fate-Defying Duo exists and is extremely prominent in the current meta, and due to how often he appears, it makes Fjorm: Ice Ascendent pretty unreliable compared to Hector: Brave Warrior. You can technically give her Svalinn Shield, but that will cripple her match ups against everyone else, so I do not think that is a realistic option. Actually, now that I think about it, Robin: Fell Tactician might be a better option than Hector: Brave Warrior in the current meta as a Far Saver since I do not see a lot of Julias and Deidres.

On the Near Save side, Nanna: Beloved Princess might not be common enough to skew the Aether Raids meta to the same degree, but she will only be more common over time, and as newer melee tank busters get released, they will also get better with time. At the moment, while using Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor is fine, she will get absolutely curb stomped in the future, and she does not have any effect that sets her apart from Lucina: Future Fondness; anything Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor can do, Lucina: Future Fondness can also do, and probably do it even better and without the weakness of being slow.

[DefyingFates]

54 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

It's not that Brave Edelgard is bad. It's that Rearmed Robin and Valentine Lucina are just the best Near Save units in the game right now.

Gotcha.

54 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

There's still an argument to use Edelgard over Lucina if your Edelgard is significantly merged and your Lucina is not, though it sounds like @XRay is making the assumption that the two are equally invested (which is probably not a good assumption since Edelgard has significantly more availability due to being released earlier, being released on the most hyped banner of the year, being rerun more often, and being in the standard summoning pool).

Actually my B!Edelgard is at +0 and I don't think I have any copies of her lying around. I wouldn't be surprised to discover a manual later on though.

25 minutes ago, XRay said:

The only thing that would tip things in favor for a slow tank is if the slow tank is able to address a glaring weakness that the fast tank cannot.

54 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The main issue with Edelgard is that even though she has a lot of skill effects on her weapon and exclusive skill, a lot of those effects are there to offset the fact that she's pretty much guaranteed to be doubled. Since a lot of builds rely on the fact that a unit will double and will therefore back-load damage onto the follow-up attack, Edelgard has to account for a lot more shenaniganry than Robin and Lucina, who can simply prevent the follow-up attack entirely and deal with the usually weaker initial attack.

And thank you for the explanation, both of you!

25 minutes ago, XRay said:

On the Near Save side, Nanna: Beloved Princess might not be common enough to skew the Aether Raids meta to the same degree, but she will only be more common over time, and as newer melee tank busters get released, they will also get better with time.

I know she's a counter to damage reduction and Hodr's Zeal gives true damage, but are there any slow tanks that can take her on anyway? A!Idunn for example, or even Kjelle or W!Ephraim for a retro pick? I saw Akariss' video on AR Save Armors and he ranked the latter two highly in some situations (and they're ranked highly on Gamepress too), so it made me curious about them myself (again, in Ephraim's case).

Thanks again!

Edited October 22, 2022 by DefyingFates

[Ice Dragon]

10 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I know she's a counter to damage reduction and Hodr's Zeal gives true damage, but are there any slow tanks that can take her on anyway? A!Idunn for example, or even Kjelle or W!Ephraim for a retro pick? I saw Akariss' video on AR Save Armors and he ranked the latter two highly in some situations, so it made me curious about them myself (again, in Ephraim's case).

Kjelle can certainly pull it off since she can lower Nanna's Atk by at least 25 points across all of Heartbeat Lance's effects on top of traditional Def stacking.

Nanna is tankable by just stacking a ton of Def (or Atk reduction or flat damage reduction) on your tank instead of relying on percentage damage reduction. Blue units obviously have it easier since they have weapon triangle advantage.

If you can get through Nanna's attacks, killing her on the counterattack is trivial since she doesn't have any defensive effects other than the Desperation effect.

 

If all you need is a dedicated counter, Hardy Bearing shuts her down entirely if you have a unit that can kill her in a single hit.

You can also use Triangle Adept on a blue unit to mitigate more damage.

[DefyingFates]

5 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Kjelle can certainly pull it off since she can lower Nanna's Atk by at least 25 points across all of Heartbeat Lance's effects on top of traditional Def stacking.

Nanna is tankable by just stacking a ton of Def (or Atk reduction or flat damage reduction) on your tank instead of relying on percentage damage reduction. Blue units obviously have it easier since they have weapon triangle advantage.

If you can get through Nanna's attacks, killing her on the counterattack is trivial since she doesn't have any defensive effects other than the Desperation effect.

 

If all you need is a dedicated counter, Hardy Bearing shuts her down entirely if you have a unit that can kill her in a single hit.

I see, thanks! So this is what B!Dimitri's refine was for all along, I guess. And I guess I can keep my W!Ephraim on hand too, if you think he's a viable counter too? To think I was this close to turning him into a manual before he got his refine (not that I gave him that refine)...

Edited October 22, 2022 by DefyingFates

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

I see, thanks! So this is what B!Dimitri's refine was for all along, I guess. And I guess I can keep my W!Ephraim on hand too, if you think he's a viable counter too? To think I was this close to turning him into a manual before he got his refine (not that I gave him that refine)...

Best to run them through a simulator to see if the builds you have available to you will work.

On Winter Ephraim, you'll want to check if he actually needs the enemy-phase Brave effect to activate for whatever build you're aiming for. Nanna has a really high Atk stat with all of the passive skills she typically runs, so activating the Brave effect might not be reliable.

[XRay]

On 10/20/2022 at 9:05 PM, Xenomata said:

Of the existing inheritable non-Arcane Breath weapons (which I am currently trying to get at least one of, but beyond that,) which one is currently considered the "best" for units like Adult Tiki, Halloween Naga, etc. who don't have a Prf weapon or have a weak Prf weapon?
They all have somewhat similar stat-based effects, so it seems like it comes down to what secondary effects and trigger conditions are considered most worth using. I have at least one of each weapon available to me also, and it'd primarily go toward Halloween Naga if I decide not to give her Arcane Grima (when I eventually get it)

I agree with Ice Dragon and would say Lantern Breath is the best one since it has Guard.

The next best one is Serenity Breath since it disables follow-ups, but lots of nukes can bypass that these days with Null Follow-Up, so it is not as strong as it used to be.

Pale Breath neutralizes some of the unit's penalties, and Blackfire Breath neutralizes some of foe's bonus, but I do not think those effects are good enough to be the only effect on the Weapon. I think that is it in terms of defensive effects.

On 10/21/2022 at 11:42 AM, Ice Dragon said:

Quick question to see what other people's opinions are while I continue to fail to pull Halloween Female Corrin:

Atk or Res Asset for Halloween Naga with Arcane Grima?

A Res Asset is obviously better for tanking with Dragon Wall, but Halloween Naga has the highest base Atk stat of all dragon fliers and can easily run a more offensive build when equipped with Arcane Grima. Plus, I'm unsure if the extra 3 Res from an Asset will actually matter all that much when she's getting 9 Res from Arcane Grima [Res], 7-9 Res from Atk/Res Catch 4, and 4 Res from Atk/Res Rein 3 when compared to the extra 4 Atk she could get from an Atk Asset.

Since she has a super Asset in Atk, I would go with Atk. Normally I would go with +Res, but since she does not come with Dragon Wall innately and you want to use her more offensively, I think Dragon's Wrath would be better on her B since she will still get some damage reduction without any stat checks while also granting her mini Glimmer on her first attack during every combat. Unless you are Selena or Jagen or something, or maybe facing Kjelle, I think most units should not have an issue winning the Atk>Def or Atk>Res check under any circumstance, so you will always be able to do at least a bit of extra damage, in contrast to plain old Atk or Res comparisons where it is not uncommon to completely fail the check from time to time.

22 hours ago, Lemmy said:

Generally partnered with Brave Lucina and Ascended Hilda for buffs and Picnic Flora on Far Save duty due to already have good skills from hall of forms

Any suggestions on anything to add/change? 

I think the build is fine, but I recommend changing the team composition a bit, specifically the colors of the Save tanks. In my opinion, it is best to have Save tanks of different colors so a single enemy color would not completely shut down your enemy phase.

4 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

I know she's a counter to damage reduction and Hodr's Zeal gives true damage, but are there any slow tanks that can take her on anyway? A!Idunn for example, or even Kjelle or W!Ephraim for a retro pick? I saw Akariss' video on AR Save Armors and he ranked the latter two highly in some situations (and they're ranked highly on Gamepress too), so it made me curious about them myself (again, in Ephraim's case).

Kjelle can deal with her the best since she is able to debuff her Atk a lot, but she still loses a decent chunk of HP from true damage. Idunn: Divine Demon and Ephraim: Sparkling Gallantly takes heavy damage (losing half of their HP; and very heavy damage if Nanna: Beloved Princess has C Feud, losing about two-thirds of their HP), but they should be able to survive. I am assuming Astra Season for nearly best case scenario for both sides (three Elimines for the extra drive Def and Ashera as the filler on offense; Seiros for the Atk boost and Mirabilis for Dance/Sing on defense).

All three have the following kit:
+Atk/Def, +10+MaxFlowers, 3 Spd and 1 Res Mythics
Exclusive Weapon
Escutcheon (Ephraim: Sparkling Gallantly got Pavise)
(Any Assist)
Sturdy Stance
Hardy Fighter
A/D Near Save (Idunn: Divine Demon got D/R Near Save)
Quick Riposte
+6/0/6/6 bonus buffs
3 Holy Ground

Nanna: Beloved Princess got:
+Atk, +10+10, 1 Atk and 1 Res Mythics
Lands Sword
(Any Assist)
Ruptured Sky
Surge Sparrow
Hoðr's Zeal
Atk/Spd Menace — C Feud
Atk/Spd Solo
+6/6/0/0 bonus buffs

Edited October 22, 2022 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

7 minutes ago, XRay said:

Since she has a super Asset in Atk, I would go with Atk. Normally I would go with +Res, but since she does not come with Dragon Wall innately and you want to use her more offensively, I think Dragon's Wrath would be better on her B since she will still get some damage reduction without any stat checks while also granting her Glimmer on her first attack during every combat. Unless you are Selena or Jagen or something, or maybe facing Kjelle, I think most units should not have an issue winning the Atk>Def or Atk>Res check under any circumstance, so you will always be able to at least a bit of extra damage, in contrast to plain old Atk or Res comparisons where it is not uncommon to completely fail the check from time to time.

She's getting Dragon Wall regardless because there's no other skill she can get from Rearmed Robin at the same time that I give her Arcane Grima.

And I don't have Dragon's Wrath.

[XRay]

17 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

She's getting Dragon Wall regardless because there's no other skill she can get from Rearmed Robin at the same time that I give her Arcane Grima.

Hm... I lean towards +Res in this case, but I guess going with +Atk should be fine too, since while she is likely to fail Dragon Wall from time to time, it does not happen so often that you need +Res. Worst case scenario, you can always Ascend the other Asset later if you really want to. I still have not used any Florets yet before I quit since I have not found it necessary, so I assume you are in the same boat and can just use it on favorites.

17 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

And I don't have Dragon's Wrath.

Anna would tell you to spoil your dragons (and open your wallet).

Edited October 23, 2022 by XRay

[Rinco]

I got the Henriette manual from the Codes path and I'm wondering who to give Far Save.
I have some good Far Savers already, but I wanted to have one who doesn't have armor weakness, so it has to be between B!Hector or A!Idunn.

Hector is currently +8 and my most used Near Saver while Idunn is +0. Idunn has the benefit of running DC on the seal slot and having the A slot free for something else while Hector is stuck with his prf DC. 

So, right now I'm leaning more towards A!Idunn. Am I thinking on the right lines? What else would Idunn want on her A and B slots if running A/R Far Save? 0 Hardy Fighter fodder on my barracks

(I still have hopes of B!Hector showing up as a Forma someday, then I'd build him with Far Save and Hardy Fighter on HoF)

[XRay]

14 minutes ago, Rinco said:

I got the Henriette manual from the Codes path and I'm wondering who to give Far Save.
I have some good Far Savers already, but I wanted to have one who doesn't have armor weakness, so it has to be between B!Hector or A!Idunn.

Hector is currently +8 and my most used Near Saver while Idunn is +0. Idunn has the benefit of running DC on the seal slot and having the A slot free for something else while Hector is stuck with his prf DC. 

So, right now I'm leaning more towards A!Idunn. Am I thinking on the right lines? What else would Idunn want on her A and B slots if running A/R Far Save? 0 Hardy Fighter fodder on my barracks

(I still have hopes of B!Hector showing up as a Forma someday, then I'd build him with Far Save and Hardy Fighter on HoF)

Depends on the mode you are using them in and how patient you are.

If you are using them in Aether Raids offense, on Astra Season, have a bunch of Elimines, and you are willing to wait, I would wait for S/R Far Save for Hector: Brave Warrior and A/S Far Save for Idunn: Divine Demon. If not all of those requirement applies, you can just give them A/R Far Save to them now. While those two armor units are not exactly fast, they can be decently fast in Aether Raids offense with the right set up and avoid a decent amount of doubles naturally, so I think it is worth waiting for those Far Save skills if you are willing to go all out on them.

If you really do not want to wait, then I would go with Hector: Brave Warrior since he is less vulnerable in general and he already has more investment. Idunn: Divine Demon is faster than Hector: Brave Warrior, so I think she is better off waiting for a Far Save skill that increases Spd, even outside the context of Aether Raids offense.

Edited October 23, 2022 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, XRay said:

Hm... I lean towards +Res in this case, but I guess going with +Atk should be fine too, since while she is likely to fail Dragon Wall from time to time, it does not happen so often that you need +Res. Worst case scenario, you can always Ascend the other Asset later if you really want to. I still have not used any Florets yet before I quit since I have not found it necessary, so I assume you are in the same boat and can just use it on favorites.

I don't really see a reason to pass up on 4 Atk on the dragon flier with the highest base Atk stat when she already has 64 Res. I'm not convinced that going from 64 Res to 67 Res is worth giving up 4 Atk regardless of the B skill she has.

 

2 minutes ago, Rinco said:

I got the Henriette manual from the Codes path and I'm wondering who to give Far Save.
I have some good Far Savers already, but I wanted to have one who doesn't have armor weakness, so it has to be between B!Hector or A!Idunn.

Hector is currently +8 and my most used Near Saver while Idunn is +0. Idunn has the benefit of running DC on the seal slot and having the A slot free for something else while Hector is stuck with his prf DC. 

So, right now I'm leaning more towards A!Idunn. Am I thinking on the right lines? What else would Idunn want on her A and B slots if running A/R Far Save? 0 Hardy Fighter fodder on my barracks

(I still have hopes of B!Hector showing up as a Forma someday, then I'd build him with Far Save and Hardy Fighter on HoF)

Ascended Idunn is fine. Hector will have more effective Def due to merges, but Idunn's effective Res is always going to be significantly higher, which will help against the annoying tome units with way too much Atk.

If you don't have Hardy Fighter, Idunn wants to run something like this:

Ascended Idunn [+Res]
Dew Dragonstone
[Assist]
Glacies / Iceberg
Distant Def 4
Crafty Fighter 3
A/R Far Save 3
Distant Counter (D)

Glacies deals the most damage. Iceberg doesn't hit as hard as Glacies, but punishes units with Brave weapons (or Triangle Attack) by activating on the first counterattack. Aether and Sol are options for sustain if you don't have any other source of healing.

If you don't have Crafty Fighter, you can still use her default Wily Fighter with a tier-4 Stance skill, though you'll lose out on 2 Res and at least 2 Def. Preferably, you want Bracing Stance, but Mirror Stance is also an okay option (though it'll make you more vulnerable to Firesweep Bow).

If you can offload Guard to a teammate, you can run Dragon's Ire instead of Crafty Fighter. Unfortunately, Idunn can't effectively run Def/Res Unity since she nullifies Penalties, so she's stuck with Distant Def as her best A skill, even if you can offload Dull to a teammate.

If you want to run Deflect Magic, run Distant Stance in the A slot. If you can get either Dull or Guard from a teammate, run the other Fighter skill in the B slot; otherwise, Crafty Fighter is more useful than Wily Fighter if you can get neither effect.

[XRay]

20 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

I don't really see a reason to pass up on 4 Atk on the dragon flier with the highest base Atk stat when she already has 64 Res. I'm not convinced that going from 64 Res to 67 Res is worth giving up 4 Atk regardless of the B skill she has.

I like to be sure that whatever skill a unit is using activates reliably. While she will be fine with 64 Res against most opponents, there are also lots of common units in the meta that have super high Res, such as Medeus, Rhea: Immaculate One, and Fae: Childlike Dragon depending on the mode, and Tiki: Fated Divinity is like everywhere. I have already quit when Duma: Strength and Love was released, but I assume he is somewhat popular at least in the near term as a bonus unit.

Edited October 23, 2022 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

such as Medeus, Rhea: Immaculate One, and Fae: Childlike Dragon depending on the mode, and Tiki: Fated Divinity is like everywhere.

Mediuth never appears in the Arena.

I'm also pretty sure I've never seen Fallen Rhea in the Arena. Save tanks generally don't appear in the Arena since they can't really keep up with their teammates (outside of Brave Edelgard).

Legendary Fae can't land a follow-up attack when initiating combat, which makes her tankable, and she's less likely to run Dragon Wall herself to tank the counterattack from Naga.

I haven't actually run into Brave Tiki yet, but I wouldn't be using Naga against her anyways since Tiki has effective damage and a guaranteed follow-up. If neither unit has a Res Asset, Naga is up by 1 point of Res (assuming you can nullify Tiki's Menace skill, like with Chill Def/Res from Duo Nina). If both have a Res Asset, their Res is tied (since Tiki has a superboon, whereas Naga does not). There's really no reason to try to contest Res with Tiki in the first place.

 

1 hour ago, XRay said:

I have already quit when Duma: Strength and Love was released, but I assume he is somewhat popular at least in the near term as a bonus unit.

I've run into him in the Arena a few times already, and Naga chunks him for 2/3 of his health pretty reliably while taking very little on the counterattack. Duma doesn't actually get any Res from his weapon or his C slot, which already sets him back 13 points of Res and more than makes up for the fact that a Duo Duma with a Res Asset (which no one runs unless they gave him a floret) has 8 base Res over Halloween Naga. He's also unlikely to be running Atk/Res Ideal or Distant Stance in the A slot, which gives Naga a minimum of 3 more points of Res over him (Mirror Stance grants the most Res of the skills Duma is likely to use).

Against Duma with a Res Asset, Naga is up at least 8 points of Res, and against Duma without a Res Asset, Naga is up at least 12 points of Res.

[Faellin]

Seeing as I just got a Volke pity breaker on the new Grima banner, and I was originally planning to forma soul him. My priority has changed. Since his base kit is perfectly functional

Would a mix phase Shinon work by chance? Something like building around speed smoke 4 and his close counter pref weapon? And if so, what kind of other skills should I aim for?

Edited October 24, 2022 by Faellin

[Ice Dragon]

5 hours ago, Faellin said:

Would a mix phase Shinon work by chance? Something like building around speed smoke 4 and his close counter pref weapon? And if so, what kind of other skills should I aim for?

Dual-phase isn't the best since ranged units lack stats to tank with, but you can probably make it work well enough in PvE modes, especially if you commonly use units like Nifl or Flayn.

An ideal dual-phase build would probably look like this:

Shinon [+Spd]
Double Bow
[Assist]
Deadeye
Atk/Spd Finish 4
Spd/Def Tempo 3 / Special Spiral 3 / Spd Preempt 3
Spd Smoke 4
Null Follow-Up 3 / Atk/Spd Solo 3

but Atk/Spd Finish 4 isn't available in Hall of Forms yet, which is a bit disappointing.

As far as grabbing skills from Hall of Forms, I'd probably go for this:

Shinon
Whitecap Bow+ [Spd]
Rally Atk/Spd+ / Harsh Command+ / any other Rally+
Ruptured Sky
Atk/Res Finish 4 / Atk/Spd Solo 4 / Atk/Spd Ideal 4
Spd/Def Tempo 3 / Spd Preempt 3
Spd Smoke 4

Ruptured Sky is there because he already has Deadeye, and Ruptured Sky is the next-most-expensive skill in the slot.

Atk/Res Finish is an okay substitute for Atk/Spd Finish, but it might be better to just grab something else depending on how much you're willing to invest in this Shinon outside of Hall of Forms. Atk/Spd Solo fits with Double Bow's Solo condition and provides the most stats without a downside. Atk/Spd Ideal is there because it's expensive and it pairs with Whitecap Bow if you need to use it as a temporary build for a challenge map.

I don't have Special Spiral listed in the B slot because it's relatively cheap compared to the other options, but you can still grab it if you need it.

[XRay]

11 hours ago, Faellin said:

Would a mix phase Shinon work by chance? Something like building around speed smoke 4 and his close counter pref weapon? And if so, what kind of other skills should I aim for?

An alternative build to aim for is turn him into a Sweeper, since having lots of Sweepers is good for dealing with problematic units in Arena Assault. I personally recommend sticking with Whitecap Bow in Hall of Forms since the only way to get it is through Grails and you only have so many copies to give out, but you could also consider just going for Ninja Yumi directly so you do not have to spend Orbs to get it later. Even if his Atk stat gets outdated one day, as long as he wins the Spd check, he will still be able to Sweep slow tanks by dealing a lot of true damage.
Ninja Yumi
Reposition
Ruptured Sky
Flashing Blade — Atk/Spd Finish
Windsweep — Watersweep
Fatal Smoke
Null Follow-Up
I lean slightly more towards Flashing Blade for cancelling out foe's Guard to trigger Ruptured Sky, but Atk/Spd Finish is fine too since it deals a bit more true damage as well as giving a stat boost to help him Sweep foes with more Spd, but the trade off is that he will not trigger Ruptured Sky as easily. With Flashing Blade, he will deal 36 true damage and trigger Ruptured Sky once against foes with Guard. With Atk/Spd Finish, he will deal 44 true damage, but he will not trigger Ruptured Sky against Guarded foes.

For the actual skill aquisition in Hall of Forms:
Whitecap Bow — Ninja Yumi
(Any high SP Assist)
Ruptured Sky
Flashing Blade — Atk/Res Finish
Spd/Def Tempo — Spd Preempt
Fatal Smoke
I lean towards Flashing Blade since Atk/Spd Finish is not available yet, but Atk/Res Finish will work too. Windsweep and Watersweep are relatively cheap, so I would aim for Spd/Def Tempo or Spd Preempt.

[DefyingFates]

I have a +Atk Brave Tiki at the moment with her base kit + Blue Flame & DCD. What should her Ascended Asset be, Res?

Thanks in advance, all!

5 hours ago, XRay said:

Spd Preempt

Spd Preempt for Shinon? That's curious, who else can use it other than B!Byleth herself? Thanks again!

[Ice Dragon]

19 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I have a +Atk Brave Tiki at the moment with her base kit + Blue Flame & DCD. What should her Ascended Asset be, Res?

Definitely Res. Brave Tiki's ability to uncharge the opponent's Special at the start of combat depends on a Res comparison, so Atk and Res are easily her two most important stats. (And it's worth switching her C skill to Atk/Res Menace because of this.)

 

21 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Spd Preempt for Shinon? That's curious, who else can use it other than B!Byleth herself? Thanks again!

Unlike Brave Byleth who uses Spd Preempt primarily for the Vantage effect, Shinon uses Spd Preempt primarily for its unconditional +4 effective Spd. The Vantage effect is good enough as a secondary effect that it's at least competitive with other B skills that grant two stats and an additional effect if you're going to be using Shinon as a dual-phase unit.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Spd Preempt for Shinon? That's curious, who else can use it other than B!Byleth herself? Thanks again!

Tempo and Preempt are the only two expensive skills I can think of that is worth inheriting. I think Tempo is slightly better, since it also debuffs Def and makes Special triggers more reliable.