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

[Humanoid]

Now that I have four copies of Attuned Peony (and will probably end up with even more after the VG and AHR banner), I'd be keen to hear similar advice to the above for her. I note the following preferences:

- As always, I have a heavy preference for highly mobile, player phase units
- The skills should ideally be useful for both melee and ranged units
- The skills should be bridgable such that Peony would be able to pass along the Special, A, B, C and X skills at the same time

I believe that's going to make the skill selection pretty narrow, because it cuts everything down to things that are useful for fliers and player-phase infantry. My knowledge of skills is very outdated, but at a guess:

Special - Can only be Ruptured Sky

A - Uhh, I don't really see anything other than Life and Death as a side-grade, have I missed anything obvious? I suppose I could settle for a flier exclusive skill and just pass Peony's native Unity to infantry instead.

B - Looks like it'll be the generics like Brash Assault, Desperation, Escape Route and Wings of Mercy. Or like, Seal Spd.

C - Literally looks like only Smokes and Menaces?

Edited March 5 by Humanoid

[Ice Dragon]

On 3/5/2024 at 12:41 AM, Humanoid said:

Now that I have four copies of Attuned Peony (and will probably end up with even more after the VG and AHR banner), I'd be keen to hear similar advice to the above for her.

Armors and cavalry don't have access to Oath Echo, so I'll only give skill recommendations for infantry and fliers. Note that Peony struggles with finding skills that are generally useful for infantry, so you're likely to waste some inheritance slots when giving Oath Echo to infantry:

• Special:
  • Ruptured Sky
  • No Quarter: Usable by sword, lance, and axe units and is typically the strongest 3-cooldown Special.
• Passive A:
  • Flared: Only usable by fliers, it's the most offensive options for them and is usable by both melee and ranged units.
  • Clash 4: Typically more useful on fliers than on infantry, but is limited to only melee units. Can be useful with the teleportation effect from Oath Echo, but outside of game modes where stat penalties are common, you're more likely to want Flared on fliers and Finish on infantry.
  • Catch 4: Only usable by fliers, it's generally considered to be weaker than the other options due to having no non-stat effect. However, the stronger options aren't usable by staves.
  • Boost 4: Only useful on dual-phase and enemy-phase units.
  • Still Water 4: Use with Sabotage 4 and/or Ploy 4.
  • Peony notably doesn't have any good options for this slot that are usable by player-phase infantry, as she doesn't have access to Finish 4 or Remote, and even though Boost 4 is usable with dual-phase infantry, Finish 4 is still typically better than Boost 4 for this role.
• Passive B:
  • Assassin's Strike: Does lots of damage. Only usable by physical units.
  • Flow Desperation: Grants Desperation and Null Follow-Up. Only usable by melee fliers.
  • Desperation 4: Flow Desperation is strictly better, but Desperation 4 is usable by all classes.
  • Gambit 4: Very strong, but requires specific other skill effects to function.
  • Brash Assault 4: Does Brash Assault 4 things.
  • Quick Riposte 4: Does Quick Riposte 4 things.
  • Escape Route 4: Escape Route 4 is slightly outdated, but Canto (1) can still be useful for infantry. Fliers, however, have access to Near Trace and Far Trace 4, which are generally better, especially since Oath Echo grants some teleportation.
  • Near Trace 3: Near Trace 4 doesn't exist yet, so this is the best you can do for melee Canto. If you're intending to duplicate Near Trace, you're better off waiting for the tier-4 skills to be released first.
  • Sabotage 4: Very strong, but requires high Res.
  • Infantry again have access to a lot of really good infantry-exclusive skills that Peony can't supply, so she'll be of limited use to both melee and ranged infantry in the B slot. Gambit 4 is pretty much the only one that has a good chance of being optimal for units that can use it, but it does require specific builds to work.
  • Peony also unfortunately doesn't have access to Far Trace 4 for ranged fliers and Occultist's Strike for magical units.
  • Aerial Maneuvers overlaps with Oath Echo's teleportation, even if Oath Echo's teleportation is weaker, so it's generally better to run Flow Desperation with Oath Echo instead of Aerial Maneuvers.
• Passive C :
  • Rein Snap: Generally the best option for melee fliers. Oath Echo helps with the fact that Rein Snap doesn't provide stat bonuses.
  • Hold: Ranged fliers don't have access to Rein Snap, so Hold is the next best thing.
  • Smoke 4: Smoke is really the only option for infantry other than Ploy 4, but it's generally outclassed by the tier-4 Oath and Rouse skills and the infantry-exclusive skills.
  • Menace: Similar to Smoke 4, this is also a bit outdated. However, it does give you an option to get stat bonuses without team support.
  • Ploy 4: Very strong, but requires high Res.
  • Peony again struggles to have good picks for infantry in this slot because Oath 4 is made redundant with Oath Echo, so Pledge, Incite, and the Pulse skills (and Ploy 4 on units with high Res) are typically preferred.

Edited March 9 by Ice Dragon

[Humanoid]

Thanks for that. It increasingly sounds like trying to accommodate for infantry is a fool's errand and that I'm probably better off using my Rearmed infantry or regular inheritance to build any such units.

With that in mind, and having a look at my 3-4* options, I'll probably aim towards getting options that work for both Zephia, Arion and, uh, future good common green and grey fliers. It looks pretty straightforward then.

What I'm able to do with what I have on hand is Desperation 4 from Tea Lysithea and Flared Sparrow from CYL Gullveig. It is extraordinarily frustrating though that if I were to sack both, I would be wasting the Atk/Spd Oath 4 from both of them. On reflection, it would be much better to spend a single Mythic Gullveig instead, reserving the others for Attuned Triandra instead as her base kit is extremely non-bridgable (even if I only have two copies). And Zephia can just settle for a random Far Trace 3 from a manual somewhere.

(The other hitch in this plan is that I don't even have *a* Mythic Gullveig, let alone enough to necessitate an entire rack. I am five pulls away from sparking my first one, however, should I choose to spark her over M Alear.)

Edited March 5 by Humanoid

[Flying Shogi]

On 3/4/2024 at 2:01 PM, Ice Dragon said:

I'll go through all of the options (that are worth duplicating) that can be passed from Reinhardt to other movement types:

Thank you for putting together the list. Reinhardt can pass off more skills than I expected. 

On 3/4/2024 at 2:01 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Passive B:

• To infantry and armors:
  • Armors also have a lot of competition in this slot with the many Fighter skill options, even if you give them one of these skills, they probably won't use it often or at all.

Yeah, this one has been a little tricky. Nino comes with Bold fighter but Arcane Thunder renders that redundant so I've been scratching my head on this one. 

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

Yeah, this one has been a little tricky. Nino comes with Bold fighter but Arcane Thunder renders that redundant so I've been scratching my head on this one. 

If you're using her for player phase, then you're probably looking at running Special Fighter 4, which grants Guard and adds Noontime's effect to any triggered Special. Note that the biggest downside of Special Fighter, though, is the fact that it doesn't grant any stats. However, you probably want to wait to see what Bold Fighter 4 and Daring Fighter 4 have when they're released. If you don't want to wait, you can always go with Brash Assault 4 or Desperation 4 as placeholders if you have the spare resources.

On enemy phase, you can pick between Special Fighter 4, Vengeful Fighter 4, and Savvy Fighter 4 or wait to see what Crafty Fighter 4 brings when it's released.

[Flying Shogi]

14 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

If you're using her for player phase, then you're probably looking at running Special Fighter 4, which grants Guard and adds Noontime's effect to any triggered Special. Note that the biggest downside of Special Fighter, though, is the fact that it doesn't grant any stats. However, you probably want to wait to see what Bold Fighter 4 and Daring Fighter 4 have when they're released. If you don't want to wait, you can always go with Brash Assault 4 or Desperation 4 as placeholders if you have the spare resources.

On enemy phase, you can pick between Special Fighter 4, Vengeful Fighter 4, and Savvy Fighter 4 or wait to see what Crafty Fighter 4 brings when it's released.

Ideally, I'd like to run something dual phased but given her movement type, I'm leaning a little towards the enemy phase so Special Fighter seems like the best fit right now but I'm not in a rush so I'll just wait and see.

[Ice Dragon]

On 3/5/2024 at 6:47 AM, Humanoid said:

Thanks for that. It increasingly sounds like trying to accommodate for infantry is a fool's errand and that I'm probably better off using my Rearmed infantry or regular inheritance to build any such units.

It completely escaped my mind that Gambit 4 is usable by Peony and only has weapon-type restrictions and no movement-type restrictions.

As such, it's probably the best B skill Peony has access to that she can give to human melee infantry, though that still comes with the caveat that Gambit 4 requires specific skill effect combinations to function.

[DefyingFates]

On 3/9/2024 at 10:17 AM, Ice Dragon said:

It completely escaped my mind that Gambit 4 is usable by Peony and only has weapon-type restrictions and no movement-type restrictions.

As such, it's probably the best B skill Peony has access to that she can give to human melee infantry, though that still comes with the caveat that Gambit 4 requires specific skill effect combinations to function.

She can also copy Potent for non-Armors, but I don't know how applicable that would be for a skill still so rare.

[Humanoid]

Good to keep in mind, though I suspect even a couple years down the line there still won't be any bridging possibilities for Gambit nor Potent. 😞

A tangential question though: if I were to attempt to build a modern highly-merged flier team consisting of say, Zephia, Arion and Axe Peony, who would be the logical fourth unit? And what key support skills come to mind? Soaring Guidance immediately comes to mind, but I'm not sure what else would really make the team shine.

[Ice Dragon]

5 hours ago, Humanoid said:

A tangential question though: if I were to attempt to build a modern highly-merged flier team consisting of say, Zephia, Arion and Axe Peony, who would be the logical fourth unit? And what key support skills come to mind? Soaring Guidance immediately comes to mind, but I'm not sure what else would really make the team shine.

The team is missing a unit with either overwhelming damage output or sufficient bulk to deal with modern Save tanks and other annoyingly bulky units. The issue is that there aren't many that are particularly easy to get and merge.

For damage output, you're looking for someone like Duo Seidr, Wind Claude, or possibly Legendary Elincia. Brave Gullveig might also work, and you might be able to get away with a well-built Spring Ashe. Duo Micaiah has the damage output, but I'm not confident that she can take a counterattack since her weapon has no defensive effects whatsoever.

For bulk, the first unit that comes to mind is Rosado, and the second is Spring Maria. However, you might be able to make Areone pull this off if you can get him Wyvern Rift from Rosado, though Areone doesn't have any defensive effects on his weapon to synergize with it.

Alternatively, you might want to run a debuffer or other support-heavy unit, which might let you get away with offensive units that aren't as oppressively strong to deal with bulky opponents. Rearmed Plumeria and Halloween Sophia have the high Res to run Sabotage-Ploy builds, and Hortensia has a variety of buffs and debuffs on her exclusive C skill. Duo Micaiah can probably serve double duty here as an attacker as long as she isn't dying to counterattacks, as can Ninja Camilla. If you don't mind discarding her exclusive weapon, Spring Plumeria can also do this with Spring Linhardt's new Carrot Bow, though the optimal B and C skills to pair with it don't exist yet (Sabotage A/D 3 and Spd/Res Ploy 3).

 

With Areone already granting the party Charge, other mobility support effects are a bit less important, and even more so if you give everyone Atk Oath Echo. Soaring Guidance is okay, but since it doesn't grant any boosts to the user, you should ideally only give it to support units (namely Peony on this team). Hortensia also grants Canto (1) to allies, which can also be useful if you aren't running Trace skills on your other units (or if you want to run something other than Trace, like the tier-4 Poison Strikes).

Edited March 10 by Ice Dragon

[Sil/phire]

its the last day of the hall of forms, but am i missing anything for Julia here:

W: Dark Scripture

Special: Flare

A: Remote Mirror

B: still trying to find A/R Tempo 4

C : A/R oath 4

 

Also opted for this offensive Ethlyn:

W: clever dagger

S: Lethality

A: flared sparrow

B: Assassin's Strike

C  A/S oath 4

any ideas for a different c? is Pledge available for fliers?

[Humanoid]

8 minutes ago, Sil/phire said:

any ideas for a different c? is Pledge available for fliers?

Nope, infantry only. Alternatives would be Deadly Miasma for pure offense (and it's also quite a bit rarer), or Guidance/Soaring Guidance for support. If you have Soaring Guidance support on her team, that's an even bigger argument for Miasma I suppose.

Also, unless you're saving up every Lara for merges, I'd also be tempted to grab Florid Knife (locked to Masked Sothe) instead of Clever Dagger.

 

14 minutes ago, Sil/phire said:

W: Dark Scripture

Maybe grab Nabata Beacon since there's no downside.

[Sil/phire]

Thank you! ill try to see if i can get that dagger

[DefyingFates]

Is Remote Sparrow still relevant or is it only good for infantry units these days? I got an Ascended Merric and want to know who to feed him to. Incite Atk/Spd is my main focus but the only Heroes I have who can copy both are:

R!Ophelia (2 copies), R!Sonya and R!Ginnungagap (both at 1 copy + potentially 1 from Divine Codes 5).

Then when looking at who can get Incite Atk/Spd I have the above and:

R!Lucina (1 + 1 from Divine Codes 5), R!Lif (x3), R!Chrom (x2).

So I guess Lif is the logical option if I just want Incite. I asked something like this a month or two ago but are his base skills worth giving to anyone? Ice suggested holding onto him to store any Atk/Def skills for a future tanky unit (and then we got Mauvier) but I'd like to know if that's still worth doing or if I should focus on using him to copy newer skills (he has A/D Clash 4 + A/D Menace at the moment).

Thanks in advance, everyone!

I don't get why Fliers can't get Incite, that would have made things SO much simpler...

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Is Remote Sparrow still relevant or is it only good for infantry units these days?

Remote Sparrow is the safest A skill for ranged units, even when they have access to Flared Sparrow and even when they're running Fleeting Echo.

It's always up to you how much bulk you're willing to sacrifice for damage and vice versa, and there isn't really a right answer.

It is worth noting, though, that Remote Sparrow has significant distribution (1 unit in the standard pool, 2 in the Legendary/Mythic/Emblem pool, and 7 Special Heroes) compared to only 2 units with Incite Atk/Spd (1 in the standard pool, 1 in the LME pool), so skipping out on being able to duplicate Remote Sparrow isn't too big of loss.

 

3 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

I asked something like this a month or two ago but are his base skills worth giving to anyone?

Arcane Eljudnir is always worth considering giving to slow sword units that don't have an exclusive weapon or have an outdated exclusive weapon if you're using one.

Atk/Def Clash 4 currently competes with Atk/Def Prime 4 for the A slot on slow melee cavalry and fliers and will also compete with a future Flared Sturdy. However, Prime 4 is only really competitive on units that have a means of not dropping dead to magic (or if you can ensure they'll only fight physical units on enemy phase), and Flared has no effect on enemy phase, so despite the fancy alternative options, Clash 4 is always going to at least remain competitive with them.

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Remote Sparrow is the safest A skill for ranged units, even when they have access to Flared Sparrow and even when they're running Fleeting Echo.

It's always up to you how much bulk you're willing to sacrifice for damage and vice versa, and there isn't really a right answer.

It is worth noting, though, that Remote Sparrow has significant distribution (1 unit in the standard pool, 2 in the Legendary/Mythic/Emblem pool, and 7 Special Heroes) compared to only 2 units with Incite Atk/Spd (1 in the standard pool, 1 in the LME pool), so skipping out on being able to duplicate Remote Sparrow isn't too big of loss.

 

Arcane Eljudnir is always worth considering giving to slow sword units that don't have an exclusive weapon or have an outdated exclusive weapon if you're using one.

Atk/Def Clash 4 currently competes with Atk/Def Prime 4 for the A slot on slow melee cavalry and fliers and will also compete with a future Flared Sturdy. However, Prime 4 is only really competitive on units that have a means of not dropping dead to magic (or if you can ensure they'll only fight physical units on enemy phase), and Flared has no effect on enemy phase, so despite the fancy alternative options, Clash 4 is always going to at least remain competitive with them.

Thanks as always, Ice!

I jumped the gun and gave Peony Atk/Spd Prime 4, No Quarter, Flared Sparrow and Atk/Spd Oath 4. Oops.

But my plan now is to feed Merric to R!Ophelia so she gets both Remote Sparrow and Incite Atk/Spd, then use both units to load R!Lif up on Flared Sparrow, No Quarter and Incite Atk/Spd so I can then use him as as All-In-One fodder supply for Cavs (and a source of Eljudnir + Incite for Sword Infantry + Cavs). I hope everyone considers that a good use of fodder! Please stop me if it's not!

Edit: New idea - is it worth giving Remote Sparrow & Incite Atk/Spd to Ginnungagap instead? Granted I need to reach the end of a Divine Codes path to get a second copy, but it's one with Heather (more Remote Sparrow) and B!Soren (Flare + Mag FU) so... that's worth it, I think? I don't know if BK's fodder is considered worthy now though.

But at least this way I have Ophelia free to store Atk/Spd Finish 4 + Atk/Spd Pledge. Not that I have any illusions of getting any other Infantry Rearmed/ Attuned Heroes to pass them along to...

Edited March 19 by DefyingFates

[Ice Dragon]

4 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

is it worth giving Remote Sparrow & Incite Atk/Spd to Ginnungagap instead?

As long as you plan on pulling more copies of Ginnungagap.

 

4 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

I don't know if BK's fodder is considered worthy now though.

Special Fighter 4 is currently the standard B skill for slow armors that already have a guaranteed follow-up on their weapon (and aren't running Hardy Fighter), provided there isn't too much overlap in skill effects. Fast armors have a few more options (Savvy Fighter 4, Gambit 4, etc.), though it still mostly depends on what skill effects are overlapping with other slots.

D/R Far Trace is also the standard C skill for slow Far Save armors. You typically want to run D/R over either of the Atk options unless you're extremely confident about the defensive stat you're not getting.

[DefyingFates]

11 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

As long as you plan on pulling more copies of Ginnungagap.

That's what I wound up doing so I may go for her Divine Codes path down the line. But Heather's on there for 800 and Incite is now on my R!Lif (along with Fatal Smoke 4) so I'm not TOO worried about getting more of her. Not that I can afford to be.

11 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Special Fighter 4 is currently the standard B skill for slow armors that already have a guaranteed follow-up on their weapon (and aren't running Hardy Fighter), provided there isn't too much overlap in skill effects. Fast armors have a few more options (Savvy Fighter 4, Gambit 4, etc.), though it still mostly depends on what skill effects are overlapping with other slots.

D/R Far Trace is also the standard C skill for slow Far Save armors. You typically want to run D/R over either of the Atk options unless you're extremely confident about the defensive stat you're not getting.

Odd that despite BK's stats and A skill his kit is tailored for slow Armors. Huh. I don't have any of those I want to level up at the moment but we'll see if any interesting Armor units show up as GHB or TT rewards down the line I guess.

But for now, my B!Eirika has been updated! She's using No Quarter + Flared Sparrow + Incite Atk/Spd on top of her default kit. May she not let me down!

[Ice Dragon]

After shedding blood and tears to get a second copy of Ike so that I could give Laguz Friend to a skill duplicator, I'm now trying to figure out who would best be able to use it. And unlike Potent, which has some weird trade-offs compared to its competitors, Laguz Friend seems to fill an actually worthwhile niche.

For reference because I'm not reading through this thing's skill description ever again, Lagus Friend 4's effect is:

• -5 Atk to opponent in combat
• If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on unit's attack and has max cooldown of 3 or higher OR if unit is equipped with a Special that activates on opponent's attack:
  • Half non-Special percentage damage reduction nullification against self, excludes AoE Specials
  • Flat damage reduction equal to 20% of the higher of unit's Def and Res, excludes AoE Specials
  • -2 Special cooldown before opponent's first attack
• If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on unit's attack and has max cooldown of 3 or higher:
  • Additional damage equal to 20% of the higher of unit's Def and Res when Special activates, excludes AoE Specials
  • Non-Special percentage damage reduction nullification when Special activates, excludes AoE Specials
• If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on opponent's attack:
  • Additional damage equal to 20% of the higher of unit's Def and Res on first attack after Special activates, same round of combat only
  • Non-Special percentage damage reduction nullification on first attack after Special activates, same round of combat only

It's usable by all infantry units (including staves in case you really wanted to give it to a staff unit).

 

As far as offensive Specials go, the best options are those that have damage reduction as a secondary effect and have a cooldown of exactly 3 (or 4 with +1 Special charge rate). Dragon's Roar is the only skill that fits this bill on its own and only on units that don't have the Slaying effect on their weapon.

If you don't need damage reduction or have Emblem Ike Engaged to provide damage reduction against ranged opponents, this can be done with any regular offensive Special with the correct cooldown.

Units that I'm currently eyeing for this category are:

• Mila with Dragon's Roar
• Duo Askr with Ignis
• Gotoh with Glacies (or Aether and Pledge)

Annoyingly, Askr and Gotoh both have the Slaying effect, which prevents them from being able to use Flare for additional passive healing. Gotoh at least has his C slot open to run Pledge, which lets him use Aether if the opponent doesn't have Guard or Tempo. Gotoh is also pretty notable for being one of the few units with Null C-Disrupt on his weapon.

I didn't have the budget to pull for merges for New Year Male Kana on his banner, but he also looks like a good candidate for this if you don't mind his lower Def stat.

 

For defensive Specials, this is a straight-up upgrade to Shield Pulse 3 and can be used on any build that would otherwise run Shield Pulse 3. It's also probably better than Buffer 4 most of the time. The obvious users of this are anyone with Godlike Reflexes or any version of Ice Mirror or Negating Fang.

I assume this also works for Miracle and Life Unending, but I don't think the flat damage reduction is worth losing half of your percentage damage reduction since you won't get the additional effects from activating your Special often enough to be worth it. However, the fact that Life Unending fully charges itself at the start of turn 1 does mean she can pretty much always activate Emblem Ike's Engage effect on the opponent's first attack.

I'm a bit curious as to just how well this would actually work on Legendary Corrin since her Negating Fang II has the convenient effect of automatically fully charging itself before the opponent's first Brave attack. Summer Fjorm is also notable for having Null C-Disrupt on her weapon, like Gotoh, but because she needs her Special fully charged at the start of combat, she awkwardly has to keep Time's Pulse 4 in her C slot to make her build work properly.

 

Anyone else have any novel ideas on what to do with this or any use cases I might have missed?

[Flying Shogi]

20 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Anyone else have any novel ideas on what to do with this or any use cases I might have missed?

If you're looking for more suitable units for the skill, I've seen some push for Diamant. His weapon disables non-Special percent based DR so the con of Laguz Friend isn't applicable to him assuming no support.  

I've also seen people wanting to give CYL Dimitri Laguz Friend but I'm not convinced it'll beat Blue Lion Rule, especially if he's trying to tank magic. If he's tanking physical damage, then they might perform similarly. I haven't done the math to support this so it's just my speculation.

Edited March 31 by Flying Shogi

[Ice Dragon]

18 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

If you're looking for more suitable units for the skill, I've seen some push for Diamant. His weapon disables non-Special percent based DR so the con of Laguz Friend isn't applicable to him assuming no support. His weapon, Laguz Friend(assuming the -2 count acceleration effect also activates when the unit initiates combat), and Time's Pulse 4 also allow him to fire off an Ignis on either phase. Under the same assumption, the same setup will also allow him to trigger Aether on player phase since his weapon has a -1 count acceleration on his combat initiations.  

Ignis (and by extension, Aether) won't work on player phase because Laguz Friend's Pulse effect occurs before the opponent's first attack, not at the start of combat, which means that the Pulse effect will trigger after Diamant's first attack on player phase. Diamant needs to be able to make a follow-up to make use of the Pulse effect, and since he's designed to kill in a single hit, he doesn't have a guaranteed follow-up.

 

18 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

I've also seen people wanting to give CYL Dimitri Laguz Friend but I'm not convinced it'll beat Blue Lion Rule, especially if he's trying to tank magic. If he's tanking physical damage, then they might perform similarly. I haven't done the math to support this so it's just my speculation.

A maxed out Brave Dimitri has 73+6 Def without team support, which comes out to 30 total flat damage reduction from his weapon and Laguz Friend combined.

Without Res boosts from his passive skills, he only has 31 Res and reduces the opponent's Atk by 5. That's enough to barely cover the visible Atk stat on most units, which means the damage taken will be a bit less than the total in-combat Atk and additional damage that the opponent has. That's not terribly promising, but because almost half of the damage mitigation comes from flat damage reduction, just a little bit of percentage damage reduction from Guard Echo, an Engaged Emblem Ike, or team support will make a big difference, even with the non-Special ones halved.

He can also swap all of his passive skills over to Def/Res variants, which will allow him to almost match an attacking unit's Atk boosts from passive skills and means that a little bit of percentage damage reduction can probably cover the rest of the difference.

Seems like a fragile balance, though, so it'll probably require more rigorous calculations with actual enemy setups. I'm mostly curious how it'll fare against something like Rearmed Reinhardt.

[Flying Shogi]

On 3/31/2024 at 5:22 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Ignis (and by extension, Aether) won't work on player phase because Laguz Friend's Pulse effect occurs before the opponent's first attack, not at the start of combat, which means that the Pulse effect will trigger after Diamant's first attack on player phase.

Looks like you quoted me before I deleted the part about Ignis and Aether after seeing the interaction. It's as you said, Laguz Friend doesn't activate at the start of combat. Here's the video if anyone's interested:

Spoiler

 

 

[DefyingFates]

I just lost all of my Orbs so really hope we still get another 300 this month so I can pull on the Engage HoF. We won't get another calendar until next week, will we?

Also, in preparation for the upcoming Engage HoF, I'm crossing my fingers for OG!F!Alear to be featured so I can turn her into a godsword. I don't think we've gotten any new relevant skills for her in the past month so is the following still an optimal set-up for her? And are there any better/ other strong alternatives I should get instead? Thanks in advance everyone! I've listed a second best option for each slot and I'd appreciate your feedback on whether those really are "second best" or better too, if possible. Thanks again!

Quote

(Liberation & Rally+)
No Quarter (second best: GLR)
Atk/Spd Finish 4 (second best: Atk/Spd Prime 4)
Potent 4 (second best: Spurn 4)
Incite Atk/Spd (second best: Atk/Spd Pledge)

S Slot: would probably be DC (especially if I get Atk/Spd Finish) or an Atk/Spd boosting one (more likely with Prime).

P.S. Is Null/ Petalfall Blade+ still the best weapon available from HoF for swordies at the moment? Thanks again - again!

Edited April 3 by DefyingFates

[Ice Dragon]

7 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Also, in preparation for the upcoming Engage HoF, I'm crossing my fingers for OG!F!Alear to be featured so I can turn her into a godsword. I don't think we've gotten any new relevant skills for her in the past month so is the following still an optimal set-up for her? And are there any better/ other strong alternatives I should get instead? Thanks in advance everyone! I've listed a second best option for each slot and I'd appreciate your feedback on whether those really are "second best" or better too, if possible. Thanks again!

P.S. Is Null/ Petalfall Blade+ still the best weapon available from HoF for swordies at the moment? Thanks again - again!

This month's update should add Kagetsu's Reversal Blade to the pool. While Null Blade and Reversal Blade are probably best-in-slot from Hall of Forms, they're both available from the standard summoning pool, so it might be more worthwhile to grab something harder to get like Florid Cane.

For the A slot, while Atk/Spd Finish 4 is going to be the better skill for general use, Atk/Spd Prime 4 is harder to get unless you have a convenient way to duplicate it. You can easily get 2 stacks of Prime on Alear by herself from her weapon and C slot, so it isn't too difficult to max out the effect.

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

For the A slot, while Atk/Spd Finish 4 is going to be the better skill for general use, Atk/Spd Prime 4 is harder to get unless you have a convenient way to duplicate it. You can easily get 2 stacks of Prime on Alear by herself from her weapon and C slot, so it isn't too difficult to max out the effect.

Hmm, true. I could also pair her with Gerik to get the full Prime effect even if she's isolated after Charging. Thank you very much! I currently have 4 Peonies to clone Prime and 4 Alcrysts to clone Finish, but as you say Finish seems to be the better skill for her so... I guess I'll just see if I'm lucky enough to get either one and go from there. What do you think about the rest of my build, does it (or the alternatives) look good?

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

so it might be more worthwhile to grab something harder to get like Florid Cane.

That's the one with Canto, isn't it? I'll keep an eye out, thanks again!