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

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

Is that still "Pledge is better for defensive/ GLR builds, Incite is better for more offensive/ NQ builds"? Thanks!

Yeah.

With Godlike Reflexes, you're required to run one of (1) +1 Special charge rate, (2) Emblem Marth, or (3) Laguz Friend 4, and Pledge is a slot-efficient way to fulfill option 1. Even when running Emblem Marth, Pledge still has value for nullifying an opponent's Guard effect as an alternative to running Tempo.

Player-phase builds with No Quarter (or Ruptured Sky) will prefer Incite. Dual-phase builds with No Quarter (or Ruptured Sky) can go either way, with the main reason to pick Pledge over Incite in this case being as a counter to Guard.

[DefyingFates]

18 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Yeah.

With Godlike Reflexes, you're required to run one of (1) +1 Special charge rate, (2) Emblem Marth, or (3) Laguz Friend 4, and Pledge is a slot-efficient way to fulfill option 1. Even when running Emblem Marth, Pledge still has value for nullifying an opponent's Guard effect as an alternative to running Tempo.

Player-phase builds with No Quarter (or Ruptured Sky) will prefer Incite. Dual-phase builds with No Quarter (or Ruptured Sky) can go either way, with the main reason to pick Pledge over Incite in this case being as a counter to Guard.

Thank you so much! I'll keep this in mind going forward (and also take it easy on grinding HoF too, even if I only have one torch left at the moment).

Update: She now has No Quarter! I can't decide between keeping Pledge or looking for Incite. I guess I'll just see what happens on that front. Pledge is more defensive but it would also synergize with Finish and Liberation better than if Alear zoomed off with Incite...

Edited April 23 by DefyingFates

[Fire Emblem Fan]

What's a good set of skills for Young Rebecca to use? I finally got her merges and her flowers maxed out. She has Gusty War Bow, Reposition, and both Astra and Deadeye already.

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

What's a good set of skills for Young Rebecca to use? I finally got her merges and her flowers maxed out. She has Gusty War Bow, Reposition, and both Astra and Deadeye already.

Young Rebecca [+Spd / +Atk]
Gusty War Bow
[Assist]
Astra / Dragon Fang
Atk/Spd Finish 4
Special Spiral 4 / Spd/Def Tempo 4
Pulse Up: Blades / Infantry Pulse 4 / Time's Pulse 4
[any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Null Follow-Up 3 / Quickened Pulse

Young Rebecca [+Spd / +Atk]
Gusty War Bow
[Assist]
Deadeye / Luna
Atk/Spd Finish 4
Spd/Def Tempo 4 / Phys. Null Follow / Desperation 4
Incite Atk/Spd / Atk/Spd Pledge / Atk/Spd Oath 4
[any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Null Follow-Up 3 / Quickened Pulse

Tier-3 versions of Special Spiral, Tempo, and Null Follow-Up are weaker, but still viable.

[kabat]

I was thinking on updating summer thorr. Maybe Atk Oath Echo and Guidance 4?

I appreciate suggestions for improving her build.

 

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, kabat said:

I was thinking on updating summer thorr. Maybe Atk Oath Echo and Guidance 4?

I appreciate suggestions for improving her build.

Worldbreaker granting +1 Special charge rate as a Joint Drive effect is strong and relatively rare, and I don't recommend getting rid of it unless you're already running a different source of the effect, like Legendary Hinoka.

If you do decide to not run Worldbreaker, I wouldn't suggest Guidance 4, though, since it's a purely supportive effect that doesn't benefit its user. If you really want the Guidance effect, it would be better to run Soaring Echo instead since it has a smaller opportunity cost.

The current strongest skill for the slot is Spd/Res Crux, but it's new and hard to get if you didn't already get yourself a copy of it.

Optimized builds for her look like this:

Duo Thorr [+Atk]
Divine Whimsy
[Assist]
Blazing Wind / Ruptured Sky
Still Water 4 / Flared Mirror / Remote Mirror
A/R Far Trace 4 / Sabotage A/R 3
Worldbreaker / Spd/Res Crux / */Res Ploy 3 / Atk/* Oath 4
Still Water 3 / [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Res]
[empty] / Death Blow Echo / Atk Oath Echo / Soaring Echo / Fleeting Echo

Still Water should be used in both the A and Sacred Seal slots for any build running at least one of Blazing Wind, Sabotage, or Ploy. If you're not running Sabotage or Ploy, you can substitute Life and Death or one of the Atk/Res Squad Ace Sacred Seals in the Sacred Seal slot if a different unit is running the Still Water Sacred Seal.

She can also run Magic Gambit with one of Aether, Astra, Glacies, or Dragon Fang, but you'd need a source of a guaranteed follow-up from either Crux or a teammate's support effect.

[kabat]

On 4/28/2024 at 1:48 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Worldbreaker granting +1 Special charge rate as a Joint Drive effect is strong and relatively rare, and I don't recommend getting rid of it unless you're already running a different source of the effect, like Legendary Hinoka.

If you do decide to not run Worldbreaker, I wouldn't suggest Guidance 4, though, since it's a purely supportive effect that doesn't benefit its user. If you really want the Guidance effect, it would be better to run Soaring Echo instead since it has a smaller opportunity cost.

The current strongest skill for the slot is Spd/Res Crux, but it's new and hard to get if you didn't already get yourself a copy of it.

Optimized builds for her look like this:

Duo Thorr [+Atk]
Divine Whimsy
[Assist]
Blazing Wind / Ruptured Sky
Still Water 4 / Flared Mirror / Remote Mirror
A/R Far Trace 4 / Sabotage A/R 3
Worldbreaker / Spd/Res Crux / */Res Ploy 3 / Atk/* Oath 4
Still Water 3 / [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Res]
[empty] / Death Blow Echo / Atk Oath Echo / Soaring Echo / Fleeting Echo

Still Water should be used in both the A and Sacred Seal slots for any build running at least one of Blazing Wind, Sabotage, or Ploy. If you're not running Sabotage or Ploy, you can substitute Life and Death or one of the Atk/Res Squad Ace Sacred Seals in the Sacred Seal slot if a different unit is running the Still Water Sacred Seal.

She can also run Magic Gambit with one of Aether, Astra, Glacies, or Dragon Fang, but you'd need a source of a guaranteed follow-up from either Crux or a teammate's support effect.

I know her build is already good to go, but I would like to test a build that is more pve focused.

I will check some of your suggestions. Thanks!

[XRay]

15 hours ago, kabat said:

I know her build is already good to go, but I would like to test a build that is more pve focused.

I will check some of your suggestions. Thanks!

PvE builds generally follow the same principles as PvP, and the differences in most cases are relatively minor.

If your main focus is PvE and you do not really care about PvP, Spd is not as competitive in PvE as PvP (at least from what I remember when I quit; there are a few Spd demons in PvE, but those foes are few and far between), so most units with high Spd can afford to run +Atk instead for more damage. In Thórr: Sun Kissed Gods' case, this is not really relevant since she is a slow nuke, so she wants +Atk regardless.

In PvE, most maps can be cleared with two types of brain-dead teams. The more brain-dead team involves running a Save tank team with two Save tanks and two supports, and you just spam end turn until foes finish suiciding into your units. The less brain-dead team involves running a Player Phase team with a nuke and three Dancers/Singers, and you defeat up to four foes every turn (or five or six foes with Galeforcers) until you beat the map. Some maps may shut down one of those teams really hard (usually due to the boss being an extremely powerful nuke or tank), but I do not recall any map being able to shut down both team types.

If you want to play certain repetitive PvE modes with Auto Battle on, that is when you would build your units significantly different. In repetitive modes where you would use Auto Battle, enemies are on the weaker side and you have to treat the AI running your units to be a dumbass, so you want all your units to be selfsufficient dual phase units. In this case, I would run something like the following:

+Atk/Res
Divine Whimsy
(Any Rally)
Noontime — Sol — Aether
Marth: Of Beginnings
Close Foil — (Any A with Close Counter)
Mystic Boost — Guard — Seal Atk
(Any Crux)
Iote's Shield
Guard

I recommend running Rallies over positioning Assists, since there is a tiny chance that the AI might get itself stuck in a positioning Assist loop. I personally lean towards Noontime for the Special, but any healing Special is honestly fine. If you Engage her with Marth: Of Beginnings, then run Sol or Aether instead. The A slot can be any type of Close Counter, and I lean towards Close Foil; if you are worried about getting stuck due to not being able to counterattack against dragons, then Close Reversal is the next best option. I would avoid Close Salvo though due to it inflicting recoil damage. Also, do not stack Guard, so if you are able to afford Guard Echo on the X slot, do not run Guard or Seal Atk on the B slot. I highly recommend running Iote's Shield. Keep in mind you do not need to give her Emblem and Attuned Heroes, they are just nice to have.

If you like to gamble and not run Iote's Shield, or if you know for sure a series of maps does not have an archer, you can run the following instead:

+Atk/Res
Divine Whimsy
(Any Rally)
Aether
Close Foil — (Any A with Close Counter)
Brash Assault
World Breaker
Quick Riposte

Brash Assault on B and Quick Riposte on S would give her dual phase guaranteed follow-ups. Slaying, Aether, and Worldbreaker on top of dual phase guaranteed follow-ups ensure she gets healed in almost every round of combat. While you can Engage her with an Emblem Hero, in my opinion, the current two options are not that great with this setup, so I would Engage them with someone else on the team instead.

Edited Tuesday at 05:32 PM by XRay

[Othin]

Some resources I've been building up for a while but barely using:

• Rearmed/Attuned Heroes (at least one of each except Sonya and Lucina, all unused)
• Combat Manuals, especially less-recent main-pool units
• Divine Codes (never used any generation past 1 so I have 18k 3s and 22k 4s)
• Feathers
• Dragonflowers
• Heroic Grails
• Trait Fruits

In particular, I have extras of Rearmed Lif, Ophelia, Chrom, Ginnungagap, Hortensia, and Attuned Peony, so those are easiest to spare.

That in mind: what are some relatively cheap and strong builds to construct and drop onto common units for easy merge projects? I feel like an ideal case would be feeding one or two rare main-pool manuals to a Rearmed or Attuned unit to set them with a build where a common unit can inherit a complete kit without needing further premium fodder, since that's efficient and allows for duplicating the skills inherited to the Rearmed/Attuned unit.

I'm pretty set for PvE and I don't focus on Aether Raids or Summoner Duels these days, so I guess the primary mode where this would be relevant is the Arena. Builds that are also good in Aether Raids or Summoner Duels could be useful for revisiting those modes, but it's not a priority.

[Ice Dragon]

11 hours ago, XRay said:

If you like to gamble and not run Iote's Shield, or if you know for sure a series of maps does not have an archer, you can run the following instead:

Worldbreaker and Guard Echo are not compatible with each other. Echo skills cannot be equipped with a non-weapon exclusive skill.

 

8 hours ago, Othin said:

In particular, I have extras of Rearmed Lif, Ophelia, Chrom, Ginnungagap, Hortensia, and Attuned Peony, so those are easiest to spare.

I'll be including tier-4 skills that aren't from the standard summoning pool as long as their tier-3 skill is available from the 4-star standard pool on the chance that you have/get a spare copy or the skill is added to the standard summoning pool in the near future.

Special

• Ruptured Sky
• No Quarter
• Flare
• Lethality

Passive A:

• Life and Death 4 (Life and Death 3 from Sothe and Guy)
• Flared Sparrow / Remote Sparrow / Surge Sparrow / Flash Sparrow (Swift Sparrow 2 from Luthier and Kiragi)
• Remote Sturdy / Sturdy Surge (Sturdy Blow 2 from Athena)
• Atk/Def Catch 4 (Atk/Def Catch 3 from Sylvain)
• Atk/Res Catch 4 (Atk/Res Catch 3 from Vanessa)
• Atk/Spd Hexblade (Sorcery Blade 3 from Lapis)
• Firestorm Boost 3 / Earthfire Boost 3 / Fireflood Boost 3 (Fire Boost 3 from Ross)
• Earthfire Boost 3 (Earth Boost 3 from Boey and Atlas)

Finish and Clash skills can be added to this list once their tier-3 versions become more easily accessible. Atk/Def Clash 3 will be available from Young Frederick from the Grail shop once he's added if you don't mind using Grails.

Atk/Spd Catch 4 can also be used if you don't mind using Grails on Zephia for Atk/Spd Catch 3. Similarly, Still Water 4 also has Still Water 3 on 2 units in the Grail shop.

Flared Sturdy doesn't exist yet, but would be one of the best options for Rearmed Lif once released.

Distant Counter is currently available from 4 units in the 4-star SR pool, so Distant Counter upgrades are viable here if you have extra copies of Distant Counter sitting around.

Passive B

• Sabotage */R 3 (Sabotage Res from Bastian)
• Escape Route 4 (Escape Route 3 from Cecilia)
• Desperation 4 (Desperation 3 from Shanna)
• Brash Assault 4 (Brash Assault 3 from Bartre)
• Assassin's Strike / Occultist's Strike (Poison Strike 3 from Saizo)
• Guard 4 (Guard 3 from Luthier)
• Phys. Null Follow / Mag. Null Follow (Null Follow-Up 3 from Kagetsu)

Seal 4 skills are also viable here, though the skills themselves are rather niche.

Passive C

• Deadly Miasma (Savage Blow 3 from Camilla)
• Atk/* Ploy 3 (Atk Ploy 3 from Bastian)
• */Res Ploy 3 (Res Ploy 3 from Hestia)
• Atk Smoke 4 (Atk Smoke 3 from Kaze and Lara)
• Spd Smoke 4 (Spd Smoke 3 from Chad)
• Def/Res Smoke 3 (Def Smoke 3 from Rath)
• Atk/Def Oath 4 (Atk/Def Oath 3 from Kamui)
• Atk/Res Oath 4 (Atk/Res Oath 3 from Dorothy)
• Incite Atk/Res (Rouse Atk/Res 3 from Laurent)

If you don't mind using Grails for the tier-3 skills, you also have access to Infantry Pulse 4 and almost all of the other tier-4 Oath and Rouse skills.

Edited Tuesday at 06:07 PM by Ice Dragon

[Othin]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Worldbreaker and Guard Echo are not compatible with each other. Echo skills cannot be equipped with a non-weapon exclusive skill.

 

I'll be including tier-4 skills that aren't from the standard summoning pool as long as their tier-3 skill is available from the 4-star standard pool on the chance that you have/get a spare copy or the skill is added to the standard summoning pool in the near future.

Special

• Ruptured Sky
• No Quarter
• Flare
• Lethality

Passive A:

• Flared Sparrow / Remote Sparrow / Surge Sparrow (Swift Sparrow 2 from Luthier and Kiragi)
• Remote Sturdy / Sturdy Surge (Sturdy Blow 2 from Athena)
• Atk/Def Catch 4 (Atk/Def Catch 3 from Sylvain)
• Atk/Res Catch 4 (Atk/Res Catch 3 from Vanessa)
• Firestorm Boost 3 / Earthfire Boost 3 / Fireflood Boost 3 (Fire Boost 3 from Ross)
• Earthfire Boost 3 (Earth Boost 3 from Boey and Atlas)

Finish and Clash skills can be added to this list once their tier-3 versions become more easily accessible. Atk/Def Clash 3 will be available from Young Frederick from the Grail shop once he's added if you don't mind using Grails.

Atk/Spd Catch 4 can also be used if you don't mind using Grails on Zephia for Atk/Spd Catch 3.

Flared Sturdy doesn't exist yet, but would be one of the best options for Rearmed Lif once released.

Distant Counter is currently available from 4 units in the 4-star SR pool, so Distant Counter upgrades are viable here if you have extra copies of Distant Counter sitting around.

Passive B

• Sabotage */R 3 (Sabotage Res from Bastian)
• Escape Route 4 (Escape Route 3 from Cecilia)
• Desperation 4 (Desperation 3 from Shanna)
• Brash Assault 4 (Brash Assault 3 from Bartre)
• Assassin's Strike / Occultist's Strike (Poison Strike 3 from Saizo)
• Guard 4 (Guard 3 from Luthier)
• Phys. Null Follow / Mag. Null Follow (Null Follow-Up 3 from Kagetsu)

Seal 4 skills are also viable here, though the skills themselves are rather niche.

Passive C

• Deadly Miasma (Savage Blow 3 from Camilla)
• Atk/* Ploy 3 (Atk Ploy 3 from Bastian)
• */Res Ploy 3 (Res Ploy 3 from Hestia)
• Atk Smoke 4 (Atk Smoke 3 from Kaze and Lara)
• Spd Smoke 4 (Spd Smoke 3 from Chad)
• Def/Res Smoke 3 (Def Smoke 3 from Rath)
• Atk/Def Oath 4 (Atk/Def Oath 3 from Kamui)
• Atk/Res Oath 4 (Atk/Res Oath 3 from Dorothy)
• Incite Atk/Res (Rouse Atk/Res 3 from Laurent)

If you don't mind using Grails for the tier-3 skills, you also have access to Infantry Pulse 4 and almost all of the other tier-4 Oath and Rouse skills.

Thanks! It looks like the B skills are the trickiest to work with, so I may need to get more flexible with them. I'd probably need to use Divine Codes for them, outside of units that have them already.

Looking through some of the options...

• Hortensia: Already has a full inheritance set, really. Between Arcane Charmer, Rescue/Rescue+, Glitter of Light, and Poetic Justice, that fills all five slots without even room for Ark/Spd Catch 4. So she wouldn't really benefit from trying to duplicate skills - the way to use her for building a staff unit would just be to have them inherit that kit and then inherit any A/C slots directly from something else.
• Alcryst: Has a weapon, easily inherited A+C slots, and a special that goes well with that build. The B slot is the big question, but buying the Ascended Fir manual would cover it.
• Plumeria: Her weapon+A+B+C skills make for a pretty coherent support build, although I'm not sure who would get much out of it. Replacing the A slot is also an option.
• Ginnungagap: Has good weapon+special+A skills, but I'm not sure they fit well together. Probably wants debuff skills alongside them.
• Peony: Doesn't have much to offer other than her Echo skill. Can that be duplicated by passing it to a Rearmed unit? I forget the specifics of how those unit types interact.
• Lif: Atk/Def Clash+Menace are decent, but there's so many units who want B skills I don't have.
• Chrom: Similar to Lif but without a C skill.
• Eitr: Alarm Atk/Spd is usable, but her B skill certainly isn't.
• Ophelia: Viable A/B skills. I wonder what would be the best use for her.
• Tana and Ivy: Gotta say, they both have neat C skills.
• Robin: Armors are a whole mess with this approach, huh.

I'll have to give this some more thought. Crossing Rearmed+Attuned skill lineups seems fun, if it works properly.

[XRay]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Worldbreaker and Guard Echo are not compatible with each other. Echo skills cannot be equipped with a non-weapon exclusive skill.

Ah shoot. I will edit.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Othin said:

Peony: Doesn't have much to offer other than her Echo skill. Can that be duplicated by passing it to a Rearmed unit? I forget the specifics of how those unit types interact.

Nope. Arcane weapons and Echo skills can only be inherited from their original owner.

 

Also, a few more options for the A slot that I forgot to add (will edit into my previous post, too):

• Life and Death 4 (Life and Death 3 from Sothe and Guy)
• Flash Sparrow (Swift Sparrow 2 from Luthier and Kiragi)
• Atk/Spd Hexblade (Sorcery Blade 3 from Lapis)

Still Water 4 is an option if you don't mind spending Grails, as there are 2 units in the Grail shop with it.

[Othin]

25 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Nope. Arcane weapons and Echo skills can only be inherited from their original owner.

 

Also, a few more options for the A slot that I forgot to add (will edit into my previous post, too):

• Life and Death 4 (Life and Death 3 from Sothe and Guy)
• Flash Sparrow (Swift Sparrow 2 from Luthier and Kiragi)
• Atk/Spd Hexblade (Sorcery Blade 3 from Lapis)

Still Water 4 is an option if you don't mind spending Grails, as there are 2 units in the Grail shop with it.

Gotcha, that makes sense.

Out of the sorts of skills we've been discussing, are there any that you'd say would be a good fit for duplication through Lif, Chrom, Ophelia, Ginnungagap, or Peony, alongside their existing key skills?

[Ice Dragon]

15 minutes ago, Othin said:

Out of the sorts of skills we've been discussing, are there any that you'd say would be a good fit for duplication through Lif, Chrom, Ophelia, Ginnungagap, or Peony, alongside their existing key skills?

Lif is in the annoying situation where all of the skills he wants to duplicate either don't exist or are stupidly hard to get. Flared Sturdy, A/D Near Trace 4, and Incite Atk/Def don't exist yet, and Alarm Atk/Def is only available from Summer Ephraim. Even Sturdy Surge has poor distribution.

If you're still looking to make use of him sooner instead of later, he can be used for Atk/Def Catch 4 or Atk/Def Clash 4, Atk/Def Menace, and your choice of B skill.

 

For everyone else, you're basically looking at the tier-4 Blow skills (namely Remote and Flared) in the A slot since the tier-3 skills are easy to get and they're useful on most units. Chrom and Peony have the option of duplicating Clash 4, though Atk/Spd Clash 3 requires Grails, and Distant A/S Solo if you have spare copies of Distant Counter or are willing to give up one inheritance slot for it.

In the C slot, Oath 4, Pledge, Alarm, and Incite are pretty much always worth duplicating, though you'll need Grails for some stat combinations until they're added to the standard 4-star pool. Deadly Miasma is also a decent pick to duplicate on Peony. While none of the Rein skills have budget sources, they have enough distribution that it isn't terribly hard to get spare copies of them from time to time, so Peony can also be used to duplicate Rein Snap or Crux skills if you have spare copies of Rein.

The B slot is pretty open because most of the top-end premium skills (Trace, Dodge, etc.) don't have distribution on budget options for their tier-3 skills. The tier-4 Null Follow-Up and Poison Strike skills are the exceptions, though Assassin's Strike itself is still hard to get.

[Othin]

15 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Lif is in the annoying situation where all of the skills he wants to duplicate either don't exist or are stupidly hard to get. Flared Sturdy, A/D Near Trace 4, and Incite Atk/Def don't exist yet, and Alarm Atk/Def is only available from Summer Ephraim. Even Sturdy Surge has poor distribution.

If you're still looking to make use of him sooner instead of later, he can be used for Atk/Def Catch 4 or Atk/Def Clash 4, Atk/Def Menace, and your choice of B skill.

 

For everyone else, you're basically looking at the tier-4 Blow skills (namely Remote and Flared) in the A slot since the tier-3 skills are easy to get and they're useful on most units. Chrom and Peony have the option of duplicating Clash 4, though Atk/Spd Clash 3 requires Grails, and Distant A/S Solo if you have spare copies of Distant Counter or are willing to give up one inheritance slot for it.

In the C slot, Oath 4, Pledge, Alarm, and Incite are pretty much always worth duplicating, though you'll need Grails for some stat combinations until they're added to the standard 4-star pool. Deadly Miasma is also a decent pick to duplicate on Peony. While none of the Rein skills have budget sources, they have enough distribution that it isn't terribly hard to get spare copies of them from time to time, so Peony can also be used to duplicate Rein Snap or Crux skills if you have spare copies of Rein.

The B slot is pretty open because most of the top-end premium skills (Trace, Dodge, etc.) don't have distribution on budget options for their tier-3 skills. The tier-4 Null Follow-Up and Poison Strike skills are the exceptions, though Assassin's Strike itself is still hard to get.

Hmm. I do have non-trivial amounts of some Trace, Rein, and Dodge skills, as well as Distant Counter. As for Atk/Spd Clash, I don't think that has a Grail source yet? NY Panne is a 4* seasonal.

I wonder about other ways to have Rearmed and Attuned Heroes cooperate to make builds easier. Have one inherit a lower-level Trace skill or something, so a unit inheriting from both of them can get part of the skill from one and the other part from the other, while still having room for other skills from both. My first thought was doing this with Reinhardt and Ivy, but that build would want to go on a fast blue tome flier, and I don't see any easily-mergeable ones.

There's also the option of Rearmed and Attuned Heroes whose skills go together well on their own. Nino can fill in the missing B slot from Alcryst on an infantry bow unit, although Fleeting Echo isn't as useful alongside Arcane Darkbow. Ingrid and Caeda could make a nice combination for a sturdy lance flier, if there was a cheap source of Def/Res Oath 2. Triandra has a few options for fitting into builds, but it would be difficult to get more than one of her passive skills.

And of course there will probably be a new Rearmed Hero in a week, so I'm inclined not to commit to anything until I see what options are there. But it's certainly interesting to think about in the meantime.

One potentially interesting pair is Ganglot + Caeda, since they're the only melee infantry right now. You could split a Dodge skill between them, and... wait, while I was looking for Divine Code sources of Dodge skills, I noticed Severa, and how her Buffer 4 and Godlike Reflexes skills don't have any particularly rare prerequisites. That seems to fit pretty well into this?

[Othin]

Can you further duplicate regular skills by having a Rearmed/Attuned hero pass them on to another Rearmed/Attuned hero? I found a duplicate Winter Yunaka in my barracks, who seems very useful for budget skill duplication - I could feed her to Rearmed Chrom or Ginnungagap since I have a few copies of each, but I'm curious if I can then pass on those skills to someone else for further duplication.

I also have extras of Brave Gullveig, so I can spread Flared Sparrow around pretty freely, although making use of her Atk/Spd Oath on the same build is trickier.

Thinking about which units to build:

• With so many spare sword cavalry Rearmed units, building a sword cavalry seems logical, and Kent feels like a clear pick. He could easily benefit from getting Arcane Devourer, Flared Sparrow, and Assassin's Strike from Chrom+Yunaka.
• Hortensia is loaded with good skills to pass down to any staff unit. Some recent common ones are Saul, Dwyer, Cornelia, and Anniversary Lucius. I'm not sure if there's much difference between the options.
• If I go for the Ganglot+Severa Spd tank plan, I imagine the best fit would be Fallen Linus.
• Ginnungagap's dagger could go to Patty or Perne for someone recent, or Cath or Colm to add more colors to the mix since red and colorless are the easiest for me to cover right now. Or multiple of them, if there turns out to be a reason. None of them can use Flared Sparrow, though.
• I'm being more careful with the ones I only have one copy of, but given that Reinhardt, Tana, and Ingrid are all in the manual shop, they're all available for refreshing if necessary. So using one of those could be an option for rounding out the lineup while still being able to expect to keep the option of calling on the Rearmed unit in question later if necessary.

[Ice Dragon]

6 hours ago, Othin said:

One potentially interesting pair is Ganglot + Caeda, since they're the only melee infantry right now. You could split a Dodge skill between them, and... wait, while I was looking for Divine Code sources of Dodge skills, I noticed Severa, and how her Buffer 4 and Godlike Reflexes skills don't have any particularly rare prerequisites. That seems to fit pretty well into this?

I'm not a particularly big fan of Buffer 4 because it drops the flat damage reduction effect from Shield Pulse in exchange for all of the common Dodge 4 effects, which means the only thing Buffer 4 actually does that a different Dodge 4 skill doesn't do is give you 2 stacks of Pulse on turn 1, which is rather weak in comparison.

It works as a budget Dodge 4 skill if all you're looking for are the Dodge 4 effects, but that's really it.

 

3 hours ago, Othin said:

Can you further duplicate regular skills by having a Rearmed/Attuned hero pass them on to another Rearmed/Attuned hero? I found a duplicate Winter Yunaka in my barracks, who seems very useful for budget skill duplication - I could feed her to Rearmed Chrom or Ginnungagap since I have a few copies of each, but I'm curious if I can then pass on those skills to someone else for further duplication.

Yes.

 

3 hours ago, Othin said:

Thinking about which units to build:

If you need the merges for Arena scoring, Kent is the best 4-star sword cavalry in the standard summoning pool for Arcane Devourer. However, if you don't need Arena score, a +1 Bride Flavia is going to be stronger than a +10 Kent.

From the 4-star standard summoning pool, Saul is currently the best staff unit due to having the highest combination of Atk and Res stats. If you don't mind dropping their exclusive weapons, Young Lucius is the strongest option from the Grail shop with Cornelia slightly behind him. If you want a purely offensive unit, Summer Larchel is basically identical to Hortensia, but with Atk and Spd flipped, but is a 4-star Special Hero.

If you're handing out Godlike Reflexes with Arcane Downfall, then Valentine Effie and Fallen Linus are basically equivalent to each other, having the exact same offenses (both have a superboon in Spd), with the only difference being that Effie has slightly more balanced defenses and Linus is more lopsided towards Def. Linus will be passing up on an exclusive weapon, though.

If you don't mind being less efficient with your fodder in exchange for an arguably better unit, Kagetsu with Arcane Devourer is currently the fastest unit in the 4-star standard summoning pool that can run Godlike Reflexes.

If you want to hand out Arcane Void with Flared Sparrow, the best option right now is Spring Ashe, who is better than any of the other options even if you can only get him to +1. Infantry units are going to be stuck getting Remote Sparrow at best, but they'll actually have stats that can beat Ashe if you can get them to higher merges. While Pirn does have the best stats among budget infantry daggers, he has a really good exclusive weapon that you might not want to give up, which leaves Patty, Cath, Colm, and Lara as the best options (or really, only options) for their respective colors.

Edited Wednesday at 06:41 PM by Ice Dragon

[Othin]

40 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I'm not a particularly big fan of Buffer 4 because it drops the flat damage reduction effect from Shield Pulse in exchange for all of the common Dodge 4 effects, which means the only thing Buffer 4 actually does that a different Dodge 4 skill doesn't do is give you 2 stacks of Pulse on turn 1, which is rather weak in comparison.

It works as a budget Dodge 4 skill if all you're looking for are the Dodge 4 effects, but that's really it.

 

Yes.

 

If you need the merges for Arena scoring, Kent is the best 4-star sword cavalry in the standard summoning pool for Arcane Devourer. However, if you don't need Arena score, a +1 Bride Flavia is going to be stronger than a +10 Kent.

From the 4-star standard summoning pool, Saul is currently the best staff unit due to having the highest combination of Atk and Res stats. If you don't mind dropping their exclusive weapons, Young Lucius is the strongest option from the Grail shop with Cornelia slightly behind him. If you want a purely offensive unit, Summer Larchel is basically identical to Hortensia, but with Atk and Spd flipped, but is a 4-star Special Hero.

If you're handing out Godlike Reflexes with Arcane Downfall, then Valentine Effie and Fallen Linus are basically equivalent to each other, having the exact same offenses (both have a superboon in Spd), with the only difference being that Effie has slightly more balanced defenses and Linus is more lopsided towards Def. Linus will be passing up on an exclusive weapon, though.

If you don't mind being less efficient with your fodder in exchange for an arguably better unit, Kagetsu with Arcane Devourer is currently the fastest unit in the 4-star standard summoning pool that can run Godlike Reflexes.

If you want to hand out Arcane Void with Flared Sparrow, the best option right now is Spring Ashe, who is better than any of the other options even if you can only get him to +1. Infantry units are going to be stuck getting Remote Sparrow at best, but they'll actually have stats that can beat Ashe if you can get them to higher merges. While Pirn does have the best stats among budget infantry daggers, he has a really good exclusive weapon that you might not want to give up, which leaves Patty, Cath, Colm, and Lara as the best options (or really, only options) for their respective colors.

Hmm. Honestly, I think that still compares fine to Repel or Close Call while being easier to access, and something like Spurn 4 would be even more of a challenge.

As for 4-star seasonals, they're not something I'd want to go for here. I don't have extra copies of many of them, and I wouldn't want to spend the orbs looking.

I'm open to swapping out exclusive weapons - units still have the option to switch back to them, and inheriting other skills will make them better at it. That said, I wonder if Dwyer might have a better shot at offering something a bit more distinct than a weaker version of Hortensia. For Effie vs Linus, Linus does at least cost fewer grails, but I can afford either of them.

Kagetsu is an interesting possibility. Given that I don't currently have extra copies of any unit that can duplicate Godlike Reflexes, I think I'm better off sitting on it for now, then seeing how things look later on. In the longer term, inheriting something like Godlike Reflexes + Buffer + D Bonus Doubler + Guard Echo from Caeda and Arcane Devourer from Chrom seems efficient enough, especially given that I have four Chroms.

Speaking of Arcane Devourer, I'm noticing that Fee is another option for using it alongside Yunaka's skills. Although I don't have enough copies to merge her up yet. For Arcane Void + Flared Sparrow, I guess that's something I can worry about next time we get a candidate.