How are you using feathers?

[Frontiersmann]

Hi all,

 

I'm wondering if anybody has personal guidelines for how they use feathers. I'm getting about 1300 every Arena league (every week?), so I will have 20k feathers in early March. 

I'm low IAP, but the possibility that I pull a 5* Tharja or Naga Tiki is causing me to rethink unlocking potential on those cards. 

Other contenders in my stable for a 5* upgrade are Felicia, Saizo, Corrin (F), jagen (seriously) and Cecilia. I also have a 3* Olivia that I'm considering if I get another 2k feathers, but I could pull a 4* Olivia tomorrow so I'm a little torn on that too. None of these have appeared so far as 5* pulls in any event that I know of. But I'm looking through the abilities they unlock and in many cases I'm thinking that stats would be the main reason for unlocking potential. Going from attack +2 (passive ability) to attack +3 (passive ability) is not super exciting. 

I'm also considering increasing ten different characters from 3* to 4*.

How would you use 20k feathers? 

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Frontiersmann

[escotanner]

I'm promoting all my lower star guys so that I can save up my feathers afterwards all the way up to 20k.

[Vaximillian]

I'm saving to finally promote Sharena to 5⋆.

[Othin]

I've been using them to get at least one of each character up to at least 3*, and been working on getting as many as possible up to 4*. Haven't done any 5* upgrades yet; I don't plan to work on saving up for that until I run out of 4* upgrades to make.

[BANRYU]

If there's no one you want to promote out of blatant favoritism (*cough*) then I highly suggest saving as many feathers as possible, since the tiers and who's good and whatnot could all radically change once the Inherit Skill thing comes out.

[Kotg Everest]

Promoted everyone below 3*, then promoted some that i like or needed(like Narcian), now im savind for 5*

[Happiest]

20 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

I'm saving to finally promote Sharena to 5⋆.

This ^

Also, thinking about upgrading Saizo and Cecilia to 5*

[Anacybele]

I'm going to upgrade Freddy with my first 20,000 feathers. He's the only top favorite character I have and I must have my 5 star Freddy Bear. <3

[Frontiersmann]

5 minutes ago, BANRYU said:

 blatant favoritism (*cough*)

I really like Tiki.

Tharja is a little goofy but she's also my first pull, and my first character who hit level 40. 

I'm trying to suss out some deeper strategy to build good teams even if the stats aren't as high as a 5* might be.

If I can identify good strategies, then it might inform which characters I upgrade. 

So far my favorites are...

1. Dance + escape route for some great offensive shenanigans. (Olivia plus Marth, Cecilia or both)

2. On paper Hone Cavalry and Fortify Cavalry look awesome together. (Gunter and Jagen)

3. General mobility. My first non-starter team has a 3* Bartz and 3* Subaki. Bartz and Subaki have Swap and Reposition which allow me to outmaneuver the AI most of the time.

4. Putting Corrin (F) on a team of mages and dragons to capitalize on all those debuffs.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

I haven't promoted anyone to 5* yet because I want to promote my MVP, but no one's been that level of standout yet. If I was going blatant favouratism, then I'd probably go with F!Corrin. In the meantime, I've been promoting a few selective 3* to 4* in order to possibly cover Arena bonus multiplier, as well as possible holes in my bench's ability to deal with the Grand Hero Battles' fairly strict requirements. One other consideration is seeing if I pull another M!Robin who doesn't have garbage IVs (-Spd is the worst, since he gets doubled by everyone, their mother, and their mother's mother). If it's something really good, I'd be willing to drop 22k feathers just to have a decent mage.

 

In that same vein, I'd say have a look at your Tharja and determine her IVs. If they're really good, consider promoting her because she's the kind of mage who can carry your Arena team for a long time, getting you more feathers for other characters.

[Frontiersmann]

What are IV's?

[Vaximillian]

5 minutes ago, Frontiersmann said:

What are IV's?

Individual values. Basically, a unit can have a bonus to one stat (compensated by a penalty to some other stat) or have neither, in which case they conform to their bases.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Individual Values or natures. Both terms are used pretty individually. Most units will have a stat that's higher than usual and one that's lower than usual (there's the oddball one who swings around a neutral build that has neither, though). Nuking mages tend to like either +Atk or +Spd and -Def or -Res, depending. There's a bunch of calculators online dedicated to helping people figure them out through level 1 or 40 stats.

They make a pretty huge difference when it comes to unit viability. To use my M!Robin as an example, his neutral Spd is 29. Mine is -Spd, so he only has 25 Spd, which gets wrecked by everything.

[Frontiersmann]

I lean pretty heavily on Tharja right now. Putting her back at level 1 would be annoying. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

You have an Olivia, though. A 5* can plow through the first 34 levels in 1-2 hours without breaking a sweat; doubly so with Olivia support. It'll be a little bit more effort to get her to 40 from there, but if you're already leaning on her now, imagine her with +15 distributed across her stats, plus some extra 5* skills.

For reference: I've been training a Chrom from level 1 and with some support, he's been able to kill enemies 10 levels higher than him for the past while. This is slowing down around 26-27, but it's still no biggie for him to challenge stuff 4-5 levels above him.

[Frontiersmann]

Interesting. Looks like she's got -Atk and +Def.

[Katrisa]

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

If I was going blatant favoritism, then I'd probably go with F!Corrin

I currently am eyeballing Female Corrin and Nino for a 5 star upgrade.  They're both currently 4 star.  I think Nino has a better chance at Improving my current composition, while Corrin will improve my defense.  My problem with both is their point totals both lower my current composition or cause composition problems with my team.  

Considering all of these factors its likely I'll pick out a 5 star upgrade which is fun.

Probably the toughest issue will be waiting for a good roll.  My Nino is weird with +HP and -Res (not ideal) while Corrin has a weird -Def and +Res Allowing her to take middling hits from most things.  Still I'd like to spend my 5 star on a better roll.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Katrisa

[Thor Odinson]

I'm waiting for Ayra to exist first.

Was saving all my orbs for her too, but Olwen decided to show up in the focus.

Though if she ends up in a focus and I pull a 5* of her straight up, if I ever get 4* Abel I really like how he plays. Or I'll just make Sharena a 5.

I've promoted  the 3 lords, Wrys (praise Rehabilitate), and Nino to 4 star.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Thor Odinson

[De Geso]

I promote lots of 3* units so they can be fairly viable, rather than having 1 super good 5 star unit and a bunch of shitty 3 star units. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

1 hour ago, Frontiersmann said:

Interesting. Looks like she's got -Atk and +Def.

Hmmm, that's unfortunate. She might still be okay because she's good at doubling, but probably need to check benchmarks for that. Likely questionable for receiving the feathers, but still better than a number of other candidates.

 

47 minutes ago, Katrisa said:

I currently am eyeballing Female Corrin and Nino for a 5 star upgrade.  They're both currently 4 star.  I think Nino has a better chance at Improving my current composition, while Corrin will improve my defense.  My problem with both is their point totals both lower my current composition or cause composition problems with my team.  

Considering all of these factors its likely I'll pick out a 5 star upgrade which is fun.

Probably the toughest issue will be waiting for a good roll.  My Nino is weird with +HP and -Res (not ideal) while Corrin has a weird -Def and +Res Allowing her to take middling hits from most things.  Still I'd like to spend my 5 star on a better roll.

Hah, my oldest F!Corrin has the exact same nature. She struggles a lot, especially since I don't have any fast nukers to complement her, so I've been really hesitant to promote her. I ended up grabbing a second one in my most recent pull, but she's +Spd (really cool, as 37 Spd is frightening) and -Atk (Whyyyyy? Almost every character of significance I pull is -Atk!).

[Sire]

I initially used Feathers and went on a promoting spree to get characters up to 4* status. The cost from 1* -> 2* and 2* -> 3* are practically insignificant, but 3* -> 4* is a bit expensive at 2000 Feathers. Then, there is that dreaded milestone of getting a 4* unit to 5* status, costing 20k...

Right now, I have a fair amount of characters I can mess around with and train, so currently I am saving my feathers so I can finally upgrade somebody to 5* status. I'm currently planning on 5-starring Nino (Balanced), but other contenders are Sharena, Lissa, and Olivia (all balanced). Of course, I would love to 5* everybody and begin working on "endgame merging" since I am getting a fair amount of duplicates, but unlocking potential to 5* status is extremely expensive.

20000 Feathers is way too much and I would say 10000 Feathers would be far more reasonable. Alas, consumer-friendly practices are probably not that common in Gacha games as the business practice likely prefers to make as much money as possible by making things difficult to achieve. Who needs the small fishies when one can catch whales?

Also, to save on character management and look forward to the endgame, make sure you know your character's natures (IV Values, Boon & Bane). This can help when dealing with duplicate characters on who to promote, to merge, or send home. I'm personally keeping duplicates so I can merge people at 5* rank, but it is a long and lonely road...

[DLNarshen]

I used about 8,000 feathers to upgrade Sharena, RobinM, Narcian, and adult Tiki from 3 to 4 stars.  Now I'm saving up to upgrade either Tiki or Narcian to 5 stars...I'm torn between who should get them first. 

[SniperGYS]

I used my 20,000 on my Oboro.

She is probably not the best Oboro you can get, but is the only one I got

I regret nothing, I love my 5 stars Oboro.

Next feathers probably will go to Alphonse, Sharena and Anna, at least for them to be a 4 stars

[Roflolxp54]

Honestly, given the amount of feathers a F2Per can get right now, increasing rarity from 4-star to 5-star is not worthwhile. Getting the 20 corresponding Great Badges isn't too bad but the additional 20K Hero Feathers for increasing the rarity of 1 single 4-star unit to a 5-star one is a huge barrier for anybody not whaling on the game. I'd only do this for a character I absolutely love and have (Lyn's my most favorite unit but she's a 5-star-only unit to start with, and I haven't done any draws after getting a single batch). Plus, I'm still missing certain types of units, like a blue tome user (which should be remedied with Ursula's Grand Hero Battle).

20K feathers for 1 5-star unit is nothing to scoff at as you could've had 10 3-star units be raised into 4-star ones with the same amount of feathers, badges cost aside.

[LuxSpes]

1 hour ago, Roflolxp54 said:

Honestly, given the amount of feathers a F2Per can get right now, increasing rarity from 4-star to 5-star is not worthwhile. Getting the 20 corresponding Great Badges isn't too bad but the additional 20K Hero Feathers for increasing the rarity of 1 single 4-star unit to a 5-star one is a huge barrier for anybody not whaling on the game. I'd only do this for a character I absolutely love and have (Lyn's my most favorite unit but she's a 5-star-only unit to start with, and I haven't done any draws after getting a single batch). Plus, I'm still missing certain types of units, like a blue tome user (which should be remedied with Ursula's Grand Hero Battle).

20K feathers for 1 5-star unit is nothing to scoff at as you could've had 10 3-star units be raised into 4-star ones with the same amount of feathers, badges cost aside.

The bolded part is why I'm seriously considering not using my feathers on getting a 4* to 5*. I'm currently sitting on ten 5*, all of which I got from summons, with most of them being top tier units. Also, 4 stars, while obviously not being as good their 5* version, is in a lot cases still very usable. Meanwhile, 3* can get a pretty good boost from becoming 4* and it's way cheaper to do so.

So until they either lower the feather requirements or make feather more available, I'll probably just use them on my 3* characters.

(regarding the feather availability, the 10-15 you get daily is an absolute joke. Assuming they're your only source of feathers, you'd need to wait 14 days to promote a single 2*,  4 and half months for a 3* and a whopping 3 years and 8 months to get enough to promote a 4*. They're basically a non-factor unless you want to promote a 1*.)