Help with team composition

[ScarletSylph]

Hey guys, I need help in making a team for attack and defence arena. A team for going through main story lunatic is also appreciated.

Units I have:

5* - Takumi, Lucina

4* - Roy, Eirika, Eliwood, Effie, Nino, Olivia, Laslow, Caeda, Adult tiki, Henry, Donnel, Oboro, M robin, Cecillia, Cordelia, Est, Kagero, Saizo, Serra, Lissa, Matthew, Raven

3* - Lonqu, Hana, Stahl, Florina, Selena, Raigh, Jagen, Bartre, Niles, Gaius, Azama

2* 3 beginning heroes, Subaki, Felicia, F robin, Narcian, Wrys, Virion, Gunter, Sophia

I was originally using Lucina, Takumi, Raven, M Robin but then got rekted by a Kagero since all my units are infantry.

Also I can't list the boon/bane because I found out about them late and I have leveled most of my 4* above characters so I can't tell what they are.

[immatx]

I'm not an expert by any means, but for defense I'd go Takumi and Lucina because they are your best units. Also throw in Nino to counter M Robin, and Olivia for unpredictability. The one thing I don't like about this is no blues, so maybe use M Robin instead of Olivia. 

For offense go Nino and Olivia as one pair, so either have them be 1/2 or 3/4. They destroy when paired together. M Robin would be good as a solid blue and Takumi counter. And Lucina as a red in my opinion would be a really balanced team. 

But whatever you end up doing, make sure it fits your play style. I really like using Julia, who is basically the same as Nino, to double nuke the other team each turn with Azura's help, but maybe that doesn't work for you. Just keep experimenting. You might stumble across a great team by accident. 

[ScarletSylph]

I have been training my Nino and I do like her atk power. I have yet to try Nino with olivia so I might try that out. Only problem I see with what you said was the same problem I had originally which was running into a Kagero. And for some reason, I don't find my M robin to be doing enough damage. He seems lackluster to me compared to what I have read online about him :S 

[eclipse]

Takumi/Lucina is a potent combo, so use them!

To figure out the rest of your team, it's best to list out what units will give you problems:

- Effie laughs at you
- Blue Robin will be an issue, but not quite as pressing as Effie
- So is Kagero
- Linde will blow up Takumi, unless you can get Lucina to deal some damage first
- Dire Thunder's gonna hurt
- Hector may be a problem, depending on Lucina's boon/bane and the map

It looks like the majority of your issues are blue, and magical.  Nino should cover most of these nicely.

For the fourth slot, Eirika - Nino already has Hone Atk, and she'll convert Eir's Hone Speed into +4 Atk.  Eir can also help to chip down Hector, should the need arise.  Running dual swords is risky in this arena, but as long as you keep Takumi/Nino safe, you should be fine.

For arena defense, swap Eir for Blue Robin, for blue coverage.

[Omegaprism]

M!Robin is, sadly, offensively underwhelming, and is really hurt by a -Atk or -Spd bane. His main strength comes from his ability to tank physical damage from red and colorless units while building up his special. He is best used as a bait-and-counter unit for archers and shuriken users. Make no mistake, that's a pretty nice tool to have, but you should always have him accompanied by someone with more killing power to do clean-up.

For your Kagero problem, I recommend training up one of your flying brave attackers. Cordelia is a pretty popular choice, and she fills the blue vacancy left by our pal Robin. Flyers are less risky to have in an offensive team, so just practice your positioning shenanigans and you'll be able to assassinate attack-oriented units with little problem.

[Katrisa]

8 hours ago, eclipse said:

It looks like the majority of your issues are blue, and magical.  Nino should cover most of these nicely.

For the fourth slot, Eirika - Nino already has Hone Atk, and she'll convert Eir's Hone Speed into +4 Atk.  Eir can also help to chip down Hector, should the need arise.  Running dual swords is risky in this arena, but as long as you keep Takumi/Nino safe, you should be fine.

I concur with Eclipse for offense.  Question is are you going to feel pain taking down reds like this, I think the answer is not too much.  Nino gets a whopping +10 attack from Eirika's buffs, and pair that with Takumi and you should be able to handle all reds and everything else.  The group would be high risk high reward.  I think your primary dangers with Eclipses proposition would be Ryoma, Adult Tiki, Tharja and Roy (or other red sword Triangle adepts).  Fortunately all of them are a bit rarer and could functionally be dealt with if you dont' take too much extra damage .

Alternatively you could go with Cordelia and Nino in which case you're creating a set of highly independent units with wider counter coverage.  Cordelia has Triangle Adept causing her to destroy reds.  Likewise with Flying she greatly aids in baiting enemies to split them allowing you to minimize damage to your party.  You do need to be very wary of her boons/banes as she's highly dependent on Attack due to having a brave lance.  Attack+ makes her an exceptional unit, while Attack- basically makes her unusable in the arena.  Nino would still be good but would no longer have a buff to consume but still would be very dangerous hugging Lucina for her +4 attack, and obliterating any blues which try to bait and kill Lucina.  Likewise when we get our adjustable skill system you could easily add a +speed or + attack buff to someone and let Nino and your team consume it for large bonuses. 

For Lunatic and leveling I would strongly consider leveling Lissa.  She provides huge heals and is rather tanky herself (though she suffers from low speed).  She's my go to healer for clearing general game content her attack + buff is also very juicy for staging critical attacks.  

[Soulkey]

not optimal (but stuff you have):

lucina

takumi

nino

bonus season hero

 

optimal:

hector

effie

lucina

+bonus season hero, atm erika (high total stats)

wish I had a hector, waaaahh :X

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2017 by Soulkey

[Skala_Bundet]

I'd agree Takumi and Lucina are characters to keep in your list. Nino is a good counter for things blue (especially common mages like Linde and M Robin). I would actually go with Effie for a final, since she can tank grays, blues and reds (and deals with your Kagero weakness). She also boosts your Arena score with her stats. If F Robin would be a bonus character you could swap her with Nino in that team (even though her low Res isn't fun... but hey... at least she hurts cavalry ).

[Katrisa]

Effie as a third core teammate is definitely an option.  The primary issue with using her would be dealing with incoming magic damage, Takumis and killing apposing tanks.  I feel like if you use Effie you're committing to some weird coverage options (not bad but weird).  In that in order to kill magic users you're basically going to throw Takumi at them or bait them into Takumi.  This will be fine for one magic user but if you have any combination of two magic users or one magic user and a Takumi you're going to be in a rather tight spot.    Currently I live in this exact tight spot with my current composition in that I deal with incoming magic damage with Cordelia and Hector.  Hector acts as magic counter tank and Cordelia acts as bait and cleanup for ranged units.  The problem with his composition with Takumi, Lucina and Effie + Bonus is he'll lack a cleanup unit.  

The obvious answer is you would pray for good bonus options and always go for a ranged or high threat flyer/horse option.  None the less I think he'd struggle a bit composition-wise with Effie.  I do think a Pivot Effie on defense would be FANTASTIC if that becomes a reality this month.  

Edited March 2, 2017 by Katrisa

[Silith13]

Takumi and Lucina are both great options so we'll have to fill up after those two. You don't have any focus heroes in yet so either Eirika or Narcien will have to take a third spot and considering your Narcien is likely only a 3 star it's going to be Eirika. At that point you are super weak against blue though especially when they have high defence so I guess Nino would be your best bet for a fourth.

 

[ScarletSylph]

Thanks for all the tips guys! Lots of good info here! I think i'll stick lucina, takumi, and nino since most of you suggest it. Then I'll train effie/cordelia/eirika and see what composition style I like.