How do you play?

[JJ48]

No, I'm not asking for advice, or anything like that.  I'm curious how you, personally, play the game.  Do you focus on the competitive aspect or the collecting?  Do you hoard your feathers and only use them for 5*ing your strongest units, or do you spend them freely on upgrading lower units?  Do you look for strong units or your favorite heroes from the series?

Personally, I'm most interested in the collecting aspect.  I just find it fun to gather all these heroes from various games, especially when I actually recognize them!  I'm currently working on getting most of my units to level 40 4*, as even with 5* units, I'm unlikely to do more than medium-well in the Arena, and I think having a wide variety of reasonably strong heroes will help me stay prepared for upcoming challenges more than having a few super-units who are out of luck in certain cases.

[NekoKnight]

I'm a little of everything. I like getting new characters but I play every section of the game to get all the resources possible. You really need to participate in the Arena if you want enough feathers to upgrade your characters, and nothing 3 star or under is really practical to use.

[hunty]

I only started playing at the end of February so I am still sort of in this in-between phase of collecting a team of decent 5* units but getting ready for competitive arena as well. I even still have like the last mission of chapter 9 on hard mode and a few chapters on lunatic left to do but 2 of my units are level 40 already and another 4 are almost maxed out as well. I should have a somewhat well-rounded team ready by the time the next arena week hits in 3 days.

Other than that FE Heroes is giving us a great deal of stuff to do currently with the gauntlet and hero battles etc. so I am definitely still in my honeymoon phase with this game and play it quite obsessively at the moment.

[Cute Chao]

Pretty much how you do. I'm in it to collect characters, and I'm not the most competitive. I try to get 1000 feathers at least in the arena a week, but I'll likely never be amongst the top ranks. I like using my favourite characters, and sometimes get vindicated by unexpected glories (yay three star Subaki able to tank the Ursula lunatic ninjas and swordie :D ). I keep wanting to use a team of male characters I find attractive but so many females are so gosh darn useful (Kagero... I now can't live without Kagero), so that will likely not come to pass xD

[De Geso]

I like building teams and watching them grow together. Making a team of 4 level 1 units (or 3 and a healer/support unit) and training them all up together is lots of fun. Of course, those teams only last until around level 30 or so before they become a chore to train.

I've cleared the whole story on all 3 difficulties so all I have to do is the training tower, might as well make some fun with it. 

[JJ48]

16 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

I'm a little of everything. I like getting new characters but I play every section of the game to get all the resources possible. You really need to participate in the Arena if you want enough feathers to upgrade your characters, and nothing 3 star or under is really practical to use.

Oh, I absolutely participate in the Arena; I just don't worry about trying to dominate in there.  I use my three swords each day, and get over a thousand feathers a week, and that's good enough for me.

[NekoKnight]

4 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Oh, I absolutely participate in the Arena; I just don't worry about trying to dominate in there.  I use my three swords each day, and get over a thousand feathers a week, and that's good enough for me.

Well shit, over a thousand feathers just from playing casually? (The max is 1500) I had to fight the majority of the battles on Advanced difficulty (not easy with level 40 Takumi's raining pain over my level 30 guys) to get the most feathers, and that was with a featured character doubling my points.

[Sire]

Gameplay wise, I play defensively. I let the enemy come to me first, and then I start my counterattack.

Overall for Heroes, I am a bit of a collector, completionist, and min-maxer. Eventually I want to have every hero (favorites come first of course), and fully outfit them for crazy synergies. I also have plenty of crazy team compositions I would love to use, but that involved getting the characters I want first and making sure they have the right natures and custom skills for the task.

I am also semi-competitive as my goal for the Arena is to make it within the top 10k per season. This may not always happen, but it is a goal to strive towards.

Two main things hold me back from enjoying this game even more though:
1. Lack of Feathers (Promoting a unit to 5* status sucks.)
2. Lack of Orbs (Since I am min-maxing, my "usable hero pool" is smaller than most. While I have like 70 characters or so in my roster [not counting heroes I previously retired], only about 20 of them are actually optimized in terms of natures. Then out of that, only 4 of those are 5* units.)

I am thinking about the ultra long term, so I want to focus more on 5-starring heroes (with merges) than having a 4* army. This "optimization" and "efficiency," while somewhat effective, definitely does put a damper on my overall enjoyment of the game. Sometimes I just want to mess around with whatever, but then my min-maxing self kicks in and tells me not to.

[MaskedAmpharos]

My plan was to build up a strong enough meta Arena team to consistently rank in top 5k (I'm not confident I can consistently get into top 1k without spending money) and then after that just collect characters I like and make all kinds of fun themed teams. I've managed to reach my first goal of consistently ranking 5k, so now I'm working on a cavalry team to take to Arena just for fun :D I currently already have 5* Reinhardt and 5* Eldigan, and I'm training up a 4* Gunter atm. Still deciding on the last member (but I'm between Abel and Cecilia). 

[Ryuke]

-I try to use up my stamina. keyword: try

-I train all my unit to level 20 dont ask why... because its better than training level 20 to 40

-I waste duel sword. dont really refill unless quest or chasing ranks.

-I clear all Grand Hero battle.

-Got almost all the stones. Saving some of the easier Lunatic when I need to waste stamina and have no time to play.

-Gauntlet... ugh.. I try to play every 30 mins. (like never happens) Though its pointless when you run outta flag.

Attempt to do every quests. So... starting to train the level 20 to 40 (4*) ... because you should never sleep on them... when you need them for hero battle. (Aiming to do bias then 1 of each kind)

 

Edited March 10, 2017 by Ryuke

[immatx]

Currently Im trying to play competitively and scrounge for resources. None of the people I really want are in the game yet, so I'm not worried about collecting yet. 

For strategy I played defense first then quick counter. My team is Julia/Azura/Roy/Effie, so I try to knockout 2 units with Julia in one turn, have Effie tank with Roy to help position her, and have Julia take out the others on the next turn. 

[eclipse]

Style: Debuffs everywhere.

Overall: Get a unit, level him/her up, preferably in well-balanced batches of four. That way, I should have an answer to whatever the game throws at me.  Currently leveling Subaki/Cecilia for Ursula's Grand Hero battle.  Will definitely need to down a few stamina potions for this.

[JJ48]

3 hours ago, NekoKnight said:

Well shit, over a thousand feathers just from playing casually? (The max is 1500) I had to fight the majority of the battles on Advanced difficulty (not easy with level 40 Takumi's raining pain over my level 30 guys) to get the most feathers, and that was with a featured character doubling my points.

Upon further examination, I may have been thinking of the first couple weeks, when I actually had some of the featured characters (also, when it was possible to have a win streak of more than 1).  Still 500 or so feathers a week isn't bad.

 

Speaking of the bonus heroes, I really wish you could tap on their little chibi sprites and get a name, or something, because it's not always obvious who's who, especially if they're not from one of the games you've played...

Edited March 10, 2017 by JJ48

[L9999]

Nino nuke team. Anyone who is low tier does not get used. Feathers are precious, orbs are casino coins since I have a well established team.

Edited March 11, 2017 by L9999

[Silith13]

Always swipe left.

Try to get characters with big busts.

Shroom up Setsuna, and bask in her derpy down voice.

[TEHPWNZOR]

I play by making a certain strategy I have in mind work. Like I'm currently working on a team revolving around my Tharja. In my mind I want a team that has plenty of buffs to reach her max potential but at the same time be well balanced to function without her aswell. I got 2 teams with her in mind that I'm trying to achieve;

Option 1: Tharja(Red Ranged-Assassin), Julia(Green Ranged/Anti-Dragon), Sharena(Blue Frontliner/Supporter) and Eirika(Red Support/Secondary frontliner). Well balanced and safe.  I got everyone except Eirika and Sharena still needs 10k feathers. For now Elise gets to replace Eirika with the +4 attack heal.

Option 2: Lucina(Red Frontliner/Anti-Dragon), Sharena(Blue Frontliner/Support), Nino(Green Ranged-Assassin/Support) and Tharja(Red Ranged-Assassin). This one is a little more facerolling if you manage to pull it off but sadly out of all the Nino's I've got all of them are either -ATK or -SPD. I also don't own a Lucina. I know archers/daggers are a threat to these teams.

My princesses banner is at 3.5%. Hopefully I manage to pull something before it ends. What's funny is that I was rerolling for 3 hours while taking a long walk yesterday. Managed to pull both Lucina 5* and Eirika 5* with the starter 25 orbs. Then the next 5 I pulled an Effie 5*. Then I thought I'd try and get a Nino since I was feeling lucky. Wasted exactly 100 orbs only to pull a Sakura 5* wasting my 4,25% because I was frustrated of never getting anything. I got 3 lower stars Ninos in total. All with -SPD... See how luck can turn around. 

I'd also love to try out to build something that allows Lyn to abuse her Galeforce and still have a balanced team that can function without her. Lyn + Azura is a given. The rest are still in thinking-phase. I don't have either of them so I'm not stressing over it. 

Anyway, that's the way I like to play and what keeps me going. I guess you could call it creating different metas? Arena is really boring, tho. Literally destroying all the fun by being rating based. So, on 3rd day if you have done arena flawlessly without using up spare crests, you're finally allowed to have some creativity and fun.

 

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by TEHPWNZOR

[pianime94]

I try to use various combination and train as many units as possible so that I can get a good coverage of things.

Gameplay wise, I genreally play defensively through baiting and counterattacking. That is not to say I can't play offensively, of course. I can play offensively if I have the right team setup, e.g., flier teams.

Still experimenting with my Cavalier team to see which playstyle suits them better.

I try to get as high as I can in Arena.

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by pianime94

[M.T. Cicero]

I don't play competitive and just have fun with my favourite characters and some new ones I start to love (Catria, where have you been all my life). Nevermind Boon/Bane, if I summon a 5* I scream and bump my fist in front of my phone, even in public (maybe because it took me forever to get my first one).

I plan to get all my 5* to Lv40 and one version of every character to Lv20 (if I like them, then more). Boon/Bane only matters if I got more of one unit.

Nevertheless I try to get my 1600 Feathers in the Arena every week (and somehow started to get defense points), as I plan to make my Sharena and others 5*. And with the Gauntlet (Team Ephraim) and the Ursula battle (a lot of training tower for my Nino) I highly enjoyed myself the last few days and spent many hours on the game. I mean, I even signed up on Serenes Forest to talk about it.

About my style: I just try to use many possible combinations of my favourites. I usually have a healer in my team, as I like to play it slowly and save. Currently leveling up a team of Nino, Eirika, Effie and Lissa. It's fun to play with their abilities to use Draw Back, Pivot and Smite to push them all around. I also like to use Olivia (still waiting for Azura) in combination with different teams. Her and Nino are just amazing in destroying slow units.

 

I really just try to summon my favourites, but because I was not able to I decided to spent some money on orbs, which shows how important this game is for me. I got incredible lucky the last few days, so I won't invest anymore money. Now that I have Nino and Lucina I'm liking the game even more. So in the future I will just level up my units and get my daily orbs, so I can enjoy the moment, when I'm finally summon Ephraim or Azura.

Edited March 12, 2017 by M.T. Cicero

[desertbriar]

Collecting and semi-competitive. I don't have the money to dish out for orbs or time to worry about good IVs lol, but I try to use more viable characters because it's more fun for me too if they don't have defenses of wet paper or have decent attack+skills. I'm more biased to using my favorite characters though, haha, I try to make them work. (I tried to make Florina, Sophia, Oboro, Beruka work, but alas they still sucked)

About my style, I use tanks to bait and my glass-cannon characters to safely kill. I have a healer too to replenish the tank. I wish the Arena put us against actual players and not AI so the competitiveness matters more, but that won't happen in Heroes ;v;