Draug the Gentle Giant.

[Silith13]

When it comes to arena scores it's important to use units with high base stats as that will increase the available points you can earn from the arena run. We all know that the slow moving knights have the best stats but aren't always (with the exception of Hector and Effie) easy to use and not even close to easy to get.

Except for Draug. He's a unit that everyone playing in March can easily get. But he joins as a 2* unit. He'll take a lot of time and effort to get to that glorious 5* version where he kicks ass.

Is he worth it though?

At first glance his base stats are actually pretty nice.

HP: 50
Atk: 30
Spd: 32
Def: 39
Res: 18

He has joined highest stats along with Gwendolyn and Sheena. Yet among all the red sword characters he is currently considered the worst on the tier lists.

Why is he this low? And can it be fixed?

Let's go down the list shall we?

Weapon:

-Brave Sword +:

Draug is a tank foremost. And specifically a tank that has both high hp and defence meaning he doesn't get doubled. This makes the initial Brave sword on him more fo a hassle then it's worth. Normally at 32 speed the only blue unit to double him is Linde (who is his biggest enemy), but that Brave Sword he gets lowers his total speed by 5 points. This will increase the amount of units that double him from 7 to 53. It should be pretty obvious that this is pretty bad. Then count in that the brave effect only works on the enemy's turn and you have a recipy for dissaster. So let's look at the other options for Draug.

Switching away from the Brave sword means you won't get doubled by any blue unit other then Linde meaning that aside from her none can kill you in a single round of combat without a special skill proc. This includes the unit that come with Heavy Spears originally

Often encountered units that won't double Draug anymore are.

-Tharja

-Corrin(F)

-Catria

-Olivia

-Azura

-Ninian

-Takumi

-Sharena

-Jeorge

-Kagero

And often encountered units that will be doubled by Draug after losing the brave sword are.

-Camilla

-Nowi

-Sanaki

-Julia

-Chrom

-Lilina

-Ephraim

-Eldigan

-Hector

-Tiki

-Leo

-Effie

 

-Armourslayer +

At 12 might this weapon won't be too bad though it's main use will be to kill Hector's. Draug's superior speed will allow him to double Hector and kill him in one round while taking minimal damage back. It's sadly only really good if you find yourself running into Hector walls all the time. For an all-round purpose I would recommend almost all the other weapons over this one.

 

-Killing Edge+

At 11 might this weapon puts Draug up to 41 Might total. More importantly it reduces the special trigger requirement by 1. If Sacred Cowl is equipped it allows him to survive even Linde's might. Or it could give his offense a boost because activating skills might be the only way to reliably kill some targets. More info on this in the Specials section.

 

-Ruby Sword+

Will give an impressive 59 might against greens. Will allow him to check against Nino, Camilla and Julia. On the other hand it will make his atk drop to only 25 vs blues. Even with an offensive proc special he won't be dealing with them.

 

-Silver Sword+

At 15 might this weapon puts Draug up to 45 Might total. An important number as it allows him to exactly oneshot the popular Nino and Camilla.

-Wo Dao+

Wasted on the defensive specials but on the offensive ones it can be quite good. Will allow him to take care of some blue units with the right special.

 

Assists:

Most assists are not that great on Draug because he's a 1-move unit. Basically to make the most use out of it is to have his special involve him moveing. Limiting them to Pivot, Draw Back, Reposition and Swap. Since Draw Back is more limited in it's usability I'm going to assume you use either of the other two.

You can get two Subaki's from the daily rotations so you could get swap easily from one of them. Pivot is even better then Swap but you'll need to be lucky enough to pull a Cherche.

 

Specials:

Defensive specials:

-Pavise/Escutcheon

Initially Draug comes with Pavise. It's a defensive special that blocks partially melee attacks. It's okay and certainly strengthens his main purpose to be a big defensive wall that can not easily be doubled. But to increase his survivability the most he has to deal with magic damage. And since aside from the Dragons all magic damage is ranged there are better opportunities.

-Aegis/Sacred Cowl

Same deal as with Pavise but for ranged attacks. This limits it to enemy phase only and can lead to it going to waste if there are no ranged opponents. Most impotantly it means Draqug can take a lot more spells to the face before succumbing and that's important as with only 1 movement he's not runnign away easily. Most notably he can survive Linde's onslaught with these specials if they are up. Notably with a Killing Edge Sacred Cowl will trigger mid battle even if he had no charges beforehand allowing him to pull every unit in the game in their initial special charging states.

-Sol/Noontime

Most physical enemies will do peanuts for damage to Draug. And these skills will heal him back up when they proc. They work vs pretty much every enemy as long as he deals damage and can keep him standing there with his health bar going up and down for quite a while.

 

Offensive specials.

-Bonfire/Ignis

Boosts his damage by 50 and 80 percent of his defence respectively. Having the absolute highest defence of all units in the game he's going to get the highest damage boost out of these specials. Bonfire will give him a 20 damage boost with a 3 charge and Ignis 32 with a 4 charge.

-Vengeance/Reprisal

Increases his damage depending on how much damage he has taken. Since Draug's health bar is pretty massive these numbers can add up and it charges 1 faster then the Bonfire and Ignis specials. It's good if the battles continue on to him having low HP but the effects will be only slightly higher then Bonfire or Ignis would've been. Therefore I will not recommend these specials.

 

Skills:

Slot A:

-Distant Counter

Probably the best skill to have on any melee unit period. But you have to be Miss. Richy Rich von Moneybags to afford sacrificing a Hector for a Draug. So let's look at some cheaper options.

-XXX Blow

Bonus stats while initiating combat. Sound good but Draug is so enemy phase reliant that I will consider these inferior in almost all circumstances.

-Stat +3

These are all solid options. Resistance will make him overall more survivable and atk will make his shaky damage output better. +Atk will allow him to Oneshot Nino with a Wo Dao or Armour Slayer.

Speed +3 will put Robin(M) and Tiki(Young) in doubling range and take Draug out of doubling range from Linde, Lyn and Anna.

-Svalinn's Shield

Makes armour slaying weapons less harsh on your health. But armour slaying weapons aren't used very often right now so it's probably not the best bet.

-Life and Death

You cray cray! Linde will now kill him no matter where he tries to hide. Aside from others using Life and Death he is now safe from anyone in the game when it comes to being doubled. Julia, Sanaki and Nowi now get doubled by him though the first would've died in one hit anyways. Ironically dropping to 34 defence doesn't even hurt all that much. But sill I don't think this is the best idea. You cray yo!

 

 

Slot B:

-Lunge

Draug starts out with Lunge. After he initiates combat with an enemy he swaps places with that opponent. This is meant to take care of his lacking movement but in reality it can just as often put him or your team into grave danger. Generally speaking you want to use Draug as that wall that doesn't move. (Yes he CHOKES the point.)

It can be good, it can be bad. But there are much better options for builds that are just never bad!

-Bowbreaker.

Pull in those Takumi's and Klein's. Laugh at their pitifull damage outputs and then Smack them in their faces.

-Axebreaker

Anna is the only one I can see that would now die that wouldn't before. Super Meh counter to a single unit.

-G.Tomebreaker.

Allows you to ORKO Nino, Cecilia and Robin(F!) If you went with the Killing Edge or Wo Dao it could be a good consideration.

-Poison Strike.

Allows damage vs really tanky enemies he normally has trouble damaging. Effie comes to mind as the most common one with Robin(M!) and Nowi as honourable mentions.

-Renewal

Heals 10 damage every two turns. If the enemy isn't packing serious blue magic they aren't killing him.

-Wings of Mercy

Allows him to warp to damaged allies hopefully blocking the enemies their path from shredding your squishy allies.

 

 

Slot C:

-Ward Armour/Goad Armour/Fortify Armour/Hone Armour

Ward Armour is his initial skill. This is actually pretty nice if you want to run him in a compensition containing four armoured units, but outside of that it would be useless. The same goes for the other skills here.

-Fortify/Hone stat.

Grants asjacent allies + to a stat at the start of each turn. Works similar to his armour buffing skills but are weaker with a bigger range of characters he can target. If you run a “buff the Nino/Tharja” setup it can work but it's nothing too special.

-Threaten Stat.

Considering enemies will hopefully swarm him you could get quite a lot of debuffing going on. -Def will help him beat through tough opponents eventually while -Atk will maybe keep him alove longer vs mages.

-Savage Blow.

Guaranteed damage on player phase vs enemies around Draug's target. Since it's PP only it has a bit limited uses but since the C slot is so sparse on interresting skills it might end up being interesting to take nonetheless.

 

Builds.

 

The serious build.

HP: 50
Atk: 41
Spd: 32
Def: 39
Res: 18

Weapon: Killing Edge

Assist: Pivot

Special: Bonfire

Passive A: Distant Counter

Passive B: BowBreaker
Passive C: Spur Atk

Combination of the killing edge and bonfire will mean that he'll be brutally effective at frontlining and killing stuff.

This set does not survive a Linde and it will not oneshot Nino. Luring in Takumi will kill him very dead.

You can replace Distant Counter with Defence +3 or Resistance +3 for general purposes.

Bowbreaker can be replaced with Swordbreaker especially when you don't have Distant Counter. Takumi will deal only 7 damage to Draug anyways. You won't ORKO him on your phase unless you have Bonfire ready however. Swordbreaker is the most general use since Swordusers are most common around and the skill can be used on both PP and EP. You'll end up easily beating common sword users such as Olivia, Lyn, Ryoma, Hana and Lucina.

It also counters all the Draug's you are going to see after this build becomes known.

 

 

Other builds. For fun/specific uses.

 

1. Toughest cookie.

HP: 50
Atk: 41
Spd: 32
Def: 39
Res: 21

Weapon: Killing Edge +

Assist: Pivot

Special: Sacred Cowl

Passive A: Resistance +

Passive B: Renewal
Passive C: Threaten Atk

Anti-Linde Set. Nino will survive a hit from this. Replace Resistance + with Distant Counter if you are a Wailord.

 

2. Armoured buddies.

HP: 50
Atk: 45
Spd: 32
Def: 39
Res: 18

Weapon: Silver Sword+

Assist: Swap

Special: Sacred Cowl

Passive A: Death Blow

Passive B: G.Tomebreaker
Passive C: Ward Armour

For a full armour team. Of course replace Death Blow with Distant Counter if you are a Mega Wishiwashi.

 

3. Murder Spree for some reason.

HP: 50
Atk: 48
Spd: 37
Def: 34
Res: 13

Weapon: Wo Dao

Assist: Pivot

Special: Ignis

Passive A: Life and Death

Passive B: Poison Strike
Passive C: Savage Blow

You cray gurl. Get Bowbreaker to ORKO Takumi's. Otherwise enjoy damaging something no more then 2 spaces away. Really this set is bad and a joke and you might as well play a Hana instead.

 

4. Miss Richy Rich von Moneybags

HP: 50
Atk: 41
Spd: 32
Def: 39
Res: 18

Weapon: Killing Edge

Assist: Pivot

Special: Ignis

Passive A: Distant Counter

Passive B: Bowbreaker
Passive C: Threaten Defence

You killed Hector. Good job everyone now hates you.

 

5. Effie is the enemy. Burn all Effi-gys.

HP: 50
Atk: 42
Spd: 32
Def: 39
Res: 18

Weapon: Armour Slayer

Assist: Pivot

Special: Ignis

Passive A: Defence + 3

Passive B: Vantage.
Passive C: Threaten Defence

Defence +3 allows you to survive 2 hits from Effie. If you let Effies snail their way to you They'll have Threaten Defence on them from the first strike putting her on 28 Defence. Base attacks will deal 39 damage to Effies for a ORKO.

Unless 4 Effie's come from all sides on the same turn you should be able to use Ignis right to kill all 4 of them.

Disclaimer: Default Effie's with average overall stats were used for this example. Don't send Heavy Spear Effies to me in my dreams please.

 

 

En Fin.

If anyone has questions about Draug, the builds or specific encounters between him and one of the units you are thinking of please ask. I'll try to get back to them all. And thank you for reading this.

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by Silith13

[chirp]

Thank you for this terrific analysis, @Silith13 ! You're doing justice to a scandalously underrated unit. Your suggestions will be very helpful when I start teaching Draug new skills.

[Roflolxp54]

Draug may appreciate Wary Fighter in the B-slot, though that requires sacrificing Effie (another strong unit but can be sacrificed as a 4-star for Wary Fighter 3). 32 Spd is impressive for an armored unit but he can still get doubled by huge threats.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Roflolxp54

[eclipse]

His best assist is Pivot IMO.  Allows him to move three spaces with the right positioning.

Since Draug's job is to be in the middle of everyone, I think a Threaten skill would be best.  B slot can also be Drag Back, to pull someone out of formation, and into your team's waiting arms, but I'd run a different C skill then (probably a Hone/Fortify).  For a truly silly sustain build, try Wo Dao+, Sol/Noontime, Renewal, and Threaten Defense.

[Silith13]

Wow. I never seen Pivot before and hadn't considered it. Going to add it now.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

I come from the garmar association and im here to fix your mistake

(Yes he hold CHOKE the point.)

CHOKE with ALL CAPS is important. Hold is for pleb. Otherwise i won't have boner from looking at monalisa hand on a garmmar art book

 

 

 

 

This guide make me wonder about Armor synergy Arena squad feat. 4 Distant counter with Hone Armor. In theory it should be the most score possible arena team since all armors had high base stats, but running it perfectly would be literal hell even besides the absurd money cost to get 3 Hector and sacrificing them to another armor.

 

Really didn't expect Draug to be as fast as his actual game counterpart lol. That Brave Stats penalty throw it off so hard

 

[Silith13]

Terribly sorry. My inner Dheginsea must've snuk in.

[Ice Dragon]

I was going to write my next analysis column on the three less-used armors. Why did you have to beat me to Draug?

 

34 minutes ago, JSND said:

This guide make me wonder about Armor synergy Arena squad feat. 4 Distant counter with Hone Armor. In theory it should be the most score possible arena team since all armors had high base stats, but running it perfectly would be literal hell even besides the absurd money cost to get 3 Hector and sacrificing them to another armor.

Goad Armor instead of Hone Armor on all members would make a more powerful team since they stack with each other and have longer range. You can get a maximum of +12 to both Atk and Spd by standing within 2 squares of all 3 allies. You can teach Spur Atk 1 and 2 using a different character and use Hector for both Distant Counter and Goad Armor.

Alternatively, you can be a ridiculously frustrating wall with Ward Armor on all members for a maximum of +12 to both Def and Res by standing within 2 squares of all 3 allies.

Every armor in the game is capable of surviving long enough to counterattack any mage except Reinhardt and Olwen at neutral or disadvantage or Blade tomes at disadvantage without defensive buffs. Stacking Goad Armor increases the chance you'll be able to cleanly one-hit kill a mage on the counterattack, and stacking Ward Armor allows you to survive the entire round of combat against nearly everything.

 

2 hours ago, eclipse said:

His best assist is Pivot IMO.  Allows him to move three spaces with the right positioning.

Since Draug's job is to be in the middle of everyone, I think a Threaten skill would be best.  B slot can also be Drag Back, to pull someone out of formation, and into your team's waiting arms, but I'd run a different C skill then (probably a Hone/Fortify).  For a truly silly sustain build, try Wo Dao+, Sol/Noontime, Renewal, and Threaten Defense.

If you are Draug as your only armor unit, Pivot is better so that he can keep up with the rest of the army. However, if you are using Draug in a full armor team, Swap is far superior because it keeps the army together and in range of Goad/Ward Armor. In a full armor arena defense team, Swap is also more frustrating to deal with because your units will constantly be changing positions, making your army harder to approach.

[Silith13]

I was planning to do Hinata next. Want me to take a step back on that one?

[Ice Dragon]

7 minutes ago, Silith13 said:

I was planning to do Hinata next. Want me to take a step back on that one?

I don't care about Hinata, so go ahead.

[dragonlordsd]

Armor squads feel like they're too easily picked off by mages, since they don't have the movement to fill in the gaps. Take, say, Reinhardt, with his brave tome. He could shred through most of them, and let the back up take care of Hector.

Much like with Cavalry, there are some REALLY bad maps for armored teams.

Edited March 27, 2017 by dragonlordsd

[Ice Dragon]

18 minutes ago, dragonlordsd said:

Armor squads feel like they're too easily picked off by mages, since they don't have the movement to fill in the gaps. Take, say, Reinhardt, with his brave tome. He could shred through most of them, and let the back up take care of Hector.

Much like with Cavalry, there are some REALLY bad maps for armored teams.

A full armor team is required to run Distant Counter to avoid being taken out by mages. Given that the team is running Distant Counter, mages will still have a very tough time if they cannot get the target they're looking for. Calcs with 1 stack of Ward Armor and no other buffs:

[+Atk, -Res] Draug with Wo Dao+, Moonbow, Distant Counter, and Quick Riposte and +4 Res from 1 stack of Ward Armor:

Draug takes 46% damage from +Atk Julia with Naga and kills Julia on the counterattack.
Draug takes 58% damage from +Atk Nino with Gronnblade+ (+10 Atk, +4 Spd) and kills Nino on the counterattack.

Draug takes 64% damage from +Atk Robin (M) with Blarraven+ and deals 85% damage to Robin on the counterattack. Draug can finish Robin on player phase.

Draug takes 74% damage from +Atk Lilina with Bolganone+ and kills Lilina on the counterattack.

The only vanilla mages that can kill Draug in one round are Tharja, Reinhardt, Linde, and +Atk Olwen. Only Reinhardt and Olwen can kill Draug unscathed. +Spd Ursula can one-round kill -Spd Draug. No common variants other than Triangle Adept blue mages and boosted Raudhrblade+ and Blarblade+ mages can achieve a one-round kill that couldn't with vanilla skills.

Nino with Fury 3 cannot survive the first counterattack to land her second hit unless she is also +Def, but no one who has a choice runs +Def Nino. Nino with Life and Death 1 and Desperation already active can kill Draug before he can counterattack, but good luck getting Nino to survive a single round of combat against anyone else in a souped up full armor team.

Also note that -Res Draug has the lowest Res among all of the armor knights.

As much as mages do cause optimized armor teams trouble, it's not something they can't handle with a bit of smart play and proper use of repositioning skills.

[Silith13]

The Goad/Ward skills stack? Wouldn't that make the Cavalry versions super strong with the blade tomes?

Say Leo/Ursala/Reinhardt/Cecilia

[Robert Stewart]

2 hours ago, Silith13 said:

The Goad/Ward skills stack? Wouldn't that make the Cavalry versions super strong with the blade tomes?

Say Leo/Ursala/Reinhardt/Cecilia

IIRC Spur/Goad/Ward skills aren't taken into account for -Blade tome attack.

[MaskedAmpharos]

2 hours ago, Silith13 said:

The Goad/Ward skills stack? Wouldn't that make the Cavalry versions super strong with the blade tomes?

Say Leo/Ursala/Reinhardt/Cecilia

 

2 minutes ago, Robert of Normandy said:

IIRC Spur/Goad/Ward skills aren't taken into account for -Blade tome attack.

You're right. They don't.

I'll never say no to more damage from Goad Cavalry, of course, but at most you'll be getting +4 atk/spd out of it because in a proper Blade Cavalry team, two of the units will have Hone and Fortify Cavalry respectively for the buffs (that DO affect -blade tome attack for +30). Since one of the 4 units will be the Blade mage themselves, they obviously can't be affected by a Goad Cavalry of their own, so they'd really only benefit from an additional +4 atk/spd if the fourth unit had Goad Cavalry. 

[Erchamion]

Would +speed -res be a good boon/bane for Draug? I was considering making mine into more of an offensive unit since 35 speed without the brave sword would allow him to double most characters with Fury/LaD/speed+3 and a speed boost from hone speed (wings of mercy+pivot for movement and killing edge+ with bonfire for damage). Sure other fast characters might pull the build of more efficiently due to superior movement but they have much lower stat totals than Draug and will therefore lower your arena score (even when taking the update into consideration where skills will be a factor).

Edited March 27, 2017 by Erchamion

[Silith13]

49 minutes ago, Erchamion said:

Would +speed -res be a good boon/bane for Draug? I was considering making mine into more of an offensive unit since 35 speed without the brave sword would allow him to double most characters with Fury/LaD/speed+3 and a speed boost from hone speed (wings of mercy+pivot for movement and killing edge+ with bonfire for damage). Sure other fast characters might pull the build of more efficiently due to superior movement but they have much lower stat totals than Draug and will therefore lower your arena score (even when taking the update into consideration where skills will be a factor).

+Speed with Fury would allow him to Double the likes of Takumi, Kagero, Sharena and Young Tiki and quite a lot others. (41 more then before that +6 speed.) His health pool is big enough to survive the Fury damage for a bit. Mages will of course shred him and his 1 movement is still a problem even if you are pivoting and wings of mercying all over the place. Seems like a heavily Player Phase reliant build and after Pivoting he has spend his turn.

Since you are set to double enemies with such a high speed build the Wo Dao might be better since 2 of your attacks + 1 retaliation from the enemy makes for easy Bonfires regardless if you or the enemy attacks first.

[TheNiddo]

9 hours ago, Silith13 said:

The Goad/Ward skills stack? Wouldn't that make the Cavalry versions super strong with the blade tomes?

Say Leo/Ursala/Reinhardt/Cecilia

As somebody on GameFAQs is happy to brag about: Goad/Ward doesn't. But Fortify/Hone does. So he runs a full magic horse + blade team all running Fortify/Hone skills, keeps them in box formation, and 1SKs literally every unit out there. Posted some screenshot of numbers as high as 72x2 against a magic using target. Only reason he isn't the top of the arena ranking is low BST. Still hitting over 4.5k/4.6k each season.

[MaskedAmpharos]

7 minutes ago, TheNiddo said:

As somebody on GameFAQs is happy to brag about: Goad/Ward doesn't. But Fortify/Hone does. So he runs a full magic horse + blade team all running Fortify/Hone skills, keeps them in box formation, and 1SKs literally every unit out there. Posted some screenshot of numbers as high as 72x2 against a magic using target. Only reason he isn't the top of the arena ranking is low BST. Still hitting over 4.5k/4.6k each season.

This is backwards.

Fortify/Hone skills do not stack while Goad/Ward/Spur skills do. The only buffs that stack are the "during combat" buffs. 

If you wanted to debate this, feel free to share the screenshot. I am certain I could prove that he hit those numbers with no more than a single Hone/Fortify buff if I could see the units and numbers involved. 

[TheNiddo]

I was talking about stacking on the tome, not stacking on top of each other for stat benefits. As in the Goad/Ward/Spur skills don't add more damage to the -blade tomes as they don't make stat numbers turn blue. 

Can't find the picture I had in mind, he's uh, has been very frequent in his gushing about his team so there's too many topics/posts for me to dig through. Only one I could find was against like a level 1 unit so that ain't relevant. His most recent version however decided to mix Goad/Ward/Spur in with Fority/Hone: https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/204447-fire-emblem-heroes/75125221

You get the general idea though at least.

[MaskedAmpharos]

1 hour ago, TheNiddo said:

I was talking about stacking on the tome, not stacking on top of each other for stat benefits. As in the Goad/Ward/Spur skills don't add more damage to the -blade tomes as they don't make stat numbers turn blue. 

Can't find the picture I had in mind, he's uh, has been very frequent in his gushing about his team so there's too many topics/posts for me to dig through. Only one I could find was against like a level 1 unit so that ain't relevant. His most recent version however decided to mix Goad/Ward/Spur in with Fority/Hone: https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/204447-fire-emblem-heroes/75125221

You get the general idea though at least.

Oh I see, I simply misinterpreted your statement then. Apologies. 

[Erchamion]

8 hours ago, Silith13 said:

+Speed with Fury would allow him to Double the likes of Takumi, Kagero, Sharena and Young Tiki and quite a lot others. (41 more then before that +6 speed.) His health pool is big enough to survive the Fury damage for a bit. Mages will of course shred him and his 1 movement is still a problem even if you are pivoting and wings of mercying all over the place. Seems like a heavily Player Phase reliant build and after Pivoting he has spend his turn.

Since you are set to double enemies with such a high speed build the Wo Dao might be better since 2 of your attacks + 1 retaliation from the enemy makes for easy Bonfires regardless if you or the enemy attacks first.

Wo dao would be nice, don't have a karel yet though so might have to settle with a silver sword+ instead then. I was planning on using him on a team with Azura (hone speed, wings of mercy) and Julia (bowbreaker), using Julia to bait and kill other ranged units and get damaged in the process so that Draug (or Azura) can use wings of mercy.