Is it just me, or is Cecilia terrible?

[Time the Crestfallen]

I think she's pretty great actually, possibly even amazing. She hard-counters a lot of meta picks like Azura, Linde, Reinhardt, Takumi, Kagero, Nowi, ETC, 3 space movement and a ranged weapon gives her amazing reach and of course, she has access to cavalry buffs.

[Wen Yang]

Gronnraven + Triangle Adept is by far Cecilia's nastiest setup, since it lets her murder AND tank all blues and greys, and a good chunk of greens too. That setup works fine even solo, no horse emblem needed

[Lyrai]

33 minutes ago, Wen Yang said:

Gronnraven + Triangle Adept is by far Cecilia's nastiest setup, since it lets her murder AND tank all blues and greys, and a good chunk of greens too. That setup works fine even solo, no horse emblem needed

Exactly what I'm using as well! Cecilia's been doing very well for my team this season. I just give her Quick Riposte 2 as her B skill since she can survive more than 2 hits from any triangle advantage with TA. Cecilia's biggest boon is her high attack, so this build fits her well as a Blue & Colorless check. Problem is, she's poor vs fellow Green Tome, so in order to counter that you'll need a G Tomebreaker.

The next season includes Clarine. That should complete my own Horse Emblem by giving the healer a Fortify Cavalry.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Lyrai

[JHufself]

Gotta say I wasn't a fan of Cecilia pre-SI. Nowadays tho, the prospects of TA and Gronnblade make Cecilia a very appealing option if you have the resources laying around. Still, I'm not the biggest fan of her, and worse yet I would have to sack a 5* Nino to really bring out Cecilia's potential in Horse Emblem... I'll stick with Reinhardt for now, thanks.

[Sayyyaka]

41 minutes ago, Eridras said:

Has G Tomebreaker come in handy for you?  I've only been using her for a week and haven't run across any Julias or Ninos just yet, so I don't have any firsthand experience with using it against them.  Escape Route is kind of just there filling a spot at the moment.

Yes, it allows her to one-round every Nino and Julia I come across, but it wouldn't be possible without Moonbow as well. 

This is a neutral Cecilia, though, so a +ATK could perform even better.

I should mention that I often have Spring Xander with Hone Cavalry paired up with her, since he can shield her from swords and some other offensive threats.  It's kind of unnecessary though because Moonbow takes care of anything regardless of whether or not she's buffed.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Sayyyaka

[Eridras]

9 minutes ago, Sayyyaka said:

Yes, it allows her to one-round every Nino and Julia I come across, but it wouldn't be possible without Moonbow as well. 

This is a neutral Cecilia, though, so a +ATK could perform even better.

I should mention that I often have Spring Xander with Hone Cavalry paired up with her, since he can shield her from swords and some other offensive threats.  It's kind of unnecessary though because Moonbow takes care of anything regardless of whether or not she's buffed.

Thanks, I'll give it a try since I've pulled 7 4*Henrys lately. 

I run something similar, +Atk Cecilia with Hone Cavalry Eldigan to tank for and buff her, while she runs Fortify Calvary to buff him in return. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Eridras

[Rafiel's Aria]

I've come to realize that you can technically make any unit in the game pretty godlike. Some just need more effort than others. And more often than not, you need to have a strong desire to make them that way. Like I have no strong attachment to Alfonse or Sharena, but I've come to realize that they'll be useful (along with Anna) in future Arena seasons, so it would be beneficial to work with them. On the other hand, I DO have a strong attachment to Laslow and Odin, so I've got this burning desire to make them great units to fill gaps in my teams. 

If you have a gap in your team that Cecilia could fill, I suggest looking at the recommendations the lovely people in this topic provided. I have no real experience using her, so I can't offer any advice that hasn't already been said. If you absolutely love Cecilia as a character and want to do her justice, use her! 

But if you really don't care for her, and you have no passion/need for her, then you'll probably just exhaust yourself. In a game like this, you have limited resources, especially if you're f2p. It's best to use them wisely on the units you absolutely love. ^^

[Lyrai]

1 minute ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

I've come to realize that you can technically make any unit in the game pretty godlike. Some just need more effort than others. And more often than not, you need to have a strong desire to make them that way. Like I have no strong attachment to Alfonse or Sharena, but I've come to realize that they'll be useful (along with Anna) in future Arena seasons, so it would be beneficial to work with them. On the other hand, I DO have a strong attachment to Laslow and Odin, so I've got this burning desire to make them great units to fill gaps in my teams. 

If you have a gap in your team that Cecilia could fill, I suggest looking at the recommendations the lovely people in this topic provided. I have no real experience using her, so I can't offer any advice that hasn't already been said. If you absolutely love Cecilia as a character and want to do her justice, use her! 

But if you really don't care for her, and you have no passion/need for her, then you'll probably just exhaust yourself. In a game like this, you have limited resources, especially if you're f2p. It's best to use them wisely on the units you absolutely love. ^^

Oh Saint Elimine, thank you for your kind words! You're just like a goddess. :)

Now, I like to make my units godlike, but I also tend to ask around people in the SF for tips. When I finished building my team, sometimes I want to know if I'm doing the right thing, especially if I end up getting wiped a lot in the arena matches. But as my experience with this game broadens, I can easily identify each team's boon and bane, and so is mine. The right way to play with your favorite characters is to capitalize on the boons, and avoid as many banes as possible.

That, and also the SP farming ain't a walk in the park. Well, at least, when the x2 SP event is not around. I hope your Odin and Laslow are doing well, Aria. I know Laslow can be a great physical tank with high ATK, so there's potential in his kit.

[property of nuvelle]

I've seen a lot of Cecilia hype go around quickly, and I wasn't really sure why. Sure, she has great advantages of X and Y, but you can say the same with almost any good unit. I probably don't see her greatness because I haven't touched into how OP Horse Emblem supposedly is anyways.

1 hour ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

 On the other hand, I DO have a strong attachment to Laslow and Odin, so I've got this burning desire to make them great units to fill gaps in my teams. 

Laslow's my dude. I finally got him as a 3* last week so I trained and upgraded him to 5*. He's definitely not the strongest unit in the game, but he's my favorite character from Awakening and Fates. Gave him Reciprocal Aid, Quick Riposte, and Defiant Def, so hopefully that goes quite well.

[Rafiel's Aria]

12 minutes ago, Lyrai said:

Oh Saint Elimine, thank you for your kind words! You're just like a goddess. :)

Now, I like to make my units godlike, but I also tend to ask around people in the SF for tips. When I finished building my team, sometimes I want to know if I'm doing the right thing, especially if I end up getting wiped a lot in the arena matches. But as my experience with this game broadens, I can easily identify each team's boon and bane, and so is mine. The right way to play with your favorite characters is to capitalize on the boons, and avoid as many banes as possible.

That, and also the SP farming ain't a walk in the park. Well, at least, when the x2 SP event is not around. I hope your Odin and Laslow are doing well, Aria. I know Laslow can be a great physical tank with high ATK, so there's potential in his kit.

:3 That's what I'm here for. Being god-like...and what not. *tries to ascend, trips, crawls back to bed*

Boons and banes can really change the role of a character. When experimenting with builds, I really like to see how they look on paper first. (AKA I use the damage calculator because I haven't had to take a math class in 6 years, and I don't plan to reawaken those rusty skills. *Calculus flashbacs*) It's also important to consider what builds are actually possible for you. Not everyone can run the Fury/Desperation combo for every character or chuck Triangle Adept on their -raven tome users. Honestly, i have a lot of fun trying to figure these things out. 

5 minutes ago, KongDude88 said:

Laslow's my dude. I finally got him as a 3* last week so I trained and upgraded him to 5*. He's definitely not the strongest unit in the game, but he's my favorite character from Awakening and Fates. Gave him Reciprocal Aid, Quick Riposte, and Defiant Def, so hopefully that goes quite well.

My Laslow is fabulous. I have a +ATK one who just wrecks axe users, but I also recently got a +SPD one as well that may fill an entirely different role, so I'm experimenting before deciding which one to keep. The only special things I've done with Odin are give him ATK+3 and Ignis. Though I may crunch some numbers and see how he works with Fury and Luna. He's definitely on my list for 5 stars. Odin is...waiting his turn. XD One of these days.... 

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors!

[property of nuvelle]

1 hour ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

:3 That's what I'm here for. Being god-like...and what not. *tries to ascend, trips, crawls back to bed*

Boons and banes can really change the role of a character. When experimenting with builds, I really like to see how they look on paper first. (AKA I use the damage calculator because I haven't had to take a math class in 6 years, and I don't plan to reawaken those rusty skills. *Calculus flashbacs*) It's also important to consider what builds are actually possible for you. Not everyone can run the Fury/Desperation combo for every character or chuck Triangle Adept on their -raven tome users. Honestly, i have a lot of fun trying to figure these things out. 

My Laslow is fabulous. I have a +ATK one who just wrecks axe users, but I also recently got a +SPD one as well that may fill an entirely different role, so I'm experimenting before deciding which one to keep. The only special things I've done with Odin are give him ATK+3 and Ignis. Though I may crunch some numbers and see how he works with Fury and Luna. He's definitely on my list for 5 stars. Odin is...waiting his turn. XD One of these days.... 

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors!

My Laslow is a Def+/Res- which isn't bad, but Atk+ would've been more favorable. Best lucks to you too with your Odin.

[MaskedAmpharos]

2 hours ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

I've come to realize that you can technically make any unit in the game pretty godlike. Some just need more effort than others. And more often than not, you need to have a strong desire to make them that way. Like I have no strong attachment to Alfonse or Sharena, but I've come to realize that they'll be useful (along with Anna) in future Arena seasons, so it would be beneficial to work with them. On the other hand, I DO have a strong attachment to Laslow and Odin, so I've got this burning desire to make them great units to fill gaps in my teams. 

If you have a gap in your team that Cecilia could fill, I suggest looking at the recommendations the lovely people in this topic provided. I have no real experience using her, so I can't offer any advice that hasn't already been said. If you absolutely love Cecilia as a character and want to do her justice, use her! 

But if you really don't care for her, and you have no passion/need for her, then you'll probably just exhaust yourself. In a game like this, you have limited resources, especially if you're f2p. It's best to use them wisely on the units you absolutely love. ^^

Laslow's statspread with a neutral nature is nearly identical to that of Alfonse (1 more HP, 1 more spd, 2 less def), so it stands to reason that Laslow should be able to run Alfonse's Brave Sword+ set just as well as Alfonse.

In fact, Laslow with that set has more potential than Alfred does since Albert has no choice but to have a neutral nature while Laslow can go +Atk for even more oomph! If you're really dedicated to Laslow, you can further improve his performance by promoting then merging other copies of him, which is a luxury that Alfredo does not have access to. 

Laslow actually has the potential to be a pretty solid sword unit with skill inheritance, so since you're dedicated to him I just know you'll be able to get yourself a wonderful Laslow :D

Spoiler

The set in question is best with a +Atk/-Res nature, but you can afford to have just about any bane as long as your boon is +Atk

• Weapon: Brave Sword+
• Assist: Flexible (I personally like Reposition)
• Special: Luna 
• A-slot: Death Blow
• B-slot: Swordbreaker
• C-slot: Hone/Fortify/Spur X (whatever buff your team needs)
• C-slot (alt): Threaten Def (more selfish: benefits the team less but Laslow more)
• Seal: Atk +1

This set manages to OHKO all greens, all reds (except Henry, Adult Tiki, and Zephiel), and all colorless (except Azama and Gordin).

All of these become clean OHKOs if Laslow gets a Hone Atk 3 buff except for Zephiel, but he can also kill Zephiel if Luna is up (or if Zephiel decided to forego Life and Death since it's the +5 spd that's keeping you from doubling him with Swordbreaker through his Wary Fighter). 

So basically, if you have the resources, you can turn Laslow into a suave but dorky bringer of death and have him wreck havoc on the battlefield >:D

*Just make sure to steer clear of blues

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by MaskedAmpharos

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

2 hours ago, KongDude88 said:

I've seen a lot of Cecilia hype go around quickly, and I wasn't really sure why. Sure, she has great advantages of X and Y, but you can say the same with almost any good unit. I probably don't see her greatness because I haven't touched into how OP Horse Emblem supposedly is anyways.

A really huge part why Cecilia is regarded somewhat highly right now is because she's essentially the only unit in her group

 

Even then statswise she shouldn't be too bad, she's comparable to the highly regarded Julia.

[Time the Crestfallen]

3 hours ago, KongDude88 said:

I've seen a lot of Cecilia hype go around quickly, and I wasn't really sure why. Sure, she has great advantages of X and Y, but you can say the same with almost any good unit. I probably don't see her greatness because I haven't touched into how OP Horse Emblem supposedly is anyways.

Not to the same extent in a lot of cases. Even without inheritance, she gets WTA against colourless units, a 5-square threat radius, access to cavalry buffs etc. All you really need to give her is Triangle Adept and she pretty much hard-counters every blue and colourless unit in the game, which make up a lot of notable threats in Arena like Reinhardt, Effie, Nowi, Azura, Linde, Takumi, Klein, Kagero and, if you give her Green Tomebreaker, she adds Julia and Nino to the list as well. 

Sure, you could point out other units that can counter all the units I listed, but how many of the can attack from range? And of those ones, how many get access to all the benefits of Horse Emblem?

Pair her with Reinhardt, Xander and a filler unit and you're basically set to dominate anything you come across.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Mortarion

[Rafiel's Aria]

1 hour ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Laslow's statspread with a neutral nature is nearly identical to that of Alfonse (1 more HP, 1 more spd, 2 less def), so it stands to reason that Laslow should be able to run Alfonse's Brave Sword+ set just as well as Alfonse.

In fact, Laslow with that set has more potential than Alfred does since Albert has no choice but to have a neutral nature while Laslow can go +Atk for even more oomph! If you're really dedicated to Laslow, you can further improve his performance by promoting then merging other copies of him, which is a luxury that Alfredo does not have access to. 

Laslow actually has the potential to be a pretty solid sword unit with skill inheritance, so since you're dedicated to him I just know you'll be able to get yourself a wonderful Laslow :D

  Reveal hidden contents

The set in question is best with a +Atk/-Res nature, but you can afford to have just about any bane as long as your boon is +Atk

• Weapon: Brave Sword+
• Assist: Flexible (I personally like Reposition)
• Special: Luna 
• A-slot: Death Blow
• B-slot: Swordbreaker
• C-slot: Hone/Fortify/Spur X (whatever buff your team needs)
• C-slot (alt): Threaten Def (more selfish: benefits the team less but Laslow more)
• Seal: Atk +1

This set manages to OHKO all greens, all reds (except Henry, Adult Tiki, and Zephiel), and all colorless (except Azama and Gordin).

All of these become clean OHKOs if Laslow gets a Hone Atk 3 buff except for Zephiel, but he can also kill Zephiel if Luna is up (or if Zephiel decided to forego Life and Death since it's the +5 spd that's keeping you from doubling him with Swordbreaker through his Wary Fighter). 

So basically, if you have the resources, you can turn Laslow into a suave but dorky bringer of death and have him wreck havoc on the battlefield >:D

*Just make sure to steer clear of blues

 

I've been experimenting with some different builds for painfully slow characters, and i may have found a good one for Allen that works well with the special effect of his special weapon. But I'm going to test it out myself before I recommend it to anyone. On paper, it lets him finish every unit except for three units. However it doesn't have the same oomph with Laslow. I hadn't thought about the Brave Sword build for him though. I'll definitely look into that. ^^ 

Cecilia is just a bit trickier because she can't tank blows, and she's not fast enough for desperation. So I guess the best option is to make sure she can one shot her enemies.

[NekoKnight]

What I find strange about this Cecilia hype is that while she can do the things people are saying, like countering blues and colorless with Gronnraven + TA3, this isn't unique to Cecilia. Cecilia is the slowest Green Mage tied with Spring Camilla, and her attack is only higher than F!Robin and Merric. Why not use another green mage with those skills? Her unique quality is being the only green horse mage, which is certainly noteworthy (although if we're just discussing horses in general, there are other people who can run Raven tome + TA3) but not enough to say that Cecilia is a good unit.

Ninja'ed by @Mortarion, I'll acknowledge that she has a place in the current meta but I still think a Horse emblem team can handle blue threats just as easily with a blue horse mage. Looking at the stats, she does has a leg up on Leo and Ursula in that she 1 shots neutral Takumi and Kagero, but with Horse Emblem buffs applied, she's outmatched by other horses.

Edited May 3, 2017 by NekoKnight

[Ice Dragon]

22 minutes ago, Mortarion said:

Pair her with Reinhardt, Xander and Olwen and you're basically set to dominate anything you come across.

ftfy.

 

10 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

Cecilia is just a bit trickier because she can't tank blows, and she's not fast enough for desperation. So I guess the best option is to make sure she can one shot her enemies.

She has enough in her defenses to tank well enough with Gronnraven and Triangle Adept. A boost from Fortify Cavalry cements her defenses completely, though.

On the other hand, she can run Gronnblade with Hone Cavalry to demolish opponents, and that with Life and Death gives her high enough Spd to actually double attack a good portion of the game.

 

9 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

What I find strange about this Cecilia hype is that while she can do the things people are saying, like countering blues and colorless with Gronnraven + TA3, this isn't unique to Cecilia. Cecilia is the slowest Green Mage tied with Spring Camilla, and her attack is only higher than F!Robin and Merric. Why not use another green mage with those skills? Her unique quality is being the only green horse mage, which is certainly noteworthy (although if we're just discussing horses in general, there are other people who can run Raven tome + TA3) but not enough to say that Cecilia is a good unit.

Being a cavalry unit gives her access to the movement-type-specific buffs, which is a huge boost to her offenses, defenses, or both, and this is something that the other green mages outside of Spring Camilla do not have access to.

Even without the cavalry buffs, compared to the infantry green mages, she not only has better mixed defenses, but they are slanted towards Res (unlike Robin's, which are slanted towards Def), which meshes well with the ranged threats she is meant to tank with the build, namely archers with weaker individual hits and blue mages with stronger individual hits.

[Infinite Dreams]

4 hours ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

I've come to realize that you can technically make any unit in the game pretty godlike. Some just need more effort than others. And more often than not, you need to have a strong desire to make them that way. Like I have no strong attachment to Alfonse or Sharena, but I've come to realize that they'll be useful (along with Anna) in future Arena seasons, so it would be beneficial to work with them. On the other hand, I DO have a strong attachment to Laslow and Odin, so I've got this burning desire to make them great units to fill gaps in my teams. 

I am a huge fan of Laslow too, so I five starred mine and fed him a bunch of skills.  I gave him Brave Sword+, Death Blow 3, and Swordbreaker 2 (grinding the SP for 3).  He is so much fun to use with these skills!  His attack is 46 with the Brave Sword+ equipped and the DB3 makes it even better.  I just have to be careful where I leave him because he is la-slow.

---

My 4* Cecilia is trained up to level 40, and I didn't find her too bad.  She can get killed pretty easily, but a lot of characters can.  The 2-colour weapon advantage is pretty sweet if she has Triangle Adept.

[Time the Crestfallen]

1 hour ago, NekoKnight said:

Ninja'ed by @Mortarion, I'll acknowledge that she has a place in the current meta but I still think a Horse emblem team can handle blue threats just as easily with a blue horse mage. Looking at the stats, she does has a leg up on Leo and Ursula in that she 1 shots neutral Takumi and Kagero, but with Horse Emblem buffs applied, she's outmatched by other horses.

True, Reinhardt and, to a lesser extent Olwen, could probably kill a lot of the units I listed, but here me out; would you not say that completely dumpstering Reinhardt and Olwen is a good enough reason to bring her considering how threatening they are? She's pretty much the only consistent counter to either of them since a) she's the only one they can't just run away from and b) they can't horse buff cheese their way out of it since she gets the same buffs. The only other thing that immediately comes to mind would be Titania, and even then that's assuming you can put Distant Counter on her.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Mortarion

[NekoKnight]

1 minute ago, Mortarion said:

True, Reinhardt and, to a lesser extent Olwen, could probably kill a lot of the units I listed, but here me out; would you not say that completely dumpstering Reinhardt and Olwen is a good enough reason to bring her? She's pretty much the only consistent counter to either of them since a) she's the only one they can't just run away from and b) they can't horse buff cheese their way out of it since she gets the same buffs.. The only other thing that immediately comes to mind would be Titania, and even then that's assuming you can put Distant Counter on her.

We can agree on that much. Anyone who can hard-counter One Round Man Reinhardt has value on a competitive team.

[Time the Crestfallen]

1 minute ago, NekoKnight said:

We can agree on that much. Anyone who can hard-counter One Round Man Reinhardt has value on a competitive team.

Yeah, as far as I can tell it's pretty much just Cecilia and Titania, cause their the only ones that can chase and get around horse buff cheese. I'm pretty sure the optimal Horse Emblem set-up is (to use Pokemon terminology):

Reinhardt: Sweeper; yhe ORKO man himself.
Olwen: Sweeper; the slightly less effective, but still god-tier ORKO women (I gotcha @Ice Dragon)
Xander: Pivot; great physical tank, decent offensive stats and Distant Counter
Cecilia: Trapper; hard-counters certain meta-picks, especially enemy Reinhardts and Olwens.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

2 minutes ago, Mortarion said:

Yeah, as far as I can tell it's pretty much just Cecilia and Titania, cause their the only ones that can chase and get around horse buff cheese. I'm pretty sure the optimal Horse Emblem set-up is (to use Pokemon terminology):

Reinhardt: Sweeper; yhe ORKO man himself.
Olwen: Sweeper; the slightly less effective, but still god-tier ORKO women (I gotcha @Ice Dragon)
Xander: Pivot; great physical tank, decent offensive stats and Distant Counter
Cecilia: Trapper; hard-counters certain meta-picks, especially enemy Reinhardts and Olwens.

Swap Xander to Whaeldigan 

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by JSND

[L9999]

12 hours ago, Hilda said:

Cecilia is just amazing with Gronnblade+ in a Horse Emblem Team running Vantage and Close Counter. Its like "Dont you dare attack me or i will obliterate you before you even hit me!"

I run my Horse team with Leo Reinhardt Cecilia  and Priscilla, all with TomeBlades (ecxept for Priscilla) and she hits by far the hardest of the 3 most of the Time.

Now I just need to replace my Priscilla with Xander :X (why do all the horsies have shit speed ._.)

Olwen's speed doesn't suck ass. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by L9999

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Mortarion said:

Olwen: Sweeper; the slightly less effective, but still god-tier ORKO women

With Hone Cavalry up on both of them, Olwen lands more one-round kills than Reinhardt.

The reason Reinhardt is the scarier threat is because he doesn't need Hone Cavalry to put in work whereas Olwen does.

[Time the Crestfallen]

9 minutes ago, JSND said:

Swap Xander to Whaeldigan 

Also Julia also a Reinhardt counter. Interesting to note Julia is literally Cecilia on foot since their stats spread is so simmilar

Eh, I think Xander is better then Eldigan. Xander has, compared to Eldigan:

*Distant Counter instead of reduced special cooldown.
*-1 HP
*Equal Atk
*Equal Spd
*+3 Def
*-2 Res

Distant Counter is far and away better then reduced special cooldown, especially since it enables him to run Fury + Quick Riposte/Vantage whereas Eldigan loses either Quick Riposte/Vantage or Distant Counter, +3 Def is far more important than +1 HP and neither of them has the Res to be tanking magical units.

5 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

With Hone Cavalry up on both of them, Olwen lands more one-round kills than Reinhardt.

The reason Reinhardt is the scarier threat is because he doesn't need Hone Cavalry to put in work whereas Olwen does.

This confused me for a moment, but then I remembered Olwen has pretty decent Spd so yeah, you're right.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Mortarion