Minerva, Red Dragoon

[Ae†her]

Minerva, Red Dragoon

"I will fight with honor, if not pride."

Minerva is a uniquely well rounded physical unit, with good stats in Atk, Spd, and Def. She has slightly low Res, but enough to lend her support on the fight against dragons, and survive hits from blue mages (this is also due to her 40 base HP). Her offensive stats are not the best, but with the right boons it lets her become a top notch jobber. Her stats would be really good with Steady Breath and/or Wrath, but unfortunately fliers can not inherit either of those skills so she runs more traditional builds. However, she runs these builds much better than most units due to her legendary weapon, Hauteclere, which refined to have its special effect, turns Minerva into one of the best axe units in the game.

Stats:
HP 36/40/43
Atk 28/31/34
Spd 30/33/36
Def 29/32/35
Res 19/22/25
BST: 157~158

Skills:
Hauteclere
Sacred Cowl
(-)
Life and Death 3
(-)
Ward Fliers

Movement: Flier (2) - This means Minerva can run and receive insane buffs from other fliers that use Hone Fliers, Fortify Fliers, Goad Fliers or Ward Fliers.

Red Tornado

Spoiler

Nature: +Spd/+Atk, -Res

Weapon: Hauteclere (Refine: Effect)
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Moonbow / Bonfire

A: Swift Sparrow 2 / Life and Death 3 / Fury 3
B: Desperation 3 / Quick Riposte 3
C: Ward Fliers / Varies on Team
SS: Spd+3, Atk+3

This build increases Minervas decent offensive turning her into a speedy powerhouse.

Swift Sparrow 2/ Fury 3 + Desperation 3/ Quick Riposte 3 + Moonbow/Bonfire - A) You run Swift Sparrow 2 or Fury 3, Desperation 3 and Moonbow, and this makes her a player phase nuker who avoids damage fairly decent if she can double the enemy. B) You run her with Swift Sparrow 2 or Fury 3, Quick Riposte 3 and Bonfire, due to the accelerated cooldown from Hauteclere and bonus +10 damage, she can use proc her Bonfire all the time during combat if she can double attack her opponent. She doesn't avoid damage with this build, but she can hit hard when she attacks, and is guranteed a double if she is under attack. Swift Sparrow retains your HP, and gives you slightly better offense when attacking, while Fury 3 gives you better bulk always, but at the cost of becoming less usable over time.

Life and Death 3 + Desperation 3/ Cancel Affinity 3 / Quick Riposte 3 + Moonbow/Bonfire - A) You run Life and Death 3 and Desperation 3 which increases her speed significantly allowing her to reach speeds that allow her to double most units. Desperation 3 helps avoid damage, if she can double, and Moonbow will always activate if Minerva is attacking dealing tremendous damage and if she is below 75% HP (Desperation range) she will avoid damage as well. B) Life and Death 3 + Cancel Affinity 3 + Bonfire: Cancel Affinity 3 will help Minerva overcome any scaredy cat Triangle Adept/Advantage user, and Bonfire will proc if she can double the enemy and the enemy counterattacks after the first hit, letting her deal a huge burst of damage, and giving Minerva the kill.

Fury 3 + Ward Fliers - Ward Fliers is just Minerva's default C skills, but the point is that she is a flier, so she can run Flier Emblem buffs such as Hone Fliers or Fortify Fliers giving her insane stat boosts such as Atk/Spd+6 or Def/Res+6. Buffing Minerva up helps her become a beast. Desperation is always a good call in Flier teams as Spd+6 boost will help her double a lot of unbuffed units, and generally slower units. Fury 3 is good here to retain her bulk while still being very offensively capable.

Great Wall of Minerva

Spoiler

Nature: +Spd/+Atk, -Res

Weapon: Hautcelere (Refine: Effect)
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Bonfire / Noontime

A: Fury 3 / Close Defense 3
B: Quick Riposte 3 / Guard 3
C: Varies on Team
SS: Close Defense 3, Spd+3, Atk+3

Minerva has solid Defense and decent Res that she can become a god bulky unit that can take hits, and sometimes avoid being doubled.

Fury 3 + Quick Riposte 3 / Guard 3 / + Noontime / Bonfire - A) Fury 3, Quick Riposte 3 or Guard 3 and Noontime. This set retains Minerva's offensive capabilities while making her a lasting unit with Noontime. Minerva gets attacked returns +10 damage and heals with every hit. This helps her recover from the damage taken from Fury after battles, but in theory Minerva will at most can be at 6 HP less than she is normally if she attempted combat at least once. Quick Riposte 3 ensures she doubles when she attacks, while Guard 3 ensures her opponents special doesn't activate and cut her defenses or bypass them. B) Fury 3, QR 3 or Guard 3 and Bonfire. Since she is always suffering from 6 damage with Fury 3 you might want to just use her as a tank for a little bit and let her return hell with Bonfire's high damage. QR 3 ensures she has a bonfire when under attack, and Guard 3 again just safeguards her from specials.

Close Defense 3 + Quick Riposte 3 / Guard 3 / + Noontime / Bonfire - A) Close Defense 3 with QR 3 or Guard 3 and Noontime. With another Close Defense 3 seal Minerva gets Def/Res+12 when she's under attack by adjacent foes. She can tank both physical units, and dragons with this, and keep them at bay, and heal up with Noontime. B) CD 3, QR 3 or Guard 3 and Bonfire, same as the first Red Wall build, she uses the increase defense to her advantage with Bonfire.

Done. Feel free to leave suggestions and thoughts below.

Edited January 1, 2018 by Logos
Finished with Second Build

[SoulWeaver]

I know Palla gives Goad Fliers, and you just said Minerva has Ward Fliers, but who gets Fortify Fliers?

Also, I thought Minerva's title was Red Dragoon, not Red Dragon.

[MrSmokestack]

Caeda and Summer Corrin have Fortify Fliers @SoulWeaver

Edited December 21, 2017 by MrSmokestack

[Ae†her]

2 hours ago, SoulWeaver said:

I know Palla gives Goad Fliers, and you just said Minerva has Ward Fliers, but who gets Fortify Fliers?

Also, I thought Minerva's title was Red Dragoon, not Red Dragon.

Yeah you're right it's Red Dragoon, whatever that is. My bad. 

[SoulWeaver]

4 hours ago, MrSmokestack said:

Caeda and Summer Corrin have Fortify Fliers @SoulWeaver

Cool, thanks. Yet another Red Unit I need...

2 hours ago, Logos said:

Yeah you're right it's Red Dragoon, whatever that is. My bad. 

The Macedonian Dragoons are the counterparts to the Whitewings, according to in-Heroes Catria, meaning that Minerva's title is just referencing her homeworld title, which is pretty neat to me. Incidentally, it sounds like the Whitewings is the title for any Macedonian Pegasus/Falcon Knight, not just those three sisters.

[XRay]

8 hours ago, Logos said:

Red Dragoon, whatever that is.

Originally, dragoon refers to mounted infantry (they dismount to fight). Dragoons later just fought on horseback as cavalry. The name dragoon comes from a type of firearm called dragon. (Wikipedia — Dragoon)

In a fantasy setting with dragons, logically, it makes more sense for dragoons to refer to dragon riders than horse riders.

[SoulWeaver]

6 hours ago, XRay said:

Originally, dragoon refers to mounted infantry (they dismount to fight). Dragoons later just fought on horseback as cavalry. The name dragoon comes from a type of firearm called dragon. (Wikipedia — Dragoon)

In a fantasy setting with dragons, logically, it makes more sense for dragoons to refer to dragon riders than horse riders.

That's cool! Learn new things every day.