redlight Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 (edited) Base Stats HP: 40 / 43 / 46 Atk: 32 / 35 / 38 Spd: 29 / 32 / 35Def: 26 / 30 / 33Res: 19 / 22 / 26 Base Kit Spoiler Zanbato+ ( - ) Swap Wind Boost 3 ( - ) Sword Valor 3 Unit Analysis Gray comes off as decent when compared to most sword units. His HP is slightly above average, good attack, okayish speed and defense, resistance on the low side, but not enough to be garbage. He's a infantry sword unit so he doesn't have access to emblem buffs and has a lot of competition in his category. His best boon is +spd as his speed being at neutral isn't good enough to help his match ups against mages and fast melee units. However, you can use summoner support to give one with neutral speed more speed if your options are limited. I'd say he's fairly similar to Marth stat wise. He might have significantly more attack, but Marth has more spd and the rest of their stats are fairly similar to one another. Unless you love Gray to bits, I'd recommend investing in Marth as he has better availability and his natures are more managable. Strengths Good mix of stats. 35 attack as stated is good, 32 speed is decent and 30 defense is deceptively good enough. Zanbato is great weapon for Arena Assault as it's a horse check and more casual player's who don't invest in merges will frequently encounter cavalry Horses in general don't run Grani's Shield Weaknesses Has a lot of competition among his typing His semi-balanced stats causes most of his stats as whole to be considered a somewhat mediocre package Lowish Resistance Depending on your score range, Zanbato becomes useless as horses have one of the lowest BSTs in the game Builds Horseslayer (offensive Arena Assault build, any nature, minimal investment, can also be applied for armor slaying builds) Spoiler Weapon: Zanbato speed refinement or attack for TA version Special: Glimmer Assist: Swap A: Darting Blow/ Fury/ Wind Boost as budget/ Triangle Adept B: Swordbreaker C: Threaten Def SS: Spd+/ Atk+ The budget build. Makes use of most of what he already has. Glimmer because it scales well with horse effectiveness and potentially TA builds. Darting Blow and Wind Boost as budget option to help him reliably double non-sword foes. Fury if you're feeling he needs a little bit of everything. TA for a more larger kill scope, but beware of blues. He does around 20 damage average against blue horses when using TA. Swordbreaker because it works for both variants of the builds as the best sword users are very fast or have another means of doubling. Threaten Def just to help deal more damage Dread Fighter (offensive semi-support build, +spd/-res, very high investment) Spoiler Weapon: Wo Dao/ Slaying Edge speed refinement Special: Moonbow/ Bonfire Assist: Reposition A: Distant Counter B: Chill Spd / Wrath / Swordbreaker C: Odd Atk Wave/Even Spd Wave / Infantry Pulse SS: Quickened Pulse/ HP/Res+ This build allows him to deal with foes regardless of range. He can initiate or take a blow. If you prefer taking a blow first then I recommend running QP with Moonbow, but if you're sure you're doubling both phases then opt for Bonfire instead with QP. Doesn't matter as long as Chill Spd is affecting the foe. Wrath is also a good option, but it doesn't help your allies nearly as much as Chill Spd does as your allies can also abuse the global speed debuff. The wave skills to improve his match-ups. If you're running Infantry Pulse then I'd recommend running the HP/Res seal as it increase his HP threshold, but it also slightly improves his resistance-targeting foe match-ups Brave Swordsman (offensive build, +atk or neutral atk, semi-high investment) Spoiler Weapon: Brave Sword Special: Luna/Bonfire Assist: Reposition A: Death Blow/ Fury/ Atk+ B: Hit and Run/ Drag Back/Desperation C: Threaten Def/ Savage Blow SS: Atk+/ Brash Assault/ Savage Blow The standard brave build. Nothing much to say here as almost every one is the same Valentian Knockoff Marth (Supportive Arena Assault build, any nature, very high investment) Spoiler Weapon: Kadomatsu attack refinement Special: Glimmer Assist: Any rally A: Triangle Adept B: Swordbreaker C: Any buff SS: Any buff You could make any sword unit use this build, but since I mentioned Marth earlier I couldn't help myself. This build is just what Marth with Drive Spectrum Falchion does, but slightly worse. To help his combat I made him a sword and green unit check. He does what he does with what swords can do most when it comes to buffing with an inheritable weapon. If there's something that doesn't make sense, any mistakes, needs improving or if you have any suggestions then let me know Edited August 6, 2018 by silveraura25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BANRYU Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I don't feel like it's super fair to compare Gray to Marth, considering Marth's main role as a support bot, and Gray has his own strengths over Marth in the combat department as well; I get the comparison since their statline is fairly similar, but the support applications are basically ENITRELY the reason to use Marth, whereas Gray is a pretty straightforward combat unit (though certainly not a bad one). I would just focus on his potential combat roles (of which there are many, due to his good Atk and balanced spread) and avoid comparing him to Marth. I think Armorsmasher+ and Slaying Edge+ are also worthy of mentioning, too. I would also maybe suggest some budget alternatives for high-cost skills like Chill Speed? (IE Swordbreaker would work fine, possibly quick riposte depending on the build, etc.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redlight Posted August 4, 2018 Author Share Posted August 4, 2018 @BANRYUI made the comparison with Marth as more of an orb budget reasoning. +Spd Gray is comparable with +atk Marth. If you'd use Marth offensively then there'd be a slight difference in their attack and speed with Gray having a slight advantage, but not enough to justify whaling for Gray. People write off Marth as being "just support", but he has decent offensive stats. Not mind blowing, but good enough that you'd consider not running Falchion for some builds. Wo Dao is neat I will make use of the ideas you mentioned and implement them into the build section tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 Can you fix the formatting? I'm on Night Forest, and it looks really weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redlight Posted August 5, 2018 Author Share Posted August 5, 2018 (edited) @eclipse I fixed it Edited August 6, 2018 by silveraura25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Thanks! One off-option for the Brave build's C slot is Panic Ploy. Screws over your average -blade mage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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