If you could change 5 things about FEH

[Karimlan]

2 hours ago, Reiska said:

I do feel obligated to point out, since he's come up a lot in this thread, that the problem with Surtr is not his weapon (which is pretty poor in the hands of the AI, since you can just carefully stay out of its range), but his perfectly optimized stat line.

He's a green Zephiel, albeit a much better one. That said, he's not difficult to kill with the right setups.

[Vaximillian]

37 minutes ago, Karimlan said:

He's a green Zephiel, albeit a much better one. That said, he's not difficult to kill with the right setups.

So happy that I managed to score myself a Laevatein back on her introduction banner. The girl does put in work.

Edited December 20, 2018 by Vaximillian

[daisy jane]

1 hour ago, Karimlan said:

He's a green Zephiel, albeit a much better one. That said, he's not difficult to kill with the right setups.

S!Micaiah
H!Myrrh
Lavetain/Sumia (bless link skills/atk bond set up) 
Hrid (not an option for me as of next Tuesday) 

Can all handle him
OH and I think Eir can too. '

-----


I am going to edit and say again, I personally don't think Alts need to be limited per se - i feel like the OC Characters (I personally don't like'em), they do fill their niche. what would be nice if that they weren't all the same characters. I don't know if this is also a way to buy time to get more things done (or stretch things out. (maybe a little bit of both. Now I'd personally like to see new characters of games i haven't played yet (heck i'd like to see new characters of games that i have played). but as i've stated before, i like alts. for example I like Flying Nino better than regular Nino. (i mean we're talking maybe 10 percent ;) 20 if we apply the pegasus factor). i like Mage Eirika a lot better than Infantry Eirika (now this could be because i've yet to really build mine up but i also like magic more so who knows?).

I like the fact that i can play with some of my favourite characters - in another move style that id din't think of (or example with NIno - merging them together). now i could do without it of course.  i just feel there could be a blend of everything everyone wanted without having to like. cut out things (or making it severely limited) for all the parties involved. 

Edited December 20, 2018 by daisy jane

[Anacybele]

17 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

2. Farmable resources. Currently, the only relevant farmable resource in the game is Hero Feathers (by means of Hero Merit), which is still limited by the number of characters you have. Divine Dew and Sacred Coins should be made farmable considering (1) refines and Sacred Seals are being released 3 times as fast as the corresponding resource and (2) the slow acquisition of resources used for build customization and experimentation stifles those aspects of the game.

OMG how did I forget this one? There are so many weapons I want to refine but I can't because I don't have the dew or stones! This is so true.

[Lewyn]

1. New hero banners would be every 2 weeks like clockwork, no exceptions.  This means we would get new story chapters every 2 weeks which would help so much, the pacing is like molasses.  We aren't getting Tolstoy here or whatever, so we have to wait 3 months for a few lines?  One of the big reasons book 2 failed besides not living up to potential, poor writing was it was spaced out way too much by the time the end happened no one cared.  Okay so that.  The other thing is new hero banners would now be alt free and if no TT attached or GHB unit attached would be 4 units if there was it would be 3.  This means every 2 weeks we would be getting four new characters debuting in the game.   Alts can still appear on the monthly seasonal banners and legendary banners.  Mythic banners will be OC and mythic NPC charcters from the main series like Altina.

2. Arena scoring no longer factors in SP or BST.  It does factor in merges and rarity.  My arena run today was 5 straight matches of merged armors.  All 5 had H! Myrrh and L! TIki, 3 had Surtr.  I mean how boring and tedious is that?  Jesus. 

3. No more sexualization of children.  

4. Cut out much of the repetition of quests, instead of beat this 20 times or 5 times or whatever....it will be beat this once.  Training sanctum beat 10 with armor team 15x, infantry team 15x.  Kill me now please.  Are we robots, but we do them for the rewards I guess.  Let's cut out the repetition to pad the length/content.

5. Fix the pools as follows.  First All year one 5 stars are demoted that haven't been yet, secondly no more units available at 4-5 star, you can be 5 star locked or 3-4 star.  5 star pool is super bloated, but then this would also make the 3-4 star pool even more bloated.  Sometimes it takes months to get a Selena or Barst for reposition, it's bad.  So there will be a huge mass demotion there too.  The powerful low rarity units as well as the ones with desirable fodder (Fury,, desperation, reposition, draw back, etc) will stay in 3-4 star pool, the rest will drop to 1-2 star pool.  We get a free summon every day that will give a 1-2 star unit, maybe some other way to get them for people whose fav is in this group.  One final thing to fix summoning the pity percentages of non focus and focus are independent.  If you pull a non focus 5 star it doesn't reset the focus percentage and vice versa.  

 

 

[thecrimsonflash]

I think adding a very limited item that can be used to guarantee that your next 5* is on focus on a specific banner should be a thing.

fixing the pool with some much needed demotes

that's about it

17 hours ago, MilodicMellodi said:

3) Make the older game modes feel impactful again, especially the Voting Gauntlet. Each one feels more like a generic waste of time, and less like a meaningful choice. What happened to the times when everyone was hyped over Camilla vs Ike?

even if IS removed the multiplier from voting gauntlet it would do nothing for general interest, voting gauntlet is just an unfun mode, basically you are either salty or just don't care who wins because you just want feathers. I would say that the last time anyone gave a crap was in CYL 1. I just go in every 2 days to collect my free orbs and never look back.

Edited December 21, 2018 by thecrimsonflash

[Fire Emblem Fan]

1. Improve the BST of ALL older units to match that of the newer ones, and make that the final BST benchmark. That would greatly help many older units who used to be top-tier who are now middle-of-the-road or worse, and it would fix the stat powercreep problem.

2. Balance which games are focused on. Binding Blade not getting one single dedicated banner in TWO YEARS but Fates getting more than one in just a few months is just plain bad.

3. Change the rate of actual new characters VS. seasonal characters. If we'd been getting more NEW banners in place of some of the unnecessary seasonal ones, we'd have so many other new characters now instead of a ton of alts. I get certain ones like the Valentine's, Christmas, and Halloween banners, but having TWO summer banners is just horribly unbalanced.

4. Change the rate of acquiring resources. So many essential resources trickle down to you at an agonizing pace, and it makes actually upgrading characters and weapons a pain that just wears you down.

5. Maybe make Legendary Lyn a colorless unit instead of a green one. She's still a good unit but there's definitely some issues. This would fit her role to bait mages better, and it'd help her weapon triangle issue. Plus colored bows and daggers probably weren't a great idea to begin with.

[Sentinel07]

1. More units from the games that have fewer characters in. Like Genealogy, Thracia, Binding Blade, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and so on.

2. 5* Focus percentage shouldn't go down until you get a focus unit.

3. More story chapters and more often. Book 2 had two major problems. One being that the story felt rushed halfway through. Two that the constant seasonal slog starting in June spaced things out so much that people lose interest. Expand how long the Books are and have them even during seasonals. Speaking of seasonals...

4. Cut down on seasonals. We don't need 2 beach banners. One is enough, and the Performing Arts banners can go too.

5. On a very personal note, I want some kind of promotion for the Askr trio. They seriously need it. They're the only units I'd be okay with them introducing 6* for because at least everyone has them (If you've been playing for at least a year, there's no excuse for not having all 3 at 5*).

[Hilda]

18 hours ago, Reiska said:

I do feel obligated to point out, since he's come up a lot in this thread, that the problem with Surtr is not his weapon (which is pretty poor in the hands of the AI, since you can just carefully stay out of its range), but his perfectly optimized stat line.

Sinmara's broken in the hands of the player, sure, but there it doesn't actually matter much until they start making PvE content that expects you to use him.

I like to disagree. His weapon and c-skill force people to player phase on him and with his stat line and base kit it needs more then one round to kill him and he will kill you eventually.

He also trivialized aether raid due to this. AI is to dumb to avoid his weapon.

A 2x Eir + Surtr + bonus unit + dancer can trivialize basicly any defense map.

He took dmg! too bad that Eit can auto- heal him back for 20 HP each turn. Meanwhile he just flocks the whole AI into pieces

He is basicly the Reinhardt of Aether Raid

Edited December 21, 2018 by Hilda

[Arcphoenix]

38 minutes ago, Hilda said:

I like to disagree. His weapon and c-skill force people to player phase on him and with his stat line and base kit it needs more then one round to kill him and he will kill you eventually.

I find this part a special pain with Aether Raid's time limit. If you don't have the right unit he can be a nuisance to deal with. Thank heavens no one puts DC on him.

 

9 hours ago, Lewyn said:

3. No more sexualization of children.  

4. Cut out much of the repetition of quests, instead of beat this 20 times or 5 times or whatever....it will be beat this once.  Training sanctum beat 10 with armor team 15x, infantry team 15x.  Kill me now please.  Are we robots, but we do them for the rewards I guess.  Let's cut out the repetition to pad the length/content.

This. So much this. I really get tired out by the TT quests. I've even just not bothered to complete them in some past months

Edited December 21, 2018 by Arcphoenix

[redlight]

I've seen people mention BST boosting for gen 1 units. Maybe they could introduce a class system and have class based stat bonuses apply to gen 1 units

Edited December 21, 2018 by silveraura25

[Reiska]

4 hours ago, Hilda said:

I like to disagree. His weapon and c-skill force people to player phase on him and with his stat line and base kit it needs more then one round to kill him and he will kill you eventually.

He also trivialized aether raid due to this. AI is to dumb to avoid his weapon.

A 2x Eir + Surtr + bonus unit + dancer can trivialize basicly any defense map.

He took dmg! too bad that Eit can auto- heal him back for 20 HP each turn. Meanwhile he just flocks the whole AI into pieces

He is basicly the Reinhardt of Aether Raid

Armorsmasher+ with TA3 kills the hell out of him pretty reliably as long as you're using it from a unit who actually has an ATK score.  Red bladetome (or Laevatein) is also effective.  TA3 can be countered by Cancel Affinity on Surtr, but if he's running that, he's not running Wary Fighter and then you just blow him up with a red mage, who won't need much help to obliterate him.  Svalinn Shield, if you run into THAT, doesn't stop Bladetomes.

You can see what he's running before you pick your team, so it's just a matter of having a team with that utility set up.

I won't disagree that he's disgustingly strong as a player unit.  But as a player unit, you always have the option of not using him if he's not fun to use.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Reiska

[Hilda]

6 hours ago, Reiska said:

Armorsmasher+ with TA3 kills the hell out of him pretty reliably as long as you're using it from a unit who actually has an ATK score.  Red bladetome (or Laevatein) is also effective.  TA3 can be countered by Cancel Affinity on Surtr, but if he's running that, he's not running Wary Fighter and then you just blow him up with a red mage, who won't need much help to obliterate him.  Svalinn Shield, if you run into THAT, doesn't stop Bladetomes.

You can see what he's running before you pick your team, so it's just a matter of having a team with that utility set up.

I won't disagree that he's disgustingly strong as a player unit.  But as a player unit, you always have the option of not using him if he's not fun to use.

if majority of red units need to run 2xeffective skilles against him you know somethingbis wwwaaaayyyy off with his base kit. just saying. Its a very specific counter for a unit. Last time i used such a specific counter was on Askr Arvis infernal clear over 1 year ago running Alfonse with tiangle adept/armor smasher AND axe breaker... and thats against infernal bloated stats. in that regard he really needs a nerf

[XRay]

4 hours ago, Hilda said:

if majority of red units need to run 2xeffective skilles against him you know somethingbis wwwaaaayyyy off with his base kit. just saying. Its a very specific counter for a unit. Last time i used such a specific counter was on Askr Arvis infernal clear over 1 year ago running Alfonse with tiangle adept/armor smasher AND axe breaker... and thats against infernal bloated stats. in that regard he really needs a nerf

Requiring a specific counter is not an issue in my opinion when Aether Raids is extremely lenient on a player's team building skill. A player has 4 full slots on each team and a player can choose between 5 different teams before going into battle. Veteran players who built a 3 member performance Arena core should have no problem reaching 100% coverage against enemy units with their 4th slot now open. And if the player still cannot reach full coverage, players have 5 different teams to choose from to counter defense teams; players can run a counter of a each color on each team's 4th slot, and the 5th team's 4th slot can be whatever the player wants.

Edited December 21, 2018 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

17 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

5. Maybe make Legendary Lyn a colorless unit instead of a green one. She's still a good unit but there's definitely some issues. This would fit her role to bait mages better, and it'd help her weapon triangle issue. Plus colored bows and daggers probably weren't a great idea to begin with.

She's better as a green unit than a colorless one.

In the current bulkier meta, colored bows and daggers are better units than colorless bows and daggers except when you're using weapons with effective damage.

Legendary Lyn isn't very good for the Arena because you aren't able to use her as a counter-pick, but she shines in Arena Assault, Aether Raids, and PvE maps.

 

As much as I'm not a fan of colored colorless weapons as a concept, they're better than comparable (i.e. same movement type) colorless units because they have a more well-defined role and a color of opponents that they naturally do well against (rather than doing equally poorly against everything).

[Lewyn]

On Surtr since he is mentioned a lot here, he's a lot worse than Reinhardt ever was.  All you need to counter Reinhardt is a green that could counter at a distance, melee unit with DC or any green mage.  There were a million units that could fill that role.  Surtr requires much more specific counters to actually take him out. Do you have Dancer Miciah?  Great.  Or you have to run axebreaker and TA and crap like that.  His A skill prevents one from cutting through his defenses, so sorry no Black Luna for you or Regnal Astra or whatever.  Also Reinhardt and Bow Lyn were dependent on dancers to be a nuisance, as if no kill on first engagement the dancer could refresh it and with their large movement they could go after a vulnerable unit on your team.  Surtr needs no one else, he is a one man wrecking crew that the AI can use faultlessly.  There are really powerful units in the hands of the player, Surtr is that in the hands of the AI or player.  Defense, offense, special teams...whatever.  Man, I thought having most of the other green armors I didn't need him but it seems I missed out on the best chance to pull the strongest unit in the game.  I don't know why he isn't in his own tier far above the other greens.

15 hours ago, Arcphoenix said:

I find this part a special pain with Aether Raid's time limit. If you don't have the right unit he can be a nuisance to deal with. Thank heavens no one puts DC on him.

 

This. So much this. I really get tired out by the TT quests. I've even just not bothered to complete them in some past months

There is like no point other than busywork.  I'm not a vampire or some other immortal creature, every second/minute doing such a repetitive monotonous task could be used doing something actually worthwhile.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Lewyn

[daisy jane]

13 hours ago, silveraura25 said:

I've seen people mention BST boosting for gen 1 units. Maybe they could introduce a class system and have class based stat bonuses apply to gen 1 units

i keep reading  that there is some law in Japan that they can't alter stats etc on gatcha games  (which is why i think the refines are a thing as it helps them somewhat).  these were youtube comments to be fair but it could explain things. 

I think maybe the key would be is have those stat altering things (speed wings, etc) available in forging bonds etc, then you can use them and buff your gen one units that way 

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Lewyn said:

I don't know why he isn't in his own tier far above the other greens.

Because he isn't.

Arena tier lists rate units by how useful they are on Arena offense teams, and Surtr's only significant advantage over other green armors is that he trivializes melee-range opponents with Sinmara's and Surtr's Menace's effects.

Steady Stance 4 isn't locked to him, so anyone else can also run the skill and get the same benefits.

 

Each of the top-ranked green armors has something that is incomparable to the others:

• Grima has Distant Counter on his weapon, allowing him to run both Distant Counter and either a Breath skill or Steady Stance 4 at the same time.
• Ephraim has a guaranteed follow-up on both phases from his weapon alone, giving him massive freedom with his B slot and making him one of the few units where Special Fighter is viable.
• Legendary Hector has follow-up prevention on his weapon slot, giving him the benefits of Wary Fighter without the penalty while also leaving his B slot free for a stronger skill.
• Hector and Valentine Hector have Wrath on a Slaying weapon. GG.
• Hector has Quick Riposte on his weapon slot, which gives him the option to run an enemy-phase Omnibreaker build like Legendary Hector or both Bold Fighter and Quick Riposte without using up his Sacred Seal slot.
• Surtr can kite melee units until he runs out of room to retreat with Sinmara's passive damage effect.

 

When controlled by the AI, Surtr is only dangerous if you leave a unit within 2 squares of him at the end of your turn. Reinhardt was far more threatening in his heyday due to his wide reach and the fact that counter-play against his Moonbow was nearly non-existent at the time outside of dedicated counters (Guard prevented you from running Quick Riposte, for example).

Unlike most dedicated Reinhardt counters, which were either shaky against Reinhardt to retain performance against other opponents or were shaky against other opponents to hard-wall Reinhardt, dedicated counters against Surtr sacrifice less due to the general prevalence of green armors.

Being forced to run counters for Reinhardt and later Lyn was far more restricting for team building than being forced to run a counter for Surtr.

 

58 minutes ago, daisy jane said:

i keep reading  that there is some law in Japan that they can't alter stats etc on gatcha games  (which is why i think the refines are a thing as it helps them somewhat).  these were youtube comments to be fair but it could explain things. 

That's a myth.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[redlight]

59 minutes ago, daisy jane said:

i keep reading  that there is some law in Japan that they can't alter stats etc on gatcha games  (which is why i think the refines are a thing as it helps them somewhat).  these were youtube comments to be fair but it could explain things. 

I think maybe the key would be is have those stat altering things (speed wings, etc) available in forging bonds etc, then you can use them and buff your gen one units that way 

Ye. I don't know where it originated from but that's a myth. The only illegal thing about gacha is complete gacha, which requires you to get a bunch items to have one usable item. Assemble the 5 pieces of Exodia. All of them are useless on their own, but assembling it gets you something

Edited December 21, 2018 by silveraura25

[daisy jane]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

That's a myth.

 

Just now, silveraura25 said:

Ye. I don't know where it originated from but that's a myth. The only illegal thing about gacha is complete gacha, which requires you to get a bunch items to have one usable item. Assemble the 5 pieces of Exodia

 

thanks. next time i run across it i'll debunk it then. i've seen a LOT of people say it as gospel.

[Lewyn]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Because he isn't.

Arena tier lists rate units by how useful they are on Arena offense teams, and Surtr's only significant advantage over other green armors is that he trivializes melee-range opponents with Sinmara's and Surtr's Menace's effects.

Steady Stance 4 isn't locked to him, so anyone else can also run the skill and get the same benefits.

 

Each of the top-ranked green armors has something that is incomparable to the others:

• Grima has Distant Counter on his weapon, allowing him to run both Distant Counter and either a Breath skill or Steady Stance 4 at the same time.
• Ephraim has a guaranteed follow-up on both phases from his weapon alone, giving him massive freedom with his B slot and making him one of the few units where Special Fighter is viable.
• Legendary Hector has follow-up prevention on his weapon slot, giving him the benefits of Wary Fighter without the penalty while also leaving his B slot free for a stronger skill.
• Hector and Valentine Hector have Wrath on a Slaying weapon. GG.
• Hector has Quick Riposte on his weapon slot, which gives him the option to run an enemy-phase Omnibreaker build like Legendary Hector or both Bold Fighter and Quick Riposte without using up his Sacred Seal slot.
• Surtr can kite melee units until he runs out of room to retreat with Sinmara's passive damage effect.

 

When controlled by the AI, Surtr is only dangerous if you leave a unit within 2 squares of him at the end of your turn. Reinhardt was far more threatening in his heyday due to his wide reach and the fact that counter-play against his Moonbow was nearly non-existent at the time outside of dedicated counters (Guard prevented you from running Quick Riposte, for example).

Unlike most dedicated Reinhardt counters, which were either shaky against Reinhardt to retain performance against other opponents or were shaky against other opponents to hard-wall Reinhardt, dedicated counters against Surtr sacrifice less due to the general prevalence of green armors.

Being forced to run counters for Reinhardt and later Lyn was far more restricting for team building than being forced to run a counter for Surtr.

 

That's a myth.

Surtr also trivializes many ranged units that can't dent him, and even red nukes that can't one shot him.  So if you can't one shot him you have to reposition that unit out of the way or they die next turn regardless of color cause of Surtr weapon effect.  It is especially problematic in Aether raids with the blessing buffs, where a single Surtr can take out entire teams by himself regardless of color.  

Reinhardt was never threatening, there were always tons of units that could kill him on first battle that were also strong in their own right.  With Surtr, Dancer Miciah and maybe Death blow 4 Forblaze heavy merged Lilina  or something?  I don't even know if my TA3 Sanaki can one hit shot him, that is absolutely messed up. So then what, need a dancer to get to attack 2 times?  Or reposition and waste another turn?  The 20 damage insures if you don't one shot regardless of melee or ranged you die unless you use extra actions to move that character out of the way.  

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, Lewyn said:

Surtr also trivializes many ranged units that can't dent him, and even red nukes that can't one shot him.  So if you can't one shot him you have to reposition that unit out of the way or they die next turn regardless of color cause of Surtr weapon effect.  It is especially problematic in Aether raids with the blessing buffs, where a single Surtr can take out entire teams by himself regardless of color.  

That's literally no different from the other top-tier green armors.

Repositioning a ranged unit out of range of taking a hit on enemy phase is the norm, not the exception.

 

8 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

Reinhardt was never threatening, there were always tons of units that could kill him on first battle that were also strong in their own right.

As of the first Arena rework that made Reinhardt popular, you could count the number of Reinhardt counters (that didn't require a Hector for Distant Counter or Triangle Adept) with less than one hand: Nino, Julia, Fae, Cecilia. Soren came months later.

 

3 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

With Surtr, Dancer Miciah and maybe Death blow 4 Forblaze heavy merged Lilina  or something?  I don't even know if my TA3 Sanaki can one hit shot him, that is absolutely messed up. So then what, need a dancer to get to attack 2 times?  Or reposition and waste another turn?  The 20 damage insures if you don't one shot regardless of melee or ranged you die unless you use extra actions to move that character out of the way.  

Axebreaker trivializes Surtr and is a viable skill for general use on many characters, considering the existence of Legendary Hector and Wary Fighter in general.

Zelgius and the Black Knight both have enough HP and Spd to double Surtr on enemy phase with Vengeful Fighter, even after taking SInmara's passive damage. Draug, too, and he's a perfect candidate for running Armorsmasher [unique].

 

We have way more options today to deal with Surtr than we had options to deal with Reinhardt during his peak.

[Lewyn]

48 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

That's literally no different from the other top-tier green armors.

Repositioning a ranged unit out of range of taking a hit on enemy phase is the norm, not the exception.

 

As of the first Arena rework that made Reinhardt popular, you could count the number of Reinhardt counters (that didn't require a Hector for Distant Counter or Triangle Adept) with less than one hand: Nino, Julia, Fae, Cecilia. Soren came months later.

 

Axebreaker trivializes Surtr and is a viable skill for general use on many characters, considering the existence of Legendary Hector and Wary Fighter in general.

Zelgius and the Black Knight both have enough HP and Spd to double Surtr on enemy phase with Vengeful Fighter, even after taking SInmara's passive damage. Draug, too, and he's a perfect candidate for running Armorsmasher [unique].

 

We have way more options today to deal with Surtr than we had options to deal with Reinhardt during his peak.

Yeah the big difference between other top tier armors is you can take them out easily with melee units.  So Surtr is immune to melee and ranged....well those are the only 2 types of attack, so Surtr is has no holes unlike every other unit.

Hector with buffs could take him out too.  Also 4 is more than one.  The number of course grows much more with DC.    Surtr's counter is one in Dancer Miciah.  That after the much larger roster and all the seals we have.  

So Zelgius with vengeful fighter which he doesn't come with and will that allow him to kill Surtr or just survive one engagement?  VF is expensive rare skill as well, so if we are counting DC being rare/expensive we can't really just slap on VF on Zelgius and call it a counter that many can use.  

Also giving up the valuable B slot for axebreaker is pretty garbage.  One doesn't need it for other axe units, so one is using that B skill just for a single unit.  With Reinhardt there was no need to sack any of the skill slots, you could run an optimal for all purposes battle build and still counter Reinhardt as a bonus.  

Edited December 22, 2018 by Lewyn

[DehNutCase]

52 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

We have way more options today to deal with Surtr than we had options to deal with Reinhardt during his peak.

Every single horse checked Reinhardt, though. (Since unless you were literally auto-battle tier in terms of skill your horses are just plain better than the AI's horses.)

 

Surtr doesn't have a lot of checks, I think---mind, I don't think he's strong (I rate him ~8.5 in AR because he fufills a useful niche, and is the best in that niche, but it's Eir that enables that niche---you can replace Surtr with Myrrh, you can't replace Eir with, say, Flying Azura)---but you do have to dedicate a unit to hard-countering him if he's built optimally, rather than just relying on the fact that a good team has a bunch of checks for him.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

Every single horse checked Reinhardt, though. (Since unless you were literally auto-battle tier in terms of skill your horses are just plain better than the AI's horses.)

No, hyper offense checked Reinhardt. It's not the cavalry units themselves that checked Reinhardt (since individually they'd either die to Reinhardt or to his team after killing him), but the play style and strategy that does.