The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: Meeplelard on February 03, 2017, 12:31:18 AM
-
...as the topic says! Given the nature of Gacha games, and this is potentially a big one, might as well just do this now.
Post your FEH related stuff here, like accomplishments, draws, etc. You know the drill!
-
alright. I'll just throw out my ID so I don't have to do it later: 5362703622
Working on some other stuff first though before I jump back on
-
I did my first 5 pull on Banner 1. Got Lon'qu (3), Fir (3), Nino (3), Felicia (3), and...
(http://i.imgur.com/II3JxsHm.png)
...yeah, I think I'm good.
Friend ID: 7931707585
-
Camilla is 4-star base, although the ones I pulled were 5s).
Game is trash garbage and might stay deleted when I get home instead of doing more rerolling then. So many great characters defined as scrubs. Get out.
-
Rerolled once. My first try gave me fucking Jagen.
Second try gave me 5-star Caeda plus a bunch of 4-stars. That's a good enough start.
Currently rocking Caeda, Robin, Princess Corrin, and Hawkeye, because I think he's the only shirtless guy in the game at the moment? Gotta get that eye-candy~
Amusingly, I think I have enough Princess units to field a whole team of them already...
Friend ID: 0837089852
-
my jagen is totally fucking legit though
pity he only has 10 goddamn speed at lv20, whats wrong with you
my ID: 9 677 955 526
-
So I kept getting the Return to Title bug on bluestacks, but I finally got a stable version working on my phone. Ended up pulling Setsuna, Gunter, Effie, Chrom, and Jeorge. No 5-stars, but the last 3 are 4-star bases so I think this is good enough. Takumi is supposed to be the prize archer in the pulls, but Jeorge is really amazing so far. Huge attack, speed, bonus resistance, gives speed to adjacent allies, lowers his target's attack by a huge amount (if they survive), and his super skill is an AOE. He's nuts.
edit: second pull on this account was Saizo, Henry, Stahl, Hana, Olivia. All 3-stars except Henry came out 4-star (but he's a 3-star base). Guess the rolling gacha this game supposedly has is slow to kick in.
-
Got another 20 Orbs (thanks My Nintendo!) and did a 5 pull on the other banner.
Got me a 4* Hinata, 4* Raven, and a bunch of 3*s, though one of them is Est who I decided to use.
Why? Because she's the only other Blue unit I have besides Sharona!
She's already paying off too, since she's got actually good strong and killing pretty hard.
Team: Lucina (Duh?), Est, Felicia and Nino. I might drop Nino for my 4* Raven, because another Green Unit, but Nino's leveled and actually pulling her weight, so I'm content for the moment.
Got to Chapter 4, for STory Content.
-
Friend ID is 7103452388.
If you linked to a Nintendo account, go to the Quests menu and click on the glowing symbol-thingy on the top-right to get the free orbs Meeple mentioned.
Third pull: 4-star Hawkeye (4 base), 4-star Caeda (4 base), 4-star ODIN DARK (3 base), 3-star Eliwood, 3-star Olivia. My total chance to pull a 5-star is up to 7.5% lol.
-
normal difficulty completed, on to Hard
9-4 and 9-5 are kinda tricky
rolled with 5* Lucina, 5* Camilla, 4* Jagen and 3* Fir for this undertaking.
Fir is a murderbot, probably worth raising to 4* at least (or if you got her as 4 or 5*) Lucina and Camilla both don't need explanations, they're both incredibly good. Jagen's okay; mine seems to have abysmal speed but other than that he's probably one of the better mounted tanks in the game as far as I can see.
-
Whatev the fuck I dunno what I'm doing
First pull: 3 Star Hana, 3 Star Raigh, 3 Star Fir, 3 Star Clarine
Second mini-pull: 3 star Tiki, 4 star Stahl
Using Anna, Raigh, Sharena, and Hana cause I'm boring and also the above and also don't care.
-
5* Lyn, 4* Palla, 4* Cherche, 4* Donnel, 3* Setsuna
Seems good.
ID: 2300104496
-
Haven't gotten a 5* yet after two draws. But now I have a set of 7% chances for one next time instead of a set of 6% chances! (as long as I keep drawing the same banner)
ID: 1435510052
-
Another pull: All 3*'s again.
Frederick, Selena, Another Raigh, Azama, Another Virion. Wow.
ID: 9005503534
-
Get the two Virions from the current special maps and put together an all-Virion team (I don't know if it actually lets you field duplicates.)
-
I'm assuming I don't get to yell at you guys about cocks in this topic?
-
This is the DL, Fire Emblem is "srs bsns"
-
I'm assuming I don't get to yell at you guys about cocks in this topic?
You just do that anyway.
-
Another pull: 3-star Fir, 4-star Felicia, Selena, Sophia...
...and Takumi
Okay I'm done now. Future orbs will be going into castle upgrades. Also apparently I'm an archer main.
-
Hey, finally some 4*'s.
Frederick, Fir, Est, Laslow and 4* Male Robin cause of course I'd get the 4*
But hey, can at least field a real team now once they're leveled. Might keep Sharena over Est since pegknights are iffy and Sharena's had great growths for a 2*
-
Got a 5* Robin in my first five-roll, which was enough for me to not bother rerolling.
ID: 2701983344
-
Not even being made a 4* can save Sophia from being bloody awful.
(http://i.imgur.com/UbCqMAll.png)
That speed is really something.
-
Figured I'd give the game a shot, and am enjoying it enough to keep going through the story dungeons that exist thus far, at least -- it's stripped-down enough to not be what I really want from mobile Fire Emblem, but it's still not horrible.
Character-wise I pulled 5-star Takumi in my first set of three summons, and have since added 4-star Marth, Frederick, Merric, Odin, Raigh and Sully. Range meta!
-
Freind Code: 0605987273
No 5 star pulls for me, but I got 4 star Serra, Ogma, Nowi and Nino, which are solid. Subaki at 3 is also surprisingly badass.
Def enjoying game thus far. It's a pretty neat thing to just play casually, hope doing arena stuff doesn't wind up turning into "lol better have a team of jacked up 5 stars to ever win~"
-
I decided I had orbs, let's do another pull on banner 2 an-*4 out of 5 red, 1 neutral*
...oh god damn it, that's the one thing I don't need. Did one pull, got nothing notable, and didn't bother with the rest. Not going to waste 15 orbs on a bunch of red units when my one 5* is Red.
-
Proof finally exists. A 0 star level up does in fact feel worse in a Gatcha game, but also in fact feels worse than losing at a Gatcha pull. Thanks for the science game! That 4 SP I am sure was worth it.
-
Ok, did what will be my last 5 pull on the initial banners.
Got another 5*! ...it was Roy...aka a unit I didn't really want and covers an area I already have. Great. Still, a 5* is a 5* I guess. Also got a 4* Ogma (ANOTHER Red Unit -_-), another 3* Nino and Est, and a Lissa. Yeah, let's just wait for the next banners now!
-
Beat 9-5 on Normal. 9-4 is a strategy check and 9-5 is just a stat check. Veronica is bullshit. Also fully upgraded castle.
-
One final pull on this banner, as well as some castle upgrades.
3* Cherche, Selena, Gunter, Gordin annnnnnd 4* Roy. That makes two banner 5's I pull at 4.
-
Beat 9-5 on Normal. 9-4 is a strategy check and 9-5 is just a stat check. Veronica is bullshit. Also fully upgraded castle.
stat checks don't get much better come 7+ hard and Lunatic
-
Isn't everything in the game a stat check? I mean outside of cheesing AI with bottle necks and healing, so far everything is just rubbing sets of stats together and bigger ones win for me.
I also for reference I got Hector on my reset spam and then Sakura on a regular orb pull. Then I finally worked out the rename account is under FAQ/Etc. SO some of you got a random Kiran send friend invites that are me and now will show up as me.
-
Isn't everything in the game a stat check? I mean outside of cheesing AI with bottle necks and healing, so far everything is just rubbing sets of stats together and bigger ones win for me.
Normal difficulty is actually pretty well balanced.
I also for reference I got Hector on my reset spam and then Sakura on a regular orb pull. Then I finally worked out the rename account is under FAQ/Etc. SO some of you got a random Kiran send friend invites that are me and now will show up as me.
Hector is pretty badass. Sakura is a good healer too.
-
Proof finally exists. A 0 star level up does in fact feel worse in a Gatcha game, but also in fact feels worse than losing at a Gatcha pull. Thanks for the science game! That 4 SP I am sure was worth it.
Good(?) news, mathcrafty types have determined that stat growth follows one of a few predetermined paths for each character, and which one is chosen at the time of acquisition, so it's impossible to get RNG-screwed/blessed. It seems RNG literally doesn't exist in this game outside of gatcha and picking arena opponents.
(Also: 9441493824)
-
Reference to what Shale is talking about: https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/5s605i/hey_guys_working_on_a_table_to_determine_the_base/
Basically your level up stats always converge to a base set of stats for the character at level cap (40), and then you apply a Pokemon nature-esque effect to it where one stat gets a penalty to the base and one gets a bonus. The value of the penalty/bonus can vary (a char can have their Speed penalty/bonus be -2/+3 or -3/+2 for instance, and the numbers for other stat bonuses/penalties are independent as well) but said variance tends to be low.
So yeah, no bad luck will hold out in the long run (though of course you can get RNG screwed temporarily while leveling, but it corrects itself), although there is still a bit of differentiation between chars and thus some randomness. I'm sure hardcore whales will not be happy with a +Res bonus on their Takumis or whatever.
-
Game finally deigned to let me join the 5* crew with Camilla and Maria.
Sadly, Maria - at least skillset wise - looks generally inferior to the Wrys 4* I got in the same drawing, and Camilla has gotten a distressing amount of 1/2-stat levelups so far (although given the previous post, maybe that's just going to lead to a heap of great levelups later). Also, green was probably already my best colour.
Now to start stockpiling orbs I guess.
-
8-4 is a stat wall I can't overcome yet. Terrain makes out maneuvering pretty impossible, can't lean on 5* stars because everything hits Res and I have Hector. He does clear a lot out, but not enough to get ahead. Training up a Mage replacement for Virion.
-
Just beat 8-5 myself. 8-4 took a couple of attempts, since yeah, you need to manipulate the AI into a scenario where they can't take full advantage of the terrain. in my case, I also needed Virion dead just so Est couldn't be sniped at.
-
A total of 30 incoming free orbs spread out over 5 weeks, with 6 orbs each week being distributed via 3 maps multiplied by 2 difficulties
I would recommend saving these orbs for the next banner next week or for castle upgrades if you somehow haven't already sunk 25 orbs for double EXP.
Personal observations regarding popular 5*/4* units I've faced in arena and high level training tower, might be helpful for some of you:
- Takumi: Literally god-tier. Not many counters aside from hoping you have something that can tank his attacks. A high-leveled Hector with Distant Counter is probably the best solution I can think off-hand. Or you can throw someone at him who has brave weapon (Camilla, etc.) and hope you can kill him in one round - his defense isn't that high after all. Pray for salvation if you face a Takumi who's accompanied by a dancer
- 5* Sword Lords/Myrms: As generic as it gets. They hit you hard, they also get hit hard since they generally all have below average DEF and RES. Don't let Lyn get too many attacks on you otherwise she triggers Galeforce. Mages should wreck them handily though. You can also use manaketes against anyone not named Lucina, Marth or Chrom
- Hector: Can only really be killed off by magic or armorslayers. Don't throw too many bodies at him since distant counter is dumb.
- Ryoma: He's like Hector except probably faster and probably slightly less physically tanky with a bit higher Res
- Manaketes: Very dangerous if you don't have any Falchion users. Otherwise they're food if you can get the jump on them
- Camilla: Gets wrecked by range attacks, but otherwise can run rampant on your team if you don't have any physical tanks.
- Leo: Has savage blow, so he can deal a huge amount of collateral damage as mage, he hit from range. Better kill him ASAP with melee characters. Can also neuter your own mages/archers/ninja by making their attack range 1. Is kind of squishy though so can be dealt with with some smart movement
- Robin (M): His tome lets him get WTA on colorless enemies. That's about it. Still very dangerous as he hits hard. A recurring trend that most of the dangerous characters in the game hit really hard but are squishy.
-
(http://img13.deviantart.net/133e/i/2016/216/9/a/pokemon_go_metapod_011_icon_by_viciousblue-daclofu.png)
NEW META
-
It's kind of a relief to see people talk about how ridiculous Takumi is, because after a few rounds of using him as my only 5* my first assumption was that the tier is stupidly unbalanced in general.
-
It is. The gap between most 4* and 5*s I have seen is big. 3-5 is nearly insurmountable without big level advantage and WTA.
-
There are counters for everything, but they're very specific, so it's just a crapshoot if you have the right characters or not. Takumi is indeed handled by Hector or Robin, but if you don't have them, good luck.
-
Given I'm running two accounts, I can agree on the Leo assessment. Leo works well with a manakete (I would say in particular Nowi because of her second ability, though I have her only on the Main account).
Also, do note that the weekly is up now for a total of 6 orbs. I need to start doing more research on some of these characters, especially the ones I have at 3*. Since all characters can become 5* with lots of grinding, it might be good to figure out what would fit what situation.
-
Given I'm running two accounts
Like not to judge anyone's steez, you do you. But fucking why?
-
I do the same on FGO and FFBE. I'm used to multi-tasking. I run a cellphone and a tablet. And given I am away at work, it lets me relax on the cellphone when I have business...especially given some of the family issues at times keeps me away from home that I'd not like to talk about.
It's also one of the reasons I'm not giving the second ID just yet.
-
There are counters for everything, but they're very specific, so it's just a crapshoot if you have the right characters or not. Takumi is indeed handled by Hector or Robin, but if you don't have them, good luck.
setsuna has bowbreaker so she's worth looking into as a takumi counter
-
7181246750
I am a noob, but I have a 5 star archer dude (Takumi). Rest of my team is assorted 4 stars.
-
7181246750
I am a noob, but I have a 5 star archer dude (Takumi). Rest of my team is assorted 4 stars.
You're pretty much set for life, depending on who your 4* are
-
"Life" meaning "until the first round of power creep" anyway. I assume we're going to see more characters (both playable and as high-level AI foes) with WTA over colorless opponents, after experiencing firsthand just how badly a decently leveled Robin can wreck Takumi's shit.
-
Not to mention the inevitable appearance of 6* Bases somewhere down the line. I'm going to be bold and predict Ike is going to be the first of those!
-
Ended up with 2300 feathers from arena. Was at 2800 earlier in the day but my rank took a sudden nosedive.
Doing some leveling in the training grounds, but the difficulty is just so random. Like why do mage cavaliers have colossal stats compared to everything else?
-
A japanese whale has confirmed my suspicions of Alfonse being trash
Lv40 5* Alfonse has only 25~ Speed
unforgivable for a red sword user to be honest
-
Tried to roll after last night's...interesting roll while waiting for my food. Didn't get any 5* but I finally got Corrin, Maria and Florina (among other things). Thinking of replacing Clarine with Maria but going to level the others so I can have a better variety.
-
Just beat 9-5. 9-4 was basically trying to lure them out so they don't hit you multiple at a time, and you can kill them with taking as little damage as possible.
9-5...yeah, stat check. Can you get the boss lured out and kill her before her debuffs kick in, then just overpower the enemy.
Now I have like 49 Orbs...might as well upgrade my castle, because the next banner can't come fast enough!
-
Spent 20 orbs yesterday, got four 3 stars, one 4 star and zero characters I've ever heard of. One of them's a dancer (Olivia, 3*) and another has that WTA over colorless characters I was coveting (Henry, 4*), so it's not all bad, at least.
-
Friend code: 3316825583
Marth is my only 5 star, but he's wrecking ish right now.
Im plodding through chapter 9 now.
My other jabronis are barst, merrick and cordelia.
Lv range from 22-25
-
Hmm, it seems winning 7 intermediate fights in a row isn't enough to get ranked this week. I'm at 2924 points right now.
EDIT: Never mind, it just takes a while to update. That put me at 76000 rank.
Saving this so I can find it later: https://fireemblem.gamepress.gg/fire-emblem-heroes-iv-calculator
Apparently my Takumi is -attack +defense. FML.
-
Getting ranked largely seems a matter of "do you have the heroes that give bonus to score". I won 7 intermediate in a row for the first season, but without any banner heroes I didn't get ranked.
-
Arena ranking is based on several things:
1: The level of your team (and consequently the level of the enemy team, since it matches you by level). Higher level is more points. So for optimal arena ranking you'll need to be 40. It looks like merge bonuses (+1, +2, etc.) count as levels as well for the purposes of matchups, although that doesn't come up much right now.
2: How many of your units survive at the end. When I was running Advanced, I got around 640 points if everyone lived. In a fight where I lost 3 units at the end I only got around 420 points. The point range that you see previewed when you pick your difficulty appears to be the range from 1 unit surviving to all 4 units surviving. So you need to preserve your units ideally, which can be difficult in the arena meta.
3: The number of bonus units you use. 1 is a 2x mult, 2 is a 2.3x mult, 3 is a 2.6x mult and 4 is a 2.9x mult. You do want to have at least one. The bonus units are all of the current banner focus heroes, Alfonse, and Sharena. If you didn't pull any of the focus heroes I recommend leveling Sharena as she is a legit story unit (also a lack of blues in the current pool as well, so she can fill that role).
Finally, your Defense rank does contribute to your overall ranking. I don't know if the numerical value of your Defense rank is just added on top of your Offense rank or if it scales differently. Of course that's mildly out of your control; you just have to hope someone fights your team and loses.
Your Defense team is your default (leftmost) team. It is suggested you dedicate this team slot solely for arena Defense and use other team slots to play the game with your desired pve composition/arena offense. Some notes:
1. Design your team in mind with how the AI is going to play with it, i.e. hyper-aggressive and prone to being baited. This generally favors high offense heroes and of course bullshit that can counter at any range like Takumi.
2. Support units or anything that requires player intelligence to be used well (e.g. most assist actions) don't tend to do as well. If you use a healer (like me) and don't have another offensive hero leveled up to replace that slot on Defense, be sure to unequip their weapon (at least right now while the stamina cost is free to do so). This will prevent your healer from running off and tinking enemy players when they fight your team and becoming free kills, and force them to prioritize using their heals under the AI. Especially important with healers like Serra where it's much more advantageous to use her attack aura and +4 Spd to party special than the actual healing itself.
3. Defense just takes your highest score from the best defense you got. I believe the score is determined by how many of YOUR units survived during the defense, i.e. total blowout. This season I got 254, and the highest feather reward rank is 251+.
-
Wow, nope. That is entirely a system too stupidly arcane and spikey for me to take part in, especially when those dueling crests are going to dry up and it is pay to participate.
-
Not really? Feather payout from arena is from offense, defense, and ranking. You are giving up a free 1k~ feathers (and 100-500 if you earn any defenses at all) by not participating. The above is only a concern if you are trying to place a reward in ranking, for offense you literally can coast on a 7-win streak on beginner or intermediate and get an easy payday, on a team of any level. Rank reward is for tryhards, just ignore it if you don't care.
Your score is your best win streak in the season, you get 21 arena runs a week (3 a day) and streaks cap at 7. So that is 3 full attempts minimum during the week with zero dueling crests. For minimum effort slap your highest 5* and a bunch of lowbies and walk over nub teams or whatever.
-
Yeah I mean you spend the resource you get, right? But I ain't pushing for rank any time. I am not going nuts trying to get 7 in a row. I am not stripping options off my healer so that my defense AI works better.
The zero effort part there is like literally the problem. The efficient line (least resources for acceptable returns) is both gaming the system and completely disengaging from it at the same time.
-
Just finished a 7 streak myself, but now gotta focus on getting those Arena Missions finished.
Was nice being able to promote Nino and Est to 4* though, yay bonus feathers!
-
It only takes one successful defense to get feathers, so I'm just leaving a balanced A team in the primary position and calling it a day.
On another subject, today's bonus fight: Yikes. I've yet to get anybody above L25 so I don't think that's happening.
-
The Narcian fights are damned hard by any standards. I'm close to beating the harder one but need a few levels in the right places.
-
Even on normal mode that blue cavalier is a goddamned dick move, somehow moreso than magic cavaliers usually are.
-
Good guide on Arena: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YbNmg7zWIDEHv-ZaffsjTMM5g_fiSJ50IBErpoA5vHg/preview
-
Read that, and it's definitely a fun thing to soak up meta knowledge, but of course it presumes being decked with the current meta 5* (several of which aren't focus banner heroes, like Linde/Hector) which isn't really feasible unless you are dropping cash. That is for the serious arena diehards who are aiming for rank, flawless runs with no deaths and maximum statlines, etc.
(On that note your team's total stat value appears to be the determining factor for point gain, which is tied to but not directly correlated with level - the more mobile a unit is the less stats they have, so there's some variance there.)
Stat IVs being important is unsurprising, though, given how FE stats work. Doubling/not being doubled is always huge, and breakpoints for OHKOs on specific heroes are important (like Linde gets oneshotted by Takumi/Jeorge if they have +3 Atk from nature or an aura, whereas she destroys them on the counter otherwise).
-
The daily hero map today is Olivia, who is a red dancer. Comes with an attack aura too. Completely usable solely as a backline unit since Dance is so good, so her stats don't matter all that much. Do note you will need to promote her to 3* in order to actually use Dance, which will run you 200 feathers and 10 red badges (and leveling her to 20).
EDIT: Also, for those looking to rank, as of now (1 day before the season ends), I had the following rankings with respective scores:
<3000 offense, 260 defense = unranked
3560 offense, 260 defense = rank 57271
4162 offense, 260 defense = rank 11202 (current streak peak)
-
So I came to the conclusion that my team just isn't working. Takumi is good but not as good as his hype. Effie takes forever to get into position. Jeorge is frail and his special takes forever to charge. And Chrom just plain sucks. Garbage speed and resistance means he dies if anything looks at him.
So I made a new team from scratch. Burned some feathers to get them to 4-stars, but it'll be worth it in the long run.
Eliwood
Jagen
Gunter
aka Cheers Love, the Cavalry's Here
Jagen gives +6 defense and resistance to the other two. Gunter gives +6 attack and speed to the other two. Eliwood gives +4 defense and resistance to the other two from range. Currently using Serra as the fourth to keep their hp topped off and she buffs Gunter's attack. I'll probably swap in Ursula when she's released since she has the offensive version of Eliwood's buff.
So far this is working well. Put Gunter at a chokepoint with the others supporting him and he has +10 defense and resistance. He does not die. Then rush in with the other two and mow everything down.
-
I waffled on whether to pull again on the current set of banners, and I'm glad I did because I have a 5 star Roy now.
-
I said I wouldn't pull until a new banner, but I have so many orbs, it's actually looking appealing...
-
I am also kicking this around.
My luck with draws sucks: through something like 20-30 I have nobody with 5-stars, and only a small handful who are 4-stars... most of whom are characters I don't like much, don't seem to be very good, or both. The first 4-star I got I actually care about is Arthur... who I already have a Level 18 3-star for. -_- Gacha mechanics are pretty stupid.
Fortunately the game itself is reasonably enjoyable; some of the maps do actually make you think a bit in that good FE way.
-
Oh yeah, friend ID is 1119009935.
EDIT: Thanks, Captain; good catch.
-
Oh yeah, friend ID is 1119009935.
Fixed your friend ID for you, too many zeroes.
-
I think I hit burnnout point where progression is just shitty and end game grindans are just kind of empty.
Post 20 leveling is super slow. Later it gets the worse it is. Sub 4* is untenable in late 20sish content and even that is sketchy. Random maps are pretty much a shit fight depending on entirely on if you roll Calavier Mages or not. Even if you have WTA of you don't have killer Res they are still likely to one or two shot you. Hope you don't think you can fight mages with Mages because lol Res out the arse. Okay you got that sorted? Now keep everyone else you want to level a billion miles away from that enemy with 3 move and range. Death = no Exp.
Also enjoy picking between Training maps where you either spend more stamina to do something that out levels you, a map full of mages that hard counter your team or something that gets you no Exp. The hard counter might even be bad Exp because your choices were a 20, a 23 or 32.
Combine that with Arena being shitty and the best way to get Feathers you are stuck in a pretty bad gameplay loop.
I think I might try and find a story map that is okay for my party? What I really need is a Blue character that isn't hot garbage.
-
Decided to do one last pull on the banner I was at 4% at, since I hit 40 orbs. FINALLY GOT A 5 STAR
Camilla, but still, I'll take it.
-
Yeah Grefter pretty much sums up my experience. Leveling is stupid as hell. You can't even auto-level because you need those large crystals that don't drop anywhere. Why are Lunatic story maps easier than Hard training missions?
All in all this feels like someone's first attempt at a mobile game when they hadn't actually played a mobile game before but just had some of the concepts described to them.
-
Decided to do one last pull on the banner I was at 4% at, since I hit 40 orbs. FINALLY GOT A 5 STAR
Camilla, but still, I'll take it.
Jealousy.
Finally got my first five-star too: Lyn. I'm certainly not gonna complain; it could just as easily have been Roy.
I can't speak to the general post-L20 metagame (as my highest is L23 and that's a 3-star, so I'll be waiting on my 4/5-stars to catch up) but mages aren't that bad? Having a high-res 2-range to bait them is extremely effective (I even often use Clarine for this, which isn't optimum; various decently-levelled shuriken-user would probably do better).
-
Mages are fine, it's the mage cavaliers specifically who can go jump in a ditch. They combine long range and cavalier mobility with damage far above what a physical cavalier would have, more in line with an armored knight. And they're hitting a defensive stat that seems to be subpar across the board -- even characters who should be magic tanks tend to get slaughtered by equivalent-level mounted spellcasters.
-
Agreed that the cavaliers have too much offense for a 3 move unit, but Res heavy units that can weather their assault/bait them out do exist. Red is overpresented right now, both in the overall pool and on the focus banner, and low Res tends to be the weakness on that color, since a lot of them are sword lords.
I rotated through several fliers (Palla, Est, Florina) to deal with them for a while. Most pegasus/wyvern knights have solid Res, although of course if you didn't draw any then it gets a lot much more awkward since the other high Res units tend to be mages themselves. Fliers themselves are also weak to archers, but you can't realistically cover everything, so it becomes necessary to switch up your team a bit depending on the previewed enemy composition.
Really the main problem is that you can just easily get fucked on your gacha draws and not have a diverse enough pool to cover holes like this. Lacking a good blue seems to be a really common theme. And the stat checks are pretty real; you'll pretty much want 4* minimum by 30 (promote promising chars to 4* with your free 10k feathers if need be).
-
My code is 4195292567. My team is Camilla <3, Leo, Lyn, and Clarine.
-
Yeah my blues are certainly my weakest. The next banner may fix that, especially since Ephraim is probably gonna be there?
I've already promoted two people to 4* and am debating who else to send along. Also have to resolve whether I'm gonna promote my L20 3* Arthur or just start again with my L1 4* Arthur, latter is probably the right choice since feathers don't seem to restock that quickly even though you start with a lot; the one arena pile a week looks awfully little now.
-
Feathers are worth significantly more than Stamina even taking into account Time. Level curve is similar to Stamina curve of levels. 1-20 happens quick and levels don't cost much Stamina. Oh and 25 orbs maxed your castle out and doubles Exp gains if you haven't already.
I would either throw together a garbage leveling team to sink some time into on the 4* Arthur (this is where a healer is great to use, they slot into a leveling team easy) or if you can run it, just have him solo/duo maps with some support. I dunno if it works for Arthur but the 3* Tiki I had is now a 4* level 30 and that wasn't too painful throwing her up against higher level stuff with a healer that buffs Def.
Shanna not so much and she is lagging.
Also I wanna run through something on Tiki. I don't know if this was in TMS and I missed it, but there is something in her art that bugs my brain out hard.
Most of her other art has her just in like a mini dress or long tunic getup. Sometimes alternate length frilly stockings/socks or something but this art here of sexy adult Tiki is weird.
(http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/9/93/TikiKakusei.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/275?cb=20160713045321)
The mini dress is fine. The massive split up the side makes you wonder is she is wearing underwear at all (or if it exists it sits reeeeeeeally high up on the hip. Then she has knee high boots, stockings and garter belts.
We also clearly see from the slit up the side of the leg that she doesn't have a garter on at least the left leg. So how does it work? Does she wear something all the way up at the improbable waistline posited previously?
Then it struck me. They aren't garters to keep the stockings up. Obviously they are connected to the dress itself and are there to stop the dress riding up during general day to day wear or getting caught in a light breeze.
Fashion Detective A. Grefter has solved another case.
-
Please continue your fashion cases so that I have something to look forward to in 2017
Also, yes, very definitely yes level 4* you have over promoting 3* of the same unit; you only promote if you don't think you'll pull something better for that slot anytime soon (orb shortage, whatever). Feathers are precious. But at the same time fielding 3* late is just not practical.
-
Not gonna lie, some of the art has some touches that gives me Suikoden 1/4 vibes and it kinda got that part of my brain going (everything like Eliwood would be it. Someone with less of a defined linework style than the rest of the hoist style and something around the eyes just hits that same beat as Suiko 1)
-
https://twitter.com/_amoreh/status/829895696568315904
-
Alright I am gonna need a professional opinion on this.
Trance, is this Leo deliberately being contrarian by calling tomatoes his favourite Vegetable in yet another Tsundere act or does he just want the V?
Edit - who wore it best???
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/15/Count_duckula_titles.jpg)
Edit 2 - okay so after a week of struggling for wins against hard counters on intermediate with a Hector+Sakura duo, decided to do Advanced for quest. 7 wins in a row against Hectors and Takumi/trash groups. I don't understand.
It only got me 1600 rating but it was fast and painless.
-
https://twitter.com/_amoreh/status/829895696568315904
https://youtu.be/kj2uvp-rNyo?t=1m
Reds OP
-
So new banner is a thing. It threw 2 full draws at it, got Julia a 5* Green mage, just what I needed except not really. She does counter dragons pretty damn hard though. Got some 4* as well. Highlight is Cain who t level 1 legit had 0 speed.
-
Got 5 star Minerva, who is one hell of a glass cannon, and 4 star Fae and Clarine. Clarine is my first legit healer, so that's great, and Fae can be an effective tank in the right setup.
-
40 orbs spent so far, whole lot of nothing.
-
4 pulls from saving up. Got 5* Jakob and 5* Ephraim. Like I needed more grey types. I do note that my Ephraim is paper thin against mages though.
-
I haven't got a single 5* until I pulled 5* Eirika and Jeorge from the same summon pack. I have zero good green units, unless 4* HAWKEYE is amazing. My only 4* blue? ODIN FUCKING DARK.
I have 6 4* male Corrins.
And endless amounts of Matthews. I swear I'm about to throw my phone if I see his ugly ass face again.
-
I want to get a Male Corrin. And Eirika. But alas, Female Corrins and Eliwoods are always in my way.
-
I tried so hard to fit Odin into my team because he's my only blue mage and for a while was my only 4* blue, period, but JESUS he's bad. If I told him to step on a fly he'd do three damage and then the fly would counterattack and come out ahead in the bargain.
(My current plan is just to run Roy, Takumi, and Minerva with a healer or dancer and just forego blue coverage unless it's absolutely needed. When it is needed, Florina, Sully or Oboro can fill in.)
-
Level 40 stat bases for the new focus heroes, since that honestly tends to be as important if not more than the skill list. Natures are usually +3/-3. Weapon and passive stat bonuses from skills are factored in.
Eirika
HP 42
ATK 42
SPD 35
DEF 26
RES 28
Verdict: Pile of buffs for support. Good speed, bad attack. Notably worse than the typical red sword lord for actual combat as a result, and no Falchion. If you already have someone with Hone Atk, she's pretty meh as they don't stack with the weapon aura. If you don't, though, she's pretty great with Nino or Tharja to take advantage of their tomes.
Ephraim
HP 45
ATK 51
SPD 26 (!!)
DEF 32
RES 20
Verdict: That speed.
Seliph
HP 52
ATK 50
SPD 24 (!!)
DEF 30
RES 22
Verdict: That speed, part 2. Also red is worse than blue right now, too many other good red units to compete against.
Julia
HP 38
ATK 39
SPD 30
DEF 17
RES 32
Verdict: Ranged dragonkiller is kinda nice? Not terribly fast though. Breath of Life might actually be usable on a ranged unit.
-
...why the hell is SELIPH slow? He was one of the FE Protagonists I would assume is fast (alongside Eirika and Lyn obviously).
-
Not like Ephraim being slow is any less of a betrayal of in-game, but Heroes has this crazy thing where it insists on balancing units who were good at everything for some reason.
-
Also making Hector and Takumi god tier in arena.
I do wonder...would Ephraim, Takumi, Corrin, Lissa be a good combo? Or should I keep Ephraim out and Marth in?
-
Seliph
HP 52
ATK 50
SPD 24 (!!)
DEF 30
RES 22
Verdict: That speed, part 2. Also red is worse than blue right now, too many other good red units to compete against.
You missed the key stat
Galaxy Express: 999
(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/8/89/Seliph.png/revision/latest?cb=20160124214749)
-
true enough
ALSO a bit of an overview of buffs and how they work, since it isn't obviously documented in the game!
There are two types of stat altering buffs/debuffs. I'll call one active and one passive. Active buffs are:
- "aura" type buffs (Hone Spd, Fortify Def, Eirika's/Ephraim's weapons, etc.)
- Defiant buffs (trigger conditionally, usually at <=50% HP)
- Balm buffs (specials on healers that trigger a partywide buff)
- Fury (always active buff that causes you to take damage on actions)
- Some special stuff on weapons like some Daggers/dragon breaths
There is also a corresponding debuff for most of these effects. Dagger/staff debuffs, Threaten, and Seal are the most prominent.
Active buffs have the following properties:
- They properly update on the stat window with a green arrow pointing up or an orange arrow pointing down.
- They do not stack; the greatest numerical value takes precedence.
- Having both a buff and a debuff on the same stat interacts the way you'd expect, i.e. they apply against each other as expected, but as per the previous rule, multiple buffs and debuffs don't stack.
Passive buffs are:
- Blow attacks (Armored/Darting/etc.) These trigger only when the user initiates combat.
- Goad/Ward/Spur effects. These trigger only if the condition is met (the user is adjacent, or within 2 spaces; the user is of the corresponding unit type, etc.) when combat initiates.
They have the following properties:
- These do NOT show up on the stat window and can be a very rude surprise when unexpected, especially in Arena. Check out adjacent units and make sure what you're fighting isn't about to double you because Lyn is standing next to him/her and giving +4 speed through Spur.
- They stack with active buffs, and they stack with themselves.
- Because they don't show up on the stat screen, they don't count as 'buffs' for the purposes of weapons that interact with buffs, like Nino's or Tharja's.
- They DO properly show up in damage previews (as far as damage figures and doubling goes) despite not being on the stat screen.
lrn2buff.
Also, damage previews will just lie to you when specials are being triggered (they don't show up in the calculations at all unless it's a charged pre-combat move like Tiki's or Leo's), but the projected outcome of resulting HP for the combatants after they fight remains accurate.
-
You missed the key stat
Galaxy Express: 999
(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/8/89/Seliph.png/revision/latest?cb=20160124214749)
The hair's about right, but they're way too fat to be Matsumoto designed.
-
Getting 4*s to become 5*s looks like a -thing-.
I got a 4* Camilla, who is my only decent green unit at all. I want her to be a 5* so she can hang out with my 5* Robin and 5* Lyn and I'll have the whole rainbow in 5*s. Then maybe I can start doing the training maps and not feel like I'm wasting time. (Luckily the mini-SRPG maps themselves are still just -fun-, even when it's just 'grinding'.)
I pulled on the new banner and got 2 new 5*s! Ryoma (!!!!! Lyn replacement?) and... Kagero (Ranged 5* sounds great! Holy shit does she suck in practice....)
What's the best way to go about getting those feathers so I can make Camilla awesome? (And eventually Marth and/or Chrom in case I need a 5* Falchion-user.) o9
-
Kagero's actually really good. Just have to be sneaky like ninja with her.
-
Arena or Send Home. though you cap your feathers at 3000 points (giving you 1600), send home gives more feathers depending on rarity.
-
Set of 40 orbs gave me a 5* Raven, who uses axes now for some reason.
Raven doesn't have the Con to use them! Raven loses 7 speed wielding a Brave Axe, not 5 excuse me. Did the developers do their homework?
My Jeorge and Eirika apparently have attack banes. -_- Level 32 with 34 attack is so bad.
-
Raven having Axes I'm honestly completely fine with. If nothing else, he can still use them in FE7 eventually and FEH has more than it's fair share of Red Units that trading in a Red for a Green is a completely fair trade-off if you ask me.
Now, what is baffling is how they made Caeda, a blatant Lance user, into a Red Unit. That one I can't fathom at all.
-
Raven is Micro-Hector. Plus he can heal his damage. He'd almost be great (hell I actually like him in FE7, showing my bad taste) if not for the fact there's an overabundance in Red Sword units and Takumis.
-
Que?! Raven is amazing in FE7.
I finished Hard story stuff. Did another pull. Nothing interesting, some 4* that I would be excited about if feathers were actually attainable.
-
I said bad taste because Raven was a bit...one trick pony personality wise. I love Raven to death. I also did a set of rolls. Got Julia then got Hawkeye'd. Why do you forsake me Hector!?
-
Kagero is actually the single unit I want to see LEAST in arena rn. Because my team is entirely infantry units. Whenever I see both a Kagero and a Takumi enemyside in arena I'm pretty much fucked since I can't safely lure either of them.
Steadily trying to bring Gunter up to the levels where I can get the kill level 35+ units with cavalry. My main team is almost all maxed out now(though still 3 at 4* instead of 5). Azura continues to be basically the best thing ever and the lynchpin of all my strategies.
-
https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/5umlio/fire_emblem_heroes_has_already_brought_in_over_5m/ Huh.
-
Still no smart phone, so I found an emulator.
Still in the prologue, but my 4-stars are both sword chicks, specifically Serena and Fir. Should be fun.
-
I am currently up to the last battle of Hard mode story. Plot battles have started getting pleasantly challenging which is nice. It would be cool if the stamina costs were somewhat lower but you get what you pay for. Besides, it really makes you want to think things through carefully, thus replicating some of the tension of later turns in an FE battle in a rather different setting.
Unit notes:
Lyn - Lyn is my only five-star unit, unshockingly she is good. Get her below half HP and she ruins anything she doubles (which is most things... but not everything) once she's below half HP and her followup attacks come before enemy counters + she gets a large attack boost. Oh and she passively buffs adjacent ally speed which is neat for getting over some key benchmarks.
Awakening!Tiki - Range 1-2 counter, great atk/def (manaketes doing magic damage is kinda weird but hey it fills a range 1 magic niche). She's pretty excellent except that she gets destroyed by non-green mages, especially ones with speed, because she's rather slow.
F!Corrin - I have blues now, it is great. Corrin specialises in tilting stats, ALL of them. Seal Res (mostly just helps her own damage, but nice with mage support), Hone Attack, but the real star is Dark Breath's massive AoE atk/spd debuff to all nearby enemies, doesn't even need a limit gauge to work. Stats are respectable all-around with res being the only real issue (but unlike Tiki her speed is fine). No range 1-2 counter but you can't have everything.
Clarine - Heals and has 3 move. I don't have much to say about her but being 3 move helps so much with flexibility. She has a limit which buffs speed on a heal but since none of her healing is that strong I tend to stick with Imbue to get periodic healing which is actually -good-. The tradeoff between Reconcile (7 healing to self and target) vs. Martyr (heals target by 7 + half of Clarine's lost HP, heals self by half of lost HP; adds +1 to limit time) is tricky. I like that she's fast/bulky enough (mostly against res but her def isn't a joke like some) to take the odd hit since that charges her limit and spreads out damage for healing.
Catria - Fast-charging Luna, flies. Overall I like her less than my core party when flight isn't on the table, but she's still pretty good and flight is just amazing on some maps. I didn't have any fliers early and that sucked because they help so much sometimes, even without the extra move they enjoy in most FE games. (FEH striving for balance kinda soft-confirms that fliers are OP in most FEs.) Seal Attack and Armoured Blow are nice.
Arthur - Lance units gonna die. Emerald Axe doubles offensive weapon triangle effects, Lancebreaker means he doubles and they don't. Against everyone else he's got a lot of HP but the speed could definitely be better... he's really only useful if the enemy has blues, but he's pretty good even against the mages for hitting them so hard (e.g. Masked Man).
Nino - Only 3* I'm still using, Nino has a lot of cool toys like Hone Atk and Draw Back, as well as making others' stat buffs on her more effective (hi Corrin) and she's better at baiting mages than Tiki is, though way worse against physicals because she's made of paper. I may up her to 4 at some point, though I do have a 4* Merric I could level up, and Cecilia's also an interesting choice for that green mage slot.
Palla - Another 3* I have reasonably high, though has now fallen back of my main team. Again, flight is good. She also has Spur Speed and her stats are respectable/balanced. Part of me wants to upgrade her for Goad Flyers and see what monster that makes Catria.
Hana and M!Corrin - Two perfectly respectable sword infantry units who I benched hard as soon as I got Lyn, because yeah no. Corrin's even 4*, it doesn't matter. Obstruct seems kinda trashy. Hana has Armourslayer but I've got enough magic damage (including red in Tiki) to not worry.
Oboro and Sharena - Back in the dark days these were my best blue units. Sharena is fine, Rally Attack was nice but these days having Hone Attack flying around devalues it a lot. Oboro has armourslaying and Seal Def but her stat build definitely stopped being competitive after a good start (hi RNG?), dat speed.
Beruka - I like Beruka and flight is nice but she has huge weaknesses in speed/res which make her pretty situational. She's solid as long as there aren't too many archers or mages around, though; her def is extremely good for a non-armour.
-
My first two draws on the current banner were utter crap, but third time's the charm. Got Ephraim *and* Julia.
...and Ephraim is +hp, -attack. Sigh. Natures are the worst thing about this game. It's bad enough you have to pull the 5-star characters, but you might get screwed on their stats also. The -attack Takumi I have just doesn't hold up against other 5-stars in arena. And you have to have 5-star characters because their stats are far higher than a 4-star.
Oh, but Julia is +attack, -resistance. That I can work with!
-
Don't feel too bad. I just pulled Lucina and got another attack bane. 5 of my 7 five stars are attack bane. Cordelia, another other 5* star, has speed bane. The Julia I have is HP bane and speed boon, and she's probably the worst 5* I have.
-
Yeah everyone's pretty annoyed at natures. Ideally they add a way to reroll them with SP or resetting a level 40 char back to 1 or something (would certainly keep people busy) but I wouldn't hold my breath about it.
HP in particular is insulting; it should really be twice as much as the other bane/boons (+6/-6 instead of +3/-3) because as is, +HP is always the worst boon and -HP is almost always the best bane.
-
This reminded me to actually check my natures now that my 5*s are all level 40, and it seems like I at least dodged any really bad ones. Roy is -HP/+RES, Takumi is -DEF/+RES and Minerva is the best of the bunch with -HP/+SPD.
-
How do you check natures?
-
http://feheroes.wiki/Hero_List
They only have stats for 5-star heroes at level 1 or 40. If you have a 4-star character at level 20+, you can go to the Unlock Potential screen to see their 5-star level 1 stats.
-
Keep debating on whether to delete or not. Then they release quests I don't care about for rewards that don't matter so I do them and the app stays.
I am human detritus.
-
7181246750
I am a noob, but I have a 5 star archer dude (Takumi). Rest of my team is assorted 4 stars.
You're pretty much set for life, depending on who your 4* are
Actually...
So...a few weeks later and I'm actually pretty RNG screwed. Have not opened up a single other 5* since the start (when I rerolled till 5*). Takumi's nature is +HP -Speed, the worst nature in the game. My 4 stars all had bad natures (most were -Speed, like both of my Kageros and my Cecilia. Lots of +HP everywhere). I believe my Robin is -Attack +HP. Roy was the only one with OKish IVs (+ATK -DEF) But like...all he does is the super weapon triangle; didn't seem worth promoting to 5*. He's still going to beat green and instagib to blue with or without a 5* promotion. Maybe promoting him would make him less bad vs red, but honestly reds with relevant skills will probably still beat Roy, whose skills are about killing greens really bad.
Discussed options with Laggy. Ended up promoting Shareena from 2* to 4*, Olivia from 2* to 4* (neither of them have natures due to being obtained through story), and a +Atk -HP Nino from 3* to 4*. So...6,400 feathers later.... Current plan is to promote Shareena to 5* next, but obviously this is relatively delayed due to just spending 6,400 feathers.
-
So pulling Ephraim and Julia greatly improved my quality of life. Julia just wrecks everyone's shit. She even oneshots Takumi if he has -hp or -resistance. Ephraim doesn't look great on paper, but with the massive number of red sword lords in the arena he pulls his weight very well.
Currently running Ephraim, Julia, Takumi, and a low level Olivia to Dance Dance Revolution them. Had a near perfect run in arena bringing me to 4153 points, but I haven't been able to pull off a full no-death run. The map with the 2-2 split of units is very hard to keep Olivia alive on.
-
The game, IMO, badly needs a practical way to level units past the low 20s that isn't essentially slamming your head against the worst aspects of randomizer ROM hacks until you get something remotely playable.
It only gets worse the higher you go, my highest units are in the low 30s and I can easily go through my entire stamina bar without gaining a single level on any of them because of shitty tower maps causing outright wipes or just killing the characters gaining most of the EXP each time.
-
slamming your head against the worst aspects of randomizer ROM hacks until you get something remotely playable.
So they nailed classic Fire Emblem gameplay!
-
If the set is bad for your team and the level ranges are too fucked, either level a B team up, the stamina cost for low level teams is nearly meaningless or go do a story map for a bit more Stamina and less EXP but a fixed encounter. Even reduced experience is better than 0 experience for a hard wipe.
-
Surprise new banner!
....it's just 5* versions of characters who were already available, and they pretty much suck! Yay!
-
Usual doom and gloom not sure how much will play statements here.
Fun pattern I have noticed that might be isolated, but when I start the app up while also taking a call on my iPhone 6S Plus the audio slows down to like a quarter speed. So everyone sounds like they are spooky nightmare ghosts and all the SFX sounds like it is underwater and really chill. Might be worth trying to reproduce.
-
Surprise new banner!
....it's just 5* versions of characters who were already available, and they pretty much suck! Yay!
Tiki is cool! But yeah this is not an exciting banner. I now have a stock of like 60 orbs and mostly all I do is look at them and wish I'd been able to amass them before the two launch banners had closed.
If the set is bad for your team and the level ranges are too fucked, either level a B team up...
To be perfectly honest you should always have flexibility in who you are levelling, the game really really rewards choosing units who match up well against the preview. I always do this and hardly ever lose training tower fights unless I definitely am biting off more than I can chew (which I do sometimes because hey, sometimes I enjoy YOLOing against a map 6 levels higher because winning those is sweet).
This does bring me to what I feel is the game's biggest interface flaw: choosing a team is something I want to do before every freaking battle but every time I do it it kicks me out to the battle menu and I have to click through to get back to where I was before. Not the end of the world but at this point the total time lost to this is substantial.
-
Beat the Lunatic Lance quest, the Sword and Axe ones are not happening with my lineup and levels.
FRobin was easy due to Julia tanking all the things, then retreating and Ephraim cleaning up.
Unless there's a last minute rush I should get 1500 feathers from rank this week. Nice, except this is offset by having zero defenses. This is odd because I usually have dozens of defenses. *shrug*
-
I beat the Sword one by burning 3 Light's Blessings. I was doing at best 6 damage to the armored knight with Hana, so it took a bit before I happened on kiting it and Rally Attack with her to let Fir (whose super would also be charged by the rez) and Seliph also do damage. Sadly even with his level advantage Roy couldn't even tink due to the -20% skill.
Worth the 20 Great Seals.
Sadly the one I REALLY needed was the Lance one, since I want to upgrade Sharena first. I got like 5-6 more Green Great Seals in all my training raise the all-weapon team scrubs. Just not enough quality Lance users, (Sully, Gwendolyn, Est) and they're all at ~20. Axe I at least beat 7th Stratum, but similar boat there other than 37Fred and 30Camilla with low 20's Cherche and Anna.
Also got the 2Star FRobin by rotating out tank duty up front.
-
Screw that lance mastery quest where you have to KO hector. I'm not going to level up Oboro or Est just for some greater badges I already have in bulk. Probably helps that I rolled 3 of the 4 focus heroes for the easy quests. Ironically I needed the badges associated with Seliph and I did not get him. 4518 Arena score, and probably not going any higher unless I start taking out mages for Effie.
New heroes should focus more on making better colorless units, like SOTHE or ROLF. There's a gigantic gap between Takumi/Kagero and everyone else. Jeorge has a similar stat spread to Takumi but close combat is pretty goddamn broken. Also axe users need some help, Hector is in own league above everyone else. Camilia feels pretty mediocre but she's still the second best melee green.
Continue to save orbs for a new banner. Sexy Tiki is actually the worst dragon, Fir is just above HINATA on the sword tier list, Hawkeye gets toasted at any range, and Maria is bad because healers are bad. I wouldn't count on a Hector or Azura banner anytime soon; Nintendo is raking in that whale money people trying to pull them.
-
I'd settle for a banner with two featured blues.
-
Screw that lance mastery quest where you have to KO hector.
I can get Hector down, but not the other Armored Knight, and I couldn't really damage it at all so I just declined burning the Light's Blessings.
-
Looks like the next update to the game will be letting us sacrifice a character to transfer one of their skills to somebody else. That's got potential for some serious fuckery, especially if Distant/Close Counter is transferrable...
-
I could see them sorta being able to balance it if its just Weapon/Support/Specials and not the ABC skills.
-
Close Counter Kagero would be disgusting. R/G Tomebreaker Hector. Wary Fighter on pretty much any slow 2 movement unit like Chrom/Seliph/Ephraim. Yeah, it has to be severely limited or whales would be literally unstoppable.
-
I'd settle for a banner with two featured blues.
This doesn't actually increase your odds of getting a blue over a banner that only has one blue, the way the odds work. (If your complaint is that Ephraim is kinda underwhelming and/or doesn't fit your current team that's fair.)
Close Counter/Distant Counter getting to other PCs doesn't feel that disgusting to me just because it's not like the characters with those are balanced around them as is. Also that means if I draw Hector/Takumi I can sacrifice them to buff a unit I actually like.
I have considered using a Light's Blessing to get some of the more ridiculous weapon achievements but I've never used one of those yet and out of principle I don't really want to start now. Great Badges don't strike mas that valuable/hard to get anyway, unless feathers become a whole lot more common than they currently are.
-
Currently running Ephraim, Julia, Takumi, and a low level Olivia to Dance Dance Revolution them. Had a near perfect run in arena bringing me to 4153 points, but I haven't been able to pull off a full no-death run. The map with the 2-2 split of units is very hard to keep Olivia alive on.
No death runs on Advanced aren't too hard if you cheeze the system a little. I had none of the focus heroes for this season, except for Narcian, so I put in a level 7 two-star Narcian and a bunch of 40s. It just matches the overall stats of your units, so it was putting me up against level 25-30 parties. My 23 speed Cecilia was running around doubling everyone; it was pretty great.
It only gets worse the higher you go, my highest units are in the low 30s and I can easily go through my entire stamina bar without gaining a single level on any of them because of shitty tower maps causing outright wipes or just killing the characters gaining most of the EXP each time.
Mmm...not that I haven't wiped in the training tower, cause I totally have. But like...the only unit I abandoned levelling cause he died too much was a 3-star Odin whom I was only levelling for the Arena focus hero bonus, before I decided to stop being cheap and promote my 2 star Narcian to 3 star. But my 2 star Anna is about the same level Odin was and is doing fine.
In general the lower the star level the character the harder it will be to level, of course, since you get a lot more exp when killing enemies higher level than yourself, so having high stats for your level is helpful...which 4 star and 5 star units have. Getting 4 star heroes to 40 is pretty easy in my experience. (I didn't have much trouble getting 4 star Ovelia to 40 for instance, even though she's a dancer and "supposed" to be hard to level).
As for time investment...once I realized all my pulls were bad and I needed to promote 2* and 3* units...going 1-40 with 4-star Ovelia, 4-Star Shareena, 4-star Nino, and a flex spot (healer or a higher level unit to set up kills) took me...3 or 4 days I think? Shouldn't take too long.
-
I'd settle for a banner with two featured blues.
This doesn't actually increase your odds of getting a blue over a banner that only has one blue, the way the odds work. (If your complaint is that Ephraim is kinda underwhelming and/or doesn't fit your current team that's fair.)
Based on testing I've seen, it actually does.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/5si75a/data_of_350_gacha_pulls/
Which people have used for calculations:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/5uw9ps/5star_single_pull_probability_psa_more_focus/
The going theory is that the game does the following:
For each slot, determine the type of hero it will be (3*, 4*, 5*, or focus). Then it rolls the actual hero. And then it displays to the user only the colour of the hero.
So for blue for example...the chance of a random 5* being blue is 1/4 * 3%, so 0.75%. The chance of a random focus being blue on a banner with two blue is 2/4 * 3% so 1.5%. Altogether about 2.25% of orbs will be both Blue and either a focus or a 5*. But only about 25% of orbs are blue, so something like 9% of blue orbs will be 5*.
-
Ooh, that makes sense.
Arena matching/balance is really dumb in a number of ways and I would most likely ignore that part of the game if not for the fact that it gives rewards (and I just know sooner or later I'm going to get a 3-4* Nailah or something and then not having feathers for that would be unacceptable).
-
Arena matching/balance is really dumb in a number of ways and I would most likely ignore that part of the game if not for the fact that it gives rewards (and I just know sooner or later I'm going to get a 3-4* Nailah or something and then not having feathers for that would be unacceptable).
I mean...cheesing out the system like I accidentally did doesn't give you particularly good score (I was under 4k). The team you face determines how much score you can get, and you will always face teams close to your stat total. This is why people take like...Effie into Arena--mostly because she has a high stat total to increase the maximum points you can get by facing more powerful teams.
EDIT: the arena rating formula, since it was cracked pretty recently:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/5vrdq6/arena_max_rating_formula_i_found_it/
-
Everyone implying you don't literally go big every training tower map, what is this.
Won Robin thing on third try after trying and failing to use my Shanna to tank mages, I mean it is only what Peg Knights are known for. Anyway, throwing Hector at them and parking my shitty adult Tiki next to him to Res boost got the job done with him at 1HP.
-
Did a 5 pull on the new banner because hey, I have plenty of orbs, why not? Figure maybe I'll do at least one pull on each banner as the 100 Gem or daily half-draw pull equivalent from those games.
Saw I had no reds, so my results?
5* Maria
4* Nino (...well, at least being 4* means it can merge properly...)
4* Peri
3* Subaki
3* Serra
...well, I have finally have a decent healer I suppose.
-
Pulled Lucina twice off banner. With so many 5* reds, that's insane. Too bad they both rolled terrible IVs (+HP, -atk) (+res, -def). The first one is already level 40. -atk is bad but I think the -def one gets 2HKOed by Takumi. I want to merge them together but if the two stats that go up are useless like res and HP it would be for nothing.
Also the movie will always play if you pull a 5* variant. I've got a few Robins but only the first one played the movie.
-
Cleared the Hard Robin map by having Lyn and her weirdly high res + Tiki backup tank the storm + axe guy, then she walks forward and ORKOs Robin, activates Galeforce and retreats to be healed. From there, with the axedude dead, Catria can move in and sweep the rest. Pretty fun. And now I have yet another green tome user to vie for my attention...
My main peeps are around Level 33-38 now.
-
Don't think i can realistically do the Robin map with my set, unfortunately. Team just isn't good at hit and run which feels necessary if you don't have the right kind of bulky PCs.
-
I didn't run it for a couple of days so removed. It is all just shit posting from here.
-
New banner is: Klein, Lachesis, Olwen, Reinhardt, Sanaki and Eldigan
Two semi obscure characters from Fire Emblem 5, Fail FE6 Archer #2, more incest, and Tallychu's waifu
-
Three full summons, one off-banner 5 star. But it was Effie, and I also got a 4-star Nowi, so I'll take it.
-
New banner is: Klein, Lachesis, Olwen, Reinhardt, Sanaki and Eldigan
Two semi obscure characters from Fire Emblem 5, Fail FE6 Archer #2, more incest, and Tallychu's waifu
Actually, this is our first Fail FE6 Archer; you will have to wait patiently for Wolt and Dorothy.
I do think it's a bit weird that the new banner only has 1/6 characters from internationally released FEs; if we don't get any more before March 14 or whatever this does potentially seem like a way to start bleeding fans. But my guess is they're setting up for something reasonably big next: Sanaki being on a sibling-themed banner strongly suggests we'll get Micaiah soon.
Also the next banner has also been leaked, similar to the Fighting Robin one: Effie/Nino/Setsuna/Felicia. It's a more interesting crop of units gameplaywise than Fighting Robin was, at least. Nino being there (along with noted mage-slayer Felicia and noted thief-slayer Setsuna) strongly suggests Ursula is the next Grand Hero battle.
-
Dropped 60 orbs on the new banner(all I had stockpiled) because I wanted a Brave Tome mage cav something fierce. Got Olwen and 5* Ogma(considering 4* Ogma is already part of my main arena team I'll take it). Also a few interesting 4 stars to play with on any further "use all sword/lance/axe/bow/whatever" missions that come up.
Very happy with it, since my best blue tome user was Male Robin at 4* who was Def-(on a unit that stacks Def shit and uses a Def based limit). SHould be a ~fun~ new arena team to build up, esp once this season ends and I get the feathers needed to send Nino to 5*.
-
So I rolled on the cellphone account. No focus characters but 5* Cordelia and 4* Male Corrin.
So I decide to roll all my saved orbs on the tablet account. Somehow I got another Seliph, Epharim and Maria. NO. FOCUS. CHARACTERS.
my karma has come back to bite me in the butt big time.
-
Finally saved up 20000 feathers. And had nobody good to promote. All my characters have terrible natures except Chrom, and Chrom is really bad. So I promoted Jagen for science, since nobody knows his max stats yet.
-
I'm holding off on further summoning/promoting until they add ability transfers. It's entirely possible that'll put the whole current meta into a blender.
-
Current meta is hacking, so nothing really matters anyway.
-
It only gets worse the higher you go, my highest units are in the low 30s and I can easily go through my entire stamina bar without gaining a single level on any of them because of shitty tower maps causing outright wipes or just killing the characters gaining most of the EXP each time.
Mmm...not that I haven't wiped in the training tower, cause I totally have. But like...the only unit I abandoned levelling cause he died too much was a 3-star Odin whom I was only levelling for the Arena focus hero bonus, before I decided to stop being cheap and promote my 2 star Narcian to 3 star. But my 2 star Anna is about the same level Odin was and is doing fine.
In general the lower the star level the character the harder it will be to level, of course, since you get a lot more exp when killing enemies higher level than yourself, so having high stats for your level is helpful...which 4 star and 5 star units have. Getting 4 star heroes to 40 is pretty easy in my experience. (I didn't have much trouble getting 4 star Ovelia to 40 for instance, even though she's a dancer and "supposed" to be hard to level).
It might just be that I don't have characters with things like "HP" and "defenses" (the best team I can field is Tiki, Kagero, Nino, and Effie). Mage cavaliers hose Effie pretty good; Kagero has decent res but crap HP, and Nino is made of paper against everything, so.
-
Mildly surprised that Corrin is a blue mage, though she's still fairly decent. Also got my third 4-star character in Felicia. She seems ok, and her silver daggers are nifty.
-
So after so long of bad pulls... this happened:
(http://i.imgur.com/KnkbTFr.png)
Sooo yeah. I'm happy.
Olwen got me enough Azure Great Seals to promote Sharena to 5*, so I'm doubly happy all around ^ ^
-
Still haven't opened a second five star.
But I did level a one-star Olivia to level 40!
(http://i.imgur.com/8VRBsM1.png)
-
why
-
but why
it's about sending a message
-
I've gotten 2 five-star Seliphs!!! Who are worse than most of my four star units
-
If it were a 2* Olivia I'd get it since there's something to be said for getting her as much SP as possible then making her a 3* Level 1 Dancer with all her skills learned in order to cheese the arena. Getting a 1* Olivia to 40 just feels like an exercise in self-hate and mc is one of the DLers I associate less with that than most!
I have gotten two more 5* units, Olwen and Klein. Olwen appears to be +Atk which is really cool for a brave user, it means she'll be able to OHKO Takumi with Hone Attack for instance. Klein... well, my crop of physical 2-range was utter dogshit so it's nice to have one, I guess? Currently also levelling up Nino so I'll have a decent green (as is I don't have a wonderful answer to mage blues like Robin... and Ursula is probably around the corner so yeah).
-
If it were a 2* Olivia I'd get it since there's something to be said for getting her as much SP as possible then making her a 3* Level 1 Dancer with all her skills learned in order to cheese the arena. Getting a 1* Olivia to 40 just feels like an exercise in self-hate and mc is one of the DLers I associate less with that than most!
I mean, my initial thought was the SP, which I quickly realized would be better at 2 star. But mostly I did it for the comedy. Specifically, Reddit is constantly complaining about how hard it is to level up 4 star Olivia (whom I found fairly easy to get to 40).
Laggy and I have been laughing at some of the reactions on Reddit all morning; totally worth:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/5xhi7t/one_star_olivia_level_40_stats/
-
Took another look at the current banner and my roster, figured I probably won't have this good a shot at decent mages for a while, and threw in some more orbs. No featured characters, but 5 star Lilinia with +ATK/-HP. She burns stuff REAL good.
-
Playing games to troll Reddit.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/7e/91/31/7e9131d0e9df78417700927dde185a29.jpg)
NEW META
-
Surprise new banners. I see Lucina back up again and regret not having been able to pull her, and I haven't pulled since the first 2 banners. Poke the princesses banner.
1 red, 1 green, 3 colorless. Open Red. Immediately greeted by Lucina animation. +Spd -Atk.
You know what? Okay. I can live with 47 Atk and 39 Spd.
EDIT: I lied, I tried pulling again one hour later because I run Nino and was like "you know Eirika would be really cool, and if I got another Lucina I wouldn't complain."
1 red, 3 green, 1 colorless, open red, 5* Eirika +Spd -Def.
I don't think I will surpass the value of these 10 orbs in a long time.
-
Same thinking, got another 5* Lilina.
-
I see 2 new banners, both are 2 Reds + something not red. Meh, not going to throw a lot of orbs at it, but I feel like if I don't throw 5 orbs at a banner given my stock, I'll be just hording orbs.
So first banner! 1 Colorless, 2 Blue, and 2 Red? Ok, that's worth 3 pulls (I don't need Red AT ALL.) Colorless is 3* Clarine, 3* Odin, and...OOH! ANIMATION! IT'S ROBIN AN-...3* Robin. God damn it game, don't give me animations if you're going to do a troll like that!
Ok, so Robin is cool, but gotta be promoted and that's annoying. That said, 2nd banner and I get...no Reds. Do my pulls, I get
3* Gunter
3* Donnel
3* something I got rid of I can't remember because it was a dupe
5* Ephraim
5* Catria
...yeah, I think I'm good. I wanted to promote Est to 5* for the longest time, but I think getting 5* Catria also works as a solution to that. Ephraim of course is nice if I need another 5* Blue. Now all I need is a decent Green, which I can get either by promoting Raven or Nino at some point.
-
I also got two 5* off two summons (got all five both times, because there was no blue and blue is the colour I'm overstocked on). First was kinda underwhelming beyond giving me a 4* Raven, a much-needed addition to my underpowered axe lineup. Second... ANIMATION!!!!... gives me Roy. Bah. Fortunately, 4*, so doesn't drive down my odds of getting things I actually want. Then I get 5* Eirika and Sheena. Latter of whom is also a princess so I guess that's fitting? Anyway my Eirika is -Spd +Def so she's gonna be much more utility than Laggy's but with Nino and Olwen around to benefit from such things I'll take that any day. Sheena is +Def -Atk so even more extreme than she normally is, tanky with dogshit offence. Not very exciting for a 5* but I did need axe-users and hey now I'm one step closer to being able to do that crazy quest involving using four armour knights in Lunatic 7-5.
I also beat all but the final story map, may detail strats and such later when I don't have to run off to work.
-
So...I woke up at 6am, Laggy told me there was a new banner I should pull on, so I did a couple times without realizing there were two new banners; pulled red a couple times on the ephraim banner. Oops.
Started with like...73 orbs. Wasted 14 or so on the Ephraim banner (although I did randomly pull a blue on that banner by accident, so could have gotten an Ephraim), anyway, so 59 orbs or so for the Lucina Erika banner. Pulled nothing but red every time until I had 3 orbs left. No 5 stars. Still haven't pulled a single 5-star since I rerolled on the first day.
Good news, though, I have inspired others to follow in my glorious footsteps; someone got a 2-star Olivia to 40, for science.
(http://i.imgur.com/3G39Rps.png)
-
I decide that (against my better judgement) to roll in the Princes gatcha on the cellphone account. Why against? Because I got clobbered with Chroms and Epharims. Earlier my roll granted me a +Atk, -Spd Reinhardt so I was a bit annoyed with that (and also happy since I have a blue ranged caster). So I rolled. Thinking I won't get a Leo, I type in the chat, eh I probably won't get him, mostly because of the Siblings fiasco. Last orb gives me +Atk, -Res Leo. Well got a red tome user (finally) and now I debate rolling in FGO now.
-
i finally turned to the dark side and bought orbs, got 5-star eirika.
-
After a week of garbage and building a 5* pull to 9% total, I get 5* Hawkeye and Kagero in the same session.
Hawkeye is so bad. Every single one of his stats are 4 or more less than Hector while having 30(!) Res. He still gets OHKOed by Tharja.
Kagero is -def +res so I got a pretty amusing mage slayer. The only reason you want to pull colorless stones is for Kagero or Takumi. I already have Jeorge and Klein, so unless they make RD Shinon into a character, no reason I should touch colorless ever again.
-
Shale, your -hp +spd Minerva rules. I've been killing freaking Lucinas left and right with her, it's great, and she checks blues very nicely.
-
Yeah, seriously. Same here.
Tal's Fae has also helped out on occasion.
-
Been playing this. Friend ID is 7588015420.
Best unit is a +Atk/-Res Cordelia. Galeforce And crazy offense is nuts~
-
Shale, your -hp +spd Minerva rules. I've been killing freaking Lucinas left and right with her, it's great, and she checks blues very nicely.
I'm useful!
(But wait, is there a way to check who your borrowed characters come from? That'd be neat.)
-
The borrowed character is always your friend's leader (ie the person they have next to their name on the friendslist). The random character is shown in the Friend Request box after the battle. The third character is the leftmost of your current party. So you just check the character against your friendslist and viola.
-
I should probably post mine: 2267742526 Nickname: Tacomeat
E: My friendlist got deleted after three months of inactivity for some reason.
You will be blessed by this glorious unit
(http://i.imgur.com/MOXqEz8.png)
-
I've been reduced to making quality shitposts on reddit. (http://i.imgur.com/4JiAWLy.jpg)
-
Good lord, that Ursula battle suuuuuuucks. Of my 5 stars, three are infantry and get murderized by the thieves, one is -HP Minerva who isn't actually weak to their attack but still gets killed to death because she's made of glass, and one is Effie so she (a) has to go through the corridor a step at a time because if Roy steps out to Shove her he dies; and (b) loses WTA against the knight so the whole exercise is pointless.
I guess I'll take the 3 star version!
-
I was 5 HP from winning the 4-star version. I'm gonna burn all my stamina trying to beat that thing.
-
Shale: You've got Lilina, right? Go in with her and Minerva. From the starting |- formation, make sure Lilina is in position on the eastmost spot, and have Minerva go from the southernmost point 2 tiles east to bait out Ursula once she is. She won't get doubled, and should easily survive a hit. That'll bait the axe knight out, which Lilina then blows up. The northern ninja (with Escape Route) will come into position to get attacked by Minerva, fairly safe from retribution (Camilla is actually better here, because she outright OHKOs with a Brave Axe, but Minerva should be able to weather the hits.)
The ninja has 39 speed and your Minerva has 41 even, so if you have anyone with Hone Speed or Rally Speed you might want to bring them along and have them buff Minerva beforehand so she can go for the OHKO on the ninja. They can be safely positioned for this in the center of the |- formation.
I had Camilla for this strategy, and she OHKOed Ursula after hitting the ninja. Minerva should be able to pull that off as well. The problem there is that you expose yourself to the red cavalier, so you'll have to devise a way to either get your unit out of the way (Dance, Draw Back) or wall them off with a blue, preferably a non-infantry one. I brought Olivia/Catria as my other two picks, and after Ursula died, danced Catria into position to block off Camilla (or your Minerva, in this situation) from being hit by the cavalier. At this point he should suicide into your blue, and you've just got to pick off the remaining ninja (or ninjas, if you couldn't OHKO the other one). Not exactly easy, but still doable. 4* is a nice upgrade if you plan to use Ursula at all, so it's worth trying.
-
Interesting proposal, but once Lilina steps into the line of fire to deal with the axe knight she gets one-shotted by a thief or Ursula the next turn, depending on positioning.
-
I just did the 3*. It's easy enough to get Ursula to 20.
-
Oh, I see. Yeah I hadn't accounted for Ursula oneshotting her.
Do you have any tanky blue non-infantry? (Abel, Catria come to mind) Stealing someone's pic for a sec:
(http://i.imgur.com/pC82gqE.png)
Assuming Minerva replaces Camilla and Lilina replaces Julia, and you have a blue unit in place of Lyn (you should definitely use Olivia if you have her, but in lieu of that it could be any support unit I suppose):
1. Minerva moves to 1, where the only unit that can hit her is Ursula. Your blue unit moves from their starting location to Minerva's starting location.
2. Ursula goes to 2, hits Minerva, the red cavalier likely goes to 3 and uses Draw Back, dragging Ursula to 3. The southern thief hits a wall, the knight moves down 1 (in range of Lilina) and the northern thief goes to where the knight was.
3. Lilina blows up the knight. Minerva goes to the knight's corpse to attack the northern thief (blocking him from being able to reach Lilina). NOTE: If Minerva doesn't kill - likely - be wary of Escape Route causing issues. Not attacking may be correct, not sure. The blue unit moves to 1 to stop Ursula and the southern thief from being able to reach Lilina.
This does mean you need a unit that can weather an attack from the 50 attack red cavalier, Ursula, and the thief potentially. I'm not sure anyone beyond whom I listed will work. Maybe you can have Effie start where Olivia is, and have your 4th unit be someone with Shove/Dance/whatever to help her get into position.
-
I used Hinoka, Eirika, Klein and 4* Nino.
Klein eats near lethal damage but takes out the southern thief thanks to Quick Riposte.
Nino moves forward into Ursula's range, takes her out.
Move Hinoka to plug the area marked 1 on Laggy's picture. She can easily tank the red cavalier and thief. I have +speed Hinoka and Eirika's speed buff lets he double the cavalier.
Hinoka kills the last thief. Nino draws back Hinoka away from the axe knight. Eirika moves up. Nino attacks the knight enough for Eirika to finish it off.
This map had more strategy than the entirety of Birthright.
You can replace Hinoka with basically any blue cavalier (except Peri!) or blue pegasus. Catria is probably the best one, Cordelia isn't bad either. The southern thief needs to die in one go, or the cavalier will draw him away from you. Can a +atk Takumi with hone attack do it? Jeorge as a 4* option? If Ursula is taken out of the picture, I think Eldigan is effectively immortal here.
-
I beat the hard map by YOLO'ing it up with my 5* Cordelia (+atk/-Res). She took a thwack from Ursula (I didn't have a ranged unit that could respond to her with an OHKO) and then next turn killed her, The thief, and the cavalier.
Somehow the other thief decided to not kill a unit it could have (Olivia) and instead went after my Corrin (F). So the turn after that my Julia KO'd the Armored Knight and Cordelia went and killed the other Ninja.
Galeforce, a Brave Weapon, Olivia, and a +Atk nature are a beautiful thing.
-
I used Camilla, Leo, Abel, and Eirika as a buffer to beat Lunatic Ursula.
-
Got to 20 orbs catching up on the paralogues, did another princess banner summon. First draw: -HP/+ATK Lucina. Stopped there.
-
Laggy, help! It's happening again. Before it becomes like Cratefest 2011.
(http://i.imgur.com/QL9bmDI.png)
-
Speaking of Lord Ephraim, I did pretty well backing Ephraim in the vote thingy. Currently in the top tier of points for Team Ephraim, so I'll probably get more feathers than the Lucina bandwagoners despite losing.
-
After dying horribly with my default team to Ursula, I saw a video of a Japanese player beating the Ursula map with all 3* units, so I replicated the strategy with 4* units. 3* video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO2Sn_f2378
I replaced Subaki with Effie, replaced FRobin with Nino, and then replaced the healer with a level 25 Gaius to rally Nino's speed. The rest of the concept was pretty similar.
1. Ranged units will always attack first, before the cavalry who will die on the suicide. Hence, the turn the cavalry kills itself you don't need to do anything special with positioning; the turn after you step forward with your tank and block the Ninja from hitting Ovelia.
2. Use positioning stupidity to keep the Knight behind the Ninja and the Cavalier, which gives a completely safe location to hit the Knight (as long as there's no where for the Knight to move). On the turn your mage finishes off the Knight, make sure you have a dance left to move to safety.
3. Clean up using your high DEF lance using non-infantry.
So...yeah, I have a 5 star Takumi, and a 5 star Shareena, and I didn't bring either to this fight on my winning run, because they were worse for beating this map than my 4 star units.
-
Laggy, help! It's happening again. Before it becomes like Cratefest 2011.
(http://i.imgur.com/QL9bmDI.png)
Post me your phone.
-
Beat Ursula's map with Eirika, Klein, Catria, and Nino. The former two were of levels in the mid 30's; the latter two are 4*. Eirika's job was to buff: her passives hugely raise Nino's damage and allow her to ORKO Ursula (which she did on enemy phase 1), and also prevented Catria from being doubled by the ninjas (which is good because she is the only person on this team they don't weakness-hit and destroy in one round). Catria's job was to tank the ninjas when needed and the sword cavalier; when buffed by Eirika she could double him and thus take him out quite quickly. Klein's job was to one-shot the ninjas (though they murder him back, so this was player phase only). Klein and Nino also combined for a KO on the general. Lots of positioning shenanigans in this fight.
-
Laggy, help! It's happening again. Before it becomes like Cratefest 2011.
You have merged Lucina, Linde, Kagero, and eight non-focus 5* in general?
eph how hard are you crating
-
Laggy, help! It's happening again. Before it becomes like Cratefest 2011.
Shh, just let it happen, and spend more~
-
I threw down $$$ for 80 orbs and got Klein, Olwen, Lachesis, Reinhardt, and Chrom. Since then, I lost count.
All I remember is that my f2p orbs got me Eirika, Raven, Jeorge, Fae and Linde. I accidentally sent a 5* Corrin home because I was sorting through the 8 four stars I had sitting around. Bartre and Effie are the only units I used feathers on.
The Julia is +4. Lucina is +1. No other merged units.
-
Beat Ursula's map with Lucina, Nino, Catria, and Felicia. Felicia ended up not doing much since she wasn't high enough level. Ultimately, position Nino so Ursula aggros her, and Nino kills her on turn one, then run away, Catria tanks the Ninja, while Lucina runs into a position to buffer the melee guys.
Doubt I'll do Lunatic.
-
Beat Lunatic Ursula.
Level 36 FRobin killed Ursula, then the Axe Knight. Level 36 is minimum needed because otherwise her damage is too low to kill the knight in a timely manner.
Level 40 4-star Effie killed everything else.
Olivia made double actys.
Serra healed Effie.
-
I figured I'd give this a try. Solely for science of course. Time to make Eph jealous with that level 3 3 star Bartre:
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/a/ad/Voting_rank.png)
Discussed in-chat, but the lowest score is probably 50, with a +5 score for each friend (max 10). Sadly one of Shale or Eph accepted my friend request before I won my 1 battle, so I got 55 rather than 50, but suspect that was still sufficient for the above achievement. Higher numbers are better, right? 100,001 sounds pretty good, way better than suckers like Sopko at 2,000 or whatever.
Also, does the plot ever delve into who exactly this imposter pretending to be Anna is? Using axes is fine (see this image for scientific proof (http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/File:Anna_tiara.png) of axe-Anna), but, like, everything else is wrong. Oh well. She seems like she gets a pretty useful form in the DL from Elf's stat topic, at least. Who cares if you're 2HKOed by average physical damage if you also double average speed with good damage and a teleporting axe and Astra to blow up stallers. Not so many ranged physicalers who can avoid counters, and good MDef helps out when counters don't. Sharena looks pretty solid too, and Alfonse is okay. Virion... probably wants his Awakening form. And... that's that for guaranteed characters.
-
Also, does the plot ever delve into who exactly this imposter pretending to be Anna is? Using axes is fine (see this image for scientific proof of axe-Anna), but, like, everything else is wrong. Oh well. She seems like she gets a pretty useful form in the DL from Elf's stat topic, at least. Who cares if you're 2HKOed by average physical damage if you also double average speed with good damage and a teleporting axe and Astra to blow up stallers. Not so many ranged physicalers who can avoid counters, and good MDef helps out when counters don't. Sharena looks pretty solid too, and Alfonse is okay. Virion... probably wants his Awakening form. And... that's that for guaranteed characters.
Shareena is legit the third best blue right now (and the top two are super, super rare). Both Laggy and me upgraded her all the way to 5 star. (My only 5 star upgrade so far; his second).
There should be more guaranteed characters than those, however. There's a rotation of special maps that get you two copies of a character (a 1 star and a 2 star version). Characters in these maps range from decent to great. Like...you can get Ovelia, who is a very good Dancer (need to promote to 3 star before she can learn Dance). Pretty sure you can get Lissa who's the best healer right now since she has a full heal instead of healing for like 8. You can get Cecilia who is really nice for levels 1-30 or so, because she's ranged and 3 move and has weapon triangle on colourless units (archers, ninjas, and healers). She drops off at levels 31-40 because she goes from being 2-3 speed slower than most of the enemies you're fighting to 5-6 speed slower, and thus suddenly becomes quite fragile, when she felt somewhat tanky before due to often having weapon triangle advantage. You get Subaki who...isn't considered great but if you scroll up a bit to the video I posted you'll see that he was instrumental in a strat for beating the Ursula map with all 3 star units (he's a physical wall pegasus knight; he's just...very specialized). So...yeah, watch the daily rotation under special maps for a bunch more free characters.
-
If we want to be pedantic, Olivia is the worst dancer in the game right now yuck yuck. We'll see how Ninian compares... very soon! (But yes, Olivia is by far the best free character and well worth anyone's time to pick up.)
I'm very skeptical at the claim that Sharena is the third best blue. Third best lance-user, maybe? Even that feels a bit of a stretch, but I can see saying she's better than all but two of Azura, Cordelia, Catria, Ephraim, Abel, and Effie... maybe. Add Linde (not to mention Corrin F, Nowi, Robin M, and the brave tomes of oneshotting Takumi) to that list and yeah, no way. Like I'm comparing Sharena and Corrin F right now and I can't see how Sharena is better? Sharena has more damage but Seal Res and Draconic Aura make up for that to a large degree; Hone Atk is better than Fortify Def; Dark Breath's debuff is more potent and comes out faster than Fensalir's; and Corrin has more physical bulk. Rally Attack is nice, as is not being weak to the Falchion, but that doesn't feel like enough here.
But that's not what I came here to post! Beat the Lunatic final battle (no light blessings obviously because I'm not a filthy casual). I ran a party of Olwen, Klein, Eirika, and Lyn. Olwen, with Eirika's buff, could one-shot Xander through his buffed res, which is huge because Xander has monster atk and def and 1-2 counters so taking him down quick and painlessly was a big deal. Lyn's job was to bait Veronica with Klein waiting in the wings; both combined could kill her. One thing I did have to learn to be careful of was to NOT have Eirika buff Klein on this turn, though, because otherwise Veronica will reverse that buff (she doesn't reverse the buffs of her primary target, just anyone else caught in her Savage Blow AoE). With the two problem targets gone, the main priority was keeping Olwen safe (not a bad map for it) because she almost OHKOs the red sword user too, such that anyone else can finish. But... yeah mostly it was a matter of taking out the two named characters with a minimum of damage taken and I could mop up.
Battles like this and the grand hero battles are the highlight of the game I think; kinda disappointing that there may not be many more (once every two weeks is not enough).
-
metroid: I meant in a DL-sense, actually. Since Elf just posted an as-of-mid-March stat topicy thing. All the rotating free characters come at 1 or 2 stars which seems like a true waste of time compared to any random 4-star from an orb pull unless you have tons of promotion items... and more generally, if you aren't paying attention, seems like you can miss them. Anna/Alfonse/Sharena/Virion are the only truly required you-will-definitely-play-a-few-maps-with-these characters it seems. (Sure, they might be 2 stars too, but you don't have any better options.)
I did actually get a 1-star Olivia, then after realizing it was 1-star, said "but why" since Dance requires 3 stars as you noted. Subaki just might be the sole character I'd want to grind up as a break-in-case-of-emergency character, though. (I also have Palla/Catria/Est, so he can join in for flyerpremacy. Also also he's apparently vaguely fast now after being the slow Sky Knight in Fates?! Will wonders never cease?)
-
Sharena's claim to fame is a high base stat total, which earns you more points in the arena. She has 2 movement which is good considering the people with higher BST are armor characters. She has no weaknesses to exploit, and makes everyone around her better with buffs. And she fares well against the 1 million red sword users in the game.
-
Third best blue in the arena meta context (the competition being Linde and Azura). In a pve context where you fight all sorts of randomized enemies your list is probably more correct.
To extrapolate more on Captain K, Sharena is the highest non-dragon/armored unit BST (177), although skill transfer will probably mitigate this advantage some, has a solid stat distribution, and isn't a flyer that instantly dies to Takumi. Falchion weakness is a big, big deal because of the popularity of Lucina/Marth (and Julia to a lesser extent) - Nowi still gets run for her BST but F Corrin pretty much never does, for all that I agree that F Corrin looks great on paper she's weirdly low statted for a dragon.
I really like Catria and if I had a properly natured one I'd consider running her with the upcoming skill changes despite her weakness to Takumi (she was my preferred blue unit for a long time), but most of the others in your list have clear holes (in a arena context) that Sharena really doesn't. Brave weapon users all suffer from low stat totals and/or being prone to dying as a consequence of their specialization and generally below average speed (detrimental to score streaks), Ephraim is slow and dies to mages, and Effie has 1 move (people still run her anyway but I personally can't stand it).
Also Sharena goes great with Nino, who is popular right now and my personal favorite unit, but that's much more specific synergy of course.
(For the record I still think arena scoring being based on BST is stupid but it is what it is.)
-
Arena now rewards you with more feathers if you hit the 4000 score mark. A 4500 score can get you around 4500 feathers a week. Plus looks like you can earn 200 daily from quests. Really depends on which bonus units you have. Klein is my highest BST bonus unit and I can get around 4550. That's enough for the top 3000.
5900 a week isn't too bad. However, there is no longer daily 2 orbs instead a max of 2 orbs a week. More importance of upgrade your current units that rolling the dice.
-
First taste was free and now it is full price and I don't know what to do with myself.
-
Decided to do a pull on the new banner because I have mythril to spare. I could use some colorless!
*2 Red, 2 Green, 1 Blue*
...screw it, I'm going all in!
3 3* Dupes no one cares about, 5* Cain, and 5* Fae. Actually pretty good since Cain is my first 5* Mounted unit, and Fae my first 5* Green unit.
-
Laggy: Oh yeah, if you're scaling for BST that makes more sense, though it still feels like you're trying to have it both ways? If Corrin is inferior to Sharena due to having -7 BST despite a better combat performance, then surely Sharena is also inferior to Effie due to having -6 BST (and combat which is... lateral for sure; knights are weird). Certainly the folks going for super-duper high scores love Effie and I've hardly heard a peep about Sharena out of them (although a big part of this is that you can't get Sharena at 5*, so getting her costs you 20k feathers and thus offsets many weeks of better arena performance; Corrin is similar). For that matter, at a certain point you can also argue Effie is better than Azura or Linde in the super-duper-high scores arena meta for the same reason, which shows how ridiculous said meta is, and on the whole I'm not terribly interested in discussing it.
Also, I had really hoped the 2 daily free orbs would continue. With them gone, and Lucius a staff user (whyyy), and no new high-level maps in the current crop, the game is definitely running out of things to interest me now. Two weeks until the next GHB I guess? Blah. At least there are some new quests.
-
I mean, it's all about comparing the tradeoffs right? You don't need to tunnel vision max BST in evaluating stuff like that. Effie and Sharena actually share very similar roles for instance in that they tend to be blue walls that bait red sword lords out to their death, but Sharena brings in 2 move (much more flexible + viable offensively, two auras (Fortify Def/her weapon) at the cost of 6 BST.
Azura and Linde are ranked highly despite their low BST because they're just that good - Azura being a dancer who can also play the blue wall bait (a role so important oftentimes two blues are run, again because of the overabundance of red sword lords, and Dance's power speaks for itself to the point where plenty of people run Olivia just for it and Hone Attack despite being a pretty bad combat unit), and Linde having such ridiculous nuking potential that she can overrun teams by herself.
F. Corrin is an example of a unit that I respect a lot on paper but what the arena meta tends to boil down to is "how consistently can you win without taking any unit losses for a 7 win streak", which means the criteria is slated towards how high of a BST can you achieve while still reliably and safely winning - and she doesn't tend to make the cut there over Sharena (as Sharena is solid/stable enough to fill her blue wall role and generally avoid dying). It's possible to evaluate this and weigh BST into said evaluation in the context of the current arena meta without having it be the sole determining criteria. Certainly some people WOULD posit Effie as the best blue for the reason you stated, but I find her drawbacks too much to use her and still get a flawless win streak so I don't.
You may be right in that ranking such things is too subjective as a result but considering that arena is the main place to get feathers still I don't think you can really just dismiss such considerations out of hand, assuming you're playing for that and all.
The new daily quests incidentally aren't that bad in replacing the daily orbs (you'll get 1 orb and 200 feathers a day, and they give a free Dueling Crest so you can get 6 arena runs in - definitely pushing arena). The overall dearth of non-arena content is an issue though and one I suspect won't really go away given their current content track, so if you aren't into arena, you're probably going to be bored, yes.
-
My main problem with the arena quests is that the orb reward requires killing 20 level 10+ enemies, and there's no guarantee you can get there in six fights thanks to people using three-person teams or three level 40s with a level 1 deadweight to game the matchmaking.
-
The orb reward doesn't require arena kills. You can kill stuff in training tower and get your orb.
The shitty arena matchmaking pre-40 is definitely a thing, yeah, but it's pretty unlikely that you can't score at least 1 win on Beginner on your three daily runs even so, and that 1 win nets you a Dueling Crest for 3 more tries that day. The feather rewards are at 2 and 4 wins respectively so you don't need to win all 6, either.
I would suggest finding a 40 baseline team you're comfortable with though as the matchmaking and meta in general really stabilizes out there, and if you aren't going for rank you don't need flawless runs, you just want to clear the Offense rating hurdle (3k before for 1600 feathers, now 4k for 2500 feathers potentially if you can make it)
-
Huh, it didn't even occur to me that the arena quests could be fulfilled outside the arena.
Problem with finding a good level 40 team is that there's no such thing as a good level 40 team with Odin or Sully on it, so when I'm going for score (until they finally update the bonus characters) I'm going with a gimped team. Once I'm done with score runs, Lucina/Effie/Minerva/Takumi all the way.
-
Ooh, I didn't even realise that the new arena quests were daily, cool. Still not happy about the orb flow being halved but that takes away some of the sting.
Shale: Do you have Robin-F? By all accounts she's respectable enough; nothing special but probably an improvement over Sully and should be workable in a team if levelled up as 4*. I actually think the bonus characters are one of the clever moves of the arena, since it means you will need to try to vary your team week to week (and get you to try to pull new characters, which of course is the real reason they exist but oh well) and building the rest of your team around the strengths/weaknesses of the bonus character you use is a fun exercise.
You may be right in that ranking such things is too subjective as a result but considering that arena is the main place to get feathers still I don't think you can really just dismiss such considerations out of hand, assuming you're playing for that and all.
I'm certainly not dismissing the arena as a whole out of hand! As you said, it is the best way to get feathers (although you should probably avoid hyping a unit who requires 20k feathers to be effective at that, as I said) and a valid part of the game to discuss. However the nickel-and-diming over small BST differences is really only something you need to worry about if you're going for the Absolute Best Scores as a matter of pride. Like... I got top 10000 last week with a team that included Olwen (lowest 5* BST in the game), so you pretty much have to be going for top 5000 or even 1000 for this to matter. And once you're there the meta warps significantly; I've seen people explicitly note that Takumi is no longer useful then because his BST is too low, for instance. This is a concern which is reflected in no other aspect of the game, additionally, so overfocusing on it means your definition of "Nth best unit" becomes extremely niche and of value to very few people.
I mean, even moreso than these sorts of discussions already are, obviously. :p
-
I actually think the bonus characters are one of the clever moves of the arena, since it means you will need to try to vary your team week to week (and get you to try to pull new characters, which of course is the real reason they exist but oh well) and building the rest of your team around the strengths/weaknesses of the bonus character you use is a fun exercise.
Agreed on this. I thought it was annoying at first but it does freshen up the arena meta and I don't generally mind being given something to do (i.e. leveling up a hero to use as the bonus) in the interim. It helps a lot that the latest GBH unit is always in the arena, so I had F Robin leveled and ready for her arena season beforehand. Same deal with Ursula - you may want to level her if you don't intend on trying to pull the current banner heroes.
Incidentally the current crop isn't that great. Karel looks to be a better Lyn archetype but still suffers from her same issues (a bit too prone to dying because of the requirement to get knocked down in HP to be good), and Ninian... well, if you're going for a super dragon team (Tiki/Nowi/Ninian as the base) she's a solid fit there, but otherwise she's just another dancer with a Falchion weakness attached to her. Hitting Res is generally cool of course, but doesn't make up for that and a really niche C ability.
Healers suck, Lucius really should've been a blue light mage (whyyyy). Jaffar might be usable but I'm skeptical, when Kagero is very clearly the best ninja and even she doesn't get run that much (blah blah BST reasons).
Also... the random non-focus/non-GBH heroes looks like they might be units weak to the GBH for whatever reason. You'll note Jagen and Sully are both blue cavalry alongside F Robin (although the translation isn't perfect... Jagen has ridiculous Res that actually makes him not that vulnerable!) Could be a coincidence, but I recall Narcian being paired up with like... Catria in his bonus run as well? So an observation to keep making, in any case. Next week see if we have red cavalry there for Ursula to wreck.
This is a concern which is reflected in no other aspect of the game, additionally, so overfocusing on it means your definition of "Nth best unit" becomes extremely niche and of value to very few people.
I mean, even moreso than these sorts of discussions already are, obviously. :p
That's what tier lists basically already ARE, to be fair. <_< No disrespect meant to trying to rank heroes objectively based on their overall performance versus like, a random crop of units from Tenth Stratum or the Lunatic GBH battles/later story chapters; I find those maps very cool and would normally agree that that's the norm for any sort of evaluation! But specifically tier lists are catered towards the high-end competitive spectrum, which in this game is pretty much arena, and I personally find that the most interesting to evaluate even if, yes, it applies to a generally small portion of the game's content. Since feathers mostly come from there it's still kind of an important thing to look at even for casual players.
I may be nickel and diming BST too much and you can definitely clear the newly minted 4k offense hurdle with even 4* heroes mixed in your group. Having a bad arena fight (losing multiple units) is always going to cut into your score way more than running a single-digit BST drop on a unit that you feel performs better, so point conceded there. I do think you're overestimating the opportunity cost of promoting Sharena through feathers over using 5* units, though. A lot of people pull shit all for 5*, and oftentimes what they'll get won't even be that good or have bad natures that hamper their performance significantly or whatever. The main advantage of feather promotion is that you get to pick exactly who gets slotted into your team, and it's really hard to find a team that Sharena ISN'T a good pick on. There's also no way to pull her normally so if you ever intend to use her she isn't a bad promotion pick regardless (by far the best of the three starting story units), and the sooner you get a good comp going the better you can consistently score in arena for more.
You're probably on the money that's why most people don't talk much about her, though, but every testimony I've seen for people who have bothered has been nothing but glowing (and you can add mine to the list). There's something to be said about just having a consistently solid unit with no real flaws, and being a sturdy blue in a sea of red. (Will again throw my acknowledgement that F Corrin looks great and is probably being underrated; even with Falchion weakness I think she wins 1v1 against them anyway, worth noting she 2HKOs Lucina and wins off of baiting for instance. She wishes Julia hadn't been introduced as a focus hero, though.)
-
So a 2* Draug is a bonus reward for Paralogue Quests. That's...actually pretty darn nice since Armored Units are really hard to get, and they didn't give out any via special map quests, it gives an actual opportunity to do those pesky Armor Unit March quests.
Wouldn't shock me if he was placed there specifically because they realized that situation. It's one thing to say "Lance user" or "Mounted User" or something because there's a lot of them, but there's like 4 Armor units total, and there was all of one Focus Banner with them thus far, having a monthly quest that requires one is a dick move, so wouldn't shock me if that was them realizing their flub and this being the band-aid fix for it.
-
Yeah, with Draug I'll actually have four armour knights, hitting every colour, so I should be able to beat that quest which has nagged me since the start of the month.
That's what tier lists basically already ARE, to be fair. <_< No disrespect meant to trying to rank heroes objectively based on their overall performance versus like, a random crop of units from Tenth Stratum or the Lunatic GBH battles/later story chapters, I find those maps very cool and would normally agree that that's the norm for any sort of evaluation! But specifically tier lists are catered towards the high-end competitive spectrum, which in this game is pretty much arena, and I personally find that the most interesting to evaluate even if, yes, it applies to a generally small portion of the game's content. Again though, since feathers mostly come from there it's still kind of an important thing to look at even for casual players.
The high-end PvP has its place, although notably that's not what Fire Emblem tier lists generally measure, and I question if it's what most FEH ones measure. Takumi is generally high on those lists and if you're going for the Absolute Highest Scores he's not considered that great. So clearly if they are focused on arena they aren't focused on the highest end of it. (More likely they're not focused on any one aspect at all, instead trying to reflect different things depending on the preferences of the individuals discussing/voting on them, much like we are. And honestly that's okay. Checking up on random tier discussion searches, I certainly see debate out there as to whether BST should be factored in or not, and if so, how much, so good to know we're not alone!)
Feathers certainly matter of course; I never implied they didn't! We all want feathers. Why do we want feathers? I can see too main reasons:
(a) You want to promote a favourite
(b) You want to make your team stronger for story fights/GHBs/you just like having a strong team, okay
Most notably feathers should not be used strictly for getting better arena scores arena because sinking 20k into a unit for arena purposes is a losing bet; you finish be a tier lower for 40 weeks in a row and still break even, and it's virtually unthinkable that one unit will make that big a difference anyway (especially with months of draws and potential meta shifts in between).
Now it's fine to promote Sharena because you think she'll be a good combat unit (and as you say, she is!) and that she will fit your team well, but if the point is "her BST will help me get more feathers" then you need to get off that hamster wheel. I realised this myself when I was considering promoting 4* Effie!
Will again throw my acknowledgement that F Corrin looks great and is probably being underrated; even with Falchion weakness I think she wins 1v1 against them anyway, worth noting she 2HKOs Lucina and wins off of baiting for instance. She wishes Julia hadn't been introduced as a focus hero, though.
Yeah Julia is bad times for all that she's bad times for most blues (Sharena survives with single-digit HP, which don't get me wrong is better! but still a bad matchup, she can't take that + even a single hit from Lyn, for instance). The Falchion weakness is a concern but it just means that Corrin(/Nowi) vs. Falchion user are neutral and bloody affairs (both sides get Atk x 1.2). Honestly, weakness hits are worst when neutral, in many ways; you were losing WTD matchups anyway, and WTA matchups are still winnable, just neutral ones become clear losses and this is bad. Having run both Corrin and Tiki extensively, the dragon weakness is a substantially bigger issue for Tiki.
Beyond that, Corrin's def is high enough to mostly laugh at lance users in addition to her obvious advantages against red. Archers don't do well against her either (charge up her limit + get hit by Seal Res so you can more easily kill them before they get THEIR limit) so she kinda has that same sturdy feel that you describe. Only 12 other characters in the game equal her def and of those only one other is even within 5 speed of her (i.e. they all have to worry about doubles hitting their lower res). That character is Subaki, which is really freaking weird because Subaki is more or less the slowest pegasus knight in the series.
ps get on IRC when you have a chance, Laggy, I want to talk TF7 with you
-
CorrinF is currently A+ on the tier list, while Shareena is S; not that I always agree with the tier list, but it's worth looking into why.
Part of it I think is just dragon weaknesses. Usually you look for your blue to counter Marth and Lucina, CorrinF often can't. Part of it is the lower attack power (8 less). CorrinF trades attacks for debuffs after hitting a target, which means you need a followup attack. Usually in Arena you would rather just one-shot. Her speed is one slower, which...does get her doubled by Linde, and means she can't double Takumi if she's +SPD or he's -SPD. It's better to hit RES in general, but Shareena being my fastest unit can double and kill basically any high res low def mage, which is nice, cause my other characters eat counters.
I mean, CorrinF and Shareena are close in power level regardless, the game is fairly balanced.
RobinM is good, although was recently moved down a tier. He's slow. He literally can't beat at least one red sword lord 1v1 (Ryoma). His base stat total is super low (like...same as Cecilia), which is fine when countering Takumi (also low BST), but suffers a little if you actually try to kill higher stat total red units.
Effie is good, but specialized. One shots red sword lords, literally all of them. No chance to counter even. But has weaker matchups vs neutral and bad weapon triangle.
Nowie is the other bluenon the same tier as Effie/Shareena. 27 speed, but has all three of def, res, and distant counter. Dragon, though, so has those weaknesses.
-
So, random question: how does the game determine Dragon weakness? Is it equipped weapon, or is it plot? (i.e. do CorrinM / Sophia eat dragon weakness too?)
Also minorly whined about it already, but tsk tsk at giving Ninian an attack (and thus Dragon weakness...?). They shoulda made her the ultimate buffer or the likes... although granted, that's potentially a very centralizing role to have if her power level is high enough. (I rolled up a Ninian, so definitely no need to grind up that Olivia now.)
-
If you use a dragonstone you are a dragon. CorrinM and Sophia are not dragons.
Did another crate session for this banner and got Karel, Ninian and another (off banner) Tiki. Tiki #1 is -HP/+Def, Tiki #2 is -HP/+Atk. I really don't know which one is better.
-
I have been turned very salty right now by my rolls. got nothing but dupes this time and a -Atk Kagero and Tharja. It's the Sibling banner over again.
Meanwhile, I got Ursula to 5* because the Reinhardt I have is so stat f'd it's not even funny and because I actually liked her in FE7. Next on my list is Male Corrin for getting to 5*
-
Did another crate session for this banner and got Karel, Ninian and another (off banner) Tiki.
Define session here Eph. Are we talking you threw down $20 and opened up some orbs are we talking this is a night long binge of throwing money after money at the game.
-
Random thoughts on the new characters now that we're getting more data on their stats:
-Ninian obviously is the third dancer. Like Olivia I'm not super-impressed by her combat (Azura has better pure combat due to what she does to reds) but Fortify Dragons could be neat on some teams for sure. I already have two other dragons on my periodic rotation (and a third sitting at 4* Level 1, granted Fae is likely the worst dragon) so the thought of going for a dragon-themed team is interesting. On most other teams, Hone Atk > Fortify Def, though of course Ninian is a free 5* over Olivia if you get her.
-Priscilla has 3 move and Rehabilitate, so is pretty much the new Best Healer at Actually Healing. Personally I find 3 move healers dramatically more useful than 2 move ones (evading combat is a big deal when you suck at it, and sometimes you really, really need 'em to reach a specific target so having one who can heal for more than 7 HP without having to set up Martyr.
-Karel seems like a crappier version of Lyn (no Spur Spd, lower stats generally) though +10 damage every time he activates his 2-charge limit is neat. He seems like he'll be crowded out by lots of other similar sword types.
-Life and Death means and 7 free damage after combat means Jaffar has better offence than most non-Kagero dagger users, though that's kind of a backhanded compliment.
-Lucius seems... well, set up to use Martyr well I guess (high HP for a healer, but low def), and has Pain to hurt the person you bait to set it up. That's kinda interesting, though I doubt it's actually much good.
-Rebecca is the most boring. Darting Blow makes her super-fast, but she has no limit and an attack stat which is either below average or shit depending on which of the posted numbers so far is her neutral. Not much else to say.
-
Gigantic developer update:
http://imgur.com/a/IONyU
Lots to unpack here, but the important bit that jumped out to me:
Arena scoring is going to be changed. Now it will be a combination of...
1. Star rating, Level
2. bonuses from merges
3. Total base stats after removing effects from skills (including weapon skills)
4. Equipped skills
This fixes some problems, but leaves a few problems. The good news: you don't need to equip Fury on literally all your characters if chasing a top score. Characters with Brave Lances don't just artificially have 13 less BST. And in fact, most characters that share a type have identical BST when stuff is unequipped; ex almost every 2-move melee unit when unequipped has 157 or 158 BST at 5 star. This includes fliers, this includes dragons, this includes infantry.
That said, Dancers have like 150 BST with their weapon and skills unequipped. 1 move units have more BST when unequipped. 3 move units have less BST. So...feeling obligated to use armored units when chasing score is still a thing.
-
Also there's going to be "defend for X turns" maps, maps with reinforcements and a new event with permadeath for the true FE experience. Unclear exactly how it'll work, but my presumption is that you'll take a team into 1-1 and anybody who dies in the map won't be available for 1-2. Rather than actually losing your 5* units forever because you forgot to check an enemy swordsman for Vantage.
-
I'm actually interested in the grand battles. I want to get them all but Llyod is interesting (aside from the fact an old friend loved the character back in my old EZboard days).
Still...no Ninian. Or any Blazing Sword banner character. How irritating.
-
Three pulls on the current banner has yet to give me a banner character. I did however pull an extra Julia, who promptly got fed to other Julia. +1 hp and attack on my already best character? Yes please. I also taught her Bowbreaker to keep her from getting doubled by the omnipresent Takumis in the arena.
-
So, I stayed up a bit late to try out some of the inherit stuff. From what I undetstand, some characters you can get quick maxed abilities from (4* Lonqu for Vantage for example). I've been using my Corrins and Ursula for some testings so far. Female Corrin mostly due to her +Atk, -Res stats. So if you see some weird abilities on her, it's more so I can check out good combos for her.
Combos I'm starting out with for testing: New Moon / Luna, Vantage, Swordbreaker
-
Yeah, so... I went and spent my remaining orbs (and bought some more) to grab some skill inheritance bait, under the rationale that pulling fodder 4* would be fine. I ended up pulling three 5* Catrias during this (in addition to the one I already have). I don't even know. All of them are -spd except for one which is +spd -res (thank god).
So I currently have a +3 Catria with the following decked out:
Weapon: Killer Lance+ (default)
Assist: Rally Attack
Special: Moonbow (4* Palla or Odin)
A: Speed +3 (4* Fir)
B: Vantage 3 (4* Lon'qu)
C: Hone Speed 3 (4* Eirika)
Once at 40 she'll be 41/43/41/30/23 with the merge bonuses (all +1 except HP is +2). Moonbow is on 1 charge. This is very fair.
Ironically her main job will be to orbit my Nino, whom I intend to slap Life & Death 3 on (thanks Jaffar!), Desperation 3, and Ardent Sacrifice so she can activate her own Desperation on turn 1. Linde can do the same thing with slightly better stats and blue instead of green but I don't have Linde. She literally will die if anyone looks funny at her but that's okay, most things will be eating 66x2 damage before they can counter (as long as they are below 41 speed), and any red WTD matchups will have to get past Catria. My main handicap is SP right now! I suppose this system certainly accomplishes making that a desirable resource.
Rounding this out is Olivia, whom I do not have a 5* version of but it doesn't really matter; all I am doing is tossing Wings of Mercy on her so that she can teleport to Nino at her convenience. Ideally I'd have a better IV version of her than neutral and give her a Ruby Sword(+) so she can bait and kill green units (between the three of them they have excellent color coverage) but that will have to wait. 4th slot is reserved for the bonus hero for the arena season.
This skill inheritance system is crazy by the way. I was convinced it was going to ruin all meta forever but I'm not quite so doom and gloom on it now, for all that it certainly feels like arena will be the quick and the dead (if you don't oneshot, Vantage is going to ruin your day, and Vantage+Close/Distant Counter combos are as obnoxious as they sound.) Fortunately Counter inheritance is limited by the Hector/Takumi supply. Vantage comes right off of 4* Lon'qu though so be prepared for that.
-
from what I'm seeing, Fury or Vantage is pretty much a given for some of the higher ups. I'm going to work on more defensive sets, so Vantage will only be if I'm offensive, and Swordbreaker for when I'm leaving up defensive. My theory is if I can have Swordbreaker up on a dragon, it won't save them but MAYBE might be more useful. Thinking of picking up Fury or something else since my A slot is empty atm.
-
I've got two 3* Lon'Qus lying around, so that's going to make for fun times. One will donate Vantage to Takumi, and the other probably to Minerva - she doesn't have a conflicting B skill and could be an even cannon-ier glass cannon with Glimmer.
-
Catria is the single unit I have not pulled out of the 4* pool. At all. It's a shame because I have Hinoka, Caeda and Cherche so I need one more good flexible flyer.
Putting Renewal (thanks sis!) on Chrom with Fury, he'll be a pretty huge tank. Any strong slow unit will also prefer -breaker that matches their typing. That useless Hawkeye is going straight into Kagero for Death Blow 3 OHKOing Tacomeme.
Odin and Hinata suddenly are strong 4* pulls. Odin gives moonblow which probably the most flexible offensive skill due to its low cooldown. Hinata has Fury of course. 4* Hana can give out Life and Death 2 don't have Jaffars.
-
I was confused about Odin being a good pull for a second with how much others complained about him being frail as hell, but if you are in it to eat his soul that makes sense.
-
I'd love to transfer the Close Counter from my attack-screwed Takumi... but all my other ranged characters are stat screwed also. Except Julia and she doesn't really need it. I went through my whole collection and man I have a lot of bad nature characters.
-
The next set of bonus heroes for the arena is gonna be the current FE7 banner's focus heroes + Ursula + Anna/Azama/Fir, so get one of those ready if you haven't yet. Next banner is gonna be Eliwood/Minerva/Selena/Gordin (unless they surprise us like they did with the princes/princesses banners), I'm leaning towards that one over the current one because no healers, I like Eliwood/Selena (and Eliwood is good for cavalry teams), and Minerva just looks plain cool.
I haven't even started putting together builds for skill inheritance; currently just working on raising four-person teams of each movement type so I can complete the high-end training tower quests.
-
Threw Lon Qu's Vantage onto Sharena. Went fishing for some skill fodder in a banner pull, ended up drawing 5* Eldigan and 4* Henry, Bartre, and Setsuna. Not sure what to do.
Still need to consider the right Special for Sharena. Was actually considering Glacies, since my Fir is expendible and 80% of Sharena's RES > 30% of her ATK, but it does take an extra turn to proc.
-
Moonbow for life. 2 charge is too good. Unless you have something very specific in mind that tends to trump everything else.
-
Donnel has the highest BST for a normal infantry unit ignoring weapons and passive abilities. True to himself he might be the ultimate project character. He's just stuck with a Brave Lance with shitty speed and terrible skills. We have the technology (and the orbs/feathers)!
+spd/-res
Silver Lance+
whatever assist
Moonblow
A: Fury 3
B: Lancebreaker 3
C: Threaten Def 3
43 HP
53 ATK
35 SPD
35 DEF
20 RES
You can substitute Silver Lance+ for Killer Lance+ for one charge moonblow. I dunno, I like the Silver Lance+ because I wouldn't feel bad melting a Jagen for one.
-
On further reflection, I'm thinking Vantage on Lucina, and Minerva gets Wings of Mercy. That way she can hang back, away from death-by-Takumi, and then teleport into the fray when it's murder time.
-
Next banner is gonna be Eliwood/Minerva/Selena/Gordin (unless they surprise us like they did with the princes/princesses banners), I'm leaning towards that one over the current one because no healers, I like Eliwood/Selena (and Eliwood is good for cavalry teams), and Minerva just looks plain cool.
Minerva is probably the best pull on that banner (solid unit on her own. Also for feeding a source of Life And Death 3, which I believe only exists on 5 star units).
Gordin is a potential project character; can put like Death Blow on him to go with the brave bow. Can give him like...swordbreaker or something silly to guarantee 4x attacks.
Eliwood, sure, Cavalry bait. He's a rare cavalry unit that's not like 23 speed natively, so that's nice.
Selena...mmm...haven't heard anyone talking about her. She looks like an all-out tank, though (35 def 28 res 35 speed). Bad damage, though, like 6 less attack than Ovelia--those stats need to come from somewhere. Inheritance probably makes her viable when she wasn't before. (Triangle Adept is not what you want on a tank unless the tank is named Robin--replace that obviously; could replace her armorslayer too potentially)
-
I already have Klein so Gordin doesn't really offer much; they have the same stats except that Klein has +8 speed in exchange for durability which is an obvious win (since 32 def doesn't stop Gordin being wrecked by literally everything doubling him), but yeah he's fine on paper. At worst he'd be a source of Vantage 3.
Donnel has the highest BST for a normal infantry unit ignoring weapons and passive abilities. True to himself he might be the ultimate project character. He's just stuck with a Brave Lance with shitty speed and terrible skills. We have the technology (and the orbs/feathers)!
+spd/-res
Silver Lance+
whatever assist
Moonblow
A: Fury 3
B: Lancebreaker 3
C: Threaten Def 3
43 HP
53 ATK
35 SPD
35 DEF
20 RES
You can substitute Silver Lance+ for Killer Lance+ for one charge moonblow. I dunno, I like the Silver Lance+ because I wouldn't feel bad melting a Jagen for one.
Those stats for Donnel don't look right. With +Spd/-Res and Silver+, he should have 50 ATK, 32 SPD, and 32 DEF (source: FEH Wiki, but Gamepress agrees too). His BST is high, but not THAT high. EDIT: Whoops, missed Fury, I r dum.
Also surely you can do better than Threaten Def for a C skill, unless you're supporting (or are) a brave user. I'm not terribly impressed by Threatens though, they only activate once someone has successfully baited one or more enemies and that's not always practical. Hone/Spur/Fortify feel more proactive/flexible to me.
-
Things I would suggest you look at immediately for inheritance for any generic build (i.e. not Horse Emblem or whatever):
Assist: mobility (Swap/Reposition/Draw Back, possibly Pivot/Smite) or Rally Speed/Attack (+others if running a *blade mage). Swap feels easiest to use as default, off-hand (does not necessitate any terrain around the units involved to work.)
Special: Moonbow. Really hard to justify anything else as better due to 2 charge. Reprisal as another 2 charge option on a build you expect to build limit damage on, but only learnable from 4* Kagero or 5* Karel at the moment (and if you pull the latter, you better be transferring Wo Dao+ or you're crazy). Moonbow is even better if you're running a Killer weapon since 2->1 is huge and better than 3->2. If you want upfront damage, with the meta trending towards glass cannon units, one of the 3 charge supers that uses your own stat as a damage base is worth considering as well.
Luna and Vengeance, the 3 charge versions of these specials, are still perfectly respectable if the unit already has them of course (probably don't need to teach Moonbow to Lucina).
A: Probably the most flexible slot. Speed + as a generic option, preferably on chars with high speed already to solidify them. Darting Blow, Death Blow, Life & Death are all offense oriented options. Fury is interesting; even with it not factoring into BST it could work on some units, especially those with sustain (Falchion/Renewal). Distant/Close Counter are also here.
B: Vantage of course, to the dismay of many Lon'qus who have lost their souls since Thursday. But also some other interesting stuff worth taking a look: Wings of Mercy (armored and dancer units especially), *breaker skills, Desperation for more frue glass (stir with Ardent Sacrifice as a reliable way to activate it). The Seal series also lives here and while I don't respect stuff that activates out of combat that much, if you've got a unit with a lot of bulk Seal Spd is worth looking into.
C: Echoing NEB that Threaten isn't especially good, although it's fine on armored units by the nature of how they work. Hone/Spur are the usual suspects, but a surprise filler slot that can work is Renewal, especially with Fury as mentioned above (only 4* source right now is Fae, though).
-
I think Galeforce and the AoE moves, while slow, can be decisive if you have a unit you expect to get in a lot of hits. Too bad you can't have Brave effect and Killer effect on the same PC otherwise you could activate Galeforce in one turn (though if you take a counter and use all four hits that works). Moonbow is better as a general thing, agreed. And broadly speaking, specials which multiply damage (Glimmer/Astra) are worse that those which add damage (Moonbow/Luna/Draconic Aura/etc.), since the former doesn't help you much against the targets which you'll need the most help against.
Defiant Atk/Spd have their place in the A slot on characters with -blade tomes and/or Desperation to make their limits scarier.
-
I have had tremendous success with an Atk+ Cordelia and Galeforce. With Olivia backing her up she'll have 50 buffed Atk with her Brave Lance. Let her bait an enemy she can survive, and you follow it up with 3 actions of 50 Atk Brave Lances to the face. The other two PCs can help too. I imagine Lyn below half HP is similarly monstrous.
I am trying to plan for some Inheritance. I want to give Wings of Mercy to Olivia. Life&Death (Although I don't like what that would do to her ability to tank a single hit from stuff) or Death Blow (which fits NICELY) for Cordelia along with some other stuff... was thinking about AxeBreaker and Renewal. I have a 4* Reinhart I'd love to promote to 5* but his nature is Atk-, which sucks for Brave users.
Just got a 5* Karel who is -HP, +Spd. So yay for that. Followed it up with a 5* Peri, who is another cavalier at least.
Trying to firm up potential skill users but I also don't want to cut into my supply of 4 decent each of Swords/Lances/Axes and Cavs/Infantry/Flying. Difficult balance to worry about.
-
Rolled the dice on the Blazing Blade banner, no featured heroes but 5* Nowi (neutral nature) and 4* Raven (hello, Brave Axe fodder!). Not bad.
-
What a difference one skill makes. Bowbreaker on Julia let me pull off my first 0-death arena run. 4504 points. Not sure if I'll crack top 10000 or not but it'll be close. I'm getting at least 4500 feathers today.
Did my fourth pull on Blazing Banner, still zero banner units. But I got a unit I wanted for my horsey project (Clarine) and also a 5-star Seliph. Who apparently is some kind of limit fighter. Guess he would be decent with Vantage and Defiant Attack, but that's a lot of skills to burn on something that might not work.
-
I had a similar experience giving Reposition to Eirika (movement skills so good) letting me get a zero-death run with my highest-rating team (Lyn, Eirika, Sheena, and Olwen for the bonus). Moving Olwen to safety after she assassinates someone or moving Sheena somewhere she can be relevant are both pretty great options, made a huge difference. On a related note I love the move towards Vantage Takumi on defence teams since Olwen gives no shits and one-shots him anyway.
Seliph is bad.
-
Swap and Reposition are incredible. Swap on Lucina let me just drop Olivia off the team completely for some more BST/sheer offense because the main goal was to make sure Nino didn't stay exposed, and Lucina's enough of a bulwark for that.
-
Yeah, and I would add Draw Back to the list as well honestly. Depends what you're trying to do as always but being able to attack then move someone to a different square opens up so many possibilities if your goal is to have no deaths. (And both high-end arena and the recent set of training tower missions are all about that.)
-
Movement is always going to be king in a game where positioning is so key. In one where an extra square of movement is at minimum a 33% increase in how far you can move and most (?) of the options open up movement of someone else after they have acted? Yeah I was expecting movement skills were kind of mandatory transfers for top tier play.
-
Speaking of movement being king... I am working (successfully in most cases) on defeating 10th stratum with infantry, cavalry, and flier teams. I also defeated Lunatic Blazing Noblemen with four armour. However I have thus far been totally unable to win with my four-armour team in 10th stratum, the movement is just so awful. The inability to so much as swap positions is killer in a game all about finding winning matchups for each of your units.
Not sure how much I want to use them longterm, but I think I will really need to give them some of Pivot, Swap, Wings of Mercy, and/or Escape Route to them. Fortunately Swap is easily available via both Stahl and Subaki (who exist from the daily hero rotation, twice potentially) so I shouldn't feel too bad about burning through some of those at least.
-
I'm almost done with 10th stratum Cavalry. Armor and Fliers probably aren't going to happen. I have some decent fliers but not a single one is leveled. Leveling armors is incredibly painful.
-
Friendly reminder that Light's Blessing works for those Tenth Stratum quests and the new Lunatic quests that came out. Trading those for Orbs is a worthwhile endeavor if you don't have a team composition good enough to handle it.
Speaking of those Lunatic quests, there's already a series of videos showing a jp player who beat every Ch9 quest (the ones that require no losses) using only free 3* units with no skill inheritance. (They tend to involve super abusing AI movement/positioning and Subaki being a crazy tank.)
-
Imagine using Light's Blessings like a filthy casual.
Infantry quest is done, I'm confident the flier/cavalry will fall soon enough (especially cavalry). Armour now seems doable after inheriting Swap but my win% is still low.
-
Imagine using Light's Blessings like a filthy casual.
Doing it right Elves.
-
60 orbs on Eliwood banner. Only got a 5-star Young Tiki. +spd -hp, but doesn't fit with the team I'm building up. Also wow is her base skillset bad. She is so glad skill inheritance is a thing.
-
Trying to snipe green orbs for Minerva got me my FOURTH 5* Hawkeye.
That could have been four Minervas, four Hectors, four Faes. Nope, four Hawkeyes.
-
Hm. Green orbs huh? I do have a good amount of orbs saved up. I could try for her or Hector. Meanwhile, Michalis made into a complete joke by my Ephraim and Julia.
Addeneum: I tried the green orb madness with the 30 saved orbs I had. Game gave me red orbs and Eliwood with -HP, +DEF. I don't know how to feel.
-
Threw a full summon at each banner, got Priscilla from the Blazing Blade set and no 5*s but two Moonbow carriers from Michalis'.
-
Lunatic Michalis down. I actually beat him on the first try using only three units (a fourth was deployed but never saw use): 5* Eirika with Reposition and Triangle Adept, 4* Nino, 5* Klein.
Eirika charges up Nino as usual, allowing her to ORKO the lancer on the left. Then, Eirika repositions Nino behind her, leaving Eirika in Michalis' range; she tanks him easily. Nino then kills Michalis, barely doubling him (34 base + 4 from Eirika against Michalis' 27+6) and hitting his bad res. Eirika retreats again, pulling Nino behind her, so that nobody is in range of the fliers. Next turn, Klein kills one flier and I kite the other, then repeat with Eirika taking a hit from the sword cav.
I'm gonna break down and promote Draug since my armour team keeps getting owned by tanky axemen.
-
Don't think I can beat Lunatic Michalis. I can kill Michalis himself easily enough and most of the other enemies. But the red flier with Drag Back is so hard to get to and he just wears down someone until he kills them.
One last pull on Eliwood banner got me... Minerva. +def, -attack which wouldn't be too terrible since she has a high natural defense. But she has Life and Death. Sigh.
-
Ignore this unless you are Nitori or Laggy
(http://i.imgur.com/ClPeWiV.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Ar5pvab.png)
-
You promised me four Hawkeyes you heathen
Did you tell me you sacrificed glorious 5* Hawkeye on the altar of Death Blow inheritance
-
You promised me four Hawkeyes you heathen
Did you tell me you sacrificed glorious 5* Hawkeye on the altar of Death Blow inheritance
Raven has one killer axe+, Reinhardt ate one for death blow 3, Cherche ate the third one for death blow 3 as well.
-
so Bunny Xander comes out before real Xander. Never had I wanted such a manly man (aside from Hector) which means I wont get him. Then again GudaGuda2 and CCC is coming in FGO. oh noooooooooooo.
-
Kinda regretting all orbs spent before this. Literally four of my favourite characters and bunny Xander looks fucking fabulous. Also, finally flying mage
too late to help with the current quests.
-
holy fuck god truly exists
-
I only care about Bunny Lucina and Bunny Xander. More I say...more. EVERYTHING MUST BE BUNNIES as Panne and Yarne cy off in a corner ;_;
-
Anyway, 60/60 on the 10th stratum training tower quests! That was pretty rough. Just need to beat Veronica with an axe user and no deaths.
-
Did a rando full summon on the blazing banner last night, got Eirika, still regret it now. This is beautiful and perfect.
-
wait what's this about bunny characters?
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYdr0UhJXBY&feature=youtu.be
Xander is beyond fabulous.
-
well I've got 80 orbs I can blow on that banner, sure. ^_^
-
Xander in 25 orbs.
The horse is also chewing on a carrot in the battle animation.
-
No horny bunnies but I got Azura. She's -HP/+atk. I got enough dancers to make a team now.
The novelty of gambling is wearing off and these banners are meh, so it will probably take a Rennac or Haar focus to get me to crate again.
-
BUNNY CHROM IS MINE....in like 60 orbs. Also got some pegasus knight with Brave Lance+ I don't recognize. Seems mediocre, but that gives me fewer qualms about donating her weapon to Effie.
-
I aimmed for Bunny Camilla or Xander. Get OG Camilla and 2 Bunny Chrom. Well played game, well played.
-
Got Bunny Camilla for 20 Orbs, which was good because I had taken a break from the game and so only had 28 Orbs to my name.
Going to try and do the quests and get myself enough orbs to try again and get Bunny Xander or Bunny Chrom.
-
Hadn't opened a single 5 star since I rerolled at the start. (No missed logins; did most of the lunatic quests including clearing 10th stratum with 4x fliers and 4x cavalry, so spent plenty of orbs). This is like...0.1th percentile or something; far enough out of the range of expected probability that I've been theorizing there's some problem with their RNG calculation. (More streak heavy than it should be or something?)
Spent 140 orbs on the current banner, got one five star on the final pull. Hey, first one since launch. The good news: it's bunny Lucina, yay! The bad news: pretty bad IVs (-ATK +HP). Still better than -SPD at least.
-
I got all the bunnies except Camilla. :D
-
BUNNY CHROM IS MINE....in like 60 orbs. Also got some pegasus knight with Brave Lance+ I don't recognize. Seems mediocre, but that gives me fewer qualms about donating her weapon to Effie.
Does she have short hair or long hair? The short haired one is super rare and has a one of a kind skill
-
Long hair, it's Cordelia from Awakening.
-
I got all the bunnies except Camilla. :D
Well I don't need to reinstall and burn whatever orbs were on my account to fish for a Bunny Xander account to give you then.
-
Sorta surprised you'd even try to do that.
-
Grefter is a bro for a reason
-
Bunny Chrom, litterally the least interesting of the banner to me, in 60 orbs since that's a thing people are talking about. In that 60 I also got 2 Kleins at 4* and 2 normal Camillas at 4* so I'm pretty down with that.
The worse Klein generously donated his Death Blow 3(yes, Klein gets DB3 at 4 star) to Olwen. P.happy with this draw, even if I didn't get bunny Xander or Camilla
-
I had to throw Olwens' inheritances away because they were all -ATK. Fortunely my Bunny Chrom and OG Camilla love all the attention.
-
Why can't you put Fury on healers? This game sucks.
(https://i.imgur.com/DO4jQKT.png)
-
I tried this on a whim, am not expecting to play long.
I'm playing this right after everybody got their free orbs so this is essentially Super Hard Mode.
Fortunately I still got two five stars characters.
Unfortunately both are green wyverns. Bunny Camilla (breasts) and Cheche. Dragons and red characters scare me.
I added three stars Serra / Jagen to the team to compensate for this. My four stars are another green and Niles and I don't really want them? You might be surprised to learn that Jagen fucking blows, unfortunately. My other options are Donnel (acceptable) and Est (not acceptable)
Putting all FE characters together means that I often cannot tell the characters apart. How many variations of the same moeblob can exist in one game,
The UOMs look gorgeous though. I want a team of five stars Bartre/Jagen/Wrys/Ogma and destroy all the animes with them.
-
I want to mention that I really like Cheche.
Level 22:
41 atk
13 spd
"Fuck you" ~Cheche
Also update Donnel is Hot, I am going to 5 stars him if I can. Digging the chara design and stats
-
Jagen is actually pretty legit. I expected him to suck when I promoted him to 5 stars, but he's actually been a really consistent tank.
-
I wish I coud like Jeigan but
Lvl 20 Jeigan 3*
HP 25
Atk 22
Spd 12
Def 14
Res 22
Has a rad horse
Cool UOM
Donnel lvl 21 3*
HP 27
Atk 32
Spd 16
Def 19
Res 13
Has a rad brave lance
Wears boiling pot on head
And Donnel is the one who's only going to get better with levels
That res though
-
Update: Is that really all the content there is in this game
I am dropping it hard right away
-
Did you notice that you can set the difficulty level of the campaign? The Lunatic final missions are pretty badass.
-
Yeah the game is seriously lacking in content. I keep saying I'm going to drop it but I like collecting Pokeymans. Biggest problems are the nature system and extremely low feather acquisition rate.
-
Also, since I'm at ~35k feathers, I should totally do at least one 5* upgrade before I waste more XP into a 4* unit that will just get reset. Plus the rate of Orb acquisition has greatly slowed so I won't be getting many more draws. Normally I'd just do my own thing, but this is a game that's enough about gameplay over flavor that I might just go for gameplay hax. (Plus I don't have any really strong favorites in my potential crop.)
My 5*s: Ninian, Eliwood, Selena, Carrot Xander. Just got a fresh Minerva & Cherche too. Minerva has bad IVs (+HP, -Spd, reverse of Shale), Xander has good IVs (+Atk, -Res), Cherche has good IVs (+Atk, -HP), Ninian has good IVs I think (+Atk, forget the flaw?).
Options:
* Palla/Catria: Laggy fanboyism. Since I drew Minerva, I could make a goofy Goad Flyers / Ward Flyers team. Alternatively, Catria is just plain good, I've been running her as just a random handy 4* blue.
* Bartre: Eph fanboyism. Not tons of other great green picks. He gets Fury.
* Gunter??: Captain K fanboyism. With Eliwood, could do a Ward Cavalry / Hone Cavalry team, and throw in Carrot Xander as well for coverage. Needs a Reinhardt/Olwen/Priscilla/Clarine ideally too so that DEF tanks don't totally own them. (Also Clarine's eyes are creepily large, Captain K. Just sayin'.)
* Tiki-Adult: Since I have Ninian, I could make a goofy Dragon Emblem team? Problem is, no Fae, who seems a pretty important addition as the only green dragon in the game. (I've got a 4* neutral Corrin-F as well, but Ninian's already a blue herself, so that seems overkill.)
* Sharena, Corrin-M, Donnel, Tharja, Nino, Jeogre: Not likely, but just some other options. Sharena doesn't get owned by Takumi at least vs. say Catria as far as "promote a random blue." Corrin competes too directly with Selena, so probably not. Donnel has a cool hat. Tharja's high on the tier lists for some reason (she doesn't seem THAT good). Jeogre's a random archer who has helped out sometimes for Reposition / Dance hax.
Notable skill devour bait: I have a 4* Lon'qu for Vantage and a 4*Roy for Triangle Adept, if I could figure out who needed them.
Any thoughts? (That I reserve the right to totally ignore then flip coins?)
-
* Gunter??: Captain K fanboyism. With Eliwood, could do a Ward Cavalry / Hone Cavalry team, and throw in Carrot Xander as well for coverage. Needs a Reinhardt/Olwen/Priscilla/Clarine ideally too so that DEF tanks don't totally own them. (Also Clarine's eyes are creepily large, Captain K. Just sayin'.)
Yeah but have you seen her horse-riding hips? She is T H I C C.
Tharja's high on the tier lists for some reason (she doesn't seem THAT good).
She's got good speed and built-in Darting Blow 3. Think she hits 39, which doubles 99% of the game. She's probably less good in the context of skill inheritance, but she requires little work out of the box.
My Horse Emblem team is currently:
Eliwood 39/47/33/20/32 with Durandal, Moonbow, Darting Blow 3, Axebreaker 3, Ward Cavalry. Smashes things on attack. Might replace axebreaker with swordbreaker since the few things he doesn't double are red swords.
Jagen 40/45/27/25/38 with Silver Lance+, Iceberg, Fury 3, Desperation 1 (Filler), Fortify Cavalry. Laughs off all magic damage, then kills damn near anything in the game with Iceberg. Not sure what to put in slot B, he's pretty effective as-is.
Clarine 35/27/33/22/35 with Fear, Mend, Heavenly Light, Resistance+3, Live to Serve 2, Ward Cavalry. Just fast enough and tanky enough to survive a hit from most anyone, then reduces their attack for her allies to follow up with.
Frederick (4-star still, fuck you feather system) 37/42/27/35/14 with Hammer (will be Hammer+), Luna, Fury 1 (will be 3), Wings of Mercy 2, Ward Cavalry. Hits hard, laughs at physical damage, destroys any armor that isn't Draug (and who runs Draug?). Hates magic, but we have Jagen to deal with those.
-
I agree that I wish the game had more content, although I'm a big enough FE fan that I enjoy the random(ish) tough fights like 10th stratum and arena can provide. Definitely wish there were more story/paralogue maps. Agreed that Lunatic Chapter 9 was a lot of fun, in particular!
Tharja is good because -blade tomes are excellent with the right support, and she has an excellent stat build (Atk and Spd are more important than the other stats). I don't use her mostly because I have Eirika (who is great at buffing them) and thus if I'm going to use a -blade tome, it won't be one that occupies the same spot on the weapon triangle as her. Darting Blow is one of the best A skills, too.
Triangle Adept is pretty excellent on a lot of people since you should be fighting your strengths much more often than your weaknesses assuming you use a balanced team. It's extra good on anyone with a -raven tome (Henry, Robin-M, Cecilia) since it works with them. Vantage... I dunno. In theory it's good on people who hit once really hard. I haven't played with it much. Characters with 1-2 obviously make great use of it.
You could run a dragon team with a non-dragon green troubleshooter just in case. You could also give your blue dragon(s) Lancebreaker and/or B Tomebreaker to help you cover that weak spot. EDIT: Though honestly dragon teams are in a worse place than cavalry teams or flier teams because there's only one dragon-themed buff and all dragons hit res, leaving you with limits as your only way to deal effectively with res tanks.
-
FEH feels like it needs to implement the general weekly events the same way other Gachas do, which has just enough content to last you at least a few days, and rewards you for doing that.
Grand Hero Battles are fine and all, but they're only 2 fights, and only come up every other week.
That said, did another pull on the Easter Banner. Nabbed me a 4* Camilla (normal variant) which was unexpected!
-
Yeah I noticed the harder difficulties but that's honestly not enough! Especially since i can already jump to like Lunatic chapter 6?
I expected the FTP FE to have worse gameplay than mainline FE but more content, but in fact it has worse gameplay and less content
-
Hard and Lunatic very much are not scaled to finish one then start another. Lunatic is like, 6 chapters behind Hard or something lake that off the top of my head.
And yeah you pretty much need to be okay with random enemy trash on fixed maps and Arena to be digging it. It isn't very Fenrir.
-
No more Arena quests? I sure hope they get replaced with something, as the feather intake rate was already very slow. If they aren't replaced, it's gonna get even slower, and the Orb uptake rate is gonna take a big hit too.
Anyway, before I knew Arena quests were going away, I decided to whale it up in hopes of spending money now to see what 5*s I got naturally. Winner is... Laggy Emblem. Got a natural 5* Palla off the Peg Knights banner. No Hinoka, but I did get PERFECTION for my blue... sheesh, weapon-triangle-the-team with both Ruby & Sapphire weapons. No Eggmilia for a mage, but I guess running Ninian for magic damage + coverage + dance dance revolution is still not horrible? So Palla/Subaki/Minerva/Ninian?
Looking at CaptainK's team... hrmm. Having a Resistance tank DOES seem like a very smart idea to bait out Reinhardts and the like, so upgrading Gunter probably not so wise when I can just steal his cavalry buff, so Horse Emblem may have to wait. Specifically... dang, I could REALLY use Cecilia or Priscilla. Cecilia would offer green coverage and with Roy's Weapon Triangle, she'd also be a Kagero hard-counter and Takumi soft-counter, as Elf noted. Priscilla would have sustain and better RES (although still not quite Captain K's Jagen's). Sadly, good luck at guaranteeably drawing them. I think this is punishment for nominating Cecilia in a CKDL awhile back to laugh at her. Now I need her, and she's still insulted and ignoring me. Alas. (Hell, I could even break theme and take, say, a Felicia or something instead for the purpose. Which I don't have either. Although maybe sticking with the default "just throw in Ninian as a 4th" works too.)
As for Dragon Emblem, the whaling (and general good luck) got me 5* Young Tiki and... Nowi... as well. (Read: I can have Young Tiki steal Nowi's Lightning Breath+ if I want, because haha no to using Nowi.) Still want Fae though. Problem with a green non-dragon trouble-shooter is that some of the trouble that needs shooting by a Dragon team are Red Falchion users, who mess up your average green anyway for free. Suspect that if Fae still never shows, overloading on Blues with some Lancebreakers or the like is the way to go, and maybe running a colorless non-dragon - certainly Dancehax on my 4* Jeogre has served me well for dealing with problematic Lucinas and the like even in my current team that isn't Dragon Emblem. So Y. Tiki / Ninian / Corrin-F / (Jeogre or Klein) or something.
-
I guess with the random luck the F2P Hector account got (a 2nd Spring Xander with +HP, -RES which is better then +RES, -SPD, and a +SPD, -ATK Ninian) I could go along and put the ID up for that account: 1779250665 (Tehiri).
-
Decided to draw a bit more on the spring banner in hopes of Xander, Camilla or Lucina. Instead I gota second spring chrom. Well, +1 to my existing one I guess?
On the subject of green, the vote gauntlet left me with enough feathers to promote another unit to 5, and I went with my Hp-/Def+ Camilla. Gets me a 5* flier, and I may enjoy brave blitzing just a liiiiitle too much so she got the promote over my Res-/Def+ Subaki. He mangles reds well enough at 4 anyway to cover her.
-
Not enough room left on my phone to download the new update, so this is a good time for me to cut the umbilicial and delete this.
-
The arena changes seem to have flattened BST out almost completely for matchmaking. The criteria, in order of impact, seems to be now:
1. Level+rarity (no shock, you want 5* and Lv40 units)
2. Merge bonuses
3. BST (except that they seem to be applying a penalty to armored units and a bonus to all non-melee infantry units in the calculation, so everyone ends up roughly the same value; only exceptions are outliers like Donnel, and the three divine dragons Y. Tiki/Nowi/Fae. Even then their advantage doesn't seem to be much.)
4. Skill inheritance (seems to be very minor. Like ~6 points total difference from a team with no SI to a team with full SI on every slot)
The gap between 3 and 4 is much smaller than the others. Full +10 merge teams see scores of about 770 at Advanced with no deaths. No merge, 5* Lv40 teams seem to clock in around 650.
The arena quests are gone (boo, I liked them) but they implemented another 2 daily orbs event running till the 17th. Like every gacha game ever they seem to be following the model of having SOME sort of currently running event to add F2P orb gain, whether it be a daily quest thing or daily login bonuses, so I expect this trend to continue.
Snowfire: Your biggest consistent feather gain is absolutely clearing the 4k point threshold on arena every week. This basically means "use the bonus hero, always, and have as close to a Lv40 5* team as possible, then try for a deathless 7-win streak on Advanced." You definitely don't need 5* across the board either, I think just one and 4* everything else still gets over 4000 with a perfect run. The bonus hero is mandatory though, as it doubles your score.
That's 2500 a week. Earn a defense for 500 more. Any ranking bonus atop of that is gravy. There are random ass handouts (to the tune of 5k feathers) and stuff like the Voting Gauntlet that'll supplement it. It's slow, yeah, but it's way better than it was at the start of the game.
-
Fair enough. I basically don't play the game enough, because I don't have any L40 characters, so the Arena bonuses are a bit less. Although... I actually *do* have an L40 character now, but not one I use in Arena! (4* Sakura. I use her for "Jagen"ing up lowbies, as she easily outtanks less-than-level-30 enemies and heals trainees, but her offense is bad enough she won't steal kills and can soften up enemies. And she gets actual XP from healing, unlike an overleveled unit getting practically nothing from low-level kills.) Also, at higher levels, my team has gotten worse, perhaps because of better comps / use of skill inheritance? Like. I could clear a mix of Advanceds / Intermediates, no big deal, from level 25-34 or so. Now that my team is L35-37 or thereabouts, they get their ass kicked by Advanced a lot more, and even sometimes lose Intermediates. Well, hopefully that'll be fixed once I train up my new 5*s.
Anyway, convenient I scored a 5* Subaki before, as the Speed Rune quest requires a ground-up Subaki. (Just not like meat.) Also, the orbs quest involves... Cecilia?! And I can get a free neutral one if I grind up freaking Niles? Sigh. Well, since Captain K is leaving, it seems the game might be telling me to do Cavalry Souls after all. So weird to spend 22k feathers on a character I don't even care that much about, but I think she might still be what the doctor ordered, if the game isn't gonna give me my preferred option of a Priscilla...
-
Yeah, there's basically no avoiding that arena matchmaking is a lottery and lacks consistency (plus also you don't get a lot of points) until you get a level capped team first. But if you do want dem feathers that should be your goal pretty much.
I would not blow feathers on a team/char comp you don't actually like, for the record. <_< It's not like you need 5* across the board to get things done. People have cleared all content using only the free units on rotation and from GBH, literally never doing a single pull.
-
Using a good Green will make Carrot Xander good indirectly, which is the important thing. :)
-
Sounds like the new matchmaking algorithm makes my 5* Level 40+1 death god Olwen go from liability for scoring to an active benefit. Well, I'll be enjoying this.
Is there a bonus to cavalry (that is, one to offset their slightly lower stats) or are they still marginally worse?
-
Sounds like that Mounted Armored Dragon unit they inevitably release is going to be good for Defense points as all the BST penalties keep them in much lower star range in solo maps than most.
-
The current theory is:
For BST arena calculations: All Tome Users, Bow/Shuriken/Healers and Dancers receive +10, while Melee Cavalry receives +5, and Armoured units receive -10, all lining up with infantry stats
Cavalry tome users fall under tome users. They have similar BST to tome users anyway (very slightly worse, Nino/Linde is 147 while Olwen is like 145 IIRC, and a difference of 2 BST can be observed within other tiers as well.)
Cavalry definitely came out as the winner here.
-
I messed around with things today and confirmed that Sheena is no longer worth any more than my other 5*. Welp, never using her in the arena again (unless she's a bonus character). Life's good man.
-
Well...that was some interesting rolls.
- +Atk -Res M Corrin
- +HP -Atk Lyn
- +SPD -DEF Clair
No Faye. No Alm :(
On the other hand, my Corrin is now useful so YAY. I'll probably level Clair and Corrin to the normal levels.
-
Did another 5 pull on the Echoes banner because I'm swimming in orbs and just keep getting more.
Got a 4* Hawkeye, which is nice for Skill Inheritance, and 5* Ryoma who unfortunately is +HP, -Atk. Still, gimped Ryoma sounds good enough to be worth using anyway.
-
So we have our next set of arena: https://twitter.com/FE_Heroes_JP/status/853529266620776448
Sorta explains why they are using Cecilla in the challenges.
-
Heads up: for the current set of quests with F. Robin and Navarre re-runs, you don't have to do the GBH fights for the quests involving killing them, at least the low level ones.
Navarre is in main story 5-1 and F. Robin is in 4-4/4-5. If you didn't bother leveling either of them up even level 1 F. Robin/Navarre can kill these story mode versions.
No such luck for the level 35+ F. Robin and level 40+ Navarre kills though (Lunatic doesn't get that high so you have to tackle the actual GBH fights for those).
Arena is brutal nowadays. I'm getting 688-690s scoring possibilities (usually around 690) which means teams of +merge bonuses around +8 total (although my own team is +3 which means the matchmaking throws you up higher than your actual team) and they're usually fully decked out skill inheritance comps meant for defense (ranged unit dominance, breaker skills all over the place, etc.) Horse Emblem in particular is terrifying and really hard to avoid a unit death on. I'm pretty convinced it's the all-around best comp at the moment, Reinhardt and to a lesser extent Olwen are just really rough units to deal with.
Ended up replacing Lucina for Olivia just because I badly needed a dancer to get more consistent runs, and managed to pull off a 4832 deathless run last night after blowing a dueling crest. Rank 1299 at time of writing. Considering that I barely broke 4k in my last best streak this week because of constant deaths/giving up streaks to try for better ones, I'm pretty happy with that.
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P8JIATdJoM Welp. Who was saving for Ike again? Cause the one that made me go EEEEEEEEEE was Soren (Senerio). So yea...green orb madness.
Edit: The reddit has the datamine. https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/67gwmu/world_of_radiance_datamine_25_april_2017/
-
So...I decided I wanted a triangle adept character specifically with raven tomes as they are asymetrically very good with the weapon triangle. Searched around, found a near perfect IVs Robin (+ATK -HP. I also had the option of +ATK -RES, but after discussions with Laggy we decided RES/DEF matter more on triangle adept users for making things tink). Promoted him to 5 star.
(http://i.imgur.com/gYcxY8w.png)
I already had a 5-starred +SPD -HP Olivia (who has Fury and Renewal). I decided I needed a green. Nino was the only good green I had as an option. I could go either +ATK -HP or +SPD -HP. Speed is more useful when taking down red sword lords, as many of them are fast. But I decided that was Robin's job. Speaking with Laggy as he already runs Nino, he said she always one-shots blue, so I wasn't worried about that. The thing I really needed her to deal with things that threaten Robin such as greens (Julia in particular is a big problem). We ended up deciding that +ATK was actually better for that. There was actually quite a bit of discussion over the special, but once we had settled on +ATK, it made it so that Moonbow was enough to one-shot almost any Julia. (And for the most part, Nino having a weapon that slows down specials, and just a ton of damage, her super usually won't matter, so Julia was the test case we focused on as her counter hurts).
(http://i.imgur.com/ZXZroPQ.png)
Techically among greens this actually leaves me somewhat vulnerable to Anna, as Anna has potentially 41 speed with an A skill, and quite a bit of res. I'm still running a dancer, though, who as a red could also just fight Anna, so I'm not too concerned. The other fast green is like...Minerva, and RES is her low stat so she gets one-shotted.
-
40 orbs on the Radiance banner: One off-banner Lyn.
20 orbs on the Heroes banner: Ryoma and +ATK Hector.
Fair enough.
-
60 Orbs on the Tellius Banner: Soren and Off-banner 5* Karel. Can't really complain. Got a 4* Florina and 4*...something else.
20 Orbs on the Heroes banner: Takumi and off-banner 5* Reinhardt. I cannot complain about this one!
20 Orbs on the Xander Banner: Jack and shit. Bah I say!
Oh and of course, a crap ton of Odins along the way. Everyone has that one troll summon that always shows up that you never use, and in my case, it's Odin.
-
Oh and of course, a crap ton of Odins along the way. Everyone has that one troll summon that always shows up that you never use, and in my case, it's Odin.
Odin is like...amazing for skill inheritance though. The only source of the blue blade tome, with blade tomes being the overall best tomes and inheritable. One of two sources of Moonbow, which...well you can see how all my characters ended up using it for different reasons. Bottom line is that 2 charge supers are good, and it's the more reliable 2 charge super. Also the only source of red tomebreaker in the game. (It's not that breaker skills are good necessarily, it's more that they trump all the other B skills, including stuff like wary fighter "can't be doubled" well apparently you can be. Granted, red tomebreaker isn't as in-demand, cause there aren't too many red tome users).
But uhh yeah, Odin, arguably the best skill inheritance pull in the game.
-
Everyone has their albatross that drags them down Met.
-
The first few Odins you draw are great for skill inheritance but you definitely can reach a point where any more become superfluous, for him or any other unit.
Anyway I haven't really updated about my own team in ages, so here it is:
Eirika +Def -Spd
Sieglinde, Reposition, Moonbow
Triangle Adept, Swordbreaker, Hone Speed
Eirika doublebuffs which is obviously great. Since she's mainly here for utility (her nature her direct combat potential a bit though makes her harder to kill so it's okay), Triangle Adept is a great fit because it lets her completely dominate greens which are what she usually fights. Swordbreaker compensates for -Spd by letting her match up well against other sword-users unless they also run Swordbreaker.
Reposition is the best (non-heal/dance) support skill in the game IMO since it allows her to rescue units after they make killing blows which would put them in danger.
Olwen +Atk -Def, fused to +1 (bonus to HP/Atk)
Dire Thunder, Reposition, Luna
Death Blow, Lancebreaker, Spur Atk
Normal Olwen is a decent unit, but +Atk (adds 4 to the stat) makes her silly. Toss in Death Blow and she rains death down on pretty much all reds and lance-users. Most archers and dagger-users get OHKOed too, as do some of the more common enemy blue tome users like Reinhardt and Robin. Probably the most important member of my team. She's physically fragile but isn't doubled much at least. Luna is used because she can use it turn 1 against anything she can double, or turn 2 otherwise, which is the same as Moonbow, and thus pushes her offence even further as even decent res won't save enemies then.
Spring Camilla +HP -Spd
Gronnraven+, Rally Attack, Moonbow
Triangle Adept, G Tomebreaker, Spur Speed
Raven tomes pretty much instantly mean Triangle Adept. Spring Camilla's biggest perk is her monstrous Atk; she reaces 50 with an Eirika buff which means 70 when triangle advantage is gained. This OHKOs almost all greys and blues, and in the case of greys she can do it on the enemy phase, typically while taking almost no damage (even archers have their attack lowered to 90% which is hilarious). Her speed sucks but other than against reds (who destroy her) and greens (G Tomebreaker says hi, and her lets her tank a double axe in a pinch) this matters surprisingly little.
Also can't stress enough that adding a flier to your team is a great move and I recommend it to anyone who has a good one, there are huge positioning advantages you can use on many maps.
My fourth is either vanilla Klein (he can OHKO most common greens which are what my team has the hardest time OHKOing, including Nino/Julia/all wyverns but more surprisingly Hector, who eats Glacies turn 1), or whatever bonus unit is applicable.
Anyway this team is good. I haven't seen an arena team I wasn't able to beat flawlessly; my rare deaths occur because of bad decisions on my part (so I really shouldn't do arena matches while half awake) or because I don't realise a possibility for an enemy dancer (dancers markedly improve your defence team IMO!). Depending on the fourth this team can generally handle all GHBs and other challenges that don't lock in specific other units. It performs similarly well against 10th stratum fights which I used to struggle with a lot more before I got a Raven tome user (becase overstatted archers and dagger-users can be huge pains to deal with there).
-
I wrote an analysis thing about my arena team:
https://kaitlyn-burnell.tumblr.com/post/160628817503/my-fire-emblem-heroes-arena-build-and-theory
-
Good stuff.
TAR Raven tome is excellent and I'm glad others have noticed how ridiculously effective they can be. I'm not sold on Robin-M unless he's +Atk (my experience with Spring Camilla is that she would miss a lot of KOs with 6 less points of attack, i.e. what Robin has) but yours is so hey. But yeah, I really can't recommend them enough for arena runs; with one of each colour and a raven tome, as you noted, you have the potential for WTA on literally everyone.
Dancers are obviously good but I will speak up for my girl Eirika here; she plays a similar role very effectively. While you lose out on the ability to have either your assassin or your raven tome nuke two people in a single player phase, Reposition can sub for many other uses of dance, and you get the perks of doublebuffing (which I find great even though my core 3 doesn't have a blade tome) and notably better combat. I'm not trying to make the argument that Eirika (and Ephraim for that matter) are better than a dancer necessarily, but they're at worst comparable and which is better depends on your team's specifics. And certainly, Olivia deserves note for (like the rest of your team) being available at 3*, not to mention the free ones you get. So the team composition is arguably utility ass raven, just with a dancer being one of the most effective choices for utility.
-
Dancers are obviously good but I will speak up for my girl Eirika here; she plays a similar role very effectively. While you lose out on the ability to have either your assassin or your raven tome nuke two people in a single player phase, Reposition can sub for many other uses of dance, and you get the perks of doublebuffing (which I find great even though my core 3 doesn't have a blade tome) and notably better combat.
I'm going to have to dispute the bit about noticeably better combat.
Eirika's core stats compared to Olivia are 2 less ATK, 2 more SPD, 1 less DEF, 2 more RES.
These are all fairly break-even (Attack and Speed are maybe similarly valued. Same for Def and Res). The place where Eirika really breaks away from Olivia is 6 more HP. Which...6HP is...definitely nice, but doesn't dramatically change how you engage in combat.
Add to this, I find myself really wanting a Ruby Sword on my Olivia, where obviously that's not an option for Eirika (Eirika's unique weapon is what makes her a support). You can use triangle adept instead which *checking* yep, you're actually way ahead of me and already using triangle adept, I approve! *thumbsup*. But I feel like A skills are pretty valuable; Fury with 12 power Ruby Sword is probably better in combat than 16 power Weapon with Triangle Adept. Distant Counter, if I ever pulled it, is also arguably better than 4 weapon attack.
This isn't to diss on Eirika at all; Eirika does fine in combat, and yes, better than Olivia. It's more like...why is Olivia also fine in combat and only about 7 HP worse? I remember noticing this on my first 4 star Olivia when I compared levelling her up to levelling Roy up. Olivia felt like Roy combatwise...which isn't exactly a compliment (I hated Roy cause I levelled him without a dancer before skill inheritance with bad IVs) but Olivia actually had real upsides--dance and hone attack! Oh my!
-
I suppose since team profiles are a thing and I've meant to do this anyway I might as well get around to it.
(http://i.imgur.com/5jV7aQr.png)
IVs: +Spd -Res
Catria is the dark horse of the team, rarely discussed in the arena meta and having never been featured as a banner focus hero, which is funny since I have a +4 merge on her.
When talking about blue melee units, they've traditionally been used as baits for killing red melee units. Less popular since arena matchmaking changes and skill inheritance came out, as ranged is just generally safer to use for perfect run streaks and don't come with an MMR penalty. Plus setting up offense is easier on player phase, with stuff like Darting Blow/Death Blow/Swift Sparrow only working on user initiation. So the blue melee units that do still get run are generally sturdy (Ephraim's a good poster child, but even relative unknowns like Lukas and Subaki are best in this role over more offense-oriented lance users, such as Cordelia. Or NEB's pick for severely underrated, Corrin-F.) Usually they pack Quick Riposte to emphasize their approach.
Catria is a more balanced version of Subaki, trading some defense away for an actual attack stat. Typically you don't really want to go for balance in constructing arena teams (win really hard at what you do, avoid matchups that are bad for you) but I feel like I've managed to get away with it. She may not be optimal but due to RNG dumping 5* Catrias onto my lap I've adapted to using her for the sake of ranking, and she was a personal favorite as I was leveling up early on so the preference kind of stuck.
Your A slot selection, on the other hand, gets weird with a unit that's primarily supposed to bait. You can run Triangle Adept (or a jewel weapon) to solidify WTA matchups, and this tends to be the default approach (Subaki comes with a Sapphire Lance, even). You don't really want to run stuff that only powers up on initiate. Speed+3 was my default selection at first but feels underwhelming compared to the competition. Fury is also an option but taking chip damage on every combat session on a unit that's guaranteed to get hit can also be awkward, and can put you out of your QR threshold.
However, running TA feels kind of bad on any unit that has a jewel weapon as an option, on the other hand. It's justifiable on units with unique weapons (Eirika for instance) or with raven tomes (double super WTA!) but outside of those, a jewel weapon trades 4 Mt for TA's effect. This is... probably a winning trade, with the closest comparison being vanilla 15 Mt weapon and Attack+3 in A slot (Attack+3, like Speed+3, just feels underwhelming).
I tried Iote's Shield for a while as well, but was quickly unconvinced; archers became less popular and as a flier you have the ability to pretty much pick where you want to fight, so it's really a non-factor on offense.
So in the end the Hero Fest banner came out and I yanked a Hector to feed Distant Counter, which solved my conundrum (now she can effectively bait and kill red mages, Nino's greatest threat).
The B slot also merits some discussion. Again, with the above supertank builds of Subaki and Lukas, Quick Riposte lends naturally to that sort of setup. But since Catria is more balanced, can get hit below QR's threshold (even at 3 it's only 70%, and exclusive to 5* Subaki) and I'm not actually running a jewel weapon on her, it feels like a more questionable choice. Vantage, on the other hand, is safe and useful across many situations, is relatively easily activated, and even against green units Catria is sturdy enough that she tends not to die in one hit. Comboed with Distant Counter it's even better, of course, since you can bait ranged units into dying without actually taking a hit yourself.
Hone Speed and Rally Attack exist solely to pump up Nino. The reason I picked that over Hone Attack/Rally Speed is prioritizing the flexibility to be out of position and still give Nino her most substantial attack boost over freeing up Catria to be able to attack on the same turn. She's still best at baiting (Vantage) and as a flier, the mobility gives her better rein to be where she needs to be to do that, as well as making it easy to orbit around Nino (and the rest of the team).
Luna is chosen because of the Killer Lance; while Moonbow activating at 1 can be great, it can also lead to annoying situations where you waste your proc. With Luna, bait hit -> counter will charge Luna, and because of Vantage, you can bait again for what will usually be a fatal hit. A single Moonbow counter doesn't tend to OHKO anything.
I do wonder if Killer Lance is her best weapon choice though. I've argued myself out of wanting to put a jewel weapon on her, but there is a serious case to be made that the vanilla 15 Mt Silver Lance could come out on top in some situations. I think the ability to quickly charge Luna for a decisive hit wins out, but it would depend a lot on mathing out kill thresholds for matchups.
(http://i.imgur.com/LIg5KUX.png)
IVs: +Spd -Res
Olivia be dance, dancing is great. Especially in arena where you want units to live, the extra insurance with mobility and potential to snowball offense is awesome.
Fury and Ruby Sword make her into a surprisingly fierce attacker, albeit one with a limited number of uses per battle - which is fine, since she should be dancing most of the time. She kills Hector for free (I still don't know why so many people run him, but as long as they do this will remain a decently valuable role), and with Swordbreaker she can tango with red sword lords that would otherwise threaten Nino. At 41 Speed she isn't exactly worried about getting doubled or getting doubles against opposing breakers as well, which is great.
The choice between Fortify Res and Fortify Def is debatable. Def comes up a lot more often overall when you look at the actual head count of units and their weapons. But in arena, I find mages to be the scariest threats, as it's hard to avoid taking hits from them at times. They can probably be interchanged without too much impact as the main goal is to provide another stat buff to feed to Nino.
She gets the Speed+1 seal because it makes more of a difference for her than Catria.
(http://i.imgur.com/iu7avFr.png)
IVs: +Atk -HP
Nino does her best, and I was using her before it was cool. (Which means like a month from the game launch, when green mages were basically non-existent due to everyone running red sword lords and them being the arena bonus heroes.) Even then people were talking about her potential a couple of weeks in, due to Gronnblade's potential for some ridiculous damage figures.
Anyway she is the team assassin, and does by far the most workload. Blues are deleted in one attack, with only a tiny handful needing a buff to ensure the OHKO. With zero buffs/Spurs/whatever Nino does 66 damage in a single hit when initiating against blue, 58 on a counter. Only one particularly Res sturdy blue unit, Ninian, survives at neutral IVs (neutral 42 HP, 27 Res). Blue mages (Robin-M, Olwen, Reinhardt, Bunny Lucina, Linde) all get OHKOed, and a Hone Attack buff ensures that it stays an OHKO even if they have any shenanigans. Melee units have worse Res and usually mediocre or bad Speed (few blue lance speedsters exist compared to red and green) so they're a foregone conclusion as well.
The IV selection is a departure from the standard Nino build, which is actually +Spd/-Def or Res running Fury 3, giving her a comfortable base Spd of 42. Any team running blade tome mages will typically be running Hone Spd as well, so at 46 she doubles <= 41, which is a huge swathe of the meta. Fury also bulks her up to ward off OHKOs, which is pretty important because she sits on some dangerous thresholds (-Def gets her OHKOed by +Atk Takumi, and -Res gets her OHKOed by a Julia with 7 extra Attack, who is extremely resistant to being OHKOed herself.)
However I concluded that the speed advantage is actually better on paper than it is in practice. Let's examine this some:
- Doubling red melee lets her get the kill on a Lucina (although that's not guaranteed: +Spd Fury Lucina is 42 speed and the meta build). Ryoma (and his inferior version Ike) eviscerate her because of Distant Counter. Eldigan's slow. No other red is really relevant right now or plays support roles (Eirika/Olivia), and those often run Triangle Adept or Ruby Sword, letting them survive regardless.
- Red mages counter her, which is bad and usually fatal, so speed doesn't help there.
- Blue units, as discussed above, pretty much get OHKOed so doubling is overkill. At worst a Hone Attack buff erases any doubts.
- Green melee units are a rarity, but the ones that currently see play are Minerva, Cherche, and Hector. Life and Death 3 +Spd Minerva does clock in at 41 Spd, but she also gets OHKOed with any hone buff with my +Atk DB3 Nino. Cherche and Hector always get doubled; with Hector he counters, even, so you want to ideally kill him in one hit since he can OHKO Nino.
- Green mages are slow (Julia, Bunny Camilla, Cecilia). The exception is Nino herself (or her inferior version Soren). So your speed matters for the mirror matchup but not elsewhere.
So doubling really only comes into play against red units that don't counter/don't shrug it off from super-WTA, and the mirror. The former feels like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole; why force trying to make the disadvantageous matchup work? (The same logic applies for TA, of course; on offense better to emphasize your strengths when you can usually dictate the terms of the fight.) The latter, on the other hand, is extremely relevant: since I don't run a red mage I don't have an obvious answer to green mages, so Nino will need to be on point for them.
For the mirror, +Atk Nino starts at 49 Attack, and since the point is to OHKO, we add Death Blow (+6), Hone Attack (+8), Hone Speed (+4), Fortify Res (+4) and arrive at 71. Neutral Nino is 59 HP+Res; add a +Res nature, Fury, Fortify Res and she gets to 70, where she is still OHKOed.
In all other situations (where doubling doesn't matter) having the additional 6 Attack is helpful in a plethora of scenarios (+Res/HP natures exist, buffs exist, it can be the margin of difference for OHKOs against injured opponents, etc.)
HP+3 Sacred Seal covers all of those bad OHKO situations talked about earlier that come up from not running Fury. On the flipside the one advantage of being -HP instead of -Res is that Nino weathers the assault from Horse Emblem better, which is important because she's the only person on the team who can do anything to them.
The rest of her skillset is mostly self-explanatory:
- Moonbow remains the lowest charge special and thus the most likely to actually activate in a fight.
- Reposition is the best mobility assist. NEB has largely covered why.
- G Tomebreaker (and breaker skills in general) are like rock paper scissors with similar skills (Quick Riposte, Brash Assault, Desperation), except breaker skills win every time. You should probably run them just because you lose against someone who does otherwise for the mirror matchup. (You can't run into opposing breaker skills in WTA and you're already losing the WTD, so those don't matter.)
- Hone Attack is the best generic hone, IMO (Attack being overall the most relevant stat in a majority of situations). Plus her default, so that's nice.
Incidentally blade tomes are a little ridiculous. 13 base Mt with unique tomes at 14 with a gimmick that is far better than any of them (get 8 more Atk with minimal effort, 12-20 more depending on how crazy you want to get).
-
I'm going to have to dispute the bit about noticeably better combat.
Eirika's core stats compared to Olivia are 2 less ATK, 2 more SPD, 1 less DEF, 2 more RES.
These are all fairly break-even (Attack and Speed are maybe similarly valued. Same for Def and Res). The place where Eirika really breaks away from Olivia is 6 more HP. Which...6HP is...definitely nice, but doesn't dramatically change how you engage in combat.
Add to this, I find myself really wanting a Ruby Sword on my Olivia, where obviously that's not an option for Eirika (Eirika's unique weapon is what makes her a support). You can use triangle adept instead which *checking* yep, you're actually way ahead of me and already using triangle adept, I approve! *thumbsup*. But I feel like A skills are pretty valuable; Fury with 12 power Ruby Sword is probably better in combat than 16 power Weapon with Triangle Adept. Distant Counter, if I ever pulled it, is also arguably better than 4 weapon attack.
This isn't to diss on Eirika at all; Eirika does fine in combat, and yes, better than Olivia. It's more like...why is Olivia also fine in combat and only about 7 HP worse? I remember noticing this on my first 4 star Olivia when I compared levelling her up to levelling Roy up. Olivia felt like Roy combatwise...which isn't exactly a compliment (I hated Roy cause I levelled him without a dancer before skill inheritance with bad IVs) but Olivia actually had real upsides--dance and hone attack! Oh my!
Oh yeah, the gap isn't super-wide or anything and I didn't mean to imply that it was. Still, 6 HP is there (we've all won matches with because a unit was able to survive at single-digit HP), and Triangle Adept Sieglinde has the same relative Atk as Fury Ruby Sword, with the former having better durability (on characters who are rarely doubled, 6 damage per combat more than offsets the def/res boost) and the latter having +3 speed.
Distant Counter Ruby Sword is certainly neat and that would definitely be an advantage Olivia can have. I've certainly thought about who to give Distant Counter to if I ever draw Hector (I don't like Hector much so he's gonna be skill food for sure) and Eirika losing TA would be kinda problematic.
Any thoughts on who else is a good candidate for Distant Counter? And Close Counter for that matter.
She kills Hector for free (I still don't know why so many people run him, but as long as they do this will remain a decently valuable role)
While I'm with you at the "oh look a Hector, yay" reaction to arena teams, keep in mind that defence meta rewards units who are a major problem for a minority of teams, which Hector is. A team with no reds can often have serious issues with him, and you only need to draw one of those once to get your defence score. Wings of Mercy Hector can also snag some nasty surprise kills if you don't check for it and you use one of your ranged units to bait one of the enemy's, though not all Hectors I face are smart enough to have that. (A minority, I'd think.)
EDIT: On blade tomes... they're great, yeah, but I'm not quite as super-impressed as some are? (e.g. I don't really think of them as "ridiculous") Raven setups are different but certainly competitive at overall worth (as per mc's whole blog post outlines) since what they lack in raw power they can compensate for in giving you WTA over a whole new colour. And Dire Thunder/Brave weapons also essentially doubles Atk bonuses (not others granted, and not on enemy phase... but in exchange for that they're much more powerful on player phase at base, both at raw damage and charging limits faster). And then obviously there are some weapons with cool built-in abilities (a lot aren't great, but some like Distant Counter and Hone Atk 2 are). I guess my point is that there's other good stuff too!
-
EDIT: On blade tomes... they're great, yeah, but I'm not quite as super-impressed as some are? (e.g. I don't really think of them as "ridiculous") Raven setups are different but certainly competitive at overall worth (as per mc's whole blog post outlines) since what they lack in raw power they can compensate for in giving you WTA over a whole new colour. And Dire Thunder/Brave weapons also essentially doubles Atk bonuses (not others granted, and not on enemy phase... but in exchange for that they're much more powerful on player phase at base, both at raw damage and charging limits faster). And then obviously there are some weapons with cool built-in abilities (a lot aren't great, but some like Distant Counter and Hone Atk 2 are). I guess my point is that there's other good stuff too!
Brave tomes are really good too but restrained in right now by only being represented in one color (blue) and not being inheritable (so you can't just pass it to the person with the best stats). Though a little moot for Nino and Tharja since they're basically the best offensive mages for their colors, too. <_< Oh yeah and them being on horses is kind of nuts. I guess I think of Dire Thunder less as a weapon category since it's technically a unique weapon constrained to two units.
I think I just place less value on WTA on colorless in arena than you and mc do. In Stratum and pve content of course it's absolutely incredible, no question there. But colorless threats have kind of fallen off hard in what I've faced and the token Takumi or Kagero that does show up is readily oneshotted with blade setup, so I'm biased.
Brave melee weapons have the issue of being melee. Drag Back mitigates this some but you still do need to be 1 range closer to initiate, which makes them much more risky to use.
-
Brave Bow exists too but has the problem of being colourless. And I agree about the downsides of melee you describe, especially in the case of Brave since brave users don't really love being attacked.
Obviously you can't just spread Dire Thunder everywhere but it's telling that the most common player blue mage setup is Dire Thunder, not Blarblade. (In fairness, some of this is just that Nino/Tharja probably have better stat builds than any blue mage, so if you're going to run a blade tome you might as well use one of them.) EDIT: Man I forgot about Linde entirely. Haven't seen her in the arena in ages, is that just me?
You're right that WTA over colourless in the arena is a little less important than it is in stratum/GHB/etc. because the former fundamentally has to play by the rules for stats (which is that ranged characters are weaker) and the latter is free to buff them. But (a) I still think it's pretty important, e.g. in your own post you talk about how you needed to tinker specifically with Nino's setup to avoid a OHKO from Takumi; (b) most of us would probably like to a similar set of characters for both types of content since the resources (especially time) needed to created a strong team are in reasonably short supply and while there are slight differences, essentially the same units perform well in both. (The new defence battles are a bit different in this regard, e.g. healers are better in them.
The litmus test for me is "would my team be better if I swapped Gronnraven+ for Gronnblade+ (and made a bunch of other setup adjustments to optimise for this obviously). And my own personal conclusion is that it wouldn't be. This isn't to say that it wouldn't be different for some other teams, obviously, but it's really a team-by-team thing. <mc> Why not both?
On the tome note, can someone explain to me the appeal of Naga? I see quite a lot of Julias in arena and I don't really get it. Julia herself has fine stats (35 atk is good, 32 res gives her a niche) so I understand why one might use her, but Naga doesn't have the perks of the tomes we were just describing, just +2 def/res on defence which doesn't make much difference and the ability to blow up blue/green maneketes who are rare.
On another tome note, Celica's tome has been revealed and it seems quite interesting: 14 mt, +5 atk/spd when beginning a combat at full HP, but user suffers 5 damage after attacking on the player phase. That could be a strong weapon for first strikes, and flexibly works on either phase, though probably wants healing support or clever Renewal use to truly shine. This assumes that either Celica has a decent stat build or that the tome is inheritable. They're also introducing the -owl tomes (for each colour, presumably) which have 10 might but grant +2 to all stats for each adjacent ally. I'm a bit less impressed by these since 10 might is a rather low place to be starting and getting more than one adjacent ally (which is what you need for the bonuses to sound actually impressive) is rather limiting.
-
Assuming two equally viable candidates, if I had to pick between Raven and Blade (and in this particular instance unless I want to give up my utility char - dancer - or my highest merged hero, that is the decision) I would go Blade simply because "pump to OHKO" is a more universally applicable solution to problems, basically. That's really what it boils down to, and why I feel Blade is a bit busted. You dodge a lot of problems by killing stuff in one hit (lots of abilities just never activate/don't get a chance to try to throw a wrench into your plans), and it has uncontested potential in that regard. Should be noted that while it's WHOLLY UNNECESSARY (Dire Thunder is fine!) Horse Emblem is typically assumed to use blade tomes to take advantage of all of the +6 cavalry hone/fortify stuff. Because you still get the OHKO on pretty much what the fuck ever without the associated speed hit. Only true on offense of course, brave weapons are just kind of better on defense IMO.
Linde is the premier offensive blue mage, but unlike Nino and Tharja she doesn't come with Blarblade so it's relatively rarer to see her (Aura doesn't really quite cut it in this day and age). Plus she wasn't available as a focus banner hero until recently and is a native 5*, unlike those two. I've been seeing more of her since the Voting Gauntlet banners came out.
Naga's not so much popular as see above where most people don't have a spare 5* Nino or even Cecilia to toss away to give to Julia, I think. Her stat spread makes her a notable arena defense pick, where her bulk can cause problems; I don't think she's run on offense much.
Celica's tome is certainly interesting and one of the more viable unique tomes, but I think the drawback is too much (taking 5 damage a chin per initiated combat and subsequently losing the bonus is kind of a big deal). It's well designed and trying to push healers or at least heal effects which I approve of. I doubt it'll be inheritable, so a lot of it will boil down to Celica herself. But yeah, it's hard for me to get excited about it when Blade goes up to 21 Mt on a Hone Attack alone. I think you could not restrict the bonus to initiation (i.e. if you attack her while she's at full HP, she still gets the +5 Atk/Spd - making it much more potent defensively as well.)
-
Blade's 21 mt on Hone Atk alone, but Ragnarok with Hone Atk at full HP is 23 mt and +5 spd... it'll probably be worth less overall but it's certainly at least interesting. And from how I read the description ("If unit has 100% HP at the start of combat, unit receives Atk/Spd+5. If attacking, unit will receive 5 damage after combat."), Ragnarok will apply its bonus on the enemy phase; only the penalty is player-phase-only. Which makes sense since the penalty exists to ensure that the character takes some damage every combat, and enemy phase combat already ensures that (unless the attack tinks I guess).
It's worth noting that Ragnarok isn't a Prf tome in FE2 or FE2r (Celica's Prf weapon is a sword but they probably decided they had enough swordlords) but they certainly might make it one here because of her status as a lord; we'll see. All of this is moot if Celica is mediocre and the tome is locked to her, absolutely.
Regarding blade vs TAR, well yeah I agree that OHKOs are great and a solution to many problems. But, the thing is that TAR setups can snag OHKOs on two out of four colours as well (I didn't even realise how good they were at this until I tried it myself; only Jagen/Florina/Gwendolyn among neutral blues/greys avoid a OHKO from my Gronnraven setup for instance, and they're hardly ever used). So the main advantage -blade has is that it can OHKO same-colour matchups (and maybe WTD with some Horse/Flier Emblem shenanigans but whatever). That's no small thing, don't get me wrong, but nor is the ability to safely bait (and OHKO) Brave Bows, Takumi, Kagero, and any other greys. Without TAR, most units who can counter these take a crapload of damage in the process (Nino/Tharja/Linde/Julia can all be near OHKOed or even OHKOed depending on specifics), which can limit your options some.
On my team, raven is obviously a better choice than blade, since blade is more of an assassin's tool while raven is more defensive... and I already have an assassin due to running Dire Thunder. Similarly, on your team, blade is the clear choice due to Nino being your only source of first-strike ranged offence. So yeah, this is very much a "it depends" situation.
-
SO we got our first look at Llyod. Huh he um seems to be channeling someone...I can't tell who though. Credit goes to Reddit posters.
https://i.redd.it/b3kpp71f4lxy.png
-
Brave Bow exists too but has the problem of being colourless. And I agree about the downsides of melee you describe, especially in the case of Brave since brave users don't really love being attacked.
Obviously you can't just spread Dire Thunder everywhere but it's telling that the most common player blue mage setup is Dire Thunder, not Blarblade. (In fairness, some of this is just that Nino/Tharja probably have better stat builds than any blue mage, so if you're going to run a blade tome you might as well use one of them.) EDIT: Man I forgot about Linde entirely. Haven't seen her in the arena in ages, is that just me?
You're right that WTA over colourless in the arena is a little less important than it is in stratum/GHB/etc. because the former fundamentally has to play by the rules for stats (which is that ranged characters are weaker) and the latter is free to buff them. But (a) I still think it's pretty important, e.g. in your own post you talk about how you needed to tinker specifically with Nino's setup to avoid a OHKO from Takumi; (b) most of us would probably like to a similar set of characters for both types of content since the resources (especially time) needed to created a strong team are in reasonably short supply and while there are slight differences, essentially the same units perform well in both. (The new defence battles are a bit different in this regard, e.g. healers are better in them.
The litmus test for me is "would my team be better if I swapped Gronnraven+ for Gronnblade+ (and made a bunch of other setup adjustments to optimise for this obviously). And my own personal conclusion is that it wouldn't be. This isn't to say that it wouldn't be different for some other teams, obviously, but it's really a team-by-team thing. <mc> Why not both?
On the tome note, can someone explain to me the appeal of Naga? I see quite a lot of Julias in arena and I don't really get it. Julia herself has fine stats (35 atk is good, 32 res gives her a niche) so I understand why one might use her, but Naga doesn't have the perks of the tomes we were just describing, just +2 def/res on defence which doesn't make much difference and the ability to blow up blue/green maneketes who are rare.
On another tome note, Celica's tome has been revealed and it seems quite interesting: 14 mt, +5 atk/spd when beginning a combat at full HP, but user suffers 5 damage after attacking on the player phase. That could be a strong weapon for first strikes, and flexibly works on either phase, though probably wants healing support or clever Renewal use to truly shine. This assumes that either Celica has a decent stat build or that the tome is inheritable. They're also introducing the -owl tomes (for each colour, presumably) which have 10 might but grant +2 to all stats for each adjacent ally. I'm a bit less impressed by these since 10 might is a rather low place to be starting and getting more than one adjacent ally (which is what you need for the bonuses to sound actually impressive) is rather limiting.
I don't see how the most common player blue mage setup is Dire Thunder, considering how it's exclusive to only two characters and non-inheritable. I see other blue mages (usually Linde, rarely Spring Lucina) much more than I see Reinhardt or Olwen personally - in fact I don't think I've ever seen an Olwen in arena.
Regarding Naga, the tome itself isn't that impressive; Laggy pretty much nailed it - she has good stats and inheriting a better tome on her is a huge resource sink and Naga is "good enough".
Ragnarok does indeed not care whether Celica's initiating or not, which makes her extremely scary in lunatic 11-5, which I have not figured out a way to beat. That said, that goes for both sides; she loses the 5 HP after combat whether she initiated or not, too.
-
In my experience, Reinhardt is absolutely the most common blue mage now and it's not particularly close, and they almost invariably run Dire Thunder. Linde and Spring Lucina are both more rare and neither runs any one tome consistently.
-
To be fair, doesn't help that you can roll Reinhardt at 4*. I need to start working on it now that I finished the event on FGO (even though I missed EVERYTHING).
-
(http://i.imgur.com/xa8q8ki.png)
My final results for the last round of the character gauntlet. Shucks. I'd hoped to place Top 100 on Robin in that last round.
-
Tempest Trials is up, the promised game mode that features (temporary) permadeath in a gauntlet of maps.
It is grindy as all hell, with the hardest notable reward (the seal) at 50k points. That seal is -1 cooldown (Killer weapon effect) and is probably the best seal we've seen yet.
A perfect 7 map Lunatic run with max speed/survival mults is a bit over 700 points. 7-map Hard is half that. It's worth noting that wiping on the 7th map is worth only a little bit less than a perfect 5-map run, so if you're struggling with the Veronica fight the 7-map gauntlet may be better overall.
Fight difficulties start roughly around Tenth Stratum level (for Lunatic) and ramp up in stats to pretty crazy amounts. 80 HP on armor units and defensive stats of 40+ are not uncommon in the last few maps.
It is recommended you bring a healer or otherwise some form of healing since taking hits will be inevitable, and the bulk of your power will probably in your main team - you can technically bring four but unless you've been leveling a lot of different things like crazy, the odds of clearing without your main team is pretty low.
Speed mult is the biggest impact on your score - up to 1.5 potentially. Don't know how it's calculated offhand, but I've managed it with my team. I've also seen D rank when I ran a much slower team without a dancer.
Survival mult is simpler. Up to 1.2, and goes down whenever you lose a team. Losing individual units doesn't impact it.
Finally, there's the bonus hero mult. If you're fortunate enough to have a solid unit in the 40% bracket, obviously run them. If not, snag 4* not!Lucina and you can use her for 20%, worst case. Worth noting: you CAN use a throwaway team that has one of the bonus heroes and wipe it, then clean up with your actual real team, and your entire run will receive the mult. 40% in particular is better than losing a rank in Survival, so definitely do this if you can't fit a bonus hero on your main team.
-
My current team is my main arena core team (Catria/Nino/Olivia) plus a Lucina with Renewal 3 and Reciprocal Aid. I never thought I'd actually run that build (don't really respect it in arena) but it's working wonders here. Having a fourth offensive unit in a pinch is vastly superior to a healer, and the healing thoroughput frankly isn't any worse in practice.
-
It's worth noting that if time is the limiter on your play rather than stamina (as it certainly is for me, tempest trials have a low stamina cost:time ratio and I only really have the time/energy for about 3-5 hours of FEH a week these days), then the five-map version is strictly superior. You get exactly the same score per map, but the Veronica fight doesn't seem to be quite as brutal (could just be weird luck on my part) so the chance of a perfect run rises notably.
I'm also using my core team + bonus unit as a healer (Tharja with Renewal and Ardent Sacrifice). Laggystrats are superior once again. Tharja can also bait Veronica and punish her back hard if necessary, while being good in general. This team is good times, Eirika + blade, dire, and raven tome all as options and of all the colours is just amazing. Not much physical damage but tbh it's rarely needed. Magepremacy.
I've yet to not get A in speed so I'm kinda interested in how that's calculated. How much margin for error do I have?
Anyway I feel like the rewards encourage waaay too much grinding but the core idea for the event is terrific; my interest in FEH has waned but stuff like this definitely helps. Hope there's a new version in the not-too-distant future.
Congrats on reaching Tier 20, Laggykins.
-
but the Veronica fight doesn't seem to be quite as brutal (could just be weird luck on my part) so the chance of a perfect run rises notably.
I'm pretty sure it's something like "For every level of Tempest Trials, +1 the characters", so yeah, that probably means the final fight is +4 characters in the 5 map variant, and +6 characters in the 7 map variant.
-
I'm almost at 35K with my A team being able to win even the last battle about ~40% of the time on the 7 map Lunatic. Very, very rarely will my 2nd team fail to kill, since I always make it to battle 7 with my A team and can thus construct my B team to handle the map.
A Team is:
Olwen - Moonbow/Death Blow 3 for nonstandard tech.
Klein - Draw Back and I forget what else isn't standard for him that's on. I have the buff adjacent ally attack at start of turn thing in his C slot.
Azura - Glaces and Lancebreaker, mostly there to dance but can chump some red units that Olwen is on the wrong side of the map to just explode.
Tharja - feathered her up to 5, crystaled her up to usable. Actually really good, since if she gets to Veronica with full or near-full HP still Tharja just one rounds her. Gave her Rally Attack for those times when Klein needs a boost.
I am very determined to get that Quickened Pulse, since i want that + moonbow on Olwen so very badly.
-
Olwen + Quickened Pulse is so deliciously stupid that I am very sad that I don't have time to get it.
-
Have spare duelling swords this week (guaranteed to promote back to 19) so doing some testing on whether BST matters.
4 infantry mages (5*) with all skills unequipped except for generic 4-star weapons:
336 (with bonus unit would be 672)
334 (with bonus unit would be 668)
333 (with bonus unit would be 666)
Their BSTs were 147, 147, 148, 148
An average of 83.6 per unit.
I only have three 5* infantry melee units, so I guess I'll test with that tomorrow.
-
So the Infernal difficulty Legion map is pretty crazy. Probably the first bit of content in a while I'm going to be waving the white flag at. I can see a way I might be able to win by putting Axebreaker on one of my 5-star reds (either Tharja or Xander), but it closes today and I'd really rather spend my time on other things.
-
I went on hiatus on this game for a bit as other stuff kept me occupied but I'm slowly swinging back into full time active now.
Free first pull on banners is definitely cool, though of course a psychological trick to compel people to pull more so play responsibly. I got a 4* Klein and a 5* Eldigan off of my pulls on the first two banners so I can't exactly complain.
Because I've had two Hinokas sitting around forever, 170k+ feathers banked, and they finally released another flying mage I went ahead and dumped orbs on the Nohrian Summer banner, pulling nothing but blue. Got a +2 Summer Corrin for my troubles, +Atk -Res, and switched to a Flier Emblem team. Oddly enough it involves CAMILLA (not Spring Camilla, who I was never able to pull).
Summer Corrin (+2) (+Atk -Res): Blarblade+, Reposition, Aether, Life & Death 3, Desperation 3, Goad Fliers, HP+3 Seal
Camilla (+1) (+Atk -HP): Emerald Axe+, Reposition, Moonbow, Distant Counter, G Tomebreaker 3, Hone Fliers, Fortify Res 2 Seal
Caeda (+1) (+Atk -HP): Wo Dao+, Reposition, Moonbow, Death Blow 3, Drag Back, Fortify Fliers, Atk+1 Seal
-
Summer Corrin blows shit up. Blue mage is a bit awkward in the current meta but she's a ranged glass cannon who flies and has Flier Emblem buffs. Starts at 53 Atk and 40 Spd, goes up to 83/46 with both Hone/Fortify Fliers active. Only has a problem with green mages (and potentially Hector) as they'll oneshot her on the counter. Blarblade makes specials mostly superfluous so Aether is there for the arena MMR bonus. I'm actually not satisfied with Desperation in her B slot (she IS made of glass, 38/17/19 defensive stats, though Fortify Fliers can make up for that somewhat) but I can't think of anything better there. It's not like any non-green mages survive a hit from her so Tomebreaker (of either Blue or Red variety) feels pretty pointless, so the niche of being able to activate it on occasion to assuredly kill greens feels more relevant.
-
Camilla is there to murder Reinhardt. Period. The reason I went with her is because she's the only green flier with a solid Res stat, something Spring Camilla doesn't have. Distant Counter isn't mandatory but of course extremely helpful in this regard (and I had a Hector to spare from Hero Fest pulls). 32 Res + Emerald Axe = haha get fucked. Oh and that's before Fortify Fliers, which jacks her up to 34 Def and 38 Res, respectively. Eats any and all blues pretty much without question. G Tomebreaker is there to help with the team's most problematic matchup, as she'll be able to weather any hit from a green mage and assuredly kill on a double counter. Not being a mage herself means she doesn't have to worry about the G Tomebreaker mirror even, and Axebreaker isn't exactly meta.
It's funny because Camilla was pretty much discarded in favor of Cherche after skill inheritance came out (the former just hits much harder and utilized Brave Axe far better, while Camilla's speed being better was mostly an afterthought) but specifically in this arena meta where Reinhardt is scary and on a Flier Emblem team, I feel like she carves a pretty good niche. The other problem of course is that she's green and if you were running Flier Emblem you probably had Spring Camilla, so running both is really hard to justify. Notably the entire team is still pretty vulnerable to archers which Spring Camilla handily destroys. On the other hand, I definitely fear Reinhardt/Horse Emblem more than archers in general; the former is really hard to maneuver against on some maps, while archers can generally be dealt with good positioning.
-
For Flier Emblem you really only have two viable red picks, Caeda and Palla. Palla tends to be more popular as she comes with a Ruby Sword by default and has a well balanced stat spread, and Caeda suffers from a really anemic Attack stat. I went with Caeda anyway because:
1 - I had a +Atk Caeda, which jacks her up from a pathetic 25 to a slightly less sad 29
2 - I had a Wo Dao+ to spare, and Wo Dao+ plays straight into Caeda's strengths - her base speed is 37, and with Flier Emblem buffs she's practically assured to double, so a standard engagement where she gets countered once will activate Moonbow
3 - She is an absurd Res tank (34 base), and green mages are the biggest threat to the composition as noted; I fear ranged much more than melee in arena in general
So she's there to soak up hits from green mages, go in when she has to (Drag Back specifically is there to help with hit and runs) and her bad Attack is compensated with a specific setup that sees her killing in one engagement 95% of the time even against other melee reds. (On mages Wo Dao+ won't activate but most mages aren't physically sturdy enough that they'll survive initiating and doubling.) Swordbreaker's a problem, but oh well, I guess I'll just have to reserve my 83 Atk blue mage nuke for that.
-
Reposition on everyone because it is godlike and even more so on fliers.
-
Still running the same ol' primary team as ever. Arena's easy these days, arena assault though seems like it'll be more tricky since you need up to 28 reasonably competent people.
Some of the later chain challenges have been rather brutal, namely C9-10 and C11-12 Lunatic. Infernal difficulty GHBs have also been tricky but thus far I've beaten all of them save Legion's, which is going to be coming back soon so hopefully I'll be able to beat it then.
-
Yeah I can't really complain about a lack of things to do anymore. And Infernal is no joke. I haven't cleared a bunch since I wasn't putting all that much attention into it.
-
Arena Assault isn't that tricky I guess if you just want feathers? My test run of all Beginner fights yielded 4,162 points and ~37k ranking (Good for 1,400 feathers). All the teams were mostly 30-38 with a few 40's. I have... 17 5* 40's, 3 5*'s near 40, and 4 4* 40's. I just had to use a couple ~33-35 3-4* scrubs mixed in there. My biggest issue is that I just don't have many + units. We'll see what an Intermediate run yields.
-
Yeah arena of all forms is always gonna be only as difficult as you make it. I was thinking of 7-streak deathless on the highest difficulty, though the items once you stockpile them seem like they'll be a big help there. (Haven't had much time to play around with it yet.)
-
Lilina/Cecilia Infernal -
This one is pretty tough because there's less room than normal to manuever, and any opening turn puts you in range of multiple enemies. My setup:
-Tharja with Triangle Adept, Red Tomebreaker, Reposition, HP+3 seal
-Olwen with 48 Attack (+Atk, +1, Atk+1 seal, Death Blow 2, Eirika buff), Lancebreaker, Luna, Spur Res 3
-Eirika with Fortify Res seal
-I also had Spring Camilla but she ended up irrelevant, so a dancer would have been a better choice probably.
48 attack is key, however it is achieved. Olwen can barely ORKO both the lance pegasus knight and the added red mage (with a wolf tome) at this figure. She can also ORKO the brave lance cavalier. Reinhardt can pull this off much more easily, since Olwen's speed isn't necessary to this strategy. Tharja can be replaced by another red mage, one with more res would be nice (although most of those lack the raw power of Raudrblade).
1. Destroy the first wall, get in position for buffs etc.
2. Olwen ORKOs the lance peg.
3. Tharja repositions Olwen out of trouble, remains in danger of both Lilina and Cecilia.
4. Lilina and Ceclia both attack. With Triangle Adept, +6 res from Fortify/Spur, and +3 HP, Tharja can barely survive both. Red Tomebreaker is needed or Lilina's own Red Tomebreaker will wreck. Lilina barely survives, Cecilia does not. Meanwhile, the archer acts like an idiot and moves away to destroy the second wall.
5. Olwen ORKOs the lance knight, Tharja finishes Lilina.
6. Olwen ORKOs the red mage, reposition/etc. to avoid the archer.
7. Kill the archer with whoever.
Tharja's not one of my main squad but she seems to often end up as one of the centrepiece to my GHB strategies. (Berkut's battle had a similar situation where a powerful red TA mage was valuable.)
-
I've dipped my toe back in thanks mainly to the first-pull-free thing (since paying 5 orbs to even see what you might get from a pull was kinda bullshit) and might keep it up? I dropped the game mainly because arena got so monotonous, but with Tempest Trials and chain fights being an ongoing thing it looks like there's decent single player content, plus I pulled a +SPD/-RES Ike (and then a Soren, so for once his summoning quote was actually appropriate!) from the hero fest banner.
-
So I pulled six Ikes from Hero Fest. No money spent. Just saved up over 200 orbs since I didn't really want to pull anything from the wedding or summer banners and I already have Celica. Three Gennys too. Also I picked up Lyn, making Takumi the only launch character I do not own.
-
I got a second Klein. My life. If not for the fact I got the
two three Summer characters I wanted, I would be more pissed.
-
So I just pulled a second 5* unit in a row on my free pull. On the Hero Fest banner I got a 5* Marth, now I got a 5* Catria. Nice.
Also pulled a 4* Camilla, which I'm thinking of sending Savage Blow over to Clarisse to turn her into a goddamn one woman artillery barrage.
Deathblow 3 onto attack, Poison Strike 3 adding 10 damage to target itself, -5 Atk/Spd Debuff AND 7 damage to everyone in 2 spaces all from one attack. Not sure how it'll work in practice, but the fireworks should be fun at least.
-
The Sacred Stones banner is insane.
Seth, probably one of the best units in the game, possibly in the series is a mediorce all rounder you can sum up as "basically a slightly better Stahl" in Heroes
Amelia, one unit you don't even bother with in SS because level 1 unit at the halfway mark is the highest BST in Heroes with an armor mobility skill that makes your Hectors and Effies go fast.
Innes stole Rennac's godlike RES and reverses triangle advantage as if Robin wasn't already garbage enough already
Tana can warp Effie or Hector right next to her and smash someone in the face. heh nothing personal.
Japanese mobile game powercreep at its finest.
-
Both Tana and especially Amelia are an effort to make armour units more relevant; they're really weak at the moment as anyone who does the monthly armour quests probably knows. They pretty much need Distant Counter which remains a rare skill that only one of them gets innately.
Innes, similarly, is redressing the fact that archers are currently seriously underpowered; as a 2-range unit who hits defence one of their niches is to bait mages and Innes is obviously designed around that. Cancel Affinity already existed but it always felt intended for archers to me, now one actually starts with it instead of needing to eat a Mathilda.
Seth I agree is a bit underwhelming. That said it's hardly the first time someone in FEH isn't as good as their original game equivalent. You can comisserate with Florina fans.
I wonder if Vidofnir stacks with Close Def. +Def Tana with Close Def 3 will have 42 defence (and 31 res) against melee, while still having good attack and speed. Pretty silly.
-
Also, I remember Amelia as the dodge-tanking murder general who could have soloed the last quarter of Sacred Stones had I let her, so I was somewhat less surprised that they made her ridiculous in Heroes.
-
Beat Infernal Legion, probably the hardest Infernal map.
-Tharja with Axebreaker - any suitably strong red mage probably will do. I ran Triangle Adept for the turns that I wouldn't have access to any hone/fortify buffs but this is probably a mistake since it means the lance cav can one-shot her.
-Spring Camilla with Gronnraven+ and Blue Tomebreaker - any suitably strong green mage probably will do. The archer is a big threat but my other two mages ended up dealing with it as it turned out.
-Usual Olwen setup
-Olivia (mine is 4*, so... yeah)
Opening turn is to have Tharja ORKO the Legion on the right then Reposition/Dance so that only Camilla is in range of the blue mage cav, thus taking both of them out. Then it's just spamming dance and the three mages to burn everything. The archer as mentioned is the biggest threat because he has a Brave Bow, Death Blow, and a pre-charged Moonbow which wrecks almost everyone, but I was able to kite him and then hit him with Tharja + finish with someone else.
-
i burned entirely too much of laggy's money on not getting summer xander
But at least i got summer corrin
Thanks laggy :)
-
It's okay, Ciato. There is still regular Xander, Easter Xander, Sideshow Xander, Malibu Xander, Xander Lionheart, Tartar Control Xander, and Searing Gas Pain Xander
-
Rolls Royce Xander? Fabergé Egg Xander? Honus Wagner Card Xander?!?
-
Nicely played
-
Is now a bad time to show off my latest pulls?
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/9/96/XanderCard.png)
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/c/c0/Faberge_xander.png)
-
This still wins.
(http://i.imgur.com/KnkbTFr.png)
-
GOT HM
LIFE IS GOOD
-
“They really did a good job of keeping this game fresh, maybe I'll start playing arena again and really get back into i--” *80 orbs on Sacred Stones banner, zero 5-star characters* “aaaaaaaaaaand maybe not.”
-
Well I got Tana. (+HP, -Spd). Makes up for the bad weather...and hopefully goes well with the CYL on Thurs.
-
GOT HM
LIFE IS GOOD
squee? squee.
-
Freakin' finally. Blitzed Paralogues and monthly quests for a last set of 20 orbs, got Tana and a 5* Seliph. I was hoping for Amelia, but Tana still enables mobility shenanigans.
-
“They really did a good job of keeping this game fresh, maybe I'll start playing arena again and really get back into i--” *80 orbs on Sacred Stones banner, zero 5-star characters* “aaaaaaaaaaand maybe not.”
Just for the record this is not unexpected. You will typically get around one 5-star character per 60-something orbs (specifics depending on whether you do full draws or snipe one or two colours).
Anyway I've been drawing from the Nohr summer all month and have since done a bunch from the Sacred Stones banner too and I still don't have any banner characters, though I did get a couple other random 5* along the way (one of whom, Delthea, is quite cool/unique even if her art makes me kinda unhappy) and several 4* I'd never managed to get before.
There's gonna be a free draw from the next set of new units (alternate forms for Ike, Lucina, Lyn, and Roy). I haven't decided whether I'll get "first horse archer, it's about damn time" Lyn or "innate Drive Atk/Spd for all physical allies" Lucina.
-
I've already started building an anti-Bowlyn Boey. (Gronnraven+, TWA, Bowbreaker3). Earth Boost isn't bad I suppose, but TWA also offers help against Reinhardt.
I'm torn between Lyn and Ike on the new people.
-
Pulling colorless is hell so I'm definitely going to just run with Lyn for the freebie
-
Just for the record this is not unexpected. You will typically get around one 5-star character per 60-something orbs (specifics depending on whether you do full draws or snipe one or two colours).
Yeah, but even when it's balanced in terms of overall cost/reward ratios it's still frustrating and not great design to blank on 2-4 full summons for every one that turns up something you actually wanted. It'd be different if there were 60-orb full summons, or focus 3/4 star units so I could pick a banner based on those and have a decent chance of coming away with something I was after, even if it's not a grand prize.
-
Just for the record this is not unexpected. You will typically get around one 5-star character per 60-something orbs (specifics depending on whether you do full draws or snipe one or two colours).
Yeah, but even when it's balanced in terms of overall cost/reward ratios it's still frustrating and not great design to blank on 2-4 full summons for every one that turns up something you actually wanted. It'd be different if there were 60-orb full summons, or focus 3/4 star units so I could pick a banner based on those and have a decent chance of coming away with something I was after, even if it's not a grand prize.
I never thought I'd say this, but FFRK spoiled the hell out of us with guaranteed 5*s.
-
Guarantees would be awesome, but it's more about grouping pulls into units where you're at least probably going to get something good from each. Even before G5, FFRK's 11 pulls were statistically more likely than not to deliver at least one banner relic, while the odds are that a full summon in FEH will only have 3* and 4* characters.
-
I had to readd a bunch of people on my friendlist after moving my account a new device after 3 months of inactivity. I thought I was banned for playing on an emulator for a week but I'm still ranked in arena (albeit dropped a few ranks).
-
Glad there's a banner full of boring characters so I can accumulate Orbs again for Pumpkin Spice Xander. (Managed to snag Innes on the last day of that banner, too. Yay!)
-
Is this is what it's like to be lucky?
(http://i.imgur.com/f0zELMY.png)
-
Hopefully he's good sacrifice bait
-
Roy is still really good.
I wussed out and took Lyn. Dropped 45 orbs, some useful 4*'s (+Spd -HP Nino, +Atk -Def Fae to use, an Effie for DB2 and a Bartre for Fury3), 2 Selenas for yummy Reposition, but no further Brave units yet. Also got a Seth (+Def -Res) which I'm considering using as a(n insanely expensive) project anti-Bowlyn unit. Either that or give Fortress Def to another unit which would be anti-bowlyn. Fortress Def puts his Def on a good footing to take hits from her, and he has the mobility to leap out and hit her. If he doesn't kill, he still has Seal Atk/Def to cut down on her offense/leave her vulnerable for later. Though I guess he would be easy pickings for any accompanying Reinhardts.
-
All of the Brave units are good. Though I think Ike is the worst. He's suppose to be designed as a melee tank but those don't really work in this game. Without Distant Counter he cannot defend himself against mages and even with Urvan he takes a significant amount of damage. His stat spread doesn't seem that impressive. I look at him, then look at Bartre and think "what can Ike do than Bartre cannot?" Bartre is designed as a Brave Axe+ infantry and does that well. Ike can too but loses his niché. I'd say slap DC on him and have Reinhardts suicide into him, I think that's what he does best.
Honestly just take Lyn to avoid colorless orbs for a long long time. Rolling for Lyn only to be Maria'd or Lachesis'd would be devastating.
-
Ike has a crucial speed lead on Bartre, which makes him harder to double and can even let him double some slower folks (with speed buffs) even if he goes Brave Axe. Bartre also feels just totally outclassed by Cherche as far as slow but powerful Brave Axe wielders go, and physical brave users already feel inferior to ranged ones due to the role they play (attacking then avoiding enemy phase combat).
I haven't decided if I'm going to draw from this banner yet. Increasingly leaning towards getting Lyn regardless so I should probably just take that plunge. I also got Innes on the last day of his banner so I'll suddenly have more archers than I really need but oh well.
-
Ike is better than he looks. Urvan's damage reduction does not apply only to brave weapons but to ANY consecutive attacks, which includes getting doubled. So ranged units that attack him will have their second hit cut by 80%; melee units who bait him and double on the counter will also see their second hit reduced in damage.
Steady Breath is also pretty crazy. Urvan's a Killer weapon and Steady Breath gives him 2 charge when he gets hit, so he instantly counters with a 3 charge special if struck in melee. 4 charge if he's using Quickened Pulse. With Bonfire or Ignis set respectively that's +19 or +31 damage, or 81 (!) damage counter. He has 35 defense so it's very unlikely you're OHKOing him physically. If you're a horse or flier mage your buffs won't work, so it's pretty much infantry blade mage or GTFO if you're trying to kill him in one turn (if you aren't running Blade it's unlikely you'll kill him since he resists doubles so hard... red mages being the exception but they're rare.) That's a much smaller list of things that kill him vs Bartre.
-
I wouldn't say red mages are that rare myself, but it doesn't matter since it's a given that they kill the low-res greens being discussed. Agreed that Ike tanking with Urvan is much more interesting/promising than him running a Brave build.
Can we talk about how awful the wording is on Steady Breath/etc. by the way? And since we're talking about Ike, Beorc's Blessing as well? I feel like FEH started out doing quite well with wording but some of the more recent skills pretty much required someone to translate the Japanese to understand what they did prior to actual testing.
-
Since this hasn't been posted here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q6khJsnX94
And yeah, Ike is legit. Because he has so many abilities that reduce the cost of specials, after being hit once with a sword he can counter with Ignis. Ignis from 39 DEF hurts, most sword users just get one-shotted (barring triangle adept). When people are giving their red sword users triangle adept AND axebreaker just so that they don't lose to ike, things are pretty serious.
(He dies to red/green mages, but not so much the horse-riding ones since he cancels their buffs, and some people will give their ikes distant counter).
-
Getting ready to snag bonuses off this Voting Gauntlet. I will be joining Team Lyn after this, I think. But I will always be on Team Boobies in my heart.
-
Team Hector may be doomed against Ike, but I did manage to kill an Ike/Ike/Xander team set up for full Vantage cheese with two Hectors and a non-Vantage archer, so there's that.
-
Good for bonus time anyway. Caught the first one, already at 6k rank in army. 850K total points so far thanks to starting on Team Chrom.
-
Got back into the game after not playing for a bit(blame Fate GO), p.much entirely due to the new brave units. Grabbed Ike because of course I did.
Also proceeded to dump orbs on the banner with what I had saved up from before. In...~15 pulls(the free draw on everything that was current + 2 full 5 orb pulls) I got 3 five stars.
All off banner.
Not one that's actually good.
1 Priscilla and 2 Rebeccas. One of the Rebeccas is spd+ at least, so I guess I'll level her up.
-
Colorless Hell~
-
So after 107 orbs, I finally pulled a Brave. Ike, +Res -HP. Not one of his good ones, but won't cripple him either.
Also I pulled a 5* -Atk Cain immediately after. Uh. What character wants a Brave Sword+, I guess?
-
I got a +ATK/-HP Brave Roy, who is the glassest of cannons. Even stronger and more fragile than Minerva. Also a +ATK/-SPD Effie, which is her ideal nature so the +HP/-DEF version I drew months ago is now fodder.
-
So ended up profiting 10,700 feathers total off the last voting gauntlet. My best to date, and it could been better if I'd not run out of flags during Camilla's last bonus time. Missing those 200 feathers took me from the first to the second.
(https://i.imgur.com/nNDlswJ.png) (https://i.imgur.com/WkiFWlw.png)
:'(
So wondering what were peoples' impressions of Artillery Clarisse were, if they ended up using her? I stuck her in there out of curiosity (and to help with the quests since people generally don't put colorless in the 1 spot). Mostly got Ciato's Reinhardt and Twil and/or Shale's Brave Roy.
-
I think that Clarisse was the one I used to take out the Ike/Ike/Xander team, so she certainly helped me.
-
Welp. Tried to update the game and the google store page tells me "your device isn't compatible with this version". Uh...rip me, I guess?
-
Did you root your phone or do anything to the firmware in the interim? Device compatibility shouldn't have changed in the update but Nintendo's apps are hypersensitive about that.
-
So wondering what were peoples' impressions of Artillery Clarisse were, if they ended up using her? I stuck her in there out of curiosity (and to help with the quests since people generally don't put colorless in the 1 spot). Mostly got Ciato's Reinhardt and Twil and/or Shale's Brave Roy.
Never saw your Clarisse. (We have added each other as friends, right? I lose track of what everyone's username is in FEH)
-
I did not, no. Though problem resolved anyway, since when I brought it up to Jenna she checked and the tablet was due for an upgrade. Newer(though hardly new-est) android tablet get, files moved over, etc. It all works fine now. Better, actually. Previous tablet lagged pretty hard with any kind of online game like FEH or 7 Knights, new one does not seem to have this problem.
Anyway, unsure what units to support for now, but I've slapped my Summoner support on Brave Ike. The Atk+ death Olwen may have been the better choice, but Ike fanboyism prevails. Also changed Brave Ike to my frontman instead of my horribly outdated Ogma.
-
Holy shit, this Tempest Trials has good rewards. Don't miss out. Just make sure to get your two bonus runs in per day and you can easily make it.
3000: 4* Masked Marth
6000: Quickened Pulse (Special cooldown count -1 at start of Turn 1)
10000: Defense +1
15000: 5* Masked Marth
20000: Distant Def 1 (+2 Def/Res if attacked by bow/dagger/magic/staff during combat)
This should let everyone who couldn't deal with the massive grind of the first TT (myself included) easy access to QP, and I'm eagerly looking at that Distant Def 1 Seal too.
FYI, if you have a bonus hero, it's totally worth it to throw the last map by surrendering (with 1 enemy unit left or whatever) to slot in a new team with a bonus hero and winning then. You only take a one rank dip in Survival (like a .05 mult loss) in exchange for gaining +40% or +20% on your total score.
That said bonus heroes have nice big stat bonuses now so if you have them leveled and synergize with your team even half decently, you can just use them too.
-
Masked Marth is the closest thing I have to a bonus hero(no Hector/Lyn/Ninian, and just a shitty 3* Eliwood), but my Masked Marth is also built up enough to kill the Hector at the end of the 7 map lunatic one easily so I can win with one team barring shenanigans.
M.Marth/Olwen/Azura/Klein is my main swinging team here. Olwen and Klein can nuke most blues without much hassle so I'm not feeling the lack of a green too badly.
-
Do note that it's still better for you to bring in that 3* Eliwood with a second team on the last map to finish off one unit left, because the extra 20% will give you more than the 5% you lose in your Survival rank for having one team bite the dust.
-
They pretty much just doubled the speed of the rewards compared to previous TTs, so yeah, this one's good. The rewards:time ratio of your first three TT runs each day is extremely high (and it's pretty good even thereafter).
Also seconding that the stat boosts make bonus units really powerful in Tempest. Like even 3* Eliwood will feel like a 5* one (+4 to all stats is equal to two promotions... there's no 5* weapon, but +10 HP), and it's really easy to level bonus units right now too (an excellent use of your third daily tempest trial if you do one). Eliwood in particular is nice to get to 4* just for Ward Cavalry.
-
Like even 3* Eliwood will feel like a 5* one (+4 to all stats is equal to two promotions... there's no 5* weapon, but +10 HP)
In most cases +4 to all stats on a 3* will be better than 5* stats. Eliwood is an exception because his stats are so flat (+4, +4, +4, +3 (DEF), +4). But for example, if you had a 3* +ATK -RES Cecilia, going from 3* to 5* on her is like (+3, +4, +3, +3, +3).
That said, losing Durandal hurts, and 6 HP doesn't really make up for it.
-
Well yes, 5 atk (9 on initiation) is better than 6 HP, but it's not by some crazy dramatic amount. The point is that the TT bonus essentially adds roughly 2* worth of stats, so even a 3* unit won't be a total anchor, and 4* up are quite potent indeed.
-
Taking advantage of the double SP/EXP nonsense last week, I decided to go nuts on feathers and SI after saving up limited resources basically since the game opened. For instance....
-Promoted a Reinhardt to 5 star (which I would have done earlier, but somehow I thought he was -ATK instead of his actual +ATK nature)
-Promoted Donnel to 5 star and fed his Brave Lance+ to my optimal Effie
-Promoted Cecilia to 5 star and fed Gronnraven+ to Soren so he can check archers and Reinhardt
-Promoted the plot trio up to 4 star, with an eye to 5 star them eventually so I can have a consistent set of bonus units who aren't total dead weight
-Took Brave Lyn as my free broken hero.
Then yesterday morning I did my free summon on the Death Blow banner and got a 5-star Klein (+DEF/-SPD), so that's awesome. Even better, I already had a 4* version sitting around so I fed that one to Reinhardt for DB3, and now my meta-cheese team is shaping up pretty well. The main thing I'm pondering now is whether to feed my 5* Faye that I drew on the Shadows of Valentia banner to Lyn and shift her to the Firesweep cheese build that Laggy runs.
-
It's a solid build but I'm not sure you want to run it without +spd, since doubling is critical. Certainly an option though, it's not like Faye is a good unit anyway. <.<
I think people do underrate Mulagir in general (all I see is Brave Bow Lyn) but that's part of her power: she can run any of the 3 bows and be good at all of them.
-
She's certainly a better recipient for it than, say, Takumi.
-
By contrast I see more Mulagir Lyn than anything else by quite a ways. Unlike with Takumi you actually give up something meaningful to shift her over to Brave.
Anyway I've been hoping to draw Elincia since best red flier by far + hey I like the character quite a bit in her home games even though her art is a tad disappointing (did you know she's older than Ike?). No luck so far, but my very first three red orbs in search of her netted me, in order, 5* Marth, 5* Lucina, and 5* Ryoma (the latter two being heroes I had never drawn before). Ryoma's even +Spd. So that's cool.
Don't have enough time to do as much as I'd like, there are still way too many chain challenges waiting, not to mention characters to level (I have 130k feathers now and it's not because I'm hording). However I'm still getting through all the key content; Infernal fights remain a good time.
-
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZrJBEbWlqL8/VLWipdiZWdI/AAAAAAAAHok/t3AzfPxFaPI/s1600/bsr4kujiaprize.png)why can't I hold all this loot
-
Ninian/Hawkeye Infernal: Featuring Wings of Mercy Hawkeye who has over 100 physical and magical soak (survives a double from Triangle Adept unbuffed Tharja much to my disgust), multiple horseslaying weapons* and some super-tricky enemy terrain + dancer opportunities. Making the dancer do stupid things was the path to victory, at least for me. Not sure how replicable this strategy is, it seemed to rely on a lot of my units' specifics, but here we go.
Party:
Eirika with Triangle Adept and the usual +9 buff setup
Tharja with Triangle Adept
Spring Camilla with Triangle Adept
Summer Robin with Fury/Vantage (first time I've used her in an Infernal fight I think)
Buffed Tharja moves just inside the green mage's range, buffed Summer Robin moves just inside the sword cavalier's (unlike in Lunatic, this does not take her into Hawkeye's range). Robin OHKOs the cavalier, Tharja just fails to OHKO the green mage... but this is good! Ninian will dance for the green mage instead of potentially dancing for the lance cav who could fuck up my plans (he even has Pass). Hawkeye warps in and hits Tharja, Triangle Adept makes this not too bad. The green mage goes again; I placed Eirika beside Tharja so the green mage goes for her to not die.
The next turn, Eirika Repositions Tharja away, and Tharja one-rounds Hawkeye Hawkeye. Camilla stands in Tharja's old spot, attacking the lance cav. The green mage takes two more shots at Eirika harmlessly, moving to beside Camilla because it wants to get at Robin maybe? This blocks both the lance cav and Ninian, Ninian goes to help the sword-user over.
Cleanup is pretty easy at this point, Tharja KOs the green mage and Camilla duels the lance cav, with Vantage Robin being able to easily handle the other two enemies at the very end.
*I've seen some people wonder why these weapons were added to the game, since they're not that amazing in PC hands compared to Brave, legendaries, etc.. This is why, they're great options for enemies in fights like this.
-
So the new banner. We finally get more dancers. And singers. And Inigo and Shigure. Hell yea I'm after this one. I pray I don't get Azura. I want my husbandos.
-
(https://i.imgur.com/oQEZ7NT.png)
Less than 150 orbs total on banner. One Inigo and Azura were on a +0% pity same session pull. The next session I immediately oneshotted Olivia from a single colorless orb.
My luck has been thoroughly consumed
(most are bad IVs but who cares, dancers)
-
...I had 153 orbs. Nothing to show for it but a 5* Effie. F my life.
-
I had all of 10 orbs left coming into this one, because I blew everything trying to get Nephenee or Elincia. No luck on either, despite well over 100 orbs dropped. Lets hope my luck picks up a bit for this banner, once I have the orbs for it. Thankfully I already have normal Azura so I'm not in dire need of a dancer.
-
I got Inigo off my free pull. I have not spent any orbs yet...
That said, I think I dropped 80-90 trying to get Ellincia with no luck. Got a 5* Lilina though.
-
That said, I think I dropped 80-90 trying to get Ellincia with no luck. Got a 5* Lilina though.
Wow, same here. Except it was more in the 120+ orb range for me. :( I have a fine track record of going after 5* focus fliers and not getting them, Spring Camilla aside.
I'm probably skipping this banner but Azura is kinda tempting. There are rumours that the next banner will be FE4 so maybe I'll build up a huge orb stockpile. (EDIT: to be clear, because I'm not planning to draw from any such banner)
-
Whined about in chat already, but same here, except a far smaller spend on the FE9 banner (~70 orbs or so?). Zilch, no Elincia, no Oscar, no Neph. What's extra insane is that the Tempest Trials event where they're super-bonusy is still going on, and the banner isn't even pullable anymore? Da faq.
I *did* get a different flying princess in Tana, but I don't particularly have any Red or Green Armors I want to teleport around. Twilkitri & Reiska pointed out in IRC that I can go get a Black Knight from the Tempest Trials, which I hadn't done in a long time after playing it twice when it started, looking at the point gain, and stopping in disgust. I suspect I joined way too late to get the 5* BK though. I also still don't like how TT scoring works. Lvl. 35 Lunatic is a faceroll except for the Black Knight, and that's only largely because I subbed out my blue Mage in Ninian for the bonus Mist, so no hard counters for him (SF Cavalry Emblem is still Eliwood / Carrot Xander / Cecilia, so only Xander can duel the BK). Lvl. 40 Lunatic is interesting! And... it takes more time and gives a smaller score! The hell, game. Reward the challenging / hard content, don't encourage mindless EZ grinding. They should hugely up the bonus so that a shitty clear of the hardest difficulty is worth more than a perfect clear of the next hardest difficulty.
(For reference... lvl. 35 Lunatic is 200 (base) x 1.2 (Survival) x 1.5 (Time) x 1.2 (Mist bonus) = 432. Lvl. 40 Lunatic is 280 x 1.15 (Survival, don't want to trot Mist out in initial team in case disaster strikes, so use a different team for the first ~5-6 maps) x 1.1 (Time, speedrunning the lvl. 40 maps is a good way to die) x 1.2 (Mist bonus) = 425.)
I've built up my free Brave Lyn to lvl. 40, and since the game wants to give me infinite Ravens, I found a 4* Raven with a good IVs (+Atk, -Res) and promoted him and made him a +2 Raven. Suicide infantry brave is still a little questionable... giving that Brave Axe to Cherche probably would have been wiser, but oh well. I think he may be a man without a country - not sure what team would even want him - but hey, have one just in case. Same with Lyn, not sure what to do with her yet. Try and fit her into Cavalry Emblem, I guess? She's almost too popular though, Hipster SF would disapprove.
-
For what it's worth the L40 rewards are substantially better if you can clear it quickly, as the 280:200 ratio implies. (As Laggy is fond of pointing out, even if you can't work your bonus hero onto your A team, it's worth it to run the team with the bonus hero, surrender as soon as they run into trouble, and then roll with your A team; the survival penalty is miniscule). If you can't do L40 quickly then yeah, better to stick with something lower. That said I agree the gaps should be wider, at the moment one very valid strategy (which I refuse to even think about doing) is to just faceroll a lower difficulty on auto-battle all day long, this is how the people who are in the 50,000 (or so) get the scores they do. That sort of shit is what put me off of the idea of various other mobile games.
Tana's Guidance is nice and all but really she's more about being a blue flier with great stats and a weapon which makes those stats outright cheaty. Though if you insist on pairing her with armour it's pretty easy to get 4* Zelgius and then promote him.
-
That's the paradox though, right? If I can clear it quickly, then it probably isn't as interesting. I actually sorta enjoyed my L40 runs where I had to worry about various disasters, oh how do I deal with the Lancebreaker on this slow mage who's gonna murder me, etc. If I had an optimized enough team to safely beat it quickly, that means it's become easier. And then I wonder why I'm grinding up easy uninteresting battles rather than playing a different game.
For the bonus unit, I thought the bonus unit had to be in your final party and also survive? Can I run it in my initial party and still get the bonus even if it dies?
And yeah, I just got the 4* Burger King. I misread you at first and thought you meant Zephiel, which I have a 4* of lying around somewhere too... I guess he'd also work for an armor to go riding with Tana, but he doesn't have Alondite's free Distant Counter and I've never drawn any Hectors to devour, and Armors really really like that distant counter ability.
EDIT: Checking, my Tana even has good IVs, +Atk -Res. Huh. Maybe I will have to build her up after all. Not as good at tanking archers or mages as Subaki, but can actually kill shit in exchange.
-
Still pissed no dancer/singer. I just want one of them. Preferably Inigo to make up for my -Atk Elinicia. Though I need to get Life and Death to make Elinicia better (unless I get a new one).
-
I got a +Atk Elincia on that banner. Get dunked on, universe.
-
FEH not calling Zelgius by his name in 2017 is something I don't really get; do we still care about spoilers? Admittedly they only switched over to calling him Zelgius in the final act of the second game he appeared in so I guess the name "Black Knight" had a lot of time to stick, but I still find it kinda strange. Might be just me!
That's the paradox though, right? If I can clear it quickly, then it probably isn't as interesting. I actually sorta enjoyed my L40 runs where I had to worry about various disasters, oh how do I deal with the Lancebreaker on this slow mage who's gonna murder me, etc. If I had an optimized enough team to safely beat it quickly, that means it's become easier. And then I wonder why I'm grinding up easy uninteresting battles rather than playing a different game.
I dunno, I have interesting enough battles in TT and the only question is whether I get 1.5 or 1.4 on speed. Playstyle differences I guess, I'm not sure; I even run a true healer! (I never stall out fights for more heals though; the nice thing about Rehabilitate + Imbue is you usually don't have to.) I tend to run at least two high-offence mage units which may help; not sure what your team comp is.
Tana with -Res has the same Res as neutral Subaki (and only 4 less HP) so she's really not much worse at mage tanking. Archers sure but that's the last unit you want to bait archers with anyway unless you're running Flier Emblem (at which point you should probably use either Iote's Shield or Triangle Adept Raventome on someone).
For the bonus unit, I thought the bonus unit had to be in your final party and also survive? Can run it in your initial party and still get the bonus even if it dies?
Yep. As long as they enter battle at any time during the run, you get the bonus.
-
Useful to know, thanks (re bonus unit).
My Flyer Emblem team would occasionally need to unfortunately find a "volunteer" to bait an archer, or alternatively deal with Takumi (Back In the Day, I only restarted recently), and Subaki was usually the call there, yes. (Sometimes Cherche if I was running her, which I usually wasn't.)
For BK, I think the logic is that
A) It's an FE9 banner, and he's only known as the Black Knight in FE9, and
B) Crossover games love absolutely any excuse to release the same character multiple times (see: Lucina, Masked Marth, Eggcina, Spearcina). "Black Knight" being his Path of Radiance form and "Zelgius" (maybe not wearing the helmet?) being his Radiant Dawn form wouldn't be shocking.
-
My team is still struggling to clear the L35 Tempest Trials, but dear god are they fun. It's just a bonus that it happens to be the best map for getting score.
I still do not have a Dancer/Singer/Turnshifter. I'm doing this totally F2P and only recently restarted, but I've already sunk like 60 orbs into the current banner with no 5-star anything.
I wish I hadn't blown everything trying to get Ninian... But I really wanted Dragonstone Dancer. It always bugged me that she couldn't transform in FE7, and now that she can, I feel like I was supposed to have her on my team. Also, my Blue options are limited to a single lucky pull of an Ephraim, so Ninian would be a welcome addition for a more well-rounded team if I can't use Eph for whatever reason.
-
Olivia is available from the daily rotation of battles which appear under "Special Battles" (they'll be below the Warriors map, right now). Not sure when Olivia is up next but it'll be within the next two weeks at most. You can only get a 1* and 2* version that way, but promoting to 3* for Dance is dirt cheap and highly recommended, you can go further if you need the stats/more potent Hone Atk.
-
I put 100 orbs and got three Azuras and two Olivias. Probably my best outing for orbs since Hero Fest 2 where I got six Ikes.
My Azura has higher attack than my +1 Black Knight, Brave Roy, Amelia, and Lilina. Scary.
-
I'm not sure how, but I cannot seem to get Olivia from the daily rotation battle. She is not in my party either. So I assume I must've somehow deleted her because I hate Olivia and didn't realize that Dance was a thing waaaaaaay back when I first started (I must've been half-asleep when I played it...)
-
The next time Olivia in on the daily Hero battle is next week. Even if you obtained and deleted Olivia you should still get access to the battle. There you can find out if you actually deleted her or not.
-
The new banner is called the "Threaten Speed" banner but does anyone actually give a shit about Threaten? Every character on it is better-known for access to a much better skill (Desperation, Life and Death, Close Counter).
And of all the banners I've drawn from, it's not the one I'd have chosen to get a 5* focus character on the first try, but still, can't complain. Got a Jaffar who I'm sorely tempted to just sacrifice because holy shit, 42 atk after Life and Death is just embarrassing. Why are dagger users so bad? Just have to figure out who will get LaD3...
-
Well, I drew Inigo. +Spd, -Res. Think I'm gonna go with that "raventome + triangle adept" strat, I hope triangle adept will be enough to save him vs horse emblem Reinhart despite the -Res.
-
I drew a +ATK/-HP Olivia and +SPD/-DEF Sonya from the performers banner, both of whom should be solid additions. Finally a dagger unit worth using, and Sonya gives me a proper blitzing green mage type to complement Soren, who's all-in as a Reinhardt/archer counter.
-
Got a Shigure with +Spd, -Atk. Going to make a psedo healer so I can use him in conjunction with my Elise/Priscilla. Meanwhile got a Takumi and pondering how to sacrifice him.
-
I did some pulls and got... Olivia!
Oh wait. 4* Red Sword generic Olivia. Come ON, game, really?
At least I finally got a Dancer, but...
-
Hey it's a good step in the right direction, to be fair.
-
So, while FE Heroes drew me back in via the bamboozle of "hey have some FE9 characters you like!" (lolno), I am pleasantly impressed with a lot of the changes they made during the months I was out. The biggest one by far: having Friday & Saturday seem to always be "normal SP" days, when the game is usually on half-SP mode. SP gain was just too damn low before. They'd be better off if they stopped calling it a 2x bonus and just made that the normal SP rate officially, but it's still a huge step forward in making it less mindlessly grindy.
I also like that Arena Assault and Chain Challenge suggests building a team, rather than "optimize 3 characters really hard and everyone else only exists to be sacrifical altar'd to them."
Anyway, in the realm of advice-seeking... I was *going* to maybe 5* Clarisse so she could be something more than an armed neutral for bonus point purposes, but then I drew Dance Dance Dagger Revolution Olivia, so I guess that'll be slot #4 for bonuses. But I'll take accessible skillz advice if anyone has it for my tentative arena team.
Black Knight (Neutral) - Alondite, Swap, Dark Luna, Steady Stance, Vantage, C-???, Panic Ploy? (or Speed +1?). S-Support with Tana.
Tana (+Atk, -Res) - Vidofnir, Reposition, Moonbow, Spd/Def 2, B - ???, Guidance, HP+3.
Cecilia (Neutral) - GronnRaven+, Draw Back, Moonbow, Triangle Adept, G Tomebreaker, Hone Cavalry, Attack +1. Yes, Hone Cav is worthless, it's for my Horse Emblem team. Has an S-Support with Eliwood.
Any good (budget) suggestions? Notably Tana-B, BK C, and BK Seal, although anything works if it's obviously wrong. (I could arguably break up with Carrot Xander and date the BK instead, but I'm not sure normal Xander would forgive me, as far as Summoner Supports.) I think that Bow Lyn is popular enough that G Tomebreaker might be better as Bowbreaker for Cecilia too, for all that she still checks Bow Lyn... just she gets hurt a lot doing it as it stands, and the likes of Julia are kinda still a bad matchup even with that.
-
Anyway, in the realm of advice-seeking... I was *going* to maybe 5* Clarisse so she could be something more than an armed neutral for bonus point purposes, but then I drew Dance Dance Dagger Revolution Olivia, so I guess that'll be slot #4 for bonuses. But I'll take accessible skillz advice if anyone has it for my tentative arena team.
Black Knight (Neutral) - Alondite, Swap, Dark Luna, Steady Stance, Vantage, C-???, Panic Ploy? (or Speed +1?). S-Support with Tana.
Tana (+Atk, -Res) - Vidofnir, Reposition, Moonbow, Spd/Def 2, B - ???, Guidance, HP+3.
Cecilia (Neutral) - GronnRaven+, Draw Back, Moonbow, Triangle Adept, G Tomebreaker, Hone Cavalry, Attack +1. Yes, Hone Cav is worthless, it's for my Horse Emblem team. Has an S-Support with Eliwood.
Any good (budget) suggestions? Notably Tana-B, BK C, and BK Seal, although anything works if it's obviously wrong. (I could arguably break up with Carrot Xander and date the BK instead, but I'm not sure normal Xander would forgive me, as far as Summoner Supports.) I think that Bow Lyn is popular enough that G Tomebreaker might be better as Bowbreaker for Cecilia too, for all that she still checks Bow Lyn... just she gets hurt a lot doing it as it stands, and the likes of Julia are kinda still a bad matchup even with that.
I would not ever 5* a unit just to have a temporary bonus hero for arena. You'll want to stick to the Askr trio for that, but as NEB has pointed out even this is not really an efficient use of feathers (worst case bring them as 4*). 5* stuff you actually like/want to use long term.
Build wise... Pivot's recommended for armored units, so I'd put that on BK, though of course taking advantage of Tana's Guidance is great too. Panic Ploy's cool. Hone Attack should be on at least one person on your team if you aren't running Flier/Horse Emblem, better on BK than Tana if it's not on your third unit if you're looking for a C slot for him. Steady Stance is kinda meh, Steady Breath is incredible on him but requires a B. Ike being sacrificed. Fury is also an option.
Tana's probably fine. If you want to take advantage of Vidofnr, I'd probably run Quick Riposte and Fury. A breaker (Sword or Lance) is also an option, or if you're looking for something more pve oriented, Renewal is decent filler. Your IVs are ideal for a brave build (Brave Lance+ / Hit and Run or Drag Back / Death Blow 3 or Swift Sparrow 2) but that's a huge investment, so probably off the table now. QR3 is 5* exclusive though so you'll have to settle for 2, which is unfortunate as the threshold is 80% (i.e. easy to fall under).
I agree that Bowbreaker is a better pick than G Tomebreaker on Cecilia if you're running Raven tome.
-
Azura get! I can finally stop spending all my orbs on that banner. She's +DEF/-RES, which is perfectly fine.
-
Well after the hell that was the last gauntlet (Hector and Lyn lost...I was sad), we FINALLY got a FE7 winner in the gauntlet: Ninian. I am actually happy about that.
-
The Geneology banner really likes me. Free summon was Sigurd, then a full summon gave me Deidre. Both are glass cannon IVs - ATK boon with a bane to the defensive stat that already sucks, i.e. RES for Sigurd and DEF for Deidre. Jeez, where was this luck in CYL?
-
I'd just like to say that I still enjoy the Grand Hero Battles with scrubbier teams. While everybody else worries about Infernal, Lunatic is still plenty to keep my hands full and me entertained. (As best I can tell from YouTube, Infernal involves ferrying around a Brave Bow Brave Lyn or a Reinhardt to kill everything where it stands, since the boosted HP scores really require brave'd units to kill quickly... meh.). All the horseslayer + forests everywhere incidental hate for Rein also makes team composition exciting, as I end up with an excuse to use units I don't normally use. Notably... *Selena* freaking came through again for me, sporting TA3 & Reposition, both of which are great for GHBs (despite Selena being pretty terrible for, say, Arena). She can safely kill the Axe Armor that spawns in the upper left of the map, and then my team can basically huddle up in that corner with careful baits and Repos to survive through Arvis's horde. Cool stuff. (My team ended up being Selena, Raven, Dagger Olivia, and Vidofnir Tana. They get totally wasted by Infernal though so take with a grain of salt.)
The game really wants me to run a Brave Tana build, it seems. It gifted me another 5* Hawkeye for Deathblow, and I have a 4* Clair lying around for hit & run. Would just require blowing the 20K feathers for the Brave Lance+. I'm not sure I actually want to do it, but it's there.
Also, I was considering spending 20K feathers to get a Swift Sparrow 3 off my Katarina to give to Eliwood, but... with all the current fears of power creep, I wonder if continuing to invest in Eliwood is wise. Might hold off for a bit on this.
-
I got 3 Seliphs while trying to draw Sigurd. :'( :'( :'( :'(
-
Some people are apparently really angry about Ayra being in a separate banner, for all that it seems confusing to me. If you specifically want Ayra for whatever reason, it's actually easier to get her from a 3-person banner than a 4-person one (1% chance per orb at base vs 0.75%, and no the chance of Eldigan ruining your pity bonus does not offset this). I can never predict what makes people angry about gacha games and what doesn't.
Anyway, Infernal Arvis for anyone still looking for ideas:
Eirika with the usual hone+9 setup
Tharja (R Tomebreaker)
Reinhardt (Lancebreaker)
Olivia (literally any dancer will do, though obviously a C buff like Olivia's Hone Atk is recommended)
Everyone except Olivia has Reposition; Draw Back would work too but Swap isn't recommended; there are often situations when a mage can ORKO -anyone- so more ways to avoid that are good.
Opening turn has Rienhardt kill the red mage, Olivia dance, Reinhardt Reposition on Olivia and the everyone hide from the blue mage. Turn 2, Reinhardt kills both the blue mage and the sword general who appears, while Tharja kills the axe general.
The map has a lot of red/blue mages (with 52 atk and 40 speed, so they're extremely dangerous!), red/green armour (super-buff, they were wearing down my Xander and TA Eirika until I brought in Tharja), and blue/green cavaliers. Reinhardt can kill every red, and every lance-user thanks to Lancebreaker. Tharja can kill every general, as well as green cavaliers. R Tomebreaker allows her to take a hit from the red mage and ORKO back, though she can only do this once. The blue mages are the toughest for this team; Reinhardt needs 52 attack to OHKO them. Mine is +Atk with Death Blow 3, so he has this if he's buffed by Eirika/Olivia (and not Atk Ployed by Arvis, but note that letting him act and then dancing for him removes the debuff but not the buff) OR he has a limit ready to fire. That was enough flexibility thanks to Olivia that I pretty much was always able to get 'em.
Otherwise, just have to watch for the fact that the green cavaliers have Drag Back and are placed to draw you into Arvis' range (and Arvis has a pre-charged limit which will erase almost any non-blue), so don't let them engage unless you're certain you can OHKO them on the counter (and this isn't easy; watch for Ward Cavalry).
-
Notably... *Selena* freaking came through again for me, sporting TA3 & Reposition, both of which are great for GHBs (despite Selena being pretty terrible for, say, Arena).
Actually... you can build a pretty effective Selena for arena; TA3 and Reposition are great there too. You just really want to give her a useful C skill (such as Hone Atk/Speed) because with her lower Atk she will act primarily as support, buffing and repositioning allies, while TA lets her check any green. She's basically a discount Eirika (who is absolutely one of the very best reds for the arena); obviously the lack of doublebuff is noticeable, but on the other hand Selena is highly available and can be built on a budget.
-
Saved up for today, rolled my only roll for the tablet. So along with my Performing Inigo, I now have a +Atk, -HP Ayra to work with.
-
The new tempest trials has Guidance and Brash Assault seals among the rewards. That's awesome, although one of the lunatics who's gotten them already says Guidance is locked to flyers, so my short-lived plans to troll the arena with Guidance Effie will come to naught. laaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
-
Some of the restrictions are really dumb. Did you know you still can't put B Skills like Seals on healers because of Skill Inheritance Restrictions? I didn't until I tried SI'ing Lachesis since she's my only bonus unit for this TT. I mean, I know it's a pretty trashy move, but still I'm just trying to make something usable for TT, y FEH? ;-;
-
I'd recommend putting Live to Serve or Renewal as the B slot for healers in TT so they can sustain themselves should they need to take hits. But I do agree that healers are randomly gimped out of a few too many skills.
In the case of Guidance, I actually think the restriction it has is cool; FEH has too many things rewarding the use of mono-type teams (Cavalry/Flier/Armour buffs, Infantry Pulse, Armour March, etc., and not enough that encourages cross-class synergy like Guidance. It also references the Fire Emblem tactic of using a flier to airdrop a tank into a key position seen the games with Rescue and/or Pair Up.
-
That is what I eventually did. But my whole normal TT team has Renewal. I just wanted to run a different healer ;-;
-
Well, after the wasteland of Dancer-less-ness, I managed to get 3 Dancers in the span of a week. Ninian, Dagger-Olivia, and Shigure. Shigure seems kinda meh, but I have crap for Blue Mages, so he's now my best Blue unit unless I'm running my Ephraim/Tharja combo.
Haven't really figured out how to work Dagger!Olivia (or the 4* Red Olivia I lucked into) onto a team yet. She's got a really crappy nature, too...
Ninian is the most recent addition, and I'm excited to see if Dragon Emblem is possible.
Did some pulls on the FE4 banners, but the only thing I got was a 5* Eirika... Convenient, yes, but not game-changing since I already have Ephraim and several 4* Eirikas.
MF-ing Black Knight remains the most broken unit ever for pretty much every challenge I've attempted.
-
I pretty much use Shigure as a pseudo-healer, alongside an actual healer, it's a good way to keep your team up and healed. Dagger!Olivia I noticed people using her for an assassin build, but maybe it might work better with a pseudo-healer then Shigure.
I need to work harder on my teams though...specially on the tablet / actual Nintendo account. I have no idea how to set up my teams for that account.
-
So much for that. Got Deirdre, and Hinoka from the free pull on the new banner.
-
PSA on support building:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/78huej/an_updated_guide_to_supports/
Short version:
* Similar to Fates, your support gain per map is capped.
* Specifically, it is capped at: 1 initiated battle per person (while in supp range?). Kills don't matter. Needs to be vs. lvl. 35+ enemy.
* That means that massacaring hordes of dudes in a Warriors map while in supp range won't help. Training Tower is presumably more efficient for fast supp growth. Make sure both of the partners start a fight, if one of them is a dancer or some such.
Also, from digging up older posts in the thread...
New banner is: Klein, Lachesis, Olwen, Reinhardt, Sanaki and Eldigan
Two semi obscure characters from Fire Emblem 5, Fail FE6 Archer #2, more incest, and Tallychu's waifu
Actually, this is our first Fail FE6 Archer; you will have to wait patiently for Wolt and Dorothy.
I do think it's a bit weird that the new banner only has 1/6 characters from internationally released FEs; if we don't get any more before March 14 or whatever this does potentially seem like a way to start bleeding fans. But my guess is they're setting up for something reasonably big next: Sanaki being on a sibling-themed banner strongly suggests we'll get Micaiah soon.
Also the next banner has also been leaked, similar to the Fighting Robin one: Effie/Nino/Setsuna/Felicia. It's a more interesting crop of units gameplaywise than Fighting Robin was, at least. Nino being there (along with noted mage-slayer Felicia and noted thief-slayer Setsuna) strongly suggests Ursula is the next Grand Hero battle.
Ah yes, "soon". Soon as in the same year maybe?
If you use a dragonstone you are a dragon. CorrinM and Sophia are not dragons.
The last voting gauntlet shows the error of your ways, apparently.
-
Hey if you're gonna dig up posts about me being wrong, you should acknowledge that I totally called that Ursula GHB right.
-
Hinoka is finally mine! And with yet another +ATK/-RES nature. The game really wants me to smash things, and damn if I'm not inclined to oblige.
-
Arvis is actually a pretty great healer. Recover ring heals more than Lucina with Falchion and Renewal 3. AND his weapon has two ploys on it (atk and res).
The one downside for him as a tempest trials healer is that he has less max HP than lucina, which matters because Reciprocal Aid healers are basically HP batteries. But that's not a problem THIS tempest trials cause he's a bonus unit and gets +10 HP and +4 all other stats.
All in all, well worth the 5* IMO (he doesn't get Recover Ring or his weapon at 4*).
-
The HP is less of an issue if you run Ardent Sacrifice instead, which Recovery Ring is literally perfect for powering. That said I dunno if his ability to use a tome over a staff will make him more useful than a pure healer in future tempests and chain challenges or not. Maybe if you give him -raven/-blade to really shine as a combat unit (ploys are fine and all, but not as good as those IMO).
After decision paralysis over dancers and FE4 characters I don't really care about as characters, the game finally gave me a chance to draw both someone I kinda like AND someone with a unique gameplay niche, so I too finally have Hinoka, ending my run of trying and failing to get good flier units (Corrin, Tana, Elincia). Hopefully the Halloween banner will give us a red flier mage~
-
Decided how to spend most of my 50k feathers.
+2 Ursula. Aw yeah no regrets
-
After decision paralysis over dancers and FE4 characters I don't really care about as characters, the game finally gave me a chance to draw both someone I kinda like AND someone with a unique gameplay niche, so I too finally have Hinoka, ending my run of trying and failing to get good flier units (Corrin, Tana, Elincia). Hopefully the Halloween banner will give us a red flier mage~
Stop using that monkey's paw for your wishes, Elf. We could have had Miriel... alas.
Also, FWIW, the Festival banner's Olivia sports a Distant Def, so even if you don't care about her, it's pretty okay for SI. (And obviously Arya has a Swift Sparrow if you eat her.)
-
Well yeah, there were plenty of good things to get, but only so many orbs to get 'em with.
-
Infernal Ursula
Not my most replicable strategy, but here it is:
Spring Camilla with TA Gronnraven, Quick Riposte, Distant Def seal
Tharja with Spur Res (her default), Spur Res seal
Eirika with Fortify Res seal
Xander with Quick Riposte
Tharja has a C support with Camilla (created for this fight), so that she gives Camilla a total of 9 res when adjacent. Spoilers, this will matter.
Camilla is the anchor of the strategy and can't easily be replaced since she's the only Gronnraven user weak to neither Poison Dagger nor Wolf spells, which feature prominently here. Turn 1 she moves to the the second square from the left on the horizontal corridor the player has access to. This baits the nearer dagger-user who does 0 damage to her and dies. Eirika moves to buff her again. The three cavaliers break down the wall and close in.
Turn 2... Camilla moves one square left, remaining in range of both mage cavaliers. Tharja sits beside her, in range of the green mage cav but not Ursula. Xander hides in the top-left corner, while Eirika sits between the other two reds in the only remaining totally safe space. The green mage cav attacks Camilla and is countered. The axe general Wings of Mercies his way to beside Camilla, attacking her. The sword cav draws bakc the green mage cav, then Ursula comes in and attacks Camilla too. That's loads of damage, but with all the res stacking I used Camilla can survive. Meanwhile Xander counter-KOs the other knife-user.
Camilla moves diagonally and finishes Ursula, buffed Tharja moves down and OHKOs the green armour through Aegis. Critically both of them get out of the way of Eirika repositioning Xander, and Xander can thus reach and kill the green mage cav, and tank the sword cav for the win.
-
Ursula's fight has fallen far from its original status as insanely brutal. Deploy Black Knight, poke him into range, keep him healed up, win. BK defeats both Lunatic & Infernal handily, and does so with a spare slot if you want the Sharena / Ursula quests as well. Just need a healer and a Dancer so the healer can jump in, heal the BK, then jump back out. (Or use Sakura's Physic twice, I guess.)
I guess Ursula can kill him if he doesn't have a Black Luna ready to go either time she attacks, but it's largely pretty safe. Sadly the "watch BK murder everything" strat is less cool than Elecman's. They should forcibly play the BK music when doing this, IMO.
-
BK will die if both mages attack him on one turn, or if he fails to KO Ursula as you note (he'll need Vantage if you want to KO her second attack as otherwise she'll activate her AoE limit and obliterate you) but I can see how you can set it up so that he OHKOs with Luna or Quick Riposte against the first mage then is healed to deal with the second. Simple and effective. I still need to work on finishing his skillset, he does seem really good for an armour (though if you know my opinions that's damning with faint praise, I have 5* Effie and she doesn't even make my AA team since without Distant Counter she's just way too limited).
Someone who also seems really good for an armour? Henry! Finally getting a worthwhile form it looks like, yay 33/34 offence armour mage. And he's even green.
They should forcibly play the BK music when doing this, IMO.
They should, preferably Unstoppable Destiny (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFcaIun3SsI). The slow non-combatty version we got on the previous TT was a real disappointment IMO.
-
Got Halloween Henry. Another life goal achieved.
-
Spent all of my saved 140 Orbs on the Halloween banner in hopes of a ranged Armor unit.
Got lolidragon and Eldigan. (Literally 2 pulls that were nothing but Red/Blue options...)
I have so many Red Units that will never be useful...
-
Yeah, the best thing about Arena Assault is that it gives me a reason to use at least some of the dozen or so swordspeople sitting on my bench who will never ever ever be one of the four best units for any particular job.
40 orbs into the Halloween banner so far, still nothing. Really hoping for one of the ranged armors, those look super fun to mess with.
-
Welp, first roll set ended poorly: Boey and a Halloween Jakob with +Spd, -Def. Thinking of what to do because I don't think +Spd works on him. Sadly, it means I might have to work on building him. How I don't know. One of the posts suggested Fury and Sacred Seal Spd to raise spd even more but I'd rather patch up the Def issue.
-
Got a pity breaker Mae, was annoyed at myself for pulling blue just to round out the set of 5, and then my next summon had both witch-Nowi and catgirl Sakura. Awesome. I'll keep going because I really want those ranged armors, plus Sakura is -SPD, but if I get no more featured units I'm still coming out ahead.
-
Notably... *Selena* freaking came through again for me, sporting TA3 & Reposition, both of which are great for GHBs (despite Selena being pretty terrible for, say, Arena).
Actually... you can build a pretty effective Selena for arena; TA3 and Reposition are great there too. You just really want to give her a useful C skill (such as Hone Atk/Speed) because with her lower Atk she will act primarily as support, buffing and repositioning allies, while TA lets her check any green. She's basically a discount Eirika (who is absolutely one of the very best reds for the arena); obviously the lack of doublebuff is noticeable, but on the other hand Selena is highly available and can be built on a budget.
Clearly this week's bonus set was designed to make me eat my words. Cecilia was in the previous set of bonus options so Horse Emblem team with comparatively EZ perfects since Cecilia baits Rein / Bow-Lyn / etc. pretty well, but my only 5* option this time was Selena. But hey, variety is the spice of life. Also having a 5* Raven+2 (the Hero, not the Tome) with Deathblow due to IntSys being weird and never using him due to Cecilia existing was aggravating, so... super-mobility team-up of Selena / Olivia-Dagger / Tana / Raven go! Nobody can bait Rein or Lyn (no, Distant Def on -RES Olivia is not enough with her bad HP, not even with Res+2 Seal), but 3 Repositions, 1 Dance, and Guidance on Tana means that the team can YOLO charge in reasonably well for a non-Horsey team. -DEF, +RES Selena is largely a way worse Black Knight as far as being bait, BUT, she does screw Green Mages pretty well (eat it, Julia), and thanks to the new banners, there's a surprising amount of Armor Emblem going around, which she's hilarious against. Obviously eats Hector alive, and can potentially handle Black Knights with proper care and feeding as well.
Basically this team is worse but more interesting which is really the point. Oh, and speaking of Mobility, I threw Wings of Mercy 3 on Raven as well and put him on my defense team (still Tana/BK/Olivia-PA for the others). Enjoy, nameless Internet invaders out there.
--
As a random bit of theorycraft, I kinda wonder where IntSys can go with future archers. They basically made the perfect archer stat profile in Bow Lyn - 3 Move, tons of Atk & Speed & Swift Sparrow, just enough Res to survive when killing a Mage that doesn't get OHKO'd. What else can they do to make future archers worth caring about?
* Jakob-Armor is throw a bow on an Armored unit and make it a tank, so there's that.
* In the same way, they can still do a Flying archer for Kinshi Knight air anti-air counter fun. (I'm not sure Reina qualifies for the waifu test, nor does Kiragi for the husbando test, though.)
* For the Astrids/Raths/Shins/Sues of the world... I guess they could do Bow Lyn's build but emphasizing okay Def and terrible Res rather than okay Res and terrible Def, which would be a (bad) sidegrade, but still respectable if you fear Archers more the Mages, maybe. A "balanced" horse archer stat build will just look bad at this point. They could maybe do a Takumi-esque horse archer who has a legendary with built-in Close Counter for some Archer capable of doing this in-game (Ranger Neimi? Paladin Astrid?), and that would have a place in more defensive teams...?
Basically they can try some weird gimmicks (for all that Lyn already has her own gimmicks in Mulagir & Sacae's Blessing), but it's tricky. Well unless they jump straight to Power Creep Round 2, maybe.
-
Well roll set number two (to the Nintendo account) granted me a -Atk, +Spd H.Sakura and a +HP, -Def Julia. Only Henry evades me now. I must attempt to pick him up...somehow. Also working on patching H.Sakura's issues. Wish me luck. Also the new gauntlet has officially run out of ideas.
-
Also the new gauntlet has officially run out of ideas.
And honestly it's my favorite one yet. They don't all have to be super serious. The occasional silly idea with semi-random characters is fun. Though it kinda seems rigged for the more well known ones.
-
I still want Soren or Kat to win. But clearly Ryoma or Takumi will. -_-****
-
where's pumpkin spice xander??????
-
where's pumpkin spice xander??????
Saving it for a surprise Thanksgiving event clearly.
-
Just a note to folks doing the voting gauntlet: it is considered courteous to switch your front character to someone of a different colour from the character whose team you are on.
It helps your teammates (both your friends and random others you get assigned to) build to the achievements for using different colours in gauntlet matches more quickly, and also helps them win their voting gauntlet fights more easily if they aren't cheaping them out with a low-level character.
-
Listen up, fuckstains. I'm getting sick of this shit where people have no fucking clue whay they're doing and can't even figure out a simple concept like not having your fucking leader be the same color (or person) as your character team. Its making all the shit I have to do twice as hard. Be fucking helpful or kthxdie
Well said, NEB
-
I normally keep dancers in front for most of mines. I don't swap until needed.
-
I ended up siding with Takumi in the final. #makehoshidogreatagain, build a wall and make Nohr pay for it, etc, etc
-
(https://i.imgur.com/zZhLGpn.jpg)
Literally the best of all possible outcomes. Thanks Twil and Laggy for helping my Level 1 Shanna cheap out the event (in NEB's parlance). And Gate, latecomer though he was.
Shanna had 1.15 BILLION points in the last hour, which might be the highest ever for a non-bonus hour?
-
Just a note to folks doing the voting gauntlet: it is considered courteous to switch your front character to someone of a different colour from the character whose team you are on.
It helps your teammates (both your friends and random others you get assigned to) build to the achievements for using different colours in gauntlet matches more quickly, and also helps them win their voting gauntlet fights more easily if they aren't cheaping them out with a low-level character.
Also, specifically, friend characters ignore difficulty scaling. So like...put your +10 merge level 40 full SI character with your best seal in your front spot. (Your best seal is probably Distant Def 3, Attack Smoke 3, Quickened Pulse, or Attack+3). Also unlike Arena which is the opposite, I recommend general-purpose units that can win even with triangle disadvantage. I do not recommend triangle adept units.
For quest purposes, green and colourless are usually the hardest to fill, so these are preferred (unless they match the army or you notice everyone on your friends list is already green/colourless).
(For all the above reasons, I use my +9 Nino. Green, +9, can often double and kill red sword users).
-
Donald Trump defeated by a loli, just like god intended
i just use reinhardt because everyone loves reinhardt
-
So I actually went and researched the top non-bonus time hours because the salt level on GameFAQs had risen to an appropriate level to pique my curiosity, and...
1. Ninian: 1,251 million (Dragon Gauntlet, Round 3 vs FCorrin, Day 2,10PM)
2. Ninian: 1,201 million (Dragon Gauntlet, Round 3 vs FCorrin, Day 2, 11PM)
3. Shanna: 1,157 million (SHL vs LHG Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Takumi, Day 2 10PM)
4. Camilla: 1,094 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 3AM)
5. Camilla: 1,026 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 10AM)
6. Camilla: 1,018 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 9AM)
7. Camilla: 981 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 8AM)
8. Takumi: 955 million (SHL vs LHG Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Shanna, Day 2 10PM)
9. Camilla: 950 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 4AM)
10. Camilla: 940 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 11AM)
11. Ike: 934 million (Choose Your Legend Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Camilla, Day 2 11PM)
12. Camilla: 914 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 8AM)
13. Camilla: 894 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 5AM)
14. Camilla: 864 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 6AM)
15. Camilla: 837 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 12PM)
16.. Shanna: 830 million (SHL vs LHG Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Takumi, Day 2 9PM)
17. Ike: 812 million (Choose Your Legend Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Camilla, Day 2 10PM)
18. Summer FCorrin: 769 million (Battle at the Beach Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Summer Gaius, Day 2 11PM)
19. Camilla: 762 million (WR vs PK Gauntlet, Round 3 vs Minerva, Day 1 6PM)
20. Tharja: 756 million (Mage Gauntlet, Round 3 vs FRobin, Day 2 10AM)
Shanna ends up at #3 overall. Pretty impressive. She needed to make up a 63 million gap in the last hour to win, and as you can see she got 201 million over Takumi's points that hour. Takumi just wasn't as heavily supported as say, Ninian or Summer Corrin where he could win despite Bonus Time. (Note: Summer Corrin never once got a BT in her entire third round win).
Also, we can be thankful for our bonus time, which prevents another Camilla in a lot of ways. (Lucina was held back by the first gauntlet only getting one set of flags for the whole thing, rather than per round. She still maxed out at 602 million for her best hour, which is still pretty impressive considering.)
From the way things were pre-bonus, people were holding all their flags until Round 3 and blowing them out immediately as soon as they could. The first half of the day for the first three Gauntlets reflects this. I know the Bonus Time started in the Third Gauntlet (Mage Gauntlet) but I think it was more because people hadn't changed their strategy yet, and there were less bonus times overall. It just led to silly, lopsided victories that were boring for all involved (except fans of the characters I guess?)
Bonus time really does seem to
1) Spread out peoples' flag usage throughout the rounds, rather than hoarding for Round 3. Though this still happens to a smaller degree.
2) Spreads the teams out more. People have more incentive to join a possible loser- even in Round 3- since bonus time can improve your later rewards. The Per-Round incentive to join a low-population team was still there before, but the averages support that the "Feather Mercenaries" as people seem to be calling us now (hehe) preferred to support the winners rather than the losers in the early gauntlets. It was more viable back then, but once the Bonus Time started as we know it, the dynamic completely changed. I know backing the losers these days has been way more lucrative overall.
3) Believe it or not, it really does seem to support a team strategy. With resources like Oreo's Score Predictor (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J9DSCm0CM6rk11LFLqjX0u4CX30gg7mMUePQjD4VCS4/htmlview) people can more easily see when bonus times are or are not coming and adjust their output accordingly, and do. It seems that why Team Shanna had that many flags to blow in the last two hours to begin with- since as of even 4PM of Day 2 it was predicting a last minute bonus hour (which never materialized).
Weird that THIS is the thing that gets me into heavily digging into stats and theorycraft. Being lazy is really exhausting...
-
I think Team Shanna had a lot of extra feathers at the end because they were expecting more bonus hours. Some use score predictors, to be sure (I do too), but I don't think that's enough to explain it, since it's a pretty hardcore thing to look up. However, since Shanna was perceived as being the underdog and the multiplier increases throughout, a lot of Team Shanna was incentivised to hoard flags for the final day expecting some multipliers then, while Team Takumi supporters were incentivised to burn flags ASAP whenever he got a multiplier because he wasn't going to get many. Hence what happened at the end. Interesting anyway!
I think the gauntlet has amazingly failed at being a popularity contest and that kinda annoys me; we had four out of seven matches go against popularity this time (including all three of Shanna's wins) which is just bizarre; this gauntlet was won by a character that hardly anyone cares about.
Also, specifically, friend characters ignore difficulty scaling. So like...put your +10 merge level 40 full SI character with your best seal in your front spot. (Your best seal is probably Distant Def 3, Attack Smoke 3, Quickened Pulse, or Attack+3). Also unlike Arena which is the opposite, I recommend general-purpose units that can win even with triangle disadvantage. I do not recommend triangle adept units.
For quest purposes, green and colourless are usually the hardest to fill, so these are preferred (unless they match the army or you notice everyone on your friends list is already green/colourless).
(For all the above reasons, I use my +9 Nino. Green, +9, can often double and kill red sword users).
Mmm, I don't think killing people with WTD is particularly valuable. Either your unit will be going to a team with a low-level main (at which point they'll stomp regardless of who you send), or they'll be going to a team with a well-built Level 40 who, since they are a different colour than you, will almost always be better at handling the colour you have WTD against. The only slight exception I will make is that if, for instance, you were on Team Chrom, then yeah Nino might actually kill some high-def sword-users better than he does. But if you were on, say, Team Katarina (or any blue team), that would virtually never be the case. So arguably there's a perk in hitting a different defence stat and/or range than the team you're on, too, though I dunno that this is significant enough to influence one's choice here.
I'll disagree with you slightly on Triangle Adept; I like getting Triangle Adept Raven users because they cover two colours. I suppose pure Raven would do that to some degree too, but hardly anyone runs that.
But it really must be emphasised that the most important advice is to avoid a colour match. Beyond that I would just recommend sending one of your best units, as you note (merges and seals are nice but general goodness takes precedence; I'd rather get a Reinhardt than a Gwendolyn, no matter how many merges and seals the latter has received).
-
I'm curious though. Notice that the last two VGs had characters from Elibe win. Maybe we can see more seasonal outfits with Elibean characters. I hope.
-
pumpkin spice xander or bust
-
Based on the actual votes (not the multipliers), the Elibean characters were the two least popular characters in the most recent voting gauntlet, so I wouldn't hold your breath or take this as some sort of sign.
(Ninian's popularity seems to be legit, to my disappointment surprise. She does have a nice design I guess.)
-
On the flipside, the pure popularity contests were just boring. It's possible there is still some tweaking to do to the bonus formula. People will find the ways to maximize their gain, and it happens to coincide with the way to make upsets happen. So maybe something to do there while still allowing the possibility of the upset (again, Ninian, Summer Corrin, and to a lesser extent Ike still won), but I think Bonus Time is mostly working as intended. While I'll admit Shanna's first two rounds were more luck based, her win over Takumi was much more because people wanted to see her win/wanted to see Takumi lose. You don't just win on luck after 8 hours of non-bonus time.
And again, I guess it doesn't bother me as much since I'm not that attached to FE characters or the franchise. (Although I guess I'm a Shanna fan NOW :D) I blame you people for getting me hooked. I have an odd habit of sticking with things sometimes...
Also I'm sticking my Gwen in front next time, just for NEB. >:(
-
I will keep my dancers in front unless you want something else ^_^ also got a H.Henry with +Spd, -Def. So I'm ready FEH channel! Gimme what bait you got!
-
Sopko and NEB are both right. Takumi still "fake" lost I believe because Shanna got more bonus time early? The only thing that matters is total points gained ignoring the bonus. Plenty of speculation for how that could happen, but the most obvious is that Takumi, being the favorite, had his supporters spend their flags instantly on "earlier" bonus times, knowing they wouldn't be frequent, while Shanna supporters ignored earlier bonuses expecting better later bonuses to spend banners on. Individual incentives didn't line up with group incentives.
That said, even if NEB is right that the VG is terrible at being a popularity contest, who cares, Sopko is right that a crazy unpredictable event is more fun. IS already DID the huge popularity contest to start FE Heroes off. Not much to be gained from doing it again.
--
Also, not sure if humble brag or system change, but... I'm getting WAY more Arena Defense wins lately. Like. Way more. (Not that it matters, since they aren't cumulative.) It used to be that I got a single Arena Defense win every blue moon, and for two weeks in a row I've racked up 8-10 Defense victories. Am I just That Awesome? Or are they counting, like, got 2+ kills as a moral defense victory or some such? (I guess Arena Assault helps now too? But that shouldn't matter THAT much...)
-
IS has admitted that over the summer large portions of the playerbase would often get left out of the pool that pulled for Arena Defense. It was fixed sometime in September or October, though 8-10 is still pretty impressive. I usually just get 1, maybe 2
-
I was reminded why gacha sucks when I was foolishly tempted to waste real money and my orb stash on attempting to get a sacrifice for either Swift Sparrow or Steady Breath - the Short Haired Ladies banner for Katarina, or the Tempest Trials neo Brave Heroes banner for either Brave Ike or Brave Lyn. Well, I have a 5* Sanaki, Lachesis, and Boey now. Hooray. (Okay, I actually like Sanaki... except I did the math, and even with TA3 RaourRaven, some Brave Lyn builds can kill her through this, since mine is +Spd, -HP. And the Cancel Affinity builds obviously wreck. Alas. And Cymbeline is weirdly bad.) Well, expensive lesson learned.
I remember getting totally wrecked by the Michalis GHB when I tried it before (grumble grumble Lunge Cavalry units), but it completely sucked now - won first time on Infernal. Flier emblem seemingly wins for free, Palla/Subaki/Tana/Minerva without Seals totally wrecked.
-
I used my free pull on the new banner and got Nephenee, then I went back to the mercenaries banner and got Lute. Huzzah!
-
Got my second off-banner Takumi.
Who should I give Close Counter to? Which kind of build benefits from it the most?
-
High-defence mages such as Merric, Boey, Sophia, Robin (either), or Spring Camilla are all good choices, though it does compete with Triangle Adept for raven builds.
-
Michalis strategy for giving low-level scrubs kills on the Level 40 version.
Team:
Xander (Quick Riposte and Swap)
Reinhardt
Bow Lyn
Anna/Michalis
Position Reinhardt and Lyn just out of enemy range on the right, in that order, with Xander and the fourth right behind. Reinhardt kills the zanbato cav, Lyn kills the rightmost flier, Xander swaps with Lyn, Anna/Michalis moves up two squares. My Xander is S supported with Reinhardt, and once I unequipped his A skill, he left enemy Michalis at 4 HP on the counter. Xander then retreats, leaving Anna/Michalis to finish off enemy Michalis for the dual quest rewards.
This team also took down the Infernal version of the fight without too much incident, swapping a dancer in to replace the scrub.
-
Okay, so all my saved orbs are spent and now I need to figure out what to start doing to make a properly competitive team. I have two Takumi (the good one is L1, while the crap nature one is L40 w investments so that is fun decision I get to make now). To avoid making more trash units, I was hoping the DL metagaming crew would give some advice. In particular, who to my extra Takumi and Hector to. And also perhaps some advice on what low-rarity units I should focus on to supplement my decent 5* guys.
The List:
Red:
Black Knight
Arden
Joshua
Masked Marth
Lyn+ (Atk+)
Ryoma (Atk+)
Eldigan (Atk+, hp-)
Eirika
Roy
Caeda
CorrinM
Seliph(4*)
ATiki(4*)
Olivia(4*)
Tharja (Atk-, fully SI'd, sigh)
H!Nowi (Atk+, but is Nowi)
Celica (hp+,def-)
Celica (Atk-, hp+, sigh)
Arvis(4*)
Blue:
Ephraim(Res+,HP-, full SI'd buffer)
Nephenee
Effie (Atk+, Brave+)
Fjorm
Fjorm (res+,spd-)
Catria (4*,Atk+)
Ninian
Shigure (hp+,def-)
Lute (spd+,res-)
Reinhardt
BrideCaeda (spd+,res-)
RobinM
Ursula(4*)
Green:
Brave Ike(fully SI'd)
SummerXander
Amelia (spd+,Atk-,some SI)
Amelia (Atk+, spd-,new)
Hector (res+,spd-)
Hector (Atk-)
Cherche (Atk+, Brave+)
Camilla (spd+,def-)
Michalis (4*)
Fae (4*)
H!Henry (Atk-,Res+)
Julia (def-,res+,fully SI'd)
Deirdre (Atk+,def-)
Nino (4*, a couple good nature ones)
Cecelia (4*)
Colorless:
Takumi (Atk-,Res+, fully SI'd sadly)
Takumi (spd+,hp-, new)
Brave Lyn (Atk+,hp-!!!)
H!Jakob (Atk-, sigh)
Kagero (Atk-, Def+, sigh)
H!Sakura (not Atk-)
PA!Olivia (Atk-, sigh)
Genny (def+,res-, L40)
Genny (spd+, hp-, new)
Sakura (some SI, L40)
Lachesis (lol)
Clarine (4*, with lots of SI)
I have a host of good swordsmen and a dearth of everything else. My Horse Emblem game is particularly weak, but Brave Lyn is a new addition that should help. Armor Emblem is in good shape, to the point I'm not sure who to use. My Dragon game doesn't exist except for Ninian. My options for Flier Emblem are three axes and Nowi. Ew. I really love Blade tomes so I am looking at replacing Tharja, but my other two Red Mages have prf weapons so it feels like a waste to use them. Maybe I should just feather up another Tharja? Alternately, maybe I should power up an Eirika/Nino pair for Green Blade? (Or feed Nino to a mounted green mage?)
Any advice is solicited and welcome. I'd much rather ask the DL instead of Reddit.
-
i just use reinhardt because everyone loves reinhardt
everyone
I will note that the venn diagram of Everyone completely encompasses all of Ciatos as well 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
-
Djinn: Well, it'd be a tad uncreative, but if you have a spare Hector and want to make Flyer Emblem, you can steal Laggy's plan and give (vanilla) Camilla Distant Counter and an Emerald Axe+, and watch as she hard-counters The Reinhardt. Goood luck against BowLyn though with a flying team, though. And careful about the problems Laggy ran into with Brave Ike; Ike turns off Flyer Emblem Hone/Fortifies, so if you run a puny Red like Caeda, you'll want to use Goad and Ward Flyers instead. (Or use H. Nowi, but.... Nowi.) Your Blue can be whoever, really, a billion options for Blue Fliers.
If you merge your "old" Amelia into your new Amelia, the resulting Amelia will have all the skills of both. She'll be level 1 (assuming you keep +Atk, -Spd), but that's easily fixed with level-up crystals. (In the same way, if you fish up more 4* Tharjas, you can easily "switch" your IVs by promoting a new one with IVs you like to 5*, and merging your old one into her in a disturbing ritual, then breaking out the level-up crystals.)
Are you SURE your Fjorm is Res+, Spd-? Or do you have two copies? The one you get for free should be neutral.
Joshua seems a good fit for Distant Counter, since his Res is solid. Just... he isn't countering The Reinhardt, and I suspect B. Lyn still rips him up pretty good, so I'm not sure it's enough to merely ruin Red & Green mages day. (I have the same dilemma right now of what to do with a Hector I ripped... not from the Lego banner where he's a focus, but from failing to get a Swift Sparrow / Steady Breath still and getting nothing but off-banner drops.)
Anyway, your "existing" team of Tharja / Ephraim / B. Ike / (any dancer or B. Lyn) looks really solid. B. Ike baits Rein or B. Lyn, Tharja smashes, Ephraim is an angry bard who just got a weapon refinery upgrade. I think a B. Knight / Amelia / Julia / (some other armor) team looks solid as well; Julia baits Rein and is a source of magic damage, while the armors (especially BK) bait Bow Lyn.
-
First of all, who would you like to use? There are a lot of workable units there, so if there are people you'd like to use more, let me know and I can talk theorycraft and how best to use them.
Pairing Nino with either Eirika or Ephraim is great, but if you can get enough SP, blade tomes do even better in horse/armour/flier emblem.
Snowfire's armour emblem team could be improved by replacing both Amelia and Julia with Halloween Henry, who can play both their roles (crushing non-red mages, having Armour March). That leaves you with a third slot which can be used on Reinhardt, who is the best unit in the game and conveniently gives you the entire red/blue/green colour set to check all threats except colourless. Reinhardt can first-strike KO Bow Lyn, and Black Knight can bait him, or you could put Bowbreaker on Henry.
On Horse Emblem, you have both Reinhardt and Bow Lyn, that's... basically all you need. Use Eldigan as a third (Xander is better, but you'll have to wait for the next time his GHB shows up), give him Hone Cavalry and Triangle Adept (or maybe leave Fury, I dunno), and let him bust up any stray tanky greens that Reinhardt/Bow Lyn struggle with (which is basically just Brave Ike; Reinhardt with a limit one-shots Hector) and give them +6 atk/spd the rest of the time.
On Flier Emblem: If you're not willing to use Halloween Nowi, don't run Flier Emblem, as you absolutely need a mage to make it work. Honestly, with your roster, I wouldn't run Flier Emblem much in general; having none of Spring Camilla / Hinoka / Summer Corrin / Elincia / Tana makes it rough.
If you're having trouble with Bow Lyn specifically you can always invest in a raven mage (preferably green, since they also counter Reinhardt). None of the raven users are really that great but you can give their tomes to other units with better Atk have someone who regularly OHKOs two out of colours. Watch for Cancel Affinity, but remember that CA shoves out Sacae's Blessing so you can safely buff against Bow Lyns running that.
-
I like most characters alright. Not a fan of the little girls, though.
Red:
Black Knight
Joshua
Masked Marth
Lyn+ (Atk+)
Ryoma (Atk+)
Eldigan (Atk+, hp-)
Eirika
...I really like having Distant Counter, so BK and Ryoma fit my playstyle nicely. I also like Armor Emblem, so BK is on a lot of my teams. Arden's build looks awesome, but his art is terrifyingly realistic compared to the rest of the characters and I don't want to use him. Joshua and Lyn are my favorite characters of the swordsmen I have, but I like all of the above.
ATiki(4*)
...I just like Dragons and Adult Tiki.
Tharja (Atk-, fully SI'd, sigh) Need a new one, but currently no Atk+ or Spd+ ones.
Celica (hp+,def-)
Arvis(4*)
...Not a huge fan of any of the above, but I like Bladetome mages, so I want one here.
Blue:
Ephraim(Res+,HP-, full SI'd buffer)
Nephenee
Effie (Atk+, Brave+)
Fjorm
Fjorm (res+,spd-)
...Nephenee is probably my favorite character here. But I love Distant Counter, so Fjorm is a good candidate. I spent a lot of feathers on getting that Brave+ Effie, so I'd like to get some use out of her. Ephraim was my first lance-user I ever pulled.
Ninian
Shigure (hp+,def-)
...I like Dragons AND Dancers! So I'd happy using either of these. It's worth noting that I don't have any 5* red Dragons to inherit Lightning Breath+ from, though. So I need a lot of feathers to make Ninian combat-ready.
Lute (spd+,res-)
Reinhardt
BrideCaeda (spd+,res-)
...I like Caeda as a character, and her bride animations amuse me. Lute is fine though. I'm pretty much stuck raising a Reinhardt no matter what.
Green:
Brave Ike(fully SI'd)
SummerXander
Amelia (Atk+, spd-,new)
Hector (res+,spd-)
Cherche (Atk+, Brave+)
Michalis (4*)
...Ike is my favorite character and his Brave form with Urvan is literally the reason I started playing FEH again. Summer Xander was my first 5* I pulled when I returned to the game since launch. I've put a lot of feathers into BraveAxe+ Cherche, so I'd like her to see some kinda use. I just plain like Hector. Not a big fan of Amelia, but she looks useful.
Fae (4*)
...I like Dragons, okay?
H!Henry (Atk-,Res+)
Deirdre (Atk+,def-)
...I love Armor Emblem, and Henry amuses me. I like Deirdre's design and the only reason I'm not settled on her as my Green Mage is because I'm not sure if it's a waste to give her a Bladetome+ when she has a prf weapon. (Julia is also an option, but I'm less fond of her design.)
Colorless:
Takumi (spd+,hp-, new)
Brave Lyn (Atk+,hp-!!!)
H!Jakob (Atk-, sigh)
...If at all possible, I'm using BraveLyn. Not even because she's top tier, I just really like Lyn and this version of her is super-cool. Jakob is nice because I love Armor Emblem. Takumi is... fine.
Clarine (4*, with lots of SI)
...I don't like most of the Cleric options for one reason or another. And I'm pretty sure only the HorseClerics are considered 'good'. No special attachment to Clarine, but she's what I had when I thought 'I have all these clerics clogging up my inventory, can I feed them to someone to make a super cleric?' I do like Serra as a character though, if that's viable.
I also like any character from FE9, but I think that's 5*-only and like... Soren and Titania, who I don't think are considered that usable?
I like any of the PCs from Smash Bros, too, but... I think outside of Lucina, Ike, and SummerCorrin/Robin (none of which I have), they kinda suck?
Just based on your advice, I'd like to do a Horse Emblem team with a Bladetome.
I'm guessing I could do a BladetomeHenry Armor Emblem team too, but my H!Henry is Atk-, so I dunno how good that is. (probably better than keeping him with his current tome, or going Henry-less Armor Emblem?)
Would BraveLyn be a good candidate for Close Counter?
And perhaps my highly-invested-in Brave+Cherche for Distant Counter? (Not sure why Camilla was the suggestion there? Does she exist ONLY to counter Rein? I'd like to use DC and my Green Flier slot to cover more than one threat, even if it is a major common threat.)
-
Brave Lyn's a player-phase unit. She's about murdering units that get into her range extremely dead, especially if you can lure the AI to split its forces so that she can dispatch a lone wolf. She's all offense, so Close Counter is only useful if she survives a single hit - which some powerful physical units won't let her. Furthermore, it'd mean dropping Swift Sparrow, which is key in helping her steal some bullshit kills by pumping her speed into the stratsophere.
I agree with Elf's earlier comment, you want Close Counter on an enemy-phase unit; you bait the enemy with some high-def mage or archer, then mess 'em up on the counter. Boey is the classic example... I *guess* you could do Halloween Henry? I don't know that unit very well (as Elf noted), but maybe. Otherwise, maybe best to save that Close Counter for now.
-
Finish my first project character since I didn't really have much purpose for feathers anymore. Got another 40k and working on Effie next. She's +6. Dunno if I want to meme with Carrot Lance or wait for Berkut to come back for his weapon.
(https://i.imgur.com/sIrxAjv.png)
-
I finally got some 5*'s from the legendary banner! Ike, and....another Ike. Both with IVs identical to or worse than the one I got months ago. So how I have a +SPD/-RES Ike+2. Not bad, but not exactly what I was hoping for.
-
Just cleared my first Infernal GHB.
B. Lucina (Def seal, Sol)
M. Marth +2 (Fury 3, Vantage 3 build)
Clarisse (Debuff Misery build. DB3, Poison Strike 3, Savage Blow 3)
B. Lyn (Atk seal)
Lyn and Lucina are aligned to the right. Lyn jumps out to hit the Blue flyer, Lucina Repositions back. Blue Flyer jumps out first, dies to Lucina counter so no Drag Back. Zanbato Cav jumps out, dies to Lucina counter, who is also healed thanks to Sol. Enemies will shift right. M. Marth needs to be right under Michalis here, since positioning is important with the cramped space. Pull Lucina and Lyn all the way back. Red Flyers go south, Michalis advances, attack him with M. Marth who chops off a hefty amount. Clarisse and Lyn kill the front flyer, Lucina Repositions Clarisse out of harm's way. Red Flyer #2 attacks Lyn, but can't double and kill thanks to Lyn's speed. Michalis bites it to M. Marth Vantage. People gang up on the remaining Flyer, and everyone just sort of chills and waits for the last Blue unit to make his way over, just making sure Lucina is in front to meet his first attack, and everyone destroys him after that.
Probably went in with the wrong seals on Clarisse and M. Marth, but I realized that it was more figuring out the right positioning in that corner more than that. Happy to finally beat one of these.
-
Neat stuff, Eph. I considered Slaying Axe Raven for my mere +2 Raven, but eh, I didn't have an Amelia at the time I wanted to sac for it. I guess I can find some Killer Axe loser and get that onto Raven instead then upgrade it, although I'm not 100% how that works... you can upgrade SI inherited weapons, right? (EDIT: Seems yes, I can upgrade Lightning Breath+ on Ninian. Good times.)
Also, belated, but:
And perhaps my highly-invested-in Brave+Cherche for Distant Counter? (Not sure why Camilla was the suggestion there? Does she exist ONLY to counter Rein? I'd like to use DC and my Green Flier slot to cover more than one threat, even if it is a major common threat.)
Cherche - and almost any Brave unit - is also a player-phase unit. Brave weapons are half as effective on counterattack, so DC not so good, and having something like Deathblow makes her Brave burst considerably deadlier. But there's another issue... Cherche CAN be used to bait units, but she's all Def, no Res. Which is good, actually, unless she's fighting a Dragon; she can bait blue lances and the like. But it does mean that she's not useful for baiting mages on enemy phase; she'll just die, even to blue mages. Camilla, on the other hand, has good Resistance. She can bait Blue and some Green mages, survive, and Distant Counter their frail physical defense.
Short version:
* Close Counter users want to fight melee units, who are mostly physical (barring Dragons), so you want high Def on a CC user.
* Distant Counter users want to fight ranged units, who are a mix (archers & daggers vs. mages & staves). So can go either way here, both Def & Res are useful. But Flyers, specifically, never want to bait archers anyway. So a high-Def Distant Counter Flyer would be good at baiting Dagger units, who are rare and suck anyway. Not really worth.
-
so they made siegbert really gay and shiro really sexy
ciatofe
-
Berkut Infernal:
First off, for those who didn't play Echoes, this is a pretty good honoring of Berkut's maps. In one map, he kinda randomly ganks the team and you start extremely split-up in three different areas. In the next map, he brings along a whole horde of cavalry. The FEH GHB is kinda a combination of them, so well-done. (Of course, Berkut is also kinda fast for the time in Echoes... not so much here.)
Went with Raven+2 (Brave Axe, WoM), BK +1, PA Olivia, and TAR Raven Cecilia. Cecilia & Olivia are probably replaceable with "any tanky or Triangle Adept Green" and "a dancer who can take a single hit from Berkut if on a defense tile." Raven probably replaceable by Quad massive damage types (e.g. Cordelia, Brave Cherche). Olivia & Raven had an S-Support but don't think it mattered. BK or some really tanky DC user kinda needed though (e.g. DC Joshua or supertank Ike or something).
Anyway, BK & Olivia start at the bottom. BK goes to the defense tile, Olivia Blaze Dances him, he stays still. Cecilia starts on the east side and moves south a bit, her whole job is just to distract the other blue lancer, her damage is incidental at best. Raven does whatever in the Northeast side of the map. The Firesweep Bowmen & 2 mages hit BK, but BK hurts the mages back; Berkut has nobody in range (important so that he doesn't charge up an ultimate), other blue lancer goes to futiley swat at Cecilia. BK murders the two mages with the help of Olivia, who ends the turn on the defense tile. Raven Wings of Mercies in and slaughters the bow-cav guy. Berkut hits Olivia (leaving her at 3 HP for me), the other lancer can swat at either Raven or Cecilia but won't kill either. Just cleanup after this, Raven goes on a Blaze Dance / Luna powered killing spree the next 2 turns.
--
Meanwhile, no luck in grabbing a Faye in the "imitate Laggy" game. Alas.
-
The Christmas banner is the first one where I'm planning to just keep throwing orbs at it until it goes away no matter how well I do, because the exclusive units are that damn good for skill inheritance. Alredy got a neutral Lissa and +ATK/-RES Tharja, both of whom are great. Tharja comes almost completely full-formed, so I need to decide how to build Lissa....Brave Axe/Galeforce seems like the most efficient build in a vacuum, turning her into an armored B!Roy, but I only have Goad Armor and Armor March on greens, so I'm not sure I could build an effective party around that.
-
I threw the 60 orbs I had at it. No seasonal units, but I did get a +Atk -Def B.Lyn (who I merged my free neutral Lyn into), a 4* Tailtiu (who I didn't have), and a 5* Luke.
No great success, but I can't complain I guess. I might wait to spend more orbs for the next Legendary Heroes banner.
-
Full Armor banner after I wasted all my orbs on H!Henry and H!Jakob (both ATK-, unfortunately).
Snagged a ChrisLissa on the free pull though. Armor Mage Tharja is really tempting though. I think I'll hold onto these orbs until they announce whatever the new years units will be. Japanese Gacha games go nuts on the new year.
-
Posting this here for non Laggy people.
https://i.imgur.com/pRUcHnM.png
-
Posting this here for non Laggy people.
https://i.imgur.com/pRUcHnM.png
Someone just needs to merge already and get it over with
-
New Years banner annoys me. Not because I didn't get anything, but because we got a Hoshido banner that has...a third Camilla instead of a Ryoma or Hinoka. Camilla you're not even Hoshido. As much as I disagree with it, I can understand why we have 3 Camillas and one Hinoka(the answer is boobs) but why the hell do we have 3 Xanders and 1 Ryoma? Is it too much to ask that we get one Ryoma who isn't wearing the damn chinstrap helmet?
This naturally led to Kier and I talking about a prospective Hoshidian Vacation banner or something to finally let Ryoma and Hinoka get some love. After 10 minutes of throwing memes at eachother on the walk back from the store, here's what we've got:
Tourist Ryoma: Ryoma in khaki shorts, a hawaiian print shirt, sandals with socks, and of course still the fucking chinstrap helmet just for troll value. He's still carrying Raijinto but not using it, he is a mage with his weapon being the same tome that takes photos that Anna keeps trying to get swimsuit pics of people with. Anna is very upset that Alphonse let Ryoma borrow that tome, but she figures once she gets it back she can sell the pictures in it for some cash...except that Ryoma only took a bunch of boring landscape photos instead of any candid snaps of his siblings or any selfies. RIP Anna's ambitions yet again.
Exploration Hinoka: Hinoka in an explorer's outfit complete with Indiana Jones hat, but instead of a whip she'll just brain people with a giant flashlight. It'd count as an axe except I don't think green pegasi are allowed because ~reasons~ or something. Make her a second unit with Distant Counter, the animation for her distant counter is just shining the flashlight in the enemy's eyes.
Dunno whether Sakura or Takimi or Corrin would get the third slot but we all know what the fourth slot would have to be:
<Me> "Of course we'd get Yet Another Camilla for the last spot in the Hoshido Vacation banner because of course we would."
<Kier> "Of course. Clearly this will be Wet T-Shirt Contest Camilla."
<Me> "Spring Break Camilla."
<Both> "Camillas Gone Wild."
But seriously, why no new years Ryoma or Hinoka?
-
If I recall, isn't Nohr more popular? It's like Awakening: they got to milk the boob I mean the popular franchises dry. I just want a Holiday Hector damnit!
-
Man, I just want Nintendo to hurry up and give us proper Nintendo Crossover Units. I want Ranged Cav Swordsman Link and Red Tome Mario and whatever weird stuff they could come up with for Pit, Palutena, Shulk, and some dumb nonsense option like Kirby. Costumed FE characters would also be acceptable. Like... Illyana in a Pikachu costume or something. Or a Camilla for every Smash Bros character! (the most likely option)
-
I am impressed Eph keeps his max heroes count so low. Are you not saving hordes of 4* units for potential SI / merges that you probably won't do?!
Gate/Mei, yeah, Camilla should probably not be getting Another Seasonal form on such a super-Japanese/Hoshidan themed event. She's a combination of low culture big boobs + reasonably liked character, so there you go. I'd argue that Oboro would be a better replacement than Hinoka - Hinoka is pretty bland and can probably go anywhere when time comes for a seasonal variant, but Oboro naturally pairs with Takumi (just as M-Corrin & Azura) and the event is pretty heavy on "dress up in fancy kimonos" which seems directly up her alley. A good fit, if you will.
In the realm of gacha whining, despite thinking Camilla is a bit suboptimal a choice for the spot, gacha saw fit to grant me a zillion Camillas as I searched for Sky Azura. Sorry Palla. Pulling Reds, Greens, and a few colorless, I ended up with 6x NY Camilla, 1x Rando-Red (Tharja), NY Takumi, and 2x Rando-Greens (-Spd Soren & Fae). A ludicrously good rate of getting 5*s (didn't spend THAT many orbs), but Laggy stole all the Airzuras somehow, and she's arguably more necessary for Flyer Emblem. I then proceeded to spend more money on the Radiant Dawn banner where I've gotten precisely bupkis. Sigh.
Djinn, that's basically a different game. I wouldn't mind a Big Nintendo Crossover game (Smash Mobile?) that's ideally non-gacha, but there's so many not-implemented Fire Emblem characters, I'd rather they stick to being an FE game. If anything, a complaint is that they've followed gacha traditions of crazy seasonal variant stuff too much and not done enough simple "here's a normal version of Character X" from an FE game.
I wonder if they'll ever add "skins" to adjust the look/style of a character but not the stats. Probably not when they can just slap some new skills on them and sell it for big bucks.
In the realm of FE HEROES PLOT. I wonder who the Earth "Legendary Hero" will be? It seems obvious that Laevateinn will be the Fire Legendary hero. Options include:
* Alfonse & Azura's dad, because maybe they decide not to do 4 hot anime girlz?!
* Veronica? The end of the new chapter hinted that Surtr & Veronica would soon be fighting each other. I would argue that un-villaining their original chief villain would be dumb, but whatever.
* Somebody new?! Welcome RockSmash The Earthy, who is slow and wields an axe?
Anyway, I'll leave you all with this blessed image stolen from Reddit:
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/f/fe/Oliverka.png)
-
Djinn, that's basically a different game. I wouldn't mind a Big Nintendo Crossover game (Smash Mobile?) that's ideally non-gacha, but there's so many not-implemented Fire Emblem characters, I'd rather they stick to being an FE game. If anything, a complaint is that they've followed gacha traditions of crazy seasonal variant stuff too much and not done enough simple "here's a normal version of Character X" from an FE game.
...you clearly have not played many gacha games if you think -any- of them have enough restraint to not do cross-promotional gacha.
That said, this is the one game where I'd REALLY like to see it, since I'd love to see these characters translated into FEH's battle system. 'Immersion' be damned. They lost that when they made Christmas Tharja and Bunny Chrom. At least give me some actually cool pandering.
-
Snowfire: They couldn't even be bothered to edit Kefka's name in that image? Lazy. And, in addition to your list, I imagine the earth hero could also be Bruno or Loki. More likely Bruno, Loki seems firmly entrenched on Team Villain at the moment. I don't know why I watch the game's plot, it's terrible.
Gate/Mei: Hoshidan characters aren't as popular as Norhian characters relatively. I was very surprised when people started talking about an all-Hoshido seasonal banner and was much less surprised when it turned out to not be all-Hoshido.
I mean I'd certainly be down for a seasonal Ryoma or Hinoka too but as a Camilla fan I'd be much happier with them taking the spot of literally anyone else on that banner. <.< And it's only her third form, which just puts her on par with Lyn/Chrom/Xander and behind Lucina, to say nothing of folks who have multiple gender- or age-states.
Also, there is in fact a green pegasus now: Azura.
-
Lyon Infernal - Man that's a lot of reinforcements.
Don't have a super-detailed strategy for this one, but I beat it with this team:
Camilla (Spring), TA Raven, G Tomebreaker, Goad Fliers
Camilla (NY), Slaying Edge, Swordbreaker, Goad Fliers, Iote's Shield
Azura (NY), Darting Blow, Hone Fliers
Hinoka, Death Blow, Atk+3, Lancebreaker, Hone Fliers
I tried some other things first but there are a lot of anti-cavalry weapons here to make horse emblem unhappy, and the terrain (which is never more than 2 wide) can limit your positioning options... unless you run fliers. So yeah, flier emblem go, with loads of Reposition and Sing to get out of trouble. All offence all the way. I went without healing but it worked well; I only tanked on strong matchups and the biggest damage I had to take was Hinoka withstanding a counter from the sword general. Watch out for Panic Ploy!
Flier Emblem feels like it's gotten really powerful lately (at least if you have the pieces, disclaimer here that both Hone Fliers and mage fliers are still 5* only and mostly seasonal). IntSys keeps taking shots at Horse Emblem (the new trenches in particular), Armour Emblem still suffers from a reliance on Armour March to not feel very clunky, although at least they finally have ranged options. Fliers have everything except daggers and healers now (even a dragon!), make the best use of positioning, and now there's an Iote's Shield seal.
I should really give someone Fortify Fliers at some point, probably to Hinoka when she gets enough SP, as double Hone Fliers isn't really best use of C skills. Although FEH being what it is, a 4:0 ratio of offensive:defensive C skills is... very viable.
-
Reinforcements show up the more you kill of the initial bunch. It's kind of important to not kill the two manaketes at the start cause that's when the archer and mage horse show up.
Flying heroes kind of trivialize this GHB with all the open space you got. I did it with New York Azura, Halloween Nowi, Tana, and Myrrh. Funny that Myrrh can fit into flying and dragon teams. Just running around with +spd Nowi Fury/Desperation one rounding basically any red or green unit, sing and do it again.
Myrrh I think is probably the best hero in the game right now thanks to Iote shield seal. Cancels out her arrow weakness and walls every unit aside from Falchion users (who I haven't seen in months) and Zelgius/Black Knight.
-
I've managed to put some hurt on Myrrh with a Res-up support with Brave Ike. Which is good because I don't run any Falchioners either.
Got some fun new pieces to play with.
Finally hit an ATK+ unit with Mounted Eirika, so now I've got a pretty solid core Horse Emblem team with BraveLyn(ATK+), Reinhardt(ATK+), and Horserika(ATK+). I think I could toss Flying Azura in there for a ridiculous amount of Player-phase pain and mobility. No defense to speak of though.
Not sure how to build this new magic Eirika. I'm thinking Fury/Desperation would essentially make her a red Reinhardt. Probably need to spend some time properly SI-ing these horse guys now. Reinhardt is still using his base Special...
Anyone have any fun blitz-team suggestions?
-
Beat the Infernal Lyon fight. That was a lot of enemy units. I guess they give a reinforcement for every enemy killed so there is a constant 6 enemies on the field until the reinforcements run dry?
I ran NY Azura (Wings of Mercy/Hone Fliers), NY Camilla (Wings of Mercy/Ward Fliers), Myrrh (Fury/Desperation/Brash Assault/Goad Fliers), and Cordelia (Fury/Escape Route/Fortify Fliers/Galeforce). Went up the right side of the map and relied on Reposition along with teleporting singing and Galeforce to control position and turns. Myrrh started off tanking hits till low HP then she switched to killing things dead (She KO'd both Armor Knights) while tanking blue enemies who tinked.
Good fun.
-
So I am a feather hoarder and finally decided to spend some of the, oh, 100K+ feathers I've been sitting on to make a Cavalry Emblem team. Still in the process of actually leveling them up and getting all the skills, but here's the eventual plan...though suggestions are welcome for any alternate abilities I could use!
Xander
Weapon: Siegfried(of course. Why would you ever give up a Distant Counter weapon?)
Support: Reposition
Special: Bonfire
A: ???
B: ???
C: Hone Cavalry
Pretty standard Xander, I guess. Unsure what to do for his A or B skills, I'm...pretty sick of Fury and am already using that on someone else anyway, so not that.
Camus
Weapon: Gradivus(see above)
Support: Reposition
Special: Moonbow
A: Fury
B: ???
C: Goad Cavalry
Hey look it's Blue Xander(only faster and actually takes physical damage sometimes). Tossing Fury on him because I had 1 4* Hinata left to give it with and he seems a solid user of it since he can't benefit from the Goad Cavalry as he's the one it's on!
Cecilia
Weapon: Gronnblade+ (RIP my first ever feathered up unit, the Nino that carried me through much of the earlygame)
Support: ???
Special: Moonbow
A: ...Attack+3? It's innate at least.
B: Axebreaker(can't count on Xander of the lollerskates speed to ORKO axes, after all)
C: Ward Cavalry
So full cavalry buffs Gronnblade+ is...silly. Just. Silly. Splatting Red Mages in one shot kind of silly. Overall MVP of the team rn, but Attack is the only thing she does well. Still, that's some damn nice attack.
Oscar
Weapon: First Bite+ (...look. I had that Bridal Charlotte and refused to use her out of principle. And Oscar is a cook. Also Oscar beating people to death with a cake spoon is fucking hilarious. Not sure which Refine I should do on it, though. +Spd most likely?)
Support: ??? (I could stick with his Rally Spd/Df maybe?)
Special: Moonbow(herp derp moonbow for everyone)
A: ???
B: Lancebreaker(it's innate, after all)
C: Fortify Cavalry or Ward Cavalry (so I have both of these on him, thanks to getting the latter on a second Oscar and then merging. I don't think Fortify buffs stack with First Bite buffs, so when I went with that I thought prepping to double up on Ward was a good idea)
I had a few other options I could have used, but Oscar is awesome so I used him. Sorry Titania, you got passed up for squinty.
It's a solid enough base I think, and I do have Ward Cavalry Olwen also around if I need to swap her in over Camus or Oscar for 2 mage cavs. A lot of skills I'm kinda "what do" on, though I'd love to put stuff like Distant Defense on either Xander or Camus but lack anyone to sac for that. The main idea here is for Cecilia to swing in and obliterate something, then for Xander or Camus to swing her back and get ready to tank on enemy phase. First Bite Oscar can ideally get some help with buffing defenses in and also hide behind the black armor ascot duo for enemy phase stuff, but he can also take a hit at least if he can't get swung back due to terrain.
-
I would say that Draw Back works pretty well on Cecilia, especially Blade Cecilia who you usually don't want tanking yourself.
I run TA3/Raven Ceci, but Blade Cecilia might want Distant Defense for the A Slot just to ensure she can survive a Rein burst? Maybe throw in Bowbreaker rather than Axebreaker (let Xander handle the Axes) if you want to survive some BLyn builds (probably not Brave Bow+, unfortunately). Unfortunately DD is a pretty rare A slot. You could use DD Seal instead, of course, although Xander kind of wants that too.
In the same way, I might consider Swap rather than Repo on one of Xander / Camus to get Cecilia out of trouble if she has to poke her neck out to get a kill... Horses can have very constricted movement due to forests & other obstructions, and Swap "always works" unlike Repo which can get blocked sometimes.
If you don't care about Black Knight, you can sac him for a Steady Stance on Xander if you don't want to use Fury. BK is awesome though, so care.
Normally I would say to stick Lancebreaker on Camus, but you already have Oscar doing that, so maybe that's overkill? Bowbreaker maybe?! Except for the part where it doesn't help vs. Lyn anyway (unlike Cecilia).
-
Very solid team. Suggestions for your empty skills:
Xander: He's mostly an enemy phase unit in my experience, so many of the usual suspect A skills are less good on him than normal. Fury's obviously good, but if you don't want to go with that... it depends what you're willing to sacrifice. Any of Close/Distant Defence, Steady Stance/Breath, Warding Stance/Breath, Fierce Stance, Bond skills all strike me as good choices. I recommend Quick Riposte as his B skill so you can kill people dead. Getting doubled is actually okay with him, if it's something he can survive, because that gives you a turn 1 Bonfire! If you're willing to give him the Quick Riposte seal, Vantage is a good choice too.
Camus: Quick Riposte is a good choice here too, though you could also run a breaker if you wanted. Normally I'd suggest Lancebreaker but it seems like Oscar has you covered there.
Cecilia: With Cecilia your main goal with your A skill should be to make sure you kill foes who nullify cavalry/mage buffs like Brave Ike, Brave Lyn, forged Wolf-tome users, etc. Offence-oriented skills like Death Blow, Darting Blow, Swift Sparrow, Life and Death all help in this regard. Bowbreaker might not be a bad idea just to have a better Bow Lyn counter, since she ignores Distant Counter. With Moonbow she can ORKO most Bow Lyns even without Goad Cavalry support.
Oscar: I definitely find Reposition/Draw Back/Swap significantly more useful than Rallies (especially Reposition), but if you're short on Selenas and Barsts and SP you can consider using his innate. Definitely give him Fortify Cavalry, you want Cecilia having access to the full wrath of +24 bladetome carnage.
In general I'd recommend Goad Cavalry over Ward Cavalry (FEH stats aren't equal in their value; +4 spd alone offers almost as much durability as +4 def/res to be honest). Extra Fortify/Hones are also an option. The only exception is if you have something very specific in mind you need someone to survive. Offence just outvalues defence a lot at the moment, especially since a number of mechanics such as Vantage-limits and Wings of Mercy punish you for almost killing instead of outright killing.
-
Re: Ward Cavalry - I didn't know if multiple Goads stacked with eachother, so I went with one of each buff(and figured the Ward would help the tanks, well, tank.) I could probably get Goad onto Cecilia as well though. Run Hone/Fortify/Goad/Goad.
Re: Xander Skills - yeah, Distant Defense would be ideal...but I don't have it. RN that skill is exclusive to 5* units that I did not draw. The problem I'm running into is that all the good skills for him are on chars I only have 1 or 0 of, and if I have one I'm also using them. Fjorm and H.Nowi's Bonds, BK's S.Stance and Br.Ike's S.Breath, all great choices for him but also all on chars I'm still using in other teams(or will be using once I put together a decent Flier team, not gonna sac my only flying mage before then). I will probably give him the Distant Defense Seal when I'm using horse team, though. B Skill I was also thinking either QR or Vantage, and QR is prolly the better choice with the DD seal sure. Though I only have 1 source of QR I can sac(one Subaki, so that's only QR2 without another 20K feathers to 5* him first), while I have lots of sources of Vantage 3. Hmm.
Re: Cecilia - I hadn't considered L&D actually. Mostly she's swinging at stuff that can't counter anyway, or explodes on the first hit so I'm not that concerned about the loss of Def/Res. I can swing L&D2 easily enough, would have to feather up another Hana to 5 to give 3(does anyone give L&D3 at 4*, actually?). Though I DO have a 5* Hawkeye around I don't give half a shit about, would L&D2 or Deathblow 3 be the better pick? Another question there, with L&D, will Br.Lyn OHKO making the Bowbreaker kinda pointless?
Re: Camus - Bowbreaker is a thought for him, sure. Br.Lyn does just ignore the distant counter, but if she plinks at Xander then Camus can just roll up and garuntee the ORKO on her on player phase. That's kinda how I've been dealing with Br.Lyn in any team, position a tank to take the hit and then swing someone up that straight up OHKOs her physically frail ass. Would also let him deal with other archers in non-arena settings just fine(GHBs, TT, etc). I do only have the 1 source of QR I can give out, though when actively using the team I could toss the QR seal on Camus and the actual skill on Xander easily enough.
Hmm. OR since I can swing Vantage3+QR Seal and QR2+DD Seal. One on Xander, the other on Camus. Seals are transferable so I just swap the good shit to my Armor team when using that, or my Horse team when using them, etc.
Re: Oscar - I did already put Reposition on both the ascot boys, but I could put Swap on Oscar easily enough. Still fits the idea of protecting Cecilia in a setting where Reposition doesn't work.
Thanks for tips. still need to figure out what to A skill on Xander but eh, I'll come up with something eventually.
-
Multiple goad and ward skills stack, but fortify and hone skills do not.
Blade tomes only count the fortify and ward tome buffs for the damage increase (i.e. blue number stats).
-
Sothe has L&D3 at 4*, if you've been pulling lots of colorless lately for some reason.
By the by, what are the chances of Camus's GHB coming back soon? I missed him the first time and he seems like a ridiculously useful unit... (And I love Distance Counter and Close Counter units...)
-
The #1 complaint of the online fanbase has been Camus and Xander not returning after their GHB runs. No acknowledgement yet from IS.
-
Xander is in fact returning this month. No word on Camus yet, but I have to imagine he'll show up sooner or later.
Camus is fine but he's far from essential; in particular, Reinhardt(/Olwen) makes such a strong case for a blue cavalry unit, so I've got a bit more respect for Xander simply because he's a different colour. (To be clear, Camus is solid and I'm not advising Gate remove him, just telling Djinn not to feel bad about not having him. I never use him myself.)
Re: Cecilia - I hadn't considered L&D actually. Mostly she's swinging at stuff that can't counter anyway, or explodes on the first hit so I'm not that concerned about the loss of Def/Res. I can swing L&D2 easily enough, would have to feather up another Hana to 5 to give 3(does anyone give L&D3 at 4*, actually?). Though I DO have a 5* Hawkeye around I don't give half a shit about, would L&D2 or Deathblow 3 be the better pick? Another question there, with L&D, will Br.Lyn OHKO making the Bowbreaker kinda pointless?
Bow Lyn nullifies buffs (Hone/Fortify) on enemy mages via Mulagir, which means Cecilia is limited to her base damage output against her. You won't have enough power to OHKO regardless of your choice of A skill (it takes 63 atk to OHKO neutral Bow Lyn), so Bowbreaker is needed to double. Of course, if Lyn is running the Brave Bow instead, she doesn't have this effect, so yeah you can collect your player-phase OHKO pretty easily. Either way in this specific case it doesn't much matter what your A skill is.
EDIT: I will say that if you're planning on using this as your primary arena team (or at least 3 of them as a core thereof), that you should always go with a v3 version of a skill over v2 when you can afford it, since it affects your scoring (not much, but every bit counts). If you're planning on using the team for general use elsewhere, though, this distinction doesn't matter.
-
Well I wasn't thinking Cecilia would OHKO Brave Lyn. I was wondering if the Life&Death def penalty on Cecilia would make Brave Lyn OHKO Cecilia, making Bowbreaker's stopping of the double kinda pointless. But yeah, I can do Deathblow 3 instead easily enough. Also I probably won't do this as my arena team, no. I tend to just hover between 17/18 eternally because I don't care enough about arena to put the energy into competing at the higher levels, tbh.
Also, I just build this horse team and THEN I draw Mage Cav Eirika while fishing for green orbs on the FE8 banner and being given nothing but Red and Colorless to choose from. :V
-
Well, now you have Horse Emblem OPTIONS!
-
I managed to draw two consecutive Tanas after trying to draw her for months every time she was on a banner. You know how each character from Heroes has their own FE Heroes personality trait that they play up? Well, Tana's is "my brother doesn't respect me". That's... kind of depressing, actually.
-
So the new music game mode, Tap Battles. is there any reason to do them on Hard if you've cleared them on normal? It doesn't seem to give any extra rewards.
-
Hard and Normal give each. So you want to do it on Hard to get the rewards.
-
Hard and Normal give each. So you want to do it on Hard to get the rewards.
Don't think I've ever seen any rewards for clearing a level on hard that I've already cleared on normal.
That said, just Cleared Hard+Expert mode Floor 100, and am pretty happy about it, cause geez, that was way harder than all the other floors. (Narcian himself was fine, cleared in two tries once I got to him. But the level was just nasty).
-
Haven't seen any rewards from Hard mode either.
I also want to chime in that I love the Rhythm game itself on Hard/Expert. Just need some better songs to really get some challenge out of it. Haven't tried Floor 100 yet, though.
--
Got an ATK+ Dapper Hector to rule the meta for a while.
...still can't clear RobinF's Infernal GHB though.
-
The new GHB quests are a good time. I've cleared them all so far with my cavalry and flier teams, and usually infantry (which benefits from having lots of options, though doesn't have the great support skills or mobility). My armour team has more problems. They keep buffing armour (the new seal from the current Tempest will help) but I still find them very clunky.
I broke down and burned a Nino to gave Spring Camilla Gronnblade+, so now I have a choice between erasing all blue/colourless and having >80 attack before supports and goads. I wish I had Close Counter to make the latter build really shine, though.
-
Managed to clear the All-Armor one for Ursula on Infernal. Only have 4 armored units to work from though, so it was all about finding proper positioning to wall/avoid magic nukes.
-
Sad that Tharja didn't win the Legendary Hero contest. Considering that the game tried to rig the contest for Ike, though, it was pretty close. Now I have a new character who isn't even good skill fodder. Sad.
-
Stuck with some Ike trash from bad FE without bishies. At least Tharja would understand the need to be blood sacrifice for the Xander Army.
-
Sad that Tharja didn't win the Legendary Hero contest. Considering that the game tried to rig the contest for Ike, though, it was pretty close. Now I have a new character who isn't even good skill fodder. Sad.
Same. I pulled Legendary Ike on the first banner, so I voted Ayra round 1, and then Axe-zura. Then on the free pull for this legendary banner "Welp, no Blues. I guess I'll go Red. .... Legendary Ike. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF"
gfdi
Both the new ones are neutral. I forget what the old one is.
-
The only thing I'd really want off the current lego banner is more PA Olivias to merge, and lol at the odds on that, especially since the other colorless pulls I don't care about. Pretty meh.
That said, the game clearly loves setting me up with Tanas, as I got another one off-banner recently on the Corrin-M / Azura banner. Not complaining about that!
--
The Takumi GHB totally kicks my ass. I might just admit defeat and use a YT vid strat. I will say in the realm of "themed" playthroughs that suggest what IS could do with GHBs with just a tiny bit more work, I liked this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPU4eSfzef8
Pretty cool, especially if you played Conquest. Don't turn off the music in enemy phase, voice act some lines (just steal the audio from your own game!), have character-specific combat conversations, etc. Seems reasonably easy to add, except for maybe the voice acted part if FEH is in regions where Fates wasn't released... but then use the JP tracks or something.
-
Managed a full 7 streak without losing a single character in tier 19 arena, for the first time. Dunno if it'll be enough to let me go up to 20 considering Grima is on the banner and lots of folks will be running hueg BST teams, but eh. Still pretty happy with it.
Nowi/Ayra/B.Ike/Azura team. Nowi...is a lot better than I thought she was initially. And I have a couple more sitting at 4 star so I'm tempted to build them up and start piling pluses on her. Nowi/Ayra is also a fantastic support I'm finding. Ayra kills practically everything that actually threatens Nowi, Grima and V.Hector with Wary Fighter are the only real problems but Ayra+B.Ike have been enough to clear those out so far.
-
Just in case you didn't know (your post makes it ambiguous): your arena tier has no effect on the teams you face in the arena (and thus how difficult it is to have a deathless run).
Beat Infernal Takumi at last. I tried a lot of messing around with Bow Lyn to kill the clerics quickly but eventally said fuck it and retreated to using Flier Emblem. For the first time that I can recall I actually ran non-Triangle Adept Gronnraven (to get around Cancel Affinity) and it got the job done against the colurless enemies in this map.
Team was my standard Flier Emblem team of both seasonal Camillas, Hinoka, and Flying Azura. Just realized it's an all-Fates team, fitting for this I guess. I don't expect much of this to be replicable. NY Camilla has Iote's Shield, S Camilla has Darting Blow/Gronnraven+ and Distant Def, Hinoka has Death Blow, Lancebreaker, and Close Def, Hone Fliers/Goad Fliers everywhere. Eventually I'll get Fortify Fliers onto my main team.
Turn 1: NY Camilla and Hinoka destroy the right barrier, leaving NY Camilla in range of the bow knight. S Camilla swaps with Hinoka, is refreshed, and kills the gravity cleric. Bow Knight attacks NY Camilla, one Takumi attacks S Camilla, staff user heals Takumi.
Turn 2: S Camilla finishes Takumi, NY Camilla kills the bow knight, Azura kills the blue mage who just appeared. Hinoka positions for buffs. The staff user attacks S Camilla (for very little), the sword wyvern attacks NY Camilla (for very little, sadly Guard keeps her from dying to the counter).
Turn 3: NY Camilla kills the wyvern, S Camilla kills the staff user, Hinoka kills the sword user creeping in from the back. Skadi beam fires, hitting S Camilla and Hinoka. Lance cav attacks Hinoka but barely fails to kill, knife-user tinks S Camilla.
Turn 4: S Camilla kills the lance cav and the thief (with Azura's help), and from here on the reinforcements are done (just a Takumi and two cavs who appear this turn) who are easily kited and destroyed.
-
So the latest trailer shows Chrom's Sealed Falchion being effective against dragons of all colors: Red, Blue, Green, and Colorless.
Huh. Colorless Dragons are a thing now?
Since this is an Awakening banner, is it possible we're getting a fourth Awakening unit who would be a Colorless Dragon as a GHB/TT unit? Perhaps Nah? Another Nowi or Tiki? Female Grima? Straight up Naga herself?
I wonder if a colorless dragon like Naga would be able to use Cleric assist skills?
Also, this implies the first melee-range colorless option. Interesting!
There's only so many more weapon types they could even introduce at this point, though. There's still melee-range physical Colorless damage. And then long-range RBG physical damage.
-
The upcoming TT unit is Gerome. But yeah, safe to say colourless breath is coming at some point. The black dragons of Tellius, maybe?
-
New mode where you can use heroes from your friend's list.
Ciato you bum, put QR3 on your Tana.
-
I'm pretty happy with Renewal on Tana... although this may be affected by her having the highest merges by far of my Arena team so she's likely faster than everything anyway. Helps offset the Fury procs and there's definitely matches I've won by leading the enemy on a merry chase while waiting for regen to kick in.
-
Using Friend units? I wonder how that will work.
Also, can someone edit the first or second post with Friend Codes?
-
The TT unit is Gerome, whom I've never heard of but is apparently Batman.
Anyway, the new update added a couple of mission types, one of which.....actually kinda feels like Fire Emblem? Rival Domains is way more chaotic than a proper FE because of the way enemies can warp around the battlefield, but there's also a decent-sized map and more than four player units to manage. Good times.
-
Yeah. I'm digging Rival Domains and the way it uses friend units. Easy to pass for rewards, but also challenging for something like a Deathless run
-
The endless streams of reinforcements make a deathless run a bit hard.
But MT and AoE effects are amazing. Elise hitting 6-8 enemy units for 24 damage is pretty sick.
-
I managed to snag Exalt Chrom, who is beautiful and paladin-y and yet... his quotes are super goofy in that way that makes Chrom loveable. The only Chrom I need now is Christmas Chrom. I have bad luck drawing greens that I want.
-
Join the freaking club. *Throws third Vanguard Ike into a bin marked NOT GUNNTHRA*
-
Gunnthra still seems kinda lame. Whatevs for her, I'm still happy with Cecilia, who is arguably still better in some ways anyway. (Missing out on Chilling Seal is too bad, but having much easier access to merges / good IVs is non-trivial.)
Someone posted a theory on Reddit that made a lot of sense to me... Paladin Chrom & Fallen Robin-F might have been banner swapped? Paladin Chrom sure feels like a "Legendary Hero", comparable to Ike10 / Promoted Eph, and Robin really doesn't. And the Awakening banner, well, Robin & Morgan naturally go together, especially if these are Bad Future Morgans as suggested by equipping Grima's Truth and the like. It'd have been a Red/Blue/Colorless split rather than double Red as well.
-
Gunnthra is still a horse mage and therefore automatically good. None of the legendary heroes are omgwtf amazing units in their own right (Fjorm is probably the best; great stat build for a Distant Counter unit and Atk/Def Bond is a great A skill), but the blessings they provide can be useful (and prop up arena score too).
Both Morgans are cheerful/friendly so I dunno if I buy the bad future Morgan theory. They could have swapped the characters easily enough, but they may have wanted to give blue-haired dude lords a rest from the Legendary Hero mantle.
-
EDIT: Oops, wrong thread.
On topic: The Fell Robin battle is ridiculous.
-
Today in "dammit, monkey paw": in a 24-hour span I pulled the two sword users I was most bitter about missing up to now, Zelgius and Arya....and each comes with a free SPD bane! Dammit.
-
They both have some pretty sweet A skills at worst.
Since I haven't posted in a while, random thoughts:
-Wasn't a fan of Grand Conquest at all. Rival Domains gameplay is pretty inferior to standard FEH gameplay, 4 maps about a week is about as much as I actually want from that. (Also, it not giving out Exp/SP/Hero Merit is stupid.) The map overlay stuff simultaneously feels needlessly complicated and totally out of your control, since it really just depends on how active your teammates are.
-The GHB quests are pretty great. Finished all of the original set, just have Camus left from the current one (missed the day he showed up last week). The new ones are certainly easier since you can choose who you use + it's Lunatic instead of Infernal. On the Camus note, it's nice to finally get more copies of Goad Cavalry, between him and Finn.
-Tempest Trial reward boost + having a choice of 8 units is great. The "recommendation" the game gives seems borked though - even with a full team of L40 5* with skill inheritance it's telling me to try Level 30. Don't insult me, game.
-
I liked Grand Conquest inasmuch as it was free loot and I enjoy Rival Domains pretty well. Misery Howitzer Clarisse totes finds her niche in both! I would agree though next time it just needs to be ONE session of maybe three days rather than 3 sessions of 2 days apiece, and you can form teams with your friends.
At long last I finally have Bunny Sharena. I've been throwing 100% of the free orbs I've gotten all month at this banner, plus 40 saved orbs at the start. The game must've known it's the first time I legit wanted a specific unit. Ended up with Neutral IV
I got 5 other 5*'s on this banner. 2 Alfonse, Titania, Elise, and Zelgius. As well as a Sigurd on the free pull on one of the later banners for 6 altogether. Titania-First Alfonse-Sigurd were all in a row too.
I suppose I can't complain after that kind of haul, but man was that frustrating. Now I have a huge backlog of 5* units to raise...
-
Yay Sopko. ^_^
-
I have learned that the AI is better at the rival domains/grand conquest battles than I am, so I just toss those on auto and let it go. Tends to work out pretty well. That doesn't really change the fact that like Elf I don't find the gameplay on those very fun, but it lets me get the rewards without doing something I find unfun at least.
I have a dragon team now, with options no less. Kana(F), Grima(M), Grima(F), Ninian and Nowi as options. Kana(F) is amusing for me, since she's got 40 defense after her weapon upgrade, with +4 Def on enemy phase from her weapon property and +6 Def from Ninian's fortify dragons. Slap the Quick Repost seal on her and watch as things bonk into her 50 defense and cry. I let an L.Ike swing into her in Arena, no defense panels involved. Kana survived, the L.Ike did not. Was p.great.
Of course running a full dragon team is just asking to get dunked by Falchions, so I don't do that in arena. STill fun to have as an option though.
-
You can put Triangle Adept (+ Swordbreaker if you want) on your blue dragon and shred those Falchions (unless they run Cancel Affinity which I've literally never seen). Naga might be more of a concern since I don't see any red on your team?
Legendary Lyn Infernal - Pretty tough! Beat it with 3/4 of Flier Emblem (Airzura + Spring + New Year Camilla) and QR Swordbreaker Lyon who is spec'd to kill archers generally and still kills Lyn as a bonus.
Turn 1 attacked the lance armour with Spring Camilla, dance her out of danger. Turn 2 she finishes off the lance armour, is danced, and OHKOs the bow knight (this needed the Attack+3 seal), while NY Camilla kills the sword knight. Turn 3 I pull back towards the northwest corner, with NY Camilla killing the axe dragon, while Lyon kills the sword infantry (needs two attacks, dance does it) and is the only one in range for Lyn to suicide on. Airzura subsequently baits the lance pegasus who doesn't have Firesweep while Lyon kills the other bow knight. Red mage is the biggest issue but by now I have the enemies under control enough that I can afford an extra turn to dance NY Camilla over to one-shot him, since nobody else on my team likes him at all. Cleanup from there.
Kana GHB Infernal - I thought was significantly easier, standard Flier Emblem abuses it as always. Same team as before minus Lyon plus Blarblade Summer Corrin. Turn 1 opening move was to have Corrin one-shot the red dragon then get danced to safety, easy to pick off the enemies as they come to me from there.
-
Talked about this a while in chat, but I'm trying to find a satisfying Arena team core to hold Tier 18 without too much weekly effort.
Finding out more about how Arena scoring works just made me blanch at doing anything other than using like 3 well-merged units + whatever bonus unit I can get my hands on.
So my current main team is:
L.Ike, M.Grima, Hardin, X
This covers magical/physical damage, gives me bonuses on Earth days, and everyone has innate DC and great physical/magical soak (and Aether, yummy Chroms). It lacks a ranged attacker, and merges are a cute daydream.
Given my penchant for Enemy Phase teams, I'm looking at a merge-able variant of this:
L.Lyn, A.Tiki, Effie, X
I happen to get 4 L.Lyns, so I can actually merge her decently high (and without using feathers!), and this gives me the Wind Blessing bonus option on Wind days. It does mean that Spd Tactic isn't being given out to 3 other units, though. And that Spd Tactic on L.Lyn herself isn't useful in my Arena core (though obv. I could equip it for other content where it would help.) She does have a great stat spread and can handle Reinhardts. And gives me a ranged attacker over my current team. Not sure what to run for a C Skill or Seal if anyone has good suggestions.
A.Tiki and Effie are there to be Enemy Phase units. I don't have Vengeful Fighter for Effie (because I'm not sacking my only Grima for it. Xmas Tharja, sure. If I had her.), but I think I can still run an Aether build for her to make her a decent sustain tank. Slaying Lance+ helps. If I can eventually get another copy of VF, I'll use that, but not sure about a B skill. Maybe Vantage, to proc Aether before a potential kill? Wary Fighter? Either way, I DO have one extra copy of DC of a spare ValentineHector, so she's getting that, along with as many merges as my feathers can allow.
Effie plan: Slaying Lance+ (Def?Res?), Aether (maybe Sol?), Distant Counter, Wary Fighter?Vantage?, ???, Distant/Close Defense?
A.Tiki is just gonna run the standard Lightning Breath/Aether/Warding Breath set to be my Res tank. Not sure what to use for her B/C/Seal. She's covering my magic damage, but is scared of Reins and Falchions. Hopefully Effie and L.Lyn can support her somehow to patch that up?
The fourth slot is for bonus units, but I'm leaning towards preference for Dancers/Buffers, and shying away from Infantry units if I -do- run a Tactic skill. Flyzura is my kneejerk reaction for when Bonus doesn't matter.
The sheer amount of feathers needed to put together a single team is kinda giving me pause about just choosing something without consulting other players. For reference, out of my 4* options that I wouldn't mind using (since there's no way I'm gonna invest this much in a character I hate, no matter how good they are in the meta), this is the potential list:
RED:
Adult!Tiki
MaskedMarth (potentially +4!)
Caeda(+1 already)
Eirika(+1)
Lilina(+1)
Tharja(+1)
Roy
Marth
Olivia
(LegendIke, potentially +2)
(Lyn+1 already)
BLUE:
Effie(+2 already)
Reinhardt(+1 already)
Cordelia
Clair
M!Robin
F!Corrin
L'arachel
(Sing!Shigure+1)
GREEN:
Soren
Cherche
Camilla
Cecelia
(Legend!Lyn, potentially +3)
(H!Henry, potentially +2)
COLORLESS:
Leon
Virion
Saizo
Kagero
Sothe
Clarine
Priscilla
Serra
(Genny, potentially +5!)
(Brave!Lyn+2)
(H!Jakob, potentially +2)
If any combination of those stands out as particularly strong or interesting or synergistic, please advise~ I'm tired of being scrub-tier.
-
If you just want to hold tier 18, you don't need merges at all - just doing full skill inheritance will be sufficient.
With that out of the way, for Arena to not be frustrating, you generally need the following:
- Some way of dealing with Reinhardt. A green unit with at least decent RES, or a blue unit with high RES, and either Distant Counter or a ranged attack handles this nicely. You can get by with lowish RES if you give this unit Triangle Adept 3, though you'll need to keep them very far away from red units if you do so. If you're going the ranged attack route, a tome is slightly preferable since Reinhardt's RES is lower.
- Some way of dealing with Brave Lyn. A unit with at least decent DEF and either Distant Counter or a ranged attack handles this nicely. You'll very likely want Bowbreaker 3 on this unit to keep her from doubling you (and force a double on her) as well. A Raven tome will reduce the damage you take from her. Pairing it with Triangle Adept 3 will do so even more, but you then run the risk of running into the rare Lyn who runs Cancel Affinity and those will ruin your day.
- Note that the above two roles can be filled by the same unit, for example, Cecilia with Gronnraven+. Also note that if you can only fit one, dealing with Brave Lyn is far more important than dealing with Reinhardt, as she's far more common to face than him.
- If you're running a dragon, especially if they're a green dragon, you should strongly consider running some manner of strong blue unit to deal with Falchions.
- Enemy Phase builds, in my experience, are generally preferable. However, it's a good idea to have at least one ranged unit for times when you can't safely bait - but not wholly necessary if your units are durable enough.
- It *is* absolutely essential that you have all skill slots filled with a maxed-out skill. In other words, whatever you use, every unit should have an assist, a special, an A skill, a B skill, a C skill, and a sacred seal.
- At the tier 18 level, movement assists are generally preferable (Reposition, Swap, Pivot, Draw Back, etc.) Which one you use is a matter of personal taste; I usually prefer Reposition for most units and Pivot for armors, but your mileage may vary.
- Special choice is usually best dictated by what you want to do with the unit. Moonbow and Glimmer are always generically useful; Glimmer is marginally better for units with high ATK, and Moonbow is marginally better for units with low ATK. Astra is a significantly slower but stronger variant of Glimmer, if you have some means of significantly speeding up your special charge; generally speaking if you have enough ATK to make Glimmer better than Moonbow you won't need the extra power Astra offers. Luna is a slower but stronger variant of Moonbow, possibly worth using if you can speed up your special charge. Units you intend to use as defensive walls can also consider Noontime, Sol or Aether; Noontime charges faster than Sol but heals less. Aether combines the effect of Sol and Luna, but has an extremely long cooldown, which can make it a bit scary to rely on. Units with very high DEF or RES may want to consider Bonfire/Iceberg respectively (or their slower/more powerful versions, Ignis/Glacies).
- The A slot is generally about improving your stats. Fury 3 is almost always generically useful here and is available from 4* Hinata, making it relatively cheap to inherit. Some units may have better skills in their base kits, of course. Keep in mind the role you're going to use the unit for and consider synergy with the other passives. Life and Death 3 offers a little more power than Fury 3, but is more expensive and is extremely risky; I'd generally only use it if you have some way of preventing your targets from counterattacking you, such as Desperation/Brash Assault or a Firesweep weapon. Close Def 3 and Distant Def 3 are generically good for tanks, but both are rare for actual inheritance, and you're more likely to access them on your sacred seal slot. Triangle Adept 3 is a double-edged sword; it makes you essentially autowin when you have WTA, but also essentially autolose when you have WTD. It's a very strong skill, but don't put it on all 3 of your core units or you risk being walled by mono-colored defense teams.
- The B slot tends to be more utility-based. Units with low SPD often like Quick Riposte 3 here. Breakers are also a common and good option. This is probably the hardest slot for which to make general recommendations.
- The C slot tends to be for team buffs and debuffs. These are really a matter of preference, just make sure the slot is full. Threaten skills can be really good on tanks, Ploy skills on units with high RES (except Panic Ploy, which wants high HP). Note that Panic Ploy's value is significantly reduced in PvE content outside the arena due to inflated enemy HP, though.
- Don't forget to make sure every unit you use in arena has a sacred seal of some kind equipped, it does affect your score.
- One out of Alfonse, Sharena, Anna, or Fjorm will always be a bonus unit in any given season. If you build all four of them up with at least basic builds, you can be guaranteed to always have a decent bonus unit. Fjorm is the strongest of the four in general outside of arena.
-
I'll second most of Reiska's advice. Adding some of my own:
-I find not having ranged damage is extremely limiting; sometimes you need to first-strike erase a problem and the lower your team's threat range, the harder that is to do. The introduction of Bold Fighter makes some units extremely hard to bait (Grima in particular because few people run high-res reds). You can of course get by with entirely melee, but it's harder IMO; for an arena team, you want diversity where possible, which includes ranges, colours, and physical/magical damage type.
-Bow Lyn gets destroyed by triangle adept raventome. Reiska mentioned Cancel Affinity counters that, but it's been a good while since I've seen that, and as long as you check for it, you're fine, since such Lyns can be fed to a DC unit unless it's a Firesweep build.
-Don't use Astra. As a slow-charging limit it's garbage, because it can't help you out much in unfavourable matchups: multiplying a small number by 2.5 is still a small number. Use Dragon Fang, Ignis, or Glacies if you want to use a slow limit. Generally, though, faster limits are better, with the main exception being that Aether/Galeforce have some pretty unique/nifty effects, and also do help out your arena score since that system is stupid. Slower limits are also justified if there's a particular matchup you want to win: you build it killing someone else and then use it to destroy your preferred target.
-I don't like Sol or Noontime much either. If you really want sustain based on limits, go for Aether. Not only does it hit harder (which matters a lot), but because it hits harder, it also heals more due to the healing being % based. If you want a sustain-based unit, also seriously consider Renewal for your B slot.
-Death Blow, Darting Blow, and Swift Sparrow all deserve mention for the A slot. Swift Sparrow in particular is almost a total upgrade on Life and Death; it doesn't help on enemy phase but LAD generally doesn't belong on enemy phase units anyway. It's rare though. The other two are common and generally do more than almost any other skills at improving ORKO potential on player phase.
-Speaking of which, in case you didn't know: ORKO is god. Leaving enemies alive at low HP is bad in this game, because (a) it allows them to set up Wings of Mercy combos you have to watch for and (b) allows them to charge limits which you may have a hard time stopping them from activating if they run Vantage. Ensure you ORKO by aggressively seeking advantageous matchups (if you're running enemy phase builds, plan for how you can bait enemies into them), using atk buffs of both types, ensure you double using Quick Riposte, Vengeful/Bold Fighter, Breakers, or just high speed. Attack and speed are considered stronger than other stats for a reason (though some units don't need speed... all but weird utility units want atk).
-Adding to the above, fill your C skills almost entirely with buffs to attack and speed and you'll have an easier time. Threaten Def/Res are much less generally useful since they only work in limited circumstances (they won't help you kill a Reinhardt you bait from across the map) AND they only work on one damage type. If you have access to them and they apply to your team, species buffs are by far the most effective C skills in the game - Hone/Goad are nutso in particular, but even the defensive ones are good enough to consider using.
-Relatedly, -blade tomes should be mentioned, as they have the highest damage potential of pretty much anything. A non-infantry mage receiving a Hone and Fortify buff of its movement type will have a crazy +30 to its damage. Infantry mages can't do as well but with the introduction of Tactics the gap is closing on mixed teams.
-If you're super-duper-serious about arena score, look up the costs of skills and try to use ones which cost more. It can make a pretty bif difference on Sacred Seals in particular, where Atk+3 and Armoured Boots score awfully low. I do second Reiska that Reposition and other movement abilities should be used over the more valuale assists (double rallies) despite the latter's higher scores, because they're just that good.
-I do not recommend building the Alfonse/Sharena/Anna just to have arena bonus units. Even if they alone would make you go from 18-19 to to 19-20, say (which they won't) and you never have any other relevant bonus heroes (which you will), it takes 133 weeks for such an investment to pay off, feather-wise. (by which point the system may easily have changed) Build them only if you like them.
-
I'm writing this setup under the assumption that you want a primarily enemy-phase team as you said.
A. Tiki is a Def tank, not a Res tank. I would just build her as your dedicated anti-green unit, e.g.:
Lightning Breath+ (Def refine) / Reposition / Moonbow (EDIT: see my second post)
A: Triangle Adept 3
B: Swordbreaker 3
C: Flexible (Panic Ploy 3 is worth noting)
S: Quick Riposte 3
Preferred IVs: +Atk/+Def, -Spd
This build will:
- Aims to have enemies double her, so that she can finish off with QR into Moonbow
- Destroy any green that looks at her, at any range, thanks to TA
- Can handle the majority of B.Lyn builds thanks to the Moonbow finish
- Swordbreaker allows her to survive a Falchion hit and should kill in return as Falchion users (and sword users in general) have bad Res. Beware Alm though, his Falchion has a Brave effect and WILL murder you
For blue, I just don't find Effie very good, and I hate the idea of being constrained by an armored unit without Armored March. You can run Armored Boots to mitigate this some but it's still really annoying and only works until she gets hit, plus takes up a valuable Seal slot. I suggest instead you simply run Reinhardt as your dedicated player-phase ranged nuker. He has reach and he has damage (cavalry emblem buffs are not necessary to make him good).
Dire Thunder / Reposition / Luna
A: Death Blow 3
B: Flexible (usually a defensive breaker, like Bowbreaker to survive B.Lyn, or R Tomebreaker to kill W.Tharja as NEB suggests)
C: Flexible
S: Attack +3
Preferred IVs: +Atk, -Spd/-whatever
This build will:
- Blow shit up, it's Reinhardt.
If you really want to run EP Effie though:
Slaying Lance+ (Atk refine) / Pivot / Glimmer (or Draconic Aura)
A: Distant Counter
B: Wary Fighter 3
C: Flexible
S: Armored Boots (Quickened Pulse if running Draconic Aura)
Preferred IVs: +Atk, -Spd
This build will:
- Aims to OHKO with the counter Glimmer. If you want to go all-in on this and give up your movement from Armored Boots, QP/Draconic Aura should basically kill anything but is only good for one time
- If she doesn't OHKO, you're in trouble, as NEB mentioned not killing in one round is very bad in this game
- You can also run Distant Def 3 and get multiple DC baits out of her, but as I mentioned before I find the positioning an issue
- Running a flier with Guidance makes running an armored unit in non-armor emblem WAY more viable, if you decide to go that route, but those are inherently player-phase oriented teams
Your green options from your list are pretty meager and running a stock L!Lyn from the selection you provided looks like your best bet. The good news is that if you like enemy phase builds she's basically good to go out of the box.
Swift Mulagir / Reposition / Iceberg
A: Laws of Sacae
B: Flexible (like Reinhardt, can mainly take a defensive breaker like Bowbreaker or G Tomebreaker; Quick Riposte if you REALLY want to make sure you double; Guard for a more generic defensive ability)
C: Flexible
S: Distant Def 3
Preferred IVs: +Atk, -whatever
This build will:
- Assuming 2 allies nearby, 54 Atk/45 Spd/31 Def/43 Res when baiting ranged units. Blue mages don't have a chance, and anything but the most dedicated/buffed blade setup will fall if they're green. Red mages not out of the question either if they get doubled. Can probably deal with non-Brave Bow B!Lyn setups too, assuredly so w/ Bowbreaker
- Bow user, so you snipe flier units that aren't Myrrh
- A LOT more awkward during player phase, but should still be able to double and kill most blue units (can't counter blue melee, so you'll basically have to)
C slots for the team: Honestly none of these units need Speed. So make sure Hone Attack is around, especially for Reinhardt. A. Tiki doesn't mind getting more Def either. I'd personally do Hone Attack on both A. Tiki and L!Lyn, and Fortify Def on Reinhardt. You can also swap out Hone Attack on A. Tiki if you're feeling comfortable with your team positioning for buffs for Panic Ploy, as she's a good user of that.
The advantage of running Reinhardt:
- You have a mobile ranged nuke that can torch any enemy unit that walks out of position and reliably murders the vast majority of non-green units, greatly increasing the chances of you winning an arena match once it becomes 4v3. I cannot overstate this benefit, it is HUGE.
- Reinhardt kills most red/blue units in player phase
- A. Tiki counters green units, red sword users (even non-Alm Falchion users), bow users
- L. Lyn counters blue/green mages, fliers, can kill blue units in player phase
- The gap here are red mages, but they aren't that common in the meta and Reinhardt will still generally kill any of them on initiate. W!Tharja is one potential problem that stands out; you may need to soften her up to the kill, or pre-charge Luna on Reinhardt on another victim.
The advantage of running Effie:
- Better BST for matchmaking (armored unit vs ranged cavalry... although if everyone is skilled up you should be able to hit T18 still no problem, assuming deathless Advanced streaks)
- Enemy red mages are less awkward to deal with during EP (Effie will just OHKO them, problem solved)
-
Good stuff, just a note to add that if you're worried about red mages or W Tharja with Reinhardt, R Tomebreaker is an easy solution.
-
One mistake I did notice is that I forgot about Lightning Breath's +1 special charge penalty. This means Bonfire won't be ready in a single round even when A. Tiki is being doubled, which is actually a bit problematic. You can alter a few things about the build:
1. If you have Steady Breath, that's an easy shoe-in. I honestly don't really think Aether's that great (sustain is really not important in arena, if one unit gets a good combat session off without dying they've done their job 90% of the time), but yeah you can run it with a Breath. Worth noting that if you do stick with Bonfire and Tiki OHKOs someone on the counter, it gets charged and lets her blow something up with it on her turn if she wants, so there's still an argument for Bonfire there.
Losing TA means she's more vulnerable to green mages though (doubling and killing her is perfectly viable, and they can sport enough Res to not die in one hit). Fortunately L!Lyn should be able to handle green mages too. If you run this setup I recommend G Tomebreaker on L!Lyn as Steady Breath's +4 Def will allow A. Tiki to reliably kill basically any bow user.
2. You can use Warding Breath if you don't have Steady Breath, all of the above still applies (and makes her a bit more of a mixed tank) but be wary of green melee w/ Brave weapons and/or Bold Fighter as they can activate supers and kill her, and will generally not die in one hit.
3. You can keep TA as I suggested to keep her dedicated to anti-green and replace Bonfire with Moonbow, which is a lot less power BUT is still generally enough to win her engagements in one round, which IMO is key to her identity. It lets her consistently kill B.Lyn still, which is the important breakpoint to me here.
-
Red:
No Steady Breath. But I have two extra Warding Breaths, which is why I was looking at a RES tank build in the first place, not realizing that Tiki's RES was lower than her DEF (I had mentally transposed the numbers initially.)
I like Aether as a Special in general because it also means I can use Tiki outside the Arena, which... if I'm gonna pour a hundred thousand feathers into her... would be a nice side benefit. (She also rounds out my Dragon Emblem team as the only Red Dragon and all...)
That said... I mean, the Specials are pretty cheap compared to the feather investment, I can just give her multiple Specials and equip the most appropriate one given my fourth member and how that affects the team composition. Aether, Bonfire, Moonbow, and... whatever the other potentially good option was? Glimmer maybe?
Blue:
I do have a pretty great Armor Emblem team already, so I will hold off on making a Super Effie, and instead pour the rest of my feathers in Reinhardt at your suggestion. Helps that the +1 version of him I have is already in my Horse Emblem team, so it'll be pulling double-duty as well. He's got tons of SP just waiting to be spent if you can think of some good alternate skills to toss his way?
Green:
I'm... pretty happy to have a good justification to just merge all these Legend Lyns because I'm pretty sure that was the dream of 15-year-old Djinn, costs be damned! A shame about Spd Tactic 3, but "WE SHALL FIGHT FOR LADY LYN!!!"
So thanks for all the suggestions all around!
-
Aether's fine with a Breath in your A skill, and it'll give you more arena MMR since it's a high SP special. The sustain aspect is just not that important in arena, but you're not doing yourself a disservice bringing it there or anything. I wouldn't bother learning multiple specials if you're going to inherit Warding Breath/Aether for sure, just run with that. For that setup I might lean towards running Guard instead of Swordbreaker with it set and leave Falchion users to Reinhardt, so that A. Tiki has insurance against things killing her with a special charged on their second attack. (She can still chomp non-Falchion sword users fine.) I would also recommend +Def IV on this to make up for the lack of Steady Breath or TA3 buttressing her defenses.
Horse Emblem Rein is exactly the same as the Rein I gave you except his C skill is a Horse Emblem buff (Hone/Goad probably.) The one personal change I do is that I run Heavy Blade 3 as his seal instead of Attack +3 and set Dragon Fang, though this absolutely necessitates a +Atk Rein, preferably merged, so that Heavy Blade reliably procs. With Dragon Fang charged Rein kills basically any unit in the game, even high Res greens. It's pretty dumb. For B skill, Chill Res is absolutely the best on him IMO, but it's locked to S!Catria.
-
praying to FEH jesus for groom xander to complete my xander collection
-
Is Groom Xander actually an upcoming thing, or is that the part you're wishing for?
That said, mono-character teams should be the new meta. We need four variants of all PCs! (Or 5 in Lyn's case, I guess?)
Warding Breath Tiki isn't working out as well as I'd hoped for non-Arena content. Maybe if I have her S-Support with L!Lyn? On a Wind Blessed day? Maybe I just need better C-Skills?
What would be a good default C-skill for L!Lyn? Spd Tactic 3 isn't helping my core of Tiki+Rein. (Flyzura is the usual 4th, so I guess she might get some slight defensive benefit from it?).
-
Having two EP-centered units is, in my opinion, kinda cumbersome for non-arena content, since you're generally outnumbered and you don't want to always have to position yourself such that you need the enemy to come to you. It also doesn't synergize great with a dancer/singer since those really emphasize offense. A. Tiki is a pretty arena-centric unit in general (she was considered low tier for a long time before the tank build was made.)
If you want to keep using her I'd probably replace Airzura with another high powered ranged unit (B!Lyn is obviously good if you have her), but if you want to keep a dancer on your team (which I do favor) then I suggest finding an offensive red mage to replace A. Tiki. Tharja and Lilina both work; I would favor Tharja since blade tomes are still dumb, and you can actually make use of Spd Tactics on L!Lyn by doing so (2 infantry, 1 horse, 1 flier). Tactics are very good on blade tomes since they change the numeric bonus into Attack, and give 6 instead of Hone's normal 4.
Tharja would be built like:
Raourblade / Reposition / whatever (Moonbow/Glimmer default)
A: Swift Sparrow 2 (best, expensive) or Death Blow 3 (next best option) or Darting Blow 3 (free)
B: Bowbreaker 3 or R Tomebreaker 3 (probably don't need Swordbreaker 3 with Reinhardt around)
C: Hone Attack 3
Run Spd Tactics on L!Lyn, a combination of Hone Attack and Fortify Def C skill/S seal on Airzura, and Fortify Res on Reinhardt to maximize your blade tome output.
-
Is Groom Xander actually an upcoming thing, or is that the part you're wishing for?
Sadly not yet.
-
That kinda makes it less of an Enemy Phase team then. My Airzura has crappy IVs and I don’t even like Azura as a character so I’d rather not build a team around her, especially if it changes it to a Player Phase team in the process.
I actually already have a Bladetome Tharja team that I used heavily before. It’s fun sometimes but it gets irritating in the harder content to me. Especially with Panic Ploy floating around.
-
Addendum to Laggy's post, Defence Tactic is a seal which can power your mixed-team blade tome user further.
My own personal experience is that player-phase-teams, or a mix, perform a bit better generally - easier to more consistently get the matchups you want. Somewhat a playstyle thing of course. It's nice to have a mix of units available for different types of content in particular, but I'd have at least one dancer + player-phase-oriented team as a go-to for some of the game's tough content. Dancer + Reinhardt + Bow Lyn with cavalry buffs is a classic for just deleting things. (These days I use Flier Emblem.)
-
::Nudges Shale to change his lead if he's gonna be on Team Alfonse::
-
Ended up getting both Summer Elise and Summer Innes at the end of their respective banners, both with +Spd IVs. Innes has 43 Speed with a Forged Beach Banner+ and it is glorious. I think I'm gonna give him Deathblow and Desperation to make him an ungodly killing machine. Not sure what I'm going to do with Summer Elise yet.
I have the following summer characters now: Xander, Camilla, Elise, Leo, Corrin, Tiki, Frederick, Gaius (lol), Tana, and Innes. It is great to have such serious members of my army. (Not listed as part of the Very Serious Army; Halloween Henry, Halloween Sakura, Spring Chrom, Spring Xander, Spring Lucina, Spring Kagero, Spring Sharena, Bride Charlotte, Bride Tharja, New Year's Camilla, and New Year's Azura. Next I need Halloween/Maid Xander and obviously Summer Tibarn.)
-
I got Summer Innes early, and he is absolutely a killing machine. +Atk for me instead of +Spd iirc but that's fine too.
-
He is really really good. It is awesome, because original Innes is only so-so. (One of the best infantry archers!! lol)
-
Infernal Tiki - Ended up using Horse Emblem for this one. The trenches mostly serve to funnel the enemies, but don't interfere with using horse mobility to own the space around the southeast of the map.
My team:
Xander - reasonably standard + Hone Cavalry. He can safely bait the horse archer and one mage who appear in the east, and tanks the axe cav too when he shows up.
Reinhardt - Death Blow 4, +10, Goad Cavalry, Red Tomebreaker. OHKOs the tanky swordsman on turn 1 (this is hard to do without some setup monkeying), then baits the first red mage and KOs with Red Tomebreaker. He can kill the sword pegasus as well. The red dragon who appears near the starting point was a bit of reach for mine, but fortunately Elise was able to do just under 20% of its HP allowing Reinhardt to finish without triggering its Brazen skill.
Gunnthra - Fortify Cavalry. Chilling Seal helps wreck some enemies, and in particular lets her safely KO Tiki at the end of the fight, though for me at least it did take a slight def buff from someone else to survive the Bonfire counter.
Elise - Hone Cavalry. Patches up others in the marathon fight.
Most enemies are ranged so having all four characters able to dish out ranged counters was nice.
-
Infernal Tiki
Oh no! Lady Tiki has been mind-controlled and is busy attacking her allies from her throne!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zDW3gtCXWmyWJshbA
--
...yeah, that was pretty exciting! Also my strategy immediately went down in horrible flames on Abyssal, but reasonably rewarding to get it right on Infernal.
Elise: Dazzling Wrathful Gravity+ & Savage Blow SS (and Recover+ for basically full-healing for this squishy team). Good for grinding the cramped-up hordes down and controlling the flow of cavalry units charging in through the center pass. Also Drive Atk 2 for +3 Atk (arguably shoulda sac'd a Legault for Atk Tactic? Though sometimes I had Atk buffs from elsewhere and the Drive Atk stacked).
PA Olivia: Support bot with Def Tactic SS, Hone Spd 3 for +4 Spd (ARGH needs to be Spd Tactic eventually... dangit Archer Lyn, give me your soul some day), and Blaze Dance. The Defense & Speed boost on a Dancer definitely made a lot of enemy attacks survivable that wouldn't be.
Deirdre: Divine Naga, QR3, Spd Ploy. Yeah, dealing with a train of For Everyone! buffed units is lame, as is having to avoid the key location two squares down from Tiki. Let's just kill her turn 1 instead with Divine Naga. This requires Elise hitting the Red Swordsman then getting Dance'd to double Savage Blow Tiki first, but after that, Tiki's OHKOable even on the tile (well, with the help from Drive Atk as well, of course). She's very bad at dealing with the swarms of red mages who can often double & kill her through her good resistance, but weirdly good at killing or at least hurting the various low-Res archers with Quick Riposte counters. She also plays a key role in killing the Blue Brave Lance+ dude as well as the Red Manakete who spawns in the rear.
Anyway, hmm, I need a red non-infantry unit who doesn't turn off Tactics and can remote-kill the Green Cav Mage on turn 1 on the counter. And ideally hunt down all the various nasty red & green mages; maybe not always via counters, but maybe via doubling and eating their wrong def stat. Yeah, DC Summer Tiki it is. I end up having to switch off Iote's Shield to Close Def so she can survive the BRave Lance guy better, but she takes out various key mage targets on player phase, especially the dang Raourblade+ cav mage, while killing tons of green mages & the dagger dude on enemy phase, and having long low-damage duels with the dang Red Flyer & Red Swordsman.
I took a look at Abyssal, but the stats be pretty crazy. I'm certainly not getting a T1 kill off on, and I suspect a bunch of enemies that Deirdre barely survives while horribly damaging before now just kill her. Might be taking a pass on that one.
-
Infernal Aversa
Beat this, it's pretty fun/different. Aversa's Night means that you get panicked and debuffed if you ever start your turn beside an ally, so avoid that or find a wy to counter it. I ended up using Nina as the centrepiece to do so, which is kinda fun since I got her (somewhat) recently.
Team: Reinhardt (standard), Nina, Flying Azura, NY Camilla (any red flier will work)
Formation:
R_A
N_C
First turn is the key since it's the only one you can use buffs. Nina draws back Reinhardt forward just to activate her own Spd/Res Link, letting her reach 45 speed which doubles Aversa and the mage near her. Reinhardt kills the low-res archer, Camilla repositions Azura forward then Azura dances for Nina, Nina kills the Gronnwolf mage and sits in Aversa's range. This might be trickier to replicate with a slower archer but I imagine it can be done, maybe with a combo of G Tomebreaker and Quick Riposte if you don't take too much damage from the mage, or perhaps just Darting Blow/R Tomebreaker.
After that the rest of the fight is mostly cleanup. Having two fliers is really useful for dealing with the mountains and forests. Reinhardt has Lancebreaker so explodes the several lance-users which show up, and of course reds hate him forever as usual. Nina mostly avoids trouble from here on (she retreats back to the south due to all the reinforcements that show up in the north). Dancing good, the red flier tanks a couple key axe-users.
-
Aether Raid Defense thoughts while it still doesn't matter too much:
* Every single damn attacking team has Aversa on it, so don't bother with Hones, Fortifies, Tactics, or Bladetomes. Ploys can work, but Fortress Level/Bonus Unit stat inflation makes it chancy unless they're on the likes of Micaiah. It's all about reliable Drive X, Goad X, and Ward X. (Since attempting to evade Aversa's Night is basically futile.)
* Now that Grails exist, go ahead and eat Walharts for Chill Def if you need to. Chill Def/Spd/Res seem like the most reliable debuffs for the mode.
* Set your units up so that it's hard to bait just one away (I have no idea how this will be viable once we get to 5x & 6x Defenders). You're making your own personal GHB here; you want to have any square an enemy steps on potentially be threatened by 2/3 of the color triangle as well as both magic & physical damage.
* Dancers are good, Guidance skills are good for the usual "hard to predict enemy movement" reasons.
* This won't matter until later, but 5 potential attacking teams = a tryhardy enough attacker can potentially bring specialist weakness-hitters for Dragon Teams, Armor Teams, Flying Teams, etc. If you can, try to avoid getting completely owned by this.
Here's my current setup, featuring the rare usage of Ward Fliers Robin-F:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QtNZlpGVsF6bd7a6MzGfAlO7MAbe7he669O2OqLDxQr8kuIvmBehurDMcIHk4k4yLLLePEQ_XWKAqxpy-t5c4dl3hiuubx-ltP63t9vZvzY9Aw1LwqEWsP6bvlHvkH3qqehsRqz4QEKYLLjJzSNSI2a3N5V30JramePzmBb_LANZ7DD8IqrQ3U0pHE_1wA7JABpXllLu3O5DDle5CN4CJVvvt_fPht7rJzeWfnuln1-7MG5ksXp3f_RXLbnuMZv-Rbe8dsjrzQHCTwBoTMw2MRUMo3OJcpu_0yRxsz4A3o_k441e87xIsjLT-ZQmtfCeH0-FXvmItsQvPXBC7t8wDqouYiJnhkTnEWPWjgdt8qMuXLqy_h_xukqV8bFyL2tmxpJ2kd6qbVllPnyri6NO5V8HRwyWUKRzmWSk1nUD0gl6eAP0JsFTqLKWkgs8nnkXIpE0ifef1eCXzABPsmJXcG3mAl1lLDHjbuV0PXNk__LE72UoPjh850QwgJNBxjO3ZrSN6CyTtIy8_p3xtQweuHECZnx0qB1Dmrf2STTSwf4UO8xRjH7A1fTDNpoQGr-yJguSiHbg57UY9bN4u9xS-59EMz5LpeWCvL1JKyIwBztJNPc9UxYjcwfIcU6rfoc335a_5vi9OVHoailO-14QOxAfiA=w808-h1436-no)
Enemy Phase units up front; Y. Tiki runs Iote's Shield SS, Robin-F runs Dragonskin so that I don't insta-lose to archers, both have a distant counter effect (Tiki via DC, Robin via her weapon). Range-2 Glass cannons with Flyer Formation in the back; Summer Camilla has it natively, Summer Takumi has it on a Seal. Can presumably do similar tricks with Bow Hinoka or maybe Elincia. This way all the backline can always get to anywhere in the frontline and threaten units that wander into range. Once we get to 5x Defenders, I suppose I'll throw a NYE Azura hiding in the backline as well. Everybody running Goad Fliers except Robin who's running Ward, good luck turning that effect off.
-
My scumbag AR defense map setup is now ready! It's been a work in progress in my head for some time and I wanted to write about it.
Before I dig more into specifics, I'll go over some general analysis of how AR Defense works. Your goal is to:
1a. Annihilate the enemy team completely
OR
1b. Stall out the enemy team to a loss
2. If you can't, inflict as many casualties as possible
1a is obviously the hardest goal to accomplish. Players on offense don't have the limitation of having AI control their units, and on top of that AR offense allows you to field from up to 5 pre-made squads in advance, with the advantage of being able to preview the enemy defense map and unit setup to fully capitalize on that. There are some handicaps of course - the map itself is still presumably going to cater to the enemy defense's setup, and offense teams have the burden of needing to run a bonus hero for maximum point gain - but minor overall; you generally assume offense will still win in a vacuum if the players on both sides are equally skilled. Wipes happen generally due to an egregious mistake on the attacking player's part.
1b throws an interesting wrench in due to AR's 7 turn limit to victory, and works in tandem with 2. These goals are not mutually exclusive as attacking players seek both to minimize their losses (to gain maximum) Lift while still going for a win. In the playtesting of my defense, I found that it was fairly viable to win if you were immediately willing to take a unit loss to the initial bait or attack, but I am hedging that people will play more greedily than that and aim to exploit it. The aether buildings serve as an incentive to this strategy as well, as people want to destroy them before combat ends and that adds an additional complication that sometimes can result in non-optimal play in the name of greed.
I concluded I was going to aim for stall. My heavily invested units are both horse emblem specific and extremely common in the meta; they obviously are going to be expected by anyone worth their salt. I wasn't quite ready to spin up a whole new defense team from cloth, though, so I figured I'd stick to it and work in whatever solutions I could to counter the most obvious meta answers.
The main units (B.Lyn/Rein/dancer) are lifted straight from my arena defense, where things work a little differently (typically scoring any kill there will net you a successful defense). However they still generally serve well since scoring a kill on the enmy team often snowballs and immediately mitigates Lift loss. Without the need to save a slot for a bonus hero I threw in Veronica (again another very common meta pick, for good reason) as well (more on that in the unit specific analysis).
My last unit, a new addition in unlocking the 5th slot for defense, was initially an awkward decision point. 4 units is a very ideal defense formation that you can preposition together and set up specific threat zones (in AR defense your team does not moved until provoked). Adding a 5th (and eventually 6th!) unit, I feel, can actually make formations less threatening if it results in an easier, less risky bait/initiate for the attacking player. I then realized that stall was probably a viable strategy, though, after watching one player on a replay completely stomp over my team and then subsequently fail to win because they got too greedy chasing the aether buildings and couldn't kill my last (harmless) dancer with their remaining units in 1 turn. So I set out the goal of finding a unit that would be an absolute bitch to kill by the most common units in the meta (as it turns out, all of those defense meta units are also great on offense, so: anti-Rein/Lyn!) and also could not be easily baited out to disrupt the rest of my team's formation. This thought sprung up after fighting an enemy team that literally had housed in an L!Tiki in a corner with buildings in an obvious bid to try to make landing the final blow as painful as possible. It didn't work because Reinhardt still handily one-rounds her, but the idea was good.
-
So here's the map:
(https://i.imgur.com/3WPckUZ.png)
Spring Breeze was my pick; there are better maps if you're looking to be anti-cavalry specifically (trenches and forests), but this is a solid one because walls block all unit types. From anecdotal experience cavalry and infantry does look to be the most common (I haven't seen a single dedicated flier team, just one-ofs like Aversa and flying dancers).
So we'll talk first about buildings. Buildings do do stuff (Catapult, Tactics, and Panic are my choices for most useful on defense, in that order), but that is, I believe, honestly their secondary function in the grand scheme of things. Their MAIN function is simply to take up space, delay the enemy team into wasting time/being possibly confused about positioning and corral your formation into doing what you want it to do in the ands of the AI. When they introduced the quest to add optional ornamental buildings I was honestly thrilled because I think those are frankly almost as good as the actual buildings, without costing aether stones to build.
Of note here is the Fortress, which is indestructible. This serves basically as a wall tile and is -the- most important building to consider placement. You can see here that I use it to house Surtr in, effectively making it take considerable effort to actually get through and attack him. This ties into the overall plan to stall the enemy team out and also avoids the rest of the team from taking off into unfavorable attacking AI mode just because someone poked him in the other corner.
A ton of buildings are dedicated to the left side to emphasize this. To actually successfully reach Surtr, you have to - at minimum - destroy the Healing Tower (which is a stand-in for whatever the bonus building is for the week, if it isn't already represented), almost certainly deal with the Heavy Trap, and then blow up both the Tactics Room and the Panic Manor. All of these tiles are in the threat range of the rest of the team. It's more or less impossible to provoke Surtr without triggering the rest of the team (and to win, you still DO need to at minimum clear the path to him, since he'll happily sit in that corner no problem if you don't break him out.)
The right side of the map, on the other hand, is scant! This is because the right side is complete bait. A team could split push, sending most of their team to the right and one person to wittle away at the buildings and traps on the left, but it's a tricky endeavor; you really want at least two people to test those traps, and against ranged horse threat range you actually tend to need three (Repoing/Dancing). To push down the right successfully you pretty much have to be ready to clear the entire squad there in 3 turns tops, which I frankly just don't think most teams will be able to accomplish without eating a unit loss at minimum, which makes the likelihood of killing Surtr on time that much lower.
The two frontline units are Veronica and Azura. The Catapult protects Veronica and Reinhardt from being hit by an enemy team's Tactics Room, which would otherwise cripple their threat range (Veronica specifically is of crucial import here; Reinhardt isn't terribly bothered). Ideally I would protect Lyn and Veronica, but to make their threat ranges identical (which is absolutely essential) I can only cover one. The Catapult is also strategically positioned two tiles south of Veronica instead of just one to force a player into destroying it if they want to snipe her; were it just one tile south of her, a player could ignore the building and also choke off Reinhardt's threat range by leaving it up. Creating an open battlefield for more threat range and also forcing the player to waste an action blowing up the building is win-win all around.
Azura doesn't care about being hit by gravity due to being a dancer, and is covered by the Bolt Trap. Were someone to test the Bolt Trap, Lyn and Veronica threaten two tiles away from it, so a single Reposition actually doesn't bring anyone out of attack range at all. You need multiple Repos/Dances, and the terrain makes that tricky even then, such that I don't think it's actually practical to avoid being attacked. The most ideal situation for an attacker is if Lyn is gravity ployed by a Tactics Room and they expose someone who can tank Veronica after the movement shuffle; but even then, Veronica is best suited to punish an enemy team that's clumped up, as they unavoidably will be, and will also be in position to get danced.
Of note - a common meta setup is to have a melee cavalry with a Firesweep weapon and Lunge instead in Azura's position, essentially creating a triple-unit threat zone (2 ranged units adjacent), and replacing Reinhardt with the dancer spot there instead. I thought about this, but because I didn't have any candidates I'd be happy with in that role I stuck to what I'm using, although it's certainly a good formation and I could revisit it in the future if it doesn't feel like Reinhardt pulls his weight.
-
Veronica and Lyn are obviously the units I want the enemy team to be scared of. My Lyn runs Firesweep, so if they opt to bait there's no counter-kill happening under any circumstances. Since they're both colorless, they're very vulnerable to Raventome (and the most common Raventome unit is Cecilia, who also hard counters Reinhardt) so I built them specifically to be able to handle that situation. Lyn runs Cancel Affinity, and Veronica forgoes her Prf for a Pain+ instead. This ensures that pretty much any Cecilia build WILL die if they both hit her, as Veronica will do 10 minimum no matter what and Lyn can kill from there in a single hit, so even Bowbreaker won't be enough. Cecilia would otherwise easily run over 3/4 of them without much issue and is an extremely common pick on AR teams, so preparing against her is very important.
(https://i.imgur.com/5jRzDXm.png)
Veronica's splash damage means any clumping will be severely punished, and frankly she can just flat out kill people of mediocre Res stats by doubling even with a 10 Mt weapon, which at effectively 45 Spd (39 base + 6 from Atk/Spd Solo 3) happens frequently enough. And if they live, they're eating 24 at the end of combat regardless. The threat of a Lyn and/or dance followup makes this prospect extremely dangerous to bait without a unit loss. She is the artillery of the team, which is why she gets the Catapult-protected column to make sure she always has the threat range.
Notably, she has no heal assist set, and this is deliberate. I originally ran Restore+ to cleanse off Panic as a way to charge up Miracle and counter Aversa, but the AI simply prioritizes healing too much even after offense AI has been triggered, and it is far more important for her to attack. Plus no one on this team aside from Surtr is tanking shit anyway.
Her Prf is still very good - I thought about whether discarding it was really the correct choice - but the stat swing still gets spoiled a bit by Aversa/Tactics Room and, ultimately, 4 Mt is not that huge a loss over the tremendous potential of damage that the artillery build gets. And a lot of my early kills in my previous defenses involved people just getting stomped on by her splash so I was sold on keeping it in the end. There's some argument that Maribelle could be better (trades 3 Spd for a lot more Res), but doubling's very important so I think she still shines even without her Prf.
(https://i.imgur.com/SfGsLIf.png)
Lyn, aside from running CA to spoil Raventome, is there to clean up whatever Veronica splashes on. Anyone unfortunate enough to get doubled by her and isn't packing serious Def is of course also at risk of simply dying; she runs QP+Moonbow to emphasize this threat as hard as possible. She's sort of whatever after her first attack and isn't expected to live past that, but it's a guaranteed attack that cannot be countered. People do also occasionally fail to kill her in one hit, which is of course terrible since it's very unlikely she'll be doubled. I waffled a lot on the C slot, since Goad rarely kicks in with the AI's control, and experimented with Atk/Spd Smoke for a bit but decided that this team was too heavy on offense to really take advantage of either. So the rare occasion where Goad makes a difference is probably more relevant, although I'm still unsure on this.
Rally Attack may stick out as unusual, but it actually serves a specific purpose: should Lyn be hit by Tactics Room, she will spend her first action using it (usually on Reinhardt) and Azura will prioritize dancing her immediately. Her second action is NOT subject to the gravity ploy, which means she is free to murder the Cecilia that just baited Veronica. This is a specific scenario I tested thoroughly to make sure my team doesn't bite it to Gronnraven, and it consistently works.
The ornamental building left of Lyn deserves an honorable mention - during playtesting I found out that Azura would retreat back to that tile if it was unoccupied to dance Lyn after a Rally Attack, which of course pulled her out of position and was undesirable. I had the Healing Tower there originally, but that meant an enemy Catapult could blow it up and cause that scenario to happen. Ornamental buildings, meanwhile, are immune to Catapult!
(https://i.imgur.com/uZaXTyp.png)
Azura sits squarely in her spot with double Drive Attack which will conveniently cover all of the zones that Lyn and Veronica will attack from if baited. Wings of Mercy is a common B slot option for dancers, but given the ball lightning nature of this team I opted for Chill Speed instead to increase the likelihood of doubles. Aside from that she is mostly replaceable by any dancer but I already invested/merged in her, and hey she has a good Res stat with Distant Counter so she can make enemy Reinhardts' lives miserable and shrug off other offensive-mediocre units (like enemy mage dancers or dragons that don't auto-double). There are certainly endgame scenarios where an attacking team is limited to these units, which cements the stall win. Dies to archers of course, but they're actually not terribly popular right now anyway (Lyn is not common on offense).
(https://i.imgur.com/y1bzqCd.png)
Reinhardt is the most questionable unit here, and I mainly have him because he's already built. Under the assumption that an enemy Cecilia won't live the initial bait, he is of course still a threat as always to any unit not built specifically to counter him. In a chaotic situation where the enemy team didn't predict exactly what would happen on a bait he can easily run amok unchecked, so of course he's still good for that. Standard setup, not much else to say; Heavy Blade is strictly better than Quickened Pulse as long as he has more Atk, and he has 56 on initiate (with most damage dealers getting at least 6 Atk from their player phase A skill, this is generally enough). Even good Res greens, if they don't run TA, can still be caught by surprise and sniped by the Moonbow proc. That said, everyone and their mother runs at least one counter to him, ubiquitous as he is.
His main support utility is Chill Res, which is great of course for both him and Veronica, and I'd sorely miss it if I replaced him as I don't have anyone else or more fodder for it. But he's certainly the one that could most easily be replaced; there's an argument to plug Aversa into that slot for instance, or another dancer, if Reinhardt's role as a backup threat is overkill or if people just too easily slot multiple counters for him. In particular, if I ever get around to upgrading the Bolt Trap to L2, triggering it will knock Lyn and Veronica below half HP, so a WoM dancer in the back could be pretty brutal.
Harsh Command is a niche pick; I tried Rally on him but it didn't work out well with the AI, and the movement assists are generally not great, so I decided that if some enemy team really wanted to run Chills/Ploys and he wasn't in attack range he could mitigate it some. I was concerned he would move out of position to use it while idle if Azura got hit by a debuff, but turns out the AI doesn't bother so it ended up being fine.
Of note is that he doesn't run Hone Cavalry, specifically to not get spoiled by Aversa; I thought about this some and decided ultimately that she was still prevalent enough that I didn't want to risk just being blown out by her. Goad again is a very meh pick, but like Lyn the pickings are slim to begin with.
(https://i.imgur.com/nTFMSOf.png)
Surtr is my newest project, and is built to be a wall. I threw away his Prf without hesitation; if he's going to get barricaded in a corner, the most obvious solution is to beat him down with ranged attacks and keep him stuck, so his absolute top priority is to make that as unviable a strategy as possible. He already has Def through the roof and Steady Stance 4, so that means he needs Res. I was fortunate enough to grab a +Res IV (helps that his banner was very easy to snipe, being both green and a two-hero focus), and a weapon with a +Res refine was non-negotiable; it was just a question of which.
Distant Counter is tempting to discourage attacking him, but ultimately it didn't make the cut. The main issue isn't that DC is bad - it's very good - but that giving up Steady Stance 4 is simply too high a cost. That's 8 Def and an in-built Guard effect that doesn't take the B slot, the latter being the crucial thing here. Surtr NEEDS Wary Fighter to avoid getting doubled, but without Guard that makes him very susceptile to Def/Res-ignoring specials. Guard in A slot is basically a great argument on its own to make killing him as hard as possible, and so Steady Stance 4 stays. The Def is icing, just essentially making him laugh at any and all archers, especially deprived of their special procs.
Surtr's Menace likewise is a solid C slot unique to him, which serves mainly to force people to waste turns Repoing units away after attacking. Leaving someone in Surtr's threat range is an dicey proposition even without his Prf, because being subject to a net 8 stat swing is pretty brutal. Plus, there's really nothing better to put in that slot for the purposes of stalling.
This leaves mages. Red mages, of course, will be able to handle him even despite all of the measures being taken here, but they're also quite rare aside from Aversa. Reinhardt cries; WTD against 47 Res and no special procs basically just laughs him off. Other mages being deprived of being able to double makes cutting through Wary Fighter in one swing a difficult endeavor. I was aiming for three attacks of substance minimum to be able to kill him, which I think he manages quite nicely. Even red melee will be hard pressed (49 Def if they initiate, can't double.)
The weapon choice boiled down what helps me stall. A Res refine had to be avilable. The list was Sack o' Gifts/Handbell, Hack o' Axe, and Slaying Axe. The first was the weapon I considered initially, +2 to all stats when initiated on, another edge to tank attacks (and one indiscriminate to range to boot). Hack o' Axe was interesting; it gives the Guard effect as well, which means I could theoretically replace Steady Stance 4 with Distant Counter or Fortress Def/Res 3. The latter is actually very good and what I would have gone with if I had a Klive to spare! I didn't, though, and I wasn't sold on DC due to the -8 Def loss either (and being somewhat reluctant to blow DC fodder on an AR defense-only stall unit). Slaying Axe, the choice I went with in the end, doesn't get the slight stat edge that Sack o' Gifts does, but on the other hand makes Surtr threaten to kill even red melee, as a Bonfire from him IS assuredly lethal. This means that even red melee would be forced to be Repo/Dance'd out rather than try to bait into kill if it gets charged, and if Surtr gets softened up at ALL it will be charged.
-
If anyone has any thoughts on this - possible improvements (like if anyone has better ideas for C slots I'd love to hear it) - how they'd try to tackle it, etc. it'd be much appreciated! I absolutely had a blast thinking all of this out and designing the defense setup (and AR in general has rekindled my interest heavily), enough to motivate me to word vomit all of this up.