Fire Emblem Heroes Topic: You knew this was coming!

[Dark Holy Elf]

The upcoming TT unit is Gerome. But yeah, safe to say colourless breath is coming at some point. The black dragons of Tellius, maybe?

[Lord Ephraim]

New mode where you can use heroes from your friend's list.

Ciato you bum, put QR3 on your Tana.

[SnowFire]

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.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Using Friend units? I wonder how that will work.

Also, can someone edit the first or second post with Friend Codes?

[Shale]

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.

[Hunter Sopko]

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

[Pyro]

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.

[Luther Lansfeld]

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.

[Shale]

Join the freaking club. *Throws third Vanguard Ike into a bin marked NOT GUNNTHRA*

[SnowFire]

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.

[Dark Holy Elf]

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.

[DjinnAndTonic]

EDIT: Oops, wrong thread.

On topic: The Fell Robin battle is ridiculous.

[Shale]

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.

[Dark Holy Elf]

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.

[Hunter Sopko]

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...

[Luther Lansfeld]

Yay Sopko. ^_^

[VySaika]

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.

[Dark Holy Elf]

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.

[DjinnAndTonic]

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.

[Reiska]

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.

[Dark Holy Elf]

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.

[Laggy]

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)

[Dark Holy Elf]

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.

[Laggy]

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.

[DjinnAndTonic]

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!