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@President Felix there's the may quests coming soon

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today lol

 

like right now

 

I got a takumi on the first stone

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since tenth stratum cheats in terms of stats, I think it's safe to assume that lunatic Ike is tougher and stronger than normal Ike.

 

also ughhhhh. i mean yeah I have rein but I'm gonna need 5* and Death Blow 3 before he's really strong....Klein, where are you?

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...I just pulled Takumi (+atk -spd ok), 5* Fae, and a 4* Reinhardt. (+atk -spd yeaaaaaaah!)

 

First day luck, yo.

 

@Fabled Asianwhat you've got there is Green Jagen. keep her away from archers, swords, and axes and you'll be good. I actually really want titania, but I've been trying to save my orbs, and now they're going into Herofest

 

 

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I wonder if Titania is gonna statcreep Frederick as the new best axe cav. She'll go great with Xander and BBlade Ursula, maybe with Leo as #4?

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yeah no I'm leaving the level 35 quests way the heck alone. I have literally nothing to tank the first round of attacks on lunatic frobin, and my frobin and navarre are still in their teens.

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PSA: You don't need to beat the GHB for the orb quests; the story missions where they appear count as well, and beating them in arena would probably count too (although nobody uses Navarre/Frobin in arena)

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33 minutes ago, Chase said:

Yes. 2* FRobin get. Ty Intsys.

 

I hate Robins map. So. Much.

Ohmygosh YES. haha yeah I'll just use my res wall with decent defense that can take attacks from all three colors.....oh wait.....THAT DOESN'T FUCKING EXIST

 

ok maybe there's freaking, like, Hector or Nowi or Vantage Ryoma or something silly like that, but after that Azura my luck is GONE. Plus, I nearly did it with a Horse Emble team, buuuut my blade mage was Ursula and I left her too close to frobin.....rip.

 

at least I have another 2* one now!

 

This really is the worst GHB if you don't have an SS-tier DC unit. 

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Ok, I can see that. Any Hectors I get, if I end up not making an armor emblem team, will probably be fed to Ephraim to make him a better tank. He already has QR 2 and Swap, he's my strongest melee rn.

 

jesus chase that's a lot of slang. I only ever used my camilla as res bait for mages, so I could wipe them out on the next turn. Mine was -spd though, worse luck.

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@Commander  understood, will shut up abt that now. 

 

Michalis was the first GHB that I was high-level enough to do lunatic on, got it on Navarre and Zephiel too. It's really all about your collection--quantity trumps position on the tier list, because even wierdos like subaki can be made useful in a GHB.

 

I think that we're gonna get more units with B tomebreaker, but not Iote's Shield, just because that's not a generic name, and only one unit has Svallin Shield. However, we're slated to get a F!Robin and Navarre rerun on monday (something I heard on the subreddit), so someday we'll get a michalis rerun too, hopefully. Idk why they aren't rerunning Narcian...I missed him entirely due to how low-level I was. 

 

Also I've been trying to make my cav team work with Cecilia instead of Jagen for bonus points, but ughhh....archers still mess me up, partly because Cecilia just doesn't have the raw defense to fight them. I wish I had TA fodder but all I have is Cordelia....There's no way I'm sacrificing her for TA 2 for Cecilia. hmph.

 

According to my research, Cecilia loses straight up if she initiates on all but 4 ninjas/archers, at 4 stars. 

 

Also I pulled with my last 5 for this banner and got another goddamn est. end me. She doesn't even have any useful skills, barring, like, shove! Her weapon is a heavy spear! her skills are defiant res and seal speed! what the hell!

 

I have like 3 of her at 3* level 1, and a +2 3* est that I'm using for the flier quests.

 

Also, my training team rn is Azura/Zephiel/Cecilia/A!Tiki. Once I get to around level 15 I'll ditch Cecilia for the Nino I have around that level, but I'm keeping A!Tiki 'cause I really want to make her work. why are the only adult dragons all sub-par?

 

@Hukuna the Undying First off it does give zeph that attack when he's defending...but yeah I'd just rather have the defense then too. I'm thinking of inheriting another A skill so I can level him, but I don't have death blow or Fury 3. I'm thinking maybe +defense and Swap from one of my Stahls, so he can move around better. What do you think?

 

What build are you using for Oboro? I know you said DC, what are you using with it? I'd figure Lancebreaker/QR but I forget her speed tier. She was actually my main blue before I pulled Ephraim, I still have a 4*+2 of her hanging out in my box.

 

also I think its funny that you hate armors and happen to love a unit with a heavy lance but thats prolly just me

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13 hours ago, Sheep said:

 

Firstly I agree that Merric is far more resource intensive for little if any gain, but I wasn't asked which was more realistic, I was asked which was best. I took it as a theoretical exercise in determining which unit had the best statline to wield a Gronnblade+. Nino's starting skill set under these conditions is irrelevant as Merric can obtain all of it. Also, it's actually 46 vs 39 Atk at base. As far as Nino's higher Res goes it's not an advantage at all due to her very low HP, Nino has insufficient bulk to live a strong physical hit, and enough bulk to live 1 strong magical hit, while Merric also has enough bulk to live one strong magical hit (you'd need 60 Atk on neutral to OHKO -HP +Spd Merric, exactly the same amount as Nino) but he also has the bulk to live multiple physical attacks. So what you really have here are two mages, one who has more Atk and 1 point higher Spd, and the other who has much more physical bulk, their overall magical bulk is pretty similar. And seeing as I already showed that Nino's Atk is overkill, because Merric can achieve kills on all of the non-red units that she can under a pretty realistic condition of a buff of 14 points total, there's not much reason to say that Nino is better in a theoretical sense. You say that Merric won't double the fastest units, unlike Nino, but +Spd Merric sits at 39 Spd after a Hone Spd buff, which he could push up to 45 with Darting Blow. That seems like it's going to double the fastest units, and remember that I specified the fact that the Merric NEEDS to be +Spd, otherwise he's not the best Gronnblade+ user. I will acknowledge one valid point that you made though, Gronnblade+ +Spd Merric is completely dependent on buffs to work, while Nino's higher Atk, though irrelevant after buffs, is very important in the absence of buffs.

 

 

You've gone waaaaay off track for two simple reasons. One, I designated at the beginning that the Merric NEEDS to be +Spd to outperform other Gronnblade wielders, so discounting IVs already invalidates your argument against me. Secondly, we were talking about Gronnblade users, not bladetome users in general, so talking about Tharja is irrelevant. I already acknowledged that Tharja is the best Rauorblade user above, though it's a pretty obvious deduction as she's the only one with Spd. That being said you did make some false claims.

 

"With Desperation, defenses don't matter" I would not agree to this at all, you kill your enemy before they can attack (and tbh Desperation isn't that fantastic on ranged units anyway because the majority of their targets won't be able to retaliate) for sure, but Desperation doesn't save you from the unit that attacks you on their phase. Defenses are always still important, you can never discount their value.

 

"60x2 wins games" have you ever heard of overkill? The highest HP stat in the game is 55, so in actual fact 28x2 is what wins games. Nino is overkill in all of it's glorious nature, but by its very definition it is unnecessary. Even Merric with a Bladetome can reach the levels of Atk necessary to kill what you need your green mage to kill.

 

"Neutral Nino can OHKO neutral Effie" I don't know how you do your maths but let me break it down for you. Nino has a neutral Atk of 33, which is boosted to 46 with the Gronnblade+, which under a buff status of 14 brings her Atk up to 60. 60*1.2 (for the weapon triangle advantage) is 72, which when you subtract neutral Effie's 23 Res is 49 damage. Neutral Effie has 50 HP. 

 

"Why would you put GB+ on someone with such terrible offenses?" because under a condition of access to buffs, bladetomes render the Atk stat obsolete. +Spd Merric has enough Spd to double the majority of the cast with a Hone Spd buff and Darting Blow, yet spends more of his points on bulk. That can only be an advantage.

http://andyiverson.me/apps/fehmasssimulator/

 

plugged in:

 

Nino

Nuetra---actually, since you mentioned +spd, +spd -def.

Gronnblade+

 

....oh! That's where we differed! I was assuming Hone atk, while you were referencing the +3 from Eirika's weapon. this lead to me using 2 extra points of attack than you were using for Merric.

 

let's try that again.

 

oooh, ok. Nino NEEDS a full Hone/Rally Attack buff, or another buff from another source, or +atk to OHKO effie. with +14 buffs she just barely fails to KO, leaving effie at 1 health. She'll also need another buff to deal with an Effie that is +res or hp without a bane in either stat.

 

 

Ok, now back to merric. gronnblade+, default everything else...OH JESUS CHRIST oh wait that's without buffs. Friendly reminder, Merric is trash without buffs.

 

+spd -def because he can't spare offenses and with -res other green mages murderize him on the counter

 

+3 atk +4 spd +4 res 'cause I like boosting res so +14

 

Sidenote that under these conditions, Merric fails to KO 42 units and that, as I've stated previously, the best use for a blade mage in my opinion is to KO one or two things every round

 

Merric fails to KO effie with 10 hp left, which is not a difference that can be made up with natures or more buffs. While Merric survives Effie's attack, due to the fact that there are other enemies, Merric cannot stay in effie's range safely. He must retreat, with a dancer's assistance, or else stay and KO effie with his danced attack. 

 

So, we have: 

-KOs with literally 1 more point of attack from anything, up to and including +3 attack

 

-KOs with 4 +4 buffs and Death Blow 2/Life and Death 3

 

Who's the better attacker?

 

However, the real difference between them isn't in winning with-ta matchups. I could just use TA Gronnraven for that, and be much tankier. The real test is against TA. Nino, same +14 +spd -def as before, KOs exactly half of all red units. Merric KOs 1/8. Really now. A whole buffet of really trashy red swords and even Henry that Nino can deal with but Merric can't. 

 

You see, it all comes back to Coverage. In pokemon, Coverage is Life. You give your dragon a steel move, so it can break past fairies. In Fe:H, you don't have coverage moves, but what you do have is a blade mage that can do her job, and one that can.......sometimes. If he has the right IVs. If he initiates. Without SI.

 

Do you want your streak to be broken by a Sanaki? or do you want your streak broken by 0-SI Henry? Do you want to KO a -res effie or not?

 

 

question: what in tarnation are you using those defenses for? is he gonna be your tank too? imo I'd rather use a dedicated tank for that, like Nowi or Zephiel.

 

edit: there are things I haven't covered yet, will come back.

 

You said earlier that with buffs, offenses don't matter. My point is exactly the opposite. With Desperation and a Dancer, defenses don't matter. You simply will not get hit as long as you reduce all you survey to rubble before it can hit you. This is the essence of the "OHKO meta". 

 

You have also said that "defenses do matter because enemies can initiate on you" (mildly paraphrased, correct me if I'm dilluting the message)

 

Well, all my blade mage teams include dancers, specifically to move them out of danger with the combination of moving behind the dancer and then using Draw Back or Reposition. (Useful note: Reposition is better if you aren't using your dancer to fight ie Underleved Olivia, DB is better if you are ie Nino/Azura). These dancers can also carry a buff for the blade mage, and the danced attack can let you either break down a wall (literally or figuratively), or take out two enemies in a turn, which can be devastating if you can take out the units that threaten the rest of your team.

 

Secondly, let's go back to the Duel Sim, and look at defending matchups. +spd -def, again if you want a different bane I can get it. Still 33 inconclusives for merric, only 8 losses tho.

 

.....but if you let the enemy attack again, you lose almost all of them. Are those matchups just not relevant? Are we assuming that you get the positioning to not get hit by them? So, why can't we assume that you'd give the positioning to Nino, and just have her never get hit?

 

Sure Nino gets trashed if you let a melee get to her, but that's far less likely because Nino actually kills stuff, while merric just sits around trading blows until the other guy falls over. 

 

Overall, I feel like Units in FEH should be specialized. I want my tank to tank, and I want my killer to kill. My Ephraim can take on any physical hit that comes my way, so there's no need for Tharja to just stand in front of an enemy lancer. The other point that I'd like to make is that every blademage team needs a dancer. You have what is essentially an artillery piece, what else could you want but the chance to fire it again, or to move it out of harm's way?

 

Merric can take a hit, sure, but he still needs a tank to protect him from red swords, and another dps type to finish off res walls, and a dancer, and something to protect him from red mages.

 

So.....what does merric do?

 

Meanwhile Tharja and Nino Kill Everything. My tharja often KOs 3/4 of the enemy team, with the rest of the team just positioning around her to bait enemies away from her. The only thing I don't totally rip open is peg knights and TA blues, which Anna and Ephraim dunk on. I have 1 units whos job is damage, so I can spread other jobs around the rest of the team. Without sufficient offensive potential, you have to keep kiting back to avoid losing a unit, and eventually you just run out of room.

 

Secondly, Merric has Hard Counters, units that, without an applicable skill, can just run him over. Glass cannon mages have fewer, owing to the fact that they only need to take one (1) attack, and can then attack with impunity. For instance, during this last GHB, Desperation was crucial to killing the blue mage, because I needed to bait it out and kill it without letting it attack back due to its Seal Attack skill. Also, I couldn't stay in range of the knights, because they all had brave weapons and would make mincemeat of me. Thirdly, if tharja tried to fight the blue mage, even with buffs, she'd die. So, I baited the AI a bit, and then used her on the red mage, killing him and dropping her into desperation range. Now, while I still couldn't KO the mage on my own, and I needed Nile's special to help damage the mage, Tharja's desperation let her KO the blue mage without taking damage in return. 

 

With merric? he can try and attack, sure, and the enemy will respond, but then one of the knights would have hit swap and now if you want to smack the mage again (with -7 attack, mind you), you have to walk in front of a brave weapon. Also note that those mages had Warding Blow, which would've meant that the mage would take next to no damage when they countered on the next turn.

 

TL;DR when I want things dead, I want them dead now, and not in 3 or 4 turns. When I want things to tank, I want them to tank, and not take one hit and then have to retreat/flee before any red sword. Positioning with a dancer, along with Desperation to eliminate counterattacks, means that blade-mages take very little in the way of hits. 60x2 is not overkill when there are vanilla units that it cannot kill. it's not even enough. 

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(disclaimer: all stats here are presented as neutral because I hate IVs)

 

The idea with Blade mages isn't to fix up a poor mage's weaknesses--it's to blow stuff up! With a dancer, you can eliminate two enemies in one turn, or take out one and retreat to do it again later. Plus, with Desperation, defenses don't matter. You take one (1) hit and then you rip through everything because nothing can live a blade-tharja double. Sure, high-res (whatever the advantaged color is) can technically live, and in some cases hit back, but that's what you have a team for.

 

Why would you even want a tanky blade-mage? It'll only make merric's attack go from "awful" to "mediocre". "mediocre" does not win games. 60x2 wins games.

 

(Also red is soooo much better for this than green 'cause most blue units have awful res and those that don't are mostly bad overall)

 

Let's look at Tharja, for example (because she's my favorite blade mage and one of the best three infantry for it IMO): She has 32 base atk+13 with her 5* weapon (45) with the same buffs you gave Merric (+14), so total 59. Also I threw in Darting Blow for a few more doubles+it's in her basic kit. Special is Vengeance but it doesn't trigger here.

 

Plug it into the mass duel simulator, who does she not orko?

 

 

-The fast and oddly tanky Lon'qu

 

-units with default saph spear/TA (relevant: Cordelia, Azura)

 

-peg knights (relevant: Cordelia and Clair but just for the next week 'cause Clair's SI fodder tbh)

 

-wary fighter armors (Effie, Zephiel)

 

-Odin with R tomebreaker

 

-Nowi, Gwendolyn, Peri, and Jagen, because who needs any of that crap when you have oodles of Res/HP (Relevant: Nowi)

 

-Survivor Count: 15.

 

-Relevant threats that live: SIX.

 

-Relevant meta threats that can even kill tharja next turn: THREE. 

 

-With a dancer? She KOs all of them. Except Odin. wtf Odin.

 

Notable units that Tharja KOs that merric doesn't: all those fast red swords, all those high-res colorless, High-res greens...

 

Notable against-TA ORKOs: Every blue mage and every blue infantry except Nowi and Azura.

 
 

 

 

So tl;dr Tharja smashes almost every unit in the game, and out of those that survive, every single one dies if tharja is danced (or to a strong breeze, in many cases). Plus, with a dancer and reposition, you can safely move your death artillery around the map, letting you assassinate single enemies and leave. With Desperation and a dancer, you never get hit unless you want to be (or on your first counter) so why would you care about defenses.

 

 

Merric, with darting blow/desper, fails to ko Thirty units. And, if you look down the list, it's all due to how slow he is. Blade mages need speed in order to get their blade procs doubled. Also, his defenses aren't actually that good, because he's so slow. 

 

Nino, same stuff, fails to KO fourteen units. She even OHKOs Effie and the Tikis! That's not the same KO list at all! 

 

Relevant units that Nino can't kill (by your standards of relevance): Hector, Ryoma, Lilinia, Sanaki, Zephiel.

 

Note who isn't on this list: Marth, Lucina, Alm, Lyn, Draug (who is actually a VERY relevant threat), Effie, the Tikis... A whole load of really scary threats that ms. does-her-best just trashes, where merric either fails to Ko or loses outright!

 

The ONLY reason to use bladetome on merric is because you like merric, nothing else. even then, you're still just a cut-rate Nino/Cecilia/S!Camilla.

 

Sorry for the rant but why would you put GB+ on someone with such terrible offenses whyyyyyyyy 

 

Also IMO tharja is the best blade mage for her ability to take one (1) hit from Kagero or Takumi, and also because she has TA on the relevant high-res mages (basically Julia and Nino) while still ko-ing the best blue mage (linde). also unlike linde she has the defense to revenge-KO a ton of non-brave attackers with her buffs up. 

 

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RE: poison strike, IMO it's best used on an archer with Savage Blow and Firesweep Bow+. This lets you just chip down enemies with non-lethal damage over several turns with no counter-attacks.

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I beat Zephiel Lunatic!

 

Team was:

 

5* Ephraim with Swap and QR 2

 

Newly 5* Tharja (this is the same one from my old arena team) with Reposition, Desperation, and Threaten speed 2

 

4* lvl 34 Olivia with Hone Speed 2

 

4* Niles with Reposition and Fortify Res 2, My official Really Janky Unit for this GHB.

 

Desperation was Critical to the fight, since I got low picking off the red mage and then had to rely on Niles's special+a Desperation double to finish the blue mage. The mages are the real threat here, since you can kite the knights almost forever. Niles with his incredible Res and Iceberg was, likewise, a huge help. this is also kind fo ironic because, before I had a mage, Niles with Iceberg (with a tank between the two ofc) was my main way of dealing with armors.

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Zephiel is out!

 

I'm not ready! My Tharja is still only level 28!

 

His banner has Reinhardt and Nowi!

 

I was pulling for Reinhardt, but I got a +hp -res Azura!

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@Sheep's got it: I was just talking about DB Dire Thunder, not an AoE special. To be fair, though, I do love those specials, and I sorely want an excuse to use them. That's why I'm levelling Navarre rn, someday I'm gonna get a Karel and sac Wo Dao+ to him so he can be a good desperation cleaner ala Anna.

 

My list, out of units that I own:

 

1. Ephraim: You knew this was coming, right? he was my first 5*, and since then he's been a wonderful tank, especially with the red meta in the early weeks. He's also been a crucial part of my infantry blade-mage team. My only inherits so far are QR 2 and Swap from a hapless subaki.

 

2. Tharja: remember that bit about the "infantry blade-mage team"? this was the blade mage. I have Reposition and threaten speed 2 on her, so she doubles everything, I just need desperation so I can get those sweet sweet 50x2s. I like to think of her as the anti-nino, since she has better def than res, is sexy and kinda evil vs. nino's wholesomeness, and where nino does her best, Tharja does her worst! (also her IVs are really wonky -atk -hp +def +spd)

 

3. Anna: this top 4 is pretty much Team Tharja. She was my green and my only res-wall at the time. Fury 3 and Desperation, notably nuetralizes Linde and other magical Blues.

 

4. Olivia: She's sooo weak but sooooo useful! dance+reposition was critical to beating Michalis. Love her.

 

5. Ursula: Blade mage part 2: On a horse! the first GHB unit I really liked. 

 

6. M-Robin: saved my butt so many times early on, takes 1x2 from tacomeat if hes got TA, also tanks red swords.

 

7. Minerva: she isn't level 40 yet, but she kills literally everything with LaD 3.

 

8. Navarre: I just like how he looks, +his killing edge with a blast special.

 

9. F!Corrin for trying and failing to be better than Ephraim, has spd +3 and need swordbreaker

 

10. I'll get back to you

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ok but really if a unit is gonna use QR on defense they might as well be somebody with a respectable attack stat like effie or my avatar.

 

Rein is borderline broken due to his 5 range brave thunder deathblow murderblast. at least he's paper in enemy phase.

 

I'd do a list of my favorites, but I need to go to bed. Let's just say that it involves Ephraim, Tharja, and Anna, K?

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Imo Lukas is literally just Effie 4, with Ephraim as 2 and Donnel as 3.

 

Infantry spears are literally all the same unit.

[Make an Alolan (or other regional) Form!]

Not alolan, but I've always wanted a regional variant water/steel Wailord with Higher Defense, Attack instead of Special Attack, and absolutely awful speed. It'd be based on a fusion of a sperm whale and an icebreaker ship and it would be sooooo coooool.

 

Figure Heavy Slam as its evolution move, Rock Head/Filter/Reckless as abilities, notable moves are Aqua Tail, Heavy Slam, Crunch, Thrash....

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So some dataminers have found new skills and posted them on the subreddit. One's probably an A skill, name of "fortress defense". +up to 5 defense, -3 attack. Second is probably a B skill, called "hit and run" it seems to be a movement-based B skill like Lunge, that moves you forward 1 space. we're kinda unsure on that though, idk how it works for melee.

 

The new weapon and the other B skill are the kickers, though. Flamesweep Bow and the Windsweep skill remove the possibility for follow-up attacks, but in return, if your outspeed the target and they aren't a mage, it prevents counterattacks. 'scuse me while I go hug my QR Ephraim and future vantage Xander and go cry in a corner.

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tfw you already have a level 40 Niles and level 34 Stahl/Cecilia because Niles was your first archer and Horse Emblem is your passion

 

on a related note, that Subaki Seal quest is gonna be such a pain......

 

I got literally 100% trash from the orbs today. barst, bartre, if its crap and green, I got it.

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TA gronnraven takes .9x damage from archers, on top of her pretty good defense. don't count on it.

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keep him, IMO. flyer emblem is on the rise, and he's the best counter to TA gronnraven Bunny Camilla.

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yeah, they should have something tomorrow, after the maintenance tonight

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Ah. Quadsuna can be a thing, but she needs a crapton of investment. You would need a 5* Klein or Gordin, a 4* Hana, a 4* Shanna, a 4* Selena, a 3* Donnel........oh boy.

 

hmmm......my choice of a mage was a bit easier due to all of my 5*s being physical melees (Ephraim, Marth, Chrom, Selena, Minerva, Bunny Chrom, Sheena). I don't really see a specific theme. A colorless or an axe would probably be the right choice, but pretty much every ninja bar Jaffar/Kagero is bad, you already have a healer, and you only have the one archer....

 

also, your collection has kind of a low defense overall, with Roy and Robin being iirc the toughest in that respect.

 

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IIRC, Klein, Jeorge, and Takumi are more or less identical statwise, give or take like 1 or 2 points in the offensive stats. 

 

What five-stars do you have right now?