Board 8 > Fire Emblem Heroes Discussion Topic Part 10: The Black Knight Approacheth

(+) Yeah! (+)

Huh. Guess I should start looking into ways to pad that score. Maybe equip one or two skills that cost more SP? That how it works? Do Seals matter?
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Higher SP skill give more points (ignore the 1.5x multiplier from inherited skills). So skills like Aether and Galeforce are worth a lot since they are 500 SP skills. Sacred Seals matter as well.
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It's Base Stat Totals + Skill SP cost. Not sure how seals factor in or whether inherited skills costing more weighs in, though. But yeah everyone who gets a perfect run with whatever baseline they're using is walking out with an identical score, so lots of clumping up.

Toss Aether on everyone, man mode!
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I've heard that a seal gives you an extra point on average. Aether/Galeforce/Black Luna help a lot. Legendary weapons are worth more than any non-legendary ones.

Units like BK or Brave Ike are perfect because they naturally have 500 SP specials, legendary weapons, and high BST.
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barreldragon88 posted...

So I need to pick my poison... Do I want to face tougher cavalry teams but less cavalry teams overall or do I want to face more cavalry teams that are easier to deal with.

Personally speaking? I prefer the latter since the sheer quantity of cavalry teams at a certain bst range is just staggering. Like every other Advance match you face will be Horse Emblem(Full Horse, or Bait + 3 Horses.

Having to play "Split up the Reinhardt/Bow Lyn" every 10 matches beats playing it every other damned match.
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I've got Aether on both Ike and Brave Ike so that probably made a difference!

It would suck to give up certain skills but I might have to bite the bullet. Threaten Def 3 being only 200 SP is kind of gross.
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Oh wow I've got Desperation 2 on Felicia instead of 3 and that's a 100 SP difference. Only have one Shanna to sacrifice but that might be worth it.
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SP actually isn't that big a factor. It's just that every point counts where you start getting near 4830 or so and easier sources of boosting your score have been exhausted.
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Most C skills are 200 Sp so I wouldn't fret over that. And I'm not about to 5* characters to transfer sub-optimal special skills just for arena scoring.

The expensive C skills come in at 240. The ploys, guidance, armor march, panic ploy, and the drive skills. Basically 5* exclusive stuff. You'd do better by giving Rally Def Res to somebody. It's worth twice as many as normal rallies or reposition skills

barreldragon88 posted...

So I need to pick my poison... Do I want to face tougher cavalry teams but less cavalry teams overall or do I want to face more cavalry teams that are easier to deal with.

Less horse teams also means that you'll be less likely to face them on the worst maps (you know the ones), and won't exhaust your best units for the matchup. I think my strategy will now be to lead with armor, and hold my two horse teams in reserve for theirs.
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If you're really looking to run up point totals you'd want to get away from Felicia anyway, seeing as she has one of the lowest stat totals in the game.
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I'm in the process of +10ing a 5* Felicia so that's not as big a deal to me. I'm a mostly FTP player so the heights of Arena where everyone is running a +10 Armor squad is never going to be in the cards for me, but I like working within my limited means...and also just trying to push my favorites as far as I can go. I roll Felicias all the time (got 3 in the last two weeks) so it's working out well. Compare that to say, Ike, who I dumped 270 Orbs into before getting a single one. In general I don't get duplicates of 5*s.

Also wishing I hadn't frittered away all my Donnels, but some characters at the time reeeally needed Drag Back so it was inevitable. At least I'll slowly get more without too much trouble.
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Yeah I get that. I'm doing the same thing with Serra-- but I also don't use Serra much in Arena either. Maybe once I get her higher into the +s I will.

But I also don't overly concern myself with arena points. Pretty content to just oscillate between 17 and 18, myself. Might try to use an armor team in Arena Gauntlet though on the first match just to make it less of a headache with horses though.
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Merges are worth a lot of points. 5* +10 Felica is perfectly viable for arena score purposes.
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Too tired after hiking today and almost got Inigo to Lv 40. He's racked up enough SP for now. Sac'd Palla to give him Moonbow and WoM1 to make training him easier.
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Yankees posted...

I used the double SP to finish the BK today. Took him, Hector, Tana and Effie into arena assault and hit my new high score of 4870. Starting off with an armor team appeared to give me easier matches. A lot of distant counter armors, but zero Bow Lyns and only one Reinhardt. Armors are pretty much free wins, and the last map was literally 4 swords. Not a problem for Lukas and Valter.

i ended up doing this exact same thing today, except with Hector, BK, Lucina, BIke as my lead (my straight up highest point total team; too bad it saps me of good greens later). i had to face several Reinhardts and a few Bow Lyns. can't remember how many on my successful run exactly; took a few tries. ended up with 4880.

i had some runs where i brought in a subpar team that looked like i could perfectly counter the enemy; stuff like literally just Clive and Titania to fight swords and Ninian, but whoops one of those swords was super high attack and took Clive out of swordbreaker range and then got doubled by the others and killed (probably would have worked if i was just a bit more careful and brought Jagen and Berkut support). one where i planned to use Gordin to kill Elincia and standard Camilla to kill Bow Lyn, but they moved in a completely different way than i expected, and after that first turn it was pretty much over since they had Azura and i had no dancer or positioning skills. my one total scrub team that actually worked in the finished run was Anna, 4* female Corrin (just to make sure Sanaki could one-shot Hector), Sanaki and Clive. Reinhardt did not move how i expected him to and i thought it was all over again but i sorta lucked out and got Anna in position to kill him safely and i could pick the rest of them off after. i guess worst case scenario i would have just had to use an item or two since it was the third to last round and i still had all my good cavs + Azura left.
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collected some quick quest & TT orbs today and got Inigo'd. +res -HP. at least i won't have to use Alfonse in the arena this week. now i need a Setsuna that doesn't have good stats to sacrifice.
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I might have gotten fortunate in dodging them in that case. I'll run out the same team next week and see what happens. I could have scored a bit higher with Brave Ike or Brave Lucina replacing Tana, but Ike pulls too much weight against armor teams, and Lucina can glue a team together with her buffs.

Are you going to go with Raven tome and TA on Inigo?
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that seems to be his best build. i'm just not sure i want to sac my only Setsuna, or if it's worth it without bowbreaker.
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Do you have any attachment to her? Lyn and Innes fulfill the archer need pretty well so I don't know if it would ever be worth promoting her. Alternatively, dragons like that skill to counter her as well if you have any you use.

I only have one Setsuna too, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Most likely will go to Fae whenever I promote her. Or Shigure
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she might be my favorite archer in the series now just from her Heroes dialogue. she's hilarious. though the bar was admittedly not set very high before her. also the one i have is +spd so if i'm going to sac one i kinda want to wait for the next, especially when i might be pulling colorless for the next month. or, like you, i might rather sacrifice her to Fae. mostly i'm just really indecisive.
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Yeah the common inigo build is ta/bowbreaker with raven tome to counter reinhardt and lyn

I kinda like the idea that you run LND on him though
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Isn't that build kind of wasted on him since his primary role is not to attack?
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the whole point of the build is he doesn't have to use his action to attack but can still kill stuff. anyone else with his stat spread would be better with a blade tome.
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Well, I'm glad I can finally make use of my Setsuna's and fed one to Klein and have been waiting for the right unit to feed the other to. Maybe Inigo is the right choice here.

Klein can only counter non-BB BowLyn, though, and thankfully, that build is what comes up most of the time. I've only faced BB BowLyn maybe twice, but I think that will change overtime and Klein will be sad :(
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Okay so I'm confused.

I gave my Azure a 300 SP AoE skill because I heard that raises BST a little bit. But mine didn't change. She has the same rating she did when she had Luna(which is only 200 SP).
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The in game rating number is just a sum of the unit's stats. It isn't directly used for arena scoring purposes anymore.
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Skills have nothing to do with BST for arena purposes. Arena score is based on the following :

BST - total stats without any weapon or skills
Total SP of equipped skills
Level
Number of merges

That special will help Azura's arena points a little bit.
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Ah okay, thanks.

And indeed 4812 wasn't enough. Holy shit.

Gonna try one more time to get a higher score. I expect a lot of pain.
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Holy shit.

4842 is my new score, and I'm in rank 3934 right now.

I wish I had recorded it. For the most part it wasn't too out there but...

Holy shit round 6. Round 6.

Armor Emblem + TA Raven Nino.

Nino was no problem, black knight easily tanked her alongside with weakening Hector. But Amelia. That fucking armor march pushed me in a corner. Hector fell behind thankfully, but she and the Black Knight had me trapped. I couldn't kill Amelia in one round with Nino, and having her danced would just mean the Black Knight would finish her off. So I had to do something utterly terrifying.

I had to have Nino tank a hit. From an axe. I realized it when I looked at the damage the BK would do to her. He would double her(Quick Riposte), but he couldn't one shot her. So I had to block Azura off(-Spd rears its ugly head) with a little girl.

Nino gets knocked down to 2 hp(Fury takes one more), but it was what I needed to kill both of them off the next round. Literally saved because I told a little girl to take an axe to the face. IS please put ice cream in the game so I can give it to her. XD

Round 7 wasn't quite as hectic, but it was Armor Emblem, and I have to say it's a whole nother monster. The map had more breathing room than the last(The oasis map) so it wasn't as difficult.

So unless something crazy happens, I think this may be my first trip into Tier 20. Man....
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Did you do anything besides add one skill? That's a decent jump.
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I replaced Gray with the Black Knight. Figured his Alondite would boost my score a bit(Not to mention Black Luna).

Gave Azura Growing Wind.

Nino and Valter unchanged.
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Alondite doesn't actually matter. Black Knight overall has higher stats than Gray, which would. Did Azura have a special before then? Just trying to figure out how much stuff matters so I can minmax.
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Azura had Luna before.
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Alondite does matter. It is worth more points than Gray's default weapon. BK made the most difference. The higher stats, 500 SP special, and weapon make him score better than Gray.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Alondite doesn't actually matter. Black Knight overall has higher stats than Gray, which would. Did Azura have a special before then? Just trying to figure out how much stuff matters so I can minmax.

thread i read said this:
every 11 stat points (not counting skills or merges) is worth 1 arena point
every 205 SP cost is worth 1 arena point
every merge is worth 1 arena point

so Alondite and the Azura special alone add up to about 1 point more per match on average. the stat points and black luna brings it up to a bit over 3. of course, there's quite a bit of random variation with it, too. my score per match ranged from 692 to 704 in arena assault this week.
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Luna -> Growing Wind = +100 SP
Gray -> Black Knight = +7 Stat Total

Which is worth 30 Arena Points. Kind of interesting.

EDIT: Forgot Black Luna, that's worth a lot too.
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I thought that unit stats were calculated without weapons or skills?
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legendary weapons cost 100 more SP to learn than other 5* weapons, that's why they are worth more points.
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We actually have very good candidates for the next Hero Fest already, which is kind of scary when you think about it because they still have a lot of time to release even more broken characters. The likely candidates if HF happened right now:

Elincia
Nephenee/Delthea
Inigo (if they bring these back and I hope they do)
Olivia (unlikely if Inigo is the green pick)

If they want to be real generous, they could make the Brave Heroes the picks, but I highly doubt we'll get another banner for them.
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I wouldn't count on the dancers coming back for the next hero fest, and I'm doubtful about the brave characters. I'm thinking something like :

Elincia
Innes
Nephenee
Sonya

Elincia and Innes feel like the safest picks to me. I would not be surprised to see Tana, Amelia, Delthea, or Celica though.
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I really don't like Innes's art >_>
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His art is dripping with condescension. I like it; it's fitting.
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I've always liked how Innes is voiced by P5 Joker in both English and Japanese.

Same goes with Alfonse being voiced by Noctis in both languages.
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i like Innes's voice. the art, eh, it's okay i guess.

and Ray Chase is great as Roy. Alfonse, not as much. though that could be bias because it's Alfonse.
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Sometimes you find some really nice fanart on reddit.

https://twitter.com/kokouno_oyazi/status/914395887052484608

NSFW
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Yea... if only they didn't ruin her ingame art :(

Got 4803 in AA. Thanks for the tip, Yankees! Starting with an armor team really helped make a difference. I had to reset twice to give myself a favorable start and only faced one BowLyn and a cavalry team at the end without having to use any items.
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I didn't know who to pair with the Big Armor 3 and picked SLeo so he could replenish health and Atk Ploy enemies. I'll need to find a replacement at some point for better scoring.
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Currently at 4.5% pity rate on this banner. Don't think I've ever gotten above 4.75%. Maybe I'll get a personal best.
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I'm 1 away from 4.25 myself
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Got my Shigure aaaaand... +HP -Atk

Marvellous.

*rolls eyes*
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