Summary of changes
- Reinhardt: Thunder's Fist <TIER 3 (Defense)>
- Olwen: Blue Mage Knight <TIER 4>
- Summer Ashe: Fabled Sea Knight <TIER 3 (Defense)>
- Kagero: Honorable Ninja <TIER 3 (Defense)>
- Ascended Joshua: Resolute Tempest <TIER 1 (Defense)>
- Volke: Man of Mysteries <TIER 1 (Defense)>
- New Year Selkie: New Year's Spirit <TIER 3>
- Ashnard: Mad King <TIER 4>
- Myrrh: Spring Harmony <TIER 2>
- Shamir: Archer Apart <TIER 3>
- Ronan: Villager of Iz <TIER 3>
- Neimi: Tearful Archer <TIER 3>
- Morgan: Lad from Afar <TIER 3>
- Micaiah: Priestess of Dawn <TIER 2>
- Julius: Scion of Darkness <TIER 3>
- Henriette: Overflowing Love <TIER 2>
- Faye: Drawn Heartstring <TIER 2>
- Ilyana: Treat Harvester <TIER 2>
- Nagi: Dragon Avatar <TIER 1 (Defense)>
- Ophelia: Dramatic Heroine <TIER 2>
- Camilla: Light of Nohr <TIER 2>
- Dorothea: Solar Songstress <TIER 3>
- Micaiah: Dawn Wind's Duo <TIER 3>
- Forsyth: Loyal Lieutenant <TIER 3>
- Freyja: Lady of Nightmare <TIER 3>
- Ascendant Mareeta: Astra Awakened <TIER 1>
- August: Astute Tactician <TIER 3>
- Legendary Nanna: Beloved Princess <TIER 1>
- Young Mia: Budding Blade <TIER 2>
- Young Soren: Hushed Voice <TIER 2 (Defense)>
- Young Ilyana: Awakened Appetite <TIER 3>
- Young Ike: Close-Knit Siblings <TIER 2>
- Young Boyd: Future Great <TIER 3>
- Ylgr: Fresh Snowfall <TIER 2>
- Tibarn: Lord of the Air <TIER 2>
- Aversa: Dark One <TIER 4>
- Selkie: Free Spirit <TIER 3>
- Veronica: Spring Princess <TIER 3>
- Sword Fliers <TIER 4>
- Lance Fliers <TIER 4>
- Axe Fliers <TIER 4>
Introduction
Compared to the last few months, this month has significantly fewer structural changes. Our primary objective for this month would be to fine-tune some of the adjustments accordingly to both the offensive and defensive landscape. Specifically on the defensive end, one of the units that we covered in the previous month had a significant presence, which meant that the tier list would also have to adapt accordingly.
Other than the writers on GamePress, we also have external contributors that provided meaningful insights into the tier list. I would like to take this time to not only thank all members of the GamePress FEH team, but also these external contributors. The name list of external contributors would be made available on the tier list page.
Generics Discussion
More Rein weapons are released, namely Rein Axe from Gonzalez and Rein Sword from Galzus. Allied Lance is also introduced, which is what is essentially a lance version of Love Candelabra. The release of these weapons does mean that melee fliers can now perform a similar role to the bows and staff units as mentioned in the previous updates. Furthermore, as they are melee units, they can more or less serve as double roles similar to the likes of Ashnard. Hence, we felt that the generic melee fliers are adjusted to Tier 4.
- Sword Fliers <TIER 4>
- Lance Fliers <TIER 4>
- Axe Fliers <TIER 4>
Valentine’s Chrom Ripple Effect
We examined the impact of Valentine’s Chrom in the defensive meta, and it is apparent that most players caught on regarding how impactful he is on a defense team. We felt that it is an appropriate time to start considering how should the offensive side of the game adapt to Chrom due to his rather significant usage over the past few weeks since his release.
- Valentine’s Henriette: Overflowing Love <TIER 2>
- Valentine’s Faye: Drawn Heartstring <TIER 2>
- Halloween Ilyana: Treat Harvester <TIER 2>
- Nagi: Dragon Avatar <TIER 1 (Defense)>
The very first thing is that unless the Armored unit does not follow the rules of the game (Brave Hector and Ascended Idunn), Chrom is a natural counter to pretty much all the Far Save units in the game. Running Svalinn Shield might be a solution moving forward, but that also comes with an opportunity cost of the Passive A slot as that slot usually gives the most stat to the user. While this is applicable for most Far Saves in the game, we would first demote the generics that are currently in Tier 1 in light of this situation. As these units are generic, they are also removed from the tier list and compressed into the Generic Tier List. We also shifted Nagi’s role to defense; while her Chrom matchup is unfortunate offensively, she remains to be one of the best Far Save to be used on defense due to superior matchups against the likes of Yuri and Ninja Lyn while having access to Hardy Fighter.
- Shamir: Archer Apart <TIER 3>
- Ronan: Villager of Iz <TIER 3>
- Neimi: Tearful Archer <TIER 3>
- Morgan (M): Lad from Afar <TIER 3>
- Micaiah: Priestess of Dawn <TIER 2>
- Julius: Scion of Darkness <TIER 3>
The next would be the increasing relative importance of the DEF stat, while the DEF stat had been important for some time, it is even more so now due to Chrom’s prominence in the defensive metagame. Damage reduction is also no longer the panacea of these units due to the increased usage of specials such as Deadeye and Lethality, which Chrom could easily charge due to his Infantry status alongside his weapon. This meant that any ranged units would now need to potentially watch out for him. Some of these demotions are probably overdue even before Chrom-sideration (heh), but we do feel that it is a good time for us to make the adjustments right now for these group of units.
- Spring Myrrh: Spring Harmony <TIER 2>
- New Year Selkie: New Year's Spirit <TIER 3>
- Freyja: Lady of Nightmare <TIER 3>
Lastly, we have these units that rely on damage reduction as their bread and butter. The most noteworthy is Spring Myrrh; her original strength is the unconditional damage reduction in her weapon. With damage piercing being increasingly common, the omni-tank variant of Myrrh might not perform as well as before. While the melee specialist route continues to be competitive for Myrrh, that role can be rather easily replicated by many other units, and superseded by Near Saves which do not have the positional restrictions of a melee specialist. The same applies to New Year Selkie and Freyja, except that both are significantly worst due to the lack of options for her movement and weapon type (cavalry beast). Freyja might have fallen even further if not for her Mythic status, so she remains at Tier 3 for now.
Defensive Considerations
We felt that right now is a good time to also make some additional adjustments to the defensive side of the metagame. Overall, there has been a general depression in the performance of defensive units, hence it is natural for the team to be slightly harsher with the adjustments even if there is no fundamental change with the unit themselves.
- Reinhardt: Thunder's Fist <TIER 3 (Defense)>
- Olwen: Blue Mage Knight <TIER 4>
Unfortunately, Reinhardt and Olwen simply do not do enough damage in the modern state of the game with their Brave attacks doing no damage for the most part against competitive Save strategies. There was also an increase in discussion regarding the use of Deflect Magic on the offensive side to counter the likes of Ninja Corrin and Winter Lysithea, which will further hurt Reinhardt and Olwen’s performance. We decide to remove Olwen’s defensive tiering altogether and consider her as a mediocre hit-and-run unit in Aether Raids Offense.
- Summer Ashe: Fabled Sea Knight <TIER 3 (Defense)>
Summer Ashe’s weapon is essentially a bucket of stats, and in the current state of the game, it is too easy for an offensive strategy to beat Ashe in stats due to the sheer amount of support and mythic the offensive side could bring. While Ashe does have a stronger set of skills since release such as Flow Guard, that is still far too little for Ashe to perform to a level that we deem worthy of Tier 2 on the defensive front.
- Kagero: Honorable Ninja <TIER 3 (Defense)>
Kagero’s niche is always that she is a rather stubborn unit to take out. However, for the most part, survivability is not a defensive unit’s priority in a modern defense; the ability to score kills is much more important, and in that aspect Kagero’s weapon does way too little to potentially score kills. The main way that Kagero would succeed might be to use Lethality and run a pre-charge team, but that can be a hassle to work with, especially with counterplays such as Even Pulse Tie, Pulse Smoke, and most significantly, Elimine.
- Ascended Joshua: Resolute Tempest <TIER 1 (Defense)>
- Volke: Man of Mysteries <TIER 1 (Defense)>
We end this section with a slightly positive note. The introduction of the Tempo skill now gives Ascended Joshua a fairly reliable way to charge up Lethality. While it does come at an opportunity cost of Null Follow-Up, the ability to block counterattacks is extremely relevant when units like Valentine’s Chrom could provide Joshua the coverage against Ascended Fjorm. As for Volke, running Windsweep might be a good way to emulate what Joshua could do albeit to a lesser extent. Of course, Bridal Catria is probably still the best partner for Volke, and our point of Volke being piggybacked by Catria still stands. However, we are willing to give Volke a pass compared to before as Ascended Fjorm proves to be one of the most common Save units used by the offensive side.
Other Adjustments
- Ophelia: Dramatic Heroine <TIER 2>
- Summer Dorothea: Solar Songstress <TIER 3>
Ophelia and Summer Dorothea are both marred by the rise of Hardy Fighter armors, as a small group of people are catching on to using Hardy Fighter to combat against nukes. Ophelia’s performance is slightly marred by the increased prominence of Hardy Fighter Save units on defense, which her lack of in-combat damage output is a setback that is sufficient for her to be demoted, and the same goes for Summer Dorothea who could’ve relied on instant charging Lethality to be a one-time nuking option.
- Camilla: Light of Nohr <TIER 2>
Brave Camilla simply shifts her tiering from defense to offense due to Ascended Fjorm being a prominent part of the metagame, and her being a serviceable hit-and-run unit offensively.
- Bridal Micaiah: Dawn Wind's Duo <TIER 3>
- Forsyth: Loyal Lieutenant <TIER 3>
Bridal Micaiah without her Duo skill struggles quite a bit due to her movement and weapon type. Her best option is probably Vantage, which is unconvincing, to say the least. Forsyth’s healing is not terrible as a Near Save unit as Legendary Sigurd would probably barely scratch him due to the weapon triangle, but there are simply more competitive Near Save options in the higher tiers that supersede him in performance.
- Ashnard: Mad King <TIER 4>
Not much has changed for Ashnard himself, but the surroundings definitely have due to the release of generic weapons stated above. For the most part, the generic fliers now have an option to emulate Ashnard’s niche of inflicting in-combat debuffs while being a melee specialist. While Ashnard’s debuff is definitely more impactful (ATK/DEF instead of SPD/DEF for Rein weapons), we felt that this is not a tier of difference. While Ashnard could definitely perform well in this role at the time of writing, it is only because of the extremely low bar that is set by the low power level of the defensive metagame.
Weapon Refinery
Ylgr: Fresh Snowfall <TIER 2>
The main draw of Ylgr’s effect is probably the 3-space in-combat debuff that is dependent on either the debuffs of foe or the buffs of self, with the latter something that Ylgr could easily control. This meant that Ylgr could easily inflict -6 to all stats by leveraging on either of those two conditions. Being an Infantry also meant that she has access to both Sudden Panic and Even Pulse Tie, which could allow Ylgr to support with greater capacity. She is slotted into Tier 2 alongside the other supports such as Hinoka (WF) and Brave Lucina.
Tibarn: Lord of the Air <TIER 2>
Not much has changed about Tibarn, with the main fundamental difference being that he can switch out Heavy Blade for something else for him to leverage on Galeforce easily. However, the lack of cooldown reduction meant that his reliability in the strategy is slightly diminished due to his reliance on counterattacks.
Aversa: Dark One <TIER 4>
A combat-based refine for a ranged flier is extremely unfortunate, and having to build on HP to ensure that her weapon goes off potentially makes her combat even worse. It is likely that supportively built Aversa would just opt for a stat-based refine, which at the end of the day does not provide much of a boost for Aversa to be promoted.
Selkie: Free Spirit <TIER 3>
Selkie is particularly odd, as she does not really have a role that she is extremely good at. Her ATK is too low to run Galeforce even after her weapon’s potentially huge 36 ATK boost, and even then the weapon does not provide any further cooldown support. The enemy phase on a cavalry unit is rather awkward due to the lack of skills for it. This meant that while Selkie’s weapon is good on paper, we find it difficult to slot her in any of the frequent strategies used in the mode, with the best role for her probably being a pseudo-hit-and-run unit with the help of the Trace skills.
Veronica: Spring Princess <TIER 3 (Defense)>
Her damage boost based on buffed allies is seen before in Ashera’s weapon. However, Ashera makes an attempt to patch up her potential weakness to Panic by granting her allies Null-Panic, which is something that Veronica does not do. This meant that while her most direct application is likely on the defensive side, her reliance on her allies getting buffed could be troublesome if the foe brings any form of Panic. However, like many ranged fliers before, Veronica would probably be stuck with uncompetitive skills relative to the other movement types
New Units
August: Astute Tactician <TIER 3>
The team simply assumed that the latter half of Diplomacy Staff does not exist, as being reliant on an allies’ death is not exactly ideal for Aether Raids. Granting a buff and guaranteed follow-up on an ally-supported ally could be rather useful, especially in the enemy phase. August is probably alright in Aether Raids, but is probably best used in Summoner Duels instead.
Legendary Nanna: Beloved Princess <TIER 1>
The main comparison the team draws is Brave Alm, to which Nanna trades Infantry perks such as cooldown support for Canto. The team believes that these two units are likely to perform almost identically in the same strategy; rely on Winter Bernadetta for HP manipulation to enable Galeforce-based plays. As such, we felt that is sufficient for a Tier 1 evaluation as a potentially useful Galeforce unit.
Modern Godswords?
- Ascendant Mareeta: Astra Awakened <TIER 1>
- Young Mia: Budding Blade <TIER 2>
- Young Ike: Close-Knit Siblings <TIER 2>
These three units are the “godswords” of the modern era, however as eluded in the previous articles, Infantry units have largely fallen off. Ascendant Mareeta does bring something nice for melee Infantries to use in the form of Vital Astra. However, we do not think it is sufficiently adequate due to the increasing prominence of reduction piercing moving forward.
There is one thing that Ascendant Mareeta could do over the other 2 sword units; Vantage Sweeping with the help of Muspell. Similar to Brave Marth, it is potentially possible for Mareeta to take a hit, and sweep the remainder of the team using the Spiral effect on her weapon and Vital Astra’s damage reduction as a fail-safe. While it is probably not as reliable compared to Brave Marth as Marth could activate Vantage from 100% HP, that does not diminish Mareeta’s performance by any means. As such, Mareeta is slotted into Tier 1, while both Young Mia and Young Ike are classified in Tier 2 similar to the other modern sword units.
Young Boyd: Future Great <TIER 3>
Take whatever we said about the godswords, and we can also somewhat apply that to Boyd as well, with the additional restriction of Boyd only being competitive in odd turns. This restriction is not particularly damning for Boyd’s performance as most of the time a match is decided in a single turn, but it cannot be argued that the player is forced to work around Boyd’s turn-based limitations. While falling out of favor as of late, Legendary Sigurd might also cause issues for Boyd as his weapon also does not grant any defensive properties.
Young Soren: Hushed Voice <TIER 2 (Defense)>
Soren’s ability to halve damage reduction is similar to Valentine’s Lif, and having a pseudo-Windsweep effect based on RES can be rather helpful at times. Unfortunately, it requires Soren to beat a stat check. This can be potentially difficult to do especially against Savior-based comps due to their ability to stack combat buffs to absurd levels. At the very least, Soren does have options skill-wise due to being an Infantry unit.
Young Ilyana: Awakened Appetite <TIER 3>
Young Ilyana’s placement is largely influenced by Valentine’s Chrom increased prominence. This issue is further exacerbated by her being a green tome, which somehow makes the Chrom Problem (say that repeatedly 10 times fast) actually worst. For more information, refer to the above section.
