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Analysis by MackerelPye
Tethys - Beloved Danced

3-4

Obtainable as a 3 - 4 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
157
HP 38
ATK 27
SPD 35
DEF 23
RES 34

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
4★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 15 4 8 3 5
Middle 16 5 9 4 6
High 17 6 10 5 7

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
4★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 34 23 32 20 31
Middle 38 27 35 23 34
High 41 30 38 27 37

IV Sets

Key stats worth increasing through nature if possible.
Complementary stats that matter, but not to the point of picking them over key stats for nature increase.
Relatively worthless stat that can safely be decreased through nature.
HPATKSPDDEFRES

Assets

  • +SPD: Like most dancers before her, Tethys will definitely enjoy a Speed Asset to fortify her already-decent Speed further. Thus, this minimizes the amount of natural follow-up attacks performed against her, as well as those she can do herself.
  • +RES: For raw magical tanking purposes, Resistance is definitely a solid Asset for direct damage softening.

Neutral

  • HP: Tethys's second best choice for a Flaw would be her HP, though it is less desired than Defense as it sits at a volatile value of 38 already and suffers from a superflaw. For builds focused on inflicting Panic, HP is valued above others as an Asset as well. In all other cases, keep neutral for intact magic bulk. 
  • ATK: Tethys's Attack sits at an only adequate value and gains little value from taking it as an Asset and obviously a Flaw (which even suffers from -4 for bad measure). Even on offensive builds, Tethys generally stands to gain more from Speed.

Flaws

  • -DEF: At zero merges, Defense will be the preferred Flaw as Tethys will rarely find herself in particularly serious physical matchups. Her Defense is otherwise far from unsalvageable and is far from a bad choice as an Asset. In fact, Tethys gains 4 points as opposed to 3 in this stat, and it can casually be further fortified through a variety of methods, including Distant Def, Fury, merges, and more. 

Skill Sets

Whims of the Witch (Anti-Mage / Debuff Support)

Build by MackerelPye
Recommended
Temari+ (+Res) A Fury (3 or 4)
Alternate: Fortress Res 3
Dance B Wings of Mercy 3
Alternate: Dull Ranged 3
Iceberg
Alternate: Moonbow
C Def Ploy 3
Alternate: Odd Res Wave 3
IVsSFortress Res 3
Alternate: Chill Def 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Preferred IV: +SPD or +RES / -DEF

  • This build's specialized anti-mage focus makes Speed and Resistance priority recommendations over any other Asset.
  • The former increases Tethys's chances of avoiding follow-up attacks and making some herself.
  • The latter increases Tethys's raw magical resilience overall if powerful single-shot attacks are more of a concern while also increasing Temari potency.

Weapon: Temari+ (+Res) 

  • Temari is freely available from New Years Eir and the only passive support dagger that exists. Tethys uses it well thanks to her great Resistance stat. Specifically, the weapon drops the Attack and Speed of enemies adjacent to each other with lower Resistance than Tethys, which helps her own allies get the upper hand on them.

Assist: Dance

Special: Iceberg / Moonbow / Glacies

  • Due to Tethys's fantastic resulting Resistance from passive skills taken in this build, Iceberg's burst damage typically comes out upwards of 20. Glacies is a significantly stronger version of the skill with higher cooldown.
  • For a small but notable amount of burst damage in less cooldown turns, Moonbow as always can be taken instead. Notably with Barb Shuriken, it can activate in every counterattack.

Passive A: Fury (3 or 4) / Fort. Def/Res / Fortress Res

  • When using Temari+, increasing Tethys's visible Resistance may be a priority as the weapon measures this compared to opposing units' visible Resistance. Thus, running Fury (which pads out all stats in exchange for recoil per match) or Fortress skills (which increase Resistance in exchange for Attack) would be applicable here. 

Passive B: Wings of Mercy / Dull Ranged / Guard

  • Though Wings of Mercy doesn't do much to toughen Tethys herself, it's still the prime dancer B-slot skill of honorable recommendation as it grants the ability to warp to other allies in peril from near-anywhere.
  • The bonus negation effect of Dull Ranged is simple but effective, evening the odds against particularly boost-reliant foes such as Nino and Tharja. 
  • Guard provides safety against Specials, helping Tethys win out against Special-reliant enemies so as long as she remains at a reasonable level of health.

Passive C: Odd Res Wave / Defense Ploy / Flexible

  • The C slot is mostly irrelevant to this build's performance and can be determined by player / team preferences.
    • For optimization's sake, Odd Res Wave is notable for its 4-star accessibility (by Mercedes) and providing a large, helpful Resistance bonus to Tethys and her allies on odd turns.
    • If you are running Temari+ / an otherwise visible Resistance-based build, Ploys can help catch cardinal enemies that manage to avoid Temari's debuffs. 

Sacred Seal: Fortress Res / HP/Res 2 / Chill Def / Flexible

  • To improve Temari's range of inflicted enemies, you may consider running Seals which visibly improve Resistance, including Fortress Resistance or HP/Res 2.
  • Otherwise, the Seal is flexible for a variety of other support options. Chill Def, for example, is guaranteed to land on some enemy whether or not they are adjacent another unit (a condition Temari relies on) while providing Defense debuff support synergistic with Temari's Atk/Spd penalties.

Afternoon of a Faun (Low-Investment)

Build by
The Cleaner+ (+Spd) A Spd/Res Bond 3
Alternate: Fury 3
Dance B Wings of Mercy 3
Iceberg
Alternate: Moonbow
C Spur Atk/Res 2
Alternate: Infantry Rush 3
IVsSDistant Def 3
Alternate: Spd/Res Bond 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Preferred IV: +SPD or +RES / -DEF

  • This build is designed to work with any Asset/Flaw combination Tethys ends up with. However, for optimization's sake, Speed and Resistance are preferred Assets as they increase Tethys's general defensive presence especially against mages. Tethys will also likely never use her Defense in a favorable fight, making that an optimal Flaw.

Weapon: The Cleaner+ (+Spd)

  • For low investment purposes, Tethys need not venture further than her base weapon with Speed refinery. On occasion, The Cleaner will help soft check a reasonable number of bonus-boosted mages when applicable.

Assist: Dance

Special: Iceberg / Moonbow

  • Due to Tethys's high potential Resistance value after taking into account the A slot skill and Sacred Seal, Iceberg is recommended for fantastic burst damage.
  • Moonbow's smaller but usually reasonable burst damage off of a lower cooldown of two also makes it worth considering for single-round activation.

Passive A: Spd/Res Bond / Fury 3

  • Tethys's base Spd/Res Bond already fortifies two of her best stats for the simple condition of being adjacent to a teammate, making it a fantastic default choice.
  • Fury is a cheap skill that visibly pads out stats, allowing Tethys to participate more often in stat comparisons and thus soak up Chill skills (especially Chill Spd and Chill Res) often.

Passive B: Wings of Mercy

  • Wings of Mercy is cheap and standard on refresher units like Tethys for a reason: it allows them to support badly-damage units from nearly any distance as long as the adjacent terrain is accessible. The enforced adjacency also reinforces skills that rely on this exact condition; for this build, this includes Bonds and Spurs.

Passive C: Spur Atk/Res / Infantry Rush / Any Ploy skill / Flexible

  • This build's push for ally nearness and use of Wings of Mercy naturally promotes the usefulness of Spur and Drive skills.
  • Infantry Rush is very useful for infantry allies that do not wish to equip the Heavy Blade seal or skill themselves. Aether or AOE Special users in particular benefit from this as Tethys using Infantry Rush gives them extra space for another useful skill.
  • Tethys's naturally high Resistance also lends itself nicely to supportive Ploy skills, impacting the chosen stat of lower Resistance foes in cardinal directions.  

Sacred Seal: Distant Def / Spd/Res Bond / Spur Atk/Spd / Flexible

  • In cases where Tethys can't be adjacent to a teammate and must take a stray magic hit, Distant Defense is her best tanking option. The added physical Defense also results in more comfortable matchups against Bow and Dagger units.
  • Otherwise, doubly applying Spd/Res Bond is a neat way to turn the tables on most conventional mages without an extreme amount of bonuses.
  • The Sacred Seal is otherwise open to whichever strategies appeal to you, and resources you can care to spare. Doubly stacking Spur and Ploy skills, for example, is an honorable mention.

Violet Syncopations (High-Investment / Arena Scoring Optimal)

Build by
Lethal Carrot+ (+Spd)
Alternate: Temari+ (+Res)
A C Duel Infantry 3
Alternate: Fury (3 or 4)
Dance B Sudden Panic 3
Alternate: Sabotage Def 3
Ruptured Sky
Alternate: Moonbow
C Joint Hone Spd
Alternate: Infantry Rush 3
IVsSPanic Ploy 3
Alternate: Chill Spd 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Preferred IV: +HP or +SPD or +RES / -DEF

  • For builds particularly focused on inflicting Panic, an HP Asset is advised to expand the list of affected targets as far as possible. Taking into account the Asset, maximal merges, and C Duel Infantry, Tethys can reach upwards of 50 HP if she chooses not to take further improvements.
  • Otherwise, Speed is advised for increased follow-up performance and avoidance and simply general use, whereas Resistance improves the likelihood of successful Sabotage debuffs.

Weapon: Lethal Carrot+ (+Spd) / Temari+ (+Res) / Barb Shuriken+ (+Spd) / Red-Hot Ducks (+Spd) / Bottled Juice+ (+Spd)

  • To make up for Tethys's damage output woes, Lethal Carrot adds a flat +10 damage to every Special activation. The weapon works in favor of short cooldown Specials (i.e. Moonbow or Ruptured Sky) by improving their normally modest burst damage.
  • After high investment, Tethys's resulting Resistance allows better effective use of Temari, which provides passive debuffs in Attack and Speed on lower Resistance adjacent foes.
  • Barb Shuriken is the most accessible of recommended weapons, increasing frequency of Special activations—especially that of Blue Flame and Iceberg.
  • With the potential of highly-invested Speed, Red-Hot Ducks becomes a real option as it provides up to 7 true damage on every hit (with respect to the difference between Tethys's Speed and the opponent's).
  • Bottled Juice is the best option for Tethys builds not particularly purposed for direct combat. That is, if Tethys is forced to engage in battle, the Special slowdown effect of Bottled Juice prevents dangerous threats from charging their Special too quickly if at all.

Assist: Dance

  • Using Dance in high-investment environments means a couple of things. Mainly in Arena, it provides fantastic support in an otherwise movement-restrictive mode that may force your Arena core to run armored units and Rally skills due to scoring caveats. On the other hand, its low SP value means Tethys should run high-SP skills in other slots to make up for scoring deficits.
  • Above all and if you're simply not running this build in such an environment, it's simply a fantastic Assist skill that provides flexibility in hundredfolds.

Special: Ruptured Sky / Blue Flame / Moonbow / Iceberg

  • For a mix of high scoring and practical activation timing, Ruptured Sky and Blue Flame will be Tethys's preferred options in Arena.
  • Otherwise, Moonbow and Iceberg are simply more accessible and, above all, practical.

Passive A: C Duel Infantry / Swift Sparrow 3 / Fury (3 or 4) / HP +5

  • C Duel Infantry increases Tethys's modest scoring bin of 156-160 to a much more substantial 170 while also providing a nice HP boost which rewards nicely for Panic skills. For non-Arena contexts, the more accessible and simpler HP +5 will do for Panic setups.
  • Swift Sparrow or Fury (or other similar Atk/Spd boosting skills) are ideal for builds specializing particularly in attacking.

Passive B: Sudden Panic / Any Sabotage skill / Any Chill skill / Desperation / Windsweep

  • AI-controlled enemies in Defense set ups have a tendency to group up adjacency and use Rally skills on each other in high-scoring environments. Naturally, Sudden Panic takes diabolical advantage of this behavior by converting the opponents' shared bonuses into penalties, making their defeat even easier. Note that it requires a specific setup with HP superinvestment.
  • Sabotage skills act similarly to Sudden Panic, except it applies a harsh mass debuff of choice to lower Resistance enemies.
  • Chills are a more accessible alternative to Sabotages, instead affecting a single superunit of a chosen stat regardless of their adjacency to other foes.
  • For true offensive builds, Desperation improves Tethys's offensive presence and survivability by allowing her to make follow-up attacks (whenever she can perform it) consecutively before the enemy can counterattack.  
  • Tethys's access to daggers and having high Speed also makes Windsweep (or Watersweep if applicable) a feasible option to achieve unpunishable debuffs on slower enemies.

Passive C: Joint Hone Spd / Infantry Rush / Infantry Breath / Flexible

  • Joint Hone Spd and other Joints and similarly-kitted C slot skills provides good team support as well as nice scoring potential via high SP costs.
  • Infantry Pulse and Infantry Rush are fantastic support options for infantry bonus units in particular, increasing the frequency of their Specials while avoiding expensive or impractical skills (Steady Breath and Heavy Blade especially) on them.
  • The C slot is otherwise open for other options depending on your team preferences.

Sacred Seal: Panic Ploy / Any Chill skill / Sturdy Blow 2 / Flashing Blade / Flexible

  • For enemies unaffected by Sudden Panic because they are not adjacent to others, Panic Ploy helps catch stray foes by inflicting its namesake status in cardinal directions.
  • Tethys can provide further team with a Sacred Seal purposed for such, including Ploys and Chill skills.
  • As far as selfish offensive options are concerned, Sturdy Blow improves Tethys's initiations by providing nice in-combat Attack and Defense boosts of +4. Flashing Blade is also potent especially with 2-cooldown Specials (or effectively 2 cooldown after Barb Shuriken) for single-round activation.

Introduction

A quite long-awaited entry from The Sacred Stones, Tethys saunters in Heroes as a colorless dagger-wielding refresher unit—free from seasonal limitations and low base stat totals that tormented Performing Arts Olivia and Hoshidan Summer Xander before her. Unfortunately, her stat allocation doesn't allow for much more than sponging stray tome attacks while Dancing as a main job.

Though it's not the main job expected of refresher units, her Attack is too low to do play any sort of flashy or substantial offensive role. This disadvantage is further compounded by Tethys's usage of daggers, which are generally limited by the number of high-Defense threats in the game as well as limited passive support utility outside of post-combat debuffs. Take into account her colorless status, and she won't be hitting hard anytime soon without extreme offensive investment.

Nevertheless, her fantastic magic tanking capabilities keep her a fresh choice in the line of refreshers, and the mere fact that she has the ability to Dance still gives her a ton of value in your barracks.  

Strengths

Dance

By simple virtue of having Dance—which grants an extra action to allies finished with their turn—Tethys is already a great support unit that can offer massive general turn-action flexibility to your team. Anything else Tethys can do is simply extra but welcome.

Good Magical Tanking Properties

With great values of 35 Speed and 34 Resistance at base paired with an improvable 38 HP, Tethys can easily be purposed for satisfactory magical tanking while performing her dancing duties.

Decent Sabotage, Ploy, and Panic Potential

Tethys can definitely provide her share of passive debuffing support in addition to refreshing units. Her aforementioned Resistance stat allows her to utilize Sabotage and Ploy skills better than most units at your heed. Though Tethys's HP is pretty ordinary at first glance, dedicated investment in the stat also puts her HP above most other foes, giving her nice potential in utilizing Panic-based skills as well.

Colorless Dagger Perks

Tethys has no particular affinity to one color; thus, she typically attains even but favorable matchups against magic units of many shapes of sizes, many of whose lower Defense is exploited by the physical damage of daggers. Unlike her statistically close equivalent Leanne, she does not require Distant Counter to do the magic tanking she's great at.

Weaknesses

Less-Than-Adequate Attack

Like Performing Arts Olivia before her, Tethys definitely isn't winning at competitions involving raw damage. 27 Attack at base is enough to wear down and eventually defeat conventionally frail mages, but will definitely fail to impress against units with even remotely decent Defense values.

Colorless Disadvantages

Being colorless also means Tethys has no favorable color advantages to fall back on against particularly difficult opponents. Tethys therefore must rely on her sheer might of her stats and traits in most situations.

Physical Vulnerability

Tethys's raw base 23 Defense is the weak point in her otherwise nice survivability, leaving her limited to only reliably tanking magic and typically taking one physical attack if any.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Iron Dagger

After combat, inflicts Def/Res-3 on foe through its next action.

Learns by default at 1 ★
Unlocks at 1 ★
Dagger users only.
50 2 3
Steel Dagger

After combat, inflicts Def/Res-3 on foe through its next action.

Learns by default at 3 ★
Unlocks at 2 ★
Dagger users only.
100 2 5
The Cleaner

Grants bonus to unit’s Atk = total bonuses on foe during combat.

After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Def/Res-5 on target and foes within 2 spaces of target through their next actions.

Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Dagger users only.
200 2 8
The Cleaner+

Grants bonus to unit’s Atk = total bonuses on foe during combat.

After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Def/Res-7 on target and foes within 2 spaces of target through their next actions.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Unlocks at 5 ★
Dagger users only.
300 2 12
Available Rearmed Weapons
Arcane Void
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Support Skills

Support Skills Rng. SP
Dance

Grants another action to target ally. (Cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance.)

Learns by default at 4 ★
1 150

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Spd/Res Bond 1

Grants Spd/Res+3 to this unit during combat if unit is adjacent to an ally.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 1 ★
60
A
Spd/Res Bond 2

Grants Spd/Res+4 to this unit during combat if unit is adjacent to an ally.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 2 ★
120
A
Spd/Res Bond 3

Grants Spd/Res+5 to this unit during combat if unit is adjacent to an ally.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
A
Dagger Exp. 1

While unit lives, unit gets 1.5x EXP.

(Only highest value applied. Does not stack.)

Dagger users only.
Unlocks at 3 ★
30
C
Dagger Exp. 2

While unit lives, all Dagger allies on team get 1.5x EXP.

(Only highest value applied. Does not stack.)

Dagger users only.
Unlocks at 4 ★
60
C
Dagger Exp. 3

While unit lives, all dagger allies on team get 2x EXP.

(Only highest value applied. Does not stack.)

Dagger users only.
Unlocks at 5 ★
120
C

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

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