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Bridal Tharja

Analysis by MackerelPye
Bridal Tharja - Obsessive Bride

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
151
HP 39
ATK 35
SPD 35
DEF 21
RES 21

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 16 8 8 5 3
Middle 17 9 9 6 4
High 18 10 10 7 5

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 35 32 32 18 18
Middle 39 35 35 21 21
High 42 38 38 24 24

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

Skill Sets

Sacrificing the Entire Poultry Population For Senpai (All-Out Attacker)

Build by MackerelPye
Recommended
Múspell Fireposy (+Eff) A Swift Sparrow (2 or 3)
Alternate: Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot
Draw Back
Alternate: Reposition
B Desperation 3
Alternate: Wings of Mercy 3
Glimmer
Alternate: Moonbow
C Joint Drive Spd
Alternate: Infantry Rush 3
IVs

+ATK or +SPD / -HP or -DEF or -RES

SSwift Sparrow 2
Alternate: Blade Session 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Múspell Fireposy

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Glimmer / Luna / Moonbow

Passive A: Swift Sparrow 3 / Fury 4 / Atk/Spd Push 4 / Atk/Spd Solo

Passive B: Desperation / Wings of Mercy / Lull Spd/Res

Passive C: Joint Drive Spd / Infantry Rush / Infantry Hexblade / Atk/Spd Oath / Joint Drive Atk / Various "Within Two Spaces" or adjacent skills

Sacred Seal: Blade Session / Swift Sparrow / Brazen Atk/Spd

  • This build is nothing complicated. It merely amplifies what Bridal Tharja's weapon, Múspell Fireposy, is all about: stacking Attack and Speed as far as the horizon reaches. So, the skills and explanation are also nothing complicated: pack up whichever high Atk/Spd enhancers you have access to in the A-slot and Sacred Seal, and behold a wedding ceremony of devastating flame. 
  • Due to the hyperaggressive, Player Phase-focused nature of the build, simply stacking Swift Sparrow in both slots is simple and more than optimal enough. You can consider other options depending on your setup tolerance of other skills taken on the build. 
    • Fury + Brazen Atk/Spd for instance requires at least one turn of initial combat or other form of low HP setup, so the extra bulk and recoil granted from Fury should be helpful towards this goal. 
    • Atk/Spd Solo or Push also should work well enough if you keep in mind their limitations; Solo can yield a bit of clumsy usage with Múspell Fireposy's ally nearness requirements, and Push stops working past a certain point unlike Fury. 
    • The Blade Session seal is pretty much solid no matter how many allies are finished with their turn, and when maxed, it nearly reaches the Atk/Spd boost ceiling. 
  • For B-slots: 
    • Good old Desperation yields its budgetable yet classically effective head on this build, as once it's set up, Tharja will be able to delete the vast majority of enemies — with exception to units with high Resistance, Hardy Bearing, or follow-up prevention —  with uninterrupted doubles and fluidity. 
    • Wings of Mercy allows Tharja to teleport adjacently to any sufficiently damaged ally of choice. Not only does this promote the activation of Múspell Fireposy's offensive boosts and other skills requiring ally nearness, but it also grants Tharja flexible movement options for ease of escaping and supporting teammates.
    • Lull Spd/Res trades Desperation's attacking safety for basically no setup and basically maximizes Tharja's damage in all matchups as it clears enemies of any Speed and Resistance bonuses they have. 
  • Joint Drive Atk or Spd synergizes quite well with the ally nearness requirement of Múspell Fireposy, giving Tharja an option to bolster her allies' and her own offenses with an easy positioning requirement. Lacking those, you can turn to a variety of supportive C-slots that Tharja can utilize quite well as Múspell Fireposy can also moonlight as a supportive Rein skill (translation: lowering the enemy's stats from a distance). Infantry Hexblade or Rush, for instance, potentially increases the hitting power or rate of Special fire for nearby infantry allies respectively. 

To Be Your Nonconsensually Wedded Wife (Special Spam)

Build by MackerelPye
Recommended
Múspell Fireposy (+Eff) A Flashing Blade (3 or 4)
Alternate: Life and Death (3 or 4)
Draw Back
Alternate: Reposition
B Desperation 3
Alternate: Special Spiral 3
Luna
Alternate: Blazing Special
C Time's Pulse 3
Alternate: Joint Drive Atk
IVs

+ATK or +SPD / -HP or -DEF or -RES

SLife and Death 3
Alternate: Heavy Blade 3 / Flashing Blade 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Múspell Fireposy

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Luna / Blazing Wind / Glimmer/ Moonbow

Passive A: Flashing Blade 4 / Life and Death / Atk/Spd Ideal / Swift Sparrow / Fury 4 / Atk/Spd Push 4

Passive B: Desperation / Special Spiral

Passive C: Time's Pulse / Joint Drive Atk / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Life and Death / Blade Sessions / Flashing Blade / Heavy Blade

  • Whereas the previous offensive build focuses on building pure non-Special damage, this one aims to increase damage output through consistently activating Specials. It'd be redundant to go over the weapon and skill details that carry on from the other build, so we're jumping to build variations with explanations of new skills. 
  • Time's Pulse Desperation (Time's Pulse + Glimmer OR Moonbow + Desperation):
    • Yet again, Tharja can rely on good old Desperation for safer initiation attacks after she gets below 75% HP. After getting that up and going, she can charge her Specials more quickly due to the fact that she's getting two attacks in before her enemy. 
    • We assume a 2 CD Special like Glimmer or Moonbow is used due to their short and sweet activation rate and damage. Time's Pulse is utilized to shorten their cooldown to just 1, allowing Tharja to activate either Special on her second Desperation-powered hit.
    • Unlike the other skill combinations, you can run stat boosters in both the Sacred Seal and A-slot without compromising either with a Blade skill, giving Tharja a fair balance of natural power and shortened Special damage. 
  • Flashing Desperation (Flashing Blade + Glimmer OR Moonbow + Desperation):
    • Time's Pulse is premium fodder and it's understandable if you're hesitant to give it away, if you have it at all. To compensate, you can run the same skills above while substituting it for Flashing Blade in the A-slot or Sacred Seal, allowing Tharja to instead reduce her Special cooldown from 2 to 0 by hitting slower enemies. 
    • Consequently, you have to be a bit choosier with your targets as both Desperation and Flashing Blade are reliant on Tharja totally doubling her enemy. 
    • The C-slot is open for any complementary skill of your choosing. 
  • Why Not Both? (Flashing + Time's Pulse + Luna + Desperation):
    • Running Time's Pulse and Flashing Blade together allows Tharja to safely activate a 3 CD Special on her second Desperation hit. 
    • Luna tends to be the most reliable Special given the growing amount of enemies with high Resistance.  
  • AOE Special Spam (Flashing Blade OR Heavy Blade + Special Spiral + Blazing Skill + Fury OR Life and Death):
    • A totally different beast from the Desperation variants, this combination aims to deal single heavy damage by first damaging a target (and perhaps surrounding enemy allies) with an Area of Effect Special like Blazing Wind, then making a single killing blow without dealing with Desperation's occasional countermeasures.  
    • After activating Blazing Wind for the first time, the combination of your preferred Blade skill and Special Spiral will make it so Spiral fully charges every subsequent Special after the killing hit — hopefully unhindered by Guard or an enemy that beats your Heavy or Flashing Blade comparison. 
    • Time's Pulse can be used to subtract the amount of effort needed to get that first Special off (and stacks with other precharge factors such as Tome of Reglay, Ostia's Pulse II, and Infantry Pulse), but after the first activation, it's effectively a dead slot.
    • The AoE Specials' damage is scaled off of Tharja's visible Attack versus the enemy's Resistance, meaning Fury or Life and Death will be the preferred A-slot or Sacred Seal choices to bolster Tharja's power. 

Strengths

Refined Múspell Fireposy

Bridal Tharja's new refined base weapon is basically damage, Speed, and even more damage and Speed, all of which come in exchange for significantly less strict Form skill positioning requirements. As other statball refines have displayed, however, this is not a bad thing as she certainly needs those to keep up with the tough competition, and many players typically play it safe by keeping their units groups nearby. An abridged list without the complicated math:

  • In addition to providing a much-appreciated Speed boost of +3…
  • Múspell Fireposy grants a nice helping of Attack and Speed in combat, and the amount of Attack only becomes larger depending on the number of additional allies nearby.
  • Hopping off that effect, it also applies a debuff on the enemy's Speed and Resistance while fighting, and the debuff becomes more rewarding the more allies position themselves near Tharja. This also gives Tharja quite a bit of support utility by weakening enemies from a distance. This helps her earn her keep on your team even if she must back out of combat as the situation wills.

As a semi-important technical note, because being near at least one ally is required to get these effects up and going (and that's an already pretty forgiving condition), Tharja will, at minimum, be operating off of +7 Atk/+5 Spd along with inflicting -2 Spd/Res on the enemy. In total, if you abide by Múspell Fireposy's conditions at its very minimum, Tharja's boasting at a 9 Attack and 10 Speed swing (including the +3 Speed) over her enemy. 

Good Benchmark Offenses

Bridal Tharja's base 35 Attack and 35 Speed can't be called particularly fantastic in this day and age, but they still provide a solid offensive benchmark to build off of. That said, a brand-spanking new selection of great offensive skills plus Múspell Fireposy's ridiculous stat swings also do a nice job at making up for lost time.

Infantry

Tharja's bridal dowry includes quite a lot of infantry-exclusive skills she can run to dress her builds up more extravagantly. Time's Pulse, for instance, will be consistently great on all builds she can run due to a lack of cooldown acceleration, and can be paired with Flashing Blade and Special Spiral for even more explosive Special activation options. Should you so choose, Null Follow-Up, the Impact skill line, and Infantry Rush and Hexblade are also included in that nice gift basket. 

Weaknesses

Occasional Positioning Woes

Múspell Fireposy is a weapon with nasty potential, but much of its power is locked behind keeping allies at least three spaces in Tharja's vicinity. In other words, Tharja and her allies have to sacrifice a bit of positional independence to play optimally most of the time, and though the condition is typically no big deal, this isn't always a given in tight situations. Exercise effective kiting and positioning when using or dealing with Tharja. 

Mediocre Defenses

Bridal Tharja's defensive stats have not aged well at all since her debut. Her total bulk amounts to only 60 in both physical and magical matchups at zero merges. Thus, this overall limits the amount of punishment—especially potential one-shot kills—she can actively survive without specific skills. 

Limited Utility

Being a mage with a lot of Attack and Speed isn't exactly a claim to fame when there's a lot that fulfills that niche in this game (see: both Lysitheas, Nyx, Byleth/Rhea, Constance, and more). While certainly powerful in general gameplay and difficult map clearance, Tharja is lacking in a few utilities that would make her a desirable choice in PVP modes. These include the extended threat range expected of cavalry units in Aether Raids, or having other useful weapon effects other than statballing — which, don't get us wrong, hurts pretty darn hard still.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Fire
Red Tome Users Only
50 2 4
Elfire
Red Tome Users Only
100 2 6
Bolganone
Red Tome Users Only
200 2 9
Múspell Fireposy

Grants Spd+3. During combat, boosts unit's Atk/Spd by number of allies within 2 spaces x 2. (Maximum bonus of +6 to each stat.)

Learns by default at 5 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
400 2 14
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Support Skills

Support Skills Rng. SP
Rally Speed

Grants Spd+4 to target ally for 1 turn.

Learns by default at 5 ★
1 150
Rally Atk/Spd

Grants Atk/Spd+3 to target ally for 1 turn.

1 300

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Atk/Spd Bond 1

If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Spd+3 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
60
A
Atk/Spd Bond 2

If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Spd+4 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
120
A
Atk/Spd Bond 3

If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Spd+5 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
A
Spd Feint 1

If a Rally Assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, inflicts Spd-3 on foes in cardinal directions of unit through their next actions.

Inheritable by all units.
60
B
Spd Feint 2

If a Rally Assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, inflicts Spd-5 on foes in cardinal directions of unit through their next actions.

Inheritable by all units.
120
B
Spd Feint 3

If a Rally Assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, inflict Spd-7 on foes in cardinal directions of unit through their next actions.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
B

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem Heroes

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