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Analysis by ZeShado
Kjelle - Fair Fighter

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
174
HP 47
ATK 40
SPD 22
DEF 37
RES 28

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 22 9 4 10 5
Middle 23 10 5 11 6
High 24 11 6 12 7

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 44 37 19 34 24
Middle 47 40 22 37 28
High 50 44 25 40 31

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

Not Such a Fair Fighter, Are We? (Near Save)

Build by ZeShado
Recommended
Heartbeat Lance (+Eff) A Sturdy Stance 3
Alternate: Atk/Def Unity
Positional Assist B Wily Fighter 3
Alternate: Crafty Fighter 3
Ignis
Alternate: Dragon Fang
C A/D Near Save 3
Alternate: D/R Near Save 3
IVs

+ATK or +DEF / -SPD

SSteady Breath
Alternate: Warding Breath

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Heartbeat Lance (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Ignis / Dragon Fang / Bonfire / Draconic Aura

A Passive: Sturdy Stance 3 / Atk/Def Unity / Bracing Stance 3 / Close Def 4

B Passive: Wily Fighter / Crafty Fighter / Slick Fighter / Vengeful Fighter

C Passive: A/D Near Save / D/R Near Save / A/R Near Save

Sacred Seal: Steady Breath / Warding Breath / Atk/Def Form

  • Heartbeat Lance takes what Armors are naturally capable of doing with Save skills and ramps it up to a significant degree as it can inflict a massive amount of Atk penalties during combat and prevent follow-up attacks which, in turn, makes Kjelle a prime candidate for the Near Save and Far Save roles. For this set, we’ll mainly focus on Near Save and Far Save for the other set respectively.
     
  • Kjelle’s Special will wholly depend on the Fighter skill she has equipped. In most cases, a four-cooldown Special such as Ignis or Dragon Fang will work, when paired with a Breath Sacred Seal, as that can allow her to trigger it on every second hit. The only exception time she’ll want to run a lower-cooldown Special such as Bonfire or Draconic Aura is when she’s running Vengeful Fighter as it provides accelerated Cooldown on each of her hits, rendering Breath Sacred Seals redundant.
     
  • Depending on the Fighter skill she has equipped, Kjelle can subsequently alternate her A Passive to prevent any form of overlap from her Fighter skill. Sturdy Stance and Bracing Stance inflicts Guard on the foe, so any Fighter skill other than Crafty Fighter will be a good option. If running Atk/Def Unity, don’t run Slick Figher since that removes her own debuffs. If running Close Def 4, don’t run Wily Fighter since both skills remove any visible buff the foe may have. Simple as that.
     
  • Kjelle has plenty of options when it comes to her B Passive since she’s an Armor unit (mainly Fighter skills). Wily Fighter is arguably going to be the best option since it disables any visible buffs the foe may have at the start of combat, making Heartbeat Lance stat checks substantially easier. She can also opt for Crafty Fighter if you want to delay any Special the foe may have, Slick Fighter to remove any debuffs Kjelle may have on herself, or Vengeful Fighter for budget purposes. It’s worth noting that a majority of these effects can be replicated from her A Passive, so she has that flexibility.
     
  • Since the goal is to act as a Near Save unit, what better skill to have as her C Passive than Near Save? Near Save units are mainly going to be fighting foes that target her Def stat, so the best variant would have to be A/D Near Save since it bolsters the two stats she’ll be using the most. Of course, Kjelle can also opt for D/R Near Save if you want her Dragon matchups. A/R Near Save is also an option, albeit the weakest of the three but still provides the effect that allows her to function as needed.
     
  • Regardless of which four-cooldown Special Kjelle decides to run, she’ll want to pair it with a Breath Sacred Seal so that she can consistently trigger it every combat. If she’s running a different Special with a lower cooldown count, whether that’s Bonfire or Draconic Aura, especially if paired with Vengeful Fighter, she can instead opt for a Sacred Seal that boosts Kjelle’s overall Atk and Def such as Atk/Def Form as that grants quite a bit of stats comparatively to other options available.

No Attack Stat? (Far Save)

Build by ZeShado
Heartbeat Lance (+Eff) A Distant Stance
Alternate: Distant Counter
Positional Assist B Hardy Fighter 3
Alternate: Wily Fighter 3
Sacred Cowl
Alternate: Dragon Fang
C D/R Far Save 3
Alternate: A/R Far Save 3
IVs

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

SSteady Breath
Alternate: Warding Breath

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Heartbeat Lance (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Sacred Cowl / Dragon Fang

A Passive: Distant Stance / Distant Counter / Distant Def 4 / Bracing Stance 3

B Passive: Hardy Fighter / Wily Fighter

C Passive: D/R Far Save / A/R Far Save / A/D Far Save

Sacred Seal: Steady Breath / Warding Breath / Deflect Magic / Def/Res Form

  • Heartbeat Lance granting an absurd amount of defensive properties, mainly stemming from the amount of Atk debuffs she inflicts on each respective foe, opens up the way for her as a Far Save tank. Despite lacking any form of Slaying, Kjelle can still work with Sacred Cowl and tank considerably well. However, she should still be able to soak quite a bit even without the help of Hardy Fighter, so making her a bit more offensive with a damaging Special is an option as well. This set is here to provide an alternative approach to her contributions to any given team.
     
  • The Special will depend on the type of Fighter skill you want her to run. If Hardy Fighter, Kjelle will want Sacred Cowl so that she can tank hits. Otherwise, Dragon Fang, when paired with a Breath Sacred Seal and a Fighter skill that grants a guaranteed follow-up, will be a solid alternative for general damage output.
     
  • Kjelle either has the option of general tanking with the likes of Hardy Fighter or running a more offensive set with a damaging Special and another passive that grants a guaranteed follow-up. With Hardy Fighter in mind, she’ll either run a skill that allows her to counter against ranged threats and subsequently charge Sacred Cowl consistently or optimize her tanking capabilities with the likes of Distant Def 4 and Bracing Stance 3, the former removing any visible buffs from the foe, which in turn makes Heartbeat Lance stat checks easier to make, and the latter inflicting Guard to nullify any chance at the foe triggering a Special.
     
  • Despite being highly tanky in nature thanks to Heartbeat Lance, she can still opt for Hardy Fighter as that can allow her to soak instantaneous Specials. It may not be a common issue, depending on the mode she finds herself situated in, so if you find that it’s too niche, then she can opt for Wily Fighter as that’ll make her Heartbeat Lance checks a lot more manageable.
     
  • Since the goal is to act as a Far Save unit, what better skill to have as her C Passive than Far Save? D/R Far Save is going to be the best option for general tanking but the other options aren’t bad whatsoever since they provide the effect necessary to fulfill that role. A/R Far Save and A/D Far Save are good alternatives and can help deal a bit more damage, but she will probably struggle to one-shot. Regardless, as long as it’s Far Save, then it should be fine.
     
  • If the goal is to loop Sacred Cowl for several combats, then Kjelle will appreciate having a Breath Sacred Seal, whether Steady Breath or Warding Breath. Since she does negate any follow-up attacks from the foe, she’ll be able to consistently maintain the Special charges as long as there aren’t any Guard effects present and if the foe doesn’t have a guaranteed follow-up or Null Follow-Up effect. However, despite being able to prevent follow-up attacks, she can still take full damage from Brave hits, so running Deflect Magic is also a viable option as it can still allow her to charge Sacred Cowl back up but only against foes with Brave attacks. She can also stack her Def and Res respectively with Def/Res Form if the goal is just to bolster her stats further.

Strengths

Heartbeat Lance

    Heartbeat Lance is rather simplistic in the grand scheme of things. When both of the weapon’s conditions are met, it will inflict -10 Atk/Def on the foe, prevent their follow-up, and inflict an additional Atk penalty based on how many of her base stats exceed the foe’s at the start of combat. Essentially, for every stat Kjelle has more of over the foe, she will reduce an additional 5% of the foe’s Atk for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 35 assuming every stat exceeds the foe’s. This, on top of the innate -10 Atk she inflicts on the foe already, makes her exceedingly difficult to take down without Armor-effective weaponry and/or a triangle advantage.

Armor

    Being an Armor unit has never been so rewarding as the number of skills they have access to makes even some of the worst Armors in the game viable. This mainly stems from Saves as well as the plethora of Fighter skills, so combine that with a unit with more competitive advantages and you have a recipe for success.

Fantastic Attack

    Kjelle’s base Atk stat of 40 is already considered really high, but when paired with a boon that boosts it by an additional four points on top of her PRF inflicting up to -10 Def on a foe, she won’t struggle to deal damage whatsoever.

Weaknesses

Armor-Effective Weaponry

    This goes without saying… so I won’t say it :)

Low Speed

    While being relatively min-maxed is great overall for the role she finds herself in, there is always a drawback. This mainly comes from her low Spd stat which doesn’t couple well with her PRF’s ability to negate follow-up attacks as any form of guaranteed follow-up attack will cancel it out and make it into a Spd check which she will more than likely lose. Beyond that, having low Spd means that any form of Impact effect will cancel out any guaranteed follow-up attack she’d receive from a Fighter skill or Quick Riposte. Despite that, the amount of attack debuffs she inflicts on her foes means that even if she were to get doubled, she would more than likely shave off most of the damage.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Iron Lance
Lance Users Only
50 1 6
Steel Lance
Lance Users Only
100 1 8
Barrier Lance

If foe initiates combat, grants Res+7 during combat.

Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Lance Users Only
200 1 9
Barrier Lance+

If foe initiates combat, grants Res+7 during combat.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Unlocks at 5 ★
Lance Users Only
300 1 14
Heartbeat Lance

At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, inflicts Atk/Def-5 on foe during combat and foe cannot make a follow-up attack.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Unlocks at 5 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
400 1 16
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Special Skills

Special Skills SP Turns
Dragon Gaze

Boosts damage by 30% of unit's Atk.

Learns by default at 4 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
100 4
Draconic Aura

Boosts damage by 30% of unit's Atk.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
200 3

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
AR-D Def/Res 1

If defending in Aether Raids, grants Def/Res+X during combat. (Calculates X based on number of your defensive structures: ≥5 structures grants +4; 4 grants +3; 3 grants +2; ≤2 grants +1. Destroyed defensive structures are not counted.)

Inheritable by all units.
60
A
AR-D Def/Res 2

If defending in Aether Raids, grants Def/Res+X during combat. (Calculates X based on number of your defensive structures: ≥5 structures grants +7; 4 grants +5; 3 grants +3; ≤2 grants +1. Destroyed defensive structures are not counted.)

Inheritable by all units.
120
A
AR-D Def/Res 3

If defending in Aether Raids, grants Def/Res+X during combat. (Calculates X based on number of your defensive structures: ≥5 structures grants +10; 4 grants +7; 3 grants +4; ≤2 grants +1. Destroyed defensive structures are not counted.)

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
A
Bold Fighter 1

If unit's HP = 100% and unit initiates combat, grants Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. (Does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
60
B
Bold Fighter 2

If unit's HP ≥ 50% and unit initiates combat, grants Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. (Does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
120
B
Bold Fighter 3

If unit initiates combat, grants Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. (Does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
B

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem: Awakening

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