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Ascended Joshua

Analysis by raelet
Ascended Joshua - Resolute Tempest

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
177
HP 41
ATK 39
SPD 43
DEF 29
RES 25

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 18 8 9 6 5
Middle 19 9 10 7 6
High 20 10 11 8 7

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 37 36 39 25 22
Middle 41 39 43 29 25
High 44 43 46 32 29

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

Don't Hold It Against Me (Budget)

Build by raelet
Blade of Jehanna A Life and Death 4
Alternate: Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot
Positional Assist B Null Follow-Up 3
Glimmer C Green Feud 3
IVs

+ATK +SPD / -HP

SAtk/Spd Solo 3
Alternate: Blade Session 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Blade of Jehanna

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Glimmer

Passive A: Life and Death 4 / Atk/Spd Ideal / Atk/Spd Solo 4 / Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot

Passive B: Null Follow-Up

Passive C: Green Feud / C Feud / Time's Pulse

Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Blade Session

  • Surprising no one, Joshua's base kit is plenty serviceable in itself. While Life and Death 4 leaves a bit to be desired - since the same bonuses can generally be achieved with an A Slot that doesn't lower his defenses - it doesn't hurt him too badly due to his ability to use a Sweep effect.
  • Null Follow-Up is just all around a useful skill for units who don't get it in their prf, as most meta defensive units these days can negate follow-up Attacks.
  • For the most part, this build will work and be plenty effective at defeating his opponents, though it doesn't quite have the utility as the other builds mentioned on this page. Joshua doesn't need a lot of help to perform at peak potential and is fantastic right out of the box.

That's Life For Ya (AR-O)

Build by raelet
Blade of Jehanna A Fury 4
Positional Assist B Disarm Trap 3
Moonbow
Alternate: Glimmer
C Time's Pulse 3
Alternate: Green Feud 3
IVs

+ATK +SPD / -HP

SFury 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Blade of Jehanna

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Moonbow / Glimmer

Passive A: Fury 4

Passive B: Disarm Trap

Passive C: Time's Pulse / Green Feud / Colorless Feud

Sacred Seal: Fury 3

  • With both Fury in A slot and Fury in S slot, units can now reliably lose 13 HP per initiation, making them perfect for strategies involving allies teleporting to them with Wings of Mercy. Dagger users fare particularly well here, since they can also run Disarm Trap and clear the way for their allies to teleport in without losing the initiation themselves.
  • Joshua loses 26 HP across two initiations, putting him reliably into WoM range even with three Mythic heroes giving him stat boosts.
  • Since he can utilize a Sweep effect, this also means that he can engage safely without allowing his foes to take advantage of his lower HP.
  • Time's Pulse enables Joshua to engage with his Special in the event that his foe would deny his follow-up attack or runs a Guard effect which would otherwise slow his Special.
  • With this build, the only difficulty then becomes maneuvering Joshua in position with his 2 mov and engaging, then dancing him to engage again. The Safety Fence can come in handy here, to allow you to position Joshua just outside of his opponent's threat range on the first turn, and then to move in on turn 2.

Want To Make A Bet? (AoE Special Spiral)

Build by raelet
Blade of Jehanna A Life and Death 4
Positional Assist B Special Spiral 3
Blazing Special C Time's Pulse 3
Alternate: Odd Atk Wave 3
IVs

+ATK +SPD / -HP

SLife and Death 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Blade of Jehanna

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Blazing Special

Passive A: Life and Death 4

Passive B: Special Spiral

Passive C: Time's Pulse / Odd Atk Wave

Sacred Seal: Life and Death

  • For best results, pair Joshua with a cooldown-reducing support partner such as Velouria or Rafiel (with Infantry Pulse), so that his Special is available on Turn 1.
  • This is your typical Special Spiral AoE Build, which Joshua can execute quite well due to his higher stats and offensive killing power. AoE Specials, when combined with Slaying weapons and Special Spiral are very potent - after the Special goes off, the unit has a Special cooldown of 3, and upon attacking it turns to 2, and then Special Spiral reduces it to 0 after combat, enabling constant 'looping' of Specials, ideal for use on multi-dancer teams.
  • If attacking from a diagonal, Joshua gets an additional 15% of his foe's Attack factored into his damage, which can make or break between oneshotting an armored foe after his Special goes off, or not. In the case of a foe with Vantage - now a strategy specifically to break these types of builds - Joshua can instead attack from the same row and deny his foe's retaliation attacks.
  • Since Joshua already comes with Life and Death 4, Special Spiral is fairly ubiquitous and available through Divine Codes, and most Blazing Specials are available on low rarity units, this build can be less resource intensive to build than some of this other options - since if you're on a budget, you can swap out Time's Pulse for something like an Atk Wave skill and run Joshua with an additional Infantry Pulse on his team for the same effect.

Strengths

Selective Engagement

Ascended Joshua's Blade of Jehanna is unique in that it grants him separate buffs depending on what angle he attacks the enemy from. With this, Joshua can either prevent his foe from counterattacking, or add 15% of his foe's Attack to his own damage. This is very useful as an engage tool, where he can choose between more damage or a safer initiation - and it offers him a counterplay to foes who have Null C-Disrupt.

Great Statline

With 39/43 Offenses and the ability to innately pick a second boon, Ascended Joshua can get 43/46 offenses with a natural +ATK or +SPD IV. Because his dagger grants him the Sweep effect of denying enemy counterattacks, he doesn't necessarily need to worry as much about his defensive stats. Since his dagger also decreases his foes' Speed and Defense by 6 while neutralizing the buffs to those stats, Joshua hits very hard and very fast.

Weaknesses

Walking Back Powercreep

It seems odd that after releasing two dagger units with 3 tiles of movement and Canto 2 (New Year's Fafnir and Yuri), IS has done Ascended Joshua a bit dirty by turning down the powercreep. Joshua has much more difficulty safely engaging a map with overlapping threat ranges due to lacking Canto or additional movement.

Really, all Joshua's prf does is grant him more safe killing power, which is good... but in the current meta, movement and Canto is king and it means that Joshua will struggle to perform at the same level as a unit like Yuri in any competitive game mode. He might do more damage or be able to survive combat easier, but if he can't maneuver into and out of his engagement range safely, then that's sort of a moot point.

B Slot Indecision

To further annoy Joshua fans, New Year Fafnir even has Null Follow-Up in his weapon so he can run Disarm Trap in his B slot - Joshua has to pick between the two crucial skills.

Even if you don't like playing in Aether Raids Offense, which makes dropping the idea Disarm Trap an easy decision, Joshua still can't run Null Follow-Up and Special Spiral both, which lowers his damage potential: either vs enemies who deny his Follow-Ups or to enemies who don't, depending on which B skill he does wind up taking.

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 2 ★
Unlocks at 2 ★
Dagger users only.
100 2 5
Silver Dagger

After battle, inflicts Def/Res-5 on foe through its next action.

Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Dagger users only.
200 2 7
Blade of Jehanna

Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, inflicts Spd/Def-6 on foe and neutralizes foe's bonuses to Spd/Def during combat, and also, if foe in combat is in a cardinal direction of unit, foe cannot counterattack, but otherwise, unit deals damage = 15% of foe's Atk. Effect: 【Dagger 7】 

【Dagger 7】 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 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
400 2 14
Available Rearmed Weapons
Arcane Void
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Special Skills

Special Skills SP Turns
Night Sky

Boosts damage dealt by 50%.

Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
100 3
Glimmer

Boosts damage dealt by 50%.

Unlocks at 4 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
200 2

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Life and Death 1

Grants Atk/Spd+3. Inflicts Def/Res-3.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 2 ★
50
A
Life and Death 2

Grants Atk/Spd+4. Inflicts Def/Res-4.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 3 ★
100
A
Life and Death 3

Grants Atk/Spd+5. Inflicts Def/Res-5.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 4 ★
200
A
Life and Death 4

Grants Atk/Spd+7. Inflicts Def/Res-5.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
A
Null Follow-Up 1

At start of combat, if unit's HP = 100%, neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks and effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks during combat.

Infantry Units Only
Unlocks at 1 ★
60
B
Null Follow-Up 2

At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks and effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks during combat.

Infantry Units Only
Unlocks at 2 ★
120
B
Null Follow-Up 3

Neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks and effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks during combat.

Infantry Units Only
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
B
Green Feud 1

If in combat against a green foe, disables skills of all foes, excluding foe in combat. During combat, disables skills of all green foes, excluding foe in combat.

Excludes Blue Units from inheriting the skill.
Unlocks at 3 ★
60
C
Green Feud 2

If in combat against a green foe, disables skills of all foes, excluding foe in combat, and inflicts Atk/Spd/Def/Res-2 on foe during combat. During combat, disables skills of all green foes, excluding foe in combat.

Excludes Blue Units from inheriting the skill.
Unlocks at 4 ★
120
C
Green Feud 3

If in combat against a green foe, disables skills of all foes, excluding foe in combat, and inflicts Atk/Spd/Def/Res-4 on foe during combat. During combat, disables skills of all green foes, excluding foe in combat.

Excludes Blue Units from inheriting the skill.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
C

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

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