Halloween Hector

Preferred IV: +ATK or +RES / -SPD

• The whole objective of this build is to activate Halloween Hector’s Duo Skill, get smited by an ally and proceed to take on the whole enemy team. Due to the extra damage from the Duo Skill, Halloween Hector is very likely to take the opponent out in a single hit. Such a play style do meant two things; Halloween Hector needs to at least survive a single hit before continuing his game plan, and Speed is probably not his priority. For lower merges, going for an asset in Resistance improves the durability while an asset in Attack improves his chances of succeeding in taking opponents out in a single hit. For highly merged Halloween Hector, the durability woes would be less of an issue, which meant Attack should be the asset of choice.

Weapon: Conjurer Curios

• For this build, keeping his preferred weapon would be the most ideal, as it provides the most potential Attack for Halloween Hector. Due to Hector’s Duo Skill, the condition of opponent requiring their health to be not full is rather easy to achieve. 

Assist: Pivot / Flexible

Special: Miracle / Sacred Cowl / Aegis

• Halloween Hector does not need an offensive special to finish off the opponent. Survival for this build is Hector’s main priority. Due to Hector having naturally good bulk for the most part, Hector should be able to take a couple of hits by himself. Miracle is likely a good fall-back in case of the worst case scenario that Hector needs to take more hits than usual. 
• Range shield specials such as Sacred Cowl and Aegis are also worth considering. For Range shields, using special acceleration such as Heavy Blade would reduce the amount of damage dealt from range relatively consistently if Hector attacks at least once on the Player Phase.

Passive A: Distant Counter

• His default Distant Counter enable him to handle a much wider breadth of opponents than normally possible. There is little to no reason to change this skill out for this specific build. 

Passive B: Vantage

• This build specifically leverages on Hector’s Duo Skill. While the usual builds for armors leverages on Special Fighter, Halloween Hector does not really need to accelerate his own specials. This is because Halloween Hector has the option to use his Duo Skill to disable opposing Infantry Pulse, which indirectly reduce the amount of damage Hector would take under normal circumstances.
• Halloween Hector’s sheer amount of stats meant that dropping into Vantage range is adequately easy. Coupled with his weapon providing even more attack, Halloween Hector should have no issues Vantage sweeping the opposing team.
• To increase the odds of such a play style, the best support for Halloween Hector is himself; running 2 Hectors allows the player to activate the Duo Skill twice, and coupling with the Aether Raids structure Duo Indulgence increases it to four times. 

Passive C: Atk Smoke / Def Smoke / Savage Blow / Flexible

• Using Atk Smoke increases the likelihood to take a single hit. Pulse Smoke is likely to not be necessary for Hector, as he could prevent the bulk of the specials using a well-placed Duo Skill.
• Should a player find Halloween Hector being unable to take the opponent out in a single hit, using Def Smoke or Savage Blow to reduce the offensive thresholds will improve Halloween Hector’s performance in this aspect.

Sacred Seal: Fierce Stance / Heavy Blade

• Fierce Stance further increase Halloween Hector’s likelihood to take the opponent out in a single hit. This synergizes well with the Vantage play style stated above.
• As mentioned above, for a more defensive seal option a player might want to consider Heavy Blade. Due to his weapon, it is not difficult to activate Heavy Blade for its special acceleration. This is especially helpful as this build revolves around defensive specials, which would further improve Halloween Hector’s ability to survive by hastening charges to either shields or Miracle.
   

Preferred IV: +RES / -SPD

• This build emphasize on Halloween Hector being a support to his allies. This is applicable in both Arena and Aether Raids. The focus of selecting the IV would be to attempt to absorb Chills away from either his main unit in Aether Raids, or bonus unit in Arena. As Hector is extremely unlikely to soak a Chill SPD, going for a flaw in Speed is likely to be ideal. Rounding out Halloween Hector’s stats by opting for an asset in Resistance provides Hector with the most versatility in terms of absorbing Chill skills.

Weapon: Geishun+ (RES) / Kadomatsu+ (RES) / Conjurer Curios

• The 2 seasonal swords, Geishun and Kadomatsu provides the most support capability for a generic weapon. Geishun is better for offensive compositions such as with Vantage Sweeping allies such as Kronya, while Kadomatsu is better otherwise for tanking based strategies.
• For Arena, scoring remains the highest priority. While it usually does nothing, keeping Conjurer Curios is his only option to maintain maximum scoring.

Assist: Smite / Flexible

• For Arena, use a higher SP cost Rally to ensure maximum scoring on Halloween Hector.

Special: Glimmer / Aether

• For Aether Raids, the choice of special is largely inconsequential for a support unit. Running Glimmer is probably his best option to leverage on his high Attack by default. 
• Arena-wise, Aether is chosen due to its higher SP score, which improves Arena scoring.

Passive A: Fury / Fort. Def Res 3 / Distant Counter

• As mentioned in the selection of IVs, this build focuses on being a support by absorbing chills for his allies. Fury provides the most visible stats, which meant that Halloween Hector is more likely to soak chills using this skill. Fort Def Res 3 is also a decent alternative if a player needs a higher priority in terms of soaking defensive stats.
• Budget alternatives includes Fury 3 specifically to soak chills from the main unit, and Distant Counter if Arena Scoring is a concern.

Passive B: Atk Def Link / Sabotage ATK / Chill ATK / Flexible

• Atk Def Link is likely Halloween Hector’s best option when using in a more offensive context, where Hector pushes a Vantage sweeper into the fray and providing visible buffs. Links also provides the buffs to Halloween Hector himself, allowing his stats to remain competitive enough to soak chills away from his main unit.
• For a more defensive context, debuffs such as Sabotage ATK and Chill ATK should be more helpful to increase the main unit’s odds of survival. 

Passive C: Panic Ploy / Distant Guard / Flexible

• Offensive play styles would usually result in Halloween Hector staying at the back. Providing Panic Support using Panic Ploy is his best way to provide support from the back. Defensively, Halloween Hector could opt for Distant Guard or defensive Drives to stack combat buffs onto a main unit.

Sacred Seal: Chill SPD / Drive RES  / Flexible

• Any seal that improves Halloween Hector’s ability to support could be used here.This includes Chills such as Chill SPD and Drives such as Drive RES. For Arena, Feints such as ATK Feint could also be considered as well.