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Legendary Eliwood

Analysis by lordhelpme
Legendary Eliwood - Blazing Knight

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
156
HP 37
ATK 36
SPD 34
DEF 33
RES 16

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 17 5 9 8 2
Middle 18 6 10 9 3
High 19 7 11 10 4

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 34 33 31 30 12
Middle 37 36 34 33 16
High 41 40 37 36 19

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

Reminiscence (Full Support)

Build by lordhelpme
Recommended
Ardent Durandal (+Eff) A Atk/Spd Catch 4
Alternate: Swift Sparrow 3
Positional Assist B Flow Guard 3
Moonbow
Alternate: Luna
C Vision of Arcadia II
IVs

+SPD or +ATK / -RES

SDrive Atk 2
Alternate: Swift Sparrow 2

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Ardent Durandal (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special:  Moonbow / Luna / Bonfire

Passive A: Atk/Spd Catch  / Swift Sparrow / Surge Sparrow / Death Blow

Passive B: Flow Guard / Flow Refresh / Ruse Skills / Feint Skills / Chill Def/Res

Passive C: Vision of Arcadia II

Sacred Seal: Drive Skills / Chill Skills / Swift Sparrow / Atk/Spd Solo 

  • This is a pretty straightforward set that builds on Legendary Eliwood’s ability to serve as a commendable source of damage output and stellar stat buffer, with his PRF conditions allowing him to fulfill both roles freely — and without sacrificing potency in either role. In the context of competitive modes, this often translates to Eliwood acting as clean-up (which can be pretty nice to have when under a time crunch and/or limited attackers are available, such as in Aether Raids Offense where supporters who bundle around the main carries don’t always have the strongest damage). 
  • Any A skill that supplements both of his offensive stats works well, with some of his better options including Atk/Spd Catch, Surge Sparrow, Swift Sparrow, and Atk/Spd Push — the choice largely lies in which condition or secondary effects you prefer. Of those mentioned, Atk/Spd Catch is most notable for providing the most consistently high stat enhancements available, while Surge Sparrow grants nifty healing on Special triggers.
  • Legendary Eliwood comes with Flow Refresh by default following his Remix, and this skill works perfectly fine on a budget — the healing is more of an added bonus rather than a central component, but the main draw lies in the partial Null Follow-Up effect it grants to freely break through enemy mechanics that otherwise would impede his damage output. If available, though, Flow Guard is generally stronger as the Guard effect it applies upon initiations helps make his initiations much, much safer.
    • Near Trace skills are traditionally strong candidates for melee cavaliers like him, but they prove pretty redundant in Eliwood’s case as Vision of Arcadia II provides 【Canto (1)】by default. They are still an option if you prefer the flexibility of 【Canto (Rem. +1)】but… honestly, the resources are better spent elsewhere.
    • Those seeking a more supportive lean, though, can consider traditional supportive B skills like Ruses, Feints, and the burgeoning line of fourth-tier Chill skills that have a “spreading effect” to supplement his buffing prowess with debuffing utility. The choice largely relies on personal preference.
  • Similarly, Eliwood’s Sacred Seal choices are flexible between more selfish or more supportive options: those that boost his own stats like Atk/Spd Solo and Swift Sparrow are excellent to push his damage a little bit further, while others that enhance that of his allies like Drive Atk and Distant Guard work well to help build his team’s stats further. As always, use your discretion here.

another song of Ice and Fire (Galeforce)

Build by lordhelpme
Ardent Durandal (+Eff) A Heavy Blade 4
Alternate: Atk/Spd Catch 4
Positional Assist B Wings of Mercy 3
Galeforce C Vision of Arcadia II
IVs

+ATK / -RES

SQuickened Pulse

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Ardent Durandal (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Galeforce

Passive A: Heavy Blade / Atk/Spd Catch / Swift Sparrow / Death Blow

Passive B: Wings of Mercy

Passive C: Vision of Arcadia II

Sacred Seal: Quickened Pulse / Heavy Blade

  • Although Legendary Eliwood retains his signature mix of offensive and supportive utility, this build shifts from general usage recommendations to instead emphasize his ability to wield the powerful but finicky Galeforce Special. A +ATK should be prioritized to ensure Heavy Blade activations in Aether Raids Offense compositions. 
  • Galeforce is a powerful Special that immediately enables another action upon activation (acting as a self-refresh), but comes with a steep penalty via its lengthy five-turn cooldown at base. While this is easily remedied by simply slapping on the Heavy Blade Sacred Seal for general gameplay, mitigating this takes a bit more finesse for Aether Raids Offense.
    • This is primarily owed to the innate time crunch of such strategies: it becomes crucial that Legendary Eliwood be able to trigger the Special with as seamless of a transition as possible, and in as little hits as possible to avoid complications.
    • For this reason, equipping the Heavy Blade A skill + Quickened Pulse is highly advised. Effectively minimizing the number of hits necessary to activate Galeforce down to two, this ensures Eliwood can trigger the Special in one round of combat if he passes the Heavy Blade check and no Guard effect is active. 
      • Do note that if it's Astra Season and you have access to Thorr’s Worldbreaker, Heavy Blade can actually be made entirely non-essential to instead make room for traditional Atk/Spd boosting A skills. He still needs Quickened Pulse, though, unless you’re also able to supply an additional Special charge from someone like Valentine’s Chrom.
  • While similar cavalry units often have to pick and choose between Wings of Mercy and a Trace skill for Galeforce builds, Eliwood’s Vision of Arcadia II rectifies this by consistently providing access to 【Canto (1)】at the start of every turn! Thus, he is able to equip Wings of Mercy worry-free and leverage the quick access it provides to the enemy team without sacrificing momentum — all that’s required is someone to act as a low HP beacon, which are already standard for such set-ups.

Strengths

Ardent Durandal

Legendary Eliwood’s Ardent Durandal remains the centerpiece of his varied strengths through the Bonus Doubler buff granted to the ally with the highest visible Atk, being unique among support skills through its mapwide nature — ensuring he can maintain his impact present regardless of location — and flexibility of ignoring movement type. 

Following its refinement, Ardent Durandal helps the lord expand beyond a purely supportive role by a substantial margin: Eliwood now gains the Bonus Doubler effect for easily maximized offenses, and the combination of Spectrum +8, buff negation, and true damage all render him a surprisingly effective source of damage output. This helps Eliwood gain some desperately needed relevance beyond beefing up his allies and while some may be disappointed he didn’t gain further supportive tools, this is rectified through his Remixed second skill.

Vision of Arcadia II

Originally pretty unremarkable beyond its mapwide applicability, Vision of Arcadia II now packs fantastic utility through the 【Null Panic】and【Canto (1)】bonuses applied to the highest Atk ally on top of an improved visible buff. The true value here lies in【Null Panic】as it is an extremely rare status effect and rectifies one of the main weaknesses of relying on Eliwood’s support; it’s very synergistic and ensures the lord can consistently feed his designated ally a flat +12 Atk/Spd/Def by simply existing without many concerns, in addition to presenting some value to Defense compositions where getting【Null Panic】access is more than just a little difficult. While 【Canto (1)】is somewhat limited in its usefulness, extra mobility is never not useful and becomes especially appreciated by non-mounted allies who normally cannot access Canto. 

It’s also worth noting that all of Vision of Arcadia’s effects also become immediately applied to Legendary Eliwood himself — without needing to fulfill any other requisite condition. Coupled with refined Ardent Durandal, this simultaneously transforms the Legendary lord into a legitimate offensive threat while keeping the entirety of his supportive utility intact. Hybrid units usually come with some form of detriment or additional thing to consider, so this is pretty nifty from a versatility standpoint (and from a character standpoint too! Legendary Ninian has the same hybrid selling point :))

Decent Offensive Statline & Physical Bulk

The Blazing Knight’s neutral Atk/Spd of 36/34 isn’t exceptional, but it’s a perfectly workable baseline in consideration of his PRFs’ newfound abilities and access to a good amount of Dragonflowers to bridge the gap between recent units. Having this supplemented by a reasonable HP pool and Def stat is another point in his favor, encouraging him to face off against opposing physical threats in particular. 

Cavalry Benefits

Eliwood is enabled to comfortably enjoy his newfound offensive benefits by further merit of his cavalry status, inherently granting the extended range and mobility needed to excel at aggressive play.  This comes with the additional benefit of granting access to the Flow line of skills to supplement his myriad of effects with partial Null Follow-Up for solidified performance.

Weaknesses

Legendary Drawbacks

Being a Legendary Hero, in Eliwood’s case, is more of a detriment than a strength at this point, as his usage in competitive modes since as using him outside of Wind Season results in considerable drops in usefulness for Aether Raids Play; this is because he becomes unable to either receive the effects of Mythic Blessings, lowering Lift Gain and his stats. This is traditionally meant to be offset by the benefits of increasing scoring in Arena, but his Duel effect is largely outdated at this point (it only counts his BST as 175, compared to modern Legendary Heroes being counted as having 195 BST).

Horrible Magical Bulk 

Legendary Eliwood’s magical bulk is atrocious and renders him incapable of dealing with any sort of sustained offensive pressure from opposing magical threats. Please just avoid them when you can — exploded knights aren’t fun :(

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Iron Sword
Learns by default at 1 ★
Unlocks at 1 ★
Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
50 1 6
Steel Sword
Learns by default at 3 ★
Unlocks at 2 ★
Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
100 1 8
Silver Sword
Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
200 1 11
Ardent Durandal

Grants Atk+3.

At start of turn, grants 【Bonus Doubler】 to ally with the highest Atk.

【Bonus Doubler】

Grants bonus to Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat = current bonus on each of unit's stats for 1 turn. Calculates each stat bonus independently.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Unlocks at 5 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
400 1 16
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 4 ★
1 150
Rally Spd/Res

Grants Spd/Res+3 to an adjacent ally until the end of the turn.

1 300
Rally Spd/Res+

Grants Spd/Res+6 to target ally for 1 turn.

1 400

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Death Blow 1

If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+2 during combat.

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

If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+4 during combat.

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

If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+6 during combat.

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

If unit initiates combat, grants Atk +8 during combat.

Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
A
Chill Atk 1

At start of turn, inflicts Atk-3 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Atk through its next action.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 1 ★
60
B
Chill Atk 2

At start of turn, inflicts Atk-5 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Atk through its next action.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 2 ★
120
B
Chill Atk 3

At start of turn, inflicts Atk-7 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Atk through its next action.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
B
Flow Refresh 1

At the start of combat, if unit's HP = 100% and unit initiates combat, neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks and restores 5 HP to unit after combat.

Melee Cavalry & Melee Flying Units Only
Unlocks at 1 ★
60
B
Flow Refresh 2

At the start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50% and unit initiates combat, neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks and restores 7 HP to unit after combat.

Melee Cavalry & Melee Flying Units Only
Unlocks at 2 ★
120
B
Flow Refresh 3

If unit initiates combat, neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks and restores 10 HP to unit after combat.

Melee Cavalry & Melee Flying Units Only
Unlocks at 4 ★
120
B
Vision of Arcadia

At start of turn, if a dragon or beast ally is deployed, grants Atk/Def+6 to ally with the highest Atk for 1 turn.

Non-Inheritable skill.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
C
Vision of Arcadia II

At start of turn, if a dragon or beast ally is deployed, grants Atk/Spd/Def+6,【Null Panic】, and【Canto (1)】to unit and ally with the highest Atk (excluding unit) for 1 turn. 

【Null Panic】

If unit is inflicted with Panic (bonuses converted into penalties), neutralizes the "converts bonuses on target into penalties" effect for 1 turn. (Even though the effect is neutralized, the Panic status remains, and is treated as a Penalty status.) 

【Canto (1)】

After an attack, Assist skill, or structure destruction, unit can move 1 space(s).  (Unit moves according to movement type. Once per turn. Cannot attack or assist. Only highest value applied. Does not stack. After moving, if a skill that grants another action would be triggered (like with Galeforce), Canto will trigger after the granted action. Unit's base movement has no effect on movement granted. Cannot warp (using skills like Wings of Mercy) a distance greater than 1 space(s).)

Non-Inheritable skill.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
C

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

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