Community Posts with Keyword Leif
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- Injured
- S.Default
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| Leif - Prince of Leonster |
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Related Heroes
Hero Stats
Stat Variations
| HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 17 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 5 |
| Middle | 18 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 6 |
| High | 19 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 7 |
| HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 36 | 29 | 35 | 26 | 20 |
| Middle | 40 | 32 | 38 | 30 | 23 |
| High | 43 | 35 | 41 | 33 | 26 |
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. |
| HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Skill Sets
“I’ve lived for this alone: to choke the life from you with my bare hands!” (Galeforce)
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Ninja Katana+ | A | Flashing Blade 4 Alternate: Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot |
|---|---|---|---|
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Positional Assist | B | S Drink |
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Galeforce | C | Odd Tempest 3 Alternate: Even Tempest 3 |
| IVs | +Spd / -HP or -Res | S | Atk/Spd Solo 3 Alternate: Flashing Blade 3 |
Weapon: Ninja Katana+
Assist: Positional Assist
Special: Galeforce
Passive A: Flashing Blade 4 / Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot
Passive B: S Drink
Passive C: Odd Tempest / Even Tempest
Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Flashing Blade
- The combination of Ninja Katana, Galeforce, Flashing Blade, and S Drink enables Leif to be a powerful Galeforcer.
- S Drink decreases Galeforce’s cooldown from 5 to 4 on Turn 1. When Leif initiates with Ninja Katana, he attacks twice consecutively (before the enemy can counterattack). While this would normally decrease Galeforce’s cooldown to 2 (assuming no Guard effect is active), if Leif’s effective Speed is higher than the enemy’s, Flashing Blade grants him an additional +1 Special charge for each of his attacks, decreasing Galeforce’s cooldown to 0 after 2 hits. With this, Galeforce is activated, allowing Leif to perform another action.
- Ninja Katana is much preferred over Brave Sword because of the former’s +4 Speed compared to the latter’s -5 Speed. The decreased bulk from Ninja Katana can be a detriment if Leif fails to 2HKO, but it can also be a blessing; if Leif’s HP falls to ≤ 50% after combat, allies with Wings of Mercy can teleport to spaces adjacent to him, allowing the team as a whole to continue its Player Phase offensive.
- Flashing Blade 4 is Leif’s ideal A Slot; in addition to granting +1 Special charge, it also grants 5 true damage if the Speed condition is met, bolstering his overall damage output. However, this leaves much to be desired in terms of Leif’s offenses, meaning his Sacred Seal needs to make up for the lack of stat boosts. Atk/Spd Solo is Leif’s most consistent option, granting +6 Atk/Spd during combat as long as he is not adjacent to an ally; given that Leif is usually the first to initiate in a Galeforce chain because he exchanges the usual Wings of Mercy for S Drink, this is an easy condition to achieve.
- Alternatively, Flashing Blade 3 can be used in Leif’s Sacred Seal to open up his A Slot for Skills such as Atk/Spd Push 4, Fury, and Atk/Spd Solo 4. Particularly noteworthy is Atk/Spd Push 4 and Fury’s recoil damage, which can help Leif fall to ≤ 50% HP to activate allies’ Wings of Mercy. Keep in mind, however, that Leif loses 5 true damage in the transition between Flashing Blade 4 to 3, lowering his output.
- Odd Tempest’s +1 Movement on odd turns is vital for Turn 1 initiation strategies, making it the premier choice for Galeforce strategies. Alternatively, if the Raiding Party fields a Safety Fence and meets its condition of either being outside of the enemy’s Danger Zone or being within 2 rows and 7 columns centered on the Safety Fence, the entire Defense Keep ends their turn immediately, permitting Leif and friends to take an additional turn for set-up. This means the Galeforce chain will be initiated on Turn 2 rather than Turn 1, making Even Tempest the natural replacement for Odd Tempest.
- While a 4-cooldown Galeforce may seem unsafe due to Guard effects or on the off-chance that Leif OHKOs, he simply lacks the damage output (usually) and range to replace Odd/Even Tempest and an Atk/Spd boosting A slot or Sacred Seal. As such, if players desire for his Galeforce to reach 2 cooldown so that Galeforce with Flashing Blade will activate after an OHKO or after 2 attacks even with a Guard effect active, a combination of supportive Skills such as Wolfpup Fang, Infantry Pulse, and Groom’s Wings will need to be used.
“Your soul sings with the voice of Njörun. You’ve done her legacy proud.” (Max-Investment Arena)
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Light Brand (+Eff) | A | R Duel Infantry 4 Alternate: R Duel Infantry 3 |
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Rally Atk/Spd+ Alternate: Rally Up Spd+ |
B | S Drink |
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Ruptured Sky Alternate: Aether |
C | Joint Drive Spd Alternate: Atk/Spd Menace |
| IVs | +Atk or +Spd | S | Atk/Spd Bond 3 Alternate: Atk Feint 3 |
Weapon: Light Brand (+Eff)
Assist: Any Dual Rally+ / Any Rally Up+
Special: Ruptured Sky / Aether / Blue Flame
Passive A: R Duel infantry 4 / R Duel Infantry 3
Passive B: S Drink
Passive C: Joint Drive Spd / Joint Drive Atk / Atk/Spd Menace / Other 300 SP C Slots
Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Bond / Atk Feint / Flexible
- Scoring in Coliseum modes is dependent on a variety of factors, one of which being the total SP cost of the unit’s equipped Skills; for every 100 SP, the unit’s score increases by 2 points. Because Leif has a personal weapon (400 SP) and a personal B Slot (300 SP), he is a great top-scoring choice for Arena, as he can reach the 2400-2500 SP bin (landing at 2400 or 2440 depending on if a 200 SP or 240 SP Sacred Seal respectively is chosen).
- Any Assist Skill that costs 400 SP works fine on Leif, meaning he can select from any Dual Rally+ or Rally Up+ available. However, this lack of preference does not apply to Leif’s Special; because Light Brand and S Drink grant Leif a total of -2 Special cooldown, he can immediately charge 2-cooldown Specials, making Ruptured Sky the best choice. Given the ubiquity of Dragons in high-scoring Arena, Ruptured Sky is even more valuable, although other 500 SP Specials like Aether and Blue Flame can still be equipped if Ruptured Sky is unavailable.
- R Duel Infantry 4 is vital for further increasing Leif’s score. R Duel Infantry 3 only increases his score by 2, raising the question of whether losing a combat-viable 300 SP A Slot is worth merely 2 points and 5 HP. However, R Duel Infantry 4 increases Leif’s HP by 5, all other stats by 2, and increases his score by 6 points, making it decisively worthwhile to use.
- Any 300 SP C Slot works well for scoring purposes, but Joint Drive Spd and Joint Drive Atk are noteworthy, as they grant Leif and allies within 2 spaces +4 Speed or Attack respectively during combat. Atk/Spd Menace also deserves a spotlight, as it provides significant supportive and offensive capabilities via inflicting -6 Atk/Spd on the nearest enemies within 4 spaces and granting Leif +6 Atk/Spd as long as there is at least one enemy within 4 spaces. Increased damage output is vital with the incredibly high bulk of many top-scoring Arena units, which can be achieved through higher follow-up consistency and higher raw damage.
- Leif’s Sacred Seal is completely flexible as long as its SP cost is at least 200.
Strengths
Solid overall statline
Despite being a Gen 2 unit, Leif’s statline holds up quite well in the current meta. 40 HP, 32 Attack, 38 Speed, and 30 Defense are decent base stats that only increase with investment (via Dragonflowers, merges, and Skills) and support. Because of this, Leif can be a surprisingly great damage dealer and solid physical defender.
S Drink; relevant Arena and Aether Raids niches
What was once tagged as nothing more than a Chain Challenge and Tempest Trials convenience is now one of Leif’s greatest strengths. The beverage of choice for the best units in Leif’s army (looking at you, Asbel), S Drink in Heroes is a personal B Slot that heals Leif for 99 HP and grants him -1 Special cooldown on the first turn of every map. Since Chain Challenges and Tempest Trials have several consecutive maps, Leif is a great unit to bring; S Drink’s healing makes him self-sustainable while its -1 Special cooldown, in tandem with Skills that further decrease Special cooldown such as Light Brand, Time’s Pulse, and Quickened Pulse, allows him to immediately activate Specials with 3+ cooldown such as Bonfire, Ignis, and Luna. As for “competitive” game modes…
- S Drink’s 300 SP cost enables Leif to be one of the highest scoring units in Coliseum modes. Coliseum score is calculated based on a variety of factors, one of them being the total SP cost of the unit’s equipped Skills (not including the 1.5x multiplier from inheriting Skills). Every 100 SP increases a unit’s score; because S Drink costs 300 SP, Leif is able to score in a higher SP “bin” than most other units, landing at 2420 SP (the 2400-2500 SP bin) if all other Passive Slots cost as much as possible. For more details, check out this Arena Scoring Guide created by Raelet!
- Galeforce strategies in Aether Raids Offense are still incredibly prominent and effective, with the Safety Fence structure allowing for further set-up by immediately ending the entire Defense Keep’s Turn 1. S Drink’s -1 Special cooldown decreases Galeforce’s cooldown to 4, meaning Leif can 2HKO before the enemy can counterattack with Ninja Katana’s consecutive attacks and activate Flashing Blade on each hit to activate Galeforce after combat. Alternatively, he can benefit from Time’s Pulse, Quickened Pulse, Infantry Pulse, Wolfpup Fang, Groom’s Wings, and more to further decrease Galeforce’s cooldown; by doing so, Leif can activate Galeforce even through Guard effects or with OHKOs.
Infantry advantages
Naturally, the best character in the series is also the best movement type in the game. Access to Skills such as Flashing Blade, Odd Tempest, Even Tempest, and S Drink alternatives including Null Follow-Up, Lull Spd/Def, and the Spurn family significantly increases Leif’s combat performance, flexibility, and convenience of use.
Weaknesses
Low magical bulk
40 HP and 23 Resistance sum to an unimpressive 62 magical bulk, leaving Leif vulnerable to being OHKO’d by strong magical enemies such as Legendary Lilina, Lysithea, Ishtar, Sacred Stones Selena, and Bramimond.
Weak Light Brand refine
Unfortunately, calling even post-refine Light Brand a strength would give it too much credit. Widely considered to be one of the weaker personal weapons, Light Brand has the following effects:
- Grants Leif +3 Defense, effectively increasing his base Defense to 33.
- Deals +7 damage if the enemy has 5+ more Defense than Resistance.
- Accelerates Special activation (-1 cooldown).
- If the enemy has full HP at the start of combat, grants Leif +4 Spd/Def during combat.
On paper, Light Brand seems solid, as it effectively grants Leif -1 Special cooldown, +4 Speed, +7 Defense, and 7 true damage (that becomes 14 if he performs a follow-up attack). However, the conditions to achieve half of the effects can be difficult to meet. If the enemy’s HP is not 100% at the start of combat, Leif loses 4 Spd/Def, potentially resulting in a struggle to keep up with enemy stat-sticks; if the enemy’s Defense is not 5+ more than their Resistance, Leif also loses true damage, which he greatly appreciates given his only workable Attack stat; if neither condition is met, Light Brand is just a Defense-refined Slaying Edge that gives 2 less HP and 1 less Defense in exchange for 2 more Might.
Competition
With Heroes’ incredibly bloated Infantry Sword pool, Leif may struggle to shine amongst his peers if players are uninterested in S Drink’s utility. Even with S Drink, Infantry Sword-wielders such as Mareeta, Ryoma, Winter Altina, Byleth (M), Byleth (F), and Kris (M) are typically preferred overall due to their stronger personal weapons and statlines granting them greater flexibility and/or role optimization.
Of course, there is no reason to use any Infantry Sword with someone as great as Leif in the mix, but hypothetically, the aforementioned units would generally perform just as well as, if not better than him.
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Light Brand (+Eff) | A | Swift Sparrow 3 |
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Reposition | B | Chill Atk 3 |
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Moonbow | C | Odd Spd Wave 3 |
| S | Chill Def 3 | ||
Swift sparrow and Odd spd wave push Leif's already fairly high spd, allowing him to double most units in the game and escape being doubled by even the fastest of units like Karla or Phina.
(Joint hone spd works quite well as a more reliable spd buff if you'd like instead of odd spd wave)
Moonbow's low cool down synergizes well with light brand's shortened cooldown, allowing him to always trigger his special.
Chill Atk and Def then debuff the enemy, increasing Leif's survivability and damage output.
This build works quite well to support any team composition.
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Light Brand | A | Speed +3 |
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Swap | B | S Drink |
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Ignis | C | Threaten Spd 3 |
| S | Flashing Blade 3 | ||
Leif is a speedy boi, so let us use a build focused almost entirely on his speedyness. Light Brand and Ignis do nothing to capitalize on his speed, but Light Brand help him do more damage against, say, Hector, and Ignis helps him damage units even more, even if they have 52 Def or above. S Drink is just there because it helps with Ignis, and Swap is there because why not. Now we get to the fun part, his speed! Flashing Blade is to help Leif trigger Ignis faster (obviously), and, if the enemy can counter and Leif doubles, he is able to trigger Ignis on the first round of combat. Threaten Spd is there so Leif can double, or avoid doubles, from high Spd units like Mia, and, while her Spd surpasses his at +10 + Speed+3 + a Spd boon, reaching 50 Spd, he can lower her Spd to 45, which puts Leif into Flashing Blade range. Though, with Harsh Command to counter Threaten Spd and Spur Spd, she can double Leif no problem. And Speed+3 is there for all the reasons regarding his speed above. This is a +10 build, by the way.
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Wo Dao+ (+Atk) | A | Life and Death 3 |
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Reposition | B | S Drink |
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Blazing Wind | C | Drive Atk 2 |
| S | Quickened Pulse | ||
A very niche one hit wonder Leif I like using. While he does require the team support of two pulse units (Ostia's Pulse or Infantry Pulse), he hits extraordinarily hard.
AoE specials bypass the weapon triangle, combat buffs from sources like fortify defense, drive defense, steady stance or steady breath will not prevent damage dealt by them. Because of this, he is likely to get a very clean hit with his Wo Dao boosted special, leaving most enemies, even blue tanks, in a range where he can finish them in a single blow once combat starts.
He does however struggle to overcome vantage, as his AoE special will put the enemy within vantage range before combat starts. Powerful vantage users like Ares and Swordhardt will therefore have an easy time dealing with him.
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Slaying Edge+ (+Atk) | A | HP +5 |
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Reciprocal Aid | B | S Drink |
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Sol | C | Drive Atk 2 |
| S | Quickened Pulse | ||
I got unlucky with his IVs but got a cool idea of how to use him. This build goes full into the role of combat medic by abusing the combination of his own skill S Drink, Quickened Pulse and a cooldown reducing sword having a Sol special ready to unleash on a unsuspecting green foe (preferably). On modes with consecutive battles he would be able to heal someone at the end of the previous battle, start the next getting full hp with his skill, heal someone else and then use his Sol special to heal himself, basically opening the possibility to heal a third teammate, or just survive the battle. He has enough stats to be an excellent combat medic while still covering (albeit being a bit more mediocre). The HP skill is to further augment his hp pool when combined with the +5 from weapon refinery, leaving him with 50 hp, and heal fully a lot more of characters, with only 7 armors with more or equal his hp with their base skills. C is left to the always useful drive atk.
For options, if you've got a hero with infantry pulse, you could either keep the light brand or change the seal slot to other more combat helpful seal. Infantry rush wouldn't be that cool, as you would need to hit first to reduce your cooldown reducing the enemy's hp and therefore reducing the amount of hp you could heal. Not to mention the risk of the counterattack killing Leif if he just healed someone.
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Light Brand | A | Distant Counter |
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Reposition | B | Quick Riposte 3 |
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Aether | C | Atk Tactic 3 |
| S | Attack +3 | ||
Super standard Leif. Use DC to beat bows and everything sans bulky blues and non green magic. Fast enough to avoid doubles and the attack boost from the boon is much appreciated. Quick riposte is there for doubles against fast swordies/ anything else. C is interchangeable I use atk tactic. Light brand is a cool weapon, but slaying edge also works. Aether for points n stuff
Weapon Skills
| Weapons | SP | Rng. | Mt. |
|---|---|---|---|
Iron SwordOnly Inheritable by Sword Units.
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50 | 1 | 6 |
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Steel Sword Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
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100 | 1 | 8 |
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Silver Sword Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
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200 | 1 | 11 |
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Light BrandGrants Def+3. If foe's Def ≥ foe's Res+5, deals +7 damage.
Learns by default at 5 ★ Non-Inheritable skill.
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400 | 1 | 16 |
Special Skills
| Special Skills | SP | Turns |
|---|---|---|
| Rising LightBefore combat this unit initiates, foes in an area near target take damage equal to (unit's Atk minus foe's Def or Res).
Learns by default at 5 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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150 | 4 |
| Blazing LightBefore combat this unit initiates, foes in an area near target take damage equal to 1.5 x (unit's Atk minus foe's Def or Res).
Unlocks at 5 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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300 | 4 |
Passive Skills
| Passive Skills | SP | Slot |
|---|---|---|
Armored Blow 1Grants Def+2 during combat if unit initiates the attack.
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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50 | A |
Steady Blow 1If unit initiates combat, unit granted Spd/Def+2 during battle.Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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120 | A |
Steady Blow 2If unit initiates combat, unit granted Spd/Def+4 during battle.Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 5 ★ |
240 | A |
S DrinkAt the start of turn 1, restores 99 HP and grants Special cooldown count -1.
Non-Inheritable skill.
Unlocks at 5 ★ |
300 | B |
Spur Atk 1Grants adjacent allies Atk+2 during combat.
Inheritable by all units.
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50 | C |
Drive Atk 1Grants allies within 2 spaces Atk+2 during combat.
Inheritable by all units.
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120 | C |
Drive Atk 2Grants allies within 2 spaces Atk+3 during combat.
Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★ |
240 | C |
Other Info
| Origin |
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
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