GamePress
Analysis by Chibi_Chu
Melady - Crimson Rider

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
172
HP 41
ATK 40
SPD 33
DEF 41
RES 17

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 18 9 6 10 3
Middle 19 10 7 11 4
High 20 11 8 12 5

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 37 37 30 38 13
Middle 41 40 33 41 17
High 44 44 36 45 20

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

Berning Ambition (General Offense)

Build by Chibi_Chu
Recommended
Ninja Yari+
Alternate: Slaying Lance+ (+Spd)
A Swift Sparrow (2 or 3)
Alternate: Fury (3 or 4)
Positional Assist B Dive-Bomb 3
Alternate: Wyvern Flight 3
Moonbow
Alternate: Galeforce
C Spd/Def Rein 3
Alternate: Odd Tempest 3
IVs

+ATK or +SPD / -RES

SSwift Sparrow 2
Alternate: Heavy Blade 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Ninja Yari+ / Slaying Lance+ (+SPD) / Lofty Blossoms (+SPD)

Assist: Positional Assist 

Special: Moonbow / Galeforce / Luna

Passive A: Swift Sparrow (2 or 3) / Fury (3 or 4) / Atk/Spd Solo (3 or 4)

Passive B: Dive-Bomb / Wyvern Flight

Passive C: Spd/Def Rein / Odd Tempest / Flexible 

Sacred Seal: Swift Sparrow / Heavy Blade

  • Melady’s high 40 Attack allows her to run an offensive set effectively, despite her middling 33 Speed. Ninja Yari naturally grants +4 Speed (at the sacrifice of -4 Def/Res), while Slaying Lance and Lofty Blossoms can be Speed refined for +3 Speed. In addition, Swift Sparrow, Fury, Atk/Spd Solo, and Spd/Def Rein all increase Melady’s Attack and Speed to heighten her damage and follow-up consistency.
  • Which weapon to select is largely dependent on Melady’s Special, B slot, and Sacred Seal:
    • Ninja Yari allows Melady to attack twice if she initiates, meaning she can attack up to 4 times if she performs a follow-up attack. This can be lethal in combination with Dive-Bomb, as Melady can attack 4 times and usually activate an offensive Special (such as Moonbow) at least once in the process as long as both her and the enemy’s HP is ≥ 80% at the start of combat. With Heavy Blade, Melady can activate Moonbow on her 2nd and 4th attacks if no Guard effect is active, making her much more consistent at ORKOing bulkier foes.
    • Slaying Lance and Lofty Blossoms are both great alternatives. The same Moonbow + Dive-Bomb + Heavy Blade logic applies, but Slaying Lance can opt for Luna instead since it decreases 3-cooldown Specials to 2-cooldown Specials. Galeforce’s cooldown decreasing from 5 to 4 allows Melady to use Dive-Bomb and Heavy Blade to activate it after her second attack, although this is also possible with the other weapons if she has Velouria, Legendary Hector, and/or Groom Rafiel by her side.
  • Fury can be chosen over A slots that only give in-combat stat increases to increase Wyvern Flight’s reliability and effects. Odd Tempest also serves as a strong alternative to Spd/Def Rein, as extra movement is valuable, especially with Galeforce.

Guinivere’s Protectorate (Physical Tank)

Build by Chibi_Chu
Recommended
Flowing Lance+ (+Def)
Alternate: Slaying Lance+ (+Def)
A Atk/Def Solo 4
Alternate: Distant Foil
Positional Assist B Wyvern Flight 3
Alternate: Guard Bearing 3
Bonfire
Alternate: Ignis
C Joint Drive Atk
Alternate: Atk Smoke 3
IVs

+ATK or +DEF / -RES

SQuick Riposte 3
Alternate: Iote's Shield

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Flowing Lance+ (+DEF) / Slaying Lance+ (+DEF) 

Assist: Positional Assist 

Special: Bonfire / Ignis 

Passive A: Atk/Def Solo 4 / Distant Foil

Passive B: Wyvern Flight / Guard Bearing / Quick Riposte

Passive C: Joint Drive Atk / Atk Smoke / Flexible 

Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Iote’s Shield / Atk/Def Solo

  • With 40 Attack and 41 Defense, Melady can easily specialize in taking physical attacks and dishing them out in return. This set aims to bolster Melady’s already excellent Attack and Defense to ensure she can survive and KO physical enemies as frequently and consistently as possible.
  • Flowing Lance inflicts -5 Atk/Def and neutralizes visible Atk/Def buffs on the enemy during combat if Melady is not adjacent to an ally. This works wonders with her native Atk/Def Solo, which also requires Melady to not be adjacent to an ally. 
  • The combination of Bonfire and Quick Riposte allows Melady to activate Bonfire on her guaranteed follow-up counterattack, assuming the enemy makes a follow-up attack (which should be fairly easy given her 33 Speed) and has no Guard effect. This can also be done with Slaying Lance and Ignis, since the former allows the latter’s cooldown to be decreased to 3. 
  • Wyvern Flight takes advantage of Melady’s fantastic visible Defense and alright Speed to inflict Attack and Defense debuffs on the enemy during combat, with Joint Drive Atk furthering her damage output. Guard Bearing is a strong alternative since the AI prioritizes combats in which it deals the most damage (assuming it survives or is KO’d from all combats), meaning the first combat is usually the one Melady will take the most damage in. Atk Smoke is a cheaper alternative, inflicting -7 Attack on enemies within 2 spaces of the target after combat, securing Melady’s survivability.
  • Alternatively, Melady can swap Atk/Def Solo for Distant Foil and Quick Riposte for Iote’s Shield to ensure her survivability and ability to KO Daggers and Bows. Rather than use Wyvern Flight or Guard Bearing in her B slot, she can use Quick Riposte.

Rush them, Melady! (Aether Raids Offense)

Build by Chibi_Chu
Recommended
It's Curtains...+ (+Atk)
Alternate: Ninja Yari+
A Heavy Blade 4
Alternate: Fury (3 or 4)
Positional Assist B Wings of Mercy 3
Galeforce C Odd Tempest 3
Alternate: Atk/Def Rein 3
IVs

+ATK / -RES

SQuickened Pulse
Alternate: Heavy Blade 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Preferred IV: +ATK / -RES

Weapon: It’s Curtains…+ (+ATK) / Ninja Yari+ 

Assist: Positional Assist 

Special: Galeforce 

Passive A: Heavy Blade (3 or 4) / Fury (3 or 4)

Passive B: Wings of Mercy 

Passive C: Odd Tempest / Atk/Def Rein 

Sacred Seal: Quickened Pulse / Heavy Blade

  • Thanks to her impressive 40 Attack, Melady can make great use of Heavy Blade. With this, she can become a nice Galeforcer for Aether Raids Offense. 
  • Galeforce’s 5 cooldown demands that it be reduced by at least 1 if Melady wants to activate Galeforce without receiving a counterattack. The combination of It’s Curtains… and Quickened Pulse drops Galeforce’s cooldown to 2, allowing Melady to activate Galeforce with an OHKO as long as Heavy Blade activates. Alternatively, she can simply use Quickened Pulse and Ninja Yari to go for 2HKOs instead, although it’s worth noting that its low 9 Might might create difficulties in activating Heavy Blade.
  • While Heavy Blade in Melady’s A slot and Quickened Pulse in her S slot are usually necessities, if Velouria, Groom Rafiel, and/or Legendary Hector is/are being used alongside Melady, she can switch her Sacred Seal for Heavy Blade and her A slot for Fury. Fury is chosen over Atk/Def Solo because Melady wants to take recoil damage to allow her allies to use Wings of Mercy to teleport to a space adjacent to her and begin a Wings of Mercy / Galeforce chain.
  • Odd Tempest grants Melady some much needed movement on odd turns, while Atk/Def Rein ensures Melady and her allies’ survivability and physical damage output. Note that Atk/Def Rein can work against Melady, as she may not take enough damage (even after potential Fury recoil) for her allies to use Wings of Mercy.

Strengths

Impressive Attack

Reminiscent of her Binding Blade Strength, Melady boasts a sky-high 40 Attack, allowing her to pack a punch with most attacks. She can also make great use of Heavy Blade, granting her a niche on Aether Raids Offense as an OHKO Galeforce user with It’s Curtains…+ or 2HKO Galeforce user with Ninja Yari+.

Great physical bulk

With 41 HP and Defense, Melady’s 81 physical bulk ensures that she will rarely ever be OHKO’d or even ORKO’d by physical enemies, especially if she has Iote’s Shield to protect her against popular Archers such as Legendary Alm and Legendary Leif.

Flier advantages

As a Flier, Melady has access to excellent mobility skills (both selfish and supportive) such as Flier Formation, Aerobatics, Guidance, Flier Guidance, Ground Orders, and Air Orders. Her mobility is further augmented by her ability to cross all traversable terrain, which is helpful for Aether Raids maps such as Desert and Lava Floes. In addition, Melady can choose from a variety of Flier-exclusive and combat-oriented B slots such as Dive-Bomb, Guard Bearing, and her native Wyvern Flight.

Weaknesses

Middling Speed

Unfortunately, Melady is significantly held back by her middling 33 Speed. She’ll very likely need support from teammates and Speed-heavy skills to consistently perform follow-up attacks, as Speed powercreep is omnipresent with the likes of units such as Mareeta, Shinon, and Harmonic Tiki.

Horrific magical bulk

The combination of mediocre Speed and an awful 57 magical bulk makes Melady very ill-suited for handling mages and their ilk. If she isn’t OHKO’d by a magical foe, she’s very likely 2HKO’d; if one chooses to build Melady as an Enemy Phase unit, her low magical bulk forces her into a niche role of physical tanking.

Flier drawbacks

Melady’s status as a Flier is a double-edged blade, as she is vulnerable to receiving 1.5x damage from Flier-effective weapons. While this can be patched with Iote’s Shield, Melady could be using something to bolster her bulk or offenses in her A/S slot instead. Fliers also suffer from skill limitations, as they cannot inherit valuable skills like Flashing Blade, Null Follow-Up, and Spurn (or even niche skills like Atk/Spd Ruse). 

Lack of a personal weapon

While Melady currently has the highest Attack and Defense of any Lance Flier, her peers don’t tread too far behind her. This likely wouldn’t be an issue if she wasn’t robbed of a personal weapon, but since she unfortunately was, you can easily build other, more accessible Fliers with high Attack and Defense such as Altena and achieve similar results.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Iron Lance
Learns by default at 1 ★
Unlocks at 1 ★
Lance Users Only
50 1 6
Steel Lance
Learns by default at 3 ★
Unlocks at 2 ★
Lance Users Only
100 1 8
Instant Lance

If unit initiates combat, grants Atk/Def+4 during combat and foe cannot make a follow-up attack.

Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Lance Users Only
200 1 10
Instant Lance+

If unit initiates combat, grants Atk/Def+4 during combat and foe cannot make a follow-up attack.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Unlocks at 5 ★
Lance Users Only
300 1 14
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Special Skills

Special Skills SP Turns
Glowing Ember

Boosts damage dealt by 50% of unit's Def.

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

Boosts damage dealt by 50% of unit's Def.

Unlocks at 4 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
200 3

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Atk/Def Solo 1

If unit is not adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Def+2 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 2 ★
60
A
Atk/Def Solo 2

If unit is not adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Def+4 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 3 ★
120
A
Atk/Def Solo 3

If unit is not adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Def+6 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
A
Atk/Def Solo 4

If unit is not adjacent to an ally, grants Atk/Def+7 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
A
Wyvern Flight 1

At start of combat, if unit's Spd ≥ foe's Spd-10, inflicts penalty on foe's Atk/Def during combat = 30% of difference between Def stats (unit's Def minus foe's Def) before combat. (Maximum penalty of -3.)

Flying Sword, Lance & Axe Only
Unlocks at 1 ★
60
B
Wyvern Flight 2

At start of combat, if unit's Spd ≥ foe's Spd-10, inflicts penalty on foe's Atk/Def during combat = 40% of difference between Def stats (unit’s Def minus foe's Def) before combat. (Maximum penalty of -5.)

Flying Sword, Lance & Axe Only
Unlocks at 2 ★
120
B
Wyvern Flight 3

At start of combat, if unit's Spd ≥ foe's Spd-10, inflicts penalty on foe's Atk/Def during combat = 50% of difference between Def stats (unit’s Def minus foe's Def) before combat. (Maximum penalty of -7.)

Flying Sword, Lance & Axe Only
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
B

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

Banners Featured In

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