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New Year Alfonse

Analysis by Adonyx
New Year Alfonse - Askran Duo

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
161
HP 41
ATK 38
SPD 17
DEF 35
RES 30

Stat Variations

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

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 37 35 14 32 26
Middle 41 38 17 35 30
High 44 42 21 39 33

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

Assets

  • +ATK: This is by far the best Asset for New Year Alfonse. Increasing his damage will increase his chances of KO’ing his opponent in one hit with Open the Future as well as improving its healing.

  • +DEF: The next best option after +ATK, +DEF has the benefit of improving New Year Alfonse’s bulk while also boosting his damage a bit with Open the Future.

  • +RES: While not quite as good as +ATK or +DEF, this can be useful for simply increasing New Year Alfonse’s magical bulk, which can be particularly relevant against heavy magic threats like Ophelia.

Flaws

  • -SPD: This is the obvious choice of Flaw, as New Year Alfonse’s Speed stat is easily his worst stat. He can also prevent enemies from naturally doubling him thanks to Imbued Koma’s effect.

  • -HP: While -SPD is significantly better, a -HP Flaw is the second best option. Note that sometimes keeping New Year Alfonse’s Speed at a slightly higher level can be greatly beneficial against enemies that would otherwise break through Imbued Koma’s follow-up negation.

Skill Sets

The Future is Wide Open (Generalist)

Build by
Recommended
Imbued Koma A Close Counter
Reposition B Special Spiral 3
Open the Future C Pulse Smoke 3
Alternate: Atk Smoke 3
IVsSFierce Stance 3
Alternate: Quick Riposte 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Preferred IV: +ATK or +DEF or +RES / -SPD

  • Increasing New Year Alfonse’s Attack will improve his chances of KO’ing his opponent in one hit as well as maximizing his healing. +DEF or +RES are also acceptable choices for increasing his overall bulk.

Weapon: Imbued Koma

  • Granting Special cooldown reduction is a fairly rare amongst tomes, already making Imbued Koma a notably powerful weapon. However, the stat boosts and negation of enemy follow-up attacks synergizes perfectly with New Year Alfonse’s base kit, making him simultaneously very tanky and a strong damage threat.

Assist: Reposition

Special: Open the Future

  • New Year Alfonse’s unique Special is exceptionally powerful; combining the damage of Bonfire with just slightly less healing than Noontime gives him a fantastic mix of damage potential and sustain, enough that he should be able to KO most typical threats in a single hit, maximizing his healing.

Passive A: Close Counter

  • New Year Alfonse’s base Close Counter is the perfect choice for this build, as it’s essential that he be able to retaliate against melee threats in a mode like Aether Raids.

Passive B: Special Spiral

  • Another part of New Year Alfonse’s base kit, Special Spiral neatly ties everything together to maximize his usage of Open the Future while also maintaining the stat boosts from Imbued Koma as much as possible. 

  • One particularly noteworthy trait is that since New Year Alfonse gets his initial Special charge from his Duo Skill, he can function fully independently - this includes being able to engage enemies on Player Phase despite his poor Speed due to his Special always being active.

Passive C: Pulse Smoke / Atk Smoke / Infantry Breath / Inf. Hexblade 

  • Pulse Smoke is an incredibly potent skill that allows New Year Alfonse to single-handedly shut down Infantry Pulse-based defense setups.

  • Atk Smoke is a decent budget option for reducing incoming damage if Pulse Smoke is unavailable.

  • It’s worth noting that due to New Year Alfonse’s unique mix of damage, sustain, and bulk, he’s a fantastic user of skills like Infantry Breath or Inf. Hexblade to support his allies as needing to stay adjacent isn’t as much of an issue for him. 

Sacred Seal: Fierce Stance / Quick Riposte

  • Fierce Stance is ideal to maximize the chance that New Year Alfonse can KO his opponent in one hit, allowing him to maximize his healing and staying power.

  • Alternatively, Quick Riposte is also a decent option for handling opponents he can’t KO in one hit, and is still a relatively safe option due to Imbued Koma negating enemy follow-up attacks.

Fireworks! (Offensive Nuke)

Build by
Imbued Koma A Life and Death 4
Alternate: Life and Death 3
Reposition B Special Spiral 3
Blazing Wind C Time's Pulse 3
IVsSHardy Bearing 3
Alternate: Quickened Pulse

Show Explanation/Analysis

Preferred IV: +ATK / -SPD

  • As AoE Specials scale off the Attack stat, a +ATK Asset is the obvious choice. The Flaw for this build doesn’t really matter, though -SPD is generally ideal.

Weapon: Imbued Koma

  • Reducing Special cooldown with Imbued Koma makes New Year Alfonse a great AoE Special user, especially considering his strong Attack stat and ability to instantly charge it with no outside assistance required.

  • The stat boosts won’t really apply while attacking since New Year Alfonse generally won’t have his Special charged during combat, but they can come in handy if he ever gets attacked during Enemy Phase with his Special charged. This gives him a strong safety net that gives him an edge over most AoE Special users.

Assist: Reposition

Special: Blazing Wind

  • The specific choice of Blazing AoE Special is up to player preference. New Year Alfonse’s Duo Skill, strong Attack stat, Special cooldown reduction from Imbued Koma, and Special Spiral in base kit all make him a fantastic candidate for an AoE Special despite the stat boosts from Imbued Koma not applying while attacking.

Passive A: Life and Death (3 or 4)

  • Since AoE Specials’ damage are based off visible Attack stats, Life and Death is the go-to choice of A skill to maximize it. The Defense/Resistance penalty isn’t as detrimental to New Year Alfonse as other AoE Special users due to Imbued Koma’s strong defensive capabilities.

Passive B: Special Spiral

  • New Year Alfonse’s base Special Spiral is perfect for an AoE Special build, allowing him to repeatedly activate and recharge it after every combat.

Passive C: Time’s Pulse / Flexible

  • Running either Time’s Pulse or the Quickened Pulse Seal will allow New Year Alfonse to fully charge an AoE Special with zero assistance from his team required. 

  • However, if not running Time’s Pulse, then New Year Alfonse’s C skill isn’t particularly important for the build and can be replaced as needed.

Sacred Seal: Hardy Bearing / Quickened Pulse / Attack +3 / Flexible

  • Running either Time’s Pulse or the Quickened Pulse Seal will allow New Year Alfonse to fully charge an AoE Special with zero assistance from his team required. 

  • Hardy Bearing is a fantastic choice when utilizing AoE Specials, as a major threat to this build is Vantage users.

  • Finally, Attack +3 is a simple option to increase the damage output from an AoE Special.

Strengths

Duo Hero

Reducing Special cooldown count by 2 is exceptionally powerful both for New Year Alfonse himself as well as all infantry allies that can receive it. This gives him exceptional utility to complement his raw power and bulk. Counting as a 185 BST unit in Arena scoring modes is just another big bonus on top of all these perks.

Imbued Koma

New Year Alfonse’s weapon is simple, but highly effective when considering the rest of his kit. It’s not the main reason he’s so powerful, but it does contribute quite a bit to his overall power and tankiness.

Open the Future

The next item on the list of New Year Alfonse’s stacked list of perks is his unique Special; combining the damage of Bonfire with nearly the same healing as Noontime (with no additional cooldown) is exceptionally powerful, particularly in modes like Aether Raids.

Fantastic Base Kit

New Year Alfonse’s base kit is perfect for him; he doesn’t need any investment to have essentially his optimal build. 

Strong Statline

With a statline reminiscent of many armor units, New Year Alfonse is heavily min-maxed. His main weakness, Speed, is even covered for with his Imbued Koma’s ability to negate enemy follow-up attacks.

Weaknesses

Seasonal Unit

As a seasonal unit, New Year Alfonse is particularly difficult to obtain multiple copies of for merging or obtaining optimal IVs.

Special Reliant

A huge chunk of New Year Alfonse’s power comes from his ability to activate his Special. If he gets hit by something like Melancholy, then he could potentially be in big trouble. However, he doesn’t suffer from this quite as much as some other Special reliant units since he’s otherwise unaffected by skills like Guard since Open the Future is always charged.

Duo Skill

Grants Special cooldown count-2 to unit and infantry allies within 3 rows and 3 columns centered on unit.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Light
Learns by default at 1 ★
Unlocks at 1 ★
Blue Tome Users Only
50 2 4
Ellight
Learns by default at 3 ★
Unlocks at 2 ★
Blue Tome Users Only
100 2 6
Shine
Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Blue Tome Users Only
200 2 9
Imbued Koma

Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1).

At start of combat, if Special is ready, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 during combat and foe cannot make a follow-up attack.
 

Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 4 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
400 2 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
Open the Future

Boosts damage by 50% of unit's Def. Restores HP = 25% of damage dealt.

Unlocks at 5 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
500 3

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Close Counter

Enables unit to counterattack regardless of distance to attacker.

Ranged Weapon Users Only
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
A
Special Spiral 1

If unit initiates combat and unit's Special triggers before or during combat, grants Special cooldown count-1 after combat.

Excludes Flying and Cavalry Units
Unlocks at 3 ★
60
B
Special Spiral 2

If Special triggers before or during combat, grants Special cooldown count-1 after combat.

Excludes Flying and Cavalry Units
Unlocks at 4 ★
120
B
Special Spiral 3

If Special triggers before or during combat, grants Special cooldown count-2 after combat.

Excludes Flying, Cavalry, and Staff Units
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
B
Def/Res Oath 1

At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Def/Res+3 to unit for 1 turn.

Infantry & Flying Units Only
Unlocks at 1 ★
60
C
Def/Res Oath 2

At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Def/Res+4 to unit for 1 turn.

Infantry & Flying Units Only
Unlocks at 2 ★
120
C
Def/Res Oath 3

At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Def/Res+5 to unit for 1 turn.

Infantry & Flying Units Only
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
C

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem Heroes

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