Valentine's Henriette

Weapon: Unity Blooms+ (+Res)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Iceberg / Glacies

Passive A: Distant Def 4 / Atk/Res Unity / Atk/Res Bond / Mirror Stance 3

Passive B: Slick Fighter / Crafty Fighter / Vengeful Fighter

Passive C: A/R Far Save

Sacred Seal: Atk/Res Bond / Distant Def 3 / Mirror Stance

• Henriette can also be utilized with her default kit and playstyle: to be a Far Save companion for another carry unity in Aether Raids Offense and other settings. As such, a lot of skills remain consistent from the first build except for Henriette's C slot, which is reserved for this build's namesake skill: Atk/Res Far Save. Running this skill allows Henriette to take ranged attacks in place of any allies within two spaces of herself, giving more breathing room especially for carry units normally weaker to magic.
• To account for physical ranged enemies with bows and daggers as well (expect a lot of them on cavalry lines), keeping Henriette's default Distant Def 4 is cheap and optimal. If you prefer a little offensive kick, you may run some sort of Atk/Res-boosting A-slot skill in its place; Unity, Bond, and Mirror Stance 3 are excellent recommendations with small advantages of their own. Stack these as you will for the Sacred Seal as well to strengthen Henriette's ranged tanking abilities further. 
• As a Far Save user and secondary carry unit, Henriette will want to wrap up her matches with a strong kill with little chance of enemy survival, lest they get refreshed by a fellow enemy Dancer like Triandra. As such, the build prioritizes follow-up B slots and damaging Specials to maximize killing strength. 
  • Henriette's default Slick Fighter and Iceberg will do the trick perfectly in most cases, erasing her penalties and giving her a flexible follow-up attack and strong finishing blow with good cooldown.
  • Crafty Fighter provides safety against charging enemy Specials. 
  • Running Glacies with Vengeful Fighter grants a more powerful burst option while keeping the same timing as Iceberg, though Vengeful Fighter stops working at a steeper 50% HP as opposed to the 25% from Slick and Crafty.

Weapon: Unity Blooms+ (+Res)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Noontime / Sol / Iceberg

Passive A: Close Foil / Distant Def 4 / Close Counter / Sturdy or Mirror Stance 3

Passive B: Slick Fighter / Special Fighter

Passive C: Pulse Smoke / A/R Far Save

Sacred Seal: Atk/Def Solo / Quick Riposte / Mirror Stance / Mystic Boost

• Henriette's great defensive statline and access to some nice enemy phase armor-exclusive skills also lend themselves splendidly well to an enemy phase build. Compared to Idunn, her spring alt, and Halloween Dheginsea, she has a fair amount of competitive perks through her lack of Dragon-effective weakness, more specialized investment in Attack and Resistance (to the point where even Ophelia can't scratch her with AOE), as well as being able to distribute Smokes more easily by hitting from two spaces. While a lack of follow-up prevention (which Spring Idunn boasts) may get in the way at times, Henriette can persevere simply by overwhelming the enemy in stats—especially with the help of Light or Astra stat blessings and deploying multiple Mythic Heroes to support her.
• Several of Henriette's default skills, fortunately, allow her to slide instantly into the role of an omnitank, greatly easing up on inheritance woes.
  • Unity Blooms is a fantastic default tome; not only does it apply a pretty substantial in-combat debuff of Atk/Res -5 against the enemy, but it also heals a slight amount of HP every time Henriette counterattacks, allowing her to sustain herself quite well when used alongside Noontime or Sol. Overall, it makes Henriette a very powerful and sustainable unit, and the only condition it asks for in exchange is merely being having an ally nearby. Fortunately, Henriette doesn't have to be adjacent (which is a dangerous practice in Aether Raids Offense), and she can take advantage of this condition by utilizing buffs from support battery allies such as Plumeria, Peony, male Corrin, Flayn, and many other alternatives.  
  • Slick Fighter provides a guaranteed follow-up attack against initiating enemies and, more importantly, penalty negation, an effect that many AR-O carries would kill to have to keep stat matchups pristine. Additionally, unlike Quick Riposte and Vengeful Fighter, Slick Fighter has a rather forgiving HP condition of being only above 25%—a threshold she can easily recover out of thanks to a healing Special and Unity Blooms.
  • Admittedly, there are a few better choices to make over Distant Def 4 if you can help it, though it's a fine default as it provides maximum security against ranged enemies, which are rather commonplace in Aether Raids anyway. It also works out mostly well if you intend on making Henriette a ranged-only counterattacker (akin to Atk/Spd Solo Brunnya).
• The few skills you have to inherit on Henriette are completely worth considering as her already great enemy phase performance only improves to the point of almost-impenetrable pristine.
  • Pulse Smoke greatly eases matchups versus Aether Raids defense setups focusing on precharged Specials, as those are one method of breaking through an otherwise sufficiently supported Henriette. Lacking that, simply defaulting to Far Save is a perfectly good choice to shield her supporting allies from ranged attacks.
  • Special Fighter grants both Special protection and specifically instant Noontime activation; the latter is something that Slick Fighter can't do due to lack of acceleration. However, it doesn't give a guaranteed follow-up attack, forcing Henriette to resort to Quick Riposte as her Sacred Seal in order to close matchups. Both these skills also have higher HP thresholds of 50% and 70%, respectively, which means being able to heal back up from every counterattack is more important than ever. With few exceptions, the healing from Noontime and Unity Blooms should be able to satisfy that most of the time.
  • Having the option to counterattack melee defenders is always good for an all-purpose tank, making Close Foil or Close Counter very considerable choices. Close Foil in particular patches up Henriette's lower Defense (compared to Idunn and Dheginsea anyway) while increasing her damage output against all melee enemies except dragons, many of which aren't particularly common in Aether Raids and can be handled by Henriette's teammates.
  • A high-tier Stance skill such as Mirror Stance 3 alongside Slick Fighter is also an option for ranged-only builds, giving Henriette the Guard protection and flexibility of a Special Fighter build, but with a freed up Sacred Seal slot (since Special Fighter is pretty much locked to the Quick Riposte seal).
• The Sacred Seal has been previously discussed a few times in this build; Quick Riposte should always be used with Special Fighter as Henriette will otherwise lack a follow-up method. Slick Fighter allows you to be a bit more flexible with what you run, however:
  • Much like Close Foil (and even better when stacked with it), Atk/Def Solo is an easy way to improve Henriette's physical survivability while further improving her damage output all-around. If Henriette must initiate for whatever reason, Solo also has the benefit of working in her player phase. When used along with Unity Blooms (which requires ally nearness), this also means Henriette must always be one space from an ally to trigger the effects of both skills and hit maximum performance, so be mindful of this.
  • Mirror Stance improves Henriette's magical resilience instead while being less positioning-hectic than Solo (if you need to be adjacent to other allies for whatever reason).
  • Mystic Boost is an option that heals some HP after combat and further fortifies the sustainability potential of this build. It already provides a substantial amount of healing every combat when used with Unity Blooms, and this can be piled upon with either Noontime for maximum sustain or Iceberg for a mix of burst damage and healing in almost every match.

Weapon: Unity Blooms+ (+Res) / Raudrfox+ (+Res) / Raudrblade+

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Iceberg / Glimmer

Passive A: Death Blow

Passive B: Bold Fighter

Passive C: Armor March / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Death Blow / Armor March / Atk/Def Solo / Mirror Strike

• Being a ranged armor generally works very well in Henriette's favor, as she's able to access the player phase perks of Bold Fighter—that is, getting a guaranteed follow-up while charging her Special more quickly—while having generally better range and options compared to armored melee.  Combined with a solid Atk stat of 40 and some good Red tome options, Henriette certainly lives up to her very cryptic voiced lines!
• As a build catered totally to player phase, you don't need to look further than the very simple but potent Death Blow in both Henriette's A slot and Sacred Seal. Atk/Def Solo or Mirror Strike or other alternative Atk-boosted Sacred Seals are generally up to Seal availability.
• Ideally, Henriette should have ways to circumvent her poor movement and open up her attack options, whether that would be through support herself and other armored allies with Armor March, or perhaps providing Ground Orders or Guidance from other allies.
  • If Armor March is unavailable or unnecessary, Henriette's C slot is mostly neither here nor there; A/R Far Save is good on budget but Henriette isn't making optimal use of it lacking mixed or enemy phase skills.
• Some shorter-term Specials like Glimmer or Iceberg directly benefits from the CD acceleration provided by Bold Fighter since they can fire in one round; the former scales off damage Henriette is already doing, while the latter can bust past some high-Resistance matchups in emergencies.
• Finally, Henriette has a few offensive red tomes to consider.
  • Her default Unity Blooms is already a good choice as it lowers the enemy's Resistance and improves her initiation bulk as long as she is near other allies. This condition isn't exactly difficult to achieve with Henriette generally being reliant on others for movement assistance. Additionally, it's not the worst option to give alongside Atk/Def Solo and A/R Far Save, as its benefits work in both phases and gives some phase flexibility. Be mindful of Henriette's positioning if she's affected by the extended reach of Armor March.
  • Rauðrfox is less susceptible to positioning hiccups unlike Unity Blooms—all Henriette has to do is initiate (which is the point of the build after all) to benefit from a nice all-stat swing of 4 against her enemies. One caveat is that it provides (very) slightly less in-combat penalties compared to Blooms, and the Speed swing is pretty much irrelevant (…unless you're making a Speed meme build or something but that's not here nor there).
  • Good ol' Rauðrblade is also on the table with a potentially higher damage ceiling than the previous mentioned weapons. To maximize its damage, however, you will have to take extra team building efforts to buff Henriette with bonuses. It also limits Henriette to just using Glimmer due to its Special slowdown while being susceptible against common bonus negation skills (especially Lulls and Light and Dark) on the enemy side.