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Analysis by Maskilraid
Winter Fae - Holiday Dear

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
180
HP 45
ATK 35
SPD 26
DEF 33
RES 41

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 16 8 3 8 7
Middle 17 9 4 9 8
High 18 10 5 10 9

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 42 32 22 30 37
Middle 45 35 26 33 41
High 48 38 29 36 44

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

Fae retains her general stat distribution compared to her infantry counterpart, albeit with much more stats to work with due to being a Gen 2 Melee Armored Trainee. The choice of IV heavily hinges on the role that Fae is playing in her team, pure Enemy Phase or Mixed Phase.

Boons

  • +ATK: Increasing her Attack is recommended if Fae is opting for a mixed phase setup. Fae has comparatively less Attack compared to many of her contemporaries, which means that Fae will value the extra boost in Attack more to give her more offensive presence in the Player Phase.

  • +DEF: For purely Enemy Phase builds, pursing her Defence might be a worthy endeavour as to allow her to soak up more physical damage.

Neutral

  • RES: Fae’s Resistance is naturally high, so having a boon provides somewhat of a diminishing return. However, as Fae is still predominantly an Enemy Phase unit that focuses on taking hits, it would be ideal for Fae to leave Resistance alone if possible. It is also worth noting that this is a superbane.

Banes

  • -SPD: Speed has always been a contentious stat for armors to use, as they have access to strong skills that outright ignore Speed checks (unless her opponent uses Null Follow-Up or related skills). As Fae also will be able to enjoy the Fighter Skill benefits, Speed is probably the most dispensable stat of the five. However, this is a superbane, which does hurt her arena scoring potential.

  • -HP: Fae needs to take hit, so having more HP naturally means the ability to take more damage. However,  HP has the least returns on investment as she is usually required to take multiple hits. This is probably the best bane for Fae that is not a superbane.

Skill Sets

Undying Chicken Fluff (Sustain Enemy Phase)

Build by
Recommended
Water Breath+ (+Def)
Alternate: Glittering Breath+ (+Def)
A Distant Counter
Swap
Alternate: Pivot
B Special Fighter 3
Alternate: Vengeful Fighter 3
Noontime
Alternate: Aether
C Pulse Smoke 3
Alternate: Atk Smoke 3
IVsSQuick Riposte 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Preferred IV: +DEF or +ATK / -SPD

  • The main purpose of this build is to outlive your opponent. Rounding out Winter Fae's defenses is likely to be her first priority. As such, ging for a DEF asset is rather helpful.
  • An asset in ATK could also be considered to finish off the opponent in a single hit, and it could be beneficial as she will not have to receive a second attack from a follow up.
  • A flaw in SPD probably causes the least damage. However, it is recommended to get rid of the flaw by merging, as enemy phase builds could leverage on every single stat.

Weapon: Water Breath (+Def) / Glittering Breath + (+Def) / Lightning Breath (+Def)

  • While Water Breath and Glittering Breath are very similar by providing defensive stats, Water Breath is slightly more preferable due to its lack of positional requirements.
  • Glittering Breath's effect while could be activated in the Player Phase, is rarely used due to Fae's rather restrictive armor movement, and the conditions of having 2 allies around Fae to at least match Water Breath's effect.

Assist: Swap / Pivot / Preference

Special: Noontime / Aether

  • Noontime is preferred if a player opts for Special Fighter, which allows Fae to counter-attack with a Noontime activation.
  • For builds based on Vengeful Fighter, Aether is recommended to maximise the healing by only charging in her second combat. This is to ensure that the amount of healing is maximized.

Passive A: Distant Counter

Passive B: Special Fighter 3 / Vengeful Fighter 3

  • Special Fighter's acceleration of special charges and reduction of opponent's charges could be easily leveraged by Fae due to her outstanding bulk. 
  • Vengeful Fighter is a decent budget option if Special Fighter is not available. It also helps that it is part of Fae's default kit.

Passive C: Pulse Smoke 3 / ATK Smoke 3 / Armor March 3

  • Special Fighter's effect could be undermined if the special is charged to begin with. Hence, Pulse Smoke could be very helpful to ensure that Fae could continue leveraging on Special Fighter effectively. ATK Smoke is a budget alternative for such a play-style.
  • If used in an armor team, Armor March is the go-to choice.

Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Distant Def 3

  • Fae does not have the highest offenses that can take the opponent out in a single hit. Quick Riposte increase the likelihood that she could finish off the opponent by ensuring a follow-up attack.
  • Distant Def is a slightly more defensive option to further improve Fae's ability to survive against ranged foes. 

Winter Chicken Run (Mixed Phase)

Build by
Lightning Breath+ (+Def) A Steady Breath
Alternate: Death Blow 4
Swap
Alternate: Pivot
B Bold Fighter 3
Aether
Alternate: Moonbow
C Armor March 3
IVsSQuick Riposte 3

Show Explanation/Analysis
  • Preferred IV: +ATK / -SPD
  • Weapon: Lightning Breath + (+Def)
  • Assist: Swap / Pivot
  • Special: Aether / Moonbow
  • Passive A: Steady Breath / Warding Breath / Fierce Breath / Death Blow 4
  • Passive B: Bold Fighter
  • Passive C: Armor March
  • Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte

This is a tried and tested build that is used by many armored units with access to innate Distant Counter. Fae using a Dragonstone means that she will be able to inherit Lightning Breath to leverage this cookie-cutter build.

For IVs, the ideal set is +ATK/-SPD. Going for the extra Attack is crucial for Fae to boost her offensive presence in the Player Phase. Due to having 2 skills that largely ignore Speed checks (Bold Fighter and Quick Riposte), taking a hit in Speed for more offensive power is a worthwhile trade.

The crux of this build is in Passive B and Sacred Seals; Bold Fighter gives Fae the offensive power in the Player Phase with the guaranteed double, while Quick Riposte does the same in the Enemy Phase provided that she is above the health threshold. Bold Fighter also provides Special acceleration for Fae, allowing her to consider higher cooldown Specials in the Player Phase.

Steady Breath has a slight edge over Warding Breath due to Fae’s slight inclination towards Resistance, which means that going for Steady Breath allows Fae to be a better mixed wall in the Enemy Phase. Another potential candidate that is worth considering is Death Blow, which increases Fae’s offensive power during  Player Phase, which Fae might actually prefer due to her lower Attack compared to her competition like Fallen Robin (M).

The choice of Specials would depend on the focus of the build. For a more Enemy hase-focused build using Steady Breath or Warding Breath, Aether would be the go-to option as she will be able to activate it in a single exchange during the Enemy Phase. For more PlayerPhase-oriented builds with Death Blow, one will be looking at a 3 turn cooldown special to leverage on the cooldown acceleration of Bold Fighter. However, due to Lightning Breath’s cooldown penalty , this pretty much locks her into Moonbow if she is looking into activating it every Player Phase.

Lastly, Armor March is very important to have for this build, as she values the extra mobility that could be used in the Player Phase. Fae does come with this skill by default, which makes running this skill an easy decision.

Introduction

Winter Fae, our beloved best chicken, finally graced upon us as the second armored green dragon in Fire Emblem Heroes. Similar to many of the younger manaketes, Fae shares the same high base stat total as her armored young dragon contemporaries.

In terms of stat distribution, Fae chose to be a giant fluffball of defensive stat. 45 HP, 33 Def and 41 Res makes her one of the harder units to take out if the player do not bring any effective damage dealers. Furthermore, as dragons also hits for resistance, even her merely adequate 35 ATK could pack quite a punch.

The good news for Fae is that being armored grants her special access to many powerful skills, such as the Breath passives, and more notably the Fighter skills. However, being armored also means that she faces stiff competition to 2 units; namely Fallen Robin (M) and Surtr. Both of these units have considerably higher attack, and Fallen Robin (M) is the exact same class as her while sacrificing defensive capabilities.

Fae’s archetype is very similar to Gwendolyn and Sheena; overwhelming the opponent with defensive stat and withering the opponent down. This is further supported by her boosted base stat total. However, being both armored and a dragon meant that her walling capabilities could be cut short due to effective weapons. This could be a potential problem due to the armor meta especially in higher arena thresholds.

Strengths

Monstrous Defensive Stats

At 45 HP, 33 Def and 41 Res, it is obvious that Fae placed a lot of resources in keeping herself alive. She will take most standard hits without much problem. The high Resistance also enables her to run Ploy Skills without much issue.

Access to Armor Skills

As an armored hero, Winter Fae can wield the highly desired armor skills: Bold Fighter, Vengeful Fighter, and Special Fighter. These skills puts Fae in an excellent spot to do anything that she wants, be it the standard Mixed Phase, or solely focusing on Enemy Phase.

Dragonstone

Being a Dragonstone user meant that Fae is dealing magic damage on melee units, and adaptive damage on ranged units. This means that Fae will hit hard in most circumstances, as melee units usually have lower Resistance than Defense.

Weaknesses

Double Weaknesses

Being an armored unit meant that she is a prime target by armor-effective weapons. Furthermore, she is also have an additional weakness as a dragon. In particular, being a green dragon especially hurts as reds have the most accessible dragon killing weapons such as Falchion and Breath of Fog.

Mediocre Speed

Fae’s speed is at an unfortunate 26. While she might be able to pass some Speed checks against the slowest of units, in most cases this rarely comes into play due to the armor exclusive skills.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Fire Breath
Only inheritable by Dragon units.
50 1 6
Fire Breath+
Only inheritable by Dragon units.
100 1 8
Glittering Breath

During combat, boosts unit's Def/Res by number of allies within 2 spaces × 2. (Maximum bonus of +6 to each stat.) If foe's Range = 2, calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res.

Only inheritable by Dragon units.
200 1 11
Glittering Breath+

During combat, boosts unit's Def/Res by number of allies within 2 spaces x 2. (Maximum bonus of +6 to each stat.) If foe's Range = 2, calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Only inheritable by Dragon units.
300 1 14
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Special Skills

Special Skills SP Turns
New Moon

Treats foe's Def/Res as if reduced by 30% during combat.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
100 3
Luna

Treats foe's Def/Res as if reduced by 50% during combat.

Unlocks at 5 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
200 3

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Def/Res Bond 1

If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Def/Res+3 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
60
A
Def/Res Bond 2

If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Def/Res+4 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
120
A
Def/Res Bond 3

If unit is adjacent to an ally, grants Def/Res+5 during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
A
Vengeful Fighter 1

If unit's HP ≥ 90% and foe initiates combat, grants Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. (Does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
60
B
Vengeful Fighter 2

If unit's HP ≥ 70% and foe initiates combat, grants Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. (Does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
120
B
Vengeful Fighter 3

If unit's HP ≥ 50% and foe initiates combat, grants Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack, and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. (Does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
B
Armor March 1

If unit has 100% HP and an adjacent armored ally at start of turn, unit and any such allies can move 1 extra space. (That turn only; does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
60
C
Armor March 2

If unit has ≥ 50% HP and an adjacent armored ally at start of turn, unit and any such allies can move 1 extra space. (That turn only; does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
120
C
Armor March 3

If unit has an adjacent armored ally at the start of turn, unit and any such allies can move 1 extra space. (That turn only, does not stack.)

Only inheritable by armor units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
240
C

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

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