Winter Marth

Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -HP

• As this is an offensive set, increasing Winter Marth’s offenses is ideal.

Weapon: Tanngrisnir / Brave Bow+

• Tanngrisnir is perfectly designed for Winter Marth, as the accelerated Special charge gain allows him to easily utilize his base Daring Fighter without having to also run Heavy/Flashing Blade. The stat boosts are also easy to maintain via Joint Hone Spd and Winter Marth’s Duo skill.

• Brave Bow is an alternative that potentially offers a higher damage ceiling, but there aren’t many enemies that Winter Marth can KO with it that he can’t already KO with Tanngrisnir. However, it could be useful for PvE modes due to inflated enemy HP stats. 

Assist: Swap / Pivot

Special: Fire Emblem

• Fire Emblem offers Winter Marth an excellent and consistent Special with a low cooldown, perfect for usage with Tanngrisnir and Daring Fighter.

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

• Since Winter Marth’s base Daring Fighter allows him to bypass skills that would otherwise prevent him from naturally doubling, increasing both his Attack and Speed with skills like Swift Sparrow or Atk/Spd Solo are ideal for maximizing his offensive power.

Passive B: Daring Fighter

• Daring Fighter allows Winter Marth to break through enemies with skills like Bowbreaker or Wary Fighter that would otherwise deny him from doubling via Speed. It also functions as a slightly improved variant of Desperation, which synergizes perfectly with Tanngrisnir and Fire Emblem.

Passive C: Armor March / Joint Hone Spd

• For an offensive set, having Armor March is extremely useful to help negate Winter Marth’s poor movement as an armored unit. He can also bypass the need to self-buff with Joint Hone Spd via his Duo skill and Fire Emblem activations, though it can be useful depending on the team composition.

Sacred Seal: Sturdy Blow / Darting Blow / Brazen Atk/Spd

• Both Sturdy Blow and Darting Blow are excellent choices for Winter Marth; the choice between the two is mostly up to preference. Sturdy Blow offers a big boost in damage, but Darting Blow can potentially make the difference in doubling an excessively fast unit.

• Brazen Atk/Spd is an alternative option for maximizing Daring Fighter, but is generally not quite as good as Sturdy Blow or Darting Blow due to its HP threshold.

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

• +RES is generally ideal if using Winter Marth as a tank in Aether Raids, but +ATK or +SPD can also work.

Weapon: Short Bow (+Def/+Res) / Guard Bow (+Def/+Res)

• Short Bow synergizes nicely with Noontime and Special Fighter to both increase Winter Marth’s damage output as well as slightly improving his healing.

• Guard Bow is a good alternative for making Winter Marth significantly tankier (particularly in Aether Raids), at the cost of damage output.

• The choice between a +Def or +Res refine is up to preference; +Res is generally more useful, but for example this is less necessary during Light season with Eir.

Assist: Swap / Pivot

Special: Noontime

• Noontime’s healing and low cooldown are ideal for maximizing Winter Marth’s survivability, as with Special Fighter he will be able to activate it repeatedly.

Passive A: Close Counter / Distant Def 4

• Close Counter is vitally important to ensure that Winter Marth can efficiently deal with melee threats as well as ranged threats, at the cost of not improving his matchups against ranged threats.

• On the other hand, Distant Def 4 will drastically improve Winter Marth’s matchups against ranged threats, but he will not be able to tackle melee threats on Enemy Phase.

Passive B: Special Fighter

• The key component of Special Fighter is the accelerated Special charge gain, allowing Winter Marth to repeatedly activate Noontime. The Guard effect is generally not as useful in Aether Raids, but can come in handy from time to time.

Passive C: Pulse Smoke / Atk Smoke / Armor March

• Pulse Smoke is incredibly strong in Aether Raids, as it allows Winter Marth to completely shut down Infantry Pulse-based defense setups. Atk Smoke is a decent budget alternative if Pulse Smoke is unavailable, however, as it will help reduce incoming damage.

• Armor March is a decent option if using more than 1 armored unit, though generally this is tough to pull off in Aether Raids due to the turn limit.

Sacred Seal: Fierce Stance / Swift Stance / Steady Posture

• Any of the various Stance Seals will work great here, but Fierce Stance is ideal to maximize Winter Marth’s damage output to improve his ability to KO his opponents in one hit.