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Brave Edelgard

Analysis by UmbraCorvus
Brave Edelgard - Adrestian Emperor

5

Obtainable as a 5 only

Hero Stats

Max Avg Total Stats at Lvl 40
185
HP 46
ATK 45
SPD 16
DEF 43
RES 35

Stat Variations

Level 1 Stat Variation
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 19 11 2 12 8
Middle 20 12 3 13 9
High 21 13 4 14 10

Level 40 Stat Variations
5★
HP ATK SPD DEF RES
Low 43 41 12 40 32
Middle 46 45 16 43 35
High 49 48 19 47 38

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

The Light that Shines over Fódlan (Versatile)

Build by UmbraCorvus
Recommended
Flower Hauteclere (+Eff) A Distant Counter
Alternate: Distant Ward
Positional Assist B Black Eagle Rule
Noontime
Alternate: Bonfire
C A/D Near Save 3
Alternate: A/R Far Save 3
IVs

+ATK or +DEF or +RES / -SPD

SAtk/Res Ideal 3
Alternate: Steady Breath

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Flower Hauteclere (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Noontime / Bonfire / Sol

Passive A: Distant Counter / Distant Ward

Passive B: Black Eagle Rule

Passive C: A/D Near Save / A/R Far Save / Joint Drive Res

Sacred Seal: Atk/Res Ideal / Steady Breath / Warding Breath

  • Brave Edelgard is a powerful unit in both the Player Phase and the Enemy Phase thanks to her high damage output, strong effective bulk, great mobility, and the ability to secure follow-up attacks with the aid of Black Eagle Rule. Upon dumping Edelgard’s Speed stat, an Asset in any other statistic can help Edelgard quite a bit, with high priority to Attack for its universal benefits, or Defense for its nature as a Super Asset.
  • For the choice of Special, Noontime results in immediate counterhit healing thanks to Flower Hauteclere possessing a slaying effect that lowers its cooldown. Edelgard comes with this Special by default, making it a very cost effective choice. With the dawn of the Steady Breath and Warding Breath Sacred Seals, Brave Edelgard can also now opt to utilize these Sacred Seal options to consistently activate Sol or Bonfire on her own in the Enemy Phase without the need for any form of support like Thórr’s Worldbreaker.
  • Distant Counter would be a solid upgrade to Edelgard’s innate Distant Ward, as Distant Ward prevents her from counter attacking the ever common bow and dagger units. With that said, if Distant Counter is unavailable, Distant Ward is still quite serviceable as a countermeasure towards mages, staves, and dragons.
  • As a very bulky armored unit, running a Save type Skill is a no brainer in the C Passive. As for whether to run a Near or Far Save Skill, this is up to player preference. In the event of lacking any Save Skill fodder, Edelgard’s base Joint Drive Res is a solid option to keep on her as it can boost her own Resistance if near an ally, as well as boost her allies’ Resistance stats. 
  • If not utilizing a higher cooldown Special, Brave Edelgard makes a good candidate to hold the Atk/Res Ideal Sacred Seal as her extra movement space condition actually counts towards activating the stat bonus provided by the Sacred Seal. If opting for Bonfire or Sol as the Special of choice, then either the Steady Breath or Warding Breath Sacred Seals should be used instead.

Hey wait a second… THIS ISN’T LEGENDARY EDELGARD! (Galeforce)

Build by UmbraCorvus
Flower Hauteclere (+Eff) A Heavy Blade 4
Alternate: Death Blow (3 or 4)
Positional Assist B Black Eagle Rule
Galeforce C Pulse Smoke 3
Alternate: Atk Smoke 3
IVs

+ATK / -SPD

SQuickened Pulse
Alternate: Heavy Blade 3

Show Explanation/Analysis

Weapon: Flower Hauteclere (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Galeforce

Passive A: Heavy Blade 4 / Death Blow (3 or 4) / Distant Counter / Distant Ward

Passive B: Black Eagle Rule

Passive C: Pulse Smoke / Atk Smoke / Def Smoke

Sacred Seal: Quickened Pulse / Heavy Blade / Death Blow

  •  While unable to move three times in one turn like Legendary Edelgard can with the aid of Raging Storm + Galeforce, Brave Edelgard can still be quite a solid Galeforce unit as she can have a potentially easier time of securing that Galeforce activation alongside having a follow-up attack through Black Eagle Rule making her not require Brave Axe to hit twice like Legendary Edelgard does.
  • Heavy Blade should be taken in some capacity, whether in the A Passive or as a Sacred Seal in order to accelerate Edelgard’s Special cooldown. In the event of running the Heavy Blade Sacred Seal, A Passives such as Death Blow for higher damage or Distant Counter/Distant Ward for dual phase versatility open up.
  • If running Heavy Blade in the A Passive, while it is an easy choice to go with the Death Blow Sacred Seal, the Quickened Pulse Sacred Seal can be paired alongside the Pulse effect from Groom Rafiel in order to turn Edelgard’s Galeforce cooldown to 2 on turn 1. This means that even if she is to defeat an opponent in a single strike, she will be able to still activate the Galeforce upon meeting the Heavy Blade check. If Groom Rafiel is unavailable, Velouria and Legendary Hector can also accomplish this Pulse synergy and remove the need for the Quickened Pulse Sacred Seal. Where Velouria and Hector suffer a bit compared to Rafiel though is that they are not able to use Sing like Rafiel can.
  • The C Passive can vary and is ultimately flexible, but Pulse Smoke is a safe bet as a countermeasure against preemptively charged Specials. Atk Smoke and Def Smoke are worthwhile alternatives as Pulse Smoke is otherwise difficult to come by.

Strengths

Extremely Min-Maxed Statline

Brave Edelgard’s stats put most Heroes to shame, as she sports 185 BST when unmerged. These stats have been distributed heavily into her defensive stats as well as her Attack, which sits at an astonishingly high value of 45. Edelgard should have little issues with dealing decisive blows with her axe while taking an impressive amount of punishment even before Skills are factored into the equation.

Refined Flower Hauteclere

Flower Hauteclere finally has a refine of its own, and while some refines seek to add completely new niches to some characters, Brave Edelgard’s refined weapon instead doubles down on what already made Brave Edelgard an excellent unit by adding even more effects to her weapon to throw the stat difference between her and her opponent in favor. Still present are the lowered Special cooldown, one extra movement space, and Orders buff that Brave Edelgard users have come to love as well as the -6 Attack/Defense debuff on opponents during combat, but now there are plenty more effects once Flower Hauteclere is refined. These new effects utilize the condition of being three spaces or less away from an ally and can give Brave Edelgard the benefits of adding an extra -6 Attack/Defense debuff on top of the original to now make that debuff -12 Attack/Defense during combat, the ability to heal 7 HP from each attack she performs even if her attacks deal 0 damage, and then a Guard effect on her opponent alongside boost to her Attack/Defense/Resistance which is determined by how many spaces she or her enemy moved as they initiated combat, giving anywhere between a +5 Attack/Defense/Resistance buff or a +9 boost to herself. Refined Hauteclere is a very powerful weapon, not changing any of Brave Edelgard’s core builds much in the grand scheme of things but just letting her be a better version of herself which means you likely will not have to change much about her build and just go straight into dominating your foes.

Black Eagle Rule

The second unique trait that Brave Edelgard sports is a unique B Passive called Black Eagle Rule. Black Eagle Rule seems designed to address Edelgard’s weak Speed stat by giving her a follow-up attack if she has 25% HP or more at the start of combat. On top of this, if her foe is to be the one to initiate combat against her, their second strike will have their damage reduced by 80%. A normal issue with slower units that rely on follow-up skills such as Edelgard is that their Enemy Phase tends to suffer from the fact that they get attacked twice before they can get their own second attack off. Brave Edelgard does not have this issue as hard as others because she can reduce the damage of the second strike of her enemy, allowing her to easily shrug off even otherwise fatal Special procs.

Weaknesses

Low Speed

In an attempt to boost the rest of Brave Edelgard’s statline, her Speed has taken a massive cut and sits at a value of 16. As Speed will often prove to be her ideal dump stat, this can get even lower with a Super Flaw and sit at a value of 12. Edelgard possesses the means to secure follow-up attacks with the aid of Black Eagle Rule, but it does mean that she will almost constantly receive follow-up attacks from her opponents (which the second strike will thankfully be reduced due to Black Eagle Rule). What cannot be fixed though is the fact that Edelgard runs into trouble with effects that block her secured follow-up and force a speed check such as Null Follow-Up, as Edelgard’s horrible Speed will have no chance of landing her a follow-up in those situations.

Personal Weapon Has Multiple Conditions to be Aware Of

Flower Hauteclere is an incredibly strong weapon with relatively easy to activate conditional effects, though as easy as they are to achieve one must be careful as to ensure all the conditions are kept in check as to maintain Brave Edelgard’s powerful presence. Maintaining 25% HP or above is quite simple, but also with the fact that Flower Hauteclere now has some new conditions with its refine, players must also be sure that their Brave Edelgard is kept at least three spaces away from allies at all times. Players may also want to take into account proper spacing in order to take advantage of refined Flower Hauteclere’s extra stat bonuses and guard debuff based on how many spaces Edelgard or her opponent moved before initiating combat.

Weapon Skills

Weapons SP Rng. Mt.
Iron Axe
Learns by default at 1 ★
Unlocks at 1 ★
Inheritable by Axe users only.
50 1 6
Steel Axe
Learns by default at 3 ★
Unlocks at 2 ★
Inheritable by Axe users only.
100 1 8
Silver Axe
Learns by default at 4 ★
Unlocks at 3 ★
Inheritable by Axe users only.
200 1 11
Flower Hauteclere

Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). At start of turn, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, unit can move 1 extra space (that turn only; does not stack) and grants the following status to unit for 1 turn: "Unit can move to a space adjacent to any ally within 2 spaces." At the start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, inflicts Atk/Def-6 on foe during combat.

Learns by default at 5 ★
Unlocks at 5 ★
Non-Inheritable skill.
400 1 16
Weapon Evolution
Weapon Upgrades
Weapon Upgrades

Special Skills

Special Skills SP Turns
Daylight

Restores HP = 30% of damage dealt.

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

Restores HP = 30% of damage dealt.

Unlocks at 4 ★
Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
200 2

Passive Skills

Passive Skills SP Slot
Distant Ward

If magic, staff, or dragonstone foe initiates combat, grants Atk/Res+5 to unit during combat and unit can counterattack regardless of foe's range.

Restricted to melee units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
A
Black Eagle Rule

If unit's HP ≥ 25%, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack, and also if foe initiates combat, damage received by foe's follow-up attack is also reduced by 80%. (For standard weapons, "follow-up attack" means the second strike. For weapons that grant "unit attacks twice," it means the third and fourth strikes.)

Non-Inheritable skill.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
B
Spur Res 1

Grants Res+2 to adjacent allies during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 2 ★
50
C
Drive Res 1

Grants Res+2 to allies within 2 spaces during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 3 ★
120
C
Drive Res 2

Grants Res+3 to allies within 2 spaces during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 4 ★
240
C
Joint Drive Res

Grants Res+4 to allies within 2 spaces during combat. If unit is within 2 spaces of an ally, grants Res+4 to unit during combat.

Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 5 ★
300
C

Other Info

Origin
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

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