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Soul Scouting: Forma Building Guide - January 2022: Three Houses

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Introduction

For this iteration of Hall of Forms, we have a variety of summer units from Three Houses. Our options include a Red Tome Infantry, a Lance Flier, a Green Tome Cavalry, and a Colorless Dagger Infantry. Players have the chance to build up and possibly add the following units to their roster permanently by spending a Forma Soul:

Lorenz is purchasable with Heroic Grails, while the other three are normally only obtainable through Special Heroes summons. We will briefly display optimal inheritance options for each unit and the advantages/disadvantages of spending your Forma Soul on them. As Forma Souls take a considerable amount of resources to acquire, it is important to get the most out of your Forma units before purchasing. In general, the Forma available in this Hall of Forms can all be decent units with the right skills, but do not particularly excel in their roles outside of particular niche uses, and are probably not highly valuable to any given player unless they have a strong desire to use that particular character. 

General Considerations

Forma Unit Rules

  • Forma units come with the unit’s base skills by default. Therefore, there is generally no need to learn these skills in the Hall of Forms, beyond the utility they may provide in clearing the mode. It is generally more useful to obtain skills the unit does not have in their base kit. In general it can sometimes be useful to obtain a refine for a PRF weapon in order to save Divine Dew costs; however, none of the units in this Hall of Forms have refinable PRFs, so this is not a factor. 
  • Formas are acquired completely neutral with no Assets and Flaws. If you desire a certain Asset/Flaw combination, you will have to utilize Trait Fruits. Since you cannot merge Forma units into existing copies, this may pose an issue on resource spending if you already have the same unit with an ideal Asset.
  • If a refined weapon is obtained in Hall of Forms, the forma comes with the unrefined version as well and can learn any of the relevant refines in the weapon refinery. 

Skill Considerations

  • When rolling skills from the current Forma skill pool, unique PRF skills are often prioritized over inheritables. It can be a good idea to take PRF skills first to improve your chances at finding good inheritable alternatives; Hall of Forms will pretty much constantly hound you to take the PRF skills if you don't take them otherwise.
  • Due to their extreme rarity and superior SP value over most other Special skills, Ruptured Sky (typically available only on Byleth and their variations) and Blue Flame (available only on Owain) will vastly be preferred as a final Special choice. For bow-using units, this extends to the bow-exclusive Deadeye, as well as the dagger-exclusive Lethality for dagger units. 
    • Don't worry about not getting them too much, though! These skills are often not necessarily optimal; certain units may prefer running Specials from the low rarity pool like Sol, Glimmer, or Galeforce to achieve their goals. 
  • For the same reason as above, high-tier Assist skills like Rally+'s and Harsh Command+ are preferred on a potential purchased Forma to increase the unit's Arena scoring slightly as well as their overall value.
    • These, too, are also not necessarily optimal as positional Assists like Reposition are vastly preferred in most situations, and those can easily be inherited from lower rarity units like Norne or Barst.
    • Inheriting rally skills or Harsh Command+ too early in your Hall of Forms run can also inhibit your unit's ability to support other Forma allies and escape enemy range as well, increasing the likelihood of wasted Torches (the stamina currency for Hall of Forms) and thus wasted opportunities to get better skills.
  • Though optimal C Passive skills exist on a case-to-case basis, Joint Drives are essentially the most universal there is as they boost the stats of the unit as well as surrounding allies. Go for these (especially Joint Drive Atk) if available and there aren't better C slot options for your unit in particular. Likewise, Time's Pulse has fantastic overall value on infantry units due to the importance of frequent Special triggers in combat.

Lorenz

Summer Lorenz Unit Build

Summary

Lorenz is a red tome infantry with no unique skills and a relatively balanced statline. There are many other red tome infantry available both with Heroic Grails, such as Arvis and Pelleas, and from the 3-4 star pool, such as Erk and Miranda, both of whom have noticeably better Atk and Spd than Lorenz. Since he is purchasable using Heroic Grails, he can be merged up to +10 with no reliance on summoning luck, which is an advantage compared to some other units.

Lorenz does not have any skills that set him apart from these other red tome infantry. What he does have is a statline that favors HP and Def more than most mages, making him somewhat better suited for an enemy phase build that focuses on tanking ranged hits. However, the utility of this role is questionable and units of other types (armors in particular) are often better suited to it. Lorenz’s base skills are generally not very useful, so he can benefit significantly from the skills available in Hall of Forms if a player does wish to build him, particularly the tome Unity Blooms+, which is arguably the best inheritable red tome at time of writing and is only available on Valentine’s Henriette. Distant Def 4, Lull Atk/Res, and Joint Dist. Guard are also highly useful skills for this build.

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Unity Blooms+ (any stat refine)

Assist: Any double rally+, rally up+, or Harsh Command+

Special: Ruptured Sky or Blue Flame

A skill: Distant Def 4, Atk/Def Unity, Atk/Res Unity, Sturdy Stance 3, Mirror Stance 3

B skill: Lull Atk/Res, Lull Atk/Spd, Null C-Disrupt, Null Follow-Up

C skill: Joint Dist. Guard, Time’s Pulse, Inf. Hexblade, Pulse Smoke, Fatal Smoke, Joint Drive Atk, Joint Drive Spd, Joint Drive Def, Joint Drive Res, Atk Spd Menace, Atk Res Menace, Def Res Menace

Ingrid

Summer Ingrid Unit Build

Summary

Ingrid is a lance flier with a unique non-inheritable weapon in Starpoint Lance and a statline with high Atk and Spd. There are many other lance fliers available in Fire Emblem Heroes through various methods; Ingrid is set apart by her weapon and her statline, but there are plenty of other lance fliers with high Atk and Spd, and weapon effects that are better suited for player-phase combat.

Starpoint Lance gives Ingrid a stat boost of +5 to all stats in her first combat in player phase and in her first combat in enemy phase, as well as restoring 10 HP after combat. This is a decent effect when combined with the damage reduction from Guard Bearing, available in her base kit, but means that her combat performance drops significantly after that one combat. This makes her a somewhat weaker choice compared to units with more potent and consistent player-phase weapons like Erinys or Cordelia. However, Ingrid can still perform well with the right skills, and she benefits greatly from some of the available skills in Hall of Forms, particularly Trace B skills and Tempest C skills, and the Ninja Yari+ or Ninja Naginata+ weapons if the player wishes to build a player-phase Ingrid. Flow Guard is also a highly useful B skill in contexts where Canto is not needed, allowing Ingrid to prevent enemies from blocking her follow-ups while also slowing their Special activation, making her more likely to survive a counterattack.

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Ninja Yari+, Ninja Naginata+, It’s Curtains…+ (+Spd), Candy Cane+ (+Spd), Courtly Candle+ (+Spd), Flowing Lance+ (+Spd), Gilt Fork+ (+Spd), Instant Lance+ (+Spd), Steadfast Lance+ (+Spd)

Assist: Any double rally+, rally up+, or Harsh Command+

Special: Ruptured Sky or Blue Flame

A skill: Surge Sparrow, Atk/Spd Catch 4, Atk/Spd Solo 4, Swift Sparrow 3, Atk/Spd Unity

B skill: S D Near Trace, A D Near Trace, Flow Guard, Flow Refresh, Dive-Bomb

C skill: Odd Tempest, Even Tempest, Spd Def Rein, Atk Spd Rein, Atk Def Rein, Joint Drive Atk, Joint Drive Spd, Atk Spd Menace, Atk Def Menace

Sylvain

Summer Sylvain Unit Build

Summary

Sylvain is a green tome cavalry, and is available at 4 star rarity as well as 5 star. He does not have any unique non-inheritable skills, so he is distinguished from other green tome cavalry by his statline, which has relatively good Atk and Spd, but not as good as some others like Winter Bernadetta. Sylvain does not offer anything particularly unique, but could be a capable enough unit with the right skills, if the player wants to use him. In particular, he benefits greatly from a Trace B skill and Atk/Spd Catch. Plegian Torch is a good weapon if combined with Atk/Res Menace, but other options like Amity Blooms+ are also competitive. 

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Amity Blooms+ (+Spd), Plegian Torch (+Spd), Madness Flask+ (+Spd)

Assist: Any double rally+, rally up+, or Harsh Command+

Special: Ruptured Sky or Blue Flame

A skill: Atk/Spd Catch 4, Atk/Spd Solo 4, Swift Sparrow 3, Atk/Spd Unity

B skill: A S Far Trace, S R Far Trace, A R Far Trace, Lull Spd/Res, Lull Atk/Spd, Lull Atk/Res

C skill: Joint Drive Atk, Joint Drive Spd, Atk Spd Menace, Atk Res Menace

Dorothea

Summer Dorothea Unit Build

Summary

Dorothea is a dagger infantry dancer. She does not have any unique skills but does have access to Dance, making her highly useful in many teams like all dancers. Compared to Tethys, who is available in the 3-4 star common pool, Dorothea has much higher Atk and somewhat lower Def and Res, with an otherwise similar statline. Stat-wise, Tethys is a superior Temari+ user as a support due to her higher Res, while both can use other support effects like Infantry Pulse or Joint Drive Atk equally well. Dorothea can be built as a decent combat unit using skills like Atk/Spd Unity, Courtly Fan+, Windsweep, Time’s Pulse, and Lethality. Windsweep pairs well with Courtly Fan+, but as Windsweep is available on multiple 4 star grail units, it may be more valuable to get a rarer skill such as Null Follow-Up from the Hall of Forms, even though its effect is redundant with Courtly Fan+

Dorothea is also one of only two dancers available from Fire Emblem Three Houses, with the other being Plegian Dorothea, so some players may wish to obtain her for use in Resonant Battles or Limited Hero Battles. Likewise, she can also be used on a team with Plegian Dorothea, as Summer Dorothea is eligible for Plegian Dorothea’s Harmonized Skill Dance, while most dancers are not. This is essentially an extra free action, which can be highly useful in some contexts like Aether Raids Offense Galeforce. Summer Dorothea is a solid option if a player wishes to build her, but relatively niche in her usage outside of the fact that she is from Three Houses; whether she is worthwhile depends on the player’s priorities and stock of forma souls. 

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Courtly Fan+ (+Spd), Broadleaf Fan+ (+Atk), Cloud Maiougi+ (+Atk), Dragonslasher+ (+Atk), Dusk Uchiwa+ (+Atk), Ouch Pouch+ (+Atk or +Spd), Caltrop Dagger+ (+Atk), Sky Maiougi+ (+Atk), Splashy Bucket+ (+Atk), Pumpkin-A-Box+ (+Spd), Temari+ (+Res)

Assist: Any double rally+, rally up+, or Harsh Command+

Special: Lethality, Ruptured Sky, or Blue Flame

A skill: Atk/Spd Unity, Swift Sparrow 3, Atk/Spd Ideal 4, Life and Death 4, Fort. Def/Res 3 (for Temari+)

B skill: Null Follow-Up, Lull Spd/Def, Lull Atk/Spd, Lull Atk/Def, Windsweep, Sabotage Def, Sabotage Res

C skill: Time’s Pulse, Joint Drive Atk, Joint Drive Spd, Atk Spd Menace, Atk Def Menace, Infantry Pulse

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the real Fire Emblem was the bonds we Fjorged along the way

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