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Soul Scouting: Forma Building Guide - June 2022: Thracia

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Introduction

This iteration of Hall of Forms primarily features infantry units along with everyone’s favorite American cavalier, Kempf. To elaborate, Ronan is a Blue Infantry Bow user, Sara is a Colorless Infantry Staff user, Asbel is an Infantry Green mage, and Kempf is a Sword Cavalier.

  • Ronan - Villager of Iz
  • Sara - Lady of Loptyr
  • Asbel - Windswept Youth
  • Kempf - Conniving General

Ronan, Sara, and Asbel are all 5* Locked normal heroes, while Kempf is purchasable with heroic grails. In this article we’ll go over the optimal skills to inherit on each of these units: this is important to consider due to the rarity of Forma souls, so it’s best to make every forma unit summoned with a forma soul count. With that said, all of these units are reasonably effective, but none of them are extremely relevant to the current metagame: Sara likely being the most relevant to the metagame as of the time of writing.

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’s 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.

Ronan

Ronan Unit Build

Summary

Ronan is a Blue Infantry Bow with the unique Indignant Bow, which is quite a solid weapon on its own, but Ronan doesn’t need to obtain it from the Hall of Forms as it’s a default skill. Ronan’s choice of weapon largely comes down to which 5* locked bow you’d like him to have in his back pocket, the Helm Bow just being one good option of many. Ronan also possesses a decent A and C slot skill in his base kit: Swift Stance 3 and Joint Drive Spd are both great options.

However, Ronan’s kit can be improved further with additions from Hall of Forms. In particular, Close Reversal is a good A slot option for Ronan that gives him a Defense boost while allowing him to counterattack melee foes Including dragons, which Close Foil would miss out on. Null C-DIsrupt is a great B slot skill for Ronan as it synergizes naturally with his primary role as a mage-tank, letting him counterattack and likely KO staff users reliant on the Wrathful Dazzling Staff combination to avoid counterattacks. Lastly, Canto Control is an excellent option for countering Canto users such as Yuri and Brave Eirika, and Canto Control is quite rare as it’s only available on the mythic locked Medeus at the time of writing. One more thing to note: Ronan is perfectly serviceable as a Player Phase unit, so one can go for more player phase oriented skills such as Swift Sparrow 3 and Special Spiral on him as well.

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Helm Bow+ / Plegian Bow+ / Springy Bow+/ Spendthrift Bow+ / Courtly Bow+ (any stat refine)

Assist: Any double Rally+, Rally Up+, or Harsh Command+

Special: Deadeye (Ruptured Sky and Blue Flame are fine if Deadeye cannot be obtained.)

A skill: Close Reversal / Atk/Res Unity / Swift Sparrow 3

B skill: Null C-Disrupt / Null Follow-Up / Special Spiral

C skill: Canto Control / Time’s Pulse / Pulse Smoke / Fatal Smoke / Joint Dist. Guard / Joint Drive Atk /  Atk/Def Menace / Atk/Spd Menace

Sara

Sara Unit Build

Summary

Sara is an Infantry Staff user with the unique Kia Staff, which has Wrathful Staff built into it in addition to neutralizing penalties and granting +6 Attack and Speed to any ally within 4 spaces of Sara that has a Penalty (If no allies have penalties, she will grant this buff to the ally with the lowest HP instead). Her staff gives her excellent utility on Aether Raids Defense, but it’s unnecessary to obtain it in Hall of Forms, therefore any other useful 5* locked staves such as the seasonal locked Tannenbaton are good choices to take, as they are both useful and rare.

As Sara has Dazzling Staff innately, her choice of B slot she takes from Hall of Forms is largely unimportant since she relies on the Wrathful Dazzling staff combination like most other Staff users. Wrathful Staff can be taken purely for style points if one is able to obtain it. Even Pulse Tie, Null Follow-Up and Null C-Disrupt are other rare B slot options, but she won’t be able to use them effectively. For her C slot, Canto Control remains the most desirable option due to it’s rarity and utility, but Joint Drives besides her innate Joint Drive Res and Odd/Even Recovery are also good choices to take.

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Tannenbaton+ (Dazzling/Wrathful) / Kumade+ (Dazzling/Wrathful) / Witchy Wand+ (Dazzling/Wrathful) / Grandscratcher+ (Dazzling/Wrathful)

Assist: Nudge+

Special: Windfire Balm+ / Fireflood Balm+ / Earthwater Balm+ / Swift-Winds Balm+

A skill: Atk/Spd Ideal 4 / Atk/Spd Solo 4 / Atk/Res Unity

B skill: Wrathful Staff / Null Follow-Up

C skill: Canto Control / Joint Dist. Guard / Joint Drive Atk / Odd Recovery / Even Recovery

Asbel

Asbel Unit Build

Summary

Asbel is a green Infantry Tome user who possesses the unique tome Grafcalibur, which gives him accelerated Special cooldown and effective damage against flying units in addition to a +5 stat bonus and negating the foe’s bonuses when he initiates combat or is within 2 spaces of an ally. This is unnecessary to obtain in Hall of Forms, so in it’s place 5* locked tomes such as the Plegian Torch can be obtained in its stead. The usual rare Player Phase A and B slot skills such as Atk/Spd Ideal 4 and Lull Atk/Res 3 are good options to get, besides Fury 4 and Null Follow-Up which he has innately. Canto Control remains an appealing option due to it’s rarity. For Superunit purposes, a Defensive A slot such as Close Foil is preferred.

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Plegian Torch+ (+Spd) / Snow Globe+ (+Spd) / Amity Blooms+ (+Spd)

Special: Ruptured Sky / Blue Flame

A skill: Atk/Spd Ideal 4 / Atk/Spd Unity / Life and Death 4 / Swift Sparrow 3 / Sturdy Impact / Close Foil

B skill: Lull Atk/Res / Special Spiral / Lull Spd/Res

C skill: Canto Control / Joint Drive Atk / Joint Drive Spd / Atk/Spd Menace / Joint Dist Guard / Time’s Pulse / Fatal Smoke

Kempf

Kempf Unit Build

Summary

Kempf is a Sword Cavalier who utilizes his unique Venin Edge on Aether Raids Defense to cripple foes with the Flash effect and passive damage, making them easy prey for his teammates. However, his effectiveness is somewhat harmed by the prevalence of Savior skills as they can effectively negate his attacks against the intended target and prevent the Venin Edge’s effects from being applied to them. Kempf’s best kit options are also very cheap skills with the exception of Fatal Smoke, so that can be taken while Kempf obtains other, rarer skills to keep in case one wants to utilize a Player Phase build on him. (And I mean if you’re going to forma Kempf why wouldn’t you?)

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Cake Cutter+ (+Spd) / Bellringer+ (+Spd) / Pledged Blade+ (+Spd) / Winter Rapier+ (+Spd) / Rein Sword(+Spd) / Ninja Katana+

Assist: Any double Rally+, Rally Up+, or Harsh Command+

Special: Ruptured Sky / Blue Flame

A skill: Atk/Spd Catch 4 / Swift Sparrow 3 / Atk/Spd Unity / Life and Death 4

B skill: A/D Near Trace / Lull Atk/Def / Lull Atk/Spd / Flow Refresh

C skill: Joint Drive Atk / Fatal Smoke / Atk/Spd Menace / Atk/Def Menace / Joint Dist. Guard

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About the Author(s)

An Enigma who frequently plays Blazblue Cross Tag Battle and Arknights. Also plays Fire Emblem Heroes sometimes.

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