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Soul Scouting: Forma Building Guide - May 2022: Jugdral

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Introduction

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

  • Fallen Julia - Heart Usurped
  • Masquerade Eldigan - Strutting Lion
  • Masquerade Lachesis - Ballroom Bloom
  • Masquerade Ethlyn - Glimmering Lady

Eldigan is purchasable with Heroic Grails, Julia is a Normal Hero, and the other two are 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, Eldigan is probably the most relevant of these Forma for his abilities on Aether Raids defense in Dark season. The other three are solid units that can find some uses but are generally not exceptional. 

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 and his variation) 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.

Julia

Summary

Julia is a red tome infantry with the unique skills Dark Scripture and Light and Dark. Both of these skills are good and generally worth using, but do not need to be obtained from Hall of Forms since Julia gets access to them by default. So Julia’s choice of weapon and B skill are arguably less important than her other skill slots. Julia is a solid unit that does not benefit immensely from the rare skills available on a forma; her base kit provides most of what she needs to perform well. However, there are some better skills available.

Julia can take a skill like Mirror Impact or Atk/Res Ideal for an upgrade on her native Atk/Res Solo, providing more stats under some conditions. Null Follow-Up is a B skill that may have some use for its cancellation of enemy follow-up denial; this allows Dark Scripture’s guaranteed follow-up to work on some foes that it otherwise would not. Time’s Pulse is a useful C skill that charges Julia’s Special by 1 at the start of her turn; other C skills like Joint Drive Atk and Fatal Smoke can also be quite useful depending on context, with no clear best option. 

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: Atk/Res Ideal 4, Mirror Impact, Atk/Res Unity

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

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

Eldigan

Summary

Eldigan is a lance flier dancer with no other unique skills and a noticeably high Def stat, which gives him significant relevance as a dancer on Aether Raids Dark defense teams due to his ability to surpass Mila’s Def and avoid Isolation. Many of his best skill choices stem from this. He also has some relevance as a galeforce dancer in other contexts.

Some of the best skills for Eldigan’s use as a Dark dancer are Wagasa+ and Wings of Mercy, however, these skills are fairly easy to acquire outside of Hall of Forms, being available on a Heroic Grail unit and on several units in the normal summoning pool, respectively. Ground Orders is also a highly useful effect on some teams and worth considering. It’s Curtains…+ is Eldigan’s best weapon for Galeforce; charging his Special by 2 at the start of turn 1. Paired with Quickened Pulse or a similar effect, this can allow him to activate Galeforce after attacking one time if paired with some form of Special acceleration like Heavy Blade or Worldbreaker. Fort. Def/Res 3 is his best A skill as a Dark dancer, but it is only a minor upgrade over Fort. Def 3, providing only a single extra point of Def (along with some other stats, but the Def is by far the most important). A support C skill like Joint Dist. Guard or Joint Drive Atk is great for Dark defense, while options like Atk/Def Rein are great for Galeforce.

Wings of Mercy is Eldigan’s best B skill in most contexts, but some other options like Chill Def/Res can have some relevance on Dark defense for reducing Mila’s Def. In the case that you are running out of units to inherit Wings of Mercy from, picking it up in Hall of Forms may be a good choice. 

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: It’s Curtains…+ (+Def), Candy Cane+ (+Def), Flowing Lance+ (+Def), Wagasa (+Def), Ninja Naginata+, Ninja Yari+

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

Special: Ruptured Sky or Blue Flame

A skill: Fort. Def/Res 3, Atk/Def Unity, Heavy Blade 4, Atk/Def Catch 4

B skill: Chill Def/Res, S/D Near Trace, A/D Near Trace, Wings of Mercy, Sudden Panic

C skill: Joint Dist. Guard, Joint Drive Atk, Ground Orders, Atk/Def Rein, Atk/Def Menace, Odd Tempest, Even Tempest, Air Orders

Lachesis

Summary

Lachesis is a green dagger flier dancer with no other unique skills. She has a statline with high Atk and Res, decent Spd, and low Def. Her Res can allow her to function as a decent support unit with skills like Temari+ or Sabotage Def, while also providing Dance utility. She can also have decent combat using skills like Courtly Fan+ with Windsweep

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Temari+ (+Res), Quick Dagger+ (+Spd), Courtly Fan+ (+Spd), Broadleaf Fan+ (+Atk)

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

Special: Lethality, Ruptured Sky, or Blue Flame

A skill: Fort. Def/Res 3, Fury 4, Atk/Spd Catch 4, Life and Death 4, Swift Sparrow 3, Mirror Impact

B skill: Sabotage Def, Sabotage Res, A/S Far Trace, A/D Far Trace, Lull Spd/Def, Lull Atk/Spd, Lull Atk/Def, Windsweep

C skill: Joint Drive Atk, Joint Drive Spd, Atk/Spd Menace, Atk/Def Menace, Ground Orders, Atk/Def Rein, Atk/Spd Rein, Spd/Def Rein

Ethlyn

Summary

Ethlyn is a colorless dagger flier dancer with no other unique skills. She has good Atk and Spd, which allow her to function as a decent player phase unit. Interestingly, she comes with two of the best skills for this build by default: Courtly Fan+ and Windsweep, so there is no need to obtain those on her Forma. Other daggers like Broadleaf Fan+ and Quick Dagger+ can also be solid options. Ethlyn’s base A skill, AR-D Atk/Spd, is only functional when used on an Aether Raids defense team, so she much appreciates a better option for other modes like Atk/Spd Catch 4.

Recommended Skills:

Weapon: Broadleaf Fan+ (+Spd), Cloud Maiougi+ (+Atk), Dragonslasher+ (+Atk), Dusk Uchiwa+ (+Atk), Quick Dagger+ (+Atk or +Spd), Splashy Bucket+ (+Atk), Pumpkin-A-Box+ (+Spd)

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

Special: Lethality, Ruptured Sky, or Blue Flame

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

B skill: A/D Far Trace, A/S Far Trace, Wings of Mercy

C skill: Joint Drive Atk, Atk/Spd Menace, Atk/Def Menace, Spd/Def Rein, Atk/Spd Rein, Atk/Def Rein

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

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