Guide to Characters: Matthew, Virion and Raigh
Hello and welcome to u/sometimesliterate's guide to characters. My goal is to discuss Fire Emblem Heroes characters, what they're good at, what they're poor at and give my opinions on how good they are and where they belong in the current game (in both PvE and PvP).
To make a few things clear: These are purely my opinions. These are subject to change with time (not likely with this lot), as more data comes out. Due to no-one wanting to level certain characters, I have to do my best to track growths and estimate forward from my own leveling experience.
Secondly, when I rate PvE and PvP, I do not rate them in a vacuum (i.e. skillset alone). I do my best to consider all team combinations and possible combos, as well as pay attention to what I'm seeing in my advanced arena runs and from others.
Thirdly, I'm doing my best (kek) to keep to an even scale. I.E, 1 is 1 worse than 2, 9 is 1 worse than 10. In this way, we have a perfectly linear idea. Unfortunately, this also means if we get power crept (plz no more Takumi/Hectors), I'll have to start using 11/10 and 12/10.
Finally, this work would not be possible alone. I'd like to thank both u/daigurenzero for his amazing visual speed tier and for the r/FireEmblemHeroes moderators for their stats spreadsheet.
Name: Matthew
Colour: None
Type: Infantry
Notable Skills: Matthew’s most noteworthy skill is (imo) Reciprocal Aid, which lets him swap his HP with an allies (up to the allies max HP). This gives him great burst healing potential if you don't need Matthew for ranged combat for the rest of the round.
Analysis: The slayer of Takumi’s. The thunder from 7 under? The one, the only, Matthew!
Alright, so if you’re not as down with the meme’s as I am, some “famous” streamer beat a team with Takumi using 4 Matthew’s in the arena. It was kind of funny. His dagger isn’t one of the best in the game for debuffing (only giving -5 Def/-5 Ref), but it has the advantage of giving him +5 Def/+5 Ref for one turn. So if he gets a free hit (on say a melee or a low damage healer), he’ll be rocking a decent defence if you can keep it up, making him less susceptible to one shots.
Now, along with several other thief/ninja’s, Matthew has access to Poison Strike 3, which reduces the enemy's HP by 10 (non-lethal) damage after he attacks them (does not trigger if he is attacked). This is great for whittling down melee’s such as Effie who Matthew would otherwise have no chance of scratching. In team utility, Matthew also gives Hone Speed (+4 speed to adjacent allies at the start of each turn) great on your Nino/Tharja or all your other units (except Senor Slow (Ephraim). Nothing can save his speed).
Matthew can also sacrifice his health via Reciprocal Aid, which swaps his total HP with an allies (cannot heal them over their maximum). This can save a FCorrin or a Nino from a potentially tight situation and let them continue to trade blows while Matthew harasses from a safe distance.
PvE Rating: 3/10
Unfortunately, Matthew’s middling stats (from the stats I COULD find) and lack of killing potential really pulls him down in terms of PvE. Poison Strike 3 is good damage, but why bring a unit that can only do 10 damage once per turn, as opposed to a unit who can do 7/8/9 damage (or likely, more) every time they counter attack? Reciprocal Aid is a good skill, but not needed. A good staff unit or even Felicia/Julia/YTiki with breath of life can provide more healing over time, without reducing themselves to near uselessness.
PvP Rating: 4/10
I rate Matthew here higher, because his -5/-5 can turn a 3HKO into a 2HKO or even a 2HKO into an OHKO and Reciprocal aid can bring a unit back from low to near full (best case). While you COULD bring a healer to do similar things, if you keep Matthew healthy until you use this skill, you do heal for a lot. The +5/+5 also helps him with dueling (not much) and Hone Speed will help get you to that amazing double-attack territory.
He’s still not great though.
Name: Virion
Colour: None
Type: Infantry
Notable Skills: Astra is his most notable skill, giving him an extra 150% damage on his next attack when it activates.
Analysis: What to say about Virion…..hmm. He uses a bow!
They can’t all be winners folks, I’m only funny like 30% of the time. But like Virion, useful only 3.0% of the time. Virion is a bow user (oh cool like Takumi), except where Takumi excels, Virion falls flat. But let’s talk about the good things Virion has, then move on to an evaluation.
Virion’s special, Astra, gives him +150% bonus damage on his attack (to a total of 250%). Virion can also seal the enemy’s speed after combat, reducing it by up to 7! Not bad. He also gets +7 RES while <50% HP. If he survives that is.
The problem with that is, most mages (except Robin, but he’s a special case), are built to hit like trucks. Filled with other trucks. Made to hit things. Linde/Julia/Lilina have amazingly high ATK (approaching 50+), so surviving a round or two with them is a pipe dream. Virion (in my 20ish levels), didn’t have the best speed or HP growth either, which kind of sinks him as a mage hunter. +3 Res all of the time would be better all the time IMO. That being said, I could have simply got both Speed and HP banes. Have to wait for further information. His skillset regardless, isn’t impressive. Compared to Gordin, who has a Brave Bow, bonus attack damage and Vantage is a much more focused and more impressive unit.
PvE Rating: 2/10
He comes with decently high attack and that will help a lot in the early missions while Alfonse and waifurena find their feet. After that, if your first summon doesn’t give you a better unit to use over him….. Well, you have my condolences. Also, how did you pull 5 Wrys? ( I kid, Wrys heals). Towards the end (of chapter 1), due to his lack of dueling power/unique skills/long wind up time on Astra (5 attacks for/against him), his shine really starts to tarnish.
PvP Rating: 2/10
I mean sure, you could take him. I would never recommend it however. Slow wind up on killing potential + weak passives = dumpster. Seal Speed has some use in controlling high damage units or securing a double, but there are better units with skills such as threaten speed, spur/fortify speed or rally speed, which work just as well.
Name: Raigh
Colour: Red
Type: Infantry
Notable Skills: Rauðrwolf+ gives Raigh bonus damage against all horse mounted units (not pegasi or wyvern). This gives him good strength in the story, where cavalry units are populous.
Analysis: Raigh is actually pretty decent for a red mage, in my opinion. Raigh gets a lot of mileage out of his Rauðrwolf/+ giving him advantage over Cavalry units (only such effect in the game at the time of writing (17/2/17)). This gives him his own little niche. Raigh, from my experience has good attack and speed growths, alright res and hp and poor defense. Typical mage really. His HP is helped by his first passive, that gives him up to +5 HP on his max. Even better than a HP boon.
His second ability, Seal Res, does have some self synergy if he attacks then counter-attacks during the enemy turn. You can also mix it up with other magic attackers, using Raigh to apply up to -7 Res then letting another mage burn them down.
But therein lies the problem with Raigh, as I’ve found. He’s not strong enough (unless they ride a non-winged horsie), to OHKO. Sometimes, even 2HKO’s are out of his grasp on neutral’s. He is let down by his weapons low MT (10 at Rauðrwolf+, making it one of the lowest non-staff using weapons at 5* , if not THE lowest).Thankfully, in the case that Raigh cannot do much for his team in terms of damage, he took a play from Sharena’s book and can Rally Attack, giving them +4 until your next turn. Not bad.
PvE Rating: 5/10
Due to an abundance of cavalry units found in story missions, Raigh gets a lot of mileage out of his weapon, even when he is at a weapon disadvantage. Combined with his decent defensive stats (woo +HP passives), gives him some good times in PvE when you know you’re up again horse units. The flip side of this, when you’re NOT fighting horseback units, Raigh just has a low MT weapon.
PvP Rating: 3/10 Given the relative LACK of cavalry units in PvP (never seen one outside the first day personally), Raigh’s weapon with it’s low MT is more a burden than a blessing. Seal Res, like Seal speed is alright. It’s not great, as it relies you to double team an enemy with two magic units (who tend to be on the squishy side) or a manakete, potentially putting them into a bad spot.
As always, any comments, criticisms or ideas angles I may have missed are appreciated. My goal is to build a repository of analysis of the units for everyone to use.
Previous guide to Alfonse, Waifurena and Anna
P.S. Please thank u/MrIronGolem27 for requesting this. The sick bastard.
Posted Feb 17, 2017, 2:39 AM UTC