An Overview of Thematic Teams
As units keep being released, there has been a strong increase in the amount of "thematic teams" based around movement types. Currently, there are three commonly seen compositions; these being Flier, Horse, and Armor emblem teams. I am ignoring Dragon Emblem as hone dragons when???? All of these teams seek to utilize the strong buff skills for their respective movement types but their game play and areas where they excel at are very different.
Horse Emblem
First up is the most common of them all, horse emblem. Horse emblem relies on the offensive power of Reinhardt and typically a Blade Tome Cecilia with a defensive support unit such as Xander providing the much needed Hone Cavalry buff. This is not the only team composition obviously, just the most commonly seen one as Xander was a GHB unit and Cecilia is a base 3* unit.
The power of horse emblem is generally in part to the Brave effect of Reinhardt's tome. This combined with his high base attack, deathblow, and Hone Cavalry allows him to KO all but the most resistance heavy green units. Another large factor of horse emblem's power is the high mobility of cavalry units, 3 spaces. Such high mobility is difficult to play around which is why horse emblem has such high effectiveness on Arena Defense. The biggest glaring weakness however is the frail nature and slow speed of the majority of horse units. Meta horses are also very slow. Their low speed forces them to rely on KOing with either a Brave tome or a Blade tome and if they are unable to do so, their effectiveness drops significantly.
To round out the strengths, horse emblem has perhaps the most desirable advantage of all, the cost. Many of the strongest horse units are either free or obtainable at 4* or lower. For example, Reinhardt can be summoned as both a 4 and 5*. Xander is obtainable free from his Grand Hero Battle. Cecilia can be summoned as a 3 and 4* while also being obtainable from the daily rotating hero battles. The buffs needed for horse emblem are also easily available. Gunter is available as a 3/4 and also from hero battle for the Hone Cavalry. Jagen is available as a 3/4 for fortify as well.
Despite the strengths of horse emblem, it runs into a few unfortunate disadvantages. The major disadvantage is that horse units have decreased BST. While this does not matter too much in PVE or Arena Defense, the loss of points on offense can make the difference between staying in T20 or demoting. Another disadvantage is the inability of cavalry units to pass through forest tiles. This severely hampers their effectiveness on certain maps.
What does this mean for horse emblem? At least, in my eyes, horse emblem is A tier. It is great to use on arena defense and PVE content. However, for said PVE content, it can run into many problems as outlined above. With high level PVE content sporting massive health pools, cavalry units lack the punch required to OH/ORKO in some instances. In arena offense, they are absolutely terrible. With the inherent BST nerfs to cavalry units, using them purposefully lowers your score which is unacceptable. Using cavalry units on offense is merely a crutch to make your life easier at the cost of your score. For those of us that are f2p or very light spenders, the few points can make the difference between staying in T20 or demoting.
Sample Horse Emblem Team
Xander
Optimal Boon/Bane NEUTRAL
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Siegfried | Bonfire/Ignis | Reposition | Fury | Vantage/Quick Riposte | Hone Cavalry |
Reinhardt
Optimal Boon/Bane +ATK/-SPD
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dire Thunder | Moonbow | Draw Back | Deathblow | Flexible | Fortify Cavalry |
Cecilia
Optimal Boon/Bane +ATK/-DEF or +SPD/-DEF
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gronnblade+ | Moonbow | Draw Back | Deathblow or Fury | Flexible | Goad Cavalry |
4th slot - Bonus Unit or Dancer.
tl;dr Horse Emblem: AO-D Tier, AD-S Tier, PVE-A Tier
Flier Emblem
The dark horse of thematic teams, Flier emblem, has seen a strong resurgence lately with the release of Summer Corrin and the hype around Valter. Fliers are unique in that they are the only units in the game with the ability to traverse terrain without penalty. Forests, cliffs, mountains, and water tiles all have no effect on mobility.
Flier emblem is probably the most flexible to teambuild out of all the thematic teams. There is a wide variety of nukers and defensive units for each color which allows you to pick and choose based on what you have available to you.
The strengths of fliers are many. The first is as stated above, the freedom of movement available to no other movement type in game while retaining infantry level movement speed. This mobility is extremely useful in all aspects of the game, whether it be sniping units from across a wall or escaping to safety. Another advantage is shared with all thematic teams, being the Hone/Fortify for their movement type. However, the one glaring difference between Fliers and Horses is that Horses suffer a BST penalty while Fliers retain the same BST level as infantry units. This is significant when looking towards arena scoring. One last advantage that fliers have is the high speed available to them. Units such as Cordelia and Summer Corrin sport high base speeds which combined with the +6 buff from hone, makes it extremely easy to reach the +5 threshold.
As a result, this makes fliers strong in pretty much every aspect of the game. They suffer no drawbacks for arena scoring so are very viable in arena offense. They have good mobility in trespassing terrain and high offensive power which makes it good for arena defense. Both of these factors along with good speed on high offensive units make them potentially the best in game for PVE content.
With almost no weaknesses in terms of AO/AD/PVE, there remains one glaring weakness for fliers. This weakness is availability. The unit which has hone fliers, Hinoka, is available solely as a 5* unit. If using fliers in PVE, you basically require a mage unit. There are only two mage fliers, Spring Camilla and Summer Corrin, both of which are limited and 5* restricted. Lacking these is basically a death sentence for your possibilities of building a flier emblem team.
What does this mean? If you don't have Hinoka, don't bother building Flier Emblem. If you can't pull that Summer Corrin or already have a Spring Camilla, don't bother. If you've been blessed with these units however, this unlocks in my eyes, the strongest and most versatile team in the game. With virtually no weakness other than the fact that you must pull these units, flier emblem ranks a solid overall S tier.
tl;dr Flier Emblem: AO-A Tier, AD-S Tier, PVE-S Tier
Sample Flier Emblem Units
Because there are so many options for fliers to use, I will choose instead to list many commonly used units.
CHOOSE 1 FLIER MAGE
Summer Corrin
Optimal Boon/Bane +SPD/-DEF
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blarblade+ | Moonbow or Draconic Aura | Ardent Sacrifice/Draw Back | Swift Strike/Darting Blow/Fury/Life and Death | Desperation | Goad Fliers |
| Spring Camilla |
Optimal Boon/Bane +ATK/-RES (+SPD Viable too, just run Darting Instead) Credits: u/GuardianE
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gronnblade+ | Moonbow or Draconic Aura | Draw Back | Deathblow | Green Tomebreaker | Goad Fliers |
CHOOSE 2 MELEE FLIERS
Cordelia
Optimal Boon +SPD or +ATK
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firesweep Lance+ | Luna | Draw Back | Fury/Life and Death/Heavy Blade | Lancebreaker | Fortify Fliers |
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Lance+ | Luna/Galeforce | Draw Back or Ardent Sacrifice | Fury/Life and Death/Deathblow | Desperation | Fortify Fliers |
Palla
Optimal Boon +SPD/-RES
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby Sword+ | Moonbow | Reposition | Fury or Distant Counter(PVP)/Iote's Shield/Flexible | Flexible | Hone Fliers |
Hinoka
Optimal Boon +ATK
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Lance+ | Luna | Flexible | Deathblow | Dragback | Hone Fliers |
Cherche
Optimal Boon +ATK/-SPD
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Axe+ | Draconic Aura/Bonfire | Reposition | Deathblow | Axebreaker | Fortify Fliers |
Minerva
Optimal Boon +SPD/-RES
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hautclere | Moonbow | Ardent Sacrifice/Reposition/Draw Back | Life and Death | Axebreaker/Desperation | Fortify Fliers |
Camilla
Optimal Boon +SPD/-DEF
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald Axe+ | Iceberg | Reposition | Distant Defense/Distant Counter/Flexible | Green Tomebreaker | Fortify Fliers |
There are many more viable fliers but for the sake of my laziness, I'll cap it here.
Armor Emblem
Apologies in advance for the relative lack of detail, I am not very experienced with armor emblem and the majority of this is from the feedback of more experienced friends and my own judgment. (Thanks 🅱isheng and 🅱ishi)
Armor emblem is unique in that it specializes in one map encounters. As such, it is good for Arena Offensive and one map PVE content. However, due to the necessity of player interaction to utilize it to its full effect, it is rather weak for arena defense.
Armor emblem, or whale emblem, is called such because of the incredibly high investments needed to maximize its potential. Because armored units lack mobility and are all melee, Distant Counter is necessary on all units which is extremely hard to obtain, being found only on Hector, a 5* exclusive. The primary advantage of armored units is the extremely high base stats they have, generally +10 over their infantry counterparts. This increased stats helps them to survive counters due to their high natural bulk. Their low speed makes it so Wary Fighter is the preferred B slot. Armors will almost never be able to get the first hit in so the goal is to maximize their defensive power and a typical 3 armor team would run Fortify and Double Ward. As such, when arena maps sport defensive tiles, armor emblem has its time to shine.
Honestly, the advantage of armored is the BST boost which in turn, increases arena score. There is almost no other reason to use them. The disadvantages are many. The single movement speed requires mobility rallies such as pivots and swaps. Due to their low mobility, they are extremely weak to cavalry mages. Reinhardt will wreak havoc on an armored team thanks to dire thunder ignoring wary fighter. Cecilia Will do massive damage due to high single hits, often OHKO. It will be extremely difficult to utilize armored units during bonus rotations featuring cavalry mages. As such, I would recommend building armor emblem only if you have plenty of resources to spare on a team that would only be used for arena offense.
Sample Armor Team
Effie
Optimal Boon +ATK/-SPD
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver Lance+/Berkut's Lance | Bonfire | Pivot/Swap | Distant Counter | Wary Fighter | Ward/Fortify Armor |
Zephiel
Optimal Boon NEUTRAL
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eckesachs | Bonfire | Pivot/Swap | Distant Counter | Wary Fighter | Ward/Fortify Armor |
Sheena
Optimal Boon +DEF or +RES/-SPD
| Weapon | Special | Assist | Slot A | Slot B | Slot C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killer Axe+ | Bonfire | Pivot/Swap | Distant Counter | Wary Fighter | Ward/Fortify Armor |
I firmly believe that Sheena is a better unit for an armor themed team compared to Hector. Hector however, is the better unit if looking at a single unit comparison. For the whales out there, Draug can be a good replacement for Zephiel as he can be +10 while Zephiel cannot.
tl;dr Armor Emblem use for AO only.
In terms of versatility and power, I could rank flier emblem as the top choice. Suffering no BST penalties and the ability to traverse terrain makes fliers extremely potent in all areas of the game. However, due to the specific unit requirements of flier emblem, horse emblem is often another choice. Being much easier to obtain than the necessary flier units, they perform almost as well as fliers in PVE although they have the BST penalty for being cavalry. Armor emblem should be used as a means to increase your arena score only. They are rather lackluster in all other areas of the game. However, one option to utilize the strength of armored units in arena scoring is to include some armored units along with the rest of your team in order to boost your score. This allows you to receive some of the benefits of armored units without needing to invest as many resources. Obviously you will not receive as high of a score but for you f2p btw out there, this is one easy way to score higher.
To compare units to infantry, every class has benefits and drawbacks save for fliers.
Cavalry units have increased movement speed at the cost of BST and unpassable forest tiles.
Armored units have increased BST at the cost of movement speed.
Flier units on the other hand, retain the BST of infantry units while also being able to traverse all terrain. They suffer no movement speed reduction while having access to exclusive flier buffs. They are superior to infantry units in every which way (except BST compared to villagers). The ONLY disadvantage of flier emblem is the rarity of units, something shared by armor emblem.
tl;dr Fliers are the best. Infantry sucks. Cavalry are budget fliers. Armor is for whale arena. Hone Lolis Dragons when???
Posted Jul 31, 2017, 2:44 PM UTC · edited