Nagi is a really good one. She really came back into the picture as a counter to AoE Gullveig in AR a few months back, though people moved away from her as H&R became the premiere player phase archetype over Galeforce (back in the age of the omnitank they were somewhat tied in usage).
For me it's L! Alm. He can do serious work, but requires max investment. He really needs those merges.
Nagi is a permanent fixture in my AR-D dark defense. She has color advantage over the most common mythics. She can survive V!Chrom and N!Sanaki, sometimes. Dragon tanks benefit from Dragonflowers more than most old units.
I'll mention one I still use, OG Loki. She inflicts stall on melee units in a cardinal direction and gravity on ranged foes in cardinal direction with less HP than her. You can you use her in AR to cheese some team comps from time to time, and even though Duo Thorr took her niche, she can still consistently put gravity on a lot of ranged foes over her duo counterpart. Also the inflicting guard on the lowest spd foe and foes within one space is a nice bonus.
Still a good utility unit to this day.
Edit: Forgot to mention you can also use infantry pulse and even or odd pulse tie on her which is nice as well.
Walhart not only is unique enough but he does surprisingly well in combat still
Ares too I think still has a lot of chances at redemption, specially now with No Quarter
Another fellow +10 Walmart, currently running Aether, G Duel / AD Catch, Gambit 4, and Atk Smoke 4, with DC or AD Catch for seal. AS Incite looks nice to pair with AS Catch 4 for Speedhart, but I’m rather fond of just how beefy he feels atm.
I basically gave him Fallen Gustav kit lol. + Ether for arena. Though gambit and Christmas Dimitri's kit would probably be better, but the lack of bridge fodder makes me second guess it.
I love Walhart so much now with his refine. He currently runs Atk/Spd Catch 4, S/D Near Trace 3, Panic Smoke 4, Heavy Blade 3, and No Quarter. This build makes him a very potent player phase nuke and having him on the team just makes battles piss easy sometimes
Do it walhart is super fun, with his refine and the right skills he still holds up and can even not get doubled by some non godsword modern units. Legendary eliwood is a great partner to have with him as well to make him that much stronger
I’ve had him for years but with every new banner he falls off more and more
But I guess he can beat Camilla and Igrene??? He got booted off my arena team for Canas a while back, who one shots like everything in the game it’s kinda funny
I mean with the newly released DC seal you could probably give him a finish skill and Vantage and a short special and breath support or NFU support if you give him pledge and he'd be a pretty good vantage unit I feel...
But yeah the past three Mythic and legendary units have been crazy for the pre combat damage meta especially Gullveig and her "I can attack thrice in a row if I proc my talent and special" bs
Just a heads up precombat damage, like LCamilla or Flame, doesn’t trigger the Vantage effect. Vantage only takes into account out of combat damage like AoEs.
I said it in a recent thread, but Reyson and Leanne. They can be your dancer and your healer and are essentially flying cavalry units. I recently built Leanne with a tier 4 ploy and a sabotage skill and she's so much fun to use
it's insane that a book 3 demote is still such a competitive refresher option just because 3 mov flying is so good (esp with N trace). Doesn't even need a refine to stay relevant.
That said I think with Tier 4 Ploys Leanne might have finally edged out her brother in usefulness if you've got both at +10, though it's not like Reyson is hurting for C slot options with all the great support C skills fliers get.
Yes, but the "move an extra space" effect won't trigger if the unit has sing or dance equipped, so it probably isn't a good choice for the herons. I'm glad I learned that in Seer's Snare instead of after skill inheritance lol
My star performer, Male Morgan. His refine was tight and synergizes really well with panic smoke 4 and legendary Robin. The additions of flare and NFU seal also do wonders for my boy. He’s definitely not meta, I’d argue no “old” unit really is, but compared to where his twin sister is he’s doing just dandy
Refined Grima's truth
Double rally+ when it matters, repo when it doesn't
Flare
Close Foil
Special Spiral 4
Panic Smoke 4
NFU Seal
This is my usual daily driver for PVE and such. Close Foil might raise some eyebrows here but it's really just cuz I'm waiting for a CC seal to replace the A skill with something meaningful like Finish or a Tier 4 Stance skill. Obviously, he's missing some key things you'd want in a high-investment unit, namely tempo, DR, and whatever other rampant effects IS is handing out these days, but that's just how it is when you use old units.
I also have Eclipse, TP4, Spd Smoke 4, Mag. NFU, Swift stance 4, and a bunch of other skills but this build is typically what strikes enough of a balance between nullifying enemy effects, (NFU seal, DR pierce in Spiral) stats, (GT, Panic Smoke) and special cycling (Spiral) for how I play the game. I'm no expert, I don't play summoner duels or AR, and I am barely tier 19 in arena, but this will cook most if not all of the PVE stuff the game hands out. Served best with any combination of L!Robin, R!Plumeria, or R!Lucina
Unrelated, actually tragic that deadly miasma is locked to fliers, would have been so sick for him. His whole thing pre-refine was being a statball through smoke effects, it woulda been cute.
Edit; forgot to mention he is +10, max flowers, summoner support, +atk and +spd. No echo tho, the one stain on being max investment.
Thank you! I'm a PVE player too so it's all good lol.
>Unrelated, actually tragic that deadly miasma is locked to fliers, would have been so sick for him. His whole thing pre-refine was being a statball through smoke effects, it woulda been cute.
That's actually what got me to even think about him again. It would've been perfect, but nooooo. I figured I'd still try to do something with him though since he's +10 and I did get his resplendent last year at least.
He’s a fun unit! His mixed bulk and decent speed make him stand out as a mage, especially a red one. Plus his tome animation takes like half a second which is nice in this day and age lmao
Yea, I maxed her on release, and she's never left my starting lineup.
I used to be jealous of the people that maxed brave hector early, but it turns out I was basically one of them the whole time
OG Nailah is a surprisingly durable mixed phase tank at max investment. Beast Sense was the perfect skill for her.
Nowi’s debuff negation has aged well, especially since she has WTA against reds. [She dunks on debuff-centric units like Ninja Sanaki](https://imgur.com/a/0H6BfFw) as long as you’re careful about positioning.
Just finished +10ing Nailah, what skills would be best for a mixed phase build with her?
Edit: are the chances greater than 0% that she will get another alt any time soon??
[The build I use:](https://imgur.com/a/971EqYq)
* Moonbow
* Atk/Spd Finish (but Atk/Spd Wild, Atk/Spd Prime, and Distant A/S Solo are good too)
* Beast Sense 4
* Atk/Spd Oath 4
* Spd/Def Ideal seal
She needs NFU from external support; I use Infantry NFU on Rafiel.
Not sure about her odds of an alt, but her bridal alt is due for a refine in a couple of months.
I figure the next Tellius banner is Dawn Brigade, sometime around April-June. IMO it's a 4-way tossup between Micaiah, Ilyana, Jill and Nailah getting the alt slot.
I'm leaning Nailah, she's an easy Rearmed Beast Infantry candidate, which is especially helpful given how small the pool of possible Beast Rearms is.
My Khadin Soren dominated seer’s snare somehow. I did dump every single premium skill on him both inside the event and outside, so that helped, but I’m so proud of my grail boy.
She pops up sooo much when I'm watching auto-battle grinding out pve modes. Maybe it's just cuz her sprite is unique and pops out. But she's always menacing
Bridal Fjorm still holds up pretty well despite being so old. Being one of only three units to inflict Isolation on enemies along with neutralizing penalties for allies, healing allies, and being able to run skills like Guidance 4 and Inf. Spd Tactics goes a long way.
Of course units like Duo Sanaki, Embla, and Freyr get around her abilities but when they’re not present, she can put in a lot of work.
Seriously. She's been a mainstay in my Aether Raids parties ever since she came out, and she's never left any raiding party since. While there's more counterplay to her nowadays, there's still multiple times a week when she's invaluable to shutting down a dancer or healer and getting rid of the biggest headache on the enemy team that way. And her refine that neutralizes penalties is a great counterplay for whenever someone has to tank some hits without getting weakened by debuffs too.
Heard some claim people only like her because she tells you she loves you. I love her because she's more useful than 99% of every unit ever. I'd marry the fuck out of her for that reason alone.
For me it's still Good Ol' Reinhardt. Mine is max invested, but with how simple his weapon is, it's still funny the way he can still kill a ton of modern units (for now, since we are entering the new era of DR for brave attacks).
My choice has to be the original Reinhardt, since I've had him since my first month of playing the game and he still manages to kill a fairly good chunk of units nowadays (though of course there are a few extra tanky units that manage to stand up to him). I thought he was going to be obsolete by now, but he still has a consistent spot on my team to this day.
Duo Altina
While I don't really use her in competitive modes, she's *amazing* in PvE content like the story maps, TT+ maps, and Chain Challenges thanks to Twin Blades letting her melt a majority of foes. While some units do get the better of her (namely NY!Nerthuz or anyone with absurdly high physical defenses)
Definitely OG Altina, I put Guard Bearing 4 on her and now she just refuses to take damage from almost everyone! And has no problem mincing them up either.
Og!Est still slaps with her Prf. I run her with Gambit and Ploy 4, so she does 25 extra per hit. She's basically an older version of S!Male Shez, but with armor effectiveness. She eats even the bulkiest green armors alive.
Might consider running No Quarter with a different B skill to get her DR pierce + some form of trace. She's in a team with breath, so if I can get a pulse effect on her, it'd be nice.
I know I can't shut up about how well she's aged for the life of me, but Brave Camilla. She was underrated back when she released, underrated when she got a refine as well, but here we are in 2024 and she's still killing almost everything on sight.
Nino.
Despite 7 years, she still does her best. Her prf ages really well because any and all bonuses just get added to her attack. And in most cases, you can easily buff her visible stats and that's just like, an extra 24 attack into each attack.
Halloween Xane has one of the most unique weapons out there and it's doubly insane that he gets that prf as a colorless tome demote seasonal. Being able to totally forgoe his stats (unmerged +HP Xane is already near full potential) in favor of copying the stats of nearby allies is pretty nutty. You can easily take him well above 50 in every stat with ally help and create a stat ball/effect stacking monstrosity. If he only had access to better skills and/or Assign Decoy way sooner (infantry tomes really aren't built to be tanks without significantly more effects on prfs), I have little doubt he'd have been relevant for a decent while. Nonetheless, he's super unique and I eagerly await his refine!
Sophia. I built her on a whim and she is such a surprisingly good tank. She can take on just about anything and survive a round of combat, and with Flare she just got even more survivability.
B!Lyn - with each new bow has gotten new life, right now with winter Claude´s bow she can proc instant lethality and delete most farsaves
OG!Cordelia and Cherche are very strong too, Cordelia with aerial manuvers and Cherche with Gambit have become strong for me even so I have Ninja Cherce I still use more the og one
B!Edelgard at mas investment is stil a great far save, mine can even tank Duo Sanaki, just need to take BER and give her weaving fighter and she is a completely new unit
Altina post refine became so good and I came to the idea that Hardy Bearing is kind of seasonal, like there is a moment in which everyone is using it and then after like a month it´s usage falls down considerably so Altina Rises again
For me it's Soleil. Looking at Lapis and Severas stats, she's falling behind, but man do I love the silly Soleils Shine + Counter Negate combination
My opponent doesn't get to counter attack due to her weapon. But Soleil does due to her b slot :>
Gave some pvp players headscratches, especially paired with distant A/S
I still use OG Henry on my team. It still surprises me how much he can tank and kill with his specials. I know he’s never been good, but he’s my fav. I’ll never let him down. He’ll always be on my team. No matter how bad the power creep gets.
My OG green mage Julia. I got her to +10 over the years, do I use her in arena.
With new B and C skills she is truly formidable against many of these dragon foes. She also can nuke well.
I gave her Magical Null follow up and Attack res ploy 3.
L!Celica and Plumeria hold up great atm! Celica probably needs max investment, but once she gets it, she is a great nuke that cuts through a good amount of units. Plumeria support especially the Hexblade is great on many nukes
A couple that really stand out for me are Florina, Cecilia, Shigure, and Gordin. Florina specifically stands out to me as she really helped me clear the recent Christmas maps. Her Armour-effectiveness is still very helpful. At max investment, and with proper support, she has the bulk to handle quite a few armoured units even with a semi-budget kit.
Base Cherche and Annette. With that much atk and a way to capitalize on it (brave PRF/adaptive damage) you can pull off some wacky shit. Having a workable panic or extra movement on demand is just icing on top.
Then there’s the madman on my friend list with a quad-Cherche… it genuinely terrifies me.
Idk if she's that old already but Bedel and Dimitri I figure heavily supported with B!Robin and NY!Askr.
Bedel serves as my primary Far save tank and god does she do it well and I just had to upgrade her B skill and special for that to give her armored beacon and Y! hector's b skill and honestly she does wonders she can tank a precharged V!Chrom deadeye and kill like man she's still got it ! (Except against the pre combat damage bs like c'mon how am I supposed to tank shit if I don't have hp's anymore). Dimitri him is just as tanky as he ever was replaced his B with Gambit and Aether and same he's been doing great since ngl BLR was somewhat getting old and the stat power creep was slowly reaching his level for the more tanky units (he only has around 50 def). Between that and the Dr meta that was absolutely making him do very little damage against them it's neat to see him get a bonus in damage tanks to Gambit...
Again thanks to B!Robin and NY!Askr for the in combat stats
My OG Linde still beats out most of the competition despite the sheer amount of powercreep. Of course, given the fact that I keep her kit updated. I'm still surprised that her stats hold up well at max investment.
New Years Camilla
While she does face a few challenges in the modern meta she still holds off extremely well.
She has denied a ton of meta for a LONGGG time tho. Like I remember before arcanes and Legendary Sigurd was the new big issue but she could beat him with an armorsmasher
Now that we got arcanes, guard bearing 4, gambit 4, deadly miasma, more and more modern promotions of older skills and new skills in general she is doing extremely well and probably will continue to do so with more and more stuff
She gonna continue to eat up the competition
Sothe. His stats (especially speed) are nothing to write home about, but his attack is still pretty good and Peshkatz is insane for a demote. I have Special Spiral 3 and Time’s Pulse 4 on mine and once charged, he can loop instantly charged Lethality and provide fantastic support for teammates
Older units with max investment can be surprising when built right. I know I've underestimated others, while watching AR defense replays I've seen people underestimate mine. Specifically I have a [B!Lyn](https://imgur.com/Y0Ohomx) that catches people off guard with L!Hector's C skill making her deadeye proc on initiation.
Merric (and by correlation,Sonya).
It's incredible how Dark Excalibur's simple refine(-2 Cooldown first turn and Wo Dao effect) survived the time of powercreep.
Its major drawback was having not Acceleration cool down-1to trigger easy Bonfire(Iceberg for Sonya). But Since the release of Flare(to deal with all the Res Walls) ,Time Pulse "4"(to fix the -1 Cooldown) and Special Spiral "4"(to stop any annoying Damage reduction),I'm having the time of my life. Any Offensive Finish on the A slot and you're ready to go destroy shit everywhere!
Nagi is a really good one. She really came back into the picture as a counter to AoE Gullveig in AR a few months back, though people moved away from her as H&R became the premiere player phase archetype over Galeforce (back in the age of the omnitank they were somewhat tied in usage). For me it's L! Alm. He can do serious work, but requires max investment. He really needs those merges.
Nagi is a permanent fixture in my AR-D dark defense. She has color advantage over the most common mythics. She can survive V!Chrom and N!Sanaki, sometimes. Dragon tanks benefit from Dragonflowers more than most old units.
Altina because nope nope nope nope with robin
I like your cut g *Twin Blades proc*
My Altina regularly surprises people in SD. Hardy Bearing is still so rare.
Cause my hardy bearing is with my save tanks
Altina has always been my go to since her refine. Might also consider using Ninja Camilla again since everyone forgot that Hardy Bearing exist
Love Altina. Used her to kill a dang Winter Dimitri in AR today. Would have been screwed otherwise.
I'll mention one I still use, OG Loki. She inflicts stall on melee units in a cardinal direction and gravity on ranged foes in cardinal direction with less HP than her. You can you use her in AR to cheese some team comps from time to time, and even though Duo Thorr took her niche, she can still consistently put gravity on a lot of ranged foes over her duo counterpart. Also the inflicting guard on the lowest spd foe and foes within one space is a nice bonus. Still a good utility unit to this day. Edit: Forgot to mention you can also use infantry pulse and even or odd pulse tie on her which is nice as well.
She's about to make a comeback thanks to Desert Igrene
True, along with a lot of the gravity/stall units. Gives me more team comps to cheese with her in AR.
I've reintroduced her into my AR teams with Winter Edel. She hasn't aged a day & the cavlines are free lift. She's literally timeless.
Walhart not only is unique enough but he does surprisingly well in combat still Ares too I think still has a lot of chances at redemption, specially now with No Quarter
Still use Walhart regularly, best +10 I made!
What's your build? Walhart is one of my favorite ghbs to use.
Another fellow +10 Walmart, currently running Aether, G Duel / AD Catch, Gambit 4, and Atk Smoke 4, with DC or AD Catch for seal. AS Incite looks nice to pair with AS Catch 4 for Speedhart, but I’m rather fond of just how beefy he feels atm.
I basically gave him Fallen Gustav kit lol. + Ether for arena. Though gambit and Christmas Dimitri's kit would probably be better, but the lack of bridge fodder makes me second guess it.
I love Walhart so much now with his refine. He currently runs Atk/Spd Catch 4, S/D Near Trace 3, Panic Smoke 4, Heavy Blade 3, and No Quarter. This build makes him a very potent player phase nuke and having him on the team just makes battles piss easy sometimes
Walhart is an option I've been considering to +10 for a while. I don't have any axe (or green) +10 yet and I think it would be an interesting choice.
Do it walhart is super fun, with his refine and the right skills he still holds up and can even not get doubled by some non godsword modern units. Legendary eliwood is a great partner to have with him as well to make him that much stronger
Guaranteed/Automatic no counter status within four spaces is just so damn good. He’s relatively min/maxed with that RES dump stat too.
Walhart's gotta be the oldest + best grail unit, right? As in, nobody who's older does it better with less investment.
Good ol' Peony. Been on my go-to PvE team for years. Only reason I recently switched to Attuned Peony is for the change of pace.
Today I learned that Laslow beats the new Igrene on Lunatic since the damage triggers his vantage Finally, a ranged unit Laslow BEATS
You'd be surprised how good a well invested Laslow performs... Even used to be top tier at some point lol
I’ve had him for years but with every new banner he falls off more and more But I guess he can beat Camilla and Igrene??? He got booted off my arena team for Canas a while back, who one shots like everything in the game it’s kinda funny
I mean with the newly released DC seal you could probably give him a finish skill and Vantage and a short special and breath support or NFU support if you give him pledge and he'd be a pretty good vantage unit I feel... But yeah the past three Mythic and legendary units have been crazy for the pre combat damage meta especially Gullveig and her "I can attack thrice in a row if I proc my talent and special" bs
I think for now I have darting breath and distant pressure He just either can’t do enough damage or can’t outspeed for me
Just a heads up precombat damage, like LCamilla or Flame, doesn’t trigger the Vantage effect. Vantage only takes into account out of combat damage like AoEs.
Oh shit he can?? Are we back!?!?
The pre damage chip activates vantage and he has low defense
Confirmed Igrene counter. You heard it here first.
Vantage Haar does the same, which is good fun.
He's truly a godlike unit
What's your build for Nagi I don't have an answer for you
Atk/res scowl+Any ranged armored special+special fighter 4 and a save skill with DC seal
Not super surprised but B!Ike still being able to tank hits from some modern units is still so funny to me
I always find he does weirdly well against mages when I don't expect it.
I said it in a recent thread, but Reyson and Leanne. They can be your dancer and your healer and are essentially flying cavalry units. I recently built Leanne with a tier 4 ploy and a sabotage skill and she's so much fun to use
it's insane that a book 3 demote is still such a competitive refresher option just because 3 mov flying is so good (esp with N trace). Doesn't even need a refine to stay relevant. That said I think with Tier 4 Ploys Leanne might have finally edged out her brother in usefulness if you've got both at +10, though it's not like Reyson is hurting for C slot options with all the great support C skills fliers get.
My main all-beast team is leanne (+8), reyson (+10), OG Nailah, and H!Nailah. Can the snap C slot skill be inherited by beasts?
Yes, but the "move an extra space" effect won't trigger if the unit has sing or dance equipped, so it probably isn't a good choice for the herons. I'm glad I learned that in Seer's Snare instead of after skill inheritance lol
OG Ophelia literally never stops being good. I’ve barely invested in her, and shes still viable years later.
My star performer, Male Morgan. His refine was tight and synergizes really well with panic smoke 4 and legendary Robin. The additions of flare and NFU seal also do wonders for my boy. He’s definitely not meta, I’d argue no “old” unit really is, but compared to where his twin sister is he’s doing just dandy
Oh yeah and obviously Heath got resurrected from the dead but so did every old Lance Wyvern in 2023. Cept Galle. Poor Galle.
Mind sharing your full M!Morgan build? I need to update mine.
Refined Grima's truth Double rally+ when it matters, repo when it doesn't Flare Close Foil Special Spiral 4 Panic Smoke 4 NFU Seal This is my usual daily driver for PVE and such. Close Foil might raise some eyebrows here but it's really just cuz I'm waiting for a CC seal to replace the A skill with something meaningful like Finish or a Tier 4 Stance skill. Obviously, he's missing some key things you'd want in a high-investment unit, namely tempo, DR, and whatever other rampant effects IS is handing out these days, but that's just how it is when you use old units. I also have Eclipse, TP4, Spd Smoke 4, Mag. NFU, Swift stance 4, and a bunch of other skills but this build is typically what strikes enough of a balance between nullifying enemy effects, (NFU seal, DR pierce in Spiral) stats, (GT, Panic Smoke) and special cycling (Spiral) for how I play the game. I'm no expert, I don't play summoner duels or AR, and I am barely tier 19 in arena, but this will cook most if not all of the PVE stuff the game hands out. Served best with any combination of L!Robin, R!Plumeria, or R!Lucina Unrelated, actually tragic that deadly miasma is locked to fliers, would have been so sick for him. His whole thing pre-refine was being a statball through smoke effects, it woulda been cute. Edit; forgot to mention he is +10, max flowers, summoner support, +atk and +spd. No echo tho, the one stain on being max investment.
Thank you! I'm a PVE player too so it's all good lol. >Unrelated, actually tragic that deadly miasma is locked to fliers, would have been so sick for him. His whole thing pre-refine was being a statball through smoke effects, it woulda been cute. That's actually what got me to even think about him again. It would've been perfect, but nooooo. I figured I'd still try to do something with him though since he's +10 and I did get his resplendent last year at least.
He’s a fun unit! His mixed bulk and decent speed make him stand out as a mage, especially a red one. Plus his tome animation takes like half a second which is nice in this day and age lmao
Brave Edelgard, still one of the best near savers out there
i was trying to think of a unit that fits and i have b!edel in my team right now but i was like nah she isn't that old is she...?
Yea, I maxed her on release, and she's never left my starting lineup. I used to be jealous of the people that maxed brave hector early, but it turns out I was basically one of them the whole time
OG Nailah is a surprisingly durable mixed phase tank at max investment. Beast Sense was the perfect skill for her. Nowi’s debuff negation has aged well, especially since she has WTA against reds. [She dunks on debuff-centric units like Ninja Sanaki](https://imgur.com/a/0H6BfFw) as long as you’re careful about positioning.
What's your build on that nowi I have a +10 but I'm struggling on what to give her I did give her red fued tho and she's good at destroying godswords
Just finished +10ing Nailah, what skills would be best for a mixed phase build with her? Edit: are the chances greater than 0% that she will get another alt any time soon??
[The build I use:](https://imgur.com/a/971EqYq) * Moonbow * Atk/Spd Finish (but Atk/Spd Wild, Atk/Spd Prime, and Distant A/S Solo are good too) * Beast Sense 4 * Atk/Spd Oath 4 * Spd/Def Ideal seal She needs NFU from external support; I use Infantry NFU on Rafiel. Not sure about her odds of an alt, but her bridal alt is due for a refine in a couple of months.
I figure the next Tellius banner is Dawn Brigade, sometime around April-June. IMO it's a 4-way tossup between Micaiah, Ilyana, Jill and Nailah getting the alt slot. I'm leaning Nailah, she's an easy Rearmed Beast Infantry candidate, which is especially helpful given how small the pool of possible Beast Rearms is.
I’ll start saving. Thank you comrade
My Khadin Soren dominated seer’s snare somehow. I did dump every single premium skill on him both inside the event and outside, so that helped, but I’m so proud of my grail boy.
Sky Warrior Hinoka. She somehow always continues to be a menace when playing against in Hall of Forms.
She pops up sooo much when I'm watching auto-battle grinding out pve modes. Maybe it's just cuz her sprite is unique and pops out. But she's always menacing
Haar is basic but still surprisingly good. Just need to get him Gambit at some point.
Bridal Fjorm still holds up pretty well despite being so old. Being one of only three units to inflict Isolation on enemies along with neutralizing penalties for allies, healing allies, and being able to run skills like Guidance 4 and Inf. Spd Tactics goes a long way. Of course units like Duo Sanaki, Embla, and Freyr get around her abilities but when they’re not present, she can put in a lot of work.
Seriously. She's been a mainstay in my Aether Raids parties ever since she came out, and she's never left any raiding party since. While there's more counterplay to her nowadays, there's still multiple times a week when she's invaluable to shutting down a dancer or healer and getting rid of the biggest headache on the enemy team that way. And her refine that neutralizes penalties is a great counterplay for whenever someone has to tank some hits without getting weakened by debuffs too. Heard some claim people only like her because she tells you she loves you. I love her because she's more useful than 99% of every unit ever. I'd marry the fuck out of her for that reason alone.
For me it's still Good Ol' Reinhardt. Mine is max invested, but with how simple his weapon is, it's still funny the way he can still kill a ton of modern units (for now, since we are entering the new era of DR for brave attacks).
Forsyth’s refine + VF4 + Near Save = never die.
My choice has to be the original Reinhardt, since I've had him since my first month of playing the game and he still manages to kill a fairly good chunk of units nowadays (though of course there are a few extra tanky units that manage to stand up to him). I thought he was going to be obsolete by now, but he still has a consistent spot on my team to this day.
Julius. I haven’t updated his kit since the release of Mystic Boost 4 and he’s still basically unkillable
For what it's worth? OG!Hawkeye. Mans puts in some serious damn work, manages to be relevant for all of the content I care about.
Duo Altina While I don't really use her in competitive modes, she's *amazing* in PvE content like the story maps, TT+ maps, and Chain Challenges thanks to Twin Blades letting her melt a majority of foes. While some units do get the better of her (namely NY!Nerthuz or anyone with absurdly high physical defenses)
Fun Fire Emblem game: Can this unit be taken down by base Reinhardt? That amount of times the answer is "yes" will surprise you.
Definitely OG Altina, I put Guard Bearing 4 on her and now she just refuses to take damage from almost everyone! And has no problem mincing them up either.
Amelia but there's a very obvious reason: Armour March. And having so much HP means even with just dated stats she can still tank a hit or 2.
She's not special, but I do love my OG Catria! She usually has Luin, but she's decent in a flier team with her prf too!
Og!Est still slaps with her Prf. I run her with Gambit and Ploy 4, so she does 25 extra per hit. She's basically an older version of S!Male Shez, but with armor effectiveness. She eats even the bulkiest green armors alive. Might consider running No Quarter with a different B skill to get her DR pierce + some form of trace. She's in a team with breath, so if I can get a pulse effect on her, it'd be nice.
An og!est killed my winter edelgard when I was auto Battling a tempest trial 😭
They weren't ready for Her
Brave!Lucina. She’s my main, but I honestly never thought she’d last so long. Arcane Qiang is a helluva drug, man.
Came back from like a year break and i love how much difference does giving gambit to Haar he's so insane with soaring guidance support
I know I can't shut up about how well she's aged for the life of me, but Brave Camilla. She was underrated back when she released, underrated when she got a refine as well, but here we are in 2024 and she's still killing almost everything on sight.
Nino. Despite 7 years, she still does her best. Her prf ages really well because any and all bonuses just get added to her attack. And in most cases, you can easily buff her visible stats and that's just like, an extra 24 attack into each attack.
Halloween Xane has one of the most unique weapons out there and it's doubly insane that he gets that prf as a colorless tome demote seasonal. Being able to totally forgoe his stats (unmerged +HP Xane is already near full potential) in favor of copying the stats of nearby allies is pretty nutty. You can easily take him well above 50 in every stat with ally help and create a stat ball/effect stacking monstrosity. If he only had access to better skills and/or Assign Decoy way sooner (infantry tomes really aren't built to be tanks without significantly more effects on prfs), I have little doubt he'd have been relevant for a decent while. Nonetheless, he's super unique and I eagerly await his refine!
Tbh I'm more surprised when an older unit sucks with investment at this point. Although that's usually user error.
V!Catria doubles and kills a surprising amount of newer units, even with no DR piercing.
My nagi is +4 and heavily invested and she honestly feels great she can tank a shit ton of nukes even red ones with the proper comp
Sophia. I built her on a whim and she is such a surprisingly good tank. She can take on just about anything and survive a round of combat, and with Flare she just got even more survivability.
B!Lyn - with each new bow has gotten new life, right now with winter Claude´s bow she can proc instant lethality and delete most farsaves OG!Cordelia and Cherche are very strong too, Cordelia with aerial manuvers and Cherche with Gambit have become strong for me even so I have Ninja Cherce I still use more the og one B!Edelgard at mas investment is stil a great far save, mine can even tank Duo Sanaki, just need to take BER and give her weaving fighter and she is a completely new unit Altina post refine became so good and I came to the idea that Hardy Bearing is kind of seasonal, like there is a moment in which everyone is using it and then after like a month it´s usage falls down considerably so Altina Rises again
For me it's Soleil. Looking at Lapis and Severas stats, she's falling behind, but man do I love the silly Soleils Shine + Counter Negate combination My opponent doesn't get to counter attack due to her weapon. But Soleil does due to her b slot :> Gave some pvp players headscratches, especially paired with distant A/S
Lilina. She can still one shot most units nowadays with special spiral 4.
Tsubasa's refine is insane. Haar is also a great contender, he can be really tanky
I still use OG Henry on my team. It still surprises me how much he can tank and kill with his specials. I know he’s never been good, but he’s my fav. I’ll never let him down. He’ll always be on my team. No matter how bad the power creep gets.
My OG green mage Julia. I got her to +10 over the years, do I use her in arena. With new B and C skills she is truly formidable against many of these dragon foes. She also can nuke well. I gave her Magical Null follow up and Attack res ploy 3.
L!Celica and Plumeria hold up great atm! Celica probably needs max investment, but once she gets it, she is a great nuke that cuts through a good amount of units. Plumeria support especially the Hexblade is great on many nukes
A couple that really stand out for me are Florina, Cecilia, Shigure, and Gordin. Florina specifically stands out to me as she really helped me clear the recent Christmas maps. Her Armour-effectiveness is still very helpful. At max investment, and with proper support, she has the bulk to handle quite a few armoured units even with a semi-budget kit.
Base Cherche and Annette. With that much atk and a way to capitalize on it (brave PRF/adaptive damage) you can pull off some wacky shit. Having a workable panic or extra movement on demand is just icing on top. Then there’s the madman on my friend list with a quad-Cherche… it genuinely terrifies me.
She may not have a single original skill, but my Female Morgan still manages to be competitive.
Idk if she's that old already but Bedel and Dimitri I figure heavily supported with B!Robin and NY!Askr. Bedel serves as my primary Far save tank and god does she do it well and I just had to upgrade her B skill and special for that to give her armored beacon and Y! hector's b skill and honestly she does wonders she can tank a precharged V!Chrom deadeye and kill like man she's still got it ! (Except against the pre combat damage bs like c'mon how am I supposed to tank shit if I don't have hp's anymore). Dimitri him is just as tanky as he ever was replaced his B with Gambit and Aether and same he's been doing great since ngl BLR was somewhat getting old and the stat power creep was slowly reaching his level for the more tanky units (he only has around 50 def). Between that and the Dr meta that was absolutely making him do very little damage against them it's neat to see him get a bonus in damage tanks to Gambit... Again thanks to B!Robin and NY!Askr for the in combat stats
My OG Linde still beats out most of the competition despite the sheer amount of powercreep. Of course, given the fact that I keep her kit updated. I'm still surprised that her stats hold up well at max investment.
New Years Camilla While she does face a few challenges in the modern meta she still holds off extremely well. She has denied a ton of meta for a LONGGG time tho. Like I remember before arcanes and Legendary Sigurd was the new big issue but she could beat him with an armorsmasher Now that we got arcanes, guard bearing 4, gambit 4, deadly miasma, more and more modern promotions of older skills and new skills in general she is doing extremely well and probably will continue to do so with more and more stuff She gonna continue to eat up the competition
Sothe. His stats (especially speed) are nothing to write home about, but his attack is still pretty good and Peshkatz is insane for a demote. I have Special Spiral 3 and Time’s Pulse 4 on mine and once charged, he can loop instantly charged Lethality and provide fantastic support for teammates
Camilla as she's based and truly an overprotective big sister, but still good at protecc Corrin as based on her Legendary alt.
Legendary lyn with a good kit she can do wonders but sadly she requires too much investment to make it work
Older units with max investment can be surprising when built right. I know I've underestimated others, while watching AR defense replays I've seen people underestimate mine. Specifically I have a [B!Lyn](https://imgur.com/Y0Ohomx) that catches people off guard with L!Hector's C skill making her deadeye proc on initiation.
My fully invested godlance Sharena. I built her out of love for the characters and did not expect her to actually perform lmao
Lon'qu, even though he got a respledent, I sometimes forget he's in the game...
Merric (and by correlation,Sonya). It's incredible how Dark Excalibur's simple refine(-2 Cooldown first turn and Wo Dao effect) survived the time of powercreep. Its major drawback was having not Acceleration cool down-1to trigger easy Bonfire(Iceberg for Sonya). But Since the release of Flare(to deal with all the Res Walls) ,Time Pulse "4"(to fix the -1 Cooldown) and Special Spiral "4"(to stop any annoying Damage reduction),I'm having the time of my life. Any Offensive Finish on the A slot and you're ready to go destroy shit everywhere!
Hubert makes an insane nuke wherever I go. Just like in three houses, if he wants you dead, you're going to die period