#flying dancer

Lv. 40 Stats (Flaw/Neutral/Asset)

HP: 34/38/41 Atk: 28/31/34 Spd: 33/36/39 Def: 12/16/19 Res: 21/24/28

Neutral BST: 145

Max Dragonflowers: 5

Mythic Effect: Light Boost: HP+5, Spd+4

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Skills

Weapon: Flower of Joy (400 SP)

Mt: 14. Rng: 2. Grants Res+3. Grants Atk/Spd+3 to any ally in a cardinal direction from unit during that ally's combat.

Blue Tome. Cannot be inherited. Cannot be refined.

Assist: Gentle Dream (400 SP)

Grants another action to target ally. Grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+3 and the following status to target ally and allies in cardinal directions of unit and target (excluding unit): "Unit can move to a space adjacent to any ally within 2 spaces." (That turn only. Cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance. This skill treated as Sing or Dance.) 

Cannot be inherited.

Special: None

A: B Duel Flying 3 (300 SP)

Grants HP+5. If unit is 5★ and level 40 and unit's stats total less than 170, treats unit's stats as 170 in modes like Arena. (Higher-scoring opponents will appear. Stat total calculation excludes any values added by merges and skills.)

Can be inherited. Blue, Flying only.

B: Wrath 3 (240 SP)

At start of turn, if unit's HP ≤ 75% and unit's attack triggers Special, grants Special cooldown count-1, and deals +10 damage when Special triggers.

Can be inherited. Cannot use: Cavalry, Flying, Ranged.

C: Even Atk Wave 3 (240 SP)

At start of even-numbered turns, grants Atk+6 to unit and adjacent allies for 1 turn. (Bonus granted to unit even if no allies are adjacent.)

Can be inherited.

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Analysis

A new free unit with the arrival of Book IV, Peony’s addition provides players with a powerful refresher support unit with unique skills that although are not potent enough to outperform Legendary Azura are enough to make her nearly as powerful at virtually no cost.

Being a flying refresher is incredibly valuable in itself due to the additional mobility and flexibility that comes with the typing. However, Peony’s unique skills, Flower of Joy and Gentle Dream, are truly what provide her unmatched utility. Gentle Dream in particular holds immense value by providing full +3 buffs on refresh, something that other refreshers would either need a unique weapon or Dance skills to achieve, as well as granting her allies a warping effect in an AoE which significantly increases her allies’ amount of options in battle and at present no other unit can provide the same level of mobility. Flower of Joy also holds a powerful niche, capable of providing full +3 stat boosts in cardinal directions regardless of distance. Combined with Gentle Dream, Peony is thus capable of boosting all of a units stats by +6 with ease and only with two skills.

While Peony lacks any meaningful stats with workable Spd but poor Atk and mediocre magical bulk, Peony lacks any real potential for direct combat, though with her immense utility on the field this hardly poses a problem as she more than pulls her weight without fighting. Additionally, with a unique weapon and assist, a Duel skill, and maximum SP skills in her B and C Skill slots, Peony’s low BST as a refresher doesn’t hold back Arena scoring even without investment, bar her empty Special slot.

Peony prefers boons/assets in Res (superboon) and Spd. Her preferred banes/flaws are Def (superbane), HP (superbane), and Atk.

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Similar Units

Azura: Vallite Songstress (33/30/35/17/24)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+5/+1/+1/-1/+0)

Ninian: Bright-Eyed Bride (34/28/33/18/27)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+4/+3/+3/-2/-3)

Ishtar: Thunder’s Waltz (36/34/36/16/22)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+2/-3/+0/+0/+2)

Rinea: Reminiscent Belle (38/30/33/23/28)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+0/+1/+3/-7/-4)

Shigure: Dark Sky Singer (34/31/29/21/24)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+4/+0/+7/-5/+0)

Azura: Young Songstress (36/33/29/17/25)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+2/-2/+7/-1/-1)

Rinea: Reminiscent Belle (38/30/33/23/28)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+0/+1/+3/-7/-4)

Corrin: Novice Vacationer (34/31/34/22/26)

Peony: Sweet Dream (+4/+0/+2/-6/-2)

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Build Suggestions

Note: At the time of writing, fehstuff.com’s unit builder does not have Flower of Joy registered as a skill for Peony: Sweet Dream. Please treat the appropriate builds as though they have Flower of Joy equipped rather than Shine+ and as though the stats are not buffed.

Budget/Low Investment:

While B Duel Flying doesn’t directly contribute much to fights, there should hardly ever be much reason for Peony herself to engage in combat, thus Peony’s base kite does not require any changes to be effective. There are a wide variety of support/utility Sacred Seals available, though Chill Atk in particular works well in improving her team’s survivability combined with her Fortify Res 4 and unique skills. Aerobatics provides her with extra mobility on mixed teams to then refresh and provide the same mobility to the rest of her team.

Fury 3 notable improves Peony’s bulk and Spd to help her make it through a fight in the event that she must, with Moonbow to slightly improve her offenses. Wings of Mercy can be used instead of Aerobatics especially with allies that take recoil damage.

Utility:

Though Peony’s base Res is middling, her access to a superboon and Flower of Joy’s +3 Res allows her to push it quite high anyway, thus allowing her to further support her team with debuffs from Sabotage and Ploy skills while also being fairly capable of taking enemy mages. Fury 4 and Resistance +3 increase Peony’s visible Res while also giving her offenses a boost, though she can also completely forgo her offenses and use Fort. Def/Res 3 in the A Skill slot and Fortress Res as her Sacred Seal with an Atk bane, putting her at 42 visible Res.

Peony can also use Triangle Adept and breaker to help her team cover more ground, being a simple counter to whatever weapon type is chosen. Using a Raven tome allows her to also somewhat counter colorless enemies, though she can also simply keep Flower of Joy and counter just red enemies.

Arena Core:

Lvl 40 Stats (Flaw/Neutral/Asset)

HP: 33/36/40 Atk: 31/34/37 Spd: 33/36/39 Def: 12/16/19 Res: 19/22/26

Neutral BST: 144

Max Dragonflowers: 5

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Skills

Weapon: Mögþrasir (400 SP)

Mt: 8. Rng: 2. Inflicts Spd-2. If unit initiates combat, unit attacks twice.

Red tome. Cannot be refined. Cannot be inherited.

Assist: Dance (150 SP)

Grants another action to target ally. (Cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance.)

Cannot be inherited.

Special: None

A: Swift Sparrow 3 (300 SP)

If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+6, Spd+7 during combat.

Can be inherited. Cannot use: Staff.

B: Desperation 3 (240 SP)

If unit's HP ≤ 75% and unit initiates combat, unit can make a follow-up attack before foe can counterattack.

Can be inherited. Cannot use: Staff.

C: Air Orders 3 (240 SP)

At start of turn, grants the following status effect to adjacent flying allies for 1 turn: "Unit can move to a space adjacent to any ally within 2 spaces."

Can be inherited. Fliers only.

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Analysis

With a similar statline and kit to her first appearance in FEH, Ishtar appears as a dancer on the latest seasonal banner, toting her own unique weapon to boot.

Ishtar once again has a purely offensive statline. However, with only 34 attack and 36 speed without her weapon equipped, she needs a lot of help from her kit in order to be the player phase nuke she needs to be. With only 16/22 defenses, it's best to keep her out of the line of fire when using her to refresh her allies.

Since Ishtar is a dancer, her assist skill is obviously Dance. However, with her base kit, she’s more useful as a hyper offensive unit. Her unique weapon is Mögþrasir, which lets her attack twice upon initiating, but also takes away 2 points of speed as long as she has it equipped. Her A skill is Swift Sparrow 3, which gives her a much needed boost by helping her quad her foes and boosting her damage. When Ishtar initiates combat, she’ll receive +6 attack and +7 speed, boosting her offenses to 48/41 unbuffed. For her B skill, Ishtar has Desperation, letting her quad foes without them counterattacking if she is below 75% HP. While both of these skills help Ishtar offensively, she won’t be of much support to her allies as a dancer and a buffer. Her C skill is Air Orders, which is her only supportive skill. At the beginning of each turn, allies adjacent to Ishtar are granted the combined effect of Flier Formation and Aerobatics, meaning that they are able to move to any space adjacent to an ally within 2 spaces. This gives her allies excellent map coverage, however, as a dancer, Ishtar will often be alone and out of danger, rendering this skill useless at those points.

Ishtar prefers boons in attack and speed. Her preferred banes are in HP, defense, and resistance. If you’re planning on using her as a refresher, any boon/bane combination will work. She has superboons in HP and resistance, and a superbane in defense.

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Similar Units

Tana: Noble and Nimble (35/33/36/20/25)

Ishtar: Thunder’s Waltz (+1/+1/+0/-4/-3)

Tharja: Obsessive Bride (39/35/35/21/21)

Ishtar: Thunder’s Waltz (-3/-1/+1/-5/+1)

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Builds

Budget

Ishtar doesn’t need much in terms of investment in order to functional support or offensive unit, making her easy to create budget builds for.

The build on the left replaces her native Desperation for Wings of Mercy. As a refresher, mobility is necessary in order to fully utilize Dance. Since she’ll be playing more of a supportive role, she no longer needs Desperation in her B slot. In addition, Ishtar wants to take as little damage as possible so that she can continue supporting her allies in battle, rendering Desperation useless, as she has to have below 75% HP in order for it to activate. In her sacred seal slot is Chill Spd, helping her allies to secure more doubles, and helping herself to prevent her foe’s doubles.

The build on the right gets rid of Dance entirely and focuses on her ability as a player phase nuke. Combined with Ishtar’s statline, her kit sets her up to be an offensive unit rather than a refresher. In order to further enforce that role, she loses her assist skill and gains Moonbow as a special. With its short cooldown and Ishtar’s ability to possibly quad units, Moonbow will help her secure KOs in the player phase.

Support

To become a completely support focused unit, Ishtar doesn’t need very expensive skills. Instead of Swift Sparrow 3, which only helps her in the player phase and is meant for offensive builds, her A skill is Speed +3 in order to prevent doubles. With only 16 defense and 22 resistance, it’s important for Ishtar to have a decent amount of speed so she takes less damage. With Aerobatics as her sacred seal and Wings of Mercy as her B slot, she gains the mobility needed for her to be an effective dancer. Her C slot, Atk Tactic, will help her allies secure more KOs with the extra attack. This build is meant to be on a mixed movement team, however, if you wish to use Ishtar on a flier only team, her sacred seal can easily be replaced with Flier Formation, and her C skill replaced with a flier buff.

High Investment

Both of Ishtar’s high investment builds focus on her utility in the arena. By giving her R Duel Flying, she gains 5 HP and has her BST boosted from 167, with a speed boon, to 175. The rest of her kit in both builds gives plenty of supportive capability.

On the left, Ishtar’s kit is more focused around her native Dance. Her B skill, Firestorm Dance, boosts her allies attack and speed by 4 after she uses Dance on them. With the extra boost from Firestorm Dance, her allies can secure more KOs and prevent doubles. With the combination of Guidance in her C slot and Aerobatics as her sacred seal, Ishtar and her allies have massive mobility, letting Ishtar dance them more easily.

Lvl 40 Stats (Flaw/Neutral/Asset)

HP: 34/38/41 

Atk: 31/34/37

Spd: 18/21/24

Def: 24/27/30 

Res: 22/25/29 

Neutral BST: 145

Max Dragonflowers: 5

Skills

Weapon: Vafþrúðnir (400 SP)

Mt: 9. Rng: 2. Inflicts Spd -5. If unit initiates combat, unit attacks twice.

Green tome. Cannot be inherited. Cannot be refined.

Assist: Dance (150 SP)

Enables target to take another action. Cannot be used on units that use sing or dance.

Cannot be inherited. Learned by default.

Special: None

A: Death Blow 3 (200 SP)

If unit initiates combat, grants Attack+6 during combat.

Can be inherited. Cannot use: Staff.

B: Chill Res 3 (240 SP)

At start of turn, inflicts -7 Res to enemy unit with highest Res on enemy team. This effect can stack onto multiple foes. 

Can be inherited. 

C: Joint Hone Atk (240 SP)

At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to an ally/allies, grants Atk+5 to unit and all adjacent allies for one turn.

Can be inherited.

Analysis

Accompanying his companions in the latest seasonal banner is Reinhardt who is, more or less, true to his past counterparts. He carries his role as a player phase unit possessing a new brave tome and a kit that complements an aggressive playstyle. On top of this he may now dance his allies granting them a second turn. However it is this duality that makes Reinhardt somewhat impractical. He can’t really perform both jobs and it’s up to players to decent where his strengths will lie. 

Rein’s stat line is, funnily enough, not that different from his original self. His base kit complements his brave tome weapon as he’ll want to maximize how much damage he can deal. He possess the same BST of his horse counterpart with the only difference being Soiree Rein’s +2 extra Atk and -2 to Spd. His bulk is somewhat decent starting at 27/25 Def/Res. With an abysmal Spd stat of 21 however it’s unlikely he’ll be able to survive multiple hits. Regardless of how he’s being used it would be wise to keep him out of harm’s way. 

 Being a flying unit grants him his own advantages. He has access to a wide range of powerful flying skills such as Aerobatics. Flier Formation, Guidance and Ground Orders all which can be used to grant himself or his allies higher mobility. He also has access to skills such as Sturdy Impact which is non inheritable to his horse counterpart. This change in movement type however gives him a weakness to archers which he should do his best to avoid. 

Players will, however, have to decide early on how Reinhardt will be used. If restricted to a support role, he won’t have many opportunities to safely use his tome and be escorted back to safety at the same time. If used as a player phase unit he’ll lose out on his ability to dance his allies taking away the point of his existence to begin with. Depending on what his team needs should determine how he should be used.

Similar Units

Reinhardt: Thunder’s Fist (38/32/23/27/25)

Reinhardt: Lightning’s Rondo (+0/+2/-2/+0/+0)

Note: Both Reinhardts have access to uninheritable skills and are thus not directly comparable. They are also of different movement types and weapon triangle types.

Builds

Budget/Low Investment:

Since Reinhardt comes with an almost complete base kit he requires very minimal investment.

Reinhardt doesn’t necessarily have to be used as a dancer as shown on the left. Since his base kit complements a player phase nuke role he can simply unequip his Dance skill and swap it for another assist. Unequipping his Dance skill will also allow him to be danced by other dancers. Since we want him to deal as much damage as possible, we keep his base kit and simply add on an Atk seal. If Reinhardt initiates with the following setup, he will initiate with 57 Atk.

If being utilized as a dancer, Reinhardt will want to make the most out of his high mobility. Wings of Mercy will allow him to teleport next to an ally that’s fallen below or at 50% of their base HP. He then has the option to either dance his ally or finish off a nearby foe. Aerobatics meanwhile will allow Rein to teleport adjacent to an armor, cavalry or infantry ally that’s 2 spaces away from him. Again Rein will have the option to either dance his ally or target down a foe. 

Reinhardt’s seal options include but aren’t limited to: Atk+3, HP/Atk 2, Atk/Def 2, Sturdy Blow, Flier Formation, Aerobatics, Guidance, Dance skills and Quickened Pulse.

Support:

If being strictly used as a support unit Rein can forgo his base kit to better serve his team.

The set on the left takes the same ideas discussed in one of the budget setups but removes his native Death Blow to score higher in arena with G Duel Flying. Along with supplying +5 HP, this skill also brings his arena BST up to 170 allowing him to compete in higher scoring matches. Note that this setup really only has use in Arena and can be swapped to a different skill in other modes.

The set on the right makes use of multiple dance skills to buff his allies upon granting them a second turn. With the growing presence of panic/debuffing status effects in game from units such as Aversa, visible buffs from skills such as Joint Hone Atk can prove to work against players. One way to safely combat this problem is to buff a unit once danced. Here we use Deluge Dance and Blaze Dance to grant +3 Spd, +4 Res and +4 Atk upon being danced. Dancing a unit will also remove any status effects the unit had on beforehand such as Gravity or Panic. Triangle Adept is used to grant him advantage over lance/blue colored units and may also provide some bulk if left in range against said units. Otherwise this skill can be swapped out for a different one.

Offensive Nuke:

If being used as an offensive unit Reinhardt will want to maximize his damage output as much as possible.

The set on the left merely expands on his base kit. With Death Blow 4 and Sturdy Blow used in combination, Reinhardt will initiate combat with 58 Atk/31 Def without any further buffs. Even Atk Wave is taken over his native Joint Hone Atk to remove the need to be adjacent to an ally. Even Atk Wave will also grant him +6 additional Atk on even numbered turns versus Joint Hone Atk’s +5. Chill Res will ploy the highest Res enemy for -7 Res ensuring that Reinhardt does as much damage as possible to said opponent.

Lv. 40 Stats (Flaw/Neutral/Asset)

HP: 30/33/37 Atk: 27/30/33 Spd: 32/35/38 Def: 13/17/20 Res: 21/24/28

Neutral BST: 139

Max Dragonflowers: 5

Legendary Effect: Water Ally Boost: HP+3, Res+4

Skills

Weapon: Prayer Wheel (400 SP)

Mt: 14. Rng: 2. Grants Spd+3. If Sing or Dance is used, grants bonus to target's Atk/Spd/Def/Res = highest bonus on target ally for 1 turn. (Example: if target already has a +6 bonus to Atk, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+6.)

Blue Tome. Cannot be inherited. Cannot be refined.

Assist: Gray Waves (400 SP)

Grants another action to target ally, and if target is an infantry or flying ally, target can move 1 extra space. (That turn only. Does not stack. Cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance. This skill treated as Sing or Dance.)

Cannot be inherited.

Special: None

A: B Duel Flying 3 (300 SP)

Grants HP+5. If unit is 5★ and level 40 and unit's stats total less than 170, treats unit's stats as 170 in modes like Arena. (Higher-scoring opponents will appear. Stats total calculation excludes any values added by merges and skills.)

Can be inherited. Blue and flying only.

B: Aerobatics 3 (240 SP)

Unit can move to a space adjacent to any infantry, armored, or cavalry ally within 2 spaces.

Can be inherited. Flying only.

C: Attack Tactic 3 (240 SP)

At start of turn, grants Atk+6 to allies within 2 spaces for 1 turn. Granted only if number of that ally's movement type on current team ≤ 2.

Can be inherited. 

Analysis

Over the years, all kinds of dancer supports with their own strengths and benefits have been added to FEH, but the addition of Legendary Azura has completely blown her competition out of the water. With high mobility, incredible buffs, and the ability to grant extra movement, L!Azura has pretty much everything you could ask for from a dancer.

L!Azura’s uninheritable skills and flier mobility truly makes her the ultimate dancer. For one, L!Azura’s personal variant of the Sing skill, Gray Waves, not only refreshes a unit but also gives +1 movement to assisted infantry and flying allies. This ability to boost any infantry or flying ally’s movement to 3 is completely unique to Azura; no other unit is capable of this and this fact alone makes her an incredible support. L!Azura also comes with the weapon Prayer Wheel, which duplicates the highest buff on a refreshed ally to that ally’s other stats. Combined with her inherent C Skill, Atk Tactic 3, L!Azura is able to single-handedly give +6 buffs to all of a unit’s stats  which, again, is almost unheard of for other units.

L!Azura’s other skills, Aerobatics and B Duel Flying, only help further her applicability, with Aerobatics providing extra mobility on mixed teams and B Duel Flying allowing L!Azura to be used in competitive modes without harshly affecting scoring/matchmaking due to her low BST.

As a refresher, L!Azura’s IV’s are mostly inconsequential. However, she would prefer to have boons/assets in Spd, Res (superboon), or Atk. Her preferred banes/flaws are Def (superbane) and HP in that order.

Similar Units

Ninian: Bright-Eyed Bride (34/28/33/18/27)

Azura: Vallite Songstress (-1/+2/+2/-1/-3)

Note: Legendary Azura has access to uninheritable skills and possesses a Legendary effect. Therefore, the two are not directly comparable.

Azura: Celebratory Spirit (37/30/35/22/26)

Azura: Vallite Songstress (-4/+0/+0/-5/-2)

Note: L!Azura and NY!Azura are of different colors and weapon types. Legendary Azura also has access to uninheritable skills and possesses a Legendary effect. Therefore, the two are not directly comparable.

Build Suggestions

Budget/Low Investment:

Azura already possesses an exceptional base kit and is completely functional without any changes, so these builds mostly just fill in the gaps. The A Skill slot can be left with B Duel Flying if using Azura in modes like Arena.

Azura will hardly be seeing combat since she wants to spend as many of her actions using Gray Waves as possible. However, filling her special and A Skill slots can help her hold her own should it be necessary. Because Azura lacks any spectacularly high Atk, Def, or Res stats, Moonbow is used as her special. Using Fury as her A Skill grants her +3 in raw stats to make up for her low BST as a ranged dancer. Meanwhile, Triangle Adept can help Azura survive matchups in which she has weapon triangle advantage, such as against a red tome unit, as it reduces the enemy’s damage output while increasing her own.

Aerobatics and Guidance grant additional positioning freedom to both Azura and her allies, especially since she will often be used on mixed teams. Wings of Mercy can be used as her B Skill instead to grant her cross-map mobility and is especially useful for supporting bruiser-type units or units with Fury.

Azura’s other Sacred Seal options include Torrent Dance, Flier Formation, Iote’s Shield, and buff skills.

Support:

Each of these three builds takes a different spin on Prayer Wheel’s buffing effect and its potential gimmicks.

The first build uses Hone Atk 4, one of the only ways (and the only consistent way) to obtain a buff of +7 on an ally unit, the highest possible visible buff so far in FEH. With Prayer Wheel, Hone Atk 4 allows L!Azura to buff all of an ally’s stats by +7 rather than the typical +6 with Atk Tactic. However, as incredible as it seems, a difference of +1 to all stats isn’t particularly noticeable and running Hone Atk 4 is both expensive and positionally restrictive.

The second build uses the Torrent Dance 3 seal, as Prayer Wheel essentially converts its buff of +5 Res to +5 to all stats. This allows Azura to buff an ally with Prayer Wheel even if that ally didn’t have any visible buffs to begin with, granting her team a bit more positional flexibility. Using Torrent Dance can also free up Azura’s B and C slots or C and Sacred Seal slots depending on if Torrent Dance is equipped as a B Skill or Sacred Seal.

The third build uses an Opening skill and Wings of Mercy to allow Azura to support an ally regardless of their distance from her, granting plenty of flexibility to Azura and her target ally. Keep in mind that if no units share the highest targeted stat on the team, only one unit will benefit from the Opening skill. Running a Sacred Seal like Torrent Dance or a Tactic Skill can remedy this.

Air Superiority:

This build is fairly niche but considerably powerful. It’s designed for use on flying teams, granting as much mobility to Azura and her team as possible.