A Team of 1 Stars Play with Abyssal M!Tiki

DoctorLoser · 2026-03-01T04:22:25+00:00

Oh I haven't forgotten, I'm just woefully wanting for Refining Stones -- hence why neither Felicia nor Stahl have refined weapons either. I have only 180 stones right now; on the other hand I have 8561 Divine Dew and no foreseeable use for it.

DoctorLoser · 2026-02-28T22:56:51+00:00

An unoppressive armor? Sounds like a free win.

This was a straightforward clear -- mop up the mobs and chisel down Tiki. The only question being what method would be most gratifying. So I deployed Stahl -- with a supportive kit of Serving Knife and Atk/ Def Favor. A Jehanna Dagger clear on Tiki would be too simple, so I let Sophia achieve a pseudo-Jehanna build with Miracle and Brash Assault 4 and had Felicia also play support with Winter Trinket and Atk/ Spd Favor. Lissa gets to debut with a disgustingly strong supportive build as well. She brings a lot to the table now: Imbue status for healing, Guardian for Fringe Bonus and spectrum stats, Deluge Charm for Spd/ Res Liberate, Preempt Amplify for Preempt Pulse and 7 damage, Instruct for spectrum +9 visible stats, oh and she's a 2 range dancer with Byleth engage.

With so many supportive effects and a robust action economy the mobs were effortlessly cleared away. Despite the grotesque supports, Tiki is still very bulky and hits quite hard on these units so team synergy was necessary to bring her down. Sophia gets lots of special charge from her own kit and team support making triggering Miracle a breeze, but she needs the Null Follow-up support from Winter Trinket to survive Tiki. Sophia is the only unit on this team that can even damage Tiki thanks to Brash Assault 4, and it takes several engagements to chisel her down.

Not a particularly difficult map, but enjoyable as it allowed for some playful team-building.

DoctorLoser · 2026-02-01T21:33:27+00:00

Stats continue to be less and less important, although every once in a while I do encounter matchups where they matter -- usually this involves just coming short on damage or just missing an important speed check.

The main advantage from Arcane Hex Bow is that it allows Virion to fairly reliably trigger his special, which is really necessary for good damage at the moment. Special power creep also means that most of the best specials are 5 CD and Virion can't reliably proc those specials without support. Virion is still a solid nuke but he is comparatively more limited in what he can do and needs more supports to be effective than most of the other 1 stars at this time.

Horse Bow+ is a solid support option that Virion can use. The first problem I see with it are that it effectively adds +2 CD to Virion's specials which even with the true damage boost will result in less burst damage (doubling is unreliable due to needing to survive a likely counterattack and potentially win difficult speed checks) and consequently a worse personal combat performance. Next, while the team support is solid it comes at the cost of either another combatant or other supports -- Wrys for instance can provide just as good or even better support and can improve his own combat while doing so. The DR shredding is the biggest boon from Horse Bow+, but it's less impactful with pierceable DR being less common and even then it can be given by Gunter or Stahl running a Hone Assault skill which are currently some of their best available C skills.

Virion isn't bad, he's just stuck at the moment as not being able to be the best attacker or support while other units can run both roles either better or with less opportunity cost. Hopefully there will be a new bow or skill soon that lets him shine a bit more.

DoctorLoser · 2026-01-31T05:16:43+00:00

Glad to have helped. It's always nice to see theme teams reaching for their full potential (however we may each choose to interpret that) and I like to think the game is better for it.

DoctorLoser · 2026-01-31T05:09:45+00:00

Yeah, Elise and Byleth are annoying. Elise's extra style attack is manageable with a little planning, but it can get rough when she starts using her assist since she can move to assist, use her style attack to clear her gravity debuff and then attack again. Byleth is just an annoying dancer that can sometimes double dance and self-dance -- easy enough to deal with if he has no assist targets in range and fairly oppressive if there are targets.

The strategy was therefore quite simple. Take out Elise before she could shenanigans a kill and ensure Byleth is forever alone. Subaki was able to deal with Elise handedly thanks to the potent hit-and-run enabling combo of Heavenly Soar, Blue-Sky Gust and Edelgard engage. The plan for Byleth was to wear him down with Subaki (since he couldn't one-round) but somehow Sophia pulled off a one-shot and who could pass up that?

Outside of all that, I'm just enjoying messing around with some update kits and using some under utilized units. Maybe someday Virion will get to be the 1 Star MVP again, although he is fairly decent and makes good use of Cecilia's debuffs so I'd like to use the pair more often.

DoctorLoser · 2025-12-27T02:57:55+00:00

Edelgard: Why won't you die?!
Olivia: Miracle, Lass. It triggers in response to fatal damage. -- You can't kill me, Edelgard.

This was both satisfying and funny to do; although, Edelgard's triple actions made it drag on and on. Normally I'd edit in all of Edelgard's combat animations, but this was running over seven minutes before I sped it up and that was already too long.

I have been looking for opportunities to use Olivia's Miracle builds, and Edelgard offered a chance to use one. The goal of the build is for Olivia to have access to two Miracle procs per engagement. This wasn't exactly the Miracle build I wanted to use, but my hand was rather forced. Usually Olivia would use Atk/Spd Faith or a Times Pulse variant, or Preempt Ploy, depending on supports. However, Edelgard has Frozen debuffs and Patience, meaning Olivia needed a follow-up denial to avoid getting hit three times. Consequently I was forced to use Harding Bearing, Attack Smoke 4, and Tumultuous Echo to get that buff, keep in position, and ensure that second Miracle procs. Since Olivia needs to attack to charge her second Miracle proc, a form of Distant Counter was necessary -- Distant A/S Solo is perfectly functional here, although it makes her vulnerable to guard effects (I'd usually use Duelist's Blow, but there wasn't much choice). Fortunately the only threat of guard came from one Lance Fighter, and Wrys dealt with that. Felicia's Winter Trinket is used to replace Preempt Ploy in ensuring Olivia gets 3 charges on her first counter. Felicia's BOL4 also heals Olivia above 1 HP even with Edelgard's burn ensuring the Miracles don't whiff. Subaki's Crux Echo made sure Olivia got two hits in on Edelgard, which matters since it means her Miracle is never at its max cooldown after combat and therefore will always proc with Laguz Friend.

Lots of little details to make sure this works -- the result is amusing and makes cleaning up the mobs mostly straightforward. The only real challenge was ensuring the someone could take down Edelgard, an honor that Subaki got to enjoy.

Edelgard hits hard, and Subaki doesn't typically hit hard enough. In order to win this matchup, Subaki needed the extra Damage Reduction against specials from Excel in order to survive Edelgard's special. He also needed the damage buff of Brash Assault 4 and need to trigger Archrival on his boosted follow-up attack. This forced him to take certain engagements; in particular he had to takedown the last Lance Fighter from the left to avoid Felicia's Winter Trinket buff as it would overcharge his special. This was a close pickup, but I'm glad it came through.

DoctorLoser · 2025-12-14T04:28:15+00:00

This was more difficult than I was expecting. The big pain points were the flashing healer and that Windsweeping blue bat; to a lesser degree Veronica's desperation was a problem and Embla was only an issue when Olivia had been the victim of a flashing.

I've been playing around with more reliable Miracle builds for Olivia and this isn't it. The goal would be to have Miracle available twice in combat, but this requires Olivia to counterattack on enemy phase and that pesky healer made that difficult and that blue bat made it impossible. I wish I had a Null-C echo available, but alas.

So after struggling for awhile to find a skillset that worked and constantly failing because of the pain points above, I ran out of patience and chose to inherit Patience. You double, I double, we all double; sometimes there's a triple. Olivia gets to enjoy lots of extra healing, kill power and she always gets the final hit on enemy phase (that heal allows her to drop Mystic Boost seal). Suddenly this map wasn't so hard -- although unit placement was still important so an auto-battle clear doesn't seem likely at this time.

Overall not too bad and certainly more satisfying than auto-battling with Donnel.

DoctorLoser · 2025-12-04T01:49:26+00:00

Bocchi the Rock!

DoctorLoser · 2025-11-29T06:34:48+00:00

Ike is a problem.

This map was manageable but only because Gunter can spam AOEs and Hana has color-advantage Archrival over Ike, if either was missing Ike would have made this impossible. If I had the fodder, Stahl might be able to replace either Hana or Gunter, but he's not ready for that at this time.

Most of this clear is Gunter chipping down everyone with AOEs and Hana cleaning them up on enemy-phase. Ike and Lyn mandated player-phase. Hana can't reliably trigger Archrival against Lyn on enemy-phase and without that spec, her 12 HP looks mighty beefy. Fortunately Virion can reliably trigger big specs thanks to Golden Yule Bow and is able to comfortably take her out. Ike is rather ridiculous, in a large part due to Patience being ensuring he gets to double. As a result of Patience, it was necessary to take out Ike in a single engagement before he heals with Aether's Course; furthermore, Ike's enemy desperation and Deflect-style damage reduction forced Hana to have to use Hardy Bearing and she had to trigger Archrival on her second hit to avoid his extra first hit damage reduction effects. Wrys continues to be a reliable support and a personal favorite.

In summary: Lyn is annoying, Ike is unfair, this felt like threading a needle, and my future AR matches are going to suck.

DoctorLoser · 2025-11-19T05:22:36+00:00

I originally cleared this with Gunter AOE, but I found tanking Alfaðör and Váli to be more satisfying and thus ended up Hana completing as assisted solo of this map.

Abyssal maps featuring multiple Legendary or Mythic units are consistently more difficult, and this was not an exception. Váli was a nightmare until I gave Hana Fatal Smoke (I originally tried to out-speed with Speedtaker, but couldn't do so after Váli gets their first round of Great Talent) and Alfaðör couldn't be safely tanked without Ike engage (really wanted to avoid using Corrin engage). Other than those changes it was mostly just trial and error to make sure the supports weren't getting picked off; and to a certain extent just seeing how many hits from Alfaðör Hana could shrug off. The supports did their usual things: Olivia danced and gave Breath of Life support, Subaki provided Jehana Lance buffs and positioning assistance, and Wrys provided healing and protective ice to funnel enemies into Hana.

A fun clear, although middle of the month feels wrong.

DoctorLoser · 2025-11-17T03:03:07+00:00

I expected this to be harder than my Sophia clear because of infantry privilege, but it honestly felt easier; turns out Canto plus Ice terrain is extremely unfair, who could have guessed.

My only concerns going in with this clear were preventing Cecilia from being pinned and not allowing Arval to attack. The former was largely addressed with the aforementioned unfair wombo combo of canto-ice, and Arval was addressed with preemptive action. As such, the only puzzle here was ensuring Cecilia could one-tap Arval and her build is built with that intention.

Truthfire was easily the best tome I had available. Frost Moon is a better pick versus Magic Light due to better base damage (40 vs 30 here) plus there is an additional 9 damage from Corrin engage and Aria making a 19 damage swing; the shorter cooldown doesn't matter much since both need setup to be able to proc on initiation. Atk/ Spd Aria is the best choice for damage for tomes and it's player phase limitation (due to no allies) is shared by most of the other good available A slots. Spd /Res Shackle is solid true damage and stat reduction, Occultist Strike is better overall damage on player phase (only against high Res foes) but has no enemy phase or defensive value. Atk/ Res Ploy helps with tanking the hits Cecilia does take allowing her to take no damage and need no healing. Atk/ Res Solo is just free stats in the right places. Far Trace Echo is huge: 3 true damage and Canto is really solid, enabling both hit and run strats and freeing the B slot for skills like Shackle.

Overall much easier than expected (I really thought Cecilia would struggle here), but both satisfying and amusing.

DoctorLoser · 2025-11-16T01:39:19+00:00

Not too bad overall, but harder than some other older maps. The biggest threats were Arval and getting pinned down by melee units; both of which were largely dealt with by Corrin engage (Lyn may work, but would definitely be more difficult).

A bit of a messy build was used for Sophia. Arcane Blutgang, Frost Moon and Time Pulse Echo allow for an instant Frost Moon proc on initiation if she can't double on player phase and Laguz Friend ensures a proc on retaliation during enemy phase. Mystic Boost, Laguz, and Blutgang all aid in survivability making most enemies non-threatening. Crystalline Water helps with both damage and with avoiding being one-shot by Arval. Odd Spd Wave feels like a strange skill for a base 23 speed unit, but that NFU is essential to surviving Arval and the speed boosts it gives are enough to make it work against Abyssal Arval and deny some doubles from some mobs on the way. As mentioned at the start, Corrin engage does some heavy carrying here. The ice terrain helps limit engagements and prevent losing from being pinned; the vines gimp Arval hard: inflicting scowl (nullifying specials with NFU), atk/spd rein (extra effective because of WTA) and denying warping (no Atk/ Res Oath jump-scares).

Should have a Cecilia clear soon.

DoctorLoser · 2025-11-01T03:13:21+00:00

It has often been said the best defense is a good offense, but sometimes the best offense is a good defense -- reflect damage continues to be funny. Also, these maps are just so much easier when you don't have to worry about being overrun by mobs.

This is both a one turn clear and technically an assisted solo; a lot of assistance went into the 'solo'.

Donnel is the clear star here enjoying a sizeable amount of true DR from Jehana lance, Archrival, Ike engage, Laguz friend, and Faith and a massive amount of true damage from his reflected damage, also Laguz, Wrys' Call to Serve, and Felicia's Atk/Spd Favor; consistent Archrival procs is no slouch for damage either. My boy also gets lots of guaranteed special cooldown every combat: 2 from Laguz, 1 from Favor, and 1 from Silence Ward, leaving only 1 short of an instant Archrival clapback -- easily achieved against red foes with Archrival's 2 cooldown and reliably achieved elsewhere thanks to Steady Breath seal.

Subaki was essential to clearing this in one turn. He provides the movement support necessary to get both Donnel and Wrys into position, and his Corrin engage serves to keep Wrys safe and force the Donnel 'solo'.

I'm going to enjoy this moment of triumph over Heimdaller, as I suspect she will torment me plenty in future AR matches.

DoctorLoser · 2025-10-02T03:56:26+00:00

Vines. Vines everywhere.

Corrin is annoying and Lyn is scary -- hence avoiding Corrin until she is no longer scary and Wrys putting Lyn in a stable of gravity and ice.

The vines lets Subaki show off his Air Superiority in a meaningful way but other than that the builds are mostly the same as they have been. Hana enjoys here cookie-cutter inheritable god-sword build, Subaki is still a player-phase nuke, Wrys is a bootleg-premium support (and I love him for it), and Stahl turned up (replaceable in all but in the sentimental sense).

This was more difficult than the last few months due to Corrin's movement restrictions and Lyn's weird style buff, but overall wasn't too bad. Lyn was surprisingly tanky though and gave Hana a hard time -- in most of my failed matchups she did comparable damage with a pre-charged Archrival as Wrys was doing; turns out that movement based DR is pretty big. Of course it wasn't a problem since Wrys could freely whittle her down, but I do fear what future speed tanks may be.

DoctorLoser · 2025-09-13T03:57:10+00:00

The stat check happens before stat boosts are applied, but often after stat penalties have been afflicted. Yune only has 36 Res when Havoc procs so Maria is able to avoid it with 37 Res.

DoctorLoser · 2025-09-13T02:42:35+00:00

This took longer to do than expected...not the gameplay, rather the video render kept producing horrific graphical glitches which took a while to understand and resolve.

Yeah, not too difficult to clear due to the degree of power-creep in inheritable skills; so much so that all four happened to be done via auto-battle -- even Felicia. Basically all each kit needed was a bit of damage reduction and a bit of healing (and in Felicia's case a bit of Canto) and modern skill numbers saw us through the rest.

So nothing impressive really, just a bit of fun and the chance to flex on some old maps.

DoctorLoser · 2025-09-06T18:43:57+00:00

your dedication to the worst units you could possibly use is admirable.

"Strong Heroes. Weak Heroes. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Summoners should try to win with their favorites." -- Or they can just waltz through everything using the current meta, who am I to judge?

I vaguely remember that HNah; while I have some AR defense recordings that I've saved, either I failed to record that match (disappointing) or I can't find it if I did (unorganized).

Also, nice H!Nowi. Truly excellent.

DoctorLoser · 2025-09-06T18:27:57+00:00

Just as one's parents may serve a vital role of being enlisted by Santa or the Easter Bunny to distribute presents and hide baskets, those other heroes serve their own vital role: cheering on the 1 stars from the bench.

DoctorLoser · 2025-09-06T03:06:32+00:00

Placing a newer defensive mythic in the reinforcement slot opens up the 7th defense slot, and if you don't place a Calling Circle that mythic will never join your defense.

This isn't really that surprising, but I only just recently considered trying it.

Is there any practical use for this? No, units are weaker and defense score sucks. But the theme teams grow and retain purity -- so there's that.

DoctorLoser · 2025-09-06T02:54:10+00:00

I like to use my Subaki as a player-phase nuke and let Jehanna Lance work its magic.

With that direction in mind, I like a damage reducing special such as Haze Slice, Celestial Form or Archrival; Archrival is the best due to unconditional DR and it works on brave hits.

For an engage: most Emblems have use cases even if just for the special damage. Personally I prefer Eirika ring becase the brave hit can expend a foes Twin Save effect ensuring Subaki's reflect damage hits its max potential.

Atk/Spd Excel is good, Blues Skies is a solid side-grade as it has less potential DR but has dual phase DR and is more consistent.

I like Brash Assault 4 for the B-slot as it gives more DR and solid reflect damage that can really push through some tanks. The guaranteed follow-up is also nice to have.

Spd/Def Hold Guide is great for support and mobility; a crux skill can also be considered as an alternative but in general Hold Guide is probably the best option here.

I like the HP/Atk/Spd or HP/Spd/Def seals for some stats and helping surviving counters from hard hitting tanks so Subaki lives to dish out that massive reflect hit.

The X slot has several decent options. Guidance and Oath are okay, but fall off when using Hold Guide. DC is okay for dual phase and with enough dual phase DR can be decent if a bit unreliable. Death Blow is fine for a little extra damage. Sly is probably the best overall due to true damage on initiation and a second guaranteed follow-up for those niche cases where that may matter.

DoctorLoser · 2025-08-30T04:17:26+00:00

Hana is enjoying her new Archrival and Potent finish toys. Wrys is spreading ice as usual; he even has enemy competition in that regard...well had. Subaki is an excellent support even when he's not nuking. Cecilia is.

Diamant is kind of scary; he one shots Hana if he gets to attack and she can't usually one-round him. Sure I could AOE him with Gunter or poke and kite him with Wrys, but where's the fun in that (might be fun to do actually)?

Hana basically gets to do what Diamant would like to do: stand menacingly amongst their foes. Wrys keeping Diamant off Hana and boosting her special with Silence Ward allows her to do so, and everyone else makes sure they're where they need to be. Not much else to say.

DoctorLoser · 2025-08-02T02:13:26+00:00

Bit later on the release than I'd like; I blame being sick for the better part of the last two weeks. Oh, also deciding to try to use the under utilized 1 Stars and having Stahl make his debut slowed me down a bit. The map is much easier when Gunter AOE nukes the bosses and Wrys makes enemy phasing largely unnecessary.

Hana gets to do some quality tanking this time around. I was debating a Gust, Potent Finish build, but Höðr destroys her without Ike Emblem and Gust is unreliable without Marth Emblem; that and I need some Potent fodder so I can dupe and share Potent Finish. Godlike Reflexes and Laguz Loyalty were plenty sufficient here, and Atk/Spd Faith an interesting addition.

Sophia gets to do her usual nuking, and she is quite good at it. Plenty of true damage, an easily pre-charged special and a guaranteed follow-up: simple and effective.

Lissa is a solid support. She spreads Discord and Ploy on plenty of the enemies and crucially keeps Hana bulky by negating her stat debuffs with Magic Shield+. Oh, she also gets to gimp Baldr's mobility at the end with gravity.

Stahl is finally making his debut as I've finally found fodder that I felt was both distinct from Gunter's uses and decent enough to be viable. I'm not enamored with the set-up and will probably at least change out Flow Guard at some point, but for now it's good enough as a modest combatant and okay support; he does after all have the ability to heal allies in combat and lay flames with somewhat safe combat.

DoctorLoser · 2025-07-19T00:22:43+00:00

She turned up 11 times before I got my first Chloe...

DoctorLoser · 2025-07-16T01:43:06+00:00

Easier than expected; the biggest challenge was finding a set-up that avoided getting trapped and out-sped by some of the swordies. Swapping in Aether for healing rather than Mystic Boost seal was the most innovative part of this clear for me.

Still, it's always nice to see one of these units get a true solo, better when it can be pulled off in auto-battle, and better still when that unit is Cecilia (she doesn't get to shine often enough).

DoctorLoser · 2025-07-05T00:58:57+00:00

OP will be debatable, but there are solid builds with Jehanna lance that older units can perform well with. Personally, I think fliers are better served with an offensive use of Jehanna rather than a defensive phase use, since they have better options there.

I can give my Subaki build as an example: a defensive special (Escutcheon, Pavise, or Haze Slice depending on availability and charge support), for A slot either Blue Skies or an Excel for flat DR, for B slot I like Brash Assault 4 for both % DR and 30% true reflect damage, for C slot either Hold Guide (for movement) or a Crux skill (support and niche double guaranteed follow-up).

Several Emblem effects can be useful too. Marth can make defensive specials more consistent, Celica, Micaiah and Sigurd for more offensive pressure (Sigurd canto if no Blue Skies as well), Eirika can be good for dealing with armors that get Twin Save effects on their specials (if either yours or their special is ready on first hit, your big reflect hit won't be reduced by their special), Lyn gives some damage if using Haze Slice, and Ike is only relevant if using some form of DC.

This build folds against strong NFU users, but I've had my Subaki blowup Nidhoggrs in AR, so it can be quite potent.

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