As someone who refuses to spend money on gacha style games but really enjoys the RPG elements in a lot of them, I’m always focused on trying to min-max my resources to build a strong team. With this in mind, here are some of my thoughts on the “Choose Your Legend 2 Banner” which provides all players a 5-star base hero for free! Which hero is best for F2P players to pick? Let’s take a look.
Brave Celica
Brave Celica is an extremely powerful red sword hero. She has pretty solid base stats with a neutral IV:
HP: 38
ATK: 33
SPD: 39
DEF: 29
RES: 24
Her SPD is phenomenal – she’s currently one of the fastest units in the game. It’s worth pointing out however, that in order to best perform at her role, you’re really going to want to look for a +ATK IV to maximize her damage. 33 base ATK isn’t bad, but Brave Celica really shines with the extra damage a boon to ATK brings. As for a bane, RES is the easiest stat to drop as ideally she’ll have to worry more about taking damage from physical threats making HP and DEF much more desirable.
Aside from her impressive stat line, Brave Celica’s base kit is nearly perfect, meaning you don’t need to have her inherit any rare skills to be good. She’s a monster attacker right from the get go.
Her weapon, Royal Sword has an extremely powerful ability attached to it – it grants her +3 SPD and boosts her special charge by +1 if she’s within 2 spaces of an ally. This means that she can fire up her special attack, Galeforce, a lot a quicker and easier than a lot of other 5-star base red swords. This is particularly helpful as Galeforce has a long 5 turn charge time, but grants her the clutch ability of getting an extra action per turn.
Brave Celica also has two unique passive skills that in combination with her weapon’s special ability, make her a potent player-phase attacker: Death Blow 4 and Double Lion. The Death Blow line of abilities are very good on attackers providing them a +ATK boost when they attack on player phase. Before Brave Celica, the max level of this was Death Blow 3 which provided a ATK +6 boost. Celica is the first hero to have Death Blow 4 which provides ATK +8 when initiating combat.
Double Lion is another offensive passive that gives Celica a “Brave Weapon” effect of guaranteeing a second attack, regardless of speed. The catch with Double Lion is that Brave Celica must be at 100% HP for the effect to occur. There’s also one caveat with this ability – it deals 1 damage to her after combat. In other words, Brave Celica almost needs to be in a party with a healer for maximum damage output.
Brave Hector
Brave Hector, as with all incarnations of the hero in FEH, is ridiculously strong. Though this is his first appearance as a blue armor spear user, he still has iconic strengths such as the ability to counter at any distance. As usual, he also has an insane stat spread. At neutral IV, here’s where he stands:
HP: 48
ATK: 37
SPD: 22
DEF: 39
RES: 28
Brave Hector has a massive ATK and solid bulk, making him a very strong duelist against any type of foe. While his RES is a bit low compared to his DEF, his high HP still makes him strong enough to take a hit from magic damage without much worry. His stats are good enough that the neutral IV you get on him with the free summon works fine.
Moving into his weapon and skills, this version of Hector comes equipped with Maltet, a spear which provides him with a built in Vengeful Fighter effect- if Hector’s HP is over 50% and his foe engages on him in combat, he gets a guaranteed follow-up attack as well as an accelerated CD count of -1 on his special.
Brave Hector also gets a unique passive ability in his A-slot: Ostian Counter. This passive allows him to counter attack at any distance and if a foe engages on him in combat, Hector gets a boost of +4 to his ATK and DEF.
He gets the much sought after Bold Fighter in his B-slot. This grants him a guaranteed follow-up ATK and a +1 to his special per attack when he engages, regardless of the difference in speed between him and his opponent. Coupled with Maltet, Brave Hector can automatically make follow-up attacks in both player and enemy phase, making him a force to reckon with 24/7.
Brave Ephraim
Like Brave Hector, Brave Ephraim is another seemingly over-powered armor unit. This version of Ephraim has him as a green axe unit with very good base stats:
HP: 46
ATK: 38
SPD: 27
DEF: 37
RES: 26
With regards to IVs, SPD is the stat you really want to get rid of. Given his unique kit, his SPD is completely irrelevant, more so than possibly any hero in the game. It’s hands down his best bane. For a boon, ATK is ideal, but DEF isn’t bad either.
Thanks to Ephraim’s weapon, Garm, he is the first hero in FEH who gets guaranteed follow-up attacks regardless of SPD, as long as he is buffed in some way – any stat boosting ability such as a Rally or Hone work, as well as movement speed boosting abilities like Armor March.
Brave Ephraim also has an incredibly unique passive in his B-slot: Special Fighter 3. If his HP is above 50%, when in combat it grants him +1 special charge and his foe -1 per attack! Combined with Garm, this enables him to win a lot of duels simply because he is able to charge his special faster than his opponent.
His other two passives are also worth noting: he gets Close Def 3 in his A-slot and Armor March 3 in his C-slot. These two abilities enable him to be a lot tankier and also get a much needed boost to his movement.
Brave Veronica
As a mounted staff user, Brave Veronica definitely lacks the beefy stat line of the previous two armor units, but makes up for it with strong offensive stats. At a neutral IV, she has:
HP: 36
ATK: 32
SPD: 36
DEF: 21
RES: 19
The neutral IV version of her you get as a free pull is serviceable, and she doesn’t really need a particular IV set to be good.
Brave Veronica’s weapon, Hliðskjálf, has 3 passive abilities built-in to it! First, when attacking, her foe cannot counterattack. Second, it throws out a debuff of -4 to all stats on her foe and all foes within 2 spaces of the target. Third, it provides all allies within 2 spaces a +4 boost to all stats. Hliðskjálf is hands down one of the best weapons in FEH!
As a staff user, her assist skill is a heal. She gets Recover +, which restores HP=50% of ATK +10.
Her special, Windfire Balm+, is another buff skill that provides +6 ATK/SPD to all allies after healing anyone.
Brave Veronica’s passive abilities are noteworthy as well. Her B-slot is Wrathful Staff 3, which allows her to bypass the 50% damage reduction penalty for staff users. This makes her deal respectable damage to her foes.
Her other passive is Close Guard 3, which buffs her allies within 2 spaces with +4 DEF/RES against enemies equipped with a sword, lance, axe, or dragonstone.
Summary
As with the first “Choose Your Legend” event, the hero selection is full of very powerful units. Ultimately, which one is best for F2P players? From my perspective, it depends on how long you’ve been playing.
If you’re a new player, I’d say Brave Veronica is a good choice because her ability to buff and debuff simultaneously is extremely useful, regardless of the units/skills you have in your arsenal.
If you’re a veteran player who has no problem clearing PVE content and is primarily looking to reach the top ranks of arena, you should be focusing on building up and merging good 3/4 star base units. In this case, spending resources to +10 a 5-star base isn’t a good idea, so you should be looking at these units in terms of skills that can be inherited. Brave Ephraim’s Special Fighter 3 and Armor March 3, Brave Celica’s Death Blow 4, and Brave Hector’s Bold Fighter 3, are all top tier skills that are only found a 5-star base units. If you don’t need any of these and are just looking to pick someone to round out your roster, Brave Veronica is still a solid choice due to the aforementioned unique attributes.
Again, this is from the perspective of a F2P player trying to clear the toughest content. If you’re a big fan of a particular character, feel free to pull whomever you really like!
Featured Image Source: YouTube
