Long time no see y'all. I honestly didn't plan on doing this anytime soon, but I've had some free time, and grinding in my Nocturne Solo run can get boring, so here we are lol.
Pelleas unexpectedly intrigued me a huge deal, so im gonna analyze him this time. Only issue is that the popular FEH builder website hasn't been properly updated in months, so I had to find an alternative. So if things look different, that's why.
Pelleas is thought to be the lost son of the Mad King Ashnard, raised in an orphanage and found by the wicked Izuka. He tries to be the prince and next king of Daein, but is clearly not very skilled in being a political figure. His inexperience and naiveté eventually becomes his undoing, as he's unknowingly entered into a blood pact forcing him to do Begnion's bidding. He does his best to undo the damage, but still needs Micaiah to lean on to make any real change.
Pelleas is a Dark Sage recruitable only in subsequent playthroughs that s during part 4 at level 12 with the following base stats: 33 HP, 13 Strength, 24 Magic, 20 Skill, 21 Speed, 14 Luck, 14 Defense, and 19 Resistance. At his point of entry, his performance can highly fluctuate depending on difficulty chosen, as his base stats are pretty middling, but not irredeemable. His Res is pretty decent, and while his Spd isn't high, his Mag combined with the high might of Dark tomes make him a great magical cannon coming in with rank S dark magic and A rank thunder magic. He also promotes into having an immediate B rank staves, giving him decent utility.
His growths are fine, as his Spd is 60%, 55% in Mag, and 45% for both Skl and Res. The high Spd growth is great as it helps negate the heavy weight of dark tomes, high Mag is generally very good, and the Skl helps with the tomes' inaccuracy. The only problem with these growths is that he comes in a little too late to benefit greatly from them unless you heavily invest into him before the multi-part endgame. With some patience, however, he can be a solid member of the team.
As for his Heroes' entry...
Honestly? He looks pretty nice. He clearly takes after his growths for most of his stats, and mostly his base Res. Great Atk, great Spd, solid Res, overall great stat spread. Save for his Def, his stats allow for great versatility, and Spd, while not the best ever, can allow for avoiding doubles for a defensive approach, or can easily double himself. He even has access to an Atk superboon, so he can hit hard when the need arises. This makes him an excellent departure from the usual free infantry red tome unit that we've been getting over the last god knows how long.
His skills are just as amazing.
Brazen Atk/Spd 3 at 4* is by far one of his greatest assets combined with Miracle, even if Miracle isn't the almighty best Special out there. Atk/Res Oath rounds out his bulk as well while still bolstering his great Atk. Rauorlion+ is where things gets interesting, being a slightly weaker Hone Atk 4 with a bonus to Atk and Res if the foe is healthy. All in all, a pretty solid base kit that plays to his strengths quite well.
What are the different ways we can build him, then?
"Allow Me to Aid You."
Rauorlion grants new options for units to be great , and with access to Hone 4, Ruse, and Dual Rally+ skills, they can become amazing. This idea was a way to create a unit that can buff every stat at least by 6, regardless of unit type, and debuff if he can with Ruse. Infantry Rush is replaceable with skills like Distant Guard, Drive skills, or Panic Ploy, but I had this mind for an infantry team. Still, fairly flexible and workable.
Magic Assault
As I alluded to before, Pelleas has a great offensive spread, especially with the Atk superboon. This build is to make him the definition of a powerhouse, with his skills not only contributing to his power, but also make him a halfway decent player phase tank with good Spd. Only issue that can come from this is that his stats suffer a lot during enemy phase, though his seal and Lull can at least help preserve him unless under extreme circumstances.
"To Protect My People!"
His Spd and decent defensive stats definitely make him viable for a defensive build. This build is to make good use of that bulk and Spd together, and trying to make the Unity Blooms work in tandem with his other skills, namely his Bond seal. The Lull is for bulk purposes only, but its fairly flexible, as is his A and C slots, especially Close Reversal as that's considerably new and expensive. Most Bond and Unity skills can work just fine if you don't have Close Counter or Close Foil, and even something as basic as Atk Smoke can do the trick.
"I Won't Be Caught Off Guard Again."
Razzle Dazzle units are still infamous, especially with the increased access to those skills, and even non-staves are gaining to "prevent counterattack" skills outside of the sweep skills such as Nifl with her weapon. Pelleas' stats are actually pretty damn nice to provide an opportunity to utilize the Raventome efficiently without the need for TA, and then Null C-Disrupt gives him the ability to counter Razzle Dazzle as well. He will have difficulty against physical fighters, but if necessary, TA isn't a bad option, nor is a Spd boon.
Being a GHB unit, he has the advantage of gaining extra merges compared to TT units, but the real question is how great is he in of investment? My answer honestly varies depending on what you have available. Being a grail unit at all has the disadvantage of not having IVs upon recruitment, which sucks considering his Atk superboon. If you already have the trait fruit or the patience to get them, he definitely has so much potential that it's not even funny, especially if you have some good skills to fodder. Hell, he's by far one of the better non-seasonal red mages that we've gotten in the last year or so, and I would argue better than his other grail red mages due to not relying on a gimmicky tome (not to dismiss their usefulness entirely, but I have my reservations).
Another problem with Pelleas is that his weapon is not for everyone and requires some investment if you don't like it. This isn't the biggest issue since Rauorfox especially has become common place, but an immediate 20k feathers minimum for some people can be iffy considering that most people have some many other units to invest into.
However, to offset these issues, Pelleas has great stats even with minimal investment, and merging him a lot will give him plenty of utility in the long run. Should you be lacking a versatile or offensive red mage, he is definitely your guy, and I recommend him more often than not, especially if you like his character or art (granted, if that's the case, little doubt you've already invested by now). If you aren't struggling for a red mage, consider placing him on the back burner, although I won't blame people for not investing trait fruit on him since it's still a valuable and sparse enough resource.
Comments (1)
Oh shit quality Kima content 🥵