Summer Revisits (Ranking The Best Summer 2019 Units)

Hello Amino, this is Retro, g in!

So, looking in through some blog ideas, I genuinely am interested at some of the special heroes from this year. However, most of them are boring or not viable enough. But then summer came, and thus, since it has 2 banners, I thought it would be fun to compile a top 5 list of the best of 10 units from June and July 2019!

Well, please, sit back, grab a cup of coffee,

and wait until I shamelessly plug #FEHAPrompt12

Okay, let's get to work!

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5. S!Ursula

Overview:

Have a blue crow snoop into the Nohrian royal castle, steal one of Camilla's swimsuits, Bolting some of the guards, escape safely and voila you have Summer Ursula to kick things off.

As a unit class, Summer Ursula is pretty special but not by much. The family of dagger cavaliers has slowly grown over the past 12 months, from the solitary Summer Linde last year to having HS!Elise, Summer Gunnthra, Summer Ursula and Summer Lilina this year. Of the 5, Summer Ursula stands out by having a unique B slot skill - Def/Res Ruse. This skill is just a straight upgrade over Feint skills introduced a year ago and it gives Def/Res -5 on cardinal directions of the ally or the rallying unit, but most importantly it gives a Guard effect as well. This is a huge deal to all units reliant on Feint skills to make the work, as their recipients becomes immune to special activations and gets a free 5 attack on top of the stats they are already giving via rally. As a showcase, Ursula comes with Rally Atk/Spd+, a rally skill which gives 6 atk and spd, to create an 11 attack stat difference which often means kills.

As a combat unit however, S!Ursula didn't have much to offer that what other dagger cavaliers, or even most dagger units can do. Scallop Blade gives Atk/Spd +5 if the target has a visible debuff and/or negative status effects such as Gravity and Trilemma. 36/34 offenses are okay especially between the weapon, Def/Res Ruse and Hone Cavalry she can hit 53/43 on the player phase. 16 def and 28 res are nothing fancy or new to the ranged cavalier class, and they are somewhat workable.

Overall, Summer Ursula has nothing new when it comes to being a combat unit, but her Def/Res Ruse is certainly a well thought new skill that just might change how you build arena cores when it comes to the permanent pool one way or another like Link skills do.

Battle Before Sand (Budget R)

The primary focus of this build was to make Ursula that much bulkier and thus, safer Def/Res Ruse applications. On its own, stacking two Atk/Def Bonds grants her 26 def without a +def refine, but consider Fortify and Ward Cavalries, Drive Def, Ally and other skills the recipents has such as Atk Feint and thus Ursula could suddenly has about 40 defense. Def/Res Bond could also be an option to help shore up her resistance.

Smoked Sands (Smoke Dagger)

A standard Windsweep build, except being a cavalry dagger unit, mobility is much more managable. With the ideal situation being to deploy 6 stat debuffs to all enemies within 2 spaces of the target as painfully and as silently as possible, a dual blow setup is mandatory. The more expensive Swift Sparrow 3 is also a viable option for this build.

Stars and Scallops ( Sweeper)

Ubiquitous to cavaliers are the myriad of methods to help shore up offenses and as a recipient, Ursula is no exception. Her excellent offensive statline allows her to run the legendary Starfish weapon quite efficiently, granting her so much offensive presence. The build here is a stock sweeper build with Atk/Spd Solo and Brazen Atk/Spd seal, but since the B slot is open, her native Def/Res Ruse is an excellent unrelated alternative to fix her inability to run Sturdy Impact, providing more attack and a Guard effect to shut down special activations. Odd Spd Wave is a great alternative to boost her Desperation threshold while the dagger debuff and Def/Res Ruse helps her initiation power.

S!Ursula is a window of what's to come, with rallies being more prevalent and specials being shut down left and right, and although her performance as a unit could be better, it could be worse.

4. S!Helbindi

Overview:

Summer Helbindi enters the list by virtue of being very useful in two fronts - being a unit and being fodder. As a unit, sporting a 44/36/18/37/33 statline, Helbindi has similar stats to his axe self in the fact that he has a lot of mixed bulk at the cost of non-existential speed. He also comes with Sandfort Spade, a sword handed by the Shovel Knight himself that grants him Atk/Def +5 if he has a visible buff. That, combined with his simply monstrous 37 defense, allows him to be either a generously immovable mixed wall or a full on physical bruiser depending on the stat chosen on the weapon refinery.

As fodder, Sandford Spade is very good on all sword units to give them more attack on top of wave skills and Bonus Doubler, but he also comes with 3 other skills; Rally Atk/Def+, R Duel Infantry and Panic Ploy. Panic Ploy needs no introduction to well, creating visible debuffs on his opponents virtue of his monstrous HP stat boosted by R Duel Infantry. However, Panic Ploy 3 is available on the Heroic Grails shop via Garon, so it is virtually common fodder as of now. R Duel Infantry finally allows itive red mages and infantry swords to finally shine in Arena, such as Marth, MCorrin and Tharja, each bringing their own set of weapons and/or personal skills to help assist bonus unit sweeping by having them score higher. Rally Atk/Def+ gives 6 atk and def on a whim, which helps other squishier units become beefier without needing to worry too much about start-of-turn positioning.

With such extremely min-maxed stats, Helbindi has to virtually run either an extremely offensive or defensive build. While offensive builds generally capitalize on Helbindi's huge 36 base attack, it makes him super weak on the enemy phase, whilas his defensive builds only need to worry about positioning while capitalizing on Quick Riposte to secure kills.

David Hasselhoff (Budget Lifeguard)

This budget friendly, only need 20k feathers for QR3 build is Helbindi's simplest set. The premise is simple - stack buffs with him, then let him rip, QR-ing everything to death and keeping most if not all his base kit available to him. Its the same principle as his normal axe self, except without the Hack 'O Lantern as an option, Helbindi becomes slightly more susceptible to easy Special activations.

Bay-watched (The Bravest Lifeguard)

Helbindi's pretty high 36 base attack allows him to run a Brave Sword set pretty well, which is his only viable offensive set because of his statspread. Death Blow 3 or 4 is totally dependent on the fodder you have, while everything else is virtually available from the 3-4* pool (change Odd to Even Atk Wave for the full f2p build). Helbindi can reach either 61 or 59 attack with a brave weapon this way, which is actually very good.

Dwayne Johnson ( Lifeguard)

Due to S!Helbindi simply being a ball of stats, he is the only infantry sword unit able to take defensive builds to the most extreme of levels with Fort Def/Res 3. Barrier Blade is the perfect weapon to pair with Helbindi's statline, as his def is so high and his res is almost its equal, allowing him to be near invicible in the enemy phase. Pair this with the Guard B slot (since no Guard sword exists) and the QR seal, and Helbindi becomes an enemy phase monster tearing through dragons and physical units alike, something his axe self can't do. Then again, the lifeguard doesn't have access to Hack O Lantern.

Helbindi's extreme levels of stats and access to skills lands him a slot at number 4, but who can be better?

3. S!Laevatain

Overview:

Summer Laevatain arrives with a similar statline to that of Helbindi - nonexistential speed but paid with such a high base attack stat and, for a mage, amazing defenses. In fact, Laevatain's attack stat is 2 more against Helbindi's, whilas losing 11 HP, 2 speed, 6 defense and 7 resistance. For a flying mage, this is a very rare statline and it makes Laevatain the perfect Quick Riposte flier, best suited for tanking units.

Such a high attack stat makes Laevatain the perfect for both raven and blade tomes. While she herself won't double units anytime soon, she comes with Mirror Impact, providing +6 atk and +10 res on initiation but most importantly it prevents enemies from doubling down on her when she initiates combat, negating the speed check unless the target has Null Follow Up. Her other base kit revolves around the Buoyboard weapon - a green mage weapon similar to Helbindi's Sandford Spade. Unlike Helbindi however, she comes with 2 ways to self-boost Buoyboard's effect - Smite + Def/Res Link and Odd Atk Wave. She can boost her def and res on demand, and also buff her attack at odd turns. Either way, it triggers Buoyboard's effect, so it works, cutting down on her investment cost. However, her best builds didn't even use Buoyboard as convenient as that is, because of the more powerful weapon options available.

S!Laevatain's unique base kit and statline leans towards either a defensive Quick Riposte build or offensive Impact-based sets, which will be discussed below.

Birds of Summer (Defensive Raven Nuke)

A simple Gronnraven build, this capitalizes on Laevatain's massive base attack to pull up double color effectiveness on both colorless and blue units. 36 base attack does mean that she doesn't need Triangle Adept to shore up her offenses, opening the slot for more reliable skills such as Atk/Def or Atk/Res Solo, Steady Stance/Warding Stance, or even her native Mirror Impact for dual phase utility. Everything else is basic - QR + Iote's Shield is a classic flier raven mage set to prevent bow effective damage and doubling them back and Odd Atk Wave boosts her attack.

Snaked Wyvern (Ranged QR Tank - )

This set tries to abuse S!Laevatain's monstrous defenses to good use with the Gronnserpent tome and the DD4 skill.

DD4 is optional, if you only have DD3 its serviceable as well.

Since Laevatain can dish out a lot of damage while also keeping defenses, the Gronnserpent + Iote's Shield combo turns Laevatain into a more generalized ranged tank than the raven build, trading dual color advantage for a Distant Def tome. Buoyboard can also work with this set, but it doesn't provide the resistance that Gronnserpent gives. Overall, this set provides 54 defense, 43 resistance and a Guard effect with DD4 on an odd turn, and 52 def + 41 res with DD3.

Summer Pyra tho (Offensive Blade Mage)

Although she can't hit two times as it is with most blade mages, Laevatain's access to Mirror Impact allows her to still be a one shot wonder. In fact, the only required fodder for this set is a Blade tome from 3-4* units, an optional assist skill and a special (preferably Bonfire or Blue Flame) whilas the rest of the skills are native to her. This set allows Laevatain to, at max investment, hit for 81 attack on odd turns and having a potential 28 blade tome bonus damage. With such a bonkers initiation offense, not being able to double is a fair price to pay. The alternate version of this set revolves around the Brashperation combo to make sure Laevatain can attack two times under the Desperation clause, bying the speed check entirely.

Summer Laevatain cuts through a new stage for low speed green flier nukes - focusing on attack and attack alone, and leave unnesecities behind. And also try to survive while doing it.

2. S!Lyn

Overview:

As much as I dislike having to put the obviouses on the top 2 slots, objectively speaking these are the best summer units this year courtesy of being able to do what the others could not.

Doesn't mean you have summon for them anyway but moving on

Speaking of which, I wonder how many bow Lyn alts we have. I feel like only 2 Lyns are not bows out of the many Lyns we have, so she must have something out of the crowd, does she? Well, she is a blue bow flier, so that's new, and she also sets a strong standard while doing it.

Summer Lyn is, by essentiallities, a more offensive version of Wings of Fate (WF!) Hinoka. Both units have armor-effective bows, allowing them to chip away at armor units while doing their jobs. However, the relations ends there. Whilas Warrior Princess s with its Drive Atk effect, Deep-Blue Bow gives all stats a 4 incombat boost when initiating an enemy with full health. Essentially this is a better version of the Ivaldi/Glepnir weapons, giving 1 more atk and spd and 4 of def and res allowing for safer initiations, especially paired with the Sturdy Impact A slot she comes with to prevent doubles.

Reposition + Atk/Spd Link turns her into a mini NY!Fjorm except Lyn is a fully fledged offensive unit, increasing the value of Desperation in the B slot. Odd Res Wave is probably the most common fodder she has if you don't feel like spending Aversas.

As a unit, she's great. As a fodder, she's just as awesome. The biggest thing holding her back is that although she has a great offensive statline, she still hits for defense, and the average defense value of meta units is higher to a certain mark-up value than resistance. This leaves her unable to effectively pierce high defense green and blue infantry dragons as well as infantry tanks in general such as Lukas, Oboro, Nowi, Fae, and defensive Female Kana builds without her special procing.

Sacaean Summer (Budget Sweeper)

This set I feel needs no introduction as the only SI you will need is Moonbow. You could use Desperation as her B slot, but as budget goes, this is literally a 1 SI Lyn with a Brazen Atk/Spd seal slotted in.

Lady of the Fish (Fishie Blow)

Lyn's absolutely great speed tier, even for a -spd Lyn, makes full use of Fishie Bow. I know I put a lot of Brazen Atk/Spd seals in my builds, but its definetly the best seal for offensive builds like Lyn, who HAS to run offensive builds because of her meh defenses. She could run Guard Bow, but being a colored bow doesn't help her into a jack of all trades tank.

Meanwhile, the set itself abuses speed to the point where even a -spd Lyn can still reach 49 speed, enough to double most of the cast in the game. There's frankly not much to say other than it speaks for itself.

Salty Wind Rush ( Sweep R)

This set is a bit more expensive in that since Lyn has so much initiation stats, she could free up her B slot for Ursula's B slot, Def/Res Ruse for even more safer kills with a Guard status effect applied on the opponent and a -5 def to boot. At max investment and a speed boon she hits a maximum of 77 (+5) attack, 62 speed, 31 defense and 38 res, pretty respectable for a sweeper.

Summer Lyn is probably the best bow flier in the game as of writing with her only bad notes being that she hits for defense and she has to contend with the weapon triangle unlike say, S!Takumi. But if you need an answer for armors on a flier team and doesn't feel committed to using dragon fliers like FGrima or Myrrh, S!Lyn is an alluring option.

Well, I guess you know who's number 1 by a large margin.

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1. S!Laegjarn

Overview:

In 2017, Summer Corrin was introduced to the game and brought with her a new breed of unit - fast blue mage fliers who dropped swords on top of its foes and then escape. They don't always drop swords however, but they often do so. For a long time, the white swimsuit beauty reigned, for she is the only unit in that class with desirable art and statline. Then 2018 came along and her Nohrian sister Camilla was introduced in a purple swimsuit, this time dropping cocktail bonqouis on top of units and then escape. This cocktail was so popular amongst the blue mage category as a viable replacement for sword dropping. However, despite dropping cocktails, many preferred Camilla to drop swords instead and with that set in mind Camilla took the throne from Corrin as the most desirable blue mage flier that dropped nukes. In 2019 however, the powercreep gates flooded and this time.. Laegjarn in the peacock swimsuit took her mantle.

When Corrin dropped the Surf to enemies and then escape and Camilla dropped the cocktail to then escape, the two still needed the Desperation skill to work around this. Laegjarn doesn't need any of that since her Worldsea Wave grants her the ability to fill in all her attacks before her opponent can attack if her health is above half. In other words, if she can double, she doubles before the opponent attacks. So she can strike and kill her enemies in a much safer position than the other 2 girls before. Sure she can drop swords and cocktails, but having this luxury shoots S!Laegjarn up the viability table.

Swift Sparrow 3 compounds this insanity by giving her an extra 7 speed when she starts combat. Don't bother with her enemy phase - she's not built for that, and let's give her some attack in the meantime too. This girl is just offensive fire, in a semi-literate sense. Her B and C skills, weirdly is the same as Summer Camilla - Flier Formation and Hone Fliers, giving her extreme mobility in a flier team with the ability to hop around the map or Reposition a team member out of danger.

Also, being a mage, she can hit for resistance, which overall has a lower average defending value compared to defense. She has to pay this with a lower bst count than her physical Lyn counterpart, but skills can usually make up the difference so in most parts this doesn't count as being a big problem. Overall, in of sheer power, no one beats Laegjarn at blue mage flier offense, a term coined well with destruction.

Peacock Swan (Budget Flier Nuke)

Like Lyn, the best way to built her is to not build her since her base kit is already strong. However, there are still rooms left for optimization. Worldsea Wave's reverse Desperation effect means that every special that can proc beforehand will be of great value to her, leaving Moonbow and Glimmer as cheap special alternatives. Both are great, but since we use the Heavy Blade seal to help accelerate the special proc, Glimmer is chosen since it scales well with the attack boosts we have with at least an Even Atk Wave from a Fallen Delthea. Flier Formation stays to help positioning and kills. This set also works in a flierball defense team as well if you don't have viable ranged fliers, although do note she will cost you quite a lot more orbs to pull compared to someone like Bath Camilla and Eir.

The Tran (Blarserpent Tank - Defy Expectations)

Who says blue mages can't be bulky?

Like her sister, Summer Laegjarn can run a ranged tank set courtesy of the Blárserpent tome. But unlike her sister, to pull this set off Laegjarn needs Distant Def 4, no buts as she starts 10 def and 5 res points away from her. This is a great surpise set since most people expect Laegjarns to be easy to kill only to see that most mages can't smash a 46 (+7 from Chill Atk) def and a 47 res supposed-to-be-offensive mage with a Guard effect to boot. Obviously this set sucks in the hands of the AI, but if you take control of this set, you'd probably laugh off your faces with this AR-certified set. She can also carry Dull Ranged too to stop blade tome Ninos, courtesy of her amazing speed tier.

Salty Heat Wave ( Donker)

This is a more expensive version of the set above since we rely more on the team's Hone and Goad Fliers to supply attack, so that Laegjarn can focus more on the donking with all the stat-boosting skills she has. The biggest changes are Blue Flame and t Hone Spd - they synergize together to prevent Laegjarn from being donked and doubled as often, dish out true damage to actually kill, and also giving more speed to always make Worldsea Wave hit before the opponent. You know, since stacking Brazen Atk/Spd is a legit thing to do in summer of 2019, she might as well keep up. The A slot is also open to Brazen Atk/Spd 4 if you prefer a more thinner line of the HP threshold of Brazen skills and Worldsea Wave.

Summer Laegjarn easily solidifies herself as the strongest blue mage flier, and if the calendar didn't show the rerun of Corrin and Camilla, Laegjarn easily shows them why.

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Whew, that's quite some units to go through. But surely, this summer's special units didn't dissapoint, and probably worth your orbs purely for the powercreep they give. However, the wise wait for the July Mythic banner lmao.

This is Retro, g out.