Fire Emblem Heroes Wiki:Build Center/Arthur: Hapless Hero

Quick Hero Info

Type
Stats
43 / 32 / 29 / 30 / 24
Exclusive skills
Arthur's Axe

Optimal All-purpose Very high investment Drop Speed

Slaying Axe+ (Res)  Reposition  Ignis / Glacies Traits: +Res/-Spd  Distant Counter  Guard 3  Atk Ploy 3  Quick Riposte 3

A description has not been written for this build yet.

Optimal All-purpose Very high investment Steady Justice

Melon Crusher+ / Slaying Axe+  Reposition  Ignis Traits: +Def/-Res  Steady Breath  Quick Riposte 3  Flexible / Flexible  Flexible

A description has not been written for this build yet.

Alternative All-purpose High investment Standard Brave

Brave Axe+  Reposition / Flexible  Luna Traits: +Atk/-Res  Death Blow 3  Axebreaker 3 / Lancebreaker 3  Flexible  Attack +3

Click to show/hide build description  Standard Brave weapon build for Arthur. He has relatively good attack but poor speed, so the speed penalty from  Brave Axe+ won't change much. Unfortunately, he is typically outshined by other high Atk, low Spd Green Axe users (eg. Cherche) who get more mileage out of this build than Arthur does. However, this build will still pose a decent threat to most Blues, a handful of Greens, and a few low Def Reds. As a brief rundown, since this is a Brave build, focus on increasing his Atk stat as much as possible to maximize his Brave weapon damage output. With this thought, take +Atk as his boon while taking -Res as his bane (since he shouldn't be facing much magical combat). -HP and -Spd are ok options as well, but -HP hurts both his physical and magical matchups while -Spd has -4 on the bane. For more Atk, we choose  Death Blow 3 with its +6 Atk to be his A-slot passive and take the  Attack +1. With this setup, he takes care of almost all except the tankiest of Blues. Next we want him to be able to handle units of his own color - namely Green Axe users - so we choose  Axebreaker 3 to allow him to quadruple attack and take care of most other axe users. His default  Lancebreaker 3 can also be chosen instead to focus on eliminating tankier blue lances as well. For his special,  Luna is the standard choice on Brave Builds. Arthur's Def is not really high enough to merit Bonfire, but it could be considered another option. His C-slot and Assist skills are flexible. Assist positioning skills such as  Reposition are recommended though as they provide utility for a team to expand range of movement. For Arthur's C-slot, this is typically based on what a team needs. To increase the number of solo wins he can achieve with Brave build,  Threaten Def 3 is also a viable option but can be difficult to activate or plain unnecessary in a ranged unit meta.

Alternative Assault Medium investment Budget Arthur

Emerald Axe+  Swap / Flexible  Moonbow / Bonfire Traits: +Spd/-HP  Fury 3 / HP +5  Lancebreaker 3 / Quick Riposte 2  Flexible  HP +5 / Squad Ace A 3

Click to show/hide build description  This build focuses on trying to use as much of Arthur's base kit as possible. Thanks to Emerald Axe+, his decent Def and not entirely dreadful Res, he makes a solid blue tank. This is mostly useful in Arena Assault where you know what you're going up against because who doesn't want another cheap Reinhardt bait? Since we're sticking with his budget kit,  Emerald Axe+ is chosen as his weapon of choice. With it, he can tank almost all meta blues with ease (only exception being fully buffed Corrin (F) (Nohrian Summer).  Fury 3 is a relatively budget option found on 4  Hinata which gives him much needed stat boosts all-around offensively and defensively. His default  HP +5 can still be kept if a player does not have access to Fury, but this hurts him twofold in that he loses not only Def/Res for tanking, but much needed Spd to help him not get doubled as well. He also appreciates the extra Atk from Fury as well since he will lose out on a handful of player phase KOs without it.  Lancebreaker 3 can be kept as his default option to deal with both tanky and speedy blues, inclusive of Effie and the high Spd Blue Lance fliers (eg. Tana).  Axebreaker 3 is also an option as well to gain wins on speedier axes such as Camilla, variants of Minerva, Amelia, and Titania. It also prevents Hector's Armads' effect from going off, but Arthur will still have trouble dealing with tankier greens regardless of what he takes.  Quick Riposte 3 ventures into less budget territory but can pick up the win on both the aforementioned blues and greens on enemy phase but lacks the flexibility of player phase KOs.  Quick Riposte 2 can also be used instead as a cheaper alternative to QR3. Passive C is left flexible based on team composition although Hone Attack or Hone Speed are both buffs teammates can appreciate for a quick go-to option. His default  Swap is fine, but can be replaced by other assists if preferred. For his special, either  Moonbow or  Bonfire are fine, whichever is available. The former activates more often and helps him pickup wins he barely misses out on without while the latter has a more hefty damage boost due to his 33 Def, picking up even more wins when active. For his IVs, take +SPD since although his Spd is not exceptional, +Spd will still help him tank more things. With +Spd and Fury, he sits at 35 Spd which isn't terrible. For his bane, -HP is the preferred choice since a bane in any other stat hurts his matchups. Additionally, a -HP bane can be patched up with  HP +3 or  Squad Ace A 1, so it hurts less than other banes.

Optimal All-purpose High investment Unluckily Lucky (or is that Luckily Unlucky?)

Arthur's Axe (Skill)  Reposition / Swap  Luna / Aether Traits: +Res/-HP  Fury 3 / Atk/Spd Push 4  Desperation 3 / Null Follow-Up 3  Odd Res Wave 3  Even Res Wave 3

Click to show/hide build description  Arthur got perhaps his only lucky moment in his entire existence by winning the refine lottery - not only it brings him a +3 boost to all stats when he has a visible buff, but he also gets +5 to all stats during combat when his HP is below 100% or he gets struck with a penalty! This essentially turns an initially brutally outclassed unit into a behemoth of destruction who can use the massively inflated stats in order to wreck havoc on everything, while also benefitting of a leveraged resistance to Panic. As a result, he's one of the best users of Fury and its related skills, given the damage it deals every initiation, allowing him to duel most units without a problem. Because of this, any boosting IV will work, bar perhaps HP, which doesn't directly benefit from Arthur's weapon unless you're trying to avoid Panics. Even his Resistance can be considered as a potential increase, given the superasset bringing it to an alright base 28 and improving his arena scoring. For a special choice, Luna helps him blast through high defense units he might have trouble against, while Aether is for the Arena score if you really do bother about that mode. Atk/Spd Push or Fury allow him to get into <100% HP range after one initiation, but also offer a well-needed stat increase to him; The bump to his offenses that Atk/Spd Push offers is great, but Fury grants all his stats a flat boost, allowing him to avoid Ploy-related effects running rampant better, especially if he runs +Res. Given his HP will quickly drop due to his A skill, Desperation allows him to chain hits and become capable of 2HKO'ing what would kill him in retaliation, while Null Follow-Up does the "Cannot Make Follow-up Attacks" in. Double Wave allows him to keep the stat increase granted by bonuses permanently while the choice of Res is both because the Odd variant is available on Aversa, a free unit, and the higher Res improves his ability to escape ploys and duel dragons. As a reference, with that set and under 100% HP, an unmerged Neutral Arthur reaches an Atk/Spd/Def/Res of 47/44/38/38 during combat with Atk/Spd Push active (or 43/40/41/41 with Fury 3), which is certainly not too shabby for a launch unit like him. While having spent years in the shadows of the misfortune that Gem weapons are, Arthur finally gets the chance to shine he's always deserved. Congratulations on never giving up, you legendary Hapless Hero you! Miguling (talk) 15:51, 5 December 2019 (UTC)