Bartre

A build designed to take advantage of Bartre's high defence and allow him to become a physical tank.

IVs: +Atk/+Def, -Res/-Spd. Attack boon is still preferred, as Bartre could always use more power (and his defence will already be high enough as it is). If you want more tankiness, more Defence is also a good option. His Resistence is awful no matter what, so a bane won't affect him much, as he will still die or take heavy damage against just about any mage regardless.

Weapon: The Slaying Axe+ with the Defence refine is preferred to reduce the cooldown of Ignis. If on a budget, his Slaying Hammer can be used with the same Defence forge.

Assist: Smite is kept here, but the skill used is really up to what the player needs

Special: Ignis is the obvious choice here if using the Slaying Axe, doing 40-50 damage on activation; if using the Slaying Hammer, Bonfire would be better, doing around 20-25 damage. A 3 turn cooldown special is desired, for reasons explained below.

A Skill: Any defence-boosting skill will work here; Atk/Def Bond is chosen because Bartre functions mostly on the enemy phase, so positioning for it is easier; it also boosts his Atk and Def at the same time. On a budget, Earth Boost is a good choice, as Bartre's ridiculous HP stat will cause it to activate on most units.

B Skill: Quick Riposte is far and away the best option for Bartre's B skill. As Bartre is rather slow, many units will double him, which is what we want. With Quick Riposte, Bartre will make a follow-up attack after the opponent follows up. With a three turn cooldown special, this means Bartre will activate Ignis/Bonfire on the follow-up, killing most opponents immediately. Axebreaker is a decent alternative, ensuring wins against almost all axe opponents.

C Skill: There are two excellent choices for this skill, and both are designed to take advantage of his amazing HP. If Bartre is part of an infantry team, he will want to use Infantry Pulse, as there are almost no units who will have more HP than Bartre, meaning most infantry will have a lower special cooldown. If running in a mixed team, Panic Ploy may be a better choice. Few opponents will be able to match Bartre's HP, and will therefore be panicked.

Seal: Close Defence is the obvious choice here; an extra 6 Def on enemy phase against the melee units Bartre will be fighting is extremely helpful, both for taking less damage and for powering up Ignis/Bonfire.

Blessing: The fire blessing is the most obvious choice, providing 4 more Def and 3 more HP, though the earth blessing could also help, providing Bartre with more firepower.

Stats (+10, Summoner Support, weapon with forge included, skill effects not included):
63/59/31/43/16

Stats with skill effects included:
63/64/31/54/16

Summary: This build is designed to make Bartre into a wall against physical melee units. Bartre wants Atk and Def buffs from his teammates to further this role. Magic is still his greatest weakness, though this can be mitigated by proper positioning; if Bartre does get hit by magic, his high HP may save him regardless.

It's Bartre! And he's good this time! You wanna know why? Because he's FAST BARTRE. That's right, with a blessing he hits 41 speed without merges! He'll FUCK your armors up with his double attacks and INSANE effective damage! I've used him to clear Zephiel Infernal, NO SWEAT. Trained-up muscles? He's got it! Mustache? He's got it! Enormous hammer? HE'S GOT IT! Give this man a go—you won't regret it!

Merge: +0
Seal: Heavy Blade 3
Blessing: Fire

Mixed Phase Offensive Bartre

Slaying Axe+ (Spd)(Weapon)
A rather unorthodox weapon refinement of choice, but can work well for someone like Bartre as he has a superboon in Speed. In addition, he can make use of Specials like Bonfire and Draconic Aura quite nicely.

Reposition (Assist)
Very self-explanatory.

Bonfire / Ignis (Special)
Bonfire is the Special of choice since he would appreciate having a Special ready on the second hit while having Desperation in his current build. Otherwise, Ignis is a very solid option to go with.

Fury 3 (A-Slot)
One of the better budget skills. Thankfully, Bartre naturally comes with it, but Hinata has his available at 4 Star rarity. Regardless, this comes to play fairly nicely with Desperation.

Desperation 3 (B-Slot)
Something you would not expect to see on a average Speedy unit like Bartre. But when given the chance and have the necessary tools for inheritance and support, he is surprisingly fast.

Threaten Spd 3 (C-Slot)
A makeshift skill until Bartre gets his hands on Spd Smoke 3 or Odd/Even Spd Wave 3. This will help Bartre double against many units and safely double when in Desperation range.

Heavy Blade 3 (Sacred Seal)
Bartre's Attack is respectable enough that he is worthy of running this seal. He'll want a stat buff towards his Attack via Atk Tactic or Odd/Even Atk Wave and he'll wreck havoc.

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Pros:
- Good Attack stat as well as Defense, making him a good melee duellist
- Has amazing HP pool, which makes him a good user of Panic Ploy and Infantry Pulse
- One of the few units with the Hammer+ weapon, which can be upgraded into Slaying Hammer+ to better duel against ever popular Armored units in the arena

Cons:
- Requires heavy Skill Inheritance to be competent as his base kit does not help him in the slightest (outside of Fury and not engaging in combat with an Armored unit)
- Has non-existent Res, which makes him susceptible to even powerful Blue Mages like Reinhardt
- With neutral Speed IV, he is not that fast of a unit and will get doubled a lot of the time

A tank build for supporting an infantry blade mage. He protects himself with 44 def and guard on enemy phase while providing plenty of buffs. He will also charge ignis rather quickly for a strike with around 85 potential damage after ardent service's buff, depending on whether he launches it on player or enemy phase.

Alternative skills:

Assists: rally def, or rally def/res if not using a buffing seal

Specials: aether, or bonfire if not using steady breath. Aether is an attempt to regain guard by healing, but it can be problematic if he fails to OHKO and the opponent retaliates.

A-skills: atk/def bond, brazen atk/def

B-skills: QR, chill spd for maximum support, lancebreaker if the blade mage is red.

C and S: Hone spd should be in one or the other. The other slot can be for panic ploy, QR, def or res smoke, or even threaten def for when Bartre tries to OHKO someone with an ignis. Heavy blade is also an idea if not using steady breath.

Fast variation of this build: Bartre has a spd superboon available to him, and with a spd-refined weapon and atk/spd bond or spd/def bond, he achieves 37 spd before ally support, which is fairly good for preventing doubles, in which case he may want to use QR instead of guard. Chill spd also becomes significantly more effective in this build; against a spd-chilled unit he has the equivalent of 46 spd after ally support. The fast version of this build is especially attractive considering that most of the super-fast units in the game are swords that he doesn't want to tank anyways. The main weakness of going for spd is that bold fighter does not care about his spd and will launch a big bonfire or ignis anyways. Bartre may be able to get around this issue by using moonbow and simply attacking into the bold fighter to win on his own turn instead of sitting around and letting the bold fighter blow him up.

No explanation. This man has Sack o Gifts, Ardent Service, Slaying Axe, Brave Axe, Wo Gun, and Legions Axe. Debating on giving Aether since I sacked Shield Pulse to him for no real reason.