Brave Roy

With a Hone Cav. buff, Quickened Pulse and his Durandals effect Roy procs Galeforce on almost every single encounter that he doesn't straight up one shots. Surprisingly his -Def IV is actually helpful, making him take slightly more damage and thus getting him into Desperation range faster, in which he becomes unstoppable. Fury is used as a stat padder and to further decrease his health to Desperation range.

When the Brave heroes were first introduced, I immediately picked Roy. Roy is my favorite character of all time. Evidently, Roy does not have any boons or banes. I thought since he is so well-rounded, might as well give him Fury 3 and summoner support him.

Furthermore, I decided to keep desperation, add Hone Cavalry and equip Brash Assualt 3 seal. My friends ask me all the time, “Pendu, why would you do that?” The reason is that I believe with Desperation 3 and Brash Assault 3 Roy will be guaranteed a second attack without taking damage. It worked pretty well for me so far.

Galeforce is a big help to Roy. He can initiate with full HP get into the Desperation or even the Brash Assault Threshold and either get out of harms way or keep attacking. If being attacked does not put you into Desp and BA threshold, then Fury will help you.

Preferred IV spread: +Atk or +Spd / -Res

This set can be utilized in many aspects of the game. From the arena to chain battles, where the QP seal comes especially handy. It focuses primarily on Roy's splendid offensive spread as well as Blazing Durandal's amazing inbuilt Heavy Blade effect, which additionally also works well with the secondary atk+3 inbuilt effect.

Ultimately, an attack boon and resistance bane are preferred. The former is there to ensure the HB inbuilt effect taking place, next to the simple reason of dealing more damage. The latter is reasonable because Roy is meant to be a PP-focused unit, meaning that his resistance stat wouldn't be of much importance.

He is best run in a cavalry team, under a mandatory hone cavalry and a desirable fortify cavalry buff. Swift Sparrow is there to increase the damage dealt and to ensure doubling. Fury can be taken as a budget option, but as Roy is PP-based, it would mean 1 less attack and speed stat, which are the most essential, alongside Fury bringing the chip damage at the end of combat. Chip damage itself is not necessary bad, as it allows Roy to reach the Desperation range quicker, but in most match-ups, the quickness of HP drop is redundant.

QP is an excellent seal that allows Roy to hit ranged units when starting the battle and activate Galeforce upon doubling as well, not requiring to take a hit in return in order to activate the special. It also comes handy at chain battles, due to its presence ensuring the Galeforce activation, as long as he is capable of doubling the opponent and has a higher attack stat, which is usually the case under the effect of hone cavalry and SS on the PP.

Desperation allows hit-and-run or take-two-down tactics to be put into place without him taking any damage, should his HP be below 75% already. The hit-and-run tactic in specific works really well due to cavalry units being able to move 3 spaces, which results in him many times being able to move to safety after defeating the enemy, all while not taking any retaliation damage.

With his potential being best utilized in a cavalry team, he can contribute back with any cavalry emblem buff skill in his C slot. Looking at a pure PP-oriented cavalry team, he can pack hone cavalry to increase the devastating power of its allies.

He coordinates well with units such as Reinhardt, Brave Lyn and Elise. All can be utilized on the offensive, all while Elise also has the healing potential. With two units in the team packing hone and two fortify, or simply three hone and one fortify, Roy can find his place in such cavalry team composition extremely fitting.

This Brave Roy build is slightly tailored to fit on a mixed movement, Heavy Blade Tactic theme team with my Ephraim's build: [Flames of Restoration].
This build's name is: [Trailblazing with Second Winds]

He will be assuming a +10 merge with +Spd -Res as his ideal IVs. After equipping Blazing Durandal and the SS, his stats are:
42 HP/55 Atk (59 when initiating)/44 Spd (48 when initiating)/30 Def/25 Res.

The reasoning for his IVs is because I prioritize having Roy get a follow-up during his first bout to proc a guaranteed Galeforce; thus having more speed is more important. While Attack is generally Roy's most important boon, thanks to having built-in Heavy Blade to his Blazing Durandal, I have Myrrh's Atk Tactic, and possibly Genny's Atk Ploy SS to more than make up for an extra 3 attack from an Attack boon.
(Refer to my other Tactic team members' builds; Genny: [Wrathful Sheep on Fire], and Myrrh: [I'm a Great Dragon so I can Breathe Great Flames!... You Don't Need to Pet Me])

While I would normally vouch and praise for Brazen Atk/Spd for a multitude of Desperation and Brash Assault units, I feel like Roy's role is relegated to activating Galeforce after his first round of combat for both the extra mobility in retreating, or the chance to attack once more. After he falls below 75% HP, he will never activate Galeforce after just one round of combat; and if he is in the awkward spot of being just shy of 75% HP, then he better have enough bulk to stomach another hit for a Galeforce proc. And like I mentioned before, being able to double before he enters Desperation range (and thus before Brazen Atk/Spd range) allows him to eat a counter before following up, and proccing Galeforce.

Therefore, Roy's A slot choices are relegated to skills that give consistent stat buffs regardless of HP thresholds. The ones that came to mind were Life & Death, Darting Blow, Fury, and Swift Sparrow.
With my reasoning in the section above, I couldn't give Roy access to Ardent Sacrifice lest he gives up the opportunity for turn/bout 1 Galeforce; thus Life & Death cripples Roy's defenses and makes it difficult to safely fall into Desperation range.
Darting Blow gives the best shot at doubling out of all the aforementioned possibilities, and while I did mention that being able to double is key, we can't completely ignore the Heavy Blade effect.
Fury is probably Roy's best option at falling into Desperation range due to the after combat damage, and gives a respectable all-around boost to his stats.
Personally, I found Swift Sparrow to be the best middle ground. While it doesn't have the after combat damaging effect to help gently fall into Desperation Range, his bulk isn't compromised either, so getting below 75% HP safely, isn't going to be a major concern for him. Having the extra +1 Attack and Speed is also very crucial for a Heavy Blade user like Roy.

Atk Smoke is his C slot of choice, and you may be asking "Well, why not opt run another Tactic skill?" I felt that it simply wasn't Roy's role to be a supporter that moves after someone else. I didn't want him to be copping Siegbert's style, and because he is the vanguard for my mixed movement team. Everyone else on the team (Genny, Ephraim, and Myrrh) would prefer to mitigate damage so as not to die and/or fall out of their HP thresholds, and so having the enemy suffer a -7 attack debuff before anyone else enters combat, is major plus. Not to mention, that I don't need multiple users of the same Tactic skill (since if you've been paying attention to my other team members, and their skills, you'll find that I have Def Tactic on Ephraim and Atk Tactic on Myrrh).
I also opted out of Spd Smoke since none of the other team members are particularly concerned with the speed stat (Genny will be fine with Speed Ploy and especially once she's in Vantage range). Roy can also opt for the Brash Assault SS instead of the Speed +3 SS if the extra stat isn't necessary. BA can help his Desperation game out, and overall nullify the need for a speed debuff that he provides himself.

Thanks for reading!

Because he is -spd, I really don't like how he gets double by basically everything, even if he is the attacker. If I got a better IVs Brave Roy, I would obviously build him. Desperation+Brash Assault does make him be a whole lot better.