Camilla

• Preferred IV: +SPD / -HP
• Weapon: Camilla’s Axe (+Eff)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Moonbow / Iceberg
• Passive A: Fury / Swift Sparrow / Close Defense
• Passive B: Desperation / Axebreaker / Quick Riposte
• Passive C: Goad Fliers / Spd Tactic
• Sacred Seal: Drive Attack / Hone Spd / Def Tactic

Camilla’s new axe refine allows her to be a true wyvern general, offering stat boosts to both her allies and herself when she has a cavalry or flier ally within a 2 square range. Because these buffs are in-combat, they can be stacked exponentially, which helps Camilla to support her flier allies to an obscene amount, with a potential +10 to Attack and +7 to Speed from two spaces away, both of which can be further stacked by a Hone buff from another ally. This makes Camilla the ideal partner for a Firesweep user on your flier team.

If not using fliers then there’s no need to fret; Camilla can still offer significant buffs to cavalry allies through the use of Tactic skills.  If the conditions for her tactic skills are met, Camilla can buff her cavalry allies with +3 to Attack, +9 to Speed and +6 to Defense- though her Tactic buffs in this case would be field buffs and are not stackable with Hone or Fortify cavalry.

Camilla herself is a generalist, which is not something that’s significantly helped by her legendary axe, though it does help her to hold her own in combat against newer units.  Despite having 16 mt and increasing her Attack and Speed by 4 with nearby allies, Camilla only hits 50 Attack and 36 Speed when her proximity conditions are met. She benefits immensely from a Speed boon, which both reduces her chances to be doubled in Enemy Phase, while also increasing the odds that she can double in Player Phase.

Otherwise, her A and B slot skills depend on how you’d like to play her. A Player Phase Camilla with a +Spd IV would prefer a stat boost to her Speed, and can hit 42 with Fury and 43 with Swift Sparrow. If she can use Fury and get an ally with Goad Fliers in proximity to her Camilla turns into a very respectable fast axe unit with a 57/46 Attack/Speed.  Hone fliers would improve this further, but limits you somewhat with regards to positioning.

Fury also helps to improve Camilla’s mixed tank defenses, offering her an impressive ability to tank both melee and dragons.  Camilla is a go-to when running into issues like Nowi, and can successfully bait her and attack twice with the counterattack. If using Camilla as a bait unit in the Enemy Phase, you may want to spring for Iceberg instead of Moonbow and look at increasing her mixed defenses with skills like Close Defense, which would offer a +Spd -HP Camilla a stat spread of 34/54/39/34/37 with a nearby ally (but before any other buffs).  Her Speed ensures that she won’t be doubled, unless she runs into a Bold Fighter unit, and her mixed defenses help her to survive any one hit in order to retaliate with a strong +19 damage Iceberg.

Speaking of Bold Fighter, Camilla is also capable of handling units like Winter Chrom, Hector, and LA!Hector if she packs an Axebreaker in her B slot instead of Quick Riposte. Axebreaker cancels out Bold Fighter and reverts to a Speed check, which Camilla will win easily (though be wary of Amelia and Winter Lissa, who can creep up to Camilla’s Speed range if pushed).

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +RES / -HP
• Weapon: Slaying Axe (+SPD) / Slaying Axe (+RES)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Iceberg / Moonbow
• Passive A: Distant Counter / Fury
• Passive B: Quick Riposte / G Tomebreaker
• Passive C: Def Ploy / Spd Ploy / Buff of choice
• Sacred Seal: Distant Defense / Iote’s Shield

Camilla can take a +RES IV, a Slaying Axe with a RES forge, and a Distant Defense seal to increase her Resistance to 44 in the Enemy Phase, allowing her to be a formidable magic tank at range. Through this, Camilla is capable of erasing popular threats in the arena, such as Reinhardt, Linde, and Cecilia.

Increasing Camilla’s Speed via her IV and forge can result in her avoiding doubles from units who otherwise might KO her.  Her Resistance falls to 37 in order to bring her Speed up to 38. This allows her to avoid doubles from Linde, Nino, a +SPD Rhajat, and Delthea.  Furthermore, this increases her viability in melee combat, when she does not have her Distant Defense buffs in play.  Buffing her Speed allows her to focus more on being a generalist by slightly reducing her efficacy as a ranged magic counter.

Quick Riposte ensures an Iceberg proc whenever she is attacked, which maximizes her damage to compensate for her poorer attack value.  This typically allows her to KO her opponent, particularly if she’s being attacked by a mage with lower defense.  Alternatively, she can utilize G Tomebreaker to survive +SPD Nino who, if fully buffed, will pose a threat to a Camilla who focuses on Speed over Resistance.

For her C Slot, Camilla can utilize her Resistance for Defense Ploy and further increase the damage she does to her opponents.  Alternatively, she can attempt to utilize Speed Ploy to further prevent doubles against her in Enemy Phase while increasing her odds of doubling her opponents during Player Phase, taking a +SPD build to an effective speed of 43.

Finally, Camilla generally wants Distant Defense in her Seal slot, which will assist her in her ranged countering ability.  Her natural Defense stat of 28 generally isn’t enough to survive units such as Brave Bow Lyn, however, it’s still enough to survive and counter other archers, such as Faye. Brave Bow Bridal Cordelia cannot KO an Iote’s Shield Camilla without Life and Death, however, if Camilla has defensive buffs then she can easily survive and counter KO.

• Preferred IV: +RES or +DEF / -HP or -SPD
• Weapon: Slaying Axe (+DEF) / Handbell (+DEF)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Glacies / Ignis / Aether
• Passive A: Fury / Close Defense / Distant Counter
• Passive B: Quick Riposte
• Passive C: Def Ploy / Hone Fliers / Goad Fliers
• Sacred Seal: Close Defense / Attack Ploy

While Michalis and Beruka have higher Defense stats, Camilla beats them out in Resistance without sacrificing too much of her own Defense. This allows her to run a mixed tank build, which is further complemented by her green typing.

With a +DEF Slaying Axe and a +RES IV combined with Fury and Close Defense Seal, Camilla runs a defensive statline of 41/44, which, when combined with her neutral speed, can easily shut down bulky, slow threats such as Nowi, Hardin, Effie, and Cordelia without breaking a sweat. For a more specialized AA build, Emerald Axe is a favorite to use with her, as it allows her to completely wall off blues from harming her.

Quick Riposte is essential if you’re not investing in her Speed, as it will guarantee her doubles in the enemy phase, when Close Defense is active.  With a Speed bane and Fury (32 Speed), if she’s doubled against then she can have a guaranteed Glacies proc on her second retaliation.  Ignis should only be chosen as her special if you invest heavily in her Defense to make it higher than her Resistance.

Quick Riposte and Fury are often at odds with one another, as Fury can get her below the QR threshold after a combat or two. To this end, Aether can be a good special to run since it will help her to heal back the HP loss and reenter Quick Riposte range.

As mentioned, Def Ploy is effective, particularly on a +RES Camilla using Fury, and will hit a majority of the units she comes across to reduce their defenses and allow her to exploit them.  If your Close Defense seal is already in use then you can compromise with an Attack Ploy seal, which can reduce the enemy’s Attack by 5 on a successful debuff.  This serves almost the same and as Close Defense (though the enemy would do 1 additional damage) and works at any range.

Handbell (or Sack O’ Gifts) is a high-investment sacrifice that can further boost Camilla’s rounded stats during Enemy Phase.  She can use either weapon, Fury, merge levels, and Summoner Support to raise all of her stats a massive +11 before buffs, which eliminates many of her weaknesses.