Florina

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +DEF / -HP or -SPD
• Weapon: Florina's Lance (+Eff)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Iceberg / Glacies / Aether
• Passive A: Fury / Steady Stance
• Passive B: Guard / Quick Riposte
• Passive C: Threaten Def / Def Ploy
• Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Atk Ploy

Florina naturally comes with a very nice kit for dueling armor teams, where she’s not as set back by her poor Speed as she is when facing off against other units. She is perhaps the best natural counter to Winter Tharja in the game due to her high Resistance, her color typing, and her effective weapon.

Due to the versatility in armor units, Florina’s IV set is therefore also flexible.  Increasing her Defense via her superboon or her A slot (or both) are good options for her to increase her dueling capability, and may be more valuable than Attack since her weapon is effective against armor anyway. However, against the bulkier armors, then she will need all the damage she can get, and a +ATK Florina will deal 5 more damage per hit.

Florina’s Lance does not activate when she is attacked by a ranged user, therefore a Florina using her native prf generally wants to focus on her melee engagements. This makes Fury an excellent A slot for her, as it increases her effectiveness in all forms of combat, increasing her Defense to easier tank hits, while also giving her a better Attack and manageable Speed stat. With +DEF -HP IVs, Florina ends up with 39/52/34/36/41 in melee combat. She can run Renewal in her seal slot to counteract the recoil damage from Fury, however, Guard may prove to be more effective for her niche.

Guard 2 can be inherited from a four star unit and is sufficient enough to suit her needs, as it can allow her to mitigate the effects of Bold and Vengeful Fighter skills on her armored opponents. Quick Riposte can therefore be utilized in her Seal Slot so that she can double faster armors in her Enemy Phase.

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +RES / -SPD
• Weapon: Berkut’s Lance+ (+Res)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Iceberg / Glacies
• Passive A: Distant Counter / Water Boost / Fury
• Passive B: Quick Riposte / Guard
• Passive C: Def Ploy / Hone Fliers
• Sacred Seal: Distant Def / Quick Riposte / Atk Ploy

Florina’s largest weakness is that her neutral stats don’t allow her to play to her strengths without heavy investment. A high Resistance stat is only suitable against manaketes or if the user has Distant Counter. Giving Florina such a high value skill may seem like a waste, but it allows her to be one of the best available mage counters.

With an effective Resistance stat of 46 (49 with Boon) when attacked by a ranged unit, Florina takes virtually no damage from most sources of magic and can even withstand being attacked by green mages or manaketes. When combined with a Special skill such as Iceberg or Glacies, Florina’s mediocre Attack stat is suddenly a force to be reckoned with and she’s capable of killing many units on retaliation. For this reason, Speed is chosen as her bane, as it ensures that she will be doubled by all but the slowest units, which guarantees an Iceberg proc.

Quick Riposte is her ideal B slot, though you can also run it in her Seal slot if you favor Guard over the Distant Def or Ploy Seals. Guard helps Florina to mitigate some of the potentially-lethal Special activations, particularly from armored mages who have access to Bold and Vengeful Fighter.

If she’s running as a standalone unit, Def Ploy helps to patch up her poor Attack markedly well, as it’s extremely likely that she’ll be able to activate it when baiting an enemy during Enemy Phase given that her neutral Resistance will be 38 with this build, 41 with a Boon in Resistance.

If you don’t have Distant Counter to invest, or if you don’t want to invest it in her, then this build loses most of its potency and you may want to consider a different weapon and skillset entirely; however, Fury or Water Boost can both help to recapture some of her effectiveness, and still allows her to deal with manaketes appropriately or bait mages without counterattacking.