Kagero

With the meta shifting over to more and more horse and flier units, Kagero has had a slight fall from grace as one of the more prominent offensive colorless units. Don't get it twisted though, Kagero shouldn't be slept on as she will completely maim any Infantry unit that dares to do so.

Kagero prefers an Atk boon as she can net more ORKOs on infantry with Life and Death/Death Blow. With Life and Death/Windsweep (Watersweep)/Phantom Speed Sacred Seal, Kagero can ensure that she has enough speed to activate Windsweep to circumvent DC users and ranged Vantage units.

Savage Blow is taken as the C skill of choice for spread damage against non-infantry units, but she can opt to run Threaten Def as well.

In the case that you want her to act as a mage killer on both player and enemy phase, a Fury/Vantage/Atk or Quickened Pulse Seal build will suffice.

My debuffing Kagero build. With Emblem teams a common encounter in the arena, I swapped the 5MT Poison Dagger+ for a 9MT Smoke Dagger+. Paired with Def Ploy and Atk Ploy Seal, Kagero is still able to KO many heroes, and also gets some important horse kills, such as Reinhardt. Smoke Dagger debuffs other nearby enemies so teammates can easily dispatch. Vantage could be subbed out for Bowbreaker if Brave Lyn is also an issue for your team.

Recommended to run along side buffers, such as Eirika, Ephraim, and/or Brave Lucina.

Life and Death 3 guarantees ORKOs on all common B!Ike variants, DC or Steady stance for all of the IVs as long as Kagero has been honed and B!Ike has been threatened and disregarding merges and fortifying effects. Without a hone, Kagero only beats non-DC B!Ike.

Cancel Affinity is meant to take out TA Raven mages in the arena who are sometimes run on defense. She certainly demolished TA MRobin. While not immediately common, TA Raven+ Camilla has been seen on defense teams and Kagero can manage to bait and kill this Camilla. Similarly with TA Raven+ Cecilia who are sometimes seen over their blade counterparts.

The key draw of this Kagero is the ability to eliminate B!Ike in one round player phase--something only red mages and specifically designated Axebreaker redlords can also lay claim. The benefit is that after a hone, she also is capable of one-shotting common threatening melee like Fury 3 Ryoma, Ike, B!Lucina, and Ephraim who remain on strong common defensive cores. She is also capable of even baiting out Raven Mages who have begun to appear on certain team comps.

While a niche pick, she certainly can still carry her weight against typical balanced defense teams who will usually carry one of the aforementioned threats and pairs well in a team composition with a specialized DPS capable of tearing through Armored units and potentially flier units. Units like Reinhardt and C!Lyn come to mind, who much appreciate B!Ike's removal, and in BB+ C!Lyn's case, Fury3 Ryoma who can potentially tank BB+ C!Lyn.

Just as a note my Kagero is a Level 40+1, so her HP and ATK is a bit higher. So as you can see she has a great boon in ATK which is what you really need if you want to run her however my previous one was -ATK and she worked just fine with the help of some buffs.

First off her weapon is what makes her awesome, because it does bonus damage to infantry units which at least at this point in the game is at least 50% of units in the game are that. So the chances of running into one are really good. Just keep in mind that if you run into Robin (M) or Cecilia and armor units stay away! Those are three of Kagero's biggest threats but outside of that she can also hold her own against cavalry and flier units as well.

As for her A Passive I chose to run Life and Death 3, a very expensive ability and LoD2 could work just as fine. I have her set up as a glass cannon of sorts, try and do as much damage in one go, you could go Death Blow 3 but i prefer to have the extra 5 SPD and having the extra DEF and RES isn't going to help her in the long run. for other options Fury 3 can work especially if you are running Desperation 3.

The only one skill that should be on her is Desperation 3, the fact that she is a glass cannon unit you need to make sure that she can kill a unit every time she attacks.

For her C Slot it can vary, Threaten Spd, and Def are the two best IMO. However Hone abilities like ATK, SPD or DEF can also work to support other allies. And if you want to be a little different Savage Blow could be fun as well.

As for her support skill I recommend Ardent Sacrifice if she has a bane or neutral HP stat but if she has a boon in HP maybe Reciprocal Aid, this is to ensure she gets to the Desperation threshold.

The final skill I have yet to mention is the Special ability which can be a variety of but the best one would be Moonbow due to its low charge time but if you have a +SPD and LoD3 with a Quickened pulse seal you could run luna instead.

A player-phase Kagero build designed to counter -raven tome threats.

TA3 Robin obviously gets shrekt by this Kagero, but this also enables her to attack some of her hard counters like mounted raven mages. Cecilia is the most common, but -raven Reinhardts/Olwens/Leos are not unheard of.

Obviously with full horse meme buffs, it might be unwise to attack mounted mages with this ninja, but the AI isn't all that great at keeping its horse friends together.

+Atk is chosen for the boon, because unless you run L&D3 or Darting Blow 3, Kagero won't double all that often and, crucially, won't need to double all that often thanks to her weapon.

With +Atk, she can one-shot units that would cause her grievous harm on the counterattack like Ryoma, whom she will be unlikely to double even with +Spd unless she runs the risky L&D build — and even then, you will need Desperation to land the second attack. Not really worth it.

-HP is taken as a boon, given that her HP is pretty awful anyway, but -Def won't hurt much either. -Res would be unfortunate, as 28 res is good enough to bait a lot of infantry mages with, given that she'll one-shot them and thus not worry about being doubled by them.

Poison Dagger+ should need no explanation. It's about the only thing that makes a dagger unit viable as an offensive unit.

Draw Back is selected for the assist because I think it works best with ranged units, while Reposition works best with melee units. They both work fine with either unit type, but considering your ninja will likely be behind your melee units, Draw Back can help get them out of harm's way while not compromising your ninja's position.

Draconic Aura is selected because Kagero's attack stat, with DB3 and her weapon included, will hit 49, yielding 16 extra dmg if you're initiating the attack. Luna works just as well. Moonbow is never a bad thing but might not secure a decisive amount of extra damage, especially considering that Kagero will spend a fair amount of her time attacking fairly squishy units.

For the A-slot, Death Blow 3 plays to her strengths and to the recommend approach when using this build, and if you wanted her to have a little extra punch and more res-tankiness for enemy phase then go with Fury in the A-slot.

For the B-slot, Cancel Affinity because that's what this build is all about. It might seem like a big sacrifice, sending Mathilda away, but she's available as a 4* and she's pretty much garbage as a unit anyway. Sad, considering how OP she should have been.

The C-slot is flexible. Threaten Def 3 works nicely, or you could go for a Hone/Fortify depending on your play style. Breath of Life is even an option if you haven't anything else to give her and need an incidental healer.

Obviously Vantage is king when it comes to baiting, but if you want -raven coverage, you'll need to play Kagero more offensively.

It is worthwhile, too, as raven tomes are fairly common and Robin, while hardly defining the meta like Reinhardt, is a common adversary because of his multiple uses within a team as red and colorless check.