Ninian

For the Times I need a dancer in arena, I wanted to have a somewhat defensive dancer who could survive a few hits and maybe be a Reinhardt check (but that would mean switching close def 3 with distance def 3).

Extra Skills:

Support:
Special:
A:
B: Escape Route 3
C: Fortify Dragons/Fortify Def 2

Merged +1

Hope to give her Light Breath+ refined +Speed or +Attack. Also a better special, maybe Aegis/Sacred Cowl or Glimmer/Moonbow

Dancers are absolutely invaluable for teams that use them, particularly in game modes where they will need extended survivability, such is the case for Tempest Trials, Chain Challenges and Rival Domain maps. Ninian has something that no other dancer thus far has, access to the Water Breath+ weapon. As soon as Kana came out, (rest in peace young dragon) I knew that Ninian would have the capabilities to outperform many other dancers, just by being able to stay alive longer. Unlike some of the more popular dancers, such as Azura (Preforming Arts) and New Years Azura, Ninian boast a bit of natural tankiness, she has a relatively high base HP and resistance, with just enough speed to deny double hits from most oponents. However, her attack is absolutely God awful, so we simply wont focus on that. The idea of this build is to bring out the best of the qualities to essentially create a tank dancer that simply refuses to die.

*Weapon- Water Breath+ (Def):*
So water breath is pretty much essential for tank Ninian to work because it give a good burst to her defense and resistance if she is attacked by the opponents. Defence plus because I find that the more common threats seem to be physically based fighters, such as Falcon, bows, daggers, and lances.

Assist skill- Dance:
Self explanatory.

Special- Miracle/Aether:
Now the special is actually rather flexible, I prefer Miracle so its there to save Ninian on the chance that the opponent eats through her defenses with a special proc, such as Ignis, Glacies or Black Luna. Aether is really there to help out for Arena score, dont expect to deal too much damage with it though since we are running minimal attack Ninian. The healing that it provides could prove useful at times.

Skill slot A- Brazen Def/Res 3:
So yeeeea, I guess now would be a good time to mention that I sacrificed Kana twice for Ninian, once for the weapon, twice for the A skill. BUT I still think its worth it. When Ninian is below 80% hp, suddenly she just became much harder to kill, increasing her defensive values even further by an invisible stack of seven each, which is huge because she can still have her defensive stats increased even further by fortify skills. Because of Ninian's high hp value, it leave a decent amount of room to reach the threshold for this ability to be active, 35 if its a neutral stat.

Skill Slot B- Renewal 3
For the B Slot there arnt too many opions to support tank Ninian, so I give her Renewal three to help her sustain when in battle. From time to time the renewal may clash with Brazen def/res because it heals above the threshold, but more often that not, its a lifesaver. I also find that it also works quite well with Miracle, because when Ninian is at lower hp values shes super tanky, and gains charges just fast enough for Miracle to save her. However, if you're really feeling it, you could also run Guard 3 to prevent opponents from gaining special charges, but just know it doesn't overlap with Brazen def/res because it stops at 80%.

Skill slot C- Flexible
You could honestly do whatever you want here, I only have foritfy dragons because I use a dragon Emblem team. You could run Threaten Attack, maybe a smoke skill, she even has enough resistance to run ploy skills if you decide on that. There are far too many options to really recommend one. However, if I were to not use fortify dragons, then I would personally use Panic Ploy, because more often then not, I find that Ninian has more HP then most of the squishy targets that stack a lot of stats to kill their target, especially blade tome users.

Sacred seal- Fortress Defense/Fortress Resistance:
This one is also fairly flexible, I run fortress defense because it's a good solid defense buff the increase her survivability even further while also safely lowering the attack that she honestly doesn't need. You could also run close/distant defense as well as they are also very strong, however, those seals are very powerful and may be better used on other units.

So thats my explanation on of Ninian. Do bear in mind that there are numbers based on raw stats, no merges, and no supports, so that means that there is still room to make Ninian even stronger. If you like this Ninian build, feel free to go for it, just make sure Corrin isnt in the room when this happens.

This set makes her an effective attacker whenever she's forced into combat, while also still retaining her support capabilities. -HP while is pretty detrimental when running HP based skills like Infantry pulse, refined breath attacks give her +5 HP to increase her bulk, putting her HP at a solid 44 which can be increased further with summon supports and merges.

Wings of Mercy 3 let's her teleport and dance to an injured ally while Steady breath+Quick Riposte seal let's her be a good attacker. Aether increases her scoring potential, but if one wants cheap alternative then using Moonbow is good.

A build that ditches all damage in exchange for bolstering defenses as much as possible.

Weapon of choice is interchangeable, as Ninian preferably will not be attacking. Light Breath is the budget choice, as it is her default weapon.

+Def boon, double Fortress Def (Fortress Def Seal hasn't been listed yet), and +Def weapon refinement bring Def to a respectable 40.

Wings of Mercy is standard for dancers.

Fortify Dragons lets her support her Manakete allies to the fullest.