Nowi

+5 Merge
Earth Blessing
She is build up to be a physical tank able to even kill Flachion users or Adult Tiki.
When is necesary, I run Triangle Adept to make this color advantage over the Falchion even better for Nowi.
Anyway, I should get a +DEF -HP Nowi !

Who doesn't have Nowi? Seriously. This feisty little granny is built to eat arrows and falchions for breakfast. She's my third +10 and has served me well. If I have a healer on deck, I throw Bonfire on in place of Aether for giggles.

(Def boons is also acceptable in place of Res, but it'd be best to avoid a speed bane.)

This is a build I'd thought up strictly for the purpose of helping your friends in GC.

This builds main focus is to buff and debuff as well as some KO potential.

Nowi's defensive stat spread are enough that she would be able to take a few blows from the enemy (with the exception of well built 'effective against' units). This provides her the opportunity to facetank or initiate combat with the enemy, buffing all ally units within 2 spaces by 5 to all stats as well as reducing all enemy speed and attack by 7. Doing so will provide a suitable window for the player to cleanup with their own units.

Nowi's Bonfire/Distant counter/Quick Riposte are in place so she may kill opposing units in enemy phase should you choose to use her as a facetank. Her minimal speed at a neutral 27 provide more of an advantage in this scenario. It allows the enemy unit to double Nowi and for Nowi to double as well, having Nowi's Bonfire proc on her second turn, killing or badly injuring the enemy unit.

Preferred IV: +SPD/ -HP
Weapon: Dark Breath+ (+Spd) / Any other breath would work too though
Assist: Rally Def/Res / Any other skill your preference
Special: Miracle / Aether / Another preference
Passive A: Distant Counter
Passive B: Windsweep 3
Passive C: Atk Smoke 3
Sacred Seal: Phantom Spd 3

Getting into this you must first know that this Nowi set is designed in mind to be used on a arena defense team. Other skills could be changed if one plans to use it outside of arena defense.

Starting with her weapon for this set really any of the breaths would work. However, I would personally recommend Dark Breath+ or Water Breath+ with spd refine. The reason I have Dark Breath+ is for the debuff which is really helpful on arena defense. Water Breath+ would also work great since it will give Nowi and extra 4 res and def on enemy phase (since she won't likely be getting hit during player phase)

Her assist is a rally skill to prevent the units from overextending on defense. Any other assist would work depending on what you are using her for.

Now her special is where you may be thinking...Why? Well I run miracle simply to be an evil monster. So for that moment you think you've killed her she lives on 1 HP. Aether is a more practical special for most people, and obviously you could also use ignis or bonfire if you'd like. All up to you.

Now her lovely passive skills. A is distant counter to make up for the fact that we aren't running lightning breath so she can still beat mages, daggers, and archers. Now if you are running lightning breath for whatever reason you can change the A skill to something like steady breath, warding breath, etc. Her B skill is the meat of this whole set. Windsweep. For those who don't know what windsweep does if unit initiates and they are faster than the target the target can't counter attack (if they are using a lance, sword, or axe that is) In my eyes this gives Nowi a massive advantage on arena defense because the most common way to deal with a Nowi is to place a strong green unit to tank, and kill her. Now she won't die because they can't counter attack and give another opportunity for an ally to come and take out that green. It is also an uncommon skill that most people don't know what it does so it catches them off guard. Finally, the C skill. I run Atk Smoke to make her even harder to kill but any c skill would work as long as it complements the team. Last the sacred seal. I like Phantom Spd because it gives +5 Spd when the unit has a skill based off of speed, and every point of spd Nowi can get is helpful.

Now lets talk about her flaws. This set is by no means full proof, and there is plenty of units that could still beat her. The whole point of this set is to catch the opponent of guard, and throw them through a loop when there plans don't go accordingly. Anyways, to big units that will beat her are her dragon siblings. Myrrh and Legendary Tiki. Since windsweep doesn't work on dragonstones Myrrh and Leg Tiki can counter attack her when she attacks. Alm and other Falchion users can giver her a run for her money, but they can't tank her they have to make the move. Also Naga Tomes users may also do the trick but that is it.

If you actually read through all this thank you, and I hope it was helpful to you. Also, if you are wondering what team mates I use for this team it is Performing Arts Azura, Roy, and Katarina (I plan to swap Katarina out for Micaiah once I manage to pull one) so if you want to build around her you can use my team as a base if you'd like. But again thank you for reading.

Although this variant of Nowi is slightly different than the most common builds, she can actually be quite versatile with the +Res boon. She may not be able to specialize as well as +Def at physical tanking, or +Spd at avoiding doubles, but she has the capability to run Ploys extremely well against many powerful top-Tier units, which greatly contributes to her bulk. (Certain skills can be swapped out depending on what your team requires, and I will be mentioning them further on.)

Nowi can reach a solid 34 Def / 34 Res if the enemy initiates, before taking into account any merges, buffs, or in-combat skills. With an Atk Ploy 3 active, her effective Def and Res become 39 each. A standard +Def /-HP (or +Def / -Spd), Steady Breath, and Def-refined Nowi would reach 41 Def / 27 Res when the enemy initiates. When the two are compared, the Nowi that I suggested exchanges 2 Def for an additional 12 Res, which one may find useful.

For +Spd / -HP variants that run Spd-refine, Nowi reaches 33 Spd / 34 Def / 27 Res. Now, if one switches Atk Ploy 3 for Spd Ploy 3 for her C-Skill, then the +Res Nowi has an effective 32 Spd while maintaining her 34 Def / 34 Res. In exchange for 1 Spd, she gains 7 Res.

+Res Nowi can opt to double down on either her Def or Spd stat if she switches her Res-refined weapon for a Def-refined or Spd-refined one, respectively. 30 Res at base is good enough to Ploy against most of the advantageous match-ups that Nowi wants to take, such as Zelgius, Ayra, or Karla, or the plethora of units that like to take the -Res bane. To put into perspective her stats: Lightning Breath+ (+Def) with Steady Breath + Atk Ploy 3 + Close Def 3 gives Nowi an effective 45 Def / 41 Res against plenty of lower Res foes; meanwhile, Lightning Breath+ (+Spd) + Spd Ploy 3 and Drive Spd support from her team can put Nowi at an effective 38 - 44 Spd, depending on the number of allies with Drive Spd 2, while sporting her 34 Def / 30 Res. (Remember that all of these values assume a Nowi without any merges.)

The B-Skill was chosen because it was cheaper than promoting a unit for Quick Riposte 3, but one could run that skill and exchange the Seal slot for Distant Def 3, Close Def 3, or a different Ploy. If one prefers to keep Quick Riposte 3 in the Seal slot, but does not like running Renewal, then Guard, Vantage, or some sort of -Breaker skill can be used instead.