Sheena

The Great Wall of Sheena

This girl is arguably one of the most powerful tanks Heroes has to offer when built right. Standard thoroughfare for assist skill is Swap, especially when Sheena is in an Armor Emblem team. She can benefit from any Speed bane IVs since her main objective is to tank hits, even a neutral can be used to great effect. While she does rely on her specials to deal damage, that doesn't mean Sheena should be overlooked.

Sheena is incredibly versatile when it comes to tanking, so her weapon is pretty much what suits your tastes. Her native Slaying Axe+ speeds up the charge time for Aether, Winter Chrom/Lissa's weapon adds to her stats during the enemy phase, a refined Carrot Axe+ gives her more tanking power thanks to the constant healing that goes on and removing the need to run Aether, and she can be a surprisingly good support unit for Armor Emblem teams if she is given a Hagoita+ which can stack with her Ward Armor. All of her weapons should be Defense refined unless she has a Defense boon, in which case a Resistance refine is needed to keep her incredibly balanced.

Her A-skill is Distant Counter, which will allow her to deal with any long-range threats that aren't Axebreaker units or Brave Lyn. Even with neutral Resistance and Speed IVs, it is possible for her to take a hit from Sanaki and be able to KO her on the counterattack.

Sheena's B-skill is Vengeful Fighter, which combined with Distant Counter makes her a nightmare to face in battle. Because of the faster charge time VF3 gives, it will allow her Ignis/Glacies/Aether to be fired off every time she is attacked provided her opponent isn't faster than her or has Axebreaker as their B-skill.

The C-skill is incredibly flexible and depends on what team she's being placed in; Ward Armor is for Armor Emblem teams or mixed teams with at least one other armor, Threaten Atk 3 increases her survival chances, and Threaten Def 3 to make her specials hit with a lot of force.

Her Sacred Seal is Fortress Res 3 which may seem odd given her already low Attack, but it's a fair trade off for her to be able to survive even red mages.

Sheena can be run on any mixed team so long as there is one more Armor unit on it, but she thrives in Armor Emblem. At neutral IVs and full Summoner Support alone, she can hit 54 Defense and 52 Resistance with no merges(if a Winter weapon is used, Def becomes 56 and Res 54 at neutral IVs and on enemy phase).

+1 merged. I don't have any Vengeful Fighter fodder rn, so QR+Warding Breath will have to do. Slaying Axe lowers Luna's cooldown to 2, and with Warding Breath and QR she'll have 2 Luna procs even in her first combat. She'll also be highly resistant to most nonred damage, as she'll have 47/46 defenses in the enemy phase if attacked from 1 space away, and 41/40 defenses if attacked from 2 spaces away. Great counter for a lot of meta blues -- +10 Rein only just scratches her, +10 Nowi gets obliterated, if someone somehow manages to get a +10 Ephraim in either of his forms, he'll barely scratch her. And don't even get me started on when she's on a defense tile. I could also use -Spd instead of -HP, but oh well.

With Slaying Axe and Steady Breath, Sheena can fire off Bonfires in every counter. A Def or Res Boon will work. However, a Spd Bane is a must to be doubled, allowing two Bonfires in combat. Guard allows Sheena to win out against characters that rely on specials. In fact, Sheena can duel with Sword Units such as Ayra, Black Knight, or Mia because of Guard. Quick Riposte Seal allows Sheena to become an Enemy Phase monster.

An alternative take is to have Quick Riposte on the B slot and have Close Defense. This creates a bulkier Sheena. However, one runs the risk of losing to Special Oriented Units.

**TAKEN FROM OPTIMAL BUILD ON SHEENA PAGE**

Preferred Nature: +Defense / -Speed
Weapon: Killer Axe+
Support Skill: Pivot
Special: Ignis / Bonfire
A Slot: Fortress Def 3 / Earth Boost 3
B Slot: Wary Fighter 3 / Guard 3
C Slot: Threaten Att 3 / Varies on team
Sacred Seal: HP +3
With this build, Sheena becomes a physical green tank that can duel with sword users. Fortress Def 3 works well in combination with Threaten Att 3 and Ignis to lower the damage of incoming units as well as boost outgoing special damage. Wary Fighter 3 prevents double attacks as long as Sheena is above 50%. Killer Axe+ is the most preferred weapon because her damage will come almost entirely from her special attacks.

If inside an armored team, Sheena's defense has the potential to reach staggering new heights. In that situation, Guard becomes quite an attractive alternative to Wary Fighter, as it prevents sword users and most other other physical attackers from easily accessing their special attacks which often deal damage by ignoring a percentage of Sheena's armor. Earth Boost 3 works well with Wary Fighter to keep Sheena's HP higher than her enemy's HP.

With a defense boon and Fortress Def 3, she reaches 44 DEF. Inside an armored team, it's possible to obtain up to +14 DEF/RES which pushes the bar to 58 DEF. And if she somehow finds herself with terrain advantage, this boosts her DEF/RES up by 30%, placing her at 73 DEF (an extra 55+ damage from Ignis). And all this is before considering Threaten Att 3 affecting the enemy team. If you are looking for a good, sturdy wall to hide behind, you've found her.

Victory through attrition. Between Slaying Axe+ and Shield Pulse, even red enemies will have a tough time hitting double digits. A sturdy, reliable armor buffer. Pair with heals, a Goad Armor and a Marcher for a well rounded, fortified armor team. Stay away from poison daggers, defense / resist ignoring specials and defense / resist break C skills.