Tharja

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK / -RES or -DEF or -HP
• Weapon: Rauðrblade+
• Assist: Reposition / Ardent Sacrifice
• Special: Glimmer / Draconic Aura
• Passive A: Fury / Swift Sparrow / Life and Death / Brazen Atk/Spd
• Passive B: Desperation / Swordbreaker
• Passive C: Odd Atk Wave / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Speed +3 / Heavy Blade

Standard Blade tome set for Tharja; this set can be considered budget thanks to Tharja coming with a Blade tome in her base kit. While she needs a total overhaul for the rest of her kit, most of the options are fairly budget (with the exception of Odd Atk Wave).

Aside from running a movement assist like Reposition, Tharja can make good use of Ardent Sacrifice to drop herself into Desperation range to avoid the risk of getting KO’d in a single hit from strong enemies. If running Tharja with merges and/or Summoner Support, then she will need a -HP bane in order to be able to drop into the 75% HP threshold from Ardent Sacrifice. Running Ardent Sacrifice allows Tharja to consider the more powerful A skill options of Life and Death or Brazen Atk/Spd, which allow her to maximize her offensive power. Otherwise, Fury is generally the best option due to the extra bulk. Swift Sparrow is better with merges and/or support to give her a little bit more defensive cushion, but can work well regardless.

Desperation is the clear choice for any Speed-oriented Blade tome setup, due to allowing for doubles without getting counterattacked. Swordbreaker is a decent option to allow Tharja to double super speedy sword users, but keep in mind that some of the biggest threats to Tharja’s survival are sword users; properly built units like Ayra or Zelgius can completely obliterate Tharja in a single counterattack, making Swordbreaker a potentially dangerous option in higher tiers of arena.

Odd Atk Wave is exceptionally powerful on Blade tome mages, as self-buffing with +6 to Attack grants a massive boost to their offensive power, in addition to freeing up allies from needing to run an Attack buff. It is very high investment though, so any other C skill can work just fine.

For seals, Speed +3 pairs very well with the Speed-focused nature of this build. The Heavy Blade seal is a good option if wanting to run a higher power Special like Draconic Aura, in addition to being worth more for arena scoring. Otherwise, it’s best to run a low cooldown Special like Glimmer if not running Heavy Blade. Both Glimmer and Draconic Aura pair well with Blade tomes due to their damage getting additional scaling from the bonus damage granted by Blade tomes from buffs.

• Preferred IV: +ATK / -DEF or -RES or -HP
• Weapon: Rauðrblade+
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Glimmer / Draconic Aura
• Passive A: Death Blow / Fury
• Passive B: Def/Res Link / Chill Res / Vantage
• Passive C: Odd Atk Wave / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Attack +3 / Heavy Blade

Despite Tharja being an infantry mage with only 32 base Attack, she can still make effective use of a one-shot build thanks to the strength of a Blade tome fueled by powerful +6 buffs. The recommended optimal set for this build assumes a minimal amount of team support, but many skills can be swapped out if +6 buffs are available from the team (such as from the Tactics skills).

The basis of this set is pumping Attack whenever possible. This means a +ATK IV, Death Blow, Odd Atk Wave, and the Attack +3 seal. Stacking all these sources of Attack will allow Tharja to one-hit KO the vast majority of non-blue threats, including major threats like Ayra and Zelgius. This also means that Specials like Glimmer and Draconic Aura work exceptionally well due to their scaling off the bonus damage from Blade tomes. Glimmer is generally better due to the lower cooldown, but Draconic Aura is acceptable if opting to replace the Attack +3 seal with Heavy Blade.

Death Blow is the most consistent source of a high boost to Attack, but can be replaced with Fury for budget purposes if running Vantage.

Def/Res Link is an incredibly high-investment skill that gives Tharja a massive +6 to Defense and Resistance when targeted by or using a movement Assist skill. However, it can be difficult to utilize properly unless also running a Refresher unit on the team. Chill Res is another incredibly high-investment skill that allows Tharja to inflict a heavy -7 Resistance debuff to the enemy, allowing her to break through enemies with high Resistance. On a budget, pretty much any other B skill can work; Vantage is a good choice for a one-shot build (run Fury over Death Blow in this case), while Wings of Mercy or Escape Route can drastically increase Tharja’s mobility to help get her into the right position.

Odd Atk Wave grants Tharja a powerful +6 Attack buff that is vitally important to her one-shot capabilities. This can easily be replaced if an ally is running it or Atk Tactic.