Winter Tharja

• Preferred IV: +ATK / -SPD or -HP
• Weapon: Rauðrblade+
• Assist: Pivot / Swap / Reposition
• Special: Glimmer / Iceberg / Glacies
• Passive A: Death Blow / Atk/Res Bond / Atk/Def Bond
• Passive B: Bold Fighter
• Passive C: Armor March / Ward Armor / Res Ploy
• Sacred Seal: Attack +3 / Atk Ploy / Armored Boots

A standard, run of the mill, perfectly ordinary set that wonderfully suits our normal girl. Well, perhaps there are a few small traits that are a bit nonstandard. Most mages aren't able to initiate with an effective 80 Attack, maintain both defenses in the high 30s, and still strike their opponents twice on Player Phase with complete disregard for their Speed. That might be just a tad bit special. But indeed it is possible for Winter Tharja thanks to the combination of Rauðrblade, armor buffs, and the deadly skill Bold Fighter, which enables her to become a Player Phase juggernaut that can slaughter virtually everything in her path.

Pivot and Swap are the typical movement assists chosen for armored units that aid them with their sluggish movement. If one is confident Winter Tharja will constantly be benefitting from a Movement Up effect from Armor March or Armored Boots, Reposition can also be a strong option as well.

Glimmer is the perfect Special for one that will be blasting foes with such a sky high Attack and will sit at a cooldown of 3 thanks to Rauðrblade. This means that in tandem with Bold Fighter, it will activate against any enemy that can counterattack, and it grants her fantastic combat ability even when she doesn't have her full set of buffs. Iceberg is an alternative that will instead be ready to go for her second combat. Glacies may take a bit longer to charge and may necessitate she take a couple hits, but she usually doesn't mind, and it will deliver the highest nuking power among all her options.

Winter Tharja wants nothing more than to boost her Attack as high as possible which can be accomplished nicely using Death Blow. While more expensive, Atk/Res Bond and Atk/Def Bond are potential alternatives if one has them available and can grant her a similar attack boost on top of a boost to one of her defenses so long as she is next to an ally.

Bold Fighter is the core of this build, granting Tharja a follow-up regardless of her Speed and increasing the rate that her Special charges on her own attacks. There is no skill she would ever want more on such a Player Phase set.

Armor March grants Tharja some well-appreciated extra movement on an armor team and synergizes great with this set as she will usually want allies with Hone Armor and Fortify Armor next to her at all times. If unavailable or an ally is already offering it, another armor skill such as Ward Armor will work wonderfully. If Winter Tharja wants to be greedy with her C slot to empower her own combat further, she can make great use of Res Ploy thanks to her fantastically high Resistance.

Attack +3 grants Tharja up to 6 extra damage in combat and suits her perfectly. Atk Ploy can also be used if one wants to make her even harder to take down. Armored Boots can grant her mobility if Armor March is unavailable, though beware she doesn't stray too far from the teammates that are providing her buffs.

• Preferred IV: +DEF or +RES / -SPD or -HP
• Weapon: Rauðrowl+ (+Def/Res) / Candelabra+ (+Def/Res)
• Assist: Swap / Pivot
• Special: Ignis / Glacies
• Passive A: Close Counter
• Passive B: Vengeful Fighter
• Passive C: Res Ploy / Atk Ploy / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Close Def / Distant Def / Defense +3 / Deflect Magic

As tenacious as an ox, or perhaps just as oblivious, Tharja can also turn herself into a complete and utter wall by investing entirely into her fantastic mixed defenses.

Rauðrowl can grant her up to 6 points in each of her stats with team support, and works especially well then these teammates are armored units with Ward Armor. Three Ward Armor buffs from adjacent allies increases the defenses of a neutral IV Winter Tharja to a colossal 52/54, before even factoring in a refine or any of her skills. Even without Ward Armors, she can still reach a tremendous 40/42 Def/Res which makes her extremely hard to take down. On a budget, her default Candelabra is a perfectly great weapon and Winter Tharja will still reach similar stats after the effects of her refine and skills.

Swap can allow Tharja to place herself in the perfect spot for baiting her enemies by forcing herself into tiles occupied by teammates. Pivot alternatively will help her advance or escape more quickly and may be preferred when on a team made primarily of infantry or cavalry.

Close Counter is the ideal A slot skill for her as it enables her to retaliate against melee enemies. This suits her perfectly as an Enemy Phase unit that does most of her damage through counterattacking. As she already comes with the skill by default, there is little reason to consider anything else.

In addition to granting a follow-up attack whenever she is attacked at 50% HP or greater, the skill Vengeful Fighter also causes her Special to charge by an extra point on each of her counterattacks. This means Ignis or Glacies (based on whether her Defense or Resistance is higher) is the clearly optimal Special for her thanks to their cooldown of four, as they will activate on her second strike any time she is attacked by an enemy that doubles her. On her opponent's first hit her Special will charge to 3, on Tharja's counterattack it will charge to 1, on the enemy's follow-up it will be primed to activate, and then on Tharja's follow-up she nukes her opponent. Whilst a case can be made for Bonfire or Iceberg if one believes Tharja won't be doubled, Tharja is so slow that this is rare, and she usually prefers the stronger nuking ability. Even when she is not doubled, she can just launch the Special on Player Phase and continue the cycle.

Winter Tharja's sky-high Resistance makes her one of the game's best users of Ploy skills. Res Ploy can be used to boost her damage, or Atk Ploy can further increase her gargantuan bulk. Of course, she is not necessarily reliant on either of these skills—they are just further bonuses. If her team desires use of some other support skill, especially if her team is composed of other Armor units, she can swap to whatever is longed for without any issue.

A standard defensive seal such as Close Def or Distant Def works perfectly for Winter Tharja. If these are in use, she can even make do with a fairly standard boost from a seal such as Defense +3. She can also potentially make use of a seal like Deflect Magic in order to help her confidently tank threats such as Reinhardt and any Desperation mages.

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +DEF / -SPD or -HP
• Weapon: Rauðrraven+
• Assist: Swap / Pivot
• Special: Ignis / Glacies
• Passive A: Atk/Def Bond / Distant Def / Fierce Stance / Close Counter
• Passive B: Vengeful Fighter
• Passive C: Res Ploy / Atk Ploy / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Distant Def / Atk Ploy / Defense +3

If needed, Winter Tharja does have the ability to utilize a Raven tome in order to act as a dedicated bow counter. For some players, this may be especially useful as she is one of the very few armored units who is able to counterattack Brave Lyn. Brave Lyn will otherwise ignore popular melee units that utilize Distant Counter like Hector and Zelgius thanks to Sacae's Blessing, but as a tome user Winter Tharja bypasses this.

The fundamental makeup of this set is not too different from the previous build. In particular, the reasons for picking her assist, Special, Passive B, and Passive C are all essentially the same, as those choices are primarily based on the playstyle of baiting enemies on Enemy Phase, which she continues to do here.

As her primary function has changed from an all-purpose Enemy Phase fighter to a dedicated bow counter, she does not necessarily need to utilize Close Counter. Instead, A skills that boost her Attack or Defense on Enemy Phase such as Atk/Def Bond, Distant Defense, and Fierce Stance all may be more worthwhile pickups to help her more dependably accomplish her goal. While the skill Triangle Adept is a common pair on many raven tome users, Winter Tharja actually does not really need it, and it is more likely to put her at risk of falling victim to Cancel Affinity. While it shares no synergy with her tome, Close Counter may be used just for the occasional melee matchup and is still a generally useful skill, even if not the build's focus.

Winter Tharja's Sacred Seal choice also shift focus slightly towards protection against said bow units. Distant Defense is a natural great choice for simple mitigation, as is Defense +3 on a budget. Similarly Atk Ploy will allow her to debuff threats so that both Tharja and her teammates can take hits more safely.