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Effie or Nowi?

This is...a bit of a conundrum I face. I have a decent IV Effie with almost enough copies to max merge her(need 1 more and a lot of feathers), but I also just pulled a perfect IV Nowi(+atk/-HP) Their scores with optimal builds are only a point off from each other.
Effie was gonna run Slaying Lance, Pivot, Aether, Double Close Defense, Venge Fighter, Panic Ploy, and Nowi Lighting Breath Atk refined, Repo, Aether, Steady Breath, QR3, Drive something, Close Defense.
Pros and cons of Effie.
+Immune to the bonus damage effect of Poison Dagger(not as high priority since I have a DC sigurd)
+Higher Atk
+Easier activation of Tactics C-skills(paired along side Fae and Sigurd)
+The "QR" effect lasts longer thanks to Venge Fighter
+No weakness to Falchions
+Can add Armor March when there's an Armored bonus hero
+Only need to pull one more of her, and the current merged one is +6
-Poor Movement
-Weakness to the armor slaying weapons that are growing in popularity
-Lesser Defenses
-Can't Distant Counter without surrendering the A-slot Close Defense

Pros and Cons of Nowi
+Better movement
+Higher defenses(I think)
+Natural DC, allowing Steady Breath
+Able to give Fae Dragon Buffs(not immediately planning to use them, but it's there)
+Higher levels of adorable
-Weakness to Falchion(a well-built Lucina or any Alm with Twin Lions can kill her)
-Harder Tactics activations(if included to the Arena Core of Fae and Sigurd, the Bonus Hero can't be Infantry)
-Weakness to Naga(not seen as much at higher scores, but it's still there)
-Lower Res(fairly negligible. Sigurd kills Green Mages and most Red mages, Fae kills Blue, Green(non-Naga) mages and Green dragons, to include Myrrh and Grima)
-Still need to pull...3 more copies of her and 5 star all of them

Asked by kratos109878 months ago

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Answers

Effie is weak to Sacae's Blessing, something that Nowi can work against (like every other dragon). I have the same IV for Nowi, and I'm just waiting for Aether fodder. My build is currently: Lightning Breath (+Def), Steady Breath, Guard, Atk Smoke, QR seal, and Ignis (until I get Aether).

I'd go with Effie because,
1) good team complement, a sword breaker falchion user will hurt your fae and sigurd, but won't do much to effie (though nowi still tanks them pretty well)
2) scores higher in arena

In my personal opinion, Nowi. She is so much more versatile than Effie. The only reason to run Effie is if you’re running a full armor emblem team. There are many Nowi builds out there but I run mine as +Def-Hp with +Def Wpn refine, Aether, Steady breath, QR, and Distant counter. She is an enemy phase unit that blows up almost anyone and with so much focus on Def and being blue, she can take 2 hits from a Falchion user and essentially kill them in return.

In context to your team composition, I change my mind to Effie, only because you seem to be focused on arena score and tactics. I still believe in Nowi being an overall better unit. Who on your team happens to be running your tactics?

Sigurd. Atk Tactic, and whomever the Bonus Unit is will carry the Def Tactic seal.

Go for effie, if you run a mix team.
You only need a flier with guidance for better movement.

I also have a +6 Effie and a +4 Nowi, and I find myself using Nowi a looot more due to her built-in DC and better movement.

Use Nowi if you want a more generally useful unit, who can be slapped on any and every team in almost every scenario.

But if you're trying to tailor-build the unit for this team in particular, I think Effie is the way to go. Sigurd and Fae can already tank a lot of special hits, and Effie can handle the physical side of things well enough as is. It will definitely be nice having easy tactic activation. But the biggest thing (which team_ace mentioned) is Falchion users - Sigurd won't always want to go toe-to-toe with them, and it sounds to me like Fae is your stronger carry hero. Since you were considering buffing her. So you really want to cover her weaknesses by using Effie.

If you want a more consistent enemy phase and general power from Effie, I really do recommend Berkut's Lance. It's just so strong on Effie with Distant Counter.