Fjorm Discussion

Overall, I think fjorm is a very nice unit. While I do really like speed, I feel like it may not be her best boon. If you did choose to take +Speed, it would mostly be just to avoid being followed up rather than to follow up. Her best bane is probably Hp. She has a very high Hp and uses all of her other stats too much to consider a bane anywhere else. I believe her best boon is +Attack attack but just for the simple reason that more attack is always good but overall it seems like neutral is actually a pretty good IV set for her. With a rating of 164 and with a legendary weapons and a high sp cost special, I believe Fjorm will perform amazingly in arena, being able to counter some. mages and pull a high score. I don't think that Fjorm will change the meta at all, actually. 34 res isn't enough to save her from some key meta mages (*Cough* Reinhardt *Cough*) and with that lower speed stat, she'll be Quadded and killed by archers (Specifically, Brave Lyn). The best teammates for Fjorm are units that have burning hatred for red mages. Cherche, Hector, Dorcas, and specifically B!Ike will pair up very well with her. Of course all of this is subject to change depending on what that symbol does (You know what I'm talking about). Maybe it increases speed or something? And if it does, then maybe she's less susceptible to being doubled than it appears. Overall though, I believe that Fjorm is a good addition to the game and a useful unit that seems to be appropriately balanced for being a free unit (We do not need anymore B!Lyn types running around, so I'm happy about this).

• How good of a unit Fjorm will be overall?

Fjorm's good Def and Res associated with her build-in Distant Counter and her exclusive special Ice Mirror really makes her a unit specialised in counter-attack, especially against mages.

Overall I'd say she is a pretty good and solid unit since she fulfills her purpose really well, in fact she can even block Bladetome's burst damage and different B!Lyn's variant thanks to Shield Pulse, and then kill them back instantly with the massive boost given my Ice Mirror (except for Sacae's blessing).

Her biggest weakness remains in her player phase / combat initiation, although her Atk/Def Link helps, her Atk remains too low (51) to OHKO without Ice Mirror's atk boost and 31 Spd isn't enough to do a follow-up attack in most cases, so she won't perform well at all against faster units.

Thus, Spd boon might still be the best while a Res bane is acceptable, even more since it enables her to block more damage with Ice Mirror and retaliate harder. In case she doesn't have a Spd boon, a HP bane is best (value-wise).

• How well Fjorm will perform in the arena?

Relatively ok, since she can tank and even bait most of the common threat (mages, reinhardt and tank B!Lyn), plus a good part of the common pool (the red units and under S-tier units).

But she won't do extremely well because of the vast majority of fast units in arena. Also, she faces quite a big competition in her field with Nowi being able to do a similar job (with her own pros&cons) and B!Lucina and blue dancer providing a stronger support.
If not for all the great blue mages than one might one to put in his team.

• How do you plan on using Fjorm?

Her basic set is pretty optimal to her (although I haven't given a real thought on it yet). Her A-skill give her some versatility, enhancing both her player phase and her ennemy phase further. A blow skill or steady breath might be the only effective options to specialize her further.

• Do you believe Fjorm will affect the overall meta?

She probably will affect the meta since she is a free unit and then a featured unit on a overrated banner, so she will make her way into numerous teams.
However, her impact on the battlefield will not be outstanding so she will still face a lot of competition among other blue units for players that have access to B!Lucina, Tana, Nowi, Delthea, Reinhardt and a few others.

• How does she compare to the other units of weapon type and color?

It's pretty much answered above. I'd say she is on an equal footing with Nowi. The thing is that she has a better consistency overall but Nowi takes her real use due to meta-shift from CYL heroes. In fact, Nowi can retaliate B!Lyn while all those good lance users cannot. And blue mages are so mainstream that they start to cancel their own effectiveness.

The real competition for Fjorm will be Nowi (more accessible) and B!Lucina and Ephraim refined (more offensive and supportive). And of course, the common pool of blue mages you find in arena.

• What are Fjorm's best team mates?

She kind of takes the role of Joshua (in red) and B!Ike (in green), being able to wall most of the common threats. In terms of polyvalence she is probably the worst of the 3, since she is quite stuck to her wall/bait role but her exclusive special is a big deal and her color answers best the meta shift to answer the megapredators that Arya and Mia are.

• How good of a unit Fjorm will be overall?

Firepower - 4/5
Overall usability - 5/5

• How well Fjorm will perform in the arena?

She'll work great for budget teams, and decent for high-merge teams.

• How do you plan on using Fjorm?

Due to the nature of her Special, she works perfectly on enemy-phase engagements against mages, which is probably the bulk of the current meta. My build for her would be Leiptr, Reposition, Ice Mirror, Distant Def 3, Shield Pulse 3, Threaten Def 3, and Deflect Magic 3 seal.

Distant Def 3 - Further consolidates her defense against mages. Higher damage reduced, higher damage output from Ice Mirror.

Shield Pulse 3 - Allows for consistent damage since it allows Ice Mirror to proc after the very first hit, and deal massive damage during her counter. Due to Ice Mirror's stored damage resetting after combat, Shield Pulse offers a more reliable damage output on the first engagement, in contrast to Quick Riposte which has an HP requirement, which is iffy since you would tank a lot of hits.

Threaten Def - some damage boost. Can be replaced with whatever.

• Do you believe Fjorm will affect the overall meta?

Not so much, but it would slightly move the meta away from OHKOs, since she offers massive defenses against mages.

• How does she compare to the other units of weapon type and color?

Arguably better than Camus as a DC unit, since mages are the bulk of ranged heroes and she can easily tank them, while also having a decent 30 Def to boot. Being a Lance unit might seem disastrous since there are a lot of strong green tome users, but such disadvantage actually works against them (if she uses my skill build) since more damage would be dampened and reflected back to them.

• What are Fjorm's best team mates?
She can work on her own when dealing with mages, but would need some help against melee units, since our build is more specialized against mages and less against melee units.

Honestly, just slap Spur Res on any unit and stick them to Fjorm.

I would like like to have a +spd -hp one because I could give her fury and make her decently fast.

I would like like to have a +spd -hp one because I could give her fury and make her decently fast.

So I think Fjorm will be alright. Not fantastic or meta changing, Base 30 attack is somewhat low, but I think she can deal some nice hits with Ice Mirror, 30 defense is decent, 31 speed is meh. Not enough to really double anybody. 34 resistance is fantastic, but it may cause problems with ice mirror. You want her to take more damage from a mage so her retaliation is greater, but I think L&D would work well on her, as long as (for my build idea) close defense seal. Then when she is attacked from close range she will have 31 defense, and 29 res she will take at least some more damage from mages to retaliate. Also those marks she is infantry (the green one) and her origin (the blue one) but I don't know if that will be on all characters or not.

My first instinct on seeing those stats is that she wants a res boon and the attack ploy seal, but that would massively reduce the damage she can reflect with Ice Mirror, so it may not truly be the best choice. On the other hand, if you had a +res Fjorm and a spare Deirdre, you could swap Drive Atk with Speed Ploy and give her the Atk Ploy seal, making her a really great ploy unit and compensating for her meh speed. (For a slightly more budget choice, if you still have a spare Arvis floating around Def Ploy wouldn't be terrible either.)

Overall, with those stats she seems a lot like Joshua, with high overall BST and no bad stats but no really amazing ones, either. Even then I think Joshua still has the superior spread, as the closest thing he has to a standout stat is speed, which gives him a lot more versatility than Fjorm's higher res. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to want to swap Attack/Def Bond (cool as it is) with Fury, although even then none of her stats seem like THAT much to write home about (except for res, she'd have 41 res with a boon, dear god in heaven, and here I go coming back to the res boon again).

To make myself move away from the "just capitalize on her best stat" mindset for a minute, a speed boon would help her avoid a few doubles, but if you're going that route you pretty much have to take Fury, because in the current meta even 34 speed just isn't going to cut it. An attack boon might be a more solid choice. An hp bane would be okay, a defense bane wouldn't be the ideal choice but it at least wouldn't harm her role as a mage counter, and a res bane would help increase the damage she deals with Ice Mirror, though I'd have to run numbers to see if it would truly make enough of a difference and not just lead to her getting killed.

On the subject of skills, she comes with some really good ones, although as I said above I wouldn't be surprised if people sacrifice Atk/Def Bond for Fury. (Personally I'm going to try not to, as I'm tired of Fury, and Atk/Def Bond is really cool. Plus I'm out of Hinata.) Her mediocre speed coupled with DC makes QR seem like a great idea, but it would be really hard to give up Shield Pulse's amazing synergy with Ice Mirror. Drive Atk is very good, but ploys are also really tempting on her. I'll be very interested to see what kind of builds people come up with for her. (Personally, as an f2p, I'm probably just going to take her default kit and run with it, at least in the beginning, but we'll see what happens.)

Edit: I was incorrectly assuming her C skill was Drive Def instead of Drive Atk for some reason. Fixed now.

If nothing else, I'm at least excited to be able to get a guaranteed DC Blue. I don't have Camus, so my only DC blue is Nowi(and Corrin if I choose to give her Lightning Breath.)