'Optimal' Brave Ike Build

I was actually gonna write a VERY similar question on here yesterday but I chose not as I wanted to do my own unbiased research.

From what I've gathered, BOTH Distant Counter and Steady Breath work very well but it seems B!Ike benefits from Distant Counter more in Arena.

Being able to snipe an enemy before their turn ends is INVAUABLE. Especially against teams like Horse Emblem, who will be hounding you down simultaneously. E.g. You're up against the typical Horse Emblem team (Rein, Xander, Cecilla and someone else)

You use B!Ike to bait Rein and he attacks. He hasn't done any damage BUT he can now be repositioned to safety. Or Xander and leap over Rein and kill Ike etc. Leaving the enemy alive in Arena for ONE tun can be the difference between losing your deathless.

Again, both work though. Steady Breath is probably better for PVE or lower level Arena.

DON'T HECTOR. DON'T. NO.
Those are the same IVs as I have, and utilising Urvan with a Res boon mages basically do jack damage to him, ESPECIALLY Rein (or any other blue mage) where he effectively acts as a hard counter-block. Keep Steady Breath on him to help with physical confrontations and get that sweet sweet -1 CD. For the same reasoning use Aether. Can't say about Panic Ploy (got no fodder myself), but I don't think he's the best candidate with an HP bane, so I kept his native Tht Def myself. Switch out Blessing for QR and slap a movement assist of choice, and you're good to go!

Listen, many people think DC on B!Ike is a good idea because of his unique B skill and his weapon, but I would rather stick with Steady Breath. DC on him is as if you put marmelade on a sausage. Certainly, DC turns him into a mage killer but only for this it isn't worth sacrificing an exclusive 5 star hero who is one of the top tier units in this game. DC would also lower Urvan's effectivity, since only consecutive attacks are being reduced by 80% and since he can't counter attacks from mages naturally, he is an excellent tank against mages and epecially brave and firesweep users.
Think about it again.

I very much agree with Rotuh. Distant counter has its strong points, and Ike can certainly do well with it, but that's just because DC is a first rate skill that pretty much is amazing on every unit. It's not worth giving to Ike who already has like the most broken A skill in the game, even though DC ike still is good, you don't gain as much as you can from this skill if you gave it to a different unit, or just kept the Hector. I say don't do it.

Panic Ploy is just to open your B slot for quick riposte, and I recommend not to because Beorc is a 300 SP skill which will give you a higher rating in arena than Quick Riposte, and you will miss out on hitting Xanders and other horse units with a -HP IV which can be a deciding factor in a match.

Just keep his base kit, honestly. It's good, has great synergy, adding anything else will, if anything, only make minor improvements and is imo a waste of resoources that are better spent elsewhere.

While B!Ike is excellent with his base kit, using an argument like "He can't counter attack B!Lyn anyways," is a poor argument. The ability to counterattack and kill mages has proven invaluable to me, especially against a buffed up Reinhardt with a dancer. Steady Breath is an excellent skill and, quite frankly, one of the most powerful A skills currently in the game. In my testing, however, Distant Counter has proven to be a more useful A skill in the arena. Either way, his base kit is fantastic and you shouldn't feel obligated to use anything else. I just wanted to put my word in since I noticed several people are telling you how awful Distant Counter is on B!Ike when the opposite is true. I'll include my build for reference and post my arena score as justifiation for my reasoning.