Theorycraft by Bravart : Hawkeye, the turtle general

================INTRO================
He has a massiv body as hard as iron, he hits you twice with the power of a dual canon and he is slow as turtle,
Let's call this build for Hawkeye... BLASTOISE ©
================BUILD================
Hawkeye
+Atk/-Spd
Brave Axe+
Reposition
Sacred Cowl
Death Blow 3
Shield Pulse 3
Panic Ploy 3
Atk +1 seal
==============OVERVIEW==============
At first glance, it's hard to find a reason to use Hawkeye. He is slower than any armored green units and he doesn't benefit from the 10 extra BST of those to offset it. But that's also his strenghts over them, he doesn't waste any stat points in his damned Spd and spread them among the rest of his stats, reaching above average value everywhere else! His BST is well spread and he still has 2- mobility!

============SKILL ANALYSIS============
First, let's explain the skill set choices very quickly. The +atk/-spd nature is chosen to increase BraveAxe+ kill potential while keeping Hawkeye's bulk intact.

Brave Axe+ enables Hawkeye to score a maximum amount of KOs on player phase while the Spd malus isn't bothering the turtle anymore.

Death Blow 3 and the Atk+1 seal are picked together for the same reason as the boon and Brave Axe+, in order to ensure a maximal KO potential on player phase.
Although Death Blow is also a budget option and it can be slightly improved by Sturdy Blow 2.

Distant Counter isn't chosen because Hawkeye can't land OHKO on the retaliation and it would provide a Special Charge to many of them, playing against Hawkeye. (And no one wants to sacrifice Hector if we can help it, right?)
However, the seal can be switched for Hardy Bearings if needed, in order to kill Vantage unit more safely.

Shield Pulse 3 is chosen along Sacred Cowl to improve greatly Hawkeye's ability to act as a ranged wall. It will enable him to survive many duels, as we'll see it later in the analysis.

Finally, Panic Ploy 3, if used wisely, will unlock an even greater offensive and defensive potential to Hawkeye (and his team as well !). Letting the player handle even better the emblem teams.
Def Ploy 3 could be used too, but it's rare and expensive, its impact is certain but his potential is smaller than Panic Ploy 3.

Reposition isn't mandatory but it's usually the best on a melee tanky unit, in a mix team. Hawkeye can effectively use Swap or Reciprocal Aid as well.

============ROLE ANALYSIS============
Now let's talk about practice a little. What are his strenghts and weaknesses? Match-ups, meta-wise... And what makes him so good in a team compared to the armored units or Fae, which both are more BST?

First, as we said earlier, Hawkeye's stat spread is stupendous (in terms of mix-maxing). Compared to Fae, he has 1 less Hp for 3 more Def, and of course 6 less Spd which is useful for Fae but not for Hawkeye since he uses Brave Axe+ anyways. Both of them will get doubled the vast majority of the time, so an extra 3 Def is much more valuable than 1 Hp (obviously).

In combat, on the defensive Hawkeye will survive any version of Fae and on the offensive, he will instantly KO her unless she is running Fury +Def boon (very unlikely) which wouldn't make her be a threat anyways.

Now, what's make him so better than using Sheena for instance (or any armored unit in a mix-team)? -The mobility.

This mobility makes him much more reliable in a mix team, being able to: retreat quickly after tanking hits, bait ranged units and initiate on them, use his reposition (assist) effectively, use his Panic Ploy with a lot more ease, and last but not least, the IA will also control him better (in auto- or arena defense) while still fulfilling his role of green tank.

============META ANALYSIS============
Let's finish by analyzing how well this Hawkeye performs in the meta, by going through the different colors, match-ups and most extrem cases that he may encounter.

BLUE:
As a green tank, he will handle both physical and magical blue threats with ease, nothing blue will kill him by itself, not even an emblem buffed Reinhardt or Olwen (up to 74atk), which can sometimes be out of control due to their superior mobility and range. But otherwise, it's preferable to bait and initiate on them directly.since he has the mobility to do it. He can even tank S!Corrin fully buffed, if he gets a Res buff, but once again, better kill it straight if possible.

GREEN:
Hawkeye will be able to wall most threat while KO'ing a decent amount of them on initiation. In this regards, it works similarly to the blue color analysis, except that Hawkeye will rely a lot more on the use of Panic Ploy to survive buffed units (especially nukes), or on a decent amount of buffs. This however can't be fix, not even Hector, Amelia or Sheena would deal easily with those, and this is why a green tank can't be the only unit in your team -lol-
More seriously, he will perform very similarly to most green tank, succeeding in tanking many green units but failing where the others fails as well. That's why his mobility and Panic Ploy are key, to be used together in order to exploit any weakness.

RED:
That's the awkward part for a green unit. In fact, Red mages being alpha-omega nukers for the most part (Celica, Sanaki, Sophia, Tharja...), Hawkeye won't be appropriate to wall them. While on the other hand, the red lords well-deserve their title and will use all kind of legendary weapons to kill Hawkeye, while most of them often focus on the Def over the Res, so even on the offensive, Hawkeye won't perform well. That's the part where Green units with more Def might actually prove a bit better, but not really since the meta red units will still kill any of them (it's meant to be like that after all).

COLORLESS:
Finally, the emerging grey units, which are all ranged, won't threaten Blastoise too much thanks to his shell (translation: Hawkeye and his shield pulsed sacred cowl). The only ones who would survive Hawkeye's initiation are the ones who aren't threatening his life, so Colorless works relatively similarly to Green: as long as Hawkeye can use his mobility and his panic ploy effectively, he will find a weakness if needed (in case, no other team units can handle it).

================OUTRO================
While this theorycrafting might make Hawkeye looks like a very reliable tank with a good mobility, also capable of killing many units on initiation, acting as a hard wall against most of the rooster and adding some manoeuvrability to the team... BUT...

KEEP IN MIND that his survivability is limited. He can do many different things but rarely more than 2 of those in the same fight. So he can work as a swiss army knife in case your team needed more threats to be covered.

In brief he can work decently in any team that needs a green tank, although he is superior to the well-known S-tier green tanks, he actually can stand on an equal-footing with them thanks to the advantages he has over them and that no one else can provide better. The downside of it being that he requires a more expensive SI investment, while the upside of it, is that Hawkeye is more obtainable (lesser rarity).

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I remain open to questions, critics, suggestions and so forth. Do not hesitate to comment, give your opinion and wishes for future threads (i.e. more theorycrafts, less detailed, shorter, "more fun & less analysis", etc...).

Hopefully, you enjoyed reading it and it was insightful to you.
This is a tribute to LJ's request and great personality as a FEH player. Stay as you are!