Sandbox / Low Tier Letdown Fire Emblem Heroes

"Some of these so-called "Heroes" are clearly weaklings."

— The Death Knight, after seeing a few heroes in many player's barracks

Since Fire Emblem Heroes has loads of characters that are added every month, it is only natural several units end up falling behind in usefulness.

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Low Tier

Unit Types

• Armor Units in Hall of Forms. Generally, you have the freedom to fodder skills whatever you want for your unit as long as you have the manuals/heroes necessary., but in Hall of Forms it's a Luck-Based Mission. You have to rely on sheer luck to get such skills in the Hall of Forms, meaning if you're not lucky, your armored unit ends up being dead weight with a mediocre skillkit that does it no favors (i.e. having a lot of player phase skills and such). Even with the addition of Save skills, even those need good combinations or else they'll backfire terribly. Worse of all, relying too much on trying to find an appropriate match for those armored units (yes, some give you two to go with) means less focus on other team members that end up getting neglected and end up shorthanded just because your armored unit has a full-yet-awkward skill kit.
• 3 and 4 star healers. Having a few healers is enough for players to get though the game's content, with them being Support Party Members that should occasionally see combat, and ones summoned at lower rarities can be easily merged up. The problem with them is that there has been almost no improvement in their baseline inheritable skills and not a single one has been given a personal weapon, meaning that they rely on moderate stat differences to distinguish them. In practice, this isn't really that much, and 2020 healers like Lena and Natasha don't play significantly differently from 2017 healers like Regular Lachesis, Regular Lissa and Serra, not to mention that the ones released early in the game's life offer poor skills for other units to inherit (and most of the time being 5 star locked) compared to other heroes in the same rarity, and as such are generally disliked by players summoning on colorless stones because of them. If you've +10 merged one, there's no real reason to develop another one.

Red Units

• Karel, as one of the first sword units added post-launch, suffers from being a Master of None in an age where most of his kind have at least something worth looking into. He has 47 HP, 30 Atk, 35 Spd, 25 Def, and 20 Res. Even for when he came out, he was weaker then most launch units like regular Lucina, Ryoma, or Fir, as each one was better in some way then him, and were given either unique weapons, or unique skills. Even with the addition of ways of buffing units and a weapon refine, Karel has very unfocused stats, with his only notable stat being his high HP, everything else is either average for his typing, or below average. Worse is that his refine, Nameless Blade, is shared with Fir, a unit who is significantly easier to obtain, has a better Spd and Res stat, and also is more useful compared to Karel. Him remaining a five star rarity unit doesn't help either, because he doesn't have anything of value that makes sense to want to invest in, and even though he was moved to a 4* special rarity he is more treated as a Junk Rare. Even if one really worked to improve him, most units released after him basically do his job better such as Regular Marisa, Kamui and Guy.
• Regular Alfonse. As a launch unit, The Hero of the game, and an Original Character for the game, Alfonse already had the issue Sharena and Anna had where he was unable to receive merges, and had to be leveled up to 5* status. Unlike the other two however, Alfonse is a Mighty Glacier with a focus on Atk and Def. His lower Spd made him nearly unusable as he simply can't do extra damage like the other two can, meaning that his Atk-focused moveset falls into Crippling Overspecialization. Even when Skill Inheritance came out, Alfonse was limited as no new skills allowed him to be a good player-phase unit without being at low HP, which was too risky to use. That said, despite the risk of using it, things like the Brash Assault Seal and his refine giving him Brazen Atk/Def 3 allow him to be a very strong player-phase attacker as long as you can get his health low enough, but the lack of merges for him makes him less desirable to invest in. His only saving grace is that he is always in the rotation of Bonus heroes in Aether Raids and Arena, but players would only use him to score as a last resort if they either foddered off the latest bonus heroes, including the free ones, or are starting anew.
• Luke. Infamous for being one of the worst 5 Star locked units, his stats are directly comparable to Cain, but the only difference is Cain has about two less HP, Atk, and Def but better Spd. The issue is that Cain can be acquire easily and thus can be invested in heavily to completely outperform Luke as a Brave Sword Cavalier, plus Luke has terrible banner rate ups. Not helping was that he tried to be something of a Brave Sword Def-focused Cavalier, only for units like World of Thracia Reinhardt to come along and upstage him thanks to having a powerful unique sword. The main issue Luke has is rarity; if he was 3/4 Star, he would be almost better in most ways than Cain, and would be a solid unit, but being kept at 5 Star rarity makes him too impractical and costly to try and get. He used to be desired for Panic Ploy 3, but other units at better availability came along with it, and it was made a Sacred Seal, meaning the only thing he might have going for him was his weapon refine, but his refine only works if the enemy is not buffed and just gives him +6 Atk/Def, which he is then dependent on his foe either not having any bonuses at all or having being hit by the [Panic] status, with his HP going up to a more reasonable 46 by default with the refine, but with the addition of many ways to remove penalties during combat, especially on weapons, and buffs going beyond just stats, even that has fallen off in use. His rarity issue is slightly alleviated with him being in the 4* special rate in all banners in update 5.2.0, making him easier to summon, but his skills and weapon leave much to be desired.
• Regular Young Tiki, as the first 5-star rarity locked Dragon unit and being from the game's launch, is a serious offender of the game's Can't Catch Up nature with her Jack of All Stats statline turned into Master of None over time and lackluster default skillkit. While Breath of Fog did give her more viability, because her Adult self, who is also easier to obtain, got it as well, it meant players could quickly have her Adult self perform better with it. She also has to compete with both her Adult self, who has better defensive stats and better availability, but also Garon, who has incredibly good bulk as well, and Nah, who has offensively better stats with a good weapon and base kit. Even worse, Bantu from the same game was added as a 3/4 star rarity unit, and he has comparable stats to Young Tiki, but better allocation and availability, and a decent weapon from update 7.4.0. Although she received a Resplendent boost in January 2021, it puts her statline up to 43/33/32/34/31, making her into a Jack of All Stats, but ultimately still makes her into a Master of None nowadays, since even though she has Trainee boosts for a Gen 1 unit alongside the Resplendent boost, she is still unfocused in terms of stats and skills and is dependent on her having an Asset on her Atk or Spd in order to make her workable in the Meta Game, especially compared to fellow Red Dragon Infantry Regular Sothis, who has a focus on Spd, Distant Counter and removing her dragon weakness on her weapon. Like Luke, her rarity issue was slightly alleviated with her being added to the 4* special rate in all banners in update 5.2.0, but it's not enough to make up for her shortcomings.
• Legendary Seliph. Even on release, he was mediocre - pure enemy phase cavalry are an inherently difficult class, trading away a lot of BST that they need for tanking just for mobility that they can't take advantage of. Due to a lack of guaranteed follow-up or any perks at all on player phase, he'll struggle to get any kills that way, and then will almost certainly take two hits he can't block. And even on enemy phase, he barely gets any boost to his survivability, leaving him vulnerable to being one-shot, or killed on follow-up if he can't kill the enemy first. But over time, the meta has only become worse and worse for him, due to not only stat creep further compounding his BST issues, but the preponderance of anti guaranteed follow-up, and the debut of the status effect Deep Wounds preventing him from getting the healing he desperately needs. He can't even be salvaged with skills, given cavalry units have very minimal inheritance options and he needs both his Holy War's End and Distant Counter to even function on his best phase. This disappointing treatment is part of what led to Seliph actually placing second in CYL 6, with many arguing that he deserved better than this underwhelming premium unit, especially in comparison to his father, Sigurd, whose legendary version has the same weapon, movement type, and stat spread (exactly the same but with 6 more Spd, in fact) but is infamously overpowered. And if nothing else, the saddest thing you can say about Legendary Seliph is that you're often better off just using his regular version, a Gen 1 unit in the 3/4* pool.
• Regular Henry has 45 HP and 32 Def, which is excellent physical bulk for a mage, he wields a -raven tome which has an advantage over colorless units, and access to Ignis, a Special that works off of his Def. However, the rest of his stats are incredibly low. His Res is only 25, making his match-ups against non-green mages uncertain at best. His Atk stat (before equipping a weapon) is only a pathetic 23, which forces him to rely on Ignis to deal any meaningful damage. And his worst stat is a 22 Spd, which makes him extremely likely to get doubled. He's not impossible to use, but he'll need a lot of Skill Inheritance and team support to be feasible, and is still outclassed by other red mages. When he received his Corvus Tome in update 4.1.0 in January 2020, it at least made use of his very low Atk with the unique refinement having the effect of inflicting -6 Atk/Res and -1 special buildup on the foe during combat, but he needs significant investment into him to make him worthwhile to use, with his statline still being a major factor that players usually avoid investing a lot into in.
• Poor Leo has all versions before his Valentine version of himself generally be considered bad.
  • Regular Leo is a Red Tome Cavalier with Quick Riposte 3 and Savage Blow 3, but those are the only good things going for him. His default stat spread is at 39 HP, 29 Atk, 22 Spd, 25 Def, and 30 Res. As seen by his stats, Leo has some of the worst stats in the game, being barely able to crack over 40 Atk with his signature tome, Brynhildr, in addition to being one of the slowest units in the game period, and his Res, being his best stat, cannot compare to other "slow but magically tanky" units like all the variants of Micaiah, Regular Deirdre, or Regular Lilina, who all have great stats to work with. Brynhildr also doesn't help, having what was once a semi-useful Gravity effect when it hits, as it unlike the refined Gravity+ staff, Leo can't consistently prevent counterattacks and can only inflict gravity on a single unit and his cavalry movement type makes it harder to get him to safety without a dancer. There is also the problem that he is considered to be a Junk Rare by many players because he is locked at 5*, where that issue would not be a problem if he was available at 3/4*, which was addressed with him being in the 4* special rate in all banners released from update 5.2.0 in February. Even when Brynhildr got a Weapon Refinement, giving a new ability that reduces the first magical hit he takes by 30%, plus adding the special refine that negates follow-up attacks for Bows, Daggers, Staves, and Tomes if Leo has higher Def than his foe during combat, his usefulness is still questionable, as he's outclassed in pretty much any role he could play aside from cavalry red mage tank which isn't a role that is too necessary. While the meta has more enemy phase oriented, his stat spread still keeps him from being a great one as unlike Regular Myrrh, he lacks the Def to consistently trigger Brynhildr's refine effect and prevent doubles.
  • Summer Leo comes in with a slightly better stat spread, but not by much. By default he has 37 HP, 32 Atk, 27 Spd, 16 Def, and 35 Res. At face value he looks better in every way except for slightly less HP and Def, but his stats still don't make him strong enough to stand out as a infantry mage, and his weapon, the Tomato Tome+ only gives allies +1 Atk and Spd during combat, which is such a insignificant increase that it does nothing for Leo, plus it has less MT than his normal version's tome. In addition, while he has the useful Atk Ploy skill, Leo is still too slow to be able to take advantage of it, plus he doesn't have Quick Riposte in his base kit and as an infantry mage loses out on Horse Emblem buffs that semi-salvaged his normal version. Finally his tome can be refined, but it gains no new effects other than stats, meaning you need to give him a new tome to use, or get extremely lucky and pull a Leo with something such as +Spd or Atk. It's also worth noting since Summer Leo's release, there have been other Red Tome Infantries that do his statline better, such as Julius, who is almost objectively superior to him; he has 1 more HP and 3 more Atk compared to neutral Leo, and his Loptous tome essentially gives him an extra 6 Def and Res against units who lack a weapon with dragon effectiveness, as well as Knoll and Miranda, who bring stronger statlines and more desirable skills to inherit, and all three are easy to acquire while Leo is locked to his Summer banner, making him too impractical to even run now.

Blue Units

• Sully suffers from a stat spread that's too unfocused to be functional (only her HP and Spd are naturally above 30), with her 26 Atk and low defenses being especially damning. Atk is her Superasset, letting her reach 30 - which is still unspectacular, as common Lance Cavaliers such as Peri, Roderick, and Abel have higher Atk and about even Spd, meaning they can perform better offensively while allowing for more stat flexibility. Meanwhile, her defenses are mixed but not good enough for a tank (24/28), leaving her unable to properly take advantage of her higher HP pool. Her default skill set pushes her to primarily fight Red units, coming with a Sapphire Lance+ and Swordbreaker, but fellow Lance Cavalier Oscar comes with the same weapon before he received his exclusive weapon, better Atk, and Lancebreaker, giving him the same anti-Red kit while allowing for him to fight Lance units as well. While she can be made decent, it's often not worth it due to other Lance Cavaliers who can do her job better. Even when she received her new weapon Bull Spear, it did little to improve her combat performance, being just a stronger Sapphire Lance+, and its exclusive refinement allows her to attack twice in one round if there is a Sword/Lance/Axe wielding Cavalry ally within 2 spaces of her and the enemy initiates combat, meaning that refinement forces her to play a defensive role, which her stats disagree with, while Stahl has a decent Mighty Glacier statline to actually use that refinement very well with his Panther Sword.
• Spring Festival Xander. Despite having a somewhat useful weapon that can be refined, and Live For Honor, a much sought after nowadays B skill, his stat spread is easily the worst of any of the Spring Festival units. He has by default 40 HP, 25 Atk, 28 Spd, 35 Def, and 26 Res. Not only does he have one of the lowest Atk stats in the game, but his Spd and Res are the only thing that make him "better" then his normal sword version, as regular Xander has 24 Spd and 17 Res. However, regular Xander is a free unit who has a whopping 37 Def and 32 Atk, which makes him more useful than Spring Xander's Jack of All Stats like set up. Unless you get a +Def Xander however, he pales in comparison to regular Xander and only his Def is above average for a Lance Cavalier. In fact, if you compare neutral Spring Xander to Camus, another free unit, one can see Camus has better stats in every way except for 4 less Def and 9 less Res, which is hardly an issue since Camus has good Atk and Spd. As a result of his weak unit quality, most players fodder Spring Xander to other units for Carrot Lance+ and Live For Honor.
• Regular Olwen, but in a rather odd way. When she was first released, she was seen as being objectively better than Regular Reinhardt because while Reinhardt had solid Atk and Def as a blue mage, his low Spd meant he was seen as much weaker because of it, while Olwen had a good Spd stat, and a solid Res stat, which made her useful for Horse Emblem teams ^note With the Normalized Trait with full Horse Emblem buffs, she would, even still today, be a fairly scary enemy because with a buff to Spd, she can double even with Dire Thunder. However, once Reinhardt was demoted to 3~4* rarity, players realized Olwen's lower Atk than Reinhardt, combined with higher rarity, made him more useful because Reinhardt was easy to get, and had a very good role as a powerful Cavalry mage that allowed him to dominate almost every unit, especially with the help of -breaker skills, save very Res-focused Green units. Meanwhile, Olwen, despite being still a solid unit, quickly was unable to compete with her brother because she was very rare still in addition to her lower Atk making it easier for enemies to tank many hits from her, to the point that "0x4" ended up as a common nickname for her, while Reinhardt was made easier to use after being demoted to 3* status. Basically, while Olwen is a good unit, her rarity makes the community see her as a weaker version of Reinhardt until her moving into the 4* special rate for all banners from update 5.2.0 made summoning her more easily, but not at much commonly as her brother. Even when she received a Resplendent option in August 2020 that players can give her +2 to all her stats, raising her Atk to a slightly respectable 28 and her Spd to a good 36, unless she receives a refinement (which her brother would also receive), it's not going to be enough for players to pick her over her brother, who also received a Resplendent option in late March 2021.
• Oliver. While he is a Squishy Wizard Mage Tank with 42 HP, 32 Atk, 20 Spd, 23 Def, and 34 Res, it's not enough to save him from being bad overall, and his default skill kit is not helping his case. While he has Atk Ploy to go with his 34 Res, his other skills force him into being a player phase unit, which his stats disagrees with: Shine+, which is just a strong tome with no effects, Blazing Light, and Mirror Strike, which gives him +4 Atk/Res during combat if he initiates, which, with his stats, only makes him a magic tank on his phase, which he is better off with a Stance skill, and even then, his Spd and Def are low enough that his high HP doesn't matter. When he received his Tome of Favors in update 5.0.0 in December 2020, which gives him +5 Atk/Res during combat and restores 7 HP to him after combat if the foe is not a Beast unit, and the unique refine giving him the ability to warp to an adjacent space of a Beast unit that can equip Dance/Sing, and an additional +5 Atk/Res during combat if he's within 3 spaces of said Beast unit, it gave him a niche of a magic tank with mixed-phase potential with the right builds and setup. However, due to the Crippling Overspecialization of the Tome of Favors, players are better off using units like Regular Micaiah if players summoned her and Brunnya for a grail project, with the former having a powerful weapon and refine, and the latter having usable Spd and bulk on top of having a strong weapon.

Green Units

• Regular Anna tends to be ranked as the worst of the Askr trio, even after her refine. She is a Fragile Speedster, possessing a low 22 Def and an average 28 Res in exchange for a good 38 Spd. However, she also comes with a below-average 29 Atk, weakening her damage output significantly. While not normally a death sentence, her lack of access to Traits before update 4.9.0 and inability to be merged gives her no options to fix her stats. Her unique weapon, Nóatún, was also a joke, giving her Escape Route 2 - presuming she could survive getting into 40% HP, it would be hard for her to secure any kills with her low Attack before succumbing. Like Alfonse and Sharena, she eventually got a refine to her weapon... which increased her weapon's effect to Escape Route 3, and gave her a Warp Powder effect at above 50% HP. While giving her decent ambush potential, it did little to truly fix what was wrong with her in the first place, as she was still as fragile as ever. She's much less likely to see usage compared to Alfonse or Sharena, who have carved out their own niches, with only her semi-consistent status as a bonus unit helping her stand out, and even then she's overshadowed by Ninja Hana, who not only is free from the Ninja Novices Tempest Trials+ and has a much stronger statline than Regular Anna (especially her 36 Atk compared to Anna's 29), but comes with a strong weapon and is able to be merged.
• Regular Narcian. His stats are rather mediocre, with the only two above 30 being his HP at 42 and his Def at 32. His default weapon is the Emerald Axe+, slightly increasing his damage against blue units at the cost of a hit to his already low Atk against red units. His default skill set is also nothing special, and, if anything, slightly counterintuitive thanks to having Lancebreaker as his default B skill and Reprisal as his special skill. Additionally, there are other free or otherwise easily available flying axe units that do anything he could do better thanks to having better stat distributions, such as Regular Cherche, who is part of the 3-4 star summoning pool, and fellow Grand Hero Battle unit Regular Michalis. He eventually got a personal weapon, the Runeaxe, which gives him some self healing and the exclusive refine gives him +4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat if his foe has a field stat debuff active, but since the stat boost is dependent on the enemy being debuffed, and even if he inherits a debuff skill, without a dedicated debuff team, it has rather limited uses and doesn't bump his stats enough.
• Gunter suffers from being a Crutch Character in stats like you would expect but unlike Jagen, who has potential as a Blue Cavalier Mage Tank due to having high Res and his Veteran Lance after update 4.3.0. Gunter comes in with decent Def, but all his other stats are unimpressive given his competition includes Regular Titania, Regular Frederick, Groom Marth, Walhart, and Plegian Male Kris, all easily acquirable Axe Cavaliers who are much better than him at everything he could do. Compared to Titania and Frederick, Gunter has the same base HP as Frederick, less Atk, Spd, and Def, and only a small amount more Res, while Titania has less HP, Atk, and Def, but better Spd and Res. Really the only thing he has going for him is ease of access, and being the only summonable unit who has Hone Cavalry, but that only merits his status as good skill fodder, not as a unit. When he received his Inveterate Axe in update 4.4.0 in April 2020, he however is reworked into a support role, with the default effect of the weapon inflicting -5 Atk/Def on the slowest enemy if he is at 50% HP or over, and his unique refine gives any Infantry or Cavalry allies within 2 spaces of him +4 Atk/Def during combat, as well as giving himself +4 Atk/Def if he has an Infantry or Cavalry ally within 2 spaces of him. One can heavily invest into him to improve his viability in a lot of game modes as a support hero instead of a combat one, but his low BST can be a detriment to his viability if used in an Arena team, and there are better options available at his rarity.
• Picnic Leo is a Green Tome Cavalier with similar stats to his regular self, 37 HP, 33 Atk, 21 Spd, 27 Def and 28 Res, which is more serviceable than both his Regular and Summer variants. The only good things he has going for him is that he has Distant Def and Quick Riposte, and he's free to get. Otherwise, while he does have slightly higher Atk, he suffers even harder than regular Leo, due to not even having a unique weapon and his HP and defenses being so middling that, on top of being incredibly easy to double like his other selves, he'll easily die to nearly any Red, Colorless, or even Green units who do double him with a highly expensive build, not to mention like Summer Leo, his inheritable tome is quite mediocre in only giving +4 Atk/Res during combat if his foe initiates combat, which works well with Distant Def, but far from synergizing off each other well.

Colorless Units

• Regular Rebecca. She is probably the definition of an incredibly average character. Only her Spd goes above 30 and her below average 29 Atk means she can't deal significant damage to most enemies. Worst of all is her skill set — just a generic Silver Bow+, Ardent Sacrifice (also on the more common Florina), Darting Blow 3 (again, also on common units like Florina and Tharja)... and Seal Atk 3, which is useless in a game where one-round-kills are all but necessary. Finally, note that she was, for the longest time, in the 4*-5* pool, meaning that she had a good chance of being a pitybreaker when you pull for colorless units. Fortunately, she was demoted to 3*-4* in the April 2018 update. Even when she received Rebecca's Bow in update 4.1.0 in January 2020, which provides -1 maximum special cooldown, and the unique refinement giving her +4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat if she has a field stat buff active, it just made her a Jack of All Stats at best, as she relies on buffs from allies to make her viable, but without buffs she's subpar, especially since sources of [Panic] and Bonus neutralization are very common in the Meta Game, and even with Arcane Náströnd, which blows her bow out of the water, there are better recipients of that weapon that are just as available as her such as Tanya, Regular Norne and Etie.
• Most Dagger units started out as this, even after given refinement options many still lack the proper stats and weapon types to be great units. Four in particular stand out, however:
  • Matthew is incredibly similar to Saizo, possessing above-average Def and Spd, Poison Strike 3, and a Spd-buffing C skill - to differentiate them, Saizo has better Atk and Def while Matthew has better Res and HP. Unfortunately, a little extra Res means nothing to Matthew as his is a still-abysmal 18, doing nothing to help him against mages. Meanwhile, his Atk is an incredibly low 25, and even though it is his superasset, he is then only equal to Saizo's unaltered Atk, giving him even less to work with as a dagger unit. As such, before his Resplendent release in May 2022, he comes across as a worse version of Saizo. Even though he received his Spy's Dagger in July 2019, which is a stronger Rogue Dagger+, and its exclusive refine made it so that it adds damage equal to the total amount of field stat debuffs on the enemy during combat, he requires assistance from other allies and/or skill inheritance in order to actually make it work, and it's overshadowed by the Broadleaf Fan+, which has the same effect as the refine and is inheritable to anyone, with either better statlines and/or mobility than Matthew, which was released in the same update.
  • Regular Jakob is designed as a balanced unit, having a 39/29/31/25/24 spread. Unfortunately, this turns him into a Master of None: he's too slow to guarantee follow-ups on all but the slowest units or prevent follow-ups by the higher Spd tiers, and too weak to deal meaningful damage with the low-Mt daggers. His defenses are likewise too poor to function as a tank - while both are Superassets, taking one in either will result in another dropping to even worse levels, as well as doing nothing to fix his offensive stats. Finally, his default skill set is abysmal: while Rally Resistance is forgivable due to Power Creep, he has Def+3 (which does little for him even with an asset) and Renewal (the 3 version locked behind 5*, making him rather useless for skill inheritance too). He later received his Jakob's Tray in Update 4.2.0 in early February 2020, where the regular effect allows him to inflict -4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res when he initiates combat, as well as its unique refine allows him to gain +4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat if he is within 3 spaces of an ally that is not at full HP, making it a full 8 stat swing on all stats during combat, making his statline during combat more like 51 Atk, 39 Spd, 33 Def, and 32 Res if everything is in his favor, but it is still not enough to make him any more desirable to build when other great Colorless Daggers are available to build such as Kronya and Gangrel.
  • Summer Frederick. He is a Master of None, with a mediocre 40/32/31/28/16 stat spread, and his gimmick (prior to dagger refines in version 2.0.0) was that he could debuff every stat of only one opponent. After dagger refines, the Smoke Dagger+, a way more accessible dagger, can do this job way better by affecting multiple foes, so that if the user couldn't finish the job, at least they did something to other opponents. Worse still is that the Seashell+ dagger is completely outdone by the Pumpkin-a-Box+ dagger, as the former grants +2 to all stats during combat but only at full health, then injures the user after combat which disables the effect, while the latter is straight up Fury 3, granting a visible +3 to all stats at the cost of 6 HP per combat, but the effect is permanent. Overall, there is nothing noteworthy about Summer Frederick at all, especially given that he lacks a unique weapon to give him an edge.
  • Merlinus. A Colorless Dagger Cavalier, he has some decent skills; Smoke Dagger+, Reposition, Wings of Mercy 3, and Distant Guard 3. Those skills alone makes him good fodder. It however, does not make him a good unit: he has by default 50 HP, 35 Spd, 31 Def, 27 Res, but the worst offender is his 20 Atk, the lowest Atk of the entire game, meaning with his refined Smoke Dagger+, he reaches 32 Atk, where that number for melee units is considered the average for Def, and even if he's able to outspeed any Squishy Wizards, most of the time it's not going to be enough to defeat them in one round of combat unless one puts significant investment into him like giving him Red Hot Ducks+ and Life and Death 4, which would be better on other units with his movement and weapon type and better stat distribution, such as Summer Ursula and Hatari Deen. He is considered by many as a Joke Character with only good skill inheritance.

Skills/Weapons

• The Defiant Skills, which provides a field boost of a specific stat up to 7 at the start of the user's turn when at 50% HP or under, such as Defiant Atk giving +7 Atk. In the past, while they were mostly situational at best and provided a field buff that could boost blade tome users, it was usually one of the worst A slot skills to equip, since those users can go with the more practical Blow skills, and units that are not Infantry can go with the support of their movement class with the specific Hone and Fortify skill due to them increasing two stats instead of one, not to mention that units under 50% are more susceptible to getting the Panic status^note which turns field stat buffs into debuffs from sources like Panic Ploy and Aversa's Night. But with the release of Brazen skills, which raise 2 stats up to 7 during combat when at 80% HP or under, the Defiant skills are rendered completely obsolete these days. The skills are so useless, in fact, that the skills have been completely fazed out to the point of being one of the few Gen 1 skill lines to not receive any tier 4 version, and Brazen skills have replaced them in any unit that would have once had the Defiant skills. Safe to say, the skills have been abandoned in favor of the Brazen skills. The only advantage Defiant skills have is that they trigger skills like the Blade tomes and Regular Eirika's refined Sieglinde and Regular Kaden's Kitsune Fang boosts, but even then they're better off using other self buffing skills on the C slot such as the Wave or Menace skills, which are more reliable to activate.
• The elemental Boost skills (Water Boost, Earth Boost, Wind Boost, Fire Boost). As long as you have more HP than the foe at the start of combat, your unit equipped with the Boost will gain upwards of +6 to the stat, which can certainly help units with larger HP pools. However, the fact that they rely on having more HP than the enemy, which is defined as at least having three or more, means that the skills are only truly useful at the start of the units first round of combat, since you'll likely take damage that drops their HP to just below enough to negate it. This is especially true in the Meta Game, where builds are all about killing a unit in one round of combat, so the skill loses out most of its value for competitive play. Not helping is that the skills are outclassed by so many other skills, ranging from Brazens, Ideal, to Fury. For a long time, all but Earth Boost used to be rather rare: all four of them eventually became Sacred Seals and Earth Boost is available from 4* Boey, but Fire Boost was limited to Valentine Eliwood, Luke, and Summer Xander until the release of 3/4* Ross, Water Boost was exclusively available from 5* Regular Berkut until the also 3/4* Mustafa was released, and Wind Boost comes from Bridal Charlotte, Gray, Astram and Pirate Lifis, with the latter two having better fodder, even when both of it is 5* locked.
• The +Atk refine option on weapons. While stat refines are used to boost the performance of units who have them by increasing their HP and selected stat or unique refine, the +Atk is the least popular one in the meta. The refine gives a measly +2 Atk for melee weapons, while for Spd it gives +3 and the defensive stats +4, and the ranged ones are worse, giving only a +1 on Atk, while giving +2 Spd and +3 for the defensive stats. Even refinable exclusive weapons such as Regular Cherche's Axe and Luke's Rowdy Sword, both of which are beefed-up Brave weapons that would benefit from the Atk refine, only get +1 Atk on that refine. The other refines give more durability to the units, especially one focused on an ORKO meta, or have a unique effect that even out-powers the +Atk the refine gives, and attack specials, offensive-based skills, and Sacred Seals make up for the loss on Atk they would miss on the +Atk refine.
• The Silver+ grade weapons. The Silver+ weapons, Flametongue+, Bolganone+, Fenrir+, Rexcalibur+, and Shine+^note Thoron+ is unavailable for players to inherit for some reason, and Atlas+ is not available on anyone at all are just 1 Might below character exclusive weapons, and have no other effects, with the melee weapons such as Silver Axe+ having 15 Might, the ranged ones such as the Silver Bow+ and Bolganone+ having 13 Might, and due to Early-Installment Weirdness, the Silver Dagger+ has 10 Might. In the first year of the game, they were Boring, but Practical compared to the other inheritable weapons such as the Anti-Armor and Killer weapons due to their lower Might, but as time went on it became impractical to use these weapons in the long run due to weapon effects often outweighing the loss of Might. Many heroes that were released with these weapons, like Regular Soren, Regular Lilina, and Laslow, later gained personal weapons that have effects and are stronger than these weapons, and with updates every month giving old heroes new weapons, the Silver+ grade weapons are likely to be phased out. Refinements allowed them to innately boost the Might to match personal weapons, but they still didn't give anything else to the unit, unlike other weapon groups such as the Slaying weapons (stronger versions of Killer weapons), -serpent tomes, and even inheritable seasonal weapons, which can be as powerful as the Silver+ grade weapons with refinements alongside their effects as well.
• Cancel Affinity. Its effect is that it reverses the effects of Triangle Adept if the foe has it and they have an advantage against the user, turning the matchup into a more favorable one. It's just so so damn specific that it's not worth running most of the time, especially since it takes up the valuable B slot. Its real purpose is just to exist on enemy units to thwart players looking to use Triangle Adept themselves, basically punishing them. Most enemy units, as well as units built by other players, usually won't have any form of Triangle Adept to begin with. An attempt was made to make the skill more viable with the Trilemma+ staff, which grants Triangle Adept as a status effect on foes, with the idea that it'd give this skill more use, but ultimately, it remains an unpopular skill that just keeps showing up to little fanfare. Its only big benefit is to help colorless units against those who go against the Triangle Adept/-raven build, and even then it's a rare build nowadays.
• Vengeance and Reprisal. The skills allow the user to deal more damage the less HP they have when it activates, with 30% HP missing for Reprisal, and 50% HP for Vengeance. However, it becomes impractical when the user needs to have a lot of base HP and be on death's door in order to make it worthwhile using over other specials. For comparison, the defense piercing Specials Moonbow and Luna are more consistent in actually dealing damage on activation, especially at full HP where most combat will be at for player units, while these Specials at that HP would give 0 extra damage. Going for Reprisal on a unit means not going for Moonbow and Glimmer, both which are more practical to use, and going for Vengeance means not going for the other 3 cooldown specials such as Bonfire and Draconic Aura, both of which deal more consistent damage. The lower HP cap compared to other Fire Emblem games for many units does not help their case.^note To put things into perspective, Awakening, which introduced the Vengeance skill, has the HP cap be at 80 for all Tier 2 classes, dealing at maximum 39 damage, and in Fates the lowest HP cap for player units at Tier 2 is 45, with the highest one at 70 HP, dealing at maximum 22 and 34 damage, respectively; the lowest HP cap at neutral for a player unit at 5* and Level 40 that can use these skills in Heroes is 31 with Kagero, with a maximum 9 Damage with Reprisal and 15 with Vengeance, and the highest at neutral being at 60 HP from Arden, who would deal a maximum of 17 damage with Reprisal, and 29 with Vengeance; in comparison Arden's better off using Bonfire thanks to his Follow-up Ring guaranteeing follow-up attacks when he's over 50% HP and will deal a consistent 20+ damage from Bonfire.
• The Aether Raids Offense skills such as AR-O Atk/Spd. The idea behind them is that they provide a stat boost to two stats based on the number of defense buildings you've destroyed, up to a potential +10 to the two stats. The problem with this is that you have to destroy pretty much all of the opponent's buildings for that maximum effect, and by that point you're either likely already trying to clean up the rest of the foes that are around, or you're wasting a lot of time breaking buildings, and worse still is that some buildings are just heavily guarded by the opponent's team formation, meaning they're hard to reach without getting into the line of fire. As a result, these skills are pretty inconsistent and impractical, not seeing much use from many players, who would rather run a different skill that's easier to use like a Solo skill or Fury.
• The Feint skills such as Atk Feint. The idea of the skill is to apply a -7 single stat debuff to enemies in a cardinal direction of the user like the Ploy skills while also buffing allies with the Rally skills, but the actual execution is less than ideal: First, the positioning of the unit equipped with the Rally skill needs to be accounted to debuff enemies, and some maps make this nearly impossible to do so on the same turn they want to make use of them. Second, only the unit equipped with the Feint skill will debuff any enemies in their cardinal direction, not the ally or the unit with the Rally as well. Finally, it's a single stat debuff, where dual stat debuffs are more desired. The difficulty of targeting a specific foe with the Feint skills made players replace them with the more reliable Chill skills, where while they only targets those with the highest specific stat, they at least actually have an enemy target to debuff and don't waste the user's turn, and the fact that until the release of Feint skills as Sacred Seals, all of them were locked behind 5* exclusive units (and all but one of them being seasonal units at that). The release of the Ruse skills such as Atk/Spd Ruse finally make the Feint skills no longer worth it to run, due to a variety of factors that Ruse have over Feint: the giver and receiver of the Rally buffs now debuff in their cardinal directions instead of only the one equipped with the skill, and it inflicts -5 debuffs to two of the enemy's stats, as well as the [Guard] status^note -1 special buildup for every attack during combat onto them.
• Dull Close/Ranged. Both skills work by flatly ignoring buffs to either physical units or ranged units. Sadly, they were implemented as B skills, meaning they have to compete with much more coveted skills like Vantage, Quick Riposte, and the Fighter skills, which means they see very little use and are considered not worth investing in. They also are outclassed by the Lull skills, which have the same effect of ignoring buffs, but instead focus on two that are more useful to the unit using it, and also inflict -3 to both stats, making it more viable then simply being able to No-Sell raw stats, though the Lull skills are limited to Infantry and Cavalry units. In addition, some skills like Distant Defense 4 have the effect baked into the skill, meaning other options are more useful for using said effect. At best the skills are useful for characters who use Firesweep weapons, but beyond those builds, see little use.
• Daring Fighter. This skills is essentially a better version of Desperation 3, where in addition to allowing the user to perform a follow-up attack before the foe can counterattack if the user initiates combat and is at at 80% HP or under, also ignore skills that deny any of the user's follow-up attacks. However, the reason not many units use it in the first place is that it is Armor-exclusive, where very few Armored units either have high mobility and/or high Spd to exploit this skill, as well as the HP setup one needs to do in order to activate the Desperation effect. To add insult to injury, not only is it only released on Winter Duo Marth & Elise^note who was released in December 2019 as a seasonal unit and pretty much the greatest one to use this skill thanks to their skills and statline, but the later release of Save skills and Savvy Fighter pretty much shaped most fast Armor units to become enemy or mixed-phase to be very effective, whereas player-phase only fast Armor units fell out of favor in the Meta Game as a result.
• Pass and Obstruct. Obstruct allows the user to prevent the foe from passing through adjacent spaces if the user is at 50% HP or above, while Pass allows the user to move through enemies and counter against Obstruct if the user is at 25% HP or above. However, very little players actually use these skill due to the fact that the unit with Obstruct most of the time is the one the attacking unit intends to target in the first place and it does not actually protect other allies from ranged attacks, and with Pass most teams are usually tightly grouped up together or are spread evenly apart from the opposing team, the small maps and low movement of all movement types in Heroes makes passing through enemies a lot more difficult compared to other Fire Emblem installments, and outside of Resonant Battles not many enemies or players even run Obstruct, and both require a HP threshold to activate in the first place and most importantly they occupy the B slot, where strong or important B skills reside such as Null Follow-Up, the Fighter and Trace skills. Even with the release of Obstruct as a Sacred Seal, there are other much more desirable one that reside there such as Mystic Boost, Blade Session and the Breath skills. It wasn't until the release of Gatekeeper's Detailed Report and the Bulwark skills that showed what Obstruct was intended to be like, with them not only also restricting the movement of ranged foes to protect allies from them, but also prevents the warping of enemy units within range of the user with their skills for the former and inflicts debuffs on the foe and recover HP after combat for the latter, and as such Obstruct became one of the least desirable skills in the game to equip or inherit, while Pass only sees very niche use.