Meta Changes and Updates 4 (12/20/2021)

This is the monthly blog about changes in the meta for Fire Emblem Heroes (FEH). To know about any units that defined this month's meta and any other game changes, read on!

New Content in December!

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Who Should You Pull From Winter Dreamland?
Winter Lysithea [9.5/10]	Winter Mirabilis [9.0/10]	Winter Manuela [9.0/10]	Winter Artur [9.0/10]

Special Fighter 3 is Now Available on a 4★ Unit!

This is a banner Summoners should consider pulling on as Special Fighter 3 is available on Winter Manuela, who can appear as a 4★!

This skill is a really good one to give to Armored units, as it grants Special cooldown charge +1 to its owner and inflicts Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack.

New Mythic or Legendary

New Mythic/Legendary Hero
Thórr [9.5/10]	Eitri [9.0/10]	Ash [9.5/10]

Are they meta defining?

Thórr herself won't be defining the meta in Aether Raids, as she needs a dedicated build to make herself a powerhouse.

She is also competiting for space on your Offense team with Plumeria and Reginn.

Ash, on the other hand, will be turning heads and making waves in Aether Raids, as she can be played on both Offense and Defense.

On Offense, her weapon gives huge Atk bonuses, enabling her to activate Galeforce when paired with the Heavy Blade 3 Sacred Seal.

On Defense, her C Skill gives Joint Drive Atk and gives really good mobility to her allies by allowing them to move to a space with 2 spaces of her.

Eitri will be a formidable opponent in the Arena with her stacking debuffs and powerful weapon, so expect to her see every Fire season moving forward.

It just so happens that her season is next, so watch out for her and Legendary Lilina!

New Seal: Darting Breath

A new Sacred Seal has come to town, and it's Darting Breath!

This seal grants Spd+4 to its owner when a foe initiates combat on them and will also inflict Special Cooldown charge+1 per attack, making this the ideal Seal to put on speedy tanks.

New Refine Spotlight: Walhart's Wolf Berg

Out of all the new refines that came out recently, Walhart deserves a spotlight for his new weapon refine.

Wolf Berg's new Special Effect refine inflicts Atk/Def-7 and the Flash status on foes within 4 spaces of Walhart, and then inflicts an additional Atk/Def-5 on his foe during combat.

That's a pretty powerful upgrade, and makes Walhart a heavy-hitting, physical tank.

New Resplendents

12/09 to 12/24	11/24 to 12/09
Nowi	Ryoma

• List of Resplendent Heroes
• Feh Pass Benefits and Special Features

New Game Mode: Summoner Duels

Summoner Duels is a new game mode introduced during the December 5th episode of FEH Channel.

The FEH Channel video thoroughly explains the game mode and even shows a sample match to get players acquainted quickly.

Standard Meta

Meta Units
Yuri [9.5/10]	Brave Eirika [9.5/10]	Reginn [9.5/10]	Ninja Corrin (F) [9.9/10]
Ascended Fjorm [9.5/10]	Legendary Sigurd [9.9/10]	Legendary Azura [9.5/10]	New Year Peony [9.5/10]

An easy way to judge a unit's strength in Summoner Duels is through its mobility or utility. Canto is king in this game mode, and strong player phase units who abuse this mechanic are often used by players worldwide.

A special mention goes out to Yuri, who basically has cavalry movement without the cavalry drawbacks and can abuse his unique assist Foul Play to position his allies perfectly for future engagements.

A unit with a specific Canto amount is generally better than another with Canto based on remaining movement. Units like Brave Eirika and Reginn are amazing offensively and have better mobility post-combat than most units.

Legendary Sigurd is a special case because he grants additional mobility to his allies through Holy-Knight Aura. He works very well with the aforementioned Canto units to reach and eliminate key targets, then retreat post-combat.

Savior units are also powerful despite the restriction of having only one per team. Teams that are built around a specific Savior unit can easily protect its units and stall out turns to win on points.

Finally, refresher units are just as good in this game mode as well. Mobility-based refresher units like New Year Peony and Legendary Azura perform better than their other counterparts.

Book 3 and Prior Meta

Meta Units
Legendary Azura [9.5/10]	Brave Hector [9.9/10]	Legendary Tiki (Young) [9.0/10]	Legendary Ephraim [8.5/10]
Reinhardt [9.0/10]	Legendary Leif [9.0/10]	Brave Alm [9.5/10]	Brave Micaiah [9.0/10]

Canto is less common in the Book 3 and Prior metagame, but is is still present mostly through the inheritable Trace skills.

As such, there is a stronger presence for Savior units, especially Brave Hector whose counters were mostly released after Book 3. We all know how strong Brave Hector is and we feel we do not need to explain why.

Due to all the fairies being released in Book 4 onwards, Legendary Azura is the best refresher unit in this metagame. She grants additional mobility and stat bonuses after her use of Gray Waves, which is better than an ordinary Dance granted by other refresher units.

Legendary Ephraim is the premiere Canto unit in this meta thanks to his refine and remix. He has Canto, he hits hard, he has Special acceleration, he has Null Guard, and he has innate healing so he is less worried about his survival after he attacks.

Brave Micaiah is also a strong unit in this metagame due to her having both Armor and Cavalry effectiveness combined with her high damage output. She is also a flying unit who can bypass the numerous terrain restrictions in most of the maps such as trenches and trees.

Finally, mobile units with high player phase output are also more common here. Units such as Reinhardt and Legendary Leif who can nuke down enemies up to 5 spaces away are strong options. Brave Alm also has the benefits of 3 movement without the drawbacks, and his offensive prowess cannot be ignored either.

Meta Changes

Arena

Meta Units

Meta Units
Yen'fay [9.0/10]	Eitri [9.0/10]	Legendary Lilina [9.5/10]
Legendary Micaiah [9.0/10]	Legendary Sigurd [9.9/10]

Looks like we're loaded for Arena in the upcoming Seasons!

While we have our usual suspects Lilina, Micaiah, and Sigurd, they are joined by newcomer Legendary hero Eitri and surprisingly effective free unit Yen'fay!

How to Counter

Eitri, Lilina, and Micaiah have the disadvantage of being very fragile units, so good counters would be physical damage, melee units such as Yen'fay and Legendary Sigurd themselves.

As for Yen'fay and Sigurd, ranged units that can break their damage reduction such as those that use Deadeye are recommended.

Blue tanks such as Brave Hector will also work, as they'll just stand there and let these two attack them.

Aether Raids

Meta-Defining Strat

The Aether Raids meta has not changed much since our last update.

On offense, the addition of Ash gives summoners an offensive Mythic to use with Galeforce teams, especially with the superior mobility granted by her C skill Opening Retainer.

On defense, Winter Lysithea is yet another fast cavalry mage that can attack twice assuming the conditions for her Sweet Yule Log are met.

A couple of things to note about Winter Lysithea are that she activates Duo's Hindrance and that her C skill C Feud 3 neutralizes the effects of enemy Flayns, allowing her to ignore the damage reduction granted by Caduceus Staff!

How to Counter

Summoners shouldn't go out of their way to counter Ash specifically, as she isn't too troublesome to handle.

If your defense team is geared towards tanking and stalling, add as many Guard effects as possible to make the team Galeforce-proof.

If your defense team is geared towards hyper offense and forced engagements, no adjustment is necessary to counter Ash.

As for Winter Lysithea, first check to see if she has C Feud 3 equipped during map preview. If so, simply keep in mind that your colorless units such as Flayn and Ash will not be assisting your primary tank in battle against Winter Lysithea.

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