Meta Changes and Updates 21 (06/05/2023)

This is the monthly blog about changes in the meta for Fire Emblem Heroes (FEH). To know about any units that defined May 2023's meta and any other game changes, read on!

New Content in May

New Weapon Refines

Weapon Refinery Update
Líf				Legendary Edelgard				Valentine's Alm
Cormag			Ewan			Eyvel			Valbar

New Banners

Bridal Dreams

Active Period: 05/19/2023 ~ 06/19/2023

Who Should You Pull From Bridal Dreams?
Bridal Anna [9.0/10]	Bridal Say'ri [9.0/10]	Bridal Flavia [8.5/10]	Bridal Tiki (Adult) [9.5/10]

New Heroes & Rearmed Chrom

Active Period: 05/09/2023 ~ 06/08/2023

Who Should You Pull From New Heroes & Rearmed Chrom?
Fallen Byleth (F) [9.5/10]	Fallen Maria [9.5/10]	Fallen Anankos [9.0/10]	Fallen Chrom [9.5/10]

New Legendary Hero

New Legendary Hero
Legendary Hinoka [9.5/10]

New Resplendents

05/25 to 06/09	05/10 to 05/24
Ninian	Surtr

List of Resplendent Heroes

Are they meta defining?

Three of the four Fallen heroes are powerful units in today's metagame.

Fallen Byleth (F) is a speedy sword infantry unit with a new weapon in Captain's Sword. This exclusive weapon grants an accelerated Special trigger, Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 during combat, has a Bulwark effect that prevents foes from moving through nearby spaces and heals Byleth for 7 HP after combat, and has a Vantage effect upon winning a Spd check.

This loaded weapon dumps a lot of different effects onto Fallen Byleth (F), making her difficult to counter outright. The Bulwark effect prevents her foes from simply bypassing her and attacking the back line, and the Vantage effect ensures that Byleth deals significant damage, or outright knocks out, any enemies that approach.

Fallen Byleth (F) also comes with an exclusive Special in Divine Pulse similar to Brave Byleth (F). It is a 2 charge Special (reduced to 1 charge due to Captain's Sword).

Divine Pulse boosts Fallen Byleth (F)'s damage by 25% of her Spd, reduces damage from her foe's next attack by 75%, and boosts her next attack by 20% of her Spd.

Fallen Maria wields Sacrifice Staff, a meta-defining staff that helps one nearby ally survive dangerous combats and fully recover all missing HP after, similar to the defensive half of Legendary Fae's Life Unending. She only needs to be within two spaces for this effect to trigger.

With her powerful staff, she stands out as the best candidate for teams with save tanks and omnitanks, and for units with Vantage as their kit's foundation.

Fallen Chrom wields Arcane Devourer, a great inheritable sword that works well with fast sword units. He also comes with his own exclusive Reposition effect, Fate Unchanged.... Like its other counterparts from other variants of Chrom, Fate Unchanged... grants an extra action to Fallen Chrom upon use. It also inflicts【Exposure】on nearby enemies as well as enemies with Savior effects near those enemies, forcing them take added damage from this effect.

Legendary Hinoka is this month's new Legendary unit. While she is an offensive unit, her bulk is lacking, leaving her prone to knockouts. Her main draw is Rallying Cry, a powerful support skill that grants herself and nearby allies Special cooldown charge acceleration. It also grants Hinoka and nearby flying allies the 【Charge】 status, allowing for improved mobility.

Legendary Hinoka also comes with the much-anticipated Wings of Mercy 4 which improves upon the original Wings of Mercy 3 by increasing the warp threshold to 60%, allowing warping to two spaces away from allies under the threshold, and allowing warping to nearby allies as long as those allies aren't at full HP.

Meta Changes

Arena

Meta Units

Meta Units
Legendary Hinoka [9.5/10]	Legendary Shez (F) [9.5/10]	Fallen Byleth (F) [9.5/10]	Fallen Linus [9.0/10]

It is currently a Fire Season month and these are the heroes we expect to see the most in Arena aside from the usual suspects like Valentine's Chrom and other metagame relevant duo heroes.

Legendary Hinoka is the current bonus Legendary unit. She is a great offensive unit that can defeat enemies with her attacks while also providing utility and support to nearby allies.

Legendary Shez (F) is the hardest hitting Fire Legendary hero. Her Asura Blades attacks twice and grants Special cooldown acceleration, while Swift Slice grants effective damage against all weapon types. These combination of skills ensure that Legendary Shez (F) will defeat any foe she attacks first.

Fallen Byleth (F) is a speedy sword infantry unit with a deadly combination of skills that allow her to defeat enemies quickly while also improving her survivability. Her Captain's Sword has a Bulwark effect and a Vantage effect, while Divine Pulse boosts damage and grants significant damage reduction. Time's Pulse 4 pre-charges Divine Pulse, ensuring that it is active at all times.

Fallen Linus is the free-to-play option among the bonus units in Arena. His Dead-Fang Axe essentially steals his foe's stat bonuses while also granting himself true damage equal to 10% of his Atk and 40% damage reduction on his foe's first attack as well. Fallen Linus also has impressive offensive stats, allowing him to keep up with the fastest metagame units despite his status as a free-to-play unit.

How to Counter

Legendary Hinoka has terrible bulk and will be defeated if she takes a hit from any halfway decent attacker. Keep her improved mobility in mind, both with Rallying Cry and Wings of Mercy 4, and allow her to approach before you initiate an attack and defeat her.

Legendary Shez (F) hits very hard and will defeat any enemy she attacks. However, her bulk isn't exactly the best as well. Allow her to approach you first, then defeat her with a player phase unit of your own.

Fallen Byleth (F) relies on outspeeding her foes in order to trigger the effects of Captain's Sword. By stacking Spd onto your main unit while also reducing her own, you can negate most of Byleth's damage reduction effects, turning her into a standard sword infantry unit.

Fallen Linus is your standard Axe Infantry unit similar to previous free-to-play options like Valentine's Effie and Ninja Shamir. He does come with his exclusive weapon, but its effects can easily be played around. Do not use units with stat bonuses active when attacking Fallen Linus, otherwise his Dead-Fang Axe will just steal the bonuses and make them his own.

Aether Raids

Meta-Defining Units

Meta Units
Embla [9.5/10]	Nerþuz [9.0/10]	Legendary Hinoka [9.5/10]	Fallen Byleth (F) [9.5/10]

The Aether Raids meta has changed a bit with the recent hero and skill additions. Offense now has Wings of Mercy 4 to improve upon Galeforce compositions, making them even easier to pilot. Defense has not changed much, but the addition of Legendary Hinoka may create some new Cavline-type defenses that utilize fliers that take advantage of the 【Charge】 status.

Embla

Embla still warps Light/Dark season by being the Mythic to prepare multiple teams for.

Her exclusive C skill Severance inflicts 【Undefended】 and 【Feud】 on all foes within 3 columns or 3 rows centered on Embla at the start of the turn, shutting off Savior skills and rendering supports useless.

Players have begun fielding two Emblas, with one in column 2 and the other in column 5. This setup inflicts 【Undefended】 and 【Feud】 onto all six columns, effectively shutting down Save balls from the start.

Cavlines have been the main teammates of an Embla composition, with their extended range allowing instant offense on turn one. With the Emblas shutting off support and Savior, the Cavalry units have no trouble picking off the weaker members of raiding parties.

Nerþuz

Nerþuz is an offensive Light Mythic hero that excels in player phase strategies such as Galeforce and Hit and Run.

Her exclusive weapon Horn of the Land accelerates her Special trigger, grants bonus Special cooldown charges per attack, and has built-in Null Follow-Up. These effects allow Nerþuz to quickly trigger her Special skill.

Additionally, Horn of the Land grants bonus Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat dependent on her Special skill's maximum cooldown count value. When equipped with her base kit's Galeforce, Horn of the Land will grant Atk/Spd/Def/Res+13 during combat.

Nerþuz also comes with an exclusive B skill in Fruit of Life. This skill inflicts Spd/Def-5 onto her foe during combat, reduces damage from her foe's first attack by 40%, and increases the damage of Nerþuz's next attack by the total damage reduced during that combat.

Additionally, if Nerþuz has 1 or less adjacent allies during combat, Fruit of Life neutralizes effects that slow down Nerþuz's Special cooldown charges and inflicts 【Gravity】 onto her foe and all foes adjacent to that foe.

Legendary Hinoka

Legendary Hinoka is this month's new Legendary unit. While only usable in Aether Raids during Fire season, we have an entire month of Fire Season due to her recent release.

Rallying Cry is a powerful support skill that grants herself and nearby allies Special cooldown charge acceleration. This can be used both offensively, with Galeforce teams, and defensively, with standard high Spd infantry units or even Savior tanks.

Legendary Hinoka also comes with Wings of Mercy 4 which improves Galeforce clears, making them significantly easier to achieve, especially with the buffed two-space warping.

Fallen Byleth (F)

Fallen Byleth (F) is a fantastic speedy sword infantry unit. She can be used effectively as an omni-tank, especially with the Bulwark effect pfeventing foes from approaching the backline. Her Vantage effect and pre-charged Divine Pulse through Time's Pulse 4 allow Fallen Byleth (F) to withstand several attacks, retaliating with massive damage on her counterattacks.

How to Counter

Embla shuts down Savior balls, and is often fielded on a Cavline team. These teams have powerful offensive options, but they all lack bulk.

Ensure you field an offensive raiding party in Light season such as Galeforce or Hit and Run. Using these teams, you can pick off most of the enemy units on turn one and then either retreat or unit block the remaining enemies in order to collect Aether resources on future turns.

Summer Edelgard is an amazing unit to field against Embla Cavlines, with her ability to act up to three times in one turn with Raging Storm and Galeforce. Equip self-recoil skills like Fury on her A and Sacred Seal slots, and bring a handful of units that can act multiple times in one turn with Wings of Mercy 3 equipped in order to sweep the map and keep your units safe.

Alternatively, a Vantage strategy can be fielded against these teams in order to prevent knockouts on any of your raiding party units.

Use a unit with high Atk, equip Vantage 3 or similar skills onto them, and move them forward. If using Vantage, ensure that they are under the HP threshold and that none of the enemy units can bypass it through the use of Hardy Bearing or sweep effects.

Finally, consider bringing an Omnitank unit and move them forward into the line of fire. This unit should be incredibly self-sufficient and capable of withstanding multiple attacks from different foes.

Nerþuz's offensive capabilities are powerful, but she still struggles against tank units that can withstand multiple attacks. Field a Near Save unit, ideally Green, in order to prevent Nerþuz from initiating safely.

If Nerþuz cannot attack safely into your team, she will be a hindrance on the battlefield, as she does not have skills that aid her allies in combat.

Legendary Hinoka's niche is buffing up her flying allies using Rallying Cry. These provide her flying allies with 3 movement, essentially turning the defense into a standard Cavline-type team. Simply run multiple tank units like you would against an ordinary Cavline team in order to combat this.

Fallen Byleth (F) has the same weakness here as in Arena, with her reliance on outspeeding her foes. Utilize debuffing structures like Bright Shrine and Panic Manor on your defense map in order to neutralize her Spd advantage.

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