Meta Changes and Updates 26 (01/17/2024)

This is the monthly blog about changes in the meta for Fire Emblem Heroes (FEH). To know about any units that defined January 2024's meta and any other game changes, read on!

New Recent Content

New Weapon Refines

Weapon Refinery Update
Legendary Corrin (F)				Legendary Lilina				Ferdinand
Kiria			Leila			Young Minerva			Young Merric

New Recent Banners

New Heroes & Rearmed Reinhardt

Active Period: 01/10/2024 ~ 01/29/2024

Who Should You Pull From New Heroes & Rearmed Reinhardt?
Tina [9.0/10]	Safy [9.0/10]	Lara [8.5/10]	Rearmed Reinhardt [9.5/10]

Ring In the Year

Active Period: 01/01/2024 ~ 01/31/2024

Who Should You Pull From Ring In the Year?
New Year Nerþuz [9.0/10]	New Year Kvasir [9.0/10]	New Year Kana (M) [8.5/10]	New Year Seiðr [9.5/10]

Holiday Lessons

Active Period: 12/14/2023 ~ 01/13/2023

Who Should You Pull From Holiday Lessons?
Winter Yunaka [9.5/10]	Winter Edelgard [9.9/10]	Winter Dimitri [9.5/10]	Winter Byleth (M) [9.5/10]

New Legendary Hero

New Legendary Hero
Legendary Camilla [9.9/10]

New Resplendents

01/25 to 02/09	01/10 to 01/24
Veronica	Ilyana

List of Resplendent Heroes

Are they meta defining?

The Winter Heroes from the recent Holiday Lessons banner continue to run the metagame, with Winter Byleth (M) being ever-present in multiple game modes as the premiere Far Save unit in the game, and Winter Edelgard being the best offensive unit in the entire game capable of initiating and defeating up to three enemies in one turn with ease.

Legendary Camilla is also one of the best, if not the best, tankbuster units in the game with Bewitching Tome's unmitigated pre-combat damage effect heavily denting tanks, leaving them wounded and easy to defeat, especially with her very high Atk stat.

The other new units from recent banners, while good, aren't powerful enough to overtake current metagame units.

Meta Changes

Arena

Meta Units

Meta Units
Legendary Camilla [9.9/10]	Legendary Ninian [9.9/10]	Winter Byleth (M) [9.5/10]	Winter Edelgard [9.9/10]

It is currently a Water 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 Camilla is the Legendary hero we most expect to see in Arena due to being newly released. She will be the bonus Legendary unit for the entire month and will greatly help summoners achieve their maximum possible Arena scores.

Her offensive power is impressive, with Bewitching Tome dealing significant unmitigated damage to her foe before combat even begins, allowing her to easily clean up with her high Atk stat.

Legendary Ninian is the other Water Legendary hero we most expect to face in Arena with her great mobility and support capabilities as a 3-move refresher unit. Dragon's Dance even grants her an additional action when used on turn 2 onwards!

Winter Byleth (M) is a common +10 unit in Arena as he is arguably the best Savior unit in the game currently.

His Holy Yule Blade applies a Special decaying effect (if Byleth's foe has an offensive Special skill and Byleth wins a Res check) of up to -3 based on the number of spaces moved by the unit initiating combat, and is automatically -3 if Byleth triggered a Savior effect. This effect is what cements Winter Byleth (M) as the best Far Save unit in the game, as he can prevent his foe's Special skills from activating, allowing him to withstand attacks using his impressive bulk.

Winter Edelgard is the best offensive unit in the game, capable of defeating up to three foes at once.

Her exclusive B skill Raging Tempest grants +1 movement and 【Charge】 to Winter Edelgard at the start of turn, fixing her mobility issues. In combat, Raging Tempest inflicts Atk/Def-5 on Edelgard's foe and grants Edelgard bonus damage equal to 15% of her Atk and an extra action if Edelgard initiated combat.

Her exclusive weapon Black Yule Lance creates 【Divine Vein (Flame)】 tiles, pre-charges her Special skill by up to -3 cooldown, cuts foe's damage reduction by up to 100%, and neutralizes foe's non-Special Miracle effects.

She is usually equipped with either Armored Blaze for more damage, or Galeforce for a third action. Both builds are very powerful and can easily mop up enemies if played properly.

How to Counter

Legendary Camilla's damage can be difficult to withstand, but her bulk is below average. Wait for her to approach your team, and then defeat her in player phase.

Legendary Ninian can be annoying to manage with refresher AI, but you can use that to your advantage by baiting one enemy unit to move forward away from their allies. Pick the straggler off and then clean up on the following turn.

Keep in mind that melee units move before ranged units when controlled by the AI; if Ninian is the only melee unit, she will be acting first and not using Dragon's Dance.

Winter Byleth (M) has a formidable enemy phase, but his player phase is severely lacking. Do not engage on him and simply allow him to move forward and attack your units. He should be unable to knock out your units and die on the counterattack.

Winter Edelgard is powerful offensively, but her mobility can cause her to move forward too far, away from her allies. Make sure you stay out of her attack range, or else she will sweep your team with ease.

Check to make sure her Atk/Def Prime 4 skill isn't fully active (notably, the Distant Counter effect), and then pick her off with ranged units.

Aether Raids

Meta-Defining Units

Meta Units
Freyr [9.5/10]	Embla [9.5/10]	Bridal Catria [9.5/10]	Winter Edelgard [9.9/10]

The Aether Raids meta has added the Winter units into the high rank metagame, but has remained relatively similar since the addition of Freyr.

Galeforce strategies have swapped Summer Edelgard with the new and improved Winter Edelgard, and Savior teams have incorporated Winter Byleth (M) to withstand Special skipping units such as Wind Tribe Claude.

Freyr

Freyr has breathed new life back into defenses which were neutered by Elimine's Staff of the Saint, opening the door for their return.

Freyr's main role is to provide support through Dream Deliverer's ability to cleanse all 【Penalty】 effects onto himself and nearby allies. Key allies include Bridal Catria, Winter Cordelia, and heavy nuker units to team up with the aforementioned two units.

Aside from Dream Deliverer, Freyr also functions as a decent offensive unit with high bulk. Dream Horn has two sources of damage reduction, protecting Freyr and allowing him to survive more often to provide further support in the later turns. Melee beast cavalry units aren't a good offensive archetype, but offense isn't the reason why Freyr should be fielded in teams. His allies will provide the firepower instead.

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.

Dedicated players are still 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 and Flier Lines involving Legendary Hinoka 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 offensive units have no trouble picking off the weaker members of raiding parties.

Bridal Catria and Winter Cordelia

Bridal Catria and Winter Cordelia have similar roles on their teams: providing a double-attack buff to their allies. The main differences between the two, aside from their kits, are:

• Wedding-Bell Axe's 【Triangle Attack】 requires two allies, but they can be within 2 spaces of said allies.
• Inseverable Spear's 【Dual Strike】 only requires one nearby ally, but the ally has to be adjacent to another ally with 【Dual Strike】.

While Bridal Catria and Winter Cordelia are above average attackers themselves, granting a double attack to heavy nukers such as Brave Lysithea or Valentine's Chrom allows them to rip holes through most units, including tank units.

Winter Edelgard

Winter Edelgard is the premiere unit for offensive strategies such as Galeforce and Hit and Run.

With Raging Tempest's +1 movement and 【Charge】, Winter Edelgard can easily reach the enemy units and begin the offensive assault. Raging Tempest's bonus true damage and extra action when combined with Black Yule Lance's Special skipping effect allows Winter Edelgard to easily punch through enemy units, and then either continue the offensive with Galeforce or retreat back to the safety of her allies.

Dedicated Galeforce teams will equip Fury 4 and the Fury 3 Sacred Seal on Winter Edelgard, allowing her to fall below the Wings of Mercy threshold. Her allies can then warp in and clean up the enemy team.

How to Counter

Freyr himself isn't a threatening unit. Rather, he enables threatening strategies that require specific setup to overcome.

Against Catria Ball or Cordelia Ball, the most common team compositions that Freyr enables, the best strategy is to break their formation by attacking once with a unit that can survive, then retreat to safety to engage the enemy AI.

The AI will then make their actions, hopefully separating Bridal Catria (or Winter Cordelia) from their Savior allies. If successful, you can then snipe the Harmonic flier down to severely reduce the enemy team's offensive firepower.

You can also rely on Bolt Tower to wear down the Savior units and use a Galeforce strategy to clear most of the enemy team in one turn while they're weakened. Medeus is a Dark mythic and thus should not be present alongside Freyr on the same team.

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.

Bridal Catria and Winter Cordelia enable a similar strategy of granting double attacks to nearby allies. If Freyr isn't present on the enemy team, bring Elimine to apply 【False Start】 to these units and neuter them completely.

If Freyr is present, apply the strategies mentioned above on the Freyr section, or bring a unit with Spd/Def Ruse 4 to apply 【Schism】 to key units, disabling Triangle Attack and Dual Strike.

Winter Edelgard will be the offensive unit that most Defense teams will prepare for.

To help counter her, either prepare a sturdy Green Near Save unit with some support skills surrounding the entire team, or field an offensive team capable of reaching the raiding party on turn one and block the bottom row with structures to make it difficult for Winter Edelgard to engage on turn one.

It is worth noting that Winter Edelgard's damage reduction piercing effect is only applicable to non-Special damage reduction skills. Specials like Pavise will still work against her.

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