The problem with Adaptability is there is zero consideration to the actual damage being done and how it interacts with Vantage, and imo, it'd be so easy to fix: If there's a weapon that can kill, use that. If multiple weapons can kill, refer to to the rest if the rest of the heuristic.
Anna (mage) is one of the best users of Leif. She low build, preventing her from doubling a lot despite having amazing SPD growth. With Leif, she can more reliably double. Also, as you mentioned, Leif will fix her HP, since mages have low HP caps. One thing you forgot to mention is the Light Brand gives +10 LCK. She can use it to trigger her passive - although this is not the primary reason I use Leif on her. I like Leif as a stat backpack for her.
One of the interesting interactions someone found was that if you inherit Momentum from Sigurd, the bonus applies to each hit of Quadruple Hit instead of just the first as you would expect. I’m not sure that’s *too* useful since it means forgoing inheriting a more useful skill, but it at least means the Engage attack can do *some* damage
I'd say its pretty useful if you need to reach a kill threshold. Having extra damage PER hit is pretty substantial especially if you managed to get a cavalry or flier to use it and use their max 6 move. 6x4 =24 is a huge boost of damage on top of what you already do and scales alright up until endgame. Unfortunately, its one attack and requires a skill slot but momentum is alright on high move classes so it's not the worst thing. Leif is an alright emblem that is outclassed by other rings EXPECIALLY with DLC in mind but can still be used in some paralogues when you might not have all the emblem rings unlocked.
Leif can actually be pretty helpful early on if you throw him on a covert unit. They get plus 20 avoid and combine that with knife precision and that's 25 extra avoid. On destinea cathedral you can have yunaka solo hold the left side from the pillars, i haven't tried it with alcryst, but he should have enough avoid to do it
Quadruple Hit is best when you stack bonuses on hit since it’s the only Engage attack with more than 3 hits that doesn’t reduce damage. Stack Divinely Inspired, Momentum, and Lunar Brace and you’re hitting big damage regardless of your stats. Chloe can also stack Fairy Tale Folk. It can be good in warp skips since those are all about setting up a boss kill anyway.
@@joshuameek8007 Yes, Momentum applies to each hit. At one point I described a situation where you could get 80 extra damage from just bonuses which should lead to an easy kill on pretty much every enemy. This alongside it giving the chance to proc damage skills up to 4 times. Take Lunar Brace+ for example: suppose you are quadruple hitting a 40 Def 80 HP unit (a late game General). Lunar Brace+ alone is giving you 48 damage and Momentum is giving 12 or so more. That means you only need 20 points of damage. I like running it on Alcryst because then you have a good chance to get Luna and ignore half the enemy’s Def which in this case gets you all the damage you need to net the kill. If you combo Divinely Inspiring and Fairy Take Folk on here you’re dealing 80 and getting the kill even if you were barely dealing damage at the beginning.
I really enjoyed using Leif on a unit who inherited Resolve from Ike. The +2 Defense from the Emblem Ring, the +7 from Arms Shield++, and the +5/7 from Resolve/+ really add up.
Leif on Nel from the Xeno is actually really great. She has the magic growth to make the wind sword hit decent and will make great use of Leif's stats (hp def and bld) to help her as well. If you notice when you first get her, majority of the dragon stones she can use require more bld than she has. She has less hp and def than her rafal counter part, but wayyyy more speed. Leif on my maddening run makes her tankier than usual, and quad hit will do 20% more damage. It is a great for her imo. ***Goldmary is distracting, but not nearly as much as Zelestia
I actually enjoyed using him on my Mage Knight Clanne! Frankly other then them feeling like "soul mates" with being similarity character wise! Clanne really had the stuff to use his skills set, and Leif's BUILD bonuses REALLY helped in dealing with the WEIGHT issue the A Rank Tomes and Levin sword seem to LOVE to add! Not to mention his being a well MAGE KNIGHT means he's got at least the Stats to make the Magic Weapons like Light Brand deal abit more damage AND made Adaptable more tolerable with the Master Lance (hell having a Levin Sword means he's got the Weapon Triangle and Arms Shield IS useful in protecting Clanne WHEN Adptable DOES work!) Though I treat Leif as a Utility Ring, feels just like I did with him in Thracia 776 itself where while an OKAY unit for attacking, his support bonuses and "that sword" make him like how I use Canter Alear who is ALWAYS moving where a unit will be RIGHT NEXT TO THEM to benefit off of "Divinely Inspiring!" As they say, no useless unit, just useless idiots who can't "adapt" to the situation at hand (You'd think Fortnite and all the Battle Royale Multiplayers would teach this lesson....hmm)
After running it for a bit on Bond Level 4, now with Hold Out+ inherited, the Panette Leif setup honestly does kinda pop off. I've done a few chapters and paralogues where I literally just have Panette stand somewhere surrounded by enemies, and she OHKOs them all in enemyphase with 100% crit rate (30 from wrath, 10 from her passive, 10 from adaptable backup bonus, and the rest from engravings on Killer weapons). It's really fun to watch it happen.
I read the priority for adaptability in a youtube comment: "Leif Adaptability priority: Range needed to counter -> Weapon triangle -> Effectiveness -> Dodge -> Crit -> Weapon Might -> Hit -> Avoid". It's pretty messed up might being so behind, because imagine vantage countering with something like Silver Greatlance or the other smash weapon? It would be great. light brand has +10 luck so it will have higher dodge if you want to surpass light brand priority, you need to give your weapon dodge engraving. I tested on timerra's spear engraved and when countering mages, bows and daggers 2 range, she countered with the spear. On my next playthrough I want to use Timerra with Leif because I want to see more of Quadruple attack with sandstorm, also light brand with sandstorm sounds nifty. (Plus the +10 crit Adaptable gives to her) Edit: I was a little mistaken on the priority, as the original comentor made some more tests and here is what they said: "So since doing testing with it I've read that apparently instead of checking Dodge, Crit, etc separately, Leif just checks the sum of your Atk/Hit/Crit/Avoid/Dodge with each weapon, weighing all stats equally. The reason I thought Dodge was his highest priority was that I used the Celica engrave to test, which gives +50 Dodge, pushing the sum of all the stats way higher than all my other weapons."
Adaptable doesn't see stat boosts. Light Brand has higher priority over Spear because it has higher Crit and Weapon Might than Spear. Since Dodge has higher priority than both, a Dodge boosted Spear would out prioritize it.
This kind of falls under build fixing, I suppose, but Leif has always been amazing with me on Timerra. She's got a good Build growth (15% in Picket), but low base and cap. Her mixed bulk is fine, but her HP is her biggest weakness there. And she likes the extra Defense, too - 3 Defense are still 4.5 extra Sandstorm damage, so it's an even bigger return on Timerra than on most other units. What else does he provide her? Full WTA, even on enemy phase, and WTA on Leif makes you much tankier. And since her Magic's alright the Light Brand is no slouch, either, plus the high Crit on it and the Backup +10 Crit can give the occasional ORKO on EP, too. Each hit of Quadruple Hit can also proc Sandstorm. Vantage's funny with the high Crit rate and possible Sandstorm procs. She doesn't switch to the Master Lance since her other lances will be better on EP, so that problem's also solved. Overall, from my own experimentation, she feels like one of the few characters that CAN make full use of his kit.
The biggest contribution of leif to my team is his engraving lol. Armshield is mostly good if you pop engage for adaptive. Otherwise if you have weapon advantage you really dont need that much help.
Leif is my personal favorite because i like the concept of enemy phase weapon versatility + vantage. I used him on wolfknight zelkov my previous playthrough and honestly insta killed everything with quadruple. (Honestly, that was hard mode so random stat growth) I’m on maddening now and plan to use him on yunaka to fix her build. Might go for ax wolfknight
Quad hit also synergizes with lord class procs. Sandstorm can trigger replacing her mag with her defense in the light brand calculation. Alcryst can trigger Luna and get the covert money bonus kill but benefits less from leif's other things. Granted, I think Alcryst would rather trigger Luna on something like astra barrage
I’ve had the most success using Lief in his engage form by using Etie or Panette (any Warrior with a killer bow and long bow with low defenses), shieldbonding them to bait out enemy mages/archers.
Free us! Emblem of Genealogy! Leif is a really underrated Emblem. Build is definitely crucial for any unit in this game. Vantage is the perfect enemy phasing. I can understand why people think he’s outclassed (and he is).
5 Build is just 5 Speed but worse. I dont understand why they would give an emblem 5 Build and not much else when there are emblems with 5 Spd and other good stats and skills on top of that. His stats dont even synergize well with his skills, if you wanna play into Vantage enemy phasing, build doesnt really matter all that much since the goal is to oneshot anything that looks at you before they counterattack anyway.
Still early in the video, so I don't know if you touched on it, Leif has a very good Synergy with Covert Archers, more specifically Alcrest, as Alcrest himself has good Tanking stats for a Ranged unit, great Build, at least decent Strength and Speed, but his stand out feature is his above average total stats, good build, His insanely high Dex, and Luna. With Adaptability Alcrest/Snipers become Thieves+ on Avoid tiles.
You're gonna think I'm crazy, but let me cook. Spoilers below: Sniper Mauvier. He has pretty good strength, magic, and bulk. He makes for a good radiant bow user while still hitting hard with silver or brave bow (a combo which is genuinely hard to get). He can actually deal some damage with quad strike, and can make use of all the weapons well. Engaging with leif turns him from a dedicated flier killer to an enemy phase bruiser or avoid tank. Stick him in fog and he has plus 80 avoid, even without fog arms shield plus his natural bulk keeps him alive for a few hits.
running it on Panette with crit engraved killer bow and killer axe, Adaptable gives +10 crit on backup unit and she just crits whoever wants to attack her
I feel Leif pushes you towards more so playing him as an enemy phase unit. But he's more suited to the player phase IMO. He's useful in the early game as Arms Shield helps decrease the chip you take over time when initiating multiple units. Also with the multitude of weapons he grants you, he really makes for a nice early game support by being almost guaranteed to have the right weapon for the situation. This function unfortunately falls off later into the game as you're going to be geared more towards EP tactics or your player phase units will rarely be in a situation where the enemy can reasonably counterattack, in which case he doesn't provide much besides his build. Quad Strike's only use in the late game imo is to give a bow to non-bow users when attacking fliers, which is very sad. I feel they were probably concerned Leif would be too overpowered so they basically made all his tools just barely too weak which is very annoying.
I think Leif is as important as Lyn when it comes to skills and stats. I’m combat he’s pretty weak unfortunately but his utility in build fixing allows axes to double more reliably especially early plus you have tons of proficiencies so you can get more class options
I always found lief to be good on monks. Tanks mages daggers and bows. Just be careful when engaged though. They will swap to master lance or something
Can’t you raise his bond level to 9 and just never trigger the bond convo that increases the rank beyond that? I really wanna make him work though. Celine makes use of the build, and maybe giving her Momentum and Speedtaker? She’s Momentum helps with Quadruple Hit, and patches up her damage. Idk about anyone else but my Celine kinda flopped, she didn’t have enough magic to one round armors so I had to give her Spirit Dusts, but I think Momentum and Speedtaker will help push her damage to the point she can’t one round things I’m also thinking about Jade, she could use Momentum in Great Knight to patch her damage since it’s not great, also she would at least to SOME damage with Light Brand because her magic isn’t 0
Ive got a build i want you to try out and maybe add to a video if its worthy. Any unit with high str and hp, pannete was my choice but amber and madeline should work too. Make the unit berserker for high hp and str growth Get reprisal+ and vantage Give a hit engraving to a tomahawk, i used erika Roy emblem for more hp, str, and hold out Before vantage is available again the unit will be a player phase nuke and after vantage they one shot every enemy barring 3 range. When you are happy with the str and hp just reclass to warrior to partially mitigate this issue with longbow. They also struggle against armors that are hard to one hit but that can be fixed by giving the unit a hammer. Im also gonna give pannete a brave axe for a player phase nuke. I wana see if i can one round one of sombrons health bars with it. Yea i dont even have roy yet and pannete is one hit koing every enemy except the wyvern on corrin paralouge with 95% accuracy at the worst. Busted, try it out
The build might even be better using level 9 leif instead of roy and inherenting hold out instead of vantage as this will allow you to counter at 3 range without sacrificing one range. Dont go past level 9 tho as you will get the master lance that will ruin the setup due to how adaptable works. Just depends on if you need roys damage or leifs utility. This means you can reasonably run 2 of this build or give roy to someone else who might want his damage and bulk.
As I figured, this video is was just going to be bashing Leif without really understanding him. I think he is a super underrated Emblem that is A tier at min. I'll going to cover as much as I can, so this will be a long one. Adaptable gets a lot of flak even though the skill is pretty straightforward. Adaptable checks for weapon range, weapon triangle advantage, and then weapon stats. *It does not check for damage and kills.* This means that Leif should never be used on Mage classes. If the fact that he wants to enemy phase wasn't enough (which mages can't do unless they are well protected), he will usually prioritize his own weapons over tomes since physical enemies are usually affected by the triangle. Now that I've covered the weakness, let's fix it. The fix is really simple... Use a Lance unit... seriously. Because Leif has access to the entire weapon triangle, it is unavoidable that he will pull his weapons if you don't have weapon triangle advantage. Let's look at his weapons. Killer Axe is a solid weapon. It's a slightly better Killer Axe. It's harder to modify, but it completely usable. Next is the Master Lance. People give this weapon flak, but it's a good weapon... on Player Phase. _It's a Brave Javelin._ The only problem with it is that awful hit (55). The weight is kinda of a problem depending on the unit and class. Finally, the Light Brand. It's a magic sword like the Levin Sword. What the video doesn't tell you is that it has 2 more MT, weighs nothing (6 WT), and comes with 20 CRIT. Even if your unit doesn't have magic, this thing is still going to hurt physical units as they have lower RES and won't take the crits very well. (Oh, and it has +10 Luck.) Out of all of the weapons, Master Lance is the only weapon you don't want to pull during enemy phase. *If you run a Lance unit with a Spear, Master Lance will never come out.* His other weapons are fine enough to let them come out (though more on that later). Now the "problem" is fixed, let's talk about why I think he is has a good kit. (Please, bear with me. I'll get to the good stuff.) To put it simply, his kit let's enemy phase really well. Arms Shield reduces the damage he takes up to 7. He's going to have Weapon Triangle advantage over most enemies in the game, so it is almost always going to be active. It's free mitigation... assuming they get to attack. Vantage lets you attack first if your HP is below certain thresholds. The lowest is 25% and the highest is 75%. I believe this is the most important skill that makes him an enemy phase monster. Finally, there's Adaptable. It makes him switch to weapons to avoid being broken and always let him counterattack. Even on concept, Leif gets to run at enemies, take their hits, and beat them down. You might be thinking, "Wait, doesn't Ike do the same thing with better bulk?" I respond with, "Not if you build him right..." Leif doesn't get to shine unless you put him on the right classes and give him certain weapons. In my opinion, Leif's best classes are Axe/Lance Great Knight, Axe/Lance Wyvern Knight, Pickett, and Halberdier in that order. Let's talk about weapons weapons first. Leif is usually fine as long as you have him on a Lance unit. However, he really shines when he is on a unit with both Lances and either Sword or Axes. I prefer Axes because he gives units the extra build to them without being weighed down, Tomahawk is super good, and it has the most type effective weapons. Why is that last bit important? While Adaptable can't see damage, _it can see weapon effectiveness._ So if a Wyvern Knight with a Lance comes up, Adaptable will pull out the Hurricane Axe. If Vantage is active, _the Wyvern Knight dies before it gets to move._ If you have made to this point, you are starting to see what I'm putting down. *Vantage + Adaptable lets Leif delete enemies on enemy phase before they can do anything.* If he fails to one shot, Arms Shield mitigates the damage. As why I picked the classes, Great Knight has the bulk to eat attacks normally. Giving it Arms Shield makes it super tanky. If Vantage is active, 1-2 Mages aren't a problem because Tomahawk usually OHKOs. Wyvern Knight is similar but has +5 RES when Adaptable is active. This makes it easier to not die to mages before Vantage activates. Pickett (Timerra) is unholy. Backup units get +10 CRIT from Adaptable. If you give her Wrath and Crit Engrave her weapons, she'll have a pretty good chance to crit enemies before they move. On top of this, she also has a second kill condition with Sandstorm. Halberdier is just Timerra without Sandstorm (though Pincer Attack Master Lance is pretty good). You can use Lance/Sword units, but I don't find it as useful as the other one in most situations. Here's the fun thing about Leif. You can spec him based on the map you are playing on and where you want him to go. My tips here are more for in general. I believe he can be optimized further. It wouldn't be a comment from me on this channel if I don't bring it up. Use your Smash weapons on Leif. Vantage seems underwhelming because everyone just uses regular weapons that rely on hitting twice to kill. Smash weapons are designed to hit enemies once and kill or stagger them (also Arms Shield activates on them on Player Phase). In addition, Vantage makes it move first, so it can really shine on enemy phase with Leif. Recommended abilities? Ironically, Gentility is high up there. It gives more mitigation. In addition, if Eirika is engaged, you get Bravery's +3/5 damage as well (unlike the Braces, it is isn't phase dependent). Free damage and mitigation. Wrath is another ability I would recommend. Do I really need to explain why the skill that gets better with lower HP synergizes with the skill requires lower HP to use? Pair Up is a good choice since you want Enemy Phase a lot of enemies and not all of them will die. Chain Attacks are the bane of all Enemy Phase tanks. Other than, run damage. The more likely you are to kill, the better. I hope this gives insight into why I think Leif is an underrated emblem.
I mention a highly effective build you can run on Leif and cover what he does overall. Not sure how I fail to understand him nor do I agree I am bashing him. Also are you a base game or DLC player? I ask because DLC allows you to power level units enabling more crazy tactics, the well also changed the game. I don't know that Leif is as powerful as the other emblems though. Adaptable on a great knight just sounds like it is bad? No lance/sword/axe power during enemy phase for huge damage scaling, 2-3 range adaptable would likely fall flat often due to not doubling, 2 range attackers include enemy physical units with spears/tomahawks. Thoron could poke you down on endgame maps because adaptable doesn't pullout a 3 range weapon unless you have a longbow and I haven't seen a longbow 1 shot something before unless it flies, so without HOLD OUT staying at 50% HP can get stacked out, especially on a low res target like great knight. The hitrates on great weapons are quite bad so how many engravings are we talking here? I optimize my teams/builds for as few weapons as possible with some utility weapons, so I can't imagine great weapons always hit without an engraving, which could cause you to die. IMO Roy + Vantage is better on average. Also Vantage++ is 2k SP, Holdout+++ is 5k SP. It is much cheaper in terms of SP to unlock Vantage and run Roy than it would be to run Leif and unlock Holdout+++. IMO you are wasting pickett's potential on Leif, Sigurd for dive/small tanking or Ike for huge tanking. Sigurd fixes build but also gives Canter+ for free, momentum, huge lane nuke, increased movement. Ike gives access to weapon triangle, 2 range sword with low WT, a hammer for enemy phasing armors, and a decent MT axe.
@@IcedCoffeeGaming lief is really good! all you have to do is follow these specific recommendations! aka the definition of something being mid tier. which isn't a bad thing. just facts.
@@IcedCoffeeGaming Using "bashing" may have been an extreme, but I still find that the video did not effectively understand Leif. Your advice largely ends up being "Put him on a unit that needs build," or "Only level him up to certain thresholds, so it doesn't screw you." There wasn't even a demonstration of anything. Base game. I haven't touched the DLC yet as I still want to enjoy the game while it is still somewhat balanced. In that context, I think he is really strong. Similar to Ike, you pop him and send him at enemies and watch things happen. This next bit will be a power run. "No lance/sword/axe power during enemy phase for huge damage scaling" What are you talking about? Sword/Lance/Axe Powers still work on Enemy Phase. They aren't phase dependent. "2-3 range adaptable would likely fall flat often due to not doubling" The trade-off is that you'd be able to lure and weaken more enemies. If you want kills, Wyvern Knight was my second pick, but it isn't as tanky. "Thoron could poke you down on endgame maps" To be fair, that's a problem with enemy phasing in general. Not even Ike wants to be in a position to be poked down by Thoron. Sure, Ike can take it better, but why would you let him? "The hitrates on great weapons are quite bad so how many engravings are we talking here?" They only have 10 less hit than their normal counterparts. I mentioned Crit Engrave for Timerra and Halberdier for Crit builds with Adaptable and Wrath. I never mentioned Engravings for anything else. "IMO you are wasting pickett's potential on Leif" Pickett is great with all three of these Emblems. However, Sigurd and Ike have better general usage than Leif does (which I mentioned that you need to speck for). From my perspective, instead of having 1 super unit and one mediocre unit, you have two really strong units that can bounce off each other. Also, Leif would help Timerra tank harder than Sigurd while also dealing more damage during EP. I mentioned this in original post. Arms Shield is going to active most of the time. Both Leif and Sigurd boost defense.
@@Noobieedu Please tell me how my recommendations are specific. At its core, I said that he's fine as long as he is on a Lance unit and great when he's on a unit that can take full advantage. Is that not true for every Emblem?
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The problem with Adaptability is there is zero consideration to the actual damage being done and how it interacts with Vantage, and imo, it'd be so easy to fix: If there's a weapon that can kill, use that. If multiple weapons can kill, refer to to the rest if the rest of the heuristic.
HEY leaf him alone, hes just build differently
Emphasis on leaving him alone lmao
Anna (mage) is one of the best users of Leif. She low build, preventing her from doubling a lot despite having amazing SPD growth. With Leif, she can more reliably double. Also, as you mentioned, Leif will fix her HP, since mages have low HP caps. One thing you forgot to mention is the Light Brand gives +10 LCK. She can use it to trigger her passive - although this is not the primary reason I use Leif on her. I like Leif as a stat backpack for her.
One of the interesting interactions someone found was that if you inherit Momentum from Sigurd, the bonus applies to each hit of Quadruple Hit instead of just the first as you would expect. I’m not sure that’s *too* useful since it means forgoing inheriting a more useful skill, but it at least means the Engage attack can do *some* damage
I'd say its pretty useful if you need to reach a kill threshold. Having extra damage PER hit is pretty substantial especially if you managed to get a cavalry or flier to use it and use their max 6 move. 6x4 =24 is a huge boost of damage on top of what you already do and scales alright up until endgame. Unfortunately, its one attack and requires a skill slot but momentum is alright on high move classes so it's not the worst thing. Leif is an alright emblem that is outclassed by other rings EXPECIALLY with DLC in mind but can still be used in some paralogues when you might not have all the emblem rings unlocked.
What about weapon sink
Leif can actually be pretty helpful early on if you throw him on a covert unit. They get plus 20 avoid and combine that with knife precision and that's 25 extra avoid. On destinea cathedral you can have yunaka solo hold the left side from the pillars, i haven't tried it with alcryst, but he should have enough avoid to do it
Quadruple Hit is best when you stack bonuses on hit since it’s the only Engage attack with more than 3 hits that doesn’t reduce damage. Stack Divinely Inspired, Momentum, and Lunar Brace and you’re hitting big damage regardless of your stats. Chloe can also stack Fairy Tale Folk. It can be good in warp skips since those are all about setting up a boss kill anyway.
I feel like someone mentioned momentum works for every strike in the quad strike is that true? seems like that could be really cool
@@joshuameek8007 Yes, Momentum applies to each hit. At one point I described a situation where you could get 80 extra damage from just bonuses which should lead to an easy kill on pretty much every enemy. This alongside it giving the chance to proc damage skills up to 4 times. Take Lunar Brace+ for example: suppose you are quadruple hitting a 40 Def 80 HP unit (a late game General). Lunar Brace+ alone is giving you 48 damage and Momentum is giving 12 or so more. That means you only need 20 points of damage. I like running it on Alcryst because then you have a good chance to get Luna and ignore half the enemy’s Def which in this case gets you all the damage you need to net the kill. If you combo Divinely Inspiring and Fairy Take Folk on here you’re dealing 80 and getting the kill even if you were barely dealing damage at the beginning.
I really enjoyed using Leif on a unit who inherited Resolve from Ike.
The +2 Defense from the Emblem Ring, the +7 from Arms Shield++, and the +5/7 from Resolve/+ really add up.
Leif on Nel from the Xeno is actually really great. She has the magic growth to make the wind sword hit decent and will make great use of Leif's stats (hp def and bld) to help her as well. If you notice when you first get her, majority of the dragon stones she can use require more bld than she has. She has less hp and def than her rafal counter part, but wayyyy more speed. Leif on my maddening run makes her tankier than usual, and quad hit will do 20% more damage. It is a great for her imo. ***Goldmary is distracting, but not nearly as much as Zelestia
I actually enjoyed using him on my Mage Knight Clanne! Frankly other then them feeling like "soul mates" with being similarity character wise! Clanne really had the stuff to use his skills set, and Leif's BUILD bonuses REALLY helped in dealing with the WEIGHT issue the A Rank Tomes and Levin sword seem to LOVE to add! Not to mention his being a well MAGE KNIGHT means he's got at least the Stats to make the Magic Weapons like Light Brand deal abit more damage AND made Adaptable more tolerable with the Master Lance (hell having a Levin Sword means he's got the Weapon Triangle and Arms Shield IS useful in protecting Clanne WHEN Adptable DOES work!)
Though I treat Leif as a Utility Ring, feels just like I did with him in Thracia 776 itself where while an OKAY unit for attacking, his support bonuses and "that sword" make him like how I use Canter Alear who is ALWAYS moving where a unit will be RIGHT NEXT TO THEM to benefit off of "Divinely Inspiring!" As they say, no useless unit, just useless idiots who can't "adapt" to the situation at hand (You'd think Fortnite and all the Battle Royale Multiplayers would teach this lesson....hmm)
After running it for a bit on Bond Level 4, now with Hold Out+ inherited, the Panette Leif setup honestly does kinda pop off. I've done a few chapters and paralogues where I literally just have Panette stand somewhere surrounded by enemies, and she OHKOs them all in enemyphase with 100% crit rate (30 from wrath, 10 from her passive, 10 from adaptable backup bonus, and the rest from engravings on Killer weapons). It's really fun to watch it happen.
I read the priority for adaptability in a youtube comment: "Leif Adaptability priority: Range needed to counter -> Weapon triangle -> Effectiveness -> Dodge -> Crit -> Weapon Might -> Hit -> Avoid". It's pretty messed up might being so behind, because imagine vantage countering with something like Silver Greatlance or the other smash weapon? It would be great.
light brand has +10 luck so it will have higher dodge
if you want to surpass light brand priority, you need to give your weapon dodge engraving. I tested on timerra's spear engraved and when countering mages, bows and daggers 2 range, she countered with the spear. On my next playthrough I want to use Timerra with Leif because I want to see more of Quadruple attack with sandstorm, also light brand with sandstorm sounds nifty. (Plus the +10 crit Adaptable gives to her)
Edit: I was a little mistaken on the priority, as the original comentor made some more tests and here is what they said: "So since doing testing with it I've read that apparently instead of checking Dodge, Crit, etc separately, Leif just checks the sum of your Atk/Hit/Crit/Avoid/Dodge with each weapon, weighing all stats equally. The reason I thought Dodge was his highest priority was that I used the Celica engrave to test, which gives +50 Dodge, pushing the sum of all the stats way higher than all my other weapons."
Adaptable doesn't see stat boosts. Light Brand has higher priority over Spear because it has higher Crit and Weapon Might than Spear. Since Dodge has higher priority than both, a Dodge boosted Spear would out prioritize it.
@@lunamaster123 Hmm i see, thank you for informing.
I used him on Céline, which made her a beast with QuadHit. She also looks amazing when engaged with Leaf.
This kind of falls under build fixing, I suppose, but Leif has always been amazing with me on Timerra. She's got a good Build growth (15% in Picket), but low base and cap. Her mixed bulk is fine, but her HP is her biggest weakness there. And she likes the extra Defense, too - 3 Defense are still 4.5 extra Sandstorm damage, so it's an even bigger return on Timerra than on most other units.
What else does he provide her? Full WTA, even on enemy phase, and WTA on Leif makes you much tankier. And since her Magic's alright the Light Brand is no slouch, either, plus the high Crit on it and the Backup +10 Crit can give the occasional ORKO on EP, too. Each hit of Quadruple Hit can also proc Sandstorm. Vantage's funny with the high Crit rate and possible Sandstorm procs. She doesn't switch to the Master Lance since her other lances will be better on EP, so that problem's also solved.
Overall, from my own experimentation, she feels like one of the few characters that CAN make full use of his kit.
The biggest contribution of leif to my team is his engraving lol. Armshield is mostly good if you pop engage for adaptive. Otherwise if you have weapon advantage you really dont need that much help.
I find Armshield very efficient for it's low cost it's the perfect skill for a great knight
Leif is my personal favorite because i like the concept of enemy phase weapon versatility + vantage. I used him on wolfknight zelkov my previous playthrough and honestly insta killed everything with quadruple. (Honestly, that was hard mode so random stat growth) I’m on maddening now and plan to use him on yunaka to fix her build. Might go for ax wolfknight
Quad hit also synergizes with lord class procs. Sandstorm can trigger replacing her mag with her defense in the light brand calculation. Alcryst can trigger Luna and get the covert money bonus kill but benefits less from leif's other things. Granted, I think Alcryst would rather trigger Luna on something like astra barrage
Goldmary is wonderful.
I’ve had the most success using Lief in his engage form by using Etie or Panette (any Warrior with a killer bow and long bow with low defenses), shieldbonding them to bait out enemy mages/archers.
Free us! Emblem of Genealogy!
Leif is a really underrated Emblem. Build is definitely crucial for any unit in this game. Vantage is the perfect enemy phasing. I can understand why people think he’s outclassed (and he is).
Not helped by the fact that you lose him 2 chapters later.
5 Build is just 5 Speed but worse. I dont understand why they would give an emblem 5 Build and not much else when there are emblems with 5 Spd and other good stats and skills on top of that. His stats dont even synergize well with his skills, if you wanna play into Vantage enemy phasing, build doesnt really matter all that much since the goal is to oneshot anything that looks at you before they counterattack anyway.
Still early in the video, so I don't know if you touched on it,
Leif has a very good Synergy with Covert Archers, more specifically Alcrest, as Alcrest himself has good Tanking stats for a Ranged unit, great Build, at least decent Strength and Speed, but his stand out feature is his above average total stats, good build, His insanely high Dex, and Luna.
With Adaptability Alcrest/Snipers become Thieves+ on Avoid tiles.
You're gonna think I'm crazy, but let me cook. Spoilers below:
Sniper Mauvier. He has pretty good strength, magic, and bulk. He makes for a good radiant bow user while still hitting hard with silver or brave bow (a combo which is genuinely hard to get). He can actually deal some damage with quad strike, and can make use of all the weapons well.
Engaging with leif turns him from a dedicated flier killer to an enemy phase bruiser or avoid tank. Stick him in fog and he has plus 80 avoid, even without fog arms shield plus his natural bulk keeps him alive for a few hits.
Unrelated but we stan Goldmary
lol
running it on Panette with crit engraved killer bow and killer axe, Adaptable gives +10 crit on backup unit and she just crits whoever wants to attack her
I feel Leif pushes you towards more so playing him as an enemy phase unit. But he's more suited to the player phase IMO. He's useful in the early game as Arms Shield helps decrease the chip you take over time when initiating multiple units. Also with the multitude of weapons he grants you, he really makes for a nice early game support by being almost guaranteed to have the right weapon for the situation. This function unfortunately falls off later into the game as you're going to be geared more towards EP tactics or your player phase units will rarely be in a situation where the enemy can reasonably counterattack, in which case he doesn't provide much besides his build. Quad Strike's only use in the late game imo is to give a bow to non-bow users when attacking fliers, which is very sad. I feel they were probably concerned Leif would be too overpowered so they basically made all his tools just barely too weak which is very annoying.
I think Leif is as important as Lyn when it comes to skills and stats. I’m combat he’s pretty weak unfortunately but his utility in build fixing allows axes to double more reliably especially early plus you have tons of proficiencies so you can get more class options
A strong Mage Knight or a magically strong Griffin Knight might be able to use the triangle stuff.
I always found lief to be good on monks. Tanks mages daggers and bows. Just be careful when engaged though. They will swap to master lance or something
+15 atk and +80 hit on the ballistae in Leif’s paralogue is just… painful
Can’t you raise his bond level to 9 and just never trigger the bond convo that increases the rank beyond that? I really wanna make him work though. Celine makes use of the build, and maybe giving her Momentum and Speedtaker? She’s Momentum helps with Quadruple Hit, and patches up her damage. Idk about anyone else but my Celine kinda flopped, she didn’t have enough magic to one round armors so I had to give her Spirit Dusts, but I think Momentum and Speedtaker will help push her damage to the point she can’t one round things
I’m also thinking about Jade, she could use Momentum in Great Knight to patch her damage since it’s not great, also she would at least to SOME damage with Light Brand because her magic isn’t 0
Ive got a build i want you to try out and maybe add to a video if its worthy.
Any unit with high str and hp, pannete was my choice but amber and madeline should work too.
Make the unit berserker for high hp and str growth
Get reprisal+ and vantage
Give a hit engraving to a tomahawk, i used erika
Roy emblem for more hp, str, and hold out
Before vantage is available again the unit will be a player phase nuke and after vantage they one shot every enemy barring 3 range. When you are happy with the str and hp just reclass to warrior to partially mitigate this issue with longbow. They also struggle against armors that are hard to one hit but that can be fixed by giving the unit a hammer. Im also gonna give pannete a brave axe for a player phase nuke. I wana see if i can one round one of sombrons health bars with it. Yea i dont even have roy yet and pannete is one hit koing every enemy except the wyvern on corrin paralouge with 95% accuracy at the worst. Busted, try it out
The build might even be better using level 9 leif instead of roy and inherenting hold out instead of vantage as this will allow you to counter at 3 range without sacrificing one range. Dont go past level 9 tho as you will get the master lance that will ruin the setup due to how adaptable works. Just depends on if you need roys damage or leifs utility. This means you can reasonably run 2 of this build or give roy to someone else who might want his damage and bulk.
Are you planning on doing the dlc characters guides or will you skip them?
Also, when is ch 6 of your dlc story playthrough coming?
I will be doing DLC character guides
I don't see Leif's enemy phase focus to be bad.
Bonded shield exists.
leif is cool
As I figured, this video is was just going to be bashing Leif without really understanding him. I think he is a super underrated Emblem that is A tier at min. I'll going to cover as much as I can, so this will be a long one.
Adaptable gets a lot of flak even though the skill is pretty straightforward. Adaptable checks for weapon range, weapon triangle advantage, and then weapon stats. *It does not check for damage and kills.* This means that Leif should never be used on Mage classes. If the fact that he wants to enemy phase wasn't enough (which mages can't do unless they are well protected), he will usually prioritize his own weapons over tomes since physical enemies are usually affected by the triangle.
Now that I've covered the weakness, let's fix it. The fix is really simple... Use a Lance unit... seriously. Because Leif has access to the entire weapon triangle, it is unavoidable that he will pull his weapons if you don't have weapon triangle advantage. Let's look at his weapons. Killer Axe is a solid weapon. It's a slightly better Killer Axe. It's harder to modify, but it completely usable. Next is the Master Lance. People give this weapon flak, but it's a good weapon... on Player Phase. _It's a Brave Javelin._ The only problem with it is that awful hit (55). The weight is kinda of a problem depending on the unit and class. Finally, the Light Brand. It's a magic sword like the Levin Sword. What the video doesn't tell you is that it has 2 more MT, weighs nothing (6 WT), and comes with 20 CRIT. Even if your unit doesn't have magic, this thing is still going to hurt physical units as they have lower RES and won't take the crits very well. (Oh, and it has +10 Luck.) Out of all of the weapons, Master Lance is the only weapon you don't want to pull during enemy phase. *If you run a Lance unit with a Spear, Master Lance will never come out.* His other weapons are fine enough to let them come out (though more on that later).
Now the "problem" is fixed, let's talk about why I think he is has a good kit. (Please, bear with me. I'll get to the good stuff.) To put it simply, his kit let's enemy phase really well. Arms Shield reduces the damage he takes up to 7. He's going to have Weapon Triangle advantage over most enemies in the game, so it is almost always going to be active. It's free mitigation... assuming they get to attack. Vantage lets you attack first if your HP is below certain thresholds. The lowest is 25% and the highest is 75%. I believe this is the most important skill that makes him an enemy phase monster. Finally, there's Adaptable. It makes him switch to weapons to avoid being broken and always let him counterattack. Even on concept, Leif gets to run at enemies, take their hits, and beat them down.
You might be thinking, "Wait, doesn't Ike do the same thing with better bulk?" I respond with, "Not if you build him right..." Leif doesn't get to shine unless you put him on the right classes and give him certain weapons. In my opinion, Leif's best classes are Axe/Lance Great Knight, Axe/Lance Wyvern Knight, Pickett, and Halberdier in that order. Let's talk about weapons weapons first. Leif is usually fine as long as you have him on a Lance unit. However, he really shines when he is on a unit with both Lances and either Sword or Axes. I prefer Axes because he gives units the extra build to them without being weighed down, Tomahawk is super good, and it has the most type effective weapons. Why is that last bit important? While Adaptable can't see damage, _it can see weapon effectiveness._ So if a Wyvern Knight with a Lance comes up, Adaptable will pull out the Hurricane Axe. If Vantage is active, _the Wyvern Knight dies before it gets to move._ If you have made to this point, you are starting to see what I'm putting down. *Vantage + Adaptable lets Leif delete enemies on enemy phase before they can do anything.* If he fails to one shot, Arms Shield mitigates the damage. As why I picked the classes, Great Knight has the bulk to eat attacks normally. Giving it Arms Shield makes it super tanky. If Vantage is active, 1-2 Mages aren't a problem because Tomahawk usually OHKOs. Wyvern Knight is similar but has +5 RES when Adaptable is active. This makes it easier to not die to mages before Vantage activates. Pickett (Timerra) is unholy. Backup units get +10 CRIT from Adaptable. If you give her Wrath and Crit Engrave her weapons, she'll have a pretty good chance to crit enemies before they move. On top of this, she also has a second kill condition with Sandstorm. Halberdier is just Timerra without Sandstorm (though Pincer Attack Master Lance is pretty good). You can use Lance/Sword units, but I don't find it as useful as the other one in most situations. Here's the fun thing about Leif. You can spec him based on the map you are playing on and where you want him to go. My tips here are more for in general. I believe he can be optimized further.
It wouldn't be a comment from me on this channel if I don't bring it up. Use your Smash weapons on Leif. Vantage seems underwhelming because everyone just uses regular weapons that rely on hitting twice to kill. Smash weapons are designed to hit enemies once and kill or stagger them (also Arms Shield activates on them on Player Phase). In addition, Vantage makes it move first, so it can really shine on enemy phase with Leif.
Recommended abilities? Ironically, Gentility is high up there. It gives more mitigation. In addition, if Eirika is engaged, you get Bravery's +3/5 damage as well (unlike the Braces, it is isn't phase dependent). Free damage and mitigation. Wrath is another ability I would recommend. Do I really need to explain why the skill that gets better with lower HP synergizes with the skill requires lower HP to use? Pair Up is a good choice since you want Enemy Phase a lot of enemies and not all of them will die. Chain Attacks are the bane of all Enemy Phase tanks. Other than, run damage. The more likely you are to kill, the better.
I hope this gives insight into why I think Leif is an underrated emblem.
I mention a highly effective build you can run on Leif and cover what he does overall. Not sure how I fail to understand him nor do I agree I am bashing him.
Also are you a base game or DLC player? I ask because DLC allows you to power level units enabling more crazy tactics, the well also changed the game. I don't know that Leif is as powerful as the other emblems though. Adaptable on a great knight just sounds like it is bad? No lance/sword/axe power during enemy phase for huge damage scaling, 2-3 range adaptable would likely fall flat often due to not doubling, 2 range attackers include enemy physical units with spears/tomahawks. Thoron could poke you down on endgame maps because adaptable doesn't pullout a 3 range weapon unless you have a longbow and I haven't seen a longbow 1 shot something before unless it flies, so without HOLD OUT staying at 50% HP can get stacked out, especially on a low res target like great knight. The hitrates on great weapons are quite bad so how many engravings are we talking here? I optimize my teams/builds for as few weapons as possible with some utility weapons, so I can't imagine great weapons always hit without an engraving, which could cause you to die. IMO Roy + Vantage is better on average. Also Vantage++ is 2k SP, Holdout+++ is 5k SP. It is much cheaper in terms of SP to unlock Vantage and run Roy than it would be to run Leif and unlock Holdout+++.
IMO you are wasting pickett's potential on Leif, Sigurd for dive/small tanking or Ike for huge tanking. Sigurd fixes build but also gives Canter+ for free, momentum, huge lane nuke, increased movement. Ike gives access to weapon triangle, 2 range sword with low WT, a hammer for enemy phasing armors, and a decent MT axe.
Make your own video, show us how amazing Leif is.
@@IcedCoffeeGaming lief is really good! all you have to do is follow these specific recommendations!
aka the definition of something being mid tier. which isn't a bad thing. just facts.
@@IcedCoffeeGaming Using "bashing" may have been an extreme, but I still find that the video did not effectively understand Leif. Your advice largely ends up being "Put him on a unit that needs build," or "Only level him up to certain thresholds, so it doesn't screw you." There wasn't even a demonstration of anything.
Base game. I haven't touched the DLC yet as I still want to enjoy the game while it is still somewhat balanced. In that context, I think he is really strong. Similar to Ike, you pop him and send him at enemies and watch things happen.
This next bit will be a power run.
"No lance/sword/axe power during enemy phase for huge damage scaling"
What are you talking about? Sword/Lance/Axe Powers still work on Enemy Phase. They aren't phase dependent.
"2-3 range adaptable would likely fall flat often due to not doubling"
The trade-off is that you'd be able to lure and weaken more enemies. If you want kills, Wyvern Knight was my second pick, but it isn't as tanky.
"Thoron could poke you down on endgame maps"
To be fair, that's a problem with enemy phasing in general. Not even Ike wants to be in a position to be poked down by Thoron. Sure, Ike can take it better, but why would you let him?
"The hitrates on great weapons are quite bad so how many engravings are we talking here?"
They only have 10 less hit than their normal counterparts. I mentioned Crit Engrave for Timerra and Halberdier for Crit builds with Adaptable and Wrath. I never mentioned Engravings for anything else.
"IMO you are wasting pickett's potential on Leif"
Pickett is great with all three of these Emblems. However, Sigurd and Ike have better general usage than Leif does (which I mentioned that you need to speck for). From my perspective, instead of having 1 super unit and one mediocre unit, you have two really strong units that can bounce off each other.
Also, Leif would help Timerra tank harder than Sigurd while also dealing more damage during EP. I mentioned this in original post. Arms Shield is going to active most of the time. Both Leif and Sigurd boost defense.
@@Noobieedu Please tell me how my recommendations are specific. At its core, I said that he's fine as long as he is on a Lance unit and great when he's on a unit that can take full advantage. Is that not true for every Emblem?
Alcryst and Leif = Easy Mode