Best recent infantry dragon (tanking + overall)?

[Dan]

Just curious who you think the leading infantry dragon is these days. If I’m forgetting a relevant dragon that belongs among these, let me know.

(Ignore the boons and banes… just for reference. I also didn’t include later dragons like H M Corrin since I don’t have them and too lazy to use the builder)

Best tank:

• A Tiki
• B Tiki
• H F Corrin
• H M Corrin

Best overall:

• A Tiki
• B Tiki
• H F Corrin
• H M Corrin

Favorite!

• A Tiki
• B Tiki
• H F Corrin
• H M Corrin

PS I’d also be curious to see which Tiki you like best! Lots of pros and cons to it.

Best overall infantry Tiki:

• A Tiki
• B Tiki

[GVader]

Well… HF.Corrin is the only one out of these 3 to have DR that’s not negated by Deadeye/Lethality soooo

[LadyLuna]

Ascended Tiki really stands out to me out of all of these, IMO, especially for Duels

She isn’t shut down by Duo Ike’s Duo skill like Corrin, can match Spd with B-Seliph and L-Nanna while having the bulk to eat one of their attacks, and makes an exceedingly strong frontliner overall. She even counters L-Eliwood strategies because of her innate Dull effect in her breath

I like B-Tiki’s art more personally, and she’s by far the easiest of the three to +10, so on a budget, she still makes an excellent option

[LadyLuna]

Except the Tikis will shut down basically all precharged Lethality and Deadeye because all of them have crap for Res and will have the charge Pulsed off of them from the Tikis’ Prf

A-Tiki can also get enough Spd to block the double

[Kero]

I think they are all really broken but I’ve been walled the most by H F Corrin

[SothisPocus]

HF!Corrin might be the best at tanking specials, but it’s better to not take specials at all. B!Tiki is weak to NFU and might take a special hit from the enemies follow-up attack, A!Tiki doesn’t have that problem. A!Tiki can still take big damage from brave units, but so can HF!Corrin. A!Tiki has the added benefit of having 80% damage reduction against AoE. That is a great benefit, I’ve seen Arval with Blazing specials run around lately that kill even the bulkiest of units. Like LadyLuna pointed out, A!Tiki also has dull all, a very useful ability to have that adds to her survivability. HF!Corrin is almost just as amazing though, being blue is a good color to combat Falchions. B!Seliph and L!Nanna.

[GVader]

Stopping pre charge is one thing, it doesn’t entirely stop the foe from firing them off

[LadyLuna]

That’s why I think Ascended Tiki is the best. Not only stopping those precharged specials from going off, but also having the Speed to block doubles and subsequent activations. Brave weapons are a problem but they are a problem for Corrin too.

Corrin is also weak to AoE while A-Tiki is not

[Dragginz]

B!Tiki: doesn’t need a save. Doesn’t necessarily need to worry about AOE because of her DR. Includes both GFU and DFU in her kit So she has a chance to mitigate a lot of annoying effects. Great attack for one hit power.

Downside: turned off by NFU and severely affected by speed based DR.

A!Tiki: doesn’t need a save. Doesn’t need to worry about AOE at all. Includes breath and dull all. Has the speed to contend with the faster units. Has incredibly easy to activate DR.

Downside: needs a source of NFU

HF : still needs a save and most instances but can survive without one. Very high attack for OHKO power. Breath to keep NF activated at most times. Free B slot because breath is in her weapon. Good WTA matchup against most dragon Killers.

Downside: needs a source of NFU and her schtick Is crippled by tempo or GFU because 30% DR isn’t always enough.

HM : doesn’t necessarily need a save. Extremely high bulk and attack. First hit DR lens well to soaking a hit and killing on retaliation, or to being highly offensive and not worrying about how strong your foe is because their first and only attack will be heavily mitigated.

Downside: crippled by NFU, Spd based DR, and any form of sweep, and bad WTA matchup against most dragonkillers.

Best? A!tiki. I took her into SDS this past week with absolutely no investment aside from two merges and the very first match she face tanked a hatari Karla blazing AoE, killed her on retaliation, and healed to over 75% HP. She’s fast enough to deny a double from brave Seliph, She cannot be hit by Deadeye or lethality, She cannot be hurt by AOE, she can activate iceberg very easily, She cannot be severely outstatted by bonus doubler, She has excellent stats, her DR is incredibly easy to activate, And she’s cute as a button.

[Dragginz]

Thoughts on their best builds:

Let Tikis speed work. With tempo and NFU she’ll fire off glimmer every time she retaliates, And if you want her to activate it twice on offense granting her a single pulse is very easy to accomplish. Focus on one range because if she does indeed manage to outspeed her attackers from all ranges, She will never have to worry about Deadeye lethality or AOEs So she can happily ignore them while focusing entirely on the threat directly in front of her.

Same idea as Tiki: build her speed and add tempo so only another unit with tempo could ever stop her NF. Give her DC so she can tangle with two range units, give her tempo so only other tempo units could halt NF, and add atk smoke for so after that first engagement the foe will have to have NFU if they have any hopes of doubling her, while boosting her survivability.

Go for the one hit KO. Maximize her Res So the one hit that gets through won’t hurt, and boost that attack So she kills with iceberg on retaliation. With TP and her PRF effect iceberg cannot be avoided as long as she meets the stat check. And considering she can’t avoid a double give her DC so she can take on all ranges.

[GVader]

Only time I ever really see AoE is L.Lilina in Arena or in Abyssal’s (which aren’t much of a problem anyways to to the long charge they are dead most times before even being able to proc them), only other time I can see AoE’s is I guess SD but idk since I haven’t played it since week 1.

[Seeker]

I’ve been running calculations on Y.Tiki and the results are appalling. She dies to B.Alm, invested E.Chrom, probably other invested Falchions, blue Naga tomes, some brave weapons, and that’s about it. It’s hard to kill her with merged Riev on any 2CD or possibly even iceberg despite Tiki’s inability to prevent its activation because her DR doesn’t depend on stats. General tankbreakers with NFU + anti-DR on their second hit (which is one of the most direct assaults on hardy fighters) tend to struggle to double through her spd. So you’d almost have to dedicate a team slot just to her if she’s well supported.

Also, Negating Fang isn’t that strong. My Y.Innes has blown right through it on a number of L.Corrins in arena. The typical Corrin style is a light middleweight style which tends not to handle concentrated firepower very well, and concentrated firepower is a normal strategy against save tanks.

[Seeker]

In any case, pre-charging lethality is a bad gamble against the existence of pulse tie and hardy fighter. You’re better off bringing it to 1CD, but then if Y.Tiki has NFU support her spd is hard to beat.

[Seeker]

B.Tiki can protect herself against follow-up specials by using a stance 4 or relying on team support. Tempo is becoming more common, but the combination of tempo, NFU, not dying to a single counterattack, maintaining correct special timing against other tanks (i.e. not firing your special into hardy fighter), and still finding enough raw atk to get the job done is actually very hard. Also red f2p nukes seem considerably rarer than blue f2p nukes. So both Tikis benefit from the existence of the other in the meta, but I really think Y.Tiki gets the better deal.

[Dan]

You said “Y Tiki”… do you mean Brave or ascendant is appalling?

[Seeker]

I said young to refer to ascended. I’m too used to thinking A.Tiki = adult Tiki

[Dan]

Oh haha, I’m used to them all being young so didn’t give B Tiki a second thought as an adult