Ash

Retainer to Askr

Retainer to Askr, god of connections and strong bonds. Earnest and polite, she strives to always say exactly what she means.

Base Stats

Rarity: ✯✯✯✯✯

		Title
		Retainer to Askr
		Group
		Infantry
Level	HP	Atk	Spd	Def	Res
1 40	18/19/20 37/41/44	8/9/10 36/39/43	4/5/6 23/27/30	10/11/12 38/41/45	9/10/11 31/34/37
Skills			Weapon
Horn of Opening Glowing Ember			Beast

Skills

Type	Name	Prerequisite	Default	Unlocked
	Whelp (Infantry)	-	-	-
	Yearling (Infantry)	-	-	-
	Adult (Infantry)	-	-	-
	Horn of Opening	-		-
	Glowing Ember	-	-	-
	Bonfire	-	-	-
A	Atk/Def Bond 1	-		-
	Atk/Def Bond 2	Atk/Def Bond 1		-
	Atk/Def Bond 3	Atk/Def Bond 2		-
	Atk/Def Unity	Atk/Def Bond 3
B	Lull Atk/Def 1	-		-
	Lull Atk/Def 2	Lull Atk/Def 1		-
	Lull Atk/Def 3	Lull Atk/Def 2		-
	Atk Def Bulwark 1	-		-
	Atk Def Bulwark 2	Atk Def Bulwark 1		-
	Atk Def Bulwark 3	Atk Def Bulwark 2		-
	A D Spiked Wall	Atk Def Bulwark 3
C	Opening Retainer	-
	Open Retainer+	Opening Retainer

Overall

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Base Set

The lead character of Book VI is Ash, a colorless Beast Infantry unit who is also a Light Mythic Hero who is available to all players for free upon completing the first chapter of Book VI. Having been introduced at the start of Book VI, she has powerful stats right out the gate, namely her impressive 39 Atk and 82 physical bulk. While her magical bulk is slightly lower with 34 Res, it still scores 75, making her incredibly tanky and can hit hard in return. Her only weak stat is her middling 27 Spd, far too low for her to perform follow-ups naturally onto most units and will often be on the receiving end of such attacks. Nonetheless, Ash is a strong asset as a mix of tank and support rolled into a single unit just from her base kit alone.
As a beast unit, her Horn of Opening allows her to transform into her beast form, a cow, when she is not adjacent to an ally or is only adjacent to Dragons/Beasts at the start of her turn. Even while untransformed, she has a special cooldown acceleration effect, requiring one less attack to charge her special. If she is within 3 spaces of an ally, she gains +6 Atk during combat and inflicts -6 Atk on her foe during combat. The more allies she has within the 3 space range of her, the more effects she gains. If there are at least two allies, she gains a guaranteed follow-up. If there are at least three allies, her foe loses the ability to perform follow-ups. If she is transformed, she gains +2 Atk, adds 7 true damage to her Special when it activates, and negates any ability on her foe that accelerates their special charge or slows hers.
Opening Retainer allows allies to move anywhere within two spaces of Ash if their starting position is within two spaces of where Ash currently is on the map, giving unprecedented mobilities for her allies. It also has a Joint Drive Attack effect, giving allies within two spaces of her during combat gain Atk+4 and if she is within two spaces of an ally during combat, she gains the same.
Bonfire syncs nicely with her high Def, granting her 21 true damage to her attacks when it activates. In tandem when transformed, that is a massive +28 true damage when her Special activates. Atk Def Unity grants Ash +5 Atk/Def if she is within 2 spaces of an ally during combat and converts visible Atk/Def penalties on her into bonuses during combat. Lull Attack Defense inflicts -3 Atk/Def on her foe during combat and neutralizes any bonuses her foe has during combat.

Counters

Ash's main weakness boils down to the fact that she gets stronger with more of her allies within her two spaces range and even more so when transformed. Bad AI can ultimately depower her if her allies move too far away from her. Null Follow-Up removes a majority of her weapon's follow-up related skills. Spd-oriented B-Skills like Close Call or Spurn take advantage of the Spd difference and shaves a ton of damage off of them. Her beast status also leaves her extremely vulnerable to Beast-effective weapon like Hapi's Demonic Tome or Brave Eliwood's Ninis's Ice Lance.

Skill Inheritance

Ash's only empty slot is her Assist skill, for which Reposition is a great choice for the utility of the move in all of its applications. Her kit synergizes so well together that there are very few skills worth taking into consideration like Distant Counter/Distant Stance to give her the ability to counterattack ranged foes.

Meet Some of the Heroes

Retainer to Askr Ash
	An unknown force wiped out a village on the border of Askr and Embla, and we went to investigate. Near the scene, we met a Hero we'd never heard of before—and that's who I'll be talking about today. Here's Ash!
	Ash told us she's a retainer to the god Askr, and she was sent to save us! By the way, have you heard of Askr? He's the legendary dragon who shared his power with us mortals!
	You'd think someone working for a legendary dragon would be a little more...stuffy, but Ash is surprisingly personable. She seems like someone who I could get along with!
	According to Ash, the dragon Embla has set a plan in motion to wipe out everyone who carries Askr's blood. Well, you can leave it to the Order of Heroes to make sure Embla's plans don't come to fruition!
Closely Associated Characters
Askr	Legendary dragon who granted his power to mortals. Closely associated with the kingdom that bears his name. Sends his retainer Ash to defend the people of Midgard.
Embla	Legendary dragon who will go to any lengths to see the downfall of Askr. Sends her retainer Elm to end Askr's bloodline.
Elm	Retainer to Embla, god of barriers and broken bonds. Snide and shameless, he lines his words with barbs meant to wound.