Hi everyone! Today’s guide is on the Crown Prince of Nohr and world-record holder for highest jumping cavalier, Xander.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| HP | 999 |
| Str | 126 |
| Mag | 21 |
| Skl | 125 |
| Spe | 105 |
| Lck | 153 |
| Def | 118 |
| Res | 75 |
Xander’s got a pretty nice stat spread. His offensive stats are not best in class, but they are quite solid, the standout being his 137 Luck. He’s also very bulky — his Resistance, while low, is still high enough to use Aegis (but only just, and only when maxed out). He’s got somewhat poor speed as well but this is not nearly as much of a weakness as it is in Conquest.
Never
Seigfried: no 7th slot, True Power in 8th
Aegis: Reduces damage taken from Bows, Tomes, and Stones. Increases with Luck (% reduction= Lck/3)
Def/Skl/Spe (+5 if A/A+, otherwise +3)
Mountslayer
Y1 (Dash): Xander jumps forward while spinning; damaging all enemies he passes by. This is a great way to enter a fray mid-dash, but be mindful of the forward momentum.
C1: Xander slashes in an ‘X’ formation. This combo does not end a dash, and starts one if he was not dashing already. This is a fantastic C1, up there with the likes of the mages and Camilla. You can literally run around in circles mashing X and that would be enough to eventually break down most enemies. You can, as long as the stun gauge is exposed, run an officer/hero into a corner and keep them there until the gauge breaks. He also never needs to stop dashing to clear trash between objectives. The main downside is that the damage is rather poor, meaning using this combo vs officers will often lead to slowly grinding them down.
C2: Xander jumps while slashing upwards, carrying nearby enemies into the air with him. While airborne, he can use ‘Y’ to slash in front of him on the way down, or ‘X’ to come crashing down onto the ground. I tend not to like launchers that go airborne since it’s rather difficult to chain them into a juggle, but Xander’s airtime is rather short, so you can juggle out of this with some effort.
C3: Xander rushes forward and slashes, damaging enemies in an arc in front of him. I think the horse’s run animation looks really silly in the combo, but otherwise it’s an ok crowd clearer. C1 is better most of the time though.
C4: Xander slashes quickly in front of him before firing a thin beam of dark energy forward from his sword. He can rotate slightly while doing this. After the beam expires, he fires a vertical energy wave forward. Enemies struck by this attack will have their stun gauges exposed so long as they do not have WTA over Xander. Aside from exposing gauges, I don’t think this combo is too good. The area it hits is too narrow, the damage is pitiful, and the animation is quite slow. It always will have the utility of exposing stun gauges though, so that’s something.
C5: Xander jumps forward to the left, then forward to the right, and then back to the center, slashing enemies in the area in front of him. The final slash renders him airborne; where he has the same options as in C2. The forward momentum on this combo is immense. If you choose to combo out of the air, you need to be very quick about it, as the timing is very tricky. On the ground, this is an alright stun gauge breaker, though since he leaps from side to side he has a tendency to drop the combo- and if you do it in the corner, he’s almost guaranteed to drop it. Still, it does some good damage and covers a large area.
C6: Xander leaps into the air and dives down, causing a massive explosion in the area where he lands. Straightforward, cool, and effective. The animation isn’t too long, it does fantastic damage, and hits a very wide area. When C1 isn’t cutting it, this is a great general purpose combo.
Strong I and VI power up his two most useful combos, and Rainstorm powers up his regular combo. For the slayer skills, I’ve listed them in order of relative usefulness. For your final slot, Xander benefits hugely from Pair Up+, as Dual Strike can let him open stun gauges while juggling in the corner with C1. If you don’t have Pair Up+ on hand, Warrior and Critical work as well.
| Skill | Hero | PC | AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astra | Ryoma | M | M |
| Luna | Chrom | M | M |
| Trample | Camilla | M | M |
| Armored Blow | Tiki | O | – |
| Pass | Lyn | O | – |
| Luck +20 | Celica | O | O |
| Aegis | Xander | O | O |
| Pavise | Frederick | O | O |
| Str + 10 | Lissa | O | O |
| Skill +10 | Takumi | O | – |
| Res +10 | Elise | O | O |
| Potent Potion | Rowan | O | O |
| Solidarity | Robin | O | O |
| Dracoshield | Corrin | O | O |
Astra (Ryoma), Luna (Chrom), Trample (Camilla)
Armored Blow (Tiki), Pass (Lyn), Luck +20 (Celica), Aegis (Xander), Pavise (Frederick), Str +10 (Lissa), Skill +10 (Takumi), Res +10 (Elise), Potent Potion (Rowan), Solidarity (Robin), Dracoshield (Corrin)
C1 can no longer be interrupted. With that in mind, Armored Blow is one of the strongest skills you can give him. Pass can be nice too, but as you will likely be using C1 all the time, you might not get much mileage out of it.Luck +20 (Celica), Aegis (Xander), Pavise (Frederick), Str +10 (Lissa), Res +10 (Elise), Potent Potion (Rowan), Solidarity (Robin), Dracoshield (Corrin)
Xander is, all told, a hilariously fun character to play. His horse does things no horse should be able to, and mindlessly spamming X to grind your foes to nothing is so entertaining. Xander struggles most when his mobility is limited, and excels at crowd clearing. When fighting officers, he is best in single combat, as it is much easier to juggle one officer in the corner than it is to take on multiple at once, given the forward momentum he has on most of his combos. Overall, Xander is a bit of a one trick pony, but he does that one trick very well.