Wave Essay Remastered

	Within the FEH community, there are many who praise waves due to the "self sufficiency" they provide over other forms of buffing. But most of the people who hype them up only look at the positives, and never consider the downsides or compare them to other buffing methods. Today, I'll be discussing the pros and cons of waves, as well as whether or not you should use them over drives, tactics, and other aoe stat boosts.

	The first argument I see all the time for waves is that people "need the stats for a specific matchup". Firstly, it's pretty clear that stats you absolutely need for a matchup shouldn't really be locked behind which turn it is, especially when other buffing methods exist that rely on player setup and are much more manageable to achieve if you can plan well enough. When that crucial matchup for the team is dependent on what turn it is, that takes most or all (on some maps) control away from the player. Team buffing with hones and drives is much better  because you can choose when to use them by placing units next to each other on the player phase prior to needing them.

	Another common argument for waves is that they can let a unit tank or one-round KO off-color through sheer stats, but in terms of 	consistently winning games, supporting the team is much more important than cool moments and big numbers. If a unit is built well, they shouldn't need waves to deal with most anything that has a neutral or negative matchup with them, so they're relegated entirely to dealing with off-color units. The other members of the team should be able to handle that with their positive or neutral matchups, and even if they can't, the first issue of lack of control over when buffs are acquired arises again.

	If you're not yet convinced that waves are outclassed by other buffing methods, try thinking about it this way. In general, you want the active buffs on your teams to:

- Cover every relevant stat on each unit. (For example, a Tiki generally wants atk, def and res buffs but doesn't usually need speed.)
- Take up as few C and S slots as possible, so that you can use the extra slots on combat buffs and debuffs.
- Give the player as much control over who gets which buffs at what time as possible. (This is why tactics are so good.)

There are 3 ways you can use waves to cover the usual 4 relevant stats per unit.
First off, having 4 waves. This takes up very few slots but takes a massive amount of control away from you. 50% of turns you won't be able to buff, no matter how well you position.
Then, Having 8 waves. This takes up a whopping 8 slots but gives you many more options on the map than the 4-wave option. This generally isn't worth it since you use so many valuable slots just to get active buffs.
Finally, having a combination of waves and other buffing skills. In general, using 1 or 2 waves to buff one stat is worse than using 1 tactic/emblem buff/300SP hone because of the problem with skill slots. However, there's an argument to be made about whether waves and other inconsistent buffs like links that buff the same stats have a place on the same team. The obvious flaw with these kinds of teams is that they compound the problems waves have with consistency, and are generally worse than just using more of the other buff skills because of it.

	And now for the final argument for waves: "I use waves to give my units self-sufficiency." In general, this mindset has no place in the teambuilding process. You gimp your team overall by building each unit as if they didn't have a team. But if you're building a unit that actually doesn't have a team, such as an AA unit. This is fine. In that case, there are worse ideas.

	Lastly, there are times when a unit's unique skill or weapon already provides one kind of wave skill and makes using more worth it. Nino should run odd atk wave and stop there. Once you have that full atk coverage you should move on to other, more efficient methods of buffing. A team with Helbindi on it should run all 4 even wave skills to achieve maximum buff coverage in only 5 total slots.

	In conclusion, waves are incredibly overrated within the feh community. This is likely because it's fun to think of your units as self sufficient, and it's hilarious to see a lone Arden doubling the game's fastest units. However, at the end of the day, wave skills are inconsistent, use far too many slots for what they do, and are overall inferior to other forms of buffing.