Kaden

That makes sense. I forgot about the wording of the tier 4 Threaten skills. I only have CYL Alm who has it by default and never really checked it or bothered to remember it. Looking at the English description of the tier 4 Threaten skills, it would be like how you worded upgraded base effect of Grima's Truth, but the bonus for M!Morgan first and then the penalty for the nearest foes. So: "At start of turn, if unit is within 4 spaces of a foe, grants Atk/Spd/Res+5 to unit for 1 turn and inflicts Atk/Spd/Res-5 on nearest foes through their next actions." On the subject of Berserk Armads, it feels like they mixed up part of the unique refinement effects for Berserk Armads and Shamshir; unique refined Berserk Armads was supposed to have Time's Pulse 3 while unique refined Shamshir was supposed to have the restore 30% of the unit's maximum HP. Time's Pulse would have allowed Hector to set up double Wrath charged Bonfire or Ignis if he could manage to fire it off in a round of combat. Previously, he would have to rely on Quickened Pulse, being on an Ostia's Pulse team, or being nearby CYL Lucina or someone else who can provide a breath effect. Although the attack debuff would still hinder him from getting into Wrath range as easily before, it would be terrifying, especially with double Wrath charged Ignis and would be "fitting" for a previously 5* exclusive unit and a 5* seasonal. Shamshir on the other hand would have ended up as a probably crappier Wind Parthia as it would be missing Def/Res+5 and would restore 20% less of her maximum HP in return for dealing 7 damage when triggering a special. It would still be potent and Marisa would have access to Lulls, Null C-Disrupt, Null Follow-Up, Special Spiral, Wrath, and speed check damage reduction skills where B passives in general are an issue for fliers along with being able to run Time's Pulse to have charged Glimmer, Moonbow, Noontime, or Ruptured Sky or 1 cooldown Bonfire, Luna, or Sol if she starts a turn with them at their maximum cooldown. The thing is that Marisa's HP is her standout stat for better or worse and having an effect that restores 30% to 50% of her maximum HP would be pretty damn good.

Fir at least has her resistance. At this point, Fates Selena could probably do magic tanking like Fir with how easy it is for her to get stats from having lower attack than her foes, but not be able to fire off as many specials since she can't have Killer and Time's Pulse together in return for effective damage against armors. By going with the syntax I think is the right word here used in the English descriptions, should it be: "At start of turn, inflicts Atk/Spd/Res-5 on nearest foes within 4 spaces through their next actions, and also grants Atk/Spd/Res+5 to unit for 1 turn"? I don't think there is an "if a foe has been inflicted with a penalty" or a general if successful statement both of which they could use. I wonder how the description will be corrected if at all considering Gaius does deal damage equal to 10% of his speed, but it still says boosts to this day. Hey now, man's married and devoted to his lovely wife... only when she's on a horse. Meanwhile, his wife when she's wielding a deadly fan, but not on a horse, his best friend's wife, his best friend's wife's second husband, son, step-son, and daughter, his best friend's sister, and himself all gussied up and with a bow. Also, another funny thing is that he makes Travant stronger since he qualifies as a lance user. Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer. Something else is does it seem like there is a double space before and after the movement amount in "unit can move X space(s)" description under the [Canto(X)] part of Flower Lance and Lyngheidr?

I just remembered that I had Sumia inherit Wings of Mercy 1 from Palla way back then as part of getting Moonbow and Goad Fliers and now her lance's unique refinement gives her Wings of Mercy 6.

They freaking gave us our second playable Canto unit with Sumia's Flower Lance's unique refinement. When Farina was revealed, I thought that a Lewyn would happen for Sumia where Flower Lance would be similar to Farina's Hotshot Lance like how unique refined Forseti ended up a bit similar to Asbel's Grafcalibur. Well, more of Sumia's Flower Lance would have ended up involving Dragonflowers for its effect like Hotshot Lance. Instead, they her Canto. The other effects of Flower Lance should not be ignored as well where it's simply packed with effects. To me, the best part about Flower Lance is that its base effect feels like a bonus effect to the unique refinement being the meat of Flower Lance. Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 when foe's HP is >= 75% is a freebie compared to Canto, being able to warp to any ally whose HP is <= 80%, so Brazen range, and Swift Sparrow 2.4 that works on enemy phase if she's within 2 spaces of an ally. I say 2.4 since Jill's Talregan Axe is Atk/Spd+6, 1 more attack and speed, when Jill initiates or is within 2 spaces of an ally. Unless something is missing in the English description, Sumia's Canto has no turn limit unlike with Reginn and for that matter, Fafnir and Otr as their Canto only works on turns 1 to 4. If I am understanding this correctly, an ally at Brazen range can wreck someone, Sumia could warp to their location, Reposition or whatever with her assist to get them out, and then Canto activates allowing Sumia to move again. Dude! The warp effect is in character too! In Awakening, Sumia suddenly flies in to save Chrom. Instant refine with how unique and crazy that the developers decided to give Sumia who is a 4* special rate unit, no longer a 5* exclusive or a recent gen unit, something like this. The only unfortunate thing is that Sumia's base attack is average at best and even with all that attack stacking, she might not have as reliable of an attack stat for Heavy Blade, so that she can Galeforce and Canto like Reginn. Still, pretty freaking awesome. Funny enough, the developers pulled another similar stats thing, but not completely like back then where Barst, Jakob, Laslow, and F!Morgan all had effects involving Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 and only Laslow's was to give others +4 to their stats rather than himself. Anyway, part of Marisa's unique refinement for Shamshir is the same Swift Sparrow 2.4 that unique refined Flower Lance has. Shamshir at base is unique refined Hauteclere, Nameless Blade, and Shanna's Lance, but deals 7 damage instead of 10 when triggering a special. That's something I would like to touch upon later. The unique refinement has a second effect which is listed first and it's straight-up Time's Pulse 3. Unique refined Shamshir is like a mix of unique refined Nameless Blade and unique refined Scarlet Sword where instead of dealing 10 damage when triggering a special and having Quickened Pulse 2, so special cooldown count-2 at start of turn 1, it deals 7 damage and grants special cooldown count-1 if her special is at its maximum value at the start of all her turns. That is wild. Time's Pulse 3 as a skill should stack, so Marisa can have charged 3 cooldown specials in a weird way, though since if she doesn't one shot someone or end up with 3 cooldown on her special after a fight, Time's Pulse won't work. The unique refinement Time's Pulse would let her set up Special Spiral for a 2 cooldown special, but that might be wasted. Not that great. On the other hand, Wrath will work when her HP is <= 75% and that might be better where she can still get special cooldown count-1 either through her Shamshir's Time's Pulse or Wrath or special cooldown count-2 if she fulfills both conditions. I fee like with Flower Lance, part of Shamshir's base effect feels like a bonus and that is the deals 7 damage when triggering a special part. Shamshir having a Killer effect and Time's Pulse is huge. Not as huge as "Accelerate Special trigger (special cooldown count-2)", but still huge. With just her unique refined Shamshir, Marisa would be able to have a 3 cooldown Galeforce. It would be selfish, but with Time's Pulse as a her C passive, then she would have a 2 cooldown Galeforce. She just needs to hit twice to charge Galeforce and if she has a blade effect of some kind, then only once. Guard effects will impede her as they do for almost everyone, but she could be a good Galeforce sword infantry. Before moving on to something that will touch on Nameless Blade, I will say this was an instant refine as well. I like Marisa, I was holding out for her to be part of an update, and hoping that she ends up with something decent. This is more than decent. I had typed up, but deleted thought dumps on ideas for Marisa's Shamshir and Sumia's Flower Lance with some concerns for both. For Marisa, I felt like there were multiple ways for them to be lazy and copy, paste weapons from others and not only could it be bad for her, it could be bad for the characters with those weapons. In this case, it was the latter. The unoriginal give her Hauteclere, Nameless Blade, and Shanna's Lance would have resulted in Marisa being Karel with more defense. That's it. Karel arguably has worse offenses than Ogma as he traded attack for resistance. Well, now there is the choice of spend grails and feathers or spend orbs and deal with lower BST. That is if unique refined Shamshir was an exact copy of unique refined Nameless Blade. If Shamshir at base was the same as unique refined Nameless Blade, then that would be insulting to Fir and Karel even though Fir at least has a different stat spread than Karel and Marisa. This could be extended to Athena, Lon'qu, and so on where for Athena and Lon'qu, Marisa is not a +Atk, -Spd version of them like how Linus is to Raven, so an exact copy of their weapons after the unique refinement would have resulted in Marisa being pretty much worse than them, but at base, it would be upsetting to fans of those characters since even if, say, Shamshir were unique refined Solitary Blade and its unique refinement was Panic Ploy, it still means Marisa has an extra thing, however great or underwhelming. +7 damage instead of +10 doesn't matter when what happened is that Shamshir at base is unique refined Nameless Blade. Fir's and Karel's shtick is special spamming where back then with Wrath or after it was introduced, Time's Pulse, they are able to have charged 2 cooldown specials. Now, they can have both to have charged 3 cooldown specials. Marisa with unique refined Shamshir can have charged 2 cooldown specials or with Wrath or Time's Pulse, 3 cooldown specials and an open B or C passive allowing her to run Null Follow-Up, a speed check damage reduction with enough speed stacking, Pulse Smoke, Vantage, etc. And all in return for 3 less damage. The best part? We have an inkling of what Karla's Vassal's Blade may end up with through flying Nino and that is deals damage = 20% of unit's speed for the upgraded base effect. If that happens, then Karla will deal more damage per hit than Marisa; Karla would deal 8 damage per hit with her 40 base neutral speed. There's not stopping them from giving Karla Time's Pulse 3 if they wanted, but I digress. Moving onto the remaining three units, regular and LA Hector I get what they are trying to do with Berserk Armads's unique refinement healing him. Vantage would be the simple, let chaos begin answer, but it gets checked by Hardy Bearing and even with WTA, Hector's resistance isn't that great where New Year's Alfonse & Sharena and Ophelia would be able to tear through his HP and finish him off let alone those who are neutral or have WTA against him. So, they decided that he should restore 30% of his maximum HP back when triggering a special which could allow him to simply endure. For regular Hector, 30% of his 55 HP (52 base + 3 unique refinement) would be 16 HP restored and if the player has his resplendent form, 30% of his 57 HP would be 17 HP. For LA Hector, 30% of his 53 HP would be 15 HP restored. Helping that is the first part which inflicts Atk/Def-5 if his foe initiates or his foe's HP = 100% which with his default Distant Counter makes it like a more defensive Ostian Counter since he doesn't actually boost his own attack or defense, but it is effectively Atk/Def/Res+5 for him. I don't have LA Hector and I don't really want to get Berserk Armads for regular Hector especially after just spending 400 Divine Dew for Sumia and Marisa. M!Morgan just gets Atk/Spd/Def+5 on his own by existing with the upgraded base effect. Dulls and Lulls exist and Azelle and Freyja will happily turn his buffs around, but that's pretty funny. The other part of it is a 4 spaces Threaten like New Year's Gunnthra's Hikami. Neat and it makes him a great ally for debuff orientated units like regular Gunnthra, Matthew, and Ursula, but probably not as good as Arvis and Saias with their ridiculous range. The unique refinement is the same further debuff a foe's stats effect that the Plegian Festival -- how fitting -- introduced, but instead of activating when the user is not adjacent to anyone and starting with -5, it activates when M!Morgan's HP is >= 25% and starts with -4. I get that each point matters, but it's still weird that they don't make it the same as recent units. Marisa and Sumia would be so scary if they had Swift Sparrow 2.5 like Jill instead of 2.4 or M!Morgan debuffs starting with -5 just by existing compared to Plegian Katarina who has to not be adjacent to anyone. Whatever. Overall, neat, but I don't think I will refine his tome yet. Quan is the weird one. It works, but it's weird. Quan can get up to Atk/Def+10 if he's fighting specific types of foes while having at least one of types of units on his team and he can grant Atk/Def+5 to those specific types of units if they are within 3 spaces of him. I feel like Abel and Cain benefited more from this than Quan himself. Abel's and Cain's weapons have Atk/Def Form 2.9 (up to +6 instead of +7 like the Form skills later introduced) and allow them to Brave if they initiate while being within 2 spaces of a cavalry ally who uses a sword, lance, or axe. Guess what Quan is and what unique refined Gae Bolg does? Abel and Cain are going to be even better against Rokkrs with Quan, but that requires summoning him and refining Gae Bolg. Man, Eldigan and Sigurd got off so much better than Quan. Eldigan can choose between Fury stacking or Special Spiral and Dark Mystletainn will eventually be up for refining while Sigurd's unique refined Divine Tyrfing is simply stupid. Canto and unless it's incorrect, Canto that works on all turns. That's wild. Her movement effect is more restrictive in that it relies on her foes being within a certain HP range rather than being within 2 spaces, but Sumia can warp to anyone wherever they are and emphasis on anyone since Lilith is restricted to only her support partner.

Perhaps Duma and Mila? In Heroes, Duma is weird in that he is his normal self, personality and human form, but his dragon sprite looks like it would be his degenerated self, although, not as far as Gaiden or his SoV concept art of his flesh melting or melting more. I figured as Duma, as the God of Strength and War Father, before his degeneration, his dragon sprite would have looked closer to Mila's in Heroes, so not all melty and perhaps with two eyes or even three instead of only one single eye in the middle of his forehead. Mila doesn't degenerate as far as Duma does from what I know, but she does have a moment where she does look crazy, so they could stretch it with a degenerated Mila. Karel's shtick of being drawn to and killing strong fighters is covered by his current self in Heroes, but if they want to, they could make another version of him that is at his lowest point right before he begins to change to his Sword Saint self in Binding Blade. A Samurai Jack thing could be done with his appearance; more wilder hair, shirtless, and covered in scars. Renault prior to the events of Blazing Blade could work given as far as I know, after losing his friend, he worked for Nergal hoping he could bring back his friend to life and in doing so, killed many people. For some reason, I remember Libra as being violent in the past and that he may have resembled Karel or Renault before the events of Awakening. I do know that his past was dark from his support with Tharja, but I don't remember if it's ever explicitly stated as what he did before trying to atone and becoming a person of the cloth. This sounds like some weird putty toy. "Getcha Goo Garon here! Only two gold pieces!" Fates Anna would make bank with Goo Garon toys. Well, if Garon were alive and entertained such a silly idea.

I just thought of something cruel they could do with Erk that they haven't done since Clair and Xander: Erk can only learn Spd/Res Solo 3 and Spd Opening 3 when he's a 5* as otherwise, he can only learn their second tier as a 4*. A player would he forced to spend 20k to 22k feathers or use another 5* unit to inherit either skill.

Miranda is the only recent, end of Book IV and Book V, red mage infantry demote off the top of my head. We did get a two red mage infantry GHBs with Veld and Solon. If anything, infantry healers have been abundant.

Watch her be a red mage instead and with a gimmicky prf tome if she even gets a prf tome. Or it could be one that does everything it can to make hell for Nino; neutralizes bonuses, inflicts a speed debuff, and maybe has effective damage against mages, reduces damage against mages, or neutralizes effects that deal damage. Sonia has Fimbulvetr and Bolting, so for Fimbulvetr, she would either have to have a variant of it like Marianne or she pulls a Linus and shares Fimbulvetr with Brunnya which could go south pretty fast for Brunnya if Sonia has the same stat spread as her and is also a blue infantry mage. They could make her a green one instead as Gunnthra has an ice tome. Bolting has yet to be introduced in Heroes and it would probably have to be a Firesweep tome of some kind. She is a sage, so she could be a healer for whatever reason. The irony of her being a healer. I'd be down with this if she has a prf staff or at least Flash, Melancholy, or Trilemma. Cue her being a grail version of Linhardt or Natasha with skills that make Est look premium.

We are finally getting a demote with a Solo skill and it's through Erk of all people. I don't remember him being that particularly fast. Decently fast, but not stupid fast. Here's hoping that Spd/Res Solo 3 is available at 4*. Clair, Echidna, Eliwood, CYL Roy, and a bunch of other characters I have would all appreciate it at least for something fresh. Farina's Hotshot Lance's effect being based off of how many Dragonflowers you give her is so in character given how you recruit her. Funny, I was wondering if maybe that's how Sumia's Flower Lance would end up as a reference to Sumia's flower fortunes. It could happen like how Lewyn's Forseti kind of ended up being similar to Asbel's Grafcalibur and Lewyn being part of the update that introduced Asbel, Miranda, Ronan, Sara, and Veld. The only issue I have with Farina is that she's yet another lance flier and a heavily offensive one with how much attack and speed she can get. Maybe she wouldn't be that great as a sword flier and it would annoy people if Erk shows up, but please, we need more sword and also axe fliers over lance fliers. Regular Pent and Louise are finally in the game and Louise introduces the regular pool version of summer Joshua's bow that I don't remember what it's called. She also introduces the Ideal line of skills where amusingly enough, there are two other colorless infantry archers who have effects that give them stats if they have a bonus and one of them is from Blazing Blade too: Rebecca whose bow's unique refinement gives her Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 if she has a bonus and Setsuna whose bow's unique refinement gives her Atk/Spd+5 and neutralizes penalties to those stats if she has a bonus. Arthur, Astram, Fae, Helbindi, Laslow, legendary Marth, Nah, any -blade mage, and when she becomes playable, Nott come to mind as people who could use Ideal skills well given they have some kind of effect that gives them bonuses or works if they have a bonus. That said, Bonus Doubler has been in the game longer and Nah has it by default, so it would be up to the player if they want focus on two stats or all stats. Arthur also might get more mileage out of Unity skills as his axe doesn't neutralize penalities unlike Brunnya's and Idunn's weapons. Pent is there to help set up mages for special spamming. New Year's Alfonse & Sharena, Lewyn, legendary Lilina, Ophelia, and Sonya don't really need it, but other mages, in particular non-infantry ones who do not have access to Special Spiral would greatly benefit from him if they can manage the positioning requirements. The idea of Reinhardt having charged Moonbows or Luna is both amusing and terrifying. I feel like I should pick Pent as my guaranteed 5* as he's the most unique and also he would be a non-blue unit as the recent new heroes banners gave been blue heavy. Except for Sara, my guaranteed summons were all blue; Guinivere, Selena, Erinys, and Ingrid. Nothing wrong with that. I hope Louise shows up. I really like Maureen Price's voice. It's very smooth, but also has this twang to it. Sonia being the GHB. I wonder if Sonya being part of the current Hall of Forms really did foreshadow a "Sonya" being introduced. Perhaps two Sonya, Sonia of Blazing Blade and witch Sonya of Garden/SoV for the next fallen heroes banner. Or maybe not Sonya, by Sonya's sisters Marla and Hestia for the fallen hero banner. It would be wild to have a GHB with two units.

That's a good question. As an inheritable assist, it could go to anyone really -- be a good way to sell a unit. On the other hand, if we go with who can learn in the main games, then Rally Movement should be found on Annette whose academy self is in the game and has it through Crusher, Byleth, and any Awakening or Fates Dark Flier, but I think we could extend that to Three Houses or all games, i.e. a Tellius character gets a seasonal Dark Flier alt. By default, the Dark Fliers of the main games are Aversa, Catria through Awakening's Five-Anna Firefight DLC, and Constance. Annette's case was covered, but Aversa and the regular versions of Byleth are in the game, so if it were to be on them, it would have to be through a weapon refinery update or an alt which is probable with legendary Byleth. Excluding the Three Houses leaders and kind of Lysithea who have legendary or CYL alts, timeskip Three Houses characters have yet to be introduced. It will probably happen, but when. Regardless, timeskip Annette could have Rally Movement again which might be likely since only Annette and Byleth can actually learn Rally Movement in Three Houses. Catria's a weird, special case, so that leaves Constance as the only newcomer and even then, it would have to stretch to the idea of any Dark Flier rather than Awakening or Fates Dark Fliers since Three Houses Dark Fliers don't learn Rally Movement. Sumia can become a Dark Flier and people who want Galeforce would get her and anyone else who can become a Pegasus Knight to level up as a Dark Flier until that point, so they could certainly go wild and give her Rally Movement. I feel like it should be a unique refinement, though. That leaves the base effect of Flower Lance in question where it could be Reprisal Lance with or without a more lenient condition and an additional effect or a different set of effects entirely.

That works and it reminds me of Constance who I think I remember a comment about how her Circadian Beat could be incorporated. Stats only might have to be at least +5 since +4 field buffs aren't that difficult to get, especially as a flier who has access to Hone and Fortify Fliers let alone her default Atk/Def Link, and field buff neutralization isn't uncommon. Something weird they could do is have her heal, herself or her allies, in some way to reference Awakening Pegasus Knights learning Relief which restores 20% of the user's HP each turn if they are not within a 3 tile radius of an ally. They could maybe even give her a movement buff in some way where Dark Fliers learn Rally Movement which is what Annette's Crusher has or they could go crazy and give her Odd or Even Tempest that either gives her or adjacent allies +1 movement or Odd/Even Orders.

Cheap does not mean guaranteed. I can't think of the right word because I decided to stay up early in the morning. Yes, Brazen Atk/Spd 3 is in the 3* to 4* pool with Seteth and also way back then, Linus if someone wanted to use grail units for skill inheritance, but that Seteth has to show up for a player to access Brazen Atk/Spd 3. If he doesn't, then it doesn't matter if it's cheap or not. Death Blow 3 is cheap with Klein and now the 4* special rate units who have it along with CYL Celica having Death Blow 4, but I had a drought of Kleins and still feel like it's still there. Similarly, I can't have enough of Sothe for L&D3. Norne is a cheap colorless ranged unit and I believe the highest scoring 3* to 4* colorless unit to build, but so far, she has only showed up 6 times or maybe 5 if I picked up her manual. I'd love to +10 the damn creature at least to make Allegiance Battles less hellish with Duma being my highest scoring colorless unit, but if she refuses to show up, I may need to fall back on Kronya or even Tanya if a gen 5 colorless non-healer unit doesn't show up soon and a lot as a demote or grail unit in the near future. There's also the issue of setting up where Brazen skills can net high stat gains, but L&D3's flat Atk/Spd+5 at the cost of being more susceptible to Chill Atk and Spd effects and Swift Sparrow 3's just initiate are far simpler. With Celica, brainwashed Delthea, anyone else with recoil damage on their weapon, or even Barst, sure Brazens, but it is less of a hassle on units who don't have recoil damage on their weapon to have L&D3 or Swift Sparrow 3. It's an another option. Legendary Alm having access to Desperation, Lull Spd/Def, and Null Follow-Up would make him more flexible depending on what I need him to do. Yes, I would like L&D4 for her if I had a spare Igrene, Leila, or Fluorspar Selena. At the moment, her default Atk/Spd Push 4 suffices even if it has a HP threshold which I don't think is that big of a deal since I primarily use her in Aether Raids and for Light/Dark season, so Eir can usually heal her if someone else did not take more damage than her. Same thing with having Poison Strike as her B passive over her default Spd/Def Ruse for out of combat -sweep shenanigans. The main thing is Lull Spd/Def to make it easier to pass her Mirage Longbow's speed check and more damage. Eliwood has his default Axebreaker which was useful for the recent Allegiance Battles because of legendary Edelgard's follow-up prevention when she's not adjacent to anyone, Desperation, Lunge for Aether Raids defense, Swordbreaker from the days of +Atk, attack stacking, and Pass which I leave on for disruption. Whether he lives or not, he's going to annoy people with Lunge in Aether Raids and Pass in Grand Conquest and maybe could do weird things in Rival Domains for friends who use him during cavalry week. Blazing Durandal's Steady Impact, special charge, and not having a Killer effect makes me feel inclined to let Eliwood take a hit to charge Galeforce. For Aether Raids, doesn't matter as much with Quickened Pulse being attached to him so he can still charge Galeforce on units who can't counterattack or have Guard. Footing the 20k feathers to 5* a Mercedes for AR-D Spd/Res 3 would be a better, less costly idea than burning this Reginn. The problem nowadays as I said before is the inflated stats of PvE modes, namely Allegiance Battles and Mjolnir's Strike, and he's my highest scoring red unit for better or worse. Galeforce is great and he works fine with it, but missing some kills has been a problem, so Lull Spd/Def would be nice on him. That said, it might be better to invest in a different red unit who scores as well or higher than him like Ares, Kempf, or Seliph. It's just Blazing Durandal and Galeforce are so good. Plus the cavalry movement is useful on bigger maps. I think the worst part is if the remaining 3 merges for Meisterhardt were to show up soon, he could easily be another option to Eliwood for a high scoring red. As of right now I don't think I have any spare units to bump Meisterhardt that high -- Galeforce and a non-plus dual Rally are the least painful options -- and Allegiance Battles is every other week where the main concern for me now is a colorless unit to hopefully make it easier to score bonus colorless-on-colorless kills with and Mjolnir's Strike isn't that bad. It would just be easier for him to do what he does is all I'm saying.

More resources to hoard and forget about and time to be disappointed by Marisa's Shamshir because I kept waiting for it to happen. Regardless, if it's decent, I'll +10 her. If not, I guess Kronya or Tanya will become +10 projects because having Duma be the colorless unit during Allegiance Battles is godawful because of armor movement. Couldn't have showed up while I summoned for Dagr, could you, legendary F!Corrin? And then there's Norne who decided rarely showing up is a great idea. +10 Reinhardt is long overdue as well... Forgot about this, but the weapon update image makes it look like Quan might have a new map ready animation. It could be a custom pose just for the image, a frame of his current animations, or he could be getting an animation update which the last one I recall was with Ephraim.

This is the second time they didn't mention the other unit who can evolve their weapon to a variant? The first was with Julia not being listed for Divine Naga in the version 3.1.0 update, but both Naga and Divine Naga were part of that update, so I think they wanted to separate the two as Julia's tome and Deirdre's tome are becoming available for refinement. Still, they left out that detail of Julia can evolve Naga to Divine Naga that players probably know or can check easily. For Blazing Durandal and Divine Tyrfing, however, Eliwood and Seliph were listed and shown on the weapon update image alongside CYL Roy and Sigurd, respectively. Version 3.9.0 for CYL1 and version 4.10.0 for Divine Tyrfing. It could be argued that the weapon update image would be crowded, except it would be six units the same as with 4.10.0 which had Arvis, Effie, Rhajat, Saias, Seliph, and Sigurd together. Also, the accompanying new power banner didn't even have Seliph as a focus unit as it was only Effie, Rhajat, and Sigurd. With the upcoming update, it would be LA Hector, M!Morgan, Quan, and Sumia. A fifth focus isn't common outside of legendary/mythic banners or special banners like the double seasonal or whatever they're called banners which are more than five focus units. My guesses are that they forgot about regular Hector or he was supposed to be part of the upcoming update, but for whatever reason swapped out last minute with someone else. That someone I would say might be M!Morgan since they would not have to make a new weapon model like with Marisa or Sumia where granted Sumia in Heroes is not depicted with Awakening's Luna and her art's lance looks like a Silver Lance. Another thing is that M!Morgan can have simple unique refinement effects they can come up with on the spot to the point of not even bothering to change the base effect of Grima's Truth. For M!Morgan, the simplest things they can give Grima's Truth for its unique refinement and which they repeated three times already for tomes -- four if you include a non-tome weapon, Matthew's Spy Dagger -- is Blizzard/Broadleaf Fan or if they want to be more adventurous, the Penalty Doubler effect found on F!Corrin's unique refined Gloom Breath, CYL Micaiah's Light of Dawn, and unique refined Saizo's Star. Now, if they want to be adventurous, Bonus Doubler except, y'know, Dulls and Lulls exist with Lulls being fairly common on newer units while Blizzard/Broadleaf Fan and Penalty Doubler aren't common. On the brightside, Bonus Doubler 6 would be possible on him. Moving on from the mystery that is regular Hector and regular Armads, Quan is one of several gen 2+ units whose prf weapon does not have a flat stat boost if it already didn't have a Brave, Killer, or Wo Dao effect I guess, but prf Wo Dao weapons if I recall are uncommon. The most recent unit to have this trait is Solon. Shiro and Siegbert were the first, there's also Garon and flying Olivia, and arguably Deirdre who along with Tailtiu were in this weird transitional spot of gen 1 to gen 2. Making it worse is when Altena was introduced, her Earthly Gae Bolg was essentially a stronger regular Gae Bolg that in addition to having a stat boost, Def+3, it neutralized bonuses on armor, cavalry, and infantry foes. It just inflicted in-combat debuffs instead of granting in-combat buffs. They could have forgot about regular Gae Bolg, gave Quan the ability to evolve it to Earthly Gae Bolg, and even have Altena be part of this weapon update because why not. Sumia's the first unit with a Reprisal weapon to be part of a weapon update. This also reminds me that we don't have a Reprisal Sword yet. Flower Lance being a prf Reprisal Lance at base is fine with my guess of it being extended to dual phase with if foe's HP = 100% that has been a thing for a lot of enemy phase prf weapons starting with Balmung if I recall correctly. Or not because reasons. Anyway, if it has that condition, then it would be like Ronan's Indignant Bow except without the Atk-6 on foe and neutralizing attack penalties on Ronan and attack bonuses on his for parts. I do hope that if they do the infantry (Chrom) or flier allies thing that it is at least extended to within 3 spaces or does something else other than give stats only to Sumia which they stopped doing around with F!Morgan and which made the older weapons like Camilla's Axe or Vidofnir look even more restrictive let alone the ones that only worked with specific unit types like Regal Blade's unique refinement only working with infantry mages. Otherwise, she's not like Marianne who is good with animals in general if I recall correctly and she's more of good with pegasi and the one memorable thing is her saving Chrom, so the infantry part instead of cavalry. If not a flier or infantry ally effect, perhaps support partner since Awakening introduced the pair-up mechanic and also the implied thing with Chrom. She's clumsy and flower readings are her thing, but I have no idea how they would be able to incorporate that except for the Arthur's bad luck thing translated as he grows stronger in spite of, but does not ignore penalities. Maybe they could do something stupid like grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+X = 50% Dragonflowers given to unit. Maybe 100% because why the hell not. The last thing would be to reference her being depicted with Awakening's Luna and have the unique refinement reduce Def/Res in some way with Lunar Brace being a powerful effect albeit held back by its special cooldown penalty and legendary Eirika not having a Killer effect on Storm Sieglinde or being able have charged specials like Ares or an infantry unit who has access to Special Spiral, Wrath, and Time's Pulse on top of a Killer weapon.

That doesn't update friends' allies in Allegiance Battles? I have updated friends' allies for Grand Conquest and Rival Domains, but it didn't change anything for Allegiance Battles. I keep using resplendent as an example, but that Cordelia is resplendent since she was given one for brigades, but not for Allegiance Battles and that player has stopped playing FEH for a while. On the other hand, the friend who used to have a merged, heavily invested Reinhardt as their lead unit switched over to resplendent CYL Ike who when I updated, shows up in my brigades and in Allegiance Battles, I believe they sent out resplendent CYL Ike over I think Reinhardt.

I should probably keep my first summoned Reginn (+HP, -Def), right? Story Reginn like the other story units I keep and prefer not to invest, so having a second Reginn who I can freely invest in would be nice. Reginn's currently the only playable unit with Canto and Galeforce shenanigans with that is neat. Double Reginn is a thing as well. Not sure how effective that would be. That said, space is an issue where I spent to many orbs hoping for Dagr, so I'd rather not expand my barracks even though it only costs an orb for 5 slots. Swift Sparrow 3 and Lull Spd/Def 3 are tempting as well. Legendary Alm would appreciate the 6 attack in return for 2 speed going from Darting Blow 4 and I could swap between Lull Spd/Def or Null Follow-Up depending on what I need him to deal with, Eleonora could get Swift Sparrow 3 and Lull Spd/Def 3 without having to overlap with Atk/Spd Push 4 from Bernadetta, but I have a Claude sitting for Lull Spd/Def 3 and Def Smoke 3 that I could give to her as Atk/Spd Push 4 suffices, and I am feeling the higher bulk of recent units, especially in PvE where their stats are inflated for Eliwood despite wanting to avoid dealing too much damage as a Galeforce unit. Other than them, not really sure who else I have I would want to give Swift Sparrow 3 and Lull Spd/Def 3 to because they have skills that suffice like Shamir's default skills are fine where she mainly wants Time's Pulse to make Luna a 1 cooldown special on her turn or it's not worth it at the moment due to a lack of other investments like I only have one Ayra who might be better off with Null Follow-Up, Spurn, Vantage, or Wrath over Lull Spd/Def 3 even though she can inherit it along with Swift Sparrow 3 since she comes with Swift Sparrow 2. Panic Smoke is an option as well, but I'd rather take Lull Spd/Def over it.

Just to clarify since with the battles being over, you can't enter it to check, but did I miss that you can update your friends' units? If so, then I thought it's up to the player to update their sent unit and you cannot like with brigades choose to update your friends' units because some of my friends have their units updated or close to what their unit is like in the present, but some friends have units that are old, for example, one who has a resplendent Cordelia, but she's her regular self in Allegiance Battles while another has a resplendent CYL Ike and I think it used to be Reinhardt as their sent unit.

Well, that sucked. I stupidly exited a summoning session when I wanted to finish a full summon that had one blue orb left. I would like to pretend Duessel, Guinivere, legendary Lucina, or some 4* special rate unit was there to dig deeper into that wound. I blame Siegbert for shocking me. I don't know why, but every time he shows up, I feel a sense of why, just why. And I think I went too hard on summoning for Dagr. Stopped before I dipped below 135 orbs for the upcoming new heroes banner. She didn't show up, but Duessel, two copies of legendary Edelgard, my first legendary Eirika, legendary Lucina, Reginn, and also my first Linhardt and Myrrh and flying Olivia for the other 4* special rate units. I like Duessel, so I don't mind merging him, but he is one of those units for me where it's difficult to get more than one set of passives from him. Def/Res Solo is only on him and Duma, all the Lulls are 5* locked to begin with, and the only other sources of Rouse Def/Res are legendary Chrom and Perceval. Rouses are whatever and hell if I am going to burn a Duessel for Bonfire, but to get Def/Res Solo 4 and Lull Atk/Def 3, I would need Duma or legendary Chrom, Ephraim & Lyon, regular Dimitri, or pirate Veronica & Xander. Except for Dimitri, they're all seasonal or limited in some way and even then, Death Blow 4 and Lull Atk/Def 3 from Dimitri would be a simpler inherit. Duessel, Guinivere, Say'ri as a result of being the second unit who has Kestral Stance, and pretty much anyone with a Solo or Swift Sparrow are off the top of my head difficult to get a lot from skill inheritance for me. The Normal 2 path has me befuddled because most of the manuals to me make me question how am I going to get the most of a given manual. M!Byleth and M!Kris are simple where you can get Ruptured Sky, Distant Counter, and possibly even Chill Spd 3 or Odd Spd Wave 3 through a common Draconic Aura inherit or Noontime, Spurn 3, and Joint Drive Atk from M!Kris by inheriting Sol and Drive Atk 2 from Echidna or a combination of other units with Sol or Spur/Drive Atk. Midori's simple too with just give her bow and Close Foil to Norne or your favored archer. Maybe get Rally Atk/Def+ or Chill Atk 3 as well if you can. Then you have stuff like New Year's Anna, ballroom Ethlyn, summer Ingrid, Fomortiis Lyon, or Say'ri. Guard Bearing is niche and kind of a trap in it being a new, fancy thing and is limited to non-beast melee fliers, but I still would like to get Guard Bearing 3 with Sturdy Impact. It's not a great combination; Caeda, Clair, Minerva, and Shanna among others miss out on speed compared to having Swift Sparrow, Steady Impact, or some other speed boosting skill, Cherche, Cordelia, and Elincia shouldn't be hit in the first place. If it was just Sturdy Impact, then that would be way easier on me. Throw that on legendary Alm, Bramimond, Naesala, Seliph, Yune, etc. Those copies of legendary Edelgard, legendary Lucina, and flying Olivia are probably going to rot. I kind of want to give the legendary Edelgard in use a merge, but she's the only one with Armored Stride and that would definitely help or open up a lot of armors. That said, CYL Edelgard is way easier to use and Save skills can allow armors to simply exist and intercept attacks making positioning a bit easier with just stay nearby an ally. I can maybe give Swift Sparrow 2 and Wings of Mercy 3 or Distant Guard 3 to someone, but that's a massive list and some of them can get by with other skills. Clair comes to mind where at this point, I'd like to give her Pegasus Flight and Fury 3/4 would work better with that skill and while her attack is low, avoiding one-shots still needs to be factored in as a Galeforce unit, so Steady/Swift Impact might be better for her over building up to Swift Sparrow 3. Same dealio with Eliwood and this is while feeling the bulk creep in modes like Allegiance Battles. Speaking of Allegiance Battles, why does it not auto-update your friends' units? I have friends whose units have not been updated since forever and it's awful when seeing their current unit compared to their Allegiance Battles unit. It doesn't even update their unit to their resplendent if applicable. Also, fuck the recent Allegiance Battles map. That was awful to deal with Annette, Bernadetta, Claude, Flayn, Lysithea, Shamir, and the other Three Houses units let alone legendary Edelgard herself if you leave her alone or she spawns away from her allies, so if you don't have Axebreaker, Null Follow-Up, or a guaranteed follow-up effect or are not able to one-shot her then prepare to suffer.

Of course she shows up this early. I'm on the AHR banner summoning screen and Roderick showed up as my free blue summon. I think I'm going to have to give up being able to guarantee Seiros, guaranteeing a mythic. AHR, the next new heroes banner, and hoping Dagr shows up is too expensive. That's 290 orbs to guarantee a 5* focus from AHR and the next new heroes banner and plus how many more orbs before I give up on Dagr's debut banner. The banner lineup is brutal where granted, we knew about them, but having it happen is another thing. I remember reading people speculating about what if Dagr and Nott were going to be introduced in this mythic and there was someone who even added in Freyr. It would have gotten three Heroes character out of the way, but that would be brutal. Still, I do wish at least for legendary heroes that two legendary heroes were introduced just to speed things up or make it so people don't have to wait forever or be disappointed that characters like Micaiah, not Grima Robin, Sigurd, and so on have yet to get legendary alts. On the bright side, at least a spare F!Kris showed up a a free summon from her revival banner.

This banner lineup is not fun... A Hero Rises, Heroes, Light and Shadow revival, the new mythic hero next week, and then the next new heroes banner in two weeks. I could guarantee Seiros, a mythic hero, with 160 orbs and possibly someone else will show up. It's 160 orbs and these two were expected: the focus rate is normal and no tickets which could have lowered the orbs cost. Heroes, Light and Shadow offers a chance at Close Foil and Lull Atk/Spd 3 for Brunnya or someone else, but I need to summon at least two copies of Julian since I would like to keep one unique copy of every hero and there's also Spurn through the Krises where it would have to be one F!Kris since I picked her when the banner debuted or two copies of M!Kris since like Julian, he never showed up and I do not count the manual you can get through the Normal 2 path. Since it's a Forging Bonds revival, there are tickets and it would cost 135 to guarantee someone which might be F!Kris for the reasons described and the damage reduction skills to me are like Shield Pulse where the ones who can run them well or want them already have them. The few who don't you can give them something cheaper like the old reliable Desperation. The next mythic is the next mythic. Legendary and mythic banners have always been crappy for me, but if they or anyone else on there I want or like shows up, then cool. It will probably be like how seasonal banners are now for me where I only do one full summon since I cannot guarantee a focus unit unlike new heroes banners, Forging Bond revivals, or the rare special banners like A Hero Rises. The cruel thing is as noted by others, A Hero Rises ends before the mythic hero banner begins. And new heroes banners. 135 orbs for a guaranteed 5* focus. That's pretty much it. Being able to guarantee rare unit types like Jill, F!Kris, healers with prf staffs, units who can do unique things like Lilith with her support partner warp shenanigans and Fluorspar Selena being a ranged cavalry with Null Follow-Up, and Mirabillis is simply great. That said, the past banners being blue-heavy for me I hope changes. Colorless, green, or even red if it's something uncommon like a bow, dagger, or sword armor, flier, or cavalry. Lastly, of course Saber and Sonya come back in August when CYL5 is going to be introduced. Maybe I'll consider summoning from a Weekly Revival now that the 4* special rate is a thing and could help out. Nope. Best part is that I tried to get Saber and Sonya I think last year and none of them showed up.

I'm wondering about the dagger unit candidates, characters whose default class is thief, assassin, trickster, etc., so I decided to look... Archanea: Playable: Rickard. The remaining thief in the game as Julian was introduced in Book IV. NPC/Enemy: Dall and Vaam. Dall has Levin Sword and Vaam has Armorslayer. It wouldn't be the first time they had two different units sharing a weapon, so Dall could share Levin Dagger with Gangrel. Vaam on the other hand could introduce a regular version of Sky Maiougi or even Pegasus Carrot if Vaam were to show up as a non-colorless dagger. Gaiden/SoV: N/A? Gaiden/SoV doesn't have thieves in the sense of sword-wielding units who could become dagger-wielding units in Heroes and lock-picking isn't really a thing in the games either from what I remember. The closest thing I can think of would be Celica wielding Golden Dagger, but they decided to give Saber Golden Dagger as sword, so... I could see them making another Celica alt who is a dagger unit with Golden Dagger and for all intents and purposes, it could have the exact same effects as unique refined Golden Dagger: "Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). At start of combat, if Special is ready, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+3 during combat and unit can counterattack regardless of foe's range." The stat boost isn't as impressive as recent weapons, but a Killer effect and kind of easy way to get the stat boost and a conditional Close Counter in this case could make this hypothetical dagger Celica pretty good. Special Spiral or Time's Pulse and ally help from Infantry Pulse or Ostia Pulse to setup on turn 1 or CYL Lucina or someone with Infantry Flash or Rush for special charging. The main thing is that it would make her the second ranged unit with a conditional Close Counter and fourth ranged unit with some form of Close Counter on their weapon after regular Julia with unique refined Naga's Dragon Counter, Boey with unique refined Inscribed Tome's almost Close Counter, and Shinon with his Spectrum Close Counter Solo. Genealogy of the Holy War: Playable: Daisy, Dew, and Patty. Daisy is the substitute for Patty and we have yet to have a substitute character in Heroes. NPC/Enemy: Porcus. A deadlord which we have yet to have introduced in Heroes. I know some characters can end up as deadlords, so they could have some kind of personality, but the others I'm not sure. Probably why we haven't had one yet since they would need to make up most of everything for them. Thracia 776: Playable: Lara, Lifis, and Perne. Lara probably should double as a dancer like how Tethys was given daggers in Heroes. NPC/Enemy: Porcus. Unlike in Genealogy and Awakening, Porcus has a Berserk Sword instead of a Brave Sword. Berserk Dagger? Could be interesting. With him having Wrath, maybe they could do something and have it work like Devil Axe in Heroes, so stat boosts, recoil damage, and Wrath. Unfortunately, as a ranged unit Porcus wouldn't be able to run double Wrath, but he comes with Vantage by default which would be nasty as part of his default skill set. Binding Blade: Playable: Astolfo and Cath. Perhaps we might be able to reunite a broken family. NPC/Enemy: none. Blazing Blade: Playable: none. Blazing Blade exhausted its two playable thieves and one assassin by Book II with Matthew as a launch character, Jaffar being introduced in Book I, and Legault in Book II. NPC/Enemy: Jerme. They could double up on Jerme with a regular and morph version if they really, really want to. Jerme when he was alive has a Light Brand while as a morph he has a Runesword. Perhaps Runedagger will be a thing in the future. Leila would have been the second of the NPC/Enemy group had she not be introduced in Book IV. Sacred Stones: Playable: Colm and Rennac. Magvel doesn't really have any unique or weird swords they could give to the non-lord or royal characters, does it? Then again, stuff like Blessed Sword, Ilwoon, and Zweihander were ignored for Gray and Tobin in favor of making up swords for them. Deen, Jesse, and Kamui are the remaining playable myrmidons of the game and if the go with initial concepts, then Deen should have either a generic Brave Sword or a personal version to go with his backstory which leaves Jesse and Kamui to take up the remaining unique swords of SoV. Anyway, I digress. NPC/Enemy: none. Path of Radiance: Playable: Bastian, Calill, Sothe, and Volke. Knife being a skill in PoR led to Bastian and Calill having it despite being sages. If they want to be weird, they could make Bastian a green dagger infantry and Calill a red dagger infantry. Bastian has Stiletto, so that could work, but perhaps they could make up something for the both of them like a wind dagger for Bastian and flame dagger for Calill. Younger Sothe looks more different than, say, PoR Jill to RD Jill, so that's probably okay for this to happen. Like the other Tellius characters, Volke overlaps and I'm not sure how they choose which game a character represents unless it's noticeable in how different they look or perhaps function like RD Ike is definitely an older PoR Ike or how RD Mist starts out being able to use swords. NPC/Enemy: none. Radiant Dawn: Playable: Heather and Volke. Weird thing is that Volke comes with Peshkatz in RD, but they gave that to RD Sothe in Heroes. Guess he'll have Baselard or Stiletto. NPC/Enemy: none. Awakening: Playable: Awakening Anna. The playable Anna in this game is a Trickster, so she could show up as a dagger unit or a staff unit. NPC/Enemy: Porcus and Ruger. Like in Genealogy, Porcus has a Brave Sword and Ruger aka fake Chrom has a Levin Sword. To this day I have no idea how Cynthia could mistake Ruger for Chrom. Man looks like a carriage ran over his face and then some. Fates: Playable: Asugi, Dwyer, and Yukimura. Asugi is the remaining playable, default ninja of Fates. If they choose to have Dwyer as a promoted butler instead of his unpromoted self or anything else, then he would be a dagger infantry instead of a cavalry healer, cavalry mage, and so on. Possible dagger cavalry if they want him mounted. Yukimura is likely to be the second possible candidate for a dagger cavalry after Merlinus who surprisingly was introduced and as a dagger cavalry. NPC/Enemy: Kotaro and Omozu. Three Houses: Playable: Ashe, Manuela, Petra, and Yuri. Ashe's backstory is that he was a thief who stole to survive and his personal skill is lockpicking, but Ashe's proficiency is in bows and he wants to be a knight. Perhaps it would be better for a dagger-wielding Ashe to be part of a ninja or pirate banner as something fun and festive rather than his regular self revisiting his past. Manuela is an assassin enemy on one route, so they could do that if they don't want her to be a mage, non-dagger refresh unit, or whatever. Academy Petra is for whatever reason a dagger flier in Heroes, but she is a thief and assassin as an enemy, so timeskip Petra whenever they get to timeskip Three Houses students that aren't CYL or legendary heroes which is mainly the house leaders, then it would make sense. Yuri being a trickster is the only reason he's here like Awakening Anna. NPC/Enemy: Metodey and Pallardo. Metodey is an assassin with Venin Edge or Brave Sword depending on the chapter you encounter him. Jaffar already does splash damage, but he doesn't inflict a status effect that prevents status effects like Kempf does with Venin Edge and Rhajat does with Obsessive Curse, so a Venin Dagger could differentiate itself by that. Well, it would probably just be better since it would be on a recent dagger unit with likely much higher attack than Jaffar and inflicting that status effect is probably better than only preventing counterattacks from mages when initiating. Pallardo is an enemy thief. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE: N/A? There doesn't seem to be a thief or dagger-wielder in this game. Cipher: Shade and Yuzu. Shade has a card where she's a maid and Yuzu has a card where she's a master ninja.

Wait until they get exponential. Spring Myrrh & Nah have 35 resistance. Spring Minerva being a lance cavalry is really disappointing and baffling. They just introduced Ingrid and Petrine is a grail unit who in terms of stats, maybe was too good when she's a free unit during her GHB or grail version of Perceval and Sirius. Why? And then there's Duessel among other countless lance cavalry and lance fliers. Spring Minerva doesn't even have a prf lance. Why? Make her a lance infantry or even lance armor if you want her using a lance. Or go with a staff if you want her holding a stick. Freaking spring Bartre is a sword infantry despite his baton being a bludgeoning weapon which then again, we have New Year's Camilla swinging around kadomatsu and summer Laegjarn casting spells with what looks like an oversized, fat dagger. If it's about avoiding color overlap, blue bow and blue dagger units exist? Spring Inigo is a green bow flier, so spring Minerva could have been a blue dagger, bow, or tome and if any movement type. Also, they could have had her riding a pegasus and say it's her trying to reconnect with an old friend. At least her outfit looks good. The hat, especially. As for spring Saleh, well, at least he's a rarer unit type being an axe cavalry as odd as it might be for a sage. It's going to be hard to beat Plegian M!Kris's 37/37 offenses for a a grail or demote offensive axe cavalry and Lex, our first axe cavalry demote since Titania, having a dual phase Brave Axe. Him having HP/Res makes me wonder if he might be closer to Conrad which would work out well since we don't have a slow, high resistance or mixed defenses axe or green beast cavalry with the closest being pirate Veronica & Xander at 19 speed and 36/29 defenses and for a high resistance or mixed defenses, decently speedy option, it's Titania at 34 speed, 25/30 defenses where Titania still has the highest resistance of all green melee cavalry or Kaden at 36 speed, 25/25 defenses. And I wait for Cherche & Minerva. One day, Cherche will get an alt of some kind (and Charlotte will finally be introduced as her regular self). Thinking about it, a butler and maid banner with Cherche & Minerva would be neat. Cherche was a servant and trained to be a cleric in the past before becoming a wyvern rider with Minerva the wyvern and Minerva the human in a suit would be nice. Also, prince and princess banner. Either Cherche is going to bridal carry Minerva or Minerva will.

Well, I learned two things today. One, Maribelle is wearing chaps or some weird open, inner thigh leggings in Heroes. I thought the inner thighs were a pinkish color like the rest of her outfit. Two, Maribelle's a valkyrie in Heroes instead of a troubadour. Her troubadour self doesn't have the shoulder and leg armor that valkyries have. Also, it seems that her pants are inconsistent? Most of the time, her pants are fluffy or baggy, but sometimes they're more fitted. This reminds me of how adult Link's pants changed from Ocarina of Time to Twilight Princess and to Skyward Sword. White tights, fitted beige pants, and then baggy tan pants.

Allegiance Battles made me realize that I don't really have a high-scoring colorless unit other than Duma and that's a problem with Duma's armor movement. It's easier to hit a score of 950 with a friends' colorless unit. Otherwise, grinding out Allegiance Battles or getting lucky with non-colorless bonus kills. That me also realize we have not had a dagger infantry demote for gen 5 yet. Currently, we only have had one dagger unit introduced into the regular summoning pool: Merlinus, a colorless dagger cavalry, who is likely to be one of two possible dagger cavalry or more like non-infantry candidates with the other being Yukimura provided they don't make him a bow unit instead. No GHB or TT units up to this point have been dagger units either. If we go back to gen 4, Chad and Tethys were the only demotes where Chad has gen 3 physical ranged BST and Tethys is a dancer, Julian, Larum, and Leila are 5* exclusive where Larum is a dancer, and for GHB/TT, New Year's Eir, Gangrel, and winter Jaffar. Gen 3 had no demotes, Petra for 5* exclusive, Kronya for GHB/TT, and Eir was available as a story reward. Gen 2 had Kaze, Legault, and Sothe as a demotes, Ylgr for 5* exclusive, hot springs Camilla and winter Cecilia for GHT/TT. Gen 1 had no demotes as it only introduced Jaffar, a 5* exclusive, for a dagger unit in the regular summoning pool and did not have any GHB or TT dagger units. For bow units, we have not had a bow demote, particular an infantry one and maybe cavalry as they are not as rare as bow armors or fliers. CYL Claude, Shinon, Shamir, and Ronan are 5* exclusive with CYL Claude being a bow flier, but we do have winter Felix, a blue bow armor, and Jorge, a blue infantry, for GHB/TT. Back to gen 4, we had Norne, Python, Rath, and Tanya for demotes where Tanya has gen 3 physical ranged BST and is pretty much outclassed by Norne, Bernadetta, Eleonora, Igrene, and Midori for 5* exclusive, and Halloween Rolf for GHB/TT. Gen 3 had no demote, academy Claude, Nina, and Sue for 5* exclusive, and Jamke, spring Loki, and bride Louise for GHB/TT. Gen 2 had no demote, Kinshinoka and CYL Lyn for 5* exclusives, and New Year's M!Corrin and fallen Takumi for GHB/TT. Gen 1 had Klein, Leon, and Rebecca for demotes, Faye and Innes for 5* exclusives, and Clarisse for GHB/TT. I hope I did not miss anyone. We do have the special 4* rate which adds in a dagger infantry, Jaffar, and Faye, Innes, Kinshinoka, and CYL Lyn for bow units, but that's not the same as an actual 3* to 4* bow or dagger unit added to the regular summoning pool. Interesting thing is that The Blazing Blade exhausted its options for playable dagger units in Heroes by gen 2 as The Blazing Blade only had two playable thieves and one assassin: Matthew, a launch unit, Jaffar who was introduced in gen 1, and Legault who was introduced in gen 2. Everyone else is either an NPC or an enemy and there was only two options to begin with for that: Leila, a NPC, who was added in gen 4, and Jerme, an assassin who wielded Light Brand when he was alive or Runesword as a morph. So, aside from Jerme who would likely be a GHB or even TT unit unless they want to try and sell him, if they were to introduce another Blazing Blade dagger unit into the regular summoning pool, it would probably have to be an alt and it doesn't necessarily have to be Jaffar, Legault, Leila, Matthew or Jerme since they could do both alive and morph Jerme. Cue morph Leila for a future fallen banner to twist the dagger further for Matthew -- pun no intended. Archers on the the other hand, they do have remaining optoins with Geitz if they choose to make him a bow infantry an axe infantry, Louise as her regular self, and Wil. For Elibe in general, it's interesting that aside from Lyn, none of the Sacaen archers have Mulagir or even a prf bow. Sue and Rath only have Slaying Bow and Short Bow, respectively. Hanon originally wielded Mulagir and there is morph Uhai who wielded Rienfleche. Dayan and Sin either they have to make up a bow for them if they don't show up with an inheritable bow or they might end up with another version of Mulagir or even Rienfleche because why not. Hector gets Maltet where at least Hector does appear in Binding Blade, Lyn gets Mulagir where it does not appear in Blazing Blade, and Dayan/Sin get Rienfleche where it doesn't appear in Binding Blade as it was introduced in Blazing Blade. So, who's waiting for Priam with Alondite? Oops, he lost Ragnell, but found Alondite. Both are horribly mangled because he doesn't know how to shoot sword beams with them and instead chucks them. Meanwhile, Cherche's Axe totally not being an abused Helswath. I really want to know why they associated her with Helswath. The Awakening design doesn't look that different from its Genealogy of the Holy War art; missing the red gem, the gold trimming is more faded or muted, and the shaft is not as thick. At the very least, it doesn't look weird as hell like Tyrfing's Awakening design or scythe Armads. So, other than it looks like a cool, elegant axe, why? As I was typing this, I checked and Cherche and Sumia are the only Awakening characters whose official art depicts them with a regalia when they are not associated with it. So, not something like Chrom has Falchion because obvious reasons. Cherche has Helswath while Sumia has Awakening's Luna. Sumia seems to have Awakening's Luna in most of her other official artwork; her Heroes and one of her Cipher cards have her wielding a Silver Lance or some kind of generic lance. Luna's less peculiar compared to Helswath, a holy weapon wielded by a crusader. Cherche on the other hand seems to be consistently shown with Awakening Helswath or something that looks close to it. The only time she isn't shown with it or her axe is a concept art where an axe that looks like Wolf Berg is next to her. At this point I'm wondering if maybe Cherche is a descendent of Nal's and Celica's bloodlines. Which if it was an early idea they thought of with decendents of crusaders in Awakening or somehow the other worlds being connected to Archanea and not have such weapons simply be references, would explain her physical strength and have opened a massive can of worms since she possibly would be able to wield Falchion, at least Valentia's Falchion wherever the hell it went. I should stop thinking about this. Done. No more. Minerva & Cherche harmonic hero when? Also, Lethal Carrot has yet to have a regular summoning pool counterpart in the game. Axes, bows, lances, and, well, swords have their versions of Wo Dao that is on a regular summoning pool unit. A regular summoning pool version of Broadleaf Fan could easily be tacked onto a not a star of the banner 5* unit or if they want to go crazy, a demote.

Thoughts dump, I guess. By coincidence, we have three weapons with a Killer effect and the if foe's Def >= foe's Res+5, deals 7 damage effect: Niles's Bow and Nina's Spy-Song Bow have both as its base effects and Leif's unique refined Light Brand gains a Killer effect along with the if foe's HP = 100%, grants Spd/Def+4 to him during combat. Leif's Light Brand introduced the effect and interestingly, Niles kept his inheritable Killer Bow's Killer effect and gained the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect for his bow while Nina kept her inheritable Shining Bow's effect and gained a Killer effect for her Spy-Song Bow. The if foe's Def >= foe's Res+5, deals 7 damage effect isn't that great and arguably is a bonus effect on Light Brand, Nile's Bow, and Spy-Song Bow, so it kind of make sense that another effect would accompany it and as noted, a Killer effect was involved in some way either by default as the base effect or through a unique refinement. Currently, we only have one other character with the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect and it's Tanya. It will take some time before we get to her as she is a gen 4 unit, albeit with gen 3 physical ranged BST, so it will be curious if we might end up four for four with a Killer effect paired with the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect. This does assume that another character doesn't show up with the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect such as it somehow making it onto a new unit's prf weapon, someone else shows up with Shining Bow or a different weapon type, or an older unit receives a prf weapon with the effect. It also assumes that when Tanya becomes part of a weapon update that her prf bow keeps Shining Bow's effect as they could give her something completely different. Now to two other units I want to talk about: Gerome and Libra. Keeping with the theme of damage dealing, Libra's depicted with Bolt Axe in his official art and in his Heroes art. Yet in-game of both games, he does not come with a Bolt Axe by default, instead, he has a Killer Axe in Awakening and introduced Wo Gun as the regular summoning pool version of Giant Spoon. People figured that he will end up with Bolt Axe and that possibly a legendary Robin or if it comes to it, CYL Robin would have Levin Sword. Not sure if people said the same for Awakening Anna, but anyway, Gangrel has Levin Sword and was introduced as a infantry dagger with Levin Dagger that does not target resistance, but instead, uses his resistance to deal damage if his foe has a penalty. Regardless, like Flame Lance, Levin Sword, Light Brand, and Runesword, Bolt Axe deals magic damage where Light Brand and Runesword do so at 2 range and deal physical damage at 1 range. In Heroes, Flame Lance is the closest to how it worked in Path of Radiance where it calculates damage using the foe's resistance and inflicts Spd/Res-5 when Petrine's HP is >= 50%. Levin Dagger and Light Brand involve resistance in some way, but do not target it and Narcian's Runeaxe only has the healing part of Runesword. To cut to the point, if and when Libra is part of a weapon update and he does get Bolt Axe, Flame Lance would a great inspiration. Otherwise, Crusher or the dragon breaths' target the lower of a foe's defensive stat and at worst I guess, Light Brand/Shining Bow. If it keeps Wo Gun's effect, then sure, but a Killer effect as stated countless times would be very flexible. Now, that leaves what else about Libra and he's a war monk. He can heal and comes with a Mend and a Ward staff and Healtouch and Miracle for his skills. War monks also learn Renewal which Libra has as his default B passive in Heroes. Genny's Springtime Staff's unique refinement's and Guinivere's Aureola's "Restores 7 HP to unit and allies within 2 spaces after combat" which at this point might as well be called Breath of Life 4 would work well to reference Libra being a war monk. He can't switch to a staff like in a main Fire Emblem game, but he can have an effect to emulate it by granting him the ability to heal himself and others. So, for Libra with Bolt Axe. Base effect: "Deals +10 damage when Special triggers." Keep Wo Gun's base effect. "Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1)." Reference him having a Killer Axe in his inventory in Awakening. Unique refinement: "At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, calculates damage using foe's Res, and inflicts X/Res-5 on foe during combat." X for Atk or Spd depending on if Libra should be geared to take less damage per hit or be able to double or avoid doubles more. "At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, calculates damage using foe's Res, and grants: 'If unit’s HP > 1 and foe would reduce unit’s HP to 0, unit survives with 1 HP. (Once per combat. Does not stack.)'” As a reference to priests/clerics learning Miracle. "Calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res..." This would be neutralized by Mystic Boost. Can be paired with something else like the Miracle effect or Light Brand/Shining Bow as well if it seems not enough. "If foe's Def ≥ foe's Res+5, deals +7 damage." Probably the worst one, but paired with healing or something else, is an okay bonus effect. Sort of. And "Restores 7 HP to unit and allies within 2 spaces after combat." Reference to Libra being a war monk by giving him the ability to heal in some way despite being an axe infantry and unable to switch to a staff in Heroes. Gerome would be our third melee unit who has an inheritable effective against a cavalry weapon for a weapon update after Gray and Mathilda. Following Gerome would be Heath. Gray's Laid-Back Blade kept Zanbato's effective damage against cavalry and added on if his HP is >= 50%, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+3 during combat while Mathilda didn't as her Knightly Lance is only a prf Killer Lance. Support partner effects can be potent, but with Mathilda's Knightly Lance could have kept effective damage against cavalry as well or had something else. I do wish that the units who had inheritable weapons with effective damage against armors or cavalry weapons had the neutralizes armored/cavalry foe's bonuses during combat from the inheritable weapon's unique refinement I guess for the prf weapons they gained as part of the weapon update they were in. So, Bartre, Caeda, Est, Florina, Frederick, Gray, Hana, Mathilda had she kept effective damage against cavalry, Raigh, Rhajat, Oboro, Selena, Tobin, and Ursula. Also Clair who gained Rhomphaia with its effective damage against armor and cavalry and Clive since he gained a prf Heavy Spear. Caeda and Clair are iffy given that their prf weapons have effective damage against armor and cavalry and neutralizing bonuses to both movement types would be more than a bonus. Back then, field buffs were common and in-combat buffs or debuffs were not as common or easy to access. That said, it would have been neat and for some of the units, they were part of later weapon updates where in-combat buffs or debuffs became more common and accessible or field buffs are more easily dealt with. Back to Gerome, perhaps they could do this where he has a prf Poleaxe with bonus neutralization against cavalry. For what they could draw from him and in Awakening, he comes with Strength +2 which hilariously enough in Heroes he has kind of the opposite with Fortress Def 3 and Tantivy which could be translated as a Solo or more restricted, as the more foes than allies effect like that of Dracofalchion, Flame Siegmund, Laid-Back Blade, and Wolf Berg. Griffon Riders learn Deliverer and Lancebreaker where I am not sure how they could translate Deliverer in Heroes and we have not had a unit gain a weapon with a specific -breaker. It could have happened with Setsuna, but she got something different. Wyvern Lords learn Quick Burn which the closest thing would be Push skills, specifically tier 4 ones, and Swordbreaker where it goes further and we have not had a unit have a specific -breaker that works at against foes who have WTA. The closest thing to this would be Gustav's Glitnir. To sum for Gerome with a prf Poleaxe: Base effect: "Effective against cavalry foes. [Optional] Neutralizes cavalry foes' bonuses (from skills like Fortify, Rally, etc.) during combat." Unique refinement: "If unit is not adjacent to an ally or if foe initiates combat, inflicts Atk/Def-5 on foe during combat and neutralizes foe's bonuses to Atk/Def (from skills like Fortify, Rally, etc.) during combat." Based on unique refined Dark Greatsword and Unbound Blade to reference Tantivy. To go with Gerome's stats, having it work on enemy phase would make it easier for him. That condition could be removed to balance it out for all stat bonus neutralization and if that's fine, then it could keep the it works on enemy phase too. Atk/Def-5 can be replaced by Atk/Def/Res+5 and it could neutralize or reverse penalties on him instead. "If unit is not adjacent to an ally or if foe initiates combat, inflicts Atk/Def-5 on foe during combat and Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack.)" Guard instead of bonus neutralization. Maybe could remove enemy phase as another way to activate the condition for "grants Special cooldown charge +1 to unit/per unit's attack" depending on if it would be fine for Gerome to have the Special charge on his attack and from taking an attack from his foe like a Breath or only on his attack like Heavy/Flashing Blade. "In combat against a sword foe or lance foe, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack and foe cannot make a follow-up attack." To reference Griffon Riders learning Lancebreaker and Wyvern Lords learning Swordbreaker in Awakening. With it being that specific against only two weapon types, I figure it could work without a HP threshold or some other condition other than Gerome not being dead and fighting against lance or sword foes. Would be shut down by Null Follow-Up and he's not that fast to break through some units with Wary Fighter effects; Gerome has the same speed as Effie. Could add in some stat boost, "neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks", or something else if needed.