Kaden

Obligatory Brunnya I guess. I have a lot of Heroic Grails and they have not been used since that one time to complete one of the second Heroes' Paths objectives; I summoned an Aversa for that. She is my sixth +10 unit and the first +10 Grail unit. I figured Marisa might have been the first +10 Grail unit, but it's been waiting and waiting for her to be part of a weapon update and to see what her newly given sword -- probably Shamshir -- would do. Otherwise, Aversa, Brunnya, or Kronya were at the top of the list for Aether Raids to make it easier or Linus since he was the highest merged Grail unit before I decided to +10 Brunnya on impulse today. Since Plumeria's introduction where thankfully she did show up on her debut banner, Reginn's introduction, and the changes to new mythics that came with Reginn allowing for an additional unit on a team, Astra/Anima season has been less frustrating when it was just Altina and Naga for scoring and hoping that Brunnya and Kronya can do things along with whoever the fifth unit was. CYL Claude's introduction and giving him an Astra Blessing helped as well for a sustain, speed tank and a ranged flier. Why Brunnya over Kronya, especially since I don't have a +10 colorless project? I don't really know and as I noted, this was a +10 on impulse. If I have to come up with things, then Fimbulvetr's penalty neutralization is useful and I like Julia McIlvaine's voice if Echidna was not any indication of that. I can change her Traits, specifically to have her be +Spd, and give her 10 Dragonflowers, but I'm going to hold off for now. For skill inheritance, I don't have spare sources, either enough or at all, of things like Close Foil, Steady Posture 3, Lull Atk/Spd, Lull Atk/Res, Lull Spd/Res, Null C-Disrupt, or Pulse Smoke. The best I can give her would probably be Close Counter, but I only have a spare Takumi who is not the neutral one that I don't recall being used much at all. I think giving Close Counter to Kronya, Nino, or Tharja for a Close Counter, Vantage unit might be a better option over or a higher priority than Brunnya. I'd rather get Close Foil and Lull Atk/Spd 3 from a spare Julian for her since she can use those skills very well while an archer like Norne would be able to get Spendthrift Bow+ and Close Foil from Midori. And CYL Ike has a higher priority for Pulse Smoke over her, but I digress. Probably should at least replace Renewal for Dull Ranged, but that's going to cost 20k feathers and I'm down to 60k as a result of this impulsive +10... Swordbreaker would be fine too against sword units without Null Follow-Up. Anyway, Brunnya at the moment is going to be a stat ball unit for Astra/Anima which is fine for me since I just want to maintain tier +21. The next +10 project is going to take a while; going to need to wait or grind HM for feathers. Who is a good question. For 5* exclusives including the special 4* units, Meisterhardt is the closest followed by Elincia and then Duma, Gunnthra, and Linde. If a +10 Duma happens, he would quadruple as the first +10 armor, first +10 colorless, first +10 dragon, and first +10 mythic if any of those categories aren't fulfilled by someone else. For a non-5* exclusive merge project, aside from the four I mentioned, Aversa, Kronya, Linus, and Marisa, I don't really know. At this point, I should +10 Reinhardt. It feels like such an obligatory thing, but I have yet to do so. TL;DR: Probably should +10 Reinhardt as my seventh +10 unit.

Yes, but I thought about the other option of dumping them immediately instead of what was done in the past. The 4* special is a new thing and it made me think about how in the past the developers did with demoting new units. Originally, you either had a unit demote after a banner or not and they would be a 4* to 5* summonable unit if they did. Only after some time would those units be demoted to 3* to 4* summonable and even then, they could dragged out like with Altena. Then they introduced instant 3* to 4* summonable units in book 3, but they were needlessly gimped by having the previous generation's BST. And we are now at we are told which unit will be the demote and they begin as 4* to 5* summonable units before becoming 3* to 4* summonable that started around book 4. This is also around the time we got seasonal 4* to 5* summonable units. So, that makes me wonder if they will repeat what they did it the past at least for book 3 to CYL3 since the remaining book 2 units probably should be okay being dumped into the 4* special pool or if they will do something different and immediately demote older units into the 4* special pool and possibly also announcing weekly revival banners for them since it would be even more enticing to spend orbs/money on those banners with how easier it would be to get a certain unit.

Which is both terrifying and exciting. If they dump them into the special 4* rate instead of having them exist in limbo for a bit and so they can have a round at being on weekly revivals, then that means along with the CYL3 units who being CYL we know will be part of the September update, units like Caineghis, sword Catria, sweaty F!Corrin, F!Byleth, Hilda, Kaden, Keaton, fallen Mareeta, Nailah, Tibarn, and Velouria will become a bit more common or at least stay as part of a permanent pool. That's a lot of unique or powerful skills and units. The funny thing is it goes to up to book 4 instead up to CYL3, book 3 would account for two Distant Counter units being added permanently through Nailah and Nagi, however, Nagi is post-CYL3.

I get that and it was understandable why they stopped at a certain point with gen 2 considering Kliff, Lewyn, Ophelia, Owain, and Surtr and the three with Duel skills where they offer higher scoring in arena and such as that's when tier 4 and Duel skills started to get rolled out along with Owain introducing the first inheritable new special or those units being more common, guaranteed on weekly banners could spell trouble. For instance, people know a banner with a tier 4 skill will always be around or Lewyn and Ophelia will always be around. I kind of want to include part of book 3 since CYL2 and book 3 were weird in that CYL2 did not start a BST increase, instead, it was chapter 4 of book 3 and even then, it was for a select few of unit types. It wasn't until CYL3 that all new units would have higher BST. But this also opens up a can of worms of would it be okay for Caineghis, Kaden, Keaton, Nailah, and Tibarn to be permanently in the summoning pool as part of the special 4* rate among the remaining book 2 units? CYL units and units like paladin Chrom, flying Nino, green Olwen, Meisterhardt, Sigurd, and so on are part of the special 4* pool where granted the developers had chosen to remove them from new hero banners and decided on what their new weapons or unique refinements were. Still, as Othin said, it will happen eventually. My thing with the Muspell characters, Loki, and Ylgr are that for the most part, they don't offer as much or do some so crazy that they should have been kept in the 5*-only pool and not removed as the other book 2 units were. It's looking back, though. For example, we did not know what weapon refinements would be for certain characters that made some of them that crazy. The other thing is what probably others have said and it's old seasonal units should have had this happen to them. There should have been a special 4* rate or simply demotion and why it didn't is curious. Not many of them offer much, especially the earliest ones like the Nohrian summer weapons being proto-Drives if I recall correctly, so it would end up being summoning for the character which can be a powerful reason for fans or collectors. How strong that drive is I don't know when it has to compete with other banners and the units on them. Whatever, we'll all have to wait and see.

I forgot about this, but Jugdral has the highest amount of demotes with prf weapons, right? Seliph, Reinhardt, Ares, Altena even though they dragged her demotion out, and now Lex. The only other demotes with prfs are regular Eirika, L'Arachel, M!Morgan, Halloween Xane, and Seteth. I might be missing some others. There's also beast units like Mordecai, groom Rafiel, and Reyson, but I don't really count them since beast units up to this point have not had anyone with an inheritable weapon and that likely will hold until forever.

The introduction of tier 4 Duel skills reminded me that Helbindi, Laegjarn, Laevatein, Loki, Surtr, and Ylgr are still in the 5*-only pool because they were never demoted. At least for Surtr you could argue for them staying and Loki was part of the second and last Farfetched heroes, but other than having Duel skills, so better scoring on older units or units with lower BST, they don't really have much that stands out or are super special that they should stay in the 5*-only pool. Especially with the introduction of the 4* special rate and because of the 5* gen 1 and gen 2 removal included CYL units now leading to CYL1 and CYL2 units, specifically CYL Hector and CYL Ike, being a part of the 4* special rate on top of things like Elise, flying Nino with her newly given deal damage shenanigans, green Olwen who is the only cavalry mage with a prf -blade tome, and arguably paladin Chrom, Kinshinoka, Meisterhardt, Rhajat, and Sigurd along with regular Celica, Micaiah, Sonya, and Zelgius to a lesser degree, and Close Counter, Distant Counter, and Firesweep Bow permanently in the summoning pool. Of the Muspell units and Loki and Ylgr, Laevatein and Surtr are probably the strongest where while field buff neutralization is more common, -blade weapons are still powerful and Laevatein is the only melee unit with a -blade prf and Surtr is simply annoying, but not as annoying as more recent armors. Otherwise, you have Helbindi who exists and is outclassed or is matched by the likes of Caellach, Hawkeye, and Mustafa for slow, mixed bulk axe infantry tanks, Laegjarn can be potent against foes with field buffs, but against foes who don't rely on field buffs or use out of combat buffs instead, she's ends up being just another sword flier option which itself is great since we don't really have a fast, high defense sword flier, Loki's Thokk locking ranged foes to 1 movement is nice, but the its range is strict and it's not as annoying as preventing foes from using their assist, and Ylgr who simply exists as the only blue dagger infantry available in the regular summoning pool. Since they were not removed from the 5* pool from new hero banners, they're not even part of Weekly Revival banners which makes them even harder to get. If the developers remember them, then they have a slim chance to be considered as other than for the Duel skills which only Helbindi, Laegjarn, and Loki have, more recent units with the other skills they have like a Chill Atk candidate for a Chill banner would likely be Midori over Laegjarn when Midori also offers Spendthrift Bow, a dual Rally+, and Close Foil to Laegjarn's Bonfire, R Duel Flying, and Distant Guard. Basically, it would be nice to have them be part of the 4* special rate in the future and I would want to +10 Laegjarn because she is cool.

I had this weird feeling they would skip Gaiden/SoV even if they could easily capitalize on damage reduction stuff with the remaining mercenaries, thus, dread fighters, from Gaiden/SoV, but with that game having few remaining non-sword and non-lance characters remaining who aren't also land-locked mages e.g. Jedah, Nuibaba, and Sonya's sisters Marla and Hestia, it would be difficult to sell the banner with rare unit types. The only rare unit types Gaiden/SoV has off the top of my head would be bow cavalry at the moment only leaves Atlas as a non-alt option since Tobin is already in the game and as a sword infantry, healers, flying mages through Harrier alts of Catria, Clair, Est, Faye, Genny, Mae, Mathilda, Palla, Sonya, and even Celica, and possibly two axe units through Atlas having an axe to reference him liking to cut wood despite not actually being able to wield an axe in-game and Brigand Boss. Also, maybe an armor mage with Jedah if they ever consider doing that, but we've been waiting for armor mage gen 2 Arvis who at this point could be a fire legendary. I could also see Marla, Nuibaba, Hestia, and maybe even a non-witch alt of Sonya as flying mages like CYL Micaiah. That is to say, they fly through magic or it's handwaved as a reference to their ability to warp. All of this, I digress since Gaiden/SoV is not the upcoming banner. I will start with I have no idea who Annand is, but Mayo made her look absolutely stunning. As a unit, she's very simple and I kind of want to pick her as the guaranteed 4* after 40 summons even though she doesn't have a prf sword or 3 passives since Azelle and Erinys are in very overpopulated unit types as an infantry red mage and lance flier, respectively. Sword fliers aren't that common and the last sword flier to be introduced into the regular summoning pool was sword Catria. We did get mad Ashnard and summer Fiora thankfully for a tank and as sad as it is, the second-fastest sword flier tying with Caeda who has abysmal base neutral attack. It's a bit better now with the special 4* rate making Elincia a permanent edition to the regular summoning pool, but I do hope a sword flier demote comes our way in the near future. Anyway, Sturdy Impact and Guard Bearing mesh well together and Unbound Blade+ is a fun weapon with its Atk/Def-5 and Atk/Def field buff neutralization effect when not adjacent to allies. I kind of wished that they gave her Galeforce instead and maybe Steady Impact over Sturdy Impact. I really want Annand for the art. Azelle with his Sparking Tome is kind of like a red mage version of Legion. His tome has a HP check, >= 50% HP, for the field buff reversing and only targets Spd/Res, so it cannot be active against the foe at all times if they have a field buff and doesn't target at least Atk if he needs to take a hit, but with how much he can swing Spd/Res in his favor and it inflicting Spd/Res-6 to begin with as part of the HP check, he should be able to one shot foes within that health range if not Desperation blitz them. I find it amusing that they decided for the Fjalar bloodline to be all about debuffing in some way. Lex is the demote and an axe cavalry. It has been so damn long since we had an axe cavalry demote; the last axe cavalry demote was Titania who was introduced to the game on April 26, 2017. It has been almost five fucking years. Unfortunately, judging by his Goddess Axe which is also a fun surprise with him being a demote with a prf is that he's slow, so Titania still is the only axe demote with decent speed. Relatively, since 34 base neutral speed is at best average if not slow nowadays. Furthermore, he's probably going to have low resistance made lower by Goddess Axe's unique stat changes, so Lex is yet another slow, high attack, and high defense axe cavalry. Plegian M!Kris and groom Marth, save us until maybe Kieran I guess. Anyway, Lex completes the Brave weapons cavalry units since before him, axe cavalry did not have anyone with a Brave Axe, regular or prf. Swords had Cain and then Luke and lances have Abel. Goddess Axe is interesting in that it's the first melee Brave weapon to explicitly grant a flat stat boost as the ninja banner only introduced inheritable melee Brave weapons that granted Spd+4 and inflicted Def/Res-4 on top of having 1 more Mt than the regular, inheritable Brave weapons and ninja Lyn & Florina are a flying dagger unit with the same stat changes for Tailwind Shuriken. Ninja Laevatein was the only melee unit with a prf Brave and hers only had the usual Spd-5. The only other comparable units would be Cordelia, Elincia, soiree Ishtar, and Klein who have prf Brave weapons with Spd-2 and for Cordelia, soiree Ishtar, and Klein at the cost of 1 Mt. Those you could technically consider as Spd+3 when compared to the Brave weapons at the time, but times have changed. The greatest issue I have and it seems to have started with Arden is that Brave weapons working on both phases might be considered as normal now and not too powerful back then. This screws over a lot of the older units with Brave prfs; Cherche, Cordelia, Donnel, Elincia, Gordin, soiree Ishtar, Klein, Luke, regular Olwen, and regular and soiree Reinhardt. TL;DR: Lex is much appreciated as an axe demote. Old Brave prfs are not doing so hot when recent ones either Brave on both phases or grant other stat boosts or effects on top of being able to Brave. Lastly, Erinys is like Est who trades effective damage against armors for raw attack and is bound to her support partner for a Brave effect. Catria still has Whitewing Lance's Killer effect to help with Galeforce and special procs, but for pure damage and in the player's hands, Erinys might surpass Est. Est still has the advantage of working as an enemy units, so for defense teams. If it weren't for the color overlap, Lilith would be a fun support partner for Erinys because of her ability to warp to wherever her support partner is. Otherwise, the other units with support partner effects would be great options for her; Clarisse and Leila for Firesweep for them and also swap for Leila, Clive, M!Corrin, and Mathilda for stats, and groom Rafiel and regular and New Year's Velouria for special charging or pulse. I was about to start typing about Dithorba... Are you shitting me? She has a lance in her official art, but in-game, she wields a fucking Silver Sword and her Cipher card shows her with a sword. Fuck me. I would take Dithorba with Silver Sword+, Ardent Sacrifice, Defiant Res 3 as her 5* skill, and Obstruct as her 4* skill over another goddamn lance flier. Her daughter Misha, Juno, Tanith, and Isadora and Kent for that matter better show up as sword fliers and sword cavalry for Isadora and Kent. Add to that a Sword of Begalta Claude alt -- probably his legendary at this point -- and while we're at it, all of the remaining lance fliers who are not heavily associated with a special lance, e.g. Arion and Gungnir, with a sword or axe if possible and within reason and when I mean possible and within reason, pegasus knight Severa with an axe possible and reason when they are introduced to make up for the fact there are so many lance fliers in this freaking game. Oh hey, Farina has a Killer Lance and Javelin in her inventory? Cool, Slaying Edge+ at least. If they can decide to have mercenaries in games where as promoted heroes can wield axes like Dieck, Gerik, Linus, and Raven show up as axe users in Heroes so as to have more non-sword infantry units, then they can have cavaliers and pegasus or wyvern knights show up wielding axes or swords, especially if they are drawn or come with a sword or higher sword rank than lance ran. Moving on from profound disappointment, between Azelle and Erinys, I'm not sure who to pick as the guaranteed summon if Annand doesn't show up. They're both unit types that are common. Probably Azelle because field buff reversing is unique and while they are potent, I don't use supports enough to make great use of Erinys. For instance, Lilith has been sitting around doing nothing nowadays despite how wacky her ability to warp wherever her support partner is.

Askr: Camilla, Clair, Felicia, Laegjarn, Loki, Oboro, Plumeria, and Selena. Except for Laegjarn, Loki, and Plumeria, these characters express wanting to wear or liking the outfits of the Order of Heroes and I think they would probably look good in Askran outfits too. That said, they might look too similar to some of their promoted classes like falcon knights in SoV wearing gold armor and white dresses or tunics is like the gold and white outfits of Askr. Laegjarn has a level up quote proclaiming herself as a general of your army and that made me wonder if she would want to truly be an Askran general, Loki wearing Askran clothing to troll makes sense, and Plumeria's desire to be a hero made me wish for her if and when resplendent or if she ever wins a CYL, for her design to be based on Askr. Embla: Henry, Micaiah, Odin, Ophelia, and Reinhardt. I couldn't think of many characters I would want to see in Emblian outfits. I remembered the black feathers which contrasts with Askran clothing having white feathers, so that made me think of Henry and his affinity with crows. The whole dark clothing I guess lead to Odin and Ophelia being here... I don't know why I listed Micaiah. Reinhardt's here to parallel his sister Olwen. Nifl: Brunnya, Flora, Nephenee, Nils, and Ninian. Similar to Embla, I couldn't think of many characters I would want to see in Nifl clothing. So, the people here were mainly shoehorned for their association with ice; Brunnya has Fimbulvetr, Flora is of the Ice Tribe, and Nils and Ninian are ice dragons and have ice affinities. Nephenee probably would look all right with her hair color complementing the blue-green thing of Nifl. I think that's what bothers me with Nifl and it's the blue. Azura's Nifl outfit using a deeper, darker blue and kanasebench's art style for Nifl Julia work for me, but then you have Caeda and Roy and I don't like their Nifl outfits, especially Roy's. Lyn's is all right where cuboon's softer coloring helps. Múspell: Arvis, Ephraim, Rinkah, and Saizo. They're associated with fire in some way. Surprised Ephraim hasn't gotten a resplendent yet. I guess Bantu, Edelgard, the Flame Emperor, Lilina, Saias, adult Tiki, and CYL or legendary Roy could be added here as well. Hel: the Black Knight, Bramimond, Cherche, the Death Knight, Dimitri, Kronya, Legion, Nemesis. Except for Cherche, I picked these characters thinking they could look really wicked and sinister in Hel forms. Suzuki Rika's Hel Eldigan looks amazing and that might be making me expect too much... The Black Knight, the Death Knight, and Legion wearing helmets or a mask in Legion's case make me think of Lif and how they could have their breath or eye trails which the Death Knight already has would be pretty cool. Kind of Bramimond as well, but they could take it further and have Bramimond's face be a void of darkness. Cherche I figured might find herself being a jelly skelly cute since she has to some, odd tastes in what she finds adorable. With how edgy Hel forms look, I guess Owain/Odin and Ophelia could work here as well. Dökkálfheimr: Aversa, Deirdre, Marisa, and Naesala. Not much to say about here. I couldn't think of many characters who would fit this theme for some reason. Aversa probably and maybe Deirdre for the mysterious, dark fairy vibes. Otherwise, Marisa's just here and Naesala's to pair with a ljósálfr Leanne; he'd be the Freyr to her Freyja except without the whole incest thing. Ljósálfheimr: brainwashed Delthea, Elincia, Genny, Hawkeye, L'Arachel, Leanne, Mae, and Sumia. When regular Delthea was announced for getting a resplendent and it was with as a dökkálfr, I felt like it would be funny if brainwashed Delthea was the opposite as a ljósálfr. Elincia, Genny, and Mae I don't really have a reason for putting them here and Hawkeye's just here for shits and giggles. Imagine it -- a big-ass, half-naked fairy-man with a huge axe. L'Arachel being a ljósálfr makes sense to complete the trio with Eirika and Tana and the fairies in general having flower motifs made me think of Sumia. Niðavellir: Ashnard, Celica, Owain, Titania, and Walhart. Someone drew art of Titania in a mech and it looked cool, so that's why she's here: https://twitter.com/Hakuramen/status/1355981363468402690. With Ashnard, I'm imagining him deforming Rajaion by replacing his flesh with or fusing pieces of Niðavellir technology to further empower him. So, it's not just him riding a dragon mech. For Walhart, instead of riding his usual horse, him riding a red, metal lobster-looking mech would be pretty rad. Celica's just here I guess. Maybe I just want to see her in a bodysuit... Wait a minute... Let's add in Cherche, Marisa, Nephenee, Sonya, Ursula, and... Bartre, Hawkeye, Helbindi, and Surtr. Surprise category: Eir. Eir is associated with Hel, but so far, all the characters from Hel or the three resplendent forms for Eldigan, M!Robin, and Takumi are jelly skellies. Except for Eir herself, nobody has been given clothing that resembles hers. It would be difficult since there is only one character to base it off of and it's not really that remarkable since you can write off Eir's design as gothic and call it a day compared to the other designs. Lyon and kind of Sonya. Lyon's general sadness and the tattered ends of Eir's dress made me think a design based on her would work really well. Something where like Eir, his clothes look dignified, but if you look closely, he isn't taken care of as one would expect from a prince or time and his experiences and struggles have worn down on him which is reflected in his clothes being tattered. Sonya's in a weird spot for me where she's fashionable and stylish or gives off those feels, so I wasn't sure what would look really good for her. In this case, you could draw from her ending and association with witches where clothes based on Eir would be like her living alone and with a more somber look. I guess if you want to be cruel, Tailtiu can be here too. And there's Tharja for let's make her wear a gothic dress.

Ballroom Eldigan comes to mind since he has the highest defense tied with soiree Berkut, but he's easier to merge being a grail unit at the cost of not having a defense superasset or a prf lance if needed unlike soiree Berkut. This is mainly to avoid Mila's Turnwheel Isolation effect from Mila's Turnwheel. In turn, Mila would want it too as Ice Dragon suggested. Otherwise, you can give Fortress Def/Res to any other refresh unit to boost their defense and resistance for drawing Chill effects onto them instead of someone else. Similarly, Fortress Def/Res on support units like M!Corrin, Flayn, CYL Lucina, and so on if you want to draw Chill Def or Res effects instead of attack or speed with L&D. Offensively, I guess a couple of units can use it who have either a defense or resistance check or something similar, but it does come at a cost of 2 attack, makes them more susceptible to Chill Def or Res effects, and depending on if they are mainly enemy phase, Guard with a tier 4 stance or buff neutralization against either melee or ranged units with Close/Distant Def 4. So, Deirdre or Julia with unique refined Divine Naga, CYL Dimitri, Gangrel, Leo, F!Morgan, Myrrh, New Year's Keaton, and New Year's Selkie come to mind. Units with Distant Counter or Close Counter weapons too if they don't already have an A passive or you don't have a tier 4 stance or whatever to give to them. Fury or whatever they have by default probably would be better than Fortress Def/Res.

Resplendent CYL Ike is tempting me to break F2P, but I don't really want resplendent Tana and nobody knows who's coming after her. A free CYL Ike merge and +2 to all his stats... Decisions...

Back-to-back resplendent Ikes would be hilarious. That is to say, legendary Ike, Greil's Devoted Ike, and berserk Ike as the next resplendent units. But really, though, no idea. CYL Lyn feels like it would make sense. They could definitely sell Ares, Celica, regular or flying Nino, Reinhardt, Seliph, Sigurd, Tharja, and maybe Barst, Gordin, Klein, Ishtar, or green Olwen among others. CYL Hector or CYL Edelgard would be cruel. I'm going to say Arden somehow ends up as the next resplendent hero. Gotta get that +2 speed and resistance somehow. Still surprised that they haven't chosen a grail unit yet. It would be tempting for someone to just pay for the pass to get a merge, not have to wait for enough grails, for them. More surprising or unsurprising was that a CYL unit and CYL Ike in particular was chosen for a resplendent before a grail unit.

A talk with some friends who play FEH and CYL made me realize that as many of the characters I like have been introduced into FEH, I have begun to run out of characters I want to vote for CYL. Except for Cherche and Sonya, I usually don't vote for characters who are already in the game for whatever reason and my votes have gone to basically irrelevant characters who probably will never win a CYL unless FEH manages to somehow last several decades. The past two to three CYLs for me have been aside from Cherche and Sonya, Orochi, Ismaire, and Heather. The other characters between CYL I voted for either were added by the time of voting or until the next one. Annette, Cormag, Echidna, Legault, Python, and even an Anna who is not commander Anna. Echidna was the most surprising one, especially compared to Anna, Annette, and Python. Starting with CYL4, I scrambled to find characters to vote for. Last year it was Arete and I think Stefan. I missed two days, so I didn't get to vote for either or someone like Calill, Dart, Geitz, Hapi, Manuela, Neimi, Reina, or Saleh. At least I was able to to give Constance a vote, but by CYL6, the Ashen Wolves and other Three Houses characters probably would have been introduced. Maybe even Orochi, Reina, and Scarlet. Each passing CYL, my reasons for voting a character gets weaker and weaker. I haven't played Radiant Dawn up to the point of where Heather shows up. Yet for some reason, she seems cool to me and that's why I have been voting for her since at least CYL2. Aside from a bit of character I know about them or design, some of it is practicality like why vote for Reina or Scarlet? Because it would be nice to have another bow flier or axe flier, respectively, in the regular summoning pool as otherwise, I never played Fates and have only seen support conversations and some bits of gameplay. And with the usual two, hopes that maybe Cherche and Sonya would get an alt. Cherche & Minerva and Halloween Sonya -- ignoring what witches are like in Gaiden -- seem like such given things, but they have yet to happen. Well, whatever. That is my thoughts on voting during CYL. Related to this is that it made me think about who I actually want from the special 4* pool. As someone who likes getting new units, so as a collector, it's great, but that also means they would be taking up a slot in the barracks and as unfortunate as it is, they are old units where not all of them are particularly great or even average. So, it is fun when Delthea, Hinoka, and Leo show up, but then the questions comes of up of who do I want, who offers something unique, and who do I want to leave as merge project despite whatever skills they offer? TL;DR: I mainly want the CYL units, the last 3 merges for Meisterhardt, Sonya along with a couple of other favorite characters, and flying Nino (true damage shenanigans), green Olwen (cavalry mage with prf -blade tome), and Rhajat (splash damage shenanigans).

Edit: Ignore this. I decided to do 5 more full summons and miraculously, Shamir showed up on the last 20th total summons on this banner and along with another copy of Shinon on the 16th.

It is in the air sometimes with weapon updates, but recent or new units are made to sell, especially legendary and mythic units, so they do get wacky bullshit. That isn't to say a 3*, 4*, or grail unit can't get crazy things like Arden, Arvis, Barst, Legion, Saias, Seliph with Tyrfing, the Whitewing Sisters among others have shown us or Boey surprising us with almost Close Counter or the fun, meme-y Tome of Favors Olivier got. I would also count the simple and effective, they got Lull Atk/Def 3 despite being non-5* units for Berkut and Hawkeye. Not including Eliwood with Blazing Durandal or Seliph with Divine Tyrfing since by luck they were given the ability to wield those weapons. Anyway, with Joshua, his unique refinement is in line with the weapons of Berkut's Dark Royal Spear, the Krises's Blade/Spear of Shadow, Shannan's Balmung, and Sheena's unique refined Crimson Axe. Also, CYL Hector's unique refinement for Maltet, but unique refined Maltet is a monster. The if foe initiates or if foe's HP = 100% effects, grants stats or inflicts stats on foe and does another effect which some of these units get through their unique refinement. Audhulma's unique refinement is the closest to Sheena's unique refined Crimson Axe where it essentially gives the user a tier 4 stance with Joshua getting Spectrum Stance 3 to Sheena's almost since apparently her resistance is not important. So, having Distant Counter is fine since they will be able to get stats, something, from their weapon. With unique refined Audhulma, Joshua's closest comparison would be M!Kris where he trades penalty neutralization for Guard. Whichever is the two is more important is up to the player and they can have both at the cost of something; Joshua can have partial penalty neutralization with a Bond 4, but that comes at dealing with strict positioning and M!Kris can have Guard in return for not using his default Spurn and having to deal with a much stricter condition of >= 80% HP compared to enemy phase or foe's HP is 100%. Joshua is easier to get since he's a grail unit and in terms of raw defenses, he wins with 30/32 base neutral defenses to M!Kris's 30/25 due to Audhulma's Res+5. With their weapon's effects active, Joshua has 1 less defense, but 4 more resistance at 34/37 defenses to M!Kris's effective 35/30 since Blade of Shadow inflicts Atk/Spd/Def/Res-5. Offensively, Joshua's much worse with his 31/35 base neutral offenses to M!Kris's 37/40. Speed in particular. That said, if you invest in him, he should be okay or at least be able to avoid doubles most of the time. I do remember seeing Joshua built with Distant Counter given his balanced defenses through Audhulma. The unique refinement improves on that by giving him a tier 4 Spectrum Stance or Spectrum Stance and Guard. It also kind of works with his default kit of use Windsweep to land a cheap shot and then have Moonbow or an inherited Iceberg or Luna on counter against melee units to which Close Def would cover for him. Weird and not that reliable, but back then he was reliant on his raw stats and anything to boost his speed like Phantom Speed for the Windsweep effect and hitting anyone would charge their special. Now, unique refined Audhulma can make it easier for him to pass Windsweep's check and deal a bit more damage if he hits a melee foe at full HP and then on enemy phase, have Atk/Spd+4 and Def/Res+10 against a melee foe. In both cases, Guard would cover for him so that he doesn't accidentally end up eating a special. Edit: I forgot to edit this into my previous post... Thought that someone else would have posted by now... Yay, idiot moments.

And Meisterhardt was an instant refine. No reason not to pick that up for the still hilariously inexplicable +7 Meisterhardt I have. Initially, I read the unique refinement wrong and thought it said his HP >= 50%. It would have worked with his default Vantage shtick, but there would have been a very narrow range between <= 75% HP and >= 50% HP. Glad I re-read it and it's not his HP, but his foe's. Flying Nino's unique refined Giga Excalibur is simple and effective. Candied Dagger rant that nobody wants to read in spoilers. If Giga Excalibur points to how Karla's Vassal's Blade, Naesala's Raven King Beak, and I guess New Year's Kaden's Refreshed Fang, New Year's Keaton's Resolved Fang, New Year's Lethe's Guardian Fang, and New Year's Selkie's New Foxkit Fang will have their damage dealt equal to the difference of the stat check and up to 7 damage effect improved, then Karla's going to become very dangerous if Vassal's Blade and the others end up going from that effect to deals damage = 20% of unit's X stat. By default, Karla would deal 8 damage from 20% of her 40 base neutral speed. It should have been noted, but that's is like a Moonbow per hit. Vassal's Blade's Killer effect gives her a lot of flexibility where with her default Wrath or Time's Pulse, she can have charged 2 cooldown specials, and with both, she can have charged 3 cooldown specials. That means a lot of damage dealt with Moonbow, Ruptured Sky, default Draconic Aura, or Luna or she can focus on healing with Noontime or Sol. Alternatively, because she is dealing about 8 damage per hit, run a Shield Pulse build even better and forgo having a damage special for damage reduction. We don't have an all-ranges inheritable defensive special and we don't have a Special Spiral version of Shield Pulse which Shield Pulse 4 could do, but the main advantage of a defensive special over stat check damage reduction skills is that it works against Deadeye, Twin Blades, or other effects that disables non-special damage reduction effects. Of course, there is the usual Desperation which becomes stronger since her damage dealt would be more consistent. The scarier thing is that's only considering the base effect -- of it being improved. The unique refinement is still left in the air. For all we know, she could end up with Spurn or just the damage reduction part of it. If so, damage reduction shenanigans would be fun with a Shield Pulse build. She gets damage from the base effect lessening the need for a damage special, she takes reduced damage in general with a speed check damage reduction effect, and Aegis/Pavise and Shield Pulse would cover against Dead Eye or Twin Blades on top of further reducing the damage she takes against the applicable foe to which player phase, Pavise would work against a Close Counter unit since it takes into considering the distance from the unit and not the foe's range.

Old seasonal units getting the "special 4*" or whatever it's called treatment like the gen 1 to gen 2 5* units would be nice. Sure, it would be weird to summon a spring unit during fall or winter, but whatever. Or at least demote them in their season's banner since we're at a point where we have a lot of a season's units, especially summer.

Hell yes! L&D seal. Now, a -Def unmerged Delthea can have 0 Def. A Fury seal feels so close now.

At least she can warm your heart. I wanted a colorless or green pick, but only blue and red orbs showed up. By breath was taken away by spring Narcian... On the bright side, he never showed up before, but on the down side, he is a 4* summonable seasonal unit and he's another lance flier. Should have picked red.

A nasty thought came to mind for an improved Future Vision is that it charges her special. Instant Glimmer/Moonbow/Ruptured Sky or Deadeye/Luna with Time's Pulse and depending on how much the special is charged would be fun to deal with. Problem is that she would need to use Future Vision. The reasoning is that Future Vision makes me think of predicting or having known the past, so she would be prepared or would prepare in advance to change history. Future Vision II: "Unit and target ally swap spaces. Grants Special cooldown count-X and another action to unit. (Additional action granted once per turn only.)" Legendary Ryoma does come before legendary Hector. Forgot about that. Legendary Ryoma has always been weird as a player phase unit in stats with an enemy phase weapon and A passive. Distant Counter weapons being part of weapon updates have still yet to happen and the remix so far indicates skill changes. Until they introduce Guidance 4, the only straight-forward thing for Ryoma would be to have him gain Kestral Stance 3, a good skill, but it's Ryoma with his player phase stats. To stop dragging this out, Bushido II should probably be a unique version of Spurn. That's pretty much it. It's how primarily melee infantry units with high offenses can deal with their average to low defenses. Legendary Ryoma's base neutral speed is only 1 point lower than the slowest units with a speed check damage reduction skill: the Krises, Larcei, and Say'ri. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a speed superasset, but he is a flier and Goad Fliers is easy to come by. Bushido II: "Deals +10 damage when Special triggers. If unit's Spd > foe's Spd, reduces damage from attacks during combat and from area-of-effect Specials (excluding Røkkr area-of-effect Specials) by percentage = difference between stats × 4 (max 40%)." So, Spurn without the HP check and 5 more damage dealt. Could extend this to it having Null Follow-Up, Vantage, heal, or whatever effects if it seems not as substantial compared to Spurn and the fact he'd be a flier with it, a damage reduction skill. Otherwise, I guess they could give him a unique special.

Well, there goes more ignorant moments on me.

I bet they're still going to make the unit only available for a few days because reasons... Edit: It is limited availability. First vote was legendary Leif and assuming I don't miss the remaining days, my ballot should be and in no particular order except for Leif: Legendary Leif. Only ranged unit to have Galeforce and he's cheap to modify; Fury 3 replacing Atk/Res Push 4 if he needs Atk/Res outside < 25% HP or Spd/Def in return for lower Atk/Res and being easier to be hit by Chills if he's the one with the highest of whatever stats, -a breaker, Escape Route for mobility through recoil damage, Vantage, etc. CYL Edelgard. But she's currently available as a free pick! Yes, she is, but if it were possible for her or any of these winners to be permanently available (as a Xenologue reward like vanguard Ike), then everyone would be able to get an armor who can easily circumvent armor movement. It'd be painful to deal with everyone having access to her, but what she offers cannot be understated. It's by coincidence of what the recent PvE maps were, but nowadays I feel like she would have been the better "agreed upon" F2P pick over CYL Dimitri. Flayn. Flying healer who can support by providing damage reduction to allies within 2 spaces. New Year's Peony & Triandra. Duo hero refresh flier with an exclusive dance. Peony's Gentle Dream is just useful. Regular Plumeria. Astra refresh unit. We only have one Astra mythic available to all players as the previous Hero Rises winner Altina was only available for a limited time unlike vanguard Ike or in regards to Aether Raids, the two Light mythics who are story units. Ballroom Sigurd & Deirdre. Currently the only cavalry refresh unit in the game. Pirate Tibarn. Pre-built Galeforce beast flier. The positioning requirements can be finicky, but an out of the box Galeforce unit and one who is a beast flier meaning he can 3 movement when transformed offers a lot of utility. Honorable mentions in no particular order: any of the Anima/Dark mythic heroes of which Bramimond, Hel, Mirabilis, Seiros, Thrasir, and Triandra are my standouts, to a lesser degree, the other Astra/Light mythic heroes who are not story units to which Mila would be very helpful with her ability to grant another turn in Aether Raids and inflict Isolation on units, particularly refresh units, with lower defense than her, any duo/harmonic unit really, refresh units like legendary Azura, Plegian Dorothea & Lene, or New Year's Plumeria who have something unique about them, i.e. being a duo/harmonic unit or an exclusive dance/sing skill, legendary Alm, legendary Celica, legendary F!Corrin, legendary Chrom, legendary Dimitri, legendary Lilina, Halloween F!Grima, couple Micaiah & Sothe, Igrene, Fluorspar Selena, Eleonora or Shamir, and Shinon. I hope that they make the winner available through a Xenologue rather than do what they did with Altina, but I doubt it, especially with how strong or how much recent units offer. Still, even with Altina, it was stingy since there were no story Astra mythics and there were only two Astra mythics including Altina where Naga is really meh to the point where I feel like she should have been included with Fjorm and vanguard Ike for a skill upgrade or whatever you want to call it. Sure, everyone gets Altina, a Brave, Distant Counter, Vantage and an Astra mythic, but it doesn't guarantee people will be able to win during Astra/Anima season to which Thrasir, a green mage, destroys Altina when a player is not careful much less Naga who she has WTA and effective damage against. I consider Eir and especially Peony who is a miracle when you consider they gave us a flying refresh unit like that to be on par or better than Altina in terms of free units and considering Aether Raids. Outside of AR, Reinhardt. This dude destroys so much and has done for hilariously so long that it was arguably a mistake that he was demoted over Olwen. Anyway, my picks along with the honorable mentions primarily consider PvE. People do struggle and want help in addition to being lazy like me. Looking back, not having vanguard Ike would have made things very difficult until later units were released and even then, because he won, he is the only permanent Distant Counter sword infantry everyone has access to and the second Distant Counter unit everyone has access to with the other being Fjorm. And they're still useful or applicable in other modes or means like a free merge, free X or Y skills, or whatever. Regardless, I'm going to be annoyed with my barracks space as usual. Yet another unit I have to keep and if it's one I already have, then I'm doubling up on a unit in reserve for hopefully not limited F2P guides and one who I personally use.

Just waiting for the update to go live. If Meisterhardt's Meisterschwert's refine is at least decent / not crap, then I'm going to refine his stupid sword because him being +7 without a refined prf sword when he can have one feels weird. What the hell was that legendary banner back then... Well, with the summoning change that I don't understand quite well since I didn't watch the FEH Channel, maybe the remaining three merges will show up sooner.

From what the notification post says, I believe this is true. So, all copies of, pre- and post-update, Fjorm and vanguard Ike will have their new skills. The most interesting thing for me is that because of what they chose to do with him, vanguard Ike is the first and only unit to have two skill types of one slot. For Fjorm, Atk/Def Unity builds off of her default Atk/Def Bond while for vanguard Ike, Joint Drive Res is unrelated to Def Tactics. He's the first and only unit you can inherit two different C skills at once.

Ignore this. Had a butter fingers moment on mobile.

Reinhardt became part of a weapon update before Reinhardt. I wonder if he'll get a legendary or even win CYL before he will be part of one. The others are Joshua, Nina, and flying Nino. Meisterschwert and Keaton's Wolfskin Fang for that matter are going to be interesting since they are Arden's Blade at base, but with 1 more Mt because prf Brave Mt inconsistencies even with types taking into consideration. Anyway, Keaton at least has the infantry beast Wo Dao effect and infantry-exclusive or available skills whereas Meisterschwert is just a prf Brave Sword that works on both phases. Later similar weapons ended up with another effect like Meisterbogen has a weird only in human's hands follow-up denial effect, Ragnell-Alondite has Distant Counter, and Arden's Blade has a if Arden's HP is >= 50%, then he gets Atk+4, Def+6, and inflicts Guard on his foe in combat. Not sure what will happen with Meisterschwert. A simple effect would be Lull Atk/Def or Lull Spd/Def and a 2 or 3 spaces wide in-combat buff could reference his high authority in Thracia 776. Otherwise, Null C-Disrupt would be neat as would in the future, Vantage be for Wolfskin Fang and perhaps even one that is immune to Hardy Bearing which I find interesting we have not had a weapon or prf skill with that effect yet. They could do something weird with adaptive damage or him dealing damage based on his foe's resistance to reference him being skilled with magic and swords. Joshua is also going to be interesting since he was until Halloween Xane who doesn't really benefit much from any other stat boost to have a flat +5 to a stat from his weapon. It's probably going to carry over as time has shown us with weapons that had the X+3, but who knows. Downgrading it when refined would be kind of dickish, but replaced or even upgraded could work since it's technically a second effect as Audhulma is a prf Killing Edge with Res+5 as its effects. Then there's Nina and flying Nino. Nina is Nina, one of many, many units who should be at least 4* summon in some way. She doesn't have a it's named / belongs to her now in Fates like other characters, right? Not sure what they would do with her other than play on her default Spd/Res Link and give her the other half or go with Mordecai's debuff effect. Or they could do something wacky and give her a permanent damage reduction negation effect and double down on dealing damage by her dealing damage equal to her own or her foe's defense, resistance, or whatever. Flying Nino is the first unit with the deal up to 7 damage with higher speed or another state to be part of an update, right? The only other two I remember off the top of my head are Karla and Naesala. I figured Hector would have been part of this weapon update. What is even holding them back? They could just slap the increased HP threshold for its QR2 to that of refined Maltet and call it a day. Maybe add the negates his own follow-up attacks if they want to be nice.