Astellius

I'm at 3,730, and this is no longer a sufficient score, as I'm now below the cutoff. Lots of score inflation! This, however, should be more than adequate to keep me in T20, so I can try again next week, when Fjorm is no longer the bonus unit. I believe in you Laegjarn!

Sure enough, my words to @Vaximillian were true: I finally decided to give my Palla a Slaying Edge+ a couple weeks ago, and, lo, now IS has announced the weapon upgrades for the Whitewings...! Yes, you all can thank me for finally upgrading my Palla's weapon. It was the moment they were waiting for. Here's my Palla in her current glory: But I'm excited for this! I'm hoping the Whitewing weapons are quite good.

I like to lead with the bonus unit if I can, which leave me relying on the color of my allies to knock out the color quests. But, if it's late in the round and they're being uncooperative, I'll switch to the colors I need on non-multiplier hours. We're having the same problem with red over here on Team Laegjarn! We've had sufficient enough VGs by now that people should know better. Of course, it's usually the randos, so it's a bit difficult to communicate with them...

Why must the randos on Team Laegjarn always lead with red? Ugh! So annoying. For the past several matches, I've had to cycle through over 5 resets each just to get non-red randos. I'd like to get my quests done, thanks! At least no one on my FL is doing it.

Thanks! My score is 3,730 right now, we'll see how it goes. It should definitely be enough to stay in T20, but will it be enough for T21 this week? Perhaps. This score range has usually been enough, but it is water season with Fjorm as a bonus hero, so there's going to be a lot of score inflation this week. We'll see if it's enough!

Ah, it's nice to have Laegjarn as a bonus hero again! She scores quite well with her Duel skill in the A-slot, and she's quite a powerful unit. Cherche and Est give her great buffs, and, on maps with defensive tiles, she becomes a nigh invincible physical fortress. I had no difficulty feeding her all of the kills for this run. Here's to hoping that I'll once more climb the ranks to T21 and grab another crown!

I just joined Laegjarn, my favorite OC character from Heroes. Let's go! Anyone who would like to avail themselves of my +10 Est, feel free to send me a friend invite at 8608857766. Just be sure to let me know your IGN so that I know who to accept!

Right now, I'm pretty much just doing the requisite daily & weekly activities, which I find enjoyable, along with whatever else comes along. I usually try to tackle the Abyssal content when it comes out, if I have the time and desire to do it. I completed Ryoma's and Lucina's, but haven't gotten around to Hrid's yet, so it looks like I'll probably need to do that one on a future rotation. As for Aether Raids, I'm not super into the mode, so I mostly just do my two battles a day and go. I think the mode needs some adjustments, and it's not like I could do a whole lot more even if I wanted to, due to the cap on aether. I suppose I could work on my defenses, but I don't care enough for it. As for the Arena, I bounce around between T19-21. I'm F2P, so I'm happy to have cracked T21 a few times. If I have a good bonus unit, I can usually at least stay in T20, perhaps rise to T21. If it's Askr/Fjorm, well, they're just not going to get enough bonus kills. For Arena Assault, my current team of Tiki, Est, Cherche, & Fir (all 5*+10) consistently can get me in the ~5,200 range, which puts me in the 3k-5k bracket. There's no real way to improve my score without promoting some armors, and I just don't care enough about any of the armors in the 3-4* pool to want to raise them up. For long-term projects, I'm just waiting to pull one more Catria in order to complete my set of 5*+10 Whitewings. Est and Palla are already finished, I just need another copy of Catria! I plan to eventually 5*+10 Masked Marth & Reinhardt, but I think I'll do a bit of promoting some units before jumping into another merge project. I'd also like to optimize the skills on some of my units. Other than that, I'm saving up some orbs and hoping for some great new content when Book III comes out.

I don't consider Surtr to be a good villain; I find him to be rather terrible. In my view, Surtr is just another generic, cookie-cutter, mustache-twirling cartoon villain. This is something I've seen a thousand times before, so seeing it again is just yawn. For a point of comparison, I found the stupid tree in the newest Sword Art Online anime to be a more compelling villain than Surtr. Sure, it was essentially nothing more than a huge tree that people in the virtual world spent generations trying to chop down, but at least it was something new. The arc featuring the tree at least had proper narrative progression, even if the situation was pretty dumb. The invincible tree had no character, no backstory, etc., but I thought it managed to do its job as a plot device better than Surtr. Surtr's function was just as a plot device, he's just the stereotypical villain. He's appropriately villainous, therefore detestable, so he works for the plot, but I don't think that's sufficient to make him a good villain; he's just adequate for the job. Really, though, he's the sort of villain the plot deserved, because holy hell has the story been a hot mess. To me, I rather find the stupidity of it all to be the main redeeming factor of the story in Heroes. I find it terribly amusing to think about the fact that, somewhere, a group of people came together, did some thinking and brainstorming, and eventually decided that this all was a good idea and should be implemented. The absurdity of the story also yields a certain amount of meta-enjoyment, as reminiscing upon it just makes me think, "Wtf! Wtf!?"

@mampfoid Nice clear! I liked seeing Elincia be the main crux of the strategy, with proper dancer support. Quality clear!

I agree. It also serves to placate the fans that otherwise would be crying for Binding Blade & Radiant Dawn characters during the release period of Book III. To those fans, they can say, characters are on the way! But the timing of those banners... just wow, it shows they weren't even in the works.

First, Owain & Odin are the same character. Is there anybody actually saying they're not? I don't see that. The source material says they are the same, and I don't see people contravening that. Second, I already stated my position on getting both variants of Owain & Severa, etc. I don't think fans of these characters would have a problem with my position, since I'm perfectly fine with having different forms of the same character get in. Third, it appears you missed the thrust of the argument. You just made up some rules for the Brave Redux banner and then expected suggestions for it to conform to those made-up rules. My point was those rules you suggested had inherent problems, and there's no reason either we or Nintendo should be expected to conform to them. Why couldn't the Brave Redux banner have featured Haar or Charlotte instead of Loki? Why not Severa? Or why not RD Mia, who was #31? Why can't we ask for Selkie? Me neither. Yeah, there were never any strict guidelines for Farfetched Heroes or Brave Redux. They had the liberty to select another character, they just didn't. I think this will be totally offset by the start of Book III, so I doubt they're worried. They probably knew this would be bad -- indeed, it could even be a marketing ploy. They could be prepping the spotlight? At least, I hope that's the case. Get some media attention -- good or bad -- then announce Book III and run the trailer. Of course, I could be wrong, and IS is just off the rails at this point.

These conditions, however, are totally artificial, and the actual banner itself already doesn't even conform to them. Owain was already in the game in the form of Odin. But, even if they had to follow those conditions and we're making an exception for the Owain/Odin situation, I'd have no objection to them going so far down on the list as to reach Haar, Charlotte, or Louise. They'll likely have to do something like that next year, should they want to continue with this type of banner. Or else they might need to include alts of popular characters as well. Really, I also would've been fine with the inclusion of RD Mia, or Severa. I don't see any of this as problematic. Moreover, the inclusion of beast units is long overdue. They've dragged their feet long enough on that one that I don't give them a pass for it. And I rather expect that, if they don't include them by the time CYL3 comes around, the player base will force their hands by rallying around someone like Selkie.

Oh, the ratio is even worse on the Japanese one? That's interesting. It seems like Book II is going to close with a whimper rather than a bang; I hope they get back on track with Book III! As for Loki, she was on the other banner because she scored highly in the CYL polls. That said, they could've just included someone else on the other banner and put her here. This just seems like poor planning. These banners are planned out months in advance, but this one was completely phoned in. It's not like they had to commission anyone to do the art, since these OCs were already in the game.

Terrible banner, and the like/dislike ratio is deserved here. They really mailed this one in, huh? First two unit banner; I hope this is just the exception, a little bit of housecleaning before Book III comes out. We can hope that Book III has a lot of great new stuff. Until then, it looks like snooze time!

I think you mean Rival Domains, not Squad Assault. In any case, I would like for there to be more ways to share your units with friends &c. than are currently implemented in the game. While I don't want sharing implemented for the current content that doesn't already include it (so no sharing for Story Mode or GHBs), I would like to see a new mode that features this. I would also like to see some reforms to the Voting Gauntlet, one of which would be the ability to choose which friend units you get to have on your team. I tend to just get the same 2-3 units for the entirety of a VG round, which gets lame after awhile. Part of the fun of the Voting Gauntlet was getting to play with a variety of different units with different builds, but now I never see that. I would also like a showcase mode where you would select 5 units you wanted to put in your showcase. So these could be projects you're working on or have completed, and your friends could pick and choose some units from the showcase to take into some battles. I suggested something like this for that survey thing they had awhile back. They could establish an incentive structure which rewards you for playing with units from a variety of people, as opposed to simply just fielding the same +10 units from a single friend.

Since I was in throwing distance of the cutoff with my initial score, I decided to give Aversa a blade tome to possibly eke in a few extra kills. My core Arena team has Est and Cherche with Hone & Fortify Fliers respectively, so Aversa had no difficulty laying waste to her foes with gleeful abandon. I think this is the first time I've managed to actually give all kills to the bonus hero. In any case, that netted a score of 3,712. While nowhere near my highest score, it actually looks to be adequate to herald me into T21 a 3rd time. With under 2 hours to go, I'm over 250 slots above the cutoff.

I did like those animations! Too bad they didn't make more. While, sure, it was a let-down to have the animation play only to reveal a 3* Robin or a 4* Camilla, I did like the animations. I felt like they should've played only for the first time you summoned a character with an animation.

Masked Marth and Michalis would be my two top ones. Lucina is one of my favorites in the franchise, and I proudly fly the banner of House Macedon!

I actually really like the art for this banner, and I don't really have a hangup about alts, so the main downside for me is that I spent all my orbs on the Legendary Banner. Still no S. Tana. Oh well! That's just how it goes sometimes. Still, reading through the salt can be amusing... I think we're in the minority here! But, yeah, the art is really nice, although I do think m!Corrin cosplaying as Azura is a bit strange looking. They do look quite nice! I'll probably do what little pulling I can in hopes of grabbing either of those. I agree! I like it when people are unabashed fans of the characters they like, even when the community around them tends not to be so fond of the character. Of course, there's also the benefit of Camilla being an IS favorite, since now she's up to 5 alts. Meanwhile, Minerva and the Whitewings only have Spring Catria as an alt. But, as is the theme in this banner, one can dream! Peri happens to be one of my favorite characters from Fates. I know how that tends to go!

Looks like 3,730, which was my new highest score, won't be enough to push me up into T21 again. There was serious inflation this week due to L. Tiki (and, to a lesser extent, H. Myrrh). I don't care enough to try yet another run to get a higher score, it was enough of a pain running H. Myrrh with all of the L. Tikis around. Oh well, so it goes. I'm definitely not fond of the last scoring changes. Having to feed kills to the bonus unit is a nuisance I would rather not have to deal with. This week, I ran H. Myrrh, and while H. Myrrh is very strong and can straight eat most people, the prevalence of L. Tiki complicated things. I also didn't like the change to the Arena Assault, where one needs to field units with blessings in order to maximize one's score. I've started to care less about it, so I might just stop concerning myself with the blessings and just field whatever. I agree, the Arena is a worse mode now for the changes. Congrats for that fourth crown though! As for AA, I regularly crack 5,200 without any armors whatsoever. I use Tiki, Est, Cherche, and Fir. Nothing says fun like trying to get Alfonse to kill something that isn't green! Especially with all of the Nowis, Corrins, Effies, &c. that dominate the upper tiers of the Arena! I, too, miss just running what I wanted and having my best units destroy the field.

Yeah, I figured that 3,720 marked the cutoff score, given how close it was in the final hours. Sorry to hear that you didn't make it! I could've made it in again 2 weeks ago, but I had assumed I didn't have enough. So it goes. There's definitely a large score creep on Fjorm weeks, as, last week, I had 3,722 but was a fair ways away from making it in. I'm hoping that I'll be okay next week, since I managed to pull a Halloween Myrrh. She's got the BST for it, and it's very easy to feed her kills, especially on defensive tiles. She's just so tanky! I wish I had managed to pull a Legendary Tiki, but, alas, she refused to show up. Maybe I'll have better luck on her next rotation.

My score of 3,720 was just enough to slip back into T21. I must've been just at the cutoff mark, because, several hours prior to close, I was only ~100 spots or so above it. Good to get another crown!

Adult Tiki can be an extremely powerful unit, and she easily ranks as one of the best units in the 3*-4* pool to turn into a 5*+10 unit. The manaketes just tend to be extremely powerful units in general. I usually have Tiki set as my helper unit, so, if you're interested, you can try her out for yourself in Rival Domains. Her ability to tank things shouldn't be underestimated, and she's regularly the most crucial unit in my clears of endgame content like the Abyssal maps. For builds, Tiki invariably wants Quick Riposte, since she is a slow enemy phase unit. The premium build is Steady Breath + QR + Aether, which usually allows her to activate Aether on her second attack if the enemy initiates the battle. She has an exceptional defensive stat, so she'll take minimal damage most of the time from physical assaults, and Aether allows her to heal up on almost every engagement. If you're going to +10 her, it would probably be worth it to try to pull some Steady Breath fodder sometime in the future. Brave Ike shows up on banners often enough. Steady or Sturdy Stance would also be good budget options in the meanwhile. QR can be run either in the B-slot, with the seal going to something like Distant Def, or as the seal, freeing up the B-slot for Guard. I also prefer to run Lightning Breath+ over her personal weapon. The built-in DC is very nice.

This one actually proved to be rather difficult. Since Ursula is blue and starts with her skill charged, my beloved strategy of "Tiki Tanks Everything" was not particularly effective here. So I had to explore other options. I experimented with having some of my mage tanks, like Micaiah and Deirdre, absorb hits from the Ursula and the green cav mage. Eventually, I managed to work something out with Tiki, PA Azura, Genny and Deirdre. I had to give Deirdre Triangle Adept to help her deal with Ursula, which worked out nicely in the end. With Deirdre tanking the cav mages, they were stopped from breaking the wall and storming us, and thus we bought a bit of time to address the threat of the ninja coming down the corridor. For that, Genny's Gravity came in handy there, as it allowed us to slow its advance for a turn. Deirdre was able to tank a second round from the cav mages to the south, killing Ursula in the process, who was the main threat to Tiki. On the third turn, I had Tiki tank and kill the ninja while the others retreated to safety. At this point, I could pretty much just let Tiki tank the rest of the enemies, with some healing from Genny.