Alkaid

I feel a little silly now for putting a light blessing on bride Ninian (since she's on every AR team I make). Her unique ability to buff fliers for +4/4/6/6 by herself has been invaluable for me, but Azura's going to be insane. Only dropping one stat boost, she can buff +4/6/6 or something like that initially then add +6/6/6/6 in addition after the dance? That's gonna be broken good. I like the alt, but powercreep-wise IS has gone nuts.

I like it. Alts don't get my undies twisted like everyone else. Azura looks nice and I hope I can get her. Being a flier dance just makes it even better. I thought I was 100% skipping this banner with the expected Quan and Fjorm on blue(wasn't pulling for Camilla merges with that bad pool), but now I probably pull after all. If I don't get Azura at least Camilla's a great pity breaker for me. Just have to hope I can dodge useless Fjorms.

Yeah, I've got enough trouble getting my usual 1 copy of a legendary I want. Getting more to fodder for a skill is usually not something I want to do, but Cordelia is one of my main units..

Cool. I'm not super into her new costume, but she looks fun and I want at least 2 so I can give Cordelia Duel Blue Fliers.

This is so true it hurts. It took me a full year before I saw my first 4* Kagero, and that was before the demotions even happened. It took almost another year to get enough for +10. It's also been a year since Soleil's release and I'm still at +6 since 3* Seth seems to be the only unit in the red pool. What I want to see is the 4* focus banners come back. Those were great. (I really wish I'd spent more orbs for Soleils off the last one, since I didn't realize the struggle would be this bad)

Lost a unit on one run today since I couldn't field the kind of team I wanted to to make things safer. Putting Eir into every team meant I didn't leave one with Adrift Camilla + Loki together in any, which would have worked best. I didn't feel like spending forever on Christmas day thinking out the map in detail either. In general I'm tired of spending so much time on the mode, so I didn't just use my escape route to try for a different map and I just wanted to be done for the day. I'll be glad when Eir's the bonus unit next week. Right now Eir + Laegjarn(bonus) + dancer + Camilla is basically mandatory for me, leaving just 1 slot left. Laegjarn's not usually doing much other than Ward Fliers support on Camilla, so I can stand to drop her. Not having 2 flexible slots makes my teams a bit worse than last week with no double dancer or blade mage + Loki, etc. setups. I could drop Camilla from one to make room, but 95% of the time I still need her.

Christmas is still a big commercial holiday in Japan, just not the religious side of it. All the Japanese children awake to Intelligent Santa's gift of 1 stamina potion under their tree. And people actually thought IS would change after last Christmas.

Same here. I either do really well or get destroyed instead. I'm hoping for a good lineup with Grima too, since I'm still rolling with a -atk one despite summoning 2.. (It'd be nice to have a decent one to use in AR sometime) I can confirm this works pretty well even with a unit like Camilla. Mixed tanks are just great in this mode with how much overlapping color and damage type situations there are. Even without multiple Eirs or bonus stats she's been doing by far the heaviest lifting in my AR matches. I even had her tank a +10 A.Tiki the other day and shrug it off, then killed a buffed up Hrid right through his red coloring and 47 defense. Flier buffs, wards, goads and Eir's blessing all together are pretty nuts. It's no broken Surtr + 3 Eir setup, but it's still been very effective.

Oo, thanks. I usually know the AI pretty well, but with AR not allowing for mistakes or retries I sometimes doubt myself on reading the AI since I can't afford being wrong.

I'm really surprised, I just got my first defense success in like.. 3 weeks? And it was the first one of the new season, so 80 lift saved by the grace of naga! Somehow my mostly unmerged defense team beat a whale team of 2 Eirs(one +10), +10 Surtr, +10 Rein and +10 S.Micaiah. Seems like he mainly misread the dancer AI pretty badly, but I'll take it. I got to see how my +2 Rein killed his Rein since mine's -hp instead of -spd and Laevatein happened to buff him with Spd Wave, so he quadded. The super Surtr got toasted by Laevatein after Skylivia danced her for +3 across the board too. That was satisfying. It's just one win and doesn't mean I'll get any more this week, but it's been so long since my last one that it felt worth posting about.

Alright, thanks! So I guess I was right, but I really didn't want to end up wrong and ruin that run. Occasionally it feels like the AI pulls some 4D chess moves, so I'm not always sure.

I've got an AI-related question I'm unsure about. It came up while fighting an AR map, and while I ended up winning the map anyway by coming up with another plan it might have been simpler had I been sure of the answer to this. I wanted to bait 3 units with Camilla, and depending on the order they attacked her would dictate whether she survived or lived. I was going to bait: Cav Eirika(Glepnir, Moonbow, Axebreaker and Hone Cav buffs), Ophelia(Blazing Flame charged), and Adrift Azura(would do 0 damage, so her combat didn't matter). Individually, Ophelia's attack would have done 24 damage from her AoE proc, followed by 0 damage from her attack, with Camilla killing her in return. Eirika would have done 16 damage, Camilla retaliates, then 32 with Moonbow, with Camilla retaliating again(QR and higher speed) to kill her and living with 3 hp. Because Ophelia's damage is all from the special proc, if she attacked second then Camilla would live because it'd just reduce her to 1hp and Camilla survives her 0 damage hit and kills her. If she attacked first and did her 24 damage, then Eirika attacking second would have killed Camilla. They both potentially die from the combat with Camilla, so which one attacks first? From what I know of the AI, I assumed Eirika because she dealt more damage, or is the AI smart enough to know that if Ophelia goes first then Eirika following up would get the kill? I ended up not chancing it that map, but it might be nice to know better for the future.

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't get more Lucinas then. At least he's still a real nice unit to have around. (I'd of loved L Lucina merges off that banner too, but didn't have the orbs so I settled with my 1 copy) Perhaps if I get really lucky with defenses.. Maybe the 6 unit defense team will help things a bit, though at the same time maybe I'll start getting smacked trying to fight teams like that too. I appreciate the confidence, though, you're too kind. You just took the week off, so you'd be way ahead of me haha. And same here, I've cleared out a few people gone for 2-3 weeks lately. If you need some replacements later I'd be happy to add you.

@AzurisOh! I didn't realize, so I figured it was an impostor while you were still further up somewhere. Jealous of that +10 Hector. And thanks, good luck to you too! I might do similar to you and just maintain top 3k if tier 20 doesn't seem possible for me yet(which it probably isn't). It's true that some days off from AR would be nice, especially over Christmas. @mampfoid @DarkAlfThanks! Good luck to you guys moving up more too. I guess I'll be investing in the 6th defense slot like everyone else today. It's going to be hard to figure out what to prioritize after that. Maybe the shock trap or panic manor..

Finished with 8,400, so I'm safe even if I get knocked for -80 later today. Didn't use my escape ladder at all even though I upgraded it to level 2. (I wanted the dew to upgrade my fortress and figured why not) Lost 1 unit this week due to mis-tapping my Laegjarn and she got moved into the wrong spot and died to an Ephraim, but no problems otherwise. I even got every single aether pot, which I don't usually do.(minus on the final run since it was pointless) I shouldn't be moving up anymore after this unless the game decides to not give me any defenses all next week. @AzurisI know this can't be you, but I thought it was funny either way. Also posting this, since it's probably the last time it will happen. I'll fall behind with light week starting.

It's gonna be a two person banner.

I'd hope it's heavily influenced by Fates, since everything but the story was very enjoyable. All the new mechanics, the maps, the character designs, etc. were all great while the story was weak. That said, I don't expect much out of IS when it comes to story, as even their best efforts are usually just decent. If I have to pick, I'd still hope that at least the gameplay turns out strong, since Echoes showed me that IS putting story and presentation over gameplay didn't make for as good of an experience. I can overlook a worse story if the gameplay is really good, but not so much the other way around. Either way, I get more of a RD feel from the trailer rather than anything like the 3DS games.

Already taken care of, my friend.

I have hardly any orbs after Ophelia Blazing Light'd my orb stash on the hero fest, so I'm hoping I can skip banners for a while(skipping Christmas, skipping RD beasts and NY is up in the air). However, seasonal Muspell sisters would be sick. Laegjarn and Laevatein in kiminos? Hell yeah I'd pull for that. Probably not for a Fjorm alt, though. She's cute but her design isn't as orb-worthy to me. I wouldn't mind a Fates princess NY either(filling in who's missing after Camilla), since I have a friend who'd kill for an alt of Elise in a kimino. And maybe Hinoka could finally have a seasonal too. Come on IS, you can't ignore her on seasonals forever.

It feels entirely the same to me aside from I'm now gated out of moving up up in tiers and rank soon thanks to not getting more Eirs to score with.

If they're going to be built and then mostly rest on the bench besides TT use, I'd just wait for a banner you also want focus units from. If Armor march and stuff is still worth spending orbs to you too, then go ahead. Otherwise, I'd say wait and let the fodder come as you summon for focus units you want. Plus maybe wait to see what the NY and legendary banners have in case you'd rather summon on those.

I wish I had spare VF for her, since I think I'm gonna do a CC build with her default dagger. I've never really tried owl-effect tanky builds before, and I've already got Kagero for BF armor dagger stuff. She's definitely my favorite of the new Christmas units, so bless IS for making her the free one.

>Vax building a seasonal I thought you were a man of principal! Waifu power cannot be stopped.

Yeah, there's not much on the known horizon for me either(that's why I splurged on the hero fest). I'd kind of like Eirika since she's a new type of unit, but I'll probably wait to see what the NY banner will be. Since it's just some armors and no favorite characters are present, I'm holding off. Had they thrown in a flier on a reindeer or something like I was hoping I would have been dumping all these TT orbs immediately. Mhm. Way too often I get new units and they just end up sitting in the barracks..

I'm surprised to see you're pull on the banner.(since it's armors) Are you just trying to fill in some armor team needs or are you looking for their skill fodder? And thanks! As much as I wanted a flying healer all year, I haven't used my Mia much since getting her. Hopefully having Wrath/Dazzle combo finally being on her feel more useful more often.