Venmi

I'm being cynical. I was thinking they'd go a girl sword over male sword, but Ilyana over Taureneo is much more likely. I guess the more likely would be Lucia over Zihark, which I also really don't want. Yes, I know she's Crimean, not Daein, but they tend to be pretty loose with their themes. I've got a lot more attachment to Zihark than Lucia, so I'm concerned we'll get Meg and Lucia before we ever get him...

That would be a decent Tellius banner for me. I want Zihark badly, and the others are fine. But I'd almost expect Meg over Zihark, because otherwise it would be a single female banner (which I'm fine with, but IS tends to avoid). I vastly prefer Zihark to Meg though, so I'm hoping you'd be right about that Daein banner. However, while Shinon did briefly fight for Daein, he could be saved for a Greil mercenary banner, where we get Boyd. And then it would nice if we got another laguz banner soon that would give me Rafiel and Volug... I'd be a happy camper! I expect Fates or Awakening, since it has been a while since either of them, but Tellius has so many gaps! In case you can't tell, I really want Tellius.

Yeah, at least Jill is way more likely than any of my choices (especially since all of mine are men). I'd be shocked if we didn't see her next banner. So you should be good there at least!

Tanith only has a bride version. Are you perhaps thinking of Sigrun, who has both a bride and a regular?

Good for Three Houses fans! Now I'll cross my fingers that Tellius is next.. Rafiel, Volug, Boyd, and Zihark please! (Yeah, I know, not the most popular missing characters...)

Sorry Morgan! I think I read something about you wanting a non-earth legendary- do you have Fjorm? She's water, just like Leif, so you should have at least one non-Earth legendary. She's not the powerhorse he is, but she has her uses.

I think the fact that we may or may not get an Astra dancer mythic at the end of this book doesn't invalidate the fact that Altina can make AR better now for a huge portion of players like my sister who didn't manage to pull her. That's 6-9 months of more grails for a huge portion of free-to-play players. And we don't have a guarantee of an Astra flyer dancer mythic- neither Thrasir or Lif made it into astra or light, so we don't know about the fairies. So we'll see, but I think the benefits of Altina would be a huge help to the player base at large, rather than turning it away because we might get a flying mythic astra dancer later (that wouldn't be free to play, most likely).

Well, I'm disappointed it's not Micaiah (a potential colorless hero had my hopes up), but it has been a while since Awakening's last legendary and Chrom was an obvious exclusion. Considering it was the game that saved the franchise, he was going to come at some point. Good luck to his fans! That leaves Micaiah and the Judgral lords as some of the only lords without legendaries... Crossing my fingers for Micaiah next!

Legendary infantry Micaiah could be busted too- look at L!Alm and L!Celica, both of whom are amazing. Infantry can certainly be busted as well. That being said... I think a flying healer Micaiah like her brave could very easily stand out from the legendary. A staff that is strong against armor/Calvary (which seems to be her thing in FEH) would be cool- firesweep with effectiveness! Anyway... I'd actually be surprised if we get Tellius, considering Tellius got two mythics last year and has Ike as a legendary. I'd be thrilled if it was Micaiah, but I'd be surprised. And honestly, while I'd be okay with an Elincia legendary, I kind of want Micaiah first since she was the main character of RD (along with Ike) and I like her more... But that's just my opinion. IS will do what IS wants, see Julia before any other Judgral, Ryoma/Azura before Corrin, etc.

I don't know- it might be reasonable to assume they didn't expect this much profit. But it is likely that they want to regain some of the lost profits from the first year, and this is their first real stab at that. We also don't know how much inefficiencies they've acquired since the first year: maybe they hired extra staff for testing, started paying more for art, bought a bigger office, etc., all of which might add up to upper management demanding a return to the higher profit levels to compensate. As others have mentioned, we also don't know how big of a cut Apple or Google Play get. I think I was just thinking a lot about that shop owner and the fact that, as outsiders, we don't know what the financial situation really looks like. That's all I was trying to get at with a really long post. They may also be relying on profit from FEH to fund something else, and the loss of profit is really hurting in that regard. We don't know how much is pure greed (though greed certainly plays a role in it) and how much is necessary. They may be looking at the years ahead and want to safeguard against profits falling further.

(EDIT: This is an insanely long post- sorry. The summary is that business costs can be very complicated and not what you expect, and we don't know what Nintendo's profits are. Also, I'm very partial to small businesses.) Reading the conversations about how much the game can cost to make reminds me that there are so many things we don't know about Nintendo's operating and development costs. I'm the daughter of a small business owner who eventually started his own business that employs only my parents. I've worked in a small business, corporate (one company smaller than 100 people and one with employees in the thousands), academic, and non-profit environment. I've also been a moderator on a internet forum run by a company and worked for an online tutoring center. I've been involved in process improvements, product development, and employee training. Until I worked in those various environments, I had no idea of the costs that go into each of the various companies and how much it costs to run any of them, including the non-profit. Even after working for them, I couldn't accurately tell you how much they cost to run. Without detailed reports to tell us exactly how much art, voice, bug testing, development, planning, advertising, servers, etc. cost, we can't say with any degree of certainty that FEH is cheap to make or run. Some businesses run very efficiently- some don't. It's possible FEH profit is low, or astronomically high. We also don't know how low profits would need to be before Nintendo cuts their losses. One of the companies my dad works with spends a ton of time on development, but will drop a product as soon as they start to see some competition in the area as they no longer consider it worth the cost. That's a multi-billion dollar company, so many people would think they have plenty of surplus income they can afford to waste. A little example: I was at my favorite ice cream shop today. Their ice cream is horribly expensive, but I consider it worth it. When I paid, I said to the owner behind the cashier, "so expensive for so little ice cream, and yet it's so good!" He smiled and told me that he was doing everything he could to keep the price down, but it was so expensive to run his shop that he was stuck with charging these prices. He also mentioned that due to an upcoming minimum wage hike in my area, he would likely have to fire half his workers and raise prices in order to make ends meet. The expensive ice cream has to be that way for his shop to be profitable, and other things, like laws, are making it difficult for his business to survive even with the high prices. (And yes, I am not a fan of minimum wage laws for exactly this reason. It comes from people like him and being the daughter of a small business owner. Big companies can handle it, but small business that are paying their employees all they can can't afford the higher wages and end up with higher operating costs than they can handle.) All I want to say is Nintendo understands their costs much better than we do (and I was thinking about that small business owner today, hence the insanely long post). Someone at Nintendo thought that FEH pass was a good idea, and they are likely wrong. However, that doesn't mean that they could afford to add 100 orbs each month in order to make it more attractive. That may very well lead to a loss, as suddenly dolphins like me would no longer have to spend $39.99 for 77 orbs like I've done in the past, and whales would also be saved money each month. The goal should be to convince dolphins like me to ultimately spend more, not less, as well as enticing my free-to-play sister to buy. It may sound like a loss that Nintendo can recoup because profits are so high, but we don't actually know what those profits are. We don't know how much that would cost them in lost sales. We also don't know how much profits Nintendo considers "good enough" to keep the game running. If it starts operating with a low profit margin, Nintendo could, and possibly very well should, ramp down and stop investing so much before they start losing money each year. Businesses are meant to make money, and if a product isn't successful, they are likely to drop the product. That would likely put employees out of jobs (because not all IS employees would likely be able to move immediately onto a different project in the same company) and cost us a game we enjoy. The goal should be to find a way to entice those who are spending to spend more and/or entice new people to spend money in a way that doesn't alienate the player base. If the player base spend less due to FEH pass, it's not worth it to Nintendo. So as much as I would love 100 orbs for $10, I don't think it would be healthy for the game overall for that to happen. At least, I don't have the information to know it would be, and my gut says it would hurt way more than help. I'd also like to have my ice cream for $0.50, as overpriced ice cream won't last forever and has no resale value. But in order for a business to keep going, they need to make money. And I don't know what it takes for a business, whether an ice cream shop or Nintendo, to make enough profit.

Then I'm glad I got my point across clearly, so thank you for saying that! Now if only IS would take the best for both worlds and flesh out relationships between characters, a lot of people would be happy...

I'm not the person you quoted, but since he was replying to me, I'll throw a bit in here. I only mentioned being a straight woman to emphasize that I am not the target audience, and I get uncomfortable when the romantic attentions are written to be directed to me. Actually, I'd be nearly as uncomfortable with a male character doing it- that's not why I'm playing the game. Just as those who enjoy that are allowed to enjoy it, I'm allowed to be uncomfortable with it. I fully enjoy a well done relationship fleshed out between characters. If that involves a woman scantily dressed and comfortable with her sexuality, that's not an issue for me. If she flirts with male characters, that's fine. I wish FEH was more about interactions between characters, not with me. That's why it being aimed at the self-insert is so frustrating, because I play this game to interact with Tellian characters (who weren't extremely sexualized) and not to be flirted with. To be clear, I'm not generalized or mocking anyone else. I'm explaining what type of fanservice I'd like to see less of. Well, that's my two cents.

I realized sometime within the first year of the game I was not the target audience. I'm a woman in her mid-twenties who is attracted to men more intellectually than physically, and I wanted to play a game that let me use characters I grew to love in the Tellius series as well as get to know some new ones! After playing RD and PoR, I certainly didn't expect to have characters throwing themselves at a self-insert that I had named (and at first, thought could be a woman because nothing said otherwise until we saw closer art). But, eventually, I learned more about Awakening and Fates, and realized that the later FE games did have more of a dating sim aspect I'm not at all interested in. However, I don't mind the designed for fanservice characters that clearly don't appeal to me (I try to not to look at Loki too long, for example...) as long as it isn't pushed on me. That's why Loki and some of the other really sexualized women greatly annoy me. I don't want them throwing themselves at the avatar who represents me. If there was more of a degree of separation between me and the avatar, I'd be a lot happier with the state of fanservice in the game. At the same time, I get a lot of people playing the game don't want that degree of separation. It's just frustrating to me, as a woman, that unlike Fates or Awakening, I can't design a female avatar and get away from sexualized female characters flirting with me. I'd be fine with some sexualized characters flirting with other characters in the game, it just makes me uncomfortable when they are written to be flirting with me. So, in conclusion... my main issue is probably part of the reason others enjoy the game. If the sexualized characters weren't throwing themselves at me, I'd be okay with the fanservice. Which goes to show that as a straight female, I'm not the target audience, despite being a huge Tellius fan. And for a game meant to celebrate the franchise, that is disappointing to me.

Team Nailah here! I've had to clean a couple of friends who led with blues, so I'm up for adding anyone! My id is 7328867494 if anyone wants to add me! I'm leading with a +10 Reyson.

Not surprised! Though, I only wish someone I'd like more than Loki was in the colorless pool... I'd love to pull for Caineghis/Leif merges, but I really don't need another Loki. Guess I'll be waiting for Caineghis to be on another banner to finish him...

I'm happy to see some Tellians in the top 20 on both sides! Three Houses has done very well, but I'm so glad to see a few Tellians hanging in there. Especially since I'm a huge Zelgius fan... I only wish they'd combine his and the Black Knight's votes. And since both Tellian lords have won already, I probably won't be voting for anyone likely to win one of the top four spots any time soon. Now... a couple of votes the Black Knight's way to try to keep him in the top 20 for fun, and then back to my missing Tellian men: Zihark, Rafiel, Volug, and Boyd. I will be very content once they are in! My sister and I are both voting. Weird... all my votes are going to men this year. That wasn't planned! Probably has something to do with Nailah, Mist, and Michiah all being in. The most glaring omissions among my favorite characters are men...

@XRay - thanks for the support advice! I've actually summoned a couple of Kaden's (and a couple of Lucina's, but I think I might save her for another team... still need to build a good tank team for Astra). I think I'll take a closer look at him, and if not him, male Corrin. My Aversa currently has an Astra blessing, so I'll keep her there for now. But Kaden is likely a good choice for my purposes. Also, I'm not sure I can push Caineghis's speed up high enough to keep someone like Alm from doubling him. That's why I tend to worry when I come across Alm teams... I probably need someone else to deal with him.

So, question with an odd caveat... I've been running Caineghis as my tank in light season, and it's the best luck I've had in AR overall. I'd like to improve it if possible, since I know he's not the best he can be. So I'd like to improve my strategy, with a caveat- I only want to spend a ton of resources on Tellius units. So, if the unit is cheap to build up to be useful, great! But it would take quite a bit to convince me to throw a ton of resources into a non-Tellius unit. A typical team: Eir+1: Draw Back, Iceberg, Swift Sparrow, WofM, Sparkling, Res Tactic Eir+1: Reposition, Iceberg, SS, Mystic Boost, Sparkling, Def Tactic Leanne+1 (support with Caineghis): Moonbow, Mirror Stance, WofM, Hone Beasts, Atk Ploy (probably should be a spur or drive) Caineghis+7 (+Res): Pivot, Aether, Distant Def 4, VF, Distant Guard 3, Distant Def 3 Bonus, if reasonable I do have Peony, but her SPD wouldn't be as helpful to Caineghis as Eir's Res. Leanne is my biggest concern- she provides Hone Beasts, yes, but I don't actually use her dance very often. There might be a better choice. I'm also concerned about relying so heavily on visible boosts. But my issue with spurs is I can't have Eirs next to Caineghis, because otherwise he can't transform. That also factors into his support partner choice as well- he can't start the turn next to a non-dragon/non-beast. So... any ideas?

I just purchased the December pack with minimal problems.

I know... Haar got it really bad. I'm hoping for better for Jill, but with this game... Makes sense- you're right about that.

Are you talking about the 5* pool, or the whole pool? Titania and Gunter are still very available. Gunter is... well... Gunter, but Titania is pretty good for her role. Oh, yeah, and Fredrick. Almost forgot about him. That said, yes, that is a pitiful number of axe cavalry. There are a few axe fliers. I never use them, so I nearly forgot about them. Camilla, Cherche, and Beruka. However... yeah, we need more of those units. Badly. The pool badly needs Jill as an axe, not a lance.

Yeah, Ike has been in a lot of voting gauntlets... I'd be fine if IS dropped him from gauntlets for a long, long time. Zelgius also has very impressive muscles, though you can't see them under the armor (though I think the same should be true of Effie?)... Anyway, I would happily support Mordecai if Ike had been dropped. However, as long as he's in the gauntlet, I'll support him.

I'll start with Ike, just because he is one of my all time favorites. He's had a lot of gauntlets though, so if he does lose, it's not that big of a deal. I'll join Mordecai. He's no where close to my favorite Tellius character, but I don't dislike him. Plus, he's Tellius! If they both lose... we'll see.

Yay for Tellius characters! They've been doing decently so far. Though it was sad when two Tellians were against each other, like Ranulf and Soren. I voted Ranulf since I like his character better. I'm especially proud of Sothe and dancing Micaiah for beating characters from a more popular game (Fates), since that could easily have been an uphill battle.