zoologicwoo

I haven't kept as careful track of my summoning lately, so some of this I forget what banner I was pulling on or what Heroes I was hoping for; generally nothing in the last month has had anyone that I want to say I particularly loved or couldn't live without, but I haven't been saving either since my luck has been pretty good. I want to say that no banner in the last month has made me complete more than 3 circles without offering at least something; it's been a while since I've had a pity rate that was worth complaining about! Oct 27 (what was I pulling on?) I got in one circle a second merge for AK!Claude (+2, still neutral), a second merge for BMK!Olwen (+2, also neutral haha), and my first ever copy of Gray (!) (+Res -Atk). At some point recently I got another Charlotte (+Spd -Def, good fodder). In the Mythic banner I free-pulled UE!Nailah (+Def -Atk, good fodder tho) then got Mila (!) (+Def -Res). In the Ninja banner I've been pulling on all colors; in the first session I got a 4* DNA!Corrin (!) (+Atk -Def) and SN!Shinon (!) (neutral), and in the fourth session I pulled Kiria (+Def -Spd, fodder) and Sara (!) (+Atk -Res). With no pity rates anywhere atm, it's possible I'll try to save some for Fallen Celica's rerun and for the next New Heroes banner (I'm so excited if that leak is true!).

Nothing else free on IA!Fjorm's banner, but I got another copy of SA!Marianne around my 10th summon. +Atk +5 now! That about wrapped up my interest on the New Heroes banner. Decided to go back to the new Halloween banner, having only gotten Kurthnaga and Robin so far from it. I'd've been fine with just that, but I figure I'd take as many copies of Kurthnaga's Lantern Breath+ as I can get. I'd like to be able to spare one for Ena, Dheginsea, and SM!Myrrh. Well virtually no red choices so far, but I've managed to pull the following without even getting any kind of pity rate so can't complain: Rinkah (+HP -Res, definitely fodder), LoV!Louise (neutral, I could merge her to +4 now but I've kind of lost interest in her character and might could use the A/S Ideal 4), and another FR!M!Robin (+Spd -HP, merged onto my +Atk -HP copy). EDIT: With this Sunday's two free summons I got another Dieck (+HP -Res, fodder for sure) and Elincia (now +2 +Spd)! Idk what's going on.

Ah gotcha, that makes sense. Seeing as these things are the rarest items in the game, for me it only makes sense to use them on the most heavily invested/used units. I've used my first on Leonie since she's +9 merges and +10df as my go-to Firesweep-Poison-Strike-Fatal-Smoke archer. +Atk and +Spd now. The second floret I might save for my first 5*-exclusive +10, who might either be Brave Marianne (+5) or Fallen Celica (+4) by the end of the year hopefully.

I'm curious what would happen if you fixed a flaw with a Floret, then subsequently merged that unit? Would the neutralized flaw become a second asset? Very well written guide btw! Thank you!

Haven't updated in forever, probably forgetting some things. Halloween banner I believe I got up to 4.25-4.50% but managed to grab 5*Kurthnaga (!) (+Res -HP) and 5*FR!Robin (!) (+Atk -HP), who were the two main heroes I was interested in so fine with me! On the Double Heroes banner I had some more weird luck and had to get up to 7.50% before pulling OL!Henriette (I forget the IVs, already foddered her to Bector after enlisting her help in the Abyssal Limited Hero battle), AWP!Catria (+Res -Spd iirc, merged onto my +Atk -Spd copy), and SoJ!L'Arachel (!) (+Spd -Res) in one circle. At some point, I Special summoned 5* Minerva (+Def -Spd), Rhajat (+HP -Atk), and most satisfactorily Zelgius (!) (+HP -Spd). Finally, free summoned IA!Fjorm (!) (+Def -HP). Haven't spent any orbs or tickets here yet so maybe more cool stuff is in the works.

For me Otr is relatively interesting as far as Heroes characters go, but he doesn't seem super desirable from a gameplay perspective. Still, I'm missing Legendary Byleth and have an Atk flaw in need of repair on Legendary Celica, so green seems worth pulling. Blue looks slightly more appealing than colorless since I'm missing Zeke. Looks like the type of banner to try to spend only so far as the first focus who shows up though.

September is just crazy awesome for me for some reason! I've been editing my above post with progress on the 3HDLC banner, but to sum: 8 5* heroes pulled before Sparking Hapi. Never got Yuri or Muspell but I did get decent fodder and 2 new off-focus heroes. The Legendary Remix banner I'm not planning to bother with, but this was purely awesome: EDIT: Pulled more on the 3H DLC since, hey why not when it's been giving me pretty good returns imo. Now at a 4% rate but... 42nd summon: Ayra(!) (+Spd -HP) EDIT: 47th (or 48th? lost count) (and final for sure) summon: tBP!Mareeta (+Atk -Spd). Now puts her at +2, plus a better asset than she had before (+HP). For some reason I thought off-focus 5* heroes only set back the pity rate by 0.5% but my 4% is now cleared completely so guess this is it for the banner for me. Just have to hope for Yuri (and Muspell although not a big fan of his design even though I guess it's kinda funny) in future.

Wooo this might be my first time successfully beating an Abyssal Limited Hero battle. Very EP-oriented, but my Forma Myrrh finally distinguished herself. FS!Tana (+Spd -HP): Prf, Repo, Galeforce, Death Blow 4, S/D Near Trace 3, Atk/Spd Rein 3, Heavy Blade 3 DK!Lyon (neutral +0): Prf, Draw Back, Sol, Mirror Stance 3, NFU 3, Pulse Smoke 3, Quick Riposte 3 SM!Myrrh (neutral +0): Pale Breath+ (+Res), Rally A/S+, Blue Flame, Close Def 4, Crafty Fighter 3, DR Near Save 3, Close Def 3 GG!Lyon (+HP -Res): Prf, --, Iceberg, Mirror Stance 3, Quick Riposte 3, DR Gap 3, Distant Def 3

Managed to summon my first ever copy of GL!Ethlyn (+HP -Def) on her re-run with only 4 orbs! Couldn't ask for better luck than that, and while I'm still missing DD!Sigurd and LP!Quan I'm not particularly bothered about them. Taking my time with the New Heroes banner; I might end up Sparking even though I'd decided against it initially, mostly because this banner's being unusually generous for me combined with the color-sharing and having not had any green show up so far luckily. 2nd summon: WS!Corrin (+Atk -Res) 3rd summon: Constance(!) (+Def -HP); admittedly she was my least favorite 3H DLC character but no complaints! 7th summon: WS!Corrin again lol (+Def -HP); pretty weird I thought. Shouldn't it be pretty unlikely to pull the same off-focus 5* hero basically back-to-back? 12th summon: DE!Hardin (+Atk -Def) Still got 25 summons to go before a Spark, and I still have two tickets to use as soon as I have some more orbs. I'm not totally sure what to do with either WS!Corrin or Hardin. WS!Corrin basically just seems outclassed in the current meta without a refine, and I have no idea if she's theoretically scheduled to receive one anytime soon, so she might just provide A/S Solo 3 fodder, which works out fine since I had really run out of that. Hardin I had summoned and foddered I guess at some point, and I hadn't summoned him again since his refine. Besides his rather unfortunate IVs, I guess he could work decently by absorbing one of the couple copies of Dedue I have lying around--especially since my other 3 Near Save tanks atm are all either red (DD!Idunn and SM!Myrrh) or green (AE!Edelgard)--but it's a shame how un-min-max'd his stats are. EDIT: 17th summon: GV!Lethe(!) (+Res -Spd), bad IVs but always happy to collect a 'new' 5* nevertheless. Ran into green here on this circle, so still got 23 summons to go with just one ticket left. EDIT: 21st summon: TG!Ishtar(!) (+HP -Atk), luckily was able to immediately fix her flaw with the Limited Time manual of her that I had held onto since whenever that was. Sadly I might not be able to Refine her tome for a good while; I've got like 7 or 8 heroes wanting their Refine while I continually have next to no Arena medals. Still, missing the focus units but it's pretty cool to finally grab these old heroes that had strangely eluded me until now. On the downside, starting to run into a lot of green, which is hurting orb optimization. Now 18 summons to go to Spark. EDIT: 24th summon: LotP!Lyn (+Spd -Atk), always nice to have GF fodder. 25th summon: tP!Dimitri (+Atk -Spd), good fodder here too! Worth being pity-broken? Hm probably not but I'm fine with it. 13 summons to go to Spark. EDIT: Sadly nothing else popped up; Sparked for Hapi, who may not be turn out to be the most meta-relevant unit on this banner but was my favorite 3H DLC character. I have a pity-rate of 3.75% now, might summon some more until I break it. Overall I'm satisfied with how this banner went!

Sadly I've got too high of a pity rate on Reginn's banner currently to quit now, plus no need for anymore 3H heroes for either Resonant or Limited Heroes battles. Probably will summon here just long enough to stop with the first focus hero who comes up (and hope that it's Hapi).

Love the attention that's been paid to Sothe this year! He was one of my first completed +10's (and I think actually this is the first Resplendent given of a hero I had already built up) and one of my favorite units to use even before his Refine. The new art is on point too.

I don't know, I had some kind of sense that the Legendary banner was worth pulling some more on. Every time I say I'm quitting a banner and switching to saving orbs, I'm unintentionally lying lol. Didn't get Micaiah, but I did score another Evilgard (+3 +Res now), my first ever copy of Fallen F!Morgan (+HP -Def), and my first ever copy of Ashera (+Spd -HP), each at either 8.50% or 9% rates so I'm satisfied, especially because this new Jugdral banner is by far the most skippable seasonal banner this year for me personally. Free pulled 5* Seliph (+Res -Def) on the TT banner, which is always nice. Now time to save orbs for a while, I swear this time... EDIT: Ok I spent 31 orbs on green and colorless only before managing to pull Scion Larcei (+Res -Def), definitely not bad. NOW I'm saving.

This Legendary banner wouldn't be a terrible place for me to swipe at all colors a few times, since I am still missing both F!Morgans, L!Edelgard, Ingrid, Farina, in addition to Ashera. But with all the effort I've had to expend to get Harmonic Dorothea (got her!) and Pirate Surtr (f this guy), just don't have it right now. Decided to purchase one of the two packs with Young Caeda as a bonus, and with that I was able to get another Fallen Edelgard (now at +2 +Res) at I think 9% rate swiping only colorless. The Pirate banner is FINALLY done for me. Just wasn't ever getting more than 1 blue in any circle and got up to a 6% rate at least, so I reluctantly expanded to swiping reds. Finally pulled Pirate Naesala (+Spd -Res), which despite my Tellius bias he was my least wanted focus of this banner (not a fan of his art here tbh), but he's definitely a great unit and a solid addition to a Radiant line-up that I realized is weaker than I thought (I realized that all of my Tellius stars are in fact from PoR). I kinda wish he was +Atk for Galeforcing, but I shouldn't complain about +Spd... I swear I pulled from this banner so so many times, with AT LEAST 60% of those pulls being blue, and yet Surtr is the only focus unit I didn't get. It just be like that sometimes. At various times also pulled original Micaiah (+Atk +3 now), Innes (+Res +1), and Fallen Dimitri (+Atk), the latter of whom is starting to have the same quality as Valentian Catria as far as tending to be foddered before I retrospectively wish I had initially made a merge project of them simply on the basis of seeming to summon them weirdly often.

Finally finally summoned Plegian Dorothea! +HP -Spd naturally, but just happy I finally have her (she and Leonie and Shamir were my favorite characters in 3H; still missing Shamir but it'll happen eventually), for real. Took a little while: first I got up to 7.50% before summoning Plegian Katarina on a circle without reds (+Def -HP, not super interested in merging her with my +Res -Def copy, but I guess she at least provides AS Solo 4 and AR Rein for when I eventually have a unit that wants both of those); Dorothea showed up only once I'd gotten up to 7.50% again. Up to 4.50% on the new Pirates banner. If I can just pull Surtr once soon, I'll go back to saving/not spending.

Considered a couple different builds for Myrrh but ultimately stuck with what made the most sense to me, and I'm very satisfied after testing her out some with other Sacred Stones characters in different modes! Pale Breath+ (+Res), Rally Atk/Spd+, Blue Flame, Close Def 4, Crafty Fighter 3, DR Near Save. She's also a new hero for me (and the second Forma unit I've purchased, after Fallen Celica earlier this year), and one that I had wanted but missed out on until now, though of course on the other hand this means she has no merges and might never have many unless I have pretty good luck around Halloween. As my third Near Save tank, she does compete (and probably isn't quite as good as) with Duo Idunn and Brave Edelgard, so in future I'll probably aim to prioritize blue or colorless candidates (up to a pretty ridiculous pity rate on P!Surtr's banner rn, still can't get him). Looking over Path of Radiance exclusive characters, it doesn't look promising to me. Jill or Petrine I would grab in a heartbeat but they're not likely. Maaayyybe if Sephiran isn't considered too new for IS, I might consider, but it's a shame how many skills are withheld from Staff users. Who I'd really really love to see is NY!Lethe in a couple months, but who knows.

Oh okay that makes more sense.

I'm a little surprised GamePress ranks Altena as bottom tier. I mean she has obvious weaknesses for sure, but she's relatively easy to build and is a very effective physical wall in my experience, especially being blue. Mine is lv. 40+10 +10df (+Spd) and normally equipped with EGB, Bonfire, Steady Posture 3, QR3, Spd/Def Rein 3, and Steady Posture 2. So on Enemy Phase against non-flying units, she's able to get up to (effective) 64 Atk, 49 Spd and 67 Def without any support. Or 45 Spd and 63 Def with Iote's equipped instead, but still highly useful against primarily physical foes.

Decided to go for another Spark (80 summons) on CYL. Overall not super thrilled with the results--I'm a little disappointed to have not had any 4* Special summons ever since the new wave of heroes joined that pool--but it ended up pretty solid, especially with the pity-rate reset at the last possible moment. Surely now I'll be unable to talk myself into summoning anymore here. (continuing after the first 40 summons, detailed previously) 63rd summon (4.00% rate): Valentian Catria (+Spd -Atk) 74th summon (3.50% rate): Brave Dimitri (+Spd -Def) 77th summon: Brave Marth (!) (+Def -Spd sadly, but I'm just happy to have him since he was the only CYL5 winner I was missing) 80th summon: Brave Marianne (+Atk -Spd, what great timing and asset!) Then I went ahead and Sparked for another Marianne, so now she's at +4 +Atk! Definitely the fastest I've ever built up a 5*-exclusive hero to this extent, although of course being able to summon her twice for free helps a lot lol.

True! I was wondering if Dozla might be able to better handle the rare green nukes that manage to beat my Felix, especially if Pirate Hinoka becomes a frequent threat. The problem for me is if I'm unable to roll Courtly Mask in HoF, since Masquerade Lachesis ended up becoming a casual +10 project and getting some investment with different premium skills before I figured out that her dagger would be valuable for ranged tanks.. @DefyingFates I'll say that for me personally Felix has been one of my most valuable units by far, and obviously his being free from the Grail shop was a big incentive even if there might be more optimal Far Save or Spendthrift tanks. Generally speaking only a select few green nukes have gotten the best of him in AR; the lack of Null C-Disrupt has been an issue at times, but I guess that's a problem any armor is going to have but that Norne wouldn't necessarily. I did consider Dragon Wall; I might end up regretting that I skipped it at least one time I can remember in this HoF. It just seemed when I started trying out a few battle simulations that relatively few (blue) nukes that beat her when she had Close Def 4+Crafty Fighter 3 equipped were unable to do so when she had Bracing 3 and Drgaon Wall instead, while on the other hand the lack of a guaranteed follow-up (unless she gives up bulk for QR seal) stopped her from being able to beat anyone herself.

Is Def/Res Menace worth having on Halloween Myrrh? In the Hall of Forms atm I have these skills equipped: Pale Breath+ (+Res), Rally Atk/Spd+, Blue Flame, Bracing Stance 3, Crafty Fighter 3, and Def/Res Menace. Bracing Stance 3 is definitely a little redundant with Crafty Fighter so I'm hoping to grab Close Def 4 before the event ends, but otherwise I'm not sure if I'd want to make any other changes. But I ask about D/R Menace because, while I'm intending to make her a Near Save tank, I've already got a couple copies of Dedue that I've been saving for future new Near Save candidates, and so I don't mind sacrificing one of them to Myrrh if I can grab a really good C-skill for non-Save purposes. I was also building up Dozla in the first half of HoF, so he's already got a decent Far Save-oriented kit except for Courtly Mask (which has eluded me so far), but I started thinking that Dozla would be a little superfluous for me since 1) I've already built up Felix to +10 with Spendthrift, DD4 and Far Save; and 2) my Sacred Stones roster is already pretty covered with Fallen and Young Lyon as ranged tanks. On the down side, both my Lyons are unmerged with unremarkable IVs, but then so would both Halloween Myrrh or Dozla if chosen.

Jeez does this game drive me crazy sometimes. But turned out all right. Went for all colors, spark at 135 orbs (ended up getting impatient with the Forging Bonds and haven't gotten Eirika's ticket yet, so not totally optimal). Free 5* summon: SA!Marianne [nothing at all for the first few rounds] 20th summon: Flayn (+Spd -Res). 22nd summon: SA!Marianne! (+Res -Def) 33rd summon: F!Kris (+Def -HP). 36th summon: SA!Marianne!! (+HP -Res) 38th summon: Gatekeeper!! (+Def -Spd, awesome!) Sparked for PR!Eirika! So a rocky start but solid second half to this session. I already had a couple each of Flayn and F!Kris, so not the most exciting pity-breakers but still. At this rate I'll very likely make a +10 project out of SA!Marianne (although I clumsily merged the +Res onto the neutral copy just now, smh). It's tempting to try and Spark again for her and pull mainly colorless along the way, but there's also the Double Special Heroes banner right around the corner, both Red heroes of which I'm really hoping for (not sure if those heroes' identities are Spoiler territory)...

Ah, gotcha. I wouldn't have thought free summons were available for that long. I was hoping for a moment that IS was just giving away a CYL3 hero for the heck of it. -- I really don't know yet who I'll summon for free here. I'm a little surprised that, between SF and Twitter, many people seem to hate Marianne's artwork since for me it's one of the surprise factors that has me thinking I'm most likely to choose her, whereas prior to tonight she was the only one of these 4 that I felt sure I would not choose. She does seem to me to be, weirdly, the least impressive gameplay-wise, but being a dancer maybe balances that out. I'm still missing either version of Dorothea, so Marianne would help out in Resonant Battles, but it's probably a moot point since without Harmonic Dorothea any week with 3H being a focus in RB makes attaining/remaining in T21 a lost cause. Marth's skills seem really strong, but his design just isn't super interesting for me, and Marth himself has always seemed kind of bland as a character. Though he would definitely be the star of my rather unimpressive New Mystery roster. Gatekeeper is the only one of these 4 I actually voted for, and his art is fun and cute, but from a gameplay perspective he seems really niche, on top of the fact that my two best tanks are already both from 3H (Near Save Brave Edelgard and Far Save Felix). Eirika then might be who I end up choosing, but having never played Sacred Stones, naturally her character has never really resonated much with me. EDIT: Didn't realize 'til now that Marianne isn't actually a legit dancer. Hmm. That's really disappointing.

I feel the opposite of this personally; while I'm a little underwhelmed by Marth's design, the rest is enjoyably far from any expectations I had. And I actually liked Marianne's art a lot. Between her and Gatekeeper I'm not sure whose art is my favorite. Btw I'm confused about the free summoning event of CYL 3 the Channel referenced. Does anyone know what that was about? Are we getting a free summon of one of those heroes?

I'm confused. Isn't the CYL banner itself supposed to drop in like ~36 hours? So unless the proper banner reveal goes online at the same time as the FEH channel, isn't it too late for the usual gap?

Well, got to 4.25% I think before managing to pull neutral Hinoka+Camilla on a circle with no blue, so I'm gonna hope P!Surtr ends up on a Double Special Heroes banner or something. Still, always appreciate a certified Brave Hector killer who is also a strong addition to my relatively very weak Fates line-up. I did pull a free Laevatein (+Atk -HP) on her Revival this morning -- here's hoping her Refine comes soon and is good! Seems a little strange to think now that this far out from Book 2, just Surtr and now finally Laevatein are the only non-seasonal Book 2 OC's I've ever summoned.