Fire Emblem Heroes General Discussion and Links

[Xenomata]

1 hour ago, SuperNova125 said:

Also when will we get news on the refines? 

We get news on new weapon refines when we get news about the next version update, which usually drops about a day after the Legendary/Mythic Hero announcement if not the same day.

[SockPuppet]

2 hours ago, SuperNova125 said:

Is it possible that we will have another Channel like we had last year any time soon, or doew the previous one diminish the chances of one happening? 

I personally DO expect one around the 4/5th of next month, despite the Frontline channel we just had. If anything, I expect some sort of Halloween celebration again. Daily banners/maps, maybe a Free 5* from the Halloween pool?

Then again, we know what IS love to do to patterns after establishing them for a while 🙂 

[Othin]

We've gotten at least one Halloween celebration, so that fits. 

[Diovani Bressan]

I want for Nowi to be in the next Refinement group, but I kinda expect Effie to be the blue hero. Could be Ninian as well.

For Grails, I think it's Valter's time.

About a possible Feh Channel next month... we have been getting a Feh Channel every 2 months since Book 3 started, so a Channel in October is possible.

[Sunwoo]

I want the chicken to get a weapon refine. Fae's the only dragon whose seasonal form was a dragon with no prf weapon. What is with that???

[SockPuppet]

I expect/want Effie and Fae to get refined. Knight Chrom as the book 2 5*, and I want Joshua as the Grail unit!

[Diovani Bressan]

Resonant Battles not having limited attempts will be nice.

I never needed all attempts to be able to beat it, but now I can try different things without problems 

[Othin]

Between the unlimited attempts and the weaker enemies, it sounds like it'll be boring now. Just a "do you have any Harmonics" check, which is rather frustrating as someone who doesn't have any Harmonics but could already get the max score every week, and enjoyed the challenge of doing so.

Personally, I would have preferred to just raise the attempt limit again.

[NSSKG151]

I don't think any changes they make to Resonant Battles will save the mode for me. The mode was already not fun for me since the optimal strategy for me has always been get to the top and pick off the thieves from there while avoiding the beef gates standing in the way. I feel like the mode only exists just to sell Harmonic Heroes anyways which speaking of which I guess the Halloween banner next week is going to have a Harmonic Hero as well huh since they have been switching back and forth between having a Duo or Harmonic Hero on a seasonal banner.

Seeing Saias getting a refine gives me hope that maybe Marisa will get a prf weapon and refine soon.

[Othin]

12 minutes ago, NSSKG151 said:

I don't think any changes they make to Resonant Battles will save the mode for me. The mode was already not fun for me since the optimal strategy for me has always been get to the top and pick off the thieves from there while avoiding the beef gates standing in the way. I feel like the mode only exists just to sell Harmonic Heroes anyways which speaking of which I guess the Halloween banner next week is going to have a Harmonic Hero as well huh since they have been switching back and forth between having a Duo or Harmonic Hero on a seasonal banner.

Seeing Saias getting a refine gives me hope that maybe Marisa will get a prf weapon and refine soon.

I think Saias was a special case due to having a weapon identical to Arvis's. Grail units have tended to roughly follow release order, with Valter, Arden, Joshua, and Oliver currently remaining as grail units from before Marisa. There could be some variation, but this suggests her refine will probably be around March.

[NSSKG151]

2 hours ago, Othin said:

I think Saias was a special case due to having a weapon identical to Arvis's. Grail units have tended to roughly follow release order, with Valter, Arden, Joshua, and Oliver currently remaining as grail units from before Marisa. There could be some variation, but this suggests her refine will probably be around March.

Could be March, I wasn't really thinking it was going to be this year. They seem to jump all over the place when handing out refines though.

[SockPuppet]

I’m hoping they try and knock out Book 1 units without refines (bar dancers/DC/healers) by the end of the year.

Arya + Fae + Joshua/Valter + 5* from Book 2 in November 

Nowi + The Dire Thunder Duo (unique refines!?) + Arden (slow for a reason!) + 5* from Book 2 in December.

That’ll be most pleasing to me~

Anyway, this upcoming lineUp of divine codes are GREAT! Well, the 5*s anyway. I ADORE both Halloween Niles and Jakob, and this is the first true time I’ve felt they are catering right to me! These two pretty boys will appreciate a merge! Ironically, two of the few armors I’ve invested flowers into.

 

Anyway, the RB change is interesting... lol. I feel like they gave in to the complaints, which is nice to know that The fan base Still DOES have some sort of control and say in the game lol. Indeed though, it’s become clear that the point of the mode is to make sure that to you summon for harmonics rather than develop a good strategy... well, more than usual 😛 

[Diovani Bressan]

23 minutes ago, SockPuppet said:

I’m hoping they try and knock out Book 1 units without refines (bar dancers/DC/healers) by the end of the year.

Arya + Fae + Joshua/Valter + 5* from Book 2 in November 

Nowi + The Dire Thunder Duo (unique refines!?) + Arden (slow for a reason!) + 5* from Book 2 in December.

That’ll be most pleasing to me~

I feel would be Ayra + Dire Thunder duo together since if the duo is with Nowi, would be 3 Blue units in the New Powers Banner.

I honestly dont know if we will have different refinements for Reinhardt and Olwern, since they share the same weapon. Like how Lucina and Chrom got the same refinement because they share weapons.

Olwen's Dire Thunder and Reinhardt's Dire Thunder are the same weapon, they share the same code. Its not a Lucina's Falchion and Marth's Falchion situation, where while they share the same weapon name and base effect  the weapons use different codes.

[Sunwoo]

I feel like at this point, Dire Thunder should get a refine. Looking at all the ridiculous and numerous effects that newer weapons have, it really wouldn't break the game any harder to let Reinhardt have a refine. He can still be countered easier than, like ... either form of Sothis or legendary f!Corrin or things like DC!Larcei. Also, unless they want to put in more effort than normal or something, I expect Reinhardt and Olwen to get the same refine.

Also, DC weapons should REALLY get a refine too. It's not even a fucking contest, they really need it. Having full DC on the weapon isn't really a big thing anymore, and it's especially ridiculous considering that there are characters with 2-4 different effects on their weapon with outright better stats/distributions/base skills ... who can still inherit DC anyway. Ike and Ryoma aren't going to magically make Larcei invalid because they got an additional effect besides DC on their weapon. Larcei still has better stats, better stat distribution, and Ike and Ryoma can't just slap on a skill to replicate Larcei's sword's skills.

[Xenomata]

10 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

I feel like at this point, Dire Thunder should get a refine. Looking at all the ridiculous and numerous effects that newer weapons have, it really wouldn't break the game any harder to let Reinhardt have a refine. He can still be countered easier than, like ... either form of Sothis or legendary f!Corrin or things like DC!Larcei. Also, unless they want to put in more effort than normal or something, I expect Reinhardt and Olwen to get the same refine.

I think the only possibility they could use to give Rein and Olwen different refines unique to their uses would be to give Dire Thunder two different unique refines in which one is clearly meant for each sibling. Something like excessive power for Rein, and a mix of power and speed for Olwen. Outside of specialized builds, no one has any reason to give Rein Spd after all.
At this point, the only thing Reinhardt has going for him as a Brave unit is the fact that he is an easy to afford 2 range Cav unit with a Prf Brave Weapon (available for free from that Heroes Path thing). Even if they gave Dire Thunder a Death Blow refine, he is still only barely matching LegLeif in raw Atk per hit with similar builds, and Leif has the advantage of a 3 cooldown Galeforce. Not to mention other units with similar Atk and Brave weapon builds have more Spd, better defenses, better access to skills, etc etc.

[Sunwoo]

9 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I think the only possibility they could use to give Rein and Olwen different refines unique to their uses would be to give Dire Thunder two different unique refines in which one is clearly meant for each sibling. Something like excessive power for Rein, and a mix of power and speed for Olwen. Outside of specialized builds, no one has any reason to give Rein Spd after all.
At this point, the only thing Reinhardt has going for him as a Brave unit is the fact that he is an easy to afford 2 range Cav unit with a Prf Brave Weapon (available for free from that Heroes Path thing). Even if they gave Dire Thunder a Death Blow refine, he is still only barely matching LegLeif in raw Atk per hit with similar builds, and Leif has the advantage of a 3 cooldown Galeforce. Not to mention other units with similar Atk and Brave weapon builds have more Spd, better defenses, better access to skills, etc etc.

I think as long as he gets a way to increase his attack, Reinhardt doesn't necessarily /mind/ getting a bit more speed. It might help out in a few isolated cases and it wouldn't hurt him either. For example, if Dire Thunder got a swift sparrow refine, or a spd/res lull refine, Reinhardt's just happy to get the extra attack. The speed might not help him, but it doesn't hurt him either.

Reinhardt and Olwen hit resistance unlike most other brave weapon users though, so maybe that's a factor. Although ... Soiree Reinhardt and Ishtar also hit resistance and they both have higher base attack than normal Reinhardt (and Olwen) and the former two can dance so they don't have to be pure combat units, so I suppose that's a bit of a moot point nowadays. Really, Dire Thunder should get a refine.

[Othin]

Yeah, I expect Dire Thunder to get a refine and for it to be the same for both, but something involving Spd so it benefits Olwen more. Could be an Atk/Spd buff or a Spd/Res debuff, but my guess is a buff/debuff to all stats so it's a bit more subtle.

I hope DC weapons get refines eventually, although I'm fine with them holding off until they finish the other Book 1 weapons. I'd certainly love a better Alondite for my +10 BK.

[Xenomata]

44 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

I think as long as he gets a way to increase his attack, Reinhardt doesn't necessarily /mind/ getting a bit more speed. It might help out in a few isolated cases and it wouldn't hurt him either. For example, if Dire Thunder got a swift sparrow refine, or a spd/res lull refine, Reinhardt's just happy to get the extra attack. The speed might not help him, but it doesn't hurt him either.

Reinhardt and Olwen hit resistance unlike most other brave weapon users though, so maybe that's a factor. Although ... Soiree Reinhardt and Ishtar also hit resistance and they both have higher base attack than normal Reinhardt (and Olwen) and the former two can dance so they don't have to be pure combat units, so I suppose that's a bit of a moot point nowadays. Really, Dire Thunder should get a refine.

Perhaps. For what it's worth I always envisioned a -3 Foxtome refine for the two of them to share, maybe with a unit penalty neutralizing effect, that they can both benefit from equally without being an overwhelmingly powerful refine for either.

And honestly? The fact they target Res doesn't feel like enough of a reason to not give them a refine. Maybe back in the day when units mostly had 20 Res on average, but between all the Res-boosting effects we have now, along with numerous sources of Damage reduction% and general Atk penalties, I feel like the stat you target these days matters less and less.
I almost feel like they screwed themselves over by delaying the Dire Thunder refine to post-CYL2 refines. These days refines are powerful and important parts of a units kit unlike the things they were giving the earliest refines (gee thanks Takumi, you can move around a bit better), and you can't argue that the last batch of refines we got (before the CYL refines) certainly put a spring back into the steps of those selected units (did anyone use Legion before he got his refine?)

[Sunwoo]

19 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

And honestly? The fact they target Res doesn't feel like enough of a reason to not give them a refine. Maybe back in the day when units mostly had 20 Res on average, but between all the Res-boosting effects we have now, along with numerous sources of Damage reduction% and general Atk penalties, I feel like the stat you target these days matters less and less.

I mean, I personally agree with you 100%.

But we're talking about IS. They refuse to demote characters like Mist and Luke while releasing all sorts of powersprint characters with ridiculous weapon effects and skills. Who knows what they're thinking.

[Tybrosion]

34 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

(did anyone use Legion before he got his refine?)

You did, or at the very least cared enough about him to get him to +10 before he got his shiny toy.

[Xenomata]

Just now, Tybrosion said:

You did, or at the very least cared enough about him to get him to +10 before he got his shiny toy.

...

touche.

[Othin]

25 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

I mean, I personally agree with you 100%.

But we're talking about IS. They refuse to demote characters like Mist and Luke while releasing all sorts of powersprint characters with ridiculous weapon effects and skills. Who knows what they're thinking.

They refuse to demote characters like Mist and Luke because they want a policy of not demoting any 5* exclusives. They're probably afraid putting demotes from 5* on the table would make people start expecting more, and become less willing to pull for other characters they think might be candidates. Which is, I think, exactly what would happen. So it's a perfectly sensible policy.

It's possible that rather than being a permanent policy, they'll break it at some point, when they feel the benefits of keeping it up no longer outweigh the benefits of having something exciting to offer the players, but they're holding off for now. Sort of like how they held off on introducing trait changes for a long time. I'm sure they had the plans and coding for Trait Fruits figured out for over a year, they just slow-rolled it so they'd get people more willing to pull for traits in the meantime.

[Sunwoo]

5 minutes ago, Othin said:

They refuse to demote characters like Mist and Luke because they want a policy of not demoting any 5* exclusives. They're probably afraid putting demotes from 5* on the table would make people start expecting more, and become less willing to pull for other characters they think might be candidates. Which is, I think, exactly what would happen. So it's a perfectly sensible policy.

Honestly, they could demote a few old 5-star characters with a clear notification that this is a one-time thing. That way, people are not left expecting more when they're otherwise explicitly told it won't be and we could get some of the super shitters out of the 5-star pool, regardless of whether they're only around for revival or otherwise.

I don't think they should demote all 1st year 5-stars if they decide to follow through this policy, but seriously. Characters like Ike, Lucina, Lyn, and a few others have nothing going for them except popularity. Hector and Takumi have good fodder and popularity in their favor. Some of the later characters, like Elincia, still hold up as units too. Meanwhile ... Mist was never good and isn't that popular, Eldigan has been outclassed several times over, and before the revivals even IS barely wanted to give Luke any banners. He's been outclassed and was never popular either. Demoting a few of those really bad-as-units 5-stars who aren't insanely popular would be nice. Despite all being labeled "book 1", Luke and Sigurd are not equivalent.

All this probably comes down to IS not wanting to pick and choose between old 5-stars on who is "good" or who is "bad", but I mean. They want us to spend money on their game. And while some of the changes they've been implementing are good (removing old 5-stars and putting them on revival banners, although not my first choice of solution, is still a solution nonetheless) they've still never addressed the 3-4 pool bloat and in some ways seem to want to take the laziest solution they can. I feel like people would be more willing to spend money on the game if they don't give off the impression of being so cheap.

[Othin]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

Honestly, they could demote a few old 5-star characters with a clear notification that this is a one-time thing. That way, people are not left expecting more when they're otherwise explicitly told it won't be and we could get some of the super shitters out of the 5-star pool, regardless of whether they're only around for revival or otherwise.

I don't think they should demote all 1st year 5-stars if they decide to follow through this policy, but seriously. Characters like Ike, Lucina, Lyn, and a few others have nothing going for them except popularity. Hector and Takumi have good fodder and popularity in their favor. Some of the later characters, like Elincia, still hold up as units too. Meanwhile ... Mist was never good and isn't that popular, Eldigan has been outclassed several times over, and before the revivals even IS barely wanted to give Luke any banners. He's been outclassed and was never popular either. Demoting a few of those really bad-as-units 5-stars who aren't insanely popular would be nice. Despite all being labeled "book 1", Luke and Sigurd are not equivalent.

All this probably comes down to IS not wanting to pick and choose between old 5-stars on who is "good" or who is "bad", but I mean. They want us to spend money on their game. And while some of the changes they've been implementing are good (removing old 5-stars and putting them on revival banners, although not my first choice of solution, is still a solution nonetheless) they've still never addressed the 3-4 pool bloat and in some ways seem to want to take the laziest solution they can. I feel like people would be more willing to spend money on the game if they don't give off the impression of being so cheap.

If they made such an announcement and succeeded in being convincing, I think it would outweigh any good impressions they'd gain from the demotion. A key part of Heroes' business model is offering people hope, both that they'll successfully summon things they want that are already in the game, and that any units or features they want that aren't in the game will get added eventually. They're not interested in crushing that hope if they can avoid it.

What could work is to establish a schedule where new demotes are added so slowly that it would take forever to reach anything they're too concerned about. Similar to how refines and Resplendents are existing mechanics where they pick old units to revise, on a slow, decently predictable schedule. This could be even slower though, say, one demote per month. With 47 Book 1 5* exclusives, even with skipping over some of them, they could easily take 2+ years to even start demoting any Book 2 units, and even longer to reach anything later.

Of course, I'm sure they've considered ideas like that already. They might even have already picked out one to implement in the future, and just don't think they've hit the right time yet. The longer they wait, the longer they can hold off on demoting even the worst of the old units, and the further such a demote schedule would be from reaching units that are recent at the time they implement it.

Bear in mind that IS has people paid to put much more thought into this stuff than either of us do, and they have access to information we don't. Every time they feature a unit on a banner, I'm sure they track not only how many times people pull their color, but also the average spending habits behind those pulls, so they can estimate how much it contributed to orb sales. They certainly care about limiting how cheap they appear - it's the whole reason they even bother to add things like combat manuals and trait fruits. But it's always a matter of trade-off to them: figuring out what benefits they can offer that will let them gain more than they lose, and what's the optimal time to offer those changes so they can space them out as well as possible and avoid cutting off certain potential sales too soon.

[Sunwoo]

Perhaps, yeah. I do imagine that IS has data on this and is more informed on these kinds of things more than just the average player. Honestly, I just really don't have any good will left towards the developers with their various choices.

Sure, trait fruits and removing the limit on RB attempts is something. It's an improvement to the QoL of the game. But for all the good decisions they make, there are still issues that continue to not get addressed and that many new features (like RB itself) only exist so they can get money for the new thing they're trying to push. And the power sprint. And I get that not everything can be fixed or addressed at once, but it really doesn't help that their actions just reek of desperation at times.