New banner: Rite of Shadows

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Still looks cool. Must be the helmet. Also the manly chin.

Double the chin isn't double the manliness...

[maybe]

7 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Double the chin isn't double the manliness...

actually it is

although jesse or atlas probably has the best chin in the game

Edited May 13, 2017 by unique

[Ice Dragon]

7 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Double the chin isn't double the manliness...

Maybe he's got a beer gut (can't tell through that armor), but he certainly doesn't have a double chin.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

Just now, Ice Dragon said:

Maybe he's got a beer gut (can't tell through that armor), but he certainly doesn't have a double chin.

I know, was just making fun of his size again lol.

1 minute ago, unique said:

actually it is

although jesse or atlas probably has the best chin in the game

Atlas' is better maybe. Clive has the worst chin.

[Lord-Zero]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

No one in the arena intentionally runs Savage Blow or area-of-effect special skills unless they don't have the resources to replace it or they're running a gimmicky build.

The primary disadvantages of the Litrowl tomes are the fact that they require strict positioning to be effective, which is not always possible on certain maps and have weaker base stats than their alternatives. The advantages that you are trading these to get are mainly restricted to being able to get +2-6 Spd and not have the special skill cooldown penalty of the Litrblade tomes.

They go for cookie-cutter set-ups which makes them predictable most of the time. With the new defensive tiles and maps, a tight positioning could be more of an advantage in those and those AoE skills could actually see some use as they ignore the tiles' effects. 

 

@ patterns: And that's why I now look down on that kind of thinking as they've been debunked from time to time. The ability for fans to convince themseves on them it's both fascinating and kinda silly at the same time. The most recent examples I've seen would be in the Smash and Dissidia fanbases when trying to predict future characters. As for new characters, at this point in the game, just a new face or a slightly different stat spread isn't going to be enough merit to include certain characters; they need a niche or something new to contribute hence why they seem adding only 4 characters per banner. Let it be a new weapon or some interesting new skill that affects the current meta. All characters, even the most obscure ones have fans so that point is rather moot at this point. Right now, red sword roster is flooded and Saber would have it really difficult for him to stand out. As for Valbar, both his designs are terrible to me so I'm glad those abomination of designs didn't get chibi treatment. The only lance armors I could see making it into FEH would be Hardin, Gatrie and Oswin. 

Edited May 13, 2017 by Lord-Zero

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

They go for cookie-cutter set-ups which makes them predictable most of the time. With the new defensive tiles and maps, a tight positioning could be more of an advantage in those and those AoE skills could actually see some use as they ignore the tiles' effects. 

Savage Blow doesn't deal enough damage to make enough of a difference, especially (1) when compared to the alternatives for that skill slot and (2) considering the fact that it can unintentionally activate an opponent's Vantage or Desperation (2 hits from Savage Blow will activate Vantage 3 and Desperation 3 on any enemy with 56 or fewer HP).

The AoE special skills have the further disadvantage of (1) taking a long time to activate and (2) requiring it to be fully charged before initiating combat to activate. On average, a unit will need to participate in 2 or 3 rounds of combat before the skill can be used, at which point there won't be many enemies left to hit with the effect.

 

9 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

And that's why I now look down on that kind of thinking as they've been debunked from time to time. The ability for fans to convince themseves on them it's both fascinating and kinda silly at the same time. The most recent examples I've seen would be in the Smash and Dissidia fanbases when trying to predict future characters.

Forgive me if I'm being rude, but the tone you've been using when you bring this matter up sounds unnecessarily gloating, and it's been getting worse.

 

11 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

As for new characters, at this point in the game, just a new face or a slightly different stat spread isn't going to be enough merit to include certain characters; they need a niche or something new to contribute hence why they seem adding only 4 characters per banner.

And I don't feel that's the case. This game is first and foremost a crossover game. The arena meta is only a small part of the game and isn't the game's primary focus, and there is absolutely no reason that every new character added to the game needs to contribute something to the arena meta. Based on what I've seen, players seem to be more interested in having their favorite characters appear in the game (e.g. Ike and CYL) and having greater access to game progression (e.g. sources of feathers) than having something new to shake the arena meta.

There are also plenty of possible reasons the game could be only introducing only 4 characters per banner recently and any one of those is just as valid of a guess as yours. One possibility is that they're holding back resources for a larger update, for example, a new pool of 3-star units.

[Cute Chao]

With the amount of characters to add, I don't see how every character they add will be able to bring something new or game changing anyway, personally. They have a huge pool to go from and, as said, each character has its own fans... They can't keep adding the same ones, so eventually ones like Saber and Valbar will be added. It's just when.

I can't imagine Kent or Rhys bringing anything new to the table, but I'm dying to have them in the game. 

[DragoonKain3]

7 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

No one in the arena intentionally runs Savage Blow or area-of-effect special skills unless they don't have the resources to replace it or they're running a gimmicky build.

Just registered to say this, but at least in the +0 echelon of play, Savage Blow is IMO a very underrated skill on the offense. The main star in my team since the siblings banner is a +ATK Julia, which while she has a lot of OHKO prowess with Death blow and +1 ATK seal, she still fails the OHKO on several prominent targets. These include +RES or +HP variants of Takumi, Neutrals Klein/Setsuna/Effie/Cherche, Fury YTiki, and all Neutral green mages except for SCamilla.

As such, what Savage Blow allows me to do is to go for a target that CAN be OHKO'd, which then softens up the next target enough to kill them next turn or in conjunction with my Azura's dance. Most green mages are within Savage Blow range and don't usually pose ORKO threat to Julia, and as such I run bowbreaker to ORKO dangerous bow units on PP which would otherwise destroy Julia with her piss poor SPD and DEF.

While it's true that a portion of these targets can be OHKO'd with just a Hone ATK buff, all it takes is one off-meta build running fury, or being unlucky matched up against merged units (of which +HP and +RES bonuses might be enough to avoid the OHKO) to ruin my deathless streak. As such, Savage Blow is added insurance that dangerous units can be OHKO'd if I can proc savage blow on them (which with its two range isn't really that hard to do).

The biggest disadvantage to Savage Blow is if you're not careful and you turn on Vantage from distant counter units, but that's why I run a second mage that runs desperation. A +SPD Darting Blow Tharja ORKOs all meta distant counter units barring Wary Fighter armors (which don't get to run Vantage, so Savage Blow away), all Effie variants (which with one Savage Blow proc Julia has it covered), and of course, a +SPD fury lobster lord. That one needs a Hone Spd buff from my story bonus unit, and luckily enough I haven't faced a merged +3 SPD version of the lobster yet. :heh:

YMMV, but my Arena runs feels so much smoother running my two mages with Savage Blow than without. I'm not even afraid of defensive tiles because I can go for the ones that can be ORKO'd first then finish these fortified units later. In any case, Savage Blow is IMO an overlooked skill that should intentionally be run in OHKO comps, and by all means it shouldn't be underestimated as a 'gimicky' build.

 

Heck, if I had enough Camillas, I'd run Savage Blow on each unit of my defensive team as well. Goodness knows the AI can't use the buff skills effectively (so many times I've seen an AI Nino run ahead of her support Eirika, and I just LOVE to go against AI <whatever> Emblem defense teams), and players generally kill AI units before threaten skills can come into play in this ORKO meta. So why not run Savage Blow since the AI is ultra aggressive anyway? That repeating 7 damage might add up so that vantage is enough to countersweep the enemy team. XD

[Othin]

4 hours ago, Cute Chao said:

With the amount of characters to add, I don't see how every character they add will be able to bring something new or game changing anyway, personally. They have a huge pool to go from and, as said, each character has its own fans... They can't keep adding the same ones, so eventually ones like Saber and Valbar will be added. It's just when.

I can't imagine Kent or Rhys bringing anything new to the table, but I'm dying to have them in the game. 

Many of the new skills don't have anything to do with anything the characters were originally able to do. Although it's true that there are only so many skills they can make.

I don't think we should expect every character to get added. With each month bringing about 10-15 characters (two banners and two GHBs), that'd take a long time, especially since some of the new characters are duplicates or antagonists rather than all being new playable characters. I guess if they add a bunch of new 3* summons sometime, they could fill in a bunch of less prominent characters quickly and have them have skills that were already available but just restricted to rarer characters? But I recommend against getting hopes up for that, especially since they really don't seem to be taking that route. If we even get more 3* summons sometime, they'll probably be characters already available but currently restricted to higher rarities.

[Ice Dragon]

49 minutes ago, Othin said:

But I recommend against getting hopes up for that, especially since they really don't seem to be taking that route. If we even get more 3* summons sometime, they'll probably be characters already available but currently restricted to higher rarities.

There's literally no evidence in either direction. The game simply hasn't been out long enough to for them to have had a sensible opportunity to do a large character drop. If they're intending to do a large drop of new characters, I'd expect them to wait around 6 months before doing so, and it certainly hasn't been 6 months yet.

[Vince777]

We're much more likely to see several repeats of the popular characters than ever seeing some of the most obscure ones. 

I certainly don't expect to see all my favourites eventually added in.

 

[L9999]

16 minutes ago, Vince777 said:

We're much more likely to see several repeats of the popular characters than ever seeing some of the most obscure ones. 

I certainly don't expect to see all my favourites eventually added in.

 

Then again Reinhardt and Olwen got in this game. Who expected them?

[Vince777]

Nobody but not all obscure characters will get this lucky.

I'll be crossing my fingers for Bastian (perhaps in an Elincia banner with Lucia & Geoffrey?).

Edited May 14, 2017 by Vince777

[Tenzen12]

I think this game is getting me. Today I head dream I rolled 5* Wrys with Wrathful staff.

 

And honestly I want that to be thing...

[Lord-Zero]

16 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Savage Blow doesn't deal enough damage to make enough of a difference, especially (1) when compared to the alternatives for that skill slot and (2) considering the fact that it can unintentionally activate an opponent's Vantage or Desperation (2 hits from Savage Blow will activate Vantage 3 and Desperation 3 on any enemy with 56 or fewer HP).

The AoE special skills have the further disadvantage of (1) taking a long time to activate and (2) requiring it to be fully charged before initiating combat to activate. On average, a unit will need to participate in 2 or 3 rounds of combat before the skill can be used, at which point there won't be many enemies left to hit with the effect.

 

It's enough to prevent stuff like Ragnarok's full HP effect from working and that means that Celica wouldn't get the buffs from it. Same with Lloyd's Regal Blade if the datamine is correct. Blazing Thunder has served me well in the arena so far. They're better suited for the longer defense missions and vertical bridge maps, though. 

16 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Forgive me if I'm being rude, but the tone you've been using when you bring this matter up sounds unnecessarily gloating, and it's been getting worse.

 

My bad. It's just that I've seen this happening so many times that I just find it kind of silly now. I'd rather have no expectations about anything nor get any sort of hype up. 

16 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

And I don't feel that's the case. This game is first and foremost a crossover game. The arena meta is only a small part of the game and isn't the game's primary focus, and there is absolutely no reason that every new character added to the game needs to contribute something to the arena meta. Based on what I've seen, players seem to be more interested in having their favorite characters appear in the game (e.g. Ike and CYL) and having greater access to game progression (e.g. sources of feathers) than having something new to shake the arena meta.

There are also plenty of possible reasons the game could be only introducing only 4 characters per banner recently and any one of those is just as valid of a guess as yours. One possibility is that they're holding back resources for a larger update, for example, a new pool of 3-star units.

The more recent banners kind of disagree with you as each bring at the very least one new skill per newcomer. With how bloated the roster is at the moment, especially for the Red Sword infantry side, each newcomer should contribute at least one new skill. Just a different stat spread isn't going to work at this point especially with Skill Inheritance taking away most of their uniqueness away. If they really want to make people spend money on orbs to pull from new banners, they need more than a certain character's fanbase, they need the casual audience to spend as well and stuff as small as one skill can make that possible rather than, let's say, Sumia just being a tankier Cordeli-wait, Subaki's the tanky Pegasus/Sky Knight, and...we start to run into problems with units being too similar. 

Let's go with the Sumia example: 

Sumia with a slightly different build from Cordelia and no new skills nor new weapon.

- Not many people would be interested in pulling blue orbs for her besides her fans and collectors.

Sumia gets Horseslayer and she's very strong and has good speed. 

- Now she has some sort of niche with that weapon even if you, let's say, plan to give her Horseslayer to Oboro. Now you have more people open to the idea of getting orbs to get that Horseslayer. 

Sumia gets the Horseslayer and a new skill that doubles Hero Merit for her.

- She just became a feather amplifier. People thirsty for feathers will go crazy to pull her. 

Sumia becomes a flying blue mage (Dark Flier) and gets that Hero Merit skill. 

- She's just become far more desirable now. Whale ahoy! 

Yes, it sounds dumb and the example is just plain silly but the power of a single skill can bring quite a lot of people to pull. Just look at Genny now. People weren't really going to pull colorless for "useless healers" but with her "Wrathful Staff" skill tree, now you got people much more open to the idea of spending orbs on colorless to get her. 

A new pool of 3* units is unlikely. If anything, part of the current pool could be rotated with some new units, most likely ones from previous banners such as Karel, Rebecca, Clair, Lukas and so on. 

 

@Cute Chao: Kent: Lancereaver and maybe a new skill. Rhys can get Goad Staves, a new special or something like the Berserk Staff or Sleep Staff. 

 

 

 

 

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

 

Here's the album for datamined artwork of the new banner.

I like Celica's damaged artwork. Genny's looks extremely painful.

[Sentinel07]

Wow....Lloyd's artwork is awful.

He looks like a zombie.

[Vaximillian]

1 minute ago, Sentinel07 said:

He looks like a zombie.

Irony.

[Troykv]

5 minutes ago, Sentinel07 said:

Wow....Lloyd's artwork is awful.

He looks like a zombie.

Well... that is actually right... sort of...

[Ice Dragon]

Celica, Genny, and Mae look amazing. Boey's got a few things going on with the spacing of his eyes, but nothing I can't more or less ignore.

Lloyd's idle is more or less okay (missing the manliness in his stubble, though). He looks too old in his attacking and damaged art. Them wrinkles and the outline of his face has gone a bit soft and round and not hard and square like a manly man.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

Celica, Genny, and Mae look amazing. Boey's got a few things going on with the spacing of his eyes, but nothing I can't more or less ignore.

Lloyd's idle is more or less okay (missing the manliness in his stubble, though). He looks too old in his attacking and damaged art. Them wrinkles and the outline of his face has gone a bit soft and round and not hard and square like a manly man.

For some reason, the way Boey's face looks makes him look like he's made out of clay.

Celica's expression in her damaged artwork is lol.

So do you think Lloyd's artist is Wrys'?

[Ice Dragon]

3 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

For some reason, the way Boey's face looks makes him look like he's made out of clay.

That actually sounds accurate. It's too smooth.

 

5 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

So do you think Lloyd's artist is Wrys'?

Based on the line and shading style, it's a perfect match.

[King Marth 64]

The new chapter that has Rite of Shadows is up right now, the first map is based off from the Graveyard from Novis and Est is in map of Chapter 11 Part 1 as a guest unit as well since she is part of Celica's army in Gaiden and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

All the chapters basically already say out loud what the places are, like Fear Mountain and Nuibaba's Mansion.

[Roflolxp54]

Time to wait for Mkv to find some way to clear the Lunatic quests using free units.