Sacred stones banner

[JHufself]

I'm pretty satisfied with the units they chose to add first, I think they're all fantastic and recognizable picks to players of Sacred Stones. I am however, slightly disappointed in Seth's kit. The big winner here is probably Amelia, who adds Slaying Axe+ and the Armor March skill as a way to buff Killer Axe users and Armor Emblem.

As for me, I've not had much opportunity to stockpile orbs, but I'll be trying for Tana and Innes mostly, especially Innes, seeing as my best archers are Summer Gaius and -Spd Rebecca with their base kits. Here's to hoping their stat spreads complement their skills!

[DodgeDusk]

Definitely going to try and get Innes, maybe Amelia and Tana. All I want from SS now are the facial hair boys, but I'd be content with just Moulder and Gilliam.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Extrasolar said:

Innes with Cancel Affinity sounds like he's meant to be a counter to the M!Robin Blarraven thing. Otherwise it's kinda weird on a colorless unit.

The best candidate for Cancel Affinity is Bride Cordelia. Cancel Affinity is most useful on colorless units because the most common units using Triangle Adept have Litrraven.

[sonicstormer38]

Good to see that they're adding some more Sacred Stones characters, and this seems to be a great selection of units.

Amelia wasn't someone I was expecting to show up so soon, but I really like her voice and artwork, so I'm perfectly fine with her inclusion.  Armor March also looks like it could be a useful skill when paired up with a strong armor unit like Effie.

Seth seems alright.  His skills are not as interesting as the other units in this banner, but ultimately his stats will determine whether he is a good unit or not.

Innes looks great, and I'm really glad he's here, since he was one of my favourites from Sacred Stones.  He appears to have quite a lot of resistance (Iceberg increased his damage by 16 in the trailer, so assuming he wasn't receiving any bonuses from Nidhogg, he's going to have a minimum of 32 resistance when combined with Fortress Resistance), so it seems like he'll be very good at fighting mages.

Tana also looks like an interesting unit.  Vidofnir seems to have a useful effect, and Guidance could potentially be good for helping ally units traverse certain maps.  Her voice wasn't what I was expecting her to sound like, but I'll probably get used to it.

Overall, I'm looking forward to summoning from this banner.  I've got 200 orbs saved up, so hopefully I will be able to get Innes or Tana.

[Hilda]

hmmm

Amelia
Innes
and Tana

have some interesting skills and weapons, but it all depends how restricted the Skill Inheritance is on those skills and weapons. The most intriguing skill is Amelias March for Armored Units and Tanas Guidance. Tanas Guidance could potentially be a metagame changer since it may allow Flier Emblems to have alot more Reach.
Amelias March could potential help Armor Emblems, but for a good Armor Emblem Team you need Distant Counter on all of them so duh.

[MrSmokestack]

21 minutes ago, Hilda said:

Tana's Guidance could potentially be a metagame changer since it may allow Flier Emblems to have alot more Reach.

Guidance only lets armorses and footses move next to Tana, so we don't thinkses so.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Legion!

[shadowofchaos]

Freaking Seth had to be voiced by Rikiya Koyama.

That pretty much solidifies badass regardless of his heroes viability.

Brave Vesperia or Big Bang Mystic Arte anyone?

Edited August 14, 2017 by shadowofchaos

[r_n]

i've been waiting 3000 years for a new armor....bless you feh....thank you for this bounty....

 

 

 

Please don't make her 5* exclusive after the banner ends.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, sonicstormer38 said:

Innes looks great, and I'm really glad he's here, since he was one of my favourites from Sacred Stones.  He appears to have quite a lot of resistance (Iceberg increased his damage by 16 in the trailer, so assuming he wasn't receiving any bonuses from Nidhogg, he's going to have a minimum of 32 resistance when combined with Fortress Resistance), so it seems like he'll be very good at fighting mages.

Just wait until T776's Ronan gets added. His Iceberg is gonna hit like an entire Antarctic Ice Sheet (Glacies would be the entire continent). His non-Iceberg hits? With +Atk, can you say 0x2 on bulky mages? 

 

4 hours ago, DraceEmpressa said:

Or Lyon, a cute,  shy,  teenage boy  with daddy issues who is more about the dark magical boy than Julius and  Takumi ever was. If you're into that trope.

Eirika!Lyon is huggable and great if you're the person who loves to gush out sympathy. Ephraim!Lyon is less a shy purest pity magnet, still very pitiable mind you, and comes off as more of an active player in the fate of Magvel and his own life than Eiri's (though in the end, the DK still tricked him). Eph has the better Lyon if you ask me, but which Lyon will we get in Heroes?

My answer? Either a totally DK-free/lines suggest neither route's version Lyon, or one who has contradictory quips that clearly come from both Lyons.

[silverserpent]

Seth and Innes? My top canditates for Eirika's pairing?! Well...Ephraim will have to do his brotherly duty and keep them off my team :p

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, Hilda said:

have some interesting skills and weapons, but it all depends how restricted the Skill Inheritance is on those skills and weapons. The most intriguing skill is Amelias March for Armored Units and Tanas Guidance. Tanas Guidance could potentially be a metagame changer since it may allow Flier Emblems to have alot more Reach.
Amelias March could potential help Armor Emblems, but for a good Armor Emblem Team you need Distant Counter on all of them so duh.

Guidance is "guidance from the sky" when translated directly from Japanese, which implies that it will be restricted to being taught to flying units. It basically just gives infantry and armor units a Wings of Mercy-like effect when close by (equivalent to +1 movement range for infantry and +2 movement range for armors that ignores difficult terrain when moving towards the Guidance unit).

Armor March makes Brave armors (Death Blow, Wary Fighter) more viable by giving them the ability to actually initiate combat. That said, only Effie, Hector, and Zephiel have the Atk stat to make Brave weapons actually work, though that could be fixed with Goad Armor and Hone Armor. The particular restrictions mean it probably won't be too much of a game-changer, though, since it means you're giving up a buff slot and it only works on the skill holder and armor units in adjacent squares.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Ice Dragon

[Hilda]

1 hour ago, Legion! said:

Guidance only lets armorses and footses move next to Tana, so we don't thinkses so.

Ah, I did overread that! Guess IS put some thought into this to not put Flier Emblems above a Tier of Horse Emblems!

Well this skill has pretty good Synergy with "Hit and Run" and Firesweep Lance +

[silverserpent]

6 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

Now we actually have a Xander for every colour. Hone Xanders when?

XD Thank you. Just for that, any Innes I pull will go on my Arena Defense of Team Xander. 

[Zeo]

@Ice Dragon The clarification of those two C skills just made them a fair bit less appealing. I don't run flyers on non-flyer emblem teams or Armors unless I absolutely have to. Still I'll pull a bit for them.

Seth with a sword is weird I'll admit but I probably wouldn't have pulled just for him either way, I actually tend to give him Vidofnir. Amelia I thought would be a lance infantry but I do actually make her a General in all my playthroughs so this makes sense even if her weapon is weird. Armor March on Hector though... terrifying to think about.

Innes just made my Raven Sophia a lot less valuable... man that's annoying. He seems handy to have though I'm mostly uninterested and almost never used him over Neimi. Tana is cool but will she be more valuable than Hinoka, Brave Lance Est or Cordelia? If the answer is yes then perhaps I'll feed my -ATK Hinoka to her for Hone Flyers.

All that being said, the next SS Banner will likely be magic heavy. Lute, Ewan, Saleh, Artur, Knoll, L'Arachel, Moulder and Natasha.

Lute's pretty much guaranteed and Artur and Moulder aren't gonna happen. Knoll is up in the air as he's the only unit that makes sense as a red mage and L'Arachel is the obvious colorless, doubtful Natasha would be picked over her even if she's Joshua's squeeze. That leaves either Ewan and Saleh and it could go either way. Lute is the obvious blue mage and Knoll is red as he's dark magic. Saleh makes more sense as a green and Ewan seems more like a blue or red so they might go with Saleh.

It's too bad if that's the case though, I want a trainee Mage with stellar stats.

Not liking Ross' chances... I really want him and that Hatchet.

[r_n]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Guidance is "guidance from the sky" when translated directly from Japanese, which implies that it will be restricted to being taught to flying units. It basically just gives infantry and armor units a Wings of Mercy-like effect when close by (equivalent to +1 movement range for infantry and +2 movement range for armors that ignores difficult terrain when moving towards the Guidance unit).

Armor March makes Brave armors (Death Blow, Wary Fighter) more viable by giving them the ability to actually initiate combat. That said, only Effie, Hector, and Zephiel have the Atk stat to make Brave weapons actually work, though that could be fixed with Goad Armor and Hone Armor. The particular restrictions mean it probably won't be too much of a game-changer, though, since it means you're giving up a buff slot and it only works on the skill holder and armor units in adjacent squares.

In fairness, "only" in this specific case applies to half of the armors available. Though who knows, maybe Amelia will get juuust enough attack to make the brave build viable?

Wonder if they'll skip on the trainee bonuses since armors already get bonuses. Have to imagine that even an "average" spread would still be pretty solid just due to extra points unless they all went into HP.

[bethany81707]

9 hours ago, Astolfo! said:

Guidance seems cool, and her weapon is great I guess, but like, I already have 7 blues though. 

Um, hello? You're talking to the queen of pegasus knights here? Me missing Tana is like you missing Oboro?

[Ice Dragon]

48 minutes ago, r_n said:

In fairness, "only" in this specific case applies to half of the armors available.

"Half of the armors available" is still not even a whole team of four, though. At least, not without repeating units.

[r_n]

13 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

"Half of the armors available" is still not even a whole team of four, though. At least, not without repeating units.

Well Amelia could be good, but aside from that I guess my bias is showing. I usually don't throw in 4 all attacking units. Like my Armor team is Zeph, Effie, Wendy, Sheena. And Sheen's useless outside of being a battery, so the other 3 pull the slack. Mostly Zeph & Effie, but Wendy is there to finish up or provide support. I drag a healer around a lot for my horse team, assuming I dont bring a different support like a dancer. Things like that

[Lord-Zero]

Nice to see General Amelia. I'll definitely roll for her. 

As for the others...Innes and Tana come with the Scared Twin weapons of Frelia so that opens the possibility of Joshua getting Audhulma, L'Arachel getting Ivaldi and...pre-possession Lyon getting Gleipnir while Vigarde gets Garm. They seem to be tying royalty to the Sacred Twin weapons so that's why I don't see Duessel using it. If anything, he could end up using the lance he was talking about in his support with Cormag (no, not the Cursed Lance). 

The character choices for this banner seem pretty solid although Seth seems to be the most "disappointing" one of the bunch. 

[Kaden]

3 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

Nice to see General Amelia. I'll definitely roll for her. 

As for the others...Innes and Tana come with the Scared Twin weapons of Frelia so that opens the possibility of Joshua getting Audhulma, L'Arachel getting Ivaldi and...pre-possession Lyon getting Gleipnir while Vigarde gets Garm. They seem to be tying royalty to the Sacred Twin weapons so that's why I don't see Duessel using it. If anything, he could end up using the lance he was talking about in his support with Cormag (no, not the Cursed Lance). 

The character choices for this banner seem pretty solid although Seth seems to be the most "disappointing" one of the bunch. 

The developers have kind of implied that Great Knights would be axe users despite them being implied to be lance users or favoring lances like Frederick and Gunter where both of them have higher lance ranks than axe or sword ranks and Gunter is drawn with a lance in Fates' official art. Frederick's Cipher cards show him using a sword and axe, but Heroes and Warriors have him being an axe user. It kind of makes sense since outside of specific games where cavaliers are split into specific weapon classes, Great Knights tend to be the only cavaliers with access to axes and for the purposes of Heroes and having diverse units, making them axe users would at least solve an issue of too many cavaliers being lance or sword wielders.

Basically, I think Duessel might be an axe cavalier and if he's like how the wiki describes him, he'd also fill in a niche that the current axe cavaliers are missing: a mixed tank. Also, an all-around cavalier in stats since Frederick and Gunter are slow, hard-hitting physical tanks and Titania has average defense, but low HP and high resistance implying she's more of a mage tank. The only problem is that it he wouldn't be able to use his other lance which he probably doesn't considering his dialogue on it which would mean he'd have to use something else. Giving him "Duessel's Axe" would be weird and while cool since none of the axe cavaliers have someone with a legendary weapon, Garm might not make sense if they go with only royals having them.

Vigarde being an axe knight would be really good. Even though the 3* and 4* rates were swapped and training tower can be re-rolled, there's no guarantees people can get an axe knight which could make axe knights like Garon, Murdock, and knights made axe users like a Garm-wielding Vigarde be really useful just to have. All of them would have personal weapons... Yeah, GHBs of them would be much appreciated.

The weird thing is that Jehanna also has Excalibur as a Sacred Twins weapon. I didn't get far in Sacred Stones, but is there anyone who could even wield Excalibur and be considered Jehanna royalty? Otherwise, it'd have to be someone like Ewan or Lute and that would be a bit weird.

Also, if L'Arachel ends up being a healer instead of mounted mage, she could be the first healer with a legendary staff through Latona.

[Sentinel07]

19 minutes ago, Kaden said:

The developers have kind of implied that Great Knights would be axe users despite them being implied to be lance users or favoring lances like Frederick and Gunter where both of them have higher lance ranks than axe or sword ranks and Gunter is drawn with a lance in Fates' official art. Frederick's Cipher cards show him using a sword and axe, but Heroes and Warriors have him being an axe user. It kind of makes sense since outside of specific games where cavaliers are split into specific weapon classes, Great Knights tend to be the only cavaliers with access to axes and for the purposes of Heroes and having diverse units, making them axe users would at least solve an issue of too many cavaliers being lance or sword wielders.

Basically, I think Duessel might be an axe cavalier and if he's like how the wiki describes him, he'd also fill in a niche that the current axe cavaliers are missing: a mixed tank. Also, an all-around cavalier in stats since Frederick and Gunter are slow, hard-hitting physical tanks and Titania has average defense, but low HP and high resistance implying she's more of a mage tank. The only problem is that it he wouldn't be able to use his other lance which he probably doesn't considering his dialogue on it which would mean he'd have to use something else. Giving him "Duessel's Axe" would be weird and while cool since none of the axe cavaliers have someone with a legendary weapon, Garm might not make sense if they go with only royals having them.

Vigarde being an axe knight would be really good. Even though the 3* and 4* rates were swapped and training tower can be re-rolled, there's no guarantees people can get an axe knight which could make axe knights like Garon, Murdock, and knights made axe users like a Garm-wielding Vigarde be really useful just to have. All of them would have personal weapons... Yeah, GHBs of them would be much appreciated.

The weird thing is that Jehanna also has Excalibur as a Sacred Twins weapon. I didn't get far in Sacred Stones, but is there anyone who could even wield Excalibur and be considered Jehanna royalty? Otherwise, it'd have to be someone like Ewan or Lute and that would be a bit weird.

Also, if L'Arachel ends up being a healer instead of mounted mage, she could be the first healer with a legendary staff through Latona.

They've only been giving Legendary weapons to characters that have some relation with them canonically, like how Jeorge is actually given Parthia even though it's a weapon anyone can use. And yet we have both Raigh and Sophia in the game but neither have Apocalypse despite how either of them can wield it in Binding Blade.

So yeah, with the fact that Excalibur doesn't really have a story connection with any character, it might be left out.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Sentinel07

[Lord-Zero]

@KadenWell...they could always make Ismaire into a magic user and have her use Excalibur but IS seems intent on keeping that tome exclusive to Merric. 

As for Duessel, despite the whole Great Knight thing, his supports keep pointing to lances as his weapon of choice. 

@ L'Arachel: Well...the developers can do a few things:

- Give Ivaldi to Riev and give Latona to L'Arachel

- Give Ivaldi to L'Arachel and give Latona to Mansel

- Give Latona to L'Arachel and give Ivaldi to Mansel

- Give either one to L'Arachel and the other one is skipped

L'Arachel would definitely be better received if she was a green mage cav but only time will tell. 

@ApocalypseThey're probably saving Apocalypse for Bramimond since he was the original user. Same with Athos and Forblaze. I doubt they'd give Apocalypse to Niime. 

Edited August 15, 2017 by Lord-Zero

[Othin]

I think it'd be strange to just leave out Excalibur if they're willing to add the others. Although they could just do the physical ones, since those are the cleaner fits. Joshua with Audhulma is nice and clear, while Duessel isn't royalty but he's still such a big deal in Grado that it would fit well. But from there. it gets messier. Like sure L'arachel could have Ivaldi and people would be happy with her being a mage but her being a healer would be much more consistent with how they've handled previous characters. Knoll fits Glepnir about as well as Duessel with Garm I guess, but it still kind of feels like just a matter of him being The Dark Mage. And I don't think they'd include Latona at all.

Vigarde could also have Garm, for that matter.

7 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

@KadenWell...they could always make Ismaire into a magic user and have her use Excalibur but IS seems intent on keeping that tome exclusive to Merric. 

As for Duessel, despite the whole Great Knight thing, his supports keep pointing to lances as his weapon of choice. 

@ L'Arachel: Well...the developers can do a few things:

- Give Ivaldi to Riev and give Latona to L'Arachel

- Give Ivaldi to L'Arachel and give Latona to Mansel

- Give Latona to L'Arachel and give Ivaldi to Mansel

L'Arachel would definitely be better received if she was a green mage cav but only time will tell. 

With Sonya and Delthea getting "Dark Excalibur" and "Dark Aura" (or "Echoes" in JP), I don't think differentiating FE8 Excalibur would be too much of an issue. They could just call it Sacred Excalibur or something. But finding a user would be an issue, and Ismare could be a bit of a stretch. She seems like fairly low priority to include, and she primarily uses swords, despite having the Wind Sword.

[Kaden]

34 minutes ago, Sentinel07 said:

They've only been giving Legendary weapons to characters that have some relation with them canonically, like how Jeorge is actually given Parthia even though it's a weapon anyone can use. And yet we have both Raigh and Sophia in the game but neither have Apocalypse despite how either of them can wield it in Binding Blade.

So yeah, with the fact that Excalibur doesn't really have a story connection with any character, it might be left out.

Part of me thought of a seasonal Joshua who could show up in some fanservice-y way where he uses Excalibur, but then...

27 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

@KadenWell...they could always make Ismaire into a magic user and have her use Excalibur but IS seems intent on keeping that tome exclusive to Merric.

Yeah, this thought popped up of Ismaire being a GHB unit or something who has Excalibur after checking her page since apparently she has a Wind Sword and she has a Wind Affinity, so they could stretch it and say she's also proficient in magic which could make sense since apparently she is a guild master of Jehanna's mercenary guilds and being an unparalleled swordswoman and mage would be very fitting. Still, myrmidon Ismaire would be cool, but perhaps she should use Excalibur while her son uses Audhulma (and ends up having to compete with Fir, Lloyd, and kind of Roy as high resistance sword infantry). Ismaire's art is so pretty... Anyway, I digress.

Otherwise, mage dancer Tethys with Excalibur. Why? Why not. If that doesn't happen, then axe-wielding Tethys. I just want an axe dancer for kicks. :p

Also, technically Aura and Excalibur are wielded by multiple people in Heroes, but they have different effects as Dark Aura and Dark Excalibur. They could call it Sacred Excalibur or something and have its effect be different from Merric's.

27 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

As for Duessel, despite the whole Great Knight thing, his supports keep pointing to lances as his weapon of choice.

I know, but you could point to other characters who through supports, weapon ranking, etc. that are implied to preferring a weapon, but in Heroes, they end up showing up using something else. Lachesis and Lucius often come to mind where apparently Lachesis isn't that great of a mage compared to being a physical fighter while Lucius's starting class was basically a mage not a healer even though he can heal and healers in general are good compared to Serra who makes sense a healer since that's what she starts out as.

Or things like Seliph's Tyrfing where instead of boosting resistance, it boosts his defense. Sure his resistance might not be good, but you could look to Berkut and he's still a capable, but not extraordinary mage tank because of Berkut's Lance's +4 to resistance when attacked and his high HP letting him get Water Boost to work. Perhaps they didn't come up with those ideas, but even, then Seliph could get those skills later when they're created and would be able to use them easily considering his base 47 HP.

Anyway, there's also Narcian and his Runesword and Michalis using Hauteclere when it's Minerva's weapon. He could wield it like many other legendary weapons that aren't character-locked, but he wasn't associated with it like Minerva was.

27 minutes ago, Lord-Zero said:

@ L'Arachel: Well...the developers can do a few things:

- Give Ivaldi to Riev and give Latona to L'Arachel

- Give Ivaldi to L'Arachel and give Latona to Mansel

- Give Latona to L'Arachel and give Ivaldi to Mansel

L'Arachel would definitely be better received if she was a green mage cav but only time will tell. 

Riev having Ivaldi or Latona seems evil... I feel like it should only be L'Arachel and Mansel who should have access to either of them. The weird thing is that Ivaldi's effect of +5 defense screams er... Moulder? Dude was super tanky, right? It wouldn't make sense for him to have it over the Rausten royals, but they could make Mansel into a high defense blue mage and that would be fine. Blue mages actually lack a unit with +30 defense unlike green and red, so he could fill in that spot. The unfortunate part is if that happens, then L'Arachel would be stuck with Latona and some people might take offense to that. But hey, they could pull a Tyrfing and have Ivaldi give +5 to resistance. 40 effective resistance L'Arachel? What is this magic you speak of? *disintegrates from Ephraim's lance brushing her* :p

As for the green mounted mage thing. Anyone could show up as a green mounted mage and they would be well-received since Cecilia is our only option. She's good, but she can't do everything which is also Leo's problem.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Kaden

[TheWill]

18 hours ago, KongDude said:

I don't think popularity is factored with new banners and it's characters. If it were, we'd be getting Fates and Awakening banners forever. I expected Joshua or L'Arachel to be in but I'm super okay with these guys too! It's a bit weird that Seth seems the most underwhelming of the four to me right now...

They've probably realised they can't keep pumping out all the popular characters or else there'll be nothing left for future banners. The only characters from Blazing Blade who scored notably in the CYL poll left in Blazing Sword is Dorcas and Canas.

Amelia was likely chosen for popularity, there's no other real reason to include her. They're probably keeping characters like Joshua, Lute, L'Arachel and the like for future banners.