Create a Skill

[MilodicMellodi]

3 hours ago, SirErrant said:

...wow, this is fun. Don't have much to say other than that. Galeforce units would definitely appreciate this skill, and it doesn't seem too broken to me (except that you have a conditional NFU in a C-slot, maybe consider making it a half NFU instead without the neutralizing of foe's follow-up attacks? It actually wouldn't hurt Galeforce units that badly, since oftentimes they actually want to get attacked so that they can charge up their special for next round.)

Thank you! And fair enough, I gave it the NFU effect to make it appeal to Desperation and Dive-Bomb users as well. Taking away the foe-based part of that wouldn't affect its performance.

3 hours ago, SirErrant said:

Consider changing the name to something like "Caduceus Staff" or something lotion/balm-related? It seems balanced enough to me though. 

I never thought of that...I've been looking for excuses to name something Caduceus Staff but missed my chance when the best idea came along lol

3 hours ago, SirErrant said:

Fallen Lyon would love this effect. Have you considered putting it on a staff or something? I feel like it would be a nice counterpart to Maribelle's Trilemma.

That's a good idea 😄

3 hours ago, SirErrant said:

And now, before I forget what I came here for, just a quick idea I had for Marianne's relic weapon, Blutgang.

Blutgang 

Preferred weapon (sword)

16 Might. Effective against cavalry and dragon foes. Calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def and Res. If unit's HP < 100%, grants Atk/Spd +4 during combat, and after combat, ally that has been dealt the most amount of damage gains 10 HP. Unit takes 4 damage after combat. 

I basically took inspiration from Eir (who's also voiced by Xanthe Huynh, by the way) and gave her a conditional Sparkling Boost and chip damage, which in this case would help Marianne activate the Sparkling Boost effect. I took the adaptive damage from the fact that she has a magic weapon, and I got the effective damage and Atk/Spd buff from her combat art Beast Fang. This weapon would synergize really well with Fury/Desperation strats or WoM shenanigans, which both fit Marianne pretty well.

I feel like 10 HP might be a bit much, but that's just me? What if it was 6, like Mystic Boost? Otherwise I really love it.

Edited August 27, 2020 by MilodicMellodi

[SirErrant]

On 8/26/2020 at 11:54 PM, MilodicMellodi said:

I feel like 10 HP might be a bit much, but that's just me? What if it was 6, like Mystic Boost? Otherwise I really love it.

Thanks! I agree, but I think I stayed with 10 bc Sparkling Boost, and I didn't want to change it because it was conditional on whether or not she attacked. I could make it 6 HP and have it activate every round outside of combat though (as long as Marianne has <100% HP).

Edit: I'm a grammar Nazi, sorry 😞 

Edited August 29, 2020 by SirErrant

[MilodicMellodi]

Battalion Wrath 3 (Tier 4)
B Passive
Non-Staff only
Effect: At start of turn, if unit's HP ≤ 75% and unit's attack triggers Special before combat, grants Special cooldown count -2, and deals +10 damage when Special triggers. {Tier 1 is Wrath 1, Tier 2 is Battalion Wrath 1 at ≤ 25% HP, Tier 3 is ≤ 50%}
Wrath with its Special cooldown boosted, but at the cost of only being usable with AoE Specials. If the unit happens to have a Special-charging effect (like Time's Pulse for Infantry, Dark Mystletainn's Special Spiral effect for Ares and Eldigan, etc.), then their Special will be ready at the start of each turn. In fact, any Infantry unit with a Killer-type effect in their weapon (Creator Sword on the Byleths, Vassal's Blade on Karla, or Slaying Lance+ on an Infantry Lance unit) would be able to use Time's Pulse with this skill to fully charge their AoE Special each turn.

Battalion Desperation 3 (Tier 4)
B Passive
All Units
Effect: If unit initiates combat and triggers their Special before combat while their HP ≤ 75%, unit can make a guaranteed follow-up attack before foe can counterattack during combat. {Tier 1 is Renewal 1, Tier 2 is Battalion Desperation 1 at ≤ 25% HP, Tier 2 is ≤ 50%}
Desperation for AoE Special users. Its upgrade is that it grants the unit a guaranteed follow-up attack at the same time, meaning that even slow units with Brave-type effects will quad before the foe can even counterattack (for a total of 5 attacks, counting the AoE, before the foe gets their chance to counter).

Battalion Renewal 3 (Tier 4)
B Passive
All Units
Effect: At start of turn, if unit's attack triggers Special before combat, restores 15 HP. {Tier 1 is Renewal 1, Tier 2 is Battalion Renewal 1 at every third turn for 15 HP, Tier 3 is every odd turn}
Renewal for AoE Special users. Its upgrades are that the restoration happens every turn instead of every odd turn (making the unit capable of good quality self-sustain even without a healing Special like Noontime or Aether) and that the HP restored is 15 rather than 10 (which, combined with the other upgrade, effectively restores 20 more HP every 2 turns than normal Renewal does).

Atk Theft 3
C Passive
Non-Staff only
Effect: After combat, if unit attacked, grants Atk+6 to unit for 1 turn and inflicts Atk -6 on foe through its next action.
This is to Atk Smoke as Poison Strike is to Savage Blow. However, I also made it act a little like the Tier 4 Threaten skills, in which the skill seems to "absorb" or "steal" the stat from the foe. You could also consider this a direct upgrade of Seal Atk, but in the C slot rather than B.
Mainly, this is my interpretation of the Taker skills from Fates (this one would be like Strength-/Magictaker). Except instead of having you defeat your foe to get the effect, it instead acts more like a Seal or Smoke and triggers regardless of defeating the foe.

Freedom
Status Effect
Effect: Unit is unaffected by status effects that reduce movement or prevent teleportation.
Makes the unit unaffected by movement-reduction effects like Gravity and Glare. And though I don't know if there are any skills that would prevent teleportation (except Obstruct, I guess), this also makes the unit unaffected by those.

Edited August 31, 2020 by MilodicMellodi

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, MilodicMellodi said:

Battalion Wrath 3 (Tier 4)
B Passive
Non-Staff only
Effect: At start of turn, if unit's HP ≤ 75% and unit's attack triggers Special before combat, grants Special cooldown count -2, and deals +10 damage when Special triggers. {Tier 1 is Wrath 1, Tier 2 is Battalion Wrath 1 at ≤ 25% HP, Tier 3 is ≤ 50%}
Wrath with its Special cooldown boosted, but at the cost of only being usable with AoE Specials. If the unit happens to have a Special-charging effect (like Time's Pulse for Infantry, Dark Mystletainn's Special Spiral effect for Ares and Eldigan, etc.), then their Special will be ready at the start of each turn. In fact, any Infantry unit with a Killer-type effect in their weapon (Creator Sword on the Byleths, Vassal's Blade on Karla, or Slaying Lance+ on an Infantry Lance unit) would be able to use Time's Pulse with this skill to fully charge their AoE Special each turn.

Battalion Desperation 3 (Tier 4)
B Passive
All Units
Effect: If unit initiates combat and triggers their Special before combat while their HP ≤ 75%, unit can make a guaranteed follow-up attack before foe can counterattack during combat. {Tier 1 is Renewal 1, Tier 2 is Battalion Desperation 1 at ≤ 25% HP, Tier 2 is ≤ 50%}
Desperation for AoE Special users. Its upgrade is that it grants the unit a guaranteed follow-up attack at the same time, meaning that even slow units with Brave-type effects will quad before the foe can even counterattack (for a total of 5 attacks, counting the AoE, before the foe gets their chance to counter).

Battalion Renewal 3 (Tier 4)
B Passive
All Units
Effect: At start of turn, if unit's attack triggers Special before combat, restores 15 HP. {Tier 1 is Renewal 1, Tier 2 is Battalion Renewal 1 at every third turn for 15 HP, Tier 3 is every odd turn}
Renewal for AoE Special users. Its upgrades are that the restoration happens every turn instead of every odd turn (making the unit capable of good quality self-sustain even without a healing Special like Noontime or Aether) and that the HP restored is 15 rather than 10 (which, combined with the other upgrade, effectively restores 20 more HP every 2 turns than normal Renewal does).

Atk Theft 3
C Passive
Non-Staff only
Effect: After combat, if unit attacked, grants Atk+6 to unit for 1 turn and inflicts Atk -6 on foe through its next action.
This is to Atk Smoke as Poison Strike is to Savage Blow. However, I also made it act a little like the Tier 4 Threaten skills, in which the skill seems to "absorb" or "steal" the stat from the foe. You could also consider this a direct upgrade of Seal Atk, but in the C slot rather than B.
Mainly, this is my interpretation of the Taker skills from Fates (this one would be like Strength-/Magictaker). Except instead of having you defeat your foe to get the effect, it instead acts more like a Seal or Smoke and triggers regardless of defeating the foe.

Freedom
Status Effect
Effect: Unit is unaffected by status effects that reduce movement or prevent teleportation.
Makes the unit unaffected by movement-reduction effects like Gravity and Glare. And though I don't know if there are any skills that would prevent teleportation (except Obstruct, I guess), this also makes the unit unaffected by those.

Oh those are some nice ideas for Battalion Skills. AOE attacks do have a bit of a problem keeping up with more raw damaging specials due to the niche placement a lot of them require. So giving more incentive to use them is pretty cool.

[Clear World]

So out of boredom and with the recent release of the new refine weapons, I decided to do the ever constant but not likely concept of re-refine weapons. This batch gets to be a few red tomes who I think could use it, except Leo because he would need massive rework.

As to note, the power level I'm generally aiming at is: Each separate effect(the base part, and the refine part) is somewhat weaker than Distant Counter/Close Counter power level. I prefer to create unique/situational usefulness, while trying to take account of their current design, base kit, and avoiding overlap of 'non-stacking effects for typical optimal builds. Now to the re-refines!

Lilian - Forblaze

Spoiler

Base: At the start of the turn, inflict Atk/Res-7 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Res through its next action.

Refine (Death Blow+): If unit initiates combat, grants Atk+6 during combat and reverse damage reduction granted by foe's non-Special skills for unit's first attack.

Notes: So for example, if the foe has an non-Special passive skill that reduces damage by 40% (like Spurn), then the refine effect will cause Lilian's first attack to actually deal +40% damage instead of -40% damage. Her second attack will still be reduced by 40% though. This is obviously a hard counter to skills like Spurn or Guard Bearing, without countering the weaker damage reductions skills like Deflect seals or Defensive Specials.

Sanaki - Cymbeline

Spoiler

Base: Grants Atk/Res+4 to allies within 2 spaces during combat.

Refine (Atk/Res Unity+): If unit is within 2 spaces of a flying ally, grants Atk/Res+7 and neutralize all foe's effect that grant Atk/Res+X to during combat.

Notes: Straight forward here as I like the framework here. Number buffs to keep pace with the power level of the game. I don't want joint Drive atk for her base, as I rather have  her be more supportive nature, than more damage for herself. Her refine secondary effect negates in-combat buffs, not field bonuses, and this includes buffs from foe's allies. The drive buffs + in-combat buffs negation should enable her to crave a space/utility for herself compared to the more powerful red-mage powerhouses. 

Katarina - Reese's Tome

Spoiler

Base: If foe has no active [Bonus] during combat, inflict Spd/Res-4 on foe and Special cooldown charge -1 to foe per unit's attack.

Refine (Spd Ploy+): At the start of the turn or after combat, inflict Spd-7 and [Panic] on foes in cardinal directions with Res < unit's Res through their next action.

Notes: Belonging to the assassin group of Eremiya, Clarisse, & Legion, it is only fitting she has some form of [Panic] in her kit to match as well. Also, considering ploy's biggest drawback is it's needed effort to debuff the foe, the reward should be high and I actually made it easier to trigger (the unit needs to survive to proc the debuff after combat). After that, the original base effect really doesn't work will with her base kit or stat line, so it got reworked to work in tangent of [Panic] being part of her kit. 

Henry - Corvus Tome

Spoiler

Base: Grant unit WTA against colorless foes. Neutralize penalties and negative status effects on unit during combat.

Refine (???+): If units Atk < foe's Atk at the start of combat, inflicts Atk/Res-6 on foe during combat and Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack. (Does not stack.)

Notes: Originally I was thinking of giving him a reverse penalties (like Fallen Ike) because I think it would match her characteristic, but that took up too much words to write it out, so I settle with neutralizations. Because it also includes negative status effect, he is unaffected by status effect that 'prevent unit's counter attack' or apply the triangle adept debuff for example. His refine is also easier to trigger... even though it was rather easy to begin with.

Sophia - Eternal Tome

Spoiler

Base: Grant unit WTA against colorless foes. After combat, if unit attacked, restore 10 HP to allies within 2 spaces.

Refine (Bracing Stance+): If foe initiates combat, grants Def/Res+5 and reduce damage from foe's follow-up attack by 80%.

Notes: Core design is great, so I'm not changing that. I'm avoiding making the refine simply Bracing Stance 3, because I want people to still be able to use that skill if they don't want/can't use Close Counter. Special cooldown charge -1 effect doesn't stack, so if the refined had it, it would discourage players from using one of best A-passive options. I'm just giving her a healing effect because in FF6 story, one of few contribution to the actual story is her healing Cecilia.

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by Clear World

[Jotari]

Lifetaker: Special (4 charge): Deals damage +10. Restores 50% of unit's max HP.

[MilodicMellodi]

Axe of Ukonovasara
Weapon (Axe)
Exclusive (Timeskip!Lorenz)
Might/Effect: 16 Might. Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count -1). Effective against armored foes. If unit deals damage during combat, restores 7 HP to unit. (Triggers even if 0 damage is dealt.)

[Clear World]

Reduction Reversal - For unit's first attack, reverse non-Special effects that "reduces damage by X%".

Charge Reversal - Foe's effect that "increase Special cooldown charge for unit" or "inflict Special cooldown charge on foe" applies to unit instead of foe. Unit needs to meet effect's condition to trigger effect for unit.

Restore Reversal - When foe restores HP during combat, convert healing into self-damage instead. This damage cannot reduce HP to 0.

Priority Reversal - Foe's effect that "increase attack priority for unit" applies to unit instead of foe. Unit needs to meet effect's condition to trigger effect for unit.

• Increase attack priority refers to effects that enable the user to attack earlier in combat than normal, like desperation or vantage.

Assist Follow-Up - If an non-movement Assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, grant the following status to unit and that ally for 1 turn: "Unit makes a guarantee follow-up attack."

Assist Priority - If an non-movement Assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, grant the following status to unit and that ally for 1 turn: "Neutralize foe's effect that changes attack priority."

Assist Physical Counter - If an non-movement Assist skill is used by unit or targets unit, grant the following status to unit and that ally for 1 turn: "If foe uses sword, lance, axe, bow, dagger and foe initiates combat, unit can counterattack regardless of range."

Bonus Up - Grant Atk/Spd/Def/Res+[ 2 / 3 / 4] to allies within 3 spaces during combat if ally has an active [bonus] on the stat. Calculates each stat bonus independently.

Atk/Spd Bloom 3 - After combat, if unit attacked, grant Atk/Spd+7 and Special cooldown count -1 to unit and allies within 2 spaces. 

Desperation + Vantage - If unit's HP < 80% at the start of combat, unit's first counterattack occurs before foe's first attack. 

• Counterattack refers to the attack that normally occurs right after the opposition's attack, regardless of who initiates combat or if it is a follow-up.

 

These are just a set of effects I was thought of while thinking of custom heroes.
 

 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Clear World

[XRay]

Due to the nature of killing things in one round of combat, defensive Specials need to be a lot stronger to see more use. With Pavise and Aegis having 3 cooldown, I think 100% damage reduction is warranted since it takes so long for them to charge and they only reduce damage from a certain range.

Aegis+: 3 cooldown
If foe is 2 spaces from unit, reduces damage from foe's attack by 100%. Before combat, if foe is 2 spaces from unit and triggers area-of-effect Special, reduces damage from area-of-effect Special by 100% and grants Special cooldown count-3 before combat.

Sacred Cowl+: 2 cooldown
If foe is 2 spaces from unit, reduces damage from foe's attack by 50%. Before combat, if foe is 2 spaces from unit and triggers area-of-effect Special, reduces damage from area-of-effect Special by 100% and grants Special cooldown count-2 before combat.

Pavise+: 3 cooldown
Reduces damage from an adjacent foe's attack by 100%. Before combat, if adjacent foe triggers area-of-effect Special, reduces damage from area-of-effect Special by 100% and grants Special cooldown count-3 before combat.

Escutcheon+: 2 cooldown
Reduces damage from an adjacent foe's attack by 50%. Before combat, if adjacent foe triggers area-of-effect Special, reduces damage from area-of-effect Special by 100% and grants Special cooldown count-2 before combat.

Hoplon Guard: 3 cooldown
Reduces damage from foe's attack by 50%. Before combat, if foe triggers area-of-effect Special, reduces damage from area-of-effect Special by 80% and grants Special cooldown count-3 before combat.

Iron Rune: 2 cooldown
Reduces damage from foe's attack by 30%. Before combat, if foe triggers area-of-effect Special, reduces damage from area-of-effect Special by 80% and grants Special cooldown count-2 before combat.

Shield Pulse 4:
At the start of turn, before combat, and after combat, if foe's attack triggers Special, grants Special cooldown count-2. Reduces damage dealt to unit by 10 when Special triggers.

Edited September 10, 2020 by XRay

[Jotari]

22 minutes ago, XRay said:

Due to the nature of killing things in one round of combat, defensive Specials need to be a lot stronger to see more use. With Pavise and Aegis having 3 cooldown, I think 100% damage reduction is warranted since it takes so long for them to charge and they only reduce damage from a certain range.

 

That would make fast characters with special spiral and a slaying weapon virtually immune to one type of damage.

[XRay]

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

That would make fast characters with special spiral and a slaying weapon virtually immune to one type of damage.

That is fine. They would still be vulnerable to enemies of the other Weapon range. It creates a strong counter against pure ranged Infantry Pulse teams and pure ranged cav line. Aegis and Pavise are still dead skills half the time, so during the time they do work, they better be worth it.

Edited September 10, 2020 by XRay

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, XRay said:

That is fine. They would still be vulnerable to enemies of the other Weapon range. It creates a strong counter against pure ranged Infantry Pulse teams and pure ranged cav line. Aegis and Pavise are still dead skills half the time, so during the time they do work, they better be worth it.

Yeah but I'd power creep it to 80 before 100.

[Hilda]

4 hours ago, XRay said:

That is fine. They would still be vulnerable to enemies of the other Weapon range. It creates a strong counter against pure ranged Infantry Pulse teams and pure ranged cav line. Aegis and Pavise are still dead skills half the time, so during the time they do work, they better be worth it.

No its not fine, someone like Brave Ike would become basicly invincible.

Pulse Teams are hard countered by one skill, Pulse smoke. Everythign falls apart once you apply that. We dont need dumb stuff to counter something.

I do agree that Defensiv skills need a buff or another layer to make them more usefull, but thats not it. What those skills need is what L!Corrin got kinda.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Hilda said:

No its not fine, someone like Brave Ike would become basicly invincible.

BH!Ike is already invincible, so there is no point in giving him these skills if it drops his sustainability and damage output compared to Aether. Without that damage output, it allows Lunge-Galeforcers/Eliwood/BH!Roy to get pass BH!Ike and target the squishier units behind him.

Hard counter combat units for BH!Ike also exist, but those do not appear very often so burning a Ladder is not such a big issue, and combat units that hard counter BH!Ike are usually not very effective against other super tanks, so I assume that is the reason they are not very common.

 

2 hours ago, Hilda said:

Pulse Teams are hard countered by one skill, Pulse smoke. Everythign falls apart once you apply that. We dont need dumb stuff to counter something.

No, it does not. The issue with Infantry Pulse teams is that not everyone on there needs a precharged Special to screw super tanks or their teams over. Once you uncharge a Blazing nuke or a Iceberg/Glacies nuke, there are still other raw damage nukes unravel. Lysithea is semi-immune to Pulse Smoke, SK!Alm and QOV!Celica does not need Infantry Pulse to work at all, Lunge-Galeforcers can bypass supertanks without Infantry Pulse (and Infantry Pulse teams even got their own BH!Roy now via AOTB!Celica), and Firesweepers are meant to discourage Counter-Vantage units and can also flank super tanks.

2 hours ago, Hilda said:

I do agree that Defensiv skills need a buff or another layer to make them more usefull, but thats not it. What those skills need is what L!Corrin got kinda.

What COD!F!Corrin got is basically a Spurn skill, and from what I remember, you do not seem to like Spurn skills very much. COD!F!Corrin's base kit basically moved Spurn to the Special slot from the B slot without giving up any damage output from the Special slot, and it utilizes a Guard check instead of a stat check, which is a much easier to check to pass since not many foes have Guard except BH!Roy and Eliwood. It does not do anything against area-of-effect Specials, but her base kit basically functions the same when in combat. Nukes rarely hits over 50 damage, so that 5 damage mitigation is generally at least 10%, and combining that with Negating Fang gives 40%+ of damage mitigation on every foe's hit. And if the player does not mind giving up the 5 damage mitigation, they can run Null Follow-Up to deny Specials from triggering via guaranteed follow-up attacks.

To make defensive Specials worth it, they either need to be damn near invincible against their intended targets, or they need to work against enemies from both ranges. Being limited to working against either ranged foes or melee foes is pretty bad, since they can just be screwed over by any enemy using another Weapon range.

[Nym]

New Seal: Steady Bearing

Effect: Disables unit's and foe's skills that reduce damages (will not affect defensive specials)

[Hilda]

6 hours ago, XRay said:

What COD!F!Corrin got is basically a Spurn skill, and from what I remember, you do not seem to like Spurn skills very much. COD!F!Corrin's base kit basically moved Spurn to the Special slot from the B slot without giving up any damage output from the Special slot, and it utilizes a Guard check instead of a stat check, which is a much easier to check to pass since not many foes have Guard except BH!Roy and Eliwood. It does not do anything against area-of-effect Specials, but her base kit basically functions the same when in combat. Nukes rarely hits over 50 damage, so that 5 damage mitigation is generally at least 10%, and combining that with Negating Fang gives 40%+ of damage mitigation on every foe's hit. And if the player does not mind giving up the 5 damage mitigation, they can run Null Follow-Up to deny Specials from triggering via guaranteed follow-up attacks.

To make defensive Specials worth it, they either need to be damn near invincible against their intended targets, or they need to work against enemies from both ranges. Being limited to working against either ranged foes or melee foes is pretty bad, since they can just be screwed over by any enemy using another Weapon range.

Corrins Special is nothing compared like a Spurn skill. It is alot weaker. The fact alone that you compare those 2 is bogus. The introduction of Spurn skills was and is a mistake in my opinion. There are a gazillion ways to work around Corrins Special, there is only one way to work around Spurn: you outspeed your opponent.

Defensiv specials need a buff, but invincibility is the laziest and dumbest way to go at it and it doesnt solve the core problem: Defensiv specials are bad because the unit gives up alot of firepower to run them. They are now even worse with all the damage reduction skills and not worth the hassle at all.

[XRay]

3 hours ago, Hilda said:

Corrins Special is nothing compared like a Spurn skill. It is alot weaker. The fact alone that you compare those 2 is bogus.

30% is not that much weaker compared to 40%, and with her base kit, it is functionally much better than Spurn as it reduces more damage (very few nukes hit harder than 50, so a flat damage reduction of 5 is about the equivalent of 10%) and it is harder to bypass (nukes generally do not carry Guard). It is an apt comparison.

3 hours ago, Hilda said:

The introduction of Spurn skills was and is a mistake in my opinion. There are a gazillion ways to work around Corrins Special, there is only one way to work around Spurn: you outspeed your opponent.

The ONLY way to bypass Negating Fang is via Guard, and few nukes rn Guard. The ONLY notable nukes with Guard are Eliwood and BH!Roy.

At least most nukes are naturally fast so they stand a better chance of contesting the Spd check for Spurn.

3 hours ago, Hilda said:

Defensiv specials need a buff, but invincibility is the laziest and dumbest way to go at it and it doesnt solve the core problem: Defensiv specials are bad because the unit gives up alot of firepower to run them. They are now even worse with all the damage reduction skills and not worth the hassle at all.

It is not even close to invincibility as a tank built to tank at a particular range will be demolished by nukes fighting at a different range. This is no different from Def tanks and Res tanks that specializes in a particular bulk, where they take practically no damage against a damage type, but they will similarly be demolished against nukes that target their weaker stat.

Aegis+ and Pavise+ allow tanks to focus on tanking at a particular range than a specific damage type. You might think it is lazy and dumb, but I think it is simple and elegant. If Aegis+ exists and it were to be made relatively accessible, it would immediately dampen pure ranged Infantry Pulse teams and cav line, which are extremely common and also extremely punishing for players who do not have the resources nor skill to adequately deal with it. Even my shitty half-baked cav line can consistently force a win in the first few days against players who are not prepared to deal with it.

In my opinion, fixing defensive Specials by giving them a damage output is even worse and throws balance even further out the window. That level of role compression is a massive leap in power creep. There is no point in running damage Specials if defensive Specials can do both damage and defense at the same time. If defensive Specials with damage output were to be made inheritable, it would immediately outclass ALL inheritable damage Specials and many exclusive damage Specials too.

[Hilda]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

30% is not that much weaker compared to 40%, and with her base kit, it is functionally much better than Spurn as it reduces more damage (very few nukes hit harder than 50, so a flat damage reduction of 5 is about the equivalent of 10%) and it is harder to bypass (nukes generally do not carry Guard). It is an apt comparison.

The ONLY way to bypass Negating Fang is via Guard, and few nukes rn Guard. The ONLY notable nukes with Guard are Eliwood and BH!Roy.

At least most nukes are naturally fast so they stand a better chance of contesting the Spd check for Spurn.

It is not even close to invincibility as a tank built to tank at a particular range will be demolished by nukes fighting at a different range. This is no different from Def tanks and Res tanks that specializes in a particular bulk, where they take practically no damage against a damage type, but they will similarly be demolished against nukes that target their weaker stat.

Aegis+ and Pavise+ allow tanks to focus on tanking at a particular range than a specific damage type. You might think it is lazy and dumb, but I think it is simple and elegant. If Aegis+ exists and it were to be made relatively accessible, it would immediately dampen pure ranged Infantry Pulse teams and cav line, which are extremely common and also extremely punishing for players who do not have the resources nor skill to adequately deal with it. Even my shitty half-baked cav line can consistently force a win in the first few days against players who are not prepared to deal with it.

In my opinion, fixing defensive Specials by giving them a damage output is even worse and throws balance even further out the window. That level of role compression is a massive leap in power creep. There is no point in running damage Specials if defensive Specials can do both damage and defense at the same time. If defensive Specials with damage output were to be made inheritable, it would immediately outclass ALL inheritable damage Specials and many exclusive damage Specials too.

seriously yor argument for bypassing negating fang falls short again. Let me list up the ways to bypass negating fang: Witchy Wand, Flash, Dazzling Staff, Ruse debuff, Desperation, Brave Weapons with enough punching power, Pulse Smoke, Having 5 more speed then Corrin, AoE specials. There is prolly even more.

Ways to bypass THE DAMAGE REDUCTION of Spurn Skills: Match your Opponents speed. 

I am not even gonna Talk about the sustainability Spurn Skill offers because you can run a healing based special.

Thats all I am gonna say and leave it at that.

 

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Hilda said:

seriously yor argument for bypassing negating fang falls short again. Let me list up the ways to bypass negating fang: Witchy Wand, Flash, Dazzling Staff, Ruse debuff, Desperation, Brave Weapons with enough punching power, Pulse Smoke, Having 5 more speed then Corrin, AoE specials. There is prolly even more.

Red skills are all still Guard, and they are still uncommon on defense nukes. I do not think I have ever seen Witchy Wand on defense, and I have seen Pulse Smoke and Ruse like maybe once or twice for each.

For blue skills/conditions, Negating Fang still handles them better than Spurn. Even if COD!F!Corrin gets doubled, Negating Fang is still better than Spurn because Negating Fang will at least work on the first hit and do a full 30% damage reduction (or 40%+ with Shield Pulse), whereas Spurn works poorly (via Phantom Spd with 20% damage reduction at best) or it does not work at all (without Phantom Spd, or Phantom Spd is not enough to compensate for the stat difference).

I agree that Spurn will handle Brave Weapons better, but the only Brave units I see are Reinhardt and sometimes BH!Lyn, and they are not particularly difficult to tank as long as the super tank is supported properly with enough stats.

2 hours ago, Hilda said:

I am not even gonna Talk about the sustainability Spurn Skill offers because you can run a healing based special.

Which the player can offload to Eir on Light, and Healing Tower (O) or Reciprocal Aid on Astra. Offloading damage output is more difficult than offloading sustainability, since the only way to do so is via Drive Atk and that is the least necessary stat boost, as well as being the least efficient way to arranging stats and effects in my opinion. The Special slot is more efficient for damage output and sustainability is more efficient on support units.

A single Moonbow will do about 10 to 14 damage. Offloading that to support units will take 2 slots of Drive Atk (6Atk * 2hits = 12 damage) compared to taking just one Special slot. And since Eir is unlikely to be nearby the super tank anyways for safety reasons, her C slot is usually a dead slot if she is running anything else other than Sparkling Boost.

[Xenomata]

Idea.

(B slot) Reining Terror
At start of turn, inflicts [Rein of Terror] status on foe on the enemy team with the lowest {stat} through its next action.

[Reining Terror]
Enemy units within 3 spaces of enemy unit with this status are inflicted with Atk/Spd/Def/Res -4 during combat.

Also known as a modified version of Inevitable End, maybe even what Hel should have gotten instead of what she actually got since a death curse was displayed during the Book III story. Targeting the enemy unit with the lowest of a stat makes at least some sense. Consider the pairing of an offensive nuke and a dancer. The nuke will usually have far higher offensive stats than the dancer, maybe with the exception of Spd. If Reining Terror targets the unit with the lowest Atk, then the Dancer will more often than not be the one inflicted with the status, thus all the offensive nukes surrounding them will be given a nasty debuff. The debuff wouldn't affect the unit who were actually inflicted with it, but then what would be the point of inflicting a combat debuff on a support unit?

I think the idea of debuff skills that have an effect on units SURROUNDING the inflicted have potential for debilitating mindgames. Imagine inflicting a Reverse Geirskogul effect on the entire enemy team surrounding their dancer, or a nasty Reverse Dominance effect on Brave Ike because he was next to Brave Lucina?

[XRay]

33 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I think the idea of debuff skills that have an effect on units SURROUNDING the inflicted have potential for debilitating mindgames. Imagine inflicting a Reverse Geirskogul effect on the entire enemy team surrounding their dancer, or a nasty Reverse Dominance effect on Brave Ike because he was next to Brave Lucina?

That is an interesting effect.

To target BH!Ike, you will want Reining Terror Def or Reining Terror Res, since a maxed out BH!Lucina will probably run Life and Death to soak Atk and Spd Chills, so Reining Terror Atk and Reining Terror Spd probably is not going to be inflicted on her unless she is of much lower merge than BH!Ike.

However, that is the opposite of most player phase teams since Dancers/Singers generally have higher Def/Res than most nukes.

You probably want to run both Reining Terror Atk and either Reining Terror Def or Reining Terror Res to cover both types of teams.

[Xenomata]

5 hours ago, XRay said:

That is an interesting effect.

To target BH!Ike, you will want Reining Terror Def or Reining Terror Res, since a maxed out BH!Lucina will probably run Life and Death to soak Atk and Spd Chills, so Reining Terror Atk and Reining Terror Spd probably is not going to be inflicted on her unless she is of much lower merge than BH!Ike.

However, that is the opposite of most player phase teams since Dancers/Singers generally have higher Def/Res than most nukes.

You probably want to run both Reining Terror Atk and either Reining Terror Def or Reining Terror Res to cover both types of teams.

The thing I realize about Reining Terror now is that there are now so many potential effects that can be inflicted, but in AR-O you get 5 units total. Even if you wanted the Reverse Geirskogul effect (which now that I think about it is just Guard?) and Reverse Dominance effects on the same team, you'd be dedicating two skillslots to that...

Moveslot syndrome I think it's called. You can't dedicate all your B passives to Sabotage skills, you wouldn't have any room for other better effects. And there's also the question of what effects in particular you would need to carry for sure. Guard Terror would be necessary for almost any nuke, but it wouldn't do very much on a team of Infantry Pulse.

Guard and Dominance are just two effects, I wonder what other kinds of effects one could put onto Terror skills? Reining Terror being Hel's Inevitable End was one idea that started Terror skills, Guard Terror and Dominance Terror add onto that... maybe something like Pulse Terror that triggers Pulse Smoke on the units surrounding an enemy unit... hm...

[MilodicMellodi]

Lethality
Special
Exclusive
Upgraded: Astra
Cooldown: 4 (previously 5)
Effect: Boosts damage dealt by 150%. If Special is ready before combat and foe initiates combat, unit can counterattack before foe's first attack.
Astra with a built-in Vantage if it's ready before combat. It's a worse Astra against those with Hardy Bearing effects, and suffers heavily against effects that slow or reset Special cooldowns, but when not against those kinds of effects it makes high-Atk units more than capable of dealing with opponents without worrying too much about their defenses. If the unit has DC built into their weapon, LnD4 wouldn't be a bad choice of an A skill alongside this.

Hurricane Winds
Special
Non-Staff only
Upgraded: Blazing Wind or Growing Wind
Cooldown: 5
Effect: Before combat this unit initiates, foes in an area near target take damage equal to 1.5 x (unit's Atk minus foe's Def or Res). Before combat foe initiates, foes in a wide area around foe take damage equal to (unit's Atk minus foe's Def or Res).
Blazing Wind, plus an Enemy Phase Growing Wind. The Blazing part is most effective during the Player Phase since it deals the most damage, while the Growing part is most effective during Enemy Phase because of how the extra AoE range screws with the enemies' positioning.

I feel like these might be over-powered, but I hope raising their cooldown to 5 (like how the referenced Specials used to be a long time ago) is good enough for now.
EDIT: Lowered Lethality's cooldown to 4.

Edited September 21, 2020 by MilodicMellodi

[XRay]

5 hours ago, MilodicMellodi said:

I feel like these might be over-powered, but I hope raising their cooldown to 5 (like how the referenced Specials used to be a long time ago) is good enough for now.

Increasing cooldown to 5 makes any Special pretty much unusable for the vast majority of units.

Aether is pretty crap due to its high cooldown, and it is not all that viable in high difficulty modes; BH!Ike can use it competitively, but he is an exception to the rule. Aether is fine for auto battling Tempest Trials, but that is cause it is so easy that even the AI can do it.

Similarly, you cannot just slap Galeforce onto any unit, and running Galeforce pretty much locks one of a unit's skill slot to be some type of Heavy Blade, and often locks the Weapon or C slot to be a Slaying Weapon or Time's Pulse respectively as well.

Area-of-effect Specials were also pretty much unusable until they reduced the cooldown to 4, and even then, it still did not see frequent use until Special Spiral came along and made it possible to spam it.

5 hours ago, MilodicMellodi said:

Lethality
Special
Exclusive
Cooldown: 5
Effect: Boosts damage dealt by 150%. If Special is ready before combat and foe initiates combat, unit can counterattack before foe's first attack.
Astra with a built-in Vantage if it's ready before combat. It's a worse Astra against those with Hardy Bearing effects, and suffers heavily against effects that slow or reset Special cooldowns, but when not against those kinds of effects it makes high-Atk units more than capable of dealing with opponents without worrying too much about their defenses. If the unit has DC built into their weapon, LnD4 wouldn't be a bad choice of an A skill alongside this.

This needs to be a 3 cooldown Special to be anywhere useful, as it needs a Slaying Weapon, Distant Counter, and Special Spiral for it to work, and that still would not make a unit a good Counter-Vantage unit due to low Atk and how poorly Glimmer's skill line as a whole scales with enemies' Def/Res.

5 hours ago, MilodicMellodi said:

Hurricane Winds
Special
Non-Staff only
Cooldown: 5
Effect: Before combat this unit initiates, foes in an area near target take damage equal to 1.5 x (unit's Atk minus foe's Def or Res). Before combat foe initiates, foes in a wide area around target take damage equal to (unit's Atk minus foe's Def or Res).
Blazing Wind, plus an Enemy Phase Growing Wind. The Blazing part is most effective during the Player Phase since it deals the most damage, while the Growing part is most effective during Enemy Phase because of how the extra AoE range screws with the enemies' positioning.

I think this can be left at 5 cooldown, but it would still feel iffy to me.

At 5 cooldown, the only units I imagine would be using it would be dual phase units. Edelgard, Dimitri, all Ephraims, armor units in general, fast infantry units with Flashing Blade and maybe Time's Pulse, etc.

For dual phase units of the Counter-Vantage variety, only Blade mages with exclusive Weapons will use it since only they have the Atk numbers to run Heavy Blade on Sacred Seal slot and they are not reliant on Specials to work.

[MilodicMellodi]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

This needs to be a 3 cooldown Special to be anywhere useful, as it needs a Slaying Weapon, Distant Counter, and Special Spiral for it to work, and that still would not make a unit a good Counter-Vantage unit due to low Atk and how poorly Glimmer's skill line as a whole scales with enemies' Def/Res.

If I made it 3 cooldown, I'd have to reduce its power to Glimmer's in order to keep the Vantage effect. I could also instead make it 4 cooldown, with its power equal to Deadeye's. But I can't just make a skill that's a better version of another without having a drawback compared to the original skill.

That being said...maybe I could possibly get away with having it at 4 cooldown if it were an upgrade of Astra, like Galeforce and Regnal Astra. In fact, it seems obvious in retrospect.

Though I'll keep Hurricane Winds as-is, I'd feel a bit awkward about reducing it to 4 when it's as powerful as it is here. Plus, its Growing effect can be used by the enemy to get within Desperation/Brazen range, so it's not like it's a perfect skill.