Another FEH channel on the 14th: Post Talk

[Vaximillian]

48 minutes ago, Hilda said:

But even the Askr Trio Weapons were excluded and they dont have that overwhelming effects?!

Because who cares about the trio, right?

This anniversary stuff must be massive, huge, and enormous for the trio. It’s like they have been lost on the wayside for no reason. Shame, they are really cool, and Sharena is my favourite.

[Arthur97]

1 hour ago, Hilda said:

I am confused in the video only a select handfull of legendary weapons were shown for upgrade. I do get why Dire Thunder Urvan etc dont get upgrades.

But even the Askr Trio Weapons were excluded and they dont have that overwhelming effects?!

For one, those two weapons don't need it. Though why some weapons like Falchion and the Sword of Seals were left out is odd. I mean, who could they be waiting to give an Exalted Falchion so you can upgrade to it.

[Jingle Jangle]

Well I'm to skip summoning on the next banner, Dorcas, is okay, but nothing really interest me about him. For Lute, I like her but I have some of the best blue mages the in the game. Mia is decent, but my favorite Tellius swordwoman is Lucia. Plus I need those orbs for later.

[Vaximillian]

@LuxSpes @Mackc2: I just rewatched the stream, and it says that Fjorm auto-joins after clearing the first chapter of Book 2.

But apparently she is still summonable as part of the 12-banner? I’m so confused.

[bethany81707]

3 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

@LuxSpes @Mackc2: I just rewatched the stream, and it says that Fjorm auto-joins after clearing the first chapter of Book 2.

But apparently she is still summonable as part of the 12-banner? I’m so confused.

She is going to be a freebie, but you can summon some more as merges.

Basically, it's what Ayra should've been, and what we were hoping for when that banner showed up before we saw the full Tempest list.

(I am also holding out for GHB Heroes getting slipped into the 3-4* roster at some point. Half to shut people up about how poorly maintained it is.)

Edited November 15, 2017 by bethany81707

[Jingle Jangle]

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

@LuxSpes @Mackc2: I just rewatched the stream, and it says that Fjorm auto-joins after clearing the first chapter of Book 2.

But apparently she is still summonable as part of the 12-banner? I’m so confused.

According to what I heard if you complete chapter 1 of book two, she will be guaranteed to join you.

[Book Bro]

Oh, I thought book II was coming today as well, but it's not until the 27th? Then they can still add one last chapter to book I before moving on. I guess that will be the one featuring the 12 focus banner characters. 

[Hilda]

1 hour ago, Arthur97 said:

For one, those two weapons don't need it. Though why some weapons like Falchion and the Sword of Seals were left out is odd. I mean, who could they be waiting to give an Exalted Falchion so you can upgrade to it.

you think Aflonse, Sharenas and Annas weapon dont need an upgrade?! What are you smokeing lol. Alfonses Weapon is terrible, and Sharenas weapon is occasional and also terrible. Annas weapon gets the most use.

[Arthur97]

2 minutes ago, Hilda said:

you think Aflonse, Sharenas and Annas weapon dont need an upgrade?! What are you smokeing lol. Alfonses Weapon is terrible, and Sharenas weapon is occasional and also terrible. Annas weapon gets the most use.

I meant Urvan and Dire Thunder.

[LuxSpes]

55 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

@LuxSpes @Mackc2: I just rewatched the stream, and it says that Fjorm auto-joins after clearing the first chapter of Book 2.

But apparently she is still summonable as part of the 12-banner? I’m so confused.

Yep, that what I understood from the stream as well. It's similar to the free CYL summon, but we actually have to do some gameplay to get our free copy.

[Interdimensional Observer]

7 minutes ago, Hilda said:

you think Aflonse, Sharenas and Annas weapon dont need an upgrade?! What are you smokeing lol. Alfonses Weapon is terrible, and Sharenas weapon is occasional and also terrible. Annas weapon gets the most use.

Could they try doing something plot-wise for an upgrade? Shiny pointy sharp things releasing their true shiny slashy stabby power is always cool.

[Hilda]

12 minutes ago, Arthur97 said:

I meant Urvan and Dire Thunder.

and if you read what i wrote, i said i get it why those 2 dont need an upgrade

[Korath88]

Assuming the trailer shows neutral stats, Fjorm's statline is 39/30/31/30/34 (total 164) and has a DC weapon.

In comparison, Sharena is 43/32/32/29/22 (total 158) and has a weapon with a pretty useless threaten Atk.

Fjorm has -4 HP, -2 Atk, -1 Spd, +1 Def and +12 Res over Sharena, as well as DC. Thoughts?

Spoiler

my conclusion: just use Ephraim

 

[Anime27Arts]

Well I thought the stream was tonight rather than last night so I completely missed it. Opps!

After watching through it there are some things I'm really happy with.

- MIA & JOSHUA!!!! OH I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THESE TWO!!!!  Even better, Joshua will be free!!!! (Through the temptest I think) Saving more orbs for me!!!!

- Healers Are finally a little bit better.  If only this had happened before the healer gauntlet. Too many bad memories from that.  ;-; Oh well at least now they can be somewhat useful

- Weapon forging is something that I really appreciate to save some characters from being sacrificed.

- I surely needed the extra barrack room.  I hate having to use orbs to up it but I sure need it!

- The new special banner is absolutely glorious!  My precious Bride who I missed before is back!!!!!  And this time I can't have my pity rate broken by my least favorite character, thank Naga!  Essentially everyone on this summoning is someone I don't have or someone I wouldn't mind an extra copy of.  My main goals for summoning are Both Brides, Deidre, Arya and I will be glad to walk away with any of them.  The only ones I have on this list are Hector, Ike, and Brave!Lynn and soon a copy of Fjorm so I certainly don't mind duplicates of those three

- Fjorm is so beautiful and must be protected!!! Even if she is just Elsa!Sharena I am so happy that I get a free copy and don't have to freak out if I don't get her

-I love the stories between Fire and Ice and I am very curious to see how this turns out!

 

Overall this makes me super happy and I cannot wait for the new additions!!!

[Vaximillian]

29 minutes ago, Korath88 said:

Thoughts?

Give Lianna a lance, and Sharena Emblem is complete.

Rule one of Sharena Emblem: screw weapon variance.

[HK Motendra]

5 hours ago, Zangetsu said:

I'm very curious to see how well receive Alfonse with upcoming CYL event.

 

I believe this is the trope you're looking for.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HadesShaded

But it's not as you making it out to be. It's not like Archer is one of the most evil characters in the Fate Series. Not to mention Bruno isn't actually evil, but chances are the dude was probably not tan back in his not-crazed days.

I love Archer too, but whether or not they're actually evil is besides the point of being in an antagonistic role to the hero/heroine if not generally antagonistic/hostile themselves.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Motendra

[neeto]

2 hours ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Well I'm to skip summoning on the next banner, Dorcas, is okay, but nothing really interest me about him. For Lute, I like her but I have some of the best blue mages the in the game. Mia is decent, but my favorite Tellius swordwoman is Lucia. Plus I need those orbs for later.

Same not really interested in this banner. I was hoping you could inherit Dorcas's axe but I guess not so what's the point.

[MisfitMiju]

The weapon forge has really piqued my interest and I'm glad that Eliwood, Takumi, and Seliph are buffed to some extent. Though I'm curious to see how the forge update will affect the dragons. Will they add secondary skills to the breath weapons, or just increase the might and weapon effects.

Edited November 15, 2017 by MisfitMiju

[Starrk144]

So if I'm not mistaken I thought book two was out immediately, but I guess I misread.

[Ice Dragon]

7 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

The problem with being a melee infantry/armor is that there isn't just one or two units better than you, it's that there're basically entire unit types that are better.

The problem right now is that you're assuming free-to-players and minnows have a full roster. They don't.

 

7 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

Just in archers alone we have Takumi, Klein, Jeorge, B!Cordelia, B!Lyn, Innes, Leon, who can all run a Brave Bow build (or B!Lyn with her regular set) at acceptable levels.

Of which 1 of those is a limited character, and 3 of those are locked to 5-star rarity. Only 3 of them are available at 4-star rarity, and I've already covered the pull rates for 4-star characters.

Also, not everyone chooses Brave Lyn as their free character.

 

7 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

And that's ignoring all the horse mages, and all the flier mages, and all the other mages.

And then, finally, she gets to compete with the rest of the melee units, some of whom, like Camus, are just as min-maxed spreadwise while riding a beauuuuuuuuutiful pony.

There are a total of 5 cavalry mages in the game. Cecilia and Reinhardt are the only ones available at 4-star rarity or lower and aren't limited release characters.

There are a total of 3 flying mages in the game. All of them are limited characters, and all of them are 5-star exclusive.

There are a total of 12 melee cavalry units in the game that are available at 4-star rarity or lower and are not limited characters and not named Jagen or Gunter. Of those, only Eliwood, Frederick, Stahl, and Sully are available at 3-star rarity, all 4 of whom are either mediocre or require a lot of investment to make worthwhile.

There are a total of 13 infantry mages in the game that are available at 4-star rarity or lower, and only 5 of them are available at 3-star rarity (and of them, Nino is the only one that is easy to work with).

There isn't enough character availability to simply assume that a free-to-player or a minnow has enough of the top-line characters to make a full 28-unit team with them exclusively.

 

7 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

The point is that you can reasonably expect to replace your 'Wrath' availability after 3 months, even after spending a 5* Neph or whatever.

This requires a new character with Wrath to be released and drop to 4-star rarity first, which can take some time, noting, for example, that Wo Dao took 3 and a half months for that to happen and Swift Sparrow has now gone 7 and a half months with no 4-star pullable character.

 

10 hours ago, Motendra said:

That Heroes is apparently going that route with this fire kingdom is just... distasteful.

I would argue that living on a volcano gives you every right to have dark skin (as racially darker skin is heuristically more associated with regions of high temperature than with regions of high sunlight exposure, especially for use in fantasy settings), and volcanoes are a far more sinister motif than eternal Christmasland and its Scandanavian-inspired blonde-haired, blue-eyed denizens.

 

5 hours ago, Hilda said:

But even the Askr Trio Weapons were excluded and they dont have that overwhelming effects?!

Since this is Book 2, maybe Alfonse, Sharena, and Anna will get upgraded weapons as "story promotions".

Or at least we can hope.

 

56 minutes ago, MisfitMiju said:

Will they add secondary skills to the breath weapons, or just increase the might and weapon effects.

My assumption is that the generic weapons will just have the basic 4 options of +2 Atk, +3 Spd, +4 Def, and +4 Res on top of the +x Atk and +5 HP that all of the upgrades have built-in.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Ice Dragon

[HK Motendra]

22 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I would argue that living on a volcano gives you every right to have dark skin (as racially darker skin is heuristically more associated with regions of high temperature than with regions of high sunlight exposure, especially for use in fantasy settings), and volcanoes are a far more sinister motif than eternal Christmasland and its Scandanavian-inspired blonde-haired, blue-eyed denizens.

You raise a fair geographical point here that I did not consider. While it doesn't erase the unfortunate implication for me, in this context, it at least sweetens the initial bitter taste I got from it. Thank you.

[Sire]

Why does Fire Emblem Heroes always has to be a rollercoaster ride for me. They do something I dislike, then immediately turn around and say "Hey, look at all this awesome stuff!" This Direct has made up for some of the Ayra debacle in terms of releasing her on a separate banner. If they do it again though...

As for my thoughts...

Spoiler

 

1. New Heroes, and fairly popular ones at that. While I never understood the love for Lute, seeing Joshua is pretty cool. Docas has amazing artwork and seeing Mia is a pleasant surprise. I like the selection, but there is no "must-haves" for me with this reveal.

2. Staff Buffs are an amazing development and I see some skills are being rebalanced by reducing their cooldown charges. I really like and approve of these changes.

3. Expanded Barracks is nice. I had to start using Orbs to expand mine when I was actively playing.

4. The Weapon Refinery solves my personal gripe with the whole Killer Weapons and Slaying Weapons. However, it does open up the possibilities of creating more problems, but like with my stance on Skill Inheritance, I welcome the possibilities and customization.

5. Legendary Hero Summoning Event? Another chance to get Bride!Cordelia? Characters that I want either because I do not own them or could use the merges? An adjusted Focus Rate? This sounds pretty good to me!

6. Book II of Fire Emblem Heroes, complete with an intro cutscene and everything? Damnit IS! As a story guy, this reveal is the strongest factor for me. I look forward to the new storyline and characters.

 

Overall, the reveal has me interested enough to redownload FEH and give it a whirl. It solves one of my problems (Killers vs Slayers, as well as the general reveals of better weapons). However, I am still cautious about this whole thing. There still seems to be a trend of placing higher stats on heroes and increasingly better weapons. There is also the possibility of the Ayra banner being done again with another character down the line (say releasing Micaiah alongside existing heroes).

I'm back in, but am not willing to fully reinvest myself into FEH. I'll need to see where it goes from here.

[dragonlordsd]

11 minutes ago, Sire said:

Why does Fire Emblem Heroes always has to be a rollercoaster ride for me. They do something I dislike, then immediately turn around and say "Hey, look at all this awesome stuff!" This Direct has made up for some of the Ayra debacle in terms of releasing her on a separate banner. If they do it again though...

This seems to always be their strategy, treading that fine balance. On one hand, they do seem to be genuinely trying to uphold the "you can experience everything without paying money" premise, while on the other, they want the cold, hard cash. It was the same with CYL: "Here are these incredibly broken units! But don't worry, we'll let you get any one of them for free, so everyone gets their waifu!"

What this does show is that they were serious when they said they wanted to ensure that units will not be powercreeped. I foresee that the game will be rebalanced more in the future to counteract the next set of powercreeping. In fact, I bet that a base BST increase will be handed out for the old units in a year or two. I mean, who cares about the Ayra crap when she's now part of the super hero fest?

THAT SAID, I'm still not sure how much longer I'm going to stick with the game. For me, the biggest, most massive disappointment has come from the removal of GHBs.

This is the second time we're going an entire month with NO new ghbs, and this time, there aren't any new BHBs to make up for it. There's just nothing but reruns.

That for me is the biggest issue. There aren't any fun challenges in the game any more. Tempest trials are far too easy, chain challenge difficulty peaked with chapters 10 & 11, and arena and AA are just a boring slog through the same five team comps over and over.

[DehNutCase]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

The problem right now is that you're assuming free-to-players and minnows have a full roster. They don't.

You might be underestimating the amount of free orbs given out, I think. A quick headcount of my box shows me as having 29 5* only characters.

Pity Mathilda dropped to 4*, or else the 5 copies of her I pulled at 5* would be counted, but *shrugg.* 29 characters is already 7 full teams.

 

Yeah, they're not necessarily the *best* characters, but that's why you raise up lower rarity characters that are optimized to fill those holes. (I mostly promote for skill fodder, but even despite that I'm pretty sure my lower rarity characters promoted to 5*s outnumber my natural 5*s.)

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Of which 1 of those is a limited character, and 3 of those are locked to 5-star rarity. Only 3 of them are available at 4-star rarity, and I've already covered the pull rates for 4-star characters.

(Limited characters nonethless have better pull odds during their banners than 4* units, you'll need to have had a good stockpile or decent luck to pull them during the limited time, but they're not particularly rare compared to other 5* only units.)

Of the 3 of them available at 4*, the thing is that you aren't pulling for one specific archer if you're just pulling for 'brave bow user,' you're pulling for anyone who can fit the requirements, and it doesn't really matter whether you get Klein, Jeorge, or Leon when you need another brave archer. It's not 200-300 orbs to get a 4* of a given color, it's 200-300 orbs to get every 4* of a given color. (And if you're really desperate for archers you can always drop down to Setsuna's level, bringing with you Clarisse and Gordin as well.)

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Also, not everyone chooses Brave Lyn as their free character.

Even B!Ike or B!Lucina is tough competition for someone like Neph. (B!Roy is on a horse.)

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

There are a total of 5 cavalry mages in the game. Cecilia and Reinhardt are the only ones available at 4-star rarity or lower and aren't limited release characters.

There are a total of 3 flying mages in the game. All of them are limited characters, and all of them are 5-star exclusive.

There are a total of 12 melee cavalry units in the game that are available at 4-star rarity or lower and are not limited characters and not named Jagen or Gunter. Of those, only Eliwood, Frederick, Stahl, and Sully are available at 3-star rarity, all 4 of whom are either mediocre or require a lot of investment to make worthwhile.

There are a total of 13 infantry mages in the game that are available at 4-star rarity or lower, and only 5 of them are available at 3-star rarity (and of them, Nino is the only one that is easy to work with).

There isn't enough character availability to simply assume that a free-to-player or a minnow has enough of the top-line characters to make a full 28-unit team with them exclusively.

I mean, assuming you get a full set of a color's 4*s for every 4 or 5 5* only characters you pull (to account for pity breaker 5* only units that aren't on the focus), I have about 5 color's worth of them. Which seems about right, I don't think I'm missing any 4* units that matter.

 

We can even napkin math the process.

At a rough guess, 1k orbs should get you every single 4* assuming you haven't been sniping a particular color like crazy. Yeah, that's a lot to try to get right off the bat, but not actually too crazy.

There should be about 300 orbs just in the Main Missions, Paralogues, Chain Challenges and Squad Assaults, leaving just 700 left to have a reasonable stock of 4* units to work with.

And then there's the passive orb income of about 100-200 orbs a month (I've never actually counted, so let's ballpark it at 150).

Meaning, after 700/150 = 5 months, a player should have a full set of 4*s. (And, assuming he wasn't stupid when picking focus units to try and pull, he should have at least 5 excellent 5* only units, more likely 10.)

And, of course, every 150 orbs bought shortens the time needed to gather that set of all 4*s and 10 5* only by a month.

 

Honestly, it'd be stranger if a F2P or small Minnow that's been playing for a while didn't have every single 4* unit they cared about.

(Newly released ones filter in slowly, of course, it'll take another 7 or so months for them to gather any minted 4*s, on average, alongside an entire duplicate set of old 4*s, but that time can be shortened by 3 quarters by color sniping.)

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

This requires a new character with Wrath to be released and drop to 4-star rarity first, which can take some time, noting, for example, that Wo Dao took 3 and a half months for that to happen and Swift Sparrow has now gone 7 and a half months with no 4-star pullable character.

I mean, Swift Sparrow is kind of the definition of a mediocre middle of the road skill. L&D beats it in raw offenses and Fury 3 beats it in bulky offenses, and, of course, DB 3 beats it in straight up hitting things as hard as possible. (If SS had been +5/+5 it'd be worth looking at, but, honestly, the only reason to keep it on a character is because they started with it.)

 

And yeah, it'll take awhile before a 4* wrath is released, but, honestly, that doesn't really matter.

Like, I have a Karel, pulled one from his release banner, and he's -Spd/+Hp, so obviously fodder material. He's still alive now, despite the fact that I also pulled an Athena (4*) later. Why? Because, honestly, the sword is only very marginally, very slightly better than a silver sword.

Every single Prf sword is on that level. : /

It's not that I don't have anyone to fodder him to, it's that foddering him doesn't bring a significant change. (Like, giving Selena or any other sword user Wo Dao+ would not earn them a slot on a main team. My main team is a place that forced out optimized Cordelia, so it's pretty spooky competition.)

 

Wrath feels like it has a similar issue---it's not that the effect is bad, it's that the effect is locked to second string units, who'll need more boosts than a unique weapon type/skill to be competitive. If Wrath had ranged weapon access, or even just cavalry access, it'd be in damn high demand as a B-slot Death Blow, but it doesn't.

(Mind, maybe 1.9, which is basically a balance patch, would make melees more viable---if melee weapons gave a ton more stats than ranged weapons, then the extra BST would start to matter. Particularly if melee weapons on infantry/armors/fliers gave more stats than melees weapons on cavalry units. We'll see, though.)

Edited November 15, 2017 by DehNutCase

[Galactaray]

2 hours ago, dragonlordsd said:

This is the second time we're going an entire month with NO new ghbs, and this time, there aren't any new BHBs to make up for it. There's just nothing but reruns.

I agree with your statement that GHBs are great but during the recent datamine a new BHB was found in the files. Presumably will be released tomorrow titled BHB T&H. The map seems to be based off Cheve in Fates and I deduce that it's probably Takumi and Hinata. 

We'll find out tomorrow for sure when the daily reset rolls about.