General Weapon Refinery discussion/speculation/creation thread

[Azuni]

Ceci's refine is exactly what I wanted (second realistic pick after lull Atk/Res for special refine), the anti-flier is an amazing cherry on top. Legion's seems cool, but Shiro is laughable and Setsuna was hopeless barring some super insane effects baked in.

I'll still keep bladetome on my 5+10 +spd Ceci so she can counter LChroms, but my baby 5+3 one can upgrade from generic TA raven to having a real A slot for one shotting +10 LAlms more easily.

[XRay]

13 minutes ago, Kaden said:

@XRay, I'm curious about your thoughts on Legion considering he's the second axe infantry after Rinkah to have a Blade effect on his axe through its unique refinement where it works off of his foe's HP being >= 75% rather than on enemy phase or not being at full health for Rinkah. There's also the other thing of Legion's defense being much lower than Rinkah making it easier for him to get into certain HP ranges against physical units. He doesn't have access to assets and his base speed with factoring his axe's effects is lower than Navarre's and slightly lower than +Spd Ogma's since Ogma's base neutral speed is 34 and Legion's highest level 1 stats are HP, Atk, and Spd, so he will end up with 40 Spd after merges to +Spd Ogma's 41 after merges.

I do not think Legion is a good Galeforcer on offense or in player's hands in my opinion, but I think he has a really strong place on defense where he can be a Wings of Mercy Galeforcer. He can work well Kempf or another cavalry unit with a Lovely Gifts Weapon, Fury, Lunge/Drag Back/Hit and Run, and double Savage Blow.

[Jotari]

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I do like how Celica, a teacher, has a tome that focuses most on utilizing the most basic principal of the game.

[XRay]

8 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I do like how Celica, a teacher, has a tome that focuses most on utilizing the most basic principal of the game.

That is an interesting perspective. But yeah, thinking about it that way, her Refine is pretty neat.

[Nym]

58 minutes ago, XRay said:

They are not lacking in my opinion. At the very least, they got player phase, dual phase, and support completely covered.

WOT!Olwen is an amazing nuke. She essentially has 35/40 offensive stat spread. Blade tomes are still the hardest hitting Weapons in the game.

SP!Selena got 37 base Atk, which is pretty good for Counter-Vantage. Her Spd is not lacking either if the player wants to go full player phase.

Yarne can Galeforce during his first round of combat without using Heavy Blade. He is also the only viable Galeforcer for Resonant Battles. For Galeforcers, being able to Galeforce without eating up valuable Sacred Seals is much more important than combat performance.

PP!Veronica got automatic follow-up on both phases. Automatic follow-ups are pretty strong in player hands, and even if Null Follow-Up becomes more common on enemies, that just means other types of nukes on your team will have an easier time dealing with those enemies, as Null Follow-Up does nothing against regular Desperation nukes, Brave nukes, Blazing nukes, one shot nukes, and Galeforcers.

Kaden can provide a huge amount of buffs, much more than M!Corrin, and a shit ton more than Ranulf. Panic is an issue though.

Except all of them that you mentioned are 5 stars exclusives. In fact, more than half of green cavs are 5 stars.

If you remove all 5 stars and seasonals (meaning 4 star Sylvain), you are left with only 9 green cavs in the 3/4 star category: 5 axes, 2 green tomes and 2 green bows.

Then take 3 units off the table because they are grails units and unless they are your favorite units, you wouldn't have any reasons to summon for them at the moment in a very competitive pool. Not to mention they all lack refines at the moment (could change with Walhart's future refine).

You are left with three axe cavs, two of them had not very good refines and one supportive refine easily countered by panic and restrict teams. One green tome who has become the staple Raventome cav and two green bow cavs.

That's not a lot to work with if you ask me.
 

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Nym

[XRay]

1 minute ago, Nym said:

Except all of them that you mentioned are 5 stars exclusives. In fact, more than half of green cavs are 5 stars.

If you remove all 5 stars and seasonals (meaning 4 star Sylvain), you are left with only 9 green cavs in the 3/4 star category: 5 axes, 2 green tomes and 2 green bows.

Then take 3 units off the table because they are grails units and unless they are your favorite units, you wouldn't have any reasons to summon for them at the moment in a very competitive pool. Not to mention they all lack refines at the moment (could change with Walhart's future refine).

You are left with three axe cavs, two of them had not very good refines and one supportive refine easily countered by panic and restrict teams. One green tome who has become the staple Raventome cav and two green bow cavs.

That's not a lot to work with if you ask me.

The later posts talked about green cavalry in general, not just free player friendly ones, and they mentioned Ranulf, so I expanded my pool of good/top-tier green cavalry units to 5* exclusives.

[Othin]

Walhart is probably a ways away from getting a refine, since he's currently got about 13 other grail units ahead of him in line: Valter, Arvis, Arden, Joshua, Oliver, Lyon, Fallen Takumi, Gerome, Saias, Finn, Kana M, Julius, and Canas. Given that we've only been getting one a month, that could take a while. 

[Kaden]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

I do not think Legion is a good Galeforcer on offense or in player's hands in my opinion, but I think he has a really strong place on defense where he can be a Wings of Mercy Galeforcer. He can work well Kempf or another cavalry unit with a Lovely Gifts Weapon, Fury, Lunge/Drag Back/Hit and Run, and double Savage Blow.

Wouldn't double Savage Blow be a bad idea? With the unique refinement, Legion wants his foes' HP to be >= 75% in order for him to get Atk/Spd+5 and +1 Special cooldown charge. Depending on the foe's max HP, they could drop below 75% HP and Legion would fail the HP check.

Something that came to mind was by coincidence, Saizo's Star gained Penalty Doubler for its unique refinement for the version 3.6.0 update on June 10, 2019 and CYL Micaiah who was introduced two months later, August 16, 2019, had Penalty Doubler as an effect on her Light of Dawn. It's all a coincidence, but it would be interesting for a CYL unit to end up with Sneering Axe's "Inflict penalty on foe's Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat = current bonus on each of foe's stats x 2. (Example: if unit has -7 penalty to Atk, grants Atk+14, for a net bonus of Atk+7.)"

Sneering Axe's effect combined with Chao Ragnell's or Demonic Breath and Fimbulvetr's penalty addressing effects would be very nutty as it would allow the unit to deny field buffs and debuffs altogether.

That is to say, "Inflict penalty on foe's Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat = current bonus on each of foe's stats x 2. (Example: if unit has -7 penalty to Atk, grants Atk+14, for a net bonus of Atk+7.)" with either:

• "Grants bonus to Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat = current penalty on each of unit's stats × 2. (Example: if unit has -7 penalty to Atk, grants Atk+14, for a net bonus of Atk+7.) Calculates each stat bonus independently." (Chaos Ragnell.)
• "At start of combat, if [Penalty] is active on unit or if unit's HP < 100%, neutralizes penalties on unit and grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 during combat." (Demonic Breath and Fimbulvetr.)

Demonic Breath and Fimbulvetr's effect would be more flexible as the unit can still gain Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 if their HP is not full, so they would not be reliant on fighting foes with field buffs or them being debuffed. I wonder who this would make sense for? I don't think any of the CYL4 units would make sense to have a weapon with these effects. Claude only comes to mind because of who he is and I only vaguely know about him and the other Three Houses character since I have yet to play it, but as far as I am aware, his personal skill and weapons associated with him do not do anything like this.

Laegjarn and Legault or Tethys having Sneering Axe's effect would be neat as well. Laegjarn's Níu has the effect of: "Adds 50% of total bonuses on foe to unit's Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat", and The Cleaner has the effect of: "Grants bonus to unit’s Atk = total bonuses on foe during combat." Turning field buffs around like that would be hilariously insulting.

Suppose Laegjarn's foe has a standard +4 to all stats, so a total of +16 bonuses. She would get Atk/Spd/Def/Res+8 from Níu's base effect and her foe would be inflicted with Atk/Spd/Def/Res-4 from the Sneering Axe effect which effectively means Laegjarn has Atk/Spd/Def/Res+12. Neutral Laegjarn would then have 60 Atk, 51 Spd, 48 Def, and 29 Res just because her foe had +4 field buffs to all their stats.

For a unit with a prf version of The Cleaner which probably makes more sense for Legault since he does mention using underhanded tactics a lot while Tethys is more of a support unit, a foe with +4 to all stats results in +16 Atk and the Sneering Axe effect would add a little more salt to the wound by inflicting Atk/Spd/Def/Res-4, so +20 Atk essentially and a bit more speed and bulk for Legault. He's not the greatest user of The Cleaner since his attack is not as high as other units like Sothe who leads Legault by 5 points in attack, but a prf version of The Cleaner closes the gap by 2 points being a 14 Mt dagger and the Sneering Axe effect would allow him to at least match the attack of other dagger units with higher attack than him. A neutral Legault would have 41 HP, 45 Atk, 38 Spd, 24 Def, and 19 Res with a prf, probably non-Brave dagger. With The Cleaner's effect active against a foe with +4 to all stats, then he would have 61 Atk and with the Sneering Axe effect, he would have 65 Atk, 42 Spd, 28 Def, and 23 Res.

The main issue is that they would be reliant on their foes having field buffs. Without them, they would just be running prf weapons that may or may not have a stat boost in the case of Laegjarn. Still would be fun, though.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Kaden

[XRay]

18 minutes ago, Kaden said:

Wouldn't double Savage Blow be a bad idea? With the unique refinement, Legion wants his foes' HP to be >= 75% in order for him to get Atk/Spd+5 and +1 Special cooldown charge. Depending on the foe's max HP, they could drop below 75% HP and Legion would fail the HP check.

I just realized I read the effect backwards. I thought the effect only works when the enemy's HP is 75% or less.

In that case, yeah, I think Legion is a pretty amazing Galeforcer on offense. Slaying Axe is not necessary since infantry units got access to Time's Pulse.

Now I kind of regret investing into Raven. Raven has amazing combat performance for sure, but he eats up Flashing Blade, which is no bueno in my opinion. Combat performance is a dime a dozen. Flashing Blade is much harder to come by and distribute properly.

Edited August 6, 2020 by XRay

[bottlegnomes]

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Well, Green Olwen isn't the most amazing unit in the world, but she has a refinable blade tome with no cooldown penalty. That's pretty good. Then there's Ranulf if you count beast units.

But yes. Green cavalry in general are really, really lacking. Probably the weakest, least saturated unit type.

So what you're saying is they need to give us Gustav already. And throw on some additional effects.

But yeah, I wasn't counting beasts. In my mind they're distinct, though they are essentially cavalry from a gameplay PoV.

Edited August 6, 2020 by bottlegnomes

[Xenomata]

5 hours ago, Othin said:

Walhart is probably a ways away from getting a refine, since he's currently got about 13 other grail units ahead of him in line: Valter, Arvis, Arden, Joshua, Oliver, Lyon, Fallen Takumi, Gerome, Saias, Finn, Kana M, Julius, and Canas. Given that we've only been getting one a month, that could take a while. 

Assuming they don't finally begin refining DC weapons, in which case he also has to wait in line with Xander, Camus, and Black Knight.
Though they could begin refining Grail units en masse one month...

[Kaden]

11 hours ago, XRay said:

Now I kind of regret investing into Raven. Raven has amazing combat performance for sure, but he eats up Flashing Blade, which is no bueno in my opinion. Combat performance is a dime a dozen. Flashing Blade is much harder to come by and distribute properly.

Worst case scenario is you have another Arena Assault filler who happens to have Galeforce or whatever the hell you threw onto him. It's like having twenty units with Axebreaker and maybe an anti-armor weapon because you can't have enough units to counter some particularly troublesome axe armors. What part of "NEVER COME BACK!" do you not understand, old man?

[Diovani Bressan]

Refinements are out (for iOS at least)

 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Diovani Bressan

[Xenomata]

Holy crap these aren't Gen 2 weapons anymore... these almost go beyond Gen 4 weapons.

• Celica no longer has any reason not to always have Galeforce triggered... except, you know, if she kills the enemy in one hit... but now she doesn't even need to rely on some outside help to get Galeforce down to full charge. That's awesome, not many units have been able to lay full claim to such until this year.
• Hector up and added two whole effects to the BASE effect of Maltet in addition to the refine. Armor effective-neutralization, erased penalties, a massive enemy debuff, and even threw in enemy-inflicted Wary Fighter. The only thing missing from this mess of effects is Special Fighter!
• Base Garm now neutralizes any effects that'd prevent his follow-up. The refine throwing a full spectrum boost wasn't even that necessary when we already knew he'd be getting in-combat health recovery.
• And here it is, the first refinable Prf Staff... and it... DOESN'T pass on Veronica's field buffs to allies like we were thinking, but instead has a 3-range effect zone buff for allies, debuff for enemies. That... actually is pretty neat, but when the other three refines added so much to their weapons, it feels kinda... boring to see Veronica get just two effects, good effects yes but still.

Massive. None of these units were even that bad before, maybe a little behind the times but I still saw Hector and Ephraim, Veronica is still a powerful healer... Celica yeah no one used her, not even me and I +10ed her... but THIS. Oh man. Wonder how people are gonna try and downplay these refines.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Xenomata

[Diovani Bressan]

Celica became an amazing Hero now, and there is no point in not using her sword now. She can easily keep Galeforce and Double Lion.

Hector got a huge boost! Not only NFU in enemy phase, but also wary in enemy phase. And now not weak to "effective against armored" effects!!! Also immune to Penalties, which is great!

Garm also got the NFU effect, and the refinent is so good as well. Ephraim still competes with the Edelgards though.

Veronica is simple but very efficient! 3 range buffs and debuffs is so good!

Fun fact about staves refinement: there is no option for Atk, Spd, Def or Res refinements. Only the special effect is available.

[Jotari]

Just to be clear, Royal Sword's healing effect happens after Double Lion's damage effect, right?

[Diovani Bressan]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Just to be clear, Royal Sword's healing effect happens after Double Lion's damage effect, right?

It's like Mystic Boost, that triggers after combat

Royal Swors heals 7, Double Lion deals 1, so Celica ends healing 6 after combat and can keep the Double Lion effect.

[XRay]

AOTB!Ephraim will want Armor Stride and Armor March Sacred Seal to have a Bonus always active.

AOTB!Hector looks pretty strong too, and I think all he really needs is just Armor Stride-Armor March combo for mobility. 

AOTB!Celica does not a Sacred Seal to Galeforce consistently now, so that is really good.

AOTB!Veronica is decent. It is basically Atk/Spd+3 with an additional Atk+3 for the supertank if the enemy is melee ranged. I wish the range is increased to 4 though so it debuffs ranged enemies targeting the super tank too.

Edited September 7, 2020 by XRay

[Fabulously Olivier]

These aren't weapon effects - they're novellas.

[Clear World]

Not saying it's bad and this is just my fault due to really high expectations, but I am actually disappointed with Celica's refined or more precisely, as a mean to use Double Lion and taking account to her innately high speed.

Celica has a really high base SPD, and her kit really does nothing with it nor does it have much synergy with her base kit. 7 HP after combat is not going to be good enough to remain at 100% HP for Double Lion if she gets damage from the foe at all. I still feel like it will be still be best to drop her Double Lion effect for one of those damage reduction passive if possible.

Though, on the other hand if DoubleLion is used, it is a 16+5 MT weapon that will fully charge Galeforce with its first two strikes. That's something, I guess.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Clear World

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Dang, really liking the look of Hector's refine. Seems to me he might be better with something like Vengeful Fighter, and not his native Bold Fighter?

[LoneStar]

That Hector is looking great, I might refine him first! And here I was down playing armors in another thread earlier.

[Kaden]

Garm

• Base: "Grants Atk+3. If a bonus granted by a skill like Rally or Hone and/or extra movement granted by a skill like Armor March or Armored Boots is active, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack."
• Refined: "Grants Atk+3. If [Bonus] is active on unit, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack and neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks."
• Unique: "At start of combat, if unit's HP >= 25%, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 during combat, and also, if unit deals damage to foe during combat, restores 7 HP to unit. (Triggers even if 0 damage is dealt.)"

Spoiler

Slight rewording for the bonus thing, but it now has a partial Null Follow-Up effect where it neutralizes effects that prevent his follow-up attack like the effects of Axebreaker, Great Flame, Wary Fighter, and if you really want to run a wild build on him, +Spd CYL Ephraim with Watersweep or Windsweep. He's not the fastest of units, but +Spd CYL Ephraim has 30 base speed which becomes 35 with with its unique refinement, 41 with a Hone Armor or some +6 speed field buff, and so on. The unique refinement was partially known, namely, the restore 7 HP per attack effect. The Spectrum buff was not known and how exactly the unique refinement worked which requires CYL Ephraim to stay at or above 25% HP. For a =HP Ephraim, he has 49 HP with the unique refinement's HP+3, so his HP needs to be at least 13 for the effect to work; 13/49 is about 26.5% of his HP.

Compared to CYL Edelgard who shares a >= 25% HP condition for her Flower Hauteclere and Black Eagle Rule, CYL Edelgard has a Killer effect, has higher mobility through being able to give herself +1 movement and being able to warp to allies within 2 spaces by being in that HP threshold, her follow-up attack effect is tied to the HP condition, and she reduces her foe's follow-up attack on enemy phase by 80%. For stat boost, Flower Hauteclere inflicts Atk/Def-6 which is like Atk/Def/Res+6 for her. CYL Ephraim trades a Killer effect, self-mobility buffing, damage reduction on a foe's follow-up attack, and effectively Atk/Def/Res+1 for Spd+5, 7 HP per attack healing which is more consistent, but weaker than instant Noontime or Sol with support, and being able to neutralize effects that deny his follow-up. Garm's follow-up effects requiring a buff to be active on him does adds another requirement to fulfill, but it also means he can be below the 25% HP threshold and still be able to have the follow-up attack and neutralizing follow-up prevention. Also, because the effects are on Garm and not Black Eagle Rule, a B passive, CYL Ephraim's B passive is open to which he has Special Fighter by default, so he can have an instant Noontime or two cooldown special like CYL Edelgard.

Stat-wise, neutral CYL Ephraim has 49 HP, 57 Atk, 27 Spd, 37 Def, and 26 Res with unique refined Garm equipped. When his HP is 13 or higher, he will have 62 Atk, 32 Spd, 42 Def, and 31 Res in combat.

Neutral CYL Edelgard has 46 HP, 61 Atk, 16 Spd, 43 Def, and 35 Res with Flower Hauteclere equipped. When her HP is 12 or higher, her foe will be inflicted Atk/Def-6 which is like Atk/Def/Res+6 for her, so she effectively has 67 Atk, 16 Spd, 49 Def, and 41 Res, but since it's a buff to her, she won't be able to get more damage from specials like Bonfire.

Anyway, CYL Ephraim to CYL Edelgard is +3 HP, -5 Atk, +16 Spd, -7 Def, and -10 Res. CYL Ephraim has an attack and resistance superasset and CYL Edelgard has a defense superasset, so the stat gaps can change depending on their asset. I feel like +Atk is both their best superasset due to their sustain.

Hlidskljalf

• Base: "Foe cannot counterattack. After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Atk/Spd/Def/Res-4 on target and foes within 2 spaces of target through their next actions, and grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 to unit and allies within 2 spaces for 1 turn."
• Refined: Unchanged.
• Unique: "Grants Atk/Spd+3 to allies within 3 spaces during combat. Inflicts Def/Res-3 on any foe within 3 spaces of unit during combat."

CYL Veronica kind of becomes a mini-Mila with unique refined Hlidskjalf with its 3 spaces Drive Atk/Spd and Def/Res "Rein" -- in quotes because Reins are fliers only. Mila's Nurturing Breath does not inflict in-combat penalties, instead buffing her allies Def/Res as well, but has a much larger range of 7 rows and 7 columns. Sharing titles, she trades a Breath buff and Def/Res buffs for being able to buff all allies instead of only physical damage allies like CYL Lucina. They have yet to put a seasonal unit as part of a weapon update, but maybe New Year's Gunnthra's Hikami should have its base effect of Threaten Spectrum that affects the nearest foes within 4 spaces to upgraded to an in-combat debuff. Woohoo! Inflicting Atk/Spd/Def/Res-4 to foes within 4 spaces of her would be fun.

Anyway, along with Sothe, Ranulf probably should be part of a weapon update soon. Sothe was known since CYL Veronica's reveal while Ranulf only has grants Atk/Def+3 to allies within 2 spaces as his Covert Cat Fang's other effect with Def+3. It works on all allies unlike Geirskogul, but now it has less range than refined Hlidskjalf and also does not grant any other stat boosts, in-combat debuffs, a Breath effect, or whatever. Spectrum Drive would be fine or perhaps Joint Spectrum Drive.

Although the CYL2 free pick banner expired, she was and still is used in some guides. That said, unequipping and equipping things is probably worth the inconvenience for the support. It's like the Joint Atk/Spd Drive of F!Morgan's unique refined Father's Tactics, but if F!Morgan was available as a free pick.

Maltet

• Base: "Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If unit's HP ≥ 50% and foe initiates combat, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack."
• Refined: "Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). Neutralizes 'effective damage against armored' bonuses. If unit's HP ≥ 25% and foe initiates combat, neutralizes unit's penalties and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack."
• Unique: "If foe initiates combat or if foe's HP = 100% at start of combat, inflicts Atk/Def-6 on foe during combat and foe cannot make a follow-up attack."

Spoiler

I was wondering about if we had an armor who had a built-in Svalinn Shield, neutralizes "effective against armored" bonuses, effect and I realized we didn't. Spring Idunn & Fae do not have built-in Svalinn Shield through their weapon or a personal skill, but can neutralize anti-armor and anti-dragon effects with their Duo Skill while winter Sothis like her regular self only neutralizes "effective against dragon" bonuses. The other units with the ability to neutralize effective through their weapon or personal skill are Garon through his Breath of Blight and all fliers: Altina through Ashera's Chosen, Ashnard through Gurgurant, F!Grima through Dragonskin, Hel with her Reaper, and Mininerva through Dragoon Shield. Garon like Sothis neutralizes effective damage against dragons and all the fliers neutralize effective damage against fliers. Well, talk about good timing since CYL Hector is the first armor with built-in Svalinn Shield through refined Maltet. Now, that leaves only beast, cavalry, and infantry for a unit with a neutralizes effective damage effect. Infantry is not so important since we don't have an anti-infantry prf to begin with and Poison Dagger cannot be inherited. Similarly, anti-beast weapons are common; there's only four: CYL Eliwood's Ninis's Ice Lance, picnic Felicia's Eldhrimnir, picnic Flora's Saehrimnir, and Petra's Hunting Blade.

Anyway, refined Maltet's Quick Riposte 5 is now Quick Riposte 7.5 if I did the math correctly. Quick Riposte 3 has a >= 70% HP threshold, so 4 would be 60%, 5 would be 50%, 6 would be 40%, 7 would be 30%, and 8 would be 20%, so Quick Riposte 7.5. In addition to the much more generous QR range, it also neutralizes penalties on him which is always useful, but that means he shouldn't run a Unity skill with refined Maltet in those weird cases where you would not want to run Ostian Counter. The unique refined effect's stance that also works when a foe's at full HP is a stronger version of Draug's Stalwart Sword and has a similar outcome as Berkut's Dark Royal Spear; Stalwart Sword inflicts only Atk-6 on the foe when they initiate and Dark Royal Spear grants Berkut Atk/Def/Res+5 when his foe initiates or is at full health where unique refined Maltet inflicting Atk/Def-6 is like Atk/Def/Res+6 for CYL Hector. The follow-up denial is helpful, but it kind of sucks that it didn't also have a partial Null Follow-Up effect like Myrrh's unique refined Great Flame having "neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks during combat." A unit with Null Follow-Up is unaffected, but for those with a guaranteed follow-up effect of some sort like Lancebreaker or CYL Lysithea's Dark Spikes T, they will have to go through a speed check and CYL Hector's not exactly fast.

The combined effects of unique refined Maltet and Ostian Counter is when a foe initiates against CYL Hector when his HP is >= 25%, he is granted Atk/Def+4 through Ostian Counter's Sturdy Stance 2 and his foe is inflicted Atk/Def-6 through Maltet's unique refinement for effectively Atk/Def+10 and Res+6 for him, he is able to counterattack against ranged units through Ostian Counter's Distant Counter, he makes a guaranteed follow-up attack, and his penalties are neutralized. If his foe is at full health and he initiates, then he just gets the Atk/Def-6 and follow-up prevention effect from Maltet's unique refinement and Bold Fighter's or Special Fighter's effects.

Overall, pretty damn good and he especially stands out as the first armor with a neutralizes effective against armored effect. Also at this point, there is no reason for Armads to not be part of a weapon update soon what with Binding Blade, Bow of Devotion, and unrefined Maltet having Quick Riposte 5 and now refined Maltet having Quick Riposte 7.5 to Armads's Quick Riposte 2.

Royal Sword

• Base: "Grants Spd+3. If unit is within 2 spaces of an ally, grants unit Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack.)"
• Refined: "Grants Spd+3. If unit initiates combat or is within 2 spaces of an ally, grants unit Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack.)"
• Unique: "At start of combat, if unit's HP >= 25%, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 during combat, and also, after combat, grants Special cooldown count-1 and restores 7 HP."

The base effect is much more lenient and works with her being a player phase unit with her default kit, specifically Death Blow 4 and Double Lion. Its the exact same requirements as CYL Claude's Wind Parthia: initiate or be within 2 spaces of an ally. The unique refinement's HP condition is funny since it's means she's the only Celica, after a unique refinement since unrefined Beloved Zofia requires witch Celica to be at full health, who needs to be above a certain HP range rather than below it. Regular Celica, witch Celica, and legendary Celica all want their HP to be below a HP range for their weapon or personal skill's effect to be active; regular Celica wants her HP to be <= 80% for unique refined Ragnarok's Brazen Atk/Spd 3, witch Celica wants her HP or her foe's HP to be less than full for unique refined Beloved Zofia's in-combat Spectrum buff and restore 7 HP per attack effects, and legendary Celica's Soul of Zofia has Desperation 3 and Null Follow-Up 3 where she wants her HP to be <= 75% for its Desperation 3.

Anyway, like CYL Ephraim, we knew part of Royal Sword's unique refinement: the heal after combat, but not the rest of it. Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 helps in that it means if you don't want to run Double Lion, you can run something else as Double Lion mainly wants Atk/Spd. Lulls, speed check damage reduction effects, and Wrath among others would work. Mystic Boost would be funny since she would be able to heal 13 HP after combat. That said, kind of sucks the healing had to be there for Double Lion. I feel like they could have just updated/upgraded Double Lion like remove the 1 HP recoil damage or have the threshold be >= 75% HP. Oh no, CYL Celica is better and it's not through her refined Royal Sword. Is that really controversial?

As a whole, all good, but not I don't think anyone has gotten close to CYL Ike. CYL Veronica is the CYL Lyn of CYL2, so it kind of makes sense why her unique refinement isn't anything crazy. It's good and really helps for support, but not insanely crazy like if it was a 3 spaces, support version of Bramimond's Impenetrable Darkness or a damage reduction, Null C-Disrupt, or Null Follow-Up support effect. I feel like the standout one is CYL Hector purely because of the neutralizes effective against armored effect from refined Maltet. As discussed in his section, he's the first armor to have built-in Svalinn Shield, so that gives him a unique niche now.

8 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Dang, really liking the look of Hector's refine. Seems to me he might be better with something like Vengeful Fighter, and not his native Bold Fighter?

Vengeful Fighter would overlap with refined Maltet as refined Maltet already has the guaranteed follow-up attack on enemy phase and its HP threshold is more flexible at >= 25% to Vengeful and unrefined Maltet's >= 50%. The only benefit would be Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack. His default Bold Fighter is fine for giving him a follow-up attack on player phase and Special cooldown charge +1 per his attack while Special Fighter would be better for enemy phase to give him Special cooldown charge +1 and inflict Special cooldown charge -1 (Guard) on his foe on either phase when his HP is >= 50%.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Kaden

[Zapp Branniglenn]

And this is why we hang on to 800 dew

[Icelerate]

40 minutes ago, Kaden said:

Vengeful Fighter would overlap with refined Maltet as refined Maltet already has the guaranteed follow-up attack on enemy phase and its HP threshold is more flexible at >= 25% to Vengeful and unrefined Maltet's >= 50%. The only benefit would be Special cooldown charge +1 per unit's attack. His default Bold Fighter is fine for giving him a follow-up attack on player phase and Special cooldown charge +1 per his attack while Special Fighter would be better for enemy phase to give him Special cooldown charge +1 and inflict Special cooldown charge -1 (Guard) on his foe on either phase when his HP is >= 50%.

VF3 is good against impact users so I disagree with you. But I can see an argument for SF3 or BF3 as an alternative.