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General Weapon Refinery discussion/speculation/creation thread


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11 minutes ago, Kaden said:

Anyway, there are some people who are really mad and desperate about Naglfar's typo. Powercreep and getting used to it has definitely ruined some people's expectations.

QR3 (thus freeing up both the B and Seal slot) and conditional (but pretty lenient imo) -4 ATK/RES on foe is unusable apparently.  Not really sure what people were expecting...

Edited by Sayyyaka
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3 minutes ago, Sayyyaka said:

QR3 (thus freeing up both the B and Seal slot) and conditional (but pretty lenient imo) -4 ATK/RES on foe is unusable apparently.  Not really sure what people were expecting...

A dude on the FEH subreddit claimed Mjolnir's upgraded base effect was bad.

Edited by Kaden
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1 hour ago, Kaden said:

Anyway, there are some people who are really mad and desperate about Naglfar's typo. Powercreep and getting used to it has definitely ruined some people's expectations.

More compensation Orbs please. Ha!

Or better yet, roll with the typo so Lyon can hunt down colorless and green units with impunity on both phases!

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38 minutes ago, XRay said:

More compensation Orbs please. Ha!

Or better yet, roll with the typo so Lyon can hunt down colorless and green units with impunity on both phases!

which is warranted and should happen. Lyons refine is meh considering what kind of weapons new units run nowadays if its really just quick riposte.

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Going back to this.

On 3/1/2021 at 7:39 PM, Xenomata said:

The weird thing about regular Hector is that he's really not even the best Axe Armor anymore, all he has going for himself is having the easiest source of Distant Counter (now that he's in the 4* Special pool).

I didn't want to talk too much about Hector since he was not part of this weapon update, but yes, he's not super great and, CYL or not, the developers have either chosen or given very strong effects to a units preexisting prf weapon or newly given one every now and again. Since LA Hector is returning in April and presumably Berserk Armads will be available for refining, well, I guess it should be fine to talk about Hector more. In general, all three axe armor Hectors.

Regular Armads if they go with upgrading its Quick Riposte 2 to an armor fighter skill, then Slick Fighter 3 is in my opinion the better route. Penalty neutralization is still pretty rare with the only inheritable ones being Slick Fighter for armors and only working on enemy phase and Bond 4 skills that require specific positioning and only affecting two stats. Inheriting Slick Fighter 3 to Hector or anyone works as well, but one thing is that it would not overlap with Special Fighter or someone like CYL Lucina who can provide him a Breath effect, so he could combo penalty neutralization with +1 special charge and also -1 special charge on his foe in the case of Special Fighter.

Hector's character and Armads having been used by a berserker, Durban, makes me feel like Bold Fighter being a unique refinement for Armads or even part of its upgraded base effect makes sense. It would also be the first instance of a weapon having Bold Fighter. Null Follow-Up checks it, it would be on a melee armor, and it would need neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attack for more coverage, but an aggressive, perhaps reckless play style feels like it would fit Hector when he was young.

Or as suggested by XRay, Follow-Up Ring would be all right. It would be a big upgrade going from QR2, >= 80% HP and only on enemy phase, to 50% HP and working on both phases. Or even a more lenient HP. The unique refinement then could provide a neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attack for more cover and whatever else.

Berserk Armads probably being part of the next weapon update made me think about perhaps dealing damage could be Hector's (new) niche. It still exists, but Hector and other green armors and also Myrrh, had the shtick of Omnibreaker through having some kind of follow-up prevention and guaranteed follow-up attack on their side. The introduction of Null Follow-Up reduced the effectiveness of that, but it still is effective against those without the means to deal with it.

I'm going to start with the two simpler ones of Berserk Armads and Thunder Armads assuming that the legendary hero remix may also involve weapon refining which did not happen initially as Fjorm and vanguard Ike have Distant Counter weapons. Berserk Armads already has a deals damage effect through its Wrath 3 effect. Two simple things they could give it to make it even more potent are Vantage and Time's Pulse 3 or Quickened Pulse 1 or even 2. Vantage means Hector would not need to wait for it to become a seal to make a Wrath 6 build deadlier and more obnoxious at the cost of not being able to set up Bonfire as easily while Time's Pulse or Quickened Pulse means Hector would not need to have it as his seal to set up for Bonfire to activate on his first round of combat. An effect that nullifies effects that slows down his special charge would further reinforce that. Either way, it covers a missing piece for a Wrath 6 build. The problem with either one if they are a unique refinement and the only effect is that Berserk Armads would remain strictly dependent on special spamming or Vantage shenanigans as it would not really do anything else which is still fine considering how considering dealing 20 damage on top of Bonfire can do a massive number on foes.

Berserk Armads: "Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). At start of turn, if unit's HP ≤ 75% and unit's attack triggers Special, grants Special cooldown count-1, and deals +10 damage when Special triggers." [Unique refinement ideas below].

  • Vantage 3: "If unit's HP ≤ 75% and foe initiates combat, unit can counterattack before foe's first attack." Another condition that provides Vantage can work, but his own HP makes it simpler.
  • Quickened Pulse: "At the start of turn 1, grants Special cooldown count-X to unit." X should be 1 since he only really needs Bonfire to be at 1 cooldown for it proc on enemy phase, but 2 would allow him to have it work on player phase and out of Wrath range if necessary early on in a battle. Overkill for LA Hector's default Glimmer, though.
  • Time's Pulse 3: "At start of turn, if Special cooldown count is at its maximum value, grants Special cooldown count-1."
  • Optional as part of upgrading the base effect or part of the unique refinement: "During combat, neutralizes effects that grant 'Special cooldown charge +X' to foe or inflict 'Special cooldown charge -X' on unit." It could just be the inflict Special cooldown charge-X part since a Wrath 6 Hector mainly cares about charging his own special, but preventing a foe from sneaking in a Special on him would be nice.

Anything else like Fury, the in combat stat boosts and recoil damage of Death and Devil Axe, whatever else to increase his stats, penalty neutralization, a guaranteed follow-up effect, and so on would all be good, but the main thing is what allows him to deal damage. For shits and giggles, doubling down with a Wo Dao effect or Wrath 3 or increasing its base Wrath to do +15 or more damage would funny too. +15 to +20 damage alone from Berserk Armads and then another +10 from Wrath 3 as his B passive. Pretty nasty.

Thunder Armads is interestingly enough the closest to what Armads is like in its home games and also Awakening where it provides some kind of defense boost; Def+3 in Heroes while Def+5 in its home games and Awakening. The other effect is the if allies outnumber foes, then his foe is prevented from making a follow-up attack. Legendary Hector's default shtick leans towards a more enemy phase play style, so the simplest thing to upgrade its base effect would be to make it simply work on enemy phase or relax its condition which as being done with recent weapons like CYL Claude's Wind Parthia, Guinivere's Aureola, Ingrid's Luin, or Jill's Talregan Axe, they have both and it's stupidly easy to work with. Adding a condition to neutralize effects that guarantee a foe's follow-up attack like on unique refined Great Flame and unique refined Maltet would be good as well.

Unrefined, current Thunder Armads: "Grants Def+3. If the number of allies within 2 spaces (excluding unit) > the number of foes within 2 spaces (excluding target), foe cannot make a follow-up attack."

Upgraded base effect ideas:

  • "Grants Def+3. If foe initiates combat or if unit is within 2 spaces of an ally, foe cannot make a follow-up attack and neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks during combat."
  • "Grants Def+3. If foe initiates combat or if foe's HP = 100% at start of combat, foe cannot make a follow-up attack and neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks during combat." Same condition as introduced by Shannan's Balmung, found on the Krises's Blade/Spear of Shadow, Berkut's Dark Royal Spear, Sheena's Crimson Axe, etc. Trades nearby ally condition for foe's HP = 100%.
  • "Grants Def+3. If unit's Def ≥ foe's Def+1, foe cannot make a follow-up attack and neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks during combat." This Myrrh's refined Great Flame condition. Add in if foe initiates combat or whatever if you want to hurt Myrrh's feelings give it another means of activating.

Optional things would be to give legendary Hector a bit more stats, neutralize penalties, reverse penalties or bonuses, or whatever as part of it, but I think preventing follow-up attacks and neutralizing effects guaranteeing follow-up attacks is enough at least for the base effect.

The damage dealing shtick for legendary Hector would be simple: allow him to deal damage = 20% of his defense. Whether it's part of the base effect or on its own as a unique refinement, it would let him do more damage or make it so a foe cannot prevent themselves from being chipped to death. =Def legendary Hector has 41 defense with Thunder Armads equipped, the same speed number as flying Nino with Giga Excalibur incidentally, so 20% of his defense would be 8 damage. The old Ward Armors stacking would grant him Def/Res+12 if he's within 2 spaces of 3 armors with it, so he would have 53 defense and 20% of that would be 10.

This could also work for regular Armads instead, but I figure since legendary Hector's defense is higher than regular Hector, resplendent or otherwise, due to Thunder Armads's Def+3 and possibly more defense depending on it that happens to Thunder Armads or not for or as much for regular Armads, that legendary Hector could deal more damage from his defense compared to regular Hector. There is no stopping them from sharing this effect, though. Dealing damage equal to 20% or 25% of a foe's defense would work too and with legendary Hector's slightly higher defense before any stat boosts, perhaps a defense check version of Spurn would work better for him while regular Armads deals damage in general either through scaling off of Hector's defense or his foe's defense or even a simple Wo Dao effect.

Also, except for Binding Blade, none of the other legendary weapons of Elibe have effective damage against dragons. Because why not, let's have regular, Berserk, and Thunder Armads all gain effective damage against dragons. I mean, it's a massive goddamn slab of metal called an axe. You'd figure that would hurt like shit regardless if you were a dragon or not. Apocalypse and Saint's Staff are the only ones remaining to be introduced that could show up with effective damage against dragons. Otherwise, a variant of the ones in Heroes or as an upgrade.

Edited by Kaden
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RIP, Lyon fans -- IS has spoken and they have effectively stated that they will not buff Lyon; they will only correct the weapon description. Lyon's refine isn't terrible (it's certainly a lot better than what the Robins got) but it's certainly not amazing, especially in 2021. I guess he could run something like Lull Atk/Res for his B-slot and Renewal or Death Blow as his seal now. 

A 5*+0+0 Lyon with refined Naglfar (with the effects active), TA3, and Death Blow 3 seal can OHKO a +10+10 Legendary Alm (assumed to have no Res boon) with +7 Res buff on initiation.

L'Arachel's refine is... meh. I won't use her over Reinhardt or Ursula.

Ishtar's refine is very nice -- with Windsweep, she's a conditional Firesweep mage. Can do some dumb stuff with Luna, Time's Pulse, and Flashing Blade.

Ayra's refine is pretty disgusting though like Legendary Claude, she would not want to be on the receiving end of a Brave weapon unless she has something like Spurn.

Halloween Nowi's refine is terrifying, especially if she were to run something like Atk/Res Unity. Can certainly be fun to use in gamemodes like Rival Domains.

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1 hour ago, Roflolxp54 said:

RIP, Lyon fans -- IS has spoken and they have effectively stated that they will not buff Lyon; they will only correct the weapon description. Lyon's refine isn't terrible (it's certainly a lot better than what the Robins got) but it's certainly not amazing, especially in 2021. I guess he could run something like Lull Atk/Res for his B-slot and Renewal or Death Blow as his seal now. 

A 5*+0+0 Lyon with refined Naglfar (with the effects active), TA3, and Death Blow 3 seal can OHKO a +10+10 Legendary Alm (assumed to have no Res boon) with +7 Res buff on initiation.

L'Arachel's refine is... meh. I won't use her over Reinhardt or Ursula.

Ishtar's refine is very nice -- with Windsweep, she's a conditional Firesweep mage. Can do some dumb stuff with Luna, Time's Pulse, and Flashing Blade.

Ayra's refine is pretty disgusting though like Legendary Claude, she would not want to be on the receiving end of a Brave weapon unless she has something like Spurn.

Halloween Nowi's refine is terrifying, especially if she were to run something like Atk/Res Unity. Can certainly be fun to use in gamemodes like Rival Domains.

I think IS did Lyon dirty if you compare him to his Fallen Form. QR isnt enough, they should have added something else or implement the effect with the wrong description, that would have been actually a good but not overwhelming refine, since he could be then a dualphase unit. That QR alone wont help much when everyone and their mother are running Nullfollow up and impact skills.

I really hope they make Julius great.

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38 minutes ago, Hilda said:

I think IS did Lyon dirty if you compare him to his Fallen Form. QR isnt enough, they should have added something else or implement the effect with the wrong description, that would have been actually a good but not overwhelming refine, since he could be then a dualphase unit. That QR alone wont help much when everyone and their mother are running Nullfollow up and impact skills.

I really hope they make Julius great.

Umm... yes. Compared to his 5 star exclusive fallen form, his weapon is indeed lackluster. But like... that's any unit. If you look at any f2p unit in the game, there is almost always a far superior 5 star exclusive unit who does the same role. Lon'qu was looking pretty good at his Spurn tanking role until Ayra's refine made her a goddamn monster.

 

It's phenomenal by GHB weapon standards, and it's easily the best raven tome we have available.

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
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Yeah, if the only way to view Lyon has having been "done dirty" is to compare him to relatively recent 5-star exclusive units, then I don't feel it's a reasonable complaint at all. His benchmark consists of the other grail units (well, GHB units since seasonals are mostly ignored) and possibly general 3-4* pool units. I mean, look at Sophia...

Perhaps some of the reaction is due to his relative popularity (which mystifies me, my reaction to him in my playthrough was "I pity the fool") but then the complaint really should be that he was a GHB unit in the first place. Meanwhile the general tone of the complaints seem to simply desire special treatment for him above and beyond other GHB units simply because of personal favouritism.

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I'm disappointed with Lyon's Refine because it forces him into an enemy-phase role only. This is fine, but it would have been nice to be able to use him in a different way. 

L'Arachel's refine is kinda of disappointing too. The +3 too all stats puts L'Arachel's BST slightly above modern Tome Calvary after DF, and the refine effect is nice, but it isn't really any different than other weapons like Pact Blooms+. Considering the cost, I think I'll stick to just using Valentine Veronica. 

Ayra's refine is really good. The innate +3 Atk / Spd put her attacking stats on par with Larcei, ignoring damage reduction skills on specials is good, and the additional +4 to all stats + innate damage reduction makes her the top sword infantry once again. 

Nowi's refine is insane for both support and usability. I think this refine might make her one of the best heroes in the game. She'll open up a lot of movement options to other heroes, especially with Guidence. It also helps that her weapon has top tier supportive effect as well.

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24 minutes ago, FoxyGrandpa said:

L'Arachel's refine is kinda of disappointing too. The +3 too all stats puts L'Arachel's BST slightly above modern Tome Calvary after DF, and the refine effect is nice, but it isn't really any different than other weapons like Pact Blooms+. Considering the cost, I think I'll stick to just using Valentine Veronica. 

Ayra's refine is really good. The innate +3 Atk / Spd put her attacking stats on par with Larcei, ignoring damage reduction skills on specials is good, and the additional +4 to all stats + innate damage reduction makes her the top sword infantry once again. 

Nowi's refine is insane for both support and usability. I think this refine might make her one of the best heroes in the game. She'll open up a lot of movement options to other heroes, especially with Guidence. It also helps that her weapon has top tier supportive effect as well.

I feel like you're not looking at the right weapons... at all.

Ivaldi retains its original Def +3 effect, but it does not provide an additional +3 boost to any other stats. It does boost L'arachel's combat stats when the enemy is above 75% HP, but this isn't a physical boost, ergo it does not affect her BST.
Ayra's Blade does not have any effect on damage-reduction, nor does Regnal Astra. The refine lets her disable enemy skills like Heavy Blade, Guard, or refined Blazing Durandal.
Grimoire is... uh, if I'm honest you are really overhyping it. Yes the mobility it offers herself and others is great, and the AoE debuff is good for teams that rely largely on Magical damage, but... I mean, it's really not like it makes her one of the best units. It's good, but she still has meh defenses and can't really do anything about it.

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17 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I feel like you're not looking at the right weapons... at all.

Ivaldi retains its original Def +3 effect, but it does not provide an additional +3 boost to any other stats. It does boost L'arachel's combat stats when the enemy is above 75% HP, but this isn't a physical boost, ergo it does not affect her BST.
Ayra's Blade does not have any effect on damage-reduction, nor does Regnal Astra. The refine lets her disable enemy skills like Heavy Blade, Guard, or refined Blazing Durandal.
Grimoire is... uh, if I'm honest you are really overhyping it. Yes the mobility it offers herself and others is great, and the AoE debuff is good for teams that rely largely on Magical damage, but... I mean, it's really not like it makes her one of the best units. It's good, but she still has meh defenses and can't really do anything about it.

In optimal conditions, L'Arachel will get +3 to all stats. This doesn't boost her bst, yeah, but it makes up for the 12 point stat deficit she'll have when compared to modern Mage Calvary. 

My bad about Ayra. I just glossed over the refine effect haha. Still, disabling Guard and Special Fighter is really good for a character who is relying on Regnal Astra procs for damage. 

Perhaps you're right that I'm overestimating Nowi, espicially since her BST is quite low by todays standards. Still, having that much mobility lets her do a ton of things other heroes can't. She might not be the best unit necessarily, but the refine does turn her into a must-have unit imo. 

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5 hours ago, Humanoid said:

Perhaps some of the reaction is due to his relative popularity (which mystifies me, my reaction to him in my playthrough was "I pity the fool") but then the complaint really should be that he was a GHB unit in the first place. Meanwhile the general tone of the complaints seem to simply desire special treatment for him above and beyond other GHB units simply because of personal favouritism.

Building on this thought, anyone complaining about Lyon getting relegated to a Grand Hero Battle unit is conveniently ignoring the fact that he also has a Fallen version, and that version of him is extremely busted. While it's unfortunate that this version of him is being treated at par for a free unit, not many free units have the benefit of having a second version of the unit, much less, a canon version of the unit, and even fewer have one that is as powerful as Fallen Lyon

 

1 hour ago, FoxyGrandpa said:

In optimal conditions, L'Arachel will get +3 to all stats. This doesn't boost her bst, yeah, but it makes up for the 12 point stat deficit she'll have when compared to modern Mage Calvary.

The only problem with that assessment is that every modern tome cavalry with an exclusive weapon also gets 13-27 points of stats from their weapon on top of their base stat advantage.

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2 hours ago, FoxyGrandpa said:

In optimal conditions, L'Arachel will get +3 to all stats. This doesn't boost her bst, yeah, but it makes up for the 12 point stat deficit she'll have when compared to modern Mage Calvary. 

My bad about Ayra. I just glossed over the refine effect haha. Still, disabling Guard and Special Fighter is really good for a character who is relying on Regnal Astra procs for damage. 

Perhaps you're right that I'm overestimating Nowi, espicially since her BST is quite low by todays standards. Still, having that much mobility lets her do a ton of things other heroes can't. She might not be the best unit necessarily, but the refine does turn her into a must-have unit imo. 

The way I was reading it, it sounded like you were saying she would have an actual BST boost for Arena scoring. Kinda my bad.

You know thinking about it, maybe there's a way to work Save skills into Nowi's strat... like, Nowi can immediately jump two spaces in front of Gustav/Dedue and Henriette/whatever Armor with Far Save, move one of the two to within Nowi's range, and assuming Nowi took out an enemy you suddenly have an optimal positioning for Save skills to trigger. Throw in a fourth unit who can just clean up all the other enemies... hm, kinda wish I tried a little harder to get Gustav and Henriette, to be fair their color balancing was just awful...

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7 hours ago, Xenomata said:

The way I was reading it, it sounded like you were saying she would have an actual BST boost for Arena scoring. Kinda my bad.

You know thinking about it, maybe there's a way to work Save skills into Nowi's strat... like, Nowi can immediately jump two spaces in front of Gustav/Dedue and Henriette/whatever Armor with Far Save, move one of the two to within Nowi's range, and assuming Nowi took out an enemy you suddenly have an optimal positioning for Save skills to trigger. Throw in a fourth unit who can just clean up all the other enemies... hm, kinda wish I tried a little harder to get Gustav and Henriette, to be fair their color balancing was just awful...

Yeah, I am trying to think of additional strategies to utilize Save skills, but none of the ideas I thought of feels as foolproof and universal as a Reddit users' idea of sticking 2+ Flayns with them.

One idea I thought of is to utilize Arden with Saves for Røkkr Sieges because he will basically always force the Røkkr to eat four attacks on any phase. I quite like this idea, but it is pretty niche since it only applies to one mode.

Another idea is to use a Weapon-less Save tank for training purposes in Special Training Maps, but it feels like a massive waste of resources when you can do the same with Azama and Wrys already and just have them block a choke point.

Another idea I thought of after reading @Ice Dragon's preference for only using one Save tank is to protect a Counter-Vantage unit from Fireweep and Hardy Bearing enemies using a Save tank in the back, but the Save tank in the back cannot selectively Save the unit in front from only those enemies, so this idea still needs a lot of thinking through and refining if it is viable at all.

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Some things I liked about Halloween Nowi's refinement are that you can use her for Rally Traps, since she can rally unit outside her normal flier range. Not sure how good she would be as a +0 copy, but for people that invested hard on her... it could be nice.

You can also run Guidance and/or Flier Guidance, and like... Nowi moves 2 spaces from ally, and that ally can move to adjacent to Nowi that is 2 spaces from them.

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2 hours ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Some things I liked about Halloween Nowi's refinement are that you can use her for Rally Traps, since she can rally unit outside her normal flier range. Not sure how good she would be as a +0 copy, but for people that invested hard on her... it could be nice.

You can also run Guidance and/or Flier Guidance, and like... Nowi moves 2 spaces from ally, and that ally can move to adjacent to Nowi that is 2 spaces from them.

Even with +0, she can still be useful and go on a suicide mission to apply a Seal stat debuff, Fatal Smoke, and whatever other Seal or Smoke on her Sacred Seal slot.

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12 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

The only problem with that assessment is that every modern tome cavalry with an exclusive weapon also gets 13-27 points of stats from their weapon on top of their base stat advantage.

True. What makes it even worse is that the inheritable Pact Blooms gives an innate plus 17 to 19 points of stats after a refine and also has a self healing effect (though its slightly weaker) so new units that don't have a prf can replicate its effect (though imo the condition is a bit more restrictive).

 

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22 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Umm... yes. Compared to his 5 star exclusive fallen form, his weapon is indeed lackluster. But like... that's any unit. If you look at any f2p unit in the game, there is almost always a far superior 5 star exclusive unit who does the same role. Lon'qu was looking pretty good at his Spurn tanking role until Ayra's refine made her a goddamn monster.

 

It's phenomenal by GHB weapon standards, and it's easily the best raven tome we have available.

I dont think thats a valid excuse. If they kept him dualphase (like he was with the wrong description) and gave him Close Counter on top of it he would be even considered a good not busted but good unit and he would have his niche. All he is now is a glorified tank for non infantry mages/bows (and he does it worse then his fallen counterpart), because Null Follow up shuts him down and Spurn makes any playerphase nukeing from Lyon redundant.

Slow Infantry units need more then what Lyon got, that counts for mages or melees, because unlike other class types they dont get the benefit of spurn or Null-Follow up makeing them basicly pre Infantry buffs unit, and we all know Infantry sucked in those times.

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Thoughts dump, I guess.

By coincidence, we have three weapons with a Killer effect and the if foe's Def >= foe's Res+5, deals 7 damage effect: Niles's Bow and Nina's Spy-Song Bow have both as its base effects and Leif's unique refined Light Brand gains a Killer effect along with the if foe's HP = 100%, grants Spd/Def+4 to him during combat. Leif's Light Brand introduced the effect and interestingly, Niles kept his inheritable Killer Bow's Killer effect and gained the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect for his bow while Nina kept her inheritable Shining Bow's effect and gained a Killer effect for her Spy-Song Bow. The if foe's Def >= foe's Res+5, deals 7 damage effect isn't that great and arguably is a bonus effect on Light Brand, Nile's Bow, and Spy-Song Bow, so it kind of make sense that another effect would accompany it and as noted, a Killer effect was involved in some way either by default as the base effect or through a unique refinement.

Currently, we only have one other character with the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect and it's Tanya. It will take some time before we get to her as she is a gen 4 unit, albeit with gen 3 physical ranged BST, so it will be curious if we might end up four for four with a Killer effect paired with the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect. This does assume that another character doesn't show up with the Light Brand/Shining Bow effect such as it somehow making it onto a new unit's prf weapon, someone else shows up with Shining Bow or a different weapon type, or an older unit receives a prf weapon with the effect. It also assumes that when Tanya becomes part of a weapon update that her prf bow keeps Shining Bow's effect as they could give her something completely different.

Now to two other units I want to talk about: Gerome and Libra. Keeping with the theme of damage dealing, Libra's depicted with Bolt Axe in his official art and in his Heroes art. Yet in-game of both games, he does not come with a Bolt Axe by default, instead, he has a Killer Axe in Awakening and introduced Wo Gun as the regular summoning pool version of Giant Spoon. People figured that he will end up with Bolt Axe and that possibly a legendary Robin or if it comes to it, CYL Robin would have Levin Sword. Not sure if people said the same for Awakening Anna, but anyway, Gangrel has Levin Sword and was introduced as a infantry dagger with Levin Dagger that does not target resistance, but instead, uses his resistance to deal damage if his foe has a penalty. Regardless, like Flame Lance, Levin Sword, Light Brand, and Runesword, Bolt Axe deals magic damage where Light Brand and Runesword do so at 2 range and deal physical damage at 1 range. In Heroes, Flame Lance is the closest to how it worked in Path of Radiance where it calculates damage using the foe's resistance and inflicts Spd/Res-5 when Petrine's HP is >= 50%. Levin Dagger and Light Brand involve resistance in some way, but do not target it and Narcian's Runeaxe only has the healing part of Runesword.

To cut to the point, if and when Libra is part of a weapon update and he does get Bolt Axe, Flame Lance would a great inspiration. Otherwise, Crusher or the dragon breaths' target the lower of a foe's defensive stat and at worst I guess, Light Brand/Shining Bow. If it keeps Wo Gun's effect, then sure, but a Killer effect as stated countless times would be very flexible. Now, that leaves what else about Libra and he's a war monk. He can heal and comes with a Mend and a Ward staff and Healtouch and Miracle for his skills. War monks also learn Renewal which Libra has as his default B passive in Heroes. Genny's Springtime Staff's unique refinement's and Guinivere's Aureola's "Restores 7 HP to unit and allies within 2 spaces after combat" which at this point might as well be called Breath of Life 4 would work well to reference Libra being a war monk. He can't switch to a staff like in a main Fire Emblem game, but he can have an effect to emulate it by granting him the ability to heal himself and others.

So, for Libra with Bolt Axe.

  • Base effect:
    • "Deals +10 damage when Special triggers." Keep Wo Gun's base effect.
    • "Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1)." Reference him having a Killer Axe in his inventory in Awakening.
  • Unique refinement:
    • "At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, calculates damage using foe's Res, and inflicts X/Res-5 on foe during combat." X for Atk or Spd depending on if Libra should be geared to take less damage per hit or be able to double or avoid doubles more.
    • "At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, calculates damage using foe's Res, and grants: 'If unit’s HP > 1 and foe would reduce unit’s HP to 0, unit survives with 1 HP. (Once per combat. Does not stack.)'” As a reference to priests/clerics learning Miracle.
    • "Calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res..." This would be neutralized by Mystic Boost. Can be paired with something else like the Miracle effect or Light Brand/Shining Bow as well if it seems not enough.
    • "If foe's Def ≥ foe's Res+5, deals +7 damage." Probably the worst one, but paired with healing or something else, is an okay bonus effect. Sort of.
    • And "Restores 7 HP to unit and allies within 2 spaces after combat." Reference to Libra being a war monk by giving him the ability to heal in some way despite being an axe infantry and unable to switch to a staff in Heroes.

Gerome would be our third melee unit who has an inheritable effective against a cavalry weapon for a weapon update after Gray and Mathilda. Following Gerome would be Heath. Gray's Laid-Back Blade kept Zanbato's effective damage against cavalry and added on if his HP is >= 50%, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+3 during combat while Mathilda didn't as her Knightly Lance is only a prf Killer Lance. Support partner effects can be potent, but with Mathilda's Knightly Lance could have kept effective damage against cavalry as well or had something else. I do wish that the units who had inheritable weapons with effective damage against armors or cavalry weapons had the neutralizes armored/cavalry foe's bonuses during combat from the inheritable weapon's unique refinement I guess for the prf weapons they gained as part of the weapon update they were in. So, Bartre, Caeda, Est, Florina, Frederick, Gray, Hana, Mathilda had she kept effective damage against cavalry, Raigh, Rhajat, Oboro, Selena, Tobin, and Ursula. Also Clair who gained Rhomphaia with its effective damage against armor and cavalry and Clive since he gained a prf Heavy Spear. Caeda and Clair are iffy given that their prf weapons have effective damage against armor and cavalry and neutralizing bonuses to both movement types would be more than a bonus. Back then, field buffs were common and in-combat buffs or debuffs were not as common or easy to access. That said, it would have been neat and for some of the units, they were part of later weapon updates where in-combat buffs or debuffs became more common and accessible or field buffs are more easily dealt with.

Back to Gerome, perhaps they could do this where he has a prf Poleaxe with bonus neutralization against cavalry. For what they could draw from him and in Awakening, he comes with Strength +2 which hilariously enough in Heroes he has kind of the opposite with Fortress Def 3 and Tantivy which could be translated as a Solo or more restricted, as the more foes than allies effect like that of Dracofalchion, Flame Siegmund, Laid-Back Blade, and Wolf Berg. Griffon Riders learn Deliverer and Lancebreaker where I am not sure how they could translate Deliverer in Heroes and we have not had a unit gain a weapon with a specific -breaker. It could have happened with Setsuna, but she got something different. Wyvern Lords learn Quick Burn which the closest thing would be Push skills, specifically tier 4 ones, and Swordbreaker where it goes further and we have not had a unit have a specific -breaker that works at against foes who have WTA. The closest thing to this would be Gustav's Glitnir.

To sum for Gerome with a prf Poleaxe:

  • Base effect: "Effective against cavalry foes. [Optional] Neutralizes cavalry foes' bonuses (from skills like Fortify, Rally, etc.) during combat."
  • Unique refinement:
    • "If unit is not adjacent to an ally or if foe initiates combat, inflicts Atk/Def-5 on foe during combat and neutralizes foe's bonuses to Atk/Def (from skills like Fortify, Rally, etc.) during combat." Based on unique refined Dark Greatsword and Unbound Blade to reference Tantivy. To go with Gerome's stats, having it work on enemy phase would make it easier for him. That condition could be removed to balance it out for all stat bonus neutralization and if that's fine, then it could keep the it works on enemy phase too. Atk/Def-5 can be replaced by Atk/Def/Res+5 and it could neutralize or reverse penalties on him instead.
    • "If unit is not adjacent to an ally or if foe initiates combat, inflicts Atk/Def-5 on foe during combat and Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack.)" Guard instead of bonus neutralization. Maybe could remove enemy phase as another way to activate the condition for "grants Special cooldown charge +1 to unit/per unit's attack" depending on if it would be fine for Gerome to have the Special charge on his attack and from taking an attack from his foe like a Breath or only on his attack like Heavy/Flashing Blade.
    • "In combat against a sword foe or lance foe, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack and foe cannot make a follow-up attack." To reference Griffon Riders learning Lancebreaker and Wyvern Lords learning Swordbreaker in Awakening. With it being that specific against only two weapon types, I figure it could work without a HP threshold or some other condition other than Gerome not being dead and fighting against lance or sword foes. Would be shut down by Null Follow-Up and he's not that fast to break through some units with Wary Fighter effects; Gerome has the same speed as Effie. Could add in some stat boost, "neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks", or something else if needed.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Nowi being an Arena bonus unit this week gave me a pretty good chance to test out her new refine, and I'm definitely impressed with it. The Arena bonus stats help, of course, but I'm also not running her completely maxed out, so an optimized build without the Arena bonus stats would have similar performance.

I'm running +10 Halloween Nowi [+Spd] (Grimoire [unique], Reposition, Moonbow, Swift Sparrow 2, Desperation 3, Hone Fliers, Guidance 3). A more optimized build would run Swift Sparrow 3 (or Steady Impact to deal with Distant Counter) and Spd/Res Rein 3 (since I have no other fliers on my team).

Grimoire + Guidance is a pretty fun skill combination for team mobility (I was using Brave Hector, Legendary Julia, and Legendary Alm as teammates). Grimoire's 3 debuff radius also ensures that anything teleporting in with Guidance will benefit from the debuff.

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Putting in my sure-to-be-wrong predictions for next month early.

 

Hector

Gerome

Sothe

Maribelle

Valentine's Hector

 

Specific wishes

Spoiler

Armads' QR3 upgraded to Vengeful Fighter 3. Tack on (possibly conditional) Null Follow-Up 3 and removal of armor weakness. This would be his ultimate defensive set, complementing both Bold Fighter and his traditional Wary Fighter/QR Seal setups.

 

Berserk Armads is already solid, so I don't know why it's even up for a refine. But maybe add a Brazen Atk/Def 3 for synergy?

 

I definitely don't want Peshkatz to render Saizo's or Matthew's weapons completely redundant. So I'd take a different angle with him - buffing himself and his support partner in combat (+4 atk/spd) within 2 spaces and eliminating stat penalties on atk/spd.

 

Maribelle's staff to provide Wrathful Staff 3, Trilemma+, and Pain+. 

 

Gerome to gain Mother's Protection - a modified Cherche's Axe that has the brave effect, Virion's AoE panic ploy effect, and refines to become a dual-phase brave at the cost of -5 res.

 

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On 3/21/2021 at 8:17 AM, Fabulously Olivier said:

Putting in my sure-to-be-wrong predictions for next month early.

Hector

Gerome

Sothe

Maribelle

Valentine's Hector

 

It is a solid prediction... I would change Sothe for Soleil though, to remove another color share in the banner and make the banner 3 colors instead of only 2.

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