General Weapon Refinery discussion/speculation/creation thread

[Diovani Bressan]

1 hour ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

No Canas this refine batch, huh. Hopefully the next one. But, I am looking forward to seeing what Legendary Marth and Hector get.

Following the grails order, Canas should be in December. This batch would be his time if wasn't for Linus to get a new weapon.

[Naoshi]

"Remaining Book 1+2 Units for the Weapon Refinery (As of version 5.11" credit to u/Greid_IX

I guess Book 3 refines are still far 😞

[Florete]

I wonder if Ophelia will end up hanging with Hector, Reinhardt, and Olwen.

[Xenomata]

1 hour ago, Florete said:

I wonder if Ophelia will end up hanging with Hector, Reinhardt, and Olwen.

I dunno... she's certainly considered a great unit, fantastic even, and continues to be used to this day (probably also on top of numerous tier lists).
On the other hand, Ophelia and the Missiletainn Tome don't break any of the normal rules that say that she can't get a refine. It almost seems like Hector and the Dire Thunder twins are just about forgotten at this point (even though Hector hasn't been relevant for years)

[Othin]

At this rate, Winter Ephraim could be the first non-CYL Book 3 unit to get a refine.

[Diovani Bressan]

A new update, some new refinements:

[Rinco]

Tiki just got a ball of stats, but I think that still works out. On her weapon alone (with her C skill triggered) she gets +13 Def/Res. If you factor in her Savior triggering and the bonuses from her Prf C skill, that's +23 Def/Res. 
She still needs some form of Guard. You can either run some Stance on the A slot or Special Fighter. I'll have to see how I'll build mine. Wish I had Blue Flame fodder.

Now, L!Marth is insane. He's the winner here IMO.

[FlyingKitsune]

I got a Legendary Roy recently, and enough dew for L!Marth. This'll be fun.

[NSSKG151]

Went and got Kaze's refine. It was about what I expected him to get. Flashing Blade on his weapon lets him shoot off an Iceberg or Glacies quicker. Will probably get Tiki's refine later. Marth's looks like the best of the bunch if I read his effect correctly. Unfortunately I don't have him.

Edited November 4, 2021 by NSSKG151

[NegativeExponents-]

I really wish they went all in on support for Hector's refine. Or gave him built-in savior. It's still good, don't get me wrong, but I feel it doesn't synergize with his Ostian Pulse 2

[Florete]

None of them seem bad, but also none of them are Maltet. I suspect Marth's is the one people will expect to see most but Tana's is the one that will get the most mileage.

[Xenomata]

~LegMarth got a pretty sizable stat boost. Not counting the bonus from the Bonus Doubler effect, he gets at base +8 to all stats, and he will also benefit from any penalties he might have. Double Bonus Doubler is quite frightening now too, since he just GETS +6 to all stats if he has Shining Emblem and Bonus Doubler triggered. Oh boy, LegEliwood will be his bestest friend from now on...

~LegTiki got a good refine, all things considered. Not like that was in question, considering all she had originally was dragon effectiveness and Distant Counter. She gets a lot bulkier too. Only true shame is that she has to be compared to Ascended Fjorm as a DC Far Save tank, but LegTiki's prf Far Save certainly gives her an edge...

~LegHector has a simple refine overall. -10 Atk/Def on foe and 40% damage reduction on the foes only permitted attack... yeah should work just fine. @NegativeExponents- you're gonna have to elaborate, what exactly would have "synergized" with Ostian Pulse 2?

~Okay so... Fanged Basilikos is exactly on par wit original Basilikos when unrefined, minus the Def/Res -5 penalty. What the actual fuck.
And of course the refine itself is good. I think that's the same effect as the Plegian weapons?

~Huh... Helbindi certainly went in an interesting direction. Retains the Odd Wave triggers, but being within that range of an enemy isn't the hardest thing to accomplish. Plus a total of Atk +10 to himself and -10 penalty to the enemy when all conditions are met, PLUS follow-up nullification. Not bad...

~Kaze gets Atk/Spd/Res +8 and Flashing Blade 4. Not doing his defense any favors, but an overall good offensive boost. Makes him a good demote unit for newer units to take a look at.

~Kliff's refine... it certainly exists!
...okay but honestly, I have some doubts. It's true that his Atk is low enough at base that he can get off Sagittae's base effect reliably, and putting Guard on him is nice and all, but... hm, I dunno, it's not like he totes that much bulk with just his base stats, so I wonder how long he would last in practice. Good thing Close Reversal exists...

~Tana's special refine is... kinda disappointing, not gonna lie. But that refined base effect? The stuff of Guidance dreams. ANY unit within two spaces of her? She just became the ultimate Guidance unit.

I dunno why people are saying Marth's refine is the best. His stat ball potential is massive yes, he's now able to absorb Chills/Sabotages or whatnot safely, but that's really all he got, compared to some of the effects the other units got (hell even Kaze got Flashing Blade 4 on top of his stat ups, and he's a 4* unit), he wouldn't be hard to stop with a particularly bulky Blue unit with follow-up prevention, if he isn't stopped by Panic infliction...
But they are all quite good looking. I'm pleased to see that Tiki, Helbindi, and Kliff all got some new goodies to play with, Kaze certainly has something good to take a closer look at, and I'm quite scared that they specify "including when dealing damage with a special before combat" because that lowkey tells me that Ophelia will NOT be disappearing from the meta anytime soon...

Edited November 4, 2021 by Xenomata

[Ice Dragon]

Fanged Basilikos

Base effect is the Slaying effect and +5 Atk and Spd when at 25% HP or higher.

Refine effect is -5 Spd and Def to the opponent and the in-combat version of Panic for Spd and Def, both effects active if the opponent is at 75% HP or higher.

Basically, it's exactly the same as Basilikos, but with the addition of an in-combat Panic for Spd and Def and with the removal of the Def and Res penalties from Life and Death.

So it's basically just Basilikos. The in-combat Panic effect makes it a superior weapon in the Arena where Rallies are prevalent, but Linus still has to deal with the fact that his base Spd is pretty garbage.

Kaze's Needle

Base effect is the Slaying effect and +4 Atk, Spd, and Res with a Blow or Unity condition.

Refine effect is +4 Atk, Spd, and Res when at 25% HP or higher and Flashing Blade 4.

This brings Kaze's Spd up to 51 with an Asset and max Dragonflowers, compared to Leila's 53 and Yuri's 54, so that's pretty damned good. The stat boost and Flashing Blade 4 completely makes up for his awful Atk stat, bringing him up to an effective 61 Atk with max Dragonflowers compared to Leila's 58 and Yuri's 60, which is damned impressive.

His 46 Res with max Dragonflowers is decent, as it gives him 92 single-hit magic bulk at +10 merges, which should be enough to survive a counterattack from most magic users if they don't charge up their Special, but his 67 single-hit physical bulk makes him unreliable against bows, daggers, and anything with Distant Counter.

Really, really good weapon nonetheless.

Exalted Falchion

Base effect is unchanged (effective against dragons, +3 permanent Spd, Bonus Doubler 3), but now also grants +4 to all stats when at 50% HP or higher or when a Bonus is active.

Refine effect is +4 to all stats and the Unity effect for all stats, both with a Blow or Unity condition.

So basically Legendary Marth got an extra +8 to all stats and penalty reversal. The former of which is a massive boost to stats, bringing him up to 51/66/55/48/37 at +10+20 with just his weapon equipped and before accounting for an Asset. The latter of which is basically the Dull Panic he desperately needed, though it doesn't fully restore his stat bonuses like Dull Panic would have. He's an absolute fucking monster of a stat stick.

Combined with the fact that Binding Shield II gives him both Windsweep 3 and Watersweep 3 without their drawbacks, he looks like the game's single best candidate for Atk/Spd Ideal 4 and an absolute pain to deal with on enemy phase.

Fruit of Idunn

Base effect is +3 permanent Spd, +5 Atk and Spd if the opponent's HP is 75% or higher, and the Guidance + Flier Guidance effect upgraded in the same way as Grimoire's Aerobatics + Flier Formation effect (no HP restriction and teleporting unit can teleport to within 2 spaces of the target).

Refine effect is Joint Drive Atk + Joint Drive Spd.

As expected, Fruit of Idunn gets the exact same upgrade to its base effect as Grimoire, granting +5 Atk and Spd and upgrading its teleport effect. Joint Drive Atk + Joint Drive Spd is slightly worse than Grimoire's effect, as it doesn't grant any boost to bulk, but it gets around that with the fact that it has larger effective range.

The teleportation effect is going to be absolutely terrifying to deal with on defense teams, as it can grant a unit up to 4 spaces worth of movement even when affected by Gravity.

With max Dragonflowers and a Spd Asset, Tana hits 59/54 offenses with just her weapon equipped, compared to Duo Byleth's 58/54 and Constance's 63/54, which is pretty decent, granted she doesn't get any other combat effects on her weapon and doesn't even really need combat performance in the first place to be useful due to her superlative movement support.

Sagittae

Base effect is upgraded to +3 permanent Def, +5 to all stats when opponent's Atk is higher than Kliff's Atk (previously needed to be at least 5 points higher), and boosts damage by 15% of the opponent's Atk, even on AoE Specials (new effect).

Refine effect is +4 to all stats and Guard when at 25% HP or higher.

The much easier condition to activate the base effect's stat bonuses is an extremely welcome improvement. Kliff also now gets a mini Ruptured Sky with every attack, which makes up for his otherwise lackluster Atk stat, as it deals an additional 10 damage against opponents with at least 67 Atk.

At +0+0 with no Asset and only his weapon equipped, he hits an effective 37/53/46/37/37, with his effective Atk going up to 63 against opponents with 67 Atk and 65 against opponents with 80 Atk. With max Dragonflowers and no Asset, he hits 41/57+α/50/41/41 with Guard, compared to Gatekeeper's 42/58/18/50/43 with follow-up prevention. Pretty solid.

Thunder Armads

Base effect is upgraded to +3 permanent Def, follow-up prevention if there is an ally within 3 spaces (previously if there were more allies than enemies within 2 spaces), and -5 Atk and Def to the opponent if there is an ally within 3 spaces (new effect).

Refine effect is -5 Atk and Def to the opponent and 40% damage reduction from the first attack if the opponent's HP is 75% or higher or with a Stance condition.

As predicted, the unit comparison condition was removed and replaced with an easier condition. Otherwise, Hector just gets an effective +10 Atk, Def, and Res and 40% damage reduction from the opponent's first attack compared to previously, which is pretty good as long as the opponent doesn't have a way to get around his follow-up prevention.

I can potentially see Legendary Hector being used as a Far Save tank due to his 40% damage reduction, good bulk, and follow-up prevention, though his low visible Res does leave him especially vulnerable to AoE Specials. Unfortunately, due to the fact that he doesn't have the Slaying effect on his weapon, he's forced to run Sacred Cowl instead of Aegis if you run a Hardy Fighter set, as Ostia's Pulse II doesn't help him if he is attacked more than once in a single phase.

Byleistr

Base effect is replaced with +5 to all stats at the beginning of the turn to self and allies within 2 spaces with a Menace condition and +5 Atk to self and -5 Atk to the opponent if the opponent is at 75% HP or higher. All effects are active with no conditions on odd-numbered turns.

Refine effect is +5 Atk to self and -5 Atk to the opponent and follow-up prevention with a Blow or Unity condition.

The original base effect is upgraded from +4 to +5, from 1 range to 2 range, and with a much more lenient condition. I really like the way the new turn count condition is implemented in that it just disregards all conditions on odd-numbered turns.

Other than the improved Wave effect, he effectively gets +10 Atk, Def, and Res and follow-up prevention. No guaranteed follow-up on player phase is a bummer, but he's still going to be effective on enemy phase.

Divine Mist

Base effect is unchanged (effective against dragons, Distant Counter) with no additional effects.

Refine effect is +4 to all stats when at 25% HP or higher and an in-combat penalty to the opponent's Atk equal to 75% of her own total Def and Res bonuses.

Tiki's Res is still not great for a Far Save unit. At +10+15, she has 55/61/46/48/40 with only her weapon equipped and before accounting for an Asset, but that gives her only 36 visible Res before accounting for Bonuses. With +6 to both Def and Res, her defenses are boosted to 63/55 before accounting for With Everyone! II's in-combat stat boost, but a single Lull drops the corresponding stat by 11 points, which is a huge blow.

That said, even though her visible Res makes her vulnerable to AoE Specials, she does have access to Dragon Wall, which is a huge help.

At +10+15 with a Spd Asset and only her weapon and C skill equipped, Tiki has 55/65/53/52+15/44+15 compared to Ascended Fjorm, who has 43/64/50/36/45 at +10+5 under the same conditions. I think Tiki's best build is probably something like this:

+10+15 Legendary Tiki [+Spd (+Res)]
Divine Mist [unique]
[Assist]
Moonbow / Noontime (/ Ignis)
Swift Stance 4
Dragon Wall 3
With Everyone! II
Spd/Res Bond 3 / Distant Def 3 (/ Steady Breath)

This set without the Sacred Seal and Ascended Asset gives Tiki 55/65/59/52+15/50+15 with 36+6 visible Res and 50+6 Res for Dragon Wall to run off of. Given her high Spd allowing her potentially forgo the Guard effect from a tier-4 Stance skill, she could run Spd/Res Bond 4 instead for an additional +1 to both stats and immunity to Penalties in those stats given that she's likely a Chill magnet... except the skill still doesn't exist yet. Spd/Res Unity also doesn't exist yet.

 

Overall thoughts

Fanged Basilikos is pretty clearly the weakest of the bunch, being only barely better than the original Basilikos. Divine Mist is somewhat underwhelming, but Tiki is already carried by the fact that her new exclusive skill grants her more stats than the usual Save skill and the fact that she has access to Dragon Wall.

Otherwise, all of the other refines are rock solid, even Kliff's, who I was the most worried about. Kaze, Marth, and Kliff are the biggest winners here, as Kaze and Kliff are actually now completely viable, and Marth is now a massive stat stick and an utterly terrifying Sweeper.

I'm a bit annoyed Swift Stance 4 has such awful distribution, like all of the other tier-4 Stance skills, and Spd/Res Bond 4 and Spd/Res Unity still don't exist. Same with Spd/Def Bond 4 and Spd/Def Unity, both of which Ascended Fjorm would like to have since she's also difficult to double and can therefore potentially forgo Guard. I feel like Fjorm would have been a perfect unit to release one of those two skills with.

EDIT: I am also running out of staffies to give refines to for Dew. Dammit.

 

40 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I dunno why people are saying Marth's refine is the best. His stat ball potential is massive yes, pair him with Gunnthra or a Smoke Dagger user or even just give him a Menace skill and his potential simply skyrockets beyond the roof, but that's really all he got, compared to some of the effects the other units got (hell even Kaze got Flashing Blade 4 on top of his stat ups, and he's a 4* unit), he wouldn't be hard to stop with a particularly bulky Blue unit with follow-up prevention, if he isn't stopped by Panic infliction...

Panic doesn't stop him, though. The stat bonus from his refine is from his own penalties, not his opponent's penalties, which means even if he is hit with Panic, he still gets the Panic partially reversed. Additionally, if he soaks up Chill or Shrine debuffs, he also gets a bonus from that for his first action.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Ice Dragon

[Xenomata]

22 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Panic doesn't stop him, though. The stat bonus from his refine is from his own penalties, not his opponent's penalties, which means even if he is hit with Panic, he still gets the Panic partially reversed. Additionally, if he soaks up Chill or Shrine debuffs, he also gets a bonus from that for his first action.

I did realize my mistake and changed my comment, but even still being a giant statstick is about all he has to his name outside of dragon effectiveness and Binding Shield's full Sweep effect. No NFU, no special acceleration, no Null Guard effect. Many effects that would normally benefit a PP unit he simply doesn't have, leaving him open to being countered by a bulky blue unit fairly easily, or really any non-dragon bulky unit with follow-up prevention (and he can't even replace Binding Shield 2 with NFU, else he loses the full Sweep effect)
And correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't most of his statups be removed if he is facing an opponent with full Enemy Bonus Nullification effects? Light and Dark, Dull Melee, those kinds of skills? I'm not sure if I'm reading the skill right, but maybe not?

Edited November 4, 2021 by Xenomata

[Ice Dragon]

54 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I did realize my mistake and changed my comment, but even still being a giant statstick is about all he has to his name outside of dragon effectiveness and Binding Shield's full Sweep effect. No NFU, no special acceleration, no Null Guard effect. Many effects that would normally benefit a PP unit he simply doesn't have, leaving him open to being countered by a bulky blue unit fairly easily, or really any non-dragon bulky unit with follow-up prevention (and he can't even replace Binding Shield 2 with NFU, else he loses the full Sweep effect)
And correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't most of his statups be removed if he is facing an opponent with full Enemy Bonus Nullification effects? Light and Dark, Dull Melee, those kinds of skills? I'm not sure if I'm reading the skill right, but maybe not?

He doesn't need Null Follow-Up because Binding Shield II gives him a guaranteed follow-up against everything that he activates Sweep against. The only way to block his follow-up is to have both Null Follow-Up and follow-up prevention (or disable the effect entirely by having enough Spd), which is an extremely rare combination of skill effects to have.

Dull effects do completely nullify all of his bonus-related effects, but he's still getting +8 to all stats from the effects that don't rely on bonuses, which is still nothing to sneeze at. Even with no bonuses, he has 51/66/58/48/37 at +10+20 with a Spd Asset, and maxing out his Atk and Spd with Atk/Spd Ideal 4 and Atk/Spd Solo 3 in the A and Sacred Seal slots, respectively, gets him to a monstrous 79/71 offenses (and that's without the second stack of Ideal) and gives him a guaranteed follow-up and Sweep against any opponents with 66 Spd or less (which is pretty much everything).

Edited November 4, 2021 by Ice Dragon

[XRay]

Marth: Hero-King's Refine seems more geared towards super tanks. You are fucked if I get buffed, and are still fucked if I get debuffed or Panicked. With Binding Shield II, he seems like a weird hybrid between a super tank and tank buster. As a pure tank buster, his Refine feels lackluster though since it does not offer any additional effectiveness, guaranteed damage, Special charge+1, or something along those lines.

Tiki: Legendary Dragon got sort of a reverse Blade tome. Shame she did not have Guard on her Weapon. Would still be really good with Dragon Wall though.

Hector: Marquess of Ostia is pretty simple. Spd stacking him sounds nice, and he can work with Nifl. Wish he got a bit more effects though, like healing, Slaying, Special charge+1, or something.

Linus is okay. Basically just a bunch of Atk/Spd on top of Slaying.

Helbindi is okay. That initiation requirement seems kind of awkward, but at least there is an alternative requirement.

Kaze is nice. He can spam Icebergs or Blazings.

Kliff's Atk comparison is still freaking awkward, especially when Blazing Specials still want high Atk.

Tana: Noble and Nimble is basically Nowi: Eternal Witch MKII.

[Xenomata]

37 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

He doesn't need Null Follow-Up because Binding Shield II gives him a guaranteed follow-up against everything that he activates Sweep against. The only way to block his follow-up is to have two of three of (1) Null Follow-Up, (2) follow-up prevention, or (3) enough Spd to block his natural follow-up, and while there are a lot of units that can get one of three, there are very few units that can manage two of three.

Dull effects do completely nullify all of his bonus-related effects, but he's still getting +8 to all stats from the effects that don't rely on bonuses, which is still nothing to sneeze at. Even with no bonuses, he has 51/66/58/48/37 at +10+20 with a Spd Asset, and maxing out his Atk and Spd with Atk/Spd Ideal 4 and Atk/Spd Solo 3 in the A and Sacred Seal slots, respectively, gets him to a monstrous 79/71 offenses (and that's without the second stack of Ideal) and gives him a guaranteed follow-up and Sweep against any opponents with 66 Spd or less (which is pretty much everything).

Huh, somehow the guaranteed follow-up on EVERYTHING was not registering to me. My bad.

I'm still not too worried though. There's enough bulky Blue units in the game that I feel comfortable taking hits from Marth and retaliating in kind. This is exactly what my Benny was made for...

[Othin]

@Ice Dragon Fanged Basilikos adds up to an effective +10 Atk/Spd compared to +5 from regular Basilikos.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Othin said:

@Ice Dragon Fanged Basilikos adds up to an effective +10 Atk/Spd compared to +5 from regular Basilikos.

I will blame the fact that I had just woken up from a nap and merged the two effects together in my head.

[NegativeExponents-]

6 hours ago, Xenomata said:

~LegHector has a simple refine overall. -10 Atk/Def on foe and 40% damage reduction on the foes only permitted attack... yeah should work just fine. @NegativeExponents- you're gonna have to elaborate, what exactly would have "synergized" with Ostian Pulse 2?

Well as I mentioned, a save skill for one. Right now he picks between his Ostian Pulse 2 for support or Save Skill for better combat. Doesn't help that Ostian Pulse 2 restricts him to tactics which means he's usually left behind rather than seeing combat due to lacking movement skills like armor march or armor stride.

Alternatively, going all in on support and becoming something like Fae that boosts all stats but with a map wide range would be a pretty good thing and his restricted movement wouldn't matter anymore because he's fine just cheering from the backlines while still having decent combat compared to most dedicated supports.

[Xenomata]

New weapon being added, and four weapons will become available for refine as well!

• Libra will be receiving the... Inviolable Axe... even though... that is clearly a Bolt Axe...
• Summer Tiki's Summer's Breath
• Nailah's Wolf Queen Fang, also notable for being the first Beast weapon to receive a refine.
• Walhart's Wolf Berg (yay!)
• Loki's Thökk

_____________________________________________________________________________
Speculation:

Libra's base weapon is the Wo Gun, aka Wo Dao for axes. Libra was... not particularly known for anything in Awakening, he came with a Killer Axe and healing and that was about it. Didn't specialize in anything either. He was just... there. It would have been one thing if he got a Bolt Axe, but apparently no screw that. I dunno, maybe he'll get the good ol Slaying/WoDao effect as the base effect and a spectrum boost + adaptive damage for the refine?

Summer Tiki's base breath had Def +3, Dragon effective damage, and a Breath effect by default. That used to be amazing when she was first released, now it seems pretty tame. Her stat spread is pretty evenly spread, with somewhat lacking Res. I imagine she'll be getting a spectrum boost for her refine, but as to any other effects... Iotes Shield would be most appreciated on a unit like herself. Maybe Special trigger-based healing?

Nailah got a slightly worse version of what is now known as Atk/Spd Form (missing one point of Atk/Spd). I imagine she'll get something similar to what Bride Sanaki and Bride Tharja received, meaning a base of +6 Atk/Spd and additional Atk based on the number of nearby allies, with a slightly expanded trigger area. As to the special refine... not quite sure. An additional layer of Atk/Spd and Null Follow-Up would be predictable. Perhaps a Dodge effect, since her defenses are otherwise not quite good enough for her to function as an amazing EP unit.

Wolf Berg started like Dracofalchion did with a dumb comparison of allies to enemies near Walhart and his target. Change that to a proper Solo effect and maybe also give him Distant Counter (as the original Wolf Berg was a 1-2 range weapon) to make a good refined Wolf Berg. Also worth considering is the disabling of Cavalry-effective damage, as his Prf skill in Awakening disabled effective damage toward Beast/Armored units. The refine I actually have a small idea for: he originally also carried the sword Sol (which enabled the unit using it to trigger the Sol skill), so maybe he could get Special HP recovery for the major addition, plus an Atk/Def debuff for the enemy. It would certainly give him a mean edge to his defensive abilities.

Thokk originally had the effect of inflicting Gravity on 2-range enemies who have at least 3 les HP than Loki herself (plus Dazzling Staff). Unfortunately these days 42 HP may not be enough to lock down most foes, and we've mostly done away with single-column/row effects on weapons these days. We also now have the Stall status, which turned the Movement +1 buff into a Gravity debuff if both are on the same unit. So... Loki's refine will most definitely see the trigger range of the base effect expanded, either to 3 columns/rows or as a Sabotage skill, and perhaps for the refine she can inflict the Stall debuff on melee enemies (since building that into her original effect might be too mean?), and bonus also get an in-combat boost to Atk/Spd in some form (as most of the refine staves have some form of that on their new staves). If they want to be really mean, remove the 2-range enemy limit as well. Probably the worst thing you can do with an offensive melee unit is put Gravity on them.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Xenomata

[Florete]

High hopes for Loki.

[Jotari]

We dont actually have the bolt axe as a weapon, do we? Strange they're not using the name.

[Diovani Bressan]

These refinement options... are so.. zzzzzzzz... to me.

At least a month to save divine dews. I need to save at least 200 for January, so Legendary Lucina can have something new to play with.

[Ice Dragon]

The line-up is a bit on the underwhelming side, but my mind can be changed if the refines are strong. Despite that, I am looking forward to seeing what Loki is getting, as her weapon is a support weapon, so it has potential to have a cool effect.

As for translation things, we only have one this time around:

Inviolable Axe is 美僧の戦斧 (bisō no senpu), "Beautiful Monk's Battle Axe" or "Beautiful Monk's Poleax" using localized terminology (though it definitely isn't a poleax).

Here is my analysis and my hopes and predictions:

Inviolable Axe

Libra's base weapon is Wo Gun, which only has the Wo Dao effect. The Inviolable Axe uses the Bolt Axe's design. Traditionally, magic weapons have gotten Shining Bow's effect, but Flame Lance broke that pattern by flat-out targeting Res, and we now have non-breath melee weapons that target the lower defense stat.

Libra's problem is that his stats are awful. 35/32 offenses wasn't good when he was released, and they sure as hell aren't good now. He literally had Spring Chrom's offenses despite being released almost a year and a half later and was strictly worse than Legion (36/35) despite being released more than a year later, and Libra's only okay defenses (40/28/29) really weren't enough to make up for it.

Due to the fact that it has Bolt Axe's model, I'm expecting it to be one of the weapons that doesn't use the base effect of the unit's default weapon and instead use one of the magic weapon effects, though having both a magic weapon effect and the Wo Dao effect is certainly a possibility.

As for a refine effect, Libra has absolutely no niche at the moment, though with a magic weapon effect and obligatory stat boosts, he should end up comparable to or slightly better than Annette in terms of combat performance. Compared to Annette, Libra has +4/-6/-3/+1/+0 after Dragonflowers before accounting for any of his weapon effects (other than the guaranteed +3 HP and the weapon's Mt).

As he is a War Monk, I can see him getting Surge Sparrow's secondary effect or something like Flow Refresh as a refine effect.

Summer's Breath

The weapon's current effect is effective damage against dragons, permanent +3 Def, and the Breath effect.

Summer Mystery Tiki is still the game's only red breath flier and is one of only two fast red breath units, the other being Sothis. Comparing against all fast breath units, Tiki is pretty notable for having low Atk, as all other fast dragons with lower Atk than her have a weapon effect to make up for it. Tiki's built-in Breath effect does allow her to run Ignis or Astra instead of a weaker Special, but infantry dragons now have access to the Steady Breath Sacred Seal to fill in that gap.

Despite having a weapon with an enemy-phase effect, Tiki's defenses aren't great. Being a flier means she's forced to run Iote's Shield in order to deal with archers, and her relatively low Res makes it difficult for her to viably run Dragon Wall. A Dragon's Wrath build could be viable to improve her damage output, but that comes at the cost of losing the generally more useful Dragon's Ire.

Her base kit makes things even more confusing by giving her Hit and Run, which makes absolutely no sense with her default Bond skill and weapon effect.

I'd like to see her get Dodge or some other form of damage reduction if they choose to keep her an enemy-phase unit, considering she doesn't have access to it otherwise. Passive healing of some sort would also be nice to have (perhaps something like Halloween Grima's healing on Special activation), given that her base version has Renewal built in. A boost to her offenses would also be nice, but I'd rather her focus more on her bulk if she's going to be an enemy-phase unit.

Wolf Queen Fang

The weapon's current effect is the Slaying effect and Atk/Spd Form 3 minus the free 1 point to each stat.

Nailah's base kit is clearly intended to be a counter to ranged Sweepers, but her 40/32/23 bulk is awful for the job given that she can't run Dodge skills due to being a beast unit, and her C slot is taken up by her exclusive skill, preventing her from running something better for the job like Joint Distant Guard.

I feel like they're absolutely going to be giving her one of the Dodge skills as her refine effect. Probably not Spurn since she already has the Wo Dao effect as her transformation bonus, but Frenzy is a possibility for making her a dual-phase unit. Also obligatory stats to make up for the Spd creep.

Additionally, they've been phasing out Form effects, so it's likely that the Form effect on the weapon's base effect will be replaced with a Unity-like effect instead. If they do go with Frenzy as her refine effect, I'd expect the base effect to have a Blow-or-Unity condition.

Wolf Berg

The weapon's current effect is permanent +3 Def and +4 to all stats if there are more enemies than allies within 2 spaces.

The condition on the base effect is obviously going to be changed to a Blow-or-Solo condition.

Walhart is basically Legendary Ephraim with an axe, but with none of the things that makes Legendary Ephraim work. At the very minimum, he wants a guaranteed follow-up to actually give him presence on player phase and a Special charge rate bonus on his own attacks so that he can activate his default Luna as long as the opponent can counterattack, which would also allow him to run Galeforce. Anything else, like Guard, bonus nullification, or penalty nullification is just icing on the cake.

Thokk

The weapon's current effect is Wrathful Staff and "Gravity Ploy" with Panic Ploy 2's condition, but only hits ranged units.

The base effect is currently too restrictive compared to the more recent Gjallarbru, which has the same condition, but hits all units, and has an arguably stronger debuff.

Personally, I'd like to see the effect range extended to 3 rows and 3 columns and maybe the condition relaxed to Panic Ploy 3's condition to make up for Loki's HP being not too much higher than average. If they don't want to extend the effect to apply Gravity to all units in range, it could at least be upgraded to apply Gravity to ranged units and Stall to melee units. It would be cool to also inflict Isolation only on units with Dance or Sing, but that's probably pushing it.

Since Thokk's current effect focuses on restricting enemy mobility, I'd love for the refine effect to be Detailed Report's no teleportation zone effect.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Ice Dragon