General Weapon Refinery discussion/speculation/creation thread

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

That is all Edelgard really needs, but alas, she is in the demote pool, so she does not get the same premium treatment anymore.

Every 5-star standard pool unit that gets a refine is in the 4-star SR pool (or will drop shortly after). These weapons are still just as good as they were before within the usual amount of variance.

Regular Edelgard has access to Tempo, so as long as she gets counterattacked at least once in the two rounds of combat she gets with her weapon's Raging Storm effect, she's guaranteed to activate Galeforce anyways.

Edelgard also doesn't sacrifice her B slot for Raging Storm, so she gets access to whatever newfangled things come out in the future, whereas Legendary Edelgard is stuck having to run Raging Storm in her B slot for the effect. Edelgard's refine would've been plenty good enough even if all it got were the obligatory stats and Raging Storm. I think you're undervaluing having Raging Storm not take up a skill slot.

[XRay]

On 5/11/2023 at 12:34 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Regular Edelgard has access to Tempo, so as long as she gets counterattacked at least once in the two rounds of combat she gets with her weapon's Raging Storm effect, she's guaranteed to activate Galeforce anyways.

She needs to experience four attacks, and depending on her opponent, she might accidentally one shot them. Tempo helps, but Special charge +1 is better in my opinion since frail units are unlikely to run Guard, and bulky units will have their Guard cancelled out and she will still get two hits/charges in.

On 5/11/2023 at 12:34 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Edelgard also doesn't sacrifice her B slot for Raging Storm, so she gets access to whatever newfangled things come out in the future, whereas Legendary Edelgard is stuck having to run Raging Storm in her B slot for the effect. Edelgard's refine would've been plenty good enough even if all it got were the obligatory stats and Raging Storm. I think you're undervaluing having Raging Storm not take up a skill slot.

I guess that is true, but I do not see them releasing a version of Bold Fighter/Special Fighter for infantry for Special charge +1, or at least not anytime soon. Special charge increase seems more like an armor thing, while infantry manipulates Specials via Pulses at-start-of-turn/after-combat or Null effects during combat. There is Heavy Blade (and Flashing Blade), but it is not super reliable due to stat checks.

[Ice Dragon]

27 minutes ago, XRay said:

She needs to experience four attacks, and depending on her opponent, she might accidentally one shot them. Tempo helps, but Special charge +1 is better in my opinion since frail units are unlikely to run Guard, and bulky units will have their Guard cancelled out and she will still get two hits/charges in.

And getting counterattacked exactly once fulfills 4 attacks. You'd need to one-shot both opponents in order to fail to activate Galeforce.

[Xenomata]

Another month gone, and a new batch of weapons to refine.

• Guardian's Bow, for Red Bow Infantry Igrene: Nabata Protector
• Thorn Lance, for seasonal Lance Armor Rudolf: Emperor of Rigel
• Fimbulvetr, for grail Blue Tome Infantry Brunnya: Devoted General
• Ethereal Breath, for Green Manakete Armor Nagi: Dragon Avatar
• Violdrake Bow, a new weapon for Colorless Bow Infantry Tanya: Dagdar's Kid

[Ice Dragon]

Translation note for the one new weapon:

Violdrake Bow is "紫竜山の荒弓" (shiryūzan no kōkyū), "Wild Bow of Violet Dragon Mountain".

 

And the usual analysis and hopes:

 

Tanya: Violdrake Bow

Currently has Shining Bow, which deals +7 additional damage when the opponent's Def is at least 5 higher than their Res.

Tanya has a good Spd stat, matching units like Young Innes and Legendary Alm in base Spd with maximum Dragonflowers, but an underwhelming Atk stat compared to them and no other notable stats. Previous units with low Atk have gotten some means of making up for it, such as getting additional damage based on a percentage of a different stat or some other source.

Shining Bow was basically a conservative implementation of a weapon that targets the lower defensive stat, but we now have the inheritable Atk/Spd Hexblade that can grant that effect to any human physical infantry unit, which includes Tanya. If they want to keep a reference to her original Shining Bow, they could probably just give it the ability to grant herself the Hexblade status effect or have the effect built in.

Other than that, she's a 4-star unit, so I don't expect too much else other than the obligatory +8 to all stats and maybe one other effect, but there's always the chance they'll give her a more interesting gimmick.

Igrene: Guardian's Bow

Current effect is:

• Bow common effect
• Slaying effect
• If Spd is higher than opponent's Spd at start of combat or during combat (effect activates first for attacking unit before condition is checked for targeted unit):
  • -5 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat

Igrene's default kit was intended to mimic Ophelia's, but because she didn't get a double Quickened Pulse effect, it fell flat because she couldn't have Blazing Wind fully charged on the first turn without support. If they want to have her able to perform the role she was originally designed to do, she needs two stacks of Quickened Pulse.

The other effects that this build really wants are Hardy Bearing to stop Vantage units and the ability to ignore percentage damage reduction because a lot of units now have percentage damage reduction on the opponent's first attack. Hardy Bearing is technically optional since it's still worthwhile to run it as a Sacred Seal, but it would still be nice to have to open the slot up for Life and Death.

While I don't really expect her to get it, it's entirely possible that they give her her ninja version's teleportation effect, which would make her a lot more frightening.

Valentine Rudolf: Thorn Lance

Current effect is:

• Slaying effect
• If Atk is higher than opponent's Atk at start of combat:
  • -6 Atk/Def to opponent in combat
  • Follow-up prevention

Rudolf already has Special Fighter as his default B skill, so he's unlikely to get either of its effects on his weapon. However, this means he's unable to equip a guaranteed follow-up skill in that slot, so he's almost certainly getting that effect on his weapon's refine.

Otherwise, Rudolf is basically middle ground between Vigarde's higher Spd and lower bulk and Pirate Surtr's higher bulk and lower Spd. As a Special Hero, he'll probably get the entire kitchen sink of good armor skill effects thrown at him, and I don't think there's really much of a point in guessing which ones he'll get.

Brunnya: Fimbulvetr

Current effect is:

• Permanent +3 Res
• If unit has a Penalty or if HP is 99% or lower at start of combat:
  • Nullifies unit's stat penalties in combat
  • +4 to all stats in combat

Brunnya really wants to deal 1 damage to herself at the start of the first turn. Even better if she deals 1 damage to herself at the start of every turn just to make sure.

Brunnya's stats are basically just a slightly less optimized version of Ilyana's and Marianne's stats, having the same middling Spd, but lower Atk and Res in exchange for higher HP and Def.

She has Glacies by default, but no real way to reliably activate it, as she has no guaranteed follow-up, no Slaying effect, and no other form of Special acceleration. Ideally, she gets a guaranteed follow-up, +1 Special charge rate, and damage reduction on the opponent's first attack.

It's worth noting that there are two other versions of Fimbulvetr in the game, one owned by Marianne and the other by Limstella. Marianne's version grants HP regeneration per attack and a guaranteed follow-up. Limstella's version grants a Litrblade-like effect based on the bonuses of nearby allies and then deals recoil damage to the closest allies. HP regeneration is obviously detrimental to the weapon's base effect, but could be offset by having the weapon deal 1 damage after combat. I don't really expect her to get a Litrblade-like effect, but it's not off the table.

Nagi: Ethereal Breath

Current effect is:

• Effective damage against dragons
• Reduces damage from AoE Specials by 80%, excluding Rokkr Specials
• Grants unit weapon-triangle advantage against colorless
• Slaying effect
• Dragonstone common effect

There are a lot of fancy new things for dragons that have been introduced since Nagi was released, and she wants all of them.

Thematically, it would make the most sense to have her copy some effects from Tiki, Naga, and Gotoh (mostly Tiki since Naga and Gotoh kind of overlap with her existing kit), which puts Scowl, Finish, and Dragon Wall as possible effects to give her weapon's refine (and is basically the "all of them" from above).

Nagi comes with Special Fighter in her B slot, and it would make sense to let her keep it there and optimally run Armored Floe + Special Fighter 4. Scowl would be nice to have on her weapon, but it's not a necessity as she has the space to put it in her A slot and move Distant Counter into her Sacred Seal slot, which is what the developers have been expecting of players to do with pretty much every dragon ever since the Distant Counter (D) Sacred Seal was released. She probably doesn't even need a guaranteed follow-up if they give her the tools to run a one-hit kill build like Fallen Rhea.

Sure, she'd absolutely be stepping on the toes of the brand new Harmonized Awakening Tiki, but I'm sure that'll be fine.

[Diovani Bressan]

I am only interested in Nagi, to see if I will get a new Savior for my Archanean roster (I don't have Ascended Adult Tiki, and don't plan to summon for her now).

I will be skipping everyone else, and saving my Divine Dews for Legendary Chrom and Bramimond in July.

[DefyingFates]

I'm looking forward to Nagi's refine and curious about Tanya's. I hope everyone gets something good this month!

[GuiltyLove]

 

[Xenomata]

Am I reading this right? They ADDED a numerical amount that Igrene's Spd needs to be greater than? I guess the condition is technically still lenient (initiate combat) but that strikes me as odd.
Anyway the only thing she lacks is a NFU effect. Shame my Igrene from HoF has Tempo when she now has the effect on her weapon... oh well.

Nagi looks pretty good. It's simple but it gets the job done at least. She'll be wanting a guaranteed follow-up though...
Tanya getting an adaptive damage weapon I wasn't expecting. My first guess would have been True Damage like what Libra or Shigure got.
Brunnya getting a guaranteed follow-up if she's near her support ally is kind of odd, but there's a few units in the game with specific benefits for support allies so it's not something I'm quite as against anymore... it's still kinda dumb in my opinion though. It also doesn't feel like she's getting quite as much added to her Prf as the other units are getting.
Rudolf... is an armored lance unit. That's about all that has to be said there.

Man I try to be enthusiastic about weapon refines, but these days they almost never blow minds unless it's a Remix refine... Tanya getting adaptive damage is about the most shocked I've been about a non-remix refine in a while.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Xenomata

[Jotari]

21 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

 

Nagi looks pretty good. It's simple but it gets the job done at least. She'll be wanting a guaranteed follow-up though...
 

Damage reduction is always nice, but I still struggle to see what niche she could have with this set up. There's already a lot of dragons out there that can take and dishout damage like that. She doesn't need to run dragon's ore, but consequently she has to run Vengeful Fighter. As, I think it was Ice Dragon, said earlier in the thread, what she needs is distant counter on her weapon.

[Ice Dragon]

Tanya: Violdrake Bow

Base effect is:

• Bow common effect
• If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat:
  • Targets the lower of the opponent's Def or Res
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Additional damage equal to 10% of Spd, including AoE Specials

Refine effect is:

• If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat or opponent has a Penalty:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Penalty Doubler effect

As expected, she got the Hexblade effect, +8 to all stats, and additional damage based on a percentage of her Spd. The one other effect ended up being Penalty Doubler.

If the opponent has no stat penalties, Tanya falls 2 points of Spd and 8 points of Atk behind Young Rebecca. The additional damage based on her Spd comes out to 7-8 points of damage, but Rebecca has a flat +7 damage on her weapon already.

Tanya is still usable, as Hexblade and Penalty Doubler can make up the difference in both Atk and Spd, but also has Time's Pulse 3 and damage reduction on the opponent's first attack that makes her a generally better unit, with the only real catch being that Tanya is much easier to obtain and merge.

Igrene: Guardian's Bow

Base effect is updated:

• Bow common effect
• Slaying effect
• With a Blow effect (new) or if unit's Spd is higher than the opponent's Spd − 7 at start of combat (previously if unit's Spd is higher than the opponent's Spd at start of combat or during combat):
  • -5 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat
  • Reduces damage from opponent's first attack by 30% (new)

Refine effect is:

• If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Additional damage equal to 10% of Spd, including AoE Specials
  • The offensive half of Tempo
  • Nullifies opponent's Spd/Def bonuses

No Quickened Pulse effect effectively buries her already dead-on-arrival AoE Special build, and this is reinforced by the fact that she gets damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, which she isn't really in need of with an AoE Special build.

Igrene ends up with the same Atk stat as Young Rebecca and only falls short by 1 point of Spd. Compared to Rebecca, Igrene gets Tempo and nullifies the opponent's Spd/Def bonuses in exchange for not having effective damage against beasts, additional damage reduction against beasts and mounted ranged units, and Time's Pulse 3. I think that's a pretty good trade.

Definitely worth using if you're in need of an infantry bow.

Valentine Rudolf: Thorn Lance

Base effect is updated:

• Slaying effect
• If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat (new) or if unit's Atk is higher than opponent's Atk at start of combat:
  • -6 Atk/Def to opponent in combat
  • Follow-up prevention
  • Reduces damage taken in combat by a percentage equal to 2× the difference in unit's Atk and opponent's Atk at start of combat, excluding AoE Specials, maximum 40% (new)

Refine effect is:

• With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat:
  • -5 Atk/Def to opponent in combat
  • Increases Atk and reduces opponent's Atk in combat by 50% of the total stat bonuses on the unit with the highest total stat bonuses among the unit and allies within 2 spaces
  • Recover 7 HP after combat

No guaranteed follow-up. This effectively forces him to give up his default Special Fighter and run a skill that grants a guaranteed follow-up unless you're relying on one-hit kills. That said, Rudolf does have some tools for getting one-hit kills, as he gets a gigantic +23 effective Atk if either he or a nearby ally has +6 bonuses to all stats. However, he'll probably still want to swap his B skill for one that grants a guaranteed follow-up.

Defensively, he gets the equivalent of +23 effective Def/Res with the same condition, and he also gets a variant of Dodge 1 / Dragon Wall 1 based on Atk at the start of combat (instead of Spd or Res in combat) that caps at 40% (instead of 20% like the tier-1 skills). And on top of that, he recovers 7 HP after combat, which can at least make up for some of the difference of not being able to run Special Fighter 4.

He looks terrifying. The only problem is that there aren't really any good skills for him to run in the A slot to boost his visible Atk other than Solid Ground, but at the very least, that only really affects his percentage damage reduction effect.

Brunnya: Fimbulvetr

Base effect is updated:

• Permanent +3 Res
• If unit has a Penalty or if HP is 99% or lower at start of combat or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat (last condition is new):
  • Nullifies unit's stat penalties
  • +4 to all stats in combat

Refine effect is:

• If there is an ally within 3 spaces:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Reduces opponent's Atk/Res in combat by 10 minus 2× the opponent's maximum Special cooldown, minimum 2, calculated as 2 if the opponent has no Special
• If unit's support partner is within 3 spaces:
  • Guaranteed follow-up

Needing a support partner on the team in order to activate her guaranteed follow-up is really annoying.

The only change to her weapon's base effect is a new alternate condition to activate it. It makes her easier to work with than before, but she also just doesn't get much from her refine outside of just a lot of stats, totaling a maximum of +16/8/16/16 if the opponent has a Special with a maximum cooldown of 1.

I'm not sure what to think about this one. On one hand, it's a lot of stats. On the other hand, it's just a lot of stats.

Nagi: Ethereal Breath

Base effect is updated:

• Effective damage against dragons
• Dragonstone common effect
• Slaying effect
• Reduces damage from AoE Specials by 80%, excluding Rokkr Specials
• Grants unit weapon-triangle advantage against colorless
• If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat:
  • -5 Atk/Res to opponent in combat (new)
  • Recover 7 HP per unit's attack (new)

Refine effect is:

• With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat:
  • -5 Atk/Res to opponent in combat
  • Nullifies unit's Def/Res penalties
  • Dragon Wall 3

Nagi gets Dragon Wall and the healing effect from Finish added to her weapon. For stats, she gets +10 Atk/Def/Res and nullifies penalties to her Def/Res.

She doesn't get a guaranteed follow-up and no additional damage effect, so she'll probably want to swap out her default Special Fighter to run Vengeful Fighter 4 instead, which will still let her activate Armored Floe on her first counterattack.

This does mean that she'll have to pick between Scowl and Stance, though, and can't have both unless she gets the Guard effect from an ally. Basically, she's an even bulkier version of Harmonized Tiki that can't run both Scowl and Stance (and has weapon-triangle disadvantage against Duo Chrom).

 

Overall thoughts

Rudolf looks terrifying, though he can be mostly shut down if you can inflict Panic on everything near him.

Igrene looks good and is also worth actually using, though her build will need a full overhaul.

Nagi is basically a discount version of Harmonized Tiki, but if you're in a situation where you don't need all of the A skills at the same time (and aren't against Duo Chrom), she'll probably actually do better than Tiki due to her higher stats.

Tanya's refine is better than expected for a 4-star unit. As long as you can get the debuffs to keep Penalty Doubler active, she should be able to at least compete with more premium units of her class, especially if you don't have the others merged. If you're free-to-play, this is one is definitely worth consideration.

Brunnya's is awkward. Giant stats is nice, but tying her guaranteed follow-up to positioning relative to a support partner is really inconvenient.

 

2 hours ago, Xenomata said:

Am I reading this right? They ADDED a numerical amount that Igrene's Spd needs to be greater than?

I'm pretty sure you're not reading it right.

Previously, Igrene's Spd needed to be 1 point higher than the opponent's (either at the start of combat or in combat) in order to activate the effect. Now, Igrene's Spd can be as much as 7 points lower than the opponent's Spd and still activate the effect, but it only checks at the start of combat (but also has a more lenient alternate condition).

[Xenomata]

44 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I'm pretty sure you're not reading it right.

Previously, Igrene's Spd needed to be 1 point higher than the opponent's (either at the start of combat or in combat) in order to activate the effect. Now, Igrene's Spd can be as much as 7 points lower than the opponent's Spd and still activate the effect, but it only checks at the start of combat (but also has a more lenient alternate condition).

Yeah definitely didn't read it right.
If previously it needed to be 1 point higher, I read it as now needing to be 7 points higher than the opponents.

...now I'm wondering how many other skills I've been misreading because I didn't realize that "unit's stat > foe's stat -X" meant the opponents Spd was being read as X points lower than visible...

[Diovani Bressan]

This is a meh batch, imo.

We have good refinements, but none interest me to make me spend dews on them (or I don't have the hero, in Rudolf's case).

I will be saving my dews for Bramimond and Chrom next month.

[XRay]

9 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

No Quickened Pulse effect effectively buries her already dead-on-arrival AoE Special build, and this is reinforced by the fact that she gets damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, which she isn't really in need of with an AoE Special build.

9 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Igrene looks good and is also worth actually using, though her build will need a full overhaul.

What if the idea is to have her stomach a counter attack to get into Wings of Mercy range, as well as setting up Blazing Wind at the same time with Tempo? Obviously, having Quickened Pulse would be much better so you do not have to risk eating a counter attack at all, but I do not think damage reduction is that bad of a trade off.

[DefyingFates]

13 hours ago, Xenomata said:

Tanya getting adaptive damage is about the most shocked I've been about a non-remix refine in a while.

Shining Bow's effect was always a poor man's adaptive damage in the first place, so in hindsight I think this makes sense. I'm surprised they gave it to a F2P unit though: I always assumed Felicia was a fluke because she desperately needed the help and was a Fates character.

I wish Nagi had gotten something more exciting, but it currently looks like she does what she used to (tank ranged foes) but better which is still a plus.

Edited June 7, 2023 by DefyingFates

[Sunwoo]

I shouldn't have given Slick Fighter to Nagi, lol

Also, the refines are pretty okay. They're all still decently powerful, so even if their refines aren't amazing they're still serviceable.

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

What if the idea is to have her stomach a counter attack to get into Wings of Mercy range, as well as setting up Blazing Wind at the same time with Tempo? Obviously, having Quickened Pulse would be much better so you do not have to risk eating a counter attack at all, but I do not think damage reduction is that bad of a trade off.

Then that person had a bad idea and should feel bad. Not being able to use Blazing Wind on the first round of combat defeats the purpose of running Blazing Wind over a different Special.

Her refine is better suited for running Dragon Fang or Astra instead. With the Slaying effect, Tempo effect, and Time's Pulse 3 in her C slot, she's guaranteed to land a 4-cooldown Special on her follow-up attack as long as the opponent can counterattack, and Special Spiral 3 and Time's Pulse 4 will fully charge the skill after combat.

Alternatively, you can give up Time's Pulse for Atk/Spd Oath 4 and run Deadeye. And as long as you're being counterattacked, you can even give up Special Spiral for Null Follow-Up (or Phys. Null Follow) and still be able to consistently land Special activations.

It's a waste of skill slots to run a bunch of Pulse effects just to make Blazing Wind usable when she has plenty of other options that don't require teammates to give up their skill slots.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Then that person had a bad idea and should feel bad. Not being able to use Blazing Wind on the first round of combat defeats the purpose of running Blazing Wind over a different Special.

Yeah, but requiring one round of combat to set up Blazing Specials AND Wings of Mercy at the same time is not that bad.

[Ice Dragon]

8 hours ago, XRay said:

Yeah, but requiring one round of combat to set up Blazing Specials AND Wings of Mercy at the same time is not that bad.

That's still worse than par, though. Par for an AoE Special is at the start of the first turn. Par for Wings of Mercy is after the first round of combat.

Meanwhile, you can activate a 4-cooldown Special and activate Wings of Mercy after the first round of combat by running a normal 4-cooldown Special, which is exactly par for that setup.

[Ice Dragon]

New weapons mean translation notes:

Desert-Tiger Axe is "砂漠の虎の戦斧" (sabaku no tora no senpu), "Battle Axe of the Desert Tiger". "砂漠の虎" (sabaku no tora), "Desert Tiger", is Gerik's epithet.

Father's-Son Axe is "ガルシアの子の斧" (garushia no ko no ono), "Axe of Garcia's Kid".

 

Gerik: Desert-Tiger Axe

Currently has Firesweep Axe.

Gerik has a high HP stat at 51 with maximum Dragonflowers and good 41/40 offenses. His base kit consists of Darting Blow 4, Sudden Panic, and Infantry Pulse. I can see him keep the Sweep effect on player phase, but he'd rather not have Firesweep's drawback since he has good Spd and bulk and would really like to be usable on enemy phase.

Gerik would love to get a Phantom HP effect to make it easier for him to hit Sudden Panic, which would be useful to have against Save tanks. His HP is just barely high enough to actually pull it off against the most popular Save tanks, but only barely, so any additional help would be great to have. Similarly, a passive healing effect would be nice to have to help keep his HP high. If they want to be fancy with a novel effect, they could give him an effect that replaces all comparisons with his current HP to use his maximum HP instead.

It's also likely he'll get an effect based on the enemy having a Penalty. I can also see him inflict the new Sabotage status effect.

Ross: Father's-Son Axe

Currently has Brave Axe.

Ross has the same high HP stat as Gerik at 51, but his offenses are worse at 42/35 in exchange for 2 extra points of Def and Res each. Despite being a trainee, Ross has the same stat total as other units of his generation due to the fact that he was an instant demote, and instant demotes at the time had stat totals based on the previous generation, so the trainee bonus was canceled out.

I don't really see Ross keeping the Brave effect on his weapon. I think it's more likely that he'll get a reference to the Hatchet that he starts Sacred Stones with and receive a Distant Counter weapon.

Ross's default skills are garbage, being Fire Boost and Threaten Def, and don't really give any hints about what his weapon will be.

Kempf: Venin Edge

Current effect is:

• Permanent +3 Def
• If unit attacked in combat:
  • Inflicts 10 damage on opponent and enemies within 2 spaces of opponent after combat
  • Inflicts Flash on opponent and enemies within 2 spaces of opponent after combat

Kempf is basically just a staff unit without Dazzling Staff and really wants some means of not dying to a counterattack. Any other additional debuffs are also appreciated.

Duo Idunn: Zephyr Breath

Current effect is:

• Effective damage against armor
• Permanent +3 Res
• If unit has a stat Bonus or with a Unity condition:
  • Nullifies unit's stat Penalties in combat
  • -6 Atk to opponent in combat
  • Follow-up prevention
• Dragonstone common effect

For reference, her Duo Skill grants +6 Def/Res and nullification of effective damage against dragons and armor to herself and allies within a 5×5 square centered on her.

Idunn wants damage reduction. Regular Idunn has 70% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack if the opponent can perform a follow-up. Since Duo Idunn has follow-up prevention, it's likely she'll get a smaller damage reduction in exchange for having no condition other than just being the first attack. With the addition of Anankos and Savvy Fighter 4 granting damage reduction on attacks granted by the Brave effect, it's possible Duo Idunn will get the same on her weapon.

Percival: Prized Lance

Current effect is:

• Slaying effect
• If opponent's HP is 100% at start of combat:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Guard effect

Percival is a pretty typical fast lance cavalry with 36/41 offenses with max Dragonflowers, and his weapon already comes with a good base effect. The condition on his weapon's base effect will probably be loosened. I can see it gaining the Blow condition as an alternate condition and/or having the HP threshold lowered to somewhere around the 50-70% range.

His default skills are pretty generic, being Atk/Def Solo, Lull Atk/Spd, and Rouse Def/Res, and I don't think they'll play too much of a role in shaping his weapon's refine. Lance cavalry is also a pretty saturated class, so he's likely to get some kind of gimmick to differentiate himself from the others. I can also see him getting something like Canto and/or Null Follow-Up so that he doesn't just run the same B skill as every other fast melee cavalry and maybe Tempo because he doesn't normally get access to it.

Legendary Chrom: Randgridr

Current effect is:

• Permanent +3 Atk
• Effective damage against armor
• Bow common effect
• If opponent's HP is 100% at start of combat:
  • Nullifies penalties on unit in combat
  • -6 Atk/Def to opponent in combat

For reference, the remix for To Change Fate! grants an additional Def Bonus and Bonus Doubler on use. Chrom's new skill is Blue Feud, replacing Rouse Def/Res.

Like with Perceval, the HP condition is likely to be loosened, and probably in the same way.

Chrom notably has no Slaying effect on his weapon and no other source of Special acceleration, which restricts him to running 2-cooldown Specials and rules out Deadeye as a viable Special. He's also slow and doesn't have a guaranteed follow-up. He's almost certainly going to be getting a guaranteed follow-up and will probably get some form of Special acceleration, perhaps similar to the battery effect Duo Chrom has.

The fact that Chrom is getting Blue Feud is rather strange, given that there aren't many common blue support units or blue tanks outside of Brave Dimitri. However, this makes me think that he's going to be getting an effect that makes him stronger against non-green units, similar to Harmonized Tana, and Blue Feud is there because he'll already have a reliable enough match-up against red units that the extra stats against blue units will help.

Bramimond: Void Tome

Current effect is:

• Permanent +3 Atk
• If opponent's Atk is 50 or higher at start of combat or if opponent has a Penalty:
  • +5 Atk/Def/Res in combat
• If opponent's Spd is 35 or higher at start of combat or if opponent has a Penalty:
  • Guaranteed follow-up

For reference, the remix to Impenetrable Dark inflicts -5 to all stats to the opponent in combat to bring it in line with other Feud skills and also nullifies half of the opponent's non-Special percentage damage reduction. Bramimond's new skill is Atk/Res Tempo, replacing Lull Atk/Res.

Void Tome's base conditions are... unique. The Atk condition is going to be active against literally everything that's properly built, making it kind of pointless to have a condition at all. The Spd condition is troublesome because it leaves a gap where Bramimond is unable to double the opponent, even with the boost to Impenetrable Dark. Bramimond has no means of inflicting a Penalty on their own to naturally avoid having to use the stat conditions and ends up having to depend on teammates to inflict Penalties (though that isn't too difficult due to Yune sharing a season). I can see both stat conditions being replaced with something less odd.

The fact that Bramimond's default Lull Atk/Res is being replaced with Atk/Res Tempo suggests that they'll be getting some form of Special acceleration in order to activate their default Luna in one round of combat as well as Bonus nullification to compensate for the loss of Lull.

I can also see them getting an effect similar to Yune's weapon effect or the Sabotage status effect to further penalize opponents for having nearby allies.

[Sunwoo]

The English weapon names are just slightly more creative than [Name]'s [Weapon]. It's not quite peak uncreativity, but it's close.

[Humanoid]

Hmm, it seems unlikely that there'll be anything here for me. The only units I even have are Gerik, Ross and Kempf. The first two I have no real incentive to build as I've opted to build Hans and maybe Shez with their Prfs (already at +8/9), and I also have decent scope to build a generic axe since I have two spare Ganglots. So really it's only Kempf who might be relevant, and even then I've managed to pick up a lot of premium sword cavalries lately.

I do struggle to tell Gerik and Dieck apart though and I can't remember which one I have a lot of copies of.

[Xenomata]

So we have the only Firesweep Axe user whose base kit is pretty lacking if we're being honest, a daddy's boy, a dick whose entire existence is tied to his weapon, Idunn and Fae, Percival who I'm not convinced exists, Toxic Reposition the First, and Brammimond.
This batch of refines couldn't interest me less without being Fodlan-suckling pandering.

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

The fact that Chrom is getting Blue Feud is rather strange, given that there aren't many common blue support units or blue tanks outside of Brave Dimitri. However, this makes me think that he's going to be getting an effect that makes him stronger against non-green units, similar to Harmonized Tana, and Blue Feud is there because he'll already have a reliable enough match-up against red units that the extra stats against blue units will help.

I'd guess it's there to give him a way to shut down at least some forms of Savior, if he can't shut down them all.
Ironically though, Blue is the only color whose Savior options count among them one of the only Armor units to not be weak to armorslayer weapons...

Edited July 1, 2023 by Xenomata

[Ice Dragon]

I'm hoping Gerik gets something good because I have enough copies of him to get him to +10. That said, he's one of my cursed units where I have enough copies of him to get him to +10, but none of those copies have a Spd Asset.

He looks like he could be a solid unit for Arena Assault as a wall breaker if they lean into Sweep and debuffs.

 

The other unit I'm invested in is Kempf since he has the potential to be good in Pawns of Loki as an alternative to Walhart for when I decide to finally build some proper teams for the game mode. His appearance in Hall of Forms was also recent enough that the skills I have on him are still viable, and I probably won't need to make any real adjustments to him to make him work.

 

I also have Perceval at +10 already, but he'll likely need a full rework of his skills due to how outdated they are. But if his refine is particularly good, I could be convinced to spare some skill fodder on him. We'll see.

Bramimond sees enough usage in Mjolnir's Strike that I could definitely be convinced to care, especially with how good their remix is already looking. I might even be able to use them for Arena Assault.

I would be more excited for Idunn, but they've been refusing to rerun Rearmed Grima, so I don't have any additional copies of her to duplicate all of the fancy new armor skills onto all of my armors, and Idunn is pretty low on the list of priorities because she's stuck at +1.

If Ross gets Distant Counter on his weapon (yes, he's a 4-star unit, but so is Murdock), I could potentially be convinced to do something with him.

Chrom has been stuck at +0 since literally forever ago, and unless the remix banner gives me a decent merge base for him (or just uncharacteristically dumps a million copies of him on me), I probably can't be convinced to care when I already have Duo Chrom at +10.

[Humanoid]

25 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I would be more excited for Idunn, but they've been refusing to rerun Rearmed Grima

So, you'll be excited tomorrow then? 🙂