General Weapon Refinery discussion/speculation/creation thread

[Xenomata]

It's back to school for these Garrag Mach alumni!
...wait do they count as alumni if they technically never graduated? Anyway...

• Sublime Surge will be refined to go along with the remix for Sothis: Girl on the Throne (Mythic Hero Remix)
  Current effect: Neutralizes "effective against dragons" bonuses. Unit can counterattack regardless of foe's range. [Dragon Adaptive Damage]
• Dark Spikes T will be refined for Lysithea: Earnest Seeker (Brave Hero)
  Current effect: Effective against cavalry foes. Grants Spd+3. At the start of combat, if foe's HP ≥ 75%, grants Atk/Spd+6 during combat. If unit's HP < 100% and unit initiates combat, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack before foe can counterattack.
• Moon Gradivus will be refined for Dimitri: King of Faerghus (Brave Hero)
  Current effect: Unit can counterattack regardless of foe's range. Grants Special cooldown charge +1 per foe's attack during combat. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack. Special cooldown charge granted even if foe's attack deals 0 damage.)
• Virtuous Naga will be refined to go along with the remix for Julia: Crusader of Light (Legendary Hero Remix)
  Current effect: Effective against dragon foes. Grants Atk+3. At start of combat, if unit’s Atk > foe’s Atk, grants Atk/Res+6 during combat.
• Flower Hauteclere will be refined for Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor (Brave Hero)
  Current effect: Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). At start of turn, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, unit can move 1 extra space (that turn only; does not stack) and grants the following status to unit for 1 turn: "Unit can move to a space adjacent to any ally within 2 spaces." At the start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, inflicts Atk/Def-6 on foe during combat.
• Tempest's Claw is a new weapon being given to Haar: Black Tempest (Grand Hero Battle unit.
  Current weapon: Brave Axe (Inflicts Spd -5. If unit initiates combat, unit attacks twice.)
• Wind Parthia will be refined for Claude: Almyra's King (Brave Hero)
  Current effect: Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). Effective against flying foes. If unit initiates combat or if unit is within 2 spaces of an ally, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 during combat, and if unit also deals damage to foe using a Special, restores 50% of unit's maximum HP. (Triggers even if 0 damage is dealt.)

[Florete]

The fact that the first Three Houses units to get refines are the CYL4 quartet (+Sothis) is just insane. We're really going to see Brave Eirika and Marth get refines in a year, 3,000 years ahead of schedule.

But that also means Gatekeeper will get a refine next year so I guess it works out.

EDIT: Dumbass me forgot about Hilda last month.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Florete

[Diovani Bressan]

Very disappointed we are getting CYL 4, but not surprised.

2 hours ago, Florete said:

The fact that the first Three Houses units to get refines are the CYL4 quartet (+Sothis) is just insane.

Hilda got her refinement last month, being the first Three Houses unit to get that... But I know what you meant.

[Othin]

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

"Please don't be CYL4, please don't be CYL4... god DAMMIT."

At least we're getting two remixes and Haar, that's nice. But this is absurd.

[XRay]

I want Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor to have damage reduction and Galeforce built into her Weapon.

 

[Naoshi]

Glad they are getting refine, now to pray for good ones.

[Xenomata]

I STILL don't have a copy of Brave Lysithea, so for the first time in a while there's someone who I'm not focused on by virtue of not being able to use whatever refine the unit gets...

On the other hand, the unit I am interested most in is Julia. All the others could be good or could be... great I guess, but Julia is the one I am most likely to immediately refine.

1 hour ago, XRay said:

I want Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor to have damage reduction and Galeforce built into her Weapon.

 

I would rather the world remain intact and not on fire, personally.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Naoshi said:

Glad they are getting refine, now to pray for good ones.

Oh damn. I just realized Edelgard does NOT have a Refine yet despite being released earlier. I cannot wait to see what they do with her Refine when the time eventually comes.

44 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I would rather the world remain intact and not on fire, personally.

It is honestly not that bad. Galeforce does nothing on enemy phase builds. On player phase, having damage reduction on a melee Galeforcer is a lot less broken than Miracle on a ranged Galeforcer. She will just be a really flexible unit.

California is already on fire, and we are going to see 110°F (43.88°C for the rest of the world) on Sunday and Monday where I live. Translating that into Heroes, that means Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor will get Tempo and Special Fighter, flat damage reduction equal to opponent's level on top of regular damage reduction, and Canto that lets her teleport to any allies after she Galeforce'd.

Actually, after reading the news, I think the whole world is on fire right now. I further predict that Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor will have a Meister Weapon that attacks a number of times equal to her merges and Flowers, and Black Eagle Meta Rule will come with Vantage and Null C-Disrupt along with 80% damage reduction on all attacks.

In a year or so when global warming turns into global baking, Edelgard will have the weird positioning condition removed, get all of the above in her Refine, can Galeforce on enemy phase, and she will also get global Omni Save on both phases.

In half a decade right before a global MAD nuclear apocalypse, Edelgard: Hegemon Husk will get a Refine that automatically lets you win the battle when she gets deployed.

Edited September 1, 2022 by XRay

[Jotari]

I hope Kronya gets a good refine soon. She's far from the best character in the game, but she's one of the most fun ones to use and build a support team around.

[Diovani Bressan]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

I hope Kronya gets a good refine soon. She's far from the best character in the game, but she's one of the most fun ones to use and build a support team around.

Her refinement should be in December, with Fallen Delthea being in October and Cynthia being in November.

[Xenomata]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

It is honestly not that bad. Galeforce does nothing on enemy phase builds. On player phase, having damage reduction on a melee Galeforcer is a lot less broken than Miracle on a ranged Galeforcer. She will just be a really flexible unit.

If Edel gets damage reduction on the first hit she takes (or first two if it's a brave weapon hitting her), then the only thing separating her from Brave Ike will be inability to use other B slots or Vital Astra and the very exploitable ability to run Save skills. And considering she'd also be getting an entire Special Trigger loaded into her first PP combat (possibly without the already lax requirements of her other alts GF requirements), that feels like it's going a little beyond flexible and going into being a VERY rude brick wall for anyone who can't ignore non-special damage reduction. It could only get worse if she's able to get Canto Control or Warp Blocker as well...

Also I'm gonna need your Cali temps to not move north for... ever basically.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Xenomata

[Ice Dragon]

I'm disappointed. I seriously hope no units with exclusive weapons released after CYL 4 get refines before launch units get a second chance at a refine.

CYL units are supposed to be special, and I get that, and they are also the earliest set of "modern" weapons, so they are also slightly behind more recently released weapons, but I'm still disappointed.

 

Anyways, one translation note:

Tempest's Claw is "黒疾風の爪斧" (koku-shippū no sōfu), "Claw Axe of the Black Gale". "黒疾風" might be pronounced "kuro shippū" instead. Either way, it's Haar's epithet. "爪斧" might be pronounced "tsume-ono" instead. I hate novel Japanese compound words. Trying to figure out how they're supposed to be pronounced is the absolute worst.

 

And hopes and predictions:

Haar: Tempest's Claw

Currently has Brave Axe+.

Haar is a pretty stock-standard slow unit with high Atk and Def and a Brave weapon. I'm expecting him to get a Brave weapon that boosts his Atk and Def more.

And because they've been pretty gimmicky with new weapons recently, I would not be surprised to see some experimental gimmick on the weapon.

Sothis: Sublime Surge

Current effect is:

• Nullifies effective damage against dragons
• Distant Counter
• Dragonstone common effect

Sothis is getting the offensive half of Tempo on Sirius+ and Null C-Disrupt from her remix. Null C-Disrupt notably replaces Wrath.

The fact that Sothis is getting Null C-Disrupt is interesting because the skill is generally considered to be pretty underwhelming. If it's worth giving to Sothis as a remix skill, then they're probably giving her a refine that lessens the demand for other skills in that slot. Sirius+ is already granting the offensive half of Tempo.

I'm expecting the refine to grant some means of helping her charge her Special if they're expecting players to replace Wrath. She already has Time's Pulse, but Time's Pulse only activates at the start of the turn, which doesn't help when taking multiple rounds of combat on enemy phase. Notably, the fact that she has a 2-cooldown Special that heals based on the damage dealt means that if her Special is at maximum cooldown at the start of combat on enemy phase, she won't be able to activate her Special until her second counterattack, which potentially reduces the amount of healing she receives. Ideally, she gets the Slaying effect, but a Special charge rate boost on enemy phase (she doesn't need it on player phase) also works.

Given that Sothis is a fast unit with Distant Counter that doesn't normally have access to Dodge, the refine is almost certainly going to give her some form of damage reduction.

It'll probably get +4 or +5 to all stats for its obligatory stat boost.

Distant Counter weapons historically get weaker refines (see Legendary Roy for a very recent example), so I'm not expecting any other effects.

Brave Lysithea: Dark Spikes T

Current effect is:

• Effective damage against cavalry
• Permanent +3 Spd
• If opponent's HP is 75% or higher:
  • +6 Atk/Spd
• If HP is 99% or lower and with the Blow condition:
  • guaranteed follow-up
  • Desperation effect

Lysithea already has an absolutely solid weapon, which is expected of a modern weapon.

Lysithea's only notable weakness is her low bulk, which can make it difficult to survive a round of combat to actually activate the Desperation effect on her weapon. All she really needs is damage reduction on the opponent's first attack or 1 point of self-damage at the start of turn 1, the latter of which also allows you to more easily swap out her default Atk/Spd Push for a different skill (though there aren't currently any skills actually worth switching to).

It'll probably get +5 or +6 Atk/Spd for its obligatory stat boost.

Brave Dimitri: Moon Gradivus

Current effect is:

• +1 Special charge rate on opponent's attacks
• Distant Counter

Dimitri is cursed with a Distant Counter weapon, which means it's not likely to get a lot of effects. Thankfully, he already has a Def-based Dodge and a guaranteed follow-up on his exclusive B skill, which covers some of the effect he already wants.

Ideally, the refine includes Guard due to the fact that he has Unity as his default A skill instead of Stance. Dull would also be nice. Passive healing would also be nice. Tempo would also be nice. A second stack of Unity would also be nice. Throw some darts at this dartboard.

It would be really, really damned cool if he inflicts -7 Atk/Def on himself at the start of the opponent's turn or after he performs any action just to permanently activate his default Atk/Def Unity.

I'm expecting -5 or -6 Atk/Def on the opponent for its obligatory stat boost, though -4 or -5 Atk/Spd/Def is also likely.

Legendary Julia: Virtuous Naga

Current effect is:

• Effective damage against dragons
• Permanent +3 Atk
• If Atk is greater than opponent's Atk at the start of combat,
  • +6 Atk/Res

Julia is getting penalty nullification on Life and Death II and Atk/Res Menace from her remix. Life and Death II also has the stat penalty it inflicts on opponents increased from -2 to a massive -5. Julia's remix skills are functionally extensions of her existing skills in those slots, so I don't see them affecting her refine much.

Julia is an interesting unit due to the fact that she has an out-of-combat Atk comparison on her weapon, which promotes the use of Life and Death or Still Water. She was released prior to the release of Still Water, so it's likely players will have Life and Death already on her if they already tried to optimize her kit, replacing her default Mirror Impact. Julia also doesn't have a guaranteed follow-up, which additionally promotes the use of Life and Death on her over Still Water, but that comes at the cost of losing Res, which seems counter to how she was intended to be used.

The biggest limitation for Julia is the fact that Legendary Deirdre is so ridiculously similar to her, so it really wouldn't make sense to have her refined weapon overlap Deirdre's skill effects too much.

A guaranteed follow-up is still possible for a refine effect, which would push Julia towards running Still Water (though she still runs into the issue that there is no Still Water Sacred Seal yet). However, I can see them changing the base effect's condition so that the effect is always active on player phase, which would allow her to run her default Mirror Impact.

However, if they want to lean into Life and Death a bit more, I can see her weapon nullifying or reducing percentage damage reduction, which helps her break Dragon Wall more easily even with Life and Death's penalty to Res.

Brave Edelgard: Flower Hauteclere

Current effect is:

• Slaying effect
• If HP is 25% or higher at start of turn:
  • Grants +1 movement as a status effect
  • Grants the Warp Powder effect as a status effect
• If unit's HP is 25% or higher:
  • -6 Atk/Def to opponent

Flower Hauteclere is actually pretty tame for a modern weapon. It's Edelgard's exclusive B skill that makes her hard to deal with.

What Edelgard probably wants the most is damage reduction on the opponent's first attack or on consecutive attacks, which allows her to emulate Brave Ike more closely, and damage reduction against AoE Specials, which allows her to tank tomes with AoE Specials a bit better. Svalinn Shield would also be nice to allow her to emulate Brave Hector.

Guard would be nice since she can't really fit it in her A or B slots. The defensive half of Tempo would be nice. Increasing the opponent's Special cooldown by 1 at the start of combat would be nice. Anything that tells Duo Chrom to go fuck himself would be nice (even if units like Brave Edelgard are exactly what Duo Chrom was supposed to counter, Duo Chrom simply deserves to get fucked).

Brave Claude: Wind Parthia

Current effect is:

• Bow common effect
• Slaying effect
• With Blow-or-Unity condition:
  • +5 to all stats
  • Recovers HP equal to 50% of max HP when unit activates a damaging Special

Wind Parthia is at least the CYL 4 weapon that is most deserving of a refine since bows hadn't caught up with other weapons at the time of its release.

Claude relies on the healing from his weapon for survivability. He does have decent bulk for a ranged unit, but can still be vulnerable to being killed in one round of combat by strong units with guaranteed follow-ups. Claude would definitely prefer to give up the extra defenses from Fury for a more offensive A skill. Perhaps 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack is enough to give up Fury without really stepping on Legendary Claude's toes.

Claude also lacks access to Tempo effects, which is a huge problem for activating his weapon's healing effect. The offensive half of Tempo seems like a reasonable effect to give him and makes him more distinct from his Legendary version.

His default Wings of Mercy has never really fit with the rest of his kit. If they want to get fancy, Canto [Recall] would synergize with it pretty well.

I'm expecting +5 to all stats for its obligatory stat boost.

 

6 hours ago, XRay said:

It is honestly not that bad. Galeforce does nothing on enemy phase builds. On player phase, having damage reduction on a melee Galeforcer is a lot less broken than Miracle on a ranged Galeforcer. She will just be a really flexible unit.

Miracle on a ranged Galeforcer is fine because said ranged Galeforcer sucks at breaking walls and has paper for magic bulk.

A melee Galeforcer with a guaranteed follow-up that doesn't actually need to charge Galeforce to activate it and also can't die is stupid.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[Tybrosion]

Well, it's almost time to see if the wait was worth it for Haar. And if not, well Deathea's refine should be next month.

3 hours ago, XRay said:

In half a decade right before a global MAD nuclear apocalypse, Edelgard: Hegemon Husk will get a Refine that automatically lets you win the battle when she gets deployed.

I'm pretty sure there are exactly zero timelines where Fallen Edelgard gets a weapon refine. If there was ever a unit to permanently black list from the weapon refinery, it's definitely her.

[Diovani Bressan]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

His default Wings of Mercy has never really fit with the rest of his kit.

What do you mean by default Wings of Mercy? I got lost here.

[Ice Dragon]

11 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

What do you mean by default Wings of Mercy? I got lost here.

Huh... Why the fuck does my Claude have Wings of Mercy?

I just assume that whatever skills are on units I don't remember ever using are their default skills. I don't remember ever using Brave Claude, so I have no idea why he has any skills (other than Reposition) inherited.

[Diovani Bressan]

7 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Huh... Why the fuck does my Claude have Wings of Mercy?

I just assume that whatever skills are on units I don't remember ever using are their default skills. I don't remember ever using Brave Claude, so I have no idea why he has any skills (other than Reposition) inherited.

I will guess that maybe you foddered a Merlinus for Reposition, and maybe decided to get Wings of Mercy too because why not?

But yeah, he has Chill Spd/Def 2 by default.

[Ice Dragon]

10 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I will guess that maybe you foddered a Merlinus for Reposition, and maybe decided to get Wings of Mercy too because why not?

But yeah, he has Chill Spd/Def 2 by default.

Since the skill is Wings of Mercy, it's most likely that I used Claude once for Resonant Battles and just never reverted his skills back afterward.

My Reposition fodder is always 3-star manuals, so I won't ever bother grabbing Wings of Mercy from Merlinus even if I do use one of his manuals.

[Othin]

So, there's 29 main-pool units left for Book 3. (22 at 5* and 7 at 3-4*.) At a rate of about 3 per month, getting through them should take about 9-10 batches of refines.

There will be 11 more batches of refines before September 2023.

[DefyingFates]

On 9/1/2022 at 8:36 AM, Florete said:

We're really going to see Brave Eirika and Marth get refines in a year, 3,000 years ahead of schedule

They're probably going to get the B!Veronica treatment though, with just a tiny bit tacked on and IS calling it a day with just that.

Of course the other issue with the Brave refines is that except for whoever gets the CYL1/ B!Hector treatment, everyone else is going to be seriously outdated by the time the rest of their generation gets refines. That's... going to be painful to see.

[Diovani Bressan]

22 hours ago, Othin said:

So, there's 29 main-pool units left for Book 3. (22 at 5* and 7 at 3-4*.) At a rate of about 3 per month, getting through them should take about 9-10 batches of refines.

There will be 11 more batches of refines before September 2023.

I wished they increased the number of refinements from 3 Pool + 1 Seasonal + 1 Grails to 5 Pool + 1 Seasonal + 1 Grail, or even 4+2+1 considering we are getting at a point where Seaonal Banners have 2-3 prfs per banner now.

Then, make 2 New Powers Banner, 3 units each.

If the refinements were only about the normal heroes, Book 3 Pool units would be done in 7 more months (21 5*s since Byleths share weapons, and 7 demotes), but since there are seasonals taking a slot from the New Powers Banner, they will take longer.

At this rate, CYL 5 will get refinement and Book 4 will not even have started getting refinements, which is ridiculous.

19 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

They're probably going to get the B!Veronica treatment though, with just a tiny bit tacked on and IS calling it a day with just that.

Of course the other issue with the Brave refines is that except for whoever gets the CYL1/ B!Hector treatment, everyone else is going to be seriously outdated by the time the rest of their generation gets refines. That's... going to be painful to see.

Outside Gatekeeper, who really needs help, the others CYL 5 units are fine as they are. They still hold up quite well, even considering a year ahead.

But I agree with you with the "Veronica treatment" mostly because there recent units (book 5-6) have already very good weapons that they only need a little bit on the refinement and that's enough.

On 9/1/2022 at 9:19 AM, Naoshi said:

Glad they are getting refine, now to pray for good ones.

I am very curious about Altina, since she shares weapon with her Winter version. I kinda would like her to get Linus treatment and get a new weapon, so her Winter version doesn't get a refinement right now. Then, when Winter Altina gets a weapon, both Altinas have access to it.

It's kinda the same as Young Marth, in my opinion. He shares weapon with Phina, which made me scared he will never get a refinement because a dancer may hold him back... but because of Linus, Marth could get a new weapon, like... "Legacied Rapier" or whatever they call it, while Phina can keep her unrefined Rapier for herself.

Altina's remix should be in January. So when that times arrive, we will see what IS decided to do.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Diovani Bressan

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I wished they increased the number of refinements from 3 Pool + 1 Seasonal + 1 Grails to 5 Pool + 1 Seasonal + 1 Grail, or even 4+2+1 considering we are getting at a point where Seaonal Banners have 2-3 prfs per banner now.

Then, make 2 New Powers Banner, 3 units each.

If the refinements were only about the normal heroes, Book 3 Pool units would be done in 7 more months (21 5*s since Byleths share weapons, and 7 demotes), but since there are seasonals taking a slot from the New Powers Banner, they will take longer.

At this rate, CYL 5 will get refinement and Book 4 will not even have started getting refinements, which is ridiculous.

Outside Gatekeeper, who really needs help, the others CYL 5 units are fine as they are. They still hold up quite well, even considering a year ahead.

But I agree with you with the "Veronica treatment" mostly because there recent units (book 5-6) have already very good weapons that they only need a little bit on the refinement and that's enough.

I am very curious about Altina, since she shares weapon with her Winter version. I kinda would like her to get Linus treatment and get a new weapon, so her Winter version doesn't get a refinement right now. Then, when Winter Altina gets a weapon, both Altinas have access to it.

It's kinda the same as Young Marth, in my opinion. He shares weapon with Phina, which made me scared he will never get a refinement because a dancer may hold him back... but because of Linus, Marth could get a new weapon, like... "Legacied Rapier" or whatever they call it, while Phina can keep her unrefined Rapier for herself.

Altina's remix should be in January. So when that times arrive, we will see what IS decided to do.

Really I dont see why dsncers shouldn't get refines as well. They have a unique ability from thebrest of the cast which means it shouldnt be hard to come up with creative abilities for them. Back in the day they could have just thrown atk+6 on Olivia, though that would be far too mild now. So more like atk/spd/def/res +6 and inflict special cooldown on enemies in cardinal directions. Dancers not having refines is just plain arbitrary. They need help standing up to the modern cast even more so than combat units whom you can make somewhat viable with Dragon flowers, but og Ninian and Azura have absolutely nothing to offer over their fallen and legendary fans. And if you're a fan of any other dancer then good luck, because that's all you have.

A lot of this goes for staff units too, of course. But I feel dancers need it mire both by being a smaller and more unique group. It wouldn't be hard to give some kind of niche to every dancer in the game so far.

[Xenomata]

[Florete]

Someone hates Sothis.

Julia's works.

Haar's is pretty good despite the blue tome drawback.

Lysithea's honestly looks like a pretty big deal for her. Slaying + 1 damage + cooldown increase basically fixes all the problems she had to begin with, and she got more on top of it.

Claude's looks pretty good at a glance, but I don't know how it'll work out in practice.

Dimitri's is good, though again I question how good it will actually be in practice. Seems like he'll need heavy investment to really make it work.

Edelgard's is really good.

[Ice Dragon]

Haar: Tempest's Claw

Base effect is:

• Nullifies effective damage against fliers.
• Receives effective damage from blue tomes.
• Meister effect
• Permanent -5 Spd

Refine effect is:

• With a Blow-or-Unity condition:
  • +5 Atk/Def
  • Damage reduction equal to 15% of Def, excludes AoE Specials
  • Guard effect

Trades effective damage from fliers for effective damage from blue tomes. This is an obvious reference to the dragon knight classes from Radiant Dawn, which had no weakness to bows, but instead had a weakness to thunder magic. Honestly, this is pretty cool and helps Haar quite a bit. The effective damage shouldn't be too much of an issue for him since his Res is awful, and he shouldn't be taking hits from magic units anyways.

The damage reduction comes out to about 8~10 points depending on the build. It's not quite as high as Spring Maria's, but it allows him to be built the same way, stacking percentage damage reduction, which is applied before the flat damage reduction.

Solid weapon.

Sothis: Sublime Surge

Base effect is unchanged:

• Nullifies effective damage against dragons
• Distant Counter
• Dragonstone common effect

Refine effect is:

• If HP is 25% or higher:
  • +4 to all stats
  • Reduces damage from opponent's first attack by 40%

Sothis doesn't have access to Dodge, and her ability to use Dragon Wall is questionable at best, so damage reduction is the effect she most needed, and that's what she got. And that's all she got.

On the bright side, the damage reduction is fixed at 40%, which is extremely nice to have. She can also run the newly released Dragon's Wrath 4 for a total of 55% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack.

Sothis still suffers from the fact that she has a 2-cooldown Special with no reliable way to lower the cooldown. Ideally, she wants to start combat on enemy phase with zero or 1 cooldown so that she can activate Sirius on the attack after the opponent's hit, but because her means of lowering her cooldown is Time's Pulse, which activates at the start of each turn, she can't reliably have her cooldown lowered down to zero or 1 except on the first round of combat on each turn. Or you can just permanently glue the Darting Breath Sacred Seal to her.

I think what Sothis wants right now is for Atk/Spd Finish to be released.

Brave Lysithea: Dark Spikes T

Base effect is unchanged:

• Effective damage against cavalry
• Permanent +3 Spd
• If opponent's HP is 75% or higher:
  • +6 Atk/Spd
• If HP is 99% or lower and with the Blow condition:
  • Guaranteed follow-up
  • Desperation effect

Refine effect is:

• Slaying effect
• At start of turn:
  • Grants self Warp Powder effect as a status effect
  • Deals 1 damage to self
• With a Blow-or-Unity condition:
  • +6 Atk/Spd
  • +1 Special charge rate on unit's own attacks

Self damage at the start of each turn is exactly the effect she wanted. Everything else is just icing on the cake, and there's a lot of icing.

The Slaying effect and the Special charge rate boost mean she can run Luna and reliably have it activate on her follow-up attack, though it can be blocked by Guard or Tempo. If she runs Ruptured Sky (or Moonbow or Glimmer), it can only be blocked if the opponent has both Guard and Tempo.

Warp Powder and the additional +6 Atk/Spd is the rest of the large helping of icing.

Brave Dimitri: Moon Gradivus

Base effect is unchanged:

• +1 Special charge rate on opponent's attacks
• Distant Counter

Refine effect is:

• If there is at least 1 ally within 3 spaces:
  • +5 Spd/Def/Res
  • Additional damage equal to 20% of Def
  • Damage reduction equal to 20% of Def, excludes AoE Specials
  • -5 Def to opponent
  • Nullifies opponent's Bonuses to Atk/Def

Effectively gets +5 to all stats, around 12~15 points of additional damage, around 12~15 points of flat damage reduction, and nullifies the opponent's Bonuses to Atk/Def. Notably, the +5 to all stats is distributed as +5 to Spd/Def/Res and -5 to the opponent's Def instead of +5 to Dimitri's Atk, which is an effective total 10-point boost to Def for the purpose of Blue Lion Rule's damage reduction effect.

And since the refine effect's damage reduction is flat damage reduction, it's applied after Blue Lion Rule's percentage damage reduction, which makes Dimitri stupidly bulky now. He's going to be a nightmare to kill and can potentially turn into the new Fallen Edelgard.

Legendary Julia: Virtuous Naga

Base effect is updated:

• Effective damage against dragons
• Permanent +3 Atk
• If visible Atk is greater than opponent's visible Atk or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher (HP condition is new):
  • +6 Atk/Res
  • Dragon Wall 3 (new)

Refine effect is:

• If there is at least 1 ally within 3 spaces:
  • +4 to all stats
  • Guaranteed follow-up
  • If opponent is dragonstone:
    • Close Counter

And so ends the era of running Life and Death on Julia. She no longer needs to rely on a comparison of visible Atk to gain her weapon's effects, and she now also wants to run Res for Dragon Wall's effect. There's an argument that she should probably run Atk/Res Finish instead of Atk/Res Ideal or Still Water, though, since her refine effect has the same positioning condition as Finish, and being a Legendary Hero means she's likely to run into mirror matches against herself, where Light and Dark on the opposing Julia will make it difficult to activate both stacks of Ideal.

A guaranteed follow-up also means that she no longer needs to build for Spd, though it's possible that she still might want to do so to break follow-up prevention on some slow units, though getting a total effective +9 Spd from the combination of her weapon and Light and Dark II on top of nullifying her Penalties and the opponent's Bonuses makes it hard for slower units to actually manage to claw back enough Spd to block her follow-up.

Close Counter against dragons is a nice reference back to her base version.

Brave Edelgard: Flower Hauteclere

Base effect is unchanged:

• Slaying effect
• If HP is 25% or higher at start of turn:
  • Grants +1 movement as a status effect
  • Grants the Warp Powder effect as a status effect
• If unit's HP is 25% or higher:
  • -6 Atk/Def to opponent

Refine effect is:

• If there is at least 1 ally within 3 spaces:
  • +3 Atk/Def/Res
  • Boost to Atk/Def/Res equal to the number of spaces attacking unit moved ×2 (max +6)
  • 7 HP regeneration on unit's own attacks
  • -6 Atk/Def on opponent
  • If number of spaces attacking unit moved is at least 1:
    • Guard effect

So basically a minimum of +9 Atk/Def/Res on top of the +6 Atk/Def/Res from the base effect and an additional 2 points of all three stats for each space she or the opponent moves when attacking, up to a maximum of 3 spaces. That's a maximum of +21 Atk/Def/Res. Seriously, what the fuck.

At least she's still vulnerable to Duo Chrom.

Brave Claude: Wind Parthia

Base effect is updated:

• Bow common effect
• Slaying effect
• With Blow-or-Unity condition:
  • +5 to all stats
  • Recovers HP equal to 50% of max HP when unit activates a damaging Special in combat
  • Nullifies 60% of Deep Wounds in combat (new)

Refine effect is:

• If HP is 25% or higher:
  • +5 to all stats
  • The offensive half of Null Follow-Up
  • The offensive half of Tempo
  • If unit has a Bonus:
    • Reduces damage from opponent's first attack by 30%

And we finally have our first skill effect that specifically nullifies Deep Wounds.

The Slaying effect, Null Follow-Up, and Tempo means that he can reliably land Deadeye on his follow-up attack, and 30% damage reduction helps him survive the counterattack, though it's not quite as reliable as Legendary Claude's 80% damage reduction. The only caveat is that he needs to have a Bonus in order to get the damage reduction, and he doesn't have the ability to do so on his own with his base kit.

Landing Deadeye on his follow-up also heals himself for 50% of his max HP, and even if he has Deep Wounds, he still heals 30% of his max HP.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[FlyingKitsune]

Hey, these are all great! Except Sothis. So much for Progenitor Goddess. Hm...
Brave Edelgard: Crazy stat swings are crazy. Very good refine. My boy B!Ephraim got super outclassed though... Nooooo! Well, it was inevitable my friend.
Brave Dimitri: This guy got the Askr/Spring Maria DR so it's VERY good in my opinion.
Brave Lysithea: She got pretty much what she wanted. Simple, and great.
Brave Claude: Unique effect! He's now healing whether you like it or not. Generally pretty good.
Legendary Julia: Great refine, all she ever wanted! Guaranteed follow-up is great, CC against dragons is gonna have uses, and DR is good of course.
Haar: Dual Brave weapon, nice! He's actually usable now. Also the reference to RD Wyvern's weakness to lightning, lol. It doesn't really matter honestly, he's not surviving modern blue mages anyway.
Sothis:

Edited September 6, 2022 by FlyingKitsune