What value is even there for merging for casual players?

[Chopper...]

Some characters deserve it.

[Tenzen12]

What value is making your character stronger? Well, they get stronger and Stronger unit have easier time to clear game content.

Well there is obviously more to it then just that.

1. Some unit simply appreciate more stats then others. Especially units who fall behind due having "Balanced stats" are gimped into lighting bruisers. Fragile speedsters (like Nino) can avoid getting one-shoted. Dancers who are week, became usable in actual combat ect, ect.
2. Natures: Some are crippling, so it's better merge into better so you don't loose all effort building it, starting from scratch.
3. Special projects: These sometime require it. I got -atk Brave Roy which is not exactly great... so I just decided make better one from lot of Eliwoods :D. Then there is my +10 Cecilia who can excelently use Blade+Close Counter+Vantage and is practicaly unstoppable. She wouldn't work that well without bulk she get from merges. There are no limits to imagination.
4. Some unit are just too good to not merge. Units like Nowi, Caeda, Masked Marth or Reinhardt, these are units you  would use for very long time. So any investment into such units will pay of in long run. In the end it's better invest into unit that are useful then give golden glow to random bench warming proffesionals.
5. Easier inheritance: Units that use expensive skills (like Aether/Galeforce/refinable legendary weapons...) or such where you want more alternatives for slot can make great use of merging as new copy can once again level from 1 to 40 and thus learn skills that "main unit" don't have yet.

Yep, that should be about it.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Tenzen12

[Emerson]

Some units are just super easy to merge like Nino and just get better and better as they merge. The extra stats can help them do things that you'd normally need another unit for through the luck of summoning. Even if not... I mean, there's no kill like overkill, right?

Personally I just merge to make characters I like stronger. +5 Soleil just happened for me and I'm pretty excited to get her higher.

[Korath88]

I'm in the same boat as you. I can complete all content with unmerged units and as you mentioned, tier 20 isn't worth it so I don't promote to merge. Especially since most of my favourites aren't 3-4* pulls, and I'm not spending 200k on a character I don't care for.

The only times I ever merge is if I manage to pull multiple copies of a 5* unit that doesn't have good fodder, or to change the IVs of a unit I want to use.

Besides, there's other stuff to spend feathers on, like QR3, or slaying weapons.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Korath88

[sirmola]

I didn't used to merge, but I have now either filled most niches that can be filled by four star units, or don't have the character i want at a decent nature (lance flyers being the best example. None of my clares, cordelias, or shigures have ever had good IVs, and the only 5* lance fler was a -atk catria i eventualy foddered to put a slaying lance on someone.) No one who I use frequently has any skills then really need from a promoted 4* atm (and even if someone needed QR3, I am out of kleins and subakis atm).  Also, there are many theoreticaly usfull people who i have promoted who have sat on my bench 95% of the time. My playstyle favors long-range hyper offense, pure tanks, and dancers. Because most of my really good units of those types are 5* exclusives (looking at you, brave lyn and airzura), I have only so many units that I can promote and actualy use, but my merge options are also limited. In practice, I accumulate feathers faster than I accumulate units I want to merge (getting a 3* reinhardt is almost as good for me right now as getting a 5* exclusive. I deeply regret the days when i could not possibly conceive of merging (for the reasons used in the OP), and used several reinhardt as vantage fodder)

Edited July 11, 2018 by sirmola

[Fruity Insanity]

Fire Emblem Heroes is my most played gacha (though I dabble in YGO Duel Links, Granblue, and SinoAlice), so by now I’ve don’t like 99% of what there is to do. That said, the “end game” content, to me, is Arena, and since I have nothing better to do, I play around that most of the time. Merging isn’t the most efficient use of feathers, but it’s not like they’re that hard to come by, and-

 

Actually, who am I kidding. I merged to get out of Reinhardt/Horse Lyn score ranges. That stuff gives me cancer.

[shadowofchaos]

On 7/10/2018 at 4:00 PM, eclipse said:

Certain GHBs, too.  I ran into issues left and right with Leon because of that.

I've never had to use any merges for any of the GHB Internals.

[Lewyn]

I guess for people who want tier 20 for competitiveness or whatever, they could invest all their feathers in making a strong arena core of units available at 4 star or lower and +10 them.  I think the big thing is arena assault, the rewards for ranking top there is insane, I don't know if that it is possible for FTP.  However with all those stones, sacred coins, whales probably have all seals upgraded and can refine every divine weapon that gets a refine option.  

Personally as FTP it is much more important for me to have fun and that means a variety of units to use.  I will merge dupe 5 stars, if my initial one has crappy nature, or if they have no very valuable skills that someone else can make use of.  

[eclipse]

1 hour ago, shadowofchaos said:

I've never had to use any merges for any of the GHB Internals.

I have.  The best part is, said GHB is coming back (Takumi).  For example, if I had a merge that gave my Leon +2 Atk, I wouldn't have to rely on my summoner support to finish the map.

Haven't really needed the extra HP (yet), but I'm sure it'll crop up one day (most likely someone like Ninian).

[Ice Dragon]

5 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

However with all those stones, sacred coins, whales probably have all seals upgraded and can refine every divine weapon that gets a refine option.

Ahaha. Ahaha. Aha. Ah. Hah.

I have 458 Sacred Coins on hand (missed out on no more than 40 so far) and have 26 Sacred Seals still at level 1 and all 6 forge-only Sacred Seals still unmade. At current, someone who has obtained and used as many Sacred Coins as have been available will still have 29 Sacred Seals not maxed (including the forge-only ones).

I have 1,486 gold rocks on hand (missed out on no more than 40 so far, as well) and 330 Divine Dew (missed out on 10) and have only refined 4 uninheritable weapons (Mystletainn, Eckesachs, Hauteclere, Cymbeline). At current, someone who has obtained and used as many Divine Dew as have been available will only have been able to refine 13 uninheritable weapons (there are a total of 38 characters with refinable inheritable weapons).

[Lewyn]

20 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Ahaha. Ahaha. Aha. Ah. Hah.

I have 458 Sacred Coins on hand (missed out on no more than 40 so far) and have 26 Sacred Seals still at level 1 and all 6 forge-only Sacred Seals still unmade. At current, someone who has obtained and used as many Sacred Coins as have been available will still have 29 Sacred Seals not maxed (including the forge-only ones).

I have 1,486 gold rocks on hand (missed out on no more than 40 so far, as well) and 330 Divine Dew (missed out on 10) and have only refined 4 uninheritable weapons (Mystletainn, Eckesachs, Hauteclere, Cymbeline). At current, someone who has obtained and used as many Divine Dew as have been available will only have been able to refine 13 uninheritable weapons (there are a total of 38 characters with refinable inheritable weapons).

So regardless people are still going to have to pick and choose.  Still 13 weapons is a lot.  

[Ice Dragon]

25 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

So regardless people are still going to have to pick and choose.  Still 13 weapons is a lot.  

Yeah, it bothers me so much that refinable uninheritable weapons are being implemented three times as fast as Divine Dew is being distributed, even if you get every last Dew you can.

[Sunsurge]

On 7/10/2018 at 11:15 AM, shadowofchaos said:

As one of the weirdos whose playstyle is to never merge since I think all content should be beatable with base 5 stars...

What is the appeal?

 

My essential take on it is... Since Tier 20 does not give you any benefit other than extra feathers... Why would I spend feathers for a net loss on feathers?

I understand that merges can help in Arena Assault for more refine stones and sacred coins...

But disregarding multiplayer... All you really have is unit bias projects.

So what is the appeal for you guys? Help me understand your perspective more.

I don't understand why you wouldn't WANT to merge. Like what's not the appeal of having stronger characters? Who cares if content is beatable or not, how about just having favorites? And moreso, what fun is it, if content is only beatable with CERTAIN base 5 star characters? That's not fun if I have to run a stupid loli team to beat something, when I want to use Robin, Lucina and a rotating base of two others.

I'm 100% a casual f2p player, but my Robin is still +7. And Soren is +6 and my Boey & Lucina are +4. It just makes me able to use my favorite characters more, what's the issue with that? I don't even care about Arena Assault or whatever. What's wrong with loving a unit and merging for that. My Robin is -Spd and is now 30Spd so he's no longer CONSTANTLY doubled by everything that breathes in his general direction.

I spend the feathers because who else am I going to put to 5*?? Random characters I have no attachement too? I'd rather upgrade a 4* to 5* and merge for a couple extra stat points. They've made all the difference.

 

[DraceEmpressa]

2 hours ago, Sunsurge said:

I don't understand why you wouldn't WANT to merge. Like what's not the appeal of having stronger characters? Who cares if content is beatable or not, how about just having favorites? And moreso, what fun is it, if content is only beatable with CERTAIN base 5 star characters? That's not fun if I have to run a stupid loli team to beat something, when I want to use Robin, Lucina and a rotating base of two others.

I'm 100% a casual f2p player, but my Robin is still +7. And Soren is +6 and my Boey & Lucina are +4. It just makes me able to use my favorite characters more, what's the issue with that? I don't even care about Arena Assault or whatever. What's wrong with loving a unit and merging for that. My Robin is -Spd and is now 30Spd so he's no longer CONSTANTLY doubled by everything that breathes in his general direction.

I spend the feathers because who else am I going to put to 5*?? Random characters I have no attachement too? I'd rather upgrade a 4* to 5* and merge for a couple extra stat points. They've made all the difference.

 

Some 5* characters, like BLyn , better be off as  fodders for  skills locked to 5*, which unless you LOVE them, merging is a waste. 

[Roflolxp54]

On 7/11/2018 at 6:05 PM, shadowofchaos said:

I've never had to use any merges for any of the GHB Internals.

You don't even HAVE to summon anybody to beat Infernal GHBs when you can simply use Fjorm, Legend Ike, Olivia, and Wrys/Lissa most, if not all, of the time.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

On 7/10/2018 at 9:27 AM, Ice Dragon said:

1. The +10 light gold border on the character icon is satisfying.
2. Some 5-star-exclusive characters are absolute trash for Skill Inheritance, and there is no point in keeping the extra copies.
   1. Except that once I finish getting them to +10, all of the additional copies have nowhere to go.

You could keep merging new ones to a new base until you have three +10s of the character. Then give them each a different blessing so they'll always give you the elemental score bonus in AA.

To answer the topic, I present a specific form of favouratism: righting the wrong of IS doing a character dirty. Many people like characters who don't do so hot with their base stats and/or kit. And that's why I've fully re-kitted Florina and merged her to 5* +9 (would be +10 if the gacha would cough up another copy...).

[Tenzen12]

In the end I would say there is no point of NOT merging unit... well unless someone has great ambition of getting every single character in game to 5*. You either invest into unit you are using/want use or into unit you, well... don't.

[Sunsurge]

10 hours ago, DraceEmpressa said:

Some 5* characters, like BLyn , better be off as  fodders for  skills locked to 5*, which unless you LOVE them, merging is a waste. 

But I fodder off tons of 5* characters. Nobody said you had to merge all of them.  I got 2 5* L’Archael who are both foddered off to better characters. 

My extra 5* Klein went for Quick Riposte even though I do like him, I’m not gonna merge him.

But for your favorites, I don’t see why you wouldn’t merge them. So like...my point still stands.

[Venmi]

In my opinion, it's always worth merging your favorites.  I'm proud of my three 5*+10- they may not be the best units in the game, but they're pretty amazing at their jobs (Soren, Titania, and Oscar).  And despite the fact that both of the newer Ikes have great/decent skill fodder, I'll be merging them until they reach +10.  Then, and only then, will anyone else get Steady/Warding Breath (unless a new unit comes in with one of the skills).  So, sense of pride and accomplishment, mostly.  Why else do we do the things we do in video games, besides to kill time?

[Lewyn]

On 7/12/2018 at 3:32 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Yeah, it bothers me so much that refinable uninheritable weapons are being implemented three times as fast as Divine Dew is being distributed, even if you get every last Dew you can.

It seems intentional.  Just like the IV system so everyone isn't running around with refined divine weapons on everything.  I think they want to make it seem special, and when you run into it in arena, you know that player made a pricey investment rather than a throwaway one.  

[eclipse]

22 hours ago, Sunsurge said:

But for your favorites, I don’t see why you wouldn’t merge them. So like...my point still stands.

Because there's a line out the door for Fury.  Which means that Hinata's not going to see a merge for a very long time (and I am NOT spending 20K feathers a pop for Jagen/Bartre).

I'm also short on feathers because I do a ton of SI, and because a 4* Sully is a myth.

[Korath88]

On 7/13/2018 at 8:11 PM, Sunsurge said:

But I fodder off tons of 5* characters. Nobody said you had to merge all of them.  I got 2 5* L’Archael who are both foddered off to better characters. 

My extra 5* Klein went for Quick Riposte even though I do like him, I’m not gonna merge him.

But for your favorites, I don’t see why you wouldn’t merge them. So like...my point still stands.

Well, when most of your favourites are 5* exclusive, you don't really have much of an option. Though unless they have very valuable SI (RIP my spare Hectors), I will merge spare copies if I randomly get them, but I won't spend my saved up orbs rolling specifically for more copies to merge.

Not to mention that 5* exclusives tend to have niches that make them more fun to use than potential promotion merge projects.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Korath88

[Nowi's Husband]

To show your love for your favorite character, make them as good as possible.  At least if they aren't 5* only or worse seasonal, you have to be a whale to try that.  

[Rezzy]

Since most new units get added as 5* units, and 3-4* units have been added at a snail's pace, there's not much else to use Feathers on besides merges.

All of my +10s have been 4* promoted merges.

[Sunsurge]

11 hours ago, Korath88 said:

Well, when most of your favourites are 5* exclusive, you don't really have much of an option. Though unless they have very valuable SI (RIP my spare Hectors), I will merge spare copies if I randomly get them, but I won't spend my saved up orbs rolling specifically for more copies to merge.

Not to mention that 5* exclusives tend to have niches that make them more fun to use than potential promotion merge projects.

Yeah I won't ever use my orbs to roll for more copies to merge (unless it's F!Morgan because I love her). Just not my style. And haha, lucky all the BEST skill fodder (Hector & Takumi) are characters I dislike, so they're instantly foddered away to never be seen again.

And yeah they do, but sometimes those 3-4* characters can get a specific niche after being merged so many times which is nice. Like M!Robin, who is my actual tank to anything that's not a speedy green mage after being merged +7. Haven't found another Blue Mage unit like him that gets me the same result for my play style.