Fire Emblem Heroes - Special Heroes (Familial Festivities)

[Mercakete]

2 minutes ago, X-Naut said:

On the flipside, there's also our first female lead duo unit.

And first duo dragon. I'm happy about both counts. Though, I do wish that Fae transformed, too, when Idunn does. Double dragons! The dragonstone looks big enough to power them both, though I guess dragonstones only attune to 1 manakete at a time.

[Othin]

Apparently they're replacing the 6k Sacred Seal with more Ephemera Divine Codes. A bit unsettling, but those were generally pretty bad anyway, and this gets us closer to the full 600 for both limited 5* manuals. I'm planning on picking up the Kagero manual at some point (probably to give her Lethal Carrot to my merged Winter Jaffar), and it'd be nice to get a second merge on my Spring Camilla as well.

As much as I like Idunn's outfit, she doesn't feel very novel. I already have her original version, which is also a red dragon armor with Vengeful Fighter, armor effectiveness, penalty immunity, a dragon buff skill, and a melee-only focus. I also don't think her duo skill is as exciting as the others. I think I'll pass on her for the time being and just pull a bit of blue to try to get a fast Narcian or Est.

I do have to agree with the disappointment about Est being blue rather than green. If we do get Minerva next year though, she could make it a four-character team with all three colors, so that'd be nice.

One interesting thing about the genders here is that it's been a while since we got a spring banner with multiple male units. 2018 and 2019 only had one each - the only previous one with two was 2017.

[Etrurian emperor]

I have great philosophical  disagreements with Sharena. She seems to be saying that Bunny Bartre isn't cute

WHAT!?

[Mercakete]

8 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I have great philosophical  disagreements with Sharena. She seems to be saying that Bunny Bartre isn't cute

WHAT!?

Sharena: Muscles muscles muscles muscles... He also has bunny ears. And a daughter. Muscles muscles muscles muscles...

Edit:

Oh my gosh Narcian is awesome. XD He's just amazingly extra. And, really, he'd look really good if he didn't bulge his eyes so much (even though his damaged art is just too funny.) Though, there's a thing I noticed... His crit shows him spearing a lot of carrots. Where did all the other carrots come from?! And in his damaged art, the carrot that was on his fork doesn't have puncture holes in it... What is this carrot sorcery?!

Edited March 17, 2020 by Mercakete

[Lightcosmo]

Super happy for the FE6 fans! I would go for someone here, but i'm all out after trying to get Chrom. Still happy, though!

[Ice Dragon]

So another episode of Lost in Translation:

Est's weapon, Eagle's Egg, has a really boring name in English, and this is really supporting my suspicion that the Japanese developers are purposefully trolling the localization team.

Last year, Veronica got the weapon Vedrfolnir's Egg, but it's name was shortened in Japanese to フェルニルの妖卵, roughly "Folnir's Fay-Egg", most likely due to horizontal space constraints since ヴェズルフェルニル, "Vedrfolnir", is really, really long in Japanese ("v", "f", and strings of consonants are all extremely space-inefficient in Japanese).

This year, Est's weapon in Japanese is ヴェズルの妖卵, roughly "Vedr's Fay-Egg".

Well played.

 

Though the localization team had zero issue giving two different weapons the same name "Missiletainn" despite having different names in Japanese. So... ???

 

29 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

Though, there's a thing I noticed... His crit shows him spearing a lot of carrots. Where did all the other carrots come from?! And in his damaged art, the carrot that was on his fork doesn't have puncture holes in it... What is this carrot sorcery?!

Pretty much all bunny characters are capable of either egg sorcery or carrot sorcery. Bunny ears are magic. And magic is everything. So bunny ears are everything. Spring Reinhardt confirmed.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Ice Dragon

[Diovani Bressan]

Hm... For me, Idunn's Duo Skill is kinda meh.

Yeah, a way to nullify the effective damage is pretty useful... but it's for only 1 turn (2 in you use it in AR and has that structure that I even didn't build yet). It's not like Naga's Dragon Fang, that can be granted in every turn to allies.

Edit: I was watching PM1 video, and I learned that her Duo Skill also grants Def/Res+6... so it's not that meh anymore, but still not impressive.

Barter is ok, I guess. Depending of the bonus unit in Arena, he may be mine.

Too bad Narcian doesn't have Lance Valor. These old Valor skills need to return in some way.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Diovani Bressan

[Espurrhoodie]

Meh, not really that interested. Idunn and Narcian are the only characters I'm tempted for, and then with Narcian it's because his art looks good.

[Ice Dragon]

10 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Too bad Narcian doesn't have Lance Valor. These old Valor skills need to return in some way.

Personally, I'd rather them hurry up and add in the remaining missing Exp. skills. I've been waiting for Lance Exp. for so goddamn long and it's finally here.

I'd also rather see Valor reruns on units going into the standard summoning pool instead of limited units.

[DLNarshen]

First the FE4 Gen II banner, then Annette, and now a goddamn Narcian alt?  I've been eating like a king this year.  Between Shanna, Altena, and my planned Valter grail project, another lance flier project is one of the last things I need but you bet I'm going to try and get as many copies as I can.  Aside from the weapon his kit will have to be overhauled and I have low expectations for his stats, but wow I never expected to be excited for a spring seasonal.  

[Anacybele]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I have great philosophical  disagreements with Sharena. She seems to be saying that Bunny Bartre isn't cute

WHAT!?

Of course she would say that though? This is old Bartre and Bartre was never attractive to begin with. If Sharena were to be attracted to an older man, I'd think that would be creepy, personally.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Anacybele

[Mercakete]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Pretty much all bunny characters are capable of either egg sorcery or carrot sorcery. Bunny ears are magic. And magic is everything. So bunny ears are everything. Spring Reinhardt confirmed.

Made me laugh, but your logic is sound! You know, I could see them doing that, too. Man, it's so crazy how popular the guy is, but it's within Heroes, so him getting silly alts doesn't bother me. I just feel a bit bad for Leif. I think his popularity has been eclipsed by Reinhardt...which, admittedly, is kind of impressive, overcoming a lord like that.

[Etrurian emperor]

9 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Of course she would say that though? This is old Bartre and Bartre was never attractive to begin with. If Sharena were to be attracted to an older man, I'd think that would be creepy, personally.

Some things are objectively cute even of you're not attracted to them. Like puppies. I should hope no one is attracted to them but most people agree they're cute. 

And that's Barte. A big muscly puppy. 

Besides Sharena seems someone to embrace all sorts of cuteness. 

[Anacybele]

Just now, Etrurian emperor said:

Some things are objectively cute even of you're not attracted to them. Like puppies. I should hope no one is attracted to them but most people agree they're cute. 

And that's Barte. A big muscly puppy. 

Besides Sharena seems someone to embrace all sorts of cuteness. 

Sure. But Sharena is allowed to not find him cute anyway. Just because she likes cute things doesn't mean she finds everything cute. I like cute things and there are some things I don't find cute, like Bartre. xP

[Othin]

14 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

Made me laugh, but your logic is sound! You know, I could see them doing that, too. Man, it's so crazy how popular the guy is, but it's within Heroes, so him getting silly alts doesn't bother me. I just feel a bit bad for Leif. I think his popularity has been eclipsed by Reinhardt...which, admittedly, is kind of impressive, overcoming a lord like that.

Hopefully Leif gets a seasonal at some point. Maybe a duo with Nanna?

[Etrurian emperor]

18 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

Made me laugh, but your logic is sound! You know, I could see them doing that, too. Man, it's so crazy how popular the guy is, but it's within Heroes, so him getting silly alts doesn't bother me. I just feel a bit bad for Leif. I think his popularity has been eclipsed by Reinhardt...which, admittedly, is kind of impressive, overcoming a lord like that.

Well at least Leif has an alt, unlike Seliph and Sigurd. 

[DefyingFates]

They actually did it. Those madmen actually did it...an Idunn/ Fae Duo Unit! That's so pure and their conversation is going to be the sweetest thing ever!!

Rampant powercreep is a problem of course, but these two are too precious for me to ignore. Goodbye Orbs!

Also, Bartre huh? I was so sure we were finally getting Boyd. Huh.

Edited March 17, 2020 by DefyingFates

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I actually really like Bartre's art. It's hilarious in all the right ways, which suits him perfectly as he is a more comical character. It's perfect.

[Jingle Jangle]

A FE6 banner? Solid choice. Been eyeing that Idunn and Fae combo. But I'm give this bunny seasonal a skip.

[Diovani Bressan]

9 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I actually really like Bartre's art. It's hilarious in all the right ways, which suits him perfectly as he is a more comical character. It's perfect.

I really liked his art as well. His outfit looks pretty good as well. Probably my favorite of the male spring characters.

Do we know who did the art already, or we need to wait for tomorrow to know it?

[SuperNova125]

I am so excited about the new Duo hero. Two dragons which I love as a unit type and it is a reference to one of my favourite endings in the series with the two of them. I will put everything I have so that I can get a +1 copy of them. I am currently at 20 orbs so I doubt I will do much but I will try nonetheless. 

[Nym]

10 hours ago, eclipse said:

I made Haar and Heath into something competent, and I think Cormag/Rutger are doable, too.  You're free to complain, though all it tells me is that you're not invested enough to figure out how to make a unit shine.  So fix it or stop complaining.

I have a +10 Gerome, I know how to "fix". It's easy to "fix" those units especially after they get a refine, doesn't change the fact that they got the short end of the stick. It also doesn't change the fact that they are outclassed by plenty of units in both the 4 stars and 5 stars pool.

9 hours ago, XRay said:

Canas is a mage, and mages can hardly be screwed by the simple virtue of Blade tomes existing. The vast majority of mages can run Counter-Vantage, standard Player Phase, or both relatively well. He will not be top tier, but he will not be unusable.

Rutger has a niche for Galeforce, so he is absolutely not useless. He can also run a standard Player Phase build, and Player Phase units do not need crazy stats nor premium A skills to work well. As long as the stats are not complete trash and you give them a complete kit, they will do just fine.

Cormag and Heath can run standard Player Phase pretty well. And as mentioned above, they do not need crazy stats nor premium A skills to work well.

Travant, Gerome, and Haar can all run a slow Brave build or a Def tank build. Again, nothing rivalling top tier units, but definitely not unusable.

Tobin is... well... Tobin. As a super tank though, stat distribution does not matter as much since that is adjustable with buffs, and total BST matters a little more than stat distribution in my opinion, so he got enough BST to work decently well.

I think you are both missing the point.

Yes, it's possible to fix those units. I would argue any units in the game can be good with premium skills.

But in my opinion, what makes a good TT or GHB is either their combat effectiveness and/or what skills they offer. All of those units I mentioned have neither of those (with or without refine) because they are simply outclassed by better units (like Navarre or Lon'qu being better than Rutger) or have skills that have been outclassed or irrelevant over time (Flier guidance, whatever Clide or Tobin have to offer, even Bond skills for anything not related to Rokkr).

Look at this new Bartre: Smite fodder is good and his sword is niche. But the rest... who uses Obstruct anymore? We even got Valbar with it! Odd wave is nice but not as consistent as other buffing skills.

What bothers me the most is that IS has been really obvious recently with the way they handle new units: give all the good skills to 3 females and keep them 5 stars. Add a 4th unit, a male, give them average skills at best and make them the demote of the banner. Then either add a TT male unit with even worse fodder in a very saturated class or a GHB male that doesn't have anything good except the 5 star skill, sometimes that being not even good either.

There's plenty of good examples of TT or GHB units on top of my head: Aversa, Winter Cecilia, Bath Camilla, Naesala and Izuki (only reason he is good is to promote his game).

I just wish they would put more effort, especially for TT units who doesn't have to respect the class of previous games. Why not add our first dagger cav in the grail pool instead of adding sword infantry number 1203?

[Tybrosion]

11 minutes ago, Nym said:

But in my opinion, what makes a good TT or GHB is either their combat effectiveness and/or what skills they offer. All of those units I mentioned have neither of those (with or without refine) because they are simply outclassed by better units (like Navarre or Lon'qu being better than Rutger) or have skills that have been outclassed or irrelevant over time (Flier guidance, whatever Clide or Tobin have to offer, even Bond skills for anything not related to Rokkr).

Yeah, and then we have Travant who wasn’t given his actual lance for no valid reason. The source material excuse doesn’t work when we have stuff like a non-seasonal mage Eirika, a non-seasonal flying Nino, archer Faye, academy phase Annette with Crusher, etc.

[Azuni]

Fir looks very dangerous with that axe.

Idunn looks super nice whilst a bonus unit for AR Offense, but I don't see how I'd fit her in with Surtr+WCecilia when she isn't a bonus anymore.

Rest of the banner looks incredibly mediocre.

Pulling Red orbs from the free pull circle I guess.

[Othin]

2 hours ago, Nym said:

I have a +10 Gerome, I know how to "fix". It's easy to "fix" those units especially after they get a refine, doesn't change the fact that they got the short end of the stick. It also doesn't change the fact that they are outclassed by plenty of units in both the 4 stars and 5 stars pool.

I think you are both missing the point.

Yes, it's possible to fix those units. I would argue any units in the game can be good with premium skills.

But in my opinion, what makes a good TT or GHB is either their combat effectiveness and/or what skills they offer. All of those units I mentioned have neither of those (with or without refine) because they are simply outclassed by better units (like Navarre or Lon'qu being better than Rutger) or have skills that have been outclassed or irrelevant over time (Flier guidance, whatever Clide or Tobin have to offer, even Bond skills for anything not related to Rokkr).

Look at this new Bartre: Smite fodder is good and his sword is niche. But the rest... who uses Obstruct anymore? We even got Valbar with it! Odd wave is nice but not as consistent as other buffing skills.

What bothers me the most is that IS has been really obvious recently with the way they handle new units: give all the good skills to 3 females and keep them 5 stars. Add a 4th unit, a male, give them average skills at best and make them the demote of the banner. Then either add a TT male unit with even worse fodder in a very saturated class or a GHB male that doesn't have anything good except the 5 star skill, sometimes that being not even good either.

There's plenty of good examples of TT or GHB units on top of my head: Aversa, Winter Cecilia, Bath Camilla, Naesala and Izuki (only reason he is good is to promote his game).

I just wish they would put more effort, especially for TT units who doesn't have to respect the class of previous games. Why not add our first dagger cav in the grail pool instead of adding sword infantry number 1203?

We've been getting plenty of premium male units and free/demote female units. See: Nils, Rudolf, Silque, Ced, Altena, NY Eir, every duo unit before this banner. 

I won't say it's balanced, but the only recent banners that perfectly fit that "premium units are female, non-premium are male" model are this one and TMS. The last one before that is... Picnic, kind of? If you count Lukas as non-premium, which is technically false but close enough.