New Heroes: Abyss & Muspell

[Tybrosion]

The Meet the Hero pages are up, and (stop me if you've seen this before) Aelfric is an infantry red tome with no Prf. He even just has Raudrrabbit+ too from the looks of it, just for an extra dose of unoriginality.

https://guide.fire-emblem-heroes.com/en-US/12005005000711-2/

Also, here's Balthus's page if you want to see his art in full:

https://guide.fire-emblem-heroes.com/en-US/12005004000710-2/

Edited September 16, 2021 by Tybrosion

[Sunwoo]

Didn't Arete literally get Raudrrabbit+ just a few months ago

[Tybrosion]

2 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Didn't Arete literally get Raudrrabbit+ just a few months ago

Yup, and just two months ago. And I already mentioned this, but Pelleas shares his Japanese voice actor with Aelfric too.

They seriously aren't even trying with these GHB units lately in any capacity.

[Sunwoo]

More like they aren't even trying with freebie units nowadays

[Tybrosion]

15 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

More like they aren't even trying with freebie units nowadays

Nah, I can't quite say that when our latest TT unit is a flying staff (and is the only non-premium one out of the seven that exist).

While the selection of TT units this Book hasn't been particularly exceptional either (mostly because of there being three axe cavs), it's still way better than the selection of Book V GHB units. Out of the current 10, half of them are red tome units while three more are lance units. 

[Florete]

2 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

This makes IS's decisions sometimes all the more baffling. I have to assume that maybe they plan to dip into timeskip forms for the students, but still ...

Three Houses won't always be the newest Fire Emblem game. It makes sense that they'd want to capitalize on TH during the height of its popularity instead of sitting on it until a new title comes to overshadow it. The status of older games won't change with a new game (unless that new game is a remake of said game), so there's no reason to push them out as fast.

And I say that as someone who thinks Three Houses is a contender for the worst Fire Emblem game to leave Japan.

[Sunwoo]

5 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Nah, I can't quite say that when our latest TT unit is a flying staff (and is the only non-premium one out of the seven that exist).

While the selection of TT units this Book hasn't been particularly exceptional either (mostly because of there being three axe cavs), it's still way better than the selection of Book V GHB units. Out of the current 10, half of them are red tome units while three more are lance units. 

Fair. I had forgotten about Nanna at the moment. Although it is annoying when the full banner has a prf weapon and the freebies don't. Is the game even gonna be around when they get called up for refines, with the rate this game is going? Heck, they might give Fallen Edelgard a refine before characters like Pelleas 😛

4 minutes ago, Florete said:

Three Houses won't always be the newest Fire Emblem game. It makes sense that they'd want to capitalize on TH during the height of its popularity instead of sitting on it until a new title comes to overshadow it. The status of older games won't change with a new game (unless that new game is a remake of said game), so there's no reason to push them out as fast.

And I say that as someone who thinks Three Houses is a contender for the worst Fire Emblem game to leave Japan.

True, although I don't imagine 3H falling to the wayside the moment a new FE game comes out. It will probably remain in the consciousness of the players for a LONG time.

[Ice Dragon]

54 minutes ago, XRay said:

In modes like Aether Raids where you have a bunch of team slots to cover each other's weaknesses

Several of those team slots are necessarily taken by Mythic Heroes, some of which will end up as dead weight depending on which ones you have and what the enemy map is, leaving you with, on average, about the same effective team size as any other game mode. If you're trying to maximize your offense score, you're going to end up with 3 of your 6 slots taken up by Mythic Heroes, one of which will almost certainly be the bonus Mythic, leaving you with no more effective team slots than the typical team of 4.

I still maintain that dedicating one team slot to support a support/clean-up unit is a waste of a team slot.

 

58 minutes ago, XRay said:

If you see a well invested cav line, then do not use a traditional super tank team. This is easier said than done as a Galeforce team is not exactly cheap to build or easy to use, but a player should have at least two team per Season, or at least build towards a second team.

I see Selenas outside of cav lines too in mixed teams. Not everyone got the resources to make an effective cav line, so they do their best with whatever they have on hand for a mixed team.

I don't see the old-style cavalry lines at all anymore. Most teams with her simply run Sigurd to grant the rest of the team more movement range and have Selena with a Rally skill to get her from a tucked away starting position out into the front to get danced, allowing her to reach most of the map. The rest of the team usually has bulky units with high damage output, like Duo Lif, Dimitri, Edelgard, etc., and often a support unit like Young Larchel or Eliwood.

Either way, Selena is a very splashable unit and can be made to fit on most map types due to her mobility and combat performance. The team you suggested simply won't work on any reasonably open map.

You may as well just run a Save tank instead.

 

1 hour ago, XRay said:

Super tanks can offload not only Special charge+1 to Lucina: Brave Princess and Hilda: Deer's Two-Piece, they can also offload Dodge to Flayn and Nifl, and Null Follow-Up to Byleth: The Fódlan Star.

A unit with Special charge+1 on their Weapon can still have two stacks of Dodge using Spurn and Flayn/Nifl and simulate what Ike: Brave Mercenary-Lucina: Brave Mercenary can do, and they are not as vulnerable to having one of their stacks of Dodge disabled by Hardy Bearing.

Everything you're listing for ways to catch up to Ike can also be done by Ike.

Lucina's Special charge rate boost only works on physical units, which are shut down by Selena's Windsweep, and Byleth is only usable half of the time due to being a Legendary Hero.

Additionally, the increase in bulk granted by percentage damage reduction scales with HP, not Def/Res, which makes it harder for other units to compete with Ike due to his above-average HP.

Also, Dodge doesn't even take effect if you can't get higher Spd than Selena to begin with. You get no damage reduction at all from it until you hit 80 Spd (plus whatever buffs Selena has), and you need 89 Spd to get the full 40% damage reduction.

Is it possible? Yes. Is it reasonably feasible? I don't really think so.

[Diovani Bressan]

5 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

The Meet the Hero pages are up, and (stop me if you've seen this before) Aelfric is an infantry red tome with no Prf. He even just has Raudrrabbit+ too from the looks of it, just for an extra dose of unoriginality.

So Aelfric is Summer Lorenz 2.0? How lovely...

[Etrurian emperor]

51 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

So Aelfric is Summer Lorenz 2.0? How lovely...

But sadly without the speedo.

[Ouzyxol]

On 9/15/2021 at 2:49 AM, Ice Dragon said:

Hapi's epithet, Drawn-Out Sigh, is "魔物を呼ぶため息" (mamono o yobu tameiki), "Monster-Calling Sigh".

Why'd they change that, I wonder?  Because it has a few less letters?

 

Not going to lie, I though this Trailer was supposed to be out tonight.

Yuri  -  Omni-Tempest + 3 range Swap...  That's a lot of range.  Is omni-Tempest just going to be a common effect now?  His stat-line is good, as expected.  Has anyone confirmed that Foul Play is Yuri's Prf Assist, or is this inheritable?  Oh, also C Duel Infantry 4.
     *Small side note, but his combat background is... in a burning steampunk ironworks?  So next chapter is going to have us (or that mechanical abomination from the half-way trailer) tearing up Nid-whatever.

Constance  -  Almost Swift Sparrow 3, the relevant part of NFU and either Lull Spd/Res or Atk/Spd.  Stats are alright for a Flier.  Not bad.  Pretty good fodder, too.

 

Hapi  -  I was expecting Red/Green tome Cav, given all the previous Dark Magics have been the aforementioned colors.  Aaaand, she summons... WORM!  Ok then.  The stats are what I expected.  Dragon and Beast effectiveness, Slayer, Quickened Pulse and +6 Str/Res.  Yet another Mage-Cav Nuke, I see.

Muspell  -  Still a thug.  His weapon isn't anything spectacular, just anti-regen-tank.  Domain of Flame is Joint Drive Atk/Def and...  The second part is new.  More damage is more damage, it's never bad.  Overall, he seems less useful than Nifl.

Balthus  -  He has 45 Def* and uses Axes.  So much for Gauntlets, huh?  And we get a copy free.
     *Deals 83 damage with Ignis, 47 without Special, Ignis is 80% Def, so:  83-47=36, 36 is 80% of 45

 

And uh...

Spoiler

I see.  I'm guessing he'll be a Beast that morphs into the afore-mentioned Abomination.

 

[Sasori]

23 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

I thought 3H has only gotten two including this one? Either way, if this is what it takes to stop 3H overtaking CYL for a third year in a row, I'm all for this as a necessary evil. Competition's going to be tough enough with the Byleths, Rhea and any students in alt hell right now (and Ignatz of course), even without Yuri blocking Chrom again.

I'm not getting my hopes up, considering this bizarre trend IS created for themselves where all magic antagonist GHBs get gimmicky red tomes. I'd love to be wrong though.

At this point i'm starting to miss the gimmick tomes. I mean this is the third time they introduced this tome into the grail pool. I wasn't expecting a plegian weapon or a Amiti booms, but surely there must have been some seasonal weapon they could put in.

How about those million unique free to play axes or the Yuno/Lute tome. Those could make for a neat red tome.

[XRay]

11 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Several of those team slots are necessarily taken by Mythic Heroes, some of which will end up as dead weight depending on which ones you have and what the enemy map is, leaving you with, on average, about the same effective team size as any other game mode. If you're trying to maximize your offense score, you're going to end up with 3 of your 6 slots taken up by Mythic Heroes, one of which will almost certainly be the bonus Mythic, leaving you with no more effective team slots than the typical team of 4.

I still maintain that dedicating one team slot to support a support/clean-up unit is a waste of a team slot.

A tank busting team will be running two Peonys/Plumerias, and Ullr/Reginn works well with that type of team composition. The other three will be nukes, and a nuke like Yuri can function as an additional Dancer/Singer to allow for more mobility in case the defense team has a high mobility ranged cav that is hard to snipe.

Not every team needs a bonus unit, and ensuring a win is more important to save Ladders for the truly hard maps later in the week and the occasional misclicks and mistakes. A player is mostly likely going to use their super tank team most of the time with max scoring, so not running a bonus Mythic on a secondary team to ensure to win against a few challenging maps towards the end of the week is not a big deal.

11 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

I don't see the old-style cavalry lines at all anymore. Most teams with her simply run Sigurd to grant the rest of the team more movement range and have Selena with a Rally skill to get her from a tucked away starting position out into the front to get danced, allowing her to reach most of the map. The rest of the team usually has bulky units with high damage output, like Duo Lif, Dimitri, Edelgard, etc., and often a support unit like Young Larchel or Eliwood.

Either way, Selena is a very splashable unit and can be made to fit on most map types due to her mobility and combat performance. The team you suggested simply won't work on any reasonably open map.

You may as well just run a Save tank instead.

I would not use a super tank team for open-map Nótt-Sigurd cav lines with four or more cavalry nukes either. However, the less cavalry units they use, the less effective and threatening their coverage and range will be, and the better a traditional super tank team will perform against them.

Ike: Brave Mercenary-Lucina: Brave Priness combo and their derivatives will work on any map that does not have multipe high mobility nukes that can reach all four center squares of the front row, and assuming whatever super tank you use is not hard countered by something specific like Líf: Undying Ties Duo or Caeda: Sea-Blossom Pair on the defense team. Ike: Brave Mercenary-Lucina: Brave Princess can still work on open maps if the defense team does not have the mobility to reach Lucina: Brave Princess behind Ike: Brave Mercenary.

12 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Everything you're listing for ways to catch up to Ike can also be done by Ike.

Lucina's Special charge rate boost only works on physical units, which are shut down by Selena's Windsweep, and Byleth is only usable half of the time due to being a Legendary Hero.

Additionally, the increase in bulk granted by percentage damage reduction scales with HP, not Def/Res, which makes it harder for other units to compete with Ike due to his above-average HP.

Also, Dodge doesn't even take effect if you can't get higher Spd than Selena to begin with. You get no damage reduction at all from it until you hit 80 Spd (plus whatever buffs Selena has), and you need 89 Spd to get the full 40% damage reduction.

Is it possible? Yes. Is it reasonably feasible? I don't really think so.

It is possible and feasible. In addition to Eirika: Twin Refulgence, there are also other super tank options:
Marth: Prince of Light
Larcei: Scion of Astra
Eliwood: Marquess Pharae
Eirika: Pledged Restorer

Players will also have additional options during Wind and Water Season:
Corrin: Child of Dusk
Ryoma: Supreme Samurai
Dimitri: Savior King

The selection of premium super tanks is not huge, but there are options available and they all require less merges to reach a similar Spd to disable Sweeps and activate Dodge. All of them also work with Lucina: Brave Princess or do not need her, and the one that does not work has the effect on Primordial Breath and does not rely on Spd checks for Negating Fang, Dragon Wall, and Windsweep negation anyways.

[ARMADS!!!]

15 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

The Meet the Hero pages are up, and (stop me if you've seen this before) Aelfric is an infantry red tome with no Prf. He even just has Raudrrabbit+ too from the looks of it, just for an extra dose of unoriginality.

https://guide.fire-emblem-heroes.com/en-US/12005005000711-2/

Also, here's Balthus's page if you want to see his art in full:

https://guide.fire-emblem-heroes.com/en-US/12005004000710-2/

 I like Balthus art. About Aelfric being unoriginal as fuck and getting Raudrrabbit+ well what can I say... Just of course he would. I just... I don't even expect much out of these GHB heroes anymore, I feel like since Sonia they've all been kinda bad (counting Sonia)

15 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

Yup, and just two months ago. And I already mentioned this, but Pelleas shares his Japanese voice actor with Aelfric too.

They seriously aren't even trying with these GHB units lately in any capacity.

 True, they're not even trying. Its like they think that we care more about getting the map done in the easiest and faster way possible on earth than getting a powerful prize unit. I wish that they'll soon go back to giving us units like Nemesis, Petrine or even Solon. It doesnt sound like it will be that soon though. |:(

 

7 hours ago, Ouzyxol said:

And uh...

  Hide contents

I see.  I'm guessing he'll be a Beast that morphs into the afore-mentioned Abomination.

 

Spoiler

Just curious, by a "Beast" you mean you're guessing he'll be a Beast unit? Why not a dragon unit? It probably makes more sense since he becomes an actual dragon. I'm just asking out of curiosity, not saying you're wrong.

 

[Ice Dragon]

51 minutes ago, XRay said:

A tank busting team will be running two Peonys/Plumerias, and Ullr/Reginn works well with that type of team composition. The other three will be nukes, and a nuke like Yuri can function as an additional Dancer/Singer to allow for more mobility in case the defense team has a high mobility ranged cav that is hard to snipe.

"The other three" consists of Yuri, your chosen support unit for Yuri, and one other nuke. Rafiel is not a nuke. Velouria is not a nuke. Yuri is barely passable as a nuke.

And if you drop the support for Yuri, you have only 2 slots for Infantry Pulse as there are no Mythic Heroes that can successfully run the skill (the highest base HP on any infantry offense Mythic is 41, which is nowhere near enough to work for Yuri's base 55 HP after 3 blessing bonuses).

 

57 minutes ago, XRay said:

I would not use a super tank team for open-map Nótt-Sigurd cav lines with four or more cavalry nukes either. However, the less cavalry units they use, the less effective and threatening their coverage and range will be, and the better a traditional super tank team will perform against them.

Ike: Brave Mercenary-Lucina: Brave Priness combo and their derivatives will work on any map that does not have multipe high mobility nukes that can reach all four center squares of the front row, and assuming whatever super tank you use is not hard countered by something specific like Líf: Undying Ties Duo or Caeda: Sea-Blossom Pair on the defense team. Ike: Brave Mercenary-Lucina: Brave Princess can still work on open maps if the defense team does not have the mobility to reach Lucina: Brave Princess behind Ike: Brave Mercenary.

The opponent doesn't need multiple high-mobility nukes that can reach the majority of your front row. All they need is one.

In the current meta, the use of multiple nukes is not really to increase your threat coverage (because you can cover almost the entire map pretty easily with only a single nuke), but to wear down Save tanks with multiple rounds of combat and to diversify your damage types to cover different tanks.

 

1 hour ago, XRay said:

The selection of premium super tanks is not huge, but there are options available and they all require less merges to reach a similar Spd to disable Sweeps and activate Dodge. All of them also work with Lucina: Brave Princess or do not need her, and the one that does not work has the effect on Primordial Breath and does not rely on Spd checks for Negating Fang, Dragon Wall, and Windsweep negation anyways.

Listing units that you say will work does squat to refute my concerns. Anyone can find a list of units with really high Spd and a weapon with percentage damage reduction.

I don't know the setup on your 70-Spd Ike, but if, say, Brave Eirika ran the same setup, she'd reach 85 Spd.

Chill Spd does squat to Selena because the usual setup has Selena Rallying an ally to clear her own debuffs, and your tank is very likely to be the target of Bright Shrine, dropping its Spd by 9. This leaves Eirika at 76 Spd to Selena's 75 before counting buffs on Selena.

I'm still not convinced. Especially if you're running fewer merges on them.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

"The other three" consists of Yuri, your chosen support unit for Yuri, and one other nuke. Rafiel is not a nuke. Velouria is not a nuke. Yuri is barely passable as a nuke.

And if you drop the support for Yuri, you have only 2 slots for Infantry Pulse as there are no Mythic Heroes that can successfully run the skill (the highest base HP on any infantry offense Mythic is 41, which is nowhere near enough to work for Yuri's base 55 HP after 3 blessing bonuses).

Velouria is a Galeforcer, and she can fully Pulse him down with Infantry Pulse on C. A Galeforcer can help take out multiple units in one turn.

The third unit can be a Firesweeper or tank buster to weaken enemies for Ullr/Dagr/Reginn, Yuri, or Velouria to take out, or just kill them themselves.

Rafiel: Blessed Wings can be used if the player only has one Peony and need more Dancers/Singers.

If the player wants to replace Velouria with someone else, the other two charges of Pulsing can come from Infantry Pulse on the Firesweeper/Tank Buster and Time's Pulse on Yuri that he comes with by default.

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

The opponent doesn't need multiple high-mobility nukes that can reach the majority of your front row. All they need is one.

In the current meta, the use of multiple nukes is not really to increase your threat coverage (because you can cover almost the entire map pretty easily with only a single nuke), but to wear down Save tanks with multiple rounds of combat and to diversify your damage types to cover different tanks.

If the opponent uses only one high range threat, depending on the rest of the defense team, either a super tank team can take care of it, or you can have a player phase team to bust it with can openers or to Galeforce it.

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Listing units that you say will work does squat to refute my concerns. Anyone can find a list of units with really high Spd and a weapon with percentage damage reduction.

I don't know the setup on your 70-Spd Ike, but if, say, Brave Eirika ran the same setup, she'd reach 85 Spd.

Chill Spd does squat to Selena because the usual setup has Selena Rallying an ally to clear her own debuffs, and your tank is very likely to be the target of Bright Shrine, dropping its Spd by 9. This leaves Eirika at 76 Spd to Selena's 75 before counting buffs on Selena.

I'm still not convinced. Especially if you're running fewer merges on them.

+Spd+10+20 with Resplendent stats and Summoner Support reaches 43 Spd.
Ullr with dual Peonys give 12.
Spd/Res Solo gives 6.
Lucina: Brave Priness with Ally Support and dual Drive Spd gives 10.
That totals to 71 in combat Spd. Sometimes he gets more Spd if a Peony or two are lined up.

+Spd+1+0 Eirika: Twin Refulgence can already reach 48 visible Spd without Summoner Support nor her Weapon.
+Spd+1+10 with Summoner Support reaches 52 visible Spd.
Ullr with dual Peonys give 12.
Her Weapon gives 5
Flayn with Ally Support and dual Drive Spd gives 7.
That totals to 74 Spd with minimal investment and a free Sacred Seal slot. With max merges (+3), Lucina: Brave Lucina (+3), Spd/Res Solo (+6), a fourth Spd Mythic (+4), and additional support (Peony positioning, other Mythics with Drive Spd, etc.) you can reach 90+.

+Spd+1+0 Eirika: Pledged Restorer can reach 47 visible Spd without Summoner Support nor her Weapon.
+Spd+1+5 with Summoner Support reaches 50 visible Spd.
Ullr with dual Peonys give 12.
Her Weapon gives 5
Flayn with Ally Support and dual Drive Spd gives 7.
That totals to 72 Spd with minimal investment and a free Sacred Seal slot.

Ideally you want as many Merges as possible, since Spd based super tanks can utilize every single stat point that they can get their hands on. At the same time however, Merges have less weight and impact over time as Flowers gain more importance, and Summoner Support itself being completely free already have the same weight and impact as Merge+5. If a player cannot afford a lot of Merges on a new unit, it is not ideal but it is workable, and Flowers and Summoner Support will be the equivalent of merge+10 a year later.

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

Velouria is a Galeforcer, and she can fully Pulse him down with Infantry Pulse on C. A Galeforcer can help take out multiple units in one turn.

If they actually win in combat.

Velouria's combat performance is nothing special, given her now-mediocre 35/37 base offenses and the fact that the only stat boost given by her weapon is the permanent +3 Spd.

 

3 hours ago, XRay said:

If the player wants to replace Velouria with someone else, the other two charges of Pulsing can come from Infantry Pulse on the Firesweeper/Tank Buster and Time's Pulse on Yuri that he comes with by default.

Having an open C slot for additional debuffs on top of his dagger debuffs was one of the benefits you gave for Yuri.

Yuri already loses in combat performance compared to Ophelia and Legendary Lilina, who already have shaky match-ups against the bulkiest units, and you're now chipping away at the extra things you say he brings to the table when otherwise copying their builds.

 

3 hours ago, XRay said:

If the opponent uses only one high range threat, depending on the rest of the defense team, either a super tank team can take care of it, or you can have a player phase team to bust it with can openers or to Galeforce it.

You're still dodging the fact that how super your tank is doesn't matter if you don't have a way to keep your squishies out of reach.

 

3 hours ago, XRay said:

(stats)

You realize that telling me how much Spd those units have tell me literally nothing about how well they actually perform, right? I can calculate Spd perfectly fine myself, you know.

Furthermore, those numbers aren't exactly very promising. As I've already mentioned, even hitting 85 Spd is not reliable for dealing with an invested Selena, given that your tank is almost certainly getting hit by the Light Shrine and Selena will be cleared of all debuffs. If you aren't running Null Follow-Up, Lif and Sigurd will still hit twice, and both are bulky enough to usually not die in a single hit. If the opponent has Harmonic Catria, Lif and Selena are likely hitting 4 times.

 

Meanwhile, Lif and Selena do jack squat to my Valentine Henriette, and I never have to worry about the positioning of my squishies.

 

EDIT: The heck happened to the formatting.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Ice Dragon

[Tybrosion]

Stats and skill kits for Balthus and our meme GHB unit [SPOILERS]:

Spoiler

Muspell
Super Asset(s): Atk, Def
Super Flaw(s): HP, Spd
*His stat line actually was slightly changed from his NPC version. He got +2 Res in exchange for -1 HP and -1 Def.

Constance
Super Asset(s): Atk, Spd
Super Flaw(s): HP, Def

Hapi
Super Asset(s): Atk
Super Flaw(s): HP, Spd, Def

Yuri
Super Asset(s): Spd
Super Flaw(s): HP, Def
*Foul Play is not inheritable.

Balthus
Super Asset(s): Atk, Spd
Super Flaw(s): none
Kit: Instant Axe+, -, Ignis, Brazen Atk/Def 3 [4* unlock], -, Close Guard 3

Aelfric
Super Asset(s): Atk
Super Flaw(s): none
Kit: Raudrrabbit+, -, Glacies, Atk/Res Push 3, -, Threat. Def/Res 2 [4* unlock]
*For those keeping score, that's just Pelleas's stat line after deducting 5 points from Spd and 1 point from Def and adding those 6 points into Res.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Tybrosion

[Sunwoo]

17 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Stats and skill kits for Balthus and our meme GHB unit [SPOILERS]:

  Hide contents

Muspell
Super Asset(s): Atk, Def
Super Flaw(s): HP, Spd
*His stat line actually was slightly changed from his NPC version. He got +2 Res in exchange for -1 HP and -1 Def.

Constance
Super Asset(s): Atk, Spd
Super Flaw(s): HP, Def

Hapi
Super Asset(s): Atk
Super Flaw(s): HP, Spd, Def

Yuri
Super Asset(s): Spd
Super Flaw(s): HP, Def
*Foul Play is not inheritable.

Balthus
Super Asset(s): Atk, Spd
Super Flaw(s): none
Kit: Instant Axe+, -, Ignis, Brazen Atk/Def 3 [4* unlock], -, Close Guard 3

Aelfric
Super Asset(s): Atk
Super Flaw(s): none
Kit: Raudrrabbit+, -, Glacies, Atk/Res Push 3, -, Threat. Def/Res 2 [4* unlock]
*For those keeping score, that's just Pelleas's stat line after deducting 5 points from Spd and 1 point from Def and adding those 6 points into Res.

 

Hmm, yes, I will stick with Pellets and Aelfric can just go into one of my barracks once I get all of his feathers. No thanks. Also ... Balthus's ... everything. Is this some sick, twisted joke?

[Roflolxp54]

I initially was considering Yuri as my free ticket hope pull but then I remembered that I'm really in need of Dagr since I already have CYL Eirika.

I've decided to shoot red and hope for a free Muspell since he can provide some nice true damage support.

Hapi's cool but I already have CYL Eirika and CYL Eliwood built so Hapi feels a little excessive. Though Ruptured Sky on Hapi is going to be hilarious.

I don't know what to do with Constance should I get her.

Spoiler

Balthus seems to want to kill Dimitri for Death Blow 4 and Lull Atk/Def just for OHKO shenanigans.

Aelfric is another joke red tome unit. At least he has Threaten Def/Res 2 in case somebody plans on foddering Zeke, I guess.

 

[Tybrosion]

6 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Hmm, yes, I will stick with Pellets and Aelfric can just go into one of my barracks once I get all of his feathers. No thanks. Also ... Balthus's ... everything. Is this some sick, twisted joke?

 

Spoiler

It is a joke, but at Mustafa's expense:

Balthus
47/42+/24+/37/31

Mustafa
45/38/25+/36/28-
*Also has Water Boost as one of his Passives

And no, Caellach doesn't fare much better against Balthus either.

 

[Ice Dragon]

Stats things:

Spoiler

Foul Play being exclusive is a relief, as fun as it would have been to be inheritable to infantry. It helps make Yuri more unique, considering I'm still not sold on his combat performance besides just being "good".

Balthus is literally just an updated Mustafa, having +2/+4/-1/+1/+3.

Aelfric is literally just Hubert with all of the extra points pumped into Res, having +2/+1/-1/+1/+12. RIP Hubert.

 

[Sunwoo]

12 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

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It is a joke, but at Mustafa's expense:

Balthus
47/42+/24+/37/31

Mustafa
45/38/25+/36/28-
*Also has Water Boost as one of his Passives

And no, Caellach doesn't fare much better against Balthus either.

 

Powersprinting is out of control

[Ice Dragon]

@Sunwoo

If you account for Dragonflowers, it's not really that much of a difference for Balthus:

Spoiler

With Dragonflowers, compared to Mustafa, Balthus is at +0/+2/-3/-1/+1, which is pretty even.

It's a similar situation with Aelfric:

Spoiler

With Dragonflowers, compared to Resplendent Lilina, Aelfric is at +3/-2/+1/-4/+1.

While I made a comparison to Hubert earlier, with Dragonflowers, Aelfric is no longer ahead in any stat other than Res, having +0/-1/-3/-1/+10.

 

[XRay]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

If they actually win in combat.

Velouria's combat performance is nothing special, given her now-mediocre 35/37 base offenses and the fact that the only stat boost given by her weapon is the permanent +3 Spd.

As I have already mentioned, not every nuke needs to be a raw damage nuke that can kill everyone. On a team with tank busters and other raw damage nukes, the Galeforcer's job is to take out foes with low combat performance so other raw damage nukes are not wasting their damage output on weak foes who are support units and player phase units.

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Having an open C slot for additional debuffs on top of his dagger debuffs was one of the benefits you gave for Yuri.

Yuri already loses in combat performance compared to Ophelia and Legendary Lilina, who already have shaky match-ups against the bulkiest units, and you're now chipping away at the extra things you say he brings to the table when otherwise copying their builds.

There is also the option of replacing one of the two Peonys/Plumerias with a Rafiel. Unless the player can afford max merges on two Peonys/Plumerias, players will still score well with two Mythics (one Peony/Plumeria and one Ullr/Dagr/Reginn) and four Blessed Heroes. We have enough team slots these days to move skills around various units to work around any problem.

Blazing nukes having shaky matchups against the bulkiest units does not matter, as there are Firesweepers and tank busters on the team who can soften up those bulky units or outright kill them. Since so many strategy players apparently do not have a drop of patience to research the wiki/forums/resource sites, nor an ounce of brain juice to build a Firesweeper/tank buster, Intelligent Systems is handing out Sweepers and tank busters like candy left and right at every Foci and Refinement, like how we were printing out stimulus checks in 2020 (not that I am complaining, mind you, I love free money). Dimitri: Savage Boar and Eirika: Pledged Restorer for some reason was not dumb enough to use apparently. They had to dumb things down so badly recently, that they straight out of the box made Alm: Imperial Ascent able to kill any bulky tank in one round of combat, or two if the tank is blue or Edelgard: Hegemon Husk. And players can also be extra Hapi now that there is another nuclear button to turn poor Edelgard into a literal husk.

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

You're still dodging the fact that how super your tank is doesn't matter if you don't have a way to keep your squishies out of reach.

As I have already mentioned, if they are using a Nótt-Sigurd cav line, I would not use a traditional super tank team.

But the more they dilute their cav line with non-cavalry units, the less likely they will be able to reach your squishies, and the more comfortably a traditional super tank team can handle them.

Against modern cav lines, I run single-Mythic-dual-Saves-triple-Flayns team to nearly guarantee I win, but since I rarely use it, I do not care if it does not score well. If they have not set up things up properly though, then I can just Galeforce them and score much better.

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

You realize that telling me how much Spd those units have tell me literally nothing about how well they actually perform, right? I can calculate Spd perfectly fine myself, you know.

Furthermore, those numbers aren't exactly very promising. As I've already mentioned, even hitting 85 Spd is not reliable for dealing with an invested Selena, given that your tank is almost certainly getting hit by the Light Shrine and Selena will be cleared of all debuffs. If you aren't running Null Follow-Up, Lif and Sigurd will still hit twice, and both are bulky enough to usually not die in a single hit. If the opponent has Harmonic Catria, Lif and Selena are likely hitting 4 times.

Meanwhile, Lif and Selena do jack squat to my Valentine Henriette, and I never have to worry about the positioning of my squishies.

As I have shown, you can hit 90 Spd even without max merges, and if you are spending Orbs, it is probably cheaper to get the fourth Spd Mythic instead of nine more Merges. And most of the time, you do not need to reach that high as Selenas can rarely reach that level of Spd. At +Spd+10+10 with Life and Death and two Triandras, she hits 67 visible Spd, and her Weapon and Blade Session can provide another 14. That is 81 Spd under ideal combat conditions. Under more common conditions, she is not likely to be at +10, she is not likely to recieve the full Blade Session, the set up is more likely to be one Spd Mythic or none at all rather than two, and she is probably going to be closer to the mid to low 70s.

Sigurd: Fated Holy Knight is not a problem if his teammates are not a problem. His combat performance is nowhere close to a super tank, and the boost in mobility only matters if they actually have someone that can take down your super tank or go around it. If it is a Nótt-Sigurd cav line with a bunch of cavalry, then there is not really much you can do except run a Save tank team or Galeforce team. But if they deviate from that template and the less cavalry they have, you have a lot more freedom to use a traditional super tank team to take out their one or two cavalry nukes first, and then work your through the rest of the team in subsequent rounds.

Edited September 17, 2021 by XRay