Legendary Hero: Xander: Gallant King

[Erureido]

It was a long time coming, but Legendary Xander is finally here as the this month's Legendary Hero!

He's an axe cavalier wielding his father's axe, and he is a Fire-type Legendary Hero.

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Erureido
Embedded the video and noting his Legendary type.

[Mercakete]

I feel like FEH has just balanced out a little more, with Xander paralleling Ryoma as a legendary hero. As others predicted, he's an axe cav, so that also feels nice. They did a good job on his design, too! Nice. I'll free pull green, though I should save orbs (even though green's a good pool for me this time around since I don't have Eitri or Freyja, not that I care that much about them. I like Eitri more than I like Freyja though.)

[Ice Dragon]

Hell, it's about time.

It's a fast Xander.

He gets the Slaying effect, Null Follow-Up if he outspeeds the opponent, +1 Special charge rate, Canto (Rem.+1), 50% damage reduction, 7 HP regeneration after combat, and an effective +9 to all stats from the combination of his weapon and exclusive skill.

Looks pretty versatile. He can run Luna (for wall breaking), Ruptured Sky (for wall breaking against opponents with Guard), or Galeforce (for Galeforce).

Also, did I mention it's a fast Xander?

 

I'll try to +10 Xander, but I'm certain I'm going to get poor luck with him given how good my luck was on the recent Three Houses banners and the fact that I don't need many copies of either of the other units he's sharing his color with. I only need one copy of Freyja to finally get her to +10, and I'm already flooded with too many useless copies of Eitri. This situation is literally begging for the game to troll me.

I'm only one copy away from getting Leaf to +10, so I'm hoping to grab one as a pity breaker when there are no greens in a session. Meanwhile, my Reginn is only +4, and my Lif is still +0. I've gotten really unlucky with them only having shared a color with a new unit on banners during the period when I was not terribly active.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[Ice Dragon]

The usual translation things:

Xander's epithet, "Gallant King", is "暗夜の騎士王" (an'ya no kishi-ō), "Knight-King of Nohr".

Ebon Bolverk is "黒斧ベルヴェルク" (kokufu beruveruku), "Black Axe, Bolverk".

Chivalry is "騎士道" (kishidō), "Chivalry". Literally "the way of the knight". Compare with Ryoma's Bushido, which is "武士道" (bushidō), "bushido", literally "the way of the samurai".

[eclipse]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

or Galeforce (for Galeforce).

But why would I run Galeforce?!  😜

(sorry, couldn't resist)

And now by color.

Red - I have them all but I won't turn down merges!
Green - Two Heroes I don't have and Freya also doesn't object to merges.
Blue - If I'm fishing for a new hero, this is the color for me.
Colorless - Niime's new, merges on Leif isn't bad, but August.  I have him, I'm sure someone else wouldn't mind him as fodder, but I'm still horribly confused.

Pull order:

Blue > Green = Colorless > Red, and the gap between Blue and Red is extremely tiny.

[Humanoid]

For so long we were starved of decent cavalry axe Galeforce options and then in rapid succession we got Gustav, Summer Dimitri and now Xander. I'm glad if it means they're actively considering stuff like that instead of remaining slave to canon.

That said, I have zero interest in any of the eleven other units on this banner, so there's no rush to get him, especially as I'm not even bothering to level any of my newly acquired units lately. Not that I have any orbs even if I wanted to summon on the banner right now, I got thoroughly mugged off by the double seasonal banner. And of course a summer Duo hero is also just around the corner.

[Othin]

Glad to see him finally showing up. I have a bunch of orbs right now and I don't have Freyja or Eitri, so I'll have to try for at least one of them.

[Etrurian emperor]

Strange it took them so long to go for the ''obvious'' legendary pic. Still its a nice alt for Xander.

[Magenta Fantasies]

It’s about time we had a Fates legendary! It has been almost two years since legendary female Corrin debuted, and Fates has the largest number of potential legendary units. We still have male Corrin, Camilla, Leo, Elise, Takumi, and Sakura, all of whom are consistently very popular characters. I wouldn’t even rule out Felicia, Jakob or Kaze; they’re all fairly popular and relatively major Fates characters. 

Xander’s art is spectacular (PenekoR is one of my favorite Heroes artists) and I’m looking forward to having an excellent axe cavalry unit. While I was wowed by his art, his voice immediately ruined my excitement. I’ll never get over how much worse Xander’s voice is in Heroes compared to Fates. In fact, all the characters who were voiced by David Stanbra sound notably worse in Heroes. Kaze’s voice is acceptable, but poor Siegbert. While I am looking forward to Shura someday appearing in Heroes, I’m also bracing for the fact he’ll have a lackluster voice compared to his voice in Fates.

[Rinco]

9 minutes ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

 male Corrin, Camilla, Leo, Elise, Takumi, and Sakura, all of whom are consistently very popular characters. I wouldn’t even rule out Felicia, Jakob or Kaze; they’re all fairly popular and relatively major Fates characters. 

IMHO, most of those would be Ascended instead of Legendary units. I think the only one that's surely locked as Legendary is male Corrin. 

[XRay]

I guess he can technically be a dual phase unit. I lean towards player phase though and would run Surge Sparrow for more healing since he does not come with Guard.

[LoneStar]

C Feud on Xander is pretty funny considering what happens in Birthright.

I'm considering summoning on this banner mainly so that I can spark Ullr, and I guess I would have some use for everyone here except August. I'm a little salty that Xander looks to be a better Galeforcer than Summer Dimitri in the the since that he doesn't have to rely on Heavy Blade, but of course I would only be able use him in Fire season.

[XRay]

18 minutes ago, LoneStar said:

C Feud on Xander is pretty funny considering what happens in Birthright.

Next Legendary would be Elise as a staff armor with Martyr, Still Water, and Near Save.

[GuiltyLove]

I can't wait to see Landmaster's clear for this map lol

Weird to see that Xander is going to be fast for once

[Xenomata]

Screweth thou rules, I have Chivalry

I know it's usually the preferred effect, but I really can't help but feel like the Slaying effect is... almost overused at this point?
Xander is getting an effective all stat +10 between his two prf skills, post-combat healing, max 50% damage reduction, plus the NFU bonus effect and accelerated special charge if he is near at least 2 allies at the start of player phase...
Having Xander would be good, only thing is... frankly, the double special heroes and summer banners going on right now are pretty good. Not an issue of Xander, an issue of everyone around him... As for the other units:

• Reginn and LegSigurd are both good units, though two issues with Red: Reginn was free, and Lif is... mmm... not the best in my opinion...
• Ullr and Nott. Ullr could be frightening ESPECIALLY now that she can use a conditional Brave weapon that doesn't hurt her Atk or Spd in any way. Nott remains annoying to deal with in Aether Raids (or rather the units she enables remain annoying...) Meanwhile, Ascended Ishtar exists... wonder why I haven't seen more of her since her release?
  ...wait have I seen her after her release? I legit can't remember...
• With Green being the focus color, I would have expected slightly better... it's honestly just Freya bringing it down for me though. I feel she could just be slightly better than she currently is... Eitri is still good though.
• Hard to say good about August when some of his effects are locked behind a condition that is actively disabled in specific game modes... Niime is almost purely fodder. Leif remains a pretty good unit, though the fact he might be waiting in line for a remix is... frightening.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Xenomata

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Xander finally shows up, and he looks...fine. I gotta be honest, I almost expected him to be a little more menacing. But, still, he looks fine, good enough. I'm not really a fan of him so I don't feel the need to use orbs to summon him.

14 hours ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

It’s about time we had a Fates legendary! It has been almost two years since legendary female Corrin debuted, and Fates has the largest number of potential legendary units. We still have male Corrin, Camilla, Leo, Elise, Takumi, and Sakura, all of whom are consistently very popular characters. I wouldn’t even rule out Felicia, Jakob or Kaze; they’re all fairly popular and relatively major Fates characters.

I don't think Felicia, Jakob, or Kaze were ever going to be Legendary units. Ascended, maybe, now that that's a thing, but Legendary? I highly doubt there was ever a chance, especially if someone like Joshua didn't make the cut. I'd be unsure about Elise and Sakura, as well. I think Male Corrin is really the only lock Fates has left, with the only other potentials maybe being the older royal sisters and middle royal brothers.

[Tybrosion]

Xander's stats [SPOILERS]:

Spoiler

Super Asset(s): none
Super Flaw(s): HP, Atk, Spd, Res

Those super flaws are apparently the cost of having Summer Dimitri's stats but with +1 Spd.

 

[Ice Dragon]

I need to go to bed for now, but as expected, the game is trolling me for my first batch of pulls.

1 Xander, 1 Freyja, 3 Eitri, and 1 August so far. How typical. Legendary/Mythic banners really ought to go fuck themselves.

 

EDIT: Even after waking up, this banner is still shit.

I'm now at 2 Xander, 3 Freyja, 5 Eitri, 1 Leaf, 1 August, 1 Nimue, 2 Lif. Also 3 flying Ninos.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Ice Dragon