Legendary Hero - Ninian: Ice-Dragon Oracle

[Fire Emblem Fan]

NINIAN! HECK YES! And she's a green cavalry unit? Very nice.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Ice Dragon]

Ninian was expected. Cavalry was not. My wallet has broken down in the corner and is crying.

[Sunwoo]

>Ninian
>floats in her animation
>is not flying

Sure, IS. What is logic.

At least she's green, letting her be something other than blue for once. I'm not opposed to Ninian, but it's lolworthy not really how male Robin and male Corrin are getting fucked over in existing because they're dudes.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'm 1000% positive we're gonna get male Robin and male Corrin within the next six months of Legendary units. We might get someone like Elincia first, but there is absolutely no way in heck they can keep ignoring Robin and Corrin. Especially since both male and female Byleth got Legendary alts.

[Some Jerk]

3 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Ninian was expected. Cavalry was not. My wallet has broken down in the corner and is crying.

Come drown your sorrows with me, I'll buy.

They're seriously dropping this on me when my orbs are zeroed out from Rearmed Lif, and I already bought non-sale orb packs this month. September was fucking loaded and brutal.

[Ice Dragon]

Since they wanted to show off her fancy Dance skill, we get to see her stats, which are 44/39/43/23/25. That's some scary offense when you consider that she has a 19-Mt weapon, free +12/6 from buffs and debuffs, the offensive half of Null Follow-Up, and Sweep with a hilariously trivial condition. With max Dragonflowers, that's 40/44 offenses, which can be compared to Legendary Xander's 44/43 and Summer Nifl's 40/45 for context.

She also gets a Dance version of To Change Fate!, which is going to be so much fun to deal with in the Arena. Can you hear how excited I am to have to deal with this. Thankfully, the Galeforce effect has a 3-turn cooldown, which means if you can keep her away from you until turn 3, you won't have to deal with it for a few turns.

 

Unlike Ash, who only gets one laser, Ninian has an entire battery of lasers. I like lasers.

 

1 minute ago, Some Jerk said:

Come drown your sorrows with me, I'll buy.

I guess it's time I break out my bottle of bourbon. I haven't had much need of it this year, but I think it's finally time.

[SoulWeaver]

1 hour ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

there is absolutely no way in heck they can keep ignoring Robin and Corrin. Especially since both male and female Byleth got Legendary alts.

-insert Dicaprio face here-

[Tybrosion]

45 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I'm 1000% positive we're gonna get male Robin and male Corrin within the next six months of Legendary units. We might get someone like Elincia first, but there is absolutely no way in heck they can keep ignoring Robin and Corrin. Especially since both male and female Byleth got Legendary alts.

Nah, at the rate we're going we're gonna get (at minimum) Elincia, Sanaki, Mist, L'Arachel, Camilla, Hinoka, Rhea, Tusbasa if they ever un-blacklist TMS, and F!Alear before M!Robin or M!Corrin.

If IS can give use seven straight female Legendaries once, they can certainly do it again and then some. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if our next male Legendary is M!Alear instead of M!Robin or M!Corrin.

24 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Since they wanted to show off her fancy Dance skill, we get to see her stats, which are 44/39/43/23/25. That's some scary offense when you consider that she has a 19-Mt weapon, free +12/6 from buffs and debuffs, the offensive half of Null Follow-Up, and Sweep with a hilariously trivial condition. With max Dragonflowers, that's 40/44 offenses, which can be compared to Legendary Xander's 44/43 and Summer Nifl's 40/45 for context.

And just think, about fourth months ago we got a Ninian with just 27 Atk (which, even with an Atk asset, only goes up to 48 with her complete base skill kit) in literal 2022.

We now have a Ninian with an actual Atk stat and a Xander with an actual Spd stat. Man, what a time to be alive.

[Some Jerk]

Ninian woke up and chose violence. Only difference from her Fallen alt is that it's controlled violence.

Relatedly, I don't think I'm looking forward to that Legendary Hero Battle. That Dance-Debuff-Sweep combo is going to be a titanic monkey wrench to play around.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Some Jerk

[Xenomata]

...they gave Multi-Monoeye Drones that fire lasers to a DANCER???

I can't help but feel like as a dancer Ninian isn't offering quite a whole lot compared to other Dancers with Prf refreshing skills, and as an offensive unit she's not exactly packing anything unique... but together on one unit, she could actually be a potentially potent unit. The only thing is that without any form of damage reduction she's not going to be able to handle more than a few combats overall, at least against melee and CC-ranged enemies. But then when her Prf refresh's unique effect only activates once before going on a 3-turn coolown, she's probably going to be a little too busy with refreshing to actually enter combat herself... as for the rest of the banner:

• Reginn is aight but was also free, Legendary Lilina is still a potent AoE Special spammer, and Fallen Lilith is great if you can remember to actually use the Pair Up feature (fodder for Swift Sparrow 3/Lull SpdDef, AtkRes Solo 4, and AtkSpd Catch 4/Dive Bomb/Spd Smoke 4)
• Nott has the Pathfinder effect by default, Legendary FemByleth can give her nearby allies the Tempo effect, and Fallen Ninian gives some extra goodies on refreshing an ally (fodder for AtkSpd Menace, Ruptured Skies/AtkSpd Ideal 4/Lull SpdRes, and B Duel Infantry 4/Odd Pulse Tie/Cross Spur Atk)
• Legendary MaleByleth can give his allies the Bonus variant of Null Follow-Up, while Legendary Xander is a nuke on a horse (fodder for AtkDef Ideal 4/Lull AtkRes/Times Pulse and AtkSpd Catch 4/C Feud,) on top of being the focus color with Ninian.
• Mila is mostly support effects for Aether Raids Light seasons, Ascended Florina enables allies to warp within 2 spaces of herself, and Tine... wants to hurt herself so she can break through enemy damage reduction... hm... (fodder for Bracing Stance 3, AtkSpd Push 4/SpdDef Far Trace/Joint Drive Spd, and Fury 4/Null Follow-Up/B Feud

...honestly I do like Ninian, but I'm calling a pass on this one.
...it's Halloween next month, my favorite banner of the year!

[Sunwoo]

There's absolutely no excuse for male Corrin to not get a legendary alt now that Xander has one. Since female Corrin so blatantly represented solely Nohr, and Ryoma is the oldest Fates legendary.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Sunwoo

[Tybrosion]

26 minutes ago, Some Jerk said:

Relatedly, I don't think I'm looking forward to that Legendary Hero Battle. That Dance-Debuff-Sweep combo is going to be a titanic monkey wrench to play around.

They better have put L!Ninian as far back as possible and/or have a Near Saver next to her, because if not then Summer Edelgard & Altina can just run in like goons and kill her.

[Some Jerk]

It's occurred to me that Legendary Ninian might actually be a really strong use case for Dragon's Wrath 4, since she's got the statline for both it and Spd Smoke 4 to become a DR tank, and it would also boost her Arena score.

The real question is, what's better in practice, DW4 or Trace? With Wrath she'd put out some serious pain while also not being counterable, but Canto on a Cavalry Dancer enables some real obnoxious movement bullshit.

[GrandeRampel]

Oh, it's Ninian for real. They really wasted no time using all the GBA Manaketes which means they lost another type of character to pull from in case of emergency (unless they make something like Legendary Nils for real, OR legendary Adult Tiki which would be kind of weird) instead of simply spacing them out better. I would say that M!Robin, M!Corrin, either Kris or Elincia (the remaining lords and avatars) have to be next, but at this point it wouldn't surprise me if they just decide to finish off the remaining love interests (now that I think about, Ninian also counts as this not just as a GBA manakete) and wait for Engage to release in order to have another excuse to delay them even more.

 

20 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

There's absolutely no excuse for male Corrin to not get a legendary alt now that Xander has one. Since female Corrin so blatantly represented solely Nohr, and Ryoma is the oldest Fates legendary.

There was no excuse even before that. Since the other Avatars and Elincia have a bit of an asterisk next to their Lord title, Male Corrin is the last character we can call a Lord without causing some arguments to arise and has been for a long time. They keep ignoring him for no good reason and I'm tired of it.

 

[Ice Dragon]

And the usual translation notes:

 

Ninian's epithet, "Ice-Dragon Oracle", is "氷竜の巫女" (hyōryū no miko), "Ice-Dragon Shrine Maiden". "巫女" (miko), "shrine maiden", is moderately commonly used in fiction in non-Japanese settings to refer to people who serve a similar role, hence "oracle".

Faithful Breath is "神舞のブレス" (kamimai no buresu), "God-Dance Breath". "神舞" (kamimai), literally "god dance", redirects to "神楽" (kagura), "kagura", on the Japanese-language Wikipedia. Googling it gives me very little information of use.

Dragon's Dance is "導き竜の血を継ぐ娘" (michibiki ryū no chi o tsugu musume), "The Girl Who Inherits the Blood of the Guiding Dragon".

 

45 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

The only thing is that without any form of damage reduction she's not going to be able to handle more than a few combats overall, at least against melee and CC-ranged enemies.

Her weapon gives her Sweep if the opponent is blue or if the opponent has a Penalty.

 

3 minutes ago, Some Jerk said:

It's occurred to me that Legendary Ninian might actually be a really strong use case for Dragon's Wrath 4, since she's got the statline for both it and Spd Smoke 4 to become a DR tank, and it would also boost her Arena score.

The real question is, what's better in practice, DW4 or Trace? With Wrath she'd put out some serious pain while also not being counterable, but Canto on a Cavalry Dancer enables some real obnoxious movement bullshit.

I'm personally not trusting a unit with 44/23/25 defenses to tank no matter how much damage reduction you can stack. And 55% damage reduction is certainly not enough.

Legendary Ninian also lacks the defensive half of Null Follow-Up entirely and loses the offensive half of Null Follow-Up on enemy phase, which is not great for a Spd tank.

 

For damage, it mostly just depends on whether you want her to trade Canto and a bit of Spd for better wall breaking ability. Personally, I'd save Dragon's Wrath for a unit with middling Spd and a guaranteed follow-up.

For scoring, sure.

[Xenomata]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

Her weapon gives her Sweep if the opponent is blue or if the opponent has a Penalty.

THAT was somehow read as "cannot make a follow-up attack," ala Null Follow-up, not ala Firesweep. Oops.

[Diovani Bressan]

She looks like a nice Legendary Hero. Pretty unique one. I liked how they have her a 3 cooldown thing on her dance effects, so after using once (starting on turn 2, no it's useless on One-Turn strats) if becomes a normal dance for 3 turns.

4 hours ago, Some Jerk said:

Relatedly, I don't think I'm looking forward to that Legendary Hero Battle. That Dance-Debuff-Sweep combo is going to be a titanic monkey wrench to play around.

That's why I have been clearing maps in turn 1. I avoid any turn 1 effects and annoying reinforcements by doing that.

[Sasori]

Ninian as a ghb is pretty cool. I assumed she would have come with Ninis grace, but none of her versions have it.

[Mercakete]

Wow, this Ninian is looking pretty nice! Love her design, too, especially that ice crown. I also do love how the one they had Ninian dance for was Eliwood, and they had Nils being the assisting unit. This just feels so "FE7 canon."

That said, I have exactly 1 unit of each color I want here (Fallen Ninian (Blue), Legendary Ninian (Green), Fallen Lilith (Red), and Mila (Colorless.) All of them also happen to be dragon ladies.), I still need to summon Little L'Arachel, I want to save orbs for trying to get Askr again (since last time he didn't show up), and the Halloween banner is coming. So, I'll free summon and stop. If I have self-control.

[Faellin]

Ninian was obviously going to happen. I just wasn't expecting it this year since she just got an alt a few months ago. Heck its on this same banner!

[Rinco]

I'll be pulling for M!Byleth, trying to get the last four merges. Either Xander or Ninian would be welcome pulls. Every color has one hero I'd be glad to pull, either for merges or to have one copy of them. But I guess I'll start by sniping green since I want to +10 Byleth on this banner. If I get lucky early, I can switch to full pulls

[Tybrosion]

Stats if you didn't see them in the trailer + super asset(s) and flaw(s) [SPOILERS]:

Spoiler

Super Asset(s): Atk
Super Flaw(s): Spd

Um waiter IS, where's the standard complimentary HP super flaw?

 

[Ice Dragon]

13 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Stats if you didn't see them in the trailer + super asset(s) and flaw(s) [SPOILERS]:

Oh right... I forgot to subtract the pair-up bonus from Nils.

[XRay]

If I did not quit Heroes, Ninian: Ice Dragon Oracle looks like a shit ton of fun to play. There are not a lot of her game play videos yet on YouTube, but she seems very fun from I have seen so far. Dance/Sing AND act on the same turn is already pretty bonkers, and she gets Sweep and Null Follow-Up on top of that if you need some additional firepower.

I think it is really cool that she can double as a secondary nuke in PvE content while still being a full fledged Dancer/Singer. With her base kit, she can kite bulky units too, although she may want to use Fatal Smoke to stop them from healing themselves.

I cannot wait to see how people use her in Aether Raids and Summoner Duels. I do not think I would enjoy facing against her in Summoner Duels, but I do not mind watching and laughing seeing other people suffer though! Haha!

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

I cannot wait to see how people use her in Aether Raids and Summoner Duels. I do not think I would enjoy facing against her in Summoner Duels, but I do not mind watching and laughing seeing other people suffer though! Haha!

I'm not really convinced she'd be particularly great in Summoner Duels. A lot of maps have trees and trenches on them that make cavalry difficult to use offensively, and due to the cooldown on Ninian's Galeforce effect, she only gets the Galeforce effect twice on turns 2 and 5 or once on turn 3 or turn 4, and you can't choose to hold the activation for later without forgoing the Dance entirely. Additionally, since actions are interlaced, there is counterplay against Ninian's Sweep effect, as the opponent can expend a unit's action to clear its Penalties.

In Aether Raids defense, her debuffs can be countered with Save tanks since they only hit the closest opponents, but it's possible to use Rally + Ruse setups to hope to hit the Near Save unit with a Penalty. That said, I'm not sure she has the firepower to actually break Save tanks, as her Atk stat isn't particularly amazing, her Spd stat isn't high enough to reliably double Valentine Lucina, and she lacks weapon triangle advantage against the most popular Near Save units (who are all green). Also, since she inflicts Isolation on herself after the Galeforce, she can be easy to bait out in the open. She shouldn't have trouble against teams without Near Save, though, as long as her team actually survives to turn 2.

No idea about Aether Raids offense since I don't use Galeforce teams there, but having a dancer the Galeforces off of the Dance seems like a win for Galeforce teams since it's a free additional action.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Ice Dragon