Kaden

Seems Clarisse is following the silver to gold progression of equipment upgrades. Sniper's Bow being a recolor of Clarisse's Bow is something. I'm not sure how they're going to approach this with Berkut and Legion, especially for Berkut. At least Legion has Immortal Axe which they could give a completely different model which could be a bit weird since it wouldn't match his Art's weapon, but not all characters have personal weapons that match their art. So, that leaves Setsuna as the last gen 1 archer to be part of a weapon update. It'd be hilarious if they forgot about her and jumped straight to Jamke, spring Loki if a seasonal unit ever gets to be part of a weapon update, Nina, fallen Takumi, etc..

I want a summer Lilith alt that involves the Lilith Floatie in some way now.

Surprise! It's going to be Alm. Raven would have been a good Elibe choice for this month's resplendent hero. Considering Basilikos and how how his offenses can be pushed, I could see people being swayed to get him for even more attack and speed points and if they wanted someone for Nifl, Raven also has an ice affinity. I would laugh if they said fuck everything for the next resplendent hero and made it berserk Ike, Larcei, Mareeta, or Shannan. "Hey, we heard you didn't like obnoxiously fast sword infantry that keep one-upping each other. How about if we gave them even more stats!?"

That was a pleasant experience. This banner came out swinging with a big F you to me. No greens in the first full summon while the second one resulted in a Beruka who I already have an abundant of copies already and a 3* +Spd Gunter. I think the best thing I got out of two full summons was a 4* Bantu (+Res, -Spd). Everyone else was either a 3* or had not that great asset and bane combinations or I already had a previous copy with the same asset. Boy, I sure would love to have a +HP Setsuna. I don't even think I'm going to try again for bride Nailah with how those two summons went and seeing bride Oboro's stats makes me not want her as much. If only she were more like Itsuki and Lif instead of CYL Alm and Shannan. In other words, if she actually had resistance like her regular self. Something I've been wondering about is Gurgurant since it was introduced with Ashnard in his second battle form. If they were to introduce Ashnard in his first battle form, his regular not as mad self, what would they do with Gurgurant? Gurgurant is the first weapon to be introduced to a fallen, "alternate" version of a character before their regular self, right? Camus had Gradivus first before Hardin, Beloved Zofia is Celica's, but regular Celica was decided to be a mage and witch Celica I guess became sword Celica before CYL Celica became a thing, and the other weapons belong to the character or entity possessing the character, used at the time when they were fallen, or were made up.

I found Fujisaka Kimihito's Jakob fine and from Dimitri, berserk Ike, and Jakob, I feel like the artist is really good at drawing dark and menacing characters; Dimitri's mainly black Garreg Mach uniform just works with the artist's style while the mood shift with berserk Ike's and Jakob's special attack artwork really sells Ike succumbing to bloodlust and Jakob's displeasure with his target's entire existence. Perhaps it's a weakness in the artist's skills, but berserk Ike's muscles looking strange does help with showing that something is off compared to Ike's usual self if the whole purple smog wasn't enough. Winter young Zephiel is all right, but the winter theme doesn't lend well to Fujisaka Kimihito's strengths. I wished they had Halloween Jakob drawn by Fujisaka Kimihito and I would like to see timeskip, "punished" Dimitri from this artist. AKIRA's Astram is pretty awesome and I wished Hector's resplendent was done by AKIRA. That looks like Noy's art, but I'm not sure.

Aside from support and utility stuff like Chills or her default Spd/Def Ruse, Eleonora doesn't really want anything besides Lull Spd/Def to pass as many speed checks as possible and deal more damage or Null Follow-Up to get pass Wary Fighter or whatever skill that prevents her from making a follow-up attack for her B passive, right? I guess Dull Ranged can be a budget Lull and considering Mirage Longbow has a Firesweep effect using a speed check, Poison Strike would be like a Firesweep Bow, Poison Strike build. -breakers are useful for dealing with particular enemies, but get stuffed by Null Follow-Up and if she passes the speed check and isn't fighting someone with Null C-Disrupt, Eleonora doesn't need to fear counterattacks in the first place which would also apply to Guard unless she's softening up someone for an ally to defeat who could end up dying because Eleonora charged their special, Desperation would only be useful against Null C-Disrupt units, there's no reason for her to run either -sweeps, and she doesn't have the resistance for Sabotages. She's not really an enemy phase unit or one who can stack a lot of attack, so Vantage probably isn't that useful.

Part of me hopes that Ueda Yumehito and some other artists are given a chance to do a resplendent of one of the characters they did for Heroes. Ueda Yumehito's art for Cordelia, Hinata, Oboro, and F!Robin are okay to bad to some people, but Ueda Yumehito's artwork outside of Heroes look fine. That and skills grow, so it would be interesting to see another work from Ueda Yumehito or anyone else really whose art was looked at unfavorably. They should have went full on with the Special Spiral effect being Special Spiral 3 instead of Special Spiral 2. Ares and Eldigan cannot inherit Special Spiral, Wrath, or whatever for their B passive while bride Nailah can, but who cares! Let's have her be able to get Special cooldown count-4 with a Killer weapon because why not.

Yep. Sandfort Spade and Shoreline Rake have the effect of: "If a bonus granted by a skill like Rally or Hone is active on unit, grants Atk/Def+4 during combat." While Pledged Blade and probably Hinata's inheritable axe have: "If [Bonus] is active on unit, grants Atk/Def+4 and Special cooldown charge +1 per foe's attack during combat. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack. Special cooldown charge granted even if foe's attack deals 0 damage.)" So, Pledged Blade is like Sandfort Spade Plus.

Nailah looks absolutely beautiful. And Rafiel's there too! I was wondering when Rafiel would be introduced so that I could support Nailah with him, but this works too with them as bride and groom. Rafiel's tippy taps -- I don't know what to call it -- for his attack animation look hilarious. I'd like some clarification on Nailah's Bride's Fang's second effect: "At start of combat, if foe's HP >= 75%, inflicts Atk/Def-5 on foe during combat, and if Special triggers before or during combat and unit attacked, grants Special cooldown count-1 after combat." To be clear, the Special Spiral 2 effect -- not 3 since 3 grants Special cooldown count-2 -- that works if bride Nailah attacked is part of the foe's HP >= 75% condition, right? I figure it would be so and like how Bernadetta's Persecution Bow's Desperation requires her to have a debuff on her or not be at full health and not that she simply initiates and she gets a Desperation effect. There was some confusion about that when she was introduced and we were given a news post about it. @Ice Dragon or anyone else who can read Japanese, is the description for Bride's Fang defined? Can't think of the right word? Bride Oboro looks adorable and her artist is Noy who perhaps not by coincidence did regular Cordelia's resplendent art. Both regular Cordelia and regular Oboro were done by Ueda Yumehito who also did the art for F!Robin and Hinata. Bride Oboro smacking people with an unsheathed sword is funny and kind of dumb, but what immediately caught my eye was that Pledged Blade powercrept Sandfort Spade found on summer Helbindi. Pledged Blade shares the same effect as Sandfort Spade and Shoreline Rake found on summer Ylgr: "If a bonus granted by a skill like Rally or Hone is active on unit, grants Atk/Def+4 during combat", but also has "and Special cooldown charge +1 per foe's attack during combat. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack. Special cooldown charge granted even if foe's attack deals 0 damage.)", the Breath effect. Considering groom Hinata is an axe infantry, I would not be surprised if his likely to be inheritable axe does the same to Shoreline Rake. Bride Micaiah & groom Sothe are the second unit with Mystic Boost. Being the second colorless mage and a flying one at that is curious.

Smoke Dagger with Pulse Smoke as the base effect and inverse Niu and as the unique refinement. Maybe Deathly Dagger as well... Clarisse's Real Bow: "14 Mt. Effective against flying foes. After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Atk/Spd/Def/Res-5 and Special cooldown count+1 on target and foes within 2 spaces of target after combat. (No effect on Special cooldown counts already at maximum.) [Unique] Adds 50% of total penalties on foe to unit's Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat. [Maybe] After combat, if unit attacked, deals 10 damage to target and foes within 2 spaces of target." Let's add in daggers and staffs too. So, Bow-Dagger-Staff-Destroyer as the base effect and whatever as the unique refinement. That said, it would be interesting if her personal bow were to have an upgraded effect of Assassin's Bow that works on all daggers instead of only colorless daggers. Add in bows and staffs because why not and have Null Follow-Up or an effect that prevents the -breaker effects from working as well because -breakers being nullified by Null Follow-Up itself is annoying.

I asked this question before regarding Null Follow-Up: https://forums.serenesforest.net/index.php?/topic/68792-ask-fire-emblem-heroes-questions-and-get-them-answered-here-thread/&do=findComment&comment=5578360. Scroll down a bit for responses from XRay and Ice Dragon and my own thoughts in return.

It just occurred to me that there isn't a 4* summonable unit with access to Sturdy Blow 2 since I figured it would be nice to pick up Sturdy Blow 1 and Moonbow from Athena and Sturdy Blow 3 some 4* unit because why not. Then I looked into it more and there is no 4* summonable unit with access to a third tier dual Blow. The only unit with access to a third tier dual Blow is Olivier who has Mirror Strike 2 as a 4* instead of Atk Ploy 3. Between Mirror Strike 2 and 20k for Atk Ploy 3, I'd rather get Atk Ploy 3 and also Blazing Light by grabbing Rising Light from someone. Ploys are another issue as the only 4* unit with a Ploy 3 are the Ploy Boys and Julius; at 4*, Arvis has Def Ploy 3, Julius has Atk Ploy 3, and Saias has Spd Ploy 3. The only 4* summonable unit with a Ploy was recently introduced, Forrest, who has Res Ploy 3 at 5*.

That makes sense, but I was thinking that if a unit is capable of doing a lot of damage in general that Glimmer would be better than Moonbow. So, -blade mages, T-Adept or dedicated anti-whatever units, Duma and spoopy Myrrh running DC and Special Fighter for on-counter special shenanigans, maybe Gunnthra and Ursula, and possibly Lysithea and the sweaty Corrins and Lilith -- not so sure on Corrin and Lilith. Non-blade mages and dragons with good offensives too considering they target resistance which is usually lower than defense, but we are being introduced to newer units with more HP to work with and their low resistance might not be as low as gen 1 or gen 2 units, so it would be better to make sure they are actually doing damage instead of multiplying no or very little damage. Another which is more for PvE, units with very high HP despite targeting their low Def/Res. Anyway, my problem was wondering if Annette fit into that area of a unit capable of doing a lot of damage in general. I think the answer is yes, she can do a lot of damage, but not all the time. I think I want her to kill things in general while also being an anti-armor unit when needed.

This is a stupid question that I probably know the answer to, but considering Annette's Crusher targets the lower defensive stat of her foe, she would want to run Glimmer over Moonbow against units with uneven defensive stats and their lower defensive stat being, well, low? Problems are how many units have even defenses, how much of a difference is between the unit's defense e.g. 36/33 is minuscule compared to 33/13, if they are using Mystic Boost which in the case of Eir wouldn't matter since Annette's going to target her low defense by default, and the weapon triangle among other things. Also, for pure support and considering her high attack and adaptive damage, Annette should run Fortress Def/Res to soak up Chills and similar debuff skills? Otherwise and for a more combative role, Distant Counter considering her mixed bulk. Last thing, Hana's attack should be high enough that +Spd should be fine for her so she can have a better performance against non-armor units? Part of me feels like you can never have too much attack with effective damage, especially against armors who tend to have high defense, but at the same time, Hana also being able to deal with other things more would be helpful.

Never count Tobin out! He and Hana are free too. It does require dumping some resources into them, though, for new players since Tobin's a grail shop unit and Hana starts out as either 1* or 2* depending on which the player chooses to build. On another note, Mirabilis being a sleepyhead made me wonder about a Sleepy Emblem team. Her, Haar, Setsuna, and Tiki. Maybe Julia and Python and in the future, Forde and Linhardt can join the sleepy crew.

Adding onto what Ice Dragon and Zeo have said, if you don't mind using grails or were planning on merging Linus, then he's also an option considering he shares Basilikos with Raven and since his highest level 1 stats are HP, Atk, and Spd, a +10 Linus ends up trading 1 Spd for 1 Atk compared to a +10, +Atk Raven; Linus will have 42/38 base offenses to +Atk Raven's 41/39. That one point of speed will matter as will their differences in defense and resistance, so it's up to you who you would rather use and how much those stats weigh. Also, Legion and summer Ylgr, but you will need to invest in their speed more due to their lack of access to assets and flaws and that they don't have a prf weapon yet and not one that can boost speed like Basilikos can with its L&D3 unique refinement or Devil Axe with its base effect. He's a sword infantry, but maybe Astram? Otherwise, everyone else would be a 5* exclusive, especially for lance infantry. I remember seeing a Shannan build with Distant Counter and Close Call/Repel. Hilda is a good option as well, but it's up to you if you would rather prefer her to run Null Follow-Up or Repel.

Spring bunny healer Brunnya! Or rather Bunnya!

It just occurred to me that berserk Ike has the same base neutral attack as PoR Ike. CYL and vanguard Ike share 36 base neutral attack while Greil's Devoted Ike has 37 base neutral attack. 99 base Spd, though. So high that the unit cannot be +Spd at all. It's +HP, +Atk, +Def, +Res, or neutral.

Well, that was a thing. So, neither Formortiis Lyon or berserk Ike showed up and I'm up to the 40 summons and pick a 5* thing. I did get sweaty M!Corrin, so there's that. Not sure who I should pick out of Formortiis Lyon, berserk Ike, or brainwashed Julia. Although Blood Tome's effects gears him towards to dealing with ranged units and he has WTA against colorless ranged units, Formortiis Lyon seems like a good pick simply because of that specialist role. Another thing is that he would be my second Null C-Disrupt unit. I do have another Nailah who I could use to give Null C-Disrupt to someone, but unfortunately the second one is +Atk, -HP and the first is +Spd, -Def, so I am a bit torn on if I want her to be +Atk or +Spd. Probably +Spd considering the ever growing speed ceiling, but it would be nice if I could get a third Nailah. Anyway, a second Null C-Disrupt unit and a ranged one with good resistance at that feels like a good pick; he'd be useful for Aether Raids which the English trailer demonstrated with him fighting legendary Alm and Ophelia and be another Null C-Disrupt unit for Arena Assault. In terms of favoritism, I like his art the most out of the four and Mark P. Whitten won me over with his initial portrayal of Lyon. Berserk Ike is simply dumb. He's the second? non-dragon and non-beast armor I guess since it's technically just part of Caineghis's transformation effect unit with a Distant Counter weapon that has another effect and this one more or less makes him immune to stat debuffs. He'd be useful in Aether Raids. The only thing that worries me is he is a red unit where Ophelia and Reinhardt probably can still give him trouble and there could be a chance that Ophelia could manage to out-speed him or reach a high enough speed that the damage reduction. For a different damage reduction tank, CYL Ike needs a bit of investment, but all he needs to do is get hit and that's easier than passing a speed check to reduce damage. On top of that, you can even give CYL Ike Close Call/Repel to further reduce damage, especially against AoE specials. That leaves brainwashed Julia who is currently the only red mage with effective damage against dragons. She has high resistance, Light & Dark is useful, and it's easy to use Dark Scripture's essentially Atk/Def/Res Solo 3 and guaranteed follow-up effect on units without effective damage against dragons. That's kind of it, though. I agree with XRay on +Spd for berserk Ike. +Spd helps with allowing him to pass the speed check and have as much of a gap possible for Repel's damage reduction. Unrelated, sort of, but I wonder why you think his attack is slightly low. 35 base neutral is still good and you could consider it a cutoff for when high attack begins. Yes, we are seeing new units with +37 base neutral attack more often, but it feels like it's not as terrifying as how high the speed ceiling is pushed. For what it's worth, my "Holy crap, what the hell is happening?" moment was with Ced. Ced's not that extraordinary and it's his default skills, but with his 39 base neutral speed, Winds of Silesse's Spd+3 and Atk/Spd Solo 3, and Spd/Res Solo 3, he hits 54 Spd in combat if he's not adjacent to anyone. Mareeta who now ties with kid Caeda and berserk Ike with the highest base neutral speed of 42 hits 52 Spd with her sword's Spectrum Null Follow-Up Solo and Atk/Spd Solo 3. When Ced was introduced, he somehow showed up and as +Spd. With +Spd, he hits the exact amount of speed to double =Spd Mareeta if he's not adjacent to anyone and regardless if she's not adjacent to anyone. Then it dawned on me how comparable Hilda's offenses were to Linus and Raven after understanding Freikugel's effects properly. Thing is that she retains her raw defenses unlike Linus and Raven which is a bit of a double-edged sword. And then there is the creature known as Lilith. Stable girl my foot. But I digress. Is it bad that I think 50 base neutral speed at zero merges speed is low when nobody has 50 base neutral speed at zero merges?

Goddamn, Lyon. God. Damn. That's all I'm going to say about his support.

Yes! A bulky sword flier. Now, can we get an axe or sword flier demote or axe cavalry demote in the future? Or at least have an axe flier introduced to the regular summoning pool?

Siegbert's Atk/Spd Dull Solo unique refinement feels like what the tier 4 Solo skills should have been. Siegbert gets Atk/Spd+9 and neutralizes all field buffs on his foe with unique refined Dark Greatsword's Swift Sparrow 2 and Atk/Spd and Dull Solo unique refinement. That gives him 59/44 offenses if he initiates and is not adjacent to anyone or 55/40 offenses on enemy phase and when he's not adjacent to anyone. CYL Roy with unique refined Blazing Durandal has 51/41 offenses, 36 Def, prevents a follow-up attack from his foe, and gains special cooldown charge + 1 and inflicts special cooldown - 1 on his foe when he initiates. Also, +Spd Eliwood with unique refined Blazing Durandal has 50/40 offenses and 33/32 defenses when initiating. Add +2 if someone has his resplendent form and I guess +4 as well since he's easier to merge than CYL Roy or Siegbert. So, Siegbert has higher offenses on either phase and doesn't have to deal with field buffs, but he doesn't have anything to help with special charging or preventing his foe's special from charging or preventing his foe's follow-up attack compared to Eliwood and CYL Roy. There's also legendary Eirika who has 50/39 offenses at all times with Storm Sieglinde where if she fulfills its conditions, the she will have 30/24 defenses and gains special cooldown charge + 1 per attack by her. Siegbert is probably the most comparable to Lethe now. With her Brazen Cat Fang and when transformed, Lethe has 49/41 offenses. Brazen Cat Fang's other effect is Atk/Spd Solo 3, so she will have 55/47 offenses. If she initiates when transformed, then she inflicts Atk/Def-4 on her foe and prevents her foe's follow-up attack. The debuffs effectively give her 59/47 offenses and 30/23 defenses. Compared to Siegbert, she's faster and has higher resistance but she trades neutralizing field buffs on her foe for follow-up prevention and needs to be transformed and initiate in order to do so and also inflict Atk/Def-4. I wonder if that's the case. I saw a comment I think a day or two ago about how Virion would be a good ally to Ursula to help her use her Blue-Crow Tome's unique refinement. That would also extend to Aversa and Iago for someone to help, but considering units like Gunnthra, Hrid, CYL Micaiah, Yune, or whoever with Sudden Panic, it might be their way to try and sell those units and banners. Something like, "You like Narcian, Ursula, or whoever? Come spend your orbs and money on getting sweaty F!Corrin, Lute, Yune, etc. Or invest so you can succeed in Aether Raids and get more Heroic Grails for Aversa, Iago, AND whoever you like." Yeah, not sure why they didn't do this. It's just 3 HP and on an old unit that people probably would not care if he could heal 10 HP with each attack. Oh no! 10 HP! Whatever will we do!

RIP Jeorge and Leo who only reduce the first hit of damage from a mage by 30%. At least Sigurd and Seliph have a chance with Divine Tyrfing eventually gaining the ability to be refined. I'm at a point where I wonder if they will force a second refinement for units with outdated or lackluster effects. For example, hey, do you want Sanaki's Cymbeline to have more than just Drive Atk 3 and Atk/Res Flier Bond? Well, you're going to have to refine again to get -- wait for it -- Defiant Def 3! Isn't that wonderful!? Takumi would definitely like another update for Fujin Yumi.

It could happen in future, but I guess they wanted to use Ike who they could load with stupid stuff considering he has Ragnell which they upgraded to Chaos Ragnell for his berserk self and they gave him Radiant Aether in Heroes which berserk Ike has with Mayhem Aether. Greil at that point in time still used swords, right? Not sure if he had a personal sword and I don't think he ever used Ragnell. They would have to make up something which if they didn't want to, then I guess they could have him use Regal Sword which would have effective damage against armor and cavalry or maybe Ettard which doesn't have any effects. That's if they want him to use swords because if not, then they could straight up give him Urvan either as it is now or a corrupted version of it. Edit: Fallen Lyon's art reminds me of Final Fantasy. I'm not sure who, but I feel like it might be someone from Final Fantasy XII that I'm reminded of.

Miss a word and make yourself look dumber than the dung from a donkey. In that case and it was probably noted by someone else, Berserk Ike would be a good teammate to Thrasir.