KMT4ever

Time to make the Special Hero Summon for this year. Red ideally, green if not. 5* Winter!Artur: I'm disappointed. Not that he's bad, but I already have him. +HP/-Atk is mediocre, so I'll merge him into my neutral copy from his banner. Now green for the Ground Orders banner. 3* Sakura: No. Grey for Weekly Revival 8. 3* Mercedes: No. Red for the TT banner. 3* Fir: No. As for Hero Fest, blue ideally, grey if not. 4* Sothe: No. 4* Donnel: No. 4* Jagen: No. 4* Gordin: No. 3* Femui: No. 3* Oboro: No. 4* Reinhardt: No. 4* Tatiana: No. 5* L!Dimitri: I was starting to wonder if I'd get anything at all! +Atk/-Def is pretty good. 3* Lena: No 5* Shinon: Huh, nice. +Res/-HP is trash, but he can merge into my pre-existing +Res/-Atk copy. That went nicely. Now back to Elimine's Mythic banner with a 9.5% rate. 218 orbs on hand. This banner was not very kind to me. 8 full circles gave me just 2 merges for Ascendant!Fjorm and three 4* Specials. No Elimine, no Volke, no Constance...

Alright, more pulls. Blue for Desert Rituals. 4* Silas: Reposition fodder. Red for the Luna banner. 3* Cain: No. Grey for Weekly Revival 7. 4* Basilio: Or not. And now for the Mythic banner. I'll take one circle and see how I feel after that. 239 orbs to start. That was some bad luck. 5 full circles only got me a merge for Ascendant!Fjorm and a 4* Special Jaffar. Depending on what the upcoming Special banner is like I may come back here.

I've been casting all of my ballots for Elincia because it's criminal that she still only has one alt (Ascendant!Elincia please...), but I totally get Lissa's conundrum on who to vote for. As for Chrom, I get the feeling that he's wondering if it would be too egotistical to vote for himself. He does have a decent chance of placing so it's not like the votes would be wasted, but the secret shame...

Another week, another set of pulls. Blue for the BHB banner. 3* Est: No. Red for the Spurn/Repel banner. 4* Vyland: Or not. Green for Hostile Springs. 4* Camilla: No. Red for Weekly Revival 6. 4* Tharja: No. And since I'm bored, I'll take one circle from the Double Special Heroes banner. 157 orbs on hand. 3* Marth: No. 5* Alm: A decent 4* Special. +Def/-Res is meh, so merge fodder for my current +2 +Def copy. 4* Oscar: No. 4* Mordecai: No. 3* Cecilia: No. Eh. That could have gone better, but at least I didn't completely waste 15 orbs.

Speaking as someone who chose not to use it and got stomped, I absolutely agree with you. I'm pretty sure every single player I fought had it, and it is broken as all get out. I can deal with the opponent always going first tolerably enough by rushing into the center and balling up to discourage attackers, but the fact that on Turns 2 and 4 they get to move twice before you can do anything without even needing a dancer is ridiculous. Previously this mode went out of its way to prevent chaining actions, so why IS thought allowing Quick Draw to do that was acceptable is beyond me.

Blue for the TT banner. 3* Selena: Reposition fodder. A completely red circle...Blue for Weekly Revival 5. 3* Miriel: No. And now to go get another Harmonic Hero. I'll start with a full circle for fun, then snipe greens. 276 orbs to start. 174 orbs and 39 pulls later, I think I got out pretty well. I picked up Azura and a 5* Xane plus a merge each for WT!Olwen and Pent. Now I need to rebuild my stockpile again...

Red for Weekly Revival 4. 3* Laslow: No. Blue for the New Power banner. 4* Subaki: No. Now for the Remix banner. Eirika and Catherine are the only characters I'm missing, so I'll take any reds in the first circle. 4* Henry: Figures.

Red for the Fire and Ice NY banner. 3* Eliwood: No. Red again for Happy New Year! 3* Henry: No. And now to go for Neimi and Ascendant!Joshua. I've got 314 orbs, so I might spark depending on how well things go. Alright, that went pretty well. For 154 orbs I got B!Marianne, Velouria, Neimi, and a 4* Colm, then sparked for Joshua.

This certainly wasn't something I was expecting. I love Sacred Stones, so I'm very happy to see it get another banner. Neimi and Rennac look okay, Colm is absolute garbage, and Joshua is...interesting. The art is all quite nice though. I've got a decent orb stockpile on hand, so I think I'll go for Neimi (red bow) and Joshua (Floret) this time.

Hmm, I've always been voting for Farina to help get her into the game, and now that she's finally here I'm not entirely sure what to do. Part of me wants to vote for Morgan and Morgan, but I'd rather not split my votes. I'm leaning towards voting for Elincia to encourage IS giving her more alts because she absolutely deserves them. I've never been concerned with the actual winners and I'm not going to break that trend now.

Time for the first pulls of the New Year. Starting with the BHB banner... 3* Odin: No. Grey for Weekly Revival 3. 4* Niles: No. Green for the Moonbow banner. 3* Natasha: No. Grey for the Omega NY banner tickets. 4* Kagero: No. 5* NY!Selkie: Nice. How appropriate that my first 5* of the year is a NY Hero. +Spd/-Atk isn't great, but she's already pretty weak anyway. 4* Maria: No. 3* Emmeryn: No. 4* Legault: No. 4* Raven: No. 3* Mercedes: No. 4* Kagero: No. 3* Arthur: No. 4* Leon: No. 4* Clarine: No. Not bad, not bad. And now red for the Clockwork banner tickets. Maybe I'll get Fafnir. 4* Lon'qu: No. 3* Seth: No. 4* Sophia: No. 5* Perceval: Huh, okay. +Def/-Atk isn't great, so I'll just merge him into my +1 neutral copy since I'm lazy. 4* Orochi: No. 3* Soleil: No. Two free 5*s is pretty good for 20 pulls. I'm happy with this result.

Blue for Weekly Revival 2. 4* Jagen: No. Red for the Duel banner. 4* Hana: No. Red again for the TT banner. 5* Katarina: Hey, a nice 4* Special! +HP/-Def is meh, so merge fodder for my +Res/-Spd copy. And now to spark while getting merges for Morgan and Morgan. I'm starting with 348 orbs, so I should be fine for the future as long as I don't splurge more later. 154 orbs later I'm simultaneously pleased and disappointed. I got two copies of Fallen!F!Morgan, which brings her up to +3, so I guess I'll spark for her brother to bring him to +3 as well. I also ended up getting a bunch of miscellaneous stuff: merges for Tibarn and Lethe, plus a new Surtr. I would have preferred better "pitybreakers", but I'm not going to question 3 of them. Combined with Katarina today was a good day.

A ton of pulls to do today, starting with blue on Weekly Revival 1. 4* Altena: No. Blue again for Gifts of Winter. 3* Lukas: No. Red for the VG banner. 4* Caeda: No. Green for Winter's Envoy. 4* Hawkeye: No. Blue for Glorious Gifts and its tickets. 3* Femui: No. 4* Jagen: No. 3* Mordecai: No. 4* Marcia: Hello, new unit! Sadly +Spd/-Def is awful. Green for A Festival Miracle. 3* Barst: Reposition fodder. 5* Winter!Sephiran: There we go! +Res/-Def is fine. 4* Bartre: No. 4* Balthus: No. And lastly the Legendary banner. I've got 397 orbs, so I'll take four circles and see what I get. 4* Fir: No. 3* Hinata: No. 4* Lukas: No. 3* Lena: No. 4* Jakob: No. Not a good start. 382 orbs left. 4* Fir: Really? 3* Miriel: No. 4* Oscar: No. 3* Roderick: No. 3* Sheena: No. 367 orbs left. 3* Tanith: No. 4* Shigure: No. 4* Reyson: No. 4* Kagero: No 5* Brave!Lyn: Finally a merge for her. +HP/-Atk is bad, so might as well merge into my +HP/-Def copy. A nice 4* Special, but I'm really hoping that's not it. 352 orbs left. 4* Chrom: No. 4* Gordin: No. 4* Wrys: No. 3* Legault: No. 3* Jakob: No. Well, this is annoying. I'll try one more circle. 337 orbs left. 5* Brave!Marth: Nice! +Spd/-HP makes a good master copy as well. 4* Effie: No. 4* Libra: No. 3* Linhardt: No. 3* Klein: No. Well, I got something out of this banner at least. For 80 orbs an excellent Brave!Marth and a merge for Brave!Lyn is good enough considering I got Sephiran earlier.

Red for the TT banner. 4* Knoll: No. Grey for the Push banner. 5* Ninian: I figured the single blue in a sea of red would be worth something. Not Guinivere, but still a nice 4* Special. +Atk/-Def is better than the neutral copy from Heroes' Path, so merge time. And now time for the Christmas banner. I'm really looking for Harmonic!Lysithea, but I wouldn't mind anyone on this banner, so full circles it is. To the spark! 446 orbs on hand. I think this is the luckiest I've been in a long time. 8 circles netted me a copy of Harmonic!Lysithea, 2 copies of Winter!Mirabilis, and a 5* and 4* copy each of Winter!Manuela, not to mention the free Ninian from earlier. Now I can spark for Artur and leave this banner more than satisfied.

Alright, back to pulling. First, red on the New Power banner. 5* Ewan: Sure, why not. +Def/-HP is horrible, so merge fodder for the +Def/-HP copy I already have! Another free 5*. Grey for Weekly Revival 41. 4* Femui: Or not. And now to try killing my pity rate on the Thorr/Eitri banner. 449 orbs had better do the job. 4* Erk: No. 3* L'Arachel: No. 5* Fallen!Dimitri: Hello again. +HP/-Spd is terrible, so merge fodder for the +HP/-Def copy I already got from this banner. 4* Clarine: No. 4* Legault: No. The game is clearly not interested in giving me anything new, but I'll try one more circle just to see what happens. 429 orbs left. 4* Erk: Seriously? 4* Henry: No. 4* Lissa: No. 3* Lachesis: No. 4* Felicia: No. I should have quit when I was ahead half a dozen circles ago...I didn't do too badly purely by number of 5*s pulled, but I really would have liked different units.

Time for some pulls. Grey for the Ardent Sacrifice banner. 3* Ares: No. Grey again for Weekly Revival 31. 4* Lucius: No. And red for the New Heroes banner. Ticket time. 4* Bantu: No. 4* Kaze: No. 3* Tanith: Hey, first time pulling you! +Spd/-Def is quite good. 5* Keaton: Another 4* Special! +Atk/-HP, which is a nice contrast to my current +Spd/-Atk copy. 5* Laegjarn: And another one! Shame it couldn't be a character I like more, but whatever. +Def/-Spd is bad, but I've got a +2 +Spd copy already. That went very well. Since I'm sitting on 480 orbs I'll take another few circles from Thorr and Eitri's banner. 3* Henry: No. 4* Silvia: No. 3* Boey: No. 4* L'Arachel: No. 4* Jakob: No. Again. 460 orbs left. 4* Athena: No. 4* Marth: No. 4* Lucius: No. 4* Chad: No. 3* Lissa: No. One more try. 440 orbs left. 4* Seth: No. 4* Robin: No. 4* Femui: No. 5* Julia: Huh. Um, given I already have a +10 copy I'm not sure what to do with you. +Hp/-Def isn't even good. 4* Kaze: Ugh. And things were going so well too...Maybe I'll try to kill my new pity rate later.

Before I get to the Legendary/Mythic banner, some tidying up. Blue for the BHB banner. 3* Mordecai: No. Blue again for the 2nd VG banner. 4* Ferdinand: Reposition fodder. Blue yet again for the 1st VG banner. 3* Valbar: No. Green for Weekly Revival 40. 3* Python: No. And now for the L/M banner. I don't have an interest in any particular unit, but with 410 orbs I can afford to take a few circles. 3* Clarine: No. 4* Robin: No. 5* Fallen!Dimitri: Alright! +HP/-Def is fine. 3* Seteth: No. 4* Tailtiu: No. That went nicely, so I'll try one more time. 395 orbs left. 5* Anamnesis!Eirika: Not a bad 4* Special. +HP/-Res is pretty meh, but I've got a +2 +Spd copy already. 4* Laslow: No. 4* Bartre: No. 4* Raven: No. 5* L!Corrin: Very nice. +Spd/-HP is quite good, although I'm not exactly short on Wind Legendaries. That went extremely well for once. 3 good 5*s for only 35 orbs. Depending on what the next few banners hold I might even come back to spend a bit more.

@Xenomata Oops...Well, that's embarrassing. As for the latest 4koma, boo hoo Kiran, what will you do without your crutch characters? Not that there aren't a bunch of other refreshers or anything...

After one good Thanksgiving dinner, time to do some more pulls. Blue for Weekly Revival 30. 3* Donnel: No. Grey for the Bonfire banner. 3* Tanya: No. And now green for the Double Special Heroes. 3* Ross: No. 3* Ross: Seriously? 3* Mae: No. 3* Raven: No. 3* Reyson: No. 5* Summer!Ashe: Hey, not bad! Not whom I was looking for, but nice nonetheless. Full neutral's good enough for purposes. A nice ending to a seriously awful sequence of pulls.

First things first, blue for Weekly Revival 39. 3* Est: No. Red for the Rally banner. 3* Oscar: Or not. Blue for In the Moment. 4* Shigure: No. And lastly to see if the tickets will give me Ascendant!Laegjarn. 4* Gaius: No. 3* Maria: No. 4* Norne: Finally a +Spd copy! -Def is fine because it's time to start feeding you merges. 3* Chrom: No. 3* Jakob: No. Well, at least I finally got the +Spd Norne I've been looking for. No Laegjarn, but that's fine.

Time for some more pulls. First, green on Weekly Revival 29. 4* Roderick: No. Blue for Seeds of Fodlan and its tickets. 3* Cecilia: No. 4* Ferdinand: Reposition fodder. 4* Hawkeye: No. 4* Reinhardt: No. 3* Oscar: No. That was disappointing. Red for the New Power banner. 4* Lilina: No. And lastly the Legendary Remix. I've got everyone on this banner, so I'll see if I can give Tiki a merge present to honor her new skills. 4* Ferdinand: Again? Ugh, that sucks. Back to saving orbs.

Alright, time for a bunch of pulls. Starting with red on Weekly Revival 38. 3* Jagen: No. Red again for the Ignis banner. 4* Mordecai: No. I don't have anyone from Trick or Defeat, so grey for the better odds. 5* H!Sakura: Hey, nice! Not that she's much use anymore, especially when I have Guinevere+1, but a free 5* is fine any day. +HP/-Res, so that's tolerable. Grey again for the TT banner. 4* Catria: Really? And for the new ninja banner, I don't particularly care, so I'll just try to get Shinon for being a red bow. 4* Bantu: Not even close. Well, I got H!Sakura, so that's good enough for now. Back to saving orbs.

First, blue on the Chill banner. 3* Tatiana: No. As for the legendary banner, I'll take two circles and see what I get. With 149 orbs I don't have enough to splurge, but I am interested in this banner. 4* Lilina: No. 4* Orochi: +Atk/-Res is pretty good with a merge, so I'll keep you. 4* Tethys: No. 3* Chad: No. 3* Natasha: No. Complete garbage, as I expected. 134 orbs left. 4* Lon'qu: No. 3* Palla: No. 5* Ullr: Great! At least I got one new unit! +HP/-Res is mediocre, but good enough for my purposes. 3* Odin: No. 4* Leon: No. Well, that went well enough. I was hoping for some better luck after my recent string of disasters, but I'm happy with Ullr.

If I had to grade stats I'd do it based on how easy/difficult it is to compensate for them being low and what sort of restrictions said compensating puts on your playstyle. Obviously a unit wants every stat to be high, barring niche situations like feeding kills to someone else, but since that rarely happens I'd say the "best" stats are the ones that are the hardest to make do without. Using that metric, I would have to say: Move > Speed > Strength > Magic > Skill > Luck > HP > Defense > Resistance. Move: This isn't really a stat in the same vein as the others, but given the current track of discussion I put it in anyway. A unit with low move is incredibly restricted in what they can do in combat because they so often have trouble just getting to said combat in the first place. See Genealogy and Binding Blade with their huge maps and abundance of high-move units on both sides. When you have to move for three turns just to get in range of the enemy, infantry end up an entire turn's worth of move behind their mounted comrades. Compensating is also very difficult. Rescue-dropping doesn't work well for actual fighting and ties up another unit. Slowing down the rest of the army can cause problems with secondary objectives and still doesn't help the unit do anything other than smash straight into the enemy's frontline where more mobile units can slip around to take out different targets. Warp and Rescue are generally very limited in use and the latter still requires the staffer to get to wherever needs to be gotten to first. Awakening and Fates have Pair-Up, which does a good job of making low-move units more useful, but that still requires them to rely on a high-move unit. Speed: Incredibly useful in both player and enemy-phase combat, improving evasion and enabling doubling. The former can be compensated for in plenty of ways (supports, terrain, etc), even if Speed is the most reliable method, but the latter can only truly be replaced by Brave weapons, which aren't the most common things. You can sort of make up for not doubling by just hitting really hard, but that takes very heavy investment in Strength/Magic and good weapons. Strength/Magic: These two stats do basically the same thing, but since most enemies have higher Defense than Res I ranked Strength higher. These can be compensated for by doubling, using stronger weapons, critical hits, or effectiveness, but early in the game that isn't as much of an option. In general you always need to be able to kill the enemy, especially in situations like breaking chokepoints or formations, so a unit being strong enough to ORKO or even OHKO gives you a lot more options for using your other units. Skill: This affects a lot of things, but usually not in a big enough way for me to rate this higher. Its most important role is in boosting hit rate, but like with Speed and evasion there are a ton of ways to circumvent this (supports, weapon advantage, etc). However, since hit rate is virtually always higher than evasion anyway due to getting boosted by weapon stats, I think it's more useful to make evasion (i.e. Speed) as high as possible to minimize the enemy's hit rate since getting over 100 visible hit rate on your own units is pointless. Critical hits and skill activations are nice, but they're usually not reliable enough to count on in good strategy. Luck: Like Skill this affects a lot of things, including both hit rate and evasion, but it doesn't do as much for each as Skill or Speed does. It is usually the sole source of dodge, so that bumped it up a bit even if enemies usually have bad critical chances. Still not that important unless it's atrociously low like Arthur's. HP: The all-purpose defensive stat. Although it's not as effective as Defense or Resistance if you get hit multiple times, there are often skills and such that explicitly ignore those two stats, not to mention just circumventing them with physical or magic damage, so I think in the grand scheme of things HP is more useful. In general I don't rate these three stats very highly because high evasion can render them unnecessary, while minimizing exposure to constant enemy attacks through aggressive offense or firm defense means what damage you do take can be topped up by healers before anyone gets low enough to be at risk of actually dying. Defense/Resistance: Again, these two stats do basically the same thing, but since most enemies are physical I rate Defense higher. Most of my argument for these is in the HP section.

Yesterday's Tactic banner gave me a 4* Henry, today's Spurn banner... 4* Clarine: Not a single red or blue. That was dumb. Now for the BHB banner. 4* Barst: Reposition fodder. And The Land's Bounty. 4* Seteth: No. Hmm, do I spend on the Legendary banner or not?