DefyingFates

It was fun reading everyone's predictions for Emblem abilities for Engage so why not do so here since we're essentially doing that on easy mode (we know what the Emblems do in Engage after all). And how do you think they'll be released? I assume Eirika and Leif will be last as in Engage and we'll probably get the 3H Bracelets before the second half of the Rings, but we'll see. To start, given the heavy sword bias in the vanilla Emblems I wonder if IS will take any chance they can to give us non-sword Emblems: for example Sigurd with a personal Brave Lance/ Ridersbane? His Emblem Special is probably the easiest to predict: a mix of his Holy Aura abilities in FEH to give his partner +1 Mov and/ or Canto. Celica will probably get a Njorun's Zeal type limited Galeforce effect. Micaiah might get a map-wide Ardent Sacrifice (limiting her partner's loss to 10 HP to not screw you over). Roy will obviously give everyone access to Divine Vein Flame, maybe even with as big a range as in Engage itself. One I'm curious about is Leif. The best I can think of is some kind of WTA neutralizer and/ or "target the lower of foe's Def/ Res" for his partner's Specials. And so on. What do you think? The Emblems being locked to monthly banners sucks, but the idea is a really cool one! I just wish we could clone skills with them like Rearmed/ Attuned Heroes...

I take it this is better for og!Eirika (than anything with Devourer) against current threats due to the follow up mechanics in Eljudnir? Unfortunately the only B skills I have of these are Phys. Null Follow and A!Nino's Spd/Def Tempo 4. I admit combining the former's FU tweaking with Eljudnir's sounds fun though. She'd need a +Atk refine to do anything, but since Clashes and Clashes don't seem too important anymore I hope there's nothing to fear from using Chrom and Lif to chain fodder other A skills around. I'll likely go with either this or the Gambit build for Lapis by giving R!Chrom No Quarter and Atk/Spd Prime 4. 5 skills is still too limited for SI these days, but I should be able to get Vital Astra and Atk/Spd Oath 4 from other units. If only we had a Rearmed melee infantry unit! EDIT: I have a A!Fir so I could use someone other than Chrom and do something like this: Sorry for being all over the place with this! I should check how many "cloning Heroes" I have and see who's better to inherit what. Thank you very much! I believe you said A!Peony was worth using to clone skills since her own aren't that good, correct? To be honest I'm tempted to just keep Surge Sparrow on her, but I can put Flared Sparrow on her too. New question if I may (sorry again for all this!): with HF!Corrin confirmed for the next HoF am I right to assume her best skills are Atk/Res Scowl + Counter Roar (and I guess Incite Atk/Spd or Atk/Spd Oath 4)? Thanks in advance!

Yeah. The worst part is Ignatz is at least more natural: he has low-esteem but also accepts there are things he can do. Marianne just sits around feeling sorry for herself all the time which just gets frustrating. Fast. If anything, Bernie fans will move onto someone else from 3H. That part of the fandom just circulates within that bubble it seems - which makes sense given 3H seems to be the only FE they played. (Granted I'm only going off of all the gaming channels and their fans who said as much when Engage came out.)

In all seriousness, if this scares IS into making Three Houses' expies for the rest of time I hope they at least retain Engage's amazing gameplay and visuals (by which I mean graphical fidelity and color palette, relax Alear haters :P) Which is a shame because after so many years of vaguely European settings, I'd love to see IS set an entire game somewhere else instead of just making one part of it foreign to the rest. As for the failed Engage sweep, color me surprised that the votes were spread out too far to help anyone in particular! I wonder how this will affect next year's CYLs. With the possible exception of M!Byleth and Sylvain, I don't think there are any blatant 3H favorites left (unless Dorothea still can't get a main pool variant by then) while Engage fans might double down on Yunaka and/ or Ivy. To be fair I had my doubts about any of the guys having enough star power to win but I was sure those two had the female division on lock. That part in particular had me more surprised than anything else. Still rooting for Lyon to win one day though, he's creeping up each year!

For @ARMADS!!! and anyone else still on the AHR fence, OblivionKnight put out a video last week about the year's heavy hitters for those interested. I'm not meta-savvy enough to offer an insightful opinion but I think these are solid choices for the most part. Except Edelgard, obviously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5U_itn4Tg

That's the one, thanks! Preferably none, but I'm sure we'll see the Winter and either the Fallen or Summer versions because people just see Edelgard and click without any more thought.

It is really early, but to play devil's advocate: this seems to be how they're celebrating Engage's anniversary after pretending it didn't exist for most of 2023 and we get a new Hero type a year already. Actually, I'm curious if we'll get another type during the next TT+ or not. More stats for the Engagee. Each of an Emblem's 10 merges acts like a bonus Dragonflower on the ally. I'm going to split my votes between N!Sanaki (nuke + sisters) and Kvasir (fodder). AHR starting early means E!Marth isn't eligible. I wonder if that was intentional? The general playerbase will likely vote for some combination of those two, Wind Claude, Gullveig, L!Elincia and another Legendary I can't remember at the moment, if you want more ideas.

Now we have a grand total of one new SI slot (I'm still bitter about that) I'd like to ask what og!Eirika's best build is. I have both Arcane Swords ready to go, but since they're both on cavs I don't know how much I can pass from them to her. Eirika's not fast enough for Devourer, is she? P.S. I know I asked this earlier, but am I correct in saying B!Eirika's best build at the moment is: No Quarter + [Flared Sparrow/ Surge Sparrow] + Moonlight Bangle + Incite Atk/Spd (+ Atk/Spd Catch as a S skill)? I'm considering giving her Atk/Spd Prime along with No Quarter, but DC (M) makes me pause even if I don't think she values the DC effect. Thank you all as always! If I have 11 copies of Lapis I'll ask for her best build too, though I imagine it starts with Vital Astra + Arcane Devourer + Atk/Spd Finish. Thanks again!

At least Hopes has likable OCs? tl;dr is that he has to grow up sooner, so stops being so cruel to Dimitri and the others and does stuff other than train and being a haughty teen. The same happens to Sylvain for that matter. He's actually likable instead of being a complete and utter creep with rare moments of insight. But both those things are a huge shame when CYL is almost certainly going to use their Houses counterparts unless they need excuses for more Rearmed/ Ascended alts. screams into arm

I go back and forth on Felix (it helps that his Hopes version is more well-rounded) but Bernie: I know she's popular but apart from putting flowers on Jeralt's grave the only "appreciation" I hear for her are people fetishizing her mental illness. I just hope we get some creative builds for them, but unlike Byleth and Marianne these two are only known for swordplay and archery respectively, so I won't get my hopes up. At best Felix will be a Mortal Savant but I doubt it. I said this in the Feh Channel thread too, but I'm so mad we got even more 3H winners. At least the potential Engage sweep had a bunch of interesting characters and build ideas. I'll just take my Alfonse and dip unless the others have useful skills to fodder.

Same here. I'm happy for Felix and Bernie fans, but MORE 3H winners? They have 9 now! And after so much 3H bloat? At this point I'm sick of the game as a whole just by principle. I'm glad Alfonse got some focus though. Unless those two have some insane fodder I'll just get him, maybe Robin and call it a day. Emblem Heroes look really fun! I'm sad it took so long for them to do anything with the mechanic in FEH but better late than never. Marth is eligible for AHR, isn't he? I'll hold off on pulling until we get some Emblems I'm more fond of. I wouldn't be surprised if we get Bond Rings or other Emblems altogether later on, though I'm curious how group Emblems like the House Leaders will work. As for the thing I was waiting for: the SI increase - but only to 5? We have far too many premium skills in the pool for that to be worth it, what the heck? We should have at least gotten 6 (my pipe dream was 8), but it's better than nothing I suppose. I wanted a HoF fix too, but I'm skeptical of how well the described change will work.

Yeah, I still remember people saying they would vote for him BECAUSE of this too. It worked out!

Yeah, that's the safest bet and unlike the 3H character literally just getting their promoted outfits (save Lysithea getting a slight recolor) those have only been seen in art so far. It'd be nice if they got some extra features at the very least though, like references to their aides/ families.

Count me one of the people surprised Alcryst or Alfred weren't in the top two. While everyone expected Ivy and Yunaka, I'm surprised F!Alear's with them. I like her and wanted her to win but I assumed that was a CYL9 dream at best. I'm glad Lyon is still in the top 20 and Veyle made it in too. I'm fond of the dragon twins from the DLC, but I imagine them being DLC (and said DLC being rushed out the door) isn't doing them any favors. Oh well. I'm curious to see where this ends up. An Engage Sweep would be pretty weird, but IS seems to have learned their lesson from how utterly boring CYL 4 was so I'm hoping we get some fun kits. Of course it helps that all four of these characters have vastly different temperaments compared to all four winners being stoic to various degrees (even Claude and Lysithea were depicted as such for the most part). Oh, also: if we do get an Engage sweep I also hope the web event is something fun and not just a glorified advert for Engage - or if it is (and Engage needs it unlike 3H) they make it fun and not the cringey snoozefest that was the House leaders giving powerpoint presentations on why their nation was the best...

Seidr and Kvasir are distinct enough from Gullveig to still be legible while the others are just the same person in a mask. IS' rules have always made that distinction (hence Y! and A!Tiki being separate options).

I was referring to Gatekeeper being added a year after the other 3H cast and sweeping in the process, but in all seriousness I don't think a mascot character will make it onto CYL. It's not like Feh's been added to the Heroes' part of the poll, after all.

Sommie's coming next year. In hindsight I shouldn't have been surprised CYL was so early given the livestream is also coming early, but oh well. As always I'm going all in for Lyon but I also want to make another account to vote for some combination of Veyle, Nel and Alear from Engage, though I know they're fighting an uphill battle with Ivy and Yunaka (and Lyon has no chance whatsoever against the male Engage Lords unless he's high in the midterms and gets boosted by them - assuming we don't get another alphabetical order thing again). Best of luck, everyone! Fewer people to clog up the system in future years as 3H did, at least.

PLEASE give us better Skill Inheritance... It'll be nice to maybe get Eitr at last but that's the only thing I'm looking forward to this month.

Huh, that... was actually a good chapter. It's nice to put aside really wacky stuff for a Book (at least for now) to focus on plain mind games, though we'll have to see if the story can maintain this momentum.

I didn't realize that site was a thing, thank you so much! It looks like Ryoma really will be the HoF Legendary. Thanks again!

What are the odds of L!Corrin being on the Fates HoF or is it more likely to be Ryoma? (Actually he was earlier, wasn't he? I don't know when they're scheduled for reruns but he seems more likely now I think about it...) Thanks in advance!

Yeah, it bugs me that we can't just choose to stay in place after moving to save the Canto for later. I really like using your trick for N!Corrin for example, making the most of her 3-mov when retreating is incredibly useful.

I'm amazed the GHB has a Prf weapon and one with both a brave effect and cooldown charge to boot! The new demote dancer is great too and as was said it's nice to have more Rockslide fodder. Getting not only two healers but with premium kits is lovely as well and I even appreciate S/R Far Trace 4 not being as busted as other Tier 4 skills. Yeah, it's unfortunate Reinhardt memed his way into being the face of FE5 but overall this looks like a solid banner in terms of both unit types/ skills and characters chosen... as someone who admittedly doesn't know much of Thracia and has all but given up on gender balance being a thing anymore.

What other skills does he have? Sublime Heaven already has DR negation so Mag NFU would be redundant on him. I think I already asked this before, but would Golden Yule Bow be good on S!Elincia + Deadeye? Spd/Def Hold's in-combat debuff doesn't count as a "Penalty", does it? Thanks as always!

I'll keep Elincia away from the X skills then, thanks! When would an Infantry unit be "forced" to run TP or IP4 though? And thank you again! Hopefully whoever comes with those Remote skills comes with Flared Mirror too to save me some foddering time.