Xenomata

Greil's defenses... they're good. combined with Fury 4, he should negate most damage. Soren and Mist are pretty predictable in their stat spreads. Soren is a little stronger at the expense of a little speed though. Ike... yep, they want him to be able to double by outspeeding the enemy. Titania... well as always, the free unit is alright but not the best.

There's a few unit asset/flaw comparisons I'd like second opinions on. Keeping in mind the Merged Ally update coming up of course. Sumia [+Spd -Res] current is [+Atk -HP]. In terms of raw power, +Atk is better, but were Sumia to double attack then she'd be able to inflict far more damage anyways. Plus +Spd is quite a bit more flexible in builds than +Atk, though perhaps her speed (base 39) is high enough that she doesn't really need extra besides what she could possibly get from skills? Adrift M!Corrin [+Res -Def] current [+Def -Res]. +Res brings his defensive ability to a very balanced state, but +Def keeps his overall physical bulk as high as possible. Faye [+Res -Atk] current [+Atk -Res]. +Res will enable her to go for the Guard Bow+ build, which is as powerful as it is expensive all things considered, while +Atk lets her remain as a Poison Strike Firesweep Bow user that she already is, which is underwhelming but very cheap to throw together. (keep in mind, I have no plans for SIing the Firesweep Bow+ anytime soon) Brave Veronica [+Atk -Spd] current [Neutral]. Neutral, if I understand the update to merged allies correctly, will put the +3 that would normally go into the merged units Flaw into the 3 highest stats on the unit. In Veronica's case, she'll get +1 HP, Spd, and Atk from the additional stats, in addition to the usual merge stats. Allowing her +Atk -Spd, on the other hand, will heighten her Attack far more while keeping her Speed to her average.

Well... Owain won. Which is good I guess, since I picked him for the final round. Didn't get to use all my flags though. Ended with 1,050 when I intended to use them, but then I went out to see a movie for the duration of the gauntlets final hours. Urgh... one of these days I'll finish a gauntlet with all flags used...

Theme of the weapons... let's call it Spectrum Bond 2, since we've seen Spectrum Bond 3 on the Awakening Falchion special refine already. Interesting there's no personal weapons on anyone at all (highly doubt Titania, a free unit, will have one if no one else will), but these weapons are probably going to be quite the boon for enemy-phase units who could use that extra little boost. Though having Speed increased could prove a slight problem if they get boosted high enough to avoid being doubled... and also the tome versions of the weapons are probably pretty useless since if you want a defensive tome unit, you give them an Owltome, which can provide double what the Bloomtomes can. Stronger at base, yes, but... eh... Greil brings us Fury 4, which will be amazing for all the units in the game who like having all around extra stats while also getting into skill range (Nino will have new blood breathed into her, I bet!), but... well, Greil's use of it will depend on how bulky he is I bet. 47 HP at base isn't bad, but taking 8 damage post combat every time will quickly wear him down just fine, without having to take in-combat damage into consideration. Otherwise he looks pretty typical for an armor unit. Soren might prefer a different weapon, given the nature of offensive mages. Spd Feint is an alright Feint skill to have, but just coming with Rally Atk/Spd+ is great enough as-is. Res Opening... eh. Making the strongest ally stronger or the fastest ally faster is alright I guess, but Res Opening... meh. Mist's Res Opening is just introducing almost 3/4ths of a year later what Def Feint did, but for magic allies. Otherwise she just looks like yet another offensive mage. Rally Def/Res+ is neat I guess, but they really need to chill out on giving every offensive unit Swift Sparrow... like really, just because LnD3 is now in the 4* pool doesn't mean I no longer want it put on anyone else. Ike... I suppose will be intended as a fast Armor unit? No form of automatic follow-up in sight, but he instead has Even Spd Wave... also interesting how he has Radiant Aether instead of normal Aether. Update to Ike and Brave Ike when? Also, did Special Fighter always provide +1 Special Charge to the unit, instead of just units attack? I guess Fury 4 will be an interesting addition to the skill pool, given just how many units I own who have Fury 3, but otherwise not a whole lot else of interest to me. The units are neat, but I'm gonna summon for them all anyways so that's a fairly moot point.

Wow, the silhouette I thought was Ike was... well, not. But then Ike turned out to be standing NEXT to that silhouette. And here I was thinking they were making an alt out of Radiant Dawn Ike... though to be fair, any tell that the left silhouette was Ike was covered up by the enormous cape flair. Glad the last seasonal banner before we start repeating seasons for a 3rd year is for units who are generally pretty mellow in terms of unit rep. I do have to wonder why Greil gets to take Shigure's old seat in the "Units who get into the game as seasonal alts before their default forms" club though... Well anyways, gotta think about the skills they're presenting us with this time.

Yeah I decided to throw everything at Zelgius.

(please regard any of the below as the ramblings of a very tired man, I barely understand what I'm saying myself but decided it wasn't worth saying nothing) That was his popularity years ago though, and Odin, while not that much lower, is not as popular as Owain. And you have to not think in the context of Awakening or Fates, but Heroes. Odin, let's face it, sucks and has no popularity (he came at #317 in the latest CYL). Owain at least still does, but he dropped considerably compared to previous CYLs (89th compared to high enough to become a Farfetched Hero). Still has his fans, but by no means are people still clamoring for him. Also, his Awakening "popularity" was not from a poll that was available to the general FE public. If I recall, it was only made readily available to the Japanese FE audience (so not exactly limited overseas, but it certainly wasn't made public over here). The fact he's still popular despite the changes in regions is actually kind of amazing, considering the black sheep that were forgotten (Gaius...? Severa...?). Also worth noting, Lucina has only received one Seasonal. She has a few alts, but it is nothing compared to the number that the adults have gotten, yet she scored just as fairly high as Owain did (who didn't even exist in Heroes until 1.75 years later), and then Noire got in as a seasonal before base Noire or base Owain, or heck even Inigo or Severa.

I'm going with Ike on the right. Besides the hair matching, I kinda feel that silhouette has a little too much armor-looking items on his person to be Owain or Odin, who seems more likely to be wearing something more cloth-y. Ike clearly being akin to Hector last Valentine. I also just don't feel like Owain or Odin are quite popular enough to get seasonals before Ike. Ike got a CYL form because he won CYL before we even knew what CYL meant, meanwhile Owain got into the game because he was a CYL2 runner-up not in the game at the time, and Odin... well, that's about all the argument I need. They'd want to do POPULAR. Ike's popular. Owain... kinda I guess? Odin isn't.

Eir. I wasn't expecting to +10 her, and knowing she doesn't work that well with Desperation kinda made me hesitate to want to use her, but she's amazing. Powerful, fast despite not even having a +Spd asset, sort of a healer in Sparkling Boost, Mystic Boost offsets the recoil from her weapon, and she still has enough Res to take a hit from a mage and trigger Def Ploy. She's great. Shame about that whole "learning to love Askr but still holds loyalty to Hel" business we all know is coming.

Love: Flier. There's enough water, mountain, and forest tiles in the game that I think having fairly free range of movement is a beneficial boon in almost any scenario. Hate: Armor. Yes they're the most broken units in the game by far now, but unless you heavily emphasize on enemy phase, they are impossible to move around. Pivot and Swap play isn't that fun... Average: Infantry and Cavalry. Infantry, as always, are the middle ground of mobility, while Cavs have 3 move range but have been shot in the knee numerous times over the last year in terms of mobility. ...I like mobility I guess.

Zelgius first, Male Grima next... I dunno, maybe just throw votes at whoever I don't have? Mostly seasonals and two legendaries...

Checking his lore... it mentioned that his parents died of a disease and that's about it. We don't know them at all. I don't think they even have a name... Compare this to Ike (Greil), Roy (Eliwood), Ephraim (Fado), and now Eliwood (Elbert), and also the fact that besides his classic Gaiden appearance (like Celica), the only other person Alm could possibly borrow the armor of is Mycen, who actually cared for him. Everyones parents are pretty important, and then Hectors parents... they practically don't exist when compared to Uther.

Nino and Tharja worry me... Odin got a personal Blarblade, but then he has the worst Atk stat of all non-Staff units and kinda needs it. Tailtiu got a tome with Wrath built into it, but then Wrath was her whole thing in Genealogy. Nino and Tharja are the best units to have been given Bladetomes, and they're not particularly known for anything special in their original games besides being neat units... they're either gonna become the strongest bladetome units in the game, or they're gonna be given entirely new effects (or at least, they're gonna have powerful skills put into their weapons)... What's more confusing is that it's not like Oboro's Spear is like other new weapons that is based on the units artwork (see Cherche, Barst, Florina, or Shanna, among others), it is an established weapon in both FE: Fates and Warriors that is very much a Naginata. Heck, even Hinoka's Spear is still a Naginata, despite the dumdums at Nintendo Translate. God, this makes me worry for when Subaki gets Subaki's Pike... @Stroud There were a few... odd Naginata's in Fates, such as the Bold Naginata and the Pine Branch. So while the official definition of a Naginata may not have anything like a double edged existence, Fire Emblem will make you wield a teddy bear as a weapon of mass destruction and then call it an axe. Better known as "It will play by its own rules".

Ah damnit Hinata's getting a personal. There goes a perfectly usable Safeguard... Everyone else? Aight. Seth could have always used a personal. Oboro was always lacking. Niles... well I was gonna give him a Guard Bow anyways, so maybe his new personal will be just as good. Tharja... eh. Amelia, alright I guess. I'm just thankful Barst didn't get one yet. Give me a chance to use his new Slaying Axe, would ya...?

What a coincidence, so am I! Except I'm more in it for the stones and coins than the orbs. I completely forgot to do my priorities with this one, and now half the contestants are out. Think I'll just go with Cherche as well, since... I mean, I like Owain, but I'd like to not risk being swarmed by people who don't know not to make their unit rep be a not-red unit. I'm just assuming a lot of people have Red unit reps...

I could care less to be honest. I'm personally gonna go for seasonals, Legendary Heroes, and other units that I personally don't have yet, because I know the vote will swing heavily towards the strongest units, and the strongest units are not who I'm missing. If the FEH base was smart, they'd pick heroes who are normally hard to summon for, but also knowing us we'll pick every form of Camilla...

Hrm... seems the color I do not have the most Seasonal Heroes in is Green for 2017, and a tie between Red, Green, and Colorless in 218. Guess that'll decide it for me... Aaand Green didn't even appear! welp, guess I'll just pick Blue... And it's... Summer Corrin [+Res -Def]! Whew, glad it's someone I don't have. And with a workable asset/flaw to boot! ..well anyways, I'm not sure I like this all that much. Even if they had a special summoning banner you could only summon from once at a time with a higher Orb cost than usual per summon for one Seasonal 5* unit, I feel that'd have been better than praying you'll get someone you want from a color...

I did mean to say (because I guess I completely forgot to?) that the build I supplied is pretty much exclusively a dragon killing build, and that against other units Julia is pretty much average. Though she does the dragon killing thing VERY well. The B slot, in that regard, is meant to fix Julia's matchups against other units. QR3 is the most flexible since she's already an enemy phase unit at this point and lets her lure in enemy mages decently well, but does hold the issue of not disabling the enemies second attack if Julia can't outspeed them, which the most popular Green Mages either run circles around Julia or have Bold Fighter. A breaker is less flexible, but does do that. ...actually, Spd Ploy in the C slot could attempt to fix the issue as well, since Julia does have somewhat decent Res to trigger it on enemies... Catria is perfectly fine without the TA refine on Whitewing Lance. My own Catria (+Spd -Res +1 merge) has been running Firesweep Lance+ for ages now, and she's never really had a reason to switch over yet. Plus it's just a fancy Slaying Lance+, so you can just run Catria with a simple build and never really need to give her the Triangle Attack refine. Est has and will continue to run perfectly well with a Brave Lance, but I feel if you want to run her Whitewing Spear, she needs the Triangle Attack refine. Florina, meanwhile is completely unreliant on fliers being around. I can't really give a solid answer to what to do, but that's all what I believe.

Julia [+Atk -Def] Naga [special refine] Swap/Draw Back Dragon Fang/Draconic Aura Fierce Stance 3 Vantage 3/Quick Riposte 3 Fortify Res Fierce Stance 3 QR3 was really only for the Duma Abyssal GHB, but again it has potency when taking on non-dragon foes. Draconic Aura/Dragon Fang outdamage Iceberg/Glacies when Julia has both Fierce Stances activated. I'm not sure the special you pick matters unless you would want to use Dragon Fang for a delayed powered up attack against one last enemy. The build works pretty much exactly as you'd think it would. Julia gets attacked and kills one dragon, and then Vantage kicks in and all dragons face absolute extinction (except Spooky Myrrh and Garon). She would have 64 Atk on enemy phase btw. Her C slot can be replaced with anything else.

Vantage is great, but Breakers are always welcome to. Julia can also benefit from QR3 for general matchups, but against Dragons at least nothing really changes. The FS/Vant/FS build I gave you is what I gave to Julia myself, with the intent of throwing her into full dragon teams, but her B slot is flexible in that regard.

Sigh... I really hope this is the last time I post here for at least a while... I swear I'm not trying to get so many 5* +10 units, they just happen in my endeavor to gotta summon em all. Ironically, Elincia, the unit who was closest to being +10 since her initial release banner a year and 1/4th ago, only reached +10 because of the recent E&N BHB banner...

...Brigand Boss from Valentia was 213???

I'm barely disappointed in Camilla to be honest. I'm too busy being confused about Eliwood. Like, Alm okay, I gave him a few votes myself so I clearly wanted him to. Micaiah is a good choice for 1st place. Camilla... well, clearly there's enough people fond of her to keep her in the top 10 long enough for everyone higher than her to be kicked out and let her be in the top two, even after she gets yet another sexytimes alt... but Eliwood?! I don't remember the last time anything has been said about Eliwood that was... well, even bad press is good press, as they say. He pales in comparison to Lyn and Hector and is pretty much "Roy's Dad" in my opinion. ...also this means that all 3 CYLs so far featured one Binding Blade character each.

Blarblade+ on an Infantry unit isn't as bad as it used to be, now that Legendary Azura is a broken thing, but Tome of Thoron possessing Wrath on a ranged unit, in addition to Darting Blow refine, can be deadly if Tailtiu is packing enough speed. Tome of Thoron is also not as limited in teams comps as Bladetomes are, since you'd have to have entire units dedicated to buffing the Bladetome whereas Tome of Thoron is perfectly capable on it's own as is. It should be noted, however, that in terms of raw power Blarblade+ will always come out on top (even just a simple 4/4/0/4 buffs will outdamage the bonus damage from Wrath), while Tome of Thoron offers speed and powered up special triggers. I'm not gonna say go for it though, because Julia being able to lure Dragons in can be downright deadly with the right setup. Fierce Stance stacking, for instance, can lead to the death of just about every Dragon excluding Garon and Spooky Myrrh (if I remember the calculations I did before), and throwing in Vantage will mean she gets the kill before the enemy can even attack. I'd say, is it important you have a Dragon killer now, or can you wait a few weeks to get the Divine Dews together again to give Tailtiu the refine, assuming the coming months of Refinery updates don't give us anything overly spectacular.

I'm only missing two Legendary Heroes. FemGrima and Hrid. Now of the two... FemGrima has been in EVERY SINGLE FREAKING LEGENDARY BANNER SINCE SHE WAS RELEASED, and yet she stops appearing the moment I'm able to really up the amp on summoning? Bullcrap! Hrid, meanwhile, has only been on one, and while I don't remember my situation at the time, I definitely do not remember being able to summon for him very much. And of the two, Hrid is obviously very powerful, disabling enemy follow-ups while automatically having his own if the enemy has a penalty on them, which he is specifically built for. He also has Distant Counter by default, as well as plenty of Defense and respectable Resistance. FemGrima, meanwhile, is very average as far as Legendary Heroes go. Oh yay, you resist flier effective damage in your personal version of Bracing Stance and have a DC weapon by default. Great, wonderful. So... probably Hrid. I'll just summon a FemGrima or two next chance I get, keep the one with the better asset/flaw if one is present, and settle for a perfectly average Hrid among a sea of downright broken Sword units that I own, let alone what already exists and what will come in the future. Assuming we do actually get to pick a Legendary Hero for free. Man, summoning is never gonna get any easier than this, is it...