Xenomata

I would say only consider doing so if you have more than one Khadin Linde/Sara, as even outside of general performance they are still a Harmonic Hero for Thracia, which I'm pretty sure doesn't have many options for Harmonics right now. Spd Preempt only works if the user is able to keep their Special Charge at full the whole time, which currently can only be done with a few unit effects or Time's Pulse 4. Without that, Ishtar will only release a single regular attack before being vulnerable to whatever assault the enemy is throwing at her. You also are asking if it's worth giving Ishtar two skills with completely different playstyles. Remote Sparrow is purely a Player Phase skill, Spd Preempt is mainly an Enemy Phase skill. I'd say figure out what it is you want to do with your Ishtar before making any hard plans for her.

Oh boy, quite a few new toys... as well as some very important new skills for Staff units. Takumi checking for the number of allies whose Atk is higher than his is... interesting. Otherwise I think he has all of the effects that Valentine FemRobin grants to her teammates. Also finally bringing us A/S Far Trace. Leo gets the simplest kit, but it does serve to make this his strongest showing... at all really. Remote Mirror continuing the new line of Remote skills that Khadein Linde/Sara began. Petalfall Blade looks pretty good. Atk/Spd +5 and the Null Follow-Up bonus (albeit on the weapon itself rather than as a bonus effect) plus 5 true damage. Hana herself is... well, a fast Sword Armor. The second coming of Manuela. What else to say? We've had offensive staves in the past, but... yeesh, Elise/Sakura truly bringing new levels of offense to the table. Holy Pressure seems most likely to be a Prf skill to me, since the Gravity effect can potentially overlap with other units Staff weapons. If not though, it can be an effective additive of damage for any Staff user... especially considering right now it'd be the only other damage additive they get... Poetic Justice, if one were to use Elise/Sakura as skill fodder, gives a bit of an unfair advantage to Staff users who either have no Prf to speak of or have the Dazzling effect on their Prf weapon. ...neat.

Just character: Nowi holds a special place in my barracks, seeing as she was who my avatar from Awakening would S support the first time I played it. It's a shame she's been completely forgotten... Just unit: Walhart, though as a character he's actually one of the few villains in... anything that I'm able to tolerate. As a unit though, having a huge Threaten Counterattack Denial effect is awesome. Both: Brave Marth. A combination of Vantage, easily recharged special, and the right passives make a unit who does huge damage in A Single Strike before the enemy is even allowed to get a hit in. Plus, he's Marth. He may not be the most original character in the world, but he's still iconic to the Fire Emblem series as a whole.

...Nils?

So... yes Catria is one of 7 units being refined this month. Astra Blade, for Sword Flier Catria: Mild Middle Sister (Grants Atk+3. If unit's Atk > foe's Def, boosts damage by 50% of unit's Atk minus foe's Def.) Noble Lance, for Lance Cavalier Dimitri: The Protector (Grants Atk+3. At start of combat, if both unit's and foe's HP = 100% or if both unit's and foe's HP < 100%, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack.) Command Lance is a new weapon for Lance Flier Sigrun: Loyal Protector (Default Weapon: Reprisal Lance (If foe initiates combat, grants Atk +6 during combat ) Flower of Joy, part of the remix for Mythic Blue Tome Flier Peony: Sweet Dream (Grants Res+3. Grants Atk/Spd+3 to any ally in a cardinal direction from unit during that ally's combat.) Ífingr, part of the remix for Mythic Green Tome Infantry Thrasir: Omnicidal Witch (Effective against dragon foes. If unit is within 3 spaces of an ally, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 and neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks during combat, but after combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Atk/Spd/Def/ Res-4 on nearest ally through its next action.) Guardian Fang, for Green Beast Cavalry Lethe: New Year's Claw (Grants Spd+3. If unit's Spd > foe's Spd, deals damage = 70% of difference between stats. (Maximum bonus of +7 damage. Combos with Phantom Spd.) If unit's Spd > foe's Spd, reduces damage from attacks during combat and from area-of-effect Specials (excluding Røkkr area-of-effect Specials) by percentage = difference between stats × 4 (max 40%) .At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to only beast or dragon allies or if unit is not adjacent to any ally, unit transforms (otherwise, unit reverts). If unit transforms, grants Atk+2, and if unit initiates combat, inflicts Atk/Def-4 on foe during combat and foe cannot make a follow-up attack. ) Volunteer Bow, a new weapon for Colorless Bow Infantry Norne: The Volunteer (Default Weapon: Guard Bow (Effective against flying foes. Grants Def/Res+6 during combat if unit is attacked by foe using bow, daggers, magic, or staff.)

I'm throwing my votes at Rearmed heroes. Not only are all of them good in their own rights, but they also have some of the best fodder skills in the game: pseudo-Prf weapons.

Yeah there's not necessarily any big urgency to giving someone Vital Astra, so... hopefully either I'm able to get another DesertNino or Time's Pulse 4 just gets put in the regular pool at some point.

Got a whole ONE Vital Astra fodder from the Hero Fest banner (from just using free summon tickets and orbs when more than one Red orb appeared) with an extra one in case I decide I don't like Ascended Mareeta. I wanted to confirm, what would be the "best" uses of it? Just to get it out of the way, I do not have Time's Pulse 4 fodder so I won't be able to replicate Mareeta's playstyle on other units unfortunately. Even still, consistent 30% of units Spd as damage is consistent for a 2-charge special... I also still have the Arcane Lance and Axe to inherit as well, so if need be the inheriting unit can take in a little extra to be made extra good. I gave the Arcane Sword to my Mia.

It's probably better under Player control, but imo it just makes him easier to tank and kill in one counterattack, now that he doesn't have a special trigger going off every attack.

Kaze has the Flashing Blade effect on his Prf refine, making him a solid choice among the 4* cast. I'm also not sure Yuri is actually the best option. He's a good Dagger unit to be sure, but it's not because he's a natural Special spammer, it's because he has permanent +1 move and Canto 2. Outside of bonus effects that grant Special Charge boost (the easiest I think coming from Infantry Rush or Nah's refined weapon effect), he won't have an easy way to trigger Lethality in the same combat. On the other hand, if your goal is to pick off someone weak who doesn't need a special trigger to be killed so you have a full-charge special ready for Yuri's next combat, then yeah it's a great special for him. Skill Focus banners are not often looked highly upon. You cannot actually PICK a free 5* hero. What happens instead is that a single summoning session is loaded up that has 100% 5* focus odds, but you can only pick one orb to summon from. So even if you choose to go for Hatari Azura, you'd be just as likely to summon any of the other Green focus units (which yes does mean Young Illyana can be summoned despite not being as good as the others) You shouldn't look at it as "which single unit should I pray I get," but rather which color would you be least disappointed summoning from? And then you would have to pray the color even shows up in the first place, since it is still a regular summoning banner... Now as for Duo Chrom: yes. He get's a Reposition that also refreshes his turn AND charges his special further (which BY DEFAULT is Deadeye, and with Time's Pulse by default just one Repo is all he needs to have it ready,) a guaranteed follow-up, and Armor effectiveness where Far Save is very common in Aether Raids. He'd be borderline unfair if given much more to work with.

Free 5* Seasonal hero is... Flame Festival Muspell! Nice.

I seem to remember this being a problem in past years to... and also Witchy Nowi being the botted one as well...

Thought they'd go for the joke of "Wait, does ANYONE know his name???" but I guess Kiran's a little too Manga Kiran to think that far ahead.

~CYL Results: Ohey Robin and Corrin are finally in! And then we got Gullveig, probably should have seen that coming, and then... who the hell is that? What's a "So-ren"? ~6 years... man. Free Floret! Also free Celestial Stone. Neat. The GHB units up to Death Knight have all been given weapon refines, so everyone after them should be the next GHB refines for the next year, assuming no arbitrary skipped months. Colorless looks the least dud-y among the freebie seasonals. Hope I get someone I don't have yet! "Who do you think will come out on top this year?" Probably someone from Engage. ~Valentines of Fate! Weird that for how much I've decided I don't like Three Houses, I'm totally okay with Fates and Awakening... well, for the most part from Awakening... Takumi, Leo, Hana (demote), Effie (TT unit) who... huh, surprisingly thinner than I thought... as well as the obvious duo of Elise and Sakura. Kind of wish they were swapped around so Sakura got a little extra love, but I guess Elise was already a backup unit... ~Legendary focus not only maximizes the score you get, and you even are allowed a free kill... greeeeeat, glad using one of them is "required" now... Finally Lilith is out of the 5* summon pool! You would not believe how many times she appeared off-focus for me... like 5 or 6 times, which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened that many times. Thrasir and Peony getting remixed. Cool, wonder if Peony is gonna upset the Dancer meta with her refine? Cross Spur Res is... eh. At least I didn't waste that Cross Spur Atk on her? Oh good Focus Charges! How many banners have I summoned on where I've gotten nothing but off-focus heroes no matter how many summons I do...? ...and that's that. Maaan, I know they're never the focus, but I wish they'd at least tease the next refine batches...

Between you doing that, me free pulling her, and her being in the final round against Marianne... It's a sign from the gods. Goddess. Named Ymir.

I should add that the kit works with just Special Spiral 3, though I had to upgrade to SS4 as more and more effects with damage reduction became more common in Arena Assault (especially Light season, where I use him).

Here's a look at mine for inspiration. In my opinion, +Atk will offer more overall, as with his best builds he should be OHKOing most enemies. All Spd can offer at that point is additional damage.

I don't know if it needs noting or not, but because Charge adds Warp spaces in 3 tiles in cardinal directions of the unit in possession of it (unless blocked by impassable terrain), Pathfinder only enables the Charge unit to move regular spaces as opposed to Warp spaces. This doesn't actually have that much bearing on the Charge unit, but I felt it needed to be noted since Charge doesn't add true "movement" to the unit who has it.

Quan's actually surprisingly close to Owain in stats at max merge and max (currently possible) Dragonflowers. Compared to Quan, Owain is -5/0/+11/0/+3, which while much higher Spd I'm not sure is totally necessary since both of them can also inherit Flow N Trace (and have little reason to be desiring Cross Spur Atk), meaning they will almost always have a guaranteed follow-up anyway. The thing that I keep coming back to is... well, Alfred. Sure he fulfills a different niche compared to the other two, but he still has a huge advantage over them even without huge investment. But it's also hard to come up with and justify units other than Cavalry...

So Arcane Qiang, the Rearmed Lance released with Rearmed Alfred. Slaying effect, and if the user is above 25% HP they get all stat +5, guaranteed follow-up, deny the enemies follow-up, and also get Special Charge +1 per units attack if the combat initiator is in a different tile from where they began the turn from. Obviously any physically defensive unit is going to pale in comparison to the original wielder, so the inheritor would need to either be a more offensive unit or be more reliant on their Res. Any input on who could inherit this thing would be nice. Among the units I immediately have available... Lukas's original Prf is just factually worse than Qiang. He can only get better with it. Benny. As I have him right now, he is using Candy Cane+ as a Near Save barrier. I'd have to exchange Slick Fighter to give him the Guard effect from a different skill (or just give him Hardy Fighter if I want yet another Nsave Hardy Fighter unit) but otherwise he only improves overall. Bonus question in regards to this, does triggering [Savior] count as being in a different spot for Qiang's Special Charge effect? Peri. Her Prf is worse than Qiang, and she's otherwise one of my faster Lance Cavs (but failing because... well, her Prf sucks) Cordelia. Her Prf makes her good as a... slightly faster Brave unit, but she could probably still be stronger with Qiang without sacrificing her Galeforce performance. I wouldn't be opposed to building Marcia or Karin with it, as I otherwise only have one other Blue unit from Path of Radiance at all (Nephene) and one Blue from Thracia that I still use to any extent (Reinhardt, with Ronan/Saias/Olwen also existing.) The two of them are basically the exact same unit (even have the same Dragonflower cap), so it'd be a preference of Title between them as I don't have any strong attachment to either of them. Quan and Clive step directly on the toes of Alfred, albeit from different titles. I also have them at full merge, so their stats will be at their highest after dragonflowers. Their Prfs don't offer enough benefit to me personally, so Qiang can only improve them.

Well I free summoned Ymir, so now I feel obligated to side with her

I never know if I should be proud of my clears that use explicitly powerful units, but... well, if the game wants to throw everything at me, where's the harm in throwing everything I can at it? Marth and Eirika are thematic to the battle, but they're also the strongest versions of themselves that I have. Brave Marth's Special Triggers ignore all non-special Damage Reduction thanks to Special Spiral 4 (definitely worth not having Arcane Eclipse on one of my red tomes!), and since both of them have non-special damage reduction, it sure as hell helped break through them. It would have probably been better if he could trigger his special on the 80% damage reduction strikes, but... I got the kills anyway, so no harm done. Brave Eirika wound up being able to deal good damage to the Armored enemies, Fomortiis included. A shame she herself has no way to ignore non-special damage reduction yet... Walhart's purpose is obvious. Fomortiis kills if he is allowed to attack... so don't let him attack. Bonus, he also inflicts a Defense penalty, so that's a little extra damage for when it came time to actually attack. And Ninian... I don't want to say my taking her in was perfectly calculated, but once I realized having her extra action would be more helpful on turn 3 than turn 2, it fell perfectly into place how I needed to use her. Any of those 5 being left alive during EP3 could have been dangerous... and then there's her absorbing Fomortiis's action stealing effect. That was DEFINITELY not according to plan, but I'm glad it happened the way it did!

In a teamup that could ONLY happen in Fire Emblem Heroes, Fomortiis: Demon King from The Sacred Stones and Gotoh: White Sage from Mystery of the Emblem are both your opponent in this Mythic battle. First, Fomortiis. Ravager only needs him to not be near death, and it will inflict an Atk/Def -6 penalty and Guard on the opponent. If he's transformed, WHICH HE IS BY THE WAY, he gets extra special charge per hit he takes. Opponent initiates combat, and their follow-up attacks become virtually useless with 80% of their power lost. And of course he gets Slaying and the standard Beast Armor transformation effect. Nightmare only asks either the enemy initiate combat or they be over 75% of their HP to inflict a dangerous Atk/Def -10 debuff and take 30% reduced damage from their first attack. Be careful how your units are positioned when you attack him, because after combat Fomortiis will immediately end the action of the nearest allies within 4 spaces of the unit who initiates on him. This effect can and will affect MULTIPLE ally units if you don't take special care. Carelessness ends your turn after just one attack, if he didn't just kill the attacker anyway. Beast Follow-Up makes his transformation permanent and enables him an automatic follow-up attack, while A/D Far Save makes trying to pick off anyone near him a dangerous task. On Infernal he gets the Mystic Boost Sacred Seal, making Staves next to useless on him and also recovering 6 HP after every combat. Gotoh then. His Brilliant Starlight means you can't use Area of Effect specials on him or any enemy he starts near, because he grants a bonus that reduces the damage such skills deal by 80% on top of a Def/Res bonus. In combat himself, expect an Atk/Res -6 penalty, don't count on any Atk/Res bonuses since he removes them, don't even bother trying to use a ranged unit who denies counterattacks because he ignores such effects, and if he survives expect him to restore 7 HP. Gift of magic activates if he initiates combat or if his target is 2 range. Atk/Res -10 debuff is bad enough, guaranteed follow-up honestly should have been expected, but he also reduces the damage of consecutive attacks by 80% and forces a Desperation effect on his attacker, thereby rendering any attempt at attacking him from range deathly. Guard 4 inflicts Atk -4 and the Guard effect on your unit, plus reduces the damage of the first attack you perform by 30%. Joint Distant Guard is just extra ranged bulk on top of all the bulk he already has, both for himself and nearby allies of his. On Abyssal you cannot shut down his guaranteed follow-up attack or enable yourself a guaranteed follow-up thanks to his Null Follow-up sacred seal. Two mobile fortresses of defense and utter raw power. The demon to the north, the sage south. Both will fall eventually, it's up to you to decide how the battle must go from here...

So I guess non-weapon Prf skills will just always make up the bulk of a units performance, separate from the weapon but still working alongside it. ...why? Formortis seems to exist purely to spite. Gotoh exists to be a definitely-not-a-Far-Save unit. Is there a reason to even pick any orbs other than colorless? Hell, Arval is the 3rd unit, and he's basically on every Dark team I've ever come across. Gonna be honest. I'm now very tempted to quit. Delete the app.

I feel like it's too soon for an Engage mythic. I don't really recall any characters from trailers that stood out as mythic material like Sothis did...