Xenomata

I have GOT to hire someone to both take away and make me forget my debit card details whenever I say "I will stop for now"... But on the bright side, another Brave Celica, but this time +Atk -HP, which is a great nature to put on someone with Death Blow 4 AND Double Lion! This also means I now have two B!Celicas to give away Death Blow 4... ...and also pity breaking Libra +HP -Spd... but because of the +Spd -Res copy from before, I don't need to settle for crummy Libra and can give someone a Wo Gun+ for free. Neat.

If I said I was surprised Ike lost, would I at least sound believable in a parallel universe where Ike isn't as cool as he is in this one? ...no? Okay... Well, Veronica was supposed to be 5th highest priority, but then priority #1-5 lost, so she is now the de-facto team I will go to. Any and all Team Veronicas, here is the Bride Ninian who will grave your presence if you add me, Friend Code 5177973547 (for sure the correct code this time!) Also sorry if her C passive is Fortify Fliers instead of Fort Res like it's supposed to be. I tend to forget to swap back...

Purchasing orbs, summon time, you know the dance. Think I'll call it here for now. All in all... meh, not bad but not amazing? Got some good non-5* units at least in Libra and Nino, as well as a second and slightly better Brave Celica, which means I can give someone Death Blow 4 if I want to... But man... Quan, eh?

I finally got someone interesting from a summoning session! 2 Greens and 1 red were what I pulled out of a balanced colors session on the new Tempest Trials banner. +Spd -Res Lon'qu! Finally, I can build the speedster with absurd HP that I've always thought about building, or at least the one that's available at 4*! ...oh also off-focus Female Kana, +HP -Def. And by the technicality of I didn't spend any orbs on summoning her, she is considered the one I free summoned. She will either become merge fodder or fodder for one of her skills. I'm thinking Fierce Stance since that'll REALLY put some enemy-phase oomph into my Swordhardt or any other enemy-phase unit, but I'm not discounting Water Breath or Goad Dragons yet... ...but really, two free summons on a new banner in a row... and both Greens...

Ah shoot, I've been giving the wrong code this whole time... it's actually 5177973547, my bad...

WOW, almost all my top picks for in case Ike lost are all eliminated. Veronica is next in line by default if Ike loses and she wins... SO ANYWAYS, for all you new Team Ikers, here is another reminder that I am here with my beautiful bride-in-title-only.

Okay, so... I just free summoned Lewyn. I am spending orbs on the rest of the session, but the only Green Orb present, the one I picked for my free summon, had Lewyn in it. +Res -HP. ...welp, guess I got the unit I wanted most!

Same here actually... I have so many units who need Desperation and I refuse to fodder the +Spd -HP Shanna that is currently the only copy I own... ...plus I still need to refine so many other weapons, and I only got 200 dews to throw around atm...

HOT DAMN, so much for Atk-Spd Push stacking on her then. ...well she is now REALLY high on the Divine Dew refine list.

Wait... does Celica just GET +5 Atk and Spd in combat with the Ragnarok refine at all times, not just at 100% hp? Am I reading this right? Hot damn... guess I gotta secure Desperation on her now.

Clearing out the remainder of the Forging Bonds rewards made me realise... getting them actually is very slow until you get the first character cleaned up, but after that it speeds up until everyone is cleared and you are so many feathers richer... Also Cain and Abel wear the Restoration Healms so well it's scary.

I mean, it's either Quan or Sylvia, let's be real. Where before what Ares and Lene brought were fairly even (Ares powerful special trigger funtimes, Lene a Dancer with both a powerful Sword and Sword Valor), here we have not just powerful performance against all non-fliers and one of the stronger Drive passives, but also a new skill in Steady Posture AND a new tier of Rally skills. Meanwhile Sylvia is a Dancer with an honestly underwhelming weapon (again, Swords generally have terrible Res), one Passive that doesn't quite compare to Warding Breath and also exists already, and one Dancer Special that... does it exist already? Honestly after the Dancers seasonal all the Dancer B passives kinda began to get all mixed up in my head... If it's Quan, then they made a new tier of Rally passives readily available for anyone with feathers to burn. If it's Sylvia... well, that's just another Dancer that's easier to get than the others.

Small reminder, juuuust in case.

Wow, they gave Forseti Desperation that is triggered at above 50% hp and still think it's okay to keep giving everyone Swift Sparrow? For shame... For reals though, Lewyn looks really cool between Forseti, Special Spiral, and just looking really cool. I almost missed Rally Spd/Def+ on Quan, but jeez... +6 Spd and Def as a Rally skill? I'll not be surprised to learn that Rally Atk/Spd+ will almost definitely be a seasonal or Legendary lock... Also Quan seems neat. 41 became 58, 58 - 41 = 17, which means Quan against a flier has below 60 Atk but above 57 Atk... And Sylvia... wait, isn't this the girl who talks about her boobs to Sigurd? ...anyways, meh. She's a Dancer, and Barrier Blade feels inferior to Safeguard since a number of Swords have terrible Res anyways, so anyone who does want Barrier Sword is already pretty unique as an Enemy-phase magic counter... but again, most swords have terrible Res, so it's not like there's many who'd want it anyways. ...which means she is definitely the demote, but then we already saw what that hasty thinking got us before on a Genealogy banner... Also, I hope all these modern interpretations of Genealogy characters means we do have a chance to get a Genealogy remake! I hope if it does happen, the maps turn out MASSIVE.

...they know we're only allowed to use 4-8 units per map, right?

Gamepedia decided to start using Growth Rates rather than Growth Points. Shame, I'm too used to Growth Points to convert back easily... Most Jamke has going for himself is a unique default and battle ready pose, which pretty much every other Infantry Bow uses the same boring poses, save for Takumi using a different battle ready pose and most seasonal units being unique.

The most difficulty came when I failed to notice the flier had Guidance. Otherwise... I'll be completely honest, that was the most disappointing GHB I've had the honor to play. Jamke at least looks to have a cool pose. Also... the new Learn with Sharena feels like a personal attack on me specifically... *checks again to see who his earliest summoned 5* lv 1 vegetable is* I summoned that Mathilda a long time ago... before the Genealogy banner at least...

Finally got a Bartre after a long time of never summoning him! -Atk +HP though, but I hope this is a sign my reign of never seeing the Meme Hammer is over! ... ... ...Oh and also +Def -Atk Brave Celica. Not a great nature, but she at least has Death Blow 4 to keep her power level at a decent level, so I won't sweat it that much. That makes 3 out of 4 of the new Braves I have obtained thus far, with Hector having an awesome nature, Veronica being the free summon, and Celica being the meh summon. ...oh also, I gave up on Leg Marth banner after that crummy Spring Kagero. Between not being able to gather up orbs fast enough and just not caring enough about generic sword unit number 9703 with barely any significant twists to justify trying to summon him, I just couldn't bring myself to go for one last summon... I'll be focusing entirely on Arrival of the Braves and maybe that other new banner...

Well I managed to clear Abyssal SOMEHOW. ...okay actually I looked up how to do Marth with as little SI as possible, and I found one that involved completely base Groom Marth, Lyon being built to be a bow killer, and Rein/B!Lyn being the assholes they are. It did call for Def Tactic 3 SS when I only had the normal one, but whatever. But after trying my hardest to replicate a number of mostly F2P guides for Abyssal Robin and failing because turns out F2P guides require you to have some neutral nature units when most of my units have natures, I went full rage with my Flier team and won by my own hand. So... yeah, guess I can be proud of being able to do the hard thing myself for once.

I never thought my main flier team would be able to do it, but lo and behold. I don't really feel like recording it, simply because I don't really remember what it is I did to secure the win, but let's just say that there may have been two dancers, Flier Formation, and Flier Guidance involved. ToD!Nowi (+Atk -Res) +2 merge. Rauðrblade+, Reposition, Glimmer. Life and Death 3, Desperation, Hone Fliers, Speed +3 HNY!Azura (+Atk -Def_ +1 merge. Hagoita+ (+Spd), Sing, Moonbow Fury 3, Wings of Mercy 3, Hone Fliers, Flier Formation 1 BB!Ninian (+Atk -Def) Fresh Bouquet+ (+Spd), Dance, Moonbow Fury 3, Wings of Mercy 3, Fortify Fliers, Hone Atk 3 WoF!Hinoka (+Spd -Def) +2 merge. Firesweep Bow+, Reposition, Luna Life and Death 3, Flier Formation 3, Flier Guidance 3, Speed +3

I think my priority list will go Ike>Lucina>Roy>Celica>Hector>Veronica>Lyn>Ephraim. Nothing against Ephraim, but I just don't know enough in-depth about him to really trust him to win. Veronica was initially a lot higher priority, as in she was initially first priority, but then I remembered that I actually liked everyone above her except Hector, who's just a general trusty badass. So... yeah, any Team Ikes wanna take advantage of my Bride Ninian and haven't added me yet, my FC is 5177973542, name Xenomata.

At least the pairings make sense (Male 2nd place vs Male 2nd place, etc.), but... meeeeh... I already don't care much about Voting Gauntlets in the first place, all the chars I pick always lose, and I wind up disappointed because at least one of the finalists have a big ol chest, so even multiplier funtimes don't change that... But add on the fact I don't have the freetime to play FEH the way I used to, and all of a sudden I have doubts I'll even remember to get all the quest rewards...

Hey, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. All four Brave Heroes are amazing units to have on your side, and one of them has one of the best A passives available for inheritance. I just mean that this is literally the third time we have had the Brave Heroes banner unaltered (for the most part, since there were summoning pool updates since then).

Uh... do we seriously have copy-pasted Brave Heroes banner for the third time?

Gh... +HP -Atk Spring Kagero... I don't even want another Spring Kagero...