Xenomata

Since I managed a Jaffar with a bad nature earlier, I wanna ask: Do 5* units with still somewhat rare skills, such as LnD3, still act as good fodder for the mentioned skill? I have another, slightly more ideal Jaffar now, and I still have a 4* Sothe, so if not I'll just merge this crummy Jaffar into the more ideal Jaffar.

...okay I purchased orbs, but these funds are digging directly into the funds I set aside for the Legendary Banner, I'll let you know. Anyways, I have good reason. Because in my first session, I summoned Jaffar, +Def -Atk. That's bad, but that's still a 5*. One session later, Summer Innes with +Def -Atk. Not good, but still usable. A few sessions later, Lucina. +Spd -Atk, but that's still better and usable than whatever my old Lucina had. Some number of pulls later, and... Karla. +Spd -Def... No, I have no idea why, in so many orbs, I get 3 pity breakers and only one on-focus... yes, I swear I'm on the summer banner. Not too disappointed about Innes, considering he still has decent Atk and still intact Spd, while gaining slightly usable Def... I'll be able to use him. Also, WHY IN GODS NAME DID I GET AYRA WITH ONE OF THE BETTER POSSIBLE NATURES SHE COULD HAVE GOTTEN AFTER HER BANNER ENDS?????????? Oh, also at some point got my first Ares. Neutral, which I expect to be the best I ever get.

I personally think so, since there aren't many meta archers that want to be around 32 Speed anyways. You are either higher, in the 40s, or lower, in the 20s with a Brave Bow. You might be able to outpace a few Red mages, but I honestly don't think it's that big an issue when Quick Riposte and Breaker skills exist.

I remove the image for ONE MINUTE... ugh... here's the altered image, all that happened was that I removed a name I thought I didn't add in...

Karel Rating: 6/10 Karel has the statline, weapon, and B skill to make him a potent force, but he's not unique among sword units. He also faces direct competition from Fir, who can trigger Ploys on the enemy where Karel can't. Still has a Wo Dao though, so he's good for that. Ninian Rating: 8/10 Being a Dancer aside, Ninian being a Dragon is a double edged sword: On one hand she can receive and give powerful buffs to her dragon compatriots, making her a great ally for dragon teams, but on the other she is murdered by Dragon-Effective weapons. Being a Dancer also means her statline is weaker by default, and even regular hits will hurt a lot. But she is still able to take clear advantage of being a Dragon and a Dancer.

Ahhh... that was a fucking disaster. Below, the image. My thoughts on doing this in the spoiler... I'm not sure which of the other 4 outfit swaps I wanna do next, if I even wanna do any of them now that I have a better idea of how my art will come out, though I'm thinking of rerolling so I have at least one dude other than Gordin...

...screw hands, ya feel me? It's already bad enough that I'm doing this clothing swap thing for realsies and now I'm too far in to just back out, despite how bad to mediocre I am, but SCREW HANDS. I'm doing Beruka in Ursula's clothing for now, then I'm bunkering down on how to draw the hand poses I need for, at minimum, Gordin as Gwendolyn... that, or finding out how to hide hands in every other one I do.

Decided to reshuffle five times just to see who popped up, not counting the first one because it was literally PA!Azura on the left and HNY!Azura on the right... Beruka wearing Ursula's Valkyrie clothing Nowi wearing Caeda's Pegasus Knight armor. Gordin wearing Gwendolyn's Knight armor. Minerva wearing BB!Cordelia's wedding dress, fulfilling the needs of... whoever likes Minerva? Lyn in Draug's armor. Well... I can't draw for crap. I'll try, but I guarantee it won't be pretty.

Spectrum Blow on the weapons is interesting... means that offensive units who don't particularly need any specific weapon now have a new toy to play with (so long as you are a Lance, Bow, or Axe user). Dull Close is welcome, but not as useful as Dull Ranged. So far, no melee units beyond Laevatein has access to any Bladetome effects, and from my experiences it's usually Cavalry and Fliers who have those boosts anyways. As for Cordelia herself, her having Sturdy Blow may mean that they want her Defense to be better compensated for, given the nature of Dull Close... which totally means her defense will be slightly better than it is on her other forms, but not by much. Noire seems like she is going to be close to her Awakening depictions and have good Attack and Speed, but what concerns me is that they might be giving Infantry Rush to the wrong unit, as they gave Defense Ploy to YS!Gaius, who had base 28 Res, and here they may give Inf Rush to a unit who only has average Attack at best. Innes... where did you get that dragon. I can't exactly tell what he will specialize in, though he should have at least decent Spd if he can double a generic Infantry Mage. Def Feint sounds neat at least, but now I'm afraid it might be a little while before we see a Feint skill on normal units... Not sure why we now have two personal Red Tomes with some form of movement skill on it, but it does kinda concern me that Iounn or Idhunn or whatever the bloody hell it is says "allies within 2 spaces" as opposed to "Infantry and Armored allies" or similarly specifying the units who can teleport, which means that Cavalry can also be affected. It doesn't sound that big a deal, but remember that the one thing that is hurting Cavalry most these days is how limited their movement has become... so park Tana on a Trench, Forest, or Mountain/River, and so long those issues. Overall... eh. I'm still gonna summon, but I'm not gonna be buying orbs directly to summon from here.

The units who would make "better" use of LnD3 mostly consist of glass cannons, see Nino, Tharja, Linde... If Karla is someone you think can take advantage of LnD3, go for it. She's a fast and powerful unit even without a directly beneficial nature, and she easily reaches 50 speed with just a little support. Her being -Atk for you is probably the best case doomsday scenario, since she'd otherwise have the speed equal to most other sword units.

Heh heh, her "coconut ammo" ahem. That's part of the bow, not really the armor. Weapons these days don't seem to actually have any effect on the units movement or stats. Back in the day maybe, when the Heavy Spear was weighing Florina, Est, and Oboro down for instance, but not really anymore.

Don't really see that happening tbh. Unlike the other seasonal Armors, Noire doesn't really wear anything that shouts "this is really slowing me down", like Jakob's ball and chain or Henry's coffin or Tharja's massive- ANYWAYS I just don't see it happening.

Lachesis Rating: 4/10 Lachesis is not a specialized staff wielder, having too low speed to do anything with, too low defensive stats to be a bulky staff, and her Attack, while decent, does not go well with her low Speed. Other healers are more specialized than her. Klein Rating: 6/10 Klein is below average as an offensive bow user, even ignoring the one who defined offensive bow user. His base kit is good for foddering, but still needs to be revamped before using Klein himself. If all you need is a non-Brave Bow offensive bow, Klein is still good. But if you want another Brave Bow user, look elsewhere.

Charlotte, even if she's in the game as a Lance wielder, is still an Axe user by default in her game. Oh, and don't forget Effie, who might just be popular enough as a unit to warrant getting an Axe wielding General alt.

Is it just me, or am I running into a lot more high merge Cavalry teams in tier 19 battles? Not even teams with any bonus units either, teams consisting of high merge Cavalry units, usually Reinhardt and Cecilia.

No reason to pretend you aren't just going to get another Bartre. ...actually I think I didn't get any Bartres in my recent mass summoning... hm...

If I could put what I feel in word form, early on I didn't mind the number of females being seasonal, since the game was young enough, as was my playing ability, that it could be forgiven. I was also very biased for the Halloween and Christmas banners, because I already quite like both holidays and they both also had very intriguing units (Robin in Christmas since he was "ready" for a whole year before he was available) or just units I really liked (even if I only sniped for ToD!Nowi for a whole freaking month, I still wanted all of the ToD units). But now that the game is a year and 4 months old, I feel like we don't need even more fanservicy females when even most of the new normal units are kinda fanservicy (Thunder Thighs). Also, maybe I just missed it, but I think you forgot the Performing Arts banner in that. I don't know for sure, I can't check it again.

Makes you wonder... does this mean Robin is also locking two people in the same room, maybe with a one-way mirror, to make them bond? "I expect to see some BONDS forming between the two of you." "Robin, please stop locking me in this room with myself in a silly easter outfit. " "BONDS."

The most I can see myself caring to try and get is Cordelia, just cause I like the idea of having the lance from her conversations with Robin. Noire... I mean, I like Noire a little, but not so much that I must have her in a swimsuit. I'd rather have her in her normal Archer attire, and this more or less guarantees that we aren't gonna get that. Tana... I just hope her base Speed and base Attack don't make ToD!Nowi look like a joke. Innes... I mean, he looks impressive... but I am not impressed by his weapon at all. It may as well be called Decorated Driftwood for how unimpressive it looks. All in all, the only thing I can say good about this banner is that it's impossible for any of these units to be carrying a unique Valor skill, so I can hold off on getting orbs for summoning to try for the Legendary banner and maybe try for YS!Robin to finally get Lance Valor...

Was not looking forward to this... Reinhardt Rating: 9/10 The original meta-definer. A personal Ranged Brave weapon that had higher might than a normal Brave Sword, coupled with being mounted so Cav buffs AND really large range, relatively high Attack and decent other stats that take from his Speed, and targeting the usually low Res stat... again, on a BRAVE weapon... makes Reinhardt someone you want to have on your side, and to have a number of counters ready for. He isn't quite as overpowered as he once was, but you do still need to watch out for him. Olwen Rating: 6/10 Olwen, while far weaker than Reinhardt with Dire Thunder, can still double the opponent with extensive speed stacking, and can still use Blarblade decently well. But she does both weaker than other units can, and her low availability already hurts her a fair bit. She was not the meta-definer that Reinhardt was, and she get hit by the direct counters to Cavalry just as hard as her brother was.

Some options... Brazen Atk/Spd 3 would be a good one, as she needs to enter 75% hp to trigger Wrath anyways. Swift Sparrow boosts both her Atk and Spd without sacrificing her defensive stats, if that matters. If it doesn't, then LnD3 would be your best option for "effective from the start of battle" rather than "REALLY effective after one round of combat". Her defensive ability starts and ends with "she can't be doubled without fighting someone with Swordbreaker, Quick Riposte, or Vengeful Fighter", so giving it the shaft in favor of more power and speed at all times may be better.

Eldigan Rating: 5.5/10 Eldigan hasn't really aged well, even after the upgrade to his Mystletainn. What he does is very similar to what a free unit does, and also to a unit who is better in all the right ways. If you get pity broken by him, he can still be used, but maybe don't go actively hunting for him. Sanaki Rating: 7/10 Sanaki has a great Attack stat, which can be boosted with Cymbeline's refine and the right A skill. Her support game can be amazingly high between refined Cymbeline and Drive Atk stacking, or running with Ploy skills. Her defensive game is limited to mages and not much else. She's also slow enough that most units can double her and kill her anyways. But as a OHKO mage, she has some potential.

Does anyone have Spur/Drive Atk that you aren't leaving near Ike on newer attempts? Or does Ike have a Support with someone who, again you aren't leaving near him on newer attempts?

@XRay Sheena now has the Sack o' Gifts. If you care to know, it looks absolutely stupid on her, but a silly kind of stupid. Now all I need is a Santa Hat accessory...