Xenomata

What would be a good 240 sp B skill to give Ishtar, +Atk -HP? For Arena Scoring purposes in case I don't have any of the non-Askr units. I was leaning on Chill Spd, but then I remembered that that was on the FH!Celica I haven't merged into yet. I can't access Chill Res due to no Spring Catria. Given her nature as a ranged unit, I don't feel like I'd get very good mileage out of Escape Route or Wings of Mercy. Even if Quick Riposte would work, I don't have the fodder or feathers to get it on her. Watersweep and Windsweep would go well with her speed... if I wanted to completely ruin the point of having a fast and powerful Blue mage. Accounting for skills Blue Mage units and non-dancers can't equip, this leaves me with Renewal 3, Poison Strike 3, and Dull Ranged 3. And of the skills available as 240 sp, I have access to... Renewal, Escape Route, Wings of Mercy, Watersweep, and Dull Ranged.

Ishtar get! +Atk -HP to. She is gonna be one speedy and powerful blue mage. I also got 4* Shigure +Spd -HP. Definitely thinking of promoting him, since for how many lances I have, I only actually use a few of them now, so having at least one more powerful one would be nice. Also screw this banner I am done with it. I went to 4.50% pity before I got Ishtar,

Candlelight is viable, however it depends on if you use it correctly, which is much harder with it than it is with Gravity and Pain. Whereas Gravity can halt the enemy advancement safely and trigger safe chip damage so long as the staff unit is pulled or danced away, and Pain is simple raw damage without the risk of triggering powerful offensive specials, Candlelight's debuff relies on the player being able to attack the affected enemies using other teammates and gain mileage out of it. Easier said than done unfortunately, as the healer will most likely be attacking the enemy out of position from the rest of the group, so you would need to pair that healer up with powerful mages or cavalry to possibly reach the rest of the group safely, which since we are talking about Nanna that is much easier done than said. And if you position/dance the healer away with no further action to the enemy, then you are wasting the Candlelight debuff and would be better off using Gravity, or you are doing chip damage, which you may be better with Pain. Or maybe you're still waiting for the prime moment to heavy assault the enemy team and just want some chip on the enemy, which is also just as likely. That's not to say that Candlelight is a bad debuff. If used right, it's the most dangerous thing you could do to the enemy before killing them. But Gravity and Pain are much easier to use without screwing up.

I know it's brought up occasionally here, but I kinda wonder if anyone's actually brought up the idea of sending units to other players to the developers... Kinda figured as much, but still, Minerva is now useless as fodder lol. ...speaking of which, still waiting for the day that Subaki's now only real reason to exist finally gets replaced itself, or maybe a little swappy swap of the skill available at 4*, hrm hrm?

Considering that, to get through the daily grind of Tap Battles, I just do casual mode and rapidly tap the button regardless of combo... Yeah lez get this in the game. Also Sacred Cowl is on Eliwood and Lukas.

Even better. Now if only Hone Fliers would drop down... Unrelated Edit: Now that it's been a good day with Azama, it's safe to say that damn, he bulky. I can take away Pain+ from him and he acts as good bait for training maps while whoever else, today Hinoka, goes and do their thing, all while Martyr+ handles healing.

Called it. Maybe not publicly, but knew it would be either him or Kana. This means that Ward Fliers is now in the 4* pool, even if it turns out to be a 5* locked skill.

Not... exactly? Red tome users are primarily either Fire based or Dark Mages. Blue tomes are mostly Thunder or Light magic users. Green tomes consists of Wind or general Anima magic wielders. The closest the pattern has come to being broken is ToD!Henry (normally a Dark Mage), Julia and Deirdre (Light Magic users), maybe Olwen depending on how you look at Thunderhead. Odin broke it definitely, but he's so out there that I'm not sure if they were being dumb dumbs when designing Odin or if they were referencing something...

Well I feel stupid now. Of course Hinoka's Spear and Camilla's Axe would be able to buff the siblings of Hinoka and Camilla, as well as other fliers... whoever designed brain processing speed clearly gave me old hardware.

Well, can't say I really know what's different about new Arena... having the TT stat boost is nice though, since the unit I have to use won't be quite as much baggage as they could potentially be. In this case, I was using Siegbert, so while he wasn't baggage per say, I won't say I was looking forward to using him, but he did his job nicely... even though most of what he did was reposition everyone... but he is a horsie, so he did it well. I suppose overall more feathers and one extra orb for less time spent? I guess it won't be such a headache now though. Usually when I lose an arena streak, it's on or after the 5th battle anyways.

Well I have officially lost my freakin mind. I not only sent SO MANY UNITS home to get the feathers together, but I ALSO gave Azama [+Def -Atk] the Close Counter and Renewal 3 skills to make him into a bulky wall that won't be penetrated by anyone anytime soon. Between him and ArmorApocalypse Soleil, I do believe there is sufficient enough evidence to send me to an insane asylum. Good thing we got free 4* Taco Meme though, so I don't feel quite as bad about using the spare Taco Meme I had laying around as I would have otherwise. And yeah, I do like Azama... well, maybe like isn't the right word... I enjoy Azama's actions in Fates, and I feel like having a bulky healer who will never die will be a nice change of pace from the usual no defense healers that normally populate the game. The only way he could be better is if he had Sinmara's effect as a C skill, I'd say. Also canceled out enemy phase music? Best change in the entire game.

That's a... unique refine on Corrin's Yato. Not the Spectrum boost, though that is pretty neat, if a little impairing on Corrins own Speed. I mean, that Special refine is... quite odd, to be honest. It means that Corrin needs to be supported with someone, and that the refine is useless otherwise. Also means that if you face a Corrin with that refine in Arena, it's basically a useless boost, lol. I... don't know how to feel about these new weapons.

What the... damn, that is neat. Essentially means that Julia and Deirdre can somewhat counter Julius, as the Book of Naga did in Genealogy. Probably not very good, since he still has triangle advantage and at least 41 Resistance if he runs Fury 3 with Loptous, but still. They translated his Genealogy appearance pretty well to Heroes, I gotta admit. Not that I personally experienced it myself, but at least reading about it it sounds pretty exact.

Sorry I must have missed it, what is Loptous's effect supposed to be?

Funny you mention that, because I used to think that I didn't have enough Red Mage units... Now I kinda think I have too many at 10, and here comes another Red Mage to add to the pile. I like Sanaki to, but there isn't much wrong with having another Sanaki, even if they are older and a dude.

@Ae†her Yep that explanation does a good job conveying the original message. Better than the very casual essay I gave anyways. I agree with Zanbato+ [Unique], but to be very honest, Cavalry almost never pop up for me anymore, so I didn't even think of it.

Well I can't check my units now, but I do suppose that the drop in defense doesn't matter if the drop in Defense is from 40 (Fury 3, Beloved Zofia stat boost, Beloved Zofia special effect, and +Def nature) to 33 (all of the above with -Def nature)... I'd also like to throw this question into the pile because I don't quite understand the update to the simulator I use: http://arcticsilverfox.com/feh_sim/ How do I do what it is I want to do when checking the viability of, for instance, FH!Celica [+Def -Res] vs [+Spd -Def]? All I truly understand is that the filtered full list is the original "base unit" list, and that 704-718 is the list of units seen in that high tier of Arena battles.

The Budged Curated Build on Gamepedia lists +Spd -Def as a possible nature. The Curated Gronnblade+ Henry lists +Atk -Def as the recommended nature, but -Spd should work to, given the set has Bold Fighter in it. If it were me, I'd personally pick +Spd, but since I still don't have Halloween Henry I don't actually know myself if 37 spd on an armor is actually worth as much as it should sound. As for your responces... I'm most interested in Ishtar, but even though I do have units I'm interested in from Wings of Fate... I also already have them both already, so... guess I'm dropping it. Another, really? I mean, I don't disagree with that, I do have this Azama I been meaning to work on...

This thread went a good while without any updates... Some smaller questions. A) I recently pulled another FH!Celica, +Spd -Def. My current FH!Celica runs +Def -Res nicely, between Beloved Zofia, Fury, and Beloved Zofia's innate effect, but I also understand the importance of speed (even if Chill Spd fixes that issue a little). But I'm not sure I'm all down for higher W-L-D numbers if it means having yet another speedy Infantry Sword, especially when the cost is -7 Defense. Plus having this Celica means I can give someone else Chill Spd, which recent activities have proven that Chill Spd is actually pretty cool. Input? B) I usually end most banners having exhausted the pity rate, and the Wings of Fate banner currently has a 3.25% pity for me. But the announcement of new heros, especially ones that have me intrigued, puts me in a dilemma of either TRYING to get at least one 5* from Wings of Fate now, or having more chances to get 5*s from Genealogy. Input? C) Just generally speaking, what do people usually do when they have the Refining Stones to give someone an upgrade, but not really having any one specific unit they want to give it to, but also wanting to get Refining Dew?

Also, damn Ishtar has some bulky shoulderpads, and she isn't even an armor unit. Also... of course we can't even have a Genealogy banner without mention of Reinhardt...

Since the effects of Heavy and Flashing Blades are in-combat, and Dark Mystletainns is post-combat, I'd say they stack. I'd also safely say that yes, Eldigan will get Dark Mystletainn, probably at the same time that Brave Lyn gets Swift Mulagir.

~Dark Mystleteinn is a straight upgrade from normal Mystletainn aside from lacking refinery upgrades, which can be either a boon or a bane depending on how you look at losing access to Fury 3 built into weapon... Also quite the unique effect built in. Pretty much guarantees that enemy phase Ares will be running Bonfire or Luna, depending on how good his Def will be, and will have the skill ready to snipe a kill from another unit after his initial job is done... Seal Def/Res would probably be better if daggers didn't exist already, but props for adding yet another obvious skill combination finally. We'll have to wait and see Ares himself, see how he stacks up to his father. ~If Lene only had Wings of Mercy, she'd be the dancer we've all been building since day 1 of Skill Inheritance. Safeguard+ will probably be replaced with Ruby Sword anyways, but that is still quite the nice sword to have be inheritable. A reverse Berkuts Lance sure, but a reverse Berkuts Lance that will be available in the summoning pool. Oh boy Arden got an early Christmas, now didn't he...? Also that now makes 3 units in the regular summoning pool to have Sword Valor 3 before we even get one of literally any other Valor to be put in, let alone Breath or Staff Valor... As for Lene herself... I dunno, not like we use dancers in combat anyways. She is definitely getting demoted to 4* though. ~Holy shit Ishtar does not skimp on her given title. Special Charge -1 and Darting Blow 3 built in to her weapon, Swift Sparrow 2, AND a new stat buffing series, the Odd Waves? Vantage is... a little less than stellar on a unit who is CLEARLY player phase built, but HOLY CRAP. Her speed stat better not disappoint. Also no alts. Banner rating: 20 out of 10. No, 20 out of 5. 20 out of 1. TO HELL WITH YOUR ALTS, INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS. I'm joking by the way.

Well then, I guess this is better than what people were expecting. We not only have summonable Ishtar, but also GHB Julius.

I, uh... I swear I didn't know they were going to announce more Genealogy units today, @Lewyn.