Xenomata

I'm surprised Jake hasn't been a candidate for appearing on a banner yet, even if just a demote like Elice. He'd be perfect for a Forging Bonds as one of like two people with close relations with at least one Anna. It'd be great, he'd be so confused by all the Annas.

Quick Riposte goes from a mere guaranteed follow-up attack when above 70% HP (or 80% if you settle for the more easily available QR2) to damage reduction on the first attack and the guaranteed follow-up when above 25% HP. Funny thing is that despite having 4 premium skills, all of the skill prereqs are pretty simple to meet (Silver Axe, Distant Counter, QR3, and Distant Guard) if a little harder to acquire than other skills, so it'd be totally possible to get all of Ganglot's skills in one go. Anyway... The REAL Hardin's Super-Hone Cav looks pretty nifty. Say what you will about Nyna being the demote, she does bring an amazing support staff along with her. Def/Res +2 and Guard being granted to nearby allies is a great boon to defensive units, and the effect is no longer locked to Tannenbaton or Keaton's refined weapon. Ascended Tiki... uh... well this is awkward... can't say I care anymore after hoping to get a break from her for once with Adult Tiki's Brave alt... Matthis isn't likely to be that impressive a unit... Man... Ascended Heroes just aren't impressive anymore. At this point they literally only exist to give YET ANOTHER ALT to whoever they feel like giving one to. Guess I'll just focus on getting Arcane Downfall with what orbs I can...

The FEH twitter usually has a post before a new HoF (not before a HoF revival) that lists the skills that are being added to the pool, while also denoting which skills can actually be inherited by the next batch of forma units.

Testing out Yune against a Hegemon with complete and utter debuffs active, she took absolutely zero damage from a Bonfire trigger that should have added up to 80 damage total, more or less. it's such a specific situation, but it's still awesome to watch someone with garbage Def take nothing from that.

Ugh, daylight saving threw off the update time... it's the middle of the night in PST... Eliwood was originally a fairly supportive unit, given he only benefited allies and not himself. The remix... pretty much turned Eliwood into an offensive support unit. He's guaranteed to be getting at least +14/14/14/8 between the effects on Ardent Durandal and Vision of Arcadia II. He gives himself, as well as the ally with the highest Atk on the team, all of [Bonus Doubler], [Null Panic], and [Canto 1]. Other units have been able to give one of each effect, but not all at once. Oooh boy, my Laevatein just got a new best friend... Cynthia completely dropped the Firesweep effect. Huh... don't think anyone was expecting that. Instead she now gets Wings of Mercy EX and Spectrum Clash. The refine meanwhile is the penalty-reversal effect. Overall... it's certainly good if you like Cynthia and wanted her to have something better to play with, but I'm personally never a fan of bonuses that rely on the unit I'm using to be inflicted with a penalty beforehand. Does anyone else feel like Petra's refine is targeting a certain... someone? She's getting the expected stat boosters, and NFU is certainly not unexpected, but nullifying Guard effects if the enemy is at 100% HP as well as reducing damage from the first taken attack by 60%... those are all things that specifically break through Hegemon's most overbearing defensive effects. ...not saying it can't work against other units, hell I'm even half tempted to try working with her now, but... speaking as someone who has numerous times judged a unit based solely on how they deal with Hegemon, Petra feels like the closest that has ever come to being built specifically AS a Hegemon counter. ...what happened to dedicating her entire existence to Emperor Edelgard? Corrin didn't change how her "solo" effect worked, but she did build on it... a lot. Even the Dragon's Wrath effect was modified to account for any nearby allies. I feel like that could hurt her in the long run, since she's almost totally neutered if she's on a completely alive team who loves to stay together (basically any Arena or Aether Raids team), and it's not like she has the additional movement to properly escape her teammates... she looks like a unit who's full potential can only be under player control. Hector and Python honestly didn't really get anything I feel worth talking about. As for Yune, the one whose refine I was keeping a careful eye on... The realistic number of maximum penalties on a single enemy unit Yune can expect to inflict is 28, assuming the enemy team was completely bunched up. More would technically be possible, but requires high-level Aether Raids towers. That means a realistic maximum of 28 additional damage and 56% damage reduction on the enemies first attack. Why her base weapon only gives +5 Res instead of matching the +6 Atk she already got is... beyond me. She's still getting an extra +11/10 Atk/Res though, which I am not complaining about. Honestly, I don't care if it's a good or bad refine, especially since I'm sure people consider Eliwood the "winner" of these refines (a statement I feel grows more and more irrelevant as we get more refines...) I think Yune got an awesome remix. It's almost like Gunnthra but flying.

Tempest Trials seals are Spd/Def Catch and Chill Def/Res. Two skills which have great Tier 4 variants, but unfortunately we can't make Sacred Seals go up that far... yet...

Well... they picked a theme, and they sure as hell did run with it. ALL beefy units with meister weapons to match, which grant Def/Res +5 and Spd -8. ALL Wyvern Knights, both on-banner and in their original games/alts. And of course who can forget the Duo unit having the self-refresh Duo skill? ...I mean hell, at least last time Laevatein was the only slow hard-hitter. Camilla getting built-in Vantage is nice, especially as it isn't tied to any condition outside of Res comparisons (a stat which many units outside of the bulkiest fail) Seal skills are getting their Tier 4 variants (least they will be easy as hell to chain-SI), inflicting at minimum -4 of the designated stat, a further -7 if the enemy is unable to neutralize penalties to said stat (though losing effectiveness if the foe already has a visible stat penalty inflicted on them), inflicting Guard if a stat penalty IS inflicted, and then retaining the old Seal stat effect. Overall could be nasty if given the right circumstances. Weird that Cherche doesn't get any stat effects like Camilla and Laegjarn got the Slaying effect. Instead she just has the 20% of Def effect on her weapon. Her kit is also... very plain. Heath the demote's inheritable bow gives a little something to the slowest Archers to play around with. While technically weaker than the Ninja Yumi, the meister-nature of it does mean that Bow Armors can attack four times when being initiated on (in combination with Vengeful or Crafty Fighter), giving them more of a raw power effect over damage. ...Heath also exists. Laegjarn and Fjorm was always expected to appear as a Duo hero, let's not even bother trying to lie about that, it was just a matter of when. The effect of Flamefrost Bow adapts Laeg's usual bonus-based effect for the occasion, and that's about it for that. Rest of her kit exists, kind of feel like Atk Smoke isn't a great fit on her and was only done to prevent skill overlap with Cherche. Huh, would you look at that the TT unit will be a Sword-wielding Haar. Guess we can't have Team Axe Ninja Freebies come true after all. While they all look good... not excited, not gonna lie.

The gauntlet kind of gives away that that's a Hoshidan Ninja/Master Ninja, so the most likely candidate would be Kaze/Saizo. Which is a shame, because that probably means they're going low-effort and just slapping them in a Master Ninja outfit. At least go for Hoshidan Dread Fighter... If that is Cherche, it's looking... very not-spiky for someone who wanted to spike Kellam's armor for the sake of cuteness...

I've had a few +10s on the backburner, but I wanted to wait until they were all fully built before actually posting them. One in particular took me 5 months to get all the Divine Codes I needed to give her the skills that I wanted to give her. Eldigan had been sitting in a sort of limbo for a good while, half because for a long time I just couldn't summon merge copies of him, and even after that because I kept forgetting to actually give him a skillset. Yes it's basically just Ares... but Ares isn't an actual demon from hell, now is he? Panne I always wanted to give attention to but couldn't justify because... well, she used to suck. But her refine was on the horizon and I got her merged up in anticipation. While the refine didn't disappoint, what did was the frankly bad skillset she used to have. I decided to feed her the Pirate Naesala book from the Divine Codes shop, and that took SO FREAKING LONG. But now she's better off for it. Deirdre I only +10ed because I happened to get her summoned enough times that I would only need the one copy given with the purchase of her Resplendent outfit. I... honestly don't know how I'd go about using her otherwise. Even her daughter's base form has some merit as an EP dragon counter... Naga was +10ed because I like Halloween, and that's really all the justification I need to give. Scion Nanna is one of the fastest Staff units, and as a Staff Flier she has some strong offensive presence that's only weakened by the fact she doesn't have access to damaging specials. I felt that investing in her would pay off, and honestly... it did. @TheSilentChloey You might wanna edit your post there. Namero's comment was already very long, and you basically repeated the entire thing for the sake of responding to one line.

Assuming you have other units you use often, I say Fodder. Unless the original Askr has a godawful asset/flaw, one that NEEDS fixing, or you just use Askr enough to justify a merge. You can get Atk/Def Ideal 3 from a 5* Scathach, if you have a few of his books lying around. Summer Lyon also has the skill at 4* if you happen to have a spare of him. With this in mind, a Melee Infantry unit is able to inherit both ADideal4 and ADbulwark at the same time.

Yeah uhhhh about that, as the person who made himself into the Leg/Myth Hero Battle poster who makes the thread at like 2am the night of release, I... flatout forgot there was a Mythic Hero Battle. So... my bad 😐 Anyway here's a clear I figured out in like 10 minutes of unlocking Abyssal. At this point I've pretty much accepted that Nina is just THAT unit for me. You know THAT unit, they're the unit that always appears in that persons clears and might not be the most popular unit often seen, but by Nephenee's lance do they make that unit look good. And since she's THAT unit for me, I gave her some new skills! (ASideal4 and ASoath4) The ARideal in the SS slot was just to see if I even needed to give her more Spd (spoiler: I didn't) The Queen of Ghosts may as well be an overpowered unit thanks to Arcane Grima, but all that really did was give her a guaranteed follow-up all of one time... which fair is fair that was on Player Phase, wouldn't have been able to replicate that otherwise. Man, if IS keeps holding out on giving Dancers refines, they're gonna be liable to give them overpowered refines after waiting to give them any... anyway here's LegAzura doing her thing. Why yes I did give Ilyana Fury 7 for no real reason outside of finding the idea of a little kid having such beefy stats funny, what gave that away? Naga and Ilyana have had their Hero Battle debut, LegAzura may as well be the director at this point, and Nina is the main lead actress. Fair is fair, Whitecap Bow is really good.

The first Duo Hero introduced in the game is getting his and her refine! ...and then some other guys are too. Conjurer Curios, for Sword Armor Hector w/Lilina: Dressed-Up Duo (Effective against armored foes. Grants Atk+3. If it is an odd-numbered turn or if foe's HP < 100% at start of combat grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 to unit during combat. Ardent Durandal will be refined alongside the remix of Sword Cavalry Eliwood: Blazing Knight (Grants Atk+3. At start of turn, grants [Bonus Doubler] to ally with the highest Atk. Lance of Heroics is a new weapon being given to Lance Flier Cynthia: Hero Chaser (Firesweep Lance: Unit and enemies cannot use counterattacks. Hunting Blade, for Blue Dagger Flier Petra: Princess of Brigid (Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). Effective against beast foes. At start of combat, if unit's Atk/Spd/Def/Res < that of an ally within 2 spaces, grants +5 to unit's corresponding stat during combat. Calculates each stat bonus independently. Effect:【Dagger ７】 Snide Bow is a new weapon for Green Bow Cavalry Python: Apathetic Archer (Short Bow: Effective against flying foes. Deals +10 damage when Special triggers. Chaos Manifest will be refined for the remix of Green Tome Flier Yune: Chaos Goddess (Grants Res. +3. If a penalty inflicted by a skill like Panic or Threathen and/or a a negative status effect (preventing counterattacks or restricting movement) is active on foe, grants Atk+6 during combat and unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. Savage Breath is being refined for Colorless Manakete Corrin: Wailing Soul (Grants Atk+3. Grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+X (Calculates X based on number of allies withing 2 spaces of unit:0 allies grants +6; 1 ally grants +4; 2 allies grants +2; ≥ 3 allies grants +0.) If foe's range = 2, calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res. Hector is the first Duo unit to receive a refine (wow, they're seriously old enough now to warrant it... I still remember their reveal being a pretty big deal at the time), so one question I'm curious to see answered is if the refine will at all take into account their Duo Skill (Deals 20 damage to foes within 3 columns centered on unit.) Otherwise the only refines I'm paying attention to are Yune (+10 merge unit) and Cynthia (grail unit, could become +10 merge if the refine is good)

One trip to wikipedia later, and I am now ready to see if this... thing is worth giving a damn about. Just the Guard infliction effect by itself is pretty annoying, good thing it doesn't also have a Pulse Smoke effect... the in-combat effects are pretty standard of a unit with low Spd but high X stat, but having a Spectrum boost probably means they have at least alright Spd. I... can't imagine their Def was left all that intact. Duality means Arval will always have a WTA over colored enemies, and also disables effects dependent on having a WTA. Also guaranteed follow-up. Also Still Water 5 minus the Def drop. Everything else tells me that they are highly focused on boosting their Res. ...thing is, Arval doesn't have access to two things that would have made them scarier: Close Counter, and Dragon Wall. So... even with SpectrumWTA, their probably low Def is gonna betray them. But otherwise they should be pretty frightening under player control. As forthe banner itself: Red looks kinda sad, not gonna lie. Need a Mythic Dancer for Astra/Anima season, cool have one at the risk of getting Lif. LegChrom is still pretty strong, but I don't know where Sain and Valentian Est have been ever since their releases... Sain has the potential to launch an ambush, but Est I'm pretty sure is just another pegflier otherwise? Green looks pretty nice, all good units for the most part. It's like they didn't even bother with the other colors and made this one an all-Colorless-focused banner. I could not agree more. Can't wait for Engage to come out and... well, replace TH as the spoiled child...

Ick... kinda feel like Jaffar got heavily screwed by early-unit stat allocation. I think they intended for his Atk and Spd to look Assassin-y via Life and Death 3 since this was still in the days when units couldn't use Skill Inheritance? But the fact that he's now worse off than other dagger units even just in the 4* pool, let alone the fact that his Prf refine doesn't do him any good... again, ick. Does look like good art though.

Would I assume from your words that the Distant Counter effect (for dragons at least) is better delegated to the SS slot instead of the A slot, even if using one of the upgraded DC skills that grants stats? My Halloween Naga does now have Arcane Grima, so she doesn't need to worry about using a skill slot on Dragon's Ire or Quick Riposte. So I guess I'll be saving the extra Surprise Breath fodder for when I build another ver.1 dragon up. Also: It's not going to be a huge additive to her damage, but since Arcane Grima has that additional 15% of Atk as damage I personally think the Atk asset is going to have slightly more returns than the Res asset. Or at least it'll lead Naga to landing more OHKO's than with the alternative. It's what I decided to go with anyway.

Of the existing inheritable non-Arcane Breath weapons (which I am currently trying to get at least one of, but beyond that,) which one is currently considered the "best" for units like Adult Tiki, Halloween Naga, etc. who don't have a Prf weapon or have a weak Prf weapon? They all have somewhat similar stat-based effects, so it seems like it comes down to what secondary effects and trigger conditions are considered most worth using. I have at least one of each weapon available to me also, and it'd primarily go toward Halloween Naga if I decide not to give her Arcane Grima (when I eventually get it)

Cavalry-exclusive skills. Infantry units have them. Armored units have them. Fuck, Flier units have a few. Cav units are the only unit move type to not really have anything that can be considered "exclusive" to them.

That doesn't change my feelings about it, that just tells me that they reused a piece of music (which honestly shouldn't even surprise me)

Valentia!Falchion and Mystic Boost have been around far longer than Bulwark. The listed use was pretty much the only one available to Alm up until a month ago. Also would feel like a kind of meaningless waste of fodder...

I can think of a grand total of one: regular Alm's Valentia!Falchion refine requires he be at max HP to trigger the Brave effect, and Mystic Boost allows him to gain the effect multiple times in a single player phase. ...it's not a GREAT use of it I admit, but the alternative is using the SS when that could have something like Death Blow slotted into it. Also doesn't really justify upgrading to MB4 since Alm only technically needs to heal off 1 damage and doesn't even want to be taking hits in the first place.

XENO MAKING WITH THE LOOKING NOW. Dragon units are now getting a nice new toy to use, and unlike Arcane edgelord sword it has more universal appeal for all dragons, not just the slow/bulky ones. ReGrima herself is also finally giving speedy Armor units some love in A/S Near Save, something I'm sure Valentine Lucina will appreciate from dear mother. Presumably ReGrima will be an all-around good stats unit ala LegGrima. I guess there's really not all that much complicated about Grima as a whole, she just wants you dead. Now who to think about giving that nice shiny weapon to... Nowi seems like a pretty good candidate, even if it comes at the cost of those nice Armor skills. GREGOR BEST FOOTSIE BLADEBOY. Not a whole lot to say about him otherwise. The actual in-combat effects of his weapon are pretty simple overall (basically amounts to all stat -5 debuff on the enemy and first-attack damage reduction), but the fact that he inflicts that nasty a stat debuff on the enemy which then gets further hit by the additional penalty-based debuff is... well, pretty nasty. Also serves as the designated fodder unit in a semi-roundabout way. We now have the Def version of Still Water, as well as an extra source of Inf.NFU. Both of which are nice to have. ...oh hell no not another Annand. At least she isn't a 5* I guess... Can I be honest, as someone who likes Eir? That music playing during her reveal... I'm not a fan of it. I know Eir isn't exactly the most chipper girl out there, and her entire background stands on a mountain of rotting corpses and despairing souls, but the music just sounds somber without even a shard of hope for what's to come, which by now Eir should have. ...anyway, gonna go out on a limb and say that even without the pseudo-GF and needing a Far Trace in her B slot, Eir is a better Harmonic Leif. Just my opinion based on this information presented to us. Mystic Boost 4 is a nice upgrade to what was otherwise just an alright skill (looking forward to this being put in the HoF pool), Sparkling Boost 1 can probably be replaced with... literally anything else. Does this mean Hayato is gonna be a 5* unit if or when he gets in the game? Also, seriously Ricken? LOOKS LIKE LITTLE SUMMONER BOY WITH PLUSHY SPIDER WILL BE MAKE GOOGLY EYES FOR RED ORBS AND ORBS MAKING NAKED WITH NO SHAME.

For all it's worth, Bantu, who is clearly a very elder Manakete even in the time of the Archanea games, has had some acquaintance with Nowi in Awakening, which takes place 2,000 years after the events of MotE. Nowi says she is over 1,000 years old, so if he did eventually pass away of old age it would have been in the 1k years before the events of Awakening. We also have Tiki, who I think is at least 3,000 years old (spent 1,000 years asleep before the events of Shadow Dragon, and then another 2,000 before the events of Awakening) meaning it took her that long to go from a baby (what do baby Manaketes look like?) to an adult who looks early 20's at youngest. ...well, anime early 20's.

I had a thought... Why haven't we had any Beast halloween units yet? Are they so dedicated to the theme of dragons right now that they aren't even going to go for the so plainly obvious Werewolf Keaton/Velouria or is it so plainly obvious that they CAN'T go for it (like Bride Eirika?)

Dangit my Canto prediction was off. My thoughts:

THIS IS NOT A DRILL, NULL FOLLOW-UP SACRED SEAL MAYDAY MAYDAY PREPARE ALM'S BUTTS BECAUSE THE FLOODGATES ARE OPENING AND HE IS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK. Kind of ironic the effect of Naga's inheritable breath is countered by the SS released alongside her...