Xenomata

Frankly, if a Mythic banner's main seller won't even entertain the thought of teasing me with their orb color, then good day to you banner. So I guess i'm still summoning from the HOLY CRAP VALENTIAN EST AN YMIR IN THE SAME BANNER. And I already summoned Ascended Celica earlier? Wow, they may not be as strong but I will still take these units! ...Ah phooey, Est is -Res...

The God who lends his name to the country which you fight for... Askr lends his power to heroes of realms beyond Zenith, the land called home by Alfonse, Sharena, Anna, and Kiran. His high Defense translates directly to increased damage and reduced damage intake, on top of a guaranteed follow-up. Opened Domain triggers only if at least one hero not originating from Fire Emblem: Heroes is near him, but the bonus of [Resonance: Blades] and [Resonance: Shields] and an Ostian Pulse II-like effect are universally granted to everyone. Atk/Def Ideal and Atk/Def Bulwark only further boost his bulk further. ...Askr is not alone in this fight. Beyond the faceless grunts in his employ, the Hero King himself, Legendary Marth, fights by his side. Marth is no slouch either, he has received his Remix treatment and will be nigh-impossible to outspeed. Marth will receive an exceedingly high stat bonus from Shining Emblem, the effects of refined Exalted Falchion, and any penalties he may have been inflicted with, and he is able to go on the offensive without fear of counterattacks while also disabling follow-ups. Dragons especially must watch out. The god of your country and the first legend under the banner of a Fire Emblem are your foes. All that remains is to show him that his realm is in good hands. Abyssal Map

I'm only now realizing that I did not speech into your earholes goodly. I also could not tell you what I was possibly trying to say... My Brave Marth and Muspell say hi as well. I know not everyone runs those two units together, but if anything that just means I don't understand the problem everyone else is having because I'm not having that problem. You can PLAN for Orders and Harmonic Catria, at least as long as you are paying attention. Guidance effects are slightly harder to plan for, but not by much if you are running a defensive team. Again, Marth and Muspell say hi. It's only become an issue for me with Harmonic Edelgard's recent release, but anytime I run into her it's either been with my non-Marth team or she's not running her default offensive kit so I have yet to really test him out against her in an actual fight...

Warping is not a feature every unit has, let alone something that lets non-armors mimic being a save unit. At least Bulwark has universal application. Also keep in mind that Warp-blocking doesn't even do anything for the vast majority of units, as warping only comes into effect after most combats have already occurred. Maybe I'm just someone who values the enemy being dead in one go, but I already find it a problem if the enemy is still alive at all, let alone if they enable warp strategies.

Slaying, Spectrum +5, guaranteed follow-up, Def-based damage boost/reduction on his weapon... neat. He grants Resonance: Blades and Resonance: Shields (AKA the effects from some Harmonic skills), totaling to all stat +4 and enemy follow-up denial during units first combat in a phase, to himself and allies as long as he is near any ally who is not from Fire Emblem: Heroes. I have to wonder if this effect will trigger even on Harmonic units, where half comes from FEH but the other half doesn't? Or maybe the passive is only looking for the FEH tag to know who not to give it to? Also Ostian Pulse II effect on these same units (plus himself) Bulwark is just a better Detailed Report, minus the Warp Denial effect (which arguably wouldn't affect anyone taking these skills anyway). Defensive Infantry units get something extra to play around with... neat. As for the rest of the banner: LegNanna is a strong unit to have around, Plumeria is an Astra Mythic who dances, and Asc.Mareeta is the only source of Vital Astra right now (plus the Floret if not claimed yet) while still being a good unit in her own right. Pretty good offerings if you need them. LegDimitri is strong, Seiros offers Dragon Wall and is an Anima Mythic, and Peony... doesn't have much to offer that isn't already owned because she's a freebie. I guess she makes inheriting B Duel Flying 4 easier? Pent and Otr both have B Duel skills (and some other skills to I guess), with Otr also being a Mythic. LegCelica is... honestly not in a good spot considering her Ascended form just came out, but her Remix is... somewhere on the earths curvature? Colorless by default is the color to aim for, but Ashera is one of the only supportive sources of Null panic while Medeus is highly bulky and the only source of En Garde. Hm... without wishing to be down on a mythic banner, especially since Askr seems cool, some of the offerings on other colors just don't really do it for me... even Colorless having Ashera isn't that appetizing, but the other two offerings would be nice to get some fodder of either way. Shame I'm short on orbs to freely be spending.

Datamined Hall of Forms units are... drumroll....

...welp, there's your meme character everyone. He's almost the exact same unit as Atlas, just slightly worse. Superboons/Superbanes: Celica - Valentia's Hope: HP-, Atk-, Spd+, Res+ Est - Sweet Baby Sis: HP+, Atk+, Spd+ Kamui: Spd+ Atlas: Atk-, Def+ (Trainee modifier) Brigand Boss: Atk+, Res+ Ymir: HP-, Atk+, Spd+ By the way, about the Forging Bonds... does anyone else feel like Balthus and Hilda have been in a good few lately? Always the same joke too...

Ashera is one of the very few sources of Null Panic in the game, alongside (according to memory) Legendary Azura's Gray Waves II and the Rouse x/x 4 skills. A situational need most of the time in fairness, but the main source of Panic, Aversa, has shot up in popularity since she got her refine... Medeus comes with a ton of Damage Reduction, high defensive stats, and follow-up denial while coming with his own follow-up without giving up the SS slot. He is also the only source of the En Garde status, and coming with Canto Control is a nice bonus. Whether their main unit aspects are worth anything to you is entirely your call, but it warrants mention of the things they bring to the table outside of AR.

...didn't we literally just learn about Ymir outside of dirty dataminers? Celica has a good number of effects in her Prf skills. I'm not a huge fan of her Prf passive still being a weaker version of Ullr's passive, but I guess that's just something for the remix to fix. Inf.NFU is pretty notable. While nothing is given to the passive wielder, it does mean that nearby infantry allies are allowed to benefit from the Bonus version of NFU. I'm sure there's a number of units who would love not having to give up a B slot just to make sure they still have a follow-up attack. I have no thoughts on Celica, one of the two Lords of Echoes, being ascended. Est looks like she'll be toting high Atk/Spd/Res and low Def. There's really not a whole lot to say about her, is there...? Kamui's Up-Front Blade+ I think is one of the very few examples of a sword that grants Atk/Spd bonuses? If so, that actually makes him notable as the demote unit, since now Sword wielders who are forced to use inheritable weapons (because they are a seasonal or their default Prf sucks) can now use something that gives them Spd instead of the various examples of Atk and Def-boosting swords. Packs an alright secondary effect too. Ymir has a good support effect. Makes her something of a pseudo-Restore staff unit while still giving the effect of a Rally passive. Giving a passive Miracle effect is pretty neat, but as a defensive effect being given to other allies it can't really be relied on more than once, so it probably has more application on AR-D teams than under player control. ...otherwise I guess all the Dragons are Cavalry Breath units. Atlas is an Axe unit. Dunno what kind of axe it is he is using, but whatever it is does give him Atk/Def +5. I assume the lost Spd/Res is from Rein. ...hm. Pretty neat overall.

Free summon Duo Byleth! +Spd -HP! Wow, this couldn't be better! ...wait... but my existing Duo Byleth is already good... hm... dang, oh well.

He synergises most with Solo since that's the alternate trigger for Wolf Berg's spectrum +4 effect. Unity... frankly doesn't. There's very few times where a Cav unit on Player Phase will be near an ally, and as stated the Wolf Berg's alternate trigger is solo. Similarly Form isn't the best. I really don't think building a unit specifically for Pawns of Loki, a mode that isn't even around all the time, is the best idea... Walhart is amazing for it, but saying something like that will trick yourself into neglecting him for anything else.

Unless you intend to make Walhart into a mix-phase tank, he has little reason to run Def and Res boosting skills. Null C-Disrupt is not a common skill or effect (one of the only meta users of it can't even trigger it against Melee attackers), so Walhart winds up only using his Def and Res stats for being attacked on EP or occasionally attacking an opponent who was outside his Threaten Atk/Def/Flash range. And of course Bonfire/Ignis triggers. Speaking as someone who uses Walhart A LOT, he actually has a respectable Spd stat if you are willing to invest in it. Pictured is my current Walhart (ignore the SS, it's usually Blade Session but I loaned it to Asc.Florina for Arena) With every effect triggered, Walhart hits an effective 53 Spd, 59 with a Solo and 62 with a max effect Blade Session, plus 6 from Wolf Berg's field buff effect. Is it the best, no, but it does let him outspeed a surprising number of units he would not have otherwise, especially in Abyssal Hero Battles. Even those he doesn't outspeed still aren't getting much if any benefits from Dodge skills, if such exist. Also keep in mind, Catch 4 is almost guaranteed to always have its maximum benefit active at all times, since his Threaten range is his exact movement/attack range. About his C passive though... while he doesn't need the Tier 4 variant, he could probably net at least a few extra kills with Spd Smoke 3 when running GF or a Dancer, by debuffing the enemies near his initial target. I only run Pulse Smoke back before I realized how fast he could actually be, though to be fair it does occasionally help to passively disable the enemies specials. As you guessed, DRmenace is useless for him (he already debuffs Def by 7 AND gets a +6 spectrum boost for being near enemies, what good will debuffing their Res do?) but if you wanted him to be more supportive he can technically pack it to help out more magical allies. (unrelated, but wow I thought Walhart's merit would be higher with how often I use him...)

I have, I know her backstory, I just don't like her even knowing that.

@XRay@Ice Dragon Welp, not a whole lot of good to say about the units I listed (ranging from "not worth using since you have X" to "not the best unit to use"), so I'll just expand the range to all the Grail units available: who would be worth building up, which does include getting them to +10 merge (even if yes +9 is good enough), giving them as premium skills as possible, refining their weapons if applicable, so on so on. I will now list the Grail units I've already put the above investment in: Black Knight (Near Save with an emphasis on Spd and Def) Fallen Ashnard (standard bulky unit) Clive (pretty much unused at this point, was a physical bulk unit when the level of offensive power was much lower years ago) Naesala (Offensive with Dive Bomb, been put through HoF building) Legion (Offensive with Galeforce, not been used much lately) Groom Hinata (I don't even know) Walhart (WALHART) Young Minerva (High Spd/Def unit, been given Ninja Masakari via HoF, varied role based on needs) Young Innes (Ruptured Sky special nuke) Summer Leonie (FiresweepB double Poison Strike/Fatal Smoke, Duel Cav 4 Arena score booster) Panne (currently unknown, was waiting for refine to see how to build her) If it helps, the only thing I base my decision on which Grail units interest me are just... the ones that would be interesting choices, or who are personal favorite character. Maybe they would be uncommonly used characters especially in Abyssal battles. The units I immediately cross off are the units who are blatantly evil assholes (Genealogy Hilda, Aversa, Kronya, among others), Fallen units aside (Ashnard is hard to explain, but his weapon was just too interesting to pass over and he appeared in HoF for some reason) Fail this... I'll probably just go for Halloween Sophia or Scion Nanna (I do have a few Serpentine Staves to use)

Legendary Marth and other Infantry units with Bonus Doubler on their weapon can now have FOUR stacks of BD active at any one time! That's a +24 bonus to each stat from just having a +6 field buff, +28 if the bonus is +7 instead. ASpush3 should be nice for any unit who is capable of healing the lost damage after combat, most notably the recently released Legendary Xander and Legendary Nanna. It's not as huge a boost as Solo/Brazen, but it's still a pretty simple to apply boost. As for Life and Death... I won't be spoiling myself to the events, I just hope Eir comes out the other side alright.

Way I see it, limiting it to one stat means Mareeta is allowed to have it be at -8 instead of having to contend with a slightly lower debuff for the sake of having both stat debuffs. It's not even like there's enough units in the game who pack such high Spd and Def that Mareeta can't deal good damage to them and still outspeed them, or even really any effects that Mareeta would want both Spd and Def lowered at the same time (not that I can think of anyway)

That's still better than Rouse 4 giving it to completely alone units, who don't need to worry about Sudden Panic effects. I guess there is always still Panic Smoke and other effects that inflict Panic, but Sudden Panic being the easiest to inflict en masse gives Oath more reason to want to be packing it over Rouse, even if yes it'd only be in effect for one round of combat (Panic Smoke and other effects notwithstanding)

As with all other DC weapon refines, Roy's refine is pretty simple. Spectrum +4, accelerate special charge, and Tempo all in one. The DC and dragon effectiveness from the original remain intact, so Roy should hopefully have no problem maintaining a competitive edge when combined with Human Virtue II. ...still don't really understand why Roy is so freaking racist tho. Shadow Sword's base effect got the Forseti treatment (anyone wanna bet that Worldsea Wave gets it as well?), but the refine is actually pretty interesting imo. Not the further Atk/Spd and Tempo effects, the effect in which Mareeta actually is always inflicting a debuff that always makes a difference. Defensive foes who sack Spd will lose a lot of Def. Speedy foes who already have low Def lose a lot of Spd. I kinda like it. ...why do Fallen units always get the best refines? Heartbeat Lance looks pretty interesting. With the refine, Kjelle inflicts a total Atk/Def -10 on the enemy, the enemy can't follow-up, and they also get a further Atk penalty based on how many of Kjelle's stats are higher than their own. Realistically Kjelle can probably expect 3-4 of her stats to be higher at any given moment (there's no fixing that Spd), so that's 25%-30% of the foes Atk being chopped off. Pretty neat. What is with the racism in this batch...? Panne gets spectrum +12 if she is alone, healthy, and tearing the jugular out of a human and not a beast or dragon. Humans also get special charge -1. If her Spd is higher by at least 5 Panne gets a guaranteed follow-up and +7 true damage. Also cavalry effectiveness, can't forget that. Panne's base Spd is 34, 37 with an asset, so it wouldn't be unrealistic for her to be able to get the full benefits of her weapon against most foes. Kind of a shame though, her total stat bonus is lower than Selkies at maximum effect... Huh, a Pulse effect. That's nice, should make Smiting allies into a group safer. Might not work as well with enemies who have 1 turn cooldowns, 2 turn cooldowns with accelerated charge, or just already have their special charged, necessitating the ally have a Guard effect to ensure the enemy special can never trigger, but hey it's still a nice effect that helps improve Mordy's Smite game. Also Atk/Def +10 and the new Beast Inf. Tempo effect. Well at least the Isolation effect is easier to inflict. Not sure why Fjorm doesn't get exactly the same effect that she grants to her allies, nor why she doesn't need to be as close to get her own effect, but it should still be a good boon to have around if you already use Fjorm. Not like you have any other options, anyway... And the lesson learned: Humans rock, screw the rules I have darkness, still don't get what Heartbeat Lance is supposed to mean for Kjelle, Humans suck, Mordecai smites you.

I feel like Oath 4 would have preferred having Null Panic on it instead of Rouse 4 having it, since triggering Oath 4 is more likely to get you Panicked. But then maybe that would have been a little TOO good... Eirika gets the slaying effect, 3 effects that all trigger when initiating combat, a post-combat effect, and a Prf skill modified from an existing one. Sigh... these units and their already having overpowered legendary/brave alts... Nifl, instead of inflicting Flash on the enemy, just has a full Wind/Watersweep effect. Along with full NFU and the standard stat boost. Also slaying. I feel like she has even less reason for running Domain of Ice than her base form, but whatever it works still. Atk/Def +5 and a guaranteed follow-up... damn, that sword is looking good. Imagine if equivalents were made for other weapon types, especially Ranged ones... shame that's all Lyon will probably be known for. I just wanna say Exposure sounds weirdly worded. To me it sounds like the enemy is being allowed to deal more true damage, not that the enemy is being dealt 10 true damage. That said otherwise, Thorr/Loki look pretty good as AoE nukes. Seth's first alt! ...I dunno, these units feel tame compared to the summer house leaders/Micaiah. Even the inheritable weapon effect, while great, still feels tame compared to the Whitecap Bow. Not bad, just tame. ...why did all of the summer units this year have to be units who have powerful Prf skills exactly? The only ones who don't are Elincia, Lyon, and Seth, all of whom also happen to have no Prf weapon. Even Claude the demote has a good Prf weapon and passive, and he's the demote.

As far as Save units go (maybe not tanks specifically) I have: Near Save: Black Knight, Winter Ephraim, Benny, Asc.Idunn, Gustav, Caineghis, Halloween M!Grima. Note that Idunn, Gustav, and Grima are only running their base kits. Far Save: Valentine Henriette, Valentine Rudolf, Brave Hector, Leg.Tiki, Asc.Fjorm, Valentine Alfonse, Valentine F!Robin. Henriette runs her base kit, Rudolf is Far Save because I was able to give him Distant Force and DRfar save in HoF. And at least as far as "super" tanks go... pretty much no one. Brave Ike, Halloween F!Robin maybe. I have units to SUPPORT super tanks, I have very bulky units who take very little damage, but not many actual "super tanks..." there is also Brave Marth, but he doesn't actually tank, just kills before the enemy can hit him, so I hesitate to count him. Gonna have to explain yourself there. Arden's prf weapon is a meister weapon with Atk+4, Def+6, and Guard; Ephraim's is an EP conditional brave weapon with all stat +4, an Atk/Def -5 debuff, and healing on each of Eph's strikes. The condition for his Brave effect might be counterable, but from my experience it's still a pretty easy condition to meet. ...not opposed to building Arden mind you, I'm just interested in that statement of yours.

...not gonna lie, kinda want that Eir doll. Wonder what'll happen in the continuation of Book 3...

Continually I come back here for input on Grail projects (building them, merging them, showing them off continually in Abyssal Hero Battles...) and I don't know why I can't just PICK... but anyway I could use some input. I have literally no specific needs, just a wanting for more units. Narrowed my choices down to the following: Units who are likely to get a refine in the next 6 months: Rutger, Haar, Fallen Delthea, Cynthia, Kronya. I limited this range to only 6 months, despite building up grails taking longer, because in those 6 months I cannot predict what other units will be released, and my interest in any particular unit is likely to change. I assume that by the time I amass enough Grails to build another Grail unit, these 6 should have already received their refines. But maybe it would be in my best interest to at least merge them up ahead of time? Yen'fay - I know he's good, otherwise why would he keep appearing in every other Arena fight I get in. I don't have Vital Astra to stack damage reduction further, but I do at least have Spd Smoke 4. Arden - Still on the table as a great Near Save unit. The idea has grown on me since properly building Winter Ephraim. NY!Kyza - +10m +5df +Def with just his weapon has 59 Def and 61 transformed Atk with +5 damage. Might not be Strong-and-Tough-Arden with Near Save, but that's still great IMO. Camus - Good Spd and a good effect on a refined DC weapon. Enough Spd stacking and Spd Smoke 4 should make him near impossible to kill as long as he doesn't get Fatal Smoked. Only issue is that I maaaay have run out of AScatch4 and KestrelStance3 fodder... Finn - Better Ninja Naginata on a unit with, to be fair, somewhat iffy base stats... the special refine I wonder if that's enough to balance the difference between giving NN+ to, say, Spring Luthier...? Halloween Sophia - At the expense of making Spider Plush much more expensive to inherit onto other units (500 grails is quite a bit you gotta admit...), this one is pretty much a favoritism pick. In fact making the Spider Plush more expensive is what's making me hesitate. ...I mean... have you seen that Spider Plush? Young Boyd - Yes his only being good on odd numbered turns is iffy, if not outright unreliable, but it could be an interesting challenge to work around... Valentine Lissa - Potential to be a super-bulky Far Save unit. Even already comes with the perfect weapon for it. Scion Nanna - Great offensive stats on a Staff Flier. Only wish there were more staves with offensive in-battle effects... Palm Staff is about the only one aside from the one Groom Saul has I think?

Freebie 5* unit! The following is true about this unit: He is not a 4* special. He is a focus unit. I did not have a single copy of him before now. He is a servant of Grima. I am still shocked that I got a free Fallen Morgan. +Atk -Res isn't horrible either.

And the newest batch of refines will be going tooooooo... Legenary Roy's Dragonbind, which had nothing but Dragon effectiveness and Distant Counter to its name until now. Legendary Remix unit. Fallen Mareeta's Shadow Sword, which carried the effect of Desperation if her HP was greater than 50%, as well as the slaying effect. Kjelle will be receiving the Heartbeat Lance, replacing her original Barrier Lance that gave her Res +7 when the enemy initiated combat. Panne's Taguel Fang, granting her Cavalry effectiveness and all stat +3 if she is either alone or only next to Dragon/Beast units, on top of the standard Beast Cav weapon effect of inflicting Atk/Def -4 and blocked follow-up when initiating combat. Grail unit. Mordecai's Sabertooth Fang, which gave him Def +3 and the ability to inflict all stat -4 on enemies near himself and his targeted ally when a Movement assist is used, on top of the original version of the Beast Infantry effect of boosting Special Damage by +10. 4* pool unit Bride Fjorm's Gjallarbru, which inflicted Isolation (prevents the use of Assist skills either by or on the afflicted unit) on any foes in cardinal directions of herself who had at least 3 less HP than Fjorm, as well as the Wrathful Staff effect. Seasonal unit I'm not even gonna guess what the Heartbeat Lance is supposed to be referencing. Only one I really care about here is Panne, maybe Mareeta. Looks like Keaton is now joining the skip gang...