Xenomata

Huh, I kinda know who these units are because they were among the more interesting reads back when I was... "researching" past FE games (that is reading all the wiki articles I could be bothered to read about them). I guess units who have Dragonflowers used on them are considered "rich," even if it's the only gamplay method of replicating the cost of recruiting them. Anyway look at the giant statball! Hugh's defenses are hopefully going to be solid enough to make being a statball be worth something. ...ugh, still waiting on Rouse Spd/Res 4 for Laevatein... Niime... I can't help but feel she's in a bit of an awkward spot. They'll probably be bringing back the old Veteran BST modifier with her (higher level 1 base stats, but lower growth rates that results in a lower level 40 stat total compared to other units in the same pool, see Jagen and Gunter), but she's probably not going to be affected too badly by that. But having a generic tome that calls upon the Plegian weapons in a weapon pool where every single other unit has a Prf weapon is not good. She's basically the only real wielder of her weapon since all the other units fare better with their Prfs anyway, and the only advantage she gets is the ability to refine her weapon with a stat refine... but maybe being able to pass along ARsolo4 and ARmenace (assuming prior SI) without much else being lost is worth something? That's a morningstar mace. Cath is chucking a fucking axe at her enemies. Skills are meh. I know it's basically the best assist in the game, but don't we have enough units who can teach Reposition...? As for Armorpin Dagger, I feel it's past its prime, if it ever had a prime to begin with. Skills that effect attack priority aren't that common anymore, not on EP units anyway, and especially not among Armor units. Dragonslasher and Caltrop Daggers at least can occasionally target units using Vantage (or in the latter case, Legendary Seliph), but otherwise... well I guess there's a reason this thing is gonna be in the 4* pool. The few Vantage units I have might not have much to worry about... Idunn looks very pretty. ...her weapon comes loaded with 3 "basic weapon effects," that is to say Slaying, Armor effectiveness, and Svallin Shield. On top of the spectrum +5 and enemy follow-up denial...? That's just mean. I do now have high expectations for the refine regular Idunn will get this year. Not much else to say about her otherwise, she's a Near Save unit and it shows. Gonzales isn't getting a Prf weapon... that's just rude. ...well that's my thoughts. Think I'll try to save my orbs for the time being, I seriously need to cut down on how much I spend on this game and summoning for every new unit released is not the way to do that...

Posting the comics that were missed. And then we have the lastest comic. Feel like we're missing... a number of things, but anything for the sake of comedy I guess.

...ah. I completely forgot to do Rokkr. ...welp, guess I can only dream about what I would have done to LegIke... __________ Reinhardt/Olwen were fun. Easy as hell yes, but fun. Usually I'd just take out Brave weapon - Galeforce - TA3 - Weaponbreaker - Melancholy support and call it there, but I wanted to something different... and the combination of Walhart and Wedding Catria did wonders. Wolf Berg's debuff meant Rein/Olwen couldn't counterattack (and were also just super weakened), Catria provided Guidance/Tri-attack, as because those two plus Wrys my Melancholy user are always near each other anyway even Wrys was getting some Quads on Rein. Gotta remember to be a little different at times, even if different in this case just meant using Walhart. Seriously his refine is way too good, consider getting it if you haven't already.

That... is a lot of Green units, hm... Well at least Hegemon got bumped out of the top spot. Ninja Corrin is as solid a fast Brave unit as can be. It'd be a little odd to have the AHR unit be the Duo Ninja unit two years in a row, but then again these units are popular for a reason... Kill the abomination against nature. Sigurd remains a potent unit with a support effect that cannot be denied. Thorr is a good unit in general, both in and out of Aether Raids. Eitri is strong and bulky, no denying that. LegM!Byleth's special trigger game is strong, but it might be slightly weakened now that Elimine exists to inflict False Start. DuoAzura is a horse dancer. New Year Dagr has some mean effects between her prf skills and duo skill. If the freebie unit was decided purely on popularity, I wouldn't have minded getting a free Ninja Corrin, but as it stands I guess I'll be supporting LegM!Byleth since he's the only one of the 8 that I don't own.

Most all non-seasonal Staff units do not come with any weapons learned, a Relic of FEH's early days I would say since Clerics "famously" never come being able to attack right away. Honestly you only need to level up a staff unit to 5 or 6 with crystals to learn Assault, and then you can grind SP and EXP on them as normal. I don't consider it that big a loss compared to getting SP on them with healing staff uses.

I will merge her... I will not... I will merge her... I will not... I will merge her! ...her actual skill build is yet to be determined, so... yeah. Not to say I won't do it though, she has a pretty nifty weapon on her person and it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

There are also some Prf weapon effects that get disabled because one of the trigger conditions is that the enemy unit be at 100% HP, though none of importance spring to mind since "if foe is at 100% HP" tends to only be a secondary requirement to either "if unit initiates combat" or "if foe initiates combat." I guess Young Minerva's Dragoon Axe and Perceval's Prized Lance are the most "notable," if only because the 100% HP condition is the only effect trigger available on their weapons right now. I just wanted to add that in since it wasn't mentioned.

This is the final dream to find itself here, Adrift in the sea of heroes who have been given the highest honor I can give them... Camilla was the last of the four Adrift units (not counting miniAzura, who was not part of the banner proper) to be +10 merged. Since she was on the New Power banner and I only needed one more copy of her, I decided to use some orbs and see what happened. It... did not take long at all. Here's hoping, again, for Mikoto to get a great refine. Then I can focus on building her and the two Corrins to have a fully themed Arena defense team!

Lukas, eh...? At this point he's pretty outclassed as a defensive unit, but that's mostly because he just doesn't have any really notable features to his defensive game. With +Def asset, at least +9 merge, and at least 17 dragonflower uses, Lukas hits 49 base Def, which now becomes 51 Def. Combined with his Prf refine, Sturdy Stance 3, and let's say Steady Breath SS, he goes up to 65 Def in EP. Pretty solid as a wall, and thanks to Steady Breath he can get Bonfire triggers on every counterattack thanks to the Slaying on his weapon. Off a neutral Atk, 9 merges, and 18 dragonflowers he goes up to 59 Atk, which becomes 61 post-Resp. Sturdy Stance 3 and his prf refine bring that up to 71, and combined with the power of a 32-power Bonfire trigger... he does pretty good damage as well. He's certainly not bad as a wall, but the defensive game lately has evolved beyond what this mislabeled gen 1 Armor unit offers, especially considering how much Spd and Res he just doesn't have. No additional effects from his weapon kinda hurts as well. A solid pickup if you still use him, but definitely not a unit you will have nightmares over not getting.

This is not a question I thought I would be asking, but... what do you guys do when you need Divine Dews for a refine, but have no regular weapons you want to refine to convert Refining stones into dews? On the one hand I don't want to waste refining stones, but on the other... the prf weapon refines lately have been good, especially for me since a lot of them were given to units I have investment in.

Pretty much a courtesy thing for people who have not been able to watch the direct themselves yet but wish to before hitting the internet. People who are working or in school at the time, for instance.

Nintendo Direct spoiler below (even though it was literally the first thing shown)

I believe, based on my own merging of Ascended Fjorm, that as long as the merged-into copy does not have an ascended stat already then the ascended stat of the merge-fodder copy will become the ascended stat of the merged-into copy. So yes, the new Fjorm should become +Atk +Spd.

First, always remember that merging is an option. If you think you'll use Brave Eirika enough, merging her for that extra Atk may be worth it. Second, +Spd is definitely worth more to Eirika than no asset at all. Her Atk only goes down to 37, which in terms of Lance Cavs still has her statline trump most all of them, while her Spd gets to go up to 46, which lets her double even more units. Third and less important, but be sure to let the unit you are giving ASmenace to Threaten Atk 1 or Threaten Spd 1 as well as Swift Sparrow 2, at least if you are able to afford it. This will let the unit learn Surge Sparrow as well as ASmenace, maximizing the SI worth. Of course do not bother if the unit cannot learn Surge Sparrow, just wanted to make sure you didn't accidentally lose a perfectly good tier 4 skill.

I keep forgetting Altina exists, thank you and yeah prob not that relevant. I don't think many units with true Brave weapons will be out-Atking Ephraim very soon...

I'm not sure why you say this, if I'm honest... Off of a superboon of 45 Atk, add on 16 from the weapon, another 4 for having the refined base effect triggered, an effective +5 from lowering the foes Atk, +6 from Sturdy Stance 3, either +5 from A/D Bond or +7 from fully triggered A/D Form SS's, and +4 from a Near Save that grants Atk, that brings him up to 85/87 effective Atk to compare to his enemy (more when merges and dragonflowers are accounted for, and even more with ally support effects). While it may be true that most offensive units could build up their Atk to get up to Ephraim's level, he still has a rather sizable wall of Atk to try and surpass just by himself. Also I think it would be more reliable to give him Hardy Fighter and Pavise instead of utilizing outside sources of damage reduction. While his damage output will take a hit, his offense is still rather high and should be enough to at least severely weaken the enemy if not outright kill, but the most important thing is that damage reduction from Pavise cannot be bypassed by any means (whether by skills like Deadeye or by disabling outside support with Feuds/Brammimond/Legendary Lyn). While the units who can bypass damage reduction are currently all ranged, I feel like it is only a matter of time before melee units begin getting such skills as well... (The above all assumes Ephraim is given a Near Save skill and is used exclusively against melee enemies, ergo rendering his ranged defenses far worse)

Going from doesn't-affect-me-much to I-literally-have-this-unit-max-merged: Bow of Verdane gains all effects when initiating combat, and gives a total Atk/Spd +10 and either a guaranteed follow-up or Desperation (or can you get both at the same time? It kind of sounds like you can get both). Coming off 32 base Spd, it will take quite a bit of investment before you are consistently having 7 more Spd than most enemies, though I guess he can still take out slower/bulkier enemies. Slaying effect remains nice to have. Hurricane Dagger grants a total of +10 Atk/Spd, a Dodge 2 effect, and +5 damage. Compared to Kaze, Legault is both faster and stronger (especially on foes with Bonuses) with a more defensive effect compared to Kaze having overall lower Atk/Spd and no way to get around his low Def, but Kaze comes with the Slaying effect and accelerated special charge on top of higher Res than Legault... hm, not sure which of the two can be considered superior... Gjoll is definitely upgraded heavily. Total Atk/Def -10 penalty on the enemy, plus the original effects and even a pseudo-Panic effect make for a very punishing weapon. Combined with the remix Hrid got, there's very little reason for him to never have total domination over the enemy... aside from being sniped by someone who wasn't being targeted by his skills anyway. Tome of Reason just looks like a smaller LegTiki (ironic considering LegTiki is already so small) but without the benefits of a Save skill. All stat +8 in combat, as well as Def/Res +6 at the start of the turn that pairs with the Atk/Res penalty to come to... I think -7? It's an alright tome, very deceptively defensive considering the unit it comes on was never known to have high Res, let alone Def. Book of Dreams looks VERY strong. Just upgrading the base effect to be active on PP was good, but a large debuff zone like that is plain mean and almost guaranteed to go off (and it even triggers on enemies who are near the victims as well, bonus!), but Atk/Spd +5 AND extra damage based of Camilla's Atk is icing on the cake. That is a lot of raw power. Kind of makes me upset Adrift Camilla wasn't a Forma unit now compared to when the skills available to her were just plain bad... Festive Siegmund I'm glad added the extra skill trigger. I never could get Ephraim to be totally alone whenever I used him... Anyway, the additional healing granted by the base refine, plus the special refine granting even more power and basically EP Brave weapon status... now that he is no longer a Solo unit, he would make for a very mean Save unit. Lyfjaberg... I'm not disappointed by it, I'm just disappointed that I have to pass it over because that's just not what I'm using Eir for in Light season. More on that later. It is by no means a bad refine. a total of +8 to all stats during combat, Guard and follow-up denial if she is faster or initiating combat, additional Atk/Res that scales off her current HP (my +10 merge Eir with at least one dragonflower hits 40 HP for an additional +8 Atk/Res), hell even extra healing for herself and nearby allies. None of that is bad at all. Basically my problem with Eir's refine is that it wants her to be an offensive unit or even a magic tank, but I already have a superunit for Light season (Brave Marth) and I don't use Eir outside of weeks where she is the bonus unit (and I hardly use her outside of AR anyway), so I gave her Temari+ to delegate her to a full support unit, and frankly she has never needed to enter combat even in an emergency. It's a very big shame... I guess if I had to pick a "winner" it'd be Adrift Camilla or Santa Ephraim because of the raw power behind them. Again though, I very much wish Camilla were a Forma unit now and not when skills for ranged fliers were just... bad. (Hrid's is the best clearly, I mostly meant among the non-Legendary refines because honestly the Leg refines just don't compare to the normal ones)

Yeah that's exactly what I did, my problem is that... I mean like I said, they are VERY good superboons and acceptable superbanes. Owain and Lissa don't even HAVE flaws.

...well fuck, I was all ready to have an argument ready to reason why Chrom MIGHT get a superboon, and then I remembered the update was out. I was gonna go and compare Chrom to Pirate Surtr to try and reason why Chrom's chances of having that superboon are higher than currently proven history (it all banked on the fact that Chrom only had meh Spd and Res compared to the 5 other units having great everything and horrid Spd), but the answer is literally right there. And uh... yeah. SPOILER: STAT TOTALS AND SUPERBOONS/BANES OF ALL 5 UNITS.

>Lucina is never gonna get to use Falchion again, is she...? All these Prf weapons, yet her base form remains the only one to still use Falchion. Anyway, an armored Spd-based tank. Savvy Fighter means that Lucy can't be done in by auto-follow-up units (I consider Brave weapon units to be different), being a Spd tank means that she can't just be done in by a fast unit because she will be just as fast, and her natural Def/Res on top of the damage reduction from Gerbera Axe and Savvy Fighter should mean very little damage is getting through, outside of skills that disable non-special damage reduction anyway. Not at all bad... and on top of all that, she can also give herself and an ally the ability to ignore enemy bonuses? That's just mean. >Robin looks very interesting. In the first place she relies on having a diverse move type lineup on the team to function at her best, and that's the only requirement to her game, she could technically be in a completely different area from the rest of her team and still get the benefits of a mix-movement team. Of course she is a Far Save unit, so she'll be nearby anyway, but even still. Even Follow-up is kind of eh, but nothing that can't be fixed with some SI... >Owain's 38/42 offenses looks pretty good. He certainly is not overall as good as some other units that will not be Eirika'd, but when compared to the next best Lance Cav with no Prf weapon, Spring Minerva, he has a +2/+4 advantage over her. Defense took a bit of a hit, but I don't think people would be using him for his defensive abilities... As for the skills he brings to 4*, Piercing Tribute is certainly... interesting? Disabling the enemies auto-follow-ups doesn't feel that necessary if you are trying to kill them on PP, and on EP this weapon kind of fails by not having any defensive boosts on it, opting instead for Atk/Spd which most defensive units don't need... I dunno, it would have been an awesome weapon had it disabled effects that prevent the users follow-up attacks, but as-is I don't think it can be considered better than other lances... otherwise Owain kinda sucks for inheritance. Blue Flame is just not that great when most units don't need to be next to anyone anymore. >Close SALVO? Man, I would have preferred Force... Applying special charge just by using an assist on him is deadly. If done right, you could have all of your teams specials ready by the time the enemy is upon you as long as you can dance around with the AI properly. Otherwise Chrom looks pretty standard as a unit. Close Salvo being new aside, not gonna be winning any awards for originality. Armor effectiveness should be deadly on him, being able to have Deadeye charged up before the tankiest of armors can get near him means they are down in one shot off 58 base Atk, which is probably a superasset because why wouldn't it be. You know the armored unit I'm talking about to... As for the Duo skill, that's cool. Definitely has its applications if you can use it on an AR map where penalties are currently up to -9 for being the wrong move type. Overall? Good Save units, powerful duo unit (as long as you don't lose all that special charge anyway), and a potentially good Lance Cav with a kind of eh weapon. Not sure why this is the lineup we're getting for the 5th anniversary, but whatever.

Special Heroes taking part in the Day of Devotion are coming soon in the Special Heroes summoning event: Here with Me! Also, 5★ Hero Lissa: Sweet Celebrant will appear as a Score Reward in the next Tempest Trials+ event! -Fire Emblem Heroes official twitter Japanese version of trailer:

I'd say I was surprised, but that would require me to not be emotionally dead. I literally just did an AR-O run that fielded two Hegemons... On the more positive side, the 7 other heroes are not disappointing to me. I think I'll throw a vote to LegM!Byleth tonight, since I don't have him. Besides, if people really like Hegemon that much they should know to be getting counters to her... Honestly most surprising is that no Ascended heroes are top 8. I don't mind, I have every current AH ergo gain nothing but a free hero, but they seemed a guaranteed thing for AHR...

I'm gonna vote for someone different each time, with Day 1 going to Young L'arachel. ...Walhart has given me a taste for blood. I want that Dazzling Menace... The link is INSIDE the tweet. You just need to click the picture in the tweet and it'll take you right to the voting page.

What's cold and shiny at the same time? It's the new batch of weapon refines! This time featuring: Hrid: Icy Blade and Eir: Merciful Death, who will be the first Mythic unit to be receiving the remix treatment, and with it refines to Gjöll and Lyfjaberg. Gjoll boosted Hrid's Atk by 3, and if the opponent had a Penalty inflicted on them then Hrid would gain an automatic follow-up attack while the foe lost theirs. Lyfjaberg, meanwhile, boosted Eir's Res by 3, granted her Atk/Spd +4 if her HP was above 50% and foe follow-up denial if she initiated combat, but inflicted 4 damage to her post-combat if she was granted the bonus during combat. Lugh: Anima Child will be receiving the new Prf green tome Tome of Reason. His original weapon, Gronnserpent, was Distant Defense in a weapon, increasing his Def/Res by 6 if the enemy was using a ranged weapon. Camilla: Flower of Fantasy from the Adrift banner will have her Book of Dreams refined. This weapon increased Camilla's Atk by 3 and inflicted all stat -4 on the foe during combat if Camilla was next to an ally. The 4* unit this month will be Legault: The Hurricane, who will be dropping that whole Cleaner nonsense for the Hurricane Dagger. The Cleaner, Legaults "prf weapon," has what is now called Dominance on it, meaning it boosted the damage dealt in proportion to the total stat penalties inflicted on the enemy. The Grail unit this month is Jamke: Prince of Verdane, who will fittingly be getting the Bow of Verdane. Jamke's original weapon is the Slaying Bow, which granted Special Trigger -1. Lastly, the seasonal unit this month will be Ephraim: Sparkling Gallantly from the Gifts of Winter Christmas banner, whose Festive Siegmund will be getting refined. This weapon has Accelerated Special Trigger -1 and essentially spectrum solo: if Ephraim was alone, he got all stat +4.