Xenomata

Ephraim would be cool, but that would be so many Blue units one after another...

So... I already don't play Summoner Duels. I just don't like them. And Summoner Duels R is literally just regular duels but with a few extra details added and different rewards. Rewards which I don't find strong value in. Feathers are one thing, but I'm swimming in more Refining Stones than I have regular weapons that I want to refine, and I only need Sacred Coins to upgrade seals I like, which right now I have all the seals I like upgraded. Divine Codes and Dragonflowers... yes they will be missed. But what's stopping me from just doing the like 3 CPU battles you get for free at the start and never caring about this event? I just don't like Summoner Duels...

I can't confirm this for sure, though I can say that none of the above skills have ever appeared for me in any past HoF, even after the above skills received tier 4 upgrades.

Actually while thinking about it... I'm not actually sure why one would want to use a Red Tome infantry specifically as an HP checker. Aside from access to a Recover Ring-granting weapon (shared with Blue Tome Inf), most units would be perfectly able as an HP checker. So... yeah not sure why I argued that point. Again if I want an HP checker, I'll just use Virion (maybe Aversa if you held a gun to my head to force me to) As to 3H characters specifically, Balthus also had the highest HP among those in the 4* pool who would be able to perform HP checks. (Ferdinand cannot inherit Sudden Panic, leaving only his C slot to do any HP checks with). To be fair Mercedes and Linhardt can hit 59 and 58 HP each when invested, and they would otherwise not be performing any true combat roles otherwise. Solon also merits mention, since he's a RTI with high enough HP to pass HP checks and no combat effects on his Prf weapon, meaning nothing would be lost by making him an HP checker, and since he's also a grail unit... ...I mean, I guess I did make it through an entire HoF only building two units, but that was Brave Micaiah and Naesala. Are Dorothea, Ingrid, and Sylvain good enough to make it through without Lorenz...? To be fair I only meant he's able to be built however you want in regard to him acquiring Luminous Grace, Sudden Panic/Pulse Tie, and Stall Ploy. Realistically I'm gonna use normal Lysithea if I want a 3H RTI nuke.

That'd be fine for within the HoF, but it's once you leave the HoF that it become something of an issue. If all you want is an HP checker, you can use Virion, who has high HP and Sudden Panic built into his Prf bow. If you want an HP checker among Infantry Red Tomes, both Erk and Henry have equal HP to Lorenz. Henry has iffy stat distribution but is equipped to be more defensive than Lorenz, while Erk has better offenses but lower defenses. Lorenz tries to be both but comes off not being good at either. And if you want an HP checker among Three Houses units, Balthus just outright has higher HP, as long as you don't mind hindering his abilities as an offensive unit. All of the above are 3*4* summons, making them much less expensive to get to at least +8 merge, and 2 of them are Gen1 infantry units and are thus able to get even MORE HP.. At this point the only positive to Lorenz is that you can build him however you want within HoF, but it's not like HP check skills are that expensive to begin with. Pulse Tie maybe, Stall Ploy most definitely considering how recently it was released. @Diovani Bressan Whoops, didn't know that. ...oh well. Not a huge personal loss to me, I don't actually like the Christmas 2021 inheritable weapons that much TBH.

The forma...

I can't say what compelled me to do it... okay that's a lie, I accidentally summoned a bunch of New Year Lethes and decided then that +10ing her seemed like a neat idea. Some days ago I tried to get even one copy of her, and my god my luck then was downright ROTTEN. I guess on the plus side I now have 5 copies of NYPlumeria to fodder for Atk/Def Rein... whenever a chance to do that comes up? But tonight I felt good about my odds. I summoned Brave Hector on his weekly revival banner in the first session (not the freebie summon, but one of the two blue orbs that appeared), which brought my copy of him to +9. I'm not gonna actively summon for him since he is a 4* special summon, but seeing him just appear like that motivated me to try again for Lethe. I only needed 3 copies of her to get her to +9, then I could buy her combat manual in the Divine Codes shop and finish the job there. She appeared in the first session I did on the NY revivals banner, which REALLY motivated me. And now, having gotten her to +9 merge and guaranteeing my +10ing of her, I now would like to tell you of some of the OTHER summons I got. M!Grima I was reminded is a 4* special summon. My reserved copy of him is only +1, so not exactly making large strides in wanting to merge him up... I was ALSO reminded that Thunderhead Olwen is a 4* Special summon. My copy of her is now +9, which... wow, that really crept up on me. Leila randomly appeared. Life and Death 4 is good to have. Brave Marianne also appeared. Some good fodder under her belt. And lastly, one more copy of NY Selkie. The previous 3 summons of her were +HP or +Def, but THIS TIME she was the +Res that I was hoping for! Compared to last time, I am far more satisfied with what I got to summon. Now if you will excuse me, I need to recover all the luck I just spent... ...oh, I guess it warrants mentioning to, last week on her revival banner I freebie summoned Azura. ...I already +10ed Azura though, so... yeah.

TT seals: So... which of those is supposed to be the rewarding seal? Coming after Fury, kinda hard to beat... well Desperation I guess... Deen: That's not too bad an inheritable dagger. Less post-combat damage than Jaffar or Pain+, but the in-combat boost is appreciated, especially when not many common daggers are around that provide such. Skills... could be better. But couldn't they always. Karla I at first thought was Altina (mostly thanks to seeing Nailah first), Xane I wasn't sure about at all, and Leanne I kept double checking to see if she had wings just to make sure. The semi-broken english helped.

Nailah brings Sturdy Surge for the people who like Surge Sparrow but don't need the Spd... uh sure. I kinda prefer Sturdy Impact though, follow-up denial is pretty good. ...right, Nailah. Well... spectrum +5, NFU, and Canto [Rem +1] are all good effects, and when transformed having Null Blade/Guard remains good. Welcome to the group of units who would love Windsweep, leave your coat on the hanger and join all the other Windsweep lovers. Kinda think she'd prefer a Tempest skill instead of Glare, but that's just me. Whoa... kinda weird seeing a 5* unit with no 4th tier passives... Karla looks like she might be able to do good with Galeforce, but always having a 3 cooldown special ready on her attacks is good as well for OHKO strats. Life and Death would be an easy slot-in for her. Ah... shoulda seen the Fatal Smoke staff coming someday... but on a 4 unit? Azura/Leanne seem a better fit for G Duel Cav 4 than Otter, but... eh whatever. Looks good, spectrum +6 boost when dancing along with Gray Waves feels a lot better than keeping a Dance skill equipped to LegAzura at all times. Cross Spur Res is now here as well... cool I guess. Not sure if that's actually gonna happen... keep in mind, Dancers have been COMPLETELY shafted ever since weapon refines have gotten past Book 1 units, so there's a chance they'll just bypass LegAzura completely as well. I know LegLucina still got turned into a Snag goddess, but she technically doesn't have a dance, so... I dunno. Doesn't feel likely, as much as I would still like it to happen. Now is it totally possible that I missed someone saying that she is actually gonna get remixed? Yes it is, but... well, not exactly optimistic.

They also have their hand in the same "clawing" pose as pretty much all beast units, so it has to be a beast Laguz. ...who? I dunno, but it can't be Odin unless IS starts breaking the rules of who can be a transforming unit.

So... I dunno how exactly they would work, and if done wrong we'd end up with even more Sword Infantry than we could ever need, but... Alts of the characters who received special Einherjar artwork in Awakening from the DLC. Those being... Marth Roy Micaiah Leif Alm Seliph Elincia Eirika (well... I guess she'd technically be a Bridal alt...) Lyn Ephraim Celica Ike Est Catria Palla Katarina Maybe it's just me, but I just don't feel like a game filled with non-canon alternate costumes for characters would be complete without including at least a few of these. Even in Awakening Marth was called "Another reflection of the same man... Just as no two artists would paint him the same way, so, too, his cards differ. Even cards of the same person have different appearances and abilities..." when talking about his differing appearances, and what is Fire Emblem Heroes if not a freaking Hall of Mirrors in that regard? And hey, since they all used the Avatar system to build their in-battle appearances, they could technically use whatever weapon they want, not just... well, swords for pretty much all of them...

@Dylan Corona I feel like Vika doesn't needd to focus on her Res and much as you would think. As long as you aren't equipping her with double Life and Death, she should naturally have enough Res to trigger Ebon-Pirate Claw's debuff on most foes, minimize the amount of magical damage she is taking, and minimize the effect of Dragon Wall or other in-combat effects that compare her Res to the opposing units stats.

Hm... Veronica's skills kinda makes me wonder if she's going to be "awakened" somehow in this book? She has NEVER used a Spd-based set until now, and if she's going to be awakened that would open her up to being able to officially ally with Askr.

Coming on 1/24 will be a Helian Resplendent Hero, truly the most frightening bunch of all... Florina! So... ignoring the fact that I don't really care one way or another and that I am cancelling my subscription again, and ignoring the fact that there are now 4 Blue Resplendents in a row (Nowi, Ishtar, Est, and Florina), 3 of which are 4* units... Est and Florina, back to back units, are both 4* Lance Fliers with armor-effective Prf weapons. I mean yes they function very differently (Est is offensive, Florina is more defensive), but come on! You could have picked just... so many units from gen 1...

Well I... WAS going to summon up to the spark and get Joshua cause frankly every other part of the Ascended Joshua banner doesn't excite me in any way (one unit with all the skill fodder, one demote, and whatever Neimi is supposed to be... not exactly stellar bannermates Joshie)... except I summoned him twice in 25 summons. One is +Atk -Res and the other is +Spd -Res. Oh boy I wonder which asset I should take? Oh wait I don't have to pick cause Joshua is an ascended hero and can just take the other asset free of charge. WELP. Boy doesn't even need a merge... ...so now what? I guess I can go get a THIRD Joshua? Take Rennac, get his lv40 convo, and find someone who would want not-Courtly Fan+ and ASsolo4? Take Neimi and find... SOMETHING for her to do? I mean I guess she could maybe pass for a support unit? In other summoning news, I did wind up with all 4 Like Clockwork units (summoned Lyre and Dagr, sparked Reginn, and bought Fafnir from the orb pack), and from the New Year Revival banner I got some... interesting results. Two NY!Alfonses, one being +Def -HP that I merged into. Finally, he always seemed like an interesting unit to have, being able to immediately setup thanks to being a Duo unit. Also got NY!Veronica, which is... less noteworthy, but hey I'm not one to turn down DC/NFU fodder. Kaden was there... got booked immediately, but he did appear. And NY!Lethe appeared... like 4 times. Combined with her manuel in the monthly code shop, my base copy will be +6. I just want Selkie man...

That's fair. Looking at her stats again though (and assuming neutral), she only hits 58 Atk with her base refined weapon (plus 15% of enemy defense), which is really kinda average for most GF users these days. Sure her A and SS slots remain opened up, but I don't think that'll actually be enough to make my concerns remain plausible... so yeah nevermind.

The ones I cared about: Damn, I was hoping for Windsweep but I'll also take status granting a guaranteed follow-up attack for using her frankly powerful assist. Makes me fear what LegChrom could get... Combined with her new Future Vision II, the enemy is pretty much guaranteed to always be inflicted with -18 Atk/Def. Add on a Spd penalty and Lucina will be golden. She got both a good combat boost AND a nice support effect that until now was only granted by Duo/Harmonic skills. Very very good. Solid upgrade to base Draconic Rage. Refine wording looks like that of Breath skills so the Corrins should be getting special triggers all the time. Very much appreciated... and makes me anticipate the refines for the other two Adrift units. Assuming Spooky Myrrh is able to maintain higher Def than the enemy, she no longer has any need for any Fighter skills outside of Special Fighter. Her refined weapon overall reminds me of Brave Edelgard's Prf weapon and skill, if a little more lenient with trigger conditions (read: basically always triggered) and minus the pseudo-perma Movement +1 effect. She would make for a great Save unit now, good call there @DefyingFates now I wish I had some Near Save fodder... And as for the units I don't have any personal investment in... That Storm Sieglinde didn't have an Atk/Spd boosting effect originally is weird to me, but whatever it's there now. I dunno though... it's definitely not a bad refine at all, and combined with Lunar Brace II it should make Eirika into a very strong Galeforce unit, but... that seems kinda bad? Don't Galeforce units usually want to get two attacks in...? But outside of that, she'll be powerful. Huh, feels like it's been a while since a units Personal skill from their original game was given a proper icon... I will say it's a solid refine, Atk/Def +12 and follow-up denial are both solid effects especially against Armored units, but I'm always iffy on skill effects that ask for a support partner... that's coming from someone who frequently forgets the Ally Support system even exists by the way, so take it for the grain of salt it is. Ancient Codex looks like a good weapon, won't lie. The problem is... well, Canas himself basically. But turning him into a special time bomb is certainly a way to breathe some life into who can now be considered the earliest example of the Grail unit with no Prf and a meh statline. Not only that, but most of the early refines were just Passive skills being tacked on without any ceremony or... anything else for that matter. Oboro, also a lance unit with an Armor-effective Prf weapon also from Fates, gets Close Def 3... and that's it. Which I guess works alright??? But not nearly as well as if she could inflict Atk/Def -11 on the enemy and make a guaranteed follow-up attack. ...hell, she didn't even get her own Prf skills icon...

I like that idea. That would really let a person spotlight all of their units at once, especially those who frequently update their already massive barracks.

(does this count as a double post? I don't feel right just splicing this into a totally unrelated post...) Something I been thinking about, especially with my now hitting 102 5* +10 units: The 5* +10 compendium thread is kinda... deserted. Not because it's inactive, there's always going to be an audience and stage for people who just want to show how much they like the units they use, but more because the OP, Raven, is just MIA. The last update to the first post was something like 1.75 years ago now, and so many more 5* +10 units have been posted in the thread since then that it feels like the original purpose, cataloging the 5* +10 units of SF members, was lost? Now it's pretty much just a stage to present our 5* +10 units, and rarely does any discussion about those units happens anymore. I don't know what I could do to change that, I'm pretty much just a regular member of SF, but... when I went back to double check some facts, I was reminded of when I posted a full gallery of the merged units I had at the time, all 46 of them. That feels like so long ago (even though it was only 2 years ago), but it still felt nice to look at what I had at the time, all at once. And at the time, people did still talk to each other about each others units. And imo, it's just fun to be able to talk about the things, or in this case units, that you are so invested in that you'd be willing to summon them 11 times and merge them all into one. So... what if there was a more general thread for our 5* +10 units? Let people show off all of their fully merged units at once and be able to talk about them freely, maybe even link to each persons "gallery post" for easier access? I don't know if that's actually something anyone but me would be interested in (hence why I'm asking instead of flatout making the thread), but if so then heck it should exist and I'll make it. Building 5* +10 units is the reason I still play the game, so I'd be glad to get that started. So... yeah, opinions?

All those other copies of them died, so they can live... Innes is strong. Not gonna dispute that. I coulda left him at +9 and been perfectly fine, get to keep 450 grails as a bonus... but no. This isn't about getting units to +9 and being satisfied, this is about going the full mile. As for Benny... well I like the dude. That he is only a 4* unit is great for +10ing purposes. Who to work on from 4* sources next... well Miriel is also a personal fave whose been released recently, and Yen'fay is looking pretty strong for a grail unit with a DC weapon...

I dunno, I'd say it's like a zombie apocalypse in video games: yeah you can mow them all down with like two thoughts, some duct tape, and two chainsaws plus a boat paddle, but it'd be nice to know what the goddamn happened to get us here in the first place.

Ashera as an offensive Astra mystic who grants access to the 6th unit slot is pretty good. Her competition in that regard are Reginn and Thorr, and of the three Ashera is the only ranged unit (and colorless) Personally I don't think she's be worth it unless you don't like how Reginn (or Thorr if you have her) play when doing AR-O Astra seasons. Her blessing bonus is only helpful to tankier setups, and her weapon/Prf passive only really work when she is near allies, which to be fair is not that hard to do in AR-O when most maps have your units clumped together anyway. The Null Panic bonus from Order's Restraint is a great asset to have for AR-O when going against Panic Towers, but it generally feels easier to just not rely on bonuses in the first place. Outside of AR-O I don't know if she holds up quite as well. She has a solid amount of Res backing her, but I don't think it's enough to warrant using her as a magic tank. Order's Restraint may be helpful in some Hero Battle maps that like to inflict Panic on your party. She just feels alright as a unit overall. Dunno what my opinion on the subject is worth, but I don't really think the spark on Leg/Mythic banners is gonna be overall worth it unless you are absolutely ready to go all-in in on them (or you just do not have good luck summoning from them, which I think some people can attest to more than others). Only one unit worth wanting for on the whole banner, what happens if you wind up summoning Ashera before that? Now you just have a lineup of 11 units to pick from that you don't really want anyway.

Actually on that note, I kinda want someone to bring up the Tempest as a primary threat again, aka the lore reason why this entire game mode exists in the first place. Very often these days Tempest Trials is treated as additional story to the currently existing Seasonal banner going on, heck the last time the Tempest was brought up (Engagement, accompanying Bridal Grace) it seemed more as an annoyance to Saul that kept him further from hitting on women. It kinda feels... forgotten that this thing was meant to be a chaotic votex that sundered everything inside and around it into a world without meaning or logic. ...maybe they're saving that for one of the later big TT story arcs.

That doesn't seem right or... fair. Linus also technically already had a refine, and he still got a new WEAPON to refine (which basically was just regular Basilisko that replaced Life and Death with Spd/Def drops, but still) Hector's regular Armads is also still a fundamentally different weapon. At base it has Quick Riposte built into it, and Berserk Armads (at base being a Wrath weapon) has no form of auto-followup. If they gave Armads a refine right now, it'd be a completely different weapon compared to Berserk Armads. That'd add some value to Hector as a unit, but it shouldn't be a detriment.