Xenomata

Good thing Tap Battle was mostly retired, I don't know how well Kiran can dictate hero deployment while also fighting to the rhythm. Also getting some Attack on Titan vibes from Fae over there...

I... just used my BraveCelica and Cherche. They already have Sturdy Impact, and paired with my Wrys they never really had anymore problems than usual. Cherche and Wrys had Daggerbreaker.

it's a rhetorical question stated for comedic effect (which I thought was plainly obvious), what makes you think I wasn't already reading about exactly what I said I didn't know.

Okay, so putting aside any questions of who the hell two of the five units are... I guess this is a Path of Radiance banner? I know more about Volke than the other 4 non-Laeg units, and what I know is that his face is covered once he becomes a proper assassin, but here he's... well, totally exposed. Anyway, Fireman's Hook is a better version of Kaze's Needle's special refine in one respect: instead of a raw Flashing Blade 4 effect, it instead has unconditional special speedup AND Null Guard. Interesting that we would get two units so similar to each other so quickly, but hey the fireman's red and Kaze is colorless. Lethality looks cruel, kinda makes me wish there were an upgraded Black Luna now, but... hey, every tool available helps. The rest of Volke's kit is indeed there. So... I know nothing about Astrid, so is she supposed to be a great support unit in PoR? Do Rallys even exist in PoR? Cause that weapon is better than Annette's Crusher in just GIVING Bonus Doubler, unlike LegEliwood who has to target the ally with the most Atk. That alone makes her a worthy unit to summon. And the Flowing Lance enters the summoning pool! ...who's not-Est? Tanith exists. Who the heck is Bertram? What's so dreadful about his lance? Is he even gonna have a Prf lance? And then the big meat and potatoes. I swear they aim to make Laegjarn look as sexy as possible every time... Okay, so the bad. Laegjarn won't get any effects in combat if she doesn't have a Bonus, which is wild to think about these days when every weapon totes at least two trigger conditions. On the plus side, she DOES get two free easy bonus in the form of Rouse Atk/Spd 4, both Atk/Spd +6 (which incidentally automatically triggers her self-NFU) and Null Panic, so she will always have the effects in play as long as she is allowed to get Rouse to trigger. An abundance of Atk/Spd, the same bonus as granted by refined Niu, and the Slaying effect... yeah, Laegjarn looks solid. Rouse 4 skills look solid if and only for the Null Panic effect added on. Now then... who in the hell are not-Annette, not-Est, and Bertram?

And here is number 97. The Dawn Dream's Queen. TOTALLY unexpected. I didn't think I'd suddenly get 3 copies of her all at once. Thanks weekly revivals! ...hope she gets a good refine. Should be her turn in the next few months. 3 more to go...

Currently from TH the fast axe infantry users are Annette (who has more of a support role), Hilda (who has slightly lower raw offensive stats than Shamir but does have Freikugel to make up for it, though she also have the downside of being a character I don't particularly care for), and Summer Caspar (a seasonal unit). Fates only has Rinkah (who'se Prf weapon is slightly more EP than PP, and which doesn't grant her any Spd bonuses to capitalize on her higher Spd) and Charlotte, who trumps Hana in every regard. The bad thing is that technically I have all of the above units (I don't use Rinkah, Caspar, or Hilda though), so if all I wanted was a fast InfAxe unit from TH or Fates, I'm technically settled, but the ones I do have are not easily summoned, ergo their BSTs will be lower than merged up Shamir/Hana (though at the very least I do have ideal asset/flaws for Charlotte and Hilda, so no Trait Fruits used) I'm not short on powerful units from either title either. While some of my Fates units need some skills, they are still plenty strong for the content they are asked to partake in, and my TH barracks are bloated with powerful units. In that regard, I guess my Fates barracks could use the extra manpower, but the very presence of Charlotte makes me hesitate as well (since I'm not certain one needs TWO fast/strong InfAxe units from Fates in a given scenario?) Again, kinda hoped my rambles would lean me more to one side or the other, but as it stands I almost think I'd be better off benching this particular grail project and looking at a different grail unit. While ideally both ninja axewomen would be built up, I just don't have the resources available to see that be a reality.

So uh... Weekly Revival has Mikoto on it? Alright, guess I'll take a Colorless orb. Oh there's three? Alright, I'll take the top one! ...I free summoned Mikoto. ...the third colorless orb also had Mikoto. ...it was only like 2 or 3 sessions later that I got a third Mikoto. Not that big a deal, Mikoto isn't exactly the best of healers, but hey that's neat Flash is still a good inheritable staff weapon OH WAIT SHIT MY MIKOTO WAS +7 MERGE I JUST +10 MERGED MIKOTO. COMPLETELY out of left field, I was just summoning for the heck of it at first, but then it seemed possible and then it happened. Wow... I literally only need one more very specific summon, and I will have +10ed the entire Adrift crew. In only semi-related news, I give up on the Ninja Training banner. I didn't even get a Male Corrin, but I DID get 2 copies of Nagi and two 4* special summons of Zelgius and Adrift Camilla (who is who I need to summon for the +10 Adrift crew), plus at least one other 5* locked unit I don't remember anymore because I was too salty at their NOT being a ninja to care who it was. No one notable, I can tell you that.

So... between Ninja Hana and Ninja Shamir, is there one who would be... "better" to focus on? If not by fact, then just by opinion is enough. I'm not really able to come up with anything myself. I've not really done any building on Hana and I don't really have any plans for Shamir. They are both incredibly fast/strong Infantry Axe units though, both are Grail units which means it'll only take some months of grail grinding to complete their growth, and both by default have strong default weapons (albeit inheritable) Their stats literally are not a factor. On the one hand Shamir has slightly better defensive stats, but only by a few points. Her attack is one point higher by default, and Shamir can enter 185bst total for Arena purposes (not that it matters though, since my core Arena Offense team has already been built). Hana is able to get an extra layer of Dragonflowers, so by the end of full investment she'd technically be slightly faster than Shamir, but I don't think that's a huge factor. The biggest difference between the two is literally in SI and games of origin. The Ninja Masakari and Shuriken Cleaver are basically the same weapon, but one grants Spd +4 and the other grants up to an additional +4 damage per attack, so two different types of value can be observed. Not really a factor between the two units as it is a factor in which weapon would I rather have cheaper if I ever want to inherit it to someone. Meanwhile the comparison of Fates to Three Houses is not even fair: the large majority of Fates units are in the 4* pool (and some of them in the 4* special pool), and even though the available Infantry Axe units are either rarer or on the same level of availability as Hana, I don't think that matters as much if all you need is a fast/strong unit (Kaze literally just got a pretty neat refinable weapon), and most of whom I already have built up solidly (not to mention Charlotte being direct competition). Most of Three Houses units are 5* locked, limited time units, or Grail units, and Shamir's only competion for Infantry Axe units do not really play the same as her. The pool of usable Three Houses units is smaller, but the majority of Fates units are worthless simply because they were released too early/got their refines too soon. I dunno... kinda hoped I could talk myself into a decision, but instead I just made my stance more divided...

I've not actually looked at literally any of the leak content, so it kinda feels like I have nothing to add to conversations lately... But the next freebie hero being a Colorless unit? I dunno, we haven't actually had a Green freebie OC yet. Probably because the "final boss" of each book has always been Green so far up until Fafnir (and honestly I feel like he's been demoted at this point, since he wasn't even really the mastermind of Book V), and a little variety never hurt anyone, right?

I don't need to see one... I OWN one. I dunno how your friends has that much visible Def and Res, but mine does at least get high amounts of Def and Res when initiated on. ...and yes he has a Save skill as well.

Oh no... Reginn ia lost in a forest, it's past turn 4, she apparently lost her mecha mount thingie, and somehow MONSTERS have appeared!!! (why yes I do like Benny and Mordecai, why do you ask?)

...welp, first summon session had Shinon... +Spd -Res. Damnit, that asset flaw is too good to pass on. Guess if I really wanna give Nina a Ninja Yumi, I'll need a different Shinon... Also Hubert. He appeared too.

...okay the seals kinda suck, not gonna lie. I already don't use Goad/Ward seals ever, and there's really not any Beast units that I use in tandem with other Beast units THAT close to each other. I suppose Kaden might make a good holder of it, since he already has good supportive potency, but he's about the only one I can think of... Form skills are alright I guess? I also don't really use them though...

So general consensus, will this years Ninja weapons be considered "better" than last years? The Ninja Naginata and Shuriken Cleaver specifically, since they all have direct competition with the weapons last year. It's a comparison of +4 spd at all times to what amounts to +4 damage per hit if the unit has at least 8 spd over the target enemy...

Huh, somehow the guaranteed follow-up on EVERYTHING was not registering to me. My bad. I'm still not too worried though. There's enough bulky Blue units in the game that I feel comfortable taking hits from Marth and retaliating in kind. This is exactly what my Benny was made for...

I did realize my mistake and changed my comment, but even still being a giant statstick is about all he has to his name outside of dragon effectiveness and Binding Shield's full Sweep effect. No NFU, no special acceleration, no Null Guard effect. Many effects that would normally benefit a PP unit he simply doesn't have, leaving him open to being countered by a bulky blue unit fairly easily, or really any non-dragon bulky unit with follow-up prevention (and he can't even replace Binding Shield 2 with NFU, else he loses the full Sweep effect) And correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't most of his statups be removed if he is facing an opponent with full Enemy Bonus Nullification effects? Light and Dark, Dull Melee, those kinds of skills? I'm not sure if I'm reading the skill right, but maybe not?

Well, as the Radiant Dawn HoF comes closer to a close, I am able to report that I have gotten pretty good builds for Naesala and Micaiah while COMPLETELY ignoring Ike and Sothe. Naesala got Rally Def/Res+, Galeforce, Swift Surge, Dive Bomb, and Atk/Spd Rein. Glad I was able to get ASRein in the end, cause for most of the time he was toting Spd/Res Rein, which was... well, useless, to be frank. I would have preferred a Trace instead of Dive Bomb, but I won't complain, maybe I can still make good use of it. Swift Surge is a good pickup, I'll take it over ASsolo4 at least, since it's not really like I want Naesala being attacked. Pair it with Dive Bomb and a 3-cooldown Special, and she should be good to go. Micaiah got all of her Prf skills plus Aether, Mirror Impact, and Def/Res Menace. I later replaced Sacrifice with Rally Atk/Spd+ since I was already done with the halls. The other two? I don't really use the Fallen Ike I do have so I felt building him would be a waste, and Sothe I'm perfectly fine with the Sothe I have already, plus with how well I was able to build Micaiah and Naesala throughout the halls... it meant I was able to completely ignore those two. I didn't even give Sothe a new weapon to make it possible for him to inflict better debuffs, Silver Weapons+ all round for those two!

~LegMarth got a pretty sizable stat boost. Not counting the bonus from the Bonus Doubler effect, he gets at base +8 to all stats, and he will also benefit from any penalties he might have. Double Bonus Doubler is quite frightening now too, since he just GETS +6 to all stats if he has Shining Emblem and Bonus Doubler triggered. Oh boy, LegEliwood will be his bestest friend from now on... ~LegTiki got a good refine, all things considered. Not like that was in question, considering all she had originally was dragon effectiveness and Distant Counter. She gets a lot bulkier too. Only true shame is that she has to be compared to Ascended Fjorm as a DC Far Save tank, but LegTiki's prf Far Save certainly gives her an edge... ~LegHector has a simple refine overall. -10 Atk/Def on foe and 40% damage reduction on the foes only permitted attack... yeah should work just fine. @NegativeExponents- you're gonna have to elaborate, what exactly would have "synergized" with Ostian Pulse 2? ~Okay so... Fanged Basilikos is exactly on par wit original Basilikos when unrefined, minus the Def/Res -5 penalty. What the actual fuck. And of course the refine itself is good. I think that's the same effect as the Plegian weapons? ~Huh... Helbindi certainly went in an interesting direction. Retains the Odd Wave triggers, but being within that range of an enemy isn't the hardest thing to accomplish. Plus a total of Atk +10 to himself and -10 penalty to the enemy when all conditions are met, PLUS follow-up nullification. Not bad... ~Kaze gets Atk/Spd/Res +8 and Flashing Blade 4. Not doing his defense any favors, but an overall good offensive boost. Makes him a good demote unit for newer units to take a look at. ~Kliff's refine... it certainly exists! ...okay but honestly, I have some doubts. It's true that his Atk is low enough at base that he can get off Sagittae's base effect reliably, and putting Guard on him is nice and all, but... hm, I dunno, it's not like he totes that much bulk with just his base stats, so I wonder how long he would last in practice. Good thing Close Reversal exists... ~Tana's special refine is... kinda disappointing, not gonna lie. But that refined base effect? The stuff of Guidance dreams. ANY unit within two spaces of her? She just became the ultimate Guidance unit. I dunno why people are saying Marth's refine is the best. His stat ball potential is massive yes, he's now able to absorb Chills/Sabotages or whatnot safely, but that's really all he got, compared to some of the effects the other units got (hell even Kaze got Flashing Blade 4 on top of his stat ups, and he's a 4* unit), he wouldn't be hard to stop with a particularly bulky Blue unit with follow-up prevention, if he isn't stopped by Panic infliction... But they are all quite good looking. I'm pleased to see that Tiki, Helbindi, and Kliff all got some new goodies to play with, Kaze certainly has something good to take a closer look at, and I'm quite scared that they specify "including when dealing damage with a special before combat" because that lowkey tells me that Ophelia will NOT be disappearing from the meta anytime soon...

Oh hell, I promised like a year ago that if a Ninja-effect Bow was ever released, I'd give it to Nina. And now it's here... HELL I say. Igrene's weapon looks... hauntingly similar. As does her class... hm... Shinon is the Navarre of this banner. He's most certainly gonna be foddered to Nina though. Dudebro Corrin looks aight. Cutesis Corrin and EvenCutersis Elise looks plenty strong. Also I think this is the first time since the Adrift banner that the two Corrins have been featured in the same month. Shamir, eh. They could have at least made her a Swordie, but instead she overlaps completely with Hana. I don't mind the Ninja theme, but there's literally no way I could be excited for this banner right now. I have a convention coming up...

@Fire Emblem Fan generally better to just make the speculation thread than to just post the tweet in the general discussion thread...

Ninja theme makes its second appearance. Think they'll be making more weapons with the Brave Spd+4 Def/Res -4 effect, or something even speedier?

...well this was just plain dumb. I don't do one-turn clears, but even I was able to figure out a one-turn clear. Peony only needed Fierce Stance to get the kill on that Blue Mage Cav, and Marth just needed to be close enough to the Sword Cav to secure the win. Gatekeeper helped, and I don't think Fae needed to be there at all.

Took about 40 orbs, but I did manage to get Legendary Fae in the end, which is neat in and of itself. +HP -Def is... not amazing, but then again Fae's special fully heals her if it triggers, so... maybe it's not THAT bad? I also got Nifl. That was neat.

Ick... the only colorless contender this time is Xane... Nothing against him, it's my problem with... everyone else... that I have a problem with, you know given how his Prf weapon works...