Xenomata

WOOT, GOT PALLA! ...hey wait this is +Spd -Atk... OH WELL, I GOT HER IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF ORBS! Got Luthier twice at 4* thankfully. I feel a slight need to spark on this banner... hopefully I get Nott and Zeke before then...

1. Probably just spite. If you've already lost more than 3 units to the enemy and you know you're gonna reset, you have no reason not to cut loose and do whatever the hell you want, INCLUDING murdering your loved ones and breaking all your stuff. You get nothing from surrendering. 2. After combat, Special Spiral and the -1 cooldown from refined Peshkats lowers the cooldown by -3, and with the charge that Sothe already gets from the one hit in-combat, he will have a fully charged Blazing special.

Karla was improved most definitely, but she kinda has a mini-Luin thing going on. Yet another unit can be thrown onto the "maybe give them Windsweep" pile... nothing spectacular, but it's an improvement over the original Vassal's Blade. I will admit to being fully biased toward Flora, and I think she got a pretty good refine. I know it's supposed to synergize with her base skill kit, but I still think she's better off going full player-phase. Improved Sharena bunny, but I don't think it's enough to really make Muninn's Egg worth using on anything except a defensive team that would appreciate the healing and Atk debuffing. ...eh. Takumi got kind of a weak refine IMO. Interesting... Sothe can actually run a Blazing Wind build with Peshkats. It's certainly a good refine, but I think it's more interesting that he can run a build normally only possible with a completely different weapon. And finally, a unit who can provide unlimited Special Charge to his allies! I feel like this was a long time coming. The only refine I truly cared about was Floras, and she got a pretty good one. But Sothe definitely has a great refine to work with. Karla is improved overall, and the other two... I don't think they're better overall. The thing about Sharena is that all of her effects don't actually do anything together, and together they just make one good unit in a pool filled with amazing units. And as for Takumi, he's doing the same thing he always did (twice as often) while having a weapon that actually does something in battle, but I don't feel like that's enough to put him ahead of other Grail units.

Why would the fortress block Isolation on Sigurd? Fjorm/Mila just need to be in the same row as Sigurd to trigger their Isolation debuffs, and they have the entire bottom row to do it.

Oh dear god, if we can force the devs to make a Brave ALT of the freaking Gatekeeper in Three Houses, Brigand Boss is almost a shoe-in for a future Echoes banner... Someone seriously needs to stop the power of memes.

Just wanna mention, Tatiana is a Blue Tome with what looks like Blarserpent or Blarfox. As opposed to a healer, which by the way is what makes her stand out, being the like one unit with Fortify. A final tier of classes for each classline, with each class also having at least one innate skill that makes them even stronger than the existing classes. They're also what Legendary Alm and Celica are based on.

...not gonna lie, I am not at all capable of +10ing any 5* exclusive units right now, but I still kinda wanna +10 Palla. She looks good, in every sense of the word. Holy Gradivus? Looks pretty good by itself. Def/Res Menace... honestly looks like a skill made exclusively for enemy units to appreciate more than players. Overall, Zeke looks like he'd be a potent physically defensive force. Luthier... well, we'll finally have Swift Sparrow in the 4* summoning pool. Hopefully it is the demote skill and not Guard... hm, I just realized his passive skills are the same as Naesalas... Nott... well, she looks like a more defensive version of Dagr, taking Dodge over NFU on her Prf as well as a more defensive kit, but still retaining high Spd. She'll also be giving us the bonus unit for Dark, which is appreciated I'm sure.

...why the fuk is nearly every random support unit I get either Colorless or Hegemon? I'm playing on LegFemCorrin's side, this does not ever happen. ...what the fuk. I should not have to reset for a freaking Red unit to appear.

I dunno about Erk (maybe being an old baldie is the dream in Elibe?), but the fact Peony brought it up specifically along with joining the Men for Maces or Girls Gone Gluttonous alliances (names in jest)... well, I dunno...

That... is very oddly specific... is being a Wrys considered bad in this world?

Karla, Flora, Sothe, Fallen Takumi, and Spring Sharena are the next contestants of The Price is- er... The Weapon Refinery! No "new" weapons being added this time, all refines of: Vassal's Blade (Karla) with Accelerated special trigger and the Speed comparison special. Hoarfrost Knife (Flora) with Acelerated special trigger, Def +20 when initiating on Melee enemies, and guaranteed follow-up if foe can also counterattack. Peshkats (Sothe), which inflicted all stat -4 on target and nearby foes, and granted all stat +4 to Sothe and nearby allies. Skadi (Betrayal), which boosted Spd by 3, and inflicted 10 damage and Panic on foes within 3 columns of Takumi at the start of turn 3. Muninn's Egg (Bunny Sharena), which boosted Res by 3 and inflicted Atk/Res -5 on the foe with the lowest Spd as long as Sharena's HP is greater than 50%. Karla and Sharena I can see getting purely upgraded effects. Karla getting the new standard of damage equal to 20% of units Spd, Sharena I hope getting a weapon version of Gunnthra's Chilling Seal II. Sothe is in dire need of an upgrade, literally anything other than a small boost AFTER combat, while Skadi... well I dunno, they might update the effect to trigger on more turns, they might let it trigger on 3 rows as well, hell maybe they could weaken the effect but let it trigger on ALL turns. As for Flora... I dunno, make the conditions less restrictive (since she was built to be a DC unit counter but can't do much against ranged units) to let her just get Def +20 and guaranteed follow-up as long as she initiates, maybe even change the Def +20 to a flat damage% decrease. As for the special refines, hell if I'm gonna try and think of anything. The last time I had hopes for a good weapon refine for one of my +10 units, we got Lame Bolg instead. I'm just glad (and scared) we're finally getting to more of the units I'm personally invested in,

I feel like Clarisse is worth a mention. Sniper Bow has Poison Strike/Savage Blow -7 HP effect on it, and it ALSO comes with a Firesweep effect if she is near her support ally. The only skills she needs are Poison Strike, Savage Blow, and the Poison Strike SS (she's not strong enough to deal any in-combat damage), but for an expensive option you can give her Fatal Smoke so that Hegemon's healing is immediately shut down. The positioning requirement is a little steep, but if you make it a support unit like a dancer, she can chop off 14 of Hegemon's health per combat, 20 if no Mystic Boost, and 27 if Fatal Smoke is taken. After that all you would need is a sufficiently strong attacker to put down Hegemon. ...oh and she's free. Completely, don't even need to spend grails because she's in the GHB rotation. Sure you would only be using her once per AA run, but ideally you would only need 3 or 4 Hegemon counters per run (the first battle can just be reset until an ideal lineup appears, so only 6 battles where Hegemon can appear) I... did not think that was an option. Huh. Generally I kept my SS on one unit because of the previous rule of 7 straight battles, but if we're allowed to swap seals between each battle... that changes some things. Good to keep that in mind...

The thing is, while I was doing a trial run to find out just how the enemies would move, I placed my units in such a way that Ashera completely detached from both Save armors, letting me throw Raph in to save all of the worlds chefs. But curse my bad memory, come time to record and I completely forgot what it was I did. I would say I was lucky that I found a way to get the Close Save armor away to let Celica get the kill as quick as I did before Ashera was able to attack. That's also kinda why I kept trying to attack with Lewyn/Raphael when the Far Save armor was clearly right there (also because I kept forgetting which of the two was which Save armor :p) That's also why I made my opening quip, cause at first Raph was the one who got the kill. ...though Ashera did not spare the chefs of the world, and Raph is not a cook. The goddess must die.

Hm... Out of boredom, I decided to rewatch some of my old Hero Battle clears from years ago. Kinda weird looking back on these... many of my units were not at all as merged up as they would later be, heck this was when most of the cast didn't have refines. It'd be silly to think that many of these were considered "hard" to me at the time, but back then yeah they were certainly difficult when I didn't have as many options. But now when I watch Witchy Nowi struggle to kill when using a Bladetome set, now I can think "just warp to the other side of the map and murder the shmuck over there you silly cackle" or better yet just use a different team altogether. Not to mention Ophelia was in so many of my earliest clears, now I don't use her as much simply because I actually have alternate options. The same can't be said about LegAzura... she's pretty much a given on my clears past, present, future, and in legends... Hm... it's gonna be weird when even a clear like Dagr Abyssal or Ashera Abyssal will be something to look back on...

If all of Tellius is turned to stone (except those protected by Yune and also Branded), that also means the wildlife, right? And if the chefs are turned to stone as well, plus no wildlife to hunt for meat... So who will win? The Goddess of Order, the one revered by many as the righteous god? Or one hungry boi? If you have 5:30 to spare, give it a watch. The knights were annoying as hell, to be sure. Even if they aren't the usual Save tanks, they still made pretty much the entire upper half of the map inaccessible to an offensive strategy. Fortunately they (and Ashera) remain immobile long enough to let the units outside of Ashera's little Save ball and every reinforcement come down and die within seconds. Plus one aspect of Save tanks that the AI still can't quite get a handle on: unit placement, hence the death of Order. From there... well turns out when your goddess is dead, there's not much room left for praying. Praise chaos!

When doing the mode purely for points, just do it on easy. No player armies will appear, ergo no Hegemon spam. So long as you remember to do each round on both days, you still get all the Points rewards. There... really isn't anything to say about Hegemon in PoL. Bringing a bunch of units with NFU is about the only thing I can recommend, cause in PoL that's the only way you'll be able to ebb her down.

Ah my bad. ...though I would argue that it'd be kinda redundant when Plumeria already boosts Spd and is the exact kind of support unit that a nuke would appreciate. No Raiding Party bonus, but Reginn provides such for Astra already along with being free. Null Panic itself would be a weak effect, but it becomes stronger the more one relies on Field buffs, and Panic is one of the most common penalties in Aether Raids as-is, stat penalties aside. Though honestly I would think a Bonus version of Null C-Disrupt would be more appreciated with the Res boost, especially with the addition of child L'arachel unconditional Dazzling debuff.

She does have Lull Spd/Res and boosts Spd when her weapon effect is triggered, so she clearly is gonna have at least SOME Spd worth speaking of. It might not be one of her highest focus stats like Atk or Res will be, but one might be able to build it up to a level where it can be taken advantage of. ...though to be honest, I don't know why you would also want a totally new unit to conform to builds that have existed (and been outclasses) for years...

Yay freebie Sabotage Spd fodder! ...what, whose Ewan?

Oh dear, she is literally smiting her enemies. Not many other gods who literally smite their enemies like she is. As a unit... hm, buffing her own damage by Bladetoming from the nearest ally with the highest total bonuses can be pretty frightening, especially if it's someone like Fae who gives a flat 20 total buffs. She is clearly gonna have high Atk and Res, though Lull Spd/Res means she'll also have good Spd. And Null Panic? Oh dear, now there's a counter to a counter... when will we be getting Null Null? Nullifying the effects of Null skills and effects... The banner itself, Colorless is the best without question. Feels like Red isn't that amazing if you don't need the units featured, while Blue is kinda eh for me personally. Green looks good. The goddesses whims mean nothing in a world where two different gods from two different WORLDS, and sometimes even the same world, are bunking with each other.

Out of curiosity, what teams do others run in Rokkr anyway? Who is usually the reinforcements sweeper? Generally what has worked for me was double GF attackers, Halloween Mia, and a reinforcement sweeper in Legendary Leif (cav move along with ranged and prf GF means he can reach just about any reinforcement, sometimes even attacking 2 in the same turn). The only reason I don't bother with dancers is just because I don't see a need for one with what has always worked for me.

I kinda tried for Lysithea again (not very hard mind you), but the game decided what I REALLY need is a free +Def -Spd copy of Dedue. ...perfect asset and flaw, my current Dedue is -Res but has a refined weapon, yet I see no reason to merge... hm, what a conundrum...

...well, maybe for the people whose defense teams are just their Arena Offense teams, but if people have dedicated Defense teams... that's gonna be a nightmare to deal with...

Oh please, Anna doesn't need to join forces with Farina. All she needs is the reliable alliance of Anna, Anna, Anna, and maybe also Jorge (Melinus maybe?) to rob Farina of every cent she is worth, THEN exploit the summoner for all THEY are worth, and finally give us a seasonal Summoner in the most revealing yet still mysterious Summer outfit possible to legally put in a Teen rated game. All for the sake of a resource that has only been spoken of in lore rather than actually managed by us in gameplay.