Xenomata

For context, take a look at my signature. Most of the units I've +10ed are 5* exclusive, and even those who aren't quite at +10 yet are all 5* exclusives. So as someone who has spent a considerable amount on just getting merges on units, YES YES YES PLEASE I WANT ARTIFICIAL MERGES. Flaws are not pleasant to look at, so let me get rid of it without summoning the unit twice. Not all units are likely to appear to me more than once, let me give them a merge. A lot of the units I like fall under the above point, seasonals and legendary/mythic units and what not, and we can't even summon for them all the time, LET ME MERGE THEM. +10ing units gives me satisfaction in this game, LET ME MERGE THEM.

Theoretically yes, but it ultimately ends up being a player-by-player basis, and I can't see myself making the same recommendation without adding "if you are willing to spend on the game", which some people just wouldn't be able to justify (though the discussion did begin with the whole Forma Soul thing, which does require spending). And while I hate to bring it up again, I did spend a good few hundred trying to get Dive Bomb, and I still ultimately failed to get it, so I can't even guarantee that it'd work in the end. I'd rather have spent that couple hundred trying to +10 a unit instead, since that ultimately brings me more satisfaction.

I did used to spend for some skills myself when I was able to, but the last time I did was Pirate Tibarn's Dive Bomb, and... that didn't end well at all, I didn't even get Tibarn in the end... now I just kinda do it as a secondary objective to getting actual units and merges, since units these days do pretty well with their base kits alone. The one unit I'd be willing to use Grails on for a skill would be Marisa, and that's because Infantry Pulse isn't on enough units in the New Heroes summoning pool for me to hope I get it by random chance, plus there's a very low chance that she'd ever be someone I wanna +10 merge.

I think the justification is that you can just summon for seasonal pool weapons, while seasonal grail weapons will always cost grails, but that's assuming you are an active spender, which I think is something worth remembering because most people don't want to use their orbs just to get a weapon for one unit. Hell, I do actively spend sometimes, and I don't like using my orbs just to get a skill. In that scenario, virtually any weapon would be okay to grab from the Hall of Forms as long as it is a rare weapon (in this case it is only available from 5* exclusive units at all, seasonal or not) and it is not owned by the unit by default.

Pffffffft, she's getting the same treatment that Gleipnir got, and no one's gonna like it one bit. I'd put money on that, but I'm gonna hold a shred of hope they actually do L'arachel good. I don't use her, but I still like a success story.

I might be thinking of a main series game, but doesn't the EXP/SP gained from using a healing assist get lower and lower each use until it eventually runs out when done in the same map?

Here about is where I wanna contradict you, because I think Staff units who do not have their Weapon skill learned do deserve to have shards and crystals used on them to a point: They just need the 50 SP necessary to learn Assault, which leveling them up to 6 gives them the necessary SP to learn it. I say this because grinding EXP from using Staff assists is far slower than stacking kills on a training map. Optionally, if you wanna give a Staff their Prf weapon because it automatically comes with Wrathful or Dazzling, straight leveling to 20 will give them the SP required. The only other time I personally would recommend using shards or crystals is when you are leveling up a unit who you are applying merge levels to. In most cases, it is assumed the original unit has already learned most of their skills while the new unit will have none learned, and straight leveling a unit from lv1 to lv40 grants 1,188 total SP. In that case, unless the original unit has not learned every skill they need, they have no reason to receive anymore SP, so there is no reason to give them levels and sp via training maps, and in most cases just general use of a unit will build their sp up to max anyway. Another thing one could do if preparing for merges is use Shards/Crystals to level up one of the merge fodder copies, use the levelup SP to learn a couple skills, THEN merge into the copy of the unit you want to keep.

The Heavy Plate Corp have arrived, and they're here to skewer baddies and eat prime rib. And they're all out of prime rib... already.

...eh. I appreciate they're willing to make Seiros' weapon work as either an offensive force OR a defensive force, but it does kinda feel like she loses a little by having a kit that tries to make the distinction as well. Plus I do not like using dragons as offensive units, so the effect is largely wasted on me. ...that is, if I had a reason to actually pull from this banner. As is though, every color but red has at least one unit I've already +10ed, and I hatehatehatehateHATE summoning from a color that has a unit I've +10ed already. And reds units I just flatout don't care about. AND I'd still rather focus on trying to get more Raphs from the Plegian banner. So... for me at least, a weak banner. Noteworthy is that Blue has both Sturdy and Mirror Impacts as fodder skills, plus Dimitri's Odd Tempest, so that might make it a good color to summon off of.

(Brief reminder that I'm not against Gatekeeper, I'm actually mostly indifferent.) What... I spent most of today watching movies, what in the goddamn did I miss???

See, I don't hate Gatekeeper. I might not "like" him, but I am not opposed to him. Hell, I'm not even that opposed to Camilla, I'm just kinda meh with the both of them. But again, it's this kind of nonsense that makes characters like Jorge playable, hell it's this stuff that makes Dorcas have some bad mutton and "Trust no one". And also the kind of stuff that derails these CYL threads, so...

Okay I mean this in the nicest way possible, don't ban me pls. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK HAPPENED. Why the goddamn is the goddamn completely generic "GREETINGS PROFESSOR NOTHING TO REPORT" GATEKEEPER in GODDAMN 2ND PLACE. Forget memes, this is the kind of headache-inducing nonsense that gets units like Jorge in the game.

Thing to keep in mind about Reyson is that part of what makes him good is his access to 3 move range, which doesn't mean crap if he's adjacent to a non-Dragon or Beast ally. If you use a team of all-non-Dragon/Beast allies, you may as well build some other dancer. Otherwise, Reyson is definitely one of the better dancers you can build, his weapon providing solid AoE healing which can stack with the Healing Tower and the general utility of having a flying dancer. One thing you see commonly is leaving Reyson near a unit like Tibarn, and though I've not seen it myself I'm sure Naesala could work if you beef his Spd up enough. Aversa meanwhile is an all-around good AR-D unit (even if I don't personally use/like her). Building her HP up enough will make her near impossible to avoid the trigger of without keeping your entire team apart. Keep in mind to build her HP up you will need multiple blessed units of your chosen element, because her base HP at +HP asset +10 merge and double HP +5 passives only hits 59, which sounds good on paper until you begin to face opponents who hit well over 60 HP on their tanks. ...oh, and while the skill exists, you don't need to give her R Duel Flying if you have the option. HP +5 works perfectly fine on her. That skill as far as I can tell is purely an Arena scoring skill.

...I've pretty much decided I just don't care enough about voting. I'm already don't feel like my votes would actually make a difference, and even if 4 of the most fanservicy characters are the top 4 slots (or it's quadruple TH again), I'd be pulling from the CYL banner anyway, so... yeah, I'll just hope the 4 characters chosen aren't characters I personally hate.

...what. Why the hell is an alt getting a-wait, the warning signs were already there, Grima was given an alt and she's technically a fallen alt of FemRobin... That isn't the only noteworthy part of this Resplendent though. Brave Ike is decked in the garb of Niðavellir, the first to have such armor. Ack, and Bike is a unit who uses all of his stats if you're running an Evasion skill on him... WELP, guess I'll be resubbing once RBike drops.

Lysithea is outright a powerful unit in both her variants. Normal Lysithea's base kit is tailor made to be a OHKO force, given the effective +21 Atk she gets when all the conditions are activated, default access to the C passive that enables her to have effectively permanent Moonbow triggers, and generally high offensive stats. Building her up makes her even stronger. Brave Lysithea meanwhile is almost unparalleled in how fast she is, and though she is effectively just an offensive mage on paper, she is one of the best. In general, Lysithea is also just a popular character. She was a powerful unit in Three Houses as well, and while I've not been able to judge this myself she seems to be well-liked as a character as well. Julia unfortunately has the sad truth of being a not as popular unit from an older game, where characterization of characters was far more limited than it was now.

I actually try not to put Repo on units if I think I can help it. ...I usually can't help it, it's just too good. Heck, I free summoned Sara because Reposition on a Staff unit? Yes please.

So... currently my Light team is Brave Ike, Brave Lucina, Peony, Wrys, and whatever Bonus unit (unless Peony is bonus, in which case Eir), with Bike running Spurn with high Spd. My current Astra team is Ninja Lyn, Altena, Flayn, Naga, Winter Altena, and Reginn in the bonus Astra slot. Only one Peony is kinda bleh, and I have 3 Plumerias (one of whom has been outfitted with SaboAtk and PhantoRes, the other two standard builds with boosted Res on one to get SaboSpd triggered) So... should I just switch my Bike and Blucina to Astra and make a new Light duo? I'm not at all interested in building a second Bike AND Blucina, so I'd have to run with something new, preferably that meshes with Wrys... (he has SaboAtk to weaken the enemy and Melancholy+ to mess with Special Trigger teams, plus a good amount of HP and Def to tank in an emergency and plenty of Res)

Welp, this is what I get for saying there's too many dancers in the game: the very dancer I made this comment toward. Harmonic Dorothea was summoned using pretty much all the orbs one can get from the Tempest Trials (pretty much the only time I've ever purposfully grinded the rewards before the final day of the event), and she is +Atk -Res. Could be slightly better, since she really doesn't need her Def stat at all, but... sigh... I just wanted Raphael. I only have 4 copies of him, and none of them are even +Atk.

Honestly, there's only 2 issues with your current setup: the blessings of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth are useless outside of a select few game modes, and doing it by game means that you're effectively sealing off the efficient ability to use those units in elements they could be good in, for instance Brave Ike, a Tellius unit, would be amazing in AR-O on Light or Astra season (if you had the right units), but he would need to be one of those elements. I'm sure you're aware, but it's pretty much a purely fun thing to do. As for the other 4 elements? I think Achanea/Ylisse would fit best with Astra, where the presense of the Divine Dragon Naga is strongest, but I've not the faintest idea for any of the others.

Voting for Marth has no meaning now that he's in the game with no pants... For reals, I dunno who I'm gonna vote for. It's not like I really attached myself to any characters in the last year, plus Farfetched Heroes are dead so no point voting with that in mind...

@Faellin@Othin@XRay So the units I have down from the three of you... Reinhardt (still good, not meta-defining, may not be as strong as a speedy Brave unit) Seliph Male Corrin (good support, though I have discussed this before) Hawkeye Eliwood Cecilia Black Knight Gwendolyn Sheena Ninja Hana (to be fair, she was my next planned Grail project if nothing game-changing happened to an older grail unit) Raven Tharja (she'd probably make a better counter-vantage bladetome than Nino with her special refine, otherwise basically red Nino) Tailtiu (with Times Pulse to emulate Lysithea) MAYBES Merric (Infantry Pulse) Lon'qu Ogma Caeda Clair Hm... this is gonna be quite the thinking session... @jameslove001 The Special Heroes banner has been going on since the 17th, as advertised in the calender (all times in PST). As for the Mythic banner, all we have to go off of is speculation, which you can find here in the appropriate discussion thread.

I am VERY averse to Aversa (lol), as in I do not like her at all and refuse to use or build her in any significant manor. I'm the same with most of the other villain grail units from Awakening onward.

Oh whoops I still use my Cherche too, my bad. Threw her onto the list.

Are there any 4* gen 1 units or Grail units that I should really consider building at this point in FEH? Below are the ones I have already built and actively still use in various modes (and looking again I realize all the ones I still use are all +10, so... yeah): Fates Selena (TA Green Armor killer) Sophia (EP tank) Lukas (physical melee tank) Oboro (mixed melee tank) Roderick (melee firesweep nuke) Cordelia (brave galeforce nuke) Nowi (mixed DC EP tank) Odin (spectrum Link Smite, also has CC for pretty good performance on EP) Legion (galeforce offensive) Cherche (Brave nuke) Fae (mixed DC EP tank) Nino (PP Bladetome nuke) Gordin (Brave nuke) Wrys (inflicts Sabotage Atk, Res tank, Melancholy+ staff) I really don't have any solid plans for who to build next, I need inspiration. I almost considered Reinhardt, but I'm not sure if he's even still considered any good.