Xenomata

It's probably Duma. I remember somebody said that in the Japanese game, Duma voices some, if not all, of Fallen Berkut's lines together with him, as if Duma is speaking through Berkut, meanwhile Fallen Berkut's voice lines only consist of himself.

No refinements announcement usually meant something new and big was coming, back when the CYL refinements were revealed... I think someone pointed out that some of the older Legendary Heroes were being removed from their scheduled rotations, so... you catchin my drift? I really don't know what they could possibly announce this time round though, aside from you-know-what. The only Fire Emblem game that hasn't been properly represented yet is Warriors (and let's face it, that banner would be as bad as that one Falchion banner we got way back when without going heavy on the alts), and I really don't think they'd dedicate an entire Feh Channel to some TMS banner and events. A new game mode sure, but honestly I'm getting sick of all the new game modes that don't amount to anything. What, will we be getting a Battle Royale FEH somehow? The only thing you could get me excited for is Year 1 mass demotes, and that seems more an anniversary thing.

New Year! New tidings of luck! New... Eleonora... on a banner with a 6% focus unit rate... ...heh... yep, new tidings of luck! I'm sure my base Eleonora will appreciate the... merge... help me... New Year Plumeria +Atk -Def AND New Year Lethe +Atk -Def (who I already have Neutral, so flaw doesn't matter) in the same session, so new tides of luck ahoy! I still think the banner title looks like uwu special heroes

Hm... fewer people who play games other than Feh than I was expecting. I think they changed how they handle new update posts to be posted at the beginning of the new month, so we won't see anything until 11pm PST tonight, or whatever time that is in your timezone.

Ah, the perfect seal for Freya. ...oh yeah Steady Blow exists. I wonder if all the Eliwood users in Aether Raids are gonna update their Eliwoods... As for Keaton... eh? I really don't think this version of him is gonna outdo his normal variant aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanytime soon. Certainly more physically defensive potetial, which when looking again Beasts could actually do with a bit more of it, but green also happens to have a huge number of physically defensive units as-is, so... yeah. Bonus units, Selkie yes, Velouria also yes but less inclined to use her, Kaden means Selkie can get huge Beast buffs between him and Reyson, so I'll probably bring in normal Kaden as well. Make it a full-on furry convention.

Is it bad that when I read the title, I thought it said "New Year: uwu?" Well anyway, 2 dancers and 2 beasts, plus all the units from last years banner. Great. Greeeeeeat. Just what I always wanted when going for Duo Alfonse, a chance to get New Year Velouria instead...

Man... I play 4 other games with gacha elements to them, and I'm starting to think my luck is among the worst when it comes to Feh. It spikes every once in a while, but I generally don't get the units I want without heavy monetary investment. Out of curiosity, does anyone else play other gacha games, and how does your luck in them compare to Feh?

Another Plumeria, +Atk -Res this time, and a +Def Bravelgard, which I merged into for +2. Add on Duma for +8 merge and you got a good haul.

RRAWGRRGRRRAAAAWWWRRR Actually have had her done for a week or two now, but I didn't have the arena medals to totally afford her refine until earlier today. I really like the base effect of her refine, even though it's literally just Spectrum tactics but better.

Wow, so many free summons this Christmas. Splurged a little on orbs tonight, not sure if I'll splurge again... I guess we'll see. ~Managed a freebie Winter Fae off one of the Gifts of Winter tickets. She is +Res -Spd. ~Took a few orb summons, but I got Duo Marth in the end anyway. +Atk -HP too, which is nice. ~Grabbed a Brave Dimitri in the 3rd session on the Legendary banner. +Spd -Def. ~Ended with Plumeria +Res -Atk, and a copy of Duma and Reginn for merge fodder. Also, Knoll's in the summoning pool now. That's cool.

Oh whoa, the next Resplendent is Eldigan: Lionheart, rocking red and black armor from Hel.

...wait I fogot to give my piece on Lilina and the banner... Well... what do you want me to say? She looks like she'll do reliable damage, she can do the Blazing Nuke thing but on a horse (which Cavs can't really do normally cause Special Spiral), and she can take a magic hit. She's Ophelia on a horse, and all the tools she needs are on her weapon. All that remains is the rest of her kit, and the fact she didn't come with some sort of +Atk/Def/Res -Spd A slot feels a little missed when she doesn't have any need for Spd. Every color looks good, except maybe Red since we've had a while to get Reginn already, but I don't mind getting more Reginns, and I don't have Plumeria, so frankly I don't have a reason not to go all-in on this banner. Even Blue would be good to go for, since I wanna get Crafty Fighter for Brave Hector.

They've run out of ways to boost her Atk and Res in-combat while also giving her Cav and Armor effectiveness, or they're trying to figure out how to give her a third Prf skill alongside a Prf weapon and Sacrifice lol. ...I really hope I'm just being funny in this case...

What do you mean? It has 2 cooldown, Studied Forblaze has Cooldown Count -1 AND Quickened Pulse, and her Atk is high enough that if Guard is a feared issue she could run Heavy Blade reliably. Honestly I think her biggest issue is that there isn't a variation of Life and Death that would boost her Atk without impacting her Res, just boosting her bleh Spd.

I'll vouch for his goodness. While his Atk isn't the best out there, it does still manage to do the job thanks to the Double Lion refine, and DB4 really helps to guarantee kills on dragons, or even just in general. Mystic Boost isn't necessarily required, but if you want to utilize Alm more than once every 2 turns without proper healing support then it does become necessary, and the sacred seal means he can pack a skill like Lull Atk/Def to ensure even more damage and disable any defensive buffs, ergo assuring even more kills. The thing to consider is that Windsweep is actually a good skill, but only if you have units who have built in Null Follow-up (see all Byleths, Spring Fir, the recently releases Sacred Stones Selena, etc.), and Alm himself is generally easily replaced with better units who don't have to worry about remaining completely healthy all the time and who don't have laughable Spd. What he does he does excellently, and as a Dragon killer he is among one of the best if you ask me, but there are other factors to consider. I cannot vouch for his usefulness in Aether Raids, as I do not use him there. @XRay generally has a better grasp on that aspect of unit use. What I can say, however, is that having a unit who relies on being at full health in AR-O is not good, as there's so many ways to lose HP outside of combat. Here's a pic of my Alm as he is right now. I generally use him for Rokkr Siege, which is why he has Breath of Life and Galeforce, and his seal is just an Atk+3 seal since I pass the actual Death Blow seal around, but as he is he still manages to get kills.

First off, Tiki and Legion were in the two upper starting spots, Tiki on left Legion on right, while Gordin was in the lower left spot. Phina has the Hone Spd 3 SS to give him +4 Spd to outspeed Hrid, and Gordin also has Joint Hone Atk for an extra +5. Gordin first attacks the Axe Armor, then Phina refreshes him, and he goes in to kill Hrid. From there, Tiki repositions Legion, and Legion repositions Gordin, with both Legion and Gordin remaining in the range of the Cleric. The Cleric attacks Legion, and the battle goes on from there.

Obviously you won't be able to use the exact same team as me, but my clear used Phina (+Spd +5), Gordin (+Atk +10 merge +7 flower), Harmonized Tiki (+Atk -HP), and Legion (Neutral +10), and the one who took Hrid specifically down was Gordin with +5 Atk and +4 Spd (his build of DB4, Lull Atk/Def, and Bonfire with his refined Prf and an Atk +3 seal did it). On Turn 1 Gordin took out both the Axe Armor and Hrid himself with refreshments from Phina. So maybe a Gordin with Swordbreaker can do it if you don't wanna invest in Gordin as much as I did? Otherwise I don't know what else specifically I could recommend you aside from general nukes. Gordin and Legion did a lot of the work and Harmonized Tiki was necessary to trigger a second refresh from Phina in a single turn.

Two green orbs on the Weekly Revival banner. One was Gunter, the other was Rhajat. My Rhajat is now +7. It'd be tempting to +10 her if she just had two more merges... but oh well.

Decided to do 10 more summons to grab the freebie unit. Got Kiria +Def. A nice little bonus on top of everything else. As for my freebie? Altina, who else? I don't particularly care about Sephiran, Hilda is the demote, and the Bernie I summoned is +Atk -HP. I'll take an extra merge on Altina, thanks.

*Two summons in* Whoa, got -Def +Atk Winter Altina. A result most appreciated, but a better Asset/Flaw combo would be appreciated... *one summon later* Got Winter Altina +Spd -Atk. Not... what I wanted... but a merge will get rid of the flaw, so... appreciated? *A few summons later* Winter Hilda 5* and Winter Sephiran. Hilda is +Res -Def (at least she's the demote so it'll be easy to replace if I want), and Sephiran is... +Res -Atk. *one summon later* And that's Winter Bernie. +Atk -HP. ...well uh... I certainly didn't expect to get all 4 units in just 30 total summons, but... I'm not complaining whatsoever. Hohoho, merry christmas!

It opens up Alms B slot to some other skills that he could appreciate. Sure you lose a potential +6 from seals like Death Blow, but a Def lowering Lull could help his performance a bit too. Also lets units with HP recovery weapons recover an absurd amount of damage each combat, which might be... fun? I dunno, I think I'd rather just use a healer at that point... I wonder if there are other applications of a 3rd Fortress skill besides Chill drawing... The one thing I don't like about these seals? We don't have seals like Vantage or Desperation.

~Sephiran doesn't really excite me in any particular way, especially considering I +10ed Winter Eirika and I'm more than positive he's gonna powercreep her in every single way possible, but... ah sorry, I really don't have any particularly strong feelings here... ~...okay Bernie's weapon is actually awesome in animation, they've really been stepping up on their tomes lately. But... why does she have to inflict damage to her allies as well? There aren't a whole lot of units who want to be 1 point below their max HP. Sealed Falchion is pretty much the only one I can think of immediately. ~Hilda's Candy Cane+ looks pretty good actually. Provides a number of lances a good defensive option without forcing them to enter Sudden Panic territory. Hilda herself... eh. Again, not particularly strong feelings. ~...shit. One of the things that made facing Altina tolerable was that she couldn't get Mythic bonuses and had semi-limited SI options. ...SHIT her defenses are good. SHIT she's infantry and has access to some of the strongest skills in the game. Damnit, now I have to worry about ANOTHER Aether Raids threat...

Pretty much yeah. Book 1 establishes the fundamentals of the lore, so if anything make sure you go through it first so you don't wonder why XXXXX is helping XXXXXX even though XXXXX seemed like an enemy at first.

In terms of the lore, no. Other books make reference to the events of Book 1 occasionally, but outside of a few battles in Books 3 and 4 and some lines near the end of Book 4 that reference the events of Book 3, the events of each book are fairly standalone. Forging Bonds do not make reference to the books, but they do include characters you get for free at the beginning of each book, so while you don't need to have played that far into each book to receive the character, you will likely be seeing characters who you haven't met yet if you haven't begun a book yet. That's just in terms of lore though. As with most games I assume, you are at a heavy disadvantage the later on you begin playing, as you have missed out on a good few years of powerful free units and free resources.

Duessel I assume. He has magnificent raw bulk, especially if you keep Def/Res Solo 4 on him, but replacing it with DC wouldn't be the worst idea in the world either. The only thing about him you need to keep in mind is that there really isn't a shortage on bulky Lance units, and one especially (Hector the Brave) has almost all the same advantages as Duessel minus the massive Movement range and need to be alone. Selena has the ability to run with Wind or Watersweep thanks to her weapon, and she has the stats to run with them well, though unlike others with such weapons she can really only do it against healthy foes. I'd say it depends most on your playstyle, then what you most need. Again, blue units with good bulk are fairly easy to stumble across (Nowi, LegTiki, and Gwendolyn all have good mixed bulk), and Hector has one of the best refines in the game alongside Brave Ike. Offensive blue mages are common enough, but again Selena can run with a sweep skill, which I don't remember any other Blues being able to do. @XRay mentioned having a second Reginn, though I gotta ask why, because as far as I know you only need one Reginn to get the AR-O bonus unit, and Altena grants the exact same stat bonuses. If it's about being able to wreck through structures twice as fast though, that's fair.