Xenomata

...welp. Eleven lost wolves makes one strong wolf. I... did not think this would happen. I don't even have a seal planned for him. But... hey! Cool!

Well then... this was not what I was expecting to happen this summer. I used orbs from the new monthly/seasonal packs. First off, from the Three Summers banner I did manage to get 2 Sylvains with inverse natures featuring Spd and Res, both 4*, so I have my summer memento. I also got a +HP -Atk Fallen M!Corrin, who immediately got fed to my current +Atk -Spd Corrin. I... had a few orbs left, and I saw I had a small pity rate on the Draconic Aura banner, so I decided what the hell, let's see what I can get? I only needed one more copy of Keaton to +10 him, but no big deal if I- oh. Oh my. ...welp.

This is the most baffling part to, because up until then they've been doing a good job with Forging Bonds to, even if they did always keep to the theme of "character interacts with [ ] primarily, insert other heroes as needed", replace brackets with Alfonse, Sharena, Anna, or one of the free units. And then suddenly BAM, Three Houses comes along and we regress to the older days of Forging Bonds. Oooh, might not wanna do that again for a while, Bernie has a somewhat... troubling history with people suddenly grabbing her.

"Weird... when no-emotion Byleth does it it works like a charm..." Quick question, in this world do individual heroes have their own rooms, or is it like a big bunk-beds filled room? Cause Bernie might be dead within a day if it's the latter...

Jeez, I come in to give my thoughts on the new weapons and refines, just to see so much hate for Nowi, what gives... Knowing the written effect of Beloved Zofia is wrong is... well, I still don't know how to feel about it. On the one hand the two effects together boost Celica's stats by a very necessary amount that she needs to match with current Infantry Swords, but on the other it means she is completely unable to use skills like Desperation with her HP fluctuating so much. Dark Royal Spear is basically what one would expect for a replacement to Berkut's Lance. Does it put Berkut in the spotlight again, I dunno. But it certainly gives merit to using Berkut again. Corrin can be a sort of Threaten bot with Gloom Breath, her default Threaten Res, and the Threaten Def SS. As long as her defensive ability can keep up, she should have no problems being put in the thick of things. I'll be honest, Sheena feels like the wrong way to have done her refine. Atk/Def+5 is alright, but you would have benefited Sheena a lot more if it were a Atk/Def -5 debuff on the foe. I mean, she DOES have a Res stat, but this refine completely ignores it. ...not saying it's a bad refine. Just saying I think they did it wrong.

Oooh Spd/Res solo AND Mirror Strike! That's two seals I am very okay with having. Lorenz disappoints me in every possible way. Bad skills, woefully meh stats, bloated weapon type (seriously I JUST summoned Lysithea to!), and disappointing artwork. Seriously I don't understand speedos, why do you wanna wear something so tight looking...?

I guess that's true, but... hm... this is gonna be an awkward chat to have with Ignatz...

Huh, guess Dorothea is canonically a Dancer/Singer now? Lorenz looks to be the Tempest Trial unit. Did not expect Rhea... but I think a feeeeeeeeeeew people will be gunning for at least one Byleth/Rhea for that Duo skill...

That's still not fair to people like Anacy who prefer to focus on their favorite units more than who is considered the best (hell become one with heaven when the day comes that the two align) and if given the choice, yes I would rather focus on my favorite unit before the best unit. You're looking at raw numbers and effects, code basically. You can do that anywhere, you don't need to also demoralize the people who just want to look at their favorite characters be awesome, at least not if they're not asking for it.

That's most likely in comparison to the units he came out with, and that's not fair because every single demote unit gets similarly "shafted". I don't even need to speak metaphorically, if you got the Sparking on his debut banner and had to choose between Forrest, Rinkah, Midori, and Lilith, most people aren't going to choose the person who doesn't have: A powerful weapon Powerful skill fodder Amazing stats (being compared to Wrys probably doesn't look good on a resume) An extent of rarity (Midori is currently the only other unit from that banner I have) The generic mass public are all about initial appearances, they barely focus on the deeper levels of a units potential.

I have to disagree with that. Speaking as someone who uses Wrys (who Forrest matches pretty evenly in stats), Forrest has a number of advantages over Wrys while serving the same role of debuffer, and you don't know what it means to be weakened when you are guaranteed to be Sabotage Atk'd because no one has more than 54 Res. Forrest is Wrys, but missing a few points of Res, which really isn't even that big a deal considering how much Res is needed. And I have to think that those who disagree are people who don't use debuffers. @XRay I argue that Travant's base skill kit sucks, and that's where most people draw the line. Silver Lance+, Ignis, Vantage, and Flier Guidance you have to admit are pretty shoddy skills, so you're basically starting from nothing to make Travant match his adopted daughter. The only "free" units who I say were truly screwed in stats were the earliest free units, when the game was still dedicated to making units match a certain appearance compared to simply making strong units as they do now.

If it's Sylvain and Ingrid, Felix kind of feels like he'd get in to. In the Blue Lions, those three were kind of their own little friend group, as I recall. But then that'd mean 3 of the 4 units in the banner would be units whose base forms are not in the game yet. Not that that matters, considering every other seasonal banner seems to give us at least one such unit, so who's gonna notice it when THREE such units get in... I could see them going the easy route and picking up Summer F!Byleth because "one girl on a summer banner? Not in this house."

...Huh. Red on the Draconic Aura banner was "good" for me. First "good" result was Kiria, +HP -Def. Not real good yes, but considering my current Kiria was +Spd -Atk, I immediately took +HP. Second was Lysithea. +Def -Res isn't good, but considering her direct offense wasn't being affected, she may as well be neutral. Last, a copy of Keaton to merge into my now +9 wolf boy. ...Ahaha, heck no I'm not gonna directly target one last copy to get that +10. I learned my lesson from Summer Micaiah.

You know, my +10 units shouldn't ALWAYS have the spotlight, you know? Sometimes it's more impressive to use a weaker unit to clear an Abyssal Hero Battle. ...so I subbed out two +10s for two overpowered as hell units. And then continued to use Cordelia and LegAzura. This one was a little weird, making me actually type up the moves I made just because they were not my usual moves of "murder everything and back away", but rather "murder everything and back away, but also let the enemy attack and live few times." You can even see a few moments of pause where I had to double check what I was doing... heck, I usually NEVER let Azura into range of any foes she can't counterattack, but lo and behold she barely hung onto life in this one... Hm... maybe this woulda been a bit easier if I had given some different seals to Leif and Micaiah... ah well.

You know, I remembered something I thought about a while back, and the end result of that thought? "Thinking about who the best and the worst and who's worth summoning for and who isn't, which banners would be theoretically useful to me and which ones aren't... "THAT'S FUCKING BORING. I don't need the best damn units, I got 61 of the best damn units a summoner could ask for, and most of them were accidents!" So screw saving orbs for the "best" units, I'm going for this damn Legendary Seliph banner, and damn be the consequences I'll freaking be prouder of THAT then thinking so elite about everythi- ohey Legendary Seliph was summoned. +HP -Def. That's cool, and I can say with certainty I sure as hell wouldn't even have this dude if I kept to my original word and skipped this banner.

@XRay Maybe it's a little bold to assume she'd just get the same exact treatment as Ragnarok... given her statline and the Def+3 from Beloved Zofia, it could easily also be a more defensive refine, such as giving her the Repel/Close Call damage reduction based off Spd (without the positioning effects of course). It'd pair with her default skillset coming with Chill Spd without being an overwhelmingly powerful refine, given her otherwise meh Spd... I mean, some other refined weapons do that, matching up with the wielders default skillset.

Ah... going back through the thread remembering the good ol days, when Coolmanio translated all the original 100 comics... I did this mainly cause I wanted to make a point that Kiran is a faceless protagonist who otherwise would be a slab of stone (probably with a bunch of people hanging around it) if these comics were more based in reality. I mean... dude doesn't even have a set gender in the game, meanwhile there's a comic where he literally rips his robes off to show his manly pecs. ...hm, wonder what that manio guy thinks of the current comics translations...

So THAT'S why Roy is in Nifl armor... everything makes sense now.

This is probably the first time I'm really not that excited for a Refinery update... sure there's been disappointing weapons and refines, but this time none of the units particularly excite me... Sheena's default Killer Axe will be upgraded. She'd be just fine getting a copy-paste of Gwendolyn's weapon, though I think she should get some sort of huge AoE Atk debuff. Think weapons like Tharja's Hex or Mirage Rod. I could also see them trying to work with Sheena's armor weakness nullification, but that seems doubtful. Corrin... I really think she should get a Peshkats-like weapon, because otherwise she just doesn't have a lot to make her stand out from existing Blue Manaketes. She'd probably also want a effect like what Subaki and Selena have, but she's not as low-Atk as they are... The original Berkut's Lance I think was meant to emulate Kriemhild, but now that Kriemhild is actually in the game... he could probably get conditional DC. Maybe without the same "penalty" as Kriemhild, since some people may actually consider that penalty a buff. Beloved Zofia is basically just what Ragnarok used to be but with a boost to Def/Res as well, so I can see them giving it the exact same treatment. Maybe sub out Brazen Atk/Spd with the same refine as Peri's Lance? I think the biggest problem here is that the unit that I SHOULD be most excited for, Celica, just doesn't compare to modern swords anymore. Heck, this was a REAL bad time for me to go and summon Mareeta, who has every advantage Celica wishes she had, all for the low low price of not being next to anyone. This coming Weapon Refinery banner is not gonna be that exciting. Two common as hell units and a meh unit (at least meh until she gets refined, depending on how good it is).

Dark Royal Spear, Gloom Breath, and Crimson Axe will be added to Berkut, FemCorrin, and Sheena. Fallen Celica gets to be the first Fallen Hero to get a refine. I suspect salt, so just get on with it...

I think the biggest problem with Sigurd is that he was made SPECIFICALLY to counter the prime units at the time, Reinhardt and Brave Lyn, both of whom are now a LOT weaker in comparison to the existing nonsense now. Meanwhile Sigurd has not changed one bit since his release, with Seliph getting a upgrade to Tyrfing that Sigurd does not have. So his base weapon is outdated as hell, his Personal skill is useless, and he has no way to set himself apart from the world until he gets a refine, which isn't even guaranteed to fix crap.

Hm... skip for me, but I can see the appeal of this banner. Just as well, the money I had set aside in case of a good Legendary was already spent getting Mareeta. Seliph looks... I mean, he looks good, but while he probably does the job better than those already existing he's still a defensive Sword, and if you already have defensive swords then you probably won't be in the most urgent need for Seliph. Plus he's a purely enemy phase unit, so he's not even going to be that hard to counter. The rest of the banner... Red carries Sothis and Mirabilis. Considering we've had nearly a month to get Mirabilis, not the strongest color, but hey all 3 units are still good. Legendary Azura, Peony, and Legendary Chrom habit blue. Two strong dancers and a bulky Blue archer, pretty good. Gonna have to dodge this color myself, considering I +10ed Azura and don't feel the need for Peony (a unit we got for free) or Chrom (a unit I'm okay with not having) Green is the weakest color for me, carrying Legendary Lyn, Yune, and Ced. Ced is a unit I don't have yes, but I +10ed Yune and don't need her SI, while Lyn... just... no. Colorless looks good. Grima still has her uses... I guess... while Duma remains strong, and Eleonora remains a sweeper (I assume, I dunno I never see her). ...yeah, there's certainly appeal to this banner, but if you gave me $50usd and told me to pick a banner to spend on, I wouldn't go for this one.

So... I decided to get Mareeta while I could. Just one 5* from that banner though. If I didn't get her, well it better be a damn good 5* I get. If I did get her but she sucked, oh well I can give Close Call to someone else (such as my Mia). Fortunately she came out not just perfectly fine, but +Spd -HP, which could only compare to -Res in terms of "best" Asset/Flaw combo. Unfortunately, I was reminded why I hate spending money on gacha games... why do the 3* units feel so much more common when I spend money...?

I'm going with Annette just cause I think she's pretty fun to use, and I'll take any excuse I can to use her more.

Some noteworthies... 5* Summer Lute, +Def -HP. Utterly... nothing much to complain or praise about. If I wanna use Lute but I can't get her again... well, least I have something. But if I can get better, least I have a merge? Yarne +Atk -Res. Between this and the +Spd -Def Yarne I already had, I chose to merge into +Spd, since Yarne more wants the Spd IMO. A Phina merge... but not from the Forma skills banner...? Free summon Sigurd. He is now +6 merge! From the Voting Gauntlet banner, Ross...! At 4*. And immediately after that orb, +Atk -Spd Shannan, who I merged my existing Shannan into. Yep, I definitely remember the part in Genealogy of the Holy War where Shannan was like "You're not my real dad, Balmung!" and then developed Okuma Yugo pecs.