Xenomata

I have cleared one map, and dear god I can hear the artist pens making smoke AND fanfic writer's keyboards clicking away...

At the rate they've been making Tier 4 skills, we might see it as soon as this year... Not sure how to feel about that.

That lance looks awesome and it's a shame that he isn't getting it as a Prf.

They seem to be averse to letting a characters alts change movement type if they already have an established move type. Note that MalGrima is all armor, giving the character some history as an armored unit, while Lif was given a horse for his Valentine alt. Tana is all fliers all the time, Innes has 3 alts only one of which was a flier (and was technically still in the timeframe when seasonal units were actually allowed to be experimental with how a unit was depicted)

Gilliam is certainly interesting by himself... well, the supportive aspect he has anyway. Granting nearby Flier allies the Iotes Shield effect should be quite helpful in enabling some of their bulk that would have otherwise been lost because of bows. The rest of his kit is so... expected of an armor unit. Vengeful Fighter 4 offers some more defensive effects, and I think it updates the special charge effect to be for all attacks instead of just the units? I'll have to double check that later... Frelians must love damage reduction for it to be on Syrene as well. High stat mods, damage reduction on first taken attack, and unit-NFU are neat. More sources of Pegasus Flight 4 is appreciated by some I'm sure. I want to say Vanessa brings the first Catch 3 skill to the regular 4* pool, but even if that were true there's not a whole lot else to tell about her. Arcane Nastrond... Guaranteed follow-up, damage reduction on first taken attack, and a bonus to Atk dependent on the targets max Special Cooldown value... so if it's 1, that's a +10 bonus to Atk. Nifty. As someone who's grown to like Bows more and more, this is a good weapon. Uniquely, this thing doesn't have the requirement of being over 25% HP to trigger these effects, opting for Blow/Unity... The other options for inheritance being Deadeye, ASunity, and Guidance 4. Guidance 4 looks nice, though it only offers boosts to allies and nothing to the unit themself. Overall, you'd mostly be getting Nastrond and Deadeye off Tana, though ASunity might be nice to have if you expect to be working with debuffs. All the skill prerequisites are pretty old, so it shouldn't be too hard to inherit all 4 skills at once to a Bow Flier. Tana herself can teleport and has... some weird mix of Clash and B-passive debuff infliction. They seemed to be deadset on making this banner all about Fliers. Hell, Gilliam has a support effect EXCLUSIVELY for fliers. Gotta give props where they're due, IntSys is dedicated to their themes...

The Lysithea I been building in HoF has been looking for Atk/Spd Finish 4 for so long and she got it on the LAST possible battle for this round of HoF. Oh man that was... way too close...

On the upside, I got the only unit I truly cared about: Bunny Triandra! And also an Ashe or two. Downside, I had to buy a summoner support pack and the monthly orb pack to get to 25 summons total. Since I still have Feh Pass, I should be able to get enough orbs before it expires to spark Karla/Freya. It mostly makes me angry that despite my vow to spend as little as I can on in-game stuff, I'm still spending anyway...

There's no easy way to get Valor skills. Pray their associated units are put in the Limited Time Combat Manual shop I guess? Though I'm pretty sure we're past the point where those units were relevant to the shop... As for who to put them on? Dancers, bonus points if they're fliers or cavalry. As stated they don't need to be given to any specific unit, but since Dancers already serve a support role there's very little lost by giving it to them.

@GuiltyLove If it might make it easier on you, if you check the FEH subreddit you can usually find a post from PhoenixMaster1 that has clear images of all the refines in one image (as well as keeping the text boxes whole instead of chopped off.) I only bring this up because the smaller images I assume you took yourself are a bit hard to read in my opinion. Anyway... Celica's refine by itself seems kind of plain overall, but does improve when her Prf is also taken into consideration. Overall good, could become deadly if given Time's Pulse 3 to charge a 4-charge special like Astra. Oh would you look at that, when you give a supportive unit supportive effects in their refine, it starts to look like a pretty good refine! Who would have thought! Mila has the potential to be a pretty big stat ball if allowed. It'd require max merges and dragonflowers, but it's doable. Make it hard for the enemy to bypass her Def check. Astram's all stats. That's it. He can grant bonuses to all allies now. Compared to the easier to get Fae, he grants a whole one extra point to each stat, but only if he's above 25% HP. He can get +14 all stat total if none of his bonuses are nullified. ...boring. I'll keep using Fae if no one's keeping track. Byleths got an... okay refine. Nothing amazing, but it does the job. Forsyth just became a lot harder to kill. Without the ability to ignore damage reduction effects, he's more or less guaranteed to heal 28/14 HP if he has a follow-up attack. Selkie has a little less statballing potential than her regular form, but I think she still manages to have more bulk and power thanks to the Res-comparing effects on her base weapon. All she loses from her original form is a Guard effect, which... big whoop. Well... that was overall not that exciting. Astram is a big letdown, Mila's support game is better, and Celica I guess is able to charge Miracle in one round of combat, if you actually cared about keeping Miracle.

I guess I'll join Veronica's team now, if and only because of the two, I'd rather sit next to Veronica on an airplane. Fomortiis would probably murder everyone on the plane as part of his plan to destroy everything...

Sacred Seals are Spd/Def Ideal and Atk/Spd Oath. They're... okay I guess? I'd say give SDideal to a Galeforcer if this were 4 years ago and every other unit didn't have at least 2 ways to make sure they aren't OHKOed. ASoath just... looks so pathetic when ASoath4 exists and is the best skill in the entire game. Michalis's weapon is actually an Atk/Def version of Ashe's weapon, except with a 40% damage reduction effect instead of 30%. His skills are Iotes Shield and Atk/Spd Snag.

I was on Veronica's team. For some reason no one wanted to name drop Fomortiis...

Ah cool. Either Veronica, who's a good offensive unit in general, or Fomortiis, a broken defensive unit. Again, I technically don't care. I either get some Panic Smoke 4 fodder or a unit I don't have. Shame we won't be getting a free Arcane weapon I guess.

I... stopped caring about voting gauntlets forever ago. It's just rewards to me now. Heck, I technically don't even care who wins these A Hero Rises VGs, I only cared about making sure Hegemon didn't get past the first round, for all the good I managed to do. If they just handed out all the event rewards and like 10k feathers without a gauntlet, I wouldn't even complain. So I guess it's Veronica vs Formortiis? Why is no one making it clear who won, I got better things to do than try to translate your cryptic messages.

You know... I'm starting to realize I don't like Bernadetta that much. As a character I should say, given how obsessed she is with locking herself away... Anyway, inflict even 1 HP of damage and she's golden. Also Escape Route 4. Don't think that was a skill anyone was clamoring for a Tier 4 of, but then neither were the Seal skills. It looks pretty good, won't lie. Colorless Dancer! Now if only C Tome Valor existed... Firestorm Dance looks good. Canto 1 and Desperation are both effects that offensive units like. Triandra also grants the [Foe Penalty Doubler] effect AND inflicts Panic on enemies? Dancers sure are getting deadlier without actually doing anything themselves. Ashe's weapon is Remote Sparrow lite. That's pretty good for offensive dagger units. ...that's about all I have to say on the matter. Karla/Freya invoke the deadliest aspect of Legendary Nanna by preventing the trigger of defensive specials, at least when her own special triggers. It's only once every odd-numbered turn, but unless the enemy is Chrom I don't think it'd be that hard to perform some annoying-for-the-computer hit and run tactics with her, especially considering she comes with Flow N Trace by default. And then there was bunny Michalis as the TT/grail unit, probably because IntSys realized this is one dead horse they can't keep beating forever.

https://twitter.com/FE_Heroes_EN/status/1631852464608784386?s=20

It's Veronica! She has the... lowest sex appeal! The smallest assets!

So we have one of the most broken units in the game, a potent offensive threat, an Arcane Weapon giver who can also provide Special Spiral 4, and a dangerous Vantage unit. Pretty solid banner we got going on here. Honestly I'm glad Edelgard, Hegemon, and even Chrom/Robin all lost for personal vendetta reasons. Arcane Grima is a bit of a shame, but I'll manage.

Army Victory for Ninja Camilla. THE WAR IS WON! ...what do you mean there's still two rounds of this left?

Brave Lysithea in Hall of Forms. Currently have S/R Tempo in her B slot. Want to get Special Spiral 4 because it seems very useful to her. Currently have Seal Spd 4 queued up for her. Question A. Should I take Seal Spd? Question B. Are the Seal 4 skills good on Infantry units when they have so many more options available to them, at least compared to Ranged Fliers having Far Traces and that's about it? EDIT: I have passed on Seal Spd 4, but I still legit wanna know the answer.

Honestly if they had wanted to lean more into the supportive side of things, they could have given Mila the Solid Earth A passive. Give her some effects that scale off Def at the start of combat. Though I suppose that would cut into her magical bulk...

A number of Ascended heroes in the lineup. Three Houses/Hopes line has the most offensive-offerings between two AScatch4's, one ASideal4 alongside SRtempo, and even an ASoath4. Binding/Blazing/Stones having a Near Save and even Godlike Reflexes + Spd Smoke 4 is quite good defensively. Vital Astra at the end of Genealogy/Thracia... salivating over here. There's not one unit in this years exchange that I would want to even consider using as merge fodder, which is saying something considering every other exchange had at least one. The skills lately have just been getting too good. The only way it could be better is if there was any of the premium Distant or Close Counter fodder in here... Something about Heroes being on two paths, yet only having two units between them feels... hilarious.

Teachers can be refined too. Unfortunately their personalities cannot. Creator Sword for the two Sword Infantry Byleth: Tested Professor and Byleth: Proven Professor (Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). During combat, neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks, prevent unit's follow-up attacks, grant "Special cooldown charge +X" to foe, or inflict "Special cooldown charge -X" on unit.) Mercurius for Sword Infantry Astram: Midia's Hero (Grants Atk+3. At start of turn, if unit's HP ≥ 50%, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 to unit and sword, lance, axe, bow, dagger, or beast allies within 2 spaces for 1 turn. (Bonus granted to unit even if no allies are within 2 spaces.) ) Sol Lance for Lance Armor Forsyth: Loyal Lieutenant (Grants Res+3. When unit deals damage to foe during combat, restores 10 HP to unit. (Triggers even if 0 damage is dealt.)) Saintly Seraphim alongside the remix for Green Tome Infantry Celica: Queen of Valentia (Grants Spd+3 If unit initiates combat, deals damage = 25% of foe's Res. (Ignores reductions to Res from Special skills.)) Nurturing Breath along with the remix for Infantry C.Manakete Mila: Goddess of Love (Grants Def+3. If foe's Range = 2, calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res. Grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+2 to allies within 7 rows and 7 columns centered on unit during combat.) New Foxkit Fang for Colorless Beast Cav. Selkie: New Year's Spirit (Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If unit's Res > foe's Res, deals damage = 70% of difference between stats. (Maximum bonus of +7 damage.) If unit's Res > foe's Res, reduces damage from attacks during combat and from area-of-effect Specials (excluding Røkkr area-of-effect Specials) by percentage = difference between stats × 4 (max 40%). At start of turn, if unit is adjacent to only beast or dragon allies or if unit is not adjacent to any ally, unit transforms (otherwise, unit reverts). If unit transforms, grants Atk+2, and if unit initiates combat, inflicts Atk/Def-4 on foe during combat and foe cannot make a follow-up attack.) Celica I wonder if she's going to go down a similar route that Alm went down with his remix, since besides the flat Spd boost her only other effect currently is a partial Moonbow effect that Alm also had. Mila is likely to not improve her supportive game by much, if at all. Maybe make it a completely mapwide effect instead of in a giant box around her? +3 all stats instead of just +2? Otherwise the only two I'm interested in are Forsyth and Selkie. ...not looking forward to next month's refines and the inevitability of Edelgard in all things... again.

The only way I could have made this a more personally fulfilling fight is if I were somehow able to slot Nowi in. Nah wound up being the main defending force. She was originally meant to be the one who killed Robin outright, but then I remembered there was a far simpler solution to the problem. Watersweep. Ascended Laegjarn provided said coverage, plus a good chunk of raw firepower. Pun not intended. Rouse and Nah's refine really kept her statballing in prime condition. Nyofai Fjorm was secondary firepower. Thanks again Whitecap Bow for being... basically the best non-prf non-arcane weapon in the game. Peony was brought on for her Cross Spur boosts. Could have brought NY!Peony/Triandra for the extra dance, but that'd feel a little too cheap... plus penalty negation on a map where the boss inflicts a penalty for existing too much is nice.

The Plegian Grandmaster from Fire Emblem Awakening descends onto the battlefield, tome in one hand and a plot in the other. Master's Tactics, whose condition is being above 25% of max hp, is all about debuffs, beginning with granting Robin and nearby allies the [Grand Strategy] bonus, which grants a buff equal to the current stat penalty on each individual stat x2, effectively turning them into buffs. For his convenience, Robin will inflict All Stats -4 on himself as well as -6 on the two highest stats of his nearby allies. If that weren't enough, it also inflicts All Stats -3 on the closest foes and foes within 3 spaces of those foes through their next actions. Whoever the closest foe may be, there is no hiding from this effect, it is map-wide. On top of all that, he inflicts an in-combat debuff of Atk/Spd/Res -5 and denies his targets follow-up. This is on top of the existing Slaying effect. His Special of choice is Ignis, scaling off 80% of his Defense. Part of the Plan, which is active while above 25% max hp, inflicts another -8 on the targets Atk/Spd/Res while stacking another layer of Grand Strategy onto Robin. If that weren't enough yet, he also gets a guaranteed follow-up. Seal Atk 4 makes Robin incredibly bulky, with the Guard effect being almost guaranteed to be active. Canto Control limits the effectiveness of all Canto effects around Robin. On Abyssal, there will be no utilizing Vantage against him with the Hardy Bearing sacred seal. This battle has many powerful foes, summoner. But we are no ordinary opponent...