Xenomata

"Be ready to have a whole ton of seemingly random junk and flowers shoved into your face until you love me, to. While we're discussing this, do you happen to have hundreds of generic soldiers we can use to set up battalions?" Kiran is gonna get everyone killed trying to teach them how to use Gauntlets and otherwise completely unrelated weapons to Heroes.

Wow... I was kinda right about Selena getting Wo Dao refine on Armor Slaying, just... kinda missed the part where she got racist Fury. Beruka... she got a neat Axe. Basically the same as giving a Def refine to a Slaying Axe, but also it's a Res refine and also Guard. I like it. And then... neither of them got Owltomes? Huh... okay. Mae... eh. I like Death Blow, not sure it has any synergy with Atk/Spd link besides forcing her into the battle. Boey... may as well have gotten Close Counter. But hey, can't complain about a Prf Raventome on a unit who I gave a Raventome to. Buuuuut... nothing here I'm desperate for.

...more head accessories? Come on, give me Hubert's sheathed sword or Mercedes's little cape thing...

Maybe so, but... I just dont think Sorcery Blade is long for the world now without getting a tier 4 upgrade. I mean, the A slot does far more for combat than the generally supportive C slot, and HexB seems inheritable by anyone, making it more lenient than SorB demanding a Magic ally specifically. Yes this can mean any magic user, Magic is Everything and all that, but this is just what Infantry Emblem is, granting entire skills to nearby infantry. Whales probably already made an entire infantry team around Inf Breath.

Big difference, Sorcery Blade takes up an A slot and doesn't have Atk/Spd +2. The A slot, therefore, can now be used for any number of beneficial skills.

Sexy assassin lady with a pretty deadly debuffing game that inflicts Guard on the enemy, or some kid with a fish on his very not aerodynamic-looking arrow... Wolt it is!

I know I said no normal orb packs, but I had some grocery shopping to do and I was way under budget, so I decided to use the remaining of the budget to buy a normal pack, but only because I saw what one of the new banners was... Heroes with Savage Blow. And one of them is Leo. Figured it couldn't hurt to try, right? I mean, I was gonna spend the money anyway... ...nope, it didn't hurt to try. And now the Sorcerous Prince is +10.

I just realized... They TOTALLY should have given Mercedes Live to Serve! I know these days it's kinda meh, but it's her goddamn Personal Skill in Three Houses!

Oh boy a weaponbox that utterly confuses me wtf Hilda. Oh boy a new type of weapon and C passive that makes Sorcery Blade seem a little useless. Oh boy a unit who I like. Oh boy a unit who didn't need to be Blue except she did because color balance. Is it bad I kinda miss the days of no balance at all? mod edit: vague FE16 spoiler

Spd is a Strength. Res is a Weakness. This is the fate of my Sothis. ...yesssss...

@XRay Nope! But for some reason this time round I got a much larger number of tolerable 5* pitybreakers than the usual "summon for at least $80 usd worth of orbs only to be pity broken by a singular unit I already have at +10 with skill fodder I don't want, repeat 3 more times until desired unit is acquired". Like, I got the last Innes needed to get him to +10. I'm just thankful this is going to be one of the last times I need to "whale". Last time will be Halloween when I go to get Halloween Jakob and Henry, the last Year 1 units I need before I'm all done collecting units. Maybe when the time comes I'll go out with a bang and +10 Witchy Nowi...

I know it used to come up a semi-decent little bit, but... do you think having the ability to trade units or combat manuals ever has a chance? I mean, I usually just merge or book any 5*s I get, but if I knew I could send them off to someone who'd appreciate them, unlike me who both hordes manuals and frequently gets 5* units I have little reason wanting (already 5*, don't need the skills), then I'd have already sold them all off. Hell, I still have the +Atk -HP Dimitri I summoned on Three Houses day 1 just in case the next big revelation was unit trading/selling.

In my point of view, it's not actually an opinion about preferences, it's more a fact of availability. Quick Riposte is one of the more popular skills in the game, given how many units make raw benefit off what essentially doubles their damage output when, before, they'd only manage to get one hit in. But another popular B skill is Guard, and in my experience a lot of skillsets call for you to use Guard in the B slot and Quick Riposte in the SS slot. It's understandable, because getting off a Special trigger tends to make up more damage on a unit than their regular attacks. But there's only one QR seal and a lot of units who would like it. Not exactly a common skill either, considering 2 units in the 4* pool have it, one of them already has Death Blow 3 as commonly used fodder, and the rest of the units who have QR3 are 5*. In addition, thanks to new hero banners now excluding Year 1 units, most of the 5*s who have it are now unsummonable in the most popular banners of the moment, with the rest being seasonals, so... uncommon at best. I said my Nah is using it right now, but before her it was mainly used by Duma, and before him Legendary Tiki, and before her it was Brave Ike, and in the time between it'd go all over the place between my army. I'm not even sure Nah is in dire need of it, because it's only on her while she has Null C Disrupt equipped for Aether Raids (god you people love Brave Veronica, don't you...) Point is, it's a popular skill, but you only have one of it (the Sacred Seal I mean), and probably won't be having QR3 as a B passive without working for it. In Arena Assault at least, you need it on the unit it makes the most sense to have it on, and then you kinda have to hope that anyone else who wanted it can get by. Hm... I wonder how OP Quick Riposte status would be... doesn't seem fair that Bonus Doubler existed as an A passive for only a few months before becoming a status... Besides, my opinion never seems to be that grand anyway. Average at best, but then I think something would be a good idea before I'm told that it'd be better to just do what everyone else does with the unit in question. Not like it affects me, I'm the weirdo who +10ed Odin specifically to have symmetrical base stats.

I'm not really a part of this discussion, but I do want to add that Sacred Seals can't be swapped around in the middle of an Arena Assault, at least not last that I am currently aware (they added a lot of little things to all the modes I can't keep up with), so while yes you can choose who has the seal, once you're in AA you can't change your mind until you are out of the battle streak. And I do have a few units who I wish did have the seal on at the time of selecting them, or that I thought did have it on until I realized I gave it to someone else (currently have it on Nah running DC and NullCDisrupt while she''s paired with LegEliwood) That does give slight merit to Darting Stance and even Wind Boost seals, putting them on faster units to ensure they can double attack naturally. While I doubt Null Follow-Up or either Byleth are necessarily top tier, whatever that means these days, it does help to have at least a few units who can counter them if the need arises. I personally prefer leaving QR on slower units anyway, because a faster unit like the Byleths really can just run with Darting Stance and some external support to get their double attacks. I'm not trying to say you can't slap QR on whoever outside of AA, I'm just pointing out the minor merits of having an extra source of "guaranteed" follow-ups inside AA. AA does offer some of the slightly more valuable rewards IMO...

Hm... I didn't even notice I already owned all the Sketchy Summer units... well that makes this slightly easier, but considering I still want the Nohrian Summer units Xander and Leo, not by much... Elincia pity breaker. Why oh why do I have to be broken by units I already +10ed and don't need the skill fodder for... like Hardin, who appeared in the next session along with +Def -Atk Summer Leo. Wow worthless, I'm lucky I have many far better Red tomes than this Leo. Like real Leo. +HP -Spd Summer Corrin. Welp, at least my Corrin has a merge now. One session later, Lyn. That's the kind of pitybreaker I... can tolerate a little more... Because this game really reminds me why I decided to stop buying normal orb packs (except for the year 1 seasonals I still needed)... Neutral Adrift Camilla, +Spd -Def Luke, and Innes in the same session. ...he was +9. A lot of other 5* pity breakers came after, like way more 5*s than I usually get with this many orbs bought (including a +Spd Summer Leo, so I guess he's salvaged.. a little). Literally the one Green I summoned from after deciding I was gonna be done soon though... Summer Xander +Atk -Spd. Still thankful these guys are probably not gonna be used that much. I had the extra orbs, I can hope to eliminate the pity rate on Sothis's banner. And I did... with +Atk -Spd Male Byleth. Well hey that works for me. Aright then, I won't need to buy orbs until Halloween 2017 returns. Hope I don't miss out on too many interesting units between now and then.

Don't worry, i was asking how a unit could possibly NOT ever have Atk/Spd Push activated, because the safest ways involve Fury abuse, Reci.Aid abuse, Miracle, and positioning nonsense equal to what Grandmaster maps usually demand. Otherwise it'd be a useless Brazen Atk/Spd.

HA HA HA. Oh eclipse you joker! Next thing you'll be going on about not having to make sure flame wars erupt because people can't discuss things without trying to shove knives down each others throats, or even that people know how the ignore feature works!

Team Lilina I guess. It's a calculated risk I'm taking, but What could go wrong? ~Every single ally I get, including the units from the Friends List, are Red~ I always knew passing the Math GED test was a fluke...

Analyzing what we know... ...I'm not sure which of them to pick as the free unit. They all look good, and there's a very real chance I won't be getting all of them since I'm not gonna buy more normal orb packs, but they all have their own unique strong advantages, and iffy disadvantages. Camilla may as well be Veronica 2.0 (3.0?) given how much raw power and speed she has as a flying staff, but I'm really not into her as a character (Corrinsexual, emphasis on sexual). Alm is probably my favoritest character of the lot, but he's a lot of raw power in yet another Infantry Sword that I really don't need another of...

Now now, just because Duma is around doesn't mean you can break even more dishes, Felicia.

She... is a Dragon who doesn't transform into a dragon...? okay. Nothing much here I care for. M!Byleth is something I guess, but I already have him (thanks Three Houses!). It'd be neat to get some Fury 4 fodder for Selkie, but I really don't need it that badly. Sothis herself... eh. I see what they're doing, but I don't particularly think I need to whale for her. Thank god for that, I was slightly scared I'd have to go back on my vow very quickly.

Selena I could see getting a Wo Dao effect to go with Armor slaying. Besides slapping her with +10 Atk, it's about the only way she'll be able to fix her otherwise poor Atk... Considering the original Beruka's Axe was basically a Killer Axe with lower effective spd, she's more or less gonna have the Killer effect. Whether the special refine will be worth it is the question... As for the other two... they're getting Owltomes. Katarina got a Prf Owltome, Soren and Raigh got Owltome refines, clearly they like giving Owltome to mages. But what will they get for the special refine...

Can I just say, by the way, learning about new weapons/refines kinda sucks in not the way you're thinking? Like, I already have a number of other units who would appreciate what amounts to a bonus passive skill on top of the existing 3 passives and Sacred Seal they can already have, you don't need to throw in another 4 every month and make me reconsider my plans. Now I have to hold out on using my existing Divine Dews for at least another 2 weeks before I decide if I should save them for one of the upgraded units or if it's safe to finally upgrade... for instance, Elincia the strongest Quadder in the game.

Oh new weapons/refines for four units I barely use anymore. Maybe this'll change that. Beruka I can only assume will get Killer effect plus a defensive-based refine, maybe just Steady Stance or Sturdy Stance since other defensive weapons have those. Her personal from Fates really doesn't seem like it'd translate well otherwise (bonus damage if the enemy can't counterattack), and the weapon itself was just a heavy version of the Killer Axe... Selena will probably just get Armorslaying and god hopes some way to fix her low Atk. Her personal was useless in Fates unless you were using someone equally weak enough that even a crit wouldn't net a kill, and the Selena's Blade itself is.. weird. The best way to describe it is as a mesh of the Steel Sword and Killing Edge, having lower Might than the Steel and lower Crit and no 4x crits compared to the Edge, but not having an Avoid penalty (though it does have a Crit Dodge penalty) while having the same -3 Effective Spd penalty as the Steel (Effective Spd only affects ability to double attack, not any other Spd-based bonuses. I dunno, it just better beat out a Wo Dao in keeping her damage high at least on Special Triggers. Boey and Mae... I have no idea. They could just get prf Owltomes with Boey getting something defensive or even conditional Close Counter, while Mae could get something with a little more oomph to compliment her high Atk, maybe an additional Owltome layer focused on her Atk and Spd or Res.

...we're not getting the second summer banners rerun, are we?