XRay

Oh cool, Democrats have a better brush to paint Republicans as religious extremists now. Sharia has arrived in America, not from Islam, but from Christian extremists. Better protect your wives and daughters now, because Christian extremists will be coming after them like in the Handmaid's tale.

I got my Galeforce team ready for Aether Raids Chaos season featuring Florina: Azure-Sky Knight, and then I realized I am NOT ready when I tested it out in Mock Battles. Bonus stats makes her HP way too high, so the team does not work right now and it sure is not going to work in normal seasons after this week, so I have no idea when I am able to run that team. I wish there was a skill that reduces the whole team's HP to one at start of turn. Argh! It is so frustrating to build a team and then not being able to use it.

I lean towards Flashing Blade 4 since it is more rare. I would go for Sabotage on B. Pulse Ties are also an option and they are more rare, but her HP is kind of crap. I do not think Still Water is available yet, but you can go for Fort. Def/Res if you want to boost that Res check. If you want her to be a Firesweep nuke though, then I would just stick with her current Ideal.

You want to make a team for different modes. If you are just starting out, it is fine to use the same team for every mode, but you will run into lots of issues, whether that be not scoring enough or just having a difficulty to win as you progress through the game. Aether Raids, Summoner Duels, Arena, etc. all require different teams and different skill sets. Summoner Duels is the most competitive mode and makes the least use of arbitrary scoring (you just need a bonus unit). You will be playing against other players in real time, and the mode favors highly mobile player phase teams and extremely aggressive tactics. If you have ever played multiplayer in Fire Emblem Fates, Summoner Duels in Heroes is like that. An enemy phase centric team will not do well in this mode, as other players' nukes have the power crush even the bulkiest of tanks. The most successful team composition in this mode in my opinion is to bring a Dancer/Singer, a Far Save tank, and the rest consisting of your best nukes. Aether Raids is the next most competitive mode, and you will need multiple specialized teams to do well. There is more arbitrary scoring requirements involved, as you will need a bonus unit, Mythic units (which can also be the bonus unit), and merges on your Mythic units. You are not playing against real players in real time, but you will still face other players' defense teams, so it is not going to be a cake walk until you have made signficant investments into this mode. If you like enemy phase play style, this mode will be more to your liking as your primary team should be a super tank team, Save tank team, or a combination of them; these teams take a lot of time and resources to build and reach their maximum potential, so it can be rough if you advance too quickly and reach higher competitive tiers before your team is ready. However, only having a tank team is not enough though, as there are many defense teams designed to crush and punish tank teams, but those teams are usually vulnerable to Galeforce teams; Galeforce teams are relatively much cheaper to build, but if you want the best set up, you will still need to pony up some Orbs. Arena is the mode with the most amount of arbitrary scoring requirements. In addition to bonus units, Legendary units, and merges on your Legendary units, you will also want merges on your bonus units, merges on your regular units, juggle lots of Blessings, high scoring skill sets rather than a performance based skill set (you will be running crap like Rallies, Aether, and Duels, not because they are good, but because they score high). Depending on how high you want to rank, you do not have maximize every component of scoring; it is not too difficult to get into bouncing between Tier 19 and Tier 20 consistently where I am currently at. Arena is not too difficult at my current rank, but it will get more frustrating if you try to rank higher as you are more or less forced to use shitty scoring skills that makes your team a pain in the ass to use. I will just comment on the most relevant Heroes I see: Múspell is not as good as Flayn or Elimine, but he is decent for a highly invested top tier Save tank team for increasing damage output. If you are not using the best Save tanks though, then you may want to stick with Flayn or Elimine. Reginn is useful in Aether Raids and Summoner Duels as a nuke. She comes with Canto, so she can nuke something and immediately pull out without the need for a Dancer/Singer. Palla is useful in Røkkr Sieges, as she has a Brave Weapon with Triangle Adept to deal massive amounts of damage. Otherwise though, she is pretty niche and is not of much use elsewhere. Peony is really good for player phase teams. She is not on the scale of Azura: Vallite Songstress, but she is still one of the best Dancers/Singers. Ishtar is good for safely knocking out super bulky tanks. She will need Windsweep or Watersweep though. Marianne: Serene Adherent is niche. Her main appeal is to bypass Dancer/Singer restrictions since she technically is not one, and this is mostly just for Chaos Season in Aether Raids and in Limited Hero Battles. Joshua: Resolute Tempest would be your best general purpose nuke right now. What he lacks in damage output, he makes up for it in being able to use limited Firesweep to avoid counter attacks. Yuti is also really good due to his extremely high mobility, but the only place where you really want need that in my opinion is just Summoner Duels, where you really want to pressure your opponent by having really far standoff range. In all other game modes, that high mobility is nice to have, but I do not think it is needed. Similar to Joshua: Resolute Tempest, Yuri got some damage output issues. Micaiah: Wavecrest Maiden is probably your best damage dealing nuke right now. She packs the most punch with a full Mt Brave Weapon, Slaying, and armor effectiveness.

But her dual phase performance is a bit iffy though without Guard, and Special Fighter also makes healing via Aether more viable. Smoke skills also functions as a secondary B slot for the status effects they grant, and Pulse Smoke helps simulate Guard to an extent. Raging Storm is practically a player phase skill, since its dual phase guaranteed follow-up is so restrictive that it is not relevant in most scenarios. If she is going to keep Raging Storm, she might as well go full player phase in my opinion. And as long as she kills the most threatening units, even if she goes full player phase, her bulk is not so bad on enemy phase that she needs to worry about Dancers/Singers, staff units, and whatever other support units that are left behind. I lean towards Surge Sparrow, but if you already have lots of that, then Sturdy Surge is fine. If you are using him on Aether Raids defense, utlimately I lean toward Swift Surge or Steady Surge, but those do not exist yet. Since his main goal is to survive to apply debuffs, I do not think bumping up his Atk is necessary. I think it is important to bump his Spd since getting killed via double is more likely than getting killed in one shot in my opinion. For B, I lean towards Flow Guard to help him survive better. Trace is nice, but that is more for combat units in my opinion, but if you are going with Trace, then Atk/Spd would be the best option in my opinion. While he is technically a combat unit, I feel like he is more of a support unit, and combat is just a means to provide his debuffing support, if that makes sense. I do not think Menace is great since it only targets one enemy usually, whereas you can splash debuffs against multiple enemies with Fatal Smoke and Pulse Smoke, and it matches the debuffing range of his Weapon. If you are swimming in Fatal Smoke though, then I guess Menace is fine. For his actual build, I lean towards: Venin Edge Noontime — Escutcheon (if you are not running Surges) (Any Assist) Steady Surge — Swift Surge Flow Guard Fatal Smoke Poison Strike — Savage Blow — Def Smoke — Res Smoke

I would still grind for Fatal Smoke though since it synergizes with his Weapon so well. Splashing Fatal Smoke on top of Flash and Savage Blow from Venin Edge is pretty annoying and potent in my opinion.

I am not sure it is worth it to make her dual phase, assuming you have the resources to go all out on her. Dual phase units want Atk Smoke, Spd Smoke, or Pulse Smoke on C, and without Assault Troop or Armor Stride, she is going to be super slow movement wise. Her B is also iffy for dual phase, since guaranteed follow-ups are only for dragons and beasts, and I would just run Special Fighter instead on that slot instead. In Arena for enemy phase, she can be a Save tank like Arden, but with modern scoring.

I lean towards Surge Sparrow for healing. But if you are going to inherit and use an Ideal anyways, then I would go with Atk/Spd over Atk/Def. Might as well try to quad against super slow pokes since you are unlikely to die in one hit even with a little loss in Def. Unless she is built as an enemy phase unit, her enemy phase is not really relevant in my opinion.

It is a good idea to have a portable battery to recharge your phone just in case. I used to travel a lot and lugged around my 3DS too, so I have two portable batteries in case anything ran out of juice and I do not have access to an outlet.

Go to: 1. <Edit Aether Keep> 2. Click on <More> until the bottom icons turn blue. 3. <Choose Setup>

If you want something budget, Life and Death works. If you do not want to impact his bulk though, then you may want to use Swift Sparrow instead from Luthier (and you will need 20,000 Feathers). Ogma: Blade on Leave got Atk/Spd Solo at 4* and he should be available soon on the Summer's Dream focus. If you plan to swap out Fallen Star for Desperation, then you may want to consider Brazen Atk/Spd since it is pretty cheap too and gives lots of stats. If you plan stick with Fallen Star and you do not mind something a bit more fancy, then as Faellin said, Catch would be best. For triggering his Brave effect more consistently, depending on your team composition, you can use Tactics, Openings, and Gaps on your Dancers/Singers.

Have not paid much attention to it lately, but has anyone been charged with treason? I do not think anyone was charged with it last I heard. To me, it feels like they were left off the hook because they are white. I am pretty disappointed they were not prosecuted as aggressively as they do against minorities.

I am still confused about the scoring myself too, but I think I will get the hang of it once the Season comes and I start building my team and see the change in scoring in real time. However, I am more concerned about the lack of Dancers/Singers I can use though for Galeforce teams. I am thinking of running two Galeforce teams, with Florina: Azura-Sky Knight being the Warp beacon running either Windsweep or Watersweep depending on the team, and the rest of the team will be pretty static; bonus unit to Smite; two Galeforcers (I really want to try Edelgard: Sun Empresses); and Dorothea: Twilit Harmony to Dance/Sing. I think my super tank team core of Ike: Brave Mercenary and Flayn/Elmine is fine, but I might need to swap out most of my Peonys and Plumerias since I cannot use more than one copy and they do not provide a Mythic Spd buff anymore.

Personally, I rather deal with armors running around all over the place than Save balls. Outside of a Save team, they are so much quicker to kill. And a vanilla player phase Edelgard: Sun Empresses running around like a headless chicken is a pretty tasty enemy for Reinhardt to zap and eat.

In PvE, there is no point going +Spd at all for non slow pokes since enemies are slow. If you are running a quad Cherche or Reinhardt, +Spd would make more sense in that situation, but Claude: Tropical Trouble is nowhere near that slow. In PvP, I still think he should stick with +Atk. I would only go +Spd if you plan to give him Windsweep or Watersweep. While he is not going to take out any ultra bulky units, he can still take out normal tanks and dual phase units, but those units are getting bulkier and bulkier, so I think it is better for him to keep up with them with +Atk. Against Spd tanks, he should focus on killing them in two hits rather than quad attacks. Unlike Desperation, Fallen Star is tied to having high HP, and HP is not going to last forever unless you bring a healer or something.

Cool, I guess I am talking about every unit in the video. Dimitri: Sky Blue Lion seems fun for breaking walls. I think he is better off as infantry so he can run Flashing Blade for more true damage. I wish he got more Canto to more effectively move away from enemies. The only thing missing is Windsweep and Watersweep Sacred Seal. Micaiah: Wavecrest Maiden feels a lot more iffy in the tank busting role. Under player control, she should not have an issue against fast Save tanks, but she might struggle against slow Save tanks with sky high Res. Under AI control, I think she is just going to struggle no matter what, since players can easily stack Res on their fast Save tanks, not to mention all the damage reduction from Flayns and Elimines. She still seems fine as a regular nuke though cause she is going to win that Res check most of the time. Claude: Tropical Trouble is a lot more tame. He cannot break walls like the previous two. He is just a plain old nuke, and those are like a penny for two dozens at this point. Nice fodder though. Edelgard: Sun Empresses seems pretty fun, although tricky to use. On player phase during Chaos Season, and if we can get a Sweep Sacred Seal for double Sweeps, Florina: Azure Sky Knight can set up with Fury 7, and then Thórr and Edelgard: Sun Empresses can move in and Galeforce the enemy team. She will work as a Save tank too, similar to Arden; if she is running Hardy Fighter, she will also need to offload either Guard or Breath onto a support unit though, whereas Arden only needs to offload Breath. Catches are pretty consistent in PvE; unless you are using Savage Blow or Blazings, enemies are always going to be at 100% HP. In PvP, enemies are far more bulky and survive combat more frequently, so it is harder to trigger Catches consistently via the HP requirement. Ideals just need a bonus buff, which is trivial to get on nukes. Forms and Bonds are not even usable. The only units that may even want to use them are non-melee Far Save tanks, and that is assuming they do not need Quick Riposte or Mystic Boost, which makes the pool of users extremely tiny. Ninja Yumi got true damage, so it is more future proof in my opinion since it can always deal damage to slow foes.

Nice. Yuri got really good mobility, so he is not bad. I prefer Hapi since she can kill things better, notably Edelgard: Hegemon Husk, but since Yuri is a lot more popular now, I guess that means people got enough oomph in their Barracks now to take down tough tanks.

Oh shoot! I completely forgot to vote for the past few days. Oh well, I am still sticking with Hapi.

Oh yeah. Slipped my mind. In my opinion, especially in her case, I personally would not merge her up since the tiny marginal increase in combat performance is not worth the decrease in mobility. What sets her apart from other nukes is not her combat performance, but her utility in increasing the overall mobility of her allies. If you are willing to invest in her enough to consider a merge down the line, I think using Fruits on her instead would be better, even if she has to wait for her turn a little longer to get the Fruits. I do not want to say she is a bad combat unit, cause she is decent, but she really is not competitive compared to modern nukes released in the last year or two. I do not think it is a good idea to patch up her weakeness in combat performance when it will reduce her strength in mobility. With Fury 7, she can become a Wings of Mercy beacon after one round of combat for her whole team if she has -HP and no merges nor Flowers (34-14=20; 20/34~0.588). If you really want to improve her combat performance a bit, then I recommend giving her Flowers instead of merges (21/35=0.6), but only one set of Flowers at most to keep her HP low (22/36~0.611).

Ugh... I hope Ashe, Dimitri, and Gatekeeper does not win. Since I do not know who is winning, I guess I will stick with Hapi for now.

He is far from groundbreaking, but he is pretty solid. I would at least keep a copy. That being said, he is not super necessary either if you already got Save tanks for Heroes in Limited Hero Battles, and you got other Galeforcers and dual phase units built up for other modes. I personally lean towards Res for more all round bulk, since a merge will patch her Atk, but going Atk is fine too for more damage output later. Honestly anything besides +HP will work. Even +Spd is fine since she can be decently fast especially at higher merges, so I would not worry too much about not getting the right Asset at low merges. If you do not plan to give her merges, I would use Fruits and Florets to give her [+Atk/Spd, -HP]. Makes it easier to trigger all the warping with low HP. She is not bad, but her combat mechanics are extremely outdated in my opinion, so I personally would not bother merging her and I would just use all future copies as SD Far Trace fodder. While I think it is a good idea to keep a copy of her, I would not invest too much into her.

I almost forgot to vote today, but if you live in California, make sure you remember to vote by tonight at 8:00pm for the primary midterm election. I went with all Democrats up and down the ballot. Half the choices are super easy because it is just between a Democrat and a Republican. If you live in other states, you guys will probably vote sometime later this year too, so do forgot vote for your midterms. Just because it is a midterm does not mean it is not important! Go VOTE!!!

Yeah, but that is about it. Like, at least give her freaking Desperation on the Weapon so it makes sense for her to keep Trace for continuing combat. Oh, and that positioning requirement is dumb as hell, since players are pretty likely to have some form of Gray Waves these days, so traveling far enough to be four spaces away from an ally is not uncommon. Even if the player can run Sweep on her and put her in a Save tank team to mitigate her shortcomings, I think the player might as well just save some Orbs and dust off Ranulf from the bench, give him a Refine, and use him instead for that role since he got Null Follow-Up and can deal even more damage safely. He does not have warping, but most Save tank teams in general do not need that level of mobility either. I do not know. Maybe I would have felt less disappointed if I had seen trailer first before I have seen the news on the Refines. I am already not too impressed with Ranulf's Refine since dealing more damage on player phase just does not seem necessary in a Save team, and then seeing Florina: Azure-Sky Knight just makes her seem even worse than Ranulf.

Oof... I would have really liked Florina: Azure-Sky Knight... if she was released like two years ago. I think what separates modern nukes these days from those of old are that modern nukes usually come with some form of protection in their Weapon, whether that is Brave, Sweep, Null Follow-Up (so you can run Sweep on B), or plain old Desperation, so they can hit twice safely. She can still run Desperation on B, but that slot could have been with her vanilla Trace to further boost her numbers. And Pushes are not okay nor cool, they fucking suck. And Joint Drive Spd too? At least throw Spd/Def Rein in there. Sain will be fun on defense as a Rally trap. He is not going to do squat against super tanks nor Save tanks when he initiates, but he can apply Fatal Smoke and then his teammates can finish the kill. And they give us the shittier Flow Refresh instead of Flow Guard. Letizia is alright. Rouse is nice, but Menace would be more fitting. Limstella is alright. My main gripe is with Florina: Azure-Sky Knight, as she just feels too dated, and her fodder is freaking awful too.

Flora: Signature Dish got essentially the same Refine as Felicia: Off the Menu. It is alright overall and I think it is slightly better since all her effects are based on just a Res check, whereas Felicia also wants to win that Spd check to make use of her Null Follow-Up effect on top of trying to win that Res check for damage reduction. I think Ranulf is meant to be used in a Save team due to positioning requirements and he got some minor support utility, and he can apply damage on player phase safely with Windsweep or Watersweep. I do not think he is all that great as Atk/Def+4 is peanuts compared to damage reduction, and while he does have more damage output than Flayn, I do not think it is necessary since Save tanks should deal enough damage on enemy phase where player phase damage is not really necessary in most cases. Berkut: Purgatorial Prince got dual phase guaranteed follow-up, which should make him more threatening on defense. I do not think he is that great in player hands unless you really know what you are doing, but he seems solid on defense to help trigger Wings of Mercy. Naesala is alright. For Galeforce, you probably want Impact-Guard. Sweep is also an option so he can chip bulky tanks. Velouria is alright too, and she can Galeforce better now. — — — — — — — Ranulf feels really iffy to me since I do not think his role is really that necessary, but the rest are all decent. I do not think it is worth it to chase after and Refine Flora: Signature Dish and Berkut: Purgatorial Prince since they got insane competition or are kind of niche. I think Velouria is good if you are using beast and/or Galeforce teams a lot, but she is not a must have either. I think Naesala is probably the best one to Refine if you really want to spend some Dew since he can Galeforce or Sweep, so he is more flexible. I think I will give Flora: Signature Dish a Refine since I gave her sister one; should make Limited Hero Battles with Fates a bit easier, especially with one or two Kadens for support. Faye: Drawn Heartstring just needs Firesweep Bow, Reposition, and Armor Boots, and she is good to go for Arena Assault. Everyone else though, yeah, I just take off their Bold Fighter and run something else. You can lock teams to free up a little more Seals. Super and save tank teams can handle most Arena Assault defense teams, and since their team composition does not change, you can lock them and then reassign their Sacred Seals somewhere else.