ILikeKirbys

On the minus side, I didn’t get a single Green Orb on my free pull for Heroes With Swift Sparrow. Which sucks ‘cause I was hoping for Nino, but at the same time she’ll probably be on a Legendary Banner sooner or later (or was she already on one? I honestly don’t remember). On the plus side, my Swordhardt is now +2 ‘cause I got a +HP/-RES one on the free pull, which is unexpected but pretty neat.

Got +RES/-DEF Nina off of Nohrian Dawn, which is nice. She's definitely getting a Ploy at some point, once I decide which one to give her.

Damn, I completely forgot that Male Kana exists. And that I have three of him. Although, I just realized (putting this in spoiler just in case):

So, now that I've seen the stats: Gonna be pulling Red >= Colorless > Blue > Green here, slightly different from before since Nina's better than I expected her to be. Not sure how much I'll put into this banner though...

@SilvertheShadow Also,

@Poimagic

Hey, so did I! And I'm happy that Pit Silas is the demote too! Mostly because he has the third-best skillset on the banner (Nina's just doesn't do anything for me, though I guess it works well with Sumia since she has ATK/DEF Link and those two moving each other would give them both +6 to everything, but that doesn't interest me), so I'll be able to luck into some great fodder in the future, outside of the one I build up. I actually hadn't considered that... and now I'm mildly annoyed that the only tome Dancer I have is Shigure. Mist! No, Jaffar! No no wait Sothe! But he's a 5-Star! Seriously though, good luck getting Nina tomorrow, dude. May Colorless Hell go easy on you. Or at least give you a Veronica or two if it won't cough up Nina.

Niles's ATK sucks, so it makes sense that his kid is weak too. Yeah, run her with Linde and Merric, since both of them benefit from being near mages with Aura/Excalibur's refinements, and one of the Performing Arts dancer mages or Dancer!Micaiah for the fourth mage. Also Quickened Pulse so she can instant-Aether people. I'll be rolling just for Flora this banner (partially because I wanna give her Summoner-S, Sturdy Blow 2 and ATK/DEF 2 Seal and staple an M!Corrin with refined Yato, S-Support and Spur DEF 6 to her so that Flora, assuming she has Felicia's DEF, can have 60 DEF and probably-respectable ATK when initiating against melee units and Bonfire them to death), but Ophelia looks super neat too. Pit Silas looks good for a demote, hell he might even be good outside of being fodder (though Steady Stance fodder is cool, and DEF Wave fodder would also be neat if he pitybroke me on a future banner). Nina has nothing of interest to me whatsoever, so Colorless is skipped. I kinda wish she'd demote with Silas, but I know it won't happen.

Ah, that makes sense. That's a pretty good reason. And I was disappointed when Walhart didn't have a DC axe, so now I want DC Axe Silas too. It's not like it would come completely out of nowhere either, since he can promote to Great Knight in Fates and get axcess to axes. And it'd get him out of the Sword and Lance pools where he'd probably drown in better horses, and into the Green pool, which has I think 3 axecavs and thus far less competition. I would argue that Silvia at least brings a RES-boosting sword to the game, though. Not sure that's all that big of a thing to bring, but it's something we didn't have before, at least.

That is a possibility, though I doubt they would make two month-long banners for lower-profile people. I think at least one of 'em's gonna be something a bit bigger than that. Also, that's a lot of banners in a short timespan right there. Friday has New Heroes #1, then two days later the Celica/Odin/Cherche New Power banner, then next Friday has New Heroes #2, a few days later there's Heroes with Swift Sparrow, shortly after that we get the Legendary Hero banner, then early in October we'll get the Ishtar & Reinhardts BHB Banner, Heroes with Ploy Skills and a Special Heroes banner fairly quickly. That's 8 banners on this calendar, with 5 banners to go in this month alone. I'm just gonna focus on the New Heroes banners, maybe the Special Heroes depending on what's in there. Gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Friday's banner will be Rinkah (Green Axe Infantry, Possible Demote), Silas (Blue Lance Cav, Possible Demote) and Charlotte (Green Axe Infantry, Staying 5-Star Only Forever), with GHB Flora (hopefully with some kind of Brave Dagger+). EDIT: Why DC Axe Cav for Silas?

@Kaden That first refinement option would be redundant, as Luke already comes with Panic Ploy in his C Slot... though it could be alright if you changed Luke's C Slot, but otherwise I can't see the usefulness of this. The second refinement interests me, and while it would probably mostly be useful against Emblem teams and Bladetomes, that's pretty good if you ask me. I quite like this refinement. The third refinement... I kinda like it. It's like a refined!Rogue Dagger+, except foes get their ATK/SPD nerfed instead of DEF/RES so your units will end up even bulkier thanks to that (plus I think the debuff might stack with any Panic Ploy-reversed buffs, so you might be able to see foes with -12 ATK/SPD). It does run into the problem of having to attack to apply those debuffs, but I still think it's a cool idea. I quite like this idea, if it existed I might not have foddered both of my pitybreaker Lukes off for Panic Ploy fodder @Jingle Jangle That RES-based follow-up threshold for Sonya would be neat. I'd like to see that. That Arvis/Saias idea would be interesting, and I would like it if that happened for at least one of them. Halloween Nowi's would be nice, though I dunno if they'll ever give seasonal prfs refinements. Camus... Hardin is the entire reason that I don't expect Gradivus to get a refinement any time soon, but that one would be alright with me if it happened. So, here are a few refinements I thought of for units who may or may not need them: Xander - Paragon Knight Seigfried [Refine] | MT 16 | This unit can counterattack regardless of distance. Skill-Refine: If foe's HP = 100%, grants ATK/DEF/RES +4 during combat. As the one DC sword whose weapon isn't shared with another unit at the moment (I think), I feel like the safest place to start with DC weapon refinements would be with Xander. The base effect doesn't change, but the skill-refine allows Xander to effectively have his Chivalry skill from Fates on his weapon by boosting his damage dealt and reducing his damage taken when his foe starts combat with full HP. Even if that isn't your cup of tea, being able to give Xander more stats seems like a decent thing. Laslow - Dancing Duelist Laslow's Blade | MT 16 | If a Rally skill is used by this unit, grants another action to this unit. (Only works once per turn.) Skill-Refine: If a Rally skill is used by unit or targets unit, inflicts ATK/DEF -5 on foes in cardinal directions of unit through their next actions. Laslow gains a blade that lets him refresh himself by Rallying an ally, giving him much greater mobility relative to most Infantry units, and can also refine his weapon for ATK/DEF Feint 2, which lets him debuff foes with his Rallies. It's probably nothing especially great, but it at least gives Laslow some supporting ability and some mobility. Fjorm - Princess of Ice Leiptr [Refine] | MT 16 | This unit can counterattack regardless of distance. Skill-Refine: During combat, if Special activates, this unit attacks immediately afterward. (Cannot interrupt a Brave weapon's second attack. Attack occurs even if unit is otherwise prevented from attacking.) Fjorm strikes me as someone who could use a little boost, so she gets refineable Leiptr with the option to get the ability to attack immediately if her Special activates, letting her interrupt Desperation mages when Ice Mirror activates (Disclaimer: Leiptr's shiny new effect does not let her attack between the two attacks of a Brave weapon, so Reinhardt still gets to shock her twice, though if she survives she'll get two attacks in a row thanks to this effect), guarantee that she'll get to take advantage of Ice Mirror's damage-reduced-is-added-to-next-attack effect even against foes with Wind/Firesweep, Dazzling Staff or Sacae's Blessing or while afflicted with Candlelight, or pretend she has a Brave weapon if she's using an offensive Special and it activates. It's probably not too amazing, but it's something. Narcian - Wyvern General Rune Axe | MT 16 | When Special activates, recover HP equal to 40% of damage dealt. Skill-Refine: When in combat with foe using Axe, this unit performs a follow-up attack and foe does not. Narcian gets the Rune Sword: Axe Edition, which puts Noontime+ on his weapon, giving him some decent recovery when combined with his default Vengeance or any other Special, and also lets him have Axebreaker Infinity on his weapon as well, which lets him Breaker all of the Hectors (Brave is covered by Lancebreaker, which Narcian starts with) as well as asserting his superiority over all other Axe users by automatically doubling them while preventing them from doubling him. Fae - Divine Dragon Divine Breath | MT 16 | After combat, if unit attacked, grants ATK/SPD/DEF/RES +7 to unit and allies within 2 spaces through their next action. If foe's range = 2, damage is calculated using lower of foe's DEF or RES. Skill-Refine: At the start of Turn 1, grants Special Cooldown -1 to Infantry and Dragon allies with lower HP than this unit. Fae's base effect is fairly simple: Divine Breath is just Light Breath with more MT and bigger buffs, which maybe isn't super useful but might come in handy if you've got a Bladetome running around or something. The skill-refine is pretty much Infantry/Dragon Pulse 3, letting her lower the Cooldowns of her Infantry allies (potentially by 2 if you give her Infantry Pulse in the C Slot) as well as her Dragon allies (so she can extend the Pulse to Myrrh, Beachside Scion Tiki, and the Grimas, as well as any future non-Infantry Dragons), making her a good unit to have on those teams. Please let me know what you think!

10 Voting Gauntlet Orbs gave me Lewyn. +HP/-DEF is alright by me, since the stats that matter went untouched and his DEF sucks even at neutral. Wasn’t expecting Lewyn to be mine ever, so I’m pretty happy right now. Now to let my Orb stock rebuild and decide whether to try for Silvia or hope for her to get demoted.

@Vaximillian

I completely forgot about the B Skill when I replied, thought you meant Silvia had some kind of possibly-exclusive Dance+ or something (I could see this happening at some point, possibly with the Herons, or just Leanne). I can't see SPD/RES Dancebuff keeping Silvia at 5-Star-only though, it doesn't strike me as all that great compared to most other B Skills that Dancers can run (Wings of Mercy primarily, but Escape Route, Guard, Quick Riposte or a Breaker could serve fairly well if you want Silvia to do combat). What about Warding Breath? I know that doesn't come with an ATK boost, but the accelerated Special charge seems like it'd be pretty good for those units too, wouldn't it?

Went for the free pull on the Fury banner. Wanted Myrrh, and got one Green Orb so why not? Got Myrrh. My Myrrh is now +1. I'm happy with this turn of events. Now, to wait until the Silvia/Lewyn banner drops tomorrow.

Nah, Quan knows exactly what he wants to do, and that's be a defensive wall that hits like having a wall fall on you. If I end up with him (long shot, I'll be avoiding Blues this run), I kinda want him to be -SPD and throw Quick Riposte and Bonfire on him so he can Bonfire people on the second hit (Ethlyn can heal him back into QR range). This might actually be doable. According to my calculations (which assume no merges and aren't necessarily good), a +ATK/-SPD Reinhardt (with Death Blow 4 and Hone Cavalry) vs a +RES/-DEF Silvia (with RES-Refine Barrier Blade+, Distant Counter, Guard (to prevent Reinhardt from Specialing her to death) and HP RES 2 Seal) does [58 * 1.2 = 69.6 -> 70 ATK - 46 RES =] 24 damage per hit, which Silvia would barely survive with [49 HP - 24 = 25 HP - 24 =] 1 HP, and then she'd hit Reinhardt twice for [41 * 0.8 = 32.8 -> 31 ATK - 27 DEF =] 4 damage ([46 * 0.5 = 23 additional damage + 4 damage = ] 27 damage if she procs Iceberg), so she'd definitely survive, but she'd have to wait until her turn to kill the Reinhardt. You're making me want her even more, here. If I end up with +SPD Lewyn, I think I'd drop Special Spiral in favor of running him with regular Desperation and Flashing Blade Seal, to take advantage of his super SPD and ability to always be desperate and drop Glimmer every time he attacks. For me, it's Silvia => Lewyn > Quan. Silvia looks like someone I really want, Lewyn just looks amazing, and Quan is also good but not someone who interests me.

Oh, that makes much more sense. SPD/RES Dancebuff still doesn't strike me as something worthy of keeping a character locked to 5-Star exclusive though. That would've been sad. At least you can use the other one for a merge if you really love Cherche though. I know, right? I thought it was good when I mistakenly thought the self-damage was stuck at 100% HP, but having ATK/SPD +5 all the time is just fuckmothering crazy. Add Brazen ATK/SPD 6 on top of this, and now Celica has 19 extra ATK and SPD. Always. This makes me want to use my Celica. She's +RES/-HP so hardly optimal (though fortunately her ATK and SPD were untouched), but she has effectively 65 ATK and 52 SPD (55 if I give her a SPD +3 Seal) once she gets into a combat or two which is just incredible to me. This set of refinements was just full of winners, huh? Even Odin got something sweet (basically refineable Thunderhead, since it doesn't have the Special Cooldown +1 that Blarblade does, and ATK/SPD Link on the weapon seems pretty nice too), and I wasn't expecting that.

No, Silvia does not have a new Dance skill. She has the regular Dance skill. Also, Mirror Stance is coveted? I agree it's rare, but I can't think of anyone who especially needs/desires Mirror Stance. I'm almost certain Silvia's gonna drop to 4-Star, since she doesn't really offer anything especially unique (Barrier Blade is just Berkut's Lance: Sword Edition and Shigure and Libra brought new weapons and then got demoted so Barrier Blade isn't gonna be enough to keep Silvia locked up in 5-Star-exclusivity-land, Dance is hardly unique considering it's available in the 3-Star pool, Mirror Stance is nice but hardly super amazing, Deluge Dance is alright but it probably isn't amazing on a Dancer compared to stuff like Wings of Mercy/Escape Route) or have anything like a Valor skill that IntSys has kept 5-Star-exclusive. They didn't even lower the HP loss on Ragnarok? Damn... though that works in Celica's favor now, since the extra HP loss makes it easier to get into Brazen ATK/SPD 6 range... And I have a -HP Celica (+RES, but that doesn't feel especially terrible now), and suddenly she seems a lot better than she did previously since she's guaranteed to get into Brazen range if she takes more than 1 point of damage in her first combat and then she can just run Desperation with +14 ATK and SPD... I'm okay with this refinement, actually. It's not what I hoped for, but I quite like it anyway. EDIT: Celica's refinement doesn't have an HP requirement any more. So she can have a potential +19 ATK and SPD with Brazen ATK/SPD 6. I completely missed that before. This is honestly kind of amazing. Well, at least he got something good. Still not using him tho. I didn't even think this could happen. Not that I'm complaining, it's great for Cherche. I'm so glad I have a +ATK Cherche right now because hitting twice with 52 ATK (58 with Death Blow 3, 64 with Hone Fliers/ATK Tactic) sounds amazing... though +SPD might actually be pretty okay too, since she could reach 27 SPD with a SPD refine (on a Brave Axe, I'm honestly still amazed that that's a thing), and with Darting Blow 3, Hone Fliers and a SPD +3 Seal she could reach 42 SPD, which isn't amazing but could be run with Chill SPD and/or SPD Smoke and/or refined!Smoke Dagger+ to get quads. @Poimagic Damn, this thread moved quickly while I was writing this.

I can't see Desperation Sacred Seal becoming a thing. Especially now that Forseti is here. Can you imagine a unit with Desperation always, and probably will have enough SPD to double most people? Because that's what would happen with Lewyn if you gave that to him. I'd like to see the rest of that list happen though, especially Shield Pulse and Guard. Also DEF Smoke, I'd quite like DEF Smoke. Also, Ethlyn's a healer... Odd choice for a TT+ reward, but as one of the people who didn't take a free Veronica (I went for Hector), I look forward to seeing what she's got.

I'm kinda hoping it is so I can give it to Ares and have perma-ready Aether. How would Eldigan get better with it tho? It probably will be restricted to Infantry and Armored, but I can hope.

The next banner doesn't drop until the 7th, so I wouldn't expect anything until tomorrow at the earliest. Why are you expecting to see something tonight? They just reran Robin's LHB, so I'd say they'll rerun an LHB that already had Abyssal difficulty sooner or later.

@Corrobin Here you go! Selena: Interests me, though I think the base effect could maybe just be a flat +7 damage in that situation like the Light Brand. Outside of that, I quite like it. Laslow: The base weapon interests me, I'd probably end up running a dual-Rally on him if he got this and I used Laslow. The Skill-Refine seems fairly pointless, as Laslow comes with Hone SPD 3 by default so you're just getting Hone ATK 2 on the weapon. Saizo: The base weapon is a weaker refined!Smoke Dagger+, should be -6 and drop SPD too to at least be on par with that weapon. The skill-refinement... Is that a Threaten HP I see? I'm not sure I'd use it, personally (I'd go +DEF, mostly because mine's +SPD), but it's certainly interesting. Not enough to be worth running this weapon in its current form over a refined Smoke Dagger+ though, IMO. Having more stats, a little more HP, and dropping all stats would be better than Threaten HP IMO. @bottlegnomes Damnit, I completely forgot about Fighter skills when I was writing that up! Bold Fighter would be an amazing addition to any weapon that made a unit Armored as well as Infantry, though like you said it'd probably be a bit too good. Here's what I'm thinking: Lukas: Sharp Soldier - Sentinel's Lance | MT 16 | Grants Special Cooldown -1. Grants ATK/DEF +4 when attacked. | This unit is additionally considered Armored for the purposes of Skills and Effective Damage. When unit's HP > 50%, grants Special Charge +1 per attack to this unit and inflicts Special Charge -1 on foe during combat. Gives Lukas a fairly basic personal weapon, being a 16-MT Slaying weapon with built-in Sturdy Stance 2 (which should always be useful on an Enemy Phase unit like Lukas), and gives the option to promote Lukas into an Infantry/Armor (So Lukas benefits from Infantry Pulse/Rush/Flash as well as Hone/Fortify Armor and can act as a recipient of Armor March so that his Armored allies can get +1 MOV even though he can't actually benefit from it himself, but he'll also be vulnerable to anti-Infantry and anti-Armor weapons, and he won't be able to get rid of the latter weakness since he can't equip Svalinn Shield like a real Armor) and get Special Fighter 3 on his weapon, making him quite a bit sturdier than he normally is (since he'll have, assuming neutral stats and skill-refine with no other skills, 48 HP and 42 DEF on Enemy Phase with accelerated Special Charge for himself and slowed Special Charge for his foes as long as he has half HP or more). If nothing else, Lukas could be a decent choice to run on mixed teams if his ally has Armor March so he and his Armored buddy can both move two spaces. I dunno how good that would be, but it'd at least be something different. And since that would effectively powercreep Shiro's Bright Naginata, as it's got the Sturdy Stance, but also a Slaying effect and Special Fighter and making-Lukas-an-Armor-and-an-Infantry which has its benefits... Shiro: Raw Talent - Bright Naginata [Refine] | MT 16 | Grants ATK/DEF +6 when foe initiates combat. | When in combat with foe using Sword, this unit performs a follow-up attack and foe does not. Rather than getting Slaying effect, Shiro upgrades to Sturdy Stance 3, buffing his ATK and DEF more on Enemy Phase, and can also get Swordbreaker Infinity as well, to better deal with the many swordies in Heroes (though it won't necessarily stop Sword Armors with Bold Fighter/Vengeful Fighter/Follow-Up Ring from doubling, it will turn their auto-double into a regular SPD check to double, which shouldn't happen most of the time thanks to Shiro's actually-not-bad neutral SPD). It's probably nothing super amazing, but it gives Shiro the ability to always beat his dad a place as an anti-Sword unit with high ATK and DEF and respectable HP.

@Ice Dragon @Jotari Thanks for the info! I'm not about to put Close Counter on my Julius and park him in front of a Legendary Marth to find out if he'd still be able to counter, if only because Julius would most likely get one-shotted thanks to his low DEF and Exalted Falchion letting LMarth ignore the -6 ATK from Loptous, but it's still good to know that he'd probably be able to counterattack if he somehow survived the first hit from Exalted Falchion. And now, a weird question: Do you guys think we'll ever get effects like Julius's "X-Effective Damage Is Effective Vs. This Unit" for other units? I'm thinking mostly of Lukas here, who I could maybe see getting a weapon that makes him weak to Armor-Effective in exchange for some combination of effects that could justify adding a weakness to a unit who ordinarily wouldn't have that weakness (though I dunno what that could be, exactly, maybe something like Sturdy Stance 2 + Special Cooldown -1 with optional Guard When HP > 50% via refinement), but is there anyone else who could maybe end up with something like that? And would that be a terrible, terrible idea? Also, do you ever think we'll get refinements for Poison Dagger+ and Kitty Paddle+?

...Is Julius affected by Binding Shield? I know this is a stupid and random question , but if he's counted as a dragon for effective-damage purposes, is he considered as such for skills like Binding Shield? Random question aside though, yeah dragonbuffs for Julius would be great if he gets a refinement. That, and maybe an optional refinement that gives Loptous adaptive damage vs 2-range foes like a real dragon. @SilvertheShadow I know I'm late, but I'm glad you liked the refinements you looked at. A few thoughts in the spoiler: