Sire

Did some more characters for fun, this time speculating on how Ike, Erika, and Ephraim will be incorporated into Heroes. Title: Hero of the Blue Flames (Alt Title: Radiant Hero) Name: Ike Orb Affinity: Red Sword HP: Good (4) ATT: Good (4) SPD: Good (4) DEF: Poor (2) RES: Terrible (1) MOV: 2, Infantry 5* Weapon: Ragnell (MT 16, Range 1 || Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1)) Support Skill: --- 3* Special Skill: Aether (Resolve combat as if foe suffered Def/Res-50%. Unit recovers HP=half damage dealt. || Charge Cost: 5) 4* Special Skill: Great Aether (Resolve combat as if foe suffered Def/Res-50%. Unit recovers HP=half damage dealt. || Charge Cost: 4) Skill A: Defiant Attack 1-3 (Grants Atk +3 at start of turn if unit's HP ≤ 50%.) Skill B: Vantage 1-3 (Unit counterattacks first when attacked at HP ≤ [25%, 50%, 75%]) Skill C: --- Reasoning: For Stats, I looked at his Radiant Dawn and saw his DEF and RES being a little lower while everything else being a little higher (when compared to a Sentinel). So, I adjusted the stats accordingly. As for Ragnell, this decision was made due to how broken 1-2 weapons are in Heroes. While I can see Ike using Ragnell as a 1-2 weapon like Ryoma, I opted for a more interesting approach in that Ike specialized in Aether instead. Speaking of Aether, this is Ike's main draw. With the ability to learn Great Aether (reducing the charge by 1) and wielding Ragnell (further reducing the charge by another 1), Ike can constantly be delivering Aether strikes. This is something I think will fit well to his character. Lastly, for skills, I added the classic "Wrath + Vantage" combo, but in Heroes form. While there will obviously be some conflict since Aether heals Ike, I think the skills are still a fun and useful addition to his overall set. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Title: Restoration Queen Name: Erika Orb Affinity: Red Sword HP: Poor (2) ATT: Average (3) SPD: Excellent (5) DEF: Poor (2) RES: Average (3) MOV: 2, Infantry 5* Weapon: Sieglinde (MT 12, Range 1 || Effective against armored and cavalry units.) Support Skill: Pivot (Unit moves to opposite side of adjacent ally) Special Skill: --- Skill A: Speed 1-3 (Grants Speed +[1-3]) Skill B: --- Skill C: Fortify Resistance 1-3 (Grants adjacent allies Res +[2-5] through their next actions at the start of each turn.) Reasoning: As there are no monsters in FE Heroes (and I am unsure if they will ever be added), I decided to give Erika's Rapier functionality to her signature weapon Sieglinde. I could have instead given her an advantage over colorless foes, but I feel the Rapier + Sieglinde combo works fairly well for Erika. I also gave Erika Pivot as she is a light unit and to slightly give a callback to the Rescue system of the GBA games. Her passives were a bit difficult, but in the end I gave her bonus speed to make her even faster and Fortify Resistance to give Erika a little more of a support role. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Title: Restoration King Name: Ephraim Orb Affinity: Blue Lance HP: Average (3) ATT: Good (4) SPD: Poor (2) DEF: Average (3) RES: Average (3) MOV: 2, Infantry 5* Weapon: Siegmund (MT 12, Range 1 || Effective against armored and cavalry units.) Support Skill: --- Special Skill: Luna (Resolve combat as if foe suffered DEF/RES -50% || Charge Cost: 3) Skill A: Defiant Defense 1-3 (Grants Def +[3-7] at start of turn if unit's HP ≤ 50%.) Skill B: --- Skill C: Hone Attack 1-3 (Grants adjacent allies Atk +[2-4] through their next actions at the start of each turn. ) Reasoning: Like Erika, I gave Ephraim his Reginleif functionality as there are no monsters in FE: Heroes. As for his special skill, I gave him Luna since he had it in his Awakening Spotpass incarnation. Lastly, his passives are Defiant Defense (as Ephraim will not go down without a fight) and Hone Attack (representing his leadership ability such as taking over a castle with just four men.)

I rather have alternative advancement for 5* heroes instead of raising the star level. 1. Level Cap Break (Break the Level Cap by increments of 5 through a special item!) 2. SP Usage (Give me more skills and stuff to be at 5* ranking, providing more options to characters.) I really do not want to see 6* or higher heroes, that will just make the current "grind to endgame" even worse than it already is.

Out of my current roster, Felicia would be my top candidate. I would also say Sakura, but she has a 5* variant (I just have the 4* version of her). Felicia has excellent debuffing skills due to her Silver Dagger+, can heal adjacent allies after combat, and has good synergy with her special ability and her high RES. I love using Felicia to handle magic units, but she is also good at lowering down the armor of troublesome Knights (which is my main flaw with my current team.) Otherwise, the other three off the top of my head are F!Corrin (dragon with excellent debuffs), Saizo (area debuffs with his Smoke Dagger), and Adult!Tiki (offense dragon with ranged retaliation). I do not have F! Corrin, so I cannot say how good she is, and I have not unlocked Saizo's Smoke Dagger yet to how effective that is. Adult!Tiki is fun to use though, I plan making her a 5* unit at some point.

I did some comparisons for the final results compared to midterm results, thought I'll share if anyone was curious. If no changes were listed, then that character remained in the same spot. Female (Final Rank <- Midterm Rank) Nowi: 10 <- 11 Robin: 11 <- 10 Lute: 13 <- 15 Felicia: 14 <- 16 Elise: 15 <- 13 Mia: 16 <- 17 Anna: 17 <- 14 (Poor Anna, that is a bit of a drop...) Nino: 19 <- 20 Sakura: 20 <- 19 Male (Final Rank <- Midterm Rank) Leo: 10 <- 12 Dorcas: 12 <- 18 (What a jump!) Donnel: 13 <- 10 (And there was much rejoicing at his loss of rank 10!) Lon'qu: 14 <- 13 Marth: 17 <- 14 (New Mystery) Joshua: 18 <- 17 Eliwood: 19 <- ?? (He kicked out Male Corrin from the Top 20) * * * * * Now where did moy votes end up... Micaiah x2: Rank 17 (Game 2 || Votes 13491) Arthur x2: Rank 159 (Game 49 || Votes 1704) Ephraim x2: Rank 13 (Game 2 || Votes 14907) Lyn x2: Rank 1 (Game 1 || Votes 49917) Leo x2: Rank 19 (Game 5 || 12175) Duessel: Rank 390 (Game 31 || Votes 412) Nolan: Rank 439 (Game 53 || Votes 297 Flora: Rank 96 (Game 34 || Votes 2939) No big surprise to see Duessel and Nolan so low in the ranks, but everyone else did fairly well for themselves. I'm happy that Flora made it in the top 100.

It depends on how you want to play. I personally took the plunge and started mass promotions among my 3* cast that been waiting for a while. I would love another 5* character (specifically upgrading Felicia and Sakura), but at the moment I am content with the few 5*s I have. (Ryoma, Marth, Cain, Camilla) I almost cleared Story Lunatic with my 4* & 5* team and can win Arena 7 times in a row, so besides the satisfaction of having a full, optimized 5* team, I am in no real hurry to upgrade characters 4* -> 5*. That, and it is more effective for me to promote many characters instead of just one.

Edit... All right, I go through the effort of making a post, and when I decide to post it, it just copies my previous one. All that effort, wasted. I really prefer the old system where I can preview stuff and "soft-save" content instead of this auto-restore feature... Round 11 [Deep Devotion]: 3* Gordin || 4* Nowi || 4* Odin || 4* Beruka || 4* Clarine In short, I did some Lunatic runs shortly after my previous 4 pulls. Love the pulls for Round 11 (especially Nowi and Odin, but Beruka and Clarine are also nice), they definitely made up for the poor pulls I did when I spent my $40. In other news, I retired 4* Subaki, 4* Gwendolyn, and 3* Sully as I could use the feathers more than characters I will practically never use. In addition, hero rates differ by Hero Focus. (For me, I have 4.5% chance for Deep Devotion for either a 5* Focus Hero or a 5* Hero in general. For Legendary Heroes, I have a 3.25%) Past Pulls & Other Info

Here's one I got with Ryoma (my first ever level 40 and main man, despite getting Cain and Marth first).

Updated my wishlist, now featuring dream teams! Yay!... Dream Teams [Main Team] Felicia, Ryoma, Takumi, Sakura: Felicia for debuffs and off-heals, Ryoma and Takumi to tank and deal damage, and Sakura heals everybody. I could swap out Sakura for Elise (mounted movement, Recovery Staff, and Kindled-Fire Balm), but Sakura works better thematically and I like her Fortify Defense skill. [Defense Team] Felicia, Ryoma, Takumi, Hector: Swap out Sakura for Hector, since I do not expect the AI to do well with healers. Hector being a knight will mean he will be extremely durable, making it a conscious effort for my opponents to take him down (unless they have a healer and kite him around). I could swap out Felicia for Robin (deals magic damage, covers a blue slot, and has weapon advantage against greys), but a part of me likes having Felicia hang around the Home screen. [Cavalry Team] Gunter, Jagen, Cain, Cecilia: Gunter and Jagan provide the buffs, Cain deals the damage, and Cecilia provides magic support. Another bonus with this team is that they cover all the colors! (Alternatively, use Leo instead of Cecilia to gain insane damage instead of weapon advantage against greys.)

By chance, was it a 5* Lucina that you have leveled to 40? It seems once this threshold is reached that there is a special conversation if you tap them in the home screen. It is currently unknown if you can review that conversation again, so you may want to document it somewhere for future viewing.

This sounds about right with gacha mechanics in general. I used to play Vindictus a lot and most of the vanity armors (especially the popular ones) were locked behind Gachapons (and RNG). Needless to say, some players would spend hundreds of dollars and still not obtain what they were looking for. This is why I support having a parallel system to the RNG that allows players to reduce RNG or outright eliminate it, but at a higher cost. (Say spend $10 for 5 random heroes, or pay $5 for a guaranteed 5* hero of your choice.) However, the motivation behind gacha games is to keep gambling I doubt such a system will ever get added. Gacha games have to have good enough rates for players to gamble, but have it low enough so players can fail and keep rolling the dice.

I spent $40 on FE:Heroes to support development, even though personally I do honestly believe the Orb prices are still a bit high. (~$13 for 5 heroes? That is expensive.) If I had excess, I could imagine becoming one of those dreadful whales who spends hundreds of dollars on Heroes, but as a poor man, I'll have to settle for what I have. Just a note to future buyers: Buying Orbs and summoning Heroes are still RNG. You could get a 5* hero, or you could get none at all with all the money you have spent. I pulled 4 sets of 5 heroes, no 5* whatsoever. However, the temptation to gamble though is always there, you could get lucky while others did not...

Favorite Level Range: 10-20 This level range makes some units have some skills available as well as giving some stuff to the AI, but overall the player should be fine with almost any decent team. Playing through Normal Mode and early Hard Mode was a fun experience. Other Comments 1-10: Normal beginner stuff. I like things to be a little more complex, so I rush past this stage (which is rather easy to do in the Training Tower). 21-30: Late Hard Mode and Early Lunatic. This is my second favorite level range because it is complex enough to make things interesting and actually has the AI teams put up some form of a challenge. 31-40: Endgame. I would love this difficulty with all of the crazy complexities and nonsense given to the AI, but at this stage the game really wants the player to start bringing hard counters instead of their favorite characters. My opinion on this range may change over time, especially as I get more 5* heroes, but with only three 5*s, my options are limited and it is easy to run into a wall when facing some of these teams. [Using leveled 4* heroes is doable, but in terms of efficiency, I rather stick to leveling 5*s past level 20.] Stamina Usage: Stamina usage sucks at endgame. (Tower is not so bad right now, but it is half off...) While I enjoy the challenges and trying to think my way to victory, losing a match will really hurt because of the insane amount of stamina that needs to be spent. Luckily, story missions are not as difficult as the Training Tower levels (story missions are predictable and one can build teams around them), but not having the right team to counter enemy units is not fun.

I run into plenty of Takumi's (and Lyns, Tikis [usually young], Robins, and Camillas]. My current setup (Ryoma, 4* Sakura, Cain, Camilla) can beat them, but relies a bit on kiting. Ryoma vs Takumi || Extra Tactics I use Ryoma against Takumi (since Ryoma is my strongest character). I try to place Ryoma just within range of Takumi but away from the other units. When Takumi comes in, Ryoma will counter. Next turn, I'll have Sakura heal Ryoma and try to finish Takumi off with whoever is available. This same tactic is also used against Lyn and Tiki (set up Ryoma, let them come, finish them off). On occasion my Cain can handle attacks from a Lyn (especially when debuffed, Cain's Threaten Attack is extremely useful combined with his extra movement), and can be used to finished off Lyns. Alternatively, Cain may be used as a tank for certain enemies. Camilla can counter Robins and other Blues, but I usually end up sacrificing her in the process. My entire team setup revolves around Ryoma and Sakura, and if Ryoma goes down or if the enemy is resistant to Ryoma's attacks, it's game over for me. I can see why some players use Falchion users (Lucina, Chrom, Marth) to counter Manaketes such as Tiki, but my current setup is efficient enough to win 7 Advanced Games in a row.

Ladies and Gentlemen... I caved in. I spent $40. This is partly due for my desire for a Lyn and Takumi and partly due to support the game itself as I see many more hours of playtime ahead of me (provided I can get past the "unlock potential" bottleneck...) So, here we go with 4 pulls! (I had some extra Orbs lying around for the 4th pull.) Round 7 [Deep Devotion]: 3* Henry || 3* Jegan || 3* Oboro || 3* Lissa || 4* Arthur Round 8 [Legendary Heroes]: 3* Henry || 3* Barte || 3* Florina || 3* Niles || 3* Saizo Round 9 [Deep Devotion]: 3* Serra || 4* Caeda || 4* Caeda || 4* Subaki || 4* Gwendolyn Round 10 [Deep Devotion]: 3* Selena || 3* Selena || 3* Robin || 3* Henry || 4* Chrom

Yes, AI heroes in Story Mode can have different skills. The most notable that comes to my mind is the finale of the first Awakening chapter. Stahl has Rally Attack, but if the player has Stahl, he cannot learn Rally Attack.

Blazing Sword: Jaffar, Pent, Louise, Anthos, Priscilla, Fargus, Leila || Wil, Oswin, Canas, Dart, Karla || Nergal, Limstella, "The Black Fang" Sacred Stones: Seth, Duessel, Marisa, Moulder, L’Arachel, Dozla, Lyon || ... In short, everybody. Sacred Stones has a small cast, it can be done! Path of Radiance: Nephenee, Jill, Haar, Shinon, Black Knight || Ike, Elincia, Tibarn, Reyson || Ilyana, Mist, Volke, Astrid, Bastian Radiant Dawn: Micaiah, Nolan, Laura, Aran || Voulg, Nailah, Rafiel, Oliver || Meg, Caineghis, Kurthnaga, Renning Shadow Dragon: Jake (Where is Anna's boyfriend at? Does no one remember Jake?), Frey, Norne, Julian, Lena || Lorenz, Nagi, Gotoh, Nyna New Mystery: Sirius, Feena, Maris || Chris (Avatar), Katarina, Kleine, Eremiya, Roro Awakening: Cynthia (She has to meet Arthur), Indigo (proper Indy, not the current Laslow we have), Owain, Severa, F!Morgan (blue hair and Aether :D), Gregor || Gangrel, Walhart, Kellam, Basilio, Flavia, Gerome, Brady, Old Hubba Fates: Flora, Mozu, Benny, Fuga || Awakening!Anna, Scarlet, Kaze, Nichol

I managed to get a 4* Anna and she is doing fairly well for herself. While she currently just has a Silver Axe, and Vantage 2, she can learn Astra at 4* rank which can help her heal heavy damage on enemies. Then she can also learn all 3 levels of Spur Res (which I'm still uncertain to how exactly it works - does she buff nearby allies after she attacks or is it a temporary buff for adjacent allies during battle situations [player and enemy phase]?) When she gets her special Axe and Vantage 3, Anna will do even better, especially with her special ability. If I was to compare Anna to the current Tier List, she definitely is no SS or S rank, I would argue she could have a spot in the lower A ranks (like Arthur) due to her special weapon, special ability, and Vantage. (I would also argue Hawkeye may be A Rank material, but that is for another topic.) As for Alfonse, while he has a decent skillset in terms of damage (self-healing, damage up on the offensive, damage up when HP is low), he lacks utility. If I were to compare him to Ogma (A Rank), Omga does almost everything Alfonse does, but better (Noontime versus Sol, Brave Weapon versus Folkvangr, Defiant ATT versus Deathblow). Yes, Alfonse will do (much) more damage per hit and not suffer a speed penalty, but Brave Weapons are useful in a variety of situations (charging up special skills and dealing extra damage.) There are cases where Braves do not shine as well (such as against high DEF or RES enemies), but that is where a different unit comes in to cover that flaw. Brave's purpose is to kill the enemy before they have the chance to attack you, which is something normal weapons lack. While both have killing potential, one unit can remain undamaged while another has to take a hit in order to secure a kill. Sharena would be in the upper ranks of B (which is where they conveniently put her), due to her Special Weapon and Rally Attack. Fortify Defense is also nice, but the passive speed skill could have been something else.

1. Not checking enemy weapons in high difficulties. I lost a character to a Brave Weapon. Still beat the map though. 2. Not checking enemy skills in higher difficulties. One generic had Miracle. It took me by surprise, but I still killed it without too much concern. 3. Realizing too late that this game is simply color based and does not have separate triangles. So, a Blue Tome will beat a Red Sword, for example. (I was separating the physical weapon triangle and the elemental magic triangle, like in the Tellius games. In Heroes, everything is purely by color.) 4. Sending Ryoma into enemy lines to act like Yukimura from Samurai Warriors. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not...

Round 6 [Deep Devotion]: 3* Shanna || 3* Frederick || 3* Barst || 4* Hinata || 4* Nino Did some quick Lunatic runs in hopes for a good pull. While the characters are all right, I really need to start reigning in my hopes here. Being disheartened made me simply tap past the summon screen instead of taking a photo. (Actually, I'll probably stop taking photos. I like me words more.) Shanna is a repeat so she gets sent home. I like Frederick and Barst, so they'll be on the reserves for now (I may level them or wait until I get a 4* version of them). Speaking of getting a 4* version, I got 4* Hinata, which I previously received two times prior as a 3 star. While I still dislike the guy, my inner completionist is telling me to keep him, so now Hinata is a benchwarmer instead of being sent home. This may change because I did send home a 4* character before (4* Serra). The biggest win here is 4* Nino. Now that I think about it, I never really got a proper mage (I got rid of starter Raigh and a 3* Henry), so I'm sure she will prove to be useful in my alternative parties. Past Pulls & Other Info

Marth is fairly good for a 5* and will serve you well due to his relatively balanced status, passive heal, and repositioning with his "Pivot" skill. He will shine a bit more in Arena play against players who field Manaketes (Nowi, Tiki, etc), but is still serviceable even in story mode or tower runs. However, if you plan on playing it safe and going for the "ultra-long term," I would suggest to keep rerolling. I would recommend going for Deep Devotion and hope for a Takumi, but a Camilla or Lyn will work well. Alternatively, you could go for Legendary Heroes and hope for a Lucina, Young Yiki, or Robin, as Marth is a little bit weaker than the other options (he is on par with Roy if taking into account the current Tier List) At the end of the day, it is what is fun to do and not necessarily what is the most efficient. If you have the time and really want to play it safe, keep rerolling. Otherwise I would just keep Marth and hope you get another 5* through normal orb rolls. At some point the "time versus effectiveness of rerolling" will be a poor investment as one could have gained more by normal play instead of constant rerolls.

Just gonna leave some thoughts here after completing both Normal and Hard Mode of Story (and completing all the respective quests, sans Lunatic). Current Hero Pool & Detailed Main Team * * * * * Much later in the game, I find that party composition and strategy matters a lot more compared to just picking your favorites and rolling with them. Specifically, I mean having a party built to counter whatever gets thrown your way (This is easy in Story Missions due to predetermined enemies, a little harder with the randomized but known foes in the Tower, and a bit more difficult if doing Arena runs).The reasoning for this is on Normal mode, the player usually faces against 3* enemies (so 5* characters will wreck Normal Mode). On high difficulties, enemies also get promoted in terms of star rank, and may even gain weapons and skills that have to be checked instead of blindly rushing in. (One guy I faced had Miracle, and another time I was caught off-guard by an enemy who had a Brave weapon.) Om 9-5, Hard Mode, I tried using my tried and true team (4* Sakura, 5* Ryoma, 5* Cain, 5* Camilla). I had to surrender because Cain, despite having a Brave Sword, did not have enough speed and damage to kill an enemy in one blow and is rather fragile when not on the offensive. So, I tried again, replacing Cain with my 4* Felicia, and managed to prevail by sacrificing Sakura and Camilla. Granted, I was not exactly level 35, but it was still rough. The flaws of my current party are dealing with ranged units (Ryoma can only do so much) and Knights (Sakura is my only magic unit, but she is not built for damage). Hypothetically, my updated "dream team" would be Felicia, Sakura, Ryoma, and Takumi. Felicia debuffs enemy units, handles mages, and provides off-healing. Ryoma and Takumi deal damage and tank while Sakura heals everybody. I'll probably still have some difficulty with Knights, but Felicia's debuff and special ability will help a lot in the long run. In short, the main thing I want to say is, when playing higher difficulties, I would highly advise players to have a lot of 4* and 5* heroes to choose from so they can counter what the enemy throws at them. Look at the enemy composition, know the starting placements and maps, and always check enemy skills and what weapon they have. Charging in blindly will no longer work during the upper levels of Hard and the start of Lunatic.

Round 5 - Deep Devotion: 3* Gunter || 3* Hinata || 3* Sully || 3* Tiki (Adult) || 4* Serra It seems my lucky streak is still declining, but there is a ray of hope in the Divine Dragon. I was still heavily gunning for a Lyn and a Takumi (more so Lyn at the time, but now I really want Takumi) and I end up with this set of heroes. I already have Gunter and I dislike Hinata, so they were went home. Sully is okay, but she is a 3* unit so she is currently in the reserves. Adult Tiki is a character I did want, a bit of a shame she is a 3*, but at least this pull was not a complete waste. Serra though... She was all right in Blazing Sword, but was never one of my favorites. I tried using her because her stats and abilities seemed good, but I cannot get past her personality. Give me Kate Davis as Lissa instead of Kate Davis as Serra (or Kate Higgins as Alisa from God Eater). Serra herself was shortly sent home afterwards by recommendation of my good man Matthew. While there is plenty of heroes I would love to have (still Lyn and Lucina, among others), for my particular team composition I need a Takumi to complement my Ryoma, Sakura, and Felicia. I could start Lunatic mode anyway without a full setup, but it will be a bit more difficult... Past Pulls (4 Total)

It was rough, but I did manage to beat it first try with my initial team and I was about the same level at the map (4* Felicia, 4* Sakura, 5* Marth, 5* Cain). I think only one character died (I got extremely lucky, for some reason the AI decided to gang up on one of my healthy units instead of one who is in critical condition). Granted, I did have the benefit of having 4* and 5* units and consider myself an above-average FE player (I enjoy Lunatic every now and then), so that also helps. Now that I think about it, I think I only had to use Light's Blessing once (mostly for kicks, otherwise I just surrender), but that was near the early game when I was still running around with the "Heroes Trio." Felicia for debuffs, Sakura for healing, Marth's strategic positioning, and Cain's DPS is a deadly combination.

I'm sure shapeshifters will make it in, but they probably won't make a big appearance until the Tellius series is ready for inclusion. Laguz, Taguel, and the two Fates classes will likely be categorized as "Beast." They will have transform animations like the dragons, but will be primarily physical based instead of the magical dragon breath. For Beast Laguz, I can see Cats being "Red Beast" (agile like myrmidon sword wielders), Tigers being "Green Beast" (they are similar to classic Fighters), and Wolves being "Blue Beast" (because the other two are taken.) Bird Laguz (Hawks and Ravens) may simply be classified as fliers like normal Pegasus and Wyvern Knights, save for the fact they (art wise) transform. Herons may be colorless and become their own "dancer class," lacking any form of attack (save for maybe Reyson) but having superior "dancing" abilities. Tellius Dragon Laguz will likely just adapt to the current Manakete formula, unless they end up being "Physical Dragons." Who knows what will happen.