TEHPWNZOR

"Personally, I think the current Arena system is kinda flawed and unfair, and needs a revamp to be actually fun. I understand that this game will always reward people who spend money or get lucky with various mechanics, while encouraging the unlucky ones to spend on orbs. Still, I think this is the wrong way to go about it." - TS 1st sentence made by TS. Pretty much states that the problem with the current arena system is the very fact that it's heavily revolved around people who spent alot of money/people with lucky pulls, but that only last for so long. Soon as the next bonus heroes are out and all free orbs are gone they're at the same place as everyone who doesn't spend money. Just as TS, I too, think it's the wrong way to go about it. There's no denying that. Discussions about spending money to gain advantages/reality/changes are obviously going to be brought up just by the very nature of the very 1st sentence and the fact that the thread is about arena which is heavily influenced by that. That much I dare to say it's at it's very core. "Second is the Bonus Heroes. Every season, there are a bunch of Heroes that double your Arena score when you have them on your team. Most of them are the current Focus heroes." - TS How exactly do you guarentee yourself to get atleast one of those heroes once you run out of all your free orbs? From experience alone, we can pretty much assume it rotates once every two weeks. Always with the previews focus banner heroes in there, all of them. Sure, Narcian, Odin and Catria are in there too. The problem is that nobody in their right mind would spend 20k+ feathers on any of them to actually make them viable. Narcian is an inferior version of Camilla/Minerva. Robin will always be the mage people use their 20k feathers on rather than Odin. Catria can atleast be pulled at 5* but is heavily countered by the current meta. That being said, new focus banner heroes are without a doubt the optimal choice of ranking up at the very moment. Leaving people with the option to waste 1.5 months of collected feathers on an inferior unit to be able to score higher these two weeks or leave it be and get bad scores if you didn't manage to pull any of the newer heroes. That needs a change. In order to change that we need to look at the very core of the problem which is the very fact that the bonus rewards are designed to reward people who spend alot of money at the game in mind. "Since you need to have a high stat total to even have a good score, there is no flexibility in your Arena rank at all; every week, you can expect the same results as long as you get a perfect run. That honestly just makes the ranking system completely pointless to any player who never spends money, since you need many Limit Breaks and good units to get to a good rank. Also, while there are Bonus Heroes available for free or more accessible to non-paying players, they are often rather bad units. In the first set of Bonuses, Sharena, Alfonse (and I think Anna) were available to everyone as Bonuses; however, they all started at 2*, and were thus basically unusable at the time. The second set (current) set of Bonuses has Odin, Narcian and Catria. Odin and Narcian are both, honestly, mediocore units that can lose you perfect runs, or even lose games. Catria is pretty solid, but is only dropped as a 4* or 5*, which means she is less accessible compared to the other two. Also, Narcian's map was fairly tough, such that without some lucky pulls, a free to play player might not have the tools to clear the 3* map, leaving them with a 2* Narcian. I hope IS changes the Arena someday, since as the main source of feathers, it can really discourage free to play players from continuing on." - TS Pretty much everything is covered. Even Narcian's map is brought up so talking about Grand Hero Battles isn't derailing. Sure, asking people what their definition of "P2W" might be of a stretch, however. It was a direct reply to people disagreeing about people getting a huge advantage by spending money. Instead of "I'm right, you're wrong. My opinion is absolute" I asked them of their point of view to have a better understanding when they're disagreeing and how to response accordingly. Let's say I disagree with TS' quote: "I understand that this game will always reward people who spend money or get lucky with various mechanics, while encouraging the unlucky ones to spend on orbs. Still, I think this is the wrong way to go about it." By me simply disagreeing he/she would have to get further into the discussion or leaving. To come to an understanding she/he would need to know my point of view which would lead to less and less arena talk because while it 100% effects arena, the core of the very foundation isn't the arena. I also didn't disagree regarding the arena itself but with the money spending, luck and mechanics. So, literally I'm not even allowed to reply to the people disagreeing and asking them nicely about their point of view of the very thing they're disagreeing without getting a warning and eventually a ban. Meanwhile, people are free to disagree and reply as much as they want to me while I'm not even allowed to question, ask about their opinion about their disagree/agreement. Amazing rules are amazing. Note: That was an example. I avoided the word "P2W" this time since it seems to make you very moody. Just to make things clear. I'm not grieving. I'm simply stating facts and am always up for a discussion. I don't hate people paying. I've actually spent money on this game myself, however, I only play on my F2P account because I have 5 5* with one of them being +2. While I only got 3 5* on my main that I also spent money on with boon/banes that breaks them. Just because you possibly spent alot of money on this game only getting bad pulls leaving you at worse state than alot of F2P and being closer to a P2W, don't take it over me. So, please. Stop saying I hate Gaccha games/grieving when I only state the obvious facts of how the game currently works. Wether you love/hate how it works is up to you. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. Just stating my own opinion being well aware that it's not absolute in any possible way. Also, this topic isn't about how to improve the arena only. The title may suggest it, but TS doesn't state that anywhere. What it is is TS stating his/her own opinion of the current state of the arena starting a discussion around that and everything he/she said. So, no. I'm not derailing. You should follow your own rules and start by banning yourself for abusing your moderator powers, how about that? Incase you want to know my very own opinion on how to improve arena I might say it even though it's not needed giving the nature of the thread that I've already covered my very own thoughts on most things that were brought up. Knowing you will keep abusing your moderator powers and I'll be banned despite not doing anything wrong according to the rules I'll just give my very own thoughts on how to improve the arena before I'm gone. Arena shouldn't get rid off bonuses. It keeps the game from being stale in theory. Arena should instead modify the bonuses. Here's an example of how: Instead of having specific heroes, they should have specific missions within the arena just like the monthly quests. "Use a flier unit", "KO foe with a red tome user" etc. That forces people to still have different units but is now available for everyone. Before going into arena you would have to setup different teams. Once you press proceed you will see your bonus mission and be able to change between your team. However, you cannot create teams in there. Only choose between those you have already created. That would mean that a little luck is involved too always allowing for different rankings. Another thing would be to make bonuses based on time since it's currently vs AI only. The longer you wait and bait to get the perfect setup the less bonus points you get. This rewards people with actual skills as you'd have to be a quick thinker. I'm pretty much banned now. Goodbye, everyone. Enjoy the game. I hope they make updates that makes everyone happy. I also hope they ban all those 5*+10 cheaters currently in top #500 because it isn't really nice to people who spent alot of money only to get outdone by them. See ya :)

How exactly isn't it P2W if you have absolutely no chance of ranking 1 - 1000 without paying in arena? Sure, you can do it once or twice with extremely lucky pulls. Soon as those two weeks are over and the new banner focuses are the new arena bonus heroes you can pretty much kiss your top ranking goodbye as all your free orbs went on the previews banner. To avoid another warning I might aswell say that my current discussion isn't me stating that the game is P2W but rather out of curiousity asking my fellow FE:Heroes players what you define as "P2W" since you disagree with the game being one. To me, everything that isn't possible to reach without paying no matter how much you grind, spend time, make wise choices etc, is P2W. Since there's absolutely no other way of obtaining it. Sure, in theory it's possible to make every single unit you have 5* by just collecting feathers. It's even possible to make the the less common units 5*+10 with just collecting feathers and merging since they have a high summon rate. However, just because it's possible doesn't actually mean it's actually possible. By the time you've accomplished that you're probably already dead if the game didn't shut down first. Just because you can make yourself a multi billionaire by collecting a few dropped pennies off the streets doesn't actually mean it's possible even though in theory it should be. That's the case with Fire Emblem: Heroes. So, what other games that are P2W or F2P that have quests outside of PvP that's literally only achieveable by paying? I've never played such a game since everything outside of PvP is usually obtainable by everyone. That's how almost all the games out there are designed. What determines if a game is actually P2W is always PvP and everything you obtain to have an advantage in PvP. In FE:Heroes PvP = Arena is the closest thing. So, my question is: What exactly determines if a game is P2W or not according to you guys?

I've been saying this ever since I joined here. What I got was a warning from a moderator saying I'm nothing but a crying wolf because I've been wrong the entire time when I've been saying this game is P2W the entire time. That was me saying that Grand Hero Battles are specificly designed toward everyone cashing out on new banners because you can always faceroll with them without using any tactics. Same with arena system as discussed on here. What I'm trying to say is; be careful guys. This game is not P2W. Banners, Arena, Grand Hero Battles and even some of the new quests requiring new Banner Focus heroes are defintely not aimed toward whales $$$ out. Everything in the game is fair and reachable with enough dedication. Just follow your ninja way and believe in the heart of the cards. - Yugi Uzumaki I'm 100% with the moderators. So, now I've warned you all. No need for them to warn you and eventually get you banned. Game is not even close to P2W ░░░░▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▄▄▄▄▄▄ ░░░░█░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░░▀▀▄ ░░░█░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░░░▒▒▒░░█ ░░█░░░░░░▄██▀▄▄░░░░░▄▄▄░░░█ ░▀▒▄▄▄▒░█▀▀▀▀▄▄█░░░██▄▄█░░░█ █▒█▒▄░▀▄▄▄▀░░░░░░░░█░░░▒▒▒▒▒█ █▒█░█▀▄▄░░░░░█▀░░░░▀▄░░▄▀▀▀▄▒█ ░█▀▄░█▄░█▀▄▄░▀░▀▀░▄▄▀░░░░█░░█ ░░█░░▀▄▀█▄▄░█▀▀▀▄▄▄▄▀▀█▀██░█ ░░░█░░██░░▀█▄▄▄█▄▄█▄████░█ ░░░░█░░░▀▀▄░█░░░█░███████░█ ░░░░░▀▄░░░▀▀▄▄▄█▄█▄█▄█▄▀░░█ ░░░░░░░▀▄▄░▒▒▒▒░░░░░░░░░░█ ░░░░░░░░░░▀▀▄▄░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░█ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▀▄▄▄▄▄░░░░░█

Last time I checked you guys(I take it you're one of the whales) spent your money to get all the exclusives in a short period of time, ahead of everyone else, so far ahead the F2P players will never be able to get to your current standing giving them a lifetime worth of playing. Light spenders(140~ orbs a month) wouldn't get close to your exclusives in 1 year of playing if you all stopped spending money all together from now. All of that which you got. None of you spent it to get these passover skills as they weren't out and nobody knew about it. Game has been out for what, 3 weeks? Pretty sad, that's coming from someone who's had an account that was spent over 20k USD on another mobile P2W game called Taichi Panda. Whaling is what ruins the games. It got to the point in Taichi Panda where they made these things called Talismans, crucial items that revived you in PvP with 50% HP. Was only obtainable through cashing out and no other way around and that one single item cost exactly 1400 USD to make. That's when I quit. Because despite being maxed out they kept making more and more expensive updates to keep whaling which got more expensive every single update. Now, every single whaling game I've either been on top at or have just played are literally dying out one by one because every single player are leaving only leaving the whales left on pretty much empty servers. Sure, they keep the games going but the servers and community on the internet forums are literally like in the ghost towns. Games like League of Legends have absolutely 0 P2W and is grossing more than any of these mobile games will ever do. Despite getting 0 advantage in the actual game by playing people are still whaling. I, myself have probably spent 3000 USD on LoL since 2013 so far. You still get to "stick out" by paying for exclusive skins etc. That's how games should be. That alone should be enough to support the company who made the game you enjoy playing. People who who spend money only to get advantage over everyone else and will only support the company if they get to do exactly that, honestly suck. Really lame. Raven is just stating balancing facts. I do disagree with him, though. Some skills should be able to be passed down because every hero have atleast one empty skill to fill atm. However, it should be carefully done with huge restrictions. But hey, according to you. Why not give all the whalers one extra nuke button? Should be next to surrender saying "If you've spent 10x more than your opponent press this button and you win by default" when PvP is available. Since, you seem to think you deserve everything on a silver plate just because you've spent money on it.

I know I can clear it as I completely missed out I still had Cecilia. Was pretty sure I had sent her home for feathers as she had boon/bane against her when checking her lvl 5* in potential. Camilla being -RES really gets wrecked by those mages. Anyway, the reason is because of the banner 5* heroes none the less. Which, happened to be one of the few best possible heroes in those banners available for the quests. Let's say if I rolled Roy instead of Camilla and Eirika instead of Julia I wouldn've been beyond screwed on my accounts. I say this as it's extremely hard to roll those compared to other heroes available. Even when I get them they get really bad boon/bane. Lyn being -ATK/RES. Camilla being +DEF/-RES. Robin is +SPD/-DEF but I made him from 3* and had 2 other Robins to choose from so wouldn't really consider it to be as much of a RNG luck but more about me and how I play because I don't think alot of people level 3x Robins to 4* to level 20 just to see the best possible IVs before going for 5* That being said, my alternative account suffers the same despite being the more lucky account when it comes to draws. Caeda is -SPD/+HP, Julia is neautral. Seliph is +1 but both of them were bad. Sheena I don't even remember but I recall it wasn't awesome but not bad either. Tharja at 4* that I summoned I'm really happy with. She turned out to be +SPD/-DEF which is by far the only and luckiest pull I've got despite being 4* and needing alot of feathers. She alone is the sole reason I even touch my alternative account. I really like her, tbh. Too bad my Lyn ended up being really bad because she's my #1 favorite character but with my luck I couldn't just reroll until I got her with good IVs. I had to settle with being able to get her at all.

Camilla is a banner hero. That's exactly my point. You can't re-roll for her now as her banner is gone leaving her with very low rates to get. If you're going to re-roll now you might aswell get the better and easier option, Julia.

In what way is that a douche move? What I'm saying is that people may think that they're at fault because they can't strategize well thinking they are really bad at this game. When people tell them to "just" strategize and tell everyone how easy that map was completely ignoring the major factor why they even won in the 1st place to begin with. Like with Narcian, I lost count of how many people bragged how easy it was and putting down everyone else who couldn't clear the map while they all used Camilla... What I'm saying is that these Grand Hero maps are designed towards specific hereos and their attributes. Most of the time it's those that were in the banner, cashgrab. Of course, there are going to be plenty of loopholes because alot of hereos have similar skills. If you don't have the specific heroes the map was originally aimed for you have to find the heroes who performance simularly to the the featured banner heroes. I think I cleared the whole map on hard in 3 turns in total. I'll not brag, though. Because I realize more than anything that it was a matter of luck of the draw and not how well you strategize. The map can't be effectively done by F2P players. Maybe at 50% rating at most but not close to 100% depending on what heroes you've managed to summon. Like, on my 1st account I summoned hereos that can do really well on Narcian map but not that good on F.Robin map. Meanwhile, on my 2nd account I think I've managed to summon few of the best heroes possible for F.Robin map, outside the banner aswell. However, I don't think I'll be able to clear the Narcian map as easily on my 2nd account tho. So both of my accounts have a 50% rating so far because of the heroes summoned. I'll admit it, though. Narcian map allowed more options and I'd definetely consider it more of a strategizing because you could approuch it from different directions. F.Robin only have one entrance/exit with enemies waiting right outside. Anyway, for people still struggling with the map I'll give you a few tips on how to clear F.Robin map. Rekommended: Strong green unit. When you go outside of the entrance you will get attacked by a blue mage, red mage was in rage but completely ignored me and let the blue one take his place. Then you will get attacked by the lance users. They will do less damage on you because of weapon triangle and last we have F.Robin. I don't remember if she's in range or not, though. For green units I recommend: Julia. Map is clearly designed for her and that's how I facerolled it. If you don't have Julia I think Tomahawk can be a good replacement. He will be able to tank the blue mage, probably kill the lance users coming after him and tank F.Robin aswell. His special skill should active during that time too and deal massive aoe damage since everyone should be pretty close to him. Hector? Should be very effective as he's very tanky in general and his counterattacks should more than enough to deal with everyone attacking him despite not having the movement. I don't know what order the AI will attack since I've never started at Hectors starting point before getting engaged. Camilla? Could perhaps work but you need a workaround. The only way I could see her working is if you have a dancer on the team. You could start off by positioning the dancer and Camilla. Take Camilla one step into dangerzone then use dance on her. That way she should be able to reach and OHKO the mage infront of her and tank everything barely surviving. Once it's your turn again you need to retreat next to your dancer. Then use dance on Camilla again to get her inside a safezone because she's 1 hit from being dead. The main issue with this tactic is that you still have a blue mage at the top and F.Robin at the bottom to OHKO your dancer through the wall. A unit with pullback might help if it's possible to pullback the dancer in a safe zone. I've never tried and the wall is really tight. My Camilla is -Res so haven't tried. Perhaps if you buff her res all the hassle isnt needed. Cecilia? I have absolutely no idea if she can actually tank everything at the very beginning because F.Robin is very effective against her. If she can survive with 1 hp you only need to use escape route and the game is on. Red units: Few could perhaps tank the blue mage and lancers but I don't see it the game not reaching game over early unless the unit has an escape route skill. Recommended: Lyn, Fir, Lon'Qu, Lucina, whoever can just go in and OHKO F.Robin really fast soon as she's baited out and the lancers and optionally blue mage is taken care of. Blue: I can't think of any good for this map. M.Robin could easily take out the blue/red mage but those are probably already taken care off. In my calculations the lancers/mage dies 1st. Then there's 1 mage(color varies depending on who you took care off/F.Robin left

Concentrate on strategizing rather than whining? You're talking as if I'm here whining because I can't clear the map, lmao. I cleared both the maps with Julia 5*, Seliph 5*+1, Tharja 4* and Kagero 4* 1st go. Yes, I did faceroll the map completely. Hence why I'm complaining since it's close to being 100% pay to win. I got 2 accounts, this one I facerolled the map on was made this monday. Hence, I've had the chance to use all gained orbs on this banner with good results. The other one was made day 2 and no matter how much I strategize I can't clear the map on hard because of heroes lacking. All my heroes are level 40 on that account too and put alot of effort and analysis and calculations throughout all their/mine stats/movements and all possible combos. Results always end up the same on that account; completely futile. Meanwhile, I completely faceroll the same map on my other account with this week's banner hereos without even trying. Highest leveled unit of mine there is lvl 37 too, lol. So, yes. I complain about it being completely utter bullshit map just like last weeks. Difference between last week is that I actually expected this to happen this time around so I made this alternative account just to see how it would do compared to my main account. The map is clearly designed for Julia to just go in and kill everyone while getting buffed by Seliph/Eirika/Ephraim. Of course, there are loopholes like Tharja who does extremely well vs F.Robin once Julia has tanked all the hits and killed half the map in one turn. Then there are other loopholes like Caeda who could easily replace Seliphs +SPD support skills if your Julia needs it, I happen to have her on the alt, Then again, having Tharja and Caeda in my opinion is too much asked for tbh. Both of them are "rare" and not everyone can get them. Same thing with Julia. I'm not going to be a douchebag and tell people to strategize when summoning the right heroes is clearly the way to go. I've clearly experienced it 1st hand both clearing Narcian on hard last hour after summoning a Camilla and now clearing F.Robin on my alt account, that may very become my main.

Heroes you can get for free no matter how hard the map is to clear will never be good compared to the heroes you can roll. Let me repeat, they'll never ever be able to compete with summoned heroes. This is the kind of game it is. Whale to win. The thing I've noticed is that these Grand Hero maps seem to favor the current banner to the point it's rarely fun anymore. Last week's was pretty much a Camilla map unless you had decent tanks on your team, such as Tiki who btw was a features banner hero. This week is pretty much a Julia map. She melts everyone coming at her when baiting. Really disappointing, tbh. I know it's a gacha game but it's still FE. This game is getting more and more about $ spent and luck. Less and less tactics involved which is a shame for something having Fire Emblem in it's title.

What I do is having a Narcian on the team simply because he has very high mobility being a flying unit. Then I just place him in a corner hiding while winning arena 3v4 :/

7 wins. 2 deaths in 2 games making it one each. Players with 2x and 3x Takumi cornering my epic OP Narcian. Anyway, I can only get 590 - 610 max score currently. RIP me.

What's really bothersome isn't the fact that characters are rotating. That's actually good. The issue is how they do it. Look, there are 3 free spaces available. Why not put Peri, Fir and Hawkeye? No, let's put all 4 of those focus hereos and leave 3 spaces empty. Really stale. I'm surprised Narcian, Odin and Catria are even in there at all. 3 man team isn't doing too well because of level 1 Narcian and Odin, haha

This game really went downhill in my eyes after the reset to the point I'm considering just quitting alltogether. I think alot of people feel the same way. My arena score is cut in half because I don't have any of those bonus hereos. I figured the bonus hereos might switch around randomly but never thought they'd be so greedy to literally put ALL new characters in there. Making it 90% pay to win(pay to be able to collect 20k feathers a month atleast) I kept rerolling the whole day yesterday just for the lulz because I had nothing better to do. Nothing to do on my main account. After alot of hours I finally managed to roll Seliph and Julia to try them out. Here's the funny part... I get nearly 200 max score more per win on the account I made YESTERDAY than my main I've had for 2 weeks. Amazing.... Level 25, 29, 28 and 27 characters made yesterday opposed to 4 level 40s that's been put through work since day 1. Honestly though, I thought the amount of time it takes to collect feathers would improve in time but cutting it in half for the majority of the players who didn't use 100 + orbs this banner? Seriously, Nintendo. As much as I love you overall and FE, go **** yourselves. Period. I take it they gonna introduce new hereos once/twice a month so unless you've got orbs saved up and alot of luck on your side you can expect having to buy a minimum of 140 orbs to even reach 4K Feathers that week. Time to level up Narcian and Odin I guess...

You can see it once they're 4* level 20+, 5* level 1 or 5* level 40. Just Google IV Calculator for Fire Emblem Hereos. Type in their level 1 stats and you'll see their max level stats. For 4* just press unlock potential and you'll be able to see their 5* level 1 stats.

At one point I wished for a Robin because of everyone having a Takumi but me. Be careful what you wish for... lol.

Well. I only read the first thing about arena and got carried away, sorry about that. I just got a little irritated, my bad. When you spend alot of money you get more units to grind while you're waiting for new updates to come around. People like me can't really do that. Sure, we can but it's completely useless in most cases. Look, I got a lvl 40 F.Corrin 4* and a lvl 36 Cecilia 4*. They helped me alot when I started out as they were pretty much pulled with my 1st summons. No matter how much they helped me out in the beginning I'll never promote them to 5* because I can already see their boon/bane in advance and it's really bad. I ended up using 22k feathers on my M.Robin with +SPD/-DEF making him 5*. Now, that was a fun and long grind. I got 2x more M.Robin at 3* that I'll most likely spend my future feathers on making him +2. If one of those end up being +SPD/-HP I'll most likely relevel and merge the Robins into him instead. What I'm trying to say with all this Robin talk is that that kind of grind/thinking is what makes the game interesting, fun and very rewarding for all the effort and time put into it. With people spending alot of money they get that all the time. If one "common" 4* end up having the worst possible IV stats they most likely have another one to back it up. I can't have that, which makes leveling units completely useless and boring. Sure, I got my Robins but nothing else. Unless I'm looking forward to leveling and progressing characters like Sophia and Florina... If I were to spend alot of money I'd most likely have my favorite characters without boon/bane that destroys them. Not the very best but not the worst possible either. I'm not that picky with IV stats but if... let's say a Lyn has +HP/-SPD then she's literally the worst Lyn you can get. That's literally where my Cecilia and F.Corrin stand now :( Summoning a bad IV 5* is one thing. Making one is another... 20k feathers can't go to waste considering how hard it is to get it. People say it's fun to play with your favorite characters rather than having bunch of S rates but what they don't release is that the most popular characters will always end up being 5* EDIT: I got 20 orbs and used them all on summons. Got absolutely nothing useful or fun to work on at all. Now I pretty much can't do anything at all for 1 whole week unless I decide to buy orbs. :/

Arena is one major drawback. The current ranking system is really bad and is a total disgrace for the FE spirit. It's based off of ratings/levels. All characters have fixed ratings which means whoever has pulled the most = wins. Really emberassing system coming from a FE game. Since It's vs AI it should be more based off of turns/time. That way people can't just stall/bait forever and makes it more of a challenge. The people who spent alot would actually have to think and strategize for once. Not that it would effect them considering they all have 40+5~ pretty much but still...

An active F2P player have most likely already pulled atleast 3* of every single one of them by the time he/she has run out of all freebies, though :/

Doesn't it reset once a week like a loop? Edit: Apparently not. Bye Bye daily 15 feathers. Guess those 15 feathers were too good to be true :(

1. Castle is all up to you. I personally prefer summons over castle upgrades. I got it at 60% exp and been doing fine. If you're planning on speedleveling through everything day 1 then castle upgrade might be something for you. Once you've completed all free tasks you're basicly left leveling every unit to kill time, not because you need to. Exp sure isn't an issue in this game. If you spend alot of money, then level it. You're gonna need the exp to level all the amazing units you get. If you don't spend then keep it at either 40% or 60% and save all your orbs on summons. 2. Very lucky indeed. I've used around 200 orbs now and only pulled 2 5*... Lucina and Eirika are really good units. Lucina exceeds at killing dragons/beasts while Eirika got more of a supportive set. Peri is pretty much your only choice of a blue unit currently. Merric for green/range. Felicia if played right she can act as a support too. 4. Skills are fixed. You can get SP(skillpoints) and stats by merging. There's no point of merging anything below 5* because you will lose all merging stats when promoting. Merging a lower level with a higher level will only grant SP which in my opinion is a complete waste. SP is way too easy to get. All my maxleveled 5* units got all skills learned + nearly 1k leftover SP... You're better off sending them home for feathers. (1 - 4* units you were going to merge) 5. Character quests as in special maps? In short, yes and no. Sometimes there's a special special one like Narcian one last week. That hero is only obtainable through that one. Otherwise, with the rest that are on repeat, no. You're better off saving your stamina to complete February/rest of the quests before they disappear. Once that is done you can pretty much do special map characters and send them home for 15 extra feathers a day since they're only 1* and 2*. However, few quests requires certain hereos. I recall Felicia being one of them.

Colorless are kind of disappointing in the current lineup in my opinion. Takumi is broken. Jeorge and Kagero are good alternatives and healers scale really bad at higher levels. You're better off with a dancer than a healer at level 40. That being said, Nowi and Cordelia are really good. Tharja is pretty good too but I'd consider those two 1st. Anyway, before upgrading anyone you should always check their boon/bane. Literally, if you considered upgrading Roy 1st but his boon/bane is really bad you might reconsider alternative 2 for an upgrade if boon/bane is on your side this time.

My current lance team is amazing, haha.

EDIT: Sorry for being a bit offensive. That arena comment was annoying, hehe. I have no understanding of the arena system? I'm pretty sure my understanding exceeds yours by miles. Here's my current ranking; 4278, with people dying 1st round because of me messing around with a different team. The rest 6 were completely flawless. The max points I can get with my current characters are around 4500 +/- ~ if I don't mess around. I can't help but laugh at you if you honestly think arena scores are based off of skill-levels. Characters + level is the very base foundation of your ranking in arena. Literally, if you have no Hector(highest rating character in the game) you can't ever reach close to top rank no matter how good you strategize and utilize your team, no matter how many times you win advanced without allies dying. (which shouldn't even be considered hard against the AI to begin with) My highest rating character got 172. Hector got 184. No matter what I do I can't increase the rating other than summoning which requires a hell LOT of orbs = money. Either that or get enough feathers to promote units which requires months wait or send units home = summons = money. Anyway, learn to read, how about that? Not once have I complained about not being able to beat the spenders. I complain about this game is nothing but "wait until next day reset, do available special maps, do tenth stratum, do 3 arena, log off and wait for the next day" You don't even need to farm badges because even without trying you'll have the amount needed when you reach 20k feathers. There's no characters to farm/level up because there's no new characters to get. You're lucky if you manage to summon one useful character within 1 month with the current orb/summon rates. That's still counting the daily 2 orbs which are going to get removed apparently. There's literally nothing to do other than farming useless units that's going to become feathers anyway soon as you're closing in on 20k. So, yes. Pretty much unplayable unless you keep on spending over and over.

Tbh, this game is going to die sooner than everyone thinks if Nintendo don't make things easier to obtain. This has to be the best graphics/artwork FE ever had too. The fact you can play your favorite characters from all the FE games is beyond amazing. The problem with this game is people paying way too much and ruining the game completely. What happens is that free content is reduced to a minimal greatly effecting F2P players, pretty much effecting everyone who doesn't buy more than once of those 140 orb packs a month. Even with the generous free orbs everyone have been getting just by playing the game until they run out is absolutely NOTHING to compete with those who pay to get good. I've seen someone with a Eirika LV.40 + 7 already. How is anyone going to compete with that? The people who pay plenty of money already get what they pay for. They're literally unbeatable and don't even have to worry about boon/bane completely ruining their characters because they're pretty much guarenteed to get dublicates anyway. Meanwhile F2P/none crazy spenders can't even play this game. That's how bad it is once you've completed all freebies. All you can do is wait forever. You get 2 free orbs everyday, which they are going to remove in a few weeks, wow. That alone is 10 days to do 5 summons. 10 days for 5 characters which most likely are going to be really bad, sadly. Feathers are impossible to get. By the time anyone's gathered 20k feathers they've most likely already quit. I'm not counting the free 10k everyone got. People say it's slow for everyone, even for those who pay. That's untrue. By being a big spender you get to summon way waaay more by your average player. That way you get more units to send home = more feathers. I've already seen people with 150k feathers on their accounts. That was before the 10k free feathers were handed out too.... Stamina isn't even an issue if you've completed all freebies. I have to say it's way too much stamina at this point as there's absolutely nothing you can use it for. The units you use already have maxed out level/skills. The lower stars you decide to keep and eventually promote can't really do anything as it will take 1 month before you even have the feathers needed to do so. You start off the day by beating Tenth Stratum for free daily once a day crystals. Then you do the special map 2x for free 15 feathers(send home, why not?). Now, 3 arena duels. Save your arena swords until next arena quests appear. If you're lucky there's a new update and you can actually have fun for once until you've completed them too. All you can literally do is leveling up useless low star units because there's nothing else to do before sending them home next month when you're reaching 20k feathers. My issue with this game isn't that it's pay to win to the core. Sure, they pay. Let them enjoy being at the very top forever. My issue is that it's completely unplayable if you don't. Sure, I can't touch them in arena, won't be able to touch them in PvP(That's the unclickable questionmark?), won't have close as fancy units on my account. But, please.... I should be able to play and keep myself interested. FE Hereos is special in that aspect as most complains with pay to win games is that people at the top are untouchable, however, in FE Hereos I think most of the people couldn't care less about the people at the top. It's literally unplayable for everyone who isn't... I guess alot of people are going to quit all together once the free 2 orbs are removed as it's really boring and slow as it is already. People like me can only log on on reset, finish arena, special map, stratum then log off for the entire day wasting all your stamina because there's absolutely nothing you can use it on. I've finished pretty much everything possible. Done all stories on all modes. Done all quests on lunatic. Only family bonds that requries you to have the focus 5* are left as it's obvious pay to finish them all. Spent 0$. I don't mind spending at all. Spend money if you support the game. I'm just not a fan of not being able to play a game if you don't keep spending money. Amazing game. Really bad direction.