Zeo

Definitely going to Lissa. Only one of the units remaining I actually have and I have a Level 1 version of her too. Easy mode 10% bonus powers activate.

Incredibly easier than Legion, however my impatience and lack of calculations cost me 1 stamina potion (instead of waiting for 20 minutes for that 4 stamina) and one *3 Lon Qu for a wasted Vantage and 200 SP that went on Nino. Xander/Nino/Olivia/Wrys. Xander really does cheese the map. Destroy the wall with Wrys, Xander runs up and slaps the Cav, position Nino and Oliva correctly and Xander proceeds to tank everything and OHKO the Green Mage Cav with Vantage and end the turn with 1HP as well as Proc'ing Glowing Ember (I put QP on him so it's basically Bonfire) on Clarisse. Wrys heals Xander, Nino uses the Hone Attack buff from Olivia which is just enough to finish off Clarisse, Olivia dances Nino and she pulls back Wrys from certain death. Xander tanks another round but doesn't have to deal with the blue mage because Olivia's on the right side and has Ruby Sword so AI is gunning for her instead. Xander finishes the Sword cav and Nino is danced to 2HKO the blue made. I position Wrys because the Ninja has the sweep skill and has to 2HKO to finish Wrys, also taking him off the defensive tile which we need. Final turn Xander slaps the Ninja and Nino is danced to finish him off. Actually took 2 full stamina bars (no potions) and a little bit more because I was playing around with teams but it was pretty simple, just needed the proper composition. Oddly enough it was much easier than Legion but used almost the same resources and about the same amount of stamina. Far, FAR less stressful though because no reinforcements and the TT's weren't going and making me feel like I'm dying by spending stamina on anything else. tl;dr: Xander cheeses the map, Nino being Nino, Dancer are hax, healers are underrated, impatience buys you a wasted Stamina potion when you were trying to build up for the next TT. (Only 6 now...) and do the math before you waste skill fodder and SP. I think I want to *5 Camus now. This Distant Counter nonsense is too delicious. If I don't have to *5 a unit for the TT, I'll have real trouble deciding between *5 Camus or Camilla for Brave Axe+ Cherche.

Honestly the idea of a dark horse taking down the favorite in the first round was really exciting. Now I'm pretty sure Elise is just going to be Tharja #2. So people, are there more feathers to be gained from picking other losers for the next round or just I just jump straight to Elise if my endgame is max possible feathers?

*EDIT* Elise wins, well, to be expected I guess. On to Lissa. Elise is just going to sweep the whole thing now though.

Hm, this is gonna be close. To be honest, it's bad design but I like it. Basically the multiplier turns it into a game of back and forth which in a way can be exciting but it's too tilted towards the loser. As the multiplier gets higher and higher it turns into a game of your turn my turn with the last multiplier spelling victory. It's rather exciting to watch, on the other hand popularity contents would obviously result in the most popular character winning. Had the rules been the same as the mage gauntlet, Elise would have sweeped Sakura and probably this whole thing. But this is the result instead. They both have their downsides, the new way can make for upsets but it's less of a showcase of actual character popularity and more of a roulette with feather rewards. The old way on the other hand makes more sense, but the winner is typically obvious and it makes for a rather boring ride. That being said, I'm a fan of the new way, but the old way is likely best.

Pretty glad I saved most of my flags for the multipliers. Used 200 for the 6x multiplier and 400 for the 7k ones. Have any of the other clerics even come close to these two in sheer number of points? Because it seems like whoever wins this particular round is going to win the whole thing. This is really a nailbiter, I'm loving this. They seem evenly matched but I'm not going to claim victory, this could go either way and Sakura is still the underdog for certain. And I'm always for the underdog.

Sakura manages to stay a step behind Elise. She'll probably get a bonus but then Elise will probably get one right after. Don't know how this is going to play out and I've been gone all day. Might end up being a nail-biter.

I'll probably raise Sophia for that role anyway since I don't have Sanaki, Celica is fine with Ragnarok if I were to get her, Lilina is fine as a nuclear firebomb and Raigh seems to... just not be that great. Though I'll probably push her back and raise other units for the trials. Depending on what's thrown at us I may *5 a Camilla so my freshly *5'ed +ATK/-RES Cherche can get the Brave Axe+ and Draconic Aura to go with her Death Blow 3. Thing is I don't know what units will be necessary. Green units were a Godsend in the last TT and I only had 2 usable ones (ONE before I raised Nino). There's still Camus who's waiting to be *5'ed, Lloyd and Cecilia are still in the lower 30s/upper 20s waiting to be raised (currently *4) and I don't know what the next theme for the trials will be. If it's something like a Blazing or Blinding banner, chances are I'll have to raise a Fir or Batre or something like that. Even if we find out the world and bonus units early, we still won't know what the final battle is like until it's actually released, at which point it'll be too late and become pointless. Sucks either way... I'm just going to Raise Sophia in the meantime, nothing else that pressing to do with the stamina I guess.

@SatsumaFSoysoy @Rafiel's Aria @DehNutCase Sophia vs Raigh (aformentioned boon/banes) with TA3/SB3 and DragonFang|Moonbow respectively is a win for Sophia. She's better in every case, as a *4, a *5. The only case that's different is if we're literally slapping just the Raven tome on them at base, in which case Raigh wins a 4HKO war, but Sophia still wins 2HKOs. So yeah. Guess I'll raise Sophia. That being said this is for the long haul, I won't do it with the Tempest in mind because I don't know what lies in store. But if it's unlucky and Masked Marth is all I have for a bonus unit, she's sitting at lvl 40 with New Moon and 800 SP so I can deck her out if need be. I'll wait.

Hmm... since the trials are creeping back upon us (seems like they just left.) I realized I only have one red mage in my -ATK Tharja. I could definitely use more Veronica counters and I kinda want a Raven tomer. Obviously Lilina/Celica/Sanaki would be better users for it but I don't have any of those! (Woo!) I do have some weaker *4 stars though so help me out. +ATK/-SPD Sophia or +SPD/-HP Raigh? Raigh's speed is pretty alright and his native +HP makes up for the bane, but Sophia obviously hits harder, is tankier and bulkier. With Triangle Adept and Swordbreaker Raven Sophia is probably killing more than Raigh (34 vs 30 ATK in any given situation and has a native special skill in Dragon Fang) but Raigh isn't being doubled by everything in the world (30 SPD vs 14) So... who's better?

My girl Sakura putting in work! Far too early to claim victory though. I only spent 400 flags and at around 130k points I'm almost in the 9k in ranking, people are really betting their all in this one. Wish I'd been around a bit more to spend flags for the multipliers. I'll probably have around 700-800 if I don't spend anymore before this is over. ...I'll still be shocked if Sakura wins this though, Elise seemed to be the favorite to win.

Sakura vs Elise is a bloodbath. Can Sakura come back from Elise's current lead though?....

After reading through the entire topic. I didn't want to pull for the girls but those SP skills are too good to not at least try for. Still pulling for Fred cause he's a bro but looks like saving orbs isn't going to work out. Wish datamining could have told us what the next TT is going to be centered on... guess limited units are a better investment though. Also surprised they didn't go for Ike or Camilla, but the latter was already in a seasonal banner and the former is getting his own special banner as well so guess it balances out. Still fairly weird choices though.

Actually... I want Frederick, he looks awesome and seems like he's a blue mage. Blue mage Frederick is a must have. Gaius looks cool but his bow is silly. A!Tiki looks like an Axe user so nothx and lolF!Robin as a lance user. Pass. Frederick tho, Frederick is a bro.

Wait what?

Optimizing Oboro is a waste. *5 Matthew master race.

People are willing to do that for characters they love or for the optimal build. If I got a Minerva, I'm keeping her, period. On the other hand, if I got a Jaffar, well I have plenty of great colorless units and I have other characters that really want, and make better use of that LnD3. Plus boons and banes come into play as well. Hana is nice and she has LnD, but if she's +RES/-ATK, well... that's pretty bad.

What @Ice Dragon said. I did it a couple of times for Reinhardt. It did get me a Shanna which was nice. ...it also got me an Oboro. :|

I also have a serious issue with that. I tell myself that I'm not going to spend orbs unless I do full pulls but still attempt to snipe orbs and it never works out for me. None of the current banners interest me however, if I can't stock 20 orbs before the Echoes banner ends, I'm officially saving them for the next new banner. However to be fair, sniping orbs did get me a free Moonbow and Desperation. Now if colorless sniping could just get me a +ATK or +SPD Matthew.

What time is this supposed to start?

Nowi is A+ now and Fae is S. Wat.

You just invalidated Brave Sword Chrom just now, didn't you?

Great, a chance to save orbs. I care literally nothing about any of the banners that are up except the Echoes banner (45 orbs on the Vantage banner and no Gordin or Reinhardt...) As for the Fury banner, Hinata was my only reason for caring. I don't even remotely care about Eldigan, Jagen can be pulled as a *4 for Fortify Cavs and LOLBATRE. I'll admit though it does irk me a bit that Jagen has 900+ HM on my file from the Kozaki and Cavalry quests. Annoys me seeing him up there and makes me want to use him just to max HM for those last 1.5k feathers.

That's a shame. Chrom is infinitely cooler than Marth, who knows when or if a +ATK Chrom will ever show up. If Marth is my best bet then I'll probably just make due with Athena and "Marth" for now. Basically he's an enemy phase or player phase unit, but as a Falchion unit, still inferior to Marth and Lucina as they (well.. mostly Marth) have comparable enemy phases and superior player phases. Plus you gave me the benefits of both Falchion and Brave Sword, but neither of them seem to give +SPD any benefit and -DEF goes between hindering great bulk and giving a unit that's already getting doubled by everyone take even more damage. I like Chrom, and I'll probably just make some unique build for him because I still want to use him, but I'm just going to postpone it and settle for a healbot to be my main Falchion user. It's a shame. So said what I said just now, now watch the next Tempest Trials phase be "Dark Clouds over Mystery" with Marth as a 1.4 unit and I'll have a level 40 +SPD/-RES Marth in my barracks as a *4 and I'll have just spent my 20k feathers on something like Brave Axe Camilla to give to Cherche when I already have 2 death dealers in Soren and Nino.

We need Ross or Linus with Hatchet+ or Tomahawk+, respectively so we can get a SI-able Distant Counter axe user on deck. Likely Linus as he'd be a GHB and that would give everyone a few to use. Who would you give a Distant counter axe to?