Lewyn

Yes it came down to one battle, final day, but I've made it, tier 21! 11234pts. I was 8pts short last night, woke up to an hour ago to see another full -80 point loss. So now I'm down 88 points. I have 95 aether so only one match to make it up. Problematic team had to take a long side path, but vantage Julia saved the day! She killed Myrrh, horse Eirika, and Ophelia. I got both pots and got full 161pts. The pots allowed me one more match against a double Yune team. LA Hector supported by buffs and Arvis quad debuffing almost single handedly did it himself and I got another 161. I had 2 Eir, one with a merge which helped greatly. No Yunes, no high merged units, no Ophelia, no Veronica, no L!Azura used on defense or offense.

Yes the old set didn't contain only garbage cause the newer units were included too, and there are a few older units that have stood up well or still have valuable fodder. However looking at the old pool it is more than just a few units that are poor performing and don't offer valuable fodder. It isn't just Mist or Luke, there are many more old units that have been removed. What has happened is all those worthless poor performing units have been removed from the off focus pool leaving only good stuff. I mean you can spin it any way you want. The new pool has almost all units now that are either good/great and/or have good/great fodder. Before a large portion weren't.

Ah don't remind me of Adrift....we got Mikoto and 3 alts, and they called it a new heroes banner. I do agree that is appears they are learning their lesson. All new hero banners this year have been alt free. Laguz royals was 50/50 male female, male GHB. Fox Wolf was 50/50 male female, female GHB Binding blade was 3 female, 1 male, male GHB. Now we are getting to even that out 3 male, 1 female, male GHB. It gives me a lot of hope for the future.

Aren't the odds of getting one of the non focus units the same as the focus? 3% vs 3%? Except the new non focus pool is of a much higher quality than the old one. I think a 50/50 chance of getting garbage vs a 50/50 chance of getting something usable and decent is a pretty big difference.

Oh yeah pat on the back to IS for once again another new hero banner with NO ALTS, thank god. Yes and 3 males to 1 female which is refreshing to see as well.

It's all over, my orbs for the month are gone. If this banner continues next month, orbs from that month may be gone too. *stares at 14 orbs currently*. I was planning to save unless it was FE4 or Beasts, and the one I feared most was Caineghis....and here he is, king of lions and looking powerful as hell! I really can't afford to summon for all of them as much as I would like to (especially Ranulf and Lethe since I lack non flying red and green beasts), so I will go for Caineghis. Art is so perfect too.

I get the fundamental point the focus unit is the prize, what we are going for. However when one doesn't get the prize sure it sucks, but with the old pool on average it will suck much more for most people. That doesn't mean necessarily you will avoid banners with the old pool, but if it is up against a banner that has the new pool and has a unit you want just as much...you only have enough orbs for one, which one do you go for? The smart choice is always the latter. I think you are missing that there are different levels of disappointed. It's like you spend 50 bucks and flip a coin. Heads you get a prize you want with person A and B. Tails with person A you get 20 bucks, with person B you get a penny. Which is the better choice?

Well one isn't going to summon on banners whose focus units one isn't interested in regardless, however when one has to choose between banners that have units one is interested in most or going to lean heavily towards the one with the much better pity break pool. Mist, Luke, etc are a big reason many are/were generally less inclined to pull reds and colorless (red hell, colorless hell) while feeling much safer with green. Considering the banners are usually 3% focus/3% off focus. It isn't like there is some small chance of being off focus pity broken, it is a huge chance. Of course one is going for the focus unit but if getting pity broken happens it is infinitely better with the superb new pool as opposed to the bloated old pool full of poor performing outdated units with no worthy fodder. So with Loki and the old pool one could spend 100+ orbs and end up with Mist. So end up with nothing basically. Or one can spend 100+ orbs and what is the worse colorless now? Maybe Nina? Bow valor and a link skill? Yes that is at least is a great silver lining to the dark cloud of not getting ones wanted focus unit.

Yes we got Robin and Celica on it too, I remember being pretty livid about it. You are right about Mareeta, she is needed (sadly) to carry another Thracia banner. If they did some crazy stuff with Othin and Pugi maybe that could do it but it would have to be something super special. Still hoping that 776 was a sign/leak that we will have Thracia next.

That's what we got with Hardin didn't we? Besides what is regular Rinea? Just a damsel civilian. Fallen Rinea would be a pheonix of destruction and despair on the other hand, we don't need the regular version. Fallen Mareeta is similar enough to regular Mareeta so it can serve as her debut and only appearance (other than seasonal). Anyways that is why I'm not big on the Fallen Heroes idea in general I'm sure they would mess this up and we might get Rinea or something but for sure we would get an alt or two.

If a new Fallen Heroes banner arrives, I'd be cool with it only if it is alt free. New heroes are already only once a month, so each spot is very precious and not to be wasted.

We got no new set of GHB battles, I guess maybe cause of grails whereas when GHB elite was implemented their was no dependable way to get extra copies of free units. Also disappointment no skill shop, but I guess that would cut into player spending.

You know it is actually very unfortunate that these really awful old pools (especially red and colorless) will still be active during skill banners, seasonal banner reruns, GHB and BB battle. The awesome new colorless pool, I would go for Loki since I want her and every off focus would still be a win. However with the disgusting old colorless pool, with Mist there (I love Mist, but she is not worth breaking a 5 star rate), no way can I even consider it. Actually this little part really sucks, you are going to punished hard for wanting to pull on skill banners or seasonal reruns cause you still have those crappy off focus pity breaker possibilities. It will feel like much more of an orb risk, and particularly for FTP, one that will be hard to justify. What would have been better is everything have the new much improved pool. However they would rotate daily old 5 star focus heroes so fans can go for them, maybe even those banners could have the old pool. My prediction is people will summon more on new hero and seasonal banners than before cause the off focus pity breaks are infinitely better on average. This might lead to not saving as much for legendary/mythic banners which are considered safer due to not having pity breakers, though those should still get a decent amount of spending. Skills banners and seasonal rerun spending will go way way down cause of what I detailed before.

Is Sumia the pegasus whisperer that bad? She is a solid lance flier. Reprisal lance+, Close defense and a good link skill her fodder isn't bad either. Yes you are right the 3-4 star pool is super bloated and the good stuff like Fury 3, Desperation 3, Reposition, gets harder and harder to find/get. They need to clean up the low rarity pool too. Also yes some are saying it could have been much better, but many are acting like IS made things infinitely worse when for most people this change is going to benefit them immensely. You can't please everyone, however personal tastes aside Velouria does come with close defense, Jaffar comes with...nothing. Green Olwen comes with Swift sparrow, and G Tome experience, Julia comes with...nothing. Yes besides the new pool overall being much stronger consisting of good to top tier units, most of them (maybe all haven't looked it all up) have good to fantastic fodder. So you can hate the unit, unit type or whatever but then it gives you nice fodder you can put on a unit you do like. That's a big difference, than with the old way you can get a crap unit or a unit you dislike and it also offers you no fodder so that pity break offered you zilch. It isn't perfect as I said, but most people are going to be much much MUCH happier when they get off focus pity broken than before cause at least it will have some value. This person gets it. Lene has sword valor even.

Fortresses are so important it isn't funny. Since I upgraded offense to lv 4 it is a world of difference, wow I can kill everything. Sometimes caught by surprise, but I rarely have a complete loss and usually don't lose anyone now.

It's been even longer since Legendary Lyn. However I think there are other characters that need alts more before these lovely ladies get their 6th version.

Yes we are missing Hector and Takumi who offer valuable fodder, and Sigurd and Ayra, Tana, Elincia are units that are good still and will be missed. However look at all the garbage that has been sifted out. We now have a treasure trove of good units. So when you get that dreaded off focus pity breaker it isn't Mist or Luke or something that makes you want to jump off a cliff, but something worthwhile. So it feels your orbs weren't flushed down the toilet. Also how many off focus Hectors have you pulled? I pulled one Hector on a free pull on his VG banner, and one off focus and I've been playing since the beginning. Hoping for these few gems in this old unit pool as off focus is crazy. The chances are ridiculously low to pull a Hector off focus, as is any of those old units in the super bloated pool. The overall quality improving dramatically insures a much more satisfactory outcome the majority of the time. I mean look at that green paradise full of powerful dragons, beasts, and tome users along with two of the most powerful armors in the game. Oh won't someone save me from that colorless harem heaven containing the best flying archer, four awesome staff users, and 2 incredible beasts? Even blue and red offer mostly excellence. We can pull with peace of mind, and have better chance of pulling off focus crazy units/fodder like Tibarn, Nailah, Brave Ephraim, and Veronica. I mean seriously it could have been handled better but how is this not an improvement?

Maybe it then isn't Thracia or Genealogy but both in an exquisite Judgral banner! No, no I don't want to get my hopes up so high to be disappointed.

Mystery has much better art and animation than New Mystery which along with the shadow dragon remake has the ugliest of the series. I would put Mystery as tied for 2nd best in the series along with Path of Radiance. It is a masterpiece.

I'm having a lovely season thusfar, but more importantly. Aether resort has this made Raids even more PtW? The forts play a huge role in boosting your offense or defense team. You have to pay 3 orbs a week to get a double bonus on stone acquisition from the resort. If you don't pay that, paying players forts will get more and more leveled and one will be more and more disadvantaged. While resort looks like a fun diversion the orb option seems like a terrible idea, take away orbs from the only resource we have to summon banner units, to not fall behind in aether raids.

Ah wait, this isn't a new hero or seasonal banner anyways so it will still have the same 5 star pool even after update right? Regardless there is at least... This. Don't have to worry about 4-5 star rarity pity breakers. Oh well, it is still a good banner.

Ooh that's a good banner. More Ishtar merges, Loki who I've wanted forever or Laevetein the blade blade? All with no more bad pity breakers?

We did lose some great units and fodder but as my above post shows overall the pool is much stronger. Also many are assuming these units will only appear on power, GHB and VG banners instead of having rotating banners of these gen1 units. Let's not jump to conclusions, I'm sure there will be a reasonable way to get these units still. I was hoping for a mass demote of these old characters making fodder like firesweep bow, DC, CC readily available but I guess that would be too generous. It could have been handled better, but I see this as a major improvement still.

Wasn't just 4-5 stars last year? They just did the same thing this year. They haven't demoted a five star exclusive I don't think. Also we don't know how these pre book 2 five stars are going to be treated, they may have constant banners featuring them so you can pull for any one you want. Pretty much all the worthless pity breakers are from this group of units. Yes there are some really good ones too, but someone on reddit posted what the new pools would be and it looks a million times better. No trash in the 5 star focus pool, when you pull seasonal or new banners in future this is what you can get... (credit to u/DudetoManz who posted this on reddit) God so so much better. Now getting an 'off focus' pity breaker is on average going to be much much better, should encourage more people to pull on new/special banners. One of the reasons I try to stick to mostly legendary/mythic banners is cause the off focus pity breakers there was so much trash. Now looking at this new pool, sure many of these units I don't necessarily want or need but at least none of them suck. Every unit here is good to great, and most have something decent to fantastic to fodder.

Woohoo no collaboration announced! Summoning pool update. Now attack tactic is easy to get and +10ing Ares is going to be much easier. The removal of all units before book 2 from summoning pool is great, most of the terrible pity breakers come from that. They said there will be other summoning events to get them so people who want them can still get them. Allegience battle...I missed the beginning, but I assume this is where Roy blessing and future legendary heroes will come into play. More feathers and dragon flowers sounds good. Resort looks....okay, I was never big into 'my castle' on Fates, but might be fun to fool around a bit. Aether raids update now we can save separate teams for separate seasons that is really nice. All in all darling Feh presented a pleasing show.