Lewyn

Wow I can make a team of 4 bonus heroes. I think I'm dropping to tier 18 for this arena, and hopefully Lene, Ishtar, Ike+1, Amelia+3 could score high enough to stay there. Otherwise I'll just do something boring like Ishtar, Amelia and 2 other armors.

Hey I'm a dude and I love women. However to be fair this next banner should be grooms. It would be fitting if it were the canon partner or at least possible partner to the brides of last year. So Groom Marth. He has no alts, and of course ends up with Caeda in the game. Groom Rath. Now Hector might be the most popular husband for Lyn, but Rath could work well too and Hector already has an alt and will be getting CYL2 also. Groom Stahl? I dunno, Cordelia obviously loves Chrom but we have 4 of him already. Groom Benny. This makes sense and fits. Even if Xander is more popular in the game, he has 2 alts already.

The Wings of Mercy 3 option is interesting since with Mjolnir she doubles pretty much everything, even more so with +spd nature. With odd attack wave as well for the opponent to worry about. I think unless you pulled -atk or -spd, quickened pulse is maybe best choice as a seal. Double moonbow shenanigans, and that first moonbow could kill a lot so she doesn't have to take retaliation damage. With the res superboon she can run ploys in the C slot, though I think Odd attack wave is too good to drop unless she is in a tactics team with atk tactic.

As fodder what do you think of these units? Odd attack wave seems really nice cause unlike every other skill of this type it buffs the one carrying it as well, in addition it only has the turn restriction but you are free to build your team as you like and you get +6. Surely even attack, as well as odd and even for speed, res, and def will eventually be added. Maybe this can help all infantry teams be more of a draw, they have their exclusive infantry pulse and can run these wave buffs. Ishtar also has swift sparrow 2, which is on several units now. Ares comes with Brazen atk/def, previously only available on Winter Chrom a seasonal. Brazen skills are interesting and powerful, I think they are especially appealing for healers who can actually inherit them unlike many other powerful A skills. Lene comes with a new sword, kind of a sword defense version of Berkut lance. I'm sure some characters could use it very well. Firestorm dance is also new, and seems like something you can slap on PA Olivia or PA Inigo to upgrade Blaze or Gale dance.

Nice find! It even has dates. I hadn't heard of whales before I started Heroes, but it is the first and only gacha that I've played so that makes sense. Congrats on having great luck on your pulls. Gacha does give you the highs and lows of real life gambling. I think that is partially why it can be very addictive.

I mean it is by far the biggest lower lip of any character in Heroes I think. It just stands out so much.

The laguz mostly seem to have tails, animal ears, but don't seem to be hairy/furry. Still you have good taste, I have the same preference. I mean we are talking about fictional characters after all, so why focus on regular old humans which are all around us IRL. Selkie, Nailah, Lethe I'm sure these will have huge appeal for waifu reasons.

Oh god Devdan, I had repressed him from my memory...jesus christ. However yeah I don't think Japanese are trying to be insulting, they actually might think that is how black people are or whatever. As I said in previous post Helbindi cause of his physical depiction seems to be black, however the Muspell royalty maybe South asian, Arabic, or darker skinned Japanese. About the stance focus. So maybe Zelgius, F Morgan, Shiro? I did pull M Morgan off focus and really like him, would like to pair with F Morgan. Zelgius would be great on my 3rd armor team who is looking for a red. I'll probably just do a full pull and wait though. The legendary banner this month is likely to feature the insane Christmas armors.

Surtr, Laegjarn or Laevetine could be dark Japanese, Indian, or Arabic. They look like the white characters but just with slightly darker skin. Helbindi looks like minstrel art. You aren't going to respond, but because of the history of depiction of blacks in minstrel shows/art as well as how some have been depicted in anime it is obvious Helbindi is supposed to be black. A very stereotypical insulting portrayal. White people aren't depicted with fat lips like someone hit them in the mouth with brass knuckles. So him being a white guy with big lips, big nose, whatever wouldn't arouse any feeling cause there is no ugly history behind it. Don't mean to get people furious, but with so few depictions of dark skinned people and even fewer of people clearly intended to be black (like maybe Basilio) it is very offputting that some are going to be insulting racist stereotypes. How are dark skinned people supposed to feel? This is a fictional game, but just like if you put a Chinese character with squinty eyes and buck teeth in a game as one of the few Asian representives it would be insulting and hurtful to people of that ethnicity.

The very top, top of the arena. So others have said how it is in low tier 20, so is it really just armors/dragons+10 with highest SP skills/weapon sets at the high tier 20? What you said about Arena assault I got to assume that is more a whale focus. Cause while there is pride at being top in regular arena getting some more feathers isn't that valuable since I would assume with all the pulls whales would have a near limitless supply. Arena Assault the prizes for scoring high are much more valuable, more sacred coins and refining stones. Zelgius doesn't have a super boon, but Hardin doesn't have a personal skill and LA Eliwood/Christmas Lissa don't have PRF weapon or personal skills so maybe that makes up for it in terms of scoring.

Wait so that is why I see Zelgius with warp powder instead of Bold Fighter? That makes sense, like people slap Aether on units even if it isn't their best special. I thought Zelgius was in the 2nd highest stat bin though with 174? Yeah it is pretty brutal, the orb income within this shortened banner is very low. Hopefully the gacha gods are good to you! Watch out for Lene! She is beautiful, but don't let that distract you. Who started the term "whale" and "dolphin" and referring to people as various sea going creatures? I assume since the blue whale is the largest animal on the planet and perhaps in history, it is referring to the immense size of their spending. Then since you are now going with an ocean theme, you might as well stick with it for the other tiers of spenders. Happy to hear you got your spending under control. So top tier ranged nukes with flying as a bonus. So I assume all the flying mages would be must have, and WF Hinoka, maybe Spring Kagero also? Then you +10 Reinhardt, and BB Cordelia, and Brave Lyn. So does Ishtar appeal to you?

The huge bottom lip (most anime characters have thin lips), large nose (for an anime character at least), monkeyish ears, large mouth pearly white teeth just are all offensive. He isn't dumb necessarily but not exactly smart. He is also quite foul mouthed, and comes off uneducated...also a bad stereotype. This is coupled with how few black characters one encounters in anime and Japanese made video games and how ugly the history of that generally is. I would think since this is a global phenomenon they would be a bit more careful in depiction of black characters.

@Ice Dragon I think the post was quite awhile back, could you refresh us on that comment and maybe what whales look for to drop the big bucks for a unit? Zelgius does have everything, he is a power crept Black Knight, but I think at that time Arden was considered up there with Black knight as best sword armor with a DC slaying edge build. However then Zelgius comes and now is the best sword armor in the game. Sorry my mistake, you got Ishtar and you said you would trade her for Ares that someone else got. I hope you pull Ares in the future, are you going to do more pulls or are you going to wait and see? Could you guys clear it up since I assume you both are always in tier 20? Is it low tier 20 or high tier 20? What do you usually see? I do assume anyone who has a +10 of a unit that is only available at 5 stars is a whale, cause I think it is something like 1600-2000 orbs to do that. Also as whales how do you view this banner, and what draws you to spend a lot on a banner?

Yeah personally I don't have much interest in tier 20, I would have to devote all or at least most of my resources to multiple merges on a single arena team and I'd much rather have fun with as many teams I can come with. It is true that I think lower tier 20 (though people who are always in tier 20 would know this much better) one can get by using high merges on penalty units. Though from what I've heard in high tier 20, it is mostly armors and dragons. I think my comment goes more off something Icedragon said earlier, which is that while all the FTP people went crazy for Miciah, Zelgius was the unit that made whales splurge on the banner. Zelgius was the draw. Oh avatar sprite, I didn't know what to call it, I was thinking of that face you see representing the character on the left of the stats. Congrats on getting Ares BTW, I remember you saying earlier how he was one of your faves.

God if Darting stance was the one to drop to 4 stars, yes I know stance 3 is always 5 stars, it would be so perfect for Lene to utilize her speed and at the same time enemy phase benefit of safeguard. Ward fliers means I guess just like goad it should be easier (not as easy since Shigure isn't available 3 stars), to make this a part of your flier teams. I'm sure enemy phase flier tanks will love ward stacks. Helbindi, this might upset some people, but I find his design incredibly offensive. He is dark skinned with really exaggerated ugly facial features like how African Americans were depicted before the civil rights era in many trinkets and such, and he is even called 'savage scourge'. He is hot tempered and obviously not very smart, the design is very insulting. I know he isn't just a brute, he has a soft side, but this doesn't sit well.

I posted this in the pull topic already but. 100 orbs total spent (believe me didn't plan on spending a set number just came up that way) +spd/-res Ishtar 2 Lene, +spd/-atk and +res/-atk So Ishtar was who I wanted most on that banner, always a huge fan of her character and she was never playable in the games she featured in nor was there any playable unit that could use Thorhammer/Mjolnir which always seemed like one of the coolest of the holy weapons. Besides those personal feelings reasons, she fills one of the few voids in my barracks. A playerphase blue nuke. I don't have Reinhardt, Linde or Delthea. My only blue mages are Miciah a res tank, Lyn which I made into owl tank, and Robin raven tank. I am absolutely thrilled to get her +spd. She also comes with an incredible base kit. Too bad mages can't inherit wrath in this game. On her art it kind of reminds me of Miciah in that the sprite is absolutely gorgeous and stands out (with Ishtar her tome floats!), the main art is a bit of a mixed bag but good still (for Ishtar the face is a bit off, but the body and costume looks wonderful), and the avatar art looks a little weird. I can't wait to S support her with Julius. You know when I thought Lene is likely getting demoted, I was going to be content if I got Ishtar and Ares. Regardless Ares was my 2nd most wanted character, also to fill a void in having an offensive cavalier sword. I don't have Brave Roy or Seigbert. However I pulled 2 Lenes, actually in the same session, and pity rate reset I don't want to just sink all my orbs to get another Lene pity breaker. I'll save for when Ares returns on red color by himself. I wasn't as lucky on the natures with Lene, and -atk is brutal since it is a superbane. With her guardsword she will have 38 attack, that isn't killing anything. With an attack boon she would be at 45 attack and at least with fury or TA3 could be servicable as a combat unit. I'll go with +spd and save the other for fodder, I could upgrade Inigo's B skill (Gale dance +4 speed), but Guardsword+ also seems like something that could be great on certain units. I think with Lene I may give her speed refine putting her at 41spd , a defensive special like noontime or maybe etucheon or something, and maybe something to further increase tankiness in A slot. Just focus on making her survive better to do her job and avoid combat as much as possible. A thing I'm worried about this banner. Whales drive the economy and none of the units are whale bait. They are all units with BST penalty, Ares has cav penalty, Lene has dancer penalty, and Ishtar has ranged penalty which means they are bad for high level arena. Edit: Oh yeah Lene's art, it is perfection. She is the first dancer that actually looks like she has a body that fits such an occupation, look at those abs and the tone. The others are beautiful women but they just look thin without any indication of physical exercise.

74 more orbs, got 2 Lene actually in that last session. One is +spd/-atk the other is.....+res/-atk. Ouch guess she will only be dancing regardless of who I choose. That is it for me I think. Color sharing, building pity rate. I'd love to get Ares but this seems a sign to stop.

Yes! Got Ishtar +spd/-res after 26 orbs! So I guess I'm done with blues.

About the datamine

Well here is the big double edged sword when it comes to GHB units. I mean you think Finn would have been like that had he been a banner unit? No way. We can see especially with banner units after the Performing Arts one that they carefully design every one to be very desirable and usually quite good or fulfill some unique niche. It is nice to get units for free and some are indeed good, however the trade off is they are rarely great. They have no IVs to work with, limited merges too on top of that. Maybe the suggestions would make him too oppressive, yeah being that much better than W!Tharja would be bad. However that he falls so easily to any physical threat cause of that super low defense stat is very disappointing. Yes you can do the Double distant defense thing, but you probably want a ploy skill or QR in the seal spot. With better defense besides close counter, maybe something like brazen def/res 3 which we all also got a copy of with Kana (even if you keep one like I will for sure) would be amazing.

Well I was hoping for good defense so he could run close counter. He is a final boss, better if he is well rounded defensively and able to counter any range. I think the best thing would have been to make him a red mage armor. This would. 1. Satisfy at least partially people who are upset that Winter Tharja just barely lost, so here everyone gets a powerful red armor mage. 2. Give him access to armor buffs and of course vengeful fighter and bold fighter two of the strongest skills in the game. 3. Ranged armor units have very little BST penalty, so with all that extra BST he could have really good mixed defenses, just throw most of that extra BST into defense and a few points from his res. 4. We just got a free Takumi, so everyone has close counter fodder (if you upgrade him to 5 stars). Julius super tank final boss of FE4 would be such a perfect recipient if he had that great mixed bulk. Since close counter is an A skill, it is much harder to shore up weaknesses in def or res. You have to have good def/res naturally.

Wish Julius had better defense at the expense of some of that res. Atk-6 and slow speed, dagger users and bow users should still destroy him. He'll tank magic really well as he currently is. Animation looks amazing, and his art is good. I have quite a few red mages including some similar like Sanaki. However I'll 5 star him anyways, the atk-6 combat debuff can stack with other debuffs. Engaging a chilling sealed opponent will make that unit hit with -12 attack. Ishtar cause of those stats and the crazy tome looks to maybe take the crown as the best player phase infantry blue mage she looks like a must have. Lene stats are disappointing in just very similar to Olivia. Olivia I already have built up, so maybe I will not continue on reds if I get Ares especially since Lene is most likely to drop to 4. Ares is going to be special proc after special proc, just a lot of fun and options.

God please Ike. I merged the extra copy of him but that was long before anyone knew of Vanguard Ike. Now I don't use him anymore. Still I don't want to fodder off a +1 unit with ideal IVs to finish off my Galeforce Cordelia. I'd rather draw another Ike which would be much easier if he were 4 star, and fodder that off to Cordelia.

Reinhardt and Saias, that is Thracia though. Only FE4 has the huge maps. I guess we'll know soon what Julius is? Also the stats of the banner units.

I think the floating could result in a lot of negative feedback. People putting them on their flier team, and then noticing that he can't go over mountains or rivers. What? Ah yes he can levitate, but only a few inches off the ground and it doesn't work over water. Lol fat shota Sigurd, ouch. Yeah I think the artist had some great ideas but not enough imagination to come up with unique looks for them. There is also that thing where in games people feel they have to make the children look super super similar to their parents, when they could do a more subtle resemblance so people could tell but it doesn't look like a younger clone or something. I love Arvis, but we just got Saias. This is also a final boss so I'd hope they do something original for him.