Some Jerk

So uh, you know that gimmick of 3 MOV + Dance + Big Canto + Shadow Shift? The one that was only really feasible on Attuned Azura? Sigurd Engage means it's feasible on every Cavalry and Flying Dancer now. Be ready to double-check any of those you see in PvP modes. I can already tell Legendary Ninian is going to be an unfettered terror.

I've seen videos making the rounds that Marni is able to consistently deal with Brave Felix, and she's not even able to be +10'd yet. I'd consider her the winner of this Engage banner if it weren't for Timerra being completely insane. Which is to say: yeah, this GHB was pain. Her kit wasn't even optimized and she was almost completely unkillable to melee damage, purely because of the Weaving Fighter and her absolutely stacked statline. Watching Emblem Ike just bounce off of her wasn't quite so funny when I was actually trying to clear the map; it was a ranged nuke from Puddle (who nearly died on the backswing) that did the job. I really need to get Fatal Smoke 4 set up.

Bah, I should've stopped after the spark. Cute Mozu though.

Broke: The new chibi playhouse is cute. Woke: Is this the first time Fire Emblem has displayed a symbol for HP?

Quick and dirty infopost about Aide Essences: Permanent +1 to all stats. (Arena Score does not use the extra stats in calculation.) They mostly follow Ascendant Floret rules: passed on when merging, lost when used in inheritance/booking, not passed on through Otherworld Bonds. Only change is that they aren't finite and you can get more by rolling multiple copies of the supplier. Units with an Essence can equip it as an Accessory. One per unit. They can't get multiple copies of the same Essence, nor can they stack it with future Essences for more stats. (It is not stated whether or not you can still give multiple Essences for Accessorizing purposes. I will ask IntSys about that in a feedback message.) So basically treat them as an extra set of Dragonflowers that only works once. I'm rather salty about that last point though, strengthening a unit with future Essences could've been an interesting way to keep a favorite unit relevant.

The TT unit being the only unit I'm interested in is a rare treat. I think I'd skip this banner entirely if I weren't humming and hawing over Air Orders 4, and even then I don't think I'm going to donate many Orbs for it.

Thanks for the advice, guys. After some experimentation, it seems that Reopening is inferior to Gambit for my purposes. Oh well. Can't really say it was a wasted inherit though since I give my dancers All Of The Things anyway. The experiment in question was to see if Mira could wrestle down Bravefonse, for which I'm happy to report the test was a success! I've also been experimenting with the Celica Engage on her and made the happy discovery that not only can she jump past all of Brave Robin's ice tiles to beat the tar out of her, but then rubs salt in the wound with Fortifications deleting all the ice. I don't think I've laughed that earnestly at this game in quite a while.

Yeahhhhh, there's really no good explanation for this. Whales aren't going to be amused at having to constantly shell out Orbs just to keep up in the PvP modes, and favorite chasers really aren't going to be amused at their Legendary passion projects suddenly being obsolete in the modes where they're meant to show them off. The paid subscription at least offered some quality-of-life changes to dull the sting, but this? This just worsens the experience all around. I'm not usually one to doompost, but the fact that they're resorting to a plain old money grab has me questioning how much life the game has left in it.

Went for the Spark on the Shize banner, since I need a Laguz Friend fodder and a bunch of Lumeras to duplicate it- ...Well, I suppose that works too.

There's something I'd like to share with the class, hoping for some advice. Mira is getting Really Damn Big now, but her refined Flower of Ease screwing with Reopening (because it's making her follow-up); the offensive and defensive aspect using the same formula irks me. Is this still okay, or should I look for an inheritable sword that messes with it less (and if so, which one)? That map is indeed bullshit. Ironically I had an easier time on it without trying to cheese things with Emblem Ike; I forgot that my B!Larum is a shreddinator.

Lucked into Felix, sparked Alfonse, and am sitting on my freebie for the time being. I don't especially like any of these Brave units... but I do like their skills. ACTIVATE DUPLICATORS

New Years Plumeria continues to dodge me in the most obnoxious ways. Three bow dancers were pulled off of my 4★ Special tickets and all three of them were Dancer Nephenee.

Attuned Triandra on the Hero Fest was a nice surprise (and a funny one, since for today only, she's on three separate banners). The good news is that it enabled me to get her up to +9 along with Attuned Peony from the revival banner! The bad news is that both of them utterly refuse to budge for that +10. It was when I got a third colorsharing Rearmed Sonya after a dry spell that I recognized I was having a "you're getting frustrated, time to stop spending" moment. Stopping just before the finish line feels so bad, but this isn't worth damaging my budget. (In fact I only went so hard because I had a surplus in the budget.)

You have now been reminded that Brazen Atk/Spd 4 exists.

...Okay then. Message received game, my luck has all been spent already and I won't bother trying for A!Caeda or A!Ivy. (I need to save for the A!Peony rerun anyway.)

#3: Karla (+Def/-Res) (4-star Special) #9: Kvasir (+Res/-Spd) #11: FM!Morgan (+Def/-Atk) (4-star Special) #32: Kvasir (+Res/-HP) #35: Osian (+Atk/-Res) (4-star Special) #36: E!Marth (+Atk/-Res) #37: Kvasir (+Atk/-HP) Spark: E!Ike (Neutral) ｔｈｉｓ ｆｕｃｋｉｎｇ ｍｏｎｋｅｙ＇ｓ ｐａｗ ...In case it isn't clear, I needed two E!Ikes — one for Embleming, one for Laguz Friend fodder. So of course I get three Kvasirs instead. This is worse than the double Ronan disaster when I only needed a single L!Azura or Peony for B Duel Flying reasons... which I'm pretty sure makes this the most blursed luck I've had in the game since I picked it up.

I was only going to be rolling for the Emblems, so LM!Corrin is completely bland and inconsequential to me. If I end up somehow rolling/sparking him, his only destination will be into F!Ninian's gullet.

Haven't actually pulled the trigger on this yet, because Sharonica is +Spd/-HP. But holy hell is it ever tempting...

Nel's weapon is inheritable. Oh no.

...Well, this is mildly frustrating. On one hand I managed to blackout the Fallen banner on the first spark. On the other hand I can't bring myself to fodder them as I'd initially planned for various reasons: Evil Veyle has that Drive Double Scowl. I can't figure out who wants Morph Ursula's Verge of Death more than she does. Nergal has a unique mechanic and is also a favorite of mine, despite his entire kit being transplantable. I've only got one Fallen Lumera and four viable candidates for her Arcane Fellstone and Spd/Res Scowl.

Oh right, Laguz Friend. Knew I forgot something important. My post has been appended.

I'm sure enough has been said about Lumera already getting a third version, so I'll skip that gripe. Evil Veyle was expected. Morph Ursula feels like filler. Nergal was someone I thought would be a GHB, but this is a pleasant surprise. Too bad though, the meta fought Azura and Azura won. ...Don't ask why I did this, I don't know myself. And yes, I'm aware that Phantom Res was useless in this case, I was testing Glacies against Lumera earlier and forgot to change to something better. Memes aside, as is typical of Fallen units, they're actually quite spicy. My takeaways of learning how to fight them: Don't bother engaging with Evil Veyle's gimmick. Seriously, you're not winning that Res check, and removing her buddies to disable her gimmick is a whole other can of worms. Just thwack her with a melee. (Azura only got away with killing her through an AOE-Desperation triple-tap.) Never let Morph Ursula initiate. Unless you've got Laguz Friend or Vantage ready, someone's going to explode and it probably won't be her. Nergal can be safely dueled if he doesn't have enough individual buffs to insta-proc his Special. His stat buffs might take a chunk out of you, but a good tank can handle it easily. Lumera's Scowl and mountains of damage reduction don't work very well against AOEs. Her base Res is also well within Ploy range, so a big Res unit can overcome her Scowl's Res check.

My CYL tickets spat out some interesting things. Astrid Caeldori Hector Asc!Fjorm Marianne Gatekeeper (actually wanted!) And then I broke my pity rate on New Heroes by snagging a third Attuned Azura. Pretty good haul, all told. My only gripe is that I got no new Flares or Flared Sparrows to add to my arsenal, but I've got the former on a Rearmed, and the latter is the new Atk/Spd A Slot hotness that is probably going to end up on seventeen different new units.

I like letting dancers destroy things. I like letting children destroy things. Considering there's only one unit in the game where these two loves overlap, you'd think I would've fully built Young Azura a lot sooner, especially since even before being built she's been pivotal to some of my Abyssal clears. Oh well, better late then never. Go fuck Nohr up, dear daughter. Build 1: Basic annoyer. Pokes an enemy and, win or lose, becomes a spastic warping Ploy-bot. Fury ensures she still has some means of warping even after a Flare heal, though she can switch to a different Special if she needs to dial it down. Fury 3 might be old as hell, but it makes this build stupidly fun. Build 2: Astra/Glacies nuke that refreshes after every use, with a side of "screw your Damage Reduction". If she wants to go full Res-tank instead, Atk/Res Finish is in reserve along with Aether and Flare. Build 3: AOE triple-tapper. In the event of follow-up denial, Mag. Null Follow is in her back pocket. Can also equip other nuke tomes like Gronnblade or Gronnvulture if Speed isn't needed. Build 4: Pure support. The Dance seal is interchangeable, and Firestorm Dance 3 is in reserve. Can slip the Still Water seal back on if the enemies are too Res-heavy to Ploy. I'm usually averse to building units as pure support, but considering the damage Azura does despite not being intended for it, even I have to admit that this kind of backup for an actual point man is an intimidating thought. Build 5: This was originally for the novelty of seeing Young Azura hit 80 visible Atk, but it came to my attention that some e-sports jerks can hit 60 Res naturally, so having the option to Ploy up to 61 Res is good. Subbing in Special Spiral 4 and getting some precharge from somewhere can even let her handle big jerks like Valentine's Lyon (two Flare procs in one combat, or just Blazing Wind, provided he isn't REALLY jacked up in Res to dodge the Ploy) and Emblem Ike (Blazing Wind-only, though hilariously even at max investment Azura overcomes the color disadvantage to lovetap him after the AOE, so he's dead meat).

Got two Attuned Azuras (one rolled, one sparked) and have already proceeded to do horrible things with one of them. May or may not go back for a third to clear my pity rate.