Some Jerk

Ascended Laegjarn is now available, thus the max Floret count is now 3. I suppose that warrants poking the thread. Now that we've got more than one Ascended Hero to talk about and a third Ascendant Floret to play with, I've updated the OP with a list of Ascended Heroes and plan to maintain the list going forward. It'll give me something constructive to do.

Am I the only one having an aneurysm at how Eitri is yet another fucking villainous green unit? No, IntSys, I will not treat Alfonse as the main character of this game, stop pushing me to use him in the story.

To the surprise of no one... That's way more NA love than I expected for Mira though. Not that I'm complaining, I may get my chance to +10 her yet.

@BoaFerox And I've accepted it. Thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, I don't put much effort into Light season. It's the season I'm in the Vault, and rather than deal with the trash fire that is Dark Mythics I just let myself fall out so I can climb back in in the vastly-easier Astra season. I should fix the bonus building though, I forgot to do that.

Where are the knives swords. Wow this banner is underwhelming. Unless you're playing favorites, everyone on this banner other than Duo!Corrin is a fodder delivery service. Not even N!Igrene does anything unique unless you want H!Nowi-but-physical (or don't have H!Nowi), and even then I'm leery because N!Igrene is built for Spd and yet ISN'T quadding a fucking Axe Dragon in the trailer??? That said, I do have interests in lifting the Ninja Yumi and Ninja Naginata for my Dancer builds. If only I weren't saving orbs for the inevitable Ascended Laegjarn spark... e: I did not look at the colors and assumed Igrene was Red, not Colorless, so she's not a comparison to H!Nowi. She's Duo!Lyn trading the Duo Skill for H!Nowi's movement silliness. That's... honestly even worse. e2: It was not an Axe Dragon in the trailer. Whoops.

BIRD UP @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy @Landmaster @Unknown Gamer11 @Maaka @GuiltyLove @Wanda @Diovani Bressan @daisy jane I had more sensible counters to Fae's Life Unending (Larum was sitting in my barracks with Courtly Fan, Ruptured Sky, Watersweep and Fatal Smoke in case she was needed), but 1) I wanted to try it without breaking the Special, and 2) I wanted to swag. So I decided to see how well Leanne would fare. In hindsight, this ended up being the right decision: Fae is a lot less threatening once her weapon turns off, and Leanne having Mystic Boost and Brazen Atk/Res means she'll win a chip damage duel since she has an offensive Special and Fae doesn't. The actual challenge was getting to that point. Silvia had no problem containing the left side of the map after the Axe Knight was gone, but the right side required some lateral thinking. There was a lot of Spd fuckery going on thanks to the Bow Flier and the Blue Mage, and Leanne couldn't afford to take any hits before dueling Fae, so Balldigan and Puddle had to eat a couple of hits they weren't meant to. Once they survived that turn though, the bottlenecked row of enemies fell over just in time for Leanne to receive her guest.

Fight a small child*. *citation needed Lunatic Map: Infernal/Abyssal Map:

The cataclysm draws ever closer.

In addition to what Ice Dragon said, having 36 Def currently tells me you've got her at +10+15 with an S-Support, which means she's loaded with 50+ HP too. A physical bulk of 90-ish is already enough to make her not a glass cannon, and 90 or 94 wouldn't make much difference against the metagame's current nukes that do 100+ damage. Spd is the clear winner here. If she desperately needs to take less damage for one of those "edge cases", she could slot in an Atk Trace.

Welcome to the Ascendant Floret Thread! This is an Ascendant Floret. Give it to someone you love. It's occurred to me that this new crystal flower thing is both a very awesome thing and a very easy thing to screw up, so I thought it warranted its own thread. What is an Ascendant Floret? Ascendant Florets are a new item introduced with Ascended Heroes. Upon being given to a Hero, that Hero will gain a second Asset in a stat of your choice. Have you ever pulled your hair out agonizing over Asset selection because a certain Hero has two optimal stat choices? Fear baldness no longer! (But if it's more than two, then I'm sorry, there's no saving your follicles.) How do I use it? The appropriate menu is located under Allies > Traits/Equipment > Ascend Traits. You may have to scroll the menu to to click the button. I think this is the first time anything in the Allies screen has been scrollable... Once there, you'll see the long list of all the Heroes you own. Find the Hero you want to give the Floret to, and you'll be sent to the Trait selection screen. The Asset granted by the Floret works just like a regular Asset: normal Assets boost the Trait by 3, and a Hero having a Superasset in a particular Trait will boost it by 4. If the Floret is dropped into a Trait that is currently a Flaw (subtracting stats rather than adding), then the Flaw will be cancelled out. If the Hero gains a merge that cancels that Flaw, then the Floret Trait will become a proper Asset. Conversely, if the Ascended unit is used as merge material themselves, then the inheritor will gain the Floret in the stat it was previously boosting. Bare in mind that this can lead to a problem if the Ascended Asset is already an Asset on the inheritor, which means the Floret will have no effect. This will have to be corrected in the "Change Traits" menu -- more on that below. For those having seen my videos, I'm sure my first choice of who to Ascend will surprise exactly no one. If a Hero has had a Floret used on them, it will be reflected in their stat screen -- a little Floret will be displayed beside their Rarity, and tapping the boosted Trait will show it as an "Ascended Asset" rather than just "Asset". How many Florets can be used on a Hero? One and only one. Once a Hero eats a Floret, they'll be shoved down to the bottom of the unit list with a red X to denote that you can't feed them again. How does this change Arena scoring? It doesn't. The Ascended Asset is not factored into score calculation; it's for performance only. This means if you need a Superasset to go up a BST bin, it must be done with the regular Asset and not the Ascended one. Know the difference in case scoring is a concern! Wait, my Ascended Hero says it costs no Florets to boost! What gives? That's unique to Ascended Heroes. They've already got that sweet, sweet Ascension juice, so they don't need a Floret -- just pick a Trait and go. Ascended Heroes who have already ascended a Trait will also be grouped at the bottom of the unit list. I screwed up and picked the wrong Trait! / I merged the Ascended unit into a different unit, and the Asset and Ascended Asset are overlapping! Don't panic, there's a way to fix it. Go to "Change Traits" in the Traits/Equipment menu (it's right above "Ascend Traits"). When you change the Hero's regular Asset there, you'll also be able to change their Ascended Asset at the same time. Be aware, however, that this will still cost you 100 Trait Fruits. Try not to mess up the first time -- ask for advice if you're unsure, that's why this thread is here! (Unless your merge target's Asset was the preferred one and there was no chance to fix it beforehand, in which case you'll have to pony up the fruits and suffer in silence.) Oh no, a Hero I gave a Floret to was manual'd/sent home/lost through Skill Inheritance! You absolute goddamned fool. There's no fixing that -- the Floret is as gone as the extra Skills and Dragonflowers that the unit took with them. Don't let this be you! Remember to Favorite your most used Heroes, especially ones you Ascend! For the uninitiated, "Favoriting" is done by tapping the Heart icon on the unit's stat screen. Favorited units can't be lost under any circumstances unless you manually remove their Favorite status. Where do I get Ascendant Florets? One Floret is given to you for free just for accessing the Ascend Traits menu for the first time. Treasure it! As for where to get extras... that's where things get messy. To add to your Ascendant Floret count, you must summon an Ascended Hero. They (usually) debut in New Heroes banners that otherwise lack a theme or special unit. Similar to Legendary Heroes giving you their appropriate Blessing when they join your barracks, an Ascended Hero will give you a Floret for pulling them. Unlike Legendary Heroes though, a particular Ascended Hero only supplies the Floret the first time you summon that specific Ascended Hero. Extra copies of the same Ascended Hero will not give you more Florets -- whether you Spark them, summon them from a different banner, or obtain them from some kind of event, only the very first summon of that Ascended Hero counts. What this means is that outside of the freebie or whatever cockamamie events IntSys hosts, there will never be more Florets than there are Ascended Heroes. Florets are not just rare -- they are finite, and you don't get them back once they're used. They are also the only resource in the game that outright require Orbs to obtain outside of gifts. DO NOT GIVE AN ASCENDANT FLORET TO A HERO UNLESS YOU'RE VERY SURE! Seriously, this cannot be stressed enough. You don't get enough Florets to hand them out like Dragonflowers; Florets are absolutely the sort of thing you give to your most favorite Heroes and only your most favorite Heroes. And again, Favorite the Heroes you Ascend! CURRENT MAX FLORETS: 21 From accessing the Ascend Traits menu: 1 From summoning each Ascended Hero: 16 From events: 2 From paid promotions: 2 ...Well, that sucks. What's the best way to get Florets without gutting my wallet then? There is thankfully one cool thing about summoning Ascended Heroes: New Heroes banners feature Sparking (that doesn't require Feh Pass!) as well as Summon Tickets. "Sparking" (I forget if Fire Emblem Heroes has its own term) is a free Focus Hero summon of your choice after a certain number of summons on a specific banner that features it (denoted by the banner having a "# / #" number on the bottom-left of the screen, usually 40 summons). Summon Tickets give you a free random pull from their featured banner and are usually found from Quests or Events (usually Forging Bonds, which is commonly paired with a New Heroes banner and comes in a set of 4 tickets). Putting Sparking and Summon Tickets together, you can drastically reduce the required Orbs to pull the featured Ascended Hero if your luck doesn't let you summon them normally. You usually need 200 Orbs for 40 summons in a worst case scenario -- the usual banner free pull and 4 tickets subtracts that by 25, and pulling multiple Heroes in one session costs gradually less. A Spark typically takes anywhere between 175 to 135 Orbs, depending on your willingness to snipe specific colors or pull full wheels. So who are the Ascended Heroes anyway? Fjorm: Ice Ascendant Laegjarn: Flame Ascendant Joshua: Resolute Tempest Idunn: Divine Demon Mareeta: Astra Awakened Ishtar: Echoing Thunder Florina: Azure-Sky Knight Celica: Valentia's Hope Hilda: Helping Hand Eir: Life Ascendant Tiki: Awakened Blood Elincia: Devoted Queen Fir: Swordmaiden Ced: Sage of the Wind Merric: Wind Pontifex Amelia: Blossoming Talent Is dumping the Orbs worth it? That's up to you. Bare in mind though that you're not just going for the Ascendant Floret. The Ascended Hero that gives you the Floret is a very strong unit in their own right, and they may or may not have some Skill Inheritance that your other Heroes could want. That being said, you don't have to go for the Ascended Hero and their Floret right away. While I advocate Sparking as the easiest method simply because it subverts the RNG entirely, you and your wallet might not (or cannot) appreciate the Orb investment with IntSys's sporadic banner schedule, in which case there's always next time -- as New Heroes, Ascended Heroes are moved to the general summoning pool after their introductory banner ends which means they can pitybreak you later, and God only knows what Events they could show up in. Now that all of that's out of the way... Now comes the fun part: discourse and showing off! I will now open up the floor for showcasing what you've done with your Ascendant Florets, as well as questions on how to best use your Florets if you're unsure. I look forward to seeing what abominations we create!

Man, watching all of these videos really highlights how goddamn strong Heroes units are. With their mascot Askr Trio being eternally shat on, it's easy to forget.

It's that time of the month. ---------- Calleach: F!Grima Auto-Battle solo. Of course, she's my +10 S-Support. Stahl & Sully: Bector Auto-Battle solo. What did you expect? Veld: Ares solo. Also a Silvia and Balldigan duo; a dancer solo wasn't working out, sadly. Tiki & Nagi: Belica, Deathea, Lalm, Duma. I could've made this easier on myself with the Cuteria I recently pulled, but was too lazy. I inevitably regretted it because this was the hardest one. Thrasir: @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy @Landmaster @Unknown Gamer11 @Maaka @GuiltyLove @Wanda @Diovani Bressan @daisy jane Thrasir was not an Impostor. because she's as easy as she was the first time Two Impostors remain. Múspell probably would've been better for this, but I've been lazy about levelling him too, so Lífþrasir it is. Really though, this map wasn't a problem for any recent Heroes units as they're two generations ahead of Thrasir; the only time I had trouble killing something was when Nifl had to beat up the Blue Mage, and Lífþrasir's duo skill fixed that.

Blargh, had to wake up early today, so I couldn't get to this right away like I usually do. @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy @Landmaster @Unknown Gamer11 @Maaka @GuiltyLove @Wanda @Diovani Bressan @daisy jane He really should've kept his follow-up prevention. Between Atk/Def Menace and Frenzy, Ótr had no way of tanking Silvia even with his Weapon effect on (and even if he did, Puddle could turn it off by blowing up the Steam Sword, she'd just need an Atk buff and a slightly different strat). The real misery for this map was surviving the aftermath; Balldigan needed Life and Death 7 to double the Steam Sword, and Leanne needed Steady Posture of all things to not get chipped out by the Blue Mage (he does 24 damage -- she'd live with 1 HP) and still have enough Spd to instagib the Green Flier at the start. It was funny not actually needing any damaging Specials on an Abyssal map. Even with Melancholy and Pulse Smoke shutting them down, this team has enough raw damage (and bulk in Balldigan's case, even with L&D7 and subtracting his first Aether proc) to smash through all the enemies on their own merits. The only special I needed was Galeforce, and even that only needed to proc once when Silvia took Ótr out -- Odd Tempest is proving to be a great investment for Abyssal maps where she's likely to hit enemies more than twice.

This panel was a meme template waiting to happen.

Quick, everyone act surprised! ...Yeaaaaah, not thrilled with this one. Ótr is very clearly a fodder delivery service. His Duel becomes worthless for himself after a merge, and Flow Refresh + Atk/Def Menace is a godlike inheritance combo. I was honestly dreading Ótr as a MHB boss because his Weapon was annoying, but... they've changed it to give himself a follow-up instead of denying a follow-up to the enemy? And they changed his Special too? His story-mode kit had everything he needed to be a premier Cav tank, and now he's suddenly a janky player phase unit, what the heck? He becomes threatening if he has a Catch slotted into his A Skill, but outside that those big defensive numbers won't save him from a real player phase unit.

Man, none of my fun barracks got to be used this run. Nemesis: Zephiel, L!Lilina, Klein, and Larum. I always forget how tanking Nemesis is if he has teammates. Ryoma & Sakura: Edgelord solo. Since Silvia finally ate L!Dimitri, I don't have any more fun 3H units. Galle: Sanaki, W!Altina, B!Micaiah, and Leanne. Harder than I expected, Galle and his buddies on the North end of the map really didn't want to be oneshotted. Robin & Corrin: Caeda and Y!Minerva duo. I wanted to solo so bad, but Corrin's precharged Special just wouldn't allow it. Julia: Forma flex. I really should've built Tethys by now, but I thought this would be a simple map with Duessel. Turns out a lot of stuff here hard-counters him, and Julia's obnoxious-ass Close Defense seal ruined an easy Galeforce kill. The Blue Thief needed special attention so I could open up the top half of the map, but the only reason my strat worked was because H!L'Arachel had her Special charged at just the right time to finish off Julia. I don't remember if this map gave me so much trouble before, but I wouldn't be surprised. I wanted to use Blackfire Breath H!Myrrh too, but my strat was too cramped and she kept ending up beside allies.

SeLeif in 19 orbs. Not thrilled with the +HP/-Res nature they got, but they're the only thing I wanted off of the banner, so I have no right to bellyache. I have a surplus of mangoes anyway. I feel sorry for the next Limited Hero Battle that has to face my Jugdral barracks, though...

We hardly knew ye. @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy @Landmaster @Unknown Gamer11 @Maaka @GuiltyLove @Wanda @daisy jane @Diovani Bressan No seriously, where's the Near Save or Obstruct, Mister Sword Knight? I was not expecting to just be able to yeet Silvia straight into the enemy formation, but with no protection other than Miracle, with Odd Tempest Silvia was free to run Micaiah over on Turn 1. All Balldigan and Puddle had to do was punch out some stragglers on the side; the rest was all Silvia and Leanne, the former tearing up the North end of the map like a fucking hurricane, and the latter making mincemeat of all the mages in the South.

Shockingly, there are no Save shenanigans here. (please help with tags, I can't think of any Micaiah memes) Lunatic Map: Infernal/Abyssal Map:

On one hand, it's a missed opportunity for the first legendary healer. On the other hand, I don't think I want to fight an Abyssal-tier legendary healer. Unfortunately, the lack of originality here makes her less desirable than who she's sharing Colorless with to me. A healer would've been interesting, but as a Colorless Tome she's just regular Micaiah with a fresh coat of Gen 5 paint. Vanilla Micaiah is still a beast with her sicknasty refine and Duo Micaiah is a debuff-heavy flier with an awesome duo skill, so unless you're playing favorites, Legendary Micaiah probably isn't worth chasing if you have those two.

I couldn't solo the Lyn & Florina GHB with Silvia earlier because of how the map is set up. There's just no way for her to approach without facetanking Lyn, which ends in death because of her PRF and pre-charged Galeforce. But after some pondering, I realized I had a workaround. https://streamable.com/f9uftd I finally pulled the trigger on L!Dimitri's foddering. Silvia now has Odd Tempest, as well as the Distant Counter I gave him earlier in case we get more fun things like Distant Pressure that have Distant Counter as a prereq. (Whether I'll fodder my only Brave Marth or not, I'm unsure.) Unfortunately, I also did something stupid because Silvia needed Atk+7 to get rid of Florina (+5 and +6 ended up being on the lowroll breakpoint for WTA, what are the fucking odds). I should've given her a Brazen seal, but I somehow entirely forgot those existed and wasted coins on Defiant Atk. So enjoy the meme I guess.

GHB Jorge: B!Hector solo BHB Lyn & Florina: Ares solo GHB Petrine: Deathea, Duma, Dancer!Rinea, Celica (fuck this GHB, I swear it gets worse every time I see it) BHB Edelgard & Dimitri: Reginn, B!Veronica, Duo!Caeda, Nifl LHB Sothis: Trilemma Cleric is MVP once again... for the wrong team. For real, I think the Trilemma Cleric saved me. I'm not sure Lilith would've gotten the KO on the obnoxious Sword Cavalier with Vengeance and Pass without the Trilemma "de"buff, but once he was out of the picture there was nothing that could kill Lilith with her healing backup (the Axe Fighter couldn't do it even with Trilemma!). Everything else in the map was handled by Midori and Puddle tag-teaming with Lilith to put the enemies through a meatgrinder as they approached, with B!Camilla giving out heals and the occasional love-tap as needed.

I said I was going to +10 Gatekeeper if he got 1st place in CYL5, and by God I'm going to try. Spent orbs: 735 Results: This haul was as blessed as it was cursed. Cool fodders, but too many pitybreakers. The extra B!Marianne in particular made me mad because she's -Spd, and not a single Gatekeeper is +Def. Free summon has not yet been used.

ｐｌａｎｎｅｄ ａｌｌ ａｌｏｎｇ

And before I forget, here's mine: ---------- @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy @Landmaster @Unknown Gamer11 @Maaka @GuiltyLove @Wanda @daisy jane @Diovani Bressan Beullr? Beullr? Beullr? I expected the obligatory Near Save armor to make meleeing Ullr not worth the trouble. I didn't expect the sheer bullshit those Bow Cavaliers would be putting out; that Spendthrift Cav turning my Midori strats back on me was not a pleasant experience. Getting rid of him was 50% of my difficulty with the map, especially since I couldn't rip into him immediately thanks to the Red Mage's Guard denying Silvia's Galeforce. The other 50% of my difficulty was overcoming three separate instances of "you miss this kill by 1 point of Atk" -- the Red Mage, the Spendthrift Cav, and the Axe Dragon were giving me a lot of grief, and it wasn't helped by the Cleric's Sabotage Atk and Panic Ploy hitting all the right spots at the worst possible times. The solution, somewhat to my sadness, was to sacrifice a Lilith to give Balldigan Joint Drive Atk (I actually thought he had it already, but it was Joint Hone Atk instead). Thankfully, that was the end of my frustrations. Once the Bow Cavs were gone and Ullr sucked down a Blazing Wind, the rest of the map just folded. I did try to do some Silvia memes on the boss and wanted to use Frenzy, but both were a no go: she needed the Ninja Katana to get rid of that awful Spendthrift Cav (she could be made to double Ullr with the Cake Cutter though), and movement strats demanded that Close Call be used today. Anyway, now I'm off to enjoy Blaster Master Zero III.