Othin

Really? Huh, well then.

I don't try to do my best on any given week anymore. Right now, I'm in Tier 19, but I don't think I'm capable of getting a score above 4850, so I haven't even bothered trying for a deathless run: all that mattered was getting a score above 4000 for the offense points. Next week, I'll be back in Tier 18 and probably be able to move back up to 19 without needing a deathless run.

It'll keep changing and probably end up past 100k by the end. I'm at about 78k and rank ~5,600 and I've kept climbing the ranks despite using secondary teams that don't get perfect runs, so if you keep at it and get enough points to keep increasing in rank over time, you'll probably make it.

Finally managed to get through Infernal! Still on my Xander/Reinhardt/Cecilia/Olivia team, with Xander and Reinhardt as the only 5*s. I killed all three non-Legion starting enemies on Turn 2, resulting in all four Legions being on the field simultaneously the following turn. Which was pretty funny, especially since they were the only enemies at that point. Had to do a lot of running around for the last few turns to get in the right positions to deal with the lance cavalier and blue tome cavalier reinforcements from the top, but it worked out eventually.

The tiering system has taken away a lot of my motivation to do well in the arena. With only one rank threshold to worry about, it's so common for it to either be a threshold I can easily reach without even needing a deathless run or a threshold I can't reach no matter how well I do so there's no point in trying.

It's not a mode for everyone. Different people enjoy different amounts of it, if any.

With limited resources, if you just want to polish a character's base abilities a bit, you can get a decent idea of what you'll get from the no-SI list, but the SI list is useless.

Infernal difficulty is a nice challenge, but I'd enjoy it a lot more at a time with less pressure on stamina. Hopefully they keep it in future GHBs and add it to story maps at some point.

I almost beat Infernal with just two 5*s (Xander and Reinhardt, joined by 4* Cecilia and Olivia) but messed up at the end because I forgot the blue cavalier could counter Reinhardt. (I thought I needed to kill the blue cavalier before it could kill Cecilia, but had forgotten that she could use Escape Route to get to safety.)

I was looking for both the conditions for the reinforcements appearing and their stats, actually, so between the two of you, that covers it. Thanks! Edit: There's also a lance cavalier, right? Do you know anything about that? Also, does standing on the spot where the reinforcements would appear keep them from showing up?

Does anyone have full information on the reinforcements? There was talk earlier about some of them, but I can't find any place listing the timing and location for the timed ones, or the (Infernal) stats for any of them.

I've gotten used to boxing in Veronica, but it worked on this Camilla in the arena, too. She kept using Draw Back to keep Hinoka close to her for Hone Fliers and eventually ended up backing into that spot.

L&D b!Cordelia is funny. I've OHKOed one with my -Atk Hector.

There aren't really other factors to speculate about, besides the stats of the character using it. If they go for that implementation of the Double Bow, it'll be a 14 Mt weapon like other ultimate bows, with effectiveness against fliers due to being a bow, plus Close Counter.

It's funny clicking to skip a battle where you think Veronica is going to OHKO your last combat unit with Bonfire and finding that they actually survived with 2 HP, one-rounded her on the enemy phase, and charged their special so they can take out the one other enemy remaining. I'm used to a Bonfire hit from Veronica being an instant kill on anyone, but apparently not Lilina. Which I actually calculated a while ago but forgot about.

I don't think it's safe to assume that either of these seals will be included in the rewards for the next Tempest Trial.

It's interesting how so far, Dire Thunder is the only ultimate weapon to break the "Silver-level weapon with +1 Mt and a bonus effect" mold. (Or two bonus effects, in the case of Falchion and Naga.) There are lots of additional possibilities that get opened up with the option to have weapons at the same "level" as other ultimate weapons but giving up some power for other fancy effects, and it'd be cool to see more exploration of that. For example, an axe that has built-in Distant Counter but has less power than other ultimate weapons in exchange for having a Killer or Wo Dao effect. If there was ever a character that would suit, totally not thinking of anyone in particular. Speaking of Distant Counter, despite all the ultimate weapons we've gotten with it (currently four, and we can expect Alondite as a fifth when the Black Knight inevitably gets released), we haven't gotten any ranged ultimate weapons with Close Counter. Which isn't too surprising since while the regular FE games have a bunch of special melee weapons with 1-2 range, 1-2 range bows aren't much of a thing, and magic is always 1-2 range. It'd be neat if we eventually get, say, Shinon with the Double Bow with built-in Close Counter, though.

It's interesting how so far, Dire Thunder is the only ultimate weapon to break the "Silver-level weapon with +1 Mt and a bonus effect" mold. (Or two bonus effects, in the case of Falchion and Naga.) There are lots of additional possibilities that get opened up with the option to have weapons at the same "level" as other ultimate weapons but giving up some power for other fancy effects, and it'd be cool to see more exploration of that. For example, an axe that has built-in Distant Counter but has less power than other ultimate weapons in exchange for having a Killer or Wo Dao effect. If there was ever a character that would suit, totally not thinking of anyone in particular. Speaking of Distant Counter, despite all the ultimate weapons we've gotten with it (currently four, and we can expect Alondite as a fifth when the Black Knight inevitably gets released), we haven't gotten any ranged ultimate weapons with Close Counter. Which isn't too surprising since while the regular FE games have a bunch of special melee weapons with 1-2 range, 1-2 range bows aren't much of a thing, and magic is always 1-2 range. It'd be neat if we eventually get, say, Shinon with the Double Bow with built-in Close Counter, though.

I'm starting to get burned out. I want the HM and ranking feathers, but I can't keep this up for a whole other week.

edit: galeforce

I felt like the need to keep characters alive to keep level/SP gains was already plenty of motivation, as well as other stuff like quests and the arena. I do really like Hero Merit, though, for both the extra feathers and the incentive to use different characters.

I have full skill inheritance and no merges and I expect to face teams with total merges of +10 or higher. It's just how the arena works. I don't usually pay attention to merges, anyway. I just get used to the sort of stat ranges enemies have, and a bit of variation from there doesn't let them beat hard counters.

Hmm, I hadn't noticed that. I'd assumed there was just two per month like the banners, particularly based on the GHB schedule they posted a while ago showing the ones up to LLoyd, but it looks like it's working out pretty close to a two-week schedule. http://feheroes.gamepedia.com/Grand_Hero_Battle_Maps Narcian: February 10 (Friday) f!Robin: February 23 (Thursday: 13 days) Ursula: March 10 (Friday: 15 days) Michalis: March 24 (Friday: 14 days) Navarre: April 4 (Tuesday: 11 days) Zephiel: April 20 (Thursday: 16 days) Xander: May 2 (Tuesday: 12 days) Lloyd: May 19 (Friday: 17 days) Camus: June 2 (Friday: 14 days) Legion: June 16 (Friday: 14 days) It's not always right on the two-week mark, but the average gap between GHBs does work out to exactly 14 days. Interestingly, that seems to suggest Clarisse should show up right around June 30 - the first time we'd have three GHBs in one month. So we'll have to see if that happens or not. If they keep doing GHBs every two weeks but new banners slightly less often than every two weeks, the GHBs will keep drifting further away from the banners they're paired with, unless they double up on GHB units for a bonus rotation like Rezzy said. Making occasional three-week rotations keeps the rotations relatively in sync with the banners, but not the GHBs if they aren't in sync with the banners.

Extending a bonus rotation to three weeks didn't disrupt the pattern; it's exactly what was needed to maintain the pattern. Every month, there are two main banners and two GHBs. Because a month is slightly longer than two weeks, that means the time for each new main banner and each new GHB is slightly more than two weeks. That means having a bonus unit rotation of exactly two weeks is too fast. To keep it in line with the others, we need some bonus unit rotations to last for three weeks instead of two, to bring the frequency of bonus hero rotations down to just twice a month on average, the same as the frequency of getting new main banners and new GHBs. So we aren't "a GHB behind". We're right on schedule.

Legion's Axe doesn't even seem particularly good, anyway. If you can hit an enemy with an axe, you're probably not still very worried about any buffs on them. Seal skills tend to be pretty bad, especially at high-level play, because once you've already hit an enemy, you're probably in a pretty good position against them. This is like that except it doesn't even do anything unless the enemy is already using buffs. Panic Ploy could be useful for countering certain strategies because it works from a distance, but this is not Panic Ploy.