Othin

I don't think the interface would really work. In Heroes, you have characters use active abilities by picking a target (ally or enemy) for them to use that ability on. There aren't abilities that don't have targets. Furthermore, even with shared HP, it would be such a huge increase in offensive power.

There was a Blazing Shadows trailer. This banner doesn't have a main character like the last three, but Katarina is clearly the most "main" character, being the most iconic of the newly added characters in FE12. Which is the same reason she appeared first here. Her placement in the trailer wasn't a coincidence: she wouldn't have made sense anywhere else, because of who she is. Edit: Looking back further, the two sibling banners also each have a 5* locked character featured first in their trailers: Ephraim and Eldigan. That's a perfect six for six.

The first two "new character" banners were weird, having mixes of characters from various games and splitting up the associated ones. The later banners haven't followed that pattern. Of the "new character" banners, out of the four so far that focus on a single game, the first character appearing in the trailer (Karel, Alm, Ike, and Celica) has stayed 5* locked every time. This time around, that's Katarina.

The datamine apparently contains info on a healer voting gauntlet.

It's been a usual two week length. They always announce the end date when a banner launches.

I don't think it's reasonable to assume that they're necessarily holding to such short patterns rather than mixing things up. The first Exp skill we got was Axe Exp on s!Chrom, a 5* exclusive seasonal unit, then we got Bow Exp on Faye, a 5* exclusive regular unit, then B Tome Exp on Mae, a 4*-5* unit who could learn the full B Tome Exp line at 4*. Two Owl tome users so far being 4* does not mean they're unwilling to make any Owl tome user a 5* exclusive. Firesweep Bow being 5* exclusive does not mean they're unwilling to make any Firesweep weapon user a 4*. There are plenty of factors to consider, and some of them change with time: having two Owl tome users available at 4* could mean less of a need for a third at 4*, while having the previous Firesweep weapon user a 5* exclusive could mean now it's time to have one at 4*. But really, what it comes down to is that Luke and Roderick are a pair, so they'll both get the same treatment, and they're also the most minor characters on the banner. Katarina is the most prominent character and the one appearing first in the trailer, like Alm, Ike, and Celica in their trailers. That's reason to expect her at 5*.

Like previous "new character" banners, they're currently only available through the banner and therefore at 5*, but after the banner ends, half of them will become also available at 4*. My guess is Luke and Roderick.

Apparently they're just called "Legion's Axe" and "Clarisse's Bow", despite being inheritable and having the same two "regular/plus" versions as other inheritable weapons. Wonder if we're going to keep getting more weapons with that naming structure. I'm assuming they'll show up on random enemies in the Training Tower, which will be funny. Now that we're getting two other ways of inflicting the Panic effect and we're finally getting Swift Sparrow on a non-seasonal character, I wonder how long it'll take for us to get another way of inflicting the Candlestick's no-counter status. And another ranged attacking flier, for that matter.

People have reported that it does. (I haven't tried it myself, although I expect to get it tomorrow.)

I think Quickened Pulse has a white border, like Close/Distant Counter, the "movement attack" B skills like Lunge, and the "movement type buff" C skills like Goad Cavalry. Although I don't think any of those are particularly likely to show up as a seal.

Hmm. Base game: Spur Def 1 > Spur Def 2 > Spur Def 3 Radiance banner: Spur Def 1 > Spur Def/Res 1 > Spur Def/Res 2 Mystery banner: Spur Def 1 > Drive Def 1 > Drive Def 2 Future: Spur Def 1 > Drive Def 1 > Drive Def/Res??? So many possibilities for future skills. (And yes, I know Mist's base Spur skill is Spur Res 1, not Spur Def 1, but I assume skill inheritance allows a character to go from Spur Def 1 to Spur Def/Res 1.)

Got my first perfect clear! That, too.

Is there a need for infantry? Either Xander or Tiki can do red duties just fine, although saving Xander for the end makes sense. As for handling red mages, perhaps b!Caeda or Hinoka? So my suggestion is to try one of those two over Lukas and maybe Tiki over Olivia. Using both b!Caeda and Tiki would have the issue of no physical damage, though, which could be a problem.

The Tempest Trials event is pretty big. There's still half of it left, though, if you want to get in on it. Lot of prizes and Hero Merit to get.

Are you having trouble with greens? Even with a Ruby Sword, it seems like Olivia might have trouble doing all the red combat you need, especially at 4*. I recommend replacing her with a typical 5* red, like Xander or Tiki. Personally, I save Olivia until the last trial, since I need a full-power red/blue/green core plus a healer for the earlier maps, so there's no room for her. She's useful at the end when you don't need to worry about healing anymore, though. I also like to save my best characters (particularly Xander and Reinhardt) to bring out with Olivia at the end for a really powerful team that can almost always beat the last map, although that's only feasible if you can make it to the last map while saving those characters for the end.

1:1 is definitely different from n:1; I'm just saying that if you choose to keep all your original units and not get any of the Gaiden characters, it's not that different than if you're playing FE6 and you pick the A version of both routes and skip the characters from the B versions. In this way of playing both SD and FE6, you end up recruiting all the available characters and keeping them alive; you just miss on recruiting a few because you don't play the chapters where you would recruit them. It's just that in FE6, you have equivalent other options from taking the other routes, while in SD, your other option really sucks. But you do have the option to play both games without actually sacrificing any characters, only missing the opportunity to get a few.

Thanks! Seems like a very good time to pull exclusively red.

You don't have to actively sacrifice units in SD (outside of Normal mode). You can just choose to keep your main chapter units over recruiting the Gaiden ones. Mind, that doesn't make SD's Gaidens not stupid, but I didn't say they weren't. I just said "no full recruitment" isn't a good way to look at the problem. The problem with SD is much more specific than that.

Does anyone know the 5* rates for the different orb colors for this banner?

Are you getting good speed scores as well?

SD's Gaiden chapters are basically consolation prizes to help you recover if you lost a bunch of characters earlier on, not something to aim for. But it ends up feeling very weird and off-putting. I don't think "no full recruitment" is a particularly good basis for criticizing SD, though. To my understanding, FE3 was the first game where "full recruitment" was possible, and the second was FE8. That's a lot of games where it wasn't possible.

I'm not sure what you mean by "not supposed to be letting them get hit in the first place". You don't want to let your characters take more damage than they can handle. In a single battle, you can take plenty of damage and still be fine at the end. In a 7-battle chain, you can't be taking much damage per battle if you're not healing, but if you're healing, you're fine taking lots of damage because you're often able to heal it all off. A level 25 healer isn't as sturdy as a level 40 one, but if he has a decent healing skill, he should do fine.

You don't need to avoid letting your characters take damage if you have a healer. If you bring in a team just for the Veronica battle, it's like any other single-map battle: healers aren't necessary and aren't even particularly good, while dancers are a far better support unit type.

It's worth bearing in mind that for the last new banner, there was a similar conflict, where Eclipse locked the new thread and insisted that discussion be moved to the old one, despite it having previously only been for speculation about the bride banner rather than for discussion of the revealed banner itself. I do still think that was an extremely strange judgment call that accomplished nothing other than disrupting discussion in a pair of perfectly functional threads, but regardless, that's established as the policy we're dealing with. That said, there's no need for posting in a thread to tell the people there how unnecessary it is and to call a mod over when the report button functions just fine. Ana, if this sort of situation happens again, you may find that to be a more peaceful way to address it.

It wouldn't be the first time having four simultaneous banners. During the first Voting Gauntlet, we had two banners for that (one for princes, one for princesses) at the same time as the Battling Ursula banner and a regular banner. Plus, they could just hold off on the next GHB (Legion or otherwise) until after the Tempest Trials event ends on the 22nd. It'd still fit the "second June GHB" schedule.