Usana

So it is the battle of the white haired ladies. As initially planned I'll be jumping ship to Veronica. As much as I like Dear Edel, Veronica popped up as a freebie summon, so she clearly cares more than Edel and thus I'll support her. That and she keeps appearing so I actually have her at +6. I think I'll put up Alfonse and Sharena as my lead so that anyone on my list(and team) who didn't get them has a chance to play with them.

Dang, congrats on those Idunn pulls guys! Free ticket and Orbs today netted me an Askran Duo(+DEF/-HP). Which was one of the two most wanted of that banner. I then dumped nearly everything else I had in a last ditch attempt at Celica or some Claude fodder. No Celica or Claude, but got me a F!Grima(+SPD/-HP). Since the Legendary Banner really doesn't like me(not only would it not give green or colorless orbs to open, it was regularly giving me my least wanted of each color), I went back and tried to get an Anna or Lethe for collection purposes. None of those, but got a Yarne(+ATK/-SPD) whom I didn't have yet. So Legendary hates me and requires a minimum of 10 percent to get a hero and the New years is just throwing units at me(first free ticket was a Karla(+RES/-SPD)). Also got my first 4* Norne and Echidna. So I am catching up on the 4star available units.

Well the Empires are really kicking butt! I joined Hardin since he looked like team feathers, but he just had to go and win. What a jerk, right? Anyways, my end goal is, and was, to jump to Veronica later on. I don't think even Hardin can pull a surprise win out of the air against Edelgard. And right now it looks like the predictor is predicting him to be disadvantaged EVERY SINGLE HOUR. That is hilarious. Back on topic, if Veronica doesn't pull through it is to team Edelgard I go. Though I do so love Helpful Chrom. And he might just be unstoppable. Though not by his own will. Also miffed the drama had to start up while I was at work. That would have been a great opportunity to praise the multiplier system for doing its job. Ah well.

Request accepted. XRay beat me to the signature help, but yeah they seem to hide that a bit here. Or at least it feels like it is a bit more out of the way/a hassle to edit than on some other forums I have been on.

@TEKWRX Dunno if you are still looking for defense maps to challenge. But I have a Cav line as my Light Defense if you need practice against that type of team. And my Astra defense is a 4 armor team that is built around my Amelia and Myrrh, so that one may not be good practice since with a fort disadvantage, if you still have it(it takes forever to catch up on fort levels so that wouldn't surprise me), on top of everything else you may just find yourself blocked due to stats instead of being out played. Neither team is super well built(in particular the Duma is kinda dead weight), but they do manage to keep me in the top defense lift loss tier nearly every season though that is mostly thanks to blessings. So they might serve as easier teams to get a foot in the door before taking on some the more monstrous ones around here. Both are simple. A basic cav line and a basic armor block. ID and Nickname are in my signature, but just in case you have them turned off - Heroes Nickname: Usana | Heroes ID: 9581072353

If I get the duo hero, I'll probably have to throw my support Alfonse and Sharena's way. However, Veronica has made a pretty strong argument by coming to me for only 4 orbs on the VG banner.

@Anacybele Part of the reason Selkie is probably here is that I am pretty sure Foxes/Kitsunes are linked to New Years in Japan. I am not an expert but kitsune masks seem to be popular around then and I seem to recall reading something about a Fox Festival around the time of New Years. In addition didn't our fox mask accessory in game come around New Years? Of course that is a solid argument to throw out Kaden as well instead of Lethe. Which since Kaden is one of my favs would have been alright by me. However, I bet we would get complaints about the number of Fates alts on the banner then.

Since many of the seasonal weapons share effects if they take up a slot in the refinements all the characters with that effect should count as only one slot. And of course they should probably get a refine during their season that way the new power banner isn't flooded(in fact it would be down a unit) and their banner could just be 'X: Now with New Power', or something like that. It would effectively net us a couple more refines on those months then we otherwise get at the cost of a single non-alt/seasonal not getting a refine that month that otherwise would. The tradeoff might be worth it to bring new interest in the older seasonals. In addition if these weapons aren't turned into true personals, but rather strong inheritables, then we get to beef up the inheritable pool a bit more too.

Regarding the rows. Rows don't matter. Columns do. The highest scoring unit in each column is the one that is used for scoring purposes. So put one score stick in each column and then fill the other column slots with whatever you find most effective to play with. I hear alot of folks are liking galeforce, Though in my case nothing really gets low enough right now for it to proc usefully on anything. Well other than the top unit. My Galeforce Panne is getting a lot of exercise up there.

Well I have flying Nino so I guess I'll be running a flying team to start. Distant Guard and Steady Posture are both nifty seals I think. Between those and Jaffar being a nifty fodder guy with DEF/RES Bond(which isn't easy to get) and Goad Armor(already on a Grail unit, but Eliwood's A skill is far less useful than DEF/RES Bond so Jaffar is a better source), I gotta say the rewards are pretty nice.

Well the seasonal didn't give me anything. There is a fair bit of decent skill fodder there and I am missing one from each color but green so I opened everything but green. Either I get good skills(Broadleaf Fan, Pulse Smoke, Close Counter) or I get a unit I am missing. Or most likely of all, which happened, I get nothing of interest. BUT, it isn't all meh news. My last ticket from Forging Bonds(dang is Osian, what were you dragging your feet for. Even on your bonus times you wouldn't give me anything) netted me Mareeta. OF course when I don't care for a fast or strong unit's boon/bane I get a +offense(in this case speed) copy instead of a the -offense copy I get when I really want anything but a -offense copy. So I don't get to use her for close call fodder, though with how limited inheritance it has I am not sure who would get it anyways. +SPD/-DEF, but that is perfectly workable.

@TEKWRX For Ares's special 3 turn cooldowns are the key. HIs sword has the slaying effect so all 3 turn specials are 2 turn specials and his sword has the special spiral effect of reducing cooldown by 2. Therefor any special that is 3 turn will always be charged after he gets it charged the first time. Technically 2 turns would also work, but in general 3 turn specials out damage 2 turn specials. As a vantage sweeper he needs to hit as hard as possible. As for special, since you will be pushing his atk as high as it can go, you could possibly use Draconic Aura instead of Bonfire if you don't want to use bonfire. But you would have to know exactly where his attack is landing and compare that to his defense. At 67 atk he matches 40 defense for example. He needs 75 atk to match 45 defense and so on.

There is also Allegiance Battles. I don't know which pairup legendaries you are currently using if any, but getting at least one with some merges could help with scoring there. Her being ranged does matter much since all Pairup legendaries have built in Duel skill scoring. Skill wise it is mostly just Mirror Impact that you would use her for, so how many you want for skill inheritance depends on how likely you think you'll want that skill on folks. I think It is handy but you probably don't need a whole lot if it. And Oath skills are not in particular demand. So yeah one merge for bane removal could be helpful in many ways. I might even push her up to +2 so that she gets a merge point in attack as her 3rd highest stat at level 1. As for which Copy. I lean Neutral since that will net her 1 more attack than she otherwise would have and she values that stat highly. If you aren't going to merge because you really like Mirror Impact, the spd bane is probably the best choice since she doesn't really use it much and extra HP could at least help her be a Infantry Pulser or the ilk. But I might be biased since that is what mine is(+HP/-SPD).

@Hilda Oooph. I hadn't seen the inheritance restrictions yet. That is just blegh. Kinda kills any interest in the skill. I really hate extremely restricted skills. Limiting it from ranged was obvious given it is a hit and run upgrade. But I don't care for the no armor/cav/flier/dragon/beast restriction. Particularly since that means the Lunge/Knock Back/Drag Back upgrades will probably share the restrictions. And movement B skills just seem fitting for the hyper mobile units to have(cavalry and possible fliers). So maybe I could see an armor restriction. Most fast armors would probably prefer Special Fighter anyways. But yeah with this much restriction I would rather they just made it a prf skill and leave the path open for a general B movement skill upgrade.

@DefyingFates I have heard of people managing without DC/CC, but failing to kill something that attacks you often leads to dancing and that can lead to enemies running around and hitting squishier teammates. Doable, but you need to be good at map control. Some maps make this easy, others make it hard. Personally I would always have DC on my tanks, unless they can't KO anyways(then it is better to not counter so as not to activate Wings of Mercy). Close counter is a bit less needed since most of the big threats are ranged. In addition not having Close Counter can mess with defense teams that have a galeforce unit that relies on you countering to activate galeforce either through special charging or wings of mercy dancing. So W!Cecilia is probably best with CC, but compared to say Donnel she works much better without all range countering than he would. This is simply due to what type of threats you face in AR. Regarding your -RES Ike. He will have -8 res compared to mine due to the bane and the fact that you are looking to run one Eir instead of the two I run. I am not sure, I think it is still enough for most Ophelias, but I do lose mine to mages from time to time. Though I am curious. Did you fodder off the free neutral one from the Heroes Path Quests? Neutral is one of his better options.

@DefyingFates As an addon to what Ice Dragon said. In the support role for Super Tanks and Vantage Sweepers Brave Lucina can work pretty well if the unit that is doing the tanking/vantaging is a sword/lance/axe/dagger/bow/beast unit. +3 to all stats and Special Cooldown charge + 1 is pretty handy. For Vantage sweepers there are also any of the dual-phase brave wielders. Altina being the big recent example who happens to fill the mythic slot so it can let you use more support units than is usual for a vantage sweeper.

Surrendered one map today because I couldn't manage to gut a Hardy Bearing Brave Eliwood. Even Panne missed the one shot K.O. with her effective damage, though only barely. And she was my clutch unit against this type of matchup. Probably the 10 extra HP from the dual blessings. Panne normally shouldn't have trouble on the one shot against him, but 10 HP is a lot of extra bulk against a single hit.

@TEKWRX I would keep Altina as a Counter Vantage in your scenario. She does do physical rather than magical damage so in some bizarre circumstances where the enemies are ludicrously res stacked you might find it better to throw Altina at the foes than Tharja. Would be rare though, but even when that unlikely scenario doesn't pop up you have a back up vantage for when you mess up your math and miss a kill by a handful of hp. Winning with one lost unit is better than losing entirely(though either can ruin you if you are pushing for top rank).

So I was grinding up what little I had left to hit max rewards and was just using Auto-battle with Brave Ike. And of course I keep getting maps with 3+ red units. I had one fail with Palla and Hinata. Sanaki likes to appear too, and I am pretty sure I have seen Selena multiple times. Really? I want to use a green unit as my main auto anchor and you are going to equip everyone with ruby swords and/or TA? Oh well at least I didn't need too many runs to get to max.

@TEKWRX B!Ike and B!Lucina are the golden combo alright. He works bets on Light since that gives him the best chance to deal with the more insane mages out there. Plus Eir has her nifty healing skill which can further patch him up between turns. As for team comp You really only need those two, your mythic(s) and the bonus unit. Part of the goodness of this combo is that you don't really need much support outside of B!Lucina. That said Aversa is always a good one to slot in to decrease enemy stats and prevent the enemy from utilizing a bunch of buffs. Plus it gives you a red(though B!Ike doesn't usually struggle against his fellow greens it is always nice bonus to have a color balance). I agree with XRay on B!Ike first. B!Ike can function on his own without Lucina, she is just a huge plus in his column. But without his refine his use is really limited particularly with the DC/Null set. So yeah give Nailah away. B!Ike is probably one of, if not THE, strongest contenders for that combo.

Better to forget to play on Friday than to forget to play on Saturday like I did. Congrats on top 10 :D.

I agree with the others who say uninstall but don't delete the account. But I am cautious like that. As for Pity rates I am thinking that they should have done the max cap differently. Pushing that high causes so much frustration that I wouldn't be surprised if it drives people away. They would be better off with a lower cutoff but different rules on what happens when the cutoff hits. Given that they have given out 5 star limited units with the 75dollar orb pack I would probably just set it so that if you hit double that you get to pick one of the focuses just like with the free brave heroes and the ilk. That would basically be a 15% rate on legendaries. So it isn't like they would be losing much since that is rather rare to hit. I think I have only hit it once. And that is a maybe because I don't recall if it broke at 14.5 or if it actually hit 15. The real cost would be programming it in. So you would have to determine if it were worth the programming cost. Though even if I did do it I would probably role it out slowly just so I can observe the revenue impact. My gut says it wouldn't be terrible, but my gut has been wrong before. So probably 'trial' it on a 'special' legendary type banner. Maybe as a special anniversary banner. That way you aren't locking yourself into it and that would be an interesting way to have all the mythics/legendaries available during roughly the same time. Wait. We still have too many reds for that. So someone would be left out. But point is if it doesn't hit the bottom line hard it can be well worth it to limit player frustration.

@TEKWRX While some may disagree, I would say Mirror Impact is far more valuable than ATK/RES Oath. It is easy enough to duplicate the effect of Oaths through Tactics or the ilk. Mirror Impact's follow up denial is much harder to duplicate and it just gives more stats period. Admittedly it is in a much more contested slot and only works for one phase. But I would use her for Mirror Impact over ATK/RES Oath any day. However, there is no reason you can't use her for both at the same time. Get Mirror Strike 2 from a 4* Oliver and you can easily grab both at the Impact and Oath at the same time. So I would say it is a false dilemma unless you really don't want to burn an Oliver for fodder. Though this is assuming the unit in question wants an Oath. No reason to burn a Grail unit up if you don't plan to use Oaths.

@XRay Thanks for spelling it out. Yeah sounds like it would really only impact first combat. Which could help in some circumstances but is probably not better than Defense Smoke overall. So seems like if I want to make use his +10 special damage I need a source of Infantry Rush or another Lucina.

If we are discussing Time's Pulse I am curious if putting it on Counter Vantage Keaton over Defense Smoke would be an improvement? He does get that nice +10 damage on special activation. And getting Defense Smoke off isn't always a guarantee + the debuff can be danced away or harsh commanded. Also of the 2 turn specials which would you go with if Ruptured Sky was off the list? I have been running Reprisal and using the Bolt Trap to drop his hp(which can't always be relied on). That is about 15 damage under ideal circumstances. But am wondering if I would be better off with Moonbow/Glimmer for those situations where I can't nuke his HP to single digits? Though if I ever get Infantry Rush fodder(or a second Brave Lucina I guess) It could be interesting to try and use a 3 turn special. Draconic Aura would be fun. That would require the team to be rebuilt though since he is the only infantry on it.