Ice Dragon

The best skills that are currently available should look something like this: Young Merric [+Spd] Winds of Change [unique] / Teatime Set+ [Spd] [Assist] Flare / Ruptured Sky Remote Sparrow / Atk/Spd Finish 4 Occultist's Strike / Desperation 4 / Brash Assault 4 Incite Atk/Spd / Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Pledge / Time's Pulse 4 / Infantry Pulse 4 Winds of Change can be gotten if you haven't already refined his weapon and want to save some dew. Teatime Set+ [Spd] is the best inheritable option. Winds of Change already has Lull, Tempo, Null Follow-Up, and percentage damage reduction nullification on it, so there aren't that many options left for the B slot. Occultist's Strike is the most offensive option, but because Winds of Change has no defensive effects, you'll want a defensive effect on a different slot for harder content. Desperation 4 is the best defensive option and is a good replacement for his default Windsweep, and it also provides a Spd boost. Brash Assault 4 has a mix of offensive and defensive options, but doesn't have a Spd boost. If you're running Righteous Wind or Ruptured Sky, you should run any of the skills in the C slot other than Pledge. Pledge is only better than the other options if you're running Flare, and even then, only if the opponent can't counterattack or if you're running Desperation 4. If the opponent can counterattack or you're running a different Special, then the other options are better. Of the other options, Incite hits the hardest, but has no non-stat effect. Oath 4 is slightly weaker than Incite, but grants teleportation. Time's Pulse 4 and Infantry Pulse 4 let you land Righteous Wind on the first attack, so you're guaranteed to get the healing effect from it if the opponent doesn't have the Scowl effect. Time's Pulse 4 is better if you're expecting to be using a dancer to move more than once per turn. Infantry Pulse 4 is better otherwise. Sorry if this makes it even harder to decide.

Last week's free Arena ticket got me Ryoma. This week's gets me Lethe: Since the Winter banner was ending today, I couldn't procrastinate any longer on cleaning out my barracks and finally cleared some space. 303 pulls on the Winter banner: 7 Edelgard (+1 spark) 3 Byleth (+1 spark) 1 Dimitri (+1 spark) 2 Yunaka (+1 spark) 9 pity breakers: Fallen Dimitri Mycen Isadora Hardin Tinny Noah Anankos Ascended Elincia Marianne Edelgard really didn't want to come home. Despite the fact that I was sniping blue, by the time I got my last spark, I had pulled only 1 copy of Edelgard, but 3 copies of Byleth and 1 copy each of Dimitri and Yunaka. Part of this was caused by the first pity charge, which got me Yunaka and 2 copies of Byleth on the same circle. 4.3% focus rate is pretty good, about 3 pulls above average. 7.3% 5-star rate is also pretty good, about 2 pulls above average. Managed to get a perfect Byleth ([+Res, -Spd]), a perfect Dimitri ([+Spd, Res]), and eventually a perfect Edelgard ([+Atk, -Spd]) on the last one. No copy of Yunaka was better than neutral. Isadora was my first copy of her, and is also perfect ([+Spd, -Res]). Hardin was my second copy and is close enough ([+Spd, -HP]). Noah and Anankos are also my second copies of them, but neither have a good Asset. Mycen was my second copy, but my first was already close enough to perfect that this one wasn't better. Overall a pretty good haul. Now to wait until tomorrow to level them all up with the melee training maps.

Added Pirn's weapon to the translation notes. The weapon in Heroes is pretty true-to-form to the original King Sword, which is a Brave Sword with a high critical hit rate that also has the Charisma skill on it.

Petalfall Blade is currently the best inheritable sword that's available in Hall of Forms, but it's not a particularly high priority to get because Inigo has the identical Null Blade in the 3- and 4-star pool. Distant A/S Solo and Atk/Spd Prime 4 are alternative options for the A slot. Prime is currently extremely easy to activate on flier ball teams because we have units like Legendary Hinoka, Harmonized Catria, and Harmonized Cordelia that can each grant 2 non-stat Bonuses to surrounding flier allies. Aerial Maneuvers is probably Caeda's best option for the B slot, and even more so if she gets Null Follow-Up on her refine. If you're worried she won't get Null Follow-Up on her refine, there's also Flow Desperation. Gambit 4 is the best option for enemy phase. S/D Rein Snap and Atk/Spd Oath 4 are the best options for the C slot, with S/D Rein Snap being significantly harder to get. I don't recommend Guidance 4 or Soaring Guidance on offensive units because they don't provide in-combat stats to the unit with the skill itself, and it's generally better to put those skills on a support unit. Soaring Guidance is still an okay pick if you don't have access to it normally, though.

Brave Veronica is next in an Askr outfit, which was last seen exactly a year ago on Innes: Nifl Ilyana Askr Brave Veronica This is the second CYL 2 unit to get a Resplendent outfit. I am leaving the list of units known to be eligible as it is, including only units through Surtr's banner. Ilyana falls so far outside of the known range that it's somewhat pointless to list all of the units between her and Surtr, and we also don't have a pulse yet on why they decided to give her an outfit despite being significantly more recent. Logically speaking, Ilyana fits the functional purpose of the Resplendent Hero mechanic, which is to grant stat boosts to units that have outdated stats and don't have any other way of making up for them. Ilyana can only use inheritable weapons and is too recent to be on the radar for a refine, but has had her stats outclassed by another 4-star unit (Hestia). As such, the choice makes complete sense, and I don't think her getting a Resplendent outfit means that the floodgates are open in any way.

The next Resplendent Hero is Askr Brave Veronica: The art is very pretty, but I already had a hard time identifying Brave Veronica as Veronica due to her different hairstyle (this is the only version of her where the hair on the sides of her face are pulled back instead of falling in front), and this art makes it even harder for me to recognize her.

Ferdinand: Stoutheart Lance Base effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Grand Strategy effect for all stats in combat If HP is 50% or higher at start of combat: Guaranteed follow-up If HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: +7 additional damage, excludes AoE Specials Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +4 to all stats in combat 40% damage reduction on opponent's first attack Follow-up prevention 7 HP recovery after combat As expected, he got a guaranteed follow-up. In addition, he gets the kitchen sink. Yeah, no complaints. Legendary Lilina: Studied Forblaze Base effect is updated: Slaying effect Time's Pulse 3 (previously Quickened Pulse) If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +6 Atk/Res in combat Hardy Bearing effect Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +5 Atk/Res in combat Guaranteed follow-up Additional damage equal to 15% of Res, includes AoE Specials 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack For reference, her remix gives her and allies within Ploy 4 range Canto (1) as a status effect after combat. The damage dealt by Gifted Magic is also boosted to match that of the Growing series of Special skills. Her new skill is Sabotage A/R 3, which is an upgrade of her existing Sabotage Res 3. As I hoped, her Quickened Pulse was upgraded to Time's Pulse 3, which prevents enemies with Guard or post-combat Special drain from blocking her Special on the next turn. Otherwise, she got more damage, a guaranteed follow-up, and first-attack damage reduction, which are all par for the course. That's not much, but AoE Special builds don't need much to begin with, so this is all just icing on the cake. Kiria: Mirage Rod Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Atk -6 Atk/Res in combat to opponents within 2 spaces If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: Guaranteed follow-up (new) 75% damage reduction on opponent's follow-up attacks (new) Refine effect is: At start of turn, applies the following status effects on enemies in Ploy 4 range: -6 Atk/Res Sabotage With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: -5 Atk/Res to opponent in combat Additional damage equal to 15% of Atk, excludes AoE Specials 7 HP recovery after combat Guaranteed follow-up it is. Also stat penalties and Sabotage with no condition. It looks like they really want you to run something other than Sabotage A/R 3 in her B slot. I was not expecting damage reduction on follow-up attacks, as there are very few units with that effect, but now that we have Remote skills, it's probably a decently valuable effect, considering how well Brave Edelgard makes use of it. Other than that, more stats, more damage, and post-combat HP recovery. Given the crazy counterattacks that I've seen Bride Cecilia tank with a Sabotage-Ploy build, Kiria is probably going to be pretty tanky, especially since she doesn't need a stat comparison to land the Sabotage effect on enemies. Young Minerva: Dragoon Axe Base effect is updated: Slaying effect With a Stance condition (new) or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat (previously 100%): +4 to all stats in combat Guard effect 7 HP recovery after combat (new) Refine effect is: At start of turn, with a Unity condition, grants the following status effects to unit and allies within 2 spaces: +6 Atk/Spd +1 Special charge rate With a Finish condition: +4 to all stats in combat Null Follow-Up effect That is most definitely not enough extra stats. Her base Spd with maximum Dragonflowers is already 7 points behind the current leader among axe fliers, and that's before accounting for the fact that Duo Anna gains an insane amount of Spd from her weapon. 8 points of in-combat Spd is not enough if they're giving her Null Follow-Up instead of a guaranteed follow-up. The effects themselves would actually be decent if Minerva's base stats were more comparable to more recent units, but the effects are only decent, and her stats are not comparable to recent units. Young Merric: Winds of Change Base effect is updated: Effective damage against fliers Slaying effect If unit has a Bonus (previously stat bonus) or HP is 50% or higher at start of combat: +5 Atk/Spd in combat Null Follow-Up effect Additional damage equal to 15% of Spd, excludes AoE Specials (new) Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +5 Atk/Spd in combat Offensive Tempo effect Nullifies opponent's stat bonuses to Spd/Res Nullifies opponent's non-Special percentage damage reduction when unit's Special activates, excludes AoE Specials No Phantom Spd is a bit of a bummer since that leaves him vulnerable to opponents with Dodge 4 skills and other units that have Phantom Spd on a non-Sacred-Seal skill slot. Also no Time's Pulse 4, which is also a bummer. Sure, Tempo does almost the same thing, but the difference is that if he kills the opponent on the first hit, his Special doesn't activate and doesn't heal the entire team. The refine itself is really good, but my problem with it is that Merric has the tools to play an interesting role that other units can't do, and his refine just makes him generally better without having any effects that specifically make him better at that role. Leila: Constant Dagger Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Spd With a Blow-or-Unity condition (previously Blow condition): +5 Atk/Spd in combat Additional damage equal to 10% of Spd, excludes AoE Specials (new) If unit's Spd is higher than opponent's Spd (new) or if unit's support partner is within 2 spaces (existing): Sweep effect With a Blow condition and if unit's support partner is within 2 spaces: Swaps positions with support partner after combat Dagger common effect Refine effect is: At start of turn, inflicts the following status effects on closest enemies within 5 spaces and enemies within 2 spaces of those enemies: -6 Spd/Def Discord If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 Atk/Spd +1 Special charge rate With a Blow condition and if unit attacked in combat: Deals 7 damage to opponent and enemies within 2 spaces of opponent after combat I'm a bit disappointed that she doesn't get the ability to teleport to her support partner and/or vice versa. Otherwise, she gets a new condition on her Sweep effect that allows it to be used without the need for a support partner, Pain+, and a bunch of unconditional Penalties. Also +1 Special charge rate to make it a bit easier to charge a Special with her Sweep effect. She can now run Lethality with Special Spiral if she wants to, though I'm not sure I'd actually recommend that. Legendary Female Corrin: Base effect is updated: Slaying effect Dragonstone common effect With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat (previously 100%): +5 to all stats in combat +1 Special charge rate 7 flat damage reduction on opponent's non-follow-up attacks (new) Refine effect is: If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on the opponent's attack: -2 Special cooldown at start of turn 1 If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Offensive Tempo effect 30% damage reduction on opponent's AoE Specials and opponent's attacks 7 HP recovery after combat For reference, her remix fully charges her Special immediately after activation if the opponent has the Brave effect and slightly boosts its damage and damage reduction effects. Her new skill is Guard 4, replacing Shield Pulse. As expected, Shield Pulse is moved to her weapon. She also straight-up steals the flat damage reduction from Brave Corrin's Realms United, 30% damage reduction on all attacks from Vallastone, and 7 HP recovery after combat from Counter Roar 4. In addition, she also gets Tempo to make it harder for the opponent to stop her from charging Negating Fang and 30% damage reduction against AoE Specials. The one thing that's notably missing from her kit, though, is Null Follow-Up, which is a bit awkward. She would certainly prefer to run Counter Roar 4 over her new Guard 4, but she'll probably end up having to run Mag. Null Follow instead. That's not a bad thing since half percentage damage reduction nullification is a good effect to have, but Counter Roar 4 is just a really good skill that she'll have to pass up on. Overall thoughts Lilina's and Ferdinand's are solid. Corrin's is good, if a bit awkward in terms of how to build her now. No real complaints about Leila's. Kiria's also looks good, though I'll probably want to test her bulk. Merric's is good, but I wish it catered more to his exclusive Special's healing effect. Minerva's is disappointing. Her base stats simply aren't good enough to run Null Follow-Up without additional Spd support.

And the usual translation notes: The name of the banner, "New Heroes & Rearmed Reinhardt", is "新英雄＆魔器ラインハルト" (shin eiyū & maki rainharuto), "New Heroes & Arcane Reinhardt". As usual, "魔器" (maki), "magic weapon", is the term used for both Arcane weapons and Rearmed Heroes. Tina's epithet, "Playful Scamp", is "おちゃめな妹" (ochame na imōto), "Mischievous Younger Sister". Thief is "シーフ" (shīfu), "Thief". Wrathful Tempo is "神罰・拍節" (shinbatsu: hakusetsu), "Divine Punishment: Tempo". "神罰" (shinbatsu), "divine punishment", is an abbreviation of "神罰の杖" (shinbatsu no tsue), "staff of divine punishment", which is the name of the Wrathful Staff skill. Safy's epithet, "Font of Piety", is "敬虔なる者" (keiken-naru mono), "Pious One". Repair is "リペア" (ripea), "Repair". Atk/Spd Ploy is "攻撃速さの謀策" (kōgeki hayasa no bōsaku), "Atk/Spd Conspiracy". Lara's epithet, "Step Lively", is "可憐なステップ" (karen na suteppu), "Endearing Step". Clever Dagger is "攻防の暗器" (kōbō no anki), "Dagger of Offense and Defense". As usual "暗器" (anki), "hidden weapon", is the name of the dagger weapon type. Reinhardt's epithet, "Thrud Reborn", is "トードの再来" (tōdo no sairai), "The Second Coming of Tordo". Arcane Thunder is "魔器・雷公の書" (maki: raikō no sho), "Arcane Weapon: Tome of the Duke of Thunder". Thunder's Fist is "雷神の右腕" (raijin no migiude), "Right Hand of the God of Thunder". This is his original version's epithet in both English and Japanese. As before, "雷神" (raijin), "god of thunder", is Ishtar's epithet. S/R Far Trace is "速さ魔防の遠影" (hayasa mabō no en'ei), "Spd/Res Distant Trace". As usual, "影" (ei) more commonly means "shadow" or "image", but here means "trace" as in "something that is left behind (that isn't the thing itself)". Canto (Rem.; Min 1) is "再移動（残り、最低１）" (sai-idō (nokori, saitei 1)), "Move Again (Remaining, Minimum 1)". Pirn's epithet, "Dacian Scoundrel", is "ダキアの盗賊" (dakia no tōzoku), "Thief of Dacia". Blade Royale is "王者の刃" (ōja no yaiba), "King's Blade". This is a reference to the King's Sword, "王者の剣" (ōja no ken, "King's Sword"), from Thracia, which is the weapon Pirn is initially equipped with his source game. The weapon name in Heroes is changed to reflect the change in weapon type from sword to dagger.

Oh, cool. We got our fast Arcane blue tome, and S/R Far Trace 4 is really good. It's a pity he doesn't have Incite to make his fodder even better. Arcane Thunder is a really underwhelming weapon name, though. I get that space restrictions are a thing, but it's still underwhelming, especially since we've seen them abbreviate "Arcane" to "Arc." before. Also a new 4-star dancer. It looks like they noticed there isn't an easy source for Rockslide Dance 2 to chain Attuned Peony's Rockslide Dance 3 with, as Bon Elincia is the only other source of the skill.

Of the options you have, Escape Route 4 is the best one since it grants additional Spd and Canto. Null C-Disrupt 4 is also decent since you get Spd and percentage damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, though the actual Null C-Disrupt effect is mostly useless for him (though you might occasionally make use of it). If you don't mind waiting for a better skill, Desperation 4 and the not-yet-released Spd/Res Tempo 4 would be better options. Desperation 4 lets him run Atk/Spd Ideal 4 instead of Remote Sparrow in the A slot, and Spd/Res Tempo 4 lets him run Atk/Spd Oath 4 instead of Time's Pulse in the C slot. "Penalty" refers only to status effects visible on the map. Golden Yule Bow works fine on any unit that wants to run Deadeye and doesn't have easy access to Special acceleration or wants to move Special acceleration onto their weapon to open up a skill slot. You do lose out on effects that give you a more reliable follow-up, though, so keep that in mind. I assume you meant Hardy Fighter. Nope. The damage reduction on the armor-exclusive Specials is a passive effect that isn't tied to the Special being triggered and is therefore not affected by Hardy Fighter. Queensblade prevents Specials from triggering, but does not prevent their passive effects that aren't tied to the Special being triggered. Vital Astra's Dodge effect and Godlike Reflexes' additional damage are both passive effects and won't be blocked by Queensblade.

Time's Pulse 4 is necessary on most units that run Vital Astra if you want to use its Dodge effect. Ideally, you'd wait for Spd Oath Echo, though. Sothis also has Time's Pulse 4 as an option to land Sirius+ on her first counterattack when the opponent has more HP to drain. While Pledge is stronger for this purpose, it's also vulnerable to an opponent's defensive Tempo effect, whereas Time's Pulse 4 is not. She also ideally wants to wait for Spd Oath Echo, though. Infantry Pulse 4 is the current most optimal C skill for units with AoE Specials that want to be more reliable in fully charging their Special. Time's Pulse only activates if the unit's Special cooldown is a maximum, which leaves units vulnerable to Guard or post-combat cooldown drain (like in Resonant Battles), whereas Infantry Pulse 4 activates regardless of the unit's current cooldown. Infantry Pulse 4 also lets the unit not need to fully charge their Special at the start of turn 1 on maps that allow you to stall a few turns at the start. Also, Atk Oath Echo is a viable option for units running Ploy 4 skills if you don't need a Remote Echo skill instead.

Honestly, it's your pick. Hardy Fighter still gives you 51% damage reduction with the 2-cooldown Specials, but comes at the drawbacks of not yet having a tier-4 version that grants additional stats and not matching up well against opponents with the Brave effect. However, I figure that when Hardy Fighter 4 is released, it's likely to have Negating Fang II's new effect to counter the Brave effect. Other B skills, like Counter Roar 4 have the drawback of having their defensive effects nullified by all of the new skills that partially or fully nullify percentage damage reduction. Arcane Grima is: Slaying effect +5 to all stats Guaranteed follow-up Additional damage equal to 15% of Atk 7 HP recovery after combat Dragon's Stone is: +4 to all stats Reduces damage on non-follow-up attacks by 20% of Spd Null Follow-Up New-Sun Stone is: +4 to all stats Reduces damage on non-follow-up attacks by 15% of Atk Guard effect 15% of Atk is typically about 12-14. 20% of Spd is typically about 13-15 for fast units. Ultimately, the biggest draw of Arcane Grima is the fact that it has the Slaying effect. This allows armors to run the armor-exclusive Specials offensively (since their defensive effects aren't strictly to your own Special charge, it's only the offensive effect that gets a strict improvement from the Slaying effect) and other units to run Aether more comfortably. Defensively speaking, both of the new weapons are better than Arcane Grima, though a future Hardy Fighter 4 might still be able to allow Arcane Grima to challenge the new weapons defensively depending on what additional effects it gains. Good enough to be worth a Forma Soul, yes. It depends on how stingy you want to be with Atk Oath Echo. The absolute best use of the skill is to give it to infantry that are forced to run Time's Pulse 4 or Infantry Pulse 4 and fliers that are running Deadly Miasma. Running it on a flier with Hold is okay, but you'll get more mileage out of Oath 4 + Death Blow Echo instead. Atk/Spd Oath 4 + Death Blow Echo is +13/9 offenses, while Spd/Def Hold + Atk Oath Echo is only +10/4 offenses. It's also worth noting that fast units will generally want the not-yet-released Spd Oath Echo instead of Atk Oath Echo with one notable exception: If you're running the team with a dancer that has Attuned Peony's Rockslide Dance 4, Atk Oath Echo ensures that the stat bonuses won't overlap. (This is why Peony has this exact combo of skills when she herself would have preferred to have Spd Oath Echo instead.) Once one exists, yes. If you don't run Prescience, then you ideally want Flared Mirror or Still Water 4 in the A slot and Remote Atk Echo or Remote Res Echo in the X slot.

The easiest way to take her down is with an AoE Special from a tome unit. Any unit that can pre-charge a Special that ignores percentage damage reduction (or has another effect that nullifies percentage damage reduction) should also work.

One new weapon for a translation note: Stoutheart Lance is "自信家の長槍" (jishinka no nagayari), "Long Spear of the Self-Confident". And my usual hopes and expectations: Ferdinand: Stoutheart Lance Currently has Vanguard+, which grants +7 Def with a Stance condition. Ferdinand has a stat spread that gives him mediocre values in every stat. His base kit is garbage, having Reposition, Fortress Def, and Rouse Spd/Def. He could theoretically go for Spd, but he'd need a huge boost from his weapon given that he's a full 6 points behind Brave Eirika, who is currently the premier fast lance cavalry unit and already has a massive stat boost from her weapon. More likely, they'll have him rely on a guaranteed follow-up. He has Reposition by default, so they might give him an effect that activates when a movement Assist skill is used. Legendary Lilina: Studied Forblaze Current effect is: Slaying effect At start of turn 1: -1 Special cooldown If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +6 Atk/Res in combat Hardy Bearing effect For reference, her remix gives her and allies within Ploy 4 range Canto (1) as a status effect after combat. The damage dealt by Gifted Magic is also boosted to match that of the Growing series of Special skills. Her new skill is Sabotage A/R 3, which is an upgrade of her existing Sabotage Res 3. Currently, there are no skill effects that allow AoE Specials to ignore damage reduction of any kind, and I don't expect that to change. While Lilina has an AoE Special, it has a lower damage multiplier than the usual Blazing series, so she doesn't rely on it quite as much as other units of this archetype to deal damage. Instead, I expect her to gain effects to boost her in-combat damage, like damage reduction nullification or the start-of-combat damage that is all the rage right now. Tempo or Time's Pulse would be nice to have to prevent Guard from blocking her from having her Special charged for her next round of combat. We also have a bunch of new status effects like Sabotage, Ploy, Exposure, and Discord that could potentially be inflicted at start of turn to help boost her damage. Kiria: Mirage Rod Current effect is: Permanent +3 Atk -6 Atk/Res in combat to opponents within 2 spaces Kiria's stat spread is basically a less optimized version of Validar's, having more Spd and less Res. Her incredibly simple base kit of Atk/Res Solo and Lull Atk/Res with nothing but Atk/Res Rein on her weapon gives me zero clue what direction they'll go with her, though it's pretty much a given that they'll either give her a guaranteed follow-up or high single-hit damage. Or both. Young Minerva: Dragoon Axe Current effect is: Slaying effect If opponent's HP is 100% at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Guard effect Minerva's exclusive skill Dragoon Shield did not age well at all. Ideally, they'll move its Iote's Shield effect onto her weapon to open up the slot for a better skill. Her weapon having the Guard effect implies that she's intended to take counterattacks and will probably be getting damage reduction of some kind. Ideally, she just gets exactly what Spring Maria has, but I doubt they'll have them overlap that closely. Young Merric: Winds of Change Current effect is: Effective damage against fliers Slaying effect If unit has a stat bonus or HP is 50% or higher at start of combat: +5 Atk/Spd in combat Null Follow-Up effect Merric's base kit is designed around as a Sweep build, and I think it's pretty likely that he'll get Phantom Spd on his weapon to help him continue to activate Windsweep against all of the other units that can get Phantom Spd effects from their weapons or B skills. His exclusive Special skill heals the entire team when it activates, and it would be nice to guarantee that it activates during every round of combat. Ideally, he'd get Time's Pulse 4 on his weapon so that his Special always activates on his first attack instead of activating on his follow-up. Leila: Constant Dagger Current effect is: Permanent +3 Spd With a Blow condition: +5 Atk/Spd in combat If unit's support partner is within 2 spaces: Sweep effect Swaps positions with support partner after combat Dagger common effect The absolute best effect to give her would be to allow her to always be able to teleport within 2 spaces of her support partner and to allow her support partner to always be able to teleport within 2 spaces of her. Legendary Female Corrin: Current effect is: Slaying effect Dragonstone common effect With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 100%: +5 to all stats in combat +1 Special charge rate For reference, her remix fully charges her Special immediately after activation if the opponent has the Brave effect and slightly boosts its damage and damage reduction effects. Her new skill is Guard 4, replacing Shield Pulse. Replacing Shield Pulse means its effects are likely to be moved entirely to her weapon since they're an integral part of making her build work. It would be nice if they also boosted the flat damage reduction to 7 to match her CYL version's exclusive skill's effect. I would have preferred it if she got Null C-Disrupt 4 instead of Guard 4, though, since Null C-Disrupt 4 comes with a Spd boost and Guard 4 doesn't, but Null C-Disrupt 4 is significantly more recent of a skill. Tempo would also be nice to prevent an opponent's Guard from preventing her from recharging her Special. That said, it would be even better if they just gave her Special Spiral instead to make it even harder to prevent her Special from recharging. I highly doubt they'd give her Distant Counter on her weapon in order to open up both her A slot and Sacred Seal slot, but it would be nice if they did. It's just a bit annoying that have every dragon fight over the Distant Counter (D) Sacred Seal.

New remixes have been announced: Female Corrin: Negating Fang II Cooldown: 3 40% damage reduction on activation (previously 30%) Increases damage by 40% of Atk on next attack (previously 30%), this round of combat only If opponent has Brave effect: -2 cooldown after first activation, once per round of combat (new) New skill is Guard 4, replacing Shield Pulse. The new effect is pretty notable, as it fully recharges the skill after it activates if the opponent has the Brave effect, allowing it to activate on both hits of the opponent's attack. Additionally, it gets a slight boost to its damage reduction and damage output. Guard 4 replacing Shield Pulse is also pretty notable, as it means the effect is probably being moved to her weapon instead. I'm also expecting the flat damage reduction to be increased to 7 since Brave Corrin has it on her exclusive A skill. Lilina: Gifted Magic II Cooldown: 2 Deals damage equal to unit's Atk minus opponent's Def or Res to enemies in target area (damage previously multiplied by 0.8) On activation, after combat, even if unit is defeated: Grants Canto (1) as a status effect to allies within 3 columns or 3 rows centered on unit (new) New skill is Sabotage A/R 3, which is an upgrade of her existing Sabotage Res 3. Damage is increased to match the Growing series of Special skills and grants Canto (1) to allies in Ploy 4 range after combat. Presumably, the Canto (1) status effect will activate on Lilina immediately after it's applied. No real clues about what will be on her refine other than that she won't be getting Canto on it.

Tap the skip button.

Soaring Guidance is generally only optimal on support units (and units you're using in Aether Raids defense) because it doesn't directly help its user at all. If you're fine losing a bit of combat performance to get greater mobility (and conditional Null Follow-Up) for the rest of your team, it's fine to take it, especially because it's hard to come by, but otherwise, Spd/Def Hold or Atk/Spd Oath 4 are going to be better.

Added Female Kana's weapon and the new Sacred Seal. New-Sun Stone's effect is: Dragonstone common effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces damage from non-follow-up attacks by 15% of Atk Guard effect Compare with Dragon's Stone's effect: Dragonstone common effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces damage from non-follow-up attacks by 20% of Spd If unit's Spd is higher than opponent's Spd: Null Follow-Up effect The other Sacred Seal is Spd/Res Catch.

If you can get it for free (from Hall of Forms), there's no reason not to. Otherwise, it depends. Chaos Named+ Pros: Yune gets this by default. No skill fodder needed. No stat comparison. Doesn't require skills in other slots to boost your visible stats. Strong in game modes and maps where enemies cluster together where you can more easily land all 4 stat penalties on the entire team. Panic is useful in game modes and maps where opponents run stat bonuses. Panic pairs well with Yune's weapon effect, as Panicked stat bonuses also count towards it (even when reversed by Unity or Grand Strategy). Cons: Little to no control over what gets hit if enemies don't stay together. Panic is severely detrimental to you if the opponent runs Unity or has Grand Strategy. Tier-4 Ploy Pros: Ploy status effect is strong in game modes where you expect the opponent to use units that grant Bonus Doubler, Treachery, or Grand Strategy. Exposure is good for breaking walls. Cons: Requires a Res comparison. You'll want to spend resources to run either Fortress Def/Res 3 or Still Water 4 in the A slot to boost your chances of hitting enemies with high Res. Applies stat penalties to only 2 stats at a time. You need to run 2 units with complementary skills in order to hit all 4 stats. Skill fodder is expensive, as neither Atk/Res Ploy 3 nor Def/Res Ploy 3 are available from the standard summoning pool.

It's very close between blue, green, and colorless for me in terms of what I'll be able to make use of functionally (all three between 79-86% chance), so it'll probably have to just come down to favoritism. I think blue will be the highest priority for me, followed by colorless, then green, though I'm still waffling on whether colorless or green is higher.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Phina: Doing my usual full session pulls on the Winter banner reruns got me my first copy of Mycen, and he's [+Atk, -HP], which is really nice. 50 pulls from the Double Special Heroes banner: 3 Kagero 0 Karla (+1 spark) Kagero is now +7 and yet I still haven't pulled a copy better than neutral. Karla is now +10. 50 pulls from the Hall of Forms banner: 3 Micaiah (+1 spark) 2 pity breakers: Ascended Elincia Ascended Laegjarn The spark brought Micaiah to +9, so I decided to keep pulling and managed to get the last copy in only 10 pulls, which was nice for a change. As usual, Ascended Heroes seem to like me a lot. Ascended Elincia would be +10 if I merged all of them, but I'm holding off on merging for now in case I need her skills. Also got Eleonora to +7 and Leila to +8 with copies of them from the 4-star SR pool. 149 pulls from the Legendary Hero Banner: 7 Camilla (+1 spark) 5 Alear 0 Soren 8.1% focus rate is about half a pull below average. 4.7% Camilla rate is about 3 pulls above average. This is probably the most bizarre distribution of pulls I've yet gotten from a Legendary/Mythic Hero banner. My usual luck would have swapped the numbers for Camilla and Soren, but even then, it usually isn't this ridiculously lopsided. Alear is now +10, though I'm waffling on whether to merge the last copy into her or leave her at +9 and give Pledge to a skill duplicator. I'm leaning towards merging, though, since, while Pledge is technically best in slot for a lot of units, we don't have Def Oath Echo or Res Oath Echo to properly pair with Atk/Spd Pledge yet. Camilla is obviously now +7. I'm not planning on using any of these copies for skills yet. As good as Deadly Miasma is, the utility of Atk/Spd Oath 4 is still extremely stiff competition for it, especially if you aren't using Rally skills very often.

The art is pretty. I'll read the skill descriptions later when I'm not exhausted from holiday travel. Somehow, doing translation notes is less mentally taxing than reading skill descriptions: The banner name, "Ring In the Year", is "新春挨拶合戦" (shinshun aisatsu kassen), "New Year Greetings Contest". Nerthuz's epithet, "New-Year Doter", is "寄り添う新年" (yorisou shinnen), "Nestling New Year". Cute Paper Crane is "地の女神の折り鶴" (chi no megami no orizuru), "Paper Crane of the Goddess of the Land". Atk/Spd Wild is "攻撃速さの野生" (kōgeki hayasa no yasei), "Atk/Spd Wildness". Kvasir's epithet, "Unknown Future", is "はじめてのお正月" (hajimete no oshōgatsu), "First New Year". Ambiguously either "her first new year" or "the first new year", almost certainly intentionally. Faded Paper Fan is "過去の女神の扇子" (kako no megami no sensu), "Folding Fan of the Goddess of the Past". Inf. Null Follow is "歩行の見切り追撃" (hokō no mikiri tsuigeki), "Infantry Nullify Follow-Up Attack". "見切り追撃" (mikiri tsuigeki) is an abbreviation of "見切り・追撃効果" (mikiri: tsuigeki kōka), "Nullification: Follow-Up Attack Effects", which is the name of the Null Follow-Up skill. Kana's epithet, "Rising Dragon", is "新年の昇り竜" (shinnen no nobori-ryū), "New Year's Rising Dragon". Dragon's Stone is "辰年の御子の竜石" (tatsudoshi no miko no ryūseki), "Dragonstone of the Prince of the Year of the Dragon". Seidr's epithet, "Time's Goddesses", is "新春の女神姉妹" (shinshun no megami shimai), "New Year's Goddess Sisters". Goddess Temari is "女神姉妹の手毬" (megami shimai no temari), "Goddess Sisters' Temari". Time's Grip is "時の陥穽" (toki no kansei), "Time's Trap". Sabotage S/R is "速さ魔防の混乱" (hayasa mabō no konran), "Spd/Res Confusion". Future-Sighted is "共に未来を変えて" (tomo ni mirai o kaete), "Together We Will Change the Future". Kana's epithet, "Rising Sunlight", is "笑顔のご来光" (egao no goraikō), "Smiling Sunrise". New-Sun Stone is "辰年の幼姫の竜石" (tatsudoshi no yōki no ryūseki), "Dragonstone of the Young Princess of the Year of the Dragon". Distant Counter (M) is "遠反・剣槍斧専用" (enhan: ken yari ono senyō), "Long-Range Counterattack: Sword, Lance, Axe Exclusive Use". "遠反" (enhan) is an abbreviation of "遠距離反撃" (enkyori hangeki), "Long-Range Counterattack", which is the name of the Distant Counter skill.

I forgot to add the new Divine Vein in my translation notes and didn't feel like editing my post on mobile while I was still away from home.

Given that we only just got our first CYL 2 unit, it's going to be a long while before we can ever expect units from CYL 4. I'm not even going to bother updating my lists in the other thread because I have no reason to believe that the floodgates are actually open. We have a Book 4 4-star unit with an out-of-date stat spread and no exclusive weapon, and that's all I'm willing to treat it as. At most, I might add 4-star units through Ilyana, but that's it, and I wouldn't even do so until we get another outlier so I can actually figure out exactly what they're doing.

If you're planning on grabbing both, then it's probably best to try for "good enough" on both before optimizing. Sabotage A/R on Micaiah is lower priority if you're planning on keeping Prescience.