Ice Dragon

Added translation notes for Tempest Trials boss Peony's epithet and weapon.

Don't worry too much about double posts in this thread. Making sure questions are seen and answered is generally more important than avoiding double posts. Special Spiral 4's percentage damage reduction nullification excludes AoE Specials, so the only benefit you'd get from it over Special Spiral 3 is the additional 5 damage. Unless you have a lot of Special Spiral 4 fodder or you have extra empty inheritance slots left over while transferring a different skill, it's probably not worth getting Special Spiral 4 for an AoE Special. Cyril's weapon pretty much just gives him something like +25/13/10/10, penalty nullification, and nothing else. And while his stat total is extremely high, pretty much all of those extra points are in HP. That's not a bad thing, though, since his other stats are all still comparable with other modern units, and the introduction of Infantry Pulse 4 gives him a potential use for the high HP. His best builds will probably center around which A skill you pick for him, as I can see him running any of Remote Sparrow, Flash Sparrow, or Atk/Spd Finish 4 pretty decently. Since Cyril has basically no skill effects on his weapon, these are all basically cookie-cutter builds, so you can run them on pretty much anyone with adjustments based on what skill effects they get from their weapon. (It's worth noting that for these cookie-cutter builds even low-HP units can viably run Infantry Pulse 4. You obviously lose the support effect, but Infantry Pulse 4 activates at the start of every turn with no condition, unlike Time's Pulse 4, which is conditional on your Special being fully uncharged. For units that aren't running a 1-cooldown Special and aren't running Special Spiral, this makes a pretty big difference.) With Remote Sparrow: Cyril [+Spd] Aptitude Arrows [Assist] Ruptured Sky Remote Sparrow Phys. Null Follow / Escape Route 4 / Spd/Def Tempo 3 Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Pledge / Infantry Pulse 4 / Time's Pulse 4 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Null Follow-Up 3 Pledge and the Pulse 4 skills are there to get the Special to land if the opponent can't counterattack. You can also use them with Deadeye (either Pledge or Pulse) or Astra (Pledge only) against an opponent that can counterattack and doesn't have Guard or Tempo. Oath 4 is really only usable if you are expecting the opponent to be able to counterattack. Obviously, don't run the Null Follow-Up Sacred Seal if you're running Phys. Null Follow in the B slot. With Flash Sparrow or Atk/Spd Finish 4: Cyril [+Spd] Aptitude Arrows [Assist] Ruptured Sky / Deadeye / Astra Flash Sparrow / Atk/Spd Finish 4 Desperation 4 / Brash Assault 4 / Special Spiral 4 Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Pledge / Infantry Pulse 4 / Time's Pulse 4 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Null Follow-Up 3 Obviously don't stack effects that don't stack and pick your Special based on what you can actually land on your follow-up attack. Note that Desperation 4 gives you fewer options for the other slots (Ruptured Sky + Flash Sparrow + Oath 4 // Ruptured Sky + Atk/Spd Finish 4 + Pledge // Deadeye + Flash Sparrow + Pulse 4) than Brash Assault 4. Def/Res Smoke 3 is also an option for either of the above builds as an alternative to Atk/Spd Oath 4 if you are willing to pass up on the mobility and combat performance in exchange for the Pathfinder effect for support. Duel skills are only worth using if the increase in score is enough to move you up above or keep you above a scoring threshold that you're targeting. More specifically, they are only potentially worth running if your Arena team includes units that aren't fully merged and you have older fully merged units that could replace them. As a reminder: 1 stat bucket (5 stat points) is worth an average 0.5 Arena points per match Includes base stats, Asset, Flaw, and first-merge bonus (nullified Flaw or 3 +1 stats) Excludes Ascended Asset, Dragonflowers, blessing bonuses, summoner support bonuses, stats from skills, and anything else not listed in "includes" 1 SP bucket (100 SP) is worth an average 0.5 Arena points per match 1 merge is worth an average 1.0 Arena points per match If you're using the bonus Legendary Hero, check with an Arena score calculator to see if a change of less than 2 Arena points will change your maximum score.

Threaten Atk/Def and Even Tempest are squarely in the "what's the point?" category of Sacred Seals. What do they have against Atk/Spd Ideal or Null C-Disrupt? Or even Atk/Def Ideal? And the sooner they finish the Ideal and Catch series, the sooner I can start complaining about the glacial pace they're releasing the Clash series (since I don't see them releasing Finish anytime soon). We're currently only missing Spd/Res Catch, Atk/Spd Ideal, and Atk/Def Ideal from those series.

Added Kellam's weapon to the translation notes. It's the same as Seadall's, but granting stat bonuses in Atk/Def instead of Atk/Res. I laughed when I saw Kellam's garish outfit, and I can't decide if it's trying to draw attention or trying to camouflage. But probably both.

@Tybrosion Rearmed Lif is named "LIF2" instead of "LIF_WEAPON01" like the other Rearmed units, so the new unit having a "2" suffix instead of a "WEAPON" suffix doesn't actually completely disqualify them from being a Rearmed unit. Granted, this could just be because Lif was the first one and they hadn't come up with a suffix for them yet, but it's also worth noting that Ganglot has no suffix at all. And yes, that was the first version of Ganglot, but Rearmed Eitr was also the first version of Eitr, and she does have the "WEAPON" suffix. There hasn't been any exceptions to Ascended Heroes that I'm aware of, but Heroes characters are already weird as fuck in their internal naming schemes (I believe they're the only ones that don't get the "GOD" suffix as Mythic Heroes, too), so there's honestly no telling if it's Ascended, Rearmed, or something else just from that. As for the actual characters themselves:

Heath: Hyperion Lance Base effect is: Effective damage against cavalry With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's Atk/Spd/Def in combat by 10% of unit's Def at start of combat Guard effect Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats Guaranteed follow-up During first round of combat on each phase: 40% damage reduction on opponent's attacks and AoE Specials, excluding Rokkr Specials During subsequent rounds of combat on each phase: 20% damage reduction on opponent's attacks and AoE Specials, excluding Rokkr Specials Heath keeps his effective damage, as I suspected he would. Additionally, he gains about +12~14 to all stats depending on his Def stat, a guaranteed follow-up, Guard, and a slightly weaker version of Guard Bearing 4, but that grants the boosted damage reduction on both phases instead of only enemy phase. Compared to Trabant's weapon, he receives a smaller boost to effective Def due to the lower scaling (Trabant's is 15% of Def), but instead gets a boost to Atk and Spd based on his Def stat (which Trabant doesn't get). Heath also doesn't get Special acceleration, but instead gets a weaker, dual-phase version of Guard Bearing 4. The Atk boost is pretty useful since it allows him to at least pass up most of the other slow dragon knights in raw Atk, but it still falls behind Spring Michalis and Areone and lacks any form of Special acceleration, which is at least somewhat justified. His previously middling Spd stat gets a pretty huge boost, and he might actually be able to compete with actually fast units when run with a Spd Asset. Even if he gets only +12 Spd from his weapon, that puts him at the equivalent of 43 base neutral Spd for a current-generation unit (if he has maximum-minus-5 Dragonflower levels and the current-generation unit has none) with only weapons equipped, which is actually competitive. The only weird thing is you'll probably want to run him with Spd/Def skills in his A slot and Sacred Seal slot to get additional Spd boosts, which means passing up on Atk, and that's a bit awkward. Chad: Wildcat Dagger Base effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Boosts all stats in combat equal to the opponent's stat bonus on the corresponding stat Reduces all opponent's stats in combat equal to the opponent's stat bonus on the corresponding stat Offensive Tempo effect Refine effect is: With a Blow condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher: +4 to all stats in combat 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack Additional damage equal to 10% of Spd, excluding AoE Specials Okay, that's one way to fix Chad's stats. They just flat-out give him Binding Necklace, which grants a maximum of +12 to all stats. On top of that, he gets the usual +8 to all stats, additional damage equal to 10% of his Spd, 30% damage reduction from the opponent's first attack, and the offensive Tempo effect. This kit is just asking you to give him Flash Sparrow and Lethality. Nothing else to say because Binding Necklace is just somewhat kind of broken. Lakche: Larcei's Edge Base effect is updated: Slaying effect If unit's Spd is higher than opponent's Spd at start of combat or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher (previously 100%) at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Nullifies opponent's stat bonuses Offensive Tempo effect (new) Refine effect is: If Special cooldown is at maximum at start of turn: -1 Special cooldown If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 15% of Spd, excluding AoE Specials If Special cooldown is at maximum after combat: -1 Special cooldown Lakche doesn't get Null Follow-Up, but she does get offensive Tempo. She also gets Time's Pulse 4, but the after-combat part of is conditional on her HP at the start of combat. Other than that, she also gets an additional +4 to all stats and additional damage based on her Spd. Honestly, it's probably better to switch her over to Vital Astra and Phys. Null Follow instead of her default Regnal Astra and Repel. Her weapon effectively having Time's Pulse 4 on it also means her C slot is open to run Atk/Spd Oath 4 instead of Time's Pulse 4. So as expected, she just does fast infantry sword things, just as before. Tsubasa: Mirage Feather Base effect is updated: Effective damage against armor and cavalry Permanent +3 Spd With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +6 Atk/Spd in combat (previously with a Blow condition and if at least 1 ally has ended their turn) Offensive Null Follow-Up effect (new) With a Blow condition and if at least 1 ally has ended their turn: Desperation effect Refine effect is: Canto (2) If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 Atk/Spd in combat Nullifies stat penalties to Atk/Spd With a Blow condition and if at least 1 ally has ended their turn: +5 Atk/Spd in combat So Tsubasa ended up still being player-phase-centric, but still gets some decent boosts on enemy phase. The stats from her base effect were moved to a Blow-or-Unity condition, which the Desperation effect remains on the old condition. She gains an additional +5 Atk/Spd, another +5 Atk/Spd with the unrefined weapon's condition, offensive Null Follow-Up, nullifies stat penalties to Atk/Spd, and Canto (2). Overall, she gets a total +16 Atk/Spd on player phase if at least 1 ally has ended their turn, which is a lot of stats, and she has both Null Follow-Up and Desperation to go along with it to avoid taking damage. She also has Canto (2), which means her B slot is open to run something like Wings of Mercy 4 or even Windsweep. Spring Fir: Bun-Bun Baton Base effect is updated: Effective damage against armor Slaying effect Null Follow-Up effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat (new) Offensive Tempo effect (new) Refine effect is: +7 Phantom Spd With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's non-Special percentage damage reduction by half Dodge 3 No Canto is a bit of a bummer, but I can't believe she actually got Phantom Spd to match an opponent's Dodge 4. She also gets +8 to all stats, offensive Tempo, Dodge 3, and halves the opponent's percentage damage reduction. That's not quite as much as I wanted, but is about as much as I expected. Dodge 3 means she doesn't necessarily need to Sweep anymore and can run something else, but Windsweep is still a pretty good option. Interestingly, her refine effect uses the Stance condition instead of the Blow condition as its phase-based condition, which is a bit weird, but armors these days are more likely to be weaker on their player phase than on their enemy phase, but the player-phase condition is still easy enough to fulfill. The Stance condition also pairs well with Guard Bearing 4. Overall thoughts Chad's and Tsubasa's look to be the best ones in this batch. Chad getting Binding Necklace came out of left field, and the total potential +20 to all stats is insane. Tsubasa gets a reliable +16 Atk/Spd and Null Follow-Up to pair with the existing Desperation effect. Fir's is extremely solid, but isn't quite as insane as the previous two, and not getting Canto is a bit of a bummer. Lakche's is also solid, but it's pretty much just what every other fast sword infantry does. Heath's is good, but he's not quite as strong offensively as Trabant due to his lack of Special acceleration and not quite as strong defensively as Cormag due to his lack of flat damage reduction. However, he's now legitimately fast, but has to pick between running Atk/Spd skills or Spd/Def skills since he might actually want those 1~2 extra points of Spd.

I'm glad this banner doesn't have stupidly broken stuff like Wind Claude on it. Harmonized Anna seems fun, though. And it looks like Brave Marth's refine effect has now been made into Bonus Doubler 4. Seadall's weapon is also an inheritable weapon with Bonus Doubler 4 on it. I'm glad that inheritable weapons are getting stronger. It's probably because of the existence of Arcane weapons since there's otherwise no reason not to use an Arcane weapon if you have access to one. Anyways, here's the usual translation notes: The name of the banner, "Merchant's Harvest", is "商売人の収穫祭" (shōbai-nin no shūkakusai), either "Merchants' Harvest Festival" or "Merchant's Harvest Festival". Timerra's epithet, "Trick or Meat", is "お菓子よりお肉" (okashi yori oniku), "Meat Instead of Candy". Inspirited Spear is "舞い踊る満月の宝槍" (mai-odoru mangetsu no hōsō), "Treasure Lance of the Dancing Full Moon". Bonus Doubler is "強化増幅" (kyōka zōfuku), "Bonus Amplification". "強化" (kyōka), "strengthening", is the term used for stat bonuses. Flayn's epithet, "Silly Kitty-Cat", is "おとぼけ猫仮装" (otoboke neko kasō), "Feigning Ignorance in a Cat Costume". Kitty-Cat Parasol is "妖猫の日傘" (yōbyō no higasa), "Demon Cat's Parasol". "妖猫" is a novel compound and is probably read "yōbyō", though I've also seen "ayashineko". It presumably refers to supernatural cats, similarly to Japan's kaibyō. Dazzle Far Trace is "幻惑・遠影" (genwaku: en'ei), "Dazzlement: Far Trace". "幻惑" (genwaku) refers to Dazzling Staff, which is "幻惑の杖" (genwaku no tsue), "Staff of Dazzlement". As usual, "影" (ei), "trace", refers to a trace as in something that is left behind when the source is no longer there, as the word more typically means "shadow" or "image". Seadall's epithet, "Misfortune-Teller", is "悪戯な占い師" (itazura na uranaishi), "Mischievous Fortune Teller". Pumpkin Stem is "カボチャステッキ" (kabocha sutekki), "Pumpkin Cane". While "ステッキ" (sutekki) is derived from English "stick", it normally refers to a walking stick or cane. Anna's epithet, "Twice the Anna", is "アンナとアンナ" (anna to anna), "Anna and Anna". Payday Pouch is "一攫千金の巨大袋" (ikkaku senkin no kyodai fukuro), "Huge Bag of Windfalls". "一攫千金" (ikkaku senkin) is an idiom that means "to make a fortune all at once" and translates literally as "a thousand gold in a single stroke". A/S Rein Snap is "攻速牽制・運び手" (kōsoku kensei: hakobi te), "A/S Restraint: Carrier". As usual, "攻速牽制" (kōsoku kensei), "A/S Restraint", is an abbreviation of "攻撃速さの牽制" (kōgeki hayasa no kensei), "Atk/Spd Restraint", which is the name of the Atk/Spd Rein skill. Kellam's epithet, "Pumpkin Knight", is "かぼちゃ重騎士" (kabocha jūkishi), "Pumpkin Armor Knight". "重騎士" (jūkishi), literally "heavy knight", is the name of the Armor Knight class, usually localized as "Knight". Farmer's Tool is "農具" (nōgu), "Farming Implement". Peony's epithet, "Cherished Dream", is "親愛の夢" (shin'ai no yume), "Dream of Deep Affection". Flower of Caring is "親愛の花" (shin'ai no hana), "Flower of Deep Affection". The Japanese game is amusingly indecisive with their spelling of kabocha, "pumpkin", which can be seen with Pumpkin Stem's kabocha written in katakana (same as the Hack-o'-Lantern weapon), but Pumpkin Knight's kabocha written in hiragana (same as the Pumpkin Lanterns Aether Resort decoration). Both are standard spellings and there is no functional difference between the two, but it's always amusing to see this happen (especially with instances this close to each other), even when it's pretty commonplace due to the number of words in Japanese that have multiple standard spellings.

Probably because despite the complaints, it probably still has the highest or one of the highest participation numbers compared to other events.

They're all generic bosses from the Akaneia games.

Tellius is missing Nasir and Gareth. Fates is also missing Lilith.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Fallen Celica: Also managed to get Valentine Lyn as a 4-star SR Special Hero summon on the Thracia/Echoes/Nephenee dancer banner, so she's now +8.

Yeah, that is what I meant. It's easy for me to get mechanics mixed up in my head for the older games because it's been about a decade and a half since I last played any of them.

I haven't actually bothered to pull from the wind festival banner yet (and don't have the budget to do so until after this Voting Gauntlet is over), so I'll be starting on Hinoka's team, and I'll figure something out later if she loses.

Because prior to Duo Elise introducing new skills that made staves actually good at combat, staves were awful at straight combat performance and were forced to be relegated to support roles. And even with the new skills, the only thing they really have going for themselves compared to other units is Dazzling Staff. This locks them out of a B slot entirely, and even if you drop Dazzling Staff to run a different skill, you're usually still forced to run a skill with damage reduction because staves don't have access to Remote Sparrow. (And staff units with Dazzling Staff on their weapon can't even open their B slot at all because they need Wrathful Staff there to be a combat unit.) The only Legendary/Mythic staff unit in the game is Elimine, who was released before Duo Elise and is purely a support unit, but is intended to be used in a game mode where support units are useful (at least until they introduced Freyr and made Elimine useless). Any Legendary Hero released before Duo Elise that could have been a staff unit simply wouldn't have been a staff unit. The only Legendary Heroes released after Duo Elise that could have been a staff unit are Guinevere and Elincia. Guinevere's gimmick as a trail map unit in her source game is the fact that she has an S rank in light magic despite the Sage class not having access to the weapon type normally (which also prevents her from reaching S rank in anima magic or staves). And Elincia just got a staff version (with new staff skills) in her Ascended version, so there's no reason to repeat the unit type. And it was not combat-viable except for the few staves with a 100% critical hit rate (and even then, it was usually not a good idea). And we already have Ascended Elincia that fills that role anyways.

It's worth noting that her Canto (2) can be used with Aerial Maneuvers' teleportation effects as long as the end space she can teleport to is still within 2 spaces. In the example combat against Duo Dagr in the trailer, Elincia would be able to use Canto to teleport back to her original position afterward. I wonder what the prerequisite for Aerial Maneuvers is. Its effects are a combination of Dive-Bomb, Flier Formation, and Aerobatics. The English name of the skill appears to be based on Flier Formation and Aerobatics, but the Japanese name of the skill (see the translation notes below) is based on Dive-Bomb. Dive-Bomb is basically a given due to the Japanese name, but it would be really convenient if the skill could use any of the three skills it's based on as a prerequisite (like Aether, Flash Sparrow, etc.). I really want to pull on this banner since all three red units I need copies of, but I have to split my budget between this banner, the wind festival banner, and FGO's current event banner. This one, unfortunately, has the lowest priority of the three banners, but I can probably pass up on some merges for Wind Catria to make room for more budget here. And the usual translation notes: Elincia's epithet, "Undaunted Queen", is "心の女王" (kokoro no joō), "Queen of Heart". Absolute Amiti is "清真アミーテ" (seishin amīte), "Sincere Amite". "清真" (seishin), "sincere", is a reference to Elincia's epithet in the epilogue to Radiant Dawn, "清真女王" (seishin joō), "Sincere Queen", localized as "Devoted Queen". Aerial Maneuvers is "空からの猛襲" (sora kara no mōshū), "Fierce Attack From the Sky". Compare with Dive-Bomb, "空からの急襲" (sora kara no kyūshū), "Raid From the Sky" or more literally "sudden attack from the sky". Heart of Crimea is "クリミアの心" (kurimia no kokoro), "Heart of Crimea".

Given that most skill effects appear on a weapon on some unit somewhere, you can generally already play with skill interactions like this, just not on every unit. Even if you completely ignore power creep, adding more skill slots for each slot type is generally a bad idea. Having few skill slots and multiple viable skills in each slot forces players to trade one effect for another, which leads to more meaningful choices, more build diversity, and more instances of novel builds. Adding more slots means that units can have more of the effects that they want without needing to make sacrifices. Seer's Snare actually avoids this pitfall due to two limitations it makes with how you can distribute skills. Excluding the skills already on the character, you can only get a maximum of one copy of each skill to distribute across the team, and the skills you receive are somewhat random (you can pick from a list of options, but the list is random). Because of this, there are still trade-offs to be made, namely that if you give a skill to one unit, you can't give that same skill to another unit on the team, and that if you pick one skill from the list of options, you need to pass up on the other options (or hope they are offered again later).

New refines have been announced for Heath, Chad, Lakche, Tsubasa, and Spring Fir. The usual translation notes for the new weapons: Hyperion Lance is "傭兵竜騎士の槍" (yōhei ryūkishi no yari), "Mercenary Dragon Knight's Lance". Wildcat Dagger is "山猫の暗器" (yamaneko no anki), "Wildcat Dagger". As usual, the dagger weapon type is "暗器" (anki), which literally translates as "hidden weapon". And the usual hopes and predictions: Heath: Hyperion Lance Currently has Ridersbane. Heath has a very similar stat spread to Cormag and Areone, but with some points taken out of other stats to go into Res. Since he's getting a brand new weapon, there's a lot that they can do with it. Keeping the effective damage from Ridersbane would at least give him a slight niche compared to other dragon knights. Otherwise, I expect it to be somewhat similar to the others with a guaranteed follow-up and stat effects based on Def. He has Atk/Def Push and Escape Route on his base kit, but I don't think they'll be considered for his refine. As mentioned above, Heath has less HP, Atk, and Def than the other dragon knights in exchange for more Spd and Res, but his Spd only matches Areone's and his Res only matches Galle's for the highest values among the slow dragon knights. I expect he'll get something similar to Trabant's weapon that boosts both offenses and defenses, but because Trabant already has better base stats in both (other than Res), Heath might get a gimmick to stand out. Chad: Wildcat Dagger Currently has Rogue Dagger. Chad's stat spread is very unimpressive, giving up a lot of Atk to tie Gangrel for the highest HP among infantry daggers, which is unfortunate because Chad has fewer points of stats than Gangrel to begin with. Legault and even Kaze outclass him offensively, not to mention more recent dagger units like Colm, Cath, and Patty. I don't see his new weapon keeping Rogue Dagger's effect because it doesn't really help him at all. However, due to his unimpressive stats, I think they could still go for a support weapon, especially with his base kit of Escape Route and Spd Smoke. Something like high damage reduction on player phase or the Sweep effect, a Canto effect, and buff and debuff effects would probably work without needing to stack more than the usual amount of stats from a refine on him. Lakche: Larcei's Edge Current effect is: Slaying effect If unit's Spd is higher than opponent's Spd at start of combat or if opponent's HP is 100% at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Nullifies opponent's stat bonuses Lakche is a pretty standard fast infantry sword, and I can't see them doing anything other than making her do standard fast infantry sword things. She'll almost certainly get the condition on her base effect loosened up to be more easily usable and get some combination of Null Follow-Up, Dodge, and Tempo, given she has neither Null Follow-Up nor Tempo on her base kit. Tsubasa: Mirage Feather Current effect is: Effective damage against armor and cavalry Permanent +3 Spd With a Blow condition and if at least 1 ally has ended their turn: +6 Atk/Spd in combat Desperation effect While Tsubasa's base weapon and base kit are clearly designed to be player-phase only, they probably won't maintain that with her refine now that everyone and their dog has conditions that work on both phases. I'm expecting a new stat boost with an easy condition and the effects with the Session-like condition on the base weapon to be extended to the first round of combat on enemy phase. Given that she has the Desperation effect with no access to the Null Follow-Up effect outside of Flow skills, it would be nice to get Null Follow-Up. Furthermore, she has the Desperation effect without the Slaying effect, which makes it difficult to activate a Special on the first round of combat, so she'll probably get some form of Special acceleration. Tsubasa is probably more likely to reference Caeda than any of the other TMS characters are to reference their Mirage characters, and I think they could probably give her a Vantage effect if they do end up making her work on both phases. A stretch possibility would be to give her effective damage against swords, lances, axes, and bows. Spring Fir: Bun-Bun Baton Current effect is: Effective damage against armor Slaying effect Null Follow-Up effect Fir was a pretty decent armor counter at release due to being able to run Windsweep or Watersweep with her weapon's Null Follow-Up to nullify the drawback. Nowadays, this kit is obviously not enough with the sheer number of new effects armors have at their disposal. However, she does still tie Hel for the highest base Spd among axe fliers. Ideally, she gets at least Tempo and percentage damage reduction nullification to continue to function as a counter against armors. Nullifying defensive Specials would also help a lot for countering Hardy Fighter. Running a Sweep skill in her B slot also means that she can't run Canto, so it would be nice to get Canto on her weapon. With a Sweep build, she can also function as a counter against Vantage units; however, the most troublesome Vantage unit to deal with right now is Fallen Byleth, who has a gigantic effective Spd stat due to Dodge 4 giving her a Phantom Spd effect. It would be nice if Fir could get +7~10 Phantom Spd in order to help Sweep land against Byleth and other units that have Phantom Spd from Dodge 4 or their weapon. And while she theoretically should be able to avoid taking damage with a Sweep build, she's still vulnerable on enemy phase and against opponents with Null C-Disrupt, so percentage damage reduction on the opponent's first attack would still be nice to have. And there's a pretty decent chance she'll get it anyways so that players aren't forced to run her with Sweep.

80 pulls on the Rearmed Plumeria banner: 0 Plumeria (+1 spark) 5 Faval 1 Sety (+1 spark) 2 pity breakers Fallen Ninian Ascended Eir And because it wasn't shit enough, every copy of Faval has either an HP Asset or a Res Asset. This banner can go fuck itself twice over. Free pulls only from the Double Special Heroes banner because the only units on it that I don't already have at +10 are Roy and Lysithea, so it's not really worth pulling for the spark. And got nothing of note.

Nifl Shigure is next: Embla Gordin Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin Muspell Brave Roy Askr Innes Muspell Brave Lyn Ljosalfheimr Palla Ljosalfheimr Aversa Dokkalfheimr Cecilia Hel Surtr Nifl Ninian Hel Sigurd Hel Female Robin Ljosalfheimr Nina Muspell Lucius Jotunheimr Nephenee Muspell Male Morgan Dokkalfheimr Rhajat Dokkalfheimr Ursula Nifl Shigure This brings Nifl up to a total of 10 units, which is still behind all of the other outfit themes from the launch of Resplendent Heroes, with Askr at 11, Embla at 12, and Muspell at 14. It's also still behind Hel, which has 12. Ljosalfheimr is tied at 10 with Dokkalfheimr trailing only 1 behind at 9. Jotunheim has 7. Meanwhile, Nidavellir is still stuck at 4 and is still the only existing theme that hasn't had an outfit this year.

The next Resplendent Hero is Nifl Shigure: Which means we still haven't gotten a Nidavellir outfit this year. Shigure is actually quite usable. With the Resplendent boost and max Dragonflowers, he has 39/43 offenses with an exclusive weapon that grants sizable +17/10 offenses. Additionally, he gets a free +6 Atk/Spd stat bonus and heals 10 HP when he uses a movement or Rally Assist or when one is used on him. The 4-star lance flier with the highest offenses is currently Vanessa with 41/44+; however, she doesn't have an exclusive weapon and can only rely on inheritable weapons. A weapon with +5 to all stats and a Spd refine will match Shigure's Spd, but she'll be nowhere near his effective Atk. The 4-star lance flier with the highest offenses and an exclusive weapon is Cynthia with 36/41 offenses and a weapon that grants +8 to all stats plus a Unity effect and double a Clash effect to all stats. At 2 spaces moved and with no Unity boost, Cynthia matches Shigure's Spd, but still falls 8 points short of his effective Atk. While Cynthia is probably the better unit overall due to all of her extra effects (including Wings of Mercy on her weapon), she costs Grails to merge and Trait Fruits to give a Spd Asset to, whereas Shigure does not.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Laevatein: I finally managed to clear out 20 spaces in my barracks again. 51 pulls on the Hall of Forms rerun banner, pulling all colors except blue because Camilla is already +10: 1 Felicia 1 Flora (+1 spark) 2 pity breakers Ascended Joshua Ascended Tiki Felicia is now +3, but still neutral. Flora is now +3 and +Def instead of +HP. I'm still an Ascended Hero magnet, it seems. Joshua is now +9. Tiki is now +2. 40 pulls from the Mirabilis remix banner, sniping red: 0 Mirabilis (+1 spark) 0 Byleth 1 Peony Well, this banner can certainly go fuck itself. But at the very least, the spark brings Mirabilis up to +10. Peony is now +8. 40 pulls from the Hel remix banner, sniping green: 2 Hel (+1 spark) 0 Ganglot Normally, I would have sparked for Ganglot, but the spark brings Hel to +10, and I expect Ganglot to be rerun more often, if less predictably, as it seems they're actually doing a half-decent job of rerunning Rearmed Heroes.

Added Areone's weapon to the translation notes. It's pretty nuts. It grants +6 Atk/Def and Charge to himself and fliers within 2 spaces at the start of the turn, which gives him the same mobility support utility as Legendary Hinoka. In combat, it grants a pretty standard +5 to all stats, additional damage equal to 15% of his Def, and a guaranteed follow-up. Areone's stats are also solid, at 41/45/36/46+/21-, which is a huge amount of Atk and Def and a decent enough Spd stat to actually use his default Wyvern Flight if you're too lazy to replace it with something better. EDIT: I forgot to mention it also has Iote's Shield built in.

Legendary Micaiah was released in August of 2021 as a colorless tome infantry (Wind Pair-Up).

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Keaton: He's now +8. The celebration tickets got me: Fallen Ike (spare) Eldigan (spare) Ewan (now +8) Leen (Spd Asset new merge base) Idunn (spare) Eyvel (now +6) Alm (spare) Female Byleth (spare) Fiora (spare) Keaton (now +9) 3 merges and another copy of Ruptured Sky is definitely a win.