Ice Dragon

It looks like the skills from the second summer banner, the Engage banner, and Freyr have been added to the Hall of Forms skill pool. Specifically, these are now available: Weapons: Defier's Sword (sword) Wooden Tackle (axe) Seashell Bowl (blue tome) Passive A: Fireflood Boost 3 Flash Sparrow Atk/Def Finish 4 Passive B: Spurn 4 Beast Sense 4 Lull Atk/Def 4 Passive C: Soaring Guidance For the units in this Hall of Forms, Seashell Bowl is a viable option on Camilla (and only really competes with Magical Lantern), Fireflood Boost is a viable option on Flora (and is potentially best-in-slot), and Soaring Guidance is a viable option on Camilla and Kagero (competing mostly only with Oath and Hold skills).

So there's an in-game announcement that says that the effect is staying and the description will be changed. Which makes zero sense to me, but whatever floats their boat, I guess.

Am I the only one that likes Rebecca's art? Her idle art looks like she came out of a shoujo manga. I haven't gotten there yet. Give me another couple months. (It's 6,000 miles away, so it should take about 4 months to make the walk.)

I managed to get Claude on the free pull from the Tempest Trials banner. He's now +8. This week's free Arena ticket gets me Mahnya: And now for the usual catching up on my procrastination and pulling on banners that are about to expire despite not having cleaned out my barracks yet and only having 10 open spots: 100 pulls on the Hall of Forms banner: 4 Lilina (+1 spark) 2 Igrene 5 pity breakers: Brave Chrom Geoffrey Echoes Est Ascended Ishtar Brave Eirika 6% focus rate and 11% 5-star rate are both well above average. Lilina is now +10, which was the goal. I managed to pull 3 copies of her before the spark, but it took another 60 pulls after the spark to get the last copy. Igrene was already +10, so these are just extra copies of her Duel and Rein skills. 40 pulls on the Ascended/Rearmed banner: 0 Lif (+1 spark) 2 Fir No non-spark copies of Lif is a bit disappointing, but 2 copies of Fir is nice, especially since one of them has a Spd Asset. 141 pulls on the CYL banner: 1 Corrin 2 Gullveig (+1 spark) 1 Robin (+1 spark) 0 Soren (+1 spark) 1 pity breakers: Diamant Anankos Ascended Hilda Rhea Total 181 pulls: 2 Corrin (+2 sparks) 3 Gullveig (+1 spark) 1 Robin (+1 spark) 0 Soren (+1 spark) 6 pity breakers 3.3% focus rate is basically exactly average. As is a 6.6% 5-star rate. No extra copies of Soren is a bit disappointing. I'll probably feed the sparked copy of him to Rearmed Ophelia and just wait to get another copy later. Also no copies of Corrin or Gullveig with a nature better than neutral. Robin has a Def Asset, which is at least decent. This is my first copy of Anankos, and like Soren, he's immediately getting eaten by Rearmed Grima. Plus, this copy of him has a Spd Flaw, so there's no point leveling it anyways. Diamant is my first copy with a Def Asset, so he's my new merge base (the previous one had Res). Hilda is my first copy with a Spd Asset, so she'll also be me new merge base. Rhea is also being fed to Rearmed Grima for Scowl since I already have a perfect merge base for her. 145 pulls on Legendary Alear's banner: 5 Alear (+1 spark) 4 Robin 3 Ninian 1 Embla 1 Lucia 1 Syrene 1 Rhea 11.0% focus rate is about 3 or 4 pulls above average. I'm a bit surprised my pulls are not insanely lopsided against the new unit for once. I have both Spd and Atk Assets available for both Alear and Robin and need to figure out which merge base I want to use for each of them. Robin will be +7 once I figure out which base to use. Alear is obviously going to be +5. My second Embla is now +4. This is my second copy of Lucia, and this one has an Atk Asset, which is better than my existing one that is [+Def, -Spd]. This is my first copy of Syrene, and she's [+Spd, -Def], which is perfect. This Rhea is identical to the Rhea I just got above from the CYL banner, and will probably end up being a merge. I'll deal with the wind festival banner later when my procrastination catches up to me again.

If they don't make that distinction, then they should expect twice as many fairy-themed outfits as any other theme because there are twice as many fairy themes as there are any other theme. Pretending the distinction doesn't exist doesn't make it not exist.

And we get a second Dokkalfheimr outfit in a row and another Grail unit with Ursula: 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 Dokkalfheimr is still the third least used theme, but it's now tied with Nifl for that spot at 9 outfits a piece. The only themes behind it are Jotunheimr at 7 and Nidavellir at 4. It also now ties with Muspell for the most outfits during this calendar year so far at 4 outfits a piece.

I'm fine with more Dokkalfheimr outfits only because they've been trailing behind Ljosalfheimr outfits for a while. At the start of the year, they had the second least number of outfits, and despite now having 4 new outfits this year, they're still only tied for third least number of outfits with Nifl. But that doesn't excuse the fact that we have gotten zero Nidavellir outfits this year. And now that we've gotten 4 Dokkalfheimr outfits this year, they're now tied with Muspell for the most outfits this year. Anyways, since no one's posted it yet, here's the art for Dokkalfheimr Ursula: As far as stats go, Ursula is pretty solidly outclassed. With the Resplendent boosts and max Dragonflowers, she only has 35/38 offenses, which is behind Valentine Veronica's 39/41, with both units being Grail units and with Veronica having made a relatively recent appearance in Hall of Forms. And the recently released Summer Tharja has massive 46/45 offenses. Her exclusive weapon is also wildly outclassed, having only effective damage against cavalry and the Dominance effect (boosting Atk instead of additional damage). That said, it's rather fitting that our next Arcane weapon will be a blue tome with a Dokkalfr flower weapon sprite to boot.

Every icon that appears in the corner of the unit's map sprite that corresponds to a positive status effect except for the green up arrow for direct stat boosts counts as 1 Bonus towards Prime's Close/Distant Counter effect. Examples: Atk/Spd Menace adds 0 to Prime's counter. Atk/Spd Oath adds 1 to Prime's counter. The Formation status effect counts as 1. Opened Domain adds 2 to Prime's counter. Resonance: Blades and Resonance: Shields count as 1 each. Playful Pinwheel adds 2 to Prime's counter. Null Follow-Up and Null Panic count as 1 each.

Hel has Distant Pressure instead of Distant Dart because Inevitable Death+ grants her the ability to teleport to enemies, which means she needs a Distant Counter variant that is active on both phases. While Seliph is functional on both phases, he's significantly better on enemy phase, so he got Distant Ferocity instead of Distant Storm. There's also the fact that Distant Storm is already available from another Legendary Hero (Caeda), whereas Distant Ferocity is only otherwise available from Duo Duma, who is very hard to get.

Mystic Boost 4 is a relatively niche skill. Its primary use is on units with Miracle-like effects to recover enough HP to activate the effect multiple times, and even then, it's difficult to justify running it over a different B skill and simply putting Mystic Boost 3 in the Sacred Seal slot. (And it's worth noting that infantry also have access to the Finish and Bulwark skills for healing.) If you're considering running it for its anti-staff effects, infantry have Null C-Disrupt 4, which is useful in more situations. While armors and fliers don't have access to Null C-Disrupt, they have other defensive skills that are also useful in more situations and are generally considered to be better than Mystic Boost.

Clash wins anywhere stat penalties are common, which is most competitive game modes and challenge maps. Catch wins everywhere else, but the difference in stats is small enough that the benefit of nullifying stat penalties with Clash generally outweighs the reliable +9 stats with Catch. As long as you don't forget to move at least 1 space on player phase and position the unit so that enemies will have to move at least 1 space on enemy phase so that the skill activates at all, Clash is going to be the generally more useful skill.

+10+15 Brave Eirika [+Spd] has 49/78/68/50/46 with just her weapon and exclusive B skill equipped. +10+20 Freyja [+Spd] has 51/79/72/49/47 when transformed with just her weapon and exclusive B skill equipped. Both have full Null Follow-Up and offensive Tempo. Eirika gets +1 to all stats for each non-stat Bonus on the opponent (up to a maximum of +4), nullifies the opponent's stat bonuses, has 40% damage reduction against the opponent's first attack, and has a free Moonbow or Luna on every attack. Also effective damage. Freyja gets +1 Atk/Def/Res for each space the attacker moves (up to a maximum of +3), steals the opponent's stat bonuses, has up to 40% damage reduction, and has an additional 30% damage reduction against the opponent's first attack if the attacker moved at least 2 spaces. Running Distant A/S Solo also costs Eirika a few more points of Atk/Spd compared to a different A skill, but I think it's still a viable pick. She won't be quite as bulky as Freyja, but she'll hit back harder. You'll probably want to run Spd Smoke 4 for the additional stack of Dodge with this build.

It's a "夢喰い" (yume-kui) in Japanese, so literally a "dream-eater". She has Arcane Euphoria as her weapon. She's definitely Rearmed.

It's at least worth noting that a guaranteed follow-up is roughly equivalent to the offensive Null Follow-Up effect for fast units. Fast units that have a guaranteed follow-up instead of Null Follow-Up lose out on a follow-up against slow units that have both follow-up prevention and the defensive Null Follow-Up effect (basically just Hardy Fighter units that have follow-up prevention on their weapon), but gain a follow-up against fast units that don't have the defensive Null Follow-Up effect (which is somewhat less common than the offensive Null Follow-Up effect on weapons).

Now that I can mention it without spoilers, the current Tempest Trials boss has revealed Arcane Euphoria as the next Arcane weapon, and it's a blue tome. It has the Slaying effect, +5 to all stats, a guaranteed follow-up, 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, and deals additional damage equal to 15% of the unit's Atk. Basically Arcane Nastrond as a blue tome. Lute and Ilyana both have the same Atk stat with maximum Dragonflowers. Lute requires more Dragonflowers to max out, but she has higher Spd, whereas Ilyana has higher Res. If you want a more recent unit, Desert Soren is in the Grail shop and is basically Ilyana with more Atk and Res in exchange for less HP. The other top-tier options for Arcane Euphoria are Summer Tharja and Desert Byleth, who are both 4-star Special Heroes.

Added translation notes for the Tempest Trials boss.

I'm glad we're finally getting Still Water as a Sacred Seal. Now I no longer have to keep passing Life and Death back and forth between Ophelia and Duo Thorr. I wish they would've given us Seal Def instead of Fortify Beasts, though. It bugs me that we still don't have Seal Def (mostly because it would've been really nice to have in Rokkr Sieges before we got more accessible ways to inflict Def penalties). (We're also still missing Seal Res, but that one wouldn't have been as useful to have.)

Surge Sparrow is still the best A skill for sustain due to the healing effect. If you want a more offensive option, you're definitely looking at Flared Sparrow. Her refine makes all of her weapon effects apply to both phases, so she can viably run dual-phase builds now if you want to. Atk/Spd Catch 4 and Atk/Spd Clash 4 are her best option for dual phase, with Catch granting consistent stats and Clash granting stat penalty nullification (noting that Clash doesn't play nice with Grand Strategy because of this). She can also run Distant A/S Solo or the new Atk/Spd Prime 4 if you want a Distant Counter option, though Prime obviously requires support to grant the Distant Counter effect. Moonlight Bangle is still her best-in-slot B skill. Alarm Atk/Spd is technically her best C skill right now due to it granting an in-combat stat boost, even if she can't use the Canto effect. If you can supply the initial stat bonuses with a teammate, Spd Smoke 4, Def/Res Smoke 3, and Panic Smoke 4 are all viable options. Spd Smoke 4 works well for a dual-phase build, and Def/Res Smoke 3 and Panic Smoke 4 help her allies clean up. Luna is still her hardest-hitting Special. Ruptured Sky is the best Special against opponents that can't counterattack, but are still bulky enough to require a Special to kill. The thing about Finish is that as long as you activate the Special once every two attacks, the additional damage will have already paid itself off compared to Ideal. In general, Finish is the default non-Distant-Counter option for sword, lance, and axe infantry if they don't need to offload a specific skill effect into the A skill. The only situations where you should instead be running Ideal are when the unit can reliably remain at max HP or if you absolutely need the extra +2 Spd on the first round of combat. The only other dual-phase non-Distant-Counter skill that is viable for the A slot is Atk/Spd Hexblade (at least until Windfire Boost 3 is released), which is used specifically for breaking asymmetric walls.

I wonder if they'll fix it by changing the effect or changing the description. It seems to me that the effect is probably the side that's incorrect because it would make more sense for the Flash target area to match her passive in-combat debuff target area, which depends on the opponent having a Penalty.

And a list of inheritance candidates:

Distant A/S Solo is currently the best Distant Counter skill available for offensive units, though the Solo condition on the stat boost doesn't play nice with Oath 4 or Pledge. If you're running Oath 4 or Pledge, you're better off running Distant Ferocity if the unit is only being used on enemy phase or Distant Storm if the unit is being used on both phases. Ross has passive HP regeneration on his weapon that can fully offset the recoil from Distant Storm, but it also means he has less sustain due to the reduced regeneration. If you can reliably maintain the Distant Counter effect from the new Prime skill series, Atk/Spd Prime 4 is also an option for Distant Counter. If you're not running Distant Counter, the Finish skills are easily still the best A skills for most melee infantry. Windfire Boost 3 and Earthfire Boost 3 aren't released yet, but they're also good options for Ross, as they grant additional HP and the Guard effect. Fireflood Boost 3 already exists and is also a decent choice if you're looking for more Res. Atk/Spd Hexblade is a more niche option, but can be useful if you need to break a physical tank that has low Res. The Oath 4 skills and the new Pledge skills are the best C skills for melee infantry unless they need a specific skill (like Time's Pulse 4) to function. Oath gives more mobility, whereas Pledge grants +1 Special charge rate, which can be helpful for Gambit builds. For Sacred Seals, go with whichever skill has the stats you're looking for and a condition that is usable with the rest of the build. Ideal doesn't yet have the Atk/Spd variant released as a Sacred Seal, but it has the easiest condition to activate, especially if you're running Oath 4 or Pledge. Solo works best for player phase and is a given if you're running Distant A/S Solo, but it doesn't play nicely on enemy phase with Oath 4 or Pledge. Blade Session grants the highest stats on player phase, but has no effect on enemy phase, and you have to play around the finicky Session condition. Form grants the highest stats on enemy phase, but isn't as useful on player phase. Breath is also an option on enemy phase if you aren't running Pledge. The only downsides are that it only grants one stat and that it has no effect on player phase. Bonus Doubler works well with Oath 4 and Pledge and is active on both phases, but has its effect nullified by Dull effects. Quick Riposte is Quick Riposte. Use it if you need it. As far as supports go, any unit that you use often is typically fine as long as their roles don't overlap too much. If you want a good thematic choice, consider Ewan (if you have him).

Damage reduction and Tempo help him charge up Shining Emblem the first time if he isn't running Time's Pulse and doesn't have Pulse support. And if the opponent somehow survives, Tempo guarantees that Shining Emblem will be up for his follow-up and damage reduction makes it more likely he'll survive until his follow-up. Damage reduction also provides a bit of a counter measure against Hardy Bearing. One-hit-kill Vantage builds don't need a lot of skill effects in order to counter everything, and if Marth is running Special Spiral 4, the only things he's missing to be able to counter everything (other than Hardy Bearing and Parity) are Null C-Disrupt (to counter Sweep) and pre-attack Pulse (to counter Scowl). That's literally it. And I wouldn't be surprised if Null C-Disrupt is added as a Sacred Seal sometime in the near future since we already have the much more generally useful Null Follow-Up.

Ah, the update was today. I completely forgot until now. Mirabilis: Flower of Ease Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Res -4 Atk/Def/Res in combat to opponents within 3 columns centered on unit that have a Penalty (previously -3) If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat or if opponent has a Penalty: -5 Atk/Def to opponent in combat (new) Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: -5 Atk/Def to opponent in combat Guaranteed follow-up If unit attacked in combat: Inflicts Flash on enemies within 3 columns centered on unit after combat For reference, the remix for Whimsical Dream adds Dull to its buffs for allies and splashes the debuffs for enemies by 2 spaces. Her new skill is Chill Def/Res 3, replacing her existing Sabotage Def. Mirabilis gains an additional effective +10 Atk/Def/Res and a guaranteed follow-up and now inflicts Flash on a huge area after combat (equal to her buff/debuff area). Additionally, her area in-combat debuff effect is boosted by an additional point. The Flash effect feels out of place to me. Realistically, Mirabilis wants to be using her dance skill most of the time, so having her inflict Flash when she attacks doesn't make much sense. Even with the new stat boosts and guaranteed follow-up, she probably still wants to avoid combat as much as possible. Under AI control, Mirabilis is unlikely to be the first unit to attack even when she does get ordered to attack (and if she is, the team's offensive units are clearly too weak), so the Flash effect is unlikely to make much of a difference. The Flash effect does give her some more versatility when under player control, though it would probably realistically be used primarily in PvE maps where she can actually attack an opponent without instantly dying due to her lack of defensive effects that aren't just stats. Or in Pawns of Loki. Overall, she gets more from her remix than her refine, but as she's a dancer, I think that's perfectly fine. Itsuki: Mirage Falchion Base effect is updated: Effective damage against dragons Permanent +3 Def With a Blow condition: Boost to all stats in combat equal to 4 plus 3 times the number of allies that have ended their turn, maximum +10 (previously Atk/Def only, 3 plus 2 times the number of allies, maximum +7) With a Stance condition: Boost to all stats in combat equal to 10 minus 3 times the number of enemies that have ended their turn, minimum +4 (previously Atk/Def only, 7 minus 2 times the number of allies, minimum +3) 7 HP recovery after combat Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +4 to all stats in combat Guaranteed follow-up 30% damage reduction from opponent's first attack Itsuki gains +5/6/7 Atk/Def and +8/11/14 Spd/Res over his base weapon with the value depending on the Session condition, a guaranteed follow-up, 30% damage reduction against the opponent's first attack, and 7 HP recovery after combat. While this refine might not look all that impressive, it makes Itsuki one the most physically bulky sword infantry units in the game while still having a very usable Res stat, unlike most other physically bulky sword infantry. Harmonized Altina and Summer Lyon are the only other sword infantry with both Def and Res usable. With maximum Dragonflowers and only his weapon equipped, Itsuki has a neutral stat spread of 48/65/42/48/44 with just the minimum boosts from his weapon's Session effect. With the maximum Session boost, his stats reach a pretty impressive 48/71/48/54/50. In comparison, Flame Rinkah with Arcane Devourer [Spd] has 46/59/50/50/31, and Skasaher with Arcane Eljudnir [Def] has 50/66/32/55/32. He's not going to compete with the likes of Brave Robin, but he's certainly a solid free-to-play choice now. Brave Marth: Genesis Falchion Base effect is updated: Effective damage against dragons Slaying effect With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +5 to all stats in combat If the sum of stat bonuses on the 3 allies with the highest total stat bonuses is 10 or higher: Null Follow-Up effect Offensive Tempo effect (new) If the sum of stat bonuses on the 3 allies with the highest total stat bonuses is 25 or higher: +5 Atk in combat 7 HP recovery per attack made by unit (previously 5) If the sum of stat bonuses on the 3 allies with the highest total stat bonuses is 60 or higher: Vantage effect Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 to all stats in combat Additional boost to all stats in combat equal to the highest stat bonus to that stat on unit or allies within 2 spaces 40% damage reduction on opponent's non-follow-up attacks Marth gains an additional +5 to all stats, the offensive Tempo effect, Bonus Doubler that uses allies' stat bonuses if they are higher than his own, and 40% damage reduction on the opponent's non-follow-up attacks. His HP recovery effect per attack was also boosted from 5 HP to 7 HP. No Time's Pulse effect is a bit of a bummer because it means he has to run either Time's Pulse 4 or Special Spiral 4 to guarantee that Shining Emblem will land on his first counterattack. No percentage damage reduction nullification also means that he has to run either Special Spiral 4 or Phys. Null Follow to hit through an opponent's first-hit percentage damage reduction, which is getting more and more absurd with some units getting 80% from their weapon alone. However, he did get the Tempo effect, which guarantees that Shining Emblem will also activate on his follow-up on enemy phase if he survives that long. In exchange, he does get an enormous +11 to all stats on top of his existing +10/5/5/5 with the maximum reasonable boost from his Bonus Doubler/Borrower effect, and 40% damage reduction on the opponent's non-follow-up attacks is quite good until he gets hit with Wind Claude's Lethality. At the very least, it means he can viably give up a Dodge skill to instead run Special Spiral 4 to get the skill effects he really wanted and kill Claude before Claude kills him. And honestly, I think this is actually what they're going for. Brave Eirika: Binding Reginleif Base effect is updated: Effective damage against armor and cavalry Slaying effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 to all stats in combat 40% damage reduction on opponent's first attack (previously 30%) Offensive Null Follow-Up effect (previously with an additional Blow condition) Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +5 to all stats in combat -5 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat Reduction to opponent's Atk/Spd/Def in combat equal to the number of Bonuses on opponent, excluding stat bonuses, maximum -4 Nullifies opponent's positive stat bonuses to Atk/Spd/Def in combat Defensive Null Follow-Up effect Eirika gets an additional effective +10 to all stats, an additional +1 to all stats for each non-stat Bonus on the opponent, and Dull Atk/Spd/Def. Additionally, her first-attack damage reduction was improved from 30% to 40%, and her player-phase offensive Null Follow-Up was upgraded to full Null Follow-Up on both phases. I was not absolutely not expecting this. Not only is the additional +10~20 to all stats a lot more than she could have ever wanted (+5 would have been enough to bump her stats back up to the top of lance cavalry), but she now gets offensive Null Follow-Up on both phases instead of just player phase and also gets defensive Null Follow-Up. While she definitely would have liked to have gotten her damage reduction extended to Brave attacks, the extra Def/Res is a decent substitute, and defensive Null Follow-Up fixes her issue with slow, bulky units that kill her with their guaranteed follow-up if they can tank her attacks. Not what I wanted, but you're not going to see me complain. Hel: Hel's Reaper Base effect is updated: Nullifies effective damage against fliers Slaying effect If opponent is not a tome or staff unit: Targets Res If HP is 2 or higher when taking fatal damage: Miracle effect, 1 time per combat, does not stack With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 50% or higher: +4 to all stats in combat (new) 7 HP recovery after combat (new) Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat or if opponent has a Penalty: +4 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 20% of Spd, including AoE Specials 40% damage reduction on opponent's first attack For reference, the remix for Inevitable Death grants a teleportation-to-enemy effect with strings attached and Null Follow-Up if Hel is faster. Her new skill is Distant Pressure (Distant Counter + Spd Push), which is an upgrade to her existing Distant Counter. Hel gets +8 to all stats (she got no stats previously), additional damage based on Spd, 40% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, and 7 HP recovery after combat. As expected, Hel gets Mystic Boost built into her weapon now to make her more obnoxious to kill even without running Mystic Boost in a different skill slot. However, she probably still wants to run the Mystic Boost Sacred Seal because her weapon is not enough regeneration by itself to bring her back above 25% HP to more reliably activate the effects on her refine. Otherwise, nothing here is much of a surprise. Hel continues to do Hel things, but more reliably than before. Gatekeeper: Charging Horn Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Def Grants +5 Atk/Spd in combat to allies within 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit If there is no breakable terrain within 2 spaces: If there is 1 or more ally within 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit: Reduces Atk/Res on opponent in combat by 3 times the number of allies within 3 columns or 3 rows centered on unit, maximum -9 (previously 2 times the number of allies, maximum -6) If there are 2 or more allies within 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit: Guard effect (new) If there are 3 or more allies within 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit: Follow-up prevention If there is breakable terrain within 2 spaces: -9 Atk/Res to opponent in combat (previously -6) Guard effect (new) Follow-up prevention Refine effect is: Grants the following effects to allies within 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit: +5 Def/Res in combat 7 HP recovery after combat If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: -6 Atk/Res to opponent in combat Reduces damage taken by 20% of Def, excluding AoE Specials 7 HP recovery after combat Gatekeeper gets an additional +6~9 Atk/Def/Res depending on the number of allies in range, the Guard effect, flat damage reduction based on his Def, and 7 HP recovery after combat. His support effect now boosts all stats instead of just Atk/Spd and also grants 7 HP recovery after combat to allies in range. Gatekeeper now has the same flat damage reduction and Guard effect as Duo Askr, but doesn't get Askr's damage reduction against AoE Specials. In exchange, he gets a more stats, though some of it goes to matching Askr's Resonance buffs, and his HP regeneration is on his weapon instead of his A skill, which means he's free to run Close Counter instead of Finish if he wants to. He still has no guaranteed follow-up, though, which limits him to be more of a defensive and supportive unit instead. I'm actually a bit surprised, given how liberally they give out guaranteed follow-ups nowadays. If you want him to have a guaranteed follow-up, he'll either have to give up his Sacred Seal slot for Quick Riposte, which costs him his stat advantage over Askr, or give up Detailed Report, which is probably what you'll actually want to do. I'm still not convinced he has the stats and skill effects to viably be a Close Counter tank, though. Brave Marianne: Phantasm Tome Current effect is: Slaying effect (new) Permanent +3 Spd With a Blow condition (new) or if opponent's HP is 50% or higher at start of combat: -6 Spd/Res to opponent in combat Nullifies opponent's positive stat bonuses to Spd/Res in combat With a Blow condition: 80% damage reduction on opponent's first attack (previously 70%) With a Stance condition: 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack (new) Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 20% of Spd, including AoE Specials Nullifies half of opponent's non-Special percentage damage reduction Offensive Tempo effect Marianne gets +5 to all stats, additional damage based on Spd, the Slaying effect, offensive Tempo effect, and half nullification of percentage damage reduction. Additionally, the effects on her base weapon now have the Blow condition as a much easier alternate activation condition, and her first-attack damage reduction was upgraded from 70% on player phase only to 80% on player phase and 30% on enemy phase. As predicted, she did indeed get both the Slaying effect and the offensive Tempo effect, which lowers Requiem Dance's cooldown to 2. If she keeps her default Time's Pulse, she's now guaranteed to activate Requiem Dance on the first round of combat during each player phase, but she can also choose to swap it out for Atk/Spd Oath 4 at the cost of requiring that the opponent doesn't die to her first attack. The additional damage based on her Spd at the very least makes up for the fact that she doesn't have an offensive Special, and nullifying half of the opponent's percentage damage reduction also helps in that regard. She can also upgrade her default Null Follow-Up into Mag. Null Follow-Up to nullify three quarters of the opponent's percentage damage reduction. Overall thoughts Eirika looks insane. Hel and Marianne look pretty solid. Itsuki is also solid for a free-to-play unit. Gatekeeper is fine. He's a more defensive version of Duo Askr, but doesn't have resistance to AoE Specials. His lack of a guaranteed follow-up is a bit of a bummer because it means he has to give up Detailed Report if he wants to be less passive, but at the same time, he's probably fine being passive. Marth's refine looks like they specifically want you to swap out his B slot for Special Spiral 4 since they gave him damage reduction on his weapon to make up for losing Dodge in the B slot. If you look at his refine this way, it's actually pretty solid. Dodge is, after all, less necessary when you can one-hit kill the opponent with a Special-Spiral-4-boosted Vantage Shining Emblem. Mirabilis is less likely to die, more likely to kill things if she has to fight, and has more support effects along with a new, albeit weird, support option. Fine by me. I'm pretty sure the refine is telling players to swap his B skill to Special Spiral 4. He doesn't need Dodge in his B slot if he's just killing things in one hit with Special Spiral 4 + Vantage + Shining Emblem and a giant pile of stats.

Added Fuga's weapon. It's the same as Catria's weapon, but it grants Atk/Def instead of Atk/Spd and grants a guaranteed follow-up on player phase as a status effect instead of the Null Follow-Up status effect. All other effects are identical. Easily now the best player-phase axe for units with low or middling Spd while we continue to wait for an Arcane axe with a guaranteed follow-up. The Sacred Seals are Fortify Beasts at 10,000 points and Still Water at 20,000 points. Still Water is going to be nice for Bride Lilina and Duo Thorr, the former of which is now available from the Hall of Forms that just ended (and this was probably planned to line up like this). Who's Charlotte? They probably want to avoid adding too many characters that are actually from the wind tribe because it's less interesting when characters are in an outfit that is similar to their usual outfit. I believe all of the seasonal themes based on an existing location have only ever gotten a maximum of two characters from that location. This time around, we have Fuga and Orochi. Hospitality.

None of the points I made are would be any different if this were asked before Dedue's banner when none of those units existed in Heroes yet. You're operating under the premise that every character that has a reasonable enough chance of being made into a brawling unit would be made into a brawling unit, even if there are other weapons that are more likely for them to have. In addition to forcing units into the brawling weapon type, you'd also be looking at prioritizing the release of characters that could be made into brawling units over other characters just for the sake of having enough units to justify having the unit type. Realistically, Fomortiis had no chance of being made into anything other than a beast unit. The Legendary Byleths also were unlikely to not have the Sword of the Creator. And my understanding is that Felix is encouraged to be used as a sword unit even with his strength in brawling. That basically just leaves Alear as actually having a brawling weapon, Balthus as likely having a brawling weapon, and Dedue as possibly having a brawling weapon in a world where the developers aren't obviously forcing units into the weapon type. Could it have been done? Yes. Is there enough justification to actually do it? No. Also add to my previous argument that brawler weapons don't make enough sense with the cavalry and flying movement types. Yes, they could make Heroes characters to fill those movement types, but why do that when beasts are generally more interesting as units? In order for him to have gotten into the game already, he would have had to have replaced Holst's Grand Hero Battle. I can't say that sounds plausible.