Ice Dragon

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.

His art and his sprite show him with Gungnir. He also doesn't have a Silver Lance in his source game, unlike Trabant, who does.

The order is roughly by how useful I consider the skill to be. I tend to put skills that are tailored for the role first, then general-use skills, then skills that are more specialized for specific situations (but are usually still viable for general use).

Added Patty's weapon to the translation notes. It has the same effect as Deen's Bone Carver.

Yes, Def/Res Ploy 3 is good. If you're going for that build, Sabotage A/R 3 is better than Mag. Null Follow due to the massive in-combat stat debuffs that Sabotage A/R 3 inflicts. Check out my reply to Zeo in the Q&A thread. There's a Still Water build there for Ilyana that works the same on Soren since their stat spreads are similar (with Soren being more min-maxed). Arione.

Uweh. What do they have against putting Grail units in Hall of Forms. As for the datamine,

Bride Tharja simply has a lot of stats. She has solid 40/40 neutral base offenses with maximum Dragonflowers, and her weapon grants her a total of +13/12 offenses when there are 2 allies within 3 spaces or +15/14 offenses when there are 3 allies within 3 spaces. No Slaying effect means she needs to run some form of Special acceleration in her passive skills in order to activate a Special with more than 2 cooldown. No other gimmicks means she can run pretty much any cookie-cutter build. She's really only outmatched by Brave Lysithea and Desert Nino among fast red tome infantry and is comparable with Hugh. Halloween Nowi's combat performance is a bit underwhelming at this point, having only 38/36 neutral base offenses with maximum Dragonflowers, and her weapon only grants her a total +8/8/4/4, which isn't quite enough to allow her to compete with modern units like Zephia, who is free. Her main gimmick is her ability to teleport within 2 spaces of an ally within 2 spaces, which is the same effect Ninja Igrene later got. Nowi also lacks the Slaying effect, which pretty much locks her into a 2-cooldown Special due to the fact that fliers don't really have access to Special acceleration. Summer Cordelia has decent 36/42 neutral base offenses with maximum Dragonflowers, but has no exclusive weapon, which means she has to rely on an Arcane weapon to really compete with other lance cavalry. Unfortunately, her competition is extremely strong, with Brave Eirika recently getting an incredibly powerful refine and Valentine Owain having better stats and being easier to merge as a 4-star Special Hero. Performing Arts Inigo is an infantry dancer. His 33/38 offenses with maximum Dragonflowers makes him mostly unviable for combat, even more so when he doesn't have access to an Arcane weapon (though . However, he is a green tome, which gives him access to Teatime Set for Canto, and Hall of Forms gives him easier access to Firestorm Dance 3, Wings of Mercy 4, and Atk/Spd Oath 4 that can be difficult to get on dancers normally.

I'd go with either [+Atk, +Res] or [+Atk, +Spd] depending on the role you want Ilyana to play. While her Spd stat isn't amazing, there are enough units in her Spd tier that have defensive Null Follow-Up or follow-up prevention that a boost in Spd would help her double through those effects. On the other hand, the extra Res makes her more useful on enemy phase to tank tome units as well as hit Ploy or Sabotage effects. For the Spd build, I'd suggest something like this: Ilyana [+Atk, +Spd] Arcane Euphoria [Spd] [Assist] Flare Atk/Spd Finish 4 Mag. Null Follow / Escape Route 4 / Special Spiral 4 / Spd/Res Tempo 3 Atk/Spd Pledge / Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Def/Res Smoke 3 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] Atk/Spd Finish 4 is the strongest A skill, but Remote Sparrow is still an option if you need the extra damage reduction. Guard 4 and Null C-Disrupt 4 are also viable options for the B slot. Brash Assault 4 doubles up on the guaranteed follow-up, but the effect does stack against follow-up prevention, and the damage boost on the follow-up attack is enough to almost always make the skill a viable option as long as the opponent can counterattack and doesn't instantly kill you. Lull Spd/Res 4 will also be an option after it's released. For the Res build, you're looking at something like this: Ilyana [+Atk, +Res] Arcane Euphoria [Res] [Assist] Flare Still Water 4 / Atk/Res Finish 4 Sabotage A/R 3 / Escape Route 4 / Mag. Null Follow / Special Spiral 4 / Atk/Res Tempo 3 Def/Res Ploy 3 / Atk/Spd Pledge / Atk/Res Oath 4 Still Water 3 / [any other Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Res] Sabotage A/R 3 is easily the strongest B skill in terms of combat performance for this build, and because its in-combat effect still relies on a comparison of visible Res, you still want to run Still Water to make sure you can activate it, even with Def/Res Ploy 3's more lenient stat comparison. Similarly, it's still worth running Def/Res Ploy 3 at the same time as Sabotage A/R 3 for the more lenient stat comparison, more lenient positioning requirement, and the additional debuffs. If you aren't running Sabotage A/R 3, you don't need quite as much visible Res, so you can afford to run other A skills and Sacred Seals. Similarly to the Spd build, Guard 4, Null C-Disrupt 4, Brash Assault 4, and a future Lull Atk/Res 4 are all viable alternatives, though they are not as strong in terms of raw power. Also, Remote Mirror is an option for the A slot if you need the extra damage reduction.

Desert Soren would be too slow to reliably use a Null Follow-Up Arcane weapon regardless. I consider the Null Follow-Up Arcane weapons to really only be viable on units with base Spd stats in the 40's, and preferably in the mid 40's (neutral level 40, max Dragonflowers, no merges). As far as actual fast units go (like Desert Byleth and Summer Tharja), a guaranteed follow-up is similar enough to offensive Null Follow-Up that it doesn't matter that much which one the weapon has. The other effects on the weapon are more important to consider.

Bleh, another Hall of Forms that doesn't have a Grail unit for me to grab.

Looking at it again, "nectar" is probably a more appropriate translation over "honey", being the fluid found in flowers to attract insects to assist in pollination. It's used as a euphemism for female genitalia.