Ice Dragon

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.

And the usual translation notes: The name of the banner, "Winds Offered", is "女王に捧ぐ風" (joō ni sasagu kaze), "Winds Offered to the Queen". Claude's epithet, "Golden Breeze", is "金色の風" (kin-iro no kaze), "Gold-Colored Wind". Playful Pinwheel is "風車" (fūsha), "Pinwheel". Atk/Spd Prime is "攻撃速さの備え" (kōgeki hayasa no sonae), "Atk/Spd Preparation". Deep Star is "真落星" (shin rakusei), "True Fallen Star". The associated status effect has the same name in both languages. Dagr's epithet, "Bluster Princess", is "暴風王女" (bōfū ōjo), "Windstorm Princess". "暴風" (bōfū), "windstorm" or "gale", literally translates as "violent winds". Fujin Uchiwa is "風神の団扇" (fūjin no uchiwa), "Fujin's Uchiwa". Twin-Sky Wing is "双姫の天翼" (sōki no ten'yoku), "Sky Wing of the Twin Princess". Compare with Sun-Twin Wing, "双姫の陽翼" (sōki no yōyoku, "Sun Wing of the Twin Princess"), and Moon-Twin Wing, "双姫の月翼" (sōki no getsuyoku, "Moon Wing of the Twin Princess"). Catria's epithet, "Windswept Knight", is "風舞う天馬騎士" (kaze-mau tenba kishi), "Pegasus Knight Dancing in the Wind". "風舞う" (kaze-mau), literally "to dance in the wind", refers to something that is blown in the wind in a whirling motion. "舞う" (mau) means "to dance" and originally referred to dances that use spinning motions. Whitewind Bow is "白き風の弓" (shiroki kaze no yumi), "Bow of White Wind". Kagero's epithet, "Bond Unwavering", is "揺るぎない絆" (yuruginai kizuna), "Unwavering Bond". Brightwind Fans is "風舞う白夜の呪扇" (kaze-mau byakuya no jusen), "Sorcery Fans of Hoshido that Dance in the Wind". Unlike all other magic in the series, which is called "魔道" (madō), which is more commonly used for fantasy magic in a Western setting, whereas the magic of Hoshido is called "呪" (ju), which refers to traditional Japanese magic. Disarm Trap is "罠解除" (wana kaijo), "Disarm Trap". Fuga's epithet, "Force of Gales", is "力試す烈風" (chikara-damesu reppū), "Gale Testing Its Strength". Wind Tribe Club is "風の部族の金棒" (kaze no buzoku no kanabō), "Wind Tribe's Kanabo". Plumeria's epithet, "Rapturous Dream", is "恍惚の夢" (kōkotsu no yume), "Dream of Ecstasy". Arcane Euphoria is "魔器・恍惚の花" (maki: kōkotsu no hana), "Arcane Weapon: Flower of Ecstasy". I think they've been giving us popular characters as 4-star demotes on this banners more often because it sells orbs. It's pretty easy to merge them to +10 and/or get decent skill fodder for chaining off of them, but it still costs a decent number of orbs to do so. Especially now that paying players can viably skip banners entirely due to the fact that using the Legendary Arena bonus unit is better than using any of the other bonus units by a decent margin, there's less of a reason to actually aim for a +10 5-star unit from every banner. Boobs sell orbs.

I like Kagero's outfit and Orochi's hair. They're very pretty. Claude's skill kit looks amazing, as he can activate Prime's Distant/Close Counter effect with just the skills he has in his base kit. His Special battery effect is utterly broken, too, and not in a way that I like. There's a reason Lethality has a cooldown of 4, and letting him charge it up fully literally for free is stupid. If they're going to do shit like this, Ophelia deserves a refine. Catria has a really good inheritable weapon. It just gives +9 Atk/Spd for free. Her head is bigger than usual.

Chad, Cath, Colm, Joshua, and Rennac also come from the same games that don't have knives at all, but they get knives because Heroes treats all sword-using thief-like classes as using knives for the purposes of consistency. Lalum and Tethys using knives is the equivalent of being considered a thief-like class, not the same as Narcian getting axes because dragon knights use axes in later games. They wouldn't even need to do that much. Animations are linked individually by unit rather than by weapon type (which is why different units of the same weapon type can have different animations), so they could just give any future gauntlet unit Legendary Alear's animation set, and it would just work. With any weapon type. No unit in this game changes its animation set based on the equipped weapon skill, so I don't see any reason for them to change that if they do implement gauntlet weapons as other weapon types. A unit that uses Alear's animation set with an inheritable weapon would still punch the enemy, and because there is no attachment point for a weapon sprite, the inheritable weapon would just not be displayed.

My issue with gauntlets isn't that there aren't enough characters in the series to fill out a roster of them. It's that there aren't enough characters that are likely to make it into Heroes with that weapon type anytime in the next couple years, given that we realistically only get one new-character banner per game per year (plus one for newly released games). As you've mentioned, most of those characters are more associated with other weapon types, and also, a decent number of those characters are unplayable and would realistically only be released in Grand Hero Battles. The fact that units in Heroes are only capable of using a single weapon type without multiple versions of them released means that "can the character use gauntlets?" is not enough. You also have to weigh "can the character reasonably be released with a different weapon type?" and "will the character reasonably be released at all?" In contrast, most beasts can't be transferred to a different weapon type, and you don't have to go fishing through the cast to find them. Additionally, there are a lot of high-profile characters with the weapon type, with the Laguz kings being notable from the Tellius games and Awakening and Fates having many of their playable characters being popular due to the dating sim elements. At some point or another, they would have been forced to release a beast weapon type, whereas the same can't (yet) be said of gauntlets. I also don't think using Special Heroes to bolster the roster supports the argument at all. Yes, doing so increases the number of characters that can use the weapon type, but that raises the question of why you're implementing the weapon type at all if you're forced to use seasonal characters to fill out the roster. It's worth noting that even colorless tomes (which is the weapon type I consider to be the least needed to have been implemented in this game) are (barely) not even half full with seasonal characters, with only 10 of its 21 units being seasonal. The remainder is split between units in the standard summoning pool and non-seasonal premium units (Legendary, Mythic, and Rearmed Heroes). Colorless dragons and colorless tomes at least have the excuse that they're used as the "premium" color for their weapon type, and colored bows and daggers and colorless dragons at least share their inheritable weapon pools with the colors that were available at release (making their existence mostly harmless). Gauntlets have neither of these advantages going for them.

I did my first set of pulls on the CYL banner because of the Voting Gauntlet. 40 pulls (counting the free unit as a spark): 1 Corrin (+2 sparks) 1 Gullveig 0 Robin 0 Soren 2 pity breakers Brave Marianne Echoes Est So far, so good. Hopefully I pick up a non-spark copy of Robin and Soren before I'm done grabbing all the sparks (since that's as far as I'm going to pull). I need one spare copy of each of them to feed to a Rearmed Hero for skill duplication.

Tiki lost the first round, so I'm joining Corrin next. Which means I need to get off of my lazy ass and actually pull on the CYL banner at some point.

Back when Brave Lyn received her refine, it was still better than other refines it was contemporary with. The only difference was that the other CYL 1 units got refines that were much better than other refines at the time, which made Lyn's feel underwhelming in comparison. While I think CYL 5's refines will be tamer than other recent refines, I don't think they'd go so far as to make Eirika's refine unimpactful. Special Spiral won't charge Shining Emblem at the start of turn 1, which is why I worded it as Time's Pulse 4 + damage reduction nullification. (Also because it let me split the effects up to point out what they were for separately.) Also, there's a decent chance they'd give him Null C-Disrupt on his weapon just to let him keep his default Spurn. They do have a habit of encouraging using a unit's base kit if it isn't outdated yet.

A gigantic batch this time, as we're getting all of CYL 5 in addition to the usual Grail unit and the two scheduled remix refines. I'm expecting CYL 5's refines to be significantly tamer than usual refines simply because they're much newer units. Mirabilis: Flower of Ease Current effect is: Permanent +3 Res -3 Atk/Def/Res in combat to opponents within 3 columns centered on unit that have a Penalty 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. As Mirabilis is a dancer with both buffs and debuffs on her dance skill, I can only guess that she'll grant more buffs and inflict more debuffs with her refine. There are a lot of options, and I just hope they won't be a pain in the ass for me to deal with because Aether Raids is a pain in the ass enough already. If they want to give her combat effects, I can see her going full bulk with follow-up prevention and damage reduction. While it's possible she'll get something like a guaranteed follow-up to make her capable of fighting, I'd rather her focus on not dying so that she's the last enemy remaining and I can go blow up the Aether structures without accidentally killing her. Itsuki: Mirage Falchion Current effect is: Effective damage against dragons Permanent +3 Def With a Blow condition: Boost to Atk/Def in combat equal to 3 plus 2 times the number of allies that have ended their turn, maximum +7 With a Stance condition: Boost to Atk/Def in combat equal to 7 minus 2 times the number of enemies that have ended their turn, minimum +3 Unlike all of the other units with a Falchion, Itsuki actually has a decent Res stat that can be used to not immediately die to a dragon's counterattack. But his weapon doesn't give him a boost to Res. At the very least, it would be great if they updated his weapon's base effect to boost Atk/Def/Res instead of just Atk/Def or gave him some other effect that boosts his survivability against dragons so that he can actually make use of his effective damage. As a unit with middling Spd, he's almost certainly going to get a guaranteed follow-up. I'd also like him to get some form of Special acceleration so that he can use viably run Aether. I'd like to see the TMS characters get refines that reference the mirage character's gimmicks. For Itsuki, Chrom's gimmick is his array of Galeforce Assist skills, and I think giving Itsuki a Galeforce effect when he uses an Assist skill would make him at least somewhat unique as none of the other Chroms with Galeforce Assist skills have access to all of the new fancy melee infantry skills. I think it would also be pretty cool if they gave him Brave Chrom's ability to copy Bonuses, but instead of doing it on Assist usage, perhaps make it function like a reverse version of Citrinne's weapon now that that's a thing. Brave Marth: Genesis Falchion Current effect is: 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 If the sum of stat bonuses on the 3 allies with the highest total stat bonuses is 25 or higher: +5 Atk in combat 5 HP recovery per attack made by unit If the sum of stat bonuses on the 3 allies with the highest total stat bonuses is 60 or higher: Vantage effect The only things that would really make Marth better are Time's Pulse 4 so that he can activate Shining Emblem instantly when he activates his Vantage effect and damage reduction nullification so that Shining Emblem doesn't get blocked by first-attack damage reduction. If they want to be fancy, they could also give him the Bulwark effect to force enemies to attack into his Vantage and step on Gatekeeper's toes. Brave Eirika: Binding Reginleif Current effect is: Effective damage against armor and cavalry Slaying effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 to all stats in combat 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack With a Blow condition: Offensive Null Follow-Up effect Eirika's offenses are already pretty solid, as she already has Null Follow-Up from her weapon and Tempo from her B skill, and the only thing that would really help her out in that department would be damage reduction nullification. Defensively, she would love to have her damage reduction also apply to attacks from the Brave effect. If they want to reference Ephraim's version of Reginleif, they could also give her a Tempest effect, but I don't think that's really necessary. Her kit has aged extremely well, and there really isn't much necessity in adding too much more fluff. Hel: Hel's Reaper Current effect is: 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 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. Her new teleportation effect effectively gives her 3 movement with an asterisk, and with her Miracle effect, makes her function like a 3-movement Brave Seliph that can walk through walls. While they could definitely make Hel a greater offensive threat, I think it would be better if she focused more on survivability in order to function as a Wings of Mercy beacon for as long as possible. Given that she's getting a Push-variant Distant Counter skill and that Arcane Downfall has HP recovery, I think her weapon will probably also have HP recovery of some sort. They're also clearly discouraging running Flow skills on her by giving her Null Follow-Up in her C slot, which is probably intended to push players into running Guard Bearing. She might get another Dodge effect on her weapon, but I think it would be better to give her flat damage reduction instead so that she can pull off Spring Maria's shenanigans. If they want to make her extremely obnoxious, I think giving her reverse Wings of Mercy would be pretty funny. "If unit's HP ≤ 50%, allies can move to a space adjacent to unit." Also, making her weapon target the lower of Def or Res would be great. And if the effect is nullified, then fall back to targeting Res like before. Gatekeeper: Charging Horn Current effect is: 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 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit: If there is 1 or more ally within 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit: Reduces Atk/Res on opponent in combat by 2 times the number of allies within 3 columns or 3 rows centered on unit, maximum -6 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 3 columns and 3 rows centered on unit: -6 Atk/Res on opponent in combat Follow-up prevention Gatekeeper is the unit that introduced the Bulwark effect, but he was a ranged unit that didn't have the stats to actually make use of it. If he wants to do the job he was designed to do, he needs Duo Askr's bulk. Give him flat damage reduction based on his Def stat, percentage damage reduction based on a Def comparison, damage reduction against AoE Specials, damage reduction against consecutive attacks, Guard, Tempo, Null C-Disrupt, and passive healing. Maybe also Divine Vein: Stone just for shits and giggles. Also have him grant Canto: Recall to nearby allies at the start of the turn and disarm nearby traps. And give him Canto Control. He already has Bulwark and Warp Bubble. He should get all of the fancy movement restriction effects. Brave Marianne: Phantasm Tome Current effect is: Permanent +3 Spd If opponent's HP is 50% or higher at start of combat: -6 Spd/Res on opponent in combat Nullifies opponent's positive stat bonuses to Spd/Res With a Blow condition: 70% damage reduction on opponent's first attack Requiem Dance is Marianne's primary gimmick, but it's really awkward to use due to its high cooldown and the fact that she doesn't have enough skill slots to make it reliable because none of the skill effects she needs is on her weapon. She has Null Follow-Up and Time's Pulse by default, but is missing Tempo, and running all of these skills means she can't run mobility skills like Wings of Mercy or Oath 4 to actually get into combat. A simple solution would be to give her the Slaying effect and Tempo and her weapon so that she can swap out Time's Pulse for Oath 4. And she already has the option to run Flash Sparrow instead of her default Atk/Spd Unity for extra good measure. However, I think they should do something more novel. Like giving Canto (1) and Pathfinder to the first ally that moves on each turn. Or the first ally on each turn that ends its turn within 3 spaces of Marianne so that she can actually take advantage of Pathfinder herself. Firestorm Dance 3 already grants Canto (1) conditionally to the unit at the end of its action, so it shouldn't be a stretch to grant Canto (1) to an ally at the end of its action. (Still give Tempo to her, though.)

A bit late, but here's my usual analysis: Mirabilis: Whimsical Dream+ Range 1 Dance effect Grants the following status effects to target and allies within 2 spaces of target, excluding self: +6 Atk (previously +5) Dull effect (new) Inflicts the following status effects to closest enemies within 5 spaces of target (previously 4 spaces) and enemies within 2 spaces of them (new): -6 Atk (previously -5) New skill is Chill Def/Res 3 The upgrade to Whimsical Dream is pretty tame, that that's to be expected of Dance skills. The buff and debuff were upgraded from ±5 to ±6, Dull was added as a new buff effect, and the debuff effect now splashes 2 spaces. Chill Def/Res 3 replaces her default Sabotage Def 3. Sabotage wasn't a particularly good fit for her to begin with because she can't receive bonus stats from Blessings in Aether Raids, which makes it hard for her to actually hit tanks with Sabotage's effect. Not much else to say. She's a dancer, and she throws status effects around when she dances. I'm curious to see if they'll lean more heavily on support effects or combat performance with her weapon's refine, as I can see it going either way. Hel: Inevitable Death+ For each enemy within 4 spaces, unit can move to the spaces closest to self that are adjacent to that enemy (new) -5 to all stats in combat to enemies within 2 spaces (previously -4) If Spd is higher than opponent's Spd: Null Follow-Up effect (new) New skill is Distant Pressure Hel can now teleport to attack any enemy within 4 spaces as long as the space closest to her that she can attack them from is open (or satisfies this condition for a different enemy). Her Rein effect is boosted from -4 to -5. She also gets Null Follow-Up, but only if she's faster than the opponent. The teleportation effect basically turns her into a green version of Brave Seliph that ignores terrain and obstacles, but has 1 less movement. Seliph is already commonly used as a Wings of Mercy beacon due to his Miracle effect, and Hel will probably end up doing the same thing. It's a bit disappointing that the Rein effect wasn't boosted to Hold range because this means that melee units using her as a Wings of Mercy beacon will benefit from her Rein effect, but ranged units won't unless they're attacking a unit adjacent to Hel. Distant Pressure is her new skill, which is an upgrade of her default Distant Counter. Given that she's getting a teleportation effect, they definitely want to make her a dual-phase unit, and Distant Pressure makes the most sense with that in mind (given that they aren't going to hand out Distant A/S Solo so soon after it was released). There was also pretty much no chance that they'd give her a new B skill because Guard Bearing 4 is pretty obviously the skill they want players to run on her, but it was released too recently for them to actually give it to her, and they aren't going to give her something else. Distant Pressure as her new skill also makes it fairly likely that she'll gain passive HP regeneration on her weapon, which was already fairly likely due to Arcane Downfall having the effect.

They typically show them off in the trailer, but with pretty much all modern units being designed to land a Special in every round of combat, they don't often actually get the chance to do so anymore.

That's because the beam is part of Alear's animation, not Dragon's Fist's animation. Fomortiis's Demon Light finishing animation is also tied to himself, not to his weapon. Unit animations simply have "attachment points" for weapon sprites and magic animations. If the unit lacks an attachment point for a weapon sprite, the unit simply won't have a weapon, even if equipped with a weapon that has a sprite, and if the unit lacks an attachment point for a magic animation, the unit simply won't have a magic animation, even if the weapon does. It's been something that's bothered me ever since Legendary Heroes were first released. Special animations have priority over finishing animations, but finishing animations are generally flashier and much more unique. I'm specifically still looking at Fomortiis right now.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Nina: I did my usual full session pull on the Bon Festival rerun banner (because SR Special Hero banners are always worth the full session) and got both Summer Laevatein and Duo Marth. Laevatein is now +6. Marth is now +1 and can finally get rid of his Spd Flaw.

I don't think gauntlets ever really stood a chance of being added as its own weapon type. There simply aren't enough characters that could be given the weapon type, so it would have to have leaned almost exclusively on Special Heroes to justify its existence. Beasts at least have a large enough pool of characters from existing games as well as plenty of Heroes characters, and alternate-color weapons are of common weapon types with character pools large enough to support them (and, other than colorless dragon, are also being weapons that can be given to any character as a Special Hero). They've been "cheating" with the dragon weapon type for a while now in terms of having units with invisible weapons and non-transformations, and I don't see why they can't do the same with other weapon types to accommodate gauntlets. We already have units that dual wield and duplicate the weapon sprite for the other hand, so I don't see why they can't give us a sword, lance, or axe unit that simply has no weapon sprite and punches the enemy.

Meister dragon. Cool. A bit disappointed they didn't use this opportunity to introduce an inheritable Special for dragons, but I suppose there's always a chance they'll have one for Halloween. Pledge is basically a combat version of Oath and probably has Oath 3 as its prerequisite skill. It's nice to be able to offload Special acceleration to the C slot. Given that fliers don't get access to Flashing Blade, it doesn't seem likely for fliers to be able to get the skill, but it would be nice if they could since, you know, they don't have access to Flashing Blade. As for translation notes: Alear's epithet, "Awoken Divinity", is "救世の神竜" (kyūsei no shinryū), "Divine Dragon of Salvation". Dragon's Fist is "神竜の体術" (shinryū no taijutsu), "Divine Dragon's Martial Arts". Dragon Blast is "神竜破" (shinryūha), "Divine Dragon Rend". Atk/Spd Pledge is "攻撃速さの信条" (kōgeki hayasa no shinjō), "Atk/Spd Conviction".

I'd personally lean towards Brash Assault 4 over Phys. Null Follow, especially on a dagger unit. Lethality overlaps the biggest benefit from Phys. Null Follow, and it's an effect that doesn't stack, whereas Brash Assault's damage reduction and additional damage all stack with similar effects. The offensive Null Follow-Up effect and guaranteed follow-up are pretty much equivalent to each other for fast units, so there's not too much reason to pick over differences there. The main advantage of the offensive Null Follow-Up effect is that it breaks slow units that have both the defensive Null Follow-Up effect and follow-up prevention (which is a rare combination outside of Hardy Fighter builds), and the main advantage of a guaranteed follow-up is that it gets a follow-up against units that are fast enough to block a natural follow-up, but lack the defensive Null Follow-Up effect (which is less common than the offensive Null Follow-Up effect on weapons).