Ice Dragon

The existence of a superboon is never a consideration when determining an optimal Asset. The extra 1 point is never worth it unless the original 3 points were already worth it. That said, Female Shez's optimal Asset is still Spd because every fast unit's optimal Asset is Spd unless they have a specific mechanic that wants a different stat (Brave weapon, one-hit kill mechanic, etc.) or have an abysmally low Atk stat. Shez doesn't have any of these, so Spd is her best Asset. An optimized set for her looks something like this: Female Shez [+Spd] Crimson War-Axe [Assist] Ruptured Sky / Vital Astra / Astra / Dragon Fang Atk/Spd Finish 4 / Distant A/S Solo / Surge Sparrow Spurn 4 / Gambit 4 / Brash Assault 4 / Phys. Null Follow / Special Spiral 4 Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Def/Res Smoke 3 / Spd Smoke 4 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] Vital Astra deals more consistent damage and will probably hit harder against humans, but Ruptured Sky hits harder against dragons and beasts and is easier to get. The damage reduction effect from Vital Astra isn't reliable enough to really be a consideration in this comparison unless you run Special Spiral. Special Spiral 4 is specifically an option when running Vital Astra and specifically because losing a bit of damage reduction and Spd is potentially a worthwhile trade for being able to nullify the opponent's percentage damage reduction. It is, however, less useful for general use compared to Spurn or Gambit builds, and Phys. Null Follow is a bit more generally useful. Astra and Dragon Fang are specifically options that can be used with Gambit 4 or Brash Assault 4, but they are less reliable because they can be countered by either one of Guard or Tempo. As always, Atk/Spd Unity is an option, but only specifically for game modes where you can reliably be inflicted with stat penalties or if you're using Grand Strategy. While you can switch her weapon to Arcane Downfall to make use of Godlike Reflexes or Vital Astra + Time's Pulse 4, it's not really worth it because her default weapon already grants 40% damage reduction. There's very little advantage to running Vital Astra + Time's Pulse 4, but Godlike Reflexes at least has the one advantage of not instantly dying against Diamant and other units that nullify percentage damage reduction. Lumera has no source of Special acceleration on her weapon, so she can't run Godlike Reflexes unless she switches her weapon to Arcane Devourer. However, Arcane Devourer is a viable option for her, as it's much more comparable to her default weapon compared to Arcane Downfall and Shez's. Ruptured Sky and Vital Astra have the exact same considerations as Shez above. It depends on how much the 0.5 Arena points per match really matters to you, as that's the difference for a single score bin. Cyril is a better offensive unit, being ranged, having a ton of stats from his weapon, and nullifying his stat penalties, which are common enough in the Arena. However, he's pretty one-dimensional and is only 1 score bin above Lumera. The other real free-to-play red Arena scoring candidates are Lapis and Valentine Hana. Lapis is in the same stat bin as Lumera, but doesn't have an exclusive weapon and therefore will be 50 SP behind. This doesn't matter if you're running 150-SP Assist skills, but will put her 1 score bin behind if you're running 400-SP Assist skills. Her main advantage over Lumera is her higher Spd stat (by 2 points) and the fact that you don't have to use Trait Fruits for an Asset (at the cost of actually having to pull 11 copies of her from the 3- and 4-star pools). Valentine Hana is in the same stat bin as Cyril unless she has a Def or Res Asset, in which case she's 1 stat bin above Cyril. If you do this, you'll likely want to run her with a a Spd Ascended Asset to make up for not having it as her normal Asset. However, she also doesn't have an exclusive weapon, so she'll drop back down to Cyril's bin if you're running 400-SP Assist skills. Zephia is 3 stat bins below Lumera, so if you're a stickler for Arena score, you probably don't want to use her.

If you plan on spending resources on her, Special Spiral 4 is a lot easier to get than Brash Assault 4 at the moment. Special Spiral 4 is currently on Citrinne, who is in the standard summoning pool, and Rearmed Ophelia, who is limited, but gets reruns more often than Special Heroes do. Meanwhile, Brash Assault 4 is currently only available from Duo Shamir. If you aren't planning on spending resources on her, it depends on what you're planning on doing with her. Because Flash Sparrow isn't in the Hall of Forms skill pool yet, Special Spiral is the only way to reliably activate Lethality. However, Special Spiral 4 is not necessary to do so, as the only thing you lose by running Special Spiral 3 instead is 5 damage on the Special activation. For general use, it would likely be more worth it to grab Brash Assault 4 from Hall of Forms and then get Special Spiral 3 normally.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Meister Reinhardt: 44 more pulls on the Hero Fest banner for the second spark and then to clear my pity rate: 2 Grima 1 Black Knight (+1 spark) 0 pity breakers Total 84 pulls: 4 Grima (+1 spark) 2 Black Knight (+1 spark) 3 pity breakers 7.1% focus rate, which is about 1 and a half pulls above average. 10.7% 5-star rate is about 2 pulls above average. 4.8% Grima rate is also pretty good, and I now have 12 spare copies of her. I'm still waiting on a copy of Anankos for Savvy Fighter 4 before I feel like I can start actually using them, though. 46 pulls from the Double Special Heroes banner for the spark and then to clear my pity rate: 2 Karla (+1 spark) 1 Hector Karla is now +9. I now have 4 total copies of Hector, which means he'll likely end up +2 with one copy fed off to Rearmed Grima as skill duplication fodder.

Dokkalfheimr is next with Rhajat: 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 On the one hand, Dokkalfheimr is now only 2 outfits behind Ljosalfheimr. On the other hand, we still haven't had a Nidavellir outfit yet this year, and there are only 7 more left before this year ends.

I'll see you all in a few months when I get back from walking across the Pacific Ocean to punch someone in the face. Dokkalfheimr is at least the theme with the second least number of units (tied with Jotunheimr), so it's not bad, but "not bad" is not good enough at this point, and it looks like the development team needs some percussive maintenance. Art is fine, if a bit difficult to immediately tell it's not Tharja (because the only thing that made them at all visually distinct was their outfits). Rhajat is at least salvageable in terms of viability. With maximum Dragonflowers and the Resplendent boost, she has 42/41 offenses, which isn't bad. Her weapon is rather outdated, though, having only an effective +5 Atk/Spd for stat boosts, which is worse than the +5 Atk and +7 Spd she'd get from a future Arcane weapon, but the Pain and Flash effect it has are at least fairly unique. Unfortunately, that's all it has (and effective damage against cavalry), and staff-like debuffing effects are typically better off left to actual staff units with their access to Dazzling Staff. The main issue with her viability is that there are plenty of units that are just as easy to get as her or easier and have comparable or better stats. Levn has comparable stats and a weapon that grants +8 Atk/Spd. Sety has comparable stats and a weapon that grants +11 Atk/Spd. Teatime Tailtiu has +1/4 offenses and will have access to the same Arcane weapon. There are better options, but she's not entirely hopeless as a unit, and her stats are at least workable enough to be salvageable by modern premium skills.

Distant A/S Solo would be extremely unlikely. At the time of Hel's remix, Distant A/S Solo would only have been in the game for 4 months. So far, we've only had one skill that was less than 9 months old when it was given to a remix, and that was Atk/Def Hold on Altina, which was probably justified by the fact that the upgrade over its tier-3 version is only marginal (only 1 extra range). And then there's also the fact that, with Aether Raids maps being relatively cramped and Hel being a defense Mythic under the control of the AI, it would be difficult for Hel to actually meet the Solo condition. Guard Bearing 4 would also be unlikely, being less than 5 months old. Mystic Boost 4 is more likely, being 11 months old. However, because Hel really does ideally want Guard Bearing 4 in her B slot, I doubt they'd actually give her a different B skill. I'd be willing to bet on Distant Dart, especially because the skill's distribution is complete garbage. The only units with the skill are both Special Heroes, being Duo Ike and Winter Black Knight, despite the fact that it will be 17 months old. For reference, here's every remix since January 2022 and how old the remix skill was at the time of the remix (less than 1 year in bold): Seliph (2023-08): Distant Ferocity (2022-10-06), 10 months Freyja (2023-08): Spd Smoke 4 (2022-05-10), 15 months Chrom (2023-07): Blue Feud 3 (2022-04-18), 15 months Bramimond (2023-07): Atk/Res Tempo 3 (2022-08-31), 10 months Lif (2023-05): Even Tempest 3 (2021-03-30), 25 months Edelgard (2023-05): Atk/Res Ideal 4 (2021-05-31), 23 months Celica (2023-03): Atk/Spd Menace (2021-06-08), 21 months Mila (2023-03): Dragon Wall 3 (2021-01-28), 25 months Thrasir (2023-02): Atk/Spd Ideal 4 (2021-04-06), 22 months Peony (2023-02): Cross Spur Res (2022-01-17), 12.5 months Leaf (2023-01): Joint Drive Atk (2020-04-08), 33 months Altina (2023-01): Atk/Def Hold (2022-11-08), 2 months Eliwood (2022-11): Flow Refresh 3 (2021-07-07), 16 months Yune (2022-11): Atk/Res Unity (2020-12-17), 22.5 months Julia (2022-09): Atk/Res Menace (2021-05-07), 16 months Sothis (2022-09): Null C-Disrupt 3 (2019-01-11), 44 months Alm (2022-08): Time's Pulse 3 (2019-07-31), 36 months Naga (2022-08): Dive-Bomb 3 (2020-08-07), 24 months Roy (2022-07): Spurn 3 (2020-07-20), 23.5 months Duma (2022-05): Fury 4 (2019-02-08), 39 months Azura (2022-03): Atk/Spd Push 4 (2019-08-16), 30.5 months Hrid (2022-02): Atk/Def Menace (2021-05-07), 9 months Eir (2022-02): Atk/Res Unity (2020-12-17), 13.5 months I swear I'm going to walk across the Pacific Ocean to go punch someone in the face if it isn't a Nidavellir outfit. I barely even care who it is inside the outfit at this point. I just realized all of the Nidavellir outfits so far have been for male characters. I would be nice to finally get a female character in a Nidavellir outfit. For that matter, I'd forgive them for not giving us a Nidavellir outfit if we finally got a male fairy outfit. But only until the next outfit after that.

If you can provide +1 Special charge rate using a teammate, you can run the Vicious Dagger set instead (though it's probably still worth it to grab Bunny's Egg from Hall of Forms and get Vicious Dagger normally from Rennac). Legendary Hinoka grants the effect as a status effect at the start of the turn. Thorr and Duo Thorr grant the effect as a Drive effect. Alternatively, if you have Legendary Female Byleth, she grants Tempo as a Drive effect, which functionally does the same thing after Special Spiral activates the first time (or if you have 2 stacks of Pulse support). Null Follow-Up is also available from Inf. Spd Tactic, which can let you run Quick Dagger instead of Vicious Dagger.

@Zeo As a heads up, the current Hall of Forms only has skills up through Legendary Guinevere's banner, which means Flash Sparrow won't be available this time around. You'll have to use a copy of Alcryst if you want the skill. This means the following skills aren't yet available: Weapon Seashell Bowl+ Wooden Tackle+ Defier's Sword+ Teatime Set+ Teacake Tower+ Special Flare Passive A Fireflood Boost 3 Atk/Def Finish 3 Atk/Def Finish 4 Flash Sparrow Remote Sturdy Flared Sparrow Passive B Spurn 4 Beast Sense 3 Beast Sense 4 Lull Atk/Def 4 Desperation 4 Flow Desperation Counter Roar 3 Counter Roar 4 Gambit 3 Gambit 4 Passive C Soaring Guidance Kind of a shame because Legendary Roy really wants Spurn 4. I also just realized that I've been calling Beast Sense "Beast Perception" this whole time based on its Japanese name and wondering how they managed to fit such a long skill name on the status screen. I also also just realized Flow Desperation has Desperation 3 as its prerequisite instead of being a brand new skill with 4 tiers.

The issue of being able to keep up with skill effects would be less of an issue if the English localization team would learn how to use paragraphs. I really only have two issues with the power creep, and neither of them have anything to do directly with stacking skill effects. The first issue is the fact that "conditional" effects are no longer really conditional. All of them have conditions that are so easy to activate that they're basically just always active. HP conditions are almost always "25% or higher" now, and pretty much every player-phase unit has an alternate condition to activate their effect on enemy phase just to make them harder to kill when in the AI's hands. Even Dodge skills now have Phantom Spd built in just to make sure you're getting the Dodge effect. The other issue I have is the fact that they keep adding brand new tier-4 skills on units that aren't in the standard summoning pool and then taking absolutely forever to give us the tier-3 skills on easier-to-obtain units. And no, 4-star Special Heroes don't fucking count. The most egregious case of this recently was Eitr, who, despite being a unit type intended to be used as skill fodder, is nearly useless as skill fodder because no one else has Beast Perception 3 to allow her to chain the skill.

As far as technical writing is concerned, this is still unambiguous. All units that step on the tile are subject to the effect, but the effect is conditional on the unit being an enemy.

If your aim is to land Lethality as much as possible, you're looking at: Cath [+Spd] Bunny's Egg+ [Spd] [Assist] Lethality Flash Sparrow Special Spiral 4 Time's Pulse 4 / Atk/Spd Oath 4 Blade Session 3 / Null Follow-Up 3 or: Cath [+Spd] Vicious Dagger+ [Spd] [Assist] Lethality Remote Sparrow Special Spiral 4 Time's Pulse 4 / Atk/Spd Oath 4 Blade Session 3 / Flashing Blade 3 Which one is better depends on which effect you would prefer to offload onto the Sacred Seal slot or team support, i.e. which effect you want to be more easily removed from the build when it isn't necessary. Bunny's Egg + Flash Sparrow lets you remove Null Follow-Up on maps where the opponent doesn't have follow-up prevention. Vicious Dagger + Remote Sparrow lets you remove +1 Special charge rate on maps where the opponent doesn't have Guard, though it also forces you to run a source of Pulse support if you do so. Special Spiral is a given because Null Follow-Up is more easily offloaded into a different slot, and there's nothing available from other slots or team support that anywhere near matches the reliability of Special Spiral in terms of charging Lethality. The only time you wouldn't run Special Spiral in this slot is if you're running a Dual Strike or Triangle Attack team composition, in which case you want either Phys. Null Follow or Spd/Def Tempo 3 in this slot. Time's Pulse 4 is more reliable for charging Lethality, but it also could be a bit overly cautious of a build, as the opportunity cost of running Time's Pulse is the mobility and additional stats granted by Atk/Spd Oath 4. It's also worth noting that Time's Pulse 4 is going to be less useful when an Arcane dagger is released since the weapon will almost certainly have the Slaying effect on it.

Added Cyril's weapon to the translation notes.

I purposefully leave out Distant A/S Solo when comparing A skills because the skill has no competition. If you're running a Distant Counter build, then Distant A/S Solo is the only optimal choice (for fast units not running Savior), and if you're not running a Distant Counter build, then Distant A/S Solo is never an optimal choice. Since the decision point for Distant A/S Solo is functionally at determining the unit's role and not at the comparison of skill options for that role, there's no need to actually include it in comparisons.

In terms of skill inheritance demand, I think Flared Sparrow and Gambit are the two that will have the most units wanting to get the skill. Flared Sparrow can literally be put on every fast player-phase melee cavalry or flier with little opportunity cost (Surge Sparrow and Atk/Spd Clash are the primary competitors). Galeforcers in particular will love this skill since they can't run Surge Sparrow to begin with. Ranged cavalry and fliers probably still want Remote Sparrow unless they already have damage reduction on a different skill slot. Gambit is splashable on pretty much every human melee unit that can't run a Dodge skill and is either fast enough to double reliably or has a guaranteed follow-up on their weapon. Even some units that can run Dodge skills might want to run Gambit instead, mostly those that aren't compatible with Vital Astra or Godlike Reflexes. Units without guaranteed follow-ups on their weapons obviously want Quick Riposte 4 or Brash Assault 4 instead of Gambit. Counter Roar is amazing, but depends entirely on whether you actually use dragons and/or beasts. Armored Floe is also amazing, but depends entirely on whether you use additional Far Save armors. These skills are at least as valuable as the above skills, but have lower demand for most players, so it depends entirely on if you actually use those units or not. Flare is the least valuable of the new skills since it's only slightly better than existing 3-cooldown Specials and doesn't really make or break a unit. Soren's value as skill fodder comes mostly from the fact that he has three really good skills that he can provide as long as you have the tier-3 skills to chain them off of, not because any individual skill is outstandingly powerful. If you're intending to get extra copies to use the unit, Robin is my pick for general use, and Corrin is my pick if you want a pre-built state-of-the-art Far Save tank. Gullveig looks like an incredible nuke, but we get incredible nukes with every new banner. Her primary gimmick is the fact that she has Legendary Leaf's Noba's Zeal as a passive skill, which is at least good for game modes where extra actions are particularly valuable. Soren's gimmick is extremely cool, but also extremely easy to fuck yourself up with if you aren't careful. He has an incredible amount of potential since Assign Decoy gets stronger as your barracks gets stronger, but he requires conscious thought to actually use. Good pick if you like engineering teams. Not a good pick if you don't.

She's one of a few units that has both percentage damage reduction and flat damage reduction and also has passive healing. On top of that, she has bigger numbers than previous units in her role and also sets terrain that protects the team from AoE Specials and helps out the team's Near Save tank. Her high Spd makes her difficult to double normally, and Null Follow-Up prevents slow units from doubling with a guaranteed follow-up. All of the new skills have pretty distinct inheritance restrictions, so it mostly just depends on what types of units you tend to use. Corrin has Armored Floe, Counter Roar, and A/S Far Save. Armored Floe is optimal for almost all Far Save units, and Counter Roar is one of the best B skills for dragons and beasts, particularly for slow beasts like Freyr that can't run Beast Perception. A/S Far Save is a bit more niche, as there aren't that many fast armors that are viable for running Far Save. Soren has Flare, Mag. Null Follow, and Time's Pulse, which is pretty much a one-stop shop for infantry tomes. Mag. Null Follow is also usable by infantry dragons, and Time's Pulse is usable on all infantry, but you're probably still going to be using him mostly for infantry tomes. Gullveig only has Flared Sparrow and Atk/Spd Oath. However, Flared Sparrow is a really strong skill, so even if she doesn't have much else to offer, she'll still be amazing if you use fast cavalry or fliers often. Robin has Atk/Spd Finish and Gambit. Gambit is pretty amazing, and it can be used on any swords, lances, or axes regardless of movement type.

Finish is typically worth running as long as the Special activates at least once in combat, even if it's the last of 4 hits. Getting 5 extra damage and 7 HP regeneration even once per round of combat is already great, considering that Finish is active on both phases and has an extremely lenient condition that is easy to fulfill. Gambit itself is amazing on units with Brave and Meister weapons because 10 damage per hit is well worth having a Special that takes a long time to charge. When you consider that Ruptured Sky typically hits for only ~15 damage and Bonfire typically hits for 20~25 damage, 10 extra damage per hit plus the occasional Special proc is amazing.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Nah: 173 pulls on the tea party banner since I had a ton of orbs lying around from all of those anniversary orb packs: 1 Ayra (+1 spark) 1 Sigurd 2 Lysithea 0 5-star Ferdinand 2 4-star Ferdinand 4 pity breakers Fallen Edelgard Volke Yuri Diamant 2.3% focus rate is about 1 and a half pulls below average. 4.6% 5-star rate is about 3 pulls below average. "This banner went poorly" would be an understatement. Ayra was the last pull. There are a few bright sides to this banner at the very least. Ayra has a Spd Asset. Lysithea has an Atk Asset, which is fine. Sigurd has a Spd Asset, which is okay. Diamant is new, though he has a Res Asset, which is pretty useless. Mikoto and Yuri are now +10. Volke is another copy of Lethality. Based on the this banner's performance, it's safe to say I'll only go for 1 more spark on the Hero Fest banner. But I'll deal with those later since I'm currently prioritizing my budget on Grand Order's summer event.

Hall of Forms stuff:

Skill inheritance analysis, I guess: Counter Roar is restricted to dragons and beasts. I was expecting dragons, but I probably should have also expected beasts. I kind of forget they exist sometimes. The name of the skill sounded like it would be restricted to dragons instead of restricted to armors, but the icon didn't have a dragon head like the other dragon skills, so I was a bit confused, but now it makes sense knowing that beasts can also use the skill. So it's basically Dragon's Wrath with much stronger defensive effects and a less consistent damage effect. It's also not dependent on the unit's stats, so it'll work on slow units as well, which is good news for slow beasts that can't run Beast Perception. Freyr will probably appreciate that over his default Lull Atk/Def 4. Flare is restricted to infantry tomes. I probably should have expected the infantry restriction, too, since Radiant Dawn's Flare is restricted to the Arch Sage class. The good thing is that I can definitely give the skill to Rearmed Ophelia for duplication, and, having 3 cooldown, works with her default kit. But it's still unfortunate that I can't give it to cavalry or fliers. Flared Sparrow is restricted to non-staff cavalry and fliers, which is interesting and not what I would have expected. And it's going to be an absolute pain in the ass to deal with on Brave Seliph because he wasn't already enough of a pain in the ass to deal with. I'm a bit disappointed I won't be able to give this to Rearmed Ophelia to duplicate, given how many copies of her I now have. But there's always Rearmed Chrom, I guess. I have a couple copies of him. Gambit is restricted to swords, lances, and axes and has no movement-type restriction. I'm a bit surprised about the no movement type restriction. This honestly looks like it'll be kind of terrifying when paired with Arcane Devourer, which lets you run Aether and get the full 10 additional damage and an almost-maximum 40% damage reduction. It also beats Savvy Fighter 4 on Valentine Hana since Arcane Devourer already has Null Follow-Up on it. It can also be used with Arcane Downfall, which has passive healing on it, but then you're missing Null Follow-Up and have to get it from somewhere else. So current thoughts on what I'm doing with each skill: I'm probably tossing 2 copies of Corrin at Rearmed Grima. One for Counter Roar 4 and the other for Armored Floe + A/S Far Save 3. 1 copy of Soren is going to go to Rearmed Ophelia so that I can duplicate Flare and Mag. Null Follow. I already have Time's Pulse 4 on her, so that's all Soren has to offer. 1 copy of Gullveig is going to go to Rearmed Chrom. Unfortunately, Flared Sparrow is the only skill I can give him. While it would be more efficient to give the skill to Rearmed Ingrid since I can also give her Atk/Spd Oath 4 at the same time, I only have 2 total copies of her compared to 4 of Chrom. 1 copy of Robin is going to go to Rearmed Chrom for Gambit 4. I'll probably toss 2 copies of Chrom at Valentine Hana to get her at least Arcane Devourer and Gambit 4, but that still leaves 3 inheritance slots that are going to waste. I might wait until Windfire Boost 3 is released before doing anything with Hana so that I'm only wasting 2 inheritance slots instead of 3. I want to hit someone now.

My head is a bit less empty and my thoughts are a bit less no, so it's time to start processing the walls of text. Full lists of skill effects nicely formatted in spoilers for reference so I neither have to translate Japanese on the fly nor stare at English alphabet soup while picking my thoughts up off the floor. Corrin looks like the new standard for fast Far Save units that aren't relying on Preempt. Hopefully, Divine Vein (Stone) is enough to actually let her tank through all of the percentage damage reduction nullification that's going on nowadays. Based on the skill description in both Japanese and English, it looks like it'll drop the effect onto the map after movement, not after action, which means even if you just sit there and end turn, it'll still activate. Counter Roar looks like a new alternative to Savvy Fighter that grants "Ice Mirror Lite" instead of Null Follow-Up. It's hard to tell if it's going to be restricted to armors or restricted to dragons. Armored Floe, Counter Roar, and A/S Far Save are really good skill fodder, though it takes two copies of her to get all of those skills because Counter Roar is new and they now insist on making every new skill have 4 tiers off the bat. As far as combat effects for himself, Soren is nothing particularly novel other than being a giant pile of stats and having the Meister effect with a Res comparison. Assign Decoy is obviously the most notable part of his kit, and it effectively grants one ally either Near Save or Far Save depending on their weapon type. I think ideally you'd want to give this effect to a ranged tank like Duo Askr, Duo Ymir, or Gotoh since Duo Chrom is still prevalent as a counter to Far Save armors. If there are no AoE Specials on the opponent's side, it's also possibly viable to use a Preempt unit like Brave Byleth or Desert Nino. It's a bit of a shame that you can't make Distant Counter units like Brave Dimitri, Fallen Byleth, or Lucia into Far Save units, though I should probably be glad that's the case because dealing with them is already enough of a pain in the ass. And yes, this will definitely be usable to get around maps that have limitations on the number of Savior units. I'm guessing that Flare is probably going to be restricted to tome units since it specifically target's the opponent's Res. I'm probably going to toss my first copy of Soren to Rearmed Ophelia to start duplicating Flare (and Mag. Null Follow). Flare, Mag. Null Follow, and Time's Pulse 4 can all be passed down as skill fodder with a single copy of Soren, which is pretty nice. Is it just me, or is Flared Sparrow's icon identical to Surge Sparrow's? Gullveig gets 2 more Atk/Spd each turn, capping out on turn 5, and also has a Noba's Zeal effect with a 2-turn cooldown. Flared Sparrow is of course her primary gimmick, which deals additional damage and then drops lava floor that deals even more damage. Based on the skill description, it looks like it'll replace Divine Vein (Stone) dropped by an opposing Corrin, which is really annoying given that defensive units have a hard enough time as it is without offensive units simply nullifying their effects basically for free. It also looks like the lava won't get dropped if the unit is killed, but good luck actually killing Gullveig in one round of combat through her 60% damage reduction and Null Follow-Up. The only skills she has for skill inheritance are Flared Sparrow and Atk/Spd Oath 4. I'll probably also toss a copy of Gullveig at Rearmed Ophelia. When Robin is equipped with his default Ignis, he gets the following total effects from all of his default skills combined (including Rally Spectrum): +20 Atk, +23 Spd, +13 Def/Res in combat -4 Spd/Def on opponent in combat -2 Special cooldown before first attack in combat 10 additional damage on first attack 15 additional damage on follow-up attack (Ignis activates here) Tempo effect (Ignis will activate there ↑) Nullifies non-Special percentage damage reduction when Special activates Targets lower of Def or Res when Special activates 40% damage reduction on opponent's AoE Special 64% damage reduction on opponent's first attack 40% damage reduction on attacks after opponent's first attack The only way to actually block Robin's Ignis is to not get doubled or to activate Scowl. I'll just let all of that speak for itself. Based on the stat effects of Gambit, it looks like it'll at least be restricted to physical units. Given that it's a Special-based skill, it's probably also restricted to infantry. And, since it grants percentage damage reduction, it's probably also restricted to melee units. I wouldn't be surprised if beasts get shafted again, and it has the same restrictions as Dodge skills. Its effect is pretty difficult to make use of for units other than Robin. At best, you have Time's Pulse and some source of +1 Special charge rate to help out when running Aether without the Slaying effect to get the maximum boost, but because it's a B skill, you have to rely on other skill slots for things like Null Follow-Up, Tempo, or guaranteed follow-ups. On the one hand, the additional damage and damage reduction are based only on the Special you have equipped, which means you aren't relying on a comparison against an opponent's stats, but on the other hand, you're stuck with a very long cooldown that's vulnerable to Guard and Tempo. That said, the additional damage is clearly there to compensate for not being able to activate your Special easily, so it might still be worth it to run Aether just for the guaranteed +10 additional damage and 50% damage reduction and just not rely on Special damage. 10 damage is already on par with a Moonbow proc, after all. Additionally, slow units don't really have access to anything better than 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, so you can now do something like run Coral Saber (or any other weapon with a guaranteed follow-up and no Slaying effect) with Aether and get 50% damage reduction all the time, which is pretty nifty. Gambit being a brand new skill means Robin can only be used as fodder or Atk/Spd Finish or Gambit, but not both at the same time. Things aren't so dire (I'm just burned out from marathoning the Genshin summer event over the last 2 days because I make poor life choices like that), but thank you for the concern nonetheless. It's greatly appreciated. I'm leaning towards Robin being the best unit for general use. He's a support unit, tank, and wall breaker all rolled into one. I don't think you can really go wrong with him. If you're in need of a more specialized unit, look into the others, but Robin appears to be the most versatile of the four and doesn't really even compromise anything to do so.

@Zeo I'll be making recommendations assuming you have access to every skill or are willing to pull for any skill, including some that are very hard to get. Matthew If you're attempting to use Matthew seriously, he really wants the stat boosts from his Resplendent outfit. With the Resplendent boosts and with maximum Dragonflowers, he has 48/32/41/37/25, which gives him an okay Spd stat to work with. Unfortunately, his Atk is still really low, and while his bulk is okay, he doesn't have access to any weapons that really make him viable as a tank with how stupidly powerful offensive units are nowadays. For the same reason, I'd recommend against running Close Counter skills on him in the current metagame. Currently, Matthew's biggest issue isn't his stats, but the fact that an Arcane dagger hasn't been released yet, which means he's stuck using weaker non-Arcane weapons. Thankfully, daggers have some of the better non-Arcane inheritable weapons, so the options aren't too bad, but it is probably better to wait for an Arcane weapon to come around and build around it. If you don't want to wait here's the best of what's currently available: The other units in your list have more normal-looking builds and are all infantry, so I'll cover general skills first and then go into character-specific notes afterward. Passive A skills Remote skills (Remote Sparrow, Remote Sturdy, Remote Mirror) Ranged units only. Only active on player phase. This is the default optimal A skill for player-phase ranged units that have no means of avoiding a counterattack and don't have the bulk to reliably tank a counterattack. Finish 4 This is the default optimal A skill for everything else. As long as the unit can activate their Special at least once per round of combat, Finish skills always deal more damage than Ideal skills and also grant passive healing. Distant A/S Solo This is the best Distant Counter skill currently available. Ideal 4 This is only worth running if you can keep both of its conditions active for the additional 2 points in each stat and if you absolutely need the extra points in those stats (most notable for Spd). If you can't reliably keep both conditions active or don't absolutely need the extra 2 points, it's better to run something else. Surge skills (Surge Sparrow, Sturdy Surge) Melee units only. Only active on player phase. This is a viable alternative to Finish 4 for player-phase melee units if you want more healing in exchange for a bit less damage. Not compatible with defensive Specials, AoE Specials, or Galeforce. Flash Sparrow Only active on player phase. This is best used with Special skills like Deadeye, Lethality, and Galeforce that have high cooldowns and is also useful when the unit has a Sweep or Desperation effect that prevents the opponent's counterattack from helping charge the Special. Atk/Spd Hexblade Physical units only. This is a niche option that deals more damage if the opponent's Res is lower than their Def, but requires there to be a tome unit on the team. It's never going to be best-in-slot for general use, but is stronger against enough units that it's always worth considering as an option if you have it. Fireflood Boost 3 The tier-4 Boost skills grant the Guard effect like the tier-4 Stance skills, but are active on both phases and grant an additional 5 HP. Once the versions for other stats are released, these will be better than tier-4 Stance skills when the unit wants the Guard effect on the A slot and can pass up on the passive healing from Finish 4. Unity skills Unity skills grant a smaller base stat boost than the other options, so they're only worth running if you can consistently activate their secondary effect to get its massive boost in stats. Passive B skills Passive B skills are pretty distinct from each other, so which one suits a unit is generally pretty easy to figure out based on the role you want it to play, its Spd stat, and what effects it already has on its weapon. Escape Route 4 This is a good all-round skill focused on mobility, as it grants a good teleportation effect and Canto (1). It also inflicts -3 Atk/Spd on the opponent in combat. Desperation 4 Only active on player phase. Now has a significantly more lenient activation condition that allows it to ignore the HP check altogether simply by having the unit move 2 spaces to attack on top of loosening the HP check to 99% or lower. It also inflicts -4 Spd on the opponent in combat. Brash Assault 4 Only active on player phase. This is a must-have for slow player-phase units that don't have a guaranteed follow-up on their weapon and either don't have access to or would rather not run an Arcane weapon with a guaranteed follow-up. It has 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack and also grants an Ice-Mirror-like effect on that damage reduction (unlike Ice Mirror, it doesn't include damage reduction from other skills). It also inflicts -4 Def/Res on the opponent in combat. Quick Riposte 4 Only active on enemy phase. This is just Quick Riposte with 25% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack and a more lenient condition. However, it's still a must-have on slow enemy-phase units if the unit doesn't have a guaranteed follow-up on their weapon. Guard 4, Null C-Disrupt 4 Now also grants 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack. Useful as a source of damage reduction if the unit doesn't have anything better to put in this slot. Guard 4 also inflicts -4 Atk on the opponent in combat; Null C-Disrupt 4 also inflicts -4 Atk/Spd on the opponent in combat. Special Spiral 3/4 Special Spiral 4 also grants an additional 5 damage and nullifies non-Special percentage damage reduction when the unit activates an offensive Special. Otherwise, it does the same thing as Special Spiral 3 and is used on the same kind of builds as Special Spiral 3. Phys. Null Follow, Mag. Null Follow Now nullifies half of the opponent's non-Special percentage damage reduction. The physical version inflicts -4 Spd/Def on the opponent in combat, and the magical version inflicts -4 Spd/Res. Lull 4 skills Now reduces the opponent's stats by 4 points instead of 3 and reduces them by an additional point for each non-stat Bonus they have on them up to a maximum of 4 (total 8 points). Despite the boost in stats, these are still rather niche skills largely due to their lack of other skill effects and are mostly useful on bulky units that can't make use of the Spd-based skills and aren't in desperate need of damage reduction. Dodge 4 skills Sword, lance, and axe units only. The tier-4 Dodge skills all inflict -4 Spd/Def on the opponent in combat and have a 7-point Phantom Spd effect. The primary damage reduction effect is also boosted to a maximum of 50%. Tempo skills These have fallen off a bit on some unit types due to tier-4 skills now granting effective stat boosts, but are still viable on bulkier units that don't need to rely on the damage reduction that other skills in the B slot grant. Bulwark skills Melee units only. These have been overshadowed by the new Dodge skills, but are still viable on bulkier units that don't need to rely on damage reduction and can benefit from the additional passive healing effect. Passive C skills Oath 4 skills These are the go-to skills for most infantry units, as they grant +6 to two stats in self-buffs, +3 to the same two stats in combat, and Formation-style teleportation. Menace skills These have fallen off a bit due to the introduction of Oath 4 skills, but are still good for general use. Time's Pulse 3/4 Time's Pulse 4 also grants the same effect after each round of combat. If the unit is only going to be fighting one round of combat per turn, there's no need to upgrade to the tier-4 skill, but enemy-phase units and units being run with dancer support will want the extra boost. Def/Res Smoke 3 This is specifically used for the Pathfinder effect that it grants after combat. Because of this, this is only useful on player-phase units, and it's more useful on units with more mobility and have an easier time attacking first each turn so that more allies will be able to make use of the Pathfinder effect. Spd Smoke 4 This is a niche option that grants a Dodge effect for a maximum of 40% damage reduction, but only after the first round of combat on each turn. This is best used on a dual-phase unit that can initiate combat on player phase and then have the Dodge effect active for the entire enemy phase. Special skills Only covering the fancy 500-SP skills: Ruptured Sky (2 cooldown) Human classes only. This is still the standard optimal 2-cooldown Special. As always, Moonbow and Glimmer are usable as cheaper alternatives with Moonbow being better for general use and Glimmer being better in game modes with inflated HP. Vital Astra (2 cooldown) Sword, lance, and axe only. This is the inheritable Spd-based Special we've been waiting for since launch. In addition to dealing damage based on Spd, it also grants a Dodge effect for a maximum of 30% damage reduction, but only if the Special was fully charged at the start of combat. If you want to keep the Dodge effect active reliably, it's best to run Time's Pulse 4 with a weapon that has the Slaying effect. Godlike Reflexes (3 cooldown) Sword, lance, and axe only. This is a defensive Special that works against both melee and ranged attacks, but only grants 40% damage reduction and requires a Spd check to activate. Additionally, as long as the skill is fully charged or has already been used in combat, the unit deals additional damage for the remainder of the round of combat. However, because it has a cooldown of 3, it can only be reliably used if the unit has both +1 Special charge rate and a weapon that has the Slaying effect. Deadeye (3 cooldown) Bows only. Ignores non-Special percentage damage reduction, but has a longer cooldown. If you can't make it activate in every round of combat, use something with a shorter cooldown. Lethality (4 cooldown) Daggers only. Ignores non-Special percentage damage reduction, but has a really long cooldown. It's rare for this to actually be a viable option. Chrom The two best weapons for Chrom are Sealed Falchion and Arcane Eljudnir. Sealed Falchion has higher stats compared to Arcane Eljudnir, but misses out on a guaranteed follow-up, the Guard effect, and the Slaying effect. If you run Sealed Falchion, you'll want to give him either Brash Assault 4 or Quick Riposte 4 to make up for not having a guaranteed follow-up. Male Morgan The two best options for Male Morgan are Grima's Truth and Arcane Eclipse. Grima's Truth grants more stats in the form of a Menace effect and Foe Penalty Doubler, whereas Arcane Eclipse has the Slaying effect, a guaranteed follow-up, and Quickened Pulse. Morgan is fast enough that he doesn't really need a guaranteed follow-up; however, Grima's Truth is vulnerable to penalty nullification. See Erk's section for more notes on Arcane Eclipse. Erk Arcane Eclipse is easily Erk's best weapon. Arcane Eclipse is commonly run with the same build as Rearmed Ophelia's base kit since you can get Special Spiral 4 off of her at the same time. With a 3-cooldown Special, Arcane Eclipse only needs Special Spiral 3 and either Time's Pulse 3 or Quickened Pulse (or the same effect from team support) to function. With a 4-cooldown Special, Arcane Eclipse needs Special Spiral 3, Time's Pulse 4, and Quickened Pulse (or the same effect from team support) to function. However, Arcane Eclipse doesn't need to be run with Special Spiral and can simply be run like any other tome weapon. Ilyana There isn't an Arcane blue tome yet, so Ilyana is stuck with Seashell Bowl (from Summer Tharja) or Magical Lantern (from Desert Soren in the Grail shop) as her best weapon. Ross Ross's refine was extremely recent, so his default weapon, Father's-Son Axe, is arguably better than the only Arcane axe currently available, as neither weapon has a guaranteed follow-up. Father's-Son Axe deals additional damage based on Ross's HP at the start of combat, so he should ideally be running a Finish or Surge skill for healing. Having the Meister effect on his weapon means that he can viably pass up on a guaranteed follow-up and instead run a 30% damage reduction skill in his B slot like Guard 4 or Null C-Disrupt 4 since he doesn't have the Spd to run Dodge, though the guaranteed follow-up skills are still good options. He can also run Mystic Boost 4 or Bulwark for additional healing if needed. Young Boyd Boyd's default Large War Axe is significantly stronger than Arcane Downfall, but only on odd-numbered turns. With Large War Axe, Odd Tempest is a viable option for his C slot or Sacred Seal slot to improve his mobility on odd-numbered turns. Arcane Downfall, on the other hand, is one of a few weapons that can viably be run with Godlike Reflexes. Shield Pulse is an option with Godlike Reflexes, but it isn't strictly necessary, as simply fighting your first round of combat on player phase will charge up Godlike Reflexes for the first counterattack. Serra Staves have a lot of new premium options now, including new offensive Special skills and tier-4 versions of Dazzling Staff and Wrathful Staff. While they don't have access to any of the Blow or Smoke skills, they do have access to the new Finish and Ideal series as well as Oath and Menace. Seaside Parasol (from Summer Larchel) is currently the best offensive inheritable staff. Incurable (from Saul in the standard pool) is an upgraded version of Pain that deals less damage, but inflicts the Deep Wounds status effect. Serra's (and any other fast staff infantry without an exclusive weapon) best setup right now looks something like this: Serra [+Spd] Seaside Parasol+ [*] / Incurable+ [*] Return+ / Recover+ Holy Pressure / Light's Restraint / Holy Panic Atk/Spd Ideal 4 / Atk/Spd Finish 4 Poetic Justice / Dazzling Shift Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Menace / Time's Pulse 4 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Live to Serve 3 Obviously, run the refine that is the opposite of the B skill. Because there are no inheritable staves with the Slaying effect, it's not currently possible to reliably activate an offensive Special in every round of combat without some form of Special acceleration, which means Atk/Spd Ideal 4 is slightly better than Atk/Spd Finish 4 if you don't have Special acceleration since you can run Oath or Menace for more stats instead of Time's Pulse. However, if you don't have access to the offensive Specials or choose not to run one and run an on-heal Special instead, Finish can still activate its secondary effects off of a fully charged on-heal Special even though it can't be used in combat, making Finish the better skill if you don't need the additional 2 Spd from Ideal and are running an on-heal Special. Nino There isn't an Arcane green tome yet, so the best inheritable weapon is Teatime Set (from Tea Party Ferdinand), though her default Iris's Tome is still perfectly usable as long as the opponent can't nullify her stat bonuses, especially now that it's easier to self-buff. Lukas Lukas's default weapon is too old to be of much use, so his best weapon is Arcane Qiang. While Arcane Qiang is compatible with Godlike Reflexes, Lukas's Spd is nowhere near high enough to viably run the skill, so he'll be running a less interesting Special. Pavise is an option, though, if he wants to focus on bulk, but he probably still wants to run Bonfire for more damage. Guy Guy doesn't have an exclusive weapon, so his best option is Arcane Devourer. Arcane Devourer is compatible with Godlike Reflexes, so you can run him with something like this: Guy [+Spd] Arcane Devourer [Spd] [Assist] Godlike Reflexes Atk/Spd Finish 4 / Distant A/S Solo Spurn 4 / Shield Pulse 3 / Atk/Spd Bulwark 3 / Velocity 3 Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Spd Smoke 4 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] Alternatively, he can run a Vital Astra build with Time's Pulse 4 and whichever B skill fits the role you want him to play. Cormag If you don't have Guard Bearing 4, the next best skill is Guard 4, followed by anything else that grants percentage damage reduction. If you don't have any of those, the next skills in line are A/D Near Trace for Canto or Seal Atk 4 for bulk. For his A skill, he doesn't have access to Ideal skills (they're exclusive to infantry and armors), so he'll want either Atk/Def Catch 4 or Atk/Def Clash 4. Once it's released, you'll probably want to run Earthfire Boost 3 instead, as it grants the valuable Guard effect. Daggers As mentioned earlier in my recommendations for Matthew, there isn't an Arcane dagger yet, and it's probably best to wait for one to be released because it will be much better than the current options. However, the current best offensive inheritable options are: Vicious Dagger: +5 Atk/Spd and offensive Null Follow-Up Windex: Adds opponent's stat bonuses to Atk Broadleaf Fan: Adds opponent's stat penalties to Atk Bone Carver: +5 Atk/Spd and 7-damage Pain+ effect Bunny's Egg: +5 Atk/Spd and 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack Florid Knife: +5 Atk/Spd and Canto (1) Quick Dagger: 2 stacks of Quickened Pulse Arcane weapons And a quick rundown of all of the Arcane weapons for reference, including skill duplication recommendations: Arcane Eljudnir (sword) Good for any sword unit that needs a guaranteed follow-up. It notably doesn't grant a boost to Spd, unlike other Arcane weapons. This makes it a bit awkward with units that are close to the top in terms of Spd, but not quite there, as they do want the guaranteed follow-up just in case it matters, but getting only 3 Spd instead of 8 Spd from their weapon slot is a pretty big hit to Spd checks. Rearmed Lif is a cavalry unit, which is decent for skill duplication, as most of the infantry-only skills are for fast units, so there isn't too much he can't get that will actually be relevant to units that want his weapon. Arcane Devourer (sword) Good for fast sword units. It has +1 Special charge rate, which makes it compatible with Godlike Reflexes, Galeforce, and Hardy Fighter, as well as a hefty 40% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack. Rearmed Chrom is a cavalry unit, which is troublesome for skill duplication, as he can't get Godlike Reflexes, Finish, Dodge, Oath, or Time's Pulse. Arcane Qiang (lance) Good for most lance units. It has +1 Special charge rate, which makes it compatible with Godlike Reflexes, Galeforce, and Hardy Fighter. Alfred is a cavalry unit. See the above cavalry units. Arcane Luin (lance) Good for fast lance units. It only has Null Follow-Up and extra damage based on the unit's Spd. For infantry, it's better than Arcane Qiang for Vital Astra builds, but can't run Godlike Reflexes. Cavalry and fliers benefit from getting Null Follow-Up, which they can normally only get from Flow skills, and opens up their B slot for other skills. Rearmed Ingrid is a flier, which is fine for the gigantic pile of fast lance fliers in this game and is also okay for cavalry since they have decent overlap in skill availability. She can't get any of the infantry-exclusive skills, though. Arcane Downfall (axe) Good for fast axe units. It has +1 Special charge rate, which makes it compatible with Godlike Reflexes, Galeforce, and Hardy Fighter, and also has passive healing, making it really good for Spd tanks. Ganglot is an infantry unit, which means she can duplicate all of the good infantry skills. However, she can't really use them herself because she doesn't have the Spd stat for it. Arcane Nastrond (bow) Good for most bow units. It notably has 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack and a gigantic Atk boost, making it good for both making glass cannons less glass and more cannon as well as being very good on tanks. Rearmed Tana is a flier, which isn't too bad here since you'll probably be wanting to duplicate Deadeye and Remote Sparrow with her, which only leaves 1 extra skill to pass on, and she has access to Escape Route 4, Def/Res Smoke 3, and Atk/Spd Oath 4. Arcane Darkbow (bow) Good for fast bow units that have access to Special acceleration from another skill slot or from team support. The weapon comes with the Desperation effect, which can be tricky to work with because it means you need another source of Special acceleration to activate Deadeye in every round of combat. Infantry have access to Flash Sparrow or Time's Pulse to solve that issue, and armors have access to Fighter skills, but other cavalry and fliers need to come up with another way, which is particularly troublesome due to the inability to run exclusive skills with Arcane weapons. Alcryst is an infantry unit, and this weapon is most suitable for infantry units to begin with due to cavalry and fliers having less access to Special acceleration. Infantry will likely want to grab at least Deadeye and Flash Sparrow, which leaves space for only 1 other skill. Armors can at least grab Assault Troop off of him, though they'll have to drop Deadeye to do so. Arcane Eclipse (red tome) Good for most tome units. Its only additional effects are a guaranteed follow-up, penalty nullification for Atk, and Quickened Pulse. It's an inheritable Slaying tome, and that's really all that matters. The weapon itself is clearly designed with Special Spiral builds in mind, but it can be run with other builds just fine. Rearmed Ophelia is an infantry unit, which gives her access to pretty much everything that matters for skill duplication. She'll miss out on a few things like Trace and Hold, but it's not hard to find 3 tier-4 skills to pass down with her for any movement type other than armor. Arcane Grima (dragonstone) Good for most dragon units. The weapon is clearly intended to be used on bulkier units, given that it has passive healing, and most dragons fit that bill. The extra damage based on Atk is also clearly there to make up for damage lost from running a defensive Special, but for the most part, it's just free damage. Rearmed Grima is a bit troublesome for skill inheritance not because of her armor movement type, but because all of the good dragon skills are stupidly hard to chain because their tier-3 skills are often still locked behind hard-to-get units (or just don't exist outside of the same unit that has the tier-4 skill). Arcane Nihility (beast cavalry) Good for fast beast cavalry. The weapon has Binding Necklace built in, and Binding Necklace is insanely powerful in game modes where stat bonuses are commonly used. Even with how strong refines have been for beast units, Arcane Nihility beats most of them as long as the opponent has stat bonuses (but loses otherwise). Freyja, Freyr, and Nerthuz are probably the only ones that never want this weapon, partially owing to how strong their exclusive skills are. Eitr has the same issue as Rearmed Grima in that units really want to grab Beast Perception 4 and Alarm Atk/Spd off of her, but she's the only unit with Beast Perception 3.

I'll do reactions and stuff later because I'm currently no thoughts, head empty right now. So I'm doing translation notes first: The banner name, "Turn of Fate", is "巡る運命の輪" (meguru unmei no wa), "The Turning Circle of Fate". Corrin's epithet, "Silent Bloodline", is "白夜、暗夜、透魔" (byakuya, an'ya, tōma), "Hoshido, Nohr, Valla". As usual, "白夜" (byakuya), "Hoshido", literally translates as "white night"; "暗夜" (an'ya), "Nohr", literally translates as "dark night"; and "透魔" (tōma), "Valla", literally translates as "invisible magic". Vallastone is "透魔の竜石" (tōma no ryūseki), "Dragonstone of Valla". Divine Vein (Stone) is "天脈・護" (tenmyaku: go), "Divine Vein: Protection". "脈" (myaku), "vein", is commonly used in fantasy for the concept of ley lines, often as "地脈" (chimyaku), "veins of the earth". In East Asian settings, "竜脈" (ryūmyaku), "veins of the dragon", is also used for this concept as a borrowing from fengshui. Here, "天脈" (tenmyaku) literally translates as "veins of the sky". Realms United is "白夜と暗夜と共に" (byakuya to an'ya to tomo ni), "With Both Hoshido and Nohr". Counter Roar is "反撃の咆哮" (hangeki no hōkō), "Counterattack Roar". Soren's epithet, "Radiant Confidant", is "神将の傍にある者" (shinshō no soba ni aru mono), "The One Who Stands Beside the Divine General". "伝承の神将" (denshō no shinshō), "Legendary Divine General" is Legendary Ike's epithet in Heroes. Arch-Sage Tome is "大賢者の書" (daikenja no sho), "Arch Sage's Tome". "大賢者" (daikenja), literally "great sage", is the name of the Arch Sage class from Radiant Dawn. Assign Decoy is "囮指名" (otori-shimei), "Assigned as Decoy". Flare is "陽光" (yōkō), "Sunlight". This is the Flare skill from Radiant Dawn, which was a combination of the effects of the Sol and Luna skills in a single hit, unlike Radiant Dawn's version of Aether, which was performed in two hits. "陽光" (yōkō), "sunlight", is a combination of "太陽" (taiyō), "sun", and "月光" (gekkō), "moonlight", which are respectively the names of the Sol and Luna skills. Rare Talent is "類稀なる魔道の才" (taguimare-naru madō no sai), "Unparalleled Talent for Magic". Gullveig's epithet, "Seer Beyond Time", is "過去、現在、未来" (kako, genzai, mirai), "Past, Present, Future". The Cycle's Turn is "円環の力" (enkan no chikara), "Power of the Cycle". Flared Sparrow is "鬼神飛燕の炎撃" (kishin hien no engeki), "Fierce Deity/Flying Swallow Flame Strike". Divine Vein (Flame) is "天脈・炎" (tenmyaku: en), "Divine Vein: Flame". Gold Unwinding is "時を戻す黄金の魔女" (toki o modosu ōgon no majo), "The Golden Witch that Rewinds Time". "黄金の魔女" (ōgon no majo), "golden witch", is Gullveig's epithet in Heroes, localized as "Golden Seer". Robin's epithet, Exalt's Deliverer is "聖王と共にある者" (seiō to tomo ni aru mono), "The One Who Stands Together With the Exalt". "聖王" (seiō), localized as "Exalt", literally translates as "holy king". Deliverer's Brand is "聖王の軍師の剣" (seiō no gunshi no ken), "Sword of the Exalt's Tactician". Anything but a "sword". Gambit is "奥の手" (oku no te), "Trump Card". "奥の手" (oku no te), "last resort" or "trump card", literally translates as "inner hand" or "hidden hand", i.e. something that isn't shown until absolutely necessary. Tip the Scales! is ”戦局を変える！" (senkyoku o kaeru!), "[I Will] Change the Flow of Battle!" Rally Spectrum is "七色の叫び" (nanairo no sakebi), "Seven-Colored Shout". This is the Rally Spectrum skill from Awakening. This skill uses the skill series name "叫び" (sakebi), "shout", which is used in Awakening and Fates where the skill affects all allies in range. Contrast with the Rally skills in Heroes, which use the skill series name "応援" (ōen), "support" or "cheer", which is used in Heroes and Three Houses where the skill is targeted at a single ally. Cyril's epithet, "Rhea's Attendant", is "大司教の従者" (daishikyō no jūsha), "Archbishop's Attendant". Aptitude Arrows is "良成長の弓" (ryōseichō no yumi), "Bow of Good Upbringing". I like that the Japanese epithets draw attention to the fact that Corrin and Gullveig both represent a trinity and that Soren and Robin are both the right hand of their game's main character by having similarly formatted epithets. The English epithets don't do this, and I think that's somewhat of a shame.

52 pulls on Seliph's remix banner, aiming for Seliph: 0 Seliph (+1 spark) 2 Ophelia I'm pretty sure banners with Rearmed Ophelia on them are cursed. I'll either get nothing or I'll get nothing but Ophelia. Or both. This time, I got nothing until pull 30 and then nothing again until pull 51, both of which were Ophelia because of course they would be. Seliph is now +7. Ophelia would be +21 if that were possible and I merged all the copies together. 41 pulls on Freyja's remix banner, aiming for Reginn: 3 Reginn (+1 spark) 1 Tiki Meanwhile, Reginn's banner doesn't hate me. Reginn is now +8. Tiki is now +1, and this one has an Atk Asset, which lets me run a Spd Ascended Asset. I also got an extra copy of Female Byleth for Ruptured Sky fodder. 40 pulls on the Hero Fest banner for the time being, aiming for Grima: 2 Grima (+1 spark) 1 Black Knight 3 pity breakers Wolf August Louise I'll figure out if I'll go for additional sparks after I pull on the tea party banner and see how much budget I have left over after that. There's a pretty good chance I'll at least go for one more spark for Black Knight, but I'm not sure if I'll go past that. Alear is a maybe at best. I probably won't go for Byleth since I already have several spare copies of her. This now gives me 10 total spare copies of Grima. My existing Grima is already +10, but I had to waste a lot of her inheritance potential because I used her as an Arena bonus unit when she was released and ended up just handing out only Arcane Grima and A/S Near Save since I didn't have any other good armor or dragon skills I could put on her to duplicate back then. I also now have 5 copies of Black Knight, but I'll probably sacrifice one of them to Grima for fodder duplication (Distant Dart + Special Fighter 4 + D/R Far Save 1, which lets me get Armored Beacon + Vengeful Fighter 4 + D/R Far Save 3 from Young Hector).

I feel like the developers are trolling me in particular by putting Rearmed Ophelia on every banner that has a red unit that I want.

I would be surprised if Gullveig doesn't have Seidr's outfit, and if not Seidr's, then Kvasir's. For her class, while I'd like for her to be a beast and use her snakes to attack with no visual change between her untransformed and transformed state (like Sothis), that doesn't really work because beasts kind of need to actually have their untransformed and transformed states visually distinct for gameplay reasons so that players can tell if they have their transformed effect active or not. As such, I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to make her a cavalry dragon, given that snakes are at least more traditionally dragon-like than Nifl's and Ymir's dragon forms. I don't know enough about Fates to have a guess as to what Corrin would be. However, as much as I'd like to see Omega Yato be released, we absolutely don't need yet another fast sword infantry right now after having so recently gotten Fallen Byleth, Lucia, Felix, Ascended Fir, Summer Fjorm, Alear, and another Alear. Her Hoshido Noble outfit hasn't been done yet, so that's a possibility. Being a dragon unit also means she'll have a decent shot of introducing more dragon skills, and having both Gullveig and Corrin be dragons would be nice for more skill availability in the normal summoning pool. I would like to see Robin have his Levin Sword as a Close Counter blue tome. Rearmed Female Robin has an outfit based on Validar's, and I wouldn't be surprised if Male Robin will get Validar's outfit here. I have no boat in the race when it comes to Soren, so I really don't care what they do with him as long as he isn't a fast sword infantry. However, I'd be willing to forgive him for being a fast sword infantry if he's dressed as Ike and using wind magic to levitate and swing Ragnell around. For reference, here's a summary of previous outfits: Another character Ike (as Greil) Roy (as Eliwood) Hector (as Uther) Ephraim (as Fado) Veronica (as Bruno) Marth (as Anri) Eirika (as Ephraim) Seliph (as Sigurd) Female Byleth (as Sothis) Awakening Tiki (as Mystery Tiki) Alternate class Lucina (as Great Lord) Micaiah (as Light Priestess) Dimitri (as Great Lord) Claude (as Barbarossa) Edelgard (as Emperor) Lysithea (as Gremory) Marianne (as Dancer) Chrom (as Great Lord) Other canon alternate outfit Celica (design from Gaiden) Alm (design from Gaiden) Eliwood (design from epilogue) Other Lyn Camilla Gatekeeper (default outfit)