Ice Dragon

The revival had its own announcement of new skills added, which included all of the skills from those banners, which is why Distant A/S Solo was available. I don't know how long ago a banner has to have ended before its skills are added to the Hall of Forms pool, but the Heidr banner ended on June 30, so it'll have been nearly a full month since then when this Hall of Forms begins on the 24th.

Added Lapis's weapon, which is, in fact, actually a sword, and Heidr's epithet and weapon from the story chapters.

It's not that the extra damage from Arcane Nastrond is large in itself, but that Arcane Darkbow doesn't have its own Atk-boosting effect to help match other than the penalty nullification (which is dependent on your opponent instead of on yourself). Arcane Nastrond typically will get +8~10 Atk from its secondary effect on top of the +5 to all stats it already gets, which comes out to +13~15 Atk. In comparison, Arcane Darkbow only gets a +6 Atk/Spd effect and so only totals +6 Atk. This is a deficit of 7~9 points of Atk. In addition to the Atk deficit, because Arcane Darkbow delays the opponent's counterattack, the unit will charge 1 fewer point of its Special before its follow-up attack, which means you're probably going to be using a weaker Special (or forced to run Flash Sparrow or Time's Pulse to run the same Special as Arcane Nastrond, which prevents you from running a skill with a larger Atk boost in that slot). Basically, if you aren't getting hit with an Atk penalty, Arcane Darkbow sacrifices damage for better sustain (as long as you still kill the opponent in one round of combat). If you're getting hit with an Atk penalty (and aren't running Unity or Grand Strategy), Arcane Darkbow is better than Arcane Nastrond on units fast enough to reliably perform a natural follow-up (with the difference being bigger on infantry than on other movement types). If you're running Unity or Grand Strategy, Arcane Nastrond is always better.

Despite the fact that I'm technically a native speaker of Chinese, I almost never have to speak or read the language (my parents speak to me in Chinese and I respond in English), so I'm basically illiterate in Chinese and have been using Japanese to brush up on my Chinese rather than the other way around. I don't recall ever learning those two characters in either language (despite knowing both words in Chinese, I never learned how to write them), and so even though I see them used often enough in Heroes, they somehow haven't managed to stick, probably because the heuristic is sufficiently accurate.

For reference: Arcane Darkbow has: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: Bow common effect Slaying effect +6 Atk/Spd in combat Nullifies stat penalties on unit Offensive half of Null Follow-Up With a Blow condition: Desperation effect Arcane Nastrond has: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: Bow common effect Slaying effect +5 to all stats in combat +4~12 Atk in combat based on the opponent's maximum Special cooldown (+12 if the opponent's maximum Special cooldown is zero, +4 if the opponent's maximum Special cooldown is 4 or more or the opponent doesn't have a Special equipped) Guaranteed follow-up 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack The main advantage of Arcane Darkbow is the fact that the Desperation effect allows the unit to forgo Remote Sparrow for a more offensively stronger A skill, giving the unit access to Atk/Spd Catch 4, Atk/Spd Ideal 4, Atk/Spd Finish 4, Atk/Spd Hexblade, and Flash Sparrow depending on movement type. The Desperation effect is also generally safer than damage reduction due to the increasing prevalence of effects that nullify percentage damage reduction and weapons with the Brave effect on enemy phase that have a second hit to punch through the first-attack condition. While the stat penalty nullification makes Atk/Spd Unity unviable and nullifies Grand Strategy, if you aren't running a Grand Strategy team, it's still a worthwhile effect to have in game modes where stat penalties are common. The main disadvantage is that it's less viable on units that aren't close to the top in Spd, and it's not viable at all on enemy-phase units regardless of Spd due to having zero defensive effects on enemy phase (not even a stat boost). Arcane Nastrond also has a gigantic boost to Atk that you can't really make up for when you aren't hit with an Atk Penalty. Arcane Darkbow is best used on fast player-phase infantry since they have better A skills to pick from compared to other movement types. Fast player-phase units of other movement types can go either way. The biggest issue for them right now with Arcane Darkbow is that they don't really have access to A skills other than Atk/Spd Catch 4, which is only +2 Atk/Spd better than Remote Sparrow and might not be worth losing the huge boost to Atk from Arcane Nastrond. In terms of skill efficiency, Arcane Nastrond is also natively on a flier, so it's easier to get skills for non-infantry units with it. Everything else should use Arcane Nastrond. Arcane Darkbow is also not compatible with Hardy Bearing, making Arcane Nastrond a strictly better choice if you're using the unit with Hardy Bearing as a counter to Vantage effects.

It is, but that's because the weapon's name is taken from the Knight-Captain's Sword from Three Hopes, which has the same name in Japanese as Heroes's Captain Sword and has the same design and presumably had its name shortened due to length constraints. In English descriptions, "bonus" always refers to stat bonuses only and "【Bonus】" refers to all positive status effects. In Japanese, the former is "強化" (kyōka), "strengthening", and the latter is "【有利な状態】" (yūri na jōtai), "advantageous condition". My mistake, though, was the fact that I don't actually remember which between "除く" (nozoku), "to exclude", and "含む" (fukumu), "to include", is which off the top of my head, and I typically just use the particle used for the direct object as a heuristic. "除く" typically uses "～は除く" (~ wa nozoku) with "は" (wa) indicating contrast, whereas "含む" typically uses "～も含む" (~ mo fukumu) with "も" (mo) specifically emphasizing inclusion (translates into English as "also"). Citrinne's weapon's effect uses "を" (o), which is neutral, so my heuristic paired it with "to exclude" instead of "to include".

I'm surprised they did this since I believe this would be the first time they've retroactively changed an existing skill's effect, not including bug fixes or changes to account for the addition of new weapon types. Up until now, changes of this sort have always been done by adding a new skill instead of changing an existing one. And they've actively gone out of their way to avoid changing existing skills like when they gave Fjorm a second remix skill instead of changing her refine when they realized her refine nullified most of her remix skill.

Spring Delthea was the first unit to have all of their skills not fit on one screen, though the UI didn't use the scroll down effect back then.

And the usual translation notes: The banner name, "Rearmed Eitr & Rearmed Alcryst", is "魔器アイト＆魔器スタルーク" (maki aito & maki sutarūku), "Arcane Weapon Eitr & Arcane Weapon Alcryst". As usual, "魔器" (maki), "magic weapon", is used for both Arcane weapons and Rearmed Heroes. Diamant's epithet, "Rising Power", is "立ち向かう黒鉄" (tachi-mukau kurogane), "Iron Standing in Opposition". Fair-Fight Blade is "真っ向勝負の剛剣" (makkō shōbu no gōken), "Sturdy Sword For Face-to-Face Confrontation". Anything but "sword". Atk/Def Finish is "攻撃守備の秘奥" (kōgeki shubi no hiō), "Atk/Def Special". As usual, "秘奥" (hiō) literally means "hidden secret", but in context almost certainly refers to "秘奥義" (hiōgi), "hidden secret technique", which is video-game terminology for what is typically the highest tier of "super" moves, like Mystic Artes in the Tales of series. "奥義" (ōgi) is the word for Special skills in Heroes, and is video-game terminology for "normal" super moves. Citrinne's epithet, "Caring Noble", is "富める友愛" (tomeru yūai), "Wealthy Friendship". Tome of Luxuries is "豪奢な富書" (gōsha na fusho), "Luxurious Tome of Wealth". Alcryst's epithet, "Tender Archer", is "繊細なる射手" (sensai-naru ite), "Delicate Archer". Arcane Darkbow is "魔器・優しさの影弓" (maki: yasashisa no eikyū), "Arcane Weapon: Shadow Bow of Kindness". Flash Sparrow is "鬼神飛燕の柔撃" (kishin hien no jūgeki), "Soft Strike of Fierce Deity/Flying Swallow". Compare with Flashing Blade, "柔剣" (jūken), "soft sword", and contrast with Heavy Blade, "剛剣" (gōken), "sturdy sword". For additional context, "柔" (jū), "soft" or "weak", is the same character used in "柔道" (jūdō), "judo". Get Behind Me! is "僕が守ります！" (boku ga mamorimasu!), "I'll Protect [You]!". Eitr's epithet, "Hand of Nothing", is "虚無のしもべ" (kyomu no shimobe), "Servant of Nihility". Arcane Nihility is "魔器・虚無の角" (maki: kyomu no tsuno), "Arcane Weapon: Horns of Nihility". Power of Nihility is "虚無の力" (kyomu no chikara), "Power of Nihility". Beast Sense is "絶対化身・察知" (zettai keshin: sacchi), "Guaranteed Transformation: Perception". Lapis's epithet, "Mighty Flower", is "屈強な野花" (kukkyō na nobana), "Brawny Wildflower". Defier's Sword is "守備逆用の剣" (shubi gyakuyō no ken), "Def-Exploit Sword". It's an actual sword this time. Zephia's epithet, "Scheming Dragon", is "蠱惑の魔竜" (kowaku no maryū), "Magic Dragon of Seduction". "魔竜" (maryū), "magic dragon", is localized as "Mage Dragon" or "Demon Dragon" depending on the game. Packleader Tome is "四狗頭領の魔書" (shiku tōryō no masho), "Magic Tome of the Leader of the Four Hounds". Alear's epithet, "Dragon Youth", is "神竜の王子" (shinryū no ōji), "Divine Dragon Prince". Heidr's epithet, "Cursed Goddess", is "呪われし女神" (norowareshi megami), "Cursed Goddess". Golden Curse is "黄金の蛇の呪い" (ōgon no hebi no noroi), "Curse of the Gold Serpent". I don't actually remember "including" and "excluding" in Japanese off the top of my head and rely on the particle instead when skimming skill descriptions. This one used the particle normally used for "excluding". ("Including" typically uses the particle for "also" (も, mo), whereas "excluding" typically uses the generic direct object marker (を, o). This one used the generic direct object marker.) I also don't read the skill descriptions in English because they're formatted like someone's child vomited their alphabet soup all over my screen, which is both annoying to read and just plain rude.

Diamant has a new skill effect that increases the Spd comparison requirement for a natural follow-up. If we ever get tier-4 Weaponbreaker skills, I would be surprised if they don't get this effect. Citrinne splashes all of her Bonuses other than stat Bonuses, +1 movement, and Pathfinder to nearby allies after the start-of-turn effects activate. Basically just making another reason for the status effect versions of skills to exist. Flash Sparrow presumably can only be equipped on units that can already equip Flashing Blade. This is probably going to be the best-in-slot A skill for infantry Galeforcers since they can't make use of Surge Sparrow's secondary effect. Other infantry are probably going to stick to Surge Sparrow, Remote Sparrow, or Atk/Spd Finish 4 unless they have a skill effect that allows them to avoid counterattacks. Arcane Darkbow doesn't play nice with Grand Strategy. Alcryst is basically Ulir with the weapon and exclusive skill effects swapped and a permanent Moonbow. As predicted, Eitr comes with a "Beast Dodge" skill, which basically just makes her an upgraded version of Summer Freyja. I'm curious what the inheritance restrictions are on her weapon and Beast Sense. Beast Sense is almost certainly going to be usable by both infantry and cavalry and might also be usable by fliers. There's still a decent chance that there are no movement-type restrictions on Arcane Nihility. Lapis and Alear exist. Probably because (1) it's already programmed like that preemptively and (2) they don't want to update the skill description later if it ever becomes possible.

Shrines in Aether Raids currently hit for a maximum -11 to each stat. Panicked Bonuses result in an additional -8 to Atk/Spd (from Golden Serpent) and -7 to Def/Res (from Fortify Def 4 and Fortify Res 4). Two stacks of Atk Unity (from Atk/* Unity and Grand Strategy) on Shez give her +76 Atk. Broadleaf Fan on Shez gives her another +74 Atk. Dominance adds another +74 damage. Foe Penalty Doubler inflicts -18 Def to Fjorm. The Sabotage status effect inflicts -18 Def to Fjorm. Exposure increases damage taken by Fjorm by 10. So this is so far gives Shez a net +131 Atk, +84 damage, and -54 Def on Fjorm, counting the visible Panicked Bonuses and Penalties. If Fjorm is inflicted with Triangle Adept (or just has it equipped), Shez's +131 Atk is boosted to +183.4 Atk. So this is already a total of 321 damage on top of the basic stats and stat-boosting passive skills. This just leaves 79 more damage to account for to hit 400 damage before Astra, which is 57 points of Atk before accounting for weapon triangle advantage and Triangle Adept. Broadleaf Fan has 12 Mt. Atk/* Unity grants +5 Atk. Atk/* Oath 4 grants +3 Atk. Blade Session 3 grants +9 Atk. Resonance: Blades grants +4 Atk. That's 33 Atk, leaving only 24 Atk to go, which can easily be supplied with Blessing bonuses (+3 Atk each), Drive (+4 Atk each), Cross Spur (+5 Atk each), etc. Plus additional Def-lowering effects from the B slot (Wings of Mercy 4, etc.) and status effects on Fjorm (Discord, etc.), which aren't affected by the weapon triangle boost. And the fact that Fjorm's base Def is lower than Shez's base Atk. EDIT: I know this isn't exactly how they're pulling it off since the stats don't match the displayed in-combat stat changes, but this is an example to show how it could be done.

The first summer banner can go to hell. 315 pulls: 1 Shamir (+1 spark) 1 Shez 1 Ephraim 3 5-star Larchel 9 4-star Larchel 8 pity breakers Geoffrey Louise Echoes Palla Flayn Sara Tinny Shinon Catherine 1.9% focus rate is garbage and is 4 pulls below average. 4.4% 5-star rate is also garbage and is 6 pulls below average. 2.9% 4-star focus rate would be okay if I were pulling all colors instead of sniping for colorless for half of my pulls, but I was sniping colorless for half of my pulls, and is therefore also garbage since it should be around 6% or so. Karma definitely came for me, and as usual, the negative karma is significantly worse than the positive karma that it swung from. It's easier to just list all of my 5-star pulls with the pity rate that they were pulled at than to write it all out in prose: Geoffrey: 4.75% Summer Ephraim: 3.75% Louise: 6.5% Echoes Palla: 6.75% Duo Shamir: 13.0% (pity charge) Summer Larchel: 3.0% Flayn: 3.25% Summer Shez: 3.25% Sara: 3.5% Tinny: 3.5% Summer Larchel: 7.5% (pity charge) Shinon: 4.25% Catherine: 5.5% Summer Larchel: 4.75% Things got better (mostly) after the 13% pity Shamir, but that was pull 161, which means I was literally more than halfway through my total pulls at that point. Geoffrey having a 4.75% pity rate meant that he was literally in the last summon session before the spark (and Summer Ephraim was in the first one after the spark). Both Ephraim and Shez have Atk Flaws because of course they would. So does Shamir, actually, but that matters less because I can merge her. On the bright side, Shamir has a Spd Asset. Louise and Shinon also have Spd Assets and are my first copies of them with one. Sara is my first spare copy of her, which means I can finally give Return to someone else. Catherine is now +10. Also on the bright side, I'm actually not too behind on my budget due to my pulls in FGO being below budget, but I am still behind and will probably have to cut my budget for the second summer banner. EDIT: Forgot to mention Shamir's Flaw.

Right. I don't normally pay attention to level ups (much less level-up quotes) in Hall of Forms since I'm too busy trying to figure out how to beat the map with horribly underleveled units, so it didn't occur to me that the same thing happens there.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that this game treats HP differently from all of the other stats, but I wasn't expecting it to be to this extent. Summer Larchel is the first unit available below 5-star rarity where her HP is not her highest stat at level 1, which made me update my spreadsheet for pulls because my assumption for which stats increase on rarity promotion turned out to be incorrect. My previous assumption was that on promotions to even-numbered rarities, the unit would gain a point in their second and third highest stats (ties are broken by the order they appear on the stat screen), and on promotions to odd-numbered rarities, the unit would gain a point in the other three stats. Apparently, this is not the case. Instead, on promotions to even-number rarities, the unit gains a point in their first and second highest stats excluding HP, and on promotions to odd-number rarities, the unit gains a point in the other three stats. This means that a unit always gains HP on promotions to odd-numbered rarities regardless of how high or low their level-1 HP is. (Side note: Chloe is the only other unit where HP is not her highest stat at level 1, but she's not available at 4-star rarity for this to matter.) (Unrelated trivia: The Fandom wiki is wrong about level-up quotes. SP is considered a stat for the purposes of determining which quote the character says in response to their level-up gains, which means the quotes are actually 0-2 for low gain, 3-4 for medium gain, and 5-6 for high gain. The only time this is relevant, though, is when the unit's SP is maxed out and therefore can't receive a "stat up".)

43 pulls from Bramimond's remix banner: 1 Bramimond 3 Grima (+1 spark) 41 pulls from Chrom's remix banner: 2 Chrom (+1 spark) 2 Chrom 9.5% focus rate is about 3 pulls above average. Good stuff. But this means karma will probably be coming for me on the summer banners whenever I get around to pulling on them. Four total copies of Grima including the spark is great, bringing me up to 7 spare copies of her. Now if only I could get a copy of Anankos for Savvy Fighter 4 to duplicate. The 3 copies of Legendary Chrom including the spark get him up to +3 since I only ever had 1 copy of him before. Unfortunately, none of the new copies are better than the neutral base I already had from a previous spark. The 2 copies of Brave Chrom bring me up to 2 spare copies of him if I don't count the copies that I could merge into my base to get him to +10 (since I've been saving those copies in case I needed S/D Near Trace).

I've found that Duo Chrom is too good of a support unit to not run even if he's not a bonus unit. Being able to Reposition and then move again is way too useful. I also somehow ended up with both Atk/Res Link and Spd/Def Link, so Chrom is now able to grant +6 to all stats just by doing so. Duo Laegjarn and Legendary Ninian are the other offensive units on my team. I managed to roll Guidance 4, which means Laegjarn can also provide even more mobility support on top of her combat capabilities. Legendary Ninian is the usual Legendary Ninian with a Galeforcing dance. Silque rounds out the team with passive healing and additional defenses from her weapon just in case I need it. Again, not a bonus unit, but her weapon was too good to pass up. I was a bit more conscientious this time around to make sure none of my units rely on any of their passive skills to function.

Meanwhile, here I am sitting on 42 Forma Souls because they won't put Grail units in the event. (And even if I were to use all of them, I don't have enough Trait Fruits to give them all Assets.)

It's been 3 months since the last time we got a Grail unit in Hall of Forms (not including reruns). I hope we get one this time. Even if it's Veld instead of Lifis. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be disappointed if we actually get Veld, but it's not because it's Veld. His stats are actually usable, even if we have Aelfric and Hilda with better stats now. It's because Brash Assault 4 isn't getting added to the skill pool for another 2 months, and he really wants it. (Fireflood Boost 3 would be nice to have, too, but he can do just fine with Remote Mirror.) Lifis, on the other hand, has everything he wants already in the skill pool except for Spurn 4. I would also love it if the accompanying banner had only 3 units instead of 4. One more reason to want a Grail unit in the event.

I mean, Rouse was a pretty crummy skill from the outset due to its positioning requirement. Even on ranged cavalry that can attack farther than Menace's effect range, it's still usually better to run Menace on them instead of Rouse (since they don't get access to Alarm) because it's still easier to activate Menace than Rouse. Fliers get a bunch of skills that allow teleportation and encourage keeping the team together, so it makes sense that they get Oath, but don't get Rouse.

No red orb this week for the free Arena ticket, so I pulled colorless and got Faye: Also got my second copy of Ascended Fir from my free pull on the New Power banner. Still a useless Asset (this one is HP, the previous one was Def), but at least the Flaw this time isn't Spd, so I actually have a reason to use this one without needing to merge it for the time being.

Yeah, the particular comparison of Beast N Trace and S/D Near Trace was because if I'm getting S/D Rein Snap from this Forma, then it basically renders Beast N Trace obsolete since all of its effects are covered by one S/D Near Trace or S/D Rein Snap (i.e. S/D Near Trace + S/D Rein Snap is almost always better than Beast N Trace + S/D Rein Snap). As long as Naesala has S/D Rein Snap equipped (and I don't see him unequipping it anytime soon), there's no need to ever run Beast N Trace instead of S/D Near Trace. Escape Route 4 is basically better than Beast N Trace by default because it provides an effect that S/D Near Trace doesn't (not to mention said teleportation is actually useful in Resonant Battles). The Canto effect from Escape Route 4 barely factors into the comparison since it's basically just icing on the cake, and is basically just the tiebreaker against Wings of Mercy 4 (which I think is in the pool, but I'm not 100% sure since I haven't seen it; EDIT: I just got it offered to me, so it's in the pool), which doesn't have Canto. I guess this is also my justification for grabbing Distant A/S Solo instead of Atk/Spd Clash 4 from this Forma (in addition to how hard it is to get the skill). Distant A/S Solo at least gives me something that the other options don't and could potentially end up being used, even if I actually end up never using it. Alarm is unfortunately restricted to melee cavalry since fliers aren't able to learn the prerequisite Rouse skills. Also, thanks to both of you @Xenomata @XRay. Making me actually explain my skill picks helps a lot for figuring out what I want to prioritize, even if the picks themselves haven't actually changed.

My biggest argument against Beast N Trace is the fact that Escape Route 4 actually brings me something of value on top of being difficult to get, whereas Beast N Trace doesn't do anything. The only thing that Beast N Trace does is give Naesala a permanent +2 Atk and +1 movement and Canto. S/D Rein Snap already grants +1 movement, and S/D Near Trace 3 already grants +3 Atk/Spd and Canto, so there isn't really a reason to ever run Beast N Trace on him unless he can't activate S/D Rein Snap. It would be easier to convince me to grab Guard 4 over Beast N Trace right now, and the main thing stopping me from grabbing Guard 4 is the fact that the current source of the skill is a Mythic Hero, which is generally easier for me to get copies of (though it currently looks like Gotoh is going to be one of the units in the Legendary/Mythic pool that will dodge me forever). I have no intention of foddering Special Heroes until they reach +10 with the exception of a few armors (and maybe Duo Mark). And as I've already mentioned, I can already duplicate Def/Res Smoke 3 because I'm swimming in copies of Rearmed Ophelia, who got Def/Res Smoke 3 from a spare Linde.

I don't already have Surge Sparrow on him, but I have 8 spare copies of Brave Eirika, so there isn't really a point in getting it from Hall of Forms. Atk/Spd Clash 4 comes from Brave Seliph, who has nothing else worth inheriting. I don't have any plans to merge him at the moment, so I have 2 spare copies of him lying around in case I want the skill. And as previously mentioned, Atk/Spd Clash is pretty likely to get more distribution in the near future, so I'm not particularly worried about its availability. And yes, I do plan on actually using Naesala after this, even if it'll mostly be for game modes with unit restrictions and Arena Assault.

It's actually the defensive stats that matter more for them since, you know, they can already get max score in 4 turns without too much trouble on a melee boss. In the last couple Rokkr Sieges, there has usually been a boss (typically one that targets Res) that can do enough counterattack damage to force me to skip a unit's Galeforce action due to low HP. A boost in defenses would help, especially if they're going to be throwing more recent units at us (like how we got Duo Peony last time).