Ice Dragon

The current premium optimal standard for melee infantry looks something like this: Passive A Ideal 4 if the unit is expected to always have a buff active (particularly if it's a non-stat buff since those cannot be nullified) or always be at max HP. Finish 4 if the unit can consistently charge their Special, even if it isn't always fully charged at the start of combat. Distant Counter if the unit needs Distant Counter. Push variants should be used for player-phase or dual-phase units. Stance variants for enemy-phase units. Passive B Dodge for any fast unit. Bulwark for tanks, including fast tanks. Tempo for units that rely on a Special that doesn't automatically fully charge or needs to break walls. Special Spiral 3/4 for charging high-cooldown Specials. Guard 4 for slow tanks that have a guaranteed follow-up elsewhere. Quick Riposte 4 for slow tanks that don't have a guaranteed follow-up elsewhere (and don't want to run the Quick Riposte Sacred Seal). Passive C Oath 4 for buffs and mobility. Menace for buffs and debuffs. Time's Pulse 3/4 for charging Specials. Time's Pulse 4 is only needed for units that fight more than one round of combat per turn. Smoke 4 if you need the skill's secondary effect. And then there are some less standard options like Clash, Surge, Shield Pulse, Escape Route 4, etc.

Ophelia is blue. Nagi's issue wasn't her color. In fact, green was the ideal color for a tank when she was released due to the fact that Ophelia and Legendary Alm were the strongest threats at the time. Nagi's issue was the fact that she didn't have Distant Counter on her weapon and therefore couldn't run Distant Def 4.

It's normal for the 5-star refine schedule to jump around like this. Edelgard was released 2 non-CYL standard banners before Nagi was and only just got her refine last month. You also can't really compare the 5-star refine schedule with the 4-star refine schedule since they operate independently of each other.

Whichever idiot at Google decided it was a good idea to put "Close other tabs" directly next to "Close" on the tab right-click dropdown in Chrome deserves to be tried for war crimes. So now I have to rewrite this entire post because it didn't save. New weapons mean translation notes: Freeblade's Edge is "義勇軍の正剣" (giyūgun no seiken), "Righteous Sword of the Volunteer Army". It looks like they got tired of using "blade" and decided to call this one an "edge" instead because they'll do anything except call it a "sword". Pupil's Tome is "見習い魔道士の書" (minarai madōshi no sho), "Trainee Mage's Tome". Ewan's Pupil class in The Sacred Stones is "魔道士見習い" (madōshi minarai), "Mage Trainee". Valbar's Lance is "バルボの勇槍" (barubo no yūsō), "Valbar's Brave Lance". This is does not use the exact same wording as the Brave Lance weapon, which is "勇者の槍" (yūsha no yari), literally "Hero's Lance", but is pretty close. Revenger Lance is "復讐の烈槍" (fukushū no ressō), "Fierce Lance of Revenge". "復讐" (fukushū), "revenge", is also the name of the Vengeance skill. And my usual analysis and hopes: Eyvel: Freeblade's Edge Currently has Guard Sword, which has the Guard effect with no condition. Eyvel was already pretty mediocre at release due to the fact that she had low Atk and an uncomfortable Spd stat that was higher than middling but not quite fast enough to be viable without a guaranteed follow-up, but had a high Def stat. Her base kit leans into her high Def with Guard Sword, Atk/Def Form, and Chill Atk boosting her bulk and relying on Ignis for damage. However, she doesn't have the Spd to reliably double without a guaranteed follow-up, and doesn't have any forms of Special acceleration to reliably activate Ignis. Ideally, Eyvel's weapon should get at least a guaranteed follow-up and +1 Special charge rate. It's also rather likely that it'll keep the Guard effect from her original weapon. Since her Atk stat is rather low, it's likely that they'll try to patch it up like with other characters with low Atk. I can see her getting either a boost to damage or a reduction to the opponent's Def based on a percentage of her Def stat, similar to Askr or Spring Maria. Ewan: Pupil's Tome Currently has Raudhrserpent, which has Distant Def 3. Ewan literally has the same stat spread as Hubert, but with all of his trainee bonus stats put in Res, giving him decent Atk and Res, but middling Spd and low Def. His base kit tries to salvage his Spd with Swift Stance and Sabotage Spd, but that was not viable at release and is certainly not viable now. I expect Ewan to be similar to Hubert and receive a guaranteed follow-up to make up for his Spd. Ewan's Res is decent, but isn't really high enough to reliably use skills that require a Res comparison anymore, so if they want to have him continue to use Res-comparison-based debuffs, it would be nice to give him Phantom Res. Valbar: Valbar's Lance Currently has Brave Lance. Valbar's stat spread is literally just Gwendolyn with 5 more Atk. His base kit is entirely made of garbage. His new weapon's name in Japanese references his default Brave Lance, so it's likely he'll have the Brave effect on both phases to actually function on enemy phase. His default B skill is Obstruct, which is trash compared to the extremely stiff competition in the slot, even more so now that Fighter skills are getting tier-4 versions. I could definitely see them giving his weapon Bulwark to free up his B slot, given that he doesn't have access to the skill normally. Cormag: Revenger Lance Currently has Slaying Lance. Cormag has a very typical "slow" lance flier stat spread with decent Atk and Def and middling Spd in an extremely saturated class. I'm expecting him to get a gimmick of some kind to set himself apart from other dragon knights. Given that his weapon shares part of its Japanese name with the Vengeance skill, even if it's simple coincidence due to the fact that it's just a normal word, it would be interesting to give him an Ice Mirror-like effect. Lif: Sokkvabekkr Current effect is: If there is an ally within 3 spaces: +4 to all stats in combat Guaranteed follow-up Inflicts 20 damage to nearest ally after combat For reference, Lif's Remix grants him an additional effective +5 Spd, the Guard effect, and all of the effects of Special Spiral 4 except for the additional damage. His new skill is Even Tempest, replacing Time's Pulse. Given that Lif has an exclusive Special with 3 cooldown, Deadly Balance+ grants +1 Special charge rate on the opponent's attacks and Special Spiral, and he's getting a skill to replace his default Time's Pulse, it's pretty much guaranteed that he'll either get either the Slaying effect or Time's Pulse 4 on his weapon, likely the former. As a unit that wants his first round of combat to be on enemy phase in order to set up looping his Special, he'll probably get percentage damage reduction of some kind since Deadly Balance prevents him from running Quick Riposte 4 or Guard 4 for damage reduction. Also, I can see him getting follow-up prevention to reference Arcane Eljudnir. Legendary Edelgard: Aymr Current effect is: Permanent +3 Atk With a Solo condition: -6 Atk/Def to opponent in combat Follow-up prevention For reference, Edelgard's remix updates the condition on her guaranteed follow-up so that instead of only activating against non-human classes, it now activates based on her HP, with the alternate condition of being Solo unchanged. In addition, it adds the offensive half of Null Follow-Up against non-human classes and additional stats. Her new skill is Atk/Res Ideal, replacing Atk/Res Solo. With Raging Storm II no longer being heavily reliant on being Solo and her original Atk/Res Solo being replaced with Atk/Res Ideal, it's almost certain that Aymr's effects will have their condition updated to something more lenient, likely with an alternate HP condition. The Three Houses main characters have a tendency to repeat similar effects across their various versions, so I'm expecting the refine to include something from another Edelgard. The most likely candidate is the effects of Armored Wall. Black Eagle Rule is a possibility as a back-up effect for when the opponent can get around her follow-up prevention, but I don't really see it as particularly likely. The Formation teleportation effect from Flower Hauteclere is rather unlikely because even if Legendary Edelgard is no longer dependent on the Solo condition, the developers generally don't give Formation effects to units that have a Solo condition anywhere. Duo Alm: Scepter of Love Current effect is: Permanent +3 Spd If unit has a stat Bonus or if HP is 70% or higher at start of combat: Boost to Atk equal to 25% of opponent's Def at start of combat Reduction to opponent's Atk equal to 25% of opponent's Res at start of combat For reference, Alm's Duo skill clears Penalties, heals 30 HP, and applies +6 Atk/Spd as status effects to himself and allies within a 5×5 square around him. At release, Alm was notable for being an annoying unit that was annoyingly fast, annoyingly bulky, and kills you with Lunar Flash. Duo Alm doesn't have any form of Special acceleration on his weapon or his base kit and therefore relied on his follow-up attack to land Lunar Flash. Nowadays, this leaves him vulnerable to both follow-up prevention and Guard to prevent Lunar Flash from landing, and he would like to not have to use two skill slots to run Tempo and Null Follow-Up. I figure he'll probably get at least one of the two effects on his weapon's refine if not both. While Alm's signature skill effect in Heroes is Windsweep for whatever reason, I can't really see them giving it to him here. He already has an effect that lowers the opponent's Atk by a pretty hefty amount on his weapon, and it would be wasteful to have the effect not be relevant on player phase. Additionally, it would mean needing to give him some form of Special acceleration to allow him to land Lunar Flash on his follow-up. Otherwise, I'm not really expecting anything out of left field for him, even with how weird the weapon's base effect is.

So I finally got around to building Rebecca due to the upcoming Voting Gauntlet, and I realized a few things: One, Rebecca is currently the strongest bow infantry in the game. Not just the strongest 4-star bow infantry, but the strongest bow infantry. Her only real competition is Duo Chrom and Legendary Alm. Two, her weapon is pretty much the same as Arcane Eclipse as far as broad strokes go, which means she's capable of running any build that Rearmed Ophelia (and anyone inheriting Ophelia's skills) can run, including the ridiculous Astra spam build. Who needs Deadeye when you can just throw Special Spiral 4 + Astra at the problem? So now I have this little monster running around my barracks: +10 Young Rebecca [+Spd] (Gusty War Bow, Reposition, Astra, Atk/Spd Finish 4, Special Spiral 4, Time's Pulse 4, Blade Session 3) And then I sent her off to do some old-fashioned "solo + 3 dancers" runs of Abyssal Nerthuz, Shez, and Arval. And she didn't disappoint: And I still haven't given her Dragonflowers or a floret (and she's being seriously considered for one).

I'll probably start with Rebecca because she's the only one I have at +10. If she loses, I'll probably switch to one of Mark, Hector, or Mia.

This week's Arena ticket gets me Fallen Tiki: 91 pulls from the Nerthuz banner: 2 Nerthuz (+1 spark) 4 Shez 3 Deirdre 9.9% focus rate is pretty good, above average by about 1 pull. To absolutely no one's surprise, my pulls are skewed against the new unit like they always are. It's been quite some time since I last ran the numbers on how bad the skew actually is. Maybe I should do it again. Shez is now +8. I'll probably do some pulls later to get her up to +10 and then stop there. My second copy of Nerthuz has a Spd Asset, so that's already in the bag and something I don't have to worry about. EDIT: Apparently, if I count only the banners since I last ran the numbers (which was after Legendary Nanna's banner), I'm actually right on average, mostly because Mediuth's and Xander's banners were both extremely skewed the other way (10 out of 21 and 10 out of 23, respectively). Not counting the banners with 2 new units sharing a color (Gotoh/Fomortiis and Veronica/Embla), I've pulled 67 copies of the new unit out of 210 total focus units, which is below average by only half of a standard deviation.

That's still better than not having Canto at all. Having Canto (1) means that a unit using Reposition has to move 1 fewer space to do so, and if said unit has Canto (Rem.) or Canto (Rem.+1), it can retreat an additional 2 spaces compared to if Nerthuz didn't have Canto at all. If you're still getting ganked with Canto (1), you'd just have been more ganked without it.

From a design perspective, it's better that there isn't a way to keep the opponent alive longer to charge Galeforce. As it is right now, Galeforce rewards players for using the second action to attack instead of retreat so that the second round of combat will charge Galeforce back up to the point where it will activate on the first action of the next turn even if the next opponent dies in a single hit. That said, I don't think adding such an effect would really cause much of an issue. As an inheritable skill, it would have to compete with generally better skills in that slot, trading combat performance for an easier time activating Galeforce (as long as the reduced combat performance doesn't get you killed). As an effect on an exclusive skill, it would just be a worse version of Raging Storm since it still ties up the Special slot. Honestly, it's pretty similar to just using a unit that has Canto (1) without Galeforce. Attacking twice with Galeforce and using Canto (1) to get out isn't too much different from attacking once without Galeforce and using Canto (1) to get out. Deirdre's main gimmick is her Special granting the Miracle effect once per map on top of its regular damage effect. And she has the usual tools for slaying dragons (effective damage against dragons, nullifying targeting the lower defensive stat, and gigantic magic bulk). On top of that, she's a relatively decent unit for fodder, as she comes with Still Water 4, Atk/Res Tempo, and Atk/Res Menace.

Alarm is a significantly more lenient Rouse skill, requiring there be no more than 2 adjacent units to activate the start-of-turn effect and no more than 1 adjacent unit to activate the in-combat stat boost instead of having the Solo condition. The Canto effect is the previously existing Canto (1) status effect. Inheritance restrictions are not known, but the skill is at most only usable by infantry and cavalry due to the restrictions on Rouse, which is undoubtedly its base skill due to its Japanese name. It's good that they realized that Rouse's condition kind of sucked and fixed it for Alarm. As I mentioned in the Feh Channel thread, it's really hard to use Rouse's condition in Aether Raids where space is extremely limited. On the other hand, Alarm having Rouse as a base is kind of a bummer since it means fliers are unable to use it as an alternative source for Canto. Fruit of Life grants a 40% damage reduction version of the original Ice Mirror against the opponent's first attack and, if the in-combat condition of Alarm is satisfied (no more than 1 adjacent unit), the offensive half of Tempo and Gravity+. Horn of the Land is the same weapon she used as an enemy unit, granting the Slaying effect, +5 to all stats, an additional bonus to all stats equal to double her max Special cooldown, Special charge rate +1, and both halves of Null Follow-Up. Basically, you're supposed to use her default Galeforce, but she can actually viably use Aether for more damage and sustain at the cost of not having Galeforce. Unsure how much I'm willing to spend on this banner because I have other things that will eat my budget next month (most notably an anime convention), but it's really tempting to put some budget into this banner because it has Shez in it, making blue pretty damned valuable. And my translation notes copied from the Feh Channel thread: Nerthuz's epithet, "God of the Land", is "地の女神" (chi no megami), "Goddess of the Land". Horn of the Land is "地の女神の角" (chi no megami no tsuno), "Horns of the Goddess of the Land". Fruit of Life is "地に生まれ地に還る" (chi ni umare chi ni kaeru), "(That Which Is) Born From the Land Returns to the Land" Alarm Atk/Spd is "攻撃速さの奮進" (kōgeki hayasa no funshin), "Atk/Spd Rousing Advance".

Nerthuz was previously announced during the Feh Channel, but her trailer is now officially out:

I honestly don't really expect that to happen yet. So far, of the 79 Resplendent Heroes released or announced, the only ones from Book 2 are: Micaiah Sothe Larchel Leaf Ishtar Karla Ophelia Aversa Surtr All of these units up through Karla have old refines that typically only grant +4-6 per stat, and Ophelia's banner is only at the tail end of the transition period between old refines and the more modern refines that grant around +8-10 per stat. It seems a bit too much of a coincidence that Ophelia and Surtr were picked for Resplendent outfits when they are also the only two Book 2 units that don't have refines (excluding the usual categories that don't get refines). And while Aversa has a modern refine, she's a unit that still has relatively high usage that doesn't have particularly amazing stats, even with maximum Dragonflowers, and could really use the extra HP that her refine can't give her instead of just benefiting from the usual Atk and Spd. The refine-eligible units after Surtr all have modern refines that already make up for their lower base stats and often also make up for their worse stat spreads, the latter of which is something that Resplendent outfits aren't able to do, so there really isn't any good reason to extend Resplendent Heroes out any farther outside of a few units that have modern, but underwhelming, refines. But they've made strange decisions in the past, so as much as I don't expect them to do this, they probably will.

Given that the earliest Heroes character to be released that isn't one of the Askr trio and isn't a Special, Legendary, or Mythic Hero is Brave Veronica on the CYL 2 banner and that there are only a total of 7 such characters at all released before the CYL 3 banner (which is when units are finally able to catch up to modern units with Dragonflowers in terms of stat totals), it makes sense that it would have taken this long for one to finally be released. It's worth noting that, because Heroes has so few units released this early, if Heroes gets just 1 more Resplendent Hero, it'll have a higher percentage of its eligible units with Resplendent outfits than both Fates and Awakening do. Yep. I had to update my lists in the other thread because of him.

We break the fairy streak to get the least-fairy character in the game in the least-fairy outfit in the game, Hel Surtr: Embla Gordin Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin Muspell Brave Roy Askr Innes Muspell Brave Lyn Ljosalfheimr Palla Ljosalfheimr Aversa Dokkalfheimr Cecilia Hel Surtr This is also our first Heroes unit to receive a Resplendent outfit, which makes sense since there aren't a lot early Heroes units that were released in a "normal" way. The only real options were Brave Veronica, the Muspell crew, or a Nifl Legendary. (Fjorm would really like the extra stats, though.) I've already updated the lists to go through Surtr's banner (and Gharnef), as Surtr is now the most recently released unit with a Resplendent outfit. I find it really funny that Fates is the origin mark with the highest number of Resplendent outfits (tied with Blazing Sword at 11), but the second lowest percentage (after Heroes) due to the ridiculous number of Fates units that were released this early (50 now that the Adrift banner falls inside the counting window).

Is that Daisuke Izuka? Because that looks like Daisuke Izuka. Excellent art and an extremely fitting theme. He really is turning into Ganondorf. Surtr's stat total is already on par with other melee armors due to the fact that he has trainee stats, which gives him a stat total of 199 with maximum Dragonflowers before the Resplendent stat boosts, compared to the current standard of 198-201. This puts him at 209 with the extra stats. However, he doesn't have a refine, which means he's missing out on 18 points of stats (based on the standard of inflicting -6 Atk/Def to the opponent), and that's actually a pretty big deal. Getting +2 to all stats including HP is nice, but isn't really enough to make up for it, even with Sinmara's "Threaten HP" effect. They really need to go back an give Armads, Dire Thunder, and Sinmara refines, even if they don't make them as strong as modern refines. (Missiletainn is still good even without a refine, though.) And despite being very min-maxed on release, Dragonflowers and the Resplendent stat boost mean he's not quite as min-maxed as more recent releases. He ends up with 45 Atk and 56/46/39 defenses, which, while not quite as min-maxed as he'd probably like to be, is still quite good. For comparison, Young Hector has 46 Atk and 48/48/42 defenses. On the other hand, he does have access to Arcane Downfall, and while it doesn't provide him with a guaranteed follow-up attack, it does grant him follow-up prevention and passive healing, and he has access to all the guaranteed follow-ups he could want with armor-exclusive skills. He'll probably want to wait for Crafty Fighter, Slick Fighter, or Wily Fighter to get a tier-4 version, though, since Special Fighter 4 and Vengeful Fighter 4 step on Arcane Downfall's toes a bit. Also, Arcane Downfall is entirely on brand for his Resplendent outfit.

Well, I was definitely not expecting that. The next Resplendent Hero is Hel Surtr: Now if only they'd give him a refine.

I just realized that Cornelia would've been the perfect unit to release Still Water 3 on. But no, we get yet another unit with Atk/Res Solo 3. Sure, this is the first 4-star source for Atk/Res Solo 3 that isn't time-gated, but there are already plenty of sources of the skill in the standard summoning pool. It's also not like Still Water is a skill that's in particularly high demand, either, as it's basically only used by units that need out-of-combat Res and can't afford to lose Atk and units that need out-of-combat Atk and don't need Spd (or can't afford to lose Res). That's not a lot of units, but it would still be nice to have a source of the skill that isn't time-gated so that it's actually viable to get the skill fodder at all. Excluding Cornelia, Atk/Res Solo 3 is on 2 4-star Special Heroes, 3 units in the 4-star SR pool, 2 units in the 5-star pool, 4 units in the Legendary/Mythic pool, and 1 5-star Special Hero. In contrast, Still Water is on 2 units in the Legendary/Mythic pool and 2 5-star Special Heroes and is still not in the standard summoning pool at all.

I'd be much more worried about her neck with the size of her horns. It's possible to mitigate the effects of weight by reducing the strength of gravity (which is my pet theory of how axes in Fire Emblem and other fantasy settings with similarly oversized weapons are at all feasible, not to mention how pegasi and dragons can fly with their entirely insufficient wingspans), but you can't mitigate the effects of inertia. Horns of that size would have a center of mass far from the head, which would result in significant strain when turning the head. Unsupported breasts would still tug at the front of the chest when moving relative to the torso, but the lessened weight of them in reduced gravity would alleviate the strain on the back.

I'm too used to typing Atk/Spd. I managed to catch myself in the analysis, but it looks like I missed it there. This one you can blame on my skimming the Japanese.

New remixes were announced the the Feh Channel: Lif: Deadly Balance+ If HP is 25% (previously 50%) or higher at start of combat or unit has a Penalty: -5 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat (previously only Atk/Def) Guard effect (new) +1 Special charge rate on opponent's attacks Nullifies percentage damage reduction from non-Special skills when Special activates (new) If Special activated before or during combat: -2 Special cooldown after combat (new) New skill is Even Tempest 3 Deadly Balance gets all of the effects of Special Spiral 4 except for the additional damage as well Guard. That's really good. It also gains a Spd debuff, which isn't really necessary, but helps out against opponents with middling Spd, which are increasingly more common. They also replaced his default Time's Pulse with Even Tempest, which feels a bit strange given that Tempest skills are rather niche. However, the fact that they're doing so means they're likely going to be giving him the Slaying effect (or Time's Pulse 4) on his weapon's refine, which would make Time's Pulse unnecessary. That said, it looks like they still don't want to hand out an easy source for Atk/Spd Oath 4 yet. Edelgard: Raging Storm II If there are no adjacent allies after combat (checked after post-combat movement effects are resolved): Galeforce effect With Solo condition or if HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: -5 Atk/Def to opponent in combat (new) Guaranteed follow-up (previously with Solo condition or if opponent is dragonstone or beast) If opponent is dragonstone or beast: The offensive half of Null Follow-Up (new) New skill is Atk/Res Ideal 4 Raging Storm gets a much more lenient condition for the guaranteed follow-up so that it is pretty much always active. So that Edelgard still gets a bonus against non-humans, she now gains the offensive half of Null Follow-Up if the opponent is not human. It also comes with an obligatory stat buff that should surprise no one. No real hints on what her refine would bring, though I'd expect some amalgamation of effects from her other versions, since that seems to be the pattern with how the Three Houses main characters are being handled. Atk/Res Ideal 4 is a decent replacement for her original Atk/Res Solo 3, but isn't anything particularly special other than now being slightly easier to get than the alternatives for that stat combination (Remote Mirror, Atk/Res Finish, Atk/Res Scowl, etc.). It's currently only available from Ashera, but Atk/Res Ideal 3 is available from 1 unit in the 4-star standard pool (Elice) and 3 Grail units (Genealogy Hilda, Riev, and Young Lucius).

And some translation notes that I'll repeat when the banner comes out: Nerthuz's epithet, "God of the Land", is "地の女神" (chi no megami), "Goddess of the Land". Horn of the Land is "地の女神の角" (chi no megami no tsuno), "Horns of the Goddess of the Land". Fruit of Life is "地に生まれ地に還る" (chi ni umare chi ni kaeru), "(That Which Is) Born From the Land Returns to the Land" Alarm Atk/Spd is "攻撃速さの奮進" (kōgeki hayasa no funshin), "Atk/Spd Rousing Advance". Seer's Snare is "時を戻す、黄金の魔女" (toki o modosu, ōgon no majo), "Turn Back Time, Golden Witch".

Alarm Atk/Spd brings Canto in the C slot and appears to be on the Rouse Atk/Spd skill tree. It seems like an odd pick to have a Rouse skill on an offense Mythic Hero since there's generally not all that much space to actually let a unit that you're using for combat have no adjacent allies. I really don't want to spend too much money on this banner since I have a convention coming up that is going to eat up my budget, but Shez is also going to be on the banner. Lif gets Guard and Special Spiral 4 added to his B skill. Given that he's getting Time's Pulse replaced by Odd Tempest, which is generally considered to be a niche skill, it looks like he'll probably get the Slaying effect added to his weapon so that Deadly Balance fully charges Open the Future. Edelgard's upgrade to Raging Storm is pretty tame. Her guaranteed follow-up gets a more lenient condition, and she gains the offensive half of Null Follow-Up against non-human classes. Atk/Res Ideal 4 is meh. And we get Dynamax Adventures as a new game mode. Being able to stack skills looks like it could be pretty fun once you get the ball rolling.

This week's Arena ticket gets me Takumi. I got impatient and decided to finish off the Mark banner. 66 pulls: 1 Mark 1 Eliwood 2 5-star Rebecca 4 4-star Rebecca 1 pity breaker Fallen Edelgard Total 239 pulls: 2 Mark (+1 spark) 2 Eliwood 3 Hector 6 5-star Rebecca 10 4-star Rebecca 4 pity breakers 5.4% focus rate is very good. 2.9% non-Rebecca focus pulls is also great. 7.1% total 5-star rate is also good. And I ended up with 5 extra copies of Rebecca to use as fodder, which is really nice. And then cleaning up my pity rate on the the AHR banner, to no one's surprise, I immediately pull 2 copies of Ophelia in the same session. So I decided to keep going. 38 pulls: 1 Camilla 3 Ophelia 1 Veronica 1 pity breaker Sara And finally got another Camilla. Total 299 pulls: 4 Camilla (+1 spark) 16 Ophelia (+1 spark) 3 Veronica (+1 spark) 0 Fomortiis (+1 spark) 8 pity breakers Seriously, what the fuck is this bullshit? 5.4% Ophelia rate. 7.7% focus rate, which is below average by about 1-2 pulls. It's worth noting that there are currently only 8 red tome units that are (for now) guaranteed to never get an exclusive weapon. I have double that many copies of Ophelia from just this banner alone. Meanwhile, Camilla is only +7. The Ingrid banner clearly hates me. I had a 3.25% pity rate after the spark because Duessel couldn't completely clear my pity rate, so I decided I would try to clear it. Which resulted in my pity rate getting to 5.0% before pulling Farina, which, again, failed to clear it. I'm this close to walking across the Pacific Ocean to go punch someone in the face. But at least the Rhea that finally cleared the pity rate was [+Res, -Spd]. Ended up doing a total of 50 pulls just to clear a 3.25% pity rate for a total of 90 pulls. What the everloving fuck. 1 Ingrid (+1 spark) 1 Rhea 2 pity breakers Duessel Farina 2.2% focus rate is a full 1 pull below average. 4.4% 5-star rate is a full 2 pulls below average. This banner can go to hell.

Added translation notes for Cornelia's weapon now that she's officially released. It really, really bugs me that Caduceus Staff is called "Caduceus Staff" and Asclepius is called "Asclepius". "Caduceus" is the name of the type of staff, and the word "staff" is therefore completely redundant. On the other hand, "Asclepius" is the name of the god, and therefore the staff should properly be called the "rod of Asclepius" or something similar and not just "Asclepius" by itself.

Drifting Grace is still the best offensive inheritable blue tome for general use, but even if she can't use the terrain-ignoring effect of Magical Lantern, its Special charge rate boost effect is still pretty valuable. Remote Sparrow is generally the best A skill that grants Atk/Spd to grab from Hall of Forms right now, both because it's hard to get and because most ranged units that run Atk/Spd builds have awful bulk and can use the damage reduction. In the B slot, S/R Far Trace is the best general-use skill in the slot. Guard 4 is a decent skill for surviving counterattacks, but you should probably only go for it if you have the resources to get S/R Far Trace on her through normal means. If you're running Remote Sparrow, the best Chill skill to run on her is Chill Spd/Res 3 since you won't need the Atk debuff quite as much. Atk/Spd Menace is probably the best option for the C slot simply because her exclusive weapon would like to have the debuffs from it. Even with Atk/Spd Menace, I think Chill Spd/Res is still fine to run in the B slot, though you can definitely swap to Chill Def/Res 3 if you want slightly more support utility at very little cost to her own performance. However, Atk/Spd Menace isn't particularly difficult to get normally now due to it having decent distribution, so it's probably still better to grab Atk/Spd Oath 4 or Spd/Res Hold from Hall of Forms instead and get Atk/Spd Menace through normal means. To sum things up: Desert Katarina Drifting Grace+ [Spd] / Magical Lantern+ [Spd] Rally Atk/Spd+ / Harsh Command+ / [any other Rally+] Ruptured Sky Remote Sparrow S/R Far Trace 3 / Chill Spd/Res 3 / Chill Def/Res 3 / Guard 4 Spd/Res Hold / Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Menace