Ice Dragon

Ingrid won't be added to the standard summoning pool after this banner, and Rearmed Heroes aren't yet known to appear on "Heroes with x skill" and similar banners. Rhea will. I don't know your circumstances, but that's enough to sway things for me, at least.

Oh, good. We're still getting Grail units. I hope this continues.

82 more pulls from the Mark banner: 2 Hector 3 5-star Rebecca 2 4-star Rebecca 2 pity breakers Fallen Ninian Ascended Elincia Cumulative 173 pulls: 1 Mark (+1 spark) 1 Eliwood 3 Hector 4 5-star Rebecca 6 4-star Rebecca 3 pity breakers 5.2% focus rate is quite good, even if nearly half of them are Rebecca. Without counting Rebeccas, it's still a 2.9% focus rate. I realized that I needed another copy of Hector to give Rearmed Grima Armored Beacon for duplication. And then I got 2 of him. I still need 1 more copy of Rebecca for merges, and I'll probably aim for 2 or 3 more copies as stepping stones for Atk/Spd Finish 4. I really do seem to be a magnet for Ascended Heroes, particularly the colorless ones.

And the usual translation notes now that I'm back at my desk: The banner name, "New Heroes & Rearmed Ingrid", is "新英雄＆魔器イングリット" (shin'eiyū & maki inguritto), "New Heroes and Arcane Weapon Ingrid". At this point, I think I'm just going to settle with translating "魔器" (maki), "magic weapon", as "Arcane Weapon" everywhere it is used, i.e. both as the Hero type and in the weapon name. Felix's epithet, "Lone-Wolf Blade", is "孤狼の剣" (korō no tsurugi), "Solitary-Wolf Sword". Still allergic to swords. Lone Wolf is "一匹狼の鋭剣" (ippiki ōkami no eiken), "Sharp Sword of the Lone Wolf". Still avoiding calling anything a sword. Atk/Spd Bulwark is "攻撃速さの防壁" (kōgeki hayasa no bōheki), "Atk/Spd Bulwark". Rhea's epithet, "Loving Matriarch", is "白き慈母" (shiroki jibo), "White Loving Mother". Revealing Breath is "福音のブレス" (fukuin no buresu), "Breath of the Gospel". Atk/Res Scowl is "攻撃魔防の竜眼" (kōgeki mabō no ryūgan), "Atk/Res Dragon's Eye". Sylvain's epithet, "Consummate Flirt", is "口説き上手の" (kudoki jōzu no), "Who Is Good At Flirting". Like with Olivia and Gatekeeper, Sylvain's epithet is grammatically an adjective modifying his name instead of a standalone epithet, which is possible because epithets in Japanese are written in front of the character's name with no punctuation in between (sometimes a space, but spaces don't have a grammatical function in Japanese). As such, the equivalent of "Sylvain: Consummate Flirt" is written in Japanese as "口説き上手のシルヴァン" (kudoki jōzu no shiruvan), which translates as "Sylvain, who is good at flirting" (or more literally, "Sylvain, the good-at-flirting"). Allied Axe is "共闘の斧" (kyōtō no ono), "Joint-Combat Axe". Ingrid's epithet, "Beacon of Honor", is "輝ける騎士道へ" (kagayakeru kishidō e), "Towards Shining Chivalry". Or more literally, "having a destination of a chivalry that can shine". Arcane Luin is "魔器・魔槍ルーン" (maki: masō rūn), "Arcane Weapon: Arcane Lance, Luin". Knightly Devotion is "忠義の槍" (chūgi no yari), "Lance of Loyalty" or "Lance of Devotion". Guard Bearing is "警戒姿勢" (keikai shisei), "Vigilant Posture". Cornelia's epithet, "Saint Consumed", is "豹変した聖女" (hyōhen shita seijo), "Suddenly Changed Saint". Asclepius is "アスクレピオス" (asukurepiosu), "Asklepios". The Japanese pronunciation of Asclepius's name is based on his original Greek name instead of his Latin name, which the English spelling is based off of.

You have your wish.

Atk/Spd Finish 4 and Godlike Reflexes finally being added to the standard summoning pool is nice. Felix is basically a Flame Lyn that doesn't lose his pre-charged Godlike Reflexes if he can't counterattack, which is quite good. He also trades Lyn's Guard and mini Ruptured Sky for more damage reduction. Overall, he looks like a very solid unit. The new Scowl series brings Brave/Ascended Tiki's pre-combat Special drain as an inheritable skill, which is really cool, and is probably going to be the new best-in-slot skill for any dragons with high Res that can't run or don't have a reason to run Finish. It's worth noting that its name in Japanese translates as "dragon eye", so it's probably exclusive to dragons. No Atk/Spd Catch 3 again. Seriously, what the fuck. Arcane Luin is fine. It's an Arcane lance that's more suited for faster units. Ingrid having Near Trace in her A slot is really awkward. I think it's still worth giving her S/D Near Trace in her B slot for skill inheritance purposes, though, even if she'll never use it herself. Guard Bearing 4 is great for Spring Maria. So is Spd/Def Hold. I'm rather surprised that they made Guard Bearing 4's obligatory stat boosts be Spd/Def debuffs instead of a more defensive Atk/Spd debuff. Translation notes will be later tonight when I'm back home.

As far as prioritization, I would wait until you get a copy of Time's Pulse 4 before worrying to much about the B skill (though it's still worth going for one if a good banner shows up). Once you get Time's Pulse 4, if you don't have Velocity yet, Spurn 3 is a relatively easy to get Dodge skill that you can use while you wait for Velocity 3/4. Also, given that we just got a second Arcane lance announced that's aimed more towards fast units, if you are not in a hurry (very not in a hurry), it's potentially worth waiting for a second Arcane sword, though there's no telling how long that wait will be.

@Dylan Corona One thing to add: While Velocity is not necessary to loop Vital Astra, it's probably still the most optimal option (once it gets a tier-4 version) because the Tempo effect still prevents an opponent's Guard from blocking Vital Astra activating on your follow-up attack, and it blocks opponents that use a Special charge rate boost to counterattack with a powerful Special.

If you're running Slaying Edge or Arcane Eljudnir with Vital Astra, it's slightly more optimal to run Time's Pulse 4 and a Dodge skill (preferably tier 4) in the B slot, though this isn't too high of a priority. If you're not in a hurry, it's best to wait for better tier-4 Dodge skills (like Spurn or Velocity) to be released. Otherwise, you basically have everything you need at the moment. As far as the Sacred Seal, anything that boosts Atk/Spd and has a condition that you can work with will do fine.

Compared to other Menace skills, Spd/Res Menace is relatively low in priority. Unless the unit already has a source of Atk buffs from their weapon or you don't have the resources to get a better Menace skill, it's generally better to run an Atk/* Menace depending on which secondary stat is more useful to buff or debuff. It's worth noting specifically for Gronnvulture that its Foe Penalty Doubler effect only applies to Atk/Res, which lends itself more to Atk/Res Menace, especially on slower units. If you have the resources to give her both Gronnvulture and Atk/Res Menace and there are no other units you'd give them to and you don't want to wait for an Arcane green tome, I'd go with that route. Otherwise, it's probably a better use of resources, particularly in the short-term, to run Gronndeer from Bastian or Gronnblade from Nino as your weapon with whatever C skill you can get your hands on and wait for an Arcane green tome to be released before settling on a build with premium skills in it. As far as stats are concerned, Spring Camilla's base Atk can be brought up to 39 with Dragonflowers, which is not particularly bad. When running older units, you're kind of expected to be maxing out their Dragonflowers, after all.

This week's Arena ticket finally got me a copy of Ruptured Sky from Female Byleth: 57 pulls on the Double Special Heroes banner, sniping green since I have neither unit at +10: 0 Black Knight (+1 spark) 0 5-star Sothe 3 4-star Sothe 2 Ash 1 Muspell And naturally, I get no green 5-stars. I was originally going to stop at the spark, but I had a 9% pity rate because the only 5-star I pulled before the spark was Ash as the 7th pull. The pity rate was finally broken at 10.5% with a copy of Ash and Muspell in the same session. 5.3% 5-star rate is not entirely awful considering I was pulling one of the colors with a 4-star focus. Ash is now +4. Sothe is now +4 and has a Spd Asset. Muspell is now +1, and the new copy has the exact same useless HP Asset as the first copy. And then I used the leftover orbs pulling for more copies of Mark and Rebecca. 15 pulls: 1 Mark 1 4-star Rebecca Cumulative 91 pulls: 1 Mark (+1 spark) 1 Eliwood 1 Hector 1 5-star Rebecca 4 4-star Rebecca 1 pity breaker 4.4% focus rate is pretty good so far. 5.5% 5-star rate is about a pull below average. The new copy of Mark has an Atk Asset, which is really nice.

And because I keep forgetting to post these, this week's Arena ticket got me Karel: 40 pulls on the Ascended Celica banner: 1 Celica (+1 spark) 0 pity breakers And my first batch of pulls from the Mark banner. 76 pulls: 0 Mark (+1 spark) 1 Eliwood 1 Hector 1 5-star Rebecca 3 4-star Rebecca 1 pity breaker Fallen Edelgard 3.9% focus rate is basically average due to the small number of pulls so far. Eliwood was my second pull from this banner, which was nice since it means I had one fewer color to need to pull from. He is [+Atk, -Def], which is okay. Hector is [+Res, -Spd], which is pretty nice. I also already have a Rebecca with a Spd Asset. I'll continue pulling from this banner later. So far, things look to be going well enough that I won't need to spend too much on this banner before I'm done getting what I want. I already have at least 1 of each unit, so even if I somehow don't get another Mark, things should still be fine, and I can just stop after I get my 11 copies of Rebecca plus maybe a few more for fodder.

The problem is that the most common lance unit in the Arena right now is Brave Dimitri, who is typically roided out with premium skills due to his recent appearance in Hall of Forms, and Cecilia can't actually beat him consistently if he has Vital Astra and a means of charging it up before combat.

Dokkalfheimr Cecilia is next, being the third fairy in a row: Embla Gordin Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin Muspell Brave Roy Askr Innes Muspell Brave Lyn Ljosalfheimr Palla Ljosalfheimr Aversa Dokkalfheimr Cecilia So we've had 2 Muspell units so far this year, but no Nifl units. The other paired factions have all been balanced with Askr/Embla at 1 a piece, Ljosalfheimr/Dokkalfheimr at 2 a piece, and everything else at zero.

Yay, another Dokkalfheimr outfit. Once this one is released, we'll have as many Dokkalfheimr outfits as we had Ljosalfheimr outfits at the start of the year. Now can we please get another Nidavellir outfit. They're still 2 whole units behind the second lowest (Jotunheimr). Even with the boosted stats, Cecilia is still a really underwhelming unit. At max Dragonflowers, she'll have 38/31 offenses, which is weaker than Harmonized Azura (39/39) and as slow as Seidr (44/31). Offensively, she is still strictly worse than Valentine Lilina (39/34). Her defenses are boosted to 42/28/35, which is somehow the second highest Res among green tome cavalry (behind Seidr) and the third highest Def among green tome cavalry (behind Letizia and Picnic Leo). The takeaway, though, is not that her defenses are any good, but that her class is extremely frail. Her weapon is just Gronnraven with Triangle Adept and effective damage against fliers. Even with Triangle Adept, she's unlikely to one-hit kill opponents that she has weapon-triangle advantage against, and her low Spd means she's unlikely to double to secure a kill unless it's enemy phase and she has Quick Riposte. However, on enemy phase, she has to tank the opponent, and I'm having a hard time imagining her actually doing so unless you build for Atk/Res and use her only against magic. She's probably going to want to wait for an Arcane weapon and hope that it comes with a guaranteed follow-up, but even then, there's a very real possibility that she's already too far behind, as a +10 Resplendent Cecilia will still fall behind Summer Selena, Letizia, Duo Corrin, Desert Ursula, and Seidr in Atk even at +0.

Assuming they continue to release 4-star refines at a rate of exactly 1 per month, Phila's refine is 45 months away (46 months if Ricken goes first for some reason). That's January 2027. "Might take a while" is a severe understatement.

I would personally prioritize whoever you expect to use more often since skill inheritance efficiency is only efficient if you actually use the unit afterwards. As far as stats go, Phila has slightly better offenses than a hypothetical Resplendent Nephenee at equal merges, but that comes at a cost of having pretty bad physical bulk, which can be rather troublesome for a melee unit. Meanwhile, Nephenee has access to infantry skills, which are generally stronger than flier skills and can make up for the difference in stats, but only if you actually have access to them.

What the fuck, Askr. I already use stamina potions at a slower rate than I get them, and this isn't helping. I think he's telling me to go farm Hero Merit or something silly like that since there certainly aren't enough unleveled units in my barracks to use the stack he just gave me, let alone all of the potions I already had. Seems great for newer players, though.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly why she doesn't have +1 Special charge rate.

Since he has the Seal 4 effect, if you're using him as a tank, he doesn't really need to debuff anything else since he gets the same stat penalties on them regardless of their debuffs. You just can't use him as a debuffer on player phase since his debuffs don't splash, and he can't take advantage of Dominance or Foe Penalty Doubler.

Fair enough.

Banutu: Wizened Breath Base effect is: Dragonstone common effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat For each of the opponent's stats, if the opponent does not nullify penalties to that stat: Reduces that stat in combat by 6 minus the penalty on that stat, minimum 0 (i.e. Seal 4 with a maximum penalty of 6 instead of 7) Inflicts -6 to all stats as a status effect to opponent after combat (i.e. Seal 4 with a maximum penalty of 6 instead of 7) Refine effect is: If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat or with Stance condition: +4 to all stats in combat Follow-up prevention Wizened Breath essentially gets a weaker version of Seal 4 for all stats, inflicting a maximum penalty of 6 instead of 7 in combat and after combat, without the Guard effect and fixed in-combat stat penalty. Additionally, it grants +8 to all stats and follow-up prevention. It's not bad for a 4-star unit. Banutu would've liked to have damage reduction on top due to his low Res making it difficult to reliably run Dragon Wall, but an effective +14 to all stats as long as the opponent doesn't nullify their penalties is still pretty decent and might actually make Dragon Wall viable if you focus his build around it. Conrad: Masked Lance Base effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's Atk/Def/Res in combat by 20% of unit's visible Res If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Dragon Wall 3 No guaranteed follow-up is a bummer since he doesn't have access to a guaranteed follow-up on player phase, and despite the condition on his base effect, this essentially locks him to enemy phase with Quick Riposte. On the other hand, he gets about +16/8/16/16 in combat, which is pretty sizable, on top of getting Dragon Wall. The entire effective +16 Res counts towards Dragon Wall, and he has the highest base Res among lance cavalry, so this alone is probably enough to at least make him worth considering, even if his player-phase presence is nearly non-existent. At least this means he can run Distant Stance without needing to worry about the fact that it doesn't work on player phase. Silque: Staff of Lilies Base effect is: Wrathful Staff 3 Melancholy+ If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Refine effect is: With Blow-or-Unity condition: +4 to all stats in combat Inflicts -6 Atk/Spd as a status effect to opponent and enemies within 2 spaces of opponent after combat Grants the following to allies within 2 spaces: +6 Def/Res in combat 7 HP recovery after combat Basically Melancholy + Fear + Slow + Staff of Tribute. And +8 to all stats. Good stuff. Duo Alfonse: Imbued Koma Base effect is updated: Slaying effect If unit's Special is fully charged at start of combat: +5 to all stats in combat Follow-up prevention Reduces damage taken by 20% of Def, excluding from AoE Specials (new) Refine effect is: If there is an ally within 3 spaces: +4 to all stats in combat Guard effect Nullifies 50% of Deep Wounds' effect Deals additional damage equal to 15% of Def when Special activates No Quickened Pulse effect is pretty disappointing because it means he needs to rely on his Duo skill, other skills slots, or teammates to charge his Special the first time. Otherwise, Alfonse is literally just a blue Duo Askr (they have identical Def/Res stats with maximum Dragonflowers and only their weapons equipped), but with healing and more damage when he activates his Special in exchange for not getting a guaranteed follow-up or damage reduction against AoE Specials. Since Open the Future has healing on it, Alfonse can at least afford to pass up a Finish skill in the A slot to run a Close Counter skill at the cost of some defensive stats. Combined with Duo Askr having the extremely strong Opened Domain skill, this makes Alfonse slightly less bulky than Askr, but hits harder. He does still need to run Special Spiral due to his lack of a guaranteed follow-up and his reliance on having his Special fully charged at the start of combat, and ideally, he upgrades that to Special Spiral 4 to get around opponents with percentage damage reduction. Edelgard: Victorious Axe Base effect is updated: Slaying effect If HP is 25% or higher or the number of enemies within 2 spaces (excluding target) is greater than or equal to the number of allies within 2 spaces (excluding self) (HP condition is new): +4 to all stats in combat (new) Guaranteed follow-up Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Solo condition: +4 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 10% of Atk (including AoE Specials) With a Blow condition: If there are no adjacent allies after combat (after post-combat movement effects), activates Galeforce effect I laughed when I saw what the update to the base effect's condition was. That option is indeed an option. This refine is extremely tame to balance out the fact that it gets Raging Storm. It's just +8 to all stats and an additional 8-9 damage with lenient conditions. I think they might have actually overcompensated by a bit, but Raging Storm is still a really good skill effect to have when it doesn't even take up a skill slot this time, so even without any new skill effects, I think Edelgard will still work out just fine. Infantry have really good passive skill options, after all. EDIT: Overall thoughts: Silque looks fun. It's a damned shame she can't equip Def/Res Smoke. She looks like she'll be a god-tier support in Rokkr Sieges. Alfonse is a very needy version of Duo Askr that does a bit more damage and is a bit less bulky. His refine is really good, but he needs a lot of premium skills he doesn't already have in order to make the most of his weapon, which is kind of a shame. Edelgard looks good, even if she's not broken like her Brave and Harmonized versions. Conrad is pretty good despite being a Grail unit, even if he's still stuck running Quick Riposte (now if only Ganglot weren't the only source of Quick RIposte 4). Banutu is fine for a 4-star unit, and he might actually be viable as one of those annoying unkillable units you occasionally see in PvP modes since he's a giant pile of stats and has access to dragon-exclusive skills.

I wouldn't be too concerned with what the Arcane blue tome will be since there simply isn't much variety in terms of good skills for fast ranged cavalry in the first place. The absolute worst that could happen is it comes with the Pathfinder effect to render Def/Res Smoke 3 inferior to Atk/Spd Menace or Panic Smoke 4, and the next worst thing that could happen is it comes with the Guard effect, but Guard 4 being reduced to just damage reduction is still good enough to be competitive in the B slot. I managed to get really good skills on the non-Veronica units during the climb to floor 13, so I was able to exclusively focus on Veronica afterwards and managed to complete her build with a few days left in the event, resulting in the event feeling agonizingly slow waiting for it to be over so that I could get my Veronica. Her final kit was unsurprisingly Magical Lantern+ [Spd] Rally Atk/Spd+ Ruptured Sky Remote Sparrow Guard 4 Def/Res Smoke 3 [Atk/Spd Solo 3]

Fast units always have to deal with Spd creep, and losing the 5-6 points of Spd from their Sacred Seal slot can be extremely rough, even for newer units. (Lucia with Distant Pressure or Distant Dart has been a nightmare for me to deal with in Arena Assault.) I mentioned in a different thread that the developers have spent the last few years trying their best to get players to stop running Desperation on anything and everything, and they've largely succeeded. We now have Surge, Finish, and Bulwark skills for passive healing and Remote skills and Dodge skills for damage reduction (though Remote skills are still very hard to get), and that's if a unit doesn't already come with a defensive effect on their weapon or an exclusive skill. Dodge and Bulwark skills take the place of Desperation (with Bulwark skills also granting stats), and skills in the other skill slots largely render Desperation to be an inferior option to things like Tempo or Trace. Stacking more skill effects is nice, but Desperation is simply not strong enough to be worth losing 5-6 Spd on most newer fast units. Desperation is a purely defensive skill effect on a unit that's supposed to be offensive. There are so many other skills that can serve both purposes simultaneously, even if they are hard to get (though every premium unit these days comes with a full kit already anyways, so premium skills only hard to get if you need them on a less premium unit). And slow units typically still have enough bulk to not need Desperation.

Unlike Soren, Mark isn't incapable of speech. Mark speaks just fine, as indicated by the fact that dialogue involving Mark proceeds as if Mark responds when appropriate. The player just doesn't see their speech on screen because unlike the other avatar characters, Mark is written to be the player instead of simply representing the player. While being completely mute here is odd (since Mark speaks just fine), it at least fits in with the fact that Mark participates in dialogue significantly less outside of Lyn's route due to the fact that you have the option to play Eliwood's and Hector's routes without Mark.