Ice Dragon

On the one hand, I'm happy we finally get a banner where Elincia shares a color with the new unit (since her previous rerun was Camilla's release banner), and Embla is always worth grabbing more merges for. On the other hand, this means Seidr is dodging me again and will probably end up in never-going-to-get-merged hell. It's 40% of the damage taken, which is decidedly percentage damage reduction. The effect also attaches to the Special skill, which means the damage reduction can't be nullified anyways since Deadeye-like skills can only nullify percentage damage reduction from non-Special sources. Its name comes from his Engage Skill in Engage. It cuts the unit's own percentage damage reduction in half in exchange for flat damage reduction and additional damage and charges the unit's Special by 2 before the opponent's first attack. It only activates if the unit's Special has a maximum cooldown of 3 or more.

Jotunheimr Hana is next: While Hana's weapon is outdated at this point, her stats aren't too bad. With the Resplendent stat boost, she has 45+/43/44/31/34- with maximum Dragonflowers, which is just a point behind Flavia (43+/44+) offensively. Compared to other 4-star units, she's stronger, but slower, than Kamui (41/44+) and Guy (40/46-) and slightly behind Inigo (45/46+) and Lapis (43-/47+). And although her weapon is outdated, it isn't entirely unviable, as the effective damage against armors gives it a sizable boost to Atk against armors, and it still has a serviceable +4 Atk/Spd, though only on player phase. She can run it with No Quarter + Emblem Marth + Velocity 4 (once it's released) + Null Follow-Up 3 and probably do decently against slower armors. Duo Chrom, after all, still does quite well in a straight-up fight against a lot of armors despite having stats and a weapon that aren't significantly better than hers. And here's what we now have so far for this calendar year: Nifl Ilyana Askr Brave Veronica Hel Soren Embla Brave Celica Embla Selena Nifl Brave Hector Jotunheimr Hana Prior to this, Jotunheimr was the theme with the second-least-recent release, with the last unit being Nephenee on August 10 of last year. Only Ljosalfheimr was less recent. Additionally, this now puts Nidavellir one more unit behind Jotunheimr as the least- and second-least-used themes.

Despite still only having 18 open spots in my barracks, I decided I may as well pull on the Ascended/Rearmed banner since I'd only need to pull through a single spark. Or so I thought. 55 pulls, sniping colorless: 1 Grima 1 Tana (+1 spark) 2 Chrom And somehow getting as many Chroms as colorless focus units. Grima was the only focus unit I pulled before the spark. Then I got Chrom on the immediate next pull and Tana and Chrom in a single session shortly after. So in the end, I did end up with a no-longer-below-average 7.3% focus rate.

Last week's free Arena ticket got me Brave Celica. This week's gets me Tiki: Only able to clear out 18 spaces in my barracks, so I'm just doing the banners that are about to expire. 41 pulls on the Hall of Forms banner: 1 Ethlin (+1 spark) 1 Julia The Ethlin that I pulled is identical to the one I already had, with [+Res, -Spd]. What the hell, game. 44 pulls on the Seiros remix banner: 1 Seiros 2 Plumeria (+1 spark) 1 Thrasir 1 Alm 1 Grima 78 pulls on the Dagr remix banner: 1 Peony 4 Tiki 2 Dagr 0 Sonya (+1 spark) Peony really, really, really doesn't seem to like me for some reason. It looks like I'll have to wait for her next rerun to get my last merge for her and just hope that the banner's line-up isn't too bad.

As long as you plan on pulling more copies of Ginnungagap. Special Fighter 4 is currently the standard B skill for slow armors that already have a guaranteed follow-up on their weapon (and aren't running Hardy Fighter), provided there isn't too much overlap in skill effects. Fast armors have a few more options (Savvy Fighter 4, Gambit 4, etc.), though it still mostly depends on what skill effects are overlapping with other slots. D/R Far Trace is also the standard C skill for slow Far Save armors. You typically want to run D/R over either of the Atk options unless you're extremely confident about the defensive stat you're not getting.

Remote Sparrow is the safest A skill for ranged units, even when they have access to Flared Sparrow and even when they're running Fleeting Echo. It's always up to you how much bulk you're willing to sacrifice for damage and vice versa, and there isn't really a right answer. It is worth noting, though, that Remote Sparrow has significant distribution (1 unit in the standard pool, 2 in the Legendary/Mythic/Emblem pool, and 7 Special Heroes) compared to only 2 units with Incite Atk/Spd (1 in the standard pool, 1 in the LME pool), so skipping out on being able to duplicate Remote Sparrow isn't too big of loss. Arcane Eljudnir is always worth considering giving to slow sword units that don't have an exclusive weapon or have an outdated exclusive weapon if you're using one. Atk/Def Clash 4 currently competes with Atk/Def Prime 4 for the A slot on slow melee cavalry and fliers and will also compete with a future Flared Sturdy. However, Prime 4 is only really competitive on units that have a means of not dropping dead to magic (or if you can ensure they'll only fight physical units on enemy phase), and Flared has no effect on enemy phase, so despite the fancy alternative options, Clash 4 is always going to at least remain competitive with them.

As a reminder, Desaix is still not in the game despite all of the hype for him getting 791 votes in CYL 7.

Added Kashim's weapon and Nidhoggr's epithet and weapon to the translation notes. It's really weird hearing Nidhoggr voiced by Toyosaki Aki.

I can see Def/Res Pledge + Atk Oath Echo being good on a lot of slow dragons since they'll naturally want the Res to activate Scowl and the Def for standard tanking, which makes those 2 stats the 2 most important for them. Slow melee tanks that run Distant Counter and slow ranged tanks can also run the combination as long as their C slot is free to do so. Yeah. That's because it doesn't. "Still inflicts penalty on foe" refers to the "additional penalty to foe's Spd/Res = 6 - current penalty on each of those stats during combat". The neutralized stat penalty remains neutralized. This line is in the description because the single-stat Seal 4 skills have their additional penalty only apply if the opponent doesn't neutralize their stat penalties to that stat, whereas the double-stat Seal 4 skills don't have that restriction. It's worth noting that the Japanese skill description for Framme's weapon only uses 1 named variable for the whole description because Japanese is better at being concise with descriptions of values and can therefore just put the description of the value in the formula instead of having to pull those out to be explained separately.

On strictly enemy-phase units, yes. On dual-phase units, it depends. It has Bonus Doubler 4's effect of being able to borrow stat bonuses from nearby allies, which means you can make up for any of your nullified stat bonuses with an ally's stat bonuses, but that requires you to stay near your allies. If you're relying on teleportation effects, like Guidance 4, for mobility or using the unit more often on enemy phase with only a little player-phase use, then there's very little downside to Distant Bonus Doubler, but if the unit is running off on their own too often, then you probably want to run Distant Solo just to be more consistent. And then there's the fact that Distant/Close Bonus Doubler is almost certainly going to be restricted to infantry since Bonus Doubler is restricted to infantry, so all other movement types will still have to settle for the other Distant/Close Counter variants. In combination with Pledge or Incite (or any new skill series with similar effects) once all of the stat combinations are released, you're always going to want the 2 most useful stats in the C slot and the third most useful stat in the Echo slot. So only if Def and Res are the unit's 2 most useful stats, this combination will be optimal. On units that aren't running stat bonuses in their C slot, such as if you're running Time's Pulse 4, Infantry Pulse 4, Rein Snap, Deadly Miasma, etc., Atk Oath Echo is optimal if Atk is the unit's most useful stat (assuming we eventually get the other stats for the Oath Echo series). Given that Pulse Up is probably only going to have an Atk/Spd variant and a Def/Res variant due to its naming scheme, Pulse Up: Shields + Atk Oath Echo will be optimal for units that don't need Spd once Pulse Up: Shields is released.

The localization of Akaneia's everything names still confuses the fuck out of me. And the usual translation notes: The name of the banner, "Attuned Caeda & Ascended Merric", is "響心シーダ＆開花マリク" (kyōshin shīda & kaika mariku), "Echoing Hearts Caeda & Blooming Merric". As usual, "響心" (kyōshin), "resonating hearts", is the term used for Attuned Heroes, and "開花" (kaika), "blooming", is the term used for Ascended Heroes. Caeda's epithet, "Marth's Faithful", is "英雄王の理解者" (eiyū-ō no rikaisha), "The Hero King's Support". Pure-Wing Spear is "純白ウイングスピア" (junpaku uingu supia), "Pure-White Wing Spear". D Bonus Doubler is "遠反・強化増幅", (enhan: kyōka zōfuku), "Distant Counter: Bonus Amplification". As usual, "遠反" (enhan) is an abbreviation of "遠距離反撃" (enkyori hangeki), "long-range counterattack", which is the name of the Distant Counter skill. "強化増幅" (kyōka zōfuku), "enhancement amplification", is the name of the Bonus Doubler skill. "強化" (kyōka), "enhancement", on its own is the term used for stat bonuses, but not Bonuses as a whole. Believe in Love? is "愛する人がいますか" (ai-suru hito ga imasu ka), "Is There Someone You Love?". Def/Res Pledge is "守備魔防の信条" (shubi mabō no shinjō), "Def/Res Conviction". Guard Echo is "響・キャンセル" (kyō: kyanseru), "Echo: Cancel". "キャンセル" (kyanseru), "cancel", is the name of the Guard skill. Yumina's epithet, "Princess of Grust", is "グルニアの王女" (gurunia no ōjo), "Princess of Grunia". Sunlight is "サンライト" (sanraito), "Sunlight". Ellerean's epithet, "Mage of Khadein", is "カダインの魔道士" (kadain no madōshi), "Mage of Khadein". Lightburst Tome is "激雷の書" (gekirai no sho), "Tome of Extreme Thunder". C Bonus Doubler is "近反・強化増幅" (kinhan: kyōka zōfuku), "Close Counter: Bonus Amplification". As usual, "近反" (kinhan) is an abbreviation of "近距離反撃" (kinkyori hangeki), "close-range counterattack", which is the name of the Close Counter skill. Merric's epithet, "Wind Pontifex", is "風の司祭" (kaze no shisai), "Bishop of Wind". "司祭" (shisai), "priest", "pastor", or "minister", is the name of the Bishop class, which is Merric's promoted class in the original Akaneia games. Note that the actual Japanese word for "bishop" is either "司教" (shikyō) for Catholic bishops or "主教" (shukyō) for all other denominations of Christianity. Tender Excalibur is "柔風エクスカリバー" (jūfū ekusukaribā), "Soft Wind Excalibur". Sacred Wind is "神聖風" (shinsei-fū), "Sacred Wind". Seal Spd/Res is "速さ魔防封じ" (hayasa mabō fūji), "Spd/Res Sealing". Kashim's epithet, "Loving Son", is "タリスの猟師" (tarisu no ryōshi), "Hunter of Talis". Vulture Bow is "禿鷹の弓" (hagetaka no yumi), "Vulture Bow". Nidhoggr's epithet, "Quieting Dose", is "毒の葬り手" (doku no hōmuri te), "Silencing Hand of Poison". "葬る" (hōmuru) means "to bury" or "to hush". I'm translating it here as "to silence". Dosing Fang is "毒の葬り手の牙" (doku no hōmuri te no kiba), "Fangs of the Silencing Hand of Poison".

Bleh, only one spark despite having two premium unit types in different colors. I guess I'll just wait for Merric to pity break me later since Ascended Heroes have this odd habit of doing so for me anyways, and I'm not in a rush for his Floret or skills. On the other hand, we're finally getting another human melee infantry skill duplicator to join Ganglot. Guard Echo is... okay, I guess. It's a bit annoying that the Guard effect is already on half of the good skills that armors have access to, which means if you want it for the damage reduction effect, the Guard effect will be useless, but there aren't many other passive skills that are usable by both armors and non-armors that would grant damage reduction as an Echo skill. I guess armors will have to wait for Quick Riposte Echo or something to get something with both a useful primary effect and damage reduction. Decent for other movement types, though. But also a bit annoying that the Guard effect also overlaps with Arcane Eljudnir. The Bonus Doubler Distant/Close Counter variants are pretty nice, though we have a decent number of units that nullify stat bonuses, which means it's less reliable on player phase when you can't always rely on nearby teammates to make up for any nullified stat bonuses. Seems nice for pure enemy-phase units, though, but it's presumably restricted to only infantry due to having Bonus Doubler.

It's really hard for me to decide if it would be better for me for the new Emblem Hero to be red or green. While this is Camilla's first rerun banner, if the new unit is red, this would also be Elincia's first rerun banner where she shares a color with the new unit, as her first rerun was on Camilla's banner. Additionally, I do want more merges on both Embla and Seidr. As for Hall of Forms, I'm not aware of there being datamined info on it yet, so these are the most recent units we've gotten (last 5 Halls of Forms), sorted by the units' release dates: 2022-12: Winter Black Knight 2022-10: Halloween Female Corrin 2022-10: Halloween Male Corrin 2022-06: Summer Micaiah 2022-06: Summer Elincia 2022-05: Fallen Lilith 2022-04: Young Soren 2022-02: Valentine Lucina 2022-02: Valentine Owain 2022-01: Desert Nailah 2021-12: Winter Artur 2021-11: Marcia 2021-05: Fallen Male Morgan 2021-04: Young Innes Fodlan units that fall in (or near) this range are: 2023-03: Spring Ashe, Bernadetta 2023-01: Desert Male Byleth 2022-12: Winter Annette, Dorothea 2022-09: Holst (Grail), Monica, Male Shez, Female Shez, Ascended Hilda 2022-08: Jeralt (Grail), Brave Female Byleth 2022-06: Summer Claude, Dimitri, Harmonized Edelgard 2022-05: Fallen Rhea 2021-12: Winter Ignatz (Grail), Manuela, Harmonized Lysithea 2021-11: Ninja Shamir (Grail) 2021-10: Winter Rhea, Duo Sothis 2021-09: Aelfric (Grail), Balthus, Constance, Hapi, Yuri 2021-08: Brave Gatekeeper, Marianne 2021-06: Summer Ashe, Caspar, Mercedes, Leonie (Grail), Duo Hilda 2021-05: Fallen Edelgard, Dimitri I'm honestly half-expecting them to give us Summer Claude, Summer Dimitri, and Fallen Edelgard. It's actually kind of funny how there are basically no viable Edelgards for them to pick since the only ones in the likely time range are Fallen Edelgard, who falls at the extreme far end of the outlier tail, and Harmonized Edelgard, who is unlikely to be picked due to being a Harmonized Hero. Fallen Edelgard would also just be an awful unit to pick for Hall of Forms anyways since she literally has a complete skill kit already, and the only new skills that actually improve on it are Armored Blaze (which isn't available yet) and Assault Troop. As usual, I don't actually care who's in the event as long as there's a Grail unit, but given the options, it's hard to see them actually picking one over all of the other available options. Holst is unlikely due to sharing a color with Sothis, which really just leaves Jeralt, Shamir, and Ignatz.

The team is missing a unit with either overwhelming damage output or sufficient bulk to deal with modern Save tanks and other annoyingly bulky units. The issue is that there aren't many that are particularly easy to get and merge. For damage output, you're looking for someone like Duo Seidr, Wind Claude, or possibly Legendary Elincia. Brave Gullveig might also work, and you might be able to get away with a well-built Spring Ashe. Duo Micaiah has the damage output, but I'm not confident that she can take a counterattack since her weapon has no defensive effects whatsoever. For bulk, the first unit that comes to mind is Rosado, and the second is Spring Maria. However, you might be able to make Areone pull this off if you can get him Wyvern Rift from Rosado, though Areone doesn't have any defensive effects on his weapon to synergize with it. Alternatively, you might want to run a debuffer or other support-heavy unit, which might let you get away with offensive units that aren't as oppressively strong to deal with bulky opponents. Rearmed Plumeria and Halloween Sophia have the high Res to run Sabotage-Ploy builds, and Hortensia has a variety of buffs and debuffs on her exclusive C skill. Duo Micaiah can probably serve double duty here as an attacker as long as she isn't dying to counterattacks, as can Ninja Camilla. If you don't mind discarding her exclusive weapon, Spring Plumeria can also do this with Spring Linhardt's new Carrot Bow, though the optimal B and C skills to pair with it don't exist yet (Sabotage A/D 3 and Spd/Res Ploy 3). With Areone already granting the party Charge, other mobility support effects are a bit less important, and even more so if you give everyone Atk Oath Echo. Soaring Guidance is okay, but since it doesn't grant any boosts to the user, you should ideally only give it to support units (namely Peony on this team). Hortensia also grants Canto (1) to allies, which can also be useful if you aren't running Trace skills on your other units (or if you want to run something other than Trace, like the tier-4 Poison Strikes).

It completely escaped my mind that Gambit 4 is usable by Peony and only has weapon-type restrictions and no movement-type restrictions. As such, it's probably the best B skill Peony has access to that she can give to human melee infantry, though that still comes with the caveat that Gambit 4 requires specific skill effect combinations to function.

New update, new skills added to Hall of Forms. This month, we get skills through Mythic Lumera and Emblem Marth. The most notable skills being added this month include: Nabata Lance+ Nabata Beacon+ S/R Far Trace 4 Atk/Def Bulwark 4 Potent 4 Pulse Up: Blades Atk/Def Oath 4 Which means if you want to try to run Potent 4 on Dancer Eldigan, now you can. Not sure I'd recommend it over, say, Aerial Maneuvers, but it's certainly an option.

I only have 15 spaces in my barracks right now, but this'll have to do for the time being because I really don't want to do any more barracks cleaning right now to find 5 more spots. 40 pulls from the Hall of Forms banner: 1 Female Corrin (+1 spark) Got literally nothing until pull 31 with a 4.5% pity rate and nothing else after that. On the bright side, this was my first copy of Corrin with a Spd Asset, which means I can finally switch my merge base. Corrin will be +7 once I level up this new one and merge all of my copies together. 170 pulls from the Legendary Alear banner: 5 Alear (+1 spark) 5 Gullveig 1 Gotoh 1 Plumeria 1 Harken 7.6% focus rate is about 1 and a half pulls below average. However, 2.9% Alear rate is basically average (before accounting for the fact that not all pulls were colorless), so the below-average overall pulls were basically all copies of Gotoh. Overall pretty good haul. I'll be feeding one copy of Alear off to Rearmed Grima to duplicate Dragon's Roar, so he'll end up +4. Unfortunately, I won't be able to transfer Bulwark 4 and Pledge, but I'll be able to grab Pledge off of the AHR banner, so it isn't a big deal. The best copy of Gullveig I have right now has an Atk Asset, so that'll have to do for the time being. If I merged all of my copies of Gullveig, she'd be +7, but I'll probably use one copy to give Occultist's Strike to Rearmed Ophelia since she's currently the easiest source of it. So she'll end up +6 for now. Gotoh is now +4. This copy of Plumeria has an Atk Asset, which is better than my current neutral copy and will bring her to +1 once I find someone to give Death Blow Echo to. This is my first copy of Harken, and he has an Atk Flaw because of course he would.

The next Resplendent Hero is being announced early again, and to no one's surprise, it's Brave Hector, but this time he's in a Nifl outfit: Nifl has always had the most drab-looking outfits, and it's nice that this one actually looks visually interesting. Thankfully, they've been getting better at this recently, it seems, though it's still a bit hit or miss. I'm also glad we have Nifl armor that looks normal instead of like Fjorm's and Hrid's solid metal bricks. Hector's stats have certainly seen better days, though he's still plenty viable for PvE content. The Resplendent stat boost brings him up to 55/44/29/46+/35- with maximum Dragonflowers, which is a little bit bulkier than Valentine Rudolf at the cost of losing out on a sizable chunk of Atk. On the bright side, Maltet is actually comparable to Arcane Qiang, granting an additional +1 Atk/Def/Res and stat penalty nullification over Qiang in exchange for losing +5 Spd, +1 Special charge rate, and the extra HP and additional stat from a stat refine. While it is less recommended to run Hector as a Far Save tank nowadays due to his lower Res and the insane damage output of modern offensive ranged units, his Ostian Counter is still better than all of the alternative Distant Counter options for the slot outside of Atk/Def Prime 4 with significant team support to get the necessary stacks on it to activate Distant Counter. That said, it probably is still better to run him as a Near Save tank now and leave Far Save to more specialized units. This finishes off all of the CYL 2 units. It also brings Blazing up to tie with both Tellius games as the titles with the largest completion percentage at 60% of their eligible units: Nifl Ilyana Askr Brave Veronica Hel Soren Embla Brave Celica Embla Selena Nifl Brave Hector It's also worth noting that Blazing now has as many units with Resplendent outfits as both Tellius games have eligible units combined.

What do you mean girls don't like BOLD lines?

I'm a bit surprised since Peony's team gained fewer votes during the first same hour. I wonder if it's because Alear's team's disadvantage multiplier was more recent so that the team had fewer ballots available. Regardless of how the win came about, the result is perfect for me. Peony has the most value to me as a free unit, and the banner is going to be all green, which makes orb spending a ton more efficient.

When used as a wall breaker, she can always land Deadeye on her follow-up attack with any Pulse effect in her C slot (Time's Pulse 4, Pulse Up: Blades, or Infantry Pulse 4) or Emblem Marth if the opponent can counterattack. If you don't mind your Special being stopped by defensive Tempo, Pledge will also let her land Deadeye, Dragon Fang, Ignis, or Astra on her follow-up. With Pledge and Emblem Marth, she can even land Aether. And if you want to play it safe, she always has access to Ruptured Sky + Tempo 4. Getting your cooldown drained by 2 points after combat is not an issue when builds that let you land 3- and 4-cooldown Specials in every round of combat are commonplace and no longer need to rely on Special Spiral. While normally I consider the +3 Atk/Spd in combat from the tier-4 Oath and Rouse skills to be worth using even if the visible +6 Atk/Spd overlaps with an effect on a different skill slot, Fallen Corrin has to deal with the fact that he doesn't have access to a premium 2-cooldown Special. He doesn't have access to Ruptured Sky at all, and he doesn't have the Slaying effect to run Dragon's Roar with 2 cooldown. He also can't reliably activate Aether without both +1 Special charge rate and a Pulse effect. As a result, if he isn't running Emblem Marth, a Pulse effect in his C slot is more useful to him than the extra stats from Incite.

The Voting Gauntlet announcement says it'll be the second half of March. (I'm reading the Japanese announcement, so I don't know how it's worded in the English one.) I don't think we've gotten any other announcements with a more precise date.

No red on this week's free Arena ticket, so I ended up getting Caineghis: On the plus side, my free pull on the Tempest Trials banner got me Chloe, and this one has a Spd Asset that I can use as my new merge base.

I just noticed that Harmonized Chloe has the exact same two source games as Harmonized Anna (Engage and Awakening), which means I definitely don't need to worry about getting merges for her since it'll take a lot before she surpasses my +6 Anna for scoring, and I certainly don't have the budget for that many copies. Sacrificing one copy to duplicate Occultist's Strike and Spd/Res Crux seems pretty worthwhile now. EDIT: The Tempest Trials announcement is now out, and the Sacred Seals are Atk/Def Clash and Rouse Def/Res. And Clash is the lower reward of the two, which seems like someone doesn't have their priorities straight. Linhardt's weapon inflicts -7 Atk/Def and Discord with Ploy 4 targeting and Ploy 4 conditions (both phases, same stat threshold). In combat, it grants +5 Atk/Res and, if the opponent has Discord, a guaranteed follow-up and follow-up prevention. Why it grants Res instead of Def in combat is beyond me. Also added the weapon to the translation notes.

Refines are out now. Midori: Lucky Bow Base effect is: Bow common effect With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat +7 Atk in combat -7 Atk to opponent in combat Additional damage equal to 15% of Atk Flat damage reduction equal to 15% of Atk, excludes AoE Specials If unit attacked in combat, +2 Special cooldown after combat Refine effect is: At start of turn, with a Unity condition: Removes Penalties on unit and allies within 2 spaces of unit, excludes Penalties inflicted at start of this turn 10 HP recovery to unit and allies within 2 spaces of unit If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Guaranteed follow-up Follow-up prevention Midori unfortunately keeps the drawback of Spendthrift Bow, but gets sizable boosts to her damage and bulk. Thankfully, there are enough ways to deal with it nowadays. She functionally gets +15/8/15/15 plus something like 13~15 or so additional damage and flat damage reduction. Unfortunately, due to being a ranged unit, her only real source of percentage damage reduction on enemy phase comes from skills like Guard 4 and Null C-Disrupt 4, which are less powerful than what are available to other classes. She also gets both Even Recovery 2 and Odd Recovery 2 that also applies to herself, which is really neat. Seiros: Aurora Breath Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Atk Dragonstone common effect +6 Atk/Def/Res in combat (Atk previously with a Blow condition, Def/Res previously with a Stance condition) Guaranteed follow-up (previously with a Blow condition) Follow-up prevention (previously with a Stance condition) Guard effect (new) Refine effect is: Slaying effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 Atk/Def/Res in combat Additional damage on first attack equal to 15% of opponent's Res, excludes AoE Specials Dragon Wall 3 7 HP recovery after combat For reference, her remix gives her 30% damage reduction and +1 Special charge rate along with huge improvements to her support abilities. Her new skill is Atk/Res Scowl 4, replacing Mirror Impact. As expected, she gets the Slaying effect to give Dragon's Roar or Aether an even cooldown to line up more nicely with the +1 Special charge rate from Wings of Light+. Also as expected, all of the effects on her base weapon are now unconditional, which is really nice. She also gets Dragon Wall 3 on her weapon, which makes it really easy to swap out Dragon Wall 3 from her B slot for Counter Roar 4. In addition, she gets Guard, half of a Moonbow on her first attack, and post-combat regeneration. Good stuff overall. Fallen Male Corrin: Brutal Breath Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Spd Dragonstone common effect +4 to all stats in combat (new) If there are no more than 3 allies within 1 space: +1 to all stats in combat (new) If there are no more than 2 allies within 1 space (previously 2 spaces): +2 to all stats in combat (previously +1) If there is no more than 1 ally within 1 space (previously 2 spaces): +2 to all stats in combat If there are no allies within 1 spaces (previously 2 spaces): +2 to all stats in combat Guard effect (previously only if there is no more than 1 ally within 2 spaces) 7 HP recovery after combat (new) Refine effect is: At start of turn, If there are no more than 2 allies within 1 space, grants the following status effects to unit: +6 Atk/Spd Dodge Dull With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 20% of Spd, excludes AoE Specials I'm a bit surprised they didn't give him Null Follow-Up on his weapon, which means he's stuck running it in his B slot. In exchange, he gets Dodge as a status effect to give him damage reduction and post-combat regeneration to make up for not being able to run Counter Roar. Interestingly, they also gave him what is functionally Incite Atk/Spd, but with Dull and the aforementioned Dodge instead of Incite as the non-stat status effects, which directly overlaps with his default Rouse Spd/Def. The positioning-dependent stat boosts on his weapon's base effect were also made easier to activate by reducing the condition range from 2 spaces to 1 space. The Guard effect was also made unconditional. It's worth noting that he doesn't get the Slaying effect, which means he'll probably want to run Time's Pulse 4 or Emblem Marth to get a 2-cooldown Dragon's Roar. It looks like Time's Pulse 4 is what they're intending you to run on him since the stat bonuses on his refine effect overlap with the Atk/Spd versions of Oath/Pledge/Incite, making them less worth running. Dagr: Skinfaxi Base effect is updated: At start of turn, grants the following status effects to support partner; if unit has more than 1 support partner, this effect doesn't activate: Pathfinder (new) If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 to all stats in combat Unity effect for all stats Permanent +3 Spd Pathfinder Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: -4 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat In-combat Panic effect to opponent's Atk/Spd/Def Additional damage equal to 10% of Atk, excludes AoE Specials 40% damage reduction on opponent's non-follow-up attacks For reference, her remix gives her the secondary effect of Phys. Null Follow and effectively some additional stats. Her new skill is Atk/Spd Hexblade, replacing Atk/Spd Push 4. The only update to her base effect is that she also grants Pathfinder to her support partner as long as there is only one of them, which is really helpful. Thankfully, Nott won't be able to do this on Aether Raids defense, though I'm sure they'll find an alternate condition for it, like with Brave Soren's Assign Decoy. Other than that, she gets an effective +4 to all stats, in-combat Panic on the opponent, 7~8 points of additional damage, and the obligatory 40% damage reduction on the opponent's non-follow-up attacks. No Tempo is a bit unexpected, though she doesn't have any form of Special acceleration, so activating her Special isn't really prioritized. Having both the Unity and Panic effects in combat is pretty fancy. Amusingly, she only inflicts penalties to the opponent's Def stat despite getting Hexblade as her new skill. That's not really an issue, but it's a bit inconvenient that it makes it harder to actually make use of the Hexblade effect. Annette: Crusher Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Atk Hexblade effect When using a Rally Assist: If target is not a ranged cavalry unit: Grants +1 movement to target as a status effect Galeforce effect (new) If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat 40% damage reduction on opponent's non-follow-up attacks Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's Spd/Def/Res in combat by 6 minus their current stat penalty to that stat, minimum 0, only if opponent doesn't nullify stat penalties to that stat Guaranteed follow-up If opponent has a stat penalty to Spd, Def, or Res: Additional damage equal to 15% of Atk, excludes AoE Specials Inflicts -6 Spd/Def/Res to opponent after combat as status effects She got Galeforce on her Rally. Awesome. Additionally, she gets a total of +8 to all stats, about 10 points of additional damage, the obligatory 40% damage reduction on the opponent's non-follow-up attacks, a guaranteed follow-up, and a weaker version of Seal Spd 4, Seal Def 4, and Seal Res 4. No additional effects added to her Rally other than Galeforce, which is a bit of a bummer, but Galeforce is already plenty to help her keep up with more recent Rally-focused support units. Duo Micaiah: Joyful Vows Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Atk Effective damage against armor and cavalry If unit has a Bonus (existing) or opponent has a Penalty (new): +6 Atk/Res in combat Boost to Atk in combat equal to highest total stat penalties among opponent and enemies within 2 spaces of opponent Guaranteed follow-up (new) Follow-up prevention (previously with a Blow condition) Refine effect is: At start of turn, inflicts the following status effects on enemies with the highest Atk/Spd/Def/Res and enemies within 2 spaces of them: -7 to the respective stat Sabotage With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +5 Atk/Res in combat Half percentage damage reduction nullification Getting a guaranteed follow-up was expected. Not getting any defensive effect was not expected. Instead, she gets a Dominance-like effect that uses the highest value including enemies near the target, a Chill 4 effect for each stat that also inflicts Sabotage, and half percentage damage reduction nullification. I don't see a way out of swapping out either her A or B slot for something with a defensive effect. It's worth noting that because her weapon's Dominance-like effect is actually a boost to her Atk instead of additional damage, it also gets multiplied by her effective damage against armor and cavalry. So on the bright side, she does a gajillion damage. Gangrel: Levin Dagger Base effect is updated: At start of turn, inflicts the following status effects on closest enemies within 5 spaces and enemies within 2 spaces of them: -7 Spd/Res (new) Guard (new) If unit has a Bonus (new) or opponent has a Penalty (existing): +4 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 20% of Res, includes AoE Specials (not previously specified) Permanent +3 Res Dagger (7) Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: Hexblade effect +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's Atk/Spd/Def/Res by highest stat penalty to that stat among opponent and enemies within 2 spaces of opponent 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack He's less unremarkable now. His weapon now properly has Hexblade on it. It also inflicts -7 Spd/Res to the closest enemy with a 2-radius splash and gives him the Sabotage effect to double that effect, which helps fix his middling Atk stat as long as he actually targets their Res or you have a Def debuffer on the team. His Spd was already not horrible, so this mostly just closes up the gap to help him compete with the fastest units. His additional damage based on his Res is still pretty funny since his Res still isn't that good, but the 20% scaling does make it at least almost comparable to other stat-based additional damage effects. The Remote effect on his weapon means he doesn't have to run Remote in the A slot if the 30% is enough, which opens him up to run something else, like Finish 4 or Flash Sparrow. Overall thoughts Micaiah's is the only one that really makes me worry since it has no defensive effect on it at all, but given that it's stacking so much extra damage, giving up some offensive effects on her passive skills shouldn't be too much of an issue. Otherwise, I don't really see any glaring issues with this batch. Even Gangrel's is actually usable, even if he still doesn't stand out compared to other infantry daggers.