Ice Dragon

As I already said in the banner thread, the Sacred Seals this time are pretty disappointing. Rouse Atk/Def is at least usable on challenge maps and comes with a good stat combination, but for challenge maps, Atk/Def Solo grants the same stat boost, cannot be nullified by the opponents' skills, and is usually easier to activate. Magical Lantern looks pretty good. If the opponent isn't running Tempo or Guard, you can activate a 2-cooldown Special if the opponent doesn't counterattack (Moonbow, Ruptured Sky) or a 4-cooldown Special if they do (Glacies, Astra). Even without the Special charge rate boost, the fact that it's an inheritable weapon that grants nullification of terrain movement penalties is huge for cavalry (and Valentine Veronica will probably want it as a situational alternative to Drifting Grace). I'm expecting this Soren to have a similar stat spread as his Young alt, though perhaps with his Atk and Spd swapped to not overlap too much with regular Ilyana, who shares a color with him. As I mentioned in the other thread, this Soren is also from Radiant Dawn instead of Path of Radiance, which is pretty cool for Resonant Battles. Ursula has always been the more popular character. Even in the original popularity poll for Blazing Sword in Japan, Ursula placed 22nd, whereas Sonia placed 65th, landing below Ephidel (58th), Jasmine (59th), Paul (62nd), and Brendan (63rd), but above Nergal (67th). For additional reference, the characters around Ursula are Priscilla (20th), Erk (21st), Fiora (23rd), and Sain (24th). Limstella was 42nd.

A character's costume is not the entirety of their design, and a character's costume is not the only thing a character gets for winning. Characters aren't just a floating change of clothes. (Heck, even invisible characters aren't just a floating change of clothes.)

I don't see it happening anytime in the foreseeable future, but if it does happen, it'll either (1) be A skills only or (2) be available on a skill-by-skill basis. The reason why A skills could get a pass as a whole is because having access to the tier-4 versions of A skills in the Sacred Seal slot generally doesn't affect the value of the same skill in the A slot. For example, having Atk/Spd Catch 4 in the Sacred Seal slot doesn't make Atk/Spd Catch 4 in the A slot any less valuable since you still want the extra stats. Also, the A slot often gets brand new single-tier skills (Impact, Surge, Unity, etc.) that would remain inaccessible with upgrades, preserving the value of the new skills even if the base skill can be upgraded. B and C skills, on the other hand, usually don't stack with themselves, which means that being able to run the skill in the Sacred Seal slot decreases the value of the same skill in the B slot. Additionally, several tier-4 C skills have only negligible stat boost compared to their tier-3 versions or none at all, which renders the tier-4 version in the C slot nearly worthless. For example, access to Def/Res Oath 4 in the Sacred Seal slot would mean you could run Atk/Spd Oath 3 in the C slot and have +5/5/6/6 and the Formation status effect, which is only 1 point of Atk and Def less than running Atk/Spd Oath 4 in the C slot, which significantly decreases the value of Atk/Spd Oath 4.

Added Soren's weapon to the translation notes. This version of Soren counts as Radiant Dawn instead of Path of Radiance. It grants +5 Atk/Res in combat and grants terrain movement penalty nullification and +1 Special charge rate in combat as Bonuses at the start of the turn. Pretty decent as long as you're not dealing with opponents with Tempo since it lets you activate any 2-cooldown Special on the follow-up if the opponent cannot counterattack and any 4-cooldown Special if they can. The Sacred Seals from the Tempest Trials are Fortify Dragons and Rouse Atk/Def, both of which are disappointing.

Four wins and zero losses this week brings me up from 4,299 to 4,699, which moves me up from Platinum A to Diamond D (Tier 17), which is currently rank 457 with a bit less than 5 hours left on the clock. I could keep going, but I have other plans for tonight and don't have the time or motivation to continue. Ninja Camilla is annoying. I'm going to need to figure out a better counter against her. Maybe I could just give someone (probably Duo Chrom) Hardy Bearing and call it a day.

The dataminers usually post the inheritance restrictions at around the same time they post the units' stats. That said, the Remote skills follow the exact same naming pattern as the Surge skills in Japanese, but with "close" replaced with "distant". Surge Sparrow is "鬼神飛燕の迫撃" (kishin hien no hakugeki), "Fierce Deity and Flying Swallow's Close Strike", whereas Remote Sparrow is "鬼神飛燕の離撃" (kishi hien no rigeki), "Fierce Deity and Flying Swallow's Distant Strike", so it's almost certain that the Remote skills will just be the ranged analogue for the Surge skills.

Preempt skills are exclusive to ranged units. Based on its name, Remote Sparrow also appears to be exclusive to ranged units. Given that that's already Tormod's gimmick normally, he's probably going to get it on his normal version anyways. It seems like a waste to put him on a banner with the same gimmick.

There's a difference between when the condition is checked and when the effect is activated. If Time's Pulse 4's after-combat effect behaves like start-of-turn effects, all conditions are checked before any effects activate. The only skill that behaved differently was Prayer Wheel before the bug fix. After the fix, the skill description (and effect) was changed so that the condition is unambiguously checked before any effects activate, like all other conditions.

Obviously an excuse to release the Odd Tempest Sacred Seal. Also, since he has Odd Atk Wave on his default kit, Even Tempest on his weapon gives him a Bonus to activate his weapon's other effects on every turn. It's not a good reason, but it's a reason.

And the usual translation notes: The banner name, "Sage of Khadein?", is "カダインの大司祭？" (kadain no daishisai?), "Archbishop of Khadein?". Nino's epithet, "Spirited Sorcerer", is "魔道精霊の寵児" (madō seirei no chōji), "Darling Child of the Sorcery Spirits". Child's Compass is "魔道の寵子の羅針盤" (madō no chōshi no rashinban), "Sorcery's Darling Child's Compass". Time's Pulse is "始まりの鼓動" (hajimari no kodō), "Pulse of the Beginning". The word "鼓動" (kodō) means "pulse" as in a "beat". Ursula's epithet, "Royal-Blue Crow", is "高雅端麗の蒼鴉" (kōga tanrei no sōa), "Elegant and Beautiful Blue Crow". Crow's Crystal is "魔宿す蒼鴉の水晶球" (ma-yadosu sōa no suishōkyū), "Magic-Containing Blue Crow's Crystal Ball". Chill Spd/Res 3 is "速さ魔防の封印" (hayasa mabō no fūin), "Spd/Res Seal". As usual, "封印" (fūin), "seal", a noun, is used for the Chill skill series, whereas "封じ" (fūji), "sealing", the verb stem of "to seal" used as a gerund, is used for the Seal skill series. Byleth's epithet, "Fount of Learning", is "師資流転の宿運" (shishi ruten no shukuun), "Fate of Continually Changing Instruction". Guide's Hourglass is "導きの教師の砂時計" (michibiki no kyōshi no sunadokei), "Guiding Teacher's Hourglass". Linde's epithet, "Bound by Fate", is "天涯奇縁の双輝" (tengai kien no sōki), "Dual Radiance of a Coincidence of Distant Shores". Celestial Globe is "魔継ぐ少女の天球儀" (ma-tsugu shōjo no tenkyūgi), "Celestial Globe of the Girls That Inherit Magic". Remote Sparrow is "鬼神飛燕の離撃" (kishin hien no rigeki), "Fierce Deity and Flying Swallow's Distant Strike". As usual, "鬼神" (kishin), "fierce deity", is the term for the Atk-boosting Blow/Stance skills and "飛燕" (hien), "flying swallow", is the term for the Spd-boosting Blow/Stance skills. Soren's epithet, "Wind of Tradition", is "古格伝統の風使い" (kokaku dentō no kaze-tsukai), "Wind User of Old Customs and Traditions". Magical Lantern is "魔道のランタン" (madō no rantan), "Lantern of Magic". Whether it ends up being exclusive or inheritable, the theme for this banner appears to be the nullification of terrain movement penalties, referencing the fact that infantry magic units have no movement penalty through deserts in the main series, so Soren's weapon will almost certainly have at least that as an effect.

Time's Pulse 4 finally makes Vital Astra's damage reduction actually reliable on every unit with a Slaying weapon. That's cool. Byleth having Sublime Heaven instead of Ruptured Sky is annoying since it means we still don't have a good source of Ruptured Sky. Spd/Res Finish 3 is at least pretty nice, though, given that Spd/Res Finish 4 is actually in the standard summoning pool. Linde and Sara are cute. Getting another Thracia Harmonized Hero is also pretty nice. Remote Sparrow finally gives ranged units another A skill that isn't Ideal or Catch since they don't have access to Surge, and non-infantry units don't have access to Finish. The skill name sounds dumb, though, and doesn't sound like it'll work for any other stat combination. ("Sturdy Remote"? "Remote Sturdy"? Yeah, not happening. They're going to have to pull something out of their ass yet again for this one.) And Soren gets to wear a pointy hood. Both Nino and Linde on red is rather convenient since it means I can feasibly spark for Ursula, pull for a 4-star copy of Byleth, and then just snipe red for the rest of the banner, which means fewer orbs wasted on first copies of the characters I'm not merging. It also means I could feasibly +10 both Nino and Linde while spending the same number of orbs normally needed for a single +10. Or the game can troll me and give me a million of one of them and none of the other, like on the Thorr-Eitri banner, though that's functionally and statistically no different from just being pity broken over and over again.

None of the crusaders have official artwork other than the single image from Treasure, including Cipher. Excluding the uselessly low-detail artwork that appears in Blazing Sword's opening, only Roland, Durban, Athos, and Bramimond appear in game. Elimine has official artwork from the Double Dash bonus disk. Hartmut has non-canon official artwork from Hasha. Hanon and Barigan appear in Hasha, but their artwork is uselessly low-detail. Being the only playable character, Athos is the only one with Cipher artwork. Dheginhansea and Altina both appear in game with sufficient detail and in Cipher. Dheginhansea is seen in both his human and dragon forms in both sources. Soan appears in game and in Cipher, but only ever in his lion form. He still lacks a canon human form. As far as consistency goes, the current line-up makes enough sense. Right now, the only ones that are eligible for CYL are the ones that appear in game and have art that can viably be used as the character's icon portrait.

As long as they let me near them, danger noodles always get headpats.

The expression on her face reminds me of Triandra, Freyja, and Nifl, all of whom could use some headpats. Also the TCG Ninian in my profile pic.

I find Menace skills to be a bit more useful than Rouse skills. Menace has the advantage of applying debuffs, which also combo with Catch skills (and help teammates). The positioning requirement on Rouse can be tricky to use because many maps have start locations that won't allow you to activate it on the first turn, and Panic isn't a common enough status effect outside of Aether Raids and certain challenge maps for Null Panic to be particularly worth it outside of builds specifically meant for those game modes.

All the more reason to actually vote. Hope is cheap.

She looks like she could use some headpats. Though I'm sure a good chunk of her votes will be because anime tiddies.

42 pulls from the Forging Bonds banner to grab the spark, pulling red and colorless: 1 Lilith (+1 spark) 1 Rhea 2 pitybreakers: Ascended Laegjarn Malice 4.8% focus rate is pretty good, though due to the small total number of pulls, it's only above average by less than 1 pull. 9.5% 5-star rate is also good, and it's above average by a bit more than 1 pull. Lilith is now +6. Rhea is now +7. Lilith also has a new +Spd merge base, which is nice. I also managed to grab yet another copy of Shinon from my free pull on the Joint Drive banner. Three copies of Deadeye within just a week or so is really nice.

I think I'll change up my votes compared to last year. I think this time it'll be 4 votes for Ninian and 3 votes for Gullveig.

And this week's is now out: Ash is adorable as always. Elm and Panne are cute, too.

Here's last week's: The middle bubble in the second panel in Japanese translates as "Former enemies telling stories." Nifl and Muspell are cute. Triandra and Mirabilis are also cute. We don't get enough of Triandra. I also like Duma and Mila trying their best to ignore Askr's existence.

My weekly Arena ticket got me Innes. Pulled from the Omega banner until I ran out of tickets, using orbs to grab any extra colorless pulls that showed up. Ended up using all 12 tickets and making 5 additional pulls with orbs: 1 5-star Lyre 3 4-star Lyre Pretty good haul since Lyre has Atk/Spd Catch 3. Pull rates are a bit pointless with such a small sample size, so I won't bother.

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My usual hopes, predictions, and whatnot segment: Altina: Ragnell-Alondite Harmonized Altina: Ragnell-Alondite Current effect is: Meister effect, -5 Spd Distant Counter For reference, Ragnell and Alondite previously got the same refine as each other, being the Slaying effect and +4 to all stats when HP is 25% or higher. Also for reference, Altina is getting Atk/Def Hold from her remix, and Ashera's Chosen+ grants her +9 Atk/Def/Res instead of the previous +6 Atk/Def, boosts her damage by 70% of the difference between her and her opponent's Res stats (maximum 7), and grants Dragon Wall 3. I would not be surprised if Ragnell-Alondite gets the exact same refine as Ragnell and Alondite given that the Slaying effect is exactly what Altina wants to be able to activate Twin Blades consistently. However, I think they might add a few more effects because Harmonized Altina is a fairly underwhelming unit and misses out on Altina's significantly buffed Ashera's Chosen+ skill. Ideally, I think Ragnell-Alondite should also at least get the Tempo effect since Altina is unable to inherit Tempo skills, and Harmonized Altina is unable to run Tempo with her default Null C-Disrupt in that slot. Null C-Disrupt would also be nice to have even if Harmonized Altina already has it since it opens up her B slot and is another skill that Altina cannot inherit. Sirius: Sable Lance Current effect is: Slaying effect With a Solo condition: +4 to all stats in combat The base condition is likely to be updated to be a Blow-or-Solo condition, like other recent refines. Sirius currently faces stiff competition from other lance cavalry like Brave Eliwood, Brave Eirika, Brave Chrom, and Hardin, and would really like to have something to set himself apart from them, or at the very least not lose in a straight-up stat comparison. I really don't know what they'll want to do with him, considering they'll also have to do something for the almost identical Perceval really soon. Death Knight: Scythe of Sariel Current effect is: Slaying effect If the opponent has a stat bonus or +1 movement: +4 to all stats in combat Follow-up prevention I'm pretty sure the base condition will be updated to apply to all Bonuses and not just the outdated version of the condition. Death Knight has the common issue of being a slow melee cavalry unit with no source of guaranteed follow-up (or a viable substitute) on his weapon, which defeats the purpose of him being cavalry in the first place. In order for him to be viable at all, he needs a guaranteed follow-up on player phase. In Three Houses, Death Knight has a bunch of skills that can be referenced for refine effects. His personal ability, Murderous Intent could be implemented as a partial or full nullification of percentage damage reduction. He also has Distant Counter and Poison Strike. My ideal refine would be a guaranteed follow-up on player phase, at least 50% nullification of percentage damage reduction, and Serpentine Staff's effect. Winter Sothis: Snow's Grace Current effect is: Nullifies effective damage against dragons If HP is 50% or higher at start of combat: +5 to all stats in combat Dragonstone common effect Winter Sothis really, really wants to be a fast Far Save tank, but lacks a lot of the necessary tools to be one. I don't know if they'll be willing to give her all of those tools. Winter Sothis wants to be able to get rid of Special Fighter in order to run Savvy Fighter instead, but this prevents her from reliably activating Sirius since she would rather have it activate on the first counterattack instead of the second. Being a green armor, she's also deathly weak to Duo Chrom, who can just nullify any damage reduction (since she's running Sirius + Savvy Fighter instead of a defensive Special + Hardy Fighter) on top of having effective damage and weapon triangle advantage against her. In a perfect world and within reason, an ideal refine for Snow's Grace would have damage reduction (like Gerbera Axe), Null C-Disrupt (like Nifl's Bite), some form of Special acceleration (Slaying effect or +1 Special charge rate), and Svalinn Shield. If possible, also Tempo to make up for not having Sirius+ and a start-of-combat anti-battery to tell Duo Chrom to fuck off. This is basically their chance to fix all of the issues with Ascended Fjorm (and also Winter Black Knight's glaring weakness to Duo Chrom), but I have zero confidence that they'll actually pull it off. Legendary Leaf: Meisterbogen Current effect is: Bow common effect Meister effect, -5 Spd If unit is under player control and with a Blow condition: Follow-up prevention For reference, Leaf is getting Joint Drive Atk from his remix, and Noba's Zeal II adds only Quickened Pulse to its effect. Joint Drive Atk is an extremely odd choice for a cavalry unit, and it's probably the developers trying to make us use him on enemy phase. Because of this, I'm expecting his refine to include a Vantage effect, probably with a condition of being within 2 spaces of an ally. If they want us to use him on enemy phase, it's also possible that they extend his follow-up prevention to both phases. It's worth noting that Far Trace is pretty much useless on Leaf due to Noba's Zeal inflicting Gravity on him, so there's a chance his weapon will have Canto (1) like his Harmonized version. If they want to get fancy and really hammer in the "please use Joint Drive Atk", they could instead give him Canto (Ally 2). Claude: Cunning Bow Current effect is: Permanent +3 Spd Bow common effect If sum of unit's stat bonuses and opponent's stat penalties is 10 or higher: -5 to all opponent's stats in combat It doesn't look like Claude has much to draw references from, as his personal skill Leicester Lineage only grants an experience boost, though they could pull the effect of the upgraded version of it (even though this Claude wouldn't have that yet) and give him Pass. It would be pretty cool if they gave him Pass + Canto (Recall) for mobility shenanigans. It would be a bit disappointing if this version of Claude ends up worse than Summer Claude, so I wouldn't be surprised if they just gave him a conditional Brave effect like Frozen Delight. This Claude also doesn't get Fallen Star, so he'd need some other form of defensive effect to make him actually worth using (unlike Python, who ended up as a glass cannon).

Remixes have been announced: Leaf: Noba's Zeal II Cooldown 3 Quickened Pulse (new) Galeforce After activation, inflicts Gravity on self and Pair-Up partner New skill is Joint Drive Atk. Fairly tame remix, as this only adds Quickened Pulse to the skill. Functionally, this allows you to replace S Drink with a better skill, so it's a pretty decent buff. Alternatively, you can continue to run S Drink to get the cooldown down to 1 at the start of the first turn if the first opponent you need to kill dies in one hit. Joint Drive Atk is pretty meh, and we already have it on Corrin in the Legendary/Mythic pool. Altina: Ashera's Chosen+ Iote's Shield If there are no non-dragon, non-beast units within 1 space or if the opponent's HP is 75% or higher at the start of combat (previously only the positioning condition): +9 Atk/Def/Res in combat (previously only +6 Atk/Def) If unit's Res is higher than opponent's Res (new): Deals additional damage in combat equal to 70% of the difference in Res, maximum 7 (new) Dragon Wall 3 (new) New skill is Atk/Def Hold. Ashera's Chosen gets a pretty substantial buff to its activation condition given that positioning is usually cramped in Aether Raids. The stat boost has been increased from +6 to +9. She also gets a brand new boost to Res and extra damage and damage reduction based on having more Res than the opponent. Atk/Def Hold is pretty nice since it's currently only available from Ninja Cherche.