Ice Dragon

Armors and cavalry don't have access to Oath Echo, so I'll only give skill recommendations for infantry and fliers. Note that Peony struggles with finding skills that are generally useful for infantry, so you're likely to waste some inheritance slots when giving Oath Echo to infantry: Special: Ruptured Sky No Quarter: Usable by sword, lance, and axe units and is typically the strongest 3-cooldown Special. Passive A: Flared: Only usable by fliers, it's the most offensive options for them and is usable by both melee and ranged units. Clash 4: Typically more useful on fliers than on infantry, but is limited to only melee units. Can be useful with the teleportation effect from Oath Echo, but outside of game modes where stat penalties are common, you're more likely to want Flared on fliers and Finish on infantry. Catch 4: Only usable by fliers, it's generally considered to be weaker than the other options due to having no non-stat effect. However, the stronger options aren't usable by staves. Boost 4: Only useful on dual-phase and enemy-phase units. Still Water 4: Use with Sabotage 4 and/or Ploy 4. Peony notably doesn't have any good options for this slot that are usable by player-phase infantry, as she doesn't have access to Finish 4 or Remote, and even though Boost 4 is usable with dual-phase infantry, Finish 4 is still typically better than Boost 4 for this role. Passive B: Assassin's Strike: Does lots of damage. Only usable by physical units. Flow Desperation: Grants Desperation and Null Follow-Up. Only usable by melee fliers. Desperation 4: Flow Desperation is strictly better, but Desperation 4 is usable by all classes. Gambit 4: Very strong, but requires specific other skill effects to function. Brash Assault 4: Does Brash Assault 4 things. Quick Riposte 4: Does Quick Riposte 4 things. Escape Route 4: Escape Route 4 is slightly outdated, but Canto (1) can still be useful for infantry. Fliers, however, have access to Near Trace and Far Trace 4, which are generally better, especially since Oath Echo grants some teleportation. Near Trace 3: Near Trace 4 doesn't exist yet, so this is the best you can do for melee Canto. If you're intending to duplicate Near Trace, you're better off waiting for the tier-4 skills to be released first. Sabotage 4: Very strong, but requires high Res. Infantry again have access to a lot of really good infantry-exclusive skills that Peony can't supply, so she'll be of limited use to both melee and ranged infantry in the B slot. Gambit 4 is pretty much the only one that has a good chance of being optimal for units that can use it, but it does require specific builds to work. Peony also unfortunately doesn't have access to Far Trace 4 for ranged fliers and Occultist's Strike for magical units. Aerial Maneuvers overlaps with Oath Echo's teleportation, even if Oath Echo's teleportation is weaker, so it's generally better to run Flow Desperation with Oath Echo instead of Aerial Maneuvers. Passive C : Rein Snap: Generally the best option for melee fliers. Oath Echo helps with the fact that Rein Snap doesn't provide stat bonuses. Hold: Ranged fliers don't have access to Rein Snap, so Hold is the next best thing. Smoke 4: Smoke is really the only option for infantry other than Ploy 4, but it's generally outclassed by the tier-4 Oath and Rouse skills and the infantry-exclusive skills. Menace: Similar to Smoke 4, this is also a bit outdated. However, it does give you an option to get stat bonuses without team support. Ploy 4: Very strong, but requires high Res. Peony again struggles to have good picks for infantry in this slot because Oath 4 is made redundant with Oath Echo, so Pledge, Incite, and the Pulse skills (and Ploy 4 on units with high Res) are typically preferred.

This past week's free Arena ticket got me Male Byleth: Another copy of Ruptured Sky. Yay~

I'll go through all of the options (that are worth duplicating) that can be passed from Reinhardt to other movement types: Special: To infantry: Ruptured Sky: While this is the only option available from Reinhardt, it has competition with Flare. To armors and fliers: Ruptured Sky Passive A: To infantry and armors: Remote: For player-phase units. Boost 4: For enemy-phase and dual-phase units. Infantry have access to Finish 4 and Ideal 4, but Remote is typically better if the unit is player-phase and has no other defensive effects on other skill slots. To fliers: Flared: For player-phase units. Lacks any defensive effects, so you typically want a defensive effect on another skill slot. Remote: For player-phase units. Less offensive than Flared, but has a defensive effect. Boost 4: For enemy-phase and dual-phase units, which are very uncommon among tome fliers. Passive B: To infantry and armors: Occultist's Strike: The highest-damaging option for this slot. Brash Assault 4: Comes with a defensive effect, extra damage, and a guaranteed follow-up that can occasionally be useful against fast units if the opponent happens to not have the defensive half of Null Follow-Up. However, it grants no stats. Desperation 4: Really good defensive effect and grants some Spd. Pairs pretty well with Arcane Thunder due to Arcane Thunder having +1 Special charge rate to make up for not gaining Special charge from a counterattack. Escape Route 4: Escape Route 4 weaker offensively than other options for this slot, but grants teleportation and Canto. Sabotage 4: Very strong, but only useful if the unit has a high Res stat. Note, however, that you're unlikely to run Still Water 4 on a unit with Arcane Thunder, so the unit will typically have to rely on their natural Res. Infantry have a lot of competition in this slot, namely with Special Spiral 4 and Tempo 4. Lull 4 is technically an option here, but Arcane Thunder already nullifies stat bonuses to Spd/Res, so it loses a lot of its value. Armors also have a lot of competition in this slot with the many Fighter skill options, even if you give them one of these skills, they probably won't use it often or at all. To fliers: Occultist's Strike: Same as above. Far Trace 4: A bit less damage than Occultist's Strike, but grants Canto in return. Brash Assault 4: Same as above. Desperation 4: Same as above. Escape Route 4: Same as above. Sabotage 4: Same as above. Unlike infantry and armors, fliers don't actually have any other alternatives for this slot, so you're going to want to transfer at least one of these skills. Passive C : To infantry: Incite: The strongest option for this slot most of the time. Even with the huge competition for this slot, Incite is a strong option. Smoke 4: Lacks immediate stat boosts of any kind, but the Def/Res version provides Pathfinder. The Atk version is pretty much useless with Arcane Thunder. The Spd version is only useful on dual-phase units. Menace: A bit outdated, but not actually bad. Unlike the Smoke 4 skills, Menace actually grants immediate stat boosts. Ploy 4: Very strong, but only useful if the unit has a high Res stat. Note, however, that you're unlikely to run Still Water 4 on a unit with Arcane Thunder, so the unit will typically have to rely on their natural Res. Infantry have a lot of competition for this slot, namely with Oath 4, Pulse Up, Time's Pulse 4, and Infantry Pulse 4. Note that Pledge isn't useful in this slot because Arcane Thunder already has the same effect. To armor and fliers: Smoke 4: Same as above. Pathfinder is a bit less useful on fliers than it is for other unit types due to mobility effects being relatively common as support effects on other fliers. It's a bit more useful on mixed teams, though. Menace: Same as above. Ploy 4: Same as above. Armors generally have way better options for this slot in the form of the Far Save skills and the mobility skills, so even if you transfer one of these, it probably won't see too much use. Fliers have a lot of competition for this slot from Oath 4, Hold, and Deadly Miasma, so even if you transfer one of these, it probably won't see too much use unless it's Ploy 4 and the unit has a ton of Res naturally.

I picked Hydro Pump because it's one of the few inaccurate single-target damaging moves that are still relevant to the current official competitive format (VGC). Not because it's good, but because there's one Pokémon that has no choice but to run it.

Actual numbers, please. "It happens"? Yes, of course it happens. Hydro Pump misses. A lot. Yet has an 80% chance to hit. "Hydro Pump misses a lot" is not evidence that the 80% chance to hit is not actually 80%.

The probability of a team winning is the same as the probability that they have more points in any given hour. You can therefore calculate the probability of each side winning indirectly by calculating how many hours it takes for the smaller team to retake the lead after a disadvantage multiplier from the larger team. The floor calculation assumes that players only spend flags on hours that they have a disadvantage. In this case, the size of the team is exactly proportional to the number of points they earn in an hour, and so if the larger team has x times more players as the smaller team, it will take exactly x hours for the smaller team to earn the same number of points to retake the lead. If the teams are equal size (x = 1), the odds have a floor of 1:1. If the larger team has 2 times the number of players, the odds have a floor of 2:1. If the larger team has 3 times the number of players, the odds have a floor of 3:1. etc. This is super-easy to do in your head and shouldn't be too egregiously off from actual numbers as long as team sizes aren't horrendously different. A super-conservative ceiling calculation assumes that players spend the same number of flags on hours that they have advantage on as they have disadvantage on. Because the winner is functionally determined only by the last rubber banding of the score, we can estimate using the multipliers from the last hour. I won't go into detail, but due to the fact that the multipliers increase with time and due to the fact that the ratio of the multipliers also increases with time, using the multipliers from the last hour will overestimate the number of hours it will take for the smaller team to retake the lead even more, which is exactly what we want from a ceiling. From this, we get that the number of hours it takes for the smaller team to retake the lead with these assumptions is [(3.69x - 1) ÷ (3.69 - x)]. If the teams are equal size (x = 1), the odds have a ceiling of 1:1. (This is a sanity check to make sure nothing went horribly wrong in the calculations.) If the larger team has 2 times the number of players, the odds have a ceiling of 3.78:1. If the larger team has 3 times the number of players, the odds have a ceiling of 14.6:1. When the larger team has 3.69 times the number of players, the smaller team cannot catch up ever. With how extremely quickly the odds increase, this estimate is probably a bit too egregiously conservative of a ceiling. But, we now have a method to calculate with other simple flag spending assumptions. Using the same method as before, let's use a more reasonable estimate that players spend half as many flags during advantage. This gives us [(7.38x - 1) ÷ (7.38 - x)] hours. If the teams are equal size (x = 1), the odds are 1:1. (Another sanity check.) If the larger team has 2 times the number of players, the odds are 2.56:1. If the larger team has 3 times the number of players, the odds are 4.83:1. So there you have it. A slightly-better-than-back-of-the-envelope estimate puts you between x:1 and the numbers above. I like the selfish position of "I like it this way when this way benefits me more and the other way when that way benefits me more", but with it not being a big deal either way. Because this single banner is far less impactful than the Legendary/Mythic/Emblem and Remix schedules which actively hate me and make some units share a banner with the new unit a bunch of times and other units never share a banner with the new unit ever, which is why I've gotten 34 copies of Seiros, but only 3 copies of Triandra.

No, that's exactly what's happening. There's no conspiracy going on behind the scenes. No one is guaranteed a win or a loss, but every time a Voting Gauntlet is run, 7 of the 8 characters must necessarily lose. That Edelgard has ended up in the losing 7 every time is unlucky, but not out of the ordinary. To say that someone deserves to win a Voting Gauntlet is the same as saying that the 7 other contestants deserve to lose solely for the sake of giving that someone a win, and that's equally not fair to those 7. As it is right now, the probability that the larger team wins is slightly higher than the ratio of the team sizes. (The math is pretty easy. If you want me to elaborate, I'd be happy to.) If you don't think that to be fair, that what split would you consider to be fair (ignoring the mechanics of how to get that split to happen in the first place and just focusing on what kind of split you deem fair)?

Bad luck. Winning a Voting Gauntlet as the favorite is like hitting 3 Hydro Pumps in a row. Each individual roll might be in your favor, but sometimes luck just isn't on your side. And sometimes, luck just really, really isn't on your side.

I've used Nudge a lot on Elimine in Aether Raids and on Silque in my infantry monthly quest team. There are definitely times when I wish I had Return, but also times when Nudge has been perfect. Given that it was a conscious choice to give Silque Nudge, there was a good reason to give her Nudge over other staff Assists. On an infantry-only team, it's very common that on your first turn in Training Tower maps, you'll end up putting your team in a square formation, which is not usually what you actually want since ranged enemies can attack over one of the lead units to hit Silque. Nudge allows you to push the adjacent lead unit 1 space away, putting Silque out of attack range. The main advantage of Nudge over Return here is that the usability of Nudge to get to the desired end position is not dependent on the starting positions of the team, which are not fixed in Training Tower, and are only dependent on if you can normally get your team into a square formation on the first turn. It's also worth noting that my infantry monthly quest team consists entirely of dual-phase units (currently Sothis, Flame Lyn, and Legendary Female Alear), which is why this setup works with Silque. A team with weaker enemy-phase performance would certainly prefer Return to do standard hit-and-run strategies. For flying units, like Fluffy Hat Nanna, it's probably better to run Return, at least for general use. Being able to Reposition an infantry or cavalry unit over impassible terrain is pretty useful and can't be done with Nudge, and Return is better-suited for the more typical hit-and-run playstyle.

Most of the weapons from the last 2 desert seasonal banners have had the effect, including all 3 of the inheritable weapons from those banners.

False Start is still currently only inflicted by Elimine. It's completely invalidated by Freyr, who shares an Aether Raids season with her, and it's completely useless in Summoner Duels due to start-of-turn effects activating simultaneously. These issues aren't with the effect itself, but with the method by which it's applied, which is as a start-of-turn effect. Changing it to an effect that activates when ending an action, like Ratatoskr's Divine Vein activation, would help immensely, but Elimine's remix is still roughly a year out. Phantom HP seems like the next-most useful Phantom effect to be added to the game. I'm also surprised we don't have more units that use their own max HP for comparison instead of their current HP, like Virion, and an effect converting all comparisons of current HP into comparisons using the unit's max HP seems like it would be a cool effect to add into the game, possibly as a secondary effect of Phantom HP. Pass needs a Sacred Seal. We've had Obstruct since forever ago.

The combat manual was announced a few hours before the Voting Gauntlet started, so even if some people hadn't yet seen the announcement, I don't think it'll make that much of a difference. Especially since a combat manual is still very different from (1) being on a banner, (2) being sparkable, and (3) potentially getting a free copy.

@Zeo As long as Ross is still surviving the initial attack, at least some of the loss of one stack of Gambit 4 can be made up for with the damage and healing from Aether. This is also the reason why Finish 4 is being recommended for the A slot, as it grants an additional 7 HP recovery on the attack that activates Aether (and any attack after that). Even without running Finish 4, I think it's still worth considering using Emblem Marth on him just to get a more consistent Aether. This all does still require getting Pledge, though. Without Pledge (or some other source of +1 Special charge rate), you're definitely better off with 5 stacks of Gambit 4. If you have Emblem Marth available and want to test out how well a 4-cooldown Aether performs defensively, see if you can find a teammate that can grant him +1 Special charge rate (Thorr, Duo Thorr, Legendary Hinoka, etc.) to simulate Pledge.

Amusingly, I think the only major disappointment I have with the lineup is that New Year Nerthuz isn't on it for Atk/Spd Wild. Notable skills for inheritance: Fodlan/Engage Halloween Seadall Atk/Res Finish 3 Inf. Null Follow 3 Celine Canto Control 3 Summer Ivy Still Water 4 Sabotage A/R 3 Soaring Guidance Winter Dimitri No Quarter Atk/Spd Prime 4 Rearmed Ingrid Arcane Luin Guard Bearing 4 Spd/Def Hold Awakening/Fates Valentine Hana Special Fighter 3 Bride Say'ri Life and Death 4 S/D Rein Snap Severa Godlike Reflexes Atk/Spd Finish 4 Buffer 4 Brave Corrin Armored Floe Counter Roar 4 A/S Far Save 3 Rearmed Lucina Arcane Thrima Atk/Spd Clash 4 Spd/Def Snag 4 Alarm Def/Res Heroes/Tellius Thief Sothe Atk/Def Rein 3 Ninja Heather Remote Sparrow Winter Black Knight Distant Dart Special Fighter 4 D/R Far Save 3 Brave Soren Flare Mag. Null Follow Time's Pulse 4 Ginnungagap Arcane Void Lethality Fireflood Boost 3 Fatal Smoke 4 GBA Young Rebecca Atk/Spd Finish 3 Null Follow-Up 3 Desert Juno Guard Bearing 4 Atk/Def Oath 4 Ascended Fir Atk/Spd Finish 4 Phys. Null Follow Atk/Spd Oath 4 Young Hector Armored Beacon Vengeful Fighter 4 D/R Far Save 3 Rearmed Tana Arcane Nastrond Deadeye Atk/Spd Unity Guidance 4 Jugdral Arthur Atk/Spd Ideal 4 Spd/Res Menace Teatime Sigurd Remote Sturdy Ascended Sety Atk/Spd Ideal 4 Special Spiral 4 Infantry Pulse 4 Tina Nudge+ Holy Pressure Atk/Spd Ideal 4 Wrathful Tempo Infantry Pulse 4 Rearmed Reinhardt Arcane Thunder S/R Far Trace 4 Def/Res Smoke 3 Heroes/Akaneia/Echoes Wind Catria Whitewind Bow+ Atk/Spd Catch 3 S/D Far Trace 3 Spring Triandra Firestorm Dance 3 Def/Res Hold New Year Kvasir Flash Sparrow Lull Spd/Res 4 Inf. Null Follow 4 Fallen Maria Nudge+ Holy Panic Atk/Spd Unity Poetic Justice Even Recovery 3 Rearmed Sonya Arcane Caliburnus Escape Route 4 Atk/Res Ploy 4

Midori gets a new weapon, so we get translation notes: Lucky Bow is "おまじないの弓" (omajinai no yumi), "Good-Luck-Charm Bow". And the usual hopes and predictions: Midori: Lucky Bow Currently has Spendthrift Bow, which grants +7 Atk to the unit, inflicts -7 Atk to the opponent, and drains 2 cooldown from the unit after combat if the unit attacked. Despite how long ago Midori was released, with maximum Dragonflowers, she still matches Wil's offenses and has his defenses, but with Def and Res reversed. As such, she still has one of the highest base Atk stats among bows. A guaranteed follow-up is pretty much a given. If they want her to keep her really outdated Close Foil, they should probably give her some form of follow-up prevention, possibly in the form of raising the natural follow-up threshold, as well as giving her a substantial amount of damage reduction. Seiros: Aurora Breath Current effect is: Permanent +3 Atk Dragonstone common effect With a Blow condition: +6 Atk in combat Guaranteed follow-up With a Stance condition: +6 Def/Res in combat Follow-up prevention 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. +1 Special charge rate is interesting because most of the preferred Specials for dragons, namely Aether and Dragon's Roar, have an odd maximum cooldown, which I'm hoping means that there's a chance she'll get the Slaying effect to make the cooldown line up better. Scowl 4 replacing Mirror Impact makes it somewhat likely that they'll move the follow-up prevention on player phase to her weapon, which means there's also a chance that they'll also just give her a guaranteed follow-up on enemy phase. Fallen Male Corrin: Brutal Breath Current effect is: Permanent +3 Spd Dragonstone common effect If there are no more than 2 allies within 2 spaces: +1 to all stats in combat If there is no more than 1 ally within 2 spaces: +2 to all stats in combat Guard effect If there are no allies within 2 spaces: +2 to all stats in combat Corrin already has Null Follow-Up in his B slot by default, but as a dragon, there are way better skills out there that he wants. Either they'll move Null Follow-Up onto his weapon (possibly giving it the full Mag. Null Follow effect), or they'll give him something like Counter Roar 4's effect. I'm thinking the former is more likely since it would be kind of nuts to give him Counter Roar 4 on his weapon and then let him run a second stack of it in his B slot. I can also see them simplifying his base weapon's stat boost to just an Alarm condition to make it easier to use. Dagr: Skinfaxi Current effect is: 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 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. Her remix is extremely tame, so I'm guessing they'll do the brunt of the improvements to her kit through her refine. As the player-phase-focused twin, I'm expecting her to get some of the typical offensive skill effects, like Tempo and damage reduction on the opponent's non-follow-up attacks. As mentioned in the remix thread, it would also be nice if they gave her Canto and Disarm Trap, though the latter is rather unlikely. Also as mentioned in the remix thread, since her weapon has the Unity effect it would be nice if it could either use stat penalties on allies to power it or simply steal them from allies. Alternatively, granting Grand Strategy to herself and allies would also be really nice to have. Annette: Crusher Current effect is: Permanent +3 Atk Targets the lower of Def or Res When using a Rally Assist, excludes when target is a range-2 cavalry: Grants +1 movement to target as a status effect Please give her Assist Galeforce. It's also pretty common nowadays for on-Assist effects to also grant more status effects or inflict more status effects. Dodge would be cool. Granting the same status effects to herself would also be cool. Duo Micaiah: Joyful Vows Current effect is: Permanent +3 Atk Effective damage against armor and cavalry If unit has a Bonus: +6 Atk/Res in combat With a Blow condition: Follow-up prevention Almost certainly will get a guaranteed follow-up. Will likely also get one or both of the Desperation effect and damage reduction on the opponent's first attack since the other Micaiahs have been getting those effects, and this one doesn't have Prescience. This is the Micaiah that grants Dominance to herself and allies with her Duo skill, so I wouldn't be surprised to see more effects that rely on having a Bonus or the opponent having stat penalties. It would also be nice if she got an effect that grants herself a non-stat Bonus without needing to use her Duo skill or run Oath 4, as it would be nice to be able to run Ploy 4 or something similar on her. Gangrel: Levin Dagger Current effect is: If opponent has a Penalty: +4 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 20% of Res Permanent +3 Res Dagger (7) Gangrel is most notable for having a gigantic HP stat in exchange for his other stats being pretty unnoteworthy. He has Panic Ploy by default to make use of his HP, but it would be nice to have some more effects based off of it, especially if he can use his max HP instead of his current HP. It would also be nice to get an effect that replaces all comparisons with his current HP to use his max HP instead as well as a Phantom HP effect. Other than that, I'm not sure what they'd want to do with him, as he's extremely unremarkable otherwise. His weapon granting him additional damage based on his Res is also kind of laughable considering his Res isn't even good.

Dagr and Seiros are next: Dagr: Sun-Twin Wing+ If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: -5 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat (previously only Spd/Def) Null Follow-Up effect Additional damage equal to 20% of Spd, excludes AoE Specials (new) Nullifies half of non-Special percentage damage reduction (new) New skill is Atk/Spd Hexblade, replacing Atk/Spd Push 4. The upgrade to Sun-Twin Wing essentially just gives it +5 Def/Res, about +15 additional damage, and the secondary effect of Phys. Null Follow. Honestly pretty tame. As the twin that focuses on player-phase combat, I'm expecting damage reduction on the opponent's non-follow-up attacks and Tempo on her weapon's refine. Canto would also be pretty nice to have to make Pathfinder easier to use. I don't expect to see her get Disarm Trap, but that would really help out for an offense Mythic. Her base weapon comes with the Unity effect, and it would be pretty cool if she could also use allies' stat penalties to power it or if she could transfer them to herself. Alternatively, it would also be cool if she gave herself and nearby allies Grand Strategy. Atk/Spd Hexblade is nice to get since it currently has awful distribution, being limited to just Legendary Yuri, even if it isn't the most optimal skill option for that slot. Seiros: Wings of Light+ If there are at most 3 Mythic Heroes on the team including unit: Grants the following effects to allied Mythic Heroes, excluding unit: +3 to all stats in combat (previously +2) Boost to all stats in combat equal to the turn number, maximum +5 (previously first 5 turns only) 30% damage reduction (new) Grants the following effects to allies within 3 rows or 3 columns of unit: +4 to all stats in combat (new) +1 Special charge rate (new) If there is at least 1 Mythic Hero on the team excluding unit or if there is an ally within 3 rows or 3 columns of unit: +5 to all stats in combat (new) 30% damage reduction, excludes AoE Specials (new) +1 Special charge rate (new) New skill is Atk/Res Scowl 4, replacing Mirror Impact. I want to know what Seiros has been smoking because it's clearly some good stuff. Nearly every line on this skill description is brand new, though that's mostly due to the fact that the base skill was really weak. The stat boost to allied Mythic Heroes has been boosted by 1 more point in each stat and now doesn't go away after turn 5. It also grants 30% damage reduction to all attacks. Brand new is that it now also grants +4 to all stats and +1 Special charge rate to all allies in Ploy 4 range and grants +5 to all stats, 30% damage reduction, and +1 Special charge rate to herself. It's worth noting that the +1 Special charge rate doesn't line up well with her choices of Specials, as she doesn't have the Slaying effect, which means neither Dragon's Roar nor Aether will have an even cooldown. There's a possibility that she'll get the Slaying effect on her refine to line up the cooldowns better. Atk/Res Scowl 4 is also a really good addition to her kit, as if it wasn't already amazing with Dragon Wall. It's really convenient that I still have 16 of her manuals lying around. Swapping out Mirror Impact leads me to believe that the follow-up prevention on player phase will be moved to her weapon, which means there's also a decent chance that she'll get a guaranteed follow-up on enemy phase, too.

Oh, wow, I completely forgot about them. I guess it was Marth having the really odd Remix that upgraded both of his exclusive skills without giving him a new inheritable skill that made me remember him in particular.

The only Legendary/Mythic/Emblem Hero we've gotten so far with more than 2 exclusive skills is Legendary Marth (who had Exalted Falchion, Fire Emblem, and Binding Shield at release, all of which were brand new), so I don't expect to get another one. Given that Dragon's Roar's effect is also generic and is along the same vein as the armor-exclusive Specials, it's most likely a dragon-exclusive inheritable Special. And given that it requires a Res comparison to activate its defensive effect, it looks like I can now make up my mind on Asset picks for my bulky infantry dragons (Res instead of Atk). Kurthnaga can finally be merged to +10.

Swap out Distant Stance for Atk/Spd or Atk/Def Prime 4 if you still want to have Distant Counter in the A slot. You can get 2 stacks towards Prime 4 pretty easily with the C and X slots, so you only need team support for 2 more to activate Distant Counter. If you don't mind giving up stats from your Sacred Seal slot for Distant Counter (M), you can give him the Atk/Spd or Atk/Def versions of Finish 4 or Boost 4 (if or when they exist). The Atk/Res version of any of the A skill options (including Prime 4; again, if or when they exist) can also work depending on your situation. Ross's best C skill is currently Atk/Spd Pledge, which grants him +1 Special charge rate as a status effect, which grants 1 stack to Prime 4. If you have Pledge in the C slot, you can afford to drop 1 stack of Gambit 4 by running an Emblem Marth Engage. Yes, you lose 5 damage per hit and 10% damage reduction, but you get a functional Aether (activating on the counterattack's Brave hit on enemy phase) to make up some of the lost damage and grant more passive HP regeneration. For the X slot, if you're running Prime 4, you're ideally waiting for Def Oath Echo or Res Oath Echo. With any other A skill, you're probably waiting for Fierce Stance Echo. Alternatively, you can give him Atk/Spd, Atk/Def, or Spd/Def Bulwark 4 (if or when they exist) in the B slot and run that with No Quarter + Emblem Marth.

If it's not a standard gikun reading, then most of the time the intended pronunciation will be indicated with ruby text (furigana) over the characters or in parentheses after the characters if ruby text formatting is not available. If there isn't one given, the only way to know is if you're already aware of it from context, or you can try looking for the context if it looks really, really suspicious or otherwise makes no sense. This one was really, really suspicious because yanking out half of a character's reading and representing the part that was yanked out with a second full additional character with that reading is commonplace in names for people and places, and that's exactly what this one looked like. So I looked it up.

As expected, this is a single-unit banner. And he's got literally every skill effect except for Null Follow-Up. It looks like they didn't want him competing with all of the other dragons for Distant Counter (D). And here's the usual translation notes: Alear's epithet, "Engaging Fire", is "繋和ぎし絆炎" (tsunagishi han'en), "Connecting Fire". Literally "Bond-Calming Bond-Flame", but that sounds silly, and there's a lot more stuff going on under the hood. Indented for clarity due to length. "繋和ぐ" (tsunagu) is a novel compound with a gikun reading, which means that the reading and the spelling do not match. The spelling is a combination of the words "繋ぐ" (tsunagu), "to connect", and "和ぐ" (nagu), "to make calm", but its pronunciation is simply that of "繋ぐ" (tsunagu), "to connect". The resulting compound is used in the name of the skill Bond Forger, "絆を繋和ぐもの" (kizuna o tsunagu mono), "One Who Connects Bonds". "絆炎" (han'en), "Bond-Flame", is the kanji used for "Fire" in this game's manifestation of the Fire Emblem. Divine One's Arts is "神竜王の体術" (shinryūō no taijutsu), "Divine Dragon King's Taijutsu". As mentioned elsewhere, "体術" (taijutsu), literally "body arts", is the name of a traditional martial art that was later brought under the umbrella of "柔術" (jūjutsu), "jujutsu" or "jiu-jitsu". Dragon's Roar is "竜の咆哮" (ryū no hōkō), "Dragon's Roar". Emblems' Miracle is "紋章の奇跡" (monshō no kiseki), "Emblems' Miracle". Note that "奇跡" (kiseki) does, in fact, mean "miracle", whereas the Miracle skill is instead "祈り" (inori), "Prayer". S/R Bulwark is "速さ魔防の防壁" (hayasa mabō no bōheki), "Spd/Res Bulwark". That's his finisher animation, which is used for killing blows. All Legendary/Mythic/Emblem Heroes have one, but you don't see it often because Special animations take priority over finisher animations and are usually much less flashy. Legendary Female Alear also has the same finisher animation as Legendary Male Alear. This is what happens when they refuse to use line breaks in their skill descriptions. The Japanese descriptions not only use line breaks, but also indentation for clarity. Quick summary: Weapon Dragonstone common effect Slaying effect Brave effect (both phases) +5 to all stats -4 to all stats on opponent -3 to all stats on opponent for each distinct source game on allies within 3 spaces, maximum -6 Half nullification of percentage damage reduction Scowl 4 Special Damage equal to 40% of Res 40% damage reduction if unit's Res is 4 less than opponent's Res or higher and if unit's or opponent's Special is charged or was previously charged during this round of combat, once per combat Passive A Distant Counter +9 to all stats 40% damage reduction on non-follow-up attacks Miracle effect if there are at least 3 allies within 3 spaces, once per map 99 HP regeneration after combat if Miracle effect activates from any skill slot

A Spd Asset is usually preferred. The pseudo-Glimmer effect from his weapon should be an absolute last resort, and he should be prioritizing getting a follow-up first since, most of the time, a follow-up is better. The only reason I can see for running an Atk Asset is if you've absolutely given up on landing a follow-up against faster opponents. There are a lot of other factors to consider with this route, though, as if you're aiming towards killing faster opponents, you're going to want some form of percentage damage reduction nullification, but there are very few sources of that outside of the B slot, so you'd likely lose out on Murderous Lion's Sweep effect. Even if you run No Quarter, Dimitri has no easy way of keeping it charged without significant support (or Special Spiral, which kind of defeats the purpose). And if you were going to be getting rid of Murderous Lion anyways, you may as well just give him Potent 4, as Potent Follow 80% does more damage than his weapon's pseudo-Glimmer anyways.

Charge is more unique and sets the Alears apart from other melee infantry, but at the same time, they gain a comically high amount of stats when staying near their teammates, which is harder to activate when running off like that. No Quarter is probably more future-proof, though. Do you mean Legendary Dimitri? Fallen Dimitri has Murderous Lion, not Atrocity. Atrocity's additional damage based on Atk adds exactly 1 more damage with an Atk Asset, so an Atk Asset gives 5 more damage, whereas a Spd Asset gives 3 more Spd. I'd lean towards Spd.

Yeah, go for it if that better suits how you want to use Alear.

Yeah, that's a pretty standard build for Godlike Reflexes, and you can run it on pretty much any unit that has the Slaying effect. Whether you run No Quarter or Godlike Reflexes is honestly your choice based on your play style and what you want your unit to do. The usual considerations when there are multiple viable builds. Godlike Reflexes obviously gives you quite a bit more damage mitigation, whereas No Quarter deals more damage. Alear, at the least, does have a better argument for focusing more heavily on player phase compared to other melee infantry due to Liberation granting Charge for more mobility, but that the same time, Godlike Reflexes appreciates initiating the first round of combat to charge it so that you don't have to run Pulse effects. As for Godlike Reflexes builds: Without Emblem Marth, you're looking at: [weapon with the Slaying effect] [Assist] Godlike Reflexes Atk/Spd Finish 4 / Atk/Spd Prime 4 Spurn 4 / Velocity 4 (once released) / Buffer 4 Atk/Spd Pledge [any Sacred Seal that grants Atk/Spd] / Distant Counter (M) / Null Follow-Up 3 Spurn 4 grants more damage, whereas Velocity 4 allows the build to counter Guard. Buffer 4 is usable, but is weaker than the others since its Pulse effect can be provided by teammates or by simply taking the first round of combat on player phase, which should be pretty easy for Alear due to Liberation granting Charge. With Emblem Marth, you're looking at: [weapon with the Slaying effect] [Assist] Godlike Reflexes + Emblem Marth Atk/Spd Finish 4 / Atk/Spd Prime 4 Velocity 4 (once released) / Spurn 4 Incite Atk/Spd / Atk/Spd Pledge / Atk/Spd Oath 4 [any Sacred Seal that grants Atk/Spd] / Distant Counter (M) / Null Follow-Up 3 Same deal comparing Velocity 4 with Spurn 4 as above. In this case you really just want to get a Pulse effect from a teammate or initiate the first round of combat instead of wasting a skill slot for it since 1 point of Special charge is a lot easier to get than 2. Velocity 4 in this build should be run with Incite. Spurn 4 should be run with Pledge to counter Guard unless the weapon already has +1 Special charge rate, in which case it should be run with Incite. Incite can be replaced with Oath 4 in any combination that uses it if you want teleportation in exchange for the extra stats on player phase.