Ice Dragon

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 If they want her to keep her really outdated Close Foil, they should probably give her some form of follow-up prevention, possibly in the form of raising the natural follow-up threshold, as well as giving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.

Peony is the choice that benefits me the most since she's the only skill duplicator in the lineup, so I'll probably join her team for the first round, and I'll see where things go from there. Any of these characters being on the banner would be good for me (and I wouldn't mind any of them being the free unit, either) since all of them have value as either merges or for skill inheritance, but it would be awesome if the banner were all green, which is actually possible with these matchups, even if it'll be difficult for Peony to beat Edelgard.

42 pulls on the third Anniversary Special Heroes banner: 2 Ymir 1 Kagero (+1 spark) 1 Ephraim Ymir is now +5 (or will be once I figure out which one to use as a merge base). Kagero is now +9, and somehow I still haven't gotten a single copy of her that is better than neutral. This is my second copy of Ephraim, but I probably won't merge him yet because he's still the only source of Alarm Atk/Def.

Arione is a bit stronger out of the gate and is also probably a bit easier to build (and doesn't require Emblem Marth), but Echidna has a higher ceiling due to infantry having access to stronger skills. Arione [+Atk] Heired Gungnir [Assist] Ruptured Sky / No Quarter + Emblem Marth Atk/Def Clash 4 / Atk/Def Catch 4 / Atk/Def Prime 4 / Flared Sturdy (once released) / Sturdy Surge / Earthfire Boost 3 Wyvern Rift / A/D Near Trace 4 (once released) / Guard Bearing 4 S/D Rein Snap / A/D Rein Snap (once released) / Atk/Def Oath 4 / Deadly Miasma [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Def] Wyvern Rift is easily the strongest skill for his B slot. S/D Rein Snap is listed specifically to be run with Wyvern Rift and isn't really worth running with any other B skill. This build can also be run with Aether + Gambit 4. Aerial Maneuvers is an option if you run Ruptured Sky + Emblem Marth or either of the above listed options with +1 Special charge rate from an ally. If you aren't running Atk/Def Oath 4 in the C slot, he can run Atk Oath Echo. Death Blow Echo is always an option regardless of other skill slots. Echidna [+Spd] Western Axe [unique] [Assist] Godlike Reflexes + Emblem Marth Atk/Spd Unity / Atk/Spd Finish 4 / Atk/Spd Prime 4 Buffer 4 / Spurn 4 / Velocity 4 (once released) / Spd/Def Tempo 4 / Phys. Null Follow Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Incite Atk/Spd [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Distant Counter (M) Echidna pretty much requires Emblem Marth to function properly since she lacks the Slaying effect on her weapon. Ideally, you also want to run her either with a teammate that can inflict stat penalties on her or in a game mode where she can reliably be hit with stat penalties. Her base stats are rather mediocre, so you really do want to make sure her weapon's Unity effect is active. You can run Vital Astra + Emblem Marth + Time's Pulse 4 if you prefer Vital Astra over Godlike Reflexes. Obviously, you don't need Buffer 4 or Tempo 4 if you do so. The Null Follow-Up Sacred Seal can also be used, but it's more ideal to get the Null Follow-Up effect from a teammate if you aren't already running it in the B slot. Atk Oath Echo is the only X skill even remotely worth running right now, but even then, it's only remotely worth running. Ideally, you should wait for something better to be released.

From Hall of Forms, Dragon's Stone is the best inheritable weapon to get for fast dragons. New-Sun Stone is the best inheritable weapon to get for slow dragons.

The only time Potent 4 is strictly better than other B skills is when the unit cannot perform a follow-up and cannot kill the opponent in 1 hit. In any other case, Potent 4 requires you to sacrifice something in exchange for a mere ~12 damage. Assassin Strike deals 7 damage up front and 2/3 of a Moonbow on every attack. Spurn 4 grants 7 damage, Phantom Spd, and up to an additional 20% damage reduction. Phys. Null Follow grants Null Follow-Up and half percentage damage reduction nullification. Tempo 4 grants Tempo and half percentage damage reduction nullification. Special Spiral 4 grants full percentage damage reduction nullification. Gambit 4 grants 10 damage per hit and an additional 10% damage reduction with strings attached. If Near Trace 4 has the same additional effect as Far Trace 4, then Near Trace 4 grants Canto and 7 damage per hit. Aerial Maneuvers grants the Desperation effect at high HP and Grimoire teleportation. Rift grants 7 damage per hit, 7 flat damage reduction on the opponent's non-follow-up attacks, and Omnibreaker and makes it really fucking hard for the opponent to double. And there's really no reason to ever run Potent 4 on a unit with the Brave effect. Gambit 4 with Aether is almost always strictly better both offensively and defensively, even if you can't consistently land Aether.

57 pulls from the second Anniversary Special Heroes banner: 1 Elise 2 Lysithea 1 Triandra (+1 spark) 1 Flavia Ended up having to do 57 pulls because I got 1 copy each of Elise, Lysithea, and Triandra before I even finished using all of my tickets and then got literally nothing after that. When my pity was finally broken by Lysithea and Flavia in the same session, it was at 12.5%. One of the new copies of Lysithea has a Spd Asset, which replaces my existing Atk merge base. Elise is now +4. Lysithea is now +2. Triandra is now +6. 89 pulls on the Valentine banner: 1 Lyon 0 Myrrh (+1 spark) 1 Ephraim 0 5-star Selena 2 4-star Selena 2 pity breakers: Ascended Idunn Mycen This banner did not like me at all. I might be willing to entertain trying to pull for another copy of Lyon or Myrrh before the banner expires, but that's probably still unlikely. 80 pulls on the Engage banner: 1 Hortensia (+1 spark) 1 Ivy (+1 spark) 2 pity breakers: Brave Byleth Safy Still below-average luck. One copy of Hortensia isn't awful, but it would've been nice to have gotten 2 instead of being pity-broken by Ivy. Overall below average luck on all three banners combined and individually. Bleh.

Potent Follow's damage multiplier is calculated after adding damage from the Special, which means that any Special that activates on a Potent Follow 40% is functionally wasted. Timing a Special with a higher cooldown to land on a third attack is wasted due to the damage penalty, and the extra Special charge gained from the Potent Follow is both inconsistent (because the Potent Follow doesn't happen if the enemy is already dead) and doesn't significantly change the timings for the most common setups with 1- and 2-cooldown Specials. The damage itself from a Potent Follow 40% is also not all that game-changing. On an attack that would normally do 30 damage, Potent Follow 40% reduces that attack to 12 damage. Combined with the fixed 30% damage reduction, running Potent 4 in order to activate Potent Follow 40% is, at best, only comparable to the effects on other B skills and doesn't break out from the pack. Currently, the best use of Potent 4 (outside of Emblem Marth) is to use it to activate Potent Follow 80% as a workaround against faster opponents.

It's worth noting that a unit is never able to perform a standard follow-up against itself under identical conditions, so no matter how fast a unit is, there's always a reason to at least consider running Potent 4 over other B skills, even on the fastest units. Potent 4 does lose value the faster a unit is, but whether or not that value falls to less than the value of other options depends on what you need the unit to accomplish.

I don't think we're getting 2 new units this month. So far, we've only ever had 2 new units on November banners and January banners. Every November banner since 2020 has had 2 new units as a Book closer banner (Freyja and Triandra in 2020, Thorr and Eitri in 2021, Embla and Veronica in 2022, and Gullveig and Kvasir in 2023), and every January banner since 2023 has had 2 new units (Gotoh and Fomortiis in 2023, Lumera and Emblem Marth in 2024). Even if they add a new 2-unit banner to the schedule, I doubt they'd put them back to back. "Body arts" seems to be a literal translation of the Japanese name, "体術" (taijutsu), which refers to a type of traditional martial arts that was eventually merged into the umbrella of "柔術" (jūjutsu), "jujutsu" or "jiu-jitsu". The term doesn't appear to have a standardized translated name, and the Wikipedia page on jujutsu translates the term literally as "body art". (For simplicity, I'll be leaving it untranslated and unlocalized as "taijutsu" for the translation below.) The localized name of the weapon type is either "martial arts" or "arts". Iron-Body Art is also pretty clearly grouped "(Iron-Body) Art" and not "Iron-(Body Art)". The weapon in Japanese is called "基本の体術" (kihon no taijutsu), "Basic Taijutsu" or "Fundamental Taijutsu", so the English weapon name is completely original.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Alm: Only did the free pull on the two Remix banners and the Hero Fest due to still running on a smaller budget. As much as I do want more copies of Reginn and Triandra for merges, neither banner had any color where I actually wanted both focus units of that color, so I'll just wait for their eventual reruns in July and hope either the banners are better or my budget is less fucked. Similarly, the Hero Fest only had Robin and Alfred that I could use more copies of, but I'm sure to grab more copies of Robin while pulling for some other Legendary/Mythic/Emblem Hero, and Alfred is really underwhelming compared to other Rearmed Heroes. That said, I did pull Reginn as the free pull off of her banner, so she's now +9. Neat. I'll figure out what I want to do with the second Anniversary Special Heroes banner sometime before it expires in 2 and a half days. Colorless and blue seem to have the most value for me since I already have Flavia, Hana, and Karla at +10, and none of them have skills I need more copies of. Either way, it'll have to wait until I clean my barracks a bit anyways because I once again only have 3 open spaces left.

What's up with all of the early announcements all of a sudden? I have a complaint about the art this time, and it's the same complaint I had with her regular art. Gambesons are made of padded material and should have some thickness in its cross-section when damaged. They've gotten this wrong in every. single. one. of her damaged arts so far (regular, Resplendent, and Harmonized Cordelia). Selena's stats are unfortunately garbage. With maximum Dragonflowers and the Resplendent boost, she has 45+/33+/43/40/36-. Her defenses are actually pretty good, and you won't find any other sword infantry with defenses even close to hers until you get down to Itsuki's Spd, but it comes at the cost of having abysmally bad Atk. Additionally, her exclusive weapon is too outdated and is worse than both of her Arcane options, giving her no real option to fix her Atk stat. This brings Embla up to 15 total units, which is now tied with Muspell for the largest number. This is also the first Fates unit to receive an Embla outfit. Nifl Ilyana Askr Brave Veronica Hel Soren Embla Brave Celica Embla Selena If the pattern continues, we should expect to get Brave Hector as the next announcement.

Okay, since Arcane Charmer has Spd as a refine option, that brings my cutoff back down to ~42 neutral base Spd (counting any planned Dragonflowers, but nothing else). If you're already running a Spd Asset on her, then she should run a Spd refine. If you're planning any Dragonflower investment at all (+2 or higher), then you should run a Spd Asset and a Spd refine. If you're not running a Spd Asset on her, I'm still leaning towards a Spd refine simply because the alternative of running +1 Atk is kind of underwhelming. You can probably still justify +1 Atk, but it's such a small boost that I'm not sure it'll make a difference in enough cases to matter. And Nanna's Def and Res stats are too low for a Def or Res refine to really matter. Fast units that don't want to compete directly with Spd creep. With lots of asterisks attached. The most notable feature of Potent 4 is the fact that you activate Potent Follow 80% if you can't make a follow-up normally and don't have the Brave effect, but your Spd is no more than 20 behind your opponent's. Because Potent Follow can only be blocked by failing its incredibly lenient Spd comparison, this allows you to perform a follow-up with only slightly decreased damage without the need for Null Follow-Up or a guaranteed follow-up as long as you can mostly keep up with the opponent's Spd stat. If the unit can perform a follow-up normally or has the Brave effect, you activate Potent Follow 40%, which is still good, but isn't quite as game-changing. In this case, Potent 4 is pretty comparable to Gambit 4 in performance. Potent 4 grants 30% damage reduction and an extra attack for 40% of your normal damage, while Gambit 4 with a 4-cooldown Special grants 40% damage reduction and +10 damage (or 50% damage reduction and +15 damage with a 5-cooldown Special). Potent 4 grants less damage reduction in exchange for not requiring a specific choice of Special skill (and potentially the supporting effects necessary to use it). The other notable property of Potent 4 is that it's usable by all non-armored physical melee units. This means that, like Gambit 4, it's also usable by cavalry and fliers, but unlike Gambit 4, it's also usable by beasts. And beasts don't have that many strong options for their B slot right now. Human melee infantry obviously have more competition for the slot than other classes, as not only do they have access to Gambit 4, but also Dodge 4, Tempo 4, and Phys. Null Follow. The main point of comparison here, though, is that all of these options require the unit to compete directly with Spd creep. If you are confident in the unit's ability to do so (or don't care to compete with the fastest of the fast because you have a different answer for them), then these skills will be better. However, if you still need to contest them, but aren't confident at winning the Spd comparison for a standard follow-up, Potent 4 will let you do so. Since you're not running Spd-boosting skills in his C slot and Sacred Seal, he's probably not going to be able to out-speed a lot of fast units. Which skill he'll get more mileage out of mostly depends on whether you need him to fight them or not. If you need Guy to fight things that are faster than him, run Potent 4. Otherwise, run Spurn 4.

You get more versatility with a dual-phase build, and you don't actually lose much player-phase performance in doing so. Note that the point of the enemy-phase half of dual-phase builds in the current meta isn't to be able to tank anything and everything, but to be able to choose to engage an opponent's enemy-phase unit on their weaker phase. (I've run into Duo Male Byleth a few too many times in the Arena using a team that has no enemy-phase presence.) Oh, yeah, Earthfire Boost 3 is also a viable choice for the A slot. It gives fewer points of stats than Clash or Prime, but you get Guard on enemy phase and sometimes on player phase. I still think I'd recommend Clash or Prime over Boost, but it's certainly not a bad option (if you can get your hands on it).

Yeah, those would be what you want for the A and C slots. Mauvier wants to have at least 3 non-stat Bonuses on him to maximize the boosts he gets from his weapon, so it's definitely best to give him either Alarm (currently only on Summer Ephraim) or Incite (not yet released) so that he can get 3 without team support. The pick between Clash 4 and Prime 4 mostly just depends on whether you want stat penalty nullification or Distant Counter as the secondary effect. If you want to run him exclusively on player phase for whatever reason (not completely unreasonable as his Hexblade gives him use as a wall breaker), you'll want to wait for Flared Sturdy to be released first. Gambit 4 is probably the strongest choice for the B slot, but because Mauvier doesn't have a source of +1 Special charge rate on his own, you'll be giving up a functional Special to run Aether to get the maximum boost from Gambit 4. That's not too much of an issue because a fully powered Gambit 4 is ridiculously strong even with a non-functional Special, but it is something to be aware of. If you have a teammate that can buff Mauvier with +1 Special charge rate, it's worth considering using an Emblem Marth Engage to sacrifice 1 stack of Gambit 4's effect to get a functional 4-cooldown Aether. The other options I'd consider for the B slot are Lull Atk/Def 4, Atk/Def Snag 4, Brash Assault 4, and Guard 4. A/D Near Trace is an option if you aren't running Alarm, but I'd probably wait for A/D Near Trace 4 to be released. Seal Atk 4 is an option, but it's only worth running if his team has no sources of Atk debuffs. Assassin's Strike is worth considering for a pure player-phase build. If you run something other than Gambit 4, his best Special is Ruptured Sky, though you can run No Quarter on him with an Emblem Marth Engage.