Ice Dragon

Well, it looks like they're going to keep trucking along with Special Heroes instead of letting regular units catch up. On the one hand, it'll be nice to see Winter Sothis get a refine sooner rather than later, but on the other hand, I'd like to see the rest of Book III get a refine first. There's still a chance, I guess, since they haven't actually started on Book IV Special Hero refines yet, but Winter Sothis or Duo Marth getting a refine at the same time as their banner rerun is a bit too fitting in terms of timing, though there's no way for them to actually keep that up outside of this one coincidence. Translation notes: Lance of Heroics is "正義の直槍" (seigi no chokusō), "Straight Lance of Justice". "直" (choku) translates as "straight" or "upright" in both the literal, physical sense and in the figurative sense of being honest or straightforward. Snide Bow is "冷笑の遊弓" (reishō no yūkyū), "Amusement Bow of Derision". "冷笑" (reishō) can be translated as "derision", "sneer", or literally as "cold smile". Cynthia: Lance of Heroics Currently has Firesweep Lance. I'm expecting Cynthia to follow Sumia's lead and not Soliel's and Roderick's. Wings of Mercy makes sense thematically, and I'd expect it to get Flower Lance's boosted version that activates at 80% HP instead of 50% HP. Canto (2) like Flower Lance would be nice, but it would be cool to get one of the novel Canto variants, like Canto (Ally 2) or Canto (Recall). Whether or not it'll have the Firesweep effect is probably a coin toss, but it is a viable defensive effect to set her apart from the horde of other fast lance fliers, so I wouldn't count it out. Python: Snide Bow Currently has Short Bow. Fuck if I know. Every bow cavalry in the game that isn't colorless is green, so hopefully whatever he gets will set him apart from everyone else. And his base kit gives absolutely no hints outside of being an offensive unit, which is already obvious. Duo Hector: Conjurer Curios Base effect is: Effective damage against armor Permanent +3 Atk If it is an odd-numbered turn or opponent's HP is 99% or lower: +4 to all stats in combat Unlike the other weapons that grant effects based on turn number, Conjurer Curios already has an alternate condition (that is easy to meet with Hector's Duo skill), so I don't think the condition will be changed. Honestly, I get the feeling that they'll just give the refine something similar to all of the other recent weapons and refines for armored units. Lots of stats. Damage reduction. Something related to follow-ups. Guard. Penalty nullification. Passive healing. The usual stuff. Maybe there will be something like Woeful Upheaval's effect based on the amount of HP the opponent has lost. Legendary Eliwood: Ardent Durandal Base effect is: Permanent +3 Atk At start of turn, grants Bonus Doubler to ally (excluding unit) with highest Atk Vision of Arcadia is being upgraded to also apply its effects to Eliwood himself, so it's likely that Ardent Durandal will also apply Bonus Doubler to himself. Additionally, since Vision of Arcadia II also grants Canto (1), it's unlikely Ardent Durandal will get Canto, even though Canto (1) is below average for a cavalry unit with Canto. Eliwood is also getting Flow Refresh with his remix, so it's possible that Ardent Durandal will get Guard to make up for not getting the generally superior Flow Guard. It looks like they're trying to make Eliwood function both as a combat unit on top of his original role as a support unit. He might get some form of damage reduction, like most other fast melee cavalry, but it's also entirely possible that he'll rely entirely on his Def stat since he's getting a bunch of Def from Bonus Doubler and Vision of Arcadia II and healing from Flow Refresh. I can also see him doing the new thing of inflicting +1 Special cooldown on the opponent at the start of combat as his primary defensive effect, especially if he Ardent Durandal gets Guard. Given that Vision of Arcadia II is granting only Atk, Spd, and Def, it's quite likely that his obligatory stat boosts will also skip Res. Unlike his base version, he's not supposed to be fighting dragons, after all. Petra: Hunting Blade Base effect is: Effective damage against beasts Slaying effect At start of combat, for each of Atk/Spd/Def/Res, if there is at least one ally with that stat higher than unit's within 2 spaces, +5 to that stat in combat Dagger common effect Hunting Blade's base effect is probably one of the most awkward effects in the game, up there with the original Freikugel. It's definitely getting reworked somehow. I can see them doing something similar to Selkie's weapon, where the weapon already grants a sizable stat boost to begin with and then grants the stats with the more awkward condition as a bonus on top. Petra's base kit (Hunting Blade, Atk/Spd Form, Aerobatics, Ground Orders) appears to be designed to have her teammates move in first and then have her attack last. Because of this, I think there are a few other options for replacing the base effect while still getting the same idea across. The first is to replace the effect with a Spectrum version of Blade Session, which significantly simplifies the condition to just making allies move first. Another option is to implement the effect as a threshold effect where the weapon grants more effects depending on the number of stats where an ally nearby has a higher value in that stat. For example, they could grant a boost to all stats at a specific threshold instead of tying the boost to each stat to a comparison of that stat specifically. Ideally, I also think they should ignore the fact that Aerobatics is already in her base kit and give her Grimoire's teleportation on her weapon, which would just be better for the intended playstyle. It would also be good give her either Pathfinder or Fruit of Idunn's teleportation effect. Yune: Chaos Manifest Base effect is: Permanent +3 Res If opponent has a Penalty: +6 Atk in combat Guaranteed follow-up Chaos Named is being completely reworked. It's now basically all four single-stat tier-4 Chill skills (using Chill Def/Res 3 as a model) plus Panic on the initially targeted unit (not the splashed units), which changes her from controlling a specific area to instead target clumped units. Since Yune is still a Penalty-based unit, she's likely getting any or all of the usual Penalty effects, like Dominance and "Penalty Doubler", which should help with her otherwise low Atk stat. Yune's primary weakness is her absolutely awful Def stat, which leaves her extremely vulnerable to all physical weapons. I'd like to see her get some form of Windsweep, probably based on Res instead of Spd and with no drawback. Alternatively, simply having a Sweep effect against opponents with Penalties is on theme. Yune is getting her default Atk/Res Bond upgraded to Atk/Res Unity with her remix, which is pretty underwhelming. However, it does look like they want to double down on her Res stat, so they might include some effect based on her Res. If not Sweep, then Dragon Wall is a possible defensive effect for her. Fallen Female Corrin: Savage Breath Base effect is: Permanent +3 Atk If there are no more than 2 allies within 2 spaces of unit: +2 to all stats in combat If there is no more than 1 ally within 2 spaces of unit: +2 to all stats in combat If there are no allies within 2 spaces of unit: +2 to all stats in combat Dragonstone common effect While the weapon's base effect isn't actually a threshold effect (adding more effects as more thresholds are met), it functions like one, and I've written it out as if it were one, and I wouldn't be surprised if they added other effects to it at each threshold. The effects Corrin wants most as a fast dragon are damage reduction and Null Follow-Up. I also wouldn't be surprised if, in addition to damage reduction, they added in other effects to mimic Negating Fang, like a boost in damage after the opponent's first attack. Corrin also definitely wants +1 Special charge rate, given that her default Special is Dragon Fang. The Slaying effect would also be nice since her only viable Special for scoring is Aether, though it doesn't seem likely that it'll happen.

Eliwood: Vision of Arcadia II If there is at least one dragon or beast ally, grants the following effects to self and ally with highest Atk (previously only ally with highest Atk): +6 Atk/Spd/Def (previously only Atk/Def) Null Panic (new) Canto (1) (new) New skill is Flow Refresh. Vision of Arcadia II is pretty insane. It now also applies to Eliwood himself and additionally grants +6 Spd, Null Panic, and Canto (1). I expect Ardent Durandal's refine to be updated so that Bonus Doubler also applies to himself. Somewhat notable is the fact that this means you only need Res Opening to fully buff a single unit (as long as that unit has both the highest Atk and Res in the team, excluding Eliwood and the unit with Res Opening) instead of Spd/Res Gap, and it also grants +6 Res instead of +5 Res. Flow Refresh is okay, though it's already available from the Legendary/Mythic rotation on Otr and from the standard pool on Sain. There's the possibility that Ardent Durandal gets Guard on it, which would at least make Flow Refresh a better option than Flow Guard. Yune: Chaos Named+ At start of turn: Inflicts -7 Atk and Panic to enemy with highest Atk and -7 Atk to enemies within 2 spaces of it Inflicts -7 Spd and Panic to enemy with highest Spd and -7 Spd to enemies within 2 spaces of it Inflicts -7 Def and Panic to enemy with highest Def and -7 Def to enemies within 2 spaces of it Inflicts -7 Res and Panic to enemy with highest Res and -7 Res to enemies within 2 spaces of it (Entire skill effect is new. Previous skill effect was -5 to the highest stat of [Atk - 15]/Spd/Def/Res on enemies in 3 columns centered on unit if Res is at least 3 greater than opponent's Res.) New skill is Atk/Res Unity. That's... interesting. It looks like they want to make Yune a more offensive unit by removing the stat comparison and the positioning requirements on her debuffs, allowing her to run an Atk Asset and more easily activate her weapon's guaranteed follow-up effect. The splash effect also punishes staying clumped up in a ball, and Panic makes it harder to utilize Bonuses, especially since Ashera is on the other season. Atk/Res Unity is pretty underwhelming. Sure, it's the extension of her default Atk/Res Bond, but they already gave Eir Atk/Res Unity as her remix skill in February, and Eir is even on this same banner.

Finn and Brunnya are the only ones I have built. Hubert, Tanith, and Wolf are leveled, but not built (though Wolf's base kit is at least usable). I'll probably start with Brunnya and then figure out where to go from there if she loses. And a quick translation note: Loyalty League is "揺るがない忠誠" (yuruganai chūsei), "Unwavering Loyalty".

Yeah. And it doesn't even activate because the bat can naturally double. For reference, our bat friend has 57 Spd (visible) + 6 Spd (Bat Fang) + 7-9 Spd (Atk/Spd Clash 4) + 4 Spd (Spd/Def Rein 3) + 6 Spd (Atk/Spd Solo 3) = 80-82 Spd as long as Atk/Spd Clash and Atk/Spd Solo activate. Lucina has 55 Spd (visible) + 5 Spd (Gerbera Axe) + 6 Spd (Kestrel Stance 3) + 4 Spd (Darting Breath) + 1-2 Spd (Ally Support) + 4 Spd (Domain of Ice) = 75-76 Spd. Giving Lucina A/S Near Save is enough to prevent the bat from doubling and reactivate Savvy Fighter. With some finagling of the positioning, I can get Lucina to survive with 2 HP remaining. She starts with 37/47 HP due to prior damage (which prevents the bat's Dive-Bomb from activating), takes 12 damage on the first hit (reduced by 58% due to Gerbera Axe and Domain of Ice), heals 5 HP on her counterattack (from Achimenes Furl), and takes 28 damage on the second hit. (The bat is getting 3 squares of movement counted towards Clash, and Lucina is getting +2 Def from Ally Support.) Or I can just delete it with Ash, who gives zero fucks about the bat's Spd. (Summer Nifl also works if I switch her Sacred Seal from Swift Sparrow to Atk/Spd Solo since she's short of doubling by only 1 Spd, but that's only because the bat doesn't have Atk/Spd Solo active on that turn.)

Nope. Lucina straight-up dies.

What the flying fuck. We live in a world where a generic bat naturally doubles a +10+10 +Spd Valentine Lucina. I guess I should hurry up and get on with giving Lucina her A/S Near Save already. Arval's crap Def made it pretty easy pickings for Summer Nifl, though. Anyways, since they haven't been posted yet, Arval's stats are 40-/44-/27-/23+/43+. Pretty much as expected. For comparison with the other slow colorless tome infantry, Legendary Micaiah has 39-/43+/32/20/42+ and Bramimond has 42-/43+/30-/24/38, both with max-minus-5 Dragonflowers.

137 pulls from the Arval banner: 2 Arval 6 Askr (+1 spark) 3 Elimine 1 Plumeria 8.7% focus rate is basically average (less than half a pull above average). The usual awful luck for the new character, but that works in my favor because all I was aiming for was a +10 Askr, and that's exactly what I got. One of the copies of Arval was +Atk, which is appreciated. I also got Plumeria up to +6, which is nice. Ricken was added straight to the standard summoning pool at 3- to 4-star rarity. This means he can be pulled from the standard summoning pool even though his debut banner hasn't ended yet (only on banners released after the release of his debut banner).

Not really. All of the "good" skill chains still require premium fodder of some sort on the receiving unit or extremely premium fodder on Grima. Dragon's Wrath has the annoying property that the tier-3 skill is still locked to 5-star Special Heroes, so you can't really chain Dragon's Wrath 4 yet. And most of the other skills worth using only have 3 tiers to begin with, like the Fighter and Save skills. There's also the annoying situation where Arcane Grima requires Flametongue, but all sources of Flametongue are either 5-star units or Grail units. Some of the skills Grima is worth using for Arcane Inheritance for: Arcane Grima (+ Flametongue) Blue Flame Distant Counter Stance skills (+ Distant Counter) Distant Counter Push skills (+ Distant Counter) Hardy Fighter 1/2/3 Savvy Fighter 1/2/3 Daring Fighter 1/2/3 Dragon Wall 1/2/3 Dragon's Wrath 1/2/3 Dragon's Wrath 4 Assault Troop 1/2/3 A/S Near Save 1/2/3 A/D Near Save 1/2/3 A/R Near Save 1/2/3 D/R Far Save 1/2/3 Also: S/D Near Save 1/2/3 S/R Near Save 1/2/3 A/S Far Save 1/2/3 S/R Far Save 1/2/3 once/if they're released.

Its name in Japanese is "Larva", and after having to deal with moth and beetle infestations, larvae are most definitely "it/eww".

And the usual translation notes: Arval's epithet, "Cycle Keeper", is "循環を見守るもの" (junkan o mimamoru mono), "The One Who Keeps Watch Over the Cycle". Rite of Souls is "魂の秘儀" (tamashii no higi), "Ritual of Souls". Duality is "陰陽の法則" (inyō no hōsoku), "Law of Duality". "陰陽" (inyō) is the Taoist yin (陰, in) and yang (陽, yō). It could also possibly be pronounced onmyō, as in "陰陽の理" (onmyō no ri), "principle of duality". Atk/Spd Oath is "攻撃魔防の信義" (kōgeki mabō no shingi), "Atk/Res Loyalty".

Since it's an Anima Mythic, I don't really have much incentive to actually pull for it. I do want more copies of Askr, though, since he evaded me on his original banner, so I'll probably spark for Askr instead and pull until I get Askr up to +10. Though I still might cut it short if I get really unlucky; I'm not really that invested in maxing out Askr, as I already score in the top 3,000 even with his current merge level. As far as other colors go, red is actually perfect for me. I somehow have none of the three units at max merge. I'm not terribly impressed by its kit. Inflicting Guard with super-Ploy range is a bit annoying, and having high Res is also a bit annoying since it'll be difficult for Henriette or Valentine Robin to break through, especially since they won't have their Specials available and won't be able to land a follow-up. Weapon triangle advantage against everything other than colorless would have been terrifying three years ago, but we have nukes and tanks these days that don't care about the weapon triangle. It's also less impressive than Harmonized Tana, who gets her "weapon triangle" effects as additional damage and flat damage reduction instead of as a weapon triangle boost. I assume if it goes up against Litrraven, the two effects will just cancel out and both will be neutral to each other. Its exclusive skill also looks like it has Cancel Affinity 1, though the wording is slightly different. Atk/Res Tempo is somewhat niche as a fodder skill since there aren't that many units that want it over a different Tempo skill (including versions that aren't yet released). Atk/Res Oath 4 seems decently useful, though. The tier-4 Oath skills are pretty good on defense teams. I'm confused why this thing comes with Glacies when it clearly should be running Iceberg.

Also including skills from 4-star Special Heroes in case you have spares: Flame Mordecai [+Atk / +Def] Fiery Fang Reposition / Smite / whatever Bonfire Sturdy Stance 2 / Atk/Def Ideal 3 Quick Riposte 3 / Dull Close 3 / Atk/Def Link 3 / Atk/Def Snag 3 / Lull Atk/Def 3 / etc. Atk/Def Gap 3 / Infantry Pulse 3 / etc. Sturdy Stance 2 / Atk/Def Form 3 / Quick Riposte 3 / etc. Sturdy Stance 2 is available from Altenna at 4-star rarity. Atk/Def Ideal 3 is available from Skasaher at 5-star rarity. Dull Close 3 is available from Female Shez at 4-star rarity. Atk/Def Link 3 is available from Vyland at 4-star rarity. Atk/Def Snag 3 is available from New Year Kaden and Spring Luthier, both at 4-star rarity. Lull Atk/Def 3 is available from Summer Lyon at 5-star rarity (also Dimitri from the SR pool). Infantry Pulse 3 is available from Pirate Geese at 4-star rarity (also Boyd and Marisa in the Grail shop at 5-star rarity and Dorcas and Nils from the SR pool). He has some options for the B slot if you're able to run Quick Riposte in the Sacred Seal slot. I like Atk/Def Link since it gives him the ability to buff himself and an ally. It's also cheap and pairs well with Atk/Def Ideal. Now that Female Shez has the skill at 4-star rarity, Dull Close is basically a super cheap version of Lull Atk/Def if you're running him on a map where opponents use Bonuses. I didn't list it above, but Atk/Def Ruse (Spring Henry at 4-star rarity) is an option if you run a Rally instead of a movement Assist. His default Atk/Def Gap is pretty decent already. You can give him Infantry Pulse for Pulse support, though it is still somewhat expensive. Otherwise, he'll do fine with any of the usual placeholder C skills like Drive skills, Close Guard, Smoke skills, Fortify Beasts, etc.

Yeah. Not including the additional stats from the Res comparison, Flora has 47/67/34/41-/50 with her weapon equipped and max Dragonflowers. The (out-of-combat) Res comparison can grant up to 8 more points in all stats, including Spd. She also gets 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack if her (in-combat) Res is higher than the opponent's and prevents the opponent's follow-up if her Res is at least 7 higher than the opponent's. Henriette has 47-/60-/21-/43/51+ with a Res refine and max Dragonflowers. Valentine Robin has 44-/60+/18-/46/49- with her weapon equipped and max Dragonflowers. Henriette gets 4 points of healing per attack, and Robin gets 5 points. Robin also gets 30% damage reduction on the opponent's first attack. Flora's raw stats without the additional stats from the Res comparison are pretty similar to Henriette's and Robin's. The additional stats are a decent substitute for passive healing, though 1 point of passive healing is stronger than 1 point each in Def and Res due to the fact that with healing you gain HP if the opponent's Atk is too low instead of just taking no damage (and healing can functionally mitigate damage that ignores defense). Flora's primary advantage is the fact that she has an actual Spd stat with follow-up prevention, which blocks follow-ups from slower units. However, with the introduction of the Null Follow-Up Sacred Seal, slow infantry with guaranteed follow-ups (namely Duo Chrom) are occasionally running Null Follow-Up instead of a stat-boosting Sacred Seal, which allows them to ignore both Flora's Spd and follow-up prevention. However, most fast ranged units (including Harmonized Lysithea) don't have any form of Null Follow-Up and will be shut down. On the other hand, the ones that do pretty much all run Windsweep, and Flora is vulnerable to Windsweep. I think Flora is at least comparable to Henriette. Robin is probably still better.

Our next Resplendent Hero is Nidavellir Jaffar: This makes him our second Nidavellir dagger after Sothe and our fifth Resplendent dagger overall (all of which have been infantry). As usual, the art is pretty good. Tactical assassin. Unfortunately, Jaffar's stats are pretty unsalvageable for conventional combat. With the Resplendent boost and max Dragonflowers, he has 48/33/40/32/29. In comparison, Legault has 44/36/43/29/24 and a significantly better weapon, and Cath has 43/38/45/29/32 and access to the same inheritable weapons as Jaffar, but is green. As far as 4-star colorless daggers go, Gaius (even without Resplendent boosts), Kaze, Chad, Gangrel, and Kronya all have better offenses in addition to the previously mentioned Legault. Jaffar's exclusive weapon isn't awful, but it does compete with Bone Carver, which has a similar effect. Deathly Dagger deals 10 damage to the target and surrounding opponents after combat and blocks counterattacks from tome units, whereas Bone Carver deals only 7 damage to the target and surrounding opponents, but boosts Atk and Spd by 5 (though 2 points of that Atk boost are lost to lower Mt). Jaffar can still be built with an okay Sweep + Savage Blow build by running Windsweep, which allows him to Sweep everything except dragons and staves as long as he is faster (and tomes even if he isn't faster), though he's going to be unable to Sweep most fast units due to his lower base Spd, lack of a Spd boost from his weapon, and the potential sacrifice of Spd for another stack of Savage Blow or Poison Strike in the Sacred Seal slot. Since other units can run inheritable weapons better than he can, he's better off just running something based around Deathly Dagger, but if you insist on using Jaffar with an inheritable weapon, his best options are the standard Vicious Dagger and Bone Carver builds.

The +6 Atk from Atk/Res Menace does the same thing as the -6 Def from Def/Res Menace if the opponent is ranged and has lower Def than Res. If you convert all of the bonuses and penalties into effective bonuses, here's how the two skills compare: Against a melee opponent or ranged opponent with higher Res that got hit with the debuff: Atk/Res: +12 Atk, +6 Def, +12 Res (+6 Atk, +6 Def, +6 Res if Bonuses nullified) Def/Res: +6 Atk, +12 Def, +12 Res (+6 Atk, +6 Def, +6 Res if Bonuses nullified) Against a ranged opponent with higher Def that got hit with the debuff: Atk/Res: +6 Atk, +6 Def, +12 Res (+0 Atk, +6 Def, +6 Res if Bonuses nullified) Def/Res: +6 Atk, +12 Def, +12 Res (+6 Atk, +6 Def, +6 Res if Bonuses nullified) Against an opponent that didn't get hit with the debuff (or nullifies them): Atk/Res: +6 Atk, +0 Def, +6 Res Def/Res: +0 Atk, +6 Def, +6 Res The only situation where Atk/Res Menace loses in effective Atk compared to Def/Res Menace is against a ranged opponent with higher Def than Res that got hit with the debuff and nullifies Tiki's Atk Bonuses. And if you have other units on the team capable of debuffing Def, then getting an Atk Bonus on Tiki is obviously always preferred offensively over a Def Bonus. I think the only situation where running Def/Res Menace is strictly better than running Atk/Res Menace is if you have a teammate that is granting Tiki an Atk Bonus and you also have a teammate that can debuff the opponents' Atk.

Definitely Res. Brave Tiki's ability to uncharge the opponent's Special at the start of combat depends on a Res comparison, so Atk and Res are easily her two most important stats. (And it's worth switching her C skill to Atk/Res Menace because of this.) Unlike Brave Byleth who uses Spd Preempt primarily for the Vantage effect, Shinon uses Spd Preempt primarily for its unconditional +4 effective Spd. The Vantage effect is good enough as a secondary effect that it's at least competitive with other B skills that grant two stats and an additional effect if you're going to be using Shinon as a dual-phase unit.

66 pulls on the Double Special Heroes banner: 3 Maria (+1 spark) 4 Roy 1 Ike 12.1% focus rate is nearly double the average. That's nice. This obviously means I'm going to have absolute garbage luck on the upcoming Mythic Hero banner, but that's nice. Maria is now +10. Roy is now +7 and has a new +Spd merge base.

Dual-phase isn't the best since ranged units lack stats to tank with, but you can probably make it work well enough in PvE modes, especially if you commonly use units like Nifl or Flayn. An ideal dual-phase build would probably look like this: Shinon [+Spd] Double Bow [Assist] Deadeye Atk/Spd Finish 4 Spd/Def Tempo 3 / Special Spiral 3 / Spd Preempt 3 Spd Smoke 4 Null Follow-Up 3 / Atk/Spd Solo 3 but Atk/Spd Finish 4 isn't available in Hall of Forms yet, which is a bit disappointing. As far as grabbing skills from Hall of Forms, I'd probably go for this: Shinon Whitecap Bow+ [Spd] Rally Atk/Spd+ / Harsh Command+ / any other Rally+ Ruptured Sky Atk/Res Finish 4 / Atk/Spd Solo 4 / Atk/Spd Ideal 4 Spd/Def Tempo 3 / Spd Preempt 3 Spd Smoke 4 Ruptured Sky is there because he already has Deadeye, and Ruptured Sky is the next-most-expensive skill in the slot. Atk/Res Finish is an okay substitute for Atk/Spd Finish, but it might be better to just grab something else depending on how much you're willing to invest in this Shinon outside of Hall of Forms. Atk/Spd Solo fits with Double Bow's Solo condition and provides the most stats without a downside. Atk/Spd Ideal is there because it's expensive and it pairs with Whitecap Bow if you need to use it as a temporary build for a challenge map. I don't have Special Spiral listed in the B slot because it's relatively cheap compared to the other options, but you can still grab it if you need it.

We've finally looped back around to the first map again. This one is my favorite because it has a lot of open space, which is good for cavalry and Assault Troop. I managed to win one match by just having Harmonized Edelgard sit in the middle of the map, winning with capture points alone with no rounds of combat fought. Four wins and zero losses this week puts me at 4,699 points, which is currently rank 567 and promotes me up to Diamond D. I rearranged my teams a bit with some of the more recently released units and managed to make my team 4 even more intimidating, even though it's supposed to function as an actual team now. I assume Duo Chrom is still just an auto-veto, though I also assume Duo Duma tagging along is an instant nope. Teams 2 and 3 were vetoed twice each, but I really wanted to use Edelgard this week and picked team 1 for each match. I should probably build a Far Save Brave Edelgard sometime. It seems like she can probably function as both a Far Save tank and melee wall at the same time with a single build.

Mediuth never appears in the Arena. I'm also pretty sure I've never seen Fallen Rhea in the Arena. Save tanks generally don't appear in the Arena since they can't really keep up with their teammates (outside of Brave Edelgard). Legendary Fae can't land a follow-up attack when initiating combat, which makes her tankable, and she's less likely to run Dragon Wall herself to tank the counterattack from Naga. I haven't actually run into Brave Tiki yet, but I wouldn't be using Naga against her anyways since Tiki has effective damage and a guaranteed follow-up. If neither unit has a Res Asset, Naga is up by 1 point of Res (assuming you can nullify Tiki's Menace skill, like with Chill Def/Res from Duo Nina). If both have a Res Asset, their Res is tied (since Tiki has a superboon, whereas Naga does not). There's really no reason to try to contest Res with Tiki in the first place. I've run into him in the Arena a few times already, and Naga chunks him for 2/3 of his health pretty reliably while taking very little on the counterattack. Duma doesn't actually get any Res from his weapon or his C slot, which already sets him back 13 points of Res and more than makes up for the fact that a Duo Duma with a Res Asset (which no one runs unless they gave him a floret) has 8 base Res over Halloween Naga. He's also unlikely to be running Atk/Res Ideal or Distant Stance in the A slot, which gives Naga a minimum of 3 more points of Res over him (Mirror Stance grants the most Res of the skills Duma is likely to use). Against Duma with a Res Asset, Naga is up at least 8 points of Res, and against Duma without a Res Asset, Naga is up at least 12 points of Res.

I don't really see a reason to pass up on 4 Atk on the dragon flier with the highest base Atk stat when she already has 64 Res. I'm not convinced that going from 64 Res to 67 Res is worth giving up 4 Atk regardless of the B skill she has. Ascended Idunn is fine. Hector will have more effective Def due to merges, but Idunn's effective Res is always going to be significantly higher, which will help against the annoying tome units with way too much Atk. If you don't have Hardy Fighter, Idunn wants to run something like this: Ascended Idunn [+Res] Dew Dragonstone [Assist] Glacies / Iceberg Distant Def 4 Crafty Fighter 3 A/R Far Save 3 Distant Counter (D) Glacies deals the most damage. Iceberg doesn't hit as hard as Glacies, but punishes units with Brave weapons (or Triangle Attack) by activating on the first counterattack. Aether and Sol are options for sustain if you don't have any other source of healing. If you don't have Crafty Fighter, you can still use her default Wily Fighter with a tier-4 Stance skill, though you'll lose out on 2 Res and at least 2 Def. Preferably, you want Bracing Stance, but Mirror Stance is also an okay option (though it'll make you more vulnerable to Firesweep Bow). If you can offload Guard to a teammate, you can run Dragon's Ire instead of Crafty Fighter. Unfortunately, Idunn can't effectively run Def/Res Unity since she nullifies Penalties, so she's stuck with Distant Def as her best A skill, even if you can offload Dull to a teammate. If you want to run Deflect Magic, run Distant Stance in the A slot. If you can get either Dull or Guard from a teammate, run the other Fighter skill in the B slot; otherwise, Crafty Fighter is more useful than Wily Fighter if you can get neither effect.

She's getting Dragon Wall regardless because there's no other skill she can get from Rearmed Robin at the same time that I give her Arcane Grima. And I don't have Dragon's Wrath.

Since the game keeps giving me Ascended Heroes as pity breakers, I did some quick testing on Ascended Asset merge mechanics, and I thought I'd post them here for reference: If the merge fodder does not have an Ascended Asset, nothing changes. Obviously. If the merge base already has an Ascended Asset, nothing changes. Otherwise, the merge base will receive an Ascended Asset with the following priority (i.e. the first one that doesn't overlap the merge base's regular Asset): The same stat as the merge fodder's Ascended Asset. The same stat as the merge fodder's regular Asset. The merge base's highest stat at level 1, excluding the merge base's regular Asset, with ties broken by order on the stat screen (top first). You're probably never going to run into a situation where this will matter, but it's still possible. It's most likely to come up if you want to change your unit's Ascended Asset and would rather pull for extra copies of the unit instead of using Trait Fruits (entirely possible for 4-star-summonable units). For example, if you have a unit with a Spd Asset and an Atk Ascended Asset and you want to change the Ascended Asset to Res due to the release of a new skill or something (like what happened with Dragon Wall): Merge the unit into a copy with an Atk Asset. This will result in a unit with +Atk +Spd (with Spd as the Ascended Asset instead of Atk). Then merge the unit into a copy with a Res Asset. This will result in a unit with +Res +Spd (with Spd as the Ascended Asset). If you want to swap the Asset with the Ascended Asset for whatever reason (like OCD), merge the unit into a copy with a Spd Asset again. And obviously, if you're ever changing merge bases on Ascended Heroes, it's always best to give the new merge base its Ascended Asset first (because it's free) to make sure you don't accidentally fuck things up.

Best to run them through a simulator to see if the builds you have available to you will work. On Winter Ephraim, you'll want to check if he actually needs the enemy-phase Brave effect to activate for whatever build you're aiming for. Nanna has a really high Atk stat with all of the passive skills she typically runs, so activating the Brave effect might not be reliable.

Kjelle can certainly pull it off since she can lower Nanna's Atk by at least 25 points across all of Heartbeat Lance's effects on top of traditional Def stacking. Nanna is tankable by just stacking a ton of Def (or Atk reduction or flat damage reduction) on your tank instead of relying on percentage damage reduction. Blue units obviously have it easier since they have weapon triangle advantage. If you can get through Nanna's attacks, killing her on the counterattack is trivial since she doesn't have any defensive effects other than the Desperation effect. If all you need is a dedicated counter, Hardy Bearing shuts her down entirely if you have a unit that can kill her in a single hit. You can also use Triangle Adept on a blue unit to mitigate more damage.