Ice Dragon

Given that every Sacaean archer has been green ever since colored bows were released, I would be surprised if Hanon were not green. She also has a semi-canon appearance in the Hasha manga, even if it doesn't have much definition, so her design shouldn't be too big of a problem (though she literally just looks like an older version of Sue, which is kind of boring). We also just got Elimine as the most recent Mythic Hero, so I doubt it'll be a second Elibe character in a row.

Of the 26 Halls of Forms we've gotten since the introduction of Forma Souls (including the upcoming one) (Forma Souls were first released during the fourth run of the event), only half of them (exactly 13) have had Grail units. And yeah, it's been a really long time since we last got a legitimately good Grail unit from Hall of Forms. Naesala was last October's run, but he's kind of mediocre right now (at least he'll get a refine in the next couple months that should hopefully let him catch up), so Ashnard in last September's run was probably the last good Grail unit at the moment.

Oh, good, we're finally getting another Grail unit in Hall of Forms. I really wish they'd have one in every line-up.

Added translation note for Fiery Bolganone.

Blue Lion Rule is percentage damage reduction, whereas Pastel Poleaxe's effect is flat damage reduction. It's the same effect as Shield Pulse's 5 damage reduction except the flat number is based on the unit's Def stat instead of being a fixed value. Flat damage reduction has two specific interactions that are distinct from percentage damage reduction: Flat damage reduction isn't nullified by Deadeye, etc. Flat damage reduction is applied after percentage damage reduction. This means if the unit has both, enemy damage is first mitigated by Def, then by percentage damage reduction, then once again by flat damage reduction. This makes flat damage reduction extremely powerful when the unit also has a source of percentage damage reduction. Flat damage reduction's primary drawback is the fact that on its own, it's weaker than percentage damage reduction on its own, and it's also weaker than percentage damage reduction the more damage the opponent deals.

There's no reason to use Raven over Linus now unless you don't have the Grails to buy copies of Linus. Linus has -1/+6/+1/+10/+0 over Resplendent Raven even before applying the in-combat Panic effect from Fanged Basilikos, so Linus is just strictly better, even if you have Raven's Resplendent outfit. If you have the resources to merge up Linus, just use Linus.

The other promoted-beyond-their-default-class-in-their-original-version units don't have secret stashes of horses, though.

Blame Eliwood for hogging all of the horses. He's the only unit that gains a horse on promotion that has his horse in his normal version.

Two questions due to my usual indecisiveness: First, I just hit 999,999 feathers and need to spend them (and I have a piggy bank of several hundred thousand more in 3- and 4-star manuals, so I can splurge as much as I want). Anyone care to sell me on their favorite 4-star unit or Grail unit that is done being rerun (Grand Hero Battles units up through Panne and Tempest Trials units that were previously available through Divine Codes) for me to +10 (or +9 for Grail units that haven't yet appeared in Hall of Forms)? Here's all of the ones that I already have at +10 (ordered by weapon, then movement type, then origin, i.e. the default when you sort by level) : And because it's probably relevant, here are all of the 4-star Resplendent Heroes that I have not yet gotten to +10 (ordered by Resplendent release date): Second, I've been flip-flopping on my stance for when to run a Spd Asset versus a different Asset on staff units. My current stance is that any unit faster than Mist should run a Spd Asset, which means any unit with more than 36 base Spd at +10 merge, max Dragonflowers, and with their weapon equipped (32 base Spd at +0 merge). However, now that staff units have access to a legitimately good Spd-boosting A skill in Atk/Spd Ideal and with Atk/Spd Push being much easier to obtain, it feels like it might now be worth running slower staff units with a Speed Asset if only just to creep their ability to double units with middling Spd. Genny in particular recovers 7 HP after combat, which allows her to run Atk/Spd Push 4 + Atk/Spd Push 3 with no drawbacks, which boosts her Spd by 12 points. At +10+20, Genny has 33 base Spd, which allows her to hit 45 Spd with neutral Spd or 49 Spd with an Asset. Even without Dragonflowers, Genny hits 45 Spd with an Asset (and 47 Spd with Atk/Spd Ideal 4 if she has a Bonus). It sounds like I should probably switch Genny over to a Spd build, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I should also switch her Asset, especially when she has the second highest Atk stat of all staff units (or highest if you run Genny with an Atk Asset and Sara with a Spd Asset). But if I do switch her Asset to Spd, it begs the question of where I should set the new cutoff. August, for example, is a clear case of a Spd Asset being largely useless, as he only hits 37 Spd at +10+5 with a Spd Asset and double Atk/Spd Push and isn't really a combat unit, having 6 less Atk than Genny with their weapons equipped. He also can't maintain Atk/Spd Push 3 in the Sacred Seal slot and has to compete with the rest of the team for the more typical Spd-boosting Sacred Seals. However, it's likely that we'll eventually get Atk/Spd Ideal 3 as a Sacred Seal in the not-so-near future, so that problem will likely sort itself out eventually. Winter Eirika and Valentine Lissa hit 45 Spd at +10 merge with max Dragonflowers, a Spd Asset, and double Atk/Spd Push, but also would need to compete with the rest of the team for Sacred Seals until the release of Atk/Spd Ideal 3 due to having no way to maintain Atk/Spd Push 3. tl;dr: With staff units now having easier access to Spd-boosting skills, where should I set the cutoff for running a Spd Asset over a different Asset (assuming +10 merges and max Dragonflowers)?

51 pulls, pulling until I get one Focus unit after the spark: 1 Ishtar (+1 spark) 2 Tinny And a bunch of pity breakers: 1 Perceval 1 Silque 1 Ronan 1 Julian Total 5.9% Focus rate and 13.7% overall 5-star rate, both of which are well above average. Ishtar is still cursed to never be +Spd as I still haven't pulled a +Spd normal Ishtar in the 18 copies of her I've gotten, and this Ascended Ishtar is +Atk. (I have pulled a +Spd Dancer Ishtar, though.) The Tinnys are +Def and +Res, so nothing really noteworthy. Perceval is now +7. Julian would be +5 if I bothered to actually merge all of my spare copies. This is my third Ronan, but he's being held in skill fodder limbo.

Tinny's, Arthur's, and Ishtar's stats are unsurprising. Even if Arthur didn't get an exclusive weapon, he at least has the highest offensive stats of all infantry green tomes. Even with just Gronnfox+ [Spd], he's still on par with Asvel, Pent, Lugh, and Legendary Celica and flat-out beats Sety. I think only Legendary Byleth and Levn are flat out better than him. That said, I think this mostly just highlights the fact that there just aren't many good exclusive weapons among infantry green tomes. Skasaher's stats are good for his role, but his role is garbage. His biggest problem is that his main competitor is Bride Oboro, who has +1/-1/+7/-1/-6 relative to him after Dragonflowers, which is literally the exact same as him except not slow (and she even has the exact same weapon). Slow melee tanks really need some better options, namely for their B skill since they're forced to either give up their B slot for Quick Riposte or give up a stat-boosting skill to run Quick Riposte in the Sacred Seal slot. I think they should release something similar to Pastel Poleaxe's effect for infantry sword, lance, and axe (numbers adjustable, but you get the idea): If unit's Def > foe's Def and foe initiates combat, neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack, and reduces damage from foe's attacks by 20% of unit's Def (excluding area-of-effect Specials). I think something like this would significantly help bulky melee infantry actually remain relevant, especially with more skills being released that ignore percentage damage reduction. That said, this wouldn't change the fact that Oboro is still better than him. Hilda: There's no point running Spd/Res Menace on her over the easier to get Atk/Spd Menace (or the strictly better Spd/Def Menace once it's released). Spd/Res Menace overlaps with the debuffs on her weapon and grants less useful buffs, resulting in a total gain of +6/+12/+0/+6 relative to having no C skill with a maximum of +12/+12/+6/+6 with a +6 buff to all stats provided by allies. In comparison, Atk/Spd Menace grants +12/+12/+0/+0 (maximum +12/+12/+6/+6), and Spd/Def Menace grants +12/+12/+6/+0 (maximum +18/+12/+6/+6). EDIT: Looking through the datamine, the internal names of some of the characters amuse me. Tinny, whose official name from previous publications is spelled "Teeny" now has the internal name "Tiny". This is actually kind of hilarious. ウケる～ Hilda, whose official name from previous publications is spelled "Hilda", manages to avoid having the same internal name as the other Hilda by having it now spelled "Gilda", presumably using the Spanish pronunciation of the name.

Dancer Ethlin's Courtly Fan and Rennac's Vicious Dagger (both weapons are identical except for their name and sprite). Ethlin is available from Divine Codes. Rennac is in the standard summoning pool. The weapon has +5 Atk/Spd and the offensive half of Null Follow-Up on player phase. The offensive half of Null Follow-Up is obviously the main draw of the weapon due to the fact that it allows you to run Windsweep or Watersweep, but that in combination with being able to get a total of +5 Atk and +7 Spd after refine is what really makes the weapon amazing.

Cooldown is the most important property of a Special skill, and Deadeye should be treated like any other 3-cooldown Special. If you wouldn't use Luna on the unit, you probably shouldn't use Deadeye. The only exception to that rule is Arena scoring, though usually only in the case where you don't have Ruptured Sky available. In general, if the unit doesn't already nullify percentage damage reduction and the unit can land a guaranteed (or close to guaranteed) 3-cooldown Special on every round of combat, Deadeye is worth using on them. Units that already nullify percentage damage reduction and can land a guaranteed 3-cooldown Special on every round of combat would generally prefer to run Luna (or Bonfire or Iceberg depending on stats), as you run into the same issue with Glimmer and Moonbow where dealing damage based on the opponent's Def/Res is typically more valuable than dealing damage based on your own damage (except in game modes with inflated HP where dealing damage based on your own damage is sometimes better). Units that can't land a guaranteed 3-cooldown Special on every round of combat should just run a 2-cooldown Special (Ruptured Sky, Moonbow, Glimmer). However, Sweepers without any Special acceleration have the option to run Deadeye for a guaranteed Special every other round of combat if you want to run a combat skill in the C slot instead of Time's Pulse (or can't run Time's Pulse due to movement type).

Not everyone looks their age. I easily could have passed for a middle schooler or high schooler when I graduated from college when I shaved off my facial hair. (And that was one of the remarks I got when introducing myself to my coworkers on my first day of work at my previous job.) And this is even if you ignore the fact that different artists have different art styles that make their characters look older or younger as a whole. Karin and Cath at least have stat spreads that are relevant. Cath also has the advantage of being a dagger unit, which has the single best inheritable weapon in the game (which is also available from Divine Codes). Slow infantry don't really have a place in the current meta.

Anyways, the usual translation notes: The banner name, "New Heroes & Ascended Ishtar", is "新英雄＆開花イシュタル" (shin-eiyū & kaika ishutaru), "New Heroes & Blooming Ishtar". As usual, "開花" (kaika), "blooming", is the Japanese name for Ascended Heroes. Tinny's epithet, "Rumbling Thunder", is "受難の雷姫" (junan no raiki), "Thunder Princess of Suffering". Thunderer Tome is "怒雷の紫書" (dorai no shisho), "Violet Tome of Raging Thunder". The word "怒" (do), "anger", is the same word used in "怒り" (ikari), the name of the Wrath skill. Violet is a color commonly associated with lightning in Japanese, such as in the word "紫電" (shiden), literally "violet lightning", which refers to the flash of lightning in a darkened sky and, by extension, any bright flash of light, but especially the glint of sunlight off of a sword (and is also the name of the Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden WWII-era IJN fighter). Blue Feud is "青への暗闘" (ao e no antō), "Secret Feud Against Blue". Arthur's epithet, "Furious Mage", is "怒りの魔法戦士" (ikari no mahō senshi), "Magic Warrior of Wrath". "怒り" (ikari), "anger", is the name of the Wrath skill in Japanese. Gronnvulture is "グルンバルチャー" (gurunbaruchā), "Gronnvulture". Spd/Res Menace is "速さ魔防の脅嚇" (hayasa-mabō no kyōkaku), "Spd/Res Intimidation". Skasaher's epithet, "Astra's Wake", is "地を走る流星" (chi o hashiru ryūsei), "Shooting Star Streaking Across the Ground". "流星" (ryūsei), "shooting star", is the name of the Astra skill in Japanese. Spirited Sword is "士気旺盛の剣" (shiki-ōsei no tsurugi), "Sword of Heightened Morale". Ishtar's epithet, "Echoing Thunder", is "死地の雷神" (shichi no raijin), "Thunder God of Imminent Death". "死地" (shichi), literally "land of death" or "place of death", has several meanings, including "a dangerous location or situation likely to result in death", "a situation from which one cannot escape" (i.e. a deathtrap, both literally and metaphorically), or "the place where one died". Thunder's Mjolnir is "雷神トールハンマー" (raijin tōruhanmā), "Thunder God Thor Hammer". "トールハンマー" (tōruhanmā), "Thor Hammer", is the name of Jugdral's Mjolnir, which is not the same weapon as the Mjolnir from Fates or the Mjolnir from Heroes, both of which are named "ミョルニル" (myoruniru), "Mjolnir". Hilda's epithet, "Queen of Friege", is "フリージの女王" (furīji no joō), "Queen of Friege". Fiery Bolganone is "嘲謔ボルガノン" (chōgyaku boruganon), "Sadistic Bolganone". "嘲謔" (chōgyaku) is a novel compound word composed of "嘲る" (azakeru), "to ridicule", and "謔れる" (tawamureru), "to be amused" (also "to play at" or "to joke"), and I'm interpreting it as "finding enjoyment in causing torment".

Tinny just has Slaying, Wrath, and Deadeye on her weapon except her version of Wrath is significantly more lenient. Ishtar has a conditional Brave weapon with Slaying and Tempo, which is nice because it means it doesn't have the usual penalty to Atk that normal Brave weapons get. I think they're playing a bit too loosely with what they consider a colorless tome nowadays. Arthur and Skasaher exist, I guess. Arthur at least comes with good skills. Skasaher's weapon is at least decent for an inheritable weapon. I'm half-expecting Hilda to just be red Sonia. Skasaher never had a chance to get Imperial Astra, though there is an argument for him getting Regnal Astra. Regnal Astra in Japanese is "剣姫の流星" (kenki no ryūsei), "the sword princess's Astra", i.e. "Ayra's Astra". He's guaranteed to inherit Astra in Genealogy since he always has Ayra as a parent, so it would have made sense to have given him the skill. However, it looks like he's going to be a slow infantry sword, so even if he did get Regnal Astra, it wouldn't be useful for him. Imperial Astra in Japanese is "剣皇の流星" (kenkō no ryūsei), "the sword emperor's Astra". There's basically no way they'd give this to anyone other than Shannan (or a previous king of Isaac). The best part is that his epithet in Japanese is a reference to Wrath instead of Fury. And he also didn't get Wrath.

Of particular interest for this map, Blazing Sword is severely lacking in red units, having gotten only five of them since the beginning of Book 3 (Legendary Eliwood, Summer Fiora, Duo Hector, Winter Zephiel, and Erk) and only one since the beginning of Book 5 (Erk). Of the older units, only Karla and Canas have modern refines. And also maybe regular Eliwood. When it comes to modern damage reduction tanks, Blazing Sword's most recent melee infantry is Desert Karla, but excluding her, the most recent melee infantry is Linus, followed by Karla, Dorcas, and Lloyd. Linus and Karla are old enough to have refines and recent enough to have modern refines, but everyone from Dorcas backwards is not so lucky, and the gap between Desert Karla and Linus is three and a half years, which is more than two thirds of this game's current age. Legault and Brave Eliwood also have modern refines with damage reduction. Blazing Sword's more recent units are overwhelmingly dominated by fragile ranged offensive units, which are generally a poor match-up for maps with large numbers of reinforcements and is exacerbated by the walls making it difficult to use Reposition to use their preferred strategy of hit and run. As far as mobility is concerned, Blazing Sword only has three melee cavalry (all of which are Eliwood) and seven ranged cavalry. Of the ranged cavalry, only two have exclusive weapons, and neither is considered modern. Of the game's cavalry and flying units, none of them have Canto in their default skill sets. What's probably contributing most to the dearth of good units is the fact that the last time Blazing Sword had a seasonal banner was Winter 2019, as seasonal banners each typically have at least two or three extremely good units on them. In the past two years, we've only gotten three seasonal units total (Harmonized Tiki, Duo Lyn, and Desert Karla). Speaking of which, we are comically long overdue for a Blazing Sword seasonal banner.

Just Lyn things:

Zero. I would have given a low, but non-zero, number prior to the release of Dragonflowers, but I now consider the odds to be actually zero. Unlike most other games where extra copies of units after a full "merge" are actually completely useless (and typically give you some form of consolation currency to make up for it), FEH has an alternate use for extra copies. Not increasing the merge limit is what gives players confidence to spend their extra copies of rare units on skill inheritance instead of hoarding them for a potential future limit increase. Feather piggy bank.

Continuing the theme with just Grima things: This one was the toughest so far since both of the Halloween Grimas are +0 and have no skill inheritance besides Reposition.

Elimine is useless in Summoner Duels. The mention of Summoner Duels in her weapon effect is there to tell you that most of its effects don't apply there. Elimine's primary purpose outside of Aether Raids is essentially identical to that of Flayn. It's also worth noting that she counts as a Roy-head unit and not as a Lyn-head unit. Brave Micaiah is completely different from Legendary Micaiah. Legendary Micaiah functions similarly to regular Micaiah. The only major differences other than better stats and a different color is that Legendary Micaiah's damage reduction has no restrictions based on enemy type, her exclusive Assist skill is Sacrifice and Harsh Command+ combined, and her weapon only comes with Desperation 2 and she can't run Desperation 3 due to her exclusive passive skill taking up the B slot. Brave Micaiah is a debuffer and debuff exploiter. She's essentially a slightly different version of Legendary Male Byleth. Female Byleth has "Joint Drive Tempo" that's always active when initiating combat and buffs herself with +7 Atk/Spd, Null Follow-Up, and Warp Powder as Bonuses when starting the turn within 2 spaces of an ally. Male Byleth has "Joint Drive Null Follow-Up" that's always active when initiating combat, fully charges his Special at the start of every turn with Time's Pulse, and has a Special that deals slightly more damage and ignores percentage damage reduction. Female Byleth's advantages are that her Special cannot be stopped by Guard, she has Warp Powder mobility, and self-buffs herself with a superior +7 Atk/Spd without the need of support. However, she has no way around percentage damage reduction. However, because female Byleth's Special is intended to land on the second hit, it gets around Fallen Edelgard's damage reduction on the first hit. Male Byleth's advantages are that his Special ignores percentage damage reduction and deals slightly more damage, but he's vulnerable to Guard if he engages in more than one round of combat in a single turn. Both Legendary Byleths are intended to function as Fallen Edelgard counters and as Null Follow-Up Windsweepers. Female Byleth is also really good skill fodder, as she has both Atk/Spd Ideal 4 and Ruptured Sky. Legendary Eliwood is good support because he grants Bonus Doubler and +6 Atk/Def to the unit(s) with the highest Atk excluding himself, but he's rather inflexible due to the fact that you can't choose the target(s) of his buffs once you're in a map and the fact that the +6 Atk/Def requires a beast or dragon unit on the team. Astrid does virtually the same thing, but applies Bonus Doubler (and +1 Movement) when she uses a Rally Assist instead of as a start-of-turn effect. This gives you the benefit of being able to pick a target for the buffs as well as the stats given by the Rally, but comes at the cost of an action and can only be applied to one unit per action. Eliwood's main issues right now are the fact that his buffs are inflexible and require more preparation at the point of team building and the fact that he has poor combat performance due to the complete lack of combat effects on his weapon. He's good, but I wouldn't consider him a must-have, and it'd be better to wait for his Remix to pull for him.

Just Legendary and Brave things:

Reminding me of why Katsura's art style is my favorite of the artists working on this. Her Ash, Azura, and Gatekeeper are adorable. (At least, pretty sure they're a she.) I get the feeling she likes Ash. (Best laser cow is best laser cow.) She also posted this on her Twitter for last week's chapter ("I drew chapter 225. Alfonse and Ash make an appearance."):

Lull is better in game modes where the opponent is likely to use Bonuses, like high Arena. Trace is better in game modes that favor mobility. I'd still prefer Desperation due to her extremely low physical bulk. You can run Atk/Spd Push 4 to reduce the healing from her refine if you find it difficult to keep Desperation active.

Just Tiki things: