Ice Dragon

Mozu's country accent in Japanese is adorable. Yukimura's art is gorgeous. I have no idea why the Fates localization team renamed Tsukuyomi to "Hayato". Bonus Doubler 4 now being added to the standard summoning pool is pretty cool. It's also nice to finally get Sabotage A/D 3. Now to wait for Atk/Def Ploy 3. Assuming Mercy-Wing Echo has the same inheritance restrictions as Wings of Mercy (i.e. none), it looks like a funny skill to give to armors for teleportation shenanigans. Anyways, here are the usual translation notes: The banner name, "New Heroes & Attuned Azura", is "新英雄＆響心アクア" (shin eiyū & kyōshin akua), "New Heroes & Resonating Hearts Azura". As usual, "響心" (kyōshin), "resonating hearts", is the term used for Attuned Heroes. Mozu's epithet, "Tragic Start", is "悲劇にさす光明" (higeki ni sasu kōmyō), "Light That Shines Upon Tragedy". Forager Naginata is "農地の主の薙刀" (nōchi no aruji no naginata), "Naginata of the Farmland's Proprietor". A/S Bulwark is "攻撃速さの防壁" (kōgeki hayasa no bōheki), "Atk/Spd Bulwark". Yukimura's epithet, "Puppet Master", is "白夜王国の軍師" (byakuya ōkoku no gunshi), "The Kingdom of Hoshido's Tactician". Perspicacious is "軍略伝授の刃" (gunryaku denju no yaiba), "Blade of Tactics Instruction". Sabotage A/D is "攻撃守備の混乱" (kōgeki shubi no konran), "Atk/Def Confusion". Hayato's epithet, "Diviner of Reppu", is "烈風城の呪い師" (reppū-jō no majinai-shi), "Diviner of Castle Reppū". "呪い師" (majinai-shi), "spellcaster", but with "呪い" (majinai) typically referring to more traditional charms and curses rather than Western fantasy magic, is the name of the Diviner class. "烈風" (reppū) translates to "gale". Rauðrlantern is "ラウアランタン" (rauarantan), "Rauðrlantern". Azura's epithet, "Song's Reflection", is "響く絆のうた" (hibiku kizuna no uta), "Song of Resonating Bonds". Tri-Path Splitter is "三つの道歌う法具" (mittsu no michi utau hōgu), "Ritual Tool That Sings the Three Paths". Changing Waters is "つたうみなすじ" (tsutau minasuji), "The Water Vein That I Follow". This is the third line of the Japanese lyrics of the song Lost in Thoughts All Alone from Fates. A/D Cantrip is "攻撃守備の魅了" (kōgeki shubi no miryō), "Atk/Def Charm". Mercy-Wing Echo is "響・救援の行路" (kyō: kyūen no kōro), "Resonance: Path of Rescue". "救援の行路" (kyūen no kōro), "path of rescue", is the name of the Wings of Mercy skill. Candace's epithet, "Sly Snatcher", is "神出鬼没の探検家" (shinshutsu kibotsu no tankenka), "Elusive Explorer". "神出鬼没" (shishutsu kibotsu) is an idiom that literally translates as "appearing like a god and disappearing like a demon", referring to someone or something that appears at unexpected times and places. Lucrative Bow is "有利状態の弓" (yūri jōtai no yumi), "Advantageous-Condition Bow". "有利状態" (yūri jōtai), "advantageous condition" (as a compound word), is a contraction of "有利な状態" (yūri na jōtai), "advantageous condition" (as an adjective modifying a noun), which is the term used for Bonus in Heroes.

No. Arcane weapons and Echo skills can only be inherited from the original owner of the skill. This is specifically to prevent them from being duplicated using a different unit.

I did some more pulls on Emblem Ike's banner to see if I could get another copy of Ike, and he showed up on the 38th pull. After I got yet another copy of literally everyone else. 38 pulls: 1 Ike 1 Elincia 1 Embla 1 Camilla Total 227 pulls: 2 Ike (+1 spark) 10 Elincia 7 Embla 1 Camilla 3 Seidr That's an 8.4% red focus rate and a 10.1% focus rate across all colors. Camilla is now +8. My new copy of Ike has an Atk Asset, which is good enough. And finally getting around to the AHR banner because I'm bored and I have to do this eventually anyways despite having not yet cleaned up my barracks. 179 pulls: 9 Peony (+1 spark) 4 Claude (+1 spark) 9 Dimitri (+1 spark) 6 Alear (+1 spark) 3 pity breakers: Astrid Rennac Fallen Gustav 15.6% focus rate is quite a bit above average. Even with the boosted rate due to color sharing, the average should be somewhere around 12% with a back-of-the-envelope calculation, so I'm about 5~6 pulls above average. 17.3% total 5-star rate. Unfortunately, I didn't get many copies of Claude and no copy with a Spd Asset to replace his current Atk Asset, but the skew meant that I managed to get Dimitri to +10 with a spare copy to give Atk/Spd Prime 4 to a duplicator. Ten extra copies of Peony for skill duplication is also amazing, and now I'll have to figure out exactly what I want her to duplicate. I'll probably at least toss 5 of Rearmed Chrom's most valuable skills onto her. I now have a total of 18 copies of Peony. Claude is now +5. Dimitri is now +10 with 1 spare copy. Alear was already (exactly) +10 before this banner, so I now have 7 spare copies. And this week's free Arena ticket gets me Sanaki:

The next Resplendent Hero is Muspell Black Knight: His stats with the Resplendent boost aren't awful, sitting at 55/41/41/42/25-. While his weapon is actually decent for a Distant Counter weapon due to the fact that armors don't have good Distant Counter options for the A slot and Arcane Devourer's effects overlap with most of the options for the B slot, it's also hard to justify running Distant Counter at all nowadays unless the unit's weapon and stat spread is specifically tailored for that job, and Black Knight's certainly isn't. And when it comes to builds without Distant Counter, he still falls short of Winter Manuela and Valentine Hana as a fast sword armor and Arden and Halloween Kellam as slow sword armors. But he's at least usable. The lineup so far this year has been: Nifl Ilyana Askr Brave Veronica Hel Soren Embla Brave Celica Embla Selena Nifl Brave Hector Jotunheimr Hana Muspell Black Knight

40 of the original 87 summonable units do not have a Resplendent outfit yet. So yes, they've finished half of the launch units now.

If you have no one else in line for Alarm Atk/Spd, sure. EDIT: It's worth noting that I used my first copy of Eitr to give Alarm Atk/Spd to Rearmed Chrom to duplicate, in case that's also an option for you.

If you're planning on using Lunar Brace II most of the time, it might be better to wait to get a copy of Incite Atk/Spd instead, depending on how likely you think you'll be able to get your hands on one. If you're running Gambit 4 most of the time, then getting Alarm Atk/Spd can be prioritized a bit higher. Either way, if you're not planning on building any beasts for the foreseeable future, then using Eitr for Alarm is okay. It's more of a matter of whether it's more efficient for it to go to Eirika or a different unit since your Eirika already has the Canto effect, albeit from a less optimal skill.

Arcane Nihility is stronger than almost all other beast cavalry weapons as long as the opponent has stat bonuses. The combination of Arcane Nihility and Beast Sense 4 functions almost identically to Summer Freyja's weapon and B skill, but slightly better, so it functionally just turns any other fast beast cavalry into a copy of Summer Freyja. Beast Sense 4 is at least notable for functionally being a Dodge skill that's also accessible to cavalry and fliers. Its only real competitor for percentage damage reduction is Counter Roar 4. For non-beasts, everything Eitr can duplicate can already be supplied by any of the other melee cavalry, namely Flared Sparrow, Near Trace 3, Assassin's Strike, Alarm, and Incite. If you're already using one of them to duplicate those, there's probably no need to also have Eitr do the same. The most notable skills that Eitr is the only unit that can duplicate are Atk/Spd Wild, Beast Sense 4, and Beast Agility 4. (The other Beast skills don't have tier-4 versions yet.) Counter Roar 4 is also notable for there being only 2 units that can duplicate it right now. Since we don't have any easy sources of any of the tier-3 Beast skills right now, you're currently stuck picking only 2 of Arcane Nihility, Atk/Spd Wild, or a tier-4 Beast skill when inheriting from Eitr if you want to be efficient.

It stacks with itself, but the problem is that it not only doesn't give a Spd boost at all, but also requires a Spd comparison to simply activate. The Spd comparison to activate actually isn't that difficult (unless the opponent has a source Phantom Spd) since it uses visible stats instead of in-combat stats, but the fact that it doesn't grant a Spd boost at all in combat means that it puts you at a 4-point disadvantage in Spd with the B version of the skill and a 4~9-point disadvantage with the Sacred Seal. The tier-4 version of the skill grants a maximum of +8/0/8/8, which is pretty high for a B skill, but we have other B skills that grant a Spd boost and can contribute comparable damage and defensive boosts, like Guard Bearing 4, Gambit 4, Aerial Maneuvers, and Potent 4 as well as future skills like A/S Near Trace 4. The Sacred Seal is only slightly stronger than Atk/Def Clash in that it also grants an effective Res boost, but is less reliable. The only reason to run Pegasus Flight at all for general use is if you're using the unit as a wall breaker against slower physical walls with low Res. Even then, you're not going to use the B version of the skill because Flow Feather 3 is better than Pegasus Flight 4 for the job, and the Sacred Seal is only better than Atk/Def Clash against units that target Res.

We don't get refines for LME units if there isn't a remix scheduled for the month. We normally only get those on odd-numbered months with a few additional ones each year on even-numbered months to make up for the fact that we get more than 12 LME units each year due to double banners and story LME units releasing on normal banners.

For those who haven't seen it yet, the new Sacred Seals from the Tempest Trials are Goad Beasts and Pegasus Flight. Pegasus Flight has never been good due to the fact that it doesn't boost Spd and has garbage conditions, and making it a Sacred Seal doesn't make it any better when you have so many other stat-boosting Sacred Seals with significantly easier conditions. At best, you'll get a skill that's occasionally useful in a challenge map when you can see how much Spd and Res the opponents have beforehand to make sure the skill actually activates. Goad Beasts is okay, I guess. It's the lower of the two rewards, so it's not like I have any hopes for that reward slot to begin with. At least it's probably more useful than Pegasus Flight. Added Frederick's weapon to the translation notes. It grants Frederick +6 Atk/Def, Bonus Doubler, and follow-up prevention as status effects at the start of the turn if there is an ally within 2 spaces. If he has support partners within 2 spaces, he grants the same status effects to them. If he has no support partners in the team, he grants the status effects to the allies within 2 spaces with the highest Def. In combat, it grants +5 to all stats, a guaranteed follow-up, additional damage equal to 20% of his Def, and 30% damage reduction. It also has permanent visible +3 Def. He comes with Bonfire, Atk/Def Clash 3, and Close Guard 3. Basically screams to give him Atk/Def Prime 4.

Lysithea: Hades Ω Base effect is updated: Slaying effect With a Blow-or-Unity condition (previously Blow condition): +5 Atk/Spd in combat (previously +4) Nullifies stat penalties to Atk/Spd in combat (new) If unit has a Special equipped and cooldown at start of combat is 2 or lower (previously if Special is fully charged at start of combat): +7 Atk/Spd in combat (previously +6 Atk) Refine effect is: With a Blow condition or if opponent is a ranged weapon type: +5 Atk/Spd in combat Additional damage equal to 20% of Spd, excludes AoE Specials Nullifies opponent's stat bonuses to Spd/Res in combat If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on unit's attack: -1 Special cooldown before unit's first attack Her stat boost is upgraded from +10/4 offenses to a massive +17/17 offenses with somewhere around 15~17 additional damage based on her Spd. Additionally, she nullifies her own offensive stat penalties and the opponent's defensive stat bonuses and gets a Pulse effect before her first attack. This means she no longer needs to run her default Lull Spd/Res and can now replace it with whatever else she wants in that slot. The new Special-based condition on her weapon requires her to have a cooldown of 2 or lower at the start of combat and provides a Pulse effect before her first attack. With Ruptured Sky, she'll always land it on the first attack (unless the opponent has a Scowl effect). With Flare, she'll land it on the second attack unless the opponent has Guard, but it can be accelerated to the first attack if you keep a Pulse skill on her. She can theoretically also run Astra with a Pulse skill or Aether with Special Spiral if she really wanted. It's worth noting that she has no defensive effect at all on her weapon and also no Null Follow-Up on her weapon, so you'll probably want to get both from her passive skill slots. Fallen Julia: Dark Scripture Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Atk At start of both phases, inflicts the follow status effects to enemies within Ploy 4 range with Res equal to [unit's Res]+5 or lower: -7 Atk/Res (new) Sabotage (new) Deep Wounds (new) Non-Special Miracle nullification (new) With a Stance-or-Solo condition (previously Solo condition): -6 Atk/Res to opponent in combat -4 Spd to opponent in combat (new) Guaranteed follow-up (previously only if opponent doesn't have effective damage against dragons) Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: -4 Atk/Spd/Res to opponent in combat Follow-up prevention Additional damage equal to 20% of Res, excludes AoE Specials Dragon Wall 3 She now gets Atk/Res Ploy 3 built into her weapon, but with Deep Wounds and Miracle nullification instead of Exposure. Additionally, her in-combat stat boosts were increased from an effective +9/0/6/6 to +13/8/10/10 in addition to about 12~14 additional damage based on her Res. Also, she got a more lenient condition on her guaranteed follow-up and the addition of follow-up prevention and Dragon Wall 3. Sabotage and Dragon Wall were expected, but I wasn't expecting Deep Wounds or Miracle nullification. The fact that she basically gets Atk/Res Ploy 3 on her weapon means she don't need to run it in the C slot. She can still run something like Spd/Def Ploy 3 once it's released, but she can alternatively just run Oath 4, Pledge, or Incite instead. No Slaying effect or any other form of Special acceleration means that she'll probably want to run Ruptured Sky unless you give her Pledge. Jorge: Daniel-Made Bow Base effect is updated: Bow common effect Slaying effect Grants the following effects to allies within 4 spaces (previously 2 spaces): +5 Atk/Def in combat (previously only Atk) Inflicts the following effects to enemies within 4 spaces (previously 2 spaces): -5 Atk/Def in combat (previously only Atk) Receives guaranteed follow-up from opponents (new) Refine effect is: If unit is within 2 spaces of an ally at start of turn, grants the following status effects to unit and allies within 2 spaces: +6 Atk/Spd Hexblade Pledge With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +5 Atk/Def in combat Both support effects on the base weapon were expanded to a range of 4 spaces, adds Def to the stats affected, and also causes opponents in range to receive guaranteed follow-ups similar to Crux. It also grants +6 Atk/Spd, Hexblade, and Pledge to nearby allies at the start of the turn and gives him an additional +5 Atk/Def in combat on top of the effective +5 Atk/Def from the base effect. They did end up expanding both of his base weapon's area effects up to 4 spaces, but unlike my predictions, the second stat added was Def instead of Spd. Instead, it gains Crux's effect of making enemies in range receive guaranteed follow-ups, which somewhat covers for not granting buffs and debuffs to Spd. That's probably a good thing since Spd creep is pretty ridiculous already. Granting nearby allies Pledge at the start of the turn is super useful, as there are a lot of unit classes that don't have easy access to the effect and would love to be able to receive it from a teammate. It's definitely a good thing that they focused his refine on boosting his support effects instead of trying to make him compete with Legendary Chrom in combat performance. Lilith: Astral Breath Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Spd Unit can move to a space within 2 spaces of a support partner (previously only adjacent spaces) If unit is within 3 spaces of a support partner at start of turn, grants the following status effects to unit and support partners within 3 spaces: +6 Spd/Def/Res (new) Dodge (new) If unit is within 3 spaces of a support partner: +5 to all stats in combat 7 HP recovery after combat (new) Dragonstone common effect Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Boost to all stats in combat equal to number of spaces moved by attacking unit, maximum +4 Additional damage in combat equal to highest total stat bonuses on unit or allies within 2 spaces, excludes AoE Specials Null Follow-Up effect She now grants +6 Spd/Def/Res and Dodge to herself and support partners within 3 spaces at the start of the turn, but only if she has a support partner within 3 spaces. Additionally, she gets post-combat HP recovery, an additional maximum +8 to all stats with Clash-like calculation, the Treachery effect using her own or a nearby ally's stat bonuses, and Null Follow-Up. I'm a bit surprised that they kept all of her weapon's base effects reliant on her having a support partner on the team and made all of the new effects on her base weapon also reliant on it. I'm also a bit surprised that she gets no Special acceleration of any sort on her weapon, which prevents her from reliably running Dragon's Roar. Otherwise, she gets what amounts to +31/22/19/19 from just her weapon effects, assuming the maximum Clash effect, which is pretty insane, but almost all of that is reliant on having a support partner and therefore can't be used when controlled by the AI. Which is nice as long as you pretend Summoner Duels don't exist. Bride Nailah: Bride's Fang Base effect is updated: Slaying effect -1 Special cooldown at start of turn (new) With a Blow condition (new) or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat (existing): -5 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat 40% damage reduction on non-follow-up attacks (new) If unit's Special activated during or before combat (previously also required unit to attack in combat): -2 Special cooldown after combat (previously -1) New infantry beast transformation effect with standard condition (previously old effect) Refine effect is: If transformed: Canto (Rem. +1) If unit transforms or is transformed at start of turn, grants the following status effects to unit: Treats all passable terrain as flat ground +1 movement If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: -4 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat Percentage damage reduction nullification when Special activates 7 HP recovery after combat Her stat boost is upgraded from an effective +5 to all stats to an effective +9 to all stats. She also gets Pulse at the start of the turn, Special Spiral 4, 40% damage reduction on non-follow-up attacks, Canto, +1 movement, terrain nullification, and HP recovery after combat. No stat bonuses is a bit of a disappointment, as it means you need to rely on teammates to get stat bonuses if you want to keep Glare. Glare is still worth running sometimes for the old Gravity shenanigans, but Claude does it better, and there are stronger skills to run in the C slot. She doesn't have Null Follow-Up on her weapon, so it looks like they're trying to push Beast Agility on her, and we don't have the tier-4 version of that yet. However, they did give her both damage reduction and Special Spiral 4 to free up her B slot to run it. Speaking of Specials, she'll charge 3 points of her Special from her post-combat effect and her start-of-turn effect, and unlike Time's Pulse, the start-of-turn effect activates regardless of her Special cooldown at the time. The infantry beast transformation effect also gives her Tempo, so in the end, she can somehow actually reliably activate Aether on every round of combat, including the first round if you wait a few turns. She also grants herself 2 Bonuses by herself from her weapon, which means she can very easily fully activate Prime 4 for Distant Counter, too. Additional thoughts Lysithea's stat boosts are comical. I'll have to run some tests to see if she can one-shot enough things with that massive boost to Atk and additional damage. With how huge the boost to Spd is, she might not even need a stat-boosting Sacred Seal. Julia and Jorge have solid support effects. Julia looks like a solid combat debuffer, and Jorge is a new source of the Pledge effect for units that don't have easy access to it themselves. I'm a bit mixed on Lilith, but that's mostly because she's still stuck without a good way to activate Dragon's Roar and is still almost entirely reliant on having a support partner on her team, which tempers the fact that her stat boosts are almost as high as Lysithea's, but actually has defensive effects and Null Follow-Up. Nailah looks solid, even if the stat boosts aren't crazy like Lysithea's and Lilith's and are more normal-looking for a refine. She's got basically every effect that boosts Specials, and I'd complain that she doesn't have access to any premium Specials if it weren't for the fact that she can reliably activate Aether.

I was not expecting Sawashiro Miyuki to also do Young Male Robin's voice, though I probably shouldn't have been too surprised considering Kobayashi Yuu (Lucina / Masked Marth) did Young Marth. I'm too lazy to read skill descriptions right now. So here are the usual translation notes: The banner name, "Double Vision", is "不思議な出会い" (fushigi na deai), "A Strange Meeting". Robin's epithet, "Fated Vessel", is "約束の器" (yakusoku no utsuwa), "Vessel of Promise". Fell War Tome is "戦神の魔書" (senshin no masho), "War God's Magic Tome". As usual, "戦神" (senshin), "war god", is Thorr's epithet. Magic Gambit is "奥の手・魔道" (oku no te: madō), "Trump Card: Magic". "魔道" (madō), "magecraft", is the name of the Magic (Tome) weapon type. Compare with Gambit, "奥の手" (oku no te), "trump card" or "last resort", literally "hidden hand". Emmeryn's epithet, "Selfless Exalt", is "心優しき聖女王" (kokoro-yasashiki seijoō), "Kind-Hearted Exalt". "聖女王" (seijoō), which I'm translating here using the localized "Exalt", literally translates as "holy queen". Chrom's version of Exalt is "聖王" (seiō), literally "holy king". Exalt's War Staff is "戦神の聖杖" (senshin no seijō), "War God's Holy Staff". Magic Shield is "マジックシールド" (majikku shīrudo), "Magic Shield". This is the Japanese name of the staff typically localized as "Barrier" or "Ward" depending on the game. Lissa's epithet, "Littlest Princess", is "ぴかぴか妹王女" (pikapika imōto ōjo), "Sparkly Little-Sister Princess". New War Axe is "戦神の戦斧" (senshin no senpu), "War God's Battle Axe". Robin's epithet, "Vessels of Fate", is "可能性の器" (kanōsei no utsuwa), "Vessels of Potential". Draconic Pacts is "邪痕と聖痕の竜血" (jakon to seikon no ryūketsu), "Dragon Blood of the Fell Brand and Holy Brand". "聖痕" (seikon), literally "holy mark" and refers to Stigmata in Christianity, is localized as "Brand". "邪痕" (jakon), literally "evil mark", is the name of the Brand on Robin's hand. The Fell Brand item in Awakening is shortened from the full Japanese item name, "邪痕の紋章" (jakon no monshō), "Emblem of the Fell Brand". Hush Spectrum is "七色の囁き" (nanairo no sasayaki), "Seven-Colored Whisper". Compare with Rally Spectrum, "七色の叫び" (nanairo no sakebi), "Seven-Colored Shout". Note that Rally skills are "叫び" (sakebi), "shout", in Awakening, whereas they are "応援" (ōen), "rally" or "cheer", in Heroes. Fell Wyrmscale is "邪竜の暗鱗" (jaryū no anrin), "Dark Scales of the Fell Dragon". Compare with Dragonskin, "邪竜の鱗" (jaryū no uroko, "Scales of the Fell Dragon"), Dragonscale, "邪竜の大鱗" (jaryū no tairin, "Great Scales of the Fell Dragon"), and Dragonhide, "邪竜の重鱗" (jaryū no jūrin, "Heavy Scales of the Fell Dragon"). Atk/Spd Link is "攻撃速さの連携" (kōgeki hayasa no renkei), "Atk/Spd Cooperation". Frederick's epithet, "Youth in Service", is "生い立つ忠節の志" (oitatsu chūsetsu no kokorozashi), "Will of Loyalty Growing Up". Heavy War Axe is "戦神の護斧" (senshin no gofu), "War God's Protection Axe".

Yeah, everything else is good. I suppose it's also worth noting that Potent 4 and Spurn 4 also have availability as a factor to consider, but their availability is a bit more complicated than usual since, while Spurn is currently stuck on only Special Heroes, it's more likely to be added to the standard summoning pool eventually, whereas Potent is unlikely to be made available on any other unit since it's specifically based off of Emblem Marth's Engage Skill in Engage, but has scheduled reruns. Yeah.

This month's update should add Kagetsu's Reversal Blade to the pool. While Null Blade and Reversal Blade are probably best-in-slot from Hall of Forms, they're both available from the standard summoning pool, so it might be more worthwhile to grab something harder to get like Florid Cane. For the A slot, while Atk/Spd Finish 4 is going to be the better skill for general use, Atk/Spd Prime 4 is harder to get unless you have a convenient way to duplicate it. You can easily get 2 stacks of Prime on Alear by herself from her weapon and C slot, so it isn't too difficult to max out the effect.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me another Sigurd: 40 pulls from the Alcryst and Eitr banner, sniping both blue and colorless: 0 Alcryst (+1 spark) 1 Eitr 2 pity breakers Fallen Rhea Gilliam This is my first copy of Gilliam, and he has a Def Asset, which is nice. This is also my third copy of Alcryst and my fourth of Eitr.

Golden Week is indeed the first week of May, but previously we've only just gotten Hero Fest versions of the CYL banners, yes?

I was just looking at the updates to the LME rerun schedule and does anyone have any idea what's going on with the May LME banner? They scheduled Emblem Ike to rerun in May, which is also the month that Emblem Marth is scheduled to have his first rerun. However, the color is full because Kvasir is already scheduled as the third unit, so neither Marth nor Ike will share a color with the new unit for their first rerun unless someone's on a different banner. Similarly, they moved Lumera's first rerun from June to May, which also means blue is full that month. And colorless was already scheduled to be full prior to this month's updates to the schedule. If no one is on a different banner running that month, then this banner is uncharacteristically full with only 1 spot left over for a unit from the New Heroes rerun backlog. I know they've been having units' first reruns not share a color with the new unit more and more often (most recently with Elincia (Camilla's banner), Kvasir (Male Alear's banner), and Camilla (Emblem Ike's banner)), but this is kind of ridiculous.

Ignis (and by extension, Aether) won't work on player phase because Laguz Friend's Pulse effect occurs before the opponent's first attack, not at the start of combat, which means that the Pulse effect will trigger after Diamant's first attack on player phase. Diamant needs to be able to make a follow-up to make use of the Pulse effect, and since he's designed to kill in a single hit, he doesn't have a guaranteed follow-up. A maxed out Brave Dimitri has 73+6 Def without team support, which comes out to 30 total flat damage reduction from his weapon and Laguz Friend combined. Without Res boosts from his passive skills, he only has 31 Res and reduces the opponent's Atk by 5. That's enough to barely cover the visible Atk stat on most units, which means the damage taken will be a bit less than the total in-combat Atk and additional damage that the opponent has. That's not terribly promising, but because almost half of the damage mitigation comes from flat damage reduction, just a little bit of percentage damage reduction from Guard Echo, an Engaged Emblem Ike, or team support will make a big difference, even with the non-Special ones halved. He can also swap all of his passive skills over to Def/Res variants, which will allow him to almost match an attacking unit's Atk boosts from passive skills and means that a little bit of percentage damage reduction can probably cover the rest of the difference. Seems like a fragile balance, though, so it'll probably require more rigorous calculations with actual enemy setups. I'm mostly curious how it'll fare against something like Rearmed Reinhardt.

After shedding blood and tears to get a second copy of Ike so that I could give Laguz Friend to a skill duplicator, I'm now trying to figure out who would best be able to use it. And unlike Potent, which has some weird trade-offs compared to its competitors, Laguz Friend seems to fill an actually worthwhile niche. For reference because I'm not reading through this thing's skill description ever again, Lagus Friend 4's effect is: -5 Atk to opponent in combat If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on unit's attack and has max cooldown of 3 or higher OR if unit is equipped with a Special that activates on opponent's attack: Half non-Special percentage damage reduction nullification against self, excludes AoE Specials Flat damage reduction equal to 20% of the higher of unit's Def and Res, excludes AoE Specials -2 Special cooldown before opponent's first attack If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on unit's attack and has max cooldown of 3 or higher: Additional damage equal to 20% of the higher of unit's Def and Res when Special activates, excludes AoE Specials Non-Special percentage damage reduction nullification when Special activates, excludes AoE Specials If unit is equipped with a Special that activates on opponent's attack: Additional damage equal to 20% of the higher of unit's Def and Res on first attack after Special activates, same round of combat only Non-Special percentage damage reduction nullification on first attack after Special activates, same round of combat only It's usable by all infantry units (including staves in case you really wanted to give it to a staff unit). As far as offensive Specials go, the best options are those that have damage reduction as a secondary effect and have a cooldown of exactly 3 (or 4 with +1 Special charge rate). Dragon's Roar is the only skill that fits this bill on its own and only on units that don't have the Slaying effect on their weapon. If you don't need damage reduction or have Emblem Ike Engaged to provide damage reduction against ranged opponents, this can be done with any regular offensive Special with the correct cooldown. Units that I'm currently eyeing for this category are: Mila with Dragon's Roar Duo Askr with Ignis Gotoh with Glacies (or Aether and Pledge) Annoyingly, Askr and Gotoh both have the Slaying effect, which prevents them from being able to use Flare for additional passive healing. Gotoh at least has his C slot open to run Pledge, which lets him use Aether if the opponent doesn't have Guard or Tempo. Gotoh is also pretty notable for being one of the few units with Null C-Disrupt on his weapon. I didn't have the budget to pull for merges for New Year Male Kana on his banner, but he also looks like a good candidate for this if you don't mind his lower Def stat. For defensive Specials, this is a straight-up upgrade to Shield Pulse 3 and can be used on any build that would otherwise run Shield Pulse 3. It's also probably better than Buffer 4 most of the time. The obvious users of this are anyone with Godlike Reflexes or any version of Ice Mirror or Negating Fang. I assume this also works for Miracle and Life Unending, but I don't think the flat damage reduction is worth losing half of your percentage damage reduction since you won't get the additional effects from activating your Special often enough to be worth it. However, the fact that Life Unending fully charges itself at the start of turn 1 does mean she can pretty much always activate Emblem Ike's Engage effect on the opponent's first attack. I'm a bit curious as to just how well this would actually work on Legendary Corrin since her Negating Fang II has the convenient effect of automatically fully charging itself before the opponent's first Brave attack. Summer Fjorm is also notable for having Null C-Disrupt on her weapon, like Gotoh, but because she needs her Special fully charged at the start of combat, she awkwardly has to keep Time's Pulse 4 in her C slot to make her build work properly. Anyone else have any novel ideas on what to do with this or any use cases I might have missed?

40 pulls on the Hall of Forms banner: 4 Bernadetta (+1 spark) 1 Dimitri 1 pity breaker: Rennac I think I just used up all of my luck. Bernadetta is now +7. Dimitri is now +6. 60 pulls on the Double Special Heroes banner: 1 Sanaki (+1 spark) 1 Shez Yeah, the previous banner used up all of my luck. Sanaki is now +7. Shez is now +3. 267 pulls on the Spring banner: 2 Chloe 2 Framme (+1 spark) 3 Sylvain 5 5-star Mirabilis 6 4-star Mirabilis 10 pity breakers: Rhea Brave Gullveig Citrine Ymir Ascended Fjorm August Faval Ascended Fir Male Shez Gregor I'm so confused. I got 4 5-star copies of Mirabilis before the spark and nothing else, not even any 4-star copies of her (other than the first 3 pity breakers). And I didn't end up getting a single 4-star copy of her until after I got all 5 5-star copies of her. And Chloe refused to exist until I had both a pity charge and a 9.5% pity rate after I had already finished pulling everyone else. And then I got another copy of Framme in the same session as my second Chloe because my pity rate was 4.5% again. 4.5% focus rate is well above average, but nearly half of those were Mirabilis. Only counting 2 of the Mirabilis copies, though, it's still a 3.4% focus rate, which is just about average. 8.2% total 5-star rate is pretty good, too. Regardless, I was right on budget for what I wanted from this banner, so I'm satisfied. 40 pulls on the Attuned Caeda banner: 2 Caeda (+1 spark) 0 pity breakers Good stuff. And I decided I might as well just pull on Emblem Ike's banner now before I pull all of the new units back out of the reserve boxes to level them up. 189 pulls: 1 Ike (+1 spark) 9 Elincia 6 Embla 3 Seidr Well, that sure looks like a typical LME banner distribution, alright. Ike was my last pull on this banner. And I thought I was unlucky on the Double Special Heroes banner. This banner can go to hell. 10.0% focus rate is 3 pulls above average, all of which were obviously Seidr. Elincia is now +10 with 3 spare copies. My second copy of Embla is now +10 with no extra copies. Seidr is now +7. There are still 3 weeks left on the AHR banner, so I'll continue procrastinating on that. Also because Ike ran through the rest of my gacha budget for the month, so I'm going to have to bundle AHR spending into next month's budget instead.

Karla is my only +10 unit out of the options, so I'll start there and see what happens.

Oh, good, good. Lysithea is this month. I just pulled the last copy I needed to get her to +10 from this week's Arena ticket, and I need to figure out if I want to use the Atk or Spd Asset merge base. Here are my usual hopes and predictions, I guess: Lysithea: Hades Ω Current effect is: Slaying effect With a Blow condition: +4 Atk/Spd in combat If Special is charged at start of combat: +6 Atk in combat Her weapon essentially forces her to run either Time's Pulse (with a 1-cooldown Special) or Special Spiral (with a 2-cooldown Special), and while she has Time's Pulse 3 by default, it would be nice to free up that slot for something else that grants stats. I would personally like to see her get Special Spiral on her weapon so that she can run Flare instead of Ruptured Sky, but that's probably not going to happen. Other than that, every other version of her has had the Desperation effect in some slot by default, and it would certainly be nice for this one to get it, too. Null Follow-Up and percentage damage reduction nullification of some sort would also be nice to have if they intend for her to keep her default Lull Spd/Res instead of replacing it with the generally better Mag. Null Follow. Fallen Julia: Dark Scripture Current effect is: Permanent +3 Atk With a Solo condition: -6 Atk/Res to opponent in combat If opponent does not have effective damage against dragons: Guaranteed follow-up I would not be surprised if they just made her a near duplicate of Legendary Julia and gave her Dragon Wall 3, either stat penalty nullification or the Unity effect, and Close Counter against at least dragons. Plus one new thing that sets her apart to make up for likely not getting effective damage against dragons. Dominance or Sabotage would make sense given her having Panic Smoke 3 by default, though I think it would be more interesting to make her inflict Discord since there still aren't many sources of it. Jorge: Daniel-Made Bow Current effect is: Bow common effect Slaying effect Grants the following effects to allies within 2 spaces: +5 Atk in combat Inflicts the following effects to enemies within 2 spaces: -5 Atk in combat The ally effect should be expanded to at least 3 spaces, and the enemy effect really should be expanded to at least 4 spaces or Ploy 4 if they want to be competitive. I can also see them also be upgraded to also apply to Spd. Otherwise, Jorge's stat spread is basically just Legendary Chrom, but with more HP and Res in exchange for less Atk. Even if they do improve his combat performance, it's unlikely he'll be anywhere near as good as Legendary Chrom, so I hope they just stick to giving him the rudimentary combat effects and then spending the rest of his refine on support effects instead. Lilith: Astral Breath Current effect is: Permanent +3 Spd Unit can move to a space adjacent to a support partner If unit's support partner is within 3 spaces: +5 to all stats in combat Dragonstone common effect Locking the base effect's stat boost behind being near a support partner seems unlikely for a modern refine, so I'm expecting the base effect to get an additional stat boost with a condition that is not dependent on a support partner on top of the obligatory stats from the refine. I also expect the teleportation effect to be updated to within 2 spaces of a support partner to match her Fallen version. She also wants Null Follow-Up and some form of defensive effect, noting that her Fallen version has Dive-Bomb 3. Now that dragons actually have a premium Special that isn't Aether (or Blue Flame), it kind of feels bad to not have any source of Special acceleration to activate Dragon's Roar in a single round of combat. If she doesn't get something for this, it'll feel somewhat lacking, even if everything else is good. It would also be cool if the teleportation effect worked both ways and let support partners warp to her, but that's probably not going to happen. Bride Nailah: Bride's Fang Current effect is: Slaying effect If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: -5 Atk/Spd/Def to opponent in combat If unit's Special activated during or before combat and unit attacked in combat: -1 Special cooldown after combat Old infantry beast transformation effect with standard condition Glare is pretty weak nowadays since it's basically just a worse version of Fallen Star, so if they want her to be incentivized to keep it, she kind of needs at least +6 Atk/Spd as visible stat buffs to discourage replacing it with a tier-4 Oath or Rouse skill. Both of her other versions also have Canto to move away after landing Glare's Gravity effect, so it's likely she'll get that, too. Beasts still don't have a premium Special other than Aether, which is a situation that kind of sucks, so if they want her to actually be able to make use of her weapon's Pulse effect, she really needs percentage damage reduction nullification when her Special activates so that she isn't forced to run Phys. Null Follow or Special Spiral 4. It's a pity she can't run Vital Astra. Ideally, she just gets a bunch of B-skill effects so that she's free to run a Beast skill or Counter Roar 4 in the B slot over all of the other possible options.

If you hit him with a strong enough AoE Special, he can't activate the giant pile of "HP is 25% or higher at start of combat" effects on his weapon that keep him alive.

Pauldrons aren't welded onto your shoulders, nor are they even rigidly affixed to each other. They're attached either to the arm or to another piece of armor using flexible material to allow your arm to rotate at the shoulder, and that means their position can shift around as you move. Gravity absolutely can and will make them sag. I'll take you at your word. You're now sitting at 6 characters with identifiable differences out of a cast of 60+. What do we do with the 50+ other characters whose designs are identical between games? Tellius has 33 non-Laguz characters that are playable in both games. Of them, only Calill and Stefan have no identifiable differences at all. Volke in his Assassin outfit and Tanith have differences that are small enough that an artist adding or removing detail can obscure the difference. Everyone else can have their source game conclusively identified by either their appearance or their outfit as long as the artist sticks close enough to the model. It doesn't matter whether you think they're minor or irrelevant. All that matters is that the difference is conclusively identifiable. If you compare each aspect piece-wise, perhaps, but that's just cherry-picking the similarities without considering the differences present in each comparison. It's a spin-off like TMS, but Three Hopes is set in an existing setting with a significant overlap in characters whereas TMS is not. So while Three Hopes has the option of being combined with Three Houses or being a standalone source, TMS never had that choice to begin with. If TMS were set in an existing setting, it very well could have been combined. The characters Three Hopes has that overlap with Three Houses have designs that are even more different than the differences between the two Tellius games, but having more than one design is already the norm in Three Houses, so each character having a third design isn't at all novel. Additionally, Three Hopes isn't a main-series game like Radiant Dawn is, which further weakens its argument for getting a separate entry. If anything, Three Hopes is probably most similar to Fates: Revelation in terms of its relationship with other games in the series, but even then, you can argue that Three Hopes is a standalone game, whereas Revelation is DLC that requires purchase of one of the base games. However, Revelation still gets its own unique logo in the character announcement trailers (used by Anankos), so it's still recognized as a separate entity from the games it's dependent on.