Ice Dragon

The art is pretty. I'll read the skill descriptions later when I'm not exhausted from holiday travel. Somehow, doing translation notes is less mentally taxing than reading skill descriptions: The banner name, "Ring In the Year", is "新春挨拶合戦" (shinshun aisatsu kassen), "New Year Greetings Contest". Nerthuz's epithet, "New-Year Doter", is "寄り添う新年" (yorisou shinnen), "Nestling New Year". Cute Paper Crane is "地の女神の折り鶴" (chi no megami no orizuru), "Paper Crane of the Goddess of the Land". Atk/Spd Wild is "攻撃速さの野生" (kōgeki hayasa no yasei), "Atk/Spd Wildness". Kvasir's epithet, "Unknown Future", is "はじめてのお正月" (hajimete no oshōgatsu), "First New Year". Ambiguously either "her first new year" or "the first new year", almost certainly intentionally. Faded Paper Fan is "過去の女神の扇子" (kako no megami no sensu), "Folding Fan of the Goddess of the Past". Inf. Null Follow is "歩行の見切り追撃" (hokō no mikiri tsuigeki), "Infantry Nullify Follow-Up Attack". "見切り追撃" (mikiri tsuigeki) is an abbreviation of "見切り・追撃効果" (mikiri: tsuigeki kōka), "Nullification: Follow-Up Attack Effects", which is the name of the Null Follow-Up skill. Kana's epithet, "Rising Dragon", is "新年の昇り竜" (shinnen no nobori-ryū), "New Year's Rising Dragon". Dragon's Stone is "辰年の御子の竜石" (tatsudoshi no miko no ryūseki), "Dragonstone of the Prince of the Year of the Dragon". Seidr's epithet, "Time's Goddesses", is "新春の女神姉妹" (shinshun no megami shimai), "New Year's Goddess Sisters". Goddess Temari is "女神姉妹の手毬" (megami shimai no temari), "Goddess Sisters' Temari". Time's Grip is "時の陥穽" (toki no kansei), "Time's Trap". Sabotage S/R is "速さ魔防の混乱" (hayasa mabō no konran), "Spd/Res Confusion". Future-Sighted is "共に未来を変えて" (tomo ni mirai o kaete), "Together We Will Change the Future". Kana's epithet, "Rising Sunlight", is "笑顔のご来光" (egao no goraikō), "Smiling Sunrise". New-Sun Stone is "辰年の幼姫の竜石" (tatsudoshi no yōki no ryūseki), "Dragonstone of the Young Princess of the Year of the Dragon". Distant Counter (M) is "遠反・剣槍斧専用" (enhan: ken yari ono senyō), "Long-Range Counterattack: Sword, Lance, Axe Exclusive Use". "遠反" (enhan) is an abbreviation of "遠距離反撃" (enkyori hangeki), "Long-Range Counterattack", which is the name of the Distant Counter skill.

I forgot to add the new Divine Vein in my translation notes and didn't feel like editing my post on mobile while I was still away from home.

Given that we only just got our first CYL 2 unit, it's going to be a long while before we can ever expect units from CYL 4. I'm not even going to bother updating my lists in the other thread because I have no reason to believe that the floodgates are actually open. We have a Book 4 4-star unit with an out-of-date stat spread and no exclusive weapon, and that's all I'm willing to treat it as. At most, I might add 4-star units through Ilyana, but that's it, and I wouldn't even do so until we get another outlier so I can actually figure out exactly what they're doing.

If you're planning on grabbing both, then it's probably best to try for "good enough" on both before optimizing. Sabotage A/R on Micaiah is lower priority if you're planning on keeping Prescience.

Prominent? Sure. Viable? There aren't that many left. Personally, I don't mind if they even go into Book 5 units as long as they stick to units that have actually fallen behind. The problem with the current state of Resplendent Heroes is the fact that almost all of the options from before CYL 1 are simply not viable even with the extra boost. Not only have they fallen behind in terms of their stat total, but also their stat distribution and weapon options, and I don't think it's actually viable for them to keep selling Resplendent Heroes from before CYL 1 without including more viable units into the mix. Ilyana is a good choice to start going into the newer units, but I'm apprehensive that they'll start doing this for units that don't need it. We're also in a weird position where a lot of Book 3 units and early Book 4 units have refines now that are strong enough to actually make them viable without the need for a bump in base stats. If that's the case, they'd have just started with a Three Houses unit instead of being roundabout with it. It's not like they have any sense of subtlety with Special Heroes banners, so why would they suddenly care about it for Resplendent Heroes?

The next Resplendent Hero is Nifl Ilyana: Which is by a gigantic margin the most recently released unit to get a Resplendent outfit, given that she's from after CYL 4. Despite having a modern stat total with Dragonflowers, her stat spread is now out of date, so it makes sense to give her a bump, but i hope they don't do this for units this recent that don't actually need it.

"Applied simultaneously" isn't the same as "on the ground in the same spot". "Applied simultaneously" means if a unit has both Flared Sparrow and Deadly Miasma, spaces where both are applied to after combat would instead have neither applied.

Wonderful. Yet another unit that kills you before combat even starts and yet another inheritable Divine Vein that invalidates defensive Divine Veins that are still only usable by 2 units. It looks like Deadly Miasma is a tier-4 upgrade for Savage Blow, given its effect and Japanese name. Anyways, the usual translation notes, but typed from a phone: Camilla's epithet, "Alluring Darkness", is "黒檀に薫る妖花" (kokutan ni kaoru yōka), "Bewitching Flower With a Fragrance of Ebony". English doesn't have a verb that means "to smell good", which is really annoying for translation. Bewitching Tome is "妖艶なる夜の書" (yōen-naru yoru no sho), "Tome of the Bewitching Night". Spoil Rotten is "可愛がってあげる" (kawaigatte ageru), "(Let Me) Dote On You". Deadly Miasma is "死の瘴気" (shi no shōki), "Miasma of Death". Compare with Savage Blow, which is "死の吐息" (shi no toiki), "Sigh of Death". Divine Vein (Haze) is "天脈・瘴気" (tenmyaku: shōki), "Divine Vein: Miasma".

Hall of Forms has graciously reminded me that Seal Spd 4 is also an option for Elincia if you plan on keeping Whitecap Bow on her and aren't running Spd penalties on the team.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Mystery Tiki: So I still haven't cleaned out my barracks, and I only have 8 spaces left in it, but the Ratatoskr banner is about to expire and I'm going to be visiting family for Christmas and won't have access to my computer to log my pulls, so this is the last chance I'll actually have to pull. So I am and I'm hating every second of having to clean out the new units every 9 pulls. 83 pulls from the Ratatoskr banner: 4 Lucina (+1 spark) 1 Ratatoskr (+1 spark) 3 pity breakers: Sain Brave Tiki Ascended Eir No copies of Lucina with a Spd Asset is a bit of a bummer. Same with not getting a copy of Ratatoskr that is better than neutral.

Yune gets damage reduction on the opponent's first attack when she initiates combat equal to 2% times the highest total stat penalties among enemies within 2 spaces of the target including the target itself. Currently, the only way to land 50 total stat penalties is to combine regular stat penalties with Panicked stat bonuses (because even getting hit with both Shrines in Aether Raids is only 48 total stat penalties). The easiest way to do this is to inflict Panic on a unit with +6 to all stats and hit them with -7 to 2 stats and -6 to the remaining stats. It's also worth noting that Yune's damage reduction isn't explicitly capped at 100%. I haven't tested it, but it's possible that any overflow might also be considered when calculating percentage damage reduction nullification (so something like 144% damage reduction with half of it nullified would still be 72%). This is the fault of the localization team, though it's perfectly understandable due to the fact that Savior didn't exist when skill description terminology was standardized. The terminology "adjacent" is always worded in Japanese as "within 1 space", which is why the unit being protected by Savior counts towards adjacency checks. This is presumably why the Distant Solo skills are allowed to exist, as units with Savior can't get the stat boost when Savior activates and therefore can't actually make use of the skills.

Flared Sparrow is the best A skill offensively regardless of her weapon. The only times you don't want to run it are if you lack a defensive effect elsewhere or if you absolutely need the additional 2 Spd from Prime 4. If you're running Whitewind Bow and Deadeye, you ideally want to have Flared Sparrow in the A slot and Brash Assault in the B slot to use the counterattack to help charge Deadeye. Additionally, you'll want to run her with a teammate that grants +1 Special charge rate, like Legendary Hinoka or Thorr. If you do ever end up getting access to Arcane Nastrond or Darkbow (or plan to do so eventually), this is probably what you'll want to aim for: Arcane Nastrond is always going to run Deadeye over Ruptured Sky. If you have a teammate that grants +1 Special charge rate, you can run Desperation 4 in the B slot. Otherwise, you can run Brash Assault 4, Escape Route 4, or Assassin's Strike (not yet in Hall of Forms). Arcane Darkbow can only run Deadeye if you have a teammate that grants +1 Special charge rate. Otherwise, you're going to have to run Ruptured Sky. Since Desperation 4 is pointless with Arcane Darkbow, the only options for the B slot are Brash Assault 4, Escape Route 4, and Assassin's Strike. However, it's worth noting that Brash Assault 4 is unable to use its Ice Mirror effect and it can be difficult to safely take damage to activate Escape Route 4's Canto effect when using Arcane Darkbow.

Having not actually played Three Houses myself, my assumption is that the Academy phase is heavier on the dating sim aspects than the War phase. Even if what makes a player like a character is more fleshed out in the War phase, it's unlikely that they'll treat the Academy phase and War phase renditions of the character as two separate characters. As such, it makes more sense to use the Academy phase appearance that the player is more invested in courting and let them backfill the character with their War phase personality traits. Nothing? Players aren't playing Heroes in order to recreate their experiences from the characters' source games. "All-stars"-type games like Heroes bank on the fact that players want to see more of the characters they like simply for the sake of seeing more of those characters without the need for extra depth. No one plays Super Smash Bros. to see Pikachu get character development; they're there to make Pikachu beat the crap out of Link or something to that effect.

I put up my initial thoughts on builds in the general thread back when the datamine first came out. Take a look there if you want builds for the other two. I'll recap Micaiah and Elincia below with some additional thoughts: Summer Micaiah [+Atk / +Res] Moonlight Drop / Atlas+ [Assist] Ruptured Sky Still Water 4 / Fireflood Boost 3 / Remote Mirror Sabotage A/R 3 / A/R Far Trace 3 Atk/Res Ploy 3 Unfortunately, Flared Mirror isn't in the skill pool yet, so Still Water 4 and Fireflood Boost 3 are the best options for the A slot. Still Water 4 gives her a better chance of landing Atk/Res Ploy 3 against opponents with high Res, whereas Fireflood Boost 3 gives her slightly better survivability. Remote Mirror is an option for the A slot if you're planning to replace Prescience and aren't going to run a Remote Echo skill in the X slot (ideally the Remote Atk Echo once it's released). Rouse 4 is garbage, and Incite isn't in the skill pool yet (and Incite Atk/Res doesn't exist yet), so Atk/Res Ploy 3 is currently the best C skill for her. Atlas is there for novelty since there isn't any reason to not run Moonlight Drop. Summer Elincia [+Spd] Whitewind Bow+ [Spd] [Assist] Deadeye / Ruptured Sky Flared Sparrow / Remote Sparrow / Atk/Spd Prime 4 Brash Assault 4 / Desperation 4 / Escape Route 4 Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Spd/Def Hold Elincia already has Whitecap Bow, so there's obviously no reason to get it again. Whitewind Bow is therefore the only option in the pool worth grabbing. Flared Sparrow is, as usual, the best offensive option for the A slot, but it does require you to run a defensive effect elsewhere, be it Arcane Nastrond or Darkbow in the weapon slot, Brash Assault 4 or Desperation 4 in the B slot, or Fleeting Echo in the X slot. Otherwise, you'll want Remote Sparrow for its damage reduction effect. Alternatively, if you're planning on sticking with Whitewind Bow, you can run Atk/Spd Prime 4 to get a higher boost to Spd than the other options for the A slot, as Whitewind Bow and Atk/Spd Oath 4 (or an Oath Echo, but that prevents you from running a Spd boost in the X slot) grants the 3 non-stat Bonuses necessary for the full +9 Atk/Spd boost. The Close Counter effect doesn't really matter for Elincia due to her low bulk, so Prime 4 is mostly just to stack a few more points of Spd with a skill that is more reliable than Atk/Spd Catch 4. As mentioned above, Brash Assault 4 or Desperation 4 should be run in the B slot if you aren't running a defensive effect in a different slot. Otherwise, I recommend Escape Route 4. While it comes with a worse stat boost than S/D Far Trace, Canto (1) is arguably better than Canto (Rem.). While Spd/Def Hold grants better in-combat stat boosts and also helps teammates, Atk/Spd Oath 4 is probably the better skill in the C slot for fliers due to the fact that it opens up the X slot to run a Blow or Remote skill instead of Oath Echo and doesn't require a teammate to provide the equivalent buffs. Which Special you want to pick for the build depends entirely on what your build is capable of activating, though if you already have the resources to give her one of the two, you might as well grab the other. Notably, if you're planning on giving her an Arcane bow, both of them come from units that already have Deadeye.

I don't think "loyalty" or "involvement" have anything to do with it. Three Houses was a very successful game with very popular characters. And it makes sense that that's the case. It's the farthest the series has leaned into the dating sim genre, and one of the most important design requirements of a dating sim is that the datable characters need to be likeable in some way. It is absolutely not a surprise to me that Heroes, where a character's popularity is at least as important as how good they are in gameplay, continues to show Three Houses, which has characters that were specifically designed to be likeable and popular (and succeeded in doing so), this much favoritism.

Last week's free Arena ticket got me another Male Byleth, which is another copy of Ruptured Sky: I ended up doing my pulls on the Double Special Heroes banner despite having only 9 space left in my barracks because the banner was about to expire. I should really fix that before I do the pulls on Ratatoskr's banner. 80 pulls on the Double Special Heroes banner, sniping red (then white, then green): 3 Ayra (+1 spark) 3 Eliwood 1 Ymir (+1 spark) 1 Ivy 10.0% focus rate is really good, about 3 pulls above average. Ayra is now +5. Eliwood is now +4. Amusingly, every copy of Eliwood I got on this banner had a Spd Asset. Ymir is now +3. Ivy is now +1. Pulling the full session from the Harmonized Lysithea banner got me another copy of Winter Mirabilis, which gets her to +1. This one has an Atk Asset and will replace the existing neutral one as the merge base. Nothing from any of the other currently running sparkless banners.

My only real wishlist is more Nidavellir outfits, the introduction of Vanaheimr outfits, and more Heroes characters. Also a female Nidavellir unit and a male Alfheimr unit. Also beast characters. The most recent unit we currently has is Surtr, and the beast banners are right after his. The first two Fodlan banners also managed to sneak in right before CYL 3 and are in the range that I predict will still be eligible for Resplendent outfits. It would also be cool to see the Heroes Legendary and Mythic Heroes get outfits since those are the "base versions" of those characters. In terms of notable characters that are still missing, we have at least Catria, Myrrh, Tharja, and Camilla. But here's the usual reference material. Here's every unit that's guaranteed eligible (standard summoning pool through Surtr's banner and Grail units through Gharnef), ordered by origin mark, then banner, then alphabetically: Here's everyone else from the same time frame that isn't seasonal, which is just the Askr trio and Legendary Heroes: And these are the banners after Surtr's banner through (but not including) CYL 3: And the same charts as last time. Here's the current completion rate of Resplendent Heroes by origin mark: Heroes: 1/7 (14%) → 2/7 (29%) Akaneia: 11/31 (35%) Echoes: 7/20 (35%) → 8/20 (40%) Genealogy: 8/19 (42%) Thracia: 3/8 (38%) Binding: 8/15 (53%) Blazing: 14/25 (56%) → 15/25 (60%) Sacred Stones: 7/15 (47%) Radiance: 6/10 (60%) → 7/10 (70%) Dawn: 3/5 (60%) Awakening: 12/33 (36%) → 13/33 (39%) Fates: 15/50 (30%) → 18/50 (36%) Fodlan: 0/0 (100%) Engage: 0/0 (100%) And the distribution of Resplendent Heroes by outfit: Askr: 11 → 12 Embla: 13 → 15 Nifl: 11 → 13 Muspell: 15 → 17 Hel: 12 → 13 Ljosalfheimr: 10 Dokkalfheimr: 10 → 11 Nidavellir: 5 Jotunheimr: 7 → 8 And the distribution of Resplendent Heroes by origin mark and outfit: And the list of the most recent unit for each outfit theme ordered from least to most recent: Ljosalfheimr: Nina (2023-07-10) Nidavellir: Azama (2023-11-25) Askr: Brave Veronica (2024-01-25) Hel: Soren (2023-02-10) Embla: Selena (2024-03-10) Nifl: Brave Hector (2024-03-25) Jotunheimr: Hana (2024-04-10) Muspell: Male Grima (2024-05-10) Dokkalfheimr: Camilla (2024-05-25)

I can count the number of times Harmonized Edelgard would have died to a Special (as opposed to the normal damage the opponent would have done without the Special) on the number of fucks I currently give for Aether Raids. If the opponent has both Guard and Tempo, Winter Edelgard is still charging 6 points of Special cooldown by the end of the second round of combat from her pre-combat Pulse alone. Even if the opponent has Guard, Tempo, and Scowl, Winter Edelgard is still charging 4 points of Special cooldown by the end of the second round of combat from her pre-combat Pulse alone. Literally the only unit that can stop Winter Edelgard from charging Galeforce in two rounds of combat is Duo Male Byleth, and most people are likely to be running him as a Far Save tank instead of as a Close Save tank due to it being his base kit. And Bold Fighter does the exact same thing as Special Fighter in this case anyways.

You can lean the regular Alears towards player phase due to the fact that they have Charge on their weapon, though they're in the odd situation where they have neither Null Follow-Up nor Tempo on their weapon, which is somewhat of an issue for wall breakers. Regular Edelgard also seems to be a decent pick if you aren't going to run Galeforce as her Special since she has Galeforce on her weapon. There's no reason to run Special Fighter in her Sacred Seal slot over Bold Fighter. It's completely pointless to run any kind of Special acceleration on Winter Edelgard. She already charges 3 points of Special cooldown before combat, which means, if you're running Galeforce on her, she'll have it fully charged by the end of her second round of combat regardless of any Special acceleration. Like Harmonized Edelgard, Winter Edelgard has no reason to run Special Fighter over Bold Fighter, and even then, Bold Fighter is only there for the guaranteed follow-up.

No Quarter and Ruptured Sky have different cooldowns and therefore don't actually step on each other's toes. The only units that previously ran Ruptured Sky and now want to switch to No Quarter are ones that already would have preferred to run a 3-cooldown Special, but were forced to run Ruptured Sky either for scoring or to deal with excessively bulky dragons and beasts. It's worth noting that the only thing that makes No Quarter functionally worth using over other 3-cooldown Specials is the fact that it nullifies percentage damage reduction. Without that effect, No Quarter is literally just a Draconic Aura that does an extra 7 or 8 damage to armors, and Draconic Aura is still outclassed by the other 3-cooldown Specials. Unless you need the SP cost for Arena scoring, I would deprioritize giving No Quarter to units that already have percentage damage reduction nullification (Diamant, etc.) since you'll get more mileage out of Luna, Bonfire, or Iceberg on them. Similarly, because No Quarter's gimmick is the fact that it nullifies percentage damage reduction, I'd recommend prioritizing giving the skill to player-phase wall breakers over units built for any other role.

The next Hall of Forms has been datamined: There's a Grail unit again! Following the usual pattern, this Hall of Forms should add all skills through Veyle's banner, including: Bonus Doubler 4 Dazzle Far Trace Flow Refresh 4 Rockslide Dance 3 Atk/Res Tempo 4 A/S Rein Snap Atk/Res Ploy 3 Joint Close Guard Cross Spur Spd Of these, Dazzle Far Trace, Atk/Res Tempo 4, and Atk/Res Ploy 3 are the only ones that are particularly notable. Bonus Doubler 4 is generally going to be inferior to skills like Prime and Distant Solo, Rockslide Dance is generally inferior to Firestorm Dance, and A/S Rein Snap is usually inferior to S/D Rein Snap. As far as what to grab on the Forma units: Green: Colorless: Blue: Red: Let me know if I completely forgot about a good skill. It's hard to remember all of the new ones since they're usually too difficult to get extra copies of for me to actually play with, and so I forget they exist. EDIT: To keep things together, here's a list of all of the non-Legendary/Mythic Heroes that have recently been available through non-rerun Halls of Forms, including this upcoming one, ordered by the units' release dates, in order to get a pulse on what's likely coming in upcoming Halls of Forms:

According to the datamine, No Quarter is usable by Everything else's inheritance restrictions are exactly what you'd expect. Assassin's Strike and Weaving Fighter, being "Phys." skills, are restricted to physical units in addition to their base skills' (Poison Strike and Wary Fighter, respectively) restrictions, and Armored Blaze has the same restrictions as the other armor Specials.

Brave Lyn is a decent pick if you want to use Sacae's Blessing and you aren't already running Whitecap Bow or Whitewind Bow on her since Sacae's Blessing can't be used with an Arcane weapon. Everyone else on the list has no such drawback to running an Arcane weapon. Whitewind Bow has the advantage of granting a higher boost to Spd (+11 with a Spd refine and the weapon's native 2 Bonuses with another +2 for each additional non-stat Bonus) as well as Null Follow-Up, but you can't activate a Special easily with it while running Sacae's Blessing. Golden Yule Bow grants less Spd (+9 with a Spd refine) and no additional non-stat effects, but lets you land a Deadeye on every first attack (if the opponent doesn't have Scowl effects). Whitecap Bow grants the smallest boost to Spd (+7 with a Spd refine), but has a Brave effect if your Spd is 10 points higher, allowing you to land Deadeye on the 4th attack if the opponent doesn't have Guard or follow-up prevention. The smaller Spd boost and restrictive Spd comparison means it'll probably only be useful against slow tanks given that Lyn's Spd stat is falling behind, and you'll still need to have answers to Guard and follow-up prevention, which are pretty common on slower units.

The Sacred Seals are pretty disappointing again. Odd Res Wave is basically useless like all of the other Wave skills. I'm not sure what use the Special Fighter Sacred Seal actually has. It's a good skill, but not when its competition is everything else that can be in the Sacred Seal slot. The main issue is that there is very little competition for Special Fighter in the B slot, but a lot of competition in the Sacred Seal slot. Special Fighter has the most competition in the B slot on fast armors where it competes with Savvy Fighter, Hardy Fighter, Gambit, and Counter Roar, all of which are usually better than Special Fighter in that slot. However, the problem is that fast armors are unable to give up their Sacred Seal slot to run Special Fighter there because they absolutely need the +7 Spd from a Spd Form skill in order to have any hope of dealing with the current Spd creep. Pretty much all modern(ized) slow armors already have a guaranteed follow-up on their weapon, which means Special Fighter is already going to be run in their B slot because they don't need any of the other Fighter skills. The ones that don't have a guaranteed follow-up are going to be running Vengeful Fighter or Crafty Fighter in their B slot, which means they'll already be overlapping half of Special Fighter's effects. The only situation I can see (other than simply lacking resources) where Special Fighter in the Sacred Seal slot is actually a viable option is if a slow armor is running Hardy Fighter or Gambit and it doesn't have either of Special Fighter's effects in a different skill slot. Claude's weapon is pretty good on literally any offensive unit. Getting a free fully charged Deadeye just for having any debuff on the opponent is pretty amazing. There's very little reason to use the primary condition on the effect (distance moved) when the alternate condition is so easy to fulfill. Infantry bows are now open to run Incite + Oath Echo without needing any form of Special acceleration in any other skill slot. Cavalry and fliers, which normally don't have access to most forms of Special acceleration, now have a much easier time running Deadeye and can also run it with Desperation 4 to avoid counterattacks. On Save armors, it still loses to Arcane Nastrond, the main reason being that Armored Beacon and Armored Floe don't need to themselves be charged in order to activate their defensive effect, and it's really hard to pass up Arcane Nastrond's guaranteed follow-up and 30% first-hit damage reduction.

Percentage damage reduction nullification is always multiplicative, not additive, so an opponent's 50% damage reduction becomes 5% after 90% nullification. Also, Yune can get 100% damage reduction. Hardy Bearing is still a thing. The maximum number of units that can be adjacent to a unit is 5 because of Savior and Assign Decoy.