Special Heroes: Holiday Lessons

[Ice Dragon]

The Sacred Seals for the upcoming Tempest Trials are Odd Res Wave and Special Fighter.

Odd Res Wave is your standard mostly useless skill.

Special Fighter is interesting, but I'm not sure there's actually a good use for it. Fast armors don't want to run it because it costs them 7 points of Spd from giving up a Spd Form skill, and slow armors typically already have half of the effect from Vengeful Fighter or Crafty Fighter or have a weapon with a guaranteed follow-up and are already running Special Fighter in their B slot. Arcane Eljudnir, Devourer, Qiang, and Downfall also already have half of the effect on the weapon.

 

And the usual translation notes:

 

The banner name, "Holiday Lessons", is "聖夜の課外授業" (seiya no kagai jugyō), "Holy Night's Extracurricular Classes". Because everyone knows they want to be stuck in school on Christmas Eve. "聖夜" (seiya), literally "holy night", refers to Christmas Eve, but a thing called "Christmas" likely doesn't exist in the worlds of Heroes.

Yunaka's epithet, "Spirited Envoy", is "賑やかな冬の使者" (nigiyaka na fuyu no shisha), "Lively Winter's Envoy".

Silent Yule Knife is "見えざる聖夜の刃" (miezaru seiya no yaiba), "Invisible Blade of the Holy Night".

Assassin's Strike is "理の蛇毒" (ri no jadoku), "Physical Snake Venom". Compare with Occultist's Strike, "魔の蛇毒" (ma no jadoku, "Magical Snake Venom"), and Poison Strike, "蛇毒" (jadoku, "Snake Venom"). This is the same naming scheme used for Phys. Null Follow and Mag. Null Follow.

Edelgard's epithet, "Snowfall Future", is "雪に舞う黒鷲" (yuki ni mau kurowashi), "Black Eagle Dancing In the Snow".

Black Yule Lance is "黒鷲の聖夜の槍" (kurowashi no seiya no yari), "Black Eagle's Lance of the Holy Night".

Armored Blaze is "重装の大炎" (jūsō no daien), "Great Flame of Armor". "重装" (jūsō) literally translates as "heavy equipment", but is used to refer to the armor movement type.

Atk/Def Prime is "攻撃守備の備え" (kōgeki shubi no sonae), "Atk/Def Preparation".

Raging Tempest is "真狂嵐" (shin kyōran), "True Raging Storm".

Dimitri's epithet, "Blessed Protector", is "神聖なる青獅子" (shinsei naru aoshishi), "Holy Blue Lion".

Blue Yule Axe is "青獅子の聖夜の斧" (aoshishi no seiya no ono), "Blue Lion's Axe of the Holy Night".

No Quarter is "車懸" (kurumagakari), "Ceaseless Attack". "車懸" (kurumagakari) roughly translates as "wheel engagement" and refers to a tactic of sending wave after wave of soldiers to give the enemy no chance to regroup. When one wave passes by, the next wave is already on its way with no end in sight, like a revolving door.

Barbarity is "真無惨" (shin muzan), "True Atrocity".

Byleth's epithet, "Frosty Professors", is "雪原を駆ける指導者" (setsugen o kakeru shidōsha), "Mentors Crossing the Snowfield".

Holy Yule Blade is "師の聖夜の剣" (shi no seiya no ken), "Teachers' Sword of the Holy Night". Anything but a "sword".

Supreme Heaven is "真覇天" (shin haten), "True Conquering Heaven". "覇天" (haten), "conquering heaven", is the name of the Sublime Heaven skill and is a homophone with "破天" (haten), "rending heaven", which is the name of the Ruptured Sky and Ruptured Heaven skills.

Weaving Fighter is "理の守備隊形" (ri no shubi taikei), "Physical Defensive Formation". "守備隊形" (shubi taikei), "defensive formation", is the name of the Wary Fighter skill.

Claude's epithet, "Yuletide Schemer", is "聖夜の金鹿" (seiya no kinshika), "Golden Deer of the Holy Night".

Golden Yule Bow is "金鹿の聖夜の弓" (kinshika no seiya no yumi), "Golden Deer's Bow of the Holy Night".

[DefyingFates]

5 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

>unless I missed it somewhere, this might be the first winter banner in several years where non-Pass users can't spark

No, everyone gets four Sparks like a CYL banner. Given the rampant powercreep it makes sense. A real Xmas miracle(!) I thought the male silhouette looked like Claude and female either Eirika or F!Byleth but that didn't make sense because Claude just got the Wind Tribe alt and Eirika's already been a Xmas Hero. But I forgot the 3H bias at IS (also the girl was Yunaka, I think).

Anyway, banner thoughts.

• I'm surprised Yunaka didn't get a Prf skill but I like the incorporation of her Personal into her weapon. I wonder if IS is trying to stop her winning CYL?
• Edelgard and Dimitri are getting upgraded Prfs. Thank goodness Claude is the freebie and doesn't, but he already has Deep Star from the Wind Festival.
• Speaking of Edelgard, it's about time we get Range = 1 versions of the Armored skills! I was getting worried the first two were all we'd get and this gives Near Savers more options.
• Dimitri: I assume No Quarter will be a Cavalry exclusive skill.
• I'm surprised M!Byleth is in the lead but putting them together is a neat idea. I'm curious about their Duo conversation. F!Byleth lost even more of her shirt though, poor thing. Also, Sublime Heaven got powercrept and we have Wary Fighter 4, I believe.

Since there are sparks I'm tempted to pull for Dimitri (and hold onto him until the anniversary to see if we're getting a SI increase before feeding him to B!Eirika) and maybe the Byleths. I only have enough Orbs to spark once so here's hoping they're kind to me.

[Ernivus of Celephaïs]

This banner made me throw up in my mouth and I'm probably gonna start drinking heavily. FEH truly is my favorite 3H spinoff game and it's neat we get to see other characters from other games in the franchise cameo every now and then god bless (One or two Fódlan characters would've been fine but man, 4 out of 5 is kinda too much them greedy dastards). Yunaka's only half of a silver lining, hope I can pull her with free orbs, any other summon of the overused foursome is going to the fodder meatgrinder I'm sick of them little Three Hoors (read in Frank Reynold's voice) pricks. I warned everyone about Winter Edeltard and mark my words, next year we won't be able to escape easter bunny Edeltard and Spooky Edeltard and it's gonna make anyone with good taste and integrity want to take a big sippy of hemlock and arsenic, it truly is a Christmas Miracle just like the skill because I want to die but I can't, gotta live with 1HP. So perhaps they wanted to make everyone channel their inner Grinch with the most dogwater banner possible? At least I can rest easy knowing I can spend a few days not touching the gacha hell and can focus entirely on the Indigo Disk. We might not have Santa Brom or anything worthwile like that for the season but Flygon, Toucannon, Golurk and Cinccino are back so unlike FEH I get old faces I wanted to see in the SV DLC. Truly one of the banners of all time. This character selection is gonna make everyone's Christmas presents look good by comparisson so when grandma gets you gift socks yet again you can be like "phew, at least it's not those four exploited goblins from FE Hogwarts". So unexpected win in that very specific sense? Meh, all I know is that I might need the hardest, loudest metal possible to not rage at what I predict will be the most vile and insufferable holiday maps we've had so far. Getting those seasonal orbs won't be very pretty. I doubt Wind Tribe Claude cheese will make it much bearable.

[Diovani Bressan]

The fact that Claude has an inheritable Bow is bad in many ways, because that Bow grants the Special charge before attack effect with a max of 3 charges.

So you know what Wind Tribe Claude does? Now every Archer in the game can do that as well. Of course Insta Lethality is more deadly than Insta Deadeye, but still... So annoying.

[Etrurian emperor]

Well that's an extremely boring banner. Yunaka's about the only bit of fresh air to be found.

[KMT4ever]

I absolutely cannot be bothered to read the walls of text that pass for weapon descriptions nowadays. All I need to know is these units are grossly overpowered as usual, and for whatever reason IS seems content to keep shilling Three Houses rather than Engage, the actual new game. The single bright spot in all of this, at least for me, is that we're getting another duo of units with the same name, which further reinforces the chance of there being a Morgan & Morgan Duo Hero eventually.

[DefyingFates]

18 minutes ago, KMT4ever said:

which further reinforces the chance of there being a Morgan & Morgan Duo Hero eventually.

Oh, you're right! I should save Orbs for that... somehow!

[Othin]

No prfs on Claude, that's rude.

[GuiltyLove]

Claude's bow charges the special based on how many spaces the unit moves, right? He's an armor, so he's not going to move anywhere unless a teammate has Guidance 4 : / 

[Diovani Bressan]

5 minutes ago, GuiltyLove said:

Claude's bow charges the special based on how many spaces the unit moves, right? He's an armor, so he's not going to move anywhere unless a teammate has Guidance 4 : / 

If you want to use him as an offensive unit, then yeah. He will need some support in triggering specials faster in player phase.

However, tt doesn't only use his movement to charge the special for the effect. It also uses foe's movement. So if foe is a cavalry, and moves 3 spaces before initiating, Claude will get the 3 charges.

And there is also a secondary condition, that is "if foe has a [Penalty]". As long foe has a stat penalty or a negative status effect, Golden Yule Bow+ will grant the full 3 special charges and the extra stats+3 during combat.

[GuiltyLove]

2 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

If you want to use him as an offensive unit, then yeah. He will need some support in triggering specials faster in player phase.

However, tt doesn't only use his movement to charge the special for the effect. It also uses foe's movement. So if foe is a cavalry, and moves 3 spaces before initiating, Claude will get the 3 charges.

And there is also a secondary condition, that is "if foe has a [Penalty]". As long foe has a stat penalty or a negative status effect, Golden Yule Bow+ will grant the full 3 special charges and the extra stats+3 during combat.

Ahh, I see. That sounds better than I thought, then.

[Etrurian emperor]

The weakest link of the banner are the Byleths. Its getting out of hand. Now there are two of them.

They're already not very interesting on their own but that shouldn't be much of a problem if they have someone more interesting like Shez to bounche off of. But since they're stuck together that can't happen now. 

[Tybrosion]

19 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The weakest link of the banner are the Byleths. Its getting out of hand. Now there are two of them.

They're already not very interesting on their own but that shouldn't be much of a problem if they have someone more interesting like Shez to bounce off of. But since they're stuck together that can't happen now. 

We also didn't need a Duo Hero here in the first place.

Unless if IS is fine with three straight Duo Heroes, then we won't be getting the usual FEH Duo Hero for New Year's.

[ARMADS!!!]

Wow... The choices for characters is pretty bad, huh? Even a Byleth + Byleth duo. idk why IS is afraid of not putting the 3 3Houses lords together AT ONCE is every seasonal they show in, they do it with FE7 lords, they do it with FE8 lords, they do it with Byleth (except for here) and Yuri, I really don't know what the problem would be. Also, wanna bet that Claude will get a ridiculous Prf skill too despite being the demote? (EDIT: Oh, turns out he didn't, at least we got a neat inheritable weapon).

 Byleth + Byleth was seriously the worst thing to do, why not combine Byleth with one of the House leaders? Or at the very least... with anyone that is not their genderbent self?

 

 The units here are pretty fgross too, I mean...

Yunaka can straight up get a 90% DR and reduce the foe's DR's by 90% just like that, simply by walking 3 spaces! (think we never had such a high DR given by one single skill) And on top of that, if any space within 2 spaces of her has a divine vein effect then her weapon always counts it as if she walked the 3 spaces AND SHE HAS A SKILL WITH DIVINE VEIN ON HER KIT. 

 Dimitri will impossibly NOT kill something if he had already entered in combat on his turn, because we have no counter for Vantage on the game yet, AND he can get a -3 special cooldown before the combat starts just by walking/by having your foe walk! (Also, does this works for Galeforce?? It'd be pretty insane! Usually these skills that give -2 special cooldown work only for specials that are activated before or during combat, never after, exactly so we won't do it with Galeforce, but Dimitri's prf doesn't specify this part anywhere...).

 Weaving fighter is stupid too, it's so ridiculous that it says that neither the unit or the foe can make a follow up attack but then it throws a 40% DR for foe's second strike, it's already counting on what to do if you have a NFU skill!

 Byleth and Dimitri are seriously so gross that I even forgot what Edelgard does (but being Edelgard and having that Prf of hers, I'm sure she's gross enough too).

 

What is it with everything giving hexblade now? I'm not complaining, it's among my favorite effects on the game but I remember when like a year ago (maybe a bit more) I had to look up online which units even HAD it and it were surely less than 10, maybe less than 5 (and we had only one skill that could GIVE it to allies and it was pretty limited), and now we have Plumeria's new dance, Iago's refine and now Duo Byleth's duo skill to straight up give it out to anyone.

 

 Also, a question:  How come the atk/spd bonus of Yunaka's weapon is "9 - number of adjacent akkies to unit x 2 (min 0)" if the max of adjacent allies she can have at once is 4, and 4 x 2 = 8, the minimum bonus should be 1, right (since 9 - 8 is 1, not 0)?? Another weapon here (either Edelgard's or Byleth's) also has an effect that goes like "(X = 15 - number of adjacent allies x 2, min 6)" souldn't the minimum be 7 (since the max of allies adjancent to an unit is 4, and 4 x 2 is 8, and 15 - 8 is 7)? Am I missing something on the maths here?

 

12 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Wow, that is just horrendous. And unless I'm mistaken, Thracia didn't get a seasonal this year aside from Sara being a backpack, right? (That was this year, right?)

It's also confusing why they're not capitalizing more on Engage at this point. 3H isn't the newest shiny thing anymore. Yes, I see Yunaka there, and she's still the only Engage unit. You'd think they'd try to get Fogado and Hortensia out, like how Timerra and Ivy got in as seasonal units before their base selves.

 

12 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

Yeah, backpack Sara (and all the way back in January, too) was all Thracia got in terms of seasonals this year.

Thracia also didn't get a New Heroes banner this year and thus only got two new units this year: Khadein Linde & Sara and Ascended Ced.

Yeah, I even made a list a month ago and found out that at least since 2020, every FE title gets either a New Heroees Banner or some representation in Seasonals (not counting backpacks and TT+ units), I made the list on the beggining of november/end of October, so I was counting that Thracia was gonna get something until the end of the year, I was wrong. This banner was the last chance to shove a non backpack Thracia character but they did 3 Houses lord show again (which already happened a year and a half ago, on the summer banner...).

 But yeah, we had backpack Sara this year! And Ascended Ced coming on a FE4 banner...

 

10 hours ago, Valolaire said:

I wonder if Claude will get even a mega skill or will he be shafted due to his grail unit status. Hopefully he'll have his summer versions skill at least to keep up with his own line  of powercreeping.

Surely will get another mega skill despite being a grail unit, just like M!Shez got on his summer alt. They just can't seem to favour neither of the 3 Houses lord over the other so he surely will be crazy, also I think his summer alt has a prf skill too despite being the demote/grail unit (I don't remember which one), so no motive to not get one here...

 

10 hours ago, Mercakete said:

kind of glad Claude has a deer alt, but we can stop now. It's also a bit funny how Dimitri and Edelgard swapped main weapon types. Well, Claude is free, so ok. I may try to get Dimitri. ...Her [Edelgard's] horns are neat, though.

 That sums up exactly the only things I liked about the banner. Unfortunatly, the rest is trash so it doesn't make up for it...

 

9 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

So, Winter Claude doesn’t even get a Prf weapon. I knew he wouldn’t get Fallen Star (let alone Deep Star), but IS just had to add one more insult.

Oh well, I’ll be sure to put Claude out of his “misery” and fodder him off when the time comes.

Wait, seriously? He didn't get even a prf weapon? I'm not sure if it makes me happy or pissed... Happy because they clutter the 3 houses lords with so much crap and an even more OP version of Fallen/Deep star would count as this, pissed because this banner was so obviously made for the whales (even having 4 sparks and only for who pays the pass, as someone mentioned here) and also because if it was to not even give Claude anything then why did they even put him here instead of anyone else? Just to say that they're not favouring the others over Claude but they are to the point of not even giving him a prf? If it was just to give Claude such a empty alt they've could as well given it to somone else that'd make people happy even for not getting a prf weapon!

 (i know it sounds contradictory to complain about them being afraid of favouring one of the lords, and then complaining that they didn't even give Claude anything, what I really mean is that they just put Claude here to say they're not favouring anyone and that by doing this they're occupying the spot that could've gone to anyone else...)

 

8 hours ago, Humanoid said:

The choices lately feel like they have an air of desperation about them, bit of a "let's cook the golden goose" energy. Trying to compensate for naturally falling sales I suppose.

Yeah, definitively gives out an air of [Desperation], although I had no clue that the sales were falling, for me it looked like the game was still going strong.

Edited December 13, 2023 by ARMADS!!!

[Tybrosion]

14 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Wait, seriously? He didn't get even a prf weapon?

They sure didn't. This is his skill kit:

Golden Yule Bow+, no Assist, Sol, Atk/Spd Form 3, Chill Atk/Spd 2, no C Passive

They also not only didn't give him a Fighter skill, but they just gave Atk/Spd Form 3 to Inigo as well. The dude doesn't even have good fodder outside of that bow.

At this point, I don't understand why they didn't have someone like Hanneman as the TT unit instead. With how absurd Wind Tribe Claude is, Claude did not need another alt for at least a year but here we are after just three months.

[Namero]

This feels like the rare sort of banner that makes you start to look forward to EOS. We're getting weapon descriptions that put Yu-Gi-Oh cards to shame on characters that we've already gotten(or even built up) over and over again making past (or even very recent) time spent feel all the more pointless. The power creep power teleporting is so crazy that it can make one just go, "What's the point?"; there was a time I looked forward to new units and what they'd bring, but now I just feel tired and burnt out.

[indigoasis]

15 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Why did they give Raphael a bow? Or Lyn a magic tome? Or Marth an axe? Or Roy an axe? Or Heath a bow? Or Eirika a staff? Or Lilina a dagger?

14 hours ago, Diovani Bressan said:

That's the fun of Special Heroes banners, to have units having weapons they would normally not use. Like Raphael with a bow in the Plegian banner, or Sigurd using a teapot as a tome.

Balthus with a bow is totally fine in this situation.

Yeah, I getcha. It's just frustrating cuz it's Claude again using his standard weapon type.

[Tybrosion]

29 minutes ago, indigoasis said:

Yeah, I getcha. It's just frustrating cuz it's Claude again using his standard weapon type.

And it's also the fourth straight year with a Winter Bow Armor from Three Houses:

2020: Felix
2021: Ignatz
2022: Annette
2023: Claude

All three of the boys were the TT unit too and all of them except Felix are colorless bows. It's honestly astounding how uncreative IS is with these Three Houses alts.

[Etrurian emperor]

Despite the current line up being intensely boring I'm actually not that down on the banner. The slots may be wasted on characters who already have tons of alts, but Christmas banners have always been among the more boring banners out there. This because they continuously refuse to use other Christmas designs aside from the standard red Santa outfits. Other potential costumes like Christmas elves or Scrooge outfits for certain characters(Felix!) have always been ignored. 

So if a seasonable banner is to have such a boring lineup then it might as well be the Christmas one. 

[Sunwoo]

Y'know, I was wondering whether I should consider sparking once on this banner despite my frustration with the lineup because they're all busted units with good skill fodder ... but after thinking on it more I just can't be arsed to care with this level of powersprint. Like ... what's stopping them from being powercrept in the next 2-3 banners?

At this point, it truly feels like it's only worth pulling if you actually like the character or if you absolutely must have a particular skill to put on a character you like.

[Hilda]

Sooo i came back to check out Book7 (left at the end of Book 5 and the powercreep was there allready too much).

This Text walls on weapons, abilitys and passives are instavturning me off.

Do Gen 1-3 units even have a chance to go up against those types of units lulz??? What happened to this game

[Mercakete]

6 hours ago, ARMADS!!! said:

idk why IS is afraid of not putting the 3 3Houses lords together AT ONCE is every seasonal they show in

This is actually inaccurate. Claude appeared solo on the Wind Tribe banner. There's also Fallen Edelgard and Fallen Dimitri but no Fallen Claude, but that's not a seasonal banner. Anyway, just thought I'd point this out. Maybe it'd make you feel a bit better?

[Humanoid]

I will give the new Claude one thing, which is he finally looks good again. Did not like his Wind and Summer (and base) art at all, where he looked just off enough to be unattractive.

Figures then that the other two house leads decided it's their turn to look wrong.

[Tybrosion]

25 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Figures then that the other two house leads decided it's their turn to look wrong.

Yeah, I don’t remember Edelgard’s forehead being that ridiculous.

She legitimately looks like one of those edits of Sanaki’s art where her headband is removed.

[Humanoid]

Yeah, I'm probably being a bit unfair lumping Eddie and Dimmi together. He looks generally fine, just a little unusual because his eyes have been magnified slightly.