Pre banner discussion Thread: New Heroes banner january 2024

[ARMADS!!!]

Recently I made a thread to discuss what would be the worst possible outcome for the New Year banner (similar to the "Monkey Paw's" threads that arised on the FEH reddit for a while), but I figured that here on SF people rather discuss more things than just a strict topic (so much that the other thread naturally deviated from the "theme" a bit), so I decided to make another of these threads for the next banner, except that without restricting the discussion to something so specific as "what's the worst that can happen", now anything goes. I think I might start doing these before every banner now (until I forget, get tired or everyone gets tired), I was gonna start this one some days ago (as we're like, one or two days away from the trailer of the banner) but whatever, next one I'll do sooner.

 Anyway, drop your expectations, theories and wants (or not wants) about the upcoming banner here.

[Etrurian emperor]

I expect an Elusia banner with Team Hortensia and one of Ivy's retainers. Probably not Ivy herself since she very recently got in the game already, though if IS is particularly greedy they might try to sell the banner with Ivy's Ivys. 

In such a case I'd see Hortensia getting a forging bonds with Elise, and Rosado with Forrest. 

Edited January 8 by Etrurian emperor

[Tybrosion]

Anything other than Engage or Thracia showing up here would be a surprise to me. I lean towards expecting the former since Engage's first anniversary is later this month. As for an exact lineup, I would guess:

Hortensia (Staff Fly; either Attuned or Rearmed)
Ivy (B Tome Fly; either 5 Star or Rearmed / Attuned, whichever one Hortensia isn't)
Kagetsu (Sword Inf; 5 Star)
Rosado (Axe Fly; 4 Star Focus)
Griss (G Tome Inf; GHB)

It will be interesting to see if two Asset Heroes (Ascended, Rearmed, Attuned) becomes the norm for New Hero banners going forward. 

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Probably not Ivy herself since she very recently got in the game already, though if IS is particularly greedy they might try to sell the banner with Ivy's Ivys. 

I would not call early July of last year recent at this point, let alone very recent. Besides, IS has done shit like dropping F!Shez's Legendary just a little more than three months after adding her original version before.

Edited January 8 by Tybrosion

[ARMADS!!!]

 Oh, yeah... Good point on Engage (I had forgotten ans was thinking about Thracia). I don't care about Engage so if it happens to be it I will be able to save my orbs for the months I guess, unless some of the units turn out to be VERY good.

 

35 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

It will be interesting to see if two Asset Heroes (Ascended, Rearmed, Attuned) becomes the norm for New Hero banners going forward. 

 I'd find it pretty cool too (and we can always use more of them), though it'd be a bit annoying in banners of entries that still have a big roster to release on FEH, such as Thracia (but at the same time maybe they'll want to do exactly this for these banners, so they'll sell more, idk) unless if they started to release "vanilla" versions of the characters as Rearmeds (or Attuneds, maybe) like they did with Alcryst. 

[Tybrosion]

14 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

 I'd find it pretty cool too (and we can always use more of them), though it'd be a bit annoying in banners of entries that still have a big roster to release on FEH, such as Thracia (but at the same time maybe they'll want to do exactly this for these banners, so they'll sell more, idk) unless if they started to release "vanilla" versions of the characters as Rearmeds (or Attuneds, maybe) like they did with Alcryst. 

That's kinda the thing. There are more FE titles that are running out of worthwhile characters left to add (or in the case of Valentia and Awakening, any characters left to add at all) than ones that are missing a majority of their roster (like Thracia or Engage). As such, they might as well be forced to double up on Asset Heroes for certain titles in order to produce a viable banner.

And yeah, there's nothing stopping IS from turning "vanilla" versions of characters (Alfred is also a Rearmed Hero in addition to Alcryst) into Rearmed or Attuned Heroes at least. Doing this with Ascended Heroes might be harder to justify due to lore reasons, but perhaps not impossible.

[Florete]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I expect an Elusia banner with Team Hortensia and one of Ivy's retainers. Probably not Ivy herself since she very recently got in the game already, though if IS is particularly greedy they might try to sell the banner with Ivy's Ivys. 

In such a case I'd see Hortensia getting a forging bonds with Elise, and Rosado with Forrest. 

Bold prediction. Summer Ivy was just an extra. It'd be very strange after the Firene and Brodia banners to have an Elusia banner that doesn't include both royal siblings.

My own prediction for an Elusia banner:

Ivy (5* red or blue tome, flying)
Hortensia (5* staff, flying)
Rosado (4-5* Axe, flying)
Goldmary (5* sword, infantry)
Griss (GHB, green tome, infantry)

They skipped Diamant's retainers entirely and I can totally see them doing the same with Ivy's. If they want to throw in a Heroes OC, make Rosado an instant demote instead.

If it's not Engage it could be any of Thracia, Archanea, or Fates.

[Othin]

I hope it's Thracia, but I'm not optimistic. Engage, Fates, and Mystery all seem more likely, and as much as Engage needs its Elusia and Solm banners, I can't say I'm particularly excited for any of those possibilities.

24 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

That's kinda the thing. There are more FE titles that are running out of worthwhile characters left to add (or in the case of Valentia and Awakening, any characters left to add at all) than ones that are missing a majority of their roster (like Thracia or Engage). As such, they might as well be forced to double up on Asset Heroes for certain titles in order to produce a viable banner.

And yeah, there's nothing stopping IS from turning "vanilla" versions of characters (Alfred is also a Rearmed Hero in addition to Alcryst) into Rearmed or Attuned Heroes at least. Doing this with Ascended Heroes might be harder to justify due to lore reasons, but perhaps not impossible.

I think they're interested in trying to offer more limited-pool units, so Rearmed and Attuned seem more likely to double up than Ascended. If they can supply Florets some other way, there won't really be a need to continue releasing Ascended Heroes at all.

[ARMADS!!!]

1 hour ago, Florete said:

Bold prediction. Summer Ivy was just an extra. It'd be very strange after the Firene and Brodia banners to have an Elusia banner that doesn't include both royal siblings.

They skipped Diamant's retainers entirely and I can totally see them doing the same with Ivy's. If they want to throw in a Heroes OC, make Rosado an instant demote instead.

 

 I don't think they'll throw any OC now, they usually wait for their deaths (or at least until we fight them I guess), as far as I remember they've never added a non freebie OC this soon after a book started.

 I also agree on it not being soon at all to add Ivy.

 

51 minutes ago, Othin said:

I hope it's Thracia, but I'm not optimistic. Engage, Fates, and Mystery all seem more likely, and as much as Engage needs its Elusia and Solm banners, I can't say I'm particularly excited for any of those possibilities.

I think they're interested in trying to offer more limited-pool units, so Rearmed and Attuned seem more likely to double up than Ascended. If they can supply Florets some other way, there won't really be a need to continue releasing Ascended Heroes at all.

 I wish it was Thracia too, but after having it pointed out that Engage's anniversary is this month I became less optimistic too. But it should be soon, after all, last year Thracia was the only title that didn't get any representation at all (not counting backpack Sara and the sorta out of place Ascended Ced in a a FE4 banner) and on the past years they've always given minimal representation to every entry during each year, so I'm confident Thracia will be on a NH banner on the first few months of this year.

 Well, I think that Ascended Heroes do sell a bit too because people like their concept (I mean, the "Ascended" concept, since it's basically like legendaries but has more candidates) so I'd argue on there being no need on releasing some some of them every now and then even if they had other way to supply Florets, but at the same time I agree that they probably want to favor limited-pool units (speaking of this, I had forgotten that Rearmeds aren't on the normal pool), also the facts that: 1) Ascended Heroes have existed for longer so there's a lot more of them , 2) There are very few Attuned Heroes as of now, and 3) Releasing more Rearmed Heroes eliminates the "need" of ever having to make a second round of refines, would probably favor the two newer types of Asset Heroes over Ascendeds. So yeah, I think they might start to be a bit stingy on Ascended Heroes from now on.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I kinda want the banner for January to be either Archanea or Thracia, but I feel like it'll probably be Engage or Fates. Best-case scenario for me is Thracia bringing in Linoan or Archanea bringing in Castor.