New Heroes: Attuned Caeda & Ascended Merric

[Fire Emblem Fan]

This month's New Heroes banner is gracing us with Attuned Caeda and Ascended Merric, as well as Yulia and Arlen. Castor is the GHB unit. Strangely, Jubelo and Lorenz are not present.

 

[Armagon]

They really made this her prf huh.

[Sunwoo]

Of course they'd drop an Archanean banner with characters I actually want when I need to save up for AHR.

I might skip anyway just because I can't afford this. Also, what is it with Archanea shafting all their staff units?

[Othin]

Argh. Gaiden wasn't a one-off, this is another banner with only three new characters.

Caeda looks surprisingly like Lucina here.

[Sunwoo]

Just now, Othin said:

Argh. Gaiden wasn't a one-off, this is another banner with only three new characters.

Caeda looks surprisingly like Lucina here.

All this time we thought Lucina took after Marth.

But it was Caeda instead.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Honestly, I'm just thrilled Castor got into the game. That's the one Archanea character I really wanted that I was pretty sure wasn't ever going to get in, but now here he is. I have so many Grails I haven't used, he's going to be a pretty immediate merge project for me.

[Florete]

I know this is super late at this point but whose bright idea was it to cast Yuri Lowenthal as both Marth and Merric (and Eliwood)?

Also this trailer bugs me because the demote was shown 2nd instead of 3rd.

[Flying Shogi]

Of course it's a character I like right before AHR. Would have preferred Katarina but Caeda isn't bad. At a glance, I don't see this banner winning a FB revival so I pretty much have to pull here. Time to dip into those story map orbs. 

[Tybrosion]

It's pretty telling that this banner gets two alts but the Thracia banner did not. IS must have no faith in what's left of Archanea's character roster.

14 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Also, what is it with Archanea shafting all their staff units?

In this case, Yuliya was probably just a victim of circumstance since we just recently got two 5 star staff units added to the general pool.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Another oddity to consider: Yulia is the oddball here. Caeda and Merric are connected to Marth, Arlen is connected to Merric, and Castor is connected to Caeda. And then...there's Yulia. For months everyone thought that Yulia would be the character the banner was centered around because of that whole "Yulia had the most increase of votes!" thing Heroes officially and specifically pointed out, but she is absolutely not the center of attention here.

[Sunwoo]

Just now, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Another oddity to consider: Yulia is the oddball here. Caeda and Merric are connected to Marth, Arlen is connected to Merric, and Castor is connected to Caeda. And then...there's Yulia. For months everyone thought that Yulia would be the character the banner was centered around because of that whole "Yulia had the most increase of votes!" thing Heroes officially and specifically pointed out, but she is absolutely not the center of attention here.

It also feels like a dumb decision because they were already pushing Attuned Caeda as their big moneymaker. They absolutely should've saved her for a future banner where she was the 5-star and she carries her brother and some other random dude into the game.

3 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

It's pretty telling that this banner gets two alts but the Thracia banner did not. IS must have no faith in what's left of Archanea's character roster.

In this case, Yuliya was probably just a victim of circumstance since we just recently got two 5 star staff units added to the general pool.

Speaking of Thracia, they got pretty blessed when it comes to staff luck ... except for Nanna. Who is the most important of all the staff users we have so far here.

Also, there's no 5-star red here. There's no red unit at all!

[Fire Emblem Fan]

3 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

It also feels like a dumb decision because they were already pushing Attuned Caeda as their big moneymaker. They absolutely should've saved her for a future banner where she was the 5-star and she carries her brother and some other random dude into the game.

Jubelo and Lorenz feel like glaring omissions now. They could have easily saved Yulia for another banner with those two, then use Katarina or Minerva or something and/or an OC to carry it. I guess then the question would be who else would they have put on this banner. Etzel or Samuel, maybe, for a Red unit? Of course, that'd leave Caeda as the one and only woman on the banner.

[Sunwoo]

3 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Jubelo and Lorenz feel like glaring omissions now. They could have easily saved Yulia for another banner with those two, then use Katarina or Minerva or something and/or an OC to carry it. I guess then the question would be who else would they have put on this banner. Etzel or Samuel, maybe, for a Red unit? Of course, that'd leave Caeda as the one and only woman on the banner.

This is why they should've never wasted both Nyna and Elice on the same banner. Especially when they just made Elice a shitty 4-star instademote.

[Ice Dragon]

Bleh, only one spark despite having two premium unit types in different colors. I guess I'll just wait for Merric to pity break me later since Ascended Heroes have this odd habit of doing so for me anyways, and I'm not in a rush for his Floret or skills.

On the other hand, we're finally getting another human melee infantry skill duplicator to join Ganglot.

Guard Echo is... okay, I guess. It's a bit annoying that the Guard effect is already on half of the good skills that armors have access to, which means if you want it for the damage reduction effect, the Guard effect will be useless, but there aren't many other passive skills that are usable by both armors and non-armors that would grant damage reduction as an Echo skill. I guess armors will have to wait for Quick Riposte Echo or something to get something with both a useful primary effect and damage reduction.

Decent for other movement types, though. But also a bit annoying that the Guard effect also overlaps with Arcane Eljudnir.

The Bonus Doubler Distant/Close Counter variants are pretty nice, though we have a decent number of units that nullify stat bonuses, which means it's less reliable on player phase when you can't always rely on nearby teammates to make up for any nullified stat bonuses. Seems nice for pure enemy-phase units, though, but it's presumably restricted to only infantry due to having Bonus Doubler.

[EricaofRenais]

This banner slightly annoys me since the only characters I want from NM not in game yet are Lorenz and Etzel, and Etzel could have been in on here instead of Yulia.  I never liked Castor all that much so all new units here are meh to me.  Oh well I think I will use the tickets on colorless since I need merges for Etie I only need 3 more.  Maybe next NM banner will finally give me Lorenz in Heroes.

[Ice Dragon]

The localization of Akaneia's everything names still confuses the fuck out of me.

And the usual translation notes:

 

The name of the banner, "Attuned Caeda & Ascended Merric", is "響心シーダ＆開花マリク" (kyōshin shīda & kaika mariku), "Echoing Hearts Caeda & Blooming Merric". As usual, "響心" (kyōshin), "resonating hearts", is the term used for Attuned Heroes, and "開花" (kaika), "blooming", is the term used for Ascended Heroes.

Caeda's epithet, "Marth's Faithful", is "英雄王の理解者" (eiyū-ō no rikaisha), "The Hero King's Support".

Pure-Wing Spear is "純白ウイングスピア" (junpaku uingu supia), "Pure-White Wing Spear".

D Bonus Doubler is "遠反・強化増幅", (enhan: kyōka zōfuku), "Distant Counter: Bonus Amplification". As usual, "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. "強化増幅" (kyōka zōfuku), "enhancement amplification", is the name of the Bonus Doubler skill. "強化" (kyōka), "enhancement", on its own is the term used for stat bonuses, but not Bonuses as a whole.

Believe in Love? is "愛する人がいますか" (ai-suru hito ga imasu ka), "Is There Someone You Love?".

Def/Res Pledge is "守備魔防の信条" (shubi mabō no shinjō), "Def/Res Conviction".

Guard Echo is "響・キャンセル" (kyō: kyanseru), "Echo: Cancel". "キャンセル" (kyanseru), "cancel", is the name of the Guard skill.

Yumina's epithet, "Princess of Grust", is "グルニアの王女" (gurunia no ōjo), "Princess of Grunia".

Sunlight is "サンライト" (sanraito), "Sunlight".

Ellerean's epithet, "Mage of Khadein", is "カダインの魔道士" (kadain no madōshi), "Mage of Khadein".

Lightburst Tome is "激雷の書" (gekirai no sho), "Tome of Extreme Thunder".

C Bonus Doubler is "近反・強化増幅" (kinhan: kyōka zōfuku), "Close Counter: Bonus Amplification". As usual, "近反" (kinhan) is an abbreviation of "近距離反撃" (kinkyori hangeki), "close-range counterattack", which is the name of the Close Counter skill.

Merric's epithet, "Wind Pontifex", is "風の司祭" (kaze no shisai), "Bishop of Wind". "司祭" (shisai), "priest", "pastor", or "minister", is the name of the Bishop class, which is Merric's promoted class in the original Akaneia games. Note that the actual Japanese word for "bishop" is either "司教" (shikyō) for Catholic bishops or "主教" (shukyō) for all other denominations of Christianity.

Tender Excalibur is "柔風エクスカリバー" (jūfū ekusukaribā), "Soft Wind Excalibur".

Sacred Wind is "神聖風" (shinsei-fū), "Sacred Wind".

Seal Spd/Res is "速さ魔防封じ" (hayasa mabō fūji), "Spd/Res Sealing".

Kashim's epithet, "Loving Son", is "タリスの猟師" (tarisu no ryōshi), "Hunter of Talis".

Vulture Bow is "禿鷹の弓" (hagetaka no yumi), "Vulture Bow".

Nidhoggr's epithet, "Quieting Dose", is "毒の葬り手" (doku no hōmuri te), "Silencing Hand of Poison". "葬る" (hōmuru) means "to bury" or "to hush". I'm translating it here as "to silence".

Dosing Fang is "毒の葬り手の牙" (doku no hōmuri te no kiba), "Fangs of the Silencing Hand of Poison".

Edited March 15 by Ice Dragon

[Jotari]

Well my perdiction of no Archanea banner until June was wrong, not that I'm dissapointed. Strange to see Yuliya with Yubello. He isn't the Grand Hero Battle, is he?

[Tybrosion]

Apologies to everyone who is excited about Castor, but I’m afraid it appears he’s getting the Matthis treatment.

His Meet the Hero page shows him wielding what is almost certainly Vulture Bow+. Hope you have a Rearmed Tana or Alcryst on standby if you want to invest in Castor.

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

He isn't the Grand Hero Battle, is he?

Nope, Castor is the GHB unit.

[Jotari]

40 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Apologies to everyone who is excited about Castor, but I’m afraid it appears he’s getting the Matthis treatment.

His Meet the Hero page shows him wielding what is almost certainly Vulture Bow+. Hope you have a Rearmed Tana or Alcryst on standby if you want to invest in Castor.

Nope, Castor is the GHB unit.

Huh. So the question of if they'll match their names will persist. As for Castor, huh, never considered him GHB, even though you do fight him as an enemy. Arlen seems the much more obvious one, though I suppose they reckon Arlen will sell better than Castor as a banner  unit, and they're probably right.

I assume he's a bow infantry and not his more interesting promoted cavalry bow too.

Edited March 14 by Jotari

[Humanoid]

Can't say I have any idea on who the new units are, not that that's driving my decisions or anything.

- Caeda as a flying tank isn't the type of unit I'd really use, and for duplicating skills simply pulling more Peonies seems like it'd be a lot better.

- Arlen has the standard truncated kit and his neutral face is bizarre.

- Merric seems to have nothing particularly special going for him. Yeah he's about having special Specials, but having it grant Canto(1) instead of him getting it from elsewhere is completely uninteresting.

 

In a way I'm kind of glad there's no real temptation here. Will pull the blues on the ticket rounds and be happy with that.

[DefyingFates]

5 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

On the other hand, we're finally getting another human melee infantry skill duplicator to join Ganglot.

That's what stood out to me too, finally! Thanks to Merric Incite Atk/Spd is in the main pool now as well. So fodder-wise this banner is a dream come true for me... so of course it drops now right before AHR. I was considering only going up to the second spark there, so maybe I'll have a few Orbs to spare afterwards? We'll see.

I know buff neutralization is a thing, but are Bonus Doubler DC/ CC now the best Counter variants?

Also, I was going to ask if D/R Pledge + Atk Oath Echo was a good combo, but then I remembered Pledge granted an in-combat buff too. Darn.

16 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

- Caeda as a flying tank isn't the type of unit I'd really use, and for duplicating skills simply pulling more Peonies seems like it'd be a lot better.

Caeda is Infantry. That's what makes her more enticing fodder-wise (at least for me).

6 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Of course they'd drop an Archanean banner with fodder I actually want when I need to save up for AHR.

I might skip anyway just because I can't afford this. Also, what is it with Archanea shafting all their staff units?

This is a perfect tl;dr of how I feel xD

[Humanoid]

28 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Caeda is Infantry. That's what makes her more enticing fodder-wise (at least for me).

D'oh. Silly me even checked Merric's movement type thinking he was infantry before correcting myself, but didn't think to check Caeda as well. Certainly makes the lack of Canto less confusing, but ultimately she's still not the type of unit I'd personally use and I have a couple Ganglots just chilling waiting to duplicate infantry fodder.

[Jotari]

Do you think making her infantry is an intentional reference to dismounting in Old  Mystery? I mean, it's not mechanically similar because dismount is sword only in Genealogy, but obviously they wouldn't want to do that since they already gave her the non existent Wing Sword (plus Sword Infantry eww while Lance Infantry yay!). It could just be "here's your Shiida with a varied weapon/movement type".

Still hoping we'll see Wyvern Shiida some day.

[Etrurian emperor]

In this case I get it since it’s Yubello but man IS really hates male twins this month huh?

Speaking of the Grust kids, does anyone else think their scumbag dad is way more interesting then them?

[Magenta Fantasies]

It looks like my predictions were absolutely wrong, although Marth-themed Attuned Caeda is an Attuned alt I hoped would happen. It’s really odd to see Yuliya without Yubello. I wasn’t expecting Arlen, but he’s a fitting choice along with Ascended Merric. Speaking of which, I dislike having two Ascended/Rearmed/Attuned characters on the same banner. Not only do they compete with each other (one becomes much more popular than the other, e.g. Attuned Peony vs. Triandra) but it takes away a slot for a new character to be added. I don’t see why Merric couldn’t have been saved for a future banner.

Castor is a pleasant surprise. While I genuinely like Castor, him being an infantry bow GHB makes me concerned about the chances of Shura being on the next Fates banner. We’re almost certainly getting Fates next month (unless it is pushed off until June because of the Fallen banner and the possibility of being the child banner theme.) There aren’t many bow GHBs and I doubt two would happen in a row.