New Heroes: Attuned Caeda & Ascended Merric

[Jotari]

38 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

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?

I'd put him at potentially interesting more than interesting. You say scumbag dad, but we really don't know what the situation was like. Characters in universe speak negatively of him capitulating to Grust, but those are all our heroes who have a pretty heavy bias against Dolhr. We also see someone like Horace capitulate to Dolhr who is depicted pretty positively once his context is revealed more.  So, yeah, there's actually a lot of ways they could go with his character. At worst he'd be basically a repeat of Michalis, at best he could be a genuinely nuanced and interesting character trying to protect as many people as possible. Or perhaps something more villainous but in a different form to Michalis. Or just weak and pathetic like the games mostly want us to view him as.

We do get to see him in the manga where they mostly play up the soap opera illness aspect that kills him off between games. He isn't depicted as outright pathetic or evil though. Just largely powerless and doing what he can for his country the way he sees best. Unfortunately we don't see much more of him than beyond those panels. If the manga continued up to Grust then no doubt the author would have made more use of him, she did a great job handling Jiol as a character, but unfortunately she moved on to other stuff and ended it after the retaking of Altea.

Edited March 14 by Jotari

[Diovani Bressan]

I would really like both Caeda and Merric. Caeda mostly for her fodder to my Holst, and Merric because I like the guy. But I cant go now, since Sylvain took my orbs.

Also, Castor looks to have a Vulture Bow... so no prf.

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

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

On strictly enemy-phase units, yes.

On dual-phase units, it depends. It has Bonus Doubler 4's effect of being able to borrow stat bonuses from nearby allies, which means you can make up for any of your nullified stat bonuses with an ally's stat bonuses, but that requires you to stay near your allies. If you're relying on teleportation effects, like Guidance 4, for mobility or using the unit more often on enemy phase with only a little player-phase use, then there's very little downside to Distant Bonus Doubler, but if the unit is running off on their own too often, then you probably want to run Distant Solo just to be more consistent.

And then there's the fact that Distant/Close Bonus Doubler is almost certainly going to be restricted to infantry since Bonus Doubler is restricted to infantry, so all other movement types will still have to settle for the other Distant/Close Counter variants.

 

3 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

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.

In combination with Pledge or Incite (or any new skill series with similar effects) once all of the stat combinations are released, you're always going to want the 2 most useful stats in the C slot and the third most useful stat in the Echo slot. So only if Def and Res are the unit's 2 most useful stats, this combination will be optimal.

On units that aren't running stat bonuses in their C slot, such as if you're running Time's Pulse 4, Infantry Pulse 4, Rein Snap, Deadly Miasma, etc., Atk Oath Echo is optimal if Atk is the unit's most useful stat (assuming we eventually get the other stats for the Oath Echo series).

Given that Pulse Up is probably only going to have an Atk/Spd variant and a Def/Res variant due to its naming scheme, Pulse Up: Shields + Atk Oath Echo will be optimal for units that don't need Spd once Pulse Up: Shields is released.

[Othin]

Shura GHB next month is still a possibility, given that he and Castor could have different bow colors.

I really hope April isn't another double-alt month. But it'll be interesting to see how they handle the Fallen banner in May.

[FlyingKitsune]

My orbs are in danger... I wanted to save for L!F!Alear or the Emblem hero, but Attuned Caeda is seriously tempting me.

[DefyingFates]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

On strictly enemy-phase units, yes.

And then there's the fact that Distant/Close Bonus Doubler is almost certainly going to be restricted to infantry since Bonus Doubler is restricted to infantry, so all other movement types will still have to settle for the other Distant/Close Counter variants.

 

In combination with Pledge or Incite (or any new skill series with similar effects) once all of the stat combinations are released, you're always going to want the 2 most useful stats in the C slot and the third most useful stat in the Echo slot. So only if Def and Res are the unit's 2 most useful stats, this combination will be optimal.

Given that Pulse Up is probably only going to have an Atk/Spd variant and a Def/Res variant due to its naming scheme, Pulse Up: Shields + Atk Oath Echo will be optimal for units that don't need Spd once Pulse Up: Shields is released.

Thanks as always, Ice! I suppose I can consider a D/R C Skill + Atk Oath Echo combo if I start training a tanky infantry unit in the future. And I overlooked the downsides of Bonus DC/ CC. Now if only it had been available for HF!Corrin in the recent HoF, it would have been better than Distant A/S Solo for her, wouldn't it?

Edited March 14 by DefyingFates

[indigoasis]

I don't usually comment on these, but Ascended Heroes are alive. I have waited long for this moment.

Also that Seal skill negating penalty negation is stupid. I knew powercreep was getting seriously bad when they introduced Z calculations with Framme, but come onnnnnn

[Ice Dragon]

38 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Thanks as always, Ice! I suppose I can consider a D/R C Skill + Atk Oath Echo combo if I start training a tanky infantry unit in the future.

I can see Def/Res Pledge + Atk Oath Echo being good on a lot of slow dragons since they'll naturally want the Res to activate Scowl and the Def for standard tanking, which makes those 2 stats the 2 most important for them.

Slow melee tanks that run Distant Counter and slow ranged tanks can also run the combination as long as their C slot is free to do so.

 

51 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Now if only it had been available for HF!Corrin in the recent HoF, it would have been better than Distant A/S Solo for her, wouldn't it?

Yeah.

 

8 minutes ago, indigoasis said:

Also that Seal skill negating penalty negation is stupid.

That's because it doesn't.

"Still inflicts penalty on foe" refers to the "additional penalty to foe's Spd/Res = 6 - current penalty on each of those stats during combat". The neutralized stat penalty remains neutralized.

This line is in the description because the single-stat Seal 4 skills have their additional penalty only apply if the opponent doesn't neutralize their stat penalties to that stat, whereas the double-stat Seal 4 skills don't have that restriction.

 

23 minutes ago, indigoasis said:

I knew powercreep was getting seriously bad when they introduced Z calculations with Framme,

It's worth noting that the Japanese skill description for Framme's weapon only uses 1 named variable for the whole description because Japanese is better at being concise with descriptions of values and can therefore just put the description of the value in the formula instead of having to pull those out to be explained separately.

[ARMADS!!!]

Mmmm, it's an ok banner and I hardly have significant complaints, but definitively a skip for me (specially given the time of the year it comes at). I really like Merric but I'm not desperated to get him now so yeah, will keep saving orbs instead (also I'm glad that Merric's shoulder pads got the dangling gems in some way, I was really hoping for him to get an alt with that).

 I think they left Jubelo out to try to make people want him more because, as it has been said here already, this banner really makes it feel like they have no faith in the rest of Archanea's characters... And yeah, it was a gross mistake to put Nyna and Elice on the same banner but guess the mistake is done now so they have to try to create interest on the other characters in some way(?). Yulia should've probably been a 5* but I guess they didn't have too many other options of women to add (the others left are Midia, Marisha and Cecil) and didn't want to put Jubelo as the 4* here on her place cause then Caeda would have been the only woman, so they chose Yulia to make us wait for Jubelo, I think. I actually like how the gender ratio is here: 50/50, a woman is the demote, and one man got to be the asset Hero instead of putting someone like Minerva or Nyna or Katarina or whatever in his place.

 I can only guess that, with this apparent lack of fate in Archanea, the next banner will run together with OCs at the end of the year (maybe get 3 asset heroes even like A!Sonya's banner, whether it's 2 OCs or 2 Archanea characters). They'll probably keep adding some men on the same way they added Mycen on the Sonya banner, cause out of the 36 playable Archanea characters left to add only 3 are women.

 

9 hours ago, Othin said:

Shura GHB next month is still a possibility, given that he and Castor could have different bow colors.

I really hope April isn't another double-alt month. But it'll be interesting to see how they handle the Fallen banner in May.

If I'm remembering it correctly, there weren't any Asset Heroes in past year's (and 2022's) Fallen banners so I think they'll just do the same thing again and do none.

 

EDIT: I'm glad as fuck thats they didn't add Xane now cause I'm trying to save my orbs.

Edited March 15 by ARMADS!!!

[Jotari]

13 hours ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

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.

I fully expected Arlon to be a GHB, he even has a distinct map that would work for it. But they made him a banner unit. I think we could see Shura as a banner unit too. Fates is the one game where the number of viable GHB units outstrips the number of playable units, so it would make more sense to use the GHB slot to go to one o the capturable bosses, if they seriously have an intention to include the capturable bosses. They haven't added one yet, but their consistent presence on CYL over certain other characters of more or less notes indicates they are on the radar. But even ignoring the capturable bosses, Fates has 15 playable units left and still hasn't given us Sumeragi, Mikoto (at base), Zola, Kotaro* or Anthony*. That means we have the potential for five more Fates banners without using any of the playable characters (including the capturable bosses) as GHB units. In other words, GHB isn't Shura's only way into the game, in fact, if they do give us the capturable bosses, a GHB spot is going to be more competitive than a banner spot (and that's ignoring all the other playable characters that could be a GHB, like Fuga or Scarlet).

All that being said, I expect Zola as the GHB unit next month. He just feels like he'll be the next to pop up. GHB loves it's red tome gimmick users.

 

*Kotaro and Anthony aren't on CYL, but I see no reason not to add them to the game. Kotaro is a major villain and its baffling that he's not on CYL, meanwhile a surprisingly large proportion of Rev's script is dedicated to Anthony, but, more importantly than that, he's another option for a beast unit which canon doesn't provide a whole lot of.

Edited March 15 by Jotari

[Ice Dragon]

On 3/14/2024 at 12:20 AM, Ice Dragon said:

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".

Added Kashim's weapon and Nidhoggr's epithet and weapon to the translation notes.

 

It's really weird hearing Nidhoggr voiced by Toyosaki Aki.

[Etrurian emperor]

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

All that being said, I expect Zola as the GHB unit next month. He just feels like he'll be the next to pop up. GHB loves it's red tome gimmick users.

I like the idea of zola in Heroes. He's easily the best Fates villain. This has mostly to do with those other villains being all bad but Zola still had a nice little arc, and he's unimportant enough that his status as a joke villain is a boon instead of a bane like with Iago. 

[Jotari]

37 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I like the idea of zola in Heroes. He's easily the best Fates villain. This has mostly to do with those other villains being all bad but Zola still had a nice little arc, and he's unimportant enough that his status as a joke villain is a boon instead of a bane like with Iago. 

Another less likely candidate for GHB, but still certainly possible, is Kilma, Fellicia and Flora's dad. He's not on CYL, and that's more of a death sentence to him than the likes of Kotaro, but he does have a cool design and obvious connection to existing characters, I'd like to see him in the game. If not as a GHB, it would be fun if they brought him in for the Ice Tribe Seasonal (that's what everyone is expecting for this year, right? They've done Fire and Wind so far, I think, seasonals tend to slip by without me even noticing them). I know Seasonals are blatant cash grabs to give more unique movement types and randomly debut broken units, but I would like if they threw in the occasional new or obscure character into them when appropriate, who might not have a chance otherwise. Even now, the most exciting seasonal for me was Greil, just because Tellius is so big and his chance of being on a banner or even a legendary aren't high. Man, it's such a pipe dream, but I would have pulled so hard if they'd but the Elder of Arcadia on the Arcadia banner. I might have even paid some money to get him. But the fact that I haven't paid for the game since the first year I played is precisely why my obscure tastes aren't the ones being appealed to.

[Othin]

15 hours ago, ARMADS!!! said:

If I'm remembering it correctly, there weren't any Asset Heroes in past year's (and 2022's) Fallen banners so I think they'll just do the same thing again and do none.

Last year's Fallen banner had Rearmed Chrom. I think it's a safe bet that this year's will have at least one of Rearmed/Attuned, potentially multiple.

[ARMADS!!!]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Another less likely candidate for GHB, but still certainly possible, is Kilma, Fellicia and Flora's dad. He's not on CYL, and that's more of a death sentence to him than the likes of Kotaro, but he does have a cool design and obvious connection to existing characters, I'd like to see him in the game. If not as a GHB, it would be fun if they brought him in for the Ice Tribe Seasonal (that's what everyone is expecting for this year, right? They've done Fire and Wind so far, I think, seasonals tend to slip by without me even noticing them). I know Seasonals are blatant cash grabs to give more unique movement types and randomly debut broken units, but I would like if they threw in the occasional new or obscure character into them when appropriate, who might not have a chance otherwise. Even now, the most exciting seasonal for me was Greil, just because Tellius is so big and his chance of being on a banner or even a legendary aren't high. Man, it's such a pipe dream, but I would have pulled so hard if they'd but the Elder of Arcadia on the Arcadia banner. I might have even paid some money to get him. But the fact that I haven't paid for the game since the first year I played is precisely why my obscure tastes aren't the ones being appealed to.

 That was one of the reasons I liked the Pirate banner, it always had some randos, they should really take more opportunities to keep doing that, Flora and Felicia's dad on an Ice Tribe banner would be neat (also yeah, it was fire and wind tribes, I guess everyone is expecting ice cause there's probably none to do after that and they'll switch the theme). Unfortunately, as another person that likes the randos but isn't willing to spend money on the game, yeah, it's surely not to our tastes that the game is catering to, so I expect to see someone like... Ugh, Fjorm (or something) on this banner instead, though as long as we get either Flora or Felicia I guess I'm happy enough.

 

26 minutes ago, Othin said:

Last year's Fallen banner had Rearmed Chrom. I think it's a safe bet that this year's will have at least one of Rearmed/Attuned, potentially multiple.

Oh yeah, Rearmed Chrom! I completely forgot him! Tbh I don't mind having multiple Asset Heroes on the Fallen banner as it very likely won't be used as a way to "rob" anyone from anyone.

 

 Now, thinking back, I wonder why january's NH banner didn't get two Asset Heroes... Every NH banner (barring the CYL) has got it since july of last year (or rather, sorta since june, that got 1 asset hero and one mythic Hero, Heidr, in it), so I'd expect a Thracia banner to have it too, idk.

[Othin]

8 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Oh yeah, Rearmed Chrom! I completely forgot him! Tbh I don't mind having multiple Asset Heroes on the Fallen banner as it very likely won't be used as a way to "rob" anyone from anyone.

 

 Now, thinking back, I wonder why january's NH banner didn't get two Asset Heroes... Every NH banner (barring the CYL) has got it since july of last year (or rather, sorta since june, that got 1 asset hero and one mythic Hero, Heidr, in it), so I'd expect a Thracia banner to have it too, idk.

Yeah, Fallen banners avoid the usual concerns. Rearmed Chrom isn't even any different from usual Fallen banner fare.

Honestly, I do kind of hope we get Rearmed Fallen Three Hopes Edelgard at some point even though she'd be sort of a duplicate, because she'd offer an arcane beast armor weapon. Not like we'd be missing out on anything particularly new for it.

December was Rearmed+Mythic, but yeah, ultimately the same story. I'm glad Thracia didn't lose a character slot though, and I hope we get another full roster in April. At least Jun-Dec aren't an issue since they get insta-demotes to make up for it (aside from CYL, which is its own story). Maybe sometime they'll start doing insta-demotes for Jan-Apr as well, to make it a moot point.

[Humanoid]

I've never heard the term Asset Hero before. 😮 Not an unreasonable term for Rearmed and Attuned heroes. Are other special hero types included to, or is it just about the ability to duplicate skills?

[ARMADS!!!]

11 minutes ago, Othin said:

Yeah, Fallen banners avoid the usual concerns. Rearmed Chrom isn't even any different from usual Fallen banner fare.

Honestly, I do kind of hope we get Rearmed Fallen Three Hopes Edelgard at some point even though she'd be sort of a duplicate, because she'd offer an arcane beast armor weapon. Not like we'd be missing out on anything particularly new for it.

December was Rearmed+Mythic, but yeah, ultimately the same story. I'm glad Thracia didn't lose a character slot though, and I hope we get another full roster in April. At least Jun-Dec aren't an issue since they get insta-demotes to make up for it (aside from CYL, which is its own story). Maybe sometime they'll start doing insta-demotes for Jan-Apr as well, to make it a moot point.

I'd fear the existence of the literal Fallen Edelgard 2.0 lol, though it would definitively be nice to get an inheritable armoured beast. I wonder if Nidhoggr has a slight chance of being a rearmed instead of a mythic (also hooray for the first colored armoured beast).

 And I'm also glad that they didn't do two asset heroes in january and so managed to not lose a character slot. I agree that they definitively should make instant demotes for every banner with 2 Asset Heroes to make up for the lost spot, it would have been great on this banner since Archanea still has 36 playable characters to add. I guess they make the insta demotes more to make the Forging Bonds still get 4 non OCs than because of a lost slot, and since the banners on the beggining of the year have no OC, they just didn't do it... Which I think was a poor decision, specially with Archanea since with the amount of characters left to add, it won't be surprising if some of them turn out to never even get in.

2 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

I've never heard the term Asset Hero before. 😮 Not an unreasonable term for Rearmed and Attuned heroes. Are other special hero types included to, or is it just about the ability to duplicate skills?

Ascended Heroes are included. As far as I know, it only includes the new types of hero that come on the TT+s, and not every "premium" type of hero (for lack of a better word), so Legendaries/Mythics/Emblems wouldn't be called like that, but I'm not 100% sure of this part, only know that the Ascended/Rearmed/Attuned heroes are definitively included.

[Humanoid]

It's mildly amusing that the reaction to Fallen Edelgard has gone from "noooo, she's so toxic for the meta" to now "noooo, she's a complete waste of a slot on Hall of Forms" because there's almost nothing really worth adding to her skill-wise.

[Diovani Bressan]

I didn't realize how annoying is to get all skills from Caeda. To get Pledge, you need Oath, and the only other hero with Def/Res Oath is New Year Alfonse.

[ARMADS!!!]

52 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

It's mildly amusing that the reaction to Fallen Edelgard has gone from "noooo, she's so toxic for the meta" to now "noooo, she's a complete waste of a slot on Hall of Forms" because there's almost nothing really worth adding to her skill-wise.

Tbf she is a complete waste in HoF.

 

1 minute ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I didn't realize how annoying is to get all skills from Caeda. To get Pledge, you need Oath, and the only other hero with Def/Res Oath is New Year Alfonse.

 Oh fuck, guess a bunch of people will have to wait until next new year or something to get him...

 

 

[Humanoid]

Oh wow, I'd like to think that I would have checked for that had I intentionally pulled for her, but I don't know that for sure. Just another unit in the pile of "can't use yet", featuring inaugural member Rearmed Lif. By the time we get accessible bridge fodder we'll probably have at least another couple infantry Asset heroes.

Lif is 18 months old now and I still can't effectively use his Atk/Def Clash.

  

8 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Tbf she is a complete waste in HoF.

Yeah, I'm pretty keen to start using up my Forma Souls since I'm already unlikely to be able to spend them all before I or IS quit for good. But yet another month of nothing interesting on offer, both with the old 3H and the new 3H HoFs. I guess it might make me slightly more likely to redeem Eldicakes on the current HoF but with a day left, I better get cracking on finding his best build.

Edited March 15 by Humanoid

[ARMADS!!!]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

Oh wow, I'd like to think that I would have checked for that had I intentionally pulled for her, but I don't know that for sure. Just another unit in the pile of "can't use yet", featuring inaugural member Rearmed Lif. By the time we get accessible bridge fodder we'll probably have at least another couple infantry Asset heroes.

Lif is 18 months old now and I still can't effectively use his Atk/Def Clash.

  

Yeah, I'm pretty keen to start using up my Forma Souls since I'm already unlikely to be able to spend them all before I or IS quit for good. But yet another month of nothing interesting on offer, both with the old 3H and the new 3H HoFs. I guess it might make me slightly more likely to redeem Eldicakes on the current HoF but with a day left, I better get cracking on finding his best build.

I do have some formas stacked as well... I'm verter using them soon I guess, specially since we get one per year and I use less than this per year so it's not like I'll be short of formas.

[Tybrosion]

3 hours ago, Othin said:

Honestly, I do kind of hope we get Rearmed Fallen Three Hopes Edelgard at some point even though she'd be sort of a duplicate, because she'd offer an arcane beast armor weapon. Not like we'd be missing out on anything particularly new for it.

Yeah, I’m going to give that suggestion a hard “hell no”. Give that role to Demonic Beast Dedue (you know, a guy with no alts at all) instead if we really need an arcane weapon for armored beasts. Edelgard, for her part, can get a busted kid alt instead and like it.

Even with Nidhoggr being revealed to be a beast armor, that will increase the number of armored beasts in FEH to a grand total of……four. With that in mind, do we really want IS to waste a Rearmed Hero on armored beasts?

[Humanoid]

40 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

specially since we get one per year and I use less than this per year so it's not like I'll be short of formas.

The Celestial Stone store resets twice a year, so we get two guaranteed Formas a year, excluding random one-off gifts.