The future of Squad Ace seals

[Florete]

Ever since the Sacred Seal Forge was opened I've been a bit disappointed in how they handled the Squad Ace seals. Since we already have Atk +, Spd +, etc. seals, I'd hoped the Squad Ace seals could give us the duo boosts like Atk/Def + instead of just being duplicates. After all, you can't really do such a thing with the other seals; it would be awkward for the Atk + seal to suddenly become Atk/Def +. But the Squad Ace seals are a perfect way to get around that without forcing in seals that only have one upgrade (starting at Atk/Def +1 for a seal would mean only one upgrade unless it went to +3 or each point of Atk/Def came separately). Unfortunately, they didn't go that route.

However, now that Squad Ace E is out, all 5 stats have their Squad Ace seals, so starting from Squad Ace F something has to change unless they want to start going into triples. Of course, they could just start putting other random skills on Squad Ace seals, but I'm hoping they start using them for skills best implemented this way, whether it be stat boost combos or stuff like Sturdy Blow.

[mampfoid]

Stat combos would have been nice as upgrades for the Squad Assault seals. 

For Squad Ace F, Quickened pulse would be cool but also terrifying (double Moonbow/QP Reinhardts on Defense teams). 

Blow skills would be introduced as regular seals first, but IS seems to bring the less famous skills first into the seal world. 

[mcsilas]

Watch them be Defiant skills. Lyn with Wrath and Defiant Atk go!

I wouldn't mind the stat combo seals, even if they would be underwhelming. A lot of them are in seasonal units or, say Nephenee who you'd rather inherit Wrath instead. Atk/Spd+2 would be good for offensive healers for example.

[Ice Dragon]

My assumption has been that the Squad Ace seals existed as a means to give players access to a second copy of the stat up skills since you're only allowed one copy of a seal.

Dual stat seals don't seem particularly unlikely since it's pretty much physically impossible to implement them as seals to begin with (due to the fact that the lowest level version of a dual stat skill is a second-tier skill), but there are literally 20 different combinations of two stats, and the order that the original 5 Squad Ace seals were released seems to indicate that they will start with the least useful seals first.

[Hirotune]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

My assumption has been that the Squad Ace seals existed as a means to give players access to a second copy of the stat up skills since you're only allowed one copy of a seal.

Dual stat seals don't seem particularly unlikely since it's pretty much physically impossible to implement them as seals to begin with (due to the fact that the lowest level version of a dual stat skill is a second-tier skill), but there are literally 20 different combinations of two stats, and the order that the original 5 Squad Ace seals were released seems to indicate that they will start with the least useful seals first.

While that may be the case, who's to say they can't change that? Seals may be based on the skills in the game, but things change with every update. Who knows, maybe they'll add an Attack and Def 3 skill into the game. I doubt it, at least right now, but it could happen in the future. If enough feedback is given saying they'd want this, they would be more inclined to actually put it in the game.

[Ice Dragon]

3 minutes ago, Nep Nep said:

Who knows, maybe they'll add an Attack and Def 3 skill into the game.

Atk/Def 3 would not be a third-tier skill. It'd be a fourth-tier skill. Fourth-tier skills simply do not exist in the game, and there's no reason to believe they will be implemented anytime soon.

[XRay]

Maybe they will do it with Squad Deuce Sacred Seals or something with the double stat increases. I do not they will release that anytime soon, but it will be pretty awesome though on Elise.

7 hours ago, mcsilas said:

Watch them be Defiant skills. Lyn with Wrath and Defiant Atk go!

I would rather Lyn have Death Blow-Wrath-Death Blow and a teammate with Atk Tactic.

7 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Blow skills would be introduced as regular seals first, but IS seems to bring the less famous skills first into the seal world. 

Sounds perfect for my triple Reinhardt team. Moonbow-Quickened Pulse, Desperation-Brash Assault, and pure Death Blow-Death Blow is pretty awesome.

[Othin]

Dual stat Squad Ace seals would make a lot of sense. With regular seals, getting, say, a Def/Res +2 seal would be weird: you could upgrade a Def/Res +1 seal into it, but how would you get that Def/Res +1 seal? Def +1 and Res +1 skills are supposed to upgrade into their corresponding single-stat +2 skill, and just getting a level 2 skill off the bat would be a bit odd. (Although Quickened Pulse exists as a seal that's obtained as a non-leveled one rather than a level 1 one.) But there could be, say, a Squad Ace F where the level 1 skill is Def +1, then level 2 is Def/Res +1 and level 3 is Def/Res +2.

It'd fit nicely with the way Squad Ace seals so far being pure stats means you don't actually have to recognize them from the icon to figure out some more complicated effect they'll have, since all they do is boost the unit's stats in a way that's already apparent from just looking at its stats.

Of course, that's also why Squad Ace seals wouldn't really work well for more complicated effects. But as Ice Dragon said, there are 20 of these dual-stat skills, so it'd put off the question of other types of Squad Ace skills for quite a long time, as well as spanning pretty much the whole alphabet. And I'm not sure seals for skills like Swift Sparrow are really necessary anyway.

Alternatively, from the next Squad Assault on, they could just start giving away "regular" seals like Darting Blow rather than specific Squad Ace ones. Who knows.