General Weapon Refinery discussion/speculation/creation thread

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

This refine is extremely tame to balance out the fact that it gets Raging Storm. It's just +8 to all stats and an additional 8-9 damage with lenient conditions. I think they might have actually overcompensated by a bit, but Raging Storm is still a really good skill effect to have when it doesn't even take up a skill slot this time, so even without any new skill effects, I think Edelgard will still work out just fine. Infantry have really good passive skill options, after all.

Damn it. I wish she was a bit more broken. They should have at least put Special charge in there for easier Galeforce triggers.

[Ice Dragon]

41 minutes ago, XRay said:

Damn it. I wish she was a bit more broken. They should have at least put Special charge in there for easier Galeforce triggers.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly why she doesn't have +1 Special charge rate.

[Xenomata]

Can't say these refines are disappointing, Bantu and Conrad are probably going to shoot up in usage now that they aren't limited to inheritable lances and Arcane weapons, of course Edelgard gets Galeforce that's just her "thing", and I wasn't even expecting Alfonse to get any form of special charging, not after Duo Ephraim's refine needed only one SI or SS to almost completely invalidate his duo skill.

Seeing Silque's refine actually reminds me of a minor nitpick I have about the Witchy Wand, Melancholy, and now Staff of Lilies: despite inflicting Guard and even resetting special charge on its targets, they don't actually have the Guard effect in play during combat. It doesn't really matter since as staves the opponent can't counterattack anyway, but it still bothers me a bit. Plus I still think we're overdue for more units getting Null C-Disrupt effects, given how all units remain exceedingly vulnerable to not being allowed to attack, ergo the whole Dazzling effect on staves becoming useless against said units.

[XRay]

29 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I'm pretty sure that's exactly why she doesn't have +1 Special charge rate.

That is her gimmick schtick though, Galeforcing twice! Plus, it is not like it is broken or anything, with how bulky tanks are these days.

[Xenomata]

Ready for Seer's Snare? Maybe these refines will help you along!

• Freeblade's Edge, a new weapon for Sword Infantry Eyvel: Mistress of Fiana
• Sokvabekkr, being remixed alongside Mythic Sword Infantry Lif: Lethal Swordsman
• Pupil's Tome, a new weapon for Red Tome Infantry Ewan: Eager Student
• Valbar's Lance, a new weapon for 4* Lance Armor Valbar: Open and Honest
• Revenger Lance, a new weapon for grail Lance Flier Cormag: Aloof Lanceman
• Aymr, being remixed alongside Legendary Axe Armor Edelgard: Flame Emperor
• Scepter of Love, held by seasonal Axe Infantry Alm w/ Celica: Lovebird Duo

...wait does that opener check out? Isn't the bonus for the first Seer's Snare gonna be Archanea and Ylisse? Ah whatever, I tried...

[Diovani Bressan]

So Eyvel is the first hero from Book 4 to get a refinement, that is not a Brave Hero, Legendary Hero or Seasonal Hero. She really needs something good, because she is a demote that has the 5* exclusive status.

Speaking of "demote that has the 5* exclusive status"... hi Ewan! I hope you get something good as well.

Interesting how they skipped the Guardians of Peace banner... we could have Igrene instead of Eyvel. Or even Perceval sharing with Valbar instead of Eyvel sharing with Ewan, but maybe they want to avoid a demote sharing wiuth a 5* hero.

Anyway, I only really care about the Legendary and Mythic refinements.

I wonder if Alm will get "if special triggers, neutralizes 'reduces damage by X%' effects from non-Special skills" in his refinement, to compensate the fact that he doesn't have access to Lunar Flash II.

[Ice Dragon]

Whichever idiot at Google decided it was a good idea to put "Close other tabs" directly next to "Close" on the tab right-click dropdown in Chrome deserves to be tried for war crimes. So now I have to rewrite this entire post because it didn't save.

 

New weapons mean translation notes:

Freeblade's Edge is "義勇軍の正剣" (giyūgun no seiken), "Righteous Sword of the Volunteer Army". It looks like they got tired of using "blade" and decided to call this one an "edge" instead because they'll do anything except call it a "sword".

Pupil's Tome is "見習い魔道士の書" (minarai madōshi no sho), "Trainee Mage's Tome". Ewan's Pupil class in The Sacred Stones is "魔道士見習い" (madōshi minarai), "Mage Trainee".

Valbar's Lance is "バルボの勇槍" (barubo no yūsō), "Valbar's Brave Lance". This is does not use the exact same wording as the Brave Lance weapon, which is "勇者の槍" (yūsha no yari), literally "Hero's Lance", but is pretty close.

Revenger Lance is "復讐の烈槍" (fukushū no ressō), "Fierce Lance of Revenge". "復讐" (fukushū), "revenge", is also the name of the Vengeance skill.

 

And my usual analysis and hopes:

 

Eyvel: Freeblade's Edge

Currently has Guard Sword, which has the Guard effect with no condition.

Eyvel was already pretty mediocre at release due to the fact that she had low Atk and an uncomfortable Spd stat that was higher than middling but not quite fast enough to be viable without a guaranteed follow-up, but had a high Def stat. Her base kit leans into her high Def with Guard Sword, Atk/Def Form, and Chill Atk boosting her bulk and relying on Ignis for damage. However, she doesn't have the Spd to reliably double without a guaranteed follow-up, and doesn't have any forms of Special acceleration to reliably activate Ignis.

Ideally, Eyvel's weapon should get at least a guaranteed follow-up and +1 Special charge rate. It's also rather likely that it'll keep the Guard effect from her original weapon.

Since her Atk stat is rather low, it's likely that they'll try to patch it up like with other characters with low Atk. I can see her getting either a boost to damage or a reduction to the opponent's Def based on a percentage of her Def stat, similar to Askr or Spring Maria.

Ewan: Pupil's Tome

Currently has Raudhrserpent, which has Distant Def 3.

Ewan literally has the same stat spread as Hubert, but with all of his trainee bonus stats put in Res, giving him decent Atk and Res, but middling Spd and low Def. His base kit tries to salvage his Spd with Swift Stance and Sabotage Spd, but that was not viable at release and is certainly not viable now.

I expect Ewan to be similar to Hubert and receive a guaranteed follow-up to make up for his Spd. Ewan's Res is decent, but isn't really high enough to reliably use skills that require a Res comparison anymore, so if they want to have him continue to use Res-comparison-based debuffs, it would be nice to give him Phantom Res.

Valbar: Valbar's Lance

Currently has Brave Lance.

Valbar's stat spread is literally just Gwendolyn with 5 more Atk. His base kit is entirely made of garbage.

His new weapon's name in Japanese references his default Brave Lance, so it's likely he'll have the Brave effect on both phases to actually function on enemy phase.

His default B skill is Obstruct, which is trash compared to the extremely stiff competition in the slot, even more so now that Fighter skills are getting tier-4 versions. I could definitely see them giving his weapon Bulwark to free up his B slot, given that he doesn't have access to the skill normally.

Cormag: Revenger Lance

Currently has Slaying Lance.

Cormag has a very typical "slow" lance flier stat spread with decent Atk and Def and middling Spd in an extremely saturated class. I'm expecting him to get a gimmick of some kind to set himself apart from other dragon knights.

Given that his weapon shares part of its Japanese name with the Vengeance skill, even if it's simple coincidence due to the fact that it's just a normal word, it would be interesting to give him an Ice Mirror-like effect.

Lif: Sokkvabekkr

Current effect is:

• If there is an ally within 3 spaces:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Guaranteed follow-up
  • Inflicts 20 damage to nearest ally after combat

For reference, Lif's Remix grants him an additional effective +5 Spd, the Guard effect, and all of the effects of Special Spiral 4 except for the additional damage. His new skill is Even Tempest, replacing Time's Pulse.

Given that Lif has an exclusive Special with 3 cooldown, Deadly Balance+ grants +1 Special charge rate on the opponent's attacks and Special Spiral, and he's getting a skill to replace his default Time's Pulse, it's pretty much guaranteed that he'll either get either the Slaying effect or Time's Pulse 4 on his weapon, likely the former.

As a unit that wants his first round of combat to be on enemy phase in order to set up looping his Special, he'll probably get percentage damage reduction of some kind since Deadly Balance prevents him from running Quick Riposte 4 or Guard 4 for damage reduction. Also, I can see him getting follow-up prevention to reference Arcane Eljudnir.

Legendary Edelgard: Aymr

Current effect is:

• Permanent +3 Atk
• With a Solo condition:
  • -6 Atk/Def to opponent in combat
  • Follow-up prevention

For reference, Edelgard's remix updates the condition on her guaranteed follow-up so that instead of only activating against non-human classes, it now activates based on her HP, with the alternate condition of being Solo unchanged. In addition, it adds the offensive half of Null Follow-Up against non-human classes and additional stats. Her new skill is Atk/Res Ideal, replacing Atk/Res Solo.

With Raging Storm II no longer being heavily reliant on being Solo and her original Atk/Res Solo being replaced with Atk/Res Ideal, it's almost certain that Aymr's effects will have their condition updated to something more lenient, likely with an alternate HP condition.

The Three Houses main characters have a tendency to repeat similar effects across their various versions, so I'm expecting the refine to include something from another Edelgard. The most likely candidate is the effects of Armored Wall. Black Eagle Rule is a possibility as a back-up effect for when the opponent can get around her follow-up prevention, but I don't really see it as particularly likely. The Formation teleportation effect from Flower Hauteclere is rather unlikely because even if Legendary Edelgard is no longer dependent on the Solo condition, the developers generally don't give Formation effects to units that have a Solo condition anywhere.

Duo Alm: Scepter of Love

Current effect is:

• Permanent +3 Spd
• If unit has a stat Bonus or if HP is 70% or higher at start of combat:
  • Boost to Atk equal to 25% of opponent's Def at start of combat
  • Reduction to opponent's Atk equal to 25% of opponent's Res at start of combat

For reference, Alm's Duo skill clears Penalties, heals 30 HP, and applies +6 Atk/Spd as status effects to himself and allies within a 5×5 square around him.

At release, Alm was notable for being an annoying unit that was annoyingly fast, annoyingly bulky, and kills you with Lunar Flash.

Duo Alm doesn't have any form of Special acceleration on his weapon or his base kit and therefore relied on his follow-up attack to land Lunar Flash. Nowadays, this leaves him vulnerable to both follow-up prevention and Guard to prevent Lunar Flash from landing, and he would like to not have to use two skill slots to run Tempo and Null Follow-Up. I figure he'll probably get at least one of the two effects on his weapon's refine if not both.

While Alm's signature skill effect in Heroes is Windsweep for whatever reason, I can't really see them giving it to him here. He already has an effect that lowers the opponent's Atk by a pretty hefty amount on his weapon, and it would be wasteful to have the effect not be relevant on player phase. Additionally, it would mean needing to give him some form of Special acceleration to allow him to land Lunar Flash on his follow-up.

Otherwise, I'm not really expecting anything out of left field for him, even with how weird the weapon's base effect is.

[Sunwoo]

Uh, question. I was looking through my list of characters to be refined and would you guys consider Nagi to be a bit overdue? She shared a banner with Sirius, Norne, and Phina while Bantu was the instademote. Norne and Bantu got their refines recently and Sirius got one quite a while ago. Phina's not eligible. I'm rather surprised that Eyvel is getting one before Nagi.

Is there any reason for IS to put her in the "no refines allowed" group?

[Ice Dragon]

43 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Uh, question. I was looking through my list of characters to be refined and would you guys consider Nagi to be a bit overdue? She shared a banner with Sirius, Norne, and Phina while Bantu was the instademote. Norne and Bantu got their refines recently and Sirius got one quite a while ago. Phina's not eligible. I'm rather surprised that Eyvel is getting one before Nagi.

Is there any reason for IS to put her in the "no refines allowed" group?

It's normal for the 5-star refine schedule to jump around like this. Edelgard was released 2 non-CYL standard banners before Nagi was and only just got her refine last month. You also can't really compare the 5-star refine schedule with the 4-star refine schedule since they operate independently of each other.

[Jotari]

56 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Uh, question. I was looking through my list of characters to be refined and would you guys consider Nagi to be a bit overdue? She shared a banner with Sirius, Norne, and Phina while Bantu was the instademote. Norne and Bantu got their refines recently and Sirius got one quite a while ago. Phina's not eligible. I'm rather surprised that Eyvel is getting one before Nagi.

Is there any reason for IS to put her in the "no refines allowed" group?

She definitely deserves one. She's kind of failed as a unit on release. She's meant to be an anti aoe unit, which is a cool if situational niche, but they made her a green unit when the primary aoe user, Base Ophelia and Pony Lillina are red units that will just gobble her up. She should have been outright immune to aoe damage, or better yet, protect adjacent allies from aoe attacks. That would be a lot more useful. Healing from enemy aoe attacks could also work since her base build is a special build revolving around Sol, so they want recovery as an aspect somehow.

[Ice Dragon]

14 minutes ago, Jotari said:

She definitely deserves one. She's kind of failed as a unit on release. She's meant to be an anti aoe unit, which is a cool if situational niche, but they made her a green unit when the primary aoe user, Base Ophelia and Pony Lillina are red units that will just gobble her up. She should have been outright immune to aoe damage, or better yet, protect adjacent allies from aoe attacks. That would be a lot more useful. Healing from enemy aoe attacks could also work since her base build is a special build revolving around Sol, so they want recovery as an aspect somehow.

Ophelia is blue.

Nagi's issue wasn't her color. In fact, green was the ideal color for a tank when she was released due to the fact that Ophelia and Legendary Alm were the strongest threats at the time. Nagi's issue was the fact that she didn't have Distant Counter on her weapon and therefore couldn't run Distant Def 4.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'm just hoping Cormag gets a good refine. They did him so dirty.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Ophelia is blue.

Nagi's issue wasn't her color. In fact, green was the ideal color for a tank when she was released due to the fact that Ophelia and Legendary Alm were the strongest threats at the time. Nagi's issue was the fact that she didn't have Distant Counter on her weapon and therefore couldn't run Distant Def 4.

Oh wow. You're totally right. I guess that just shows how unappealing Nagi is that I wrote her off like that despite having, in theory, a rather interesting niche.

For another suggestion for her, having her weapon reduce damage from shock traps in Aether Raids would be a nice bonus (though with armoured movement she's still probably not getting to one quick enough and clearing the surrounding area to effectively act like she has disarm traps).

[Humanoid]

I've had a fair few copies of Nagi just sitting in the reserves because of the awkwardness of her setup. Not many - or indeed any - units I want to give both DC and Special Fighter to.

As for this month's batch, I assume I'll refine Duo Alm. My Lif is awful, and I don't have Edelgard or Ewen. Don't see a reason to build up Eyvel, Valbar or Cormag in their oversaturated classes and because no matter the quality of their refines, I'd still have to revamp their entire kits in addition to the dew. Man it hurts seeing how bad Eyvel's base kit is even if you disregard her lack of Prf.

[Diovani Bressan]

Considering we got Duo Alm this month, Nagi's refinement should be in June.

So far the only refinements we know that will happen in June are Brunnya, since the is the next grail unit in line, and Valentine Rudolf, who is the the remaining unit from 2020's Valentines that has a Prf weapon.

[Xenomata]

Well that explains why Lif replaced Time's Pulse with Even Tempest, dunnit? I guess also explains why Edelgard didn't get something like Heavy Blade...

[Humanoid]

Huh, if you exclude the use of Arcane weapons, is Cormag now the best common lance flier?

[Ice Dragon]

Eyvel: Freeblade's Edge

Base effect is:

• With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Guard effect
  • 30% damage reduction from non-Rokkr AoE Specials and opponent's first attack

Refine effect is:

• If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Guaranteed follow-up
  • Additional damage equal to 15% of Def, including AoE Specials

Eyvel keeps the Guard effect from her original Guard Sword and gains a guaranteed follow-up to make up for her middling Spd and additional damage based on her Def stat to make up for her middling Atk that comes out to about 7-10 extra damage depending on her build. She also gets percentage damage reduction from AoE Specials and the opponent's first attack, which wasn't in my predictions, but is commonplace at this point.

Unfortunately, she doesn't get any form of Special acceleration at all, making it difficult to run her default Ignis or any Special with more than 2 cooldown, for that matter.

This puts her at least on par with or slightly ahead of Gregor, Flame Rinkah with either Arcane sword, or Skasaher with Arcane Eljudnir for physically bulky sword infantry, but the lack of Special acceleration really hurts her since it prevents her from running stronger Specials like Bonfire or Ignis or Specials with defensive boosts like Vital Astra or Godlike Reflexes.

Ewan: Pupil's Tome

Base effect is:

• With a Blow condition or if opponent is a ranged weapon class:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • 30% damage reduction from opponent's first attack
  • Nullifies penalties to Atk/Res

Refine effect is:

• If there is an ally within 3 spaces:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Reduces opponent's Atk/Res by 20% of unit's Res at start of combat
  • Guaranteed follow-up

Ewan does get the guaranteed follow-up that he needs, which is good. Additionally, they don't lean into his base kit, which I think is the correct choice.

Instead, he gets a bulky build with damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, a reduction to the opponent's Atk/Res based on his own Res that comes out to about 8-11 points depending on his build, and nullification of penalties to his Atk/Res.

This basically makes him a better version of Julius with a larger stat boost and guaranteed follow-up in exchange for potentially less damage reduction, though it cannot be nullified by the opponent simply having more Res. That said, he lacks Special acceleration, Guard, follow-up prevention, and damage reduction against AoE Specials and ultimately still falls behind more recent bulky tomes like Duo Askr, Duo Mark, Arval, and Gotoh.

Nullification of Atk/Res penalties is cool, but is now a double-edged sword. It gives immunity to tier-4 Seal skills and allows Ewan to function as a counter to Ninja Camilla, but it also prevents him from using Grand Strategy shenanigans.

Valbar: Valbar's Lance

Base effect is:

• If there is an ally within 3 spaces:
  • +5 Atk/Def in combat
  • With a Stance condition:
    • 60% damage reduction from opponent's follow-up attack(s)

Refine effect is:

• With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat:
  • +5 Atk/Def in combat
  • +1 Special charge rate
  • 7 HP regeneration after combat

I'm a bit surprised he loses the Brave effect and doesn't have it on either phase. On the other hand, he at least switches his skill effects to function on enemy phase like a traditional armor.

He gets +1 Special charge rate, but no Slaying effect, which means he can run Hardy Fighter, but only with Escutcheon and not Pavise, though I don't think that's really much of an issue. However, he doesn't get a guaranteed follow-up, so he'd need to run the Quick Riposte Sacred Seal if you want a counterattack follow-up. Otherwise, he's still perfectly viable for a traditional Crafty Fighter build.

With his refine, I think Valbar makes a pretty solid pick for a Near Save tank.

Cormag: Revenger Lance

Base effect is:

• Slaying effect
• With a Blow-or-Unity condition:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat:
    • Guaranteed follow-up

Refine effect is:

• If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • The offensive half of Tempo
  • Reduces damage taken by 15% of Def

Cormag keeps the Slaying effect from his original Slaying Lance, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the previous units on this list. He also gets his expected guaranteed follow-up. Tempo is a great effect to have on a flier since they normally can't get the effect otherwise, and he gets flat damage reduction based on his Def, coming out to about 7-10 points. His obligatory stat boost also grants a boost to Spd instead of being limited to Atk/Def/Res.

Flat damage reduction obviously combines well with Guard Bearing if he goes for an enemy-phase build. Guard 4 also gives him an option for a dual-phase build. You can still opt for the more standard Trace, but I think that's a bit of a waste.

The Slaying effect and Tempo gives him a guaranteed activation of a 2-cooldown Special on his follow-up attack if the opponent cannot counterattack or a 3-cooldown Special if the opponent can. If you don't mind restricting him to player phase, he can run Surge for healing off of the Special activation.

He'll probably still have trouble with fast units that have Null Follow-Up, but most of them are swords, which at least makes them less threatening.

Lif: Sokkvabekkr

Base effect is updated:

• If there is an ally within 4 spaces (previously 3 spaces):
  • +6 to all stats in combat (previously +4)
  • Guaranteed follow-up
  • Inflicts 20 damage to nearest ally after combat
  • If Special is fully charged or already activated during the current round of combat:
    • +5 additional damage in combat, excluding AoE Specials (new)
    • 7 HP regeneration per unit's attack (new)

Refine effect is:

• Slaying effect
• 2 stacks of Quickened Pulse
• If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • 30% damage reduction from opponent's first attack

For reference, Lif's Remix grants him an additional effective +5 Spd, the Guard effect, and all of the effects of Special Spiral 4 except for the additional damage. His new skill is Even Tempest, replacing Time's Pulse.

As expected, he gets the Slaying effect to replace his existing Time's Pulse, and he gets damage reduction from the opponent's first attack to make up for the fact that Deadly Balance prevents him from running Quick Riposte 4 or Guard 4 for damage reduction. I was naive to not consider that he'd just get two stacks of Quickened Pulse to let him loop his Special immediately without needing a round of combat first.

He also just gets all of the non-stat effects of Finish to take advantage of his ability to loop his Special, which is convenient since he can't run Finish at the same time as Distant Counter.

Due to getting Even Tempest as his new Remix skill, they've also updated his base effect's condition to 4 spaces instead of just 3, which is nice. I also didn't realize it when it was announced, but Even Tempest was specifically chosen over Odd Tempest due to the existence of the Safety Fence.

Gaining the Slaying effect (instead of the weaker Time's Pulse 4 effect) also means that, with Deadly Balance granting him +1 Special charge rate on the opponent's attacks, he can activate Open the Future on his follow-up attack when initiating combat as long as the opponent doesn't have Guard or Tempo.

Extremely good, but that's what should be expected for a Legendary/Mythic Hero refine.

Legendary Edelgard: Aymr

Base effect is updated:

• Permanent +3 Atk
• With a Solo-or-Stance condition (previously only Solo):
  • -6 Atk/Def to opponent in combat
  • Follow-up prevention
  • 30% damage reduction from opponent's first attack (new)

Refine effect is:

• If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat or with a Solo condition:
  • -5 Atk/Def to opponent in combat
  • Additional damage equal to 15% of Atk, including AoE Specials
  • +1 Special charge rate

For reference, Edelgard's remix updates the condition on her guaranteed follow-up so that instead of only activating against non-human classes, it now activates based on her HP, with the alternate condition of being Solo unchanged. In addition, it adds the offensive half of Null Follow-Up against non-human classes and additional stats. Her new skill is Atk/Res Ideal, replacing Atk/Res Solo.

The secondary condition for her weapon's base effect being Stance is a bit of a bummer, but it at least makes sense since she's less likely to be Solo on enemy phase. She does also end up getting the damage reduction from the opponent's first attack and +1 Special charge rate from Armored Wall, which isn't a surprise since Fallen Edelgard is the version of her most similar to this one.

The +1 Special charge rate makes it easier for her to charge up Galeforce, as she could previously fail to activate it if the opponent had Guard or she failed to double. The additional damage is clearly there to make up for the fact that she's usually running Galeforce instead of a damaging Special.

Duo Alm: Scepter of Love

Base effect is updated:

• Permanent +3 Spd
• If unit has a Bonus (previously a stat Bonus) or if HP is 25% or higher at start of combat (previously 70%):
  • +4 to all stats in combat (new)
  • Boost to Atk/Spd equal to 25% of opponent's Def at start of combat (previously just Atk)
  • Reduction to opponent's Atk/Def equal to 25% of opponent's Res at start of combat (previously just Atk)

Refine effect is:

• With a Blow-or-Unity condition:
  • +4 to all stats in combat
  • Nullifies opponent's positive stat Bonuses
  • Tempo effect

For reference, Alm's Duo skill clears Penalties, heals 30 HP, and applies +6 Atk/Spd as status effects to himself and allies within a 5×5 square around him.

Alm now gets Tempo to allow him to activate Lunar Flash on his follow-up even if the opponent has Guard. He doesn't get Null Follow-Up to nullify an opponent's follow-up prevention, but his refine nullifies opponent's stat Bonuses, which overlaps with his default Lull Atk/Spd and incentivizes switching it out for Null Follow-Up (or putting Null Follow-Up in his Sacred Seal slot and giving him Dodge or Bulwark).

Other than that, he just gets a ton of additional stats, especially since his weird base effect which grants stats based on the opponent's stats now adds an additional boost tp Atk/Spd on top of the original boost to Atk/Def/Res. In total, he gets a flat +8/11/8/8 plus Atk equal to 25% of the opponent's Def + 25% of the opponent's Res, Spd equal to 25% of the opponent's Def, and Def/Res equal to 25% of the opponent's Res.

 

Overall thoughts

Lif's refine is literally "I can't run the best-in-slot skills because my base kit is in the way, so I'll just put all of those effects on my weapon". Convenient.

Legendary Edelgard is now a more offensively oriented Fallen Edelgard, but not as offensively oriented as Harmonized Edelgard. Solid nonetheless.

Alm is just an enormous pile of stats, able to get a pretty easy total +22/18/15/15 from his weapon even against moderately frail opponents (28 Def and 28 Res).

Cormag and Valbar are solid despite being 4-star units.

Eyvel is at least viable if you want to use her, but she's generally going to be out-performed by every actually fast sword infantry, especially those with the Slaying effect on their weapon, and will probably be out-performed by Shannan as a bulky fast sword infantry once he gets his refine, which should be soon. The lack of the Slaying effect hurts her a bit too much given how important Special activations are to melee infantry and how ridiculously saturated her class is.

Ewan is meh. Usable, but not particularly outstanding. Hubert has similar offensive combat performance, and his debuffs also help his allies, whereas Ewan's only real advantage is his enemy-phase performance, but he's still weaker than recent bulky tomes due to his lack of strong skill effects on his weapon.

[Jotari]

What? Eyvel's weapon still isn't the fire blade...guys...she has a prf weapon. I know some of you must have played Thracia. You don't even need to give it an adaptive damage or anything. Just call it the fire sword (or just throw on Distant Counter anyway, it wouldn't  break the bank).

[Ether]

Really FEH? No mobility whatsoever? Fine, I guess I'll need to do it myself. Alear support here we go.

[Diovani Bressan]

I already expected Edelgard to not get any movement bonus in her refinement, based on the fact that she didn't get a new C skill to replace Armored Stride.

Like how Líf got Even Tempest to replace Time's Pulse, because IS already planned to give him slaying effect or Quickened Pulse (in his case, both).

If she got Mov+1 in the weapon, it would be a similat case of Fjorm getting Atk/Def Unity in her remix but then getting Null Penalties in her refinement.

[Sunwoo]

Guaranteed follow-up on 3 of these fuckers is pretty nice.

What I'm a little less happy about is Valbar's lance making him a more defensive unit, because I'd built him to the brave lance that he came with, but that's no one else's problem but mine.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Wow, I didn't really expect Cormag to get much, but he definitely got more than I thought he would. I'm happy with his refine.

[vikingsfan92]

After actually using Edelgard some more I LOVE this refine.  Especially in Aether raids.  Actually had her tank a bunch of units enemy phase next to an ally because of akward positioning and she did better than expected given she is weaker next to allies but not so much any more. 

Already had situations where she has done things my summer Edelgard can't. Mainly against blue enemies who are bulky. So now I think they are more interchangeable and it really comes down to enemy color for which is which to use.

Pretty much the only thing I would want is cooldown minus 1 but that is easy enough to cheese with the right ally so it's a non-issue for me personally.

Edited May 10, 2023 by vikingsfan92

[XRay]

On 5/8/2023 at 5:49 AM, Ice Dragon said:

The +1 Special charge rate makes it easier for her to charge up Galeforce, as she could previously fail to activate it if the opponent had Guard or she failed to double. The additional damage is clearly there to make up for the fact that she's usually running Galeforce instead of a damaging Special.

That is all Edelgard really needs, but alas, she is in the demote pool, so she does not get the same premium treatment anymore.

At least Edelgard: Flame Emperor got it though.