General Weapon Refinery discussion/speculation/creation thread

[XRay]

6 hours ago, Garlyle said:

Even if he would get an effective against *something* effect, that might be only good as a situational unit,

That is easily solved by being effective against every movement type. Though that might be over powered on top of Blade effect.

[bottlegnomes]

40 minutes ago, XRay said:

That is easily solved by being effective against every movement type. Though that might be over powered on top of Blade effect.

Eh, it's only 112 attack pre-WTA/D. Odin deserves to be meta-defining for once.

[XRay]

55 minutes ago, bottlegnomes said:

Eh, it's only 112 attack pre-WTA/D. Odin deserves to be meta-defining for once.

It will also really help players on the PVE side with Abyssal difficulty who did not pick AOTB!Veronica. All the free/minimal investment guides use her, although I did not need her, I am still glad to have picked her just in case.

[DehNutCase]

9 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

How? Odin receives the buffs from Link regardless of if he is the unit using Reposition or the unit being targeted by Reposition. Odin doesn't lose his turn if someone else is the one using Reposition, and an Odin with stat buffs that strong can afford to give up his B slot for a Link skill so that regardless of who uses Reposition on him, he'll always get the buff.

I was thinking of how it'd work from a team perspective. If I'm using Odin, he'd be in a mostly player phase team (not because of Odin himself---he'd be fine in any team that can support him, I think---but because I tend to use player phase units), and player phase teams are a lot more comfortable to play if they have free unit-turns available. A lot of player phase units are made of cardboard on defense, so they can't really afford to be in an enemy unit's threat range. And the easiest way to remove the enemy team's threat range is just killing most of them in one turn. The fact that his combat is pretty terrible without support really hurts him here, since using up two unit-turns to kill one unit is a pretty crappy deal.

Odin on a more defensive team probably won't care too much since it's easier to control engagements when you have enemy phase options (and he'll probably be a mixed-phase unit even for me, player phase team or not) but I do want him to be able to reliably contribute when I'm trying to do a one turn sweep.

[Silverly]

@ILikeKirbys Thanks for your thoughts on my refines! They were pretty fair critiques and I’m glad you like them for the most part. 

Robin - I still feel having effective to all movement types sans infantry wouldn’t be too overbearing from the Robins considering how subpar they are. If I had to cough up one though, I’d resort to Armor/Flying for Male Robin and Armor/Calvary for Female Robin. 

Marisa - Actually, I never gave Shamshir a cooldown reduction. I was aware that would just make it an OP Nameless Blade. However, I do stand by the added defense though. In fact, I think +5 would be better as it would serve as a counterpart to Joshua’s weapon and they’re actually somewhat comparable.

Joshua - Yeah, I left the original Audhulma effect alone. A 16 Mt Slaying edge is nothing to sneeze at and the resistance helps his mixed bulk. Even Attack Wave huh? I wonder when that skill will come out lol. 

Corrin - Not much to say here. Glad you like it!

I’m planning on returning the favor and reviewing some of your own refines. Just not at the moment since I’m a bit tied up. ^_^’

[Hilda]

14 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

That won't be allowed as long as Bow!Lucina exists, I think. +36/+12/+12/+12 turns Odin into a literal god of war without even costing a turn.

Personally I think it's either Thunderhead (with the default stat refines + either owl effect or killer effect) or Nosferatu (without -blade). Nos being more likely, I think, since it's a unique effect that'll be a sidegrade, kind of like Leo and his Prf, which are basically two completely different, moderately viable tomes.

 

-blade is just way too hard to balance, since unlike every other weapon it tends to get stronger when powercreep happens, rather than weaker.

not sure why this would be OP, That up there is the most optimal case. he would hit 72 attack (including weapon might) and 44 Spd. Granted he would also have 37 def and 37 res. But a simple panic ploy will make him shit. My albeit +10 Boey runs a close counter Gronnblade+ set and can reach also 73 attack (with fortress def seal... so he would have 5 attack more actually and a lower might tome).

I'll have to admit the additional bulk in def and res is a bit too much so i think only the atk and spd buffs should be doubled up like with Marths new Falchion and the def + res stat should just be effected by normal buffs. That would work.

[MilodicMellodi]

Something I feel like everyone is forgetting/ignoring is how Felicia has (still has) the lowest Atk of all Dagger units in the game, and was given Felicia's Plate and became one of the most-used units in the entire game. So...why isn't anyone saying the same for Odin? Lowest Atk of all Blue Tomes (just 1 lower than Felicia, actually)...lowest Atk of all Tomes in general, actually...so why discount him getting his own Tome version of Felicia's Plate (meaning, Odin's Grimoire)? Though the +4-all-stats idea is also worth mentioning, due to his...low BST.

I for one would love to have a Tome user who can target Def or Res in battle.

Edited August 30, 2018 by MilodicMellodi

[ILikeKirbys]

2 hours ago, MilodicMellodi said:

Something I feel like everyone is forgetting/ignoring is how Felicia has (still has) the lowest Atk of all Dagger units in the game, and was given Felicia's Plate and became one of the most-used units in the entire game. So...why isn't anyone saying the same for Odin? Lowest Atk of all Blue Tomes (just 1 lower than Felicia, actually)...lowest Atk of all Tomes in general, actually...so why discount him getting his own Tome version of Felicia's Plate (meaning, Odin's Grimoire)? Though the +4-all-stats idea is also worth mentioning, due to his...low BST.

I for one would love to have a Tome user who can target Def or Res in battle.

This is what I'm hoping for at least one of the Robins to get if they get the Levin Sword, personally. Also what I want for Genny if she gets a personal weapon, but that's probably not gonna happen.

Not sure how I'd feel about Odin getting that, to be honest. I guess I'd be okay with it, but I'm not sure how much better it would make him. Might come down to what else he can have on his weapon, if that happens.

2 hours ago, SilvertheShadow said:

@ILikeKirbys Thanks for your thoughts on my refines! They were pretty fair critiques and I’m glad you like them for the most part. 

Robin - I still feel having effective to all movement types sans infantry wouldn’t be too overbearing from the Robins considering how subpar they are. If I had to cough up one though, I’d resort to Armor/Flying for Male Robin and Armor/Calvary for Female Robin. 

Marisa - Actually, I never gave Shamshir a cooldown reduction. I was aware that would just make it an OP Nameless Blade. However, I do stand by the added defense though. In fact, I think +5 would be better as it would serve as a counterpart to Joshua’s weapon and they’re actually somewhat comparable.

Joshua - Yeah, I left the original Audhulma effect alone. A 16 Mt Slaying edge is nothing to sneeze at and the resistance helps his mixed bulk. Even Attack Wave huh? I wonder when that skill will come out lol. 

Corrin - Not much to say here. Glad you like it!

I’m planning on returning the favor and reviewing some of your own refines. Just not at the moment since I’m a bit tied up. ^_^’

On the Robins, you're probably right that the Robins wouldn't be too good with triple-effectiveness, I'm just wary of giving that much effective damage to anyone. The way you divided them up for dual-effectiveness would interest me though, since M!Robin gets Blue Excalibur with Armorslaying, while F!Robin gets Green Thani (albeit without the RES boost or damage reduction that Thani provides). And I'd still be interested in F!Robin's weapon regardless since it could have SPD Tactic on it, and that skill is still too rare IMO.

Regarding Marisa... I could've sworn Shamshir had the Slaying effect on it, but I guess I was just seeing things. Whoops.
Though without that, and with the Audhulma-refinement, the DEF +3/5 (either would be fine, in fact I'd probably keep it +3 but that's just personal preference, +5 could work just fine too since that's what Audhulma has and you made a refinement for that which I like) works just fine. And my opinion is unchanged, this would make me go from keeping Marisa around in my barracks because I don't want to toss her to actually using her. Especially with Brazen ATK/SPD, since she could stack it with Brazen ATK/SPD or ATK/DEF (or Brazen SPD/DEF if that ever happens) and be very fast and still decently sturdy (especially if you put a Brazen with DEF in her A Slot, since she'd end up with 40 or 42 DEF (depending on whether you went with +3 or +5 on the weapon) and thus would be quite sturdy and still have a decent amount of HP in the Brazen range since she should (with skill-refinement's +3 HP) have 49 HP, and thus she should hit Brazen range at 40 HP (39.2, which I think gets rounded up to 40)).

And I have no idea when Even ATK Wave is gonna happen (I have a strange feeling that the banner starting next week might have it, but it's just a feeling), but IMO it would make that Joshua refinement significantly better because Joshua would be able to have a permanent +6 to his ATK (and be able to give that to his allies too)... though like I said before, the potential to have +9 RES (putting him at 37 RES before other skills are applied, and making him look to me like a rather good candidate for Ploys) would also be rather tempting. Joshua getting a refinement at all would be neat, really.

Looking forward to which of my probably-too-damn-many PRF-weapons/refinements you decide to look at, and what you think of them.

[Hilda]

3 hours ago, MilodicMellodi said:

Something I feel like everyone is forgetting/ignoring is how Felicia has (still has) the lowest Atk of all Dagger units in the game, and was given Felicia's Plate and became one of the most-used units in the entire game. So...why isn't anyone saying the same for Odin? Lowest Atk of all Blue Tomes (just 1 lower than Felicia, actually)...lowest Atk of all Tomes in general, actually...so why discount him getting his own Tome version of Felicia's Plate (meaning, Odin's Grimoire)? Though the +4-all-stats idea is also worth mentioning, due to his...low BST.

I for one would love to have a Tome user who can target Def or Res in battle.

I must have missed the memo, but since when is Felicia one of the most used units?!?! I have encountered so far 1 Felicia in Arena over the past couple months. She is nice for PVE content but for anything else!?

[Silverly]

@ILikeKirbys So as promised I took a look at your own weapon refines. 

Hinata - I think it’s pretty solid overall. The base effect works as Hinata is only really effective in the enemy phase. I was a little confused with the refine at first, as I thought it a special (Escutcheon) built into the weapon which I thought would be impossible. However, I then realized it was essentially a physical version of Tyrfing, which would definitely help. I’m not sure I’ll view Hinata as anything more than Fury fodder, but the new tools would be tempting.

Hana - Now here’s somebody I’m used to. The main effect is great, and she can essentially be a physical Lillina should you stack DB3/4. On the player phase she should be a monster. The refine, on the other hand, is a bit underwhelming in my opinion. I can see where you’re getting at in terms of the lore, but in practice I don’t think it would help Hana that much. Firstly, she’s on the frail side, and even with the smoke effect she shouldn’t be hit multiple times. I don’t see the Savage Blow part helping much either. I think Hana would just like more direct boosts. Even though I’m not a fan of the refine itself, I think such a weapon has potential.

Tailtiu - So Wrath on top of Wrath? I love it! Not a lot to say here, just the idea sounds so much fun to use on Tailtiu.

Sonya - So you kept the original effect which is good. For the refine, it’s a bit mixed. I’m not a fan of bond skills on ranged units because it’s hard to maneuver them, but I’m slightly biased and I get where you’re coming from. Sonya would like more speed so that’s good, while the resistance makes her a borderline overkill magic tank. I probably wouldn’t bother with such a refine and just go for the stat increases.

Gunter - So the steady stance refine is nice. It adds to his already decent bulk. The refine sounds quite useful too. While it doesn’t do much for Gunter himself, he does provide very handy boosts. It could go even higher with calvary allies considering he has hone calvary. Overall, I feel he’ll just be relegated to a buff bot, but he’ll be a very solid one at that.

Jakob - A personal rogue dagger sounds decent, though the fact his offenses aren’t touched will make him hit like a wet noodle. Nothing that a skill can’t fix, I guess. The refine sounds a bit situational as not everyone can make use of both stats. Probably the one I’m least optimistic about, though I don’t use daggers too often anyways.

Overall I liked them. A couple were iffy but for the most part should these be included in the actual game I’d be satisfied.

[Ice Dragon]

@DehNutCase @Hilda

Blarblade Exalted Falchion Odin would also be completely shut down by anyone running Dull Ranged, Mulagir, or the Valentine weapons.

[Hilda]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

@DehNutCase @Hilda

Blarblade Exalted Falchion Odin would also be completely shut down by anyone running Dull Ranged, Mulagir, or the Valentine weapons.

yep and Fensalir. That new refine makes it very good against stuff like Marths new weapon

[ILikeKirbys]

@Ice Dragon@Hilda Divine Naga too. In fact, Deirdre and Julia with Divine Naga can probably do it particularly well, since they have solid RES and WTA over Odin.

[Kaden]

Odin's Grimoire is in this weird spot of if, and I emphasize on if, they choose to base it off its effects in Fates, then it would be similar to Mjolnir (and refined Excalibur) as a Killer tome. If the unique refined effect was trivial, then Odin would actually be losing overall damage and usefulness. Also, if it was the same as in Fates which probably wouldn't happen, then the inability to follow-up would also be awful since Odin doesn't have the attack even with buffs to reliably one-shot people and one of Odin's greatest strengths is his speed in addition to his bulk.

The obvious problem is on Odin himself because of what the developers gave for his stats, in particular his attack. Odin's Grimoire being an exact copy of Mjolnir, -1 special cooldown count and Darting Blow 3, would be a good tome on almost anyone, but Odin. A Killer effect is good in general where Merric's backed up by having effective damage against fliers and being able to go from low attack (26) to average (30) by being +Atk whereas Odin only goes from low (22) to low (25), but that didn't really matter for him or any mage really when -blade tomes are busted.

That doesn't mean Odin's Grimoire can't have -1 special cooldown count as its effect or +10 special damage or Wrath to go off of its effects in Fates being a similar tome to Mjolnir, but it does create a problem of what else would it do. The easiest solution for Odin's Grimoire is to make it a personal -blade tome like Thunderhead, but then that leads to the question of would this be the first time a unit is given a new weapon and can't refine it because of how powerful -blade tomes are. It's Odin, but there would be people who'd be annoyed that he gets a personal -blade with whatever additional effect while green Olwen doesn't.

Odin's Grimoire targeting the lower defensive stat like Felicia's Plate would work, but he'd run into an issue of his offenses is lower than hers and he can't get strong specials since he doesn't have a high defensive stat. Odin has 22/32 neutral offenses and 25/25 defenses to Felicia's 23/37 and 18/35. Felicia gets more doubles and strong Iceberg/Glacies and she also has the innate debuffing of daggers so even if she doesn't do enough damage, she will again or let others do more. That being said, it's a good alternative to giving him a personal -blade tome because at this point, I can't think of anything else other than something dumb like let's give it Death Blow 5 and a Brave effect, ignore resistance completely and just target the enemy's HP, or allowing Odin to activate 2 or even 3 cooldown specials with every hit.

Cue Odin's Grimoire getting double or triple Wrath with -1 or -2 special cooldown count.

Edited August 31, 2018 by Kaden

[Ice Dragon]

27 minutes ago, Kaden said:

The easiest solution for Odin's Grimoire is to make it a personal -blade tome like Thunderhead, but then that leads to the question of would this be the first time a unit is given a new weapon and can't refine it because of how powerful -blade tomes are.

Odin's Grimoire is already announced as being able to be refined, and being based off of an unrefinable weapon didn't stop Draconic Poleax from receiving a refine.

[MilodicMellodi]

Here's one random idea I had some time ago. What if Odin gained Atk based off his opponent's Atk? Or...something along those lines. That way, Odin gets stronger going against more powerful opponents, which rewards you on taking risks. "My darkness was darker than yours!" I think that kind of effect would sum this up perfectly.

Or maybe he could gain Atk if his opponent has an Exclusive weapon? I know people have thought of weapons like that.

[Hilda]

1 hour ago, MilodicMellodi said:

Here's one random idea I had some time ago. What if Odin gained Atk based off his opponent's Atk? Or...something along those lines. That way, Odin gets stronger going against more powerful opponents, which rewards you on taking risks. "My darkness was darker than yours!" I think that kind of effect would sum this up perfectly.

Or maybe he could gain Atk if his opponent has an Exclusive weapon? I know people have thought of weapons like that.

That would make him very inconsistent which makes him bad, because it depends on the opponent he faces. This is the same reason why Felicia is okeish but can do squat against units that have high mixed bulk on both ends of the spectrum (Lissa/Sharena/some Dragons etc).

I rather they give him a strong refine instead of the crap refines we have been getting lately for mages (Linde/Merric/Leo etc. all fall into the crap refine in my opinion). Lilinas refine was so far the best for the mages, followed by Sanakis refine.

[Ice Dragon]

10 minutes ago, Hilda said:

I rather they give him a strong refine instead of the crap refines we have been getting lately for mages (Linde/Merric/Leo etc. all fall into the crap refine in my opinion). Lilinas refine was so far the best for the mages, followed by Sanakis refine.

How exactly is Atk/Spd Tome/Staff Bond+ 3 crap, but Death Blow 3 not crap?

 

Unless by "refine" you mean both the base effect and the refine effect, in which case

How exactly is Atk/Spd Tome/Staff Bond+ 3 and Hone Tome/Staff Atk 5 crap, but Atk/Res Flier Bond+ 3 and Drive Atk 2 not crap?

[Hilda]

9 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

How exactly is Atk/Spd Tome/Staff Bond+ 3 crap, but Death Blow 3 not crap?

 

Unless by "refine" you mean both the base effect and the refine effect, in which case

How exactly is Atk/Spd Tome/Staff Bond+ 3 and Hone Tome/Staff Atk 5 crap, but Atk/Res Flier Bond+ 3 and Drive Atk 2 not crap?

Because i dont run 2 tome users in the same team, maybe its just me, but in my eyes its a crap refine. When i run a Tome user i run at most if at all another staff user and thats a big IF. It restricts Team building way too much, so in my eyes its crap. In that regard Lilinas death blow 3 (and Res chill) work on ANY team and dont restrict or force you a Team built and in Sanakis case running a Tome user/ranged user with high mobility flyer is a thing i usually do. and Drive atk2 again, has no Team building restrictions!

This is the reason why i find their refines pretty crap and lackluster.

And Leos refine is just very lackluster too. I would dig that refine if it were like Myrrhs Breath and would work against all units, but only on ranged, come on. If you face a Team only consistend of melee units that refine is allready thrown out of the window.

Edited August 31, 2018 by Hilda

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Honestly, even Alm is not overused after refine and thats the #1 example of unit becoming infinitely better after refine. The only mildly common one was Lilina

 

.....also Karel jumped to like what Top 5 Sword? And nobody used him

[Ice Dragon]

14 minutes ago, JSND Alter Dragon Boner said:

Honestly, even Alm is not overused after refine and thats the #1 example of unit becoming infinitely better after refine. The only mildly common one was Lilina

 

.....also Karel jumped to like what Top 5 Sword? And nobody used him

It really doesn't help that both Alm and Karel are 5-star exclusives.

[Jotari]

I'd love Loptous to get a refine that allows Julius to receive Dragon Buffs. I feel he's still a bit of an underwhelming unit and if he's going to get that massive weakness to dragon slaying weapons, he should get some of the dragon exclusive benefits too.

[ILikeKirbys]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

I'd love Loptous to get a refine that allows Julius to receive Dragon Buffs. I feel he's still a bit of an underwhelming unit and if he's going to get that massive weakness to dragon slaying weapons, he should get some of the dragon exclusive benefits too.

...Is Julius affected by Binding Shield? I know this is a stupid and random question , but if he's counted as a dragon for effective-damage purposes, is he considered as such for skills like Binding Shield?

Random question aside though, yeah dragonbuffs for Julius would be great if he gets a refinement. That, and maybe an optional refinement that gives Loptous adaptive damage vs 2-range foes like a real dragon.

@SilvertheShadow I know I'm late, but I'm glad you liked the refinements you looked at. A few thoughts in the spoiler:

Spoiler

1) I couldn't come up with anything I liked for Hana's Katana's Skill-Refine (my other idea was 2-Space ATK/SPD Bond 3 with Lances and Staves, because she's Sakura's (staff) retainer along with Subaki (lance), but I don't like using that sort of Bond skill if I can come up with something else). Way I was thinking when I gave her that was, besides it being based on her also-questionably-useful personal skill in Fates, that with the right setups, it could allow Hana to either buzzsaw through multiple enemies in a turn (with something like Galeforce/Life And Death 3 or Death Blow 4/Desperation 3/SPD Smoke 3/Heavy or Flashing Blade 3 Seal, and Wings of Mercy Dancers) or kill someone and then tank against her foes after they've been weakened (with something like Pavise or Escutcheon/Death Blow 4/Guard 3/SPD Smoke 3/Close DEF 3 Seal, and a healer with defensive buffs and/or an Ally-S-Support to heal Hana and make her a bit more durable). Admittedly it's a shaky logic, but anything to avoid running one of those 2-Space Bonds.
Glad you liked the base effect though.

2) I'm starting to think Thrud's Thoron may be a little too good on Tailtiu, since she could run something like Skill-Refined Thrud's Thoron/Luna/Brazen ATK/SPD 3/Desperation 3/Flashing Blade 3 Seal and land uninterrupted doubles with +20-damage Luna on the second hit, which when combined with Tailtiu's not-great-but-respectable ATK, could be a bit too strong...

3) I don't especially like Dark Excalibur's Skill-Refine either, though mostly due to my dislike of 2-Space Bond-type Skill-Refines (though now it occurs to me that Merric could probably get access to this if it ever happened... though it probably wouldn't be all that great on him compared to just stats or refined regular Excalibur). Yesterday I thought of changing it to this:
Dark Excalibur [Refine] | MT 14 | Adds +10 damage when Special activates. | At start of turn, inflicts ATK/SPD -4 on foes in cardinal directions with lower RES than this unit through their next action.
Giving Sonya (and Merric, though odds are he wouldn't get too much out of this) access to ATK/SPD Ploy 2 and letting Sonya triple-Ploy people with her base kit (like Katarina can with Reese's Tome, except the -5 is to RES rather than ATK for Sonya), giving her a bit more utility and probably better combat against foes that she Ploys. I'm not sure if that would actually be better than what I gave Dark Excalibur before, though.

 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, ILikeKirbys said:

...Is Julius affected by Binding Shield? I know this is a stupid and random question , but if he's counted as a dragon for effective-damage purposes, is he considered as such for skills like Binding Shield?

Random question aside though, yeah dragonbuffs for Julius would be great if he gets a refinement. That, and maybe an optional refinement that gives Loptous adaptive damage vs 2-range foes like a real dragon.

@SilvertheShadow I know I'm late, but I'm glad you liked the refinements you looked at. A few thoughts in the spoiler:

  Reveal hidden contents

1) I couldn't come up with anything I liked for Hana's Katana's Skill-Refine (my other idea was 2-Space ATK/SPD Bond 3 with Lances and Staves, because she's Sakura's (staff) retainer along with Subaki (lance), but I don't like using that sort of Bond skill if I can come up with something else). Way I was thinking when I gave her that was, besides it being based on her also-questionably-useful personal skill in Fates, that with the right setups, it could allow Hana to either buzzsaw through multiple enemies in a turn (with something like Galeforce/Life And Death 3 or Death Blow 4/Desperation 3/SPD Smoke 3/Heavy or Flashing Blade 3 Seal, and Wings of Mercy Dancers) or kill someone and then tank against her foes after they've been weakened (with something like Pavise or Escutcheon/Death Blow 4/Guard 3/SPD Smoke 3/Close DEF 3 Seal, and a healer with defensive buffs and/or an Ally-S-Support to heal Hana and make her a bit more durable). Admittedly it's a shaky logic, but anything to avoid running one of those 2-Space Bonds.
Glad you liked the base effect though.

2) I'm starting to think Thrud's Thoron may be a little too good on Tailtiu, since she could run something like Skill-Refined Thrud's Thoron/Luna/Brazen ATK/SPD 3/Desperation 3/Flashing Blade 3 Seal and land uninterrupted doubles with +20-damage Luna on the second hit, which when combined with Tailtiu's not-great-but-respectable ATK, could be a bit too strong...

3) I don't especially like Dark Excalibur's Skill-Refine either, though mostly due to my dislike of 2-Space Bond-type Skill-Refines (though now it occurs to me that Merric could probably get access to this if it ever happened... though it probably wouldn't be all that great on him compared to just stats or refined regular Excalibur). Yesterday I thought of changing it to this:
Dark Excalibur [Refine] | MT 14 | Adds +10 damage when Special activates. | At start of turn, inflicts ATK/SPD -4 on foes in cardinal directions with lower RES than this unit through their next action.
Giving Sonya (and Merric, though odds are he wouldn't get too much out of this) access to ATK/SPD Ploy 2 and letting Sonya triple-Ploy people with her base kit (like Katarina can with Reese's Tome, except the -5 is to RES rather than ATK for Sonya), giving her a bit more utility and probably better combat against foes that she Ploys. I'm not sure if that would actually be better than what I gave Dark Excalibur before, though.

 

I'd guess not. But you'd need to put close counter on Julius to see.

[Ice Dragon]

6 hours ago, ILikeKirbys said:

...Is Julius affected by Binding Shield? I know this is a stupid and random question , but if he's counted as a dragon for effective-damage purposes, is he considered as such for skills like Binding Shield?

My assumption is no.

Loptous's effect specifically says that "skills with 'effective against dragons' are effective against [this] unit", and "effective against dragons" refers specifically to effective damage and no other effect. In Japanese, this line also specifically uses the terminology for "effective damage", which is distinct from the wording used for "if foe is dragonstone".