Wings of Fate Summoning Event (April 24 ~ May 9): Shigure, Kana (F), Hinoka (WITH DATAMINE 4/24/18)

[NegativeExponents-]

Lame. Reina should have been there or at least make Shigure the Kinshi Knight instead. And Shigure before Charlotte? Charlotte came first. Water breath looks interesting though. I wonder if M!Kana will have it too. Kaze is finally here! I honestly don’t care much for him but it was odd that it took him this long.

This is a safe skip for me. I hope I get Shigure from the free summon but not a big deal if I don’t.

With Kaze and M!Kana not being in the banner I wonder if they’ll be free? I don’t think either qualify as GHB though and they only give one unit per TT so maybe there’s another banner incoming? Ryoma is the only one with no alt from the Fates royals now. Edit: Never mind. Forget about the GHB thing since Kana is confirmed for that.

46 minutes ago, Vince777 said:

My only grip is they should space these alternate releases more and still have them remain canon. Kinshi Hinoka is fine. Legendary Ephraim is fine. Both cavalry Chrom and tome Eirika (especially) are stupid.

What makes Chrom and Eirika worse than Ephraim and Hinoka? 

Edited April 23, 2018 by NegativeExponents-

[Vince777]

3 minutes ago, NegativeExponents- said:

 

What makes Chrom and Eirika worse than Ephraim and Hinoka? 

Ephraim promotes on a horse.  Hinoka can promote into a Kinshi Knight. 

Chrom needs to be reclassed to get a horse and to me that's non canon. Eirika cannot learn magic at all and essentially stole Gleipnir from the units that could actually use it. I hate alternate Eirika the most of all units in this game.

 

Edited April 23, 2018 by Vince777

[Zangetsu]

1 hour ago, Lau said:

Argh, I was really hoping it would be Archanea...oh well, there's another New Heroes banner coming up soon, so...y'know.

It's funny. I had a dream that this banner would have Chrom and Lissa alts, except it was Lissa from the Harvest Festival DLC, with the little party hat. This is infinitely worse.

But then I saw Kaze, and everything is saved. Now, how do we get him?

But I want Party Hat Lissa alt!

 

Somewhat Ideally speaking: Tap Dungeon Reward

Somewhat problematic: Upcoming Gauntlet Banner

 

1 hour ago, ZeManaphy said:

I think the reason Shigure can't sing like P!Shigure is because he doesn't have Azura's pendant. A Nice detail, but ironically, I think its a detail we wanted him to miss. Maybe they'll give it to him via updates?

While that's to a very certain extent cool, that seems pretty silly that it takes a pendant to be a refresher unit. I mean, Olivia doesn't have some ancient blood flowing through her to make her dance special. Then again I don't exactly know my history when it comes to the refresh units since I only touch 4 Fire Emblem games

[NegativeExponents-]

@Vince777 I can understand that logic with Ephraim but Hinoka is only ever shown in game as a pegasus knight or falcon knight. Not even in dlc, if you want to count that as canon, is she seen as a kinshi knight. It’s as canon as horse Chrom and magic Eirika.

[kiaxxl]

I'm beyond sick of getting characters already in the game on "new banners". The only new one here is Kana... and I really don't like either of them. The fact that male Kana is the GHB is just annoying as well; another alt. 

At least we get Kaze. But only 2.5 new characters out of 5 is just.... ugh. 

Edited April 23, 2018 by kiaxxl

[XRay]

I want a new Arena team consisting of WOF!Hinoka, F!Morgan, and HNY!Azura. That is a clear upgrade from BH!Lyn, Reinhardt, and Olivia. Although my movement would be reduced from 3 to 2, I can ignore a lot terrain's movement penalties.

3 hours ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Thinking about it, Darting Stance is a strange skill. Speed also isn't some that is demanded on the enemy phase.

That depends on the stat distribution of the Enemy Phase unit. Generally, for units with decent or good Spd, Spd stacking is sometimes better than Atk stacking; Spd stacking helps prevent enemies from doubling so the unit will survive, allowing the unit to retaliate twice with Quick Riposte. That being said, I think Fury would probably still be generally better since it buffs Def and Res, as well as being a lot cheaper.

3 hours ago, Florete said:

So Hinoka's title is "Blue Sky Warrior" despite neither her weapon nor her color scheme being blue.

I think the Blue is describing Sky, as in she is a Warrior of the Blue Sky, not as in she is a Sky Warrior that is Blue.

2 hours ago, Ae†her said:

How can a Stance be Darting? Why didn't they name it Agile Stance, wtf!

I only have experience with Taekwondo, but I am pretty sure this applies to many other martial arts as well. When we spar, we sort of "dance" or "hop" on our feet/toes to keep ourselves moving. It makes it harder for the opponent to predict our movements, and it gives us a little extra momentum to dart around to dodge or to attack.

2 hours ago, Ae†her said:

Hold up she gets Waterbreath+, but her she's a green Dragonstone too!? This banner makes no sense to me.

I think you are expecting words to match aesthetics too much. The precedent is that there is little to no correlation. A!Tiki is not blue, but she has Lightning Breath as default. Berkut is blue and LA!Lilina is green, but they know Blazing Flame. Alm is red and Soren is green, and they know Windsweep and Watersweep respectively.

2 hours ago, Korath88 said:

Two alts

Shigure is not really an alt though; PA!Shigure is an alt. If you are defining alts as any character that appears after their first debut, then Xander would be an alt while SF!Xander would not, which sounds pretty weird in my opinion.

1 hour ago, Alkaid said:

Just seems unfortunate that we're on an alt streak lately so there's some heat for it I guess.

I do not think it is unfortunate. I like the fact that they are doing alts and new units per Focus. It shows that they are willing to experiment with their sales model and improve, although I think they could have done it in a different way. I prefer that they release more alts without unique Weapon and Movement combinations first though, so they have enough clean data on whether alts actually make them more money. If they are going by the data from Special Heroes, I think that is a poor benchmark for comparison since those are seasonal units and their availability could be a factor that influences their sales.

As for the heat alts get, I understand that some fans are frustrated that some of their favorite characters are not in the game yet, but I think taking it out on alts is not right though, at least not yet without more data. Heroes is not just any stand alone game, it is a Fire Emblem game. More likely than not, the profits from Heroes is going to subsidize future mistakes and failures from the main series. Without Heroes, Nintendo would be a lot less forgiving if the main series bombed two or three times consecutively. If alts are what it takes to keep the series alive, I am all for it.

Edited April 23, 2018 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

Kana (F):

Not too much of a fan of her being green. We have too many green dragons now, though I suppose it makes more sense than red since Kana (M) is blue.

Water Breath+ is pretty lackluster, it seems. The combination of Water Breath+ and Distant Counter is strictly better than Lightning Breath+ and Bracing Stance (once it's released). However, that only matters for dragons that cannot run Steady Breath or Warding Breath, of which there are only two, Myrrh, and Robin, both of whom have much better options.

On the other hand, Corrin can actually make use of Water Breath+ with Steady Breath to reliably tank Alm on enemy phase.

Physically defensive infantry green dragon is pretty much the only niche she can take that isn't already taken.

Shigure:

I am extremely annoyed at the translation of his weapon, enough so to not use contractions in this sentence. Harmonic Lance's name in Japanese is 倭鉾 (wabou), "Wo Mou", literally the spear to Wo Dao's sword.

Other than that, he feels like just another lance flier to me. We've got a lot of those already, which means he's likely going to have to have some ridiculous stat spread to set him apart.

Hinoka:

An armor-effective bow with Speed +3 and Drive Atk 2. That flies. I'm pulling.

Kana (M):

'Kay. At least his color makes sense.

Kaze:

No idea who he is. I just hear his name being thrown around, so I assume that's the dagger user on the map at the end.

Kagero is the only dagger user I need.

 

This is going to be a pull-for-1-or-2-copies-of-Kana-and-Shigure-and-then-dump-the-rest-of-my-orbs-into-colorless sort of banner, it seems. 

 

1 hour ago, Alkaid said:

I think the complaints about Shigure being another alt are kind of funny since this is technically his non-alt version.

This, really.

 

52 minutes ago, MonkeyCheez3K said:

Definitely doesn't feel that way for me. Shigure had to come in his original form, but being in the game for quite a while now makes him rather lackluster and less fresh, his kit isn't helping imo (fun for people wanting a wo dao lance?).

I honestly doubt that Charlotte would get this kind of response on the release of her non-alt version. I'm pretty sure most people have forgotten that Charlotte even is in the game.

 

14 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

It was kinda of dick move. Chrom in the Fates kids batch isn't what people were hoping for and deserved

His banner was called "The Branded King", not "Children of Awakening". The banner was not an Awakening kids banner. It was a banner centered around Chrom. The banner was no more an Awakening kids banner than Legendary Heroes (the launch banner) was for containing Lucina at her release.

 

[Vince777]

Yeah, I suppose but it's still the other natural progression promotion for a Sky Knight. 

It's a lot less annoying to me than if they had made her alternate a dark falcon unit. Well at least she'd still be on a flying mount.

[Stroud]

My hopes for Rinkah or Reina have been crushed.. I'm a bit sad..
 

Edited April 23, 2018 by Stroud

[Zangetsu]

Actually, I'm really sad that F!Kana didn't get Omega Yato. If only because it doesn't sound like there will be refinement update for Yato anytime soon

[thanny]

1 hour ago, Florete said:

I know this isn't legendary hero topic but since everyone's chiming in about it I'm possibly going to be the first to say this: I don't think the next legendary is Takumi. That would be 3 alts within 6 months.

Just watch them make the next Legendary Hero an alt, again.. I really liked the concept of Legendary Heroes being OCs, but I guess they weren't generating as much money as they had hoped with Fjorm and Gunthraa?

It seems like alts are a regular thing now and it's equally upsetting that alts are making their way into regular banners too when so many characters haven't had their base characters in the game yet.. I'm totally placing this blame on Zelgius...

As much as I dislike the idea of alts being in regular banners and being Legendary Heroes, we should just deal with it for the time being until the feedback reaches them, but by this point there'd be so many alts for so many characters, it would seem kind of pointless when the time comes.

[XRay]

8 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

An armor-effective bow with Speed +3 and Drive Atk 2.

An exclusive version of Firesweep Bow would have appealed more to me though. Armor effectiveness is nice and all, but if the armor unit is ranged or got Distant Counter, WOF!Hinoka would still be screwed if she does not have enough bulk to stomach at least one counter to get into Desperation range.

[mcsilas]

Finally Hinoka gets some love. As unfortunate as another alt character at least I’d rather have the bow flier an always available alt rather than a rare seasonal/legendary hero

so green archer Takumi for legendary hero?

curious about Kaze. Hope he’s good. 

Someone said about Silas being in a more Conquest focused banner so that actually seems plausible. Most new units seem a bit Hoshido aligned (except having both Kanas is a bit strange)

[Lewyn]

When talking about favorites getting in, maybe others don't care for her, but Reina really stood out for me in Fates.  Her past and change in life course, her scarred face, being an older woman, the battle lust but not crazy like Peri.  This was such a perfect chance to get her into the game.  She is the Kinshi knight, I think the first character anyone thinks of when they think of that class.  It would have also increased her fame.  Now when she comes later as the 2nd or 3rd or 50th bow flier, it will be like ho hum whatever bow flier is already in the game.  

Kaze is the speedy one of the ninjas in Fates.  I usually went with Saizo and Kagero.  Kaze is so fast, but his strength was just....well for me at least really poor.  Still look forward to what they do with him, likely free unit.  

Hope the legendary banner gives us Lewyn or Ced or something to be excited about.  

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, XRay said:

Armor effectiveness is nice and all, but if the armor unit is ranged or got Distant Counter, WOF!Hinoka would still be screwed if she does not have enough bulk to stomach at least one counter to get into Desperation range.

The vast majority of units in the game have at least 60 bulk (40 HP and 20 Def/Res, noting that the median values for those are around 40 HP, 25 Def, and 24 Res), and very few units have weapon triangle advantage over colorless. The probability that Hinoka has less than 60 bulk is pretty low.

I'm honestly more happy about Hinoka being Hinoka than anything else.

[mampfoid]

What kind of animal is Hinokas mount? Looks like a turkey or peafowl. 

[redlight]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

His banner was called "The Branded King", not "Children of Awakening". The banner was not an Awakening kids banner. It was a banner centered around Chrom. The banner was no more an Awakening kids banner than Legendary Heroes (the launch banner) was for containing Lucina at her release.

The name of the banner can easily be changed to be whatever IS wants it to be. Three out of four characters of the batch are kids (even the Fates kids batch knew what it was doing). Would've been considered more logical to have Lucina (not that I care about her even at all), but they ended up deciding to make a Chrom alt. Though I guess they just wanted him to be the Robin killer or something

1 hour ago, Vince777 said:

It makes sense to release new and better versions of the most popular and important characters considering it would be silly to have their original selves being powercrept to no end by other less important characters in the original games.

Otherwise, would we see the day where the game's most powerful characters will be Ralph & Vyland and amongst the weakest will be most of the lord characters?

My only grip is they should space these alternate releases more and still have them remain canon. Kinshi Hinoka is fine. Legendary Ephraim is fine. Both cavalry Chrom and tome Eirika (especially) are stupid.

No it doesn't. Justifying power-creep for only the most popular characters and preferring to not have it for the less popular ones is rather silly. If you're really worried about the popular units falling behind, that's what refinement updates and future additional features are for. What people should be worried about is how faithful IS is towards converting characters into the game. They could mess up what stats made a character strong in their game and make it something like res in Heroes when it was actually speed in the original game.
Also, how exactly are someone like Fates royals important. Do they do anything of significance? Other than having a lot of screen time. Takumi is the final boss of Conquest, but most of the time you defeat him and he comes back again and again. I kinda like how many (I don't) like to criticize Fernand and Berkut for being cockroaches that won't just die, but I don't see this said about Takumi. That's it. I've decided to call Fallen Takumi Takuroach. And I don't hate Takumi. I'm indifferent towards him.
Those units who you mentioned powercreeping the lords, fat chance IS is ever gonna reach that depth of the barrel or go out of their way to create them. If they do, the banner will only be 1 new character (insert no-name character who'll get demoted) and everyone else an alt. Also, they use CYL as a source of what's wanted in the game (mostly). If people meme a character into the game and they happen to have a high ranking, then they're guaranteed to powercreep the popular units. Popularity can be twisted into a meme or whatever suits the voters so it really ends up being unimportant. Who knows, maybe Fates will be irrelevant in two years and people have new royals to like.

21 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

What kind of animal is Hinokas mount? Looks like a turkey or peafowl. 

One of the many things Fates developers came up while being stoned out of their mind. A mounted archer on a chicken that's called a Qinshi
EDIT

Edited April 23, 2018 by silveraura25

[eclipse]

KAZE!  I don't know how or when he's going to be released, but I am hyped!

. . .wait, what do you mean new banner?  Hinoka looks cool, I guess.  I like Shigure's weapon, even if I take issue with his art.  Female Kana sounds way too old, but I guess a green dragon works.  Curious about what male Kana's gonna be like.

[redlight]

Just now, eclipse said:

KAZE!  I don't know how or when he's going to be released, but I am hyped!

. . .wait, what do you mean new banner?  Hinoka looks cool, I guess.  I like Shigure's weapon, even if I take issue with his art.  Female Kana sounds way too old, but I guess a green dragon works.  Curious about what male Kana's gonna be like.

His artist is my most favorite in the game. Yura makes everything look good

[eclipse]

Just now, silveraura25 said:

His artist is my most favorite in the game. Yura makes everything look good

I think the shoulder pads are way overdone.  A pity, because I really liked his PA art!

[Vaximillian]

12 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

One of the many things Fates developers came up while being stoned out of their mind. It's called a Qinshi

Kinshi is a thing that was a thing in Japanese mythology.

[redlight]

Just now, Vaximillian said:

Kinshi is a thing that was a thing in Japanese mythology.

I meant as in mounted archers on chickens

[Vaximillian]

2 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

I meant as in mounted archers on chickens

Chocobos have been a thing in fiction for more than two decades. Having fictional chicken fly is no more farfetched.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Vaximillian

[redlight]

3 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Chocobos have been a thing for more than two decades. Having chicken fly is no more farfetched.

Archers on chickens that are vulnerable to arrows is something I'd expect them to come up with while smoking weed. The rest is filled in by whatever they can find to not question this decision. Why not make bulky armor units that can use magic. Oh wait... Genealogy did it already

Edited April 23, 2018 by silveraura25

[NegativeExponents-]

17 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Kinshi is a thing that was a thing in Japanese mythology.

Actually while they are named Kinshi in Fates I’m pretty sure that the inspiration of the bird comes from the mythological Basan. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basan