Special Heroes: Hop-and-go-Seek

[Some Jerk]

I'm just now realizing that S!Maria and Harmonya are sharing the Green color. That is... shockingly generous? I'm use to a colorsharing unit being the demote, but both Maria and Sonya are really powerful.

[MagicCanonBalls]

This whole banner was a genuine surprise line-up from beginning to end. 

Delthea- I am sorry but your description is too long and still get countered by A!Fjorm. And Atk/Spd Catch 4 fodder. IS is also gradually coming up with 5 space menace since that cav healer who can inflict flash, at this point they should just stated nearest foes, the map, particularly AR, ain't that big to hide from 4 or 5 spaces away.

Maria- Could be the underestimated unit like Hatari Karla depending on her Def stats. 

Henry- Don't get me wrong I like this guy, but why him? He already got Halloween alt and some Shepherds don't even have one (yet, where's my Donnel alt IS). Dual Rally being available on 4 star special is nice. Definitely gonna hoard it up.

Duo- I thought for sure Sonya won't be here, since she is a candidate for Fallen hero and the list is getting shorter. She should have come with Catch skill instead of Delthea. Rein 4/Hold skill is, um, good for scoring purpose? It can be good in AR-O if you are running Galeforce/WoM team, like your ally transport to Sonya, activate galeforce and move to 2 spaces away but fighting foes within 3 spaces. 

Overall probably gonna pull a few rounds to see if I can get lucky. FEH pass expire this week and not gonna keep subscribed so no sparking.

[Some Jerk]

That spear sounds incredibly mean to pair with Atk/Def Menace, and my Balldigan will be eating Luthier for it at the first opportunity.

[Tybrosion]

Oh great, Luthier got a bunch of Def boosting skills and nothing that boosts Spd. He's just going to be Fernand but with more Def isn't he?

Ah well, that lance will look really nice on my Altena (who already has Atk/Def Menace ready to go).

[Sil/phire]

The spring theme is my least favorite in the series, and this bunch is not changing that except for one: Maria. Never been one for the "little girl carrying ridiculously large weapon" theme but i really like her design, my favorite spring design now. It doesn't hurt that her weapon is also decent, i'm specially happy with the fact it negates flying effectiveness.

Well, may be, just may be, if luck in the universe aligns for me, i'll be able to pull one of her.

[Mercakete]

Oh my gooooooooosh Henry's adorable here! X3 I hope I can pull him, but my orbs are pretty much nill after trying to get some seasonal heroes from the double special banner. (I did manage to get Pirate Naesala, but still no Halloween Fallen M!Robin or Pirate Surtr.) Maria's really cute here, too! I love that she's kind of taking after her siblings being an axe wyvern rider. X3 I'll have to wait to get her, though. But the real question is...will we get Bunny Michalis next year?! X3 Glad Luthier's free!

Edit: Forgot to mention it, but Sonia and Tharja's weapon animation is adorable, and I do love Tharja's lines! That said, I don't think I'll pull for them.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Mercakete

[Ice Dragon]

Delthea and Maria are adorable.

Delthea looks like she'll be her usual glass cannon self. It looks like she'll probably be relying heavily on her Sweep effect to stay alive.

Maria looks like she's intended to be a fast physical tank. At least, she might be fast, given that she doubles a Lance Pegasus, has a Spd boost on her weapon, and has a Flow skill.

Henry doesn't seem to be terribly useful. His weapon gives him half of Dominance, but only on the first hit, so it seems he'll be a slow unit intended to land one strong hit. Not sure how reliable that will be, though it could probably be sufficiently fixed with a few premium skills. The weapon itself is pretty good, though. +12-14 damage on the first hit on top of +5 Atk is actually pretty solid.

Harmonized Sonya looks like she'll be pretty good with an AoE Special. She can fully charge an AoE Special on the first turn with either Quickened Pulse or by using her Harmonized Skill. An AoE Special will also give her a total of +13 Atk in combat from just her weapon, which is quite nice. The only downside is that AoE Specials don't work in Resonance Battles after the first round of combat.

It seems Luthier is going to be another slow, bulky lance cavalry. His weapon has the same effect as Henry's, which is quite good.

 

I'm tempted to go for merges on both Delthea and Sonya, but it's obvious that sniping green is just better due to the color sharing. Probably sparking on Delthea so I can stop pulling for her earlier and just snipe green afterwards. We'll see.

 

6 hours ago, Some Jerk said:

There's a problem when my main takeaway from this is that IntSys is doubling down on the Yu-Gi-Oh! card descriptions.

They wouldn't have needed a second page if they didn't need to define every keyword in the description itself. The descriptions are actually not particularly long if you don't include the keyword definitions. Half of Bright-Shell Egg's description is just defining "Bonus" and "Penalty", and half of Trace's description is just the fine print for Canto.

[Ice Dragon]

The usual translation things:

 

The banner name, "Hop-and-Go-Seek", is "妹兎の願い" (imōto-usagi no negai), "The Younger Sister Rabbit's Wish". Clearly referring to Delthea and/or Maria.

Delthea's epithet, "Prodigy in Bloom", is "春色天才魔道少女" (shunshoku tensai madō shōjo), "Genius Mage Girl of Spring Scenery". Alternatively, "Spring-Colored Genius Mage Girl".

Bright-Shell Egg is "可憐に色づく飾り卵" (karen ni irozuku kazari-tamago), "Prettily-Colored Decorated Egg".

Maria's epithet, "Sunny Smile", is "ぽっかぽか笑顔" (pokkapoka egao), "Warm Smile". "ぽっかぽか" (pokkapoka) is most commonly used to refer to the warmth of a source of heat (campfire, hand warmer, space heater, etc.) or a blanket (or mittens, etc.) when it is cold. Or the feeling of taking your gloves off and putting your palms to your cheeks in winter. Slightly cuter and more emphatic than "ぽかぽか" (pokapoka), which means the same thing.

Pastel Poleaxe is "無邪気な白兎の斧" (mujaki na shiro-usagi no ono), "Innocent White Rabbit's Axe".

Flow Flight is "怒涛・飛竜行空" (dotō: hiryū kōkū), "Surging Waves: Wyvern Flight". "怒涛" (dotō), "surging waves", is the name of the Flow skill series. "飛竜" (hiryū) is localized as "wyvern" in English, but translates literally as "flying dragon", which can be seen in fan translations of the games before Blazing Sword where the translation was made before Blazing Sword's release. And it looks like the localization team is shooting themselves in the foot for when a Pegasus Flight version of this skill is released.

Henry's epithet, "Peculiar Egg", is "呪いの卵は秘密色" (noroi no tamago wa himitsu-iro), "The Cursed Egg is Secret-Colored".

Carrot-Tip Bow is "春花の弓" (shunka no yumi), "Bow of Spring Flowers".

Sonya's epithet, "Dazzling Rabbits", is "艶麗なる兔たち" (enrei naru usagi-tachi), "Rabbits that are Dazzling Beauties".

Magic Rabbits is "二羽の魔兎の揺籃" (niwa no mato no yōran), "Two Magic Rabbits' Cradle". So that tornado is either full of baby magic bunnies, or that tornado is how baby magic bunnies are made.

Spd/Res Hold is "速さ魔防の大牽制" (hayasa-mabō no daikensei), "Spd/Res Great Rein". "牽制" (kensei) is the name of the Rein skill series and translates as "to restrain" or "to rein in".

Luthier's epithet, "Spring Hopes", is "春の魔法を求めて" (haru no mahō o motomete), "Searching for Spring Magic".

Carrot-Tip Spear is "春花の槍" (shunka no yari), "Lance of Spring Flowers".

[Othin]

8 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

Other than for you, by who? No seriously, by who?

Maria in CYL5: 367th (338th in 6)
Nowi in CYL5: 67th (56th in 6)

They picked Maria just to fill the spring Macedon quota (because she certainly ain't popular, unlike Minerva) that has long since overstayed its welcome.

They picked Maria because they believed players would be interested in seeing a continuation to the spring Macedon lineup. It's not like they were unaware of her CYL ranking, they clearly believed something else was more significant.

367th place is not some bottom-of-the-barrel ranking, she got 147 votes. Other characters who 100-160 votes on CYL5 but have appeared since then: Saul, Yen'fay, Roshea, Juno, Vyland, Rennac, Tanith, Annand. They don't add a ton of those units, but from IS's perspective they're a useful resource for filling out their ranks when they can tie them into larger patterns that will build people's anticipation for them. There's no sense in squandering such an opportunity and sticking to just repeating their most popular units.

(Edit: Since I felt like checking further - the units that scored below 100 votes on CYL5 but have appeared since then are Kyza, Dithorba, Bertram, and Zelot.)

Edited March 6, 2022 by Othin

[Diovani Bressan]

I have to confess that I am not a fan of having to explain what a Penalty is or what a Bonus is everytime. It become even worst when the Penalty description appears twice (weapon and A slot).

To new effects being added, I am fine with that. Like... Valentine Chrom having [Grand Strategy]. We never had that before so makes sense explaining it. But do we have to explain what Penalties or Bonuses are everytime? Can't we have an Help Button that, if people want to know what that effect is they press Help and learn that?

I feel the same for Beast Transformation. If they have the same effect we know for the past 3 years, we don't need to have that entire description. Just put grants [Transformation: Cavalry] or something. It's ok to have the entire description if they update the effect like how it happened to Infantry, and then call it [Transformation: Infantry+] or whatever.

...

Anyway, about the banner... Looks cool, but I am skipping it.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Diovani Bressan

[Othin]

4 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I have to confess that I am not a fan of having to explain what a Penalty is or what a Bonus is everytime. It become even worst when the Penalty description appears twice (weapon and A slot).

To new effects being added, I am fine with that. Like... Valentine Chrom having [Grand Strategy]. We never had that before so makes sense explaining it. But do we have to explain what Penalties or Bonuses are everytime? Can't we have an Help Button that, if people want to know what that effect is they press Help and learn that?

I feel the same for Beast Transformation. If they have the same effect we know for the past 3 years, we don't need to have that entire description. Just put grants [Transformation: Cavalry] or something. It's ok to have the entire description if they update the effect like how it happened to Infantry, and then call it [Transformation: Infantry+] or whatever.

...

Anyway, about the banner... Looks cool, but I am skipping it.

One thing they could do is include the explanations in the ingame skill descriptions but not always use them in the videos if they're redundant and/or would have space issues.

[Diovani Bressan]

17 minutes ago, Othin said:

One thing they could do is include the explanations in the ingame skill descriptions but not always use them in the videos if they're redundant and/or would have space issues.

That's a solution, for sure.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Diovani Bressan

[Ice Dragon]

23 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

To new effects being added, I am fine with that. Like... Valentine Chrom having [Grand Strategy].

Wait, what?

Bleh, I keep forgetting to check Duo/Harmonized Skills for new terminology (and just status effects in general). So here's a make-up translation note since I obviously missed this one:

Grand Strategy is "神軍師の策" (shin-gunshi no saku), "Divine Tactician's Stratagem".

[Diovani Bressan]

I wonder, now that we are getting 2 pages of skills, if it could mean New Heroes with 6 skills in their kits.

[Ice Dragon]

38 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I wonder, now that we are getting 2 pages of skills, if it could mean New Heroes with 6 skills in their kits.

Even if they do, I doubt it would make a difference. All it would mean is that those units would now come with both an Assist and a Special instead of just one or the other. And the relatively small pool of Assist and Special skills just means we'll be getting more units with skills that already have high distribution.

For context, including units from this banner, 58 units have Moonbow, 50 have Luna, and 45 have Glimmer, adding up to 19.6% of the game's 781 total units having one of these three skills.

The only units where this could matter is for the few units that come with both an Assist and Special skill (typically because they have an exclusive Assist skill).

[XRay]

Delthea: Prodigy in Bloom is a Firesweeper. She is probably more effective than Firesweepers since she has higher Atk and hits Res, but she might do worse against Save tanks since Distant Def and Unities are a thing, so she cannot Firesweep those units as well.

Maria: Sunny Smile seems like a tank buster. Stury Impact is a better option in my opinion, and you also probably want to run Spd/Def Rein. Flow Guard is also an option to stop instant Specials. Flow Flight is also probably better with Brave Weapon.

Sonya: Dazzling Rabbits is okay. In player hands, you can nuke someone with a precharged Aether, and Aether gives Atk+15 for the Weapon; I do not really see this being all that great except maybe in Summoner Duels. For more practical builds though, I think Moonbow and Ruptured Sky are better so you can consistently trigger a Special.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

and Aether gives Atk+15 for the Weapon;

+12. Aether has a cooldown of 4 due to the Slaying effect on the weapon.

[Tybrosion]

6 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Henry doesn't seem to be terribly useful. His weapon gives him half of Dominance, but only on the first hit, so it seems he'll be a slow unit intended to land one strong hit. Not sure how reliable that will be, though it could probably be sufficiently fixed with a few premium skills. The weapon itself is pretty good, though. +12-14 damage on the first hit on top of +5 Atk is actually pretty solid.

If nothing else, Henry is actually the first bow cav for Awakening. That gives him some uniqueness for Limited Hero Battles (and Resonant Battles I guess).

[Ice Dragon]

Just now, Tybrosion said:

If nothing else, Henry is actually the first bow cav for Awakening. That gives him some uniqueness for Limited Hero Battles (and Resonant Battles I guess).

His stats likely won't be complete garbage since he's physical ranged cavalry, which gets a stat total just barely below magic ranged infantry (167-169 compared to 170-171), so he'll probably still be usable even in higher-level PvE content. A rough stat spread like 40/40/20/40/30 wouldn't even be too bad, though something like 40/40/30/40/20 would at least give him a passable base Spd stat to stack with skills.

To his credit, though, he'll be the easiest ranged cavalry to get for Awakening, as the only other options are Maribelle, Harmonized Mia, and Spring Severa.

[Etrurian emperor]

I had sworn that this was the right time for a Seteth/Flayn duo unit but alas. Out of the listed characters only Henry really appeals to me so I'll probably be saving my orbs. 

[Tybrosion]

18 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

His stats likely won't be complete garbage since he's physical ranged cavalry, which gets a stat total just barely below magic ranged infantry (167-169 compared to 170-171), so he'll probably still be usable even in higher-level PvE content. A rough stat spread like 40/40/20/40/30 wouldn't even be too bad, though something like 40/40/30/40/20 would at least give him a passable base Spd stat to stack with skills.

To his credit, though, he'll be the easiest ranged cavalry to get for Awakening, as the only other options are Maribelle, Harmonized Mia, and Spring Severa.

Also, the highest Defense on any bow cav to this point was just 31 (on Python). We've been kinda of lacking a really tanky bow cav.

17 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I had sworn that this was the right time for a Seteth/Flayn duo unit but alas. Out of the listed characters only Henry really appeals to me so I'll probably be saving my orbs. 

Honestly, I'd say they were always more likely to show up on either Summer (because of their Paralogue, plus TH has a stranglehold on that theme) or Halloween (to follow Sothis, M!Byleth and Rhea being there).

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

+12. Aether has a cooldown of 4 due to the Slaying effect on the weapon.

Now that I read it more closely, that sucks. I do not think it would been that bad if they based it off of the Special's original cooldown count, rather than the unit's.

Aether compared to Moonbow/Ruptured Sky would be like an extra +9, which I guess is not too bad if you can consistently double, although the healing could be a problem with a normal Wings of Mercy team; Miracle could be an option if healing is really an issue and you do not need Aether's occasional Luna damage; Galeforce would have been prefect if it could be inherited by ranged units. Blazings/Dragon Fang/Ignis/Glacies might be okay too since it is a +6. I do not think Luna/Draconic Aura/Bonfire/Iceberg is worth it though since it is only a +3. 

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

Now that I read it more closely, that sucks. I do not think it would been that bad if they based it off of the Special's original cooldown count, rather than the unit's.

The difference is always exactly 3 Atk between using the Special skill's original cooldown and actual cooldown, so it's literally no different than having it based off of the original cooldown and having the weapon's other effect be +1 Atk and +6 Spd instead of +4 Atk and +6 Spd.

 

3 hours ago, XRay said:

Aether compared to Moonbow/Ruptured Sky would be like an extra +9, which I guess is not too bad if you can consistently double, although the healing could be a problem with a normal Wings of Mercy team; Miracle could be an option if healing is really an issue and you do not need Aether's occasional Luna damage; Galeforce would have been prefect if it could be inherited by ranged units. Blazings/Dragon Fang/Ignis/Glacies might be okay too since it is a +6. I do not think Luna/Draconic Aura/Bonfire/Iceberg is worth it though since it is only a +3. 

You're guaranteed to activate Luna during the first two rounds of combat at a minimum due to her Harmonized Skill. If you can't one-hit kill opponents and you activate Desperation after the first round of combat, you're guaranteed to activate Luna during the first five rounds of combat. Unless you're expecting Sonya to fight even more rounds of combat than this, Luna is effectively always better than Moonbow or Ruptured Sky.

I don't think Aether is worth it because even though you're getting 6 more Atk than Luna on every hit, you're losing out on a consistent Luna activation. I don't think it's worth getting 6 more Atk in exchange for activating your Special in fewer than half of all rounds of combat after the first.

[XRay]

49 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The difference is always exactly 3 Atk between using the Special skill's original cooldown and actual cooldown, so it's literally no different than having it based off of the original cooldown and having the weapon's other effect be +1 Atk and +6 Spd instead of +4 Atk and +6 Spd.

Maybe because it is how it is worded that it makes the Weapon feel stingy. If it said something like "grant Atk/Spd+6, and bonus to Atk equal to Special's original cooldown *3", then it would not have seem as bad.

58 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

You're guaranteed to activate Luna during the first two rounds of combat at a minimum due to her Harmonized Skill. If you can't one-hit kill opponents and you activate Desperation after the first round of combat, you're guaranteed to activate Luna during the first five rounds of combat. Unless you're expecting Sonya to fight even more rounds of combat than this, Luna is effectively always better than Moonbow or Ruptured Sky.

I don't think Aether is worth it because even though you're getting 6 more Atk than Luna on every hit, you're losing out on a consistent Luna activation. I don't think it's worth getting 6 more Atk in exchange for activating your Special in fewer than half of all rounds of combat after the first.

Hm... I guess it mostly depends on how many rounds of combat you expect her to do then.

In Arena, you might as well run Aether since it scores high and it ensures she can secure a kill, especially if she happens to be a bonus unit.

In Summoner Duels, I think Aether/Blazings and Luna might be both okay. With an aggressive play style in a war of attrition where she is disposable, Aether/Blazings takes a bit more set up, but she will be more likely to kill bulky tanks, and once that is done, it does not really matter if she can kill anything else afterwards. Luna is better if you want her to stick around more I guess.

In PvE, I think she is better off sticking with Moonbow/Ruptured Sky though, since she is doing the bulk of the fighting.

[Othin]

1 minute ago, XRay said:

Maybe because it is how it is worded that it makes the Weapon feel stingy. If it said something like "grant Atk/Spd+6, and bonus to Atk equal to Special's original cooldown *3", then it would not have seem as bad.

It's how effects like Surge Sparrow all work.