New Heroes & Ascended Ishtar

[Fire Emblem Fan]

We're getting Tine, Arthur, Scathach, and...Ascended Ishtar. Someone at IS must REALLY like Ishtar. Like, REALLY like her. Ascended Joshua, Idunn, and Mareeta all make a certain kind of sense, but I can't really think of anything that would put Ishtar in that category? Oh, and Hilda (Genealogy's Hilda, not Three Houses' Hilda) is the GHB.

Sorry, Patty fans. She'll be waiting a bit longer for her debut.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Sunwoo]

So. Uhhh ...

Isn't there like a super high probability that Ishtar is dead by the end of FE4? Does this mean that people who are probably dead at the end of their games qualify for Ascended now? So where's my Ascended Reinhardt lol

The rest of the banner is kind of typical, although why couldn't we have gotten Faval instead of Hilda as the GHB ...

EDIT: Ugh, Scathach was done dirty. And there's no reason Arthur couldn't have gotten a prf tome. Fuck you and your female favoritism, IS.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Sunwoo

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I really wish Altena had been the Ascended unit.

3 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

EDIT: Ugh, Scathach was done dirty. And there's no reason Arthur couldn't have gotten a prf tome. Fuck you and your female favoritism, IS.

Also, this. Definitely this. Arthur and Scathach were done dirty.

[Medeus]

5 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

So. Uhhh ...

Isn't there like a super high probability that Ishtar is dead by the end of FE4? Does this mean that people who are probably dead at the end of their games qualify for Ascended now? So where's my Ascended Reinhardt lol

The rest of the banner is kind of typical, although why couldn't we have gotten Faval instead of Hilda as the GHB ...

To be fair, with Hilda she fits in very well with the banner characters as three of them are related to her and two of them just would love to give her a Wrath boosted Thoron for what she did to Tailtiu. 

Banner's OK, I'm glad Tine and Arthur are in the game, but I'm not happy that Arthur and Scathach got lesser kits. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Medeus

[Othin]

I guessed three right - Ishtar is unsurprising but also unexciting, while Tine and Arthur are the two highlights in my book. Unfortunate about Arthur's kit though.

Scathatch and Hilda are a bit more odd, I certainly welcome them both as additions but it does mean we're still waiting on Patty and Arion. Maybe they'll show up in 2024 alongside Febail, Ascended Shannan, and... Lana, I guess?

[LoneStar]

It's funny that I recognized Ishtar's artist as the one that did Duo Hilda, and FE4 Hilda is the GHB. Also they did Scáthach dirty by not giving him Imperial Astra lol, and judging from the fact that he doesn't double the generic Axe Fighter his speed must be mediocre.

[Sunwoo]

I'm also irrationally annoyed that Mareeta was Thracia's Ascended Hero now, tbh ...

Like yeah, Reinhardt would've been just as much of a WTF choice to be ascended as Ishtar, but apparently with this there's no reason he COULDN'T have been Ascended. This also makes Joshua the only male Ascended Hero even though realistically that category should be more 50-50. Also, I really hate how making Ascended Heroes non-OCs essentially means we get one less new character in the game.

tl;dr fuck IS

[Othin]

1 minute ago, Sunwoo said:

I'm also irrationally annoyed that Mareeta was Thracia's Ascended Hero now, tbh ...

Like yeah, Reinhardt would've been just as much of a WTF choice to be ascended as Ishtar, but apparently with this there's no reason he COULDN'T have been Ascended. This also makes Joshua the only male Ascended Hero even though realistically that category should be more 50-50. Also, I really hate how making Ascended Heroes non-OCs essentially means we get one less new character in the game.

tl;dr fuck IS

Reinhardt already effectively got an Ascended version back in the first FE5 banner.

4 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I really wish Altena had been the Ascended unit.

Also, this. Definitely this. Arthur and Scathach were done dirty.

Altena would have been fun, but they seem to be trying to aim for more popular picks.

[Sunwoo]

Just now, Othin said:

Reinhardt already effectively got an Ascended version back in the first FE5 banner.

Altena would have been fun, but they seem to be trying to aim for more popular picks.

Fair.

I'm still not giving them a pass for just rereleasing popular waifus and taking away a new character slot though.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Annoyances about Ishtar and the shafting of the male characters aside, a cool thing about this banner is that I can now make a team with Azelle, Tailtiu, Tine, and Arthur, and it'd be completely color balanced. Fulfilling my usual shipping of Azelle and Tailtiu, reuniting them with their kids.

[Alexmender]

Of course they'd have to bring Tine, my favorite of the Gen 2 units, the month before the CYL rerun. I really hope the tickets will help me enough to get her. Also, Hilda is the GHB. Outside of the obligatory copy for GHB quests, I'm so gonna make her fodder even if she turns out to be Yen Fay tier. 

That aside, unit evaluation time: 

Tine seems really strong. Her prf has Slaying, CD-1 on turns 1~3 or permanent if she suffers some damage, +6 Atk/Spd, half of Tempo and 7 true dmg per hit. The issue I can see with her is that she'll hit really hard, but she's probably going to be made of paper and if she can't OHKO her opponent she's toast. Pairing her with Bridal Catria seems like a no-brainer to solve that issue. 

Arthur is the fodder 5*. Meh. 

RIP Scáthach, he didn't get Imperial Astra despite having Od blood and being Ayra's son. Guess that means Chulainn isn't going to get it, either. 

A!Ishtar doesn't seem that great, but maybe it's just me being tired of blue tomes when I have like 5+ of them built up. Her prf is Slaying, +6 Atk/Spd, Tempo and a conditional Brave effect where she needs to outspeed her opponent by 10. That's going to trigger easily against armors and tanks, but I doubt she'll be able to get the effect against godswords. Tempo doesn't do much against Hardy Fighter, but the Brave effect and ignoring Deflect Magic might be enough to let her kill B!Hector...maybe. 

So yeah, it's a good banner if one really likes infantry mages, although I'd argue that cav mages are slightly better right now. Still, Tine is cute as hell so 11/10 banner (remember to burn that witch Hilda). 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Alexmender

[Othin]

1 minute ago, Sunwoo said:

Fair.

I'm still not giving them a pass for just rereleasing popular waifus and taking away a new character slot though.

I don't like Ascended Heroes, but I don't think they were really avoidable. A lot of games are starting to really run low on missing "waifu bait" characters, and that's unfortunately a big part of what keeps FEH profitable. So it makes sense that they'd feel the need to have future New Heroes banners go back to drawing on old ones, to make a more future-proof system.

This is also why Ascended Heroes are likely to continue skewing female - it's the whole reason they exist.

[LoneStar]

4 minutes ago, Alexmender said:

RIP Scáthach, he didn't get Imperial Astra despite having Od blood and being Ayra's son.

Don't the Geneology kids take more from their same gendered parent? So I guess that's why Larcei gets the good stuff, and he gets to be slow and bulky like Lex I guess. It's throwing me off since he seemed like an obvious godsword candidate.

[Humanoid]

It's like the banner was designed to fail. I don't get it really, they've pushed Ascended heroes and Florets in order to increase the lacklustre appeal of most New Heroes banners, but then it's like their inner miser feels like they need to compensate for that by making the actual heroes as perfunctory as possible.

Also the "Furious Mage" is the mage that doesn't come with Fury, totally unacceptable!

 

It says something that right now, between this New Heroes banner and the recent child banner that the most appealing thing to pull on is, uh, last year's child banner for its Trace skills. I don't think I'll do anything though, with Golden Week and its bounties around the corner. But man is this kind of month the type of flat period that drove me to quit in the first place. Feels like I'm just hanging on to grab CYL Eirika and she can't come soon enough.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Humanoid

[Sunwoo]

I really don't understand why we even need to have a "fodder" 5-star anyway. If they're going to purposely make someone underwhelming and just fodder, then maybe just properly demote them instead?

[Florete]

Unfortunate lack of new inheritables on this banner. Blue Feud and Spd/Res Menace are the only new non-weapon inheritables, and I've never seen a Feud used on a unit who didn't come with it. Ishtar is the first ascended hero to not bring a new inheritable.

I'm also thinking Tine might end up being the real star of the banner despite Ishtar's ascended status. Tine basically comes with better Time's Pulse (since Thunderer Tome doesn't require her special to be at max value) on top of DR piercing, a pretty good combo. But Ishtar having Tempo + Brave is also really good, so we'll see.

As for the character choices themselves, I have little connection to Genealogy and its cast, so it really doesn't matter to me.

[Alexmender]

11 minutes ago, LoneStar said:

Don't the Geneology kids take more from their same gendered parent? So I guess that's why Larcei gets the good stuff, and he gets to be slow and bulky like Lex I guess. It's throwing me off since he seemed like an obvious godsword candidate.

I think so. I may be remembering wrong, but I think both Larcei and Scáthach start almost the same, but his growths are closer to his father's while Larcei takes more from Ayra. Still, lorewise both are Isaachian(?) royalty with Od blood and were trained by Shannan all their life. Both should have access to the Regnal/Imperial Astra line, even if Scáthach is slow as hell. The skill isn't even inheritable, so it's not like it costs IS anything to give it to him. 

[Tybrosion]

Tine and Arthur were entirely expected, but man we got robbed out of Ascended Arvis (as a permanent pool tome armor). Instead, we get the most boring Resplendent (I do like Ishtar, but that doesn't make her Resplendent any less boring) since last month. Oh, and Scathach exists just to suffer I guess. Perhaps Galzus didn't get that shafted after all.

Oh yeah, and Arion found dead in a ditch another infantry red tome GHB (who probably also doesn't get a Prf weapon) already. Except this time, it's a character that literally no one likes (and for good reason).

25 minutes ago, Othin said:

I don't like Ascended Heroes, but I don't think they were really avoidable. A lot of games are starting to really run low on missing "waifu bait" characters, and that's unfortunately a big part of what keeps FEH profitable. So it makes sense that they'd feel the need to have future New Heroes banners go back to drawing on old ones, to make a more future-proof system.

Yeah, certain games straight up need to rerelease popular females because they barely have any females left such as:

Valentia: just Est
Binding Blade: Elen, Dorothy, non-Seasonal Juno
Blazing Blade: Isadora, Vaida
Sacred Stones: Vanessa, Syrene, Ismaire
Awakening: non-Seasonal Severa, non-Seasonal Noire, non-Apotheosis Anna

13 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Also the "Furious Mage" is the mage that doesn't come with Fury, totally unacceptable!

We also got Asbel, the supposed "Windswept Youth" that doesn't have Windsweep. However, he did get Fury unlike FE4 Arthur.

[5PointGordin]

I remember it being a meme around when Ayra came out that when eventually more FE4 characters would come out, Scathach would get completely screwed while Larcei would get the preferential treatment from IS. Looks like its become a reality lol.

It kinda sucks he doesn't get Regnal or Imperial Astra, but I was never gonna invest into him so IDRC.

Edited April 17, 2022 by 5PointGordin

[Etrurian emperor]

Yes! Hilda is finally in the game! Hilda! Hilda!

I like the Freeges a lot so I’m pretty happy with this banner. The only problem is that Fee got ditched for a boring swordboy.

Does the English trailer just not work for anyone else? Like it’s bugged or something?

[Humanoid]

2 minutes ago, 5PointGordin said:

I remember it being a meme around when Ayra came out that when eventually more FE4 characters would come out, Scathach would get completely screwed while Larcei would get the preferential treatment from IS. Looks like its become a reality lol.

It kinda sucks he doesn't get Regnal or Imperial Astra, but I was never gonna invest into him so IDRC.

Hot on the heels of Mareeta, Galzus, Ike and Mia, IS decided to flex their creative muscle and make something different: a slow infantry sword. A usable kit? Nah, that's totally not necessary.

[Ice Dragon]

Tinny just has Slaying, Wrath, and Deadeye on her weapon except her version of Wrath is significantly more lenient. Ishtar has a conditional Brave weapon with Slaying and Tempo, which is nice because it means it doesn't have the usual penalty to Atk that normal Brave weapons get.

I think they're playing a bit too loosely with what they consider a colorless tome nowadays.

Arthur and Skasaher exist, I guess. Arthur at least comes with good skills. Skasaher's weapon is at least decent for an inheritable weapon.

I'm half-expecting Hilda to just be red Sonia.

 

39 minutes ago, Alexmender said:

RIP Scáthach, he didn't get Imperial Astra despite having Od blood and being Ayra's son. Guess that means Chulainn isn't going to get it, either. 

Skasaher never had a chance to get Imperial Astra, though there is an argument for him getting Regnal Astra.

Regnal Astra in Japanese is "剣姫の流星" (kenki no ryūsei), "the sword princess's Astra", i.e. "Ayra's Astra". He's guaranteed to inherit Astra in Genealogy since he always has Ayra as a parent, so it would have made sense to have given him the skill. However, it looks like he's going to be a slow infantry sword, so even if he did get Regnal Astra, it wouldn't be useful for him.

Imperial Astra in Japanese is "剣皇の流星" (kenkō no ryūsei), "the sword emperor's Astra". There's basically no way they'd give this to anyone other than Shannan (or a previous king of Isaac).

 

15 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Also the "Furious Mage" is the mage that doesn't come with Fury, totally unacceptable!

The best part is that his epithet in Japanese is a reference to Wrath instead of Fury. And he also didn't get Wrath.

[5PointGordin]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

So. Uhhh ...

Isn't there like a super high probability that Ishtar is dead by the end of FE4? Does this mean that people who are probably dead at the end of their games qualify for Ascended now? So where's my Ascended Reinhardt lol

The rest of the banner is kind of typical, although why couldn't we have gotten Faval instead of Hilda as the GHB ...

EDIT: Ugh, Scathach was done dirty. And there's no reason Arthur couldn't have gotten a prf tome. Fuck you and your female favoritism, IS.

Reinhardt never died tho. He was captured by Lief's army and released, never to be seen again.

[Use the Falchion]

I like the designs on most of these! If I was to spend anything on this banner, it'd be for Tine and Scathach. (Scathach's new design reminds me of M!Morgan though, which isn't a bad thing.) I'll probably get Scathach on a future banner though, so I'm not going to be too upset if I don't see him during any of the free pulls, particularly since I'll try to pull Colorless. 

[XRay]

Tine seems pretty cool. I vastly prefer the <100% HP condition over the dumb =>25% HP condition. Excluding area-of-effect Specials from extra damage is a shame though. I think Luna would be good when paired with Special Spiral and Time's Pulse to almost always have a Special on. Being colorless is good too.

Ishtar: Echoing Thunder is basically Reinhardt in waifu form. I think I rather go with Ruptured Sky and swap out Time's Pulse for Savage Blow, Res Smoke, or Fatal Smoke. Special Spiral for a Blazing build is also an option. Not a fan of that HP condition though.