Special Heroes - Holiday Handoff

[Othin]

8 hours ago, Sayyyaka said:

This completely randomised lineup and they couldn't spare a single crumb for Jugdral this year, Merry Christmas indeed.  

At least Special Fighter 4 is here, I need that eventually.

Also, honestly, I have no idea why they handle 3H in such a random way.  Where's Hanneman to go with last year's Manuela?  Why not Mercedes to go with Annette instead of Dorothea?  Or someone else to go with Dorothea?  Why is it always just a random grab bag?  That's what makes these groupings even more unsatisfying.  It doesn't feel like characters getting together to celebrate, it just feels like there wasn't any thought put into it.  God knows why BK and Bruno of all characters decided to show up without anyone related to them.

I think they wanted one Black Eagles unit and one Blue Lions one, so that together with Ignatz last year from Golden Deer, they'd have one from each house. The winter banner before that one also had one from each house.

[Ice Dragon]

27 minutes ago, XRay said:

I ran three or four Elimines and I know that is not too common, but I figure two Elimines should be relatively common by now since you want to stack as much damage reduction as possible.

You only need a 53% win rate to max out your offense score, so as long as you can get that much, it's more efficient to optimize for score per win than to optimize for win rate.

I imagine players even now are still more likely to merge their Elimines than run two of them.

[DefyingFates]

 So, my thoughts in order:

Oh hey, Cordelia and Severa are the thumbnail, that's adorable!

The Vanaheimr intro is so pretty! There are bubbles too!

FESTIVE BLACK KNIGHT?!

Tier 4 Fighter skills?! Hoo boy. Hopefully they only buff the ones no one uses. (Also I really thought he'd have Alondite. And A/S Far Save for that matter, it's funny that D/R is only on two Winter units.)

Another Dorothea alt? XD At least she's grown up now.

Three Hopes Annette, interesting.

Cordelia just gave us an alternative to BCatria. Didn't expect that, it sure took IS time to cash in on that mass Brave effect!

Bruno's a free green mage armor! A green Arcane tome will be very interesting.

Edited December 15, 2022 by DefyingFates

[GrandeRampel]

I really like a lot of the choices here. I like that they went with 3Hopes designs for Dorothea and Annette. It was about time they realized that with a new game on the horizon and 3 different designs to use for each character it would be impossible to use them all, unless they start doing time-skip seasonals. But I really hope they won't use the multiple seasonal alts to justify never giving us Academy Dorothea. She has one of the most memorable Academy Arc designs (only Marianne and Balthus come close IMO) and I WANT IT YESTERDAY!

Cordelia and Selena are adorable together and while this is another Harmonized Duo that "cheats" I can't bring myself to care when they all end up being so wholesome (but Altina/Sanaki is still the best overall).

BK is very funny and one of the few seasonals I can see becoming iconic and beloved for being so out there that you can't help but love it (see also Spring Narcian and Winter Jaffar).

Bruno is pretty random, but he is in the same spot as Sharena, which means I won't complain about any kind of content for him because he needs whatever he can get.

I will be pulling for sure and I can see myself going for multiple sparks depending on my luck.

[Zelgius]

I definitely need to get a Santa BK, though I don't want to dip into my Begnion Zelgius reserves too much. SF4 is interesting, not quite what I would have thought but interesting none the less. Interesting that it helps to address one of the issues of the old BK/Zelgius units, that being healing.

[Ice Dragon]

The banner and Tempest Trials are now out, so have some stats:

Superboons and superbanes:

• Cordelia: +Atk, +Res, -HP, -Spd
• Dorothea: +Spd, -everything else
• Annette: +Atk, +Spd, -Res
• Black Knight: +Spd, -Atk
• Bruno: +Atk, -Def

 

I have no idea what Bruno is trying to do with that stat spread.

[KMT4ever]

Ordinarily I wouldn't care about this banner beyond getting Cordelia and Selena to maintain my Harmonic collection, but in a quiet moment I noticed that Annette actually sings while idling on the map. Is that something other Heroes do? Even if it is, that by itself convinced me to try for at least one copy of her. For whatever reason I find it very cute.

[Ice Dragon]

14 minutes ago, KMT4ever said:

Ordinarily I wouldn't care about this banner beyond getting Cordelia and Selena to maintain my Harmonic collection, but in a quiet moment I noticed that Annette actually sings while idling on the map. Is that something other Heroes do? Even if it is, that by itself convinced me to try for at least one copy of her. For whatever reason I find it very cute.

I'm pretty sure that kind of idle animation is new to Annette. I noticed it while checking the Tempest Trials bonus units right after the daily reset since units use their idle animations on that screen, and it was one of the things that convinced me to also pull for her in addition to Cordelia.

[Etrurian emperor]

So apparently its now canon that Sephiran employs his enigmatic minion to....throw Sanaki a party. That's strangely cute. 

 

[Xenovia]

On 12/15/2022 at 1:05 AM, Ice Dragon said:

I'm really loving the icicles on Black Knight now that we can actually see more than just the silhouette of them. His kit also looks pretty cool and helps out against a lot of the units that Far Save normally struggles with. But he probably still dies to Duo Chrom.

Completely ambivalent to Dorothea, Annette, and Bruno, though it's nice that we're getting a tome armor from Tempest Trials.

Cordelia looks pretty cool. Dual Strike looks pretty fun. It'll probably replace Harmonized Catria's Triangle Attack in certain Rally ball team compositions in Aether Raids, but is less reliable when using units with higher movement range.

 

It looks like I'll probably be pulling for a +10 Cordelia with my backup colors being green and then colorless, in that order. Sparks will go to Cordelia, Black Knight, and Dorothea. Hopefully, I'll get one 4-star copy of Annette before I finish. Priorities may change when stats come out, namely if Annette turns out to be insanely min-maxed.

How much money have you spent on this game, total?

[Ice Dragon]

59 minutes ago, Xenovia said:

How much money have you spent on this game, total?

About half of my disposable income.

[Flying Shogi]

Some thoughts after fielding HH!Cordelia in TT. She feels a little clunky to use when trying to meet the brave attack condition if she's the unit upfront or the first unit to attack as I often find myself forced to move a unit 2 spaces away from an enemy to set up her brave attack. I find more success when I put her in the back and then have her jump in for an attack. Maybe I'm more use to fielding BG!Catria but the convenience of 2 spaces feels more natural. Sure, you need at least 2 allies to meet the brave attack condition but your units usually stay within that 2 space range anyway. I haven't tested her with WoM in PvE maps but I have a feeling she's going to do well in a one turn clear setting. 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Flying Shogi