2023 Resplendents

[Ice Dragon]

And next is Aversa, who will be our first Grail Resplendent Hero. It might be time to redo some hopes and predictions now. I'll update the lists sometime later when I'm feeling a bit less lazy.

1. Embla Gordin
2. Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin
3. Muspell Brave Roy
4. Askr Innes
5. Muspell Brave Lyn
6. Ljosalfheimr Palla
7. Ljosalfheimr Aversa

 

So, where are the Nidavellir and Vanaheimr outfits.

Nidavellir is still the least-used outfit type at only 4, trailing a full 2 units behind Dokkalfheimr and Jotunheimr at 6 each. Speaking of which, why do we have so few Dokkalfheimr outfits when the clearly inferior Ljosalfheimr now has more units than Nifl. No, these aren't questions.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Othin]

Quite a surprise, but opens up a lot of new possibilities. In addition to grail units, it seems like the whole of Book 2 is now on the table.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Oh yeah, I'm definitely gonna update my list now that Grail units are a possibility. That opens up several characters for me.

1. Lyn: Brave Lady
2. Roy: Brave Lion
3. Sigurd: Holy Knight
4. Ninian: Oracle of Destiny
5. Joshua: Tempest King
6. Finn: Lance of Legend
7. Cecilia: Etrurian General
8. Klein: Silver Nobleman
9. Lyon: Shadow Prince
10. Lucius: The Light
11. Nanna: Nordion Princess
12. Camus: Sable Knight
13. Tiki: Naga's Voice
14. Tobin: The Clueless One
15. Clair: Highborn Flier
16. Gray: Wry Comrade
17. Mist: Helpful Sister
18. Lissa: Sprightly Cleric
19. Lewyn: Guiding Breeze
20. Palla: Eldest Whitewing
21. Catria: Middle Whitewing
22. Cherche: Wyvern Friend
23. Innes: Regal Strategician
24. Canas: Widsom Seeker

Kicked off the list but still want:
25. Leo: Sorcerous Prince
26. Stahl: Viridian Knight
27. Rebecca: Wildflower
28. Ayra: Astra's Wielder
29. Kaze: Easygoing Ninja
30. Bartre: Fearless Warrior

[Ice Dragon]

Lists and charts are now fully updated. Grail units and units from banners up through Aversa's release are now included in the known eligible list and completion percentage tallies.

 

The Grail units I want most are probably Xander and Camus. Both have workable stats, and having Distant Counter weapons means that they had late refines and aren't completely terrible. Julius, Arden, and Walhart are also pretty good. Female Robin also deserves one, even if she's just as bad as Male Robin in terms of performance.

I also wouldn't mind Zephiel, Ursula, Valter, Lyon, and Marisa getting a Resplendent outfit.

[Tybrosion]

Grail units now being on the table honestly changes nothing for me, because Haar isn't getting one anyways even when they get to Book III.

Besides him, "Marth" is literally the only early Grail unit I have at +10 and somehow I doubt Lucina is getting a third Resplendent.

[Othin]

25 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Grail units now being on the table honestly changes nothing for me, because Haar isn't getting one anyways even when they get to Book III.

Besides him, "Marth" is literally the only early Grail unit I have at +10 and somehow I doubt Lucina is getting a third Resplendent.

Given enough time, I wouldn't count either of them out. Lucina is a popular character, and they valued Haar enough to give him an alt. Some launch Resplendents still don't even have that.

[Ice Dragon]

Added all of the Book 3 banners before CYL 3 to the look-forward list of units.

As mentioned before, CYL 3 is where we finally have units that are capable of catching up to modern units in terms of stat totals by using Dragonflowers. That said, I still don't think we'll be getting many Book 3 Resplendent Heroes if we get any at all because they're recent enough to have refines that make up for their lower stat totals.

 

And I don't think I'd count Masked Marth out of the running for a Resplendent outfit. Players who have been playing this game since launch will have him merged since he had a lot of reruns.

Aversa is in the same boat. She was a highly recommended unit to build, so a lot of players probably already have her merged and at least somewhat built.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Ice Dragon]

Dokkalfheimr Cecilia is next, being the third fairy in a row:

1. Embla Gordin
2. Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin
3. Muspell Brave Roy
4. Askr Innes
5. Muspell Brave Lyn
6. Ljosalfheimr Palla
7. Ljosalfheimr Aversa
8. Dokkalfheimr Cecilia

 

So we've had 2 Muspell units so far this year, but no Nifl units. The other paired factions have all been balanced with Askr/Embla at 1 a piece, Ljosalfheimr/Dokkalfheimr at 2 a piece, and everything else at zero.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Four months into the year and Cecilia marks the fifth Resplendent on my list I get to cross off.

1. Lyn: Brave Lady
2. Roy: Brave Lion
3. Sigurd: Holy Knight
4. Ninian: Oracle of Destiny
5. Joshua: Tempest King
6. Finn: Lance of Legend
7. Cecilia: Etrurian General
8. Klein: Silver Nobleman
9. Lyon: Shadow Prince
10. Lucius: The Light
11. Nanna: Nordion Princess
12. Camus: Sable Knight
13. Tiki: Naga's Voice
14. Tobin: The Clueless One
15. Clair: Highborn Flier
16. Gray: Wry Comrade
17. Mist: Helpful Sister
18. Lissa: Sprightly Cleric
19. Lewyn: Guiding Breeze
20. Palla: Eldest Whitewing
21. Catria: Middle Whitewing
22. Cherche: Wyvern Friend
23. Innes: Regal Strategician
24. Canas: Widsom Seeker

[Ice Dragon]

We break the fairy streak to get the least-fairy character in the game in the least-fairy outfit in the game, Hel Surtr:

1. Embla Gordin
2. Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin
3. Muspell Brave Roy
4. Askr Innes
5. Muspell Brave Lyn
6. Ljosalfheimr Palla
7. Ljosalfheimr Aversa
8. Dokkalfheimr Cecilia
9. Hel Surtr

This is also our first Heroes unit to receive a Resplendent outfit, which makes sense since there aren't a lot early Heroes units that were released in a "normal" way. The only real options were Brave Veronica, the Muspell crew, or a Nifl Legendary. (Fjorm would really like the extra stats, though.)

I've already updated the lists to go through Surtr's banner (and Gharnef), as Surtr is now the most recently released unit with a Resplendent outfit.

I find it really funny that Fates is the origin mark with the highest number of Resplendent outfits (tied with Blazing Sword at 11), but the second lowest percentage (after Heroes) due to the ridiculous number of Fates units that were released this early (50 now that the Adrift banner falls inside the counting window).

[Ice Dragon]

We get our first Nifl outfit this year on a character that already looks like they're in a Nifl outfit.

1. Embla Gordin
2. Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin
3. Muspell Brave Roy
4. Askr Innes
5. Muspell Brave Lyn
6. Ljosalfheimr Palla
7. Ljosalfheimr Aversa
8. Dokkalfheimr Cecilia
9. Hel Surtr
10. Nifl Ninian

Meanwhile, Nidavellir is still sitting here with only 4 outfits. The second lowest, Jotunheimr, is a full 2 outfits ahead despite their first outfit being released half a year later.

 

EDIT: Added a list of "how long it's been since the last time we've had this theme":

On 12/22/2022 at 1:29 AM, Ice Dragon said:

And here's a list of the most recent unit for each outfit theme ordered from least to most recent:

• Nidavellir: Jaffar (2022-11-10)
• Jotunheimr: Mia (2022-11-25)
• Embla: Gordin (2023-01-10)
• Askr: Innes (2023-02-25)
• Muspell: Brave Lyn (2023-03-10)
• Ljosalfheimr: Aversa (2023-04-10)
• Dokkalfheimr: Cecilia (2023-04-25)
• Hel: Surtr (2023-05-10)
• Nifl: Ninian (2023-05-25)

It's now been 6 months since the last time we've gotten Nidavellir.

Though to be entirely fair, the last time we had Nifl was way longer ago with Matthew, just shy of a full year ago (2022-06-25).

Edited May 10, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Fire Emblem Fan]

1. Lyn: Brave Lady
2. Roy: Brave Lion
3. Sigurd: Holy Knight
4. Ninian: Oracle of Destiny
5. Joshua: Tempest King
6. Finn: Lance of Legend
7. Cecilia: Etrurian General
8. Klein: Silver Nobleman
9. Lyon: Shadow Prince
10. Lucius: The Light
11. Nanna: Nordion Princess
12. Camus: Sable Knight
13. Tiki: Naga's Voice
14. Tobin: The Clueless One
15. Clair: Highborn Flier
16. Gray: Wry Comrade
17. Mist: Helpful Sister
18. Lissa: Sprightly Cleric
19. Lewyn: Guiding Breeze
20. Palla: Eldest Whitewing
21. Catria: Middle Whitewing
22. Cherche: Wyvern Friend
23. Innes: Regal Strategician
24. Canas: Widsom Seeker

[Othin]

1. Brave Lyn
2. Brave Roy
3. Cecilia
4. Gwendolyn
5. Hawkeye
6. Abel
7. Cain
8. Catria
9. Sheena
10. Cherche
11. Henry
12. Olivia
13. Virion
14. Corrin F
15. Laslow
16. Oboro
17. Peri
18. Genny
19. Klein
20. Ninian
21. Innes
22. Mist
23. Soren
24. Titania

6 hits and 4 misses so far.

[Ice Dragon]

We get another Hel outfit, but I can kind of forgive them since it thematically works for Sigurd:

1. Embla Gordin
2. Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin
3. Muspell Brave Roy
4. Askr Innes
5. Muspell Brave Lyn
6. Ljosalfheimr Palla
7. Ljosalfheimr Aversa
8. Dokkalfheimr Cecilia
9. Hel Surtr
10. Nifl Ninian
11. Hel Sigurd

But that doesn't mean I'm not going to continue to complain about the lack of Nidavellir outfits.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

That's another win for me!

1. Lyn: Brave Lady
2. Roy: Brave Lion
3. Sigurd: Holy Knight
4. Ninian: Oracle of Destiny
5. Joshua: Tempest King
6. Finn: Lance of Legend
7. Cecilia: Etrurian General
8. Klein: Silver Nobleman
9. Lyon: Shadow Prince
10. Lucius: The Light
11. Nanna: Nordion Princess
12. Camus: Sable Knight
13. Tiki: Naga's Voice
14. Tobin: The Clueless One
15. Clair: Highborn Flier
16. Gray: Wry Comrade
17. Mist: Helpful Sister
18. Lissa: Sprightly Cleric
19. Lewyn: Guiding Breeze
20. Palla: Eldest Whitewing
21. Catria: Middle Whitewing
22. Cherche: Wyvern Friend
23. Innes: Regal Strategician
24. Canas: Widsom Seeker

[genesis]

I honestly want Clarine and Bartre. 

The ones that need for art reasons are Arthur (from Fates), Lissa, Athena, Clair 

Edited June 3, 2023 by genesis

[Ice Dragon]

And now we get a third Hel outfit in 2 months, which catches them up to Embla and Muspell for the most outfits:

1. Embla Gordin
2. Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin
3. Muspell Brave Roy
4. Askr Innes
5. Muspell Brave Lyn
6. Ljosalfheimr Palla
7. Ljosalfheimr Aversa
8. Dokkalfheimr Cecilia
9. Hel Surtr
10. Nifl Ninian
11. Hel Sigurd
12. Hel Female Robin

Still no Nidavellir or Jotunheimr outfits this year, and we're already halfway through.

Vanaheimr outfits are also late. While it took 8 months after the start of the following book for the first Hel outfit to be released (due to Resplendent Heroes only being released at the end of Book III), it was only 9 months after the start of its own book for the first Ljosalfheimr outfit and only 2 months after the start of its own book for the first Nidavellir outfit. We're now 7 months into Vanaheim's book (counting from the next not-yet-announced outfit) with no outfits. (We're also now 12 months after Ymir's release, but I'm not actually expecting any outfits for Ymir.)

[Ice Dragon]

Kicking off the second half of this year is Ljosalfheimr Nina:

1. Embla Gordin
2. Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin
3. Muspell Brave Roy
4. Askr Innes
5. Muspell Brave Lyn
6. Ljosalfheimr Palla
7. Ljosalfheimr Aversa
8. Dokkalfheimr Cecilia
9. Hel Surtr
10. Nifl Ninian
11. Hel Sigurd
12. Hel Female Robin
13. Ljosalfheimr Nina

Still no Jotunheimr, Nidavellir, or Vanaheimr this year. Meanwhile, Ljosalfheimr ties Hel for the most outfits this year at 3 a piece.

[Humanoid]

She feels a bit unfinished to me, and besides, the original art is pretty good if I remember right. However I might end up with her anyway because if I do want to spark both Summer Banners while still getting four lots of Resplendents and quest rewards, I would have to sub on 25 July. Subbing on the 10th of August would be too late, but subbing on the 7th of August may be a valid compromise, potentially allowing spark access to the September seasonal (Flame again?) in exchange for Nina and one lot of quests. Hmm.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Man, still waiting on Joshua.

[Magenta Fantasies]

It ticks me off that Nina got a Resplendent before Felicia, Jakob or Kaze, even though they’ve been in Heroes since the beginning and Nina is already a decent unit without the Resplendent stat boost. 

[Ice Dragon]

52 minutes ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

It ticks me off that Nina got a Resplendent before Felicia, Jakob or Kaze, even though they’ve been in Heroes since the beginning and Nina is already a decent unit without the Resplendent stat boost. 

Kaze was released 1 year and 3 months after the game's release.

Without Nina's Resplendent stat boost, Kaze has -2/+1 offenses compared to Nina with significantly easier conditions to fulfill. Kaze only needs to initiate combat and have at least 25% HP for the stats and needs to be faster than his opponent for the +5 extra damage. Nina needs to be within 3 spaces of both units in a support pairing for the stats and needs the opponent to have 5 more Def than Res for the extra +7 damage.

Without Nina's Resplendent stat boost, but with Arcane Nastrond, Kaze has -4/+0 offenses compared to Nina against an opponent with a 1-cooldown Special, closing the Atk gap by 2 points for each additional point of maximum cooldown the opponent has.

Nina was only a "decent unit" if you gave her Arcane Nastrond or Whitecap Bow, and there are a lot of better units to give those to. And Kaze is a 4-star unit that is far easier to obtain and merge.

 

And Felicia and Jakob are completely unsalvageable.

[Magenta Fantasies]

On 6/28/2023 at 9:56 AM, Ice Dragon said:

Kaze was released 1 year and 3 months after the game's release.

Without Nina's Resplendent stat boost, Kaze has -2/+1 offenses compared to Nina with significantly easier conditions to fulfill. Kaze only needs to initiate combat and have at least 25% HP for the stats and needs to be faster than his opponent for the +5 extra damage. Nina needs to be within 3 spaces of both units in a support pairing for the stats and needs the opponent to have 5 more Def than Res for the extra +7 damage.

Without Nina's Resplendent stat boost, but with Arcane Nastrond, Kaze has -4/+0 offenses compared to Nina against an opponent with a 1-cooldown Special, closing the Atk gap by 2 points for each additional point of maximum cooldown the opponent has.

Nina was only a "decent unit" if you gave her Arcane Nastrond or Whitecap Bow, and there are a lot of better units to give those to. And Kaze is a 4-star unit that is far easier to obtain and merge.

 

And Felicia and Jakob are completely unsalvageable.

I thought Kaze had been in Heroes from the beginning, but I suppose not. Odd. Like Felicia and Jakob, and unlike Nina, he’s a moderately important and popular Fates character.

Completely unsalvageable, huh? I have a fairly good Jakob thanks to a couple merges and his refined weapon, which is decent for a 2017 3/4-star character. It pairs well with Bond skills and Wings of Mercy. I still have plans for him, including a good rally skill (if Rally skills can be used in conjunction with the bonuses granted by Jakob’s Tray and Bond skills; they can stack with some bonuses granted by weapons and skills, but not others,) a good C-skill (leaning towards Joint Drive Attack, Close Guard or Joint Distant Guard,) Lethality and an Arcane dagger when that happens. Then he’ll be a truly great unit.

Also, Jakob’s art leaves something to be desired. It’s not the worst art in FEH, but he still looks a little off.

[Othin]

1 hour ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

I thought Kaze had been in Heroes from the beginning, but I suppose not. Odd. Like Felicia and Jakob, and unlike Nina, he’s a moderately important and popular Fates character.

Completely unsalvageable, huh? I have a fairly good Jakob thanks to a couple merges and his refined weapon, which is decent for a 2017 3/4-star character. It pairs well with Bond skills and Wings of Mercy. I still have plans for him, including a good rally skill (if Rally skills can be used in conjunction with the bonuses granted by Jakob’s Tray and Bond skills; they can stack with some bonuses granted by weapons and skills, but not others,) a good C-skill (leaning towards Joint Drive Attack, Close Guard or Joint Distant Guard,) Lethality and an Arcane dagger when that happens. Then he’ll be a truly great unit.

Also, Jakob’s art leaves something to be desired. It’s not the worst art in FEH, but he still looks a little off.

Fates' initial lineup was a bit odd. It included all 8 royals and all 16 retainers, as well as the two Corrins and Azura/Gunter/Felicia/Jakob, for a total of 30 units. That was the largest lineup of any game at the time, but the fact that so many of those slots were retainers meant pushing out a lot of other prominent characters.

A lot of games have had prominent characters take surprisingly long to show up. Kent and Sain weren't added until Book 6, and they're the biggest supporting characters of Lyn's story.

[Ice Dragon]

59 minutes ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

Completely unsalvageable, huh? I have a fairly good Jakob thanks to a couple merges and his refined weapon, which is decent for a 2017 3/4-star character. It pairs well with Bond skills and Wings of Mercy. I still have plans for him, including a good rally skill (if Rally skills can be used in conjunction with the bonuses granted by Jakob’s Tray and Bond skills; they can stack with some bonuses granted by weapons and skills, but not others,) a good C-skill (leaning towards Joint Drive Attack, Close Guard or Joint Distant Guard,) Lethality and an Arcane dagger when that happens. Then he’ll be a truly great unit.

A hypothetical Resplendent Jakob is already 2 Atk and 7 Spd behind the current best 4-star dagger infantry (Cath) when both units have maximum Dragonflower investment (+25 on Jakob, +10 on Cath), and Cath also has superboons in both stats where Jakob has neither. Since every dagger infantry has access to the exact same inheritable skills, any build that can be put on Jakob can be put on any other dagger infantry, and so he'll always be behind by the difference in their base stats.

Jakob's only real notable feature is the fact that his exclusive weapon grants him +8 to all stats (and nothing else), which is slightly better in terms of stats compared to Cath's current best option, Vicious Dagger, which grants 2 HP, 3 Atk, and 7 Spd relative to an exclusive dagger's base Mt, but Vicious Dagger also grants the valuable Null Follow-Up. This allows him to overtake Cath in Atk, but only closes the gap in Spd by 1 point, which still puts him 6 points behind. When an Arcane dagger is released, Jakob's advantage here in raw weapon stats goes away completely since both units will have access to the same weapon and the Arcane dagger will likely be strictly better than Jakob's Tray.

In competitive game modes, where the comparison is not against your own other units, but against the opponent's, Jakob falls even farther behind. Legendary Yuri is currently the dagger infantry with the highest base stats, and he has 9 more Atk and 10 more Spd than a hypothetical Resplendent Jakob when both units have maximum Dragonflowers (and Yuri only needs +5). Additionally, his weapon is comparable to what can be expected from an Arcane dagger, so at best, Jakob will only be able to close the gap by 2 points in Spd due to the refine, which still puts him 8 points of Spd behind.

At best, due to Jakob's Spd not being able to keep up with modern units, Jakob is relegated to running a weapon or passive skill that grants a guaranteed follow-up, which immediately puts him at a disadvantage against the increasing number of faster units that don't need a guaranteed follow-up and often can nullify an opponent's guaranteed follow-up.

We're at the point where the weaker launch units are now even having trouble with non-challenge PvE content (like Tempest Trials) unless you're able to give them premium builds, and Jakob absolutely falls in this category.

 

1 hour ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

including a good rally skill (if Rally skills can be used in conjunction with the bonuses granted by Jakob’s Tray and Bond skills; they can stack with some bonuses granted by weapons and skills, but not others,)

The only things in this game that don't stack are:

• Status effects (anything that makes an icon on the unit's map sprite) do not stack with the same status effect, and only the largest value is applied
• Triangle Adept effects do not stack with other Triangle Adept effects, and only the largest value is applied
• Effective damage does not stack if a unit matches more than one effective weapon or movement type, and a maximum of one effective damage multiplier is applied
• Anything that specifically says it doesn't stack in the description

The above categories still stack with each other and stack with all other effects. They just don't stack within their categories.

Also, giving Jakob himself a Rally skill is irrelevant since he can't apply its effect to himself.