New Heroes: New Heroes & Ascended Elincia

[Fire Emblem Fan]

And the New Heroes banner this month is a Tellius banner! Radiant Dawn, to be exact. Ascended Elincia, Lucia, Geoffrey, and...Bastian. Darn it, how long must I wait for Brom? Super excited for Elincia, Lucia, and Geoffrey, though.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Fire Emblem Fan

[GuiltyLove]

WHAT IS THAT LUCIA PRF

[Othin]

HELL yes! I hadn't even dared to hope!

It looks like they really are willing to do regular banners with just one Ascended/Rearmed slot rather than both. And an excellent choice of one, too. Staff Elincia has been something people have been expecting as a legendary for years, but Ascended is just as good, and she's got a staff skill set as fancy as Elise's. Meanwhile Lucia and Geoffrey have been very striking omissions, and Ludveck is an excellent treat for those of us looking for significant but unpopular villains. (Now to hope for Jarod, and Lundgren, and Vigarde, and Murdock, and Raydrik, and Lombard...)

After Geoffrey showed up, I started hoping for Kieran for the green demote slot, so that's my one disappointment here, but Bastian is great as well.

Also Lucia's prf is hilarious. Hell of a way to implement Parity.

[Xenomata]

• Lucia seems to be going purely for fair and direct combat with no strings attached. No Specials, no support from anyone else, just her and her opponent... and also all the other nonsense on her weapon.
  I would assume that because she doesn't trigger her special during combat, literally the only special that would have any effect when used by her would be Godlike Reflexes additional damage based on 15% of units Spd effect, if even that? Or perhaps Vital Astra's Dodge 2 effect? Seems a waste to give her such premium skills just for the sake of giving her a Special she can even do anything with though...
• Geoffery seems pretty simple.
• Bastian sounds like an entertaining guy. Maybe that'd be enough to make it worth building him up?
• And now we have two different oppressively offensive staff units with new Staff offensive specials and Tier 4 Staff B passives. Elincia gets +12 to her Atk and Spd just for being near an ally. Neat.

SO THEN. Dazzling Shift offers a Guidance effect, Spd -4 on the enemy, and the Dazzling effect.
Poetic Justice offers the Wrathful effect, Spd -4 on the enemy, and additional damage equal to 15% of the enemies Atk stat.
Every Staff unit with a Prf weapon winds up locked to needing the skill that does not offer the effect their Prf staff already has, meaning that staff units with the Wrathful effect get Dazzling Shift's Guidance effect, while staff units with the Dazzling effect get Poetic Justice's additional damage. Staff units with no Prf get to pick whichever skill they want.
What interesting duality they've just given Staff units in the last month... wonder if they'll be expanding more on this as time goes on.

...personally don't think this will have much impact outside of Hall of Forms, but I do think units who want Dazzling Shift win out a little more since Elincia will be in the standard summoning pool, unlike Valentine Elise/Sakura.

[Morgan--Grandmaster]

I know at least two people who are very happy right now.

[Sunwoo]

Lucia was the highest Tellius character not in the game, so I'm fine with this. Ascended Elincia ... I mean, I'm not opposed to it, but I was just hoping she'd get a legendary alt first. It's honestly kinda weird to me that characters like Myrrh and Fae and Deirdre and Nanna got to be legendaries first just for being cute dragon girls and love interests when Elincia did more shit.

I knew it was never gonna happen, but part of me is still a teensy bit salty that Tormod is yet not on the Obligatory Tellius Banner of the year. Honestly, Tellius really should be getting two banners a year, they're two totally different games even if they share cast and they're missing a shitton of characters due to not having any launch characters.

But objectively, this is good. I'm just salty over missing my fav.

[Diovani Bressan]

I feel like we may have others versions of these new B Staff skills. This one.has Warp Powder on it, which is okay-ish.

Lucia looks very interesting.

RIP, Legendary Elincia... At least for this year.

Anyway, this is a easy skip. Tickets on Colorless and that's all.

[Sunwoo]

Oh Bastian got totally fucked. His skills are bad and I'm just over these color-animal tomes. Wish Heroes would stop being cheap and give regular pool demotes some good fodder skills.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Sunwoo

[Humanoid]

A little disappointed at there being no Rearmed hero this month, since the main reason I started valuing New Heroes banners again lately was because they offered two special unit types (Ascended and Rearmed), as compared to season banners which offer just one (Duo or Harmonic). At the very least I had hoped they'd rush out the first batch of twelve Rearmed heroes fast, to at least offer an option for every single non-beast weapon type. Sucks to be a non-red mage.

That said, in this instance it's probably fairly irrelevant as I was always more likely to spark AHR instead of New Heroes regardless of what it offered. However it'd be a disappointing trend to have three New Heroes in a row like this to start the year - and possibly beyond.

As for the units themselves, I'll obviously want to get Elincia eventually as a modern flying healer. Art's only so-so but can't win everything. The others, eh, sword infantry, lance cavalry, demote ...no thanks.

 

EDIT: I wonder if the main reason behind no Rearmed hero is that they didn't want to double up on swords or lances so early, since they clearly have no issue giving Arcane weapon to characters making their debut. Give us Rearmed Bastian, cowards!

Edited February 16, 2023 by Humanoid

[GrandeRampel]

WOW! I really wasn't expecting this. People were expecting that they would have learned their lesson from 3 Houses and release characters from the new game more quickly instead of just a couple of banner at launch. Turns out we ain't even getting two banners at launch. How unexpected. Still this doesn't have to spell doom for Engage fans. They might still do more than two banners from it in a year, just spaced with other games' banners in between.

But I am rather happy with this banner. Radiant Dawn has been waiting for a long time, and while most of the characters picked are not RD exclusives, which is a shame (poor Dawn Brigade), I can deal with it if it means giving Lucia her superior design.

But seriously, Lucia, Geoff and Bastian were a glaring omission from the Tellius cast, so I'm glad we got them at last.

It's also really cool to have Ludveck as the GHB. For a character like like him, getting into Heroes (and hopefully being good) is the only chance to shine. It also gives me hope that the more popular Jarod will be treated similarly.

Also, I don't think this Ascended means we won't get a Legendary Elincia this year. It just means she isn't in the next Legendary banner.

[Lemmy]

I wish they waited a little in between staff units, I'm low on orbs, but I'm still excited, and I'm really hoping Elincia and Elise get on the same legendary banner.

I'd like to give Loki the B skill in particular since her staff is heavily position based, and it should give her a lot of freedom with Time's Pulse/1 CD Special/movement heals

[Othin]

4 minutes ago, GrandeRampel said:

WOW! I really wasn't expecting this. People were expecting that they would have learned their lesson from 3 Houses and release characters from the new game more quickly instead of just a couple of banner at launch. Turns out we ain't even getting two banners at launch. How unexpected. Still this doesn't have to spell doom for Engage fans. They might still do more than two banners from it in a year, just spaced with other games' banners in between.

But I am rather happy with this banner. Radiant Dawn has been waiting for a long time, and while most of the characters picked are not RD exclusives, which is a shame (poor Dawn Brigade), I can deal with it if it means giving Lucia her superior design.

But seriously, Lucia, Geoff and Bastian were a glaring omission from the Tellius cast, so I'm glad we got them at last.

It's also really cool to have Ludveck as the GHB. For a character like like him, getting into Heroes (and hopefully being good) is the only chance to shine. It also gives me hope that the more popular Jarod will be treated similarly.

Also, I don't think this Ascended means we won't get a Legendary Elincia this year. It just means she isn't in the next Legendary banner.

My guess is that we're still headed for three Engage banners this year but they decided to save the second one for March, so they could have an Ascended again in the meantime.

[Some Jerk]

Lucia disabling Specials is extremely goddamn rude when Special Spiral 4 is the primary means of countering Damage Reduction. Meanwhile, said Damage Reduction is one of the few things she doesn't turn off, and she has a T4 version of it.

Did a Tellius fan at IntSys decide to cause problems on purpose today?

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

And the New Heroes banner this month is a Tellius banner! Radiant Dawn, to be exact. Ascended Elincia, Lucia, Geoffrey, and...Bastian. Darn it, how long must I wait for Brom? Super excited for Elincia, Lucia, and Geoffrey, though.

Why is this a Radiant Dawn banner? All of those characters are recruited together in Path of Radiance. Even Elincia's outfit is from Path of Radiance, right? This just arbitrarily pushes the Dawn Brigade back to next year or later (and, oh god when it does happen it'll be ascended Micaiah, won't it? I mean, maybe we could get Ascended or Rearmed Ike..but it will be Micaiah).

Super glad Elincia is a staff unit though. Even if it's not Matrona or any other staff that actually exists in the games. In terms of her actual performance, giving guaranteed follow up to nearby units sounds great on paper...but at this point in the powercreep what unit doesn't just give that to themselves already?

Edited February 16, 2023 by Jotari

[Sunwoo]

It's being classified as a Radiant Dawn banner because these characters are specifically after the events of Radiant Dawn.

Yes, that does make Tellius a bit weird in which some groups of characters that were in both games will arbitrarily have their one base version be from RD while others have their one base version be from PoR. Like how all the laguz are classified as RD, even the ones that debuted in PoR, and until now Haar was one of the few beorc present in both games to be classified as base RD. 

[GrandeRampel]

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Why is this a Radiant Dawn banner? All of those characters are recruited together in Path of Radiance.

It had to be Radiant Dawn, or we couldn't have my man Ludveck as the GHB! So it was all worth it in the end.

In all seriousness I share your pain for wanting the Dawn Brigade already. Our only sliver of hope is that they did two PoR new heroes in a row, so nothing stops them from doing RD again next year. And they could give us the Dawn Brigade easily.

[Acacia Sgt]

Shame, could've been better as a PoR banner, perhaps.

[Jotari]

11 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

It's being classified as a Radiant Dawn banner because these characters are specifically after the events of Radiant Dawn.

Yes, that does make Tellius a bit weird in which some groups of characters that were in both games will arbitrarily have their one base version be from RD while others have their one base version be from PoR. Like how all the laguz are classified as RD, even the ones that debuted in PoR, and until now Haar was one of the few beorc present in both games to be classified as base RD. 

Having Ludveck as GHB makes it a bit more sense, and at least it means we get short haired Lucia, which I'm going to go out and say it, is best Lucia.

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

Oh Bastian got totally fucked. His skills are bad and I'm just over these color-animal tomes. Wish Heroes would stop being cheap and give regular pool demotes some good fodder skills.

I get that they need to pay lip service to giving us new inheritable weapons, but I just really wish they'd give us actual weapons from the games. The animal tomes are just kind of lazy in concept.

7 minutes ago, GrandeRampel said:

It had to be Radiant Dawn, or we couldn't have my man Ludveck as the GHB! So it was all worth it in the end.

In all seriousness I share your pain for wanting the Dawn Brigade already. Our only sliver of hope is that they did two PoR new heroes in a row, so nothing stops them from doing RD again next year. And they could give us the Dawn Brigade easily.

Oh they gave us two Path of Radiance banners in a row? Well, who knows I guess. Their treatment of Tellius as two games but actually one game is really weird. I'd get it if they did the same to Archanea, but they just don't. I agree that the sentiment of "If it's to be two games we should get twice as many banners." It has the largest cast out of any Fire Emblem game (yes even larger than Archanea when  you count the NPCs deemed relevant by CYL), so it should get enough banners to reflect that.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Jotari

[Sunwoo]

30 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Oh they gave us two Path of Radiance banners in a row? Well, who knows I guess. Their treatment of Tellius as two games but actually one game is really weird. I'd get it if they did the same to Archanea, but they just don't. I agree that the sentiment of "If it's to be two games we should get twice as many banners." It has the largest cast out of any Fire Emblem game (yes even larger than Archanea when  you count the NPCs deemed relevant by CYL), so it should get enough banners to reflect that.

It also now has three characters who won CYL, putting it up there along with Blazing Sword and Awakening (and 3H, which has more, but I'm calling recency bias on that, since I'm not 100% sure Lysithea and Marianne would've won in their years had they already been in the game at that point).

Edited February 16, 2023 by Sunwoo

[Humanoid]

It's an RD banner and not a PoR one because IS' exhaustive market research (i.e. Shanna's voting gauntlet win) has proved that short-haired ladies is where it's at.

[Jotari]

Was anyone else slightly hoping Bastian would be a knife unit for the lolz?

[Sunwoo]

I just realized that Elincia now covers the full color spectrum with the four versions of herself. Red sword, green dagger, blue bow, and staff. She can even dance for herself! Honestly didn't expect Elincia to be yet another Hero able to do that 😛

[Etrurian emperor]

Well that's a welcome surprise. Not only Bastian and Elincia, but Ludveck too.

[Jotari]

So is Ludveck an axe armour like he is in game?

[XRay]

Holy Laguz pie Naga damn! Elincia: Devoted Queen is cool and all, but honestly, Lucia is the real freaking star of the show here. Queensblade is sexy as fuck! (There is an ecchi anime called Queen's Blade.)

Lucia got like freaking Null-everything on her Weapon. Lucia is the dawn of a new era for super tanks. No, scratch that, LUCIA IS THE SUPER TANK!!! At least for the foreseeable future. Her only Special that really works is Galeforce, which might not seem relevant at first, but you can have her hit the enemy line to inflict Smoke, and then Galeforce back to safety. As for her supports, gone are Lucina: Brave Princess, Flayn, and the like; you want supporters who can pump Lucia up with loads of status effects.

Queensblade
Galeforce — Vital Astra — Godlike Reflexes
(Any Assist) — Reposition
Distant Dart
Repel
Spd Smoke — Panic Smoke
Bonus Doubler — Atk/Spd Ideal (whenever the Sacred Seal gets released)

Relevant status effects and supports:

Spoiler

Askr: Renewed Gods — Opened Domain
Resonance Blades, Resonance Shields, Special count-1

Eliwood: Blazing Knight — Blazing Durandal, Visions of Arcadia II
Bonus Doubler, Null Panic, Canto

Hubert — Retainer's Report
Exposure, Guard

Dominance: Duo Skill (Elise: Sweet Heart Royals, Micaiah: Dawn Wind's Duo)
Treachery: Not Accessible Yet

Bonus Doubler: Damiell Bow
Penalty Doubler: Panic Smoke
Neutralize Bonus: Wolfpop Fang
Neutralize Penalty: Gentle Dream (Light)
Null Panic: Gray Waves II (Water) — Order's Restraint (Astra)
Grand Strategy: Duo Skill (Chrom: Fate-Defying Duo)

Dodge: Duo Skill (Eirika: Twin Refulgence)
Cancel Affinity: Punishment Staff
Dragon Effectiveness: Divine Fang (Astra)
En Garde: Shadow Breath (Dark)

Special Charge +1: Oracle's Breath — Call to Flame
Charge: Libération
Canto: Kindling Taiko

— — — — — — —

4 hours ago, GuiltyLove said:

WHAT IS THAT LUCIA PRF

I KNOW, RIGHT!!!??? AAAHHH!!! I AM EXCITED AND I DO NOT EVEN PLAY THE GAME ANYMORE!!!

4 hours ago, Xenomata said:

• Lucia seems to be going purely for fair and direct combat with no strings attached. No Specials, no support from anyone else, just her and her opponent... and also all the other nonsense on her weapon.
  I would assume that because she doesn't trigger her special during combat, literally the only special that would have any effect when used by her would be Godlike Reflexes additional damage based on 15% of units Spd effect, if even that? Or perhaps Vital Astra's Dodge 2 effect? Seems a waste to give her such premium skills just for the sake of giving her a Special she can even do anything with though...

Also Galeforce, but that is after combat. I think Vital Astra is better than Godlike Reflexes in this edge case, since Vital Astra now becomes a defensive skill whereas Godlike Reflexes becomes an offensive skill.

Lethality, Deadeye, Special Spiral, and Innes: Frelian Moonlight can no longer bypass Lucia's damage reduction. And with four stacks of damage reduction (Queensblade, Vital Astra, Repel, Dodge status effect), Líf: Undying Ties Duo, Múspell: Raging Inferno, and Soren: Hushed Voice are not going to double Lucia, and she still gets 56% damage reduction (0.85*0.85*0.75*0.8=0.4335). Linde: Bound by Fate is the only other one who can reduce the effectiveness of that damage reduction, but as a fast unit herself, she can just contest Spd and negate the damage reduction altogether. In Aether Raids, no unit on the defense team can realistically double Lucia, assuming Lucia has a bunch of Spd Mythics backing her up, so the only real danger she will face is in Summoner Duels.

Edited February 16, 2023 by XRay