Legendary Hero - Yuri: Underground Lord

[Fire Emblem Fan]

 

[GuiltyLove]

A C slot skill gives Canto? Weird. The animation looks impressive with his rapid movements. I don't pull on these banners often, so I won't go for him. He looks great, though.

[Diovani Bressan]

He looks like an improved version If OG Yuri... That's all. Looks to be a good unit for Duels and AR, but since I don't care about Duels and I am fine with what I have for AR, I don't care about him.

The counter to Stall is interesting. And the all stats Rein effects is also nice. Hel better get a good remix, considering Yuri has a better version of her C skill.

He looks strong but I don't feel he is a big threat... My opinion can change once he becomes more common, of course. But he didn't threat me at first impression like how Legendary Male Robin did.

My orbs are safe from this banner. Which is a good thing, considering I am close to the 2nd spark on AHR, and I need to also save for Peony in May since she was moves to that month from July.

[Ice Dragon]

This is surprisingly tame for a new Legendary Hero.

 

Atk/Spd Hexblade looks pretty good. They're actually trying to make viable options for the A slot that don't overshadow other skills, and that's neat. They've also fixed the glaring issues with Sorcery Blade's activation condition and actually made it worth running. Presumably, though, this skill requires Sorcery Blade 3 as a prerequisite, which is a problem since Ylgr is the only other unit in the game that has it to allow Yuri to pass both Atk/Spd Hexblade and Spd Seal 4 at the same time.

Fetters of Dromi removing Yuri's movement boost if he gets hit with Stall is also a pretty cool gimmick.

 

That said, Yuri is still pretty tame, so there isn't too much of a reason for me to merge him too much immediately. I'll probably aim for +2 or +3 and then put the rest of my orbs in the AHR banner. It also doesn't help that I have both of the other red units on the banner already at +10. Some more copies of Embla would help merge up my second copy of her for Aether Raids shenanigans, but that's not a huge priority.

[Xenomata]

Fetters of Dromi in the C slot kind of sucks since that means Yuri can't equip Time's Pulse for some classic special-spam goodies (which by the way just wanna point out they gave yet another unit the slaying effect without actually giving them a special, I'm seriously sick of seeing this effect on every new unit with a Prf...), but it also means that any and all Yuri alts in the future will have this skill, which... sigh...

There's otherwise not a whole lot of note to say about Yuri. Every effect on Abyssal Blade is pretty standard fare for offensive units these days, and the only noteworthy effect on him otherwise is that he cancels out the Stall effect at the cost of his extra movement. A/S Hexblade is neat.

Honestly even his outfit is kind of plain. I know it's his Trickster outfit in 3H, but for someone as pretty-boy as Yuri it just doesn't feel like it's doing him justice...

Edited March 30, 2023 by Xenomata

[Ice Dragon]

And the usual translation notes:

 

Yuri's epithet, "Underground Lord", is "薄闇を統べる者" (usuyami o suberu mono), "The One Who Commands the Darkness". The word "薄闇" (usuyami) more accurately translates as "faintly lit darkness" rather than complete darkness, but there doesn't appear to be a concise way to say this in English without pulling in unwanted baggage.

Abyssal Blade is "薄闇の王の刃" (usuyami no ō no yaiba), "Blade of the King of Darkness". Same deal with "薄闇" (usuyami), "faintly lit darkness", as above.

Atk/Spd Hexblade is "攻撃速さの魔刃" (kōgeki hayasa no majin), "Atk/Spd Magic Blade". Compare with Sorcery Blade, "魔道の刃" (madō no yaiba), "Blade of Sorcery", and Infantry Hexblade, "歩行の魔刃" (hokō no majin), "Infantry Magic Blade".

Hexblade is "魔刃" (majin), "Magic Blade".

Fetters of Dromi is "ドローミの鎖環" (dorōmi no sakan), "Fetters of Dromi".

[Humanoid]

I... I didn't even know Yuri was the boss of the fourth house. Literally the only thing I know about the DLC is that there's a fourth house.

[Ice Dragon]

22 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Fetters of Dromi in the C slot kind of sucks since that means Yuri can't equip Time's Pulse for some classic special-spam goodies (which by the way just wanna point out they gave yet another unit the slaying effect without actually giving them a special, I'm seriously sick of seeing this effect on every new unit with a Prf...), but it also means that any and all Yuri alts in the future will have this skill, which... sigh...

While it would be nice for Yuri to have 6 skills instead of 5, if they're going to stick to giving non-staff units only 5 skills, I'd rather they drop the Special slot over any other skill slot on every new unit released because getting yet another unit with Glimmer or Moonbow or Luna or Glacies is pretty damned near pointless.

As far as the Slaying effect itself is concerned, it's very obviously the best of the "visible stat" effects, so it's not a surprise nearly every exclusive weapon has it. A lot of build archetypes rely on having the effect because being stuck with a 2-cooldown Special kind of sucks, especially for ranged units that aren't counterattacked reliably (and often can't take a counterattack in the first place), unless the unit has access to some other method of charging their Special faster.

[Some Jerk]

Man, he's like vanilla Yuri except misplacing most of the things that make vanilla Yuri a monster. His movement gimmicks being taken off the weapon and put on a PRF C slot really hurts his build options; no Time's Pulse access means he can't chain the stronger Specials, and he doesn't have in-built Desperation to ensure he gets the kill before being hit back -- and with those glassy defenses, he does not want to be hit back.

If L!Yuri doesn't kill with the first hit and isn't blocking counterattacks with Windsweep/Watersweep, any good tank will turn around and smash him into the floor. A 3 MOV unit with such high Atk is hardly bad, but if you're expecting a dedicated tankbuster like vanilla Yuri, you might be disappointed.

[Xenomata]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

While it would be nice for Yuri to have 6 skills instead of 5, if they're going to stick to giving non-staff units only 5 skills, I'd rather they drop the Special slot over any other skill slot on every new unit released because getting yet another unit with Glimmer or Moonbow or Luna or Glacies is pretty damned near pointless.

As far as the Slaying effect itself is concerned, it's very obviously the best of the "visible stat" effects, so it's not a surprise nearly every exclusive weapon has it. A lot of build archetypes rely on having the effect because being stuck with a 2-cooldown Special kind of sucks, especially for ranged units that aren't counterattacked reliably (and often can't take a counterattack in the first place), unless the unit has access to some other method of charging their Special faster.

You aren't wrong about the missing Special, but it's the overwhelming presence of the Slaying effect that I'm not a fan of.

It's supposed to have been an effect that emulated the Critical Hits that Killing weapons were known for within the confines of FEH mechanics (heck the name Slaying effect is technically wrong because the Killing/Killer weapons are all in the game), then it became the more desired "stat boost" effect that a Prf weapon could get. At this point it's just another aspect of the powercreep this game has gone through, now that it's on almost every Prf weapon released (which at this point is given to every unit except demotes and most grail units outside of refinery updates)

I'm not saying it's a bad effect, but it's so common that it's boring. tvtropes has an entire page dedicated to the idea of "Boring, but Practical", and the slaying effect definitely applies.

[Mercakete]

My main focus (if I pull on this; I want to save for the child banner) will be Otr. I still don't have him, I still want him. Getting Legendary Ninian would be nice, too, but I already have Ascended Eir, I think, so... Eh. I'll at least try to free pull green. If I don't get any green nodes, maybe I'll pull colorless to try to get Gotoh.

[Othin]

7 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

While it would be nice for Yuri to have 6 skills instead of 5, if they're going to stick to giving non-staff units only 5 skills, I'd rather they drop the Special slot over any other skill slot on every new unit released because getting yet another unit with Glimmer or Moonbow or Luna or Glacies is pretty damned near pointless.

As far as the Slaying effect itself is concerned, it's very obviously the best of the "visible stat" effects, so it's not a surprise nearly every exclusive weapon has it. A lot of build archetypes rely on having the effect because being stuck with a 2-cooldown Special kind of sucks, especially for ranged units that aren't counterattacked reliably (and often can't take a counterattack in the first place), unless the unit has access to some other method of charging their Special faster.

Why keep limiting non-staff units to only 5 skills? Until last month, they limited all units to only 5 skills, but that finally changed.

[Humanoid]

Incidentally, the title "Underground Lord" makes it out like he runs a drug cartel or somesuch. 😮

[Diovani Bressan]

I think it's fair to mention that Yuri DOES NOT nullify Stall. He nullifies his extra movement that his own skill grants, but he will still have [Stall] inflicted on him. These have 2 implications:

1. Since he has [Stall] on himself, he has a penalty that can trigger foe's skills that rely on penalties. Once he ends action, the penalty disappears.
2. If he gets Mov+1 again from a different source, like Astrid's Rally or Annette's Rally, Stall will take effect again and his movement will be reduced to 1. That doesn't apply to Legendary Azura's Gray Waves, since Yuri needs to have his action ended to be able to get danced and by doign that he losses the Stall.

[Jotari]

This feels like the least legendary legend we've got so far. I mean, I get it. Yuri is like the de facto leader of the unofficial fourth house. He also uses knives (or rather his sword can be retconned into a knife) which is a rare weapon...but it still feels like they're scraping the bottom of the legendary barrel here. And I'm not really saying that with malice, I do like Yuri as a character. Though I kind of wish we got legendary Sothe first. Then again it feels really gratifying for him to have his actual relic as a visible skill this time. Maybe there's hope yet for Balthus.

2 hours ago, Humanoid said:

Incidentally, the title "Underground Lord" makes it out like he runs a drug cartel or somesuch. 😮

I am...not entirely convinced he's not.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Jotari

[Ice Dragon]

10 hours ago, Some Jerk said:

Man, he's like vanilla Yuri except misplacing most of the things that make vanilla Yuri a monster. His movement gimmicks being taken off the weapon and put on a PRF C slot really hurts his build options; no Time's Pulse access means he can't chain the stronger Specials, and he doesn't have in-built Desperation to ensure he gets the kill before being hit back -- and with those glassy defenses, he does not want to be hit back.

If L!Yuri doesn't kill with the first hit and isn't blocking counterattacks with Windsweep/Watersweep, any good tank will turn around and smash him into the floor. A 3 MOV unit with such high Atk is hardly bad, but if you're expecting a dedicated tankbuster like vanilla Yuri, you might be disappointed.

Legendary Yuri has 30% damage reduction against the opponent's first attack, which is something that regular Yuri doesn't have. In fact, regular Yuri doesn't have any defensive effects on his weapon at all, not even a basic boost to Def/Res.

Prior to the release of Remote Sparrow and Guard 4, regular Yuri was forced to run a one-hit-kill build or a Sweep skill in any situation where he could conceivably go up against units that can counterattack. While Legendary Yuri lacks the ability to run Time's Pulse, he can at least take a counterattack and can therefore run more conventional builds.

 

Legendary Yuri is literally just a bulkier version of Harmonized Linde that can walk on trees, and Linde doesn't really have problems taking single counterattacks. (And even if Legendary Yuri has problems taking counterattacks, he has one more skill slot than Linde does to run additional stacks of damage reduction.)

 

9 hours ago, Xenomata said:

You aren't wrong about the missing Special, but it's the overwhelming presence of the Slaying effect that I'm not a fan of.

It's supposed to have been an effect that emulated the Critical Hits that Killing weapons were known for within the confines of FEH mechanics (heck the name Slaying effect is technically wrong because the Killing/Killer weapons are all in the game), then it became the more desired "stat boost" effect that a Prf weapon could get. At this point it's just another aspect of the powercreep this game has gone through, now that it's on almost every Prf weapon released (which at this point is given to every unit except demotes and most grail units outside of refinery updates)

I'm not saying it's a bad effect, but it's so common that it's boring. tvtropes has an entire page dedicated to the idea of "Boring, but Practical", and the slaying effect definitely applies.

I don't consider it to be powercreep at all that the majority of new weapons have the Slaying effect.

Back when the Weapon Refinery was first released and we didn't yet have exclusive weapons for every unit, Slaying weapons were the preferred weapon on literally every unit that didn't have an exclusive weapon and had access to a Slaying weapon (and several units would still forgo their exclusive weapon for a Slaying weapon).

The fact that the Slaying effect is this prevalent is simply a reflection of the reality that having it has been the baseline for as long as Slaying weapons have existed (Killer weapons had stronger competition from Brave weapons before the release of the Weapon Refinery).

 

Also, likely a large part of the reason why it's so prevalent on weapons is the fact that the effect isn't available on any other skill slot. Restricting the effect to weapons gives the developers more freedom when designing skills in other skill slots since it's easier to keep track of and avoid unintentional game-breaking synergies with the game's strongest single skill effect.

 

4 hours ago, Othin said:

Why keep limiting non-staff units to only 5 skills? Until last month, they limited all units to only 5 skills, but that finally changed.

I mean, all that does is give us even more Glimmer and Moonbow and Luna and Glacies and whatnot. Giving all premium units 6 skills looks fancy, but functionally does jack shit.

The reason why staff units now have 6 skills is because they have premium options in all 6 slots. In comparison, non-staff units really only have 4 slots with premium options, as the best Assist skills have enough distribution to not really be particularly premium anymore (for comparison, Rally Atk/Spd+ is available from 5 units in the standard summoning pool, all of which are in the SR pool, whereas Return+ is only available from 1 5-star unit in the standard summoning pool), and the premium Special skills are "pseudo-exclusive".

It's worth noting that while non-premium non-staff units still only get 4 skills, non-premium staff units have gotten 5 skills for the last 5 years (ever since Nanna's release in April 2018), presumably due to the fact that they have a lot of skills that are exclusive to their weapon type in combination with the fact that there are very few units of their weapon type released in general.