Arcane Weapon Discussion Thread + Arcane Weapon Wishlist!

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

What's your take on the newest datamine?

Spoiler

Blue tome:

• Slaying effect
• If HP is 25% or higher:
  • +5 to all stats in combat
  • Guaranteed follow-up
  • Additional damage equal to 15% of Atk, including AoE Specials
  • 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack

30% damage reduction is the most notable feature, and combined with the additional damage, it's functionally almost identical to Arcane Nastrond and can basically be treated the same way.

Having first-attack damage reduction means units are less incentivized to run Remote Sparrow to stay alive and have the freedom to run something else. Infantry get Atk/Spd Finish, and the Slaying effect gives them a 2-cooldown Flare. Cavalry and fliers get Flared Sparrow.

Summer Tharja, Desert Soren, and Desert Byleth are easily the best options for the weapon, as they're the blue tome units with the highest Atk stats that don't already have a comparable or better exclusive weapon. Conveniently, Tharja and Byleth are both 4-star Special Heroes, and Soren is a Grail unit.

Halloween Ilyana is the unit with the next-highest Atk stat, and because the weapon is basically just Arcane Nastrond, she can be built just like Winter Annette with Special Fighter 4 and Armored Floe.

 

The new Rearmed Hero is a blue tome flier. This means we'll still have to rely on Rearmed Ophelia to duplicate Flare and Mag. Null Follow, but we'll now have a tome unit that can duplicate Flared Sparrow and Guidance 4.

As far as possible skills that they'll have, it's most likely that their exclusive skill will be their Assist skill, which means we're likely getting inheritable skills in all three passive slots. Their base kit as the Tempest Trials boss is Mirror Impact, Flier Formation 3, and Atk/Res Rein 3. There's a decent possibility we might get Flared Mirror as the new skill with Atk/Res Hold in the C slot when they're summonable. Wishful thinking has me wanting Firestorm Dance 3 in the B slot.

 

I am absolutely looking forward to souping up Summer Tharja. Also Valentine Veronica.

And a list of inheritance candidates:

Spoiler

Ordered in descending order by Atk stat with maximum Dragonflowers.

 

Special Heroes (unlikely to ever get an exclusive weapon):

• Summer Tharja (46)
• Desert Soren (44)
• Desert Male Byleth (43)
• Halloween Ilyana (42)
• Fluffy Hat Levn (40)
• Halloween Sophia (40)
• Bride Juno (39)
• Summer Lute (39)
• Winter Nino (39)
• Valentine Soren (39)
• Valentine Veronica (39)
• Summer Camilla (37)
• Performing Arts Shigure (36)
• Summer Female Corrin (35)
• Valentine Lyn (35)
• Bride Caeda (34)
• Spring Lucina (34)
• Dancer Rinea (34)
• Bride Ninian (32)

Regular Heroes (in line to get an exclusive weapon someday maybe):

• Ilyana (41)
• Tatiana (40)
• Miriel (39)
• Sonia (38)
• Olwen (30)

Regular Heroes with outdated exclusive weapons:

• Delthea (41)
• Lute (41)
• Mae (41)
• Linde (40)
• Female Morgan (38)
• Cyas (38)
• Larchel (37)
• Oliver (37)
• Tailtiu (37)
• Male Robin (34)
• Ursula (33)
• Odin (27)

 

[Ice Dragon]

Arcane Caliburnus is the new Arcane green tome. It grants the usual Slaying effect, +5 to all stats, and a guaranteed follow-up. Its additional effects are +1 Special charge rate and stat bonus nullification on the opponent's Atk/Res.

The +1 Special charge rate means it's compatible with Flare + Desperation 4, which is very nifty. You can also run it with Aether and actually have a functional Special as long as the opponent can counterattack and doesn't have Guard or Tempo.

It's worth noting, though, that it has actual competition on fast units with Tea Party Ferdinand's Teatime Set, which grants +5 Atk/Spd, Canto (1), and Null Follow-Up, which grants the same boost to Spd and comes with Canto, but loses out on damage output due to the lower effective Atk and lack of Special acceleration of any kind.

 

Rearmed Sonya being an infantry unit gives her some pretty good options for skill duplication. Flare is the most notable, and she can get that along with Mag. Null Follow and Time's Pulse 4 from Brave Soren at the same time. She also gets access to the Finish skills, Remote Sparrow, Remote Mirror, and the Oath skills. The only notable skill that she won't be able to duplicate is Flared Sparrow.

 

As far as the best users of Arcane Caliburnus, Bastian easily comes out on top, having the highest Atk stat of all green tome units that don't already have an up-to-date exclusive weapon and having a massive Res stat to use Rearmed Sonya's Atk/Res Ploy 3.

And here's everyone else:

Spoiler

Ordered in descending order by Atk stat with maximum Dragonflowers.

 

Special Heroes (unlikely to ever get an exclusive weapon):

• Tea Party Ferdinand (44), also 47 Spd
• Tea Party Tailtiu (44), also 46 Spd
• Winter Artur (44)
• Winter Bruno (43)
• Summer Laevatein (43)
• Valentine Alfonse (42)
• Summer Elise (42)
• Halloween Larchel (41)
• Spring Camilla (41)
• Valentine Lilina (40)
• Valentine Mist (39)
• Halloween Henry (38)
• Valentine Leo (38)
• Spring Sharena (38)
• Summer Sylvain (37)
• Dancer Inigo (34)

Regular Heroes (in line to get an exclusive weapon someday maybe):

• Bastian (46), also 47 Res
• Genealogy Arthur (45), also 44 Spd
• Ricken (45)
• Orochi (44), has an exclusive weapon, but waiting for a refine
• Luthier (41)
• Adrift Azura (39), is a dancer and was skipped for refines

Regular Heroes with outdated exclusive weapons:

• Resplendent Julia (43)
• Resplendent Rhajat (43)
• Resplendent Diadora (41), also 43 Res
• Resplendent Nino (41), also 44 Spd
• Resplendent Sonya (41), exclusive weapon is still usable with Special Spiral + Infantry Pulse 4
• Resplendent Cecilia (39)
• Soren (39)
• Resplendent Female Robin (37)
• Boey (35), exclusive weapon is still usable as a Fallen Edelgard counter
• Green Olwen (35)
• Resplendent Merric (34)

 

[Humanoid]

I was reflecting on the sad fact that I've only pulled two Bastians ever, both 3-star with awful natures. But then a +Atk -Spd copy popped up today so yay I guess. Actually he's a more recent unit than I thought, so mathematically three copies in the 8 months of his existence is probably not unreasonable. Meanwhile, I've pulled exactly one Elice and zero Nynas, fewer than any other demote since them.

Not that I'm going to do anything about it, since I have no Sonya or anything else to give him. But at least Sonya's three siblings are here together now.

[DefyingFates]

https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/17oyfn2/begins_november_7_2023_utc_nihility_dream_5_tt/

We're getting an Arcane Dagger next. What do you think of it? I think the Breath effect will make Lethality a lot more viable for units who want it, which this one conveniently comes with.

[Othin]

I'm just glad we have an arcane dagger at all. Now the only major weapon type missing one is staffs.

[Lemmy]

Staffs would be an interesting one, I'd personally like an Isolation based one if they are keeping statuses, but a lot of modern ones are mimicking the mixed boosts from other weapons

[Ice Dragon]

Arcane Void is a guaranteed-follow-up Arcane dagger and has Sabotage (i.e. the Bonus Doubler 4 equivalent for Foe Penalty Doubler) and +1 Special charge rate.

The +1 Special charge rate means that infantry units can run Time's Pulse or Infantry Pulse 4 to activate Lethality against an opponent that can't counterattack and has neither Guard nor Tempo and against an opponent that can counterattack as long as it doesn't have both. Other movement types will, unfortunately, not get that luxury. (And I expect Ginnungagap to get an effect to make up for it in her exclusive passive skill since she won't have access to those skills.)

Guaranteed follow-up is comparable to Null Follow-Up on fast units, so it's probably not worth waiting for a Null Follow-Up dagger, especially when this one makes it easy enough to land Lethality.

It is, however, missing any form of damage reduction, so most units are probably going to want to run a Remote skill in the A slot.

 

The weapon's owner, Ginnungagap, is a cavalry unit, which is a bit awkward since ranged cavalry have notoriously few skill series that they can use, being locked out of being able to run Alarm, Oath, and all of the good infantry-exclusive skills, so you're probably going to be stuck with inefficient inheritance (just Arcane Voice, Lethality, and a Remote skill) unless she comes with a good B skill like Desperation 4 or Escape Route 4. Or unless you really need Disarm Trap 4 or something.

While Arcane Void wants the opponent to be hit with debuffs for its Sabotage effect, you're best off offloading debuffs to a different unit, so there isn't much use in giving Ginnungagap the Sabotage 4 and Ploy 4 skills for duplication (once the Atk/Def and Spd/Def versions are released). There are a few units that have the Res to use the skill combination, but I don't think it's quite enough to warrant duplicating using Ginnungagap unless you plan on getting (or happen to get) a ton of copies of her. There's also the fact that you're probably going to be running Still Water on those units, which costs them a lot of Def and the damage reduction from a Remote skill.

 

Easily the best unit to get Arcane Void is Spring Ashe due to having both the highest Atk and the highest Spd of all candidates for the skill as well as being a 4-star Special Hero. Phantom Thief Sothe is also a decent option, also being a 4-star Special Hero, and Patty is the best 4-star option from the standard pool.

The best unit to run a Sabotage 4 + Ploy 4 build is Flora. After that, it's Dancer Lachesis and Summer Lilina, though any of the other units with less Atk and similar Res will also work, but with less damage output (though I would still advise against using Felicia unless she gets a Resplendent outfit to make her higher Res worth having a nonexistent Atk stat).

 

Here're all of the candidates (and there are a lot), sorted by Atk stat with maximum Dragonflowers, as usual (notes for non-armors with 45+ Spd or 40+ Res):

Spoiler

Special Heroes (unlikely to ever get an exclusive weapon):

• Spring Ashe (45), also 48 Spd
• Summer Lilina (43), also 40 Res
• Halloween Kagero (43)
• Halloween Dozla (43)
• Summer Dorothea (42)
• Spring Palla (42)
• Thief Sothe (42)
• Dancer Lachesis (41), also 41 Res
• Summer Ursula (41)
• Bon Xander (41)
• Winter Cecilia (40)
• Dancer Ethlin (40), also 45 Spd
• Onsen Hinoka (40)
• Winter Jaffar (40)
• Spring Kagero (40)
• New Year Takumi (40)
• Desert Deen (39)
• Summer Linde (39)
• Winter Mirabilis (39)
• Onsen Camilla (38)
• Onsen Elise (38)
• Summer Frederick (38)
• Summer Gunnthra (38)
• Bon Ryoma (38)
• Halloween Sakura (38), also 40 Res
• New Year Eir (36)
• Bon Elincia (35)
• Dancer Olivia (34)

Regular Heroes (in line to get an exclusive weapon someday maybe):

• Julian (43)
• Patty (42), also 46 Spd
• Leila (41), also 46 Spd, has an exclusive weapon, but waiting for a refine
• Rennac (40), also 45 Spd
• Cath (39), also 46 Spd
• Colm (39)
• Gangrel (38), has an exclusive weapon, but waiting for a refine
• Lalum (37), is a dancer and is skipped for refines
• Tethys (32), is a dancer and is skipped for refines
• Merlinus (24)

Regular Heroes with outdated exclusive weapons:

• Resplendent Kagero (43)
• Resplendent Gaius (41)
• Flora (40), also 44 Res
• Kaze (36), also 40 Res
• Jakob (35)
• Saizo (35)
• Resplendent Jaffar (34)
• Resplendent Matthew (33)
• Felicia (29), also 41 Res