Special Heroes: Invitation to Tea

[Fire Emblem Fan]

We already knew about this month's Special Heroes banner and who was on it, but the official trailer has been released, with all the skills revealed.

[Diovani Bressan]

Good. I hate this banner.

By Lysithea has a Prf A skill? Makes no sense. And I hate Desperation 4.

Why Sigurd has a Sweep effect against all foes but Bows and Daggers?!

Also, remember Canto Recall on Duo Nina from last year? What about making it better and give it to Harmonized Ayra and her infinite Special?

I also hate Flow Desperation. Can't wait to see Summer Female Shez with that skill.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Diovani Bressan

[Sunwoo]

THESE SKILLS AND PRF WEAPONS ARE GETTING A BIT TOO RIDICULOUS

EDIT: Could SF stop being stupid and changing my emoticons ;/

Edited August 6, 2023 by Sunwoo

[Tybrosion]

And remember folks, CYL7 is up next in like a week and a half (give or take) and that'll be followed by refines for the CYL5 crew in September.

The powercreep probably hasn't even hit true maximum overdrive yet.

[Medeus]

Why is Lysithea trying to make me do Algebra? 

Other then Ayra finally getting her first alt nothing really makes me want to pull, especially with the Freyr banner and the upcoming CYL banner in play. 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Medeus

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'd like to summon Sigurd, and Ayra + Mercedes, just because I like them a lot, but I know I also should save orbs for the other banners coming up soon. Who knows what'll be on them, skill-wise?

[Lemmy]

I’ll probably pull for a Lysithea, maybe Ayra is her special is inheritable, otherwise Sigurd is backup color.

[Ice Dragon]

Oh fun. Player-phase units are clearly not already strong enough, so let's make them even stronger. It looks like they're really trying hard to make people not ignore this banner with CYL right around the corner.

As expected of Chivalric Aura, it has the same effect as Holy-Knight Aura minus the start-of-turn movement boost, but it comes with Quickened Pulse built in instead, which is pretty nifty.

 

And the usual translation notes:

 

The banner name, "Invitation to Tea", is "お茶会へご招待" (ochakai e goshōtai), "Invitation to a Tea Party".

Lysithea's epithet, "Tea Sweetener", is "甘いひととき" (amai hitotoki), "Sweet Moment".

Baked Treats is "美味しい焼き菓子" (oishii yakigashi), "Delicious Baked Sweets".

Mastermind is "天才" (tensai), "Prodigy".

Desperation is "攻め立て" (seme-tate), "Relentless Attack".

Sigurd's epithet, "Proper Pourer", is "誠意の一杯" (seii no ippai), "One Cup of Sincerity".

Knightly Manner is "聖騎士の嗜み" (seikishi no tashinami), "Holy Knight's Etiquette".

Chivalric Aura is "グランベルの騎士道" (guranberu no kishidō), "Grandbell's Chivalry". Compare with Holy-Knight Aura, which is "グランベルの聖騎士" (guranberu no seikishi), "Grandbell's Holy Knight".

Remote Sturdy is "鬼神金剛の離撃" (kishin kongō no rigeki), "Fierce Deity / Adamantine Distant Strike". "Remote Sturdy" sounds like word salad and probably shouldn't be served at a tea party.

Ferdinand's epithet, "Highborn Sipper" is "高貴なる茶会" (kōki-naru chakai), "Noble Tea Party".

Teatime Set is "紅茶" (kōcha), "Black Tea".

Ayra's epithet, "Together in Tea", is "お茶会がつなぐ絆", (ochakai ga tsunagu kizuna), "Bonds Tied Through Tea Party".

Teatime's Edge is "淑女のお茶会の鋭剣" (shukujo no ochakai no eiken), "Sharp Sword of the Ladies' Tea Party". Anything but a "sword".

Canto (Dist. +1; Max 4) is "再移動（マス間の距離＋１、最大４）", (sai-idō (masu-kan no kyori +1, saidai 4)), "Move Again (Distance Between Spaces +1, Maximum 4)".

Supreme Astra is "無双の流星" (musō no ryūsei), "Peerless Astra". "流星" (ryūsei), "meteor", is localized as "Astra".

Flow Desperation is "怒涛・攻め立て" (dotō: seme-tate), "Surging Waves: Relentless Attack".

Tailtiu's epithet, "Teatime Mingler", is "賑やかお茶会" (nigiyaka ochakai), "Lively Tea Party".

Teacake Tower is "お茶菓子" (ochagashi), "Teacakes".

[Xenomata]

The seals for this upcoming Tempest Trial will be Atk/Spd Catch and Bold Fighter.

Very interesting... the first finally adds another Atk/Spd booster option for offensive Cavlary and Flier units, and the other guarantees a follow-up to any Armor unit initiating combat along with accelerated Special Charge.

AScatch is of course great to have as an option that more or less guarantees it'll be always active with no drawbacks. I think ASsolo will technically be better for Cavs since it's so much easier for them to meet the Solo requirement, though in fairness not by much.

Unfortunately I don't believe there will be many chances for Bold Fighter to be relevant, as the Armor meta doesn't involve player-phase attacking at all and Armor units do not have access to many of the good B passives that would otherwise justify giving up stat-boosting seals for the sake of PP GFU's.
One unit comes to mind however: Summer Edelgard. With Bold Fighter in the SS slot, she can keep Raging Storm equipped in the B slot to keep her Galeforce effect intact, get a guaranteed follow-up allowing for 4 straight attacks on all enemies (as opposed to just Dragon units), and have an unconditional accelerated Special Charge as opposed to needing to rely on Bonus effects or the Heavy Blade skill/sacred seal.

Tailtiu's weapon, by the way, has the same effect as Wedding Robin and Wedding Flavia's weapons, granting the wielder all stat +4 and inflicting a pseudo-Panic effect onto the enemy during combat, with a Blow/Unity trigger.
That pisses me off, not gonna lie. Ferdinand gets a weapon with Canto [1], Atk/Spd +5, AND offensive NFU with a Spd-check trigger while Tailtiu doesn't? There's no reason for her not to have. Is it because those effects were too good to give to a Grail unit, I doubt it because we have Grail units with Canto weapons and NFU weapons already... I'd blame blatant Fodlan bias, but I predict somebody will try to give me a logical explanation for justifying this when I'm already mad that this entire banner exists at all...

Edited August 6, 2023 by Xenomata

[Diovani Bressan]

5 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

As expected of Chivalric Aura, it has the same effect as Holy-Knight Aura minus the start-of-turn movement boost, but it comes with Quickened Pulse built in instead, which is pretty nifty.

Correction: it comes with Time's Pulse. That's an important thing because Quickened Pulse you can False Start on turn 1 or use a Pulse Tie skill and be done with that, meanwhile having Time's Pulse mean that if you decharge his special it will come back the next turn.

Kinda bother me that they didn't give the same treatment to Legendary Leif when he got his remix.

1 hour ago, Xenomata said:

One unit comes to mind however: Summer Edelgard.

Yeah. She was the only one that came to mind. She will prefer that over Heavy Blade seal.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Diovani Bressan

[Sunwoo]

I'm going to give Bold Fighter to my Winter Eirika so I can have Wrathful and Dazzling on her at the same time and still double shit.

[Ice Dragon]

Atk/Spd Catch as a Sacred Seal is pretty useful. It's one more Atk/Spd option when an entire team just wants Atk/Spd skills. In a vacuum, melee cavalry will probably still want Atk/Spd Solo most of the time, but Atk/Spd Catch is optimal for general use on ranged cavalry and all fliers. For general use, ranged cavalry will be one space farther from the enemy when attacking, which typically means they'll be one space closer to allies and therefore more likely to be unable to reliably activate the Solo condition.

 

Bold Fighter is an interesting option as a Sacred Seal. Player-phase armors have largely fallen off ever since Save skills were released, not because they weren't viable, but because it was much easier to hyper-specialize in the Save role with the skill slots and skill options available. We only have two commonly used player-phase armors in the current meta: Harmonized Edelgard and Fallen Edelgard. Fallen Edelgard already has both of the effects of Bold Fighter and therefore has no use for the skill. Harmonized Edelgard gains a follow-up against everything (and two stacks against dragons and beasts) as well as a more reliable Special activation, both for 2-cooldown Specials like Ruptured Sky and for Galeforce.

While it's easy to dismiss player-phase armors as not having access to other good B skills to justify pulling Bold Fighter out of the B slot and into the Sacred Seal slot, there is one notable one: Wings of Mercy. Wings of Mercy in the B slot frees up the C slot to run a Joint Drive, Smoke, or Menace skill, and Wings of Mercy 4 granting an effective +3 Atk means that running Wings of Mercy 4 + Joint Drive Atk with Bold Fighter in the Sacred Seal slot grants more Atk than Bold Fighter 3, a mobility C skill, and a stat-boosting skill in the Sacred Seal slot while at the same time granting more mobility as long as there are allies to teleport to. While Bold Fighter's guaranteed follow-up overlaps with the relevant Arcane weapons, it grants a more reliable +1 Special charge rate than Heavy Blade and can be used with effects like Arcane Nastrond's huge damage boost and Triangle Attack or Dual Strike. Wings of Mercy also allows Duma to be used more offensively in Aether Raids defense instead of having him exist only for points and Upheaval.

In addition to Wings of Mercy, staff armors also get access to Dazzling Shift for teleportation. If the team already provides mobility support, there are still other options, like Desperation 4, Seal Def 4, Seal Res 4, Poetic Justice, Dragon's Wrath, and Special Fighter 4. You can also just run Desperation 4 + Assault Troop + Bold Fighter to not get counterattacked.

Bold Fighter is definitely going to be a niche option for units other than Harmonized Edelgard since all of the other builds that make it worth using use premium skills, but I do think people are going to start seeing some really obnoxious armors start appearing in due time.

 

EDIT: Obnoxious armors like this (with Harmonized Catria or Cordelia for teleportation support and Brave effect):

Desert Raphael / Winter Annette [+Atk]
Arcane Nastrond [Atk]
[Assist]
Deadeye
Fireflood Boost 4 / Atk/* Ideal 4 / Death Blow 4 / Remote *
Seal Def 4 / Desperation 4
Joint Drive Atk
Bold Fighter 3

Edited August 6, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, Xenomata said:

Bold Fighter

You know, it's crazy how insane Bold Fighter seemed back in 2017 but now Armors are so focused on EP stuff that this is being given away as a Seal. Wow...

[Xenomata]

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

You know, it's crazy how insane Bold Fighter seemed back in 2017 but now Armors are so focused on EP stuff that this is being given away as a Seal. Wow...

Pfft, remember Daring Fighter? I'll bet you don't because it's only ever been given to Winter Marth, and the only reason I even remember is because I pulled him twice from the daily free 4* special seasonals.

And they even gave him a completely EP refine... no love for PP armors at all. I'll bet a Daring Fighter SS will come soon enough as well, when they need some low-tier garbage to fill a slot with.

[Humanoid]

I'll, uh, wait for PM1's simplified infographic instead of trying to figure out these units for myself. Superficially I don't see any duds here, but no one I'd absolutely love to have either. That includes the art as well, I don't like the maid theme but within that limitation they're okay. Both Lysithea's and Sigurd's faces look a little off to me as well, but not offensively so.

If I have FEH Pass I'll spark, pulling the three premium colours indiscriminately but with a spark priority of Ayra first (for Resonant Battles), no idea who I'd rather have second. If I don't have FEH Pass I'll just do a clean full round and bail.

[DefyingFates]

23 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Pfft, remember Daring Fighter? I'll bet you don't because it's only ever been given to Winter Marth

Good point, because I didn't xD Yeah, that seems like a contender for a Seal too. I was going to bring up how Savvy Fighter got a T4 version, but that's a dual phase ability so that's probably why it got a pass. Who knows, maybe if BF and Daring Fighter got dual phase upgrades they'd be good too?

Going back to this banner though, Ayra's Supreme Astra doesn't have 0 cooldown or anything, it just immediately recharges itself once per turn. That's still impressive... and would be insane if it's also inheritable (also because we wouldn't have any other sources of it unless someone in her family gets into a NH Banner next year/ in the new Divine Codes for 2024).

Edited August 6, 2023 by DefyingFates

[Humanoid]

I actually don't even know what the Fighter skills do, outside of the OG four: Wary, Bold, Vengeful and Special. I mean, I've read the descriptions whenever I inadvertently pull a unit who has one, but I absolutely couldn't tell you what any of these newer variants do without looking them up.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Humanoid

[XRay]

Lysithea: Tea Sweetner's Baked Treats got Canto, Slaying, inflict Sabotage on nearest foes, offensive Null Follow-Up, and neutralize Spd/Res buffs; and Mastermind got recoil damage and basically 80% Blade tome plus 80% Blizzard as extra damage. Sounds fun.

Desperation 4 is cool. In addtion to a super lenient HP condition, there is also a Clash condition.

Sigurd: Proper Pourer's Knightly Manner got Slaying, guaranteed follow-up, true damage, and Sweep against melee foes; Chivalric Aura got Time's Pulse 3, and Atk buff and extra movement after combat to unit and all allies. The buffs sound pretty fun. 

Ayra: Together in Tea's Teatime Edge got fun Canto, Slaying, true damage, and offensive Tempo; Supreme Astra got limited Time's Pulse 4. Harmonized skill buffs movement.

Flow Desperation is basically Flow with Desperation 4. Coolio.

Bold Fighter lets Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor Galeforce; she still cannot double Galeforce like the rest of her variants, but it is something. Daring Fighter-Bold FIghter combo lets Edelgard: Hedgemon Husk double and more reliably Galeforce, and I guess you can run Beast Follow-Up and Brash Assault too instead of Daring Fighter, but it will be less reliable. Arden and armors with Brave Weapons can be Edelgard: Sun Empresses-lite and Galeforce once, and Slaying and Arcane Weapons work too.

[Etrurian emperor]

I wonder if Lex and Azelle will make a tiny cameo, given how we see Sigurd adress Seliph and Deirdre, and Mercedes noting that people's loved ones are there. 

[ARMADS!!!]

20 hours ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Good. I hate this banner.

By Lysithea has a Prf A skill? Makes no sense. And I hate Desperation 4.

Why Sigurd has a Sweep effect against all foes but Bows and Daggers?!

Also, remember Canto Recall on Duo Nina from last year? What about making it better and give it to Harmonized Ayra and her infinite Special?

I also hate Flow Desperation. Can't wait to see Summer Female Shez with that skill.

Lol I kinda agree with all of it, although the Sigurd part must be because he already has high def anyway so the counterattack of bows and daggers can help charging his special while absolutely not killing him for most part (his A skill also helps with the not getting killed part). Actually Desperation 4 and Flow desperation both look hella fun to use but since they're so premium I know I'm not gonna use them on my units because I won't use the units that come with them as fodder, and that they'll only serve to make PvP modes worse (althought I gotta admit that I hate to have to check the HP check of desperation 3, specially since my A!Ishtar has it so when I use it on her I gotta make sure that her HP is always between 75% and 25% for her to make an instant quad attack, or for my Erinys to always have to be below 75% to deal a instant quad too, so it's nice that it exists now, I guess).

 

20 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

THESE SKILLS AND PRF WEAPONS ARE GETTING A BIT TOO RIDICULOUS

EDIT: Could SF stop being stupid and changing my emoticons ;/

 HELL YEAH SOMEONE AGREES ON THE EMOTICONS THING!

 

20 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

And remember folks, CYL7 is up next in like a week and a half (give or take) and that'll be followed by refines for the CYL5 crew in September.

The powercreep probably hasn't even hit true maximum overdrive yet.

Ah yes, I'm getting progressively worried about the CYL units this year, but honestly with them I don't mind much since they're always OP anyway, it's not the same as having a random easter seasonal unit be soul crushingly OP as fuck for no reason. To be fair they're likely not gonna be more OP than say, fallen units, and if they are, one or two of them will have an unreliable gimmick that most people will rather not use, or a skill/gimmick that will only be OP and unique for a few months before it becomes a thing for future units to have it too.

 Now about the refines in september... I'm more worried, not as much as I was for the CYL4 (AKA totally fair and not robbed 3 Houses show™) refines, but even though...

 

 

16 hours ago, Xenomata said:

I'd blame blatant Fodlan bias, but I predict somebody will try to give me a logical explanation for justifying this when I'm already mad that this entire banner exists at all...

 Nah, you're right, it's just blatant Fódlan bias, I can't think of no possible logical explanation, look at the summer banner that got M!Shez as the free TT unit that got an 11 mt brave weapon that gives +5 spd, canto, AND deals damage of 20% of his spd, while Summer L'Arachel got an inheritable weapon as the demote on the same banner (sure, she is not a bad unit but you can totally smell the 3 Houses bias here, more than you could smell a dead corpse that fell into a bog of shit by the side of your house).

 

 

 

 

Eh, anyway, as much as I like FE4 getting a new banner for themselves, I'm gonna on pass this one, gotta save for the CYL and this banner didn't catch my attention as much as the previous pre CYL baits have, if I survived them all then I can easily survive this one too.

[Xenomata]

I know the banner is public now and we can see the stats for ourselves anyway...
...which is why I don't need to spoiler the following image :3

Superboons/banes

• Ayra: 40-/44+/46/32/17-
• Lysithea: 38-/46/46+/20/22+
• Sigurd: 40-/46+/31/35+/16-
• Ferdinand: 40-/42+/45-/21/25-
• Tailtiu: 39-/42+/44/21/31-

[Etrurian emperor]

I was about to get annoyed about Ayra seemingly disowning Shanan, the child she did manage to raise but that solved itself on its own. It was nice to see him make his cameo at the end. Still a shame Azelle didn't get invited to Tailtiu's table. 

Edited August 8, 2023 by Etrurian emperor

[Lemmy]

I missed Sigurd's weapon preventing counterattacks from everything except bows and daggers (I think)

I would have tried summoning him too If I played the map before I summoned, I am also a bit surprised I managed to tank these units.