DLNarshen

My luck has been nothing short of amazing lately. With about 50 orbs pulling on various banners, I got the following 5*s: Gray (+Def/-Atk) Tharja (+Res/-Atk) Azura (+Def/-Res) Ninian (+Def/-Atk) Azura is a duplicate, and will be merged on my other one (+Atk/-Hp) soon. The natures are pretty bleh, but thankfully on units that aren't hindered too much by them. I'll take -Atk over -Spd any day. I'm ready for the game to shower me with more Raigh and Est now.

That was brutal. Winded up using a stamina potion trying to clear Infernal, constantly underestimating attack ranges. Initially it looked like a "just use Hector" map, but that red mage invalidates him. After much trial and error I eventually cleared it with Eldigan/Camus/Reinhardt/Eliwood. Camus and Eldigan at the bottom, Reinhardt at the top, Eliwood to the right. With a Hone boost from Eldigan, Camus moved onto the defense square in range of Berkut, the lance knight, and the bow knight. To survive, he needs Eliwood's Ward Cavalry bonus. Reinhardt stays put to lure the axe and red mage knight to the top. Next turn, Camus finishes off Berkut, while Eldigan removes the lance knight. With help from Bowbreaker, Reinhardt one-rounds the bow knight. Reinhardt Reciprocal Aids Camus, allowing him to duel the green mage, and is promptly Repositioned away. With the green mage dead, the next two turns were spent just kiting around, avoiding the green knight and red mage knight until I could get into a position where they could both be taken out in one turn. With everyone packed into south-west corner, I got the chance.

Maybe I'm just being lazy, but the rankings seem more competitive this time around. Even with the score adjustments I figured it'd be the opposite, since I imagine a lot fewer people have a competent bonus character this time around. I easily made top 5k last time, but now I'm struggling to even stay in the 10k bracket. Currently sitting at 78,909, and I'm sick of it. One week of this would be more than enough, but two weeks of dedicating most of my stamina to a grindy mode has become "torture" indeed.

Season 24 (1.3.0 S10) Results: Score: 4,828 Defense: 288 Rank: Tier 19 --> 20 Same team as last week, but I couldn't quite match my previous score. Thankfully I didn't need to, and this week marks my first time making it to tier 20! I doubt I'll stay, but we'll see what the numbers look like. Just a couple quick notes on Julia (mine being +Spd/-Def) -- I found that the Hp Seal allows her to just barely tank a counterattack from Hector, and with her +Spd she doubles and one rounds him (Rare +Spd variants require a buff), a fact I used to great effect this season. Furthermore, I'm convinced that she is one of the better users of 4-charge specials like her default Dragon Fang. I considered replacing it with something quicker like Iceberg, but one round of EP combat against Reinhardt fully charges her up, allowing her to nuke nearly the entire cast out of orbit with her next attack, including units like Ike and Ryoma. Glacies would be even better, but I don't have one to spare. When I need her to bait Reinhardt, I specifically don't buff her Atk to help ensure she doesn't OHKO him. Season 24 Hall of Fame: Previous Season Results:

Whenever Hector says his "Here we go!" special line, I can't help but imitate him.

Did they ever say how long the "Daily Quests" were going on for? I don't remember ever seeing an announcement for them.

I mean, Narcian wielded Runesword in his penultimate appearance in FE6, which was semi-exclusive to him. His official art also depicted him with a sword, and I believe he uses one in the Cipher card game as well. There was no reason for him to get an axe, of all weapons. I suppose my point is, how IS decides to depict established characters in Heroes is anyone's guess.

*Sword I'm still a little miffed that they made Narcian an axe user...

Kind of wishing I'd gone a bit harder with the Echoes of Mystery banner a few weeks back, since now I really need a Firesweep Lance and a Wo Dao for my Shanna and Caeda, respectively. Thankfully Roderick and Athena got bumped down to 4*s, but given the huge red and blue pool I can't say I'm optimistic lol

I want to think the introduction of physical horse killing weapons is more for the AI's benefit than the player's. Horse Emblem has trivialized most challenge maps so far, and these will give IS a bit more flexibility when designing future GHBs, Bound Battles, etc.

Ruby Sword was something I considered in the past, but ultimately dismissed since it would only really help her against Hector, whom she beats well enough anyway with the appropriate buffs. Her naturally high Res and Spd means she has little to fear from most green mages with or without a gem weapon/TA. A possible Firesweep sword is an interesting suggestion however, and one I'll keep in mind. I had planned to build Shanna with the Firesweep Lance, and I worry that two Firesweep users would leave me too vulnerable on enemy phase. A 30/38 Blue seems like a better fit for the build than a 29/37 Red.

Season 23 (1.3.0 S9) Results: Score: 4,836 (New Record!) Defense: 288 Rank: Tier 18 --> 19 I used most of my feathers over the past month to promoting the Askr trio and it's already paying off, this week breaking my old high score by 16 points. Unfortunately Alfonse can barely do half the things Ike can, and is mostly limited to dueling enemy Hectors and the many Summer Tiki I encountered. His skill set is fairly basic, but I'd rather not use precious Swordbreaker fodder on him if I can help it. The Nino - Reinhardt matchup has become so dicey since they released Quickened Pulse last month. Not to say it was 100% reliable before, but it's gotten to the point where I feel that Julia is a necessary component to my core team, rather than a voluntary one... Season 23 Hall of Fame: Previous Season Results:

1: Hinoka. Hone Fliers being locked behind a rare 5* is pretty lame, plus I'm still bitter that my only one is -Atk. 2. Katarina. I would love to have Swift Sparrow fodder on a number of my units. 3. Ephraim. Eirika can be pulled at 4*, why not him? 4. Genny. Like with Hinoka, it's pretty dumb that the only means to make healers worthwhile on offense is limited to a 5* only character. 5. Sheena. We have a sword and lance armor obtainable at 3*, Sheena would be nice to round out the armor colors especially for those who haven't fortunate enough to pull Hector.

If I were a more sensible person I'd just go with Palla and save myself a bunch of feathers and SI, but I believe in love, and I suffer for it. Brave seems more sensible now since I don't have Wo Dao. She'll be supported by a Hone buff and two Goads, so I may forgo LaD for an alternative so she can at least take a hit on enemy phase if needed.

I used up my 46 orb stockpile and then some on the new Hone Atk banner, aiming for either Corrin or Sanaki. I didn't get either, or any 5*s for that matter, but I got something better (for me, anyway) A +Atk/-Hp Caeda! -Res would have been ideal of course, but I'm not counting on getting this lucky again. Still unsure how to build her -- both the Brave and Wo Dao sets seem good. Either way, she's jumping up to first in line for my next 5* promotion.

I'm really hoping we get another banner for mid-July. With 40 orbs, I'm getting the itch to pull again, but the current options are not appealing to me.

That, along with the Ram Outskirts and forest map (allied units starting on the bottom right) have a tendency to break my Mae-bonus team. Horse emblem has an easier time with it, but they're all capped out on HM so I'd prefer not to have to use them too much.

I think I take back what I said earlier about the map selection being less stressful this time around. I didn't realize just how cramped many of the SoV maps are, and I've been put in too many situations where a bait unit has to take multiple attacks due to annoying formations and nowhere to move.

A consistent map selection has made this much less stressful than the last TT. I was dreading the 11-5 map, but thankfully they left it out. Currently running Eirika/Mae/Azura/Wrys, who can usually make it to the seventh map before having to hand it over to my horse team. Is it just me, or did they make the speed rank more lenient this time? I feel like I've taken way more turns than I should on some of my runs, yet I've gotten an A every single time. Tobin seems pretty useless, but I suppose there's no use complaining about a free 5*.

He accomplishes the bare minimum of what is expected of an infantry sword -- beating Hector one on one. If you have a Swordbreaker to spare, that's probably his best bet for making him more competent in the arena. I've heard Brave Sword Alfonse is pretty decent, but I'm not willing to invest that much in him on account of being a last resort bonus unit. Do you have the masked "Marth" from the last TT? She performs the medic role better than Alfonse could thanks to Falchion.

Done with my Askr trio. I don't have worthwhile B Skill fodder to give Sharena at the moment, but for now it's nice to not have to fret about arena bonus units. Now time to focus on characters and projects I actually want to be doing.

After getting Mae from Lv. 31 to 40 just from the 10-map Ch. 1 Chain Challenge, I think I'll be saving Normal Ch. 2's for this exact purpose. The enemies are way easier than what's typically found in the upper strata of the Training Tower, too. Good idea!

Squad Assault wasn't too bad. I expected inflated stats, but without any skills they're not all that threatening, especially since you can check the map beforehand and fill up your team with hard counters. I'm still training Mae, so I'll hold off on the Chain Challenge for now.

Not going to lie, it would have been nice to have an extra mage to help more reliably punch through part 4's Draco Zombies and Fiends. Saber probably got more EXP than he needed in part 2, perhaps that would have been the best opportunity to train her up.

I mean, she was always deployed in parts 2 and 3 to do chip damage, but I she never got many levels, no. First playthrough was casual where I decided to focus on other units, and the second was a Hard-Classic Blitzkrieg, where not learning Seraphim until Lv. 14 is a big problem when potential DFs, Leon, and the Peg sisters need all the EXP they can get.