Some Jerk

I like letting dancers destroy things. I like letting children destroy things. Considering there's only one unit in the game where these two loves overlap, you'd think I would've fully built Young Azura a lot sooner, especially since even before being built she's been pivotal to some of my Abyssal clears. Oh well, better late then never. Go fuck Nohr up, dear daughter. Build 1: Basic annoyer. Pokes an enemy and, win or lose, becomes a spastic warping Ploy-bot. Fury ensures she still has some means of warping even after a Flare heal, though she can switch to a different Special if she needs to dial it down. Fury 3 might be old as hell, but it makes this build stupidly fun. Build 2: Astra/Glacies nuke that refreshes after every use, with a side of "screw your Damage Reduction". If she wants to go full Res-tank instead, Atk/Res Finish is in reserve along with Aether and Flare. Build 3: AOE triple-tapper. In the event of follow-up denial, Mag. Null Follow is in her back pocket. Can also equip other nuke tomes like Gronnblade or Gronnvulture if Speed isn't needed. Build 4: Pure support. The Dance seal is interchangeable, and Firestorm Dance 3 is in reserve. Can slip the Still Water seal back on if the enemies are too Res-heavy to Ploy. I'm usually averse to building units as pure support, but considering the damage Azura does despite not being intended for it, even I have to admit that this kind of backup for an actual point man is an intimidating thought. Build 5: This was originally for the novelty of seeing Young Azura hit 80 visible Atk, but it came to my attention that some e-sports jerks can hit 60 Res naturally, so having the option to Ploy up to 61 Res is good. Subbing in Special Spiral 4 and getting some precharge from somewhere can even let her handle big jerks like Valentine's Lyon (two Flare procs in one combat, or just Blazing Wind, provided he isn't REALLY jacked up in Res to dodge the Ploy) and Emblem Ike (Blazing Wind-only, though hilariously even at max investment Azura overcomes the color disadvantage to lovetap him after the AOE, so he's dead meat).

Got two Attuned Azuras (one rolled, one sparked) and have already proceeded to do horrible things with one of them. May or may not go back for a third to clear my pity rate.

Another Attuned dancer... welp, so much for fishing for more A!Peony copies.

Survey says... launch units are still getting shafted. Also, have some cursed knowledge to go with it:

Reached the first Spark on the Green Dream banner and decided to call it there. The tally: W!Dimitri x3 LF!Alear x4 A!Peony x4 (+1 from Spark) (she now has enough copies to reach +6) Citrinne x1 I'm tempted to keep going to try and get A!Peony to +10, but I know the desire sensor will take a mile if I give it an inch. ...Besides, I'm going mad with power as it is.

Thank you, Mirabnuuy, for turning off 90% of the new units' bullshit.

With the advent of Magic Gambit 4, Reinhardt once again stirs from his slumber.

The work is done. 85 pulls, 400 Orbs. One is temporarily staying unmerged so I have someone to no-effort the Voting Gauntlet with. These jerks were encountered along the way: Gerik (booked) Febail (hanging around for now) Spring Sylvain (immediately fed to Attuned Peony) Duo Chloé #1 (Spark) Duo Chloé #2 (she tagged along on the very last wheel)

Dancer see food, dancer eat food. Not the first time I've run Speedigan, but I imagine current technology makes it slightly less of a meme than before.

Stupid decisions involving a seasonal spark made me impulsively buy Feh Pass earlier in the month. Decided to cash in on the Emblem Marth hype, and ended up with two of him plus an Asc!Sonya, resulting in... this. Even when I'm ostensibly on break from the game, I can't bring myself to neglect my favorites.

Hey, I'm right there with you. I'm planning to finish off the sparks on the Rearmed banner to grab the dancers from it, just for the sake of finishing what I started. But between all the new powercreep and this last kick below the belt, that's probably as far as I go outside of occasionally popping in for main story updates. And maybe grabbing the inevitable Rearmed/Ascended/Attuned/whatever Mirabilis. (If there isn't a new Mirabilis purely on the grounds of "because she's the sleepyhead, lol", I will actually uninstall the game.)

This actually would've of edged me towards quitting if the powercreep hadn't already. This was pretty much the only thing I was looking forward to. Every time a weapon has been shared among units, they've always shared the refine too. Olwen doesn't have a refine despite desperately needing it due to sharing Dire Thunder with Reinhardt whom IntSys desperately wants to leave alone, and Raven and Linus only have split refines because Linus wasn't even in the game when Raven received his -- there's been literally zero precedent for splitting refine recipients until now. They started it just to screw over Phina.

The magic of hotlinking means you can always outsource. (https://www.geekalerts.com/captain-picard-facepalm-bust/) And yeah, this sums up my thoughts perfectly. This is both the baitiest banner since Fallen Heroes were conceptualized and the most frustrating implementation of a banner for SoV fans ever. If I hadn't already stopped playing seriously, this would've been the tipping point. And man, am I happy I stopped spending on FEH now. An arcane weapon and two dancers all separate characters on the same banner? And unless Mirabilis falls asleep mid-TT story (which is likely), there's going to be another dancer within a month or two. My wallet would be screaming bloody murder at me.

She has not been in the game for a year and already has a Legendary alt. This is all but confirmation that we're never getting a Gauntlet weapon. Dragon Blast doesn't even do any blasting. ...Well, if I had any doubts that Freyr last month was a sign that they're running out of ideas, I wouldn't anymore. Yeah, this one doesn't impress me. The only new thing is that she's a dragon with a brave weapon; something we've never had before, but also something we've been able to spoof ever since Bridal Catria. I honestly find her Atk/Spd Pledge more interesting.

...Okay, I need to say it. I'm starting to consider quitting this game. I've been less active lately more due to laziness than anything, but the addition of terrain effects on command may have pushed me over the line from "laziness" to "actively winding down". The powercreep in this game is goddamn insane, and it's reached the point where I can load up my favorite units with all the state-of-the-art skills only to have them still swatted like flies by whatever comes from the very next banner. Lately it feels like powercreep in this game is less about numbers we can comprehend and more about loading units with so many skills that people don't or can't read them all, and it just feels bad. I'm a meticulous and stubborn motherfucker when it comes to math and strategy, but I've found my will tested trying to keep track of all the stuff that can be on just one unit these days, nevermind any nearby supports and now the terrain too. It eventually just boils down to "just throw something that looks good at the enemy and hope it works", and that just isn't fun nor is it what I signed up for. For a sense of scale, I very rarely quit a game I haven't finished, not even a gacha (because, again, stubborn motherfucker), so the fact that I'm considering it now means there's a serious problem. As for what "winding down" entails, I'm probably not going to bother maintaining my Arena tier (Aether Raids is fine because staying in T21 there is no effort whatsoever) and likely won't be doing the Legendary/Mythic or Limited Hero Battles anymore. I'm mostly just hanging on for the sake of gathering Orbs for favorites and seeing how the story ends. It's been a long and interesting journey, but I think I've had my fill. e: ...Wow, it's some delicious irony for this to be the post that raises my rank to "Contributor".