FEH: Winter's Envoy Banner

[Ice Dragon]

41 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

If I could go even further, I would modify the IV system (along with the A-slot passives) with their new stat weights in mind.

The reason this isn't the case is because stat variation is a flat ±5% to growth rates and ±1 to level 1 stats.

[Poimagic]

Something that was intriguing me is that there are appearently 3 New Years maps and they seem to be special maps.

[Humanoid]

6 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The reason this isn't the case is because stat variation is a flat ±5% to growth rates and ±1 to level 1 stats.

Yeah, I'm aware of the reason why it is how it is, but fundamentally there isn't a reason for it to be done that way. There's a lot about FEH that could be improved in future overhaul, and legacy cruft like this is worth reviewing. I'd have said it'd be something to look at in a hypothetical major 2.0 release but of course that number's taken now.

I mean it wouldn't be a difficult undertaking to have stat gains done by hand instead of being calculated from growth rates, which would also eliminate the needless +/- 4 modifiers we sometimes see, or the 1 BST difference units of the same class can end up differing by.

 

"Legacy cruft" in general is a problem that the FE series in general suffers from. Understandable to some extent for any series which has lasted this long, but it does feel a lot of its features are there for the sake of tradition alone. Fortunately it's not completely static, I support 100% the removal of weapon durability in Fates for instance.

[Ice Dragon]

5 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Yeah, I'm aware of the reason why it is how it is, but fundamentally there isn't a reason for it to be done that way.

There's also no reason for it not to be done that way. Stat variation wasn't created to be fair; it was created to produce variation. It's literally no different than natures in Pokémon, which similarly cares nothing about the actual meaning of each stat.

In fact, I argue that the fact that natures don't care about the meaning of the stat makes things more interesting due to how it interacts with weapon refinements, which do care about the meaning of each stat.

[Humanoid]

We're coming from different backgrounds I suppose, so the differing philosophies are fair enough. From the perspective of the RPG side of Fire Emblem, balance isn't a big deal. From the strategy side, I find it maddening. And since Heroes pretty much drops all the RPG elements, I view it as something along the lines of XCOM, where balance is kind of a big deal.

(To put things in context, I'm one of those Awakening babies with no investment in old series traditions. I also know next to nothing about Pokemon)

 

EDIT: Ultimately I consider it a desirable change if the gulf between extreme happiness and extreme disappointment is less, well, extreme than it is now. This is but one means to that end, but a fairly obvious one. The IV system as it stands now feels like I can end up trading a hundred dollars for a hundred yen. Is that "interesting"? Well...

Edited December 18, 2017 by Humanoid

[Jedi]

Blessed be this Christmas.

[bethany81707]

16-1 requiring a sword is weird because swords are the optimal strategy.

16-2's Armour March Robin makes the mission easier than the placement of the axe armour suggests.

Let's see what 16-3 stuffs up.

[Arthur97]

Welp, got Robin, two Chroms, and a Lissa. I'm good. I also got a five star Claire and normal Chrom, but who cares about that? 

Edited December 18, 2017 by Arthur97

[Korath88]

I won't have hotel WiFi for much longer, but I just want to say how much I hate the level of powercreep in this banner. They did not need the BST boost at all, and that's not even getting into their skills.

[bethany81707]

17 minutes ago, bethany81707 said:

16-1 requiring a sword is weird because swords are the optimal strategy.

16-2's Armour March Robin makes the mission easier than the placement of the axe armour suggests.

Let's see what 16-3 stuffs up.

All right, I've done 16-3. If you put a blue unit to bait/kill Tharja on the left, the greens group up instead of splitting apart. I honestly felt this made the map easier.

...Did I mention the story was bad by the standards of seasonal paralogues?

[Roflolxp54]

Lunatic paralogue quests are extremely easy. Xander, Reinhardt, PA Azura, and filler (Clarine/Fjorm) cheese the maps hard.

Didn't have that great luck with the banner. All I got to show for the orbs spent is a pitybreaker Reinhardt (which promptly became merge fodder, putting my Reinhardt at +4). Didn't get either of my wanted focus units (Christmas Tharja and Christmas Robin).

In other news, Soleil, to nobody's surprise, is a 4-5* unit in the regular summoning pool.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Roflolxp54

[Ledrert]

37 orbs used for now, got Tharja at the first multi-pull. And +Def -Spd. Pretty good IV to tank. Now I have to get Lissa and Robin.

[Mackc2]

Okay I was curious and took a look at the stats and I will just compare everyone to another armoured unit, Chrom is Effie with the same attack, less speed and slightly better defences on both sides, Robin is blue Amelia, he even comes with armour march just to prove my point, Lissa is better Sheena and Tharja doesn't really have an equivalent she has the same attack as henry but is bulkier and slower. 

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

(To put things in context, I'm one of those Awakening babies with no investment in old series traditions. I also know next to nothing about Pokemon)

Natures in Pokémon are a flat ×1.1 or ×0.9 to the stat after all other modifiers. Damage is attack divided by defense in Pokémon, so the multiplication makes sense, and attack minus defense in Heroes, so the addition or subtraction of 5% growth rate is also equivalent. However, the speed stat is left in a weird position "fairness"-wise in Pokémon, as are HP and Spd in Heroes.

 

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

EDIT: Ultimately I consider it a desirable change if the gulf between extreme happiness and extreme disappointment is less, well, extreme than it is now. This is but one means to that end, but a fairly obvious one. The IV system as it stands now feels like I can end up trading a hundred dollars for a hundred yen. Is that "interesting"? Well...

My personal opinion is that people who are disappointed by sub-optimal natures on their summons need to suck it up and use what they have. Few natures actually make units completely unviable in this game (the only ones that do are -Atk on units with horribly low Atk to begin with).

 

12 minutes ago, Mackc2 said:

Lissa is better Sheena

Lissa is faster Sheena, which doesn't make much of a difference because 30 base Spd is still not all that great and means you no longer have an obvious dump stat.

[Mackc2]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

Lissa is faster Sheena, which doesn't make much of a difference because 30 base Spd is still not all that great and means you no longer have an obvious dump stat.

I was more talking about her attack, its 3 higher than Sheena and seeing as Sheena's main problem is her low attack that makes her better Sheena 

[Ice Dragon]

10 minutes ago, Mackc2 said:

I was more talking about her attack, its 3 higher than Sheena and seeing as Sheena's main problem is her low attack that makes her better Sheena 

Bonfire/Ignis doesn't care what her Atk is when it's adding 25+ damage to your hit. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I've wished any of my armors not named Effie had more Atk.

 

EDIT:

Hm... I hope my usual shit luck of every +Atk unit I get being -Spd actually happens on this banner. I'd love to get a [+Atk, -Spd] Tharja or Chrom. But knowing my shit luck, I probably won't get any.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Ice Dragon

[Namero]

Wow... 'Tis truly the season to be jolly! I had 67 orbs saved up over the last few weeks since my last summon spree, and thought I'd be lucky to get just one of these units with that, but in just a few sessions I already have Chrom, Lissa, and Tharja who I was after the most for the valor skill. After Holloween Sakura costed me over $800 to get (**** you, Jakob!), I was afraid of going for same color seasonal units again. But I went with my strategy of doing up to two full sessions then start sniping, and was pleasantly surprised to not have to snipe at all. Now I guess I'll just debate if Robin is worth going for.  He seems to be the only one without anything interesting to offer. My OCD says go for him, but my logic says just enjoy the big gift you just got and don't waste money these holidays. lol

[DarkLordIvy]

91 orbs for +atk/-hp Robin. 

Now I get to be torn on wether or not to eventually fodder him off. He is a lot of fun to use so far so he’s got that going for him at least. 

[Arthur97]

I love that Robin's waiting pose has him set the tree down. 

Edit: Nevermind, it just looked like he did.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Arthur97

[Javi Blizz]

115 orbs and I got firstly C!Robin (snipping for red, but there has been at least 3 sessions with no red orbs, imagine me guys when he appeared >:/ ) and in the last summon (I still had 5 orbs more, but I don't like summoning below 20 orbs for things like this):

*Image deleted due to attachments space*

She was the last orb :D

Edited February 4, 2018 by Javi Blizz

[Ice Dragon]

Tharja's voice in Japanese is too much fun. She's trying so hard to sound bright and cheerful, but she's just so not cut out for it. It's wonderful.

[Momentai~]

~ 130 orbs later and nothing major to show for it but a 4.5% pity rate (ignoring all colorless on this banner). Oh, and a 4 star Soleil. I have the sneaking suspicion that she's -attack; her -attack father didn't teach her any better so I would not be surprised. Any word on skill inheritance restrictions for those new a skills? I'm assuming the new b skill is armor locked (just the one Santa Tharja has, right?)

Best of luck to everyone else on this banner!

Edited December 18, 2017 by Momentai~

[badatfireemblem]

75 orbs and a 5* Julia.

Oh well.

[IGdood]

Used 100 orbs.... got 2 Christmas Chroms and 1 Christmas Tharja.

Amusingly enough Christmas Tharja came after I pulled a vanilla 4Robin along with a vanilla 4Tharja.

 

Only got 40 orbs left, I think I'll stop for now and wait for the next banner.

Edited December 18, 2017 by IGdood

[Usana]

Got nothing until about 100 of my 115 orbs and then I got a Tharja. And she is who I wanted most. And somehow I didn't get burned by IV's. HP Boon/Spd Bane. May not be her best option, but it doesn't hurt anything she cares about! Wait. . . am I happy about a spd bane? Who am I and what have I done with myself!

Interesting note: I keep reading her weapon as Candle Bra. Instead of candelabra. Same thing, right?

My last 15 immediately netted me a 5* Catria, worse boon/bane than my current but my current gets to up a merge I guess. This is her attack merge so that is good. Would have preferred Winter Robin since he was my number two most wanted. Simply because I lack options on Blue Armors. Then I went ahead and dropped some cash on an orb pack and got a 5* Nephenee. I have wanted to play with wrath since she came out. She is neutral, so I suppose that is good. Too bad if she had a bad IV I would have feed her to Amelia to see what Slaying Axe/Aether(or Ignis)/Heavy Blade/Wrath would look like. Anyways the game seems intent and giving me Blue Robins. Just not the right Blue Robin. I think it might be taunting me.

@IGdood Dang, here I thought my 3 5*s for around 150 orbs was doing good. Would have been nice if two had at least been on focus, but hey I got the one I wanted with decent Boon Bane, so I shouldn't complain. And besides Chrom is the one I want least. I got a whole stable full of green armors. Lissa is cute but green is a problem. Why couldn't she have been a blue mage? I would have liked that.