The Branded King (New Heroes Banner)

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

Since I'm in lower score ranges than you, I see a lot of imperfect +10 units (and a lot of TA dragons). Like you pointed out, there is no guarantee for a dragon to survive that perfect Alm variant (impossible even if Alm is buffed). My intention was to show that there is no guarantee that an refined +10 Alm does kill all dragons, even those with 10 merges lesser than him.  

Even imperfect, Alm is a ridiculously hard counter to dragons, and it only takes one Alm that is built decently well to end an Arena streak.

Note again that

1. This Alm build does not use any rare skills. All of his skills are available from characters that can be pulled at 4-star rarity, and only one of his skills requires a unit to be promoted to 5-star rarity. Hell, even Cancel Affinity 2 would be enough get the job done.
2. This Alm build has zero buffs applied. As you get higher in the Arena, dual Rallies and Atk Tactic become far more common, meaning that buffless units are incredibly difficult to come by.
3. The Nowi and Corrin that do survive have literally stacked Def as far as it will go (a total of 2 Def lost from the absolute maximum by running Steady Breath instead of Steady Stance 3 or Close Def 3 in the A slot). Dropping either the Def buff or the Close Def 3 Seal is automatically a loss on enemy phase, and dropping Swordbreaker on Nowi results in a failure to one-round kill Alm on player phase.

Alm has a lot of leeway in giving dragons a really hard time. No other synergistic team composition has a counter this oppressively powerful.

You don't argue that a unit can deal with Reinhardt by surviving and killing an unbuffed neutral vanilla +10 Reinhardt. There's no good reason to argue that dragons can deal with Alm simply because they can deal with an unbuffed neutral vanilla +10 Alm with a refinement.

[Nowi's Husband]

I don't use Swordbreaker on Nowi myself, that slot goes to QR so she can deal with colorless.  I just pumped her speed to the max (39 before buffs), so she can double any +10 Alm on my turn that isn't +Spd or has speed boosting skills/buffs.  Alm is rare in the arena, and of the few times I faced him it was an all attack build, no speed.  If I did encounter a fast one I have Drive Speed on Young Tiki and Fae and Rally Spd/Def on Fae.  I could probably run Deflect Melee to bait him but I'm not wasting her seal just for one rare counter, Distant Defense is more all around effective in the presence of bows.  

[mampfoid]

13 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

You don't argue that a unit can deal with Reinhardt by surviving and killing an unbuffed neutral vanilla +10 Reinhardt. There's no good reason to argue that dragons can deal with Alm simply because they can deal with an unbuffed neutral vanilla +10 Alm with a refinement.

Alm is an awesome counter to dragons, I didn't want to argue against that. Also those builds are neither out of the world nor overly expensive. 

Like I wrote before, there is no guarantee he'll kill all dragons under some circumstances. This statement was not meant to let people throw their +0 Corrins against Alm, but to stay wary of blue dragons (and some crazy buffed Tiki variants) if playing Alm. Most players don't have Alm at +10. 

Sorry if my prior post wasn't worded clear enough. 

[Shiki]

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

WRYYYYYYYYYYYY

Yare yare daze.

So it's an Awakening banner but ... what's the theme? It seems like Gen 2 with Morgan and Gerome but then we have freaking Chrom here over another children like Noire.
If I was an Awakening fan I would probably feel a bit slighted by this. Then again, this seems to be the trend now.

Dark Flier Morgan is pretty rad though.

[badatfireemblem]

Dark flier Morgan <3

It's a shame I just spent all my orbs, as I want them all... I love both Morgans art especially though. They look so cute.

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, mampfoid said:

Also those builds are neither out of the world nor overly expensive. 

If you're talking about Nowi and Corrin, Steady Breath and Fortify Dragons (or Def Tactic) to provide the buffs are both extremely expensive, being available only on 5-star-exclusive characters.

 

4 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

This statement was not meant to let people throw their +0 Corrins against Alm, but to stay wary of blue dragons (and some crazy buffed Tiki variants) if playing Alm.

+0 Alm two-hit kills every +10 non-blue dragon in the game. Deflect Melee doesn't even matter when the dragon isn't blue.

+0 Alm [=] (Falchion [unique], Death Blow 3, Cancel Affinity 3) +4/0/0/0 can kill any +10 blue dragon running [=Def] (Lightning Breath+ [Def], Steady Breath, Swordbreaker 3) +0/0/0/0.

+0 Alm [=] (Falchion [unique], Moonbow, Death Blow 3, Cancel Affinity 3, Heavy Blade 3) +4/0/0/0 can kill any +10 blue dragon running [=Def] (Lightning Breath+ [Def], Steady Breath, Swordbreaker 3) +0/0/6/6.

+0 Alm [+Atk] (Falchion [unique], Moonbow, Death Blow 3, Cancel Affinity 3, Heavy Blade 3) +4/0/0/0 can kill any +10 blue dragon running [=Def] (Lightning Breath+ [Def], Steady Breath, Swordbreaker 3, Close Def 3) +0/0/6/6.

Alm has pretty much nothing to fear when initiating against dragons. Just give him Hone Atk 3 buffs, and watch him tear through all of them.

[GuiltyLove]

8 hours ago, Poimagic said:

@eclipse Could you merge the 4 topics together so things aren’t confusing?

@mampfoid @GuiltyLove First summonable mage flier, and she isn’t wearing skimpy clothing. I wonder how her stat spread will compare to S!Corrin, and if she will powercreep S!Corrin in availability and stats.

Of course she will powercreep :( 

She has a nice voice though~

[Frenzify]

1 hour ago, Zeratul said:

Yare yare daze.

So it's an Awakening banner but ... what's the theme? It seems like Gen 2 with Morgan and Gerome but then we have freaking Chrom here over another children like Noire.
If I was an Awakening fan I would probably feel a bit slighted by this. Then again, this seems to be the trend now.

Dark Flier Morgan is pretty rad though.

I'd feel annoyed with that random Chrom, but F!Morgan is there to hype me right back up.

Edited March 8, 2018 by Frenzify

[Sunsurge]

AH. AH. AHHHHHHH. AHH. MORGAN! I can't.breathe.omg.so.hyped.

I don't have any orbs, omgggggggggg why did they do this after the stupid Legendary Banner! Ugh. And I INSANELY WANT ALL THREE. This is clearly the best Chrom (artwork wise), and I need him, to make my family complete (Lucina, Robin, F!Morgan, Chrom).

BUT. MALE MORGAN LOOKS GREAT TOO. And my head canon is that they're twins, and I need the set. But gonna mostly snipe for blue because F!Morgan is literally my life. And then will ugly cry as I try to get Chrom or M!Morgan in the awful, insane pit that is red orbs. 

[Liliesgrace]

Yep all my money will be gone. So glad I've worked every day these past three months as it lessens the guilt I feel in knowing already how much money I will be throwing at orbs for this banner. 

[Arthur97]

2 hours ago, KMT4ever said:

Praise Naga, for she is a generous goddess! Best daughter is here and she's a flying blue mage! Double the reason to get her. Unfortunately her weapon and stat spread aren't as great as I'd like, but that doesn't matter, I will pull her! I was expecting her to be more like what M!Morgan ended up being, but it's a pleasant surprise to see him here too.

Now I'm faced with a conundrum. I really want to transfer my summoner support to my daughter as is fitting, but Julia has made such excellent use of it so far and performed so unbelievably well since I pulled her (seriously, I owe at least half of my success in this game to how ridiculously powerful she is) that I feel like she deserves it in perpetuity. I suppose Morgan's IVs will influence things, but now I'm stuck between nepotism and reward for sterling service.

Fellow proud fathers, I wish you all luck with the orbs tomorrow.

Kind of ironic considering how broken she is in game, but, hey, maybe they'll give her a tactician variant since she did so well in CYL2.

16 minutes ago, Sunsurge said:

AH. AH. AHHHHHHH. AHH. MORGAN! I can't.breathe.omg.so.hyped.

I don't have any orbs, omgggggggggg why did they do this after the stupid Legendary Banner! Ugh. And I INSANELY WANT ALL THREE. This is clearly the best Chrom (artwork wise), and I need him, to make my family complete (Lucina, Robin, F!Morgan, Chrom).

BUT. MALE MORGAN LOOKS GREAT TOO. And my head canon is that they're twins, and I need the set. But gonna mostly snipe for blue because F!Morgan is literally my life. And then will ugly cry as I try to get Chrom or M!Morgan in the awful, insane pit that is red orbs. 

Blessed Garden has given a decent amount of orbs.

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

If you're talking about Nowi and Corrin, Steady Breath and Fortify Dragons (or Def Tactic) to provide the buffs are both extremely expensive, being available only on 5-star-exclusive characters.

Nope, I wanted to agree with you that Alms build isn't that expensive (point 1 from your post). 

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Alm has pretty much nothing to fear when initiating against dragons. Just give him Hone Atk 3 buffs, and watch him tear through all of them.

Sounds like IS should release an armored blue dragon soon (colorless first though). 

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, GuiltyLove said:

She has a nice voice though~

His (Morgans) voice is funny when you don't realize immediately from the art that he is male. 

/Edit: Sorry for the double post. Had the same topic open in different tabs. 

Edited March 8, 2018 by mampfoid

[Interdimensional Observer]

Another rehash of a character already in the game, in a regular banner this time. *Yawn*

Hopefully, this tendency will end with CYL2 influenced banners coming in a few months. They can use that data to add who they know is recently popular. I'm rationalizing everything in the New Years-CYL2's end gap as being IS playing it safe because they didn't really know who the fans currently wanted.

In principle, this banner is good because Awakening hasn't had a non-Seasonal dedicated one. But why double Morgans? I know they're different, but why them plus Chrom? Why not give one now with some other kids, and other kids with the other Morgan later?

Jerome is an oddity, I thought Wonder Wyvern was one of the least popular Awakening kids? But if he is unpopular, it is good he got in to counter the tendency to add only the popular ones nowadays.

 

7 hours ago, Vince777 said:

Ouch. Validar just got Knoll'd.

He deserved it. *Takes his book, suffocates him with it, and then kicks him off a cliff onto sharp rocks below* 

[Frenzify]

19 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Jerome is an oddity, I thought Wonder Wyvern was one of the least popular Awakening kids? But if he is unpopular, it is good he got in to counter the tendency to add only the popular ones nowadays.

From what I've heard he's apparently one of the more popular kids. I'd imagine they would have gone with Severa, Inigo or Owain if they weren't already technically in. As for the unpopular kids, I think Nah and Yarne might be amongst them.

[bottlegnomes]

7 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

English uses the less than (or equal to) and greater than (or equal to) symbols in the descriptions whereas Japanese uses words.

In Japanese, the terms used, "以下" and "以上", mean "and less" and "and more", and there isn't a very simple way to express "strictly less than" and "strictly more than".

Ah, that's interesting to know. Thanks for the explanation!

Anyway, glad to hear I'm not the only one with issues downloading.

All this talk of Alm is making me even saltier that I've failed to pull him, even if I don't love his art in Heroes :\

[Poimagic]

I looked at Morgan and she is really interesting. It looks like her best Ivs are either +atk or +res and maybe +spd. It looks like her best builds are the more defensive tomes, blarserpent included. I’m gonna do a write up on her soon, so stay here for that

[Arthur97]

Do Female Morgan's eyes look a little...purple?

[Stroud]

I just realized that the Hair Color of female Morgan implies that Tharja, or Say'ri could be the mother at least from the FE heroes Morgan.
Now things are getting more interesting xD.
In that case a female Morgan would not be too bad.

Tharja, Grima, Morgan and hopefully we get Noir at some point. And we have a happy family emblem. But Noir must have the fitting hair color for this robin..which won't happen. I think the hair colors from the children are the same as in the cipher game or? In which case Noir would have black hair.
But white hair won't fit on her I guess...

Edited March 8, 2018 by Stroud

[silverserpent]

Pretty sure they're kinda basing this off Future Past. We may have to see what the TT is centered on. If Grima is the TT Boss, it's definitely Future Past.

[Arthur97]

12 minutes ago, Stroud said:

I just realized that the Hair Color of female Morgan implies that Tharja, or Say'ri could be the mother at least from the FE heroes Morgan.
Now things are getting more interesting xD.
In that case a female Morgan would not be too bad.

Tharja, Grima, Morgan and hopefully we get Noir at some point. And we have a happy family emblem. But Noir must have the fitting hair color for this robin..which won't happen. I think the hair colors from the children are the same as in the cipher game or? In which case Noir would have black hair.
But white hair won't fit on her I guess...

Except they are more likely basing this off of the official artwork.

[Liliesgrace]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

In principle, this banner is good because Awakening hasn't had a non-Seasonal dedicated one. But why double Morgans? I know they're different, but why them plus Chrom? Why not give one now with some other kids, and other kids with the other Morgan later?

Jerome is an oddity, I thought Wonder Wyvern was one of the least popular Awakening kids? But if he is unpopular, it is good he got in to counter the tendency to add only the popular ones nowadays.

Two Morgans because they are just like Robin and Corrin in having both genders represented and Chrom gives a unified theme for the 3 character banner being the most popular potential father of the twin tacticians and because Robin got a new alternate Chrom needed to as well.

Spoiler

Because they're soulmates.

Gerome's a surprise but yay for more male flyers.

Edited March 8, 2018 by Liliesgrace

[Sunsurge]

1 hour ago, Stroud said:

I just realized that the Hair Color of female Morgan implies that Tharja, or Say'ri could be the mother at least from the FE heroes Morgan.

It's literally just from their official artwork which is depicted as black. 

I also just realized that the person who designed Klein/Clive/Summer!Takumi/etc. designed Morgan's, which explains my undying love for their artwork. It's so unique and cool. I'm really excited for this.

Though F!Morgan's tome looks amazing with Distant Counter built in. Add that with a hopeful refinement, and bam. I might have to try for 2 of her to give her tome to my Robin so they can be real father/daughter pair. >_> Also my Robin has like 5000 SP it's ridiculous. I have like 2 totally different builds for him already, so might as well make a 3rd.

[AndrewMcC00l]

Thracia really overshadowed this banner for me.

If I didn't know Thracia was coming though, I'd spend my orbs on Female Morgan. She's pretty cute, and while I have Summer Corrin, she's Atk- and I wasn't a very big fan of the character. Her statline makes me hopeful she'll be demoted, but I doubt it.

Male Morgan seems alright. He also seems like the most likely demote. Grima's Truth looks like a fun weapon, and Dull Ranged could be interesting. I'd build him if I got him at 4*, but he's not enough for me to go out of my way to get him.

A horse Falchion user could be interesting. Although whenever I run cavalry units in the arena, I rarely see dragons. And whenever I run dragons, I never see horses. Also, now Ephraim and Chrom have horse alts.

I completely forgot about Gerome. On the one hand, he looks like a worse Michalis. On the other hand, I don't have a 5* Michalis and I need more axe users, so a free one is welcomed.

Edited March 8, 2018 by AndrewMcC00l

[Stroud]

41 minutes ago, Sunsurge said:

It's literally just from their official artwork which is depicted as black.

 

2 hours ago, Arthur97 said:

Except they are more likely basing this off of the official artwork.

Shame on me xD. I totally forgot about the official Artwork Hair colors and what little they mean. It's also been a long time since I played awakening.