New summoning banner: Doorway to Destiny

[Fabulously Olivier]

3 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Yes, exactly! I mean, I can be glad for FE4 fans, it's just that I also feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick as a Tellius and Magvel fan. ...Actually, that'd be FE6 fans getting the shortest end, since that one has yet to have a single banner to itself. But Tellius and Magvel have repeatedly drawn the short straws too. For Tellius, in a way, it's almost as bad as FE6's situation because as you pointed out, Tellius has the largest cast, yet we only have a small handful of it in this game and FE6 also at least had units at launch. Tellius had zero then.

As a huge fan of Tellius, Magvel, and Jugdral, I do not believe that we have gotten the short end of the stick.

Magvel has most of its iconic characters, with the notable exception of Cormag.

Tellius has most of its main characters. While there are certainly holes in its roster, that can be said of every game. The only glaring issue is that we're missing Laguz entirely, but that would require an entire new class of character. 

 

The only games that have truly drawn the short end of the stick are Thracia 776 and Binding Blade. 

[Othin]

Looks great. Quan, Ethlyn, and Lewyn all really deserved to get in, and until Jamke was datamined, I wasn't expecting another FE4 banner this soon. I think I'll pull for Lewyn.

I'm surprised we aren't getting our next level 4 passive. I guess Quan's super Rally fills basically the same role, though.

---

Sylvia is 100% going to drop, and I'm saying this as apparently the only person who thought Ares had a real shot at dropping. My idea from back then, which I think was backed up by Ares dropping, is that weapons are a crapshoot and what you really have to look at are other skills. Lene had a dance passive and a Valor skill, both of which had only appeared on 5* exclusives. Ares had a Brazen skill and a dual Seal skill, both of which had appeared on past GHB/4* units.

Quan and Lewyn both have 5 skills, a distinction which has always meant staying at 5* for non-staff-users. They also have multiple inheritable skills which don't look likely to be available below 5* anytime soon. Quan has a dual Stance skill and a super Rally, while Lewyn has Swift Sparrow and his new B skill. Sylvia does have a dance passive, like Lene, but it's one of the tamer ones. Those kinds of rules do change over time, and this feels like an appropriate way to do it. And speaking of tamer variations on the same types of skills, Sylvia's weapon seems like one they'd be more willing to make readily available than Lene's.

There's also the matter of art. Let's be honest: Lene's art pretty clearly sends the message "this art was designed for a character planned to be 5* exclusive", while Sylvia's is not so definitive.

As for "dancers have never dropped": lots of things eventually drop for the fist time, and I think now is the time for it. Sword infantry dancers are already the one dancer type that's been available below 5*. I think it makes perfect sense for the second sword infantry dancer added to be 5* exclusive, as the first alternative for the role, and then for the next one to drop, as it's no longer as special and distinctive of a unit type. With that and everything else in mind, Lene, Ninian, and alt Olivia all had quite a bit more reason to stay 5* than Sylvia does now.

I don't think we have to worry about another Fallen Heroes situation here. That was a special case. New Heroes, Farfetched Heroes, Fallen Heroes... I think it's pretty easy to identify those kinds of banners on sight.

1 hour ago, Hecatia Lapislazuli said:

Also Barrier Sword would have made sense on Erin. Since she's a pegasus knight, she might have a lot of res. Just would need distant counter.

Safeguard and Barrier Sword are associated with the dancers in FE4. Not quite in the way they ended up being assigned, but close enough.

[Anacybele]

9 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

To be fair Genealogy also had a small roster so far, maybe 14 before Ares, Ishtar and Lene showed up... and I calculated Leif, Nanna and Finn into this, even though the game says they are from Thracia 776(but they are not exclusive to that game). Binding Blade and Genealogy are my top picks as I mentioned in a poll topic before, and I agree that Binding Blade could really use a banner already; but this is Genealogy, so that's also a good choice. This'll bring Genealogy roster size up to 22, and all the new characters are popular ones(except Lene maybe, but she's fun).

On the other hand, now I wonder when we get characters like Travant, Altena, Lex, Brigid or Shannan.

Yeah, and Tellius has fewer than that in Heroes right now despite its massive cast. 12 characters, I believe, including Oliver. BK and Zelgius I'm counting as one because obviously they're the same person. Magvel has fewer too. I think 10 characters? Their game's cast is much smaller though.

8 minutes ago, Etheus said:

As a huge fan of Tellius, Magvel, and Jugdral, I do not believe that we have gotten the short end of the stick.

Magvel has most of its iconic characters, with the notable exception of Cormag.

Tellius has most of its main characters. While there are certainly holes in its roster, that can be said of every game. The only glaring issue is that we're missing Laguz entirely, but that would require an entire new class of character. 

...How can you not feel that way? Every game deserves more than just its main characters, you know.

[Book Bro]

YAAS Cuan and Lewyn in one banner! This is the greatest day ever.

Hope I can pull them but I'm low on orbs so I'm probably going to rage a bit.

[Fabulously Olivier]

3 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Yeah, and Tellius has fewer than that in Heroes right now despite its massive cast. 12 characters, I believe, including Oliver. BK and Zelgius I'm counting as one because obviously they're the same person. Magvel has fewer too. I think 10 characters? Their game's cast is much smaller though.

...How can you not feel that way? Every game deserves more than just its main characters, you know.

Because most of the game's important points have been covered, barring the complete absence of Laguz. There are obviously characters that I WANT to become playable (Bastian, Haar, Jill, Zihark, Volke, Kieran, and several Laguz, for example), but none of these are such a high priority that they make Tellius under-represented. I can wait for them.

Meanwhile, FE4 actually had notable gaps in its roster without Cuan and Lewyn. 

[Vaximillian]

21 minutes ago, Othin said:

There's also the matter of art. Let's be honest: Lene's art pretty clearly sends the message "this art was designed for a character planned to be 5* exclusive", while Sylvia's is not so definitive.

what

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Etheus said:

Because most of the game's important points have been covered, barring the complete absence of Laguz. There are obviously characters that I WANT to become playable (Bastian, Haar, Jill, Zihark, Volke, Kieran, and several Laguz, for example), but none of these are such a high priority that they make Tellius under-represented. I can wait for them.

Meanwhile, FE4 actually had notable gaps in its roster without Cuan and Lewyn. 

...Why does that matter? Like I said, there's more to the games than just their most major characters. Besides, I'd say all of the Greil Mercs are important points to some degree. Maybe the rest of the Dawn Brigade too.

[Othin]

8 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Yeah, and Tellius has fewer than that in Heroes right now despite its massive cast. 12 characters, I believe, including Oliver. BK and Zelgius I'm counting as one because obviously they're the same person. Magvel has fewer too. I think 10 characters? Their game's cast is much smaller though.

...How can you not feel that way? Every game deserves more than just its main characters, you know.

Tellius has 13: Ike, Titania, Soren, Mist, Oscar, Mia, Elincia, Nephenee, Sanaki, BK/Zelgius, Micaiah, Sothe, Oliver.

Magvel also has 13: Eirika, Ephraim, Seth, Lute, Innes, Tana, Lyon, Valter, Amelia, Joshua, Marisa, L'Arachel, Myrrh.

As a big fan of FE8, I think the Magvel lineup is fine for now. Tellius's larger roster does have some noteworthy gaps, but most of them are Laguz, and those haven't been implemented yet. Neither one is missing anyone on the level of Quan, Ethlyn, or Lewyn.

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

what

You heard me.

[Diovani Bressan]

29 minutes ago, Othin said:

There's also the matter of art. Let's be honest: Lene's art pretty clearly sends the message "this art was designed for a character planned to be 5* exclusive", while Sylvia's is not so definitive.

This doesn't make sense at all, but if it works in your mind... It's your opinion, after all.

The only thing I can say is I disagree with your statement. A unit should not deserve a rarity by his or her art. There are a lot of units with great arts, and they are in the 3*-4* summoning pool.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Diovani Bressan

[Vaximillian]

3 minutes ago, Othin said:

You heard me.

This is the most ridiculous and nonsensical argument I’ve ever heard or read.
So again, flat what.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Vaximillian

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Othin said:

Tellius has 13: Ike, Titania, Soren, Mist, Oscar, Mia, Elincia, Nephenee, Sanaki, BK/Zelgius, Micaiah, Sothe, Oliver.

Magvel also has 13: Eirika, Ephraim, Seth, Lute, Innes, Tana, Lyon, Valter, Amelia, Joshua, Marisa, L'Arachel, Myrrh.

As a big fan of FE8, I think the Magvel lineup is fine for now. Tellius's larger roster does have some noteworthy gaps, but most of them are Laguz, and those haven't been implemented yet. Neither one is missing anyone on the level of Quan, Ethlyn, or Lewyn.

That's still fewer than what FE4 has now. But Magvel does have a smaller cast in general. And Tellius isn't just missing laguz, but also the rest of the Greil Mercs, Dawn Brigade, and Crimean Knights. They were all pretty important and that doesn't even matter anyway, like I said. My point is that these games have been waiting too long for another banner, Tellius especially because it only has a small handful of its tiny cast, and FE6 especially because it hasn't had a single banner.

[Vaximillian]

1 minute ago, Anacybele said:

That's still fewer than what FE4 has now. But Magvel does have a smaller cast in general. And Tellius isn't just missing laguz, but also the rest of the Greil Mercs, Dawn Brigade, and Crimean Knights. They were all pretty important and that doesn't even matter anyway, like I said. My point is that these games have been waiting too long for another banner, Tellius especially because it only has a small handful of its tiny cast, and FE6 especially because it hasn't had a single banner.

If we had a little fewer seasonals and alts, we could have had more actual characters from underrepresented games fit into the roster. Just sayin’.

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

If we had a little fewer seasonals and alts, we could have had more actual characters from underrepresented games fit into the roster. Just sayin’.

I like seasonals. But I do think we're getting a little too many of those too, as much as I love Yukata Elincia...

[Othin]

2 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

This is the most ridiculous and nonsensical argument I’ve ever heard or read.
So again, flat what.

It's a plenty reasonable argument. There's a well-established association by now between rarity and certain types of outfits and designs.

4 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

That's still fewer than what FE4 has now. But Magvel does have a smaller cast in general. And Tellius isn't just missing laguz, but also the rest of the Greil Mercs, Dawn Brigade, and Crimean Knights. They were all pretty important and that doesn't even matter anyway, like I said. My point is that these games have been waiting too long for another banner, Tellius especially because it only has a small handful of its tiny cast, and FE6 especially because it hasn't had a single banner.

The thing about FE4 is that it's basically two games in one. Before this, FE4 Gen 1 only had 8 characters.

I would say the most important FE4 Gen 1 characters to include are Sigurd, Dierdre, Quan, Ethlyn, Arya, Lewyn, and Arvis. Before this banner, we had 4 of them, now we'll have all 7.

Similarly, I would say the most important FE8 characters to include are Eirika, Ephraim, Seth, Tana, Innes, Joshua, L'Arachel, Myrrh, and Lyon. We have all 9 of them.

I'm sure we'll get more FE6 eventually, but it's had a pretty solid lineup from launch. Only big omissions are Idunn and Rutger, I'd say.

If you're going to say we need the rest of the Greil Mercs, Dawn Brigade, and Crimean Knights, I'm going to say we need the rest of the Fiana Braves. They're basically the original Greil Mercs, after all!

[Fabulously Olivier]

26 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

...Why does that matter? Like I said, there's more to the games than just their most major characters. Besides, I'd say all of the Greil Mercs are important points to some degree. Maybe the rest of the Dawn Brigade too.

In what universe wouldn't it matter? The main characters and most iconic characters are the foundation from which any game reaches core representation. That foundation has to be in place first, and then it becomes prudent to intelligently fill out the roster with less important, characters to build on that. 

And no, most of the Greil Mercenaries are not more iconic than most characters in their own games, much less the series as a whole. Rhys and Rolf in particular are entirely forgettable. Boyd is just the cliche rival character, notable only because Heroes has an axe shortage. The biggest missing mercenary is Shinon - the god of archers.

The Dawn Brigade is even less important as most of its core members are among the least popular characters in the franchise. While Nolan is hands-down my favorite warrior in Fire Emblem, I hold no illusions as to the likelihood of his inclusion in the near future, and Edward and Leonardo have it far worse. Laura and Aran are even less likely to see inclusion any time soon. Fiona is noteworthy only for being useless, and we don't talk about Meg. Because Radiant Dawn lacked proper support conversations, we are left to judge these characters solely on subjective art preferences and objective combat performance, and it does not help that most of the Dawn Brigade has terrible performance.

The biggest gaps in the Tellius roster, other than the absence of Laguz, are Daein reps (Pelleas, Jill, Haar, Zihark, and Tauroneo) and Crimean retainers (Bastian, Geoffery, Lucia, and Kieran). 

Edited September 5, 2018 by Etheus

[Vaximillian]

3 minutes ago, Othin said:

There's a well-established association by now between rarity and certain types of outfits and designs.

Except there isn’t.

Just now, Etheus said:

The biggest gaps in the Tellius roster

are Calill and Largo ;_;

Edited September 5, 2018 by Vaximillian

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Etheus said:

In what universe wouldn't it matter? The main characters and most iconic characters are the foundation from which any game reaches core representation. That foundation has to be in place first, and then it becomes prudent to intelligently fill out the roster with less important, characters to build on that. 

And no, most of the Greil Mercenaries are not more iconic than most characters in their own games, much less the series as a whole. Rhys and Rolf in particular are entirely forgettable. Boyd is just the cliche rival character, notable only because Heroes has an axe shortage.

The Dawn Brigade is even less important as most of its core members are among the least popular characters in the franchise. While Nolan is hands-down my favorite warrior in Fire Emblem, I hold no illusions as to the likelihood of his inclusion in the near future, and Edward and Leonardo have it far worse. Laura and Aran are even less likely to see inclusion any time soon. Fiona is noteworthy only for being useless, and we don't talk about Meg. Because Radiant Dawn lacked proper support conversations, we are left to judge these characters solely on subjective art preferences and objective combat performance, and it does not help that most of the Dawn Brigade has terrible performance.

The biggest gaps in the Tellius roster, other than the absence of Laguz, are Daein reps (Pelleas, Jill, Haar, Zihark, and Tauroneo) and Crimean retainers (Bastian, Geoffery, Lucia, and Kieran). 

This is all subjective. I don't think Rolf and Boyd are forgettable, they're memorable to me. The Greil Mercs and Dawn Brigade were two of the most important groups in Tellius. The GMs even more so since they're a big part of both games rather than just one.

5 minutes ago, Othin said:

The thing about FE4 is that it's basically two games in one. Before this, FE4 Gen 1 only had 8 characters.

I would say the most important FE4 Gen 1 characters to include are Sigurd, Dierdre, Quan, Ethlyn, Arya, Lewyn, and Arvis. Before this banner, we had 4 of them, now we'll have all 7.

Similarly, I would say the most important FE8 characters to include are Eirika, Ephraim, Seth, Tana, Innes, Joshua, L'Arachel, Myrrh, and Lyon. We have all 9 of them.

I'm sure we'll get more FE6 eventually, but it's had a pretty solid lineup from launch. Only big omissions are Idunn and Rutger, I'd say.

If you're going to say we need the rest of the Greil Mercs, Dawn Brigade, and Crimean Knights, I'm going to say we need the rest of the Fiana Braves. They're basically the original Greil Mercs, after all!

Tellius is two games too, you know...

What about Wolt? He's Roy's best friend. And Lugh? Raigh's twin.

...Who?

[Othin]

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

Except there isn’t.

Then tell me, who has an outfit like Lene's and is available below 5*?

Closest thing I can think of is original Camilla, and the original rarities don't always line up with banner drop policies.

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 minutes ago, Othin said:

The thing about FE4 is that it's basically two games in one.

And it has only 24 characters per Generation (ignoring the 14 Subs), half of what normal games have. And being pre-Supports, more characters than in later games are devoid of personality. Albeit not so much the 1st Gen, although it does have a few clunkers.

 

6 minutes ago, Etheus said:

Rhys and Rolf in particular are entirely forgettable.

*Fills you with arrows*

Rolf is one of the best tackled children characters in all of FE.

[Fabulously Olivier]

20 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

This is all subjective. I don't think Rolf and Boyd are forgettable, they're memorable to me. The Greil Mercs and Dawn Brigade were two of the most important groups in Tellius. The GMs even more so since they're a big part of both games rather than just one.

Tellius is two games too, you know...

What about Wolt? He's Roy's best friend. And Lugh? Raigh's twin.

...Who?

Tellius is two games with most of the cast shared between them. New characters in Radiant Dawn are a relative minority to returning characters.

Geneology is two games with a mostly distinct roster for each. Returning characters are a relative minority compared to new ones, especially if we count replacement children. And when you count Thracia 776, Geneology is three games.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Etheus

[Diovani Bressan]

5 minutes ago, Othin said:

It's a plenty reasonable argument. There's a well-established association by now between rarity and certain types of outfits and designs.

 

3 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Except there isn’t.

I am with @Vaximillian, it's not a reasonable argument for a 5* unit. If we consider design or art a factor for rarity classification, Sword Reinhardt should be a 5*-4* unit, because it's the same outfit and artist as OG Reinhardt.

[Garlyle]

45 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Yeah, and Tellius has fewer than that in Heroes right now despite its massive cast. 12 characters, I believe, including Oliver. BK and Zelgius I'm counting as one because obviously they're the same person. Magvel has fewer too. I think 10 characters? Their game's cast is much smaller though.

Both Judgral and Tellius have a big roster, however Magvel roster is kind of short compared to other titles. The bigger issue of Magvel is rather the accessibility of their units, most of them are 5*(Amelia, Myrrh, Innes, Tana, Lute) or reward units(Lyon, Joshua, Marisa). But I'm really going offtopic here...

May I recommend you to give Genealogy a try just for the story?

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

May I recommend you to give Genealogy a try just for the story?

I actually would like to play FE4 and FE5 someday. But they're Japan-only and I don't emulate. Waiting for inevitable remakes.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Anacybele

[Othin]

5 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Tellius is two games too, you know...

What about Wolt? He's Roy's best friend. And Lugh? Raigh's twin.

...Who?

I agree that Tellius needs more characters. Geoffrey, Ranulf, Ashnard, and Sephiran, for example. None of them are on the level of significance of Quan.

Wolt and Lugh do not play significant roles in FE6. While we're talking siblings: Ethlyn is Sigurd's sister, and Quan, her husband, is Sigurd's brother-in-law.

The Fiana Braves, or the Fiana Freeblades as they're apparently called now, are the mercenary group Leif and Finn join up with at the beginning of FE5. They consist of Eyvel, Orsin, Halvan, Dagdar, Tanya, and Marty: the initial party alongside Leif and Finn.

[Karimlan]

8 hours ago, XRay said:

I am pretty biased against melee units though.

I couldn't have guessed. :D

Damn, Lewyn. He'll be interesting to use, for sure. Quan's kit is formidable, and the only lemon I find here is another red dancer. But, we take what we can.