New Heroes Appear: Nohrian Dusk (September 14th ~)

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, bottlegnomes said:

Where'd you hear that? Genuinely curious since the banner still has about a week.

Anyway for the banner in general. Yeah, Silas is looking very solid. As others have said, he'll be a great dedicated physical tank or mixed tank with BL+. 45 HP, 36 def, and 35 res is no joke. Give him QR and some def boosting skills, say DD, CD, Bracing Stance, etc. and he'll be a pain to kill plus have mobility. Heck, he can even make decent use out of DC if you have the fodder. Repo fodder is always great; now we just need colorless. I like his art a lot, but not overly fond of the voice. It sounds too young. Overall, won't pull for him, but I certainly wouldn't complain if he showed up.

Well, I should've said he WILL demote, my bad. It was datamined.

Yeah, I want to give Silas the same build as my Freddy! Provided I can get +Def for him. Right now I'm stuck with +HP, -Atk. :/ I guess the HP does add a bit to his bulk, but the -Atk is really bad.

[Kaden]

Aww man, apparently Ophelia has a really cool looking rally animation and ready animation. Guess I won't be seeing her ready animation without watching a video of someone with her or getting her as a random ally for voting gauntlet.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Kaden

[Ice Dragon]

48 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

@Ice Dragon My main issue with SS is that all it takes is pretty much take a tiny niche that L&D and Fury was already filling---it gives marginally more offenses in the case where you don't need Fury 3's bulk, and marginally more bulk in the case you don't need L&D's damage. It's not that its niche doesn't exist so much as between the two alternatives its niche is kind of tiny, and the differences sufficiently small that there's not much reason to run it. (On the other hand, if SS was the 3* option while L&D and Fury were the 5* only skills you bet I'd slap it almost everywhere---yeah, I lose a bunch of enemy phase combat, but that's the price I pay for being cheap.)

 

L&D also scales better with support---it's a lot easier to get, say, 6 more points in def/res than 1 or 2 more points in Atk/Spd after you've already obtained Hone Type. Ally Support is also +2 all stats, meaning a little bit more bulk when you can afford the positioning costs. (I suppose you can just stack Goad Type on top of the Hone Type, but I feel like pure emblem teams is a lot more limiting in terms of team building than Tactics Teams.)

The performance of a skill doesn't depend on how difficult it is to get the skill. Fury and Life and Death being easier to obtain doesn't make Swift Sparrow worse at what it does, it makes Swift Sparrow less cost-efficient for what it does, and those are two different things.

While Life and Death does scale better with support, if you're doing things right, you're running your simulations and/or real-life experience with that support already accounted for. And if since it does scale better with support, it also means it scales worse with enemy buffs and your debuffs, noting also that Life and Death and Fury both count against you for Chill activation and Life and Death counts against you for Chilling Seal activation.

In the end you should still be testing with all of the factors that will come into play in practice in effect to determine which is the best pick for your circumstances. Fury is going to be optimal for some units, Swift Sparrow for others, and Life and Death for others still.

[bottlegnomes]

15 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, I should've said he WILL demote, my bad. It was datamined.

Ah, cool, makes +10ing him realistic. That was rather generous of IS to put a 400 point assist in the 4* pool, but I'm not going to complain, and putting the sword version of BL in the 4* pool seemed weird as well. There are some units of mine who would appreciate steady posture too.

 

15 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Yeah, I want to give Silas the same build as my Freddy! Provided I can get +Def for him. Right now I'm stuck with +HP, -Atk. :/ I guess the HP does add a bit to his bulk, but the -Atk is really bad.

Ooh, yeah, that is painful. Hope your luck turns around.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, bottlegnomes said:

Ooh, yeah, that is painful. Hope your luck turns around.

Me too, yeah.

[Othin]

41 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, I should've said he WILL demote, my bad. It was datamined.

Where? I haven't heard anything about datamines giving that info, either here or any previous time.

It has data about the skills he would have at lower rarities, but all characters have that, it doesn't mean they're actually available at those rarities.

[Emerson]

Well... I guess I'll go down my list.

~700 orbs.

1 Delthea
1 Leif
1 Azura
1 Brave Lucina
1 Olwen
1 Nina
2 Shiro
2 Sumia
9 Silas
And a grand total of... 6 Ophelia! The final one was an amazing +Spd -HP, while the first four were all either -atk or -spd, and the fifth was +res -def.

I guess Silas is... heck, probably on my Arena team now for points. I got both +Atk -Res and +Def -HP, so it's a tough choice... Both looks tempting.

[Ice Dragon]

The game decided to give me a neutral Ophelia and a [+Def, -Spd] Nina. Also another merge for Tana (now +7) as well as my 4th spare copy of Ayra and my 5th spare copy of Tailtiu. Because the game thinks I need that many spare copies, apparently.

Since this banner goes well past the start of next month, I'm in no rush to get more orbs to finish the collection quite yet.

[Korath88]

For those who have her, what's the final verdict on Flora? Overhyped or actually threatening?

[Anacybele]

47 minutes ago, Othin said:

Where? I haven't heard anything about datamines giving that info, either here or any previous time.

It has data about the skills he would have at lower rarities, but all characters have that, it doesn't mean they're actually available at those rarities.

I don't know where exactly, people on the Smash SF Discord chat said datamines showed 4 star Quan in later pools.

[redlight]

39 minutes ago, Korath88 said:

For those who have her, what's the final verdict on Flora? Overhyped or actually threatening?

She good. Give her swordbreaker, glacies and QP. Also, she negates Great Flame when initiating combat

She shortly fails to reach Lilina. As good or better than celica though

Edited September 14, 2018 by silveraura25

[Othin]

27 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I don't know where exactly, people on the Smash SF Discord chat said datamines showed 4 star Quan in later pools.

I'm guessing they misunderstood something, then.

[DehNutCase]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

The performance of a skill doesn't depend on how difficult it is to get the skill. Fury and Life and Death being easier to obtain doesn't make Swift Sparrow worse at what it does, it makes Swift Sparrow less cost-efficient for what it does, and those are two different things.

The problem is that what Swift Sparrow does is so damn narrow---if it was Atk +4/Spd +4 I'd actually rate it slightly better than Fury and L&D, since that keeps the enemy phase. But even though it's a player phase only skill, it's not strong to the point of being consistently better than L&D and Fury, both of which have uses on enemy phase.

 

It has to go on a unit that's expected to take counter attacks and isn't reasonably expected to take an enemy phase, and even then it's usually just comparable rather than obviously better. Mind, this is only SS in its current state---SS 3 will probably be +6/+6, which would give it +2/+2 Atk/Spd on Fury 4 and tie it in Atk/Spd with L&D 4 without costing bulk, which makes it a lot better in comparison.

[bottlegnomes]

19 minutes ago, Othin said:

I'm guessing they misunderstood something, then.

Still, I mean, it's not completely out of the question. I can definitely see Silvia demoting given the rest of her kit, but also, Berkut's Sword in the common pool. I don't think we want Zephiels running around with it left and right. Heck, +res Zelgius with warding breath, BF, and QR would be a PITA to deal with, what with 38/39. Granted they're the top end, but there are enough bulky swords to make a nontrivial number of annoying mixed tanks if it were super common. True, BL is free, but they've definitely shown that they're willing to give out otherwise 5*-locked skills in limited quantities.

That said, I still think it's a tossup between Quan and Silvia leaning a bit toward Silvia, and Silas is far more demote-likely than Quan.

Edited September 14, 2018 by bottlegnomes

[Ice Dragon]

5 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

It has to go on a unit that's expected to take counter attacks and isn't reasonably expected to take an enemy phase

Almost all player-phase units lose their enemy phase entirely after a single round of combat against a neutral opponent or an opponent with a fast-charging Special. Taking a counterattack and losing your enemy phase entirely afterwards is the norm, not the exception.

[Othin]

2 minutes ago, bottlegnomes said:

Still, I mean, it's not completely out of the question. I can definitely see Silvia demoting given the rest of her kit, but also, Berkut's Sword in the common pool. I don't think we want Zephiels running around with it left and right. Heck, +res Zelgius with warding breath, BF, and QR would be a PITA to deal with, what with 38/35. Granted they're the top end, but there are enough bulky swords to make a nontrivial number of annoying mixed tanks if it were super common. True, BL is free, but they've definitely shown that they're willing to give out otherwise 5*-locked skills in limited quantities.

That said, I still think it's a tossup between Quan and Silvia, and Silas is far more demote-likely than Quan.

Quan demoting is highly implausible. Biggest factor is that he has 5 skills, and 5-skill units have always been 5* exclusive unless they're healers. He also has a flashy new kind of Rally and a decently noteworthy new dual Stance skill.

The only reason there's any real number of people doubting that Silvia will drop is Lene. And Lene is also a reason for Silvia to drop, because they can expect people interested in pulling for "FE4 sword infantry dancer with a dance-buff B skill and a Berkut's Lance-style sword" have already pulled for the earlier one whose skills affect more relevant stats.

[EricaofRenais]

This banner is annoying I pulled a 5* Ares as my free pull so I kept going and now have a pity rate.  Sigh, I will try to break it since I do like flora but I am mad at myself for wasting orbs.

[DehNutCase]

39 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Almost all player-phase units lose their enemy phase entirely after a single round of combat against a neutral opponent or an opponent with a fast-charging Special. Taking a counterattack and losing your enemy phase entirely afterwards is the norm, not the exception.

Ah, I was referring to when you want to fight on enemy phase before taking your first [edit: player phase] combat.

 

Like, if everyone I had gets dinged to death by Slaying Edge Wrath Ayra or whatever when I'm attacking into her, I'd prefer to have someone with Fury 3 or L&D so that they don't die from getting doubled on EP.

Edited September 14, 2018 by DehNutCase

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, Kaden said:

Aww man, apparently Ophelia has a really cool looking rally animation and ready animation. Guess I won't be seeing her ready animation without watching a video of someone with her or getting her as a random ally for voting gauntlet.

Her ready pose is the same as her idle art's pose, but winking. The full animation has her doing a book flip (in the same way you'd toss and catch a knife) leading up to it. It's pretty wonderful.

Top-class ready animation. Up there with Hardin's.

 

14 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Ah, I was referring to when you want to fight on enemy phase before taking your first [edit: player phase] combat.

 

Like, if everyone I had gets dinged to death by Slaying Edge Wrath Ayra or whatever when I'm attacking into her, I'd prefer to have someone with Fury 3 or L&D so that they don't die from getting doubled on EP.

If that happened to me, my first thought would have been more of "I need a better blue unit".

(But Nowi and Hardin give zero shits about Ayra, so it hasn't happened to me yet.)

[Kaden]

3 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Her ready pose is the same as her idle art's pose, but winking. The full animation has her doing a book flip (in the same way you'd toss and catch a knife) leading up to it. It's pretty wonderful.

Top-class ready animation. Up there with Hardin's.

I've seen a screenshot of her ready pose, but not the full animation leading up to it. Her rally animation is enough for now.

[Hilda]

2 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

The problem is that what Swift Sparrow does is so damn narrow---if it was Atk +4/Spd +4 I'd actually rate it slightly better than Fury and L&D, since that keeps the enemy phase. But even though it's a player phase only skill, it's not strong to the point of being consistently better than L&D and Fury, both of which have uses on enemy phase.

 

It has to go on a unit that's expected to take counter attacks and isn't reasonably expected to take an enemy phase, and even then it's usually just comparable rather than obviously better. Mind, this is only SS in its current state---SS 3 will probably be +6/+6, which would give it +2/+2 Atk/Spd on Fury 4 and tie it in Atk/Spd with L&D 4 without costing bulk, which makes it a lot better in comparison.

Those skills while raising the almost the same stats are for totally different purposes, i wouldnt rate one lower then the other.
Life and Death is purely for an offensiv unit that wont get counter hit or that can mitgate the counterhit somehow (read Raven built with Shield pulse, or Firesweep weapons) and can survive hits. Life and Death is very detrimental when faceing units that bypass the spd check for doubles: read bold fighter/vengefull fighter and breaker skills, Quick Riposte.

Fury is in my eyes for units that need bulk to survive initiation or makeing them better at takeing hits. This one needs constant support. Or for when you would like to reach a lower HP threshold faster (Desperation, Brash Assault etc)

Swift Sparrow is nice for units that can take a hit without needing fury, or for one side bulky units (read high def high spd highisch atk but low res etc.). It makes them a better player phase units while still keeping their one sided bulkiness intact to take hits from units that target that bulk. And can provide a good combo with self healign specials.

I mean shits situational and depends what you are playing. For longer GHB maps with respawns all over the place i for example replace Fury with Swift Sparrow, because its just to taxing to keep 6 HP lost constantly up on a unit like Gunnthra for example. While in Arena i use Fury on her because it gives her more bulk and she needs to finish off 1 or 2 units tops.

[Diovani Bressan]

I only used 22 orbs in total, and I got a +Def -Spd Silas, which is great! I already gave my first step to +10 him.

[Sunwoo]

You know, I really wish they didn't schedule the next forging bonds to go with this banner. The Genealogy characters could've used the extra characterization and exposure far more than the Fates characters.

[Troykv]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

You know, I really wish they didn't schedule the next forging bonds to go with this banner. The Genealogy characters could've used the extra characterization and exposure far more than the Fates characters.

I would have liked a Four People Banner for FE4; but oh well; I can understand is easier to write things for the CQ Cast

[Lewyn]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

You know, I really wish they didn't schedule the next forging bonds to go with this banner. The Genealogy characters could've used the extra characterization and exposure far more than the Fates characters.

This is so true.  Most of the modern audience is already familiar with and knowledgeable of Awakening and Fates characters.  These forging bonds could really help many learn who these older characters (SNES, NES) games are.  

Hey one thing about Silas.  Now clearly Flora is the most story significant/important character and is the star.  However Silas should be 2nd, with Nina/Ophelia distant 3rd.  He isn't a child unit, he is best friend/childhood friend of Corrin the MC and has story significance.  

Yeah and Ophelia's animation is something.  They really hit it out of the park with her sprite, animation and art.