New Heroes: Rulers Of The Laguz

[Lau]

*muffled screaming*

Tibarn, Reyson and Leanne are absolutely the priorities here. Not too keen on Nailah's art, but what can you do?

All I need now are Naesala, Ranulf and Rhys, and I'll be satisfied with the Tellius representation forever.

[EricaofRenais]

4 minutes ago, Lau said:

*muffled screaming*

Tibarn, Reyson and Leanne are absolutely the priorities here. Not too keen on Nailah's art, but what can you do?

All I need now are Naesala, Ranulf and Rhys, and I'll be satisfied with the Tellius representation forever.

Naesala is the GHB which is coming on the 12th.

[Landmaster]

15 minutes ago, Coolmanio said:

Were enemy dragons always called 'Fafnirs', because I just noticed that in the trailer.

The Flying ones are, yes~

[NSSKG151]

Easy skip for me. Beast units were never interesting to me in Fire Emblem games so I can happily ignore this and be happy to save orbs for once. Also, their weapons having effects text on the same level as Yugioh cards just hurts my eyes.

[Water Mage]

30 minutes ago, DraceEmpressa said:

Laguz units introduced in the book where the main villain is goddess of death herself, who has been shown to lay her hand on the dead and make them her pawn...

 

Rajaion plis? 

 

I know it means he would suffer more in universe but it's better than not seeing him anymore for me

Actually Rajainon does have good chances of appearing. If they ever make another Fallen Heroes banner, Rajaion is the perfect choice for a Fallen Tellius character.

[bottlegnomes]

32 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

They released both Reyson and Leanne at the same time?

... Yeah, I'm not sure if that was the best move on their part. They're going to run out of refreshers if they keep spamming all of them at us early. Also, now I have to care about the banner because I wanted the herons.

To be fair, they still have about 9 easy ones at at least one per game for games 3-8 + 10 and one that's reasonable, if playing with cannon a little (vanilla Inigo).

 

28 minutes ago, NegativeExponents- said:

the current firesweep meta (is it even considered that?)

Lower tiers (18-19) seem to still be cav/flier dominated with staffers being the especially irksome element of it from my experience. Higher seems to be dragons and armors, also from my experiende. This seems to be directed at the staffers specifically. Firesweep is a pain, but they are basically just silver weapons otherwise so worst case scenario, tank it witj someone bulky ideally with WTA. Staffers have the added problem of their weapon ruining your day so it's doubly important to engage on PP since you might be in bad shape if you bait them. If I'm reading the effect right, this negates both aspects of that. If not, at least you can bait the irksome enemy and be rid of them, even if you're still in bad shape after that otherwise. But at least only one turn of easily removed irritation as opposed to what it's been.

Edited January 9, 2019 by bottlegnomes

[Nanima]

YES! Reyson is here! And he even looks likely to demote, so I can eventually +10 him!! This is amazing! I couldn't be happier with this! Still gonna try for copy now, just in case.

Tibarn looks so broken, it's not even funny. His skillset is out of this world. Glad he and Reyson were able to join at the same time, even if it means murder for my orbs.

I don't mind Leanne being here now, although this is even more bad news for my orbs. Nailah is also freaking amazing as a unit. Damn, this banner onpy has good things for me. 

Priority will be Reyson+Tibarn>Leanne>Nailah.

Also I am glad to hear Naesala is the ghb. Gotta keep some feathers saved for him. He'll likely be my second grail project after Skadikumi.

Edited January 9, 2019 by Nanima

[Sunwoo]

1 minute ago, bottlegnomes said:

To be fair, they still have about 9 easy ones at at least one per game for games 3-8 + 10 and one that's reasonable, if playing with cannon a little (vanilla Inigo).

I highly doubt that normal Inigo will come with dance, especially since normal Shigure did not come with sing.

Also, that's still not a lot of dancers compared to the rest of the (at least) playable FE cast that is still waiting to get in. I honestly can't tell if IS keeps on spamming the refresher characters from non-Awakening and Fates games so much because they're afraid it won't sell as well without something that's objectively useful like a dancer. Silvia and Lene, if I recall correctly, were not even super popular characters amongst Genealogy fans and yet they got in before other more popular female characters. I can buy that Lene hitched a ride with Ares, but he demoted over her, and Fury (can't remember her localized name) had more reason to tag along with Lewyn than Silvia.

[silverserpent]

Ah~ All of them look amazing and the art is sublime as well. Tibarn is a must, I think Reyson/Leanne will end up being demoted, and Nailah just looks bitchin'. I'm glad Naesala will be a freebie, since I'd hate having to try pulling from him. I hope the Herons drop, just so I won't feel too bad about not pulling for them ?

Ok, time to run through some chapters to farm up orbs. 70 is not nearly enough for this banner~

[Dandy Druid]

4 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

I highly doubt that normal Inigo will come with dance, especially since normal Shigure did not come with sing.

Also, that's still not a lot of dancers compared to the rest of the (at least) playable FE cast that is still waiting to get in. I honestly can't tell if IS keeps on spamming the refresher characters from non-Awakening and Fates games so much because they're afraid it won't sell as well without something that's objectively useful like a dancer. Silvia and Lene, if I recall correctly, were not even super popular characters amongst Genealogy fans and yet they got in before other more popular female characters. I can buy that Lene hitched a ride with Ares, but he demoted over her, and Fury (can't remember her localized name) had more reason to tag along with Lewyn than Silvia.

I can confirm that Lene wasn't popular before she was added in Heroes. She scored low in both CYL unfortunately. I do think Heroes really gave her a boost in popularity though.

Silvia wasn't exactly unpopular like her daughter, but she was... infamous. Tbh, it makes just as much sense to tag her along with Lewyn as it does with Fury because Silvia comes at the same time as Lewyn. Although this has made putting Fury on a banner harder, since Silvia can be pretty much thrown in with other characters (like Claud) while Fury's other close relationship is her NPC sister.

I don't know why they're afraid of adding dancers from other games. IIRC Tethys is one of the most requested SS characters not yet in Heroes. Her alongside Gerik (I think they're both in the Top 3/4 Sacred Stones characters not in yet according to CYL2) would probably do well on a banner.

The only "dancers" that I think IS should worry about is Lara and Laylea, and even then, they have their fans as well. 

[Book Bro]

10/10, love it, great banner finally Tellius and laguz get some love.

[redlight]

I'm glad I quit. The powercreep is getting out of hand

[Lewyn]

Well putting aside personal preference/familiarity/love for the characters themselves this is the best new hero banner in the history of the game.  4 unit banner, no alts, no Fates/Awakening.  Okay that is really stellar and quite rare in recent times, but what puts it way over the top is it is the first to introduced a truly new weapon type and transformation mechanic.  This is much beyond colored bow, or our first tome user that is also armored it is something completely new.  On top of that the transformations themselves look amazing and detailed, and the art is also excellent.

Look there will be more OP armors, fun fliers, new weapon/movement combinations but those are just small wrinkles to a tired formula.  This is much much more.

God I hope I am lucky with this banner cause I want all 4 units, and 4 unit banners with no color sharing is rough for summoning.  

[mewyeon]

GURL I'M SCREAMING AND YODELING

Tibarn, come to mama <3 and bring Reyson with you

[redlight]

Anyways, Yura has stunning artwork.

[Ice Dragon]

Oh dear, IS is burning through their dancers really fast.

And we have no inheritable weapons, which really bugs me. It feels like the developers are trying to kill off weapon skill inheritance or something, and it's already hard enough to find inheritable weapons to refine to actually get Dew.

 

It's nice that they've finally realized that Quick Riposte is stupidly powerful, though I think they're being a bit too heavy-handed with skills to counter it. At least that means skills like Darting Stance can actually now be useful when combined with Quick Riposte.

Null Counter-Disruption is a breath of fresh air, though, but being in the B slot as expected is going to make it tough to actually use. Infantry aren't really known to have particularly stellar mixed defenses, at least not at the level needed to tank in Aether Raids, which kind of hinders the skill.

Heron Wing interests me. It has 14 Mt like uninheritable ranged weapons, but is a melee weapon.

 

I'll try to pull for one of each, but Nailah will be my main focus. The flying dancers are cool and all, but I already have Legendary Azura and am not really in dire need of another +10 dancer at the moment. Nailah's skill set is very interesting, especially the fact that she effectively has Gravity+ in her C slot.

 

Sturdy Impact looks like more annoying whale shit that I'll have to deal with in the Arena and Aether Raids, though. On the other hand, it might actually make daggers finally viable. I wonder what the skill inheritance restrictions on it are, though. I'm actually half expecting it to be locked to physical weapons.

 

As for the art, it still bugs me a bit that Tibarn and Reyson have same-face syndrome with their respective artists. Leanne looks fine, though, so that's an improvement for Yura (a good thing, too, since everything else about Yura's art is pretty spot-on; it's really just the faces that bother me). No complaints about Nailah's art, though. Just her wolf sprite looking a bit too front-heavy. The head and shoulders look a bit too bulky.

 

1 hour ago, NegativeExponents- said:

Also, I hope Tibarn’s A skill is exclusive to him and not inheritable because that skill is just absurd. I don’t mind stuff like Nailah’s B skill which is just meant I counter the current firesweep meta (is it even considered that?) or her Gravity C skill which she can’t even apply from a safe distance the same way staff units can but Sturdy Impact is three big skills jammed into one slot (death blow, armored blow, and null follow-up) and that’s just excessive.

All uninheritable skills so far have used the beige "single-tier" border. It seems odd to make the skill part of a skill tree, but to have it be locked to a single unit.

It's also not Null Follow-Up at all. Null Follow-Up cancels skill effects that grant a guaranteed follow-up or prevent the unit from performing a follow-up. Impact behaves more like Wary Fighter and Weaponbreaker skills and simply prevents a follow-up. That also means that Impact's follow-up prevention can be negated by Null Follow-Up, whereas Null Follow-Up cannot be negated by the same skill on the opponent.

 

15 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

4 unit banner,

Which means low sniping rates. Which sucks for everyone except IS.

It would have been much better as two separate 2-character banners, though there's no way they'd actually do that.

Edited January 9, 2019 by Ice Dragon

[Vikare]

YEEEESSSSSS
I've been waiting for these characters since day 1 (especially Tibarn ?)! Pretty satisfied with how they made transformations work, as well as having the herons attack with magic, since I've long since accepted the fact that they'd have to have some way of attacking in FEH.
Here's to hoping for more good banners this year!

[DehNutCase]

19 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

It's nice that they've finally realized that Quick Riposte is stupidly powerful, though I think they're being a bit too heavy-handed with skills to counter it. At least that means skills like Darting Stance can actually now be useful when combined with Quick Riposte.

Null Counter-Disruption is a breath of fresh air, though, but being in the B slot as expected is going to make it tough to actually use. Infantry aren't really known to have particularly stellar mixed defenses, at least not at the level needed to tank in Aether Raids, which kind of hinders the skill.

A counter to QR being released at the same time as a counter to sweep at least makes it so that defensive units remain in about the same place---except with a more balanced role. That is, rather than expecting to ORKO a big portion of the cast and doing nothing vs. another part, it does about okayish vs. everyone.

(Note that Infantry can get +7 all stats with Legendary Azura now, and that by using up only 1 C-slot, meaning even drives ought to be good enough to bring their stats up to par.)

[Truthblade]

"We're concerned about Powercreep" my foot..

That aside, nice to finally have laguz. Gonna try to pull for Tibarn.

[Ice Dragon]

On a side note, it looks like the +2 Atk transformation bonus is treated as either a temporary boost to the unit's base stats or a boost to the weapon's Mt (both are functionally equivalent under the current mechanics).

You'll notice that Leanne and Reyson do not get a field buff to Atk while transformed.

[Sire]

I love Tellius and Radiant Dawn, but the direction that Fire Emblem Heroes seems set. I'm glad for those who still manage to enjoy FEH, but I think it's time for me to send one last feedback and uninstall (again). Since FEH continues to move forward, I must begin to move in a different direction.

I'll keep watch for the voice lines, official art, and whatnot through FEH content creators who enjoy Heroes far more than I. The stuff that the fans create are also cool to look at as I'm just here for the Fire Emblem stuff. Its just the gameplay aspect of Heroes has evolved into something I disagree with and I can no longer enjoy the game because of it.

Usual pessimism in the spoiler, to protect those who love the game. Best of luck to those who are rolling on the banner!

Spoiler

I was highly invested in Heroes, happily theory-crafting different builds and keeping track of my pulls. Sure, the story wasn't that great, but there were some gems hidden in there. However, first signs were seen at the advent of the CYL Heroes. I initially wrote it off as a "one-time special event" thing, as they had special skills and higher stats. Then Ayra came along which twisted my passion for FEH. It just goes to show to never get too invested into things...

I left FEH in October of 2017 and discovered Fate/Grand Order (which I found to be a superior game). I kept tabs on FEH, but noticed other trends. Seasonal Weapons started to be better than the ones we had. Unique Skills were added, which I did enjoy, but they too starting going off the deep end. Unique Weapons started getting more effects (Before -1 Special CD was considered good enough. Now we get -1 Special CD with addition effects.) New skills and stats were getting absurd and out of hand. Sure, brand new skills to allow for new builds is interesting, but when new skills are outright better than the old ones, then what is the point? If everyone gets a unique weapon, then what is the point of the generic ones?

I came back with the reveal of Book II since I was a story guy and they seemed to be improving themselves. Book II was what it was, but the trend of the stats and skills continued. While some stuff did happen, we eventually got to the reveal of Aether Raids. I loved Aether Raids, but that mode was assassinated by the new Blessings. Then we got the reveal for Book III. While it may be interesting, the choice of music for the reveal trailer left a poor impression on me.

As I did not actively play Heroes, I did not run into the cancer of Sutr in AR. I also gave up trying to do Arena despite the rewards because I couldn't be bothered to keep up with all the new stuff they keep putting out. Then Legendary Azura came out. I guess the devs at IS think "If everything is broken, everything is balanced!"

I just... I can't bring myself to care anymore. I wanted to be excited for Heroes. I wanted to be excited for Book III and the new Laguz units. I wanted to be excited about FEH's game modes. Its just the implementation of everything rubs me the wrong way. I had enough. I can access FEH art and voices elsewhere without playing the game. I can experience the story through Youtube videos. Just keep your gameplay mechanics and business model outside of mainline Fire Emblem. If elements of Heroes start to creep into mainline titles, then there will be problems to start being worried about...

[Arcphoenix]

9 minutes ago, Truthblade said:

"We're concerned about Powercreep" my foot..

Tibarn's A skill was enough to actually make me send feedback in customer support.

I love Fire Emblem and Heroes itself as its own game (I've played nearly every day since launch), though I'm a bit concerned in the general direction IS is going in. They should keep adding new and innovative things, but not at the cost of making a significant portion of what's in the game worthless practically indefinitely.

Edited January 9, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[DehNutCase]

1 minute ago, Sire said:

I love Tellius and Radiant Dawn, but the direction that Fire Emblem Heroes seems set. I'm glad for those who still manage to enjoy FEH, but I think it's time for me to send one last feedback and uninstall (again). Since FEH continues to move forward, I must begin to move in a different direction.

I'll keep watch for the voice lines, official art, and whatnot through FEH content creators who enjoy Heroes far more than I. The stuff that the fans create are also cool to look at as I'm just here for the Fire Emblem stuff. Its just the gameplay aspect of Heroes has evolved into something I disagree with and I can no longer enjoy the game because of it.

Usual pessimism in the spoiler, to protect those who love the game. Best of luck to those who are rolling on the banner!

  Reveal hidden contents

I was highly invested in Heroes, happily theory-crafting different builds and keeping track of my pulls. Sure, the story wasn't that great, but there were some gems hidden in there. However, first signs were seen at the advent of the CYL Heroes. I initially wrote it off as a "one-time special event" thing, as they had special skills and higher stats. Then Ayra came along which twisted my passion for FEH. It just goes to show to never get too invested into things...

I left FEH in October of 2017 and discovered Fate/Grand Order (which I found to be a superior game). I kept tabs on FEH, but noticed other trends. Seasonal Weapons started to be better than the ones we had. Unique Skills were added, which I did enjoy, but they too starting going off the deep end. Unique Weapons started getting more effects (Before -1 Special CD was considered good enough. Now we get -1 Special CD with addition effects.) New skills and stats were getting absurd and out of hand. Sure, brand new skills to allow for new builds is interesting, but when new skills are outright better than the old ones, then what is the point? If everyone gets a unique weapon, then what is the point of the generic ones?

I came back with the reveal of Book II since I was a story guy and they seemed to be improving themselves. Book II was what it was, but the trend of the stats and skills continued. While some stuff did happen, we eventually got to the reveal of Aether Raids. I loved Aether Raids, but that mode was assassinated by the new Blessings. Then we got the reveal for Book III. While it may be interesting, the choice of music for the reveal trailer left a poor impression on me.

As I did not actively play Heroes, I did not run into the cancer of Sutr in AR. I also gave up trying to do Arena despite the rewards because I couldn't be bothered to keep up with all the new stuff they keep putting out. Then Legendary Azura came out. I guess the devs at IS think "If everything is broken, everything is balanced!"

I just... I can't bring myself to care anymore. I wanted to be excited for Heroes. I wanted to be excited for Book III and the new Laguz units. I wanted to be excited about FEH's game modes. Its just the implementation of everything rubs me the wrong way. I had enough. I can access FEH art and voices elsewhere without playing the game. I can experience the story through Youtube videos. Just keep your gameplay mechanics and business model outside of mainline Fire Emblem. If elements of Heroes start to creep into mainline titles, then there will be problems to start being worried about...

Mind, I have a lot of the same concerns, but if we removed AR from the equation I'd actually welcome these banners. Yeah, it'll take forever for them to trickle down into my lineup (it takes roughly an entire year before I get willing to sacrifice a 5* exclusive, and then only if I have an extra copy lying around), but the game is, strictly speaking, getting more balanced from a pure gameplay perspective.

 

If we ignore the fact that it's only balanced for whales v. whales. Whales v. anyone else and anyone else v. anyone else is just a matter of 'the guy who has the newest stuff is heavily favored.'

Which is fixable with a skill refinery, assuming that they allow 5* exclusives to be buyable with non-orb currencies (even grails would be acceptable, despite the fact that they're technically even more limited than orbs), but I don't see that happening.

[Troykv]

The name of the Steady Tempest Skill makes my curious about it's actual properties; because it's pretty much a Special Sturdy Blow... Why put a name like that instead of just calling it Sturdy Blow 3 or something? There is something special about the SI possibilities with this skills?

Who knows.

[Sire]

2 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Mind, I have a lot of the same concerns, but if we removed AR from the equation I'd actually welcome these banners. Yeah, it'll take forever for them to trickle down into my lineup (it takes roughly an entire year before I get willing to sacrifice a 5* exclusive, and then only if I have an extra copy lying around), but the game is, strictly speaking, getting more balanced from a pure gameplay perspective.

If we ignore the fact that it's only balanced for whales v. whales. Whales v. anyone else and anyone else v. anyone else is just a matter of 'the guy who has the newest stuff is heavily favored.'

Which is fixable with a skill refinery, assuming that they allow 5* exclusives to be buyable with non-orb currencies (even grails would be acceptable, despite the fact that they're technically even more limited than orbs), but I don't see that happening.

If Heroes is going the route of adding these new things to address the current meta (which I have a feeling they are), then maybe that would be fine - if it was a large content update. This trickle-down effect, from my point of view, shows a descent into madness and "powercreep." The truth may be on developmental papers which has everything worked out to be sunshine and rainbows, but only once all this stuff is actually released.
A large content update with tons of new and upgraded skills, not to mention units, would shake things up considerably and people would have to figure out what is the best again. Some units, such as "The Reinhardt" will likely stay near the top despite the changes. Others, such as various Armors, may be good for an update, then subpar the next. If most/all the existing skills got Tier 4 equivalents at the same time, it would be a bit more digestible than slowly dripfeeding them and leaving the players in the dark. The thing is, Heroes decides to balance things by tossing new things into the mix instead of modifying the old (and I wonder if a part of that is due to being a Gacha game).

If all these shiny new skills were much more accessible (such as the theoretical Skill Refinery), then that may even the playing field a bit. The thing is, balancing older units solely on weapon refines and skill inheritance may not be enough. But I suppose there has to be a draw for the new guys, and IS decided on making them more powerful than the last. I will not be surprised if there is a Generation 3 of stat-boosted units when the next CYL comes along.

Either way, I lost trust in FEH and don't see them "fixing" the problems they have created (or things I personally perceive as problems). They may apply band-aids (Fear not the FatesAwakening banners, for we have Binding Blade and Radiant Dawn coming up!), but I see them carrying on with this model regardless of feedback and possible revenue loss. Maybe my doomsaying is for naught and suddenly FEH turns around and becomes the best thing ever, but I'm not holding my breath for it.