Blessed Gardens is ending

[Zapp Branniglenn]

It wasn't too long ago when we learned this mode would end in late May with its final maps of each element. I've been slacking on these like most regular PvE content. My having cleared just 1 out of 22 Squad Assaults can attest to that. However, hearing that it's ending gives the mode a sense of finality that made me want to finish it in the last month. The maps aren't overwhelmingly difficult on their own, but the trial and error nature of swapping out units that might work just feels tiresome. And of course that issue is accentuated with Blessed Gardens when your pool of units is shrunk to just legendaries of that type and any others you gave blessings to. For years I've just been handing out blessings for the SP boost on units that have three passives to learn as I level them up. That has proven to be enough since I cleaned up all the maps for Water, Wind, and most recently Earth. But I sure would have appreciated the ability to test a unit that isn't blessed in one of these maps to see if the AI still behaves how I expect. In order to check if a certain unit will work in a map, I have to use this finite currency. As a result I sort of brute forced my way through with the units already blessed.

Anyway, how are you guys taking the ending of this mode? None of the modes in this game have really ended before. Only Relay Defense which sounds like it may be back in some new form. And lots of terrible modes like Voting Gauntlet were just retooled to be better, rather than discontinued. I was hoping they'd start giving us blessed gardens maps for the new blessings. As somebody who doesn't care for optimizing his score in PvP modes, blessing have been near useless to me outside of these challenging maps and the EXP/SP boost. And with the end of the existing Gardens, they've become much more useless to me moving forward. 

Here are my Water units now out of a job plus 26 additional blessings once I clear the rest of Fire: Masked Marth, Zelgius, Eliwood, M!Morgan, Azura!Camilla, Brave Hector, Ninian, Summer!Xander, Hector,  M!Grima, Spring!Sharena, Innes, Summer!Frederick, HotSpring!Camilla, Winter!Eirika, and Micaiah who defected to the Earth team since Bartre couldn't handle the Zelgius map of Earth 8 on his own

Here are my Wind units now out of job plus 28 additional blessings: Leif, Helpful!Chrom, Palla, NotCanon!Eirika, Naesala, Ylgr, Ursula, Dorcas, Surtr, HotSprings!Hinoka, Rhajat, Brave Lyn, Loki

Here are my Earth units now out of job plus 19 additional blessings: Alm, Sword!Reinhardt, Celica, Ephraim, LA!Eliwood, Micaiah (defected from Water team), F!Morgan, Bartre, Brave Ephraim, Sue, Deirdre, Inigo, Caineghis, Takumi, Kagero, Dancing!Xander, Brave Veronica.

[Mercakete]

It's ending?! Like, they're completely removing it, and not just not adding any new maps? Drat. I've never been able to finish them all; just some of the "easier" ones, especially since I only use a couple teams for everything in the game. (I don't have the time/resources to put together many teams, and I'm still trying to put together a good cav team and a good flying team, let alone blessings teams.) I can never clear the harder GHB/BHB maps either, and would appreciate it if they left those open for when we "overlevel" them so that those of us in this situation can achieve them someday. But if it's already been decided, I guess all I can do is watch...

[Vince777]

The final Blessing Grounds were particularly challenging, I found, and as someone who was relied on guides for most pve content, it forced me to find my way out by myself, since there cannot really be guides for them. 

In this sense, I'm sad the mode is ending. I'll probably go back to my lazy ways and use guides for everything else.

I really hope they have another plan for the blessings because I worked hard to make diverse elemental teams that could tackle any challenge.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Vince777

[Zapp Branniglenn]

10 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

It's ending?! Like, they're completely removing it, and not just not adding any new maps? Drat. I've never been able to finish them all; just some of the "easier" ones, especially since I only use a couple teams for everything in the game. (I don't have the time/resources to put together many teams, and I'm still trying to put together a good cav team and a good flying team, let alone blessings teams.) I can never clear the harder GHB/BHB maps either, and would appreciate it if they left those open for when we "overlevel" them so that those of us in this situation can achieve them someday. But if it's already been decided, I guess all I can do is watch...

No, it's not ending as in being removed. It's more like ending in the sense that a show is ending. The show doesn't poof out of existence or memory, they just stop making new episodes. You'll still be able to challenge these maps whenever.

Being able to tackle these maps at any time definitely is a nice bonus, since I was able to come back a year later with powercreeped units. But the lack of a time limit is also probably the reason I procastinated in the first place.

[Humanoid]

I'm a slacker too, having only gotten up to Squad Assault 10, which would have been about a year ago, and while I did all the single-map Blessed Gardens, I've only completed two Blessed Grounds in total: Water 1 and Earth 1.

I'm not a fan of multi-map modes in general, but they're tolerable as long as I can keep the same team across all maps, like TT and to a lesser extent CC. Modes where I have to select multiple teams is just an incredible hassle and I avoid them as much as I can. Then there's Relay Defense where I need multiple teams for *one* map, good grief.

So yeah, I'm glad Blessed Grounds are ending. If they had stayed as single maps, I'd have been totally fine with them staying, but those days will never return. Aptly though, the replacement mode, in the form of Allegiance Battles, is a single map mode - or indeed arguably a zero-map mode considering that we're doing them already so the Blessed Gardens rewards are now being handed out effectively for free.

One big concern though is how they'll tie the quantity of the rewards to performance in Allegiance Battle. The sensible route would be to just award the former Blessed Gardens rewards as a flat amount simply for participating in Allegiance Battles. That is, award the current score-based Feathers and rank-based Dragonflowers based on performance and just add the 5 orbs, 2000 feathers or 20 dew on top of that. But I can't be optimistic about IS's motivations lately so I'm afraid the move might result in a net loss of orbs.

 

All that said, I will continue to ignore the remaining Blessed Grounds maps until such a point where I become desperate for the rewards - but given that I still have dozens of Story Map orbs and over a hundred Chain Challenge orbs to claim, I don't see that day coming anytime soon.

And yes, I'm terrible at handing out Blessings too. Even some of my best units like +10 Palla and Cherche are completely lacking a blessing, and Marthed Mask, who I've had for ages, only got one in the last month or so.

Fire - 4 Legendaries, 7 Blessed units, 27 spare Blessings
Horse Chrom+1, Xander+2, Lilina+10, Horse Eirika, Horse Catria, Cecilia+10, Bowlyn+1

Water - 2 Legendaries, 7 Blessed units, 23 spare Blessings
Eirika+2, Hinoka, Michalis+2, Nino+10, Peganino, Bridelia+1, Olivia 4*+10

Wind - 3 Legendaries, 8 Blessed units, 22 spare Blessings
Ike+2, Marthed Mask+10, Brave Roy+1, Lancina+2, Reinhardt+2, Fae+1, Inigo+2, Clarine

Earth - 2 Legendaries, 12 Blessed units, 17 spare Blessings
Elincia+1, ATiki+10, Tharja, Ephraim+1, Ninian+1, Nowi+10, Summer Corrin+1, Airzura, Myrrh+1, Julia, Bow Hinoka, Spring Kagero

* Spare Blessings don't include unclaimed Blessed Garden ones.

[Vince777]

Blessings help SPP  grinding so much that I've always wondered why some people hold on to them. 

[Humanoid]

2 minutes ago, Vince777 said:

Blessings help SPP  grinding so much that I've always wondered why some people hold on to them. 

Between the double SP weekends and the doubled SP per level change they made some time ago, I find that levelling a unit normally is more than sufficient to teach them all the skills they need. Some exceptions for units who might need a 500sp special or whatnot but they're few and far between.

[Tybrosion]

I've cleared every Garden and Grounds to date, so I'm only waiting on the final Grounds for Fire. I don't really have much to say about this mode ending, but I will keep handing out Legendary blessings mainly for the purposes of Arena Assault scoring. If anyone cares, here's all my Legendary blessed units (currently have no spare Legendary blessings):

Water

Spoiler

Legendary Ryoma
Legendary Azura

Brave Celica, +2
Roy
Masked Marth, +3
Owain
Soleil, +10
Caeda
Keaton
Idunn
Hot Spring Elise
Celica, +1
Tharja, +1
Summer Leo, +1

Azura, +2
Brave Hector
Summer Cordelia
Naesala
Ninian, +2
Female Corrin
Ishtar
Lute
Singer Shigure, +1
Summer Female Corrin, +1

Anna
Dorcas
Brave Ephraim
Amelia
Female Kana
Julia, +1
Smol Azura
Halloween Henry, +2
Picnic Leo, +1
Pega Nino, +1

Bride Cordelia
Halloween Jakob, +2
Kinshi Hinoka, +3
Felicia, +10
Hot Spring Camilla
Mist
Winter Eirika
Elise, +1

Wind

Spoiler

Legendary Lucina
Legendary Lyn, +1

Karla
Ike, +1
Lucina
Black Knight, +2
Sword Reinhardt, +2
Brave Roy
Elincia, +2
Pega Olivia, +2
Summer Young Tiki
Picnic Flora
Bun-Bun Palla
Dancer Micaiah
Winter Tharja, +1
Summer Tana

Nephenee
Shiro, +2
Effie, +2
Catria, +1
Clair
Delthea, +2
Oliver
Odin
Bun-Bun Catria, +1
Reinhardt

Linus
Hector
New Year's Azura
Myrrh
Dancer Elincia
Nino
Soren
Bun-Bun Camilla

Leanne, +1
Nina
Brave Lyn
Kagero
Mikoto
Sakura, +10
Clarine
Hot Spring Sakura

Earth

Spoiler

Legendary Ike, +1
Legendary Young Tiki
Legendary Female Robin / Grima, +2

Ayra
Olivia
Ryoma, +1
Zelgius
Horse Chrom, +1
Tibarn
Young Tiki, +1
Halloween Myrrh, +1
Flora
Lilina, +1
Adrift Camilla

Ephraim, +3
Tana, +6
Sumia, +1
Cordelia, +10
Nowi
Halloween Niles
Kliff
Micaiah, +1
Bun-Bun Lucina, +1
Ophelia, +2
Summer Camilla

Brave Ike
Nohr Azura
Valentine Hector
Greil
Minerva, +1
Haar, +2
Kaden
Adrift Female Corrin, +1
Sue
Deirdre
Inigo, +1
Summer Elise
Valentine Lilina

Klein, +10
Niles
Genny, +3
Maribelle

Fire

Spoiler

Legendary Marth, +2
Legendary Ephraim, +1
Legendary Hector

Alm
Silvia
Mia, +1
Chrom, +1
Valentine Ike
Sigurd, +3
New Year's Camilla
Adult Tiki, +10
Sanaki, +2
Henry
Leo, +2
Halloween Nowi

Lukas, +1
Brave Lucina, +3
Hardin
Panne
Linde
Deathea, +2
Tailtiu, +1
L'Arachel
Female Morgan

Raven
Summer Adult Tiki
Cherche
Camilla
Reyson, +1
Fallen Male Robin / Grima
Halloween Kagero
Rhajat, +1
Cecilia
Bridal Sanaki

Velouria
Caineghis
Innes
Summer Takumi
Dagger Olivia
Dancer Xander
Nanna
Halloween Mia

 

[colossus86]

From my perspective, blessed gardens has always been ass, and it was only going to get worse. Certain story maps really didn't lend themselves well to to highly restricted nature of the mode and it tied into a mechanic that imo IS failed to implement properly on nearly all accounts. I'm currently in Tier 20.5 in Arena running a jank all green core of B!Ike, Soren, and Titania. I never really bothered giving out my blessings in a thoughtful way because it became clear that I didn't need to to succeed. Similarly, I finish somewhere around the 6k mark in AA (with the very occasional top 5k) and I don't give any thought to the blessing scoring at all.

Given how little blessings actually matter in Arena I can't blame people for how taken aback they were at how important Mythics/blessings were in AR and how important the pair up Legendaries are for AB. I have most of the Old Legendaries, but never really considered merging them since they were just such a poor value proposition given that they don't help every week and are absolute torture to pull for. I Think IS could see this value issue and it motivated them to add Legendaries to the permanent bonus rotation of AR and Arena just so people can actually get some bang for their buck.

[Mercakete]

3 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

No, it's not ending as in being removed. It's more like ending in the sense that a show is ending. The show doesn't poof out of existence or memory, they just stop making new episodes. You'll still be able to challenge these maps whenever.

Being able to tackle these maps at any time definitely is a nice bonus, since I was able to come back a year later with powercreeped units. But the lack of a time limit is also probably the reason I procastinated in the first place.

Ahh, okay. Thanks for the clarification. :)

[mampfoid]

I liked this mode. Even if was just another recycle of the same maps again, it was a possibility to bring underused units and build new teams for a purpose. 

No fan of having these orbs locked behind AB where you have to field an expensive and highly merged team to get all rewards. 

[whase]

As a free player that always picks favorite units above strong units during summoning, I always have a shortage of units for this mode. I was so happy when I finally had the units to fill 2 teams for each element... that was a week before they added a third team necessary to play. The struggle to make it through them with bad units and bad skills was kind of interesting and gives a sense of accomplishment though. But now these final maps are far too hard for me, guess I'll try them again in a year or so.

(still rather throw my feathers at +10'ing my faves than making my other units stronger)

[Stroud]

Still have to clear some. Most of the times I only cleared ones which don't give orbs so I can stash the orbs save there for Rinkah emergency.  But there are still other ways to stash orbs without touching them in the game and its not that much.

Now I just get them through other means anyway and just have to behave little more. Other than that I somehow got always through at what I did there.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I'm overjoyed, honestly. I thought that blessed Gardens was one of the game's worst content streams (with only aether raids being worse).

 

It has all of the frustration of chain challenges with the added restriction of blessings to limit your unit pool.

[Jingle Jangle]

I don't bad about it ending. Most of the time I completed maps when I needed more orbs for mass summoning. It was too restrictive for me to casually play.

[Landmaster]

I finished all of them since they announced it was ending and I'm pretty happy about it~ 4 team slots no longer being wasted and I can start giving my units AR Blessings without any regret~

[Interdimensional Observer]

Never did a single one of these, haven't used a single Blessing, I don't have enough units for it anyhow. Maybe if I feel real desperate for Orbs I'd tap into these for a few, but otherwise I won't. The nice thing about it being over maybe is that one can say definitively what you want blessed for each element- since all the maps including the most nefarious ones are known and that won't be changing.

[Shoblongoo]

Been keeping up with all of them.

On the one hand: sucks that as an F2P player, I'll be losing that steady income of orbs and freathers that clearing BG challenges brought in. 

On the other hand:  this will let me now focus purely on reallocating blessings for best performance in Aether Raids. And not have to worry about how that affects my BG squads.

__________

Fine with it. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 hour ago, Shoblongoo said:

Been keeping up with all of them.

On the one hand: sucks that as an F2P player, I'll be losing that steady income of orbs and freathers that clearing BG challenges brought in. 

On the other hand:  this will let me now focus purely on reallocating blessings for best performance in Aether Raids. And not have to worry about how that affects my BG squads.

__________

Fine with it. 

The rewards are being shifted to allegiance battles. Depending on how that is allocated, your rewards could be similar to what they are now.

[Shoblongoo]

Yeah it does seem like there's b

1 hour ago, Etheus said:

The rewards are being shifted to allegiance battles. 

...I mean, I'd take both...

I will say that just in terms of challenge level and enjoyability of play and incentives to keep investing in new units, I find Blessed Gardens to be a much more engaging gameplay experience. 

Then again, they keep adding new content and theres no shortage of things to do in Heroes atm. So I really don't feel like I'm getting shortchanged.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Shoblongoo

[SSbardock84]

I don't mind, I honestly forget about them tbh. At least they're not getting rid of the maps.

[Mau]

I've done them all up until the last fire map we're still waiting for. I tried doing them regurlarly but was a bit behind when them ending was announced. Decided to do them all asap cause I love them green check marks. The final maps have been hell, especially the water one. It took me about 2-3 hours to solve, blessing three more units I normally never use and a bunch of SI. All the others I could just do with the units I already had blessed for it.

I'm really happy they're going. Like I really liked them when it was just 1-2 teams, they were a fun challenge. But the three team grounds were just too much and it was a pain having to always make sure I had 12 teams with the right blessings. And especially with AR requiring blessings this mode just couldn't stay, having to juggle between all the blessings when making teams really was getting a mess now.

And the rewards are going to AB, a mode I'm gonna play every week anyway and now becomes worth more to play so it's a win-win. And I can finally just shuffle my teams around without worrying about the blessings, now only having teams consisting of my actual favs instead having to keep adding units I don't really care for to be able to do the Blessed Gardens.

[Alexmender]

The mode itself was "meh". It was like a crappier version of CC with an arbitrary blessing restriction. Now, the restriction worked a bit in the beginning because it forced me to do diversify my roster instead of giving everyone and their mother a Water blessing. At least the rewards it offered were cool stuff!

I think I've only finished the Water section, I left the others incomplete to have a feather/dew bank just to be safe. The feathers maps will stay untouched until I get all the Y!Azura copies to +10 her (only 2 more to go but 500 grails is going to take a while) and the Dew maps until one of Gleipnir/Beloved Zofia/Cordelia's Prf happens.

[Roflolxp54]

While there were several maps in Blessed Gardens that gave me trouble and required multiple attempts, I typically am able to clear them out on the first day the maps get released. I generally try to assign blessings based on affinities or (in the absence of certain blessings before their release), relationships to another character, and, of course, gamemode intent.

Water units: Fjorm, Legend Eirika, Winter Eirika, Olivia, Draug, Effie, Sheena, Gwendolyn, "Marth", MCorrin, Ryoma, Picnic Flora, Lyon, Azura, Hinoka, Ninian, Ylgr, Bride Ninian, Summer FCorrin, NY Fjorm, NY Azura, Innes, Fallen Takumi, Bow Hinoka, Mist, Ethlyn

Earth units: Legend Ike, Legend Alm, Alm, Reinhardt, Xander, YTiki, Celica, Titania, Valentines Titania, Summer FRobin, PA Shigure, Olwen, Brave Ike, Summer ATiki, Deirdre, FRobin, Cecilia, Fallen YTiki, Spring Bruno, Elise, Silvia, Olivia, Lukas, Nanna

Fire units: Legend Hector, Marth, Ayra, Fir, Caeda, Flier Olivia, Olivia, PA Olivia, Arvis, Winter Tharja, LA Eliwood, NY Laegjarn, Summer Cordelia, Bride Cordelia, Cordelia, Bride Caeda, Saias, Helbindi, Hector, Valentines Hector, Amelia, Reyson, Boey, Loki, Brave Veronica, NY Laevatein, Halloween Mia

Wind units: Legend Lyn, Lyn, Bride Lyn, Brave Lyn, Valentines Lyn, Eirika, Magic Eirika, Silvia, Lucina, NY Gunnthra, Spring Palla, Tana, Summer Tana, Nephenee, Clair, Florina, Spring Catria, Yukata Elincia, Julia, PA Inigo, Olwen, Leanne, Takumi, Genny, Priscilla, Olivia, Merric

Pretty glad that further development for Blessed Gardens is going to cease soon. I just hope that it wouldn't be too difficult to get the Garden rewards based on AB scoring (read: ideally, I'd hope that the rewards from Blessed Gardens get added to the lowest score bracket of AB so as to set a new minimum).

[Rezzy]

I won't be missing this mode, since the severe stat inflation made these a real pain to clear sometimes.  It will also make the old Blessings a bit useless, since I'm sure as heck not going to be wasting them by reblessing my Arena core every week.