Fire Emblem Heroes - hats for everyone

[MewMewHeart]

Wow um the Grima Robins are so OP in the conquest event lol like I had so many friends with them that they overpowered everything minus the fact I have to protect them from dragonslayers.

[BT]

I'm convinced there were never any Fae in the fodder banner

[commandercool]

Fae was the green banner that I pulled the least of for once. So far I've gotten six Ninos, five Camillas, and four Faes from this banner.

[AzyWng]

Wow um the Grima Robins are so OP in the conquest event lol like I had so many friends with them that they overpowered everything minus the fact I have to protect them from dragonslayers.

I've had to deal with multiple Grima Robins on multiple occasions on Conquest events...

It ain't fun, man!

[MewMewHeart]

I've had to deal with multiple Grima Robins on multiple occasions on Conquest events...

It ain't fun, man!

l had several pop out, but thankfully I had a Julia with me or bow Lyn 1 shot them, but l won't lie they are scary to deal with if you can't 1 shot them.

[commandercool]

The second round of Grand Hero Battle quests were muuuch easier than the first round. Almost makes me wish they had been for Infernal again and not Lunatic. Almost. The requirements are much looser AND the difficulty is easier, so swapping them might have worked.

Sais was a nice moderate-difficulty Hero Battle. Didn't take me two tries or twenty tries. He reminds me of Arvis obviously, and Arvis is very very very good, but losing the unique regeneration ability might make Sais too much of a downgrade. But hey, he's another extremely awkward piece of Gunnthra support so that's... good I guess?

[MewMewHeart]

Let's see 179 orbs let's see if it'll net me some rabbits from the Spring banner:

Roll Set 1: 2 Red, 1 Blue, 1 Green, and 1 Gray.

Result:  dupe 4* Laslow/lndigo, dupe 4* Ogma, dupe 4* Nino, dupe 4* Tailtiu, and dupe 3* Azama.

Comment: Typical start.
====================

Roll Set 2: 1 Red, 2 Blue, and 2 Gray.

Result:  dupe 4* Hana, dupe 3* Saizo, dupe 3* Florina, dupe 4* Shanna, and dupe 4* Lucius.

Comment: OTL
====================

Roll Set 3: 2 Red, 2 Blue, and 1 Gray.

Result:  dupe 4* Est, dupe 3* Draug, dupe 4* Fir, dupe 4* Tailtiu, and dupe 3* Lissa.

Comment: Luck.exe has stopped working!
====================

Roll Set 4: 1 Red, 2 Blue, 1 Green, and 1 Gray.

Result:  dupe 3* Shanna, dupe 4* Donnel, dupe 4* Sophia, Spring Sharena, and dupe 4* Leon.

Comment: Pyon!
===================

Roll Set 5: 3 Red, 1 Green, and 1 Gray.

Result:  dupe 5* Lyn, dupe 4* Erika, dupe 3* Adult Tiki, dupe 3* Beruka, and dupe 4 * Geroge .

Comment: Woohoo! Free Galeforce!
===================

Roll Set 6: 3 Green, and 2 Gray.

Result:  dupe 4* Arthur, dupe 4* Arthur AGAlN!, dupe 3* Azama, dupe 3* Gunther, and dupe 3* Niles.

Comment: RNG being a troll as usual.
==================

Roll Set 6: 2 Green, 1 Blue, and 2 Gray.

Result:  dupe 4* Arthur, dupe 4* Arthur AGAlN!, dupe 3* Azama, dupe 3* Gunther, and dupe 3* Niles.

Comment: ECH!!!.
==================

Roll Set 6: 3 Red, 1 Blue, and 2 Gray.

Result:  dupe 4* Ogma, dupe 4* Raigh, dupe 3* Hinata, dupe 4* Shanna, and dupe 4* Leon.

Comment: But why though?
==================

Last Roll!

Roll Set 7: 3 Reds, 1 Blue, and 1 Gray.

Result: dupe 3* Fir, dupe 4* Hinata, dupe 3* Lon'qu, dupe 4* Shanna, Sping Kagero!!!!! YEEEEEEEES!!!!!!

Comment: Thank you Spring Kagero for coming to me on the last roll!!! 

[commandercool]

I wish there were some kind of tiered rewards or point-based rewards or something for the arena within rank 20. Whenever I'm there and I know I definitely won't be able to stay there I don't really feel like I have an incentive to do arena battles or to do a good job in them until I rank down again.

Edit: So here are some observations I've made about Grand Conquest. Curious to see if anyone agrees or disagrees. Maybe I'm completely wrong about everything and there's a way better way to go about it, but these are my current strategies and considerations:

-Starting teams should have two complementary Distant Counter enemy phase units, most likely armor or dragon. Initiating with whichever one has the best matchup against the opponent's ranged units by putting them within range of most of the enemy team is probably the best thing you can do on turn 1. I generally use Mea's FCorrin and either a friend's Myrrh or my FMRobin. This should KO a decent number of enemy units and cause the enemy to clump around your initiator, which often leaves at least one fort relatively undefended.

-Wings of Mercy, and to a lesser extent Escape Route, are very valuable for pressuring enemy forts, especially on ranged units. A single Wings of Mercy unit is often the difference between capturing a fort early and getting a significant foothold or the enemy wiping out your attackers and successfully re-defending it. WoM and Escape Route are hands-down the best, most reliable, and most versatile ways to cover large distances. If you've got some extra 5* units laying around that you never use maybe consider loading them up with WoM to use in Conquest maps.

-Dueling is more important than team fights. Because you often need to split your forces to capture multiple objectives and things can get pretty frantic you can't really rely on Hone buffs or other synergy-based strategies. A single Hone can technically do more work on a Conquest map because you can buff four units instead of three, but the setup is way too tricky to pull off reliably so often you'll be getting one or zero. Goad abilities may be more successful, especially if you can stack a bunch of overlapping ones.

-Generalist units, especially survivable ones, are usually better than specialists. Gem weapons and Triangle Adept can be a big liability on larger maps with more enemies running around, especially when it comes to making a big push on the final stronghold. Because enemies respawn so fast and start so close to you it often comes down to an attrition game in the last few rounds, so you need enemies to spend as many actions as possible KOing each of your characters. The more enemies there are the harder it is to avoid enemies that can exploit your weaknesses, and the more weaknesses you have the more likely it is you'll get one-for-oned and won't be able to overwhelm the stronghold.

-Clerics are extremely useful. Healing abilities, especially with Heavenly Light, will keep your units pushing forward and prevent you from wasting time getting newly-spawned replacements into the fray, which can cost valuable turns. Cleric crowd control like Gravity+ and Pain+ with double Savage Blow will also have a ton of targets to hit every time you attack, which makes them very efficient. You'll also most likely have plenty of time to get Miracle up so you can use a cleric to make a dangerous push later on in the round.

-I've found Falchion users to be especially helpful, since occasionally I've ended up with an enemy FRobin or Myrrh parked on a fort and I had no other way to damage them. Enemy dragons are common and bulky so anti-dragon abilities will come up a lot.

-In my experience it's worth it to always pick the Infernal difficulty. I find that I can't take the enemy stronghold very consistently on Infernal, but the floor is still pretty high if you can succeed everywhere else. Lunatic may be more consistent, but a decent Infernal run scores about as much as a great Lunatic run. There are a few maps that I get dunked on Infernal though, especially the one with all the walls and the enemy stronghold in the middle. Your spawn zone is within range of the enemy stronghold so they'll just insta-kill your characters as soon as they spawn once things start going badly, and it just takes too long to take the enemy forts because they're so spread out. I'd avoid that and a few of the other wall-heavy maps in general, but if you do need to do them Lunatic might be better.

[Conqueror]

I personally like not having to try hard during the T20->T19 demote season, but I agree the system in general needs another overhaul with how clustered the upper tiers are getting. I wonder if they could somehow implement some sort of ELO system for arena matches.

The GC maps vary pretty widely in difficulty and quality so strategies can change from a straight cav/flier rush to a steady advancement of armors/dragons (I think all the maps that have an "S" shape are generally pretty frustrating, since you can't advance from two fronts and so you often run out of time). I usually open with a tank though, either my friend's DC Sheena or one of the dozens of lightning breath/dc dragons. I always have a dancer in my opening loadout along with a friend's pain + savage blow 6 healer, who can bring entire enemy squads to single digit hp and allow the rest of my units to easily pick them off even at a disadvantage.

WoM and Escape Route are fantastic for this mode (especially when you're making the final push onto the base) but since I'm using almost all friend units, they rarely come into play.

As for scoring, I always pick Infernal x8 because I'm too lazy to check beforehand. A consistent Lunatic SSSS slightly outscores Infernal SSSC, but SSSB or higher on Infernal scores better. It's really inconsistent though since there are just some team compositions that destroy my squad (Hardin, falchion users, bows if I'm doing one of the guidance maps etc.) and there have been maps where I don't even take all the camps.

[commandercool]

Maybe this is a weird question, but why does Hit And Run exist? I'm a huge fan of Drag Back, I think it's extremely underrated, but I feel like I see people running Hit And Run more often and it seems like it's almost strictly worse.

The only times I can ever see Hit And Run being better are if you're a flier and hit an opponent that you don't KO while occupying terrain that they can't be dragged into (you can't use Drag Back at all if the enemy can't be moved, unless you KO them) or if you don't want to move your target for some reason. But those are both very niche situations and don't justify the skill existing IMO, much less people using it.

Am I missing something? Are there units that can't equip HAR but can equip Drag Back? Or more niche situations where they function differently?

[Mеа]

Hit and Run seems to be the purer, unconditional version of the "main function" of Drag Back that people were using it to begin with (since the actual dragging back only happens if you missed the orko).

If pve maps are any indication, HaR can be pretty annoying when combined with Flier Formation or Guidance so nearby melee units can warp in and smack again. But Drag Back being better if you have ranged units. I lean more towards Drag Back if in the player's hands since I'd rather have the extra option if necessary, but preference I guess.

It feels like one of those skills that were intended to make pve enemies more annoying, kinda like Cancel Affinity or even Guard sometimes. And Pass.

[BT]

Maybe this is a weird question, but why does Hit And Run exist? I'm a huge fan of Drag Back, I think it's extremely underrated, but I feel like I see people running Hit And Run more often and it seems like it's almost strictly worse.

The only times I can ever see Hit And Run being better are if you're a flier and hit an opponent that you don't KO while occupying terrain that they can't be dragged into (you can't use Drag Back at all if the enemy can't be moved, unless you KO them) or if you don't want to move your target for some reason. But those are both very niche situations and don't justify the skill existing IMO, much less people using it.

Am I missing something? Are there units that can't equip HAR but can equip Drag Back? Or more niche situations where they function differently?

People prefer Hit and Run because it's a cooler skill to have equipped, and also because there's a huge difference it has over Drag Back: you can vacate the square you were in so another ally can move in and attack. It synergizes really well with Guidance, Flier Formation, Wings of Mercy and all the other warp tricks.

[hyorinryu]

People also like to do the thing they'll have fliers hit and run over trees/rivers.

[commandercool]

Alright, new banner and we finally got Kana! Whose sprite looks adorable, it's so tiny!

Also finally got vanilla Shigure, who seems fine but mostly unremarkable, and Brave Hinoka? Weird call and I wish it had been Camilla instead obvs but she seems pretty great and is our first (?) kinshi knight so that's cool.

[commandercool]

Well, it took me 70-80 orbs but I got Hinoka. Probably not wise with several big events coming up, but there are also a lot of free orbs bouncing around right now so I don't mind. She sure looks neat. And I never got the normal version of her.

[Conqueror]

Yeah, I ended up having to use 200 orbs before I got Hinoka. I talked myself into wanting more 4* Death Blow and Life and Death fodder and maybe even Nanna, but in the end it was a 5* Sothe I got and no Kleins. Colorless hell is still real, I don't need all these healers with limited SI.
First bow flier though, and her sprite is pretty cool looking! I look forward to sticking her on my flier team - I pretty much only use fliers and infantry these days. I hope all the new banners are armors or cavs so I can skip them.  :V

[commandercool]

Yeah the only new unit I got aside from Hinoka was a 4* Sothe, and I don't do colorless pulls often. Although I had an unusually high rate of summoning sessions with no colorless so I got less colorless units than I might have.

Speaking of colorless, do we know how Kaze is going to be distributed now that he's finally in the game?

[Conqueror]

Still up in the air since MKana is the GHB. Seems like a potential TT unit though.

[BT]

Hinoka's ingame story maps are terrifying with her range..

[commandercool]

So the new Legendary Hero, the first colored bow, and the first doubled up Legendary Hero element is... Lyn again. Huh. Kinda boring. Whatever.

Honestly none of the Golden Week stuff looks that exciting, but I think dataminers saw a second banner during that period? Or something? Could still be some neat stuff coming up.

[BT]

I'm storing my orbs for the first time in months. Honestly I wish I could turn back time and have the Mia and Neph banner back, I really want copies of those two and now I have the orbs to summon them. :C

[7TC7]

the first doubled up Legendary Hero element

Ike and Grima are both Earth.

[commandercool]

Oh yeah, huh. I only have male Grima so I missed that. Interesting.

[commandercool]

Hey Mea (and everyone else who has an opinion), how do you feel about FKana relative to FCorrin? And Water Breath? I pulled an FKana and she seems pretty neat. Not sure if she wants Distant Counter or if it's better to just have her be a melee tank and keep Fierce Stance or something. Water Breath definitely feels like it has crazy potential.

[Mеа]

So stat-wise, FKana is exactly like FCorrin except with her shortcomings patched up--higher atk and higher res. So you can use her in exactly the same way. Being weak to Falchions probably isn't a big deal since it's in her weak color anyway, red. I like that she has a better matchup against Hardin (in exchange for Zelgius, but Zelgius has low res so he was always slightly easier to deal with).

I'm not sure what to think about Water Breath, at least not on these two. Being fast means that you get called things like the "player-phase dragon," as in you like to, or at least you can, attack into things to kill. In that sense, Light/Dark Breath is better since you get something out of initiating. Water Breath has a smaller net gain in bulk than these other two, but actually works on the first enemy attack while the other two don't... (if baiting). My impression remains that Water Breath would be better used on a slower, enemy-phase oriented dragon. The returns on being able to mitigate damage on the first attack shine more if you're getting doubled.
(Although this does also mean that she can counter Reinhardts pretty well if she also uses a Distance Defense seal. But then again, Warding Breath + Lightning Breath would give the same amount of res while having CD reduction... Hmm. Yeah, Water Breath has some tough competition. If only the refine boosted the gain to +6/+6, if only).

If you want to keep Water Breath though, then it is slightly better in a way for non-DC builds since the other two Breaths require you to attack in order to get the buff/debuffs off. I think Steady/Warding Breath still remains the king of enemy-phase A-skills though. Especially compared to Fierce Stance, quicker specials hit harder than 6 more atk. If not going for DC, those would be the ones to go for.

Spd invested FCorrins love Wrath--if partially because she has low Atk--I'd imagine Spd invested FKana would too.

[Mеа]

In other recent news, I finally managed to complete FCorrin with the legendary banner and now I don't need to pull blues ever again (also got another LIke and a -atk Genny).
Here she is.
I love Light Breath so I use that. Dark Breath is fine too, but then I have to use some other C skill. If not some Drive skill, then maybe like Res Smoke if I can pull another FGrima.
DC is for the diversity it opens up (also Light Breath needs to attack to buff), but I swap it with Steady/Warding Breath depending on the map or if I really want something deader than dead like that. And switch out the special to Ignis or Aether too.
Sol gives good sustain and Wrath gives damage so it's not a bad combo. Noontime I found heals too little and when used too often, keeps me above Wrath range which isn't too desirable. I wish there were a 4 cd Moonbow version of Aether.
Wrath takes her B-slot since she's fast enough to not need QR in most situations (and her partner Palla has Drive Spd). FCorrin is known for trouble killing with her lower atk, so it's a good solution.
Her seal slot is something I'm experimenting with. There's no seal that has claim to her S-slot, she uses many seals equally well. I thought maybe Distant Defense at first but in using her I found she can handle mages fine even without it. I'm trying Heavy Blade currently since she does get an effective +12 boost to Atk by means of Atk Smoke and Light Breath so I'll probably report later on how well this does or doesn't work.

[commandercool]

Meanwhile I've begun a second Camilla. I have a +2 one with the Distant Counter mage killer build. So I'm at 14/22 Camillas needed. 

[Mеа]

Nice! Wish I had an extra DC, I want to try build a Florina/Beruka wall pair sometime.
Now that my main merge project is done I can dedicate feathers to other things. I built up a Soren with Wind's Brand (Chill Atk +eff refine), Chill Res, and Spd Ploy. If I could give him Atk Tactic that would be perfect, but he gets Drive Atk seal for the time being. He complements my FCorrin Palla core quite nicely, I think I'll focus on these two moving forward.

[commandercool]

One of the downsides of DC Camilla is that my Distant Defense seal is kind of already spoken for by Gronnraven BunCam, but Atk Ploy is a pretty decent alternative.

Even though she's meant for tanking mages which means characters she wants to fight will tend to have high Res I rarely have it not come through. If they have so much Res that they can beat hers after her weapon refinement then they probably fall short enough in some other category that it doesn't matter very much.

[Koog]

New update incoming:

Clair, Camilla and Corrin are getting refines and legendary (Camilla's Axe :V)

No more enemy phase music which makes me happy

And a lot more! :getdown: