#the weapon banner here is DEF a thing to do

[lvllns]

assigned jing yuan main by star rail

[hananoami]

Rafayel's Directional Orbit: Fire - Stage 130 Clear + VOD

And finally, the last 130 post clear write up on my list is with Rafayel. We cleared his Directional Orbit: Fire - Stage 130 on July 24th! This one was lowkey kinda sketchy towards the end because the game decided to suddenly freeze on me.. ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!

Rafayel's Stage 130 requires two teams. Team 01's Protofield Stellactrum is 5-Violet and 1-Ruby. Team 02's Protofield Stellactrum is 5-Pearl and 1-Amber.

Matching the Protofield Stellactrum will grant you additional bonuses to your team. By matching the colors completely you will have a ’perfect match’ which allows you to break 2 protofield shields in a single strike. This saves you time by quickly bringing those wanderers into a weakened state. You also get an Attribute Bonus (up to 30.0%) for every color you match - increase DMG boost 5.0% and DMG reduction 5.0%. Of course, you could opt to go off color and try to brute force it, but I didn't here.

The difference having a Duo R1 of any solar pair is wildly insane. Duo Rank 1 boosts Ardent Oath charge by 20%, allowing you to to equip a different beta protocore for something that is focused on either strength or expedited energy. I was totes excited to finally get another copy of [Deep Sea Promise] during the Pulse Hunter limited-time banner since for some un(sea)godly reason his [Deep Sea Riches] just loves to grace me with his presence instead -- I currently have that memory at R3.

For the first half of the fight I tried to keep all of the wanderers grouped up together. Thankfully, Abysswalker's Resonance Skill, Fantasia Shark, pulls in the enemies before it bites and burns them. I'm not gonna lie... my game play is kinda sloppy here too since I had to collect the Fish Tail beacon he dropped anytime I used his Eclipse Rend Support Skill. I also had to keep track of the marked wanderer in order to use my Abyssal Rapid Fire charged attack for more damage. It's totes easier to keep them grouped up in a corner that way Sharkie can reach all of them when pulled in.

One thing I do want to improve on are my perfect dodges. In this case for Rafayel's Abysswalker he would drops another fish tail beacon for an additional charge to speed up his Eclipse Rend support skill. While watching my clear vod again I noticed I had the opportunity for these perfect dodges, but didn't do them because I was afraid of getting hit. I should just go for it going forward, just to get more practice in.

My overall rotation with God of the Tides could have been better. I kept forgetting to press my active skill, Tides, for the small buff window before going into Rafayel's resonance skill, Surging Tides. The boss locked its HP at around 75% health on the final bar where you can't do any damage to it. So you would have to avoid the cyclones in order to not get frozen and lose out on some time. Also, this would be the perfect time to get a perfect dodge in, as seen in my clear video, hehe~

You can probably notice where my game decided to freeze during my fights in my clear vods... it was actually a real struggle that day and kinda stressed me out since this was all time sensitive content -- not that there was a rush to clear or anything. I just knew I was able to clear the fights, if only my game wouldn't hold me back with the lag. I ended up fixing by setting my graphics to the lowest setting.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

TEAM 01

Companion: Rafayel’s Abysswalker [ Burst | Single-target | Pull ] Weapon: Phantasma Sands (guns) [ DPS | Single-target | Sustained ] Attribute Bonus For each matched stellactrum, increases DMG Boost 5.0% (currently increased: 30.0%) and DMG Reduction 5.0% (currently increased 30.0%). ♡ Affinity Bonus: 106 (Rafayel’s Protective Skill) When you take a fatal blow, Rafayel teleports to you, blocks a hit, and counter attacks. Enemies will be knocked back. [ HP xxxx || DEF xx || ATK xxx ] Pair Bonus [AB] -- Starting Effect: increases team DMG by 8%, reduces DMG taken by 8%, and increases Crit DMG of Deepsea Persuit by 30%. -- Duo Rank 1: boost Ardent Oath charge by 20%. When fighting together with Abysswalker, increases DMG taken of enemies inflicted with Burn by 20%.

5☆ DEEP SEA RICHES (violet/solar) Lv 80/awakened rank 2 using +15 SSR protocores

5☆ DEEP SEA PROMISE (violet/solar) Lv 80/awakened using +15 SSR protocores

5☆ FLORAL PROMISE (violet/lunar) Lv 80 using xx SSR protocores

5☆ WHISPERS (violet/lunar) Lv 80 rank 1 using xx SSR protocores

5☆ YOUR FRAGRANCE (violet/lunar) Lv 80 rank 3 using xx SSR protocores

4☆ WHALEFALL LAMENT (ruby/lunar) Lv 60 rank 3 using xx SSR protocores

TEAM 02

Companion: Rafayel’s God of the Tides [ Sustained | Buff | AoE ] Weapon: Tidal Embrace (staff) [ Sustained | Buff | Aoe ] Attribute Bonus For each matched stellactrum, increases DMG Boost 5.0% (currently increased: 30.0%) and DMG Reduction 5.0% (currently increased 30.0%). ♡ Affinity Bonus: 106 (Rafayel’s Protective Skill) When you take a fatal blow, Rafayel teleports to you, blocks a hit, and counter attacks. Enemies will be knocked back. [ HP xxxx || DEF xx || ATK xxx ] Pair Bonus [TP] - Starting Effect: increases team DMG by 8%, reduces DMG taken by 8%, and increases Crit DMG by 10% when fighting alongside Sea Spirits. - Duo Rank 1: boosts Ardent Oath Charge by 20%. The starting level of Sea Spirits rises to Lv. 2, and Sea Spirits will last for 5 more seconds. - Duo Rank 2: increases Energy Charge cap by 1. During Heavenly Rain, recovery rate of energy charge is increased by 30%.

5☆ TEMPLE'S PROMISE (pearl/solar) Lv 80/awakened rank 2 using xx protocores

5☆ TEMPLE'S SUNSET (pearl/solar) Lv 80/awakened rank 2 using xx SSR protocores

5☆ PRIVATE TRIP (pearl/lunar) Lv 80 using xx SSR protocores

5☆ TIPSY INVITATION (pearl/lunar) Lv 80 rank using xx SSR protocores

5☆ FIREWORKS VOW (pearl/lunar) Lv 80 using xx SSR protocores

5☆ UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE (amber/lunar) Lv 80 rank 1 using xx SSR protocores

signal boosting: @hunters-association

[ajentmm]

Harmony amid Chaos Theorycraft

Finally, the highly anticipated third Three Houses banner, here to mark the end of March 2020, the start of the dystopian nightmare we called the pandemic. It even has such a fitting title, Harmony amid Chaos. Did you know “amid” isn't capitalized because it’s preposition with four letters? Now you do.  

These heroes would go on to be well used by their fans, but I bet they were dumped and replaced with their later competition or their future alts once they came around, with one exception. I’ll go through each of these students from the Officers Academy at Garreg Mach Monastery, and predict a fitting refine for each. 

Bernadetta: Eternal Loner 

Lvl 40 5 ☆ 38/32/38/22/26 Max Invest* 47/41/47/30/34 

Persecution Bow: Effective against flying foes. Grants Atk+3. At start of combat, if [Penalty] is active on unit or if unit's HP < 100%, grants Atk/Spd+5 during combat, and if unit initiates combat, unit can make a follow-up attack before foe can counterattack. 

Ardent Sacrifice - Atk/Spd Push 4 - Lull Spd/Def 3 - Close Guard 3 

It’s Bernie’s time to shine! Persecution bow plays off Bernadette’s personal skill, which grants bonus effects with she has at least 1 damage, in this case, it’s Atk/Spd+5 and Desperation. Bernie comes with a Push skill and Ardent Sacrifice, so she can hurt herself, but that not as easy as just being above 25% Hp, like Arcane Darkbow. 

Bernie also had two alts. One is her winter alt that fixed the above issue by hurting herself, and her allies, at the start of the turn. She then swapped Desperation with 30% damage reduction. This helped as a counter to many “If foe is at 100% Hp,” conditions, in perf weapons which faded out with refines, but is skill used in Catch skills. The second advantage came from using new positional healing assists from healers to make the Ai move the injured ally closer to the enemy for devilish Aether Raid defense teams. Spring Bernie had this same effect, but added Accelerate Special Trigger, NFU, Null-Guard, and Spd/Def penalties based on how many spaces moved, which was helped by the new Escape Route 4. So, enough talk, what’s the upgrade. 

Effective against flying foes. Grants Atk+3. At start of turn, if unit’s HP = 100% and unit is within 2 spaces of an ally, deals 1 damage to unit and allies within 2 spaces of unit. At start of combat, if [Penalty] is active on unit or if unit's HP <= 99%, grants Atk/Spd+5 during combat, and if unit initiates combat, unit can make a follow-up attack before foe can counterattack. 

Enable [Canto (1)] Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If unit initiates combat or within a 2 tile radius of an ally, grants Atk/Spd+5 during combat and neutralizes effects that prevent unit’s follow-up attacks during combat, and also, if unit’s Spd > foe’s Spd, neutralizes effects that inflict “Special cooldown charge -X” on unit during combat. 

The first part of the weapon matches the new perfs she has, while leaving the [Penalty] condition. The second gives her Canto 1, AS, Null-Follow-Up, and Null-Guard for a weapon that’s better than Arcane Darkbow. The one thing left out was its Penalty negation, which doesn’t fix Bernie’s style anyway. Plus, Grand Strategy is meta. 

Annette: Overachiever 

Lvl 40 5 ☆ 40/39/36/28/30 Max Invest* 49/48/45/36/38 

Crusher: Grants Atk+3. Calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res. If a Rally Assist skill is used by unit, target can move 1 extra space. (That turn only. Does not stack. No effect on cavalry allies with Range = 2.) 

Rally Atk/Spd+ - Def/Res Ruse 3 - Atk/Def Gap 3 

Ta da! A net! This might be the one a fore mention exemption to the power creep. Annette’s ability to Rally movement is incredible, so she provides utility without investing in stats. As a bonus, she gets adaptive damage with no condition. Well, these were unique, we now have two inheritable skills that can do her job. S/D Rein Snap can provide Movement to the unit, melee infantry allies, and armored allies, without needing to Rally at all. Atk/Spd Hexblade grants adaptive damage if the unit is near a magic unit at the start of turn, much better than the original. So, what do I do? 

Crusher: Grants Atk+3. Calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res. If a Rally Assist skill is used by unit, grant target “if unit initiate combat, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack”, “Special Cooldown Charge +1 per attack,” and unit can move 1 extra space (That turn only. Does not stack.) At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 to unit during combat. 

Ta da again! I decided, if you are rallying a unit to have 1 additional movement, you would be rallying a Galeforce ally if you had one. So here are two things a Galeforce unit needs (instead of Triangle Adapt or Dual Strike), two hits that grant two cooldown. You also need AS but everybody got that, and if you don’t, the foe might counterattack you for two cooldown, then just one more hit does it. This is best for units that have all the Atk and true damage, and none of the Spd. I also removed the restriction of movement buff to mage and bow cavs. We may not have a readily available extra movement skill for them yet, but there is one way they can get the buff, and that’s with L!Sigurd and the brand new Tea Time! Sigurd, who is himself a mage cav. And like, you have to use up Annette’s turn to rally, compared to Sigurd needs to attack a foe (the new version doesn’t even need to live the combat). 

If unit is within 3 spaces of an ally, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res +X to unit (X = 4 + highest bonus on each stat between unit and allies within 3 spaces of unit; calculates each stat bonus independently), reduces damage from foe's first attack by 30%, and grant damage equal to X% of foe's Atk (if foe uses breath or beast, X = 20; otherwise, X = 10; including when dealing damage with a Special triggered before combat), and after combat, inflict inflicts Def/Res-5 and [Guard] on target and nearest foes within a 3 tile radius. 

And now for the “combat” part of the refine. If you didn’t know, Crusher is a relic weapon, and crest barriers like Annette can use their relic weapons for unique combat art, in this case, Dust. This increases the damage, is effective against dragons, and inflicts Def-5 on foe. In my case, Annette is getting true damage based on foe’s Atk, with an increase if they are a dragon or beast, just like Ruptured Sky. This then inflicts Def/Res-5 and [Guard] to all targets, just so other allies can clean up. She also has 30% damage reduction on first hit to keep her alive.  

Ferdinand: Noblest of Nobles 

Lvl 40 5 ☆ 41/32/35/30/24 Max Invest* 50/41/44/38/32 

Vanguard+: If foe initiates combat, grants Def+7 during combat. 

Reposition - Fortress Def 3 - Rouse Spd/Def 3 

He is Ferdinand von Aegir, and he just so happens to get a new alt in the Teatime Banner. It’s a green mage flier with an inheritable tome, but there is still one little thing to this kit that stands out to be uniquely Ferdinand. As for this normal version, it’s a balanced lance caviler with skills and an inheritable weapon that grants more Def, to resist the enemy. This was before Canto was introduced, so he needed this to stay alive when in enemy range. The Rouse Spd/Def was also nice. Alright, enough stalling.  

Ferdinand von Lance: If foe initiates combat or foe's HP ≥ 75%, Grant Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 to unit during combat, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack, foe cannot make a follow-up attack, and also, if unit’s Spd > foe’s Spd, neutralizes effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks.  

This is the Ferdinand von Lance. Continuing with the defensive theme, he has the enemy phase standard condition for the usual +4, omni breaker, and a Spd check to get null follow-up on both phases. This would be a good combination with Windsweep, which Teatime! Ferdinand has. But what if we go further. 

At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 75% or if [Bonus] is active on unit, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 to unit during combat, increase damage by 15% of unit's Spd, and reduce damage by 15% of unit's Def, and also, if unit’s Spd > foe’s Spd, and foe cannot counterattack. 

Ferddie's personal skill happens to trigger when he is full health, so I gave him a condition similar to the ideal skills, which he can’t inherit. Additionally, he comes with Rouse, so he can get bonuses on his own. With this, he gets +8 in total, true damage base on Spd (about 7), true damage reduction based on Def (about 7), and a Spd check to get the foe to not counterattack. This effect mirrors his crest power, that prevents foe from counterattack when performing a combat art. Well, that will do. Shout out to Ricco Fajardo for taking the mantel of Billy Kametz. They are big shoes to fill.  

Lysithea: Child Prodigy 

Lvl 40 5 ☆ 38/42/40/19/23 Max Invest* 46/50/46/29/32 

Hades Ω: Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If unit initiates combat, grants Atk/Spd+4 during combat, and if unit's Special is ready, grants an additional Atk+6 during combat. 

Moonbow – Death Blow 4 – Lull Spd/Res 3 – Time's Pulse 3 

Now, Lysithea is the final hero of the banner. Lysithea was in a very lucky predicament where she was very popular, not in heroes for the first two banner, and CYL voting happened, and well, she won CYL4 alongside the three house leaders, before getting in normally. It was the same Feh channel that announced the winners that we got a teaser of Lyithea, as her banner was coming that following month. So we had two Lysitheas in a year. Brave Lyithea, as you know, was the horse slaying, two tapping, desperation nuke, while this Lysithea was just the one tap nuke. She does this with Death Blow 4, Lull Spd/Res, and Time’s Pulse, to precharge her special and get the additional Atk. Well, here’s how we make her nuke in one hit. 

Hades Ω: Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If unit initiates combat or is within 2 tile radius of an ally, grants Atk/Spd+6 during combat, neutralizes effects that inflict “Special Cooldown -X” on unit, and also, if unit's Special is ready or unit's Special triggered before or during this combat, deals +7 damage during combat. (Except when dealing damage with area-of-effect Specials.)  

We are giving her the Null-Guard and change the pre-charge special to that of the Finish skills, so that she can use higher cost Specials to nuke with the follow-up skill, if the player desires. The next part, I’m not to sure about. Like Ferddie, Lysithia was on the Teatime banner. Unlike Ferddie thou, she came with a perf weapon and brand-new perf skill, Mastermaid . . . uh - Mastermind. So I can add that to second part of the refine. But what else? NFU would be good, but Magic NFU is a great skill to inherit, and some may have already done that. Specials that Nullify DR would be great, but how many people inherited Special Spiral 4. And Warp? The Oath 4 skills have that. No, if I’m just copying and pasting Mastermind, she needs to apply bonuses and penalties. 

At start of turn, deals 1 damage to unit. At start of turn, if unit is within 2 spaces of an ally or a foe, inflicts Atk/Spd-6 on nearest foes within 4 spaces of unit and foes within 2 spaces of those foes through their next actions, and grants Atk/Spd+6 to unit and allies within 2 spaces of unit for 1 turn. If unit is within 3 spaces of an ally, grants Atk/Spd+4 to unit during combat and deals damage = X + Y (X = 80% of highest total bonuses among unit and allies within 2 spaces of unit; Y = 80% of highest total penalties among target and foes within 2 spaces of target; excluding area-of-effect Specials). 

And this is what we are doing. Lysithea is going to have a modified Atk/Spd Menace that grants bonuses to her allies, to ensure the 9 true damage she gets from the highest total bonuses among her team. She gets another 9 from foe’s penalties. The difference between her and the new alt is the Res bonuses are swapped with Atk bonuses, and no [Sabotage]. This means she and her allies can take reduced damage from physical or magical foes, while still dealing more damage herself. The other way worked better on mage teams.   

And with the end of the banner, we are not ending this blog.  

Flame Emperor: Bringer of War 

Lvl 40 5 ☆ 50/40/25/37/26 Max Invest* 59/49/33/46/34 

Guard Axe+: Inflicts Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack during combat. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack.) 

Ignis – Bracing Stance 2 – Wary Fighter 3 

Fun time is over. It’s Flame Emperor time. This mid-game boss is here as an easy axe armor unit for new players to invest in but doesn’t give much in personality or uniqueness. They have an inheritable axe, that provides an unconditional Guard effect, but with Protection Pike, you get extra Atk/Def and Guard just by being near an ally, and that’s all tanks are good for. Also, Murdok is in the game as the newest Axe armor GHB unit, and he comes with a perf weapon, with distant counter no less. Well, here we go. 

Flame Axe: Unit can counterattack regardless of foe's range. If foe initiates combat or foe's HP ≥ 75% at start of combat, inflicts Atk/Def-X on foe (X = 12 - current penalty on foe's Atk; min 6) and Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack. Inflicts Atk/Def-6 on foe through its next action after combat. 

Wow, what do you know, the Flame Emperor had the Distant counter skill in three houses, along with Seal Str and Seal Mag. Might as well put those skills in here weapon, along with in combat penalties for when those skills aren’t there, and Guard for extra measures.  

At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 25% or the number of foes within 2 spaces of unit (excluding target) ≥ the number of allies within 2 spaces of unit (excluding unit), inflicts Atk/Def-6 on foe, deals damage = 10% of unit's Atk (including when dealing damage with a Special triggered before combat), and restores 7 HP to unit when unit deals damage to foe during combat (triggers even if 0 damage is dealt) 

And now, here’s some more Atk/Def-6, some extra damage based on Atk, and 7 healing per hit, just for spice. That condition looks familiar and so does the effect. Did the Flame Emperor have a crest like these other units or-oh yep, Crest of Flame. Huh, I wonder who could be under that mask.  

*The max investment was calculated with +10 Merges and all levels of dragonflowers using my own personal spreadsheet. As the dragonflowers count is rising with CYL7, I checked my formulas and found the last handful was 5 levels short, no doubt since all units since CYL3. For now, these units have 20 Dragonflowers, but as of posting this blog, and for future blogs going further, it will be 25. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Alright, time to write for CYL7 cuz OH GOD! Like and subscribe.

[bluexiao]

#7 reasons to pull for Albedo

—in lieu of Albedo rerun banner, I’ve put up these for those who are still deciding (also if you guys want Albedo tips maybe I should make another post about that too)

—note that everything i said here are based on my own experience about Albedo + the gifs, vids and pics are all mine (except the official ones on the very last part)

Let me just say first that this list will only tackle on the PRACTICALITY of pulling for our favorite Alchemist. I’ll be providing a gameplay down below so feel free to see that.

1. He depends on DEF. The higher your DEF, the more DMG Albedo’s Elemental Skill (the flower), Solar Isotoma is. You can literally dump DEF artifacts on him and I know everyone must have those artifacts even without farming hard for it.

2. He’s easy to build. Like the first point, his damage scales on his DEF. You don’t actually need a Geo DMG Bonus cup. I did damage testing before and Albedo deals more damage with a DEF cup than Geo cup (as much as I want to put a proof on this one, I don’t have a Geo cup right now). One of his best weapons is a 3-star as well so even if you don’t have Festering Desire or Mistsplitter, then you’re good to go. Also, he has a new Artifact set + BiS sword that is free and DEF reliant so his damage right now will be even stronger (I’ll definitely do a review about those after the event and farming for the artis)

3. He’s top 17 of most used characters in 2.1 Abyss. Did you know? He kind of ranked up these days and it’s quite surprising and exciting to also know about this. This means that a lot of people see his value in Abyss teams, which is a huge thing especially since doing Abyss is part of the endgame.

4. Flexible in team comps. Have problems in team comps? Place Albedo. He’s good in any team, actually. Elemental, mono, etc. Even without Zhongli, he’s good—all the more if you have Zhongli. Why did I say he’s good in Elemental teams? One of his passives allows him to increase EM for 20s for the whole entire team after using his Burst. Before Kazuha, we had Albedo. Surprised?

5. He’s easy to farm for. His locality material is Cecilia, you can farm Cecilias for like 35-50 quite easily. Geo Hypostasis is easy to defeat, just have Noelle in your team (trust me I used lvl 50 Noelle in wl 8 while farming for Zhongli last time)

6. One of the best off-field damage. Wanna just run around while dealing damage? Or maybe you main a bow character? Go for Albedo.

(last reason down below)

here is an example of Albedo + Zhongli + Geo Traveler skill gameplay. Take note that Zhongli’s E is the reason for the ticks but when you hit the enemy, Albedo’s damage can be seen

and then here is my Albedo build. I have the Archaic+Glad on him but he’s also good in 4pc Archaic or maybe Noblesse+Archaic, if you want more damage to his Burst. However, Glad/Shimenawa will deal more off-field damage than Noblesse.

7. Last reason why? He’s pretty. That’s it. I MEAN LOOK AT HIM OH MY GOD THAT SMIRK?!??! !!! ╰(〒皿〒)╯ is it practical to pull just because of his looks? Yes.

[ginwalt]

kiss my bruises better (Natasha x Wanda x Fem!Reader)

Summary: When Reader gets injured during a battle, it is up to her girlfriends Natasha and Wanda to mother hen her back to health.

Warnings: Violence and mentions of injuries in the beginning. Other than that just pure fluff.

A/N: Guess who got COVID and now has way too much free time??? :,)

It started with Fury sending you on an undercover mission alongside Natasha, Wanda, and Steve. Your objective was simple: obtain the dangerous alien artifact from the terrorist organization's lair and get your asses it back to Avenger's Tower. Nothing you and the rest had not dealt with before. However, there was one thing you four did not anticipate. There were hundreds of the organization's agents crawling around the base. Every corner they snuck around, there was another group of grunts patrolling. As a field scout, you were used to sneaking around; however, this was on another level. By the time Steve signaled for you to return to the meeting spot over the comms, you had already been spotted.

The group of half a dozen agents took one look at you before charging forward with their alien weaponry. One of them, a burly man in an all-black armored jumpsuit, hit a large button on a security panel near the ventilation shaft you had shimmied out from minutes prior. Being a scout, you were only equipped with the bare minimum of weapons a dagger, semi-lethal taser, and a small crossbow. In other words: not weapons one would use in a 1-versus-6 fight. Letting out a grunt of frustration as a loud alarm started to blare, you shouted a warning to Cap and your girlfriends' over the comms.

You leaped backward, away from a meaty fist that had just threatened to shatter your jaw into splinters. Flicking open the holster that held your taser, you slammed the muzzle of the taser gun into the side of the man's head and released the probes. The man convulsed, falling to the tile with a heavy thud. Another agent, a towering woman, let out a shout of outrage in a language you assumed to be Russian. She and the four other remaining against charged at you, weapons at the ready. You stumbled blindly backward, hoping to reach a staircase, window, elevator, anything. Unfortunately, luck was not on your side that day. Your back collided violently with the paneled wall behind you.

A curse that could make a sailor blush fell from your lips as you palmed around frantically for your dagger. The blue and black blade was an anniversary gift courtesy of Natasha, an odd gift to be sure; however, it was about as romantic as the assassin got. Grasping it firmly in your sweaty grip, you blindly swung at one of the grunts before you. The pommel collided with his nose in an upward arch, causing the man to fall to the ground, blood dripping from his now crooked nose. Apparently, the swing was hard enough for his nasal bone to fracture into his brain.

You took a step to sprint through the opening the dead man had cleared for you but, the burly woman seemed to beat you to the punch. She grabbed violently at your arm, twisting it at an odd angle behind your back. You slammed face-first into the wall behind you, causing your nose and lip to start leaking blood at an alarming pace. You groaned and squirmed, trying to free yourself from her iron fists.

"Stop struggling, bitch," she ordered, slamming your head against the solid paneling of the wall once more. Pain blossomed along the crown of your skull, and your vision started to blur in response. "Who sent you," she snarled against your ear.

You spat out the pool of blood that had collected in your mouth at another agent's feet, "Fuck you," you snarled, your voice muffled from being shoved against the wall.

The agent you had spat at raked the brass knuckles clenched on his fingers along your arm. Deep cuts spilled over with even more crimson. You let out a strangled scream as he twisted them further into the new cuts. The woman kneed her leg against your arm with a sickening pop. Your vision danced with black and white dots as pain shot through your body. You were about to scream when a loud bang sounded from behind the woman and her cronies. She let you go in shock, causing you to fall to the ground next to the dead agent. You moaned in pain, curling your now broken arm against your chest.

"Y/n!" A familiar voice shouted from the other end of the hall. It sounded fuzzy as if someone had shoved headphones over your ears. You gritted your teeth and forced your increasingly heavy head to look at the source of the noise. Through the dots dancing in your blurring vision, you were able to make out a furious Wanda, next to her an equally angry Natasha. You opened your mouth to reply when only a pained wheeze escaped. A boot was pressing against your back, applying pressure to your fractured forearm. You let out a scream of agony as tears spilled down your face. Before your consciousness gave way, you beheld Wanda exploding in a bright ball of scarlet towards you and the agents.

"...turn the TV down, you're going to wake her." You slowly came back to yourself at the sound of voices around you. Your mind was swimming in fuzzy warmth, a dull ache exploding in through your temples like a timpani. Despite the pain that seemed to radiate through every inch of your body, you were also strangely cozy. A soft warmth was wrapped around you like a cocoon, not to mention the pillow that seemed to meld with your head and abdomen. You hummed contently and nuzzled further into the cushion.

"Are you sure she's okay?" A concerned voice rang from directly above you. The voice was warm and familiar, like a well-worn sweater. "She's been knocked out for almost four hours. Plus, my legs are starting to go numb."

An amused huff sounded from behind you, "Banner said the painkillers would make her drowsy."

"Yeah, but... four hours? What if something is wrong with her?"

"You know Y/n, she does things on her own terms. She will only wake up when it suits her." Both the voices laughed at that remark. You fought the urge to huff in protest; you weren't that stubborn. The pillow beneath you shook with the light laughter and shifted. You furrowed your brows; cushions didn't usually chuckle. You grumbled at the disturbance and cracked your eyes open. Your so-called pillow had caramel red hair and a black Def Leppard t-shirt.

"Wanda?" you mumbled drowsily. You lifted your head slowly from the place it was resting against her chest. Your face flushed slightly at the thought of using her breasts as a pillow for so long.

She smiled warmly and lifted an arm that had been resting protectively along your back to stroke your hair. Her other hand had been tracing circles along your side for the past few minutes. "Good afternoon, sleeping beauty."

"Where are we?" You attempted to look around; however, your head exploded with pain at the effort. Wanda seemed to notice your wince because she carefully guided your head to lay against her chest once more.

"We are back at the tower. You slept the entire flight home," Natasha, who must be on the other side of the couch, replied.

You groaned, "Everything hurts."

"Being jumped by a group of terrorist agents will do that to you," the assassin replied sarcastically. You kicked lightly at the girl, your foot nudging her thigh. She laughed snarkily and shoved lightly at your foot.

"Nat, stop teasing her," Wanda chided playfully, threading her fingers through your hair. You practically purred at the attention, nuzzling your face against her. She pressed a soft kiss to your aching temple in response.

"Why am I getting lectured?" Natasha protested in mock indignation.

"Because you are not the one hopped up on painkillers."

"But I am the one who detained the agent that had broken her arm. Surely that deserves some credit."

Your eyes shot open once more at the mention of the mission, "Shit, the terrorists. What happened to them? Is everyone okay?" You jolted up, attempting to sit up fully. Natasha was at your side in an instant, hand resting on your shoulder.

"Hey, hey, calm down. We're fine; we handled them," she soothed, rubbing your back gently. "Everyone's safe, I promise."

You relaxed slightly, "And the artifact?" the hesitance was evident in your voice.

Natasha sighed kissed your cheek in reassurance, "We were not able to save you and obtain the alien artifact. They were on high alert at that point, and it was too risky."

You pursed your lips, shoulders drooping in shame. They had failed because of you. Dangerous technology continued to threaten the world because you were unable to do your job.

Wanda must have read your mind because she pulled you closer to her and placed a kiss on top of your head. "Hey, this isn't your fault. None of us knew that the compound would be so well protected."

You shrugged, looking down at your hands. Your right arm, the one the woman broke, was wrapped in a thick plaster cast the color of a hospital gown. Your other arm was dressed in a thick layer of bandages, covering the jagged cuts left by the bronze knuckles.

"Honey, there was no way we could have known," Wanda murmured, using a finger to lift your chin. "If anything, it's our fault for not being there in time. If something were to happen to you, I don't know what I would do." She placed a protective arm around your back as if she was shielding you from an invisible threat.

"You did very well defending her," Natasha soothed, kissing Wanda's cheek. She turned to you with a smirk, "You should have seen her; I thought she was going to send the whole building crashing down with how angry she was."

You smiled, "I'm sure you two did great, as always."

"She's right though, this wasn't your fault, nor was it a significant loss. Rogers is already with Stark and Banner at the location of the artifact. They plan on regrouping back here before following through with the next phase of the plan."

You sighed in relief, "That's good. So when do we go through with the next step?"

Wanda scrunched her nose and smiled, "It's adorable that you think you are going to be anywhere near the next phase of the plan."

"You can't be serious. I'm perfectly fine!" You insisted. Natasha raised her brow and pressed a finger against the bandages on your left arm. You winced and let out a quiet yelp before batting her hand away. "Okay, I may be a bit injured, but other than that, I'm okay to fight."

"Y/n, you have a minor concussion, a broken arm, and a broken nose," Wanda pointed out, her accent thick with concern.

"Nothing I hadn't had before," you shrugged.

"Y/n don't start," Natasha warned, standing from her place at your side. She strode out of your line of view.

"Where are you going?" You whined, not wanting her to leave.

"I'm just getting you water, Babe. Don't worry, I will be right back." You nodded, settling back against your other girlfriend. Wanda reached over you to pull the blankets further up your body. You hummed contently and sighed against her chest. Wanda was always warm; her skin seemed to radiate a cozy heat that filled you with a sense of peace. Her protective arms were coiled firmly around your waist.

"How are you doing, Honey?" Wanda asked, nuzzling against the top of your head.

"Tired," you complained, hiding your face away in the crook of her neck.

"I think I should talk to Bruce before allowing him to hop my girlfriend up on painkillers. He gave you a pretty high dose." Wanda tilted her head so that her cheek was resting against your hair. Her hair had a lingering smell of citrus and lavender that set off the butterflies in your stomach. You hummed and inhaled once more. Wanda chuckled, her smirk evident in her voice, "Are you smelling my hair?"

You paused, "...No."

The witch's shoulders shook with laughter, jostling you slightly. "You know I can read minds, right? I know you're lying."

You huffed and burrowed your face further into her neck, "Asshole."

She kissed the top of your head, "Love you too."

"I'm back," Natasha announced, striding towards the couch.

You turned away from Wanda's neck so that your back was against her front. The assassin sat down on the coffee table next to you, holding a glass of water. You licked your chapped lips and reached out to take the drink. Natasha raised a brow and pulled the cup further away from you. A frown formed on your lips, realizing what she wanted. "Oh, come on, Nat. I don't need help drinking water," You rolled your eyes.

Natasha tsked, "I'm not risking it, you may still be a bit sluggish from the meds, and I don't want you spilling all over yourself and Wanda," She tucked a strand of hair from your forehead. "Come on, Baby. Let us take care of you."

Biting your lip, you nodded exasperatedly, "Fine." Natasha carefully placed the lip of the glass near your mouth and tipped a bit of water out. This went on until only a quarter of the glass was left. You had not realized how thirsty you were until you saw the glass of water. "Thank you," your eyelids drooped, feeling tired once more.

"You should rest some more," Wanda murmured.

"But, I just woke up," you argued, words slurred with sleep.

"And if you ever want to go on another mission again, you will take the time to rest and recover," Natasha insisted, tucking the blanket around your body. She settled at your feet, pulling them into her lap. You opened your mouth to argue; however, Wanda had started stroking your hair once more. The words were lost in your throat as your eyes slipped shut. The warmth from both your girlfriend and the blanket seemed to wash over you in waves. The last thing you felt was a soft hand tracing patterns along your arm.

[ga-yuu]

I know no one would forgive me for this.....but I have to say it!

I feel like many of my followers are in the genshin community. That's sweet, even I'm a genshin fan and I recently I learned a lot of things on youtube about the tips and tricks on how to play genshin impact, how to wish, how to make a good team etc...like that.

Now that I've decent knowledge on how to play genshin, I want to share my mistakes and all the stupidity that I did when I was playing Genshin. Some of them would be funny and one of them, especially the last one will be unforgivable.....

Using my Primogems unnecessarily:

This is something everyone can relate to when they first play genshin. I'm sure everyone has wasted their primogems on the standard banner in the hopes of getting 5-star characters. After watching some youtube tutorials and reading some genshin-related posts on Reddit, I finally understood that this is a trap! I felt betrayed, but yeah, I did get c4 Keqing-s, Diluc and Mona from that banner.

2. Curse of Bennet:

So, look! When we play any RPG games like Genshin, we all tend to have a mindset that is: "5 Stars are better than 4 Stars and 3 Stars."

Even I had this mindset, when I first played the game. I always used to think that getting a 5 Star in first few rolls will be a win for me, than getting 4 Stars. I thought, all the 5 Stars are OP and I could solo through the game like it's a walk in the park. When I was doing the rerolling thing, I kept getting Bennet over and over and over again in different accounts. I started hating Bennet because of that.

Now that, I know not all 5 Stars are good, and Bennet is a S-tier character, I'm happy that I got Bennet. Now he's a battery for my Keqing main. Oh yeah! Now I'm cursed with Keqing.

3. Playing the game with Pokemon knowledge (Plsss don't laugh):

This is funny because, I love pokemon, Okay! I love games that involve some kind of strategy and puzzles. I thought playing Genshin would be easy.

When I was first introduced with elements in Genshin (Anemo, Electro, Pyro, Hydro, Geo and Dendro) I was like: "Oh, Wind(Flying type), Electricity(Electric type), Fire(Fire type), Water(Water type), Earth(Ground type) and Plants(Grass type)......So:

Pyro is weak to Hydro and Geo

Hydro is weak to Dendro and Electro

Dendro is weak to Pyro and resists Geo

Electro is weak to Geo

Geo is immune to Electro but weak to Hydro and Dendro and,

Anemo is immune to Geo and weak to electro."

I know! I was so dumb! The biggest idiot in the world! I kept playing like that until I saw things like Overload, Superconduct, Vapourize, Crystallise etc happening. That's only when I decided to read about the elemental reaction and I felt SO DUMB that I wanted to hide inside a hole and never come out!

4. The last sin, the biggest and worst ever....the sin that no one from the genshin community will ever forgive is.........................

NOT READING THE DESCRIPTIONS GIVEN FOR WEAPONS AND ARTIFACTS AND DISREGARDING THEM!

So when I got my first Diluc, do you know what claymore I gave him?........Absolutely not! I gave him the Bloodtainted greatsword when I had been blessed with a Sacrificial Greatsword in my bag. And no! I didn't give him that sword because I wanted elemental mastery, I gave him that because the sword matches Diluc's colored palette.

...........................

.........................

....................I can hear people cursing me right now. I also did the same thing for Xingqiu. I gave him Cool steel instead of Skyrider sword which is little bit better because Cool steel sword's color matched Xingqiu's design. And I was sitting here being like, Why aren't they doing any damage? Diluc----a DPS, yeah, right!, he can't even kill one hilichurl with a shield....such a trash character. Little did I was trash. But it doesn't end there....it's not just the weapons...but also the artifacts.

I disregarded artifacts so much, that I didn't even bother to fill some slots. And the slots I had already filled were of HP and Def....for a DPS character. Like I said earlier, with my pokemon knowledge, if I increase the Def stat, they will survive longer in the field and with Noelle's shield, I will be able to fight any opponent because Diluc is a 5 Star character and is already OP.

The I also didn't look at the constellations or level up their elemental skills and elemental burst after their ascension.

Hehe....Now that I have fixed that account, equipping Diluc with Sacrificial Sword and Atk per cent artifacts, Crit. Rate and Crit. Damage, he was doing so much more damage and it was beautiful.

I feel really bad for disregarding such crucial things just because I didn't feel like reading the tutorials and descriptions given for each and every weapon and artifact.

......

.........

So what did you learn, kids?

There are dumber people exist in this world. If you ever feel that you're the biggest idiot, then read this post again.

[megasoniczx]

Hey, so, this was an idea I had. Fate/Grand Order is one of the few other gacha games I constantly play aside from FEH, and that ultimately led me to the idea of “What would a collaboration between the two games look like?”, and that’s what led to this, a full on Fate/Grand Order themed banner in Fire Emblem Heroes with SIX possible units they could add, including two legendary heroes and a mythic hero. Unlikely? Yes, this is incredibly unlikely in many ways. But the idea still seems fun, so let’s stretch our suspension of disbelief and have fun with this idea.

Now, I’m in no way a hardcore player, so the explinations of what exclusive skills these heroes have won’t be super in-depth. I’m just going to explain what kind of role I’d think they could play and give a general idea of what their skills would do.

So, let’s start with the poster child of Fate-

Artoria - King of Knights:

The Legendary King Arthur, Artoria Pendragon, who is in fact a woman in the Fate Series. As a Saber Class Servant, Artoria had to be the Sword Infantry of the banner, there was no other option. Her PRF Weapon would of course be Excalibur, the legendary sword of light. I imagine Artoria would be a fairy balanced across the board unit, only really excelling in her attack stat with her flaw being low speed. 

Her Exclusive Skills:

Excalibur - Raises ATK/DEF by +4, would have Distant Counter built in.

Sword of Light - Exclusive Special Skill, has a charge of 4 and boosts her ATK damage by 75%

Avalon - PRF B Skill, Raises DEF by 25%, doubles to 50% when Special Skill is used for 2 turns

EMIYA - Nameless Hero:

A Nameless Heroic Spirit who formed a contract with The World, he has seen many battles, enduring pain to create weapons. As an Archer Class Servant, EMIYA would be a grey archer unit, excelling in his ATK with his personal bow with high SPD, but having low DEF/RES. 

His Exclusive Skills:

Mystic Bow -  Effective against flying units Raises ATK by +5, has Desperation 2 & Quick Riposte 3 built into it.

Caladbolg - Exclusive Special Skill, has a charge of 3 and boosts his ATK damage by 50%

Projection - Boosts ATK by 10% after every turn not spent in combat (only activates after player phase)

Cú Chulainn - Beast of Culann:

The original Lancer infamous for dying in the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel, Cú Chulainn is Irland’s child of light and famous for his absurd endurance. He excels in high ATK & SPD with moderate HP and RES, low DEF being his main weakness. 

His single Exclusive Skill is:

Gáe Bolg: Raises ATK & SPD by 5, Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1).

Gilgamesh - King of Heroes:

The first Heroic Spirit and King of Babylon, Gilgamesh is among the most powerful heroes in Fate, so no doubt he’d be powerful here. He excels effectively in every stat, save speed due to being an armor unit. He’s also an armor tome unit, something we don’t see a whole lot of. 

His Exclusive Skills are:

Gate of Babylon - Raised ATK/SPD/DEF/RES by 5, has Close Counter built in, and is effective against Dragon/Beast units.

Enuma Elish - Exclusive Special Skill, has a charge of 5 and boosts his ATK damage by 150%.

Golden Rule: Raised ATK by 4, grants him Vantage 3, Desperation 2, & Quick Riposte 3.

Yes, I know, this man is broken as shit. What are you gonna do, throw F!Edelgard at me?

Mash Kyrielight - Chaldea’s Shield:

A Demi-Servant with the powers of Sir Galahad from Fate/Grand Order, Mash is best described as a complete fucking tank. As the sole member of the Shielder Class, Mash’s entire job is to soak up damage like a sponge and then beat the shit out of you. 

Her Exclusive Skill is:

Lord Camelot - Raises ATK/DEF by +5 and has Obstruct 3 built into it.

Jeanne d’Arc - Saint of Orleans:

Our mythic hero for this banner is Jeanne d’Arc as a staff unit (do we even have a mythic staff?). She excels as an offensive healer, poor resistance being her only fault. Her Exclusive Skills are:

Flag of Orleans - Raises ATK by +5 and foes cannot counterattack. Has Close Counter & Time’s Pulse 3 built into it.

Luminosité Éternelle - Grants +5 DEF to unit and all allies within 3 tiles of unit. Saint’s Blessing (A Skill) - Boosts healing equal to that of unit’s attack

So, funny thing. I'm a dumbass who forgot to give Jeanne an actual recovery skill, so pretend she has one as well. What's funnier is that I gave her Distant Counter, remembered she couldn't inherit one, then remembered she's supposed to have CLOSE COUNTER!

I'm sorry Jeanne, you deserved better.

...

And that’s the general idea I had for this “FEH X FGO” banner. Maybe I’ll make another one of these, maybe I’ll spin it the other way around and design some Fire Emblem characters as Fate/Grand Order units.

[willowedwisteria]

Hello besty😼 it’s been a long time, and i definitely missed you, and was there when your old accnt was here, and the early sagau days, i think you might recognize me(the ‘do you still have your old works 🥲😭’ person, i did an ask)— i missed the sharing sagau moments, y’know, irl, like playing the game, like pre isekai, and the ‘what if they..’ stuff and definitely am eager to share a new sagau(well it was definitely suspicious 👁👁) encounter.

so like i recently got diluc, like wow, i always wanted him man, ever since i laid my eyeS on that man😤, on the albedo banner on a one pull, albedo def don’t like me, even though i met him like 3 times now, and dayummm his twin😳😳😳 i need more sagau interactions with him— ok ok we derailed a bit,

so after i agonized because i was definitely hoping for weapons never characters because commitments, but if they come home to me🥲 i’ll treat them well because they’re mine, but anyway, after that whole bit, i crowned him the fish claymore, amd leveled him up to 60,

and before we get into it,

ever since i got xingqiu and got shocked & agonized, along with the other 4 characters that came with him, mind you ever since i trialed them(as in everyone who exists) i wanted them but didn’t roll because i gotta keep that no gacha streak, but like that almost failed, but whatever, it’s their fault not mine👁👁😭(so since it’s obvious i am a tsundere, kuudere more accurately while playing the game, bc im in public? My family can more or less see me, and i have to keep that fangirling to myself)

anyway mained that bitch like no tomorrow, like lumine, even gave him her weapon, because screw my enough artifact and enough weapons luck man, so they all share💅 and practically never put him off my team, he was in the first slot, like lumine👁👁 and like i always put lumine as my pfp andddddd, when it was kaeya’s bday i changed it for a few to his, but for some reason it became xingqiu like, i never noticed actually lol

but i never changed it back, bc i didn’t notice💀 then i played the next time, like 6 days after, because i play full day once a week, but it may be more now that christmas break is approaching(but still less, like an hour or two), and after i put diluc in, after removing yanfei(he was borrowing her artfcts) possessed this guy, and paused the game to eat, and after, the pfp became diluc, now that i think about it, it was diluc’s after i put him on the team, and like👁👁 shit— what does this mean?.p?,a#?! and xingqiu’s face was still there when i chatted my friend so like, wow wtf, but i let it be;

and after that, i switched to xingqiu because he is the best woodcutter in the grand narukami shrine, then after a slash, i switched to diluc because i wanted to see how good of a woodcutter he is, except it didn’t, it kept me the ‘cannot switch to selected character’ thing, and kept pressing to change him after a few good seconds, and still no, but when i switched to rosaria, it worked, and i tried to switch to diluc again, but it didn’t because the game couldn’t read my request, and so i switched back to xingqiu after and cut the wood, after that i could switch back to diluc like woww rood🙄

but das aight, more content for me😼 smthg happened in my teapot too, after i placed diluc on my floating island thing above my beach island, and went to talk to him, xingqiu said ‘drat’😭😭😭 i laughed and switched to lumine, oh yeah, another is before the teapot line thing happened, i interfaced my teams and cleared out my second one bc dragonspine wasn’t that scary no more😌😤 and dubbed as ’bts’, i’m guaranteed itto now😼😼😼 thnx diluc, a spot is reserved for itto, i never planned on rolling ever, but that birthday line changed me— so i placed all the boys i have, xingqiu, kaeya and diluc lmao, third slot was for itto— and then, after i did all that i plaCED DILUC in the teapot, then as i was about to meet him, i wanted to switch to lumine, but i couldn’t click to the other teams i have, why? Because the arrows were goNE, even after i check and clicked and exited and checked again, it still wasn’t there :) this evil bitch- i knoW it was you xingqiu😡😌, so anyway, i changed diluc to lumine bc wow hell if i took out xingqiu🙄 i still love the guy 🥰😌💅 and i’m pretty sure kaeya is enjoying this little rivalry between chivalrous water boy & chilvalrous fire boi, why? I put them together before i formed the new team lmaoo, and my kaeya didn’t have no problems lmao, in fact, he was quite quiet? Not sure

the end for now and wow, that was longggg, i hope you had fun reading this sagau encounter😭 and my little sister still thinks i’m lyingg about this, specifically that profile thing, but she saw with her own eyes that team no arrow thing, because she thinks i’m doing this to scare her, she was right of course, but it’s not a lie, i suck at that😭

so if you may please, ✨interpret✨this whole thing for me like the old days o wise crone of the genshin sagau who was there in it’s birth(ily if y’all noticed the azula and narnia refs)

oh and ofc, if it’s not too much, impostor albedo interacts (where we like idk, isekai’d back 500 yrs ago, after the cataclysm but still on time for susbedo to be resurrected and then adopting him and then moving to watatsumi and living there teaching him about life and find the truth of this whole ass game lesgo like this some rhinedottir parallel, and yes we do be lore sluts tho and very book-wise/narrative perceptive, bc we read very interesting stories, if you know what i mean😏, and we adopt kunikuzushi too :D, and maybe maybE, we become the sixth fatui harbinger, we are the kindest harbinger, and scara takes my place bc duhh, but it’s all passed down, and we’re like in hiding as a special lil mission between us and the tsaritsa, where we initiated it bc we def do wanna know the truth)

😳🥺 bc man, i just know everyone saw me simp for him through that camera i place deliberately to face me everytime, especially that thing he pulled in mond djedkdkdjejdjdkedkekksek

kk love ya, stay safe, i can’t wait to catch up on a lot of stuff i missed

No one:

Me, trying to process everything:

[af1899]

THE REAL BEST NEWS OF THE UPDATE

The whole banner is boring, these are the real best news tonight.

POGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Yes, after a long wait of over 4 years, Sophia is finally getting her first alt and as a free unit, which is very nice.

Part of the artwork, as well as the event information, should be out in less than 2 hours since this post's date/time.

Anyway, I'll now comment on a few things about the new units now formally revealed with skills and artwork.

Trailer

Thoughts

The seasonal units come to no surprise as they were all previously leaked (thanks again Intern-kun!) but there are some interesting things in this reveal and the associated notice.

First of all, you're perhaps wondering how well I did with my guesses on the attires Male Grima and Kurtnaga would be doning plus the free unit potentially being Nasir, well... completely wrong with the last two, Kurthnaga isn't dressing like a Jiangshi, actually looking more like an... emperor? But if you know his role in the Tellius games, then it makes sense, either way he looks nice, I was right with Male Grima, more dressed up than his Female counterpart and the like, but Okuma Yugo takes on drawing Male Grima again and he looks so cool.

However, I'm still shook one of my biggest favs in Elibe got an alt like, out of nowhere, I was totally expecting some Tellius unit that'd go along with the theory I had in mind, nevethless, I'm excited to build her and comment on her gameplay elements (that'll be done once I have her properly built, but I need to prepare some resources in advance), I'll also talk about the event stuff later on, I hope today but something came up recently, so we'll see.

The banner itself remains the same: an easy skip with nothing I do feel like I need right away.

Male Grima is fodder galore for me, fortunately, he's easy to fodder for two full passive skills if one of them is [Sturdy Stance 3]. He's quite fearsome to face if you initiate on an ally of his near him, and he'll be pretty durable, replacing his special with [Moonbow] is also a good call, then add a movement assist, a [Atk/Def Bond] as [Sacred Seal] and he's set. It's also worth noting he's a colorless breath armor unit, giving him less likelihood to get WTD.

Rhea... Idk if that weapon type and animation would give away some important spoilers, but even though I know something regarding her identity, I'd rather continue avoiding spoilers, I have no way to play her home game. She's also another fodder galore unit in my eyes; but onto what's she like as a unit, not as great as Male Grima, and she relies on both keeping herself healthy to reduce incoming damage and deny follow-ups, plus healthy foes to deal follow-up attacks, not the most reliable thing but not too shabby either, keeping her health on check shouldn't be as difficult.

Kurthnaga has a rather interesting weapon over there, it makes its user beefier in enemy phase and you can inherit it to any dragon unit of your liking, the rest isn't exactly too interesting except for maybe [Even Pulse Tie 3] being on a seasonal semi-demote, it's a decent skill that can (in part) counter some teams or units but most of the time, you'll find it useless. He's also added like Spring Narcian, introducing a new {Experience} skill and an inheritable weapon, plus on demote too. 🤨

Lastly, Sothis is with Male Byleth, it seems to be the better fit for her out of the two despite his not-so-recent Legendary alt, since his Female counterpart leads a Duo with Rhea. Fodder galore as well but this one has some things to point out:

Welp, that's Múspell's C-skill but without {Joint}-esque effect all right, and you can give it to dragons, it'll likely stack with Múspell's C-skill, resulting in a slightly bigger boost in damage dealt and reduction on damage taken, most likely at least.

As a unit, this Duo is also best used on enemy phase, with a Lv.3 {Stance} of any kind being their best A-skill, they should be able to handle themselves just fine, but they're still vulnerable to arrows, green bow users like Rath or Python (for accessable choices) or Shamir with [Deadeye] should be able to quickly dispatch the Duo, they'll also most likely be used in offense than defense I think, they still don't seem super threatening, but their selling point would be the Duo Skill, which can help some units deal with Fallen Edelgard and some other dangers that tend to deny follow-up attacks:

...And it can be re-used on the same map.

Anyway, it seems everyone here has some sort of focus on being tankier and enemy phase oriented, yet there's a clear ounce of difference in how to use them, but nothing I'd exactly find super broken or must-have, the Duo might come in handy though.

I'll just free pick blue if available, otherwise I guess I'll go for colorless, green or red, I'm moreso looking forward to Sophia... speaking of her, it's possible she'll also play similarly to the units in here and her OG form (being slow and tanky, best used on enemy phase), if that's how she plays out, then [Close Counter], [Atk/Res Rein 3] (though I need a Brady first to properly fodder Plumeria) and [Pact Blooms+] are ready for her, but I'm short on B-skills and other expensive stuff, maybe [Flier Formation 3] since I have one last Díthorba to spare, I could pick [Quick Riposte 3] but my OCD wouldn't let me live with her just inheriting it up to Lv.2, and my only source without promoting anyone is Nah, so I'd have to do with alternatives, we'll see...

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you get who you want soon in the banner, hopefully Sophia will do great for you if you plan to build her also.

[scalpel-mom-mori]

gacha rant feat a little bit of high school math but not that much

i take one ap stats class and i think i know everything but here's my lil issue with mathing gacha. This applies specifically to pgr fate banners but can def apply to others.

2% BASE DROP WITH 80-100 PITY IS NOT BETTER THAN 0.5% BASE DROP WITH 60 PITY

60 PITY IS ABOUT HALF THE NUMBER OF PULLS TO GUARANTEE AN S RANK

When someone says "In the long run" in terms of statistics, that means over thousands of pulls, because 2% base is standard but it's still not that good. And, on top of that, pulls are independent. Every time you roll on a 2% base drop rate, you're aiming for 2%. That is, every roll, you have a 98% chance of failing. Your chances do not get better as you roll until pity.

But xue, you whine, 0.5% is evn worse!

You're correct, but you're only trying to beat 0.5% odds sixty times. One early copy, rare as they are, still saves so much currency.

In PGR specifically, a single roll is worth a lot because of the extremely low pity. 80-100 rolls to pity is pretty standard, and most games aren't Arknights which gives out rolls like candy.

Case in point: the ever-beloved Genshin Impact.

Which is, imo, a truly and genuinely horrible game to introduce gacha to as big a Western audience as it has.

Main issue? The 50/50.

Base drop rate is the same as PGR with half again as many rolls necessary to reach it, and three week banners compared to PGR Glb's six week banners.

Generally, pity once per patch is not so bad, but 5* characters in Genshin are being cranked out at about that rate, sometimes faster, and so the possibility of being off-bannered makes Genshin gacha brutal because out of two (sometimes three) banners, you can get one five star every six weeks or so, and it's likely that it won't even be the one you want.

Ok that's all the math stuff. Genshin gacha rant under the cut.

Honestly, it's not that important to Genshin that you can't hit pity for every banner. PGR only had to do that because of CN launch drama. the issue is that you can only hit pity every patch but you can't guarantee you're getting the character/weapon you want.

My favorite system is, funny enough, from Arknights (which I didn't play very long oops). It works similar to Genshin's shop, every roll gives a Headhunting Data contract, but the featured units can be purchased through the shop. Admittedly, it works a lot better with AK than Genshin, because AK's whole thing is that it gives out so much gacha currency.

The other thing is that AK also guarantees a 5* or 6* operator in the first ten rolls on the banner, which really helps.

Tl;dr rant section: git gud genshin

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Lufenia Quests with Sephiroth Part 4

Lufenia Quests are currently the hardest kind of fight in the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game. They’re level 200. Aside from the usual gems and tickets, winning will give you 20 High Guard Tokens, which can be used to buy High Armor.

The battles featured in this post include Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII as part of the team lineup.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Sephiroth info

Lufenia quests list

Searching for Friends (Story Act 3 Chapter 2, Part 2) Lufenia Quest

His Raging Blade (Kaiser Behemoth Raid) Lufenia Quest

Conclusion

Introduction

After I ended up having to pity the Burst or BT weapon of Sephiroth, I wanted to use him as much as possible, especially in Lufenia fights.

I talk more about this in another post, but I also ended up pitying Cloud Strife’s (from Final Fantasy VII) Burst and it was a back-to-back pity. Spent a total of 240,000 gems just to get Cloud’s and Sephi’s BTs. It would have been more if their banners didn’t come with a free multi-draw as part of the game’s winter holidays celebration.

Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII

My Sephiroth is Level 80 and Crystal Level 80. His 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD are fully MLB. His Ex is at Ex+ 3/3 or Purple. He’s currently equipped with his Burst weapon and his High Armor. All of his Boards have been completed. He has his Bloom Stone.

He has 3 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 Artifacts and

3 Attack 108 with One-Winged Angel Boost★★ (Raises INT BRV, MAX BRV, ATK, DEF by 5% if HP is MAX at start of last wave) Artifacts.

If the fight only has 1 wave, then I equip him with triple 108/One-Winged Angel Boost★★. Otherwise, I go for triple 108/330.

Sephiroth (#ad) is equipped with the following A Spheres:

Edgar Roni Figaro’s (from Final Fantasy VI) Debuff Power

Increases BRV damage dealt by 10% while an enemy is debuffed

Cloud Strife’s (from Final Fantasy VII) Critical Power

Raises BRV damage dealt with critical hits by 10%

Vayne Carudas Solidor’s (from Final Fantasy XII) Broken Power

When attacking target afflicted with Break: • Increases BRV damage dealt by 10%

Lufenia Quests List

So far, I’ve been able to use Sephiroth in the following Lufenia fights:

The Terse Turk

Mechanized Sentry (Guard Scorpion Raid)

Roses of May

Thrall of Darkness

Storming the Citadel (Mission Dungeon)

Tree for the Void

Soaring Flames (Boss Rush)

Divine Diabolos (World of Illusions)

Abyss: A Lead to the Thick of It

Keeper of the Farseer

Gentle Giant

Operation Airborne Interception

The Power of Ignorance

Garden of Despair (Boss Rush)

Eternal Light (Story Act 3 Chapter 1, Part 1)

Swordmaiden

Two Moons Waxing (Story Act 3 Chapter 1, Part 2)

Devourer of Light (Hell Wyrm Raid)

Reliable Partner

The Power of Knowledge

Solitude (Story Act 3 Chapter 2, Part 1)

The Yuke Cometh

I talk more about these fights in other posts.

Searching for Friends (Story Act 3 Chapter 2, Part 2) Lufenia Quest

This Lufenia quest has lots of annoying gimmicks. Really didn’t feel like dealing with any of them so I decided to just cheese this fight to make things easier and less stressful for me. Didn’t want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to win and what to do. 

Besides, the Lufenia orb here can only be increased by dealing water BRV damage. At the moment, the only chars who can take care of this are Mog (from Final Fantasy VI), Garnet Til Alexandros XVII (from Final Fantasy IX), Rydia (from Final Fantasy IV), and Relm Arrowny (from Final Fantasy VI). For Relm, she can only do it if you bring Leviathan as your summon.

My Garnet is fully MLB and Purple. I have Rydia’s and Relm’s Ex weapons but neither are Purple. And both have yet to get an LD. Garnet doesn’t have one either. The 3 are pretty outdated by now. Mog is the newest char to be introduced to this game but I don’t have his LD or Ex. Managed to get copies of his 15cp and 35cp but neither are MLB.  

I’m sure it’s possible to make this work somehow, but, like I said, I didn’t want to deal with this right now. I mean, you can’t even launch the boss. He’s also immune to delay, even via break, and that’s just some of the boss’s gimmicks so, yeah, this fight sucks.

The team I brought was Sephiroth, Paladin Cecil Harvey (from Final Fantasy IV), and Yuffie Kisaragi (from Final Fantasy VII) with Sylph as my summon. My Calls were Arciela V. Adoulin’s (from Final Fantasy XI), Aeris or Aerith Gainsborough’s (from Final Fantasy VII), and Setzer Gabbiani’s (from Final Fantasy VI).   

Paladin Cecil is fully MLB and Purple, including his LD. All of his Boards have been completed. He has his Bloom Stone. He’s equipped with his Burst weapon and his High Armor. He has triple ATK 108 with Ordeal Grasping Light Boost★★ (Raises own INT BRV, MAX BRV, ATK, DEF by 5% if HP is MAX at start of last wave) Artifacts. He has the following Spheres:

Cloud Strife’s (from Final Fantasy VII) Critical Power (RF) A Sphere

Raises BRV damage dealt with critical hits by 4%

Maria’s (from Final Fantasy II) HP Heal Base Attack All Shorter (RF) C Sphere

After recovering HP: • Raises party’s INT BRV, ATK by 2% for 3 turns

Yuffie is fully MLB and Purple. She has her Bloom Stone. Only 9 of her Summon Boards have been completed. She’s missing her Character Enhancement Boards. She has 3 ATK 108 with Debuff Attack Up★★ (Raises ATK by 5% when an enemy is debuffed) Artifacts.

Actually, I only recently Purpled Yuffie maybe a few days or so ago because I wanted to give her Sphere to Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI. Yuffie has an E Sphere called Debuff Success Attack Boost Up Shorter:

Raises own MAX BRV, ATK by 10% for 3 turns when inflicting debuff on target

This fight only has one wave and there’s only one boss. He gets to move first and he does this guaranteed to hit group BRV + HP attack that cleanses his debuffs, dispels 1 buff from your chars and inflicts them with a framed debuff called Grave Curse (effects 30% HP poison damage).

Yuffie is the char that can cheese this fight. She can throw debuffs at the enemy with her I don’t need this skill. So I gave the boss back his Grave Curse debuff. Now I just need to wait for said debuff to drain the boss’s HP.

In the meantime, I had to keep everyone alive and that’s where my Calls and Paladin Cecil come in. Setzer’s Freeze and Arciela’s HP Attack Disable debuffs bought me a few turns of no damage from the boss. Aerith can heal, battery and even resurrect a dead char, if needed. Cecil’s LD brought everyone back to full health and increased their HP. He also provided a lot of defense.

Sylph is one of the summons that have a fast charge rate which was why I brought her. I wanted to be able to summon in case I needed it without having to wait for a long time, especially since this fight wasn’t supposed to last that long considering I’m cheesing it with Yuffie. 

Anyway, so I just spammed everyone’s skills and let the boss take turns so Grave Curse would keep draining his HP. It wasn’t long before the enemy’s HP was down to 4%. His recast bar was nearly full, he was targeting All, and I’ve just about run out of my protection Calls so I really wanted to end this fight already before things take a turn for the worse.

On Yuffie’s turn, I switched her out for the friend support Terra that I borrowed. Used her LD first so she could keep on being able to move. Soon, the boss only had 1% HP left.

Most likely, I could have ended the fight with Terra already, but I didn’t want to. I wanted Sephiroth to deal the killing blow. Hey, at least let him contribute something to this fight, right? LOL. In all honesty though, he didn’t really do anything. I suppose his speed down aura and the debuff from his LD helped a bit but, eh, he really wasn’t necessary. I’d have been better off bringing more protection for my team.

Anyway, so I just used Terra’s Additional Ability (AA) so she wouldn’t accidentally kill the boss. When Yuffie came back, just had her use her BRV Attack+ too. Didn’t think she’d be able to kill the boss with her base skills, but didn’t want to take any chances.

Finally, it was Sephiroth’s turn. He currently has max brave and the boss literally only has 1% HP left. You can’t even see his HP bar anymore. And yet I couldn’t be sure if any of Sephi’s moves could actually kill the boss. 

Didn’t want the enemy to take any more turns so I just activated Seph’s Burst mode. At least he got to be the one to finish off the boss and end the fight.

Also, as always, it’s really nice to see all of the Spheres I gave to him activating and appearing on the upper left side of the screen every time I use any of his moves. Well, except his Ex since Black Materia doesn’t deal BRV damage.

Got the score and al the other mission requirements. Glad to be over and done with this fight already. 

His Raging Blade (Kaiser Behemoth Raid) Lufenia Quest

For this fight, I brought Sephiroth, Garland (from Final Fantasy I), and Lightning (Claire Farron from Final Fantasy XIII) with Diabolos as my summon. My Calls were Jack’s (from Final Fantasy Type-0), Terra Branford’s (from Final Fantasy VI), and Gabranth’s (Noah fon Ronsenburg from Final Fantasy XII).

Garland’s and Lightning’s 15cp, 35cp, Ex and LD are fully MLB. Their Ex has been Purpled or at Ex+ 3/3. Lightning also has the passive from her Dark Manikin weapon. They’re both equipped with their Burst weapons and their High Armor. They have their Bloom Stones and all of their Boards have been completed.

Lightning has 3 ATK 108 with MAX BRV 330 Artifacts while Garland has 3 ATK 108 with He Who Thirsts for Strife Boost★★ (Raises MAX BRV, ATK by 5% while Soul of Chaos buff active) Artifacts.

Garland is equipped with 3 of Vayne Carudas Solidor’s (from Final Fantasy XII) Breaking Power (RF) A Sphere:

When attacking target afflicted with Break: • Increases BRV damage dealt by 4%    

Lightning is equipped with the following Spheres:

Prishe’s (from Final Fantasy XI) Weak Attack Boost Up Shorter A Sphere

When attacking target’s weakness: • Raises own MAX BRV, ATK by 10% for 3 turns *Does not stack with same sphere

Ardyn Izunia’s (Ardyn Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy XV) Break Raging Attack Boost Up A Sphere

When inflicting Break: • Raises MAX BRV, ATK by 2% up to 5 times, once per turn *Does not stack with same sphere

Hope Estheim’s (from Final Fantasy XIII) Buff Success Attack Boost All Shorter D Sphere

After granting buff: • Raises party’s MAX BRV, ATK by 5% for 3 turns *Does not stack with same sphere

I saw 2 vids that featured a duo run of this Lufenia quest. IIRC, one had Lightning and Terra while the other had Lightning and Garland. I was like, if these chars can duo this fight, then adding Sephiroth into the lineup shouldn’t make much of a difference. He can just stand there and look pretty while his team mates do all the work. Too bad I don’t have his costume. LOL.

But, yeah, Sephi’s been so powercrept by now that it’s pretty hard to bring him to a Lufenia fight. His damage is meh compared to those of the latest DPS. He really needs a lot of support. To make things worse, he doesn’t contribute much to the party other than damage. Well, he does have a speed down aura and he can inflict a debuff with his LD. His Ex being capable of bringing thousands of brave down to 0 also has its uses. Simply put though, there are better chars than him by now. 

Anyway, Garland is boosted in this fight which was why I opted to go with him over Terra. Also, the boss in this fight counters all magic attacks so you’ll need to paralyze him first via Ramuh’s framed paralyze debuff before magical DPS, like Terra, can safely hit him. I did bring Terra as a Call since her regular Call inflicts a debuff while the BRV Regen from her LD Call is perfect during a char’s Burst mode.

The Lufenia orb can be increased by delaying the boss. Both Garland and Lightning take care of this. This fight only has 1 wave. There’s one main boss, the one that needs to be defeated. He has a manikin with him that can be troublesome if allowed to act. The boss occasionally heals his ally unless he’s dead in which case he revives him instead.

The boss starts on all fours. Once you take him down to around 50% HP, he will  stand up, remove all of his debuffs and restore his HP back to full. At certain times, he’ll also get this aura. A message will show up on the screen saying something along the lines of “the boss is preparing a powerful attack” and then “don’t let him act”. If you actually let him act, he’ll use a move that instantly KOs.

The fight started with Lightning getting to move first. Had her use Gabranth’s regular Call for the HP Damage up and Defense Down debuffs. Well, it inflicts other debuffs too but those are the most important. Didn’t use Jack’s or Terra’s Calls yet. Saving them for later after the boss stands up and removes all his debuffs.

Spammed everyone’s skills. Focused on the boss and let AoE or splash damage deal with the add-on. Just kept on delaying and pushing the turns of both enemies back so they never got to move. 

Ended up switching out Sephiroth for the friend support Garland that I borrowed before I could even use his LD. Yeah, as can be expected, Lightning took most of the turns. Even my own Garland didn’t get to move much yet but every time he did, he was able to deal a lot of damage and delay the enemies.

Used the support Garland’s Burst first then his LD. Then I just kept on using his LD whenever he got the chance to move. Had Lightning take advantage of Garland’s Burst effect by using her LD and spamming her skills. 

So it wasn’t long before the boss finally stood up, removed all his debuffs and restored his HP back to 100%. Had Lightning use Gabranth’s LD Call. This applies 2 debuffs but you’ll only get the HP Damage up debuff if the enemy has at least 4 debuffs. Lightning’s thunder resist down made for a total of 3 debuffs. Needed 1 more. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to get more debuffs until Sephiroth gets back since he’s the one with Jack’s Call. His LD can also inflict a debuff. 

It’s fine though since everyone was still able to deal a lot of damage anyway. Besides, it won’t be long now before Seph get back so just have to wait for a bit. As soon as Sephi returned, had him use Jack’s LD Call right away. By then, the boss only has 55% HP left. Also had Seph use his own LD for the debuff as well.

On Garland’s turn, had him use Terra’s LD Call then I activated his Burst mode. I was always planning to use his Burst which was why I gave Terra’s Call to him so he can get some battery during his BT phase. 

During Garland’s Burst mode, the following debuffs were active on the main boss:

Outlaw’s Brand, from Gabranth’s LD Call - reduces ATK; effects a certain amount of BRV damage; increases HP damage taken; returns to Criminal’s Mark while afflicted with less than 4 debuffs 

Judgment, from Gabranth’s LD Call - lowers MAX BRV

SPD Down, from Terra’s regular Call - lowers SPD

Katana Wounds, from Jack’s LD Call - lowers DEF; increases BRV damage taken while being afflicted with or while afflicted with break

Cellular Erosion, from Sephiroth’s LD - raises BRV damage taken; effects a certain amount of BRV damage

By the time Garland was about to cast Ultimate Conflict, his finishing Burst move, the boss was down to 35% HP. Garland was able to deal 1 million+ HP damage during his BT mode.

Afterwards, just continued spamming skills, having everyone take advantage of Garland’s Burst effect. The boss wasn’t set to be able to move anytime soon. In fact, his turns had been pushed so far back that his icon was no longer visible on the turn order list. He basically just stood there, unable to do anything as my chars just kept on attacking him.

Soon, I’d used up the last of Lightning’s LD. She only has 2 more uses of Sparkstrike and 3 more uses of Flourish of Steel left. It’s fine though since the fight was nearly over with the boss only having 16% HP left.

Garland still has plenty of skills left so it didn’t matter even when the boss resurrected his ally. I didn’t need to since, as aforementioned, there was no danger with the boss unable to move anytime soon, but I ended up summoning Diabolos anyway. 

I guess I just wanted to lower my turn count a bit more, not that that was necessary either since wasn’t even near the limit yet. I guess I also just wanted to be able to deal even more damage since Garland’s Burst effect was still up. Combining that with the summon should mean more damage, right?

If I had brought any other summon except for Diabolos, then yeah, most definitely. I knew something was wrong when I summoned Diabolos and the boss suddenly got all this brave.

Looking at his stats screen revealed that he absorbs the dark element. Argh! How’d I miss that? I’d looked through that screen before. Even read more info about this fight. How could I forget? I chose to bring Diabolos because it’s the only other summon, other than Ramuh, that goes up to level 40, which means more damage. His Blessing is pretty good too although it requires your party to lose HP. Since I delayed the boss to oblivion, Diabolos’s Blessing never got to activate. Should have brought Ramuh for the framed paralysis, not that that was needed either. Still, it would have been better than going with Diabolos. 

Unsurprisingly, everyone’s damage tanked during the summon. Couldn’t deal any brave damage since the boss just absorbed all the hits. The HP damage still hit but it was much lower due to the lack of brave hits. Garland was able to partially circumvent this by using the AoE parts of his kit since, thankfully, the add-on didn’t absorb dark so he could still be hit for max damage.

Had Lightning use her HP+ so she wouldn’t jump turns so much and I wouldn’t have to waste the few skills she has left on dealing mediocre damage. Sephiroth actually proved useful since Black Materia, his Ex, just so happened to be charged so he was able to bring all the brave that the boss had accumulated back down to 0.

Of course since the summon wasn’t over yet, the boss just gained back the brave once Lightning and Garland took their turns. Was so freaking glad when the summon finally ended. Thankfully, this was really just a minor setback. The boss’s HP was in the red so it was really only a matter of time before he fell. 

Was pretty pleased with Sephiroth during this fight. Yeah, he didn’t really get to do much and he spent most of the battle away since I replaced him with the support Garland. But hey, he got to contribute via the debuff from his LD and his speed down aura. His Ex even proved useful. 

He even ended up dealing surprisingly decent brave damage thanks to his equipped Spheres, Garland’s Burst effect and the buff from Lightning’s LD as well as all the debuffs the boss was currently afflicted with. In the screenshot below, he was able to shave off all of the boss’s brave and actually break him using one of his moves. Not bad at all, huh?

Anyway, Garland ended the fight on turn 37. Welp, his Burst effect still has 4 turns remaining. And he still has plenty of skills left. Lightning really took all the turns. She’s super special awesome, as always. But Garland did really well too.

Managed to get the score and all the other mission requirements. Very pleased with this team.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Which chars did you use to complete these Lufenia Quests? Did you pull for Sephiroth? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[iiasha-archived]

genshin anon! finally lol. i keep meaning to respond - tab has been open with your last response for two weeks now... lol. oh i put a lot of work into my weapons. especially if i use them a lot. oo the 20k+ is nice though! apparently i have hu tao built semi decently so when she gets a vaporize crit it goes quite well for me haha. yeah agree. and they have updates every 6 weeks. yeah not every update is the biggest thing ever but like... its okay. no need to rush. game development takes time.

hihihi lmao again no worries!

(2/5) oh oops I spend several hours a day on the game (when i have time). to be fair, i genuinely enjoy going into coop and finding lower ar people to help with bosses and world exploration and stuff. so i can spend a long time doing that. i know i appreciated the help when i was low. plus its fun to get to chat with others occasionally. oh yeah genshin def ripped off of botw very well lol. they took botw's complaints and went yeah i can fix that. but then made it gacha.

(3/5) i saw you say you have c6 noelle now lol. i am so so sorry ): you did get keqing though? was that on the banner? so are you guaranteed the banner character next beCAUSE ZHONGLI RERUN YES. oh yeah it was so cool seeing everyone! bennett and razor were just adorable i love that friendship. loved getting to see albedo again. hes like.. my fav and of course i missed him :/ rerun plz.. ahh yeah a lot of the claymores are more for their skills i guess. except razor. so i get that.

(4/5) i also tend to use the elemental stuff a bit more but just idk claymores are SO SLOW and im just not overly fond. oh yeah polearms do less damage ahha. i like their fighting styles though. theyre faster and just idk it just -works- for me. oh that is SO CUTE they wear friendship tassels )': ooo yeah the rosaria/kaeya/diluc trio is quite fun. would def love to see more of them! rosaria grew a lot on me over 1.4 and seeing her... not be so rude all the time... lol.

(5/5) also im super excited, i did end up pulling childe! IT WAS SO CRAZY. I DID THE MAGICAL TWO 5*S IN A ROW. mona decided to give me c1 because i can never win the 50/50 and then childe was like its okay i know youve been working your butt off getting everything ready for me so here you go <3 and like )': i love him lol his playstyle is so fun and he works great with hu tao. also got rosaria and fischl (who i didnt have) which is great! were you pulling on childes banner at all or just saving?

ALSO thoughts on the 1.5 stuff??? I haven't gotten to watch completely everything yet but it all sounds so good! Zhongli rerun!!! And the housing thing seems super cool? And lower resin for weekly bosses! New world boss too! All the events seem pretty interesting as well so I'm pretty excited! -genshin anon (pretty sure tumblr still only lets you send 5 anon asks an hour or else i would've added this earlier lol)

genshin anon. lol it's okay! everyone is free to like whatever characters they want! yeah diona is.. not involved at all. although she is getting a hangout in 1.5! might be the first one i actually do. her story is pretty sad though from reading all of her profile. yeah you with noelle was me with diona. i was so mad at her at first since i pulled her like... 10 times on xiaos banner. after i got over it i tried her out and now i love her. also its okay! i took like two weeks to respond :P

but omg how do you have tabs open for two weeks.... i get stressed if i don’t leave my computer with everything closed LMAO. i mean yeah it definitely makes sense to put a lot of work into weapons bc they can be used by multiple characters so they’re a good investment!! i should start thinking about that as well......

nice!!! i’m guessing you’re having a good time with hu tao then eh :D my xiao is. okay lmao probably not doing the damage as expected of him but eh whatever <3 

if i’m like really in the mood i can invest a couple hours but most days it takes some self-convincing to even log in asfjdkldsaj like once i’m in the game it’s fine but for some reason the action of opening and loading it up is like hmm.... also most days by the time i do get to play i’m so exhausted from work </3 

omg that sounds fun!! personally i don’t like... playing with strangers that much afjdklasj so i tend to avoid co-op... but one of my friends might start playing genshin so i totally get what you mean about helping lower AR people with bosses and stuff because i wanna do that with her lmao :D 

lmao traded botw faults for the gacha system... you really can’t have it all unfortunately </3 speaking of botw my friend got my the expansion past like. literally last year lmao i’ve been meaning to play it. ugh i’m just so behind in general on all video games unless it’s genshin lmao

i wouldn’t have minded c6 noelle if i had GOTTEN ANYBODY ELSE WHEN I WAS PULLING ON THAT BANNER ;_____; like at least they could have given me a sucrose who i don’t have!!! but i did get keqing on my pity from that banner!! wait omg i didn’t realize that was how it works... i have a vague idea but if that’s true YES ZHONGLI PLEASE COME HOME GOD PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE i’m 100% skipping childe’s banner for zhongli sorry dude ajkdlfaj

ahhh yes getting to see albedo was nice too!!! even if only for a bit hehe it’s nice how they tried to rope in all the mondstadt characters somehow (except. diona jaklsdfja) 

okay mood. i love chongyun to bits but i admit after maining xiao for a while i’m definitely like why is chongyun so... slow asjfkldj but that’s literally just how it works </3 and same about rosaria!!!! she was still pretty like.... moody idk but she’s definitely better when she’s not just being straight up mean lmao

OMG CONGRATS!!!!! you seem to have much better gacha luck than me LMAOOO i envy that but i’m so glad you got everyone you wanted!!! and nah now that zhongli is definitely confirmed i’m DEFINITELY saving for him like actually the last time it was childe than zhongli’s banner was when i just started playing and i wasted all my beginner primogems on childe not knowing who was coming next........ i’m not making that mistake again LMAO

i didn’t watch the livestream but i did see the trailer and AHHHHHHH SO EXCITED omg with the housing i thought we were just getting a house but no it looks like they’re giving us a WHOLE FUCKING VILLAGE like as if i didn’t spend enough time in this game they’re introducing this like you KNOWWWW the hours about to be put into customizing our little house/villages.... 

ohhh i didn’t see the thing about resin!!! wow they really are giving it all. the previews for inazuma were also super pretty!!! and while the new characters have been known for a while this teaser definitely made me more excited for them hehe eula is so prettyyy

and yayyyy diona hangout! is she the only one coming in this version? but i’m glad to see they’ll probably add hangouts for all the characters (or at least the less story-critical ones like zhongli already has his story quest so idk if he’d get a hangout). it’s just nice to see more love given to those characters hehe <3

[bieddiediaz]

Kay so I've been watching film essays in between study breaks and one of them was an explanation of the cool girl trope by the take, it said that Natasha is a cool girl bc she "looks like scarlett Johansson but is one the boys" and honestly that's true (i def rec watching the video) and one of the things I thought anout too was the reason people (specifically men) didn't like captain marvel but love black widow is that bw is shown to be good, but never good enough (1/?)

ur so right. natasha is like the perfect male fantasy superhero - femme fatale who’s overt about her sexuality and manipulates men at the tip of her fingers, but is actually a ‘male gaze superhero’ who exists narratively, esp in the earlier movies, to aid men’s storylines. so much about her caters to the male gaze - even at the point where she first enters the mcu, we have tony looking at her appreciatively. she’s in makeup all the time. there are several scenes where she wears skin tight dresses. her entire superhero costume.

any growth she goes through is because of things happening to her, not because of choices/actions/mistakes she makes (a prime example is the aou infertility storyline, but also her arc in the winter soldier, everything with bruce in aou). cacw is the first time we see her making choices that majorly influence the narrative, although every choice she makes in cacw somehow happens to tie into a man’s storyline.

her entire narrative up until this point has been controlled by men, and it shows.

putting the rest under a cut cause i got a bit carried away -

carol, on the other hand, has obviously had women majorly influence her creative writing process. practically nothing about her appeals to toxic masculinity. there are no scenes of her dressed ~sexy. her costume is the first female superhero costume that isn’t extremely skin tight or has very prominent boob-armour. there isn’t a single poster of her that features the boobs-butt pose.

nothing about this -

or this -

or this -

caters to the male gaze.

compare film posters for nat and carol -

very similar positions, facing front with weapons in both hands, but,,,,,,,,,

natasha is presented as either highly sexualised - when she’s trying to manipulate men (im2, her opening scene in a1), or Sexy Fighter (end of im2, a1, tws, IW WHERE SHE HAS TWO PRETTY DROPS OF BLUE BLOOD ON HER FACE WHEN A PERSON HAS JUST EXPLODED ABOVE HER), or vulnerable in front of men (tws, aou), and subsequently she isn’t allowed to do any growing on her own unless a man influences her somehow

while carol’s entire movie is about escaping the control men have over her and finding herself with her found family, which consists of one moc and two woc

consider this -

“Black Widow is a billion times better woman, person, character, Avenger than Captain Marvel.

She has a strong character arc, has seen ups & downs of Avengers from the very beginning and has an amazing do or die attitude. She loves her fellow friends with all her heart & contributes with everything she has got (even without having any special powers). Her journey is nothing but inspirational. A russian spy, a beautiful soul inside & out. The way she respects Captain America, loves Banner, supports Thor & cares for Clint makes her the defacto #1 Woman of MCU.

And, then, we have this self proclaimed, abnoxious and shallow Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel.

She has absolutely no character, has supported no one in her story other than herself and has shown no emotional connect with anyone. On top of her over the head attitude, she thinks she has it all & knows it all & self proclaims her the Most Powerful Avenger.”

or this

“Natasha Romanoff - Smart, ambitious, no powers in the MCU, mysterious, does the right thing because she wants to and not because she can. She’s the backbone and soul of the Avengers.

Carol Danvers - Arrogant, doesn’t show grit because she’s so powerful, is a hero because she can.”

or this

“I like Black widow more because Captain Marvel got her powers from an accident but Black widow trained herself to be what she is and also she sacrificed her life for the well being of others …” 

all by men. nat is shown as skilled but not powerful enough that her presence threatens the spot of any man on the team. carol is so powerful that at least one or two men on the avengers can become redundant if she joins. hence this appreciation of nat - she ‘’’’chooses,,,, to do the right thing (its not like any male character became a hero only after getting powers or abilities), she worked for her skills instead of getting powers in an accident (can you think of a male superhero who gets powers in an accident or through an external source? no?), she’s humble and works silently instead of being arrogant (cocky male superhero? never heard of him), she ‘proclaims herself the Most Powerful Avenger’ (really? when?), she sacrificed her life for others (what’s that? carol was ready to blow up an engine that would probably kill her? i don’t remember that, what movie did you watch?)

here’s the kicker - The way she respects Captain America, loves Banner, supports Thor & cares for Clint makes her the defacto #1 Woman of MCU. she’s number one apparently because she supports all the men in her life.

tl;dr nat is written, mostly by men, as a male gaze female superhero and therefore appeals to all those men who criticise carol - who has been characterised mostly by women - for being arrogant or selfish or any number of things that male characters in the mcu have done, since carol is narratively put on a platform equal to men but nat is put on a platform that defers to men

[ajentmm]

FEB '23 Refine Review + More

Woop. Read my predictions here.

Thrasir doesn't get [Grand Strategy]. I'm sad. At least she's a self buffing, NFU, AS, Spd/Res Lull, killer.

Peony's refine is a combat focus one like I expected, but the self-healing to herself and others is nice.

NY! Lethe's base effect only adds Atk/Spd Solo / Swift Sparrow, leaving the other effects alone, nice. Plus, Phantom Speed and NFU

Dimitri might not be a proficient nuke without AS but getting True DMG and Flat DMG Reduction is nice, even if it's like 6-8, just because there's other ways in the future that it can be raised.

Sigrun got a better lance than the one I envisioned, but it's not as good as Arcane Lance.

Catra didn't get most of the effects I envisioned either, likly because it was a pipe dream to begin with. Oh well, 2 space wrap and a clash that increase the gap between her Atk and foe's Def, to then increase the True DMG is what I like to see.

Norne got a nice bow to match her jack-of-all trait, (I was so close with the name, I just had to make it a long bow)

And one last thing. The update to the staff meta. Read my predictions (?) here.

Holy Pressure is Luna with 5% less bonus damage combined with the Gravity Staff. A great use of for making a Special both offensive to match colorless tomes, and still supportive. It seems powerful but the bonus gets halved if there's no wrathful staff. It's also more powerful on a staff with Accelerate Special charge, NFU, and Sp charge +1 per attack, which Va! Elise has of course. In addion, if your perf staff already functions like a gravity staff, like B!Camilia, you're out of luck.

Poetic Justice is the name for Wrathful staff 4 and it has the benefit inflicting Spd-4 and increasing damage by 15% of foe's attack. This isn't their Atk stat, it's their Atk - your Def/Res (and presumably weapon triangle advantage if they have a Raven tome, and true damage). The more damage they do to you, the more you do to them. So, if the foe you attack is a physical nuke, you add 15% of the damage you would receive if attacked. Unfortunately, it does not have an adaptive staff ability like I hoped. This means any perf staff user with wrath built-in is out of luck. Also, anyone who already inherited dazzling staff need to fine wrathful staff fodder to get both this and Holy Pressure. This can fixed with more skills in the future, that can never be predicted. By the time a Dazzling Staff 4 or another Special appears, Va! Elise's banner is gone. Your best option is to pull her now. It's a mean, manipulative, unfortunate thing.

Come back next week when I post more outdated information.

[dailydoseofcolor]

FEH Divine Code Path Breakdown

So I am a near-launch player and am semi-F2P outside of the FEH Pass and occasional orb packs. I’m a hoarder of premium currency that isn’t orbs and I was starting to wonder what the overall return on investment a full path of Divine Codes would yield to someone who might also be a F2P hoarder. Since many F2P players who have hoarded their Divine Codes will begin hitting the 6,000 Divine Codes mark soon, I figured now was a good a time as any to look at this from a mostly fodder standpoint (no need to tell people who to go for if they’re looking specifically for merges). The final member of each path’s fodder more or less speaks for itself, so what else will you get along the way?

It’s been almost half a year since we learned what the Divine Codes were going to do, and the meta has already shifted in some ways, so I suspect this semi-analysis will be outdated by the time new paths are added.

The last obvious asterisk to all of this is that every player can and should evaluate exactly which path yields them the most usage, whether via merges or fodder. This is colored by my experience, but I’m going for objectivity.

Below is the full write-up, but here are a couple of interesting facts that I found after reviewing all of these:

Every route offers roughly 8 or 9 full skill sets, depending on what you invest in additional fodder. Radiance is the highest, but requires the most additional outside inheritance investment. 

Almost every single additional investment to make the most of your choices requires sacrificing a unit available in the Grail pool.

Every route except for Holy War includes at least one inheritable weapon. Heroes is the most at 4 inheritable weapons. The vast majority of them are powercrept or less “meta” choices, but they are super fun aesthetic weapons.

Four of the six paths will net you Swift Sparrow 2.

Only three of the thirty available units have specials that are worth inheriting. I personally view that as IS needing to increase the number of interesting specials we have. I'm tired of mostly every unit showcase having one of the same 5 specials.

It goes without saying, but IS has some very, very strange positions on what skills are considered more premium than others. But, I find that most of the routes are balanced and, true to intent, will draw different players for different reasons.

Let me know what Paths you choose! I’ll probably choose mine in the next week or so.

Awakening/Fates 

Summer Cordelia — Fallen M!Robin — Owain — Dancer Xander — Adrift M!Corrin

Summer Cordelia — It’s safe to say that S!Cordelia’s main skills are her Shell Lance+ and Dull Close 3. Neither of these are top tier fodder, but Shell Lance+ provides at least a little bit of utility with its inherit spectrum blow and Dull Close has the distinction of being a decent B Skill for physically-minded fliers. Shell Lance+ also has the aesthetic factor for many, never count that out. Dull Close 3 is only available at 4* on Cormag, so not a bad way to avoid spending grails. If you want her lance, you can also get Sturdy Blow 2 (make sure to pick up Armored Blow 1 from Gunter, Titania, Athena, or Catria). Otherwise you’re getting her lance and Dull Close 2.

Fallen M!Robin — The prize for continuing down this Path is either A) a merge for the OG Armored Dragon or B) Vengeful Fighter 3 and maybe Ward Dragons. If you’re here for the merge, you’ve already likely grabbed it. Otherwise you’re probably here for Vengeful Fighter 3. We don’t have a 4* option for Vengeful Fighter yet, so this is a solid fodder gift. For what it’s worth, the only other character with Ward Dragons is Spring Idunn. I wouldn’t blame you if you were shooting for Ward Dragons, but I’d have to ask how your Dragon Emblem team was holding up a year after the meta moved on.

Owain — The man with the hungering hand will net you Blue Flame (if you’re not considering this, I suppose I’d just be confused) and your choice of one extra ability: Atk/Def Bond, Wrath, or Spur Spd/Def 2. Theoretically, you can get Spur Spd/Def 2 and also level 1 of the other two, but that’s just dealer’s choice. Atk/Def Bond is also on Fjorm, Young Summer Tiki, New Year’s Hrid, Rutger (at 4*), Groom Hinata (at 4*), and, funnily enough, Adrift M!Corrin. Wrath is now on a cavalcade of 5* heroes and is most notably available on Astram. Wrath isn’t the premium fodder it once was, but it’s got its uses. If you’re looking for a more or less “free” Wrath without spending the grails and feathers to get Astram to 5*, then this is a pretty solid choice. Spur Spd/Def 2 is available on Oscar, just pull on Blue for a while and you’ll get it.

Dancer Xander — This is the first place in this Path where the choice for fodder is not an enviable one. Close Counter is the prize here, no doubt about that. So what do you take in addition? Dusk Uchiwa+ is a budget version of Dancer Micaiah’s Dawn Suzu and has at least some utility in AR and other modes. However, that requires choosing a dagger user that wants to be used in that way. The other (and more likely option, from my vantage point) is Quick Riposte 3. We’re 3+ years deep into this game and there’s still not a common unit with 4* QR 3, that value is hard to pass up for F2P. Another small note of commentary — it’s interested that Close Counter is considered less valuable than Distant Counter, even with no character having unconditional Close Counter built into a weapon, I’ve stopped trying to decide why IS makes the decisions it does.

Adrift M!Corrin — Finally, your grand prize for this Path is a character who just got powercrept by his own nightmare/fallen form. Null Follow-Up 3 is the jewel of this path and it makes sense — it’s still the main tried and true method for Infantry units who want to punch through those big, nasty armored units and their fighter skills. You can snag Atk/Def Bond 1 or, if you’re merging onto another infantry dragon, Hone Dragons. The only other character with Hone Dragons is Myrrh, so you’d be forgiven for pausing to consider infantry dragons that could utilize this skill. 

All in all, you get Shell Lance+ OR Dull Close 3; Vengeful Fighter 3 with potential for Ward Dragons; Blue Flame, dealer’s choice of Atk/Def Bond 3, Wrath 3, or Spur Spd/Def 2; Close Counter, Dusk Uchiwa+ OR Quick Riposte 3; Null Follow-Up 3 with potential for Hone Dragons. That’s 7 to 9 full skill sets across 5 units, which is an okay haul. 

Radiance 

 Leanne — Dancer Elincia — Lethe — Bridal Tanith — Valentine’s Greil

Leanne — Leanne might actually have the most interesting fodder of the 400 Divine Code options. But you’re likely here for one of two things: a Leanne merge or Flier Formation 3. If you’re interested in the merge, you’ve already likely grabbed it. Flier Formation 3 is only available at 4* on two grail units that are both popular in their own ways: Spring Loki and Young Minerva. As noted before, fliers don’t have access to a ton of B skills so this is a solid way to get it for “free.” Interestingly enough, Mirror Stance 2 is only available at 4* on Gharnef, so you’re spending grails for this. It’s by no means a top tier skill, but it has its uses on some builds (or, specifically, holding onto it as an easy way to get Mirror Stance 3 from Osian with a little less headache.) Finally, Hone Beasts is only available on Leanne and Lethe, who also makes an appearance on this path. You can grab both Flier Formation 3 and Hone Beasts for some special flying beastie.

Dancer Elincia — They continue to increase the difficulty of the inheritance math with Dancer Elincia. At her release, Dancer Elincia was probably the 3rd most enticing member of her banner, with her dragon-effective dagger being the main draw. Push skills were flawed and only desirable as one of the only options offensive healers got. Now, with the advent of Push 4 skills and the growth in dragon effective weapons, the calculus on Dancer Elincia’s fodder has changed. Her best fodder utility is to help you get Atk/Spd Push 4 onto the unit of your choice. If you do go the dagger route, you’ll get that and Atk/Spd Push 2. Drive Res 2 is available on Soleil, Lyon, and Summer Rhys, so you could at least get Atk/Spd Push 3 and Drive Res 1. If you’re here for her Dancer Skill in Rockslide Dance 2, you’re also getting one level one of the other two skills.

Lethe — The calculus for Lethe, on the other hand, isn’t hard at all. She’s the only character with Spd/Def Solo 3 and (as stated) one of only two characters with Hone Beasts. While it’s not the same as Atk/Spd Solo, boosting Speed by any means necessary is the name of the game for most units. Plenty of Calvary units would thank Manual Lethe for her sacrifice. Funnily enough, Lethe falls into that barrel of heroes where her base kit is mostly asynchronous, especially since she’s the one that wants the Hone Beasts buff. If you have a character in mind that can inherit all four, you’re a lucky Summoner.

Bridal Tanith — Again, they’ve decided to make the Summoner’s decision pretty hard. Getting both Lofty Blossoms+ and Swift Sparrow 2 on your favorite lance unit is nothing to sneeze at. However, you’d be forgiven for taking a few extra seconds to consider the other combinations. While Chill Attack 3 is available on 11 different units (tied with Chill Speed 3 at the time of writing), all of them have Chill Attack 3 5* locked. Gharnef and Conrad, two grail units, are the only characters that are easily obtainable, and you’ll be spending 20k feathers for the pleasure of inheriting that skill — not exactly economical. Sacrificing a 4* Gharnef or Conrad for Chill Attack 2 helps with the math, but you’ll have to make your own decision about that. If you do go that route, you can snag Chill Attack 3, Swift Sparrow 1 & 2, and Harsh Command+ (Harsh Command can be found on Clair, Gunter, and Saizo in the common pool) OR Fortify Fliers. So while this set up requires sacrificing a grail unit and a common, it’s a pretty potent combo. Fortify Flyers is available on Caeda, don’t spend 1,600 hard-earned Divine Codes on Fortify Fliers alone

Valentine’s Greil — You’ve made it to the end of this path! Your prizes are Aether and Fury 4, with some combination of Faithful Axe+ and Armor March thrown in for good measure. Ike’s heroic, if flawed, father has two skills that are excellent for Arena scoring, if that’s your thing. If that arena scoring character happens to be an axe unit, even better! You’ll get Faithful Axe+, Aether, and Fury 4 (make sure to pay homage to our Fury 3 lord, Hinata, beforehand). If these skills are destined for an armored unit, I’d suggest Fury 4 and Armor March 3. Grab a wayward infantry Chrom, stuff him full of 20,000 feathers, and Aether is yours as well. Obviously there are plenty of units that would love an Aether/Fury 4 combo and those alone are a pretty solid gift from Greil, don’t fret too much about the decision (Faithful Axe+ isn’t that great anyway).

This Path nets you the following: Flier Formation 3 or Mirror Stance 2 and potentially Hone Beasts; Atk/Spd Push 3 and Drive Res 1 OR Cloud Maiougi+ and Atk/Spd Push 2 or Drive Res 2; Spd/Def Solo 3 with potential for Hone Beasts; Lofty Blossoms 2 and Swift Sparrow 2 OR Chill Attack 3 and Swift Sparrow 1 or 2 (depending on other fodder) OR Chill Attack 3, Swift Sparrow 2, and Harsh Command+, for those willing to spend; Aether and Fury 4 with potential for either Faithful Axe+ OR Armor March. All told, this Path nets you 9 - 12 full skill sets over 5 units (with maximum inheritance investment). That’s pretty solid for people willing to make the math work. 

Blades / Sacred Stones 

Valentine’s Lilina — Amelia — Flying Nino — Winter Ephraim — Valentine’s Hector 

Valentine’s Lilina — Hector’s pride and joy’s first Alt didn’t age well. She personally pity broke me 4 times while attempting to entice her father to come home, which he never did. I’d say she was Atk Tactic 3 fodder, but Legault really has that covered. HP/Atk 2 has some utility on HP-support builds, but is available at 4* on both Valbar and Iago. Green Gift+ has Dull Ranged built in, which provides some interesting builds, but that’s all there really is to say about it. After all that…yeah, she’s Atk Tactic 3 fodder. 

Amelia — While hovering on Amelia shows you her PRF weapon in Grado Poleaxe, Amelia is also packing Slaying Axe+. She’s the only character who comes with Slaying Axe+ naturally, otherwise you’re evolving it from Beruka, Hawkeye, and Sheena. This is the default “best axe” for Axe Heroes who don’t have a PRF, so I’d actually give it a bit more weight than the original draw of Amelia — Armor March. If the intended recipient is an Armored Axe, you’ll need to choose between the two unless you want to spend 20k feathers to inherit Killer Axe+ and send it on over.

Flying Nino — She can’t read, but she sure can fly! Your likely goal here is a “free” Swift Sparrow 2, and you’re not wrong. However, Aerobatics is great for flying units and, something I’ll mention for a 3rd time on this write-up, Fliers are hurting for B-skill options. Speed Smoke is a great skill, but is available on the otherwise lackluster Chad as well as Fallen Takumi (although you’ll spend 20k feathers for it from him). You’ll need to make a not-so-fun choice between those, but Swift Sparrow fodder is becoming more available every few months, so I personally feel Aerobatics is worth more.

Winter Ephraim — I will break F2P form slightly with W!Ephraim. At the time of writing, the man who can’t be bothered to put down Siegmund in any of his alts is featured as a Hall of Forms unit. Now would be a pretty decent time (if you like him) to grab a merge and enjoy using him with some primo fodder. If not, he’s got plenty of options for the more casual Summoner. Atk/Def Solo 3 is the main draw. Only available on 4 total units, this skill is regularly coveted by those who want a little more bulk. However, Bold Fighter 3 might be more your speed. I will caution, however. Bold Fighter 3 is available on 12 unique units and that list grows every time IS wants to add an Armored Unit but can’t think of what to put in their B slot. You’ll likely find other options for it (from personal experience, Kjelle might as well change her name to be Bold Fighter Fodder). Close Guard 3 is a Sacred Seal and also available at 4* on the Death Knight. Grab it if you really want, but know you have better options.

Valentine’s Hector — He’s DC fodder. If you know you need DC fodder (which is more or less evergreen in this game), this has been your prize from the start. Pamper your favorite new unit that wants to smack others from near or far. 

Our friends from the Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones Path gets you Attack Tactic 3 OR HP/Atk 2 and Green Gift+; Slaying Axe+ and Armor March 2 OR Armor March 3; Aerobatics 3 and Swift Sparrow 2 (with investment) OR Aerobatics 3 and Speed Smoke 1 OR Swift Sparrow 2 and Aerobatics 2 etc; Atk/Def Solo 3 and Close Guard 3 (with investment) OR Bold Fighter 3 and Close Guard 3; Distant Counter. This totals to roughly 7 or 8 full skill sets across 5 units, which is the lowest return on investment so far. However, you now have Distant Counter fodder, so was it worth it? 

Holy War 

 Leif — Deirdre — Sigurd — Lewyn — Dancer Ishtar

Leif — If you’re here for his merge, take it and go and don’t look back. If you’re looking to use him for fodder well, Drive Atk 2 is your main bet. However, with proper investment from common units, you can get Steady Blow 2 and Drive Atk 2 in one fell swoop. Easy, simple, no fuss.

Deirdre — So, Gamepress has Deirdre listed as Tier 2 on their Heroes Tier list. They make some questionable recommendations, but this one is a real head scratcher. Her Res holds up well and she has decent flexibility with her Dragon effective weapons but, I just don’t see it. Regardless, you’re here for one of two things: Quick Riposte or Speed Ploy. As mentioned four Paths ago, there aren’t any 4* QR users, so a free QR that’ll save you 20k feathers is excellent. Especially considering Speed Ploy is available at 4* from Saias, a rather unremarkable Grail unit. If anything, this goes to show you that the Ploy skills really need an upgrade and also they need to spread out their skills a little more evenly, this is just ludicrous. Take QR and don’t sweat the decision.

Sigurd — Our favorite BBQ father is an example of the level of power creep that now takes place every few months. Six months ago, we were only a month removed from the inclusion of Chad — a straight to 3/4* unit that packs Speed Smoke at 4* in the hell that is pulling on colorless. Most Summoners have now had 7 months to pull on colorless and find Chad waiting for them. You maybe are here for Close Defense, because you have a pretty solid idea for stacking Close Def on the A and SS slots on a stall tank. I respect it. Also, Miracle isn’t rare, but it’s here. Take Close Def 3 or Speed Smoke 3 for fodder but, I suspect you’re here for a merge. Honestly Sigurd and Deirdre should be switched, if they were following any kind of real rarity considerations, so just thank the stars you got QR 3 1,200 Divine Codes ago. 

Lewyn — Special Spiral. Don’t even hesitate. Swift Sparrow 2 is great, and you can snag that as well if you’re judicious with your Grail sacrifices, but don’t let Odd Atk Wave 3 cloud your judgement, especially since Spring Bartre was just added to the Grail pool. It’s Special Spiral or bust.

Dancer Ishtar — One of the few dancers that can boast to have offensive utility outside of dancing, maybe you’d like a merge. Otherwise, you’re here for Swift Sparrow 3 and I don’t blame you. However, if you’re content to hoard a little longer, this skill will continue to be added on newer units that you might snag and not care for. Outside of Distant Counter, Swift Sparrow 3 is the second most available skill of the 2,000 Divine Code options. If you don’t spend them, you pretty much have enough to snag the first three options from any other Path…sometimes F2P is about quantity over quality. One last thought: if you’re particularly fond of Flier teams, Air Orders is an excellent C skill and some lucky flier could get both Air Orders 3 and Swift Sparrow 3 as new tools in their tool box.

This Path has the distinction of having only one unit that’s a seasonal, everything else is in the summoning pool. This makes it the Path I suspect the fewest people will take (as well as a testament to just how little IS seems to care for the Jugdral cast.) You’re getting Steady Blow 2 and Drive Atk 2; Quick Riposte 3 and Spd Ploy 1; Close Defense 3 and Miracle OR Speed Smoke and Miracle; Special Spiral 3 and Swift Sparrow 2 with the right move; and Swift Sparrow 3 OR Air Orders and Swift Sparrow 3, depending. That’s roughly 9 skill sets across 5 units, but I’d say the quality of those skills is lower, simply because most of this path’s units are available in the summoning pool. 

Mystery / Shadows 

Bridal Caeda — Celica — Picnic Genny — Spring Palla — Kliff

Bridal Caeda — Listen, Bridal Caeda has a nigh-useless weapon, and skills that are either borderline between useless and powercrept. You started on this path for a Bridal Caeda merge, and you likely took it months ago.

Celica — Another candidate for “you likely wanted a merge.” Distant Def 3, while 5* locked, is best used on units that can Distant Def stack (Guard Bow+ users), everyone else can just use the SS. If you’ve got a good Guard Bow+ user in mind, that’s solid fodder. Spur Def 3 is available on both Sully AND M!Robin at 4*… you have this.

Picnic Genny — Here’s where this calculus starts to get fun. The least painful decision is Toasty Skewer + and Fireflood Balm+, these are direct upgrades for most common healers (plus the aesthetic of Toasty Skewer+ is top tier). Your other options are weird, less satisfying choices of Wrathful Staff 3 and Def Opening 3. Similar to how new 5* armors get Bold/Vengeful Fighter 3 if Intelligent Systems is having a bad brain day, new 5* healers get either Wrathful/Dazzling Staff 3. Stay focused. Def Opening 3 isn’t a bad choice, but it is available on Cormag, a grail unit +20k feathers. It’s also just not as useful as Attack or Speed Opening. Your most satisfying bet is Toasty Skewer+ and Fireflood Balm+.

Spring Palla — IS is showing us that they really, really value the AR-related skills highly. For the layman, take Pegasus Carrot+ and Swift Sparrow 2 for your favorite dagger user, they deserve to be spoiled a little bit. Hone Fliers is one of those weird rarer skills that find their use on Flier teams. If that’s what you need for your barracks, no one will hold it against you. Otherwise, Armored effective items are always excellent to have for things like AA and various high-level Lunatic/Abyssal maps. If you must take Disarm Trap…I’ll leave it at that.

Kliff — I’ll actually say that, while Kliff isn’t a particularly effective unit, you gotta give IS props for trying to be creative. Fortress Def/Res 3 is your prize for finishing this Path. Make sure you inherit either Fortress Def or Res 1 from one of the various common units that possess it. Chill Speed 3 is enticing, but there are other avenues for it (or sacrifice a Panne). Enjoy your unit’s newly enhanced defenses! 

This Path really doesn’t hit its stride until the third option. All told, you’re getting Blessed Bouquet+ and Attack/Res 2; Distant Def 3; Toasty Skewer+ and Fireflood Balm+ OR Def Opening 3 OR Wrathful Staff 3; Pegasus Carrot+ and Swift Sparrow 2 OR Disarm Trap 3 and Hone Fliers; and Fortress Def/Res 3 and Chill Speed 3 (if you sacrifice a Panne). Roughly 8 or 9 full skill sets from 5 units, half of which are (debatably) not worth the cost. 

Heroes 

Spring Alfonse — Yglr — Spring Bruno — New Year’s Fjorm — Summer Laevatein

Spring Alfonse — Alfonse’s first alt hasn’t aged well, but packs a couple of useful skills, namely Giant Spoon+. The seasonal version of Wo Gun+ has aesthetic appeal for many. You can also snag Def Smoke 3 if you sacrifice a 4* Panne or Rath as well, which is a decent return on investment.

Ylgr — The only non-seasonal unit in this Path. For a while, Ylgr was one of the only source of Speed Tactic that wasn’t on a Legendary Hero and is still the only source of Sorcery Blade (both of which are now seals). Speed Tactic obviously still has use on mixed teams, but the cost is much lower with the addition of Summer Lute. Sorcery Blade, while a fun skill, is actually better as a sacred seal, allowing units to shine with an A skill as well. Chill Speed technically has wide-spread availability, but on either 5* locked units, seasonals, or Panne. The skill is usually very nice to have on a team, and I suspect most Ylgr’s pulled will be for Chill Speed.

Spring Bruno — As with Picnic Genny before, Spring Bruno’s main draw is his Ovoid Staff+, which provides solid utility to teammates, especially in longer maps like Chain Challenges or Tempest Trials. Atk/Def Push 3 was rare for a period of time before released on Heath a few months ago. Dazzling Staff is useful, but widespread, with more units packing it surely to come. Atk/Def Push 3 is the main draw for boosting other staff merge projects and will be useful to hold on to for when Atk/Def Push 4 is released on a character not named Bramimond. Either pull and wait or use him for his staff.

New Year’s Fjorm — Another unit that will make you do some major inheritance math. Fjorm packs the Kabura Ya+ bow (which has Chill Speed 3 built in) as well as Atk/Spd Bond 3, Atk/Spd Link 3, and Even Res Wave 3. Chill Speed in a weapon allows its inheritor to be one of a short list of characters able to run the Triple Chill strategy, which has significant merit. Unfortunately, going that route more or less locks you out of a full skill in addition. Atk/Spd Bond 3 is available on 11 different units, the cheapest being Bridal Louise. Sacrificing a 4* Bridal Louise will allow you to snag Atk/Spd Bond 3 as well. Atk/Spd Link 3 is even rarer, appearing only on seasonal units, none of which appear at 4 stars. Even Res Wave is slightly cheaper, being on Brave Hector, but it’s honestly a skill you can pass on. If you’re willing to spend a Bridal Louise, grabbing Kabura Ya+, Atk/Spd Bond 3 (after sacrificing Bridal Louise), and a “free” Reposition is your best bet.

Summer Laevatein — And finally, the last unit on the last route, S!Laevatein. You’re gonna grab Mirror Impact, currently a skill only available on a Legendary unit and two seasonals. If you take the time to sacrifice an Oliver, you’ll be able to snag your choice of either Def/Res Link 3 or Odd Attack Wave 3 — both of which are available at 4* on Grail units (Sigurn for Def/Res Link 3, Spring Bartre for Odd Attack Wave 3). Feel free to attempt to snag Buoyboard+ as well for the aesthetic, but you’re better off with other tomes. All in all, dealer’s choice! 

As stated, this route has the distinction of only having one non-seasonal unit and provides a decent amount of variety. You’ll get Giant Spoon+ and Def Smoke 3 (with Panne/Rath sacrifice) OR Sturdy Blow 2 and Def Smoke 3 with common sacrifice from someone like Athena; Sorcery Blade 3 OR Chill Speed 3 OR Speed Tactic by themselves OR Chill Speed 3 and your choice of the others with a Panne sacrifice; Ovoid Staff+ and Atk/Def Push OR Wrathful Staff 2, or one of those fully and a Martyr+ to avoid other feather costs; Kabura Ya+ and Atk/Spd Bond 3 (with Bridal Louise sacrifice) OR Atk/Spd Link 3 with Atk/Spd Bond 3, thanks to Bridal Louise’s sacrifice; and Mirror Impact and Def/Res Link 3 OR Odd Attack Wave 3 with Oliver sacrifice. All in all, you’re looking at 8 or 9 full skill sets across 5 units, which is an average return, but the variety in these skills is slightly higher due to the number of seasonals and Ylgr having a strangely high number of desirable skills. 

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. I hope some people found this helpful!

[fehspinning]

Guess This Blog Is Going Inactive as Intsys Works Hard To Make Me Quit

Recently there are a lot of problems with Fire Emblem Heroes that became apparent and enough is enough.

1. The duo Ephraim being one time only.

They have dug their heels in as of the time I am writing this; Ephraim duo will be a one and done period end of story. The duos are a HUGE power creep all around and they are going to be ultra limited which makes total sense from a business perspective. They want your money and they hate the player base as they have shown time and again therefore of course they will make the best units in the game buy only. Personally I am super tired of this bullshit when once I have a team I know can handle the content I can autobattle all the content to completion the first day it comes out.

2. The numbers on Legendary Leif were fucky.

When it comes to interaction online I tend to see a pool of three or four hundred people and for any given unit it tends to be between twenty and thirty percent of the player base gets the most sought after unit. Well I didn’t see that with Leif and then I started talking to people who had begun throwing money at the game and still no luck so I broadened my pool to a thousand people. One got Leif; OK so I went to close to two thousand people, two got Leif. There have been rumors that in the legendary banners this year there is a second set of hidden rarity where within their colour the featured person sits around ten percent while the others in the colour sit around forty five. I didn’t care about the last few but went back and looked online and...yeah it’s close. I think the numbers are closer to 40-40-20 but still. Again they want your money and they hate the player base as they have shown time and again therefore of course they will make the best unit in the pull ultra rare compared to others. 

3. The power creep has made +10ing non-five star units as five star units obsolete.

I think I noticed during the last forging bonds was that the numbers looked off so I have sat down and compared an IV neutral 40+10 Lukas Sharp Soldier with 40+0 Forscyth. Lukas has: +2 HP -1 Att +8 Spd -5 Def -10 Res Total: Net of -6 So the range tends to be +/- 5% between the new 40+0 five star only characters and a 40+10 character that can be gotten at four star or lower.  Add in the type of weapons these new characters can get compared to the weapons the four stars and under can get. Sure I can pour everything in terms of super rare abilities and stuff to cover that 5% gap but how many five stars will that take? Exceptionally high investment and how wide does that gap get when I put the average version of the same abilities on the 40+0 five star only? Sure you can totally stan your favs so you don’t need to care about these one time only duos except in order to stan your favs you need things like Heavy Blade 4 which means you need to get copies of things like one time duos to blow up. So you get all the grind and being screwed around with; with the additional resource grind. Yes new units should be stronger at 40+0 than a four star upgraded to a 40+0 five star. The new units should dwarf them BUT if I am spending the hours to gather a minimum of 200,000 feathers, plus pulling till I get 10 copies of the guy I want from a massive pool seeing as you naturally will dwarf me with your weapon and on board abilities I should at least have comparable stats to say a 40+1 character that is five star only.

4. I found a game that is player friendly gatcha and makes all your old investments good again with often without you needing to make any additional investment.

In Final Fantasy Dissidia Opera Omnia they don’t peek-a-boo you with characters at the last minute they at the beginning of the month show you what is coming over the next five weeks. You need gear and not characters and in order to guarantee the best gear in the game for a particular character you need to make a maximum of fifteen 10+1 item pulls costing you a total of 75000 gems. Every month they give away a minimum of about 25,000 gems. They also give away a minimum of fifty single shot tickets where the best item in a pull has a 1% chance of showing up.  You don’t need to get the newest best item from every banner to rock the game; yes there are a handful of characters you really should have to ensure your ability to do end game content (Warrior of Light, Sharlotta, Ultimecia) but people can still clear content without them.  And here’s the best part they upgrade the older characters to bring them up to the new base line, so for example I invested a lot into Zell and he did great for me for a long while but he fell off. This week or next, I can't remember off the top of my head his abilities will be changed to make him viable in the new age with no extra pulling or work required. Once they cycle through updating all the characters? They start over again re-updating all the characters so your favs never get left behind forever. Also when they introduce a new game mechanic everyone will eventually get it, so in my Zell case now that they have entered an ability level called EX+ Zell will one day get the EX+ and cause I have all his stuff I will have to grind item upgrade resources from weekly events and not have to pull a banner to give it to him. One day he will get something called a Burst, and for that weapon I will have to pull but I will be given a minimum of five weeks notice to save my tickets and gems to pull on it and it will be the only item at that rarity on it’s banner so they can't skewer the numbers against me. 

5. They have trained me that I must have the newest unit to succeed and that sometimes requires dropping cash so I WILL. 

The general level of content is always tweaked to match the power creep forcing you to want to whale in order to guarantee you can do it. Also the art and designs are always top notch and I have a weakness for pretty things.

After the Dimitri and Summer Wolt debacles I swore off not spending money on FEH but all the fuckery with Legendary Leif and how over powered he was, plus how pretty he was got me to spend a small amount anyhow. 

If I stay around for the story they will eventually make Nils or a new Lukas alt or a Dimitri alt and given how fucking fucky they are being now in an attempt to exploit money from the audience I will give in. With the number of orbs that disappearing from things like the monthly missions every action they take says they are out to exploit every last penny from you and they give no fucks about how crude and absolute they have to be. 

Things in term of exploiting funds have been becoming more transparent and aggressive as this year has gone on so there is no reason to doubt that these trends will continue to snowball and they can’t get me, and I can’t get mad at how little shame they have doing what they are if I don’t play.