Commander

Anna has res and Ursula has a choice of either bunch of beefy 40s plus or a 4 star level 30 Anna who do you think Ursula is going to gun for? For the ninjas I just did the Hector strategy (seriously, he takes no damage so there was no reason not to use him). Anna could ORKO Ursula as well and it is very, very easy to level her up if you've been grinding her once in a while. Only takes a full bar of stamina to move her from 2 star to 4 star level 30 more or less. Seriously if you have someone who can safely KO both Ninjas at range, then all you need to do is have either pivot or repositon (both with armors) and they could go ham on them. If you don't have Hector, a Shuriken breaker user plus a healer plus a tanky sword (Zephiel) unit and Anna should suffice. And it's the hard mode, not lunatic you have to beat (though honestly I probably could do it with Anna on Lunatic as I wouldn't have to worry about her DYING from an attack). Ursula probably was the hardest GHB solely due to the lack of SI since SI makes the game so, so much easier.

So for the Ursula GHB, I got all the orbs except for that one bloody orb where you have to kill Ursula with Ursula. This is much, much easier said then done as I've taken so many attempts with my biggest problem being trying to kill her without ursula dying. I may try to do the Lunatic chapter featuring Ursula instead (which you can substitute with), but here me out on this insane strat with the only thing I'm missing is Reposition on Merric which he has 140 SP, but just hear me out: So step one is to have Merric and Ike In the spots adjacent to where the Ninjas attack, but have Hector either walk down to the bottom ninja spot (or someone could reposition), but I need to make sure Ike is in the top right corner of the map. When the first Ninja Dies, I reposition Hector all the way up into the top right corner and the other ninja will attack him. The tricky part is what the Sword cavalier does as I need him to keep pulling Ursula back with Draw Back unless Ursula is in range of Merric and he is not. If that turn somehow doesn't go wrong, Merric needs to hit Ursula once before Ursula can come in and finish Ursula off. Next, Hector needs to Smite Ike down so that he can block/move Ursula to safety as he can easily finish the other two guys off himself...cause he's Ike. And yes, this is all for one bloody orb, but I think I got it once Merric learns Reposition (since he has no skills on him right now) as in all my attempts, it was the bloody sword calv and Ursula who gave me trouble. This GHB is a hell of a lot easier with Hector and my good comrades, but geeze is it a pain in the ass. I don't recommend attempting the GHB for the Ursula orb and just face her in the Lunatic chapter because it's a wide open area and you can safely lose her and units there. (I may do that as well).

I'll put it this way: it is much, much easier to score higher in the arena now for some odd reason. I don't know what they changed, but I got 4,321 as a score and max defense already from two people and it hasn't even been a day. (I got a year's worth of Duel Crests to deplete so I do it on the first day) As for the maps themselves, they aren't all that exciting as it's more of just the same when it comes to the arena. Matches also felt way more balanced as I didn't have to deal with the BS 10 plus levels wings of Mercy Azura (but every match had her). The defense tiles are very, very helpful though, but you still gotta deal with fighting the same teams over and over again and the meta doubtfully is going to change. My favorite so far is the desert with a lake in the middle. It also seems like all the old maps are completely gone (thank the lord as I hated two of them in particular).

(Looks at poll) I see though Jan's cryptic mind and obviously the one that gives nothing would be one given that it's the right answer. So if you pick the first choice, you answered correctly, but your reward is nothing. If you pick something else, you are wrong and since you didn't answer correctly you don't get a prize. Either a brilliant tactic or...he put no thought into this when creating that question. Should he have worded it Pick one of the following, this would be an entirely different discussion.

Tharja...I'll admit I don't dislike her character, but I really, really hate what they turned dark mages into. Anyways Tharja is probably the best Red mage, but I'd rather have and use Sanaki (yes, the loli in charge of one of FE's most powerful nations). If you use Tharja, she's pretty much red Nino. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyways so the FE Heroes gave us a bit of news on tiers and how they work. I believe before Ranks were more or less went up as long as you hit above 50% of your tier, you move up a rank but depending on how high you score the higher you can go up three ranks. The Orbs are nice, but I'm like rank 11 I believe so likely I'll be earning 2 orbs for a while and very unlikely hit the high tiers. Still, I'm not sure how I feel about this. 8th and 9th Stratum are getting changed, but I'm not seeing anything on the War Vortex which we need really really badly. Anyways since I'm seeing some people say stuff on FE Heroes and what to improve I may as well add my things in: 1. Let Dancers earn exp through Dancing (there's a very, very good reason I stopped using Olivia and this is it) 2. Add in more f2p unit maps. The grand hero battles are good and all and those should be brutal, but that other random unit the comes weekly really should only come monthly. And hell, make a 3 and 4 star challenge of those so that we get a free 120 units instead of like uhh...20 in total. I'm still missing some very common units from the summon and would gladly take a 2 star over nothing. These things would make logging in a bit more interesting over just the training tower. 3. Make orbs cheaper, give more free orbs, or the one I really want: increase the focus summon to 6 percent on old units. Seriously, Hero Fest was a good idea, but I think the change should be permanent on old banners like Xander's and the voting gauntlet. As there's a 27% of getting a five star hero with the normal 6% (just a rough estimate) in a circle while a 35% chance with something like Hero fest. It's still very, very low, but it'd add up over time. I got 3 five stars in Hero fest but in Spring and SoV I got nothing. That's saying something. 4. Replace the badges in the training tower for feathers (or let us trade badges for feathers or something with Badges). There is 0 reason we should be getting this little amount of feathers. 0. "People won't want to roll for units." The best units are only 5 star and are way better than most units you can premote. Hell, the arena might be more fun as it'd let for a more variety of units so you wouldn't have to worry about wasting your monthly feathers (maybe even longer) on a trashy unit. I mean 20k feathers is the equivalence of 80 orbs at this point. Hell, you're more likely to roll a good five star before you premote somebody. Have I made my point? There are so many ways to fix this: shorten Arena tournament durations, training tower rewards, and give quests to earn 2k feathers daily. 2k daily is a good number with all the other stuff being icing on the cake. 5. You already admitted that you can't run the game without the 2 orb daily bonus so why don't you just make it official. We have gone like 1 week without it maybe some days in the mix. Just make it official instead of beating around the bush as you can't run the game without it. Hell, I wouldn't be here if they didn't bring it back. 6. Give us more difficult challenges with much, much higher rewards with prizes like 20 Orbs, 20k feathers, and a 5 star hero every month. This is probably the biggest change I want. There really should be a challenge where it will take a week or two to earn, but you'll get those amazing prizes and it should be something not everyone could get (like clearing the bloody 10th stratum with Armors. Still working on that btw). 5 star rewards should honestly be something not 5 star exclusive, but worth the effort such as one month is could be 5 star M!Robin, next month it could be Camilla, then Marth, then Roy, then Eirika, etc. Maybe even put one of the limited editions like S!Lucina in there after the session is over. The possibilities are limitless, but I'd honestly just want to be up for the challenge to keep me entertained for the month. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And one last thing: There's an exp thing going on, but imo I wouldn't really get that invested into it. More exp means less SP earned which down the line you'll notice hitting level 40 takes 2-3 hours, but you only have a quarter of the SP you need. The event is great for newbies but vets not so much.

While I'm not against the idea and certainly would be willing to help me this possible, it's going to grind down to Ame and Co if they want to invest time into this. But since we're here, I may as well throw in some fun little achievements that could be put in. My own personal opinion is to have a large variety of achievements just due to how diverse Pokemon is, but nothing super ridiculous or out there. -5 minutes in and it's already a trainwreck: Achieved after Ame leaves Grand Central Station -My Crits shall pierce the heavens: crit enemies 100 times -Don't forget you're here forever: have a save that's over 100 hours in play time -Stop hitting yourself: Have your Pokemon hit themselves 50 times -Damn Zubats: Encounter 10 Zubats in the wild -I'm a real "Fun Guy": Win a battle with a team full of Mushroom Pokemon -Keep your friends close...and your plushies closer: Escape a battle using a Pokemon doll (If you know what character said that I would salute you) -Don't Gamble with Jack: Lose the coin flip game 20 times -IT'S SO FLUFFY!: Win 100 battles using Bewear -Ame, it comes after April: Play the game in April -Nothing to get Cellist about: Win 10 battles using A-Exeggutor -That's my Jan: Change the music using the Pokegear -Kakuna-Rattata, what a wonderful phrase: Win a battle with Rattata and Kakuna in the party -We finally found it, Vinny: Catch a sneasel in the wild -The squid king has arrived: Defeat Titania with a squid Pokemon on your team -The return of Spider-dan: Win 10 battles consisting of only spiders in the party -The Kuro and the Hound: Win 10 battles with a fox Pokemon on your team -H O T L E G S: KO a Pokemon using Blaze Kick -Baz-off: Defeat 10 Beedrills in Jasper Ward -Oh hey, Inuki: Collect all of the keys in Reborn City -Cmdr Bohmander: Win 10 battles using Salamence -For the last time it's Link: Play the game using Zelda as the trainer name I may be back to add more.

Honestly, I'd say get ones with 3 move over bulk as a priority (Priscilla, Elise, and uh...Clarine, I think?) just due to the need for mobility. If Elincia appears as a staff user, she'd be the best staff user though no question, but I'm still hoping for a sword (would be okay with a Sword and healing abilities though). Pain is easily the best staff skill for staffs with low attack, but I definitely think a 20 mt version of assault would really help them out without really affecting the game. I mean even that can't ORKO a knight but would still do good chip damage.

Admittedly I've spent some, not much, for the orbs though half the reason is to help support them. I'll admit heroes is not a bad game at all and if you don't run perfect parties or teams some of the battles can be very difficult (it's why the Xander battle was hard for me due to the bloody green horse) and the skills are very, very interesting to use. Also, hero fest is well worth investing some orbs in due to the insanely high chance for a 5 star you want. I'm debating whether or not to fork over another five orbs for a quick summon chance for Azura (though my attempt ended up with me getting Ryoma) or wait for the mage summon session. But yeah, I might buy a pack of 20 orbs every couple months to support them, but I sure am not going to go crazy like some people have. I probably would've bought more if they were cheaper, but maybe they'll eventually run a discount rate for a special summon event. But yeah one trick I learned that I thought was dumb was only picking orbs of a hero color you want. In reality, you are just getting one less scrap unit for higher odds of getting what you want. Anyways, the green storm has finally stopped for me and now I'm getting reds again. Seriously, all I need is Sanaki and I'd have the Lobster army (Led by Ike ironically and not Ryoma). There just aren't that many blues I really really want. Ninian and Azura for a dancer because they aren't Olivia, but none stick out as I badly want. I guess Ephiriam. But hey, I am okay with them raining 5 star sword units on me now.

@Chase Pay no heed to me as I generally like to save skills for units who really need them (and I only have two Moonbows left and one's going to Minerva and the other to...Maybe Tiki. Well Y!Tiki needs something. Meanwhile Reinhardt can keep his AoE as he's overkill anyways). I just prefer Luna as I'm aware most units are going to double him and the ones that don't I have plenty of units who can snipe and finish them off. That then lets Xander get one very, very heavy shot on something I need to die. I understand why people like Moonbow so much but it's not that the skill is super good, but more like some easy 4-5 chip damage with lets them KO 2-3 units they wouldn't normally ORKO be KO'd. The special skill is often the least important skill on a unit anways unless it's a tank then those damage reducers are a godsend. Sol is uhhh...bad tbh. Raven is about the only good user for it mostly because of threaten def, but when he can activate it, half the time the enemy is almost dead making it a waste (since if he does 28 damage to an enemy with 4HP, he only gains 2 HP back). @Fabled Asian Best advice I can give you about skill inheritance: use suggested sets as a guideline, not an absolute. Sacking your only Hector onto Zephiel when you don't have very many 5 stars is gonna lead to you still struggling. Just get a feel for the skills and what unit comes with those skills so that you can give ones that are absolutely necessary for a character (honestly QR is the only vital skill for Xander) and try to fill in the holes from there. I don't know if Arena feathers are disappearing, but a new game feature coming uses Permadeath (you only lose units in that feature). If you only have 4-6 units and some bad matchups happen...yeah...so take my advice and build an army before making them the strongest possible.

Yeah, yeah you Min-max nerds can try perfecting it but if you guys are a little bit on a budget you can use a set like this to make full use of Xander. Weapon: Siegfried Support: Reposition/Swap (Save your Pivots for Armors) Special: Bonfire/Luna A: HP +5/Def +3/Armored Blow B: Quick Riposte 2 (This is a must on him) C: Threaten Def/Threaten Atk So what exactly does this set do? Basically it makes sure of Xander's utilities of being a tank with dual range. Since Bonfire is a very hard skill to find and part with (Male Robin and A!Tiki don't appear every single day), Luna is a good substitute. DO NOT GIVE HIM MOONBOW! I want to say that since he will be doubled by almost everything with his great speed of 24. Luna is going to proc and it'll hit harder than Moonbow. Anyways, +3 def from doing my calcs really isn't a bad idea as it cuts down damage (which he's going to be hit a lot) and let's him live a neutral Cain hitting him 4 times with a brave lance. Lucina also only does 22 damage despite her massive 50 atk. If you train him, he'll be great for defense chapters especially with forts coming where he can just sit on them and let a healer behind him heal him back up to full. Just keep him far, far away from mages that double him. Far, far away. I'm thinking about using him for myself once I get enough feathers.

For the first problem...are you saying that you can cut down trees with ember, but it won't show up in the party screen (like cut would) or is it that it works from the Pokemon party screen showing the move, but won't show up in the menu. Those are two very, very different problems with different fixes for each. For the animations issue, you either didn't add a property in, but I feel like it's more than likely a specific line of coding was deleted. I'm sure Njab has this covered from the looks of it, but when you have a problem you need to be very specific and upload the code so that we can look at it to figure out what is wrong. But since it functions but the animation is missing, we need to look at the animation code section itself.

Well I see why Linde was picked as this grand hero battle made me realize the best counter to Xander ride on horses. As for a grand hero battle it is well built but the difficulty will grind down to whether or not you use calvary units. My team was Reinhardt, Young Tiki, Sharena, and Priscilla. You can see why it took a lot of attempts. If you have a tank nothing is too scary. Tiki endured like 5 attacks or quite a few. As for Xander himself, he is pretty good. You could easily make him horse Hector as he has solid defence and HP with decent attack. I still recommend Zephiel over him, if you are willing to customize him, he will serve you well. Keep him far, far away from mages though. I have a few units with higher priorities but I probably will promote him.

Here's my view on field effects: they should add an extra challenge, but not to the point you are getting your ass handed to you just due to a gimmick. I've always had mixed feelings towards field effects as on one hand it lets for higher difficulty and more creative design on leaders, but on the other, it's really all in the leader's favor and no matter what you do you can't change that. Yes, they can be manipulated in the player's favor, but that does require certain mons or moves in order to perform those. That gets into what I feel the issue is: The game's design. Reborn is a very difficult game, but this is due to how it is designed to limit the amount of exp gained so grinding is rather difficult (and very tiresome if you keep spending hours over and over grinding stuff...believe me I had to swap Pokemon out just for a challenge and I got very, very tired of it very, very quickly). You want to use a new Pokemon? You'll have to do a switch and grind for those low level Pokemon as the exp share is available after 7 gym leaders (pretty much the entire length of a regular Pokemon game). Lucky Egg? Not until 11 gym leaders and it's a difficult quest if you haven't been mining. On the opposite side, leaders can be made much weaker since training new Pokemon is much more difficult (leading to a more constant difficulty...but also pushing people to only use the best of the best at their disposal). As for the field effects after playing with many of them many different ways, I only ever felt on field was really, really unfair and that is the Chess field. The reason is that a 1.5x boost to a psychic attack is very, very powerful on one of the most powerful special attack types. It's a little bit too much at that point in time (though HC and Reborn do run different designs). The point is this: if you are getting beat up, you should be thinking about what you can do. If you are compelled to try a new team member out due to your struggles, then this gimmick is doing its job right as it's promoting strategy. If you are frustrated and keep resetting to hope for good rng, likely it might not be the field effects are unfair, but something outside of it is the main issue. Yeah, grinding is a necessary evil in RPGs so if the difficulty doesn't push you to do it, then it'd make the game boring. Anyways, the field effects are designed very, very well and while the fields are skewed towards certain types/Pokemon, that does not leave the player helpless. Bennett is the best example demonstrating this. Both of his fights are on fields that give a certain type the advantage yet he managed to make use of them while fighting you. They weren't designed at all for bug types. Most of the fields just scratch a little below the surface through the game due to the limitations a single game could offer. It's kind of hard to say they are unfair when they are barely explored.

Eh, what makes all the five star heroes worth keeping is their weapon which is not only strongrr than most other weapon in the category, but it gives them an additional skill which the only reason Hector is better than Zephiel is you have to grind Zephiel and he does not come with Distant Counter. Both units are super good with investment. And the fact that Hector is regarded as one of the best despite the heavy skew in red says something. From fighting Xander many times, I can tell you he is really tanky so raising him would be worth it. Personally I like Armored Blow over fury as while damage isn't as good, you take almost nothing from attacks. Young Tiki works well with that. Everyone has their own preference though. I really only dispose of extras, but I Hella regret merging my two Eirika now. This game knows how to play me. As for the tower orbs, I'm pretty sure it won't be hard for me to get them all, but it will take a while. Calvary will be the biggest pain though Xander should help with that.

So the legend continues where I get a super good pull, but nothing I need. On paper, minus Attack plus defence Hector may seem bad, but I have a few ideas to work with. Now fourth armored division may actually come true. Anyways, here's my wish list: A goddamn good sword unit Marth Sanaki Lucina Ephraim Ninian or Azura Ike Julia While I really want a dancer, I'm likely going to move to the next banner and attempt a roll there. Kind of want Julia or Sanaki and I like a good selection of mages so it is a win win. But Seriously, I have Hawkeye, Minerva, Raven, Fae, Hector, and Merric as 5 star green units. I probably don't need any more for a good while.

So I've been digging around a little bit and somehow while preparing for Ursula by looking at her map data (ie Japanese guy who used Subaki), I found out a lot of news regarding FE heroes in may and oh boy, I am not ready. Like this Hero focus is just the prelude. Since it hasn't had any american announcements I'll keep it in the spoilers, but it's nothing super spoilery:

And I got Peri if you didn't see it on Discord and as much as I dislike Peri with a passion, I'm very lacking in both blue and calvary so...you win this time. As for the next voting gauntlet, I'm supporting Sanaki though she is going to lose. Tharja is going to win no question. But if you want to know how much I'd support Tharja, I'd rather be serving under the banner of Camilla. IS please take the oversexulized dark mage trope and burn it into the ground as dark magic has lore behind it...certainly not made for fan service. I hate the female dark mage design in the 3ds Era. But Tharja as a character is just...Really kind of empty other than being a stalker from the supports I read. Anyways, this banner is easily the best one to go all out for as it has a higher chance for 5 star and the heroes you get are all insanely good and Takumi and Hector have an insane skill to pass. Literally no reason to not go for it.

Hey at least he's in the game. I'm really hoping Elincia gets into the game...and with her Amazing sword...not a staff (though I'd take a flying healer over nothing). I know Micaiah is going to get a banner because she even made it onto the voting poll and the other lord of Radiant Dawn. Though there is one other character from Tellius that I really hope makes it in. He's a playable unit that everyone loves and nobody ever forgets about. Nobody can surpass him:

I just realized Ike with Gale Force would be fun to use. That is some fun straps with a dancer, but alas even if I did get Ike I wouldn't have the patience to pull it off. Also Aether isn't bad on Ike, but heavy blade is useful for all the other skills. Ah well, at least I got Caeda this session. She is my favorite peg...after Tanith. Takumi, Tiki, and Minerva and sometimes Reinhardt have kind of become my core. I also learned that I have a minus attack Tiki, but that does not stop her from being awesome. Strong Ripotose was one of the best decisions on her as stuff dies in one round against the tank. Ike barely lives due to rally resist so you could imagine how the orbs challenges went. I'm also finally training up Sharena so no more bloody Reinhardt being my only good blue. She is pretty good so far. Next is for either Eirika or Zephiel for promotion so I don't have to deal with a bad Lyn anymore. After that I can relax a little bit as I have a decent army.

Defense maps are generally designed to overwhelm you and while I dislike the immortality thing, FE games have done this a number of times in the past, generally escape chapters. Tellius games had incentives to get through levels quickly for BEXP, but the final part gave you way more than enough time to complete it as I did it in 3. All maps were very easy imo. Fun, but easy.

Haven't gotten anything, but I didn't do full rounds due to the sheer amount of grays in two rounds. Not even good fodder. As for the chapters I will say a few things. Story wise I will be up front saying that it wasn't bad and indeed we are going to get more hero battles with the duo villains involved. Just happy we are off of 9 finally. Also for the maps, other than the very last map on Lunatic, Mist was kind of worthless. I get what they were trying to do, but she didn't do much and lore wise, she shouldn't even be fighting right now. Oscar would've worked so, so much better on these maps. Also the lack of Soren lines disturbs me. I was sceptical of the defense map idea, but it works very, very well and for the orbs missions, I got backed into a corner, but the fights were manageable. 10-4 though oh dear God I light shard cheesed that fight. That map was well built well...unless you have a red mage with bow breaker. Thanks it'd probably be super easy. As for the units and seeing them fight...Mist is shitty and not worth bothering tbh, Soren imo is a better Merric at base. He is not going to win awards though. Titania is really good though godawful against res. Ike though is really good though I only see him as A plus and not S tier. His speed is not great but if he can survive two blows from young Tiki, I can tell you he is good. I recommend giving him something other than Aether though to make full use of that skill as he'd destroy swords then. Destroy them.

Yep he hasn't even been released and you can tell Ike is going to be good. His tier is going to grind down to his base speed though cause you know he has the power to back up his attacks.