Social Corrin Social - Still Fire Emblem Social

[Erureido]

Happy New Year everyone! Hope y'all have been enjoying these first few hours of 2018 thus far! I know I have!

 

[Tino]

Happy New Year, everyone! Let's see what 2018 has in store for all of us.

 

[Armagon]

It's New Years, it's past 4:30 in the morning, and with the remaining 130 Orbs i had after summoning NY!Azura, i just went all out on the Legendary Banner

Spoiler: The results

Most of them are Green units since i was mainly aiming for Gunnthra and i got her and more. I got one of the best Armors in the game and another Fjorm. Gonna merge her into the Fjorm i got from the story. This Fjorm may have better IVs but i've already invested a lot into the original Fjorm. As a F2P-player, this feels good. Saving up Orbs is very worth it. I still have like 40 Orbs remaining and i'm gonna save them gor later.

 

[DarkAuraful]

Here's a fun game: what are some of the things you're looking forward too in 2018. It could be anything really. I'm gonna divide mine into three categories
And on a more personal note, i will be graduating High School this year. Looking forward to that.

Games to look out for in 2018

• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• Code Vein
• Kingdom Hearts III
• Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition
• The Last of Us 2
• Valkyira Chronicles IV

Most of them I'm sure should come out this year. I just don't really know exactly when yet.

Anime to look out for in 2018

• Attack on Titan Season 3
• Fate/Extra Last Encore
• Persona 5 The Animation
• One Punch Man Season 2

Movies to look out for in 2018

• Avengers: Infinity War
• Black Panther
• Deadpool 2
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• The Incredible 2

Resolutions for 2018

• Earn enough to purchase a Nintendo Switch
• Finalize my decision on getting Steam or PS4 (everyone says I'm better off with PC but PS4 has Horizon and Last of Us 2, which are just as tempting)
• Prepare for Summer MCAT (tbh I'm not betting my chances on this)
• Step it up for this upcoming 4th semester of Uni

Happy New Years everyone!

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to say Happy New Years >_>

 

[Armagon]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

The Incredibles 2

It completely slipped my mind that these two things were coming out this year. Yep, i'm also looking forward to these.

 

[Nah]

Games to look out for in 2018

Kingdom Hearts III

wait, is this like legit going to happen, or is more like a "well we'll probably release KH 3 in 2018, but maybe we'll just do Kingdom Hearts 2.9-1^3 reMIX instead of that" kind of thing

 

[DarkAuraful]

Google searching articles right now... and yeah most of them state KH3 is coming out some time in 2018. I'm just not sure about the exact day or month.

Otherwise yeah none of that KH 2.9 HD Remix thing or whatever. Hopefully and finally we get KH3.

Edit:

Okay here's a source. We are getting KH3 this year for sure.

 

[Skyward]

So as it turns out, Path of Radiance was a fair bit brighter early in its development. Witness the amazing sight of short-haired Soren!

I have no idea why the style underwent a shift midway through development; it could be any number of things, and this style may have never been intended for the final cut. That said, I think I prefer this earlier presentation as it makes everything feel a little more vibrant without sacrificing the realistic style the game is going for.

Anyway, Chapter 8 is a bit of a tense one. Praise Mia and her high speed stat for saving me from a painful reset.

 

[ZephyrZ]

My guess is that they went with darker colors to set a more serious tone. I haven't tried PoR yet, but Radiant Dawn at least was a lot more serious than the GBA games before it and the 3DS games that came afterwards. The darker style was also probably supposed to seem more mature. That said, though, I still probably would of prefered the brighter style regardless. It's just a lot nicer to look at.

 

[Nah]

Any word yet on New Year's Corrin? It's a little strange how he exists in the game, yet nothing seems to be known on how (or if even) he's obtainable.

 

[Deleted member]

My guess is that they went with darker colors to set a more serious tone. I haven't tried PoR yet, but Radiant Dawn at least was a lot more serious than the GBA games before it and the 3DS games that came afterwards. The darker style was also probably supposed to seem more mature. That said, though, I still probably would of prefered the brighter style regardless. It's just a lot nicer to look at.

I agree that the brighter color palette is nicer to look at.
I also agree that the darker style was to make the game more mature. While not as dark as Genealogy of the Holy War, Path of Radiance deals with themes of prejudice, racism, socialism, and poverty, all of which are very political themes.
Path of Radiance's story is really solid overall and it's one of the reasons why it's my favorite FE game.

Any word yet on New Year's Corrin? It's a little strange how he exists in the game, yet nothing seems to be known on how (or if even) he's obtainable.

They said he will be obtainable in an event later.
I have no idea if that means if Corrin will be a free-to-play unit or there is yet another Tempest Trial with Corrin on the banner for the TT. I honestly expect the latter more than the former... after the whole Ayra situation, I am a lot more pessimistic towards how they handle this game.

 

[Astellius]

Ah, yes, the forum decided to boot up the new year by not giving me notifications! Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's been treating you well for the few days it's been here so far.

I'd say Fire Emblem for the Switch is my most anticipated game for 2018, but WarGroove looks great too. I'm also looking forward to Metroid Prime 4. I'm sure other great things will come along that I'm not aware of yet, since I haven't really been tracking things. Same with anime, although I know I'm looking forward to season 3 of AoT.

As for FEH, I started off the New Year with a new personal best in the Arena!

Spoiler

It's my first time hitting 5k points, and it's all thanks to Sophia, who I finally finished building. Well, almost finished, since she needs two more merges and a Raourraven+ tome.

Guys.

GUYS!

GUYS!!

IT FINALLY HAPPENED

Spoiler

SHE'S HERE! SHE FINALLY CAME HOME! WHAT A GREAT WAY TO END THE YEAR!

Now what do i do with the remaining 130 Orbs?

I meant to congratulate you, but I guess it didn't post. But... congratulations! Your Azura drought is over!

Anyway, Chapter 8 is a bit of a tense one. Praise Mia and her high speed stat for saving me from a painful reset.

Mia was my MVP in both PoR and RD. She destroyed armies by herself. The only reason Ike is called the "Radiant Hero" is because Mia was too fast for the world to witness her exploits.

Any word yet on New Year's Corrin? It's a little strange how he exists in the game, yet nothing seems to be known on how (or if even) he's obtainable.

It's also weird how Ryoma is just randomly shoveled into the current Voting Gauntlet instead of Corrin. But no, there hasn't been word on how we're getting him yet.

 

[Skyward]

Mia was my MVP in both PoR and RD. She destroyed armies by herself. The only reason Ike is called the "Radiant Hero" is because Mia was too fast for the world to witness her exploits.

This quote alone has convinced me to keep her as a mainstay no matter what. Thanks for that.

Chapter 9:
Those houses can burn, I don't care.

The way sub-human units work in this game are certainly interesting. Nobody cares about biorhythm, but having a unit type that is designed entirely around ebb and flow opens up all sorts of strategies. Do you go for units that are powerful but have a limited window during which you use them, or do you stick with units that are more consistent? It definitely makes the Laguz stand out in a good way.

Chapter 10:
Stealth mission! I don't mind these when they are done XCOM 2 style: Allowing you to sneak around to find a vantage point to strike from before going loud. Other than that, a fairly simple map.

Fire Emblem characters should probably stop trusting random thieves that claim they will help them out. One of these days it will not end well.

 

[Erureido]

Well, these past few days of Fire Emblem Heroes have been... something.

Sadly, I have had zero luck pulling New Year's Takumi thus far, but I've been getting a bunch of different 5-stars instead:

Spoiler: What I got over the past few days

First day the New Year's banner came up, and this is what I got:

Oh hey, a 5-star Leon! He's a cool character and a solid archer in this game... too bad this one got meh IVs.

With 20 more orbs, I went for another summon immediately after. This happens:

Well well, a 5-star Mathilda! She's also another favorite of from Echoes... but just like Leon, she too got meh IVs.

Looks like I'm going to save them for the time being as units to upgrade in weapon refinery (since I still need to accumulate enough Divine Dew to upgrade the Fujin Yumi).

Days pass, and I accumulate enough orbs for more summonings. Still no luck pulling New Year's Takumi. It eventually reached the point I started to resort to just going for the silver orbs in all the summoning sessions and quitting once they were all taken care. During this ordeal, I got this:

Meh.

He has +Res -Spd for IVs.

Good thing I still got plenty of days to pull New Year's Takumi. Hoping for the best!

 

[Armagon]

I am incredibly pleased with these results.

 

[Astellius]

This quote alone has convinced me to keep her as a mainstay no matter what. Thanks for that.

Chapter 9:
Those houses can burn, I don't care.

The way sub-human units work in this game are certainly interesting. Nobody cares about biorhythm, but having a unit type that is designed entirely around ebb and flow opens up all sorts of strategies. Do you go for units that are powerful but have a limited window during which you use them, or do you stick with units that are more consistent? It definitely makes the Laguz stand out in a good way.

Chapter 10:
Stealth mission! I don't mind these when they are done XCOM 2 style: Allowing you to sneak around to find a vantage point to strike from before going loud. Other than that, a fairly simple map.

Fire Emblem characters should probably stop trusting random thieves that claim they will help them out. One of these days it will not end well.

Well, hopefully Mia works out well for you! If I remember correctly, she starts out a little weak (as most myrmidons in FE do), but then she turns into a veritable dodge + crit machine. She also comes with Vantage as a native skill--always attacking first is really nice and improves her survivability.

And, lol, yeah, the FE leaders are always a bit too trusting of random thieves and enemies that join you.

Edit: The main competition for Mia's spot is Zihark, who comes with slightly better Atk/Def, but worse Lck/Res. For a swordmaster, I consider a few points more to dodging more important than Atk or Def, since dodging is the main way they stay alive, and the Atk can easily be compensated for with forged weapons and critical hits. Plus, Vantage+Wrath is a pretty great combo, and both Mia and Nephenee can run it. If you're using Zihark, you have to decide between whether to give Vantage to Zihark or Nephenee, since you only get one Vantage scroll.

Well, these past few days of Fire Emblem Heroes have been... something.

Sadly, I have had zero luck pulling New Year's Takumi thus far, but I've been getting a bunch of different 5-stars instead:

Spoiler: What I got over the past few days

First day the New Year's banner came up, and this is what I got:

Oh hey, a 5-star Leon! He's a cool character and a solid archer in this game... too bad this one got meh IVs.

With 20 more orbs, I went for another summon immediately after. This happens:

Well well, a 5-star Mathilda! She's also another favorite of from Echoes... but just like Leon, she too got meh IVs.

Looks like I'm going to save them for the time being as units to upgrade in weapon refinery (since I still need to accumulate enough Divine Dew to upgrade the Fujin Yumi).

Days pass, and I accumulate enough orbs for more summonings. Still no luck pulling New Year's Takumi. It eventually reached the point I started to resort to just going for the silver orbs in all the summoning sessions and quitting once they were all taken care. During this ordeal, I got this:

Meh.

He has +Res -Spd for IVs.

Good thing I still got plenty of days to pull New Year's Takumi. Hoping for the best!

Good luck! They've been really generous with the orbs lately, and the NY banner will be up all month. I really wanted Azura from this banner, so I was pulling greens... Then, on a summoning with no greens, I went with red, since NY Camilla looks like a pretty good unit, and, well, I got her! Pretty nice, although with a less than ideal nature (+Res/-Def).

Continued pulling greens, then got another session with no greens, pulled on red again, and, well, you guessed it, yet another Camilla came to pity-break... with an even WORSE nature (+Res/-Spd). But then, in the next summoning session, the second green I pulled was Azura. Yes! And it was literally just in time for the second round of the gauntlet (I went with Chrom for Round 1). I might give Catria Spd/Def Bond from the spare Camilla. My Catria is a flying tank, so it would be good on her.

 

[Erureido]

I don't usually talk about Fire Emblem Heroes teams that much, but I'd figure I'd share one team I recently finished.

After using up my feathers to upgrade Subaki to 5-star so that Shiro could inherit Quick Riposte 3, my Shiro team is finally finished (outside of seals and weapon refinery stuff). I've been testing it in the Arena, and while I haven't done the Expert difficulty, it has been doing quite well in the Intermediate difficulty thus far:

Spoiler: My Shiro team

The head honcho of the team. Shiro makes a very solid tank that can hit quite hard with the help of Ignis and Threaten Def. He can withstand most physical hits quite well, including some Brave Lyns. The Defense seal is there to boost his Defense even more. It could also be swapped with Close Def 3 to up his Defense on the enemy phase, but I missed out on getting that seal.

Brave Lucina is my main support unit. With Reciprocal Aid, she can heal Shiro and my other units to full health if necessary. She can then regain the HP with either Aether or Renewal (usually the latter most of the time). Drive Speed also helps boost the speed of some of my units. Fury is there to make her into a hard hitter if she needs to attack, and she can regain lost HP with the help of Renewal and Aether.

Julia is my Reinhardt counter, as well as one of my mage tanks if necessary (namely against other blue and green mages). She can also function as semi-support with Hone Attack 3.

Joshua is as my main sword unit to counter the green-units (which can be espeicially troublesome if they are mages due to Shiro and Brave Lucina's weakness to them). He can handle both kinds of green units quite well thanks to his nice Resistance and Close Defense 3. While he has Moonbow in the picture, he actually currently has Iceberg, which has been doing well for me as well.

 

[Armagon]

I'm just waiting for FE16 to be announced and then for the Fire Emblem fandom to do it's usual thing of tearing the game apart before it's even out because of this or that. We all know the FE cycle

 

[Deleted member]

Over the course of a few weeks, I've been liking Arena a lot less. It really does feel like I have to pay to win here in order to get some expensive skills and heavily merged units. You need heavily merged and expensive skills just to get opponents with higher points.
The only two units that have a large amount of merges are Eldigan (+6) and Takumi (+4), other units are unmerged or have +3 or less merges (I might list them later, I don't have the time now). The thing is, I need to fight players with 700 points or I might not be able to get to tier 20. It's getting much harder to do nowadays.
I haven't fought players with a score higher than 710 in regular Arena and I never achieved a score of over 5000. I have never been able to stay in Tier 20... I would have to go do 7 matches and then do a deathless run the next week, but even deathless runs with 4800+ points are starting to not cut it. I would take a break from Arena, but I want the rewards so badly.
I hope the next season for Arena has some units I can build a team around. I know it will get to the point where I can't participate because I won't have any of the 10 units built.
I need some advice on how I can get a high score with consistently challenging opponents. I'm burning my resources of Dueling Crests just to achieve a deathless run with a good score. I still have a good amount of them, but I burn through them fast.

On the bright side, the latest Tempest Trial ended and I was able to finish this build on Eldigan:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

I just want to preface that I have never played Genealogy of the Holy War and I have no connection to Eldigan. I was trying to get Ayra and I got so many Eldigans from the banner (whether I am lucky or not is up to you).
I refined his sword to have Fury 3 and I gave him Life & Death 3 as his slot A. He is +Def/-Res, so he can afford to run this skill and have a pretty good defense stat. With Attack +3 Sacred Seal, he is so far my first and only unit to reach over 60 attack.

 

[LordTakeo]

I mean, I can understand you, but that mostly applies to rank 20. If everyone without merges could get into 20 and stay there.

I mean, making it without merges and heavy skills, would trivialise them, and make it rather worthless. If its easy to get the maximum spot&reward, why putting efford into it.

I am merging up my nowi right now till she's +10, simply cause I got many merges on her, through feathers, and only feathers. If Valter's ghb would rerun soon, I'd give him a similar treatment, since feathers are... honestly not too hard to come by.

 

[Astellius]

Over the course of a few weeks, I've been liking Arena a lot less. It really does feel like I have to pay to win here in order to get some expensive skills and heavily merged units. You need heavily merged and expensive skills just to get opponents with higher points.
The only two units that have a large amount of merges are Eldigan (+6) and Takumi (+4), other units are unmerged or have +3 or less merges (I might list them later, I don't have the time now). The thing is, I need to fight players with 700 points or I might not be able to get to tier 20. It's getting much harder to do nowadays.
I haven't fought players with a score higher than 710 in regular Arena and I never achieved a score of over 5000. I have never been able to stay in Tier 20... I would have to go do 7 matches and then do a deathless run the next week, but even deathless runs with 4800+ points are starting to not cut it. I would take a break from Arena, but I want the rewards so badly.
I hope the next season for Arena has some units I can build a team around. I know it will get to the point where I can't participate because I won't have any of the 10 units built.
I need some advice on how I can get a high score with consistently challenging opponents. I'm burning my resources of Dueling Crests just to achieve a deathless run with a good score. I still have a good amount of them, but I burn through them fast.

On the bright side, the latest Tempest Trial ended and I was able to finish this build on Eldigan:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

I just want to preface that I have never played Genealogy of the Holy War and I have no connection to Eldigan. I was trying to get Ayra and I got so many Eldigans from the banner (whether I am lucky or not is up to you).
I refined his sword to have Fury 3 and I gave him Life & Death 3 as his slot A. He is +Def/-Res, so he can afford to run this skill and have a pretty good defense stat. With Attack +3 Sacred Seal, he is so far my first and only unit to reach over 60 attack.

I managed to stay in T20 again with the score of 5,000, although I was pretty close, being ~500 spots above the cutoff about 5 hours prior to the close of the season. Someone on SF was at 4,988 and was bumped back to T19. Of course, it's likely that last week had unusually high scores, due to the Voting Gauntlet giving out Dueling Crests and having quests for each round that had you fight in the Arena 10 times. I just replicated the score for this week, so we'll see how 5,000 fares again. It did require a good amount of fishing for opponents that were 714+ (I used maybe 10 crests?).

My team was Adult Tiki (5*+9), Cecilia (4*+10), Reinhardt (5*+2), and Sophia (4*+8).

I don't want to post a text wall that fills up the page, so I'll put my recommendations and notes in spoilers. Hopefully it's helpful for you and anyone who wants help with the Arena. Getting to stay in T20 has been a long term project for me, and it either takes a lot of work, or a lot of money (or both).

Spoiler: General Advice

My core team is Tiki, Cecilia, and Reinhardt, and I have the Askr Trio on hand to always ensure I have a bonus hero. This is a nice setup, since I always have a reliable team available, and, with Tiki, I've had a long term project. I've been devoting nearly all of my feathers, for several months now, to adding merges to Tiki (I just need to summon one more of her, then she is done!). I highly recommend having a core team, especially one with a strong character that's in the 3-4* pool that can be a long-term project. Make sure you like them--because, hey, it's going to take over 200,000 feathers!

If you want help on constructing a good team, I'd be happy to help.

But that's the long-term. What are good short-term ways to increase the score?

• Upgrade the right Sacred Seals. Prioritize getting a set of 4 Seals that correspond to SP expensive passive skills. Seals like Atk Ploy, Atk Smoke, Panic Ploy, and Heavy Blade are great; those skills cost 240 SP, which is twice as much as Atk+3.
• Merge common 4* units. Basically, a 4*+6 unit is worth as much as the unit would be if it were 5*. A 4*+10 is essentially worth the same as a 4*+6, which means a 4*+10 is worth about a 5*+4.
  
• Change team composition. Limit the number of ranged units and dancers you have (unless they are heavily merged), and instead use armors, melee infantry, and flyers. A 5* infantry mage needs 1 merge to be worth the same as a 5* infantry melee, and 2 merges to match an armor.
• Give your units Aether (and opt for units that have expensive skills). While Aether isn't a particularly practical skill most of the time, it's common, and running it over regular skills like Bonfire or Moonbow gives your score a boost worth 1.5x that of a merge. Legendary Weapons are also very good, as are Dual Rallies.
  
• Be blessed. The introduction of Blessings from the Legendary Heroes is one of the main reasons there's been an increase in the average arena score. If a blessing is active, you get a 2 point boost to your base arena score, which is the equivalent of 2 merges.
  
• Optimize the SP costs of your skills and seals. Properly doing this can boost your score quite a bit. See the other spoiler for more on this.

In terms of priorities on how to efficiently use feathers, making a 4*+10 character is a great use of 20k feathers. After that, giving your units Aether should add a nice boost. Following that, adding a merge to a 5* character gives less of a boost, but it's likely the next best use of 20k feathers.

In terms of some inefficient but commonly seen things, here are some things to avoid. Don't use the Quickened Pulse seal on your offense team; don't use stat-boosting passives or seals (e.g., Atk+3); and prioritize merges and Aether over promoting for 5* exclusive skills (e.g., Quick Riposte 3). A merge is worth twice as much as the upgrade from QR2 to QR3.

Spoiler: Specific Scoring Mechanics

Now, in order to maximize your points, I'm going to gloss some of the technicalities of how the Arena is scored. The main relevant factors are a unit's rarity, merge count, Blessing, BST, SP cost of equipped skills (including the seal). You can find more information here, along with a Google doc spreadsheet that calculates your Arena score for you. That way you can mess around with specific configurations to see how to maximize your points.

Merges: Each merge increases your base score range by 1.

Rarity: The main thing is that a 4*+6 is worth about the same as the unit would be if it were 5*. A 4*+10 is about the same as a 5*+4.

Blessing: If a blessing is active, it increases your score by 2.

BST (Base Stat Total): Each increment of 5 increases your score by 0.5. Your BST does not include any stats gained by merges, supports, or skills, and it rounds down to increments of 5. So, for example, most melee infantry units have a BST of between 155-159, but the variation there would all be the same as if they had a BST of 155.

It maps out to roughly about this:

135-139 Shigure
140-144 Ranged Dancers/Cavalry
145-149 Melee Dancers, Ranged Infantry/Flyers
150-154 Melee Horses
155-159 Melee Infantry/Flyers, Boosted Horses
160-164 Boosted Infantry/Flyers
165-169 Armors
170-174 Boosted Armors
175 Christmas Lissa

Shigure has the lowest BST in the game at 139, which rounds down to 135. Christmas Lissa has the most, and is the sole member of the 175 increment.

Total SP Cost: Each increment of 100 SP cost increases your score by 0.5. Add up the SP cost of all skills on the unit (including Weapons and the Sacred Seal), and then round down to the nearest hundred (so a total SP cost of 1,550 would round to 1500). The SP cost is based on the original cost of the skill, not inherited cost.

General Skill Costs

4* Weapons: 200
5* Weapons: 300
5* Refined Weapons: 350
Legendary: 400

Regular Assist: 150
Healing: 200
Dual Rally/Healing+: 300

Normal Specials: 200
AOE Specials: 300
Aether/Galeforce/Unique: 500

Stat-boosting Passives: 120
Regular Passives: 200
Rare Passives: 240
Quickened Pulse: 100

The 500 SP specials give the largest singular boost to your score, so put they should be put on your characters if they don't need their specials. Sacred Seals featuring expensive skills like Atk Ploy or Heavy Blade should have priority for upgrades, since they can give a good boost to your score. Also, since the score from SP cost rounds down to the nearest hundred, the optimal configurations of some skills might not be what's most useful.

For example, I was running Sophia with Raourraven (200), Draw Back (150), Rising Wind (300, instead of Dragon Fang which is 200), TA3 (200), Escape Route 3 (240, over Bowbreaker 3 which is 200), Fortify Res 3 (200), and Heavy Blade 3 (240, over, well, any seal she could actually use). This configuration has an SP cost of 1,530 (rounds to 1,500), as opposed to her regular one w/ the Heavy Blade seal, which would have a cost of 1,390, which rounds to 1,300. That's a whole point difference just by manipulating the skills and giving her garbage (Rising Wind, Escape Route 3).

Hope this helps!

 

[ZephyrZ]

I'm just waiting for FE16 to be announced and then for the Fire Emblem fandom to do it's usual thing of tearing the game apart before it's even out because of this or that. We all know the FE cycle

Poor, poor Warriors. It wasn't a fantastic game, but everyone had such unrealistic expectations for it.

That said, I'm going to be really skeptical of FE16's marketing and wait until the game launches before making any serious judgements about it. I don't trust IS anymore - not after they tried to market story as Fate's biggest selling point.

 

[Erureido]

*Saves up some orbs to go for some summonings*

*Aims for all the silver orbs that I can find*

*Doesn't get anything of interest*

*One more silver orb awaits with my last 5 orbs*

"I sure hope I can finally pull New Year's Takumi."

What I got instead:

...

Are you SERIOUS, game?!

My final silver orb that I've been trying to go for today... and THIS is what I get?

Talk about a troll move!

Welp, at least there's still 22 more days of that New Year's banner...

Her IVs are +Atk - Res for those that are curious.

 

[Deleted member]

Poor, poor Warriors. It wasn't a fantastic game, but everyone had such unrealistic expectations for it.

Well I can't blame them. With how much care and attention went into Hyrule Warriors, you'd expect FE Warriors to be the same...
Not saying that FE Warriors isn't fun, far from that, but I can't help but feel disappointed when I see clones or the lack of characters like Ike.

I managed to stay in T20 again with the score of 5,000, although I was pretty close, being ~500 spots above the cutoff about 5 hours prior to the close of the season. Someone on SF was at 4,988 and was bumped back to T19. Of course, it's likely that last week had unusually high scores, due to the Voting Gauntlet giving out Dueling Crests and having quests for each round that had you fight in the Arena 10 times. I just replicated the score for this week, so we'll see how 5,000 fares again. It did require a good amount of fishing for opponents that were 714+ (I used maybe 10 crests?).

My team was Adult Tiki (5*+9), Cecilia (4*+10), Reinhardt (5*+2), and Sophia (4*+8).

I don't want to post a text wall that fills up the page, so I'll put my recommendations and notes in spoilers. Hopefully it's helpful for you and anyone who wants help with the Arena. Getting to stay in T20 has been a long term project for me, and it either takes a lot of work, or a lot of money (or both).

Spoiler: General Advice

My core team is Tiki, Cecilia, and Reinhardt, and I have the Askr Trio on hand to always ensure I have a bonus hero. This is a nice setup, since I always have a reliable team available, and, with Tiki, I've had a long term project. I've been devoting nearly all of my feathers, for several months now, to adding merges to Tiki (I just need to summon one more of her, then she is done!). I highly recommend having a core team, especially one with a strong character that's in the 3-4* pool that can be a long-term project. Make sure you like them--because, hey, it's going to take over 200,000 feathers!

If you want help on constructing a good team, I'd be happy to help.

But that's the long-term. What are good short-term ways to increase the score?

• Upgrade the right Sacred Seals. Prioritize getting a set of 4 Seals that correspond to SP expensive passive skills. Seals like Atk Ploy, Atk Smoke, Panic Ploy, and Heavy Blade are great; those skills cost 240 SP, which is twice as much as Atk+3.
• Merge common 4* units. Basically, a 4*+6 unit is worth as much as the unit would be if it were 5*. A 4*+10 is essentially worth the same as a 4*+6, which means a 4*+10 is worth about a 5*+4.
  
• Change team composition. Limit the number of ranged units and dancers you have (unless they are heavily merged), and instead use armors, melee infantry, and flyers. A 5* infantry mage needs 1 merge to be worth the same as a 5* infantry melee, and 2 merges to match an armor.
• Give your units Aether (and opt for units that have expensive skills). While Aether isn't a particularly practical skill most of the time, it's common, and running it over regular skills like Bonfire or Moonbow gives your score a boost worth 1.5x that of a merge. Legendary Weapons are also very good, as are Dual Rallies.
  
• Be blessed. The introduction of Blessings from the Legendary Heroes is one of the main reasons there's been an increase in the average arena score. If a blessing is active, you get a 2 point boost to your base arena score, which is the equivalent of 2 merges.
  
• Optimize the SP costs of your skills and seals. Properly doing this can boost your score quite a bit. See the other spoiler for more on this.

In terms of priorities on how to efficiently use feathers, making a 4*+10 character is a great use of 20k feathers. After that, giving your units Aether should add a nice boost. Following that, adding a merge to a 5* character gives less of a boost, but it's likely the next best use of 20k feathers.

In terms of some inefficient but commonly seen things, here are some things to avoid. Don't use the Quickened Pulse seal on your offense team; don't use stat-boosting passives or seals (e.g., Atk+3); and prioritize merges and Aether over promoting for 5* exclusive skills (e.g., Quick Riposte 3). A merge is worth twice as much as the upgrade from QR2 to QR3.

Spoiler: Specific Scoring Mechanics

Now, in order to maximize your points, I'm going to gloss some of the technicalities of how the Arena is scored. The main relevant factors are a unit's rarity, merge count, Blessing, BST, SP cost of equipped skills (including the seal). You can find more information here, along with a Google doc spreadsheet that calculates your Arena score for you. That way you can mess around with specific configurations to see how to maximize your points.

Merges: Each merge increases your base score range by 1.

Rarity: The main thing is that a 4*+6 is worth about the same as the unit would be if it were 5*. A 4*+10 is about the same as a 5*+4.

Blessing: If a blessing is active, it increases your score by 2.

BST (Base Stat Total): Each increment of 5 increases your score by 0.5. Your BST does not include any stats gained by merges, supports, or skills, and it rounds down to increments of 5. So, for example, most melee infantry units have a BST of between 155-159, but the variation there would all be the same as if they had a BST of 155.

It maps out to roughly about this:

135-139 Shigure
140-144 Ranged Dancers/Cavalry
145-149 Melee Dancers, Ranged Infantry/Flyers
150-154 Melee Horses
155-159 Melee Infantry/Flyers, Boosted Horses
160-164 Boosted Infantry/Flyers
165-169 Armors
170-174 Boosted Armors
175 Christmas Lissa

Shigure has the lowest BST in the game at 139, which rounds down to 135. Christmas Lissa has the most, and is the sole member of the 175 increment.

Total SP Cost: Each increment of 100 SP cost increases your score by 0.5. Add up the SP cost of all skills on the unit (including Weapons and the Sacred Seal), and then round down to the nearest hundred (so a total SP cost of 1,550 would round to 1500). The SP cost is based on the original cost of the skill, not inherited cost.

General Skill Costs

4* Weapons: 200
5* Weapons: 300
5* Refined Weapons: 350
Legendary: 400

Regular Assist: 150
Healing: 200
Dual Rally/Healing+: 300

Normal Specials: 200
AOE Specials: 300
Aether/Galeforce/Unique: 500

Stat-boosting Passives: 120
Regular Passives: 200
Rare Passives: 240
Quickened Pulse: 100

The 500 SP specials give the largest singular boost to your score, so put they should be put on your characters if they don't need their specials. Sacred Seals featuring expensive skills like Atk Ploy or Heavy Blade should have priority for upgrades, since they can give a good boost to your score. Also, since the score from SP cost rounds down to the nearest hundred, the optimal configurations of some skills might not be what's most useful.

For example, I was running Sophia with Raourraven (200), Draw Back (150), Rising Wind (300, instead of Dragon Fang which is 200), TA3 (200), Escape Route 3 (240, over Bowbreaker 3 which is 200), Fortify Res 3 (200), and Heavy Blade 3 (240, over, well, any seal she could actually use). This configuration has an SP cost of 1,530 (rounds to 1,500), as opposed to her regular one w/ the Heavy Blade seal, which would have a cost of 1,390, which rounds to 1,300. That's a whole point difference just by manipulating the skills and giving her garbage (Rising Wind, Escape Route 3).

Hope this helps!

That makes a lot of sense, but dang... that's a lot to take in for Arena.
I did change my team a bit to Rhajat, Takumi (+4), Eldigan (+6), and Reinhardt (+2), gave Takumi and Rhajat duel rally skills, and I managed to find more consistent opponents.
The problem for me is that the team isn't... very synergetic and I get countered hard by Brave Lyn. I feel like if I switch Eldigan and Takumi for Black Knight and Halloween Henry, I would receive less points but the team is more synergetic (though all of the Arena bonus units don't work well with any of my units, unless I pull an Azura for Flier Emblem).
I guess if I have to make a +5 or +10 unit, it might as well be Reinhardt. I have an optimal Reinhardt.

 

[chick fil a]

People have been tweeting their results from this FE character sorter, so I decided to try it out myself!

Spoiler: Results

although the top 3 is correct, I'm surprised Corrin didn't break top 10 as they're my favorite lord in the series as of now

has anyone else ever done this? what were your results?

 

[Armagon]

That said, I'm going to be really skeptical of FE16's marketing and wait until the game launches before making any serious judgements about it. I don't trust IS anymore - not after they tried to market story as Fate's biggest selling point.

Honestly, same. I mean, i'm gonna be more optimistic as that is my nature but there is definitely concern to be had with IS's marketing. Not only did they market Fates' story as it's biggest selling point (which included saying that Conquest would be about revolutionizing Nohr from within when that wasn't the case) but they did a terrible job with Warriors' marketing.

Regardless of what happens, i just hope FE16 gets a simultaneous worldwide release. If Xenoblade Chronicles 2 can get a simultaneous worldwide release, then there's no reason for FE16 to not have one.

Looking back at all the big 1st party Switch games last year, Fire Emblem Warriors was the only one that didn't have a simultaneous worldwide release and i don't get why. Releasing Warriors overseas a few days before Odyssey was the worst part.

 

[Astellius]

*Saves up some orbs to go for some summonings*

*Aims for all the silver orbs that I can find*

*Doesn't get anything of interest*

*One more silver orb awaits with my last 5 orbs*

"I sure hope I can finally pull New Year's Takumi."

What I got instead:

...

Are you SERIOUS, game?!

My final silver orb that I've been trying to go for today... and THIS is what I get?

Talk about a troll move!

Welp, at least there's still 22 more days of that New Year's banner...

Her IVs are +Atk - Res for those that are curious.

Aw, but Maria is sweet! Give her to me, if you don't want her, and I'll give you the first Takumi I summon! I'm this thread's #1 Minerva fan, and my affection does spread to the other members of Team Macedon.

That makes a lot of sense, but dang... that's a lot to take in for Arena.
I did change my team a bit to Rhajat, Takumi (+4), Eldigan (+6), and Reinhardt (+2), gave Takumi and Rhajat duel rally skills, and I managed to find more consistent opponents.
The problem for me is that the team isn't... very synergetic and I get countered hard by Brave Lyn. I feel like if I switch Eldigan and Takumi for Black Knight and Halloween Henry, I would receive less points but the team is more synergetic (though all of the Arena bonus units don't work well with any of my units, unless I pull an Azura for Flier Emblem).
I guess if I have to make a +5 or +10 unit, it might as well be Reinhardt. I have an optimal Reinhardt.

Yeah, sorry if that was information overload, I posted a lot of stuff from my notes for myself and others when I give advice on the Arena.

As for creating a synergetic team, how about just giving Reinhardt Bowbreaker 3? Rein has very little use for almost any other B-passive.

I'm happy to help build teams, for anyone on here.

 

[Metallinatus]

People have been tweeting their results from this FE character sorter, so I decided to try it out myself!

Spoiler: Results

although the top 3 is correct, I'm surprised Corrin didn't break top 10 as they're my favorite lord in the series as of now

has anyone else ever done this? what were your results?

Just did that, My top 5 were Lyn, Florina, Fiora, Kamui("Corrin", not the Echoes guy) and Kagero.
I am actually surprised by everyone that is not Lyn and Kamui there, but I did vote them above everybody else....

 

[TimidKitsune129]

I got a Switch for Christmas and started playing through Xenoblade Chronicles 2 these past few days.

I wasn't expecting to love the main cast as much as I do, they are all wonderful. My favorite is Nia. Welsh cat best cat. The OST is also amazing, been listening to it frequently while walking through campus. Currently still in chapter 8 but it has been a great experience so far.

As for the FE16 announcement, I'll just wait and see what it is. I'm not really pessimistic but not exactly hyped either. I'll leave it to first impressions.

 

[Deleted member]

Yeah, sorry if that was information overload, I posted a lot of stuff from my notes for myself and others when I give advice on the Arena.

As for creating a synergetic team, how about just giving Reinhardt Bowbreaker 3? Rein has very little use for almost any other B-passive.

I'm happy to help build teams, for anyone on here.

I wouldn't give Reinhardt Bowbreaker 3. His best slot B is Lancebreaker, and it's especially useful against Fjorms who can barely survive against Reinhardt even with Lancebreaker.
Bowbreaker is mainly reserved for the TA Raven tome users. Brave Lyn is difficult to engage in the player phase, so you need a unit that can take her out in the enemy phase. That's why I use female Robin and Halloween Henry often, because they can counter both Rein and Lyn.

People have been tweeting their results from this FE character sorter, so I decided to try it out myself!

Spoiler: Results

although the top 3 is correct, I'm surprised Corrin didn't break top 10 as they're my favorite lord in the series as of now

has anyone else ever done this? what were your results?

Currently doing it right now. I'll post my results later.

 

[Skyward]

Ike has an unused sprite where he faces the camera. It's amazing what a small change in perspective can do.

Chapter 11:
This chapter had me thinking a lot about what I think is Fire Emblem's greatest strength: It's ability to mix high fantasy with the mundane. My favourite characters all tend lean towards being 'normal' in some way, and so getting to spend a bit of time wandering around a quiet Crimean coastal town is something I wish Fire Emblem games would do more of, as it does wonders for the game's world building.

How you get Zihark is not super obvious, so thanks Astellius for casually mentioning him. I also swear some of these houses at risk of burning down are placed solely to taunt players.

I thought reinforcements that moved on their first turn was an Awakening thing. Stupid Black Knight.

Chapter 12:
I'm not really sure whether to reference Birdemic or DJ Snake, so I'll let you decide.

After Chapter 11, it's nice to have a breather level. This is probably the level that reinforces players that they can take down powerful units by exploiting their weaknesses, so it's Rolf/Lethe/Laguzslayer!Mia heaven.

We get our proper introductions to the bird and dragon Laguz, get a hint of Soren-related mystery, and get confused as to how big dragons are supposed to be compared to humans.

Final side note: The Chapter 13 base conversation between Ike and Daniel over how to defend a ship from boarding action is great.
I wonder what Chapter 13 could involve?

 

[Armagon]

New Banner+GHB revealed

Spoiler

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/7pk90w/the_datamined_banner_characters_are/

 

[Erureido]

Nice to see the Radiant Dawn banner is finally coming. I don't have any units of interest that I want to pull from it at the moment, but I'm give it a go at some point.

Now that Micaiah is in the game, I have a feeling Troykv is celebrating the day. Hope you've been saving those orbs: you're going to need them if you want Micaiah to join your army!

On a different note, the memes that have emerged from the recent Fire Emblem Heroes leak have been pretty funny:

Yes, this is Oliver's actual damaged art in the game.

 

[Troykv]

Nice to see the Radiant Dawn banner is finally coming. I don't have any units of interest that I want to pull from it at the moment, but I'm give it a go at some point.

Now that Micaiah is in the game, I have a feeling Troykv is celebrating the day. Hope you've been saving those orbs: you're going to need them if you want Micaiah to join your army!

On a different note, the memes that have emerged from the recent Fire Emblem Heroes leak have been pretty funny:

Yes, this is Oliver's actual damaged art in the game.

Yes! I'm so happy to know Micaiah is already in the game, I have saved like 160 orbs right... It would be a bit more, but I think it's enough to give a tried, I will get more soon!

 

[Armagon]

RUH-ROH, ANTI-HORSE TILES ARE COMING TO THE ARENA!

...And so fell Horse Emblem.

 

[Deleted member]

I did the Fire Emblem character sorter. I think this is pretty accurate.
Kinda surprised Arvis is ranked so high.

New Banner+GHB revealed

Spoiler

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/7pk90w/the_datamined_banner_characters_are/

Glad they finally made a Radiant Dawn banner.
I don't think I will be spending too many Orbs on the banner (even if I like Zelgius, I am content with BK). We need to see their skills, but Zelgius is the best unit on paper for being a BK with IVs and different stats going around.
Oliver is... looking rather mediocre and thank god he isn't a pity breaker. Sothe seems decent and Micaiah is oddly slow.

 

[DarkAuraful]

Swagmaster G Oliver comes through to the house oh yeah.

Zelgius might probably be on my save up priority list alongside Mia and Elincia for reds.

I haven't played Radiant Dawn so I can't say for the other two but hey, they're coming through so good for them!

Yes, this is Oliver's actual damaged art in the game.

*sniff*

That's just glorious and stunning man.

 

[Deleted member]

They just posted the trailer, I guess as a response to the dataminers.
I hope Sothe gets demoted and has Life & Death 3 at 4 star rarity.

 

[ZephyrZ]

On a different note, the memes that have emerged from the recent Fire Emblem Heroes leak have been pretty funny:

Yes, this is Oliver's actual damaged art in the game.

Spoiler: True Beauty

They won't stop coming.

 

[Astellius]

Whew, I had a feeling that we'd be getting Micaiah soon, so I chose to save my orbs instead of spending them all attempting to pull Lucina. And here she is! Got ~75 orbs on hand to throw at the banner.

I'm also super glad that she's not sharing the blues with Oliver. Oliver is pretty gross, I don't want him to break my pity rate. But the memes, oh the memes! The glorious memes!

Spoiler