- I'm probably going with Priscilla to start with as well. Of the 8 characters, she is legit the only that I actually like as a character. (don't know anything about katrina though, but I also don't have her, my options are actually limited to Tharja and Priscilla in that regard, I have an untrained 4*mCatria sitting around I suppose)

@ jensen - Yeah, maybe not all the royals together at once, but there were at least enough kids to pair them off! And yeah, Joshua's lvl 40 bit was a bit awkward. It was like, oh, by the way, I'm a crown prince, also, let's ditch this popsicle stand, you and me baby.

@ cora - Yup hate you a little :P Tough choice with Fjorm though, she does have some really good skills, but like, how would you pick between the 3 of them? (Ice Mirror can't be inherited though, too bad) But seeing as how she's basically a 'Lord' unit, there will probably be quests involving her in the future, so having a merged one might not be a bad idea. FEH gives me a lot of decision anxiety.

I ended up backing my boy Sigurd because he's served me so well. Seems to be beating Katarina pretty squarely though... that doesn't mean anything til the last minute haha.

Did a full pull on the new banner as there were 3 colourless orbs and 2 blues. Looks like my luck has finally run dry which is... kinda good because I was getting concerned. I did pull a 4* Tailtiu, though, which is cool! Even better is she's +HP -Spd... which means I can feed her to Axura for Drive Spd 2 without any qualms. :') Bye Tailtiu, nice to meet you.

Has anyone felt brave enough to use the weapon forge yet? I'm still teetering but think Lucas is gonna be blessed with a Slaying Lance+, it's a pretty cheap investment all things considered. Also Nowi and Ninian are top contenders.

Getting more tempted to feed Hector2 to Effie and change her weapon to enhanced Berkut Lance+ but it's such a big big investment and I already gave her a Brave Lance+. It's handy but she rarely needs the raw power it provides and 1 movement is really limiting, she'd love a way to engage ranged foes.

- +HP - Spd Tailtiu is the worst. I have a +spd one. and even at 4 star she's great. I might actually make her 5*, I don't have a 5* blue mage yet. I spend a lot of orbs trying to get Delthea, but failed.

I used the weapon forge to give Priscilla built in wrathful staff. Upgrading a regular weapon is the only way to get the soul dew for the special weapons right now, I don't know if that will change. I want to upgrade Nowi's lightning breath, but I can't decide if I want to give her more res (cus her res is a bit low) or more Def (to power up bonfire more)

It's a solid set for Effie, but it's really high investment. My Effie has brave lance+ as well, which really helps for the quests, I don't really use her much outside of that. If I had the resources, I would put that set on Ephraim before I did it for Effie. My friend put distant counter on Mia, and she wrecks shit.

I did it! Lukas now has the Slaying Lance+. 20 refining stones seemed like a pretty good deal, all things considered, so I went for it. I actually found out he's +Spd -HP which is... cool. I like him a lot, such a great tank.

And yeah, Tailtiu's totally worthy of an upgrade. Speedy Bladetomes are my favourites and she fits the niche nicely. I use my Blarblade+ Linde all the time - she's on my current arena squad and my lead unit, actually - just give her Desperation from a spare Shanna and she's golden.

I've had similar thoughts about Nowi. I guess Def would be better? It'd let her duel archers nicely (mine doesn't particularly like Brave Lyn at the moment) which I think is her primary niche. Mages are best handled elsewhere, imo.

Priscilla seems like a great pick! I think the staves are all good investments with how powerful both Wrathful and Dazzling are. I got screwed over by a Gravity+ Dazzling Wrathful Genny in Arena earlier; being able to shut down such a wide space with one movement is terrifying. I managed to KO her with Linde but was then stuck with Gravity so couldn't dance her out of the way, and Ayra/Fjorm ended me. It was kinda tragic. Stupid streaky rocks map.

i don't understand how arena medals are awarded and i don't like that bc i really, really want to burn through most of my dueling crests (i have.. 300...) but i want Optimal Medal Rewards so i'm. hesitant. i must google

and yesterday i friended someone who had their name as "my husband" and was leading with shiro, and it turns out their lead is a 40+1 shiro with refined deft harpoon+ (+atk, +hp), water blessing, aether, and heavy blade 3. and you know what. if they are still pulling on this banner, i hope they get all the shiros bc that is nuts

also i learned that mynintendo platinum points expire so i spent a bunch on the new feather rewards and that was nice too

i was really surprised by joshua's... are they confessions? his lil lvl40 bit. most of the ones i've seen are like, "oh, you're neat. this has been neat. i have learned things, we are friends" and he's just like, "i'm outie and you're coming with, don't tell alfonse." it was cute, haha

i did end up going with priscilla for the voting gauntlet, and she's doing much better than i expected. neat!

That bothered me too - random arena medals - and after some research apparently nobody knows what triggers the 50% boost. I have arena medals in a 10:1 ratio with refining stones at the moment, that's actually not bad. I thought I'd have way way more medals haha.

- Some arena maps are just awful. I really hate the bridge one, and basically any that have lava. Genny can be pretty terrifying, I got one as an allywith dazzling staff and Fury and she had an attack of 50. But she is still quite a glass cannon, her HP and Def are so low.

I hope Priscilla with Panic+ will help shut down horse emblem teams. Panic+ turns bonuses into penalties on all units within 2 spaces of whoever was attacked, that can be devastating on a boosting team. Haven't used her for much outside the voting gauntlet yet though.

- I'm not sure how the medals work. I haven't really been paying attention to how many I get, it's mostly just like oh yeah, that's a thing, clicks past

yeah tbh it doesn't really matter since arena medals are so easy to get, it's just annoying to know i'm not getting the best reward each time. i want maximum gains, haha

- I am meh. I long ago gave up on 'maximum' rewards in this game. It's a mobile app, if it gives me stuff for free I'm happy.

And as for weird confessions, I just got my 5* Mathew to level 40 and his was basically 'I'm a spy, spies don't have friends, we aren't friends. K thanks, bai.'

the gift orbs gave me enough for a few more rounds of sniping for shiro - my pity rate was broken by an +atk/-def nowi right after i rolled a 4* one. i feel like i should be alright with this (saves feathers, makes up for the -atk 4* nowi i rolled a bit ago) but i’m still disappointed lol. no more pulls on that banner for now.

isn’t matthew one of the units that you start the game with? you’d think he’d trust the summoner a little, though that’s pretty reasonable for a spy i guess haha

[edit] “defeat berkut with an all infantry team” i’m feeling very attacked rn

You are more than welcome to several of my Chrom army. I am okay with my Laslows though, you can keep them XD

By the way, drag back on Elincia is amazing - now that I've trained her up, she does so much damage and that move really helps. Interestingly, on my Shiro hunt, I pulled 2 Clair's so now I have extra hit and run fodder. The game, it knows.

(also I can't even survive one round of Berkut Lunatic even with horse emblem TT)

I am going team Sigurd! Looks like Rhajat got upset by Faye which honestly makes me a little happy. I am still nonplussed why she was picked for the gauntlet, why they decided to add her on the banner they added her on, and why she was picked over any other child unit from fates (normal Shigure or Kanna might have made more sense, or even Asugi if they wanted to add a retainer for Shiro).

Holy crap Sigurd doing really well against Dorcas. Makes me think we're going to get sniped in the final hour because we are winning so hard.

I think I picked up some of your luck (sorry):

With my daily orbs, the Tempest trials, quest orbs and the gift orbs I was able to try and pull for Shiro again. I got (on several different rounds because blue orbs are apparently rare when you want a Shiro: an extra Clair, an extra Delthea (off banner), a Tana (off banner), an extra Nephenee and then finally... a Shiro (yay!). I haven't even looked at the IVs of them but damn. I really wanted a Tana so I'm happy about that but it feels like I've just had some insane luck. But I really can't believe the run I've just had... it's like every missing 5* blue I wanted came home for me (especially after how disappointing the 8% banner was for me).

Time to do some training now, I think. I will probably upgrade and sacrifice a Peri for my Oboro rather than my use the spare Nephenee and keep her for Wrath fodder, but just need to decide what to do with the extra Delthea.

- lol. Yup. Actually though, I would think that would make him the most un-trusting, especially since the only other hero there when he arrived was Raigh, who is a rather twisted dark mage. If I were him I' stay the heck away too! Summoned away from your own world by some weird strangers, told to go battle their enemies for them with some weird child mage? I'd be pretty suspicious. And I don't have his boss man Hector around, so it really doesn't make sense for him to even be there. lol.

I managed to beat Berkut with an infantry team, but I think I'm going to need some online guidance for beating Berkut with Berkut and Shareena.

- Send your extra Delthea to meeeeeeee!

Haha, I would if I could! (with a free Chrom as a bonus, haha). It's a shame they don't allow friends to trade heroes, but I guess if they allowed that then that would be bad for $$$

yay!! she's definitely one of my favorite fliers, i'm so glad elincia is working for you :D good luck with berkut! i have no idea how i won last time, i must've used a guide ;w;

actually yeah, that explains it -- he got dragged in first, with raigh and virion, and then he's got to watch everyone else get summoned and be best friends with the summoner after a day or two? suspicious. good on matthew for calling it out, p: and ooh, nice job with the infantry battle. i was half asleep at reset, so i was trying to use an all-infantry team with 4* shareena... that was. not successful haha

[edit] oh! if you’re having problems with the defeat berkut with berkut or shareena quests, it looks like people are setting berkut as their arena defense so you can 1v1 berkut on beginner arena assault. i hope they all roll 5* on their next summon ;w;

- Yeah, I don't think Hero trading will ever be a thing.

- Yeah, my Shareena wasn't doing well on the team, I had to replace her with Azura to get the infantry one. I definitely used a guide for Infernal last time. I'll probably have to use a guide to figure out how to get Berkut and Shareena to get those kills. Unfortunately, He's impossibly to isolate on the map because of all his ranged pony buddies.

if you don’t care about doing the “win battle with shareena/berkut on the team” and the “defeat berkut with shareena/berkut” quests at the same time, there’s a lot of weaponless berkut available for 1v1 at beginner level arena assault. i ran into three in row, and i set my own weaponless berkut as arena defense since i’m not doing the other quests rn. i find it takes a lot of the stress out when shareena or whoever doesn’t have to land the finishing blow :3

- I found a good video online using my buddy Brave Ike to leave Berkut with 9 health so that either Shareena or Berkut could take him out. Did have to do the map twice, but I've got nothing better to spend stamina on right now. (and like 400 stamina potions kicking about)

ooh, nice! i was doing the last of the monthly quests, so i figured i'd see if people put berkut out for arena assault while i was waiting on the stamina timer. that's probably more efficient though, and definitely more fun than 1v1 with a defenseless opponent, haha

Got Sigurd yesterday with some of the free orbs, though sadly the calculator isn't working so can't check his IVs. Had a hard choice between Tharja and him to support ( Dorcius lost) but went with him since I felt me pulling him was for a reason.

For once I managed to do the Berkut and Michalis rerun quests all by myself this weekend, and it definitely feels nice! B!Ike definitely helped though. It makes me think I should definitely look into what I could do with Berkut's lance in the weapon refinery... Maybe I can make him work!

I finally decided to join Faye for the gauntlet, and I was totally not expecting we would win the first round, but I won't complain about getting extra feathers! haha For the last round I went with Tharja just because I have her so I can use a bonus unit. However, I wouldn't mind at all if Sigurd won! I don't know the game he comes from but he seems like a good guy and tbh Tharja is far from being one of my favorite Awakening characters! xD Plus it's time we finally get another male winner too!

For now I'm just finished slowly my quests, and saving orbs for the Christmas banner, which I guess we will get next week? I'm also training the last heroes I got and I am thinking about promoting a Cecilia for more Horse emblem possibilities. (I don't know what would be her optimal IVs, though. I have a neutral one that probably would be good enough, the only +Spd I own is also -Atk haha)