The Weapons/Passives of the Future! (Sacred Stones Banner)
Hey all, there’s more of these analysis posts than FE4/5 Characters
Anyway, I’m here today to look at all the new weapons/skills and explain how useful they may or may not be in the future. I’m also going to add a small little TL;DR after every explanation in the form of “”Worth Specifically Summoning For?” so that you can just read past all my hard work.
Shoutout to u/tenderoblivion for writing the descriptions down so I didn’t have to, lol.
Anyway, now that I’m done shouting out the true unsung hero, let’s begin with Weapons.
Slaying Axe+ - [Mt.14 / Rng:1] - Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count -1).
From the makers of power creep sword and bow comes this new product: power creep axe! Man, I can’t believe how much the first two slaying weapons changed the meta…
/s
Sarcasm aside, this is a good weapon, just like the other two slaying weapons were. I’m also honestly surprised Seth isn’t a lance unit with the Slaying Lance to finish out the weapon family, but hey, whateves.
Worth specifically summoning for? No. Always nice to have though.
Nidhogg - [Mt:14 / Rng:2 / Eff: Flying] - Effective against flying units. During combat, user's Atk/Spd/Def/Res boosted by the number of adjacent allies x2.
This is an interesting bow, considering it’s basically an owl tome. However, considering this is almost definitely a non-inheritable weapon, one would need to do an in-depth analysis of Innes to see if it’s any good.
Fortunately I’m dumb enough to try providing that~
Based of Innes’s kit alone, we can tell he’s a much more effective Niles clone. Iceberg is based on Res, Fortress Res 3 boosts Res, and Cancel Affinity is specifically made to counter Raven Tomes. The man could probably destroy most if not all mages he will face with ease. However,, if he is a Niles copy, that doesn’t bode well for his overall stat spread. Luckily, with Nidhogg’s effect, Innes can obtain a large amount of attack and speed (and res, cause clearly res > every other stat in the game currently /s) that may allow him to do work against more non-magical foes, but that requires careful positioning, and may or may not be more trouble than it’s worth.
In the end, this is a really interesting bow put on a unit that may not be able to use it to its full potential, but use it very effectively towards a specific sub-group of enemy units with books.
Worth specifically summoning for? Maybe. It really depends on Innes’s stat spread.
Vidofnir [Mt:16 / Rng:1] - If unit is attacked by foe using sword, axe, or lance, unit receives Def +7 in combat.
Much like Nid-piggy, Vidofnir is a unique weapon assigned to Tana alone, and therefore we must do an analysis of Tana to see if she makes good use of the weapon itself.
From what we can tell, Tana is a def-tanky, fast flier. We can predict this through Spd/Def 2, which increases her speed and defense by 2 (duh). However, unlike her brother, that’s all we can say about Tana, and therefore this prediction is way less likely to be accurate.
That being said, as long as Tana has a decent defense stat, she could be made into the Hit and Run Queen. Throw Bonfire, Armored Blow 3, and Hit and Run on her, and she can not only tank physical hits on both initiation and people attacking her, she can also move out of the way on initiation and allow Guidance to take effect.
Worth summoning for? Maybe. It really depends on Tana’s Defense stat.
Those are the newest weapons! Hopefully my predictions are accurate, because, to be completely honest, I make those up on the spot and don’t proof read them if they are, both Innes and Tana could actually be quite good.
^^^Also ^^^the ^^^Slaying ^^^Axe ^^^is ^^^a ^^^thing ^^^that ^^^exists.
Without further ado, let’s move onto Skills~
Armor March 3 [C skill] - If unit has an adjacent armored ally at the start of turn, unit and any such allies can more 1 extra space. (That turn only, does not stack)
… Oh boy, time for controversy.
For those of you who have read the SS Announcement post on the front page, you can see the amount of comments / people who think this skill is OP and that Armor Emblem will reign supreme and that IS is buffing everything that isn’t a dragon.
Do I think Armor Emblem just received a huge buff? Yes, and deservedly so, considering Amelia is the 2nd armored unit to come out since launch (the first being Zephiel). Do I think it’s OP? No.
There are a few reasons why this skill isn’t as broken as many would imagine, so stick with me for a bit here.
One: You are sacrificing another C-Slot. This is probably the reason that holds the least water, considering this C-slot is a great buff anyway, but you are sacrificing damage or defensive capabilities for extra movement. Sometimes, extra movement isn’t what you need to win a fight, and therefore it might just be better to have buffs/debuffs.
Two: Defense AI is not your friend now. The problem with Armor units in general is their low movement. For example, if you ran a squad of 3 infantry units and a Hector, you know that that Hector will be all alone on the map in the end simply because he couldn’t catch up to the rest of the team.
You might ask “Well, aren’t you contradicting yourself? This buffs movement you lazy bum fuck trashbag.” You are right, it does buff movement. However, it basically requires an armor emblem team (or hybrid involving a dancer/bonus unit) as well, and that’s where the AI comes in on defense.
Without this skill, the armored units would only have one move. The AI usually bunches all the armored units together because of that. That’s when Armor Emblem is dangerous, considering it allows the Armored units to get all the buffs from each other relatively easily.
With this skill, 3 Armored units have two move at least at the start of the match. The AI, given this new power, doesn’t have to bunch them all together now. In fact, the AI may rush some towards you, or have some break walls, or split the party into two: regardless of what it does, it has a much higher chance of causing your units to lose out on the buffs they need from sticking together.
Furthermore, the Armored units may pull the same shit as the infantry squad + Hector that I mentioned before, considering that, in a majority of the starting locations, one of the Armored members of the team would not be receiving the buff, and therefore might be left behind on some maps.
Tl;DR for this section Armor March is a great skill to have if you run Armor Emblem as your offense, albeit you will have to sacrifice an Armor buff for it. It is not a good idea to run it on defense because the AI is unpredictable, and it is not OP because it can make Armored units easier to kill on defense.
Worth summoning for? Maybe. Still a great skill to have, just not broken.
Seal Atk/Def 2 [B skill] - After combat, foe suffers Atk/Def -5 through its next action.
I mean, it’s a great seal for Defense-heavy units, as they take less damage and deal more damage once they are attacked once / initiate. However, since seals take up the B-Slot, there are many other skills that would probably be better in this slot.
Worth summoning specifically for? No I want one for my Stahl though.
Fortress Res 3 [A skill] - Grants Res +5, Atk -3.
I mean, it’s Fortress Def, but specifically for mages/dragons. I personally don’t find it as useful as Fortress Def, considering there are more physical units in the game currently than magical units, but also considering there are many, many Horse Emblem skrubs out there, this could be a great counter against Rein for specifically anti-mage units. That also being said, it’s definitely not vital against mage foes.
Worth specifically summoning for? No. It’d be nice to have though.
Spd/Def 2 [A Skill] - Grants Speed +2, Def +2
Very nice for faster, defensive units like…
… okay yeah that’s the problem. We don’t have many fast defensive units in general, and even fewer that would use this skill over one that also raises their attack or is more specialized in defense/speed.
If anything, the best unit I can think of for this skill specifically is F! Corrin. I’m drawing a blank otherwise.
Worth summoning for? No.
Guidance 3 [C skill] - Infantry and Armored units within 2 spaces can move to a space adjacent to unit.
Now this is the skill I’m looking forward to, mostly because it allows for Hit and Run to become much more useful. Currently, Hit and Run is less useful than Drag (Draw?) Back, considering the latter moves the enemy closer to you, which allows your allies to get in range and finish them off.
However, paired with Guidance 3, a hybrid team with a flier with Hit and Run becomes much more dangerous. Instead of forcing armored allies or even infantry allies to be close by, and therefore possibly positioning them poorly, a flier with Hit and Run can attack the enemy, move back a space to get in ally range, and then that ally teleports in to finish the job. It not only allows for easier kills, but it also allows for better mobility, considering Armored units in the 2-tile range can move to any spot adjacent to the flier, giving them a possible total of 3 move in one turn.
Also, on a hybrid team, Flier buffs aren’t necessary. Sure, you are using up a spot to buff all allies, but as long as the other members have hone/fortify skills that affect the beginning of the turn, you can run this pseudo-WOM composition quite effectively in most situations.
However, all of that being said, you could find yourself with even poorer positioning, considering that, by finishing off an enemy, you could put yourself in the range of 3 others.
TL;DR: Guidance 3 paired with Hit and Run allows for cool combos and better mobility armored units, but possibly poorer positioning.
Worth specifically summoning for? Maybe.
That’s it for all the new weapons, assists, and skills! Time for evermore controversial section: Banner Rating!
NOTE: I’m not talking about characters or stats here, I’m talking about skills. If you want a specific character you love, go nuts.
Sacred Stone’s Best Weapons/Skills: Nidhogg, Vidofnir, Armor March, Guidance
Worth? 3 of the 4 units are absolutely worth summoning for. Amelia comes with a great skill for Armor Emblem users, Innes comes with a great personal weapon and a great mage-killer build, and if Tana has even decent defense she’ll be the perfect poke unit.
Seth is also worth it… but for Fortress 3 fodder for Tana. I’m sorry if I UpSeth any of you by saying that.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment below.
I cannot answer them this time, cause I have 2 finals to study for. If you find a mistake or something in my logic, or feel like I’m wrong somewhere, make sure to write a comment or upvote the ones you think are right, as I won’t see them / make edits any time soon to this post. Thanks!
Posted Aug 14, 2017, 6:57 PM UTC