Fire Emblem Heroes

Considering a common request seen on reddit is "watching successful defenses from your team", I assume that even with zero contact with your opponent, the feeling of domination brought by beating him is what drives people. Note that were the devs to add that, the bragging would make Arena even worse.

They could add defense maluses. IS has the stats of how much each unit is used on Arena and AA, if one is too common on defense, then its stats get progressively lowered at the start of the fight until it is used again. Conversely, seldom seen units get a stat boost. That would reward original teams and make them harder to beat, while the common feathergrabbing ones would become easier and easier until they don't even manage to win defenses.

edited 17th Dec '17 2:44:10 PM by Julep

They could, but they'd almost assuredly have to publish the stats to go with it so people could adjust their teams. That's a rather lot of dev effort for something that's really not much less band-aidy than their current model of releasing anti-meta stuff on new units/mechanics and then making even more money off of it.

That's just a suggestion if people really get tired of seeing Reinhardt and Lyn (or any other duo/trio that is favored by the meta) over and over again season after season, to the point that the lack of enjoyment starts hurting IS' bottom line by having people stop playing the game.

They wouldn't need the entire list though. On Sundays, we could get the "five most used units" announcement, units which would get -5 HP and -2 everything else (a reverse S-summoner support) on defense the next week. Then we could get the "five least used units" which would get the opposite (a S-support on defense). If a unit is in the same category two weeks in a row, then the bonuses will be +/- 2 HP and 1 everything else for each consecutive week spent either at the top or at the bottom.

They could just give the weekly bonus units a stat boost, like they do in TT. Maybe only the ones who aren't new.

Edit: And change them more often, possibly based on usage rates.

edited 17th Dec '17 3:34:50 PM by Clarste

Well, the thing about the weekly bonus units is that they're engineered so even new players should have something ready. There's always an Askr, plus some from the daily rotation. I guess they could have the 2-3 floater slots weighted to favour stuff with low usage, though (if they aren't already doing that).

I don't know how many people it would actually sway, but the AA-bonus with those 2-3 slots seeing some adjustment would probably be the more elegant and practical approach.

Problem is that Olivia and Cecilia regularly pop in the bonus unit list due to being available for free, and they are a recipe for uniformization of the Arena.

The bonuses/maluses I suggested were only for offense teams, mind you. So if a new player invests in Olivia and she is banned one week due to overabundance in defense teams (unlikely, she is at best the third most used dancer, but let's say she is), her stats while on attack won't change - but the enemy Olivias will be weakened.

And if Oboro becomes a bonus defense unit because no one uses her, then you won't get attack bonuses with her either.

Ditto if a new player wants to use Lyn or Reinhardt.

edited 17th Dec '17 4:39:28 PM by Julep

Cecilia and Olivia each only become bonus units once every twelve weeks, though. That's a pretty poor investment if just going for a bonus unit. And if they're part of the player's core, it probably wouldn't have mattered in the end.

Your idea does allow stuff to be more fine-tuned, but it also requires more dev effort, making it less practical. I think maluses without a replay mode would probably also be an even bigger source of salt. They'd have to be pretty desperate to risk that kind of backlash.

I just mentioned the Bonus Unit thing because it's the most intuitive way to handle it without requiring much explanation from the devs. You'd be tweaking something that already exists in a way that matches how it's used in other parts of the game. They could still do some of the fine-tuning you want, but it would happen entirely behind the scenes without the players being required to understand it.

If they did this though, I'd image that they would have to expand the bonus roster so they can still fit in most of the ones they do now.

I know it won't happen, it is too convoluted.

But the salt from a defense mainstays nerf would be pretty different from your average nerf salt. When you play a MMO and your very powerful build suddenly gets nerfed - you invested time to actually use that build, so you can be mad. But here we are talking about defense teams, ie not the teams most people use (they could still run Reinhardt and Lyn without maluses on the offense if that is what they are doing).

Plus if my experience with games which routinely redraw balance between characters/teams/classes is anything to go by (and I was a Dofus player for a few years, so I lived through that a lot), players who are only looking for the easy comps start by whining, and then move on to the next easiest comp. Only a very, very small part of those who complain are actually attached to the characters themselves, most are in it because it's easier than other pathways. They start by threatening to leave, then find a new haxx to exploit and move from Horse Emblem to something else.

New update detected. I wonder if the dataminers will find it worth it to datamine it in less than 4 hours. :p

I admit, I kind of want to do some investing to make a crazy build for Leo just so I can call him Leo Luster.

... If only the RNG would give me Leo for once, that is.

Datamine stats are up. As of now no other things found so far. (Like Tempest Trials and stuff.)

https://fireemblem.gamepress.gg/datamine/feh-datamine-winters-envoy

edit/update: From the gamepress discord

• "Brazen" skills inherited by all units
• New Tempest Trials are coming
• "Vengeful/Bold Fighter" armor only (as expected)
• New weapons don't have weapon refinery options yet

edited 17th Dec '17 8:15:30 PM by Malco

Apparently these BSTs are higher than Amelia. The true Armor Emblem inflation starts here.

Maybe this is all a long plan to make Armorslayer useful.

All the stats displayed are with default Neutral IV stats, I'm guessing?

I gotta say, Tharja looks like she'll be a massive threat with her innate Close Counter and those high defensive stats.

Upcoming Tempest Trial seems to be an Awakening-themed TT with (regular) Male Robin as the final boss.

The dialogue involves all the Holiday units so expect them to be bonus units.

They have not found a new unit so far confirmed to be the reward for TT. Hopefully it's not "Marth" again.

More updates:

• Navarre GHB re-run
• Raven/Lucius Bound Hero Battle
• Quests with Sharena
• Laslow, Florina, Bartre in new quests
• Some new Daily Quests

edited 17th Dec '17 8:52:22 PM by Malco

Oh my God...

Not Holiday Tharja though, she's comparable to Halloween Henry and Halloween Jakob /nitpick

edited 17th Dec '17 8:55:53 PM by Malco

Every stat is always inflated. Everyone should just have 1 in everything.

Really, IS. Really?

I hope the other bonus units are Tobin or Masked Marth. I won't be pulling on Christmas banners (because I can't afford to shockingly), so I need units I already have and dragging myself up to the unit reward score sounds worse than the first TT.

edited 17th Dec '17 9:41:39 PM by erazor0707

Just a clarification, "all units" for "Brazen" skills apparently means healers included. So powerful healers like Elise will have more A-Slot options now.

Ugh, I can say I know what it's like to play at no bonus until 6k, grind the 4* unit, then go to 30k with the 4* unit, re-grind the new 5* unit, then go from there...

So is the reward unit likely to be M!Marth again?

Maybe, maybe not. Confirmed to not be a Mini Tempest, though.

Slot 200 has been opened up in the catalog and the winter units only go up to 199. I'm guessing IS intentionally aren't uploading that particular hero's stats and graphics.

So either that hero is the new legendary hero, or the new TT hero.

Soleil got demoted. To the surprise of some.

With around 50 orbs I got Lissa, another 5* Caeda and first Saber. Will be saving up to see if there is any surprise banner for the end of the year.

edited 17th Dec '17 11:13:51 PM by TPPR10

CAEDA YOU GODDAMN PITY BREAKER

My freebie was 5* Soleil. My very next session got Soren as pity breaker. Why game?!

Oh well, at least Alfonse is best brother this paralogue. It's cute. And since he agreed to wear the santa outfit, I demand a christmas Alfonse!

edited 18th Dec '17 12:04:29 AM by DemonDamian