Opinions. The future of Fire Emblem Characters in Smash Bros?

Good Morning/Evening/Afternoon

This had being an incredible week for the Fire Emblem Fans; with the annoucement of Summer's Dawn Micaiah (her first alternative version) in Fire Emblem Heroes despite she only having half-year in the game; and the confirmation of Chrom as a playable character in Smash Bros after 4 years of memes.

This time we'll talk about the Smash-side of the things as you would expect for the title; we'll talk about Summer's Dawn Micaiah another day.

Fire Emblem got their 7th Character; which is also the 2nd Echo Fighter (being mostly a clone of Roy's moveset) from this franchise and the 4th Character based in Marth's basics; Chrom is probably the character the most talked about in relationship with Smash Bros that isn't already playable (with Lyn usually considered the close second one), and it's very obvious that Chrom's apperance in Smash was a direct product of popularity alone (like pretty much all the characters revealed so far; except Inkling that also was a product of the success of the brand).

Chrom is an anomaly.

This however, is a very strange situation in the hindsight; Fire Emblem, like Pokémon (at a less extreme degree) gets their new character choices as product of relevancy and good timing; this applies with Roy, Ike, Robin, Lucina and Corrin; and the only exception so far has been done with the original Main Character Marth (and former most popular in the series)... Until now... Fire Emblem had always being in the obligation to represent what is new; but after Smash Ultimate change of focus; this isn't longer necessary; and the desire of the fans are having effect in the series more than ever...

Fire Emblem is a series that right now is probably the strangest moment of their whole existence in Smash Bros; the years between the release of Fire Emblem Fates and the things that would be relevant for Sakurai and his bunch (Late 2016?/Early 2017?) are pretty much the revival of the Fire Emblem's Past in the form of Cipher, Gaiden/SoV and Fire Emblem Heroes (and TMS#FE at a less extent).

The franchise lacked a obvious relevant choice in the moment of Smash Ultimate's development compared with previous years; this combine with the change of the character's selection focus; it had made possible one of most wanted desires of the whole fanbase; a Fire Emblem character that isn't a sword user.

Maybe isn't something we had thought that much before; but it would make sense in this new context; now, the problem would select one specific character that would fit the criteria.

To answer this question; I thought in a time where I was analizing the potential of the old-ish Fire Emblem Characters (it was done in Mid-2015; where I already knew the Fates characters would have the advantage in DLC obvious reasons, and many were already analizing their chances; so I didn't).

These were the comments I did to the non-sword users.


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Tiki

What exactly can she offer?

A Manakete is a recurrent aspect in Fire Emblem don’t already used. She can use powers related with her Manakete form, like flames, flame orbs attacks (like the one that uses in Awakening) and other dragon-like attacks. The manakete form could be used as a summon or as an actual transformation during her attacks.

Pros

• She is the playable character with more apparences story-related in the series: Three (Five if you count the Remakes, Six if you count Genei Ibun Roku #FE), this make her one of the few Fire Emblem characters that actually has “likeable future” in the series.
• She is a fan favorite, one of the most popular characters in the overall series, even was capable to get a good place in the Awakening’s Popularity Contest.
• She isn’t a sword-user.
• She is a female character… this always is an advantage.

Cons

• Her Ballot Support was Small.
• Possible issues with transformations (it depends on how exactly this works).
• She could overlap with other dragon-like characters (Bowser/Charizard) in some moves.
• The Awakening version Tiki could have a design too “sexy” for the game, because she has a big noticeable cleavage and use garter straps (in the 3DS Trophy model isn’t really notable any of these aspects).
• The Akanea/Ylisse games already has 2 characters (3 if you count Lucina).

Hector

What exactly he can offer?

He is a Armor Knight-like Lord and an Axe User (one of the few lords that doesn’t have as his main weapon swords). As a curious fact, many games in the franchise has “bumeran-like” axes (Hand Axes).

Pros

• Hector is a popular character in the Fire Emblem Franchises for similar reasons that Lyn
• He could perfectly be a Heavyweight character.
• He isn’t a Sword-User

Cons

• He is overshadowed for Lyn’s popularity
• Ike already fills a similar niche in the game.
• Niche Smash Support, but probably better than other characters because his high popularity.

Ephraim

What exactly he can offer?

A complete Spear-User Character (and the horse if you want)

Pros

• Completely unique moveset guaranteed with the spear.
• Like Eirika, he comes from a different Continent without representation (Magvel).
• Ephraim is a popular Fire Emblem Lord (for reasons usually related with characters like Hector).
• He isn’t a Sword-user

Cons

• Niche Smash Support, but probably better than other characters because his high popularity.
• Overlap with Bandana Dee as a Spear-User, one of most wanted characters in the Japanese Smash Fanbase, and also popular in some western communities.

Micaiah

What exactly she can offer?

Micaiah is an full magician character (unlike Robin that also uses swords in his/her moveset), with access to light magic and staffs, this latter is one of the most common elements in the Fire Emblem Series unused in Smash.

Pros

• Micaiah is confirmed as the Fire Emblem character with the loudest (and likeably biggest) Smash Ballot Support in Japanese Media. In Western Communities she is more a niche choice, but still one of the most popular between Fire Emblem Characters.
• Staffs are interesting options to a moveset, and magic isn’t still used in it’s full potential in Smash Bros.
• She isn’t a Sword-user
• She is a female character
• She was formerly controversial character in the Western Communities, that includes Fire Emblem Discussions and Brawl’s Days Predictions (even if her game doesn’t sell a lot, this helps her popularity in some way), and also one of the few Fire Emblem Characters in the Pre-Smash 4 with some actual support (because Chrom took all of the attention in the actual Speculation).

Cons

• Her game is one of the worst sellers in the series (even if ironically it’s main characters are popular, especially Ike).
• Micaiah is one of these character that formerly had a mixed reception with the Fire Emblem’s fanbase (already mentioned her “controversial” side in the Pros); with many lovers and many haters (nowadays the hate against her is more like indifference in many cases).

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How did you think these thoughts translate nowadays? I would happy to see your opinions.

(There would also exist the possibility of new Echo Fighters; but these are harder to predict outside of Chrom)

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)

Opinions. Micaiah "Rate the Character" Post.

Disclaimer: This article was created with the intention to post my opinions about Micaiah's posibilities in Smash in the "Rate the Character" Thread in Smash Boards

Link: https://smashboards.com/threads/rate-their-chances-switch-edition-day-53-micaiah.453357/page-132#post-22037729

Let's begin

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The Chances.

Micaiah is a character in a hard position for a playable spot because she doesn't have the same recency that a character like (nowadays) Celica has, but Micaiah has some stuff on her side I would like to post some of them.

Micaiah is filled with niches and gimmicks that hadn't be replicate together, and she of course, is one of the Fire Emblem Main Characters.

1.- Micaiah is a user of Magic (Light Magic)

In the Fire Emblem Series exists different Light Magic Tomes, and like the anima tomes there exists tomes with different functions like being highly powerful but make you vulnerable (Aura), Long-Range Magic (Purge) and of course there are the ol'reliable ones that doesn't have particular disadvantages or advantages...

"But Robin alredy does the magic stuff"

Robin is more like a Mystical Knight, or whatever you think is the main focus in the moveset, the magic is a part of important of their gimmick, but they are essencially sword-user in most of their animations; Micaiah is a complete magic user that doesn't use swords, and she doesn't need them anyway; in fact, the lack of a sword make Micaiah more flexible in the way she can use the animations of her attacks to create some unusual hitboxes not possible with a weapon that is attached to the user.

But Magic isn't limited just to flashy movements, Micaiah also has in her side other way of using her power.

2.- Micaiah is a user of the Utility-Based Magical Staves.

The staves are one of the most useful tools you can find in a Fire Emblem because of their special uses. There are some very straighforward like the ones that heals HP or Status Ailments. But there are also some that offer many possibilities; Warping and Rescuing Units can be used to move units at positions that would otherwise being impossible, making them key to create powerful strategies to beat even the hardest maps.

Micaiah is the only lord that is actually associated (but not as much as the Light Magic) with Staves, and they're one of the key elements in the franchise (the Staves and their strategies are as old as FE1) that would be represented in some way.

3.- Micaiah's signature abilities.

Alongside the more well known use of Magic and Staves that appear across the series; Micaiah has her own abilities beyond these. Micaiah has Corona (also know as: Dawn Light), that is the name of the Micaiah's Proc Skill that does additional damage (more specifically, ignores the enemy's Magic Resistence) and can blind the enemies affected; in her game she isn't the only character that uses this skill, but unless you're very unlucky (getting Corona'd by Lekain or Sephiran), it's unlikely you ended up seeing someone using the ability that isn't her. 

When casting Corona, Micaiah creates a light sphere above her.

Micaiah also has another abilitiy, and this one is completely unique to her: Sacrifice (also known as: Healing Hands), this is a tricky skill, it's effect (as their names would indicate), is a healing skill that gives HP to other units; quite interesting

Also, Micaiah has her own personal magic tome: Thani, which would be an important element of how Micaiah would work in Smash Bros.

I did for Source Gaming a moveset exploring many of these ideas: http://sourcegaming.info/2016/12/22/ds-micaiah/

After explaining the gameplay stuff, the things that would interest Sakurai for a new character, it's time to explore other points; the things that helps or damages her chances.

Let's start with the negatives.

Micaiah hasn't have a new appearance in a Main Game since Awakening, and that was essencially a cameo; Micaiah most notable appearance in the last years was in the Fire Emblem Heroes some months ago (January 2018) and her moment as a Main Character being in Radiant Dawn 11 years ago (February 2007)

She is evidently behind some other people for a spot in the next Smash Bros; whoever is the New Fire Emblem Character from that Switch Game, and there would be another choices to consider too.

These are quite heavy problems, but Micaiah still has some things in her side.

Now the positives.

Something important for a character selection, it's stand out in the roster; Micaiah has a similar anime aesthetic to the rest of the Fire Emblem Character, so, isn't hard to see a which franchises she belongs, but the rest of her design makes her feel completely different from the usual Fire Emblem protags.

Also, related with her design, being a original female character kind of helps I guess.

Micaiah surprisingly got some support during the ballot time, as it was show for the Source Gaming Posts about it... Nothing super special, but the support actually exists.

And the last thing to consider... it's the Smash Bros Switch Weird timing; that ended ups hurting heavily the Fire Emblem Switch Protag, we don't even know if the game will still be released in 2018 (as DLC is practically is likely if the character is unique enough)

And so, I decided to give her a 15% Chance rate... she is definitely unlikely, but she just can't be ignored, the potential is here, waiting to be found.

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The Want

Micaiah is very important to me, she is the light that guided me to don't be a lazy person all the time; after knowing her, I start feeling a special attachment to her, even before I played her game, and I was already thinking how she would work as a Smash Character, and then... when I finally played her game; against my own fears of ended up don't like her; essencially signed for life my love for Micaiah. Now I dedicate to write and share stuff to show how Micaiah would work in Smash Bros, to help other people understand her character, and in general share Micaiah Love.

Maybe in the past I would have give 100% to other characters, but nowadays the only character I want with a burning passion is her. I love Micaiah in every way possible, I love her simple but extremely stylish and beautiful design, I love her character, I found her quite a charming person with many interesting aspects to see when you read the story, and of course, I love the fact she is a spellcaster unlike most of the Main Characters, I love my magic-based stuff in every single game I played.

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)

Gaming Tips: Micaiah in Fire Emblem Heroes Pt. 1 (The basics)

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening

After a long time without posting anything I decided to write a small article dedicate to talk 
about learning with kind of stuff you can do with Micaiah in Fire Emblem Heroes.

Stats and signature skills

Official Micaiah Artwork by Chiko

First of all, Micaiah let's start with some numbers, assuming neutral stats, Micaiah has this stat spread.

HP: 35
Atk: 35
Spd: 28
Def: 18
Res: 35

Micaiah is slow-ish (at least for the current standart), with some noteworthy strenghts (Atk and Res) and weakness (HP and Def) in her other stats.

Micaiah has stat similar to characters like Deirdre or Summer!Leo but as a blue unit, so that makes her already a very bulky unit against magic, but that is just the beginning, Micaiah allow herself to separate from these two thanks to the niches her signature skills gives to her, and Micaiah has two of them.

The first one it's her Prf Weapon: Thani.

Thani it's one of the weapon with the largest description ever made, the weapon essencially has three (four if you count each effective as its own) skills; (and like the other weapon of this kind, it has 14 base Power)

- Flat +3 Res
- Effective damage against Armor Units and Cavalry Units
- Damage reduced (30%) in the first hit from ranged (Magic, Staff, Bows and Daggers) enemy units of the previously mentioned movement types

This weapon it's Micaiah main draw and important part of her appeal as a unit, it allows Micaiah to endure damage (specially magical) to levels it would look impossible under normal circunstances; I'll go to the calculations later.

And of course, her effective damage makes her a excellent unit to deal with cavalry and armor, even in many cases being able to one-shot them.

The second signature skill it's Sacrifice.

Sacrifice it's (at least in this moment) the only Prf Assist in the game; it works in a similar way to Micaiah's Sacrifice in Radiant Dawn: Allow Micaiah to gift her heal to other units; unlike Ardent Sacrifice, it can gift any amount of heal; and unlike Reciprocal Aid, isn't a literal HP exchange; making Micaiah able to heal even units with bigger HP than her.

Sacrifice also has the "Harsh Command" effect (convert debuffs in buffs) alongside the heal transfer; making this skill into one of the most versatile assists in the game.

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Now it begins the fun stuff, using Micaiah's strenghts against the enemy's, for this test we'll use Micaiah's vanilla skill set (Her Signature Skills, Distant Def 3, Guard 3 and Drive Atk 3), and using different different seals depending the circunstances.

Basic No. 1: What kind of stuff is Micaiah capable of OHKO or ORKO with minimal investment? (like a Atk+ Seal using a Neutral Micaiah without merges)

First, we'll start with the most logical utility of Micaiah: One-Shoting Armor Knight and Cavalry.

Micaiah has a 49 Base Atk with Thani; the effective damage work with multipliers (x1.5 to be specific); that gives Micaiah a effective damage of:

49 x 1.5 = 73.5 (73 rounded down).

Now we'll do some experiments using some FEH Duel Simulators.

https://andu2.github.io/FEH-Mass-Simulator/

https://kagerochart.com/damage-calc

Let's begin with "Micaiah Vanilla vs Vanilla everyone".

When Micaiah decides to initiate she can one shot the following units:

• Abel     
• Zephiel (with a relevant 13 Damage overkill)     
• Spring Alfonse     
• Zelgius (with a big 20 Damage Overkill)
• Spring Xander     
• Xander (26 damage overkill is painful)     
• Arden (ended up getting double attacked anyway)     
• Ursula     
• Winter Tharja (even considering the Candelabra buffs, isn't enough to survive)     
• Sully      
• Stahl (Being Ruby Sword User makes overkilling quite easy with a massive 35 leftover damage)     
• Siegbert (with a quite big 30 Damage overkill)     
• Seth (Like Stahl)     
• Black Knight (essencially the same results that Zelgius)     
• Valentine Roy     
• Brave Roy (quite a massive 25 Damage overkill)     
• Roderick     
• Cain (a 24 damage overkill)     
• Reinhardt     
• Winter Robin     
• Peri     
• Oscar     
• Spring Catria     
• Olwen     
• Mathilda (Micaiah's damage is so much even for Res Tanks unless they're properly prepared).    
• Valentine Lyn     
• Brave Lyn (this is important to remember for Basic No.2)     
• Luke (a 24 damage overkill)     
• Paladin Chrom (a incredible 26 damage overkill, he won't survive even with his ability activated)
• L'Arachel     
• Clive     
• Frederick (having bad res and spd is bad against Micaiah)     
• Legendary Ephraim     
• Eliwood     
• Eldigan (20 damage overkill)     
• Mage Eirika (a 26 damage overkill)     
• Effie     
• Draug (19 damage overkill)     

Additionally, she can also ORKO some other units with their basic skill set (Adult Tiki, Sophia, Selena, Berkut, Sanaki, Palla, Lukas, Hinata, Henry, Hana, Lyon and Gordin).

Adding a Atk +3 Sacred Seal gives Micaiah some additional wins (Gwendolyn, Hardin, Elincia, Ike, Jagen, Halloween Jakob, Lucina/Masked Marth, Ogma, Olivia, Saizo, Soleil, Tharja, Ayra and Athena).

Micaiah without a doubt it's a excellent unit dealing with the kind of units she is supposed to defeat; the power of Thani is quite incredible. 

Disclaimer: The units that doesn't have overkill damage showed is because a Distant Defense Seal and/or a +Res Nature would save them, so don't be over confident fighting against them.

PD: Don't try to one shot Sigurd (even if his color, Resistence and Movement Type said the opposite) unless you're a overwhelmingly prepared to destroy him in one hit, the Tyrfing's effect is essencially a counter to Thani's power.

TL;DR: Vanilla Micaiah can one shot Blue/Colorless Cavalry/Armor Units with at maximum of 73 (or 78 with Atk+3 Seal) Magical Bulk (HP + Res) as you saw; she can one shot Green Cavalry/Armor Unit with at maximum of 59 (or 63 with Atk+3 Seal)  Magical Bulk; and finally, she can one shot Red Cavalry/Armor Units with at maximum of 88 (or 93 with a Atk+3 Seal) Magical Bulk (which is a lot).

Another interesting fun facts: 

- Winter Tharja fails to survive to Vanilla Micaiah Atk+3 (which it would be product of the Seal skill or +Atk Boon) even at Level 40+10 with +Res Refinement unless she gets additional Res from other origins (like a Res Boon, Spurs, Fortify, Distant Defense, etc).

- Unless their builds and team composition are focused HEAVILY around resistence, is impossible for Zelgius, Black Knight, and Arden to survive a Vanilla Micaiah Atk+3; Zephiel would survive with a bit less effort.

Basic No. 2: What kind of stuff is Micaiah capable of survive? (Vanilla Micaiah without merges, seals vary)

The second main utilily Micaiah has it's enduring ranged threats (mostly cavalry and armor), thanks to Thani's other effect (alongside the plain Res+3 effect): 30% damage reduction in the first hit against Ranged Cavalry/Armor Units.

For example, we have a blue cavalry mage with 60 Total Damage, Micaiah uses her 38 Res to decrease the damage to 22... but isn't actually the true damage, because Micaiah's Thani will make her only receive the 70% of that damage... which ended up being: 15 actual damage.

To help with this work, Vanilla Micaiah has two very nice defensive abilities: Guard 3; the ability that slows down the enemy's special charge, and Distant Defense 3; The anti ranged ability, additional Def/Res +6 against ranged enemies when they initiate the fight.

At basic vanilla level, Micaiah it's capable of overwhelm (at least with their basic builds) these people's attempt to defeat her.

• Pretty much any red mage, that includes the non Cavalry/Armor ones (not even vanilla Lilina and vanilla Celica are able to scratch her)
• The Staff Users in general (not many of them have specially great offenses anyway)
• Shigure and pretty much any blue mage with a Base Atk below 29
• Olwen
• Reinhardt
• Ursula
• Valentine Lyn
• Bride Caeda/Shiida
• Spring Lucina
• Summer Corrin

She also deals nicely with many other blue and green mages, like Tailtu, Spring Catria, L'Arachel, Inigo, Oliver, F!Morgan, Mae, Gunnthra, Cecilia, Valentine Lilina Halloween Henry, Merric, Boey, and other units of that kind.

Fighting against Speedy Green Mages can be dangerous, but most of the time she will survive.

Some funny and relevant things Vanilla Micaiah Lv 40+0 is able to survive are:

- A Reinhardt Lv 40+10 with: Atk Boon, Death Blow 3, Atk+3 Seal (because Guard 3 negates Moonbow charge) and Hone Cavalry Buffs.

(If Reinhardt for some reason also has Goad Cavalry buffs, you can survive him if Micaiah has +3 Res, so, it's very unlikely Reinhardt kills her unless he's using some weird built like Desperation + Brash Assault).

- A hit from Brave Lyn Lv 40+10 with your typical Brave Lyn Build (Mulagir, Swift Sparrow 2) and even having: Atk+3 Seal,  Atk Boon, Hone Cavalry Buffs, and Goad Cavalry Buffs.

However, it's even more impressive the fact she can survive the Quad Build version of Brave Lyn +10 (Change the weapon for Brave Bow+ and remove the Goad Cavalry Buffs because they aren't that common in Brave Build Based Team Compositions); just using the Deflect Missile 3... That would sound obvious for the fact that seal is an Anti-Brave Bow... but the impressive thing about this, is the fact that Micaiah isn't exactly a physical wall (in fact quite the opposite).

And Micaiah just improves these insane feats with merges. (Neutral Micaiah Lv 40+10 with Deflect Missile 3 survives the Death Blow 3 version of the previous build even with Goad Cavalry Buffs).

Dealing with Halloween Jakob Lv 40+10 with his dangerous "Brave and Bold" Skill-Set can be a harder deal, but not a impossible one if you have enough support to one shot him before he is able to active Ignis (Bold Fighter is a dangerous treat to anything that isn't another Armor Knight)

Basic No. 3: Micaiah's best Friends (good teammates) and Micaiah's worst enemies (her counters).

Counters:

- Micaiah dislike fighting against physical units in general, character with overwhelming physical power and speed will destroy her, even if they have color disadvantage (like Mia and Ayra)

- Green Physicals with Distant Counter, powerful counter attacks and usually have Quick Riposte; don't try to fight them unless you can overwhelm them somehow.

- Brave Melee units are able to defeat her quite easy (like Cordelia or Elincia)

- Some of the most powerful green mages like Nino are able to defeat her with some investment, and Micaiah in general has disadvantage against them even with her overwhelming magical capabilities (unless they're Cavalry/Armor Units).

- Dragons, specially if they have any of their refinements (every breath refinement has the effect to do damage to the ranged units using their lowest defensive stat, in Micaiah's case, that would be her poor 18 Def)

- Other units designed to be anti-magical; like Innes, Halloween Sakura (she in particular is very likely to have Kitty Paddle+, a weapon that can OHKO Micaiah) or Felicia (the refinement version of her Prf weapon obliterates magic units in general if they don't have Guard).

Good Teammates:

- Fighting against Cavalry and Armor Units makes Micaiah utilities essencial, having a dancer like Olivia can help trivialize this kind of team compositions.

- Physical Distant Counter Units, units that can fight against Micaiah common threats like some of the previously mentioned Halloween Sakura and Innes; like Zelgius (a red one like him also has the advantage of dealing against green units). Dragons with refinements can also work thanks to their anti ranged ability, like Adult Tiki.

- Micaiah is a unit that will take tons of damage; whether she is tanking ranged hits or healing other units; a Healer can be very useful in long battles if you don't have the skills to take advantage of having low heal.

Well... that ended up longer than expected. I hope you enjoyed this article; in the future I'll publish the next part, talking about other build options outside her basic vanilla set.

See you later!

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)