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)

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)

Gaming Ideas: How would be Micaiah in Fire Emblem Heroes?

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening People!

Yesterday I asked people if would like to see a post talking about Micaiah and Fire Emblem Heroes.

And the tweet got better results than expected, so, I decided to write a little bit about some ideas that would work with Micaiah.

First of all, Micaiah is a slowish-glass cannon character with good res, so, her work is to take magical hits and take as much as is possible, and return to the enemies powerful counter-attacks; Micaiah is also a support unit in Radiant Dawn, so, I'll mention some ideas about it too.

Basic Idea

Stat Spread:

Base stats 5 stars

Level 1: 15/16/17 HP -- 8/9/10 Atk -- 7/8/9 Spd -- 2/3/4 Def -- 7/8/9 Res

Level 40: 32/35/39 HP -- 34/37/40 Atk -- 24/27/31 Spd -- 12/16/19 Def -- 33/36/39 Res

Growth Points: 5 HP (+19) -- 9 Atk (+28) -- 5 Spd (+19) -- 2 Def (+13) -- 9 Res (+28)

Weapon Type: Blue Tome

Unit Type: Infantry

Micaiah's spread is like a tankier version of Sanaki; I decided to give her Blue Tome because we lack characters in this category with spreads like Sanaki's or Julia's (slow-ish, powerful, good Atk/Res with bad defense)

Weapon (Undefined name for a new weapon or Thani): Unheritable; +2 Res and Spd; Heavy-Blade Res-Based Skill or Effective Damage against Armored and cavalry units.

Special: Growing Light (This special was decided as a reference too the AoE attacks in RD, and it would have a great synergy with the "Magic Blade" Skill)

A Slot: Warding Stance 3 (Her whole "mage tank" niche is amplified with this skill, and makes the use of the "Magic Blade" practically guaranteed)

B Slot: Yune's Blessing (New Skill, uninheritable, it's effect would denegate the activation or charge of Specials when Micaiah's HP ≥ 50%; this ability serves like a way to avoid be killed in the first combat with overwhelming combinations; YB has its base in skills like Nihil and Aurora in Radiant Dawn)

C Slot: Atk Ploy (This is mostly here because it works with her Res-Based Skillset and makes her even tankier against the enemy).

Special mentions:

Warding Breath: The Res Version of Steady Breath, it would be a fitting skill for the RD protagonist... I didn't use it because unlike Brave!Ike, Micaiah doesn't have natural access to battle specials.

Ardent Sacrifice (and some kind of special variant as it's promoted version): Sacrifice is Micaiah's signature ability, but personally I'm not sure how it would work a uninheritable version of Ardent Sacrifice.

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What do you think about these ideas? I started this post with the intention of seeing the opinions of all the fans and other interested people, I would be very happy to see your own ideas; thanks for your attention.

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

Opinions. Ambush Reinforcements

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening 

Today we have a different topic to talk about inspired by a discussion I had with some friends, I decided to talk a bit about this particular and controversial topic.

Ambush Reinforcement it's specific version of the reinforcements in Fire Emblem (actually, the original version of the reinforcements in the series); basically enemies can move in the turn they appear in the map.

This mechanic has a very simple but effective objective: avoid turtling-heavy tactics and other low-effort strategies.

FE6 has many chapters like that blended Ambush with the Turn-Limit

For example, they appear in the beginning of the level to punish the player if she/he doesn't even try to move the units, they appear alongside forts, stairs and other kind of suspicious places with the intention to punish careless game-style.

Several people hate them for their "unpredictable" nature and prefer the most safe "Player Turn Reinforcement" (debuted in Blazing Blade), but I would like to explain why the Ambush Reinforcement are they way they're.

Reinforcements are created with the intention to be a threat, like in Real-Life Wars, these aren't supposed to be completely predictable; but you can get an idea of which kind of places would create reinforcements based in patterns that the game showed you in the Early Chapters.

FE1 Chapter 5 is the First Chapter in the Series' Story using this mechanic.

This shows you some important tactics you can do to counter this, it can be the difference between a clean victory or losing an ally; in fact, the games itself gives you tips about this in the houses (but it isn't something you can't find out on your own).

On the other hand, unlike the Ambush Reinforcement, the Player Phase Reinforcements are extremely forgiving, as they become more predictable, you can pick your fights easily and this attempt of "threat"  actually become "Exp Bags". 

What is the danger of these reinforcements if you are able to fix even your worse mistakes just because the enemy is unable to take an inmediate active role?

I found incredible how many people can hate the Ambush Reinforcements just because it tries to be realistic, you would argue this is a way to do "cheap difficulty" but it's actually a way to replicate the "War feeling" in the Game; you can't be reckless, you must understand your possible threats and prepare to deal with them. 

This isn't Kaizo's levels of "silliness", this is actually something that can work in strategy.

Awakening's Chapter 16 is probably the most common example given for people to argue against Ambush Reinforcement

What do you think about ambush reinforcements?

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