Introduction
Mere seconds after his introduction, Askr has opened the portal and burst into reality with a new mythic banner. But is he worth your orbs? Read on to find out.
Askr’s Value in Aether Raids
Askr is a Light Mythic Hero that unlocks the use of the 6th slot on Raiding Parties in Light season, in addition to providing a stat boost of 5 HP and 5 Def to Light-blessed Heroes. His skills are largely focused on melee combat, along with blocking enemy movement. His weapon Illuminating Horn accelerates his Special trigger, allowing him to activate Specials more quickly. It boosts all his stats by 5 under easy conditions, gives him a guaranteed follow-up attack, and provides flat extra damage on his attacks and damage reduction of his foe’s attacks equal to 20% of his Def stat. So if he has 60 Def, he increases his own damage by 12 and reduces his foe’s damage by 12, in addition to the normal calculations of Atk and Def. Illuminating Horn also has the now-standard Beast Infantry transformation effects, granting immunity to Special charge reduction, turning off any foe Special charge gain, boosting Atk by 2, and dealing +7 damage on Special activation. These effects combine to make Askr difficult for most physical units to touch, while also dealing high damage on counterattacks.
Askr’s new B skill Atk/Def Bulwark 3 inflicts Atk/Def -4 on his foe during combat, restores 7 HP to him after combat, and restricts foe movement: range 1 foes like swords cannot move through spaces adjacent to him, and range 2 foes like tomes cannot move through any spaces within 2 spaces of him. These effects allow him to protect his teammates from the enemy team with the right positioning.
Askr’s exclusive C skill Opened Domain grants a buff of Resonance: Blades and Resonance: Shields to himself and any allied units not from Fire Emblem Heroes at the start of his turn, so long as there is at least one such ally. This effectively provides a boost of 4 to all stats in combat, and blocks an enemy follow-up attack during the unit’s first combat in player phase and in enemy phase. It also provides the effects of Time’s Pulse to those units, charging their Special by 1 if its cooldown is at max.
Overall, Askr is a mythic with great melee combat that can easily find places in some Raiding Parties, but may or may not be the right fit for a particular player’s teams.
Relevance in Other Modes
Atk/Def Bulwark and Opened Domain are both relevant effects in Summoner Duels, allowing Askr to block off areas of the map while being difficult to KO, and boosting his allies’ stats in combat while also charging their Specials, so long as they are from any title other than Fire Emblem Heroes. His strong combat and team support may also be useful in many other modes.
Banner Color Value Analysis
With all Legendary and Mythic banners, there are three units in focus on each color. As players have no control over which units they get of each color, beyond choosing what color of unit to pull, except for the single guaranteed summon after 40 summons available to FEH pass subscribers, it is important to consider the value of all units within a color when deciding whether to pull.
The red units available this time are Plumeria, Legendary Nanna, and Ascended Mareeta. Plumeria is an Astra Mythic Hero with the unique skill Sweet Dreams, which is a variant of Dance. This alone makes her a great Mythic that is useful on many teams, especially in combination with the stat buffs and debuffs she provides. Nanna is an Earth Legendary Hero with the Pair-Up Effect. She is a sword cavalry with strong melee combat and the almost-unique ability to ignore all forms of percentage-based damage reduction when initiating combat, including Specials like Pavise. Her skills make her a powerful threat against most melee foes that can find relevance across many modes. Mareeta is a Sword Infantry Ascended Hero. As an Ascended Hero, players will obtain an Ascendant Floret the first time they summon her, which can be used to Ascend a second asset on any Hero. Mareeta herself has strong melee combat, with the new inheritable Special Vital Astra that boosts her damage based on Spd and provides damage reduction when it’s charged.
The blue units available this time are Seiros, Peony, and Legendary Dimitri. Seiros is an Anima Mythic Hero that unlocks the use of the 7th unit slot on Anima season defense keeps. She is a blue infantry dragon with solid combat. Peony is a Light Mythic Hero with the unique variant of Dance, Gentle Dream, that provides a buff to allies allowing them to teleport adjacent to allies within 2 spaces. This makes her a great choice for many Light-season Raiding Parties. Dimitri is a Water Legendary Hero with the Pair-Up Effect. He is a lance infantry with strong combat, very high damage thanks to his B skill Atrocity and Spd-based damage reduction from his weapon.
The green units available this time are Otr, Legendary Celica, and Arthur (Genealogy). Otr is an Anima Mythic Hero that unlocks the use of the 7th unit slot on Anima season defense keeps. He is an axe cavalry with strong combat, including the Special Brutal Shell that provides a similar effect to Luna, but also charges fully at the start of turn 1. This can make him a solid threat to offense units. Celica is a Fire Legendary Hero with the Pair-Up Effect. She is a green infantry mage with strong player phase combat with high Atk and Spd, and bonus damage based on the foe’s Res. Arthur is another green infantry mage with some solid inheritable skills, including the tome Gronnvulture+, Atk/Spd Ideal 4, and Spd/ Res Menace that give him solid combat.
The colorless units available this time are Askr, Medeus, and Ashera. Medeus is a Dark Mythic Hero that unlocks the use of the 7th unit slot on Dark season defense keeps. He is a colorless dragon infantry with several powerful effects that make him threatening and difficult to KO, including up to 60% damage reduction based on Res, the C skill Canto Control that disables Canto effects of nearby foes, and the ability to block all out-of-combat damage other than Area-of-Effect Specials like Blazing Wind from targeting himself or any allies within two spaces. Among other things, this makes him a highly effective counter to the Bolt Tower. Overall, he is an extremely strong and useful unit. Ashera is an Astra Mythic Hero that unlocks the use of the 6th unit slot. She is a colorless tome infantry with solid combat and decent team support; she grants a buff of Atk/Res +6 and the Null Panic effect to nearby allies at the start of their turn, rendering them immune to the stat losses from Panic effects like Sudden Panic or the Panic Manor structure. In addition, her tome gains additional power based on her nearby allies’ buffs.
Should You Pull?
Each player will have different wants and needs, so it is impossible to make a recommendation that will suit everyone. However, we can broadly assess the value on each color, keeping in mind that statistically, players who summon on a color should expect to receive roughly the same number of each focus Hero on that color, though individual results may vary wildly from the average.
Red offers several potentially useful units, especially if players desire merges on Plumeria or Nanna for scoring purposes. Plumeria is a great Astra mythic that is useful on many teams, with the decent inheritable skills Atk/Res Push 4 and Atk/Res Rein. Nanna is one of the most threatening melee units currently available in Fire Emblem Heroes, and a solid addition to any player’s barracks. She also has solid inheritable skills in Atk/Spd Push 4 and Atk/Spd Menace. Mareeta does not have relevance as a Legendary or Mythic, but in addition to her solid combat, she offers an Ascendant Floret if players have not already summoner her, and great inheritance with the new Special Vital Astra, which is a highly-coveted option for infantry swords, lances, and axes to boost their own damage based on Spd while also obtaining additional damage reduction. She also has other useful skills like Atk/Spd Solo 4, Spurn, and Even Tempest. Overall, Red is a solid choice for many players.
Blue is perhaps the weakest choice overall, though some players could still gain a lot of value from it, especially if they desire extra merges for scoring on their Peony or Dimitri. Peony is still an incredible Light Mythic, but her inheritance is not amazing, being limited to B Duel Flying 3, Aerobatics, and Fortify Res 4. Seiros has relevance as a 7th slot Anima Mythic, but her actual combat performance is often heavily limited by her movement. She has some decent inheritable skills with Mirror Impact and Dragon Wall. Dimitri is a solid combat unit and good choice for Water Legendary, but not as threatening as some more modern options. He has some good inheritables as well with Sturdy Impact and Odd Tempest.
Green is solid but also rather weak, with Otr being a good Anima mythic that is nevertheless not gamechanging. His inheritance is good, being the only source of G Duel Cavalry 4, and also offering Flow Refresh and Atk/Def Menace. Celica is a solid Fire Legendary, but not top tier by any means. Her only inheritable skill of note is Swift Sparrow 3, which is solid but not particularly unique in its effect. Arthur lacks any relevance for scoring, but does have some solid inheritable skills with Gronnvulture+, Atk/Spd Ideal 4, and Spd/Res Menace.
Colorless is likely the strongest choice this time around, with three good Mythic Heroes. Medeus, in particular, is an extremely strong Dark Mythic and a great asset to many teams. He is also often useful in other modes like Summoner Duels due to his protection from out-of-combat damage and being extremely difficult to KO. He also offers the inheritable Canto Control, which is highly relevant in competitive modes like Aether Raids and Summoner Duels where Canto runs rampant. Askr and Ashera are not as centralizing, but both are solid mythics with powerful effects and skills that can easily find a place on many teams. Askr offers Atk/Def Ideal 4 and Atk/Def Bulwark, and Ashera has Atk/Res Ideal 4 and Lull Spd/Res.
As usual with Fire Emblem Heroes, it is also worth considering the future. In this case, many players are likely anticipating the winners of Choose Your Legends 6: Chrom, Seliph, Female Byleth, and Awakening Tiki, and you probably don’t need me to remind you that they should release sometime in August. Overall, only you can decide what’s worth an orb, but hopefully this has helped provide some insight.
