The Asgardr Report - 12th Edition: July 2022

The Asgardr Report aims to provide high-level Fire Emblem Heroes content on a regular basis. Each article will contain 3-4 topics related to the end-game content of the game; Aether Raids (Offence & Defense), Arena, and Summoner Duels. 

In this slightly late edition of the Asgardr Report, we will discuss the general trends in the Chaos season. We will also touch upon how arena scoring has changed due to recent developments. As per usual, we will also touch on any new developments in Fire Emblem Heroes.

In this segment, we would focus on units or skills that the author thinks are new and going to be meta-relevant moving forward due to the updates introduced in the game. For this month, this segment would cover all the content starting from the 2nd Summer Banner to the FEH Channel. This is also the reason why the Asgardr Report is slightly pushed back, as the next edition would be focusing on both the new Choose Your Legends units and the likely upcoming refine for the Choose Your Legends event 2 years ago.

Summer Thorr

Summer Thorr’s impact on Summoner Duels is about as big as her floatation devices, as she dives right into many of the meta team compositions even on launch day. Her weapon is essentially a more aggressive version of Riev; fewer debuffs but more offensive support and stronger player phase potential in the form of cooldown reduction every turn similar to the likes of Tine. This meant that Thorr doubles as both a support unit and a nuke, which is extremely useful for a mode such as Summoner Duels. 

The prominence of Stall meant that units that boost movement such as Yuri, Brave Alm, and Legendary Sigurd had a much tougher time, as they now have to be wary of their team positioning to ensure that they can avoid getting stalled by the likes of Thorr. Thorr’s Duo Skill removing any buffs meant that effects such as Bonus Doubler from Legendary Eliwood, Triangle Attack from Bridal Catria, and Pathfinder from New Year Dagr’s Duo skill are also nullified. Summer Thorr perfectly justified her place in the meta due to the duo’s ability to negate many of the meta threats. That is on top of the cardinal direction Gravity, although that is significantly harder to use than the buff cleansing effect.

That is not to say that Summer Thorr does not have other roles either. Due to exposure, Summer Thorr provides valuable support in terms of offensive output on top of her usual Worldbreaker shenanigans. The Gravity on her duo skill can also be used in a Galeforce team composition after all the Duo units are cleared away, which does open up even more options for the attacker. 

Ascended Celica

Magical nukes had been struggling in the current meta due to the prominence of Deflect Magic as a seal on top of having no ways to deal with damage reduction barring a few units such as Tine, Legendary Byleth (M), Valentine’s Lif, and Young Soren (and yes, that’s the whole list). Ascended Celica’s weapon in many ways, is an upgrade over Brave Marianne’s weapon by having Miracle and guard nullification as opposed to damage reduction and SPD/RES buff nullification. 

Soul of Zofia also synergizes rather well with Ascended Celica, as she will be in the HP range for consecutive attacks. When combined with her guard nullification, this meant that she is mathematically likely to activate multiple specials. On top of the true damaged tagged on top, Ascended Celica might actually be able to break through the opponent through sheer brute force even with Deflect Magic. Naturally, this meant that Ascended Celica poise to succeed on Aether Raids Defense.

Ymir

Ymir’s Drive Miracle effect is rather versatile as it can be used in most competitive modes. In Aether Raids Offence, Ymir can be used as a second line of defense for your tank, or another way for your Vantage unit to reach the Vantage HP thresholds. In Aether Raids Defense Ymir simply makes the whole team more difficult to kill, although this is only rather useful with En Garde (such as from Medeus) due to the presence of Bolt Tower. Lastly, in Summoner Duels she enables more aggressive Far Save units such as Fallen Rhea and to some extent, Summer Edelgard by allowing them to run other B skills rather than the usual Hardy Fighter. 

Jotunheimr Castle 

In the previous month’s Asgardr Report, Jotunheimer Castle with the 2 indestructible walls makes closing off one side a trivial task. However, there was a nerf to the map in late July by making both walls destructible in 2 hits. This essentially made the map borderline unusable as the walls are no longer as reliable in terms of preventing approaches from the enemy team. Players are probably back to using Lost Castle, although the prominence of Summer Edelgard meant that the tile above the defense tile is a potential hotspot for Galeforce plays.

Askr

Askr has fixed damage reduction similar to the likes of Spring Maria, however, it has an additional condition of requiring an ally within 2 spaces. This meant that, unlike Spring Maria, he cannot simply just go in without consideration of his allies. This is inconsequential for Aether Raids as most of the time the team tends to huddle together to maintain Far Save range. Opened Domain also grants the Resonance buffs to his allies, which the most notable effect being the follow-up negation from Resonance Shield. This can be applicable in both Aether Raids Offense and Summoner Duels as well. 

Other news

• Summer Eirika and Summer Nifl are released in the 2nd Summer banner of the year. Summer Eirika is potentially useful in Summoner Duels Survive due to having only a single Deflect Magic going around, making her damage rather potent similar to the likes of Brave Eirika. Summer Nifl is a more selfish version of her original self with the pseudo-Firesweep effect based on speed. This is relevant specifically in Chaos season, which we will discuss in the later section.
• Atk/Spd Oath 4 provides the wielder the ability to warp similar to the likes of Aerobatics. This can be useful should players want to have the ability to warp without incurring an opportunity cost in passives such as Aerobatics, or units such as the likes of Ash and Bridal Catria.
• Coral Saber and Seahorse Axe are powerful generic weapons due to their relaxed conditions and the ability to guarantee a follow-up attack. This opens up the Passive B and Sacred Seal slot should they are relying on Quick Riposte. The lack of HP condition relative to Quick Riposte could also be helpful as well.
• Inf. Null Follow gives all infantry allies within 2 spaces Null Follow-Up similar to Fallen Lilith. However, that doesn't mean that Fallen Lilith falls out of favor as she has a larger effective room and the ability to buff up non-Infantry allies. This does open up more infantry support options such as the likes of Brave Lucina and Velouria, with the added benefit of it being unaffected by the Feud skills as it is a visible buff rather than a Drive such as the likes of Legendary Byleth (M).
• Canto now comes in more variants! While it is right now locked into personal weapons, it is a possibility that it can be an inheritable skill in the future. Let’s hope that ranged fliers can get something nice with this as I inhale this giant tank of copium.

The Asgardr’s Hall of Fame is a form of recognition for units that fulfills either of the following 2 requirements.

1. The unit is sufficiently common in Aether Raids Offense strategies and performs at a sufficiently high level.
2. The unit performs at an exceptional level even if they are less accessible without a steep learning curve. 

Updates

There are no updates for the month.

At the time of writing, there have been two instances of Chaos season since the launch. In this section, we would discuss briefly some of the observations made for the Chaos season, and possibly how to navigate the meta in Chaos season. 

Elimine and Mila

The first observation is the usage of Elimine and Mila, as both continue to terrorize many defenses as they lock away many of the strategies on defense. For instance, the presence of Elimine meant that using a composition that is reliant on Bridal Catria can be considered risky. As for Mila, while she is not as common as the likes of Elimine, players still had to be wary as they could not beat the DEF check as easily. While Bridal Fjorm can be also just as effective, not only is she much less often used, but the lack of blessing boosts also somewhat hampered her effectiveness as melee dancers are more likely to have higher HP than Fjorm herself.

Lowered Standards

While defense continues to be an absolute crapshoot, the quality of plays and maps in Chaos season decreased significantly, especially in the Vault of Heaven. This is because of the increased margin of error to remain in Vault of Heaven. As Mythic merges are not counted, the additional score is given either automatically or locked behind bonus kills. While this meant that everyone can reach the highest score possible at 21,520, that also meant that the margin of error to remain in the Vault is extremely large. Players would have to lose 720 lift in order to drop out of Vault, which meant that it is possible for a player to lose every single defense (-480), miss every single bonus (-160), and somehow make it back into the Vault for the next Chaos season. 

The only factor that is likely causing some problems is remembering to get the aforementioned bonus kill to get the additional lift, but that does not change much in terms of the general composition of players in the vault. In short, maps are much lower quality in the vault, making the offensive experience possibly even more of a joke than the Astra season. 

Single Save Woes

One of the main restrictions we have on Chaos season is that one is only allowed to use a single Savior unit at a time. For most players, the go-to is usually Far Save on both offense and defense. This can be easily exploited when both attacking and defending. When attacking, one can shoehorn in a couple of melee units into the mix to ensure that saviors do not activate, with the most noteworthy candidate being Summer Edelgard with a potential of three actions. The lack of general durability of Far Save units due to the lack of Mythic Blessings can also be used against them, although one would probably need to watch out for skills such as Hardy Fighter. 

As for defending, any form of melee unit that has some defensive mechanic would do rather well, as it is possible to set up a follow-up dance right after and snipe a unit due to the lack of Far Saves. This includes the likes of Ingrid and Summer Nifl, with the base Nifl being an excellent disruption option for your other nukes, ranged or melee alike. 

Conclusion

In general, Chaos Season is significantly easier due to the lower bar of entry. The focus of scoring well lies predominantly on your defense team, as it is likely that most people are also scoring highly on defense. Having a single save unit does somewhat limit your options when dealing with a player phase strategy, with the best strategy likely to be relying on your melee units to do your bidding, and cross your fingers hoping that the opponents you face do not have the answers

Every year, arena scoring has been steadily increasing due to the creep in base stat total (BST) for new units. At least based on the past few years, general unit increases by 5 every August during the Choose Your Legends banner, Duo units have a score increase every November in their Duo effect and Legendaries follow suit in January. This year is likely to be no different, however, with the new introductions of a new skill and a seal, scoring might have changed forever. 

Scoring 101; a revisit

For more information, one could follow the Arena Scoring Guide, but to keep things short, here is a short summary:

• Base stat total (BST) (rounded down to the nearest 5)
• Merges
• Legendary Effects 
• Total Skill SP Cost (rounded down to the nearest 100).

Usually, when scoring is discussed, it is based on the maximum skill SP cost of a generic unit, meaning no personal skill shenanigans. Before this banner, the highest scoring SP costs that are inheritable are as follows:

• Weapon: 350 SP 
• Assist: 400SP 
• Special: 500SP
• Passive A: 300SP
• Passive B: 240SP
• Passive C: 300SP
• Sacred Seal: 240SP
• Total Sum: 2330 SP

The above essentially forms the baseline of discussion for any arena scoring. Colloquially, when a unit scores 185 BST, it is assumed that the SP cost matches with the maximum inheritable scoring stated above. Depending on the skill set-up, it is not uncommon to see units that score higher due to having access to personal skills. For example, Brave Celica with her personal weapon (400 SP) and personal Passive B Double Lion (300SP) gives her an additional 110 SP, which pushes the sum (2440 SP) up by a scoring bin. Hence, while Celica has a theoretical BST limit of 180 with R Duel Infantry 4, she scores higher than normal units due to this trait. 

Tier 4 Passive B

This brings the discussion back to the new skill introduced; Chill Def/Res 3, with the focus not being the effect, but the skill cost itself. As it also has a 300SP cost, this meant that personal skills are no longer necessary to score the highest bin. So long as a unit has a personal weapon, it is theoretically possible for a unit to score just as well as units with personal Passive B. This indirectly means that units without a personal weapon will fall off quicker in terms of scoring as they will never be able to reach a higher scoring bin.

While Chill Def/Res 3 is relatively tamed effect-wise and is not particularly useful in combat, the floodgates are open for more impactful Passive B skills, such as the likes of Quick Riposte 4, Vantage 4, or, god forbid, Hardy Fighter 4. More combat-relevant skills are likely to be introduced in the near future, and one should probably be prepared for it. 

The above also has another ramification as well; Valentine’s Chrom is now the highest scoring unit in the game. Have fun. 

Distant Counter... Seal?

If you tell me just a month ago that we will be having Distant Counter as a seal, I would assume that it is a shitpost and laughed it off. However, we can’t laugh it off right now as it is a reality, although it does come with a catch; it is locked to dragons. While the effect is useful for some applications, the focus is on arena scoring as the Distant Counter skill scores the exact same as the normal Distant Counter skill. Let’s assume that a dragon unit has a personal weapon, and the scoring would be as follows:

• Weapon: 400SP
• Assist: 400SP 
• Special: 500SP
• Passive A: 300SP
• Passive B: 300SP
• Passive C: 300SP
• Sacred Seal: 300SP
• Total Sum: 2500 SP

This meant that with a personal weapon, a dragon would score 2 bins higher than the current SP levels. Legendary Units such as Fae and Myrrh now score higher than the current Legendaries, and any dragon with high BST, such as Ascended Idunn and Halloween Sothis (double DC is optimal kappa) can score even higher with this change as well. This also has a disturbing realization that Close Counter might be available as a seal in the near future, and Valentine’s Chrom will somehow score another bin higher if this exists (please no). 

Summary

• If a unit has a personal weapon, the scoring increases by one bin.
• If a unit is a dragon, the scoring increases by one bin.
• The highest scoring units now in the game are Ascended Idunn, Valentine’s Chrom, and Halloween Sothis. 
• New Passive B skills and Sacred Seal might make this more readily available in the near future. 
• All this for a crown on your personal owl and a single orb every week.

We hope you enjoy this edition of the Asgardr Report. It is the 12th edition of Asgardr Report, which meant that next edition will be a full year since the start of the article series. Naturally, that also means that the next article will be focusing on the new Choose Your Legends units. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Asgardr Report, and I would like to thank all readers for their support for the past year. Hope to see you all again in the next edition!