THE QUEEN SOARS IN - Archanea New Heroes Review 2024

 As expected by a majority of players, we're getting an Archanea banner. It's a well-deserved break for me given the back-to-back Engage content released, at least for now. Without further ado, let's jump into it.

Attuned Caeda

My favorite pegasus girl has received an alt this year, and she looks pretty gorgeous in her Marth-esque armor. This time, she's an infantry unit which surprises me because she's usually a rider for most of her alts. 

First, she has "Pure-Wing Spear" which grants Slaying and as usual, armor & cavalry effectiveness. If she's within 2 spaces of an ally at the start of turn, she grants bonuses to Atk & Spd and Warping for herself and any of her allies for 1 turn. As long as she's within 3 spaces of her ally, she grants Omni+X which is based on the number of allies within 3 spaces multiplied by 3, then added by 5. She also gets 30% DR from all attacks, and that she restores more HP if she faces a cav-foe.

Then, she gets a new preferred B skill, "Believe In Love?", which sounds silly as if she appears not to believe in love at all. It has built-in Phantom, penalty infliction to foe's Atk & Def and she has stolen Legendary Male Robin's Grand Strategy effect which is strong. Also, if she meets the Spd check, she gets an additional Spd difference-based DR (excluding AOEs), up to 50%, and if she encounters a armor or cavalry foe, she gets true DR based on the total amount of bonuses among herself and her allies within 2 spaces. Otherwise, she gets 40% Brave DR instead.

She comes with D Bonus Doubler, a formidable skill that shocks many players because it combines Distant Counter & Bonus Doubler into one, and there is Def/Res Pledge as another Pledge skill. As she's an attuned unit, she comes with Guard Echo which functions the same as Guard 4, but less DR.

I feel like omni-tanks are trying to come back to their former prime, and thankfully, we have a nice fodder factory designed for infantries besides Ganglot. However, she's weak to Sweep effects & the prominent pre-combat damage, so I believe she could have functioned better if there is Null C-Disrupt built into her weapon. Perhaps, time will tell if we get a Sacred Seal to compensate that.

Yuliya

Oh wow! Another colorless demote to ignite the agonizing flames of summoning hell even more. I predicted Yuliya debutting in FEH not long ago, and unfortunately, she's not with her twin brother this time. At least, she is the first to offer tier 3 versions of Finish skills, which is a good sign as we don't have to waste more manuals on tiers of Finish skills alone.

Arlen

A highly requested character from Archanea, that's it. I don't really know anything about him. "Lightburst Tome" grants +6 to Atk, Spd & Def as well as terrain support to himself and nearby allies. If he's more than 25% of HP, and he can trigger Specials, he grants Special acceleration before combat begins. He can also inflict penalties to Atk, Spd & Res based on foe's max Special cooldown value, and I think it works as a soft-counter to Gambit users. In fact, he gets some DR and retaliates back with the amount reduced.

To make things stir a bit, he has C Bonus Doubler, which is insane. Legendary Chrom is going to enjoy this new toy. We're getting two of the new skills revolving around Bonus Doubler simultaneously, so while he faces intense competition from other mage units, there's no doubt that his fodder is quite worth it.

P.S. Atk/Res Tempo 4 is now in the regular pool, so that releases the pressure on Veyle.

Ascended Merric

I'm glad that IS is still aware of the concept of Ascended Heroes, not like other game modes that are nearly abandoned a long time ago. Merric fans can now rejoice after not hearing any updates for nearly 4 years (ignoring the resplendent). 

He is a green-cav unit and his tome, "Tender Excalibur" is a let-down for all. Aside from Slaying & flying effectiveness, he grants Omni+X based on the number of allies within three spaces. There is built-in Null Follow-Up, followed by 30% DR & Special cooldown acceleration, yet no pre-combat damage. 

"Sacred Wind" is his preferred special which deals true damage based on 40% of his Spd, cancels out DR-effects, some healing and Canto (1) for 1 turn. With this, I can tell that he's offered nothing really crazy in particular; just a relatively tame nuke vulnerable to Scowl. Most of the latest tanks, like Winter Byleth can survive every blow he delivers. 

There is Seal Spd/Res 3 as a new inheritable skill, but Seal skills are almost redundant in general, despite at the highest tier. So, unless he's your favorite or if you want Incite Atk/Spd fodder, it's best to avoid summoning for him.

Will I summon?

Attuned Caeda is no doubt the star of this banner. But if the nuke meta still persists, I'm not surprised if she's fallen off after a while. Merric's niche as a green cav-nuke, is okay but he gets outclassed by Duo Lyon, who is the only better option. And colorless as always, gets depreciated further. 

I love Caeda; she's a boss and I really want to grab a copy of her. But as far as I want to, I'm getting exhausted as I spend consecutively on Engage units. Therefore, I'm going to skip this one as not only I'm saving for Spring Chloe, but for the Emblem unit confirmed this month.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to the gradual rise of omni-tanks in the meta? Thank you for reading my thoughts on this banner and have some great summons out there!