We've been eagerly waiting for an Ice Tribe banner for such a long time, and here it comes! The moment before the trailer came out, we knew that Nils was going to be part of it, followed by Felicia thanks to the silhouettes. Plus, it's the Ice Tribe we're talking about, and you would not call it an Ice Tribe lineup without the two sisters from Fates. They have to be in this batch!
So without further ado, let's jump right into these anticipated units.
Ice Tribe Felicia
Ice-Tribe Axe:
- Slaying
- Adaptive DMG
- Grants Null Dragon Weakness To Either Of The Following:
- Support Partners Within 3 Spaces (With Support Partner)
- Ally With The Highest Res (Without Support Partner)
- Spd/Res+5
- Spd/Res Stat Penalty Neutralization
- Null Counter Disrupt
- True Omni = 5 + 15% Of Unit's Spd
- True DMG (Excl. AOEs) = 20% Of Unit's Spd
- 50% Non-Special DR-Piercing
- 40% Brave DR From 1st Hit
At first, I thought that this unit is fine at best, until I realized that she grants NCD support to all of her allies. That's huge, especially for dragon units like both Legendary Corrins as well as the Alears who are decent omni tanks. Now they don't have to worry about facing against dragon-effective units, or getting swept due to NCD, which I believe that IS wants to ditch Lyon even further.
However, if you don't care about dragons, then I don't think she's a mandatory support unit to pull for, given that Emblem Ike is the main omni-tank that comes in mind, and that he also has built-in NCD. So overall, she's here for a specific niche in the omni-tank meta, and that is for dragons only. I know it sounds restrictive but hey, it fits her lore nicely.
Lastly, she has some decent fodder being Atk/Spd Excel, Odd Spd Wave 4 and S/R Near Trace being a new variant of Near Trace 4, which you could put all in one build if you're not super-interested of her support capabilities.
Overall, Felicia proves to be decent as a support unit in all PvP modes, but she's only best used in a scenario where you use dragons often. Even if you don't have dragons, you'll still get some value from her NCD support alone. Outside of her support, she's fine as a melee nuke because she has everything that fits today's standards, especially half DR-Piercing.
Ice Tribe Thea
Ilian Frost Blade:
- Slaying
- Triangle Attack
- Canto (1)
- True Omni (Max: 15) = 5 + No. Of Dragonflowers Used On Unit × 2
- 50% DR-Piercing
- 7 Flat Brave DR From 1st Hit
- Special Acceleration +1 Per Hit
She's merely a side upgrade of Bridal Catria, with more improvements than the latter. Even though Triangle Attack is no longer a thing in AR-Defense, it's still going to work in Summoner Duels if you position yourself correctly, so you'll not get affected by Ruse skills. Also, granting Canto (1) to your allies is a nice touch for your allies to retreat a bit.
Other than that, she can hit really hard whilst charging up her Specials every hit, and it doesn't really matter how many Dragonflowers you've invested on her. She can get so much True Stats even if you just give her 5 Dragonflowers on release.
Then, she comes with Air Orders 4, which allows any flier to grant Charge support for free, and it essentially devalues Legendary Hinoka because you can give this to anyone. Now I'm not saying that this skill makes her completely irrelevant in the meta, as she still gives you Special Acceleration, which is not included in the inheritable skill itself.
Overall, Thea is basically Bridal Catria but better. She is usable in certain game modes, yet her support is no longer in its peak. Even without Ruse 4, we're still getting so many units who can now reduce damage from Brave hits, so it's making it difficult for her to one-shot most of the common threats via her Brave effect alone.
Ice Tribe Flora
Ice Dagger+:
- Adaptive DMG
- Omni+5
- Guaranteed Follow-Up
- 50% DR-Piercing
- Dagger (7)
As for her passives, she comes with Atk/Spd Catch 3 and Disarm Trap 3 for building up fodder. Again, there's nothing much to say about her unless she's your absolute favorite.
Ice Tribe Fjorm + Nifl
Ice-Crystal Spear:
- Slaying
- True Omni (Max: 14) = 5 + No. Of Allies Within 3 Spaces × 3
- True DR (Excl. AOEs)= 20% Of Unit's Spd
- Stat Penalty Neutralization
- Null Follow-Up
- 7 HP Restoration Post Combat
- Null C-Disrupt (Against Ranged Foes)
Dual Ice Mirrors:
- 40% Unpierceable DR (Against Ranged Foes)
- Damage Reflection (After Special Triggers; Min: 40% Of Unit's Res)
- Full DR-Piercing
- Distant Counter
Her weapon combined with her preferred skill, make her really strong as an armored unit because she's getting so much damage-reduction, not to mention these can be stacked onto themselves. Like her Ascended counterpart, she's can shut down Sweep effects against ranged foes, though it could have been applied universally to all foes.
She can also hit back very effectively after absorbing all those hits, and built-in Distant Counter makes her even more powerful as a Save unit.
Since her Ascended counterpart is the first to introduce Hardy Fighter as a B skill, she's also the first to evolve it into its Tier 4 version - Shield Fighter! It doesn't have the Quickened Pulse effect like Hardy Fighter, but instead it charges up your Special by 1 during foe's combat, while it doubles if you're facing up against Brave effects.
What's more, it triggers twice and gives you 7 Flat DR if you're hit by a DR-Piercing Special, which works similarly to Corrin's Negating Fang II. This is downright amazing for a lot of Spd-based armors, as it could be a sign that armors are slowly rising up the meta as they used to. You'll not get affected by Scowl or Hush Spectrum by any means because you'll be able to charge your Special instantaneously during combat, which negates both of those effects. In fact, we've started seeing effects like this since the Hoshidan Summer banner, and it could eventually make Scowl effects useless.
As for her passives, she has Deluge Boost 3 being a new Boost 3 variant, followed by A/S Far Save 3. I wonder how much longer do we have to wait for Save skills to get a Tier 4 version?
Finally, she has an absurdly powerful Duo button that applies Divine Vein (Ice) within a proximity of 2 spaces from Fjorm herself. It's strong because Divine Vein (Ice) essentially stops foes from warping towards, and if that's not enough, this effect lasts for 2 turns, which is insane! It's going to make so many Emblem Celica users become frustrated, as they are forced to waste an action by destroying the ice terrain first, and it's not just one Ice terrain, but two in each direction that shields Fjorm.
In conclusion, Fjorm might be one of the best Far Saves we've got in the game, who outshines Winter Byleth in terms of bulkiness, whilst having a role compression like Myrrh. She's going to be very useful in both AR-Offense & AR-Defense, where she fits really well as a good Save unit. In Summoner Duels, she's going to be a pain to deal with in that mode because of her Duo button. Even though we'll get better Save units in the future, she still retains her high value from her Divine Vein support alone, until one day, IS decides that they're done with Divine Vein effects and releases a hard counter to those effects.
Final Thoughts + Will I Summon?
This banner has some nice offerings to play with, especially Fjorm being an obvious star of this batch. Like I said, we may have better Saves within a couple of months, and other than Fjorm, none of these units do anything that's impressive to the meta. Their overall value is unmatched to the previous Hoshidan Summer banner, where you might as well get an insane C skill that makes end-actions meaningless, or Nephenee for some Special Acceleration support.
If any of these units interest you, then maybe it's worth spending a couple of orbs on this banner. Otherwise, you should skip like I do, because CYL8 is still the better overall banner to spend orbs on, and it lasts for a few more weeks before we have information on the upcoming New Heroes banner. Also, be prepared for a new Emblem Hero coming up at the end of this month, unless IS chooses to temporarily shift the rotation and make room for Hræsvelgr as our new Mythic.
Let me know if you're looking forward for Save units to coming back. Next, I'll be posting my summons on the Legendary Shez banner, but instead I'm going for more Ike merges. And as always, be sure to "Save" your orbs from the infamous Scowl effects.
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