Trick or treat! The Halloween Banner has dropped! This time, they have gone back to the dragon-theme approach, following last year's banner! But guess what? They added beast units to the mix so that it's not a full-on dragon fest.
But honestly, when will we ever get a break from dragons and have something else? Wouldn't it be cool if we have a villain-themed Halloween banner instead, like a batch of selected antagonists reminiscent to what Disney did with its House of Villains? I think it would really spice things up.
But enough pondering - let's dive into the latest units and see what they got in store!
Halloween Askr
Horn of Harvest:
- Slaying
- Bulwark
- Breath of Life 4 (For Allies Within 2 Spaces)
- Atk/Def-X (Max: 15) = 6 + No. Of Allies Within 3 Spaces × 3
- True DMG (Incl. AOEs) = 20% Of Unit's Def
- True DR (Incl. AOEs) = 20% Of Unit's Def
- Breath of Life 4 (For Self)
- Atk+2
- 7 Flat DMG Upon Special
- Tempo
His weapon is not too shabby, offering some more amazing support compared to his base version. Among his skills are Bulwark & BOL 4, which is rare as a weapon effect alone. Having BOL 4 is noteworthy because he can shut-down a ton of pre-combat damage without relying himself on being within 2 spaces of his allies. On top of that, Askr is going to have a preferred C skill, meaning you don't need to equip the inheritable version of that skill, further enhancing his support capabilities.
As for Askr himself, he turns out to be incredibly bulky, particularly his resistance against AOEs from units like Emblem Sigurd & Igrene, making him a strong frontliner. If you'd wish to boost his frontliner capabilities, then you can replace Reopening with Laguz Friend 4 at his B slot.
Sturdy Beast:
- Boosts DMG = X% Of Unit's Def
- X = 50 (When Transformed); X = 40 (Otherwise)
- Beacon Effect When Both Conditions Are Met:
- Special Is Ready Or Triggered Before & After Combat (Unit & Foe)
- Unit Is Transformed Or Unit's Def ≥ Foe's Def-4
This is a 3-cooldown count inheritable Special for Beast units, but it's more oriented to defense, which gives any of your Beast units some resilience against modern threats. As I mentioned earlier, it synergizes perfectly with Laguz Friend, but best suited for older units without Slaying in their weapons because it requires a 3-Cooldown Special at minimum.
His existing passives include D Bonus Doubler as well as he aforementioned Reopening.
Connected World:
- Unit Can Also Transform When:
- Is Within 2 Spaces Of Any Non-Heroes Ally
- During Turn 1 In AR-Defense
- Atk/Def+6
- Resonance: Blades
- Resonance: Shields
- 50% DR-Piercing
- Time's Pulse 4
- Atk/Def/Res+5
- 40% DR On All Hits (Excl. AOEs)
His C skill is significant upgrade from his original, offering both Time's Pulse 4 & DR-Piercing support, and not just Resonance Blades & Shields. Time's Pulse 4 is still amazing until now because it allows your allies jumping through their Specials after combat, whereas DR-Piercing is not a big deal nowadays.
His transform condition becomes much more forgiving than usual. Instead of requiring him to be near to Beast or Dragon allies, he can simply transform by being close to any ally who's not a FEH OC. Additionally, his transformation is automatic on turn 1 in AR-D, which works similarly to Robin's ice terrain effect. It is a nice touch for him because he only gets Tempo when he's transformed, which is necessary for him to proc his Special in ease, especially for Galeforce where Guard is a big deal.
Overall, Askr proves to be an amazing support unit which makes him a great asset for a variety of team compositions in Aether Raids, Summoner Duels & Arena. Offering both BOL 4 & Time's Pulse 4 support from his kit alone is really insane, and the combination of these skills helps substantially in maintaining his longevity as a support unit.
Halloween Lethe (Demote)
Hungry Cat Fang:
- Slaying
- Time's Pulse 4
- Omni+X (Max: 14) = 5 + No. Of Foes Within 3R & 3C × 3
- Null Follow-Up
- Null Guard
- Full DR-Piercing On Special
- Atk+2
- Inflicts Atk/Def-X On Foe
- X (Max: 6) = No. Of Spaces Moved From Start to End Positions of Whoever Initiated Combat, + 3
- 30% DR On 1st Hit (If X ≥ 5)
This is a really good unit for a demote because of Time's Pulse 4 which essentially allows her to run Galeforce in Aether Raids. If you give her a low cooldown Special, she can basically loop her Special after combat and spam some full damage-reduction piercing, which is really strong for someone as a 4 star focus.
Then, she offers Atk/Spd Clash 3 and S/D Near Trace 3 as progression fodder.
Halloween Nah
Stone of Delights:
- Slaying
- Adaptive DMG (Against Ranged Foes)
- Special Cooldown -1 To Unit & Allies Whose HP ≤ Unit's Max HP (Start of Turn)
- Atk/Def/Res+X (Max: 14, Automatically Applies When Triggering Savior) = 5 + No. Of Allies Within 3 Spaces × 3
- X Flat DMG; X Flat DR On All Hits (Incl. AOEs; Max: 16; Min: 8)
- X = Unit's Max HP - Foe's HP At Start Of Combat
- Scowl
- Special Cooldown -1 Post-Combat
It appears that she excels in role compression being able to grant Pulse support to any ally who's max HP is below Nah's HP, so it's important that you stack as much of her HP as you can. It's basically Infantry Pulse but open to all movement types which is really nice because anyone can pre-charge their Specials.
She's essentially a Save unit, so she gets a ton of stats and flat damage-reduction in her weapon, which also applies for AOEs. Again, she needs to keep up with her HP check to get the most of it.
Additionally, she gets Armored Blaze & Earthfire Boost 3 for building up her HP, and we get a new inheritable B skill for dragons being Dragon's Scales.
Dragon's Scales:
- Inflicts Atk/Def/Res-X On Foe
- X (Max: 11; Otherwise, 0) = 4 + Difference Between The Greater of Def Or Res
- Guaranteed Follow-Up
- Special Cooldown Jump -1 Before Foe's 1st Hit
- 50% DR-Piercing
It is a defensive skill similar to Laguz Friend, but it's not replaceable in any means since the latter is way better. But still, it makes sense for armored dragons like Nah because they also need some form of Special Cooldown Jump so they can loop defensive Specials like Pavise. Again, Shield Fighter does way better, but not everyone has spare copies of Fjorm, which makes it a decent alternative.
We finally got Tier 4 Saves in the game, the moment after they released Fjorm with Shield Fighter. This time, Nah has D/R Twin N Save, which basically grants her stats, 7 HP healing and being able to loop unpierceable damage-reduction effects twice from offensive Specials like Armored Beacon & Armored Blaze, suitable for units like Winter Edelgard.
Even though we've anticipated this, it's not too crazy in particular as it's too niche. Plus, it doesn't score high in Arena like High Dragon Wall, which ultimately makes this Tier 4 version very underwhelming in comparison, but I'm glad it's relatively tame, especially after we've drained our orbs on Shield Fighter.
In general, Nah proves to be a solid Near Save option in several game modes, yet being green really hurts her chances of surviving red units like Brave Felix unlike we've seen in her showcase because he doesn't have Null Follow-Up in his S slot. She can be decent, but I would argue that there are a couple of Near Save options who can do better.
Halloween Nagi + Idunn (Harmonized)
Opposing Stones:
- Slaying
- Dragon Effectiveness
- Svalinn Shield
- Adaptive DMG (Against Ranged Foes)
- Distant Counter
- 80% DR Against AOEs
- Gronnraven Effect
- Time's Pulse 4
- Atk/Def/Res-X (Max: 14, Automatically Applies When Triggering Savior) = 5 + No. Of Allies Within 3 Spaces × 3
- True DR = 20% Of Unit's Res
- 7 HP Healing Post Combat
- Atk/Def/Res+4
- 7 HP Healing Post Combat
The weapon effect makes her a solid Far Savior, though it's not the best in my opinion. As we can see from the trailer, she barely survives Ursula, leaving her a few HP which makes me question her survivability against most other units who can still pierce through her damage-reduction with their Specials. Regardless, being able to cancel out armor effectiveness as well as Distant Counter are a nice touch to her Savior capabilities, especially when dealing with Attuned Micaiah.
Additionally, she's able to loop her Special with built-in Time's Pulse 4 so that she can finish off her foes with her Dragon's Roar. It seems like this year's Halloween revolves around Time's Pulse 4 which is crazy to think about it, and even armored units start to have ways to charge their Specials post-combat. Even then, it's not really necessary to have Time's Pulse 4 for your Save units because they're not meant to kill; they need to survive, so I would opt a rework of her base kit w./ Shield Fighter & Aegis if you manage to get some extra copies of Fjorm.
Her passives remain the same, with Scowl, Dragon's Scales & A/R Twin Far Save being essentially the Tier 4 version of itself that also functions similar to Nah's variant.
Last but not least, her Harmonic skill grants Atk/Res+6, Resonance: Shields, neutralizes dragon effectiveness as well as any Penalty effects and Warp Bubble for 1 turn to her allies who are from Archanea and Binding Blade, together with 30 HP Healing. Now, there is a limited selection of good units when it comes to these games, so her Harmonic support isn't really insane, but Warp Bubble is still useful given that more players are giving out Celica's ring to their favorite units.
Nagi is still a solid choice if you're a big advocate for Save Ball strategies, yet she gets overshadowed 10 times by others like Myrrh and Fjorm, who has better role compression and does even better as a Save unit. From Aether Raids to Summoner Duels, you know the drill, but for Nagi, I think she might suffer the same fate as Duma two years ago as both of them had short lifespans after their release. Like I said, she needs some re-investment in order to improve her chances of surviving, just like the other armored units who're not Fjorm.
Final Thoughts + Will I Summon?
Historically, the Halloween banner has been the least impactful banner getting powercrept shortly after its release and after looking at this year's batch, the same can unfortunately be said for this one. The enhanced versions of these Save skills would not make any substantial on Save units in general, as they would still prefer running Shield Fighter anyway.
Askr on the other hand, turns out to be incredible as a support unit, which rightfully makes him the star of this banner compared to the two dragon units, at least until we get to see his base version's refine next year.
Therefore, I don't think it's worth spending so many orbs on this banner unless any of these units are your favorites, or if you don't have Fjorm yet and you desperately need better Save options.
Up next, I'll be writing two of my summoning sessions on September's releases in one post, that being the Ice Tribe & Emblem Sigurd banners, each with some differences in results. Let me know if you're excited for the Halloween units, and be sure to save your orbs from this treaty temptation!
IMPORANT UPDATE!!
My uploads will be getting less frequent than usual because I just started university and that I have been busy with my studies, which leaves me hardly any time to write about my thoughts on FEH's releases. With that said, I would truly appreciate your understanding given my circumstances.
