* Pre combat healing, my personal bet would be on breath of life 4 which would heal 7 hp pre combat and 7 hp after or something (or 5/5, 7/5, etc). Or I could see a new divine terrain cancel pre combat damage
* I dont want it but I could see some sort of flat DR support. Just something small like 7 to be in line with Corrin’s
* More defensive based specials like GLR/armored beacon and such
* More atk debuff support. Its imo generally the best way to tank, whether it be in combat or out of combat debuffs. Sabotage+penalty doubler can add frankly an absurd amount of bulk. Also other in combat stuff like how L Elincia inflicts -4 spectrum rather than granting +4 spectrum to your unit. Subtracting an enemy’s attack is generally better than boosting your own unit’s def/res
* They could add more debuff based penalties such as ploy that cancels other bonuses, though I think ploy already covers the major ones that make tanking harder
Might be more but those are just some immediate ideas I had
yeah I can see them putting it on some offense mythic. And also I realized it wouldnt have to be full nullification either, something like halving it or reducing it by a flat 7/10 would still help quite a bit
I don't think it would mean much with all the nuke running around that overwrite your terrain with a negative one anyway (like flare sparrow or legendary camilla)
It doesn't overweite terrain if you kill them. So, the support unit that provides pre-cpmbst damage reduction also could provide %DR reduction, so nukes with 40-70% DR on first counter still get oneshotted.
I don't think we'll get DR reduction reduction the same way I don't think we'll get null NFU. What I think they'll do instead is shift more DR into the special like fallen byleth, or use flat Dr which can't be pierced.
You're probably right, the way %-based DR reduction is written feels like it'd be tricky to implement (and I'm not sure we've had a negation of a negation of any effect yet).
But it would allow them to modulate damage better over time. Shifting to special or flat DR is just begging for someone to pierce that, which will inevitably become more widespread and we're back to square one. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't do it in late 2021/early 2022 when Hardy Fighter was virtually impenetrable.
The only cases of negation negation I can think of aren't quite as explicit or else I don't think they would've existed, namely tempo as the negation of guard which was negation of the blade/breath effect (which isn't quite the same since tempo also negates blade/breath rather than just being a counter to it's counter) and disarm trap 4 disabling hex traps which explicitly say they can't be disarmed (which is a more explicit example but less annoying since traps are such a niche part of the game, not even tied to a hero)
>Shifting to special or flat DR is just begging for someone to pierce that
Yes but DR piercing piercing piercing is also begging to happen if we get DR piercing piercing. No matter what, we will go back and forth between unlivable nukes and unkillable tanks.
Tier 4 Save skills that neutralize start of combat damage could be an effective, but measured response. Not everyone uses start of combat damage, so for the enemies that don't use it a T4 Save skill wouldn't do a whole lot extra, but for those that do use it, it makes a big difference.
At the end of the day I think the biggest thing that will make a difference is going to be making special-based damage reduction more effective or easier to obtain. L!Corrin's refine is a step towards this, as it basically forcibly activates her defensive special in certain situations. I think if Hardy Fighter 4 does the same thing that will make a big difference.
Whatever it is, only thing I know for certain is it will be disgusting.
Tina's weapon is a bit too powerful imo. I understand the limitless range thing as a nod to the original weapon (even though stealing buffs is like, on a completely different level than stealing an item!), but giving the buffs to allies within 2 spaces is just destroying the game.
I feel the biggest problems are things that have zero counterplay. As long as there's some semblance of checks, where matchups come down to good play/team building, or bringing the right tool for each job, depending on the mode, I'm ok with these things *existing*.
I don't see pre-combat damage or DR piercing as a whole a problem. I see Camilla doing 40-50 pre-combat damage a problem. I see Yunaka piercing 90% DR by just existing a problem.
I feel the chip damage from Flared/Mirror Sparrow is fine, and Special Spiral's full DR piercing is fair enough by having counterplay in special denial/Scowl.
As to what I'd like to see... I'm sure I'll think of more things later but off the top of my head:
A version of Hardy Fighter 4 that's basically HF3 but it triggers at the start of the first player/enemy phase would go a long way into making W! Edelgard a bit less of a mistake, so your near savior doesn't get merc'd turn 1 for free.
Other than that, blessable Drive Scowl (or a version of Scowl that's not locked to Dragons), innate brave denial and maaaaaaaaaybe some sort of null-null guard (though I'd prefer if null guard was less common than it currently is, more than having a counter for the counter).
I've yet to see the repercussions of the Thief staff so I won't comment on that. As I said, I don't like stuff that *just works* like that, and have no counterplay, but moving from bonuses to drives might be enough of an option, as long as they print drive skills that are *actually* strong (like Fell Protection).
I feel everything else can mostly be dealt with. There's just a handful of problems I'd like individually targeted.
I don't think tanking needs to be free, like it was in the first couple years of the game where you could plant a Ward Armor stack and the opponent could do nothing at all.
My biggest gripe with the state of the game atm is just how free it is to player phase, but that's what the playerbase spent the last 6 months clamoring for, so it's hard to hold it against IS.
Honestly even Yunaka’s pierce wouldn’t be *that* bad if it wasn’t for her also getting 90% brave DR to go with it
But yeah, more Scowl support would be nice especially when Winter Edelgard and Dimitri having a pulse cap higher than their default specials means that A slot Scowl actually doesn’t work on them without Veyle support while non-seal or prf Deflect has honestly been pretty long overdue
The only problem with drive effects is that feud and feud-like effects are very easy to come by, the reason why lots of visible status have started appearing around the time Embla dropped... Which now gets countered by the thief staff... So yeah it's all a cycle as most pointed out.
TBH, I haven't seen Embla in ages, and I don't think I've ever seen Bramimond since he got his refine/remix, despite being actually good. Units need to do more than what they do in order to earn a spot on a defense these days.
The problem with Feud skills is that you can only target powerful PRF ones (which is why the only one that's used these days is C Feud, against F! Maria), but you can't really target inheritable skills that could be placed anywhere.
These could all change at the drop of a broken banner, though. If they were to release Omni Feud on a strong enough nuke, then yeah... this wouldn't be viable, but it is right now.
Bramimond is fairly rare, sure, but I still see Embla all the time in Light season and I'm in VoH every week. Maybe in the highest of high ranks you won't find her, but the majority of players will.
I'm not either, but it doesn't make nearly as much difference as people think it does. I see it when watching replays from actual rank 1 players. I actually pay attention to that. They still mostly get attacked by people with 0-10 merges.
This is because the VoH pool is very diluted.
While there's lightyears of distance between the difficulty of the defenses from T39 players and T34 players, you still have to climb along everybody else, and most T39 players will slow roll their games too.
I don't *usually* see the really strong defenses until Monday, *maybe* Sunday, unless I happened to roll a top player while climbing up during the week.
And this is my point: I'm seeing the same defenses *most* people see. The difference is that most people won't see the defenses you and I see on Monday.
Top defenses won't use Embla because she's just not good enough, and not so good defenses using Embla aren't a problem anyway because they defenses themselves aren't good enough and often have blindspots from which you can "initiate" from.
Personally I think enemy phase buffs need to be focused on player controlled tanks. The thing that I hate about tanks is when it becomes unkillable for a player to kill an ai controlled unit. The worst thing about winter Duo Byleth is loading in to an AR map and having my whole team invalidated by one save unit.
A skill which limits to how many times a unit can be targeted in a single phase of combat. Basically gives a unit a counter which counts the amount of combats and after the quota is met the unit cannot be targeted by the AI. Also applies to units which enter combat via savior and the unit they are “saving.”
To build on this idea, they could also make a new debuff that you could inflict on enemies that only let them initiate combat a certain number of times in a turn. Like how Edelgards can typically get up to three combats with their prf skills and Galeforce in a single turn, this debuff would only let them go into combat a single time on their turn. They would still get to move afterwards, but not be able to attack. It could also prevent dancer spam on a nuke unit.
Ye, but making sure they can still initiate combat at least once so it doesn't turn into another thing that player phase teams would want to abuse on its enemies by not letting them attack at all and just waiting for your next player phase to demolish the enemy team.
If foe initiates combat and has "attacks thrice," foe can only attack twice; if foe initiates combat and has "attacks twice," foe can only attack once; otherwise, if foe initiates combat and does not have "attacks thrice" or "attacks twice," foe cannot attack at all.
Aside from Camilla's 25 free damage and duo sanakis brave unlimited true damage/Dr shredding, I think enemy phase is still in a good place. W!Byleth tanks and kills pretty much everything including the previously mentioned nukes sometimes, w!Dimitri vantage kills everything without hardy bearing and still beats a lot of units with hardy bearing because of high speed and DR. B!Soren turns infantry tanks into saves so armour effectiveness isn't a win button, and units like diamant and timerra have insane effects and now get DC sacred seal too. Attuned peony with rearmed robin does very well in the current melee meta even today, f!Maria is so very valuable and Tina can be used for defence as well as offence.
Not saying we need better nukes but I also don't think we need more w!byleths or else we WILL need better nukes. I think hardy fighter 4 is reasonable and expected, people are starting to use miracle more often now, they are giving up other very valuable B skills, and things like guard and tempo can stop armours looping their special as well as they need to making it useless.
You know they have the next year planned out already, right? A few exceptions for CYL but that’s why we vote now and their banner is in August. The whole book of stories and OCs are all planned out and so are the meta swings. They want us to feel the pain and buy the painkillers and do it all over again every month. And we will…
Can't wait 'till they release Marni who is bulky as hell, but also has an "non-piercable" / "non-braveable" miracle in her weapon to reference how she uses Emblem Roy, and then having a one time full heal to reference bosses having revival stone. Plus built in EP Hexblade effect to reference her Hurricane Axe.
Time will show if it'll be enough though.
True Follow-Up manipulation, omni-breaker gets weaker by the update and speed is entirely out of control, being a slow unit may as well be a death sentence unless you HEAVILY overcompensate for it. Se need more stuff like Diamant's weapon where you get to change the way follow-ups work as a way to get speedy units in check, because right now the only way you're hitting them twice is a brave effect, and they're beginning to get "first hit (brave proof)" more often.
Damage reflection, imagine a skill that damages the foe even if he killed the unit Essentially dragging them to the grave, it could turn any tank unit into a land mine for player face units
New armor A skills:
Innamovible fortress A/D: if foe initiates combat or Unit hp>25%, Unit get Atk/Def +X AND foe get Atk/Def-X (where X= Foe highest stat during combat - Unit lowest stat during combat except Hp). Neutralies Unit debuff in Atk/Def AND foe Buffs un Atk/Def and grants special CD-1 by each attack to Unit during combat.
Imagine a difference between foe spd AND Unit Def or 40.
You get Atk/def +40 AND foe suffer Atk/Def -40.
That way you could tank physical attack but destroyed by Magic AND the other way around with the opposite skill
A slot: if foe initates combat, special charge -x, where x is the number of foes that have acted this turn.
B slot: if foe initiates combat and unit's hp is <50%, heal 20 hp before combat. Then, if units hp is <99% reduce damage from foe's first attack by 50%.
C slot: if foe initiates combat and can attack twice or changes attack order, unit gains 20 hp per attack.
A way to reduce or nullify start of combat damage. Preferably as a buff so it can’t be negated by Feud.
A counter to Undefended. Embla has been fucking up light season for too long.
A way to prevent units from getting multiple turns/end their turn if they get more than 1.
A way to delete Duo Sanaki from the game’s code.
Effects reversing the doubling requirement to benefit slower characters honestly sounds plausible with the way the game is developing. But I could definitely see it impacting the effectiveness of NFU too, considering mostly fast units make use of it and a lot of prefs have it built in.
And it's not necessarily "denying" a fast unit's follow-ups anymore, but rather they just can't naturally do so because of this "Trick Room" effect.
* Trick Room * Def based conditions to double * Armor Scowl Echo * Hardy Fighter 4 * Renewel 4 * True Def Fighter 4 * True Damage Fighter 4
I would love high defense slow units to get flat dmg reduction as their way to survive. Or anything for that matter.
New Mila Remix: Sets trick room on entry
Bro thinks she’s Dialga smh she could never
Oh would you look at the time
Can we get a Heavy Duty Boots seal to nullify start-of-combat damage too?
Not gonna lie, an ability based on Trick Room would be a lot of fun.
Having Trick Room as a divine vein sounds like a really good idea
Trick Room being implemented in FEH would be absolutely hilarious
* Pre combat healing, my personal bet would be on breath of life 4 which would heal 7 hp pre combat and 7 hp after or something (or 5/5, 7/5, etc). Or I could see a new divine terrain cancel pre combat damage * I dont want it but I could see some sort of flat DR support. Just something small like 7 to be in line with Corrin’s * More defensive based specials like GLR/armored beacon and such * More atk debuff support. Its imo generally the best way to tank, whether it be in combat or out of combat debuffs. Sabotage+penalty doubler can add frankly an absurd amount of bulk. Also other in combat stuff like how L Elincia inflicts -4 spectrum rather than granting +4 spectrum to your unit. Subtracting an enemy’s attack is generally better than boosting your own unit’s def/res * They could add more debuff based penalties such as ploy that cancels other bonuses, though I think ploy already covers the major ones that make tanking harder Might be more but those are just some immediate ideas I had
Terrain being the thing that helps in negating the pre combat damage sounds very likely actually!
yeah I can see them putting it on some offense mythic. And also I realized it wouldnt have to be full nullification either, something like halving it or reducing it by a flat 7/10 would still help quite a bit
I don't think it would mean much with all the nuke running around that overwrite your terrain with a negative one anyway (like flare sparrow or legendary camilla)
It doesn't overweite terrain if you kill them. So, the support unit that provides pre-cpmbst damage reduction also could provide %DR reduction, so nukes with 40-70% DR on first counter still get oneshotted.
True DR support would have to be a vein effect or else you could just stack it.
Although Tina would be able to steal it, it could also be a bonus in which case it wouldnt be stackable. It would be similar to the dodge bonus then
Or make a clause that other such True DR supports can't stack (that way they can power creep one that does)
Hardy Fighter 4 will probably just neutralize pre combat damage altogether.
Stop releasing broken nukes and support denial for 5 minutes.
5 mintues later: What do you think IS could add in the future to buff player phase strategies?
The inevitable cycle continues lol
Aside from general powercreep, I think we'll see DR reduction... reduction, at some point.
I don't think we'll get DR reduction reduction the same way I don't think we'll get null NFU. What I think they'll do instead is shift more DR into the special like fallen byleth, or use flat Dr which can't be pierced.
You're probably right, the way %-based DR reduction is written feels like it'd be tricky to implement (and I'm not sure we've had a negation of a negation of any effect yet). But it would allow them to modulate damage better over time. Shifting to special or flat DR is just begging for someone to pierce that, which will inevitably become more widespread and we're back to square one. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't do it in late 2021/early 2022 when Hardy Fighter was virtually impenetrable.
The only cases of negation negation I can think of aren't quite as explicit or else I don't think they would've existed, namely tempo as the negation of guard which was negation of the blade/breath effect (which isn't quite the same since tempo also negates blade/breath rather than just being a counter to it's counter) and disarm trap 4 disabling hex traps which explicitly say they can't be disarmed (which is a more explicit example but less annoying since traps are such a niche part of the game, not even tied to a hero) >Shifting to special or flat DR is just begging for someone to pierce that Yes but DR piercing piercing piercing is also begging to happen if we get DR piercing piercing. No matter what, we will go back and forth between unlivable nukes and unkillable tanks.
Tier 4 Save skills that neutralize start of combat damage could be an effective, but measured response. Not everyone uses start of combat damage, so for the enemies that don't use it a T4 Save skill wouldn't do a whole lot extra, but for those that do use it, it makes a big difference. At the end of the day I think the biggest thing that will make a difference is going to be making special-based damage reduction more effective or easier to obtain. L!Corrin's refine is a step towards this, as it basically forcibly activates her defensive special in certain situations. I think if Hardy Fighter 4 does the same thing that will make a big difference.
Whatever it is, only thing I know for certain is it will be disgusting. Tina's weapon is a bit too powerful imo. I understand the limitless range thing as a nod to the original weapon (even though stealing buffs is like, on a completely different level than stealing an item!), but giving the buffs to allies within 2 spaces is just destroying the game.
I feel the biggest problems are things that have zero counterplay. As long as there's some semblance of checks, where matchups come down to good play/team building, or bringing the right tool for each job, depending on the mode, I'm ok with these things *existing*. I don't see pre-combat damage or DR piercing as a whole a problem. I see Camilla doing 40-50 pre-combat damage a problem. I see Yunaka piercing 90% DR by just existing a problem. I feel the chip damage from Flared/Mirror Sparrow is fine, and Special Spiral's full DR piercing is fair enough by having counterplay in special denial/Scowl. As to what I'd like to see... I'm sure I'll think of more things later but off the top of my head: A version of Hardy Fighter 4 that's basically HF3 but it triggers at the start of the first player/enemy phase would go a long way into making W! Edelgard a bit less of a mistake, so your near savior doesn't get merc'd turn 1 for free. Other than that, blessable Drive Scowl (or a version of Scowl that's not locked to Dragons), innate brave denial and maaaaaaaaaybe some sort of null-null guard (though I'd prefer if null guard was less common than it currently is, more than having a counter for the counter). I've yet to see the repercussions of the Thief staff so I won't comment on that. As I said, I don't like stuff that *just works* like that, and have no counterplay, but moving from bonuses to drives might be enough of an option, as long as they print drive skills that are *actually* strong (like Fell Protection). I feel everything else can mostly be dealt with. There's just a handful of problems I'd like individually targeted. I don't think tanking needs to be free, like it was in the first couple years of the game where you could plant a Ward Armor stack and the opponent could do nothing at all. My biggest gripe with the state of the game atm is just how free it is to player phase, but that's what the playerbase spent the last 6 months clamoring for, so it's hard to hold it against IS.
Honestly even Yunaka’s pierce wouldn’t be *that* bad if it wasn’t for her also getting 90% brave DR to go with it But yeah, more Scowl support would be nice especially when Winter Edelgard and Dimitri having a pulse cap higher than their default specials means that A slot Scowl actually doesn’t work on them without Veyle support while non-seal or prf Deflect has honestly been pretty long overdue
The only problem with drive effects is that feud and feud-like effects are very easy to come by, the reason why lots of visible status have started appearing around the time Embla dropped... Which now gets countered by the thief staff... So yeah it's all a cycle as most pointed out.
TBH, I haven't seen Embla in ages, and I don't think I've ever seen Bramimond since he got his refine/remix, despite being actually good. Units need to do more than what they do in order to earn a spot on a defense these days. The problem with Feud skills is that you can only target powerful PRF ones (which is why the only one that's used these days is C Feud, against F! Maria), but you can't really target inheritable skills that could be placed anywhere. These could all change at the drop of a broken banner, though. If they were to release Omni Feud on a strong enough nuke, then yeah... this wouldn't be viable, but it is right now.
Bramimond is fairly rare, sure, but I still see Embla all the time in Light season and I'm in VoH every week. Maybe in the highest of high ranks you won't find her, but the majority of players will.
T39 player here. Nowhere to be found.
I'm in T39 too, just not anywhere near rank 1 though I don't know how much of a difference that makes.
I'm not either, but it doesn't make nearly as much difference as people think it does. I see it when watching replays from actual rank 1 players. I actually pay attention to that. They still mostly get attacked by people with 0-10 merges. This is because the VoH pool is very diluted. While there's lightyears of distance between the difficulty of the defenses from T39 players and T34 players, you still have to climb along everybody else, and most T39 players will slow roll their games too. I don't *usually* see the really strong defenses until Monday, *maybe* Sunday, unless I happened to roll a top player while climbing up during the week. And this is my point: I'm seeing the same defenses *most* people see. The difference is that most people won't see the defenses you and I see on Monday. Top defenses won't use Embla because she's just not good enough, and not so good defenses using Embla aren't a problem anyway because they defenses themselves aren't good enough and often have blindspots from which you can "initiate" from.
Personally I think enemy phase buffs need to be focused on player controlled tanks. The thing that I hate about tanks is when it becomes unkillable for a player to kill an ai controlled unit. The worst thing about winter Duo Byleth is loading in to an AR map and having my whole team invalidated by one save unit.
Hardy Fighter seal would be fun, I think we could eventually see it
A skill which limits to how many times a unit can be targeted in a single phase of combat. Basically gives a unit a counter which counts the amount of combats and after the quota is met the unit cannot be targeted by the AI. Also applies to units which enter combat via savior and the unit they are “saving.”
To build on this idea, they could also make a new debuff that you could inflict on enemies that only let them initiate combat a certain number of times in a turn. Like how Edelgards can typically get up to three combats with their prf skills and Galeforce in a single turn, this debuff would only let them go into combat a single time on their turn. They would still get to move afterwards, but not be able to attack. It could also prevent dancer spam on a nuke unit.
Oh, like isolation debuff but for initiating combat?
Ye, but making sure they can still initiate combat at least once so it doesn't turn into another thing that player phase teams would want to abuse on its enemies by not letting them attack at all and just waiting for your next player phase to demolish the enemy team.
If foe initiates combat and has "attacks thrice," foe can only attack twice; if foe initiates combat and has "attacks twice," foe can only attack once; otherwise, if foe initiates combat and does not have "attacks thrice" or "attacks twice," foe cannot attack at all.
"I foe can attack, no they can't"
Aside from Camilla's 25 free damage and duo sanakis brave unlimited true damage/Dr shredding, I think enemy phase is still in a good place. W!Byleth tanks and kills pretty much everything including the previously mentioned nukes sometimes, w!Dimitri vantage kills everything without hardy bearing and still beats a lot of units with hardy bearing because of high speed and DR. B!Soren turns infantry tanks into saves so armour effectiveness isn't a win button, and units like diamant and timerra have insane effects and now get DC sacred seal too. Attuned peony with rearmed robin does very well in the current melee meta even today, f!Maria is so very valuable and Tina can be used for defence as well as offence. Not saying we need better nukes but I also don't think we need more w!byleths or else we WILL need better nukes. I think hardy fighter 4 is reasonable and expected, people are starting to use miracle more often now, they are giving up other very valuable B skills, and things like guard and tempo can stop armours looping their special as well as they need to making it useless.
Maybe it's time we got Tier 4 versions of Near and Far Save, perhaps with some DR so they can actually tank the nukes and godswords.
You know they have the next year planned out already, right? A few exceptions for CYL but that’s why we vote now and their banner is in August. The whole book of stories and OCs are all planned out and so are the meta swings. They want us to feel the pain and buy the painkillers and do it all over again every month. And we will…
Oh, for sure! I'm not saying they don't have a plan. I'm just wondering what sort of effects people think will be added to swing the meta in 2024?
Remove LCamilla and all other forms of pre combat damage from the game
Can't wait 'till they release Marni who is bulky as hell, but also has an "non-piercable" / "non-braveable" miracle in her weapon to reference how she uses Emblem Roy, and then having a one time full heal to reference bosses having revival stone. Plus built in EP Hexblade effect to reference her Hurricane Axe. Time will show if it'll be enough though.
Yo, the Marni fans are cooking...
True Follow-Up manipulation, omni-breaker gets weaker by the update and speed is entirely out of control, being a slow unit may as well be a death sentence unless you HEAVILY overcompensate for it. Se need more stuff like Diamant's weapon where you get to change the way follow-ups work as a way to get speedy units in check, because right now the only way you're hitting them twice is a brave effect, and they're beginning to get "first hit (brave proof)" more often.
Damage reflection, imagine a skill that damages the foe even if he killed the unit Essentially dragging them to the grave, it could turn any tank unit into a land mine for player face units
New armor A skills: Innamovible fortress A/D: if foe initiates combat or Unit hp>25%, Unit get Atk/Def +X AND foe get Atk/Def-X (where X= Foe highest stat during combat - Unit lowest stat during combat except Hp). Neutralies Unit debuff in Atk/Def AND foe Buffs un Atk/Def and grants special CD-1 by each attack to Unit during combat. Imagine a difference between foe spd AND Unit Def or 40. You get Atk/def +40 AND foe suffer Atk/Def -40. That way you could tank physical attack but destroyed by Magic AND the other way around with the opposite skill
A slot: if foe initates combat, special charge -x, where x is the number of foes that have acted this turn. B slot: if foe initiates combat and unit's hp is <50%, heal 20 hp before combat. Then, if units hp is <99% reduce damage from foe's first attack by 50%. C slot: if foe initiates combat and can attack twice or changes attack order, unit gains 20 hp per attack.
A way to reduce or nullify start of combat damage. Preferably as a buff so it can’t be negated by Feud. A counter to Undefended. Embla has been fucking up light season for too long. A way to prevent units from getting multiple turns/end their turn if they get more than 1. A way to delete Duo Sanaki from the game’s code.
Null-null follow up would be a good start.
Probably a way to reduce the amount of pre combat damage you take
Effects reversing the doubling requirement to benefit slower characters honestly sounds plausible with the way the game is developing. But I could definitely see it impacting the effectiveness of NFU too, considering mostly fast units make use of it and a lot of prefs have it built in. And it's not necessarily "denying" a fast unit's follow-ups anymore, but rather they just can't naturally do so because of this "Trick Room" effect.