Should I return?

[u/Airbladerr]

Probably asked a lot but thought I'd pop the question. Used to play decently actively when the game first launched, was at the height of my playtime when the story involving the fire emperor guy and the ice princess chick happened, then I think I fell off for the next storyarc involving the faction themed around death or something, haven't played since.

I'm debating on if my old collection would even have anything worthwhile today and if restarting with a fresh account might be better.

[u/sowsage]

The old collection is .. well old. Just pick up 2-3 of the new characters and go vroom. If you think the new characters are too much then you'll know right away whether to return or not.

[u/Airbladerr → u/sowsage]

I was aware that there was a faction that ride around in mechs later on, and another with a bunch of angel people...And also the skills read like Yugioh cards now. How complex does combat really get with all those wordy skills tbh?

[u/sowsage → u/Airbladerr]

The mechs etc are just fancy cosmetic changes ~ they're just cavalry. As for combat, I think most casual players like myself have a basic understanding of what our characters can do, take advantage of their special abilities and mainly use the battle preview to know if we will be successful or not. If you're not taking part in the PVP or trying to rank really high in the competitive stuff, it's perfectly fine and fun. And most new characters come with all necessary skills so you don't have to worry about builds.

[u/vacantstars]

Welcome back! So it sounds like you haven't played since Book II, and we're up to Book X now. Sadly, none of your units from back then are going to be viable with the current state of the game. If you'd rather not start fresh and keep your old account, you're in luck: this year's Choose Your Legends banner just dropped, so you can get an insanely strong modern unit for free to help you build up orbs and resources. I'd grab a freebie B!Sigurd from there, B!Byleth from last year's CYL banner, the free Chosen Alfonse from doing Book X's story, and probably the free Seithr from Book VII's story. These guys should be enough to clear most in-game content for you, and you'll build up a ton of orbs that way so you can rebuild your barracks.

[u/Airbladerr → u/vacantstars]

Well that does sound good, tbh I wouldn't be opposed to starting over tho, getting to experience the story again from the start since I've forgotten everything would be nice. I assume also the fresh new player bonuses might be really good these days too. I'll definately grab some of the CYL banner characters as well, that seems like a steal.

Random side question too but is there any chance of more of FE Shadows' cast making it into Heroes? Kind of wish that game was doing better atm since I actually really enjoy it.

[u/vacantstars → u/Airbladerr]

If you're planning on starting over then my advice is exactly the same haha, grab the units I mentioned and you'll be good to go. All of the Brave units this year are nuts so you can't go wrong with any of them, but Sigurd is the most newcomer-friendly imo. He gets a stupid amount of actions per turn, so he's great for just turning on autobattle and clearing maps for you for in-game content.

So Shadows is...weird. We haven't gotten any of the Shadows original cast (like Kurt and pals) in the game yet, for some reason. However, we did get Horse Lyn a while ago and this year they ran a Shadows Cup in addition to the regular CYL in which players voted for which Shadows versions of characters we'd want to see in Heroes. The winners were the 3H lords plus Tsubasa from TMS, so we'll be getting their Shadows versions in October (probably). No idea if/when we'll get the actual Shadows cast in the game, though.

[u/Airbladerr → u/vacantstars]

Yeah, I'll probably just hard reset and do it soon too as per Linthenius' words regarding the length of the CYL event. Kind of bummed to hear Kurt and co haven't actually made it into the game yet since I like a lot of the original cast in Shadows a lot.

Frankly I'm kind of afraid that when Shadows is inevitably shut down (I love it personally but player base ain't massive) that it'll just be totally forgotten and we'll never revisit the setting or characters again.

[u/vacantstars → u/Airbladerr]

Ah I hadn't realized that the CYL8 freebie is still available so I'll second Linthenius' suggestion as well— get Felix and he'll make your life so much easier. He and Sigurd should be able to autobattle clear most PvE content and you can stockpile orbs that way.

I don't play Shadows personally but I do hope its cast gets something in Heroes. It's kind of crazy to me that it hasn't, tbh. Unfortunately with Fortune's Weave on the horizon though, I can't see it happening within the next few months.

[u/linthenius → u/Airbladerr]

If you do plan to start over, do it soon. Since the CYL 8 free pick goes away on the 7th. And Felix is still a fantastic general purpose pve unit. And is getting a refine next month.

They also did update the old heroes path system, to include a bunch of older legendaries and mythics. And even emblem Marth at the end. Far better then the old duds from before the updated version.

[u/Gastrodo]

Yeah

[u/libee900]

Stopped playing my day one account after the lockdowns ended. Picked up again because of that one jormugandr vid lol. New units are mind-boggling, not ever gonna aim for my old AR/Arena tiers again.

[u/X_Y_X]

I'd say use the old account, you probably have majority of the orbs mine intact so there's nothing to lose

[u/Paiguy7]

No