I'm so tempted to promote my 4 star Fir right now. I'm sitting on a shitload of Feathers, and that Fir I started the game with has the perfect traits for a promotion (+Atk/-Def). Trouble is wanting to raise her or to even play this game for a while (not when I have FEW, XBC2, God Wars, TitS 2nd, Ys VIII, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, Romancing SaGa 2, etc, staring me down this Christmas). Doesn't help that my 5 star backlog continues to grow rather than shrink (hell, Frederick, my last vanity promotion, still isn't Level 40 yet). On the other hand, promoting Fir would give me an excuse to spend 20 Poprocks on giving her a decent weapon and puts me 20 Mountain Dews closer to either upping Eliwood's old/busted Durandal or Michalis' Hauteclere into something slightly nicer (plus, I like Fir dammit; granted she's no Ayra or even Rutger, but I like her a lot more than Hana and it sucks that she got so badly screwed over by powercreep and sheer competition).
Also contemplating upping Legion and/or Clarisse to 5 star. Clarisse benefits immensely, but Legion kinda doesn't and both have to contend with getting backlogged (which is dangerous for GHeB units).
The other problem with these options is that I'm also contemplating upping Narcian, Valter, Palla, Adult Tiki, Donnel, Female Corrin, Nino, Gunter, and Beruka, Navarre, Setsuna, Barst, Bartre, Gwendolyn, Draug, Clarine, Shanna, and/or Gordin if I can get ones with non-crap Traits or a serious reason why I should bother at this point.
Reasons for the season I guess:
Fir: (+)A good vanity pick for me and the prep work's all done. (-)Lacks real value beyond Ass Assault fodder.
Clarisse: (+)4 star stat line sucks whereas 5 star's doesn't and GHeBs are pretty safe promotions. (-)She's still not terribly thrilling and poor timing can leave me with an ugly grind to muscle through.
Legion: (+)Is a GHeB unit on the better half of the powercreep curve. (-)Already level 40 4 star and doesn't gain much from a promotion.
Valter: (+)GHeB flier and would be a fairly decent alternative to my Cordelia. (-)Flier demand is still low and Cordelia's better.
Narcian: (+)GHeB and decent Green Flier. (-)I already have Michalis and Camilla up and running.
Navarre: (+)GHeB unit. (-)Too much competition and nothing to bring to the table.
Palla: (+)Red Fliers are still fairly scarce and she's a pretty good option. (-)My current Palla's Traits sucks (+Res/-HP) and I can't fill the Flier Emblem gap in the meanwhile.
Adult Tiki: (+)Forging just made her Lightning Breath really fucking good and I lack a good Red unit for Dragon Emblem. (-)Ambivalent towards Traits (+Spd/-HP; unless I go +Spd Forge, there are better options) and still zero demand for Dragon Emblem for some reason.
Donnel: (+)Trainee BST and a solid enough Blue Infantry to make an Assault Team. (-)No idea on what to do about his skills.
Female Corrin: (+)Blue Dragon with an interesting and kinda useful for a Dragon Emblem team 5 star weapon. (-)I have two Nowis and still no demand for Dragon Emblem.
Nino: (+)One of the best Green Mages, F2P or no, and a solid choice all around. (-)I have a Cecilia for Anti-Reinhardt/Bowlin, Sonya and Summer Elise for general Green nukes, Boey for a Ranged Green Infantry Tank, and a Female Robin for shits and giggles, also sub-optimal Traits (+Atk/-Res; +Spd/-Def would be ideal).
Gunter: (+)Vanity pick since he and Titania are the only Green Calvary I don't have at 5 stars right now. (-)Too bad Titania and Frederick are better overall.
Beruka: (+)Forging makes her viable again and she'd be another vanity pick. (-)My current one has terrible Traits (+Res/-Spd; she needs +Atk/-Spd or Res).
Setsuna: (+)Forging also saves her from the dustbin of powercreep. (-)Horrible Traits with no good alternatives right now (current has +HP/-Atk; +Atk is a must).
Barst: (+)Good Traits (+Atk/-Def). (-)Could be better and still needs prep work (I have a +Atk/-Spd waiting in the wings, but Barst could aim for having decent Spd even with a Brave Axe weighing him down).
Bartre: (+)Good Traits (+Atk/-Def) and Forging helps him even more. (-)He actually wants +Spd since that, plus Fury 3 gives him over 30 Spd which gets him out of the 'gets doubled by everybody' club.
Gwendolyn: (+)Would grant me complete 5 star coverage over all Blue Armors if I pull a Tannenboom!. (-)None that I have right now are +Atk, plus Promotion wouldn't help her very much since she works much better with a Sapphire Lance.
Draug: (+/-) See Gwendolyn, but substitute gender pronouns, all Blue Unit references with Red ones, and the Sapphire Lance spiel with competition.
Clarine: (+)Mounted Staffbot in a post 'there is a reason to promote Staffbots to 5 star now' world, plus I like her design well enough. (-)How many 5 star Staffbots do I need when I have the two most important ones and she isn't #3? Also prep work needed.
Shanna: (+)Recent-ish VG and Forging has promoted her to a vanity pick. (-)Lots of prep work required as my current one has +Def/-Atk traits and the one with +Atk/-HP is a level 1 3 star.
Gordin: (+)Contemplated promoting him up to 5 stars back when my Archer situation consisted of Klein. (-)My Archer situation now consists of Klein, Bowlin, Bridelia, Leon and Takumi (I guess, despite his awful Traits).