Fire Emblem

[Geno9999]

In the beginning, there was a dragon of darkness, a sword of light and... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUFaa0rT3zo)

~Fire Emblem~ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpiI8B8HWvE)

Come, join us! Let's ride together! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LReLPBH7SVI)

FAQ:
What's Fire Emblem?
Fire Emblem is a series of Turn Based Strategy Roleplaying Game that started back in 1990 for the Famicom (the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System.) While the series was popular in Japan, the games didn't reach international shores until after Marth and Roy, protagonists from some of the games, made an appearance as playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee. With the characters becoming popular among Melee players, Nintendo released the series worldwide, starting with Blazing Sword (though internationally, it is simply referred as Fire Emblem.)

Okay what do we do here on this thread?
Basically discuss and debate what characters to use in a play through, favorite shipping support pairs, share tactics, favorite music, advertise PbP games, etc. Basically, what we like about the series.

What's with FE7, or FE10, etc?
While the games aren't numbered, fans have adopted to referring each of the Fire Emblem games with numbers are by order of release, counting the games that were released in Japan only (so Fire Emblem: Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light, the first game, is referred as FE1, while Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, the eighth game released, is called FE8.)

Is Marth, Roy, and Ike in this game?
The thing is, the Fire Emblem series have lots and lots of worlds. Aside from the mechanics and similar plot structure, the games have little in common with one another, being set in different continents/worlds. In fact, the series has few direct sequels (so sort of like the Legend of Zelda in a way, if not all the princesses were called Zelda, and not all the heroes were called Link.) So one game might star Marth, another some guy named Eliwood (or was it Hector?), and another still star Ike (hero of the Crimean Liberation, leader of the Greil Mercenaries, and father of Sothe's children), but their stories do not interact with the other, with at best a passing, blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference if they do refer to each other at all. However, there is a certain new game for the 3DS (http://serenesforest.net/fe13/) that has past characters available for DLC.

[Illven]

We should advertise the Pbp games in here, put a spoiler in the first post, and put a list and links to the games.


The thing is that I find Heath is good at hit and run. He has decent Health and Defense growths for me in that regard. Florina however feels a bit more fragile compared to him (though that seems to be Pegasi Knights as a whole.) I like their speed, but their low Con score (4 and 5 for Florina and Fiora, respecively) holds that back even if they use Iron Lances. Heath on the other hand can use heavier weaponry with less slow down.

Also, I made a thing here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269887)

Continuing from the crossover thread.

Typically by that point, my Florina is only slightly less sturdy against physical attacks, much better against magic, typically about as strong if not stronger, and has more then enough speed over Heath to just ignore the Con penalty.

I mean I use Cormag and Tana in Fe 8, it's just Heath joins too low leveled.

[BlackDragonKing]

We should advertise the Pbp games in here, put a spoiler in the first post, and put a list and links to the games.



Continuing from the crossover thread.

Typically by that point, my Florina is only slightly less sturdy against physical attacks, much better against magic, typically about as strong if not stronger, and has more then enough speed over Heath to just ignore the Con penalty.

I mean I use Cormag and Tana in Fe 8, it's just Heath joins too low leveled.

I'd say if you're going to pick ONE flier for a runthrough in 7, Florina is far and away the best choice. Heath has been really good to me in the runs where I've been able to give him some help (seriously, as a Wyvern Lord, he's a downright beastly tank on top of being surprisingly fast) but I agree that he does not join looking too hot, especially since the very next level has a ton of mages and axe users that will make him a poor choice.

In Sacred Stones, pretty much all of the fliers are extremely viable choices except Syrene, who should probably wait for creature campaign.

[Zevox]

Hm. So, I tried to pre-order Awakening the other day, only to be told that Gamestop wasn't taking pre-orders on it anymore. That's slightly worrying. This is the kind of game I could see stores ordering fairly few copies of and then selling out of, after all. Hope I'll still be able to get one day 1.

[BlackDragonKing]

Hm. So, I tried to pre-order Awakening the other day, only to be told that Gamestop wasn't taking pre-orders on it anymore. That's slightly worrying. This is the kind of game I could see stores ordering fairly few copies of and then selling out of, after all. Hope I'll still be able to get one day 1.

Yeah, I was asking about Awakening in my own Gamestop, and the guy told me I really wanted to pre-order it; he was concerned that they weren't going to get a very big supply.

Fortunately, I got my pre-order in place, but hopefully you'll be able to nail one the day it comes out...

[Starsign]

Typically by that point, my Florina is only slightly less sturdy against physical attacks, much better against magic, typically about as strong if not stronger, and has more then enough speed over Heath to just ignore the Con penalty.

I mean I use Cormag and Tana in Fe 8, it's just Heath joins too low leveled.


I'd say if you're going to pick ONE flier for a runthrough in 7, Florina is far and away the best choice. Heath has been really good to me in the runs where I've been able to give him some help (seriously, as a Wyvern Lord, he's a downright beastly tank on top of being surprisingly fast) but I agree that he does not join looking too hot, especially since the very next level has a ton of mages and axe users that will make him a poor choice.

In Sacred Stones, pretty much all of the fliers are extremely viable choices except Syrene, who should probably wait for creature campaign.

With how early Florina joins, her usefulness, and her reliable growths, she generally ends up being the overall best flier in FE7.

Vanessa, Tana, and Cormag are all great in FE8, though Vanessa generally ends up lower class compared to the other two. Syrene however I never use and generally isn't very good as a whole.

For those who have played FE6 (aka the one with Roy) would you call me crazy if I said that Dieck and Clarine are NOT good characters by that game's standards? (as in, I'd use the prepromotes over them)

[Illven]

With how early Florina joins, her usefulness, and her reliable growths, she generally ends up being the overall best flier in FE7.

Vanessa, Tana, and Cormag are all great in FE8, though Vanessa generally ends up lower class compared to the other two. Syrene however I never use and generally isn't very good as a whole.

For those who have played FE6 (aka the one with Roy) would you call me crazy if I said that Dieck and Clarine are NOT good characters by that game's standards? (as in, I'd use the prepromotes over them)

Yeah, Florina would be even better if Lyn's mode had less Axe enemies, and more sword enemies.

About Fe 6, I played like 4 chapters so I really can't comment.

[huttj509]

I feel like a horrible person.

In Awakening, something I'm really looking forward to is the casual option with no permanent hero death. It always turned me off in Sacred Stones feeling like I had to keep everyone alive.

Also looking forward to more flexible support options. I only played Sacred Stones, but needing specific characters next to each other for the bonuses felt too "guide-dang-it" for my tastes.

I do like how the casual mode is an option, not a lower difficulty mode. Heck, I could work up to casual impossible+ if I so desired.

[BlackDragonKing]

I feel like a horrible person.

In Awakening, something I'm really looking forward to is the casual option with no permanent hero death. It always turned me off in Sacred Stones feeling like I had to keep everyone alive.

Also looking forward to more flexible support options. I only played Sacred Stones, but needing specific characters next to each other for the bonuses felt too "guide-dang-it" for my tastes.

I do like how the casual mode is an option, not a lower difficulty mode. Heck, I could work up to casual impossible+ if I so desired.

I guess I'm too used to making a perfect no-casualites run a part of my FE experience to exploit that system, but I'm sure there are plenty of people that will find it refreshing not to restart a level when that one unlucky strike lands...

My main worry is about the class-change system. Am I the only one that feels concerned maintaining this feature will strip characters of their identity? It worked in Shadow Dragon where they're all practically interchangeable drones with barely any backstory, but here...

[TheSummoner]

My main worry is about the class-change system. Am I the only one that feels concerned maintaining this feature will strip characters of their identity? It worked in Shadow Dragon where they're all practically interchangeable drones with barely any backstory, but here...

You are not. I've really hated that mechanic since they introduced it. The fact that they characters WERE interchangeable drones made it even worse in Shadow Dragon since there was literally zero reason to pick one character over another other than stats in that game. It defeated the entire purpose of having so many characters in the first place.

[Mando Knight]

Class change is more limited in Awakening, though. Only certain characters have free reign over which classes they can choose (My Unit and DLC characters, I believe... and My Unit's kid(s)), excepting "special" classes (which can only be inherited/used by certain characters). Everyone else has their main class and two others (http://serenesforest.net/fe13/class_set.html) that they can choose from... Children get both their parents' regular class choices, as appropriate for the kid's gender (no male Pegasus Knights or Clerics, no female Barbarians or Priests, etc.).

In general, it looks to me like each character usually gets an alternate class similar to their starting class, and then one that's fairly different. (Chrom gets Cavalier, which is similar to Lord, and then Archer, which... isn't, really)

[Geno9999]

You are not. I've really hated that mechanic since they introduced it. The fact that they characters WERE interchangeable drones made it even worse in Shadow Dragon since there was literally zero reason to pick one character over another other than stats in that game. It defeated the entire purpose of having so many characters in the first place.

They kinda reworked it. Each character has an initial class and two alternate base classes through the change seal (and by extent, between 4-6 Advanced classes. The only exception to this is the Avatar character, who can change to practically any class.) For example, the two Cavaliers you start out with (Frederick* and Soiree (I guess Sully now that names are being released) (http://serenesforest.net/fe13/class_set.html)) can both Wyvern Riders, but Frederick can become a Armor Knight while Soiree can become a Myrmidon. And considering that skills are gained by reaching a certain level in a class (http://serenesforest.net/fe13/skills.html), and using Frederick as our Example, he can have not only Holy Shield (half damage from Bows, Tomes, and Dragonstones) but also Great Shield (From being a General: half damage from Swords, Lances, Axes, and Beaststones.) This combination is not possible with Soiree, because she doesn't have access to the Armor Knight's class tree.

So basically, you now have to take into account possible skill combinations into account for choosing your army.

*Okay, technically, Frederick starts out as a Great Knight, not a Cavalier, but still the same class tree, so same diff.

[BlackDragonKing]

They kinda reworked it. Each character has an initial class and two alternate base classes through the change seal (and by extent, between 4-6 Advanced classes. The only exception to this is the Avatar character, who can change to practically any class.) For example, the two Cavaliers you start out with (Frederick* and Soiree (I guess Sully now that names are being released) (http://serenesforest.net/fe13/class_set.html)) can both Wyvern Riders, but Frederick can become a Armor Knight while Soiree can become a Myrmidon. And considering that skills are gained by reaching a certain level in a class (http://serenesforest.net/fe13/skills.html), and using Frederick as our Example, he can have not only Holy Shield (half damage from Bows, Tomes, and Dragonstones) but also Great Shield (From being a General: half damage from Swords, Lances, Axes, and Beaststones.) This combination is not possible with Soiree, because she doesn't have access to the Armor Knight's class tree.

So basically, you now have to take into account possible skill combinations into account for choosing your army.

*Okay, technically, Frederick starts out as a Great Knight, not a Cavalier, but still the same class tree, so same diff.

Hm. That certainly seems like a much more reasonable system than that abomination Shadow Dragon saddled us with. Still, I'm hoping it doesn't interfere too much with the feel of the character if they hop over to one of their alt-modes, or lead to stupid things like Shadow Dragon's "level Ogma for five levels as a pirate before making him a hunter, then switch him back to Mercenary at level 15 for optimal growths"...I don't like the class change system very much, but I'll give Awakening's a chance to be better than its predecessor.

[A Rainy Knight]

From what I've seen, the character models in Awakening are more distinctive than usual, and each character has their own cut-in portrait and voice clips during battle, so they seem like they'll retain their personalities pretty well regardless of class.

[tonberrian]

Awakening's demo is pretty fun. I think I'm going to run a female Avatar for the first game, and pair her off with Crom. Dark Flier looks really nice.

[Geno9999]

Hm. That certainly seems like a much more reasonable system than that abomination Shadow Dragon saddled us with. Still, I'm hoping it doesn't interfere too much with the feel of the character if they hop over to one of their alt-modes, or lead to stupid things like Shadow Dragon's "level Ogma for five levels as a pirate before making him a hunter, then switch him back to Mercenary at level 15 for optimal growths"...I don't like the class change system very much, but I'll give Awakening's a chance to be better than its predecessor.

Considering that the Change Seals are more than likely limited in number (like Master Seals,) people probably won't do as much crazy multi-classing mischief until Post-game/DLC missions.

[Acanous]

I was rather dissappoint with Shadow Dragon.
My favorites were Sacred Stones, Sword of Seals, Path of Radiance.

Radiant Dawn was OK, but suffered from some Sequilitis.
-I do not think you could play Radiant Dawn stand-alone without playing Path of Radiance. Folks who come to RD without PoR get to know their characters, then BOOM! suddenly entirely new group what?
-meanwhile, folks who DID play PoR get to slog through a bunch of chapters with weak new units they really don't care about (These people are fighting for the liberation of Dein? isn't that the BAD GUY country that tried to BLOW UP THE WORLD?) before getting their favorites back.

FE12 is pretty cool, and the first I've played with a MyUnit. (Not counting the tactician unit)

At any rate, if you're going to include a bunch of PBP FE games in the opening post, here's a few I'm aware of.

Close Horizons (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237397), one of the longest running, frequently updating, and most fleshed out games on the forum. Run by Sairyu, currently looking for Knight, Cavalier, and Archer units.

Fragments of Chaos (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=262511), started rather recently, updates weekly. Run by Illven and Ravena, and is looking for Cleric/Priest units, Knights, Cavaliers, Archers, and Fliers (Which we have none of, but will likely be introduced later). This is also the only game that uses Laguz.

Oddyssey of the Nautilus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259743) Has been in development a while. The world is very unique. Run by Rising Phoenix.
Not really sure what they need.

The Immortal Spirit (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=262435). Run by WhamBamSam, this one's pretty much unknown to me. Wait list is 5 people.

Zombie Apocalypse (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=247191). Run by Herpestidae, this one's got the most erratic update schedual. Herp won't let it die, though, or it'd come back as a zombie and eat the other FE games.

Eternity of Darkness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14240611#post14240611). Has been going strong since June 2011. Run by Penguinator. There's two teams here, so they need everything.

That's all the ones I can find off the top of my head, although I know there's at least 2 others floating around. I don't know if the FE Survival thread is still going, but there's that, too.

[Illven]

At any rate, if you're going to include a bunch of PBP FE games in the opening post, here's a few I'm aware of.

Fragments of Chaos (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=262511), started rather recently, updates weekly. Run by Illven and Ravena, and is looking for Cleric/Priest units, Knights, Cavaliers, Archers, and Fliers (Which we have none of, but will likely be introduced later). This is also the only game that uses Laguz.


Close, they are heavily influenced by Laguz, but have differences.

A) Transformation is semi-random. There's a gauge that fills up the longer you haven't transformed, but it's a percentage chance to transform.

B) Most of them are based on animals, but more important is their connection to the elements.

[Zevox]

Awakening's demo is pretty fun. I think I'm going to run a female Avatar for the first game, and pair her off with Crom. Dark Flier looks really nice.
I'm thinking along similar lines, though I don't know I'll pair mine with Chrom. Making my first Avatar a Pegasus Knight and going into Dark Flier seems awfully appealing, however.

Also, I just tried the demo myself. Looks like I'll be starting on hard difficulty, as normal was a joke even for early levels, and they do mark hard as the difficulty for series veterans. I rather like the new interface. Not as much a fan of some of the new character designs - Chrom and his initial companions were fine, but Sully and that archer kind of throw me off. Some of the new in-battle character models look awkward too, particularly those monster enemies. Wish they'd stuck closer to the style of PoR/RD for those.

I did like the banter between Chrom and the others though. I think I'll enjoy the writing of this game just fine, if that's any indication.

[tonberrian]

I like Crom with Avatar because it sets up SPOILERS to be absolutely awesome. I also want to do a run where I set up the Avatar's child with a beastly Rally - Magic, Strength, Speed, Rainbow, and Love, mmm.

On Fliers: I always have pretty good luck with Florina and Heath, both. I never really minded putting Heath against mages - granted, I only play on Normal, but still, he's not terrible, and NPC mages have terrible magic anyways.

I also like Tana in SS, but the last time through she and Vanessa ended up with pretty much identical stats, both pretty much on track to naturally cap strength, speed, and skill.

[BlackDragonKing]

On Fliers: I always have pretty good luck with Florina and Heath, both. I never really minded putting Heath against mages - granted, I only play on Normal, but still, he's not terrible, and NPC mages have terrible magic anyways.

Heath mows pretty much everything down after he gets some levels under his belt, but the dude SUCKS at taking hits in all my runs before leveling him up allows his HP and Defense to skyrocket.


I also like Tana in SS, but the last time through she and Vanessa ended up with pretty much identical stats, both pretty much on track to naturally cap strength, speed, and skill.

That's the reason I promoted them in different directions, Vanessa as my Wyvern Knight and Tana as my Falcoknight. It helps keep them distinct and lets me have Cormag go Wyvern Lord.

[Zevox]

I like Crom with Avatar because it sets up SPOILERS to be absolutely awesome.
Ah, see, I haven't looked too far into the children system. Wanting to avoid spoilers of any sort and all that.

[Illven]

That's the reason I promoted them in different directions, Vanessa as my Wyvern Knight and Tana as my Falcoknight. It helps keep them distinct and lets me have Cormag go Wyvern Lord.

Wouldn't Tana be a better Wyvern knight? She has a better strength growth doesn't she?

[dgnslyr]

That's the reason I promoted them in different directions, Vanessa as my Wyvern Knight and Tana as my Falcoknight. It helps keep them distinct and lets me have Cormag go Wyvern Lord.

But then you'd have to have a Falcoknight, who lose out big-time on constitution, which is important in a game where CON still matters. It's like a three-point speed loss for not being a Wyvern Knight. Pierce is sorta nice too, though the ranged-weapon pierce glitch is supposed to crash the game or something.

[tensai_oni]

How many playable characters are there in Awakening? How many can you field in a mission?

I'm asking because Path of Radiance was giving you an incredibly huge amount of units - which is a bad thing, because you tend to shelf most of them for msot of the game anyway, so it's redundant. You could say they were operating under intention some of your units die off and need to be replaced, but then Sword of Seals and Sacred Stones had the same assumption, and their balance between characters total and characters in a given mission was much better. No characters really felt useless or unnecessary - in PoR, a lot did.

[Battleship789]

With how early Florina joins, her usefulness, and her reliable growths, she generally ends up being the overall best flier in FE7.

Vanessa, Tana, and Cormag are all great in FE8, though Vanessa generally ends up lower class compared to the other two. Syrene however I never use and generally isn't very good as a whole.

For those who have played FE6 (aka the one with Roy) would you call me crazy if I said that Dieck and Clarine are NOT good characters by that game's standards? (as in, I'd use the prepromotes over them)

Clarine is decent/good (her Magic growth is sad, but her Luck and Speed growths make her almost untouchable) but Dieck has sucked very horribly in my two runs through FE6. A 30% Speed growth is really not sufficient for a character who needs to be doubling, especially in Hard Mode.


But then you'd have to have a Falcoknight, who lose out big-time on constitution, which is important in a game where CON still matters. It's like a three-point speed loss for not being a Wyvern Knight. Pierce is sorta nice too, though the ranged-weapon pierce glitch is supposed to crash the game or something.

Pierce is pretty sweet. The game only crashes with the animations on, so that is an easy fix.

[Zevox]

How many playable characters are there in Awakening? How many can you field in a mission?

I'm asking because Path of Radiance was giving you an incredibly huge amount of units - which is a bad thing, because you tend to shelf most of them for msot of the game anyway, so it's redundant. You could say they were operating under intention some of your units die off and need to be replaced, but then Sword of Seals and Sacred Stones had the same assumption, and their balance between characters total and characters in a given mission was much better. No characters really felt useless or unnecessary - in PoR, a lot did.
That's the case in every Fire Emblem game - individual missions cap out around what, 12-15 characters for very large ones? You always get much more than that total, and there will always be ones that you sideline, because you can't keep everyone leveled in a single play-through (and some are usually just bad anyway).

Only in Shadow Dragon did this ever get really excessive - I recall one mission where you got five new characters all at once, and for something like 2/3 of the game you were getting a minimum of one per mission, usually more - but that was a remake of the very first, so it's not surprising it had some problems the series has since worked out.

[tensai_oni]

Of course you never use all your characters. But the proportions can be pretty good about it, like in Sacred Stones where there's what, about 20 characters? And you use 10 in a mission. On the other hand, in Path of Radiance you can field 15 but there's over 60 of them. That's just excessive and frankly, bad design.

[Starsign]

Clarine is decent/good (her Magic growth is sad, but her Luck and Speed growths make her almost untouchable) but Dieck has sucked very horribly in my two runs through FE6. A 30% Speed growth is really not sufficient for a character who needs to be doubling, especially in Hard Mode.

Clarine is incredibly speedy and evasive, but her offensive capabilities are almost non-existent, which is awful in a game where characters really need to do damage to stay competitive. (she had 6 Magic at Level 20 before promotion) Generally any other healer and any other mage (in other words, Ellen, Lugh, Saul, Lilina, Hugh, and very arguably Cecilia) are more useful than Clarine, horse or not.

And Dieck is basically Oswin as a mercenary, high bases but mediocre growths. The problem is unlike Oswin, Dieck's bases don't outweigh his awful growths and he generally ends up falling behind compared to other units. I know people absolutely LOVE the Dieck-Clairine-Rutger support triangle, but I think it's one of the worst possible ideas you can do. Rutger is WAY better off supporting in a triangle with Fir and Karel; the three of them are far and away the best sword users in the game.

Oujay, the other mercenary, happens to be like some FE characters in that he can be very blessed or very screwed. He'll either be the best foot unit in the game or worse than freaking Dieck. I generally don't bother with him either and use Echidna, the Hero prepromote. She really needs an Energy Ring and Body Ring when she joins, but once she has that she requires practically no maintenance to stay competitive.

...I've been spoiled way too much by Raven and Gerik :smalltongue:

[dgnslyr]

Clarine has one thing over all other healers, and that thing is a horse. In a game of big maps with seize objectives, mobility is incredibly valuable, and having an extra bit of it gives her an edge over unmounted healers. With levels, she's dodgy and mobile, which is really all you need from a healer. Her magic won't be the best, but that's why she's a healer and not a mage.

[Zevox]

Of course you never use all your characters. But the proportions can be pretty good about it, like in Sacred Stones where there's what, about 20 characters? And you use 10 in a mission. On the other hand, in Path of Radiance you can field 15 but there's over 60 of them. That's just excessive and frankly, bad design.
Uh, no, Sacred Stones has *goes to Serenes Forest and counts* 33 playable characters, not counting the temporary one that betrays Ephraim. Path of Radiance has 43, not counting the Royal Laguz that are available for just the final mission. A noticeable difference, but nowhere near the one you seem to remember.

And it's worth noting that the other games released outside Japan were all closer to Path of Radiance than Sacred Stones. Blazing Sword had 42 not counting Athos, and Radiant Dawn had somewhere in the 60s (I lost count at one point, but I'm confident it's about that) - the latter of course being because it was by far the largest Fire Emblem game to date, with the entire cast of PoR plus new characters, and the cast being separated into three different groups for most of the game allowed most everyone to have their chance to be useful. And Shadow Dragon, well, I already mentioned that it got excessive.

So, if anything, Sacred Stones' character count is abnormally low for the series.

[Tengu_temp]

From the provided list, it seems that Awakening has 36 normal characters and 13 children characters, however the heck those work.

[Deme]

I'm looking forward to Awakening, even if I've tried to avoid too many spoilers about characters/plot and so on. If it's all pulled off well, it really could be stunningly awesome.

In other discussion...Anyone got a good "This unit shouldn't have turned out half as good as it did, thank you, oh merciful RNG!" story? I've been replaying Path of Radiance and basking in the glow of a death-machine Mist.

[TheSummoner]

Well... During my playthrough of RD, Micaiah capped... Everything... As a Light Sage. Part of this was luck, part of this was good use of bonus experience to get the lower stats up after she capped her better ones (get her exp high in a map and finish the levelup with bonus exp. I did that as often as I could after characters started capping stats)

[Starsign]

In other discussion...Anyone got a good "This unit shouldn't have turned out half as good as it did, thank you, oh merciful RNG!" story? I've been replaying Path of Radiance and basking in the glow of a death-machine Mist.

Oh goodness Mist is amazing in PoR. She's hard to train up, but once she does it's incredible what she can do with a Sonic Sword or Runesword.


Well... During my playthrough of RD, Micaiah capped... Everything... As a Light Sage. Part of this was luck, part of this was good use of bonus experience to get the lower stats up after she capped her better ones (get her exp high in a map and finish the levelup with bonus exp. I did that as often as I could after characters started capping stats)

Funny, generally capping everything is Jill's calling card in Radiant Dawn. Micaiah turned out decent by the end and had enough speed to double most foes, but not quite a standout character (then again mages generally suck in Raidant Dawn, only her, Soren, and the dark magic user has turned out to be worth using by my experience)

[tensai_oni]

In other discussion...Anyone got a good "This unit shouldn't have turned out half as good as it did, thank you, oh merciful RNG!" story? I've been replaying Path of Radiance and basking in the glow of a death-machine Mist.

Unfortunately, for me it's usually the other way around. A unit is considered good by the community and everyone suggests you use it, and then it gets royally screwed over by the RNG. Mia and Nephenee didn't deserve that. Makalov did though - and he isn't exactly high tier to start with, so in my game he ended up borderline useless.

[McNum]

I'm looking forward to Awakening, even if I've tried to avoid too many spoilers about characters/plot and so on. If it's all pulled off well, it really could be stunningly awesome.

In other discussion...Anyone got a good "This unit shouldn't have turned out half as good as it did, thank you, oh merciful RNG!" story? I've been replaying Path of Radiance and basking in the glow of a death-machine Mist.
Good old Death Machine Mist. I had one of those, too. Not the best Mist, but if there was an enemy who thought to gank the healer, well... They'd have to survive the counterattack. Most didn't. The true benchmark for Mist, though, is giving her a round against the Black Knight. That'll separate the little girls from the Death Machines right there. Yes, you can have a Mist that can walk away from that.

In my first PoR game, Marcia turned out to be death on wings, too. I gave her a forged Slim Lance with maxed out Crit rate and then... Who needs a Killer Lance, anyway? Kind of funny, and since I gave her the item that negates unit weaknesses, she were out there hunting archers and wind mages for sport.

I think my Radiant Dawn crew was pretty much standard, though. Ike turned out beastly, of course, but... you know... Ike. Elincia was a star unit in the Endgame, though. The map with all the dragons, she pretty much took care of the white ones. And when she wasn't getting four attacks per turn, she was packing a Physic staff, too. Very, very versatile unit that one.

I haven't played many other Fire Emblems, but since Awakening isn't coming out here until April, I've been thinking of getting Sacred Stones done as I have it on my 3DS. Got any tips for that? I think I left it on chapter six, so maybe I should start over so I can remember who's who.

[Starsign]

Unfortunately, for me it's usually the other way around. A unit is considered good by the community and everyone suggests you use it, and then it gets royally screwed over by the RNG. Mia and Nephenee didn't deserve that. Makalov did though - and he isn't exactly high tier to start with, so in my game he ended up borderline useless.

Pretty much every cavalier in PoR is good at worst generally. Makalov just have the unfortunate problem of being the worst of them, and as a result ends up looking a lot worse than he actually is... usually. Of all the cavaliers, I use him the least as he's the one who gets screwed over more often than anyone else, among other issues in concerns to his looks and backstory. :smallyuk: Funny enough, Oscar was the one that got screwed over, not capping anything compared to Titania, Astrid, and Geoffrey.

On another note, has anyone ever had a screwed Ike? Generally his growths are great, but I once had a time where he had 18 Strength and Skill, 19 Speed, and 15 Defense by the time he capped out. To say that I was horribly livid of the results is an understatement.

[Deme]

Oh goodness Mist is amazing in PoR. She's hard to train up, but once she does it's incredible what she can do with a Sonic Sword or Runesword.


Mine sort of decided that she was going to become one of my frontline horsepeople, even when conserving Sonic Sword uses. "35%? That means I should gain strength, like, all the time, right?" seems to have been her idea. My only regret...Is that cap. Darnit, I never wanted to end that.
In general, my units this playthrough are excellent, excepting my swordmasters and paladins, who were just alright. My Oscar was pretty dissapointing, though...

I suspect strongly that my PoR playthrough, with all of my main dudes several points ahead of average in their main stats, is stealing luck from any Sacred Stones attempt I make, where I just cannot get *anyone* to turn out, no matter how many times I restart to see something at least level with expectations.

[Mando Knight]

I like Crom with Avatar because it sets up SPOILERS to be absolutely awesome. I also want to do a run where I set up the Avatar's child with a beastly Rally - Magic, Strength, Speed, Rainbow, and Love, mmm.

Yeah, Avatar+Crom sets up beastly SPOILERS on SPOILERS, with how inheritance works. Though Male Avatar's kid gets potential badass if Mom is SPOILERS or SPOILERS... and if you really want to get silly, you can pair an Avatar of either gender with any of SPOILERS...

SPOILERS Mad Libs!
Skills, Lucina and Morgan (Lucina will get Aether, Morgan will get Royal Weapon), Tiki, Velvet, the children characters (so, yes, Morgan could be Crom's granddaughter by pairing mAvatar off with Lucina (or Degel or Cynthia), or his grandson by pairing fAvatar with Lucina's brother. Lucina will almost always have a sibling)

[BlackDragonKing]

I'm looking forward to Awakening, even if I've tried to avoid too many spoilers about characters/plot and so on. If it's all pulled off well, it really could be stunningly awesome.

In other discussion...Anyone got a good "This unit shouldn't have turned out half as good as it did, thank you, oh merciful RNG!" story? I've been replaying Path of Radiance and basking in the glow of a death-machine Mist.

I think one of the first times it happened with me was when I last played through Sacred Stones, and finally promoted L'Arachel. I'd been using her as a healer in my Lagdou Ruins runthroughs before I went to go start up the last few story missions, but when I promoted her to Valkyrie and took her along...

She soloed the first floor. She gained TWENTY LEVELS in a single mission, and she capped Magic, Skill, Luck, Speed, and Resistance completely on her own. I still don't believe it worked out that well, but she went from a good mobile healer to my best overall mage (Lute was more powerful, being a sage and all, but couldn't compete with that many capped stats for MVP) in the course of one level.

[Geno9999]

In other discussion...Anyone got a good "This unit shouldn't have turned out half as good as it did, thank you, oh merciful RNG!" story? I've been replaying Path of Radiance and basking in the glow of a death-machine Mist.

Shiida in FE 3 Book 1. She is one of my best units, having 14 Str (when she's mounted) as of this post, and is beating out Nabarl in that stat for a while.
Let me repeat: a Pegasus knight with 20% Strength growth is beating out a Mercenary with a 50% growth rate.

[Acanous]

The first time I played PoR, Mist ended up a death machine. She actually took two rounds against the black knight (Not consecuative). I lost Rhys, you see, and Myst got both in-map XP and a helping of Bonus XP. I also gave her the skill that has a chance to leave her with 1 HP instead of dying.

[Anteros]

We should advertise the Pbp games in here, put a spoiler in the first post, and put a list and links to the games.



Continuing from the crossover thread.

Typically by that point, my Florina is only slightly less sturdy against physical attacks, much better against magic, typically about as strong if not stronger, and has more then enough speed over Heath to just ignore the Con penalty.

I mean I use Cormag and Tana in Fe 8, it's just Heath joins too low leveled.

I on the other hand always have much, much better luck with Heath. I'm just not a fan of high speed, low defense units. They're powerful, but one bad turn and they can die on you...and over the course of the entire game it's going to happen a few times.

With the higher defense, lower speed units you can plan for them to take damage and account for it...but you don't have to worry about them getting spiked down on one unlucky turn.

[tonberrian]

What's everybody's favorite map?

I like the one in Path of Radiance where you have to defend the fortress until the Laguz get there. I usually have Boyd hold the line on the right and Titania hold it in the south, while Ike and everyone else start sweeping up the left.

[Illven]

I on the other hand always have much, much better luck with Heath. I'm just not a fan of high speed, low defense units. They're powerful, but one bad turn and they can die on you...and over the course of the entire game it's going to happen a few times.

With the higher defense, lower speed units you can plan for them to take damage and account for it...but you don't have to worry about them getting spiked down on one unlucky turn.

Well Heath in particular, just joins too frail. He's neither tanky nor fast when he shows up, and his growths aren't that Nino-like.

[Tengu_temp]

In other discussion...Anyone got a good "This unit shouldn't have turned out half as good as it did, thank you, oh merciful RNG!" story? I've been replaying Path of Radiance and basking in the glow of a death-machine Mist.

In FE7, I actually had an amazing Eliwood, with great stats all around and maxed-out defense. On the other hand, Lyn sucked so badly she was forced to sit there and twiddle her thumbs during the final boss battle. Damnit game!

[A Rainy Knight]

What's everybody's favorite map?

I like the one in Path of Radiance where you have to defend the fortress until the Laguz get there. I usually have Boyd hold the line on the right and Titania hold it in the south, while Ike and everyone else start sweeping up the left.

For whatever reason, I always liked the map in Sacred Stones where you meet up with Innes, Tethys, and Gerik holed up in a little fort in the center of the map and then head up into a mountain town in the corner to confront the boss.

[Todasmile]

In FE7, I actually had an amazing Eliwood, with great stats all around and maxed-out defense. On the other hand, Lyn sucked so badly she was forced to sit there and twiddle her thumbs during the final boss battle. Damnit game!

I always dream of getting an Eliwood I can have actually WIELDING Durandal in the final battle. You get this big awesome sword with cool bonuses and end up using other guys because it's too heavy for him to use and all the bosses end up doubling and killing him.

That chapter is NOTHING BUT BOSSES.

[Lamech]

In FE7, I actually had an amazing Eliwood, with great stats all around and maxed-out defense. On the other hand, Lyn sucked so badly she was forced to sit there and twiddle her thumbs during the final boss battle. Damnit game!Just for giggles I had Erk blast the crap out of the final boss. Just overpowered its resistance and blasted it to bits.

[BlackDragonKing]

Just for giggles I had Erk blast the crap out of the final boss. Just overpowered its resistance and blasted it to bits.

Canas with Luna can do hilarious things in that level, let alone Athos running backup.

I always had Hector and Lyn double-team the dragon, though. It just seemed right since I usually played Hector mode with Lyn as his A support.

[Todasmile]

The demo for Awakening makes me want to get it even more.

So I can play Lunatic and save so I don't have to start from the very beginning when an AXE USER CRIT KILLS MY MU THE VERY FIRST TURN OF CH.1.

getting through the prologue without overly feeding freddy is haaard :(

My new strategy for ch.1 is simple and comes in three-step form.

1. Disregard shinies
2. Run away
3. SUPPORT SUPER SQUARE

Hopefully it works out.

[tonberrian]

I was playing the Demo, and realized that pairing Frederick off with Avatar is THE BEST IDEA EVER. Not only does that increase stats significantly, but it makes the Avatar gain 1.5 experience, which is nice.

[Todasmile]

I was playing the Demo, and realized that pairing Frederick off with Avatar is THE BEST IDEA EVER. Not only does that increase stats significantly, but it makes the Avatar gain 1.5 experience, which is nice.

That's how I've been getting by. Avatar seems to get killed by the swordsmen every time without either Frederick or Defense as a trait, so I just combine both and have them tank it up. The problem is, of course, managing to feed one or two of those difficult kills to Crom and Avvie. Frederick can take on the entire mission, but you really need to keep those two alive >.>

I was en route to completing the first chapter easily thanks to forests, allowing the Avvie to actually survive two rounds of fighting, but then that damn lucky crit happened.

[Anteros]

I always dream of getting an Eliwood I can have actually WIELDING Durandal in the final battle. You get this big awesome sword with cool bonuses and end up using other guys because it's too heavy for him to use and all the bosses end up doubling and killing him.

That chapter is NOTHING BUT BOSSES.

I don't think I've ever not had an amazing Eliwood. Lyn on the other hand...it's a good thing she gets bows because she's always absolutely worthless for me.

[Geno9999]

Just for giggles I had Erk blast the crap out of the final boss. Just overpowered its resistance and blasted it to bits.

I never had that much luck with Erk. Canas is a different story, though arguably he is viable due to his monopoly on Dark Magic (especially Luna, which is the most broken spell tome I have ever seen.) until you get Athos in the final chapter.

I've had trouble getting Lyn enough strength to actually do a thing to the boss. Which is hilariously bad luck in the strength department, since you need a little more than 13 Strength (+Sol Katti effective might 28 > Dragon's natural 20 + 20 from the firestone.) And boy did Eliwood's and Lyn's S-rank weapons slow them down.

[Illven]

I never had that much luck with Erk. Canas is a different story, though arguably he is viable due to his monopoly on Dark Magic (especially Luna, which is the most broken spell tome I have ever seen.) until you get Athos in the final chapter.

I've had trouble getting Lyn enough strength to actually do a thing to the boss. Which is hilariously bad luck in the strength department, since you need a little more than 13 Strength (+Sol Katti effective might 28 > Dragon's natural 20 + 20 from the firestone.) And boy did Eliwood's and Lyn's S-rank weapons slow them down.

Sol katti has 12 Pwr, so 24 effective might. You're mixing up weight and Mt most likely.

[Geno9999]

Sol katti has 12 Pwr, so 24 effective might. You're mixing up weight and Mt most likely.

Oops, I did.:smallredface:
So at 17 strength she deals a grand total of... 1 damage to the boss with Sol Katti. A weapon that makes her lose 8 speed (assuming you didn't give her a Body Ring.) Ow.:smalleek:

[Illven]

Oops, I did.:smallredface:
So at 17 strength she deals a grand total of... 1 damage to the boss with Sol Katti. A weapon that makes her lose 8 speed (assuming you didn't give her a Body Ring.) Ow.:smalleek:

Yup. Lyn's not suited to fighting the Fire dragon.

[Zevox]

So, for those who have looked more in-depth into it, at what point (mission-wise) do characters start marrying? Figure it'd be good to know how quickly I need to decide who to pair up with who for that, particularly for Chrom and my Avatar.

[Suichimo]

Clarine is incredibly speedy and evasive, but her offensive capabilities are almost non-existent, which is awful in a game where characters really need to do damage to stay competitive. (she had 6 Magic at Level 20 before promotion) Generally any other healer and any other mage (in other words, Ellen, Lugh, Saul, Lilina, Hugh, and very arguably Cecilia) are more useful than Clarine, horse or not.

And Dieck is basically Oswin as a mercenary, high bases but mediocre growths. The problem is unlike Oswin, Dieck's bases don't outweigh his awful growths and he generally ends up falling behind compared to other units. I know people absolutely LOVE the Dieck-Clairine-Rutger support triangle, but I think it's one of the worst possible ideas you can do. Rutger is WAY better off supporting in a triangle with Fir and Karel; the three of them are far and away the best sword users in the game.

Oujay, the other mercenary, happens to be like some FE characters in that he can be very blessed or very screwed. He'll either be the best foot unit in the game or worse than freaking Dieck. I generally don't bother with him either and use Echidna, the Hero prepromote. She really needs an Energy Ring and Body Ring when she joins, but once she has that she requires practically no maintenance to stay competitive.

...I've been spoiled way too much by Raven and Gerik :smalltongue:

Do remember that growths in FE6 are MUCH lower than the games after it.

Clarine may not be a powerhouse offensively by herself, but she greatly improves the abilities of Rutger and Dieck. Her low magic isn't enough to impede her healing abilities either, as Mend is more than enough in most situations. As for your Clarine only having 6 Magic by 20, you did get kind of screwed as she has 7.7 average magic by that point. Ellen, Saul, and Lilina are not very good in Hard Mode, and Saul, Lugh, Lilina, and Hugh's healing is more of a secondary quality. She'll also never be behind in level as she'll be your best staff user for pretty much the entire game, as even when your mages promote you'll be wanting them to actually be fighting and not spending their turn healing.

Dieck is an awesome unit and will be your axe-wielder. He caps HP, has a good chance of capping Strength, and has a respectable skill(especially for an axe-wielder). Rutger A Clarine B Dieck B Rutger is one of the best triangles in the game for a reason. Rutger becomes a crit machine, as in its possible for him to literally have 100+% crit. Dieck, IIRC, gets the same boosts that Rutger does, and Clarine will never be hit again.

For your proposed triangle of Rutger/Fir/Karel, I can see three VERY big flaws in it. First, you have three sword users, only one of which will be getting the Durandal. Who gets it? Second, Karel comes in promoted at 19 Swordmaster and will only ever level up once. He will NOT cap speed, a Swordmaster's most important stat and his hp will be sorely lacking. Third, Karel comes in INSANELY late. We're talking about Chapter 23 late, the chapter that is in the section of the game that you only unlock if you went through all of the Gaiden stages and got all of the divine weapons. You're putting in way too much work for a triangle that isn't even that great.

Oujay is a substitute for Dieck, at best, and Echidna requires too much babying to be worth it.

[McNum]

Yay, I finally got past Chapter 6 in Sacred Stones clean. I've been having so much bad luck with that map, mostly due to having to split my forces to intercept that darn spider in the east part of the map before it ate some civilians.

Vanessa and Ross turned out to be the answer. Not that they killed it fast, no, they stalled it and wore it down slowly. Then Vanessa rejoined the main force and got the killshot on the boss. Chapter complete, and MVP was Vanessa. Colm, too, for being the torch user.

So, after finally clearing the hurdle, which really shouldn't have been that hard, I think I can get on with it for beating Sacred Stones. I figure it should be easy enough to manage that before Awakening is released here in Europe. Got any general advice about doing that? I know the story splits at some point, but do I need to do something to get a True Ending or similar? Do I need to clear both paths for something, meaning beating the game twice?

Also, I've read there are free battles on the world map. How do you get those? More EXP is a good thing, the more units kept up to date, the more flexibility for different kinds of maps.

[Suichimo]

I would suggest going Ephraim's route as it has a better Lord and it adds at least some difficulty to an overly easy game, its still not that hard even on hard. The differences between the two routes pretty much amounts to Eirika's route being slightly easier where Ephraim's is slightly harder and the join time of certain units. That's pretty much it. There is no true ending to this game or anything like that.

For the map battles, there will occasionally be roving gangs of monsters. You should be able to bypass them if you want, but the fights are easy enough anyway. Outside of that there is the Tower of Valni and the Lagdou Ruins. You'll come across the Tower of Valni early, I believe its when the story splits, and it is a very good training spot, if you're into that. The Lagdou Ruins are very late in the game, I don't remember if they're post game or not, and actually does present some challenge. Outside of the training and items you can receive in these two areas, you can unlock characters for use in the post game and link arena. These are mostly villains but you can unlock Eirika/Ephraim's dad and Joshua's mother to use this way.

[dgnslyr]

Sacred Stones is a generous game in general. As long as you recruit everybody with a non-ugly face and don't let anyone die, you'll be fine.

The only thing reward I can think of for completing both routes is getting a third promotion for your Trainee characters. Most people call this super-trainee. So, Ross, for example, gets to promote into Journeyman, which gets him boosted crit chance. The same boosted crit chance as a berserker, one of his normal promotions, which makes it sorta useless. Yeah, it's not really worth using. I dunno how much more I want to say, though, until you're actually there in the game.

[Suichimo]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. The only useful Super Trainee class is Ewan's Super Pupil and even then Sage is just fine.

[McNum]

Ah, good. I was just worried that I'd have to find all the Sacred Stones or I wouldn't be able to proceed to the final chapter or something like that. The game's title suggest a fetch quest. Glad to see it's not. I think one of the games is like that...

I've heard this was one of the easier Fire Emblems, but since I got it on my 3DS due to the Ambassador thing, I figured I should give it a go.

I was thinking of taking Eirika's route, mainly because she's a Myrmidon like Lord. Ephiram, or how that's spelled, can actually take a hit. It's more fun when the Lord isn't unstoppable.

What about promotion items? Are they limited? Or are they up for sale later in the game?

[A Rainy Knight]

So, for those who have looked more in-depth into it, at what point (mission-wise) do characters start marrying? Figure it'd be good to know how quickly I need to decide who to pair up with who for that, particularly for Chrom and my Avatar.

Chrom marries whoever he has the strongest support with (or has the most support "points" with, if he never even reached C support with anyone) by the end of Chapter 11 if he hasn't married someone already. Everyone else marries whenever it is they hit an S support with someone, so you have as much time as you want to figure them out.

[Mando Knight]

Chrom marries whoever he has the strongest support with (or has the most support "points" with, if he never even reached C support with anyone) by the end of Chapter 11 if he hasn't married someone already. Everyone else marries whenever it is they hit an S support with someone, so you have as much time as you want to figure them out.

Child characters also all join during side chapters (in fact, I think it's the marriages that open up those chapters), and the map is a Sacred Stones style overworld deal, so you really can take your time to marry them off (except Chrom, of course).

[huttj509]

So, for those who have looked more in-depth into it, at what point (mission-wise) do characters start marrying? Figure it'd be good to know how quickly I need to decide who to pair up with who for that, particularly for Chrom and my Avatar.

When they reach S-rank support.

Or Chapter 11? for Chrom. Whichever is sooner.

[tonberrian]

It's worth pointing out that Chrom gets an automatic S-rank support with whomever he marries when he marries her.

[Starsign]

Do remember that growths in FE6 are MUCH lower than the games after it.

Clarine may not be a powerhouse offensively by herself, but she greatly improves the abilities of Rutger and Dieck. Her low magic isn't enough to impede her healing abilities either, as Mend is more than enough in most situations. As for your Clarine only having 6 Magic by 20, you did get kind of screwed as she has 7.7 average magic by that point. Ellen, Saul, and Lilina are not very good in Hard Mode, and Saul, Lugh, Lilina, and Hugh's healing is more of a secondary quality. She'll also never be behind in level as she'll be your best staff user for pretty much the entire game, as even when your mages promote you'll be wanting them to actually be fighting and not spending their turn healing.

Dieck is an awesome unit and will be your axe-wielder. He caps HP, has a good chance of capping Strength, and has a respectable skill(especially for an axe-wielder). Rutger A Clarine B Dieck B Rutger is one of the best triangles in the game for a reason. Rutger becomes a crit machine, as in its possible for him to literally have 100+% crit. Dieck, IIRC, gets the same boosts that Rutger does, and Clarine will never be hit again.

For your proposed triangle of Rutger/Fir/Karel, I can see three VERY big flaws in it. First, you have three sword users, only one of which will be getting the Durandal. Who gets it? Second, Karel comes in promoted at 19 Swordmaster and will only ever level up once. He will NOT cap speed, a Swordmaster's most important stat and his hp will be sorely lacking. Third, Karel comes in INSANELY late. We're talking about Chapter 23 late, the chapter that is in the section of the game that you only unlock if you went through all of the Gaiden stages and got all of the divine weapons. You're putting in way too much work for a triangle that isn't even that great.

Oujay is a substitute for Dieck, at best, and Echidna requires too much babying to be worth it.

Probably best to spoiler the following due to length. :smallredface:

Ellen is actually awesome in Hard Mode. She REALLY doesn't want to meet the end of a blade, but works well in sniping foes away with magic than archers can (let's be blunt, archers suck in FE6 if your name is not Sue or Shin) and is the easiest to get S in Staffs or Light Magic. (unless you use Yodel, but please DON'T use that awful character) She'll have a notable lead on Saul due to her earlier join and she just comes off as having another magic user earlier. She's generally my go-to healer for Hard, even if Saul is overall better and more reliable.

Now normally bad magic wouldn't be a problem, but in FE6, especially Hard Mode, you NEED to kill enemies quickly and a promoted character who's magic isn't even double digits will kill NOTHING in the time she needs to before an enemy can kill someone less frail like Lilina. I can easily rely on Clarine if I want a healer, but if I want someone who can attack as well, she never fills the role when she needs to. Her use in my party is only to recruit Rutger and Klein and then be benched for the rest of the game. (I tend to hate her personality as well, so you could go as far to say she's my least favorite character in the game) And considering I always use one healer, Ellen or Saul always ends up getting priority over Clarine. She's just not good enough for me.

Priscilla on the other hand kicks all sorts of butt, problem is she is generally behind compared to Serra, who I usually have 8-10 levels ahead on by that point. (and I like Serra better :smalltongue:)

Now as for Dieck, part of the issue is that, plain and simple, axes suck in FE6. If this was FE7 Dieck would easily match Raven, but the reality here is that Axes have abominable accuracy and outrageous weight and not having the crit bonus Berserkers get means that they aren't worth using over simple, but very reliable swords. Who cares if there is only one Durandal? Silver Swords are a wonderful alternative to them.

Dieck actually doesn't compare to a normally-trained Oujay. The latter has better speed and will be on par with what Dieck IS good at. (excluding Con, which is the biggest advantage Dieck has) The issue with Oujay is that he needs to be trained compared to Dieck, but Dieck doesn't get the huge risk of being strength and/or speed screwed, which is often. By the point I saw Dieck be doubled, he was out and out for good.

I don't get what you mean by that you need to baby Echidna. All she needs is a Body Ring and Energy Ring and she's set to kick butt immediately. Her biggest problem is that she comes with a Steel Axe, refer to my issue with axes regarding that. Give her an Iron Axe after the Body Ring or a sword and she'll do as well as Dieck or Oujay, if not better. To top this off, she supports with Gonzales, the best axe user in the game who also has horrible support options. (his only other good support is Lilina unless you get an awesome Treck, which I didn't) Her excellent bases means that she'll be fine in Endgame even if she got bad growths. Dieck and Oujay can and often will do better than her, but Echidna comes at a good time, kicks butt from the word "go," and won't fall behind in usefulness so long as you use an item to cover her bad spots.

As for Rutger's support triange, the reason why I dislike it is because Dieck and Clarine don't do well with him and he's better off with someone who won't be a terrible damage dealer by the end. Fir is just as good as Rutger, especially on Hard Mode due to bonuses, (which all Heroes don't get) and due to how awesome Swordmasters are in FE6, she won't have a problem outperforming Dieck. (her support with Rutger makes BOTH of them crit monsters)

Karel may have slow speed, but he's useful and powerful and won't be doubled by enemies; he assists with the party well and 23-25 Speed is enough for him to kill enemies without a problem. And he's a Swordmaster with the inherit Crit bonus, so not doubling won't be a problem if he can crit everything easily. Frankly Heroes are just NOT good in FE6 when speed is a premium and Swordmasters are so good, especially on Hard Mode. If Rutger's and Fir's strength growths falter, yeah it'll be a problem. But that's mostly an issue on Normal where they don't gain absurd stat gains.

Even if the Rutger-Fir-Karel support isn't great, their individual usefulness and power is better then the overall Rutger-Dieck-Clarine support.

[Dumbledore lives]

So, this sucks. (https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/03/fire-emblem-awakening-delayed-due-to-shipping-error.aspx)

[Goldfly]

So, this sucks. (https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/03/fire-emblem-awakening-delayed-due-to-shipping-error.aspx)

I feel like I should mention that if your local video game store doesn't have it, and you haven't per-ordered it, the game should be available on the 3DS store on time.

[Todasmile]

I feel like I should mention that if your local video game store doesn't have it, and you haven't per-ordered it, the game should be available on the 3DS store on time.

This is, sadly, probably what I'll end up doing. I love the boxart and the cartridge art, but if I can't find the game to buy...

[Goldfly]

This is, sadly, probably what I'll end up doing. I love the boxart and the cartridge art, but if I can't find the game to buy...

It's definitely what I'm going to be doing- I don't really have a way to get downtown to buy it anyway.

[tonberrian]

I'm downloading it either way. It's miserable out here, and I just put the money on my account.

[huttj509]

I'd need to get a new memstick. 2Gb goes faster than one might think.

Eh, have it preordered with GS. I'll call them tomorrow and see what's up at that location. It was my understanding that people who preordered where there were shipping delays were getting notification emails, but that understanding may be wrong.

[Zevox]

So, this sucks. (https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/03/fire-emblem-awakening-delayed-due-to-shipping-error.aspx)
:smallfrown: Yes, yes it does. Here I was planning on grabbing it during a break at work tomorrow, since I work so close to a few stores that would have it. Now trying to do that might just be a big waste of my break time.


I feel like I should mention that if your local video game store doesn't have it, and you haven't per-ordered it, the game should be available on the 3DS store on time.
I don't know, much as I don't want to wait extra days for the game to release - I mean, I just finished the handheld game I've been playing for a couple of weeks, which is too perfect timing - I also really would rather have a physical copy.

(Also, I have no idea how easy/hard it is to purchase things on the 3DS store. Literally the only thing I've done online with my 3DS is download the demo for this game, and that was free.)

[A Rainy Knight]

(Also, I have no idea how easy/hard it is to purchase things on the 3DS store. Literally the only thing I've done online with my 3DS is download the demo for this game, and that was free.)

It's pretty easy, in my experience. I just got a couple of the prepaid cards and entered them in, and I've already gotten Liberation Maiden and Pushmo as easily as I got the Awakening demo.

At any rate, I'll be downloading the game so I can save myself the trouble of learning the bus routes or trekking into town. :smalltongue:

[tonberrian]

Awakening download is up in NA.

[A Rainy Knight]

Well, I'm officially having a great time with Awakening. :smallbiggrin:

I feel like the new innovations on the support system really made a big difference - weighing the pros and cons of pairing people up and consciously making an effort to position people so that they get some nice support benefits is pretty satisfying.

[tonberrian]

Well, I'm officially having a great time with Awakening. :smallbiggrin:

I feel like the new innovations on the support system really made a big difference - weighing the pros and cons of pairing people up and consciously making an effort to position people so that they get some nice support benefits is pretty satisfying.

It's really easy to get supports. I had Chrom and Avatar married by Chapter 6.

In other news, Lon'qu is the most badass myrmidon ever. Seriously, he starts with 9 defense, which the GBA myrmidons don't reach until 20/1, and the PoR/RD myrmidons have to get to 16 on average to match it. I know that Awakening has higher stats all around, but still!

[Zevox]

Well, I couldn't find a store that had it. And I got impatient and wound up getting it off the 3DS eStore.

...and then my 3DS ran out of power near the end of the second mission. :smallfrown: :smallsigh: So I'm waiting on it to recharge to play any more.

So, anyone want to talk about what they're doing with their Avatars? Mine is female, since I intend to use a female-only class. Named her Selene, gave her the hairdo with a big ponytail, colored purple. Asset speed, Flaw HP. I plan to have her go Pegasus Knight -> Dark Flier, possibly spending a level or two in other classes to shore up any stats if need be, but I'd rather avoid that.

Also, a question: does anyone know how to get the DLC? The first one is available and free right now, but it won't let me get it from the eStore, and I couldn't find a way to do so in the game either. Definitely want to grab that while it's still free.

[tonberrian]

Well, I couldn't find a store that had it. And I got impatient and wound up getting it off the 3DS eStore.

...and then my 3DS ran out of power near the end of the second mission. :smallfrown: :smallsigh: So I'm waiting on it to recharge to play any more.

So, anyone want to talk about what they're doing with their Avatars? Mine is female, since I intend to use a female-only class. Named her Selene, gave her the hairdo with a big ponytail, colored purple. Asset speed, Flaw HP. I plan to have her go Pegasus Knight -> Dark Flier, possibly spending a level or two in other classes to shore up any stats if need be, but I'd rather avoid that.

Also, a question: does anyone know how to get the DLC? The first one is available and free right now, but it won't let me get it from the eStore, and I couldn't find a way to do so in the game either. Definitely want to grab that while it's still free.

I'm running Female +Mag/-Def. Because I like mages.

As for the DLC, eventually you'll get the Outworld Gate to pop up in the game (you get a message telling you this). Go there and you can buy the map.

[McNum]

Heh, very subtle chapter name.

Sacred Stones spoiler:
Orson: Quickly follow me to the dungeons!

~ Cp. 8: It's a Trap! ~

I wonder if it's a trap. :smalltongue:

I bet Orson is a swell guy who's totally not a traitor, too. :smallbiggrin:

[anika]

Awakening's demo is pretty fun. I think I'm going to run a female Avatar for the first game, and pair her off with Crom. Dark Flier looks really nice.

[Raistlin1040]

Well my 3DS can't connect to the internet at my school and Walmart doesn't have it, so it looks like I'm waiting for whenever Amazon sends it. Apparently Shamans aren't in the game? That puts a damper on things as that was the class I was planning on going with my Avatar.

[Todasmile]

Well my 3DS can't connect to the internet at my school and Walmart doesn't have it, so it looks like I'm waiting for whenever Amazon sends it. Apparently Shamans aren't in the game? That puts a damper on things as that was the class I was planning on going with my Avatar.

You can go Sorceror though, I believe. Apparently it's one of the more broken classes in the game.

[Deme]

Heh, very subtle chapter name.

Sacred Stones spoiler:
Orson: Quickly follow me to the dungeons!

~ Cp. 8: It's a Trap! ~

I wonder if it's a trap. :smalltongue:

I bet Orson is a swell guy who's totally not a traitor, too. :smallbiggrin:

Don't be silly. That's just the first solid example of FE's multiple worlds/continents/whatever crossing over.
Lucius is in there.

((I don't normally like that sort of joke...But just this once...))

[John Cribati]

For those who have played FE6 (aka the one with Roy) would you call me crazy if I said that Dieck and Clarine are NOT good characters by that game's standards? (as in, I'd use the prepromotes over them)

I much prefer Oujay to Deick. And Clarine's magic score is pitiful, but supporting her with Rutger allowed her to double a swordmaster that had about three levels on her.
/late as hell

[Battleship789]

I much prefer Oujay to Deick. And Clarine's magic score is pitiful, but supporting her with Rutger allowed her to double a swordmaster that had about three levels on her.
/late as hell

Technically, the support has no bearing on the ability to double (unless you meant a two-shot kill, in which the only thing that a Clarine x Rutger support changes is Crit Chance/Accuracy.). Your point still stands, though: Clarine's speed growth is rather amazing.

[tonberrian]

Awakening's demo is pretty fun. I think I'm going to run a female Avatar for the first game, and pair her off with Crom. Dark Flier looks really nice.

That seems oddly familiar...


Awakening's demo is pretty fun. I think I'm going to run a female Avatar for the first game, and pair her off with Crom. Dark Flier looks really nice.

[Todasmile]

That seems oddly familiar...

Heh.

The game itself is also quite fun. I'm playing Hard Mode, and it's... still pretty easy, but it's getting a bit more difficult. Chapter 3 saw my mage girl being oneshotted by a Hammer Fighter.

[Zevox]

Heh.

The game itself is also quite fun. I'm playing Hard Mode, and it's... still pretty easy, but it's getting a bit more difficult. Chapter 3 saw my mage girl being oneshotted by a Hammer Fighter.
Hard mode is proving actually hard after the first two chapters. You really don't seem to have much breathing space for mistakes - a slight miscalculation will cost you a unit. Enemies have good speed, too, so double-attacking is rare with most units - my only consistent double attacker at this point is Sumia, your first Pegasus Knight (and my Avatar has speed as her strong stat!) - and some fast enemies (like Thieves) will double most of your units.

I must say, the pair up mechanic is proving quite handy. It made Frederick useful without feeding him xp early on, and it makes controlling which units get experience in general much easier. Also, of course, building points towards supports.

Speaking of, I'm starting to pick out pairs for marriages. I'm going with Sumia for Chrom - obvious crush is obvious, and rather cute. Also, I rather liked that scene where she swooped in and saved him at the start of chapter 3. I'm also thinking of pairing Sully and Vaike, and my Avatar with Stahl. Not really sure about the others yet.

Though speaking of, has anyone else tried the "Hubba Tester" feature in the Extras menu? It can be rather amusing. :smallwink:

[Todasmile]

Hard mode is proving actually hard after the first two chapters. You really don't seem to have much breathing space for mistakes - a slight miscalculation will cost you a unit. Enemies have good speed, too, so double-attacking is rare with most units - my only consistent double attacker at this point is Sumia, your first Pegasus Knight (and my Avatar has speed as her strong stat!) - and some fast enemies (like Thieves) will double most of your units.

I must say, the pair up mechanic is proving quite handy. It made Frederick useful without feeding him xp early on, and it makes controlling which units get experience in general much easier. Also, of course, building points towards supports.

Speaking of, I'm starting to pick out pairs for marriages. I'm going with Sumia for Chrom - obvious crush is obvious, and rather cute. Also, I rather liked that scene where she swooped in and saved him at the start of chapter 3. I'm also thinking of pairing Sully and Vaike, and my Avatar with Stahl. Not really sure about the others yet.

Though speaking of, has anyone else tried the "Hubba Tester" feature in the Extras menu? It can be rather amusing. :smallwink:

Yeah, I almost lost my Avatar in ch. 2 but he dodged a 78% chance.

I'm personally going with Sully and Chrom, and Avatar and... Chrom's sister.

[Zevox]

Yeah, I almost lost my Avatar in ch. 2 but he dodged a 78% chance.
I had the opposite luck there - had to restart that chapter because of a critical hit (that had a single-digit chance of triggering) one-shotting one of my units. Twice. :smallsigh:


I'm personally going with Sully and Chrom, and Avatar and... Chrom's sister.
I don't know that I'll be able to pair off Lissa, honestly. She just seems too young for that. It's a tad creepy.

[A Rainy Knight]

Hubba Tester is pretty fun. "I'm not one to judge, ladies!"

So, I've already paired Chrom up with Sumia since it seemed like the obvious pairing, and now I'm just deciding on who to pair my avatar up with. Lissa, maybe?

Anyone have some favorite battle quotes yet? "It's Vaike time!" never gets old for me. Besides that, Gregor's pretty fun in general and I think I caught Nowi saying something like "RAAAAAGE!" on a critical once. :smallbiggrin:

[John Cribati]

Something that bugs me.

An Iron Lance has 8 Weight. A Javelin has 11 Weight.

Iron Axe has 10 Weight, but the Hand Axe has 12.

The weapons specifically designed for throwing at people are heavier. I get that the game does this for balance issues, but I can't help but wonder what the blacksmith was thinking.

[TheSummoner]

Maybe they need more weight keep their balance when thrown....?

[Starsign]

So when I get Awakening, I'm gonna go do a playthrough without using Second Seals, try to play through like this is Sacred Stones with only the Branching Promotions. Of course this doesn't mean that I won't be pairing everyone like crazy :smallbiggrin: I already have an idea on who Chrom, Sumia, Avatar, and Lissa will marry.

For those who have played Awakening, how well does the Pair Up system work for characters who are generally very different in movement? (Chrom and Sumia in particular) Will it give Chrom Sumia's flight benefits or are characters generally better pairing up with a unit with similar classes? (ie: Fighter and Mercenary)

[Dragoon]

For those who have played Awakening, how well does the Pair Up system work for characters who are generally very different in movement? (Chrom and Sumia in particular) Will it give Chrom Sumia's flight benefits or are characters generally better pairing up with a unit with similar classes? (ie: Fighter and Mercenary)

I believe for the Pair Up System, based on the demo, the movement is based on who is in front of the Pair Up.

Also, from what I have heard from various places about the delay, that a few EB stores in Canada released the game early last week, and because of that, Nintendo retaliated by sending the game late to GameStop and similar stores. I believe that GameStop and EB are owned by the same parent company. So blame Canada, maybe. :smalltongue:

[huttj509]

I believe for the Pair Up System, based on the demo, the movement is based on who is in front of the Pair Up.

Also, from what I have heard from various places about the delay, that a few EB stores in Canada released the game early last week, and because of that, Nintendo retaliated by sending the game late to GameStop and similar stores. I believe that GameStop and EB are owned by the same parent company. So blame Canada, maybe. :smalltongue:

Only if Nintendo retaliated against Gamestop, Target, Wal-Mart, AND Best Buy.

And made the decision on when to ship over the weekend before a Monday release because that's the timeframe they had after learning some stores in Canada had it late last week.

And sent it to Canada stores before other places BEFORE deciding to retaliate.

...I don't buy the retaliation theory.

[dgnslyr]

Something that bugs me.

An Iron Lance has 8 Weight. A Javelin has 11 Weight.

Iron Axe has 10 Weight, but the Hand Axe has 12.

The weapons specifically designed for throwing at people are heavier. I get that the game does this for balance issues, but I can't help but wonder what the blacksmith was thinking.

Maybe throwing weapons aren't actually more massive but just a bit more unwieldy to use? A throwing spear is made specifically for throwing, so stabbing with it could feel clumsier than stabbing with a stabbing spear, and even just throwing it like intended is tricky business.

[Goldfly]

Anyone have some favorite battle quotes yet? "It's Vaike time!" never gets old for me. Besides that, Gregor's pretty fun in general and I think I caught Nowi saying something like "RAAAAAGE!" on a critical once. :smallbiggrin:

YES. Nowi is the perfect source of hilarious battle quotes, I swear. Owain is pretty good as well, but quite to the level of Nowi.

Can I also say that Lucina and Cynthia have just about the cutest sibling supports possible?

[McNum]

I am so jealous of you all playing Awakening right now. Ah well, I'll just have to wait a bit. Playing some Sacred Stones to keep the urge to play Fire Emblem down a bit.

I've pushed on a bit more in Sacred Stones, and I'm finding Gold to be an issue. Need more of it for weapons and Heal staves. Also need to see if I want to train Amelia. Ross is turning out to be an awesome Pirate, so the trainee classes could be worth it. Amelia is just so terribly weak at the moment.

And for just a touch of sillyness, I present to you a Natural 1 on a Knowledge(Nobility) check:
Prince Innes is a ruthless tactician and his spies are everywhere!
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/56829556/Misc/Innes.jpg

He's taking it in stride, though, apart from an aside glance. You'd almost think he's taking it as a compliment.

Sorry for the phone-quality picture, but the 3DS doesn't do screenshots in GBA games.

Speaking of Innes, a prepromoted Sniper? Hm, is he worth sticking with? I already got a decent archer in Neimi. But Innes seems fun as a character, so... Dual archers? I mean, I don't really have to worry about EXP loss due to the tower and the skirmishes.

[dgnslyr]

Gold becomes scarce if you do a lot of grinding at the Tower. Grinding at an arena will give you more gold than you know what to do with, but in Sacred Stones the last chance is the same map you recruit Marisa, so you're basically out of luck. Monsters in the Tower sometimes carry little parcels of gold, but it's always much, much less than the gold spent on weapon uses clearing out the same floor. Some chests in the Tower also randomly carry gems, but those are very rare.

Really, in Fire Emblem, you're at the game's mercy when it comes to gold, even with the arena. Fortunately, most games are pretty generous about this, and I'm pretty stingy when it comes to buying weapons, so it's rarely an issue. Sacred Stones is one game where gold deficiency stands out, though, because it's so tempting to grind out the tower and inadvertently spend all your money on replacing weapons.

As for Innes, he's a prepromote, which is sorta bad, and a Sniper, which is also sorta bad. Archers and snipers are considered weak because, for the most part, they can only fight on the player phase, and are mostly on the enemy phase, when most of the fighting happens. This is why Ranger is such a god-send for archers, actually.

I actually like Amelia quite a bit, partly because she's a good Paladin (and Great Knight and General, but Movement is King so I go with the fastest horse), but mostly because she's adorable and murdersome once she gets going.

[McNum]

I was considering General for Amelia if I train her, because, you know, little girl in giant armor is funny. I kind of like archers in Fire Emblem, it's true they rarely have moments where they take out half an army on the Enemy Phase, but most bosses start out with their melee only weapon equipped, making them easy prey for an archer. If the archer can hurt the boss.

My Vanessa is absolutely crazy, though. She capped speed at level 10 and has more Defense than my Gilliam. The only thing she lacks is a little Strength, but she still has 7 levels left until promotion time. Tana is... okay. Should probably run her in a skirmish or something to get her better. Eirika got an Angelic Robe so she can take a hit more. She may be a Myrmidon-like Lord, but she has had terrible luck with Defense gains.

[Zevox]

For those who have played Awakening, how well does the Pair Up system work for characters who are generally very different in movement? (Chrom and Sumia in particular) Will it give Chrom Sumia's flight benefits or are characters generally better pairing up with a unit with similar classes? (ie: Fighter and Mercenary)
As Dragoon said, movement is based on the active unit of the pair. However, I do know that pairing up Frederick, the game's Jeigan character (a Great Knight), with anyone resulted in a +1 movement to that unit, so perhaps promoted mounted units give that benefit.

I do find that pairing Chrom with Sumia is very useful in general though, since it gives him enough speed to double-attack most enemies (on hard, mind you), and shores up his resistance, plus a minor boost to a couple of other stats. As support rank increases it seems that the stat boost and odds of a dual attack occurring raise as well, so that helps too.

[tonberrian]

Each class has a set of bonuses that it grants to characters upon pairing up; this is usually weighted depending on what the class is generally good at - mages give more magic, thieves grant movement, etc. This is the bonus that supports increase. There's a separate bonus for high stats that is not affected by supports.

[Todasmile]

As Dragoon said, movement is based on the active unit of the pair. However, I do know that pairing up Frederick, the game's Jeigan character (a Great Knight), with anyone resulted in a +1 movement to that unit, so perhaps promoted mounted units give that benefit.

I do find that pairing Chrom with Sumia is very useful in general though, since it gives him enough speed to double-attack most enemies (on hard, mind you), and shores up his resistance, plus a minor boost to a couple of other stats. As support rank increases it seems that the stat boost and odds of a dual attack occurring raise as well, so that helps too.

Best pairing I've found so far is Vaike and Sumia. If those two could support it would be PERFECT.

[Zevox]

Hm, so, when do you get access to Second Seals? I've gotten my Avatar and Lissa to level 10, and am eager to change them into a Pegasus Knight and Troubador respectively.

Also, looking over the class list on Serenes Forest, is it just me, or is the War Monk/Cleric class a pretty pointless addition? I mean, since it can only be promoted to via classes that have very poor strength, giving your healer an axe is rendered highly impractical, especially compared to the alternatives, Sage and Valkyrie, which use a stat healers are at least okay with, magic.

Oh, and I grabbed the DLC and completed it. While it's nice to have Marth and all, I'm left really questioning whether DLC like this will be worth it when it actually costs something. One mission which, aside from involving familiar faces from the rest of the series as your opponents, wasn't all that interesting, plus one new character doesn't seem like it would be worth much money to me. Maybe if they're just a dollar or two I'd be okay, but much more and I'd only pick up ones that let me recruit personal favorite characters (Lyn, maybe Ike, maybe Eirika because she comes with an item that lets other characters reclass to her unique class).

[tonberrian]

For my first Second Seal, I got a merchant to show up to sell me one. You can also get one as one of the Renown rewards (open up your wireless menu, you don't actually have to be online to receive them; you need to complete approximately 10-15 battles to have enough Renown to get it). There's one in one of the villages in Chapter 8 as well. Aside from that, I don't know.

[A Rainy Knight]

Oh, and I grabbed the DLC and completed it. While it's nice to have Marth and all, I'm left really questioning whether DLC like this will be worth it when it actually costs something. One mission which, aside from involving familiar faces from the rest of the series as your opponents, wasn't all that interesting, plus one new character doesn't seem like it would be worth much money to me. Maybe if they're just a dollar or two I'd be okay, but much more and I'd only pick up ones that let me recruit personal favorite characters (Lyn, maybe Ike, maybe Eirika because she comes with an item that lets other characters reclass to her unique class).

I also picked up the DLC for free, but I'm not really planning on paying for any of the other "Champions of Yore" or any other DLC that's just about recruiting characters from the previous games. I'm holding out for stuff like the Summer of Bonds and its glorious load of fanservice and steel drums. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGNalcWvFTk) :smallbiggrin:

[Zevox]

For my first Second Seal, I got a merchant to show up to sell me one.
:smallconfused: That seems to imply you're not talking about a regular shop. How's that work?

[A Rainy Knight]

:smallconfused: That seems to imply you're not talking about a regular shop. How's that work?

The little Anna merchants that show up on the world map from time to time sell a random handful of unique items each time, and Master Seals and Second Seals can show up there.

[tonberrian]

There's an item that summons them, much like Reeky Box does for Risen.

[CoffeeIncluded]

So I want to get the game really, really badly, but I've got enough self-control to hold off until my first round of prelims is done; then I'll either go to the gamestop in the mall or download it.

Anyway, just so I know going in, I'm really not sure how this marriage and children thing works, along with the extra stuff that supports come with this time. Can someone please explain it to me, along with telling me which characters are best to use? Also, how exactly does the spotpass thing work? Thanks.

[Todasmile]

So I want to get the game really, really badly, but I've got enough self-control to hold off until my first round of prelims is done; then I'll either go to the gamestop in the mall or download it.

Anyway, just so I know going in, I'm really not sure how this marriage and children thing works, along with the extra stuff that supports come with this time. Can someone please explain it to me, along with telling me which characters are best to use? Also, how exactly does the spotpass thing work? Thanks.

Children are just characters that show up sometime after a female gets a max-level support with a male. They have certain stat boosts and skills and class-sets based on their parents.

Interestingly, since the Avatar can support with anyone, they can actually get an S-support with a child character and have THEIR kid be super powerful.

New support stuff is basically just chances of either the character jumping in and attacking alongside the other, or increasing the chances that they'll leap in and negate the damage from an attack. These chances can get very ridiculous very fast - it soon ends up near like an 80% chance for the former.

Spotpass: Teams will just sort of show up and you can fight them or something. Honestly no clue.

[Mando Knight]

Children are just characters that show up sometime after a female gets a max-level support with a male. They have certain stat boosts and skills and class-sets based on their parents.

Also, children are all linked to the mothers for existence (except for Chrom, whose kid is plot-related and that's why he is forced into marriage, and the Avatar, who could be male and then have a daughter... except for those two, the identity of the kid is dependent on the mother), and the dad (or the mom, in the case of of female Morgan (male Avatar's daughter)) provides the hair color.

Basically, the purpose of S-rank supports in Awakening is to have babies. Lots of babies. Who then travel through time so they can save the world alongside their parents without having a 16-20 year timeskip.

[Acanous]

Interestingly, since the Avatar can support with anyone, they can actually get an S-support with a child character and have THEIR kid be super powerful.


that smacks of Wife Husbandry.

[tonberrian]

As for characters, well, if you're patient everybody is useful. Thanks to the class change shenanigans that go on, you can keep levelling nigh-indefinitely, with second-tier caps that compare favorably to the third tier caps in Radiant Dawn. Stat growths are higher all around, so you'll find that it's harder to for a character to be RNG screwed, but it's still possible. Clerics are definitely much easier to raise, as Heal staffs start at 25 xp per use, which decreases slightly over levels.

Personally, I found Donnel a pain to raise because of his poor bases leaving him open to be doubled by just about everything at first, the archer was fairly disappointing, and that sword users are a treasured commodity. I'm raising my Avatar to be a dark mage, so I'm feeling swamped with magic users (Avatar, Miriel, Ricken, Tharja, and Mariabelle who I class changed over to Mage since she makes a terrible pegasus knight and I didn't want to promote her just yet).

I'm only starting Chapter 11, by the way.

[Todasmile]

As for characters, well, if you're patient everybody is useful. Thanks to the class change shenanigans that go on, you can keep levelling nigh-indefinitely, with second-tier caps that compare favorably to the third tier caps in Radiant Dawn. Stat growths are higher all around, so you'll find that it's harder to for a character to be RNG screwed, but it's still possible. Clerics are definitely much easier to raise, as Heal staffs start at 25 xp per use, which decreases slightly over levels.

Personally, I found Donnel a pain to raise because of his poor bases leaving him open to be doubled by just about everything at first, the archer was fairly disappointing, and that sword users are a treasured commodity. I'm raising my Avatar to be a dark mage, so I'm feeling swamped with magic users (Avatar, Miriel, Ricken, Tharja, and Mariabelle who I class changed over to Mage since she makes a terrible pegasus knight and I didn't want to promote her just yet).

I'm only starting Chapter 11, by the way.

I'm building up Donnel mainly so I can breed him with a womanfolk and have their offspring be UNSTOPPABLE.

Virion is actually really good, I'm finding. He still deals great damage and can tank and I don't think I've really leveled him at all - maybe once or twice.

Sword users? Here, I'll give you one of my eight... I am raising my Avatar as a Tactician, though, like I feel they should be, so that's probably contributing. Also does anyone feel like Kellen or whoever the knight is might actually make a good thief? I'm thinking of reclassing him when I get the chance.

[Mando Knight]

Also, Brawl in the Family, on gaining mounts upon promotion. (http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2013/02/05/461-mounted-units/)

[Zevox]

Clerics are definitely much easier to raise, as Heal staffs start at 25 xp per use, which decreases slightly over levels.
Hm, that must be dependant upon difficulty. On hard I started with Heal staffs giving 20 xp her use, definitely not 25. Still much better than the 9 they used to though, no doubt there. Lissa was actually my second character to hit level 10, after only my Avatar, because of that.


Virion is actually really good, I'm finding. He still deals great damage and can tank and I don't think I've really leveled him at all - maybe once or twice.
Eh, I haven't used Virion in a long time myself. Even in the early stages I mostly used him as a stat boost to other characters, because he didn't do much damage on his own, and the early maps were too open to be good for archers (or mages, for that matter, but my Avatar had okay durability and Miriel I've made up for since).


Sword users? Here, I'll give you one of my eight...
Boy, do I know that feeling. I'm at about that myself - Chrom, Stahl, Sully, Lon'qu, Marth, Gaius, and my Avatar (though that last will change once I get my first Second Seal).

The worst part is that since axe using enemies are far and away the most common, my characters who use other weapons aren't seeing as much use as I'd want. I've leveled Vaike okay, but less than I'd like, and Kellem has hardly gained any levels at all since I got him several missions ago. Sumia is doing well, but mostly because she can pick off mages with ease (and I pair her with Chrom all the time) and is one of my only three or four characters who can pretty consistently double attack.

[Mando Knight]

Hm, that must be dependant upon difficulty. On hard I started with Heal staffs giving 20 xp her use, definitely not 25. Still much better than the 9 they used to though, no doubt there. Lissa was actually my second character to hit level 10, after only my Avatar, because of that.

Shadow Dragon was similar with staff experience. Lena always seems to hit 20 before anyone else in my playthroughs.

[tonberrian]

I've found that, at least on Normal, the Weapon Triangle doesn't matter as much at lower levels, because the effects are dependent on the dominant weapon's user's weapon skill level. Which means that Sumia is beating the crap out of all the brigands.

[A Rainy Knight]

I really like using Nowi as a Manakete, but I guess I ought to look into reclassing her at some point to fill out her skill roster so she has something nice to pass on to Nah. Is it even feasible to reclass a strength-based class into a magic one, or vice versa? It seems like her Manakete stats would go to waste as a Mage, so that just leaves Wyvern Rider. I guess the wyvern tree has some pretty strong skills in it, though, so maybe I'll just pick up a few of those and set her back as a Manakete.

[tonberrian]

I really like using Nowi as a Manakete, but I guess I ought to look into reclassing her at some point to fill out her skill roster so she has something nice to pass on to Nah. Is it even feasible to reclass a strength-based class into a magic one, or vice versa? It seems like her Manakete stats would go to waste as a Mage, so that just leaves Wyvern Rider. I guess the wyvern tree has some pretty strong skills in it, though, so maybe I'll just pick up a few of those and set her back as a Manakete.

To be fair, Nah can take every class that that Nowi can. So you don't really have to worry about passing along anything.

[Mando Knight]

One idea is to get Avatar and Nowi together. Nowi's a bit of a 1000-year-old loli, but think of the Manakete swarm!

[tonberrian]

One idea is to get Avatar and Nowi together. Nowi's a bit of a 1000-year-old loli, but think of the Manakete swarm!

For ridiculousness, Nah + Avatar.

[A Rainy Knight]

To be fair, Nah can take every class that that Nowi can. So you don't really have to worry about passing along anything.

True enough. I think I'll go with Wyvern Rider for Nowi's sake, then.


One idea is to get Avatar and Nowi together. Nowi's a bit of a 1000-year-old loli, but think of the Manakete swarm!

Quadruple Manakete strike team, assemble!

I might actually do Avatar + Nowi, now that I think about it. Not for the thousand-year-old-loli thing, but because she's actually a pretty entertaining character in her own right. The only other character I might pair up with instead is Olivia, and it's turning out to be a bit of a pain to get her EXP ball rolling.

[Zevox]

I really like using Nowi as a Manakete, but I guess I ought to look into reclassing her at some point to fill out her skill roster so she has something nice to pass on to Nah.
Actually, a question about her and Panne, for those more informed on the game than I: can you actually get more than one of the items that let them actually do their shape-shifting thing? What I always hated about Manaketes in Sacred Stones and Shadow Dragon was the fact that if you run out of their item (dragon stone?), they become useless. I guess reclassing does fix that somewhat in this one, but I'd really rather use the class that makes them unique personally.

Also, that statement implies that children inherit their parents' skills. Suddenly I have the urge to change my Avatar's pairing from Stahl to Donnel. Too bad that would require actually using Donnel, which seems harder to do than using Nino in Blazing Sword with how awful his base stats are...

[A Rainy Knight]

Actually, a question about her and Panne, for those more informed on the game than I: can you actually get more than one of the items that let them actually do their shape-shifting thing? What I always hated about Manaketes in Sacred Stones and Shadow Dragon was the fact that if you run out of their item (dragon stone?), they become useless. I guess reclassing does fix that somewhat in this one, but I'd really rather use the class that makes them unique personally.

Also, that statement implies that children inherit their parents' skills. Suddenly I have the urge to change my Avatar's pairing from Stahl to Donnel. Too bad that would require actually using Donnel, which seems harder to do than using Nino in Blazing Sword with how awful his base stats are...

Yup, you can just buy them in one of the regular shops that opens up after you clear a chapter, so you can get as many of them as you like. Chapter 12 or something, I think?

I believe that the child character each inherit the last skill equipped in each of their parents' rosters, though I might be mistaken about that. I'm pretty sure they get one skill from each parent, though.

[Zevox]

Yup, you can just buy them in one of the regular shops that opens up after you clear a chapter, so you can get as many of them as you like. Chapter 12 or something, I think?
:smallbiggrin: Excellent! I might actually use them in this one, then.

Although, honestly, I've already got more characters that I want to use than I have slots in even larger missions, so that's rapidly becoming an issue...

Also, just venting, but the 3Ds battery life sucks so hard :smallfrown: . I'd swear the time it takes to recharge is at least as long as the battery life itself, too...

[The-Mage-King]

Note: White Text=spoilers. Bigtime.


For ridiculousness, Nah + Avatar.


Or Tiki+Avatar. One's the daughterof Naga, the other's a vessel of Grima. Together, they burn stuff!




I concur on the battery life. It sucks. Horribly.

[A Rainy Knight]

Alright, I'm finally getting down to marrying these folks off! Today I paired up Sully x Stahl (which I thought was a really sweet support) and Avatar x Nowi (I'm ready for my bustling household of dragon girls :smalltongue:).

[huttj509]

I'm going through on Normal/Casual to get used to the mechanics (I want to have a clue of what I want to do before hitting Hard+). Man, my avatar grandmaster with Chrom paired up is just stomping everything. And when it's busy, Frederick/Sumia fly in.

[tonberrian]

Wow, is chapter 14 a big difficulty spike. Though having Avatar paired up with Chrom slaughter six enemies and gain 3 levels is cool.

[Starsign]

So I've fiddled around a bit at Serenes Forest for the Fire Emblem Awakening section in terms of characters and their stat growths. I found one example of which I find the results to be quite terrifying. (shown in spoilers below)

The Knight, Kellam, happens to be able to be reclassed into a Thief. His growths as one include 85% HP, 55% Strength, 65% Skill, 60% Speed, and 60% Defense :smalleek: Promotion into Assassin adds another 5% to HP, 5% to Strength and 5% to Skill, making him not only incredibly fast but absurdly durable as well.

I know I won't be class changing in my first playthrough but damn does the info above make it so very tempting :smallbiggrin:

[A Rainy Knight]

Well, I can say with certainty that getting too carried away with class changing will let you end up with some pretty overpowered characters. Before I recruited Nah, I leveled Nowi with ~25 levels of Manakete, 10 levels of Wyvern Rider, and 5 levels of Griffon Rider. By that point, paired up with my Grandmaster avatar, she could pretty much easily solo the story missions I was currently at, so I'm giving her a break for now.

[tonberrian]

Well, I can say with certainty that getting too carried away with class changing will let you end up with some pretty overpowered characters. Before I recruited Nah, I leveled Nowi with ~25 levels of Manakete, 10 levels of Wyvern Rider, and 5 levels of Griffon Rider. By that point, paired up with my Grandmaster avatar, she could pretty much easily solo the story missions I was currently at, so I'm giving her a break for now.

I'm pretty sure that's true of just about anybody that can reclass into Wyvern Rider. It's partly because reclassing is really powerful, partly because Wyvern Rider is just that good. Though Panne as Wyvern Rider has almost all the weaknesses.

[Todasmile]

So I've fiddled around a bit at Serenes Forest for the Fire Emblem Awakening section in terms of characters and their stat growths. I found one example of which I find the results to be quite terrifying. (shown in spoilers below)

The Knight, Kellam, happens to be able to be reclassed into a Thief. His growths as one include 85% HP, 55% Strength, 65% Skill, 60% Speed, and 60% Defense :smalleek: Promotion into Assassin adds another 5% to HP, 5% to Strength and 5% to Skill, making him not only incredibly fast but absurdly durable as well.

I know I won't be class changing in my first playthrough but damn does the info above make it so very tempting :smallbiggrin:

I figured that reclassing him into Thief would be good a while ago. He's actually the first one I'll be doing any reclassing with - the moment I can find a damn Seal.

[Zevox]

Wow, is chapter 14 a big difficulty spike. Though having Avatar paired up with Chrom slaughter six enemies and gain 3 levels is cool.
That's a bit disturbing to hear. I'm already often replaying chapters at least once for one reason or another, and I'm only at chapter 7.

By the way, apparently the second DLC has been released, this one allowing recruitment of Roy. Price is $2.50 (US). Not totally unreasonable, but high enough to cause me to hesitate, since I don't particularly care about Roy. I think I'll turn this one down, but I may be a bit more willing to pick up others than I would have been if the price were as high as I'd feared.

[tonberrian]

Change Seals can be bought en masse once you finish Chapter 16. There's also a few Paralogues that sell them once you've beaten them.


That's a bit disturbing to hear. I'm already often replaying chapters at least once for one reason or another, and I'm only at chapter 7.

Well, it's definitely got more of an element of strategy than most maps. But if you can survive the first turn blitz you should be fine.

[Goldfly]

Yarne and Lon'qu's first support conversation. Just... Just this:
"DON'T MESS WITH A BUNNY!"
I swear, I almost died laughing.

[Acanous]

I find it highly amusing that the FE: Awakening thread got so off-topic as to neccesitate a general FE thread....which then went straight into talking about Awakening :p

[Geno9999]

I find it highly amusing that the FE: Awakening Fire Emblem/Shin Megami Tensei Crossover thread got so off-topic as to neccesitate a general FE thread....which then went straight into talking about Awakening :p

I fixed that for you.

[Acanous]

I fixed that for you.

Oh. Right, my bad. Got my threads crossed.

Wasn't there also an awakening thread?

[A Rainy Knight]

Yarne and Lon'qu's first support conversation. Just... Just this:
"DON'T MESS WITH A BUNNY!"
I swear, I almost died laughing.

The supports are pretty amusing in this game, aren't they?

On that note: oh, Nah, you're such an amusing daughter sometimes.
“What do you like about her, anyway? You're so serious and responsible, and she runs around like a headless chicken! I have no idea what you see in her... Unless... you rushed into marriage for some reason? Like you got her-”

[tonberrian]

Yarne and Lon'qu's first support conversation. Just... Just this:
"DON'T MESS WITH A BUNNY!"
I swear, I almost died laughing.

I like'd Panne's recruitment of Yarne.

"Are you angry? Because you look like you're ang-"

"OF COURSE I'M ANGRY!"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Oh god how am I going to wait the three weeks until my first round of prelims is completely finished.

[Raistlin1040]

So I got this game the other night and it's awesome. I am on chapter 15, Hard Classic. I lost the Knight you get early on and Anna, but I wasn't planning on using either of them much anyway. Haven't done any reclassing, but I think I'll go back and playthrough on Normal after I beat the game to do different supports and reclass.

[Zevox]

Well, got my first Second Seal, from the fame rewards section. Used it immediately on my Avatar, Selene, making her a Pegasus Knight as planned. And wow, I can't believe how well pairing her with Strahl is working now that I've made that change. They complement each other other perfectly, with Selene boosting Strahl's lacking speed so much he can double most enemies and his resistance enough that he can almost tank magic as well as he can physical attacks (and he's on par with a Knight in defense), and Strahl having similar impact on Selene's strength and defense. And with both being mounted I can pretty freely switch around who is on point without worrying about losing mobility. It's pretty amazing.

I just wish Selene had raised her magic a bit higher before I changed her, given I'm trying to make her a Dark Flier. She only hit 9 magic by level 11 in Tactician, and that dropped by a point due to the class switch. (Surprisingly, moving from Tactician to Pegasus Knight only loses 1 point each in magic and defense, and gains quite a bit in skill, speed, and resistance - it was a pretty darn good trade.) Still, I guess given I intend to have her go through 20 levels of Pegasus Knight in full before promoting, the growth rate her magic has even in that class, and the boosts she'll get from becoming a Dark Flier, she should be okay there, and I'm just worrying too much.

I did find another character I'm going to class-change though - Cordelia. I rather like her, but I already have two Pegasus Knights each going for a different promoted class (Sumia and Selene), so a third seems a bit much. Looks like she'll make a fine Mercenary though - pity that means yet another sword-user, but I don't have a Mercenary yet, so eh, I'll go with it. Just need another couple of Second Seals and to train her a few levels in non-story encounters.

[Goldfly]

Awakening: Paralogue nine.

Cynthia attacks Chrom. I seriously consider resetting. Chrom's Aether activates. I facepalm. Miracle activates, and Cynthia dodges the final attack. I'm left speechless. One freaking hit point.

[Hydranova]

So, a question for the strategists:

In Awakening, my tactician Avatar (Bram) is currently level 17. The enemies are about level 6. Should I not be funneling the exp into Bram?

[CoffeeIncluded]

How many second seals and master seals can you get?

Do you download DLC from the Nintendo Eshop?

[A Rainy Knight]

How many second seals and master seals can you get?

Do you download DLC from the Nintendo Eshop?

As many as you want; they're just sold in some of the item shops and money isn't that hard to come by.

The DLC is purchased and downloaded in-game, but you pay from your Eshop account, so basically yes.

[CoffeeIncluded]

As many as you want; they're just sold in some of the item shops and money isn't that hard to come by.

The DLC is purchased and downloaded in-game, but you pay from your Eshop account, so basically yes.

Alright, thanks. Do I have to wait for a certain point to buy the DLC? What are all the ways to get money in this game? And thanks.

[Zevox]

Alright, thanks. Do I have to wait for a certain point to buy the DLC?
Yes, but it's not far. After mission 4 you unlock the area on the World Map that lets you acquire and play the DLC missions.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Yes, but it's not far. After mission 4 you unlock the area on the World Map that lets you acquire and play the DLC missions.

And I pay then, or before?

Must hold off until February 21, must hold off until February 21...

[A Rainy Knight]

Alright, thanks. Do I have to wait for a certain point to buy the DLC? What are all the ways to get money in this game? And thanks.

The map location you access the DLC from opens up after Chapter 4 (i.e. pretty early on in the game).

You make money by selling off items, and there are special Small, Medium, and Large "Bullion" items whose only purpose is to be sold off for money. You'll come across a pretty good amount of money dropped by enemies in the story missions (even more if you open chests and chase down thieves), and the enemies in the repeatable random skirmishes always drop one or two small bullions per battle. Aside from that, I think there's a Barbarian skill that gives you a chance to earn money on defeating a foe, but I haven't tried it.

[Zevox]

And I pay then, or before?
Then, of course - you don't get charged until you're ready to download it, and you can't download it until you unlock that area. Though the first one is free for the first month anyway.

[Starsign]

Has anyone here ever thought about reclassing Chrom into an Archer from his base class? I find it rather bizarre that he has the capability to, seems like a self-imposed challenge more than anything, especially if he were to go to Sniper.

[Zevox]

Has anyone here ever thought about reclassing Chrom into an Archer from his base class? I find it rather bizarre that he has the capability to, seems like a self-imposed challenge more than anything, especially if he were to go to Sniper.
Nah, I don't I'd ever reclass Chrom at all. Doesn't seem right to change the main character away from being a Lord.

[Beowulf DW]

So, I heard there was a new Fire Emblem...So I guess I'll finally have to get a new DS...Oh well. It's high time I got back into Fire Emblem anyway. Once more into the breach!

[Starsign]

Nah, I don't I'd ever reclass Chrom at all. Doesn't seem right to change the main character away from being a Lord.

I'm glad they gave you the ability to do so actually, especially when only two characters each come as Cavalier or Archer... But I find it odd he can go to Archer as I don't think his stats do that well as one. (particularly as a Lord)

That and Archers are a bit of a mixed bag in the series. Either they'll be awesome as a bow user, like in FE7 where Rebecca and Wil are awesome or in FE10 where Rolf and Shinon kick so much butt compared to the nerfed Paladins. (Leonardo though is absolute trash) Or Archers will be awful, like in FE6 where you have no reason to use Wolt and Rebecca over Sue and Shin, or FE9 where Paladins dominate the game to the point where Rolf and Shinon just come off as pointless ground units compared to Oscar, Astrid, and Geoffrey.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Then, of course - you don't get charged until you're ready to download it, and you can't download it until you unlock that area. Though the first one is free for the first month anyway.

Damn, I may have to get it earlier to make sure I can get the stuff for free.

[TheSummoner]

That and Archers are a bit of a mixed bag in the series. Either they'll be awesome as a bow user, like in FE7 where Rebecca and Wil are awesome or in FE10 where Rolf and Shinon kick so much butt compared to the nerfed Paladins. (Leonardo though is absolute trash) Or Archers will be awful, like in FE6 where you have no reason to use Wolt and Rebecca over Sue and Shin, or FE9 where Paladins dominate the game to the point where Rolf and Shinon just come off as pointless ground units compared to Oscar, Astrid, and Geoffrey.

Leonardo isn't trash. He is however, far overshadowed by the marginally better statwise and far easier to train, Shinon and Rolf. It's not a case of him being bad. It's just a case of him not being godly when the competition is.

In FE6, the biggest problem is snipers don't get crit chance. Stats were lower all around in 6 than the later games and when snipers don't even get the awesomely broken +30% crit FE6 used, there really is no reason to use them over a bow-unit who can move further and also wield swords.

And Rolf isn't bad in 9 if you give him some love, but yeah... Paladins were amazing in that game.

[Starsign]

Leonardo isn't trash. He is however, far overshadowed by the marginally better statwise and far easier to train, Shinon and Rolf. It's not a case of him being bad. It's just a case of him not being godly when the competition is.

In FE6, the biggest problem is snipers don't get crit chance. Stats were lower all around in 6 than the later games and when snipers don't even get the awesomely broken +30% crit FE6 used, there really is no reason to use them over a bow-unit who can move further and also wield swords.

And Rolf isn't bad in 9 if you give him some love, but yeah... Paladins were amazing in that game.

You pretty much have it nailed down better than I do. Coincidently the Crit Bonus is exactly why I always thought Swordmasters are the best sword users for FE6. :smallwink:

Due to how FE4 works (deploying the entire army) archers kinda come off as another unit rather than something that debates you whether to take or not. In FE5 however the issue is less with the class and more with the characters. Tanya has no skills when she joins and really needs her Build stat to grow to take advantage of her speed. Rowan however is absolute garbage, sporting a 50% Magic growth and 15% strength growth. HOW do you screw that up? :smallyuk:

In FE11 I mostly recall archers being unremarkable... In FE12 however, Snipers are amazing due to their stat caps compared to Horsemen. They have a 30 cap Skill and 29 cap Speed growth, only surpassed by Swordmasters. They get great stats, the only issue is getting there as Archer is a rather mediocre class to be in. The only ones I'd generally use as an Archer/Sniper is Ryan and Norne... Even then I'd rather try to raise Norne's lance rank as a Pegasus Knight in case she makes for an excellent General. :smallbiggrin:

[Zevox]

So, I heard there was a new Fire Emblem...So I guess I'll finally have to get a new DS...
3DS, actually.


Damn, I may have to get it earlier to make sure I can get the stuff for free.
No, you should be fine getting it on the 21st. The game just came out less than a week ago, so that first month free bit extends until early March. You'll have plenty of time.

[Geno9999]

In FE11 I mostly recall archers being unremarkable... In FE12 however, Snipers are amazing due to their stat caps compared to Horsemen. They have a 30 cap Skill and 29 cap Speed growth, only surpassed by Swordmasters. They get great stats, the only issue is getting there as Archer is a rather mediocre class to be in. The only ones I'd generally use as an Archer/Sniper is Ryan and Norne... Even then I'd rather try to raise Norne's lance rank as a Pegasus Knight in case she makes for an excellent General. :smallbiggrin:

Castor was amazing for me in FE3, despite the fact that the only thing Hunters gain by being a Horseman is a Horse (+2 to Skill and Defense, and +3 to Move,) which they lose whenever the map takes place indoors. However, his strength is amazing, so he was basically the first choice for Parthia. Also, odd quirk: Horsemen don't count as mounted units for the effective bonuses of Knight Killer or Rapier.

FE11 did some weird things to some character's growths (see also, Wolf and Sedgar)

[CoffeeIncluded]

3DS, actually.


No, you should be fine getting it on the 21st. The game just came out less than a week ago, so that first month free bit extends until early March. You'll have plenty of time.

Ah, that's a relief. Thanks!


In FE11 I mostly recall archers being unremarkable... In FE12 however, Snipers are amazing due to their stat caps compared to Horsemen. They have a 30 cap Skill and 29 cap Speed growth, only surpassed by Swordmasters. They get great stats, the only issue is getting there as Archer is a rather mediocre class to be in. The only ones I'd generally use as an Archer/Sniper is Ryan and Norne... Even then I'd rather try to raise Norne's lance rank as a Pegasus Knight in case she makes for an excellent General. :smallbiggrin:

Ahaha oh man I got so freaking blessed with Ryan when I played with him. He ended up capping defense at about level 5 or 6 promoted, and by the end of the game he'd capped everything but magic and resistance. Actually, I think he'd capped everything but HP, magic, luck, and res by level 9 or 10 promoted. He had a higher crit chance than Swordsmaster MU.

[Starsign]

Castor was amazing for me in FE3, despite the fact that the only thing Hunters gain by being a Horseman is a Horse (+2 to Skill and Defense, and +3 to Move,) which they lose whenever the map takes place indoors. However, his strength is amazing, so he was basically the first choice for Parthia. Also, odd quirk: Horsemen don't count as mounted units for the effective bonuses of Knight Killer or Rapier.

FE11 did some weird things to some character's growths (see also, Wolf and Sedgar)

FE12 did, among other things, remove the whole dismounting idea, which I think was for the best. I have heard Castor is also incredible in FE12 (coming with a Killer Bow helps) but I favored Draug as a Hunter over him (bad idea in retrospect, Draug hasn't gained a SINGLE point of Defense in 10 levels)

Also I know Wolf and Sedgar are impossibly broken in FE11, but in FE12 I have heard they are irredeemably horrible. Can someone confirm this? I'm still stuck in Chapter 11 :smallsigh:


Ahaha oh man I got so freaking blessed with Ryan when I played with him. He ended up capping defense at about level 5 or 6 promoted, and by the end of the game he'd capped everything but magic and resistance.

That's what my Ryan is going through right now. His stats are so good it's not even funny. Once he gets into Sniper (he, along with the rest of my group, averages level 12-13 at Chapter 11 barring prepromotes) he will be amazing :smallbiggrin:

[CoffeeIncluded]

FE12 did, among other things, remove the whole dismounting idea, which I think was for the best. I have heard Castor is also incredible in FE12 (coming with a Killer Bow helps) but I favored Draug as a Hunter over him (bad idea in retrospect, Draug hasn't gained a SINGLE point of Defense in 10 levels)

Also I know Wolf and Sedgar are impossibly broken in FE11, but in FE12 I have heard they are irredeemably horrible. Can someone confirm this? I'm still stuck in Chapter 11 :smallsigh:

Yeah. You get them close to the endgame and they suck.


That's what my Ryan is going through right now. His stats are so good it's not even funny. Once he gets into Sniper (he, along with the rest of my group, averages level 12-13 at Chapter 11 barring prepromotes) he will be amazing :smallbiggrin:

I know. And Rody ended up just as amazing, also capping damn near everything (I think he ended up 1 point off the defense cap?) My A-team was Swordsmaster MU, Sniper Ryan, Paladin Luke, Paladin Rody, Dracoknight Catria, Falcoknight Palla, and then I swapped between Sage Merric and Sage Linde, using them both whenever possible since I love mages. Merric turned out to be a wonderful clutch player. My favorite example: He ended up critting with Excalibur on the final boss after rescuing his girlfriend, and changed the final level from a dice-roll to one-hit-kill on Marth's part. :smallbiggrin: Merric, I think after that performance, Marth would let you make out with his sister even in his presence as much as you two want (referencing an in-game conversation after the rescue).

[Starsign]

Yeah. You get them close to the endgame and they suck.

I know. And Rody ended up just as amazing, also capping damn near everything (I think he ended up 1 point off the defense cap?) My A-team was Swordsmaster MU, Sniper Ryan, Paladin Luke, Paladin Rody, and then I swapped between Merric and...I forget what the female mage's name was again, whoops. :smallredface: Merric turned out to be a wonderful clutch player.

I've actually never touched Merric at all since I got him. With how well Malliesia, Linde, and Yumina are turning out so far, I've felt that a male mage, with one exception (see below) isn't needed. (and since I know how endgame is, I'm shooting myself in the foot by not using Merric or Julian at all) I find Nosferatu too fun a spell and Aura is great too.

Speaking of crutches, Etzel is amazing for a prepromoted Sorcerer. With his surprisingly decent growths, good bases, and a class that is incredibly valuable for the point he joins at, I dare call him the best crutch character the series has ever known.

[CoffeeIncluded]

I've actually never touched Merric at all since I got him. With how well Malliesia, Linde, and Yumina are turning out so far, I've felt that a male mage, with one exception (see below) isn't needed. (and since I know how endgame is, I'm shooting myself in the foot by not using Merric or Julian at all) I find Nosferatu too fun a spell and Aura is great too.

Speaking of crutches, Etzel is amazing for a prepromoted Sorcerer. With his surprisingly decent growths, good bases, and a class that is incredibly valuable for the point he joins at, I dare call him the best crutch character the series has ever known.

My Merric turned out pretty decent. He's pretty tanky for a mage, or maybe that's just because Linde's so frail defensively and pretty much everyone on my team got defense-blessed. But he nearly capped magic and I don't regret using him at all. But like I said, I just love mages. My three favorite units are swordsmasters, heroes, and sages.

You don't have to fight with Merric or Julian (or Sirius or Minerva) if you're fast and lucky. You've got to pass around the warp staves and kill the final boss in one turn to avoid using them. That's why I was cheering when Merric critted.

And I said clutch player, not crutch player. A clutch player is someone who will reliably come through when you need him to perform well the most. I think Merric won in that category. Well, actually, all my A-Team units did. :smallbiggrin: And Linde did something just as fantastic in the previous chapter.
She critted against the mage guy who's the penultimate final boss with Starlight. Twice. And the mage guy missed against her, when if he had hit the mook who hit her next would have killed her. He had like a 70% hit chance too.

So basically in my playthrough I ended up with mostly defensively-blessed clutch players.

[huttj509]

3DS, actually.


No, you should be fine getting it on the 21st. The game just came out less than a week ago, so that first month free bit extends until early March. You'll have plenty of time.

In addition, it depends on what you're looking for.

Personally, I'm not overly jazzed about bringing in the paid versions of classic characters (I love support bonuses too much). I'll probably be shelling out for the cash and artifact maps though.

[CoffeeIncluded]

As long as they don't cost too much, I'm buying the DLC. Heck, I'm buying the DLC as long as it's not like $50 or something; I've got a job this semester!

[The-Mage-King]

Nah. The second DLC (not the free one) is like $2.50, or you can get the bundle of the first three DLCs for $4.



Anyway, just beat the game last night.


The second to last boss is... Kinda wimpy, and also on a small map.

Or maybe my fliers are just OP...

For reference.... I paired Chrom with Sumia, passed along the movement Rally to Cynthia, and had Cherche.


Sumia had been promoted to Dark Flyer, and just learned Galeforce two maps ago, and Chrom was already absurdly OP, being roughly level 54, and on his second trip through Great Lord.


So what did I do?

I loaded up Olivia with Cherche, Chrom with Sumia, and had Cynthia use Rally on them. Flew them both straight across the map, had Olivia dance for Sumia to get an extra turn, and then...

I found myself like 4 spaces short of the boss. But, there was a squishy bishop (I say squishy since it had like 66 HP, a paltry sum) nearby, and a third turn would put me in line to kill the boss.


Crit. Going to kill boss. Easily done with an Aether activation. :smallcool:


TL;DR Killed second to last boss in one turn with OP Sumia and movement boosts.



So yeah. Now I'm going to go try and grind some supports and money, obtain more minions, and then go back and crush the final boss again. And again.


And then onto DLC, when I have the funds. I cannot wait for the Future of Despair packs, because the entire concept of them is awesome.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Wait, what's the level cap in this game?!

[The-Mage-King]

Wait, what's the level cap in this game?!

20 per class. But, each time you reclass, you get start at level 1. So I say the overall level. +hrom, having gone through Lord and Great Lord once each, and currently at level 14 in Great Lord, is classified as level 54.

It's to give you a rough idea of stats.

[Mando Knight]

Wait, what's the level cap in this game?!

20. Though reclassing drops you back down to 1, AFAIK... which is why the promoted stat caps are about as high as the top-tier caps for Radiant Dawn.

[Zevox]

Wait, what's the level cap in this game?!
20 in any given class, as always. However, with every character having at least three base classes they can change into (your Avatar and any children he/she has have far more), plus the fact that Second Seals even allow you to change a character from a promoted class to a base one if you wish, it's theoretically possible to grind your stats to maximum easily just by class changing a lot (since doing so resets you to level 1, just like promoting). And the stat caps are quite high, with base classes often having caps approaching promoted ones from previous games and promoted ones having caps similar to those of Radiant Dawn's tier-3 classes.

[CoffeeIncluded]

20 in any given class, as always. However, with every character having at least three base classes they can change into (your Avatar and any children he/she has have far more), plus the fact that Second Seals even allow you to change a character from a promoted class to a base one if you wish, it's theoretically possible to grind your stats to maximum easily just by class changing a lot (since doing so resets you to level 1, just like promoting). And the stat caps are quite high, with base classes often having caps approaching promoted ones from previous games and promoted ones having caps similar to those of Radiant Dawn's tier-3 classes.

...Is there a limit as to how many second seals you can put on one character? Because if you can replay the DLC maps for level grinding (and I think I read you can?) I can see this getting really broken, really fast.

[Zevox]

...Is there a limit as to how many second seals you can put on one character? Because if you can replay the DLC maps for level grinding (and I think I read you can?) I can see this getting really broken, really fast.
There is not. And you don't need DLC maps, either - the game has a world map like Sacred Stones, where non-story encounters will pop up from time to time. Fortunately you don't have to fight them if you step into their space like you did in Sacred Stones, though.

But yeah, breaking the game via grinding would likely be easy to do, if you set out to do so. Might be why Insanity looks so blasted ludicrous (I couldn't survive the first mission when I tried it on that difficulty in the demo) - to challenge even people willing to do that.

[CoffeeIncluded]

There is not. And you don't need DLC maps, either - the game has a world map like Sacred Stones, where non-story encounters will pop up from time to time. Fortunately you don't have to fight them if you step into their space like you did in Sacred Stones, though.

But yeah, breaking the game via grinding would likely be easy to do, if you set out to do so. Might be why Insanity looks so blasted ludicrous (I couldn't survive the first mission when I tried it on that difficulty in the demo) - to challenge even people willing to do that.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to grind, so looks like it's normal or hard difficulty for me. Still, wow.

[Mando Knight]

Fact: Lodestar is the stupidest translation I've seen from Nintendo since the SNES days.

[Zevox]

Unfortunately I don't have the time to grind, so looks like it's normal or hard difficulty for me. Still, wow.
I'm on hard myself, and believe me, it's plenty challenging. I expect I could do some grinding and still not have an easy time of it. Which is good, since I do have some class changing I want to do (I've already changed my Avatar into a Pegasus Knight, for instance).


Fact: Lodestar is the stupidest translation I've seen from Nintendo since the SNES days.
Yeah, I was confused about that one myself. I thought the fan translation for Marth's class was "Star Lord," which makes more sense. I'm not even sure what "Lodestar" is supposed to mean.

[CoffeeIncluded]

So then normal difficulty, so I don't spend more time resetting than actually playing. :smalltongue:

[Zevox]

So then normal difficulty, so I don't spend more time resetting than actually playing. :smalltongue:
If you're worried about that, the game does now comes with a "casual" mode, which disables the whole permanent-death feature.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Nah, that feels kinda cheap, you know?

[Todasmile]

Yeah, I was confused about that one myself. I thought the fan translation for Marth's class was "Star Lord," which makes more sense. I'm not even sure what "Lodestar" is supposed to mean.

Personally, I like it. It sounds neat and important and special. It's an interesting name in the vein of Trueblade or Vanguard. It may not REALLY mean anything, but it gives me chills to hear it.

[Mando Knight]

Personally, I like it. It sounds neat and important and special. It's an interesting name in the vein of Trueblade or Vanguard. It may not REALLY mean anything, but it gives me chills to hear it.

Vanguard has meaning. Lodestar instead of Star Lord is stupid.

[Todasmile]

Vanguard has meaning. Lodestar instead of Star Lord is stupid.

1
archaic : a star that leads or guides; especially : north star
2
: one that serves as an inspiration, model, or guide

In all honesty I think that fits Marth to a T. Or at least it fits an image of him.

[Mando Knight]

1
archaic : a star that leads or guides; especially : north star
2
: one that serves as an inspiration, model, or guide

In all honesty I think that fits Marth to a T. Or at least it fits an image of him.

Hm. Significantly less stupid, then. Still very strange, considering that "Star Lord" is a literal translation of the Japanese and doesn't require a dictionary to understand...

[Todasmile]

>Reclassed Donnel to Mercenary

>I am Donnel, Destroyer of Worlds

I guess Villager has SUCH bad bases that reclassing is basically like promoting...

[Mando Knight]

>Reclassed Donnel to Mercenary

>I am Donnel, Destroyer of Worlds

I guess Villager has SUCH bad bases that reclassing is basically like promoting...

Usually even better than a promotion. Villager is terrible except for its Good Growths skill. Its base stats aren't just bad, they're terrible. Upgrading to Mercenary gives Donnel +2 HP, +4 Strength, +7 Skill, +6 Speed, and +4 Defense (Fighter gives him +4 HP, +7 Strength, +4 Skill and Speed, and +3 Defense). Villager's max stats are also a good deal lower, at 20s across the board except for Luck and HP.

[tonberrian]

Donnel is the best user of the sword that gives Mug. Bar none. With the weapon-saving skill he will almost never spend weapon uses, and he will get extra gold roughly half the time. Plus insane stats and high crit chance mean he's excellent in battle too.

[Zevox]

Hm. Significantly less stupid, then. Still very strange, considering that "Star Lord" is a literal translation of the Japanese and doesn't require a dictionary to understand...
Indeed, it seems like when the literal translation works that well, there should be no reason to go with anything else.

Re: Donnel - I don't know how anyone would manage to use him on hard+. Just recruiting him was a pain in the rear, because literally everything on that mission doubled him for an easy kill, and it took three kills for him to level up. I wound up feeding him the last three enemies alive, which were two archers and the boss. Believe me, managing to do that last was not easy. And, well, that one level sure as hell didn't make his stats any less horrible, so I've just not bothered with him.

I have, however, gotten my first round of marriages set. Chrom and Sumia, Sully and Vaike, and Stahl and Selene (my Avatar). Chrom and Sumia was just as cute as expected. Sully and Vaike was, well, very appropriate for those two. Stahl and Selene was actually a little awkward - revolved around this face-reading talent of Stahl's that was introduced earlier in the support. Bit weird the way it plays out. But oh well.

Guess I should start picking other pairs, but that might be a touch difficult. I've sidelined more males than females from the characters recruited so far, so things are going to start getting imbalanced there quickly.

[Todasmile]

Re: Donnel - I don't know how anyone would manage to use him on hard+. Just recruiting him was a pain in the rear, because literally everything on that mission doubled him for an easy kill, and it took three kills for him to level up. I wound up feeding him the last three enemies alive, which were two archers and the boss. Believe me, managing to do that last was not easy. And, well, that one level sure as hell didn't make his stats any less horrible, so I've just not bothered with him.

Pair him up with Frederick or something, then just have someone nearly kill the enemy and have him take them out. It's really not that hard. Before long he was slaughtering things just as hard as my other units.

Harder, now.


I have, however, gotten my first round of marriages set. Chrom and Sumia, Sully and Vaike, and Stahl and Selene (my Avatar). Chrom and Sumia was just as cute as expected. Sully and Vaike was, well, very appropriate for those two. Stahl and Selene was actually a little awkward - revolved around this face-reading talent of Stahl's that was introduced earlier in the support. Bit weird the way it plays out. But oh well.

Guess I should start picking other pairs, but that might be a touch difficult. I've sidelined more males than females from the characters recruited so far, so things are going to start getting imbalanced there quickly.

I've got ChromxSully, AvatarxLissa, DonnellxMaribelle, and KennelxPanne.

It's funny because I put the rabbitbeast in the Kennel.

Or the other way around heheheheh

[Suichimo]

I'm on hard myself, and believe me, it's plenty challenging. I expect I could do some grinding and still not have an easy time of it. Which is good, since I do have some class changing I want to do (I've already changed my Avatar into a Pegasus Knight, for instance).

Honestly, once you hit level 10 or so, the early game in Hard becomes much more bearable and the game definitely gets easier. My Chrom/Sumia pair could outright clear missions on their own. Now that Chrom has Aether, I'm fairly confident he will never be at risk of dying, ever.


Re: Donnel - I don't know how anyone would manage to use him on hard+. Just recruiting him was a pain in the rear, because literally everything on that mission doubled him for an easy kill, and it took three kills for him to level up. I wound up feeding him the last three enemies alive, which were two archers and the boss. Believe me, managing to do that last was not easy. And, well, that one level sure as hell didn't make his stats any less horrible, so I've just not bothered with him.

Just surround one or two archers with your units or the environment and let Donnel wail on them. They can't do anything and he gets his level. A good one for doing this is the archer in the Northwest corner of the map. He won't move until a unit gets in his range, so just get your tankiest unit and keep moving him one step forward until he is backed into that corner. Draw your unit out and put Donnel in his place, there is a free kill.


I have, however, gotten my first round of marriages set. Chrom and Sumia, Sully and Vaike, and Stahl and Selene (my Avatar). Chrom and Sumia was just as cute as expected. Sully and Vaike was, well, very appropriate for those two. Stahl and Selene was actually a little awkward - revolved around this face-reading talent of Stahl's that was introduced earlier in the support. Bit weird the way it plays out. But oh well.

Guess I should start picking other pairs, but that might be a touch difficult. I've sidelined more males than females from the characters recruited so far, so things are going to start getting imbalanced there quickly.

I've got Chrom/Sumia, Stahl/Sully, Avatar/Cordelia, and Lissa/Kellam. Stahl/Sully is an absolute beast combo and Stahl is damn amazing. He is strong, quick, and has more defense than any knight/general I've encountered yet, even Kellam. Doesn't help that Sully improves those areas even more and I have them both as Paladins for Defender.

I'm going to seriously mess with the marriages and children in my Lunatic+ run, thats going to be fun. I was wondering if the strongest possible character is a Morgan as Chrom's Grandson(am I able to put spoilers in here?) and Avatar's son?


Edit: P.S. Galeforce is retardedly broken.

[tonberrian]

I'm going to seriously mess with the marriages and children in my Lunatic+ run, thats going to be fun. I was wondering if the strongest possible character is a Morgan as Chrom's Grandson(am I able to put spoilers in here?) and Avatar's son?


Edit: P.S. Galeforce is retardedly broken.

I'd much prefer Chrom's Granddaughter. I think Aether only gets passed on to female descendants. And only females get Galeforce.

[huttj509]

I'd much prefer Chrom's Granddaughter. I think Aether only gets passed on to female descendants. And only females get Galeforce.

You can have the mother pass Galeforce to male children.

Children get the last equipped skill of parents when you recruit them (when you enter the recruit mission is when it looks).

I think Chrom's an exception that he passes Aether to female children, and Roghtful King to male. However, both Male and Female children can become great lords and learn those skills.

[Suichimo]

I'd much prefer Chrom's Granddaughter. I think Aether only gets passed on to female descendants. And only females get Galeforce.

Yeah, I misspoke there. But the question is still the same, shouldn't Chrom's Granddaughter be the most broken character in the game?

[tonberrian]

I think Chrom's an exception that he passes Aether to female children, and Roghtful King to male. However, both Male and Female children can become great lords and learn those skills.

Err, no? Only Lucina can become a lord. Furthermore, Rightful King and Aether are always passed in highest priority (Rightful King to males, Aether to females). At least, that's what Serenes Forest seems to be saying.

Edit: Alright, not quite true. Lucina passes on skills like Chrom does. Her sisters can pass on Aether normally, and her brothers can pass on Rightful King normally. But neither can become Lords, and thus can never pass on both. Ergo, the only way to get Aether on a third generation Morgan is to breed Avatar (M) with Lucina or her sister.

[Goldfly]

If we're talking about pairings: (spoilered for length)

Chrom/Maribelle
Avatar/Nowi
Gaius/Cordelia
Gregor/Tharja
Panne (R.I.P.)/Lon'qu
Olivia/Vaike
Virion/Lissa
Sully/Donnel
Henry/Sumia
Libra/Miriel
Frederick/Cherche

[tonberrian]

Pairings!

Tharja x Henry
Panne x Lon'qu
Chrom x Avatar
Sumia x Frederick
Sully x Donnel
Olivia x Stahl
Cordelia x Vaike
Nowi x Gregor
Miriel x Virion
Maribelle x Gaius

[Mando Knight]

Also, checking up on Serenesforest about Marth... there's three versions of him:

1) The Otherworld Marth from the paid DLC. He has Charm and Aptitude.
2) Prince Marth from the Shadow Dragon Spotpass. He has Charm, Dual Strike+, Support Block+, Support Boost+.
3) King Marth from the Mystery of the Emblem Spotpass. He has Sol, Luna, and Astra; Rightful King; and Aegis.

All three start as Lodestar (which I hereby dub the "Marth class" as well since he's the only one who ever seems to use it). Of them, I think King Marth is the best. Look at how much he can chain of his status as Rightful King right off the bat... if he doesn't trigger one of his super-murder strikes, I think something's wrong.

[The-Mage-King]

Pairings, you say?


Chrom/Sumia
Lissa/Ricken
Avatar/Nowi
Lon'qu/Cherche
Libra/Tharja

...

And that's all that have S-Ranked.

I'm working on Gaius/Panne and Donnel/Olivia at the moment. Then I'll deal with the rest.

And, of course, the second generation, though it does nothing.

Currently working on Lucina/Gerome, and either Morgan or Nah with Owain. The other will probably be paired with Inigo or Yarne.

Unsure which to go with.

EDITED this.

[Mando Knight]

Reading through the support transcripts, Donnel and Nowi are two adorkable characters that are even more adorkable together.

[Suichimo]

So, already having Cordelia as a Dark Flier to get Galeforce, seriously this **** is op, I changed my avatar over to a Berserker to get Axefaire for, at least, Severa. He's going to go through Merc/Hero, Myrmidon/Swordmaster for Swordfaier, and Mage/Sage for Mag+2/Tomefaire. Not sure if Wyvern Rider is worth it for Strength +2 or if I should just save all of this skills shenanigans for Lunatic+.

[Mando Knight]

Remember that you have a limit to active skills. It's why children characters aren't totally OP (though some are still really close... i.e. any of them with access to Galeforce).

[CoffeeIncluded]

What does galeforce do, exactly?

[Starsign]

What does galeforce do, exactly?

To explain...

Essentially, when a character with the skill kills an enemy, the character gets another full action, including moving and switching and attacking. A powerful enough character can literally wipe the entire map by him or herself. Bonus points if that character is a certain daughter who's mother is Sumia. :smallbiggrin:

And since the skill is earned as a Dark Flier, you have a character who already has the best maneuverability in the game. Broken doesn't even begin to describe it's value. Generally considered vital for Lunatic.

[CoffeeIncluded]

To explain...

Essentially, when a character with the skill kills an enemy, the character gets another full action, including moving and switching and attacking. A powerful enough character can literally wipe the entire map by him or herself. Bonus points if that character is a certain daughter who's mother is Sumia. :smallbiggrin:

...Okay. Wow. So basically I never need a dancer ever again. :smallamused:

So are skills class-specific, or character-specific?

[Starsign]

...Okay. Wow. So basically I never need a dancer ever again. :smallamused:

So are skills class-specific, or character-specific?

Who said you need a dancer? Olivia can get that skill easily. :smalltongue:

It's gained as the class I specified, but IIRC it can be transferred across classes or inherited by children.

[CoffeeIncluded]

That is amazing. So what exactly is the dark flier class good at? It's a new class, right? Some wyvern equivalent?

[Starsign]

That is amazing. So what exactly is the dark flier class good at? It's a new class, right? Some wyvern equivalent?

It's like the Pegasus Knight with the ability to wield magic instead of swords. Sumia and Cordelia however don't exactly have the best magic growth to take advantage of that though. Now their children on the other hand can make excellent prospects for Dark Flier, along with class changing some of the right characters. :smallwink:

[CoffeeIncluded]

It's like the Pegasus Knight with the ability to wield magic instead of swords. Sumia and Cordelia however don't exactly have the best magic growth to take advantage of that though. Now their children on the other hand can make excellent prospects for Dark Flier, along with class changing some of the right characters. :smallwink:

Welp I'm going to be using the crap out of that class. But you have to give Sumia the class anyway to get galeforce?

[Starsign]

Welp I'm going to be using the crap out of that class. But you have to give Sumia the class anyway to get galeforce?

If you want her to have that skill, then yes she needs to go into that class. She still is really good though considering she can still use lances.

[CoffeeIncluded]

If you want her to have that skill, then yes she needs to go into that class. She still is really good though considering she can still use lances.

Wait, lances AND magic?

...Does she keep the skill even if she leaves the class?

[Starsign]

Wait, lances AND magic?

...Does she keep the skill even if she leaves the class?

I believe so, that's what skills do usually. For maximum effect, have other skills with Galeforce that assist in killing enemies immediately like Aether or Luna :smallbiggrin:

[CoffeeIncluded]

I believe so, that's what skills do usually. For maximum effect, have other skills with Galeforce that assist in killing enemies immediately like Aether or Luna :smallbiggrin:

...If you'll excuse me I'll be giggling like a maniac.

How are supports gained in this game? Standing next to one another or being deployed on the same map?

[A Rainy Knight]

...If you'll excuse me I'll be giggling like a maniac.

How are supports gained in this game? Standing next to one another or being deployed on the same map?

Supporting each other in battle - basically, by engaging an enemy or being engaged by an enemy when they're adjacent or paired up.

[CoffeeIncluded]

So they have to spend X turns next to each other to gain support levels instead of being deployed in X battles together? Ugh, that's annoying. I was so happy when they changed that.

[huttj509]

So they have to spend X turns next to each other to gain support levels instead of being deployed in X battles together? Ugh, that's annoying. I was so happy when they changed that.

Eh, with Pair Up you can just drop em together and move/attack as one.

It's X actions next to each other, not turns. So if you have a couple paired up who have half the enemy army wander in and attack them one buy one...it goes quite a ways.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Eh, with Pair Up you can just drop em together and move/attack as one.

It's X actions next to each other, not turns. So if you have a couple paired up who have half the enemy army wander in and attack them one buy one...it goes quite a ways.
Oh, okay. That makes things easier. Still annoying though.

[Suichimo]

Remember that you have a limit to active skills. It's why children characters aren't totally OP (though some are still really close... i.e. any of them with access to Galeforce).

I'm aware. Thats why I was planning something like Swordfaire/Tomefaire/Sol/Ignis/Extra Skill(Probably Armsthrift) for my avatar. Swordfaire or Tomefaire may wind up not being used, depending on what class I ultimately have him as.


To explain...

Essentially, when a character with the skill kills an enemy, the character gets another full action, including moving and switching and attacking. A powerful enough character can literally wipe the entire map by him or herself. Bonus points if that character is a certain daughter who's mother is Sumia. :smallbiggrin:

And since the skill is earned as a Dark Flier, you have a character who already has the best maneuverability in the game. Broken doesn't even begin to describe it's value. Generally considered vital for Lunatic.

Even worse, if you have two Galeforce users paired up, you can have three separate actions and just curbstomp your way across the field.

[Mando Knight]

To explain...

Essentially, when a character with the skill kills an enemy, the character gets another full action, including moving and switching and attacking. A powerful enough character can literally wipe the entire map by him or herself. Bonus points if that character is a certain daughter who's mother is Sumia. :smallbiggrin:

And since the skill is earned as a Dark Flier, you have a character who already has the best maneuverability in the game. Broken doesn't even begin to describe it's value. Generally considered vital for Lunatic.

Or, if you do a bit of Krom/Sumia shipping... (or Avatar/Sumia)

[Suichimo]

Or, if you do a bit of Krom/Sumia shipping... (or Avatar/Sumia)

As I mentioned before, I've got Chrom/Sumia and Avatar/Cordelia. I have TWO pairs of units that can take three actions per turn. They ravage the promoted units I'm facing in the paralogues, by themselves, and they haven't promoted yet themselves.


P.S. New skill to add to the broke as all hell list, Armsthrift. My avatar has 31 luck as a Mercenary currently, 10 attacks and only 2 uses of his steel sword are gone. Armsthrift and Galeforce need to be passed on to everyone who can possibly get them.


Edit: When you reclass, do you keep the stats you've already gained, and they just get forced into lower caps/modified? Because that is currently the only way I can figure out why my avatar just gained 13 skill and 16 speed upon promotion to Hero.

[Dumbledore lives]

So I got the game yesterday and man any mission with NPCs is annoying as hell. I had to retry the second side mission like 5 times just because Anna would die before I had any chance to get to her, and there were too many archers for my pegasus knight to help her. I'm playing on Hard classic by the way.

[huttj509]

Edit: When you reclass, do you keep the stats you've already gained, and they just get forced into lower caps/modified? Because that is currently the only way I can figure out why my avatar just gained 13 skill and 16 speed upon promotion to Hero.

Yes. That is coprrect.

[Anteros]

So I love Fire Emblem. Training up unstoppable armies is half the fun of the game as well...however I haven't bought this one yet, and I'm starting to get worried because it sounds like they made things far, far too easy...

[The-Mage-King]

So I love Fire Emblem. Training up unstoppable armies is half the fun of the game as well...however I haven't bought this one yet, and I'm starting to get worried because it sounds like they made things far, far too easy...


It won't be, once the second wave of DLC hits the shores, from what I've heard. Oh, it won't be.


Hard mode is actually difficult. Lunatic is, from what I've heard, terrifying.


So get the game.

[Todasmile]

So I love Fire Emblem. Training up unstoppable armies is half the fun of the game as well...however I haven't bought this one yet, and I'm starting to get worried because it sounds like they made things far, far too easy...

I hear Hard mode gets really tough later on, around halfway through, but at least the first have is dirt easy with all the training you can do. One thing that DEFINITELY presents an extra challenge is not using the Pair Up function - your supports will level slower, and you won't be able to cover your units' weaknesses with the strengths of another.

Lunatic, though, that should present a challenge. It was hard even beating the demo on Lunatic.

Of course, the game is about as hard as you make it - there's an unlimited supply of EXP and good items thanks to DLC and Bonus Box challenges. They actually made an entirely new difficulty level just to challenge people who DID abuse these features.

But yeah, so far, Hard/ Classic hasn't provided much of a challenge. I'm right about at that halfway point, though so maybe it does.

[Mando Knight]

Lunatic, though, that should present a challenge. It was hard even beating the demo on Lunatic.

Of course, the game is about as hard as you make it - there's an unlimited supply of EXP and good items thanks to DLC and Bonus Box challenges. They actually made an entirely new difficulty level just to challenge people who DID abuse these features.
And then there's the The Strongest One's Name DLC that's out in Japan (which gets you DLC-Katarina, notable for being class/stat-wise essentially a second fAvatar with the rare Shadowgift skill)... which, no matter what level of difficulty you're playing, the enemy gets crazy bonuses as if you were playing Lunatic+.

[Anteros]

It won't be, once the second wave of DLC hits the shores, from what I've heard. Oh, it won't be.


Hard mode is actually difficult. Lunatic is, from what I've heard, terrifying.


So get the game.


So wait...I have to buy a DLC to unlock the harder difficulties? Or did I misunderstand that?

I hope not. I'm firmly in the camp that I'll pay for a DLC if it's actual extra content...however simply adding in things that could have easily been in the original game and charging extra for them? No, you won't get a cent from me for that.

[Todasmile]

So wait...I have to buy a DLC to unlock the harder difficulties? Or did I misunderstand that?

I hope not. I'm firmly in the camp that I'll pay for a DLC if it's actual extra content...however simply adding in things that could have easily been in the original game and charging extra for them? No, you won't get a cent from me for that.

There are extra DLC chapters you can purchase in order to access characters from past games, and some classes and items otherwise unobtainable.

The Lunatic+ difficulty is available without paying a penny, though you have to beat the game first on Lunatic mode.

[Anteros]

Ah. Well that's reassuring at least.

[Dumbledore lives]

There are extra DLC chapters you can purchase in order to access characters from past games, and some classes and items otherwise unobtainable.

The Lunatic+ difficulty is available without paying a penny, though you have to beat the game first on Lunatic mode.

There's a lunatic+? I tried the Lunatic mode and characters were dying in one hit, with effectively no way to stop it, lunatic+ must be near impossible.

[The-Mage-King]

So wait...I have to buy a DLC to unlock the harder difficulties? Or did I misunderstand that?

I hope not. I'm firmly in the camp that I'll pay for a DLC if it's actual extra content...however simply adding in things that could have easily been in the original game and charging extra for them? No, you won't get a cent from me for that.

Purely extra content.

All difficulties that I know of are in the game itself. The DLC just adds extra maps, items, and units.

[huttj509]

Purely extra content.

All difficulties that I know of are in the game itself. The DLC just adds extra maps, items, and units.

Some of those DLC maps might be crafted as particularly difficult, separately from the difficulty chosen at start of play.

So you have general game difficulty, then you might have DLC "challenge maps."

[Zevox]

I'm starting to really hate bronze weapons. With them around now the game forces me to use them whenever I reclass a character into a class that uses weapons they've never used before, because they're the only E-rank weapons (besides glass ones, but those only get 3 uses). And they're such crap that even if I have good stats on the character, they're doing piddling damage for a few levels until they rank up their weapon stat. I suddenly miss the days of iron weapons being the weakest in the game...

[Yana]

I still miss the halcyon days of arena grinding. Having a good source of gold and practically infinite xp makes things go so much more smoothly. That being said, Lucina and Morgan make for an unstoppable fighting force, much like their parents did. Alas, I never did find someone to marry Sumina off to. I seem to have benched practically all of the male characters with the exception of Chrom (married my Avatar), Stahl (married Sully) and the first male mage (who married the female dark mage).

[Mando Knight]

So you have general game difficulty, then you might have DLC "challenge maps."

Like The Strongest One's Name, like I mentioned before... you get to see all those crazy enemy skills from Lunatic+... even on easier difficulties.

What crazy skills, you ask? Well, imagine if those skills you hate seeing on the enemy were always on. Luna+, Pavise+, Aegis+, Vantage+... and Hawkeye (which makes the user's attacks always hit), meaning your dodgier fellows suddenly get faced with lots of unavoidable pain.

The sample enemy from the screenshot of the map on Serenesforest has his low stats as 50+, and carrying Luna+, Aegis+, Hawkeye, Counter, and Dragonskin. Also the Helswath axe, if I'm reading things right (18 might, irrelevant accuracy because of Hawkeye, 1~2 range, 10 crit).

[Todasmile]

Like The Strongest One's Name, like I mentioned before... you get to see all those crazy enemy skills from Lunatic+... even on easier difficulties.

What crazy skills, you ask? Well, imagine if those skills you hate seeing on the enemy were always on. Luna+, Pavise+, Aegis+, Vantage+... and Hawkeye (which makes the user's attacks always hit), meaning your dodgier fellows suddenly get faced with lots of unavoidable pain.

The sample enemy from the screenshot of the map on Serenesforest has his low stats as 50+, and carrying Luna+, Aegis+, Hawkeye, Counter, and Dragonskin. Also the Helswath axe, if I'm reading things right (18 might, irrelevant accuracy because of Hawkeye, 1~2 range, 10 crit).

And suddenly the game actually requires strategy. And checking out what skills the enemies are packing. Because if you send your dodgy swordsman with no defense against good ol' hawkeye...

[Raistlin1040]

So, when you reclass, how does that affect skills? I have Morgan as a Mercenary at the moment, with B-rank swords. If I reclass her to, say, Myrmidon, will her B-rank stay or jump back down to E? What about if I make her a cleric and then go back to Mercenary or change to another sword-using class?

[Mando Knight]

So, when you reclass, how does that affect skills? I have Morgan as a Mercenary at the moment, with B-rank swords. If I reclass her to, say, Myrmidon, will her B-rank stay or jump back down to E? What about if I make her a cleric and then go back to Mercenary or change to another sword-using class?

You hold on to your stats and skills... though weapon proficiencies are disabled if they're incompatible with the current class (like Shadow Dragon, though, the weapon proficiency experience stays put, waiting for you to switch back to a class that can use the proficiency). Unlike Shadow Dragon, though, all class weapon proficiencies have base values of E-rank, rather than an adjusted value for the class (Swordmasters in SD have a base Sword skill of C, for example). This makes the Cavalier level 1 skill (Discipline, x2 weapon experience gain) invaluable for characters jumping classes with very different weapon proficiencies.

[Zevox]

So, I think I may have overdone it by making my Avatar's asset stat speed. She has capped that stat as a Pegasus Knight (27) at level 11 (effective level 22, since she did 11 in Tactician first). Yeah, that's kind of crazy. She has more speed than some of my characters have health, and definitely more than anyone has in any other single stat that isn't health.

Actually, I should probably stop using her for a while, since her class change makes her level deceptive compared to most of the rest of the teams'. I keep thinking I need to keep everyone about the same, but neglect to remember to add 11 when thinking of her.

[Todasmile]

Has anyone ever seen a Swordmaster Support Block another Swordmaster's Astra?

It's AWESOME.