|
Anna's fun, but I am eternally grumpy I screwed myself by second sealing her on my first playthrough before I promoted her so she lagged behind really hard for a long time.
|
#
?
May 13, 2024 22:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 03:04 |
|
|
Anna is definitely one of the game's strongest mages if you put in the work, in my opinion. As a bonus, unless you're hideously unlucky, she can make you a decent chunk of gold via her personal skill over the course of the game, as befits the capitalism gremlin.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 00:15
|
|
|
Slaan posted:The levels this time were, uh, levels to be sure The luck may have been even worse than that. Previous FE games had mechanics where they would reroll empty levels. Engage will reroll both empty levels and 1 stat levels on Random mode I believe up to 3 times. It's possible all those 2 stat levels were rerolled from 1 or 0 stat levels! Fixed mode however is all too happy to give you empty levels. If you really wanted to game the system you could take a character into a class with a few low caps like Berserker or Sage and max those low cap stats out first to give a higher chance at other stats. Kinda like a much worse version of RD's bonus exp.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 03:39
|
|
|
Honestly, the level ups are half the fun of following a Fire Emblem LP. Didn't Artix have a Hector who just refused to gain strength?
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 05:58
|
|
|
Project Anna. Unlike the situation where Physical Jean wants to stay level 1 until Second Seals, it's generally better for Anna to just bite the bullet and hit level 10 first in Axe Fighter because: - She starts at level 5 already, so it's just 5 levels of unpromoted class growths - It means that she can start using Micaiah now to catch up, rather than have to wait for after second seals become available - Her main value is her innate growths, unlike Jean's case where he's essentially puddy to be molded by the class growths Axe Fighter still has some spd, HP, and build, none of which are bad for Anna either, so you don't lose THAT much relevant. Plus honestly, ignoring Strength growths (cause it's super irrelevant for Anna), Fighter has a growth total of 50, Flyers 50, and Mage 60. So she gains no real benefit from trying to reclass to the base class she eventually wants the promoted version of and is much better served just getting less unpromoted levels overall. For reference, Gryphon Knights growths totals 80 and Mage Knight 75 (again, sans strength). It also means that you just simply get to use Anna at higher power points earlier, and she starts being a full power member right on promotion and second seal, so the project period isn't even very long. It also means that you can end up raising Anna and another project, since they'll want Micaiah on different chapters of the game rather than fighting for it on the same ones. As for her class, Gryphon Knight or Mage Knight as you wish, and go from there. Neither option is strictly worse than the other. She'll do you well as a speedy magic blaster either way.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 06:06
|
|
|
Also having Anna in warrior for the siege chapter with the peg knights is useful, as even she should be oneshotting them on hard. The game gives you a free archer but it's helpful to have more than one. I'll take a warrior Anna over Alfred into that map any day.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 07:59
|
|
|
If we're gonna use Anna, which I'm kind of leaning towards, she should go into either sword gryphon or mage knight imo.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 13:11
|
|
|
Rabbi Raccoon posted:Honestly, the level ups are half the fun of following a Fire Emblem LP. Didn't Artix have a Hector who just refused to gain strength? I remember the Lyn who gained exactly one point of defense over the course of the entire game, myself  Hector at least pulled up by the end.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 13:56
|
|
|
Materant posted:I remember the Lyn who gained exactly one point of defense over the course of the entire game, myself That LP was delightful. 
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 13:58
|
|
|
Materant posted:I remember the Lyn who gained exactly one point of defense over the course of the entire game, myself I feel like this is really underselling the whole thing, Both that single point of Lyn defense AND the point at which Hector had more strength than skill came in 32x. 
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 14:13
|
|
|
To me, the extreme randomness of how units can turn out is part of the fun of Fire Emblem. No one playthrough is ever going to be exactly the same as another, and it can lead to some interesting things happening with your line up. Part of the reason I have a fondness for Clanne is because both times I played through Engage, I had extremely good luck with his level ups and he just ended up as an uber mage both times. This is far away from a guarantee, but the fact that it can happen is beautiful.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 14:26
|
|
|
Sometimes you have hideously blessed units, and sometimes Fire Emblem insists you make do. It's great.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 14:40
|
|
|
Materant posted:Sometimes you have hideously blessed units, and sometimes Fire Emblem insists you make do. It's great. "Insists you make do" The Project Ember thread's Shanna. That is all. And it has been glorious to watch.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2024 00:40
|
|
|
SMaster777 posted:"Insists you make do" I should probably start writing that update, huh. (Realtalk, I might have something by the end of the week.)
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2024 03:19
|
|
|
If we're spending a bit of time to reminisce about older FE lp moments: I will always have a fond spot for Axe Magnet Fir. In regards to the randomness of levels and giving you blessed units: Every time I've played Framme and Etié were among my best units.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2024 04:37
|
|
|
Weeble posted:If we're spending a bit of time to reminisce about older FE lp moments: I have absurd luck with knights. Granted, I've only played the GBA and Radiance games, but I will never forget the Gillian who was determined to beat Sonic the Hedgehog in a race or the Gatrie who thought a level with less than 4 stats was a level wasted. There was also the Tana who somehow ended up with worse stats than Syrene, and the Nino who thought "Mage" meant "Tank" and just focused on her defense
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2024 06:25
|
|
|
CullenDaGaDee posted:To me, the extreme randomness of how units can turn out is part of the fun of Fire Emblem. No one playthrough is ever going to be exactly the same as another, and it can lead to some interesting things happening with your line up. Part of the reason I have a fondness for Clanne is because both times I played through Engage, I had extremely good luck with his level ups and he just ended up as an uber mage both times. This is far away from a guarantee, but the fact that it can happen is beautiful. Currently doing a maddening run without the fixed growths in Engage and loving it. Celine just keeps hitting her STR too, she's somehow shining as a physical sword griffin.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2024 15:46
|
|
|
Sometimes Fire Emblem gives you God Mist. Sometimes it gives you Shanna. I am still eternally amused at the thought of Mist picking up Ragnell and doing everything herself.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2024 08:39
|
|
|
Half the fun of watching Fire Emblem SSLPs is seeing the RNG inexplicably fall in love with/reveal a deep loathing of certain characters! I'm also delighted to hear that Awful Emblem is still ongoing. I played the demo years ago and thought it had a ton of promise.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2024 20:49
|
|
|
as far as goon projects go, I've always been rooting for the AE team 
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2024 21:03
|
|
|
It's gonna release eventually, we're too far in to stop now. I just finished up creating the map for Chapter 27 last night, only a couple more to go.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2024 22:17
|
|
|
FPzero posted:It's gonna release eventually, we're too far in to stop now. I just finished up creating the map for Chapter 27 last night, only a couple more to go. Sunk cost fallacy is exactly what applies to FE pet unit projects too even when they fail their growths!
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2024 06:12
|
|
|
Before we begin today, some housekeeping:   The people were very clear: "whatever is necessary" to keep Yunaka on the team. And to that point, she would probably have benefitted from the energy drop much more than Chloe, but the talisman is probably the next best thing. We can always forge her better knives if her strength starts to be lacking, and boosting her resistance makes her better at killing mages.  On to Brodia! Where surely new and fun adventures await.  Chapter 7: Dark Emblem   The landscape here ─ it's so different from Firene. Nothing but rugged terrain all around us. Watch out!  We're under attack? Name yourselves!   This time, I won't miss. I'm the Divine Dragon from Lythos, not a thief. I am Alfred, the heir to the throne of Firene ─ and your ally. The Divine Dragon...and the crown prince of Firene? That's right. Now I would like to know ─ who are you to shoot at us like that? I...  Huh? I threatened the Divine Dragon and the crown prince of Firene! I'm begging ─ please find it in your hearts to forgive me! It's all right. No harm was done. That was quite the bow, soldier. Must have been hard on the knees. Hmm...wait a second. Your face looks awfully familiar. You're not just a soldier, are you? Meet Alcryst, our next royal companion. He's got what we'll politely call "some self-esteem issues," and it overshadows basically every other part of his character. I can't say I'm much of a fan. Prince? I thought so! How's it going, Prince Alcryst? Even worse than usual. I'm sorry for taking so long to introduce myself. Oh, these are my retainers, Lapis and Citrinne. Honored to meet you and your coterie. Yeah, welcome to Brodia. I can't say I feel very welcome. You still look like you're ready to kill us. We're merely a little tense. My father, King Morion, received word from Queen Ève that your party was on its way. He ordered us to meet you at the border and formally welcome you to the kingdom. We assumed you were more of the same. I'm sorry for the delay. We had to take a little detour. Still, if your arrow hit the Divine One, Brodia's standing would have been seriously hurt. Be more careful next time, Prince Alcryst. I will. I really am sorry. You cannot be held liable, Alcryst. You had no way of knowing who they were. Was it not possible for your party to arrive in a more royal, more...resplendent manner? This is the kingdom of warriors. If you can't dodge one arrow, you're not worthy to enter. Here, the weak serve the strong. Maybe we should give you a little test, hm? What did you say? She didn't mean that! Apologies... My country places too much value on strength. Besides, you have nothing to prove. I am well aware of your battle prowess, Prince Alfred. Oh. Well... Thank you. I'm so sorry for all this...so sorry. And I'm sorry it's me greeting you, instead of someone better. Really? You're grateful to see...me? Yes. Honored, in fact. How polite of you to say so. Charming as well as divine, I see. Could you do me the favor of being...less dazzling? I find it so hard to shine as it is... Uh... All right... Now, come with me. I can show you the way to Brodia Castle.Citrinne and Lapis are rightfully still a little unsure about the situtation, and it's hard to fault them, especially if they actually have been fighting bandits for the past few days. Lapis's suggestion that maybe you should just fight anyway is a little on the nose, but certainly indicative of Brodia's general temperment.  Good. Divine One, if I may. I was wondering about something Queen Ève said in her letter. Is it true that Elusia has released Sombron? It's true. An Elusian we fought told us as much. I see. We'd heard rumors to that effect, but I didn't dare believe them. Those neighbors of ours... You will need all the rings to defeat the Fell Dragon, right? For generations, my country has possessed the Ring of the Young Lion. The Ring of the Young Lion... It has a red stone and a certain...gallant aura. Diamant, the crown prince, told me he's been hearing a voice from the ring. He's a remarkable person. I'm lucky to be his brother. You really admire him, don't you? Oh, yes. He's strong, wise, humble... The king adores him, as do our people. My brother is cut from the noblest cloth. I'm afraid I was made from the tatters... There's no need to be so hard on yourself. There seem to be a great many soldiers out today... Wait a moment. Those are Elusian soldiers! They're occupying the bridge! No...That's right baby, it's time for a bridge chapter! Everyone loves those, right? No bad memories?  Princess? That would be me ─ the second princess of Elusia, Hortensia! Now then. Hello, everybody! Elusia's...second princess? Uh-huh! In the flesh! And you're the Divine Dragon! Uh, right. Ooo, I knew it! I could totally tell. You're the prettiest. It's a dead giveaway! I always thought Lumera was the only Divine Dragon. You could've knocked me over with a feather when I found out there was another one! Don't come any closer! You wicked Elusians aren't worthy to approach the Divine Dragon! Hmph. Nobody asked you, Brodian. Besides, we're not the wicked ones. You are! ... My father says Brodia is a greedy, barbaric country. You're always invading our territory ─ taking our land. It's the worst! Do you know how many people you've hurt? Not just soldiers, but regular people? We're not just invading to expand. We are keeping your vicious, unpredictable kingdom in check. I take it you're retaliating? Launching a full-scale invasion to take your revenge? Hahaha, hardly. I couldn't lead such an ambitious attack. I'm just here to take your rings. By order of my father, King Hyacinth. He told you to do this? Yep. Now, if there are no more questions, fork over the goods and we'll all go home breathing. Never. Aw, I thought nabbing your rings would be the easy job. The crown princess? She's going to attack Brodia Castle? Oops! Probably shouldn't have said that... We must go right away! Hah, as if I'd let you pass. My father's gonna be so proud of me! All Elusian soldiers, forward march! Get me those rings!Oh Hortensia, you...tried to sound imposing. With that voice, however, it's never gonna happen.  Anyway, while this bridge won't be falling apart on us as we cross it, it does have plenty of gaps and barricades that are only passable by fliers. Those stuck on foot will have to go around the center of the map before being funneled back in by the boss.  And speaking of the boss, she has quite the entourage with her. While the cavaliers and knights in front of her will advance when we get in range, neither she nor any of her retainers will advance until we get close enough that we're in range of almost all of them (roughly around the protection tiles). 16 magic damage is a pretty hefty punch, but as long as we safely take the first hit, we should be able to easily flatten her on the next turn.   Speaking of her retainers, they will gently caress you up. Goldmary is faster than anyone in our army even while being weighed down by her steel sword, and Rosado both flies and smacks you for almost 30 damage. Making matters worse is that both of them have personal skills that hurt male enemies - Rosado's will decrease an enemy's avoid and Goldmary's drops accuracy, and let me tell you, banking on a 65% hit chance lest you get doubled by Goldmary is not a fun time.  Base Class: Lord (Bows) Class Type: Covert Personal Skill: Get Behind Me! - When an ally within 2 spaces is attacked, Alcryst gains +3 Strength for a turn. Base Stats: HP: 28 (65% + 10%) Str: 11 (30% + 10%) Mag: 2 (10% + 0%) Dex: 17 (40% + 25%) Spd: 12 (45% + 10%) Def: 8 (30% + 10%) Res: 5 (20% + 0%) Luck: 8 (15% + 5%) Build: 6 (10% + 0%) Alcryst is a more traditional archer than Etie, and he's...fine. Having a 55% speed growth and okay-if-not-great bases will at least get you in the door, but 40% strength is a little shaky for my tastes. He does pick up Luna once he promotes, and it triggers off of his sky-high skill for good measure, but I always found him a little underwhelming. Fast-er than Etie, sure, but not fast enough to be doubling things that he wants to, and not strong enough to compare to her (or anyone else who might have changed to a bow class, like Boucheron). He exists, and if you need him to do archer things, he is certainly better at them than Etie, but that's about all I can say for him.  Base Class: Sword Fighter Class Type: Backup Personal Skill: Share Spoils - If Lapis has an adjacent ally, she gains +10 Hit/Avoid and loses 10 Crit. Base Stats: HP: 26 (55% + 10%) Str: 11 (25% + 10%) Mag: 2 (20% + 0%) Dex: 12 (35% + 15%) Spd: 14 (55% + 20%) Def: 7 (35% + 0%) Res: 6 (30% + 15%) Luck: 7 (25% + 10%) Build: 5 (5% + 0%) Lapis is another character who is....fine. I used her in my last playthrough and she did really well! But she's on even shakier strength grounds than Alcryst, and I don't really understand what her personal skill is supposed to do, the wording the game gives is really unclear. Regardless, she is a myrmidon-rear end sword fighter, with a massive 75% speed growth and an oddly high res. She really wants some extra build to get rolling (which is easily done after next chapter), and once she promotes (into anything, really, but I personally like Swordmaster) you can really make her sing. Just switch her Iron Blade for a Steel Sword asap.  Base Class: Mage Class Type: Mystical Personal Skill: Generosity - When using a healing item, adjacent allies heal the same amount. Base Stats: HP: 24 (45% + 0%) Str: 2 (10% + 0%) Mag: 15 (40% + 25%) Dex: 13 (25% + 5%) Spd: 10 (30% + 0%) Def: 3 (20% + 0%) Res: 12 (40% + 25%) Luck: 10 (25% + 5%) Build: 4 (5% + 0%) Citrinne, similiarly, knows exactly what she's here to do - drop a magical nuke on someone before they know what hit them. With a 65% magic growth and mediocre speed, she also makes a good choice for Thunder tomes - you might as well take the extra range and power, considering you can't double with them anyway. And of course, it goes without saying that she makes an excellent Celica user. If she has any glaring flaws, it's that the mage class exacerbates her growth issues - it gives her nothing but magic and res, leaving her with 30% or less in everything and sub-50% HP. She's very powerful, but also very much a glass cannon.  Of course, Prince Alcryst. Leave it to us! I wager we'll be back in time for dinner. Such confidence. But I'm still concerned about casualties. I will protect you both. So brave... But, uh, as your retainers, it's really our job to protect you. Now, then. Get behind me. Huh?! Haha! Oh, Alcryst, don't be ridiculous. You're an archer ─ you should be at the rear. Hang on! Citrinne! You should also be in the back! You two...  Oh! The Divine Dragon is absolutely... Absolutely not as cute as we are? Right, exactly. Hehe! That's the spirit! Outshine the enemy and then defeat them. Now, let's steal those rings and do Hortensia proud. Ready to start? Yes, Rosado. Let's make quick work of them.  Anna's not here to do much fighting, but we might as well take some easy shots where we can. Celine is going to melt this guy, so let's give her some chip damage exp.  Meanwhile, the game would like us to use the Iron Blade to smash this guy off the defense tile. Heavy weapons like Blades and Greataxes have a few special properties - they can't double and they let the enemy do a counterattack before you hit them, but they do a ton of damage and will knock the enemy back a square after combat. Fantastic for someone like Louis who doesn't care about taking a hit first, decidedly uh...less so in Lapis's case. Instead, we'll leave this guy to Louis and Citrinne, while Alcryst deals with the peg knight nearby.  So I hope you don't mind...but I've brought a friend along to join in the fun! That's an...Emblem! But how? How is she here without my summoning her? Look at your face! You silly Divine Dragon, did you think Emblems were just a "you" thing? Not by a long shot. And it's all thanks to Lord Sombron powering up this ring. It's called the Ring of the Princess Exalt. Cute, am I right? That's one of the rings my mother was protecting! Give it back! Yeah, not gonna happen! It's Elusia's ring now. But if you really want to see it one last time... Come a little closer. I'll give you a good, long look!I don't know why this conversation happens on Turn 2, you'd think it would be when you got in range of Hortensia or something, but sure. We'll talk about enemy emblems when we get a bit closer to her.  This is roughly the point at which I remember that I forgot to give Anna a staff, and I don't have a spare in the convoy. It's fine, she'll get plenty of experience without one thanks to Great Sacrifice.  The problem with allowing your foe to strike first is that you never know if something stupid is going to happen and you don't get to attack at all.  Now that she's equipped with  With the center of the map firmly in control, all we can really do is advance. Anna's on her last turn of engaging, so let's make the most of it.    Anna's base magic is very low, but her growths will fix that real quickly. While the fighter growths don't really do much for her long-term, it'd be nice to see her pick up a little bit of strength (or better yet, build) before we promote her - her ultimate destination is probably Mage Knight, so it would be nice to see her get set up for that.  And then Framme immediately patches her up. Not a bad level by any means, but not at all what we're hoping for with a healer.  The pink range is Hortensia, and because of how Lucina's skill works, she won't advance until you're in range of at least a couple enemies. As such, the effective range of the boss and friends is closer to where the defense tile are. We can safely deal with those cavaliers as long as we don't go much farther.  And deal with them we shall. Obviously, Marth is helping a lot here, but it's incredible how quickly Alear's damage grows with a fairly small investment in forging up Liberation.  It's also important to remember that the AI loves to abuse chain guard. Always remember to poke the monks first, especially if you have someone with Canter that can then get out of the way of the unit you're actually trying to kill.  And that's surprisingly tough to do when all you have are lance units in range of this guy, but Alfred comes through for us. Or at least, his Ridersbane does.  Hortensia is weak enough that her initial attack will not be that difficult to survive, it's everything that comes afterwards that's the problem. Chloe isn't particularly tanky in this case, but she isn't weak to the rapier and can take an Elfire on the chin if need be, things that Alfred and Louis (respectively) would be afraid of. As for Yunaka...  She's got the situation under control.   Wow, the Divine Dragon! Happy to meet you. But I'd be happier if you gave me your rings. I'd be happy if you surrendered.Rosado comes to play, but he wouldn't have accomplished anything even if he did hit with Framme's chain guard up.    All For One causes every enemy within two tiles to contribute a chain attack before the unit itself attacks. It has to be triggered off of a sword attack so its damage potential is limited on someone like Hortensia, but it's yet another reason to aggressively prune her contingent.   I would really like to do a clean sweep before we send Hortensia packing, and Goldmary is going to make that difficult. Lapis quickly deals with this peg knight, and Alcryst does the same for Rosado.  Goldmary is a pain in the rear end to hit, since Chloe is the only one down here that isn't affected by her passive skill.  While we're working out how to handle that, Jean gets another good one. It's odd for him to miss magic, but I will gladly take build in its place.  Eventually I remember that Louis hasn't engaged yet, and the solution reveals itself. Chloe can easily take care of her from here.  And you've earned that one, Chloe.  Hortensia by herself has no chance, so we'll collect our chip experience and pop another Great Sacrifice before we go. Thanks game, appreciate that one.  No fair! I lost? Well, you're not getting my ring! I won't let Father down.That's cheating, I earned that fair and square.   End of Chapter  Rosado, Goldmary, all soldiers...retreat! Hmm... There's a lot of damage to the bridge. It may take time to find a safe path forward. We didn't recover the Emblem Ring. We didn't lose any either. And most importantly, you're not hurt. Let's call that good enough. It is plain now that Queen Lumera's stolen rings lie in Elusia's hands. In which case we can deduce that they possess five. Five? Yes, counting the rings taken from Lythos Castle. The Rings of the Sage Lord, the Azure Twins, the Instructor, and of course, the Princess Exalt. Princess Hortensia was wielding the latter, as you'll recall. Besides those four, there was one entrusted to them by your forebears. Which one? The king favors it, or so I've heard. He keeps it in his personal chambers. His chambers? That's odd. Firene's ring has a hall in the castle all to itself. Where does your kingdom keep its ring? Like Firene, we store ours in a special gallery in the castle. Speaking of which...how soon might we be able to depart? I really am worried about the situation there. The soldiers should be back from patrol soon. Let's prepare to leave. Thank you. If anything has happened to my father or brother, I don't know what I'll do...*Elsewhere in Brodia*   Almost done.  That's the last of them. The village...is finally safe. But it's still not good enough. I have... I have to be strong. Strong, just like you were. I still miss you so much... Where are you, Brother?
Artix fucked around with this message at 02:05 on May 21, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 21:13
|
|
|
I'll say Brodia has my favorite map theme of all the countries in Elyos e: will also say that my fast Citrinne was loving hilarious on my second run, even if ultimately I just gave her a certain S-rank bond ring by the end Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 21:33 on May 20, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 21:25
|
|
|
Artix posted:Making matters worse is that both of them have personal skills that reduce the accuracy of male enemies - banking on a 65% hit chance lest you get doubled by Goldmary is not a fun time. Not quite. Goldmary reduces the accuracy of men, Rosado drops their avoid. Artix posted:and once she gets into Swordmaster you can really make her sing. Just switch her Iron Blade for a Steel Sword asap. I swear by putting Lapis in Griffin Knight or Wyvern Knight, rather than Swordmaster. Especially on the griffin, Lapis can become a nigh-untouchable dodge tank if you give her Lucina or, especially, Marth. It's quite possible for Marth-Lapis to have 100% avoid versus the final boss.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 21:25
|
|
|
Lapis is fine, she just has the same problem a lot of the early game characters do where you will get much better lower effort units very soon and she can really flub her growths. Citrinne is fantastic and one of the best go to no fuss mages in the game honestly. Alcryst is decent. He will almost always fall off over time without getting exclusive access to specific tools but he's very useful right now. He gets overrated a lot due to his unique promotion skill making the funny numbers happen.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 21:43
|
|
|
Alcryst's strength is a pretty big problem, and it's why I tend to prefer, at the very least, using Warrior Etie alongside him, if not outright dropping him. Luna is big, but averaging 19 strength by 10/20 is... Citrinne is so funny. Take Mae's bond ring and skills from the next two Emblems and you've got a mobile AI bait nuke. It sounds like an SP sink, but you only really need the base levels of the skills.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 21:58
|
|
|
If you want a real off-meta pick for Lapis, here's mine from my first playthrough: She absolutely carried my run.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 22:36
|
|
|
Mine went Swordmaster -> Bow Knight and she wasn't like, the MVP or anything but she did her job well enough. That honor went to Citrinne and the next mage.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 22:46
|
|
|
This section is when the cutscenes really started to make me cringe. Plus the annoyance of 'boss literally just walks away after being defeated' cutscenes. As for the characters on Maddening. Lapis: She simply has really really bad timing. For a Sword-Locked unit to be useful, they kind of need momentum on their side, and she really doesn't have that. She comes in at a really awkward time on the story, where you kind of get chained into forced recruits that trim your deployment limits. Her and all her countrymen have really bad timing where they come in right before the base power of recruits increase, but they don't have the early game advantage of early game units being helpful then either. Citrinne: Accurate chip/chunk damage with staff support on promotion. She benefits from there being a lot less competition, and the fact that Celine and Clanne are pretty bad long term. Technically, she isn't as good as Anna is as a caster, but the absolute lack of effort in her use is pretty nice, literally just plug and play. When Celine and Clanne don't double consistently without skill support anyways, having someone who simply decides to punch harder once is a good niche, especially with Thunder and the upgraded versions you can Forge. Alcryst: Much better than Etie. Due to his heavy skill focus and the fact that Pegasus Knights are dodgy, it's nice to just have someone who'll land the shot on them. Short-term, he can reliably use a Steel Bow to one-shot Pegasus Knights, which is pretty welcome to just make your life easier. I had Etie leveled at the same level as him in one game, and her accuracy left something to be desired. More strength doesn't matter if you one-shot them anyways. Plus he can actually counter-attack enemies without being one-shot by a great deal of them.... Plus, his passive is really good and further erodes any possible advantage Etie has. A super easy to trigger +3 str is just free stats. I do acknowledge his strength can lag, and there's a solution for that. Warrior. His bonus in bows gives him B rank as a Warrior, which allows him to still use Silver Bows to shoot people in the face. And now he's hitting harder with them. I don't generally like relying on things like Luna, so Warrior just gives more reliable damage + backup. He does look incredibly silly as a Warrior though, I won't lie. Alcryst and Citrinne are the definite winners here, because they're providing upgrades for the ailing 2 range characters that you previously had. You can use them short-term for chip to setup kills, or invest and use them longer term, they'll do well either way. They always get used in my runs, even if it's just for the moment.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 23:02
|
|
|
Keldulas posted:Citrinne: Accurate chip/chunk damage with staff support on promotion. She benefits from there being a lot less competition, and the fact that Celine and Clanne are pretty bad long term. Technically, she isn't as good as Anna is as a caster, but the absolute lack of effort in her use is pretty nice, literally just plug and play. When Celine and Clanne don't double consistently without skill support anyways, having someone who simply decides to punch harder once is a good niche, especially with Thunder and the upgraded versions you can Forge. If you go hard on the bond rings fishing for the Dire Thunder one, Citrinne can just ride an upgraded/etched Thunder through the endgame and do pretty well. Her gimmick of "hit really hard one time" turns out to work really well when you can guarantee two hits at a range where almost nothing can hit you back, especially if you give her Canter so she can just hit and run. Khizan fucked around with this message at 23:26 on May 20, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 20, 2024 23:23
|
|
|
Khizan posted:If you want a real off-meta pick for Lapis, here's mine from my first playthrough:  That works???
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 00:02
|
|
|
Citrinne built properly can pretty easily last you to endgame on Maddening. Her speed as a Mage Knight means that she doubles around 75% of the units in the game with support which becomes very important later since her massive magic stat and enemies 0 magic defense means that she'll kill almost everything.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 00:10
|
|
|
also like, this game did swordmasters dirty in general; they don't get higher innate crit or avoid rates like their best incarnations have historically had, so they still have that same no 2-range problem every swordmaster that didn't have the Raijinto or Alondite ever had, and just feel fragile and lacking in killing power compared to other promoted units to boot. it also doesn't help that it feels like for just about any physically oriented unit with problems, that said problems can be fixed just by putting them on a wyvern or griffin and giving them axe proficiency too.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 00:47
|
|
|
Citrinne is the only unit from this batch I've ever been enamored with. True she's fragile, but that just requires playing smarter. She's the easiest and most straightforward mage to use by a mile, and her current competition makes her seem outright broken. Lapis is just too "meh" and there's a deluge of units coming up in a similar starting position that are just way better. Never really cared for Alcryst. Luna is cool and all, but it's too unreliable and I've never found him to be a good counter to anything but pegasus knights. Etie can definitely flounder, but I've never felt Alcryst to be a good alternative, I'd rather just reclass someone with more strength and good enough accuracy. Both him and Lapis can be fun project units, but not ones I really beelined for when I was just playing to win.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 01:00
|
|
|
On the plot, I wish, I wish we saw more of the Alcryst we initially see in game. He becomes one note incredibly quickly and a personality with the level of anger he has at the start contrasted by an otherwise meek nature would have done him a world of good imo.CullenDaGaDee posted:Citrinne is the only unit from this batch I've ever been enamored with. True she's fragile, but that just requires playing smarter. She's the easiest and most straightforward mage to use by a mile, and her current competition makes her seem outright broken. Lapis is just too "meh" and there's a deluge of units coming up in a similar starting position that are just way better. Never really cared for Alcryst. Luna is cool and all, but it's too unreliable and I've never found him to be a good counter to anything but pegasus knights. Etie can definitely flounder, but I've never felt Alcryst to be a good alternative, I'd rather just reclass someone with more strength and good enough accuracy. Both him and Lapis can be fun project units, but not ones I really beelined for when I was just playing to win. The Luna issue kinda illustrates a lot of the problem I sometimes have with Engage, in that there's very little creativity with builds. You can't force Luna to be good because it's shackled to a single class on a single character, so there's nothing really interesting to be done with it at all, where it might have had a lot more use if it could have sat on a bow knight or something.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 01:34
|
|
|
I think it was Zoran who said that tiering-wise, Lapis is basically right on the dividing line between "good" and "bad" in the cast. If you're better than Lapis, you're a good unit; if you're worse than Lapis, you're bad. And yeah, that checks out. One extra bit of pain for Alcryst's crew is that they come at level 10 with 500 SP; the Firene squad come at levels 4-6 with 300, and with it being 100 SP a level with an Engage ring, someone there who gets a ring immediately will be at 700-900 by the time Alcryst's team shows up. They are the exact transition point between characters that don't join with reasonable SP relative to their level and those who do. It's much less painful now that the Well exists and you can get the SP books there, but Team Alcryst needing to get to level 15 to get 1000 SP was a serious black mark against them on release. Especially when they join with no rings, so any EXP they get in that joining chapter is only deepening the SP deficit there.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 01:52
|
|
|
I find Lapis and Citrinne to be decent units but Alcryst lags a bit behind. Lapis wants some skills/emblems to help her damage and Citrinne wants speed. Alcyrst however wants a bit of both which is harder to fix. Citrinne is greatly helped if you manage to get one of the Mage S rank bond rings. (Dire Thunder is the one every goes to but really any of the three major ones can work). The selection of Emblem Rings that are mage focused is much smaller than the physical units and it can be difficult to justify giving them to her over some of the later mages. Lapis really wants to get out of the swordfighter/swordmaster line ASAP as it is arguably the worst class set in the game. It's not immediately obvious but Lapis's strength is quite a bit higher than you would expect. The Swordfighter has 5 base strength and with her combined base and class growths you would expect her to have about 8 strength at level 10 rather than the 11 she comes with.Einander posted:I think it was Zoran who said that tiering-wise, Lapis is basically right on the dividing line between "good" and "bad" in the cast. If you're better than Lapis, you're a good unit; if you're worse than Lapis, you're bad. And yeah, that checks out. buddychrist10 fucked around with this message at 02:33 on May 21, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 02:29
|
|
|
Khizan posted:If you go hard on the bond rings fishing for the Dire Thunder one, Citrinne can just ride an upgraded/etched Thunder through the endgame and do pretty well. Her gimmick of "hit really hard one time" turns out to work really well when you can guarantee two hits at a range where almost nothing can hit you back, especially if you give her Canter so she can just hit and run. I don't do it myself and so failed to mention it, but that is indeed a valid methodology to make use of her. Which shoots up her rating much higher if you do so. My opinion of Lapis is pretty low, but it's probably due to context with a later unit. I'm sure anyone who played this knows exactly who I'm talking about, especially since her SP deficit hurts her on top of everything else. My thought on Citrinne is that while Mage specific rings are much rarer, she kind of doesn't need one.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 06:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 03:04 |
|
|
I feel like I should mention that Citrinne is an instant promotion, a speedwing and a +1 meal away from hitting 16 speed at base. It's not hard to get Citrinne to double, but like basically everyone else, she needs some investment to get really good.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2024 06:56
|
|
