Support NeoGAF

[Chrom]

FE3 and FE4 releasing on Wii U Virtual Console tomorrow in Japan is making me wish we would get those games.

 

[Einbroch]

Chrom looks so dumb as an Archer.

 

[Jintor]

I'm super confused :T

 

[McNum]

The AI in this game is nuts lol

It has some exploitable patterns, but I've noticed a new twist that I haven't seen in Fire Emblem before.

Basically, to quote myself from earlier, this is more or less how Fire Emblem thinks:

I think I know the AI's routine. It has priorities.

1. Can I theoretically cause a Game Over? Odds don't matter.
So if Chrom is at 21 HP and you have three enemies with a 20% chance of doing 7 damage each, they WILL go for it.

If you have to defend a spot, don't know if there's a mission like that in this game, any enemy will rush it if they can.

2. Can I kill someone? Odds don't matter.
Same as above.

3. Can I hit someone that can't hit me?
Fairly sane plan, really. Haven't checked if you can abuse it by unequipping a high defense character's weapon like you could in Path of Radiance.

4. Who can I hurt the most?
If all else fails... hurt someone. Amusingly if the most damage an enemy can do is still 0 damage, it will do it. This, by the way, makes it more likely for the AI to target a Myrmidon than a Knight. Even if the Myrmidon is much harder to hit.

5. Can't hurt anyone? Move or stay put.
Depending on if the enemy is mobile or not. Risen will rush, other units may or may not.

There are some enemies ere and there with special coding, like thieves, enemies that run away, or need to talk to Chrom or something like that, but that's pretty much it. Avoiding danger isn't part of the AI, mostly. It's extremely reckless. And spiteful. It doesn't play to WIN, it plays to make you LOSE.

But I've seen something new. Linked aggro. Some enemies will advance on you in a group if just one of them can attack. Doesn't matter too much, just know that they can.

 

[spindashing]

Lon'qu looks so baller as an assassin

 

[Jintor]

There's no advantage to getting to 15 in a base class and then using a second seal. That's for promoted ones because thwey have a lvl 15 skill. The most optimal routes are changing at level 10 if you want to go to another base class, or lvl 20 if you want to promote.



A lvl 20 mercenary reclassing to myrmidon will gain experience as a lvl 11 character when he's a lvl 1 myrmidon. Eventually, when you promote him to Swordmaster or Assassin, he'll gain experience as a level 31 character while being in the first level of that promoted class (doesn't matter if you promote him at level 10 or 20).

A lvl 10 mercenary reclassing to myrmidon will gain experience as a lvl 6 character and when you promote that reclassed character he'll gain experience as a level 26 one.

Basically, the same thing goes to going from second tier to first tier. A lvl 1 promoted character (without any reclassing beforehand) counts as a lvl 21 character. Take that to a first tier class, and you'll add 11 invisible levels, if you get to lvl 5 to get the first promoted skill, you'll add 13 invisible levels. If you get to lvl 15 for the second promoted skill, you'll be adding 18 invisible levels. And that's all assuming that there was no reclassing beforehand. When you add any previous reclassing before promotion, even at level 10, you have to add at least 5 extra levels to that.

Of course, this is all assuming you aren't just grinding to you heart's content. When you're doing that, the invisible levels will just mean slightly slower growth. However, if you're trying to just play through the story without stopping it for grinding for a while, or just don't want to waste that much time grinding, then the experience gains are relevant.

So if I level a first-tier to 20, and then reclass to another first-tier, do I waste the stats or does it only affect growth?

 

[zoukka]

Hmm Freddy can disintegrate any enemy now with the crit lance I found in the first sidequest. But I can see how it would fuck my team in the long run because of low net exp gained...

I recruited the Donny kid and his ability should mean he'll get nice stats in the long run.

 

[tauroxd]

FE3 and FE4 releasing on Wii U Virtual Console tomorrow in Japan is making me wish we would get those games.

Well it's time to keep asking for them in some Miiverse thread.

 

[Einbroch]

Lon'qu looks like Alex from Lunar as a Swordmaster.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

I recruited the Donny kid and his ability should mean he'll get nice stats in the long run.

That is a understatement to say the least. By the time you get Donnel to an equivalent level with your other units, they'll be laughable compared to him.

 

[Draxal]

So if I level a first-tier to 20, and then reclass to another first-tier, do I waste the stats or does it only affect growth?

It wastes the stats if they cap.

 

[Jintor]

Damn. Should recast Lon qu asap then before he gets any more baller than he already is

 

[zoukka]

That is a understatement to say the least. By the time you get Donnel to an equivalent level with your other units, they'll be laughable compared to him.

Dat underdog story.

 

[Jintor]

Dunno whether to marry Chrom off to Sumia or, weirdly, Mirabelle

 

[Draxal]

Damn. Should recast Lon qu asap then before he gets any more baller than he already is

Lon'Qu is fine 20 myrm-20 swordsmaster. All the myrmidon/swordmaster skills are decently good.

The only characters that I recommend second sealing in the unpromoted stage are guys with the merc tree.

And that's pretty much Donnel/Cordelia(and even with Cordelia you probably want to get her to Dark Flier first)/and the Avatar.

 

[Chrom]

So if I level a first-tier to 20, and then reclass to another first-tier, do I waste the stats or does it only affect growth?

Growths are affected in the sense that total growths = personal growths + class growths. Reclassing alters growth rates according to this because each class has its own specific growth rates that are added to the constant personal values.

If you reclass from a base class to another base class, the changes in stats you see are determined by the difference between both class's base stats, plus additional stats that are added to the losses if your new stat caps are not able to hold the subtotal. This is how stats are wasted, but it's important to note that the game remembers all of this internally, so it's only until you reclass to a class with higher caps that you will regain these stats back.

 

[Jintor]

Lon'Qu is fine 20 myrm-20 swordsmaster. All the myrmidon/swordmaster skills are decently good.

The only characters that I recommend second sealing in the unpromoted stage are guys with the merc tree.

And that's pretty much Donnel/Cordelia(and even with Cordelia you probably want to get her to Dark Flier first).

Oh cool. Then I can just not worry about it and keep playing instead. I'm not super into power gaming the system anyway

 

[chaosblade]

Dunno whether to marry Chrom off to Sumia or, weirdly, Mirabelle

Maribelle gives Lifetaker and Dual Support+, Sumia gives better stat caps and Pavise.

There are also better fathers for Maribelle's kid. Chrom only gives him Archer (meh!) and Rightful King.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Literally just solo'd chapter 21 with FeMU, paired with chrom, and stocked to the brim with nosferatu. :lol

On hard too.

Most broken combination?

I feel like all tactics have gone out of the window at this point.

 

[Draxal]

Literally just solo'd chapter 21 with FeMU, paired with chrom, and stocked to the brim with nosferatu. :lol

On hard too.

Most broken combination?

Second gen combos are usually more broken. Your morgan is easily the best character in the game if you passed him galeforce.

 

[McNum]

Oh bother. Now the fun begins. Chapter 13 done.

So, time to ramble on a bit. I have both Pegasus Knights at level 19, Chrom at 20, Nowi at 14, Donnel right behind her at 12, and quite a few other characters in the high teens. And my Avatar is nearing Mercenary 10. Opening up new options, but I'm not sure what yet.

Well, Chrom is simple enough. I don't see any skills he'd want in Archer or Cavalier, so he's going to promote. Then shop around Great Lord, Paladin, and Great Knight for some skills. Aether and maybe Rightful King come first. The Pegasus knights... that's a bit more complicated.

Sumia can go into Knight or Cleric, if she wants to. A few levels of Knight would probably do wonders for her weak Defense, and Miracle from Cleric isn't bad, but she could also just go Dark Flier immediately. At some point she'll want Great Knight for Luna and Falcon Knight for Lancefaire.

Cordelia has Mercenary, which is nice, because, you know, Armsthrift on a unit that doesn't have poor Luck. Also Hero and Sol, which is beginning to look like the go-to path for a lot of units. Bow Knight could be fun for Bow Breaker, too, always fun to hunt archers with a Pegasus. That would delay Dark Flier for Galeforce, though. But Galeforce is probably better when she can hit harder.

But if I do that, I'm down one Pegasus Knight... except... Lucina. How convenient that you get her at level 10 and she already has Aether, so she doesn't need to dive into Great Lord to get that. Meaning there's very likely a Second Seal with her name on it. But to what? Pegasus Knight for eventual Dark Flier? She can't use her nice weapons for that. She'd be starting at bronze lances. Cavalier? Can still use swords as that. Knight is... eh... and Cleric seems like it's a little of a waste. Might dip into War Cleric for Renewal later, though. It just seems off to get a nice weapon like the

Spoiler

Parallel Falchion

and then immediately change to a class that can't use it.

Nowi is simple. Ding 15, Second Seal, Wyvern Rider. No reason not to. Donnel needs to ding 15 so he can become yet another Mercenary.

For the Avatar, I need to decide if I run the Mercenary class all the way to 20 and promote to Hero or not... Could also reclass to Myrmidon and promote to Swordmaster, but I'd lose Sol like that. Unless I pick up the spare after getting Swordfaire in Swordmaster.

This game gets complicated really fast.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Second gen combos are usually more broken. Your morgan is easily the best character in the game if you passed him galeforce.

Nah, didn't give him galeforce. He's quite powerful now as a hero though.

 

[Draxal]

Maribelle gives Lifetaker and Dual Support+, Sumia gives better stat caps and Pavise.

There are also better fathers for Maribelle's kid. Chrom only gives him Archer (meh!) and Rightful King.

Ayup, you probably want to have Henry to be the father, but that again Henry's the best dad for Owain to; it's kinda annoying.

Dual support + isn't really great when lord tree provides so many great skills anyway.

 

[Sadist]

My god, Lon'qu is friggn' brutal. So reading up (I'm at chapter 5) I see Donnel will grow into a better unit. I don't know what's up with all the other units, but I haven't seen a weak unit yet.

I like the fact that Cleric's get more exp for using healing moves. In other FE's it's really difficult raising clerics.

 

[Lusankya]

I think I know the AI's routine. It has priorities.

1. Can I theoretically cause a Game Over? Odds don't matter.
So if Chrom is at 21 HP and you have three enemies with a 20% chance of doing 7 damage each, they WILL go for it.

I don't think this is true. Usually a single opponent doesn't care what his/her friends can do, they will prioritise the biggest damage they can deal now. However they will always try to deal the killing blow if possible.

 

[chaosblade]

Well, Chrom is simple enough. I don't see any skills he'd want in Archer or Cavalier, so he's going to promote.

Discipline to get his lance weapon level up, and 10 more easy levels. And he doesn't really get anything from Great Knight unless you want Dual Guard+. Aether makes Luna redundant.

Dark Fliers is an awful class. Be ready for that. Especially for a character like Cordelia with bad magic, who will be forced to use lances despite gimped strength. So going to it later could be beneficial for that reason, though it will mean going through it will be slower too.

Ayup, you probably want to have Henry to be the father, but that again Henry's the best dad for Owain to; it's kinda annoying.

Dual support + isn't really great when lord tree provides so many great skills anyway.

Libra works about as well for Owain. Very similar stat caps and he gets Lifetaker.

 

[Einbroch]

My Gaius and Lon'qu just basically duo'd Chapter 11 and 12.

 

[Draxal]

Discipline to get his lance weapon level up, and 10 more easy levels. And he doesn't really get anything from Great Knight unless you want Dual Guard+. Aether makes Luna redundant.

Dark Fliers is an awful class. Be ready for that. Especially for a character like Cordelia with bad magic, who will be forced to use lances despite gimped strength. So going to it later could be beneficial for that reason, though it will mean going through it will be slower too.

I'd just go Great Lord ---> Great Knight. Chrom's best value is he's an amazing support unit, however getting Aether/Rightful King early makes him a good unit by himself as well.

 

[Kurtofan]

Well, you can play them as much as you want, so it's up to you.

I think it's best to play them in the (US) release order, as they usually scale in difficulty. (The rewards seem to scale too.)

The Scramble packs are a bit different, since they focus on character relationships. I wanted to wait until I got all the characters to do the Scramble to maximize conversation potential, but again, it depends on your play style.

Oh yeah that's the Scramble pack I bought.

 

[Jintor]

Maribelle gives Lifetaker and Dual Support+, Sumia gives better stat caps and Pavise.

There are also better fathers for Maribelle's kid. Chrom only gives him Archer (meh!) and Rightful King.

Any advice on good Mirabelle matches, oh wise matchmaker?

 

[Shahadan]

I like how Maribelle gives the Demoiselle skill to her male child.

 

[chaosblade]

Any advice on good Mirabelle matches, oh wise matchmaker?

I agree with Draxal, Henry is the best match for her. Good stat mods and good class options.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Okay something that _seriously_ eradicated my enjoyment of the game is how dumb the support units you can't control are :/ I came to the conclusion that it's impossible to save

Spoiler

Anna

in the 6th Chapter. She just rushes head-on into the enemies and is done for in three rounds without me being able to get anywhere near her, I just failed my 7th attempt...

 

[Draxal]

Libra works about as well for Owain. Very similar stat caps and he gets Lifetaker.

Ya, only problem with Libra is that he's the perfect Dad for Inigo if you want to take him down the path of brokeness.

Dark Mage + Armsthrift (hi forged Aversas Night)/Galeforce/Aggressor/Tomefaire/Or Astra/Vengeance.

 

[codemonkey]

Well, if you want to her *final class* to be Great Lord, then Lord Level 12 --> Pegasus Knight 10 --> Dark Flier 15 --> Great Lord is the better course so you don't have to repeat leveling up Great Lord to 10 again in the future.

You can always turn her back to Lord/Great Lord anytime you wish.

Perfect, thanks a lot, I'll go with your suggestion then. Might consider going a different route with her afterwards, maybe I can pick up another useful skill here and there. Great Lord doesn't have that much to add since she already has Aether, I suppose.

 

[Dysun]

This game makes me very happy about purchasing a 3DS XL. So far it had just sat there playing Mario Kart occasionally but I've put in 20+ hours into this game in a week. It's great.
First time playing Fire Emblem so I didnt know what to expect either

 

[Westlo]

Finished chapter 12, reclassed my level 20 tact into a merc, sumia went from a 13 Pegasus knight into dark flier, my 15 cordelia went into falcon knight, my 15 chrom I went straight into great lord.

all out of master seals now and only have 1 second seal left,

 

[McNum]

Discipline to get his lance weapon level up, and 10 more easy levels. And he doesn't really get anything from Great Knight unless you want Dual Guard+. Aether makes Luna redundant.

Dark Fliers is an awful class. Be ready for that. Especially for a character like Cordelia with bad magic, who will be forced to use lances despite gimped strength. So going to it later could be beneficial for that reason, though it will mean going through it will be slower too.

I was thinking of Dual Guard+, yes. Since Sumia, and by extension Lucina can also get it, it would be a nice little family huddle. Like from the intro, really.

Is Dark Flier really that bad? I'd imagine Lissa would rock it with her magic growth, but she's not there yet. It's really only for Galeforce I'm thinking of it. I'd probably jump ship to Falcon Knight immediately after getting it so I can get Staves. Attack, kill, heal ally. Seems like a good plan. I think I'll run Cordelia through ten levels of Mercenary, then. Yes, she'll be down to bronze swords, but it'll go fast enough.

Good point about Chrom going Cavalier for ten more base levels. I mean Outdoor Fighter is kind of... eh... It'll cost a few more Seals, but money really isn't much of a concern. Maybe I should make it a point to try for 30-ish base levels. It's just, you know, Aether. But he'll be going Paladin on promotion, and you don't really leave Paladin until after Aegis. That'd be a waste of EXP if you did.

What do you think about the idea of going Tactician 20/Merc 10/Myrmidon 10/Swordmaster 15/Hero 10-15/Grandmaster for the Avatar? Too complicated? Should I skip Myrmidon?

Also need to start thinking about pairing up people for the children. Chrom/Sumia, Vaike/Sully, and Donnel/Nowi are pretty much locked in. Need to find out what to do with the rest, including the Avatar.

 

[chaosblade]

Is Dark Flier really that bad? I'd imagine Lissa would rock it with her magic growth, but she's not there yet. It's really only for Galeforce I'm thinking of it. I'd probably jump ship to Falcon Knight immediately after getting it so I can get Staves. Attack, kill, heal ally. Seems like a good plan. I think I'll run Cordelia through ten levels of Mercenary, then. Yes, she'll be down to bronze swords, but it'll go fast enough.

It's a so-so magic class. If you go from a class like Sage to it, it will probably work out okay since your character has pretty good magic going in. Not really good as a physical class which hurts for characters like Cordelia or Lucina.

What do you think about the idea of going Tactician 20/Merc 10/Myrmidon 10/Swordmaster 15/Hero 10-15/Grandmaster for the Avatar? Too complicated? Should I skip Myrmidon?

I don't think skipping Myrmidon is a bad idea, Vantage can be a really good skill but it's pretty situational. With many characters, especially kids or the Avatar, you should have other skill options that will work better.

 

[Nocturnowl]

The difficulty curve keeps zig zagging all over the shop, now I feel powerful once again, maybe too powerful, since the game had forced grind time on me I decided i'd make use of this to turn Olivia into an Assassin just because it's fun to imagine her of all people slitting dudes throats, the bashful dance of death.
Been powering up Noire and Inigo as well, finally I can drop some of the more dead weight people from my team, Panne had been sucking up the joint for some time, I was never quite sure how I should be handling her.

Wait, Cordelia as a dark flier is apparently kinda sucky? oh damn, so now i've got Galeforce should I reclass her to FalcoKnight or whatever they're called and increase backside kicking capabilities?

 

[ffdgh]

I like my Dark flyer Sumia with Tome faire and Lance Faire.

 

[Kyonashi]

Question: When's the best time to start the Side Story missions where you get the children characters? I've married everyone off, and they've all hit between 15-20 and been promoted up to Tier 2 classes, some levelled again up to around 15 but most around 10. I have Lucina, Owain, and Inigo. I just completed Chapter 17 of the main story.

I want to make my Severa, Morgan, Cynthia, Gerome and Noire as good as possible (less bothered about the others but still obviously don't want them to be useless).

My Pairings are: Chrom/Sumia, MU/Cordelia, Tharja/Henry, Olivia/Frederick, Cherche/Libra, Miriel/Stahl, Nowi/Gregor, Virion/Maribelle, Lissa/Ricken, Panne/Lon'qu. I missed out on Kellam and Gaius, and Sully died.

Basically I'm just aiming for Galeforce at the moment because it's mentioned a lot and sounds OP but I don't know many other skills. Cordelia is a Lvl11 Dark Flier, and Olivia is a Lvl3 Dark Flier. Tharja and Henry are Sorcerers, Frederick a Knight, Cherche is Wyvern Lord and Libra still a War Monk. Miriel is Dark Knight and Stahl a Paladin. Nowi is still Manakete, and Gregor is a Hero.

 

[McNum]

Okay, just for a rule of thumb. How many base levels can you afford before promoting? Roughly. My avatar hasn't capped anything in Mercenary yet, should I wait for the first green number? Or just jump at the second time a character hits level 10?

I guess I should reclass Sully as a Knight since I was thinking Great Knight for her anyway. I mean she'd be really slow for ten levels, but Def +2 is a good placeholder skill for her. And she could get both Indoor AND Outdoor fighter. Well, it's silly, but it's a free +10 Hit and Avoid as long as I change it to match the map. It'd be a placeholder for better stuff later.

I'm still at a loss as to what to do with Lucina... And Sumia for that matter. I could give Sumia ten levels of either Knight or Cleric, but I don't see much reason to. She'd make an awful Knight, anyway, I think. Building magic as a Cleric would be nice enough, I suppose, but she'd be a defenseless staff user and two classes away from anything Pegasus related again. Not that Sage is bad, mind you.

Lucina, well, can you use the

Spoiler

Parallel Falchion

to heal even when you can't use swords? Still have to think what she'll do. Galeforce and Aether seem like they'd go nice together. It's not "If" she becomes better than Chrom. It's "how".

Edit: Also here's a funny question. Would it be wise to unpromote Frederick with a Second Seal and get him the level ups he's missing the right way? AFTER getting him Luna, of course.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Just finished. I felt like I was maybe playing it a bit wrong just brute force soloing with FeMU and skipping every battle/enemy phase, but hey, it worked. Kinda fit with the theme too.

That ending man, nicely done. Didn't really think too much of the story, was pretty cliched, but it's still fun to play through.

Now maybe lunatic can stop my FeMU.

I should probably grind out some supports as well. Been ignoring it completely in favour of finishing the story.

Impressed by the end credits too. They must have written hundreds of different permutations.

 

[iavi]

My Avatar as a Grandmaster takes no Damage from almost anything. He just absorbs magic, and physical attacks barely hurt him (if they even make it through the defense from Tharja)

Him and his support can walk through a whole map of enemies alone! He's a fucking tank, i love it. I've got him at an A level support with Cordelia, Maribel, and Tharja.

 

[Anteo]

Just finished. I felt like I was maybe playing it a bit wrong just brute force soloing with FeMU and skipping every battle/enemy phase, but hey, it worked. Kinda fit with the theme too.

That ending man, nicely done. Didn't really think too much of the story, was pretty cliched, but it's still fun to play through.

Now maybe lunatic can stop my FeMU.

I should probably grind out some supports as well. Been ignoring it completely in favour of finishing the story.

Impressed by the end credits too. They must have written hundreds of different permutations.

Try a no-grind hard run now! Also try the ending again but choose the other one to deal the finish blow.

 

[Antiwhippy]

I might give lunatic a shot first.

Lunatic with maxing out every support possible.

 

[chaosblade]

Wait, Cordelia as a dark flier is apparently kinda sucky? oh damn, so now i've got Galeforce should I reclass her to FalcoKnight or whatever they're called and increase backside kicking capabilities?

I'd roll back to Mercenary then promote to Hero. Yeah, you'll probably have most of your stats capped, but Armsthrift is worth those 10 levels. And she's a better Hero than Falcon Knight IMO, but it's close. Hero has better weapon options but she can use her only -faire skill as a Falcon Knight.

And you want Sol on her either way.

Okay, just for a rule of thumb. How many base levels can you afford before promoting? Roughly. My avatar hasn't capped anything in Mercenary yet, should I wait for the first green number? Or just jump at the second time a character hits level 10?

Edit: Also here's a funny question. Would it be wise to unpromote Frederick with a Second Seal and get him the level ups he's missing the right way? AFTER getting him Luna, of course.

Base class levels go pretty fast, so it's easy to build stats that way. In my case, I'd hit all the base classes I wanted to for skills before promoting, but I wouldn't hang around longer than necessary just because I'd rather start working toward promoted class skills without adding a bunch of extra internal levels.

And yeah, moving Frederick to Wyvern Rider (or I guess Knight) is probably the best thing you can do with him. Early on he'll still level up slow though.

 

[Neoriceisgood]

How exactly is one supposed to level Donnel after obtaining him?

Everytime I try to do anything with him, he dies in 1 hit.

 

[papercamm]

Edit: This may or may not have somehing to do with Tharja. *whistles to self*

Hopeless.