eclipse

The current fight is just another battle in a war that humanity's been raging for goodness-knows-how-long. This isn't something that is going to go away once we clean the White House of its current infestation. A nontrivial number of people apparently don't see authoritarianism as a Bad Enough Thing, and a subset of those actually want it. Is there an easy answer? Probably not. Burning everything down is the last resort, not the first. In other words, if you guys are serious about never wanting to see a shitshow like the last four years ever again, be prepared to fight it for the rest of your lives.

It sounds like your attitude towards the gender spectrum and ours aren't going to agree. I'll leave it up to you whether or not this is such a huge issue that you pack up and leave. But note that I will NOT be particularly gentle if your attitude winds up hurting others.

No map shopping until postgame. Which means you need to plan your purchases carefully!

I have a lot of issues with FE4, but their handling of magic swords isn't one of them. Glad that they found a way to make the likes of Ethlyn useful! That's why I don't take a FE game's story seriously. I love the series for its gameplay. If I want to argue story, I'll find a game with a much smaller cast, so the characters/plot have more chances to develop.

Rolling offense. That means your back row attacks the weakened enemies, then your front row advances. If anything, Lilina's more likely to be left behind. Which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on the reinforcement pattern. It has to do with enemy scaling. They hit hard initially, but their defenses ramp harder than their offenses (note how Chapter 16 enemies had ~7-8 more MT compared to their Chapter 8 counterparts, but far more HP alongside gains in Def/Res). Thus, you'll want just enough defense to survive, and offense to counter that defensive buff. 1/15/20, to be precise. Again, unless you're doing strict LTC, you'll have some dead turns (did I mention that the water stage can drown?). If you're worried about her accuracy, it's nice. She also has quite a few options, which can help her bulk (I still think Cecilia's her best option in terms of overall stats, even if they have different move types). Strict LTC means that your unit pool is VERY limited, and Lilina's one of many units that will be outright ignored. Efficiency depends on what you're going for, with some of the riskier strats involving RNG rigging for dodgetanking/crit dodging. Mages. A lot of melee units don't like them. Some magical ones don't, either. It's a means of getting EXP, even if she can't reach the front lines. Non-promoted staffbots, by their very nature, will be worse than any combat unit due to their complete inability to attack back. And in Ellen/Clarine's case, they face very real OHKO possibilities. In other words, if you can protect them, you can do something about Lilina. (but again, let's be real, the best staffbots don't need a promotion item) Roy has the same movement as Lilina and is mostly locked to melee. AND faces WTD against a common weapon type. Lilina's hit chances are higher than anyone's crit chances. Hit is 2RN, crit is 1RN. Man, I have a lot to say about Fir - she's basically Rutger recruited a bunch of chapters later. But alas, this isn't the time. Last run I had, the only one who was outpacing Lilina in terms of chip was Shin. Cavs had shakier hit rates (~70%) and faced something like a 3HKO, which meant that whittling away HP for free was more than welcome. (it would've been Lugh, but someone else killed him off for me. . .and later on, someone else killed off Treck) For a backline unit, she's not bad - not the most frail, but definitely doesn't have the bulk of a melee unit. Then again, the best staffbot has 25 HP/5 DEF and is probably not gaining more of either. Of the Guiding Ring candidates, I'd argue that it's Lugh, followed by everyone else. Ellen/Clarine are even more frail than Lilina (never mind their weapon ranks), and Saul's luck becomes an issue once he starts seeing more combat. Sophia's only job is to net the Guiding Ring, Hugh costs money on top of a Guiding Ring, and Raigh is debatable (I like him, but there's a better argument for skipping him). Lilina gains enough HP/Spd to not worry so much about dying, and becomes pretty potent with only a Heal staff. I'm also of a mind that Armorslayers are far less effective than a fireball cast by anyone (even Clarine). Wyrmslayers have some competition in the form of an entire weapon type and Aircalibur. Effective axes are a nice thought, but the fun part is getting them to hit their target (if mages are considered inaccurate, then these weapons are measurably worse). Horseslayers are great when they're necessary, because lategame Paladins are annoying. Chip produces EXP, too. Promotion is a tricky issue, since it's a one-time gain over reduced EXP gain. I use it when needed, which is why it's not uncommon for me to promote at level 15+. If a unit can do its job unpromoted, then there's no reason to shank my EXP gains. Staffbots are the exception to this, as they gain a better source of EXP in the form of combat. If you're using Shanna as a flying rescuebot, then she becomes dead weight later on. Your horses can probably pull the same thing, and don't die the minute an archer appears on the map. She'll need kills. One day, I'll get one that isn't a complete disappointment (mostly because I get Melady later).

She's okayish, if you're not going pure LTC. If you are, then she'll chip a few times in 8/8x or something like that. But then a lot more of the cast is ignored.

Yet another reason to dislike FE4 I remember the Tellius one was kind of annoying, in terms of mixed classes, but it was sorta-sorted in RD (no more Tonberry Sages). I don't think there was much overlap in the DS games besides the magical weapons - you were either using STR or MAG, not both. Awakening had some, but it wasn't as pronounced as Fates in terms of truly needing both stats. And then there is 3H, which makes my head hurt thinking about it.

If she's in range of an armor, then that's on you. FE is a strategy game, after all. I'm hardly an expert at this game, but I can keep her the hell away from a slow-moving unit with a Steel Lance. Archers may be a bit trickier, but I can usually work around them. And you think that adding thought to final positioning won't be able to accomplish the same thing? Numbers always help an argument. You'll have to excuse the formatting, this was done on an older version of the forum software, and the update broke the topic. What also helps is knowing how to counter a threat, whether it be careful targeting, good positioning when you end your turn, or knowing how to bait (if necessary). You're right, rigging 1 Def every now and then will do the same thing. Which is also pretty trivial, I might add. Except that one Ironman run I was a part of. Imagine the horror of having Lilina and Roy stand together for a single turn. Which is exactly how long it takes to get their C support (+5 hit and a bunch of other things she appreciates). It means that if you screw up with Roy, you've lost progress. If Lilina's that bad, then she'll just be gone from my roster. And since you're hyping her to be the most fragile thing since glass, it shouldn't take very long before she kicks the bucket. You'll miss out on a few recruitables, but eh. I thought you were the one that wanted to do things quickly? And what faster way is there than a two-range unit on a horse that doesn't count as a horse? (and in Shin's case, gets HM bonuses to boot) You're comparing her to a bunch of physical units. That tells me that you don't appreciate that type of damage - or the fact that it's 1-2 by default Never mind the fact that Fire is way more common than -slayer weapons in general, or that Armorslayers/Wyrmslayers usually have WTD built-in (don't get me started on Hammers). I get the feeling that we're playing different games, since mine seems to have enough of them for my other units to worry about. Wow, that's quite the insult to Saul/Ellen/Clarine, since they're not attacking until they promote (never mind the fact that Ellen/Clarine are even more paper-thin than Lilina when it comes to tanking physical hits). So your staffbot is Saul, then. Your original claim: "Lilina is a garbage unit, and contributes about as much as Roy". Hitting Res. Hitting Res hard. Hitting Res hard and probably getting away with it because not every enemy has a Javelin. Unimportant. I think we have vastly different definitions of the word "unimportant". Movement's nice, but not the end-all of everything. Ditto rescuing, though mine is usually "keep Roy away from the thing with the Steel Lance, because it makes him cry". That's it, numbers time. In spoilers. Nearly every enemy in the game? Only around the time she's first recruited. Once her HP growth kicks in (which is absolutely hilarious to say when it's at 45%), she'll be able to survive a bit better. Assuming you're not leaving her out to dry in the first place. I think hard, accurate chip damage is important, because I don't need to worry about leaving her open if everything else is dead. If feeding her kills is considered favoritism, then I'm going to argue the same for every other unit (especially Shanna, whose HP/Def growths are the same as LIlina's). The closest would be that Robe, followed by a Speedwings/Dracoshield - but again, your argument is that Lilina is garbage, which she's clearly not.

Alas, the Str/Mag split was present from Tellius. And PoR had Sages with knives. Yeah. It was more noticeable in Fates, but it hardly started there!

And you can keep your ill-informed opinions to yourself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving#United_Kingdom

Well, that's interesting, let's see the logic behind that! I'll assume you know what to do and what not to do with a mage, which is "don't throw them into a horde of Wyvern Lords without protection". And ballista, but IMO if we're going to complain about those, I'm going to bring up Bolting mages that OHKO Roy. At least Lilina won't generate a Game Over if she bites the dust! So, um, ballista aside, why would she need that Defense stat? HP might be relevant since her Res is high enough for her to tank mages. She's obviously not going to double everything (but let's face it, mages that aren't a banana aren't exactly speedy), which leaves her Skill. And if you're SUPER WORRIED about being blicked by a random archer, a Robe solves that problem handily. I think I used one later, to ensure that she wasn't one-shot by a wyvern. Yes, a wyvern. And supports. And what's even more surprising is that she gets a super-fast one that'll give her +15% hit at A. Hell, if I can pull off a decent hit rate with Cecilia support of all units, Lilina will be okay. Just don't throw her up against a Druid on a throne. He also nets a Game Over when he dies, and later siege tomes can one-shot him. No matter how much you dislike Lilina, you can safely kill her off and not have to worry about losing all of your progress. . . .at this point, I'm going to stop, because you've somehow missed Lilina's biggest selling point. She targets Res. HARD. Which makes armored units a lot easier to deal with, wyverns less threatening (or just an outright joke if she steals Aircalibur), softens up mostly everything else, and can safely bait most mages. About the only things she'll struggle against are super-dodgy things, but let's face it, most of your units won't like Sacae. Oh, and any sort of Druid that is both dodgy and hits really hard, but again, why are you in Sacae again? Add healing staves to the mix when she hits Sage, and she can hang back if things get dicey. Lilina isn't the end-all to FE units. Her job is to do magic damage, and she does it just fine. She isn't meant to dodgetank anything that isn't a magic attack, and that's okay. I can play to her strengths, and she'll do just fine. Besides, Binding Blade doesn't need an overwhelming stat advantage for a unit to do well - but Lilina just so happens to have a massive Magic stat to the opponent's Res.

That's better. Fates has gameplay on its side. Introducing another weapon triangle was ambitious, and if daggers were a bit better balanced, it would've been amazing. It also got rid of gender-locked classes, by introducing female fighters/berserkers, male pegasus knights (albeit under a different name), and the male equivalent of a magic-and-staff-on-a-horse. The Hoshido/Nohr weapon split was a good experiment, as were the various penalties on Steel/Silver (whether or not they made a difference in the end is something I can't say). IMO the biggest omission was some variant of the Restore staff, given the giant number of new status effects. Never mind things like map/difficulty design, where it wasn't pure stat inflation for difficulty. But I think someone who's legitimately analyzed Lunatic would be better qualified to speak on this point. Characters/story fell flat on its face. Fortunately, my expectations for FE games is quite low in regards to both.

Yes, but what is that turkey gobbling, exactly? I'm sure it would taste a lot better if it consumed some wine beforehand~!

I'm gonna answer this one instead. Notice how I've said nothing about the topic at hand? That's because I have zero emotional stake in it - I think analyzing Fates is a waste of my time, and I have better things to do with what little free time I have. So since you seem to have more than me, start by analyzing the title of your post AND the first post in the exact same way you analyze Fates. Ask yourself why me, the reader, seems to be so very displeased about it. Because that's an actual analysis worth doing (as effective communication will serve you far more than a random video game opinion).

You're being thoroughly unpleasant about it. The problem is you. Do something about it.