GoXDS

it's kinda ironic. in my Birthright run I was very strict in funneling exp just to people I was going to use and usually had 1-2 excess unit. then comes Conquest where I accidentally planned to bring up too many people. maybe it was the timing of recruits of units. 1. yea, supports can potentially take a while. it's not really an issue unless you really want all the children by a certain chapter. part of the problem probably stems from bringing in too many people in at once. so if you focused on 3-4 pairs instead of 5-6, it's be quicker. since there's only so few opportunities to gain Support, especially if one pair is killing a lot of the enemies by themselves. 2. I played Hard and it's still ok using full team. and for that matter, you're probably funneling too much towards the Avatar if there's a whole 7+ lvls difference. what chapter are you on? I usually kept my whole team within 2-3 lvls of each other max and only started promoting ~ch17 in Conquest (Avatar being exception because of Ch 15). just from my personal experience though, Leo was too slow while having a bit of Hit problems and wasn't that great in offense or bulk. a bit more Spd might've made him a bit better. Nyx's bases and growths are just terrible. when I recruited Elise!Ophelia, she was completely outclassed in every stat. especially terrible HP and Def, too. Silas really needs Spd as well... mine got Str RNG screwed and even slightly Spd rng screwed (compared to his average expected Spd). Niles, Kaze, and Felicia all suffer a lot in Defense and lack Str so they're stuck with Mage killing. though Felicia's support mostly anyways but she can do more dmg because Magic. Selena wasn't stellar either. Effie, Xander, Camilla, Keaton->Velouria are all amazing though. 3. that Crit Evade from Guard stance definitely takes care of most problems. as does some char's Attack stance bonuses (Elise for one). besides Berserkers, I never found it too much of an issue personally. 4. the Bosses are ridiculous, yes. the biggest reason is the stupid thrones that they sit on, which gives 20-30 Avoid. Ch17 for that matter is one of the worst ones. but people above me already mentioned counters as I was typing this 5a. yea, not many units can fair too well solo and to do so, they'd still need Guard Stance. you need to learn how much Guard Stance will help vs Attack Stance. probably the biggest hurdle to learning to deal with Fates mechanics well. but as mentioned, Xander/Camilla are tanks and killing machines early. Silas has decent bulk excluding his miserable base Spd and average Spd growth (though Xander has similar Spd issues, but he's prepromoted so yea) 5b. there's also the possibility of just being RNG screwed. he does have 70% Skl growth though his base is somewhat subpar. having someone support him will definitely help a lot. Attack Stance is pretty good with helping with poor Hit issues. while I didn't use Arthur, I did use Charlotte and she had some questionable Hit but Nyx was definitely worse ._. I used Samurai Odin and he was acceptable if not a bit subpar. slightly lacking Str to really be useful against axes early game and lategame if not relying on Crit/skills. Sunrise Katana is fun (though exacerbates the dmg issue)

do people really do center mountain before the end, ever? there's no reason to with a) Ryoma stealing exp, b) Concotion, and c) Boss (and just a lot of enemies together) making it a hard kill, wasting even more time for a) and b) to happen, especially since center mountain doesn't move

I'm just wonder if a solo run on Lunatic is even possible given that enemies are pretty close to cap in some stats as well... even on Hard. what's the restrictions for the solo run itself?

RNG in games are never truly random in the true sense anyways =P more in line with what you're asking though, any decent RNG in any game are "random enough" and it's just a matter of how easily manipulable it is. unless ofc the numbers lie to you, which is the most important question to be asked in this case. ares Fates's %s lying to you? Hit RNG does seem to have changed and in a sense that is lying to you (as did TrueHit before it). but it's still somewhat similar. and assuming the RNG is proper, you probably had just really extreme luck. situations like that are still pretty uncommon if not outright rare. if we aren't to simply assume the RNG is properly "random enough" then that's a whole different discussion. but from research people did on trying to figure out the new Hit RNG, it's probably safe to say it isn't broken. though if you want to be very very rigorous, you'd have to try the same scenario and do everything the same and see if the RNG was the same. that means starting up the game in the same amount of time, starting the game at the same time of day and date, etc. there's also a 3rd possibility in that there's a different RNG for Hit during Skills but that'd be very odd, to say the least

granted, she's a popular mother for Caeldori so she'll have access through marriage. plus better caps (and maybe growths slightly but I don't remember those as well), stats and weapon

Falcon or Spear. leaning towards Spear if you don't need the Mov/Fly

3rd highest Str stat (36) after Berserker (40) and General (38), too. and honestly I find them much better than Taguel in Awakening (mostly because in Awakening, being forced 1 range sucked more because of weapon options that were available) her outfits are so classy~ too bad she never stays in it long in combat... only big downside

I'm pretty sure I didn't use my Seals and my Ophelia/Soleil were Sorcerer/Hero. sorta what you would expect

and to be fair, Velouria's current skill set has 3 other Lvl 15 skills already. either this is endgame and it's grinding or buying time anyways, or they're buying skills from the start

there are better skills than Str +2 as well. Trample is easy +3 and versus horseback you'll do effective dmg anyways. slight loss vs Wyvern but w/e. or in the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Str +2, there's Quick Draw (but not easy getting that on her naturally) for +4 on Player Phase but +3 w/ Trample is probably best. the other option is the Cavalier one that's also +3

I mean, Aptitude isn't bad per se. but for a Lvl 10 Base unit to Lvl 20 Promoted, that's only gonna get you 3 stats each on average. less they were recruited at higher lvls (unless inherited though not 100% sure if Aptitude is taken into consideration). it just looks really off when you're doing these crazy skill sets and when you're only giving it to 3 people. while they're technically hacked, there are 1st Gen units with Aptitude to buy from though if you feel taking advantage of someone else hacking while you personally aren't technically hacking is still no good, that's fine depending on the characters, 3 extra pts by 20 isn't gonna do much and might be better with another skill immediately as for Pairing up, by lategame you're pretty much forced to keep some or a good portion of your team paired up because you really need the extra stats and especially the Guards. but yes, you're probably Pairing up a bit too much/strictly. personally, I had some Pair ups but a lot solo but abused Attack Stance as much as I could. and especially because they're not Paired up, they should be more free in who they can support with when attacking. so for example, you could have Odin, Elise, and Ophelia all support each other in a "triple support". Forrest can still be Ophelia's Pair up. or you can use Odin-Ophelia-Forrest in a V support (rather than the triangle before). and it's not like you're forced to stay in attack or guard stance once you decided on it. don't be too restrictive. you can pair up the attack stance people when needed and you can split the Guard as needed. and lastly, if you're going to pair up people, you have to at least consider how efficient is that support. you prefer Support Rank over no support because you're just losing a lot of bonus stats that way. like you had ElisexForrest and OdinxOphelia. first pairing as I mentioned has no support and you could easily sitch to ElisexOdin and ForrestxOphelia. Odin's support barely changed. still has a magic support though trades some crit for dodge I guess. Forrest gained a lot in attack stance and Ophelia has a Mag support if she needs Pair Up. EffiexReplicate!Niles and CamillaxPercy as well. it should at the very least be Niles, and leave Replicate!Niles alone, especially if that guy isn't gonna support much. swapping is probably better since both pairings would then gain extra bonuses it's not like in Awakening you pair up anyone with everyone. especially in Awakening, arguably, where the Pair Up bonuses for support rank are even higher

Corrin || Jakob [Paired | Guard] standard fare. Jakob probably reserved for Guard Stance tho in this case. the skills are overkill and don't be relying on Miracle for your strats ofc. you'll have to buy Hoshidan Unity guaranteed. Jakob will also have to buy a ton. if you're going to go Swordmaster, there's no need for Spd Boon. that's complete overkill. go +Str possibly Azura standard Selena || Silas [Paired | Guard] Selena has some dmg issues while Silas has some Spd issues but I guess that's helped by Life or Death. though I question whether that's viable in Lunatic Conquest unless you plan on using her for only Player Phase and also one shotting. consider different skillset possibly. am I right to assume Silas is mostly if not reserved as Support? I might suggest Great Knight Silas for the extra Str and Def and Mov Effie || Niles Replicate [Paired | Guard] very odd pairing to say the very least. especially as General Wary Fighter, Effie has absolutely no use for +Spd and +2 Res isn't worth. unless you're going for +1 Mov then no comment. but I still feel Effie would be slightly under max potential, considering she's one of the more useful units in Conquest. and at least in Conquest, in general, Effie can tank everything even without Armored Blow. plus it's only Player phase so even less utility Niles why does he have Quixotic? and Life and Death? Niles's bulk is already complete trash and is basically only worth healing, chip dmg, and mage killing. both Quixotic (bows have WTD and you want to abuse Dual Bow anyways) and Life or Death neuter his mage killing. either that or drops it to OHKOing, which isn't worth. for Mage killing, Niles shouldn't have a problem with Hit w/ Dual Bow Velouria she's strong enough to outright kill so Grisly Wound and Savage blow aren't very appealing. she'd prefer Sol for longer survivability and/or some dmg proc. also, Trample or some other +dmg skill is prefered over Savage Blow Camilla || Percy [Paired | Guard] why's Percy with Camilla? no support so you're just getting vanilla Berserker boost. also Vengeance simply isn't that good in Fates with HP being so low. either you don't get much output or you're gonna die. Lol Aptitude Elise || Forrest [Attack] Elise is going to have a lot of Res so Aegis and Countermagic both aren't very useful on her. and again you're only getting vanilla class boosts. if it was Forrest x Ophelia and Elise x Odin, you'd have S rank supports for added stats. though you said Attack stance... Odin's +crit bonuses could be useful for Elise and Forrest (Forrest by supporting Ophelia). for Forrest's skills, LoD again means PP only and not sure if that's the best. and rather than Quick Draw, Trample or Elbow Room, just to open up bonus dmg during EP at the cost of 1 dmg. also, if you're gonna use them in Attack Stance, then Certain Blow might not be needed (assuming you swap the pair up so they'll actually provide more +Hit). Lol Aptitude Elise Replicate ^ Xander || Charlotte [Paired | Guard] Xander's got a LOT of Def as well so Sol by itself is enough. Vantage isn't really useful if you don't expect to OHKO before the enemy attacks, which Xander is sometimes short of. he probably likes an offensive Proc, too. while Tomebreaker could be useful, honestly she should never be attacked by many Mages at once. ever. on PP, you should OHKO anyways, especially with Certain Blow. also, if you plan to use her, she'll be difficult to use since she comes underlvled for her recruit chapter. she could be Xander's permanent Support and not attack, herself Odin || Ophelia [Paired | Guard] ^ w/ regard to pairing. though one's Guard and one's Attack *shrug* probably keep Odin in attack since all 3 (Ophelia, Forrest, Elise) are all +Mag, which don't help him. if Elise isn't stuck in Support, she can make use of her Personal, too. Quixotic on Odin is also very questionable. Swords are accurate and for the most part you'll use him to attack Berserkers and other Axe users. why help them kill you, especially with LoD equipped (again)? and Lifetaker is PP only so limited use. a suggestion is also to make Ophelia a Witch instead. Lol Aptitude. and she could also go Crit build, really, with her Personal and class bonus you're basically going to have to buy ALL these skills you know. and forced to play Gold DLC a LOT. there's also a lack of any Hidden weapon user at all, but not sure how much of an issue that really is. there's a reason why people hate enemy Ninja and say the weapon type is not balanced Lol

well, granted, Ryoma's the leader of the army and all, right? or is Yukimura not the simple tactician but general? but yea, as a commanding officer, he's gotta stand out and increase morale of troops

depends. Berserker and Vanguard both give +5 Str (+2 Str comes from Arthur himself). then it's a choice between Berserker's 3 Spd or Vanguard's 3 Def. if Arthur's gonna be backpack, why do his skills matter? o-o unless you're talkng about passing on a good skill?

if you're sure you're just going to use him has a Pair Up bot, then you should really just stop feeding him exp now and also Master Seal him ASAP and put him in the role now. unless you really need an extra attacker (you should still Seal ASAP). for the most part, especially if you take advantage of a lot of Paralogues, you'll reach 18-20 by endgame for most of your units, even if you're training a full 16, thus if you're going to properly use a unit as an attacker, just go for 20

I'm having no trouble w/ the site. it seems to be properly adding the class trees to her list of classes no, A+ does not have to be mutual for it to work. or else why ever make it an option to make it non-mutual?

this applies to passive buffs, too. so only 1 Demoiselle would work

the seed is the RNG, which is used to determine stat ups. thus, the actual stat ups are not set in stone example, looking at just someone's Str. they have 40% Str growth (Personal + Class) the RNG for their first 3 Lvls are 35, 45, 55 (the RNG is a number from 0-99) since the person's Str growth is 40%, they would only gain Str on the first Lvl and not gain on the next 2 lvls (if a unit's Growth is above the RNG, then they gain a stat. otherwise, they don't) however, if they gained Aptitude before they lvled (or changed classes which would increase their growths), then in this case, since they have 50% Str now, they'll gain Str on the first 2 lvls but still not the 3rd EDIT: ninja'd but @Refa, Aptitude is 10% in Fates

yes, the example you gave is correct. the other minor thing to keep in mind that effective speed mods means actual speed, and thus Avoid, are not affected. so Shuriken +2 speed gives increased doubling ability AND 3% Avoid. meanwhile, Steel's -3 effective speed does not reduce your avoid (though the -5 Avoid from Steel is there =\ but you don't lose 9.5 Avoid, just the 5 Avoid)

iirc, yes and yes.

only issue with Niles is locked into 2 range so limited EP, except in special cases. oh, a special case in this chapter in the East room because of wall ;D he does have a bit of a fragility issue even so but yea, there's also Dread Fighters though if you don't want to use those and/or haven't and it's kinda late, then not an option. Tomebreaker is awesome and easy to obtain for your starting Maid/Butler. there's plenty of good Mage Killers. if anything, Kaze's probably on the low end of dmg output because of his craptastic Str growth compared to some of the other potential Mage killers

here's another one recently, where I tried to calc as an example http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=66037

I'm pretty sure you'd have to pay again if you wanted Birthright connected to Conquest. the first Birthright was a full game. the Birthright you want connected is a DLC, technically, and thus the contents are slightly different and/or it's stored in memory differently and/or physical wouldn't know to look for it. maaaaaybe the system's some cleverly enough that it would work but I highly doubt it could always ask to test it first

you get to trade in Ch4, when you're saving the Hoshidan siblings, where Kaze mentions Vulns

you're still not understanding what sirmola said. exact lvl ups are not rolled in Lunatic. the RNG numbers are rolled and these stay the same. for example, a unit's next 3 Lvl ups for Str, the game rolled 40, 30, 50. these do not get changed ever (unless you rerecruit by restarting the chapter). when the unit lvls, the game then compares the RNG number to the unit's total growth. say it's 37.5% Personal and 0% Class. 1st lvl up, 37.5% is below 40, so no Str. 2nd Lvl up, it's above 30, so +1 Str. 3rd Lvl up, below 50 so no Str. say we reclassed before these 3 lvl ups. +10% Str from class. we now get a +1 Str from 1st and 2nd Lvls but not 3rd. say we added Aptitude for another +10%. 57.5% is above all 3, so the unit would've gained Str on all 3 lvls now hence it's possible to somewhat manipulate but chances are small. the RNG number would've had to have been close to the unit's total growths anyways