IonicAmalgam

Made a sheet to track my personal opinions of different units in my first run of the Black Eagles route (Hard). Thought I would share it here if anyone is interested. Higher rank unit means a unit I deploy more often than lower ranked units. Leveling shows classes I consider best in order to cover for weaknesses in base stats of a particular character. Final shows the class I would use them in battle with at 120. Unique Mechanic refers to my personal opinion on the units' active battle mechanic, generally favoring those with short cooldowns that manage to break stun or interrupt abilities. Base Stats and Stat Rank is a weighted ranking of the units' base stats based on what I value for in game results (offense is weighted more, and units that can use Luck stat have a higher Lck weighting while those who cannot do not value Lck, Charisma and HP are given 0 weighting). Certain units are weighted higher for role coverage reasons (eg Marianne is rather low because there are already 2 good sword options, prior to Byleth recruitment she's ranked much higher). Some interesting things: Asura and Saint have some of the "best" additional stat distributions based on my personal weighting but is not used for leveling as they do not cover weaknesses of characters. Trickster/Mortal Savant/Dark Bishop/Holy Knight/Dark Knight are the general best classes (based on weighting). In general units with very high base stats have very poor unique mechanics. Merc Whistle can be used in order to remedy this issue. If used the ranking of units would change significantly. Certain units like Lysithea, Benadetta, Monica, and Linhardt can learn Luna/Flare but do not have the stat distribution/correct Relic to take advantage of the ability. I feel any unit that is Lysithea or above is usable while those below have too large of a flaw.

I've had the game freeze on me while I was cycling through menus, I think it was trying to load information. Never saw a freeze in battle though. Maybe your cartridge is damaged if it is trying to load information for the cutscene and failing?

Mercedes passive seems to be quite strong as well, it builds up super quick and is a huge aoe armor break that interrupts attacks. She does quite well with Arrow of Indra (do damage with MAG) as a Holy Knight.

Friendly AI is pretty terrible at fighting monsters as is, not sure if increasing it would increase difficulty per say.

I find the mounted units (fliers especially) weaker in Three Hopes than in Three Houses/Original Warriors. Their attacks have long animation locks compared to other classes and they more readily miss their attacks into opponent blocks. I pretty much only use weak attack as a result to avoid being animation locked.

Dorothea is really strong imho as a sword or lance user since her passive causes magic explosions that break guard and interrupt enemy attack animations. You can spam light attacks to spawn more of her passive magic orbs and if you are using a melee weapon pretty much always trigger them

1) A smaller roster set with more meaningful supports and unique roles for each unit. 2) More meaningful Postgame Content, similar to how Awakening had significant postgame content 3) I like the challenges from Shadows of Valentia

Indie game trapper knight makes good use of traps

SoV you can give shields to priests and let them Nosferatu Tank

It's been a while, but I remember it being possible in Fates to stack damage reduction over 10 with the right allies in range from unit's unique skills, it was how I fed Mozu all of the kills in her recruitment mission when she starts level 1 on Lunatic while enemies were level 11+ Sakura: -2 Damage Taken Avatar/Ryoma: -2 Damage Taken Def Tonic: -2 Damage Taken Jakob: -3 Damage Taken Rally Defense/Strength/Res: + 4 Base +2 Def/Res Skill Inspiration: -2 Damage Taken Gentilhomme/Demoiselle: -2 Damage Taken Pair Up (incompatible with Jakob): +2 Def/Res possible Health Tonic: +5 Health Excluding Pavise/Aegis/Izana, that's +19 Def/Res you can get on top of your base Def/Res, about 29 damage reduction minimum for a unit with 10 base Def/Res. NG+/cards: Pavise/Aegis (NG+/cards): Halve damage taken Izana (NG+/cards): -2 Damage Taken Rose's Thorn: -1 Damage Taken Fortunate Son (+15 Crit Evade) Wary Fighter Draconic Hex: All Enemy Stats -4 Solidarity (+10 Crit Evade) On the offensive there's so many options, Luna, Sol, Camilla (NG+), Jakob, and many others also provide damage increase (eg Charm)

(Unlikely) Before March 2021 - financial close for Nintendo. We already have the re-release of FE1 so I think this is unlikely (Less Likely) Summer 2021 remake - If Nintendo needs something to fill the gap between releases. Reason I think is unlikely is COVID has caused development issues and by Summer we will just be coming out of it. (More Likely) Fall 2021 remake - more sales closer to holiday, more people recovered financially to buy game Winter 2022 - Next FE Entry Also I doubt we will get news of it early. The current trend in video game marketing is to hold off on building anticipation for games, and doing shadow drops of games. Or doing announcements one month in advance. There's been quite a few PR folks at large video game companies who have mentioned this. Supposedly it's the most cost effective way of promoting a game. The theory is early announcements benefit the dedicated fanbase but casuals don't pay attention. Since the dedicated fanbase will buy the product anyway, better to spend advertising dollars when casuals pay attention. Not sure I agree with that stance, but it is the current marketing gimmick.

ZlonGame has a mobile game called Langrisser that could be repurposed for Fire Emblem (I think it uses Criware). Not necessarily for the switch, but if they wanted to go a 2D route. It includes troops (which the latest Three Houses has), weapon triangles, skills, etc. It's basically a console game on mobile, unlike FEH which is a mobile game first and foremost. There's also the Langrisser I & II Remaster on Switch (although the UI could use a significant improvement) by Chara-ani/NiS which could be used for a 2D game. Square also has FF Tactics, and there's also the Mercenaries Saga by RideonJapan. Though to be quite honest I think they would stick with Koei.

I like the game, even if the plot is super cheesy. Battle mechanics are pretty good too once you get to mid/late game. I liked this game much more than Octopath Traveler (which remains abandoned after 10 hours). It's not as good as Xenoblade Chronicles but it's definitely solid as a JRPG.

Production Companies WIT - Attack on Titan (iirc they had a long backlog?) - https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=10798 NUT - Youjo Senki, FLCL, One Punch (also they are a newish studio so Nintendo could probably get an anime without waiting too long unlike WIT) - https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=15923 Whitefox - Code Geass, Food Wars, Re:Zero - https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=6989 LINDEN Films - ERASED, Arslan Senki (lower tier than the others as Linden definitely has had bombs but Arslan I think carries over to FE pretty well) - https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=11121 SANZIGEN - Three Houses Cutscenes Studio (what Nintendo would probably go with) - https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=5214

For the Golden Deer epilogue, the Nabatean king is described as a Fallen, which reminds me of Grima who was a dragon. I wonder if they are somehow related.

I wonder if abyss mode will be a exploration activity with the entrance in the cathedral to the top left. If you approach the door the activity point bar briefly shows up before vanishing. Same thing happened for the sauna before the dlc.

The odds of getting level ups is based on the binomial probability calculator (which is to say, given X rolls with Y chance of getting a level up, what is the odds of getting Z or more level ups). You can use the calculator and throw the odds in there. I haven't made up the statistics. If you want a proper normal distribution (aka matching "on average") you need sample sizes of at least 100, ideally 1000. Players are not going to level up 100 levels in a class, and in practice players will see results that deviate from the norm significantly. Ignoring small sample sizes and focusing on the picture at the whole is disingenuous (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_fallacy). In fact statistics 101 will tell you that for any sample size below 20 you need to do significant adjustments. Averages are only part of the picture, and averages alone are meaningless. If you want to ignore a single timewheel undo if the level up is bad (which is very easy for players to do an I imagine quite a few players do this): Without the +10 growth means a 1% chance of getting 5 or more res points in 10 level ups, and a 56% chance of getting 2 or less. With the +10 growth means a 8% chance of getting 5 or more res points in 10 level ups and a 24% chance of getting 2 or less. So the 10 points has greatly increased the odds of you getting good growths while greatly reducing the costs of getting screwed. As for why players should do a single timewheel undo, a single timewheel per level up (if the level up is bad) bumps that 8% chance to 46% of getting 5 or more res points.

A +10% resistance growth is not 1 point in every 10 levels on average if you only have 10 level ups. Statistics doesn't work like that at low sample rates. Assuming a player does a single timewheel for level ups (level up at end of battle, roll back if the levels are bad, and do the level up next battle), a 25% res level up odd means 75% chance no level up. 1-(75% no level up ^2) = 44% chance of getting a res level up per each level up. That is significantly better than a 15% chance res level up (85% chance no level ^ 2 = 28% chance of a res level up). At low sample sizes, you have a 1% chance of not getting a single res point in 8 levels at a growth rate of 25. You have a 10% chance of not getting a single res point in 18 level ups at growth rate of 15. So a +10 growth rate impacts the odds much more than it appears on the surface. A 10% growth rate bonus, regardless of what stat, significantly reduces the chance your unit will be screwed by RNG. In fact, the +10 growth means in 10 level ups (with a single reroll per level), you have a 46% chance of getting 5 or more res points. (see https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial.aspx). Without the growth, you only have a 11% chance of doing so. If you reroll levels three times instead of one (which is not hard if you do auxiliary battles, just bring 10 units and only use half of them, the ones who get good levels, and you have 3 battles/weekend), the +10 growth rate bonus changes the math to a having a 65% chance of getting a res point per each level you keep. 65% is much higher than the 15% growth rate the unit starts at. If you don't reroll 3 times but just hold off on bad levels until the next battle, the odds are still much better (at 44%). With 3 rerolls, you have a 90% chance of getting 5 or more res level ups per 10 levels. I misspoke, I thought max was S+, turns out max is A+, I got B+ at chapter 6 and A+ in chapter 8.

The only support skill you lose is warp, there is no need for doubled healing whatsoever, the only times I've run out of heal were before month 3 when money was tight and I couldn't buy vulnerarys. Flayn doesn't need to be a holy knight you can use her 3x rescue in lieu of warp (warp flayn with manuela turn 1 and have her rescue, flayn has better range anyway). If you run dark knight or holy knight on your physical units they can use heal as well, and both classes are superior to great knight. You have more movement as Holy Knight as well and canto. You seem to be considering only for magic classes but physical classes can use holy knight as well. Holy Knight is much easier to sidegrade into for physical units than Bishop since you only need C+ in faith, and physical units will do well in horses anyway. Holy Knight provides physical units 10 res, most physical units lack res base growth, and this makes a huge difference in leveling (if you use timewheel). Dark Knight does too, some units prefer the +10 luck over +5 Str growth. For physical units they aren't going to use spells anyway so the main benefit is growth rate. If you optimize for growth rate C+ Faith is much easier to reach than C+ Reason since you would have leveled the physical units in Monk and they would be D or D+ in faith already. Monk provides Res which is good for physical units and has no stat penalties. ____ A 10% res growth rate in master class is roughly equal to a +6 Res by end game with minimal turnwheel usage. With a hexshield, res batallion and heavier turnwheel usage that can completly nullfy magic weakness of physical units. Eg Leonie who has base res growth of 15 has 32 Def and 32 Res in my game as a result of leveling in Holy Knight. Thanks to the timewheel, a 10% growth impact is much higher. The chances of you not getting a res growth is actually impacted by 20%. (.75^4 = 31% chance no res growths in 3 mulligans, retreating on a map resets the RNG. .85^4 = 52% chance no Res growth)

Most of the xp will come from battling. If you don't battle with fliers then you are right it is hard. On harder difficulties keep in mind the xp gain is per fight not kill so you can still get enough from battle. Pegasus Knight is +2 to flight and the difference of 2 vs 3 can be made up by tutoring. ____ Again on Holy Knight what it gives is better growth rates. You are focusing only on skills. Also terrain resistance is really amazing for the last golden deer map. ____ How I got to A+ in month 6: 1) Arena gives more professor XP than Food, 2) Did nothing but explore, arena, and share meal for a few months 3) Saving bait is not worth it if you can get more explore points earlier as each explore point is worth quite a bit of xp per month. I only saved one month of bait for it. did abuse the fishing competition though, purposely fail and you get xp

It takes about 3400 to get to S+, you can get 430 xp per month in flying (no tutoring) if the unit has a boon, 250 xp on the low end on higher difficulties if unit is neutral So that is between 8 to 14 months (assuming a month is 4 weeks of training, and 6 free battles where the unit gets 5 kills with knowledge gem equipped and in a class with +3 training) With knowledge gem (+1), boon (+2), statue (+2), class (+3) you get 9 xp/kill on normal, 7 on hard, 7x5x3x2, 210xp from free battles alone in a month. You can get 32xp/week if you train only flying neutral affinity, 4 more from pair activity. Without focus is around 24 xp/week (normal), down to 18 on hard. So 72 or 105 xp/month from training on hard with neutral affinity. Tutoring can give you 40xp per week at best, twice per month is 80xp, low end 60xp. ____ For holy knight you only need C+ Lance, C+ Faith, and B+ Riding to be able to roll RNG to unlock. The first and last are not that hard to get. Faith is somewhat challenging but not that hard either. It's about 2 months of tutoring focus and skill usage. _____ I was able to get A+ professor rank in month 6 and S+ in month 8 first playthrough so 3 battles/month is definitely possible.

Holy Knight is a class you level in because it has the best growths. Gremory is the class you fight in because it has the best innate skills. There's a difference. Also in my 240 hours of grinding I have never run out of offensive spells with holy knight so the downgrade is more theory than in practice if you are doing things right tactically (you have 3 to 7 turns of nosferatu, 3 turns of seraphim or another white tome, 4 turns of dark magic, you can end maps in 7 turns). The only limit on holy knight is warp (use once) but rescue has a base 3 charge which is enough. Deadeye with 5 cost is fine, there's a reason why I have characters carry training weapons as well, also the game hands out weapons like candy if you have NSO, the purple tiles are free weapons and you get at least 4 per battle x 3 per week = 12 per week, and something like 10 to 20k gold per dlc battle. 2 weekends of fighting + end month battle means 28 free weapons a month at minimum. Also with 10 movement (movement ring and move +1) frequently you don't need to use deadeye as Bernie's base 4 range is enough thanks to canto. With regards to seal and warding I agree those are niche and generally bad but potentially useful on one or two characters (eg archers and if your character really needs res). Flying Null is great, you only get 1 null shield on chapter 20 or something. It's not that hard to get, I got it on Byleth around chapter 16/17 and Ingrid at 18.

Most common abilities after 240 hour playthrough where I unlocked pretty much everything on everyone:Movement +1/Dexterity +4/Spd +2/Darting BlowWrath/Weapon ProwessHit +20 (near the end when all enemies have 50+ avoid)/Vantage/PaviseAegis/Null Flying/Quick RiposteMagic Prowess/Alert Stance +Situational:Darting/Warding BlowRationale:1) Movement +1 is amazing2) If character has physical weapon, the prowess ability is really good. if not, +50% crit if HP < 50% is amazing with base crits of 15-30, and crit on weapon of +15 means almost guaranteed instant kill3) Hit +20 is mandatory on the final maps against high avoid to reduce frustration. Vantage is underrated and ensures your unit survives. Note I run Pavise instead of Vantage if running Quick Riposte4) Quick Riposte is really OP but only run on male characters (of which most of my team are female as they either have greater utility eg warp/rescue, or turned out with better growths than my male characters, I gave up on Lorenz (no STR or MAG), Felix (somehow SPD screwed), Seteth (no DEF/RES), Cyrill (no STR/MAG), only Sylvain got good growths). For female characters, if they are flying, Null Flying is amazing. Otherwise Aegis is a weaker but easier to access Null Flying5) Magic Prowess if they use magic, or Alert Stance + (30 avoid + 40 spd + 25 avoid batallion + 10 prowess = base 105 avoid, + 20-40 from trees...)Of Note: Wrath/Pavise/Quick Riposte share Axe in leveling (Warrior -> Fortress Knight -> War Master), Hit +20 requires C archery (which you can easily get), Alert Stance +/Null Flying come from leveling up fliers. Movement +1/Aegis come from horse line. Classes worth using(* means good growths and recommend to level up in the classes): Beginner Classes: Monk* - allows leveling up magic for characters, best growths in beginner tier Myrmidon - Spd +2 (only good for NG+) Intermediate Classes: Mercenary - Vantage Thief (1) - Situational, accessible class Archer - Hit +20 Armored Knight - allows leveling up armor for Pavise, very bad growths, if not getting Pavise or already acquired do not level. Cavalier* - good growths, levels up riding, skip if paladin unlocked Pegasus Knight* - allows leveling up flying, good growths, skip if wyvern or falcon unlocked. Advanced Classes Paladin* - Aegis, good growths Assassin (1) - Upgrade for your thief Fortress Knight - Pavise, very bad growths, only unlock if getting pavise + quick riposte (situational) Warrior - Wrath Wyvern Rider - Situational for archers as it provides Seal Def, level up Alert+/Null Flying Swordmaster - best class for dodgetank due to class skills. Master Classes Gremory - x2 spells Holy Knight* - Best growth class in game. Also good class for final map if you are golden deer. Underrated due to growths. Dark Knight* - Second best growth class in game. For classes lacking STR favor over Holy Knight, provides Seal Res, generally best for archer classes as they tend to lack STR. Falcon Knight* - Third best growth class in game. Level up Alert+/Null Flying. Innate avoid War Master - Quick Riposte Mortal Savant - only use if will satisfy unlock constraints anyway and character lacks RES for warding blow. Bow Knight - Class +2 range stacks with Deadeye (+2 Range) for +4 range (5 with longbow). Terrible growths in game, DO NOT LEVEL IN BOW KNIGHT (use Dark Knight) Note on Thief and Assassin: These classes are more accessible classes to level in for some of the worse growth characters in game (Rapheal, Ashe, Caspar) as they have decent growths and don't have a movement skill requirement. These classes also boost Spd and can be used to level up slower characters. Tips for leveling skills to unlock for NG+: There are two side missions available, one in the first half and one in the second half, that are really good for leveling skills as the units are low level and deal low damage. This means you can grind skill XP in bad growth classes without gaining level XP. You grind by retreating which resets the battle but lets you keep XP. You will have 2 knowledge gems so you can have one char + an adjunct and just keep ending turn after entering enemy range and retreat before killing all enemies. Maps are related to the quests 'Dealing with Deserters' (note enemy are primarily archers but you can still level fliers on this map if they have sufficient DEF) and 'Something to Prove'. ____ On Bow Knights: Mini Bow exists if you don't want to run close counter, and I had the same amount of them drop in my game as brave bow. Statline for my Dark Knight leveled Bow Knight Bernadetta is STR 38/MAG 19/DEX 41/SPD 32/LCK 21/DEF 27/RES 24/CHA 30 at level 49. She can kill enemies with steel bow if she gets a crit or her crest procs, otherwise most enemies are down to 1 hit from another character. 38 + 12 (silver bow) + 7 (battalion) + 5 (bowfaire) +6 (Deadeye) = 68 Atk at 7 range is pretty good.

I spent 240 hours unlocking all the blows, vantage, quick riposte, flying S, and many other things in my first playthrough. Death Blow (as well as most of the blow abilities) aren't worth it since there usually are higher priority abilities.

Dissapointed in the DLC so far, definitely not as good as Awakening DLC was. Even Valentia DLC (though few) was better in some aspects.