MattF

Thanks, I will look into both of those. I have a DS, but no 3DS yet. And yes, I agree maybe there is nothing wrong with my obsession with the game, its just that I am surprised as I never really experience this before... there are so many games I still haven't played because I am just replaying three houses!

I agree. A fun challenge would be to limit classes so that you still have a degree of specialisation, but avoid making everybody a WL and break the game. Intermediate classes only for most characters, and special classes for units that really need them (Dark flier annette/Flayn)

My favourite in terms of design is Hapi. I like her a lot! In terms of utility, I think for me its a toss up between Yuri and Hapi. Hapi is a well rounded magic user, has both healing and damage spells, and can take hits. I like to give her the seiros shield, so she takes half damage from beasts and dishes out extra damage in return. Yuri for me is the most suitable dancer in the game, especially with his relic. Even without dancing, he can use put the sword avoid +20 to good use. He is fast and has good charm, magic, and relatively good damage. He is the ideal unit to send forward and dodge tank/take up enemy attention. I also like the way he looks post time skip. I like Costance less, she seems annoying. Good offensive magic though!

I must admit that I dont think I am that good at the game to be able to finish some maps with random characters. I can clearly see that enemies have strengths and weaknesses (flying enemies weak to bow, armoured enemies weak to magic, etc.). This for me means that without the proper tools, you cant really beat the game. At least on maddening. I like it because if you dont grind and dont recruit, you can find a use for every character in your house. Basically the way I see it in the game there are three types of units: characters who are supposed to stay upfront, those who are better at magic/bow support, and finally the glass cannons in the back, able to one round enemies but vulnerable (Lysithea or Vengeance build Bernadetta). Any of these units on their own cannot single-handedly break the game, unless you grind. I dont really know how I would beat some maps with a team of Linhardt/Mercedes/Flayn lol.

Eclipse, sorry, I dont get it? like a competition to see who can finish a map the fastest? Are you taking about real friends or online?

Something happened to me since I started playing Three Houses. I have put more than 700 hours in the game, and I still crave for more. Right now I am doing a BL run with only BL students plus the four ashen wolves. I played through the game on normal first, and then did three runs on hard, then four runs on maddening, then another church run with the Kinghts of Seiros, and now doing the BL/AW. There is something addicting about this game. When I started playing, I was grinding like hell and ended up OP and basically going through the motions. It slowly dawned on me that I did not need to grind so much, and subsequently tried to make myself playing the game like it was chess, or a puzzle: looking at characters strengths and weaknesses, and thinking of ways to maximise them in play. Let me make an example. The Ingrid/Dorothea paralogue on maddening is notoriously difficult when you first get access to it. My first few times through it on maddening I resorted to cheese it, by making Ingrid a Pegasus knight and flying her to safety in the middle on the lava pool where archers can’t reach her. It’s a solution, but it’s really cheesy as I wasn’t really engaging with the game ruleset. Yesterday I was doing the paralogue and I had a great idea: I made Dedude a tank and gave him a shield (this run I am not using renown to buy professor levels or skills/masteries). I just went with what I had. Surprise, Dedude was so tanky that enemies' attacks just bounced off his shield lol. I was so surprised. Basically my strategy revolved on sending him first, heal him when needed, and just inch my way to the priest that spawns enemies. I was so proud when I cleared the paralogue. I just used what the game gave me and made it. I felt like I was finally playing the game as it was intended. One of the reasons why I could finally understand this is thanks to the Ashen Wolves DLC: it made me understand better how to use Eldegard as a tank, a class that until yesterday I barely even acknowledged. So to recap, after playing the game for more than six months I still seem to find out new things and ways to play. I am truly impressed by the game. Now I want to go and get a 3DS to play the older titles (awakening, fates, shadow of valentia). It’s a bit scary when I think about how much time I have sunk on this game, and it still fells fresh to me!

Thanks I especially like Paladin Gilbert! He is one of those characters I never really explored. BL only right?

The Lance of ruin is one of the best lances in the games and you get it really early! Who would be a good candidate for Luin+ crest of Daphnel? I used Ingrid basically in every playthrough and now I want to try something different!

The axe of Ukonvasara? I have it, I think you get it in chapter 13, but who to give it to? The crest of Gloucester raises the might of magic attacks, and the characters without crest proficient in axes (Petra and Caspar?) don't really use magic? In fact that axe weights a ton, so you need the strength to wield it it, but it raises magic might? Doesn't make any sense!

In Three Houses new game plus, its possible to buy crest items to character who didn't have them. While the proc rates are not as good as the originals, there is also the added bonus of basically allowing a different character the use of hero`s relics and their added effects. One of such combination I am using right now is Caspar + crest of fraldarius + aegis shield. The aegis shield provides aegis and pavise and increases 6 protection and 3 resilience (but the shield does not look bright orange like when Felix equips it?). I want to use Caspar as my human shield and this is quite an effective combination. One other option is to use Marianne`s crest of the beast + blutgant on a character with sword proficiency like Dorothea, who is proficient in swords and magic (and can now become a trickster) but lack a crest of her own. Are there other combinations that you have tried and found useful or fun?

In my opinion, bows are a good fallback option, especially against flying enemies. Apart for that, if you take Cyril down the archer path for hit +20 (while teaching him lances and riding), he would acquire bow proficiency anyway. The additional accuracy may not be really necessary, but it removes a bit of RNG especially against fast enemies. Defiant crit/strenght would make him even better, but as you said, it would take a long time to set him up properly. This is why I originally gave him just the +5 life points, because its easy to get and guaranteed damage.

That's a good point about defiant crit, I didnt think of that. As for OHKO, it works well on humans but beasts tend to have health divided up in sections, so no matter how overkill you go with damage its impossible to just one shot them?

Hi everybody, Im new to the forum but I have been lurking for a while now, So about three houses: Its my first fire emblem and I have put about 700 hours into it. One of the characters that I barely explored was Cyril - I made him a Wivern Lord and used his bow art point-blank volley in many of my play-throughs, but never really found him useful or indispensable. He can take down flying enemies well enough, but so can other, better archers. His major weakness is perhaps strength, and he doesn't really excel in magic either, so when compared to other WL (Seteth, Petra, etc.) he really looks weak and slow. In my current play-through I am doing a church run with the kinghts of seiros, and I am experiment a little with Cyril to see if I can find a nice niche for him to excell at. So here is my vengance build for Cyril!: - Cavalier/Paladin: better defense, canto, can used better battallions and has lance fair - Bow and Lances: use point-blank volley upclose to damage and get damaged back. As a grounded unit, he can use an adjutant as a shield as well as a heavy shield to make sure he doesn't die. Possibly he could benefit from being miracled' beforehand to survive with 1 point of life. - Canto away, and then in the next turn (get refreshed by a dancer or the blue lions dancing battalion?) go for vengeance art with a silver lance or something similar. - useful abilities: lance proficiency, death blow, accuracy +20, close counter, and maybe life+5 - this adds damage to vengeance. - useful battalions: either high defence, or high physical damage So overall, a combination of a tank build with a glass cannon. You can do something very similar with Bernadetta, and arguably Bernadetta has better personal skills for vengeance builds (persecution complex and pass), but this here is for people who specifically want to find a use for Cyril. Basically the great thing about these builds is that they do a set amount of damage regardless of enemy defence. It almost breaks the game, if you get warped and refreshed properly you can basically one shot most enemies. What do you guys think?