Okay, how should I promote Artur, Moulder and Colm?

[CrashGordon94]

I've figured out most of my promotions except these three, and I've seen a lot of conflicting arguments about them. Would anyone care to give some advice?

BTW, I'm thinking of doing Eirika's route.

EDIT: Added a poll.

Edited August 18, 2011 by CrashGordon94

[Junkhead]

I don't really understand the question. If it's what I think it is, then the answer is simple. Just feed Colm kills, Artur can take some of his own somewhat quickly, and Moulder needs to gather as much Exp possible every turn.

[Mekkah]

My guess is he means their promotion path. It doesn't matter all that much but:

Artur should be a Bishop so he can effortlessly OHKO/ORKO monsters, which is better than just slightly better attacking parameters across the board. It also gives him C staves instead of D. The same goes for Moulder, except he will likely be at A staves regardless so that part won't fly.

I generally have Colm go Rogue for OCD reasons: no more need for Lockpicks, able to steal, not sure if he can find desert items or disable lava traps but that obviously matters a lot less. Assassin doesn't really offer anything except Silencer (and therefore a little more EXP gain).

[Anouleth]

My guess is he means their promotion path. It doesn't matter all that much but:

Artur should be a Bishop so he can effortlessly OHKO/ORKO monsters, which is better than just slightly better attacking parameters across the board. It also gives him C staves instead of D. The same goes for Moulder, except he will likely be at A staves regardless so that part won't fly.

I think the value of Anima is greater than fighting better against Monsters, who Moulder often deals acceptable damage to anyway.

I generally have Colm go Rogue for OCD reasons: no more need for Lockpicks, able to steal, not sure if he can find desert items or disable lava traps but that obviously matters a lot less. Assassin doesn't really offer anything except Silencer (and therefore a little more EXP gain).

Well it means that if you have him fighting with killing edges his chance ot kill is higher.

[Ring Wraith]

Colm should be assassin. You can buy chest keys when needed, and use Rennac if you absolutely need to steal, which is unlikely.

Artur and Moulder I usually go with Bishop. Slayer is broken, plus the staves boost is nice.

[Rewjeo]

Colm: I usually go Rogue, just because Assassin!Colm doesn't make sense to me. Also, he doesn't fight much. If he does fight, then assassin is better.

Artur: Either way works. Sage has better combat earlier, Bishop has better later and C staves.

Moulder: Odds are he's never having great combat anyways, so I'd say bishop for the ability to hit moderately hard on monsters.

[CrashGordon94]

Ouch, still some disagreements. :/

Well, general consensus seems to be Bishop for Artur and Moulder, and Rogue for Colm. I might put up some polls or something.

[Mekkah]

I think the value of Anima is greater than fighting better against Monsters, who Moulder often deals acceptable damage to anyway.

It doesn't matter versus scrubs like Renevants, but it turns Cyclopses, Gwyglgugliglis, (Arch)Mogalls, Gorgons, and even Dracozombies into jokes. Much more of a difference than the slight improvement in Mt vs other enemies in my opinion, especially since they can just heal instead and leave the fighting to someone else if they can't quite KO.

Well it means that if you have him fighting with killing edges his chance ot kill is higher.

I said this before but I think Silencer only triggers if you would have critted anyway, but I'm not actually 100% sure of it. Say Colm has 40% crit, is it 20% normal crit, 20% silencer, 60% no crit...or 40% crit, 20% silencer, and either 40% no crit or 52% no crit (depending on what order the RNs are rolled and checked). I do remember reading in an FE7 RNG guide that the Assassinate RN is rolled after the 2 hit RNs and the 1 crt RN, regardless of whether the user is an Assassin.

[Anouleth]

It doesn't matter versus scrubs like Renevants, but it turns Cyclopses, Gwyglgugliglis, (Arch)Mogalls, Gorgons, and even Dracozombies into jokes. Much more of a difference than the slight improvement in Mt vs other enemies in my opinion, especially since they can just heal instead and leave the fighting to someone else if they can't quite KO.

The problem is that most of these enemy types just aren't fought. Cyclopses appear in Chapter 20 which will likely be skipped through flight and Warp. Gorgons are around, but typically you will want to OHKO them with a S Rank weapon to prevent them counter-attacking. There are like two Gwyllgis in Final and neither need to be fought. Both Dracozombies do not need to be fought either. Compared to Sage Moulder/Artur's better combat contributions in Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15, I think that being able to ORKO a handful of rare monsters they will never fight anyway is just not valuable.

I said this before but I think Silencer only triggers if you would have critted anyway, but I'm not actually 100% sure of it. Say Colm has 40% crit, is it 20% normal crit, 20% silencer, 60% no crit...or 40% crit, 20% silencer, and either 40% no crit or 52% no crit (depending on what order the RNs are rolled and checked). I do remember reading in an FE7 RNG guide that the Assassinate RN is rolled after the 2 hit RNs and the 1 crt RN, regardless of whether the user is an Assassin.

I remember hearing that the RNG rolls four RNs: two for hit, one for crit, and one for skills. If that's the case than 40 crit rate would deliver Silencer 20% of the time and a critical 32% of the time.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Basically... for Artur and Moulder:

Either path is a fine choice unless you're doing some sort of low-turn count run... in which case you should just wait until bishop/sage discussion Mekka and Anouleth reaches an end (if it does). Personally I'd go with the Bishop for Artur and flip a coin to pick Moulder's class.

For Colm it's a choice of whether you wanna have keys around to have your thief open doors/chests or not OR give that small unreliable chance of 1HKOing anything which you might be able to abuse with save states.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Sirius

[Salad Utensil]

The problem is that most of these enemy types just aren't fought. Cyclopses appear in Chapter 20 which will likely be skipped through flight and Warp. Gorgons are around, but typically you will want to OHKO them with a S Rank weapon to prevent them counter-attacking. There are like two Gwyllgis in Final and neither need to be fought. Both Dracozombies do not need to be fought either. Compared to Sage Moulder/Artur's better combat contributions in Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15, I think that being able to ORKO a handful of rare monsters they will never fight anyway is just not valuable.

While it's true sage has better combat, it's only slightly better because Anima isn't clearly better than Light in this game (if they don't double it's 1 less damage between Elfire and Divine or Thunder and Shine because Bishop gets 1 more mag on promotion). Also consider that light tomes below rank C are all more accurate than their counterparts (5 more for Lightning and 10 more for Shine) and all light tomes carry more critical for a chance of a kill on human enemies they can't double. Finally, bishops level faster so they will have higher overall stats than Sages possibly in addition to being able to use barrier staff for turns they have nothing else to do (for Artur)

Slayer allows them to have acceptable combat during monster chapters (y' know chapter 11 and 12 where you can't warpskip) even when destroying their stats with an early promotion

Unless you really want that 1HP and 1Res (promotion gains) and better caps that sage will offer...

Edited August 10, 2011 by Salad Utensil

[Hawk King]

Colm should be a rogue. Assassins are garbage, they need to use expensive killing edges just to even have a respectable chance for assassinate to activate.

each attack uses either 2, 3, or 4 RNs.

2 RNs are rolled to determine hit, if an attack hits THEN a 3rd RN is rolled for crit, if and ONLY IF the RN was low enough for a crit, THEN a 4th RN is rolled for the assassinate rate to determine assassination activation.

so, with a max skill stat, S-rank swords, and a killing edge Colm would have a 50 critical (15+5+30) and a 25 assassinate rate. assuming he has a 100% hit rate, that would give him an actual assassination activation rate of 12.5% against an enemy with a 0 luck stat. (Hit rate x Crit rate x assassinate rate= assassination activation.)

without the killing edge the actual assassinate rate would be 2%....

Clearly not worth it if you ask me.

And if you plan to do the Creature Campaign, you should go with bishops for the slayer skill. Personally i go with bishop for them.

[Oreo]

On my last FE8 run, which I just finished today, I made Artur a Bishop for Slayer, and Moulder a Sage because I felt I'd rather have 2 sages (the other being Lute, I don't really use Saleh at all) than 2 bishops. I promoted Colm to Rogue because he's all he was unpromoted besides no lockpicks. It really doesn't matter, depending on how many Bishops and Sages you have already.

Edited August 13, 2011 by Oreo

[CrashGordon94]

Well, I'm probably gonna make Lute a Mage Knight, so if I promote one to Sage, he'll be my only one.