The Lunatic Club

[Zog58]

Alright, Chapter 10 has been completed and as I approach Xenologue 2 Sumia is level 8. I believe that she will have Galeforce by the end of 13, as planned. Due to the fact that I plan to make this minimum grind run a postgame file, I will be using a select few favorites from the DLC cast. I believe this will work fine since the DLC characars shouldn't be EXP hogs, since I wouldn't be able to even get them unless my characters were around they're recruitment level anyway. If needed, I won't have them play a very active role in story chapters.

So, on to my main question: Does anyone have recommended skill builds for:

DLC Michaiah

DLC Seliph

DLC Eirika

DLC or Spotpass Ephraim (I am aware that RK is much better than Conquest)

DLC Ike

Est (she may only receive postgame training)

I would prefer to avoid any rally or staff bots if possible but if that is the best they can do I will accept that. Any thoughts?

[ultmatelifeform]

I never used rally bots in my L+ run. I did use rally spectrum and rally speed on some people though. I recommend that you do get a rally bot tough because (Especially on Grima) That +2 speed will land you a dual strike and ultimately lead to a difference between complete failure and death of an important person or clearing a difficult chapter. So in reality it is recommended but not really necessary. I did in retrospective make a MU from another game a rallybot and logbook it.

Side recomendation, an awesome skill combo for L+ is Galeforce, Deliverer, acrobat, astra, and Movement +1. This gives you a total of 22 tiles you can move per turn with that unit and then you can always do my galeforce stacking Maneuver and pair two units like that. It can eliminate multiple counters (magic), kill many strong units, and even one turn some chapers that are kill the comander objective. I don't recommend completely skipping chapters except it is good to get some Falchion users to Grima and skip Chapter 25 so you don't loose all of your good units right before the final boss.

[Zog58]

I never used rally bots in my L+ run. I did use rally spectrum and rally speed on some people though. I recommend that you do get a rally bot tough because (Especially on Grima) That +2 speed will land you a dual strike and ultimately lead to a difference between complete failure and death of an important person or clearing a difficult chapter. So in reality it is recommended but not really necessary. I did in retrospective make a MU from another game a rallybot and logbook it.

Side recomendation, an awesome skill combo for L+ is Galeforce, Deliverer, acrobat, astra, and Movement +1. This gives you a total of 22 tiles you can move per turn with that unit and then you can always do my galeforce stacking Maneuver and pair two units like that. It can eliminate multiple counters (magic), kill many strong units, and even one turn some chapers that are kill the comander objective. I don't recommend completely skipping chapters except it is good to get some Falchion users to Grima and skip Chapter 25 so you don't loose all of your good units right before the final boss.

Thanks for the movement tip, that sounds pretty awesome! I plan to have Lissa be a rally/staff bot, as well as Cherche be a staff bot, so I wanted more diversity from my other units (and I wanted to fill in 6 more people for Apotheosis haha)

[ultmatelifeform]

Nice, Glad to be of help. A great person to make the movement bot is as Anna because she already has mov+1 which is the hard one to get because of the stat down grades. I have also used Gias X Cordella's Severa passing down Acrobat and Mov+1.

Lisa is a good staf/rally bot and so is Brady from a Maribel X Libra pair or a pair where she gets some of the rally skills. Rally heart is really good if you acknowledge DLC in that form. Chereche is a good rally bot because of the movement but I am not certain if she has access to facon knight. If so than she is good for that. Apeotheses practically required Morgan. I used RobinXTiki and it turned out great with morgan on a 50 luck + rally bonuses hitting with lethality almost every time then activating Galeforce is ridiculous. You can either use her as a Manakete or a Grandmaster for this ( or bride if acknowledged )

Edited September 2, 2015 by ultmatelifeform

[Zog58]

I am acknowledging DLC; this is a minimum grind play, meaning that I play each DLC once until postgame, and no EXP Growth or GG. So prior to postgame I will have at least one boquet to use on Lissa, which I plan to do for sure. As for Lethality, is it truly so useful on Apotheosis, with so many people possessing Dragonskin? (Note that I have never played Apotheosis)

[ultmatelifeform]

I forgot about dragonskin. In which case I would give Morgan Astra. Chrom is a good dreadlord because he can still use the Exalted falchion and the resistance+10 as well as aggressor is good on Grima. You also should put astra on chrom because the onley thing that can hevlily damage grima is the falchions.

Edited September 2, 2015 by ultmatelifeform

[Wayward Alchemist]

Chrom can't get Astra. He has Lord, Archer, and Cav, no myrm, so no Astra.

Edited September 2, 2015 by JothTheConqueror

[Zog58]

True, but I think Brave Weapons and duel strikes would work out better for killing Grima. Anyway, I just finished Chapter 11, and as I approach arc 2 on Luna + my team is:

Chrom: 20 Lord -> 6 G Lord

Sumia: 16 Peg Knight -> 12 Dark Flier

Avatar (+Spd. -Mag): 10 Tactician -> 10 Cavalier -> 5 Great Knight -> 11 Mercenary

Olivia: 30 Dancer -> 1 Dark Flier

Frederick: 15 Great Knight -> 1 Paladin

Lissa: 20 Cleric -> 4 Sage

I will be adding Cherche and Henry to my team, as well as children. Is there anything that I should be way of in the coming chapter, or any tips that could make my life easier?

Thanks for any input

Edited September 3, 2015 by Zog58

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Not the only thing. Vengeance builds (especially Vengeance crit builds) or stuff like Warriors with Brave Bows can really put the hurt on Grima. As far as the Falchions go, their wielders do best from the back row, since Dual Strikes bypass Pavise(+).

[ultmatelifeform]

I ment to say to get astra on Lucinda, which is accomplishable at certain points but I think you are passed availability by pass down. I think the way to get it is threw ChromXOlivia.

AvatarXOlivia (I assume that that is what that means)is an interesting choice. Pass down galeforce and make sure to pass down a skill that is not achieved threw tactician because Morgan should enter as a tactician. Dont do Indigo's prologue until later though because the fortress area is extremely difficult until you have multiple long range galeforce users.

@ Kuori : Yeah for my grima run I had Lucinda maining with chrom in back. I should have mentions that but that is why having many experienced people here is awesome. (Especially when they are better than me) Anyways with the reminder I recommend trying to get the duel strike+ ability by the end of the game and duel gard and support + would never hurt.

Edited September 3, 2015 by ultmatelifeform

[Zog58]

I planned to pass down Galeforce and Luna to Inigo and make him a Sniper, while passing Galeforce and Armsthrift to Morgan and making her a Grandmaster. Duly noted on Inigo's chapter; that thing was a pain on vanilla Lunatic, and I shudder to think about it on +. Thanks for the advice!

[Zoran]

I just beat no-grind Lunatic+!

Robin x Morgan running max-forged Celica's Gales didn't quite seal the kill on Grima, but Lucina swooped in to save the day with her Longbow. Her final lines, when using Aether against Grima:

I challenge my fate! Hope will never die!

[Czar_Yoshi]

I will be adding Cherche and Henry to my team, as well as children. Is there anything that I should be way of in the coming chapter, or any tips that could make my life easier?

Thanks for any input

There will be lots of forged Beastkillers. Nether of Cherche and Henry start out very good, but you may get a chance to give them some in Cht.14 (give Henry an Elwind, Cherche a Hand Axe, and hang out on the water where you only fight Pegs).

I would try to marry Fred off to Lissa and then stop feeding him. His level is way too high and the rest of your team looks a little low as a result, but you can still turn it around with the children (in my current run he managed to be very helpful throughout the first half of the game, while only being at Lv.3.69 for Owain, for reference).

[ultmatelifeform]

Well Congrats Zoron!

@Zog: I normally do the galeforce path but with Chrom X Olivia you have access to both dark flier and Myrmidon. So you can still pass galeforce to Indigo. You should be able to get the two levels up so you are good with Sumia galeforce. Try to get as much EXP funneled into Olivea as possible because the next few chapters are obliterated by galeforce users. Especially chapter 13.

[Wayward Alchemist]

@Zog, make Freddy a Dread Fighter, if you want to use him. It fixes all of his problems with Spd and Res, and gives him Res +10 and Aggressor. I saw it a while back, and it really does work. Also, he keeps his Sword and Axe ranks, and if they aren't up to snuff it gives you an excuse to build them up. Craps all over his Defense, though, but once you get Aggressor you might want to switch to Paladin or Wyvern Lord anyways.

[Zog58]

There will be lots of forged Beastkillers. Nether of Cherche and Henry start out very good, but you may get a chance to give them some in Cht.14 (give Henry an Elwind, Cherche a Hand Axe, and hang out on the water where you only fight Pegs).

I would try to marry Fred off to Lissa and then stop feeding him. His level is way too high and the rest of your team looks a little low as a result, but you can still turn it around with the children (in my current run he managed to be very helpful throughout the first half of the game, while only being at Lv.3.69 for Owain, for reference).

Actually I planned to put Freddy with Cherche and Henry with Lissa. With Lissa and Cherche acting as staff bots, I planned to have Freddy pair with Henry and help him Nostank. And on the subject of levels, surprisingly, Freddy has mostly operated as a counter killer with ranged weapons and a support striker, gaining around 8 of his levels off of Dual Strikes alone. So he hasn't been stealing too much exp. I do also plan to use most DLC, so the extra EXP will surely be enough to keep my team afloat.

@Ultimatelifeform Yeah Olivia is going to be eating as many kills as she can. She has around 20ish Str, so once her Lance level rises she'll be just fine

@Joth I had no idea who to give my Dread Scroll to, but if it works best on Freddy then I'll certainly look into it.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

[ultmatelifeform]

Freddy wouldn't help with nostanking at all because despite the good defence bonus he does not supply any magic boosts.

When you do the lost bloodlines 3, you should do it latter in game and have two units sit in the one fort by the spawn and watch the exp flow. It is ridiculous how much EXP will just come to you. Only do this with a good unit with a magic weapon. Good to train a nostank.

@Joth: Huh Never thought about dreadscrool fredy. I still second on dread fighter Chrom for later game though because freddy becomes a sideliner quickly, and Chrom is required in all levels.

[Zog58]

However, if I follow Joth's suggestion, Freddy will supply at least 3 to 6 additional magic when he is a Dread Fighter, and that is only if Lissa is needed to heal. Otherwise Lissa will be supplying some magic for him too

[ultmatelifeform]

Oh, I didn't know that DF supplied magic bonuses. I dont use much DLC so I was not aware of that. Than go with what Joth said.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Actually I planned to put Freddy with Cherche and Henry with Lissa. With Lissa and Cherche acting as staff bots, I planned to have Freddy pair with Henry and help him Nostank. And on the subject of levels, surprisingly, Freddy has mostly operated as a counter killer with ranged weapons and a support striker, gaining around 8 of his levels off of Dual Strikes alone. So he hasn't been stealing too much exp. I do also plan to use most DLC, so the extra EXP will surely be enough to keep my team afloat.

You could do that too, but Fred and Lissa have a reasonably faster support growth than normal (they'll go from nothing to S 1-3 maps earlier than most, depending on how lucky you get with Event Tile convos). Also keep in mind that Fred!Gerome has a remarkably useless skill pool, and for Henry being able to nostank successfully requires you to be at least far enough ahead of the curve to make back what you're taking in damage, which would be a lot easier to get going on a child. Henry is sometimes still worth keeping around on Lunatic+, but he gives a better return on investment if you use him as an Anathema bot (which takes no investment at all besides keeping him protected).

I suppose Fred would have a much higher level than normal if you'd been using him as a support for Robin until Olivia shows up, but it's still a good idea to be careful with what he gets.

Also keep in mind that while DLC gives a nice boost to exp, it only costs gold (since there are a lot of enemies and you have to use up your weapons on them). And unless there's a specific skill you're going for in time for inheritance, having large amounts of money can make an even bigger difference on your performance than having large amounts of exp. Seals to use that exp on are expensive and getting to their shops often gets you higher than you wanted to be already, and running out of things like Javelins and Rescue Staves will give even units with twice the enemy stats trouble. How much of it have you done already?

Edited September 4, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Zog58]

I have only cleared Xenologue 1 and 2. So there's still plenty of EXP to spread there. And is Fred!Gerome truly so bad skill wise? I was going to pass Aegis and Renewal, and I thought that would make him a good tank when paired with Cynthia: She kills and GFs, and he then goes in front for the enemy phases. And if Henry doesn't work out, I'm sure Owain or maybe even a Sol Inigo could fill that role just fine.

As a note on gold, I have not forged a weapon yet; I will only do so if I am truly stuck, and I currently have around 18,000 G while having an extra seal or two. With main story chapters throwing medium bullions around like crazy, I believe I will be fine, at least for a little while.

My only problem now is Chapter 12. So many pass/counter enemies haha

[Czar_Yoshi]

There are plenty of maps remaining... But whether or not your units can handle them will be up in the air, since almost all of them scale with difficulty. Don't count on being able to train any but your strongest on some of them.

Gerome can still make himself useful, he's just low on the ladder as far as child units go. If you pass him Renewal (use lots of staff exp to get there) and DG+ (don't go for Aegis, 14 more Fred levels is a huge amount even with DLC- and Gerome's Skl is awful too), he can reclass to Cavalier, promote to Paladin, and switch into a Bow Knight for tanking later on (or Hero for Sol, or Wyvern for flight). The thing about tanking in Lunatic+ is that it comes down to two parts: surviving a battle, and doing something afterword. Aegis doesn't actually help you survive the battle (if it did, you'd be running a high risk of dying if it failed, which is something strategically you should never have to do), it gives you a chance of leaving it with more HP so you have more things you can do on the next turn. But if Gerome's still a base scrub, there won't be much he can do regardless of how much HP he has... So it really is best to save it for later.

Owain might work out. He does come with innate Vantage which is nice (though I've never fully trusted Vantage on a Nostanking set).

If you have 18,000 at post-Cht.11 then you should be set for a while. I'd strongly recommend stocking up on Tonics (particularly Def and Spd, Str/Mag are useful too and Skl/Lck can sometimes tip the scales in your favor too) whenever you can, since Risen have a habit of blocking shops and they usually are only buyable in one place. The main thing to keep in mind for your budgeting is that each child you recruit will want an immediate Second Seal and Master Seal, with another Second Seal a few chapters away- and that adds up fast. It's also good to always have plenty of Javelins on hand, and Rescues too once you can buy them.

You may also want to set some of it out for forging a Beastkiller if Cht.12 is bothering you- figure out exactly how much you need on it (with a Str tonic and good pairup) to OHKO enemy Cavs without Pavise+, as it'll bypass Counter that way and let you clean out the bottom left corner quickly. Go light on using it where possible, though, as you'll want it for the rest of Valm.

[eclipse]

I'm going to throw a word in for Res tonics - you can probably get away with 2-3 in inventory, but when you need them, it's a lifesaver.

[Bandit]

Just wondering, if I somehow manage to get a Rift Door (highly unlikely but better safe than sorry with questions) where's the best place to use it? I read somewhere that Chapter 24 has a high chance of having stat boosting items but is there anywhere else which is good to use it on earlier? Or am I better just holding onto it for those extra stat boosts?

[Vascela]

You can use the rift door and reset if you don't like the items. Progress until you get what you want.