PAIRINGS The Pairing Thread

[Czar_Yoshi]

So the +Skill-Def Lon'qu!Yarne!Morgan@Assassin with the LB/GF/Agg/Luna/Ignis skill set you recommended would have been better suited with Nah than Cynthia?

Also, what do you mean by "only one support turn"? I assume you're talking about not having a galegirl partner, but I haven't heard it phrased like that before...

Yup.

Morgan could go with Nah. Usually he wants to be part of a double Galepair so he can get the most out of his mods/be a great support unit, but there aren't really any downsides to pairing him with Nah.

[lordvanzed]

Hello. I am currently in chapter 13. I have a MaMu with +SPD/-DEF (possibly not the best choice?). I wanted to make him a fast, double attacking magician. Or maybe a hybrid wielding a magic sword with balanced str/mag and Ignis.

So my Chrom married Sumia. Now I am wondering about the battle pairings I should do, because I want to prepare for the marriages. Please do not spoiler the story, because it is my first playthrough. But you can tell me the character names, as I already looked them up. :D

I am considering the following pairings:

Nah: Nowi x Kellam or Gaius

Brady: Henry x Maribelle

Inigo: Lonqu

Noir: Tharja x Gaius

Morgan: MaMu x Lucina or Tharja

But I am stuck now. You can suggest something different if this pairings aren't good. Thank you!! :)

[MelonGx]

Inigo needs Luna.

Brady needs Mag mod.

Nah needs both Luna and Galeforce (which is only provided by MaMU). If you don't plan giving her MaMU then what she need is a leftover.

Noire needs Galeforce.

Morgan-F doesn't care if you don't play no-LB no-rally Apotheosis.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Inigo needs Luna. No, Vengeance works for him too.

Brady needs Mag mod. No, he just doesn't want a father with negative mag. He likes Lon'qu and Virion just fine.

Nah needs both Luna and Galeforce (which is only provided by MaMU). If you don't plan giving her MaMU then what she need is a leftover. No she doesn't. Nah has a great niche as a hard support.

Noire needs Galeforce. It's useful, but not required. Noire can make a good enough hard support to use Gaius!Kjelle and take a father with real mods for herself.

Morgan-F doesn't care if you don't play no-LB no-rally Apotheosis. Yes she does. Ingame recruitment times matter, and Morgan's is easy to mess up because Avatar supports everybody.

But I am stuck now. You can suggest something different if this pairings aren't good. Thank you!! :)

First off, you're not going to be able to get all the children without grinding. You also won't have anything to do with them all without grinding, so don't worry about getting all of them (on your first playthrough, at least). Getting 5 or 6 is fine, though. You also don't want to spend time optimizing your first playthrough, because Awakening's metagame is based around good and better, not good and bad (it's extremely hard to find a pairing that gives you a completely useless child). And first playthroughs are also sort of "play first, ask questions later" or else you might become swiftly disenchanted with the story (and that would stink if you haven't even finished it yet).

Anyway, your Avatar can marry Lucina if you want, though it's better if you saved one of the first four paralogues for them to build support in (otherwise Morgan will come kind of late). I don't recommend Avatar x Tharja for ingame though, other strong candidates if you need more options are Cordelia, Panne and Nowi. If you've been training any of those three, they perform very strongly as Avatar's wife ingame.

For the rest of your children, Gaius!Noire and Henry!Brady are both pretty good (though Noire might take a while to get going). I don't recommend using Inigo during the maingame. Nah can have whoever, unless her father is Avatar she's going to want to stay as a Manakete all the time anyway.

[Armanyte]

Hey Czar_Yoshi, I really appreciated your optimal picks list, but I can't help the lack of Miriel; is Laurent just completely useless?

Onto my other question, in my sub-optimal file (a file in which I'm attempting to do apotheosis with my favorite picks, instead of absolute best) I'm planning on marrying Gerome and Lucina. Now I understand how Gerome would work well with physical lucina, but my only problem is that since gerome is usually played as a hard support I feel like I'm wasting DS+ on Lucina. Any tips? Oh and if it helps it Sumia!Lucina and Gregor!Gerome.

[lordvanzed]

Hi Czar_yoshi!

Thank you for your reply. You are right about first playthroughs. I shouldn't focus that much on optimization. So I will stick with Lucina, because I like her. I also like Tharjas Character, but if she is a bad choice than I will pick my second choice.

So grinding on normal difficulty isn't worth it at all, is it? Should I safe the grinding part for my second (maybe hard?) playthrough?

How does the second child thing work for chrome and MU? Do I have to do something?

[Czar_Yoshi]

Hey Czar_Yoshi, I really appreciated your optimal picks list, but I can't help the lack of Miriel; is Laurent just completely useless?

Onto my other question, in my sub-optimal file (a file in which I'm attempting to do apotheosis with my favorite picks, instead of absolute best) I'm planning on marrying Gerome and Lucina. Now I understand how Gerome would work well with physical lucina, but my only problem is that since gerome is usually played as a hard support I feel like I'm wasting DS+ on Lucina. Any tips? Oh and if it helps it Sumia!Lucina and Gregor!Gerome.

It means I've been super busy/tired for the last few days and forgot. Miriel goes best with Lon'qu, Ricken or Gregor. Any of the +Mag dads or Stahl can also work, but he doesn't get very much from them (he's already got a full set).

Lucina with a hard support works out.well.

So grinding on normal difficulty isn't worth it at all, is it? Should I safe the grinding part for my second (maybe hard?) playthrough?

How does the second child thing work for chrome and MU? Do I have to do something?

Not so much of "not worth it" as completely pointless. The entire reason Normal exists is as a "learn to play" difficulty, and while you certainly could trivialize it by grinding it would be much faster and easier to trivialize it by learning the basics of how to play (small teams are better, don't fight battles where you have a chance of death, etc).

The second child works like all the non-Lucina children, you just wait until Cht.13 is cleared and their Paralogue will open up on the world map. All you have to do is clear it and meet their recruitment condition (which is usually really easy). Some paralogues are out of reach though and you need to unlock more chapters/paralogues to reach them.

[isetrh]

Do Staffbots care much how much Magic they have? I was thinking of using the four Charm girls for my Staffbots with Move+1/Acrobat/Hex/Anathema/Charm, but no LB or TF means a 15 point Magic drop. Will this Magic drop have a significant effect on their usefulness? If so, I will try to plan more strategically instead of doing triple auras on everyone.

Edited September 28, 2014 by isetrh

[Czar_Yoshi]

In this case I'd go half and half (half getting more +Hit skills, half getting more +Mag skills). Losing Mag will affect your Rescue range, but it's extremely unlikely you'll find four cases where a staffbot is needed to boost Hit at the same time, and even if you did you wouldn't want to commit all your staffbots to it (you need others to pull them out if things go sour). It's also unlikely you'll be in a situation where all four need to perform cross-map Rescues at the same time (the majority of Apo Rescues are under 20 blocks unless you're making a chain).

[isetrh]

Thanks! I'll build two with Move+1/Acrobat/Hex/Anathema/Charm and two with Move+1/Acrobat/LB/TF/Mag+2

Could you take a look at these two pairs for me?

Gaius!Noire @ Sniper

LB/GF/BF/Luna/Astra

Libra!Inigo @ Sage

LB/GF/Agg/TF/Vengeance

Chrom!Cynthia @ Dark Flier

LB/GF/TF/Aether/Luna

Lon'qu!Brady @ Sage

LB/GF/Agg/TF/Luna

Noire, Inigo, and Cynthia get 69 Speed. Brady gets 75 Speed. Lon'qu!Brady gives Cynthia x Brady a point more DS than any other Brady for what it's worth.

Edited September 29, 2014 by isetrh

[Czar_Yoshi]

Use All+2 instead of Mag+2. It has the same effect and is easier to get.

Those two pairs look pretty solid.

[isetrh]

Thanks! I think my plan is complete now. Stahl ends up unused because I can't find anyone who needs him, but oh well.

Edited September 29, 2014 by isetrh

[zaknafein]

If I were to do a Chrom x Sumia pair would physical Cynthia/Lucina be inferior to magical? I plan to do apotheosis with no limitations eventually. I am tempted to run them both as snipers after discovering how good snipers were last run.

Something like:
LB, GF, Aether, Luna, Bowfaire/DS+

[Ownagepuffs]

Sniper and Sage both perform well for Chromia's children. Great Lord Sumia!Lucy also has a ton of Speed.

Sniper: 3 Range Aether/Luna. Basically Chrom + Galeforce

Sage: Sumia + Aether.

It's entirely up to you. Considering Chrom!Cynthia and Sumia!Lucina have near identical offense (Aside from Lucy!Morgan, Chrom!Cynthia is the only other unit in the game with Ae/Lu/GF access. Lucy has DS+ over Cynthia tho), you could opt to make one a Sage and one a Sniper. The couple allows for so many options for the both of them which is why I like it so much.

Other things to consider: Lancefaire!General (high speed, skill, and Str), Bowfaire!Bow Knight (Lucy can still use Falchion), Tomefaire Dark Flier.

[Czar_Yoshi]

They're both great Snipers, though Snipers are the exception rather than the rule for them as far as physical classes go. Sniper Lucina should be paired with a Sage and mainly focused on epic pokes with Aether and 100% magical DSes, Cynthia can try to do the same but her mods also set her up for a fairly easy 100% DS without DS+ and I'd recommend going for that if you can.

Otherwise they should both stick to Sage/DF.

[zaknafein]

I've done 3 runthroughs and they went magical 5/6 times. I love how strong sage&df's are but I want to mix more physical pairs in.

Support sages with Snipers? I was under the impression that berserkers were pretty much the best non-GF physical support.

Also, wouldn't a female sage lead be weird? Would I put a male sage as her partner?

[NightshadePuma]

The Sage and the Sniper for those units both have the same attack power when using the double attack weapons available to them.

Magic as a Sage (47) + Forged Celica's Gale (9 Mt) + Weapon Rank Bonus + Tomefaire = 62 Attack

Strength as a Sniper (41) + Forged Brave Bow (15 Mt) + Weapon Rank Bonus + Bowfaire = 62 Attack

Between those, I would go with the Sage for the ability to attack up close with a double attack weapon if it's necessary. The Dark Flier class would give 4 less attack power than either of those with Celica's Gale or 5 less with a Brave Lance, but there would be more attack and movement options.

Edited September 30, 2014 by NightshadePuma

[Alastor15243]

So for my Vaike!Severa, since she can't use Astra, should I fill that empty slot with AS+2 (Her stats are already pretty damned impressive, that would make them insane) or Deliverer (Also useful, but her husband Freddynigo in this setup is a paladin so it's not essential) or something else?

[Czar_Yoshi]

I've done 3 runthroughs and they went magical 5/6 times. I love how strong sage&df's are but I want to mix more physical pairs in.

Support sages with Snipers? I was under the impression that berserkers were pretty much the best non-GF physical support.

Also, wouldn't a female sage lead be weird? Would I put a male sage as her partner?

Female Sages are sort of rare because there aren't many good +Mag/Spd male classes, but it's OK for Lucina/Cynthia because their Spd is just so high already (they'll hit every Spd benchmark except Anna/NS and have enough Atk not to care about those). Berserkers are great physical supports, but if you're doing Sage x Sniper it's because you want a magical support, not a physical one (DSes hit Res instead of Def, great for Thronie who is the biggest target for Longbows in the game). And yeah, ingame Lucina and Cynthia work best as Paladins and Falcos.

The Sage and the Sniper for those units both have the same attack power when using the double attack weapons available to them.

Atk is cool and all, but keep in mind that most enemies have a lot less Res than Def (case in point: NS, who has 70 Def and 46 Res). So it's not just "who has more Atk".

So for my Vaike!Severa, since she can't use Astra, should I fill that empty slot with AS+2 (Her stats are already pretty damned impressive, that would make them insane) or Deliverer (Also useful, but her husband Freddynigo in this setup is a paladin so it's not essential) or something else?

First check to see if All+2 breaks any thresholds for Spd, Skl or Atk. If it does, use it. If it doesn't, I'd go AT. Deliverer could be a good idea (it lets you end on the female more easily for two rounds of Agg support), but that doesn't apply very much to you since no Braves.

[Alastor15243]

By AT, do you mean Armsthrift? I wasn't aware that was any good on apotheosis, even on non-brave runs. What's it used for?

[Czar_Yoshi]

Cutting prep time if you have nothing better to do (which is sometimes actually the case).

[Diabeasty]

Vaike!Severa unless I am mistaken does not get Deliverer

If I want to use Ricken!Owain (I was gonna marry him to Nah, so I'd prefer him to have Luna) and I want to have a magical hard support Laurent, would LIbra be a good option for Laurent's father since he's only 1 mag short of Ricken? Gregor is currently open (I decided that Virion!Severa and Gregor!Yarne isn't really what I want to do) but I don't really want to have Laurent do vantage+vengeace, so there's basically no point in doing that pairing outside of general availability and the option to go physical(not necessary) from what I can tell.

[Alastor15243]

Vaike!Severa unless I am mistaken does not get Deliverer

Oh wow, I can't believe I forgot about that. She was so amazing I totally forgot she can't do that.

[Alastor15243]

Hey, so, as Isetrh suggested, I'm having my +Skl-Def FeMU be a sniper and her husband Lon'qu!Yarne be an assassin. Now, Isetrh also said that if I put all+2 on both of them they could reach 100% DS. Now that's an option, BUT... since Yarne is fairing in swords anyway I could just have Yarne constantly equip Mystletainns during Apotheosis since I'm not using braves. If I do this, I can replace AS+2 with bowfaire for 3 more damage. Since even with AS+2 she's not going to be doubling Anna, that sounds like it could be a good idea, except that if I used AS+2 instead of Bowfaire on Robin like originally planned, I could use Mercurius with Yarne, which would be +3 damage for him. And since apparently raw attack in the front is inferior to raw attack in the back because of pavgis, that suggests to me I should go AS+2 on Robin. Which is correct?

[NightshadePuma]

Vaike!Severa unless I am mistaken does not get Deliverer

If I want to use Ricken!Owain (I was gonna marry him to Nah, so I'd prefer him to have Luna) and I want to have a magical hard support Laurent, would LIbra be a good option for Laurent's father since he's only 1 mag short of Ricken? Gregor is currently open (I decided that Virion!Severa and Gregor!Yarne isn't really what I want to do) but I don't really want to have Laurent do vantage+vengeace, so there's basically no point in doing that pairing outside of general availability and the option to go physical(not necessary) from what I can tell.

Besides the one less magic point, another thing that would make Libra!Laurent worse than the Ricken one is the lack of Dual Gaurd+. The Libra!Laurent would still be fine as a support unit though.