Need help classifying how good various combo's are.

[emmagine]

As a few of you know, I'm developing a web tool to assist in planning who marries who, and what skills to pass down to your children, and what class / skills everyone should take to fit your play style.

The page is coming along pretty well, and I'm nearly done with this pass of bug fixes. This brings me to the point where I am planning the next development stage, which is "skill and equipment suggestions" for the characters you plan to front line.

So, this is where I'm asking for help. Some of you have absolutely no use for this tool. you know the game in and out, and have built every possible combo a dozen times over. help!

So, without further adeu, here is what I'm asking for.

List the combinations of skills you find to be the most brutal. You don't need to use all 5 skills for a character, just list the individual combo's that make it particularly brutal.

The things below should be indicated.

combo uberness:

1. it's nifty. but it isn't anything special. better than picking 2 random skills.... barely.
2. works okay together. for example, "+2 skill" boosting 3 skill based abilities.
3. works very well together, or incredibly powerful all on it's own. (galeforce, rally spectrum, etc.)
4. Nearly over powered: you get the idea. this combo won't auto win for you, but is very powerful.
5. broken. This combination makes a unit omnipotent.

Combo requirements:

• any stats that have to be at least a certain number for the combination to be useful.
• any skills that are mandatory for the combination to function, not just recommended.

Lastly, Stat thresholds What is the minimum useful atk power? magic attack power? Defense? resistance? what speed is necessary for not getting doubled? for getting double on them?

You should understand how it will work. A user will stat what area of the game they wish to be optimal for. weather it be farming apo, end game lunatic+, classic end game, etc. Then, the engine will make highlight options that would be at least acceptable to their goal. So for any combination, or stat requirement, please state to what ends your configuration is.

I do not know the game well enough to populate these things on my own with any completeness. The tool will be as good and complete as the information I have to fill it. credit will be given on the page to significant contributors when it is complete.

[Czar_Yoshi]

You're going to need at least two scales (one for the maximum potential of a setup, one for the player skill required to use it). For example, offensive Vengeance (basically using Vengeance on a Galeforce unit in place of Luna instead of together with Vantage) has both higher reliability and a higher maximum output than Luna, but it requires you to deliberately take damage to work, which some players just have a mental block against. Or Bows in Luantic+- by limiting enemy phase combat, they protect you from Counter, as well as limiting the nuber of times you're attacked per EP- but they also draw the battle out longer, causing restarts to be more significant, require some care to keep from getting surrounded, and can't mop things up.

The only stat threshold that doesn't vary by enemy is Skl (160 average on an S pair for 100% DS, 50 for 100% Vengeance). Spd is fairly simple as well, in Apo at least (75 to double everything, 69 to double all but 3 enemies, 66 to avoid being doubled by Anna, and 60 to avoid being doubled by Thronie- 75 is the maximum anyone needs, and 60 is the minimum acceptable). 220 Hit is generally a good minimum for Apo as well, as it gives 100% Hitrate against everything that isn't a Boss. Non-Apo/Lunatic Grima thresholds are incredibly numerous, specific, and usually minor (and there's not much you can do about them anyway) so I wouldn't worry about them yet. Now, some generally good combos (for Apo):

Female lead:

LB

GF

Luna/Ignis/Vengeance

Astra/Aether/Ignis/All+2

Faire/DS+

Male lead:

LB

GF

Agg

Luna/Ignis/Vengeance

Faire

Male hard support:

LB

Faire

Agg

Hit+20/All+2

Hit+20/All+2/DSt+/DSp+/Anathema/Str+2/Skl+2/Mag+2

There are a few other character-specific sets, mostly for Lucina and Nah, but that covers all the standards for Apo. Ingame you generally use whatever you get on lower difficulties and play with a higher priority on class stats on higher ones, and the only real combos that could both see much use and aren't automatic are on Avatar or Gregor!Laurent (Vantage/Vengeance/AT) and Chrom!Inigo (RK/Sol/AT).

[emmagine]

Keep in mind there are a good number of people that don't do apo. They run the campaign, maybe 2-3 times while owning the game. These are the folks that will need the most help, so knowing what are good setups for that (if they select optimize for campaign) is important too.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Normal: Anything works. Absolutely anything. Normal is for learning how to play the game, and it's not really possible to optimize because there's nothing to optimize for. Sure, you could break out *insert Lunatic-breaking strat here* and it'll wipe the walls with mooks, but so will anything else that's not base level. So really Normal is based more around ingame strategy- as in, raise units that you want to use. Which units they are doesn't matter.

Hard: Mostly like Normal, but just difficult enough that some combos start to outshine others. I'll vouch for Avatar x Chrom, Chrom x Sully, Fred x Sumia, Chrom x Sumia, Vaike x Cordelia, Avatar x Cordelia, Gregor x Nowi, and Avatar x Nowi, as well as Panne or Lon'qu as a Wyvern Rider (doesn't really matter who they're paired up with, though Sully/Stahl work).

Lunatic: Avatar x Chrom trumps all else. No female Avatar? A support is fine. Field two units, grab Nosferatu and go. You can go with more units here, but it's not optimal and if you're going for optimal... Most of the pairings that are good on Hard also work here if so, as long as fewer are used and more care is taken to get them going.

Luantic+: Completely based around ingame strategy again. Avatar's Asset/Flaw matter (Asset should be Spd or Def, flaw is usually Skl), not going overboard on team size is important, and Bow users are better than those without Bows, but it can't be solved with a magic pairing button.