OverlordMastema Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 I am just starting my HM playthrough and I'm not sure who is best to give the bands to. My planned endgame team is going to be Ike, Titania, Oscar, Keiran, Boyd, Soren, Rhys, Shinon, Gatrie, Jill, Zihark, Stefan, and Marcia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Raven Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 In all honesty they don't provide a very significant boost to growths that it matters anyway. If you feel someone is lagging behind in damage or speed then use those bands accordingly. Knight Ward gives a +30% speed boost to anyone who equips it so worry more about that; in that case I'd recommend shuffling it around. Mage Band is good on Soren btw, since it increases his Magic growth to like 65 or 70% which is not a huge difference but it gets him dealing damage a lot faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTNP Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 I would also suggest focusing on just a single band and using it on a character that will have a lot of level ups with you. Ike, Boyd, Soren, Rhys, Jill, Zihark, and Marcia would be the ones I would focus on while leaving the knight's ward to be traded around for your knights and cavaliers. Soren and Rhys could both benefit from Mage band, or a speed band (thief perhaps) for Rhys. Jill and Marcia both want strength and defense boosting until full guard becomes available, at which point they will cease caring. That just leaves Ike and Zihark, whom would both like the fighter, knight or soldier bands for extra DEF and STR much like your fliers would. Only Boyd really cares much about speed and accuracy, so the mymridon or pegasus band would be a good choice for him. Although, to be honest, unless you are playing on fixed mode and also using certain weapons to increase the chances of getting a particular level up either through the BEXP system or the first turn on a map, there isn't going to be much of an effect period. But, it is rare that you can't afford one less item slot in FE9 so go for it. For your late joiners, I would focus on whatever happens to be around. Oh and if this is your first playthrough or you haven't tried her- include Tanith in your endgame as a filler unit on maps where you have an extra slot. She will fit in perfect and create a support square with Oscar, Kieran and Marcia if you are in to that sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy_One Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 The problem with the bands is that they only boost the growths of two stats by 5% or one stat by 10% in the case of the mage band. DO NOT GIVE THE MAGE BAND TO SOREN! It's wasted on him as he has more than enough magic and would probably prefer the Knight band which boosts strength and defense, at least until he gets one or two points of STR. Otherwise... It honestly is really hard to tell. Some of them will be obvious, such as giving Soren a band to boost his STR growth to try and help him wield his tomes without AS loss, but otherwise it's really up in the air. Unless a unit has a glaring weakness, like Stefan's luck (don't bother though. He's too high-leveled to make it worthwhile), the time it takes to have a band really come into effect is simply so long that you will only see one to two points of a stat throughout the entire game go up due to the band. The only one that can really give something close to a 'direct' result is also the only one very few units can even use (the mage band). For example, assuming you gave Rhys the Knight band and then dumped a ton of BEXP into him to have him reach 20/20, all you'd really see is 2 extra STR and 2 extra DEF. Now, that actually might matter for Rhys since he's squishy and weak, but it's not very impressive on the whole, so unless you do something stupid like give a STR band to a unit who will already have a ton of STR, you should be good with whatever you choose. Not like you'll hurt a unit by giving them a band. IMO, give Soren and Rhys a speed band, maybe a STR band to help with their tomes. Give Gatrie a band that boosts speed, maybe Jill a RES band and Marcia a DEF band, and then give whatever to whoever else. Well, Gatrie will want the knight ward (30 Speed as opposed to 5) and both Jill and Marcia will desire the Full-guard, but you obviously have only one. Oh. And it's probably very wise to not give Shinon a band until he rejoins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Raven Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 DO NOT GIVE THE MAGE BAND TO SOREN!Can you stop dismissing this as a viable option? +5% Str gives him a very marginal boost in Strength when he's going to have trouble doubling for a while regardless of what happens. May as well boost his damage output when his speed is lacking, especially since I doubt +1 Strength over 19 levels would make as much of a difference throughout the game. I'm sincerely of the opinion you can do just about whatever you want with the bands but I am also of the opinion that you shouldn't try to half assedly patch a unit's weaknesses so much as play heavily to their strengths. It's better to be a good at one or two things than mediocre at a bunch of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy_One Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 I am of the opposite opinion. Soren never struggles with his individual strikes. His problem is being fast enough to deliver said strikes and having him get the strength to not be weighted down is key to that. He will be at about 17 magic by the time he promotes. For comparison Boyd will have about 18 STR. It's true that Boyd has better weapons and tomes are weak in general, but it's better to forge a +5 MT tome for Soren regardless of his actual magic stat as it is fairly close to being as strong as his A-rank weapon anyways. Soren doesn't need extra magic. What he needs is speed, and more strength helps with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Raven Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 It's not about worrying about what their stat will be at x time so much as how their stat progresses through the game. You seem to only really worry about endgame stats when the path to the endgame also matters a whole lot (in fact significantly more). In which case, early Soren would like to do as much chip damage as possible because he won't be reaching doubling speed until BEXP is available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy_One Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Unless he's being EXP-ground, he's also not reaching level 10 (when the band would 'kick in' so to speak and give him his first free stat) until BEXP is available and even if, it would only be by about 1 point. Forgive me for going 'woo' in the most sarcastic voice I can muster. Since his STR growth is a pathetic 5 it's much better to just give him the strength band since there is a very real chance he won't get any STR naturally throughout the game, or at least till later on as it's, literally, the same as trying to roll a natural 20. More if you want him to wield non-forged tomes with less issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Raven Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Still a significantly greater chance of +1 or +2 magic than +1 Str in those like 6-7 levels he gets tho lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy_One Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 And what's it going to do? Give a unit who caps magic normally more magic? That STR is actually gonna have a use for Soren. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Raven Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 (edited) Umm Soren isn't hitting 20/20 unless you're using like 4 units the whole game dog It's also not like Soren is walking around the game with capped magic. Edited November 24, 2014 by Lord Raven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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