How do you feel about the changes to Criticals?

[Tamarsamar]

For whatever it's worth, Luck was arguably the most powerful stat in Awakening on account of the 1 Luck = 1 Critical Avoid, on top of the other things it did. Skill was second-best unless you had max Hit% (admittedly easy to take for granted with a lot of weapons, particularly with Awakening's Pair Up), after which Speed was second. All things considered, I do not reckon that either stat's respective nerfs are all that uncalled for.

"How this game handles criticals" is somewhat misleading. The whole triple-damage property critical hits always had in FE always made them effectively lethal most of the time anyway, which makes the names of weapons like "Killing Edge" appropriate in the first place. Giving those weapons quadruple-damage crits, as already mentioned, is effectively overkill . . . especially in a game like Fates, where nobody really has all that much HP. That, I think, is the crux of the issue right there: not that critical hits are any more powerful than they should be, but that a stiff breeze can knock a lot of characters over.

[GoXDS]

For whatever it's worth, Luck was arguably the most powerful stat in Awakening on account of the 1 Luck = 1 Critical Avoid, on top of the other things it did. Skill was second-best unless you had max Hit% (admittedly easy to take for granted with a lot of weapons, particularly with Awakening's Pair Up), after which Speed was second. All things considered, I do not reckon that either stat's respective nerfs are all that uncalled for.

"How this game handles criticals" is somewhat misleading. The whole triple-damage property critical hits always had in FE always made them effectively lethal most of the time anyway, which makes the names of weapons like "Killing Edge" appropriate in the first place. Giving those weapons quadruple-damage crits, as already mentioned, is effectively overkill . . . especially in a game like Fates, where nobody really has all that much HP. That, I think, is the crux of the issue right there: not that critical hits are any more powerful than they should be, but that a stiff breeze can knock a lot of characters over.

I'd argue the opposite. as you mentioned, Skl's effectiveness caps hard (and relatively easily) and thus is not that useful. as long as you have an average amount, you're golden. above average is completely superfluous and thus Skl's worth goes down compared to other stats. same for Luc. even more so because the effect is so large. even below average, you won't get crit outside Killer (which are relatively uncommon). and even then, Support Bonus makes you need even less Luc. also, in early/mid game when your Luc/Skl is lower so most of the crit is from the Killer weapon itself, if the enemy has a Killer weapon, he will have relevant %Crit on you. now it's the same as Skl. how much is 1% less chance going to help?

another way to look at is is, how much can 1 pt of stat really help? 1 pt of Skl is always the same worth (besides sharply reduced worth when cap Hitrate). 1.5 Hit per Skl and 1% trigger on most skills and 0.5 Crit. not that great (really, how much is 1.5 Hit going to help?). Luc is in a worse position with 0.5 Hit and Avoid and 1 Dodge but you really don't need that much Dodge at all while the Hit/Avoid is marginal.

compared to Spd, that's an arms race. if you can get enough, bam. you double your dmg output. even if you can't, you prevent your opponent from doing the same. so while in most cases its worth is about the same as Skl (doesn't have added bonus of Skill triggers but almost never caps in effectiveness since 0 Hit is hard), there's that huge jump. Str/Mag and Def/Res are next as well. similarly, the worth of each individual pt doesn't usually change your dmg output but occasionally you'll change a 3HKO to a 2HKO or something (or vice versa for the defensive stats).

Edited August 29, 2015 by GoXDS

[Psyruby]

I agree that luck was nearly worthless in Awakening due to its completely dominate effect over skill. However, in this game there is a very real fight between luck and skill for critical rate. Arguably leading to the most volatile percent chance in the game. The 4 points needed by skill to even out the race is slightly misleading, as base stats tend to favor 5+ skill and 3- luck, and skill growth rates are generally higher than luck rates.

[Celice]

Having beat Hoshido Normal, Nohr Hard, and Invisible Kingdom halfway through on Hard, I can't say I actually noticed a big difference in how criticals and luck worked in this game, compared to previous games. The biggest difference is that the Killer weapons do 4x more damage instead of 3x. Critical damage itself, when not caused by a Killer weapon, is still 3x.

Towards the end of Nohr Hard, enemies with high crit were creeping up, but I always broke it back by either using Elfie or other high defense characters, or by placing adjacent or paired support units.

This has been my experience so far.

[PuffPuff]

Having beat Hoshido Normal, Nohr Hard, and Invisible Kingdom halfway through on Hard, I can't say I actually noticed a big difference in how criticals and luck worked in this game, compared to previous games. The biggest difference is that the Killer weapons do 4x more damage instead of 3x. Critical damage itself, when not caused by a Killer weapon, is still 3x.

Towards the end of Nohr Hard, enemies with high crit were creeping up, but I always broke it back by either using Elfie or other high defense characters, or by placing adjacent or paired support units.

This has been my experience so far.

Effie's still good even at a level of 24 by the last two chapters. She is the sole character that got me through both chapters including a Swordmastered Kaze which he is actually very good in it! Carrying Venom under his belt makes it even better.

Edited August 29, 2015 by Princess_Florina

[Tori]

Overall, I'm kinda liking what Fates is doing with stats. Stats caps and growths are a lot smaller, but each slight boost to them is worth a lot more. Luck having a slight boost like that feels like a fitting change, at the very least.

While I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about killer weapons getting that extra critical damage, I do like how it's other features are handled.

[The DanMan]

You know what I think this does?

It gives you a reason to hang onto and forge your bronze weapons to decrease the risk against a high-crit unit.

[Tamarsamar]

>stat is made objectively worse

>is considered more valuable because of it

I don't even know any more.

[CocoaGalaxy]

Who knows

Statistically, Berserkers are the main offender, but killer weapons are quite rare if I recall...

Most of the time, what I saw were people tanking berserkers, using ranged weapons, or dodge tanks (aka luck)

I do admit that berserkers are probably the single most threatening thing, but even then I've seen people somehow get 0% crit rates, even though Berserkers have a default 20% crit rate (I believe?) and that alone would take 40 luck, before other bonuses...maybe I'm the crazy one.

That being said, I'm sure a lot of people would parade about with "tactical use" of shield gauge

(There aren't that many berserkers anyway......really. Even Invisible Kingdom 12 doesn't have that many)

Edited August 29, 2015 by CocoaGalaxy

[GoXDS]

>stat is made objectively worse

>is considered more valuable because of it

I don't even know any more.

could probably be worded better. the stat as a whole is more relevant now since you don't have huge surplus of it but each individual pt has lowered worth

or, average Luc is more important to have than before but because of the individual worth of each Luc pt is reduced, the effort in gaining more Luc is slow and prob not worth it in most cases

Who knows

Statistically, Berserkers are the main offender, but killer weapons are quite rare if I recall...

Most of the time, what I saw were people tanking berserkers, using ranged weapons, or dodge tanks (aka luck)

I do admit that berserkers are probably the single most threatening thing, but even then I've seen people somehow get 0% crit rates, even though Berserkers have a default 20% crit rate (I believe?) and that alone would take 40 luck, before other bonuses...maybe I'm the crazy one.

That being said, I'm sure a lot of people would parade about with "tactical use" of shield gauge

(There aren't that many berserkers anyway......really. Even Invisible Kingdom 12 doesn't have that many)

was confirmed elsewhere that in-game, enemy class bonuses are halved so they have 10% Crit, -2% Dodge

Edited August 29, 2015 by GoXDS

[Psyruby]

>stat is made objectively worse>is considered more valuable because of itI don't even know any more.

Its cause Luck caps out on usefulness the majority of the time in awakening combined with the fact that everyone had 45 base luck cap. This causes all Luck stats to affect avoid and hitrate by 3% at most when reaching cap and critical builds were so rarely used cause luck had such a dominate effect on criticals in awakening. It didnt matter if you had 42 or 48 luck, you werent going to be crit unless the opponent went ALL IN on a crit build. Now that Luck is very variable and compareable to skl in affecting crit, it is more important in story mode. However, it is about as worthless in PvP cause Crit builds far exceed the offset of luck.

Edited August 29, 2015 by Psyruby

[CocoaGalaxy]

could probably be worded better. the stat as a whole is more relevant now since you don't have huge surplus of it but each individual pt has lowered worth

or, average Luc is more important to have than before but because of the individual worth of each Luc pt is reduced, the effort in gaining more Luc is slow and prob not worth it in most cases

was confirmed elsewhere that in-game, enemy class bonuses are halved so they have 10% Crit, -2% Dodge

Right, like they needed to make the game even easier, it's not like there are even that many enemies

[Celice]

You know what I think this does?

It gives you a reason to hang onto and forge your bronze weapons to decrease the risk against a high-crit unit.

Bronze weapons were pretty useful for negating some risky situations in my Nohr Hard playthrough, I can admit.