Lunatic advice

[BlackStar300]

So, I'm at an impasse not sure to continue or stop and say this is where I got in Lunatic. I love Awakening and have beaten it many times and likewise have tried Lunatic many times as well. Just in the past week I've managed to get further I ever have (which usually resulted in me quitting at around ch5 cuz I hated the early levels). It wasn't bad once I got out, but I did have to reset a few times. Now I just hit Ch 15-17. I think 16 was Mila tree and that was nuts. It was my first non-full deploy and just rushed chapter. Now I'm on Ch 17 and some of my units aren't promoted, but a good half are, but the promoted enemies are just killing even my MU.

I hear all this talk that it really trivializes the difficulty when you grind (and I won't Nos-tank because I don't reclass my MU ever so that's not even a thing for me). I have been doing skirmishes until they got too hard as I don't consider them grinding as they are part of the game, but have yet to touch the DLCs. I know I'm close, but from my time playing hard so many times is that the later chapters are annoying (personally). Awakening as fun as it is for me the late chapters are just hellish devils and have terrible map design and enemy placement.

I just feel as if I grind my run is shit and what not, but I would like to complete it. I guess what's getting to me is all the stuff I read about people doing it no grind and such...not like I know any of the people on here or on other sites I read it from, but just makes me feel like I'm bad...IDK. I once read an old thread here from like 2014 that some people do minimal grinding? They don't overly grind, but do like a DLC like every 5 chapters or so for the lower peeps?

Thoughts? Advice? Should I just throw in the towel now?
 

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

2 hours ago, BlackStar300 said:

Thoughts? Advice? Should I just throw in the towel now?

there could be tons of reasons to keep trying or just give it a rest, but in the end it's always a matter of either liking puzzle games or not.

by puzzle games i mean when you're forced to do something in order to keep going forward, with very few options or no alternatives whatsoever.

that's pretty much what Lunatic is, a big puzzle that can be completed mostly by doing specific things in a specific order( especially during early chapters ).

 

if you like that kind of gameplay, then keep trying with different tactics.

otherwise, if you prefer playing Awakening in a more free way without too many limitations, then perhaps Lunatic isn't your mode( and there's nothing wrong with that ).

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Not reclassing your Robin can make things really rough, since you're not tapping into the full potential of the huge advantage that Veteran is. Are you at least looping Grandmaster whenever it hits 20? That could help ease issues. You've hit one of the bigger difficulty spikes in the game, but if you can get ahead of the curve, they can be walled all the same. Snipers and Heroes don't have particularly intense Atk and War Monks are stuck splitting their offensive stats between Str and Mag (despite the enemy War Monks rarely bringing staves). Consider what you might be able to do using Fred or a General as a backpack for your two bulkiest unit(s).

If you grind too much, it definitely trivializes the game, but you might need to do it to pull your units back from being under-leveled. How many units are you frontlining with? The safest for a Lunatic run is usually 3-4 with dedicated backpack partners. The rest of the slots can be filled with staves, ralliers and Olivia.

Can't say I recall that particular grinding thread, but one interesting moderate grinding plan that stuck out to me a bit is where people only allowed themselves to do each DLC map once. This expands your resources a bit without getting too crazy, especially since you still need to be able to beat the map. Other outs to consider if you haven't tapped into them fully yet, is pull in the rest of your Renown rewards or break the glass on the Bonus Box weaponry.

[BlackStar300]

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Not reclassing your Robin can make things really rough, since you're not tapping into the full potential of the huge advantage that Veteran is. Are you at least looping Grandmaster whenever it hits 20? That could help ease issues. You've hit one of the bigger difficulty spikes in the game, but if you can get ahead of the curve, they can be walled all the same. Snipers and Heroes don't have particularly intense Atk and War Monks are stuck splitting their offensive stats between Str and Mag (despite the enemy War Monks rarely bringing staves). Consider what you might be able to do using Fred or a General as a backpack for your two bulkiest unit(s).

If you grind too much, it definitely trivializes the game, but you might need to do it to pull your units back from being under-leveled. How many units are you frontlining with? The safest for a Lunatic run is usually 3-4 with dedicated backpack partners. The rest of the slots can be filled with staves, ralliers and Olivia.

Can't say I recall that particular grinding thread, but one interesting moderate grinding plan that stuck out to me a bit is where people only allowed themselves to do each DLC map once. This expands your resources a bit without getting too crazy, especially since you still need to be able to beat the map. Other outs to consider if you haven't tapped into them fully yet, is pull in the rest of your Renown rewards or break the glass on the Bonus Box weaponry.

 

Reclassing into GM is just using second seals twice to change and reselect right? and that also tells you I'm not lol. I've only used second seals a few times in all my play throughs. I guess I do use quite a bit of units, but after I got my units I typically use (will list them below) I haven't swapped out since. I do use renown rewards as I earned them from playing, but I know others have other opinions of them. I guess using the DLC just once can help although I feel like after all the maps I might have some units needing some help.

The units I use are as follows and how they'd pair up (and will list pre-promotes with pp)

Chrom - Lucina (pp)
feMU - Tharja
Lon'qu (pp) - Panne
Gregor (pp)- Nowi
Cordelia (mainly used for traversing;pp) - usually pairs with Olivia to protect
Anna - Lissa (1 staff use away from promote) [pairs up with Anna for more magic for rescue staves etc)
Lastly, Frederick as a map traveser buff stat and occasional help if needed.

Edited January 28, 2019 by BlackStar300

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Yes, once you hit level 20 of a class, you can use a Second Seal to reset the level to 1 without leaving said class.

Looking at your pairs, I notice you have a lot of pair partners that don't provide Def. Awakening is generally an EP-heavy game, making some level of Def stacking a necessity. Just about any unit likes being backed by a Paladin, but General and Great Knight can provide a bit more bulk if Paladin's +Def still isn't enough.

Panne is one of those units who suffers badly if you don't reclass her. Taguel as a class just really can't do anything as good as just about any class in the game (other than Villager). Try reclassing her to Wyvern Knight/Lord. It's a pretty huge difference in power.

Chrom and Lucina also both do quite well as frontlining Paladins if you're willing to reclass them. They even get to keep Falchion while they're at it.

Nowi's one of those ones who actually benefit from staying in Manakete. The 1~2-range dragonstones and faster EXP gain means she's got a snowball effect similar to Robin. She'd probably even be competitive with Robin for juggernauting if it didn't take 8 chapters for her to actually exist.

Also, Tonics are a big boon. +2 Def and +5 HP may not sound like a lot, but stacked with Paladin/GK/General/Hero Def boosts, even a somewhat squishy unit can get very bulky very quickly.

[BlackStar300]

I've actually did just reclass my Fred and MU and didn't realize it was just one seal, Panne I usually do reclass to a Trickster or swordsman type class along with Lon'qu as they are one of my Awakening OTP. I'll look into what you recommended. I'll look into tonics. I haven't bought any. I have a feeling I'm just gonna have to end up ditching most of my units though and running just MU if I don't DLC, but without Nos-tanking that is gonna be fun. 

Will def look into what you gave me though for my other units. Any other tips are nice as well. >< and thanks

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Concentrate on concrete defenses. Stack up as much Def and Res as you can, even at the cost of a bit of damage for the lead unit, since the pair-up partner can easily make up for it with Dual Strikes (I've had Chrom contribute just fine to C19 as a pair-up-partner Cavalier with a Beast Killer). You can get similar results with Avoid stacking for a time, but there's going to come a point where enemies are toting hackforges with +20 Hit and +20 Hit as a free skill. That's the point where dodge tanking requires either breakers or stacking stuff liked Avoid +10 and Tantivity to even be viable.

Other than that, have a plan for when you get to Grima. Those stats are no joke, so you'll want to make sure your build(s) can handle it. The more accessible strat for this is to make sure Robin can use a brave weapon, then have Chrom with Exalted Falchion as the pair-up partner. Another possibility is aiming for a crit(s) with a proc skill (this'll be pretty unreliable, though, since Grima has good Luck).

[BlackStar300]

3 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Concentrate on concrete defenses. Stack up as much Def and Res as you can, even at the cost of a bit of damage for the lead unit, since the pair-up partner can easily make up for it with Dual Strikes (I've had Chrom contribute just fine to C19 as a pair-up-partner Cavalier with a Beast Killer). You can get similar results with Avoid stacking for a time, but there's going to come a point where enemies are toting hackforges with +20 Hit and +20 Hit as a free skill. That's the point where dodge tanking requires either breakers or stacking stuff liked Avoid +10 and Tantivity to even be viable.

Other than that, have a plan for when you get to Grima. Those stats are no joke, so you'll want to make sure your build(s) can handle it. The more accessible strat for this is to make sure Robin can use a brave weapon, then have Chrom with Exalted Falchion as the pair-up partner. Another possibility is aiming for a crit(s) with a proc skill (this'll be pretty unreliable, though, since Grima has good Luck).

eh...don't mention Grima D: lol I've been thinking about that. Wondering that I'm hitting a wall here how bad the last chapter is gonna be. Honestly I haven't made any progress. I've been trying for hours and its getting tiresome. :(  I've done some reclassing and stuff and trying to do some of the paralogues (namely Morgan atm) and I feel like I can't feed my other units many kills without reinforcements killing them so really I'm just resorting to MU-Tharja and Chrom-Lucina.

I really wish they had a difficulty in between hard and lunatic. I love this game and want a challenge, but lunatic seems too crazy, but hard is too easy. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Once thing you could do that's a bit expensive is to have Robin or Chrom weaken something for you other units, then if there's any danger to them, Rescue those other units back. Rescue Staves don't come cheap, but if you can get that snowball rolling for your other units, hopefully they won't need the crutch soon enough. Another upshot is that Rescue gives a lot of EXP, so whoever is staffing is going to get pretty strong in short order. In fact, if you still have Panne as a Trickster, you could just spam Rescue for no other reason but to get her extra levels to catch her up.

If you're willing to Spotpass Shop, Tiki sells Dragonstone+s, which can give Nowi a nice bulk bump.