The Fire Emblem 3 Houses General Questions Thread

[Dark Holy Elf]

On 9/11/2021 at 11:14 AM, Shadow Mir said:

EDIT: Will the final boss in Azure Moon ever attack the same character twice in the same turn, even when there's only one character in range for them to attack?

I'm not sure about with the long-range move, but with the 6-range move used later in the fight, they won't even attack the same person twice if it's the only target in range. However, they still get a second action which they will use to activate their "gain 4 res by using Wait" skill.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

So, can someone confirm the following, cuz I´m not sure whether or not I´m imagining things:

I went through the mock battle and had Marianne equipped with Heal - she had an iron Lance in the inventory, but I swear, when hovering over her the tooltip said Heal. So then I healed a character, and suddenly she has the Iron Lance equipped with stance and all, instead of the spell and gets soundly 1rounded by Dedue.

So my question is: Does taking any action with a non-ggressive spell equipped automatically equip a weapon, if one is inventory, or am I seeing things?

[Sooks]

3 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

So, can someone confirm the following, cuz I´m not sure whether or not I´m imagining things:

I went through the mock battle and had Marianne equipped with Heal - she had an iron Lance in the inventory, but I swear, when hovering over her the tooltip said Heal. So then I healed a character, and suddenly she has the Iron Lance equipped with stance and all, instead of the spell and gets soundly 1rounded by Dedue.

So my question is: Does taking any action with a non-ggressive spell equipped automatically equip a weapon, if one is inventory, or am I seeing things?

Yes, I’m pretty sure it does, if the character has a weapon or offensive spell. That’s always happened to me.

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

11 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

So, can someone confirm the following, cuz I´m not sure whether or not I´m imagining things:

I went through the mock battle and had Marianne equipped with Heal - she had an iron Lance in the inventory, but I swear, when hovering over her the tooltip said Heal. So then I healed a character, and suddenly she has the Iron Lance equipped with stance and all, instead of the spell and gets soundly 1rounded by Dedue.

So my question is: Does taking any action with a non-ggressive spell equipped automatically equip a weapon, if one is inventory, or am I seeing things?

It does.

A neat tech option is to equip Byleth with Heal for some White Magic Avoid shenanigans.

[#1 Claude Trash]

Is Share a Meal or giving flowers the better method of raising Motivation?

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, #1 Claude Trash said:

Is Share a Meal or giving flowers the better method of raising Motivation?

Meals imo. Generally, growing flowers means I'm not using better seeds for growing.

Edited October 29, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[#1 Claude Trash]

31 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Meals imo. Generally, growing flowers means I'm not using better seeds for growing.

But isn’t growing flowers the way you get those busted stat boosters?

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, #1 Claude Trash said:

But isn’t growing flowers the way you get those busted stat boosters?

Not exactly. The page that I linked explains how gardening works, among other things - because the game certainly doesn't!

[Dark Holy Elf]

7 hours ago, #1 Claude Trash said:

Is Share a Meal or giving flowers the better method of raising Motivation?

The answer is "it depends", though generally meals.

Meals recharge motivation, build a significant amount of support points between three pairs of units, and build a significant amount of professor rank. They're one of the single most efficient uses of your time units, arguably the most efficient when you have two people you want to recharge and a support to build between them.

Flowers don't consume time units, but don't have the support and professor rank perks. They're an okay option for motivation recharge, if you're using all your time on other things. Generally, I find it more efficient to give them to units I'm planning to recruit, though. They're also a less efficient use of real time (tracking down every unit you need to recharge and giving them 4 gifts can take a while).

[#1 Claude Trash]

If I'm too lazy to mess around with Faculty Training and make Byleth a flier on Maddening, would Enlightened One + Fetters of Dromi be a decent substitute?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

7 hours ago, #1 Claude Trash said:

If I'm too lazy to mess around with Faculty Training and make Byleth a flier on Maddening, would Enlightened One + Fetters of Dromi be a decent substitute?

That's not a bad build, necessarily, and it holds certain advantages over flying classes (Swordfaire, grounded battalions, spell access). But it wouldn't be able to shrug off all hard-to-traverse (Forest) and otherwise-impassible (Buildings) terrain the way flying classes can. Put simply, there's no way to replicate flier mobility in 3H, outside of flying classes.

[Barren]

13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

That's not a bad build, necessarily, and it holds certain advantages over flying classes (Swordfaire, grounded battalions, spell access). But it wouldn't be able to shrug off all hard-to-traverse (Forest) and otherwise-impassible (Buildings) terrain the way flying classes can. Put simply, there's no way to replicate flier mobility in 3H, outside of flying classes.

The only work around I can think of is Stride and Warp. But that depends on how your squad is set up. Otherwise, you are absolutely correct, fliers are just too good. IMO Alert Stance is what really makes them head and shoulders above everything else.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Is Flayn force-recruited in Black Eagles? I tried giving her the no, but it didn´t seem to lead to a decline option.

 

Anyway, onto the real questions, I didn´t want to make a thread for:

I´m currently doing some unit planning for a maddening run with the goal of skipping as much monastery as possible, meaning I will always skip to the end of the month. I will allow myself to set the goals in such a fashion that only one unit will train flying, armour and riding respectively. And I have arrived at a few troublemakers, among them:

Hilda v Raphael

(Note: Wyvern Lord is off the table for both of these, Leonie will be she-who-flies. Hopefully.)

I´m wondering what to do with each of them individually, but also how they can complement my team. Now initially I was considering making Raphael my armour guy, because duh, it´s Raphael, what else is he gonna do, but that would leave me with the likes of Warrior Hilda, which I don´t know, doesn’t feel right, because I don´t trust Hilda to be good. Now the thing that      I´ve been contemplating is, have Hilda become my go-to armour gal instead, because she´s as strong or stronger than Raphael, her SPD is less shit than his (indicating that shields may affect her a bit less) while her DEF is only going to be a tad worse, in short, she will probably be a better armour knight than Raphael. On the other hand, that would open up Raphael to becoming at least a Grappler and maybe a War Master, which at least in theory sounds better than Warrior Hilda. Sounds reasonable? Does someone have some personal experience to share with these suggestions?

Also, kinda, Lorenz v Marianne.

My issue here is, someone will get a horse and it will most likely be one of them, the question I’m pondering is, whether or not Valkyrie Marianne would offer more than a potential DK Lorenz. I question DK Lorenz on account of whether or not I´ll be able to get the weapon ranks to promote, but I also dread having him run around as a 4-move boy for ~20 chapter. If that´d be the case he dies either immediately or after I get Thyrsus, though I have yet to decide how I wanna do Paralogues. On the other hand, Valkyrie Marianne sounds more like a nice to have thing, considering I should really only need her for Physic purposes and Valkyrie even weakens that. Alternatively, I could try for Holy Knight Marianne, but oof, that sounds like the worse of both options – weak as shit Lorenz, questionable weapon rank shenanigans, weakened heals. I don´t think Paladin Lorenz is gonna be an option for lack of Swift Strike and loss of magic. Any opinions?

Alternatively, someone gets replaced by Flayn, which would free up Marianne to focus on reason for Valkyrie, or perhaps Seteth later on and Lorenz is looking like the good choice.

 

[LoneStar]

@Imuabicus For the first question Flayn is force recruited, but leaves if you join Edelgard. 

I think Armor Hilda and Grappler Raphael is the better choice. Since Raphael has such high HP, he can tank hits pretty well with a shield, and the Grappler/War Master nuke will be appreciated. Valkyrie Marianne can have her heals improved by a Heal Staff so that shouldn't be a big deal, then Flayn can provide the rest of the healing. If you really want to try and use Lorenz, the Dark Knight route is an option, also he gets Frozen Lance that can be good even as a Paladin with Fiendish Blow. As a Paladin Lorenz is in a similar situation as Raphael, where he can take hits because his HP is pretty high.

Can you swap the movement training based on your rules? Leonie could focus on Flying first, then swap over to Marianne for Dark Flier, then back to Leonie?

You mentioned replacing someone with Flayn, how many units do you plan to use? Byleth, Claude, in house characters, Flayn, and Seteth adds up to 11 units, where you will be able to deploy up to 12 by endgame.

Edited December 16, 2021 by LoneStar

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

3 hours ago, LoneStar said:

Can you swap the movement training based on your rules? Leonie could focus on Flying first, then swap over to Marianne for Dark Flier, then back to Leonie?

Naw, initially I didn´t even want to change the goals of the characters, but that is too painful for me to do and it disallows too many classes for my liking - without special mov classes I´d just go sniper and that sounds hella boring. Might still do it but, eh. So, 1 horse, 1 flier, 1 armour and whoever joins as they are.

3 hours ago, LoneStar said:

You mentioned replacing someone with Flayn, how many units do you plan to use? Byleth, Claude, in house characters, Flayn, and Seteth adds up to 11 units, where you will be able to deploy up to 12 by endgame.

Base GD, church/staff as they join by story - I won´t do anything in the monastery beyond forced quests. 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

I´m wondering what to do with each of them individually, but also how they can complement my team. Now initially I was considering making Raphael my armour guy, because duh, it´s Raphael, what else is he gonna do, but that would leave me with the likes of Warrior Hilda, which I don´t know, doesn’t feel right, because I don´t trust Hilda to be good. Now the thing that      I´ve been contemplating is, have Hilda become my go-to armour gal instead, because she´s as strong or stronger than Raphael, her SPD is less shit than his (indicating that shields may affect her a bit less) while her DEF is only going to be a tad worse, in short, she will probably be a better armour knight than Raphael. On the other hand, that would open up Raphael to becoming at least a Grappler and maybe a War Master, which at least in theory sounds better than Warrior Hilda. Sounds reasonable? Does someone have some personal experience to share with these suggestions?

Grappler -> War Master Raphael kicked ass and took names for me... on Normal mode. I haven't used him this way since. Still, a 6-move unit with Death Blow, Fistfaire, and Fierce Iron Fist or Crit +20 can only be so bad.

I also took Hilda down the path of Armor on that first playthrough... until I reclassed her into Wyvern Rider. She was very defensive there (taking single-digits from the goddamn Death Knight), but I'm unsure whether she'd hold up on Maddening.

5 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

My issue here is, someone will get a horse and it will most likely be one of them, the question I’m pondering is, whether or not Valkyrie Marianne would offer more than a potential DK Lorenz. I question DK Lorenz on account of whether or not I´ll be able to get the weapon ranks to promote, but I also dread having him run around as a 4-move boy for ~20 chapter. If that´d be the case he dies either immediately or after I get Thyrsus, though I have yet to decide how I wanna do Paralogues. On the other hand, Valkyrie Marianne sounds more like a nice to have thing, considering I should really only need her for Physic purposes and Valkyrie even weakens that. Alternatively, I could try for Holy Knight Marianne, but oof, that sounds like the worse of both options – weak as shit Lorenz, questionable weapon rank shenanigans, weakened heals. I don´t think Paladin Lorenz is gonna be an option for lack of Swift Strike and loss of magic. Any opinions?

Lorenz's movement actually shouldn't be a huge problem. The secret is this: after mastering Mage, go Cavalier and never look back. Frozen Lance, bolstered by Fiendish Blow and Magic +2, can do a serious chunk of damage. And Paladin takes it further with Lancefaire. I found this set one-shotting more than a few foes in chapter 13 Maddening. Of course you'll want to give him a magic-boosting battalion. And a relic lance, like Luín or the Lance of Ruin, can make a big difference.

Nothing against training Marianne is horseback classes, for the record. But she can do quite well just going Bishop -> Gremory, for Physics and occasional attacks. Or go off the rails, having her go Trickster -> Mortal Savant for that sweet Soulblade synergy.

[Shadow Mir]

What is the relation between Canto and Alert Stance (+)? Which is to say, does attacking with a mounted unit and moving away afterwards activate it or not?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

43 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

What is the relation between Canto and Alert Stance (+)? Which is to say, does attacking with a mounted unit and moving away afterwards activate it or not?

If memory serves, Alert Stance does not activate from a post-Canto "Wait", only from a "Wait" with no action (excepting Trade) beforehand. I will edit this comment if and when I get the chance to check it on the actual game.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

On 12/16/2021 at 4:15 PM, LoneStar said:

Valkyrie Marianne can have her heals improved by a Heal Staff

22 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Nothing against training Marianne is horseback classes

Abyss classes are off the table anyway I realized - according to the rules I ain´t forced to go to the Abyss so no seals for me and the shop doesn´t carry those I think. Oh well, Lorenz gets a horse.

22 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Or go off the rails, having her go Trickster -> Mortal Savant for that sweet Soulblade synergy.

I think she´ll be real busy healing. Very busy in fact.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

38 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

Abyss classes are off the table anyway I realized - according to the rules I ain´t forced to go to the Abyss so no seals for me and the shop doesn´t carry those I think. Oh well, Lorenz gets a horse.

Will you recruit any of the Ashen Wolves? Each one joins with an Abyss Seal. While they're usually confined to the Abyss, there are a couple chapters where they appear on the ground level of the Monastery. Unless that appearance depends on having already recruited them...

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

59 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Will you recruit any of the Ashen Wolves? Each one joins with an Abyss Seal. While they're usually confined to the Abyss, there are a couple chapters where they appear on the ground level of the Monastery. Unless that appearance depends on having already recruited them...

Naw, I think the game forces you to enter the monastery twice - the smith and the batallion guild (to my knowledge). And since I don´t have a "you must enter the abyss and recruit X to advance"-quest no Ashen Wolves - no DLC in general - for me. And otherwise I´m going with skip to end of month, so no monastery in general.

Pretty sure Annas shop is the only other non-Abyss source, but not with these rules. 

[Dark Holy Elf]

22 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Naw, I think the game forces you to enter the monastery twice - the smith and the batallion guild (to my knowledge). And since I don´t have a "you must enter the abyss and recruit X to advance"-quest no Ashen Wolves - no DLC in general - for me. And otherwise I´m going with skip to end of month, so no monastery in general.

You're forced to explore in Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 4, and Chapter 6 (and forced to complete certain quests as you note). I don't believe the Wolves appear above ground until you talk to (not necessarily recruit) them in the Abyss, although nothing stops you from doing that unless you add an extra rule against entering the Abyss during your forced exploration periods (which is obviously fine and your call).

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

On 12/18/2021 at 8:31 PM, Dark Holy Elf said:

You're forced to explore in Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 4, and Chapter 6 (and forced to complete certain quests as you note). I don't believe the Wolves appear above ground until you talk to (not necessarily recruit) them in the Abyss, although nothing stops you from doing that unless you add an extra rule against entering the Abyss during your forced exploration periods (which is obviously fine and your call).

I think chapter 3 has you exploring to unlock Batallion Guild too, and in chapter 4 I think you can immediately end the exploration phase, because that´s the chapter I´m currently at and I don´t remember doing the investigation stuff.

Just trying to follow through on the "Don´t like the monatery? Just skip it!"-train of thought and see how far I go/endure. Hence minimal monastery stay time.

By the by, how does the AI decide to use it´s attacks - as in weapon v gambit? Is it based on damage dealt if weapon dmg > gambit dmg use weapon and vice cersa or is there more to it?

 

And not gonna lie, it´s not looking great right now. Enemies are almost 3x my level (enemy 14, my squad 5). I´m considering killing off any combination of Raphael, Ignatz, Lorenz, but for fear of screwing myself over come lategame I´m wondering if I should wait until at least the lvl 10 promotions to see how units really turn up.

[Barren]

2 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

By the by, how does the AI decide to use it´s attacks - as in weapon v gambit? Is it based on damage dealt if weapon dmg > gambit dmg use weapon and vice cersa or is there more to it?

 

And not gonna lie, it´s not looking great right now. Enemies are almost 3x my level (enemy 14, my squad 5). I´m considering killing off any combination of Raphael, Ignatz, Lorenz, but for fear of screwing myself over come lategame I´m wondering if I should wait until at least the lvl 10 promotions to see how units really turn up.

From my experience, if an enemy has a battalion equipped and they see that two or more of your units are bunches up, they will go for who they feel is the easiest target. So like someone who lacks a charm stat i.e Caspar would be a likely target. But only if he is within their range.

Knowing that you could put someone else in range that has a higher charm stat to make the enemy waste their gambit. They will go for it because it doesn’t allow a counter attack.

As far as Ignatz, Raphael and Lorenz, it depends on what chapter you are on and what their current level is. I know that at least training them up to be at least able to survive chapter 13 is for the best at that point that way if you wish to bench them you could. I personally was able to train Iggy to be a good enough Sniper where he’ll have no issues one rounding enemies with HV.

To be fair the same can be said for other Sniper candidates but I think Ignatz is underrated even for maddening standards. He’s worth it if you’re actually planning on using him. He just takes a while to get going. Raph at least has high enough HP to not die in one round while being doubled. Lorenz imo is just there. Some find him underrated to since he does make a decent dark knight. Nothing wrong with them technically but I feel Ignatz is the better out of the three “meh” units. He is imo less meh.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Barren
More info

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

24 minutes ago, Barren said:

From my experience, if an enemy has a battalion equipped and they see that two or more of your units are bunches up, they will go for who they feel is the easiest target. So like someone who lacks a charm stat i.e Caspar would be a likely target. But only if he is within their range.

Knowing that you could put someone else in range that has a higher charm stat to make the enemy waste their gambit. They will go for it because it doesn’t allow a counter attack.

Hmm, I think it depends on what deals more damage, but the amount of damage they receive in return also matters - I rallied Byleth with Ignatz which brought Byleth into doubling range and the enemy would attack with the gambit, when before it showed a regular attack. 

27 minutes ago, Barren said:

As far as Ignatz, Raphael and Lorenz, it depends on what chapter you are on and what their current level is. I know that at least training them up to be at least able to survive chapter 13 is for the best at that point that way if you wish to bench them you could. I personally was able to train Iggy to be a good enough Sniper where he’ll have no issues one rounding enemies with HV.

To be fair the same can be said for other Sniper candidates but I think Ignatz is underrated even for maddening standards. He’s worth it if you’re actually planning on using him. He just takes a while to get going. Raph at least has high enough HP to not die in one round while being doubled. Lorenz imo is just there. Some find him underrated to since he does make a decent dark knight. Nothing wrong with them technically but I feel Ignatz is the better out of the three “meh” units. He is imo less meh.

Ha, I just did chapter 4, but the mage reinforcements alone where almost more than I could handle. Chapter 5 and my highest-level unit is Byleth at 8. Everyone else is 6 or below.

Raphael, I think I´ll keep around, because he decided to so far lvl nothing but HP/DEF and deals some okish damage, but the decision Lorenz v Ignatz is still up. Only reason I really keep Lorenz around is because of mixed damage availability (though his physical dmg sucks - he has broken 2 Iron Lances so far), that he has learned Heal by now, which I desperately need and eventually Thyrsus, should I decide to do paralogues while my hope with Ignatz is exactly the described Hunter Volley scenario, but like, it hurts carrying this guy around.