Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Boomhauer007 said:

Gonzalez on the southern peaks basically solos that entire part of the map, as you mentioned the only real concern is running out of weapon uses. 

Also this map is the best use of warp to me; get above the shrine, warp in a boss killer, then warp in Roy and seize

I think a lot of units would struggle to beat Murdock unsupported. He's a beast of an enemy. True final boss right there.

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 3/4/2020 at 4:01 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...Okay, that was weird. Milady got sleep-staved, but she instantly recovered. I think, I think that being on a gate makes you instantly heal from status effects at the beginning of your turn in this game. If so, holy shit is that gonna be a great way to make Marral waste those sleep staff uses.

And thats why status staffs are useless against bosses. Unless it's the final boss I guess or something, I don't think they are hardcoded immune to status, which I remember is a silly minor trick for one of the rooms in the final battle of FE7.

 

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

I think a lot of units would struggle to beat Murdock unsupported. He's a beast of an enemy. True final boss right there.

73 HP, 31 Def, 24 Res.

24 Str + 24 Mt from Armorslayer + 1 WTA = 49 Atk. 49 - 31 = 18 damage * 3 = 54 damage. 

Capped Str Rutger with double crits could slay him, a crit and non-crit would fall 1 HP short, albeit 15 Lck means a mere 30 crit rate for capped Skl unsupported Rutger.

So yep, Murdock is very difficult to solo.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Shadow Mir]

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Actually, that's another thing: I swear, every time IS remakes a new game, the next mainline game after it takes cues from that distant ancestor that it really, really shouldn't have, treating old features, or even the old absence of features, like brand new innovations rather than shit the series rightly moved on from decades ago. Remake Shadow Dragon? Kiss the rescue mechanic goodbye forever, and the hit formula has been in steady decline in every game since then, until Three Houses brought it back to 1 for 1, rendering the “dex” stat basically entirely pointless since a lot of your hit bonuses come from skills clogging up the skill slots.

Remake Echoes? Suddenly the series brings back the empty spectacle bloat of 3+ promotion tiers that are just increasingly slightly better versions of the same damned class, and also overpowered archer ranges, which I would argue are even worse than having underpowered archers, because at least before we had more variety; before, we had two weapon types who couldn't counter-attack every enemy, and now we have one class that can. I ask you, what's the point of hand axes when you make it so that, between 1-3 range mages and 1-5 range bowmen, the only enemies a throwing weapon adds to your counter list are other throwing weapon users?

God help us all when they remake FE4. There are a few terrifying scenarios of what “innovations” they could dig up from there.

Also, adding features that the game wasn't designed around in the first place. Like Shadow Dragon did with the weapon triangle. I don't see how that improved it any.

7 hours ago, Boomhauer007 said:

Gonzalez on the southern peaks basically solos that entire part of the map, as you mentioned the only real concern is running out of weapon uses. 

Except for the part where one, this involves training and actively using an axe-locked unit with poor skill in a game where axe accuracy sucks harder than SSB64 Link's recovery, and two, he needs to get there on his own two feet in a Horse Emblem game.

[Alastor15243]

Binding Blade Day 30: Chapter 21, Take 2

Alright. Lessons learned here:

1: I need to keep moving forward and not worry about wyverns flying in in the middle of the map. Not only are the tripwires not quite as vile as my memory said they were, but this map is timed (which I had completely forgotten about in my fear about the ambush spawns).

2: I need to better stock my army so they don't run out of weapon uses on this ludicrous zerg rush they're fighting. I also need to give Rutger an armorslayer, because he's going in to assassinate Murdock, and I need that done as quickly as possible for a two-warp seize.

3: Always, always, always check enemy ranges.

4: I'm doing this chapter with a fucking map. I've experienced the pain firsthand. I've felt the pain that the constant fear of ambush spawns can do to a map designed like this. The purpose of doing this blind is now complete. Now I just need to get the info to beat this today, because I am not doing this a third fucking time.

Alright. Things are going pretty smoothly this time. I triggered the southern cavalry and wyvern charge, and Lugh and Raigh, much better stocked this time, are fighting them off on those two patches of forest along the western border of the map.

...And in looking at the guide, I accidentally spoiled myself on the secret shop, One that sells boots. Hidden in the mountains. I'll have to give Milady the silver and member card at some point and have her buy as many boots as she can.

Echidna has once more gained S rank axes. Thank goodness. Now I can focus on getting the hell out of here.

I wound up using a rescue staff use just to get Merlinus back with the main group after I had him hang back to sell off some old stuff we don't need to raise a little extra money for boots and bolting. That's gonna be fuuuuuuuun.

I'm making much better time now. I'm more than 5 turns ahead of schedule getting through the mountains. Yet again, sorry the take 2 isn't very long, but there's just not a lot new to say. I've learned from my mistakes, and I'm not tip-toeing through the forests for cover like last time. Judging by the WOD map (which is also the site I used to check ambush spawns for Thracia), I can access the secret shop without tripping the final waves of reinforcements. I'll be ready to confront them when they come, but I'm still going to have to do this very, very quickly.

Alright, I got three pairs of boots, and two boltings. The boots are going on Lugh, Raigh and Lalum.

Moment of truth. Time to get everyone safely away from the wyverns, and prepare to start the assassination plan all at once.

It... it's gonna work. Unless anything horrible happens on this last enemy phase, everything should go fine. The only issue is that I probably should have bought a bit more flux. I'm not sure if there'll be another opportunity to buy more, and I only have like 2 of them left. Just in case, I have Milady fly over to the shop on her second to last turn to buy one more by selling her steel lance. I will have more money by the time of the next shop, if there is one, probably, but for now, I'm broke.

...Except that I managed to steal the knight crest by having Astore rescue Roy and warp with him. Amazingly, Astore can survive a single round of combat with Murdock, so I didn't even need to rescue-drop him.

...Man, it's a shame Murdock never really got any characterization here. Thankfully, I played FE7 first, which gave this big, legendary showdown a bit more emotional weight. But he's dead now. And now it's time to kill as many of these wyverns as I can on the last turn to gain some more exp without any care in the world for where my units end their turn.

Done. Alright. I finished.

…

...I've calmed down about this map significantly, but I still don't like it. Tripwire reinforcements are just... complete and utter garbage. Mostly for the effect they have on a blind player. Or at least the effect they have on me. Whenever I run into proximity-based ambush spawns, I start to see and suspect them everywhere, and that makes gameplay needlessly tedious and stressful with no real benefit, because they're not there nearly as numerous as you start to suspect they will be once they do it. I'll get into this more in later games when it really becomes relevant, but long story short, fuck the very concept of proximity ambush spawns. Fuck it with a five foot pole, then boil it in oil and call it a corndog.

...Now... ordinarily I'd love to take advantage of how early I've finished this to take a stab at the gaiden...

...But one, if I don't, then I'll be finished with this game exactly on Friday, assuming no “Take 2” days...

...and two... Mangs is ironmanning Conquest today. And I'm not missing that shit for the world.

Happy Friday, everyone! Next week, we finish this sumbitch!

[Shadow Mir]

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...and two... Mangs is ironmanning Conquest today. And I'm not missing that shit for the world.

When? Also, how many Ironman runs has he done?

[Alastor15243]

47 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

When? Also, how many Ironman runs has he done?

Later today. Not sure exactly when, but sometime in the next 3-5 hours. He's done Binding Blade, Thracia, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones (with the enemy growth rates excessively ramped up), Path of Radiance, Shadow Dragon and Awakening. I think that's all of them so far. It's gonna be pretty damned amusing seeing how he does with Fates, the first game I ever ironmanned. Especially with Conquest.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

44 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Later today. Not sure exactly when, but sometime in the next 3-5 hours. He's done Binding Blade, Thracia, Sacred Stones (with the enemy growth rates excessively ramped up), Path of Radiance, Shadow Dragon and Awakening. I think that's all of them so far. It's gonna be pretty damned amusing seeing how he does with Fates, the first game I ever ironmanned. Especially with Conquest.

I see. Given his reputation, though, I can only assume he failed most of them.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

I see. Given his reputation, though, I can only assume he failed most of them.

You would assume correctly. You can watch the death compilations on YouTube.

Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world. It's gonna be in less than 2 hours apparently.

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Alright, I got three pairs of boots, and two boltings. The boots are going on Lugh, Raigh and Lalum.

So much restraint shown in not decking out everyone with boots on their everywhere (and didn't even force any of the Wyverns to start wearing them as hats). I partially joke, but getting ludicrous number of boots is one of the great joys of this chapter.

@Shadow Mir

Quote

I see. Given his reputation, though, I can only assume he failed most of them.

He has failed all but one, and there were a few of those games he gave a second try due to early defeats. If you want some more details see the spoiler tag below

Spoiler

FE6 HM - Failed against the final boss on the bad ending, with everyone except Fae dead

FE7 HHM- Fails right at the end of the Battle Before Dawn by missing a 97% against an enemy that would then kill Zephiel

FE8 HM w/ +30% enemy growth - Fails due to an enemy Cormag crit on Ephraim chapter 10

FE5 - Got warn down and overwhelmed in chapter 18

FE15 HM - After an embarrassing defeat in the first stream he gives it a second go and Alm early on in part 3.

FE 9 MM - Managed to reach Clash on a Maniac mode Ironman, but he forgot some rather important FE9 mechanics that lead to Elincia's death.

FE11 H5 - Got goaded into playing H5, restarted the whole run after an early Jeigan death early in the First stream, but in that second try he miraculously defeats Medeus with only Marth, Elice, and Auffle (one of the FE11 generics) alive at the end.

FE13 HM/LM - Lost early on chapter 5 on Hard Mode in the first stream, restarted the run, and managed to meme himself to death around chapter 21. It was early enough in that stream that he spent the rest of his time beating his head on numerous failed Lunatic mode Ironman runs, but the best he did was falling in chapter 6 due to not having enough characters alive to keep Emmeryn alive.

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Eltosian Kadath
Missed something I intended to quote

[Alastor15243]

8 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

So much restraint shown in not decking out everyone with boots on their everywhere (and didn't even force any of the Wyverns to start wearing them as hats). I partially joke, but getting ludicrous number of boots is one of the great joys of this chapter.

Restraint, or more accurately not having a ton of money. I bought as many as I could.

[Shadow Mir]

49 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

@Shadow Mir

He has failed all but one, and there were a few of those games he gave a second try due to early defeats. If you want some more details see the spoiler tag below

  Reveal hidden contents

FE6 HM - Failed against the final boss on the bad ending, with everyone except Fae dead

FE7 HHM- Fails right at the end of the Battle Before Dawn by missing a 97% against an enemy that would then kill Zephiel

FE8 HM w/ +30% enemy growth - Fails due to an enemy Cormag crit on Ephraim chapter 10

FE5 - Got warn down and overwhelmed in chapter 18

FE15 HM - After an embarrassing defeat in the first stream he gives it a second go and Alm early on in part 3.

FE 9 MM - Managed to reach Clash on a Maniac mode Ironman, but he forgot some rather important FE9 mechanics that lead to Elincia's death.

FE11 H5 - Got goaded into playing H5, restarted the whole run after an early Jeigan death early in the First stream, but in that second try he miraculously defeats Medeus with only Marth, Elice, and Auffle (one of the FE11 generics) alive at the end.

FE13 HM/LM - Lost early on chapter 5 on Hard Mode in the first stream, restarted the run, and managed to meme himself to death around chapter 21. It was early enough in that stream that he spent the rest of his time beating his head on numerous failed Lunatic mode Ironman runs, but the best he did was falling in chapter 6 due to not having enough characters alive to keep Emmeryn alive.

 

I see. Thanks for the details.

Anyway, I think Arthur and/or Nyx are likely going to be among the first units to go.

[Alastor15243]

19 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I see. Thanks for the details.

Anyway, I think Arthur and/or Nyx are likely going to be among the first units to go.

The actual first death... it was just beautiful. Seeing it unfold live was a privilege and an honor.

Edited March 7, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

The actual first death... it was just beautiful. Seeing it unfold live was a privilege and an honor.

I need to check this out. Does Mangs post his streams on YouTube?

[Alastor15243]

16 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I need to check this out. Does Mangs post his streams on YouTube?

 

Here you go!

[Jotari]

I think you're being cruler to the trip wire ambush in this map than it deserves. AFAIK it is a Roy based tripwire, or if it's not then the tripwire is still placed quite close to the boss and the enemies it produces are generally rather weak. What this means is that when a blind player triggers the ambush, they'll naturally be pretty far away from Galle and stand a decent chance of managing the ambush that comes. I don't think it's designed as as kill the player moment but more as an oh shit moment that the player should have the tools to deal with.

[Alastor15243]

29 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think you're being cruler to the trip wire ambush in this map than it deserves. AFAIK it is a Roy based tripwire, or if it's not then the tripwire is still placed quite close to the boss and the enemies it produces are generally rather weak. What this means is that when a blind player triggers the ambush, they'll naturally be pretty far away from Galle and stand a decent chance of managing the ambush that comes. I don't think it's designed as as kill the player moment but more as an oh shit moment that the player should have the tools to deal with.

Unless you mean specifically the Gale one, no. I triggered plenty of then without Roy. I moved Roy with everyone else for the last one though, so maybe the last one is just Roy, but my issue is that proximity-based ambush spawns are an extremely dangerous game to play with the player's perception of the game. If you're not careful, the second you make the player aware they exist, you make your player terrified to move forward, suspecting an invisible trap around every corner to ruin the progress they really don't want to lose. Which is not a fun mindset to be in while playing. Combining proximity tripwires with ambush spawns can make a game almost agonizing to play blind.

[Shadow Mir]

On 3/7/2020 at 9:48 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Here you go!

Not gonna lie - the way things were going, he looked like he would've either lost without any casualties or ended the stream without a death. Then he gets played by a skill he failed to account for. How is he going to get past chapter 10 with a dead Effie and no Freeze to bail him out?

Edited March 8, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Binding Blade Day 31: Chapter 21x

Alright. This gaiden chapter is fog of war, and hopefully, hopefully that'll be the extent of the gimmicks here. Things seem pretty straightforward. I could probably fly-skip this pretty easily if it weren't for the treasure. Hopefully I won't be in such a hurry that I have to use part of my last chest key to get two of those six chests.

Alright, I've done preparations, now... wait... that sprite... that sprite they use for the boss... isn't that... the priest of the shrine of the Mani Katti?

...Okay, no, wow, I was way off. That shrine priest looks totally different. But that beard still looks insanely familiar, like that face is just a recolor of something I've seen elsewhere in the series...

...Of course there's a second gimmick. Traps that apparently only thieves can disarm.

I hate how low the deployment limit is in these things. Choosing who to leave out is always rough. But thankfully the fog of war is really lenient here. Really wide range for everyone.

Aside from the silence staves I'm now finding much easier to deal with, and the traps I've yet to encounter, this map is pretty straightforward. In fact, I've been using it to feed Roy a few final kills, because why not?

Roy gained three consecutive speed level ups for his last three levels, which is... extremely encouraging, shall we say. Combined with the speedwings I gave him, he'll have 20 speed upon promotion, which is... I mean that's pretty good! He might actually somehow be usable!

Alright. I'm pretty deep into this map, and still no sign of any traps. I can only assume it's something to do with the chests? ...But if so, given that only thieves can disarm the traps, that seems super odd. What's the point of specifically punishing people who unlock chests using a chest key?

…At any rate, my whole army is taking one side, so no using the chest key today. Which means it'll be free for the next chapter, where it'll probably be super useful or even possibly necessary.

At any rate, I'm mostly using this as an opportunity to train Lugh's staff rank as much as I can without just flat out refusing to kill enemies or move forward.

A great thing about giving boots to Lalum is that she can now transfer that 7 movement to Roy as well, by constantly following behind him. He moves five, she moves seven, going from behind him to in front of him, she dances him, and he leapfrogs around up in front of her again, all while ending every turn in contact for support gaining.

Man, I get what people mean now about supports being slow. The main three I did in the early game, Allen and Lance, Lugh and Raigh, and Rutger and Clarine, those were all quite fast, but holy shit do some of the more obscure ones have really slow growth rates.

I just found the first trap. It's a spot on the floor that seems to just burn you when you end your turn on it. I could disarm this easily, but...

...Why not just have Lugh and Raigh stand on it and train staff ranks for as long as it winds up taking to beat this map?

OH! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!

I assumed that the trapped floors meant I was wrong about the chests being trapped.

SURPRISE! THE CHESTS ARE TRAPPED TOO!

A manakete just popped out of one the second Astore opened it. Thankfully I managed to kill it with Rutger and Lalum, with Shin on standby to help in case things went wrong. I did it without Durandal, because it's just one. I want to save the legendary weapons for situations where I need to kill a lot of dragons at once.

...The second chest has an elixir. And I'm suddenly reminded that the treasure in gaiden chapters, aside from the legendary weapon at the end, has always been shit. I mean, on the one hand, this is a massive improvement from Thracia's nonsense where every gaiden chapter had like three normal chapters worth of cool shit in them, widening the difficulty gap massively between getting them and not getting them. But still, if all the chests are just going to contain cheap shit... why even put them there?

Still, there might be something good, so I will be getting all of them. I mean, there was a gem last time.

I've finally gotten Lugh to C rank staves, so now it's time for Lugh to take his turn standing on the pit of fire so we can get Raigh's staff rank up as well.

Shin's been gaining some more speed. So much that he's now officially become the fastest unit on my team whenever he's wielding Mulagir. 31 attack speed. Even faster than Rutger.

Both of the chests in the center were manakete traps.

It occurs to me that Raigh's still at E rank staves, so getting him to be able to use Restore is probably completely impossible without grinding. So I'll just give Lugh some more training there. Might as well.

I waited a bit so I could get Rutger and Clarine over to the east side to back up Astore, Shin and Milady as they went for the last two chests. It turned out to be wholly unnecessary. They both had elixirs. I have to assume that the chests are randomized, and half of them will contain manaketes, and half will contain elixirs.

Alright, that took 30 turns (it definitely didn't feel that long), so let's get out of here. My hopes of getting Lalum and Roy to A support without stalling and support grinding have just gotten far more likely. In hindsight I might have chosen a more suitable romantic partner, but near as I can tell, Lalum's the only one worth fielding on my current run. Actually, a lot of Roy's love interests are... pretty bad units.

Okay, as I was checking to make sure I hadn't thrown away Apocalypse upon getting the Binding Blade (I haven't seen what happens when you have too many items and the convoy is full, so I don't know if there's a message), I noticed something odd after confirming I have all of them: On the item list, Mulagir, Saint's Staff, Forblaze, Aureola and Apocalypse are all at the absolute bottom of the listings. The last, and ultimate items in those categories. But for some reason there's some random shit like axereavers and wyrmslayers after Durandal, Maltet and Armads. Couldn't begin to even wonder why though.

Well, that's it for today then. Pretty easy and straightforward chapter. Not much to complain about, but not really a lot to like. I did appreciate the breather though. Come tomorrow, it'll be our big, ultimate showdown with Zephiel, at long last.

Stay tuned.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

SURPRISE! THE CHESTS ARE TRAPPED TOO!

A manakete just popped out of one the second Astore opened it. Thankfully I managed to kill it with Rutger and Lalum, with Shin on standby to help in case things went wrong. I did it without Durandal, because it's just one. I want to save the legendary weapons for situations where I need to kill a lot of dragons at once.

I am glad you saw some of those incredibly silly Manakete's that got locked into chest. Its such a dumb and easily ignored gimmick, but it is funny.

 

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

In hindsight I might have chosen a more suitable romantic partner, but near as I can tell, Lalum's the only one worth fielding on my current run. Actually, a lot of Roy's love interests are... pretty bad units.

You could probably fit Cecilia on your team if you wanted, she starts promoted with the ranks to use Restore, and can use Aircalibur or Bolting if she has to attack something, and her horse make it easy to maneuver her safely. As for them being bad units, Lilina is perfectly serviceable (and the Roy-Lilina support is the fastest one in the game), but many prefer Lugh for his speed, Cecilia is rather good (although her starting chapter seems tailor made to her look worse than she is), and Sue and Shanna end up better on Normal where they don't get overshadowed by replacements with Hardmode bonuses.

 

 

[Alastor15243]

7 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am glad you saw some of those incredibly silly Manakete's that got locked into chest. Its such a dumb and easily ignored gimmick, but it is funny.

 

You could probably fit Cecilia on your team if you wanted, she starts promoted with the ranks to use Restore, and can use Aircalibur or Bolting if she has to attack something, and her horse make it easy to maneuver her safely. As for them being bad units, Lilina is perfectly serviceable (and the Roy-Lilina support is the fastest one in the game), but many prefer Lugh for his speed, Cecilia is rather good (although her starting chapter seems tailor made to her look worse than she is), and Sue and Shanna end up better on Normal where they don't get overshadowed by replacements with Hardmode bonuses.

 

 

Thank you so much for reminding me Cecilia can use restore. That means with her, Clarine, Niime and Lugh, I can deploy two whole divisions of my army with failsafes against status staves.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

SURPRISE! THE CHESTS ARE TRAPPED TOO!

A manakete just popped out of one the second Astore opened it. Thankfully I managed to kill it with Rutger and Lalum, with Shin on standby to help in case things went wrong. I did it without Durandal, because it's just one. I want to save the legendary weapons for situations where I need to kill a lot of dragons at once.

This forces us to ask - are these chests especially big, or are the manaketes contained within especially small? How long were the manaketes waiting inside? Do the chests have airholes drilled for survival? Do manaketes even need to breathe air? If you never opened their chests, would they wait within forever, or would they break out once their patience grew thin? If a Manakete transformed while inside the chest, would they break it open, or be crushed to death?

Man, you've gotta wonder.

[Emperor Hardin]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Okay, no, wow, I was way off. That shrine priest looks totally different. But that beard still looks insanely familiar, like that face is just a recolor of something I've seen elsewhere in the series...

Ohtz's portrait is a recolored version of several generic village NPCs within this game.

Ohtz won the least votes in the Binding Blade popularity poll, though it should be noted many mini bosses didn't even rank.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Ohtz's portrait is a recolored version of several generic village NPCs within this game.

Ohtz won the least votes in the Binding Blade popularity poll, though it should be noted many mini bosses didn't even rank.

So that's what it was!

Edited March 9, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

I think you'll be pleasently surprised by how much Roy contributes in the final chapters. His promotion gains are massive and hisn seed is good enough to double most enemies. Sword of Seals also gives him defensive boosts and obviously tears though Manaketes and has as great crit rate to boot. The biggest issue his weapons low durability, but he can use other swords and even Durundal effectively. From here on out Roy is actually a pretty great unit. The sword doth make it the man in his case. Sword of Seals is the best weapon in the series this side of Naga.

[Interdimensional Observer]

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

This forces us to ask - are these chests especially big, or are the manaketes contained within especially small? How long were the manaketes waiting inside? Do the chests have airholes drilled for survival? Do manaketes even need to breathe air? If you never opened their chests, would they wait within forever, or would they break out once their patience grew thin? If a Manakete transformed while inside the chest, would they break it open, or be crushed to death?

Man, you've gotta wonder.

I think they were practicing to be magicians' assistants. You know, the magic trick where someone is put into a box and the magician stabs the box with swords one-by-one, removes them, and the person inside emerges perfectly fine afterwards. The Manaketes were just particularly limber.

 

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

I think you'll be pleasently surprised by how much Roy contributes in the final chapters. His promotion gains are massive and hisn seed is good enough to double most enemies. Sword of Seals also gives him defensive boosts and obviously tears though Manaketes and has as great crit rate to boot. The biggest issue his weapons low durability, but he can use other swords and even Durundal effectively. From here on out Roy is actually a pretty great unit. The sword doth make it the man in his case. Sword of Seals is the best weapon in the series this side of Naga.

The average 20/1 Roy, rounded up for every stat to be generous:

37 HP 15 Str 18 Skl 17 Spd 19 Lck 12 Def 11 Res

Not shabby by any means, it's just how terribly late it comes. Eh bases and low incentive to train Roy further means he can miss reaching 20 in the first place. Deke, Alen, Lance, and even Normal Mode Rutger, good units by general consensus, have roughly similar 20/1 stats, but they get them much sooner, with less bad bases to boot.

Considering Roy isn't OHKOing anything though sans a Crit, unless it's a Wyvern or mage maybe, the 20 uses of the BB can be closer to 10. Borrowing from Ragnell, which is identical or slightly inferior to the BB, and giving it infinite uses in a remake, would be a nice bit of endgame help. I'd like a full recharge of durability on the Divine Weapons after Chapter 22 too.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, that took 30 turns (it definiteely didn't feel that long), so let's get out of here. My hopes of getting Lalum and Roy to A support without stalling and support grinding have just gotten far more likely. In hindsight I might have chosen a more suitable romantic partner, but near as I can tell, Lalum's the only one worth fielding on my current run. Actually, a lot of Roy's love interests are... pretty bad units.

You need 60 points for an C support, 60 more for B, 80 more for A. Most characters start with a few points towards C, in the case of RoyxLilina, it's 56 base points with a +4 points per turn adjacent growth. That is the fastest support in the game. RoyxLarum is 1 point base with +1 per turn adjacent growth, the bare minimum/slowest support there is, Sue, Sophia, and Shanna are the same with Roy.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer