What to do with the Blue Lions, Day 1: Annette

[Naoko_Akamori]

So, I've been trying to do a little bit of planning for Maddening/Infernal, and deciding what I want to aim for with each of the characters in the Blue Lion House (Plus my draft pick, I'm sure you can imagine who that is). I decided to start out with the one who's giving me the most trouble, share what I was thinking of doing with her, and get some feedback/suggestions. So, without further ado, Annette. 

Class: Dancer

Battalion: Blue Lions Dancers (Possibly School of Sorcery volunteers or one that grants Stride)

Accessory: Not really sure. White Dragon Scarf maybe? 

Abilities:

- Rally Movement

- Rally Speed (Swap out for Reason 5?)

- Rally Resistance

- Special Dance (Once I get this, I can drop Rally Speed because it's basically Rally Speed/Luck/Dex in one skill plus extra turns)

- Movement +1

I've got to have a Dancer on my team, and with Annette's natural affinity for Rallying, she seems like a good fit. That being the case, I worry that by doing that I'm kind of squandering a valuable offensive resource. She's got access to good, low weight Wind Magic, as well as an axe that does Magic based damage (Though using that kind of has the same problem of Marianne using Blutgang). I'm wondering if it might be a better idea to make someone like Ashe my Dancer, or possibly go with a mixed approach to Annette that still lets her use some of her spells/other features? 

[Vince777]

Isn't dancer class + dancing battalion rather redundant?

[Naoko_Akamori]

Just now, Vince777 said:

Isn't dancer class + dancing battalion rather redundant?

Is it? I've never actually used it, and the source I found it on doesn't list whether it only affects one target or a group. 

[Vince777]

Dancing battalion can affect more than one unit at a time but I feel it's better used on another unit so that two units can refresh (and this way you can even refresh your dancer). 

[Naoko_Akamori]

3 minutes ago, Vince777 said:

Dancing battalion can affect more than one unit at a time but I feel it's better used on another unit so that two units can refresh (and this way you can even refresh your dancer). 

Oh, neat! Thanks for letting me know. I could put it on Mercedes or something then. 

Alright, so swap out the Dancer Battalion for the School of Sorcery Volunteers then. 

[Jakkun]

You stated that part of the reason you want Annette as a Dancer is because she's already fit for rallying, but I don't think you should make your main rallybot a dancer since you're gonna be using your player phase for dancing from that point on, essentially making her rallies worthless. Unless i'm just blind and Rallies actually do go off when you dance, in which case, ignore the rest of my post.

I think going a path of Monk > Mage > Wyvern may be worth looking into for her, especially if you want to maximize the use of Crusher/Bolt Axe/Lightning Axe. Also has great mobility allowing you to rally distant allies if need be. You can always make Flayn your Dancer since Mercedes outclasses her as a healer.

Something like: Axefaire/Fiendish Blow/Move+1/Rally Speed/Rally Move

With this set you get to Rally the 3 most important stats while having at the very least +10 damage at all times with an axe equipped. Replace Fiendish with Axe Prowess/Mag+2/another Rally if you plan to have her player phase be only rallies.

 

[wissenschaft]

Annette should master Pegasus Knight for Darting Blow to help her speed and then go down the route of Gremory or Dark Knight. Her spell list is limited when it comes to high powered magic so the extra spells of Gremory will help her while Dark Knight will provide blacktomefaire and more movement + canto.

The alternative is to class Annette into Wyvern Lord and abuse bolt axe and combat art Lightning Axe and Crusher.

Edited September 2, 2019 by wissenschaft

[Naoko_Akamori]

12 minutes ago, Jakkun said:

You stated that part of the reason you want Annette as a Dancer is because she's already fit for rallying, but I don't think you should make your main rallybot a dancer since you're gonna be using your player phase for dancing from that point on, essentially making her rallies worthless. Unless i'm just blind and Rallies actually do go off when you dance, in which case, ignore the rest of my post.

I think going a path of Monk > Mage > Wyvern may be worth looking into for her, especially if you want to maximize the use of Crusher/Bolt Axe/Lightning Axe. Also has great mobility allowing you to rally distant allies if need be. You can always make Flayn your Dancer since Mercedes outclasses her as a healer.

Something like: Axefaire/Fiendish Blow/Move+1/Rally Speed/Rally Move

With this set you get to Rally the 3 most important stats while having at the very least +10 damage at all times with an axe equipped. Replace Fiendish with Axe Prowess/Mag+2/another Rally if you plan to have her player phase be only rallies.

 

 

That's a good point, though I'm not sure what my roster would look like in that case. I can probably sub out Ashe for Flayn, since I'm really not sure what to do with 'him' in particular, and I like Flayn. 

I like your Wyvern Lord setup for her - it lets me get the most out of Crusher, though it does hurt her Magic growth a bit. Shame she won't be able to use 'magic' per se, but with magic axes, she really doesn't need to. 

[wissenschaft]

Ashe should go Brigand early on to help out his strength growth. Then just use a bow in that class. You want Brigand for its mastery skill - Death Blow which will help his low strength growth.

You path for Ashe if you want an archer would be Brigand > Sniper > Bow Knight (this is optional, it will take a bit of work to get him into the class and its a sidegrade taken for canto abuse mostly).  The lack of accuracy on long range attacks means having +2 range on bow attacks doesn't mean much if you'll just miss. Just attacking from 3 range to minimize the range penalty is often best.

You can make Ashe into a Wyvern Lord but he will have weak defenses and shacky STR growth so hes not the best at the class. Archer lets him out range enemies keeping him safe.

Edited September 2, 2019 by wissenschaft

[Naoko_Akamori]

Alright! So, getting back to Annette, I'm looking at her as a Wyvern Lord, with Bolt Axe/Crusher as her primary weapons. She'll essentially be built around respectable damage output, with Rallying for support. Maybe something like... 

Fiendish Blow (Replace with Axefaire if I get to S+ Axes), Darting Blow, Rally Speed, Rally Movement, Axe Prowess 5? I'm not too fussed about Movement +1 on Master Class fliers. I only have so much Renown to boost everyone to A+ Riding. 

Instruction-wise, it'll probably be something like... Reason to qualify for Mage, then focus Axes/Flying. I can get her Pegasus Knight mastered when I recruit her and Mercedes in my Church run). 

As for Accessories, I can give her a Speed Ring. 

Not sure what kind of Battalion to give her in that case, because I'm not seeing a Flying one that boosts Magic Attack. She might have to just go without? 

[Jakkun]

You might be able to get away with going Pegasus > Wyvern, because since you're gonna be hitting enemies for their lower defensive stat, I don't think the benchmarks are too high so long as you double, in which case the speed gained from going Pegasus early on may outweigh Mage. However you did say this was for Maddening whenever that comes out so maybe Fiendish Blow will be necessary due to stat inflation.

If only she wasn't bad at Armor, she'd definitely appreciate Weight -3 so she can enemy phase double with the Bolt Axe+. As it stands right now, Darting Blow is her best option for trying to offset how heavy her weapons of choice are.

Yeah I don't think there are any flying battalions for magic, primarily because there aren't any magic flier classes, so that was definitely an oversight. We're kinda going against the grain by maximizing her magic in a physical class as is, so i'm not too surprised that her options are limited here. Best you can hope for is to get a battalion that gives her some hit or crit, unfortunately.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Jakkun

[Naoko_Akamori]

5 minutes ago, Jakkun said:

You might be able to get away with going Pegasus > Wyvern, because since you're gonna be hitting enemies for their lower defensive stat, I don't think the benchmarks are too high so long as you double, in which case the speed gained from going Pegasus early on may outweigh Mage. However you did say this was for Maddening whenever that comes out so maybe Fiendish Blow will be necessary due to stat inflation.

If only she wasn't bad at Armor, she'd definitely appreciate Weight -3 so she can enemy phase double with the Bolt Axe+. As it stands right now, Darting Blow is her best option for trying to offset how heavy her weapons of choice are.

Yeah I don't think there are any flying battalions for magic, primarily because there aren't any magic flier classes, so that was definitely an oversight. We're kinda going against the grain by maximizing her magic in a physical class as is, so i'm not too surprised that her options are limited here. Best you can hope for is to get a battalion that gives her some hit or crit, unfortunately.

Yeah, stat inflation does have me worried. 

Why couldn't they just add Dark Flier? They don't even have to put Galeforce in. 

Mage raises her Magic growth to 60. Pegasus Knight raises her Speed growth to 45. I feel like giving her a Speed Growth that's at least higher than Mercedes would be a better option, but it depends on how magic screwed she gets. It might be worth dipping into Mage just to unlock Fiendish Blow and then go Pegasus Knight until Level 30. 

As for Battalions, yeah, I'll just have to look for one that gives Hit/Crit while not screwing her over in terms of Magic Attack. 

Seriously, looking at her growths it looks like Ingrid stole some of them. Why is the perky sweetheart less charming than the super serious, highly critical stick in the mud? 

I wish we had more information on Maddening to kind of determine whether it allows for 'going against the grain' in this way. Since that's a major selling point of the game and all, it'd be kind of a shame if it didn't, especially with how easy Hard Mode is.