What does your inventory loadout typically look like?

[Mjolnir]

I'll describe my strategy for this but I'm mostly very curious to see what others do, so don't feel like you need to read before posting your own method! For reference I'm talking about Maddening NG, but feel free to discuss other difficulties if you like.

In the early game options are a bit limited and the strategy is bit different than late game. In the early game on my physical attackers I carry:

• Light, accurate weapon (training/iron)
• Combat art weapon (steel)
• Ranged weapon (bow, hand axe, javelin, etc.)
• Secondary weapon type that I'd want to train the unit in for a later class change (for example, a sword on a unit that will later become a peg knight)
• Healing item or maybe even two (vulnerary in most cases, concoction if available)
• Maybe an extra from any category above if available

Mages tend to hold less stuff in the early game. On mages:

• A light, accurate 1 range weapon (usually iron for them, in the wep type they prefer)
• Maybe a bow if available (in case they run out of magic (only applies to the first few chapters))
• The rest is healing items if available

Of course, sometimes you don't have enough items to fill all six slots in the early game, but if you do that's what it looks like.

Mid game to late game the strategy shifts. After getting at least one ranged healer and 1-2 pinch hit healers (attack mages/the dancer with spells like Heal, Recover, Physic, or Fortify in their arsenal) I find it a waste of an item slot in most instances to carry healing items on physical attackers. This is an average physical attacker loadout:

• Light, accurate weapon (training + (although I find they drop off mid game), iron+ or silver+)
• Killer weapon+, Wo Dao+, Cursed Aiyisha Sword+
• Combat art weapon (steel+ or often I just use same silver+ as the light weapon for CAs to save space)
• Ranged option (bow, short spear, short axe, Levin Sword+, Bolt Axe+, etc.)
• Utility weapon (brave, horse/armorslayers, Rapier, etc.)
• a weapon of some other type other than the main one as to be able to counter x-breaker skills (usually something like a lance due to many advanced/master classes requiring lance, but ofc a sword or axe on a lance user)
• A Relic or Sacred Weapon (often not carried at all in non-threatening battles, but usually replaces utility  in relatively more difficult battles)
• On very rare occasions healing items like concoctions / elixirs (only in difficult chapters like VW 13, or in situations where I might want to send a flier off on a solo mission out of physic range)
• Ring, gem, or in very rare cases a shield (imo most shields are too heavy and are likely to push most units under the "getting doubled" spd threshold in Maddening NG so don't make sense to use)

Obviously this will be juggled a bit map to map.

Primarily magical loadout:

• If the unit has a magical combat art (Soulblade, Frozen Lance, etc) then a few weapons to use that art with. Maybe Bolt Axe+ or Levin Sword+, or an attack weapon Relic in rare cases.
• Magic Staff, Thrysus, Caduceus, Heal Staff depending on the unit, maybe sometimes another accessory like the March Ring in certain circumstances
• Healing Items. Mages are my heal bags, they're loaded with Vulnerarys,  Concoctions and later Elixers. Along with access to the convoy via Byleth, IF on the very very rare occasion that something goes unexpectedly wrong and there's not enough healing power on the board in the form of spells usually any unit has access to trading a weapon in their loadout for a healing item from a Mage if need be.

I find trading weps / relics / staffs / etc. too annoying and a buzzkill to consistently do it, even though I acknowledge that it is probably the superior style of play technically speaking. I've never had trouble getting through maps in ways that are satisfying to me without trading, though. But if I were to try a Low Turn Count run, then I would certainly do it because you can get better results if you do.

So that is pretty much how I handle my inventory! I am very curious to hear how others manage theirs (again esp. re: Maddening NG but other difficulties are fine to discuss as well). FWIW this post was prompted by a discussion in the Tier List thread, wherein one person basically managed theirs in precisely the same way as mine and another had a totally different strat.  I wondered how many different strats are out there and what the dominant one might be, and it was a bit off topic for that thread so I made this one. 🙂

 

 

 

[Garsoba]

x

Edited October 16, 2020 by Garsoba

[Glennstavos]

I'm probably not as particular about my loadouts seeing as how I typically reset at least once on turn 1 of every map because I: 

• Forgot to switch in a particular battalion, combat art, ability, valuable weapon, or accessory
• Forgot to forge or repair something on a unit that can't conveniently lift another from Byleth's convoy.
• Forgot to reclass somebody. Not just because of class mastery concerns, but also for the bonus skill experience they could earn with specific weapons. Some maps have extremely good boss abuse grinding opportunities so they can make a big difference there.

For the most part I follow the strategies in the OP. Except I don't particularly care to distribute javelins and hand axes in this game, since you can't combat art with them, and enemies that attack you at 2 range on enemy phase are fairly rare - mostly mages who I will have my own mages/priests tank instead. Being able to chip damage somebody at no retaliation is certainly nice, but the weapons are highly inaccurate and I tend to have archers and mages for that purpose anyway. I have developed some strategies for particular types of units.

• Spoiler

   

  • Shields on units too slow to avoid being doubled is probably standard practice, but I also have my brawlers equip shields when using lighter gauntlets. You only need 10 strength to wield training gauntlets and a leather shield at no penalty, and as your strength increases, the possibilities expand. Remember that shields can simply be unequipped if they do start weighing you down - like when you switch to an axe. Unfortunately you can't use the Trade command to unequip another unit's shield. Only trade swap to a different accessory or give them your own accessory.
    • Since there aren't a lot of gauntlet type weapons in the game and they all have excellent durability, brawlers tend to have a lot of inventory space to spare compared to other physical units. So I have had them roll with two accessories before. A shield and either some kind of ring or gem.
  • The mini bow is a nice investment for archers who haven't gotten close counter yet. And it gets better once forged. In the early game, bows are really freakin' heavy, and the mini bow is the lightest choice in addition to giving you an enemy phase presence. Furthermore, your archers can't fire back at enemy archers anyway until they become capital A archers at level 10, so they see no benefit from equipping their standard bows on enemy phase. Just have somebody come up and use the trade command to adjust their equipped weapon (moving it to the top of the list).
  • My experience gem priority is getting everybody to their level 20 classes. Level 20 classes have insane base stats for that level. Mages tend to get as much as six defense, strength screwed and speed screwed units tend to get brought up to speed too. Past that, Grapplers get it to become War Masters as soon as they can so they begin mastering it for the best equippable ability in the game. 
  • My knowledge gem priority can shift to meet certain, attainable benchmarks. Sometimes I give it to my brand new snipers since hunters volley immediately elevates them to monstrous kill power. I'll give it to anybody who's still working on fighter/brigand, and naturally to war masters. Sometimes I give it to units who are adjutants, like when I wanted Recruit!Lorenz to learn recover, I had him equip Heal and be Ferdinand's adjutant on a map I knew Ferdinand would be seeing several rounds of combat. Just be aware that unlike fielded units, you can't reach into the inventory of an adjutant as far as I know. 
  • "combat art weapons" for sure, especially on lance users. Crescent Sickle's high MT and high durability seems destined for it. Devil weapons as well. They require agarthium to repair, but I would just...not. By the time they break, I'll have other great weapons to replace them, and they get a free refill on time skip anyway. I'll also spam combat arts on weapons I know I'll want to forge anyway such as Killer weapons.
    • By chapter 9, I'll generally be swimming in enough money to buy all the black sand steel I'll ever want. The fishing event got me up to 100+ bullhead fish which sell for 100 a pop. Past 99, the game auto sells them since the convoy can't carry anymore. I also nabbed dozens of other valuable fish that only exist to be sold or used for those post time skip resource quests.

   

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Edited January 6, 2020 by Glennstavos

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Playing NG Maddening, Divine Pulse banned:

• Mages/Healers: Accessory, keys, healing items (they basically server as mini-convoys)
• Non-Sniper, non-Grappler physicals: Light bow, strong bow, light melee, strong melee (sometimes this is a third bow if I feel the unit doesn't melee much), accessory, flex slot (typically map specific)
• Snipers: Five bows, accessory
• Grapplers: Training, Iron, Steel and Silver Gauntlets, Iron Bow, accessory
• Byleth also sometimes runs around with wonky whatever because I can always rearrange it on the fly.

The strong weapons are typically for combat arts, but not always. I quite enjoy volleying the enemy with Steel/Silver Curved Shots, as well as one-shotting the enemy flier spam with the same. After a certain point, the strong weapon on my Falcon Knight will be a brave weapon. Nothing says, "Sit down." quite like a good ol' quad.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I tend to have my physical units carry four weapons*, an equippable, and some extra item (Healing, Chest/Door Key, or Crest Stone on MG+). Magical units tend to have just one weapon, a healing item, a Crest Stone, and an equippable, with a couple spare slots depending on the map.

*If my physical unit has two weapon types, then I'll give them two of each. Say, Dimitri with a Javelin, Killer Lance, Training Sword, and Steel Sword. If my physical unit does three weapons, they'll have 2:1:1 (say, Felix with Iron Sword, Armorslayer, Training Bow, Iron Gauntlets).

[Mjolnir]

18 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

I'm probably not as particular about my loadouts seeing as how I typically reset at least once on turn 1 of every map because I: 

• Forgot to switch in a particular battalion, combat art, ability, valuable weapon, or accessory
• Forgot to forge or repair something on a unit that can't conveniently lift another from Byleth's convoy.
• Forgot to reclass somebody. Not just because of class mastery concerns, but also for the bonus skill experience they could earn with specific weapons. Some maps have extremely good boss abuse grinding opportunities so they can make a big difference there.

For the most part I follow the strategies in the OP. Except I don't particularly care to distribute javelins and hand axes in this game, since you can't combat art with them, and enemies that attack you at 2 range on enemy phase are fairly rare - mostly mages who I will have my own mages/priests tank instead. Being able to chip damage somebody at no retaliation is certainly nice, but the weapons are highly inaccurate and I tend to have archers and mages for that purpose anyway. I have developed some strategies for particular types of units.

•   Hide contents

   

  • Shields on units too slow to avoid being doubled is probably standard practice, but I also have my brawlers equip shields when using lighter gauntlets. You only need 10 strength to wield training gauntlets and a leather shield at no penalty, and as your strength increases, the possibilities expand. Remember that shields can simply be unequipped if they do start weighing you down - like when you switch to an axe. Unfortunately you can't use the Trade command to unequip another unit's shield. Only trade swap to a different accessory or give them your own accessory.
    • Since there aren't a lot of gauntlet type weapons in the game and they all have excellent durability, brawlers tend to have a lot of inventory space to spare compared to other physical units. So I have had them roll with two accessories before. A shield and either some kind of ring or gem.
  • The mini bow is a nice investment for archers who haven't gotten close counter yet. And it gets better once forged. In the early game, bows are really freakin' heavy, and the mini bow is the lightest choice in addition to giving you an enemy phase presence. Furthermore, your archers can't fire back at enemy archers anyway until they become capital A archers at level 10, so they see no benefit from equipping their standard bows on enemy phase. Just have somebody come up and use the trade command to adjust their equipped weapon (moving it to the top of the list).
  • My experience gem priority is getting everybody to their level 20 classes. Level 20 classes have insane base stats for that level. Mages tend to get as much as six defense, strength screwed and speed screwed units tend to get brought up to speed too. Past that, Grapplers get it to become War Masters as soon as they can so they begin mastering it for the best equippable ability in the game. 
  • My knowledge gem priority can shift to meet certain, attainable benchmarks. Sometimes I give it to my brand new snipers since hunters volley immediately elevates them to monstrous kill power. I'll give it to anybody who's still working on fighter/brigand, and naturally to war masters. Sometimes I give it to units who are adjutants, like when I wanted Recruit!Lorenz to learn recover, I had him equip Heal and be Ferdinand's adjutant on a map I knew Ferdinand would be seeing several rounds of combat. Just be aware that unlike fielded units, you can't reach into the inventory of an adjutant as far as I know. 
  • "combat art weapons" for sure, especially on lance users. Crescent Sickle's high MT and high durability seems destined for it. Devil weapons as well. They require agarthium to repair, but I would just...not. By the time they break, I'll have other great weapons to replace them, and they get a free refill on time skip anyway. I'll also spam combat arts on weapons I know I'll want to forge anyway such as Killer weapons.
    • By chapter 9, I'll generally be swimming in enough money to buy all the black sand steel I'll ever want. The fishing event got me up to 100+ bullhead fish which sell for 100 a pop. Past 99, the game auto sells them since the convoy can't carry anymore. I also nabbed dozens of other valuable fish that only exist to be sold or used for those post time skip resource quests.

   

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Wow, what an amazing write up! Thank you for sharing your insights. You've made me rethink perhaps putting shields instead of rings on grapplers. I typically like to keep them light and evasive instead of layering PRT but maybe the shield strat makes sense in some contexts. Also a great tip on the minibow, tbh I've just been overlooking them since my newb days and never revisited them but what you say makes total sense. I can also see your point on the range weapons like hand axe and javelin perhaps not being worth a slot on a physical unit, but I have found that I encounter some instances where I'll get a kill at the edge of a unit's movement with a range whereas I wouldn't be able to if they didn't have one. But I won't say that that's necessarily optimal... You may be right, it may not be; especially since, granted, the situations where they are truly useful are somewhat rare. I guess one other way I use them are to lead with a ranged attack so as not to risk a counter, then clean up with a heavier hitting unit. That way neither takes damage.

 

The rest of what you described is basically exactly what I do (including the forgetting to repair weapons before battle and having to restart frequently because of it 😉 )

14 hours ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Playing NG Maddening, Divine Pulse banned:

• Mages/Healers: Accessory, keys, healing items (they basically server as mini-convoys)
• Non-Sniper, non-Grappler physicals: Light bow, strong bow, light melee, strong melee (sometimes this is a third bow if I feel the unit doesn't melee much), accessory, flex slot (typically map specific)
• Snipers: Five bows, accessory
• Grapplers: Training, Iron, Steel and Silver Gauntlets, Iron Bow, accessory
• Byleth also sometimes runs around with wonky whatever because I can always rearrange it on the fly.

The strong weapons are typically for combat arts, but not always. I quite enjoy volleying the enemy with Steel/Silver Curved Shots, as well as one-shotting the enemy flier spam with the same. After a certain point, the strong weapon on my Falcon Knight will be a brave weapon. Nothing says, "Sit down." quite like a good ol' quad.

"Mini convoys" is a great way to describe the function of mages! I agree with that a lot, and should have added in my OP that I will often keep a spare chest key on them too. Oh and sometimes anti toxins if there will be poison on the map. And in FoW they carry the torches (and some other units might get one as well, but I keep extras on the mages just in case). 

My Byleth also often end up quite wonky since, yeah, their inventory is the whole of the convoy! Byleth is the only character of mine that sometimes ends up with free slots in their inventory since they can just reach in and get whatever they want at will so there's no need to keep a full inventory.

I'm curious as to whether you always run bows on all of your Non-Sniper, non-Grappler physicals. I do this sometimes, but only with units that have a proficiency in bows like Cyril or Petra. Do you think it's worth it to do it for a unit like, say, Ferdinand?

Edited January 7, 2020 by Mjolnir

[Parrhesia]

All physical units get 1-2 shit weapons (including at least one bow), 1-2 marquee weapons, and an equipped item. I don't really have the patience to micromanage between maps beyond making sure that people can keep fighting. If I fuck up and send someone out to die with a 3-use iron lance and the truth, that's what the convoy's for.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

4 hours ago, Mjolnir said:

I'm curious as to whether you always run bows on all of your Non-Sniper, non-Grappler physicals. I do this sometimes, but only with units that have a proficiency in bows like Cyril or Petra. Do you think it's worth it to do it for a unit like, say, Ferdinand?

Yes, bows are almost always worth running for physical units because they're pretty busted in this game (largely because of Canto and even moreso because of Bow Knights and fliers). My Ferdinands have typically run Iron and Silver Lance (I have him with Hit +20, and combined with Confidence, he can get away with not running a Training Lance) and Iron and Silver Bows. Curved Shot in general is just too good for the +1 range and +30 Hit (even if only +1 Mt) where it's otherwise not a great idea to go into melee. Iron Lance is there for if he needs to bait (typically don't want to ruin his Confidence, though) and the Silver is there for Swift Strikes.  Spear of Assal replaces the Silver when I expect horse-heavy comps. Steel/Crescent Sickle when Silver isn't available.

My style of play can best be described The Mongol Horde. Enemies get volleyed by my best, longest-range archers, who retreat to the rest of my line, which forms a kill zone. Since the AI mindless zergs forward when aggroed, they'll break formation and run straight into the kill zone to die. If I can't kill them all there, I'll either just keep kiting back because Canto and bows is that busted; or jump on them with Gambits to CC anyone I want to leave for next turn. After a point, my units tend to stop taking damage from anything that isn't a Counterattack super boss unless I absolutely have to bait.

[Geenoble]

21 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Yes, bows are almost always worth running for physical units because they're pretty busted in this game (largely because of Canto and even moreso because of Bow Knights and fliers). My Ferdinands have typically run Iron and Silver Lance (I have him with Hit +20, and combined with Confidence, he can get away with not running a Training Lance) and Iron and Silver Bows. Curved Shot in general is just too good for the +1 range and +30 Hit (even if only +1 Mt) where it's otherwise not a great idea to go into melee. Iron Lance is there for if he needs to bait (typically don't want to ruin his Confidence, though) and the Silver is there for Swift Strikes.  Spear of Assal replaces the Silver when I expect horse-heavy comps. Steel/Crescent Sickle when Silver isn't available.

My style of play can best be described The Mongol Horde. Enemies get volleyed by my best, longest-range archers, who retreat to the rest of my line, which forms a kill zone. Since the AI mindless zergs forward when aggroed, they'll break formation and run straight into the kill zone to die. If I can't kill them all there, I'll either just keep kiting back because Canto and bows is that busted; or jump on them with Gambits to CC anyone I want to leave for next turn. After a point, my units tend to stop taking damage from anything that isn't a Counterattack super boss unless I absolutely have to bait.

I actually don’t like running bows past the early game tbh. In terms of 2 range I use hand axes or short spears since they can build up the necessary weapon ranks more. They’re worse than bows in most situations but at least they increase the chances of S+ in a weapon type and can attack at 1 range without close counter.

I always run javelins over hand axes on people going into wyvern lord so I don’t need to train their lance rank as much.

in terms of using curved shot I don’t really like it. For combat arts I always use either a brave or damage/hit boosting  combat art for the main weapon such as Smash or Swift Strikes, then I use an effective combat art or utility combat art such as monster piercer or Healing focus, with the third slot dedicated to the amazing repositionals.

My inventory for characters is basically identical to Glennstavos, but I want to add that I also use sheilds on fast units as well. In my latest VW play through I gave Claude the Sheild of Seiros for some passive regeneration and extra bulk, and if he couldn’t double an enemy with the sheild I coulda unequip it to make him double.

[Flere210]

1)a bunch of broken weapons

2)that one thing that is not broken yet 

3)if i remember to equip it, a shield or ring.

I often forget about updating equipment lol.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

30 minutes ago, Geenoble said:

I actually don’t like running bows past the early game tbh. In terms of 2 range I use hand axes or short spears since they can build up the necessary weapon ranks more. They’re worse than bows in most situations but at least they increase the chances of S+ in a weapon type and can attack at 1 range without close counter.

I always run javelins over hand axes on people going into wyvern lord so I don’t need to train their lance rank as much.

in terms of using curved shot I don’t really like it. For combat arts I always use either a brave or damage/hit boosting  combat art for the main weapon such as Smash or Swift Strikes, then I use an effective combat art or utility combat art such as monster piercer or Healing focus, with the third slot dedicated to the amazing repositionals.

My inventory for characters is basically identical to Glennstavos, but I want to add that I also use sheilds on fast units as well. In my latest VW play through I gave Claude the Sheild of Seiros for some passive regeneration and extra bulk, and if he couldn’t double an enemy with the sheild I coulda unequip it to make him double.

I've never found hitting S (except with Reason users and maybe Snipers/Grapplers) or S+ all that necessary. I'd rather have the ability to avoid being counterattacked by 95% of enemies and to readily bypass them breakering my melee weapon. Lance and sword rank are trivial to get up for Wyvern and Falcon, respectively. Axes can be a bit of a pain (lances are good enough in melee that I can safely squeeze enough of that in for my prospective Falcon, though), since their base Hit is ass, so sometimes I do bring a Hand Axe for opportunistic proficiency gain, though it's always alongside a bow in case I need to do serious fighting.

I keep Curved Shot and a melee art, plus a repositional, if my unit has it. Otherwise, I'll put in a utility art (or sometimes prioritize it, like with the absolutely busted Encloser). The thing I find about melee arts, though, is until I get Hit +20 on a large number of units (especially axe users, but lance users are far from exempt), is their hit rate is rarely a perfect 100%. Since I've completely banned Divince Pulse, I don't take those kind of chances unless I have to (and playing early BE, Edelgard drove me up the wall with those imperfect Smashes; Seteth in SS annoyed me for similar reasons). Meanwhile, Curved Shot's +30 Hit will generally ensure perfect Hit, and thus, guaranteed damage, against the target. For that same reason, I won't attack into listed Crit without Blessing up or the ability to tank the crit damage. Enough units have poor enough Luck growth relative to the Crit of enemy types that get spammed in Maddening that that +1 range is also an important safety feature.

Generally training bows on everyone also has the perks of easy Hit +20 access (providing both normal attack safety and a huge boost to Gambit Hit rate), and, for units who typically underperform, if I'm dead set on using them, and don't have confidence in the other path they may take (say, Raphael and Grappler, which is prone to Str screw-age issues), I can force them toward Sniper (and Hunter's Volley) to fix that issue.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Geenoble said:

I actually don’t like running bows past the early game tbh. In terms of 2 range I use hand axes or short spears since they can build up the necessary weapon ranks more. They’re worse than bows in most situations but at least they increase the chances of S+ in a weapon type and can attack at 1 range without close counter.

I always run javelins over hand axes on people going into wyvern lord so I don’t need to train their lance rank as much.

in terms of using curved shot I don’t really like it. For combat arts I always use either a brave or damage/hit boosting  combat art for the main weapon such as Smash or Swift Strikes, then I use an effective combat art or utility combat art such as monster piercer or Healing focus, with the third slot dedicated to the amazing repositionals.

My inventory for characters is basically identical to Glennstavos, but I want to add that I also use sheilds on fast units as well. In my latest VW play through I gave Claude the Sheild of Seiros for some passive regeneration and extra bulk, and if he couldn’t double an enemy with the sheild I coulda unequip it to make him double.

I don't really see hitting S or S+ as practical or even necessary for most units. Anyway, I wouldn't really find hand axes or javelins sufficient for range because they're too heavy, weak, and inaccurate. Sure, they don't need Close Counter to attack at 1 range, but when you're probably weighed down to the point of being doubled and hit like a wet noodle, that's not much of an advantage...

At any rate, my inventory load out is dependent on the stage of the game - early on, often I'll have a bow, some other weapon depending on the unit, a healing item and that's it. Later on, I'm likely to have three weapons, an accessory, and a healing item, with one left over slot just in case.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 1/6/2020 at 12:49 PM, Glennstavos said:

For the most part I follow the strategies in the OP. Except I don't particularly care to distribute javelins and hand axes in this game, since you can't combat art with them, and enemies that attack you at 2 range on enemy phase are fairly rare - mostly mages who I will have my own mages/priests tank instead.

...It just occured to me - basically every bow-using enemy has at least 3 attacking range, right? Since it seems like only enemy Archers, Snipers and Bow Knights actually wield bows. For a game that massively widened weapon accessibility, it's kind of disappointing how each enemy class seems constrained to one weapon type. IS could have haunted our darkest dreams by putting bows on Wyverns, for instance.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

With enemy stats as high as they are, it probably wouldn't make a ton of difference from getting plowed by a 65-Atk, 40-AS Tomahawk. Maybe if IS also gave them Curved Shot. Actually, come to think of it, they don't really give the enemy much for Combat Arts. Even named characters very rarely have them and the only generic I can think of that got one off the top of my head is that random Fortress Knight in the top corner of Miklan's chapter. The effective damage null skills/items might actually be worth something if there were random enemies wandering around with Knightkneeler and Helm Splitter.

[DragonFlames]

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

...It just occured to me - basically every bow-using enemy has at least 3 attacking range, right? Since it seems like only enemy Archers, Snipers and Bow Knights actually wield bows. For a game that massively widened weapon accessibility, it's kind of disappointing how each enemy class seems constrained to one weapon type. IS could have haunted our darkest dreams by putting bows on Wyverns, for instance.

I would have put the game down in a heartbeat if they did that. Dealing with fliers in this game is enough of a nightmare as it is already, especially in the early to midgame where they are unreasonably overpowered compared to anything you have (they either double or outright one-shot most of your units on Hard. at least on the Golden Deer route). And enemy Wyverns don't exactly become weaker in the lategame, either. They don't need more tools to become even more dangerous, to be honest.

Anyway, on topic:

I usually don't pay much attention to what my units are carrying. I tend to give them one or two weapons that I run proficiency skills for (I usually don't run two or more weapon proficiency skills on a single unit), a Relic weapon that "belongs" to that character if I have it (Lance of Ruin for Sylvain etc.), one or two healing items, and depending on how defensive I want to play that particular unit, I equip either a shield or some other accessory. My Mages usually carry around healing items and staves, if I have them. Rings if not. Early on, I usually keep their starting weapons on them in case they run out of spell uses.

As for which weapons my characters get, that usually depends. Early on, I usually use Iron weapons (I keep these on units who rely on doubling to do good damage until forged Silvers become readily available), Steel for the midgame heavy hitters who usually one-shot everything anyway (like Dimitri and Hilda), and (usually forged), Silver for late and endgame. Special weaponry like Hammers see use on maps where there are a lot of enemies to use them on. Levin Swords became somewhat of a personal weapon for Lysithea, as one of my preferred endgame classes for her is Mortal Savant (I just love how she looks in that class. Don't sue, please).

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

With enemy stats as high as they are, it probably wouldn't make a ton of difference from getting plowed by a 65-Atk, 40-AS Tomahawk. Maybe if IS also gave them Curved Shot. Actually, come to think of it, they don't really give the enemy much for Combat Arts. Even named characters very rarely have them and the only generic I can think of that got one off the top of my head is that random Fortress Knight in the top corner of Miklan's chapter. The effective damage null skills/items might actually be worth something if there were random enemies wandering around with Knightkneeler and Helm Splitter.

I like the idea of generics using combat arts, although I'm thinking they should have warning markers like in Fates. Also, bow-wyverns would be more effective in threatening your own fliers, and could bypass Axebreaker.

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

I would have put the game down in a heartbeat if they did that. Dealing with fliers in this game is enough of a nightmare as it is already, especially in the early to midgame where they are unreasonably overpowered compared to anything you have (they either double or outright one-shot most of your units on Hard. at least on the Golden Deer route). And enemy Wyverns don't exactly become weaker in the lategame, either. They don't need more tools to become even more dangerous, to be honest.

Yeah that's fair, Wyverns are busted as all hell, was just using them as an example. Brawling Armor Knights and Axevaliers could be nice, though.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

I suppose. Trying to fight them head-on in melee or ranged vs. ranged baiting is not something I tend to like doing in the first place, though, just because even if my flier wins, I'm eating 30+ damage to do it. Of course, that's also knowing I can lure them in and one-shot them with a Curved Silver Bow+ shot (or Brave Bow double before they can counter in the later portions when their bulk is too high).

[DragonFlames]

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

Yeah that's fair, Wyverns are busted as all hell, was just using them as an example. Brawling Armor Knights and Axevaliers could be nice, though.

I'd actually like that, as well. I wonder why Cavaliers/Paladins no longer use Axes like they did in the Tellius games.
I mean, you can make them do that if you wish, but... you get what I mean, I imagine.

[Glennstavos]

One strat I've been playing with a bunch is march ring equip swapping. If you have the inventory space for it, keep the march ring alongside a combat-oriented accessory. At the start of your turn, equip the march ring and deselect that character. Select them again to get +1 movement, then equip your other accessory before fighting somebody. Repeat every turn for permanent +1 move. 

Edited January 28, 2020 by Glennstavos

[PPPPPPP270]

In my early game maddening run.

All my physical units had an iron bow and eventually iron bow+ along with an iron of their main weapon. Probably a steel weapon that I happen to get from quests. 

Late games my bow knights would either have an accuracy/speed ring with iron bow+ brave bow silver bow+ and maybe something else. Battalions is probably one that emphasizes hit rate and not care much about the defense or avoid. So even battalions like royal guard is fine.

I only deploy usually 2 mage units and give them both heal staffs and the ranged increasing ones. You can swap between the two freely. 

The rest would have the same kind of inventory as the bow knights but swap the bow with a hand axe/javalin. Granted that isn't necessary with how easy it is to just use retribution. A flier might have the aurora shield or evasion ring. Fliers just take the best battalion possible with their limited options. 

Item management isn't big of a deal now that magic is tied to the character instead of an item. 

 

 

[Enryx25]

Physical units: Wo Dao+ (if they have proficiency in swords), Killer Lance+ (if they have proficiency in lances), Killer Axe+ (if they have proficiency in axes), Killer Bow+ (if they have proficiency in bows), accessory, potion

Magical units: Staff, potion

 

Edited January 28, 2020 by Enryx25

[Boatcat2111]

For low magic units my loadout is:

Main class weapon (Steel/Silver)

Same weapon type but Iron/Special/Relic type

Different weapon for another class (Iron)

Healing Item

Support Item/Shield

 

For mages my loadout is:

Potion

Stave equipped

Relic Weapon (if applicable)

Basic weapon (bow/sword)