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Just finished my first Conquest playthrough! Looking for some recommendations/advice on getting more out of Fates. I also wanted to talk about my overall experience with Conquest.


Arevir Wehttam
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So with the help from a few of you guys on the last post I made a few weeks back, I finally finished my Conquest run on hard/classic mode. For anyone interested, I just wanted to go over what I really liked about the game, as well as list my final team/units for the last chapter(s). With that said, I’m also looking for some advice to get more out of Fates, as well as any tips/advice for playing Conquest on Lunatic.

So starting with my overall experience. 
 

I was initially using DLC to earn some extra gold, and grind some supports, as well as utilizing path bonuses and so on, but not too long after I utilized the DLC, I felt like I was hampering the experience for my first playthrough, and ended up starting a brand new save file without using the DLC whatsoever (outside of one dread scroll, and one witches mark but only on already promoted units). Even though my overall FE experience is rather limited (only played the “Radiant” series on GC/Wii), I have to say that Conquest really impressed me, and is hands down the best FE experience I’ve had so far (at least from a gameplay perspective).

Some of the finer points for me include:

- The map design was absolutely incredible, and is hands down the thing I enjoyed the most about the game. I loved all the unique objectives and the overall pressure you feel in a lot of maps to get things done as fast as possible. With Chapter 10 being the best map I’ve ever played in the series so far. 

- I loved the whole reclassing aspect as it adds endless replay-ability and customization. With that said, I greatly enjoyed the skill system as it added a whole new layer of depth and strategy in utilizing them, especially in comparison to PoR where skills weren’t a main focus, and RD where just about every skill was “one shot kill”. 

-  I felt the game provided a steady challenge from start to finish, that really made it feel like all my choices mattered. In the other FE games I played, PoR didn’t offer much if any challenge whatsoever, and RD’s challenge was practically non-existent outside of the first act, and hard/maniac mode didn’t do much to make the gameplay actually harder outside of making it annoying by removing enemy attack ranges. 
 

- THE MUSIC! Seriously! I loved the music in this game, especially Azura’s voice/song is absolutely beautiful, and I loved the music in the final chapter. 

- Lastly was the endgame chapter(s). I actually really enjoyed them if I’m being honest. I felt the endgame chapter, atleast on hard mode was pretty well designed. I did have rescue uses left, but I did not do what seems to be what most players prefer, and rescue “cheese” to the boss for a 1/2 turn clear. Instead I played it out normally, and really enjoyed the challenge of making it to the boss before getting over-whelmed, and used my rescue staffs only on pulling my units out of danger. I ended up completing it in 6 turns with no unit deaths (but several resets), and felt really accomplished upon completing it. I can imagine this chapter being hell on lunatic though. This could be due to me having a lot of competent combat units though, as I spread the exp out for my units rather efficiently, and every unit I deployed was capable of combat, besides the 2 that were used strictly for pair-up.


For anyone curious, my final team was: 

- F!Corrin (+Str | -Mag / Master Ninja) - [Shurikenfaire / Dragon Fang / Replicate / Strength+2 / Draconic Hex] -  Holy hell did my Corrin turn out insane. She was insanely clutch the last few chapters, replicate was just overkill. Draconic Hex didn’t really do much if anything since she pretty much one rounded everything with forged iron daggers or the yato. 

- Xander(Hero) - [Elbow Room / Defender / Sol / Aegis / HP+5] - Fucking love this dude! One of the few characters I really enjoyed from a story perspective, and one of my favorite characters in the entire series. Also, insane combat unit.. reclassed to Hero for Sol & HP+5, ended up staying there due to all the beast killers in the last few chapters. 

- Charlotte(Berserker) - She was strictly a backpack for Xander. 

- Velouria(Wolfssenger) - [HP+5 / Odd Shaped / Trample / Better Odds / Grisly Wound] - Mom was Camilla. What a beast. Seriously... such a godly unit. Will use her every future run without question. 

- Keaton(Wolfssenger) - Used him up until I got Velouria, which he then became a backpack for either Velouria, Beruka, or Camilla. Was glued to Velouria last few chapters. 

- Effie(Great Knight) - [Def+2 / HP+5 / Luna / Armored Blow / Natural Cover] - I almost benched her as soon as I saw her base 4 move. Glad I didn’t... insanely solid unit up until the very end. Dipped into fighter for extra HP, and general for Wary Fighter, which I didn’t even need since she was actually doubling things let alone worrying about being doubled. 

- Arthur(Berserker) - Backpack for Effie.

- Azura(Dancer) - [Camaraderie / Sing / Voice of Peace / Amaterasu / Foreign Princess] - Always used the heron’s in the radiant series, so no different here. Amaterasu on her was awesome! Also what does Foreign Princess do exactly? I couldn’t find any direct answers.. 

- Jakob(Paladin) - [Elbow Room / Defender / Luna / Tomebreaker / Gentilhomme] - Jakob was amazing, and was easily one of my better combat units. Didn’t really understand how good he was at first, as I didn’t know his level cap was 40, nor did I know how easily I could obtain skills on him. 

- Shigure(Falcon Knight) - [Rally Speed / Warding Blow / Camaraderie / Amaterasu / Locktouch] - Kaze was his dad. Was mostly used for support/staffing. Between Amaterasu, Locktouch and Rally Speed, he had a lot of utility to offer. 

- Beruka(Berserker) - [Trample / HP+5 / Sol / Gamble / Strength+2] - Holy hell did my Beruka turn out OP, capping skill, speed, luck, and def. Between the Killer Axe giving her 70%+ critical hit rates, and the Dual Club letter her counter swords/tomes while still having 40%-50% critical rate, she was an absolutely insane combat unit, dare I say second to Corrin/Xander. No regrets making her a full time zerker. 

- Nina(Adventurer) - [Mov+1 / Trample / Lucky 7 / Pass / Shurikenbreaker] - Beruka was her mom. Probably not the best pairing for her, but I recruited her pretty late so I’m assuming the offspring seal helped a ton, because her stats were awesome. Fed her all my spirit dust, and she made excellent use of the Shining Bow and was a great second staff user. 

- Mozu(Sniper) - [Certain Blow / Bowfaire / Quickdraw / Air Superiority / Amaterasu] - I did not regret putting the time into her. Once I got a Killer Bow, there wasn’t a single boss/enemy she did not one shot. Dipped into Kinshi for Amaterasu, having 3 units with this skill was amazing. 

- Ophelia(Witch) - [Demoiselle / Malefic Aura / Heartseeker / Warp / Witch’s Brew] - Elise was her mom. I did my best to avoid using the DLC classes and avoiding path bonuses, but I couldn’t resist once I saw the Witch class and the Warp skill. Warp was so insanely powerful and useful, even without it though, I still probably would’ve used Ophelia as a Sorcerer as she was just so damn good. Plus her paralogue had some insanely useful tomes.

- Kaze(Master Ninja) - [Shurikenfaire / Aggressor / Clarity / Poison Strike / Lethality] - I had Kaze spend a few levels in Dread Fighter from 20/10 to 20/15 to try and get some better strength grows, and to pick up clarity/aggressor. In the end it didn’t do much as he still kept his same old job of being one of my best mage killers and putting enemies into kill range for other units. He was mostly used as a backpack for Beruka in the final chapters, as that 5-6 speed and +1 move for pair-up is amazing. 

- Ren(Master of Arms) - [Rally Strength / Rally Defense] - The one and only unit I captured. He was strictly used for Rallying, not much else to say here.

Honorable mentions for:

- Camilla - She was incredibly useful from chapter 10 onwards, just towards the end she kind of fell off for me when compared to my other combat units, with only 36 HP and average at best defense/res. Meanwhile my main combat units (beruka, xander, jakob, velouria, etc) were sitting around 50 HP without tonics. Next time I’ll reclass her into a Wyvern Lord earlier for better bulk growths, or maybe I should’ve dipped into Fighter with a partner seal and snagged +5HP. I probably just got unlucky with her growths though.

- Elise - Another one that was incredibly useful throughout the game. Just towards the end I had Ophelia who was out damaging her, and had Shigure/Nina as staffers that could actually take a hit if needed. Really loved her character though! Her facial expressions were always hilarious.. haha. 

- Leo - Even though I didn’t use him, he was another character that I really liked from a story perspective. Next play-through I will definitely give him a chance, as he did seem pretty good combat/stat wise.
 

Okay, so.. moving on. I’m looking for recommendations/advice in regards to getting more out of Fates. 

 

1) So for someone who greatly enjoyed Conquest gameplay, how do Birthright & Revelation stack up to it and are they worth checking out and playing?

- Coming from hard Conquest, would it be advised to play them on hard for my first run, or should I just jump straight into Lunatic as I heard these routes are a bit easier?    
- Now I’m all about a good story. And I thought the Conquest story was meh, and it actually had me laughing at some of the more “serious” parts if I’m being honest. So even if the gameplay in Birthright and Revelations doesn’t stack up to Conquest, how is the story? Because as easy as something like Path of Radiance was, that game had me sucked in because I was enthralled by the story, so I’d be perfectly willing to play them if the story is actually good/decent. 


2) Regardless if I jump into the other paths or not, I do 100% plan on playing Conquest on Lunatic.

- How is the transition from Hard to Lunatic? Is there still a lot of freedom in which units and so on you can use?
- Any important skills I should try to focus on acquiring (outside of Shurikenbreaker, which seems like a given).
- I’m guessing Niles would have a lot more utility on Lunatic with Capture, so besides the infamous Rallyman, any other units I should focus on capturing?
- This question is probably subjective. But is Lunatic difficulty.. fair? Like is the gameplay still fun and rewarding, or is it just incredibly frustrating?
- I GREATLY enjoyed my Master Ninja Corrin, and on my next playthrough I plan on using Male Corrin, so any good boon/bane + talent combinations that you recommend would be awesome. 
 

3) How are the other 3DS titles, like Awakening or Shadows of Valentia? I know SoV is a remake of a very old FE title, but I’m interested in FE as a whole. So I’ll take any recommendations for which FE games are worth checking out, even outside of 3DS era. I honestly prefer gameplay > story, but having a good story is always a plus.
 

I think that’s it. Anybody that takes the time to read this and/or replies, I just want to thank you in advance and say I greatly appreciate any comments that offer advice for future playthroughs. This board has been awesome for any questions I’ve had up until this point, and I’m super glad I came across this website. 
 

Thanks again! 

Edited by Arevir Wehttam
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1 hour ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

1) So for someone who greatly enjoyed Conquest gameplay, how do Birthright & Revelation stack up to it and are they worth checking out and playing?

Neither of the two are as difficult as Conquest – both have their own set of difficulties though. Birthright gives you a much frailer cast and tends to spam enemies. In Birthright most enemies are relatively weak and maps tend to be Route All I believe. In Revelation you have bad unit balance – some units join late, some join too weak etc. Enemies are also not weak – where Birthright spams enemies Revelations mostly inflates their stats. It is however the Sandbox of Fates due to every Army being available. You´ll also find the maps to be rather tedious/boring. Can´t speak for its story though.

1 hour ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

2) Regardless if I jump into the other paths or not, I do 100% plan on playing Conquest on Lunatic.

Hard v Lunatic mostly means that the enemies get new or different skillsets as well as updating some enemy inventories (can´t confirm the latter though). There´s also more enemies in general however there should be no increase in enemy stats.

As for capture targets I think it´s mostly the early boss Haitaka, eventually Shrine Maidens due to them having Max Staff and enemies such as Pegasus Knights with Pass. The Rally Man grows ever more powerful on Lunatic with 4 Rallies. Lunatic is fair all the way until the end – as in Endgame, maybe chapter 25. In these chapters you´ll be hit with hardly avoidable enemy exclusive skills such as endless staff uses, enemy debuffs adding up.

1 hour ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

How are the other 3DS titles, like Awakening or Shadows of Valentia? I know SoV is a remake of a very old FE title, but I’m interested in FE as a whole. So I’ll take any recommendations for which FE games are worth checking out, even outside of 3DS era. I honestly prefer gameplay > story, but having a good story is always a plus.

If you enjoy gameplay over story and you have to chose between Awakening and Echoes hands off the latter. It´s map design is exceedingly boring and it´s classes are as exciting as its Swamp chapters and difficulty is achieved only by intentionally hampering yourself. Have fun missing a lot. I have heard good stories about its “presentation”, however. Also, completely voice acted if that´s up your alley.

Awakening is not much better in terms of Map Design (it being closer to Birthright tough) and it´s difficulty jump from Hard > Lunatic is a steep one. However, you have a lot, and I mean a lot of freedom when deciding what to do with your units. Awakening´s PU system makes Fates system look like a joke – it´s much more powerful.

If I had to recommend a game outside of these it would probably be FE: Shadow Dragon. It doesn´t get any more barebones in terms of mechanics but the game is smooth af with 6 difficulties and a unique class system that allows units to change in between certain class-pools. The maps are largely okay in my eyes.

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How is the transition from Hard to Lunatic? Is there still a lot of freedom in which units and so on you can use?

You can basically use any unit that you want. Corrin is probably the only unit that you'll want to use regardless of what other units you want to use. I find that hard mode is a good tutorial for lunatic; generally speaking your hard mode strategies will work, but they might need to be adapted a little bit because of the changes.

Quote

Any important skills I should try to focus on acquiring (outside of Shurikenbreaker, which seems like a given).

You don't really need any specific skills for most units. Shurikenbreaker isn't even that important if you're willing to cheese chapter 25, and there are ways around it even if you do want to play it the 'intended' way. Just make sure to give Corrin as many goods skills as possible. Generally speaking Corrin wants as many damaging skills as she can get; the rest depends on how you build her.

Otherwise I don't think that a large amount of planning is necessary, so I'll let someone else tackle the other questions.

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2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

 

- Lastly was the endgame chapter(s). I actually really enjoyed them if I’m being honest. I felt the endgame chapter, atleast on hard mode was pretty well designed. I did have rescue uses left, but I did not do what seems to be what most players prefer, and rescue “cheese” to the boss for a 1/2 turn clear.

The 1/2 cheese is mostly a Lunatic thing, as that chapter is excruciatingly difficult without very specific builds...

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Charlotte(Berserker) - She was strictly a backpack for Xander. 

Poor Charlotte is so often relegated to a Xander Backpack, when she can become a combat monster in her own right.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Effie(Great Knight) - [Def+2 / HP+5 / Luna / Armored Blow / Natural Cover] - I almost benched her as soon as I saw her base 4 move. Glad I didn’t... insanely solid unit up until the very end. Dipped into fighter for extra HP, and general for Wary Fighter, which I didn’t even need since she was actually doubling things let alone worrying about being doubled. 

Effie is great, but people don't really expect it thanks to how bad Armored units have been over the years. Same sorta idea with her speed as a Great Knight; people have such rigid expectations from that class line.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Beruka(Berserker) - [Trample / HP+5 / Sol / Gamble / Strength+2] - Holy hell did my Beruka turn out OP, capping skill, speed, luck, and def. Between the Killer Axe giving her 70%+ critical hit rates, and the Dual Club letter her counter swords/tomes while still having 40%-50% critical rate, she was an absolutely insane combat unit, dare I say second to Corrin/Xander. No regrets making her a full time zerker. 

Berserkers are a greatly underappreciated class in Fates, and trying out one of the others will give you similar results...

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Camilla - She was incredibly useful from chapter 10 onwards, just towards the end she kind of fell off for me when compared to my other combat units, with only 36 HP and average at best defense/res. Meanwhile my main combat units (beruka, xander, jakob, velouria, etc) were sitting around 50 HP without tonics. Next time I’ll reclass her into a Wyvern Lord earlier for better bulk growths, or maybe I should’ve dipped into Fighter with a partner seal and snagged +5HP. I probably just got unlucky with her growths though.

Camilla dropping off has become a bit of a joke over the years, but as you found it is kinda true unless you work towards delaying it. I kinda remember her falling off in last 2-3 chapter even with the Wyvern Lord class change (although it has been a while since the last time I used her), but your brief Fighter/Berserker foray might be able to staved it off even longer...

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Elise - Another one that was incredibly useful throughout the game. Just towards the end I had Ophelia who was out damaging her, and had Shigure/Nina as staffers that could actually take a hit if needed. Really loved her character though! Her facial expressions were always hilarious.. haha. 

I find her personal skill to be her real selling point; if you can setup the right positioning for it, you can pull off amazing feats in this game.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

 

1) So for someone who greatly enjoyed Conquest gameplay, how do Birthright & Revelation stack up to it and are they worth checking out and playing?

That is a complicated question. Birthright has less refined map design, with a lot of Rout all enemy chapters, and boss kill chapters that get downright tedious unless you head straight for the boss, and a bit of a difficulty spike in the lategame that you might be expected to grind past. Now there is a means of grinding without the DLC in Birthright (and Revelations too) with these randomly generated encounters on previous completed maps, so you can grind past any troubles you might be having in the gameplay if you have to. Birthright units tend towards a lot of glass cannons and dodge tanks, so if that isn't the way you like to play, you will probably not enjoy it.

Revelations is chaos from a gameplay perspective. First it builds its map design around gimmicks that can be extremely hit or miss, leading to a handful of interesting chapters, but also the worst chapters in the whole trilogy (the snowblowing chapter, and the elevator chapter beings some notably bad maps in that game). Second it doesn't even pretend to have even once heard of the concept of balancing recruitment, with them coming enmass at random level (as one classic example chapter 17 gives you a level 4 promoted Xander, a level 2 promoted Leo, a level 16 Peri, a level Laslow, a level 14 Niles, and a level 12 Odin...). Now if you want to play around with class changing to its absolute fullest, and are fine with the sources of grinding the game gives to set that up, it can be kinda fun, but in an extremely messy way. I rather enjoyed my PMU (Pick My Unit) run of it on Lunatic despite all the numerous warts thanks to all the odd units and build I was using.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Coming from hard Conquest, would it be advised to play them on hard for my first run, or should I just jump straight into Lunatic as I heard these routes are a bit easier?    

Honestly you will probably be fine on any difficulty of them.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Now I’m all about a good story. And I thought the Conquest story was meh, and it actually had me laughing at some of the more “serious” parts if I’m being honest. So even if the gameplay in Birthright and Revelations doesn’t stack up to Conquest, how is the story? Because as easy as something like Path of Radiance was, that game had me sucked in because I was enthralled by the story, so I’d be perfectly willing to play them if the story is actually good/decent. 

Birthright is generally considered the best storywise, mostly because it played it the safest and as such messed up the least. Its a fairly basic good guy Hoshido versus the evil invading Nohr sorta story.

Revelations story is often considered the worst, as the first half of it is built around the Curse of Valla, which is on the same level of BS as the Blood Pact of RD. In the second half after they get into Valla, it gets repetitive with how many dead parental figures are being brought back to life in an evil form to fight and torment the characters, with a twist that they accidentally reveal early thanks to the gameplay.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:


2) Regardless if I jump into the other paths or not, I do 100% plan on playing Conquest on Lunatic.

- How is the transition from Hard to Lunatic? Is there still a lot of freedom in which units and so on you can use?

A lot smoother than you would expect. Lunatic doesn't change the stats of enemies, but it does give them better weapon, capped weapon ranks (which leads to higher damage/accuracy when you don't get WTA on them), additional skills, and sometimes larger or more difficult to deal with groups. It also changes up some of the location, number, and function of some Dragon Veins to make things more difficult. The added enemy skills tend to be one of the bigger and more dramatic changes; as one classic example difference between hard and lunatic is with Kilma (the boss of chapter 8 ) getting the vantage skill added to him, which synergizes so potently with his Nosferatu tome (and he still has Malefic Aura, and Heartseeker). Near the endgame they add in some enemy only skills that some people find a bit unfair, but I will save a bit more of that discussion for later. As for units, in my experience if you know how to use them, you can use just about anyone (even ShadowMir's terrible three), and especially if you know how to build them (which in all honesty you probably know how to do better than me, as I tend to keep folks in their base classlines for the most part).

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- Any important skills I should try to focus on acquiring (outside of Shurikenbreaker, which seems like a given).

While I generally encourage going for Shurikenbreaker, you can even get away without it, as long as you are willing to either build a Corrin capable of beating Ryoma with the tile debuff, or use a majority of the game's entrap staffs to deal with the hallway of death in chapter 25. Honestly what skills you go for are mostly down to player preferences, as there are none that are strictly needed, but if I were to name some I am partial too... I like having at least 2-3 units with Shelter, at least one lunge, getting all the defensive rallies, and an offensive rally is nice as well; I particularly like using a lot of the position based damage reducing skills (like Elise's personal, Corrin's personal, Gentileholme/Demoiselle, Inspiration, etc.), all the basic Nohrian breakers are nice for some of the most difficult endgame chapters (tomebreaker for around and near the island of 24 and the right side of 26, bowbreaker is nice for taking the roof of chapter 23 and against the final boss, axebreaker is nice on the berserkers chapter 26, shurikenbreaker on 25). As I said before, it sounds like you have experimented a lot more with the class and skill system then I have.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:


- I’m guessing Niles would have a lot more utility on Lunatic with Capture, so besides the infamous Rallyman, any other units I should focus on capturing?

You might find this thread helpful for finding interesting units you might want to capture.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:


- This question is probably subjective. But is Lunatic difficulty.. fair? Like is the gameplay still fun and rewarding, or is it just incredibly frustrating?

Personally I think all the chapters other than endgame itself is fair, but there is a case to be made that some of the enemy only skills they introduce in 25, 26, and endgame make things a bit unfair. The big ones added were Inevitable End, which lets that unit stack debuffs on their targets without limits (this was added onto all the Ninja and units with Seal skills on chapter 25, and the enfeeble Maids of endgame), and Staff Savant which sets all status staff ranges to 1-10, and makes them not expend a charge when used (which are on all the staff bots of chapter 26, and endgame). I find the Inevitable End enemies of 25 can be dealt with by basically rotating debuffed units out of combat, and the addition of Staff Savant on 26 forces you to play faster and more aggressively. Meanwhile for Endgame I find that you either need to build units with incredibly potent skill combinations, rescue cheese it in 1-2 turns, or simply be willing to sacrifice a majority of your units to make it through, as the 5 enfeeble staff wielders with both Inevitable End and Staff Savant, on top of the Hexing Rod wielder with Staff Savant are down right oppressive.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:


- I GREATLY enjoyed my Master Ninja Corrin, and on my next playthrough I plan on using Male Corrin, so any good boon/bane + talent combinations that you recommend would be awesome. 

Personally I like +speed/-luck Corrin, but it is hard to go wrong with Corrin. +magic/-luck can be a lot of fun as well, but again, the sky is the limit for your creativity.

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

 

3) How are the other 3DS titles, like Awakening or Shadows of Valentia? I know SoV is a remake of a very old FE title, but I’m interested in FE as a whole. So I’ll take any recommendations for which FE games are worth checking out, even outside of 3DS era. I honestly prefer gameplay > story, but having a good story is always a plus.

To keep things brief, the pairup system of Awakening feels worse, like a luck based version of a combined guard stance and attack stance mechanics of Fates that only the player gets and the game is so focused on it, that it makes for less satisfying gameplay. It also has massive gaps between the difficulty modes, which can make it difficult to find a satisfying difficulty to play on. Sorry for how short this is, but I never found the game particularly memorable, although I am sure someone that loves this game will come in to better sell it to you eventually.

SoV is in many ways incredible faithful to the ancient experimental game it is a remake of, so much so that they added the turnwheel to let you effectively reverse moves you made, to keep this older design philosophy from frustrating modern day players. The game SoV is remaking was always considered a bit odd and experimental (a lot of the Nintendo franchises had an extremely experimental second game...), and SoV keep all the weird quirks, even intentionally including a glitch from the original (in this case letting Nosfertu be used to kill the final boss). That being said a lot of the experimental things other Fire Emblem games would try, have their origins from Gaiden, like you might find the multi-part format of it similar to Radiant Dawn for instance, or the multiple promotion options of the villager class being the first experiment with the idea of branching promotions. I like it but its not for everyone.

 

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Don't bother with Birthright and Revelation. Gameplay wise, Birthright is just boring and piss easy, and Revelation is just really, REALLY bad, with stupid gimmicky maps and shit unit balancing. Story wise, they aren't much better than Conquest. If anything, Birthright has the worst of both worlds, it's a very bare bones story while still being dragged down by the whole story of Fates being a complete mess. And the less said about Revelation's story the better.

Still, I guess if you enjoyed what you played of Fates, you'll get a kick out of Awakening and Shadows of Valentia. Shadows of Valentia is tied with Path of Radiance as my favorite Fire Emblem game, so I definitely recommend playing it 🙂

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20 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

Also what does Foreign Princess do exactly? I couldn’t find any direct answers.. 

Bugger all in terms of main story use (it only works against units specifically designated as Foreign Army, which will be other players' castle squads).

20 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- How is the transition from Hard to Lunatic? Is there still a lot of freedom in which units and so on you can use?

Enemy stats aren't any different. You might want to check enemy skills even more than before, though. Also, enemies have maxed weapon ranks, which can increase their attack, hit rate, or both (assuming you don't have WTA over them, which negates this).

20 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- This question is probably subjective. But is Lunatic difficulty.. fair? Like is the gameplay still fun and rewarding, or is it just incredibly frustrating?

Outside of the very late game and endgame, which gets really dickish, yeah.

20 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

1) So for someone who greatly enjoyed Conquest gameplay, how do Birthright & Revelation stack up to it and are they worth checking out and playing?

As was stated before, neither measures up to Conquest, but both have their own brand of difficulty. in Birthright, you're stuck with a much frailer cast. Revelation has Early Game Hell in the form of being stuck with only a few units for the first few chapters.

20 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

3) How are the other 3DS titles, like Awakening or Shadows of Valentia? I know SoV is a remake of a very old FE title, but I’m interested in FE as a whole. So I’ll take any recommendations for which FE games are worth checking out, even outside of 3DS era. I honestly prefer gameplay > story, but having a good story is always a plus.

I would say both are worth checking out. On the other hand, I would advise staying far, FAR away from Shadow Dragon, which feels more like a NES game trying to disguise itself as a DS game and failing at it, to be blunt.

20 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

- I GREATLY enjoyed my Master Ninja Corrin, and on my next playthrough I plan on using Male Corrin, so any good boon/bane + talent combinations that you recommend would be awesome. 

Personally, I like using +Hp/-Skill.

15 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Second it doesn't even pretend to have even once heard of the concept of balancing recruitment, with them coming enmass at random level (as one classic example chapter 17 gives you a level 4 promoted Xander, a level 2 promoted Leo, a level 16 Peri, a level Laslow, a level 14 Niles, and a level 12 Odin...).

I'm surprised you didn't mention Nyx, who joins with the same stats as she did in Conquest, where she's already a bottom-of-the barrel unit... 6 chapters later. And at that, in the same chapter as Shura, who joins at level 10 promoted. That being said, it can't be worse than Radiant Dawn forcing three units that you have not seen since goddamn part 1... at the same levels they were when part 1 ended, which for two of them is much too low for them to have a ghost of a chance against the super minions in that chapter.

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Congratulations, mate! Completing Conquest always feels like an achievement because it is an entertaining, challenging puzzle
Others have given great, detailed input about your concerns, thus I will only mention some notes.

- If you enjoyed Conquest (and it seems to me that you did), just keep playing Conquest, honestly. There are countless ways to spice it up and take pleasure in replays. Its real appeal is in its gameplay, and you can always press Start at any story-related "interruption" and keep on playing. I have completed it numerous times and I still feel the thrill at several sections, for each campaign is unique.
Birthright and Revelation are nowhere near as challenging and entertaining. Of course, if you want to try different classes, know different characters or see a different-yet-equally-lame story, try them. I would never purchase them.

- Conquest on Hard teaches you almost everything that you need to know about Lunatic, and the great majority of strategies can be replayed.
Conquest on Normal is an entirely different game, as are Birthright and Revelation.

- Awakening, like Birthright, has no map design, and it also breaks unless you restrict yourself. It can be enjoyed as a traditional turn-based RPG, but do not expect anything tactical.
If you liked or at least tolerated the silly characters of Conquest, you will surely like the ones in Awakening.
Echoes has an even simpler gameplay, but it its presentation is beautiful. Seriously, it is worth trying at least once. Ask someone to lend it to you for a weekend, or wait for a big sale. I do wish that its maps were more entertaining.

- Try Conquest without "backpacks", it will let you know the units in a different light.

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18 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Neither of the two are as difficult as Conquest – both have their own set of difficulties though. Birthright gives you a much frailer cast and tends to spam enemies. In Birthright most enemies are relatively weak and maps tend to be Route All I believe. In Revelation you have bad unit balance – some units join late, some join too weak etc. Enemies are also not weak – where Birthright spams enemies Revelations mostly inflates their stats. It is however the Sandbox of Fates due to every Army being available. You´ll also find the maps to be rather tedious/boring. Can´t speak for its story though.

This seems to be the general consensus. Even though I won’t have to pay for birthright/revelations, I think I’m going to go for round 2 on conquest on lunatic before checking out the other paths. I just had so much fun playing it and so I think I’ll keep the momentum going instead of jumping into other paths that don’t sound very interesting/fun.

 

18 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Hard v Lunatic mostly means that the enemies get new or different skillsets as well as updating some enemy inventories (can´t confirm the latter though). There´s also more enemies in general however there should be no increase in enemy stats.

I really like the sound of this! After playing hard/maniac on both PoR (I got the japanese rom) and RD, I was very unimpressed with both. So I like the fact that the game stays true to it’s difficulty by not going overboard on enemy density or greatly inflating enemy stats.
 

Although the last few chapters do sound pretty rough in regards to all the stacking debuffs. I mean why the hell doesn’t this game out all games have a staff that cures status effects (lol)? I remember there being Restore Staffs in PoR/RD and hardly ever needing to use them, seems like they’d be a perfect addition to Fates.. even if they had limited use. 
 

Also thanks for the capture recommendations! I’m pretty sure I captured the hard mode version of Rallyman, he only had 2 rally’s (str & def), but he was still incredibly useful, and him having 4 rally’s on Lunatic sounds amazing.

18 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

If I had to recommend a game outside of these it would probably be FE: Shadow Dragon. It doesn´t get any more barebones in terms of mechanics but the game is smooth af with 6 difficulties and a unique class system that allows units to change in between certain class-pools. The maps are largely okay in my eyes.

I’ll keep my eye out for this one, and give it a shot. I’ve been wanting to branch out more and check out more FE titles, so thanks for recommendations. I also appreciate all the information on SoV & Awakening. After reading some more comments and looking into both games, I’ll probably hold off on both of those for now.

Thanks again though man, you’ve been super helpful as always. Really appreciate it!

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17 hours ago, samthedigital said:

You can basically use any unit that you want. Corrin is probably the only unit that you'll want to use regardless of what other units you want to use. I find that hard mode is a good tutorial for lunatic; generally speaking your hard mode strategies will work, but they might need to be adapted a little bit because of the changes.

This is very refreshing news. I’m really looking forward to starting a conquest run on lunatic with all the information I’ve been getting.

17 hours ago, samthedigital said:

You don't really need any specific skills for most units. Shurikenbreaker isn't even that important if you're willing to cheese chapter 25, and there are ways around it even if you do want to play it the 'intended' way. Just make sure to give Corrin as many goods skills as possible. Generally speaking Corrin wants as many damaging skills as she can get; the rest depends on how you build her.

This is good to know! Yeah on Chapter 25, my Corrin was able to mop the floor with Ryoma no problem. I’m just the type that makes sure I get EVERY possible item on the map or I’ll restart. But I have a feeling this map on Lunatic might have me ending up just killing Ryoma right off the bat and skipping it, as even on Hard it did give me a bit of trouble.

-

Thanks for taking the time to leave a reply, I really appreciate it!

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15 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

The 1/2 cheese is mostly a Lunatic thing, as that chapter is excruciatingly difficult without very specific builds...

I figured that was the case. As everything I read/saw in regards to this map was in reference to just skipping it and not bothering with trying to truck your way through it. Regardless, I really did enjoy this map on Hard, but after seeing all these comments this map sounds like hell on Lunatic.. lol.

 

15 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Poor Charlotte is so often relegated to a Xander Backpack, when she can become a combat monster in her own right.

 

15 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Berserkers are a greatly underappreciated class in Fates, and trying out one of the others will give you similar results...

Berserkers definitely sure seem to be very under-appreciated! All anybody really ever recommended was being on a mount/flying or bust, and I feel like the foot/infantry units in this game are incredibly potent. Now I’m no pro or LTC player or anything, but most of my combat units were actually foot soliders, and I feel like I still got through each map pretty efficiently. Plus there is something so satisfying about killing every enemy with a critical hit haha. 

As for Charlotte, I will take your advice, and give her some more love my next run. I wasn’t too big on using units strictly for backpacks, as I like to utilize attack stance as much as I could, so the upcoming run I’m gonna try to avoid using units just as backpacks altogether and try to keep everyone level’d up and combat ready. Plus, Charlotte’s personal skill sounds insane, I’m not sure how many enemy units are female, but it sounds potent nonetheless. 

15 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Effie is great, but people don't really expect it thanks to how bad Armored units have been over the years. Same sorta idea with her speed as a Great Knight; people have such rigid expectations from that class line.

So glad I stuck it out with Effie! She was getting speed screwed like crazy pre-promotion, but once I promoted she pretty much gave me speed on every level, to the point where Wary Fighter was actually pointless. And her Strength! My god.. she capped her Strength so early it was actually insane. Really awesome unit, and look forward to using her again.

16 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

A lot smoother than you would expect. Lunatic doesn't change the stats of enemies, but it does give them better weapon, capped weapon ranks (which leads to higher damage/accuracy when you don't get WTA on them), additional skills, and sometimes larger or more difficult to deal with groups. It also changes up some of the location, number, and function of some Dragon Veins to make things more difficult. The added enemy skills tend to be one of the bigger and more dramatic changes; as one classic example difference between hard and lunatic is with Kilma (the boss of chapter 8 ) getting the vantage skill added to him, which synergizes so potently with his Nosferatu tome (and he still has Malefic Aura, and Heartseeker). Near the endgame they add in some enemy only skills that some people find a bit unfair, but I will save a bit more of that discussion for later. As for units, in my experience if you know how to use them, you can use just about anyone (even ShadowMir's terrible three), and especially if you know how to build them (which in all honesty you probably know how to do better than me, as I tend to keep folks in their base classlines for the most part).

 

16 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

While I generally encourage going for Shurikenbreaker, you can even get away without it, as long as you are willing to either build a Corrin capable of beating Ryoma with the tile debuff, or use a majority of the game's entrap staffs to deal with the hallway of death in chapter 25. Honestly what skills you go for are mostly down to player preferences, as there are none that are strictly needed, but if I were to name some I am partial too... I like having at least 2-3 units with Shelter, at least one lunge, getting all the defensive rallies, and an offensive rally is nice as well; I particularly like using a lot of the position based damage reducing skills (like Elise's personal, Corrin's personal, Gentileholme/Demoiselle, Inspiration, etc.), all the basic Nohrian breakers are nice for some of the most difficult endgame chapters (tomebreaker for around and near the island of 24 and the right side of 26, bowbreaker is nice for taking the roof of chapter 23 and against the final boss, axebreaker is nice on the berserkers chapter 26, shurikenbreaker on 25). As I said before, it sounds like you have experimented a lot more with the class and skill system then I have.

Thanks a ton for all this detailed information, I REALLY appreciate it! I’ll definitely try to plan around acquiring more of the breaker-skills as it seems like they’d have a ton more utility/usefulness on Lunatic. I also definitely need to try and utilize those positioning based skills more, I started working them into my strategy towards the end, and have to remember to use them more as they make OHKO benchmarks much easier, along with providing a ton of extra defenses. 

Also thanks for linking that thread to all the unique/useful capture units!

-

As for the 3DS titles, I honestly think I’m gonna pass on Awakening. It sounds interesting and all with all the freedom in customization, but the gameplay/combat sounds extremely one-dimensional to me.. as it seems like the best play is to always be in pair-up/dual stance? I could be wrong, but the more I read into it, the less interested I become. As for SoV, this game actually has my attention, even if it’s not winning any awards in terms of gameplay and map design, the polish that the game seems to have along with the fully acted out voice lines sounds really good to me, and I definitely plan to check it out.

-

Just want to say thanks again for taking the time to answer each and everyone of my questions, aslong as taking the time to comment on my overall experience and the units that I decided to go with. You’ve been incredibly helpful as always, really appreciate it!

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4 hours ago, starburst said:

Congratulations, mate! Completing Conquest always feels like an achievement because it is an entertaining, challenging puzzle
Others have given great, detailed input about your concerns, thus I will only mention some notes.

Thanks man!
 

Yeah it felt incredibly satisfying when I finished the game. I really really enjoyed it the entire time, and there wasn’t any moment where I got bored or things felt repetitive. I’m also really glad I started a new file without utilizing DLC/path bonuses (outside of a few dlc class scrolls on already promoted units) to get the full experience on my first playthrough.

4 hours ago, starburst said:

If you enjoyed Conquest (and it seems to me that you did), just keep playing Conquest, honestly. There are countless ways to spice it up and take pleasure in replays. Its real appeal is in its gameplay, and you can always press Start at any story-related "interruption" and keep on playing. I have completed it numerous times and I still feel the thrill at several sections, for each campaign is unique.

 

4 hours ago, starburst said:

- Try Conquest without "backpacks", it will let you know the units in a different light.

I think that’s going to be my plan. I want to keep the momentum going with my enjoyment of the game, and just dive right into another playthrough and experiment with other units, pairings/children, skills, and so on. I’ve come across other comments of yours (I’m pretty sure they were yours, my apologies if I’m misremembering) while looking up some conquest information, and I’ve seen a lot of ways that you recommended to keep the game interesting on subsequent playthroughs and I definitely plan on trying them out! 🙂

I’ll also definitely give the no backpack thing a try! I wasn’t too big on using units strictly for backpacking, and my final team only had 3 units designated to backpack duty (keaton, arthur, and charlotte), with every other unit able to provide some type of combat or utility. 
 

-

I really appreciate you taking the time to comment, and you were a big help on my last thread. Thanks again! 

Cheers! 

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15 minutes ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

Berserkers definitely sure seem to be very under-appreciated! All anybody really ever recommended was being on a mount/flying or bust, and I feel like the foot/infantry units in this game are incredibly potent. Now I’m no pro or LTC player or anything, but most of my combat units were actually foot soliders, and I feel like I still got through each map pretty efficiently. Plus there is something so satisfying about killing every enemy with a critical hit haha. 

As for Charlotte, I will take your advice, and give her some more love my next run. I wasn’t too big on using units strictly for backpacks, as I like to utilize attack stance as much as I could, so the upcoming run I’m gonna try to avoid using units just as backpacks altogether and try to keep everyone level’d up and combat ready. Plus, Charlotte’s personal skill sounds insane, I’m not sure how many enemy units are female, but it sounds potent nonetheless. 

Is it any surprise, seeing as axe infantry in the Fire Emblem series tend to suck (and as far as I'm concerned, this game is definitely no exception)? The good ones tend to be good despite their class, rather than because of it.

Spoiler alert: Charlotte's personal skill is pretty much useless, as female units are (still) exceedingly rare.

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13 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Bugger all in terms of main story use (it only works against units specifically designated as Foreign Army, which will be other units' squads).

Ahh well that makes sense. As when I tried utilizing it, I noticed it not doing anything. I was under the impression that “foreign army” was just a fancy name to say “enemies” I guess not. Weird too, cuz after google searching it, I came across so many different answers for this one.

 

14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Enemy stats aren't any different. You might want to check enemy skills even more than before, though. Also, enemies have maxed weapon ranks, which can increase their attack, hit rate, or both (assuming you don't have WTA over them, which negates this).

Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely keep an eye out more on enemy skills, as I had several bad experiences going for attacks without looking at the enemy’s skills and walking right into a Counter/Counter-magic and getting myself killed, haha.

14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Personally, I like using +Hp/-Skill.

Sounds very interesting. Whats some of your favorite classes (and skills) to put Corrin into?

-

Thanks for all the info, really appreciate it!

You guys have all been great!

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15 minutes ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

Sounds very interesting. Whats some of your favorite classes (and skills) to put Corrin into?

I... tend to not have Corrin leave their default class for very long, if at all.

17 minutes ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely keep an eye out more on enemy skills, as I had several bad experiences going for attacks without looking at the enemy’s skills and walking right into a Counter/Counter-magic and getting myself killed, haha.

If it's any consolation, Counter was nerfed. Now it does not work if the unit with it initiates combat.

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So I’m about ready to start my run, going with a Lunatic/Classic Conquest run, and I don’t want to go Master Ninja again (even though it was hella strong). I’m thinking of actually keeping (well ending off) Corrin in his Nohr Noble class (or Dark Knight, not sure yet) or perhaps end in a magic oriented class. So for boon/bane I’m thinking of going: +Magic / -Luck, and go for some dragonstone+ fun, and utilizing the levin sword.

With that said, I’m honestly thinking I should pick a Hoshidan talent this time around for the skills, since I can access the Nohrian based skills via partner/friend seals. These are the the talents I’m thinking of going with: 

- Samurai - This seems like a very logical choice as you get access to a lot of potent skills like; Vantage, Astra, Life & Death, and Swordfaire.

- Diviner - Mag+2, Rally Magic, Rend Heaven, and Tomefaire. These all seem like good options, especially Rend Heaven with a super high proc rate, and Tomefaire if I end up focusing more on tomes.

- Monk - Renewal seems like it can offer a lot of utility, and I still get access to Onmyoni for the aforementioned Rally Magic & Tomefaire.

What do you guys think? Any other good Hoshidan options if I want to go more magic oriented? 

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1 hour ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

So for boon/bane I’m thinking of going: +Magic / -Luck, and go for some dragonstone+ fun, and utilizing the levin sword.

That is a simple yet versatile build for Cornflakes. Nohr Noble is a perfectly capable final class for her: Fast to double most enemies, powerful against the lower defensive stat of most enemies, reliable 1-2 range, the best de-buff in the game in Draconic Hex, and capable of being your main “tank” during the entire game through the Dragon Stones (with the Plus one, she even one-hits numerous enemies in the last third of the game.)

A simple re-classing that benefits her is Dark Mage/ Sorcerer for two or three level-ups. The -20 % Enemy Avoid skill ensures that every Dragon Stone hit will connect, the other skill grants +2 magical damage and Vengeance is useful on “tanks.” (Conquest’s defensive thresholds are actually not that high.)
Not to mention that the re-classing itself is into a class that has synergy with her base one (tomes, Magic, Speed.) I usually re-class her in Chapter 16, which is relatively easy, or in 17, which is slow paced.

Other simple, useful options are: +30 Avoid and Vantage from Samurai; +4 Attack and +40 Hit from Sniper; Elbow Room and Shelter from Cavalier; +5 Speed from Pegasus Ladies…
(I tend to ignore level 35 skills because they are only useful for the last couple of chapters and I prefer skills that improve units for most of the game.)

Rend Heaven is useless for spell casters because it would use the Magic stat of the enemy for the extra damage, which is null on anyone but mages.
 

5 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

I’ve come across other comments of yours (I’m pretty sure they were yours, my apologies if I’m misremembering) while looking up some conquest information, and I’ve seen a lot of ways that you recommended to keep the game interesting on subsequent playthroughs and I definitely plan on trying them out!

I need the slightest excuse to replay Conquest, so that was probably my encouraging others to try some challenges.
You are always welcome to try a 10-units, no royals, no “backpacks” campaign. 😜


This may sound odd but it is a sincere tip: Consider Conquest on Lunatic as “complete” after you defeat Garon in Chapter 27; do not plan your entire party with Endgame in mind. It will free you to try many more combinations and enjoy the game in different ways.
Endgame on Lunatic is not even an interesting puzzle, precisely because we all know how to cheese it. It is simply very specific.
Bragging rights are secondary to the joy of the previous 27 chapters with diverse party combinations.

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11 hours ago, starburst said:

A simple re-classing that benefits her is Dark Mage/ Sorcerer for two or three level-ups. The -20 % Enemy Avoid skill ensures that every Dragon Stone hit will connect, the other skill grants +2 magical damage and Vengeance is useful on “tanks.” (Conquest’s defensive thresholds are actually not that high.)
Not to mention that the re-classing itself is into a class that has synergy with her base one (tomes, Magic, Speed.) I usually re-class her in Chapter 16, which is relatively easy, or in 17, which is slow paced.

Other simple, useful options are: +30 Avoid and Vantage from Samurai; +4 Attack and +40 Hit from Sniper; Elbow Room and Shelter from Cavalier; +5 Speed from Pegasus Ladies…
(I tend to ignore level 35 skills because they are only useful for the last couple of chapters and I prefer skills that improve units for most of the game.)

i took your advice and just went with dark mage talent. Between Heartseeker, Malefic Aura, and Vengeance.. it just seems like a really solid choice. Plus I don't plan on using Nyx or Odin, so I'd rather just have instant access to it soon as I'm ready to reclass instead of going out of my way to build up supports.

11 hours ago, starburst said:

Rend Heaven is useless for spell casters because it would use the Magic stat of the enemy for the extra damage, which is null on anyone but mages.
 

I think I misinterpreted what this Skill actually does. I was under the impression the bonus damage you receive is based on what weapon your ENEMY is using, not which weapon your using. Meaning I thought if I'm fighting a enemy using a physical weapon I'd get bonus damage based on their strength stat, and if there using a magical based weapon I'd get bonus damage based on their magic stat, so it sounded like you can't wrong with it, haha. Thanks for clearing that up.

11 hours ago, starburst said:

I need the slightest excuse to replay Conquest, so that was probably my encouraging others to try some challenges.
You are always welcome to try a 10-units, no royals, no “backpacks” campaign. 😜

 

I'd love to give this a try some day, it actually sounds really fun! 😉 I'll probably even give it a whirl after I round out this Lunatic run honestly.

11 hours ago, starburst said:

This may sound odd but it is a sincere tip: Consider Conquest on Lunatic as “complete” after you defeat Garon in Chapter 27; do not plan your entire party with Endgame in mind. It will free you to try many more combinations and enjoy the game in different ways.
Endgame on Lunatic is not even an interesting puzzle, precisely because we all know how to cheese it. It is simply very specific.
Bragging rights are secondary to the joy of the previous 27 chapters with diverse party combinations.

I appreciate this, and I kind of have a feeling that this is exactly what I'll end up doing. The more I hear about this chapter on Lunatic, the less interested in it I become, and thought of having to plan a team so far in advance just to get through this chapter efficiently without losing my sanity sounds a bit absurd. 

-

Thanks a bunch for all the info and recommendations, I seriously appreciate everything.

You've been incredibly helpful as always!

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44 minutes ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

I think I misinterpreted what this Skill actually does. I was under the impression the bonus damage you receive is based on what weapon your ENEMY is using, not which weapon your using. Meaning I thought if I'm fighting a enemy using a physical weapon I'd get bonus damage based on their strength stat, and if there using a magical based weapon I'd get bonus damage based on their magic stat, so it sounded like you can't wrong with it, haha. Thanks for clearing that up.

Yeah, I think it's impractical myself.

45 minutes ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

i took your advice and just went with dark mage talent. Between Heartseeker, Malefic Aura, and Vengeance.. it just seems like a really solid choice. Plus I don't plan on using Nyx or Odin, so I'd rather just have instant access to it soon as I'm ready to reclass instead of going out of my way to build up supports.

Vengeance is not very good in this game - aside from an activation rate nerf, it's also much riskier and not as rewarding because of the low HP totals in this game.

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1 hour ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

i took your advice and just went with dark mage talent. Between Heartseeker, Malefic Aura, and Vengeance.. it just seems like a really solid choice. Plus I don't plan on using Nyx or Odin, so I'd rather just have instant access to it soon as I'm ready to reclass instead of going out of my way to build up supports.

I was late to respond to this, but I was going to advise thinking about who corrin's spouse would be when choosing a talent. Corrin's ability to friendship seal each class in the game is incredibly strong, so if you plan to marry Corrin off you should consider what that talent the spouse would have access to as well. The most used instance of this is female corrin with wyvern talent married to Jakob. F!Corrin can easily reach with Camilla due to their fast support, but through partner seals Jakob can become a malig knight untli level 15 while building supports to A+ Silas (heart seal designation is very important since you only get 5 until chapter 19) where he can go cavelier for 3 levels to pick up elbow room, shelter, and defender, then use the second partner seal from Dwyer's paralogue to be a Wyvern Lord for the rest of the game. I know that you're using male corrin and thus cannot do this but keep it in mind when deciding pairings. Kana isn't that great of a kid but the paralouge has a lot of promoted enemies for EXP gains and a relatively easy map to build supports. If you arent really concerned about Corrin's marriage, Dark mage is a pretty solid talent for a magic based corrin, though personally I would have gone with diviner as I do highly recommend using Odin (check out @Zoran 's content for information on using Odin) and diviner grants magic +2 and tomefaire.

 

 

I tend to value skills that give a flat damage increase for this game because they are more reliable than skills like luna, dragon fang, or rend heaven in not just damage output, but also damage control if you want to set up a kill for someone else or a particular strategy relies on setting up the shield gauge without interference of crits or skill procs. The exception to this rule is Sol, which while percentage based it is the only form of healing during combat outside of nosferatu so it is desirable for specific physical 1-2 range enemy phase unit builds like Xander or master ninjas, and if you can double/abuse the guard stance procs you percentage to activate it for survival becomes much higher. It also comes from the same class tree with strong riposte for +3 enemy phase damage so you might as well grab it. Some other skills to focus on since you asked are skills like shelter, lunge, and savage blow, and swordbreaker is great with the dual club for the dodgy swordmaster minibosses and the big cheese of Hoshido himself. You may have noticed an overlap in the suggested skills being from the Wyvern and Cavalier class trees. Wyverns are one of the best classes in the game (especially if they can access berserker for HP +5 and Axefaire} due to high mobility, strength, defense, and speed along with the high Mt of Axes and the Dual club. And even though paladins/great knights become significantly worse in the midsection of the game the skills they offer do not. For a mag focused corrin I do highly recommend going through at least malig for flight access and trample, it's also very tanky with high magic output. This means getting to A support with Percy though, since hes the only male who passes on the wyvern tree.

 

Other than that definitely take @starburst advice about the campaign being complete after 26, even though I personally cannot help myself from going nuts with optimizing all my combat units when it comes to skills and marriages. Im currently trying to plan a non-rescue cheese on my second Lunatic playthrough where I am at endgame rn. I have had to save all my rescue charges, silence charges, and hoard the energy drops to see how Corrin's strength grew so that she could kill Takumi after an enfeeble staff. Without this stress you can focus on diversifying your roster which is something that so addicting with sandbox games like these. I've actually eschewed Xander on this run and instead fully trained Laslow, who is definitely a really average unit and has required Charlotte's backpacking assistance for a lot of my run. He's a decent master ninja if not completely eclipsed by Master Ninja Silas for most of the game. But after he got shurikenfaire from obliterating chapter 24 he changed to a mechanist and could one round Ryoma, Hans, and trivialized the Sorcerer and maid reinforcements in chapter 26. Replicate is also pretty cool.

 

Lastly I do want to posit on the question of the other 3DS titles. While Lunatic+ is absolute horseshit, Awakening's Lunatic is unkind to a sandbox game but it is still very possible to build some units and use them for a good portion of the game other than the Avatar. The story is simplistic and has its contrivances but I would argue its still enjoyable in its own way. Awakening also set a lot of precendents for Fates that they tried to unsuccessfully copy. Children characters actually have a logical reason to be in Awakening's story unlike the Deeprealms for example. Echoes, which I do highly recommend for its presentation, art style, and pretty solid story imo also has some significant references to Awakening that wont land as much if you didn't play it. I am biased because Awakening was my first fire emblem game ever and I absolutely loved it at the time and appreciate it for what it is today, and seeing how IS built on its success and saving of the franchise as a whole was very fascinating when looking at modern fire emblem today. 

 

Congrats on your Hard/Classic clear and good luck on lunatic

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2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

Plus I don't plan on using Nyx or Odin [...]

Heresy! The Hero of the Ages does need some investment in a couple of chapters, but by Chapter 10 he goes the full Walking Dead against the Onis and can tank them indefinitely with +Mag Cornflakes. Furthermore, her daughter is the most broken unit in the game. Embrace the one, true light.
Sponsored by Chosen Ones Inc.
 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

I think I misinterpreted what this Skill actually does. I was under the impression the bonus damage you receive is based on what weapon your ENEMY is using, not which weapon your using.

It would be the most broken skill otherwise!
Rend Heaven is still very useful on Master Ninjas, Mechanists, Snipers, Generals and Heroes, for example, for they have high Skill, target Defence and face strong enemies. (Your only access to it is through Cornflakes, though.)

 

2 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

I'd love to give this a try some day, it actually sounds really fun! I'll probably even give it a whirl after I round out this Lunatic run honestly.

If anything, it tells you that the offensive and defensive thresholds are lower than what you imagined, and that the royals are never needed. The game takes place almost exclusively on Player Phase, and demands evenly levelled units and specialised ones to march forward.

 

3 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

The more I hear about this chapter on Lunatic, the less interested in it I become, and thought of having to plan a team so far in advance just to get through this chapter efficiently without losing my sanity sounds a bit absurd. 

You can beat Lunatic Endgame with ten units, no royals and no "backpacks", but I would not say that you can do it with any party. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that you can complete all maps up to Chapter 27 with any (not meme) combination of ten units. (Chapter 25 might be the other exception if your Corrin is fragile.)
I am not afraid of Endgame on Lunatic, I simply do not find it fun to plan ahead my entire party with that chapter in mind.

That being said, once you reach Endgame, go for it. Perseverance is always commendable, and one should never quit just because.

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21 hours ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

All anybody really ever recommended was being on a mount/flying or bust, and I feel like the foot/infantry units in this game are incredibly potent.

Well, in general, mounted units and classes are looked at as superior because their higher move allows them to get places faster, among other conveniences. Like being able to kite enemies. Radiant Dawn and 3 Houses (to some extent) are about the only games where mounts (or at least cavalry) are not dominant.

12 minutes ago, starburst said:

If anything, it tells you that the offensive and defensive thresholds are lower than what you imagined, and that the royals are never needed. The game takes place almost exclusively on Player Phase, and demands evenly levelled units and specialised ones to march forward.

I don't know about this - I find much more success making like Isabelle in SSBU and fishing for mooks (ergo, baiting anyone stupid enough to charge at me, which most enemies are, while I lure them into a trap), rather than charging in and praying I have enough firepower to take out everything.

1 hour ago, beachwalks said:

I tend to value skills that give a flat damage increase for this game because they are more reliable than skills like luna, dragon fang, or rend heaven in not just damage output, but also damage control if you want to set up a kill for someone else or a particular strategy relies on setting up the shield gauge without interference of crits or skill procs. The exception to this rule is Sol, which while percentage based it is the only form of healing during combat outside of nosferatu so it is desirable for specific physical 1-2 range enemy phase unit builds like Xander or master ninjas, and if you can double/abuse the guard stance procs you percentage to activate it for survival becomes much higher. It also comes from the same class tree with strong riposte for +3 enemy phase damage so you might as well grab it. Some other skills to focus on since you asked are skills like shelter, lunge, and savage blow, and swordbreaker is great with the dual club for the dodgy swordmaster minibosses and the big cheese of Hoshido himself. You may have noticed an overlap in the suggested skills being from the Wyvern and Cavalier class trees. Wyverns are one of the best classes in the game (especially if they can access berserker for HP +5 and Axefaire} due to high mobility, strength, defense, and speed along with the high Mt of Axes and the Dual club. And even though paladins/great knights become significantly worse in the midsection of the game the skills they offer do not. For a mag focused corrin I do highly recommend going through at least malig for flight access and trample, it's also very tanky with high magic output. This means getting to A support with Percy though, since hes the only male who passes on the wyvern tree.

I hard disagree on Sol - it's only helpful if it activates while the enemy is healthy. Otherwise, it's useless. And that's ignoring that at best, you only have a 1-in-3 chance of it activating. That's not reliable enough to me. I also find Savage Blow much more useful in theory than in actual practice.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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3 minutes ago, starburst said:

Heresy! The Hero of the Ages does need some investment in a couple of chapters, but by Chapter 10 he goes the full Walking Dead against the Onis and can tank them indefinitely with +Mag Cornflakes. Furthermore, her daughter is the most broken unit in the game. Embrace the one, true light.
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You know what... I might actually just give Odin a chance this run. Considering your not the only one who has some good stuff to say about him, as somebody else just left me some information about him in this thread that I plan to check out shortly.

I just hear so many mixed things in regards to him how he’s not worth it.. but then I’ve seen vids/clips of Odin straight beasting his way through chapter 10 (along with many other chapters) with nostanking, and I have to say it looks really fun. I also see a lot of people like to heart seal him to Samurai/Swordmaster aswell. And I do agree on Ophelia, she was so worth getting my last run, easily one of my top 5 units.. plus the loot from her chapter was so worth!

When you use Odin, do you use him as more of a short term investment for getting through certain milestones like chapter 10? Any experience with the Samurai path on him, is it worth it? 
 

12 minutes ago, starburst said:

It would be the most broken skill otherwise!

Dude!! Lmao! This was seriously my exact thought when I was browsing through the skills. I was like well... this seems like a top-tier choice, unless I’m not understanding it correctly (which of course was the case, haha). 

 

14 minutes ago, starburst said:

That being said, once you reach Endgame, go for it. Perseverance is always commendable, and one should never quit just because.

Yeah.. at the very least, I plan to give it a shot. But at the same time, I’m not going to hold back on using my staffs or other items that prove useful for endgame if I’m in a position pre-endgame where they might come in handy. Either way I’m still very interested in seeing the differences from hard vs lunatic with my own eyes, and hopefully I manage to come out on top 🙂. Definitely not going to beat myself up over it though if I can’t manage. 

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2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Vengeance is not very good in this game - aside from an activation rate nerf, it's also much riskier and not as rewarding because of the low HP totals in this game.

Yeah I’ve come to realize on my first playthrough that trying to utilize skills that proc based on low HP seems very risky (atleast from my end, as I’m still getting used to things), especially when compared to the other FE games I played (PoR & RD). On top of that, dodge tanking does not seem very reliable from my experience so far (I feel like enemy hit rates in this game are higher than what’s stated, unless I’m just extremely unlucky), and with lower HP values combined with high enemy damage output I can see how things can be a bit risky. With that said, I’m sure there’s still a way to make skills that revolve around being at lower health & dodge-tank based builds work, I’m just not entirely sure how to piece everything together just yet as I’m still learning new things about Fates everyday. The one thing that really intrigues me with this game though is just how different it is from the Tellius game, and I feel like it’s going to have my attention for a long while.

But yeah Vengeance wasn’t necessarily the selling point for me, I was moreso interested in Malefic Aura & Heartseeker, but Vengeance does seem like it could have some merit, especially if I’m going to mess around with the dragonstone(+) which should (hopefully) provide me with enough bulk. 
 

Thanks for the heads up though!

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17 minutes ago, Arevir Wehttam said:

Yeah I’ve come to realize on my first playthrough that trying to utilize skills that proc based on low HP seems very risky (atleast from my end, as I’m still getting used to things), especially when compared to the other FE games I played (PoR & RD). On top of that, dodge tanking does not seem very reliable from my experience so far (I feel like enemy hit rates in this game are higher than what’s stated, unless I’m just extremely unlucky), and with lower HP values combined with high enemy damage output I can see how things can be a bit risky. With that said, I’m sure there’s still a way to make skills that revolve around being at lower health & dodge-tank based builds work, I’m just not entirely sure how to piece everything together just yet as I’m still learning new things about Fates everyday. The one thing that really intrigues me with this game though is just how different it is from the Tellius game, and I feel like it’s going to have my attention for a long while.

But yeah Vengeance wasn’t necessarily the selling point for me, I was moreso interested in Malefic Aura & Heartseeker, but Vengeance does seem like it could have some merit, especially if I’m going to mess around with the dragonstone(+) which should (hopefully) provide me with enough bulk. 
 

Thanks for the heads up though!

I will note that most of what I say is relative to Awakening because it directly preceded Fates.

Also, the Dragonstone+ will cut your magic and skill every time you attack with it.

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2 hours ago, beachwalks said:

I was late to respond to this, but I was going to advise thinking about who corrin's spouse would be when choosing a talent. Corrin's ability to friendship seal each class in the game is incredibly strong, so if you plan to marry Corrin off you should consider what that talent the spouse would have access to as well. The most used instance of this is female corrin with wyvern talent married to Jakob. F!Corrin can easily reach with Camilla due to their fast support, but through partner seals Jakob can become a malig knight untli level 15 while building supports to A+ Silas (heart seal designation is very important since you only get 5 until chapter 19) where he can go cavelier for 3 levels to pick up elbow room, shelter, and defender, then use the second partner seal from Dwyer's paralogue to be a Wyvern Lord for the rest of the game. I know that you're using male corrin and thus cannot do this but keep it in mind when deciding pairings. Kana isn't that great of a kid but the paralouge has a lot of promoted enemies for EXP gains and a relatively easy map to build supports. If you arent really concerned about Corrin's marriage, Dark mage is a pretty solid talent for a magic based corrin, though personally I would have gone with diviner as I do highly recommend using Odin (check out @Zoran 's content for information on using Odin) and diviner grants magic +2 and tomefaire.

I like this! This is all extremely solid information. Stuff like this is why I’m so interested in this game, as there seems to be endless ways to plan out your runs and piece builds together.
 

I might even take your advice, start a new file and go with Diviner instead, and pick up Dark Mage tree through seals, and give Odin an actual chance. As you are not the only person in here to recommend trying him out for real (as my only experience with him so far was as a backpack to produce Ophelia).. plus I like to keep things interesting, and it’d be a nice change of pace to try out some of the other units. On top of that, I’m not even very far into my run at all (work schedule gets hectic at times), so I’m not losing out on much. 

And after reading this.. it just seems like female Corrin is always the better choice? I mean.. you get Jakob 1 who has very strong reclass options, and you get access to an early Dwyer for some useful staffs and a friendship seal. Plus Jakob 1 just seems to be much better unit overall compared to Felicia 1.. right? If I stay with male Corrin, what’s usually a good plan for Felicia as far as reclass options go? Does she have late game utility, or not so much? Because on my hard run, Jakob was a real MvP and offered up so much utility. 
 

2 hours ago, beachwalks said:

The exception to this rule is Sol, which while percentage based it is the only form of healing during combat outside of nosferatu so it is desirable for specific physical 1-2 range enemy phase unit builds like Xander or master ninjas, and if you can double/abuse the guard stance procs you percentage to activate it for survival becomes much higher.

I feel you on this one. I actually went with Hero!Xander the last 4-5 chapters to pick up Sol, and just ended up staying as a Hero, as there was an abundance of enemies wielding Beastkillers, and just wanted to avoid them altogether. And I have to say, Sol really did come in clutch quite a few times, and it gave me more confidence if I wanted to go with more aggressive placements. I also dipped Beruka into Hero for Sol, but like you stated it wasn’t very worthwhile considering Beruka didn’t have access to a strong 1-2 option like Xander did with Siegfried. 
 

2 hours ago, beachwalks said:

Some other skills to focus on since you asked are skills like shelter, lunge, and savage blow, and swordbreaker is great with the dual club for the dodgy swordmaster minibosses and the big cheese of Hoshido himself. You may have noticed an overlap in the suggested skills being from the Wyvern and Cavalier class trees. Wyverns are one of the best classes in the game (especially if they can access berserker for HP +5 and Axefaire} due to high mobility, strength, defense, and speed

Thanks for the skill recommendations, and good call on Swordbreaker, some other people recommended it as well so I’m definitely going to try and work it in before getting to Ryoma. As for the Wyvern tree, I definitely noticed how powerful it was with the incredibly potent skills, stats, and flight on top of it. I actually really enjoyed the Lunge skill, and worked it into my strategies quite a bit, plus trample was just amazing. 

 

2 hours ago, beachwalks said:

Lastly I do want to posit on the question of the other 3DS titles.

Thanks for taking the time to discuss the other 3DS titles. For some reason, I seem more intrigued by Echoes, as like you stated, it’s presentation just looks outstanding. I’m sure sooner or later I’ll get around to checking out both though, and I really appreciate you taking the time to give me some much sought after information on both titles.

-

Regardless if you commented late or not, you’ve been extremely helpful and insightful, and I appreciate you taking the time to answer just about everyone one of my questions, along with giving me more ways to look at Fates in regards to planning ahead.
 

Thanks a ton!
 

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