FE4 Ranked Attempt - Ethlyn's Inheritance

[Fraven Pooth]

I'm going for AAAA rank on Genealogy, and currently on Chapter 3. Obviously, I'm not too worried about Finn or Quan passing things down, just throw a silver lance and maybe a javelin on each.

However, I'm not sure about what to pass to Leif. I'm still building kills on the Light Brand, it's at 36 before starting Chapter 3, and I want to keep building on it until the end of Gen 1. I will probably just let her run off with the Thunder Sword from this chapter.

What I'm more stuck on is whether I should pass the second Silver Sword or Blade to Leif, and maybe the Barrier Ring or others I may not need. My plan was to have Beo/Ayra/Holyn get the 2 Silver Swords and the Blade, but I don't want to screw over Leif where he ends up with no cash or decent weapons.

TL;DR: Should I be worried about promoting Leif quickly in a ranked run? Or just have Patty drop him some gold, and let him trudge through the arena to promote around Chapter 9?

Edit: Also, should I give him the armourslayer, or let Dermott or one of Ayra's kids inherit it?

Pairings:

Spoiler

Ayra x Noish

Lach x Beo

Brigid x Dew

 

Edited November 19, 2020 by Fraven Pooth

[L3xandr3]

Hmmm, Ranked FE4. My sleep paralysis demon is back, t'would seem...

For Leif, I'd advocate sending down that Bolt Sword and an Armorslayer, and maybe some spare rings (If only for more efficient transfer of $$$).

As for him promoting quickly, are you going to use MK Leif as a combat unit, or a staffbot? If the former, then just let him go at his own pace, if the latter, then yeah, you should get him promoted quickly.

I know from experience how rough ranked runs are, but if all goes well, you should have the Ranking pretty much locked down by the Endgame. Meaning all your capped units can come out to play. Luck be with you, good sir!

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

On 11/19/2020 at 11:02 AM, Fraven Pooth said:

TL;DR: Should I be worried about promoting Leif quickly in a ranked run? Or just have Patty drop him some gold, and let him trudge through the arena to promote around Chapter 9?

keep in mind that a promoted Leif also gains an A rank in all weapon types + horseback. the Master Knight is easily the most broken class in the game in terms of builds variety and overall utility.

some people usually give the Elite ring(Paragon) to Seliph first in order to promote earlier and seize castles more easily due to becoming a mounted unit upon promotion, after that the Elite ring goes to whoever needs it most depending on your playstyle.

linking here a screenshot from one of my previous Genealogy runs:

Skill set after promotion:   

 

as you can see, at max lv he can eventually become a killing machine even without capped stats, but even at lv20 he's pretty useful considering all the things he can do, from attacking to tanking or even healing.

so, all considered:

On 11/19/2020 at 11:02 AM, Fraven Pooth said:

I'm not sure about what to pass to Leif. I'm still building kills on the Light Brand, it's at 36 before starting Chapter 3, and I want to keep building on it until the end of Gen 1. I will probably just let her run off with the Thunder Sword from this chapter.

keep in mind that everytime you sell an item to the merchant, you're going to need money to get it back later on. that means either visiting villages, using the Thief sword, equipping the Thief ring, or getting money directly from a thief.

thing is, regardless of the method used, you're potentially going to take away that source of money from another unit whenever you're trying to get back/buy stuff that was in origin on other units, so you should plan wisely on what/when to sell and to who in order to avoid wasting money on multiple items switching. that not only will help you in saving more money, but can also allow you to transfer the Elite ring to more than 2 characters if you're good enough at managing money.

besides, it's not like you're going to absolutely need those 50 kills on the Light Brand for Leif, especially when he will already have a passive Critical along with Pursuit upon promotion. sure, they will always be an extra, but they're not really mandatory.

On 11/19/2020 at 11:02 AM, Fraven Pooth said:

What I'm more stuck on is whether I should pass the second Silver Sword or Blade to Leif, and maybe the Barrier Ring or others I may not need.

while being still unpromoted, he may suffer from the lack of accuracy of the Silver Blade, so the Silver Sword would allow him to perform a bit better from the get to in terms of both accuracy and evasion.

after promotion, and eventually with a Skill ring for further stats stacking, Leif will probably end up destroying anything that walks in his range regardless of weapon used.

however, keep in mind that the lighter the weapon he uses will be, the better chances he'll have to trigger the skill Continue.

the Barrier ring may help too, but there's also other units that can eventually benefit way more from it(especially Pegasus Knights).

On 11/19/2020 at 11:02 AM, Fraven Pooth said:

My plan was to have Beo/Ayra/Holyn get the 2 Silver Swords and the Blade, but I don't want to screw over Leif where he ends up with no cash or decent weapons.

i guarantee you, the Light Brand should be more than enough for Leif. you can give him a Silver sword too, but if you're already building up kills on the Light Brand, then you might as well just stick with that.

Ayra is probably the one that will benefit the most from the SIlver Blade due to Astra, while Holyn will deal decent amounts of damage regardless of sword used due to Luna ignoring part of the enemy's defence(the Thunder/Wind sword is always a nice and useful addition too).

On 11/19/2020 at 11:02 AM, Fraven Pooth said:

should I give him the armourslayer, or let Dermott or one of Ayra's kids inherit it?

Ayra's kids will inherit Astra anyway, that's really all they'll ever need in the long run in order to kill enemies.

Dermott will probably need an Armorslayer way more than the other two children, especially for arenas.

Edited November 21, 2020 by 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ

[Fraven Pooth]

16 minutes ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

keep in mind that a promoted Leif also gains an A rank in all weapon types + horseback. the Master Knight is easily the most broken class in the game in terms of builds variety and overall utility.

I have beaten Genealogy 4 or 5 times already, so I am well aware of most of the things you mentioned.

I am asking specifically for a ranked run, where gaining experience is generally more important than actual efficiency. Leif can easily staffbot to level 30 once he promotes, so the real concern is getting him to level 20. I decided that by using the Paragon Ring in the arena, he shouldn't have much trouble getting there, especially since he can borrow a Hero Sword with a ton of kills on it. The only real concern will be getting him enough money, and he can take a bunch of villages in chapter 7 to get close enough.

FWIW, I ended up leaving Ethlyn with the second Silver Sword and the Thunder Sword, so obv the Armourslayer will be passed to someone else. The kills on the Light Brand are not only for Leif, it's not his Prf in this game. Those extra kills not being necessary is exactly why i passed him the Thunder Sword instead.

It's a good thing I didn't pass the Barrier ring, cause its very helpful now in Chapter 4. As for the Silver Blade, it's on Beowulf, but I would have given it to Holyn over Ayra since he still needs the extra Attack even with Luna - anything Ayra proc's Astra against is generally dead anyways.

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

14 minutes ago, Fraven Pooth said:

The only real concern will be getting him enough money, and he can take a bunch of villages in chapter 7 to get close enough.

if you steal/save money with Patty for trading later, and let Leif visit all the villages in his starting area(around 20.000 gold if you manage to save them from bandits), you should be able to gather enough money by the end of the chapter.

by using decent weapons along with the Elite ring, and if all goes well, by the start of chapter 9(or by the end of its arena) Leif should already be able to promote.

27 minutes ago, Fraven Pooth said:

As for the Silver Blade, it's on Beowulf, but I would have given it to Holyn over Ayra since he still needs the extra Attack even with Luna - anything Ayra proc's Astra against is generally dead anyways.

i always tend to give the Brave weapons to units with Pursuit due to the 4 attacks, but that's only as long as they don't have other skills such as Astra, because that alone is overpowered in Genealogy.

43 minutes ago, Fraven Pooth said:

I ended up leaving Ethlyn with the second Silver Sword and the Thunder Sword, so obv the Armourslayer will be passed to someone else. The kills on the Light Brand are not only for Leif, it's not his Prf in this game. Those extra kills not being necessary is exactly why i passed him the Thunder Sword instead.

thinking about it, i actually never sold Sigurd's Silver sword because it always had so many kills that by chapter 6 Seliph was already critting like crazy and didn't really need anything else. Leif can always profit from a Brave sword, though.

Thunder/Wind swords usually end up on Holyn or anyone else that has at least some points in Magic rather than 0. the fact that they're C grade also means that there's plenty of units who can eventually use them.

the Silver Blade being A grade means that only few units will actually have access to it, so usually it goes to swordfighters.

 

in any case, the sooner you promote Leif, the better. having a mobile unit that deals multiple types of damage, hits very hard and can also work as secondary healer is invaluable.

[Fraven Pooth]

37 minutes ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

the Silver Blade being A grade means that only few units will actually have access to it, so usually it goes to swordfighters.

Leen and Fee/Patty before promotion are actually the only gen 2 units with a sword rank below A.

Edit: and technically Tilty's kids after promotion

Edited November 21, 2020 by Fraven Pooth