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What are the best units to use in The Sacred Stones?


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@sinfonic18 So to answer some questions and give you the best chance of doing well and completing the game without giving up or starting over, I will give you a few tips. 
Every unit is good in this game for casual play, and all but a few can be made useful in LTC settings. 
Focus on a small number of “core” units. Like 3 or 4 to feed 75% of combat and kills into. Then have another 7 or 8 units for support roles. The core units will be nearly invincible, and the support units will have plenty of exp left over to stay as strong or stronger than the enemies. Good candidates for the core units are mounted and flying units. Their high mobility will allow them more freedom to protect any other vulnerable units and complete objectives faster and easier. 
Eirika is good, Ephraim is a candidate for best Lord in the series. Don’t go out of your way to force feed Eirika, she will be fine with one or two kills per map. 
Ross is the best of the trainees followed by Amelia then Ewan simply due to their availability. Berserker!Ross imo is the best combat unit in the game. Water and mountain walking is nice but very niche. He excels because of the high Str and 15% crit bonus of the Berserker class. Most enemies are pretty slow, so with average Spd growth he will double most enemies. Also note that Pirate and Berserker promotion bonuses both give +1 spd whereas Fighter and Warrior give 0. 
Dozla is usable, but he will be inferior to any other axe user you train up until you get Dozla. 
For Chapter 6, it is too hard to rescue the villagers. The easiest way is to just kill the boss before the spider gets to them. Don’t be afraid to have Seth or Franz charge in and kill half of the enemies on the map by themselves. There are plenty more left over to give all of your other units two or three kills. Make sure to get Torch staves so your healers can light up the map when they don’t need to heal. 

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4 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Oof well I'm getting mixed messages here. xD How about this. Is the other Berserker you get in the game that is prepromoted any good? Because I could just use him and have Ross be a fighter/Warrior/Hero. I don't like prepromotes but like seth and titania I'll give this one an exception.

Dozla is... fine. He's decently bulky, with good-not-great Strength. He's slow, but his high Con lets him wield basically any axe with no loss. That said, he's also harder to rescue/carry. B Axes is kind of disappointing for his join-time, but he can probably reach A (Silver Axe) and S (Garm) naturally. His growths are... actually quite solid for a pre-promote. I view him as less good than a trained-up Ross, but with the benefit of no investment required. 

Ultimately, though, different players will have different opinions. My recommendation is, figure out which units you want to use, and use 'em. Sacred Stones is an easy enough game that you can make it work with pretty much any batch of units. Let us know whom you decide on, and how they turn out!

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8 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Is the other Berserker you get in the game that is prepromoted any good? Because I could just use him and have Ross be a fighter/Warrior/Hero. I don't like prepromotes but like seth and titania I'll give this one an exception

He's solid. Good enough bases, good enough growths. He's a tad slow, but his speed growth is decent.

8 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

I'm just curious as to why SM is so against it lol. 

IIRC Mir just really doesn't like infantry axe units, and giving the Ocean seal to Ross is more of an opportunity cost.

That said, a lot of people prefer giving Ross the ocean seal because Colm really doesn't benefit that much from promotion. Rogue gives him Pick,* but that's about all that it gives him aside from some modest buffs to stats. Promotion doesn't give him any more movement or anything noteworthy. If you have got your whole team promoted in chapter 15, it could be a good idea to give him the Master Seal for the second rogue, but that aside, Colm's not missing anything from having not early-promoted.

Ross, however, gets a lot from promotion to berserker-Mountain walking and +1 mov, some pretty hefty stat boosts, a large Con boost, +15 crit, raised strength cap. Even at as low as 10/10/1, Ross' stats are fairly impressive-Actually a little bit better than Dozla at base barring a solid lead for Dozla in HP and a small lead in skill for Dozla which doesn't really matter, since Ross will have higher hit when factoring in his luck.

Ross also will suffer a fair bit from not being able to promote until basically chapter 16, since there is a possibility that he'd have capped strength for a while at that point and he won't be able to instantly get the large boosts of promotion.

*I should point out that if you are frugal with your lockpick uses, (I.E, using door keys when an enemy has just dropped one) you won't need Colm to get Pick to open any chests, and once the prepromote thief arrives with Pick, you'll be fine.

 

 

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10 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

That may be true but I never have any luck in the arenas. Even at a low bid, the enemies always just seem way too strong for me to handle and usually get Silver and Steel weapons while I'm stuck with a crappy iron one. Doesn't help when the enemy has a hit of 25-30 and manages to hit every single darn time lol. JUST. ONE. MISS. AND. I. WILL.- *Dead*

There's no need for the arena in this game, other than getting some pocket money; you can just use the Tower of Valni to grind after you reach the route split. Also, there are only three arenas in the game, only two of which you can access in any playthrough because two are mutually exclusive.

10 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

I asked SM this already but how does Dozla fair? I might not even give Ross the time if he is decent.

In a word: Junk.

10 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

@Benice said it would be fine to make her a General, since I didn't want to cav spam the game. Idk if she is worth it at all no matter what the class she is in because her growths looking at them are, ew. Her base stats wouldn't be so bad if she had amazing growths but... 

I don't consider it worth it because it's ten billion percent harder to train a knight than it is a cavalier. Also, it is just not worth suffering through two tiers of 4 move lancelock.

8 hours ago, Hawk King said:

For Chapter 6, it is too hard to rescue the villagers. The easiest way is to just kill the boss before the spider gets to them. Don’t be afraid to have Seth or Franz charge in and kill half of the enemies on the map by themselves. There are plenty more left over to give all of your other units two or three kills. Make sure to get Torch staves so your healers can light up the map when they don’t need to heal. 

Speaking of which, it's worth noting that some of the shops have different items on the world map than they have when you're in the chapters with the shops themselves.

10 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

I'm just curious as to why SM is so against it lol. 

Simply put, I have a low opinion of most axe infantry, largely because many of them are lacking in most stats not named HP and Strength (of course, Ross, Garcia, and Dozla are NOT exceptions to this). They're only good for hitting stuff hard... Once. IF they hit. As a result, I find that most of the few good foot axes excel in spite of their class, rather than because of it. It doesn't help that foot axes tend to be very consistent about having crippling weaknesses that eclipse their strengths...

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22 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

IF they hit.

Ehhh, this shouldnt really be an issue in SS, though.

On topic, anyone is fair game, this game is very very easy. Dont worry about optimal setups as others have said.

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22 hours ago, Hawk King said:

@sinfonic18 So to answer some questions and give you the best chance of doing well and completing the game without giving up or starting over, I will give you a few tips. 
Every unit is good in this game for casual play, and all but a few can be made useful in LTC settings. 
Focus on a small number of “core” units. Like 3 or 4 to feed 75% of combat and kills into. Then have another 7 or 8 units for support roles. The core units will be nearly invincible, and the support units will have plenty of exp left over to stay as strong or stronger than the enemies. Good candidates for the core units are mounted and flying units. Their high mobility will allow them more freedom to protect any other vulnerable units and complete objectives faster and easier. 
Eirika is good, Ephraim is a candidate for best Lord in the series. Don’t go out of your way to force feed Eirika, she will be fine with one or two kills per map. 
Ross is the best of the trainees followed by Amelia then Ewan simply due to their availability. Berserker!Ross imo is the best combat unit in the game. Water and mountain walking is nice but very niche. He excels because of the high Str and 15% crit bonus of the Berserker class. Most enemies are pretty slow, so with average Spd growth he will double most enemies. Also note that Pirate and Berserker promotion bonuses both give +1 spd whereas Fighter and Warrior give 0. 
Dozla is usable, but he will be inferior to any other axe user you train up until you get Dozla. 
For Chapter 6, it is too hard to rescue the villagers. The easiest way is to just kill the boss before the spider gets to them. Don’t be afraid to have Seth or Franz charge in and kill half of the enemies on the map by themselves. There are plenty more left over to give all of your other units two or three kills. Make sure to get Torch staves so your healers can light up the map when they don’t need to heal. 

Is Ephraim really that good? I wasn't planning on investing in him too much (I was still gonna use him) but now I'm thinking over my decision.

Everyone here has said Ross can be excellent if trained and I love training units that start weaker to grow into strong ones so he will be apart of my core units. (receiving promotion first, stat boost items, etc) I might use Dozla for the map he joins on but other than that I'll probably bench him since he is a prepromote.

That's a good strategy, thanks! That map was giving me a headache because I really need that Orions bolt for Niemi. I'm not worried about seth charging in, but I am reserved about letting an unpromoted Franz charge in without any backup because it always ends in failure for me. 

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

Dozla is... fine. He's decently bulky, with good-not-great Strength. He's slow, but his high Con lets him wield basically any axe with no loss. That said, he's also harder to rescue/carry. B Axes is kind of disappointing for his join-time, but he can probably reach A (Silver Axe) and S (Garm) naturally. His growths are... actually quite solid for a pre-promote. I view him as less good than a trained-up Ross, but with the benefit of no investment required. 

Ultimately, though, different players will have different opinions. My recommendation is, figure out which units you want to use, and use 'em. Sacred Stones is an easy enough game that you can make it work with pretty much any batch of units. Let us know whom you decide on, and how they turn out!

Hmm. I'll take it into consideration, I like axe users so much though that I might end up using all three axe infantry. (Garcia, ross, dozla) but that doesn't give much variety, so, idk. I'll have to see when I get there what I decide.

If you want to hear, I plan on my core 12 being: Eirika, Ephraim, Ross, Garcia, Tana, Joshua, Molder/Natasha (whichever one is better, I need to look those two up sometime.) Seth, Franz, Lute, Artur and finally Neimi. 

15 hours ago, Benice said:
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He's solid. Good enough bases, good enough growths. He's a tad slow, but his speed growth is decent.

IIRC Mir just really doesn't like infantry axe units, and giving the Ocean seal to Ross is more of an opportunity cost.

That said, a lot of people prefer giving Ross the ocean seal because Colm really doesn't benefit that much from promotion. Rogue gives him Pick,* but that's about all that it gives him aside from some modest buffs to stats. Promotion doesn't give him any more movement or anything noteworthy. If you have got your whole team promoted in chapter 15, it could be a good idea to give him the Master Seal for the second rogue, but that aside, Colm's not missing anything from having not early-promoted.

Ross, however, gets a lot from promotion to berserker-Mountain walking and +1 mov, some pretty hefty stat boosts, a large Con boost, +15 crit, raised strength cap. Even at as low as 10/10/1, Ross' stats are fairly impressive-Actually a little bit better than Dozla at base barring a solid lead for Dozla in HP and a small lead in skill for Dozla which doesn't really matter, since Ross will have higher hit when factoring in his luck.

Ross also will suffer a fair bit from not being able to promote until basically chapter 16, since there is a possibility that he'd have capped strength for a while at that point and he won't be able to instantly get the large boosts of promotion.

*I should point out that if you are frugal with your lockpick uses, (I.E, using door keys when an enemy has just dropped one) you won't need Colm to get Pick to open any chests, and once the prepromote thief arrives with Pick, you'll be fine.

 

 

Good case for Ross. I mean, by the way you make it sound, he could be the best character in the game (I mean, he probably could if you were really lucky with his growths) but like I said, I'd rather give Ross the first Ocean seal and make Colm wait since he seems to not need it as fast as Ross does. I've actually never used door/chest keys in FE games because I always have a dedicated thief but that is a great strategy for saving up some since i guess I'll have to this time around.

13 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

There's no need for the arena in this game, other than getting some pocket money; you can just use the Tower of Valni to grind after you reach the route split. Also, there are only three arenas in the game, only two of which you can access in any playthrough because two are mutually exclusive.

In a word: Junk.

I don't consider it worth it because it's ten billion percent harder to train a knight than it is a cavalier. Also, it is just not worth suffering through two tiers of 4 move lancelock.

Speaking of which, it's worth noting that some of the shops have different items on the world map than they have when you're in the chapters with the shops themselves.

Simply put, I have a low opinion of most axe infantry, largely because many of them are lacking in most stats not named HP and Strength (of course, Ross, Garcia, and Dozla are NOT exceptions to this). They're only good for hitting stuff hard... Once. IF they hit. As a result, I find that most of the few good foot axes excel in spite of their class, rather than because of it. It doesn't help that foot axes tend to be very consistent about having crippling weaknesses that eclipse their strengths...

Well I'd like to have pocket money for secret shops. BUT, if the Tower is much easier to level up on than the Arena, I am all for it. I dread the arena every single time.

Well regardless of what personal bias/vendetta to have against axe users, everyone has said Dozla is outclassed by Ross once he gets there so it's a moot point anyway.

That's true, I guess. I don't mind grinding past Knight though to get General with axes, but Great Knight in this game is basically general but with swords. 

Huh... I didn't know that. That will be good to keep in mind for the rest of the game. 

Axe hit rate is only a problem in Binding blade though. (Gonzales gets better though, I swear) but not so in other games since enemies don't have any luck (the stat). But yeah, I can agree with the notion that they have no other stats other than Str and Hp, they are severely lacking in speed. There are exceptions though. What do you think of Boyd from FE9? He is probably the best foot axe users in the series. He's accurate, fast and hits hard, he's just a frail sponge though. 

 

13 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

 

Edited by sinfonic18
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2 minutes ago, sinfonic18 said:

Is Ephraim really that good? I wasn't planning on investing in him too much (I was still gonna use him) but now I'm thinking over my decision.

Quite excellent. Good stats, good promotion. It is worth noting that both Ephraim and Eirika get absolutely BONKERS prfs midway through the game, and once they get that, they become very good.

3 minutes ago, sinfonic18 said:

Molder/Natasha (whichever one is better, I need to look those two up sometime.)

IMO Moulder is much, much better, (Earlier joining time which means he can reach promotion level sooner, great con, etc. He can even use Elfire without losing speed at all, should he be promoted to Sage. Natasha has the benefit of a higher magic growth, and she also won't be facing passive crit, which is actually a problem for Moulder should he become a combat unit for you. The other thing Natasha's got is access to Valkyrie, and she is probably better than the other one. Who is still quite good, though!

That being said, I personally don't find that either of them are particularly worth promoting. If you've got the spare guiding ring, either one works, really. If you get her to promotion, Natasha will be better than Moulder, but she's also takes a lot longer to get there. The third staff user has the benefit of starting on a horse and lacking the luck problems that Moulder has, but...Kinda suffers everywhere else. Still, mounted healers are nice and you don't need stats to be able to heal 20+HP per turn.

10 minutes ago, sinfonic18 said:

I've actually never used door/chest keys in FE games because I always have a dedicated thief but that is a great strategy for saving up some since i guess I'll have to this time around.

Yep. It's more of a concern on Ephraim's route, but after opening every chest, I'm left with two uses left on his lockpick. I opened some doors as well, though.

12 minutes ago, sinfonic18 said:

That's true, I guess. I don't mind grinding past Knight though to get General with axes, but Great Knight in this game is basically general but with swords. 

Just so you know, Amelia can get Great Knight from both Cavalier and Knight. You just seemed down on adding another cav, so I mentioned the knight choice. Stat-Wise, Knight grants...Mostly slightly better boosts, but Cavalier does add to her speed, whereas Knight doesn't.

(Also, both Generals and Great Knights have full access to the weapon triangle in this game.)

 

Anyways, re: Dozla; he's a good filler unit at worst. You can basically just put him in there if you have an empty deployment slot, as you likely will in the lategame. There are some other solid prepromotes as well to fill them in, (and those slots aren't really important anyways...) so he's not a necessity or staple unit.

 

 

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@sinfonic18 Ephraim has great bases, amazing growths, an amazing prf weapon and horse on promotion which all factor into him being one of the best Lords ever.  He can get plenty of exp on 5x and since you are going Eirika route he will get auto-leveled 6 levels but only un to LV15 max. You won’t need to really put any effort into training him. 
As long as Ross get average to above average luck on his levels he will be good to great. I’ve seen him hit the skill cap as a pirate, and I’ve seen him gain just 1 point of speed in 18 levels. 99% of the time he will fall somewhere in between. 
For chapter 6, Franz should be starting to become mini Seth if you are focusing as much combat and kills into him as you can as Franz should definitely be one of you main core units. 
There is a trick/exploit to the arena. The game only “locks in” random numbers after combat is initiated or a unit ends their turn. So you can go to an area and check to see what enemy shows up. If you have weapon triangle advantage or you know it is a class you will double and beat easily you can accept the fight. If it is a bad matchup, you can soft reset and go to Resume Chapter and the unit you checked with will still be able to move since you haven’t locked in their action. Then you can burn RNs and check again for a more favorable matchup. No emulator or savestates required. This trick can be performed on a cartridge. 
Personally, I would advise against using Garcia long term and suggest Gerik instead. He is another axe infantry unit since he promotes into a Hero. Has a much better speed base and growth with amazing bases and growths all around. And can potentially insta-promote as soon as you get him if you need the immediate boost. Obviously, the more you train him before promotion the better he will be. Garcia’s 20% spd growth can be infuriating. 
Axe infantry are actually consistently better than Sword locked units in this game. SM’s dislike of them is a bit puzzling to me. Hero!Gerik is considered a high/top tier character. Enemies just don’t have extremely high speed stats. 15 speed is enough to double 75% of enemies. 
Generally, I would say don’t train both Artur and Lute especially since you plan to use so many of the early joining units. You might actually need to take advantage of the Chapter 5 arena to help train some of the up. If either Lute or Artur gets stat screwed you can drop one of them for Saleh who is the mage equivalent of Seth. 
Long term, Natasha is a little better than Moulder. For LTC Moulder is always better because of his higher base level. 
The main case against Colm getting the Ocean seal is that he already has 6 movement as a Thief and his 15 uses of lockpick are more than enough to get everything you need. 
Both Generals and Great Knights can use all three weapon types. General has slightly better stat caps than GK. GK is widely considered the better class because of the mount. 

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18 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Well I'd like to have pocket money for secret shops. BUT, if the Tower is much easier to level up on than the Arena, I am all for it. I dread the arena every single time.

Most of what you face in the tower is revenants, aka punching bags. Perfect for getting the trainee units up to speed.

18 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Well regardless of what personal bias/vendetta to have against axe users, everyone has said Dozla is outclassed by Ross once he gets there so it's a moot point anyway.

TBF, Ross isn't that good anyway. As a Pirate, he only has a 1 speed lead over Fighter... which disappears if he uses literally anything heavier than an iron axe (and it ain't like he's a speed demon). For someone who everyone is so willing to put in a good word for, that's really lousy.

18 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Is Ephraim really that good? I wasn't planning on investing in him too much (I was still gonna use him) but now I'm thinking over my decision.

As he is the other main character in this game, it'd behoove you to invest in him anyway.

EDIT: Also, don't forget to take Orson's Silver Sword before clearing 5x.

18 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Hmm. I'll take it into consideration, I like axe users so much though that I might end up using all three axe infantry. (Garcia, ross, dozla) but that doesn't give much variety, so, idk. I'll have to see when I get there what I decide.

Why? Because most GBA axe users are lower than dirt. Being slow with low defenses is a losing combination for a frontline unit.

8 hours ago, Hawk King said:

Axe infantry are actually consistently better than Sword locked units in this game. SM’s dislike of them is a bit puzzling to me. Hero!Gerik is considered a high/top tier character. Enemies just don’t have extremely high speed stats. 15 speed is enough to double 75% of enemies.

When I talk about axe infantry, I specifically mean anyone who starts in an axe class. Which, in the context of this game, is Ross, Garcia, and Dozla. And many of them, as stated earlier, tend to be slow as molasses and have poor defenses on top of that, which adds up to them being unreliable as frontline units and easily outperformed on the offense. Which makes it all the more puzzling that Garcia was apparently a renowned commander in Renais's army before the game started, because with growths like that, he sure as hell ain't gonna live up to the reputation he had back then...

18 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Huh... I didn't know that. That will be good to keep in mind for the rest of the game. 

A big one is that Torch staves are buyable in Serafew after you win the battle there. Also of note, the Torch item is best used by a thief, as thieves already can see farther than other classes in fog of war maps.

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4 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

When I talk about axe infantry, I specifically mean anyone who starts in an axe class. Which, in the context of this game, is Ross, Garcia, and Dozla. And many of them, as stated earlier, tend to be slow as molasses and have poor defenses on top of that, which adds up to them being unreliable as frontline units and easily outperformed on the offense.

All that Ross, Garcia, or Dozla need is one speedwing and they will double pretty much anything that isn’t a swordmaster or a dog monster. They have huge HP stats and just as much defense as most other units. Dozla has some fantastic growth rates so he isn’t bad for a backup if Garcia or Ross get stat screwed. Let’s not forget that Garm is probably the best weapon in the game. The three axe infantry are all better than Joshua, Marissa, Colm, or Rennac. 

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20 hours ago, Benice said:
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Quite excellent. Good stats, good promotion. It is worth noting that both Ephraim and Eirika get absolutely BONKERS prfs midway through the game, and once they get that, they become very good.

IMO Moulder is much, much better, (Earlier joining time which means he can reach promotion level sooner, great con, etc. He can even use Elfire without losing speed at all, should he be promoted to Sage. Natasha has the benefit of a higher magic growth, and she also won't be facing passive crit, which is actually a problem for Moulder should he become a combat unit for you. The other thing Natasha's got is access to Valkyrie, and she is probably better than the other one. Who is still quite good, though!

That being said, I personally don't find that either of them are particularly worth promoting. If you've got the spare guiding ring, either one works, really. If you get her to promotion, Natasha will be better than Moulder, but she's also takes a lot longer to get there. The third staff user has the benefit of starting on a horse and lacking the luck problems that Moulder has, but...Kinda suffers everywhere else. Still, mounted healers are nice and you don't need stats to be able to heal 20+HP per turn.

Yep. It's more of a concern on Ephraim's route, but after opening every chest, I'm left with two uses left on his lockpick. I opened some doors as well, though.

Just so you know, Amelia can get Great Knight from both Cavalier and Knight. You just seemed down on adding another cav, so I mentioned the knight choice. Stat-Wise, Knight grants...Mostly slightly better boosts, but Cavalier does add to her speed, whereas Knight doesn't.

(Also, both Generals and Great Knights have full access to the weapon triangle in this game.)

 

Anyways, re: Dozla; he's a good filler unit at worst. You can basically just put him in there if you have an empty deployment slot, as you likely will in the lategame. There are some other solid prepromotes as well to fill them in, (and those slots aren't really important anyways...) so he's not a necessity or staple unit.

 

 

Well damn if they are this highly touted I'd be dumb not to invest something into them at least. They don't sound like no Eliwood or Roy.

I'd really like to have a Valkyrie for two reasons: Mounted healing + damage. I mean, the class is like Sage on a horse. BUT, it might be dumb to use Moulder/Natasha, Lute AND Artur all on the same team. That might be a little too many frail magic users so I might just use Moulder and Lute and drop the other two. I'm not sure yet, but I'm leaning on those two. 

Well then that solves everything. I can just easily promote her to Cavalier and then Great Knight to get a general on a horse, not having to mess with a garbage lance-locked knight until I get there. 

I think I'll make Duessel and Dozla filler units when I can but for now they can warm the bench. 

11 hours ago, Hawk King said:

@sinfonic18 Ephraim has great bases, amazing growths, an amazing prf weapon and horse on promotion which all factor into him being one of the best Lords ever.  He can get plenty of exp on 5x and since you are going Eirika route he will get auto-leveled 6 levels but only un to LV15 max. You won’t need to really put any effort into training him. 
As long as Ross get average to above average luck on his levels he will be good to great. I’ve seen him hit the skill cap as a pirate, and I’ve seen him gain just 1 point of speed in 18 levels. 99% of the time he will fall somewhere in between. 
For chapter 6, Franz should be starting to become mini Seth if you are focusing as much combat and kills into him as you can as Franz should definitely be one of you main core units. 
There is a trick/exploit to the arena. The game only “locks in” random numbers after combat is initiated or a unit ends their turn. So you can go to an area and check to see what enemy shows up. If you have weapon triangle advantage or you know it is a class you will double and beat easily you can accept the fight. If it is a bad matchup, you can soft reset and go to Resume Chapter and the unit you checked with will still be able to move since you haven’t locked in their action. Then you can burn RNs and check again for a more favorable matchup. No emulator or savestates required. This trick can be performed on a cartridge. 
Personally, I would advise against using Garcia long term and suggest Gerik instead. He is another axe infantry unit since he promotes into a Hero. Has a much better speed base and growth with amazing bases and growths all around. And can potentially insta-promote as soon as you get him if you need the immediate boost. Obviously, the more you train him before promotion the better he will be. Garcia’s 20% spd growth can be infuriating. 
Axe infantry are actually consistently better than Sword locked units in this game. SM’s dislike of them is a bit puzzling to me. Hero!Gerik is considered a high/top tier character. Enemies just don’t have extremely high speed stats. 15 speed is enough to double 75% of enemies. 
Generally, I would say don’t train both Artur and Lute especially since you plan to use so many of the early joining units. You might actually need to take advantage of the Chapter 5 arena to help train some of the up. If either Lute or Artur gets stat screwed you can drop one of them for Saleh who is the mage equivalent of Seth. 
Long term, Natasha is a little better than Moulder. For LTC Moulder is always better because of his higher base level. 
The main case against Colm getting the Ocean seal is that he already has 6 movement as a Thief and his 15 uses of lockpick are more than enough to get everything you need. 
Both Generals and Great Knights can use all three weapon types. General has slightly better stat caps than GK. GK is widely considered the better class because of the mount. 

Oof that seems like he is very unpredictable with his growths. I was kind of unlucky on him last time but by the sound of that maybe, just MAYBE I will get very lucky on him this time. I haven't got to chapter 2 yet because I just restarted yesterday but we'll see.

Well, my Franz on the last run was almost offensively as good as Seth, but his defenses were no where near the level of Seth's so many times I did not feel comfortable putting him out there a lot because he was frail, but offensively very potent for a cav. So yeah, I agree. A mini Seth is a good way to describe him. xD

So THERE IS A TRICK to the arena. When I read about Arena abuse it always puzzled me how people did it on an actual cartridge without savestates, speed up and all the other fancy amenities that emulators give you. But here's the thing, how do you check what the enemy is and what they carry prior to paying? This sounds like a much easier method than save states.

Gerik... Hmm. When do you get him? My Garcia might be better by the time I get him maybe. I'll have to look at his growths if he is underleveled.

I'm taking that advice because you're right. I have too many magic users planned so I'm either going to drop artur or lute depending on whoever turns out worse. (I'm leaning on artur for now)

GK only has 6 move in this game though right? I would figure the mount is a flaw with the class since it adds a horseslayer weakness that General doesn't have.

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Most of what you face in the tower is revenants, aka punching bags. Perfect for getting the trainee units up to speed.

TBF, Ross isn't that good anyway. As a Pirate, he only has a 1 speed lead over Fighter... which disappears if he uses literally anything heavier than an iron axe (and it ain't like he's a speed demon). For someone who everyone is so willing to put in a good word for, that's really lousy.

As he is the other main character in this game, it'd behoove you to invest in him anyway.

EDIT: Also, don't forget to take Orson's Silver Sword before clearing 5x.

Why? Because most GBA axe users are lower than dirt. Being slow with low defenses is a losing combination for a frontline unit.

When I talk about axe infantry, I specifically mean anyone who starts in an axe class. Which, in the context of this game, is Ross, Garcia, and Dozla. And many of them, as stated earlier, tend to be slow as molasses and have poor defenses on top of that, which adds up to them being unreliable as frontline units and easily outperformed on the offense. Which makes it all the more puzzling that Garcia was apparently a renowned commander in Renais's army before the game started, because with growths like that, he sure as hell ain't gonna live up to the reputation he had back then...

A big one is that Torch staves are buyable in Serafew after you win the battle there. Also of note, the Torch item is best used by a thief, as thieves already can see farther than other classes in fog of war maps.

Oh yeah, those entombed zombies. Reminds me of Awakening. 

Yeah but it's not his first promotion which makes him it's his last which is Berserker with 15+ crit and a 30 strength cap. 

Oh, that's a little detail that I wouldn't even have looked over. I thought you got Orson back later but apparently he disappears after that so I didn't even think about taking his weapons.

Well maybe in his older Dad years he's become more worn and his growths reflect that. At least until his son put the fire back into him.

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11 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Gerik... Hmm. When do you get him? My Garcia might be better by the time I get him maybe. I'll have to look at his growths if he is underleveled.

Depends on the route. He joins in chapter 10 on Eirika route, and chapter 13 on Ephraim route.

11 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

GK only has 6 move in this game though right? I would figure the mount is a flaw with the class since it adds a horseslayer weakness that General doesn't have.

Right. And that's why other than Gilliam, I wouldn't consider it for anyone, as essentially being a foot unit that takes worse movement penalties defeats the purpose of being mounted.

11 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Oh yeah, those entombed zombies. Reminds me of Awakening. 

Entombed are the green ones that give mucho experience when killed. Like the boss in chapter 4, for example. Revenants are purple.

11 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Oh, that's a little detail that I wouldn't even have looked over. I thought you got Orson back later but apparently he disappears after that so I didn't even think about taking his weapons.

Well, the game sets him up to be a traitor even before he appears (pay attention to the dialogue between Tirado and Valter in 5x).

11 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Yeah but it's not his first promotion which makes him it's his last which is Berserker with 15+ crit and a 30 strength cap. 

That doesn't help much when he's slow to the point where he struggles to double anything that's not weighed down by their weapon or just that slow. Also, caps don't matter much, because they need a lot of luck to even become relevant. Like I said, his poor speed means his otherwise great offense winds up being unimpressive instead. And that's on top of his other weaknesses.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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@sinfonic18 For the arena, you soft reset on the screen where it shows the enemy’s class, level, and weapon. Don’t abuse it to the point of making the game brain dead easy (unless you want to), but getting everyone two or three levels might go a long way for you. 
Gerik joins automatically after Chapter 10, or you can recruit him mid chapter by talking to him with Innes after you talk to Innes with either Eirika or Tana. 
I believe there are only one or two enemies in the entire game who have a Horseslayer so the extra weakness for GKs really isn’t a problem. 
After taking a closer look at base stats, growths, and enemy data per chapter; I actually like Dozla even more than I did before. With a speedwing, and average speed growth, he actually doubles 75% of remaining enemies, and the only enemies that double him, which is like 5% of the enemies, only do 2-5 damage per hit. 
I would rank the axe infantry as Hero!Gerik > Zerker!Ross > Hero!Garcia=Dozla. 

11 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

That doesn't help much when he's slow to the point where he struggles to double anything that's not weighed down by their weapon or just that slow.

You need to actually look at enemy stats. The axe boys double 50-90% of enemies in every map for the cost of just one speedwing. They can potentially one shot quite a few enemies they don’t double, and the very few enemies they get doubled by will deal single digit damage per hit. Mouthe Doogs are moot as well since they have at most 24Hp and 4Def so Garcia and Ross will one shot them before they get their 2nd attack. 

Edited by Hawk King
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Spoiler

 

23 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

I'd really like to have a Valkyrie for two reasons: Mounted healing + damage. I mean, the class is like Sage on a horse. BUT, it might be dumb to use Moulder/Natasha, Lute AND Artur all on the same team. That might be a little too many frail magic users so I might just use Moulder and Lute and drop the other two. I'm not sure yet, but I'm leaning on those two. 

You also do get a third Valkyrie option in chapter 11 in both routes.

23 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Gerik... Hmm. When do you get him?

I feel like it's worth noting that Gerik is basically the best foot unit in the game in terms of combat once he joins. I personally like to get him to level 12-15 before I promote him, but he does do fine with the instapromotion. (Hero is also generally considered the better option for him)

11 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

That doesn't help much when he's slow to the point where he struggles to double anything that's not weighed down by their weapon or just that slow.

Untrue for all three axes.

Also, it makes no difference if enemies need to be weighed down, they're still slow enough.

Let's just take a late/midgame map, chapter 17 HM, since all three have been around for a while.

10/10/10 Berserker Ross can double 11/22 enemies on the map with non-steel/brave/battle axes-This is at a decently low level estimate for Ross as well. With a speedwing, that becomes 15/22. Counting the reinforcements after turn 5, it is 26/33, or 78%. The enemies he can't double are Valkyries, Heroes, Swordmasters and Berserkers. The only units able to double those at 10/10 are Eirika, Falcoknight Vanessa when using lighter equipment, (Javelins bring her out of doubling range), Rogue Colm, (Ross deals more damage to them either way), Tana, Marisa, Rennac, Syrene, (She joins on this map at level 1, so she ain't doublin' 'em), so seven of 33 can double them.* Close units include Ephraim and Neimi.

Level 10 Dozla has the same speed as 10/10/10 Ross and fares as well, but with the con to use nearly all axes unimpeded.

Level 10/10 Hero Garcia has one less speed, which deprives him of about four enemies.

*Tethys technically would double as well, but she can't use weapons.

So yes, the axes are only worse at doubling than seven other units in your army if you give them the speedwing-And since they have some of the highest strength in the game, they make the best uses of them. What's more is that even when they do not double, Ross and Dozla have the passive chance to OHKO with a crit, and should have roughly 45% chance to do just that will a Killer Axe.

Enemies out of HM should be a tad slower, (I dunno the exact numbers) but they may not even need the speedwings.

 

 

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12 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Depends on the route. He joins in chapter 10 on Eirika route, and chapter 13 on Ephraim route.

Right. And that's why other than Gilliam, I wouldn't consider it for anyone, as essentially being a foot unit that takes worse movement penalties defeats the purpose of being mounted.

So then he is probably better for the route I'm taking (Eirika's) than Garcia but when I do Ephraim I'll probably keep Garcia.

Yeah I'm kind of leaning on on General > Great Knight. Although, if there is only 2 horseslayers in the game then it's not much of a difference and it still gets 6 move
 

11 hours ago, Hawk King said:

@sinfonic18 For the arena, you soft reset on the screen where it shows the enemy’s class, level, and weapon. Don’t abuse it to the point of making the game brain dead easy (unless you want to), but getting everyone two or three levels might go a long way for you. 
Gerik joins automatically after Chapter 10, or you can recruit him mid chapter by talking to him with Innes after you talk to Innes with either Eirika or Tana. 
I believe there are only one or two enemies in the entire game who have a Horseslayer so the extra weakness for GKs really isn’t a problem. 
After taking a closer look at base stats, growths, and enemy data per chapter; I actually like Dozla even more than I did before. With a speedwing, and average speed growth, he actually doubles 75% of remaining enemies, and the only enemies that double him, which is like 5% of the enemies, only do 2-5 damage per hit. 
I would rank the axe infantry as Hero!Gerik > Zerker!Ross > Hero!Garcia=Dozla. 

You need to actually look at enemy stats. The axe boys double 50-90% of enemies in every map for the cost of just one speedwing. They can potentially one shot quite a few enemies they don’t double, and the very few enemies they get doubled by will deal single digit damage per hit. Mouthe Doogs are moot as well since they have at most 24Hp and 4Def so Garcia and Ross will one shot them before they get their 2nd attack. 

I see. I'm going to try that instead of save stating because that doesn't reset the RNG like this method does.

So Hero Garcia can still be viable though? I'm not much of a fan of prepromotes so I'd prefer to use Gerik + Garcia instead of Dozla.

 

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5 minutes ago, sinfonic18 said:

So Hero Garcia can still be viable though? I'm not much of a fan of prepromotes so I'd prefer to use Gerik + Garcia instead of Dozla.

Problem is that you don’t get a second Hero crest until Chapter 14 I think. So I personally wouldn’t use both Garcia and Gerik. Garcia needs the +2 speed from Hero and Gerik can get more levels until the second Hero Crest so it wouldn’t be a huge problem. Also Garcia almost absolutely needs Speedwing and for his speed growth to cooperate. However a speed blessed Garcia would be an absolute monster. If you rigged him to get speed every now and then you wouldn’t have to worry at all. 

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9 hours ago, Benice said:

10/10/10 Berserker Ross can double 11/22 enemies on the map with non-steel/brave/battle axes-This is at a decently low level estimate for Ross as well. With a speedwing, that becomes 15/22. Counting the reinforcements after turn 5, it is 26/33, or 78%. The enemies he can't double are Valkyries, Heroes, Swordmasters and Berserkers. The only units able to double those at 10/10 are Eirika, Falcoknight Vanessa when using lighter equipment, (Javelins bring her out of doubling range), Rogue Colm, (Ross deals more damage to them either way), Tana, Marisa, Rennac, Syrene, (She joins on this map at level 1, so she ain't doublin' 'em), so seven of 33 can double them.* Close units include Ephraim and Neimi.

Level 10 Dozla has the same speed as 10/10/10 Ross and fares as well, but with the con to use nearly all axes unimpeded.

Level 10/10 Hero Garcia has one less speed, which deprives him of about four enemies.

*Tethys technically would double as well, but she can't use weapons.

So yes, the axes are only worse at doubling than seven other units in your army if you give them the speedwing-And since they have some of the highest strength in the game, they make the best uses of them. What's more is that even when they do not double, Ross and Dozla have the passive chance to OHKO with a crit, and should have roughly 45% chance to do just that will a Killer Axe.

Enemies out of HM should be a tad slower, (I dunno the exact numbers) but they may not even need the speedwings.

That's a blatantly unrealistic level to be at at that point (at least without grinding, which can be used in favour of anyone), given that you're going to be leveling much slower when you promote. For reference, I had recently watched a video of an 0% growth LTC run, and Gerik, who the player was heavily leaning on, wasn't at level 10 by chapter 18, so I can't see any of those three can be at the level you're using for this by that point without massive favoritism (that said, the player went Ephraim route, where Gerik joins later, but still).

9 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

So then he is probably better for the route I'm taking (Eirika's) than Garcia but when I do Ephraim I'll probably keep Garcia.

Yeah I'm kind of leaning on on General > Great Knight. Although, if there is only 2 horseslayers in the game then it's not much of a difference and it still gets 6 move

I'd say Garcia isn't going to be better even on Ephraim route even knowing that Gerik joins later. 

It's not so much about horseslayers as it is about the fact that Great Knight is a lousy class, especially compared to Paladin.

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1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

That's a blatantly unrealistic level to be at at that point (at least without grinding, which can be used in favour of anyone), given that you're going to be leveling much slower when you promote. For reference, I had recently watched a video of an 0% growth LTC run, and Gerik, who the player was heavily leaning on, wasn't at level 10 by chapter 18, so I can't see any of those three can be at the level you're using for this by that point without massive favoritism (that said, the player went Ephraim route, where Gerik joins later, but still).

Level 10 promotions are unrealistic for someone’s casual play of the game. It is a very conservative estimate. 
And using Gerik’s experience gain on a 0% growths Ephraim route LTC for reference to how much experience units can get on a casual play of Eirika’s route is a bit silly. 
As someone who has played many drafts of this game, getting to those levels in LTC settings is quite easy. Not to mention, Garcia doesn’t even have the option to promote until Chapter 11 so he will be quite a bit higher than level 10 when he does promote. Ross can promote after Chapter 9 since a mid chapter promotion doesn’t really do much for him. As long as you get him to Trainee LV10 on Chapter 5, he can get a ton of experience on Chapter 6. He can walk over the river, kill some archers, and get the boss kill on Chapter 7. On Chapter 8, he can kill a bunch of soldiers, armors and other enemies (about 10 total) on his way to killing the boss here. And then on Chapter 9, he can walk across the water killing all the pirates on his way to the south part of the map where the enemy density is quite high. 

Let’s not forget that the person who is doing this play though has already said he plans to take advantage of the arena for extra money. Which will give him more experience on Garcia and Ross. Especially if he can get Ross to LV10 on Chapter 4 which is entirely possible when you aren’t concerned about turn counts. 
 

Paladin is obviously better than GK, but GK is also obviously better than General. 
 

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46 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

That's a blatantly unrealistic level to be at at that point (at least without grinding, which can be used in favour of anyone), given that you're going to be leveling much slower when you promote. For reference, I had recently watched a video of an 0% growth LTC run, and Gerik, who the player was heavily leaning on, wasn't at level 10 by chapter 18, so I can't see any of those three can be at the level you're using for this by that point without massive favoritism (that said, the player went Ephraim route, where Gerik joins later, but still).

In terms of total level, not really. Since Ross starts well behind the level curve, he gets exp very easily until he's roughly level 7-9 as a pirate or fighter, at which point he's normal. If the player were to promote Ross at level 10, he is unlikely to reach 10 as a berserker, but Ross could very easily be 10/15/5 or 10/19/1, which would have exactly the same result. (His speed is also the same on average from levels 10/10/8 to 10/10/11) Gerik joins at a higher level as well as ten maps later than Ross and Garcia, (Since it's a 0%, I assume Gerik was promoted to hero right away as well), so he loses the benefit of accelerated exp gain. What is more is that the player has access to Garm, which allows basically free doubling for them, aside from the very fast enemies.

Plus, NM has faster EXP gain.

As for Dozla, even assuming he is base level, he still packs a solid punch if you have the deployment slot empty. Would someone like Saleh be better than him? Absolutely. However, we're not talking about optimal play here-If we were, basically nobody but Seth, Franz, Vanessa, Cormag and Moulder would be in this conversation. Dozla fares fine at the very worst, even well after his join time. Again looking at chapter 17, base level Dozla will deal roughly 13~ damage with iron weaponry, but he could very easily just hold onto his battle, steel or killer axes to increase his output by a lot.

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On 4/16/2021 at 1:35 AM, Hawk King said:

Problem is that you don’t get a second Hero crest until Chapter 14 I think. So I personally wouldn’t use both Garcia and Gerik. Garcia needs the +2 speed from Hero and Gerik can get more levels until the second Hero Crest so it wouldn’t be a huge problem. Also Garcia almost absolutely needs Speedwing and for his speed growth to cooperate. However a speed blessed Garcia would be an absolute monster. If you rigged him to get speed every now and then you wouldn’t have to worry at all. 

Well I tried to rig him a couple levels today for speed but, I only got 2 speed levels but the rest were INSANE growths but without speed, so I think that might be enough. 

 

On 4/16/2021 at 10:44 AM, Shadow Mir said:

That's a blatantly unrealistic level to be at at that point (at least without grinding, which can be used in favour of anyone), given that you're going to be leveling much slower when you promote. For reference, I had recently watched a video of an 0% growth LTC run, and Gerik, who the player was heavily leaning on, wasn't at level 10 by chapter 18, so I can't see any of those three can be at the level you're using for this by that point without massive favoritism (that said, the player went Ephraim route, where Gerik joins later, but still).

I'd say Garcia isn't going to be better even on Ephraim route even knowing that Gerik joins later. 

It's not so much about horseslayers as it is about the fact that Great Knight is a lousy class, especially compared to Paladin.

On 4/16/2021 at 11:46 AM, Hawk King said:

Level 10 promotions are unrealistic for someone’s casual play of the game. It is a very conservative estimate. 
And using Gerik’s experience gain on a 0% growths Ephraim route LTC for reference to how much experience units can get on a casual play of Eirika’s route is a bit silly. 
As someone who has played many drafts of this game, getting to those levels in LTC settings is quite easy. Not to mention, Garcia doesn’t even have the option to promote until Chapter 11 so he will be quite a bit higher than level 10 when he does promote. Ross can promote after Chapter 9 since a mid chapter promotion doesn’t really do much for him. As long as you get him to Trainee LV10 on Chapter 5, he can get a ton of experience on Chapter 6. He can walk over the river, kill some archers, and get the boss kill on Chapter 7. On Chapter 8, he can kill a bunch of soldiers, armors and other enemies (about 10 total) on his way to killing the boss here. And then on Chapter 9, he can walk across the water killing all the pirates on his way to the south part of the map where the enemy density is quite high. 

Let’s not forget that the person who is doing this play though has already said he plans to take advantage of the arena for extra money. Which will give him more experience on Garcia and Ross. Especially if he can get Ross to LV10 on Chapter 4 which is entirely possible when you aren’t concerned about turn counts. 
 

Paladin is obviously better than GK, but GK is also obviously better than General. 
 

On 4/16/2021 at 11:46 AM, Benice said:

In terms of total level, not really. Since Ross starts well behind the level curve, he gets exp very easily until he's roughly level 7-9 as a pirate or fighter, at which point he's normal. If the player were to promote Ross at level 10, he is unlikely to reach 10 as a berserker, but Ross could very easily be 10/15/5 or 10/19/1, which would have exactly the same result. (His speed is also the same on average from levels 10/10/8 to 10/10/11) Gerik joins at a higher level as well as ten maps later than Ross and Garcia, (Since it's a 0%, I assume Gerik was promoted to hero right away as well), so he loses the benefit of accelerated exp gain. What is more is that the player has access to Garm, which allows basically free doubling for them, aside from the very fast enemies.

Plus, NM has faster EXP gain.

As for Dozla, even assuming he is base level, he still packs a solid punch if you have the deployment slot empty. Would someone like Saleh be better than him? Absolutely. However, we're not talking about optimal play here-If we were, basically nobody but Seth, Franz, Vanessa, Cormag and Moulder would be in this conversation. Dozla fares fine at the very worst, even well after his join time. Again looking at chapter 17, base level Dozla will deal roughly 13~ damage with iron weaponry, but he could very easily just hold onto his battle, steel or killer axes to increase his output by a lot.

I do not want to start a binding blade level debate again XD.

On the last note, I'm on Chapter 10 right now and I really think this is my favorite FE out of what I played. If the difficulty was just a little higher and on par with, let's say, Binding Blade, then this is easily the best one in the series and definitely on the GBA. And this is coming from a person who thought Three Houses was the best thing since sliced bread.

 

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13 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

Well I tried to rig him a couple levels today for speed but, I only got 2 speed levels but the rest were INSANE growths but without speed, so I think that might be enough.

2 Speed in 10 levels is average. If you get him any more than that, his performance will be that much better. Great thing about Garcia is that even if he fails to double, his Strength will be high enough to kill weaker enemies with one hit. 

13 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

I do not want to start a binding blade level debate again XD.

Hey, debates like this are fun, and something I think Serenes Forest needs more of. They used to be a common occurrence, and I, for one, miss them. 
 

13 hours ago, sinfonic18 said:

On the last note, I'm on Chapter 10 right now and I really think this is my favorite FE out of what I played. If the difficulty was just a little higher and on par with, let's say, Binding Blade, then this is easily the best one in the series and definitely on the GBA. And this is coming from a person who thought Three Houses was the best thing since sliced bread

I personally feel the GBA era was the best along with Path of Radiance. I know a lot of people love it, but Radiant Dawn was a step backwards in my opinion. I like the remake games a lot for staying pretty true to the originals, but all of the new games starting with Awakening have been missing something for me.

Sacred Stones is my favorite because it is so short and easy. The challenges come from figuring out how to meets the pretty strict requirements for LTC. Plus, there really isn’t a single character in the game I dislike. Every single character can be useful. 

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13 hours ago, Hawk King said:

2 Speed in 10 levels is average. If you get him any more than that, his performance will be that much better. Great thing about Garcia is that even if he fails to double, his Strength will be high enough to kill weaker enemies with one hit. 

Hey, debates like this are fun, and something I think Serenes Forest needs more of. They used to be a common occurrence, and I, for one, miss them. 
 

I personally feel the GBA era was the best along with Path of Radiance. I know a lot of people love it, but Radiant Dawn was a step backwards in my opinion. I like the remake games a lot for staying pretty true to the originals, but all of the new games starting with Awakening have been missing something for me.

Sacred Stones is my favorite because it is so short and easy. The challenges come from figuring out how to meets the pretty strict requirements for LTC. Plus, there really isn’t a single character in the game I dislike. Every single character can be useful. 

Haha, I can't disagree with that. They're always in good faith, and it's very entertaining to participate in and hear other peoples opinions on how to go about my favorite franchise ever. My binding blade question like this garnered a ton of debates and it was pretty huge haha.

My Garcia is level 16 Fighter with 20 strength, his Str has went up every single level. He has the most strength in my army right now (Seth has 17 for me but I have used him as much this time around) with 9 speed. If he was a just a bit faster, he'd be monstrous and easily my best unit. I'm hoping when I get the speedwings and promote him to Hero this will fix that issue and he'll be my best unit. He doubles some units, like soldiers and Shamans, but not much. So yeah, he's pretty much working out for me like everyone said he would. 

I honestly couldn't agree more with that statement. You see, I like every FE game (even the first one) and I admittedly still have a soft spot for Awakening and Fates: Conquest because those games are what introduced me to the series when I was a teenager. But, now that I've played the GBA games, POR, and and Shadow Dragon and Genealogy, it's hard to go back to the 3DS era and enjoy it. It's just not as fun and is missing the charm of the older games. Now that I'm older and I've played a lot of the series, I've began to see why FE fans are so adamant on the series returning to it's roots. And I agree with them. 

I haven't played Radiant Dawn yet, so I can't say how I feel about it. I also haven't played Gaiden or it's remake, so I can't judge those either. BUT, I do love Three Houses and I believe it's a step in the right direction from what Awakening and Fates was. I'm a relatively new fan of the franchise though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Nothing will ever beat this game or the other GBA titles for me though, lol.

That's also what my biggest gripe with FE6 was when I played it. The shear amount of mediocre and downright terrible units they give the player is a negative for the game in my opinion, especially considering it's difficulty. (Hard mode for me was omg) I loved it just a little less than Sacred Stones for that reason. I mean, Bors? Gwendolyn? Wade? Excuse me while I barf. 

This one doesn't have that problem and every unit I have is useful in one way or the other. They're also very pleasing to look at. I mean, even the early game archer can be good. (My neimi is a beast).

Long post but I'm done now xP
 

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On 4/17/2021 at 7:41 PM, sinfonic18 said:

On the last note, I'm on Chapter 10 right now and I really think this is my favorite FE out of what I played. If the difficulty was just a little higher and on par with, let's say, Binding Blade, then this is easily the best one in the series and definitely on the GBA. And this is coming from a person who thought Three Houses was the best thing since sliced bread.

It'd need a better story and much more to be on the level of Blazing Blade imho.

15 hours ago, Hawk King said:

I personally feel the GBA era was the best along with Path of Radiance. I know a lot of people love it, but Radiant Dawn was a step backwards in my opinion. I like the remake games a lot for staying pretty true to the originals, but all of the new games starting with Awakening have been missing something for me.

Sacred Stones is my favorite because it is so short and easy. The challenges come from figuring out how to meets the pretty strict requirements for LTC. Plus, there really isn’t a single character in the game I dislike. Every single character can be useful. 

>Favorite FE: Shadows of Valentia

Uhh...

Anyway, Sacred Stones was a huge step backwards from Blazing Blade in terms of pretty much everything imho, aside from possibly gameplay. Especially the characters. While there are some good characters, the amount of unmemorable or even bad characters eclipses them. RE: the GBA era, while it has one legitimately good game, the other two fall far short imho, with one of those in particular (Binding Blade) even being a candidate for worst game in the series.

31 minutes ago, sinfonic18 said:

I honestly couldn't agree more with that statement. You see, I like every FE game (even the first one) and I admittedly still have a soft spot for Awakening and Fates: Conquest because those games are what introduced me to the series when I was a teenager. But, now that I've played the GBA games, POR, and and Shadow Dragon and Genealogy, it's hard to go back to the 3DS era and enjoy it. It's just not as fun and is missing the charm of the older games. Now that I'm older and I've played a lot of the series, I've began to see why FE fans are so adamant on the series returning to it's roots. And I agree with them. 

I haven't played Radiant Dawn yet, so I can't say how I feel about it. I also haven't played Gaiden or it's remake, so I can't judge those either. BUT, I do love Three Houses and I believe it's a step in the right direction from what Awakening and Fates was. I'm a relatively new fan of the franchise though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Nothing will ever beat this game or the other GBA titles for me though, lol.

Personally, I'm... not sure what to think. Blazing Blade is great, yes, but Sacred Stones and especially Binding Blade, not so much. I also found Shadow Dragon a massive disappointment.

46 minutes ago, sinfonic18 said:

My Garcia is level 16 Fighter with 20 strength, his Str has went up every single level. He has the most strength in my army right now (Seth has 17 for me but I have used him as much this time around) with 9 speed. If he was a just a bit faster, he'd be monstrous and easily my best unit. I'm hoping when I get the speedwings and promote him to Hero this will fix that issue and he'll be my best unit. He doubles some units, like soldiers and Shamans, but not much. So yeah, he's pretty much working out for me like everyone said he would. 

That's kinda what to expect from a fighter. The thing is, it bothers me that they think it's okay for fighters to have as many weaknesses as they do because their high strength supposedly makes up for them, which it doesn't even come close to doing. Which is why I am generally quick to bench them.

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