Skill recommendations for particular units?

[JoeShmoe102]

I started a playthrough of Radiant Dawn yesterday, and I'm hoping to plan ahead for what skills I should give to which units. Any recommendations? Of course, I'll eventually give Ike Aether and Nihil, but what else?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Which units are you planning to use? That can go a long way, in figuring what skills to deck them out with. Some general thoughts:

- Cancel isn't very good on Leonardo. It should go on someone you're using who will do a decent amount of melee combat. Think Edward, Nolan, or Aran.

- I like putting either Paragon or Renewal on Micaiah. At least in Part I, before other unpromoted units even have the capacity for them. Renewal goes great with Sacrifice, while Paragon helps her get more levels in before her forced promotion at the end of Part I.

- Beastfoe is excellent for anyone who's gonna be fighting a lot of Beast laguz. Nolan and Jill are obvious candidates, but even Leonardo can make good use of it with the Lughnasadh or a Crossbow.

- Take Paragon off Astrid, unless you're gonna use her. I forget when skill reassignment becomes possible for the Crimean Royal Knights, though.

- Take Celerity off Tormod before 1-E. You can keep it with the Dawn Brigade, or send it with Ilyana to the Greil Mercenaries.

- Daunt is great for anyone who's gonna be at the frontlines. Beorc or Laguz.

[Dark Holy Elf]

On 2/17/2022 at 4:52 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

- Take Paragon off Astrid, unless you're gonna use her. I forget when skill reassignment becomes possible for the Crimean Royal Knights, though.

You can take take it off her in their Part 3 map. You can also remove Geoffrey's at the same time, and should, because after that he disappears until near the end of the game.

Not much to add; I'll mention that Nullify is a particularly potent skill for non-wyvern fliers in this game with how potent crossbows are, so definitely make use of it. And make sure you remove Elincia's unique skill in Part 4.

Resolve is also very good in general. Its description is incorrect; it raises Skl/Spd (not Str) by 50% below half health, and kicks in mid-combat. You can use it to keep someone from being doubled (give it to Micaiah in 1-9, for instance, if she's not doing well on speed), and also to raise their evade (it's a huge boon for dodgetanks), or to get slower units to double themselves (if they can survive at lowish health). Make sure you remove the one Tauroneo comes with because like Geoffrey, he leaves for a while and you can find better uses for it.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Dark Holy Elf

[vercio]

If you're playing blind, enjoy the ride and make use of the skills in the way you think it's going to be more effective. 

If you're replaying (optimally or not), I'd say use a list of chapter to make use of the skills in the best way you can. As you can attach and remove non-prf skills, you can freely skills so it doesn't make sense to stick a skill to a single unit, but giving it a purpose across the various teams. For the entirety of the playthrough you'll have different team members and comps, so studying which skill can be taken from a team to another can be much more impactful than thinking about skills 🙂

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Building off of this based on my ongoing playthrough:

On 2/19/2022 at 11:08 PM, Dark Holy Elf said:

You can take take it off her in their Part 3 map. You can also remove Geoffrey's at the same time, and should, because after that he disappears until near the end of the game.

Ah, I forgot to do this. I figured Geoffrey's in the "well I might want to use this unit in the Tower, in which case, losing free Paragon would suck" territory. Although in so doing, I've denied its use to any of my units in 3-11, 3-E, and one of 4-P/1/2.

On 2/19/2022 at 11:08 PM, Dark Holy Elf said:

Not much to add; I'll mention that Nullify is a particularly potent skill for non-wyvern fliers in this game with how potent crossbows are, so definitely make use of it. And make sure you remove Elincia's unique skill in Part 4.

Nullify is even good on Wyverns, too, to mitigate the Thunder weakness. It's better on other fliers, no question, but assuming you get the scroll in 2-E, then Haar is the only considerable user of it for 3-2 and 3-3. 3-4 you get Beast Laguz, and 3-5 you get Reyson, so it becomes a bit more competitive.

On 2/19/2022 at 11:08 PM, Dark Holy Elf said:

Resolve is also very good in general. Its description is incorrect; it raises Skl/Spd (not Str) by 50% below half health, and kicks in mid-combat. You can use it to keep someone from being doubled (give it to Micaiah in 1-9, for instance, if she's not doing well on speed), and also to raise their evade (it's a huge boon for dodgetanks), or to get slower units to double themselves (if they can survive at lowish health). Make sure you remove the one Tauroneo comes with because like Geoffrey, he leaves for a while and you can find better uses for it.

Huh, I've never thought to use Resolve on Micaiah in I-9. That's pretty clever. To my end, I'm really liking it on Wildheart Volug in III-6. Does Volug double when half-shifted? "Well, no, but actually yes."

What else... oh, Blossom. I kind of like it on units who are close to leveling up in the next map, but haven't yet capped many stats, so they get a better shot at a good level. Although, in so doing, I might undermine them getting their next level-up. It's also kind of good on Ike in late Part III, since he runs up against a level cap.

Shade isn't reliable, but it can be a nice security blanket for your Healers and Herons, if they have the capacity and no other skills of interest.

Discipline is cool on any units who haven't capped their ranks, which is... very few of them in GM Part III. Of course, the devs, in their infinite wisdom, barred its use on the units (non-royal laguz) who would benefit most from it. Sigh.

Wildheart, I really like. It doesn't halve your EXP gains, just the transformation boosts; that's a mistranslation. And if a unit is fast enough to double with Wildheart (read: Ulki), then they're gaining Strike rank just as fast as they would've when full-shifted. It can be nice having at least one laguz unit who isn't smoking through all the Olivi Grass.

[Dark Holy Elf]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Nullify is even good on Wyverns, too, to mitigate the Thunder weakness. It's better on other fliers, no question, but assuming you get the scroll in 2-E, then Haar is the only considerable user of it for 3-2 and 3-3. 3-4 you get Beast Laguz, and 3-5 you get Reyson, so it becomes a bit more competitive.

 

Depends where the scroll goes (which you have control over, of course, but it's a consideration). If it's in the inventory of one of the 3-2 joiners (such as Haar himself) then yeah, Haar is probably its best user for a bit, although IIRC he has some issues with thunder mages even if he has Nullify... they may still at least 3HKO him with non-negligible crit, which is potentially lethal. Now that I think about it, Fortune might actually be better for letting him tangle with thunder mages, should you cart it over via Ilyana.

If the scroll ends up in the inventory of one of the Crimean Royal Knights (i.e. Marcia or Calill, since you're unlikely to get the others over there), or you send it to convoy, then its obvious user in 3-9 is Marcia (though you might also choose to give her Paragon instead, and you can't have both). And of course, it's worth making an effort so that it doesn't end up in the inventory of Elincia herself, even if she's a great user for it in 4-2.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

What else... oh, Blossom. I kind of like it on units who are close to leveling up in the next map, but haven't yet capped many stats, so they get a better shot at a good level. Although, in so doing, I might undermine them getting their next level-up. It's also kind of good on Ike in late Part III, since he runs up against a level cap.

Another good use for it is laguz, like Ranulf or the hawks, since they gain 1 exp from combat regardless. Bonus exp them to 99 before the fight so they gain a level in combat, and laguz stand to benefit extra from heightened growths since many of those +1's are actually +2's.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Depends where the scroll goes (which you have control over, of course, but it's a consideration). If it's in the inventory of one of the 3-2 joiners (such as Haar himself) then yeah, Haar is probably its best user for a bit, although IIRC he has some issues with thunder mages even if he has Nullify... they may still at least 3HKO him with non-negligible crit, which is potentially lethal. Now that I think about it, Fortune might actually be better for letting him tangle with thunder mages, should you cart it over via Ilyana.

If the scroll ends up in the inventory of one of the Crimean Royal Knights (i.e. Marcia or Calill, since you're unlikely to get the others over there), or you send it to convoy, then its obvious user in 3-9 is Marcia (though you might also choose to give her Paragon instead, and you can't have both). And of course, it's worth making an effort so that it doesn't end up in the inventory of Elincia herself, even if she's a great user for it in 4-2.

I tend to assume it goes to Haar, since I usually have him guard the top of the west staircase, so he has the easiest time targeting the General who drops it. Of course, even a player who uses the same approach could trade it around.

Fortune!Haar is an interesting prospect. In my current file, it's actually still on Meg. Not because I have any designs on using Meg, but because I haven't yet identified any DB units who both want it, and have the capacity for it. Maybe Aran, if I take Cancel off?

Nullify!Marcia makes sense, with the few enemy Snipers in 3-9. I actually gave her Adept on my latest run of that chapter (literally this morning), which I found pretty nice on her. Of course, Kieran or Danved could be good with Adept, too.

My current playthrough actually has Nullify on Reyson. Having a Heron who can survive a round of combat with Bow or Crossbow enemies gives me uncomfortable feelings of power. I'm also playing Reyson quite differently than any past playthroughs, by actually using the Laguz Stone and Olivi Grass on him, rather than waiting around for his natural cycle.

2 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Another good use for it is laguz, like Ranulf or the hawks, since they gain 1 exp from combat regardless. Bonus exp them to 99 before the fight so they gain a level in combat, and laguz stand to benefit extra from heightened growths since many of those +1's are actually +2's.

I hadn't thought of this use specifically, but I like it. I do wonder how practical almost-full BEXP level-ups will be on Hard Mode, though. Probably a much more feasible strategy on Normal Mode.

Actually, I wonder - if an over-leveled laguz normally gains 1 exp from each combat, they gain 2 exp with Paragon. Blossom should cut this in half, but what's the order of operations? If the "cut in half" comes before the "doubling", then Paragon + Blossom could give you 2 exp while still having better level-ups. But it requires 35 free capacity, which is hard to come by (I think Janaff will have that upon reaching level 30, if you don't use a Satori Sign).

[Dark Holy Elf]

16 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I hadn't thought of this use specifically, but I like it. I do wonder how practical almost-full BEXP level-ups will be on Hard Mode, though. Probably a much more feasible strategy on Normal Mode.

Actually, I wonder - if an over-leveled laguz normally gains 1 exp from each combat, they gain 2 exp with Paragon. Blossom should cut this in half, but what's the order of operations? If the "cut in half" comes before the "doubling", then Paragon + Blossom could give you 2 exp while still having better level-ups. But it requires 35 free capacity, which is hard to come by (I think Janaff will have that upon reaching level 30, if you don't use a Satori Sign).

I don't know the answer to your wondering, but I feel like Paragon on a high-level laguz just isn't a good use of resources; turning 1 exp into 2 just isn't nearly as big a payoff as turning ~15 into ~30. The reason I suggested bonus exp, however much you have available, is because laguz exp gain for that is relatively much higher than it is for combat.

[Shadow Mir]

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

Nullify is even good on Wyverns, too, to mitigate the Thunder weakness. It's better on other fliers, no question, but assuming you get the scroll in 2-E, then Haar is the only considerable user of it for 3-2 and 3-3. 3-4 you get Beast Laguz, and 3-5 you get Reyson, so it becomes a bit more competitive.

I dunno about that - Haar still gets 3HKOed by thunder mages, and they have crit on him. Sure, taking 16 or so damage is bettter than taking 26, but the real problem he faces isn't fixed with Nullify.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

20 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I don't know the answer to your wondering, but I feel like Paragon on a high-level laguz just isn't a good use of resources; turning 1 exp into 2 just isn't nearly as big a payoff as turning ~15 into ~30. The reason I suggested bonus exp, however much you have available, is because laguz exp gain for that is relatively much higher than it is for combat.

That's a good point. My guess is the game treats laguz as "untransformed" when they're getting BEXP, so they grow to a similar degree as comparable-leveled beorc.

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

I dunno about that - Haar still gets 3HKOed by thunder mages, and they have crit on him. Sure, taking 16 or so damage is bettter than taking 26, but the real problem he faces isn't fixed with Nullify.

I get that, and Fortune may honestly be preferable on him. That said, assuming Nullify goes to the GMs in 3-2, is there anyone who gets more out of the skill than Haar in that chapter and 3-3? Enemies with Hammers, or with Horseslayers, are less abundant than those with Thunder Magic or Wyrmslayers (combined). And you have nobody weak to Wind, Bows, or Fire Magic at that point.