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Why Does the Death Knight Never Use the Rafail Gem?


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I'm on my first Azure Moon playthrough of Three Houses; having previously played Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind in that order, and I recently completed Mercedes' paralogue and got the Rafail Gem and the Scythe of Sariel. What I find interesting is that the Rafail Gem resonates with the Crest of Lamine (Mercedes' and Jeritza's Crest), yet its main attribute is nullifying weapon effectiveness, which probably won't matter for Mercedes given her bane in lances and armour largely keeping her from the riding, flying, or armoured classes. It would be perfect for Jeritza, aka the Death Knight, and he's the one who gives it to Mercedes at the end of the paralogue, so why does he never use it?

I understand him not using it pre-timeskip; it would be too big a hint to his identity and it would make him even more difficult to beat than he already can be without Lysithea is. But this would be an obvious way to make him more of a threat post-timeskip in non-Crimson Flower routes that he just never uses even if you never complete the paralogue, despite the fact that there's no reason for him not to use it anymore.

There's even less reason in Crimson Flower, as the paralogue is unavailable due to Jeritza being on the same side as you. He becomes playable (admittedly only after a patch), but without the gem, even though it would be perfect for him. Why?

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Spoilers for Jeritza's backstory

Spoiler

My headcanon is that he doesn't use it because it's a reminder of his family. Even though he inherited his crest from his mother, it's likely that his noble father was the one who acquired the relic. Using it wouldn't have felt right in the Death Knight persona, which was born out of shunning his ties to his family. It also would have demonstrated that he was Emile - bad story-wise like you say, but also bad in-world as people could join the dots and figure out he was the one that killed the Bartels family, which I don't think many people in-world had definitive proof for.

As for CF, he only accepts (partially) his Emile-ness if you recruit Mercedes and get an A support with her - none of which are guaranteed, and pretty far from "canon" (since you fight Mercedes in CF). Since that means he's mostly Jeritza/Death Knight for CF, he shuns the Rafail Gem for similar reasons to above.

Which brings us to the Mercedes paralogue. IIRC, he's scouting territory near Garreg Mach and Mercedes goes running off to find him. It's hard to explain why he'd bring the Rafail Gem at all on that kind of mission and not use it - unless he was planning to give the item to Mercedes from the start? It's a bit thin even for a headcanon, because he couldn't be sure that he'd run into Mercedes. But in the conversation they have after the combat, he tries to recruit her, then gives the Gem to her specifically so she can survive the war until he kills her. Which makes it sound like either way he was planning on giving her the Gem. The conversation makes it sound as if it really had been a coincidence, so I'm not sure this theory could stand - but the only other thing I can think of is the devs were just trying to shoehorn stakes into Mercedes' paralogue, which is far more realistic and far less fun. 

Anyway, it would have been nice for the Rafail Gem to be available in CF, even if getting a relic and the Scythe and Jeritza for free is that much more broken. Maybe it could have been locked behind recruitment/support with Mercedes? Or even an extra reward from his own paralogue? Oh well. 

 

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Rafail Gem is neat-o but could use a buff IMO. I rarely use it in the few runs that I even get it.

Maybe give it innate defensive tactics or even nullify battalion damage, or nullify all effectivenesses (new word!). That would make fortress/great knight tank builds more useful on end game maps.

I feel like the death knight is tough enough without it though

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On 6/24/2022 at 11:26 AM, Bylift said:

nullify all effectivenesses

It already does that; description says "nullifies critical hits and bonus damage against its user"

Bonus damage = effective damage

--

But I agree it's for gameplay reasons for why he doesn't wear it. That'd be pretty tough as an enemy to take down. He already has counterattack making chipping him with anything besides gambits an unreliable strategy, and even with gambits he has the commander ability to take little damage from them.

One of the reliable strategies to taking down the Death Knight, specially in the early chapters (4 and 6), is to use effective damage. The Lance of Ruin with the Knightkneeler combat art, or rushing Reason with Lysethia to get Dark Spikes. In later chapters something like Swift Strikes or Frozen Lance with the Spear of Assal works too. But if he had the Raffail Gem equipped none of those would work, which would leave... only what, Vengeance? As the most reliable way to take him down.

That said, I like haarhaar's headcanon reasons for why he doesn't wear it too.

Edited by DaveCozy
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On 6/24/2022 at 8:26 AM, Bylift said:

Rafail Gem is neat-o but could use a buff IMO. I rarely use it in the few runs that I even get it.

 

I have a high pretty opinion of it myself. Nullifying critical hits is a really useful effect; a lot of bosses (including, ironically, Jeritza himself) rely on a critical rate to be dangerous, so a unit with a Rafail Gem and enough speed/bulk to survive a single hit can engage them safely even if they have Counterattack. The Ochain Shield can also nullify criticals, but its weight makes it much less useful IMO, since a number of bosses you'd want to nullify crits against have good speed (Hegemon has 33, Nemesis is in the high 30's, Jeritza in the mid 40's).

Agree with DaveCozy about the gameplay reasons and also enjoy haar's proposed flavour reason.

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3 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I have a high pretty opinion of it myself. Nullifying critical hits is a really useful effect; a lot of bosses (including, ironically, Jeritza himself) rely on a critical rate to be dangerous, so a unit with a Rafail Gem and enough speed/bulk to survive a single hit can engage them safely even if they have Counterattack. The Ochain Shield can also nullify criticals, but its weight makes it much less useful IMO, since a number of bosses you'd want to nullify crits against have good speed (Hegemon has 33, Nemesis is in the high 30's, Jeritza in the mid 40's).

Agree with DaveCozy about the gameplay reasons and also enjoy haar's proposed flavour reason.

I just beat Azure Moon, so I know what you mean by bosses relying on critical rates to be dangerous. I had Caspar defeat the Death Knight in the paralogue, so the Death Knight had a brave lance instead of the scythe and he went down fairly easily, but when I saw Hegemon Edelgard suddenly have a high crit rate, I breathed a deep sigh of relief when she didn't critical hit. In retrospect, I should've given Dimitri the Rafail Gem (my flying and riding units got the shields that nullify effectiveness so I gave it to Mercedes).

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's because he studied Ike's combat manual for hoarding items. There really is no sensible reason for him to not give it to Marianne in Crimson Flower like he does in the other routes.

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