astrophys

So what would be a more appropriate target defensive value, then? 27 DEF is actually better than what your standard 20/20 White Blood would have (26.05; DK has +1 higher base). It will also beat out Dark Blood, obviously (+2 base, +10% DEF growth). I'm not suggesting that you use the DK as your main tank; someone like Xander would obviously be better for that…. but people were complaining about fragile mages, so I was trying to offer an alternative to the fragile mage problem… of course, as I haven't played the game, perhaps it is that even the DK gets shredded as easily as the other mages due to high enemy attack or whatnot. Note that all the above figures have been totally ignoring Yato, which can be sitting in your inventory. In Hoshido, towards the endgame it will give +2 STR and +2 SPD, and when equipped is +2 STR, +3 SPD, -1 DEF, -1 Res. In the last two missions, its +4 STR, +4 SPD, or +4 STR/+5 SPD/-1 Def/-1 Res. In Nohr, towards endgame it will give +2 Def and +2 RES, and when equipped it is +1 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Res. In the last two missions, its +4 Def and +4 Res when equipped and +1 SPD and +3 Def and +3 Res. So in Nohr we'd be looking at a tome-using Dark Knight with +2 more defense than the figures I previously indicated, +4 more in the final chapters. It could be even more if you got Horse God, but I wont' assume that.

Her personal skill in action, "Clumsy". When she lands a strike on an opponent, it shreds their clothing and gives them a -3 DEF penalty.

Well, you could go with a +MAG Dark Knight or something like that if you wanted to avoid fragility. I'll give the example of +MAG/-LCK, as while that does hurt magic growth slightly, it doesn't harm either defense or resistance. DISCLAIMER: I have NOT played the game yet. This is theory-crafting only. Take this all with a grain of salt. +MAG/-LCK Personal Growths: 45% HP / 40% Str / 45% Mag / 40% Skl / 50% Spd / 25% Lck / 35% Def / 30% Res Dark Knight Growths: 15% HP / 20% Str / 10% Mag / 5% Skl / 5% Spd / 5% Lck / 15% Def / 5% Res Combined Growths: 60% HP / 60% Str / 55% Mag / 45% Skl / 55 % Spd / 30% Lck / 50% Def / 35% Res Class Base Stats: 19 HP / 8 Str / 6 Mag / 6 Skl / 5 Spd / 3 Lck / 8 Def/ 6 Res / 8 Move +MAG also gives +3 to personal base magic, and -LCK gives -2 to personal base LCK. Now, this Dark Knight is actually more of a hybrid unit, and does have as extreme magic growth as some of the other classes, but a 20/20 unit [not that you'll get that high] would still end with 30.9 MAG {only on average; actual results may differ} [cap: 34]; 20/15 would get 28.15 MAG on average. But anyways, this is more to address the complaint of a "fragile" magic user. This setup would offer you 8 DEF/6 RES just from class bases, a 50% DEF growth, a 35% RES growth, and a 60% HP growth. Predicted average of 27.05 DEF at 20/20; 24.55 DEF at 20/15. Caps will be 34 DEF and 30+2=32 RES. Is a Dark Knight the best of ideas? Not really; its kind of slow. But it looks to be one of the sturdiest mages that I can think of. Dark Blood has better magical attack (same base, 5% better growth) and much better speed (+2 base, +10% growth), but it isn't as tanky to physical damage (assuming neither get doubled; -2 base DEF v.s. Dark Knight, -10% DEF growth vs. Dark Knight).

If they added in a Cynthia & Cordelia support under such reasoning, I'd love to see them also add in Sumia/Cynthia/Cordelia triangle attack. Triangle attacks often involve some sort of common bond between the units…. perhaps if Cordelia became a sort of mentor to Cynthia, on top of Sumia and Cordelia being best friends and Sumia being Cynthia's mother, such a bond to justify the triangle would exist… (of course, the real reason is that IS just didn't bother including it). But anyways, triangle attack would probably be a really cool thing from Cynthia's perspective… perhaps Cynthia and Cordelia's support could involve them drilling for the triangle attack (Cordelia could be trying to follow the exam of Palla, Catria, and Est).

The idea is using the Sniper from 3 range as a way to bombard with magical dual strikes without risk of enemy counterattack.

Of course, -MAG or -RES does also have the effect of curbing your SPD growths, slightly. Now, about the idea of +MAG Paladin? Those who tried it out, how did it turn out? You get 50% MAG if +MAG/[not -LCK or -RES], or 45% magic if +MAG/[-LCK or -RES]. I might guess it might be easier to pull off on Nohr, as it has the Levin Sword, which works off the same sword weapon rank that you were already using. In Hoshido, you can use the Shockstick/Shinrai Naginata, but you'd need to build up a new weapon rank to C first, which would make it somewhat more difficult to implement.

Thanks. Yes, you're right, I do fixate too much on her in my posts. Of course, people do play favorites and talk about favorite characters preferentially, and this is to be expected, although I've taken it a bit too far at times. That said, I've largely figured out the various things that I wanted to about Matoi, so I really don't have that much more to say about her anymore (pairings, stats, inheritance, growths, mods, etc.)…. this topic's question just popped up because I remembered how people had pointed out the resemblance to Lucina, and even discussed how she looked like her in the skinship models, but after checking I couldn't actually find an image of her in the Great Lord outfit, so I grew curious. You've sated this curiosity here with the link you provided.

I'd just be curious in seeing how much she looks like Lucina in that class…. I'd imagine very much so, but I'd like to see it for myself. I've elsewhere found someone who posted how it would look as a map sprite (see below), but I'd like to see the battle model too. http://fatesmapsprites.tumblr.com/post/132368723963/matoi-oboros-hair-color-as-a-great-lord-looks Of course, besides getting the blue hair color, Oboro!Matoi would be able to have both sword faire and lancefaire and thus could use the faire with either weapon of the great lord.

Should we also get into in-game "practical pairings" in this thread. After all, many of the "optimal pairings" in the sense of PvP/maxed out play are assuming stat mods that (normally) won't come into play during the main game, or otherwise are assuming skills that you aren't realistically going to be picking up during the main game, etc. So the in-game "practical pairings" would be different than the post-game "optimal pairings" in some cases. We can assume no-grind, no skill-buying…. what do you think?

Well, I mean, it can be an indicator of INTENSITY of their preference. Perhaps some characters have a broad group of people who like them, whereas some characters have a smaller group of people who like them A LOT MORE, comparatively speaking, than the degree to which the first group's character was liked.

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55451&p=3865541 For those who don't want to follow the link, here's a transcription: RainThunder responding to me, below: I can confirm this. The size of decrypted Nohr DLC is around 107MB, while Hoshido counterpart is 97MB. As such, it should easily fit on the 2GB card if you have the first route as physical. The thing is that most of the space would be engine, character models, spell animations, weapon models, terrain models, etc., that is common between all three routes, so you only need those memory costs once…. and they're contained on a physical cart.

Granted, that would be great… regardless, even for those here who don't manage to get it: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55451&p=3865541 So it should easily fit on memory cards if you get one version as physical [i have like 13,000 blocks remaining].

I'll note that this doesn't seem to apply to the Canadian Gamestop, EB Games. Repeat: DOES NOT. I just tried stopping by the Toronto store @ Bloor Street at 10:00 EST and it wasn't even in their system…. I wasn't the only one who was there trying either. Oh well, I tried…. The art book isn't that important to me; its more so the convenience of having it all already on one cart… but with all these pre-orders running out so quickly or having shipping restrictions [or very expensive shipping, I might just get Birthright and then DLC for the other two. Well, actually, I do have a pre-order in my name, but since Amazon switched their information to "does not ship to Canada", where I am, I decided to switch the order to go to my parent's home in Massachusetts, where I stay when I'm not at school…. and where my twin brother lives…. it costs us much less shipping that way [no import fees, Free shipping; the only extra amount is 6.25% Massachusetts sales tax], and my brother had tried to do a pre-order of his own but had missed the rush and got the sold out notices….. seeing that I'm doubtful now that it would have actually shipped to Toronto, given that the information updated on the product page to explicitly say it wouldn't, this way it at least will go somewhere they'll ship it to [rather than them outright canceling the order later on due to a Canadian address], my brother will get a copy of the special edition, and I can still get the regular editions…. I suppose it will make a nice gift to him… who knows, maybe I could consider it a Christmas present to him or something…. except it wouldn't be a surprise as he already knows about it…. oh well…

I thought it was against the rules for them to sell products that they themselves didn't have yet…. should someone be reporting these scalpers?

Okay, that's strange…. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017W16ZDK?keywords=Fire%20Emblem%20Fates%20Special&qid=1447377684&ref_=nav_ya_signin&sr=8-5 I know that when I pre-ordered it it said that it was available for international shipping, but now that has changed…. But that's not what it originally said. Did they goof and forget to include an important restriction that they had originally meant to include? Are they going to cancel the Canadian orders?

Same here…. Couldn't find it on amazon.ca, so I had to do it on amazon.com. Then again, pre-orders can be canceled before the game releases, so if it goes up on amazon.ca I can then pre-order for that, make sure the pre-order goes through, and cancel the .com pre-order if necessary. If not, it is a steep price, but oh well….

Should I order it off .com? I'm in Canada, so I'd sustain import and shipping fees [and it could take 1-3 business days at the fastest speed, 7-12 at the slowest]. Particularly, I'm talking about the special edition. I'd do it on .ca, but I'm seeing no sign of it on .ca.

s.o.? What does that mean?

I assume Canada will probably get it at the same times as the US? [i'm a US citizen, but I'm at a grad school in Canada.]

I'm going to pre-order the special edition as well… not sure if its actually been posted anywhere yet…. although I suppose I could stop by my local game store here in the city where I'm at for college and pre-order it there [once they have it up, that is]. Although I'm in Canada, so I expect it will be somewhat more expensive. I hope the special edition doesn't sell out super-fast. Any idea of when the pre-orders will open?

Couldn't Falcon Knights end up as Player phase killers, with the correct skills or pair-ups? 20% RES class growth, plus Mirror Strike for -20 damage taken once you hit level 15 in the late game.

Generals also only have 5% class growths in RES… Maids have 10%; Falcon Warriors have 20%. Maids also have higher base RES than Generals…. It is true that they have a lower cap, but in main-game many caps won't be reached and this would probably be true of the general and the Maid.

Regarding hybrids, its difficult to create one on a kid [or at least more difficult] because of averagings…. as such, things are going to tend to get made less extreme, such that its hard to get both high STR and high MAG simultaneously. Sure, you could mix an extreme STR mother with an extreme magic child or the reverse, but then you'd end up with very mediocre/subpar growths and mods in both stats most likely, making them kind of unimpressive. Going hybrid, if you wanted to, +MAG Kamui is probably one of the easiest options, before flaws, it offers you 45% STR and 50% Mag as personal growths before class influence, which is 40% Str and 45% Mag if you take a -LCK flaw. Nowhere near the specialists, like Kagerou, Elise, Orochi, etc., but it could you probably make it work. I mean, a 50% personal growth is equal to that of Sakura and Elise, and a 5% difference only costs 0.05 stat points per level on average, or only a 1.9 point difference on average by 20/20, which you probably won't reach to begin with. Actually, since +MAG/-LCK gives you a 45% personal magic growth, as well as +3 starting magic, you could quite conceivably spend all your time in a 0% magic growth class [why you would want to is a different question entirely], and by 20/20 [not that you would reach that high] and you'd still end up with an average of around 21.1 magic [20.2 magic at 20/18]. ----> Nohr Prince has a base 3 magic; level 1 Kamui before assets and flaws has 4 magic in that class, so they obviously have +1 in personal bases to magic automatically. ----> Magic asset gives +3 in personal bases. ----> 38 levels of 45% growth is 17.1. 1 + 3 + 17.1 = 21.1. [Note: an average; values may be higher or lower if stat-"screwed" or stat-"blessed"] Now, this is still kind of subpar… except this is for an extreme example for an assumed ending class with 0 base magic and never leveling up in a class with base magic growths [which totally ignores the fact that you start in a class, Nohr Prince(ss) that has a 10% magic growth, and will spend several levels in it until you get a seal]. And many of the hybrid classes that you would use do indeed have bases and growths: Example, Rev. Knight is 7 STR, 6 Mag, as well as 15% growths in both [55% STR, 60% mag as +MAG/-LCK Revanent Knight] As such, many classes will tend to give better results; the example I gave is a sort of lower (average) limit by level caps. Magic weapons [like Levin Sword, Shockstick, etc.] also tend to have high might,so that helps them.

Now, Shephen has [elsewhere] made arguments that Tsubaki/Oboro is also a good mutual benefit pair [supposedly also benefiting their daughter]…. what are your thoughts on Hinata/Oboro/Oboro!Hisame vs. Tsubaki/Oboro/Oboro!Matoi? And what do you think of Shephen's suggestion of Hinata/Kagerou/Kagerou!Hisame. [Anyone else can also chip in on this question if they want].

I don't actually play the game yet, but this sort of discussion interests me…. How would a Chrom main-charcter deck work in interaction with cards like Cordelia. Particularly, we have level 4 Chrom's ability, “Shepherds” / & / [Once per Turn] After an ally unit class changes, until the end of this turn that unit’s attack is increased by 20 and the orbs that it destroys as a result of combat is now 2.. And we have level 3 Cordelia's ability, ”Galeforce” / & / [Once per turn] After this unit defeats an enemy with an attack, return this unit to the pre-action state. So once we get Chrom level 4 out, then afterwards if we promote Cordelia we can get her to 70 ATK herself for one turn [50 ATK default + 20 temporary attack from Shepherds ability], which can spike up to 100 if she nets a flier support bonus. Shepherds would let Cordelia take out two orbs if she wins the combat, and then Galeforce would let her attack again and potentially take out another two…. four orbs down just from Cordelia on that turn, potentially. Later in the game, Level 5 Chrom could also give a last ditch power boost… +30 power, so that's getting Cordelia up to 80 ATK before supports, [50 + 30]. We could get her to 110 ATK if she lands a flier support. Promoted Sumia or Promoted Cherche could even amplify Cordelia further to 120 or 130 [if both] on such an attack, although that's probably unlikely to have such a set-up on the field.