Dark Holy Elf
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Posts posted by Dark Holy Elf
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I wouldn't bother with Concentrate. Only two other PCs can use magic attacks in sessions (and not all the time in either case) and Concentrate doesn't boost physical session attacks. If you aren't getting very close to the full 2.5x boost out of Concentrate/Charge they lose their luster fast.
Megidolaon is decent, since it's substantially stronger than the ma-dyne spells (even with elemental boosting). You give up a session, and that's no small thing, but if there are enough targets it may be worth it. Megido felt relatively weaker for the time though I never checked exactly, and ST almighty/etc. spells are largely junk because sessions do more ST damage, always.
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Leo does have level as if he is 2 levels lower than his displayed level, so his Inspiration does see more playtime than it does for most, at least. Gentilhomme's fine; this isn't GBA FE so roughly half your units will be female if you're picking randomly, so it's easy to get some milage out of that. Same with Demoiselle for that matter.
I think Silas is quite overrated. Yeah, Cavalier is great, so I have no problem with him being decently high. But his stat build isn't really that great. His speed is on the low side, and while his str/def are pretty good, they don't pin ears back in either case. Starting with E lances (= no javelins) also hurts. Vow of Friendship is a nice push when it is relevant but in too many maps I want Corrin being healthy and where the fighting is thickest. If you compare Silas to Peri, I'm pretty sure I prefer her stat build, I'll take significantly more Spd/Res and slightly more Str over Silas' leads in Skl/Def. I know availability is a thing so if you want to argue Silas > Peri I'm totally fine with that, but the current gap is much too wide, and IMO it's mostly because Silas is too high. I'd move him to Upper Mid, based on your list; I definitely prefer everyone else in High, as well as Elise (especially if you Heart Seal Jakob away from a healer class).
I'd lower Selena and Laslow too. 5 move + mono sword sucks in Conquest since there's only one Kodachi, and it's not like either of them have amazing stat builds either.
List seems really good overall though. :)
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By Part 3, she's a staff user that is competing with Laura as a staff user. Laura has even more ridiculous Mag growth than Micaiah in that regard, and both will pretty much have the same mag growth there.
Micaiah has more Mag growth than Laura, but honestly that's not relevant. The difference is that Micaiah can gain Exp much, much faster than Laura. Every shot of Heal yields 11. Micaiah roughly matches that with Sacrifice/chipping, but blows past it with kills. She also gets three extra maps on Laura, and can use Paragon at a point of the game where almost nobody else can benefit from it (though she'll have to choose between it and Resolve). Micaiah utterly crushes Laura.
I'd strongly disagree with Edward and Ilyana being better as well. Edward is somewhat more durable than Micaiah, sure; he can often take one additional hit. In exchange for that he has worse offence unless he doubles (and many of the enemies he doubles are Thani-weak, or are tigers which he does NOT want to face), needs to face melee counters lest his damage/hit look pathetic compared to Micaiah's, and has no utility. As far as I'm concerned he exists as a trap to make people think he'll turn out better than Zihark, which thanks to his inferior affinity he does not. No thanks. Ilyana's speed edge vanishes rapidly and she has no answer to Thani or Micaiah's far better accuracy.
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Athos is far, far better than any of the lords if we're hyping setup to destroy the dragon. Body Ring, double Luna, heal, refresh, win. No fuss, no grinding to 20/20, no ensuring the character gets RNG blessed. Let's not pretend the differences between the three lords at fighting him are especially meaningful, as a result. They can contribute if your goal is to one-round him without using the C29 Body Ring for funds reasons, though how good each one is depends hugely on what stats they get.
That said Lyn absolutely can solo the dragon (and the entire final chapter) if that's your thing; I've done it.
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I have trouble rating out of 10 without a frame of reference... but 4 sounds really low for Micaiah. She's an above average unit overall, since Thani one-shots loads of trouble enemies in part 1 (including four bosses, as mentioned). There are multiple Seraph Robes in part 1 and it's foolish not to give her one, so she shouldn't be one-rounded by much (if she gets speed-screwed you can give her Resolve too, though Sothe/Zihark/Volug can all get some use out of that one as well). She's very accurate and 2HKOs pretty much everything at worst which helps raise other units. From Part 3 on she is a staff user with very high magic. She contributes pretty well at pretty much all points in the game though never threatens to dominate.
Compared to her direct compeition in the Dawn Brigade... I'd rate her above all the other tier 1 units except the axe-users (I can see a case for Aran over her? The rest, not so much). But yeah lots of good tier 2 units as competition, so this isn't as good as I'm making it sound. She does need some investment and isn't amazing by any means.
6.5/10
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It's really not bad at all to unlock if you have a decently levelled flier to go grab Pent, and silver weapons are definitely cool. I've gotten that map every non-challenge playthrough because I've never wanted to see Pent steal all the exp, even before I knew that doing this unlocked a side chapter. That said I wouldn't feel any pressing need to redo an entire map if I missed it.
Pain in the ass makes me think of the Hector-only 19xx. Screw unlocking that.
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WSJ works for me. Is it because I'm in Canada? Regardless:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/russia-hacking-james-clapper-230085
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/09/technology/trump-russia-hackers-cia
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/12/trump-russia-u-s-election/
Also, while not proof, Russia being behind the hacking makes sense, as they're one of the few parties with both the means and the desire to do them. Whatever you think of Putin and Clinton, there's no question the latter loathes the former, who as Secretary of State was extremely critical of them, and had extremely good reason to want her to not become president (even before it became clear her opponent would be the relatively isolationist Trump who wants to roll back the US' role in NATO). And all the major powers have extensive cyber espionage capabilities, far moreso than Trump's "some guy in New Jersey".
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Russia was absolutely behind some of the hacking. I'm not sure why you'd believe anything Wikileaks has to say about the subject.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/top-russian-officials-shift-away-from-denying-dnc-hack-1476295233
No one media organisation should be considered an unimpeachable "gold standard" but we absolutely should demand all forms of media continue to properly source their findings and try to avoid reporting untruths. I do think the internet seems to have given rise to an awful lot of "reporting" that falls shamefully short of this standard, but I have no idea what the solution is.
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Gen 1
+ Started a very successful and addictive formula. Also hi-crit moves were actually good, and Hyper Beam was actually the strong (if situational) move it is supposed to be. Gary/Blue still the best rival.
- Man that polish. Special shout out to how moves aren't documented in-game. Let me tell you about the time I bought Giovanni's stupid hype and deleted Earthquake for Fissure...
Gen 2
+ Some polish improvements, mostly.
- Uh the level curve is seriously out of whack in this game, especially the brutally underlevelled Mahogany region and Kanto.
Gen 3
+ Emerald has the best boss fights in the series. First game that felt truly well-balanced and polished, probably has the best competitive scene.
- EVs are a bad mechanic, especially with how they're hidden from the player.
Gen 4
+ Uh well as much as this game is pretty bland/easy overall it had a great final boss fight (doesn't hurt that Cynthia is pretty cool, too).
- Too slow (movement, exp bars, etc.), lack of pokemon variety (especially certain core types like fire and electric). Stealth Rock pretty much ruined my interest in competitive pokemon.
Gen 5. I haven't played this one. But hey, I can still comment on...
+ Unlimited use TMs! Love it.
- Man those ubers sure are ugly.
Gen 6
+ Incredible pokemon availability, nice animations, and I liked that individual trainer opponents packed a real punch unlike in most games (at least without Exp Share)
- Probably the worst game for plot/characters, which I don't care about that much. Also one of the worst games for gym leaders, which I do care about somewhat more.
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(The same is true of the other swordmasters in this game, but they're a bit bulkier than Lyn)
That's only true of Guy. Karel/Karla have bad HP (Karla especially), as well as worse res/avo, and only slightly more def... all before considering their worse support situation. Guy I'll grant you is bulkier, but only on HHM is the difference that significant.
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I enjoyed Pirate's Curse a lot, so I'll definitely pick this one up. I'm a sucker for a good action-oriented platformer, and Shantae's silly comedy is a big step up from the genre norm of writing which is either non-existent or embarrassing.
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The Ivalice team wrote anything good after FFT? News to me. (I don't play MMOs.)
FFX-2 had a great setting but its cast was problematic (I even like X-2 Yuna well enough! But... most of the new characters feel like they're out of a bad fanfic) and its gameplay was a huge step back from X, imo. I knew it was gonna be bad when I ran into a flan and just hit it to death with swords; the entire gameplay design seemed mailed in to me, which is a shame because the core idea of the class system is a good one. (FF5 is one of my favourite games in the series. I don't remember a single X-2 boss fight which is remotely as memorable as like a dozen of FF5's, though.)
I think the main reason that X-2 and XIII-2 are talked about more than other sequels is just that (a) they came out while the first game was still fresh and relevant, and (b) had a lot of marketing/hype/sales. Also being for the same system helps, yes.
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The fact that both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia rank that high in the previous list makes me seriously doubt its accuracy.
I'm not going to apologise for those countries because they have serious problems (and I'm pretty sure both tumble a lot if you rank by "best places to be a woman" instead) but I believe their relatively high level of wealth goes a long way towards their livability. In some ways they're the opposite of Cuba, except that they share the trait of being very authoritarian. Regardless, I don't think either list is necessarily perfect for what we're trying to measure here but hopefully my broad point is clear.
The thing is, Cuba is probably one of the few dictatorships in the world that you you see people willing to defend, sugarcoat or just downright saying "well, it's not that bad".
Russia and China both definitely have fans, among others. Cuba may have more (depending on what your pool of people is for that comment) and I think the reason is rather obvious (some people legitimately want to see a working form of communism) but it's hardly an isolated case. People see things they like in dictatorships (and in some cases there might be some isolated things they happen to be doing well, for all that I agree you pretty much never get the best results that way). Even Nazi Germany had fans doing what you described, and they weren't few in number.
I honestly assume that, had it became a democracy in the 60s rather than what it is now, the country would be ranking even better, while also being a better place from every other measure.Oh, absolutely. Being an effective, working democracy correlates very strongly with doing well on these sorts of indices and generally being good places to live. I don't think many people would argue with your statement.
The sort of regimen Cuba has wouldn't be justified even if it made it the most prosperous country in the world according to social indexes, which it does not.
Nobody (or at least neither anyone in this thread, nor Trudeau) has claimed otherwise.
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Cuba is by most metrics rather middle-of-the-road. It's certainly not a paradise like some idealistic Communist fans might act (though I don't think anyone has pushed that in this thread?) but nor is it some hellhole either, and in fact compares relatively favourably to other Carribean countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where-to-be-born_Index (source: Economist Intelligence Unit, certainly no communist lover)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index (source: UN)
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I actually thought The After Years was decent enough, but maybe that's because I'm the opposite: I didn't like FF4 that much. TAY addressed one of my main concerns with FF4 (total lack of choice in party construction), and dramatically improved its battle system while keeping the core concepts intact. It's still a very flawed game because a lot of the episodes were poorly paced and the writing feels like something someone in junior high would write, but I enjoyed the big dungeon crawl in the second half of the game with what is probably the best version of the old-school FF4-9 ATB to date. It is definitely a bit of a rehash (embarrassingly so at points) though, you're right on that count.
There is also FInal Fantasy Dimensions, which while it isn't a plot sequel to FF5, is very obviously its gameplay successor. ATB job system game. It's definitely the best of the FF sequels in my books and I generally would highly recommend it to anyone who likes FF (and job system games in particular) for gameplay. Be warned: like FF5, its story is at best "charming" and at worst, just bad.
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Ok so which means I'm guessing that the hit rates are more balanced compared to FE6. I've heard from a lot that She can sort of singlehandedly swipe off the army like Ryoma...that true?
Also, does she avoid attacks like Rutger or does that mean its better off to someone else?
To some extent it's true because avoid is really really good in the back half of this game (and hers is basically the highest), and once she has some more weapon triangle options (lancereavers are storebought in this game) you can keep her from being exploited by her weak points. However I certainly wouldn't say she's as good as Ryoma because she doesn't have 1-2 range. She's... a lot like NM Rutger in a vacuum (lower base def though) except that she has more competition; other FE7 units tend to be better (on raw stats, or when compared to enemies) than their FE6 equivalents.
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She definitely isn't a bad unit. Kinda fragile until her evade gets going, but good speed and a neat Prf weapon.
(mild gameplay spoiler)Said Prof weapon fully recharges at the end of Lyn Mode.
I wouldn't put Sain/Kent on the level of Alan/Lance as both do have statistical flaws but they're certainly solid and worth using at least to see how they turn out. IMO those three and Florina are the best combat units you get out of Lyn Mode. I also really like a light mage you get later but he's a bit more polarizing I think.
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Tabata has said in interviews he doesn't want a trilogy, but Nomura and SE have given interviews where they DID want one.
I think Final Fantasy's current business model almost requires sequels? The base games cost so much to make that they need the cheap cash-in sequels to help turn a real profit. FFX-2 and FFXIII-2 are not the most adored games in the series but they still sold a lot (3-4M?) compared to their budgets.
Welp, it's surpassed 5 million in sales already.
Shipped, not sold, which makes a pretty big difference.
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While we are one the topic of Fates, I would like to mention how annoying
the people are who treat it like it is the best game ever. Cause it really isn't.
To those people, it is. People are gonna have opinions and some of them are going to have their #1 best game be something you don't like much. Nobody should be required to have their favourite game come from some "acceptable" list of choices.
Personally I am rather puzzled that you would choose one of the DS FE games as your favourite, but you're entitled to your opinion and I don't consider you "annoying" for having it.
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Haven't played 5 or 7.
Gen 3 was my favourite for years. I didn't play Ruby/Sapphire, but Emerald was great. A solid set of pokemon options, a lot of polish improvements over gen 1 and 2, and just as a singleplayer game I still feel it had the best boss fights in the series; they have competent AI and interesting designs. (One of the most disappointing things about OR/AS was that they screwed these up.) And then there was Fire Red/Leaf Green, which takes all the good points of gen 1 and injects it into a system with a good interface and non-buggy mechanics. Gen 3 was also in a sweet spot for competitive play, I think, after they fixed some of the mechanical wonkiness of gen 1 and stall focus of gen 2, but before Stealth Rock ruined typing balance forever and fights became too blitz-oriented. (Disclaimer: haven't kept up with competitive much past gen 4, but I gather it still has these problems.)
I did enjoy X/Y too, though, enough to also cast a vote for it. For me, having access to, what, 400 (?) pokemon was a great feeling and I felt that random trainers were more consistently decent opponents than they were in previous games (I had more trouble with many of them than the gym leaders... which doesn't say good things about the gym leaders, but oh well). OR/AS I found a bit disappointing, though, which is surprising considering that on paper it should have combined my two favourite gens together, in effect.
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I can't quite agree with that comparison. The story of Tellius stands out primarily for its world building and that's an area where Fates is lacking in. The main characters are also quite the contrast. One is a commoner who has to work for everything and who has to grow up while the other is a noble who never stops getting cuddled.
I also think that Birthright goes beyond ''broad strokes'' and into bare bones territory which is something that POR never did.
Ike receives command of a military force at age 17 for no other reason than his dad had it and died, which is... not a good argument that he's a "commoner who has to work for everything". I do think there are some contrasts there (like Ike being less sheltered and having a stronger moral compass), but I don't think the gap is nearly as large as you make it out to be. Both Ike and Corrin are clearly cut from the FE lord cloth.
Agreed about the world-building, though, for all that I do group Tellius and Fates as the only recent FEs which actually even attempted much in the way of moral complexity. I do think one does it better, of course, but the parallels are there.
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I don't do MMOs. That's been a big part of me losing interest in FF, there has only been two "main" games made since 2001 and I couldn't get into FF12 at all... so really just one for me! FFs have always been flawed, but back in the late 90's if you felt one game dropped the ball there would be another coming along soon.
Personally I really liked Lightning (as well as Yuna) and certainly disagree that she lacked a personality (maybe I'm just too used to putting up with Fire Emblem lords? <_<) but to each their own.
Also lack of females will be resolved sometime later, judging by the trilogy structure that has been proposed.Maybe I'll actually care about FF15-2 then, especially if they revamp the battle system. As is the stunning lack of female presence is a hype-killer for me, even if the gameplay looked like something I'd enjoy.
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A fair comment! I would defend FFX's as extremely overall solid but yeah all the others have at least one significant storytelling flaw in my mind. I tend to like them well enough anyways, though. FF plots are usually trying something interesting, at least.
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I'm a pretty big Final Fantasy fan but I have a hard time getting excited about this game. The gameplay looked like a second-rate action RPG with some odd design choices, and I don't like open-world games. The reviews already seem to have a lot of "flawed plot, flawed gameplay, but man it's a fun world to explore" and that's a huge turn-off for me since that's not an aspect of RPGs that I care about. (See also: why I love Fire Emblem.) Plus there is the game's apparent lack of female representation in a series that I expect much better of.
PKL's Conquest Tier List v1.1
in Fire Emblem Fates
Posted
"Fixing" below average speed in Conquest is possible but not trivial since there are quite a few characters who want more speed than they have. Speedwings / speed pairups are finite, and the latter have their own drawbacks (no attack stance, eating a unit slot, etc.). And unlike Leo/Xander, you don't get doubled 1-2 range out of a major +spd investment in Silas.
Shelter's a great skill, but does not an instant high tier make. (And if you think it does, Peri needs to be higher. I know a lot of people value availability more than I do, but still, it's only five maps.)