Dark Holy Elf

As I said earlier in the thread: this is false. Petra returns to Brigid during the timeskip. She is no longer a hostage at this point. If she wanted to stay out of the war, she could. She doesn't because sitting on her hands while the future of Brigid is potentially at stake is not something Petra would do. I agree with this. A perfectly rational Petra would behave as you describe, and if it were someone like Shamir in Petra's place I'd expect her to change sides. But as important as Brigid is to Petra, it's clear her friends are dearly important to her too, and if she's an enemy on VW/AM she comes across as a very good friend of Edelgard in particular.

I will definitely recommend Hard/Classic as well. I have nothing to add to the previous post, which sums it up very nicely.

A New Hope: 9/10 Empire Strikes Back: 8/10 Return of the Jedi: 7/10 Phantom Menace: 3/10 Attack of the Clones: 4/10 Revenge of the Sith: 7/10 The Force Awakens: 7/10 The Last Jedi: 9/10 Rogue One: 4/10 I kinda wanna watch Rise of Skywalker one day, but basically everyone I know whose opinions on the movies lines up with mine seems to hate it, so I'm not that optimistic.

I'm glad you put in that asterisked comment because that was going to be my response. Both in the battle itself and thereafter, her use of them isn't actually noted. If the students had used that as a reason to fight, I'd be happier with the sequence. But IIRC the beasts don't even appear in the cutscene; you only see them once the battle is joined. As you note the game is pretty inconsistent on how seriously we're supposed to take the demonic beasts, and there are some key unanswered questions. Are they all made from people? If so, are the people willing or not? What about the wild ones? What about the ones Gloucester uses? Can people survive the transformation? (Miklan doesn't and it's implied the Faerghus soldiers in Field of Revenge don't expect to, but Edelgard does in Azure Moon.) Without these answers, I'll admit I'm fairly numb to them myself (and the fact that characters I consider to be quite moral such as Dorothea are seen fighting alongside them adds to this). Weapons are weapons, and nothing in war is pretty. Even the worst interpretation of demonic beasts makes them less terrible as weapons than many other things humans have developed (bombs which kill civilians in large numbers, for one). If the game wanted to sell me on them as particularly vile, there should have been some scenes of unwilling sacrifices being turned into them during the war phase. Without that, we can only guess, and I suspect the guesses will line up with people's opinions on who they think is responsible and their opinions on those characters.

I've had a witch teleport in and kill someone with a crit which is just ridiculous. There was nothing I could do to prevent that (that I'm aware of), all it did was eat a turnwheel use and some of my time. Witches kinda felt to me like they needed to implement the rewind mechanic just to patch over how poorly-designed they are.

The holy tomb sequence is really weird in Black Eagles and honestly doesn't make much sense. Like, why are we even fighting against Edelgard here? The students of the Eagles seem far more likely to obey their friend (and emperor!) than Rhea whom several expressed distrust of in Chapter 4, and which side Byleth supports is a choice for the player to make... which really should have been made before that fight! It's very clear that this was a battle that was written for the other routes (probably Dimitri's above all, given the reveal there) and that they were too lazy to change it for the Eagles route. And on both Crimson Flower and Silver Snow, this fight is never really mentioned again. That said, Edelgard explicitly tells her classmates she has no interest in fighting them, so only the fact that they're (apparently?) willing to risk their lives to protect a tomb puts them in any danger. For what it's worth, I do think you should do a Crimson Flower run before making any definitive statements here. I really thought the sum body of the Eagles' support work flows into Crimson Flower much more, in particular the supports chains involving the various Eagles with Edelgard, but also ones like Dorothea/Ferdinand where she rails against the nobility and the church - that gets a big "oof" when she's defending the status quo on Silver Snow. I'll address some of the students further below. I've already talked about Caspar in this thread. Linhardt, Bernie, and Dorothea end up volunteering to fight in a war regardless of which route you're on and choices you make... either they're fighting for Byleth's faction, or they're defending Adrestia from invasion. There is no route in the canon where they they abstain from fighting. None are fans of war, but it's not crazy that they have things that they might want to fight for anyway. Dorothea in particular to me feels an extremely natural ally of Edelgard; she hates nobility and she dislikes the church, and was orphaned because she didn't have a crest. The other two are less clear but I still find them much more credible on CF than SS. Bernadetta isn't particularly ideological, but is much more likely in my eyes to support her friends and country than not precisely for that reason (plus Edelgard arrested her father, a comment which she smiles as she makes). Linhardt has a good relationship with his (Edelgard-loyal) parents and openly admits that any course of action besides supporting her would be "too much effort". As for Petra, she wants what's best for Brigid, but that doesn't necessarily mean an uprising. As per her B support with Edelgard (which I'm going to consider canon seeing as it happens on both Black Eagles routes), her dream is to meet with Edelgard when they're both rulers, and be shaking hands. Proving her nation's worth in Edelgard's war (a war against the church of Fodlan which she has little regard for) is certainly a good way to accomplish this, while joining a tattered faction to fight against Adrestia (the start of Silver Snow) seems far less likely to accomplish her goals. It should also be mentioned that she's no longer a political hostage after the timeskip, and the administration which held her as a hostage is one which Edelgard has swept aside, so that would be a strange grudge for her to hold.

Maybe they had that idea at some point in development, but at no point anywhere in the game is there any suggestion that Byleth of all people would hold any sway over the empire. That's pretty ridiculous honestly. S/he has no ties to the empire beyond teaching a few of their nobles for a year, and on Silver Snow the imagery invoked by Byleth's side in the war is religious, not imperial.

I completely disagree with this. In fact, I had the total opposite problem: the behaviour of the Eagles in Silver Snow isn't believable and is at odds with the character work they get in their supports, and more than any other route 100% requires devotion to Byleth to explain, with Ferdinand as really the only possible exception. I want to note that jumping ship to an enemy country is a rare thing in reality. People didn't mass defect from France just because Napoleon "started a war". If a ruler starts a war, typically he or she does so when their citizens see it as a justified... heck, often it is sold as the other side forcing them into it. Such is certainly the case in this game; we get a clear picture that people throughout the Empire (various lords, various soldiers, and the Eagles themselves) view their side of the conflict as the just one. Further, Crimson Flower itself goes to pains to justify each character, giving them all unique dialogue in Chapter 12 preparations as to why they're there and in the Eagles' case, a main plot cutscene as well. I didn't get this on other routes, and on Silver Snow you get an actively nonsensical scene with the Eagles making a large journey to honour a promise they made Edelgard so they can... join the Knights of Seiros and fight against her? I could go into individual characters if you wish.

Going by faction: Eagles: Maybe Ferdinand. Honestly I find him credible either way: he knows of his father's crimes, so it's entirely possible he would forgive Edelgard and seek to guide her, but it's also possible he wouldn't be able to forgive her given his views on nobility. I think anyone who says Caspar does not understand Caspar's views on justice. His view of justice is absolutely not an anti-war or anti-violence one (see his Ashe support) and he wholeheartedly believes that Edelgard's war against the church is just. Lions: Maybe Ashe. He pretends to forgive the church for their treatment of Lonato (because really, what choice does he have?) but you can see if he's recruited on Crimson Flower that this is a lie. And of course on VW/SS, his default behaviour is to serve the anti-Lions faction of Faerghus under Rowe. Sylvain would make a bit of sense given his ideology but unlike Ashe I just think he's too tight with the rest of his Lions friends to betray them (and he's rather visibly not happy on CF if recruited there). Deer: Lorenz, seeing as he does so unless Byleth is present. He sees a chance for his family to become the dominant power in the Alliance by opposing Riegan. In general, this is definitely the least unified faction ideologically, so a number of characters are at least possible, with only Hilda feeling absolutely wrong as a "betrayer". Edmund is flexible in which faction he supports and Marianne has personal admiration for Edelgard, Leonie admits to having no attachment to the Alliance, and Lysithea is happy to ally with anyone who will take down the slitherers, making her a canon supporter of either side depending on route (VW vs CF). For the church/staff characters, all except Hanneman/Manuela definitely feel like they should side with the church, while those two feel like they would side with Edelgard, particularly Hanneman. I haven't yet read all the wolves supports yet so I'll abstain there.

Honestly I'm not sure how I feel there. They're both good though!

On the one hand I kind of agree with you, CF would probably generate quite a lot of hype as a DLC route. On the other hand, my feeling is that if CF had been absent from day 1, this game does not get anywhere near the positive reception it currently has. -Edelgard as a lord now feels like a bait and switch, which would generate bad feelings. We'd get an extra large dose of those bad feelings because she is the only female lord, so anyone who chose her for that reason now gets to gnash their teeth as somehow a male character ends up in the closest thing Silver Snow has to a spotlight. -The game, billed as having three routes, is now revealed for those three routes differing by at most two maps each. -For anyone who finds themselves siding ideologically more with Edelgard than Rhea (and believe me, there are a lot of us), being forced down Silver Snow would feel awful. -Silver Snow already has a very poor reception, but this doesn't bring the game down because the people who would dislike it most usually don't do it as a first playthrough. If many of us did, though... yeah, I don't think it'd be pretty.

Throwing my support behind Micaiah; she's a deep and solid character who faces some difficult challenges, and was my favourite Fire Emblem lord until 3H came along.

I generally second this (with a definite emphasis on the fact that I love this site and consider it the definitive Fire Emblem resource which I recommend to friends, and that I have a hell of a lot of respect for the work Vincent and others have put in). I'd also be happy to pitch in and help. Some other things I'd like to see for Three Houses, since it's the game on my mind: -The Skill levels -> Progression page has a table listing the the exp requirement for the next level, but it's missing A+/S/S+. I'd also add a column which includes the total exp required for each level. -Also on this page, there are some spaces listed with "?" in the experience gain table, which should be filled in. The effects of Maddening difficulty on weekly instruction should also be noted. -Somewhere in the Skill levels section, the initial goals for each character should be documented (they're quite important because that's what the characters train if you recruit them after Chapter 2). And I'd clarify that budding talents are unlocked by 12 "instruct" actions or 6 faculty training sessions in Byleth's case. -"Stat boosts from class changing" shouldn't be buried away in a sub-page IMO, it should be linked in the main page under Classes. EDIT: This one was already done, whoops! -The class change page should include the formula for certification rate, now that this is known. -The simple list of classes in the class introductions page should IMO include the rank requirements to get certify for it, as that's one of the most important things to know about a class at a glance. Either replace the proficiency information (which is far less important) with this, or add it to the table. -I'd like to see availability/location added to the list of battalions. This page should also mention that battalion endurance depletes at 1 endurance per 2 damage taken. -And finally, though I know it's fair bit of work, I'd love to see an Item Locations page similar to the one found for various previous games.

Yeah, definitely a fair point. You can trade Sylvain's accessory much like you would a fighter's weapon, but obviously you won't always be able to do it. This would be really cool! I like the ice niche in particular, since that's definitely a spell line that lacks much identity as is. They definitely don't do enough to differentiate the spells as is (it's almost laughable how bad the crit rate on the supposed high-crit spells is), and I like the idea of giving each "element" a different focus. Perhaps my one quibble is I wouldn't want to hand out flying-weakness to the entire wind line just because that feels like it steps on the niche of bows; I do like wind's niche as low-might/weight though. Obviously the spells have generally tended this direction, but the differences could certainly be starker. Mm. For what it's worth I found Silence way more valuable than Ward Arrow because it's range 10 (and didn't find Mire/Break Shot very useful period beyond being 3 range in Mire's case). Physical characters get some utility too but they're still way behind at it: they can't heal other allies (without gambits which are better used for other things), they can't affect enemies at a huge distance (Silence, Bolting, Meteor), they lack the long-range repositioning of Warp/Rescue. I think 3H is in a pretty good place here; physical characters have some utility (gambits, rallies, a rare few combat arts like Encloser), but magical characters tend to both have considerably more utility (for starters, they can use rallies and gambits too!) and their utility covers a range of niches which physical characters do not.

If you're just trying to finish, you might as well lower the difficulty to Normal. The SS final battle is quite a step up from the previous maps.

In general I greatly prefer that characters level whether or not they're used, because it allows the player to swap in certain units based on what they need. This is especially true in smaller-cast games (most traditional JRPGs) but I'd say it holds true in Fire Emblem as well. It'd be neat if you could swap in some snipers in fights against lots of flying enemies, for instance, but as is this isn't practical because rotating your party strictly weakens you long-term. The only real advantage I see to Fire Emblem's current system is that by giving out exp (and weapon ranks, etc.) based on direct combat action, it is an incentive not to have one or two units go and eat most of the combat experience in any one map. But frankly there are probably more interesting ways to do this if this advantage is seen as a priority.

You get a couple Healing Staves (one from Dorothea/Ingrid's paralogue, one from chapter 9) which are a great help with this, adding 10 to the power of healing ("a bit under 30" is quite a bit better than "a bit under 20"). Mages can easily switch accessories depending on whether they're planning to heal or attack. And yeah, I definitely second the notion that good spell lists help make the idea of crossing a few physical characters over to mages as an idea. I don't think it's their optimum build, but Sylvain, Bernadetta, Ingrid, and Hilda all have magic builds that are at the very least interesting. Certification bases (especially Warlock) definitely help.

1. You actually can hold both a move-booster and a range-booster. Switch to March Ring -> move -> switch to range-booster -> attack. Repeat each turn. Kinda cheesy but you can. That said I agree with the 4 move complaint. The DLC helps here, if you want to factor that in, though at the cost of screwing over male mages. (Sorry Hubert, I still love you.) 2. Somewhat true, as a few cases like Annette and Lorenz do get a bit screwed over here (though, the balance would be fine if their stats were better to make up for this). Also, even among characters with good spell lists, those spell lists are different which is neat. Different people may value Mercedes' Physic+Fortify, or Marianne's Physic+Thoron+Silence, or Lysithea's Warp+Luna+Dark Spikes, or Dorothea's Meteor+Thoron+Physic, or Linhardt's Physic+Warp more, and that's cool. I kinda feel every mage without Physic save Lysithea gets a bit screwed over, but that might be just that the devs underrated Physic. 3. You can Warpskip a good part of other Fire Emblems using Warp as well (repairing it with Hammerne, that's 17 uses in the GBA games, for instance). The devs clearly don't care that Warp can be used to skip maps. If you do, then the problem is Warp itself, or perhaps its intersection with Defeat Boss/Seize objectives, not the FE3H magic system. 4. Mages also get +range from accessories, and can get it innately from Thoron/Mire/Death, or from Valkyrie. They don't have trouble competing with archers for range at any point in the game. Additionally, they perform far better at range. Sure, a Bow Knight can Curved Shot a target 5 squares away, but at a hit penalty of -40 (factoring in Curved Shot's boost). A mage with Thoron and Thyrsus matches that at no hit penalty at all. Additionally, mages almost invariably hit harder than Curved Shot does, unless targeting a flier. Archers obviously have some advantages over mages, the biggest one being brave effects (either from Hunter's Volley, Point-Blank Volley, or the Brave Bow/Inexhaustible), but on the whole I find mages more useful in this game; I've run archer-less parties and done fine, mage-less parties lose out a lot because of the loss of healing/utility. EDIT: realized I was wrong about the hit penalty for archers, it's apparently -30 for the first square beyond range 2 and -20 for each square thereafter.

I strongly second this. One of the best things you can do in Fire Emblem is to look at the nearby enemies and try to estimate which ones you'll be able to kill (or in 3H's case, neutralize via rattle/Encloser, etc.) by the end of the player phase, then make sure you don't leave your lower-durability units in range of too many units who will still be alive at the start of the enemy phase. Have at least a rough plan for what you want to accomplish at the start of each player phase before you start committing people to actions. The beautiful thing is that, in a tight situation, you can in fact check everything before you start: you can see how much damage all your own units do so you'll know if you're able to kill any given enemy, and you can see how much damage all the enemies can do to you so you will know if your mage can take a hit from two of those enemy cavaliers or just one. Also, plan for the worst. If an enemy has 10 crit on you, assume they will get a crit, and try to neutralize them before they attack or find someone who can tank or null the crit rate. If an attack you're planning to make has only 70 hit, you'd better be prepared for what happens if you miss (i.e. have a backup plan to take out that enemy if it presents a major threat to your team should it survive). In 3H you can use linked attacks to get your accuracy up with clever positioning and use of equipped weapons, this is particularly important for gambits.

Haven't watched the video, I don't like getting information that way. Nothing personal, feel free to post a summary and I will definitely read it. On the whole I'm quite happy with the magic system in Three Houses. I like that it's different from physicals. In many Fire Emblem games, magic is basically identical to physical attacks apart from targeting res; a Fire tome is basically a javelin with slightly different stats that hits a different defensive stat, even down to the fact it wears down in exactly the same way. That's kinda boring. In Three Houses, I liked that they wore down differently (recharging per battle), and that they don't take an inventory slot (which creates an interesting space where mages can use more accessories). Echoes, despite my issues with it overall, did take steps in the right direction here, and Three Houses basically perfects it. Also, personally, I loved that siege tomes and Warp etc. had per-battle limits instead of something I worry about hoarding for the entire game. But then, I'm not a fan of durability as the main metric to balance powerful things across a playthrough in general, and am glad that the more recent games have de-emphasized this. Mages in this game also have the ability to strike from incredible range. A Valkyrie with S rank reason and Thyrsus using Thoron or Death can hit someone seven panels away. That's obviously an extreme example, but the point is that great range is a niche they fill (archers can somewhat do so as well, but the -30 hit per panel penalty in Maddening adds up fast). They also provide great linked attacks as a result, and on top of that their attacks ignore terrain avoid bonuses, so they're often the go-to for enemies who camp on those. That's a powerful array of things besides the usual "targets res" (which is still present and still matters for roasting armours) which is magic's only distinct mechanical feature in some other games. To make up for it, of course, mages have a slew of disadvantages: low move (this problem has been lessened a bit with the DLC but is still generally true), a lack of multi-hit weapons/arts, and almost anyone who is good at magic has relatively poor HP/AS/def which the magic classes themselves exacerbate. Physical builds and magical builds feel very different in 3H, but both feel valid and I always find I want both on my team. I agree with the complaint that the Black/Dark split was stupid and pointless. On the other hand I definitely do like that each character gets their own unique spell list: it adds personality to the individual characters and provides a way to differentiate mages besides their stats. I do wish there was a way to see who would get what spell without looking it up in a guide, but I guess IntSys is just doing Serenes Forest the favour of increasing its traffic. 🙂

Valkyrie still has +2 move over Warlock/Bishop/Dark Bishop, which used to be the only choices for mages at Advanced tier. AND the extra point of range over them. It's a heck of an upgrade, and should absolutely now be the go-to magic class in Advanced tier for any female mage who is better at learning riding than flying, and a consideration for those who are equal. People talk about Valkyrie transitioning to Dark Knight but honestly that's kind of a lateral move. To compare them: Valkyrie: +1 spell range, +2 cha, +2 magic (doesn't offset Tomefaire, but does increase Physic/Warp range) Dark Knight: +1 move, +3 damage, +1 speed, +2 def, +1 res I'm inclined to say Dark Knight is slightly better but it's very competitive. Increased attack range is very potent, especially with how linked attacks work. And obviously Holy Knight is just a joke compared to either, due to having 1 lower magic than Dark Knight and missing out on Black/Dark Tomefaire.

I generally agree with your first two paragraphs (although some of the actions aren't nearly as good as just having access to white magic to me; Rally eats skill slots and doesn't scale up well nor give exp, self-heals aren't nearly as good as healing others), but the point was there is definitely some value in having access to healing, particularly when the comparison is with classes that are almost identical except that they do not. In particular, it makes War Monk a better class than Grappler before both are mastered. So if your plan is to move on to War Master, War Monk looks better to me as an intermediate job. And again, just to emphasize, there is a whole group of potential candidates for the class that don't even have access to Grappler or War Master in the first place.

Most maps post-timeskip have space for 11 units, so I recommend using at least that many units. Basically, your current plan is good, but you might want to add one unit to it. You probably already know this, but on non-Crimson Flower routes, it helps immensely if the units who start on the left side of Reunion at Dawn (Chapter 13) are all levelled up reasonably. If you're thinking of doing Blue Lions, that's Annette, Mercedes, and Ashe, so I recommend that you use them at least until that point, perhaps even making one of them your dancer if you don't like the idea of using them otherwise.

3 Recovers is plenty, since his job isn't to be a primary healer. His job is to hit things, but having Recover is a nice option because there isn't always something in range to hit on any given turn. Grappler's combat art is better, sure, particularly for someone like Raphael who has serious trouble quadding and thus will be using combat arts more (for someone like Catherine or Felix, it's less important, never mind that Catherine can't actually use it). However, you need to take 75 actions in the class before you get access to either (and Grappler has no healing to speed this up!), so that's a lot of time where they're not relevant, especially if you're planing to progress on to a different master tier class like War Master. At that point, Brawl Avo +20 is a significantly cooler thing to take into tier 4 than Tomebreaker IMO.

I like linked attacks quite a lot and definitely hope they return. -They're a more intuitive use of support bonuses than some previous games, because they're always visible on the combat projection screen. -They allow for more tactical decisions of where to move and place units to maximize your bonuses, especially to boost attacks which might otherwise be unreliable. -They improve the reliability of strategies which I appreciate. Even attacks with relatively low base accuracy can, with enough support, be brought into the 90+ range. -They reward good player phase play; contrast the support bonuses of GBA/Tellius which were most potent in evade stacking to get an invincible enemy phase juggernaut, which is much less tactical. The second point is the key one, really.