Brucknerian

BTW, I just read through your tier list here http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=19108, and I did not find any major conflict with the statements I made above. Here is your list: -Top Tier- Lance Alan Dieck Rutger Lalum Elphin Miledy Percival High Tier: Clarine Saul Ellen Echinda Chad Astohl Gonzales (A) -Upper Mid Tier- Marcus Fir Shin Lot Tate Lugh Klein -Lower Mid Tier- Roy Thany Cecilia Bartre Zealot Oujay Noah Treck Gonzales Geese Fa Ward Ray Lilina Zeiss Niime Igrene Garret Douglas Barth -Low Tier- Cath Sue Boris Yodel -Bottom Tier- Hugh Dorothy Walt Juno Karel Sophia Wendy --------------------------------------------------------------- As shown, unpromoted top tier characters nearly always better their promoted alternatives in terms of efficiency in a ranked HM run. That is exactly the point I want to make. Did I get your point correctly? What made you a big turn against your own points years ago? I have not check other ranking list on the forum, but I believe the same general rule should apply more or less.

I am glad that people here are actively sharing their ideas about the old game. I myself went through HM for nearly 20 times (several times on GBA, around 15 times on VBA). I tried almost every characters except Merlinus. It is not difficult for me to get hard mode SS rank within 16 hours playtime, so no turtling. Generally (without frequent S/L or TAS), a perfect HM run will take approx 400 turns or more to complete all the 31 chapters and to meet all requirements (rankings, enrollments, ending etc), so there is no problem if someone really want to increase stave rank for mage/druid, though I do not recommend so. If you did it within 200 turns, please show me how. I think the major disagreement comes from several basic points of HM gameplay: 1. Choosing weapons: For me, it is simply unnecessary to use most of the "high-rank" weapons under most circumstances in FE6: Stave: most mages just use heal through, two or three use restore and physic. No need to use others. If you really need to teleport, let one wield it, but it is certainly not a must-have (although an item in 20A require teleport to obtain, it is neglectable). Status stakes have very limited usage in the run, although it is good to sleep Douglas, or do something on fire dragons etc (no need in fact). After Niime joins, our team is strong enough that we do not really need to play any of such tricks on the enemy. Dark Tome: nothing other than flux and nosferatu is needed. Nosferatu is the best by performance, but far too expensive. So mostly I use flux, and switch to Nosferatu only a few times. Anima Tome: the only thing that really necessary is fire, and if you like - thunder. There is simply no need to use aircalibre to take down air units if I use Clarine, because wyvern lords in 21A just can not land any single hit on a full-speed high-luck full-support Clarine put in the front together with Rutger and Dieck. Then Clarine can counter any wyvern lords easily by using fire or thunder (i do not really want her to kill many WL, bc she just leveled up so quickly and attract lots of enemy fire, so I need her to share EXP with others, but she just lands critical hits too frequently). But for characters like Cecilia and Niime, I dont think anyone will let them fight face-to-face with WL-- their stats are so insufficient that can only snipe enemies from afar (who else cannot?). 2. Characters: The following characters with bonus base stats plays a major role in my HM run: Rutger, Fir, Shin, Gonzales, Miredy, Zeiss and Percival. They are just overpowered in HM, and very easy to train. I dont think alternatives can really rival their abilities and take their roles (Allen generally matches Percival, but they take different roles in the run), unless someone want to make the game more challenging. 3. Stats: It is true that high luck helps a lot on hit and dodge, but low luck can still be compenated by support level. The most vital stats that can not really be supplemented otherwise are move (largely depending on class) and attack speed. Attack speed means damage output, chance to hit (combat and EXP rank) and dodge (survivability). So, normally I put it a very high priority when valueing stats. Again, there are many ways to go through the game. I wrote a few of them that I would prefer.

You are right. Zealot joins as early as chapter7, and can serve well before Percival appears. But for me, it is enough to call it a "late" joining, because in most cases in the following chapters, it is no longer necessary to use an upper class paladin to lead the team, as Rutger,Dieck,Allen and Lance leveled up (usually arround lv10, Allen and Lance support each other), and other strong characters will join shortly (such as Fir, Shin, Gonzales and Tate). Zealot is prefered only if someone finds it difficult to get into a good position in chapter 8 and 11A before enemy reinforcement arrives. Regarding the mages, there are many ways of using them. Someone does not use any light or dark mages until late game, and choose multiple anima mage instead. Then Niime and Yodel works very well. I personally choose Ray, Clarine and one priest early, train them through the journey (to increase EXP rank), and they work perfectly as both stave supporter and damage dealer in late game. Ray can easily get to lv10 in late game with good support, while Niime has no such potential. But of cause, Ray is no stave user. Ellen/Saul and Clarine use B-C staves. The best advantage of Saul is high HP and SPD, which is very crucial in HM. Clarine has poor HP and Magic which is trouble some in early game. In fact magic is not a big problem, as most non-mage enemies have very low resistance, and the damage of Clarine greatly increases by her support with Rutger and Dieck. She can just abuse E or D Tome on enemies. It is not hard to make her promoted after getting the second Ring from Chapter 14. The key is to abuse heal, torch and unlock staffs. And in late game, she becomes godlike. Again, promoted characters are generally useful, but usually not as much as top tier unpromoted are.

FE6-8 are all top tier GBA games. I would suggest that you try all of them. FE6 was a real breakthrough and landmark of FE series, and the best seller of GBA FE in Japan for several years. FE7 inherit major settings from FE6 with a polished story and more details, but with only a little improvement on graphics and sound (2002-2003 witnessed graphics enhancement of many GBA game series). FE8 greatly improve graphics, sound and post-story mode content, but less inspired plot and far less challenging difficulty.

If you are thinking of going through the story quickly and easily, there is no need to train any of the three kids. Seth alone can dominate the game before chapter 20 (If you are skillful enough, he can also beat through the last two chapters). Also, there are plenty of good characters in FE8 allowing the player to choose freely.

Thanks for ur reply, Jedi. These promoted characters are solid indeed, but I have to say there are better choices which can make a HM run much more easier. So, generally, I would not recommend them to a HM beginner. Of course, there are many ways to go through HM, and promoted characters can also feature well in the game. Marcus has poor growth rates and stats. The only reason I recommend him is that he is one of a few guys that can work effectively as both a tank and a major damage-dealer (thanks to the silver lance) before chapter 7 (others include Rutger and Dieck, but less powerful at the beginning). His main role is to weaken tough enemies, and let others finish off. Without him, early game can be quite difficult (e.x. chapter 4). After chapter 7, he can just retire. Zealot works well in chapter 7 (one of the most difficult chapter in HM). But after that, he is quickly surpassed by other unpromoted characters with high growth. He is almost a copy of Marcus with slightly better stats, but quite late appearance. So I do not recommend him. Klein and Igrene are very solid snipers in the game. Klein is prefered in HM due to bonus and good support. But the obvious best choice for the bow-wielder is Shin. His HM stats is Ridiculous. If a second archer/nomad is needed, I would use Sue pairing with Shin considering mobility and growth rates. Usually I focus on only one archer during early and mid chapters, in order to go Illia route (much more easier than Sacae counterpart). Niime, Cecilia and Yodel are bench warmers who appear on the battle field only when the player is too lazy to raise Ray, Clarine and Ellen/Saul. They can support the team well due to good stave ranks, but they contribute little other than that. Promoted Ellen or Saul can take their place as supporters pretty easily (also E/S do better job fighting enemies). It is a little boring when the player has to use staves repeatedly to gain EXP for E/S. Clarine is the best valkyria in the game without saying. After promotion she becomes unbeatable both on the map and in the arena with the help of Dieck-Rutger-Clarine triangle supprt. And Ray is clearly more powerful than Niime. So no need to use N/C/Y unless we have insufficient stave users. Karel has very good stats, but can hardly contribute due to his late enrollment. Also, Rutger and Fir is more preferable considering Spd and HP. These two guys can virtually butcher everything on the map after promotion, so there is no need for a third swordmaster. For me, unpromoted characters in FE6 usually perform far better than their promoted alternatives (except Percival HM and Klein HM), mainly due to their higher stats (especially SPEED) and support. And many of the unpromoted are quite easy to train.

The big problem for Roy is his late promotion which makes him quite vulnerable against stronger enemies during the mid chapters. It is not a big deal in NM. But in HM, it is just annoying. His relatively low HP, str and spd make him useless and fragile when facing enemy mercenaries, cavaliers, wyverns and mages. He is the one to be protected during the long journey. On the other hand, he does provide good support to damage-dealers (such as Allen and Lilina), and does get a huge boost in stats when promoted which makes him easy to gain level in late game. So I just tolerate his performance (and I have to).

In fact, no armor knights are really useful in FE6. If you just like the class, I would say wendy is far better than these two guys by stats, although more difficult to level up.

Roy - you have to use him... Lance - very useful in NM, less useful in HM. Allen did a better job in HM due to better strength and affinity. Clarine - Rutger - Dieck just abuse this godlike support triangle, It helps you go through HM with ease. Lugh - very useful, but still can be replaced by lilina and hugh in later chapters. I personally recommend to use multiple sages. Fir - extremely powerful character. Noah - mid tier character. even treck has a slightly better performance. Shin - extremely powerful. do not switch to other archers/normads unless you want to make the game more challenging. Sue - again less useful in HM due to low str and HP, but still a good choice. Echidna - forget her. use Dieck or oujay instead. Klien - mid tier character. He has lower stats than other archers, but does receive bonus in HM. Lalum - not recommended Cecillia - Random level 1 enemy valkyria in chapter 15 in HM can easily overshadow her. so ignore her. Douglas - forget him.

For HM only: Extremely powerful characters: Rutger, Fir, Shin, Miredy, Zeiss, Gonzales-11A. Other very useful characters: Allen, Marcus, Dieck, Lugh, Clarine, Percival. Not recommended: all the promoted characters except the one mentioned above, fighters, knights and archers. GL HF.

It was my first FE game. I've played it through for nearly twenty times.