Byte2222

Ok, a few things: IS only tend to make 1 or 2 FEs per console and I imagine developing for the Wii U will require enough effort that we'll see at most 2 games for it. I disagree with your disagreement (mostly). A lot of the features of the third tier were redundant (e.g. mastery skills, extra weapons) and with such a large exp and stat gap between your top and bottom units it's hard to experiment. Having more than 2 groups gives too broad a focus and inhibits character and plot development, not to mention that the game needs more units to fill the teams and RD already has such a huge roster you're never allowed access to the whole thing. RD was plenty long enough, I play slowly but I often hit the playtime cap (100 hours, I think). I do, however, like the tactical value of elevation/ledges but it's difficult to properly integrate into the map design seeing how it ruins mobility (which is also kinda the point). I also agree that IS should give up on crossbows, there's no good way to integrate them into both gameplay and the world (e.g. "it's a different kind of bow so why is it exactly the same kind of weapon? That's kinda pointless") What I'd love to see in Fire Emblem's future is a remake of Gaiden, it's a game begging for a remake.

Do Druids promote? If so, what to?

Xenoblade is a pretty bloody amazing game and it's great to see it get the attention it deserves :D. One of the things I liked most about it was the customisation options: arts, skills and gems. Also, Florina: have you got the hang of skill linking yet? There are some cool combinations later on that can only be achieved through skill links, including getting medium and heavy armour on everyone, so it's worth learning about. One more thing about skills, if you're interested in side content: there are 2 unlockable skill branches for each character, available from sidequests when you've built up a high affinity with the area but they're pretty hard to get. There are also two extra monado arts for Shulk available later in the game via sidequesting too. Goodness Xenoblade is big, it's all coming back to me. Much like seph I put over 160 hours into it before deciding enough was enough.

The only set B units with a personal magic growth greater than 0 (excluding Etzel) are Draug, Cord, Castor, Caeser and Dolph and of those only Cord and Caeser have a growth of 10. Since you're reclassing to dark mage all of these units will have a (personal) base magic of zero in a class that deals less damage than a mage. As someone who's (mostly) done a magic-users-only run of Shadow Dragon I can say that a dark mage is rarely worth the effort and the set A and female units are better but really, you really only need Merric and when you've trained Linde up she hits really hard too. If you're reclassing any unit from physical to magical they're always going to have poor magic and need to be strong in other areas to be valuable. With that in mind, I'd recommend units with high speed for reclassing into a magical class, like Shiida, or Abel or Cain... ...ergo, my recommendation for a dark mage is Draug, give him a few levels as a knight (not that you have much choice) to give him a little strength and defence (even if he doesn't proc them dynamic growths still exist) and then his high speed will make him a good dark mage/sorcerer. Proportionally, that is, he still won't be anywhere near as good as Merric. I did use Caeser as a dark mage once, if I recall correctly he sucked, but not really any more than is typical for a physical-to-magical reclassing. IIRC, he was also slightly mag-screwed.

Okay, you're right, but it's +5 crit which IMO doesn't make up for the might, hit and durability loss compared to swords. I was just thinking... maybe a little more?

ASM is short for assembly language: a low-level programming language used by game modders to make moderate-to-advanced changes to the game. In layman's terms, it's the way hackers tell the game what they want to change. The "low-level" bit means that it's a language more suited to computers and moving data around in hardware (or emulated hardware) and less suited to humans and their weird, inexact ways of communicating. Assembly language is hard to learn and understand, most ROM-hackers here on SF only have a basic understanding of assembly, but you need to learn it to make any changes more complicated than swapping items around or fiddling with numbers. I think what I've said is accurate OT: I always like more types of stuff to play around with but knives have seemed redundant, especially in FE10 where they were basically swords but not as good. My favourite idea for fixing them that's been suggested here is that they halve enemy defence, that way they have a niche but aren't too overpowered, especially if Thief str is kept low. I was also surprised in FE10 that their crit was so low, it would be a good stat for Thieves and would basically make them exaggerated Myrmidons: reliant on criticals for any decent level of damage but more likely to get them.

Best: In terms of most useful, FE10 Haar, in terms of raw power at peak performance, FE2 Est. Since Haar's apparently winning by a country mile, take my vote for FE2 Est. Disclaimer: Yes, Est is not very good most of the time and takes effort to use even at the best of times but in FE2 she's the best unit in the game when fully trained. She has the game's highest skill, luck and defence growths and skirmishes to use them in if you're so inclined. Also this is a subjective rating thread so screw you. Worst: FE10 Sigrun I guess. I've not played FE5 or FE6 at all and I take a dim view on regressing units compared to growing units.

Apparently the Fear Shrine, probably a hidden area you get to by walking through an apparently solid wall. Probably, it's been ages since I've played Gaiden. I know seph1212 did an LP, I learned a load of secret locations from it and if you really want to know that's my best suggestion.

Very good question. Should you give the best weapons to good units for maximum effectiveness or weak units to cover (some of) their weakness? I can't tell you that, you should pick. What I can say is that weight and effects can shift the balance so that a given weapon might find more use on a certain unit. Let me explain: For example, Celica has fairly low strength and wants a sword but being a mage who depletes her HP (a stat she's also weak in) she will also benefit from a 5HP-a-turn recovery effect and the holy sword is an excellent weapon for her. The darkness sword doesn't backfire on demonslayers but since it has high weight, low hit and high might it's best in the hands of a fast, skilled and weak slayer so it'll probably be better for Kamui or Jesse than for Saber or Dean. The same sort of thing holds true for other weapon types. With archers I was using Python, Robin and Leo and Alm had a bow close to hand after promotion: Python had the holy bow (best on Alm's side), Robin had a steel bow (because he's crap lategame no matter what you give him), Leo had the silver bow (best on Celica's side) and Alm had a steel bow (the only one left and he'll be using a sword when he's serious anyway). Which mages get into scrapes (they want shields) and which blast so much that they run out of HP (rings and their recovery effect). Do you have the patience to pass the angel ring around? Do you want the speed ring to make you a super-long-range flier, a massively mobile knight or an armour who can cross the battlefield in three turns and double everything? Or something else like a long-range mage? I've probably just made everything worse but hopefully I've been interesting. I'm sure you'll find a solution and I'm sure that whatever quirky setup you decide on I hope it'll be fun, there's plenty to work with.

Ryuto's okay. He starts with excalibur which is pretty cool but his bases and growths are nothing to write home about. As a Mage though, he's still pretty handy on Alm's team and if you didn't promote Cliff to Mage Ryuto will be very important. He tends to fall behind lategame but is still good to have around. 6.5/10, nothing remarkably good or bad about him but Alm's team find another Mage pretty handy.

Re: Growths & misses: I think it's already been said but FE2 has low growths. Seriously, 1-stat levels are par for the course and 2-stats it doing well. The game (probably) isn't trolling you, the growths are just lower. This is also one of the reasons to promote early, class bases go up quicker than actual unit growths (unless you're Est or Cliff). You might already know this but FE2 (actually all FEs prior to FE6) uses one random number for hits. This means you get a lot more variability, randomness and vindictiveness than the later games which use 2 RNs, making high "hit"s more accurate and low "hit"s less accurate, favouring the player. Also: there's no res growth (though you've probably noticed this by now) so certain units (e.g. Matilda, Cliff) are just better at dealing with mages than others (Luka, Grey, Valbo). tl;dr the game's not being mean, Gaiden's just weird. You may already know the stuff I'm telling you.

1. You could always actually rate him and chip in. 2. Noma is inferior to any other mage Celica's team raised, his bases and growths suck, he joins incredibly late and he learns only one decent spell. Please elaborate. 3. This is a subjective rate-the-unit, either add an analysis and score (they might even change someone's mind) or deal with it, just complaining at us is a waste of energy.

Noma sucks. Hard. He's the last unit on Celica's side, comes with terrible bases and growths and will be overshadowed by any other (native) mage on Celica's team including Celica herself. His only decent stat is skill which is worth squat as a mage since magic ignores terrain and enemies have zero luck. His only redeeming features are coming pre-promoted/pre-prepared in case you haven't trained a mage and suddenly want one, being able to heal (badly) and knowing excalibur. I don't think he's quite as bad as Atlas but he's close. 2/10, crap bases, crap growths, crap jointime, crap class for Celica's team but still usable on paper.

Y'know, in my experience Est at full power is amazing. Her growths are insane, she has one of the best classes in the game and a triangle attack that's actually really powerful. The downside is the low level but with Gaiden's low everything (i.e. endgame stats are lower in Gaiden than in most FEs) and extra experience in the form of skirmishes and mummies this is not as big a problem as it is in other FEs. Granted, Est will need some work but train her and she's the best unit in Gaiden bar none! 8.0/10, needs work but becomes the best unit in the game Edit: let's take that down to 7.5/10 for late jointime Also: with a sample size of 3 Sonia can easily place higher than Dean, smaller samples give more variation.

That was very nice actually. Very gentle, agreeable and straightforward. My favourite is still the arranged one from FE4 for the dynamic contrast and the extra bit at the end that makes a nice climax. I always love to hear a proper orchestral version of my favourite game music and you've done an excellent job, well done.

*Thread about Fire Emblem in webcomic, discussion about fighting the final boss* Huh. Only on Serenes Forest I guess.

I should pay closer attention. Still, you know what I'm on about though, I reckon that a normal mode no-grinding playthrough would be fairly difficult, hence I'd expect most people to do some grinding. Then again I've only played the game once but with an underplayed game like Gaiden that's enough to be nearly an expert (I have watched an LP too).

I agree: Her promotion's rubbish Low movement sucks I disagree: Lots of players will do some grinding or be playing on easy mode. There are lots of Mummies in the lost woods and some in the mountain graveyard if you RNG abuse the encounter. It isn't too hard to get a few more levels, especially as the team will be promoting at about the time of lost woods 6HP for an Excalibur double (which, lets be honest, is why you use Excalibur) is a big issue. BUT, Mages can't equip weapons so they'll be equipping rings or shields. Since Mages don't normally get attacked enough to want a shield you'll probably be equipping rings and all of those heal 5HP a turn. Ergo, Excalibur double only leaves you 1HP down Sonia's base defence is the same as Catria's. Granted, Catria showed up a few battles (and levels) ago but Sonia has an extra 10% defence growth on her, giving a very hearty 30%, and since Sonia has to get to level 20 to promote that growth will be well utilised Extra point: I argue that Mages don't get attacked often. The point of a Mage is to nuke the enemy before it causes you trouble and, with their often poor defence, effective use of Mages requires that the player protects them to a degree (they're not as bad as healers). In Gaiden Mages have better defence than is typical of the series, meaning they need less protection, but casting from HP balances that out. Adding on potential regeneration (from the rings as outlined above) my point is that "front line" use of a Mage is a little vague given their role and potential in Gaiden. ...I feel like that was a rambling not a point but it's out there now

So, Sonia. Best Mage in the game? Well her bases are good, fairly similar to Catria's really and she's our highest rated unit so far, so Sonia won't have much trouble joining at full speed. On top of this, 30% growths all round are also similar to Catria and a 30% defence growth on a Mage is very nice indeed. Sonia also learns Excalibur, the best spell in the game, as well and Angel (probably the second best spell in the game) so her selection of magic is really good too. Downsides? I suppose her class, she can't promote until level 20 so she's going to have some trouble getting exp at the higher levels. Her jointime is also a little weak, not too bad because we're not quite halfway through Celica's quest when she joins but we've probably got a nearly final team by that point. So best Mage in the game? Probably not while Cliff's around but she gets damn close. 9.0/10, good bases, good growths, good magic but slightly weak class and a little late Edit: make that 8.0/10, I've been successfully convinced that she's trouble to get to full power Also, to the person above me (I can't Japanese (assuming it is Japanese )): where are you finding that artwork? I'd love to know, there's so little Gaiden fanart.

Psst... Jesse's a guy.

Well no-one else is saying anything so I might as well chime in. My first thought is that Jesse's general stat/growth spread is similar to Kamui's, speed and skill focused as opposed to Saber who's defence focused, so with that and Kamui's 7.5 rating in mind lets have a look. His first and most major problem is his joining state: level 6 first tier. For his level his bases are fine, in fact, comparing to Kamui he's pretty decent for his level but the fact remains that it's too low a level. He's also only one level off promotion but with a speed-focused build in the Mercenary class promotion isn't going to help him too much. Looking more carefully at his growths they're actually marginally superior to Kamui's in a few places so we can label him as "will be better than Kamui given enough time" but the problem is that, if we're using him, Kamui will be better now, without needing grinding or favouritism to catch up. That's his problem, he'll be great in a few maps' time but everyone else is pretty good now. 5/10, a strong unit but one who needs catching up.

I'd say that for most of Gaiden you can use everyone. There are no deployment limits until the lategame and with grinding/easy mode there's plenty of experience to go around until it becomes clear who you don't want to use. There's also been a series of "Rate the Unit" discussions recently if you want a bit more information on various units.