CappnRob

I did say the Mystletainn helps, and that Ares does better than most. i also did say it was not great and that was dumb of me because 23 RES is amazing tbh so disregard that bit Either way, it is a point to consider that Altenna is a magic-vulnerable character who joins right before facing an absolute onslaught of magic-focused enemies and that sucks, but she can still help fight Arion's personal army, Ridale's squadron, help rescue Palmark alongside Fee due to being able to fly (as well as poke out those annoying pirates), and fight some of the Chalphy army (they're a mixed unit of magic users and physical units iirc). Edda in the final chapter is another frustrating wall, but the Dozel knights immediately after are another story, as are the cavalry right before Edda (plus the goddamn dark mages on the cliffs right outside Chalphy). Scorpio's archers are a mixed bag, they crit fliers but she can certainly hit and run them due to flying re-move. The Freege Barons pack Thorron but if I recall their base magic isn't great, although Hilda is a 30 magic Volcannon packing powerhouse so that's still a problem. Regardless, Altenna can fly and thus park herself on the mountains safely out of range and do hit and runs with the Gae Bolg. Even if her tankiness is undermined by the overwhelmingly magic nature of FE4's endgame, the immense damage it can deliver still stands strong - 67 damage with chance to crit and multiple hits is nothing to sneeze at. She isn't absolutely useless, just undermined.

To wit I know everyone is pooping on Altenna's magic defense but it isn't like anyone else has spectacular resistance either. There's... Seliph and Julia, due to their Naga blood. Ares is better than most physical fighters but not great though the Mystletainn helps. And Lene/Corpul will always have alrightish resistance too due to Bragi blood, aaaand.... that's really it, save for whoever you pair Claude up with. Magic defense in pre-FE6 Fire Emblem is a luxury, nor a normality, for physical fighting units and honestly its rare for your magic users most of the time too, just not AS rare.

Honestly those RUSH RUSH RUSH moments aside I think people really overblow FE4 as "Horse Emblem" for the most part (at least as far as a casual playthrough is concerned). A lot of parts of the game are designed so your infantry and cavalry are fighting at the same time, usually by having tough enemy encounters focused in bottlenecks or chokepoints, or using terrain that either inhibits mounted movement (mountains) or improves infantry (roads, though this also makes cavalry move farther too). But again, aside from a handful of RUSH moments to save villages or NPCs or whatever, you should keep your cavalry with your infantry.

The jealousy mechanic is nothing to really worry about, its good for turbocharging your love points but it isn't needed, so don't worry about using it. Just keep characters you want to pair up directly next to one another as much asyou can and it'll work out. Exception to this is Ayra, don't pair her up before chapter 3 or you'll miss out on the brave sword :T

They're referring to her continue skill with that I think, but does weapon weight take into consideration weapon weight? Because I've had freakin' Ishtore do that shit on me with his 30 ass weight bolting spell.

If you strip Julia of her weapons pre-abduction she only comes after you with a Lightning tome right? Though leaving her with a fire does sound better still. Either way, it isn't hard for Sety or Corple to silence her so she isn't really a threat provided you take out Manfroy fast enough.

Last guaranteed character of G2? Oilikad my lad, you're forgetting Hannibal and his radical beard :P Anyway Altenna is a great unit with really limited availability. She comes about 1/4 into Chapter 9 and unpromoted (albeit only 3 levels from it), but she is packing the Gae Bolg as the last holy weapon you gain access to (shy of a Claude!Corple anyway), so she certainly can pack a hit. With Ethlyn's critical skill and the Gae Bolg's +10 skill along with Nova blood's skill growths, she crits like a nuclear bomb and thus doesn't have a real hard time fighting. She does have a hard time with the staff users in the middle of chapter 10 and the early game of the final chapter, but really what hurts her use in the final chapter is the simple fact Arion shows back up and you need to send her back to the home castle to stop him from instant-game overing you, even if it does give you a nice little NPC army (why couldn't we have gotten control of Arion though? Its so late I don't see what it would've hurt but eh :V) to help with the final hurdle of the game. So yeah, she's a flying nuclear bomb that just doesn't have enough time in the game to shine, but you can get some good use for her. I like her melodrama with the Thracian story arc involving Trabant and all too, so a bit of bias there for a 6.5/10.

Even if she doesn't kill them, she can significantly soften them up for others to move in and do away with. Skills help too. But yes, she's still the best contender for the hero's lance.

Fee's magic is good enough even with Levin dad, and magic swords cast B rank magic damage at range, and most enemies lack magic defense. She makes good use of at least one magic sword. That said, I still let her keep the brave lance because it lets her take out bandits more reliably to save villages, because even with axes their stats are so poor it rarely misses (and she can crit with it). I give Finn a silver lance, because really he's one of the few people who can use one and get use OUT of it (Alteena has the Gae Bolg, Leif usually has other weapons to juggle, Hannibal.... eh, I think there's more than one silver lance and he gets the other? I forget). He packs a huge hit with it.

I think they mean pairings in G2 itself, as each one has a special conversation where in one of the lovers will get a stat boost, some of which are more useful than others.

Finn in G2 is a functionally different character to be fair though. In G1 he can father kids and due to the weaker enemies holds his own a lot better. Depending on how well you leveled him in G1 sort of dictates his role in G2, though. A promoted Finn is more like an Oifey for Leif and Nana, but if he's lower leveled he's less reliable as a meatshield in that regard, though he still has great growths and can use A rank lances once promoted. G2 is overall less kind to Finn because the enemy scaling gets much higher.... but the fact you have him for almost the whole game does make him a very worthwhile character investment, so while he might be less useful in G2 it doesn't really impact his overall score. Hmm. I'm rambling pft.

Single Use items like vulneraries would possibly be interesting, another thing you can dump your gold into (especially if combined with the bank idea I posted). Antitoxins would be redundant though as I don't think there's any poison in FE4. Normalized trade and raising weapon levels though would undermine the main game though. As for a dark mage.... maybe give Salem a cameo in G2? idk lel. Wouldn't make much sense for there to be a dark mage in FE4 otherwise given they're all literal evil cultists.

Mercurius being locked to Marth always bothered me. He already has Falchion, does he REALLY need two special swords? He can't even dual wield them :V

Day/Night cycles with weather effects would actually be really interesting, especially on maps that are clearly meant to span a long amount of in-character time (Chapter 2, Chapter 4).

Keeping the old lover system while still having a support system could be interesting. I actually like the lover system in FE4 because it sort of reflects on each character's personality a bit, how some characters start with huge bonuses but have lower growths or vice versa (Lachesis starts with +50 with -every- male, Claude starts with 190 with Sylvia but only gets +1 love points if he isn't adjacent to her, etc). Plus it'd let you get A/S rank supports with characters while being paired romantically with another. which means the Beowulf/Lachesis/Finn love triangle can now be realized in game ayyyyyyy

Ha, I forgot about the thieves not having any weapon skill growth, which prohibits Julian from being truly amazing (where as in FE3 he can get weapon levels and is in fact amazing). And yeah, Talismans give obscene magic defense in this, put one on top of a promoted character and watch them become literally magic proof. Also pegasus knights promote into dragon knights in FE1 and that causes them to LOSE magic defense iirc.

Yooooo. Given all the hubbub over the Gaiden remake and the half dozen threads throughout talking about if Echoes will be a subtitle line for remade classic FEs, I think it would make for an interesting conversation to discuss what if any changes we would like to see to Genealogy of the Holy War should it be brought into a modern age. Why Genealogy? Because aside from Gaiden it is certainly the most different and divisive FE in the series it seems, so if it were to be remade there's a lot that could be changed.... but what is the question. Anyhow, here's a list of some things I'd like to see changed or tweaked with (along with some stuff I wouldn't!). How pursuit works: Its no secret that one of FE4's strangest and controversial alterations to the classic FE formula was locking double attacks behind a skill.... then undermining it by basically giving almost everyone access to it, rendering non-pursuit characters less "different" and moreso just plain worthless. I'd like to see it retooled, but not totally removed. Something like how FE Binary handles it, where pursuit lowers the threshold for double attacks so speedy characters actually benefit from it without just being redundant with the existance of Adept/Continue and still keeping slower/heavier hitting classes distinct. Choosing your gold deposits: Thieves are integral to managing your funds in FE4, but the problem is they just dump everything they have at once onto a character until said character maxes out or the thief runs dry, which is really obtuse. Being able to give an exact amount (or hell, even a roughly exact amount, ie by the 10s or 100s) would make managing your money a bit more tolerable. On an aside, I think maybe a bank mechanic in towns where you can deposit gold from your character to pick up when needed would also be good, given how some characters hit the 50k cap and just can't seem to get rid of the shit afterwards even with weapon repairs. Sword skills work for something besides swords: Self explanatory, Dew and Holyn are significantly limited in their dad-abilities because their skills can only be used by infantry based sword wielding units... which basically is just Ayra's kids and Patty, as all other sword bearing infantry are pre-set in their parentage (ie Seliph and Leif). Expanding it to mounted units would also open up some possibilities as well though I'm less certain on that because these feel like means to balancing out the combat abilities of infantry characters vs mounted ones, but I digress. Mild weapon rebalances: Part of FE4's charm is how ridiculous the power creep gets, but in some cases it just results in TOO many things becoming TOO good or other things becoming TOO useless. Weapons all weighing the same regardless of material with a few exceptions is silly, and makes Steel a straight upgrade over iron and silver a straight upgrade over steel, to say nothing on how it totally fucks with magic balance as thunder will always be lighter than fire and wind lighter than thunder but all magic spells of the same spell rank do the same damage. Fire should have more power to compensate for its weight and Wind probably reduced ala Tellius games. Axes need to be reduced in weight period as 18 is absolutely insanely high, and lances could probably be made a slight bit lighter as well. Greatswords/Blades are generally fine but making them all A rank felt silly to me as well. Bows could use some accuracy boosts and the Killer Bow could use an accuracy nerf. Just mild changes, though, nothing drastic to remove the nature of these weapons. Axes should still be heavy but not UNUSABLE heavy. Mild class rebalances: Heroes/Forrests are absolutely redundant in this game and I'm not sure why they exist. They're swordmasters with 3 less speed and no Continue in exchange for.... 3 more magic?? It's really dumb. Give them axes or bows or some shit to compensate. Paladins only having access to B rank weapons is also lame but giving them access to A rank stuff infringes on the Ranger's abilities.... then again both paladins in G2 have holy blood which let them do exactly that anyway so pft. Generals should just have access to A rank everything, and possibly just merge all Armor Knight variants into one class and just let them use all four basic weapons as one class as compensation for their awful movement (Arden might actually be useful if he could lug a steel axe around for mad damage or use a bow to hit dudes from afar). There needs to be more distinction between infantry and cavalry advantages, overall. Cavalry have mastery over one single weapon and mild caps, infantry should get better weapon access upon promotion and have great caps. Something like that. Oh, and maybe include FE4 Binary's cliff-scaling ability for infantry units so they can get around goddamn Augustria and other places a bit better. Pls. PLS. Mild skill rebalances: Ambush/Vantage always provides first strike regardless of HP, plus all that stuff I said about sword skills and pursuit. Other skills seem fine. Maybe introduce some later skills, like Gamble, Shade, or Provoke? I really liked those skills which felt like they jived with the style of FE4 instead of being superfluous fluff. (Arden might actually be useful with provoke, as enemies will actually try and attack him!). Maybe possibly include skill scrolls to teach skills to characters as well, though of course they'd be rare. Support Conversations and expanded story in general: FE4 has a pretty great story IMO, and Judgral is an interesting and compelling setting, but a lot of the game's story and lore are locked being predestined pairing conversations (which means you have to play through this long ass game several times over and make sure certain characters fall in love in order to get the whole picture) or are just absent from the game entirely, in either unused content (like Alec and Noish's Chapter 5 conversation), creator's notes from Kaga, or were just later added in with FE5. Integrating these elements I think would better strengthen FE4's story, and using support conversations instead of lover talks to get information on character's backgrounds and the extra lore (such as the early mentions of Eldigan's son, Ares) would prove more rewarding.Plus,with FE4's smaller, tighter knit cast of characters, having everyone cross support and see how they reflect on one another would be a great thing IMO. Buying things you can't use from the pawn shop: It's really annoying that Lex can't pass swords down to Ulster because the pawn shop keeper is all "noooo you can't use that" and only serves to annoy me as I dump all my swords on Ayra and just have Ulster buy them off Lacei in chapter 7 >:| seriously, I know managing item inheritance is an important part of FE4's meta, but it can afford to be less obtuse. Constitution and Rescue: In such a cavalry heavy game this could open up totally new strategies I think, plus provide a buffer for those god-awful heavy weapons the game has, though I'm less sold on using Con (or Strength for that matter) on reducing attack speed in FE4. However, Rescue mechanics would really help with some parts of the game where mobility is a pain in the ass,as well as pulling someone near death out of the fire. Difficulty re-balance: A lot of FE4's difficulty stems more from gimping the player (ie pursuitless characters, redundant classes) rather than a challenging enemy. Given I'd like to see those gimps removed/fixed/changed, it only stands to assume that FE4's difficulty as is with these changes would be too easy, so buffing up the AI as well as the enemy's stats would be adequate compensation. And now for some stuff I DON'T want to see changed: The big ass maps: it ain't FE4 without them. Obscene growth rates/holy blood buffs/etc: the power creep is honestly part of what makes FE4 so much fun. Obscene Holy Weapon buffs: Again, FE4 ain't FE4 without seeing glorious +20s and +10s everywhere. The save system: TBH I think FE4's "one save at the start of a turn" method is the best one FE's done. With FE4's huge maps as well, the Suspend system just wouldn't work as good. That's about all I have in mind (or all I can think of right now anyway), what are your thoughts? I probably want to change too much for some folk and not enough for others, lol.

FE Wiki does a good job at getting the baseline information on how useful a unit is which is all it really needs to do. Its a wiki to learn about things you're unfamiliar with, not a strategy guide or a resource for MLG prostrat LTC runs or what have you. By the time you're doing advanced playthroughs and stuff, you're likely already familiar enough with the game and its characters to not need a wiki to learn about them.

First exposed to Fire Emblem in Smash Bros. Melee like a lot of the core english speaking fanbase was back in the day. Got FE7 along with a shiny new GBA SP for Christmas in 2003, so basically right at FE's North American debut. Played the loving hell out of it, hell, I still play the loving hell out of it, and haven't looked back since!

Only Mercs, Cavaliers, magic users, and archers can promote. So armor knights, hunters, axedudes, etc, do not promote. Horsemen and generals exist, but not as promotions, just sort of a weird middle ground class that requires less investment than a promoteable class but ultimately isn't as good as one. Promotions work like in Gaiden, ie there's no stat gains, you just raise up whatever stats are below the class's bases to that base. There's no magic or condensed strength/magic "power" stat, so your mages will only do as much damage as their spellbooks. Conversely, though, literally noone levels up magic defense: the only way to boost it is through promotions and stuff. Weapon avoid is determined entirely by speed. MAGIC avoid is determined entirely by luck. Yes, its weird. I forget if luck contributes to critical evade or not. Healers don't get experience for healing, only for surviving combat. This means pre-promoted magic users that can fight AND heal are extremely valuable.... but the unpromoted healers generally have access to unique staffs that only they can use. No one has any death quotes when they die. :V That should be all the BIG stuff. Others can correct me if I'm wrong or fill in what I forgot, I haven't played FE1 in like a decade lol. It was.... an experience :Y

Fortunately Levin comes with an Elwind and Bridget with a steel bow for exactly that, so I never take it off of them. Ares is another story, but just a steel sword or whatever is fine I guess for backup purposes. Or drop the bargain ring on him or whatever, lol.

You can field literally everyone in every chapter so there's no need to at least try and use everyone, experience is plentiful throughout the game. I just wrapped up my G1 and first chapter of G2 last night of my current playthrough and even with some botches (I had to let someone die for a while to rig a pairing with someone else then resurrect them later) I got everyone promoted and with a few exceptions over level 25 easily. Other than that, everyone else's advice is super solid: check the fortune teller often, don't miss any special conversations with people, and maybe use a guide for secret events that are pretty guide-dang-it hidden. Don't worry too much about pairings, but I'd definitely try and keep everyone alive if possible still :P When pairing people though be sure to note if their special skills are Class or Personal, though. Personal skills get passed on to children, but Class Skills do not (this mostly pertains to picking husbands for the female characters).

Ares is just ok with normal weapons but I mean.... why WOULDN'T you use the Mystletainn? The only other weapon I give him is the Thief Sword so he can keep his money flow strong.

But.... Dean is the time traveler! http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/022/036/Screen_shot_2009-10-09_at_4.42.45_PM.png

Ares is obscene. He comes mid-chapter 7 with stupidly good bases and decent growths (save for utterly overkill strength growth) and comes with the Mystletainn out of the box and that has the critical skill built into it which means Ares is routinely doing 80+ damage a hit. The only thing really holding him back is how lackluster paladin stat caps are in FE4 due to their jack of all trades nature, but the Mystletainn's buffs and raw damage basically work around that too. 9/10 easily.