SavageVolug

EXACTLY! Couldn't have said it better myself. I'm all for playing more efficently, every time I re play Radiant Dawn or some other Fire Emblem game I try to see if there's a better approach to the map in question than what I've been doing. BUT, I do not believe with the idea of "This is how you do this map, if you don't do it this way you're doing it wrong." There are many ways to play including low manning. Due to the many ways of playing and differant peoples' play style as well as unit type preferences it does bother me when I only get 2 or 3 of a unit type vs. closer to 5 or more. My thinking is there should be multiple of most if not all unit types. Take for example Fire Emblem Awakening, without including child units or Second Sealing you will only get one archer for the entire game, I really think there should have been a couple more archers in the game (and archers aren't even my favorite class). And the reason I ignore Second Sealing is that without using the DLC your funds will be really limited meaning the amount of Second Sealing you can do will also be quite limited as well. Also I don't think Second Sealing is the answer to "I want more of _______ class" there should be more of that class in the base game. Consider FE7 you got about 5 axe users (3 Fighters/Warriors including Geitz and 2 Berserkers) 5 cavaliers, 4 bow users (including Rath, 5 if you include Lynn's promotion, not to mention the Warriors you may or may not have who can also use bows). Now it is true some classes they were a little stingy on, such as there's only two Heroes for the entire game, but still I think you get my point. Just realized I may have derailed the topic at hand a little bit. Sorry about that, I was just trying to express that I agree with playing however you want including low manning.

Vika like most Raven laguz are fast but don't have really good attack (Except Neasalla but he doesn't count as he's a royal) where I have found that generally a Hawk laguz will be just as fast as a Raven but will hit rather good (not counting Tibarn). What I mean is given a choice I never have a reason to pick a Raven laguz over a Hawk, the Hawks will double anything a Raven can and will do significantly more damage. It's kind of like Pegasus Riders vs. Draco Riders there's rarely a time to pick a Pegasus over the Draco Rider as they both fly, they both can double attack almost anything the only difference is the Draco Rider can deal better damage and can take hits better. Unless it's magic but the Draco Rider can probably one shot the mage anyway and generally you're going up against squads of physical fighters not mages. That said Vika is definatly useful in Part One and if nothing else she brings flying utility to the table where she can fly and rescue carry while shifted. When she rejoins in Part 4 her usefulness will drastically drop apart from flying and rescue carrying. Her attack was never good to begin with it will be even worse now. And you should have several other units who not only can fill her same niche (flying and rescue carrying) but can also do damage. Marcia and Harr should have been in their 3rd tier by the end of Part 3 at the latest and if Jill was used during Part One she will likely be either promoted into her 3rd tier class as well or very close to it by now, Janaff and Ulki are Hawk Laguz and can do those same niches and do damage and take hits. There's just very little reason to pick Vika in Part Four over your other fliers that you have. But she is quite helpful in Part One and her assistance is VERY appreciated during the swamp map when you rescue the prisoners. So I'll give her a 4.5 maybe a 5.0 if I'm feeling generous.

Personally I don't care if someone low mans or not. It's their run and playthrough they should be able to do it however they want. Generally I use as many units as I'm allowed but I have also done a few solos which I found fun to do. My first was an Alm Solo for Echoes and then I followed this by a Alm and Celicae Solo. Where only Alm and Celicae were allowed to be used (healers being the only exception). Is this optimal? No. Was it fun? Yes. Now something I would like to see is more that the number of deployable units available increases. Rather than staying around 10 for the majority of the game. It feels like I have a lot of units that I like using and are good but I end up being restricted to a small fraction of these units due to the deployment limit staying the same for a large majority of the game despite the fact that your roster has increased. Basically I guess I also want high manning to recieve a sort of buff to it's approach.

Muarim. He's fast and hits hard. He has the same problem as Tormod of poor availablity in that like Tormod I think he should have joined a LOT earlier. In spite of this however Muarim can hold his own quite well even in the late game. And should be doubling most if not all enemies, due to his bases and his high movement when shifted I consider Muarim a valuable potential asset to the team. He certainly is very appreciated during part one. While Muarim can't counter at a range his movement and bases I think make up for this and if I remember the map he joins correctly while there are certainly units with 1-2 range a lot of them attack at 1 range, barring units like mages and the like. I would probably give Muarim a 7.0 for his bases, his help during part one, his movement and that despite lack of availability he will still hold his own during Part 4.

Tormod is probably my favorite mage in this game at least in terms of character and personality. Tormod comes with good bases and is a welcome help to the DB there is little he can't burn to a crisp. Tormod's main downfall is his lack of availability in my opinion he should have rejoined around the time that the Laguz Alliance hired the Greil Mercs, perhaps a chapter or two later. However in spite of this it is relatively easy to get Tormod from Sage tier to Arch Sage what with all the goons he can kill on the map where he is finally playable again even more so if you slap paragon on him. Another thing that makes Tormod very useful and desireable is his Celerity skill which increases his movement by two, and while you could reassign it to someone else it's Tormod's personal skill meaning that currently it doesn't take any points for him. All in all Tormod is a solid Fire Sage for your team and I'd give him a 6.0 for bases and his Celerity skill.

I would love a FE4 and FE5 remake, at the same time the idea makes me apprehensive. As I'd worry they might change too much about the game(s). Especially when I think of what was changed from Gaiden to Echoes. While for the most part I appreciate the additional details they added. I do not like that they changed it from Celicae and co. fighting Judah's forces and Alm and co join forces. To Jedah captures and turns Celicae to a witch while Saber and co are fighting Terrors, Alm save's Celica and they join up with Saber and co. Now I like most of what Echoes does but things like this make me apprehensive at the thought of a FE 4 & 5 remake.

I think all weapons should have durability. Weapons should wear down after a while, along with that there should also be a weapon repair function. (basically how weapons and staves were handled in FE4). However I see nothing wrong with certain weapons being unbreakable, namely legendary weapons they are after all legendary. But at the very least there should be a weapon repair function.

Fiona, ok as a character I really like Fiona and I like her design too. AS A UNIT HOWEVER.......SHE IS BAD. Which is really unfortunate as first of all she's a cavalier and will be the only cavalier the DB will ever get. On Normal mode she will take a heavy beating on the first map where she's playable (of which there are only 2 which doesn't make any sense considering her join time and level). Enemy cavaliers on the battlefield have better stats when you see Fiona (I can't remember if this is just Hard mode or if it is true of Normal as well) which is a big problem. Now Fiona CAN BE MADE to be good, but it requires a lot of effort and babying something I don't generally care for. She is the 2nd unit that requires a lot of effort to be good, the first being Meg. Both of them have less than desirable bases for their join time and are a struggle to be made good or at least reliable. But if one is going to spend that amount of effort to make a unit good I would say between the two Fiona is the better unit to spend it on because at least she's mounted and can perform Hit and Run tactics. Simply I think Fiona can bring more to the table after investment than Meg. As Aran can already do Meg's job better and there's Tauroneo whereas Fiona doesn't have anyone to compete with except maybe Jill who's a dragonknight. What I'm saying is if you're going to spend that amount of effort on a bad unit anyway I think Fiona has a better payoff in the end than Meg. I was going to give her a 2.5 rating but she's mounted so I'll bump it up to 3.0

You're doing good man! I think the only ones who would do what you do are those who like Rebecca already, so as I said already I commend you on doing this experiment. Me, I like Rebecca as a character but not as a unit. Generally Will is already hitting harder than Rebecca maybe doubling too, so once Eliwood and co. join up with Lynn if there's only room for one archer I have little reason to choose Rebecca over Will and don't get me started on Rath. He's fast, hits hard, has decent avoid and.....IS ON A HORSE! My point is you are doing this for experiment reasons, aside from that there's no reason to use Rebecca unless 1) you like her 2) you have no other archer available. But in most cases it's going to be the former. Which is what I think it was on a certain forum when a certain somebody has been and still is insisting that Rebecca is good. Uhhh......NO. She's useable no denying that, may even surpass your expectations, but she suffers from the archer curse and is more of a support unit than a frontlines fighter. Keep it up man! You're doing great!

I can agree with your sentiments and apprehensions about the next game whole heartedly. It's why for right now I'm holding back any excitement for the game until I know more. At the moment things look pretty good from what the trailer showed but I can't really say for sure until we know more such as overall premise of the plot, details about the game mechanics in paticular Combat Arts and Formation. I'm interested and curious to see how the game will unfold and continue to reveal itself. But for now I am reserving all hype for when I feel more confident about this game. You might want to play the Jugdrael games seeing as you like the Tellius games so much, assuming you haven't played them yet already of course. I agree with you about Jill. I sometimes wonder if she or Titania are my favorite it's often hard for me to decide between them.

Tauroneo, I LIKE this guy he's already a General and level 2 at that, so once he can actually earn a reasonable amount of experience he should get to Marshall really quickly. He's a really good tank without any investement and while his availablity is meh. In Part 3 when the DB are defending from the cliffs he is EXTREMELY useful there. Give him some handeaxes and javelins and slap Paragon on him and he'll probably be close to promotion by the end of the chapter if not outright able to promote.. ESPECIALLY when Resolve kicks in which I find very useful on units with good strength, defense and a lot of HP. I'll give him a 7.0 for how useful he is, his bases I would have made it a little higher but his availability is off and on. That said the maps he's available for he is VERY helpful on.

Jill is a dragonknight, and as such she is extremely valuable she's mounted so she can perform hit and run tactics if desired, she can fly which is extremely useful. She is a kind of dragonknight that leans more towards speed and avoidance vs strength and defense though she certainly will have healthy amounts of those. Jill while in the same tier as Haar will dodge attacks more while Harr on the other hand tends to just soak up damage. It's kind of like the difference between Nephanee and Aran, Nephanee is the fast one while Aran is the tanky one. Depending on the level of difficulty Jill may struggle at first with killing things, I like to forge her an Iron Axe because 1) I like the forging system in this game and it's fun to forge 2) I like giving Jill a Pink Axe-another reason I like this game's forging system 3) It doesn't cost that much about 3000 gold 4) a forged weapon will allow her to make kills and do more damage faster. And Jill will only be available for deployment for 3 maps not counting the final one. You want to make the most of those maps you can have Jill ready to promote or at least almost ready by the end of these three maps and I would encourage you to do so. All in all I think I'd give Jill an 8.5 rating. She's mounted, she can fly, has good 1-2 range weaponry and I think giving a unit like Jill anything less than an 8 would be herasy.

Midir is my favorite. Mostly because he's an archer on a horse. Everything's better when you put it on a horse. And I like his devotion to rescuing his liege in spite of the fact how he just got his ass kicked. Midir is just a simple, but loyal archer man and I like him.

This sounds really cool, consider me intrigued.

For the time being I don't think we can be sure that weapon weight has returned although it seems very plausible that it has. During the trailer when Eldegard selected Steel Axe and went to attack a sword guy in the stats rundown of her such as Attack, End.(which is probably def.) and so on Attack Speed was at zero. Something that should not be unless she has zero speed (which I highly doubt). So while we can't say for sure it seems weapon weight at least if not build or constitution as well will be making a comeback. Something I'm very excited about as I've missed weapon weight for a while. But to answer the main question, no it wouldn't I would still use her and I would still use axes. I might stick with Iron for longer or something like that which I'm assuming would be lighter but otherwise I would still use axes.

I always thought of Nihil as more of a defense skill as oppossed to a combat skill. So no I never have found it odd or contradictory, but I can kind of see where you're coming from.

Laguz focussed is a lot of fun, I might try doing it again sometime. Although there are a few Laguz I consider useless but most of them are quite viable at least.

Zihark, a very solid unit he has good attack while still haveing the strengths of myrmidons that being high speed and skill. I also really like his laid back and rather chill demeanor and personality. I generally will prioritize training the Dawn Brigade up rather than Zihark killing everything, as if you can get at least most of the DB members promoted by the end of Part 1, Part 3 where they come back into play will be easier and the DB has I think the tougher battles of anyone in the game. Comparetively speaking anyway. What this means is that I will use Zihark during part one if I can take all the DB members and still have room for Zihark. If that's not the case than Zihark get's left behind (during part one let me clarify on that). Part 3 is a differant story I will bring him along, his bases are such that even if one didn't use him at all during Part one he will still wreck stuff up in Part 3. Zihark has several thing going for him. He's already promoted with some nice bases also giving him more movement than the rest of the DB, comes with a Killing Edge (not that he needs it) has some very good skills (vantage and adept) and has a bigger skill pool to work around. Zihark is a very solid unit to use consistently and throughout your playthrough, I think I'd give him a 7.0 rating for his bases and killing edge.

Ok this was really, REALLY hard. My top contendors were Ike (very good stats and a 1-2 range weapon AKA Ragnall) Caineghas (RIDICULOUS bases, high movement and the skills Formshift and Roar) Tibarn (again AWESOME bases, high movement, Canto, Can Fly, skills Formshift and Tear) Kurthnaga (his bases are not the greatest but can become better than you'd think. Movement isn't the best, can fly, and has 1-2 range attack) Naihalah (very good bases even late game there isn't much she can't ORK she has high movement the skills Formshift, Savage and Glare. In the end I went with Caineghas as I really like his high movement and incredible str and def plus I love his skill Roar, but esepcially the high movement. If I were to do a top 5 it would probably be something like this. 1) Tibarn (simply because he has Canto on top of high movement, can fly and high stats.) 2) Caineghas (high move and ridiculous bases) 3) Nailah (high move and very good stats) 4) Ike (standard move, very good stats and a 1-2 range weapon) 5) Kurthnaga (below average move, can fly, and has 1-2 range attack) Honorable mention goes to Giffca who is about as strong as Caineghas but has a little less attack and is faster than Caineghas, meaning that anything Caineghas can't double Giffca usually does. His issue of an energy bar can be solved by virtue of his laguz gem but if one desired they could just as easily give that to Skrimir or any other non royal laguz. Most are probably going to have Giffca use but I didn't want a consumable item to affect where certain characters were placed.

This will be interesting to stay up to date on. You sir, are doing something I probably would never do as I would not have the patience to divert my focus from the cavs, fighters and mercs in this game onto an archer.

Volug, I really like this guy (shocking I know, bet you never would have guessed that) so my view of Volug may be a little biased but I will try to push that to the side. Volug has some very good bases, on top of that he has really high movement making him a valuable asset to the team. His growths however like a lot of Laguz are pretty bad, personally I think some stats are way too high luck in paticular I have never understood this and have thought luck should have been reduced a bit and put those points into something more useful like Str, Def. or Sp. Regardless of that if you continue to deploy and use Volug he will be a solid member of the team and will pull the Dawn Brigade through, and if you give him a Satori sign upon reaching level 30 (I'm pretty sure it's 30 it's been a little while so I could be off a bit) he will learn the skill savage. Making him even more useful than he already is. While there are better laguz units like Naihalah and Skrimir, Volug is one of the few who you can get his weapon level all the way up to SS something that you don't have enough gameplay time fore all the others to do. Addittionally Volug is a quite solid unit and can hold his own even against the dragons in the tower. Due to his high movement and good bases I'll give Volug an 8.0 now the drawbacks are of course that he can't counter at range, and during parts 3 and onward you either need a Laguz stone or gem or wait for his bar to fill up. But the good stats and high movement I think make up for it. If you want to make the most out of Volug I would advise giving him the energy drop and maybe a seraph robe with this latter one the intent is so that he will max out HP sooner and will hopefully level other areas more like str. def. and sp.

This seems like an interesting and fun topic to reply to so here it goes, first I'll cover the main mechanics and features I would want. All foot infantry would have the same movement including knights they would not have any less movement than anyone else. The skill system would be a combination of FE4's where there are character and class skills in conjunction with a skill pool. Character and Class skills don't take up any points from this pool, and class promotions increase the size of the skill pool. Forging would be similar to the Tellius Games and Shadow Dragon complete with a weapon repair aspect. The capture mechanic from FE5 would be in place and the stats of Build and Movement would also return with the possibility of increasing upon level up. Ledges would give an advantage, magic would ignore terrain and ledge advantages. Lastly there would be 3rd tier class system. The story would feature an axe lord named Eric who is kind of a brazen individual who loves to spend his time competing in the arena, some of his friends are rowdy characters who come from either the arena or live in the subburbs and slums of the kingdom. This puts him at odds at times with his peers and definatly some of the other nobles. Eric would be a red haired and bearded (short beard), wearing a blue and red color schemed outfit. The jaigen would be an old war vet named Tyr class type- Hero who has taught Eric the art of combat, Tyr after retiring now lives in the slums and is largely forgotten by society. One day Eric overhears of some bandit troubles (of course, what else would it be?) and secretly takes off to handle it, accompanied by Tyr and some friends of Eric from the arena (we'll call them Steve and Aran) Steve-axe cavalier Aran standard cavalier. Arriving on the scene they are joined by a troubador named Sally, a mounted Bow user named Susan and a soldier type named Karen. After dealing with the bandits Eric hears that this has been very common as of late, and returning home to investigate the matter. Shortly after this Eric with his friends goes on to take care of the rowing bands of bandits who are causing issues with his new friends. I think I should stop there I don't want this to get too long.

Meg is one of those units in this game that can be MADE good but will require a LOT of effort for this to happen. As a knight she is terrible at her intended job of being a tank, I really don't think Meg is worth the effort it takes to get her viable. I generally bench her and sell her skill, now I have used her before but I don't think she is worth the investment. I'd give her a 2.0 rating, sorry if that seems harsh but Meg is just plain bad.

I like all the characters so far. Dimitri is a lance lord and we haven't had one of those in a long time, Eldegard is basically a female axe lord that fact alone is going to get me to like her, Claude looks pretty cool. But aside from the class type and design I can't really say, we no zip about their personality or what kind of character they are. So I can't really say whether I like their personality or not as we were not shown what their personality is. I like Dimitri's blue design wise he reminds me a little of Clive from Echoes, Eldegard's black and red outfit also that her class name is Aristocrat, Claude's yellow and black looks rather sharp.

Aran joins a little weaker and lower leveled than your other units, however if you let him make some kills on the map he joins you will likely see his potential. He will be one of the Dawn Brigade's best tanks after he gets a few levels under his belt. HP, Str and Def are his strong suites, speed is meh so appreciate every point of speed he gets resistance is also poor so you will want to keep him away from mages if you can. Alternatively you can give him EXP to level up speed once str. and def. have maxed which is not uncommon. Overall Aran is a very formidable tank and powerhouse and the Dawn Brigade is going to need all the power they can get. I think I'd give Aran a 7.0 rating as I think he's a decent unit that can grow into a very good unit but he does lack speed and his avoidance is not the greatest either tending to more soak up damage than avoid it.