Extrasolar

I also wouldn't mind an arena analysis thread to help people get more deathless runs, though I can't screenshot my phone so mine would be all text because I'm a pleb who doesn't want to wrangle with emulators

Huh, then is that how it works for promotion? In order to get promoted to Mage General, do you have to have a higher score than a little over half of the people in your rank? Seems like a lot. o.o

Thanks for all the explanations, guys! I do like the adjusted matchmaking, competing with players only in your tier. So I took a look at the chart on the main page, and I don't quite understand the last column, the one with the ~[number] starting at rank 8 indicating that you go down a rank. So if you don't reach 80% of your original score for the next season, does that mean you're demoted a rank?

Just what is the Arena update going to do, anyway? How is it going to change?

I've got two questions I'd like some input on. First question. So I've been thinking of picking Merric back up (he was one of the first units I pulled way back before SI was a thing) and using him in the vein of a M!Robin, as a bulky off-tank mage, rather than the nuker I thought he would be like my Julia and Nino, since I'm re-evaluating his stat spread and seeing that seems to be his ideal use. I've currently got a 4* Merric, and I'm thinking of putting Ignis on him from a Henry fodder, and I was wondering what kind of build to put on him to make him as viable? M!Robin's running Triangle Adept, Lancebreaker, Spur Defense, Draw Back, Bonfire. I have a couple of 3* Nino fodder that I can give Merric Gronnraven with, or a 4* Cecilia fodder that I can do the same with. Should I just fall back on Triangle Adept from my two Cordelia fodder like with Robin? I was wondering how viable a Defiant Speed build on him could be, since he's bulky in the vein of a Robin to survive a hit or two, and Defiant Speed possibly allowing him to double could fix his mediocre Atk problem, as well as an Ignis proc. I've got an M!Robin fodder to give it to him. I also have an Est fodder I can use to give him Seal Spd, which would help his doubling out even more. Second question. I recently pulled an Effie fodder whom I'm holding to give Death Blow to someone. I can't decide between my 4* Chrom and 4* M!Corrin. Corrin is much faster than Chrom, meaning his doubling potential is higher, while Chrom has much higher attack. Seems to be Chrom, since with his awful speed he would rely more on being able to one-shot. Then again, that would replaced Defiant Def, and I'm not sure how good that is on him. More defense is always nice, but he has to drop below 50% for it to activate in the first place...

In general, the careful detail on everyone's costumes (all of them very accurate to the games they came from) is really cool, down to little tassels hanging off peoples' clothes, the fancy cloak clasp designs, and also headbands. I mean, they even have a tiny bit of the metal of Lissa's skirt frame poking out from underneath her skirt! I love Alm's unique left-handed animations...though the effect is diminished somewhat because they just mirrored his sprite during the World of Shadows Paralogues when he's an enemy, so he holds his sword and attacks with his right hand, and also on the Home screen when he's standing on the right side of the room. Dammit IS why'd you have to get lazy when you were doing so much right The fact that every single Holy/Legendary weapon, even the designs on the covers of the tomes, are pretty dead-on accurate to the much larger art is something I appreciate a lot. Cape and cloak lengths are nothing thing they paid careful attention to - Kagero has her shorter scarf in comparison to everyone else's cloaks stopping just before they hit the ground, and the end length of Sanaki's robe bunches and trails on the ground just like it does in Radiant Dawn, and it's too adorable for words. ...And one thing I just realized. Excalibur's cover is a sword-like design...which makes no sense for a wind mage tome, but makes all the sense for a King Arthur reference. I feel a little silly right about now...

That was me a little bit earlier. Alright, gonna get Clair a few levels so she can catch up with the rest of the party -- *fifth stratum is a full team of axes* *sixth stratum is three bows and an axe* i can only think this is karma for me foolishly and jokingly hoping that everyone else's Alm was -Atk like mine is ;-; Granted, a lot of my other units have unexpectedly useful natures when I check back at level 40 after having forgotten to check when I pulled them or at level 20, so it's not too bad for me... lol

I pulled five times for Hero Fest since the beginning of the banner (and World of Radiance, to an extent) and all I got was a Takumi (who's -Atk I might add... :l) i should get that on a shirt Granted, it also gave me a ton of skill fodder, so I can't complain too much, and I have wanted a Takumi since like the beginning of the game. It's ok Takumi I appreciate you I swear But I still don't have my Ike or Soren. ._. Or even a Ryoma, and I focused on pulling reds. /cries That desired Hector also continues to evade my grasp... Anyway, in other news, I'm focusing on training up two teams to level 40, expanding my pool. First team: 4* M!Corrin, 4* Frederick (he's +Def, -Res, and his Res is trash-tier anyway. lol, 9 Res at level 32), and I inherited a Brave Axe onto him for much profit, 5* Clair who has surprisingly high attack along with the very useful Harsh Command (and mine is +Atk, to boot, as well as the ultimate mage killing machine with her great Res), and newly-promoted 4* Azama, who's ridiculously tanky on the defense, along with the Pain staff for that free 10 damage on non-mage units (attacking mages is the quickest way to get him killed with his 13 Res at level 29...), plus Solid Earth Balm makes the already tanky team even tankier. Even Clair has 21 defense at level 31, which, for a Pegasus Knight, is pretty good. Second team: 5* Takumi, 4* Chrom, 4* Abel... I dunno how I feel about Abel. Even with a Brave Lance, he doesn't seem to do much damage at all (and mine happens to be +Atk), and he seems a bit too squishy for anything. I mean, he's a definite swordlord murderer with Swordbreaker, but I've got other units to fill that niche. Hmm, not sure if I should drop him.

Update.... I did it. Finally. The change I made was throwing in my 5* Fae to substitute for Cordelia (just because I wanted the tankiest thing I could find that also did good damage) and my 5* Julia (who isn't even level 40 yet) with Darting Blow for Nino. Fae was definitely the clincher, since she managed to both kill the lance and tank a hit from Xander in a single turn which left her with 11 HP, which let me finish him off with Julia. Holy shit, Fae is a beast. And at weapon triangle disadvantage, no less! Thanks to everyone who gave me advice, though. I appreciate it.

But I have no one who can kill him. Distant Counter kills on the counterattack no matter who I use to attack him, and Cordelia does not deal enough damage to get close to killing him.

My Klein has Bowbreaker to counter Takumis in the arena, but switched it back and did kill the green mage...but then I have no way to take out Xander, because if I leave Klein in his path he'll die to him after taking damage from the mage.

Not the lance; when I take out the sword, the healer rushes to support the mounted mage and ignores the lance. Generally it goes like this. Klein attacks red sword, gets danced by Olivia, kills red sword. Olivia gets drawn back out of danger by Nino. Enemy phase. Klein attacked by green mage, puts a good dent in HP. Healer comes over and heals mounted mage up to roughly 17 HP. Mounted mage also has vantage, and roughly 17 HP left, meaning Klein can't attack him or he'll get killed. If he does nothing, he'll get killed on the following phase. Each hit deals 22 damage to Klein. Klein has 43 HP total, meaning he gets killed in two hits.

Can't, due to the speed boost the healer gives, Klein gets doubled and killed on enemy phase. :/

I can't really screenshot from my phone ;-; But I can give you a list of all the lvl 40s I have if that's what you're asking. Noooo :( I have a 4* +Spd Nino, but that's as far as I have.

Tried to beat Lunatic like fifty times but no luck. I don't think I have a unit capable of tanking the physical hits and the magical one. Every single unit I put out there to bait dies to either one or the other. I can't even get past the first turn.

For me it's Ricken, to the point that I was surprised when I found out that he's widely considered one of the worst units in the game. He's called useless and everything, but I just don't see it. He's turned out great for me on every single one of my Awakening playthroughs, and he far outclassed Miriel in usefulness by having much more magic than her, and enough speed to double most things in the game. I dunno, maybe I got ridiculously blessed each time, but he was definitely one of the more useful units in the game for me.

I'll admit I'm a a bit overtired of the fact that most of the time, the main lord of the game is a much less interesting character than a lot of the supporting cast, as the lords need to be generally palatable to anyone and everyone playing the game, as well as the general "charismatic leader" who could believably recruit and command an army made up of a variety of personalities. As a result, the majority of them stick to the Marth archetype -- that is, polite, well-spoken, humble and friendly. Of course we have exceptions, but they're just that -- exceptions. For a bit of a change of pace, I'd like an Ares-type lord, as his character is expanded on in the various FE4 manga. That is, blunt, deadpan and somewhat sarcastic, and a little antagonistic at times, but underneath a generally good guy who can be surprisingly affectionate to the people he likes. Having him be a bit more battle hungry and aggressive is a plus. And just like people were talking fatal flaws, having his assholery come back to bite him a few times, and through the game having his rough edges somewhat softened in that he has to learn that being a dick isn't exactly conducive to leading a large group of people toward a goal, and that control by fear is less effective than. But at the same time, they know that idealism and blind trust isn't the answer to everything. It's all about a balanced perspective.

Part of the reason for dark mages' scarcity is the general difficulty of learning to channel dark forces, but also because of the inherent risk cavorting with eldritch powers and stuff carries - that is, your soul is in danger of being lost and/or corrupted, which I can imagine puts off a lot of people from trying their hand at it. If your will isn't strong enough, there's a huge chance that you'll end up as a vegetable like Canas' brothers, or lose your personality in favor of being a walking, talking vessel template for some dark being. Then again, there are plenty of of people take the risk anyway, simply because of the promise of raw power that dark magic holds, if they're not doing it for religious reasons like the Loptyrian cultists (and lust for power was definitely a part of that). As for why the enemy seems to field dark mages in large numbers, I chalk it up to shamans being an easy enemy because of the whole "dark = evil" cliche, as well as the in-universe fact that tons of dark mages tend to work for the villains in question, who are trying to use eldritch powers to get a leg up on the heroes. Tellius' lack of dark mages makes sense, since Yune seems to be the origin of darkness-related powers (as the counterpart to Ashera, who has light powers), and as Yune was sealed away and had every trace of her identity erased and painted over, it makes sense why there would be almost none of them able to channel that power. Dark magic doesn't really "stand" for anything. It's just another force in the world, the same as light magic. It's not necessarily evil...but people that use it can certainly be, and it's often used that way. Like someone mentioned above, Pelleas uses dark magic, and he's a squishy, shy and generally well-meaning guy.

I've always personally headcanoned the Magic stat as representative of several things - not just raw exploding people's faces power, but one's skill and proficiency at channeling the appropriate ethereal powers (elemental spirits for anima mages, gods and goddesses or godly beings for bishops, and eldritch powers and dark beings for shamans). More skill and practice channeling makes Magic more potent. A high Magic stat for a cleric heals more most if the time because it's representative of the strength of the bond between the cleric and their divine source. A closer bond equals more if the deity's power borrowed, meaning more powerful healing.

"Magic user" is a hugely broad question, since it encompasses so many classes and characters, and this poll isn't anywhere near complete with them all. I guess if we're just talking mages, it's definitely Soren, who I voted for, with Tormod as a close second and Lewyn as tertiary. For bishops, it's definitely Rhys. If we're talking shamans, dark mages and druids (other than Pelleas), gotta give it to Hell Brat. I know he's not playable, but still.

There's like four banners going at the same time, 3 full pulls, and still zero 5*. Lol. The Hero Fest banner puts my chances of drawing a 5* at 6.25%, but I've got between a flat 3% and a 3.25% on the other banners. I don't understand how all that math works...like, what does my chance of getting any 5* at all average out to? At the very least, I pulled a bunch of skill fodder to further buff up my units. My 5* Karel, 4* Nino and 4* Effie are gonna be the next level 40s to join the pool, and then hopefully I'll be able to train up my 5* Seliph with newly-inherited Armored Blow, Threaten Attack, and Noontime to turn him into a tanky juggernaut so long as a mage doesn't look at him funny. 5* Julia with Darting Blow, Threaten Resistance alongside him. And some C skill I haven't figured out yet. Breath of Life isn't awful or anything, and I guess it doesn't help Seliph's tankiness.

So with my A-team locked down and at max level, with just some SP to fully unlock their skills, I'm training up a bunch of other units for future use. Currently it's my 5* Fae, 4* Subaki, 4* Lilina and 4* Jeorge. For Subaki, I'm going with the ultimate facetanking set (at least on defense) with Swap, Armored Blow, Renewal, and some C skill (probably gonna be either a defense or resistance buff, but I may go for an attack buff), and Glowing Ember/Bonfire. Debating on if Swordbreaker would be a good fit on him, just to facetank and destroy red swords even more than he already does. Fae is going for a juggernaut/defensive build. Light Breath, Daylight/Noontime, Draw Back, some A skill (suggestions would be good), Axebreaker to counter any Hectors, and some C skill (maybe an attack buff?) I just might sacrifice my 4* Nowi to give her Lightning Breath for that built in distant counter, but I'm unsure. Fae's biggest weakness that I can see is that she's a green around all these swordlords, but I can run Subaki alongside her to get rid of them. She does make an excellent counter to lances and blue mages. My Fae's stats far exceed my Nowi's, and she's a whole rarity level up on her. I'm not 100% certain about that Axebreaker, but I don't really have any other ideas other than just slapping Renewal on her to help her tanking abilities. I still don't know what skillsets I want to put onto Lilina and Jeorge. I've given my Lilina Glacies and Threaten Res 3, but I can't decide on A or B skills to put on her. Jeorge doesn't have any skills at 600+ SP to spend, lol. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I've got a 5* Klein (+HP, -Spd which isn't optimal, but with a Brave Bow+ it doesn't really matter) at max level, running Death Blow 3, Bowbreaker 2 and Hone Attack 3 set. He works wonders for me in particular, so long as I keep him out of the reach of M!Robins, Cecilias, and the like. He's tanky enough to take a hit or two from both magic and ranged, so I don't have to worry about him getting 0HKO'd unless someone has one of those effective against colorless weapons. I've got Draw Back on my own M!Robin that I run alongside him on my A-Team, so it's easy for me to pop Klein up to 0HKO someone, then draw him back out of range, with Cherche and Pivot to position in front of him so that melees can't get at him. Profit! He's easily my best bow (no Takumi...Q-Q), and I'm still training up my Jeorge and trying to decide what set I want to run on him. Granted, Jeorge is still only 4*, so I'm not sure if he'll match or outshine Klein. If he does, I'm looking into promoting him. Klein's amazing, basically.

I think swordmasters for the most part are perfectly fine where they are, and I actually really like them. People complain about the swordlock a lot, but from my experience that's never a problem, simply due to hugenormous amount of axe units that the enemy fields in general. The weapon triangle in the main games aren't really make or break like it tends to be in Heroes. But the swordmaster class' strength is very delicate, so to speak, as they require a favorable RNG in order to truly shine. When you get Fates' weird 1 Rn when calculating hit percentages sub 50, swordmasters suddenly start getting hit by 30% hits that otherwise they'd easily dodge, and it's then that their awful HP and defense starts to shine through. I can only see that Rn change as a way to nerf the prevalence of dodgetanking in the Tellius games and Awakening, as a dodgetanking swordmaster that proc'd Astra or a crit was pretty much a one-man army, no matter what was thrown at them. Without those crits, their mediocre attack starts showing through, and they stop one-round killing things with decent defense, despite doubling them most every single time. A swordmaster who can't proc a crit or an Astra, or dodge attacks thrown at him, is a very sub optimal unit that's liable to get itself killed very quickly due to its low defenses and HP. While other classes may not dominate like a swordmaster with a favorable RNG, their performance is generally more consistent - armors will always be slow, good at tanking physical hits (unless they're named Meg...), and with good attack but with poor resistance and movement, for instance. Mages will be fragile to physical hits, but tear through armors. Swordmasters are ultimate luck-based glass cannons, which with a slight tweaking of RNG and some bad luck can be rendered pretty bad as units. Of course, this is speaking of the default swordmaster stat spread, not a tank like Hinata or a god purposefully strong unit like Ryoma. There's really not much you can do to the default swordmaster spread that would "fix" their weaknesses, other than buffing their defensive stats in order to make them less RNG/luck reliant, but that turns them less into glass cannons and more into strong all-arounders, which is where the mercenary class is meant to be (with less luck, speed and crit stuff).

yeah he sucks a lot and is worthless as hell I have a 5* Seliph, and am constantly struggling to make him viable. I'm at least going to use my Gunter fodder to give him Armored Blow, so he'll be the tankiest thing in existence...as long as a mage doesn't breathe on him. I'm honestly not sure what a 4* Seliph could even get close to doing, since my 5* is still really, uh, challenged at things. Like, I guess you could inherit Brash Assault onto someone else...?