0 Def Cleric

Any explanation for the Flayn and Ferdinand in D tier, and the Raphael in B?

Oh, absolutely he does suck. Just not to the extent and not for the reasons that Shadow Mir was using. You do make a good point with Gauntlets though, I was formerly under the impression that they had the same weight and 1 less might than swords of the same level, which seemed like a good exchange for player phase Brave action. Thank you for bringing to light how actual garbage they are. Again, like I said in an earlier post, if you want to compare him to an unfavorable GBA class... don't compare him to Fighters, compare him to Knights.

Except they're not, due to their low weight.

I mean, you kind of miss the gauntletfaire on War Master more in this game than you would in other games, considering Demonic Beast combat is mostly player phase, and there are quite a lot of those to face. This game isn't as enemy phase heavy as the 3ds games, Genealogy, or even the GBA games due to that. We're not discussing whether Raphael is the Seth of this game, we're discussing whether he's usable. Which, frankly, he is, at least on Golden Deer route. Assuming efficiency, you want Byleth to go into one of the two best classes in the game as fast as possible, with perhaps some skill training to pick up white magic (recover/warp/fortify) that you don't have on your team. Neither of the two best classes in the game (falcon knight and wyvern lord, with the first outpacing the second) are ideal for recruiting Raphael's competitors (in regards to super-high strength and axe talent). Caspar wants Brawling, Ferdinand wants Heavy Armor, and Petra wants Riding (which is the easiest of the three to obtain, but will likely never see the light of day if you're F!Byleth.) His only efficient competitor is Sylvain, and only as F!Byleth. Therefore, he at least has some utility besides being a joke character. (Monster Crusher is nice too.)

Well, for starters, only one of the three you mention can become a War Master, which automatically means he fills a niche that they can't. You're also definitively getting stat screwed if he reminds you of GBA fighters, since he has some of the highest defense in the game, as opposed to them. Really, if you want to compare him to an unfavorable GBA class, compare him to Knights. And he's still a good bit better than most of them, since he has gauntlet access, which the poor might of is offset by his high strength, as opposed to units like Leonie, who will suffer if you toss gauntlets on them.

Yep. Recruiting her also makes an extremely difficult later map easier, since she gets replaced with a generic Bishop there. Extra bonus.

Flayn lacks availability on one of the BE routes, though, so you'd probably need someone else for Restore/Fortify.

Edelgard's right in her ideals, but wrong in the way she goes about them. To a degree (I still think that the war would have eventually come to a head, what with there being other noble houses in the Adrestian Empire that were against the church.) I absolutely love her as a character, but she's not really someone who needs the position of Emperor thrust upon her in any capacity. She's far too deep in her own issues for her to make rational decisions, and it's not helped by the people who originally caused those issues essentially having as much power over her as they want. There's certainly a chance for her ideals to work out in her favor, especially with a level-headed person on her side (seriously, if Hubert were a little more perceptive, he could have easily played the Byleth role and not encouraged her to what she eventually did on the non-Eagles routes), but she's, well, walking trauma and arrogance bundled together, and we've seen how far that takes you in FE. I think her ending is the most satisfying out of all the routes, personally, but that's probably just my personal preference for her ideals and enjoyment of her character speaking. Claude's route overall is my favorite, having come back here after playing them all. I do like that she steps down from being Emperor when she could easily have kept the position, though.

With... one guy? Anyway, good night to this argument. You're making more and more reaches, so I'm going to go do constructive things instead.

Fine. Doesn't get rid of how Dimitri acts, though. Again, may I ask you which paths you've played?

They provided soldiers and material for her, not the other way around. Had she not needed them to win the war, she would have annihilated them instantly, on her route. Again... the man who leads them is the most powerful man in the adrestian empire. And oh, without Byleth's influence? In that case, Rhea torches a town full of civilians and implies that she'll flay anyone who opposes her alive, and Dimitri's a borderline dissociative traumatized wreck who becomes obsessed with the idea of Edelgard's demise. Basically, the canon route should be that Claude puts everyone out of their misery.

Starting a war that ends with minimal civilian casualties to end the nobility's abuse of their roles is a justifiable reason to start one, in my personal opinion. Rudolph is portrayed as a hero who intentionally acted villainous in order to make his son strong enough to defeat Duma, so I don't know why you're bringing him up here. By all rights, Walhart would have been a hero, had it not been for those he chose as his subordinates. Which is the reason why Edelgard is a villain when you don't choose her route, because she bends to the wishes of her subordinates. (Mind you, said subordinates are directly responsible for her childhood medical trauma!) Arvis is only a villain because he allows himself to be influenced by those he thinks subordinate to him, again. He's not a hero by any means, but were he not foolish enough to trust the Loptous Cult, he would have gone down in history as one, for his years of peaceful rule. Not trying to argue that Edelgard is a paragon of virtue, here, simply that she's not the she-devil that Blue Lions makes her on every route. She's simply a morally ambiguous woman with the chance, given guidance, to help the world become a better place. (Without guidance she's a traumatized 23-year-old who makes irrational decisions.) Exactly. The only argument I've been making is "Edelgard's route isn't a bonus villain route because she's not the villain on it." Not that it's canon, even though the game pushes for it hard in the intro, in the same way that Chrom/Sumia isn't canon.

...Probably the fact that it's explained in her route? By Lord Arundel himself? You... do realize that she acts differently in each route, right? For example, the orbital missiles in her route come from those who slither as retaliation for killing Cornelia, one of their own. I'm talking solely about her route here. Everyone except Claude goes somewhat off the rails when you don't choose their route. Of course, if you're coming at it from a Blue Lions perspective, my mistake; she's obviously a cartoon villain there. If you want to discuss the way she acts in her own route, though, it's obvious that the church is behind the assassination plot of Petra's grandfather, owing to them being there as soldiers and attempting to kill Petra; the Flame Emperor chides Those Who Slither on Jeralt's killing when they're not in contact with you, giving her no reason to go against them other than true disagreement. I'm simply talking about her not being a villain in her own route, because objectively, she is not. If we're talking about the actions of every route, we could talk about how Dimitri decided to work with an obviously deranged dragon who sets fire to his own capital city simply to harm you, or the fact that he uses Cornelia, one of those who slither in the dark herself, as one of his commanding generals. Just saying, the lords do act differently in different routes. Everyone is most sympathetic when Byleth is beside them.

Ah yes, all the things that she specifically is against doing, in her own route? Murdering Jeralt: she calls out TWSITD (as the flame emperor) calling it an unnecessary measure. Expedition to Brigid: does not happen in her own route, Church does the attempted assassination of Brigid's king. If we're to call her out for her war crimes, we must call out the Church as well. Fort Mercie: Again, those who slither are the ones performing the orbital strike, which in her own route directly conflicts with her goals (keeping Lord Rowe alive to work with him.) Hard to blame her for that. Creation of Demonic Beasts? Church does that as well, with their golems that indiscriminately wreck towns. In addition, she can't control those who slither in the dark. That's key. It's perfectly possible, in a game with warping magic, to send your strongest attacker up to the enemy commander and kill them in one strike, preventing bloodshed. Which is, you know, something that Edelgard is shown to be capable of doing as early as Chapter 2 of the story. But certainly, let's take that into consideration. Edelgard shortens the war by 4 months if you take her route, considerably preventing civilian casualties by virtue of, you know, there not being a war on. We're not guaranteed that anyone can stop those who slither without bloodshed of civilians. Their whole point is that they use underhanded tactics when they're in a pinch. Unless they're all silently assassinated, like Hubert says that he intends to do in his paralogue, there will be civilian bloodshed when fighting unethical enemies like them. ...Oh, and Arvis still conspired with Langbalt, who allowed bandits to set fire to towns in his territory if they supported Sigurd's forces. You know, civilian casualties and all that?

People going on about Edelgard's route having "a lot more bloodshed" or whatnot forget that Dimitri, Dedue, Rhea, Catherine, Seteth, and Flayn are the only guaranteed casualties. That's not a lot. (I'm discounting Hilda because she's not a required commander for chapter completion.) Definitely not "perfect hero" levels of saving everyone, but certainly not on the Arvis levels of "ends-justify-the-means" that I see her getting categorized as a lot.

Convoy max is 400. It shows that when you chuck stuff into it, I think? But yeah, it's 400.

They send them to the convoy when helper students kill enemies with droppable items, so I'd be surprised if they didn't also send them to the convoy when helpers open a chest, too. (The first thing is a huge quality of life feature, since it happens with allies too. No more constant fear of losing droppables!)

1 range gives no hit penalties. And I really think you're overstating the hit penalty; enemies are generally not that dodgy in this game.

Close counter being an extremely low bow rank skill, giving bow users actual enemy phase without DLC? Bowrange +2 for Bow Knights? (I know you're gonna make the accuracy argument and I'll cut to the chase preemptively: if you can fire from four spaces away and canto back, the only reason you'd have to worry about accuracy is turncount. You'll basically be entirely out of enemy range, even if you miraculously don't hit two 80%s with the ridiculous Dex some people have in this game.) Bow Knights in general make bows very good, making the default promotion to their line be mounted. The most important thing, though, is finally a way for bow users to get enemy phase action on their own.

I'm pretty sure all gambits stop units from moving. I think that was in the tutorial for them? Anyway, you should probably be at lv. 9, not lv 6-9. Which of the two is your team closer to, on average? Is there just, like, one person who's at 6, or multiple? Because with the amount of exp in this game, that shouldn't really be happening.

No problem! The red quests are generally ones you have to complete to do super important things later. Sorry that happened to you.

Did you get the ring from your father? If you didn't do that, you won't be able to marry anyone, including Edelgard.

That's definitely a good criticism of her character. She doesn't really consider other outcomes besides "if I do what I believe is right, everything will work out in the end." Which, of course, has definitely worked out for every past Fire Emblem character *cough* Sigurd and Arvis *cough*. I'd expect a lot of that is due to her trauma, which is why she goes for less brutal tactics on the route you help her work through said trauma; she's more willing to consider other people's feelings when she isn't isolating herself from them for fear they'll hurt her. Actually... everyone in this game really needs a therapist, don't they.

I don't know, is it really that if she's only a villain when you don't play as her? It's the same thing as Rhea committing war crimes on Edelgard's route- neither of them are villains, they're just misguided people who need your help to stay on the right path. When you're a misguided person with a lot of political and military power, of course that's gonna lead to consequences. I feel that a lot of people are interpreting the routes without the idea that Byleth acts as everyone's emotional anchor. Without anchors, everyone goes off the rails to an extent, even Claude. I feel like a major theme of the game is that people need emotional support to deal with trauma, and Byleth is essentially the main emotional support of whatever lord you pick.