ClLoulD

Wow this has gotten really out of hand but I am going to weigh in here... Swordmasters in my style of play act as more of a support unit and I use them with that in mind. The problem I have with swordsmasters is that they have very limited strength and the worst of the weapon triangle (swords) but they are by far one of the coolest looking units and have fantastic speed values which makes them useful for killing low armoured enemies. Another issue I have with them is the constant battle to keep up with the ever dominant mounts in this game, PoR has a repetitive trend of giving you very spacious maps in which these units tend to get left behind (Chapter 21 with Ena if I'm not mistaken is a huge map) so again the SM class in general just ends up cleaning up scraps left behind. One thing I do want to bring up is that the SM class although I tend to use one each playthrough I do often bench them should I find myself with a smaller number of allocatable units for a particular map. We have; 6 Paladins Marcia/Jill/Tanith Mist Reyson Ike So already that's 12 units that IMO have solid places in the team then we have other units who act as filler. The units I usually look at tend to be Janaff, Ranulf, Muarim, Haar, Tormod, Nephenee, Boyd, Soren and then a SM. Realistically some of these are temporary units and I acknowledge that but some units, namely Boyd and Nephenee are guarenteed those two spots as arguably some of the best foot units in the game which then gives me 14 units deployed each chapter. Now as for the other units you really can't go wrong. Tormod/Soren - Both quality mages and so useful for taking out those generals with high defense, if you have the Bexp and bands I tend to go for Tormod because that 8 movement comes in handy. Especially with the knights ring. Janaff/Ranulf/Muarim - Out of the three of these Muarim is probably the most temporary of them all, he has a high str cap and can really do some damage but laguz take forever to level up. Typically I tend to go for Ranulf I think he's a quality unit and often under looked but to each their own. Haar - A bit slow at times but if you have the bands you probably managed to save a speedwing from Boyd so you can use that to fix Haar's speed issue and throw a band at him too and he becomes useable! SM - The swordsmaster class I have always considered as a support character in this game, I feel as though it's a temporary class and a bit gimmicky. Stick them up against a few generals with lances later in the game and you'll see the flaws quickly in this character type. I understand some of the units that have permanent places in my team such as Geoffrey don't join till fairly late but you get the general idea I'm trying to make. Now onto the actual characters themselves. Stefan: Probably has the best character support out of all the SM's (Soren) as he's probably the most useable out of all the supports, unfortunately you probably want to pair Soren up with Ike instead for the avoid bonus. Stefan comes with the Vague Katti that provides defense bonus but the sword could easily be given to another SM of your liking. Stefan also has Astra(um?) which is a decent skill but the damage is halved which isn't fantastic on a class with such a low STR cap. Stefan also struggles from real luck issue and although you can give him every Ashera Icon in the game it still won't fix the issue entirely. Long story short Stefan is the SM you use if you neglected to train one earlier and there's nothing wrong with that. Stefan is an above average character but if you allow for him to get hit you also run a high risk of him getting criticald and killed (Happened to me as early as chapter 16 to the halberdier with killer lance) Zihark: Zihark is probably the easiest Myrmidon/SM to use due to earth affinity and starting with a killing edge, equipped with the knight band he can quickly catch up to the rest of your party without a BEXP dump (Which can be given to more useful characters like Marcia/Jill/Mist) and without valuable items like energy drops. Ziharks supports are fairly decent but the only useable one I can see is Muarim for a short period of time. Zihark's poor supports are made up by the fact his STR cap is two higher than Mia's which is a lot more valuable when you consider the vast amount of criticals he will be performing. As good as Zihark appears to be on paper I can't help but think his job could be done so much better by a sniper/Sage class, he's always going to be behind the mounts and just clearing up the odd enemy here or there. An above average unit but unfortunately he doesn't bring anything to the table Zihark also has adept which is a fantastic skill for him due to the massive skill growth SM's have, duo this with a forged weapon and Zihark will clean up pretty well on units without vast amounts of defense. The vantage scroll is out of the question for Zihark I'm afraid as that tends to go to Nephenee. Mia: Possibly the most controversial character in FE history. Mia comes in very weak and not very durable but a forge for the next chapter helps out immenseley, admittedly Rhys will have to babysit her for a bit but as it's a defend chapter it's not a huge problem. Mia has vantage which is a fantastic skill "if" she can critical on the first turn. Wrath vantage Mia is a great combo there is no denying that, however Wrath doesn't show up until Chapter 18 which still gives Mia 11 chapters of having to deal without it (15 if you count the stages of day breaks as seperate chapters) and as already stated the SM's tend to diminish a little bit in quality towards these chapters and struggle for placement. Mia also has fantastic supports in terms of additional attack power, these units come very early too in the case of Ilyana and Rhys, however niether of these units have a place in any team NOT based around Mia. Rhys is easily outclassed by Mist and Ilyana can't hold a candle to Soren or Tormod. Capped at 22 strength doesn't help Mia, especially on those harder difficulty modes. Mia can be an incredible unit if pushed early on and then stocked with forges but if I wanted to base my team around one unit I'd give Boyd Wrath/Vantage and RNG abuse his stats for max defense and send him in with an inventory of hand axes and vulnerary/elixers. Overall Mia is a good unit if you use her as just that, if you try to force her into a great unit then you're going to be dissapointed later on. Wrath/Vantage Mia might be fun, but Wrath/Vantage Nephenee is even better with that 1-2 range accessibility. Lucia: Comes in late, no noteworthy skills and the undisputed worst of the SM class. Not worth even deploying. All in all, don't bother too much with the SM class, they're a decent class but they are in the wrong game. Dropping a SM in a game dominated by mounts and populated by enemies where the majority of them wield lances is just asking to get shish kebab'd. Mia and Zihark are the best SM's if you are going to use any from the start and Stefan if you change your mind later on, but none of these guys are the best foot units or even in the top three so why bother try to "force" them to work in your team. One more thing, I'm basing this assessment on the normal/hard difficulty modes as that's where the flaws start to really show, you can get away with so much more in easy.

Solid run, perhaps you could actually do a brief summary on each chapter for those of us not wanting to watch the videos though? Also perhaps an update on the current levels on some characters as I have lost track somewhere.

Heres something that will really help you out. A certain unit will come with an item called "Knight ward" I believe it is which gives +2 defence and resistance however it also raises the speed growth of the unit that holds it by 30%. Knight ring can also be gained by having a certain heron talk to a certain raven on a particular map.

Very nice, could I possibly get the file when complete?

What units that normally couldn't reach caps in PoR would become immenseley more proficient in Radiant Dawn with capped stat transfer bonuses from PoR. I'm thinking primarily of units like Mordecai who struggle quite a lot in Radiant Dawn but with a few points to speed and strength could be significantly more valueable. Any others perhaps?

Gatrie :) I assume he will be taking either Celerity or boots to keep up with everyone then.

Heron you get Reyson

Good job man keep it up, maybe do a PMU Normal mode challenge sometime? :D too soon?

Skype = ClLoulD if you want me to do the run with you, I'll only use the characters you say just to make it a bit more challenging for myself if you're up for it.

Do normal mode, if you want to do it as a challenge I'll do the challenge with you as well but the bow users only looks relatively fun even if it is on Easy mode...

Even so, at that point in the game you really need to be 0RKO'ing everything albeit the bosses and Sothe just doesn't do that, it's the only point in the game where he is less valuable than Micaiah and although they both give crap damage Micaiah can still atleast Physic.

I believe congratulations are in order, Congratulations!

Slightly off the original topic, anyway to get the Gecko codes for a PAL version of Radiant Dawn? I know there are a few but there are a ton more on NTSC (I think that's right?) Version of the game.

I understand this, I was just simply making the point that even if he had amazing growths he would still just be a temporary unit because the Laguz royals will always outshine him, the only thing Volug actually needs is some weapon levels and maybe an energy drop but that still isn't necessary.

I agree with this, I would even go as far to say Astrid is better than Makalov simply because of Paragon on 2-2 unless of course you are LTCing it, those few level ups Astrid gets can really help her to not be THAT bad later on if you choose to master crown her on the marauders chapter.

Remember when Ike meets up with geoffrey and co? If you try to nab the blackknight at the end you'll also grab yourself a second Ike who is a level 1 lord with an iron sword and a character known as MIPD_BLACKKNIGHT who has alondite with lower stats which include 0 Skill, 0 Luck and 0 Speed. Game crashed straight after unfortunately :D.

I just thought it was pretty funny she couldn't even equip it.

I was using some action replay codes to recruit bosses and on the map (The Great Bridge) you know? The one where you get General Petrine I seemed to have recruited Lucia as well who was on the outside of the map and it seems as though she has stolen Stefan's Beautiful Vague Katti from him somehow. No biggy, just thought it was worth the share I'll post some more if I find anymore.

We have to use that assertion to some maps though, for example Haar makes a much bigger contribution than other units on maps like 2-E and the supply camp chapter and one of these reasons is because of his flight ability, yes he is a powerhouse unit as it already stands but his ability to fly over obstacles makes him even more valueable, no doubt having a unit like Jill in the swamp chapter would raise her usefulness as well.

Oh okay so instead of trying to make this more enjoyable and light hearted I'll just do what he did then and start swearing in my posts because I forgot everyones mega hard behind a computer. Volug is a good unit and shouldn't be seperated by a tier gap to Sothe. Better?

You can argue that but I find Volug to be very efficient the way I use him, with his halfshit status I find him one of the best units hands down especially as in part 1 I don't have to worry about his gauge going down and because of his movement and the fact he isn't a pushover I like to put saviour on him ^_^ also in the later chapters I tend to give him beastfoe as well and that really get's him going strong especially if you give him some olivi grass and keep his gauge up high. I think he's a great unit if used and I think Sothe does contribute more but I still think Volug should stay in the current tier.

I'll race you, when you wanna do it?

I completely agree with Boyd + Nephenee > Mia, Wind edges just do not cut it and when needed the Killer axes/Steel Greatlances dish out a ton of damage.

As for the whole Vika thing I think Lethe is much more useful however because Vika hardly does anything for the chapters she's in and yes I know the swamp chapter she has her uses but she needs 2 full turns to charge up her transformation gauge with olivi grass and then a third turn to actually rescue someone and by that time I have most of them rescued anyway...Lethe however worries me as that cat gauge I feel I can never put her in too much danger as I don't want to risk her untransforming too soon. So lethe > Vike albeit not by much.

Resonses in bold.