[Fire Emblem Engage General Questions Thread]

8 hours ago, hdawgsizzle said:

Overall, the stretch between Ch 10-17 is probably the hardest portion of the game (except for an oddly easy Ch 12). Late game maps have a lot of gimmicks but you also have a lot more resources at your disposal

Just to elaborate on this:

Spoiler

Not content with just taking away your rings to make it feel like you're back at Square 1, the game decides to seriously beef up enemies as you'll now be dealing with occasional promoted enemies packing Silver weapons while a majority of your own army is unpromoted (or actually everyone if you're me and refuse to promote until 20 even though this is the game you should promote early) and packing Steel at best, putting you at Square -10.

Be thankful the second set of rings you get range from really good to busted.

 

[What are the best/ worst classes (and class types) in general?]

While on the subject of Swordmasters, as I don't have one trained at the moment (not even Kagetsu), curious about something:

Run Through causes the SM to move behind the opponent after combat, yeah? And Smash weapons cause the enemy to move, forcing a Break if someone is behind them, yeah? What happens if combine the two? Am I even allowed to do that? Will Smash movement happen first and cause the SM to move three spaces instead of two? Or will Run Through happen first to force a Break?

[What are some good ring pairings?]

11 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I refuse to use Hortensia, but I do acknowledge that argument and that similar arguments also apply to Ivy.

 

However, when one of your Emblem's best aspects is enabling A rank staves on any class, essentially creating a new and more powerful healer, using it on a class that already has A rank staff access is wasting one part of her.

Pairing Micaiah with someone with staff access is like pairing Lucina with someone who's already a Backup: A waste of part of their kit, yes.  

That said, I'd guess people don't mind wasting it because they already feel they have enough staff users. I myself already have Celine, Ivy, Hortensia, and Jean. Adding yet another staff user doesn't have quite the same impact as another Backup for me, so it comes down to Sync bonuses and Engage weapons/abilities.

[Fire Emblem Engage General Questions Thread]

15 hours ago, Coreyographed said:

So, we have listed in the descriptions the calculations for Engage Attacks like Astra Storm and Lodestar Rush being 30% damage for 5, 7, 8, or 9 attacks.

But do we have a calculation for Eirika's Twin Strike and Leif's Quadruple Hit? I'm having trouble planning these due to not understanding the calculation that goes into their damage, but maybe I just missed something? What made me extra curious about Eirika was using Twin Strike on Mage Knight Citrinne and depending on the weapon selected both attacks changed how much damage they were doing.

Lunar/Eclipse Brace requires attacking with a physical weapon, yeah? Maybe the first hit's using a magic weapon which is screwing with the second hit.

[So, what difficulty have you chosen?]

3 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

On Maddening chapter 16, so far the paralogues have been a solid yikes from me. I looked at Lucinas and decided, yep, not now or anytime soon.

But, is it just me or do the maps drag on? Every map is a solid 1-1 1/2 hours. 

I actually did Lucina's paralogue at that time because I got Corrin. Figured bosses are immune to a lot of things, but Corrin doesn't do those things.

As for maps dragging on, haven't really felt that outside of Ch. 15. Cramped spaces, miasma, doors -- all slowing you down in a chapter that doesn't have much combat for how long you actually spend there. Not a bad tutorial on dancing and Dragon Vein though.

[Strongest Weapon Type?]

10 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Speaking of, is it better to refine Silver Daggers or the 2-range Legendary Dagger?

Assuming infinite resources, the legendary dagger.

Edit: Oh wait, for the cost though? Hm, gonna have to think a bit on this.
Edit 2: At a quick glance, Cinqueda. +3 Cinqueda matches +5 Silver Dagger's Mt for 15 Silver Ore vs 800 Iron + 100 Steel + 20 Silver

[Strongest Weapon Type?]

7 hours ago, dragonlordsd said:

Echoing everyone else, Daggers are ridiculous.

Why do they gain so much from being forged? It's such a weird design choice. As far as I know, no other weapon more than doubles its might at +5

Bows in general don't seem exceptionally strong, I think it's just having such easy access to Minibows and Longbows from the outset makes the whole weapon type seem a lot better. 

Slim / iron more than double their might, though I get what you mean. 😛 The return on investment is wild. Silver daggers go from -2 Mt compared against silver swords to +1 Mt when both are max-forged for the same cost.

8 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Well, the main site lists the maximum Def for Generals at 55, but there are faster ways at cutting them down, in this game, since electrical magic appears to have an range of 3 and you can probably whittle down at least 30% of that guy's health if you know what you're doing

Mhm. Thunder magic if they're packing throwing weapons, other magic if not. Chain attacks help too due to how they ignore Def/Res.

[Strongest Weapon Type?]

3 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

It's probably the rapiers, given how often the game spams armored units towards you

I feel rapiers weren't designed with 30+Def generals in mind. Seeing 36 Def in Ike's Paralogue. Can only get worse. ._.

Might get away with sub-10 Mt in older games (Highest in Engage is Lucina's at 8 Mt, I think). This one? Nah. Honestly don't even consider armorslayers and hammers good options. With armor being unbreakable and no WTA bonus to at least help you dodge the counterattack, feels like you're playing massively to an enemy general's strengths by trying to swing at them.

[Math Emblem or rather question about math and number comparison in Fire Emblem Engage.]

1 hour ago, Hiroki said:

I don't really know how to calculate the Hit percentage, because I can't figure what I'm missing from the math. But I got something close (generally, there is 1 point of hit I can't explain).

Total Hit = Weapon's Hit + (Unit's dex *2) + (Rank level * 2) + 1?

Consider here that each rank equals a number. E = 1, D = 2, C = 3, B = 4, A = 5, S = 6?

That's roughly that, I think. But I miss something, I'm sure! I'll take the example of my Etie.

  Hide contents

Etie is a Warrior with B rank in bows, and have 28 in dex. If I give her a Longbow with 70 accuracy, she's up to 135.

135 = 70 + (28*2) + (4*2) + 1

I made the comparison with Saphir and Panette, who are also Warriors (with less dex and less good rank in bows, with longbows, in my play. I find the same thing.

What are their Luck stats?

[Any useful tips for Maddening difficulty?]

40 minutes ago, BloodRonin said:

Lastly, Erika emblem is amazing. When engaged the entire group gains access to her bonus. The eclipse brace is super strong. It makes sense on why she is received so late.

I'm on Ch. 16 -- the chapter Eirika joins. Unless I'm doing something wrong, it doesn't work the way you're making it sound.

Engaging doesn't grant Eclipse Brace to all allies, it turns Lunar Brace into Eclipse Brace for all allies. This is very, *very* different.

[Your best, worst and most disappointing unit.]

Finished Ch. 15 on Maddening plus Lucina's paralogue and that one skirmish.

Surprising:
Have to say I'm turning around on Alear. After you get Lucina, they start to click as they now get to do chain attacks on top of providing extra damage for allies via their personal skill. Of course, a lot of characters wouldn't mind being able to do chain attacks -- a flying mage with a thunder tome, for example -- but Lucina's the first emblem to make Alear feel good to play as she pairs well with their personal skill.

Then you get Byleth and his +3 to all stats buff when paired with Alear vs. +? to one stat paired with not-Alear. Fliers can compete with that with the utility of easier Goddess Dance positioning, but that's it. And then you get Corrin. You already get to do some silly things with just -one- of her Dragon Vein effects in Ch. 15. Having access to all the effects is too much fun.

Disappointing:
Diamant is starting to disappoint me partially due to me using Alear a lot more to the point they out-leveled him, partially because enemy generals are getting a lot more Def and the Armorslayer he could actually swing unlike Alear isn't keeping up. 

Jean is disappointing me too. Well, okay, that's not quite accurate. More like Martial Master's disappointing me. The class is equally screwed by Arts scaling being (Str+Mag)/2 -- only learned about that yesterday -- and Martial Master's poor bases. How bad are those bases? As a 20/1 Martial Master, he has 15 Spd, which'd be the same if he were a Great Knight. Only General would drag it down any further.

...But he's saved by being a healer and having Chain Guard which made him usable in the first place. I could also just reclass him, but I'm gonna be stubborn about this and keep him there.

[Which weapons are best suited for different Engravings?]

Quite like Lyn's on a Killer Axe. -3 Mt, but the +Hit and +Crit are worth it. Oh, and there's a -Wt too, I guess, not that most axe users need it when Killer Axes aren't that heavy.
Looking at other engraving I don't have yet, Corrin's is similar. Has a smaller Mt penalty and has more Crit. Even has a bit of Avo in exchange for no Hit bonus nor weight reduction.
Meanwhile, Eirika's is...uh, quite the gamble.

30 minutes ago, SeraviSays said:

Small weight increases have no downsides on daggers or Libération so something like Edelgard's (+1 Mt, +10 hit/crit/avo, +1 weight) is something I used for Yunaka iron daggers.

Sigurd's is the only one that reduces weight while also increasing Mt (all other weight decreases come with Mt decreases as well) so I liked it on units with around 5-6 build who had slight penalties from 7 weight weapons (Steel bow/sword, Iron lance) in early game.

I think you can make a case for the high weight+ engraves on Smash weapons and/or weapons you might intend only to use for Emblem attacks (IE a Steel Blade with Roy/Ike engrave for Lodestar Rush) but I'm less sure about it for everyday combat use. Perhaps also Thunder tomes since they can't double normally anyways.

This is thinking outside the box a bit but the more defensive engraves like Micaiah and Celica might be preferred on, for example, 2range weapons or Longbows that are being used by Backup units if getting hit enemy phase will be a concern for them.

For Roy/Ike-compatible weapons, I'd add Brave weapons to the list.

[Favorite Unit+Emblem Pairing]

1 hour ago, Xylaugheon Daily said:

34 speed wielding a Tomahawk after getting five kills, yeah. At least for now. Still midgame. About to do 16.

I can sort of see it. Ring, Speedtaker, food buffs, tonics, inherited Spd if you didn't burn the SP on something else before you got Lyn (I went with Hit +10 because axes. >.>) -- There's quite a few sources of Spd.

Actually took my Lv. 12 unpromoted Boucheron to Ch. 14 not too long ago because of all the lancers. Picked him over Panette more out of stubbornness than anything. He did work. Eventually. Left side was a bit messy with the cavalry rush early on. Thankfully enemies seem to really want Lyn's 1HP clones dead.

If anything did work though, it was Lyn's Engraving on a Killer Axe. lol I originally thought to give that axe to Panette because of her personal skill, but again stubbornness made me stick with Boucheron. Also in hindsight, I think I could've just given her a heavier axe because 25 Str is silly.

[Favorite Unit+Emblem Pairing]

30 minutes ago, Xylaugheon Daily said:

Warrior Boucheron + Lyndis

I never thought I'd take Sigurd off Boucheron, but, well, iykyk. Lyndis is a great partner for my speedy, tanky boy. I'm unsure if Alacrity will proc with Vantage even though I'm running both, simply because Boucheron never drops into Vantage range. With Speedtaker, there isn't a single enemy that he cannot double. He can solo a whole path alone. Absolutely insane. 

Your Boucheron can double Wolf Knights?

[Fire Emblem Engage General Questions Thread]

1 hour ago, FashionEmblem said:

Saw some comments about brave bow above and I have an adjacent question—are brave weapons kind of bad this time around? High weight and low hit, which are expected/usual, but also incredibly low MT? As a test I forged a brave sword and Alear has pretty much the same physical attack as a silver body art which does noodly damage: e.g., 7x4=28 isn't much better than he can do doubling with a sword that has some actual MT to it. At least on maddening I think most enemies have high enough defense that one whack of the silver weapon can easily outdamage two attacks from a brave weapon?

Looking at Iron and Brave swords across a few titles...

New Mystery: Iron 5 Mt / 100 Hit / 40 Use -- Brave 7 Mt / 80 Hit / 30 Use, always attack twice
Awakening: Iron 5 Mt / 95 Hit / 40 Use -- Brave 9 Mt / 80 Hit / 30 Use, always attack twice
Fates:  Iron 6 Mt / 90 Hit -- Brave 6 Mt / 75 Hit, attack twice on initiation. Also -4 Def/Res.
Three Houses: Iron 5 Mt / 90 Hit / 5 Wt / 40 Use -- Brave 9 Mt / 75 Hit / 12 Wt / 30 Use, attack twice on initiation
Engage: Iron 6 Mt / 90 Hit / 5 Wt -- Brave 4 Mt / 80 Hit / 13 Wt, attack twice on initiation

Yeah, Brave this time is a pretty lousy generalist weapon in exchange for infinite uses. Debating with myself whether it's worse than Fates' version. Less Mt *and* possible Wt penalty vs. Fates' Def/Res penalty. Leaning towards Engage's. Like, you swing at someone with a Brave weapon in Fates, you expect them to be dead and to have someone to cover you if the rest of the enemy army isn't dead to minimize the Def/Res penalty.

If there's one upside, it's that Hit penalties for WTD don't exist in Engage, so you can absolutely swing that Brave Sword at that Wyvern Knight.

-

Alear is really lucky to be in a combat-focused class that can punch people. Well, when promoted anyway.

[Your best, worst and most disappointing unit.]

Earlier in this thread, I said Alear is disappointing mainly because of Diamant. Guessed Alear was balanced around Engage abuse -- having Liberation and Dragon-type bonuses. Then I looked at their stats if they were the same class and...

Spoiler

So basically, Diamant has actual Lord-like stats (It's like that's his class or something) while...ironically coming with Roy of all lords. If he were a regular Sword Fighter, it'd practically be a demotion despite being the same tier. lol Alear would legit compete against him in combat even without reclassing while getting access to Dragon-type bonuses. Suppose IS thought he needed to stand out vs. Alear, so...

[Would you like to see a convoy unit again, and how would you like it implemented?]

As is, lords don't get used often for their magic backpack because everyone can already carry all the weapons they need.

Figure if you want to actually use the convoy for the convoy, you'd have to severely limit inventory space. After that, I figure it'd be a shitshow resolved by having multiple convoys that somehow have access to the same inventory unless you want to play a singular blob all the time. Also possibly yeeting axes at friends. I mean, if healers are allowed to heal across mountains (and grab friends or even enemies across those same mountains...)

[Opinion About The New Weapon Triangle]

Feels odd on defense where advantage doesn't matter. Defending against an axe with a sword, defending against another sword -- doesn't matter as long as it's not a lance.
On offense though, the break system opens up a lot, letting you do a lot of things that would normally be unsafe and I really like it.

[Your best, worst and most disappointing unit.]

Decided on a whim to check Alfred's promoted stats in other classes. His sister's the same level, making for a decent comparison point.

Spoiler

Not sure if level ups will even things out eventually, but I am now very sure his class bases are terrible when Celine's actually considered fine. >.>
Granted, she is a mage which is already good just for anti-armor and ranged chip damage, but still.
Also he needs to ask what Celine's routine is 'cause for someone who doesn't spend anywhere near as much time exercising, she's not doing too bad.

Edit: Oh yeah, my Chloe's Lv. 12 too.  

Spoiler

Chloe's unusual Mag growth on full display. lol
Also, Celine, maybe you should teach Chloe your routine too considering her job.

[Fire Emblem Engage General Questions Thread]

2 hours ago, Hiroki said:

I had some questions regarding my unit's class, as I'm never sure I make the good choice, ahah!

Etie

I made her take the classic route, Archer and then Sniper. I don't complain about her. But I'm wondering if I should reclass her to Warrior (since she get access to Axe by I don't remember which Emblem). By seeing the selection screen, she would have nice gains (4 in Strength) but would loose just on Dex (4 points). I think she has a pretty nice Dex for now, comparing her to other unit. (Dex only serve for Hit and Critical chance?). But going that road, would also make me loose on a S rank Bow unit (and the Covert bonus. But since she's not mean to be in rang of enemies...). But she will gain access to Axe, a lot of Strength, the Backup bonus (and with her range it could be really cool) and a bit of Build (that she lack a bit of, especially for heavy bows)

My questions: Is the S Bow really that good?

  Reveal hidden contents

Since I'm planning on including Saphir to my team, who is already a Warrior, wouldn't that be too much? Or I could even reclass Saphir....🤔

Re: Where to get axe proficiency
Axes can be gotten from Leif and Ike IIRC.

Re: Sniper or Warrior
Not sure missing out on the S-rank bow's a big deal for a Warrior if you go that route since it's just a better Silver Bow. Think the bigger deal is missing out on the Brave Bow which is A-rank, trading that for a heavier and less accurate Brave Axe when Warriors already have less Dex than Snipers. She -better- hit both times if she uses one of those. If you're not one to gamble on Brave weapons period though and find Covert too situational for being Bow-locked, well, more Backup is always appreciated.

[Fire Emblem Engage General Questions Thread]

Are skirmishes supposed to unlock post-Ch. 11 on Maddening? Hearing others on lower difficulties grinding pre-Ch. 11 made me think Maddening's a straight run through the main story, only optional battles being paralogues.

[Your best, worst and most disappointing unit.]

Up to Ch. 12 on Maddening. Of my in-use crew...:

Best: Diamant.
Disappointing: Alear. This is primarily Diamant's fault.
Worst: Alfred. This is not Diamant's fault.

• Alear's reliable. She doesn't do amazing damage thanks to...think it was Micaiah's Engraving, but does acceptable damage at almost zero risk through that Engraving plus +Avo skills while setting up others for more damage with Rose's Thorn Divinely Inspiring. Suppose I should try using Engage more since Liberation fuels it.
• Framme's doing her job as a healer. Handy every now and then for chip kills through Alear's personal skill being added after defense.
• Alfred is struggling. Too slow and not enough defense for tanking swordsmen while having little strength to hit back.
• Boucheron's doing his job. Not the strongest nor fastest axe fighter I've ever seen, but he's got the Bld, Spd, and Dex to to make him serviceable.
• Celine's doing her job as a mage. Can't say no to mages against all the armor I've seen.
• Chloe's doing her job as a pegasus knight. Can't say no to near-unrestricted movement.
• Jean's doing his job as a healer like Framme. Starting as a healer saved him from the bench and I sure am glad he's not there.
• Yunaka's doing her job well. Poisons foes whether at range or up close, and can occasionally do serious damage while dodge tanking on a +Avo tile.
• Alcryst is surprising me. Besides having decent Str + Spd, being Covert is really handy. Sent him solo to kill high-priority targets a few times and got away with it thanks to that.
• Diamant is worshipped by his brother for a reason. God *damn* you and your base stats even when you're the same level, Diamant.

[New Preview Videos Dropping]

2 hours ago, Azz said:

TLDR for each section of the video;

  Reveal hidden contents

The emblem rings are big mcguffins and important to story but the emblem characters themselves are rather unimportant and have no importance outside of their introductions, including Marth even. The Somniel is where you mainly interact with them. He feels Micaiah doesn't feel like she was written by someone who played RD

Normal, Hard and Maddening difficulties, Casual and Classic mode. Can decrease difficulty in game

You can't passively increase you engage meter once depleted, you need to actively charge it (combat, healing). Each action=1 section

Custom outfits for the Somniel only. Can't change Alear's hair except some F!Alear outfits have her hair in a ponytail

Growth method option seen in JPN tweets not available at start of game so he can't comment on it

Has played 3 chapters of maddening. Biggest change is enemies have new skills such as skills that negate break, effectiveness etc

Was incorrect about enemy AI prioritising getting into bushes being new, he thought it was

Dual audio available. Text is available in US English, Latin American Spanish, EU English, EU Spanish, French, Italian, German,  Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese (I CAN HAVE MY U BACK IN ARMOUR YES)

Stand out characters from the first 8 chapters are Yunaka and Louis. Great in writing and as units. Yunaka has a shady past and is a pathological liar but wants to turn her life around. Louis is really fun. He's kind of a weird dude who likes to people watch and likes to see people happy. Him and Yunaka have nice supports.

Can scan 5 amiibo a day.

Address the '10 second supports' allegation. Says that mainly sounds like the bond conversations with emblems. Actual supports are on par with the rest of the series in terms of length. Most similar to Awakening.

He talks about Jean for a bit. He didn't expect people would care about him. Is the villager archetype of the game. You are defending his village from corrupted. Joins the army to become a better medic (his father says he'll be a burden to Alear lol)

Talks about Somniel. We pretty much know everything so I skipped it. One thing he mentioned was that when allies wake you up, it's very ASMR and the game recommends you wear headphone. Sommie joins you in activities after you build your relationship up with him.

Characters don't have much unique dialogue in The Somniel. The mostly talk about where they are located in the Somniel and only a few characters talk about current story events.

Talks about poison and how it now makes it so you take more damage. Doesn't know exact numbers. Can stack three times. Lasts for entire battle unless you use antitoxen or staff.

No zoom in option for during battle. Default option is direct control of character, you have to swap to cursor option for moving character.

Red emblems are called Dark Emblems. Talks about him messing up with letting Hortensia kill Alfred with the Noble Rapier lol. It was his genuine first playthrough that he just happened to record so he was still learning the mechanics and new UI. Tutorial for enemy emblems says enemies can't actually engage with emblems so he presumed that Hortensia would only be able to use her tomes since the Noble Rapier is Lucina's engage weapon. 

Most bosses have revival stones. Basically extra HP bar. Makes it impossible to kill bosses in one round of combat. Show up from chapter 5.

Weapon triangle stuff. WT seems to only influence break and has no bearing on hit, avoid or damage.

No combat arts. Engage mechanics takes its place.

No mention of if men can fly but am gonna see if I can ask him again on twt and will hopefully get a response.

Weapon triangle being strictly break as far as they could tell? Hm. On offense, I'd guess this was meant to help make attacking a broken opponent more feasible (e.g Attacking a swordmaster with a halberdier to break, then attacking with a berserker), though I suppose they could have temporarily nullified triangle bonuses while broken. On defense, doing nothing besides not getting broken for picking the totally wrong weapon means...Yeah, without hit/damage reduction, they want you to do your damage on player phase. Though I have to say I'm not relishing the thought of missing with an axe.

[Japanese Fire Emblem Twitter posts]

3 hours ago, Azz said:

The fact the korean trailer has shown us more english gameplay than NoA has is quite funny like wow...

Feel this is a timezone thing (i.e. I'd expect the English English version today), but still pretty funny. lol

[New Preview Videos Dropping]

On 1/7/2023 at 2:52 PM, Popers1328 said:

New gameplay video by NWR, this time it's one turn of Chapter 7 on Hard/Classic
We get to see Jean in action for a bit. One cool thing that happens is the enemy uses Chain guard to prevent another enemy from getting broken allowing them to counter-attack Alear. Also Alfred gets Annihilated by Hortensia's Noble Rapier. Dragonic Time Crystals have 10 uses, I'm guessing you don't unlock more and you just start with all of them then.

That chain attack sequence...

Clearly the design team wanted to make up for all the blocked Dual Strikes in Fates. All of them.