Lord Glenn

The first time I played through FE8, it's possible that I might have used him in limited capacity, but nothing more. I didn't have prior knowledge of his betrayal, but my experiences in FE7 shaped me into knowing not to use him too much. My second time (and subsequent times) through, I stripped him of his weapons and had him follow along as a meatshield and path blocker.

I don't see that mentioned anywhere in the topic prior to my post. Besides, the topic is asking the members to choose who they think the best Bishop is. That involves opinions, personal experience, and play styles, all of which could include Arena Abusing. Lucius or Serra will be pounding away with whatever they can. If I go my first route and promote Serra to Bishop after Pirate Ship, then I dump a Lightning tome on her right away for The Dread Isle (likely Lucius's or a spare), so she'll get a fair amount of experience in Light by the end of the game. Lucius does take less effort to hit S (and, if I'm using him, I'll possibly dump something powerful on him, since I never strive for a ranked run), but it just depends on who I'm using and who I'm not. Serra and Lucius both get hit with Aureola and Luce extremely hard in terms of AS, so I don't really consider that as part of my decision, despite Lucius's advantage in getting to an S rank faster. And, as such, it's probably one of the reasons that I stick them as a healer in Final to begin with. (I think I got across what you were asking about, but I'm not sure...?)

In terms of the grand scope of things, I'd say that Axes are undeniably the best in the Physical tree of weapons. Lances have more power than Swords behind them, so I'd put them in a close second as well. Swords and Bows have equal usefulness, in my opinion, since there are a decent amount of flying units at points in the game, and you might not have an adequate unit in place to deal with them. Swords are versatile and accurate, so I'd put them on the same level in a tie for third or slightly below Bows. For magic, it doesn't really matter to me. I never really use Fire magic, even with its effectiveness. I'm not a fan of Tormod, and I'd rather not switch Soren or Ilyana to Fire just to deal with Beast Laguz. I don't often use Calill or Bastian either (except when I already have all of the slots for a chapter filled with the units I want to take and there are still open ones), so I don't throw Fire Tomes around too much. Thunder is handy in certain situations, and it gets the slight critical boost, but it's accuracy is mediocre at times. Wind doesn't pack too much of a punch by itself, but it is light and accurate. It all comes down to which Mage I'm using, since I don't stray from their default type too often. I'll use Light with Rhys just because it gives Rhys a way to defend himself, and he can become quite the powerhouse later on, if you allow him to level up significantly (and he doesn't get RNG screwed).

The first post slightly did, yes, but it is still (slightly) borderline spammy, in my opinion. While image macros might be amusing, there are easily more intellectual ways of expressing the same thing. Anyway, we should return to the focus of the topic.

And just what do these have to do with the story or the topic at hand...?

It all depends on who I'm planning on using and how I'm playing through the chapters. If I feel like Arena Abusing in a playthrough and I decide to use Serra as my dedicated healer, then she's generally the first Bishop to promote for me. If I don't feel like Arena Abusing or I do feel like it but I'm using Priscilla as my dedicated healer, then Lucius is my first Bishop. I'll use either as their roles will still be the same come the Final Chapter; they'll both likely be acting as a healer. Sure, in the chapters leading up to Final, they'll be pounding on enemies like everyone else, but I tend to take Final more defensively, so the extra healer comes in handy and it slightly lowers the possibility of some unit getting ganged up on. As such, it doesn't really matter to me which one I use. I don't really like Renault, because, while his character might be awesome, he doesn't have much utility for me in my play style.

Topic opened for clarification of something.

...Holy crap. It's Seichi. This is unexpected.

Yes, he plans to ax the branched promotions. Not only did they utterly fail in FE8 (as there was always one class that was better than the other or they were so equal there was no need to have split promotions), but removing them also frees up space for more classes.

That would qualify as babying her.

In terms of chapters and their bosses, I've always been fond of Chapters 16 and 21 in FE6. While Narshen and Murdock might not be the most interesting characters ever, the map layouts in those two chapters really set up for an interesting fight (well, 21 moreso than 16). As do Ephraim's Ch. 14 and Ch. 20 in FE8, Pirate Ship and Cog of Destiny in FE7, and Ch. 21 and 27 from FE9. As for my actual favorite boss in the series (of what I've played or seen)... My guess would be to say Caellach actually. While FE8 doesn't really impress me too much, the interaction between Caellach and Joshua on either route gives him a ton of character. Plus, it's one of the first times that Powerful Foe is heard playing, which makes it all the more memorable to me.

The start of Hard Mode would likely be insanely difficult if you didn't use Marcus, so he does have merit in that. However, while I don't really prefer to use any of them, the trophy would have to go to Percival on this one. (And, at least he's more (albeit slightly, IMO) of an interesting character than Marcus.)

If you absolutely need an Armor unit, use Bors. As others have said, of the three, he's arguably the best. Wendy is too frail for an Armor and Barth is overkill in some stats and worthless in others. However, you'd probably be better off with either Miledy or Zeiss if you want a tanking powerhouse that uses Lances. As for "junk" units, I've personally never been a fan of Wolt (Seeing as you get two Nomads that are equal and/or better down the road) or Wade and Lot. I use the latter two more than Wolt, but I eventually drop them in favor of another unit that can use Axes. I'll also drop either Lance or Allen, depending on who is the worse of the two by about the middle of the game (Ch. 13 or so) to make room for some diversity in unit selection.

I have a fairly large list of games that I'd like to have (mainly because I'm too cheap to buy consoles and games when they first come out), but I doubt I'll actually use it as a list for purchasing Christmas gifts, especially with the cost of games these days and any financial strains too. If anything, any money I would get will just go towards purchasing a game or possibly two, depending on how much I feel like spending.

I'm from Western Pennsylvania, but I'm current in Ohio attending college.

I have mixed feelings across the GBA titles as to which one has the best music. I think that FE8 has the most refined tracks, but only three of them - Powerful Foe, The Prince's Despair, and Return of the Demon King - really stood out to me. Maybe it's because I prefer FE6 and 7 more than 8 that I like more tracks from them, but overall, the tracks in those two seem to flow better with the games than the ones in FE8, in my humble opinion.

It probably does. I haven't looked at the Administrator group's permissions, but I would assume that it can see every individual board. If you're worried about disclosing secret information or something, don't be. While I do dabble (slightly) in editing FE stuff (moreso graphical stuff), it's the site's project, and one that was started long before I joined. As such, I don't really have much of a reason to drop into the boards, unless I happen to see something in the main board that strikes my interest or if a post were to get reported or something along those lines.

In all honesty, I think you should play the one that you feel like playing the most. If they both have you at a point where you don't feel like progressing, you shouldn't force yourself to sit through a chapter or two (or how many ever you were planning on playing) if you don't feel like it. Otherwise, just go with what you're in the mood for - something a little more light-hearted, or something with a longer plot.

Thanks for the welcomes, everyone. Hi to everyone I already know (being Fox, YK, and Jyo), and hi to everyone else that I don't. As I mentioned in one of my posts in the new Announcements thread, I've technically been here before, but on an older incarnation of the boards (before the main site got its revamp, if I recall correctly). And, I lurked on occasion prior to actually joining last night, so it's not like I just came out of nowhere.

Since I forgot didn't get a chance to do so in my extremely late-night post, I'd like to thank everybody for the welcomes and such. (I don't want to be rude and neglect everybody.) I can't speak for Jyosua or Vincent myself, but here are my thoughts on the matters that have been discussed: I can understand skepticism about having a random new member that most of you don't know too well being promoted to Administrator upon joining. In fact, I can say that I've felt the same way a few times before, myself, looking across some of the sites that I've lurked on. That said, you'll have to trust me in that, while I may not have been an active member of this iteration of the SF community (though, I did have an account on one of the short-lived previous iterations some time ago), I do intend to serve it to the full extent of my ability, like I would any other site. As for the reasoning behind promoting myself and Musashi, having more staff, while not always a good thing, is a good thing in this case. While there have only been a few members who have registered from FESS so far, it's not always going to be an automatic thing. The "funeral" topic was posted at midnight, Eastern Time, so a large population of the memberbase probably hasn't even seen the topic yet, due to timezone differences, being asleep and not getting home until later today, or other reasons. If the community there truly wants to keep discussions about Fire Emblem going on, they'll eventually work their way over here. And, with that, the total number of users could potentially double. Furthermore, as many of you already know, Vincent and NTG are both 4 or 5 hours ahead of Jyosua (and myself). As it stands, that would leave him being the only person active (of the administration) if something were to arise. This way, he has extra people to turn to. And, it also allows the staff to spread out some and not have to focus on every single board by themselves. This way, (for example) Musashi could concentrate on some of the specific titles in the Fire Emblem boards, while one of the other Moderators (and, I'm sorry that I can't name someone specific, but I haven't gotten to know any of the others as of yet) could focus on the General Forums and the remaining Fire Emblem boards. As secondary reasoning, Musashi and I both have 2 years of experience in regards to staff duties, dealing with issues on a fairly regular basis. Musashi is an outstanding moderator, someone who I've been proud to work with over that entire time. He knows what he's doing, he's helpful, and his experience will make him a leader in the community and someone that will always make good calls of judgment. (As Superbus marvelously said in his introduction topic, I'm not going to toot my own horn. I'll let what I do talk about me.) Furthermore, in the event that an important discussion would ever arise amongst the staff, having more people putting their ideas, thoughts, reasonings, and comments into the pot is almost always helpful. Sure, there may be dissenting opinions sometimes, but that is to be expected. Not everyone agrees about everything, and having more people giving input allows more understanding across the staff on what people think. One person may know information that someone else doesn't, and thus may bring to light something that no one else had thought of yet.

(Formal introduction time, I guess.) Just a few things that I wanted to get out of the way before taking a well-deserved sleep for the night: 1) As I mentioned in my actual introduction topic, I'm (almost) always open if people need to get in touch with me. So, don't be afraid to do so if you need to. 2) As for changing things, I fully intend to keep the fundamental ideas and structures that have been around the same. It's not as if I'm going to bring to bear every aspect that FESS had over here. As Jyosua said, there will inevitably be things that will need reworked, especially with the influx of "refugees" from FESS. As such, you may see some policies and things taking philosophies from FESS and you may not. SF will not become FESS 2.0. I guarantee it. I do, however, have some ideas already bouncing around my head for after I get acquainted with the nuances of SF. 3) As for my previous names (as someone asked before), for my duration of staff at FESS, I have mainly gone by my current user name, Lord Glenn. There may have been a stint where I changed it during a user name fad, but, for the most part, it's been this for a long time. I did previously go by Tactic Knight, Geno, Aurilius, Freya Crescent, and Red XIII (the last two being parts of fads), in case anyone is curious.

In case you couldn't tell by my user name, I'm Lord Glenn. There's not much else to say, other than I am one of the refugees from FESS and I've been a staff member there for about 2 years. As such, I hope that I'm equipped to handle things over here without much difficulty. If you ever need to ask me anything, I'm generally always open. I have my AIM screen name in my profile, so don't be afraid to send me a message if you need to get in touch with me. I just ask that you let me know that your from here, so I know who I'm talking to. You might not see me around the FE boards too much, as I don't frequently get too much time to post in tons of topics, but you'll definitely see me around.