Czar_Yoshi

Is it bad that I can tell, just by glancing at that, that you're using +Skl/-HP?

Oh, nice. I was actually just considering risking a necrobump to ask what happened to them in the old topic...

I'm a little more peeved about the lack of Palla and Est myself. They were in three whole games each and couldn't even manage a slot in one of them? They even had something resembling plot importance as Minerva's goon squad, and that's a rare sight indeed in SD.

Fred spam earlygame is mostly good if you're going to be using DLC to grind and just need to get through the first four chapters. His problems are that he can't dodge Pavise+ and the only way to retaliate against the archers in Cht.3 is Kellam's Javelin- but since he's up front there's nobody to sit behind him and finish them with powerful Silver Lance dual strikes.

He doesn't look that fiendish compared to the villains of the other FEs and doesn't come off as a villain to those who haven't played Tellius, so I doubt they wanted him as FE10's representing bad guy.

Chrom x Sumia/Maribelle/Olivia Lissa x Ricken/Libra Sully x Donnel Miriel x Lon'qu/Gregor/Stahl Sumia x Chrom/Henry Maribelle x Chrom/Lon'qu/Libra/anyone without negative Mag Panne x Frederick/anyone without negative Str Cordelia x Lon'qu/Stahl/Ricken/Virion Nowi x Virion/Vaike/Henry Tharja x Gaius Olivia x Chrom/Stahl/Ricken/Libra Cherche x Vaike/Gregor/Henry Avatar x Lucina/2nd gen with Galeforce Those are the best. Since you want Olivia over a second gen, you'll just have to live with Nah being forever alone and only having six combat pairs. I sure hope he does.

I'd assume they put BK in RD's section because they wanted to let every game have a major villain, but that's difficult to do for RD without plot spoilers and BK was as close as they could get.

Sacrificing a faster GF+Luna unit and a GF+VV+Luna unit for a slower GF+Luna unit and a GF+Astra unit is a pretty bad trade imo. Vaike!Kjelle lacks GF and is stuck as a physical support, but is overshadowed for that by Vaike!Nah who has 2 more Str.

I've honestly found that not taking a Def asset on Lunatic+ hurts more on Cht.3 than Cht.2. 2 still has forts and there are no ranged enemies in wave 1 meaning you can use the Sword to take advantage of Fred's +Str.

At least it's not like the GBA FEs where the game taunts you by playing that song for the rest of the turn.

If that was all that mattered, Nowi would be in the running for one of Donnel/Gaius. Unfortunately the only way for Nah to get GF and a proc not named Astra is Avatar, and that creates more problems than it solves.

Sol+Luna is bad if you care about damage output, but in your case your primary focus is staying alive so it should be more helpful. I'd recommend Sol+Vengeance instead though because Vengeance has a higher activation rate and you're likely to be taking a lot of damage. Don't forget Luna+.

What do you call that?

I started reading that argument wondering why anyone would want ten year's advanced notice for a change of opinion on a video game from someone you don't even know. I finished reading it wondering if both of you shouldn't be on GameFAQs. Yes, it's silly to be so worked up about people's opinion changes that have absolutely no impact on your life, but it's also silly to get so worked up over other people not changing their opinion on something that has absolutely no impact.

Gaius and Tharja. Only non-Avatar way for Noire to get GF + Vantage (she already has Vengeance).

Are you on Lunatic+? Because Counter on vanilla Lunatic is too rare to be a big issue. Regardless, the best way I've found to solo strong Risen (regardless of class) is to fight on EP at the edge of their range so you only get 2-3 fights per EP. Even if you're on Lunatic+, you won't be overwhelmed by Counter that way. You can throw yourself in there and fight it out in one turn, but it's neither the most reliable nor most interesting strategy and you said you wanted the very best, so... If you're jumping in the middle, you might also want to consider Counter for yourself. I still recommend Pass in case you need to escape when you're surrounded. BK will probably benefit most out of those from Renewal because the battle will take longer. Since you're using DLC, Res+10 is also a good skill to consider. I still don't consider a Faire to be that good of a use of a skillslot as all it does is boost your stats (and only one of them at that), replace it with Vengeance or Ignis if you want extra Atk (Sol has priority over both of those, so the game will first check if you got a Sol and only give you one of the others if you didn't, so you're not losing healing from this).

OK, thanks. I just got a LB-capped GK who was grinding for skills on LB3 killed by Julius while start mashing and couldn't think of a better explanation, but wanted to confirm it. Note to self: GKs reek. Edit- another question: will Cht.4 Marth ever heal with Falchion?

For skirmishes alone, the advice in my first post is pretty sound. You'll want Pass, Renewal, Deliverer, Acrobat, Aegis, AT, and all the breakers on hand and can choose between them based on your situation (this holds true for all of those classes). Pass for small maps, Deliverer for large maps, Renewal if you lack a Gate, Acrobat if you're on Cht.8/24, Aegis if you get Mages, AT always, and one situation-appropriate breaker. If your support partner has Anathema, be sure to have them equip that as well because it works from the back. Speaking of your support partner, you don't say who they are but DK x DF and Paladin x FK make very nice teams.

So here's a question: if I enter a battle at >50% HP, get knocked below 50%, and then strike again, will Wrath be active on the second strike? Conversely, if I enter a battle at <50%, activate Sol/use Nos on my first attack and go above 50%, will Wrath still be active for the second hit?

Here's where he's coming from: AT gives you no combat advantage. It's great for preparation, it cuts down grinding time, and it lets you use flashy moves, but when you're locked in combat with Apo's Nightmare Sniper it does absolutely nothing to help you. When your damage dealt is halved/quartered on Apo, Sol restores 1/4 or 1/8- and since it can't stack with other procs, this is sometimes as low as +3 HP per hit. In a proper Apo run, you either won't take damage or will want to keep your HP low, so even that doesn't help. If Luna fails to activate, Ignis still can so you have a higher chance of getting a proc. Now, all of the above is assuming that you're playing Apo with full deployment, and you're doing a lot more than that. In most of those cases this is either extreme overkill or does nothing to help you, which is why I called it out.

Gaius, have you ever actually fought the lunatic Risen? You're acting like there's only one way to play the game and it just ain't so. Against anything but Apo defensive works fine, sometimes better than offensive. Also... Vantage/Vengeance says you're wrong. For soloing Risen (I usually do Lunatic Risen without DLC so no LB), good skills include Renewal (better than Lifetaker, without Galeforce you'll be kiting), AT (lets you preserve the Gradivus/Book of Naga), Pass (sometimes good if you get cornered), Aegis (Res is usually more of a problem than Def and it's easier to get than Pavise), Deliverer (more Mov, more important if you lack boots) and a situation-appropriate Breaker. I don't use Sol much because I don't have room for two healing skills and Renewal works better when there's room to run. Acrobat works since you're grinding for skills, I usually don't use it because a) it's hard to get and b) I prefer Wyvern Lords who don't need it.

This is a pretty good way to put it. If you haven't already, a good first step is to switch the bottom screen to full so it shows your character's stats (there's an icon in the top right). For the record, I started getting into something resembling strategy near the end of my second playthrough and cleared all the DLC on my third. Higher difficulties have more exp to go around, so a proper Lunatic endgame team should be able to clear RaR3 (even with the enemy's Lunatic buffs), while a Normal endgame team might not go higher than LB3 right off the bat. Not to mention that any DLC map can be cleared without grinding if you know what you're doing. It's a good general rule though, start with the first ones and move up from there. You can skip playing CoY 1 and 2 if you're not very early in the game, and you might want to beat Infinite Regalia ASAP once (just kill the boss, don't go for the treasure- you only have to fight ~4 enemies instead of 36) to get the Silver Card, which helps a lot.

Then wouldn't you just play Normal/Hard...?

First off, for Lunatic(+) GF lets you clear around ten lategame chapters in one turn each which means you don't have to take an enemy phase. Against Counter enemies, GF lets you either kill with a Tome and then remove your weapon so you don't kill yourself on Counter on EP, or retreat out of range after killing without needing to deploy a Staffbot/use a Rescue (which are rare early on and expensive later). In areas where you get mobbed (the whole game), having enough Galeforce often tips the balance from where you must turtle EPs to survive to where you can keep the enemy back through PPO alone, which greatly increases the utility of non-overleveled units as they can now attack stuff without having to take an EP for it. Sometimes you even have enough power to clear out an area big enough that a fairly weak unit without GF can run in, kill something, and not die on EP. Finally, GF on Falcos/Valkyries lets you kill something and then use a staff, which doubles your staff range and lets you deploy staff users without losing offensive capability. There are many people, myself included, who happen not to like Sorcs for a variety of reasons, and there are better ways to trivialize Lunatic(+) if that's what you want to do anyway.

Lunatic? Never use it. No Sorcs either because they're cheap ugly. Sometimes I fight all the Risen for the challenge. Lunatic+ depends entirely on what kind of run I feel like doing. I've done it with no DLC before, and I've also picked up LB before Cht.5.