Czar_Yoshi

Neither of them are that great because then you still get a Gen2 pairing imbalance without the bonus of having two Morgans. Micaiah, Katarina and Aversa are perfectly capable of fulfilling your Shadowgift needs by themselves.

This is particularly true on Golden Gaffe once you have a full team set up. It's the best thing for farming Renown since clogging up the map so Wolt always spawns in the same spot.

FE13 changes coming up, and a whole lot of them. In a nutshell, this is FE x Paper Mario x Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Maps need to be Genealogy sized or bigger. Add dozens of semi-generic units who aren't infinite and have unique names and portraits (no plot armor) while extending Casual-type plot armor and main-character level development/plot roles to 10-15 characters (so basically a really lot of lords). Add a feature so that "disposable" units must be assigned to a particular Lord to be deployed, with each Lord having their own deployment cap designated by Leadership Stars. Should a Lord fall, or get too far away from any of their troops, those troops will "panic" and become controlled by the AI until another Lord approaches and reassigns them. Their AI reactions would vary by IQ (a new stat) between suicidal charges, standing around doing nothing, fleeing, and protecting their fallen commander. Rebalance the exp scaling so that 8-10 is a lot from a non-boss enemy, 3-5 is typical, and 1 is minimum. If possible, have the troops funnel exp back to their Lord, and have them gain substantial stat boosts based on their Lord's. They can still get Wexp and increase their stats through other methods similar to EVs in Pokemon. Replace random growths with a perks system and perk multipliers. Ex: a unit who would formerly have an 80% HP growth would get +8HP if given +10 worth of HP perks, and a unit with 40% HP would get +4. Separate weapon durability into two stats, one for remaining uses and one for rate of usage (so a weapon with 60 uses and a use rate of 3 would take 20 uses to break). AT reduces the use rate by 1, regardless of Lck. Hit rates are replaced with TTYD style Action Commands, with the frame window for proper execution determined by a unit's listed hit. 0% would always fail and 100% would always succeed. Dual Guards are removed, pairing up gives no stat boosts (except +Mov for mounted units), enemies fight in groups of 1-4, enemies can attack either of your characters depending on attack range (same for your characters). Rescue and Pairup are combined. If a unit tries to pair up, they will move into the back and the pairup will become immediately active. If a unit tries to Rescue, the target moves to their square, into the back, and the rescuer is afflicted with a "rescue" status for 1 turn that halves Spd. After that turn, the units are paired up normally. Galeforce now activates if you attacked and failed to KO an enemy, not if you killed them. Add F-rank weapons similar to the Glass weapons: single-use weapons with varying power levels and cost that can be used by any unit, but don't bestow Wexp. Everyone would have at least an F-rank in all weapon types (though most of these ranks can never be raised). No reclassing outside of plot events. Manaketes can fight effectively untransformed, and for the most part are as good as normal units but with a Dragon weakness. There are a lot more of them, and Dragonstones function as rare plot items available only toward the end of the game that function similarly to Laguzstones. Skills with proc rates are now command based and drain energy from a pool that refills at a steady rate and increases via plot events (most likely collecting the Gemstones for the Fire Emblem), similar to Star Power. The amount of Skill drained is dependent on the unit's Skl stat and the move's cost. Only the Lords have Skill pools, and all troops assigned to them can use their Skill pool if they have the weapons/skills to take advantage of it. Skills such as Galeforce and Armsthrift would be back to the skill weight system from Tellius, but a unit's skill capacity could be increased (slowly) through the perks system. Skills could only be equippable by Lords, though there would be a good deal of them that modify the stats and abilities of the troops. Skills and such are found primarily in Chests, which are much commoner than in Awakening. Chests can also be rescued and carried, leading to interesting possibilities regarding efficiency (bringing all the chests to the thief to cutt down on turn counts), as well as being useable as barricades (they can't be passed through). The World Map is gone, replaced with interconnected maps (again, Genealogy style). During most parts of the plot, the player would be allowed to roam freely in the overworld (encounters with wandering enemies would start Fe8/13 style skirmishes, not single battles). In the overworld in this mode, movement would not be turn based drag and drop, your unit(s) would be controlled with the D-pad and move one square at a time. Similar free motion applies in towns/your camp, which would contain all of the normal menu functions, albeit spread out. So there would be shops for buying/selling/forging, a save point, your units (talking to them replaces the Barracks), etc. Taking advantage of the many Lords mechanic, there would frequently be (smaller) chapters in which the generic troops are barred and only a specific handful of heroes could be deployed- this would help with the individual character development as well as wreck solo attempts and encourage leveling all the Lords. These chapters might use different movement mechanics because you'd have fewer units to control. Many indoor maps (specifically ones for these types of chapters) would also be split into many rooms, allowing greater opportunities to hide chests and more complex area design with more opportunities to fence off/open up areas for future visits. OK... That was longer than I was expecting it to be. Oops.

I feel exactly the same way. I have more conservative values on social issues and liberal values on fiscal ones, but in an all-or-nothing climate like this one, I have to take one side or simply do nothing. Of those, I prefer liberal because I don't need the government to tell me what I already know, but do need them to do things like fund schools. On the other hand, thanks to a politician in my state who thinks he's Leidrick, I'm not so keen on backing up either side anymore. So I think I'll take my chances on the fence for now. Rather off-topic, but wow, those cashgrubbing emails look very similar to all the stuff I've been getting from colleges who are hungry for applications after seeing my SAT. You should seriously consider unsubscribing. I completely agree. Thinking for yourself, even if you're not always right, is extremely important. There's a quote along those lines from FDR that I like: "What this nation needs is bold, persistent experimentation. If something fails, admit it promptly and try something else. But above all, try something."

I have a capture card and could record it if you can give me a more specific description of what to do on each round. It could take a while because I'm fairly busy and would need to set up a new file for it, but I could get it done eventually.

Hard -> Lunatic is a considerable jump. If you want to play around and experiment to find what works, by all means stick with Hard- even if you can take a full team through Lunatic, it's very slow/difficult to keep training them without DLC once you run out of chapters for exp.

Hey now, he asked how I play Lunatic and that's how I play. I like exploits, I don't like DLC/spotpass grinding, and Lunatic+ is more conducive to that sort of thing so I find vanilla Lunatic less interesting.

Prologue? Water trick. Frederick shouldn't see combat as a lead unit outside of the first turn, possibly for the rest of the run. Cht.1 and 2? Tank everything with Avatar. Chapter 3? Train Avatar more, but also give a little exp to Chrom (and some to Sumia if she'll be marrying Chrom). Post Cht.3: Get Renown items, Bonus Box items, and Second Seal. Reclass Avatar to Mercenary. Cht.4 through 10: Destroy everything with Avatar. If a suitable waifu shows up, start building support, otherwise stick with Fred/Chrom. Cht.11: Dance Olivia to Lv.30 if she'll be marrying Chrom and Lv.15 if not. Cht.12/13: Make sure Olivia/Sumia have Galeforce to pass down. Pass Morgan and her sibling some combination of Veteran, Armsthrift, and anything else that's useful, and pass Lucina and her sibling Galeforce. Destroy the rest of the game with those four units. Honestly, Lunatic by itself isn't very interesting. If you want a challenge, fight the Risen on Lunatic without DLC or Spotpass units, and when you're done prove your teamsworth by beating the Challenge Pack maps and Apo.

I'm going to throw myself into the "fanservice is no substitute for a story" boat. If people want a giant pile of fanservice that exists solely to be a giant pile of fanservice, I'll stay far away and leave them to it. But I don't want to have to slog through it to get something else that I do want. I consider any quantity of fanservice something to be tolerated, although it's a lot easier to do that if it can be completely avoided without skipping anything else (some Scramble stuff), is relatively minor (pretty much every FE prior to Awakening, and especially Thracia), and doesn't raise eyebrows due to implausibility (Nowi and Olivia's outfits, pantsless riders).

While Medeus retained his sanity up until Shadow Dragon, his speech patterns change visibly across SD and Mystery as the games progress, which could be taken as evidence that his resumption of his Earth Dragon form is causing him to go insane, as well.

The main problem with Grima making the blood pact is that all the Earth Dragons are sealed away and insane. In order to make a blood pact with Grima, you'd have to a) let them out, and b) have him be rational enough to actually make the blood pact and not just eat you on the spot.

Not a problem. The one thing to remember about Sumia x Chrom "pinching" your pairings is that Sumia has incredibly limited supports and can only marry Avatar, Chrom, Fred, Gaius, and Henry- Avatar will be busy elsewhere, Gaius gives the dreaded Pegasus overlap (Peg.Knight is one of the worst classes in the game to waste), and Fred is slow, so you'll pretty much have to pair her with Henry to make Cynthia worth it. This means you have only Gregor and Vaike to split between Nowi, Miriel, and Cherche (which is an argument towards Avatar x Nowi, by the way).

Fire Emblem doesn't have DNA, it has holy blood, and that can be transferred/bestowed in events like the Miracle of Darna. Considering that Awakening already has a precedent for inter-world travel (Ike/Priam) and Genealogy definitely happened before Awakening, I think there's a good change that said fool could be the source of the Grima blood. Two problems: why does the symbol on the brand change (developer oversight), and would the devs really intentionally include that subtle of a reference when they left so many plot holes that are so much larger in the game?

Iote's shield removes a unit's flying weakness. It doesn't remove Beast, Dragon and Armor weaknesses. So Wyverns will lose their weakness to wind, bows, and Volant Axes, but still have their Dragon/Beast weaknesses.

Morgan can support some units, yes, but she can't support Chrom and that's who you're often going to find her paired with. Usually you'll be flying to an unreachable place and mounting a siege, and deploying any other units will be a liability because they'll have to hide too. Even if she had supports though, they won't do any good. Without supports, Chrom gives +3 Lck right off the bat, 4 after promoting and a maximum of 7, which is easily enough (with a Tonic if necessary) to reach 100% AT without LB, something that could come in handy if Lunatic RaR3 is on your to-do list. Mire can't get Dual Strikes and they can sometimes even reduce the amount of HP you recover with AN, so they don't matter. You don't get it- the issue isn't that you have to beat Aversa's Paralogue to get her, it's that you have to beat all 25 main chapters, then Aversa's Paralogue, then several maps to build support, and then Morgan's paralogue to get her, as opposed to clearing through Cht.4 and then either shelling out some cash (the Bullion(L) from Renown will do the trick) or beating CoY3. And by the way, of those non-sorc units, Shadowgift should only be used on three different classes- Dark Flier for sieges and DLC, Valkyrie for Rescue chains, and Dark Knight for more efficiently farming GG (DK can approach with Mire, then use Leif's Blade) or just getting higher Mov while keeping your defenses intact.

I'd imagine part of why Validar looks the way he does is because he messes with Dark Magic. In most other FE games (and fantasy tales in general) sorcerers tend to look twisted like that, especially as they get older. Avatar looks more or less normal because he hasn't done much of that.

Not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but in http://serenesforest.net/fe13/character_spotpass.html Travant doesn't have a portrait. The image is already on the site, just not linked on that page.

http://serenesforest.net/fe13/char_growth_all.html Do note that those are slightly inaccurate, but for all practical purposes they should be close enough.

He does care because he won't have either Galeforce or Vantage and you can't do a Vengeance sweep without at least one of those. Chrom x Sumia and Chrom x Olivia are actually about dead even in minmax potential. But I do advise doing many playthroughs with different pairings just to see for yourself what works, what doesn't work, and what you don't need. If you care enough about raw damage output to leave Laurent in the dust to squeeze out an extra 1-2 damage per hit from Gerome, then you might want to reconsider Henry!Gerome because Anathema also lowers the Dge of all enemies within 3 tiles meaning that your units effectively get +10 Crit when fighting those enemies. That will do more extra damage in the long run than the extra Str.

High Skl is useless after a point if it's for your hit rate, and if you want it for procs then Chrom!Inigo!Morgan is much better thanks to RK.

The story doesn't say anything about Marth and Grima, Marth and the first Exalt are different people. That said, if you follow the theory about Grima being a compilation of all the insane Earth Dragons, combined with how Avatar is apparently already Grima but hasn't awakened yet, it could be possible that Avatar is merely someone with the necessary traits to control them and the Awakening Validar preforms is merely meant to bring back the actual Dragons (future Avatar was able to use them just as easily as past Avatar could have, he had the same power up until then and the only difference was that he was evil). However, Awakening's story isn't meant to be (or shouldn't be) taken seriously, it's best at face value.

Adding one model/animation isn't that difficult if you already have the equipment and talent to do so.

Libra!Laurent is also bad because he only gets two classes (promoted and base) out of it, and Libra's mods aren't very interesting. All Libra and Henry would contribute to a Mire-spam cause is +1 Mag, which isn't something that should be the highlight of a pairing.

Harvest Scramble (use Pass Galeforce Archers to bypass Counter and build Bow rank while you're at it) should get you one eventually.

Using Shadowgift on a Sage is silly. It exists so you can get Mire (and Nosferatu) on 8-move units who can fly or use staves, either for incredible Galeforce rescue chains, sniping Thieves, or hiding somewhere where nobody can get you and bombing stuff, not so you can use Waste and Nosferatu on a class with 2 more Mag that could easily be made up through mods on a 3rd Gen Morgan, saving you the skillslot. Back on topic: I use Sumia!Lucina!Morgan (Spd caps and Aether), Maribelle!Lucina!Morgan (Mag caps and Aether), Lon'qu!Severa!Morgan (Spd caps when Lucina is needed elsewhere), Nowi!Morgan (Def caps and salvaging Nah), Panne!Morgan (Yarne's growths, for maingame only), Lissa!Morgan (two Gen2 Galeforce pairs with only two Gen1 pairs, for maingame only), and Cordelia!Morgan (Lunatic, vs. all Risen, mostly for Avatar's benefit but also because of strong passdown options and good starting classes).