Czar_Yoshi

Why pair Avatar with someone who doesn't have a kid? Marry someone who can give you two Morgans and skip hauling along another father. Assuming this is vanilla Lunatic, a +mag support is good, so maybe Lissa/Miriel/Maribelle. When you hit enemies enough on Lunatic, they stop giving exp, but they still give support points. You could just find a chapter where it's easy to hide units in the back, trash someone's weapon with Avatar while they're on a fort, clean everyone else up, and whack the disarmed guy over and over for support. There's a limit to how much support two units can build in a level, but you'd still be able to pair characters up without ruining your exp supply for your important units.

-Get 99,999 renown -Play Lunatic+ -Unlock Wireless, sell Supreme Emblem, Streetpass self -Buy tons of Seraph Robes -Laugh at Counter and Luna+ Yeah, being able to streetpass yourself is awesome. I picked up a second 3ds just for this (and the only thing I use my first one for anymore is Awakening and the Ambassador games). The hijinks you can pull with a renown/streetpass combo are almost enough to make me wonder if it would be possible to beat Lunatic+ Classic with deaths without saving, using DLC, or summoning custom outrealm characters (no guest Avatars or logbook characters, but units hired straight from their spotpass team would be fine).

+def is powerful, especially on higher difficulties, but is not the answer to everything. What if I want to be a VV sorcerer and that +4 def stops me from reaching a critical damage threshold for Vengeance? If you're going to be a Sage, str is a pretty good flaw (because you won't be using physical weapons). As for your asset, HP is a fairly small all-around boost, mag gives you more power, skl gives you a slightly better hit rate/crit rate/Dual Strike rate, but Sages have good enough skl that it probably doesn't matter outside of the first few chapters if you're playing on a higher difficulty. Spd is very good and helps you dodge stuff (nice because Sages aren't very durable) and double stuff for more damage, Luck boosts your critical avoid (not important on normal and rarely important on higher difficulties) and lets you achieve 100% Armsthrift (your weapons don't break) without a pair up much later on, which is also not important on lower difficulties because the game throws a ton of money at you later in the game and there are other ways of getting more. Def is good because Sages aren't very durable and lets them survive a little better (a lot better on Normal). Res is pretty much mag but slightly less powerful and slightly better at taking magical hits (which isn't very important because Sages already have good res). Bottom line, I'd recommend +Spd/Def, -Str.

Tactician, Grandmaster, Mage, Sage, Dark Mage, Dark Knight, Sorc, Dark Flier, Valkyrie and Dread Fighter can use Tomes. That's 10 tome using classes. Barbarian, Berserker, Fighter, Warrior, Hero, Wyvern Rider, Wyvern Lord, Griffon Rider, General, GK, War Monk, and Dread Fighter can use Axes. That's 12 axe using classes. Ignoring base classes and Dread Fighter, it's still 6 to 8. If War Monk switched to Bishop(tomes), it would be even either way. Just for kicks, the game has 17 sword using classes (Lord, Great Lord, Tactician, Grandmaster, Cavalier, Paladin, GK, Myrmidon, Thief, Assassin, Trickster, Mercenary, Hero, Bow Knight, Dark Knight, Dancer, and Dread Fighter). There are 12 lance using classes (Great Lord, Cavalier, Paladin, Knight, GK, General, Pegasus, Falco, DF, Wyvern Lord, Bride, and Villager). There are 7 staff using classes (Trickster, Falco, Priest, Monk, Troubadour, Valkyrie, and Bride). Tomes being overpowered aside, I hardly think the game has too many of them. Note: I'm not counting Lodestar and Conqueror because they're character specific, or Merchant and Soldier because they're enemy only.

Yeah, there's more Mire in cht.21. Lots more.

Hey folks. I just beat cht.18 (Lunatic Classic), haven't touched DLC yet (or recruited any outrealm characters, or used any Dark Mages), and my team's almost strong enough for Normal Apotheosis through exp gained from quashing Risen. Before starting Lunatic, I heard a lot about the "invincible" Risen, decided to fight them anyway, and eventually found a way to brute force myself through an early double team, save a merchant, and stamp out around 80 saucy shopblocking squads. Since this doesn't seem to be common knowledge, I figured I'd post my strats. The only prerequisite is getting 50,000 renown for Boots. They're incredible for kiting early Risen. I picked a +Def, -Skl male Avatar, mauled Validar, and played the prologue and the first two chapters somewhat normally (I picked up a Kneader in a prologue event tile, broke the bosses weapons on forts to build support with Chrom's Falchion, and pumped everything I could into my Avatar). I spammed Lissa's staves pretty hard and by the end of cht.2 the Kneader was broken and Heal had about 10 uses left. For cht.3, I trained Kellam, Sumia, and Chrom, and broke the boss's weapon (and one of the door Knight's weapons) to build support with Falchion and level up Lissa. Afterwards, I claimed my Renown/Bonus Box loot, bought a Second Seal from Anna, reclassed my Avatar to Mercenary and gave the other one to Lissa to go Troubadour as soon as she could. For the Paralogue, I stopped the thief, broke about 10 enemy weapons and 3 heal staves, and got Donnel to Lv.7 by poking stuff with a Log for extra chip exp. Cht.4 was pretty normal, except I cornered Marth and used that infinite-use Falchion to break some more heals and build Lissa/Donnel support. Risen started appearing, I killed them with Fred and Avatar, kiting them with the Boots. For cht.5, I trained Chrom, promoted Avatar to Bow Knight (I need the mov, and Bowbreaker is useful), and Rescued Maribelle/Ricken. More Risen spawned. General Risen strategy is based off the map they spawn in at this point: Prologue: Hide against the west wall on turn 1, kill stuff on EP with Levin and dual strikes. Turn 2-3, run to the right and kite stuff up toward the top until dead. Cht.1: Stay low on the the first turn, fight as much stuff as you can without getting surrounded. Turn 2, run to the lower fort and stay there. Cht.2: Use Sumia pair up if possible. Wait on forts until stuff approaches, then use Sumia to fly across the river and attack with Bows/Levin for a turn, repeat. Cht.3: Use Fred's +mov to make it to the gate, sit there and kill stuff. If the team has a lot of 1-range dudes and you want to train a weaker unit, equip a bow and sit there until the three foes facing you break their weapons and you've sniped everyone who can ORKO your trainee or has a ranged weapon. Bring out Trainee (Sumia for me), kill one of the disarmed goons, make sure you won't die on EP. Switch back to Avatar, break new guy's weapon, switch back to trainee, heal to full, repeat. Slow, but it lets you train someone other than Avatar which is awesome. The AI doesn't know that its units have no weapons and won't normally switch them out so others can come in and attack the Trainee, but if it would switch them anyway (WT stuff) then it can and will, so watch out. Cht.4: Depends on enemy layout. Kite as long as possible, then hole up in a corner. Cht.5: The top fort is a good place to make a stand. Archer AI derps really badly when you do this and it's very easy to rack up Bullion with Leif's Blade here. Par.2: Hope Anna dies early so she doesn't steal too much of your exp. Get Avatar/Fred up to the village and block it unequipped (don't visit it). Get everyone else (Chrom, Sumia, Lissa, Maribelle, Donnel) to the island by the mountains in the southeast. From there, Chrom and Donnel can facetank archers all day while Maribelle and Lissa pile up exp with heal. When their weapons break, kill them with Sumia and then rescue her back to safety. When you're done, both Lissa and Maribelle should be Valkyries with high stats. Visit the village to unleash the boss, who is softened up by a Levin sword on the enemy phase and killed with an Eirika's blade next turn. This is a long chapter, it took me well over 200 turns. Risen will start promoting soon, but they're now possible: Risen level scales with the number of battles you've competed, not with your team level, and I've poured so much extra staff exp into my units that I have two beefy Valkyries to support my Avatar with and summon for chip damage. It will still take a lot of resetting, but is now possible. From Bow Knight, my Avatar's class route was Bow Knight -> Assassin -> War Monk -> Paladin (ending class). Lethality is how you go from doing 5x2 damage to GKs and 20x1 to SMs to an OHKO. I'm lacking Vantage, but with luck manipulation it can take anything down. Pass works well with my mov and is great for kiting/escaping dangerous threats. I used all my Secret Books and Goddess Icons to boost my Lethality and Armsthrift rates as fast as possible. Once I hit 47 Luck, I can get 100% AT with any pair-up, which means it's time to start forging, and break out the Bonus Box weapons. Mystletainn is cool, it boosts your DS chances. War Monk is a massive pain and requires some staff spam to get through, but it's worth it: the healing lets me survive on fortless maps and makes Morgan invincible. Paladin is chosen for its decent res, high move and Lance access (Gradivus ho! And I can pull out Luna or Gae Bolg if I need their boosts). Chrom promoted to Great Lord, and is strong enough to help out on the main chapters. His Charm boost is nice. Sumia promoted to Dark Flier, passed Galeforce to Lucina/Cynthia, and switched to Falcoknight to be a rally/staffbot and offensive backup. Lissa and Maribelle both reclassed to Falcoknights as well, to help with staffing. Owain got DS+ and Aptitude (I managed to drag Donnel along far enough for a Lissa S rank), and is now a Hero. Maribelle isn't paired yet, but was one of my options for Avatar. I might give her Kellam just to get Brady. Kellam reached Lv.10 and promoted to GK so he could help out with +mov boosts for my Falcos. I danced up Olivia for high stats and had her marry my Avatar to give Morgan and Inigo epic bases. Lucina went Lord -> Cav -> GK -> Falco. As a GK she was an excellent support for my Avatar, now she's helping with rushes and staffing. I'll probably take her back to GK later, or maybe Assassin. Cynthia went straight to Falco and is helping staff stuff. When she gets Lancefaire I'll take her through GK. Morgan inherited Renewal and went Tactician -> Merc -> Hero -> Dark Flier -> Sage, and is completely invincible. She has enough luck to hit 100% AT with just a tonic, Sol+Renewal, can staff if need be, and has a variety of excellent utility tomes (Celica's, Superior Jolt, Mjolnir, Forseti, Book of Naga), all of which come in handy a lot. Inigo's paralogue was a troll, but I switched him to Tactician, got him to Grandmaster, and probably fed him at least 20 enemies. He gets Renewal too. This took a while to type up, I hope it helps someone. It's not a perfect strategy and requires a lot of resetting before Avatar's finished, but is worth it IMO to have the strongest part of Lunatic firmly under your boot without paid DLC or outrealm characters.

I said "other" supports. As in, not FeMU.

And if you look on a video with any of his other supports, his manner of speech is all people talk about. What's your point?

If you don't abuse Mire, Nah's paralogue is actually one of the hardest child paralogues. There are a ton of promoted enemies that the game likes to drop on you without warning, protecting healers is difficult due to the map design, and it's hard to kill things on player phase because the shifting walls make it hard to set up an ambush. There are also plenty of Warriors that can spawn with Counter.

Etzel says hi.

The only purpose or War Monks is to get rid of all the Bolt Axes Infinite Regalia throws you, and they need a very high axe rank to do even that. If you're going to have staffers, use Valkyries/Falcos for the 8 mov or Sages for the extra mag/combat utility.

Unless there's an unused Berserk status in the game's coding, I don't think it's very likely that this is a glitch. This sounds more like Counter mishap. TC, what difficulty were you playing on, and what chapter in the main story are you on?

Probably because those axe guys have low weapon ranks. Weapon Triangle bonuses/penalties are dependent on the winner's weapon rank, so if the axe guy has an E rank, he'll be shaving off only 5 of your hit (and cancelling you weapon rank bonus, which is 5 at A rank. So yeah, a -10 hit isn't that big. It matters more in Lunatic, where all enemies have A ranks. No matter what your weapon rank in lances is, you'll be shaving off 3mt from a swordguy with a bronze lance every time.

Not to mention that they're presently sold out.

For the Falco filler, you could give them Lancefaire and have them hold a Shockstick for +5 mag.

I just checked Knights of Iris, and I guess you're right. Now what bugs me is that there's beta art of Tharja (that isn't hideous) that has her dressed somewhat normally in there. Huh? I could care less about the way Owain looks. Swap around Owain and Kellam's personalities, and then see who's more popular. Were Tharja's Avatar and Nowi scramble supports memorable? Yes. Were they something I don't want to remember? Very yes.

I'm pretty sure Shadow Dragon has wexp bonuses on promotion too. But this is really only a problem if you're going from, say, Grandmaster to General, and for Donnel.

It's actually my preferred method of playing the game. Some Risen do require a lot of resetting (especially if there's a Monk packing Fortify, or if you need a Lethality proc to get rid of something), but it's never quite impossible.

Any particular reason why Lucina has Mag+2 and Chrom has Skill+2 instead of All+2?

I like DSup+ because I can get it in Lunatic(+) without wasting enemy exp and pass it to children to make building supports easier. I then ditch it when I've got all the A supports I need and have something better to use instead. Does anyone have a problem with that?

That makes sense. On my current Lunatic playthrough, I spent an absurd amount of time in the early chapters breaking weapons with my face to give my clerics damage to heal, had about four promoted units by cht.7 (despite giving my Avatar most of the kills), and the Risen just couldn't take my team. If they scaled with anything other than battle count, their stats would have been enormous, but as-is they were weak enough that I stomped several dual Risen squads and saved a Merchant.

I think someone on GameFAQs tried it a while ago on Hard and quit once the promoted enemies came out in force.

For what it's worth, in Awakening cht.18: Say'ri: "What...ah. That is no forest fire, sir. It's a volcano. Have you never seen one? That one is called the Demon's Ingle. It is known and feared by all the people of Valm. Few dare even get close, lest they anger the wicked fire god." For minmaxing that may be true, but if you're fighting Lunatic Risen without LB, the boost from Forseti often allows you to double and ORKO the Falcon Knights, instead of doing 10-20 damage (x2 with Celica's). You also get Forseti after cht.3 instead of during cht.22.

Without Armsthrift, said game-breaking weapon is going to last all of two chapters. Even if it lasted the whole game (Hammerne from Anna shops), you'd still need characters with low enough levels to deploy that have the required weapon rank and access to use it. Assuming you managed to bypass all that, +5mt isn't even that game-breaking... Unless you put it on something like a Micaiah's Pyre or Hector's Axe, which you can still get through the Barracks and Event tiles (not to mention Superior Weapons).

In Lunatic (where Donnel is worst) grinding is very tedious/hard without paid DLC. It's still possible, but forgoing it is far from silly.