Your opinion on the best mage?

[Alacalibur]

Who do you think is best? I prefer Calill, because even though soren is better throughout, Calill gets Rexflame(+3 speed? Yes please! :D ).

[charmander6000]

Micaiah > Laura > Rhys >= Soren > Calill > Ilyana > Tormod > Bastian > Oliver > Pelleas > Lehran > Sanaki

IMO

[Florete]

Micaiah is the best, but I picked Calill before I noticed Micaiah was on there because I wrongly assumed this was only for Archsages. :/

So yeah, Micaiah.

[Loki Laufeyson]

My vote goes to Soren because im bias like that. He always turns out awesome for me.

[-Cynthia-]

Micaiah is the best due to Thani bombing, staves in second tier, and not taking up a slot in 4-E. Being compared to the rest of the DB doesn't hurt either.

[CGV]

The glass canon (a.k.a. Micaiah)

[Alacalibur]

The glass canon

Which one?

(a.k.a. Micaiah)

Oh.

[Taho]

Micaiah is the best due to Thani bombing, staves in second tier, and not taking up a slot in 4-E. Being compared to the rest of the DB doesn't hurt either.

That... Exactly. ;)

[Zkirsche]

Calill's the best for doubling endgame. They're all teh same non-endgame - poor durabiltiy, kinda meh offence and poor mobility.

Edit: I overlooked Micaiah...

If we're just talking about 4-E, Lehran is the best.

Edited June 30, 2009 by kirsche

[luigi bros]

Soren with Pelleas close behind. I just like him. And when supportedwith Ike he dodges like crazy. But anyone can do that with Ike.

[NinjaMonkey]

Soren > Pelleas > Calill > Sanaki > Micaiah > Lehran > Bastian > Tormod > Ilyana.

As for Laura, Rhys and Oliver I wouldn't know, as I've never used them.

Edited January 3, 2010 by NinjaMonkey

[Nadié]

Mickey's best overall, but I think Calill's best for Endgame if you can get her RexFlame. That +3 SPD is lovely.

[dondon151]

Guys, 4-E is like 7 turns of routing enemies and 8 turns of doing the chapter as fast as you can before getting your ass kicked.

Those 7 turns of routing enemies are before when Rexflame can't burn through its 15 uses.

[Xort]

Just how is Soren dominating? Only Micaiah is beating him. Does not compute!

I voted Calill. Micaiah is good, but uber-late promotion makes me lean towards Calill.

[Narga_Rocks]

Guys, 4-E is like 7 turns of routing enemies and 8 turns of doing the chapter as fast as you can before getting your ass kicked.

Those 7 turns of routing enemies are before when Rexflame can't burn through its 15 uses.

??

Which map are we just struggling to survive in? There are safe strategies in all the maps. While you could do the last 4 chapters in 2 turns each, I don't see the point in anything but the last chapter anyway.

[dondon151]

4-E-2: healers, forced magic users, heron

4-E-3: quite a few units are 2RKO'd by dragons

4-E-4: Gareth, weak res units

[Narga_Rocks]

4-E-2: healers, forced magic users, heron

4-E-3: quite a few units are 2RKO'd by dragons

4-E-4: Gareth, weak res units

4-E-2: safe approach, keep your people near the top. Slowly bring your people down so that your people only face what they can survive. Having a couple of units that can take anything will speed things up. The only things that don't move though are the boss and his buddies (3 armors, 2 snipers, 2 priests, I think, and they are all touching either diagonally or are adjacent, I think), everything else will move if you are in range. Boss should be killed on turn 1 if you have 3 magic users with ranged tomes or if one of them has 28 speed you only need 2 magic users. Or if the one with 28 speed can get 45 mt you just need the one. Not as if that helps keep you more safe, just means you have the wishblade to help kill stuff this chapter.

4-E-3: Then don't let them face 2 red dragons before healing.

4-E-4: Don't bring Gareth. Keep your units on wardwood. There is a really nice wardwood diamond near the top you can reach on turn 1. All you need is 11 units with 1-2 range and a Heron and your other 5 units can hide inside. For whatever reason spirits don't like being ORKOd so they've always gone for Kurth and Ena when I do this. The spirits ping, the dragons do like 10 damage. By turn 3 every spirit that started and moves should be dead and you can go after the reinforcements cause they move too. No spirits should gang up on weak res units, and even if the spirits aren't as nice to you as they are to me and attack Ike or something, being on wardwood should keep people alive and you can use ward staves or pure water to cut damage down to like 5 per spirit or something. Or just intentionally have a unit on the diamond without 2 range if it has lots of res and give it provoke and the spirits should ping on it. By the way, 22 res means no damage from any spirits while on a wardwood tile + being on the first round of a pure water (max might of spirits is 39).

While offence works just fine, so does the defensive approach. If you choose to go the defensive way, do it right and no one should be in danger.

[dondon151]

Boss should be killed on turn 1 if you have 3 magic users with ranged tomes or if one of them has 28 speed you only need 2 magic users. Or if the one with 28 speed can get 45 mt you just need the one. Not as if that helps keep you more safe, just means you have the wishblade to help kill stuff this chapter.

If you can ORKO Levail, you're actually not ORKOing Levail because of Resolve.

Ike should end this chapter by turn 2 enemy phase at the latest anyway, and Calill's Rexflame is still not unbreakable.

4-E-3: Then don't let them face 2 red dragons before healing.

This is an extremely restrictive strategy and takes forever.

4-E-4:

Provoke seems to be an effective strategy.

While offence works just fine, so does the defensive approach. If you choose to go the defensive way, do it right and no one should be in danger.

If you choose to go the offensive way, do it right and no one should be in danger, and you save yourself lots of time!

None of this really addresses how Rexflame makes Calill's 4-E considerable, though I have to admit that defensive strategies work, but the longer you stay on the map for 4-E-3 and 4-E-4, the more likely someone is to die.

Edited July 1, 2009 by dondon151

[Narga_Rocks]

If you can ORKO Levail, you're actually not ORKOing Levail because of Resolve.

Resolve is actually really weird in this game. Probably based on the way it only activated % based in Japan so when they changed it here they didn't put it back to how it was in PoR. Basically, you can test this yourself, and I'll say how later, but for Levail:

You attack, he goes to resolve range. Even though he is now in resolve range, he still has 24 speed until resolve "activates". Then he has 36 speed. Resolve doesn't activate until you are already doing the second attack, and so since the game doesn't go back in time to stop the second attack he still gets attacked twice. Now, resolve is still active and for your second attack Levail goes from 71 avo to 95 avo, but that shouldn't matter much with the hit your mage should have. It helps if you are using purge or blizzard though.

Now, to test this if you don't happen to have a mage with 28 speed and 45 mt with a ranged tome and a save around this time, all you have to do is find a save where you have someone who has low enough speed to not double, but enough that with resolve you double. Get them to the point where one more attack gets you into resolve range. Now, attack something on player phase that hits back. You get hit. Resolve never activates for you and even though you are in resolve range and have enough speed to double you don't double.

Another way to replicate this in a way that more closely follows what happens with Levail:

Find a unit on your team that gets doubled by something that has 2 range. Give your team member a 1 range weapon and resolve and get attacked by the enemy on enemy phase from 2 range. Even if the first hit from the enemy knocks you down to resolve range, you still get doubled. You will have a character with boosted avoid for the second hit, but there is still a second hit. Note this can also be done with your character unequipped so the enemy need not have 2 range, but I suggested a weapon because Levail has a weapon.

This can be circumvented if the unit getting doubled can actually attack back after the first attack. So for example if Micaiah gets doubled but has resolve, then when she gets attacked (on enemy phase) she goes down to resolve range. Resolve activates when she attacks. She now has enough speed to not get doubled and thus does not get doubled. In fact, if she now has enough to double the enemy, she does double.

As a result of the way in which resolve works, note that this can only be used to double Levail with 3 range or more because Levail has a 1-2 range weapon and the above paragraph will apply. Of course, if disarm works on Levail, that should work too but is less reliable.

It's silly, but that's the way it is programmed.

Ike should end this chapter by turn 2 enemy phase at the latest anyway, and Calill's Rexflame is still not unbreakable.

This is an extremely restrictive strategy and takes forever.

Provoke seems to be an effective strategy.

If you choose to go the offensive way, do it right and no one should be in danger, and you save yourself lots of time!

None of this really addresses how Rexflame makes Calill's 4-E considerable, though I have to admit that defensive strategies work, but the longer you stay on the map for 4-E-3 and 4-E-4, the more likely someone is to die.

I really have nothing against the offensive approach. I just like having more levels for 4-E-5. And I'm not sure I would take more than, say, twice as long for the defensive approach as the offensive approach takes. I could be wrong about how much longer it takes me, but the point is we aren't playing this game to bullrush the whole thing, though when so close to the end I can understand the temptation. And I am completely aware that if you plan it right then going total offense shouldn't get anyone killed either, the only thing I take issue with is that there is actual danger involved with the defensive method if done right.

As for 4-E-3 and keeping 2RKOd people facing > say 20% hit rates away from reds, you should have enough people that don't have this problem that you can still win by turn 7 or something instead of 2 or 3. It doesn't exactly take forever, just undeniably longer.

Rexflame helps a bit if you use it sparingly. If she has 32 speed anyway then she only needs rexflame to double warriors and 35 speed is insufficient on most swordmasters anyway. Rexflame is mostly just fun for cover tiles in 4-E-5 and spirit killing in 4-E-4. It isn't even particularly helpful in 4-E-3 because she should be going long range there anyway. I don't know if that is enough for her 4-E to be considered considerable, but it means that if you are bringing a mage to help on 4-E-3 then at least she is more useful on 4-E-4 and 4-E-5 than others because she can actually double spirits w/out Nasir and auras w/ Nasir.

Edit: Oh, and about Ike ending this by turn 2. He only ends it by turn 2 if you want him to do so. This battle can be prolonged indefinitely if you want. Simply have Ike move left 6 spaces on turn 1. BK does the same. Then have Ike move right 6 spaces on turn 2. BK does the same. Repeat ad nauseum. Well, you don't have to repeat till the point of nausea if you don't want to, but the idea is that you could.

Edited July 1, 2009 by Narga_Rocks

[Jaybee]

If you can ORKO Levail, you're actually not ORKOing Levail because of Resolve.

Mastery Skills on the second attack like Tear. Or double attack and Canto away.

Something like Tibarn doing 25 damage on his first attack, Levail missing before Tibs activates Tear and owns him.

If only there was a guaranteed way to disarm Levail and take the Wishblade. He shouldn't have needed to die.

Edited July 1, 2009 by Joshybear25

[Narga_Rocks]

I think that dondon's point was that you don't get a second attack because of resolve so a ORKO is not a ORKO. But because the programmers were either not paying attention with the North American localization or the designers wanted it this way, a ORKO from 3 range or more is still a ORKO.

[DragonBladeSniper]

I voted for Soren. Micaiah is good but I just prefer Soren. Thani IS pretty useful though. I guess it's because she promotes rather late. I never liked Calill much so I don't use her much.

[Ether]

Micaiah.She is your best chipper in part 1,best DB healer in part 3,and best Endgame Healer.Considering your other mages are not only never the best at anything,but are likely failing at it,the choice is obvious.

[Mekkah]

Calill's the best for doubling endgame.

The only time she gets to use Rexflame to a real advantage is when it still only has 15 uses. I think Micaiah's better than that.

[Interceptor]

If only there was a guaranteed way to disarm Levail and take the Wishblade. He shouldn't have needed to die.

Levail needed to die, just like Hetzel. But, using Haar is the only proper way to kill him.

Levail: Captain Haar! You are still alive!

Haar: What happened that you didn't expect me to survive?

Levail: Um... Nothing, I suppose. It's just that it's been a while since you left Begnion.

Haar: Yeah. Twenty years ago, wasn't it?

Levail: I was still very young at the time. You had just been dubbed a knight. Oh, it brings back such memories... The bravery of the dracoknights, especially the Fizzart Platoon. It was legendary among the soldiers. But then you suddenly defected to Daein.

Haar: I got sick of taking orders from corrupt senators, so I ditched the country with General Shiharam.

Levail: I joined the army after I came of age. But it was different after you all left. It was as if you took its spirit with you. The only exception was General Zelgius, the general of Duke Persis's army.

Haar: I see. Is that why you're under his command?

Levail: Yes. He is the last true knight. I will die for him.

Haar: Yes, Levail. You will.

Levail: How I dreamed of fighting a proper foe! I am honored, Sir Haar! Have at you!