RD Hard Mode Playthrough

[Anouleth]

Wait, you shouldn't even need the str proc. Caineghis has 71 atk, Giffca has 69 atk, and Tibarn has 61 atk. So Caineghis does 21 x2, Giffca does 19 x2, and Tibarn does 11 x2. They're actually 2 HP damage above the target.

My bad. I was looking at Hawk Strike rather than Tibarn's strike.

In that case, you don't need Wyrmslayer at all.

[Colonel M]

I have no idea how you got 43 attack. Even if Naesala had A Strike, he wouldn't have 43 ATK.

Sorry, 47. Which makes it 11 off of Tibarn. If you're lucky with a Str proc its 49.

What's more, he's a good BEXP canditate. Strength is higher relative to his other growths than Nephenee, even after she caps speed and skill, he doesn't have to wait, and each point of strength is +2 damage instead of +1. I see no need to drag Naesala with base atk into endgame.

The bigger picture is the following:

- Naesala has to proc Str. With every single stat not capped, that means any configuration could happen. Yes Naesala's Str growth is relevant enough to obtain +Str, but then what? So now we have 49 Atk, maybe 51 at best for Endgame. Okay, 52 if we seriously want to nitpick with a support, but still that's... Well I guess it's better than nothing, but it also assumes 2 Str procs.

And naturally doubling Auras is very relevant. For a start, it puts Naesala on the waiting list for Parity. Second, Nasir is not always available. Often, the auras next to Nasir's tide spots die very quickly anyway. For example, the bottom-middle aura in 4-E-5 should always be the first to die since it can be 1-rounded by Caineghis or a Reaver. Canto is useful only because it frees up Tides for other people, it won't actually allow the Birds to use any Tides that they wouldn't ordinarily.

Naturally doubling Auras is nice, yes I admit. Then again the only ones missing it are Beorc and Cain I believe. Assuming we give the same careful treatment to Naesala, Nailah and Giffca can also do it (the latter needs a Speedwing big deal). Granted, it's useful, but I'd rather slap Parity on Giffca unless he needs the Blood Tide for Auras.

Besides, look what I have for Endgame. I can carry... what 9 units?

- Nolan

- Jill

- Mia

- Tibarn

- Giffca

- Cain

- Shinon

That's two slots. Nailah isn't guaranteed 40 AS since she has a 20% Spd growth to begin with and it's one of her lower growths. Naesala and Nephenee fit just fine unless I ZOMG DESPERATELY need Elincia for the one turn.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Tyranel M

[Narga_Rocks]

Naturally doubling Auras is nice, yes I admit. Then again the only ones missing it are Beorc and Cain I believe. Assuming we give the same careful treatment to Naesala, Nailah and Tibarn can also do it. Granted, it's useful, but I'd rather slap Parity on Giffca unless he needs the Blood Tide for Auras.

Why Giffca? Mia + Tibarn both with parity combine to KO any aura you send them up against. Very good for the cover tile auras. What good does it do on Giffca?

a: you have to get him to proc spd twice or give him a speedwing

b: he still won't ORKO anyway

c: assuming you have Mia and Tibs (why wouldn't you?), you have a perfect 2RKO anyway

I suppose maybe Giffca does enough damage for others to OHKO (64 mt at base means 68 damage if he doubles and only 22 damage is required to KO) but I'm not sure how much that actually helps. But what do you even do with the other Parity? Tibarn only does 52 damage, and not many characters are going to be doing 38 damage in one shot. And it's still cover tiles that Tibarn with Parity would be attacking, anyway, otherwise it's kind of a waste. You need max str Cain with two blood tides to get that kind of damage going.

[Colonel M]

Hey man I dunno, I'm really just theorymoning all this

(Giffca was planned the Speedwing, just fyi).

Edited September 16, 2010 by Tyranel M

[Narga_Rocks]

About Nailah: yes, it would be great if she can get 20 AS. If you can get her some bexp a few times, she could get +spd if you are just a little lucky. Somehow she always seems to pull that off for me (of the two times I tried, she seems to get it by the third bexp level). But yeah, it seems pretty unlikely. Of course, lots of opportunity to bexp and blossom, if you want. 36% effective chance of getting speed each level. After three levels, that's a ~74% chance of spd and 1.08 on average.

anyway, the thing is that Nailah still has the highest mastery proc rate in the game at base. 46%. Even Cain starts with only 44%. Naesala/Giffca start with 42%. Nailah has a fairly high chance of ripping apart any Generals she doesn't already ORKO (str proc for 56 mt and 56 mt gets 30 def generals and any 50/31 generals that exist). ~71% with just Savage. If she ever gets +skl while you are going for +spd, she'll have 48% which ties capped str Cain and only capped spd Naesala could ever beat that. I'm not sure what other units you are looking at that might do better. No idea what your Neph's stats are since you didn't tell us (forget to record before finishing the rout?), but wouldn't you bring her if she manages to cap a few things?

[Colonel M]

We'll see what happens.

I did a run of 4-3. Shit man, this chapter is pretty tough as is. I don't even want to imagine 4-4. I DON'T! I might replay this chapter again because technically I was using Jill in a lot of iffy situations (to be fair all I needed to do was have Micaiah carry Physic and maybe Haar over there), but still, check these guys out:

Nolan (15.13) - 65 HP | 35 Str | 9 Mag | 36 Skl | 35 Spd | 30 Luck | 28 Def | 20 Res
Jill (15.19) - 55 HP | 31 Str | 10 Mag | 32 Skl | 35 Spd | 30 Luck | 34 Def | 21 Res
Naesala (29.38) - 61 HP | 18 Str | 7 Mag | 21 Skl | 21 Spd | 21 Luck | 13 Def | 15 Res

Poor IOS, thought Nolan was to be a means to an end...

Still, 2 RANGE EVERYWHERE! I am not kidding: don't even bother with Laguz on this map. Skrimir / Naesala are "good enough". Just bring 2 range users and go to town.

This was an 8 turn, and all I found was Stefan and Dragonfoe. I'll see what I can do to improve Jill's chances of survival and see if I can speed this chapter up a turn. I just wish Jill would've proc'd Str more. <_<

Edited September 16, 2010 by Tyranel M

[Colonel M]

I hate 4-4.

I hate 4-4.

I HATE 4-4!

Please offer this poor peasant some advice. :Sobs:

[Mekkah]

Use the LEA!!!! Tormod LRT'ing doors, Vika shoving and ferrying, Muarim using skillz.

[Integrity]

I post my support, because 4-4 actually kept me up one night trying to finally finish it. I had to kill *all* the reinforcements and that made me sad.

[Junkhead]

I hate most of the Part 4 chapters. I just don't know how to deal with most of the ever-spawning reinforcements in low turns.

[Anouleth]

A lot of it is just knowing when/where the reinforcements will appear and responding accordingly. FEWoD has reinforcement data.

Even so, the 4-4 reinforcements are annoying because there are lots of 2-range enemies mixed in. It's often impossible to find a unit that's strong enough to say, 2HKO a Warrior from 2-range and double and double the Swordmaster that spawns next to him.

[Interceptor]

Please offer this poor peasant some advice. :Sobs:

Some tips for you:

- Resolve/Wrath on Maurim, and give him the herb/vulnerary/concoction mix for HP manipulation.

- Use Meteor to chip away at doors and save Player Phases for other people.

- Tormod has one or two chances here to use a ledge to make his accuracy good, it's worth taking advantage of.

- Vika is awesome at shoving in this chapter, use her for it.

- Plan your kills around reinforcements. In other words, you can take your time on the west chest room, someone like Ulki can chip away at the guys there slowly. Use your best firepower on people that must die ASAP, not on dudes that you can take your time with.

- Get Rafiel on the second floor ASAP, along with Mist. You need him to be Vigoring as many people as possible every turn.

- Titania can keep the east busy, but unless super SPD-blessed is going to need help with the reinforcements from someone like Janaff or Nailah. Suggest giving her Imbue to help with survival, Sol is not reliable.

- Sleep Bishop is public enemy #1 in this chapter. Either have him burn charges on units that don't matter, or do your best to mitigate the bad effects of a slept Ike on Enemy Phase (don't expose him to too much).

- Pass really helps on Nailah in this chapter because of the ledge-blockers, and the people in the northeast rooms that clog doorways.

- Abuse Mia's offense for hard targets. Smash your Tempest Blades into smithereens if you have to, you're not really going to need them again.

- Fill your slots with whatever scrub-bags that you can, everyone can help chip. Don't roll with anything less than 100% deployment.

- You don't need to get every chest. This is a mistake that I made.

I don't suggest burning BEXP on Ulki for Tear unless it's critically necessary. You have other BEXP needs coming up for Endgame. If all else fails, just suck up the turn losses, I guess.