Pairings for Ranked Run?

[ATNAK]

From what I understand, easy to acquire pairings are optimal for ranked run, but one should not neglect performance as well. I just can't decide which set of pairings would be better for this purpose.

Set A

Midir x Aideen, Lex x Ira, Beowulf x Lachesis, Claude x Sylvia, Levin x Fury, Azel x Tiltyu, Holyn x Brigid

Pro: Easy to pair, don't need to use the valkyrie staff

Con: No holsety on a horse, have to pair Lachesis with Beowulf

Set B

Aideen, Ira and Brigid pairings are the same, but with Azel x Lachesis, Alec x Sylvia, Claude x Fury, and Levin x Tiltyu

Pro: Holsety on a horse, great Nanna, don't have to pair Beowulf

Con: Harder to pair, need to use valkyrie staff

Any suggestions?

[MacLovin]

LexXDelmud+Pursuit ring.

THen NoishXAyra?

IDK, haven't tried fe4 ranked.

[Thor Odinson]

Why do you need the Valkyrie staff for set B?

I'm not particularly familiar with ranked, but I don't think they require Valkyrie in regular play, so I'm interested in know how Valkyrie comes into play here.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Zhuge Liang

[CT075]

a) why would you need to use valkyrie staff

b) why would you need holsetyhorse

[General Horace]

pairing sylvia with lex or ardan is nice for leen to get arena exp with ambush + sleep sword

[tenkiforecast]

Midir/Midale and Eddin:

Best overall pairing, I think. Lester desperately wants Pursuit and Charge, and Midale gives him that. Rana will *always* be useful no matter what so there's no issue there. Only issue is the Rescue staff. That helps turn counts, but there is enough time to get through without needing the rescue staff. Plus, Claude or Azel paired with Eddin will absolutely screw over Lester and make him a useless pack of garbage, which you do not want for a ranked run. He needs to be able to hold his own in the arena and on the field, and for that he needs Midale. Jamuka is a possibility, but the lack of pursuit hurts. A lot. It *really* hurts a lot.

Ayra:

Holyn is redundant and best elsewhere. The question then is should Lex be paired with her? Well, the sword children are always going to tear things to shreds. Problem is they aren't mounted. As a result, they will rarely be in the thick of battle. Elite would help them both reach 30, but it would help other characters far more because these two will never be short on gold for elite-ring passing during arena clears. Normal play through, I would say Lex because it is kind of hilarious to see the sword kids tank everything. Ranked, they'll never be in the actual fight. Who is left? Well, Noish is a good idea. Charge is useful, and Critical with the huge skill Odo blood gives is ridiculous. Don't even need a 50 kill weapon, they'll crit everything anyway.

Lachesis and Beowulf:

I'm not a huge fan of this pairing, but compared to everything else, this is the best one. Finn won't have enough time to build up relationship values. He's out. So who is left? Holyn or Dew? Neither pass pursuit and sword skills don't work with mounts for whatever reason. Bargain maybe, but that's just utility for Nanna. Beowulf gives the best combat ability for Delmudd without relying only on magic swords (azel), and with a good father Delmudd can easily kill things. My only issue whenever playing with Delmudd is survivability, but I'm probably just not manipulating the AI correctly.

Fury:

Levin is tempting, very tempting. Problem is Sety is a monster no matter what, so he doesn't need Holsety. Fee is more utility as a pegasus knight, and Levin gives critical and continue. Her strength is always going to suffer, and she is better off promoted as a staffbot or using the Hero lance. Claude is a really good choice for this, Fee gets her utility boost and Sety fully embodies the essence of a combat staffbot. Sety will always hit 30, and Fee will be extremely helpful after promotion. Best pairing for these characters? No, but Levin is best as a dad elsewhere to make as many characters able to hold their own.

Sylvia:

Claude is tempting because it is easy and predestined. However Lynn will have an extremely difficult time getting to high levels, as will Corple. Lynn's survivability is hurt even more, and Corple may not be able to reach higher levels. So Levin then? Hell no, we want Holsety before the final chapter and Lynn gains nothing (okay, critical but seriously). So... Lex? Elite on both is great, Lynn can survive things without relying on Prayer, and Lex will always hit 30 because of elite. Issues with him not being at the front? Well, you have other characters to meet that. You're trying to use everyone, not optimal efficiency. Lex's main job will already be done, so why not? Corple not having magic? Staffbots need no magic stat in this game! Plus, he will never be at the front, just give him warp and have him spam it. He'll hit 30.

Tiltyu:

Azel is kind of tempting here because he gives pursuit and good magic stats. The problem is Tinny will not be the best possible, and she's the big issue here. Arthur will always be decent to godly with a magic father, his sister is the issue. With Azel both get pursuit which is great, but their stats suffer. Tinny, who has a hard enough time, will already be struggling. Plus, Levin is open. Go with Levin, easily. Holsety Arthur is a monster, plus he's mounted so by the time experience is a non-issue, he is keeping pace with Celice, unlike Sety. Even without the Pursuit ring, Arthur has enough to kill everything anyway, even if holsety isn't being used. Give him Elwind and let him destroy things. Tinny can use the pursuit ring, no one else really needs it. Keep the thunder/wind tomes on her and let her clear arenas and get some combat experience. Really, these are the only two pairings possible for usability. We don't want gimmicks. If Levin goes with Fury, then Azel is the parent. Otherwise, give Arthur holsety.

Briggid/Holyn:

This is the only reasonable pairing here. Dew, while Bargain is awesome, has an abysmal love growth and really hurts turns. Holyn gives almost everything that Dew does (except lack of bargain hurts...) and Moonlight sword is much better than sun sword. Good stats and skill, which Faval wants...as does Patty. Probably the best pairing choice for them. Jamuka as a dad will help make Faval even more ridiculous, but Patty is really, really hurt. One character lagging behind is not a good thing for ranked.

Edited August 4, 2012 by tenkiforecast

[Sartek]

Azel is kind of tempting here because he gives pursuit and good magic stats. The problem is Tinny will not be the best possible, and she's the big issue here. Arthur will always be decent to godly with a magic father, his sister is the issue. With Azel both get pursuit which is great, but their stats suffer. Tinny, who has a hard enough time, will already be struggling. Plus, Levin is open. Go with Levin, easily. Holsety Arthur is a monster, plus he's mounted so by the time experience is a non-issue, he is keeping pace with Celice, unlike Sety. Even without the Pursuit ring, Arthur has enough to kill everything anyway, even if holsety isn't being used. Give him Elwind and let him destroy things. Tinny can use the pursuit ring, no one else really needs it. Keep the thunder/wind tomes on her and let her clear arenas and get some combat experience. Really, these are the only two pairings possible for usability. We don't want gimmicks. If Levin goes with Fury, then Azel is the parent. Otherwise, give Arthur holsety

Isn't Azel like the best father for Tinny? She'll inherit pursuit and a wonderful 55% magic GR, two things she's begging for, while having great skill/speed/luck too thanks to her mother instead of overkill speed and completely redundant skillset. The only downside is trading Tornado for Volcano.

[Thor Odinson]

I've found having access to Elwind really helped her in the arenas against some of the trickier enemies since it's super light and has the same mt as Elfire/Elthunder. High speed is more important in the arenas than in the actual game in my experience, and as she doesn't have a horse most of her exp gain will be limited to the arenas before she gains staves.

Though my favourite form of Tinny is still LexTinny. AmbushWrathElite that arena up.

[Psych]

I think you could ask Balcerzak, as he did a ranked run. All I really remember from it was he did Lex Sylvia so that that Leen and Corple could just get Elite and spam for exp.

[Dark Sage]

Yeah on a Ranked playthrough, Lex is by far the best husband to Sylvia because you really need a way to get Corple's and Leen's levels up quickly. Plus Sleep Sword + Ambush + Prayer shenanigans for Leen too.

ArdenxBriggd might not be a bad choice btw because it allows Patty to take advantage of Sleep Sword + Ambush too. Otherwise, I'd probably go with BriggdxHolyn.

Fury should probably be paired with Noish since both children can rape face with it (nobody cares about Sety's meh magic because he's got Lightning and excellent skills and shit plus enemy resistance is a joke).

[Paperblade]

I used

Adean/Midir - Nothing else is really viable imo

Ayra/Holyn - This was basically filler since I think Noish as a parent for anyone is stupid

Lachesis/Beowulf - I wasn't sure if I would be able to get Fin, which I think is just better. Considering that both Bal and I managed to AAAA rank with ~100 turns to spare, I think Lachesis/Fin is totally viable.

Sylvia/Ardan - I wanted Ambush/Sleep Sword to clear the arena easy and used Lex with someone else, and didn't really care about Corple's stats.

Fury/Claude and Tiltyu/Levin - I don't recall why I did these pairings, since Claude!Fee and Levin!Tinny kind of suck. I probably could have gone Fury/Levin and Tiltyu/Azel which are easier to make and it's not like Arthur will have a significantly harder time in the arena/killing guys.

Briggid/Lex - This pairing lets Faval get to something like Level 28 from the arena alone, which is pretty sick. Also Patty gets to Ambush/Sleep Sword through arenas with Elite.

[ATNAK]

Sorry for the late reply. The reason I need to use valkyrie staff is that if I want the stats up for Lachesis without pairing her with Beowulf, I need to kill him off. Of course in a normal run I wouldn't care, but nobody can die in a ranked run. As for the whole holsety on a horse thing, I believe having Arthur kill Ishtor is going to save me a lot of turns as opposed to waiting for Shanan to get through the desert.

So let's recap Midir x Aideen and Holyn x Brigid are okay. Ira should be paired with Noish (wouldn't that be hard?). Sylvia should go with Lex for those kids really need elite. Beowulf x Lachesis is really good, but valkyrie staff aside it's possible to pair her with other people (personal bias: I don't really like Beowulf), and I have no idea who should have Levin's babies.

[Paperblade]

Ayra's pairing doesn't really matter as long as Skasaha isn't totally worthless.

The main difficulty with AAAA is getting EXP to bad or nearly useless units (such as 5 move units like Ardan and Azel, or people who just have bad combat like Dew) without taking forever and/or restarting a bunch due to deaths (because FE4 keeps track of deaths unless you use save states). This means kids who are easy to make bad (Patty, Tinny) and a majority of Gen 1 (basically everyone who doesn't have holy blood plus Azel and Tiltyu) should be your priority. Now, Patty will pretty much never be a good combat unit before promoting (although Holyn or Azel are your best bets if that's what you want), but having Lex as a dad means she will always clear the arena, which is important because the arena EXP is totally uncontested.

[tenkiforecast]

Azel!Tinny gives her really good magic growths, yes, but Levin gives her a heck of a lot more. High skill and speed mean she hits more often and can get priority in attacks. Plus, wind magic is always superior to fire magic unless you factor in WTA and are trying to kill Alvis...which should only be done using Celice, whoever has Holsety, Aless, or Shanan. Somehow I think Altenna would be doubled and killed fighting Alvis.

The sword children almost always destroy things, the problem is they're not mounted. That's what really, really hurts Azel in gen 1, he can't keep up with anything and can't be a staff bot to compensate. Same thing for Tiltyu, but Dew can give her money for the elite ring when she shows up. Azel's stuck without it until chapter 3. Pretty much the same reason that Ardan is near useless in most runs, he can't catch up to anything. Mounts in this game are extremely overpowered in that sense.

[Paperblade]

Azel gives her Pursuit and she can use Wind anyway

[Sartek]

Azel!Tinny gives her really good magic growths, yes, but Levin gives her a heck of a lot more. High skill and speed mean she hits more often and can get priority in attacks. Plus, wind magic is always superior to fire magic unless you factor in WTA and are trying to kill Alvis...which should only be done using Celice, whoever has Holsety, Aless, or Shanan. Somehow I think Altenna would be doubled and killed fighting Alvis.

Levin just gives her tornado. Tinny will always have high skill while Azel still gives her high speed and the possibility to kill reliably without investing a rare resource on her.

[Psych]

Because Tornado is a very highly contested item.

You also only have 6 mages, and Lana and Corple can't use Eltomes, while expecting Leaf to use magic is just hilarious.

Arthur would obviously be busy with Holsety, and Sety is fine with Lightning. Honestly, she's making the best use of Elwind and Tornado hands down.

Arthur can do just fine with Holsety, and you can give him Elthunder as a back up or something.

Edited August 5, 2012 by Psych

[Ice Sage]

As said above Lex/Slyvia is great Sleep sword/ambush arena. Elite helps a lot.

MIdir/adean is the only good one for her. Jamka would be good, if he had pursuit and a better skill growth.