Questions from a newbie

[TheIdiotNinja]

Is reclassing units and finding perfect pairings and getting the best abilities for eveyone so important? I've been fine with Hard Mode just by pairing a melee tank + a ranged mage/archer and making them marry asap, without any need to reclass or spend time and efforts on getting good abilities. I mean, I've been playing with Miriel + Vaike and Female Avatar mage-oriented + Chrom, and Virion + Cherche, and I've not found any big trouble, just a couple of resets in hard chapters such as the 25th but everything went off smoothly. I already know pairing certain units with certain others make their son's abilities different, and I already know some abilities are awesome on certain units so you usually want to get these abilties on these units, but honestly I don't understand what's the point of reclassing units into other classes. I mean, Vaike is good even without reclassing him into barbarian, why should I reclass him? Is this just to have the virtually strongest squad or does it helps with Hard mode? I understand the need for perfect stats and abilities if you are playing on Lunatic or Lunatic+, but is it essential? And if it is, is there a way of discovering how should I reclass outside from searching it on the internet?

[PM ME MARIANNE ART]

Lunatic and lunatic+ are ridiculous no matter what you do, but having optimized pairs make it a bit easier. For some of the harder levels like death's embrace and Apo, you'll need the best abilities. Someone once told me that the difference between being optimized and non-optimized is just beating Apo, or completely breaking it in half. Vaike is still good without reclassing, but his strength is used to the full potential as a berserker. Besides, even if you want Vaike as a hero or warrior permanently, why not go for getting useful stuff like counter from warrior, sol from hero, and axefaire and wrath from berserker. Mine's a berserker running Axefaire, Sol, Counter, Wrath, and Limit Breaker. And on normal/hard, you can get away with just being overpowered, but on lunatic(+), you will need all the skills you can get. For pairings, it's tough to go wrong with characters who have matching stats (Ricken/Miriel, Vaike or Fred/Cherche, Olivia/Chrom or Lon'qu). Hope this helps!

[TheIdiotNinja]

So theorically I can play with the units I like without giving any fuck about these competitive details if I'm not playing Lunatic(+)? Sweet, I can still play my game for enjoying it and then I'll start doing it for challenge. Thanks for answering ^^

[PM ME MARIANNE ART]

The game is really not hard, unless you play Apo, or some of the harder DLC. If you don't plan on that, yeah, do whatever the hell you want. Unless you're on lunatic(+).

[LunaSaint]

The game is really not hard, unless you play Apo, or some of the harder DLC. If you don't plan on that, yeah, do whatever the hell you want. Unless you're on lunatic(+).

This, pretty much.

Not to mention that what's best for the campaign is nowhere near optimal for postgame.

[Skarthe]

Duck and IS have the right idea. Hard and especially Normal are relatively easy even with no optimization. Lunatic earlygame is tricky but still tends to get kinda trivial around the midgame. Lunatic+ and the harder DLCs are the only time optimization is a significant factor I think, and yeah. what you want for campaign and what you want for postgame aren't necessarily the same: generally if you aren't grinding on skirmishes or DLC, you'll have a harder time using the children for the campaign since they come underlevelled, but they'll almost certainly be your best postgame units.

[Airship Canon]

Pairings wise, use what you use for in game.

Apo's a slightly different story.

Here's the funny thing: On the highest difficulties, optimization (pairings wise at least) actually matters LESS (well, save for doing L+ Future Past, because screw that- it's about as bad as Apo, if not worse at times.) because of how hard it is to actually pull it off-- and you're better off just using the gen 1 characters. There's tricks of course, like Magic MU (Sorc is the go to, but Sage is pretty gamebreaking (Celica's)) but this is outside the realm of optimally pairing.

(Of course L+ (which normally doesn't affect the DLC, but Future Past it does) Future Past and Skirmishes on the other hand... yeah, you might need some optimization for those, because they're extremely hard otherwise.).

Now, Apo is Apo.

[TheIdiotNinja]

I believe I'd understand much more of your explainations if I'd know what Apo is. lol

[kDog214]

Apo = Apotheosis...it's the last and most challenging DLC.

Edited July 28, 2013 by kDog214

[CT075]

you don't really need full optimization for TSON either

it's doable with all first-gens

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

To give you an idea heres my pairing for Lunatic

Chrom x Sumia

Frederick x Sully(one of, if not arguably the single worst pairing in the entire game)

And I curbstomped all over Lunatic mode

Put simply, if you want to optimize, optimize. If you simply want to beat the game, pair what you think work with each other stats wise

Edited July 28, 2013 by I have a Dragon Boner

[Skarthe]

For clarification, since this name is also used... TSON is "The Strongest One's Name", which is the Japanese name for the Apotheosis DLC, which as stated is the hardest content in the game.

But yeah. You're new, so I honestly wouldn't bother too much with optimization until you're a bit more familiar with the game. I'd advise just having fun with your first run or two (or however many!) and later on try optimization if/when you really feel like pushing the limits.

[Slinky]

Don't bother with optimization until later playthroughs where your goal is to make everyone reach their full potential. It's actually quite fun making all your characters op since FE;A lets you toy with so many set ups because of the ridiculous amount of abilities classes have to offer. Re-classing isn't necessary at all but it is rewarding with all the abilities you can get from it.