PAIRINGS The Pairing Thread

[Czar_Yoshi]

Avatar is a wase on Severa. Severa has a proc and Galeforce along with good classes. All she really needs is a faire or something.

On the other hand, Cordelia is one of the best first gen wives for Avatar and doesn't cost Morgan too many mods over 2nd gen, making her one of the least potential-wasting of Avatar's 1st gen wives. Severa doesn't gain much because she doesn't have much to gain; a +Spd Avatar will still let her do all the tricks Lon'qu and Virion!Severa can do combined.

Hi there! I'm beginning to warm up to the tedious process of pairing, and have made some pretty okay ones (as far as I can guess) for my next run. Yes, I have DLC, so I will be using Limit Breaker on all of these brats. So, without further ado:

A good first rule to keep in mind when making pairings: Awakening is a game of good and better. You can't really get a "bad" pairing, as the worst any one can possibly do is lower the potential of others by taking limited resources they could use to better effect.

Because of this, you don't have to worry too much about getting a dud in your party- worst comes to worst, you can bench them, or they might not be as fun to play with or might have a slightly harder time getting KOes, etc. On the other hand, it also means that all anecdotal evidence on how good a pairing is will be entirely based on how much you raised the units in question and not actually on how the pairing stacks up to others, so experiences such as "X and Y worked well together for me" don't actually tell you anything useful unless you're a veteran of many postgame playthroughs and are comparing them to eachother rather than what the game throws at them.

Anyway, there are a few pairings I'd still recommend looking at/changing. Vaike!Yarne is very good at one thing only, and outside of that one thing he's completely useless, making him very boring to train and use in general. Fred!Gerome is in a bit of a similar boat, but without being good at anything- he does have a few nice classes like Paladin but his skillset has too many holes for him to really do anything (no, raw stats from mods don't save him- because statboosting skills are mostly what he's missing). Finally, Sully's mods really aren't suited to a tank (-1 Str/Def), so you may want to look into a different role for Kjelle- I don't see Virion anywhere, and he can give her some fun classes to play around with as well as the Spd/Skl mods to use slow, strong classes like Wyvern Lord and Great Knight more effectively. Virion could also go to Yarne, he gives him a lot of nice things too (and Kjelle could have Vaike in turn).

[Zoro]

My current pairs that are locked in are:

Sumia x Chrom

Cordelia x Lon'qu

Sully x Donnel

Tharja x Gaius

Lucina x MaMu (+Skl -Def)

For the rest I looked through my support logs to see which kid supports I liked, which were quite a few, and tried to work around them.

Stahl!Owain x Lonqu!Severa

Libra/Ricken/Frederick!Inigo x Donnel!Kjelle

Virion!Yarne x Gaius!Noire

Henry!Gerome x Chrom!Cynthia

Gregor!Laurent x Lucina!Morgan

Libra/Ricken!Brady x Vaike!Nah

Some of these pairings were leftovers like Brady with Nah because I figured all the pairings should have one unit with Galeforce, if not I probably would of paired Yarne with Nah.

How is Ricken!Owain compared to Stahl!Owain? Obviously Ricken!Owain is better for magic but when it comes to say switching between magic and physical does Stahl!Owain seem more logical? I'm trying to decide on whether I would prefer to have the children good at one thing and one thing only or prefer them to have other options so I don't get bored.

Otherwise looking for feedback on these pairings and for possible changes.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Ricken!Owain and Stahl!Owain are functionally identical outside of different mods. I'd advise going with Stahl if you're concerned about not being locked to one thing.

[Ownagepuffs]

Ricken!Owain is heavily lopsided towards Magic (dem mods) but he also makes for a perfect Dread Fighter if you ever wanted him to go Physical.

Stahl!Owain has the same classes as Ricken!Owain but with more generous modifiers for switching between magic and physical. Stahl!Owain is really solid and often overlooked but that's because it is usually better to focus than to diversify.

[Azz]

I was wondering what would a Ricken!Nah be like.

I was thinking of going this way so I could shift around some pairings and I stumbled on this.

If not advised I will not switch.

[Ownagepuffs]

Ricken!Nah sounds like she'd be bound to hit +20 Sage support.

[Zoro]

Ricken!Owain and Stahl!Owain are functionally identical outside of different mods. I'd advise going with Stahl if you're concerned about not being locked to one thing.

That is probably what I am going to do. Heck, I have two more save files that I can use and see what all the fuss is about with Ricken!Owain. Just that negative strength mod really irks me. Anyway, thank you for the feedback.

Ricken!Owain is heavily lopsided towards Magic (dem mods) but he also makes for a perfect Dread Fighter if you ever wanted him to go Physical.

Stahl!Owain has the same classes as Ricken!Owain but with more generous modifiers for switching between magic and physical. Stahl!Owain is really solid and often overlooked but that's because it is usually better to focus than to diversify.

I'll most likely stick to Stahl!Owain on my main file but I'll be sure to try Ricken!Owain on my others. Thanks for the feedback.

One last question I swear

What is the difference in play styles of Frederick!Inigo compared to a Ricken!Inigo or even a Libra!Inigo?

[Ownagepuffs]

Feel free to ask as many question as you like. This wouldn't be a help thread if you had a hard cap on the amount of help you could ask for.

Frederick!Inigo is a physical Inigo like the rest. His main claim to fame is that Inigo gets a lot of breakers and +Avo skills so he is actually one of the best dodge tanks in the game. Inigo is one of the few kids that can take Fred's -Spd Mod with little penalty and get Luna along the way for a complete offensive set.

Libra!Inigo is actually further from the Inigo norm than Fred!Inigo. Libra!Inigo gets both Sage and Sort access which works well with the rest of his classes.

[Vanilluxe]

Edited July 15, 2015 by Vanilluxe

[Azz]

Avatar should pass something that is Male exclusive and decent.Possibly Counter or Rally Strength.Both from Warrior.

Stahl should pass Bowbreaker or even Aegis to make Gerome's chapter easier since there are many snipers and archers from what I remember.

[astrophys]

Ok I'll just stick with it then. Which skill should Avatar and Stahl pass down to their kids?

If you want to take Severa (or Morgan) down the path of Hero or any other Axe-using class for her final class then you should pass her Axefaire from the Avatar.

If you want to place Severa in a final class that doesn't use Axes (Dark Flier, Sorcerer, Grandmaster, etc.) then there is no long-term need to bother giving her Axefaire and you might as well just give her something else.

HP+5 is unimpressive, Zeal stinks, Rally Strength is okay in principle but Severa is to good to waste as a Rallier in most cases [but its still a consideration], Counter is terrible, Gamble and Wrath are bad because crit builds are weak in the long term, Despoil is unnecessary, and we've already covered Axefaire.

So basically most male-exclusives aren't worth passing down, except Axefaire if you want to use axes or Rally Strength in the off chance you want to use her as a Rallier.

If not passing Axefaire or Rally Strength I'd just give her a promoted class skill to save time learning it if the Avatar has it or Veteran as an EXP accelerant if you aren't planning to immediately re-class her to Tactician. (Obviously if you plan to make her a Tactician immediately don't pass Veteran.)

Edited February 16, 2015 by astrophys

[Zoro]

Feel free to ask as many question as you like. This wouldn't be a help thread if you had a hard cap on the amount of help you could ask for.

Frederick!Inigo is a physical Inigo like the rest. His main claim to fame is that Inigo gets a lot of breakers and +Avo skills so he is actually one of the best dodge tanks in the game. Inigo is one of the few kids that can take Fred's -Spd Mod with little penalty and get Luna along the way for a complete offensive set.

Libra!Inigo is actually further from the Inigo norm than Fred!Inigo. Libra!Inigo gets both Sage and Sort access which works well with the rest of his classes.

I think I'll give Frederick!Inigo a try. Dodge tank sounds pretty interesting. Thank you for the feedback as always.

[Azz]

What is the norm set-up for Gregor!Laurent?

Also what would a Henry!Yarne be like?

[Ownagepuffs]

Gregor!Laurent can do Airship Canon's crit build which is pretty but I forgot what the build was, specifically. There is also the generic VV build.

Henry!Yarne is Hex/An a the me Zerker. So Aggressor, LB, Axefaire, Anathema, Hex in final slot if you need extra hit and Str +2 from Panne if you don't.

[Azz]

Okay thanks.Is there anything pacefic I should pass down to Yarne from Panne's Wyvern Rider line?

[Ownagepuffs]

Str +2.

Edit: Sword breaker is also a solid choice since Yarne is going to be Axe locked but there are very few dangerous sword enemies in Apo.

Actually, are there any sword enemies in Apo secret route aside from the Pallies?

Edited February 16, 2015 by Ownagepuffs

[Vascela]

Tricksters

[Azz]

Okay so my pairings for Apo are looking like this:

Sumia!Lucina

Ricken!Owain

Freddy!Inigo

Virion!Brady

Donny!Kjelle

Chrom!Cynthia

Lon'qu!Severa

Stahl!Gerome

Aversa or Lucina!Morgan(A toss up between Shadowgift or Aether)

Henry!Yarne(I surprisingly liked Henry and Panne's supports)

Gregor!Laurent

Gaius!Noire

Vaike!Nah

There was some different stuff on my previous file which were:

MU!Inigo

Vaike!Severa

Olivia!Morgan

Lon'qu!Yarne

Kellam!Laurent

Gregor!Nah

Hope my changes are not to bad.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Gamble and Wrath are bad because crit builds are weak in the long term

Crit builds are only bad of you only partially commit to them. If you go all out, they're some of the strongest and least affected by restrictions builds out there.

Gregor!Laurent can do Airship Canon's crit build which is pretty but I forgot what the build was, specifically. There is also the generic VV build.

That's my build, actually. Airship merely used it (or at least had Laurent in a critstacking pair with Nah, don't remember which of them lead- and he didn't go all the way to 100%, nor did he use Vantage).

Anyway, Gregor!Laurent is one of the units capable of reaching 155 crit with enough Hit (220) and Atk (109) to OHKO any 55 Lck non-Aegis+ S.Apo enemy in the game. He'll be a Sorc with Ruin, and have V/V/Wrath/Gamble/Focus, and be paired at A+ with a unit who has Solidarity, Anathema and DSp+. Stats before pairup/forge, assuming perfect Vengeance:

Atk: 44(base) +3(mods) +10(Rally) +2(tonic) +6(Ruin) +42(Vengeance) =107. Any support will be sufficient with no forge needed, though adding to either increases Vengeance leeway and/or allows Rally Mag to be dropped.

Skl: 38(base) +4(mods) +10(Rally) +2(tonic) =54. +6 is required from the support for a base 30 crit, so it'll need to be in a +1 or greater class.

Lck: 45(base) +14(Rally) +2(tonic) =61

Hit: 122(base) +15(A support/DSp+) +10(Anathema) +65(Ruin) -5(Gamble) =207. 13 more is needed, which can come from a forge, +Lck support class, or S support.

Crit: 30(base) +50(Ruin) +20(Wrath) +15(DSp+) +10(Focus) +10(Gamble) +10(Anathema) +10(Solidarity) =155

So realistically his support can be anything that gives +Skl. My two favorite options are Bow Knight (+Mov) and Sage (+8 Vengeance threshold).

[SSJDennis]

So, never actually used it, but how "great" is Chrom!Inigo / Olivia!Lucina?

I can imagen that Inigo likes the Luna gain, but other then that? What would be an effective class to use him as?

I bet Lucina will be just the same as Sumia!Lucina. Darkflier with Luna, Galeforce, Limit Breaker, Dual Guard+ and Vantage. With Sumia I would've used Tomefaire over Vantage for more power.

[Carmine Sword]

Replace Dual Guard+ with Dual Strike+ and Vantage/Tomefaire with Aether.

[Czar_Yoshi]

I bet Lucina will be just the same as Sumia!Lucina. Darkflier with Luna, Galeforce, Limit Breaker, Dual Guard+ and Vantage. With Sumia I would've used Tomefaire over Vantage for more power.

More power, eh?

Lucina doesn't really have room for a Faire. DS+ gives a vastly superior increase in minimum possible damage- often over 200 when doubling, after factoring in Dragonskin- and Aether/Luna outdamages even Agg/Luna at high Skl levels, let along TF/Luna. Lucina should pretty much never run anything other than LB/GF/DS+/Luna/Aether for general purpose setups, that set is her main claim to fame and much more effective than anything else she can do.

So all GF Lucinas are pretty much the same in that regard and Olivia doesn't make much of a difference- just +2 Str, same Mag, -1 Skl and -2 Spd over Sumia!Lucina. Possibly useful as a Sniper but generally Sumia is better.

In Inigo's case, Chrom does give him everything he wants, but so do half a dozen other fathers. Chrom's only real claims to fame are having the highest Spd mod of any father Inigo wants (only +1 over Stahl, Ricken, Libra and Henry though) (though it doesn't let him break any thresholds), and passing RK which is useful ingame if you grind Olivia for ages to get past her bad bases (though it doesn't do anything useful postgame).

[Epsilon]

Hello everyone.

May someone help me set up some good in-game pairings?

I heard that Sumia X Chrom and MaMU X Cordelia was good but what about....

I'm familiar with the mechanics, but if you guys could tell me how you go about beating the game- that would be great!

Non- MaMU Cordelia

Sully

Lissa

Mirel

Maribelle

Nowi

Tharja

Cherche

Panne

Olivia

[Czar_Yoshi]

If you're just playing the main story without grinding, you won't be able to pair everyone up so don't worry about that. Also, on Hard or lower your pairings don't really matter; there are some that can make the game easier and whatnot but it'll still go down easily. Pairings for ingame only matter on Lunatic(+).

Just to clarify, this isn't your first playthrough, right?

[Epsilon]

If you're just playing the main story without grinding, you won't be able to pair everyone up so don't worry about that. Also, on Hard or lower your pairings don't really matter; there are some that can make the game easier and whatnot but it'll still go down easily. Pairings for ingame only matter on Lunatic(+).

Just to clarify, this isn't your first playthrough, right?

I've played through the game once when it was released. I really want to try Lunatic or Lunatic (+), but the first couple of chapters keep destroying me. Thank you.