PAIRINGS The Pairing Thread

[Phoenixwing]

Hello everyone, been lurking here for a few days and finally decided to sign up haha. Anyways, after a lot of reading of this thread (and a few others) I have come up with some pairing/team ideas for my first playthrough (I have the game, just waiting on starting until I can get all the DLC; that way I can play the "full" game, so to speak) and was hoping for some critique/suggestions/help/etc. These are the pairings I have so far:

Chrom x Sumia

(M)Robin x Lucina

Lon’qu x Cordelia

Gaius x Sully

Henry/(Stahl?) x Cherche

Virion/(Libra?) x Maribelle

Ricken x Lissa

Fred x Olivia

Gregor x Miriel?

Vaike/Stahl x Panne?

Donnel/Gregor/Vaike x Tharja?

Henry/Vaike x Nowi?

Which would result in the following pairings for the "final team":

Sumia@? X Chrom@?

Lucina@Sniper (GF/LB/Luna/Aether/DS+) x (M)Robin@Berserker (LB /Agg/AF/AS+2/Hit +20)

Severa@WyvernLord (Vengeance/AS+2/LB /LF/GF) x Gerome@Berserker (LB/Agg/AF/AS+2/Anathema?)

Cynthia@DF (Aether/Luna/GF/LB/TF) x Brady@Sage (LB/GF/Agg/TF/Luna)

(F)Morgan@DF (Aether/Luna/GF/LB/TF) x Owain@Sage (LB/GF/Agg/TF/Luna)

Kjelle@WyvernLord (Luna/AS+2/LB/LF/GF) x Inigo@Hero (LB/Luna/GF/Agg/AF)

Noire/Nah x Laurent/Yarne?

Nah/Noire x Yarne/Laurent?

NOTES: This is a team I want to work toward during the main game and eventually tackle the tougher DLC with. Grinding is no problem for me, I'm a grinder at heart lol. Since this is my first playthrough, I definitely want to go with the bolded "final team" pairs. I have no idea what to do with Noire, Nah, Laurent, and Yarne so definitely need help with those. I'm also not sure what asset/flaw to pick for Robin, I'm guessing +Str/-Def or +Skl/-Def but not sure which would be better. Also not sure what Sumia and Chrom should be to best help/synergize with the party. Note that while I'm set on the pairs (Chrom x Sumia, Lucina x Robin, Severa x Gerome, etc); everything else: their classes/parents/skills,etc. I would love suggestions on (ie. Is WyvernLord Kjelle and Hero Inigo good?, Would Hero Severa be better if I already have Wyvern Lord Kjelle or is 2 Wyvern Lords better? [probably, better/freer movement, just making example questions here lol], is Fred a good father for Inigo in that role?, and so on and so forth. ie.trying to make the best team with the bolded pairings I have selected and the leftover ones). One thing I'm already thinking about is swapping Henry to Nowi for Nah (not sure what she then should be, but then I don't know that now either lol) and having Stahl (or someone else if they would be better) father Gerome , though I'm not sure what that would do to his final class/usefulness to Severa. Anyways, I would appreciate any and all suggestions for improvements.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Phoenixwing

[Knusperkeks]

I've been thinking of starting a really chill hard mode run with average characters.

I'm going to use Kellam, Cherche and Gaius for sure.

Who do you think is under appreciated as a character?

[Ownagepuffs]

I actually consider Cherche to be a high tier unit. Bottom of high, but she's up there. A speedwings turns her into a goddess.

Anna is underappreciated. Vaike as well. Lon'qu too. Basilio and Flavia, Tiki, maybe Say'ri.

[Carmine Sword]

Could you elaborate your view on why Vaike is underrated? I have a fairly good idea of why the others are decent, but I am confused with regards to Vaike being underrated.

[Ownagepuffs]

Hits hard. He's got an insurmountable speed deficit, I admit. He's pretty bulky and provides good pair up bonuses early on. Hero promo helps him a lot.

[Czar_Yoshi]

OK guys, sorry I was gone. Between sleep loss and the sheer epicness of that run I haven't really felt like doing anything since Friday night (technically Saturday morning), but I think I'm back in the game now.

Well, sure, that much I can gauge myself. I was just wondering how important those extra points of dualstrike actually matter is all. People make a big deal about 100% DS among other things.

Well, 95% DS will give you a whiff every 20 attacks on average. If you're attacking four times per battle (not likely, but the maximum possible), that's an average of one whiff every five battles.

85% DS brings that down to a whiff every 6.66 attacks- so you're looking at three whiffs every five battles (more than once every other battle- it's more likely for you to have one whiff in a given battle than it it for all four to work). If you're fine with wanting to expect not all four DSes to work, A supports will be fine.

Again though, that is ignoring the fact that quading and needing all four DSes to win is pretty much unheard of.

No I haven't made any marriages yet with the exception of Olivia x Chrome. But I have a save file before I married Olivia so I can take that marriage back. Seems like I have a lot of unfavorable pairings. Considering I have a MaMU +Mag -Str, what should be my pairings?

Those aren't really that unfavorable (they've all got the basics, just no bells and whistles) and would still work if you did them. I wouldn't say you need to scrap your whole team, I mainly said what I did because pretty much every one of those pairs looks copy-pasted from two years ago and it was a bit of an eyebrow raiser.

So full disclosure: I'm not great at this game. I don't play on Lunatic but I have aspirations to go after Apoptosis at some point (and I would use DLC and LB), and I prefer to play classic to keep it from being overly forgiving. Most times I've restarted before getting to that point just to try out different pairing combinations, and this will be my first playthrough with a FeMU, as I've begun to feel that the female avatar will simply be more useful later because of her GF access. Anyway, where I'm still early enough to cut bait on this concept, I figured I'd lay my plans at the feet of the experts and hear your thoughts. I should also mention that, while I know how powerful magic units are in this game, I trend towards physical units with high Skill/Speed (Avatar is Speed/Luck). I always do, it's just a preference thing, but it may explain why I don't necessarily want standard pairings:

Olivia!Lucina: Gives Lucina Swordfaire so she can make use of Falchion, and Galeforce. This was more about Inigo than her.

Chrom!Inigo: Rightful King may not be as good as I think, but it was part of my motivation for this build. Likely either a Hero or Sniper.

Inigo!Morgan: Again, Rightful King may not be what I think it is. Ignis and Rightful King on a Dread Fighter seemed like something that would work well. Pair with Kjelle?

Gaius!Kjelle: Kjelle is awesome and I did not want to ruin her with Donnel. Unsure whether to pass down Sol or Axebreaker.

Henry!Cynthia: Whereas I usually go for the tried and true Chrom!Cynthia, I gave her Henry with Chrom occupied. Dark Flier with Tomefaire, likely paired with Owain or Brady.

Ricken!Owain: I've been trying to build a physical Owain every time I've played ("Sword hand" and all). This is me giving up and making the best of his magic stats. Likely a Sage.

Lon'Qu!Brady: I've never had a bad Brady. Usually I give him Henry, but here I've gone with Lon'Qu. Not sure what to make of it, but should be fine with such high skill.

Virion!Severa: Fast, deadly, not a terrible hair color. Should wreck just about everything with a berserker partner (Germome/Yarne), with the other going to Lucina.

Gregor!Gerome: Slightly worried? He wants an Archer dad for Hit +20, but Armsthrift is great, too. I basically ended up with Gregor/Stahl for AT and +1 Skill? Mistake?

Stahl!Yarne: I wish I liked Yarne, the character, as much as I like Yarne, the stats. Whatever. He'll be good Berseker support for Lucina (or Severa).

Vaike!Nah: This is where I start to get iffy. I don't like Nah, Noire, or Laurent much, and lack motivation to try hard. I hate pairing her up where she looks like she's 12.

Donnel!Noire: Galeforce is just about my only reasoning here. I'd likely attach her to Whichever magic male Cynthia doesn't take.

Libra!Laurent: Best remaining Magic mod? Kellam and Fred offered more classes but seemed strictly worse, and I was out of magi-users to pair him with.

If Rightful King is just bad, I may want to change this (I haven't even recruited Henry/Lucina yet, I'm working on grinding Galeforce moms). If I do restart, I'd still like to trend towards more physical builds, unless that just makes Apoptosis completely and utterly hopeless.

Avatar-F does give your team an extra GF unit, but her and Morgan-M's significant stats wind up in significantly worse places than Avatar-M and Morgan-F's, so it's not quite that easy to say one's flat-out better than the other. Essentially there's a ton of stuff female leads are able to do by having a +5 Spd mod, which Morgan-F can reach easily even with a +Str/Skl father (gives no extra Spd), but Avatar-F never can. Not to say there isn't still plenty she can do, she just misses out on a lot.

Falchion on Lucina is nice, but you'll generally find (especially in Apo) that having a forged Brave on hand is much nicer than having and unforgable non-Brave, even if it doesn't break. Falchion is still useful to keep around for free infinite healing, but that doesn't require Swordfaire.

RK would be a little nicer if Inigo had room to run it in Apo, but unfortunately he doesn't. He already will be using LB/GF/Agg/Luna/Faire, taking out GF is pretty much off the table and RK's increase to his average damage output is less than any of those other skills... You can take some off for other utility skills if you want, but RK's only purpose here is to boost his average damage and he's got too many better skills for it to work.

Same goes for Morgan's RK as with Inigo's, but here there's an extra consideration: running Ignis and Luna together gives you a higher chance of proccing a skill than does RK + Ignis. Kjelle would really like a +3 Spd support instead of +1 (Berserker, Hero, Bow Knight), I'd advise giving her someone else if you really want Morgan to have his Tomes.

Gaius!Kjelle with a +3 Spd support is indeed awesome. There are two main sets for her you'll want to decide between; both start with LB/GF/Faire/Luna as a base. With one, you go Wyvern Lord and use All+2, with the other you go Paladin and use Astra. Both have 8 Mov, hit the same Spd threshold, and are extremely useful and deadly; Wyvern Lord offers 6 more Str than Paladin (+4 from class, +2 from All+2) and flight on top of its Mov, while Paladin's extra Spd allows it to not need All+2 and be able to run Astra instead, significantly increasing its damage output when leading. I'd advise using Wyvern if she's marrying a Galeboy and Paladin if she gets a hard support, but the sets are very similar so it's up to you.

Henry!Cynthia is unfortunately slow and also keeps Henry from several other good options, but will otherwise serve you well. If Morgan still wants to be a Dread Fighter, he could easily fix her Spd- she'll want All+2 if going Dark Flier with him, but can do without it if going Valkyrie or if he chooses Grandmaster instead of Dread Fighter.

Vaike!Owain is a trap a lot of people fall into when trying to make Owain physical (he's really bad), but Stahl!Owain is the top of the top for mixed/physical Owains, maintaining terrible mods but with a class set so good that even Morgan-M, who has everything in the game, doesn't really have anything on him. Ricken is tried and true for magical and nothing but magical, but be aware that all his mods will be much more one-sided than Stahl's (Mag will be decent, Str terrible, everything else still bad). Still, those mods are mainly Lissa's fault so there's not much you can do about them.

Lon'qu is fine for Brady. He'll take any +2 Spd support (magical/neutral preferred, of course).

Since Virion!Severa also has a lot of potential for 100% DS builds thanks to her +5 Skl Sniper, I'd advise pairing her with Yarne. He's good at those, Gerome isn't. Of course, this is just for something to change things up after a run or two- you'll still be fine with either as long as you're sticking with Berserker.

Gregor is a good fallback for Gerome. I wouldn't call him amazing by any means, but he'll work. If you decide not to do Chrom x Olivia, make sure he gets the resulting free Henry (Inigo gets Fred).

Yarne is good. Consider that with Severa, they'll have an easy time switching to a 100% DS build, whereas with Lucina he's got Hit+20, which has good synergy with DSt+ (100% DS is slightly useless without 100% Hit- Gregor!Gerome will need Breakers to prop his Hit up on bosses).

Vaike!Nah does well as a Hero with Axefaire. Since she doesn't give either Str or Mag, she can support even a magical Galeboy this way.

Noire can run without GF with Fred, Vaike, Ricken or Gregor as her dad, if you don't want to use Donnel.

Libra!Laurent is OK. He won't be good for much outside of Apo, though.

[isetrh]

I'm considering whether Henry!Gerome and Vaike!Nah or Vaike!Gerome and Henry!Nah is a better idea. Gerome will marry Gaius!Kjelle, and Nah is going with Lon'qu!Brady. With Henry, Gerome would be slightly less of a one-trick pony: instead of just Hero, he would have Hero and Berserker (that can hit). I also like the hair colors a little better this way.

The issue is Nah. I know she's recommended often and can do Hero, but I'm not seeing how to fill out her skills in a way that makes sense. Also, Nah's Hero and Brady's Sage both have only 6 Mov.

Overall I'm not seeing how Vaike!Nah is good. What builds is she known for? Even if they wouldn't work for the Brady pairing, I'm still interested in knowing why people like Vaike!Nah.

[Knusperkeks]

Overall I'm not seeing how Vaike!Nah is good. What builds is she known for? Even if they wouldn't work for the Brady pairing, I'm still interested in knowing why people like Vaike!Nah.

Vaike's Nah has these base classes:

Knight, Mercenary, Thief, Mage, Wyvern Rider

Unique skills which must be inherited:

HP+5, Zeal, Despoil, Gamble, Rally Strength, Counter, Wrath, Axefaire

Skills available: 40

Mods: +5 Str, +4 Def, +1 Skl/Lck/Res

Mobility: Movement+1, Deliverer, Acrobat. Pass

Physical offense: Strength+2, Axefaire, Rally Skill, Rally Strength

Magical offense: Magic+2, Tomefaire, Rally Magic

Offensive utility: Focus, Lethality, Wyrmsbane, Luna, Zeal, Despoil, Gamble, Counter, Wrath

Defensive utility: Defense+2, Dual Guard+, Rally Defense, Pavise, Bowbreaker, Sol, Axebreaker, Lifetaker, Swordbreaker, Lancebraker, HP+5

Generic utility: Odd Rhythm, Indoor Fighter, Armsthrift, Patience, Lock Touch, Tantivy, Slow Burn, Quick Burn, Lucky7, Gamble

As you can see, she's very flexible and can adept to any role very quickly, as well as stay good at that role.

Edit:

Underappreciated characters for hardmode run:

Vaike, Kellam, Lon'qu, Gaius, Anna, Cherche, Say'ri, Tiki, Basilio, Flavia,

Are these enough to make it work?

Edited April 20, 2015 by Knusperkeks

[Vyse Skern]

Overall I'm not seeing how Vaike!Nah is good. What builds is she known for? Even if they wouldn't work for the Brady pairing, I'm still interested in knowing why people like Vaike!Nah.

Soon, I will tell you because I'm trying to make a Vaike!Nah during my current playthrough on Lunatic+ but as Knusperkeks said, her inherited stats, her classes and skill sets look very good to make a decentNah

Nevertheless, I don't think I will use her before postgame so it will take me some time

[Ezrius]

Appreciate the responses, and I ended up pretty much going with this build over the weekend, which is progressing nicely, for the most part.

RK would be a little nicer if Inigo had room to run it in Apo, but unfortunately he doesn't. He already will be using LB/GF/Agg/Luna/Faire, taking out GF is pretty much off the table and RK's increase to his average damage output is less than any of those other skills... You can take some off for other utility skills if you want, but RK's only purpose here is to boost his average damage and he's got too many better skills for it to work.

Same goes for Morgan's RK as with Inigo's, but here there's an extra consideration: running Ignis and Luna together gives you a higher chance of proccing a skill than does RK + Ignis. Kjelle would really like a +3 Spd support instead of +1 (Berserker, Hero, Bow Knight), I'd advise giving her someone else if you really want Morgan to have his Tomes.

I guess it was just a case of me over-estimating RK as a skill. It was never really about wanting Morgan to use Tomes, it was about maximizing the damage output of Ignis, with Dread Fighter providing +8 Mag (for an extra +4 from Ignis). In retrospect, the drop in skill mostly negates RK anyway. If RK isn't what I'm doing, then I'd probably take your advice and run him as a Berserker or Hero to give Kjelle the +3 Spd. Would I run him as LB/GF/Agg/Luna/Ignis or LB/GR/Agg/[Proc]/Faire? He's paired with Kjelle so I may as well make the best of it.

[Knusperkeks]

Would I run him as LB/GF/Agg/Luna/Ignis or LB/GR/Agg/[Proc]/Faire?

You'd have to have 100 in your secondary attack stat make to RFK equal to a weapon faire when it's RFK+Ignis vs. Faire+Ignis.

The same as for the enemy having to have more than 100 def/res to make RFK+Luna be better than Faire+Luna.

In a world with Limit Breaker, RFK can't compete with against Luna and Ignis. Results might change if you include Aether.

Whether Ignis+Luna or one of either and a faire are better depends entirely on the situation you find yourself in.

Let's assume you're using a physical weapon. The choice between Luna and Ignis is easy. Compare your own magic to the enemies' defense. if your magic is higher, use Ignis, if not, use Luna. Entirely dependent on the enemy.

if you give me exact numbers I can tell you which one of the two setups you mentioned is better in certain situations.

[Sentacotus]

Alright just playing for fun on Hard Classic plan on doing Avatar x Tiki run for a manakete F. Morgan. Right now Avatar is at level 15 Grandmaster and I'm trying to figure out what skills to pass down. Obviously Tiki is pretty limited (don't really know what I can get from her that Manakete Morgan can't get on her own) but as far as Avatar is concerned I'll probably pass down Ignis. Should I reclass and try to get something like Sol from Hero class or see what other skills I can get from Tiki's other class options?

[burgerkong]

Alright just playing for fun on Hard Classic plan on doing Avatar x Tiki run for a manakete F. Morgan. Right now Avatar is at level 15 Grandmaster and I'm trying to figure out what skills to pass down. Obviously Tiki is pretty limited (don't really know what I can get from her that Manakete Morgan can't get on her own) but as far as Avatar is concerned I'll probably pass down Ignis. Should I reclass and try to get something like Sol from Hero class or see what other skills I can get from Tiki's other class options?

The optimal option would be a Male-exclusive skill that Morgan would use (Axefaire, Counter, Despoil, Wrath, etc.). If not then something of utility, like Veteran to save on Second Seals and level faster? Really whatever you want.

If you plan on doing Apotheosis, Axefaire is pretty much the only one of use. But you mentioned you're doing this for fun, so you could theoretically pass down whatever you want.

Also I've been lurking for a while, I guess I'm back for a while now that I'm pretty much done exams. Hey everyone :)

I'm considering whether Henry!Gerome and Vaike!Nah or Vaike!Gerome and Henry!Nah is a better idea. Gerome will marry Gaius!Kjelle, and Nah is going with Lon'qu!Brady. With Henry, Gerome would be slightly less of a one-trick pony: instead of just Hero, he would have Hero and Berserker (that can hit). I also like the hair colors a little better this way.

The issue is Nah. I know she's recommended often and can do Hero, but I'm not seeing how to fill out her skills in a way that makes sense. Also, Nah's Hero and Brady's Sage both have only 6 Mov.

Overall I'm not seeing how Vaike!Nah is good. What builds is she known for? Even if they wouldn't work for the Brady pairing, I'm still interested in knowing why people like Vaike!Nah.

Assuming you're just running No Bars Held (?):

She's pretty much a pseudo-support as Axefaire Hero, plays support until her Galeboy partner takes the first kill. Then she switches to the front to allow Galeboy to utilize Aggressor from the back. She'll switch back after moving the following turn.

She'd probably run something like:

Luna / Axefaire / AS+2 / Deliverer (since she'll be moving first)

Just my $0.02, though in this role she's limited to physical Galeboy, i.e. Inigo or niche Stahl!Owain

Edited April 20, 2015 by Red Fox of Fire

[Czar_Yoshi]

Hello everyone, been lurking here for a few days and finally decided to sign up haha. Anyways, after a lot of reading of this thread (and a few others) I have come up with some pairing/team ideas for my first playthrough (I have the game, just waiting on starting until I can get all the DLC; that way I can play the "full" game, so to speak) and was hoping for some critique/suggestions/help/etc.

I would not advise bogging down your first playthrough with any optimization concerns. Just play on Normal/Hard, completely ignore what's "good" and pair who you like together. Don't worry about the DLC either (don't touch it until after the final chapter, or even until your next playthrough). Once you're done with the main story, grind your heart out (but not before, or you'll wreck the difficulty and the game will quickly stop being fun).

If you're still set on being optimal, say so and I'll go through your team. But it'll still benefit much more from you having a bit of actual gameplay experience than being put together well, so you won't see much of a difference yet (and you definitely won't see any difference without an idea of how unoptimized pairs perform).

[Phoenixwing]

I would not advise bogging down your first playthrough with any optimization concerns. Just play on Normal/Hard, completely ignore what's "good" and pair who you like together. Don't worry about the DLC either (don't touch it until after the final chapter, or even until your next playthrough). Once you're done with the main story, grind your heart out (but not before, or you'll wreck the difficulty and the game will quickly stop being fun).

If you're still set on being optimal, say so and I'll go through your team. But it'll still benefit much more from you having a bit of actual gameplay experience than being put together well, so you won't see much of a difference yet (and you definitely won't see any difference without an idea of how unoptimized pairs perform).

I'll definitely try a sort of "test run" first (probably starting in the next few minutes lol) to get used to the new mechanics Awakening introduced (my previous FE experiences where PoR, Radiant Dawn, and Shadow Dragon). However, I always like to try and play through as optimal as I can even on first playthroughs (It's the completionist in me, I suppose. Hence the desire to wait until I get the DLC) so I probably won't play till the very end with the "test run" (that way I can experience the bulk/remainder of the story in my "real" first run) and will start over with my previous mentioned team (with any suggested changes, of course) once I get the DLC. As for pairing who I like together, that's sorta what I did (the bold pairs, at least). I do see your point about being able to see the difference in "optimal" pairs vs unoptimal and will therefore use different ones than are in my "real" first team. As for the "real" first team, I would definitely appreciate any and all advice/suggestions/changes that you could provide for it.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Phoenixwing

[Czar_Yoshi]

In that case...

Chrom x Sumia

(M)Robin x Lucina

Lon’qu x Cordelia

Gaius x Sully

Henry/(Stahl?) x Cherche

Virion/(Libra?) x Maribelle

Ricken x Lissa

Fred x Olivia

Gregor x Miriel?

Vaike/Stahl x Panne?

Donnel/Gregor/Vaike x Tharja?

Henry/Vaike x Nowi?

Which would result in the following pairings for the "final team":

Sumia@? X Chrom@?

Lucina@Sniper (GF/LB/Luna/Aether/DS+) x (M)Robin@Berserker (LB /Agg/AF/AS+2/Hit +20)

Severa@WyvernLord (Vengeance/AS+2/LB /LF/GF) x Gerome@Berserker (LB/Agg/AF/AS+2/Anathema?)

Cynthia@DF (Aether/Luna/GF/LB/TF) x Brady@Sage (LB/GF/Agg/TF/Luna)

(F)Morgan@DF (Aether/Luna/GF/LB/TF) x Owain@Sage (LB/GF/Agg/TF/Luna)

Kjelle@WyvernLord (Luna/AS+2/LB/LF/GF) x Inigo@Hero (LB/Luna/GF/Agg/AF)

Noire/Nah x Laurent/Yarne?

Nah/Noire x Yarne/Laurent?

Sumia as a Dark Flier and Chrom as a Bow Knight fit together well. Anathema is good on Gerome if using Henry, if Stahl use Hit+20. Brady would rather have Virion than Libra. Morgan may wish to use Valkyrie with All+2 instead of Tomefaire- or keep Tomefaire if her dad goes +Mag. She should also run Ignis over Luna. Inigo may wish to use swords over axes for the higher Hit- he only loses 1 Atk from doing so. Pairing Noire and Nah with Laurent/Yarne will leave you with a pair that has no GF units, making it pretty useless in Apo- so unless you don't want to use all the children (a perfectly fine strategy), you should split them up so all the non-GF girls are with Galeboys.

[Phoenixwing]

In that case...

Sumia as a Dark Flier and Chrom as a Bow Knight fit together well. Anathema is good on Gerome if using Henry, if Stahl use Hit+20. Brady would rather have Virion than Libra. Morgan may wish to use Valkyrie with All+2 instead of Tomefaire- or keep Tomefaire if her dad goes +Mag. She should also run Ignis over Luna. Inigo may wish to use swords over axes for the higher Hit- he only loses 1 Atk from doing so. Pairing Noire and Nah with Laurent/Yarne will leave you with a pair that has no GF units, making it pretty useless in Apo- so unless you don't want to use all the children (a perfectly fine strategy), you should split them up so all the non-GF girls are with Galeboys.

I was actually debating just not using one set of Nah/Yarne/Laurent/Noire because of the lack of GF, dunno how good a fathered by Donnel Nah/Noire would be though. So, I could go with six combat pairs, unless you have any suggestions for the seventh pair, classes/skills/etc. I like the idea of having Morgan be a Valk as that provides some variety from having a second DF x Sage pair . Also like the idea of using swords with Inigo, adds more variety than a third axe user as well. Mad at myself for not thinking of that haha. So, with the changes that would look like:

Sumia@DF (Luna/TF/LB/GF/AS+2) x Chrom@BowKnight (DS+/BF/HR+20/Agg/LB)

Sumia!Lucina@Sniper (GF/LB/Luna/Aether/DS+) x (M)Robin@Berserker (LB /Agg/AF/AS+2/Hit +20)

Lon'qu!Severa@WyvernLord (Vengeance/AS+2/LB /LF/GF) x Henry!Gerome@Berserker (LB/Agg/AF/AS+2/Anthema)

Chrom!Cynthia@DF (Aether/Luna/GF/LB/TF) x Virion!Brady@Sage (LB/GF/Agg/TF/Luna)

Sumia!Lucina!(F)Morgan@Valkyrie (Aether/Ignis/GF/LB/AS+2) x Ricken!Owain@Sage (LB/GF/Agg/TF/Luna)

Gaius!Kjelle@WyvernLord (Luna/AS+2/LB/LF/GF) x Fred!Inigo@Hero (LB/Luna/GF/Agg/SF)

There, that would give six combat pairs (seven if Nah/Noire x whomever) and I suppose a lot of room for Olivia/Rallybots/Stavebots as well lol. I see that you mention keeping Tomefaire for Morgan if Robin has +mag asset. Is that what you'd recomend? I'm not sure on the asset/flaw myself. I was thinking either +Str/-Def or +Skl/-Def because he is a 'Zerker but would the boost Morgan gets from the +Mag be better? Furthermore, is -Def even the right flaw to pick? lol Also, do the skills for Sumia and Chrom look OK or could they use some tweaking? Thanks for all your help, by the way.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Phoenixwing

[Czar_Yoshi]

With regards to +Mag, Morgan is actually in it for the +2 Spd. If it was just a matter of attack power, Avatar would be attacking more so he'd see more benefit from getting his own stat boosted but in Morgan's case the extra Spd lets her forgo All+2 in favor of Tomefaire. Combined with the extra Mag from her asset, that's +7 over just All+2 and +Str/Skl. Avatar in the back meanwhile will miss out on 4 Str (+Str) or 2 (+Skl). Assuming you use the pairs both equally, you'll still actually get the most average damage out of using +Str and All+2, but Lucina will have marginally less trouble killing stuff than Morgan so she takes the drop in power better.

After a point optimizing Awakening becomes less about having pairs that can handle specific things and more of having all your pairs be able to handle anything you might throw at them- basically extra leeway for doing what you want while in battle. Once you get past that it starts to go nowhere, and that's where both Morgan and Lucina already are- so I'd go +Mag anyway because it frees up a skillslot on Morgan (you can use it for something besides Tomefaire if you like, like Armsthrift, Lifetaker or Deliverer). It's really up to you in the end. -Def is great though.

If you're curious, my Chrom!Cynthia!Morgan (same as yours, statwise, but paired with Ricken!Gerome) wound up being +Skl.

Chrom and Sumia are fine, though keep in mind that Sumia doesn't gain anything notable from All+2- just +2 Atk, +2% Luna and +4 Hit. You could easily replace it with something else if there's anything else you want on her.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Phoenixwing]

With regards to +Mag, Morgan is actually in it for the +2 Spd. If it was just a matter of attack power, Avatar would be attacking more so he'd see more benefit from getting his own stat boosted but in Morgan's case the extra Spd lets her forgo All+2 in favor of Tomefaire. Combined with the extra Mag from her asset, that's +7 over just All+2 and +Str/Skl. Avatar in the back meanwhile will miss out on 4 Str (+Str) or 2 (+Skl). Assuming you use the pairs both equally, you'll still actually get the most average damage out of using +Str and All+2, but Lucina will have marginally less trouble killing stuff than Morgan so she takes the drop in power better.

After a point optimizing Awakening becomes less about having pairs that can handle specific things and more of having all your pairs be able to handle anything you might throw at them- basically extra leeway for doing what you want while in battle. Once you get past that it starts to go nowhere, and that's where both Morgan and Lucina already are- so I'd go +Mag anyway because it frees up a skillslot on Morgan (you can use it for something besides Tomefaire if you like, like Armsthrift, Lifetaker or Deliverer). It's really up to you in the end. -Def is great though.

If you're curious, my Chrom!Cynthia!Morgan (same as yours, statwise, but paired with Ricken!Gerome) wound up being +Skl.

Chrom and Sumia are fine, though keep in mind that Sumia doesn't gain anything notable from All+2- just +2 Atk, +2% Luna and +4 Hit. You could easily replace it with something else if there's anything else you want on her.

I didn't know any of that about the assets/flaws. I was unaware of how it affected Morgan (I thought it mostly only affected Robin). Think I will go +Mag and give Morgan TomeFaire, that sounds better to me than having an already adequately strong Lucina get stronger by weakening an already less damaging Morgan. As for All+2 on Sumia, it was/is just a filler skill because I couldn't think of anything else right off lol. Your Chrom!Cynthia!Morgan x Ricken!Gerome was from your 100% DS team right? Last post of yours I read on that you were mentioning you hadn't figured out what you wanted Chrom x Sumia and Katerina (IIRC) to do (I could be misremembering all of this though, I have read a lot haha). I must admit I am curious about what you decided, if anything. Anyways, thank you for all of your help!

[Czar_Yoshi]

Yeah, it's from my 100% DS team. Katarina is currently a rallybot Falco with Spc/Hrt/Skl/Str/Mov. Sumia's a Falco, but otherwise I haven't found any super noteworthy roles for those two yet. Then again, I haven't been working on that team too much (the pairings to achieve the base goals were the main point, finding specific things each pair can do is just kind of something on the side).

For more info about secondary boosts from your asset/flaw, check this page.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Czar_Yoshi

[Phoenixwing]

Yeah, it's from my 100% DS team. Katarina is currently a rallybot Falco with Spc/Hrt/Skl/Str/Mov. Sumia's a Falco, but otherwise I haven't found any super noteworthy roles for those two yet. Then again, I haven't been working on that team too much (the pairings to achieve the base goals were the main point, finding specific things each pair can do is just kind of something on the side).

For more info about secondary boosts from your asset/flaw, check this page.

Thanks for the link! Lot of good info there.

[isetrh]

Vaike's Nah has these base classes:

Knight, Mercenary, Thief, Mage, Wyvern Rider

Unique skills which must be inherited:

HP+5, Zeal, Despoil, Gamble, Rally Strength, Counter, Wrath, Axefaire

Skills available: 40

Mods: +5 Str, +4 Def, +1 Skl/Lck/Res

Mobility: Movement+1, Deliverer, Acrobat. Pass

Physical offense: Strength+2, Axefaire, Rally Skill, Rally Strength

Magical offense: Magic+2, Tomefaire, Rally Magic

Offensive utility: Focus, Lethality, Wyrmsbane, Luna, Zeal, Despoil, Gamble, Counter, Wrath

Defensive utility: Defense+2, Dual Guard+, Rally Defense, Pavise, Bowbreaker, Sol, Axebreaker, Lifetaker, Swordbreaker, Lancebraker, HP+5

Generic utility: Odd Rhythm, Indoor Fighter, Armsthrift, Patience, Lock Touch, Tantivy, Slow Burn, Quick Burn, Lucky7, Gamble

As you can see, she's very flexible and can adept to any role very quickly, as well as stay good at that role.

Edit:

Underappreciated characters for hardmode run:

Vaike, Kellam, Lon'qu, Gaius, Anna, Cherche, Say'ri, Tiki, Basilio, Flavia,

Are these enough to make it work?

Soon, I will tell you because I'm trying to make a Vaike!Nah during my current playthrough on Lunatic+ but as Knusperkeks said, her inherited stats, her classes and skill sets look very good to make a decentNah

Nevertheless, I don't think I will use her before postgame so it will take me some time

Assuming you're just running No Bars Held (?):

She's pretty much a pseudo-support as Axefaire Hero, plays support until her Galeboy partner takes the first kill. Then she switches to the front to allow Galeboy to utilize Aggressor from the back. She'll switch back after moving the following turn.

She'd probably run something like:

Luna / Axefaire / AS+2 / Deliverer (since she'll be moving first)

Just my $0.02, though in this role she's limited to physical Galeboy, i.e. Inigo or niche Stahl!Owain

Thanks. I forgot about Deliverer, and there are some nice defensive options there I never considered, which is good because I would like to have her be able to do well as a Manakete. I think I'll go for it.

[burgerkong]

Just to double-check, do I have my damage calcs correct? This is Sumia!Lucina paired with MU against Invincisorc (80 HP, 56 Def, 64 Res, w/Vantage, Miracle, Dragonskin, Luna+, Pavise+)

Sumia!Lucina @Sniper [LB/DS+/Galeforce/BF/Luna] = 41 (base) + 0 (mods) + 10 (LB) + 10 (rally) + 2 (tonic) + 5 (BF) + 3 (Pair Up) + 14 (forged Longbow) = 85

85 - 56 (enemy Def) = 29/2 (Dragonskin) = 14 damage per hit (x2) = 28

MU(+Mag) @Sage [LB/Agg/TF/Hit+20/AS+2] = 46 (base) + 4 (mods) + 10 (LB) + 10 (rally) + 2 (tonic) + 10 (Agg) + 5 (TF) + 2 (AS+2) + 9 (forged Celica's) = 98

98 - 64 (enemy Res) = 34/2 (Dragonskin) = 17 damage per hit (x4) = 68

14 + 17 + 17 + 14 + 17 = 79 damage, leaving 1 HP to bypass Miracle, allowing the kill on the final hit (96 damage in total).

Let me know if this is incorrect! Just wanna make sure I'm doing my calcs correctly :P

Edited April 22, 2015 by burgerkong

[Czar_Yoshi]

Assuming you're using +3/25 forges on both weapons, yes that is correct. However Miracle can't activate on Dual Strikes so you've got some significant headroom there (I'd recommend dropping Bowfaire on Lucina).

Also consider that a Longbow isn't totally necessary there; since he only has Vantage and not Vantage+ you can get the same number of attacks in with a Brave Bow before being hit (which won't happen if your kill is guaranteed).

[Knusperkeks]

...

Calcs are correct, assuming you're not using a flaw which hurts magic.

I'm using a sniper to chip that sorc down to around half HP and finish him off with a different pair of units.

Edit: You didn't include weapon rank bonuses in your calcs.

Edited April 22, 2015 by Knusperkeks