link arena Fire Emblem Link Arena Discussion Topic

[ZemZem]

Aether is OP. So OP. XD

[Espinosa]

I think brave weapons could be banned entirely. But having one per team doesn't sound too bad - the players would try to seek out/guess the wielder of the brave weapon, and hide theirs until lategame.

Mastery skills don't sound so bad, and having users of Sol, for example, makes things a bit more interesting with the random recovery. Only Aether is broken IMHO, especially on a Brave Sword Ike.

Bond supports could probably be implemented without much problems caused.

As for triangle attacks, I think the three brother triangle attack would really limit what players decide to do with their teams, with the initial turns (before the other player kills Rolf) spent critting as many things to death as possible. I think I'm against it.

[ZemZem]

Yeah, some crazy things happened with brave weapons, like Ike and his crazy luck proccing Aether (well, at least the brave sword had crazy things happen. I wish Marcia procced Stun twice with the brave lance, that'd be funny). I really only think Aether should be banned, if need be. Ike proves to be really good with it even without Ragnell.

My team had a bond support used, so I hope something happens with it.

[Espinosa]

With the same ruleset as in the Refa vs SB match, Ike is easily the one character any team would want to have whether or not they are building the team around him (with supports and whatnot), so he's sorta like GSC Snorlax.

It was rather clear that without any limitations on brave weaponry, 4 units out of 5 will attack with nothing but brave weapons, and while that's cool, restricting their availability could lead to more variety. I can't say whether allowing forges would make them compete against brave weapons - depends on the defence of whom you're trying to attack I suppose, but attacking twice is a big advantage for the activation of skills.

The whole idea of stat boosters and the Nasir example Refa cited makes us think if a game with stat boosters would play all that well. Customisation would most probably be welcome though; the question is how much customisation.

Also, I'll let the next players come to their own conclusion on this, but it would be really efficient to have some sort of automated way of calculating stats and rolling the RNs. An Excel sheet of some sort could be helpful, I think. I don't know really. After mediating this game, I can say I don't make a very good bot lol, especially as far as speed is concerned.

[Espinosa]

So I did some research and it looks like there's a very simple rule to skill capacity - mounted units get 20, which is only enough to fit one Occult skill in, while foot units which includes Laguz fliers get 25. So under the current conditions (no stacking of shared foreign skills like Wrath, Adept and so on) the implications are that the following characters can afford an Occult skill as well as the one started with:

Mist - Miracle + Sol (her luck is enormous, so if we ban brave weapons she could last for a bit)

Lucia - Parity + Astra (you still get your Occult skill while hitting through Earth bonuses)

Shinon - Provoke + Deadeye

Ilyana/Volke - Shade + Flare/Lethality

as well as the Biorhythm skills, but we don't bother with Bio.

Do you think Provoke and Shade skills could be used in any way? I'm thinking that a unit with Shade cannot be targeted until there's nobody else left to engage (for Ilyana, this means she can spam siege tomes and 1-2 range on units with 1-range weapons equipped without fearing retaliation ever) while a unit with Provoke always causes the enemy to target them over anybody else. That is, with Ilyana in the party, you can choose to attack anybody but Ilyana, and with Shinon w/ Provoke in the party, you're forced to attack Shinon. Not sure if the latter has any use though.

As for Volke, I suppose he could steal every unequipped weapon from non-Swordmasters (whom he matches in speed)? He could snatch some unequipped Braves that way, but it's probably useless considering you better be KOing people instead.

Also, about the statuses stun and sleep. Stun (activated by Marcia for example) leaves you unable to move (in the link arena, initiate a battle) for 2 turns, but should you counterattack when attacked during the stun? Deadeye's sleep is another issue - do you wake up when hit? Are all attacks 100% guaranteed on a sleeping target? How long do you sleep if not awakened?

So still quite a bit to clarify.

[Icon of Sin]

Still need some people? I'd like to join.

[Espinosa]

Added you to the list. PM me your team when you're ready.

Right now I think it would be a good idea to try out a game without any brave weaponry and see how that goes. I'm even willing to function as a bot again for one such battle (but not any more for a while afterwards sorry, it's a bit too time-consuming for my schedule).

Once again, I'm going to need 2 players for this. I've got teams from PKL, ZM and Ice Sage, but I want to see how braveless link arena works out (most probably a lot less crazy with ORKOing).

Edited November 3, 2013 by Espinosa

[shadykid]

lead off with PKL vs ZM

you know you want to

[PKL]

Well, since my team was triangle attack focused around the three brothers, I have to redo it. :P

EDIT: Err...even if the poll says both, Espinosa said he was against it. Why make the poll then lol

Edited November 3, 2013 by PKL

[Espinosa]

Got Dio's team (with braves).

Dio notifies me that a second Brave Lance can be stolen, therefore it is possible to equip each and every of your units with a brave weapon.

On that note, dondon's team with supports features the Wishblade which is most certainly not obtainable (not mentioned on this website somehow).

I'm surprised nobody has tried using Makalov yet, since he's faster than both Oscar and Kieran (not doubled by SMs and lolVolke) and has 2 extra points of defence. Bad support options though but I think we've already seen how tanky a Knight Ward Paladin can be (Oscar was taking 3 damage per hit from Lucia).

lead off with PKL vs ZM

you know you want to

If they modify their teams to exclude braves (and any other relevant changes outside of that), I'm up for it!

Well, since my team was triangle attack focused around the three brothers, I have to redo it. :P

EDIT: Err...even if the poll says both, Espinosa said he was against it. Why make the poll then lol

Three brothers will still benefit from 20% crit each, though. You're not reading the poll right by the way: 6 people are in favour of triangle attacks and 9 people are in favour of bond supports.

WRT forges - I think the first battle showed that even Ike and Oscar with their fabled Earth x Earth support are more than hittable, and avoid supports can be countered by hit supports and usage of Snipers. Also, without braves but with silver forges, everybody will just be attacking with silver forges instead. If this is out, we can see things ranging from silvers to killers to effective weaponry around, which is nice.

[Icon of Sin]

On that note, dondon's team with supports features the Wishblade which is most certainly not obtainable (not mentioned on this website somehow).

It's a trial map exclusive obtainable by getting Bryce, which is completing the game 10 times.

I'm pretty sure you could trade Narshen's Runesword in FE6 for Link Arena purposes for instance. Since I wasn't too sure about the rule over this, I didn't put it on my team though.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Woodshooter

[shadykid]

no forges, people start using lolPoleaxes

[Espinosa]

no forges, people start using lolPoleaxes

A Poleaxe is only 5% hit less than the Brave Axe and we all saw just how often that one connected, so why not! You're kinda screwing yourself over for when you will be engaged with that weapon equipped though.

And right, trial maps. Hmmm.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Espinosa

[Icon of Sin]

Are we using the JP effectiveness of *3 or the NA/EU of *2?

[ZemZem]

I assume we're using the NA/EU effectiveness.

Sent my revisions, Espinosa.

[PKL]

Is wishblade a thing then?

[Espinosa]

We'll make do with Spears for now (Dio says three can be acquired during the game).

[PKL]

Start it start it start it

[ZemZem]

Let's go!

Good luck, PKL.

[PKL]

Same.

[eclipse]

. . .I just realized what looked off. FE9 uses a 2 RN system to calculate hit, and these battles are being run with 1 RN. I'm not sure if you want to change that, but it would make lower-hit gambits more likely to fail. Your call.

[PKL]

Pretty sure Espi has been using 2 RNs for hit and 1 RN for crit.

[shadykid]

. . .I just realized what looked off. FE9 uses a 2 RN system to calculate hit, and these battles are being run with 1 RN. I'm not sure if you want to change that, but it would make lower-hit gambits more likely to fail. Your call.

he is using 2 RNs though.....

[Espinosa]

ZM vs PKL begins!

ZM's team

PKL's team

The RNG has decided that PKL gets to act first.

PKL, choose your unit, his/her weapon and target.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Espinosa

[ZemZem]

ohshitohshitohshit