First time player. Some questions

[rabbyradical]

1) I know that the teams change from Dawn Bridgade to some other teams. Do the items stay the same regardless of team? I am asking because I dropped some skills from characters I am not using.

2) At what level does Micaiah promote. She is at 20 right now.

3) This may be late question but should I regret not using Edward, Meg, and the Wolf.

[Knight]

1) I know that the teams change from Dawn Bridgade to some other teams. Do the items stay the same regardless of team? I am asking because I dropped some skills from characters I am not using.

2) At what level does Micaiah promote. She is at 20 right now.

3) This may be late question but should I regret not using Edward, Meg, and the Wolf.

1. I believe so, yes.

2. She promotes at the end of Part 1 in a story event. (After Endgame: Daein Arise)

3. Edward is good lategame unit if you are willing to spend the effort (and BEXP), Meg isn't anything too special, Part 1 is when you should be using the wolf (Volug) if you've made it this far without him you're doing pretty good.

If you're on Easy difficulty than you should have no problem progressing no matter what units you use if you're half decent at FE, normal is pretty tough, but it's still flexible.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

1) I know that the teams change from Dawn Bridgade to some other teams. Do the items stay the same regardless of team? I am asking because I dropped some skills from characters I am not using.

2) At what level does Micaiah promote. She is at 20 right now.

3) This may be late question but should I regret not using Edward, Meg, and the Wolf.

1. Yes, the the items and stats of the characters will be the same. However the Dawn Brigade will get some weapons and vulneraries, if you have completed 1-Final.

You can use Ilyana for bringing some weapons, items or skills to part 3, if you want.

2. Automatic promotion after 1-Final.

3. Edward is good because of his high speed. But he's delicate. The enemies in part 3 are really powerful so you have to care about him. Though with good skills and / or an earth support he can be very handy. If he's in "wrath-zone", he's very useful with range attacks.

Meg isn't so useful, if you use Edward and Zihark. She's ok, but she will be outclassed as sworduser by them. And her defense isn't that great either for her class.

Volug is good especially on higher difficulties. He is a good wall in part 3, if you drop his wildheart (which you can do in part 3). An A-Support in earth makes him an excellent dodgetank. But he cannot transform immediately, because the Dawn Brigade has no Laguz stone. So he needs 3 turns by using olivi grass till his tranformation.

On easy mode you don't need to use him, if you have a decent Sothe, Nolan, Aran and Jill.

Edited December 3, 2014 by The Taninator

[Baldrick]

1) Each team has their own item supply. The only way to switch items between teams is to have characters that switch teams hold them, because each character retains their inventory.

3) Not really. Edward is a decent unit but by no means essential, Meg is a poor unit, Volug isn't good in the long-term anyway.

[rabbyradical]

Which characters switch teams?

[Knight]

Which characters switch teams?

Ilyana, potentially Jill if you so choose. Tormod, Muarim the sister of Ike and Vika will leave for a very long time, don't give them anything you treasure.

Nailah also won't be around much either.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Knight

[rabbyradical]

Thanks.

[Baldrick]

potentially Zihark as well

[BrightBow]

Rafiel will also leave.

Basically anyone who is not from Daein will leave at the end of Part 1, with the exception of Volug who will stick around

Edited December 3, 2014 by BrightBow

[Zanz]

Edward is good because of his high speed. But he's delicate. The enemies in part 3 are really powerful so you have to care about him.

How so? Early on he's a bit fragile, but in part 3 he's an absolute monster. The +8 Luck from Caladbog, a support with Nolan and thicket bonus will give him disgustingly high avoid in 3-6. He's a bit more vulnerable without the terrain bonus in 3-13, but I still never had a concern for him dying.

I'm on 1-5 in my most recent hardmode playthrough, and my 15/0 Eddy is 16/0/20/18/16/11/3. It only takes a very moderate amount of babying to get him levels early, and honestly, who else is getting that experience before 1-5 besides Nolan? Having Nolan kill every unit would take forever anyways. I think Eddy and Nolan are more comparable than people believe; I'd rather have Eddy with Wrath and 2x Crits staring down a boss than Nolan, who will probably just tank a hit and miss.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Zanz

[Sentacotus]

1) I know that the teams change from Dawn Bridgade to some other teams. Do the items stay the same regardless of team? I am asking because I dropped some skills from characters I am not using.

2) At what level does Micaiah promote. She is at 20 right now.

3) This may be late question but should I regret not using Edward, Meg, and the Wolf.

1) Whatever items you get while playing with a team stay there unless you give them to characters who leave i.e llyana

2) I don't know what chapter it is but she promotes by story triggered events so if you got her to 20 already good job.

3) Edward is a decent unit and worth investing into but Meg is terrible don't waste your time if you need a good general/marshall you'll get Brom in part II and Gatrie in Part III both good units. Volug (Wolf) is good for Part I and II but isn't so useful thereafter.

[Shadow Mir]

How so? Early on he's a bit fragile, but in part 3 he's an absolute monster. The +8 Luck from Caladbog, a support with Nolan and thicket bonus will give him disgustingly high avoid in 3-6. He's a bit more vulnerable without the terrain bonus in 3-13, but I still never had a concern for him dying.

I'm on 1-5 in my most recent hardmode playthrough, and my 15/0 Eddy is 16/0/20/18/16/11/3. It only takes a very moderate amount of babying to get him levels early, and honestly, who else is getting that experience before 1-5 besides Nolan? Having Nolan kill every unit would take forever anyways. I think Eddy and Nolan are more comparable than people believe; I'd rather have Eddy with Wrath and 2x Crits staring down a boss than Nolan, who will probably just tank a hit and miss.

Considering that most of what you're going up against in part 3 are laguz, which are highly accurate, I'd say "delicate" fits Edward to a T. Also, most thickets in that chapter aren't exactly in prime defensive positions, IIRC...

Maybe, but when Zihark joins is also the point in time where Edward starts to stand out as being more of a liability than an asset, imho... It doesn't really help that I generally find part 3 unkind to evade based units such as he.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Levant Caprice

[Zanz]

Considering that most of what you're going up against in part 3 are laguz, which are highly accurate, I'd say "delicate" fits Edward to a T. Also, most thickets in that chapter aren't exactly in prime defensive positions, IIRC...

Maybe, but when Zihark joins is also the point in time where Edward starts to stand out as being more of a liability than an asset, imho... It doesn't really help that I generally find part 3 unkind to evade based units such as he.

I don't know man. I my latest HM playthrough I just put Eddy and Nolan alone on an island in the northwest part of the map and watched them slaughter everything indiscriminately. I suppose it's possible I just got lucky growths, but it's not really uncommon in most of my games for Eddy to be neigh-invincible in 3-6. The two thickets north of the starting island are good spots to stick him, although I don't really think he needs them with Caladbolg. Also, I feel like I've had more games than usual where my Nolan has ended up crap. I'm trying to get him some levels in 1-E right now; he's 20/3 and hasn't been able to double anything the entire game besides the odd general. It doesn't happen very often but he's pretty difficult to pull into relevance if he gets shafted on speed.

It still confuses me why people think Edward becomes a "liability". By the time you get Zihark, Eddy really won't be too far off (around level 12 if you've been giving him some kills). He should be capping SPD and SKL around 1-6, then just give him a seal. He'll be able to double enemies as early as 1-6-2, and will be doubling almost everything in 1-E. Zihark might be better for one or two stages, but that hardly makes Eddy a liability. In part 3 he gets Caladbolg, which is usable all the way up to endgame if you repair it. I'm not saying he's better than Zihark, but I do think the two are roughly comparable if you put a bit of effort into Eddy in the first couple stages. One being better doesn't make the other a liability; t's not like taking two trueblades is a bad idea anyways.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I don't know man. I my latest HM playthrough I just put Eddy and Nolan alone on an island in the northwest part of the map and watched them slaughter everything indiscriminately. I suppose it's possible I just got lucky growths, but it's not really uncommon in most of my games for Eddy to be neigh-invincible in 3-6. The two thickets north of the starting island are good spots to stick him, although I don't really think he needs them with Caladbolg. Also, I feel like I've had more games than usual where my Nolan has ended up crap. I'm trying to get him some levels in 1-E right now; he's 20/3 and hasn't been able to double anything the entire game besides the odd general. It doesn't happen very often but he's pretty difficult to pull into relevance if he gets shafted on speed.

It still confuses me why people think Edward becomes a "liability". By the time you get Zihark, Eddy really won't be too far off (around level 12 if you've been giving him some kills). He should be capping SPD and SKL around 1-6, then just give him a seal. He'll be able to double enemies as early as 1-6-2, and will be doubling almost everything in 1-E. Zihark might be better for one or two stages, but that hardly makes Eddy a liability. In part 3 he gets Caladbolg, which is usable all the way up to endgame if you repair it. I'm not saying he's better than Zihark, but I do think the two are roughly comparable if you put a bit of effort into Eddy in the first couple stages. One being better doesn't make the other a liability; t's not like taking two trueblades is a bad idea anyways.

If Edward has worst biorhythm, the cats and tigers can still have >40% hitrate against him. He never would survive two hits, maybe two cats. Resolve doesn't guarantee to dodge all attacks. Maybe he wouldn't get to resolve-zone, if he will be attacked by a cat first (which doesn't do enough damage to bring him <=50% HP) and then by a tiger. Another problem is wrath, which can suicide him.

In my hard mode runs I never gave Edward resolve or / and an earth support, because he doesn't have an affinity, which gives him evasion.

I prefer giving an earth support to someone, who has an earth affinity too or lightning (Jill, Aran) to get at least +30% evasion. Edward only can get +23% evasion, which isn't enough for me on hard mode. This is by far less than an B-support in earth x earth.

Zihark with resolve and +45% evasion would be an excellent front unit.

The most effective supports for me are: Zihark x Volug and Nolan x Jill / Aran

Edited December 4, 2014 by The Taninator

[Shadow Mir]

I don't know man. I my latest HM playthrough I just put Eddy and Nolan alone on an island in the northwest part of the map and watched them slaughter everything indiscriminately. I suppose it's possible I just got lucky growths, but it's not really uncommon in most of my games for Eddy to be neigh-invincible in 3-6. The two thickets north of the starting island are good spots to stick him, although I don't really think he needs them with Caladbolg. Also, I feel like I've had more games than usual where my Nolan has ended up crap. I'm trying to get him some levels in 1-E right now; he's 20/3 and hasn't been able to double anything the entire game besides the odd general. It doesn't happen very often but he's pretty difficult to pull into relevance if he gets shafted on speed.

It still confuses me why people think Edward becomes a "liability". By the time you get Zihark, Eddy really won't be too far off (around level 12 if you've been giving him some kills). He should be capping SPD and SKL around 1-6, then just give him a seal. He'll be able to double enemies as early as 1-6-2, and will be doubling almost everything in 1-E. Zihark might be better for one or two stages, but that hardly makes Eddy a liability. In part 3 he gets Caladbolg, which is usable all the way up to endgame if you repair it. I'm not saying he's better than Zihark, but I do think the two are roughly comparable if you put a bit of effort into Eddy in the first couple stages. One being better doesn't make the other a liability; t's not like taking two trueblades is a bad idea anyways.

I don't think that spot you're talking about is exactly a good defensive position...

For me, it's that when I'm stuck with a bunch of squishy units for the most part, a squishy melee unit isn't exactly welcome. Also, Edward's doubling capabilities are somewhat suspect, at least on hard mode. Not to mention Wrath is bad on him - a mage would be better for it than he would.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Levant Caprice

[dondon151]

It still confuses me why people think Edward becomes a "liability".

long-term use of edward takes EXP from jill, and jill is much better than edward at making the game trivial. that's one way in which edward is a liability. there's also the death chances on 3-6. good avoid or not, edward still dies in 2 hits.

if you're going at a casual pace, edward is probably okay but not significantly better than zihark (who can have a double earth support, which more than offsets caladbolg's +8 luk). if you're going at a brisk pace, nolan and even volug are better than edward because of better durability.

Edited December 4, 2014 by dondon151

[Irysa]

Yeah seconding Zihark over Ed for casual play. Ed averages roughly the same as a non transfer base Zihark at 20/5, and that's if you never use Zihark (which I never did on my first playthrough of RD). If I'd used Zihark whenever I was using Ed instead after 1-4, or even just equally Zihark would have remained consistently better until third tier. Plus double earth support.

Admittedly my Part 3 DB chapters were basically "Jill gets some help from Nolan and Volug to kill everything", and Ed was practically benched after Part 1 was over but regardless...

Edited December 4, 2014 by Irysa

[Zanz]

long-term use of edward takes EXP from jill, and jill is much better than edward at making the game trivial. that's one way in which edward is a liability. there's also the death chances on 3-6. good avoid or not, edward still dies in 2 hits.

if you're going at a casual pace, edward is probably okay but not significantly better than zihark (who can have a double earth support, which more than offsets caladbolg's +8 luk). if you're going at a brisk pace, nolan and even volug are better than edward because of better durability.

How can you say that Edward takes XP from Jill and advocate using Volug in the same post? Volug is much more of an XP toilet than Edward is. Besides, non-transfer Jill does not start durable or strong enough to tank and kill every enemy on EP in 1-6 and 1-E even with boosters, so that extra XP has to go somewhere (for casual play). You could use that same argument to invalidate most of the GMs that aren't absolute top-tier as well. Is Oscar a "liability" because that XP is better spent on Titania? Of course the GMs get more XP, but they also have more top-tier characters. I'd say the ratio is pretty equal between both parties.

I'm not saying Edward is incredible and a must-use, I'm just making the point that he's not in any way a liability. He's already powerful and more than usable by the time you get Zihark and Jill (assuming he gets some kills in the first few chapters). He's not going to kill everything in sight, but it's a bit ridiculous to suggest that it would be beneficial to your party to simply not deploy him. I do agree that Zihark is better probably 80-90% of the time, but it's pretty easy to see by that point whether or not Edward will be worth it. If he's gotten a couple good level-ups there's a good chance he'll be better than Zihark by the end of part 3/beginning of part 4, where Zihark starts to struggle.

[dondon151]

How can you say that Edward takes XP from Jill and advocate using Volug in the same post?

because they were in different paragraphs. do you understand the purpose of a paragraph?

to answer your misguided question, all of the characters mentioned previously (nolan, volug, zihark) require less investment than edward to reach a usable threshold. with equal investment, all three can be expected to do better than edward on 3-6, and also 3-12 as well.

Edited December 4, 2014 by dondon151

[Chloe Neo]

If you want a useable unit I suggest Mia, shes a great swordmaster/Trueblade.

[Lord Raven]

The issue with Edward is that he requires a lot of input for a marginally better output than Zihark (and when I say "marginally better" I mean he's only really better in Part 4). I tried to use him alongside Nolan and I guess I had Sothe/Volug/Jill/Zihark killing way too much that he only had scraps. He really doesn't have a consistent source of 2 range outside of a Wind Edge which isn't completely accurate to begin with - and that's assuming he has the Strength to do some damage.

There's really not that much EXP to go around in hard mode.

[kirbymastah]

Ednerd's growths are also a lie. He does not have 60% strength growth, more like 20% in speedruns... :(