Advice for Hard Mode

[-Cynthia-]

If she's doubling then a max Mt steel lance forge(with crit) will help. Giving her Adept would also give her higher ORKO chances, but you might want to keep that on Mia if you're using her.

Once she starts capping Speed and Skill and such you can BEXP her for Str.

[dondon151]

if you wanted to train oscar, he also needs a forged steel lance.

[Radiant head]

I actually stole Geoffrey's Brave Lance by dumping it in the convoy when his inventory got full in 2-3 and giving it to Neph in 2-E, but I'm afraid it will break fast if I actually have her or Oscar use it.

[Florete]

That's kind of how Brave weapons work, after all.

Think of it this way; if you're not aiming for low turns, helping a unit in need get stronger (and eventually be able to get the same results with weaker, cheaper, more common weaponry) is probably the best use for it.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Actually I don't think it's necessary to bring the brave lance to Ike. Your team is strongh enough and you have enough money to forge 1-2 weapons.

In 3-9 a second tier Marcia with maxed speed and average strength of 19 can kill pretty much everyone (except for generals and the boss) with the brave lance and makes this chapter easier to get the most possible bexp. with minimal effort.

Alternatively you can use the masterseal in the base of 3-9 on her. If her strength is enough she still can take out the helbardiers with the steel greatlance. Otherwise you have to hope of the activation of stun or you can give her the adept scroll you can buy in the base as well.

Edited February 14, 2015 by The Taninator

[Radiant head]

Yeah I kind of regret it now; I hope the CRK's aren't screwed in 3-9.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

No, they aren't screwed.

Geoffrey, Kieran and Marcia are more than a match against the enemies. You also have a bishop with physics so make sure you let them operate. As I said Marcia with maxed speed can double everyone.

Only take out the soldier with Marcia in turn 1 on the top left, who lights the village.

[dondon151]

marcia doesn't max her tier 2 spd on average until L16. without transfers, she doesn't average 19 str until L15.

3-9 is actually not kind to most CRK units not named geoffrey. if you crown geoffrey, he should do fine.

[Radiant head]

Marcia got a speed bonus, but I don't remember if she got strength.

[Vorena]

don't bother with micaiah unless you're planning to 4-turn chapter 1-9; she's unsalvageable in HM.

What?! I believe Micaiah gets plenty of usage. She is pretty much the Linde of FE10. With her high magic stat she can keep up with chip damage along with Thani bombing on armors and cavaliers. I agree I do not feel like bringing her into the final engagement, but she has uses in part 3 with stave healing, thani bombing, and purge. After that she is junk though.

[dondon151]

1. thani bombing is a relic from the 2009 tier list. LTCs actually never get the 1-2 thani, and armors and cavaliers are so sparse that thani bombing isn't useful. there is not a single armor knight in part 1 that is not better dealt with through other means, and the only map in which cavaliers are common also has them clustered in groups that micaiah can't deal with.

2. micaiah can heal with staves with little investment. she gets physic access upon promotion and there's either ally bishops to help out or your units (or rather, unit) are so invincible that they don't need healing.

3. you get purge for all of one chapter and micaiah is confined to the top section of that map.

Edited February 14, 2015 by dondon151

[Vorena]

1. thani bombing is a relic from the 2009 tier list. LTCs actually never get the 1-2 thani, and armors and cavaliers are so sparse that thani bombing isn't useful. there is not a single armor knight in part 1 that is not better dealt with through other means, and the only map in which cavaliers are common also has them clustered in groups that micaiah can't deal with.

2. micaiah can heal with staves with little investment. she gets physic access upon promotion and there's either ally bishops to help out or your units (or rather, unit) are so invincible that they don't need healing.

3. you get purge for all of one chapter and micaiah is confined to the top section of that map.

Well, I am replying to something a bit old. I read the first page and I was quite confused by that reply of yours. OP was playing hard mode for the first times by the sound of it. Claiming LTC here does not really mitigate the idea for a casual run that Micaiah does indeed have some utility with the high magic stat to weaken enemies or the ability to greatly wound or KO cavaliers and knights in sporadic situations. I guess it is the difference between saying "don't bother with her" versus "simply do not invest high into her". Unless you want to go all favoritism and somehow make her usable.

[-Cynthia-]

Well I would probably use her post promotion for Physic, maybe give her some Arms Scrolls to use Fortify for Endgame(since you might not want to fill another slot with a staff user), but feeding her kills and the like probably isn't worth the effort.

[Vorena]

Fair enough. From the casual stand point I always saw a situation to give micaiah something to do in the game in Part 1 and get enough experience to state relevant. The magic aspect is pretty useful early on for a high damaging move with no retaliation. She can usually get sacrifice 10 exp on turns she is not hitting something or maybe getting a kill. The magic is effective against laguz since they she is one of the few which can hit hard and no retaliation. With +1/+2 magic she can OHKO the armors which get in your way on the first chapter. 1-5 you have a very useful ledge to attack from which grants you +50 evasion basically and its a defend map. Easily you can sneak in some free experience this way. While she gets OHKO'd from a hand axe bandit at base she sees a 30 hit rate less (or more) with biorhythm effects depending upon how that turns out. 1-6-1 she needs lv10 average to completely knockout the armors on this chapter. I am not sure how feasible that is to be honest. At the very least 1-6-1 and 1-6-2 give her opprotunities to gain experience and provide some utility against armors/cavaliers. Or simply two range in general to weaken things. 1-7 is not a whole lot to do along with 1-8 however. By which time you hit endgame and can do a few more things on this chapter.

She is forced anyway and you do not have to do out of your way to get some usefulness out of her. I simply treat her as that chip damage and staff healer going into Part 3 and Part 4. Maybe get a KO her or there.There is still plenty of experience in this game. Leonardo on the other hand I would not even bother trying to field if I can help it. Micaiah > Leonardo.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

To be fair Micaiah is the best bosskiller in part 1 thanks to Thani.

It's effective against the bosses in chapter 2, 3, 6-2 and 7 of part 1. And it does massive damage do the laguz bosses in 1-4 and in 1-E you have to fight lots of knights.

Edited February 14, 2015 by The Taninator

[Yojinbo]

The only reason to use Nephenee is if you intend to deploy her in Part 4 Endgame as a Wishblade user imo. Gatrie/Oscar are stuck with an awful 32 speed cap @3rd tier and Jill may not be able to reach the required weapon Rank for Lances in time [plus she might already be your designated user for Urvan]. Even then I'd argue that Tanith is still the better choice but it's up to you, I personally don't think that there's a good reason to use Nephenee.

yes, part 4 is a bit of a drag but i think FE10 is actually one of the most fun 0% runs in the series. i've cut a lot of turns from my previous run so far (currently working on 3-6) and i can already promise that you'll see a good selection of exotic strats in addition to improvements on chiki's strats in normal FE10 LTC.

Hmmm, that's pretty rad actually. I've also thought about doing an LTC run without transfer bonuses and see how close I can get to his turn counts [i'm pretty sure he's using transfer bonuses at least for Jill] but like I said I don't have the game anymore and even if I somehow managed to get it I still wouldn't be able to record stuff so I dropped the whole idea. Looking at Chiki's turn counts I don't think there's a whole lot of room to shave off turns without doing super unreliable stuff and even then he gets optimal turn counts for the majority of chapters.

[Ownagepuffs]

Why is 32 cap considered awful? Isn't 34 just for doubling an endgame enemy or something?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Why is 32 cap considered awful? Isn't 34 just for doubling an endgame enemy or something?

34 is the speed you need to double the auras in the fight against Ashera.

With 32 you'd double each enemy in the endgame except for swordmasters and a few snipers and warriors (have 28-29 AS) in E-2, the wind and fire tails in E-4 and E-5 and Deghinsea.

Edited February 14, 2015 by The Taninator

[Radiant head]

I get a game over because AI Elincia walks into a crossbow...

But yeah I'm thinking I'll just add Marcia to my regular roster after 3-10 and make her my Wishblade user. I gave her Paragon so catching up hopefully won't be too bad, though I guess it would be easier to use Tanith because bases.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Radiant head

[Shadow Mir]

I get a game over because AI Elincia walks into a crossbow...

But yeah I'm thinking I'll just add Marcia to my regular roster after 3-10 and make her my Wishblade user. I gave her Paragon so catching up hopefully won't be too bad, though I guess it would be easier to use Tanith because bases.

Gotta love AI units. And by "love", I mean "hate", because there's not much I can think of that's more irritating than an "ally" unit (EFF!)ing up your strategy with their dumbness. Which is a part of what I don't like about the CRK's chapters in RD, where your only healers are braindead NPCs, but that's me going on a tangent.

Anyways, personally, I'd rather just use Marcia than hope I get lucky with Tanith's mediocre speed growth - lacking strength is something that's easier to get around than lacking speed is, after all (and honestly, Tanith's speed base is kinda underwhelming)...

Edited February 14, 2015 by Levant Caprice

[Radiant head]

Yeah I prefer Marcia, but it's hard to train characters in HM. We'll see if Paragon works.

[Yojinbo]

Don't forget that Tanith brings along her Earth affinity as well. If Marcia's stats aren't as good as hers then you should definitely ditch her.

Also keep in mind that Tanith / Sigrun / Marcia don't necessarily need to ORKO stuff right away to be useful. Especially the former two have pretty good weapon ranks and access to a plethora of 1-2 Range Weapons as well as Killer Lances, Horseslayer and Killing Edges. Tier 3 Tanith [and Tier 3 Marcia for that matter] will be perfectly competent in combat.

[Radiant head]

Oh I didn't know she had Earth affinity. I might use her and build double Earth with Oscar.

[dondon151]

Fair enough. From the casual stand point I always saw a situation to give micaiah something to do in the game in Part 1 and get enough experience to state relevant. The magic aspect is pretty useful early on for a high damaging move with no retaliation. She can usually get sacrifice 10 exp on turns she is not hitting something or maybe getting a kill. The magic is effective against laguz since they she is one of the few which can hit hard and no retaliation. With +1/+2 magic she can OHKO the armors which get in your way on the first chapter. 1-5 you have a very useful ledge to attack from which grants you +50 evasion basically and its a defend map. Easily you can sneak in some free experience this way. While she gets OHKO'd from a hand axe bandit at base she sees a 30 hit rate less (or more) with biorhythm effects depending upon how that turns out. 1-6-1 she needs lv10 average to completely knockout the armors on this chapter. I am not sure how feasible that is to be honest. At the very least 1-6-1 and 1-6-2 give her opprotunities to gain experience and provide some utility against armors/cavaliers. Or simply two range in general to weaken things. 1-7 is not a whole lot to do along with 1-8 however. By which time you hit endgame and can do a few more things on this chapter.

i disagree with a lot of this because in efficient playthroughs where you're not obviously grinding micaiah, she is not going to be relevant. in casual playthroughs, it takes an inordinate amount of effort to keep her relevant. she gets OHKO'd starting as soon as chapter 1-1 (i know, right) and doubled starting as soon as chapter 1-2. being doubled and OHKO'd is not an easy hole to dig out of in a mode where every combat action has a -5 EXP penalty applied to it. she is useful every now and then with chip damage or sacrifice, but chip damage and sacrifice do not provide much EXP.

attacking with a height advantage is not good for micaiah if the enemy can counter. even with -50 hit, they still double and OHKO her. if the enemy can't counter, micaiah's taking several of the allotted 6 turns in 1-5 just to get a kill, and there's no way she's getting ample EXP off that.

in 1-6-1 and 1-6-2 the armors and cavaliers come in groups at a time and it's very hard to get her to counter only one of them (or even survive - she's OHKO'd by the weakest armor knights until L13 on average) without the help of another better unit jamming them.

in LTCs, you get micaiah as much EXP as possible, rig HP and spd on every level up, then pump her with BEXP before 1-9 to make sure that she has 14 spd and enough HP + def to survive a hit. if you don't LTC, then 1-9 has a much safer strategy where micaiah doesn't have to fight at all. investing in micaiah is more trouble than it's worth. you constantly have to put her in dangerous positions just in the vain hope that she can keep up when really you can just not do any of that and make it much easier on yourself.

She is forced anyway and you do not have to do out of your way to get some usefulness out of her. I simply treat her as that chip damage and staff healer going into Part 3 and Part 4. Maybe get a KO her or there.There is still plenty of experience in this game. Leonardo on the other hand I would not even bother trying to field if I can help it. Micaiah > Leonardo.

there is not plenty of EXP in this game, and leonardo is a fair deployment option in 3-6. micaiah is a fine healer even with her 8 base mag as a light sage.

To be fair Micaiah is the best bosskiller in part 1 thanks to Thani.

It's effective against the bosses in chapter 2, 3, 6-2 and 7 of part 1. And it does massive damage do the laguz bosses in 1-4 and in 1-E you have to fight lots of knights.

no, she isn't. you don't have to kill the 1-2 boss in HM and sothe is going to be spending a turn adjacent getting the energy drop. you don't have to kill the 1-3 boss either. the 1-3 armor knight blocking the escape tile is better dealt with using sothe, who doesn't roll over and die if the adjacent iron longbow archer attacks him. the 1-6-2 boss is better dealt with using tauroneo or jill because he stands in a sea of cavaliers, mages, and archers. the 1-7 boss has a storm sword that will blick micaiah and he gets mauled by muarim. 1-E knights are better dealt with using nailah, BK, or tormod.

micaiah is a bad boss killer. the advice to actively train micaiah on HM, especially for more novice players, does more harm than good. get this out of your heads. she's bad at almost everything. she's bad even at healing, but thankfully there's no requirement to be good at healing and she's still the best healer the DB has.

Hmmm, that's pretty rad actually. I've also thought about doing an LTC run without transfer bonuses and see how close I can get to his turn counts [i'm pretty sure he's using transfer bonuses at least for Jill] but like I said I don't have the game anymore and even if I somehow managed to get it I still wouldn't be able to record stuff so I dropped the whole idea. Looking at Chiki's turn counts I don't think there's a whole lot of room to shave off turns without doing super unreliable stuff and even then he gets optimal turn counts for the majority of chapters.

chiki did use transfer bonuses. i remember reading somewhere that he thought transfers saved around 20 turns, which i feel is an overestimate. aside from some really nasty chapters (1-P, 1-9, 2-1), i've mostly matched or beaten his turncounts so far.

Edited February 14, 2015 by dondon151

[Radiant head]

Thani isn't as effective as one would think, given that Micaiah can't double, gets doubled, and can't take a hit. Like even if she leaves on hp left on the boss, she's done. You could have someone else chip first, but then you might as well let someone else get the kill too.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Radiant head