So is possible to beat Lunatic difficult without ever reclassing (among other things)

[Locke087]

So one of many way in I able to actually get enjoyment out of Awakening was play with made up rules among those was never using a second seal (as I think reclassing has no business being in fire emblem, not to mention how broken it was in Awakening and Shadow Dragon) this worked great on hard mode, though a lot of units became useless and whole classes became irrelevant (Sages, Dark Riders, Generals, Warriors(though warriors being useless is par the course for fire emblem), Valkyries (oh far one of my favorite classes has fallen), and War Monks.), still it worked I had my fun. But I when tried to do no Grind, no Second Seal, and no Added Stuff (renown rewards, secret shops,momentary stat booters, no abusing the Fredrick button, among other misc weapon rules) Lunatic playthough it didn't work, first abusing Fredrick was not an option (I know some people like playing Sacred Seth, and Path of Titania but I enjoy Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance quite a bit more), and second I found that while it might be possible in theory to play with the rest of my rules in place it became clear that the game resented me for having them and it became nigh impossible to beat it, because the game had to compensate for all of its broken systems. So without further adieu I will get on with my questions.

1. What is Lunatic like in Fates? is it like Hector Hard Mode, hard but flexible (ie. Most units can still be relevant and useful), it like Radiant Dawn Hard Mode, harder, not as flexible, but still fair, or is like Awakening Lunatic, linear(as there is not often more that on way to approach the map), unbalanced, and no sense of what a difficultly curve is.

2. To me a lot of the replayibility of fire emblem comes from bringing different sets of units to end game, so are most of the units end game relevant (keep in mind that a good unit does not equal being end game relevant, ie Rebecca is not a good unit but she is end game relevant because she can eventually hold her own, Lissa is not end game relevant as all Sage's and War Monk's have no use beyond skill abuse).

3. Are Knights as good as Owsin or Gatrie in this game or at least Gilliam or Brom... I don't need any more Arden's and Kellam's in my life...

4. Are Healers useful for anything other than being a staff bot or I my days of watching Serra wreaking entire armies on mountains over....

5. Are Sages back to the former glory or do Dark Mages make them completely irrelevant again (impression of the same IS employee who thought giving sages knives was a great idea "you know what we should really do give dark mages anima too just to make sages all the more pointless, that is a great idea, also don't forgot to not actually give dark magic to any of the other classes labeled as dark cause that's not confusing at all...)

6. Do have to abuse my Jagan for a long time.

7. Are there any weapons that are broken as heck that I need to avoid using (ie. FE13 so many things, but mostly Nosferatu)

8. Would it be possible to come up with my own weapon durability system (like for example I can only use a weapon for 2-4 maps before have to sell it or put it away I wouldn't actually count the amount of times I used the weapon I am not that boring) or does the amount of weapons I can get/buy make that totally impractical.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Locke087

[MitoRequiem]

So one of many way in I able to actually get enjoyment out of Awakening was play with made up rules among those was never using a second seal (as I think reclassing has no business being in fire emblem, not to mention how broken it was in Awakening and Shadow Dragon) this worked great on hard mode, though a lot of units became unless and whole classes became irrelevant (Sages, Dark Riders, Generals, Warriors(though warriors being useless is par the course for fire emblem), Valkyries (oh far one of my favorite classes has fallen), and War Monks.), still it worked I had my fun. But I when tried to do no Grind, no Second Seal, and no Added Stuff (renown rewards, secret shops,momentary stat booters, no abusing the Fredrick button, among other misc weapon rules) Lunatic playthough it didn't work, first abusing Fredrick was not an option (I know some people like playing Sacred Seth, and Path of Titania but I enjoy Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance quite a bit more), and second I found that while it might be possible in theory to play with the rest of my rules in places it became clear that the game resented me for having them and it became nigh impossible to beat because the game had to compensate for all of its broken systems. so without further adieu I will get on with my questions.

1. What is Lunatic like in Fates? is it like Hector Hard Mode, Hard but Flexible (ie. Most units can still relevant and useful), it like Radiant Dawn Hard Mode, Harder, not as Flexible, but still fair, or is like Awakening Lunatic, linear(as there is not often more that on way to approach the map), unbalanced, and no sense of what a difficultly curve is.

2. To me a lot of the replayibility of fire emblem come from bringing different sets units to end game, so are most of the units end game relevant (keep in mind that a good unit does not equal being end game relevant, ie Rebecca is not a good unit but she is end game relevant because she can eventually hold her own, Lissa is not end game relevant as all Sage's and War Monk's have no use beyond skill abuse).

3. Are Knights as good as Owsin or Gatrie in this game or at least Gilliam or Brom... I don't need any more Arden's and Kellam's in my life...

4. Are Healers useful for anything other than being a staff bot or I my days of watching Serra wreaking entire armies on mountains over....

5. Are Sages back to the former glory or do Dark Mages make them completely irrelevant again (impression of the same IS employee who thought giving sages knives was a great idea "you know what we should really do give dark mages anima too just to make sages all the more pointless, that is a great idea, also don't forgot to not actually give dark magic to any of the other classes labeled as dark cause that's not confusing at all...)

6. Do have to abuse my Jagan for a long time.

7. Are there any weapons that are broken as heck that I need to avoid using (ie. FE 7 Luna, FE11 Wing Spear, FE13 so many things, but mostly Nosferatu)

8. Would it be possible to come up with my own weapon durability system (like for example I can only use a weapon for 2-4 maps before have to sell it or put it away I wouldn't actually count the amount of time I used the weapon I am not that boring) or does the amount of weapons I can get/buy make that totally impractical.

Answer to your title question yes you can beat the game without reclassing

1. It's like Fire Emblem 12 Lunatic where positioning is key and you get punished moreso for shitty positioning rather than bad RNG. EDIT: Forgot to mention I find Fire Emblem Fate's Lunatic to be challenging(well it's braindead easy in birthright imo) but probably the more easier Lunatic difficulties. Mainly because there honestly isn't a lot of bullshit I find.

2. yes?

3. Effie and Benovit are both pretty good. I'd say Effie is like Oswin in Nohr and Benovit is literally just a tank that takes no damage in Nohr. I didn't use him much though cause I don't like how he looks.

4. I mean Elise is a nice glass cannon and Sakura can promote to War Priestess and fuck up stuff with a Magic Bow. So yeah Healers are more than just Staffbots.

5. Spellcaster is pretty good Tsukiyomi in IK, Kamui in all 3 routes, Ophelia(If you want to make her a Spellcaster I guess I prefer Witch). In both Birthright and Conquest Magic users outside of say Leon kinda suck imo. Tsukiyomi can work in Birthright just takes some work. Also Sorc got a HEAVY HEAVY nerf in the Speed department same with Dark Knight but Kamui can make it work. I've done Dark Knight Kamui for Birthright.

6. I didn't tbh everyone says Gunther is good I think he's hot garbage and I didn't need him at all he kinda just took damage here and there for me.

7. Why would you avoid using a good weapon? That seems silly to me I guess no.

8. Don't trip off of durability dude just play the game first lol. You don't get a lot of money in this game the game is designed around not using durability and you know what? It's great cause durability is an annoying mechanic glad it's gone makes weapons more "personal" I guess especially after you forge them.

Edited January 12, 2016 by MitoRequiem

[Tooru]

It's possible, of course.

First ideas of beating hard chapters are always about using units in base class.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Tooru

[Locke087]

Answer to your title question yes you can beat the game without reclassing

1. It's like Fire Emblem 12 Lunatic where positioning is key and you get punished moreso for shitty positioning rather than bad RNG. EDIT: Forgot to mention I find Fire Emblem Fate's Lunatic to be challenging(well it's braindead easy in birthright imo) but probably the more easier Lunatic difficulties. Mainly because there honestly isn't a lot of bullshit I find.

2. yes?

3. Effie and Benovit are both pretty good. I'd say Effie is like Oswin in Nohr and Benovit is literally just a tank that takes no damage in Nohr. I didn't use him much though cause I don't like how he looks.

4. I mean Elise is a nice glass cannon and Sakura can promote to War Priestess and fuck up stuff with a Magic Bow. So yeah Healers are more than just Staffbots.

5. Spellcaster is pretty good Tsukiyomi in IK, Kamui in all 3 routes, Ophelia(If you want to make her a Spellcaster I guess I prefer Witch). In both Birthright and Conquest Magic users outside of say Leon kinda suck imo. Tsukiyomi can work in Birthright just takes some work. Also Sorc got a HEAVY HEAVY nerf in the Speed department same with Dark Knight but Kamui can make it work. I've done Dark Knight Kamui for Birthright.

6. I didn't tbh everyone says Gunther is good I think he's hot garbage and I didn't need him at all he kinda just took damage here and there for me.

7. Why would you avoid using a good weapon? That seems silly to me I guess no.

8. Don't trip off of durability dude just play the game first lol. You don't get a lot of money in this game the game is designed around not using durability and you know what? It's great cause durability is an annoying mechanic glad it's gone makes weapons more "personal" I guess especially after you forge them.

1. I never played FE 12(I have never played, FE 1, 2, and 3/12 I never played 12 cause I don't like shadow dragon) so that is not very helpful, but good that it is less RNG based.

2. Let me say this more simply do most the units either become (or more preferably) stay useful in late game (for example Sages, War Monks, and Generals are not very useful in the end game of awakening). I hate wasting my time with units that amount to nothing.

3. Thank goodness

4. Good, now by glass canon do you mean she is slow or just low defense.

5. Okay I know that they changed magic a little but just so you know Spellcaster and Witch mean nothing mean nothing to me, but it is good to know at that there is at least good mage or is Leon not a mage.... I really should look more into this since I don't care about spoilers for this games...

6. Good as should be, the Jagan shall be benched when his job is done.

7. I don't avoid using good weapon I avoid using horribly broken ones that are easily obtainable and cheap (ie brave weapons are good but usually hard to get, I am cool with those, so I guess I am only talking about Nosferatu in FE 13) this question was far more directed to Nosferatu in FE 13, Henry can solo entire armies with it.

8. Well I was was not going to do it on my first run, but I liked the resource management aspects of the previous fire emblem games... I mean Awakening already got rid of it do to it giving out gold and weapons like it was candy, and making nothing rare.... I would have given up hope for It being part of fire emblem for good now if it was not for Nohr/Conquest being "low on resources"... I thought It might make a interesting run if it was possible, I still might try to find a way to include it.... I will fess up to it if I end liking it, but you are much more likely to find Santa in July then me admitting that I think that the removal of weapon durability is an overall improvement to fire emblem (though I did cerebrate its removal in Fallout so I might eat my words....).

Edited January 13, 2016 by Locke087

[GoXDS]

when did glass cannon mean anything else besides low defense?

[Locke087]

when did glass cannon mean anything else besides low defense?

it does always mean low defense but can also mean they are slow, it is the part of difference between a Druid (or Dark Mage) and a Mage, both can't really take much damage but one of them (the Mage is this case) can also dodge a bunch of those hits, where as a Druid (which is more in line with the true definition of glass canon) cannot be relied upon to dodge, but deals a ton of damage, they are both glass canons of sorts but are used differently.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Locke087

[Tooru]

when did glass cannon mean anything else besides low defense?

glass-> low defense

cannon-> high damage

[GoXDS]

glass-> low defense

cannon-> high damage

I know the high dmg part... meant the def vs spd part...

it does always mean low defense but can also mean they are slow, it is the part of difference between a Druid (or Dark Mage) and a Mage, both can't really take much damage but one of them (the Mage is this case) can also dodge a bunch of those hits, where as a Druid (which is more in line with the true definition of glass canon) cannot be relied upon to dodge, but deals a ton of damage, they are both glass canons of sorts but are used differently.

granted, speed isn't usually implied in the term but I guess... also misread initially to be slow OR low def rather than low def and maybe slow.

[MitoRequiem]

1. I never played FE 12(I have never played, FE 1, 2, and 3/12 I never played 12 cause I don't like shadow dragon) so that is not very helpful, but good that it is less RNG based.

2. Let me say this more simply do most the units either become (or more preferably) stay useful in late game (for example Sages, War Monks, and Generals are not very useful in the end game of awakening). I hate wasting my time with units that amount to nothing.

3. Thank goodness

4. Good, now by glass canon do you mean she is slow or just low defense.

5. Okay I know that they changed magic a little but just so you know Spellcaster and Witch mean nothing mean nothing to me, but it is good to know at that there is at least good mage or is Leon not a mage.... I really should look more into this since I don't care about spoilers for this games...

6. Good as should be, the Jagan shall be benched when his job is done.

7. I don't avoid using good weapon I avoid using horribly broken ones that are easily obtainable and cheap (ie brave weapons are good but usually hard to get, I am cool with those, so I guess I am only talking about Nosferatu in FE 13) this question was far more directed to Nosferatu in FE 13, Henry can solo entire army with it.

8. Well I was was not going to do it on my first run, but I liked the resource management aspects of the previous fire emblem games... I mean Awakening already got rid of do to it giving out gold and weapons like it was candy, and making nothing rare.... I would have given up hope for It being part of fire emblem for good now if it was not for Nohr/Conquest being "low on resources"... I thought It might make a interesting run if it was possible, I still might try to find a way to include it.... I will fess up to it if I end liking it, but you are much more likely to find Santa in July then me admitting that I think that the removal of weapon durability is an overall improvement to fire emblem (though I cerebrate its removal in Fallout so I might eat my words....).

1. I pretty much explained how FE12 Lunatic is in my first post I thought... Go play it nerd!!! good game.

2. There are no classes in this game that really feel that way outside of like Golden Kite Warrior(though tbh I haven't tested it with other Peg Knights cause Falcon Knight is just better) I guess simple answer no.

4. I think everyone else pretty much answered that question for you.

5. Spellcaster = New Mage, Witch = DLC Class that is based off of a Gaiden class, Dark Mage = Dark Mage from Awakening it got heavily nerfed in the Speed department but Kamui and Leon can make it work as well as Ophelia. You said you don't care about spoilers so I'm just gonna name shit that you can look up later :P Leon is a Dark Knight.

6. Ye dude Gunther is garbage man lol. I don't even think he's really necessary for Lunatic outside of literally one chapter.

7. Yeah there is nothing really crazy broken on the tier of FE4 weapons or FE13's Nosferatu.

8. You can have resource management without durability, this isn't the first FE game to not have durability. Also Nohr pretty much gives you no money but you can fix that by having Midoriko as a Herb Merchant(When she kills stuff she gets gold, honestly this is needed in Hard/Lunatic I find) and DLC. A lot of people were sketch about durability but most people I've talked to thought it was done well in this game as in not in at all. I'd be open to durability returning if it was done like FE4 though.

[Tooru]

When she kills stuff she gets gold

It is Anna's personal skill.

Great Merchant's Easy Life is obtaining a Golden Coin after moving during the first seven turns.

[Aggro Incarnate]

So is possible to beat Lunatic difficult without ever reclassing

To make the long story short, Yes.

Although how easy/difficult this makes the gameplay may depend on what exactly you mean by reclassing. I'm guessing you're allowing for promotions via Master Seals since otherwise the answer might turn into a No for many other games as well. But for instance is Paladin -> Great Knight (which share the same unpromoted class) a reclassing you'd want to avoid? For sake of clarification perhaps it's best to go into how reclassing works in this game.

There are 5 ways units can class change in FE if/Fates

[1] Promotion via Master Seals (straightforward)

[2] Promotion via Child Seals (2nd gen only: this not only promotes the unit but grants level-ups depending on your progress on the game I think? Later recruitment means child seals promote those units into higher levels and corresponding amount of stat growths)

[3] Reclassing via Parallel Seals (similar but not identical to Second Seals in Awakening)

[4] Reclassing via Marriage Seals (allows reclassing into the primary class of one's spouse)

[5] Reclassing via Buddy Seals (allows reclassing into the primary class of A+ Support; a unit can A+ support with maximum of one unit)

This may initially suggest reclassing is even more broken in this game, but this is actually far from the case.

1) Reclassing choices have been nerfed since Shadow Dragon/New Mystery (where there were just so many reclass options) and Awakening, although there are more choices than the GBA or GameCube/Wii FE games. Given your familiarity with Awakening and the inherent initial similarities between the two games I'll mostly make comparisons between Awakening and if/Fates.

In Awakening each 1st gen character has 3 unpromoted base classes available to reclass into, and this means each 1st gen unit has access to 4-6 promoted classes.If you get to 2nd gen. Plus the Avatar and his/her offspring has access to all classes (except Dancer, Manakete and Taguel) as their gender allowed.

FE if/Fates reduced the number of accessible unpromoted base classes for each character from 3 to 2, and this is the case for the Avatar as well (you get to choose their 2nd base class during character creation). This means each character has only 3-4 classes to choose from after promotion by default. In addition to that reclassing seals tend to be quite pricey and not so great on availability outside shops. While there are special seals throughout the game that allows units into class change into the primary class of his/her spouse (S support) or best buddy (A+ support; max. 1 per character is possible), those are also pricey and less in availability, especially so for Nohr/Conquest where the amount of gold you get from the game without DLC is quite limited.

2) Units retain their level when reclassed via a Parallel Seal, and one can no longer demote units into their unpromoted classes. While this makes skill farming a bit easier, this also means there's a limit as to how many times a unit can earn skills since one skill is obtained during a level-up. (Total of 19 level ups before promotion, 19 more after promotion) Once you hit the level cap you cannot learn any more skills unless you use an Eternal Seal which increases max level by 5, but eternal seals are very expensive in this game (1 eternal seal may amount to something like half or more of all your gold in a no-grind run) Also consider that reclassing changes growth rates since each class has its own growth rate bonus in addition to of those of individual units. This on top of limited availability of these niche-seals means reclassing is less broken (under no-grind contexts).

Here's an example, taken from the Fire Emblem Wiki (http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Parallel_Seal)

If a Level 15 Elite Ninja reclasses into a Hero, they will first learn the Mercenary skills Stubbornness [Level 1 skill for Mercenary] at Level 16, followed by Patient Assurance [Level 10 skill for Mercenary] Level 17, then learn Sol [Level 5 skill for Hero] at Level 18, and Axebreaker [Level 15 skill for Hero] at Level 19.

3) Skills are more balanced in this game; more of them are useful, less of them are overpowered. I'd say that in FE if/Fates every skill has potential of being an major asset, some of them can be extremely helpful, very few have the potential of breaking the game, and none of them are necessary to the point that one cannot progress in the game. If you're playing Conquest in higher difficulties, I don't think any skill set really breaks the game per se. In general in all 3 routes, skill farming is useful but not necessary up to Hard mode. In Lunatic mode skill farming can be extremely helpful but still not necessary. No-reclassing playthroughs are hence still going to be a challenge, but less of a preventative measure from breaking the game.

Well, that is, unless you're using Streetpass to recruit OP units or buy skills...

Moving on to the details of your post,

1. What is Lunatic like in Fates? is it like Hector Hard Mode, hard but flexible (ie. Most units can still be relevant and useful), it like Radiant Dawn Hard Mode, harder, not as flexible, but still fair, or is like Awakening Lunatic, linear(as there is not often more that on way to approach the map), unbalanced, and no sense of what a difficultly curve is.

1. Lunatic Mode in if/Fates is manageable playing with a moderate degree of flexibility. In terms of difficulty and flexibility only (and not features of the entire gameplay) I'd say Hoshido/Birthright Lunatic is closer to Hector Hard Mode, Nohr/Conquest Lunatic is a bit more like RD but with less of those powerful recruitable units later in the game, and Invisible Kingdom/Revelations a bit more like Awakening between Hard and Lunatic (IK is like Maniac mode in Awakening if there ever was one). In terms of stats and early game, the game is much more balanced than Awakening. There's nothing like FeMU!Chrom Sorcerer Nosferatu tanking family of death destroying vanilla Lunatic Mode back in Awakening present in if/Fates.

In terms of classes certain classes may have generally better stats than others, but with stat growths, healing, types of weapons, and maybe skill farming in mind having a bit of everything is generally a plus.

My personal impression from what I've seen so far is (this is personal so take it with a grain of salt)

Enemy stats relative your team: Awakening Hard ~ Hoshido Hard < Hoshido Lunatic ~ Nohr Hard < IK Luantic < Nohr Lunatic < Awakening Lunatic=Lunatic+

Amount of thinking required: Awakening Hard < Hoshido Hard ~ IK Hard < Awakening Lunatic (allowing for broken mechanics) < Hoshido Lunatic < IK Lunatic < Nohr Hard < Nohr Lunatic < Awakening Lunatic+

(Hoshido/Birthright Lunatic is a bit like playing Awakening Hard mode without grinding, a bit like Maniac Mode in New Mystery methinks; IK/Revelations Lunatic can be done with low manning using OP units but not broken, Nohr/Conquest Lunatic is a challenge)

2. To me a lot of the replayibility of fire emblem comes from bringing different sets of units to end game, so are most of the units end game relevant (keep in mind that a good unit does not equal being end game relevant, ie Rebecca is not a good unit but she is end game relevant because she can eventually hold her own, Lissa is not end game relevant as all Sage's and War Monk's have no use beyond skill abuse).

2. The game in general is much more balanced to the point where I'd say most balancing issues in Awakening has been fixed. (Conquest is one of the best balanced game in the series IMO) Up to hard mode I think almost all units are usable up to endgame, though Invisible Kingdom/Revelations has issues with base stats on some characters. In Lunatic mode I'd say around 75% of units available to each route are well usable by the endgame. (This does not mean you can train ~75% of your units close to max-level in a single playthrough though - you've got to pick and choose eventually. Perhaps the percentages may go a bit less for IK/Revelations due to base stat issues with some units). There are few good units that will most likely be extremely helpful in your endgame if don't bench them but not baby them either, but with some calculated effort (not necessarily grinding as in Awakening) most units are candidates to be profitably used throughout the entire game. Also the game encourages players to train your units overall since EXP decay occurs much more rapidly in this game; once a character is overlevelled, the EXP they get from battling/defeating units decrease quite dramatically, considerably more so than the previous FE entries, and the map design, chapter objectives, enemy placements and reinforcements tend to be such that discourage low-manning, especially in Nohr/Conquest.

3. Are Knights as good as Owsin or Gatrie in this game or at least Gilliam or Brom... I don't need any more Arden's and Kellam's in my life...

3. Depends a bit on which path and difficulty you're playing, but in Nohr/Conquest Knights/Generals are invaluable assets since tanking units are a thing. Generals at level 5 also learn the Defensive Formation skill where neither they nor the enemy can double-attack in battle, making up for their low speed so they don't get double-attacked.

4. Are Healers useful for anything other than being a staff bot or I my days of watching Serra wreaking entire armies on mountains over....

4. Most staff users, although to varying degrees, function as something other than healers: Maids/Butlers use daggers, War Priests/Priestesses and Adventurers use bows, Falcon Knights use lances, Strategists use tomes, and White Blood uses swords and dragonstones in addition to staves.

5. Are Sages back to the former glory or do Dark Mages make them completely irrelevant again (impression of the same IS employee who thought giving sages knives was a great idea "you know what we should really do give dark mages anima too just to make sages all the more pointless, that is a great idea, also don't forgot to not actually give dark magic to any of the other classes labeled as dark cause that's not confusing at all...)

5. No Sages in Nohr/Conquest, but there are Spellcasters/Exorcists which are Mage/Sage equivalents in FE if/Fates available in Hoshido/Birthright and Invisible Kingdom/Revelations. Dark Mage, Sorcerer and Dark Knight have been heavily nerfed, mostly in terms of speed and skill base stats and growths. Also, Troubadour -> Valkyrie has been renamed to Rod Knight -> Strategist (in the Japanese version) probably due to these classes no longer being gender locked, and these classes can be useful for certain characters but they to have the same the same issues as the other tome-users in Conquest. Magic in general has been nerfed since Awakening, although less so for Hoshido/Birthright than Nohr/Conquest. Granted, magic users are still quite helpful throughout the game, but they're not to the point where they completely overshadow bow users. On the contrary, you'd find that using bow and kunai/shuriken units to be extremely useful in this game.

Note that Sorcerers are the only class in FE if/Fates to reach S-rank in tomes, and the Dark Mages/Sorcerers (not Dark Knights though) are the only classes that can use Dark Magic. However there's only one dark magic tome in the entire game, Nosferatu, and it's taken a big nerf since Awakening (more on that below). Dark Mages/Sorcerers are just better thought of as standard magic users in Nohr as opposed to Spellcaster/Exorcists in Hoshido.

6. Do have to abuse my Jagan for a long time.

6. IMO the Jagen in FE if/Fates is one of the more lackluster units in the series, in terms of growths and availability. I'd say the Gunther, the Jagen in Fates, is only slightly more useful than Jagen in Shadow Dragon. He is not at all an Oifay, Seth or Titania.

7. Are there any weapons that are broken as heck that I need to avoid using (ie. FE13 so many things, but mostly Nosferatu)

8. Would it be possible to come up with my own weapon durability system (like for example I can only use a weapon for 2-4 maps before have to sell it or put it away I wouldn't actually count the amount of times I used the weapon I am not that boring) or does the amount of weapons I can get/buy make that totally impractical.

7. I don't think so. For example, Nosferatu can no longer hit twice, critical hit, or trigger in-battle skills. (I wouldn't say Nosferatu is useless in FE if/Fates though, just not as broken as it was in Awakening: it can be very useful when the right unit at the right time and positioning, but it's by no means a panacea move) In general, there's no single weapon that gets you through the entire game, and especially in Conquest Lunatic you'd have to be switching and trading weapons A LOT.

8. I don't think the new system desperately calls for players to create their own durability system to make it fair, although you could perfectly go on about doing it if you wanted to.

With the removal of weapon durability the way in which one utilises weapons become quite different from previous FE games. Here's a summary of some changes. (Spoiler Tag not necessarily entailing spoilers but more so just to hide a long list)

0) Weapon Triangle changes: Sword/Magic > Axe/Bows > Lance/Kunai > Sword/Magic

1) Equipping Bronze weapons (and standard E rank tome/kunai/bow) gives a critical evade bonus (+10) but cannot trigger critical attacks or in-battle skills

2) Iron weapons are standard D-rank weapons (the rank for each weapon is pretty much the same with Awakening overall)

3) Equipping Steel weapons (and standard C rank tome/kunai/bow) decreases avoid (-5) and lowers attack speed by 3

4) Equipping Silver weapons (and standard B rank tome/kunai/bow) decreases critical evade (-5) and reduce strength/magic and skill by 2 with every battle. (1 of each stat recovers per turn)

5) Equipping Brave weapons lowers defense and resistance by 4

6) Standard weapons from each category is twice as expensive as the previous. (Ex. Brave Sword is 2^4=16x the cost of a Bronze Sword)

7) Equipping Killer weapons reduces avoid (-10), hits 4x damage instead of 3x. More expensive than steel but less expensive than silver.

8) Many ranged physical weapons (ex. Javelins, Hand Axes) and some weapons with niche abilities (ex. Nosferatu) can no longer double-attack, crit or trigger in-battle skills.

9) S-rank weapons have ~20 might but using them halves strength/magic until the next attack

10) Reaver weapons that reverse the weapon triangle effect make a return

11) Daggers/Shurikens debuff the enemy

12) Weapons in general come with their own set of unit/enemy buffs/debuffs

13) Forges work quite differently; requires gems that you get from My Castle activities and a copy of the same weapon

(1 upgrade of an iron sword requires 2 iron swords; likewise 7 upgrades of an iron sword requires 2^7=128 iron swords)

Hence forging beyond 3 upgrades become quite difficult

14) Offensive staves like Freeze, Stat Debuffs, and Draw feature; these have much lower availability than Rescue staves back in Awakening for our team, but the enemy has loads of them and will love spamming them :(

15) Healing depend on bit less on the magic stat and more on the staff type (Awakening had Magic/2 added to healing, if/Fates instead has Magic/3)

16) No more Fire/Thunder/Wind anima in magic: ex. Thunder and Fire are no longer parallel tomes, now they have different weapon rank

It's not like with weapon durability gone one can break the game with forged armoury, Killer/Silver/Brave weapons and Nosferatu. The game becomes more about the right unit using the right weapon at the right time and place, while you'd probably have to play the actual game to get used to it though.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Aggro Incarnate

[Ownagepuffs]

So one of many way in I able to actually get enjoyment out of Awakening was play with made up rules among those was never using a second seal (as I think reclassing has no business being in fire emblem, not to mention how broken it was in Awakening and Shadow Dragon) this worked great on hard mode, though a lot of units became useless and whole classes became irrelevant (Sages, Dark Riders, Generals, Warriors(though warriors being useless is par the course for fire emblem), Valkyries (oh far one of my favorite classes has fallen), and War Monks.), still it worked I had my fun. But I when tried to do no Grind, no Second Seal, and no Added Stuff (renown rewards, secret shops,momentary stat booters, no abusing the Fredrick button, among other misc weapon rules) Lunatic playthough it didn't work, first abusing Fredrick was not an option (I know some people like playing Sacred Seth, and Path of Titania but I enjoy Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance quite a bit more), and second I found that while it might be possible in theory to play with the rest of my rules in place it became clear that the game resented me for having them and it became nigh impossible to beat it, because the game had to compensate for all of its broken systems. So without further adieu I will get on with my questions.

1. What is Lunatic like in Fates? is it like Hector Hard Mode, hard but flexible (ie. Most units can still be relevant and useful), it like Radiant Dawn Hard Mode, harder, not as flexible, but still fair, or is like Awakening Lunatic, linear(as there is not often more that on way to approach the map), unbalanced, and no sense of what a difficultly curve is.

Awakening Lunatic is pretty fun tbh. Anyway Hoshido LM is like... Ephraim Hard Mode? A little tricky in some parts but still easy overall. Nohr LM is pretty mean but manageable for the most part (FE12 Maniac?), but the last few chapters are straight Lunatic+. IK LM plays very similarly to FE13 LM where you are expected to keep a handful of units over the exp curve for basically the entire game.

2. To me a lot of the replayibility of fire emblem comes from bringing different sets of units to end game, so are most of the units end game relevant (keep in mind that a good unit does not equal being end game relevant, ie Rebecca is not a good unit but she is end game relevant because she can eventually hold her own, Lissa is not end game relevant as all Sage's and War Monk's have no use beyond skill abuse).

In Hoshido, yes. Nohr is pretty punishing of suboptimal team compositions and IK Lunatic requires some pretty hard commitments. For IK there are a handful of characters that are worthless but for the most part it's all about extreme favoritism (or being a prepromote).

3. Are Knights as good as Owsin or Gatrie in this game or at least Gilliam or Brom... I don't need any more Arden's and Kellam's in my life...

Kellam's actually one of the series' better Knights. Anyway, in Nohr, Effie is a shitstomping goddess of destruction and Benoit is arguably the worst character in Nohr. In IK they are both worthless.

4. Are Healers useful for anything other than being a staff bot or I my days of watching Serra wreaking entire armies on mountains over....

They can fight if you want them to, but they are better off staffing.

5. Are Sages back to the former glory or do Dark Mages make them completely irrelevant again (impression of the same IS employee who thought giving sages knives was a great idea "you know what we should really do give dark mages anima too just to make sages all the more pointless, that is a great idea, also don't forgot to not actually give dark magic to any of the other classes labeled as dark cause that's not confusing at all...)

Exorcists (this game's version of Sages) are pretty powerful, having high growths in the key areas. Nosferatu is not as stupid as it was in Awakening, but Sorcs have Crit bonus and better skills overall. One is not clearly better than the other.

6. Do have to abuse my Jagan for a long time.

There is no Jagen in Nohr and Hoshido. In IK you do not have to abuse the Jagen because he's kept in check pretty quickly. You should still use him for attack stance, pair up bonuses, or rescue utility though.

7. Are there any weapons that are broken as heck that I need to avoid using (ie. FE13 so many things, but mostly Nosferatu)

The Prf weapons of the royals are broke as fuck but besides that nothing else.

8. Would it be possible to come up with my own weapon durability system (like for example I can only use a weapon for 2-4 maps before have to sell it or put it away I wouldn't actually count the amount of times I used the weapon I am not that boring) or does the amount of weapons I can get/buy make that totally impractical.

Impractical.

Answers in bold.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Ownagepuffs

[Locke087]

Kellam's actually one of the series' better Knights.

No... no he is not, I had a 20/20 Vanilla Kellam he was totally worthless while not as worthless as Arden, he is still worthless. I even did a Donnel X Sully, Kjelle (rated at 275 (lol the game seem to think, 80 hp, 49 str, 22 mag, 43 skill, 35 spd, 47 lck, 49 + 2 def, 28 res) just see if it is General Class in general (pun intended) that sucks (and so I could street pass super op units) in this game and even she even really not that useful (not worthless though but I had to use Donnel to make that so), though I think that Arden and Kellam have much the same problem in that they are low movement and low speed units in a movement and speed focused game, and why have a knight well Tiki and Henry are all the tank you will ever need.

To make the long story short, Yes.

Although how easy/difficult this makes the gameplay may depend on what exactly you mean by reclassing. I'm guessing you're allowing for promotions via Master Seals since otherwise the answer might turn into a No for many other games as well. But for instance is Paladin -> Great Knight (which share the same unpromoted class) a reclassing you'd want to avoid? For sake of clarification perhaps it's best to go into how reclassing works in this game.

Branching Classes are fine. I have never equated reclassing with promotion, I have heard of people doing no promotion runs and I think that is crazy... So yes Master Seals only.

thank guys this helps.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Locke087

[ckc22]

To make the long story short, Yes.

0) Weapon Triangle changes: Sword/Magic > Axe/Bows > Lance/Kunai > Sword/Magic

1) Equipping Bronze weapons (and standard E rank tome/kunai/bow) gives a critical evade bonus (+10) but cannot trigger critical attacks or in-battle skills

2) Iron weapons are standard D-rank weapons (the rank for each weapon is pretty much the same with Awakening overall)

3) Equipping Steel weapons (and standard C rank tome/kunai/bow) decreases avoid (-5) and lowers attack speed by 3

4) Equipping Silver weapons (and standard B rank tome/kunai/bow) decreases critical evade (-5) and reduce strength/magic and skill by 2 with every battle. (1 of each stat recovers per turn)

5) Equipping Brave weapons lowers defense and resistance by 4

6) Standard weapons from each category is twice as expensive as the previous. (Ex. Brave Sword is 2^4=16x the cost of a Bronze Sword)

7) Equipping Killer weapons reduces avoid (-10), hits 4x damage instead of 3x. More expensive than steel but less expensive than silver.

8) Many ranged physical weapons (ex. Javelins, Hand Axes) and some weapons with niche abilities (ex. Nosferatu) can no longer double-attack, crit or trigger in-battle skills.

9) S-rank weapons have ~20 might but using them halves strength/magic until the next attack

10) Reaver weapons that reverse the weapon triangle effect make a return

11) Daggers/Shurikens debuff the enemy

12) Weapons in general come with their own set of unit/enemy buffs/debuffs

13) Forges work quite differently; requires gems that you get from My Castle activities and a copy of the same weapon

(1 upgrade of an iron sword requires 2 iron swords; likewise 7 upgrades of an iron sword requires 2^7=128 iron swords)

Hence forging beyond 3 upgrades become quite difficult

14) Offensive staves like Freeze, Stat Debuffs, and Draw feature; these have much lower availability than Rescue staves back in Awakening for our team, but the enemy has loads of them and will love spamming them :(

15) Healing depend on bit less on the magic stat and more on the staff type (Awakening had Magic/2 added to healing, if/Fates instead has Magic/3)

16) No more Fire/Thunder/Wind anima in magic: ex. Thunder and Fire are no longer parallel tomes, now they have different weapon rank

All of this mostly makes me feel like I would have preferred keeping durability. I don't like all of the debuffs for using the weapons, or suddenly changing the rules "cuz reasons" like "oh well we just decided these can't double, use procs, or crit" it all feels very patchwork and much less like it's following a standard set of principles.

Edited January 13, 2016 by ckc22

[astrophys]

No... no he is not, I had a 20/20 Vanilla Kellam he was totally worthless while not as worthless as Arden, he is still worthless.

PEMN. Personal Experience Means Nothing.

Rather, what we really mean by this is that its possible for the RNG to turn out on a particularly playthrough so that one unit ends up significantly better than they normally do, significantly worse than they normally do, or ends up growing their stats in a highly atypical manner such that they're good at different stats than they are supposed to be, such on that they take on a non-standard role for that character.

So that you had a "totally worthless" 20/20 Kellam isn't terribly meaningful on its own , as your Kellam could have been RNG-screwed or could have had weird stat growths compared to a regular Kellam.

What would be meaningful would be if we analyzed Kellam's stats and bases and concluded that he was likely to end up being terrible for a large fraction of the people who tried using him, or alternately he was likely to end up great for a large fraction of the people who tried using him, or as yet another possibility perhaps he tends to common end up mediocre. Perhaps your result was an outlier and an uncommon result, or perhaps its a typical result. You need to look at the numbers in some way to make that judgment.

[Azz]

Also, I don't believe anyone pointed this out, but level ups on Lunatic are fixed. I don't believe they work the same as in PoR fixed mode, but I know they are fixed. (At least that is what I heard. Feel free to correct me. I have limited experience with Lunatic.)

Also, as for the whole custom weapon durability, like Ownagepuffs said, it is impractical and the the debuffs certain weapons have, such as silvers, as decent enough to outweigh the need for durability. Also you get used t it after a while.

[Thor Odinson]

Also, I don't believe anyone pointed this out, but level ups on Lunatic are fixed. I don't believe they work the same as in PoR fixed mode, but I know they are fixed. (At least that is what I heard. Feel free to correct me. I have limited experience with Lunatic.)

From accounts of some friends of mine who has the Japanese game, it seems like each character gets its own pseudorandom RN string for level ups, generated at recruitment time.

[Tooru]

From accounts of some friends of mine who has the Japanese game, it seems like each character gets its own pseudorandom RN string for level ups, generated at recruitment time.

Exactly.

Units may still have much higher/lower stats than they are supposed to be.

[Locke087]

PEMN. Personal Experience Means Nothing.

Rather, what we really mean by this is that its possible for the RNG to turn out on a particularly playthrough so that one unit ends up significantly better than they normally do, significantly worse than they normally do, or ends up growing their stats in a highly atypical manner such that they're good at different stats than they are supposed to be, such on that they take on a non-standard role for that character.

So that you had a "totally worthless" 20/20 Kellam isn't terribly meaningful on its own , as your Kellam could have been RNG-screwed or could have had weird stat growths compared to a regular Kellam.

What would be meaningful would be if we analyzed Kellam's stats and bases and concluded that he was likely to end up being terrible for a large fraction of the people who tried using him, or alternately he was likely to end up great for a large fraction of the people who tried using him, or as yet another possibility perhaps he tends to common end up mediocre. Perhaps your result was an outlier and an uncommon result, or perhaps its a typical result. You need to look at the numbers in some way to make that judgment.

Your right he could maybe turn out good sometimes if you make him into a Great Knight (even then I don't think you should use him) but like Arden and other knights in FE 4 when you talk about just there stats they are pretty good, but in the end they are still kind of worthless... like I said "I think that Arden and Kellam (and all knights/generals in awakening) have much the same problem in that they are low movement and low speed units in a movement and speed focused game, and why have a knight when Tiki and Henry are all the tank you will ever need." Awakening is just too fast paced for knights to be actually good units, they just become dead weights, especially if pair up is allowed. I don't think Kellam is a bad unit so much as he is irrelevant, much like Sages are irrelevant in Awakening. Because it is not that they are bad units, as much that they are too slow to keep up with the rest of the cast.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Locke087

[Shadow Mir]

All of this mostly makes me feel like I would have preferred keeping durability. I don't like all of the debuffs for using the weapons, or suddenly changing the rules "cuz reasons" like "oh well we just decided these can't double, use procs, or crit" it all feels very patchwork and much less like it's following a standard set of principles.

I can't speak for anyone else here, and I dunno if you'd agree with this, but personally, one of my biggest gripes with durability is that it, by its very nature, winds up enforcing "Too Awesome To Use" (basically, if you can't replace it easily, if at all, it tends to go unused - long range tomes and other unique weapons tend to be a big offender in this regard).

Edited January 14, 2016 by Levant Colthearts