Best personal skill

[Quintessence]

I said it back in the other thread, but the problem with that is that Misfortunate almost never has any significant effect on the enemy. unless they're one of several very specific classes, especially in lategame (thanks, Silver!). Woohoo, my guys have a slightly higher chance to crit the poor saps that are within two spaces of Arthur!

I agree that it is not as useful in early game but as soon as you access Killer Weapons by mid and late game you'll note the difference, specially on Crt classes like Sorcs, Zerkers and Snipers. Besides, there are plenty of supports that buff crt upon Dual Attack.

[Shadow Mir]

I agree that it is not as useful in early game but as soon as you access Killer Weapons by mid and late game you'll note the difference, specially on Crt classes like Sorcs, Zerkers and Snipers. Besides, there are plenty of supports that buff crt upon Dual Attack.

And Misfortunate doesn't add that much because nearly everything in the game doesn't have anywhere near enough CEv to suffer anything resembling a significant drop to CEv. Even if they did, crits are horribly lopsided in the enemy's favour. . . Basically, the risk/reward aspect of Misfortunate is NOT in the player's favour. And that's on top of the fact that I don't think Killer weapons are all that great.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Based Goomy]

Really early game, Anna's skill gives the player a little upwards of 100G. As for late game, I haven't really seen much activation of her skills aside from grinding, and even then those are entirely based on opponent's level, so based on how high leveled your opponent is, you may get somewhere between 100-1000G upon activation.

[Quintessence]

And Misfortunate doesn't adds that much because nearly everything in the game doesn't have anywhere near enough CEv to suffer anything resembling a significant drop to CEv. Even if they did, crits are horribly lopsided in the enemy's favour. . . Basically, the risk/reward aspect of Misfortunate is NOT in the player's favour. And that's on top of the fact that I don't think Killer weapons are all that great.

Why is it not in the player's favor in the end? Arthur only suffers -5 ddg while the enemy is suffering basically the same or up to -15, in cases you fight Master Ninjas or Spear Masters. You can control the loss of dodge with either Pair Up or Dual Attack, making the loss not significant or zero with support bonuses. Another thing is if you throw Arthur without help which is dumb because he has terrible hit, lck and unreliable durability. But Misfortunate is totally in the player's favor, be it that the benefits are slight or not.

[joshcja]

And Misfortunate doesn't add that much because nearly everything in the game doesn't have anywhere near enough CEv to suffer anything resembling a significant drop to CEv. Even if they did, crits are horribly lopsided in the enemy's favour. . . Basically, the risk/reward aspect of Misfortunate is NOT in the player's favour. And that's on top of the fact that I don't think Killer weapons are all that great.

I too despise killer weapons~

[Fircoal]

All of the royal's (including Corrin) personal skills are really good.

Also Soleil. Her personal skill is great. (wow if you put Female Corrin behind Soleil you can get +10 hit +4 damage and -4 damage taken. That's pretty nice~) (It's also one of the easiest skills to set up by far x3 )

[Shadow Mir]

Why is it not in the player's favor in the end? Arthur only suffers -5 ddg while the enemy is suffering basically the same or up to -15, in cases you fight Master Ninjas or Spear Masters. You can control the loss of dodge with either Pair Up or Dual Attack, making the loss not significant or zero with support bonuses. Another thing is if you throw Arthur without help which is dumb because he has terrible hit, lck and unreliable durability. But Misfortunate is totally in the player's favor, be it that the benefits are slight or not.

Because of how much more meaningful crit is to the enemy than it is to you (which is why I think the "benefit" of Misfortunate doesn't make up for making an already bad situation worse; it's also why I avoid Berserkers like the plague).

I too despise killer weapons~

That's laying it on a bit thick, but I think they're unreliable (not unlike was the case in Radiant Dawn, albeit for different reasons). I'd rather have 3-4 extra damage over a higher chance to critical when either way, a critical pretty much means whoever's on the receiving end is dead meat.

That being said, I'd have to agree with Soleil's personal being good, what with my inclination to field a team that's mostly female.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Mondoflow]

Because of how much more meaningful crit is to the enemy than it is to you (which is why I think the "benefit" of Misfortunate doesn't make up for making an already bad situation worse; it's also why I avoid Berserkers like the plague).

That's laying it on a bit thick, but I think they're unreliable (not unlike was the case in Radiant Dawn, albeit for different reasons). I'd rather have 3-4 extra damage over a higher chance to critical when either way, a critical pretty much means whoever's on the receiving end is dead meat.

That being said, I'd have to agree with Soleil's personal being good, what with my inclination to field a team that's mostly female.

Soleil's is definitely top notch, but I'd say it's just as easy to activate Ryoma's Bushido, which gets you a little bit more than Sisterhood.

[kcirrot]

Meh. I pretty much never bothered with forging in past FE games. I don't see any reason to bother with it now, with the way it's been revamped and the fact that the improvements are minimal. Especially on Conquest, because of limited resources. Creativity is not my strong suit, either. . .

I can see this in Conquest, but for endgame and for the other paths, forging is insane. At +6 and +7 any weapon gets +10 and +15 crit respectively, assuming the weapon can crit. This can turn really ordinary weapons into better weapons than legendary weapons.

For example, a Thunder +7 is Mt 16, Hit 100, Crit 15, Avo 0 and range 1-2

For comparison, Leo's Brynhildr is Mt 10, Hit 80, Crit 5 and range 1-2

And while it is expensive and time consuming to gather all the resources and the 128,000 needed to buy enough Thunder's, I've been happy with the results.

[Shadow Mir]

I can see this in Conquest, but for endgame and for the other paths, forging is insane. At +6 and +7 any weapon gets +10 and +15 crit respectively, assuming the weapon can crit. This can turn really ordinary weapons into better weapons than legendary weapons.

For example, a Thunder +7 is Mt 16, Hit 100, Crit 15, Avo 0 and range 1-2

For comparison, Leo's Brynhildr is Mt 10, Hit 80, Crit 5 and range 1-2

And while it is expensive and time consuming to gather all the resources and the 128,000 needed to buy enough Thunder's, I've been happy with the results.

Meh. I'm not impressed, given how tedious getting a weapon to +7 is... I'd rather use my resources for other, better things. Especially since opponents in PvP can just turn off that +7 that you had to put a lot of time and resources into getting (or so I read).

Edited April 15, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[DoesntKnowHowToPlay]

Kidnap is a ton of regular skills in one nice Niles-shaped package. Don't see how this hasn't been mentioned yet (unless I missed it?)

Lily's Poise, Rose's Thorns, Vow of Friendship, and Supportive are also all solid.

[ILikeKirbys]

Personally, there are 3 skill I think are best, at least as far as I'm concerned:

Sakura's Quiet Strength is great for defending, or just letting a bunch of enemies charge into death by counterattack, while making it easier for your defender to survive to see the next Player Phase. Maybe it's just how I play, but taking a bit less damage in an area large enough to avoid enemies being able to shoot Sakura over my other units is extremely valuable for me.

On a related note, Elise's Lily's Poise is almost better than Quiet Strength, at least for me. It's good when 2-range enemies don't exist, but when they're around, I can't have Elise in a position where she can get hit (I have yet to see an Elise who can take a non-magical hit). Still, the buff is beautiful, so it's not a bad skill, just a bit more difficult for me to use than Quiet Strength.

Or, Azura's Healing Descant. Amaterasu-lite is always nice. Does it stack with Amaterasu? Because I want to say it does (in which case it's even better, since Azura can grab that off the Kinshi Knight line without A+\S supports), but I dunno for certain. If it does though, then it can be upgraded to a free Renewal with larger range, which is just amazing. Makes Azura more useful too, which is nice, since I don't like using non-combat units unless they can heal.

Of these, I'd probably pick Quiet Strength (less damage taken is less damage taken, and it has a larger area than Lily's Poise), since it doesn't require upgrading to be amazing (like Healing Descant, which is okay but not great until you add Amaterasu to it) or leave Sakura vulnerable as often (like Lily's Poise, which sometimes requires leaving Elise more vulnerable than I'd like to in order to use it, though if you could make Elise into a tank this'd probably be my pick).

Not necessarily the best skill, just the best one for me.

Honorable mentions (a handful of skills I like, but don't really prefer to the above three):

Ryoma's Bushido, Takumi's Competitive, and Corrin's Supportive are all good. Bushido and Competitive are limited a bit by the fact that only Ryoma and Takumi benefit from them, while Corrin's is for everyone (except for Corrin) but requires a C Support (not too hard to get, I don't think, but it's still a bit limited). I'm sorry if this was mentioned in the thread, but does Supportive stack with Bushido & Competitive? Because that would be beautiful.

Peri's Bloodthirst is a great thing, in fact it's the main thing that made me use her over Silas initially (that, and I misunderstood how Silas's skill worked), and it let me kill Ryoma on Chapter 12 on my second run of it (first time through, I just took one look at my chances of dealing any damage to Ryoma, saw everyone'd get doubled to death and just ran through the exit). It even boosts Magic, so you can make her a Sorceror (or maybe a Dark Knight) without losing Bloodthirst's power bonus. Overall, it's a nice skill, though it's probably much better if you bring Azura (so she can give Bloodthirst!Peri a chance to move and kill something).

Finally, Anna's Personal (I'm forgetting what its name is at the moment, sorry) seems like it'd be very good to have on Conquest (good to get around limited money problems, if you get lucky), or for grinding on the other two routes (no one's gonna say no to more money, right?). Not a skill that makes anyone more survivable, or stronger, but it's nice to have anyway.

Just my thoughts on the matter. All of them.

Edited April 14, 2016 by ILikeKirbys

[Shadow Mir]

Personally, I kinda disagree with the people who mentioned Competitive - the issue I have is that unless Takumi gets neglected, it's unlikely his support unit will be higher leveled.

[Loki Laufeyson]

I love Kidnap/Capture because i like nabbing generics and bosses.

Ryoma's is mad. Just mad. I love it.

Sophie's is hilarious and very useful.

Peri's Bloodthirst is really great. Guys, seriously, Galeforce her and you will see why that combo is fucked up. <3

[DLNarshen]

Effie's Puissance can turn many near KOs into a OHKO. I like Elise and Camilla's personals as well, being useful even if the characters themselves aren't being trained.

Looking at all the personal skills again, I find it kind of amusing how arguably the best personal skill on the Hoshido side belongs to the best combat unit, as if to make the Ryoma solo that is Birthright's lategame even more intentional than it already was. On a similar note, I don't think the fact that the Conquest characters have collectively better skills is a coincidence.

[Djing]

Ryoma's skill has a serious case of "the rich get richer". His combat is better if he's overleveled and he will continue being overleveled because his combat is so good. Having better ranged combat than Takumi is absolutely stupid.

[cgRIPPER]

Meh. I'm not impressed, given how tedious getting a weapon to +7 is... I'd rather use my resources for other, better things. Especially since opponents in PvP can just turn off that +7 that you had to put a lot of time and resources into getting (or so I read).

[spoiler=Admittedly rude ranting]I won't say anything regarding people's opinions of what skills are good due to a difference in playstyle, but this post literally gave me a headache from its sheer ignorance. First of all, that's not at all how the pvp works; when booting up the good ol' wi-fi you get to choose limited pvp or unlimited pvp. It's not something that 1 player has the ability to simply turn on and off; both players are agreeing to the rules of the match before they even get paired up with each other. Second of all, you should be impressed by that. This is a +7 thunder tome we are talking about here and it far outclasses freaking Brynhildr! The only things you need for that are the resources and money. You can get enough money to make a +7 iron-tier weapon in just 2 runs of ghostly gold and the ore can be easily obtained by stacking the arena and forge. Furthermore, if a +7 iron-tier weapon isn't impressive, then maybe we should look at a silver-tier weapon? A +7 Ragnarok has a downright absurd stat spread of 22 friggin Mt, 100 Hit, and 15 crit, and before we go bringing up the flaw of silver weapons in this game: 22 Mt doesn't give a crap about -2 Str! This takes the same number of resources and 6 more runs of ghostly gold than an iron-tier. Lastly, there is literally nothing better to spend resources on. You can use your money on eternal seals sure, but those also get turned off in limited pvp. However, eternal seal usage requires money grinding and exp grinding to use. Even then, buying eternal seals over forging weapons is only comparable; I wouldn't personally go out of my way to say that one of these methods is better than the other, but if someone was holding a gun to my head and told me to pick one, I would choose forging.

*Ahem, sorry about that, got a little carried away there. Anyway, outside of the aforementioned royal's PSs and elemental bloods, I would like to point out Shura's Highwayman and Kagero's Shuriken Mastery. Highwayman is pretty self explanatory, but Shuriken Mastery isn't particularly notable until we look at just how broken shuriken are in this game. The facts that Shuriken Mastery not only reflects half the damage but also the full stat drops, serve as a fantastic deterrent against people seeking to abuse an easily abusable weapon type.

That being said, I think my favorite is Hinoka's Rallying Cry. Rallying cry stacks with Charm and Inspiration and any other aura based bonuses which allows you to really snowball the damage to crazy levels, and the dual attacks that frequently come with such a tightly knitted attack force also receive the boosts from these auras as well.

Edited April 16, 2016 by cgRIPPER

[maninbluejumpsuit]

Sophie's personal skill is the best in game. I forget it's a poor man's seal defense. I love knocking people's socks off. Endless fun.

[Shadow Mir]

Ryoma's skill has a serious case of "the rich get richer". His combat is better if he's overleveled and he will continue being overleveled because his combat is so good. Having better ranged combat than Takumi is absolutely stupid.

I guess. Too bad for him that the royal sisters' personals knock it around six ways to and from Sunday (well, IMHO)...

[Dark Holy Elf]

The royal sisters all have amazing skills. Elise and Sakura can allow units to survive situations they otherwise wouldn't, Hinoka and Camilla let units kill things they otherwise wouldn't. Camilla becomes bar-none the best support attacker in the game with hers, ensuring that not only will she one-round almost anything, but almost anyone using her support attack will too (Cam's massive atk + 6 extra damage if they're doubling? Yes plz).

Ryoma and Xander's are good too, both have a personal +2/-2 that will usually be active. The younger brothers get the short end of the stick here, though Takumi's is still decent enough. Leo's I have the most trouble getting use out of, because if an enemy is already injured I probably don't need +3 damage to finish them off.

I also like Benny and Yukimura's pretty well: again, they affect units besides just they themselves, and sometimes that extra hit can be all the difference in forming reliable strategies.

Corrin's is quietly solid; I like that it works both ways, unlike those of her servants.

Percy's is outstanding. +15 dodge to all allies within 2? This is crazy good, it enables you to use low-dodge units (such as his dad!), Berserkers in general, silver weapons, etc., far more safely. Even high-dodge units benefit, letting them null high-crit enemies like Berserkers without needing bronze or a pair up. A complete godsend if you're playing Classic, and it singlehandedly makes Percy IMO the best child unit in the game.

Other "usually active" straight boosts of that type like Effie's are good too, though I usually wouldn't put them quite on the same level.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Dark Holy Elf

[Thor Odinson]

I guess. Too bad for him that the royal sisters' personals knock it around six ways to and from Sunday (well, IMHO)...

The sisters' are very good for their purposes--quite supportive of the team, but considering the kind of unit that Ryoma is (shove anyone lower level than he is, aka just about anyone) and plop in the middle of the map by himself, well

Who cares about other units anyway

It's not a fair comparison because they do completely different jobs. And both work well for the kind of situations the respective units are expected to get into. It's certainly not that big of a usefulness gap that you're making it out to be.

[Shadow Mir]

The sisters' are very good for their purposes--quite supportive of the team, but considering the kind of unit that Ryoma is (shove anyone lower level than he is, aka just about anyone) and plop in the middle of the map by himself, well

Who cares about other units anyway

It's not a fair comparison because they do completely different jobs. And both work well for the kind of situations the respective units are expected to get into. It's certainly not that big of a usefulness gap that you're making it out to be.

Ehh, I just wouldn't trust Ryoma to go into a field of enemies alone and walk away virtually untouched (well, short of all his attackers having like 0 hit or something) - this game has a really trolly RNG.

[joshcja]

The sisters' are very good for their purposes--quite supportive of the team, but considering the kind of unit that Ryoma is (shove anyone lower level than he is, aka just about anyone) and plop in the middle of the map by himself, well

Who cares about other units anyway

It's not a fair comparison because they do completely different jobs. And both work well for the kind of situations the respective units are expected to get into. It's certainly not that big of a usefulness gap that you're making it out to be.

That's more due to Ryoma being a broken little shit and less from how strong his personal is tbh.

As far as raw skills go the flowers are pretty much as good as it gets.

(Kidnap is so broken it doesn't even count lol)

[Shadow Mir]

[spoiler=Admittedly rude ranting]I won't say anything regarding people's opinions of what skills are good due to a difference in playstyle, but this post literally gave me a headache from its sheer ignorance. First of all, that's not at all how the pvp works; when booting up the good ol' wi-fi you get to choose limited pvp or unlimited pvp. It's not something that 1 player has the ability to simply turn on and off; both players are agreeing to the rules of the match before they even get paired up with each other. Second of all, you should be impressed by that. This is a +7 thunder tome we are talking about here and it far outclasses freaking Brynhildr! The only things you need for that are the resources and money. You can get enough money to make a +7 iron-tier weapon in just 2 runs of ghostly gold and the ore can be easily obtained by stacking the arena and forge. Furthermore, if a +7 iron-tier weapon isn't impressive, then maybe we should look at a silver-tier weapon? A +7 Ragnarok has a downright absurd stat spread of 22 friggin Mt, 100 Hit, and 15 crit, and before we go bringing up the flaw of silver weapons in this game: 22 Mt doesn't give a crap about -2 Str! This takes the same number of resources and 6 more runs of ghostly gold than an iron-tier. Lastly, there is literally nothing better to spend resources on. You can use your money on eternal seals sure, but those also get turned off in limited pvp. However, eternal seal usage requires money grinding and exp grinding to use. Even then, buying eternal seals over forging weapons is only comparable; I wouldn't personally go out of my way to say that one of these methods is better than the other, but if someone was holding a gun to my head and told me to pick one, I would choose forging.

*Ahem, sorry about that, got a little carried away there. Anyway, outside of the aforementioned royal's PSs and elemental bloods, I would like to point out Shura's Highwayman and Kagero's Shuriken Mastery. Highwayman is pretty self explanatory, but Shuriken Mastery isn't particularly notable until we look at just how broken shuriken are in this game. The facts that Shuriken Mastery not only reflects half the damage but also the full stat drops, serve as a fantastic deterrent against people seeking to abuse an easily abusable weapon type.

That being said, I think my favorite is Hinoka's Rallying Cry. Rallying cry stacks with Charm and Inspiration and any other aura based bonuses which allows you to really snowball the damage to crazy levels, and the dual attacks that frequently come with such a tightly knitted attack force also receive the boosts from these auras as well.

I had no idea how pvp works, admittedly. At any rate, it's more a case of me realizing how much resources I need to get a weapon to +7 and immediately saying "Nope" - 128 weapons, and 247 gems for the weapon type to be forged, nevermind the part where the player only gets gems of one type (two if they're playing Revelations) in their castle, or the part where they can only carry 99 of any resource). Meaning that I REALLY have to go out of my way if, say, my gems are for tomes, but I want to forge a sword. It's very hard, bordering on impossible, for me to be impressed when I have to go out of my way to such an extent. Anyways, how much cash are you assuming the player's getting in one run of Ghostly Gold?

Anyways, so I don't drag this off topic, I agree with Shuriken Mastery and Highwayman being good personals.

[Xenomata]

Rinkah's is pretty impressive. So long as she is kept away from most methods of HP recovery and has only lost 1-5 hp (or leveled up and got a boost to HP, or used a seal to gain more hp depending on how you do it), she gets an extra 4 damage. early game, that is impressive considering how much she really wants some extra STR and just doesn't get any.