DLC Batch 1

[Emblem Blade]

Time to break out of my silent status again in a way so please bare with this long post if you choose to read it.

Tomorrow comes the final Xenologue or what we could call the final segment of Fates' first DLC Batch, Witches' Trial. With it comes two new abilities for players who play Fates: The Witches' Mark, a unique Reclassing Seal that reclasses any female character into the Witch Class (a magical class with access to Tomes/Scrolls only and being one of the only two classes that are able to access the S-Rank Tome Excalibur) and the Warp Scroll, which allows any character to learn the Warp Command Skill granted that they are Level 5 of a promoted class and/or Level 25 of a unique class that has a max of 40 levels by default, unique classes outside of DLC classes include Azura's Songstress and your beginning assistant, Felicia/Jakob (Maid/Butler) as whichever servant you start out with in Chapter 2 has a default max level cap of 40. Warp allows the user to Warp to an adjacent tile next to one of your other controlled characters and give them another normal action which is very useful for utility as you can set up strategies with more ease. It is important to remember that Warp is a 'once per turn' command, meaning that once you use the Warp Command, the same unit can't Warp again unless Azura Sings so they can have another full action. Warp also is different from Replicate as the former can be re-used in the same turn should Azura Sing to that user while latter can only be used by the original unit once per battle. Remember some of those annoying chapters that had objectives known as 'Defeat the Boss' and 'Seize'? Both of those types of missions are now easier to complete Warp can lead to some very effective skill builds that allow your team to finish chapters with those objectives with less trouble than before. Now this topic comes to mind and is a mixed blessing and curse although you'll most likely find ways to abuse the skill.
Questions that I'm asking are:
1) When the DLC comes out, which female characters of yours will you reclass to Witch and what are your reasons for reclassing them to Witch if you have any? Please be honest if you choose to answer this question an try not to sound too vague in your reasons.
2a) How do you think that this particular DLC segment will affect online battles now that the very possible 'Replicate + Warp + Galeforce + Filler' tactics will become much more common? Additionally, you are free to talk about the possible skill builds of yours own at your own risk.
2b) How much easier do you think this particular DLC segment will affect the in-game stories of each path? Will it make the game far easier than it should be or will it keep the likes of Conquest which has been known for having the most if not all the hardest chapters that Fates has to offer at a decently hard challenge?
3) With all the DLC Classes available (albeit Lodestar and Great Lord are still limited to one each for users who don't own the JP version), which classes would you think will become the most popular if every character's reclassing option using non-DLC seals was restricted to DLC classes and no normal classes? If you can't decide on which class you think will become more popular than the others that's fine, no one has the right to force you to make up your mind against your will. Now since I rethought about this topic, I'll add in another question (which most likely won't happen normally). If DLC Classes weren't gender-locked at all, which DLC Classes do you think would become more popular than the rest?

As this is forums, please respect other people's opinions and posts and if there is something about someone else's post that you're wondering about, politely ask them as to what they are saying.

I'll list my current answers for my own questions.

Question 1) Outside of looking at each character's Magic/Skl/Spd/Lck Growths and modifiers which will help me determine what role as a Witch they will be best as. Witch shares a unique animation with Ninja/Elite Ninja in-battle where she seemingly Warps to another location (either a little ways in front or behind her initial location) in-battle during some of her attack animations which is noted as she seems to briefly vanish for 1-2 seconds.

Question 2a) Online Battles are going to become much more fun if not even harder as finding concrete counters to Warping Replicate users isn't going to be something to enjoy when you are on the receiving end and are forced to defend all of a sudden out of the blue. Warping, Replicate Ballisticians comes to my mind and I'm a bit nervous about enemies like that online as long-range bombardment when the enemy still hasn't officially fought you can be pretty intimidating.

Question 2b) The likes of Birthright and Revelations become easier than easy outside of the likes of Endgame King Garon and Blight Dragon Garon both which might still give your units a run for their money on Luna/Classic and Anakos still can be rather painful as you're just warping closer to him if you are planning so but the difficulty on both paths overall is halved if not more. Conquest to me, seeing how I can't stand some of the chapters will still be a challenge for myself as a no-grind outside of the story content, no DLC content outside of DLC Skills from Skill Scrolls/Books run is still a pretty harsh challenge on Luna/Classic given some of the commonly mentioned painful Conquest Chapters.

Question 3) I'm undecided on which will become more popular as Witch hasn't been released officially outside of JP and those of us outside of JP version owners still have one more day to wait and that I need to play with more Witch Units to get a better opinion.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Emblem Blade

[ChaosGallade]

Just saying, but only guys can be Ballisticians.

[Emblem Blade]

Just saying, but only guys can be Ballisticians.

Thank you for correcting me, originally I was struggling to re-edit the 'Poll' options since I thought that the 'Poll' option and the Topic section wouldn't appear on the same post until I submitted the topic thread.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Emblem Blade

[47948201]

Despite being clunky to use, Warp is a great skill. But it kinda takes attention away from Shadowgift, which really helps Midori's Miracle build shine by adding reliability. I messed up and didn't give her my first Witch's Mark, but I look forward to fixing that mistake soon~

[Emblem Blade]

Ok, I know that the Poll Options might be a bit off considering that the the males have more DLC reclass options than the female so I'll ask for this opinion: Should I edit the Poll Description to where DLC Classes are no longer gender-locked so everyone has more reclass freedom? Considering IS and everything, this poll should I modify it is more for fun and discussion seeing how weird it would be to see some unusual sights. If anyone has submitted their poll, I'll rework the poll results and attempt to reset the poll count for everyone.

[saisymbolic]

1.) Using Anna's free gift, I changed Orochi into a Witch. I did this because I thought it would perhaps patch up her speed, as well as give her a slight boost of power. If I do get the DLC, I would possibly change Ophelia into a witch. Outside of them, I would have to look closer at stats, pairings and mods before I make my definite choices.

2.) I won't be surprised if online gets a large in-flux of Warp!Replicate users but I don't think it will be that bad. It might be annoying but it won't be bad. I hope. As for story mode, I personally do not use DLC or buy skills unless it is possible for my unit to learn through reclass/level up. Now, while Warp!Replicate seems broken, I don't think it will be the end-all-be-all of Lunatic/Hard mode. Now, it may be for some players but, from my understanding of how the abilities work, I doubt it will make all the maps a complete breeze.

3.) Witch is better. While it is female-exclusive, it has more going for it than Ballastician, in terms of skills.

Edited April 20, 2016 by SaiSymbolic

[PizzaRice]

Im going to say Grandmaster. People are only going to switch to witch just for warp then swap to another class. Im only saying grandmaster b/c well... its the class ive seen the most in castles amongst the other dlc classes.

[Roflolxp54]

Grandmaster because of Ignis and to a lesser extent, Rally Spectrum. Aether and Warp can be learned via skill manuals.

Also, Warp+Replicate isn't necessarily the end-all be-all combo since Galeforce+Replicate IMO really gets the ball going, especially if Galeforce is proc'd at the start.

[Emblem Blade]

1.) Using Anna's free gift, I changed Orochi into a Witch. I did this because I thought it would perhaps patch up her speed, as well as give her a slight boost of power. If I do get the DLC, I would possibly change Ophelia into a witch. Outside of them, I would have to look closer at stats, pairings and mods before I make my definite choices.

2.) I won't be surprised if online gets a large in-flux of Warp!Replicate users but I don't think it will be that bad. It might be annoying but it won't be bad. I hope. As for story mode, I personally do not use DLC or buy skills unless it is possible for my unit to learn through reclass/level up. Now, while Warp!Replicate seems broken, I don't think it will be the end-all-be-all of Lunatic/Hard mode. Now, it may be for some players but, from my understanding of how the abilities work, I doubt it will make all the maps a complete breeze.

3.) Witch is better. While it is female-exclusive, it has more going for it than Ballastician, in terms of skills.

Grandmaster because of Ignis and to a lesser extent, Rally Spectrum. Aether and Warp can be learned via skill manuals.

Also, Warp+Replicate isn't necessarily the end-all be-all combo since Galeforce+Replicate IMO really gets the ball going, especially if Galeforce is proc'd at the start.

True, I have also been seeing an increase to enemy Grandmasters and ran into some scary situations where my main attackers get surrounded by them and get defeated before I can heal them entirely which places a rather large dent in my start-up strategies.

I can see what you two are trying to tell me and yes it's not the end of the world if that happens at all. It was a possible build that I spoke of that came to my mind that other players could use, the skill combo I mentioned is a mix, not just tailored for pure offense. The Warp + Replicate combo was somewhat intentional for units whose role on a player's team is mostly to heal everyone and make sure that their allies don't die when the original number of healers present are too low or few in number to effectively heal everyone when the battle really heats up. It sums out to "Heal everyone near you" and if you have characters out of your original reach then "I'll Warp right next to those units and possibly Fortify those who I Warp next to."

[47948201]

Yeah Galeforce+Warp doesn't sound too overpowered to me because you can't warp somewhere and activate Galeforce from there, so it has to be on the second attack which basically forgoes half the benefit of Galeforce, plus limiting the regions from which you can attack. Its best use would probably be for extreme hit-and-run.

[nyainou]

Witch, because 1) Its my favorite DLC class 2) Its magic based 3) its sooo friggin cute! I made Sakura a witch when the gift from Anna DLC came out. I got her Warp because she's one of my 2 female MyCastle healers. After that it'll probably be Anna, who is also a healer, though I'm thinking I'll get her Rally Spectrum because she doubles as a replicate rally unit. That'd free her up to get more offensive skills.