Just finished Conquest Lunatic

[Shadow Mir]

9 minutes ago, Raptok said:

The hardest difficulty is Lunatic+ which is unlocked after completing lunatic. The strategy for beating it is either a combination of using a defensive boon Robin and abusing pair up or using Frederick and then grinding. Don't be afraid to unequip weapons so that your units don't kill enemies so that you can tank enemy phases at choke points. Also the first level abuse the fact that Chrom and Robin can move on the water to kill the units and grind for XP (since they can't move on the water).

After you learn to beat the first few levels consistently on Lunatic+ you'll find you can go back to Lunatic and have a surprisingly easy time, and it is immensely satisfying every time you complete a chapter.

You gotta admit, though, Lunatic+ is THE definition of Fake Difficulty. It's comparable to dealing with Swagger abuse in Pokemon, if you ask me.

[DragonFlames]

13 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

You gotta admit, though, Lunatic+ is THE definition of Fake Difficulty. It's comparable to dealing with Swagger abuse in Pokemon, if you ask me.

Funny that you compare Awakening's Lunatic+ difficulty (which I agree is BS on a whole other level) to the undisputed ruler of Fake Difficulty itself.

On another note, from what I've played at least, Intelligent Systems has never really known how to balance 'harder than hard' game modes. Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, Radiant Dawn and Awakening (maybe Fates too, more on that below) all had harder than hard modes that were total BS in my opinion. There was nothing enjoyable about any of them. I can't really speak for the GBA or older titles since I haven't played them at their hardest, though FE7 seems to have a manageable hardest difficulty from what I've seen.

Concerning Fates:

FIXED LEVEL UPS ARE STUPID!

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Funny that you compare Awakening's Lunatic+ difficulty (which I agree is BS on a whole other level) to the undisputed ruler of Fake Difficulty itself.

On another note, from what I've played at least, Intelligent Systems has never really known how to balance 'harder than hard' game modes. Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, Radiant Dawn and Awakening (maybe Fates too, more on that below) all had harder than hard modes that were total BS in my opinion. There was nothing enjoyable about any of them. I can't really speak for the GBA or older titles since I haven't played them at their hardest, though FE7 seems to have a manageable hardest difficulty from what I've seen.

Concerning Fates:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

FIXED LEVEL UPS ARE STUPID!

 

I brought it up because I remember the huge stink that Swagger caused on Smogon in Gen 6. (In case you don't remember, Swagger was the centerpiece of an especially infuriating strategy known as SwagPlay, which used Swagger to confuse the opponent [as well as double their attack] in conjunction with Foul Play, which used the opponent's Attack stat to deal damage. The issue? Most users of this were Pranksters, which got priority on status moves. It also rendered skill a complete non-factor. It doesn't help that most of SwagPlay users also used Thunder Wave and Substitute to further drop the chance of successfully attacking, and in case they got through, they only hit a sub. Long story short, there were no counters to this, and Smogon banned Swagger from OU, later proceeding to ban it altogether when it proved problematic in Ubers.)

Edited September 16, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[joshcja]

14 minutes ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

I brought it up because I remember the huge stink that Swagger caused on Smogon in Gen 6. (In case you don't remember, Swagger was the centerpiece of an especially infuriating strategy known as SwagPlay, which used Swagger to confuse the opponent [as well as double their attack] in conjunction with Foul Play, which used the opponent's Attack stat to deal damage. The issue? Most users of this were Pranksters, which got priority on status moves. It also rendered skill a complete non-factor. It doesn't help that most of SwagPlay users also used Thunder Wave and Substitute to further drop the chance of successfully attacking, and in case they got through, they only hit a sub. Long story short, there were no counters to this, and Smogon banned Swagger from OU, and when it proved to be problematic in Ubers, they proceeded to ban it altogether)

Horribly off topic but...

Swagplay's counter list was like the entire S/A rank viability listings.

Seriously there is a real reason no banned formulaic team consistantly held high ladder much less topped ladder.

It was banned for being annoying as fuck and formulaic. Not powerful. This and the b-pass bans were (and still are) openly mocked and/or pointed out as glaring flaws in smogs suspect process.

Edited September 16, 2017 by joshcja

[DragonFlames]

1 hour ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

I brought it up because I remember the huge stink that Swagger caused on Smogon in Gen 6. (In case you don't remember, Swagger was the centerpiece of an especially infuriating strategy known as SwagPlay, which used Swagger to confuse the opponent [as well as double their attack] in conjunction with Foul Play, which used the opponent's Attack stat to deal damage. The issue? Most users of this were Pranksters, which got priority on status moves. It also rendered skill a complete non-factor. It doesn't help that most of SwagPlay users also used Thunder Wave and Substitute to further drop the chance of successfully attacking, and in case they got through, they only hit a sub. Long story short, there were no counters to this, and Smogon banned Swagger from OU, later proceeding to ban it altogether when it proved problematic in Ubers.)

But try that very same strat in-game against A.I. opponents and you will be swiftly dispatched. I speak from experience, here.
I remember being semi-successful in online rotation battles using a Toxic/Substitute/Leech Seed Prankster Whimsicott, a Poison Trap Crobat and a very tanky Dusknoir that was there as an emergency Toxic user (or Will-O-Wisp in case the enemy had a Steel type), general tank, PP stealer through Pressure and to pick off weakened targets with that one priority Ghost move, which I don't remember the name of. Not exactly competitive, I believe, but it did what it was supposed to. Come Battle Maison (a.k.a. the Bullshit Factory a.k.a. Fake Difficulty Incarnate a.k.a. the thing that finally broke any ties I had to the Pokémon franchise) and the second I try to use the strategy I had at least a little success with online, I get destroyed just like that.

It's kind of the same in Fates. Strategies that destroy the PvP are borderline suicidal in normal gameplay (Life and Death, Galeforce, Warp etc.), not to mention incredibly hard or impossible to pull off thanks to the excess grinding you have to do to get the necessary skill combinations or items (Both Certain and Death Blows on the same unit, the metric shitton of Gold Bars you'll need to use Spendthrift effectively, Nohrian Trust + Breaker sets, etc.)

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

On 9/16/2017 at 11:01 PM, joshcja said:

Horribly off topic but...

Swagplay's counter list was like the entire S/A rank viability listings.

Seriously there is a real reason no banned formulaic team consistantly held high ladder much less topped ladder.

It was banned for being annoying as fuck and formulaic. Not powerful. This and the b-pass bans were (and still are) openly mocked and/or pointed out as glaring flaws in smogs suspect process.

Lets be honest

If they need to ban something for being TOO POWERFUL, Thunder Wave is the real answer, and Spikes + SR(the myth that SR is broken because it have weakness value need to be gone. SR would still be broken if all it does is 12.5 to everything)

Also one thing i find funny about Baton pass is that it actually unironically got 6-0 by Chatot

 

Also Stall is formulaic

Edited September 17, 2017 by JSND Alter Dragon Boner

[Shadow Mir]

On 9/16/2017 at 11:01 AM, joshcja said:

Horribly off topic but...

Swagplay's counter list was like the entire S/A rank viability listings.

Seriously there is a real reason no banned formulaic team consistantly held high ladder much less topped ladder.

It was banned for being annoying as fuck and formulaic. Not powerful. This and the b-pass bans were (and still are) openly mocked and/or pointed out as glaring flaws in smogs suspect process.

I'm afraid you might need to explain this, because I don't remember what was S/A rank viability back then. All I remember was that the stuff that one could use to try to trump it all had issues (Lum Berry w/Harvest? The only Pokemon with Harvest were either weak to Foul Play (Trevenant, Exeggutor) or were weak to Stealth Rock (Tropius), and that's saying nothing of Harvest only having a 50% chance of working. Magic Bounce has much the same issue - Espeon and Xatu are both weak to Foul Play and Mega Absol needed to Mega Evolve first, and had a sky-high attack stat, so it resisting FP wouldn't mean much. Own Tempo is only on like 20 Pokemon, most of whom were either unviable or had better abilities to run). That being said, I agree swagplay was annoying as all get out, as well as the very definition of braindead.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[joshcja]

7 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

I'm afraid you might need to explain this, because I don't remember what was S/A rank viability back then. All I remember was that the stuff that one could use to try to trump it all had issues (Lum Berry w/Harvest? The only Pokemon with Harvest were either weak to Foul Play (Trevenant, Exeggutor) or were weak to Stealth Rock (Tropius), and that's saying nothing of Harvest only having a 50% chance of working. Magic Bounce has much the same issue - Espeon and Xatu are both weak to Foul Play and Mega Absol needed to Mega Evolve first, and had a sky-high attack stat, so it resisting FP wouldn't mean much. Own Tempo is only on like 20 Pokemon, most of whom were either unviable or had better abilities to run). That being said, I agree swagplay was annoying as all get out, as well as the very definition of braindead.

Example: Offensive Thunderous-I with taunt completely shut down swagplay spam, bpass spam, Denispass, and had excelent stall and HO matchups.

Stall had M-Sableye and gave no shits about swagplay.

Edited September 18, 2017 by joshcja

[eclipse]

ITT: Pokemon.

Guys the Pokemon subforum is thataway.

[Heptade]

On 12/09/2017 at 11:06 PM, Sweet_Basil said:

Lunatic made me hate Lunge on the enemies, and those big ugly stone things.

It's mostly that we forget it even exists in those occasions where it would be useful.