Blaze Dragon posted:That Eclipse may tank your AS but 55 hit Eclipse sounds genuinely terrifying to deal with. It might be worse when it's strong druids wielding it, but for now, siege tomes aren't that much of a problem for me. Of course, that might just be luck. LiefKatano posted:I'm surprised you didn't give a Dragon Tear to either of the lords, almost exactly because of situations like Eirika's terrible luck with Str. I wanted to give Dragon Tears to units I was sure to use heavily, so I gave it to my primary cav, my primary flyer, my primary healer (which will then become my primary monster killer) and Forde for the memes. And I'm not sure what the weight change for Eclipse is for, since it seems to be hardcoded to be unable to double anyway. I guess to ensure you get doubled if you get attacked wielding it? But you're probably hosed anyway if you get attacked while wielding Eclipse (or you're in a siege-tome-off, which sounds like a miserable experience).
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Dec 17, 2020 11:59
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Really not feeling those boss boxes. It's hard to imagine a situation where they'd actually be threatening, so it just seems like dumping a bunch of free exp on the player for no work. Also making chapter 6 easier means the author is a coward 
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Dec 17, 2020 16:28
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I think I agree with the sentiment that the boss boxes are there as an anti-rush measure. Or perhaps a slow change of pace after a more tense travel across the maps for you to relax and hand out some levels wherever you wish. I don't know if the best way to give you some easily assigned exp is the boss box, though, it might be tedious to actually play.
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Dec 17, 2020 16:39
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Update IX - Ballistaless Alright, last chapter before we get Ephraim back. Let's go.  First of all, Natasha gets the Dragon Tear we got last time. I'm pretty sure she's going to be the primary healer for now and get promoted fairly soon, so let's give her a boost. Now, on to the map.   So yeah, no ballistas this time, but wyverns and Purge assholes. We also need to walk a bit more before getting to the boss this time.  So, for the first turn, we largely set up to not get a vulnerable unit smacked around by the wvyern...  ...because these guys are fairly beefy. We can't really attack the cavs right away, since we'd get counterattacked by the knights with javelins as well, so a more passive approach on turn 1 seems like the way to go.  And it works out pretty well! I didn't notice that Artur was in range of one of the cavs, but whatever, he can take a hit. Now we just need to clean up.  Ross levels up in the cleanup process...  And then we start a range war, or rather a war at range, with the knights.  Garcia gets stronger when a cav gets involved as well on enemy phase. The knight he attacked actually retreated, so we won't be seeing him for a while because healing is quite a ways away.  And Gilliam also gets more knight than he was before. You'll also note that the area has gotten a lot more crowded, with three cavs and another wyvern.  Vanessa gets stronger in the cleanup process.  And while we do need Seth to do so, we do clean up the entire force in one turn.  So we trudge forward and set up to take on the next enemies.  However, I get cold feet with Franz because of his relatively low HP and pulled him out with Seth. Now...  ...I was probably right to do so...  ...but what I did not consider...  ...was that he was not the only one at risk. Balls. Resets: 3  Alright, second attempt. This time, we go forward with someone that can take a lot of hits.  And Ross gets to level up a second time in the cleanup.  As well as Natasha getting a level in the healing.  Our next move is to slowly trudge our way through the forests and mountains, getting attacked by a fighter and two mercs.  Neimi actually gets a level after picking off the injured fighter.  Artur gets promotion-ready as we pick off the archers on the other side while we trudge through the forest, though I don't think he'll be promoted any time soon, because I have other plans.  Gilliam takes the lead, since he's pretty good at that, and we find out that these six units there (now five) don't move, so we'll need to pick them off ourselves. And we pick up a new tome! Shine: Rank D. Range 1-2. Weight 7 (-1). Might 6. Hit 90. Crit 20 (+12). 50 uses. Big crit boost for Shine, just like with the other light magic tomes. Artur will make good use of this, though it still weighs him down by 1, which I find to often turn out to be the difference between doubling or not. And during taking out that enemy squad...  ...HALLELUJAH, HOLY poo poo. She loving got Strength. Only took her ten loving levels.  Vanessa gets a blah level as well.  As we get no movement on enemy phase, we move on up and get the cavs to move in.  Surprise! Purge rear end in a top hat! Did we go over Purge yet? Let's go over Purge. Purge: Rank C (formerly B). Range 3-10. Weight 17 (-3). Might 7 (-3). Hit 85 (+10). Crit 20 (+15). 5 uses. I'm not a fan of those changes as somebody that will more than likely be on the receiving end of these quite a few times. I suppose the rank downgrade is to allow Monks to access it as well, and while the nerf in might is welcomed somewhat, the increased accuracy and crit make it definitely more dangerous.  Joshua gets a very myrmidon level after taking out one of the cavs.  And Seth just sets up and waits to protect Vanessa, who is trying to deal with Purge rear end in a top hat.  Natasha levels again while moving up with the rest of the gang.  Next turn, Vanessa takes out the Purge rear end in a top hat. ...now that I think about it, I guess this guy is the ballista replacement.  Gilliam gets more resistant after we mop up the little group between us and the bridges to the castle.  Next, we start working on the groups of four, with two magic units on forts behind two knights with javelins. In general, this just means we have Ross and Garcia hand axe the knights to death before somebody else knocks out the magic units.  Ross is now also very speed.  And Lute takes care of the other knight and gets this level for it.  While it does take a fair amount of units, we do clean up this first group.  The second group doesn't take any real work to dispatch, meaning all we have left is Murray.   +11 HP, +2 STR, +2 SKL, -1 SPD, -4 LCK, +3 DEF and +1 RES compared to his hard mode counterpart. Not sure what the nerfs are for here, but whatever, I'll take some stats not getting boosted. Also, you'll note the +1 to DEF he has shown - holding promotion items gives you a 1 point boost to one stat. Not sure why this was introduced, really.  However, he is a cav, and therefore gets hosed up by the rapier. So let's just do that.  You didn't have any ballistas!  And dead in one round of combat. You don't need strength if you have effective weapons, I suppose. Not sure what I'll do with the knight crest yet - not going to be using it right now, that's for sure.  And that'll be it for this chapter! Next time, Ephraim is back!
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Dec 23, 2020 14:21
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The changes to long-range weapons here are... interesting. It's never really unmanageable, and as the player you actually get decent access to them, though I regretted that (they're very expensive by comparison to normal weapons, I wasted too much money on them and never found many situations where they were actually worth using). Siege magic is now C rank, but ballistae still exist and are a lot harder to use than that, plus some other changes, which is... weird (there's a reason they're not able to put one on this stage). It mostly works fine, but it's weird. The increased crit on Purge is annoying though, in keeping with everything else this hack has done with crits. I think for this stage my Vanessa was strong enough that I had her take out the wyvern by herself (I might've passed her Eirika's Star Seal). I don't remember if she could do that in one round or if I just had her attack it and then got everyone else out of range, but even so.
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Dec 23, 2020 14:57
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I am very much not a fan of siege weapons with 85 hit and 20 crit, that seems awful.
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Dec 23, 2020 16:45
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theshim posted:I am very much not a fan of siege weapons with 85 hit and 20 crit, that seems awful. This. You don’t have to make siege weapons more annoying, they’re already annoying.
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Dec 23, 2020 17:42
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Still only 5 shots tho, right?
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Dec 23, 2020 18:12
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I don't remember the ballistae in this game ever being a problem.
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Dec 23, 2020 18:29
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Update X - The Good Lord Is Back I think we're far beyond this being a trap now.   Never mind, I stand corrected. That group of enemies right at the start is quite fearsome. In general, there's quite the army assembled here. I went back and looked at the vanilla hard mode version of this map, and now it looked downright barren to me compared to this. There's a lot going on here. Well, let's get to it!  The first move is going to be semi-defensive in nature - Josh and Ross take out the fighters while Gilliam starts on a merc and Seth waits on the defensive. We should be able to weather the counterattack just fine and thus can use the rest on the guys on the left and a ranged attack on the injured merc.  Vanessa levels after taking out the archer.  And Garcia gets a well deserved level for killing a merc with a 41 hit hand axe hit.  Ephraim shows up with the gang after the first turn, and it's very welcome.  They set up defensively as well.  Franz was the only one taking any serious damage from the first turn, with Ross not killing the merc and therefore being safe and Seth and Gilliam being basically impervious.  Eirika takes out the knight and gets an interest in this "leveling Strength" thing.  And Franz just disappoints here.  Ross levels up as well by taking out the mage, and suddenly that first group doesn't seem so tough anymore.  Next player phase, Kyle seems a bit surrounded, but it's nothing we can't deal with.  Kyle takes out the archer, Ephraim oneshots the cav...  ...and Forde disappoints. He does get the kill on enemy phase though.  Meanwhile, Ross takes on the knights.  And then, we get the usual cavalry reinforcements...  ...but also some surprise fliers!  I can't be arsed to deal with the cavs in any way but the easiest one right now, so Ephraim it is. Go and oneshot some guys.  Natasha gets more combat ready with another level.  As for the fliers, we set up just outside their range and hope we can take them all out in one clean sweep on the next player phase.  Ephraim keeps getting better as he turns the cavs into mincemeat.  Then Ross goes and shows him up with this level while fighting the knights.  And we get more cavs and more fliers. This could get tricky.  Artur whittles down the wyvern and picks up this level in the process. Hm, I wonder if Forde can kill this half-HP wyvern?  ...ugh. That's a silver sword, Forde!  Joshua picks up the kill instead after Franz did some more chipping with a javelin.  And since I basically have to have some units in range of the new reinforcement fliers, might as well stick Seth in there and see if he can take some fire.  And indeed, Seth takes most of the heat, taking out the peg as well.  More reinforcements. Another three cavs, another three fliers. Thankfully, Ephraim can easily deal with the cavs, and Garcia and Artur can take out the fliers that were already here...  ...and Seth and Gilliam set up to meet the next group. I think we've got this in hand now.  Ross picks up a skillful level in taking out the lone shaman still standing around after getting hurt by Artur, who then had to rush to meet the fliers.  Ephraim's cavalier meatgrinder gives him another level.  And on the next player phase, Lute gets promotion ready by taking out a peg. No reinforcements this turn, so now we just need to take out the remainders and we can move on.  And in doing that, Garcia picks up a level as well.  Colm grabs the first treasure. A guiding ring is very useful, we have plenty magic users that can use a promotion fairly soon.  Surprise! Purge rear end in a top hat! Thankfully Colm would have barely survived a crit. Still, I think we'll let Seth make the monk use up his Purge uses just in case.  Meanwhile, we split up the gang and let the other half head towards the other treasure chests to clear everything out for Colm to eventually get there.  In cleaning up the area before the chests, Vanessa gets even quicker.  The group moving right has made it to the central area and is starting to pick at the last units before Tirado.  And on the same turn, the group moving left has made it through as well!  And then there's Colm.  As the two groups combine and take out Tirado's entourage, Forde gets... a solid level. I guess that's all I can ask for with him.  Natasha is promotion ready. That's pretty quick!  And while we thought we had everything taken out, Sacred War gives us a knight at the bottom staircase and four cavs to deal with before we can truly concentrate on the boss. However, we'll just move Garcia to block one hallway (all cavs have lances) and Gilliam will block the other. Eirika plugs the knight with the rapier. Alright, now let's deal with this boss. Let's have Seth wreck him.  ...ah. Oh well, then Ephraim will do the trick.  ...huh. What is this guy?   +8 HP, +1 STR, +3 SKL, +3 SPD, +7 LCK, +1 DEF and -2 RES. Also... Hoplon Guard: +1 LCK, +1 DEF, +1 RES. Protects against effectiveness for armor and cavalry units. Well, that's a lot more useful for him right now than protecting against critical hits. So it looks like his weakness, as is, seems to be magic.  So basically this is the best we'll get. We'll set up Lute and Natasha to try and whittle down Tirado. Thankfully she's fast enough to double, or else this could've gotten really bad.  We could've gotten Artur on support, but is that 5 crit? I don't think so!  Gilliam levels in taking out the reinforcement cavs.  Lute levels while fighting Tirado, and that's not helping!  But at least she gets a better one after the kill.  And then I remember I've forgotten about Colm for a few turns now. So now he gets to slowly trek to the chests while everybody else waits.   And he picks up more promotion items! Will be very useful as many of our units have already passed level 10 and can be promoted as necessary.  That'll be it for this chapter!  Money!  Route choice!  And of course we pick Ephraim. We just have to go through the ghost ship.  So next time, it'll be Fort Rigwald, and I'll get up to some incredibly stupid poo poo. See you then!
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Dec 30, 2020 15:35
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Wow, Garcia is actually getting speed for you. I'm pretty sure mine was single digits until promotion (and I waited until he hit the level cap), I'm quite jealous. I basically had to relegate him to longbows and giving Ross support bonuses. Also, I'm surprised you didn't let Colm catch up and steal the Hoplon Guard. Not that it's amazing or anything, but it can be useful (and actually I think it still might negate critical hits, despite the description not saying it any more, I don't think they actually managed to take that effect off it; this could mean I was playing an outdated version though), and it's also worth a decent chunk of change if you decide to sell it. There are a lot of accessories like this that you can steal and it's one of the reasons I made it a priority to train Colm (I think I took a break to grind him up in the tower before going to Fort Rigwald, because there's a stat booster that requires 15 speed to steal; on Eirika route it's a more reasonable 12).
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Dec 30, 2020 16:30
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Explopyro posted:(I think I took a break to grind him up in the tower before going to Fort Rigwald, because there's a stat booster that requires 15 speed to steal; on Eirika route it's a more reasonable 12). Heh. Funny you should mention that... But yeah, I think I passed on the Hoplon Guard because I just plain forgot. 95% sure I stole it on my first playthrough. Oh well. And as of where I am right now in actually playing (chapter 15), Garcia is a level 2 Hero with 14 speed. Not terrible.
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Dec 30, 2020 16:42
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At least Eirika managed to level up strength. Just as you kick her out of the party  .
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Dec 30, 2020 16:47
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jimmydalad posted:At least Eirika managed to level up strength. Just as you kick her out of the party Hey, she'll be back! For like one mission.
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Dec 30, 2020 16:59
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Looking more closely at your screenshots, I think I'm wrong about the Hoplon Guard critical thing, some of your characters are showing nonzero crit chances against Tirado. Either that or I had a version where it was bugged or didn't patch correctly (or I could be misremembering, but I don't think I am, I definitely used it strategically for that purpose a few times). Also worth noting is that the stat boosts on it work for any character, you don't have to restrict it to classes who take effective damage it would nullify.
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Dec 30, 2020 18:06
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It's too late Eirika. You're already benched.
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Dec 30, 2020 19:04
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Update XI - Insert Training Montage Music Here So before we start the chapter proper, we need to get into a skirmish. Not because I need more experience or anything, just because I need to buy some staves from the shop beyond that monster.  Interesting: Skirmish maps start you at a different position than the mission that took place there. Was it that way in vanilla? I have no idea, I don't remember a single skirmish map from vanilla.  Also, here's an interesting thing: Every monster here has 100 gold for you. The boss would have a lot more. Later skirmish maps have even more money. That's the idea with the maps - missions give more EXP, skirmishes give more gold. We'll revisit this at a later date, for now, we just escape. I then buy the staves I wanted and a bunch of 1-2 range weapons just for good measure.  Now, let's get to the actual mission. Stupid poo poo awaits.   So, first of all, before we start the map, let's talk about this hero guy in the middle of the map.  He's got an energy ring. I want that energy ring.  He's got 15 speed.  Colm has 10 speed. So, if I want that energy ring, I have some work to do. First of all, I can give Colm two Star Seals, since both Ephraim and Eirika started with one, so that should boost his speed by 2.  Now I still need 4 speed on Colm to hit 16. Let's see if we can manage that. The boosts to everything else should also be very useful.  Then, as the map starts, Tana is brought to her cell as usual, but this time, there's no door, but instead a berserker that hangs out there to keep her from leaving.  He's not boss tier, but can be pretty fierce. That'll be something we have to deal with eventually.  First of all, I realize that an iron sword isn't going to cut it, so Colm gets the killing edge. This should also help quite a bit in training him.  We set up in a defensive formation to see which of the enemies ahead of us move.  The answer is none of them, but the cavs from the bottom have now joined in. So let's just wait again and let those cavs get in our face first. I have a suspicion this map will take forever anyway.  We manage to leave a cav with 1 HP, so that sets up Colm's first kill. Not pretty, but it gets the job done.  Well, he got speed. That's all that counts right now.  Artur also gets a level from taking out the other cav.   Colm gets another kill and another level, making good progress.  Natasha levels from healing again.  And Ross levels from fighting a knight on enemy phase.  Another weakened mage means another kill for Colm, but no level this time.  Setting up kills for Colm does get a bit ridiculous at times. I use Franz, Forde and Ephraim to whittle a knight down to 4 HP, but that's not enough for a Colm kill without a counter (he does 3 HP damage to the knight), so I check Vanessa, who does 4 HP exactly with a double javelin hit, but only 2 HP with a double slim lance hit. So of course she then crits twice, doing 4 HP of damage and killing the knight. Bah.  After cleaning out that group, nobody moves on enemy phase, so I guess it's our turn to approach them again.  Garcia levels up after killing a knight together with Gilliam. I kinda thought Garcia would end up on the bench sooner or later, but he seems to be hanging on, and seems to be the most likely hero crest recipient right now.  Kyle gets all the important stats killing the other knight.  Eventually, we whittle down the units here until there's just one archer left, who will be part of some training exercises.  So we give Colm an iron sword and let him whack at that archer for a bit.  And while Colm does that, we unlock the door and start setting up the Amelia recruitment.   Surprise! Reinforcements! Those fighters could theoretically be interesting for Colm, albeit threatening as well. The pegs we'll just let Ross deal with.  Colm levels up again trying and failing to kill the archer with the killing edge.  We set up in a somewhat risky way, where either Colm or Forde will take some damage from the archer, hopefully funneling the fighters into attacking Colm and dying.  Colm of course gets hit by the first fighter, but thankfully doesn't kill the fighter so the second one can't get to him.  And of course, because this is Sacred War, the reinforcement wave repeats. This complicates matters a bit.  Colm kills the archer, opening up a spot for Natasha to walk in and heal Colm so he hopefully doesn't die.  Natasha levels again.  Meanwhile, I think Ross won't have any problems with the pegs, though I decide to send Ephraim in just in case, not like we're moving on right now anyway.  Colm levels on enemy phase by killing the fighter, but he gets hit too, and he might die here. So this might get ugly. Thankfully, the next fighter misses and Colm doesn't kill him.  Ephraim levels while fighting the pegs.  And Colm levels again killing the last fighter. He should be ready to steal from the hero, even if he didn't get speed on this level.  We set up an unarmed Gilliam to lure Amelia in, then rescuedrop Ephraim over to be ready to recruit her. I completely forgot Franz can recruit her as well. Oh well.  Gilliam does his job.  And Ephraim does his.    Amelia - Recruit: STATS: LV: 1 HP: 18 STR: 4 SKL: 3 SPD: 4 LCK: 6 DEF: 3 (+1) RES: 3 MOV: 4 CON: 6 GROWTHS: HP: 60% STR: 45% (+10%) SKL: 45% (+5%) SPD: 45% (+5%) LCK: 55% (+5%) DEF: 35% (+5%) RES: 30% (+15%) Amelia... is still Amelia. Nothing much has changed here from the start. Her growths got a big boost, though, so she should stay competitive in the long run, even if she has to be babied for a while. And once she gets going, she'll be ground pounding your mom like nobody's business.  We set up the weaponless Gilliam again to lead in the hero we want to steal from. He doesn't take a lot of damage. Now, let's steal.  ...uh, what? We... can't steal. I suppose this means that the stat boosts from the Star Seals don't count for stealing calculations. Bollocks.  Then I stopped recording because I had to do something else, then forgot to start recording again at the beginning, so some parts are missing. The key parts are this:  Colm got Amelia's speed ring to boost him to 16 speed naturally. He then steals the energy ring from the hero.  And Amelia gets the energy ring. She also gets the Star Seals for a bit of a boost. The hero gets killed by a few of our units.  Gilliam then moves in to take out the remaining knight.  And Lute takes out the mages.  We then start luring one of the archers out with Seth and Gilliam.  Of course, I forgot that Gilliam had a javelin and almost killed the archer, but still, that's some experience for Amelia.  And she gets her first level of many.  I gently caress up a bit more with the second and third archer, but at least Amelia gets another level out of it. We'll find some more stuff she can beat up on.  Now, here's the thing with that berserker: He doesn't move, and he doesn't have a ranged weapon. So we'll have somebody plink at him from a range.  We try Amelia for a while, but, uh, it doesn't go well.  She gets a level sniping a weakened merc, though.  Amelia's next assignment is this steel lance knight that doesn't move. She'll farm a lot of EXP from this guy.  Meanwhile, Lute whittles down the berserker.  Amelia gets another level.  And Lute levels after killing the berserker.  And Kyle levels after taking out the myrmidons up top. Levels all around!  Colm starts pilfering the chests. I only too late start realizing that maybe I should be more careful with his lockpick and maybe use the loving unlock staff I bought.  Another level for Amelia.  Another chest for Colm. Everything has kind of slowed to a crawl while I grind up Amelia. While we're here, let's look at Tana.    Tana - Pegasus Knight: STATS: LV: 10 (+6) HP: 27 (+7) STR: 10 (+3) SKL: 12 (+3) SPD: 15 (+2) LCK: 12 (+4) DEF: 9 (+3) RES: 7 MOV: 7 CON: 5 GROWTHS: HP: 55% (-10%) STR: 45% SKL: 45% (+5%) SPD: 55% (-10%) LCK: 50% (-10%) DEF: 30% (+10%) RES: 30% (+5%) So, Tana got a big level boost. She's going to be a solid contributor alongside Vanessa right off the bat. Her growths ended up a bit more balanced, as seems to be a theme with this hack.  Colm gets another status booster, which is always nice.  Amelia is still whittling down that knight.  Eventually, she kills him and gets another level.  And meanwhile, Natasha heals a bit and levels as well.  After moving forward a bit, Amelia gets surprised by a moving archer, but she can take him out on player phase for another level. Only one left now.  Our real units start moving forward, taking out moving units and checking what units don't move for a potential target for Amelia. Franz levels while doing so. He might be ready for promotion soon.  Gilliam levels after getting surprised by the warrior standing in Gheb's room. I guess I didn't check if he had ranged weapons.  Did I bring up that 18 is now the unpromoted cap? 18 is now the unpromoted cap. I guess it's supposed to further encourage early promotion or something.  Checking the situation vs. that warrior, I suddenly don't like my odds so much, so I move Gilliam away. Meanwhile, Franz cleans up at the bottom.  And Amelia gets her final level after attacking the archer that doesn't move. So that'll be everything done that she needs to do this map.  Franz keeps working on the units down there while dodging the warrior's range and levels again.  Lute sits down in the warrior's range to start whittling him down, since we can just safely position Natasha behind her and have her heal every round. You'll also note the support option. I've deliberately not been taking any supports so far. I will sit on those for the entirety of the regular game, probably, and grind the ones I want out during the postgame after I have a good idea of what units I want to use and what combinations work best. In my first playthrough, I messed up some supports and ended up with some characters that had completely useless supports, and I want to avoid that this time.  Since Lute doubles, she takes out the warrior fairly quickly and gets another level. She's looking pretty promotion-ready, too.  Franz takes out the remaining two mercs, leaving only Gheb to deal with.   +3 HP, -1 STR, +5 SKL, +3 SPD, -1 LCK, -1 DEF, +4 RES and +1 CON compared to his vanilla hard mode counterpart. He's also picked up a bow, giving him a ranged option and making him somewhat more dangerous. Not as dangerous as he'd have been with a hand axe, but hey.  Taking him on in melee is not recommended, I'd say.  Natasha levels again after healing up Franz. She might be promotion-ready too.  So, the strat for Gheb is pretty simple. Ross, Lute and Artur attack him from range, then get rescuedropped (which is why I have Vanessa, Franz and Seth set up nearby). They'll then do the same thing again next turn and repeat until he's dead.  Ross is looking pretty drat good.  And Artur nets the kill...  ...and a garbage level in the process.  And that'll be the chapter! This one took quite some time, which I guess makes sense if you're grinding a recruit to level 10 and grinding your thief up several levels for some stupid plan that didn't even really work. Next time...  ...ah, poo poo.
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Jan 6, 2021 15:05
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Was Colm's inventory full the first time you tried to steal? That would also have prevented it.
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Jan 6, 2021 15:29
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TravelLog posted:Was Colm's inventory full the first time you tried to steal? That would also have prevented it. I was wondering this too. Also, I think the berserker may have had a stealable 800G moneybag also, I seem to remember that from this level. I couldn't be bothered to use Amelia, so I'm pretty curious how she'll end up turning out for you (and which option you end up choosing with her, she has a new promotion path). Tana, on the other hand, was my best unit for a very long time. She's awesome. Especially since she no longer starts out at level 4 and needs babying, she's ready to go from the start and with how big these maps are, having flyers can be a big help. (I've said this before but pretty much every time I play a FE romhack I end up with a team of mostly flying units, despite almost never doing that in the original games. Something about how romhackers tend to design maps makes that inevitable for me.) Edited to add: Oh, want to know something fun? Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but on Eirika route you only need 12 speed to steal the Energy Ring. (I haven't played the whole Eirika route, I did my completed run on Ephraim, but I checked out that map out of curiosity and, well, that's a thing.)
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Jan 6, 2021 15:41
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TravelLog posted:Was Colm's inventory full the first time you tried to steal? That would also have prevented it. It wasn't. I mean, it was, but then I emptied it and tried again and it still didn't work. I'm 99% sure it only counts your innate speed for stealing, not what you get with booster items. Those were very rare in vanilla, after all (only the legendary weapons, I want to say?), not abundant like in Sacred War. It'd make sense to me if the formula just didn't include them. Explopyro posted:Also, I think the berserker may have had a stealable 800G moneybag also, I seem to remember that from this level. Eh. I guess I missed out on that. Oh well. Explopyro posted:I couldn't be bothered to use Amelia, so I'm pretty curious how she'll end up turning out for you (and which option you end up choosing with her, she has a new promotion path). No experiments for me. Paladin Amelia was a workhorse in my first run, and that's what I'm going with again. She'll ground pound everyone. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jan 6, 2021 |
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Jan 6, 2021 15:50
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Also for the record yes, skirmish maps on the original were mostly repurposed chapters where you started in different places.
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Jan 6, 2021 18:28
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For reference, I think most enemies classed as a 'Commander' from this point forward (these have the boss shield icon on them, are named Commander and have higher stats, I'm not sure if that's from bases or growths) tend to have something you can steal, whether it's one of those money bags or stat boosters. It's worth getting in the habit of checking their inventories if you aren't already. Also, I don't remember seeing anything stealable that wasn't held by a commander. This is the primary source of stat boosters all through the hack, too. There are a handful of droppable ones or ones that come with characters (like Amelia's
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Jan 6, 2021 18:33
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Explopyro posted:For reference, I think most enemies classed as a 'Commander' from this point forward (these have the boss shield icon on them, are named Commander and have higher stats, I'm not sure if that's from bases or growths) tend to have something you can steal, whether it's one of those money bags or stat boosters. It's worth getting in the habit of checking their inventories if you aren't already. Also, I don't remember seeing anything stealable that wasn't held by a commander. I've noticed I was very bad about taking advantage this in the next few chapters I've recorded. I only hope that from now on (Chapter 15) I'll be better about checking this. At least I should have Rennac around more often.
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Jan 10, 2021 02:28
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Update XII - Sometimes, You Just Say "gently caress It" Ugh, this chapter. I have bad memories about this chapter. But we'll get into that later.  First, we get ourselves another promotion.  And it's really not a question.  Gotta get the horse. And apart from the skill deficit, she's looking pretty good! I feel like if I hadn't given Forde that booster, she'd be competing with him.  Artur ends up getting both boosters we picked up last map that didn't end up on Colm or Amelia, since he has pretty big deficits in both defense and luck.   Now, what's my problem with this chapter? Well, as you might remember, keeping all green units alive awards you a knight crest. And since I've got Franz, Kyle, Forde, Gilliam and Amelia all in use, knight crests might be useful. It was similar in my first playthrough, where I wanted four paladins ASAP. So I really wanted that crest. Well, let me tell you... keeping those fuckers alive is incredibly annoying. I restarted so many times trying to get that crest, getting more and more frustrated. They're decent enough at keeping the pirates off their backs, and their vulneraries healing 20 HP helps them a lot, but once Cormag shows up... they're just hosed. Cormag in particular seems to just hate the green units and will gently caress their poo poo up. We'll see how it goes this time, but I refuse to reset over the green units. If they die, they die. And with that, let's get going!  So, the first priorities are to clean out that first defensive formation and that Purge rear end in a top hat.  First of all, our pegs clear out that Purge rear end in a top hat. They're going to be heading east for a bit first and doing some stuff before rejoining the main group.  Vanessa caps speed.  Forde does well for once in killing one of the mercs.  And Franz kills the fighter and does almost as well. Franz doing almost as well as Forde. Weird world.  I'm noticing these mages on the forts are quite dodgy. In the end, Ross and Seth were the ones to get above 70 hit and get the job done.  Selena gets replaced on the first enemy phase.  We can see the pirates can deal some mean damage to those green cavs and don't get doubled back. That's not pretty.  Back on player phase, Artur picks up a good level as we work our way closer towards Duessel.  All these magic units on forts are being quite annoying.  The pegs are getting closer to their target - that troubadour has Physic and Restore, with Restore being droppable. So taking her out will help both in taking that Physic off the board and getting ourselves a free Restore.  Seth puts his 9 move to good use and rushes out to try and defend the green units.  The rest of the gang head to the central area, and I'll figure out what they're going to do eventually - I'll probably have some head down and some head towards the boss, because I think I can end this map early with a strike at the boss. We have 17 turns to survive here, after all, and I don't think we'll need that much.  Franz gets into quite the pickle, needing to dodge this attack from the ranger to not die, but he manages to do so.  Cormag gets ready to move. We also get some reinforcements - a constant trickle of pirates down south, a merc from a fort near the boss, and an archer from the fort near the bottom right village.  Tana takes out the troubadour and gets ready to head south to meet up with Cormag. Vanessa tags along.  The ranger is quite dangerous - his skill allows him to attack first, even if somebody attacks him - but we can attack him at 1 range and have Ephraim gently caress his poo poo up something fierce. Amelia gets the kill after this.  And after we've by and large cleared out the central area, Kyle picks up the secret book. This will be going on Amelia for sure.  Seth, meanwhile, supports the green units by working on the approaching archers.  I appreciate the speed and strength, Amelia, but I have to be honest, I'd kinda like some skill now.  We have a Cormag Moving Alert. Hide your green units, we have a Cormag Moving Alert. Cormag is coming to gently caress your green units up.  Next turn, we get our pegs back into the action, which is nice.  We also start getting some units to move south to help Seth out. We might be able to work this out.  Franz caps speed after taking out a knight.  The way we split up makes me think that taking the boss out isn't going to be that big an issue and ending the level early is definitely a possibility. Which is good, because I'm pretty sure the reinforcements are just storing up their power before they unleash hell.  Kyle levels up from fighting a cav.  I kinda need to think about what I'm doing with Cormag now.  Also Franz nearly died. I am absolutely lucking out here. And to note, we've had the reinforcement trickle for a few turns now. It's starting to add up, though I guess the green units are taking out the pirates mostly (apart from the one that knocked Franz's HP low enough that he almost died here).  OK, so Cormag is here. He is absolutely going to gently caress one of those green units up if we don't block or distract him somehow. He has a killer lance, so I'm not exactly interested in the "block" idea, because I can't imagine that I have two units that survive a crit from him. So it'll have to be a distraction of some kind that I hope will work.  Tana can't get anywhere near right now, so I definitely mistimed that. I absolutely could've just gotten her close, recruited Cormag with her, rescued her with Cormag and bailed, and everything would've been fine. Alas...  You know, I know that I've already seen it and therefore should know it, but drat, Natasha's magic growth is nuts.  Now, here's the plan. We take Gilliam, take away his weapons, and set him into Cormag's path. Now we just hope the AI prefers attacking units where they don't get counterattacked, because I feel like that's a thing.  Vanessa gets more strength after killing a cav. And I see a lot of mercs over there and think that sending a few lance users there should mop this up pretty quick. And now it's time to see what happens on enemy phase.  ...what did you think was going to happen on enemy phase? Of course. Cormag will not rest until he has annihilated every single green unit off the face of this earth. Not even unarmed units can distract him.  And of course the other wyverns go for Gilliam. It's just Cormag that has this anti-green AI, apparently. Either that or they have it too but decided they can't reach any green unit. At least I can now stop giving a poo poo about those green units.  And of course Tana can't reach.  Well, let's just position units as if Cormag won't go for them and instead attack more green units. This surely cannot backfire in any possible way.  Lute picks up a level cleaning up the other wyverns.  And Ephraim gets ready to style on this entire group of guys.  On enemy phase, Tana gets to fight a pirate and levels.  Ephraim almost caps speed while in the process of styling.  My gambit works out as Cormag decides that these green units have to loving die.  And finally, Tana gets to recruit Cormag. Now I just need to get that village and Ephraim can murder the boss.  Ross is going to cap strength, skill and speed before promoting. Now, let's look at Cormag.    Cormag - Wyvern Rider: STATS: LV: 14 (+5) HP: 35 (+5) STR: 16 (+2) SKL: 14 (+5) SPD: 12 (+2) LCK: 7 (+3) DEF: 15 (+3) RES: 4 (+2) MOV: 7 CON: 9 GROWTHS: HP: 70% (-15%) STR: 60% (+5%) SKL: 50% (+10%) SPD: 40% (-5%) LCK: 35% DEF: 45% (+20%) RES: 20% (+5%) Killer Lance: Rank C. Range 1. Weight 9. Might 9 (-1). Hit 70. Crit 30. 50 uses (+30). Cormag? Good. Like, he's promotion ready right now and comes with the item for it. I'll leave him unpromoted for a few more levels, but still. His growths are really good too. Just an all around great unit. And since we're close to murking the boss, let's check him out.   +5 HP, -3 STR, -2 SKL, -2 SPD, +2 LCK, -2 DEF. Went from lancereaver, killer bow and longbow to a steel sword and steel bow. God drat, Beran got hit with the loving nerf bat. That is so weird. I mean, I'm not complaining, but it's just weird. I guess this is a good time to bring up the ranger's skill. Ambush: - Always attack first, even during the enemy phase. - 2DMG when equipped with bows Honestly, give a ranger a brave weapon and they'll turn into an enemy phase wrecking crew. Alas, it won't help Beran here.  Vanessa breaks through to get the village next turn. There are no enemies left that move, so enemy phase is uneventful.   The game does give me a pretty good incentive to haul rear end, though. This doesn't show two cavs that also spawned in the area the boss is in.  Vanessa gets another booster, which will come in handy for somebody.  And it's time to show the boss what's what.  Beran misses his attack, Ephraim misses his first, and then fucks his poo poo up with a crit.  GG no re. Not sure why I had so much trouble with this map the first time through - had I only kept Tana closer, I could've recruited Cormag easily and saved the green units. Oh well. I'll live with the consequences of my actions.  Next time... ugh.
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Jan 13, 2021 18:30
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Mini-Update I - A Bunch Of Basic Weapons Hey, this is going to be a quick mini-update, as you might have guessed from the title. What you can probably also guess from the title is that it's about weapons. I seem to forget half the time to go over weapons when they come up, so I'll just give you one post with all the basic weapons' stats, so I'll only have to go over the specific good ones when they come up. --- WEAPONS: --- SWORDS: Slim Sword: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 2. Might 3. Hit 100. Crit 15 (+10). 50 uses (+20). Iron Sword: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 5. Might 4 (-1). Hit 90. Crit 0. 50 uses. Poison Sword: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1. Weight 4 (-2). Might 3. Hit 90 (+20). Crit 0. 50 uses (+10). Poisons (-5 HP for 5 turns) on contact. Steel Sword: Rank D. Range 1. Weight 9 (-1). Might 7 (-1). Hit 85 (+10). Crit 0. 50 uses (+20). Silver Sword: Rank C (formerly A). Range 1. Weight 8. Might 11 (-2). Hit 75 (-5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+30). Killing Edge: Rank C. Range 1. Weight 7. Might 8 (-1). Hit 75. Crit 30. 50 uses (+30). Cleaver: Rank C (formerly D). Range 1. Weight 9 (-1). Might 9 (+1). Hit 70 (-10). Crit 5 (+5). 50 uses (+32). Effective against cavalry and armor. Noble Rapier: Rank Prf (Eirika only). Range 1. Weight 5. Might 8 (+1). Hit 100 (+5). Crit 20 (+10). 50 uses (+10). Effective against cavalry and armor. LANCES: Slim Lance: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 4. Might 4. Hit 90 (+5). Crit 15 (+10). 50 uses (+20). Iron Lance: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 7 (-1). Might 6 (-2). Hit 80. Crit 0. 50 uses (+5). Toxin Lance: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 6 (-2). Might 4. Hit 80 (+15). Crit 0. Uses 50. Poisons (-5 HP for 5 turns) on contact. Javelin: Rank D (formerly E). Range 1-2. Weight 10 (-1). Might 5 (-1). Hit 65. Crit 0. 50 uses (+30). Steel Lance: Rank D. Range 1. Weight 10 (-3). Might 9 (-1). Hit 75 (+5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+20). Silver Lance: Rank C (formerly A). Range 1. Weight 10. Might 12 (-2). Hit 70 (-5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+30). Killer Lance: Rank C. Range 1. Weight 9. Might 9 (-1). Hit 70. Crit 30. 50 uses (+30). Knight Killer: Rank C (formerly B). Range 1. Weight 11 (+6). Might 10. Hit 70 (-5). Crit 5 (+5). 50 uses (+20). Effective against cavalry and armor. Noble Lance: Rank Prf (Ephraim only). Range 1. Weight 8. Might 10. Hit 90 (+10). Crit 15 (+5). 50 uses. (+5) Effective against cavalry and armor. AXES: Slim Axe: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 5. Might 5. Hit 85. Crit 15. 50 uses. Iron Axe: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 8 (-2). Might 7 (-1). Hit 75. Crit 0. 50 uses (+5). Poison Axe: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1. Weight 7 (-3). Might 4. Hit 75 (+15). Crit 0. 50 uses (+10). Poisons (-5 HP for 5 turns) on contact. Hand Axe: Rank D (formerly E). Range 1-2. Weight 11 (-1). Might 7. Hit 60. Crit 0. 50 uses (+30). Steel Axe: Rank D (formerly E). Range 1. Weight 11 (-4). Might 10 (-1). Hit 70 (+5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+20). Silver Axe: Rank C (formerly A). Range 1. Weight 12. Might 13 (-2). Hit 65 (-5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+25). Killer Axe: Rank C. Range 1. Weight 10 (-1). Might 10 (-1). Hit 65. Crit 30. 50 uses (+25). Halberd: Rank C (formerly D). Range 1. Weight 12 (-3). Might 11 (+1). Hit 65 (+5). Crit 5 (+5). 50 uses (+32). Effective against cavalry and armor. BOWS: Slim Bow: Rank E (formerly D). Range 2. Weight 3. Might 3 (-2). Hit 100 (+15). Crit 15 (+5). 50 uses. Iron Bow: Rank E. Range 2. Weight 5. Might 5 (-1). Hit 90 (+5). Crit 0. 50 uses. Poison Bow: Rank E (formerly D). Range 2. Weight 5. Might 4. Hit 85 (+20). Crit 0. 50 uses (+10). Poisons (-5 HP for 5 turns) on contact. Steel Bow: Rank D. Range 2. Weight 9. Might 8 (-1). Hit 85 (+15). Crit 0. 50 uses (+20). Silver Bow: Rank C (formerly A). Range 2. Weight 8 (+2). Might 11 (-2). Hit 75. Crit 0. 50 uses (+30). Killer Bow: Rank C. Range 2. Weight 8 (+1). Might 8 (-1). Hit 75. Crit 30. 50 uses (+30). --- MAGIC: --- STAVES: Heal: Rank E. Range 1. Weight 2. 50 uses (+20). Heals 10 HP + MAG / 2. Use gives 15 EXP (+4). Mend: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1. Weight 4. 25 uses (+5). Heals 20 HP + MAG / 2. Use gives 20 EXP (+8). Torch: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1-(MAG/2). Weight 5. 20 uses (+10). Uses a torch at the chosen square. Use gives 20 EXP (+5). Unlock: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1-2. Weight 7. 10 uses. Opens doors. Use gives 20 EXP (+3). Physic: Rank D (formerly B). Range 1-(MAG/2). Weight 5. 20 uses (+5). Heals 20 HP + MAG / 2. Use gives 25 EXP (+3). Restore: Rank D (formerly C). Range 1. Weight 4. 25 uses (+15). Cures status condition. Use gives 20 EXP. Sleep: Rank C (formerly B). Range 1-(MAG/2). Weight 8. 5 uses (+2). Inflicts sleep. Use gives 40 EXP (+5). Silence: Rank C (formerly B). Range 1-(MAG/2). Weight 7. 5 uses (+2). Inflicts silence. Use gives 35 EXP (+5). Hammerne: Rank C. Range 1. Weight 7. 1 use (-2). Repairs a weapon or staff to full uses. Use gives 100 EXP (+60). Barrier: Rank C. Range 1. Weight 1. 25 uses (+10). Increases RES by 7, -1 each turn. Use gives 25 EXP (+8). ANIMA: Fire: Rank E. Range 1-2. Weight 4. Might 5. Hit 90. Crit 0. 50 uses (+10). Thunder: Rank D. Range 1-2. Weight 6. Might 7 (-1). Hit 80. Crit 5. 50 uses (+15). Wind: Rank C (formerly B). Range 1-2. Weight 5 (+3). Might 8. Hit 75 (-10). 10 Crit (+10). 50 uses (+25). Effective against fliers. DARK: Flux: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1-2. Weight 8. Might 9 (+2). Hit 80. Crit 0. 50 uses. Ruin: Rank D (formerly C). Range 1-2. Weight 10. Might 5 (+5). Hit 60 (+10). Crit 40 (+40). 50 uses (+20). Eclipse: Rank C (formerly B). Range 3-10. Weight 20 (+8). Might N/A. Hit 55 (+25). Crit 0. 5 uses. Halves target's HP. Uncounterable. Cannot double. LIGHT: Lightning: Rank E. Range 1-2. Weight 6. Might 4. Hit 100 (+5). Crit 15 (+10). 50 uses (+15). Shine: Rank D. Range 1-2. Weight 7 (-1). Might 6. Hit 90. Crit 20 (+12). 50 uses. Purge: Rank C (formerly B). Range 3-10. Weight 17 (-3). Might 7 (-3). Hit 85 (+10). Crit 20 (+15). 5 uses. --- ITEMS: --- USABLE: Vulnerary: 5 uses (+2), heals 20 HP (+10). Elixir: 3 uses, fully heals HP. Antitoxin: 5 uses (+2), cures poison. Pure Water: 5 uses (+2), increases RES by 7, -1 each turn. Lockpick: 15 uses, thieves, assassins and rogues only, opens chests and doors. Chest Key: 1 use, opens a chest. Door Key: 1 use, opens a door. Dragon Tear: Adds +10% to every stat growth rate. Angelic Robe: Raises maximum HP by 5 (-2). NON-USABLE: Star Seal: New item. Adds +1 to all stats (well, STR/SKL/SPD/LCK/DEF/RES, anyway). Can be given to any unit. Hoplon Guard: +1 LCK, +1 DEF, +1 RES. Protects against effectiveness for armor and cavalry units.
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Jan 13, 2021 18:30
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Since you've now promoted Amelia, I want to take a second to talk about what else she can do now. If she takes the Recruit path, she gets the added option to promote to Dragon Lord. This is interesting, in that it gives you the potential of yet another flying unit, but the class caps are badly suited to her growths IMO so it's kind of lacklustre. Still, it's something. It wasn't enough to convince me to use Amelia, but then as I've said before she's one of those characters who I've just never been willing to bother with. Cormag, on the other hand, is great in that role. I made the mistake of promoting him to Wyvern Knight, though (I had my reasons, but I don't think it was worth it; WK gets a ludicrously good class weapon, but has awful caps in strength and defence where he excels, and Cormag doesn't have the speed growth for its cap). Dragon Lord doesn't get a class weapon and I really disliked its speed cap, but it's definitely the superior choice for him (plus, I guess, the ability to get terrain bonuses while flying is stupidly good on the maps where it's relevant). I definitely remember this mission being a pain (though as you've noticed, the difficulty is very much front-loaded and it gives you far more turns than you need to do everything, once you can thread that needle initially). I don't remember exactly how I dealt with it, but I did eventually manage to get the Knight Crest. Which is kind of ironic, because I don't think I used a single Knight Crest unit, so it was the only promotion item I ended up with a surplus of.
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Jan 13, 2021 19:27
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Ruin looks fun.
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Jan 13, 2021 19:36
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I don't think I've ever sent Amelia down the Cavalier path. The game throws so many at you I just never felt the need. Even just one or two blessed mounted units can wreck the game
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Jan 13, 2021 19:59
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:I don't think I've ever sent Amelia down the Cavalier path. The game throws so many at you I just never felt the need. Even just one or two blessed mounted units can wreck the game I absolutely ran Amelia, Franz, Forde and Kyle as the Four Paladin Krew in my first playthrough. While I know Amelia Is Good In General, the high speed cap combined with the high movement just akes Paladin such a good class for my purposes that I have to get as many as I can. Explopyro posted:Cormag, on the other hand, is great in that role. I made the mistake of promoting him to Wyvern Knight, though (I had my reasons, but I don't think it was worth it; WK gets a ludicrously good class weapon, but has awful caps in strength and defence where he excels, and Cormag doesn't have the speed growth for its cap). Dragon Lord doesn't get a class weapon and I really disliked its speed cap, but it's definitely the superior choice for him (plus, I guess, the ability to get terrain bonuses while flying is stupidly good on the maps where it's relevant). Yeah, I went Dragon Lord with Cormag and already had an opportunity to take him for a spin. Dragon Lord Cormag on a peak is hilarious.
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Jan 13, 2021 21:12
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Update XIII - Ancient Mariners Not Included Alright, let's start the next chapter with some unit management before starting the mission. First of all, let's check out our new member.    Duessel - Great Knight: STATS: LV: 5 (-3) HP: 50 (+9) STR: 18 (+1) SKL: 15 (+3) SPD: 13 (+1) LCK: 8 DEF: 19 (+2) RES: 15 (+6) MOV: 7 (+1) CON: 15 GROWTHS: HP: 75% (-10%) STR: 50% (-5%) SKL: 40% SPD: 35% (+5%) LCK: 20% DEF: 45% RES: 35% (+5%) CAPS: HP: 60 STR: 27 (-1) SKL: 24 SPD: 25 (+1) LCK: 30 DEF: 26 (-3) RES: 24 (-1) Sentinel: - Reduce all types of incoming damage by 1 - Use of the "Rescue" command to rescue allies without the SKL or SPD penalty - Modifies the AID stat to be CON - 1 instead of the usual formula - Equipped weapon's Might x2 against Archers, Snipers and Skeleton/Legion Archers Hoo boy. Duessel is still very good, especially since as of right now, he's our second promoted character next to Seth, and exceptionally solid, losing levels while still gaining stats. The resistance boost in particular is very welcomed - Duessel will be able to chokepoint for us for quite some time, and believe me, being able to chokepoint is going to be very useful for us. But honestly, I think it's about time to start promoting. We're about to hit the ghost ship, and it doesn't gently caress around even in vanilla, so we should respect that.    First of all, Franz gets promoted to Paladin. We've already seen the caps and skill for Paladin with Orson, so nothing new here.    Lute gets promoted to Sage. CAPS: HP: 60 MAG: 27 (-3) SKL: 28 SPD: 29 (+3) LCK: 30 DEF: 20 (-1) RES: 24 (-1) Mystic Rhythm: - When equipped with Anima: +1 DMG, +5 HIT - When equipped with Dark: +1 DMG, +5 CRT - When equipped with Light: +5 HIT, +5 CRT The main thing I see in Sage is that 29 speed cap. This will be very handy later on, let me tell you. The ability to use all three magic types at B level plus staves at C level is also going to be very useful for a long time.    CAPS: HP: 60 MAG: 23 (-2) SKL: 30 (+5) SPD: 25 (-1) LCK: 30 DEF: 21 RES: 30 Enlightenment: - Weapon might vs. monsters is tripled. - +25 CRT - 5 DMG reduction from magic attacks. Yes. +25 crit. With light magic already being the Crit Magic. Purge bishops are going to be a force to be reckoned with throughout the chapters, but our bishops can absolutely wreck monsters.  Amelia gets a secret book to fix some of those skill problems.  Vanessa gets an angelic robe to help her not die.  And Artur gets a goddess icon to help with his luck.  Now, let's get going. Let's see what we're dealing with.   Oh. Right. We're going to see exactly dick right now. Oh well, let's get going.  Natasha torching a bit gives us a view of some flying enemies out there.  And Lute helps out as well. I didn't think of it going into this map, but a large part of Lute's and Natasha's utility is going to be trading the torch staff between each other and dealing with the fog. There is a lot of room for enemies to really sneak up on you, so having two units around torching the place is going to be very helpful in preventing that.  OK, let's see what we're dealing with.  Oh my. That is a full ship.   And that looks like a pretty beefy boss. That Fell Contract promotes thieves and pirates, so Ross would've liked that, but honestly, I'm really not liking my chances at keeping Colm alive in this clusterfuck, so I'll just live with it.  Fliers and hand axers manage to take out most of the gargoyles flying around, but some will be able to get some hits in, so we set up a bit defensively to shield the magic users, and we'll just see what happens.  And of course I leave a hole open for Artur to get attacked. At least he had no chance of dying.  Vanessa levels on killing one of the eyes. She's probably ready to promote soon, but I might be limited in my promotion items with Tana and Cormag both doing well too.  And they board. I'm probably just going to plug these gaps with some tanky guys and let them deal with it. EXP comes a plenty in this hack, so no need to think about EXP thieves and such.  And of course, four eyes spawn in behind us, two at the top and two at the bottom.  There we go. Gilliam, Ephraim and Duessel should be more than enough to deal with these guys, and if not, Ross and Cormag are easily available to slot in. The rest deals with the enemies on our ship and hunkers down.  Also, Natasha status: Pretty good against monsters.  On enemy phase, we see what can make these monsters so dangerous: Most (all?) wield poison weapons. Remember: Poison is 5 damage every turn for 5 turns. While that can be dealt with fairly easily with vulneraries or healers, it does slow you down quite a bit. Not to mention that these enemies probably wouldn't have dealt any damage with iron or maybe even steel, so poison is a good play to deal some damage to the tanks you've likely placed on the blatant chokepoints. And if they could break through and tink half your army with poison, you'd probably end up with a lot of required healing from random enemies. All in all, I think the change to poison makes it a fair bit more dangerous and actually makes antitoxins something you might consider yourself happy to have in your convoy.  Ephraim gets a garbage level from the monster grinder. He's probably going to hit level 20 before the Vigarde chapter at this rate.  Some of the skeletons don't move, and the eyes didn't move either - I presume the eyes will move later at a less opportune time. We also get some reinforcements on the ship, and some invisible reinforcements back in the fog.  I also take the opportunity to outfit my chokepointers with javelins, which I really should've done earlier, given the amount of bow users lurking about.  The invisible reinforcements are revealed to be gargoyles and eyes thanks to some more torching. Both up top and below. We just continue to hunker down, showing that I've forgotten something important about this map. The enemy phase is uneventful, just as expected, a few bony guys smashing up against my chokepoints and dying.  Oh. Right.  For some reason I forgot this was happening. Uh, L'Arachel, you might kinda die. This could get rough.  Oh well, best we can do now is push forward and see if we can get L'Arachel before some reinforcements in a bad spot get her killed, which would be, uh, suboptimal. But let's look at the units first.    Dozla - Berserker: STATS: LV: 1 HP: 43 STR: 17 (+1) SKL: 12 (+1) SPD: 15 (+6) LCK: 8 (+4) DEF: 11 RES: 6 MOV: 7 (+1) CON: 14 (-2) GROWTHS: HP: 75% (-10%) STR: 55% (+5%) SKL: 35% SPD: 55% (+15%) LCK: 40% (+10%) DEF: 30% RES: 25% CAPS: HP: 60 STR: 30 SKL: 20 (-9) SPD: 30 (+2) LCK: 30 DEF: 22 (-1) RES: 22 Frenzy: - +5 DMG, +5 HIT, +25 CRT Great Axe: Rank B. Range 1. Weight 15. Might 17. Hit 55. Crit 5. 50 uses. So the berserker fits a certain theme a lot more. Garbage skill cap, so inaccurate, but maximum strength, speed and luck cap for maximum attacks with maximum crit. Giving them extra move was not required, but always welcome. Dozla got a lot speedier in particular and should be a pretty heavy hitter right out of the gate, currently not really hurt by his skill cap. Also note the "great" weapon - high might, high weight, low hit. Basically makes the berserker even more extreme.    L'Arachel - Troubadour: STATS: LV: 13 (+10) HP: 28 (+10) MAG: 9 (+3) SKL: 10 (+4) SPD: 14 (+4) LCK: 15 (+3) DEF: 7 (+2) RES: 13 (+5) MOV: 6 CON: 5 GROWTHS: HP: 50% (+5%) MAG: 40% (-10%) SKL: 50% (+5%) SPD: 50% (+5%) LCK: 65% DEF: 25% (+10%) RES: 40% (-10%) Yes, plus TEN levels. So her surviving might actually not be as big an issue, since she's gotten a bit more survivable with those levels, and she's even promotion ready from the start (though I'll definitely give her some more levels, since healers level faster here). L'Arachel will slot in perfectly as primary healer after Natasha's departure from that slot to take over as a combat unit with staff utility. Still, reinforcements might be a bit meaner here and still give L'Arachel some trouble.  Next, I'm torching this area. I loving know that rear end in a top hat boss monster comes from here and I want to loving know when it spawns.  Gilliam gets a terrible level. Man, fucker's going to level cap soon, and I don't think I have a knight crest laying around I can use on him that wouldn't be better suited for a cav... well, a little birdie (namely my past experience) tells me there's a secret shop in Vigarde's chapter that sells promo items, so if I'm short, I can get some there for sure. I had to buy a fair few knight crests there on my first run since I was using all four available cavs that could've needed promo items there.  OK, good dodge, but I don't like those numbers.  And I don't like those additional guys flying in either. At least Dozla can deal with them well. Also, it was at this point I noticed the Boss Box - three archers defending the boss skeleton. At least they're fairly weak so you can take them out from a range and just get attacked back rather than eat an attack from the boss's javelin.  Also, the eyes start moving now. So I guess they were waiting for an ambush opportunity when we start moving towards L'Arachel to save her, breaking defensive formation on the ship. That's actually kind of clever.  Uh, Dozla? You might want to be killing those other guys near L'Arachel?  And of course, amongst other reinforcements, the other boss shows up.   He is pretty nasty. Note the crit - high tier eyeballs, high tier gargoyles and cyclopes get +15 innate crit. So, uh, we kinda need to deal with this guy. And we can't reach him right now except with Tana and Vanessa, who I don't trust to make this work.  The end result I come to is "let Natasha and Lute deal with his entourage, figure they can survive one round of combat, then have Natasha murder him".  We also set up Ross and Seth in a defensive formation to keep him away from our lesser units. This might get bad, but we'll see.  Duessel hustles to help out L'Arachel while Cormag, Ephraim and Gilliam keep cleaning up the center ship.  Ephraim levels up a bit better on enemy phase.  Things get a bit tight for Ross, the eyeballs did more damage than I anticipated, and there was a chance of death with a crit, but oh well, I feel like that would almost always be the case.  Dozla gets to dismantling the Boss Box on his own.  The poison does creep up on you. Some damage from an eyeball and suddenly two turns of poison add up.  Man, look at this poo poo. I guess we're just risking death.  Well, I hit, he missed, and we get this level. No crit, though.  So Lute has to finish the job. No chance of death here, so we're good.  And she gets this level on the kill. What garbage levels we have here.  I then make a critical mistake with Cormag - he whiffs the first attack here and leaves the eye alive, with no chance of anybody else killing it, and takes a hit too. So that's some juicy chance of death for enemy phase. Oh well. We'll just have to see how it goes.  Artur picks up an alright level cleaning up an eyeball somewhere else while Franz cleans out the last piece of the Boss Box, leaving the boss vulnerable.  Also, let's yoink Dozla. I don't need him attacking the boss. At the least he can wait until I recruit him because I want that EXP.  On enemy phase, the gargoyle attacks L'Arachel and continues to miss while both eyeballs hit and leave Cormag at exactly 1 HP. It's like I'm a regular Dondon.  And then L'Arachel heals on green phase. Never punished.  At this point I decide "gently caress this" and just rescuedrop L'Arachel so I can recruit her.  And then she can recruit Dozla. Fun thing: Because Dozla was green when I dropped him he didn't have his move spent, so after recruiting him I can still use him this turn!  Showing Dozla the boss shows pretty well what berserkers are. Low chance to hit but boy if he hits.  But first... Natasha does some chip damage (alas no crit) and gets rescued out.  Dozla gets a hit.  And Garcia gets the kill. He could've died if things had gone horrendously wrong, but eh.  I still want to get him some levels and get him to Hero. I think he could be a solid contributor that way, and it's not like the hero crest has anybody else clamoring for it (shut up, Joshua, you don't count).  And since he was very close to leveling again, I gave him the last eyeball kill for this level.  That's it for this update! Next time, I get to pack out the degenerate strats again, because we're getting Ewan to level 10 right away. See you then!
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Jan 20, 2021 19:13
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That Berserker change seems...curious. Feels like it has a chance of making it an exceptionally useless class, especially when you take into account Fire Emblem's wonky hit RNG.
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Jan 20, 2021 20:07
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This map is pretty nasty, especially if you don't know what's coming. That boss gargoyle does a lot of damage, it was more than capable of one-shotting my squishier units (even without a crit in some cases). At least the level boost to L'Arachel helps her out a bit; even then, her survival is far from guaranteed and I definitely lost attempts due to her dying. Sage is definitely one of the better classes in this hack, and I never regretted promoting someone to it. Dozla is definitely useable now, although I still didn't bother with him because Ross turns out better, and I didn't need two Berserkers. Their hit problems are more pronounced than you might think, because in addition to the skill cap thing, axes have pretty awful Hit (with the exception of Slim and Iron axes), but overall they're still a pretty solid class. I recommend going for some Hit-boosting supports though, they need it. I have to say I think Warrior is the better promotion path for Garcia, because bows are a pretty rare weapon proficiency here (as they are in FE8 vanilla, honestly). His speed options are less noticeable if you just have him Longbow things, too.
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Jan 20, 2021 20:12
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I don't think I've ever used Duessel
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Jan 21, 2021 02:06
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I am allergic to using pre-promotes. Didn't really know about how powerful Seth was until seeing lps of the base game, as I never used him past the first 2 chapters. Likewise: I've never used Duessel. Ever.
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Jan 21, 2021 02:46
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quote:I still want to get him some levels and get him to Hero. I think he could be a solid contributor that way, and it's not like the hero crest has anybody else clamoring for it (shut up, Joshua, you don't count). A hero with 8 def?
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Jan 21, 2021 03:39
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Seraphic Neoman posted:A hero with 8 def? That's about what Raven will have when you promote him in FE7 and he's plenty durable enough. Unrelated but Jesus Christ those Paladin promotion gains. +4 Speed is ridiculous.
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Jan 21, 2021 05:46
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:I don't think I've ever used Duessel hes not bad, only really hampered by the fact that you have, at minimum, 4 other cav type units to use. I have a soft spot for him tho, his support with amelia is my favorite in the game
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Jan 24, 2021 15:16
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Update XIV - Copious Grinding Action Alright, no chance to buy anything new or anything, let's get right into the map.   Quite the drastic change to this map. And like I announced last update, grinding will be happening here. I have plans, because I'm not loving dealing with a trainee Ewan longer than I absolutely have to.  The wyverns make the early moves a bit annoying. Not a lot of room where we don't get attacked - though the shamans, for instance, don't move, so it's not 100% accurate.  So we set up like this. Let's let the enemies show their hand first.  The biggest situation ends up being this chokepoint. Forde's not exactly the guy to deal with this.  And of course, Caellach bails.  With the monster reinforcements moving in, we get to see this promoted centaur guy move slooooooooowly to his spot. That's probably not intended, but very helpful - this guy is somebody you should pay attention to, because while he does not move, he can gently caress your poo poo up.   Look at this guy. He beefy. Approach carefully.  Also, of course, we get some gargoyles dumped into our backfield.  And while Duessel and Ross can weaken them a fair bit, they're still going to get some shots in.  Lute and Franz get to deal with the mercs up top after Amelia and Artur deal with the wyvern.  Cormag levels after attacking another merc. He's probably getting promoted soon, he'll definitely help out big time.  On enemy phase, Natasha gets in a bit of trouble and could've died if the shamans moved. Thankfully, I know they don't because I left Natasha in their range before.  And she levels on the counter kill too.  Amelia got trapped by one gargoyle, but he was weak, so he got killed on player phase for a level.  Combined efforts clean up the group up top.  Lute dodges death after the first of those two fighters hits on like a 35. Thankfully, the wyvern can't kill, because he did hit.  Tana levels baiting one of the cavs in the south to prep for recruiting Ewan.  We also get some knight reinforcements.  Cormag then recruits Ewan.    Ewan - Pupil: STATS: LV: 1 HP: 15 MAG: 4 (+1) SKL: 3 (+1) SPD: 6 (+1) LCK: 7 (+2) DEF: 2 (+2) RES: 5 (+2) MOV: 4 CON: 5 GROWTHS: HP: 55% (+5%) MAG: 45% SKL: 45% (+5%) SPD: 50% (+5%) LCK: 50% DEF: 25% (+10%) RES: 35% (-5%) Those are some spicy growths. I forgot that Ewan had such overall great growths, and that boost in defense growth is very welcome. And I suppose the boost in his bases is very necessary, since everything out there is stronger than in vanilla. Once we get him trained up, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with.  So we set up in a sort of defensive formation to let Ewan get some chip EXP. He gets like 45 EXP from a simple chip right now, so that's pretty good.  Up top, we start getting ready to move in and take on this sub boss.  Ewan gets some training from the cavs, and the knights now moving in will probably also provide some decent fodder.  And back up top, some units aren't exactly prime material for dealing with this centaur.  Some are a bit better. In fact, Lute crits twice and takes him down to 11 HP.  Franz gets one hit in, but now faces chance of death if we don't kill...   Thankfully, Artur is up to the task.  L'Arachel heals Franz up next turn and gets this level.  So, basically, what I'm planning is to take those two knights and two shamans to grind some units up, namely Amelia, Ewan and L'Arachel. These guys don't move, so we can plink at them for a while and get some levels.  But first I'll let Ewan plink at these knights down here. He can get some good EXP from here and Ephraim and Gilliam can easily hold the line.  Huh, that's a bit annoying. Guess I'll send some axe guys back to deal with that.  Ewan gets a full 100 EXP from a kill. It's nice. The level isn't.  And Amelia gets to work training. I can do this for a while. L'Arachel gets a heal staff so she can heal without wasting the mend staff when not necessary.  Uh. I didn't expect you to move. This... complicated matters. Dodge the knight please?   Nope. God damnit.  At least I get some intel on reinforcements. I'll just leave some guys on the ship next time to deal with this right off the bat because I don't want these guys getting to my main group and getting in range of attacking my healers and mages. Resets: 4  Next time around, I have to set up a barrier with Natasha because Gilliam is slow. This leads to her murdering multiple knights. Not exactly what I had planned, but whatever, Ewan gets EXP out the rear end, he can probably grind up to 10 on a single shaman or something. I'm not worried about him.  This time around, we're prepared for the fliers.  Garcia gets a level in dealing with the fliers.  And Ross levels as well. He's absolutely capping strength, skill and speed before promoting, and good lord, that luck.  All the while, I've been whittling down the centaur again, setting up an Amelia kill. So of course I'm going to go for that.  She gets it.  And the Ewan training begins anew.  This time around, Franz gets to deal with the annoying fighter standing between me and grinding.  More reinforcements. There will be two waves of three cavs. So grinding will have to wait until that's dealt with, because those guys could gently caress Amelia up something fierce.     Ewan starts grinding on the archer. Not great level ups in total, but he's got enough left.  Gilliam will level cap soon. Not sure when I'll have a crest around for him.  Another level for Ewan. This update will probably be like 50% level ups.  And here we go. This is Amelia training and L'Arachel training in one, with Ewan training on the side. Strap in.              And there we go. That's the grinding group cleared out and a bunch of levels acquired. Not necessarily fun, not necessarily how it was intended to be done, but hey, this hack doesn't hold back, so I might as well use some things I have available to me.  Now we get to set up to lure in Marisa.  Once again, an unequipped Gilliam is more than up to the task.  And there we go, Marisa acquired.    Marisa - Myrmidon: STATS: LV: 13 (+8) HP: 27 (+4) STR: 10 (+3) SKL: 15 (+3) SPD: 16 (+3) LCK: 14 (+5) DEF: 6 (+2) RES: 6 (+3) MOV: 5 CON: 8 (+3) GROWTHS: HP: 55% (-15%) STR: 30% SKL: 60% (+5%) SPD: 60% LCK: 55% (+5%) DEF: 20% (+5%) RES: 35% (+10%) That's a lot more usable than what you'd usually get with Marisa in vanilla. Since I haven't exactly been using Joshua, I suppose if I am going to use a myrmidon, it'll be Marisa. Not sure if either has a long-term future before the postgame, though - I just don't seem to like pure sword users.  Artur gets the energy ring Ewan came with, since his magic has been a bit lacking. And now, it's time to try and deal with the boss.  In setting up, L'Arachel gets another level. She's proably going to promote ASAP.  The monsters behind the boss do not move, so we get to maneuver around them to pick them off from the side so we don't risk an attack from the boss, because he can gently caress poo poo up.  Amelia picks up another level sniping the skeleton.  As does Vanessa. Now, let's see how our prime monster killer, Natasha, fares against this cyclops.  This is very yabai. Very yabai indeed. That innate crit that some high tier monsters have showing its face again. So we need somebody bulky. Either I could drag Duessel over here (I forgot to move him and he's still on the boat with Garcia and Ross), or I guess Dozla could do it. Let's see.  Well... he survives a crit, and the boss can't heal. Guess that's all we need!  First round, miss from the boss, hit from Dozla.  Second round, hit from the boss, hit from Dozla.  Third round, miss from the boss, crit from Dozla. What even are hit chances?  And a very berserker level to cap things off.  Next time, we get to deal with Selena and a level that has a few tricks up its sleeve. See you then! TheMcD fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Mar 10, 2022 |
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Jan 27, 2021 12:20
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Marisa turned out very well for me. I don't know if she's worth using on general principles (as you say, sword-locked units have issues, and I don't find this hack kind to them), but there are some quirks that make her more useful than I'd have thought. For some reason, Assassin is the only class in Sacred War that still has different stat caps by gender; the only difference is that female Assassins get 22 strength to males' 20. This means that if you have any interest at all in Assassins, it should probably be Marisa (and with this hack's changes to crit rates, it's more reasonable to actually assassinate things). It also means she gets Lockpick utility, which is helpful to have on the bigger maps this game throws at you, I often really appreciated multiple thieves. I ended up doing the Marisa/Gerik/Tethys support triangle and that worked out really well for me. I'm really curious to see what you decide to do with Ewan, he has some really interesting promotion paths (although I personally didn't bother with him).
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Jan 27, 2021 17:08
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 14:53 |
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TheMcD posted:
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Jan 28, 2021 02:06
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