Fire Emblem: Awakening

I've obviously spent too much time doing side missions and optional content. The random Risen spawns on my world map are now level 13-15, and main story battles are level 5. Methinks I should make some progress in the main story.

ahrezmendi wrote:

Always, always work to get your Pegasus Knights leveled up. They take babysitting, but it's worth it. They have very high natural speed in addition to their move range, and excellent growth on all of their stats. In every FE game my Pegasus Knights wind up being my most valuable characters. I've had them single-handedly clear entire maps, they're that powerful. Sumia is already following this pattern, and I've only gotten her up to 7 so far.

Same experience here. Pegasus Knights are amazing. It might break the game if you could recruit one of them via a DLC level.

ahrezmendi wrote:

So... I have Marth on my team now. Not the mysterious Marth from this game, the original Prince Marth of Altea. I got him by winning the free DLC map, which was composed entirely of protagonists from the previous FE games. I see what Intelligent Systems is doing with the DLC for this game, and it's EVIL! Awesome, but evil.

Same here. I actually really dig what they've done here. And, honestly, they're going to get all of my money. All of it. Because I want extra maps and the ability to use older characters is way too tempting. If I could play with Dart from Fire Emblem 7 I'd be over the moon.

This game... I laugh at myself for poo-pooing this game for small reasons when I really love it right now. I'm racing through the end of Persona 4 right now so that this will be my sole portable game.

Any of you guys leveling up Donnell? Is it worth it?

BNice wrote:

Any of you guys leveling up Donnell? Is it worth it?

Maybe I've just gotten unlucky with him, but I expected more than 3-4 points a level from a guy carrying a +20% all stat growth skill.

On the other hand, if the problem is just that Villager itself is awful growth, that skill will be amazing once he changes class to something... anything... else.

The trouble with that skill is that it's misleading. It's not saying you'll gain 20% more stat growth, it's giving you a 20% greater chance at a stat growth. Every class has a particular chance at gaining a point in each of the skills, but if at a level up the RNG happens to hate you then you can wind up with very little. 3-4 points is pretty good actually, I've had times where characters leveled up and, I kid you not, got nothing at all.

I want to level up Donnell, because in past FE games characters like him wind up being insanely powerful. You get tons of bonus stats since they have a whole extra class tier to go through (Peasant -> Whatever -> Upgraded Whatever), their growth is usually really good, and you usually get them very early. The problem I'm running into is what I said earlier, I'm encountering level 13-15 enemies now, so I have little opportunity to give him any XP. I certainly can't take him into a random encounter, he'll get 1-shotted by anything. Probably what I'll do is swap him in for Sully once I get her up to about 10, and just babysit him with Chrom, Sumia, and my MC.

It looks like the villager class doesn't have any growth options. But you can reclass him with an item.

Oh really? Well that's a change. I may have to hit up a wiki before I seriously consider bringing Donnell along then. I also can't stand his saucepan helmet. That was cute in Ni no Kuni, not quite so much when you're fighting a war.

ahrezmendi wrote:

Oh really? Well that's a change. I may have to hit up a wiki before I seriously consider bringing Donnell along then. I also can't stand his saucepan helmet. That was cute in Ni no Kuni, not quite so much when you're fighting a war.

No reason you can't do the Villager --> Whatever --> Upgraded Whatever track. It's just (I guess) that there's no Upgraded Villager. No?

ahrezmendi wrote:

The trouble with that skill is that it's misleading. It's not saying you'll gain 20% more stat growth, it's giving you a 20% greater chance at a stat growth. Every class has a particular chance at gaining a point in each of the skills, but if at a level up the RNG happens to hate you then you can wind up with very little. 3-4 points is pretty good actually, I've had times where characters leveled up and, I kid you not, got nothing at all.

I want to level up Donnell, because in past FE games characters like him wind up being insanely powerful. You get tons of bonus stats since they have a whole extra class tier to go through (Peasant -> Whatever -> Upgraded Whatever), their growth is usually really good, and you usually get them very early. The problem I'm running into is what I said earlier, I'm encountering level 13-15 enemies now, so I have little opportunity to give him any XP. I certainly can't take him into a random encounter, he'll get 1-shotted by anything. Probably what I'll do is swap him in for Sully once I get her up to about 10, and just babysit him with Chrom, Sumia, and my MC.

My favorite example of that kind of character.

IMAGE(http://a.imdoc.fr/1/divers/fire-emblem/photo/2747062274/4585490a58/fire-emblem-ross-img.png)

grobstein wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Oh really? Well that's a change. I may have to hit up a wiki before I seriously consider bringing Donnell along then. I also can't stand his saucepan helmet. That was cute in Ni no Kuni, not quite so much when you're fighting a war.

No reason you can't do the Villager --> Whatever --> Upgraded Whatever track. It's just (I guess) that there's no Upgraded Villager. No?

You don't get the levels, which was the advantage with characters like Ross. Reclassing keeps you at the same level. Before you'd get 10 bonus levels going from Villager -> Whatever because that path was a unit promotion.

My lord, Ross was so insanely overpowered. I upgraded him to Berserker in one game, and he would one-shot bosses. It was so hard to keep him alive early on though, that was some serious babysitting.

ahrezmendi wrote:
grobstein wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Oh really? Well that's a change. I may have to hit up a wiki before I seriously consider bringing Donnell along then. I also can't stand his saucepan helmet. That was cute in Ni no Kuni, not quite so much when you're fighting a war.

No reason you can't do the Villager --> Whatever --> Upgraded Whatever track. It's just (I guess) that there's no Upgraded Villager. No?

You don't get the levels, which was the advantage with characters like Ross. Reclassing keeps you at the same level. Before you'd get 10 bonus levels going from Villager -> Whatever because that path was a unit promotion.

My lord, Ross was so insanely overpowered. I upgraded him to Berserker in one game, and he would one-shot bosses. It was so hard to keep him alive early on though, that was some serious babysitting.

I'm confused. Re-classing with a Second Seal sets the character to Level 1 in the new class. But I don't think that functions as a bonus. For example, experience gain is based not on a characters nominal level but on some kind of historical total level (plus some premium for being in a Master class), I think.

Oh I didn't know it reset you to level 1. Reclassing in the previous 3 FE games just changed your class, so you'd go from being a Fighter lvl 8 to a Mage lvl 8. So perhaps Donnell will work out similarly to Ross, it'll just depend on how much of a factor that XP gain is.

On a related note, I admit I'm amused by the fact characters comment on their own level up gains. Especially when they're bad.

Lissa: "I think I'm ready for the front lines!"
Me: No, no you're not. Keep dreaming.

ahrezmendi wrote:
grobstein wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Oh really? Well that's a change. I may have to hit up a wiki before I seriously consider bringing Donnell along then. I also can't stand his saucepan helmet. That was cute in Ni no Kuni, not quite so much when you're fighting a war.

No reason you can't do the Villager --> Whatever --> Upgraded Whatever track. It's just (I guess) that there's no Upgraded Villager. No?

You don't get the levels, which was the advantage with characters like Ross. Reclassing keeps you at the same level. Before you'd get 10 bonus levels going from Villager -> Whatever because that path was a unit promotion.

My lord, Ross was so insanely overpowered. I upgraded him to Berserker in one game, and he would one-shot bosses. It was so hard to keep him alive early on though, that was some serious babysitting.

That was my experience as well. Based on previous experience with Dart as a Berserker I went down the same path with Ross. It took many replays of many maps, but eventually he was amazing.

Man, you guys weren't kidding about Pegasus Knights. I just grinded a bunch (which is actually quite enjoyable in this game) and leveled up Sumia and she gets beastly!

Eh, they really don't match my playstyle. I turtle up and minimize risk.

Turtle with a Pegasus Knight and it's like this PA comic. Enemy attacks, 1 damage, double attack for the kill, rinse repeat. You can leave a Pegasus Knight sitting at a choke point and slaughter legions of enemies.

Or you could do it with Kellam. Slowly. 1 unit at a time.

I actually tend to pair Kellam with either Lon-qu or Vaike, and that speeds things along nicely.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I actually tend to pair Kellam with either Lon-qu or Vaike The Vaike Teach, and that speeds things along nicely.

FTFY

I have had it with Sully. She has consistently failed to pull her own weight in fights. She can't tank, she can't deal damage, she's useless. Welcome back to the team, Stahl.

Huh. Sully is one of the few characters I refuse to remove for any reason. It probably helps that I gave her Frederick's Silver Lance. It broke in my last mission, but she's good enough to use lesser weapons effectively now.

I've softened my stance on Pegasus Knights, because Cordelia is a much easier one to use than Sumia. I got sick of seeing Sumia's damage result end up 4x2 with a counter against her for 17. 22 HP and 5 DEF at level 7 ain't gonna cut it. Still, in the past when I had to use a flying unit, I'd prefer a Dragon Knight instead. Not sure if you get anyone of that class in Awakening (and don't tell me if you do!)

Blind_Evil wrote:

(and don't tell me if you do!)

Speaking of this, we're all being a bit too cavalier with spoilers. Two forthcoming battles have already been spoiled for me, along with the characters involved in them, so can we try to use more spoiler tags? Some of us are only on Ch. 5 (namely, me).

On the Sully/Sumia note, sounds like we just had opposite RNG luck, Blind. My Sully and Stahl are both level 8, but Stahl has 14 Def and Sully has 9. Stahl has 11 Str and Sully has 9. So Sully is a front line character who can't stand in the front lines. My Sumia got way better stats than yours, she's level 7 but already has 7 Def, 10 Res, 17 Spd (19 with her +2 bonus), 12 Lck, 15 Skill, and 8 Str. I'm not too surprised you benched her if she's doing such low damage, mine hits for 8-10 x2 so I have to be careful she doesn't kill too many enemies too quickly.

Do you guys know if relationship growth is tied to XP? So, lets say I had two people paired up around lvl 10. Would their relationship grow more if they slayed a lvl 10 mob together versus a lvl 3 one?

ahrezmendi wrote:

Speaking of this, we're all being a bit too cavalier with spoilers. Two forthcoming battles have already been spoiled for me, along with the characters involved in them, so can we try to use more spoiler tags? Some of us are only on Ch. 5 (namely, me).

I'm all for spoiler tags, but what constitutes a spoiler in FE? For me, I don't think character names or unit types out of context matter.

Simply knowing that another Peg. Knight is coming along sometime soon is a spoiler, I think. Out of context or not, it gives insight into how your army composition changes in the future, and that's a big part of the game for me. Am I unique in this?

ahrezmendi wrote:

Simply knowing that another Peg. Knight is coming along sometime soon is a spoiler, I think. Out of context or not, it gives insight into how your army composition changes in the future, and that's a big part of the game for me. Am I unique in this?

No, you're not alone.

For a FE virgin I didn't even know Peg Knights existed, but I'm beyond that point so didn't matter.

Yeah, I'm not claiming innocence in the matter either, I was careless in listing off units you don't get until later missions. I'll be ceasing that.

So yeah, Ch. 5:

Spoiler:

Finally finished. Dumping Sully was the right call, Stahl was able to hold multiple choke points solo and only had to use 1 Vulnerary to survive. Lon'Qu + Chrom ran around murdering everything in sight, Sumia played savior to the two new characters, and thankfully there was little XP soaking from the higher level units. I still need to get Sumia up a few more levels, but she's no longer the lowest.

Also, the new Mage is way, way better than the old one. Equal Mag stats, but he's level 4 and she's level 9. Hmm, I wonder who will be better in the long run.

DSGamer wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Simply knowing that another Peg. Knight is coming along sometime soon is a spoiler, I think. Out of context or not, it gives insight into how your army composition changes in the future, and that's a big part of the game for me. Am I unique in this?

No, you're not alone.

You can reclass all your characters with Second Seal though. E.g. I think Lissa can be a Pegasus Knight. You have a lot of control over army composition. Light class-system spoiler:

Spoiler:

You can reclass some of your early characters into Wyvern Rider, for example. Is it a spoiler then to talk about Wyvern Riders?