Fire Emblem: Awakening

You have to be next to the unit, unless it's a Physic staff.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

HELP! I can't figure out how to heal. Lissa has a staff, but I can't figure out how to cast heal.

Just move her next to somebody who needs healing and you'll see "Heal" on the list of actions she can take to end her turn.

Later on you'll find some healing staves, etc., that can also work at range.

Maybe he's thinking of FFT or Tactics Ogre style healing. It's good to point out that there is no area of effect healing.

DSGamer wrote:

Maybe he's thinking of FFT or Tactics Ogre style healing. It's good to point out that there is no area of effect healing.

There certainly are area of effect healing staves, just not at the beginning of the game.

chairkicker wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Maybe he's thinking of FFT or Tactics Ogre style healing. It's good to point out that there is no area of effect healing.

There certainly are area of effect healing staves, just not at the beginning of the game.

Which one? I never saw one and I completed the game twice.

Fortify.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Fortify.

And there's a rare version of it too, called Goddess I think? But Fortify's the one you'll collect a few of during a playthrough.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. My only options with Lissa are Items, Trade, Pair, and Wait; even when standing beside a target that needs healing.

That's... really odd. Lissa has a Heal staff, right? You should get a 'Staff' option with her, like you would get 'Attack' with other characters.

Does she not start the game with one?

Gonna ask the stupid question, don't be mad: she has the staff equipped, right?

Chaz wrote:

Gonna ask the stupid question, don't be mad: she has the staff equipped, right?

Did you plug in the monitor? Is the power switch on? :p

[size=8](Just having a bit of fun, don't hit me.)[/size]

I don't think she has a staff at all. WTF did I do?

Blind_Evil wrote:

Fortify.

It took me a while before I realized that this actually was an area of effect heal. I kept thinking it was some defense buff based on the name "Fortify" and just keep throwing them on the pile. I recall doing the same thing with this staff in at least one previous Fire Emblem game.

I really need to get back into this game, but Animal Crossing and Monster Hunter conspire against me.

I've been away from it for months now, I'm thinking I should just start again on casual mode and go for it. Need to grok how to play this game, without worrying about making fatal mistakes.

I finally got this over the weekend.

I'm playing on Normal Classic; Normal because it was suggested for series newbies, and Classic because I really like the frission of making decisions with permadeath. It's made me play a bit more cautiously than I might otherwise, which is fine, although I've noticed a tendency to shuffle my troops across in the board in one big clump so that people are always supported.

Really liking it so far. The campaign is 40-ish hours, right?

I'm not sure if I'm thrilled with my decision to play on Classic. I feel like the permadeath thing makes me want to play it less. Not that it's not good, because it is. What I wind up doing is playing every battle extremely cautiously, so they take a while, and I feel like I'm discouraged from experimentation, so I'm learning the battle system slower than I should be. It's like every time I go into a fight, I'm basically guaranteed to have to restart it at least once or twice to get out with all my characters intact, and the XP spread semi-evenly.

I dunno, I just always feel like I'm balanced on the edge of utter failure, which is stressful. I'm hoping at some point, it'll click in my head.

Chaz wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm thrilled with my decision to play on Classic. I feel like the permadeath thing makes me want to play it less. Not that it's not good, because it is. What I wind up doing is playing every battle extremely cautiously, so they take a while, and I feel like I'm discouraged from experimentation, so I'm learning the battle system slower than I should be. It's like every time I go into a fight, I'm basically guaranteed to have to restart it at least once or twice to get out with all my characters intact, and the XP spread semi-evenly.

I dunno, I just always feel like I'm balanced on the edge of utter failure, which is stressful. I'm hoping at some point, it'll click in my head.

This. It definitely made me feel like not playing it.

So out of curiosity, why did you guys pick Classic to begin with? Just didn't know it would have that effect on you?

Numerous vets indicated that Classic was the way to go, and intellectually, I like the idea of permadeath. I guess I wasn't anticipating the lethality of even basic enemies. I lost my first guy because I didn't realize the drastic effect being weak to a particular weapon type has. But even outside of that, I find that most of my guys go down in 2-3 attacks. Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Chaz wrote:

Numerous vets indicated that Classic was the way to go, and intellectually, I like the idea of permadeath. I guess I wasn't anticipating the lethality of even basic enemies. I lost my first guy because I didn't realize the drastic effect being weak to a particular weapon type has. But even outside of that, I find that most of my guys go down in 2-3 attacks. Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Classic is "the way to go" because that's the way Fire Emblem always was. As much as I like Fire Emblem Awakening, the ability to grind can break the game a bit. And since you can break the game a bit a lot of the challenge is removed without it. At least in my opinion.

They're completely different games, but I feel like it brings it closer to the difficulty of Advance Wars. And if you loved Advance Wars then you were looking for that level of difficulty, basically.

Chaz wrote:

Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Use the highlight functionality on the most dangerous enemies, and avoid getting in their way.

Also: pairing up your units really helps survivability, and the synergies that you develop become really powerful as you play.

I started playing again, along with too many other games, but I figured out why I couldn't heal. Somewhere along the way I accidentally discarded Lissa's staff, and since I couldn't complete the mission I was on without healing, I restarted. Fortunately, I wasn't very long in so I have already advanced further than I was.

I'm playing on Normal and...not classic. Is it casual? I'm not sure. I didn't want to be stressed out about restarting all the time.

AndrewA wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Use the highlight functionality on the most dangerous enemies, and avoid getting in their way.

Also: pairing up your units really helps survivability, and the synergies that you develop become really powerful as you play.

I guess I need to refresh myself on how pairing works. It's not like I can have Unit A be the primary and attack someone, then swap to the stronger Unit B for the enemy's turn so he can take the hits, right?

Chaz wrote:
AndrewA wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Use the highlight functionality on the most dangerous enemies, and avoid getting in their way.

Also: pairing up your units really helps survivability, and the synergies that you develop become really powerful as you play.

I guess I need to refresh myself on how pairing works. It's not like I can have Unit A be the primary and attack someone, then swap to the stronger Unit B for the enemy's turn so he can take the hits, right?

I thought he was referring to having two units fight adjacent to each other so they build up relationships and both become stronger.

Chaz wrote:
AndrewA wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Use the highlight functionality on the most dangerous enemies, and avoid getting in their way.

Also: pairing up your units really helps survivability, and the synergies that you develop become really powerful as you play.

I guess I need to refresh myself on how pairing works. It's not like I can have Unit A be the primary and attack someone, then swap to the stronger Unit B for the enemy's turn so he can take the hits, right?

No. But if you pair the other member of the pair will frequently step in to defend or counterattack. The whole pairing / relationship / children system was designed really well and really thoroughly thought-out. It all reinforces other parts of the system to encourage you to pair characters up.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but when you have two units side-by-side they confer to-hit and avoid bonuses to one another. So if Frederick and Chrom are next to each other, with Chrom as the primary attacker, Frederick will give a +X% chance to hit the enemy and to avoid the enemy's attack when they retaliate. I believe that also happens when the units are attacked (so if someone were to attack Chrom, he would also get to-hit and avoid bonuses from Frederick during the enemy's turn). Presumably these bonuses are higher if the relationship between the characters is stronger.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but when you have two units side-by-side they confer to-hit and avoid bonuses to one another. So if Frederick and Chrom are next to each other, with Chrom as the primary attacker, Frederick will give a +X% chance to hit the enemy and to avoid the enemy's attack when they retaliate. I believe that also happens when the units are attacked (so if someone were to attack Chrom, he would also get to-hit and avoid bonuses from Frederick during the enemy's turn). Presumably these bonuses are higher if the relationship between the characters is stronger.

Correct. Having them side-by-side is similar if not identical to pairing as far as I can tell.

imbiginjapan wrote:
Chaz wrote:
AndrewA wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Use the highlight functionality on the most dangerous enemies, and avoid getting in their way.

Also: pairing up your units really helps survivability, and the synergies that you develop become really powerful as you play.

I guess I need to refresh myself on how pairing works. It's not like I can have Unit A be the primary and attack someone, then swap to the stronger Unit B for the enemy's turn so he can take the hits, right?

I thought he was referring to having two units fight adjacent to each other so they build up relationships and both become stronger.

I was referring to actually pairing them.... in which case only one gets to attack, and gains the majority of the experience. This isn't so bad in the long haul so long as you rotate who is primary in the pairing as you play through different battles.

I think - but don't have confirmation - that actually pairing the units (as opposed to having them adjacent) gives better bonuses and a higher chance for the secondary character to deflect all damage from attacks. It certainly FEELS that way.... but even if I'm wrong, having units actually paired certainly makes the logistics of keeping them together and thus getting bonuses a heck of a lot easier.

If Panne and Nowi use a seal will they still be able to transform?