i'm gonna wait to see how stuff shakes out since i'm pretty sure skill inheritance was planned from well before release. a lot of characters have art they wouldn't otherwise
not super concerned atm
svalinn shield is restricted by movement type and i'm guessing a lot of the other super useful stuff is as well?
Iote's Shield, coming on Michalis later this month, is the key to making Camilla the Queen of the Skies.
Also Triangle Adept works on type advantages granted by weapon, like -raven books a la M Robin and Cecilia. Also you can give Cecilia's book to a better mage.
And uuuugh, I don't really have the time/effort to investigate what's needed for skill inheritances so I'll probably at least stop with the Arena function.
In other news, I'm a couple of chapters into Eliwood's story in FE7 and Genealogy is on its way to me.
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
i'm gonna wait to see how stuff shakes out since i'm pretty sure skill inheritance was planned from well before release. a lot of characters have art they wouldn't otherwise
not super concerned atm
svalinn shield is restricted by movement type and i'm guessing a lot of the other super useful stuff is as well?
Iote's Shield, coming on Michalis later this month, is the key to making Camilla the Queen of the Skies.
Also Triangle Adept works on type advantages granted by weapon, like -raven books a la M Robin and Cecilia. Also you can give Cecilia's book to a better mage.
Now Camilla just needs to get some anti-Falchion passive to truly bring an end to the Age of Takumi and the Lucinapocalypse.
I wasn't aware you could inherit weapons too. Hmmmm, do I wanna sacrifice my Robin to Lilina to make her stronger at the expense of not having a good ranged Blue to deal with Lucinas...
i'm gonna wait to see how stuff shakes out since i'm pretty sure skill inheritance was planned from well before release. a lot of characters have art they wouldn't otherwise
not super concerned atm
svalinn shield is restricted by movement type and i'm guessing a lot of the other super useful stuff is as well?
Iote's Shield, coming on Michalis later this month, is the key to making Camilla the Queen of the Skies.
Also Triangle Adept works on type advantages granted by weapon, like -raven books a la M Robin and Cecilia. Also you can give Cecilia's book to a better mage.
Now Camilla just needs to get some anti-Falchion passive to truly bring an end to the Age of Takumi and the Lucinapocalypse.
I wasn't aware you could inherit weapons too. Hmmmm, do I wanna sacrifice my Robin to Lilina to make her stronger at the expense of not having a good ranged Blue to deal with Lucinas...
I don't think you want to be passing skills off to Camilla so much as you want to be passing her skills off to someone better statted to use them. Which is a good part of why I don't like this free for all system, it boils everything down to who has the better stats and who has notable special skills that can't be inherited.
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
Problem is I have no good Green units besides her.
if her lack o' strength didn't stop her before, i don't think camilla will stop being one of the highest rated axe...rs
none of her skills feel like they really need to be on somebody else (the brave axe/darting blow combination works good together), and she's got pretty solid stats
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Kevin CristI make the devil hit his kneesand say the 'our father'Registered Userregular
Current thinking on my 5*s..:
Camilla: Swordbreaker. Maybe Michalis' Iote's Shield (nulls archer advantage) when he is released.
Tharja: No idea
Olivia: Wings of Mercy, so she can dance anyone anywhere.
Takumi: Vantage.
Caeda: No idea, other than Iote's again.
if her lack o' strength didn't stop her before, i don't think camilla will stop being one of the highest rated axe...rs
none of her skills feel like they really need to be on somebody else (the brave axe/darting blow combination works good together), and she's got pretty solid stats
Throw her Brave Axe on Cherche and there's really nothing you'll be missing besides maaaybe Savage Blow, but with skill inheritance its now insanely easy to build up specialist units to one shot threats anyway. Darting Blow is pretty irrelevant frankly, it was mostly there to help her not get doubled back if she couldn't kill the target with her first two hits (which she often couldn't because of her mediocre Str stat). I'd be pretty shocked if Camilla ends up having a real place in the game in the long term now, honestly. She barely had one even before just because Takumi alone nearly invalidates all flying units.
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Kevin CristI make the devil hit his kneesand say the 'our father'Registered Userregular
I'd be pretty shocked if Camilla ends up having a real place in the game in the long term now, honestly. She barely had one even before just because Takumi alone nearly invalidates all flying units.
i'm gonna wait to see how stuff shakes out since i'm pretty sure skill inheritance was planned from well before release. a lot of characters have art they wouldn't otherwise
not super concerned atm
svalinn shield is restricted by movement type and i'm guessing a lot of the other super useful stuff is as well?
Iote's Shield, coming on Michalis later this month, is the key to making Camilla the Queen of the Skies.
Also Triangle Adept works on type advantages granted by weapon, like -raven books a la M Robin and Cecilia. Also you can give Cecilia's book to a better mage.
Now Camilla just needs to get some anti-Falchion passive to truly bring an end to the Age of Takumi and the Lucinapocalypse.
I wasn't aware you could inherit weapons too. Hmmmm, do I wanna sacrifice my Robin to Lilina to make her stronger at the expense of not having a good ranged Blue to deal with Lucinas...
Falchion doesn't work on Wyvern Riders in FEH, that said she's still not going to do amazingly against a sword user
Maddoc on
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chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
if her lack o' strength didn't stop her before, i don't think camilla will stop being one of the highest rated axe...rs
none of her skills feel like they really need to be on somebody else (the brave axe/darting blow combination works good together), and she's got pretty solid stats
Throw her Brave Axe on Cherche and there's really nothing you'll be missing besides maaaybe Savage Blow, but with skill inheritance its now insanely easy to build up specialist units to one shot threats anyway. Darting Blow is pretty irrelevant frankly, it was mostly there to help her not get doubled back if she couldn't kill the target with her first two hits (which she often couldn't because of her mediocre Str stat). I'd be pretty shocked if Camilla ends up having a real place in the game in the long term now, honestly. She barely had one even before just because Takumi alone nearly invalidates all flying units.
Couple of things.
Cherche is a max 4, meaning you're dropping 20k feathers and an ungodly amount of sp on a green flier.
Two, Cherche stats are great, but her res is shit. she has fantastic defense, so if you give her iote's shield, she's gonna fuck up backlines for sure, unless that backline includes two mages. Any mage that get's the drop on her is gonna nuke her into next century, and will double her at that.
Camilla laughs at Mages with her skyhigh Rez. With Iote's shield and her abnormally high defense, Camilla laughs at archers nearly as well. And if you lucked into a +Attack Camilla, like I did, she has more than enough attack to kill damn near anything with a mediocre/low defense, and whatever does hit her, won't auto double her due to her average speed even with a Brave Axe.
Basically, nothing outside of some if the monster reds and certain armor, she's going to steamroll ALOT of classes and live to tell the tale with Iote's shield.
Yes, a specifically +attack Camilla goes a long way to making up for her low strength stat, but at that point you're already asking for an incredibly specific pull (something much harder to get than the 20k feathers for a Cherche). I'm not sure why you think Camilla's average speed stat of 27 is anywhere near enough to protect her from getting doubled, though. She gets doubled quite often by offensive units even before inheritance is taken into consideration, which now lets any unit that wants more attack potential get numerous skills to push their attack and speed to new heights (either directly or indirectly by allowing their teammates to more readily have buffs for them).
so i finally got around to watching some of the more recent echoes footage and like man
i was expecting to feel a little more blah about the gaiden mechanics, but it looks different enough that i'm actually pretty excited? It feels like a good choice to change things up a lot after just, how much there was of fates. limited use time rewind abilities is a pretty good and smart twist in one of these games too
also a big fan of the little quality of life changes, like the way better camera and ui work, and uh, artwork
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
i'm gonna wait to see how stuff shakes out since i'm pretty sure skill inheritance was planned from well before release. a lot of characters have art they wouldn't otherwise
not super concerned atm
svalinn shield is restricted by movement type and i'm guessing a lot of the other super useful stuff is as well?
Iote's Shield, coming on Michalis later this month, is the key to making Camilla the Queen of the Skies.
Also Triangle Adept works on type advantages granted by weapon, like -raven books a la M Robin and Cecilia. Also you can give Cecilia's book to a better mage.
Now Camilla just needs to get some anti-Falchion passive to truly bring an end to the Age of Takumi and the Lucinapocalypse.
I wasn't aware you could inherit weapons too. Hmmmm, do I wanna sacrifice my Robin to Lilina to make her stronger at the expense of not having a good ranged Blue to deal with Lucinas...
Falchion doesn't work on Wyvern Riders in FEH, that said she's still not going to do amazingly against a sword user
Oh I know, I just meant as a joke to just ruin every Lucina fan's fun, since she'll ruin Takumis with Iote's Shield.
Mx. Quill on
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Kevin CristI make the devil hit his kneesand say the 'our father'Registered Userregular
Not my image, but It gives me an idea on what I can do with Cammy.
so i finally got around to watching some of the more recent echoes footage and like man
i was expecting to feel a little more blah about the gaiden mechanics, but it looks different enough that i'm actually pretty excited? It feels like a good choice to change things up a lot after just, how much there was of fates. limited use time rewind abilities is a pretty good and smart twist in one of these games too
also a big fan of the little quality of life changes, like the way better camera and ui work, and uh, artwork
I'm really thinking about using my 20k feathers on this 4* Camilla I have. Giving her iote's shield will replace her darting blow. How necessary is DB for Camilla's effectiveness?
I'm thinking my setup would go:
A: iote's
B: axbreaker
C: savage blow
I'm really thinking about using my 20k feathers on this 4* Camilla I have. Giving her iote's shield will replace her darting blow. How necessary is DB for Camilla's effectiveness?
I'm thinking my setup would go:
A: iote's
B: axbreaker
C: savage blow
but drag back is intriguing
Neutral defense Camilla with Iote's can tank a double from Takumi, and then murder any variation of Takumi TO DEATH.
Darting blow is really in order to stop you from getting doubled on return if you don't kill something, or for the rare quad.
But if you can't OHKO with Brave axe, you're probably attacking a target you shouldn't.
As someone who got into Fire Emblem with Awakening (and has only played Shadow Dragon and the three Fates games aside from that) I've been pretty excitedly following the news of Shadows of Valentia. As such, I thought I might write a little introductory piece on the first handful of characters in the game. This will naturally bring up the ways in which SoV will differ from other Fire Emblem games. Information has been culled from what I've read both of the original FE: Gaiden, as well as all the released info from SoV. Mainly thanks to Serenes Forrest.
Alm One of the game's protagonists. Alm grew up in the village of Ram located at the outskirts of the Kingdom of Zofia. Trained by his grandfather Mycen, he has an exceptional sword arm. He joined the Deliverance to test his strength in the fight against Rigel and because of his strong sense of justice.
SoV features two main characters, each with their own (occasionally interacting) routes and cast of characters. Alm is one of those, falling for Lukas' pitch to come join the resistance to fight off Rigelian influence over Zofia and dragging along a bunch of fellow kids from his village so their lives can be ruined by the ravages of war too. He's an all around great unit, with good growths in a game that has very low growth rates in general. Be warned: it's very common for units to only gain in one or two stats upon level up.
Actually, I'm very interested with how SoV expands on Gaiden's story. Apparently, Gaiden was extremely bare bones, with many chapters not having more have a handful of dialogue between them - and some, none! It appears SoV is filling that in a lot. It will therefore be interesting to see what kind of character Alm ends up as, as he's often described by people who have played Gaiden as a bit desensitised to violence and war compared to the usual lords in Fire Emblem. Much more likely to get angry and be vengeful.
Alm is of the Fighter class, which in this game is unique to him and is a basic sword wielder. In Awakening and Fates the Fighters were axe-men and women, but in Gaiden there were no friendly units who used axes – only the baddies. There was no weapons triangle in Gaiden either, and SoV is also, surprisingly, without that which has become a bit of a series core mechanic. I have my fingers crossed that a couple new recruitable axe-wielders have been added, but it's very possible everyone'll just have swords and spears. Alm promotes to a Hero*, gaining the ability to also use bows.
Celica One of the game's protagonists. Celica spent her childhood days with Alm but was forced to leave Ram - sent to serve as a Priestess at Novis for her own protection. After having an ominous dream about Alm and to determine the cause of many unusual happenings in Zofia, she leaves on a journey to the Mila Temple.
The other main protagonist is Celica, who ropes her friends Mae, Boey, and Genny into pursuing her delusions along with the poor mercenary Sabre who was perfectly happy drinking in that bar, thank you very much. Much like Alm, she's one of the better units in her route.
Celica is of the Priestess class. She is pretty unique in that Priestesses are the only class line who can do both physical and magical damage in SoV, having access to both white and black magic, as well as swords. This gives her great versatility in attack, able to hit from a distance or get in close against opponents with high resistance. SoV is a bit different too compared to most Fire Emblem games in that rather than separate Strength and Magic growths there's just the single Attack stat. For most characters this doesn't really matter (class changing probably isn't possible) but Celica can take advantage. All the other stats are the same (so characters have HP, ATK, SKL, SPD, LCK, DEF, RES, MOV). Upon promotion Celica becomes a Princess, which is unique to her (and continues to use white magic, black magic, and swords).
Now, one thing that is unique compared to other Fire Emblems is that in this game spells are learned by leveling instead of equipping tomes. She starts with the basic attacking spell Fire, and upon reaching level five gets access to Seraphim. At this point, when you move to attack an opponent you may choose the spell you want to use rather than switching around what tome is equipped. In Gaiden this also meant that other spellcasters would default to their basic spell when retaliating, as using a more advanced spell wouldn't do the equivalent of leaving that spell equipped. I'm not sure if this is how SoV is handling it, but the game is seeming extremely faithful to all of Gaiden's weirdness, so I expect that's so.
Lukas A member of the Deliverance, Lukas is a young man from the middle nobility. He’s polite to everyone and anybody he meets. He recruited Alm and his friends to join the Deliverance.
Lukas is a Soldier, a lance wielding class that promotes to the familiar Knight. He's a pretty standard unit of that type: high Attack and Defense, balanced out with lower Resistance, Speed and Movement. Lukas himself has a respectable Skill growth, and one of the stereotypes of Gaiden is that everyone has bad Resistance, so Knights aren't as alone in their weakness to magic in this game.
Early on I imagine he'll see a lot of use baiting enemies and weakening them for Alm's friends to finish off. A word of warning though: in SoV there's no more “No Damage” done when a unit's Attack is lower than their opponent's Defense. Attacks will always do at least 1 point of damage (and seeing how low Lukas' Speed is, expect him to be getting doubled a lot). So no more sticking a Knight in a choke point and laughing as enemies bounce off them – just a slight chuckle this time.
Faye A friend of Alm’s, Faye has admired Alm ever since childhood. She joined the Deliverance to keep close to him.
Faye is a new character for SoV, not present in the original Gaiden. She joins up with Alm and their other friends as a Villager. Those who played Awakening and Fates will recognise the Villager: a sort of “zeroth class” that promotes into another established line. In this game, Villagers are armed with swords as opposed to spears. In SoV, as in Gaiden, Villagers can promote into five different class lines of your choice:
*These are the fan translations. All have been used before in other games, but I could see Baron being localised to the more familiar General.
**The fan translation for this class was Sword Fighter, but it's been localised to Myrmidon.
Faye's growth rates are unknown, so it's hard to say how handy she'll be. Preview images of her have shown her promoted as both a Cavalier and as a Pegasus Knight, so it's possible she'll have different options than her fellows (maybe cleric as well?).
Kliff A childhood friend of Alm’s, Kliff loves reading books and studying history, and acts surprisingly maturely for his age. He joined the Deliverance in part to see the world.
Kliff is generally considered the best of the villagers. He has middling Attack growths, but high HP, Skill, Speed and Defense. As such, he can excel in basically any role you want him to.
What really sets him apart though is his spell list. Wait a minute – spell list? Yep. Not only do spell casters in SoV learn spells by leveling up instead of equipping tomes, but what spells they learn (and when) are based on the individual characters and not standard to the classes. Kliff's spell list is flat out better then his peers, making him an attractive choice for a Mage early in Alm's route. Note though that he'd promote just once, to a Sage, as Mages don't have a third tier.
Grey A childhood friend of Alm’, Grey has an aloof personality. Since he was born to a merchant's family he’s chatty and well informed. He follows Alm to join the Deliverance.
Of the original three villagers, Grey has the best Attack growths, with low to middling everything else. But Attack is kind of important, so he's a decent enough unit. Focusing him into any of the lines isn't terrible. Mercenaries have higher Speed and Skill though, which combine nicely with Grey's Attack.
SoV is following Gaiden's path of terrain giving pretty high avoidance bonuses. Forrest +40%, Graves +60%, even the tiles in a castle's grounds give +20%. As such, Skill (used for both hit and avoid) can be a pretty necessary stat for both taking down the enemy and keeping your units unscratched.
And I think it's worth mentioning that in Gaiden, Alm never gets to recruit any Mercenaries. You'll have to use one of your villagers if you want one on his route.
Tobin A childhood friend of Alm’s, Tobin’s the eldest son of a large family and decides to fight for the Deliverance to earn money. He’s straightforward, simple and serious, but terrible at reading the mood.
Tobin is a bit of an interesting case. He excels in Skill and Luck, but is poor in everything else. And while being able to hit, avoid, and crit is very nice... if you're always getting doubled and don't have the Attack to actually inflict much damage you're not overly useful. Three times nothing is still nothing. One thing I read someone say about Tobin which stuck in my memory was: “Tobin sucks, but if you make him an Archer, he can suck from a distance.”
Archers are pretty vastly different in SoV than other Fire Emblem games, where bows tend to have a flat range of 2. In SoV, bows are ranged 1-3, allowing them to close counter and strike from afar. Really afar, as Archers have an additional skill of Range +1 that bumps up to Range +2 upon promotion to Sniper. This give them an effective 1-5 range, and then when you remember that their third tier sticks them on a horse for a movement of 8... woof. There's a downside though: bows have poor accuracy. Tobin's high Skill helps with that a little.
Mae A mage who works at the Novis Monastery. Her role is Celica’s servant, but the two are also close friends. She accompanies Celica on her journey towards the Mila Temple.
Mae is one of two Mages that Celica starts out with. And considering that Celica wields magic herself, that's a lot of fireballs getting tossed about. Of those Mages, Mae has the highest starting Attack stat, as well as exceptional Attack growth. She also starts with Thunder (a 1-3 range spell) and learns her other spells fairly quickly. Her other growths are poor, but she is helped early on by having very high resistance and she does end up with spells that are effective against undead – very common enemies in this game.
Mages are very valuable in Gaiden for a variety of reasons. For one, while they are focused on damage dealing black magic they all tend to learn at least one white magic spell to give your parties a bit of secondary healing. Secondly, Resistance was pretty low on average compared to units' Defense stats. And perhaps most importantly, magic bypasses the avoid bonus provided by terrain. There is a downside though: it does this by having a fixed accuracy. So while that 80% to hit with Fire is nice against a dug in foe, it could get kind of annoying when your super skilled unit is fighting a clod in a field and missing 20% of the time.
Due to her lack of a Y chromosome, she promotes into a Priestess instead of a Sage. Which actually works out okay, as she gets to use that high Attack stat to wield swords as well. Unfortunately she can't then follow Celica into the Princess class.
Boey A mage who works at the Novis Monastery. He serves Celica together with his childhood friend Mae. He accompanies Celica on her journey towards the Mila Temple.
Boey, the thin white (haired) Mage, has lower offensive prowess then Mae both as an absolute beginner and in his golden years due to low ch-ch-ch-changes in Speed, Skill, and Luck. It takes a while before he can roll out the magic dance and start roughing up scary monsters (and super creeps), as he learns his spells a bit slow. Actually, Mae's a bit of a queen bitch about it, making fun of the little wonder. 'Tis a pity she was a whore. Under pressure to perform he does have decent Attack, but he'll never be a yassassin. In time he really becomes a future legend when you look at his HP and Defense growths. Hang on to yourself, because they're the best that a Mage can get (provided somebody up there likes me).
That HP is vitally important, you see, to avoid a rock 'n' roll suicide. One of Gaiden's greatest differences with it's magic system is the fact that casting costs health. Firing off a Fire will also hit you for an additional 1 HP, while the powerful Arrow will make a Mage tag himself for 8! Actually, maybe it's a good thing Boey can't double very well. I don't know if you could actually kill yourself in Gaiden – if I had to guess, I'd imagine SoV will leave a Mage with 1 HP.
As he looks back in anger at the chant of the ever circling skeletal family and whispers “ashes to ashes,” unleashing white light/white heat and achieving fame among all the young dudes, I know he will never let me down.
Genny A cleric who lives in Novis Monastery. She’s like a little sister to Celica. She accompanies Celica on her journey towards the Mila Temple.
Genny is a Cleric, and is the classic healer type. Be aware however, that healers in SoV don't use staves to heal: they use white magic. And just like the offensive black magic, healing white magic costs HP to cast. To make up for this a bit, clerics have Nosferatu as their main offensive spell, so they can steal HP from enemies (and Nosferatu is the only spell with no HP cost, but a poor 60% accuracy). Genny herself has surprisingly good Attack and Skill growths.
Clerics promote into Saints, who have a passive adjacent healing. The promotion system also works a fair deal differently in SoV then in recent Fire Emblem games. Normally when moving between classes, in order to see what stats change (and by how much) you compare the unit's class' base stats, and see what the difference is with their new class. For example, in Fates if you promote Odin from a Dark Mage into a Sorcerer, the base Magic of 6 is three less than a Sorcerer's 9, so Odin gets +3. If you make him a Dark Knight instead there's no change (6 to 6), but if you then flip him to a Swordmaster he'll lose -4 points (6 to 2).
SoV, like Gaiden, just takes a units stats and compares them to the bases of the class being promoted to. If the unit's stat is lower than the class' base, then it gets bumped up to that floor. If it's current stat is equal to (or already higher) than the class base, you get nothing. If all of a unit's stats are already equal or higher than the new class' bases, the game gives you a pity point of HP. As such, promoting early is actually a reasonably good idea in SoV, rather than waiting until level 20.
Sabre Once a soldier from the Rigelian Empire, now a mercenary hanging around Novis. He becomes Celica’s trusty sword in exchange for gold.
Cycloptic Han Solo. Early on he's Celica's only physical attacker, and the only one who begins with any Defence. High Attack, Speed, and Skill to start means he's most likely your primary bait to draw enemies into range of all your magic users. Growth wise he has high HP and Defence, which isn't the greatest thing for a sword-wielding Mercenary to have – you want them to avoid getting hit at all.
Equipping items also seems to be different in SoV compared to any other Fire Emblem. I already mentioned that Mages don't actively equip their spells, but it turns out all units don't need to have a weapon equipped. You see, there's one equipped spot and it can be filled with a variety of things: provisions (like a carrot) which maybe give minor healing, or something like a shield (+3 to defense), or, yes, weapons. If a character like Sabre has something other than a weapon equipped he'll have a generic Sword to attack with, which has 0 might.
It appears that weapons in SoV, besides adding to your Attack (and lowering your Speed; spell and weapon weight is back from earlier titles) also have additional effects that you unlock by upping your proficiency with that weapon. So far, images have just shown a bunch of question marks so it's unknown just what kind of things they do. They get listed on the right of the screen along with spells available, special unit qualities (mounted, armoured, effective against fliers, etc), and other skills. Potentially a neat system, but very different to previous games.
So, there it is. Hopefully this helps everybody get into the game pretty seamlessly.
Yay the end to staves
I hated ending up with the good ones on other characters or back at the base
as I would have to waste the time tracking them down to give to my healers
I finally had some time to dig into Fates: Conquest and have reached chapter 16. So far the difficulty has been hard but far, and I am really enjoying my first Fire Emblem game.
I think I am going to order Shadows of Valentia since I have enjoyed Conquest so much.
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Iote's Shield, coming on Michalis later this month, is the key to making Camilla the Queen of the Skies.
Also Triangle Adept works on type advantages granted by weapon, like -raven books a la M Robin and Cecilia. Also you can give Cecilia's book to a better mage.
And uuuugh, I don't really have the time/effort to investigate what's needed for skill inheritances so I'll probably at least stop with the Arena function.
In other news, I'm a couple of chapters into Eliwood's story in FE7 and Genealogy is on its way to me.
Now Camilla just needs to get some anti-Falchion passive to truly bring an end to the Age of Takumi and the Lucinapocalypse.
I wasn't aware you could inherit weapons too. Hmmmm, do I wanna sacrifice my Robin to Lilina to make her stronger at the expense of not having a good ranged Blue to deal with Lucinas...
Got a decent variety of 5* units now I guess I should level up a bunch of people so I can do future bullshit special maps
I don't think you want to be passing skills off to Camilla so much as you want to be passing her skills off to someone better statted to use them. Which is a good part of why I don't like this free for all system, it boils everything down to who has the better stats and who has notable special skills that can't be inherited.
none of her skills feel like they really need to be on somebody else (the brave axe/darting blow combination works good together), and she's got pretty solid stats
Camilla: Swordbreaker. Maybe Michalis' Iote's Shield (nulls archer advantage) when he is released.
Tharja: No idea
Olivia: Wings of Mercy, so she can dance anyone anywhere.
Takumi: Vantage.
Caeda: No idea, other than Iote's again.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
Throw her Brave Axe on Cherche and there's really nothing you'll be missing besides maaaybe Savage Blow, but with skill inheritance its now insanely easy to build up specialist units to one shot threats anyway. Darting Blow is pretty irrelevant frankly, it was mostly there to help her not get doubled back if she couldn't kill the target with her first two hits (which she often couldn't because of her mediocre Str stat). I'd be pretty shocked if Camilla ends up having a real place in the game in the long term now, honestly. She barely had one even before just because Takumi alone nearly invalidates all flying units.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
Falchion doesn't work on Wyvern Riders in FEH, that said she's still not going to do amazingly against a sword user
I have Robin with bowbreaker.
Takumi gets taken out pretty much instantly. It would be funny if it weren't so...
No, wait. Still funny.
Why I fear the ocean.
Bowbreaker also fixes Cecilia's problem of low Spd, and allows her to kill Takumi, making her a second option
Couple of things.
Cherche is a max 4, meaning you're dropping 20k feathers and an ungodly amount of sp on a green flier.
Two, Cherche stats are great, but her res is shit. she has fantastic defense, so if you give her iote's shield, she's gonna fuck up backlines for sure, unless that backline includes two mages. Any mage that get's the drop on her is gonna nuke her into next century, and will double her at that.
Camilla laughs at Mages with her skyhigh Rez. With Iote's shield and her abnormally high defense, Camilla laughs at archers nearly as well. And if you lucked into a +Attack Camilla, like I did, she has more than enough attack to kill damn near anything with a mediocre/low defense, and whatever does hit her, won't auto double her due to her average speed even with a Brave Axe.
Basically, nothing outside of some if the monster reds and certain armor, she's going to steamroll ALOT of classes and live to tell the tale with Iote's shield.
My first dual five-star pull!
Cherche has terrible Speed and even worse Res, if you put a Brave Axe on her literally everything in the game is going to double her at 20 Speed
EDIT: Once Iote's Shield is available, you'll see a lot more of Camilla
i was expecting to feel a little more blah about the gaiden mechanics, but it looks different enough that i'm actually pretty excited? It feels like a good choice to change things up a lot after just, how much there was of fates. limited use time rewind abilities is a pretty good and smart twist in one of these games too
also a big fan of the little quality of life changes, like the way better camera and ui work, and uh, artwork
Oh I know, I just meant as a joke to just ruin every Lucina fan's fun, since she'll ruin Takumis with Iote's Shield.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
New new video:
(Huh, apparently it's Val-en-TEE-uh and not Val-en-SHEE-uh.)
I'm thinking my setup would go:
A: iote's
B: axbreaker
C: savage blow
but drag back is intriguing
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
Neutral defense Camilla with Iote's can tank a double from Takumi, and then murder any variation of Takumi TO DEATH.
Darting blow is really in order to stop you from getting doubled on return if you don't kill something, or for the rare quad.
But if you can't OHKO with Brave axe, you're probably attacking a target you shouldn't.
DB is good icing on the Camilla cake.
Shadows of Valencia special edition popped up on amazon so I ordered it.
One day I'll bump Hana up, just to say I did. I don't especially need another red 5* is the problem
They're hard as shit
http://imgur.com/a/bGtVa
looks pretty nice! except for those amiibo summons, which will haunt my nightmares i guess
Feels good.
Alm
One of the game's protagonists. Alm grew up in the village of Ram located at the outskirts of the Kingdom of Zofia. Trained by his grandfather Mycen, he has an exceptional sword arm. He joined the Deliverance to test his strength in the fight against Rigel and because of his strong sense of justice.
SoV features two main characters, each with their own (occasionally interacting) routes and cast of characters. Alm is one of those, falling for Lukas' pitch to come join the resistance to fight off Rigelian influence over Zofia and dragging along a bunch of fellow kids from his village so their lives can be ruined by the ravages of war too. He's an all around great unit, with good growths in a game that has very low growth rates in general. Be warned: it's very common for units to only gain in one or two stats upon level up.
Actually, I'm very interested with how SoV expands on Gaiden's story. Apparently, Gaiden was extremely bare bones, with many chapters not having more have a handful of dialogue between them - and some, none! It appears SoV is filling that in a lot. It will therefore be interesting to see what kind of character Alm ends up as, as he's often described by people who have played Gaiden as a bit desensitised to violence and war compared to the usual lords in Fire Emblem. Much more likely to get angry and be vengeful.
Alm is of the Fighter class, which in this game is unique to him and is a basic sword wielder. In Awakening and Fates the Fighters were axe-men and women, but in Gaiden there were no friendly units who used axes – only the baddies. There was no weapons triangle in Gaiden either, and SoV is also, surprisingly, without that which has become a bit of a series core mechanic. I have my fingers crossed that a couple new recruitable axe-wielders have been added, but it's very possible everyone'll just have swords and spears. Alm promotes to a Hero*, gaining the ability to also use bows.
Celica
One of the game's protagonists. Celica spent her childhood days with Alm but was forced to leave Ram - sent to serve as a Priestess at Novis for her own protection. After having an ominous dream about Alm and to determine the cause of many unusual happenings in Zofia, she leaves on a journey to the Mila Temple.
The other main protagonist is Celica, who ropes her friends Mae, Boey, and Genny into pursuing her delusions along with the poor mercenary Sabre who was perfectly happy drinking in that bar, thank you very much. Much like Alm, she's one of the better units in her route.
Celica is of the Priestess class. She is pretty unique in that Priestesses are the only class line who can do both physical and magical damage in SoV, having access to both white and black magic, as well as swords. This gives her great versatility in attack, able to hit from a distance or get in close against opponents with high resistance. SoV is a bit different too compared to most Fire Emblem games in that rather than separate Strength and Magic growths there's just the single Attack stat. For most characters this doesn't really matter (class changing probably isn't possible) but Celica can take advantage. All the other stats are the same (so characters have HP, ATK, SKL, SPD, LCK, DEF, RES, MOV). Upon promotion Celica becomes a Princess, which is unique to her (and continues to use white magic, black magic, and swords).
Now, one thing that is unique compared to other Fire Emblems is that in this game spells are learned by leveling instead of equipping tomes. She starts with the basic attacking spell Fire, and upon reaching level five gets access to Seraphim. At this point, when you move to attack an opponent you may choose the spell you want to use rather than switching around what tome is equipped. In Gaiden this also meant that other spellcasters would default to their basic spell when retaliating, as using a more advanced spell wouldn't do the equivalent of leaving that spell equipped. I'm not sure if this is how SoV is handling it, but the game is seeming extremely faithful to all of Gaiden's weirdness, so I expect that's so.
Lukas
A member of the Deliverance, Lukas is a young man from the middle nobility. He’s polite to everyone and anybody he meets. He recruited Alm and his friends to join the Deliverance.
Lukas is a Soldier, a lance wielding class that promotes to the familiar Knight. He's a pretty standard unit of that type: high Attack and Defense, balanced out with lower Resistance, Speed and Movement. Lukas himself has a respectable Skill growth, and one of the stereotypes of Gaiden is that everyone has bad Resistance, so Knights aren't as alone in their weakness to magic in this game.
Early on I imagine he'll see a lot of use baiting enemies and weakening them for Alm's friends to finish off. A word of warning though: in SoV there's no more “No Damage” done when a unit's Attack is lower than their opponent's Defense. Attacks will always do at least 1 point of damage (and seeing how low Lukas' Speed is, expect him to be getting doubled a lot). So no more sticking a Knight in a choke point and laughing as enemies bounce off them – just a slight chuckle this time.
Faye
A friend of Alm’s, Faye has admired Alm ever since childhood. She joined the Deliverance to keep close to him.
Faye is a new character for SoV, not present in the original Gaiden. She joins up with Alm and their other friends as a Villager. Those who played Awakening and Fates will recognise the Villager: a sort of “zeroth class” that promotes into another established line. In this game, Villagers are armed with swords as opposed to spears. In SoV, as in Gaiden, Villagers can promote into five different class lines of your choice:
Soldier -> Knight -> Baron*
Mercenary -> Myrmidon** -> Dread Fighter*
Archer -> Sniper -> Bow Knight
Cavalier -> Paladin -> Gold Knight*
Mage -> Sage
*These are the fan translations. All have been used before in other games, but I could see Baron being localised to the more familiar General.
**The fan translation for this class was Sword Fighter, but it's been localised to Myrmidon.
Faye's growth rates are unknown, so it's hard to say how handy she'll be. Preview images of her have shown her promoted as both a Cavalier and as a Pegasus Knight, so it's possible she'll have different options than her fellows (maybe cleric as well?).
Kliff
A childhood friend of Alm’s, Kliff loves reading books and studying history, and acts surprisingly maturely for his age. He joined the Deliverance in part to see the world.
Kliff is generally considered the best of the villagers. He has middling Attack growths, but high HP, Skill, Speed and Defense. As such, he can excel in basically any role you want him to.
What really sets him apart though is his spell list. Wait a minute – spell list? Yep. Not only do spell casters in SoV learn spells by leveling up instead of equipping tomes, but what spells they learn (and when) are based on the individual characters and not standard to the classes. Kliff's spell list is flat out better then his peers, making him an attractive choice for a Mage early in Alm's route. Note though that he'd promote just once, to a Sage, as Mages don't have a third tier.
Grey
A childhood friend of Alm’, Grey has an aloof personality. Since he was born to a merchant's family he’s chatty and well informed. He follows Alm to join the Deliverance.
Of the original three villagers, Grey has the best Attack growths, with low to middling everything else. But Attack is kind of important, so he's a decent enough unit. Focusing him into any of the lines isn't terrible. Mercenaries have higher Speed and Skill though, which combine nicely with Grey's Attack.
SoV is following Gaiden's path of terrain giving pretty high avoidance bonuses. Forrest +40%, Graves +60%, even the tiles in a castle's grounds give +20%. As such, Skill (used for both hit and avoid) can be a pretty necessary stat for both taking down the enemy and keeping your units unscratched.
And I think it's worth mentioning that in Gaiden, Alm never gets to recruit any Mercenaries. You'll have to use one of your villagers if you want one on his route.
Tobin
A childhood friend of Alm’s, Tobin’s the eldest son of a large family and decides to fight for the Deliverance to earn money. He’s straightforward, simple and serious, but terrible at reading the mood.
Tobin is a bit of an interesting case. He excels in Skill and Luck, but is poor in everything else. And while being able to hit, avoid, and crit is very nice... if you're always getting doubled and don't have the Attack to actually inflict much damage you're not overly useful. Three times nothing is still nothing. One thing I read someone say about Tobin which stuck in my memory was: “Tobin sucks, but if you make him an Archer, he can suck from a distance.”
Archers are pretty vastly different in SoV than other Fire Emblem games, where bows tend to have a flat range of 2. In SoV, bows are ranged 1-3, allowing them to close counter and strike from afar. Really afar, as Archers have an additional skill of Range +1 that bumps up to Range +2 upon promotion to Sniper. This give them an effective 1-5 range, and then when you remember that their third tier sticks them on a horse for a movement of 8... woof. There's a downside though: bows have poor accuracy. Tobin's high Skill helps with that a little.
Mae
A mage who works at the Novis Monastery. Her role is Celica’s servant, but the two are also close friends. She accompanies Celica on her journey towards the Mila Temple.
Mae is one of two Mages that Celica starts out with. And considering that Celica wields magic herself, that's a lot of fireballs getting tossed about. Of those Mages, Mae has the highest starting Attack stat, as well as exceptional Attack growth. She also starts with Thunder (a 1-3 range spell) and learns her other spells fairly quickly. Her other growths are poor, but she is helped early on by having very high resistance and she does end up with spells that are effective against undead – very common enemies in this game.
Mages are very valuable in Gaiden for a variety of reasons. For one, while they are focused on damage dealing black magic they all tend to learn at least one white magic spell to give your parties a bit of secondary healing. Secondly, Resistance was pretty low on average compared to units' Defense stats. And perhaps most importantly, magic bypasses the avoid bonus provided by terrain. There is a downside though: it does this by having a fixed accuracy. So while that 80% to hit with Fire is nice against a dug in foe, it could get kind of annoying when your super skilled unit is fighting a clod in a field and missing 20% of the time.
Due to her lack of a Y chromosome, she promotes into a Priestess instead of a Sage. Which actually works out okay, as she gets to use that high Attack stat to wield swords as well. Unfortunately she can't then follow Celica into the Princess class.
Boey
A mage who works at the Novis Monastery. He serves Celica together with his childhood friend Mae. He accompanies Celica on her journey towards the Mila Temple.
Boey, the thin white (haired) Mage, has lower offensive prowess then Mae both as an absolute beginner and in his golden years due to low ch-ch-ch-changes in Speed, Skill, and Luck. It takes a while before he can roll out the magic dance and start roughing up scary monsters (and super creeps), as he learns his spells a bit slow. Actually, Mae's a bit of a queen bitch about it, making fun of the little wonder. 'Tis a pity she was a whore. Under pressure to perform he does have decent Attack, but he'll never be a yassassin. In time he really becomes a future legend when you look at his HP and Defense growths. Hang on to yourself, because they're the best that a Mage can get (provided somebody up there likes me).
That HP is vitally important, you see, to avoid a rock 'n' roll suicide. One of Gaiden's greatest differences with it's magic system is the fact that casting costs health. Firing off a Fire will also hit you for an additional 1 HP, while the powerful Arrow will make a Mage tag himself for 8! Actually, maybe it's a good thing Boey can't double very well. I don't know if you could actually kill yourself in Gaiden – if I had to guess, I'd imagine SoV will leave a Mage with 1 HP.
As he looks back in anger at the chant of the ever circling skeletal family and whispers “ashes to ashes,” unleashing white light/white heat and achieving fame among all the young dudes, I know he will never let me down.
Genny
A cleric who lives in Novis Monastery. She’s like a little sister to Celica. She accompanies Celica on her journey towards the Mila Temple.
Genny is a Cleric, and is the classic healer type. Be aware however, that healers in SoV don't use staves to heal: they use white magic. And just like the offensive black magic, healing white magic costs HP to cast. To make up for this a bit, clerics have Nosferatu as their main offensive spell, so they can steal HP from enemies (and Nosferatu is the only spell with no HP cost, but a poor 60% accuracy). Genny herself has surprisingly good Attack and Skill growths.
Clerics promote into Saints, who have a passive adjacent healing. The promotion system also works a fair deal differently in SoV then in recent Fire Emblem games. Normally when moving between classes, in order to see what stats change (and by how much) you compare the unit's class' base stats, and see what the difference is with their new class. For example, in Fates if you promote Odin from a Dark Mage into a Sorcerer, the base Magic of 6 is three less than a Sorcerer's 9, so Odin gets +3. If you make him a Dark Knight instead there's no change (6 to 6), but if you then flip him to a Swordmaster he'll lose -4 points (6 to 2).
SoV, like Gaiden, just takes a units stats and compares them to the bases of the class being promoted to. If the unit's stat is lower than the class' base, then it gets bumped up to that floor. If it's current stat is equal to (or already higher) than the class base, you get nothing. If all of a unit's stats are already equal or higher than the new class' bases, the game gives you a pity point of HP. As such, promoting early is actually a reasonably good idea in SoV, rather than waiting until level 20.
Sabre
Once a soldier from the Rigelian Empire, now a mercenary hanging around Novis. He becomes Celica’s trusty sword in exchange for gold.
Cycloptic Han Solo. Early on he's Celica's only physical attacker, and the only one who begins with any Defence. High Attack, Speed, and Skill to start means he's most likely your primary bait to draw enemies into range of all your magic users. Growth wise he has high HP and Defence, which isn't the greatest thing for a sword-wielding Mercenary to have – you want them to avoid getting hit at all.
Equipping items also seems to be different in SoV compared to any other Fire Emblem. I already mentioned that Mages don't actively equip their spells, but it turns out all units don't need to have a weapon equipped. You see, there's one equipped spot and it can be filled with a variety of things: provisions (like a carrot) which maybe give minor healing, or something like a shield (+3 to defense), or, yes, weapons. If a character like Sabre has something other than a weapon equipped he'll have a generic Sword to attack with, which has 0 might.
It appears that weapons in SoV, besides adding to your Attack (and lowering your Speed; spell and weapon weight is back from earlier titles) also have additional effects that you unlock by upping your proficiency with that weapon. So far, images have just shown a bunch of question marks so it's unknown just what kind of things they do. They get listed on the right of the screen along with spells available, special unit qualities (mounted, armoured, effective against fliers, etc), and other skills. Potentially a neat system, but very different to previous games.
So, there it is. Hopefully this helps everybody get into the game pretty seamlessly.
I hated ending up with the good ones on other characters or back at the base
as I would have to waste the time tracking them down to give to my healers
I finally had some time to dig into Fates: Conquest and have reached chapter 16. So far the difficulty has been hard but far, and I am really enjoying my first Fire Emblem game.
I think I am going to order Shadows of Valentia since I have enjoyed Conquest so much.
I need to preorder this game sometime
Steam Switch FC: 2799-7909-4852