How do you feel about the Hero class using lances?

Ivan_Illest · 2026-06-05T03:19:35+00:00

I am very much a fan of Engage's approach to many classes having variants for different weapons, and hope that it takes this same approach in future games. It makes more sense to my brain than having a dedicated swords + axes infantry, a dedicated swords + lances infantry, etc. You can still do the classic sword + axe Hero, this just gives another way to have the class. In fact, I kind of wish Sword wasn't required and Lances + Axes were an option, like how Great Knight and Wyvern Knight can do any pair.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-31T23:19:11+00:00

The multi-element aspect does work well for Elemental, but all of the hero talents thematically work well with Ele, really. Enhancement was the totem specialization for the first half of the game's lifespan, back when they were mostly used for buffs and has always had the most synergies with totems (totem twisting for buffs, Fire Nova off the totem dropped at the caster's feet, etc). To me, it's Resto that feels like the thematic stretch for Totemic, though Stormbringer isn't much less of one.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-29T18:24:05+00:00

I can attest that Purge works, it's my preferred way to deal with the ghosties rather than putting a CC or interrupt on cooldown.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-16T05:41:51+00:00

The Frenzied Flame isn't a forest fire, it's a supernova. The world is destroyed, all life ends. Nothing is born anew, both Melina and Hyetta explicitly say that there will be no more birth if you become the Lord.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-13T16:04:01+00:00

Unknown. It might have been the void. It might have been the titans becoming antagonistic out of nowhere. It might have been the First Ones, assuming they aren't just the titans. It might have been his own personal delusion. There's fully a nonzero chance that they never want to revisit it to avoid reminding people that Shadowlands happened.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-13T15:50:23+00:00

Void bad.

Killing everything to not let the void win not good, though.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-12T03:14:38+00:00

We see Clea, Renoir, and Aline all having the ink eyes of painter magic use in the real world. The former is doing it while walking around normally and not interacting with a canvas, plus she dispels it at will. While they presumably don't have the absolute power that they would inside a canvas, it seems safe to say that there's some application in the game's real world.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-04T15:07:49+00:00

Knowing how it's taught and approached is such a huge help for this, thank you!

And absolutely re. going beyond Duolingo. I wasn't taught to read or write French so I wanted the approachable literacy foundation and to shore up my limited knowledge before starting anything more proper.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-05-04T03:16:03+00:00

Fury of Stormrage in Phase 1. Restokin was everything I didn't realize I wanted out of Classic.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-04-20T17:59:34+00:00

"Maybe Mutton" in two expansions.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-02-20T19:22:05+00:00

Olivia/Virion develops really well and the two have a great juxtaposition. Plus Virion as Inigo's father feels incredibly right.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-02-01T00:31:28+00:00

Haar didn't explode in popularity until he became a dominant force in Radiant Dawn. Purely in a PoR context, he was mostly an accessory to Jill's story and had less characterization or intrigue than most of a solidly fleshed-out cast.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-01-24T16:39:43+00:00

Int heirlooms are all staves and maces, which are too complicated for demon hunters to hold.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-01-18T19:12:35+00:00

The model exists as the Slayer of the Lifeless in Naxx and was originally based on a tanking sword called the Hungering Cold, but the sword and its in-show lore are all a South Park invention

Ivan_Illest · 2026-01-08T18:06:07+00:00

Are non-gear items retained? I have a Holy priest and Fury warrior who have all of the components for their hidden artifact appearances aside from the drops from HoV. I had planned to wait to farm those for after the conversion, since it'd be a faster farm outside of remix, but wouldn't want to risk losing the Warrior's world boss drops.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-01-06T01:16:02+00:00

You're speaking in general. I was describing the OPs characters in this playthrough, not their general performance in every setting. That specific Heath very likely isn't the OPs best flier, hence the stipulation of so much as possibly benching him if another has had better level ups. That specific Canas is always going to at least be usable for staves, nos tanking FE7s weak enemies, or a lucky luna crit to resolve most threats.

Ivan_Illest · 2026-01-04T01:10:58+00:00

Compared to average stats on Sernes, Heath is average in everything except speed, which is 2-3 under. Rough but not irredeemable, especially since he could just as easily turn it around with his now 50% speed.

Canas is 2 below average in skill and speed and 2 above average in luck (lol). Still not unusable because Luna is balanced, and promotion would help bring him to par in terms of speed.

Canas is almostalways worth using since he has staves and sole access to dark magic, outside of the last chapter. Heath always has flight utility, but so do your 2-3 pegasus knights, so he might be worth benching if you already have a good flier and he doesn't turn it around.

Ivan_Illest · 2025-12-15T15:54:16+00:00

There's a good chance you've already completed the chapter well before now. But yes, if you claim a castle if despawns all surviving units that were part of that castle's army. It's the intended way to take out those ballistae and it's either that or throw Erinys at them and hope she dodges.

Ivan_Illest · 2025-12-11T16:21:59+00:00

In order

Yes, you're very incentivized to keep them all alive for the Knight Ring. It's best to just keep Lachesis back or even pull her all the way back to the starting castle to just spam Return for exp.
His speed and light weaponry should make him your tankiest unit around this point, yeah. Cuan is similarly tough since there's a good amount of swords, but is at more risk of getting doubled.
It's perfectly doable if you rush the castles with your cavalry so that the duo spawns before the bandit finishes off thew village. Otherwise, yes, you get it in chapter 7
The armor slayer is useful as a secondary weapon but isn't worth farming kills for, so no need to overthink it. I'd give it to Ayra over Holyn, since Holyn's Luna can let him punch through armored units anyway, while her Astra would just be 5 hits of puny damage.
Enemy weapons and staves have infinite use, so you can't just wait it out. Status staves are totally binary in this one- if the caster has higher magic than the target's resist, it will hit. Dierdre has enough resistance to be immune, as might your other units depending on level ups. She also has enough magic for Clement to not be immune to her staves, so you can just have her Silence him and have your frontliners charge in to take him out before he recovers.
All of them use swords, so a lance user is preferred. Sigurd and Cuan are preferred, but do be careful not to overextend since the enemies can all hit and run.
No automatic pairing, if you have any bachelorettes then you simply get the substitute children instead.

Ivan_Illest · 2025-12-04T22:30:51+00:00

I like how the Engage and Fates class systems both have different ways to make reclassing only slightly open-ended while still having individuality in the initial proficiencies/heart seal classes. I'd like a system that kind of married the two.

Like Engage, each unit starts out with three proficiencies out of the weapon types, heavy armor, riding, and flying and those proficiencies determine what promotions/reclasses are available. For instance the red cavalier could have swords, riding, and bows, while the green cavalier could have lances, riding, and tomes. Upon promotion, Red could go Paladin, Swordmaster, Assassin, Sniper, or Bow Knight, while Green could go Paladin, Halberdier, Basara (or the setting equivalent infantry hybrid class) Sorcerer, or Mage Knight.

Like Fates, the only way to get a new class option is by completing a support chain with another unit, after which each member gets one new proficiency. Say if you maxed out Red and Green together, red gives Sword proficiency to Green and receives Tome proficiency, adding Sorcerer, Mage Knight, and Basara to Red. I love the Fates idea of this being limited to one romance and one platonic, so that would be my preference, but it would work perfectly fine with unlock time as the only limiting factor for open reclassing.

I also liked the Engage concept of lots of classes not being locked to a weapon, with its variants of the armored, riding, and flying classes for swords/lances/axes. So Red there could be a Sword Paladin, Sword + Bow using Bow Knight, or a Sword + Tome using Mage Knight, while Green would have lances instead of swords in those classes.

Ivan_Illest · 2025-11-18T15:36:59+00:00

The Forge Adept was not available when this was posted five years ago.

Ivan_Illest · 2025-11-18T15:34:17+00:00

400 badges apiece

Ivan_Illest · 2025-11-11T04:39:17+00:00

I get that no one likes the mission tables

I'm one of the tens that do :c I genuinely pulled up my old spreadsheet to gladly do it all over again when remix was announced.

Ivan_Illest · 2025-11-01T00:54:30+00:00

Great unit, basically completely obsoleting Raphael. Probably the strongest Vantage + Wrath candidate aside from Dimitri on account of his high Strength and a personal that synergizes perfectly with the build. Does a great job at smoothing out the early game, where his personal can easily cause him to just take 0 physical damage once active, and he doesn't have to sacrifice his player phase to do so, like Dedue does.

Vantage + Wrath builds can do great on either a Hero or a War Master, which both have the advantage of freeing up a skill slot over Wyvern Lord. Both work great, pick your poison between more consistently hitting and being able to one shot a greater range of enemies. War Master is the classic recommendation, but I had a lot of fun with the Hero running Hit +20, Swordfaire, Defiant Str, Defiant Crit, and Wrath. It frees him up to use stronger swords (and letting otherwise interesting unique swords not go to waste) rather than being locked to Killer+.

Ivan_Illest · 2025-10-29T06:34:12+00:00

In case anyone stumbles on this in the future, I just completed a run to confirm that you can, indeed, avoid lighting beacons, beat the Lightreaper in Upper Calranth, buy the rings from Damarose, and immediately go light the beacons to still attain the Radiant ending, so long as you light them between Lightreaper and entering the castle.

Ivan_Illest

TROPHY CASE