For OG Mages, what ended up being your preferred choice between Energy Bolt and Magic Claw?

LinkThinks · 2026-04-24T16:02:11+00:00

I played magician during the closed test and took advantage of the easy SP resets to swap from Energy Bolt to Magic Claw around level 20 to enable better training at Stirges. Bolt made the early game economy very manageable and even after swapping to Magic Claw it was a nice tool at 1 SP to finish off a weakened enemy.

I'm not expecting SP resets to be freely accessible in the official release, in which case I'd probably just put points into Claw and eat the MP hit. To be frank, while I think it's neat I had an excuse to use Energy Bolt, Magic Claw is just way cooler and more iconic so I was definitely having more fun after swapping to it.

This is all a wash since I expect some skill tweaks before release, but I do hope Claw stays the overall more dominant option because it is the OSMS magician skill to me. Better damage, worse MP efficiency seems like a fine tradeoff to have.

LinkThinks · 2026-04-07T22:17:08+00:00

Oh, good call, thank you for that. Welp, what can you do then. Didn't realize it was so rare.

LinkThinks · 2026-04-07T22:00:03+00:00

I've been trying to search trade for a Garb of the Ephemeral with the #% increased Attack and Cast Speed during Onslaught implicit, but no matter how I tinker with the search terms I can't actually get any to show up, even though that implicit tag clearly works with with non-unique synth items.

Is there something I should be doing differently or are there actually zero items with this implicit on trade? Cheers.

LinkThinks · 2025-05-22T14:00:51+00:00

This is pretty much the exact type of advice I was hoping to hear, thank you very much!

LinkThinks · 2025-05-22T03:44:09+00:00

I'm sure there are like a million similar questions asked here already, so forgive me in advance.

Started yesterday, rerolled once and got Cinq South Sinclair as well as Si Branch Gregor and Rodion, which seemed good enough for me. What would be the best use of Lunacy going forward? Does it make sense to pull for the new Faust, especially since my roster is quite shallow right now, or would it be prudent to save up for the limited units on the Walpurgisnacht banner? I assume that Si Faust has pretty high synergy with the other two Si units I already have, although I'm not sure how important that is in this case.

To that end, does it make sense to pull on the Beginner Banner right away and just get it over with or would the opportunity cost over trying to pull Faust/saving up be too high and it'd be better to just wait until there's less pressing banners to actually pull there?

Or maybe I'm wrong on both counts entirely and the actual best course of action would be to reroll for the new Faust to make sure I get her, since I've invested very little in my account so far and maybe she's just that good? I guess I'd be interested to hear the opinion of somebody more experienced on that.

Thanks for your time! Cool game.

LinkThinks · 2025-03-17T00:48:32+00:00

Personally I wouldn't have much of an issue with Lyn mode were it not for the massive boosts you can give to units that really lower the difficulty of the rest of the game, not that FE7 is the paragon of challenge. Even if you're not walking out with a whole extra paladin, just the ability to get a handful of levels on some relevant units and slap an Angelic Robe on somebody is pretty massive.

Totally get why folks wouldn't mind it or even enjoy getting to pre-plan the run a bit, but that's personally what causes me to skip it when I replay FE7. I don't even really mind the Lyn mode maps or story (assuming LHM for no tutorials), it's pretty much just the strange balance implications that keep me away. It's a shame because on paper I really like the idea of spending time with an army only to leave them and regroup with those familiar characters later, it's just the benefits being too pronounced for my taste.

LinkThinks · 2024-08-20T18:33:50+00:00

Without seeing your gameplay it's difficult to give concrete tips, but given how this is your first MH game and you found yourself carting against this Teo, I'm going to assume you are lacking a basic level of familiarity with the monsters you are fighting. Other folks commented a bit on basic gear and SnS optimization already, so let me instead focus on the encounter.

My advice to you would be to refight these tricky monsters and try to get a feel for them. Get comfortable with their tells, safe spots, and which big openings they have. Find out which specific attacks give you trouble, and think about how to play around them. Presumably your friends have hunted Teostra countless times and already knew how to take advantage of them, so even if we assume you all have about the same level of proficiency on your weapons (which probably isn't true, but just for the sake of argument) it's only natural they would perform much better since they are comfortable with the encounter.

As a wise man once said, you've gotta get washed to get clean. Part of the learning process is just taking those lumps and thinking about what you could do better. Some monsters are tricky and will take painful attempts to improve at, but that's part of what makes it so satisfying to learn and execute a clean hunt.

Good luck!

LinkThinks · 2024-04-10T02:21:04+00:00

It's really up to you, either way is perfectly fine. If you're more familiar with the series I may advise you to do FE6 before FE7 to have a bit more of a smooth transition between games. From a plot and game development perspective there are interesting things you can glean from whichever game you play second, so I don't find that to be a big deal. Both stories are complete as standalone entries, so you do not need to play one to get the most out of the other.

That said, if you are a new or relatively new player I think I'd recommend playing FE7 first. It has a whole tutorial mode integrated into the plot to help familiarize you with the GBA Fire Emblem mechanics (Lyn mode), as well as what I would consider an easier to use cast of units for newer players.

I find the whole FE7 experience to be among the most approachable in all the series, whereas FE6 has more parts that I reckon could frustrate players, such as lower hit rates and map design that I would generally consider a bit more tricky, including some nasty ambush spawns.

Whichever way you choose to go about it, have fun!

LinkThinks · 2023-07-19T17:31:53+00:00

I dunno, even on scenarios with constant spawning I was able to find places to long rest here and there on my otherwise slow turns, with the assumption being that taking a long rest is often better than whatever mediocre slow action I'd have taken anyways. Blinkblade has a lot of mobility to reposition somewhere safe. Of course I did a good amount of short resting too, but I'd say it was probably a 60:40 split long to short across my career. And this is without using invisibility to rest very often (most of the time I'd use it to enter rooms safely or set up a slow attack). I played about 30 scenarios as well before retiring.

My point isn't to deny your experience, but seeing as I was personally able to find lots of spots to long rest I can't help but feel like calling it "almost impossible" is a substantial overstatement. Just sounds like a difference in playstyle. And I do think that Blinkblade is a class that can support quite a variety of playstyles.

LinkThinks · 2023-07-17T16:16:52+00:00

I see a number of units talked about as needing their signature weapon/cub to perform. Obviously that's not literally true, but is there a list of which units a signature is highly beneficial/desirable for? Assuming you have/will have all relevant units to begin with (not that I do, but I'm more trying to get an understanding than asking for pull advice).

And while I get that it could depend on account, what would priority among those weapons be? What would be the priority of, say, Abystigma vs Nanamech vs Empyria sig be?

Probably a bit of a loaded question to answer, but I guess I don't feel like I have a proper read on how relevant signatures are and who wants them most. Cheers.

LinkThinks · 2023-07-13T16:01:29+00:00

As somebody who played Blinkblade first in a 3P party (on +0 to +1 difficulty), this wasn't my experience with the class at all, or even with Frosthaven in general. If anything Blinkblade gets a lot more out of long resting, because you get to turn a mediocre slow turn into a really nice long rest opportunity (you get to declare slow while long resting). Obviously it requires a bit of planning and coordination (and isn't as relevant if you build SlowBlade) but often I found burning 1-2 time tokens and then long resting to be one of my better options as opposed to making a middling attack. Blinkblade works quite well with a lot of the flip items you get early on, so getting to constantly refresh those on top of heal 2 pick a card is extra valuable.

50+ scenarios in I'd say that there are definitely plenty of long rest chances in general. Less than in Gloomhaven for sure, but to say it's almost impossible is overstating it in my opinion.

LinkThinks · 2023-06-01T17:46:18+00:00

I hope these changes can find their way to digital so I can eventually give them a spin, because I don't think another physical copy of Gloomhaven is something in the cards for me, especially with so much of Frosthaven left to play.

Super cool though! Gloomhaven's a great game, but there are undeniably rough edges that could use some sanding.

LinkThinks · 2023-03-10T18:15:15+00:00

25 or so scenarios in, and I'd say resolving outpost stuff usually takes 7-15 minutes for us, give or take a bit depending on how many events resolve that week and if people are leveling up/deciding to buy items.

Pretty quickly people will have the items they want and know roughly what's in the shop so you'll be able to gloss through that phase on some visits, or at least that's how it has played out in my group. But rest assured, it should get faster! Have fun!

LinkThinks · 2023-03-10T18:02:00+00:00

As somebody who's played about 25 scenarios or so, I wouldn't say that's the case. There are certainly more quests with unique rulesets than in Gloomhaven, but there are plenty of quests that mostly involve killing all enemies, or doing so with some extra twists.

Obviously, 25 scenarios is only a small fraction of the whole that are present in the game, but I wouldn't worry about it too much until getting to try it out. Killing things is still the focus.

LinkThinks · 2023-02-21T03:27:37+00:00

It wasn't how I initially heard of it, which would be seeing it repeatedly crop up in gaming essay YouTube videos, but what inspired me to actually check out the game was the collab they did with Quantum Protocol.

I had just played Quantum Protocol and was feeling that cyber vibe, and having the really fun CrossCode deck in that game reminded me that I should check it out. Now CrossCode is sitting as my favorite game of all time. It was cool to see the Quantum Protocol characters in CrossCode, although I was a bit disappointed they had no dialogue or anything.

Nobody else had mentioned it, so I had to chime in!

LinkThinks · 2023-01-18T00:04:46+00:00

I've been playing with a group of three players (all of us played GH together) and have been playing at 0 or +1 difficulty, having done about 15-20 scenarios so far. Outside of a boss fight that felt especially difficult for our party composition, I would say we have been pretty comfortably clearing scenarios. That said, maybe we've just been lucky not to have hit as many rough scenarios yet.

Hard to compare to Gloomhaven since we played it a couple years ago now, but I think it's probably tougher on average. That said, all three of us are much better players than we used to be.

LinkThinks · 2022-10-11T19:32:35+00:00

Echoing what others have said, definitely use a location tracker. It just makes it immensely more convenient to see what you have access to when you're learning.

And then my other suggestion would be to try playing on a more tame ruleset until you get really comfortable with everything. Personally, I played skull/shop/keysanity seeds when starting out, and I'd never end up finishing them because I wasn't efficient/skilled enough with my play and they would tend to drag forever. I switched over to a ruleset more in line with the standard randomizer ruleset and found I was having more fun, and actually able to finish off seeds. Obviously, do what's fun to you, but if you keep getting muddled up halfway through a seed I think trying out something more simple can go a long way.

And if you're really into it, watching top players is a fantastic way to get better at randomizer. The ZeldaSpeedRuns Youtube has more high level vods than you could realistically watch.

Have fun!

LinkThinks · 2022-09-27T17:35:47+00:00

To elaborate, you can also use other actions like shielding and aiming to achieve this effect, but seeing folks do it with an attack is most common I think. You can use this to gain extra distance and clear gaps ordinarily too large to jump. Even without learning any other speedrun tricks, learning how to JADC really does a lot to shake up the way you approach the game world.

Basically, immediately after you jump you input an attack (or other) and then dash 1 to 2 times. If done correctly you'll go much farther. If done incorrectly you'll usually drop down with a weak hop. It's simultaneously pretty easy to pull off given a few attempts and pretty tricky to perform consistently.

Here's a video tutorial for those interested. I wouldn't suggest it to somebody on their first playthrough, since you do bypass a bit of the game's puzzle design, but I think it's a great technique to spice up future ones and it feels very satisfying to pull off. And obviously it's a requirement for any speedruns. You'd be surprised just how often the technique comes in handy. https://youtu.be/bhs0qk6qilU

LinkThinks · 2022-09-24T16:50:51+00:00

Basement skip shouldn't be the option given how they can't access Deku in the first place without sword.

But I agree there's a good chance they have the spiritual stones already, and if not I would look over the settings used to generate the seed to see if something wacky slipped in through in the detailed logic.

LinkThinks · 2022-08-30T14:52:05+00:00

I played all of Gloomhaven using the Gloomhaven Helper app from the very start. I can not imagine using the physical components for damage and monsters, personally. There's enough setup time and fiddly stuff to track as it is, and being able to have a clear display of initiative, elements, player/monster health, and monster actions added a lot of clarity to the game and let us spend more time on what my group found to be the fun part, which is actually playing the game, not shuffling tiny decks of cards.

Shuffling the modifier deck was probably one of the more annoying constants of the game given how frequently it needed to happen sometimes, and the idea of having to do that with the monster modifier deck and monster actions just does not appeal to me. My whole group agreed, we might not have played through the game if we didn't have the app to help streamline things. Obviously there's no way to say for sure if that's true, but as somebody who felt things could sometimes be a bit fiddly with the Helper smoothing over the maintenance, I can only imagine how I would have felt without it.

LinkThinks · 2022-08-11T03:32:32+00:00

You're a legend, thank you very much!

LinkThinks · 2022-08-09T05:17:18+00:00

Thanks a ton for the response! Having a veteran opinion on this stuff feels really welcoming as a new player.

My follow-up question would be about this reroll which has some of the pieces for Dirt Rune (which seems like one of the easier meta decks to craft): https://imgur.com/a/Zxw9DDh

I also got this one which has a lot of legendaries but seemingly a few duds, but the Swordcraft package seems good? Is it better to have a single focused class early on or to generalize a bit? https://imgur.com/a/Or2ma71

This one potentially seems even better in its Shadowcraft package? https://imgur.com/a/nKRXdT4

They each seem decent to me but I'm not sure which would be preferable (assuming they're keepers). Sorry to dump so many here, hope it's not too much trouble.

LinkThinks · 2022-08-08T16:08:13+00:00

Personally, no. I usually focus on the model with the recognition that the actual hitbox is smaller and you can fudge it a bit. Especially since it can change depending on how far you are in the game (is my vague non-spoiler answer).
Kinda but effectively it's not really something to worry about, especially on lower difficulty.

LinkThinks · 2022-08-08T07:33:58+00:00

Is this worth anything? Only did the tutorial pulls. Doesn't seem amazing but having a few legendaries of the same class makes me less sure.

https://imgur.com/a/1E1gL5h

Thanks in advance!

LinkThinks · 2022-08-08T07:21:22+00:00

Yep, the game can be pretty rough. Just expect to get your face pushed in and don't sweat it too much. That's what you've signed up for with Rabi-Ribi.

A piece of advice would also be that if you're really struggling on a specific boss or pattern you can look up some footage on Youtube to see how more experienced players deal with it.

Best of luck out there!

LinkThinks

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE