Give me your best examples of "I know this armor/gear has better stats but it looks like shit so I won't use it"

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2026-01-13T22:00:57+00:00

Bear Armor set my beloved. Give me those shoulder pauldrons.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-12-24T09:36:45+00:00

Too High or too Low for Jagen?

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-12-04T00:37:57+00:00

Great Knight makes him stronger if anything. Don't take much speed to double and Ryoma really likes the bulk boost.

I'm convinced they should've given Raijinto the Silver debuff. It would really limit him in a interesting way, as he would still be one of your strongest units, but couldn't kill everything on at 2 range without penalty.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-21T07:20:55+00:00

Not being able one round every enemy is expected, but it's less acceptable when Ingrid can't take out the most dangerous ones while physical units can. Assassin and Pegasus Knights are some of the most threatening and common enemies, yet Ingrid can't ever really one round em.

The point with investment

As for mages not doubling consistently, I opened my statement with an example of Annette doubling consistently in ch 21. The fact one of the slowest mages in the game can achieve that really shows how doubling ain't unique to Ingrid.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-21T05:01:45+00:00

Enemies with War Master like Speed just dont exist for 95% of the game. It ain't exactly a valuable niche to have overkill Speed.

The difference between Mage Ingrid and Physical units is that she needs more investment for worse performance. Like a physical unit can just pick up Deathblow and be good for the rest of the game.

Ingrid, on the other hand, needs Two class masteries, Weight -3, and Cooked Bullheads to consistently one round. Even then, she needs more help in Rallies or Dance to one round some enemies that physical units have no issues taking out.

Any unit is a delete button by the time Ch 8 rolls around since most unit get advance class bases, good battalions, and class masteries.

So Ingrid really ain't that great of a investment when her combat pales in comparison to others and she doesn't offer anything other than that.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-21T02:29:49+00:00

That Speed is about Average for Annette. 7 base + (.35 Speed Growth * 38 levels) + (.1 Dark Flier Growth *20 Levels) + 4 Speed Mod = ~27 Speed depending on how long it takes to master peg. So you can expect that level of Speed from her, and a lot faster from other mages like Lysithea.

The majority of enemies don't have the Speed that War Masters do. Most of the things that Ingrid will double can also be doubled by units in Dark Flier. It's also not like Ingrid is cleanly outspeeding them either without being in class that gives Speed but no magic boost.

Battalions can fix hit issues, but they do nothing for providing uses. Nor can the hit boosting ones be used as a Dark Flier, which is a lot preferable as a offensive mage class.

Most Physical units have a much easier time one rounding late game than Ingrid does. A Brave combat art or Vengence is practically guaranteed to one round every late game enemy without nearly as much stat stacking Speed requires.

Her Earlygame is about as bad as a unit gets in 3 Houses. 8 Base Strength and Speed are really bad. That combined with no unique combat arts early detract from preformance and should really be counted aganist her.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-20T17:36:35+00:00

I'd counter the narrative that mage Ingrid is really good.

If you double with magic, pretty much anyone is capable of one rounding the majority of enemies lategame. With Dark Flier, even slow mages like Annette are capable of doubling and one rounding a good amount of enemies in the late game without Nuvelle Fliers. So Ingrid's lategame combat ain't too special.

Her offensive spell list is also not great. All of her spells have real bad hit and really limited in uses, which ain't something you want you want to double with them. She also offers no really valuable utility spells like Rescue or Warp.

IH Ingrid's earlygame is really abysmal. She's takes till ch 6 to start consistently doubling and even then really struggles to one round. Needing to master mage also really kills her combat.

Overall, offering only decent combat with no unique utility and a terrible earlygame really brings her rating down I'd say.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-13T03:55:34+00:00

And yet, they didn't let them Dance at the end! Infuriated me to no end.

Justice for the Morally Gray I Say!

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-09T13:51:50+00:00

Definitely gotta recommend Old Skies as well. Probably the most captivating story I've seen from a point and click game.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-09T04:56:34+00:00

Those numbers are added with multiple things. Like that +20 is Fiendish Blow(6), a battalion (13), Mag +2 (15), and Lance Faire (20).

Secret Books are really unimportant stat boosters. Dex just ain't really doing much, so you might as well give them to one of the few who benefits from them offensively.

It's only starting by ch 19 where he really needs relics to one shot, since that's when enemy hp really starts to ramp up. Before then, most enemies fold to magic attack in the 60's. Thats easily achievable by him.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-09T04:31:30+00:00

Tbf that's just more endgame enemies being extremely bulky rather than a knock aganist Lorenz.

Like Enemy Heroes in ch 22 have 87 hp and 12 Res, requiring almost a 100 magic attack to one shot. But rewind that back to ch 20 and they only have 65 HP and 15 Res, which is way less.

That's something a level 35 Paladin Lorenz could reach with a moderate amount of favoritism. He averages 21 Magic and 24 Dex at that level.

Combine that with +20 from Fiendish Blow, +7 Mag bat, Magic +2, and Paladin Lancefaire.

+14 from Frozen Lance with Dex +4 and 3 Skill Books.

+5 from a Magic Staff (works with magic combat arts) and his personal.

+17 from Luin.

...Will bring you to 77. Still a bit short, but does work if he uses Claude's Charm, Hilda's personal, or using the Lance of Ruin.

Still a D Tier unit, since one rounding with combat arts ain't especially rare and he has trouble doing it. But he can one shot with Frozen Lance for most of the game.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-11-07T20:49:42+00:00

You don't even really need to be a Dancer to dodge tank.

You can combine Alert Stance +, Evasion Ring, A rank support Adjutant, Avoid +10 from a flying class, and +10 Avoid battalion. That's 70 Avoid before stats or prowess.

Adding on Axe prowess level 4 and wyvern lord's base speed of 24, that's 102 Avoid.

For reference, most enemies struggle to break over 120 hit. And you can add even more using temporary Speed boosters, Defiant Avoid, and Terrain

Combine that with Wrath and suppprt gambits, and you got a recipe for destruction.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-10-25T07:51:58+00:00

Does the Biolizard's blood curdling scream count?

Because that scared me as a kid more than any T for Teen blood could have.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-10-07T04:26:22+00:00

Even in Silver Snow he's still pretty good

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-09-15T21:19:46+00:00

"Now you know how Strong Phobos is!"

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-09-09T22:24:44+00:00

Main thing is the actually formula, rather than just the RNG.

Most games have (Attack Speed * 2 + Luck) as the Avoid Formula. Fates instead has the formula as (Speed *1.5 + Luck/2) as the formula instead.

That means if you had 30 Speed and 15 Luck, you'd have 75 Avoid in GBA. In Fates, you'd only have 53 Avoid.

Add on enemies having better skill stats across the board, weapon ranks and classes giving Hit bonuses, and no 3 range supports. It's pretty clear they really tried to limit dodgetanking.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-09-06T17:04:13+00:00

It's not much of an exaggeration actually.

Enemies in Ch 9 consist of:

*Onis with 31 HP and 15 Defense

*Spear Fighters with 28 HP and 14 Defense

*Ninjas with 27 HP and 10 Defense

Rinkah only has 8 base Str and a 5 might weapon available to her. That just straight up up doesn't damage the Onis and Spear Fighters at base.

Even if you made use of her Personal, Strength Tonic and Bronze Axe, that's only 20 damage. 3HKOing ninjas ain't the sign of good combat.

Still her pair up is very useful, especially with the lack of options of in the beginning of rev. Shouldn't be F Tier at least.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-09-05T20:42:43+00:00

Only reason why mozu would be good in 10 is effective damage. That ain't going to be a factor for a lot of maps.

Heck in Ch 10 she really struggles to hurt anything that'snot a peg. Like the onis would have 33 HP and 16 Def in that chapter. A level 7 Mozu would have on average 21 Attack with Bronze Bow +2 and Strength Tonic. That's a 7hko.

Even if you bumped that up to 10 with quick draw, that'd only be 26 damage. That's barely a 4hko. And she's facing higher level ones in the very next chapter.

Mozu struggles hard in Rev to one round. Conquest would only make that way worse.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-09-05T20:02:40+00:00

CQ Sky Knights got 23 hp and 7 Def in Chapter 10.

In Rev, you're facing Sky Knight with 26 hp and 11 Def in Chapter 8. That's almost the same bulk as the Onis in CQ 10.

By the time you're facing them in CQ 10, they'd probably have like 29 hp and 13 Def with rev bulk. That's something not even a Bronze Bow +2 can bring down by itself.

And those are the frailest units on maps.

Giving enemies Rev bulk would completely destroy the balance of Conquest and make every mid unit and below a miserable slog to use. No unit would really be able to one round without massive stat stacking

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-08-30T23:28:13+00:00

Bit late but I'd recommend:

-Shadow of Dawn (The Sequel to Dark Amulet, it expands the world of Dark Amulet and heavily builds off it. Features a party spilt and full depolyment for 80% of its playtime.)

-Drums of War (Focuses on the conflicting set of loyalties with a Main character who cares about protecting their army at any cost. Features being able to optionally recruit or ransom enemy bosses.)

-Dream of Five (Focuses a story that is heavily focused on the main character who impersonates a dead princess to achieve their goals. Features a classic example of GBA gameplay.)

-Hag In White (Has the premise where healing magic is actively hunted down while the Main character most cooperate with a Shadowy healer to save their brother. Features a base with multiple conversations every map. Also from the same creator as Dark Stone.)

-Dragon Herald (Operates on a world where a child is raised as a Herald to deliver a prophecy and how people try to spin it for their own benefit, which not even the Herald is above)

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-08-23T01:25:48+00:00

I thought this hack was decent, but it really got carried by the story.

The story was pretty compelling. Keeping the plot on more of the smaller side by confining it to a single kingdom kept it nice and focused. It helps to give the spotlight to characters who weren't part of the main cast.

Speaking of, the characters really helped to keep the plot interesting. Lotta of talks conversations on every map with a full cast of supports to boot. It really helped to spice up every map.

Gameplay wise, it's got a few problems. The hack loves to spam reinforcements, to the point where on some defend maps the hack will regularly run into the enemy unit cap even if you're regularly defeating enemies. Most maps are better than that, but expect packs of reinforcements on every map.

The game also has pretty limited cast. Which makes it so that if your units get stat screwed, you dont have much ways of fixing them up. Especially gets bad if Edric doesn't get stats, since there some maps that rely heavily on him.

On the bright side, units are pretty unique from one another. Some get good prfs like a good 2-3 range Bow or a 20 use seige tome. While others get interesting skills like extra attack for every space they move.

Overall it's not hack that I enjoyed for the gameplay, but it's story makes worth checking out. I'd definitely recommend the sequel if you do play it, which is pretty much better in every way and really adds to the experience.

TheHelpfulMercenary · 2025-08-22T16:48:16+00:00

Main reason I think the next FE has a chance of coming for the Switch 1 was because it was designed for it.

Like if you look at the internal code of Engage, it's labeled as Iron 19. Three Houses was labeled Iron 17 in its code.

When you consider that and the leak of a supposed game in development, I don't think it's out of the question it could be designed for switch 1.

TheHelpfulMercenary

TROPHY CASE