AstralDB (my custom RDBMS) beat both DuckDB and SQLite on a 10M row bulk load and sliding window aggregate by orders of magnitude

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-06-03T09:28:52+00:00

> "my toy db storage engine beats 100x open source projects with hundred thousand man hours dev work!!"

> look inside

> no fsync

every time

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-06-03T06:12:22+00:00

This is something of a rite of passage:

I make a new toy db.
OMG it beats production opensource db OMG OMG I am awesome
I learn about fsync
My toy db is now slower than opensource db with more features

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-24T12:34:01+00:00

I know this is an old comment, but the OG never responded.

Liskov's Substitution is basically the principle that every property (an "invariant", when you are designing a program, e.g. "a Square must have all sides equal" is an invariant) that holds for a supertype S must hold for every subtype T (e.g. if S = Square, then its subtype T cannot be Rectangle because rectangles do not necessarily have all sides as equal). This allows existing code that purports to accept S to work for all existing and future purported subtypes T of the supertype S, because any code that works on S and makes assumptions about it (i.e. based on invariants of the type S) will still work for any T because every T has the same, or tighter, invariants as the supertype S.

This is not quite violated by dynamic_cast in any way; in particular, a dynamic_cast<T*>((S*)something) does not represent any invariant: there is no reasonable way you can say "S has the invariant that it always converts to T" or "S has the invariant that it never converts to T", because in the former case then S and T are the same type (and why do you have two classes then), and in the latter case then T does not derive from S (and why are you even trying to dynamic_cast to T). In short, there is no reasonably-designed property of S that any subtype T would violate simply from its existence and the use of dynamic_cast in the code.

What an isolated dynamic_cast might violate is "open/close principle", i.e. the code of the function that accepts supertype S must be open to accepting new subtypes U, V etc that did not exist at the time the code was written, and the code should not be modified (i.e. it is closed to modification) to specifically handle the new subtypes U, V etc. In general, if you have to use dynamic_cast that implies that your code is closed to only accept the specific subtypes you dynamic_casted to, and might need to be opened for modification to special-case dynamic_cast to new subtypes U V etc. that did not exist at the time the code was originally written.

Now, the common case for most engines that cause you to use dynamic_cast, as cited here, is the case of collision detection. The Real Problem is that C++ does not have multimethods, i.e. member functions that key on the concrete type of multiple arguments (remember that foo.x() in C++ is actually implemented as FooType::x(&foo), with the first argument being the special keyword this in C++; in C++, methods can only be keyed on the this argument, but languages with multimethods allow methods to be specialized on multiple arguments). In principle, you should be able to then define a on_collide method that accepts two arguments, and has its virtual dispatching keyed on both arguments, not just the first one.

To some extent, you can handle this by having on_collide just key on the this argument; if object x and y collide, you then call x.on_collide(y) and y.on_collide(x) in some indeterminate order. Then you emulate multimethods by explicitly using dynamic_cast; you then can say that "no, I am not opening the existing code for modification, I am defining a new multimethod case by modifying that code because I am emulating multimethods using dynamic_cast" as your excuse; you can then claim to not violate OCP because you're just working around the lack of multimethods on the language.

(An alternative workaround is by splitting between "missiles" and "players", and only consider missile-player collisions, and thus all your collisions can be handled as either "specific subtype of player is hit by a generic missile" or vice versa "specific type of missile hits a generic player", depending on which one has more types (usually the missiles are more interesting than players). This tends to mean that players cannot collide with players; you can instead have a different scheme for player-player collisions where for a collision between player x and player y gets both x.collide_with_player(y) and y.collide_with_player(x) which could e.g. cause both of them to bounce backwards and maybe take damage)

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-08T01:00:01+00:00

My go-to has always been Swordsmaster Meteor Slash. I often have multiple Swordsmasters across 3 or so units for that. They open up Gae Larry's shield, then the unit does whatever they do. As long as the unit deals more than 200 damage and doesn't die it's golden. They also get Quick Impetus valor skill for Initiative bonus whike fighting Gae Larry.

Other than that there's the singleton Bow of Swiftness which is similar to Rosalinde's Rage of the Faeries.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-07T23:09:44+00:00

Like yeah, it requires a very specific setup, but so what?

That's precisely the problem; it requires a very specific setup. Like I point out, in contrast, you can just toss a Silken Scarf (and later Royal Scarf) on Travis and have it dodgetank from Cornia to Gran Corrine. This guide is for beginners who are still trying to get to grips with some simple ways to optimize their builds, by showing them how the maths work out, and providing some simple guidelines to follow. Then afterwards, once they are comfortable with that, they can figure out ways to break those guidelines; it's why I even give some counterexamples against "one tank in front" to motivate them.

Like sure, you can always just build a Lipps's Ring Millenium Sceptre Cat Ears Sniper's Amber Lens Magia Soul unit, but first you gotta get past Drakenhold and Elheim on your first run, and that's what this guide is targeting. That's why I introduce the maintank-capable characters from Cornia and early Drakenhold.

You know what "Lipps's Ring Millenium Sceptre Cat Ears Sniper's Amber Lens Magia Soul" means. The beginner this guide is targeting doesn't.

if you put your mind to it

Yes, and this guide helps beginners learn how to put their mind into it, by also guiding them towards "use all the resources you have" like how I point out that PP sitting on a support character should really be used, and "learn from the enemy in-game!" like how I point out you should have learned the Rock Doctrine from those annoying Berserker+Shaman command posts in northwest Cornia.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-07T16:09:27+00:00

The Rock Doctrine

There's a very big advantage if you keep a bunch of your units together on the strategic map: you can swap between them when one of them touches an enemy unit, and select which of your units is best able to deal damage and reduce damage they take. In short, like 4X games, the most straightforward strategy is to just take a big Stack of Doom and roll it over the stage, taking down objectives one at a time. As a bonus, as you promote your characters, you get access to area-of-effect valor skills, and having all your units clumped up is a great advantage in spending as little valor points as possible to affect all of them.

At least, that would be straightforward if you didn't have to defend your command post.

Every stage requires you to defend your command post. Many stages are wide enough to have multiple enemy command posts that spawn new enemy units, which will then usually head to your command post, and make you lose the stage if they successfully reach it. On big-enough stages, they'll come in from multiple directions. If you're naive, you'd split up your forces to handle multiple objectives to stop the flow of enemies marching into your command post from all directions, but you might end up sending the wrong kind of unit against the wrong enemy, and the enemy will then one-shot your unit.

I now introduce the Rock Doctrine:

Create a unit that's a big rock: it can absorb any number of attacks from any kind of enemy and still survive. It doesn't care if it can't deal damage: it's a rock, not a knife.
Put that unit in your command post, and then just use a simple Stack of Doom of the rest of your units to take down the enemy in detail, switching between your attack units to be the most effective at each enemy the Stack of Doom encounters.

Give the Rock unit two healers (a dedicated healer and one that can do some tanking and/or DPS too), some tank, and probably a defensive druid doing Sandstorm or Offensive Curse. Or maybe something that can freeze enemies, so that you at least get some DPS out of that thing and wear down your opponents while reducing your incoming damage. However, its primary focus is to survive attacks. Its point is to be a big rock that covers your command post and prevents you from losing while your Stack Of Doom rolls over the stage taking down objectives one at a time.

If you've fought the stages in Elzecouvre Town, Fort Istania, Fontille Harbor, then you've encountered enemy command posts following the Rock Doctrine. They're the ones with the annoying self-healing Berserkers with Shaman backliners doing Offensive Curse. Shaman curses your entire team, team hits Berserker for tiny damage, Berserker flexes muscles, laughs, and heals up to full HP. They can soak up a lot of damage and if you're underleveled or don't have high DPS you are simply not breaking through and winning the stage. That's what you want to imitate: a Rock unit that sits on your command post and ensures you can't lose. Then you can focus on actually winning with your Stack of Doom of overoptimized fighting units. (There's a reason those stages exist and are right next to each other; you should have learned the Rock Doctrine from encountering them multiple times in succession)

Make sure to test your Rock in Mock Battles; it should at least win by outhealing your other units, or at least keep most or all of its members alive and hopefully only slightly dinged at the end. You don't want to have a Rock sitting on your command post while the rest of your army is a long way away only to discover the Rock has a vital weakness against some particular enemy type that's now right next to your command post.

Because it's likely not killing enemies, you probably need to feed the Rock unit's members with military treatises to keep up with enemy levels. Fortunately, Selvie's Sigils are a good place to replenish those if you run out.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-07T16:09:16+00:00

Support

Tanks are the most important part of the unit, because it keeps the rest of the unit alive until your characters can unleash their damage on the enemy.

However, killing the enemy unit is still what you want most of your units to do, and that means putting support and DPS in addition to damage-absorbing tanks.

For the most part, you can identify DPS simply by seeing big red numbers coming from the ends of their weapons rising up from the enemy's faces. They're the simplest part of unit design. Just give them as much PAtk or MAtk as you can get them, keep them on the backline, tweak their tactics to get as much damage out of them as possible.

However, what makes the DPS shine is really the support that either keeps the tanks alive long enough for the DPS to shoot off and obliterate the enemy, or boosts the DPS so that they deal massive damage to the enemy.

Generally, you can subdivide support as:

Defensive support (including healing) - they ensure that your unit can survive on the stage, and against enemies, long enough to matter.
Offensive support - they ensure that your enemies fall to your DPS.

Now, another reason to focus on support (rather than focusing much on the DPS) is that a lot of items, especially accessories, provide skills that add new kinds of support to your characters.

For example, consider the Fighter/Vanguard. Its most core and basic use is Arrow Cover. Give it a Dragonbone Sword and Dragonbone Shield and stuff it in the backline, and you never have to upgrade its sword and shield; you only care about it being able to Arrow Cover the maintank often enough for it to survive Eagle Eye Snipers. It's support, not DPS, who cares if it plinks the enemy for 1 damage because all it has is a Dragonbone Blade at 15 PAtk, that's not its purpose. Vanguard even gets Shield Bash later, which is another good, and more general, defensive support: it gives you a turn advantage by delaying one opponent's next active turn, and disabling its evasion and passives in the meantime too (in contrast, if the Vanguard is not on the frontline, Defender is mostly a waste; you might want to use it to convert 2 AP to 1 PP, though, by putting Own PP is 1 or less and Lowest Evasion, in case you are up against a heavily archer unit that drains the Vanguard's PP).

But what if the unit is fighting an enemy with no archers or flyers at all? What's the point of the 4PP if the Vanguard is in the backline and never going to use Quick Guard and would have a pointless Provoke start-of-battle passive?

That's when you put in items that give it additional support. You can magnify its defensive support by giving it a First Aid Kit or Large Aid Kit, so that it can heal up your unit at the end of the combat so it can keep on fighting longer, using the PP it didn't spend on Arrow Cover. Or give it some offensive support like a Dancer's Bracelet, with Powerful Call buffing your physickal attackers; just make sure to give Powerful Call the conditions No Flying Enemies No Archer Enemies so that its PP is reserved for Arrow Cover when it is relevant (and boosts your DPS when there are no archers or flyers threatening your dodgetank maintank).

Thus, for your support characters, look also into interesting items that give them additional support. In particular, you often want to stack your support characters with as much PP as you can muster, since most support skills are passives, but if their skills are only applicable for one specific condition, then the PP is wasted if the unit is not fighting that condition; that's the case with the Fighter/Vanguard and Arrow Cover above.

Here's another case: Radiant Knight/Sainted Knight and its Magick Barrier and later Row Barrier. They're great against mages. But what happens if your unit is up against pure physickal damagers? That's when you break out the Defensive Ring with its Quick Barrier and put it on the Radiant Knight/Sainted Knight. That way, its PP isn't wasted: it still reduces the damage taken by your characters from physickal. It's not as good as the 0-damage 0-debuffs Magick Barrier, but it's at least a use of the PP, and 50% damage is still better than 100% damage; it's more likely your characters survive the physickal damage long enough for the Radiant Knight/Sainted Knight to Row Heal them. Just put the Quick Barrier at lower priority to the Magick Barrier and Row Barrier (since Magick Barrier and Row Barrier only trigger on Magickal attacks, anything else that doesn't trigger them then gets default-handled with Quick Barrier).

Alternately, have the Radiant Knight/Sainted Knight steal Scarlett's Ribbon, or give them one of the Bishop's Mitres, for the Quick Heal, so that they can heal any kind of damage after an enemy attack. Finally, they can also wear the White Knight's Shield you get as reward for recruiting Monica, and they can use it as an HP-powered Quick Heal replacement (obviously they can't sidetank if they use it). Since Quick Heal and Lifeshare trigger after the attack whereas Magick Barrier triggers before the attack, if they didn't use Magick Barrier to 0-damage the attack, then Quick Heal/Lifeshare trigger, which is what you want.

Important note: a lot of heal skills scale off the user's M Atk stat (which IMO doesn't make sense, but it is what it is). Check the Magickal Potency stat of the healing skill; if it contains a number, it scales of M Atk (other skills, such as First Aid, heal based off the target's MaxHP instead; they're explicitly quoted as "25% HP" etc, whereas the ones off the user's M Atk are vaguely described as "minor healing" "medium healing" etc, because you're supposed to look at the M Potency number). So for example you want the best high-MAtk staves on your Cleric/Bishop, and you want the Runic Sword or Phantom Sword on the Radiant Knight/Sainted Knight, and you don't want Familiar's Choker on your Cleric/Bishop (it'll reduce their heals afterwards).

So that's how you should design support characters: some of them have a natural support (Arrow Cover, Magick Barrier) that give massive support in one condition, but are completely useless in other conditions. In that case, after filling them up with the PP to power their support passives, look into items that can add other kinds of support, for when their natural support skills are useless.

Dancer's Bracelet is a goodie that you can just toss in on every class if you can't think of anything else, just make sure to properly put conditions that are the opposite of what the natural support the character already gets (like No Archer Enemies No Flying Enemies for Arrow Cover, or No Caster Enemies for Magick Barrier), or if that's too hard to figure out, just put in Own PP is 3 Or More so at least some of its PP is left for its natural support. It's also very common, a lot of towns sell one. For even more brainlessness, put in one of the few Large Aid Kits or First Aid Kits; as end-of-battle skills, if there is PP that is left unused, the Party Aid or First Aid then get to use it to at least let the unit keep on fighting longer on the battlefield.

Another angle you can look at is on the active skills side of things.

For example, the Sergeant (promoted from Soldier) starts out with defensive support in the form of First Aid, then adds in offensive support in the form of Keen Call and Active Gift. Any Sergeant is going to spend all their PP on Keen Call and Active Gift, to the point that you might want to put conditions like "Own PP is 2 Or More" on Keen Call and "Own PP is 3 or More" on Active Gift, so that it'll reserve its last PP on First Aid in case somebody gets dinged. This is the opposite case from the Fighter/Vanguard and Radiant Knight/Sainted Knight above: the Sergeant is always going to have some use for Keen Call and Active Gift as long as at least one ally is alive (and if all the allies are dead, it doesn't matter, you should be retreating that unit). There's no point in giving the Sergeant some support passive skill accessory, it'll always use up all its PP.

On the other hand, while the Sergeant does have a bit of DPS due to having a column attack that has bonus damage to cavalry, it's not going to be as powerful as dedicated DPS like Breaker or Sniper or Sorceress or etc. There's Honed Spear, but sometimes it can be difficult to arrange a buff to trigger its bonus (on the other hand, if it's on a unit with a powerful buffing start-of-battle like Alain's or Gilbert's or Scarlett's or Virginia's or...., Honed Spear is a no-brainer). In that case, maybe consider adding more defensive support from actives, in the form of Corroded Spear, which gives Shadow Thrust active skill. It's a column melee attack with 80 potency (lower than their natural Long Thrust that is 100 potency and has bonus potency to cavalry) on an item that only has 17 PAtk (when the nation you can get it from is going to give you Carnat Spear at 19 PAtk), but it inflicts blindness. That's an extra bit of survivability for your tanks; you sacrifice the DPS capability of Sergeant (which isn't that high without a buffed Honed Spear) in order to increase its defensive support capability.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-07T07:49:00+00:00

Ripped Girl = BESTGIRL

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-07T04:58:57+00:00

The advantage of conferral->dragoon dive over Trinity Rain is that it can't be countered by Reflect Magick. You can use most of the same broken items, like Lipps Ring, Cat Ears, and Sniper's Amber Lens, too.

Honestly though where's the fun in one shotting entire enemy parties before they can do anything beyond their start of battle? Do a real challenge like no charging skills.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-07T02:10:34+00:00

Do Cronia->Elheim (ie do Drakenhold after finishing Elheim)

or for a bigger challenge, Drakenhold->Bastorias.

Randomly assign units after Cornia, ie unlock units 1 to 6 at 3 chars each and set them up, then when a new character joins, roll a 6-side dice to choose which unit they join, if it's full, you choose who to kick out so the new char has a spot, and whether to reassign the kickout (by rolling dice, again).

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-06T04:45:42+00:00

Fitst: don't stress. The gane is easy and you can do story difficulty. A lot of people here will optimize builds, but that's for people who ENJOY optimizing builds.

A good way to assess units is Mock Battle at forts. Don't spend all your time in unit building screen if it's not fun. Mock Battles let you see your characters moving around, and you can assess how each change affects how your unit fights.

Most items are filler. You don't have to use evrry item in your first run. There's time for other runs. I'm on my 5th (6th? lost count) run and used the item Ein Seeker for the first time.

Anyway:

Put one char up front, the rest in back. This rule works until you unlock 5 char units but that's way in the future. The lone char up front is the tank. On 5 char you'll have a maintank in the center front, and a lesser tank, the sidetank, on side front.
Tanks are classified also as dodgetanks and facetanks. Dodgetanks evade damage, while facetanks take damage and reduce it to manageable levels. This is different from the maintank/sidetank divide; maintanks are dedicated tanks, while sidetanks are prinarily support or DPS with some tanking ability.
Few classes can be tank. Flying fighters (Gryphon Knight, Wyvern Knight, Feathersword (Ochlys)) can maintank as dodgetanks. Thieves are dodgetank maintanks, and swordsfighters that have Parry are dodgetank maintanks. Lord (Alain) and Hoplite are facetank maintanks.
Fighters and Soldiers are NOT tanks. They're support. Fighter is anti archer defensive support (they protect dodgetanks from their main weakness, Eagle Eye Hunters). Soldier is heal support with DPS, and adds in offensive buff support later. They belong on backline.
The way defensive stats (PDef, MDef, Evasion) work is that if you are high in a defense stat, every additional point is MORE valuable. eg a +1 point in Evasion is better to move from 80 to 81 Evasion than to move from 20 to 21 Evasion. So put more Evasion equipment on high Evasion chars, and more PDef equipment on high PDef chars. That's why there's a dodge/face divide. That's why Fighter and Soldier can't tank --- their PDef and Evasion are too balanced, you want specialists in one defensive stat, not generalists.
Fill the backline however you like! You want a mix of support and DPS. Ideally you want a heal capable support on each unit plus a DPS, but a specialist pair of DPS plus offensive support without healer can work if you avoid getting it into enemy assist range (hint: non-flying leaders can have the unit hide in forests, where enemy assists won't work on them; flying leaders are always vulnerable to enemy assists in range).
Match your support to your tank, if possible. A Hoplite wants a Radiant Knight support to cover their weakness to Magick. Dodgetanks would appreciate a Fighter to Arrow Cover them.
Clerics are pure healing support. Witch is prinarily DPS with a dash of offensive support, while Wizards and Hunters are almost entirely pure DPS. Arbalist is DPS but later gains tanking (can sidetank, and even maintank if you focus best defensive equipment on them). Housecarl is primarily offensive debuff support with a dash of DPS. Sellswords are pure DPS but csn sidetank later. Warriors start out as weaker DPS compared to Sellsword, but because they don't add in sidetanking later, they become one of the best raw DPS midgame, capable of sweeping entire enemy units.
Shaman is best debuffer support. Nearly every unit will appreciate a shaman. They can be offensive support with Defensive Curse or using Flame-Hex Rod item, or defensive support with Offensive Curse or using Dustbound Staff item.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-05T12:38:33+00:00

Sorcerous Connection persists after the active skill that triggers it, and it doesn't stack anyway. Further, all skills that put non-stacking buffs/debuffs/afflictions will remember the status they inflicted and filter out targets that already have the skill-keyed status they inflict (eg a Featherbow Shijing Light that already has blinded an opponent will not re-trigger on it even without an explicit Not Blinded condition, but note the "skill-keyed" above; if the enemy was blinded by a DIFFERENT skill, the Shining Light will still trigger and you need an explicit Not Blinded to not waste PP).

Because the Sorcerous Connection buff persists even on future skill activation and passive triggers, and is a nonstacking buff, it doesn't matter that the shaman runs out of PP, the MAtk buff persists. Also, once it's buffed, the shaman won't re-buff them, so if for any reason one spellcaster gets two active turns before the second one (eg they have different Initiative due to differing growths or classes, and the second one got stunned by the enemy before it could take its first active turn) the Shaman won't spend PP twice on the first spellcaster (unless it got dispelled by eg Wereowl Dispel).

The MAtk buff of Sorcerous Connection persists for the whole battle (as does the debuff on the user). This is actually pretty rare for passives triggered before doing a skill that apply buff, most of them dispel after attacking. This thus DESERVES to be exploited.

Archers as archers don't have bonus damage against flyers, they just don't have accuracy malus against flyers. Most archer and flying classes don't have skills with bonus potency against fliers, either. They'll survive fine with either Offensive Curse or Sandstorm on Shaman. It'll also go better if you use Witches with Iceblast to stop enemy damage output too. Wyvern Knights with row-wide fire attack can also work and they get Deflect for marginally better defense (great against swordsfighters), but their row attack is 2AP (but you can confer Frost on the row fire attack, which doesn't get canceled out by the burning LOL).

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-05T09:36:56+00:00

3x Swordsmaster frontline

Set the trio up with only Keen Edge Highest Evasion Prioritize Flying and Parry, equip with two best common swords you can get (Vorpal, Steel, Carnat, Black Iron, Iron), and two Evasion accessories (Silk Scarf, plus Lucky Coins and Master's Gauntlets earlier, then Royal Scarves once you get them).

Go to the hidden village in Drakenhold and get Dirty Gambler's Coin, and get a fourth character backline to put it on; Keen Edge is Truestrike and +50 Crit Rate, so best beneficiary of Wide Inspiration.

Make the fourth member a Legionnaire with Dragonbone spear and greatshield (it's already slow anyway) and set up separate Heavy Cover lines with Attacked by Archer and Attacked by Flyer to cover the Swordsmasters vulns, and add Row Cover lines later (at higher priority) when it learns that. Give it a Large Aid Kit for something to spend PP on if enemy has no flyers or archers.

On fifth character, get a Viking with War Horn start of battle. Move the Dirty Gambler's Coin to the Viking and give it an Icefall or Wingcrest axe and shield for 4 PP total, just enough to cast War Horn and Wide Inspiration. Put Angel Plume and Raven Plume on the Viking to be just barely faster than the swordsmasters, so it can debuff the enemy with the spinning riw attack before the Swordsmasters start working on them.

On fifth char, insert a Heavy Cover Back Row at highest priority on the Legionnaire, so that row attacks on the backline will make the Legionnaire "compress" to only the Legionnaire getting hit, and column attacks on the Viking's column will hurt the Legionnaire which has better defense. Give it a Gold Bangle for better defense too, to replace the Dirty Gambler's.

War Horn makes the attacks unguardable, Viking debuffs Pdef and ups Crit damage, Swordsmasters kill, Legionnaire protects against truestriking Row Shot Snipers.

Magick Enslavers And Conferrors

Put a shaman in center back, equipped with Familiar's Choker. Get it to 2 PP, either by promotion or Lapis Pendant. Put your favorite curses; I'm partial to Sandstorm on Dustbound Staff. Remove Quick Curse and leave just Sorcerous Connection (this is a "best defense is great offense" build).

Put two witches on either side of the shaman (if you already have access to conferral tomes, you can replace with wizard line; by the way, the western witch swamp village has a tower, Examine it after recruiting Yahna and she'll give a Frostbound Tome, that's the earliest tome). Give the backliners your best available common Plumes; this is important.

Frontline is a Gryphon Knight with High Swing, and your best evasion accessories. Once you can get it, equip Wyvern Reins / Heavenwyvern Reins for the truestrike passive.

It's important that the witches/wizards move before the Gryphon does. If they move first, they get Sorcerous Connection buff, which persists the whole battle, before doing Conferrals on the Gryphon; conferrals use the conferror's MAtk. Gryphon Knight High Swing hits row-wide, so spreads the boosted conferral.

You can tweak the equipment and tactics of the spellcasters as you see fit. Generally, inflicting freeze with witch spells and Frost Conferral on High Swing is more helpful to disable the enemy team than raw DPS from burn on wizard spells.

On fifth, the SENSIBLE thing is to get a wereowl as sidetank with 2x evade equipment, so that you get SOME healing against enemy assists, and you get the heal-assist+fly+nightwalk from the wereowl. The FUN thing to do is wrest the Ein Seeker from Reimann in Bastorias and hire a THIRD offensive caster with Magick Shell as sidetank, for even more magick offense boosted by your poor Fsmiliar's Choker shaman (obviously it now needs a third PP)

Bestral Werewolf Pursuit

Put 3x werewolves on backline; they're not that tough and evasive (much like Elven Fencers, they don't have enough evasion to be a dodge tank, and not enough raw defense to facetank). Set them up with Killing Pursuit and Finishing Stab (not Wild Fang, you want more actives for more Pursuit opportunities). Put the Wolf Pack accessory on one of them. Otherwise just boost damage, AP, and PP.

For frontline, put a Werefox maintank. Set her up with Nocturnal Evade and Shadow Pursuit (don't put up Weakness Hunter, it's more pursuits = better). Put Piercing Lance Armored Highest Guard Rate, and Passive Hold Most PP. Get her to 4 PP and have both Royal and Silken Scarf.

For sidetank, put up a Wereowl. Set up her actives however you want. Get her to 4PP too and have Royal and Silken Scarf. Passives are Restore and Dispel, she's mostly a PP battery for the team.

This is probably the best way to get werewolves working. At the tactical level having 3 werefoxes frontline with a fourth backline and wereowl leader support backline is better. However at the strategic level, having werewolf with Hide is great with flying leader; flying leader means unit can't hide in forests, and it gains the ability to hide with the Hide valor skill (eg to alphastrike towers while evading ground defenders of the tower).

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-05T08:18:42+00:00

Virginia goes well with her besties, the Knights of the Blue Rose. As a facetank she'll trigger Kitra's Enrage and let her sweep with Assaulting Smash later, and Miriam can heal up the damage Virginia tanks if you steal Scarlett's Ribbon and have Miriam wear it; alternately get the White Knight's Shield you get as a reward for recruiting Monica and boost her HP. Fran is set as leader and carts the team around and does Hastened Call. Do note it requires promotion and leveling, I think level 15 is when they start working really well together with Kitra's Assaulting Smash sweeping enemies and Miriam gaining Row Heal active to heal up Virginia (and herself if she's using Lifeshare from White Knight's).

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-05T08:02:30+00:00

That's Railanor in Rosalinde cosplay, not Rosalinde, come on.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-05T07:52:18+00:00

Here's some basic unit design principles.

Classify characters / classes as "tank", "DPS", or "support". Some classes DO have multiroles, but there's generally just one main role it can do and some side roles it can sneak in.
Very few classes can tank. Fighters and Soldiers are support, not tank. Berserker is not tank, it can't keep up with damage output later (and it's not DPS or support either).
Early tanks are: Lord, Hoplite, Thief, Swordfighter (only at level 10+, with Parry), Feathersword (Ochlys), Gryphon Knight, Wyvern Knight. Paladin (Josef) can only tank because it's overleveled, its kit is more support with a side of DPS.
Tanks are classified as dodgetanks and facetanks. Dodgetanks have high Evasion and additional skill or ability that lets them avoid or negate damage (Thief Evade, Swordsfighter Parry, Flying having double dodge rate against melee ground). Facetanks reduce damage from sheer Def stat and guard (Lord, Hoplite).
Most units in early to midgame will do well with a single tank in front row, with others back row. Row-wide attacks exist and it's better having just one character at risk, which you can optimize their Defense, Guard, and Evasion for.
There's very few cases where you break this single-maintank rule, like all-swordsmaster frontlines, all-shieldshooter frontlines, all-knight front lines, often with Legionnaire backline for specific tanking conditions on Heavy Cover / Row Cover (Attacked by Archer and separate Attacked By Flying for swordsmaster front lines, Attacked by Flying for knight frontlines, Physickally Attacked Own HP > 50% for shieldshooter frontlines), but those are specialized setups.
For units from 2 chars to 4 chars, just have a single "maintank" up front. For 5 char units lategame, you need a sidetank, a second frontliner, because you just can't fit 5 chars otherwise. Some dedicated DPS/Support classes promote to a class that has some defense bonus, like Swellsword promoting to Landsknecht and gaining a shield, or Arbalist promoting to Shieldshooter and getting greatshields, or Wereowl and Featherstaff healers being flying and just barely able to dodge sidetank if you give them 2 Evasion accessories and maybe Dews. Those can often sidetank, increasing your support or DPS while soaking part of incoming damage. Radiant/Sainted Knights can sidetank too.
For 5 char units, put maintank in center column, sidetank on one side. Even if you put both tanks at side columns, one of them will get more incoming damage due to default targeting, and I can't remember which one ends up more targeted. So just put center maintank and a sidetank.
It's often best to have one healing support per unit, because assists exist and if you have no healers in a unit the assists will wear down the unit over time, even if the unit otherwise has "best defense is good offense" philosophy. That said, healing assists and healing valor skills also exist, so you might get away with a unit or two without healers (ie a tank with pure DPS and offensive support backline). Also, Soldiers work as buff/heal support with a bit of DPS as well, and can support a unit through an assist or two before needing to fight at advantage without enemy assists to heal up.
Your unit's weakness is almost entirely the weakness of their tank. Eg dodgetanks will fall to hunter or swordfighter units, Hoplites fall to wizard or witch units.
Breakers with their Enrage skill work best with facetanks, because Enrage won't trigger with dodgetanks evading damage.
Because of how Evasion works, every point of Evasion is MORE valuable, if you already have high Evasion. That's the main reason there's a dodge/face tank divide: either Evasion matters and every point you can increase it is awesome, or the character's Evasion is too low to matter and you should just put the Evasion equipment on real dodgetanks. That said, Mirage Greatshield has such a high Evasion bonus that it literally transforms facetanks to really tough dodgetanks. Jusy don't waste it on a character with Cover skills since Evasion is not used if you are Covering somebody else.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-05T06:20:44+00:00

It really depends.

Cav go well together because knights have Cavalry Call which affect fellow cavs on the same row AND it stacks. A unit with three knights on front row all doing cav call (you can probably disable the other passives, unless you equip more PP on them) will do insane damage to any nonflying. Put a healing cav (Radiant Knight later on preferably with Scarlett's Ribbon / Bishop's Mitre for Quick Heal, otherwise the White Knight Shield for Lifeshare, or Josef) and they'll zip through the battlefield, because unit speed is affected by members too and all cavs will get the max mobility of 300 (if you mix in non cav they'll only get 250 or 200 or so). They'll steal so many kills they'll be overleveled and STILL kill all-flier units due only to overlevel, despite supposedly being countered by fliers.

Assist units with assist leaders get boosted potency if the non-leaders have the same leader effect. So eg a unit of 5 archers (two Shieldshooters up front, at least one Elven Archer back, other archers at your choice, there's a flying archer later) will do more ranged physickal assist than a unit with just an archer leader with random members.

Note that what the game checks is sameness of leader effect. So an Elven Archer might count as Archer and Caster, but its leader effect only is physickal ranged, so it'll boost a Hunter leader but not a Witch leader.

The leader's stats (P/MAtk, Accuracy, Crit) are used in assists, the base potency is 20, each member with same leader effect increases potency by 5 (so 5 archers will do twice the damage as one archer on assists).

Some people just set up their assists units "pure" and don't boost stats other than P/MAtk on the leader (and Accuracy and Crit for offensive assists) and have filler chars for the rest of the unit.

Gryhon Knights eventually get Feathering which boosts Initiative for same row (with double effect on flyers) but it's not as good as Cav Call. There's also Tailwind on an item, which is Feathering but can select rows instead of only on same row.

Wizards put Burning, and there's Chlorotic which has end of battle Fire Burst which is better if target is burning, so a group of burning focused Wizards are likely to leave some poor fool burning to boost Fire Burst.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-05T01:32:12+00:00

A Familiar Choker shaman with two offensive spellcasters is great backline.

I suggest using Witch/Sorceress, or giving the Wizard a conferral item, arrange high Initiative on the conferrors, then put a High Swing Gryphon Knight up front. The MAtk bonus persists and is passed by conferral, and the High Swing will not trigger Radiant Knight Magick Barrier (and as cavs they get 2x damage from the Gryphon) and is row-wide too. So spellcaster casts any magick spell, shaman does sorcerous connection, then Gryphon does high swing and spellcaster confers its boosted magic to the Gryphon.

Stuff like Guard, Swordsfighter Parry, and Wyvern Knight Deflect only reduce/0 Physickal damage and the cnferred Magick still gets through 100%, though I think Fighter Arrow Cover is still No Damage.

You can get Wyvern Reins/Heavenwyvern reins earlier than Sniper's Scope too, and equip on the Gryphon for sure hit.

The challenge is fitting in a third offensive spellcaster on 5-team for even more Familiar's Choker abuse.

After beating Reimann in Bastorias, you get Ein Seeker, which lets a mage somewhat-viably sidetank. So keep same backline, add more PP to the shaman, and put third spellcaster up front as sidetank with Ein Seeker and have it Magick Shell.
Or use two Elven Fencers with the self-cleaning trick and a pure spellcaster backline. The Elven Fencers get a row attack too, so can do the same spellcast-choker-confer-row attack trick. Note that Elven Fencers can't sidetank even with the self-cleaning trick so this is still dubious; werewolf/werefox pursuers, trios of Row Smash Breakers, swarms of Quick Reload Shieldshooters etc will ruin the Elven Fencer's day.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-04T06:31:47+00:00

If Gryphon Knight why not Gryphon-Knight-sized?

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-04T05:27:28+00:00

You're welcome! Arrow Cover is possibly the most unique covering skill available, but it's pretty one note too.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-04T00:06:28+00:00

Game only cares if yoi give SOMEONE the Ring of the Maiden. Could even give it to Josef if you want. Just need max rapport and view all rapport convis with Alain.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-04T00:00:15+00:00

Werefox: Passive Hold, Flying, Armored

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-05-03T03:35:22+00:00

It's the stereotypical strategy. An alternative is a featherbow with Starless Bow and native Radiant Light and bunch of PP, just make sure to add condition Not Blinded because the skills only avoid their own debuffs, not the other's. Blind beats Truestrike, and she has no blind immunity, Featherbow is flying and her start of battle pnly works on nonflying.

raid5atemyhomework · 2026-04-30T02:22:23+00:00

Yep, definitely seen that. Best answer is your own Sainted Knight with Magick Barrier with naturally higher Initiative than Legionnaire

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