Best units for Lunatic?

[Fargo294]

I would like to hear the opinions of the fans about who would be best units for a first time Lunatic mode run. I can already hear Frederick's name being echoed...

EDIT: I also forgot to mention if anyone had any recommendations on Spotpass characters or if I should just ignore them.

EDITEDIT: And support pairings. (Why do I keep forgetting all the important things? I'll forget where I live at some point.)

Edited June 10, 2013 by Fargo294

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Frederick Emblem - Veteraning

Frederick baby Avatar and then Solo the game with Avatar Paired with Chrom

But seriously, if you want to simply BEAT Lunatic Mode(need emphasis on the beat >_>), this is by far the easiest way to do it,

and Lunatic+ as well I guess >_>

Outside that, +DEF -LCK or +SPD -LCK MU, and maybe some staffbots and Nosferatu user

Edited June 10, 2013 by I have a Dragon Boner

[Klokinator]

I strongly recommend Virion. Virion is the best tank in the entire game and his early access to bow, the best weapon type, make him a perfect soloist on Lunatic mode.

[shadowofchaos]

I strongly recommend Virion. Virion is the best tank in the entire game and his early access to bow, the best weapon type, make him a perfect soloist on Lunatic mode.

I know you're trolling but his class is actually one of the best options on Lunatic+ because you don't have to worry about freaking Counter.

[Chiki]

Frederick's far from necessary.

The Avatar, of course.

[Interceptor]

@OP: what is your experience with Awakening? Have you already finished Hard mode? what kind of play style do you have? Are you willing to try things that you are not accustomed to?

[Nanami Touko]

I strongly recommend Virion. Virion is the best tank in the entire game and his early access to bow, the best weapon type, make him a perfect soloist on Lunatic mode.

yes I agree, Virion is the best unit in the game, truly he is the most amazing and no other units are necessary.

[Interceptor]

Frederick's far from necessary.

Just about how far from necessary would you say that he is?

[Klokinator]

yes I agree, Virion is the best unit in the game, truly he is the most amazing and no other units are necessary.

Bonus damage against fliers, no retaliation from counter, 2 range fightan ability, no WTD, dude virion is seriously the best.

[Randa]

I would like to hear the opinions of the fans about who would be best units for a first time Lunatic mode run. I can already hear Frederick's name being echoed...

EDIT: I also forgot to mention if anyone had any recommendations on Spotpass characters or if I should just ignore them.

EDITEDIT: And support pairings. (Why do I keep forgetting all the important things? I'll forget where I live at some point.)

I wouldn't advise using Spotpass characters unless you have the renown for the large bullion or ultimate emblem. By the time you can afford the expensive ones you team should be better. Also the low cost ones for the most part are not so good. If you want to use them I advise getting the large bullion and buying DLC marth and either Clair or Roy.

[Fargo294]

@OP: what is your experience with Awakening? Have you already finished Hard mode? what kind of play style do you have? Are you willing to try things that you are not accustomed to?

I've finished hard mode once, and once I finish my other hard mode run, I'll try a Lunatic run. I tend to be defensive in my strategies and take my time when fighting. I'm willing to adapt to new things.

[Interceptor]

I've finished hard mode once, and once I finish my other hard mode run, I'll try a Lunatic run. I tend to be defensive in my strategies and take my time when fighting. I'm willing to adapt to new things.

Then in addition to the obvious pick of Avatar, you may want to try using Nowi. Manaketes are really good in vanilla Lunatic due to strong concrete durability and perma 1-2 range. Pair her with Gregor and spend a couple chapters training her and getting her going, she becomes basically unkillable. Tiki is also excellent, though late.

Other solid unit choices would be Panne (reclassed to Wyvern Rider), and one of the two starting Cavaliers. Cordelia tends to be a stronger combatant amongst the pegs due to superior combat stats, but both she and Sumia are usable and recommended.

[Fargo294]

I wouldn't advise using Spotpass characters unless you have the renown for the large bullion or ultimate emblem. By the time you can afford the expensive ones you team should be better. Also the low cost ones for the most part are not so good. If you want to use them I advise getting the large bullion and buying DLC marth and either Clair or Roy.

I have enough renown for the Bullion(L). I've played with the idea of using Shanna or Jamke for their skills Lucky 7 and Galeforce, respectively.

We've covered some good characters now, any characters I should avoid?

[dondon151]

Frederick's far from necessary.

useless advice for a player with no experience playing lunatic mode

can't resist your urge to be a contrarian, can you

[Chiki]

useless advice for a player with no experience playing lunatic mode

can't resist your urge to be a contrarian, can you

It's actually quite easy to beat LM without using Frederick at all, and I've done it before, but you wouldn't know since you didn't play the game. Even a layman could do it.

All you have to do in the Prologue is put the Avatar and Chrom in the water and snipe enemies with Thunder. After that point, your Avatar will be ridiculously overleveled anyway and should be able to solo the rest of the game.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Chiki

[dondon151]

you are greatly overestimating the average fire emblem player

i know that i am guilty for saying that things like FE11 H5 0% LTC are a walk in the park (and it is, to me), but the vast majority of fire emblem players are much worse than you think.

in any case, for a dude who hasn't played this mode before, "don't use frederick" is terrible advice, probably as bad as "don't use arran" in FE12 H3.

Edited June 10, 2013 by dondon151

[Chiki]

I didn't tell him not to use Frederick. All I did was reply to Dragon Boner by saying Frederick is not necessary. Avatar Emblem would be more suitable.

Anyway, I'm sure clearing Prologue with Frederick is a lot easier than FE11 H5 0% LTC. It's tedious, but I'm sure anyone can do it.

[Interceptor]

We've covered some good characters now, any characters I should avoid?

I'd stay away from units with paper defenses, personally, unless they are also able to get their Avoid rates super-high. That means you probably want to not use a unit like Miriel or Ricken, or mages in general unless they are going to be DM/Sorcs with Nosferatu. Even a high-avoid guy like Lon'qu can run into problems late once the enemies start using illegal forges.

Also avoid Virion, obviously. Enemy Phase is hugely important in vanilla Lunatic, so bows are no good. And I'd forget Donnel if you're one of his fans; even though he's trainable and turns out good eventually, it's a pain to get him there.

useless advice for a player with no experience playing lunatic mode

can't resist your urge to be a contrarian, can you

And in addition to his altogether useless contribution, we have the fact that that "necessary" was Chiki's word. Everyone else just implied that Frederick was important, which is basically true. But there's no way to be a contrarian here unless you change the battlefield, naturally. Edited June 10, 2013 by Interceptor

[Klokinator]

Also avoid Virion, obviously. Enemy Phase is hugely important in vanilla Lunatic, so bows are no good.

I don't understand this insane advice Virion is top tier.

And I'd forget Donnel if you're one of his fans; even though he's trainable and turns out good eventually, it's a pain to get him there.

Donnel is godlike tier no need for other units throw him at enemies and laugh as he dies pray for hundreds of lucky crits.

[Fargo294]

I'd stay away from units with paper defenses, personally, unless they are also able to get their Avoid rates super-high. That means you probably want to not use a unit like Miriel or Ricken, or mages in general unless they are going to be DM/Sorcs with Nosferatu. Even a high-avoid guy like Lon'qu can run into problems late once the enemies start using illegal forges.

Also avoid Virion, obviously. Enemy Phase is hugely important in vanilla Lunatic, so bows are no good. And I'd forget Donnel if you're one of his fans; even though he's trainable and turns out good eventually, it's a pain to get him there.

And in addition to his altogether useless contribution, we have the fact that that "necessary" was Chiki's word. Everyone else just implied that Frederick was important, which is basically true. But there's no way to be a contrarian here unless you change the battlefield, naturally.

Yeah, Donnel I can pretty much know that he would be a *naughty word* to train with in Lunatic mode since it's hard to do so under Hard Mode. I'd prefer to have an archer around to take down air units while my mages take on the big HP baddies. I'd like to use Miriel possibly under the Dark Mage route so she can have some better defense.

QUESTION FLOOD TIME:

Do you think I should try having Gaius class change to a Fighter and promote to a Hero so he could be experienced in axes and swords once he gets into it, or would it be too stressful to have him around with his low defense? Are there any pairings you recommend for the children characters? How should I handle Avatar?

[XeKr]

Gaius makes a nice Myrmidon to preserve his sword rank. It's particularly nice early on because you'll have Avoid+10 and triangle advantage against the many Axe users. Later on, transition into Hero for Sol and Hand Axes. Fighter can work too because he's so naturally fast, though as noted, a bit of a glass cannon.

Avatar can be anything. If using a larger team, I like grabbing Rally Spectrum first, then go into any other magic class.

The children issue depends on if you're planning for "min-maxing" or not. It's not necessary, but it can be fun to optimize certain class sets and cap modifiers. There are alternatively other usable pairings for the main game if you want to use children during that.

[Thor Odinson]

If you're doing FeMU, I recommend pairing with Chrom since you can then pass Lucina veteran and she can easily be one of your bests. MU is also likely to be pretty overleveled by that point which would give Lucina some pretty great bases to work with. Mine joined with superior strength and speed to Chrom because my MU had pretty much twice his stats by the end of chapter 13, though I tend to use Chrom more as a supporter. And Morgan's always pretty A+ anyway, though with Chrom as a father he starts immediately in tactician which means you can pass him some other useful skills since he'll always have Veteran. In my case I went with Sol since I went Tact->Merc->Hero but Rally Spectrum is also a great choice if you have it and don't want Morgan going through Grandmaster himself.

[Fargo294]

Gaius makes a nice Myrmidon to preserve his sword rank. It's particularly nice early on because you'll have Avoid+10 and triangle advantage against the many Axe users. Later on, transition into Hero for Sol and Hand Axes. Fighter can work too because he's so naturally fast, though as noted, a bit of a glass cannon.

After this reply I'd really like to use Gaius, but I'm torn on who I want to pair him with since I generally like to pair up my characters. I've paired up the other females and I narrowed it down to Tharja, Olivia, Cherche and Sumia. I've ruled out Mariabelle since I'm already using Lissa. Henry and Miriel(unsure) are already planned to be Dark mages, so I'm not sure if I want to use her. I've already pointed out my problems with Sumia. And I feel that Olivia comes in too late as well and has really poor starting stats, but if I did choose her I'd reclass her to a Myrmidon. Lastly I'm not too sure if I want to use Cherche since I've never been too lucky with her level ups. It's making my brain hurt!

[Redwall]

Although everyone is usable, you really don't want to have a large team. Having a smaller team allows you to concentrate a large amount of EXP onto select units, which is important since much of the legwork will be done on the enemy phase (unless you're Rescue-skipping every level or something).

[Da Bear]

As already pointed out, Gaius and Nowi are both good choices (especially Nowi). Panne can also work pretty well if she takes a seal into Wyvern.