SourPeridot

Oh man, I am confused and I have some (really nerdy) questions. (I realize some of the answers will be pretty much impossible to know without data mining the game, but any information anyone has would be appreciated.) First of all, does the damage calculation really divide by enemy defenses rather than subtract like other FE games? That's...very interesting. If you have a character with (for example) 100 atk, 200 weapon mt, and no damage bonus, versus an enemy with 100 def/res, you're doing 3 damage per hit. If the enemy only has 50 def/res, you're up to a whopping 6 damage. This would explain a lot about why it takes so long to kill people when I don't have WTA or other bonuses, actually. But even with WTA, if we multiply 300 x 1.25 and divide THAT, we're up to 3.75 damage on a hit against 100 def, or 7.5 against 50 def. I guess that adds up when you're getting a lot of hits in? Which brings me to my next question: This isn't normal Fire Emblem where each weapon has exactly one kind of attack and the closest things to a "combo" are the Astra and Aether trigger skills. We have weak attacks, strong attacks, and more combo strings than you can shake a stick at. Not to mention the AoE attacks and the combo finishers that have multiple hits. I can't imagine every hit does the same amount of damage, so how does that factor in? Let's take Takumi as an example (because I can actually remember some of his combo strings off the top of my head). His Y-X combo (Strong II) is just one regular shot and then a big slash, two hits, pretty straightforward, but I imagine this would do much more damage than if you just pressed Y-Y (and then stopped there for some reason). How is THAT calculated? Does every attack have a percentage that it multiplies the damage formula by (with the finisher having a larger one), or does it add a flat amount of damage depending on the attack, or something else that I'm not thinking of? Or am I totally off-base, and does every individual hit do exactly the same amount of damage regardless of the combo? (This sounds easier to calculate, but also very boring, because you'd have no reason to do anything other than spam either the longest combo string or the one with the least end lag, at least when you're fighting a single target.) Either way, what about Takumi's Strong V (the one that summons an orb that shoots a bunch of arrows in a triangle pattern)? That's a combo finisher that has a LOT of hits in it, and I've seen it really chew through enemies. Is each hit of that finisher calculated separately (in whatever mysterious manner the game is using), or is the whole thing one attack that does a lot of damage, with each hit doing a percentage of the total? I had some questions about how Luna works as well, but I'll hold off, because they might change once I understand more about how damage calculation works in terms of combos. Thanks to anyone who actually read through this piece of nerdy brain vomit. ;)

That's still better than what I was thinking, at least I can count everything from one place. Thanks!

Is there an easy way to check how many of Anna's mementos you've unlocked (as in, not having to comb through everything to count by hand)? I just found out there's a material drop blessing, but it's not in my temple yet and I want to know how long I have to go before I get it.

I actually love Corrin, she's quickly becoming one of my favorites. Her moveset feels so dynamic and fun, and it really distinguishes her from the other sword users. I also love Robin, which is unsurprising to me because I love Robin as a character and I love playing mages in general. Takumi is another favorite. Honorable mentions to Camilla, who is surprisingly fun to play even though I dislike her as a character, Tiki, who is weirdly technical to use but unleashing her Awakening makes me feel like a badass, and Lissa, who is pretty fun to use even though I'm disappointed she's not a mage. There aren't really any movesets I dislike yet, but the pegasus knights are kind of hard to use, and there's so many sword movesets that other than Corrin's and Xander's they kind of run together in my head, so even though they're fun individually, it's easy for me to lose track of which is which. :(

Azura, Azura, Azura. She's a favorite of mine, and I'm one of the people that's still a little bit bitter that she wasn't included in the base game (she's sorely missed in story mode - I don't understand why the devs thought it was okay to leave her out when she and Corrin are just as important a partnership as Chrom and Robin, which they acknowledged as something they couldn't split up - but that's probably an off-topic rant). I think the moveset for a dancing lancer has a ton of potential and I'm really excited to finally be able to play her. (If she ends up playing identically to Oboro I'll be kind of sad, but I'll still take it, because at least she'll still finally be in the damn game.) I'd be way more excited for Niles and Tharja if I weren't worried that they would just be clones of Takumi and Robin. (I have a little hope for Tharja, at least, given that she isn't in the base game at all and her DLC is pretty far off, so hopefully they have time to do something cool with her.) I'm pretty much fully expecting Niles to be just another Takumi clone since he's already in the game as one, which makes me sad, because Niles has so much potential for his own moveset. (I adore Takumi and he was one of the first units I promoted, but I really do not need more than one of him.) I think it's really questionable game design to have four archer units who ALL share the same moveset, plus it makes no sense lore-wise that an outlaw from the streets of Nohr would have the same fighting style as the prince and princess of Hoshido. (Frankly I don't think Takumi and Sakura should fight identically either, but it makes way more sense than Niles fighting like either of them.) I'm also a bit excited for Owain even if he will be a Ryoma clone, because he's still OWAIN, plus Ryoma's moveset is actually cool. Linde will be cool on the condition that she's not a Robin clone, and I'll be happy to have Minerva even though she'll be a Camilla clone, because I don't actually like Camilla. Plus Oboro, because Oboro.

I know they're in different DLC packs, and I know they already have a canonical support, but I honestly think it would be a crime if we didn't get Niles x Owain. There's way too much potential there to just waste it. Possibilities include Owain being really confused at first that Niles calls him Odin, but thinking it's an amazing name and wishing he thought of it; or Niles reacting like, oh my god, apparently all that nonsense you spouted about being from another world is true, and also wow, your original self is just as weird. Basically I love Niles and Owain because it forces Niles to be the straight man, because if Niles were part of any other duo he'd be the weird one.

Thank you! I was worried about wasting resources, but I think I'll just go put Divining on all my good steel weapons so I can farm some materials. ;)

I have some questions about weapon forging/smithing/whatever they call it in this game. 1. If you put attributes on the basic version of a character's personal weapon (Falchion/Yato/etc.), will they stay once you unlock the awakened version? 2. Obviously lower-level weapons become pretty useless as soon as you unlock better versions, but at what level does it become worth it to start sticking attributes on weapons yourself? I'm guessing steel, since it's the best level all the unpromoted characters can wield? Or should I wait until silver/whatever is above silver?