Tempest Trials: A Gift of Peace!

[mampfoid]

Auto-mode on lunatic/7 doesn't work well, even with Tharja in the team. I'll shave to pull a Robin for Armor March or go auto on lunatic/5. 

[Othin]

My seasonal team of c!Tharja, c!Robin, h!Jakob, and p!Azura is having an easy time here.

I was wondering if there'd be more blessings than just the 25k one in the rewards, but wasn't really expecting it. Even just one is a really nice bonus and makes it a lot easier to justify using them, as long as they keep coming every month. I don't plan on setting up the stat bonus anytime soon, but being able to justify giving blessings to my armor team for the arena points is really nice. BK has the original one now, and Hector will be getting the next one when I hit 25k.

4* Masked Marth dropping to 2k points is a bit odd, but nothing wrong with it. Would be interesting if sometime they start using both the 2k and 6k rewards for different 4* units, so they can have a rerun just at 4* in addition to the main unit, whether the main unit is new or not. It's important to make more copies of old TT units like Tobin and Clive available for merges and for players who missed them the first time, but they don't necessarily have to be rerun at 5* to fulfill that.

As for the seals, Iote's Shield is nice. Heavy Blade is cool as well, but I don't really have anyone in mind who's looking for it.

[GinRei]

This has got to be the worst designed TT yet.  All the 40% units are Armored, and yet the map selection is predominantly maps where you start scattered, thus unable to activate Armor March.

[Othin]

1 minute ago, GinRei said:

This has got to be the worst designed TT yet.  All the 40% units are Armored, and yet the map selection is predominantly maps where you start scattered, thus unable to activate Armor March.

I wouldn't call it predominant. There's one map where all your units start separate, one where only one pair is together, and another where you have two pairs but they're separate from each other. To my recollection, the other four have all your units together.

[Azuni]

7 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

In better, less personal news, Iote's shield is a great seal. Definitely a more responsible addition than Granny's shield. Because it took months of updates before we got good horseslaying weapons to combat the rampant domination of horse emblem, and we don't need to give the horses another tool.

Iote's appearance practically guarantees the Svalinn and Grani Shields will be added eventually, which will also be nice things for defense teams and pve (obviously not often for offense due to not being a 240sp seal). Horse emblem's domination has been greatly exaggerated for the most part.

[Humanoid]

Can't even use Armor March because running both Amelia and Winter Chrom side by side would be suicidal. At least he handles the last map okay by holding the right side all by himself, but he feels like a liability in most maps.

As for the other bonus units, Lucina is in the process of being built, Masked Marth and Nowi are maxed on HM, and Frederick is too awkward to use alongside Chrom and without and horse buddies. So after day one I'm still none the wiser as to what my ideal Lunatic 7 team is.

[GinRei]

2 minutes ago, Othin said:

I wouldn't call it predominant. There's one map where all your units start separate, one where only one pair is together, and another where you have two pairs but they're separate from each other. To my recollection, the other four have all your units together.

Okay, so on the Armor-heavy TT half the maps are purposely detrimental to your Armored units.  Still shows poor design.

[Humanoid]

The poor design is that the player is judged on speed at all. Not sure what the design intention is behind that - like a lot of FE mechanics it's something that was designed once upon a time then dogmatically kept forever.

[Azuni]

Haven't had many armor march problems, I've been running Christmas Robin/Chrom together, they only struggle when there's a large number of mages on the map (although running Bride Caeda helps alleviate the red mage problem). 4th atm is a Medic (real) Marth, who barely has enough hp to keep the armors healthy enough and in brazen range.

Got A/A speed/survival every time so far, so I think people's real problem is team composition, not the maps.

[Othin]

2 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

The poor design is that the player is judged on speed at all. Not sure what the design intention is behind that - like a lot of FE mechanics it's something that was designed once upon a time then dogmatically kept forever.

The intention is to incentivize players to take on the additional challenge of moving fast and keeping your turn count low rather than letting it be optimal to slowly slog through and play it really safe. It's a very good design, and traditional FE games don't emphasize it often enough.

Getting an A/A rank on Lunatic-7 isn't particularly difficult, even with an armor-heavy team, as long as your units are good.

[Humanoid]

People who like low turn count runs as a challenge can do so if it entertains them, but I don't think developers should be actively incentivising one playstyle over the other as if there's one "right" way to play Fire Emblem.

To veer off topic a little, that kind of design is why I felt absolutely nothing for XCOM 2, despite XCOM Long War being one of my favourite games of all time. Many ways to skin a cat, and all that.

[Usana]

As someone who doesn't like being rushed I can see some value in low turn count bonuses. But I think it should be offset by other bonuses as well. Right now if you have a bad match up in the final map it is better to just lose and field another team. I would like bonuses for winning 'impossible' match ups as well. At least enough to offset the turn count penalty that occurs in such matches. The survival mechanic is an attempt at that I think, but it falls FAR short.

[bottlegnomes]

8 hours ago, Clogon said:

People use that for him? Without an ATK boon, QR Slayer seems much better.

Yeah, as Frosty said, it seems like that's all people ever run for him. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with people thinking, "He has meh stats, but his strength isn't terrible," and going with the easy build. It's lowish investment, only requires one 5* sacrifice, and a fairly plentiful one at that, and performs decently enough.

Well, this hasn't been too bad. Chromsmas has actually been a pretty big benefit for dealing with boss Robin. Can't one-round him by any means, but he can tank pretty well and put him in easy kill range for Rein. I imagine Fred will work pretty well too. Might actually be worth killing a Roy for him so he might be able to one-round Robin; need to check stats again. So far gotten A/A on all runs save my second multiplier one because my finger slipped and Rein repositioned Lyn right next to Hana, leaving himself next to Amelia, instead of getting them both out of Amelia's range 

Edited December 26, 2017 by bottlegnomes

[mampfoid]

42 minutes ago, Othin said:

The intention is to incentivize players to take on the additional challenge of moving fast and keeping your turn count low rather than letting it be optimal to slowly slog through and play it really safe. It's a very good design, and traditional FE games don't emphasize it often enough.

Getting an A/A rank on Lunatic-7 isn't particularly difficult, even with an armor-heavy team, as long as your units are good.

I don't like to be pressed in strategy games and I wouldn't like a speed score in traditional FE at all, but it's perfect for TTs regardless. If players would spend too much energy trying for deathless runs, the grind would be almost impossible to do. It's important to accept that in this mode, losing 1-2 units or even a whole team, does (nearly) nothing to the score. 

Do you have Armor March on your armor heavy team? 

[Poimagic]

I get to this late and I find out that heavy Blade and Iote's shield are seals. Just, wow. My Peri can now run the Galeforce heavy Blade combo I always wanted to do, without having to sacrifice her a Slot. My Eldigan could use Heavy Blade well and have an Ignis charged up during combat if he doubles. As for Iote's shield, I have good fliers, but only S!Camilla really uses it well. It'll help her tank Brave Lyn's even better, but I would have to sacrifice Guidance shineanigens. Oh well.

[Rafiel's Aria]

These maps don’t feel as difficult to bait in as some of the others in the past. Not having a 40% bonus unit sucks but +ATK Lucina is pretty sweet. She’s sooooo good. At the moment I’m running a team of Lucina, Frederick, Reinhardt, and Maria. I think I may try switching out Rein for Olwen once I put some more work into her build (since she only has Swift Sparrow atm), but that would require giving Frederick a horse buff to help her along... Lucina can easily get switched out for Masked Marth once she maxes out HM.

Going on family vacation soon, so I need to try to get all the rewards in less than a week. ...so the goal is around 25k a day. I’m going to push for 33k but we’ll see how that goes. I haven’t even reached 10k yet. XD

[Othin]

19 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

I don't like to be pressed in strategy games and I wouldn't like a speed score in traditional FE at all, but it's perfect for TTs regardless. If players would spend too much energy trying for deathless runs, the grind would be almost impossible to do. It's important to accept that in this mode, losing 1-2 units or even a whole team, does (nearly) nothing to the score. 

Do you have Armor March on your armor heavy team? 

My current armor team uses armor march, but I believe I've gotten A/A runs on past TTs with (mostly) armor teams lacking it. Like Arden/Effie/Sheena/Arvis on the FE4 TT.

[mampfoid]

9 minutes ago, Othin said:

My current armor team uses armor march, but I believe I've gotten A/A runs on past TTs with (mostly) armor teams lacking it. Like Arden/Effie/Sheena/Arvis on the FE4 TT.

My only Armor March unit (Amelia) maxed HM pretty fast and without that skill armors aren't much fun for me. 

I tried another time to get Robin, failed (got my first Oscar though, even a +SPD/-RES one) and thus go auto- mode with my armors (Tharja, Sheena, Lissa, Effie). They constantly bring me to stage 4 on lunatic/7 from where my standard TT-team does the rest (Frederick, Siegbert, Priscilla, Valter). 

[Clogon]

9 hours ago, Hilda said:

this is a very bad idea, you are giving up the ability to win matches against Effie and Hector and some other green units that have higher attack. Effie will have more Atk, especially since she will prolly run a refined weapon. It might maybe work against Hector, depending on his nature and skill

Even with +ATK, Hector only has 59 ATK at +10 using default skills. Most Effies run either Raiderbane or Berkut's Lance so you are not killing her in the first 2 hits anyways.

60 ATK is a lot and most unit needs to run LAD and +ATK to reach it. These glass cannons will die without moonbow regardless. That being said it doesn't change that many match ups.

And if I really wanted to, I could just give him Summoner Support for an extra +2 ATK.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Clogon

[Princess Deirdre]

Uuuuugh, I hate how all the 40% units are armor units. I only pulled Thotja, and she does not fit in my team of Rein, Brave Ike, and Ryoma. At least repositions a thing... gotta get that 3rd masked Marth >_>

[mampfoid]

@Othin Since I also don't like to auto-pilot the only content IS giving us these days, I gave the armors a try and it wasn't too bad:

First 705 run. Tharja (+HP/-ATK) is nearly unkillable if you bring also a healer (Genny). Lissa (+RES/-SPD) takes zero damage from boss-Robin and one-rounds him next turn. Valter is there mostly for Reposition and some hard to reach opponents. 

Perhaps I'll change Lissa for Frederick, to have a 40% unit after Tharja maxes HM. 

[Alexmender]

Fury on Nowi was a bad idea by itself as she's unable to survive up to the 5th map on auto battle, I'm giving her Noontime to see if that increases her survivability. Lucina only needs a Renewal upgrade which isn't that big of a deal as I have a 4* Fae lying around. PD: Lucina with Fjorm is crazy, my Lucina is +Def and she reaches 46 Spd without buffs while keeping her bulk.

[Tenzen12]

I run Tharja-Nowi enemy phase combo with Axzura and Healcina support. Speed is not really issue as enemies kill themselves. It's pretty causal TT this time.

[Hawk King]

Threaten Spd and Iote's shield were surprising enough, but Heavy blade really shocked me. It's only a matter of time before some impressive builds emerge that can utilize it.

The description says that only one skill will be applied with similar effects so Heavy blade and Blazing Durandal obviously won't stack, but will Heavy blade stack with Bold Fighter or Vengeful Fighter?

What about Heavy blade with Ayra's sword/Mia's A-skill?

[Arthur97]

It is more than possible to get double A with a full armor team. If I can do it, how hard can it be?

9 hours ago, mcsilas said:

The other weird thing is the Christmas banner to get 40% bonus units ending before the TT ends.. :/

It is a conundrum.