Grand Hero Battle: Lyon

[EricaofRenais]

I cleared the flier quest with L!Ryoma, Michalis, Kinoka and flying Nino and I have to say L!Ryoma is my new favorite flying sword because he can counter without having to use DC.  The other quests I used F2P guides that used Canas, Narcian, Olivia and Lyon/Sharena with different seals.  It was nice having two fairly easy legendary and GHB maps in a row and with the orbs from this one I finally managed to pull S!Tana who I already love.

[Alkaid]

@mampfoidWoah, those 2 WoM kills in a row with Marth was a pretty clutch tactic! Also interesting to see Elincia get swapped in here. Very nice!

[mampfoid]

2 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Really nice, the use of double WoM with G!Marth was extremely nice. It was also very interesting to see Elincia use Def Ploy despite not having the highest Res to proc easily but it was clutch to nerf the sword wyvern. It's very interesting how in this and the L!Hector clears you only needed 3 units with no dancer, goes to show how powerful Galeforce is. It reminds me a bit of Awakening with the Galeforce strats to wipe maps in 1-2 turns. Congrats! 

Thanks! 

Yeah, DEF ploy is a very useful seal, I use it often on Airzura. The good thing is, units with ultra high Def (usually armors) who need to be ployed have usually low Res and are easily ployed with units like Elincia and Airzura. A ploy with -5 DEF means 20 more damage with a quad. 

Funnily after playing Heroes I tried Awaking (still didn't finish my first run) and was really curious to try Galeforce. I was a little disappointed to learn that also here GF was limited to one use per turn. At least it's easier to proc in Awakening.

2 hours ago, Alexmender said:

Well, there's not a lot to say to this one. It was very straightfoward. I would've liked to add custom music to this video as battling Lyon is a big moment in Eirika's character in SS but sadly I don't have the time to do it so I'll have to settle with the game music. 

Wow, Eirika needs only 2 hits where Elincia needs 4. Big room full of enemies, but none who could prove any trouble for your girl. Congratulations! 

[May]

13 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Lyon Infernal in one turn: 

I'm amazed by this! ; __; Also, 500k feathers?! You could easily +10 two characters with that. Who are you saving it for?

[mampfoid]

38 minutes ago, Aera said:

I'm amazed by this! ; __; Also, 500k feathers?! You could easily +10 two characters with that. Who are you saving it for?

Haha, glad you liked it! If you want I could tag you for my next clear. 

I did some automatic GHB HM grinding, only two of my units have not maxed HM yet. 

I'll +10 Caeda as soon as I get the necessary copies (she is currently +0, but I already got 6 spare copies). Also Cherche (currently +8) and Cordelia (+6) will get their missing merges. Most of my other GF units are harder to merge sadly, they are either 5* exclusive (BH!Roy, Elincia) or limited (MM!Marth). 

Also I need often feathers to promote fodder for 5* exclusive skills like Galeforce, Slaying- and Brave weapons etc. 

1 hour ago, Alkaid said:

@mampfoidWoah, those 2 WoM kills in a row with Marth was a pretty clutch tactic! Also interesting to see Elincia get swapped in here. Very nice!

Thanks! 

Yeah, Elincia always gets her action when terrain is involved that Roy can't surpass. 

[LordFrigid]

@mampfoid Nice work, as always. I especially liked the positioning that went into Marth's Wings of Mercy sequence!

Here's the pair of mine...

One-Turn:

Only Caeda fights:

Spoiler

 

 

[kirauza343]

@mampfoid Oh my god, that double WoM from Marth was amazing xD I'm always happy to see your Elincia in action, and it was nice seeing Marth play such a big part having just watched him serve as a repositioner in Hector's Legendary battle.

@Ginko Roy definitely felt like the mvp here, but Shiro does his job as shield excellently. I'm always worried about him and magic, but I suppose it helps that he's really not that slow.

@Alexmender Ooh, the lunge made me a little nervous but wow your Eirika is impressive! Your positioning was very well done, there was at least one turn where I was impressed that you managed to keep just Eirika in the enemy's range.

@LordFrigid I feel like I don't see a lot of one turn clears with just fliers, nice job! The Caeda solo was equally impressive, especially with how rude the reinforcements on this map are.

Last time around I did this with my flier team so it was time my main team had a shot at it...and I don't know how or why but I felt like I had a harder time with this one than Hector's. At least with Hector's once I figured out the initial encounters it was easy to notice any skill changes I needed to finish everything up, not to mention the map was better suited to my party. Maps like this though are why I very much prefer -spd Cherche to -res Cherche; she's gonna get doubled anyway, might as well attempt to salvage that resistance.

 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

The special quests belonged to the hardest ones for me so far, especially defeating Lyon with Lyon. He did barely damage to him (five). I was very lucky that BLyn - thanks to weapon disadvantage - could bring him down to exact five HP.

[mampfoid]

4 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

One-Turn

Oh nice use of Flier formation, I always forget this seal is a thing (and Elincia has it too). Also lunge and simple Brave Lance to get the quad (you could have used heavy blade or QP seal instead). 

4 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

Only Caeda fights:

Wow, how many SA!Tanas did you get to give Marth the push skill? First I was wondering why you would position Minerva out of buffing range on turn two, but it was to let the Knight spawn in the right place. Your best buddy, the dragon lance was not much of a problem this time. 

Nice clears, congrats on both! 

4 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

Nice work, as always. I especially liked the positioning that went into Marth's Wings of Mercy sequence!

Thanks! First I thought I needed Marth instead of Cherche to reach the last enemy, but Elincia being the second WoM beacon made things easier (used Marth regardless). 

3 hours ago, kirauza343 said:

Oh my god, that double WoM from Marth was amazing xD I'm always happy to see your Elincia in action, and it was nice seeing Marth play such a big part having just watched him serve as a repositioner in Hector's Legendary battle.

Hey thanks! I always try to give the newest guys some spotlight, also Cherche as the fourth Flier would have been able to do Marths job here. 

4 hours ago, kirauza343 said:

Maps like this though are why I very much prefer -spd Cherche to -res Cherche; she's gonna get doubled anyway, might as well attempt to salvage that resistance.

Funny, my Cherche is -RES and I already had two situations where I was happy she is not -SPD (Michalis GHB and my second/alternative video of Julia & Seliph BHB ). 

I know RES is a super bane for her, I'm not 100% sure if she would have survived that blue mage. Mine for sure, since her merges help. 

Very nice clear btw. Cherches hit & run proofed to be important so many times. Marissa didn't have much to do, the other girls blasted away everything. Congratulations! 

[LordFrigid]

7 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Oh nice use of Flier formation, I always forget this seal is a thing (and Elincia has it too). Also lunge and simple Brave Lance to get the quad (you could have used heavy blade or QP seal instead). 

Tana has a monopoly on Heavy Blade, and Hector doesn’t like to give up QP if he can help it =P .

7 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Wow, how many SA!Tanas did you get to give Marth the push skill? First I was wondering why you would position Minerva out of buffing range on turn two, but it was to let the Knight spawn in the right place. Your best buddy, the dragon lance was not much of a problem this time. 

Nice clears, congrats on both! 

On Tana, just one spare. It probably should have gone to Celica, tbh; Marth can take Life and Death a lot more easily than she can.

I think putting Minerva there also helps convince the two cavs to go down the left instead of through the center.

The Lance Dragon forced two skill slots (Desperation & Def Ploy), so he was still the most problematic enemy. Though I guess that’s to be expected when the rest of the map is mostly mages, armors, horses, and dragons.

~

@kirauza343 Yeah, a lot of the time it’s nice to have a horse around for 3 mov. It was nice to get the Flier only clear out of the way at the same time.

Nice clear yourself! Cherche put in some serious work there. Watching Micaiah obliterate armors is always funny.

Edited June 30, 2018 by LordFrigid

[Ginko]

@kirauza343 Sorry for the late reply, I'm just busy playing GC.

Micaiah scored many kills here and Celica nuke every green to ash. I have a Cheche too but I stopped using her(after getting more ranged fliers) because she really weak to magic. But that doesn't matter for someone who is her fan, right? Marisa didn't do much here but she do her job properly. So I give MVP to Micaiah then. Well done.

[Midnox]

Didn't take me many tries to finish the infernal

[mampfoid]

7 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

Tana has a monopoly on Heavy Blade, and Hector doesn’t like to give up QP if he can help it =P .

Hector booked QP? He doesn't have GF, does he?

 

[Alexmender]

@kirauza343 Sorry for the late response, It's been a busy few days. 

Wow! This time Cherche was the MVP destroying everything in her path while Micaiah nuked those armors without any trouble. It was very interesting to see how your team stayed in one position throughout most of the battle, like they stood their ground and no one was able to move them away from there. Cool stuff!

[LordFrigid]

2 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Hector booked QP? He doesn't have GF, does he?

Berserk Armads/Bonfire/Wrath/QP, for that fair and balanced +40 damage that auto-charges every turn. Stole it off of one of Ice Dragon’s posts.

Actually, though...he does have Galeforce, but only for point scoring purposes. There’s a super-slim chance that I could use him in a Galeforce clear someday, but I’m not holding my breath. It would probably have to be either Bold Fighter/Armored Boots or Brave Axe(+)/Heavy Blade/WoM/Quickened Pulse (missing inheritance in bold).

[Rafiel's Aria]

I'm a little late because I was being a huge nerd and wanted to try something new. But first:

@mampfoid - Congrats on all of the one turn clears! That's pretty monumental! I was pretty impressed with this clear since the obstacles on this map, while they don't look like much, have given me a ton of trouble. I hated this map when it first came out. XD Fliers definitely help things.

@Alexmender - Definitely a big moment for Eirika. I was really curious to see how you were going to handle how claustrophobic this map can be once all the enemies start to spawn in. That Bold Fighter armor in particular gave me trouble. Fliers definitely help, but Eirika attacked everyone like a pro. Pretty neat how she had just enough ATK to finish off Lyon. That's the sound of my heart breaking BTW.

@Zeo @mcsilas @NegativeExponents- @kirauza343 @LordFrigid

I was busy when this map returned, so I didn't have time to do a Hero Team clear right away, but last night, as I was thinking about it, I got kind of stupidly inspired to do something...crazy I guess. I wanted to do a theme clear because I love Sacred Stones. And I have so many characters I never get to showcase. I may do a Hero Team clear before this map disappears, but for now...here's something a little different. The battle played out in my head first, so I wanted it to look exactly as I imagined to fit the little story I had in mind which meant trying a LOT of things. At first it was Ephraim, Innes, Eirika, and Lyon, but things got too cramped. So Ephraim got booted for Tana who made my life a lot easier. ...and then I had to figure out how to clear it so Lyon attacked Lyon, and Eirika saved him while activating her special for drama. And then I had to go and write something to go with it because I'm complete trash.

I had a lot of fun building up my pseudo-armor Lyon. Expensive fodder? Yes. Worth it? Totally. It was also a lot of fun getting to use Innes. I used to use him to clear a ton of maps. The strategy was, let all the mages beat the crap out of poor Innes. ...nothing has changed. Tana also has always been and will continue to be wonderful. If/when the Frelian siblings get refines, I'll be first in line. Eirika finally got her refine, and even though I don't have the resources to build her PERFECTLY, she played her role quite well. Enjoy!

Note: My writing is trash, and there's a lot of it, so you're not obligated to read it. It does kind of go with the video though. I try to stay away from fanfiction of any sort, but inspiration struck, and I think I managed to keep it from as cringey as it could have been by omitting my version of Kiran. I just inserted by own headcanon by pretending the Eirika and Lyon I've summoned are from a different timeline than the events that actually take place. lol I needed a break from some of my other writing projects and some practice writing battle scenes because I hate doing it. But this was pretty fun, and I may do it again if folks don't think it's absolute garbage. But it probably won't be a regular thing because the writing and the clear itself took a long time to finish....

Despite having purged the demon king from his own body long ago, as the war against Embla continued to rage, Lyon couldn’t help but feel a familiar presence clawing at the back of his mind, something even Eirika’s gentle words couldn’t chase away. When the enemy invaded,  King Ephraim rushed to Grado’s aid holding the vast majority of Veronica’s forces at bay, and Lyon reluctantly left the safety of his study with the company of his fiance and Frelian comrades to pursue the sinister shadow his royal mages sensed creeping its way towards the capital...

Spoiler

“Holding off an army by himself. How very Ephraim,” Innes scoffed, training the tip of his arrow on what must have been a manakete approaching on the horizon. “Either your brother’s losing his touch and let the enemy through, or Embla’s found a strategist familiar enough with his old tricks to sneak by.”

Eirika’s knuckle started to turn white as she clung to Sieglinde’s hilt, eyes fixated on the forms of the soldiers starting to appear. Three...four...five... “I hope this doesn’t mean…”  She relaxed her grip on her sword, pulling it from its sheath, so it shed its light on Innes. “No.”

“He’ll be fine.” Lyon rested a hand on her shoulder. “It wasn’t the border Knoll...was worried about…tch...”

“Lyon?”

His hand slipped from her shoulder to shield his eyes from Sieglinde’s glow. He couldn’t feel its warmth or hers for that matter. “It’s just my head, but…”

A shadow loomed overhead as a pegasus and its rider swooped down beside them. “How many, Tana?” Innes called without looking over.

“A lot,” his sister answered. “But the good news is, they’re coming in waves!”

“Excellent. Their mistake. Take the right, and don’t-”

“You should worry about yourself, brother. A few of them looked a little too sturdy for your arrows.”

“Nonsense.” The manakete had finally marched into range. “Eirika, let’s move.”

“Yes. Lyon...stay close to me.” She squeezed his hand one last time before rushing ahead with Innes.

The young king stayed behind for a moment. Arrows digging into flesh, the clanking of armor, the cries of the dying… The air around him had grown thin and stale, like the inside of a coffin. He clutched at his chest, trying to force air into his lungs. No one else seemed to notice. “It’s not possible…” he rasped.

“I am the Demon King.”

*******

Eirika’s scream shook Lyon from his trance. His head had merely ached before, but now he could barely see straight. Innes, his tunic stained with blood, grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. “I think he’s back with us.”

“I’ve got Eirika then!” Tana disappeared from their side before Innes could protest.

“You-...gah! How reckless. Stay,” he ordered the young king before pursuing her.

Without the archer supporting him, Lyon found it difficult to stand on his own. From what little he could see, the enemy’s numbers were starting to dwindle. Just a few left… But as he brought his hand up to massage his temple, he couldn’t help but notice the dark stains on his own hands and clothes. How... He coughed, trying to fight off the wave of nausea that struck him.

“Thank goodness! You were acting so strange...” Suddenly, Eirika as at his side once more, singed but alive. “You need to go, Lyon! I don’t know how Embla did it but-”

“Archer!” Innes shouted.

“I’ve got it!” Eirika winced after a step but pushed forward, charging straight towards the man on horseback.

“I’ll get the wyvern rider,” Innes called.

Eirika struck once. And then twice. But the archer was still standing.

“She’s going to…” Lyon’s body moved on its own. As the archer readied an arrow to finish her off, he rushed in behind his fiance and let magic fly from his fingertips. The rider was thrown from his horse, his cries  drowned out by the screeches of hundreds of birds, crackling with dark energy and tearing him to shreds. Lyon pulled Eirika back against his chest, almost certain she could feel his heart threatening to leap out of his chest.

“What’s going-”

All the light disappeared from around them except for the soft glow of Eirika’s sword. Lightning crackled and a shadowy haze materialized around them. With a roar of laughter, the caster honed in on Tana, bombarding her with a foul purple energy. She shrieked, and Innes called for her to retreat.

“Lyon, don’t look,” Eirika pleaded, clinging to his robes with her free hand.

But he didn’t need to look. Naglfar. “It is him…” His eyes met the figure’s dead gaze after the lingering shadows began to return to their master’s tome. “Go.”

“Eirika, come on!” Innes flew past her, a wounded Tana following close behind. She tried to grab Lyon’s hand, to tug him along with her, but it slipped right through her fingers.

Shadows rose from the young king’s tome as he approached his doppelganger. His entire body ached, but he was in much better shape than any of his comrades.

“So you think you escaped your fate in this world?” the Demon King asked.

“I’m not who-”

“You are. That part of you still remembers how it felt. That will never change. And you know as well as I do that they wouldn’t hesitate to kill you because when they do… Well…” He threw back his arms, chuckling again as shadows began to surge from his tome. “They perish and my reality exists!”

“You have no power here!” He readied his spell, but the Demon King struck first. Darkness tore through Lyon’s thin frame, but he clenched his teeth and returned with his own spell. Not enough. Hunched over and panting, he flipped through the pages of his tome for something stronger. Anything.

“Farewell, King of Grado.”

“Not today!”

Light broke through the darkness, and the Demon King’s screams filled the air. Eirika held the Demon King in place as he writhed and hissed, Sieglinde slowly burning a hole through the cavity where his heart should have been. She waited until he had fallen limp and silent before withdrawing her blade and letting the corpse fall to the ground.

“Eirika…”

She was at Lyon’s side once more, burying her face into his chest. “Don’t scare me like that.”

He rested his hand on the back of her head, savoring her warmth against him. Finally. “I’m sorry. Never again. I don’t know what happened.” The throbbing in his head was still there, but it lessened as the corpse of his former self began to fade into an ashy gray and break apart into dust.

“We’ll have time to figure that out later,” Tana said. “Innes looks like he’s on his last leg. I think that means it’s time to run away.”

“A tactical retreat,” her brother insisted, wincing as he shouldered his bow.

“Let’s find Ephraim,” Eirika said. “After seeing him of all people… I can’t help but worry.”

Lyon needed, taking her hand as she pushed forward past the Frelian siblings. “You lead. We’ll follow.”

[LordFrigid]

@Rafiel's Aria Nice clear, there! I was a little surprised when TA Eirika got left in the range of a blue mage, but it worked out just fine. Good use of Wings of Mercy, there.

52 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

If/when the Frelian siblings get refines, I'll be first in line.

I'll give you Nidhogg, but you might have to race me on Vidofnir.

53 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

It does kind of go with the video though.

It really does. I gave it a read before watching, and another quick skim afterward. It was interesting to see the way they matched up.

57 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

I needed a break from some of my other writing projects and some practice writing battle scenes because I hate doing it. But this was pretty fun, and I may do it again if folks don't think it's absolute garbage. But it probably won't be a regular thing because the writing and the clear itself took a long time to finish....

It seemed fine to me, but then again I'm neither an author nor a critic. I haven't done any creative writing in a few years, actually...hm.

[mampfoid]

6 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

Berserk Armads/Bonfire/Wrath/QP, for that fair and balanced +40 damage that auto-charges every turn. Stole it off of one of Ice Dragon’s posts.

Actually, though...he does have Galeforce, but only for point scoring purposes. There’s a super-slim chance that I could use him in a Galeforce clear someday, but I’m not holding my breath. It would probably have to be either Bold Fighter/Armored Boots or Brave Axe(+)/Heavy Blade/WoM/Quickened Pulse (missing inheritance in bold).

Armor one turn clears would be it's own category, lol. I'm looking forward to see that guy.

1 hour ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

had a lot of fun building up my pseudo-armor Lyon. Expensive fodder? Yes. Worth it? Totally. It was also a lot of fun getting to use Innes. I used to use him to clear a ton of maps. The strategy was, let all the mages beat the crap out of poor Innes. ...nothing has changed. Tana also has always been and will continue to be wonderful. If/when the Frelian siblings get refines, I'll be first in line. Eirika finally got her refine, and even though I don't have the resources to build her PERFECTLY, she played her role quite well. Enjoy!

That's one cool themed clear, very nice!

I should give my Innes a chance it seems. I gave him a quad set (and was a bit disappointed), but you make using his vanilla bow look like fun. Your Lyon is very tanky, you'll have fun in his VG for sure. The beaming action is a nice extra, congratulations! 

I'm not much into fan fiction and I don't know anything about sacred stones, but this one was pleasant to read. Especially the parallels to your clear where well done. 

[Radiant Dragon]

I didn't beat this map on Infernal the first time it was here, so I was happy to have a second chance at it now that I'm recording my clears. This map felt more difficult than Hector's, somehow, and I think that shows with how many skills I actually needed to equip to meet stat benchmarks and keep my team from getting swarmed.

 

[Alexmender]

@Rafiel's Aria Such a beautiful clear. The little story you gave it made it even better, to see Lyon trying to come to terms with what he's done and yet being full of doubt due to what he did in the past, having the support he so desperately needed from Eirika when was about to fall to his own regrets (and the Demon King's influence I suspect). I'm no writer nor knowledgeable enough to give a critique but I really liked the story you created from that battle. Helps that I was listening to A Prince's Despair while watching your run. 

It reminds that I seriously need to work on finishing that Ally Support between Eirikalter and Lyon. Why Eirikalter? I feel the OG!Eirika comes from very early in SS despite having Sieglinde with her being so optimistic and despite not liking to fight she's full of resolve to do what must be done which is why I find it hard to pair her with anyone. Eirikalter on the other hand always felt like she comes from a Post-game timeline, she went to study dark magic and always thinks about the times she spent with Lyon and Ephraim, just like how Lyon says he's so glad to have another chance at life, Eirikalter seems like she would want a way to go back to those happier days even though she knows what happened was necessary to free Magvel from the Demon King once and for all.

Hahaha, sorry about that. I always tend to start rambling when it comes to these things.

[Rafiel's Aria]

19 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

@Rafiel's Aria Nice clear, there! I was a little surprised when TA Eirika got left in the range of a blue mage, but it worked out just fine. Good use of Wings of Mercy, there.

I'll give you Nidhogg, but you might have to race me on Vidofnir.

It really does. I gave it a read before watching, and another quick skim afterward. It was interesting to see the way they matched up.

It seemed fine to me, but then again I'm neither an author nor a critic. I haven't done any creative writing in a few years, actually...hm.

I plan to give Eirika a better build in the future. TA from a long time ago when I just wanted her to be able to counter greens if necessary. But I'm slowly going to switch her to something more combat oriented once I get the proper fodder and merges. 

I think I can give you Vidofnir. XD I'll play fair. Besides...it's not like I can stand in two lines at once...unless I get my boyfriend to stand in one for me. 

Thanks for reading/watching! I'm glad you enjoyed!

18 hours ago, mampfoid said:

That's one cool themed clear, very nice!

I should give my Innes a chance it seems. I gave him a quad set (and was a bit disappointed), but you make using his vanilla bow look like fun. Your Lyon is very tanky, you'll have fun in his VG for sure. The beaming action is a nice extra, congratulations! 

I'm not much into fan fiction and I don't know anything about sacred stones, but this one was pleasant to read. Especially the parallels to your clear where well done. 

I really enjoy using Innes. But then again, I've really started to love all the -owl tome stuff. And I don't usually like to replace legendary weapons. I suppose Lyon was a special case here. Nothing wrong with his tome, but I wanted a secondary build for him that could give him a little extra punch. 

Glad you liked it! ...I tend to stay away from fanfiction. It's dangerous territory because everyone wants their characters written a very specific way to fit their own headcanon. But it was a fun and kind of nostalgic little exercise. 

4 hours ago, Alexmender said:

@Rafiel's Aria Such a beautiful clear. The little story you gave it made it even better, to see Lyon trying to come to terms with what he's done and yet being full of doubt due to what he did in the past, having the support he so desperately needed from Eirika when was about to fall to his own regrets (and the Demon King's influence I suspect). I'm no writer nor knowledgeable enough to give a critique but I really liked the story you created from that battle. Helps that I was listening to A Prince's Despair while watching your run. 

It reminds that I seriously need to work on finishing that Ally Support between Eirikalter and Lyon. Why Eirikalter? I feel the OG!Eirika comes from very early in SS despite having Sieglinde with her being so optimistic and despite not liking to fight she's full of resolve to do what must be done which is why I find it hard to pair her with anyone. Eirikalter on the other hand always felt like she comes from a Post-game timeline, she went to study dark magic and always thinks about the times she spent with Lyon and Ephraim, just like how Lyon says he's so glad to have another chance at life, Eirikalter seems like she would want a way to go back to those happier days even though she knows what happened was necessary to free Magvel from the Demon King once and for all.

Hahaha, sorry about that. I always tend to start rambling when it comes to these things.

Thanks for reading! I really wish I was good at editing/adding in music and stuff to my clears. XD I feel like it would have helped a bit. But you work with what you got. At least you had some good ambience in the background. XD 

I feel the same way actually. I like to pretend that Dark Eirika is from a timeline where she picks up where Lyon left off and helps restore Grado for him or she's able to do it with him. The latter is a longshot since she seems to be reflecting on the happy times rather than living in them, but a gal can dream. I would have liked to use her in this clear, but I ended up supporting Lyon and OG Eirika for more practical reasons even though they're the same color. Good luck with your support! ...unless you're writing it, in which case I'd very much like to read it!

It's cool. XD I always appreciate a good rambling. 

[mcsilas]

A bit late at these but it's been a busy week

@Rafiel's Aria Wow at that Close Counter Leon! And Fury Innes is pretty interesting as well! Hooray for themed clears :)

@Ginko Nice clear! LA Roy is great with the Brave Bow. Very great, especially with Airzura support! I like how Shiro and Seigbert balance each other out, they make a good team

@mampfoid Oh hey, I see Hinoka! Also Groom Marth is a really good addition to your team, it helps that he already has WoM in his kit as well! Can't wait to see more!

 

[mcsilas]

Sorry for the double post but I finally completed some Sacred Stones-themed clears for this GHB at the expense of forgetting to claim the quest 3 star Lyon

@Zeo @Rafiel's Aria @mampfoid @Ginko @NegativeExponents- @Cute Chao and a special mention @Rezzy (for a certain -Atk L'Arachel spotlight below)

Team is +Atk/-Spd Ephraim +1, +HP/-Atk L'Arachel, +HP/-Res Lute and neutral Joshua

Music is Successor from The King of Fighters XIV soundtrack. Again @mampfoid you should really hear the music, it's interesting how well the music matches up with what happens during the fights.

Running 3 blues in this clear? Yeah I'm crazy (and don't have much FE8 5 stars). For a long while I couldn't work out how to beat this as I was being backed into the corner with those anti-cav mages. Then a thought occurred to me,  why don't I split my forces up? Turns out the Zanbato flier prioritised chasing after blue cavaliers and ignored the right side.

And that was the key. Shoutouts to vanilla  -Atk L'Arachel providing double Tactic buffs and deleting low Res enemies before they became problems. L'Ephraim also makes good use of Sol and his base kit in general as he tanked then tactically deleted the ranged units in the left side (the green cav gave me a lot of trouble in past tries). 

Joshua's only inherited skill was Swap and boy was it useful in this run. He needed QR against the green dragon though, but overall, his native Close Def was really useful. He was also key as he baited the bow cav in the end. Lute was also great with her Ploys but she needed the Atk+1 skill to ORKO the bow cav (he only had 1 HP in the last run).

Also a fitting final battle with Lyon in the end.

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Also here is another video from my other account with some Frelian characters in the mix.

Team is +Res/-HP Ephraim, +Atk/-Spd Innes, +Def/-HP Summer Tana and +Atk/-Res Amelia

Music is Diabolosis from the King of Fighters XIII

Don't have normal Tana, but Summer Tana works well for red colour coverage and for bladetome shenanigans with Ephraim and Tactic seals. Her Guidance is also very useful in crowded situations.

@Zeo's Amelia inspired me to add Escape Route to my own Amelia as well for this clear, since mobility is crucial in this battle. Speaking of Amelia, the mages were a bit annoying in this map so I equipped Sacred Cowl, which helped her survivability against Lyon.

Edited July 8, 2018 by mcsilas

[mampfoid]

@mcsilas Hey cool beats to that original clear, very fitting (in the weekend it's easier to switch on sound for me). Three blues is indeed unconventional. 

On the second video: Excellent beaming action, good Guidance and Escape Route showcase!

[Zeo]

@mcsilas

So I've never pulled a LA'Rachel and I'm definitely not salty about it at all... not having a single copy of her... no RES Tactic fodder or anything like that..

Congratulations, you did something I was never able to accomplish: splitting your team up for the clear. I wanted to do that when the GHB first came out, but I was only able to do it with an extremely boring Reinhardt/Bridelia + Dancers type of clear. 3 blues was bonkers but it didn't matter because you made it work. With a basically empty LA'Rachel as well. Makes me feel less bad about Priscilla's empty A and B slots. I felt a lot of tension on turn 6 when your team got backed into a corner. I didn't see how you were going to survive the coming enemy phase. I thought the Bow Cav and Lyon would have been able to take down Ephraim but not so. Then I didn't see how you were going to deal with the Bow Cav but then I forgot Lute has Desperation. She needed just one more point of ATK to finish it though. Good stuff.

The second clear really surprised me though. It was really hectic. I was wondering if there was some clean strategy you had for sweep kills with your team but nope, for the first half every battle they'd get battered more and more but just kept going. They had to retreat a bit near the end and got boxed in by the reinforcement Bow Cav and Blue Flyer but you handled it with such finesse. The music was perfect as well. Almost wish I'd thought of it! Nice clear. I wanted to do an FE8 clear but I just couldn't find the time. Oh well, he'll eventually be part of GHB rotation 3. Also shoutouts to you having a +ATK/-SPD Innes as well. I had a +RES/-SPD one too, but I decided to merge him into my +ATK one. Now he has 37 ATK. One point lower than Bridelia, my strongest infantry archer so that's not so bad. All in all my favorite was the second clear.

@mampfoid Not much to say, it was just another day at the office for you! Nice way to finish up the map with Groom Marth at the end though. I'm sitting on a couple of Cains and I've pulled a few Cordelia's recently. I wish I could give them to you in exchange for Chroms.

@Ginko Roy was the MVP this time. Absolute child's play. Horse Cavs should be illegal in this game with how much damage they can do. Shiro doesn't care about magic for some reason and Siegbert and Azura keep the path of destruction clear. For every extremely difficult clear, there are easy ones like this. Bravo.

@Alexmender I was just waiting for Eirika to destroy that firesweep Cav, he's such a prick in this map. I was a bit worried about Eirika dealing with all the threats when you're so easily boxed in on this map but I underestimated the sheer mobility of your supports. Two fliers (one of which being a dancer) really come in handy when it comes to evasion and positioning. The level of convenience seems astounding. Nevermind that Eirika gets the full benefit of Tactics buffs as well. 

Also the exact damage on Lyon was life.

@kirauza343 God Micaiah trivializes the crap out of maps. Fantastic clear. I know you're using a team you enjoy using but I questioned their synergy. They really work well together.

@Rafiel's Aria I'm saving yours for last. I've stayed up too late and need to sleep. But my next post will indeed be a response to yours. 

@NegativeExponents- @Glennstavos @Xenomata @Rezzy @SatsumaFSoysoy @Hilda @Fei Mao @Cute Chao @Usana @Poimagic @eclipse 

I hit my head against this one for a long time. For a while I wasn't entirely sure I could do it. Sadly for this one I needed to revamp M!Morgan heavily. For starters I had to ditch Close Counter. He never would have utilized it anyway but it's a core skill that I never took off Matthew so it felt wrong doing it, but it was necessary. Morgan had to combat almost nothing but blues this map so he needed the hefty combination of Luna and Seal RES. Even that alone wasn't enough to clear the map though. The other keys turned out to be 1: The positioning of my units on turn 2. They effected where the sword flier and blue mage end up which completely changes the dynamic of the clear and 2: A key component actually from my original clear, Ignis. Amelia ended up needing it in order to survive a specific turn. 

Now it's time for the original...

It's crazy that just 2 pages back is my original clear for this map. For this clear It was really nostalgic and I wanted to do it a bit differently but time was short. Originally I planned my Matthew team to go up the right side this time instead of the left. But I just didn't have time to make the clear work, so at the very least my goal was to clear this map without using the same Matthew build as last time and I did. The first clear was very surgical, we had to be very careful about our moves and there was a point or two where I wasn't sure they'd survive. This time around though, they were ready. All it took was some careful positioning on turn 2, same as the Morgan clear. If you watched the original clear this should be filled with nostalgia for obvious reasons. I hope one day Lyon comes back as part of a new daily rotation. At one point this was my favorite clear.

I'm kinda planning on doing a Valter redo and then a Takumi one when he comes back. Those 4 clears are probably my most favorite of the early ones. For me their epic-ness was on par with the legendary clears. 

Enjoy the show as always.