Radiant Dawn First Time

[Mandokarla]

I've never actually played Radiant Dawn, so I've finally gotten my hands on it and have been playing. I've beaten Part 1 already, and I feel bad for Ms. Silver Hair because I like her and I know she's gonna get cucked out of her own game soon by Ike. 

So far my thoughts on units are as follows: Sothe is very useful and I like him a fair bit. I'm a big fan of Volug too, I have him with Paragon equipped right now to maybe offset his reduced exp gain a little bit -- probably not optimal, but hey I'm playing on Normal, not Hard -- and he's reliable. Ilyana just isn't great, she has some pretty noticeable hitrate problems. Jill is good, if a little strength screwed for me. Edward has been getting great levelups, his stats currently are almost equal to Zihark's before promoting. Leonardo and Nolan are on the bench right now -- one's an archer and the other is too slow. Meg is garbage, Fiona is bad (?), Tormod was excellent, and Muarim / Vika were nice and powerful. Nailah can step on me. 

Moving into the rest of the game, what units are good and what units are utter trash? I've been told that RD is one of the harder FE games in the mid-lategame, so I'd like to not cry inside. Is there any other thing, like a good item or something, that I should definitely be aware of?

[OuendanCyrus]

"Normal" is actually Hard, there was a translation error in the localisation process, so "Easy" is actually Normal.

Meg and Fiona are bad, but the rest are decent enough, Leonardo is average, but Edward and Nolan can become absolute monsters.

From Part 2 onwards, there will be lots of perspective changes, switching back and forth through different parties, so you might want to not get too used to certain units if that makes sense.

Haar is a complete beast, so I highly recommend him, you can safely ignore investing into all of the Laguz that aren't the Royals (except for the Herons, they're vital) Skrimir is fine if you do decide to use him.

Tormod is horrid, I never had much luck with Astrid, either.

[Mandokarla]

1 minute ago, OuendanCyrus said:

"Normal" is actually Hard, there was a translation error in the localisation process, so "Easy" is actually Normal.

 

I knew this already, I generally play FE games on hard first time through, because Normal / easy almost always turns into a "this unit takes this half of the map, this unit takes the other, my lord twiddles their thumbs" kind of stompfest. FE8 did this, FE7 did this, Echoes does this, Path of Radiance kinda does that, Awakening absolutely does that, and Fates almost dodges it. 

[Von Ithipathachai]

29 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

Nailah can step on me.

I don't even plan to play the Tellius games (they're too expensive and I don't do GameCube emulation) and I can agree with you.

My personal top Fire Emblem waifu is Sheena, but Nailah doesn't look bad herself.

[OuendanCyrus]

20 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

I knew this already, I generally play FE games on hard first time through, because Normal / easy almost always turns into a "this unit takes this half of the map, this unit takes the other, my lord twiddles their thumbs" kind of stompfest. FE8 did this, FE7 did this, Echoes does this, Path of Radiance kinda does that, Awakening absolutely does that, and Fates almost dodges it. 

I also tend to play FEs on Hard over Normal, but in Radiant Dawn's case, "Normal" feels too easy and "Hard" is such a jump over Normal. Screw Maniac difficulty, taking away the WT and ability to check enemy range is BS.

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 minutes ago, Von Ithipathachai said:

My personal top Fire Emblem waifu is Sheena, but Nailah doesn't look bad herself.

She is a married woman you know! Although it is never stated, even in the Japanese I think, only the artbooks reveal she and Rafiel are wed. Then again, she was willing to do "that" thing with Tibarn, while she was holding Rafiel right next to her.

 

47 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

I've been told that RD is one of the harder FE games in the mid-lategame, so I'd like to not cry inside.

Actually, RD is more known for its reverse-difficulty curve. If you can get past the first couple chapters of Part 1, you can handle the rest of the game pretty well. The game does not stray from giving you clutch units, for the most part. The one time they really don't is Part 3 Dawn Brigade, so I hope you've got them strong enough to handle that. Also Part 2 is a bit of drudge gameplay-wise, but some of the battle ideas are novel, and the story is considered by some to be among FE's finest cuts.

 

Astrid is considered rather bad in this game, though she can in theory use Paragon and Blossom together. Most Laguz not Royals are considered poor, Ranulf, the Hawk duo, and Volug are considered exceptions to this rule. Mordecai can also be very tanky, but his low Speed means he's a bit underrated/underperforming. Lyre is considered the worst of the Laguz.

Part 2 doesn't give you much choice in who to use and who not to use. Part 3 does give flexibility, and while some characters are better than others, most of the Part 3 crew is in some way usable. Part 4 is similar, lots of amazing units, and some not so amazing, but there is one particular chapter there for grinding weaklings for the 5-stage Endgame if you really want to bring someone you like to it.

 

In case you aren't using it already and would want to, here is a guide for finding hidden items. The formula for finding hidden items is Chance % = Skill + 60 if a Rogue or Whisper +/- Biorhythm (Best/Worst is +/-20, Good/Bad is +/-10, Normal is 0). So use high Skill units or those with better Biorhythm to be more likely to find them.

[Shadow Mir]

Well... unfortunately, most laguz are pretty lackluster if they're not royals. Including Volug and Ranulf (who is dragged down by his class). Also, if you liked Tormod and Vika, it sucks to be you... you ain't gonna be seeing them for a long time. A very. Very. Long time. And they'll be beyond salvaging by then. Also, if you neglected to train your Daein units in part 1 because you were suckered in by the likes of Tauroneo and Tormod... Sucks to be you!

Edited June 1, 2018 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Mandokarla]

11 minutes ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

Well... unfortunately, most laguz are pretty lackluster if they're not royals. Including Volug and Ranulf (who is dragged down by his class). Also, if you liked Tormod and Vika, it sucks to be you... you ain't gonna be seeing them for a long time. A very. Very. Long time. And they'll be beyond salvaging by then. Also, if you neglected to train your Daein units in part 1 because you were suckered in by the likes of Tauroneo and Tormod... Sucks to be you!

Micaiah, Edward, Ilyana, Sothe, Jill, and Nolan all have been trained -- Nolan is pretty behind though, only level 14. All of those are promoted except for Edward, who is level 19 right now. He's been getting great levels. My laura died early and I didn't feel like resetting, so I master Sealed Ilyanna at 15 because for some reason I expected her to get Staves on promo. Nope. Oh well. She does decent damage, she's just slow and has hitrate problems. Aran is level 17, but he still has almost base speed, which just kinda sucks major ass. Tormod just filled a spot that needed filling, and did decently doing so. I expect him to die lategame. 

[Shadow Mir]

8 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

Micaiah, Edward, Ilyana, Sothe, Jill, and Nolan all have been trained -- Nolan is pretty behind though, only level 14. All of those are promoted except for Edward, who is level 19 right now. He's been getting great levels. My laura died early and I didn't feel like resetting, so I master Sealed Ilyanna at 15 because for some reason I expected her to get Staves on promo. Nope. Oh well. She does decent damage, she's just slow and has hitrate problems. Aran is level 17, but he still has almost base speed, which just kinda sucks major ass. Tormod just filled a spot that needed filling, and did decently doing so. I expect him to die lategame. 

If I were you, I'd consider starting over. NOW. Because when you get the Daein army back in part 3, you're gonna be wishing you didn't have one reliable healer. And I would expect anyone you're using to be close to promoting, if not promoted by part 3. Though you seemed to do better in that regard. Anyway, for what it's worth, Ilyana is the only unit who can use Rexbolt, which is a massive help against one of the lategame bosses.

[bethany81707]

...I'm confused, is Nolan promoted level 14?

Spoiler

Also, yeah, those cats are going to shred you alive. Hope you took away Tauroneo's Resolve scroll for Jill.

 

[SavageVolug]

I will try not to go into spoilery teritory, it sounds like you are enjoying this game which makes me happy it's a great game. Most of your overview does not suprise much of what you said I can relate too, like giving Volug the paragon, Edward being awesome, etc. The only thing that suprised me was Nolan usually he turns out really well, but eh, what can you do? Moving into part 2 MOST of the units there are good for their respective class types. And on Normal mode you can generally use whoever you want and they turn out good.

Part 2 introduces primarily the Crimean royal knights which include Geoffrey (a lance paladin with paragon), Kieran (an axe paladin with Gamble), Makalov ( a sword paladin I find this guy entertaining) Astrid (a bow paladin who's trash unless you invest a lot of EXP into her), Lucia (a swordmaster and pretty good) Brom (an axe General, Tauroneo or Gatrie are probably better generals but Brom is still a soldi unit), Nephanee (a halberdier and is quite good she tends to be fast fairly sturdy and decent strength and with a little more res compared to Aran who is a tank) Heather (a Rogue, DO NOT expect her to be good at combat she isn't, I would only keep her around for stealing stuff and as a pack mule otherwise don't bother with her) Caliil, (fire sage and quite good though I prefer Tormod but that might be a character preference thing and not because one's a better unit), Marcia (a pegasus rider and a DANG GOOD ONE) Elincia (another pegasus unit and if memory serves correctly the only flying healer in the game so she has that going for her if nothing else), Devdan/Danved ( a halberdier, he's sturdy and with good attack. I'd say he's the balanced one between Nephanee and Aran) and last but not least........HARR. THE MAIN MAN HIMSELF. Harr, the Dragonmaster, this guy is GOOD. USE HIM. Most of the units introduced in Part 2 are anywhere from decent and reliable (like Makalov) to awesome and incredible (like Harr) I'd say you can use all of them without worry and they will serve you well. The only units I would not use are Astrid and Heather. ONLY USE THEM IF YOU WANT TO, otherwise don't bother.

Moving into Part 3 we are introduced to what I like to call the A-Team. Ike and the Greil mercenaries are the heavy hitters of this game. All of them are worth using. Ike is Ike enough said, Titania (a level 15 axe cavalier so getting her promoted to Gold Knight should not take long and she hits hard and can take a beating), Shinon (a sniper very good bow unit and will probably be promoted to Marksman the fastest) Rolf (another sniper and will do well but get's overlooked due to Shinon being there and already doing anything Rolf can do better) Boyd (I like this guy, hits hard. Compared to Nolan who is more skill based Boyd hits hard) Soren (a pretty good Wind Mage and comes with Adept), Mist (although she CAN attack she is much better as a healer, I would recommend investing in her if she can as her promotion gets her a horse) Gatrie (another Lance General and one that some people hold to be the best) Oscar (another lance paladin and quite good), Mia (a swordmaster, use her if you want but it always seems anything she can do Ike does better.) and Rhys (another Healer but he can also attack with light Magic, I consider him a good healer and easier to get to Saint than Lara but I personally prefer focussing on Mist because she gets a horse) All the Greil Mercenary members are anywhere from good to very good and worth the investment.

I will discuss the Laguz that you either have now or will get:

When it comes to the Laguz it's not so much of a question which ones are good as which ones are bad? Out of all the Laguz only a few are not worth it primarily the cat laguz (except Ranulf) Kiza, the Raven Laguz often seem inferior to the Hawk Laguz and while you won't meet them for a while Gareth while I like him by the time you get him he is very hard to use. So Laguz that are decent and good to incredible are Volug, Naihala, Ranulf, Tibarn (he's a royal), Mordecai (the guy's a tank) Muarim (faster than Mordecai but still hits good), Ranulf (I like Muarim better but Ranulf is still good) Skrimir (one of the best if not the best non royal laguz) Giffca (almost as good as a laguz royal) Naessala (good but I think Tibarn is better), Janaff and Ulki are both good though not as good as Tibarn still solid units. There are two dragon Laguz that you can use near the end of the game that if given some levels can be quite good but I don't want to spoil who they are. Naisir is another dragon laguz and while good is not the one I'm talking about.

Late game characters: Sanaki (terrible in my opinion as you should have better sages than her) Sigrun and Tanith ( they're ok, but Marcia should be better if not promoted by the time they join) Volke (has Lethality so yes he's good), Bastian (another wind mage and while Soren is probably promoted I think Bastian is solid enough to still use), Stefen (probably my favourite True Blade due to his high strength base and that he's likely to cap it. So yes he's good fast like most Swormaster types and hits hard for a swordmaster.) and Renning (he is perfectly viable and useable at base).

Herons: These are the refreshers and while they can all be used and helpful, many consider Reyson the best. He can refresh up to four people when shifted though only one when nonshifted.

Ultimately anyone especially on Normal can be used and become a very good unit so feel free to use whoever you want, that said I would recommend avoid using at least the one's I've already listed as being terrible. Such as Fiona, Meg, Astrid, Heather and so on.

[Baldrick]

If there's one item that is absolutely critical for not dying inside, it's the Taksh. It's a crossbow available from the Bargain store in a chapter 3-12. RD's lategame is generally difficult but manageable if you have a sound strategy, but that weapon will help you deal with the most unmanageable enemies in the game.

1 hour ago, Mandokarla said:

Micaiah, Edward, Ilyana, Sothe, Jill, and Nolan all have been trained -- Nolan is pretty behind though, only level 14. All of those are promoted except for Edward, who is level 19 right now. He's been getting great levels. My laura died early and I didn't feel like resetting, so I master Sealed Ilyanna at 15 because for some reason I expected her to get Staves on promo. Nope. Oh well. She does decent damage, she's just slow and has hitrate problems. Aran is level 17, but he still has almost base speed, which just kinda sucks major ass. Tormod just filled a spot that needed filling, and did decently doing so. I expect him to die lategame. 

Without spoiling too much, of the DB units, it's difficult to train more than one, excluding units like Micaiah and Sothe that become support/filler by default, and Volug/Tormod's crew who get power-crept. The chapter design generally means one strong unit is sufficient.

Edward, Jill and Nolan are the ones you will want to choose from, Ilyana won't be around. If Nolan was promoted at level 14, I'd say Jill or Edward depending on who's stronger or who you like more. Give your choice the Paragon scroll. 

Edited June 2, 2018 by Baldrick

[Mandokarla]

18 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

If there's one item that is absolutely critical for not dying inside, it's the Taksh. It's a crossbow available from the Bargain store in a chapter 3-12. RD's lategame is generally difficult but manageable if you have a sound strategy, but that weapon will help you deal with the most unmanageable enemies in the game.

Without spoiling too much, of the DB units, it's difficult to train more than one, excluding units like Micaiah and Sothe that become support/filler by default, and Volug/Tormod's crew who get power-crept. The chapter design generally means one strong unit is sufficient.

Edward, Jill and Nolan are the ones you will want to choose from, Ilyana won't be around. If Nolan was promoted at level 14, I'd say Jill or Edward depending on who's stronger or who you like more. Give your choice the Paragon scroll. 

Nolan is lvl14 unpromoted, he has some room. Edward is almost promoted. I'm just gonna keep going as is, I think I'll be alright. Jill is a fast flyer, so she's just good. Edward is actually doing pretty damn well for himself, which surprised me for some reason. He has the Brave Sword to secure some priority kills if he needs to. Should I give him Vantage? It seems like it'd be good to have in combination with Wrath. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

17 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

Should I give him Vantage? It seems like it'd be good to have in combination with Wrath. 

Vantage got seriously nerfed in this game, it isn't so useful anymore. Instead of having 100% activation, it's rate is now equal to the unit's Speed stat +/- Biorhythm (+/- 10 for Best/Worst, 5 for Good/Bad, Normal is 0), which makes it much less consistent. But go ahead and throw it on him if you want, you can always remove it later.

Edited June 2, 2018 by Interdimensional Observer

[Baldrick]

30 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

Nolan is lvl14 unpromoted, he has some room. Edward is almost promoted. I'm just gonna keep going as is, I think I'll be alright. Jill is a fast flyer, so she's just good. Edward is actually doing pretty damn well for himself, which surprised me for some reason. He has the Brave Sword to secure some priority kills if he needs to. Should I give him Vantage? It seems like it'd be good to have in combination with Wrath. 

If you've reached the point where Nailah is playable, Nolan is quite underlevelled. It's probably better to prioritise Edward, or Jill if you prefer flying utility.

Like Interdimensional Observer said, Vantage isn't very reliable in this game, but it does combo well with Wrath.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Your used team will be fine.
Everyone aside of Meg and Fiona is good enough for a first run in normal.

Quote

If I were you, I'd consider starting over. NOW. Because when you get the Daein army back in part 3, you're gonna be wishing you didn't have one reliable healer. And I would expect anyone you're using to be close to promoting, if not promoted by part 3. Though you seemed to do better in that regard. Anyway, for what it's worth, Ilyana is the only unit who can use Rexbolt, which is a massive help against one of the lategame bosses.

In normal mode you can get along with only one healer in part 3 since Micaiah will be able to use staves once she's promoted. 
Nolan, Aran, Jill and Volug will be tanky enough not to get 2RKO'ed.
And Building earth-earth supports will help. I highly recommend to support Zihark with either Nolan or Volug (Nolan preferred for being less tanky) to cover low defense with high evasion for longer enemy phases.

 

Quote

Vantage isn't very reliable in this game, but it does combo well with Wrath.

Since it's FE10's nerfed version of vantage, it's a suicide combination. It allows only more battles in enemy phase and raises the chance to die. '
If any, vantage + wrath + resolve with a support in earth could work.
Too bad Zihark for being an earth unit can't take this combination. 
That means only Edward can take this skill set, but will have a lower evasion than Zihark for having a worse affinity.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Hecatia Lapislazuli said:

In normal mode you can get along with only one healer in part 3 since Micaiah will be able to use staves once she's promoted. 
Nolan, Aran, Jill and Volug will be tanky enough not to get 2RKO'ed.
And Building earth-earth supports will help. I highly recommend to support Zihark with either Nolan or Volug (Nolan preferred for being less tanky) to cover low defense with high evasion for longer enemy phases.

Can Micaiah be in two places at once topping off injured units? Because that'd be a neat trick. Oh wait. I forgot. She isn't capable of using the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. As for the others... other than Aran, I'm not so sure - OP was too lazy to post stats, and if you think a level 14 Nolan isn't getting 2HKOed, you must have seriously failed a spot check. And Volug has to stand around being worthless for 5 turns before he can do anything (other than die a horrible death, that is).

Edited June 2, 2018 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Troykv]

On 1/6/2018 at 4:59 PM, Mandokarla said:

I've never actually played Radiant Dawn, so I've finally gotten my hands on it and have been playing. I've beaten Part 1 already, and I feel bad for Ms. Silver Hair because I like her and I know she's gonna get cucked out of her own game soon by Ike. 

So far my thoughts on units are as follows: Sothe is very useful and I like him a fair bit. I'm a big fan of Volug too, I have him with Paragon equipped right now to maybe offset his reduced exp gain a little bit -- probably not optimal, but hey I'm playing on Normal, not Hard -- and he's reliable. Ilyana just isn't great, she has some pretty noticeable hitrate problems. Jill is good, if a little strength screwed for me. Edward has been getting great levelups, his stats currently are almost equal to Zihark's before promoting. Leonardo and Nolan are on the bench right now -- one's an archer and the other is too slow. Meg is garbage, Fiona is bad (?), Tormod was excellent, and Muarim / Vika were nice and powerful. Nailah can step on me. 

Moving into the rest of the game, what units are good and what units are utter trash? I've been told that RD is one of the harder FE games in the mid-lategame, so I'd like to not cry inside. Is there any other thing, like a good item or something, that I should definitely be aware of?

Hello! Welcome to the Micaiah Club Mandokarla :3

Well, from Micaiah's Group the best characters to focus are Nolan/Jill (and in the point where you're currently, Nolan seems to be a bit underleveled) and Zihark/Blessed!Edward

Other good characters across the other groups are people like Haar, Titania, and Oscar; also some of the late game characters are very good, but I'll not spoil them.

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

Haar will carry your whole team if you put the levels in him. He is a major boss. I enjoy setting him in the middle of a bunch of enemies and watching them break on him like a wave on a rock. It's great xD

For the DB it's usually best to focus on two or three units to level. Jill is a good option, Edward certainly can be too so long as he continues to get good levels. Personally after them, I prefer focusing on Aran, just because I like that he's tanky and your Nolan is underleveled. I hope you continue to enjoy the game, it's my favorite in the FE franchise!