FE9: finished my Fixed Growths replay of this last night. Only Ike and Mist hit 20/20 for the transfer bonuses. Well, and Sothe hit 20/0, of course. He got 18 str, 20 spd, 20 skl, and like 12 def? Something good like that. I had one of the bands on him whenever he leveled(Knight band, I think) to further increase his growth potential, and right before the final battle used all of my stat upping items he could use on him.
If you're wondering, Sothe's FE10 stats at level 1 are:
35 HP, 18 Str, 4 Mag, 20 Spd, 20 Skl, 15 Luck, 14 Def, 9 Res
Any stat that Sothe has higher than his FE10 base stats in will be raised to that; believe that those are the minimal for each stat.
FE10: started this up, with the transfer data of course. So far...well, they all feel kinda weak, even for beginning FE characters. Michaia is good enough, but the myrmidon kid won't dodge anything, and the archer guy kinda sucks on damage. Even the token overleveled but not promoted guy isn't really all that great. Sothe is god, of course, but don't want to overuse him. Then again, maybe my problem is going straight from Endgame tactics in one FE to trying to play the beginning of another.
The Dawn Brigade (and a few other Part 1 PCs) are very much project PCs. Micaiah and Sothe are worth raising due to how they're forced all the damn time alone, Nolan's actually pretty good, just give him a weapon that isn't heavy and inaccurate (Steel Axe was not the best of options for him that early <_<.) Edward ends up decent on paper, but the catch up work isn't worth it, combined with bad affinity of support, better off just using one of the other Swordmasters (well, no, his only real contention is Zihark for a while...and you probably should use both given how Dawn Brigade chapters let you use most of your PCs. Its mostly an end game thing when Edward vs. Someone else kicks in.) Leo is...worst Sniper in the game, though to his credit, he's your only Bow user for that group, so he's got some uses there. Also gets a nice unique weapon, but yeah; decent short term investment, but not someone I'd use in the long run (Long Run being Part 4.)
Naturally, using Sothe should be done with some reservations; don't abuse him and have him steal all kills. Best idea, I found, was to give Sothe Bronze Knives/Daggers, alongside a decent strong weapon like the Beast Killer just in case, and have him knock enemies down to single digit HP (Bronze Weapons are more extreme Iron Weapons, and they can't crit, so they're perfect for this kind of work.)
Laura's your typical healer; uses there are obvious, though you knew that.
In any event, another thing to keep in mind: FE10 is definitly much harder than FE9. This is partially cause "Normal" mode is actually Japanese Hard; mind, game isn't exceedingly difficult or anything, but definitly takes some getting use to.
*ANYWAY*, speaking of FE...
FE9: Completed!
Top PCs:
Jill > Ike > Marcia > Tormod > Rolf
Tormod got his S in Lightning! ...on the last enemy of the final map -_-;
Rolf never got that S in Bows though; this is my fault for using him with a Forged Iron Bow and the Rolf's Bow for so long (hey, they WERE killing things!), which killed his Weapon EXP.
Anyway, Jill was the only level 20/20 PC; Ike *ALMOST* made it, but shame he didn't; he had like 3 capped stats (Strength and Speed at least, anyway.) Jill managed to cap Strength, Speed and Skill, so yeah, that's going to be fun in FE10 once I transfer that. Sothe...better in every stat but HP than his FE10 form, where he lost by 1, THAT'S going to be fun, pity I know its not going to save him much end game (he rams his strength cap damn fast in FE10, IIRC, so I guess this means better BEXP abuse?)
I could have easily gotten Mist to level 20/20, but didn't bother; wasn't sure she was going to cap stats, though I probably could have made her with item abuse. Not sure I'm going to be using her in my FE10 replay final team anyway.
Chose Naesala as my Royal. Why? The free coin for FE10 of course!
Thoughts of characters used this time:
Ike's fairly solid. He was averagish before promotion, then went pretty awesome after. Naturally, the last 2 chapters where he has Ragnell, he's just an evil little freak.
Mist is great too. Really can't see why she gets antihype; oh noes, she has to use Sonic Sword and Rune Sword for good damage! ...or not. She can butcher mages with a Steel Sword if she wants, mocks their damage, and Axe users just can't hit her...at all. Combine that with mobility and healing, she's a solid PC no matter how you look at it.
Jill...is about what I remember. Solid first half, O_o second half. Amazing how Axes make her kill things dead. Full Guard Jill just kind of doesn't die. Randomly gave her Gamble and Counter, Counter helped give that little extra damage when she's attacked while equipped with a Hand Axe or something, Gamble...just sat there <_<
Nephenee was a fine tank...but her offense was :psyduck: She wasn't doubling everything the way Mia did, and her strength growth was worse. Now note, I'm aware this is entirely *MY* Nephenee, so I'm not saying she's bad, just saying in this file, she wasn't as good as I had hoped. Go figure, I finally get around to using FE9 Nephenee...and she gets Strength raped.
Mia was strength raped too, though gained a few on her last few levels, so she was only below average instead of fail. Didn't use Vantage/Wrath, tried Vantage/Resolve, ended up being useless since she never knocked to that point. Also never got a chance to make use of Vague Katti <_<;
Kieran was Oscar with Axes. Not much else to say. Great PC and all that.
Marcia was a typical Peg Knight with better strength (which means Better Speed in practice too), so she was hurting things a lot better. Used Tanith a bit too, mind, kind of wishing I used her instead of Marcia, mostly cause I sued Marcia last game, and Tanith's very similar, just with Reinforce, which is nice.
Ena is...definitly worse than Mist Dragon. No getting around that; she couldn't really hurt Ashnard (well, she did 1 DAMAGE!!! to him...yeah...) Mind, despite being doubled, she wasn't OHKOed either, which was funny, yay tank!
Soren...is a Mage. Adept is a nice extra chance to kill something, though late game, found him most useful as an added healer. Worked for what he was, though he fell behind some early game; healing made him catch up.
Tormod...he is really good, once he catches up. Catching him up can be a chore though, given his low level + joining late. Still, solid stats, Celerity, and Healing make him a competent PC. No doubt he's the best mage in the game if you can work around his underleveledness.
Boyd...is about what I expected. Warrior with actual speed and skill, in a game where Axes are practical and good weapons. Which is to say, he's a fine PC and all that.
Reyson is Reyson; I don't have to explain why he's good <.<
Rolf...surprised me. I mostly used him so I could get Shinon without him being a liability. Turned out being far more effective than I expected. His evasion was better than I figured it'd be, his damage was great, doubled most things, Long Bow was a nice snipe, the Crit Rate...well, that made it annoying when I wanted him to Chip, but was also good for a surprise kill...yeah. Pity he has absolutely no Melee, though; means he can only be used to attack, and doesn't do well on the defensive. Somehow, he still ended up #5 in Kills <_<
As a side note, his FE10 Form > his FE9 Form, no question's asked. FE10, Marskmen are actual interesting classes, Double Bow is WTFHAX, Crossbows are good melee before then should you need him to do something like that...yeah. So if my Rolf was actually a strong Rolf, it says something about how much improved he was between FE9 and FE10 (which is to say, Shinon probably got an even BIGGER improvement, going from crappy Prepromo to one of the better PCs in the game <_<)
Yeah, game still rocks and all that. No clue about Hard Mode. I will note that like I remember, game does kind of fall apart on difficulty after Chap 17, which is where most of your PCs start promoting and enemies stop keeping up, etc.
