So, uh... here we are. Doing a backup run after all. Normal Mode Ashera kinda deserves it. So then, let's take a look at what badasses I brought with me from both genders.
This is what an Ike who's been raised with more than just BEXP looks like. He kicked the Black Knight's ass in two rounds with Urvan (if the Black Knight takes the first round, Imbue doesn't matter at all) and 37 Speed is surprisingly high compared to the competition. His weakness is that Ragnell is randomly one of the most inaccurate ultimate weapons.
Micaiah doing just fine. This Micaiah was honestly better at 1-9 than the awesome one we got in the main run, and this is Normal Mode! Micaiah will not really be contributing this time, though.
Strength aside, omnicapped Sanaki. Favouritism, thy name is "mandatory for Endgame"!
Parablossom. No further comment. I think I just had better units this run.
Had a lot of spare BEXP and fed Ena a few kills, so she got some caps. I just need her to be survivable. Her mixed Defences and high HP should make her good at that.
Brought two pegasus knights for some Triangle Attacks with Elincia. It always makes my Blessing situation weird, but that's why Forges exist. Consider Sariel the replacement for Judgment in the canon run- it's even got +2 Might from a Coin to make it one kickass weapon! Well, it's still somehow weaker than the Wishblade.
Tormod is my boy, and I will not hear a word against him. Since he's doubling up on Fire tomes, I had him Bless the Bolting tome- you can only get this by stealing, but Normal mode gives you a Bolting sage in 3-E with an Elthunder backup. If you put a Provoke unit in 1-2 range, he likes to use Elthunder on them and you can snag Bolting if Heather happens to have 20 Strength. Blessed Bolting means you can just delete Red Dragons in Endgame 3, but it does kinda put an upper bound on Tormod's usefulness outside that part.
Soren came along to qualify for the Soren S Rank. He was kinda redundant, honestly, but I don't really regret bringing him. Just kinda find it weird now that I have to justify him here.
I brought Tibarn mostly for the Black Knight extra lines and skipped both cutscenes on instinct. At least I got his Deghinsea extra lines. Gave him Blossom in his first two chapters and had him punch things to get his caps, but honestly, you could do worse than still have Tibarn at base level here. I think he starts with the 20 Speed he needs to double an Aura.
Elincia is as usual. I blessed her Amiti because I didn't really have anything better to Bless in Swords, but it's not as powerful as it is in Easy Mode. That doesn't mean I won't be using it, but I swear not blessing Amiti is a valid and usual tactic. I think you're supposed to use her Sword to Bless the Wyrmslayer, but I usually have more sword users than Swords to Bless.
I know someone who'll be happy to find out I got Lucia to work. I have no idea why I tried, but without people competing with her to get the EXP from the Feral Ones, she actually wound up not just doing well, but omnicapping. Early. Well, she got everything but Luck around ~15, she just needed to hit 19 to get to 35 Luck.
Nolan, of course, nearly omnicapped around level 10. Nolan is a really good unit and the top candidate for your Dawn Brigade EXP that isn't Jill. And even then, competition is tight.
And yes, Rolf is the archer. I figured I ought to be showing off a Marksman at work. Although saying that, using his Marksman powers wasn't exactly the right call.
Here's Reyson. I had enough BEXP to feed him up to 30, but I don't plan on using Valor this time, I just wanted the bulk. Reyson even took a Dracoshield to make sure he has some Def to lean on.
Gareth got some BEXP, for all the good it did him (that Res is a Talisman), Nasir just got a Speedwing. They don't turn out to get much chance to level up in Endgame. You want these two survivable, and you especially want Gareth to be able to handle some big magic hits.
You have to bench two people to fit Nasir and Gareth onto your Ashera team, and man... Sothe really has to be one of them. Even raised, he's not worth it. 28 Strength cap, Yune.
And for my second bench... Stefan? Why I benched him ought to be obvious (...although admittedly he is stronger than Lucia and Lucia's advantages don't mean much in this setting), but my main reason for bringing him is, well...
This was non-negotiable for me.
The Nihil and Parity users. Without the +5 Speed from the Blessing, the only units that can double an Aura are Swordmasters and powerful laguz like Tibarn, so strong, single hits are good enough for a Nihil slot here- that's what Rolf and Nolan are for. Since Tibarn has a Support (that gives +2 Atk, too!), I wanted him to be a Nihil user, but he's just so much more powerful that he had to take the Parity.
Ike should get a Parity, for reasons that'll be more obvious later. He's a good enough unit that he deserves to be on the Nihil/Parity squad on his own merits anyway.
This run got Lehran, too. Reminder that he still has Mantle and that's good for Nihil. He just doesn't have a weapon.
Anyway, onto Ashera's attack pattern. Ashera has five major Judge attacks on Normal Mode, and she will perform them in the following order:
- Turn 1: AoE Physical Attack
- Turn 2: Single Target Magical Attack
- Turn 3: AoE Magical Attack
- Turn 4: Single Target Physical Attack
- Turn 5: AoE Silence
- Turns 6-9: Repeat 1-4 pattern
- Turn 10: AoE Stun
If you know the pattern, you can position your vulnerable units on Cover and Wardwood where appropriate. If you don't know the pattern, well... just keep your vulnerable units on the terrain that benefits them most.
Gareth starts by moving here. Placing the dragons is crucial to your strategy, and it can be hard to find the perfect position when you have to not only account for Ashera's attacks, but also making sure you don't trip over yourself.
Lucia used Nihil instead of her own innate Parity to benefit from Blood Tide and punch down an Aura heavily.
Nasir moves here, and I think you know where this is going.
Not only does White Pool boost Sanaki's magic power, but it also boosts her Speed enough that she can double. Tormod and Calill can pull this trick too, but Sanaki has a higher Magic cap and Tormod has the Strength to hold Bolting. Besides, it's Sanaki.
Ena stands over here. I'm a little scared for Ena and the physical attack, and this is some Cover.
Marksmen can shoot at 3 range, although despite the Skill bonus for standing next to Ena, the hit penalty for aiming at 3 range is hurting Rolf.
Reyson stands on this Healcover and uses his Laguz Stone.
Rolf and Reyson have a Support, so this helps Rolf's accuracy.
You've gotta be kidding me.
Well, I don't really have a cunning plan here, so Kurth can take a hit.
Micaiah finishes the Aura.
Marcia takes both the SS tomes she's holding. Micaiah is now kinda useless offensively, but she is still an SS Staffbot.
It'd be nice if this was finishing an Aura, but what are you gonna do?
Lehran managed to finagle his way over to Marcia and steal the tomes.
Rexaura is Blessed, and Rexaura is what Lehran shall use. I think Lehran isn't supposed to be able to double with Balberith, but regardless, I didn't bring Pelleas, so Balberith isn't an option.
It would also have been nice if this wasn't a Wardwood Aura, but at least I'm bringing Nihil.
So guess who forgot to turn on Parity before attacking with Tibarn? Honestly, he doesn't really mind, this was just sloppy.
Tormod stands in range of Tibarn and drops a Bolting. Unfortunately, these Spirits really like spawning on Wardwood...
Ike finishes off this barrier. Parity gives him +10 Accuracy, for some reason- I think this might be the Authority Star bonus he's nulling. That feels wrong, maybe these tiles just give avoid buffs.
Elincia and Tanith take out the Spirits, since someone's gotta do it.
And Soren fixes one of my mistakes. Marcia seemed most vulnerable.
This won't do anything, but it'll make me feel better.
Case in point.
Nolan took the third Spirit's attack, for some reason.
I love Ashera's boss quote. It feels so... matter-of-fact.
Judgement is at hand!
The big numbers. Nearly everyone took some damage, especially since we're all packed in pretty close to Ashera here.
Two new Spirits appear on Wardwood to either side.
And after all the regen has happened, this is what our HP is looking like.
Ena attacks this Spirit. I think she misses, I just want her standing here.
Nasir also moves and attacks for the sake of doing so. Unlike Ena, he connects.
Sanaki doesn't mind the chance to finish the Aura off.
Yes, Tibarn Parities this one this time. This one's also on Cover- a good excuse to have a strong Parity user like Tibarn flying around.
Rolf missed this one, too.
Nolan can hit just fine. Not entirely sure what's Rolf's problem.
I had hopes.
This is what Balberith is for- Rexaura can't score this kill.
But Nihil is more important. Even if he's going for Wardwood again.
Tanith finishes the Aura...
As does Kurth-
Is everyone in this party in need of glasses?
Ike gets some damage in.
Rolf and Reyson share a Converse before Reyson vigours Rolf, Ike and Tibarn.
Hitting at 2 range is much easier.
Lucia gets the chance to attack in. No Blood TIde this time, though.
Ike finishes an Aura mostly because he's a good choice for the job.
Soren finishes this Aura up here...
...Marcia came over here to inspect numbers, but she has a Converse with Kurthnaga available and I stupidly selected it, which means Marcia is forced to act. Again.
At least this means I finish this Aura.
Tibarn moves way over here for some reason.
Turn 2 and the Aura is gone. I might just be better than I give myself credit for.
Micaiah steals the Fortify Staff from Elincia and heals everyone.
King Tibarn, we're friends, wouldn't you say? And we're going to keep being friends, forever, right? ...
Tormod and Tibarn feel like they'd be good buddies if they got the chance, and I'm not just saying that because both try to negotiate with Reyson on the same subject matter.
Fortify doesn't heal the caster, so Tormod fixes that up.
Elincia takes on a Spirit. She's just fine.
Lucia attracted Spirit attention this time.
Gareth is the unlucky sap who has to deal with the single target magical attack. This attack can double, and the non-Kurth dragons are too slow to avoid a double even when capped. Their high HP means they can usually soak up both hits, but keep them on the correct terrain when it's a single target spell's turn.
Gareth has Renewal. Yay?
Tanith takes on a Spirit and moves into position. And shows off about it.
Tormod... casts Ward on Sanaki? The only place to get a Ward staff in the game is the Endgame shop, and it's... well, there's a lot of magic flying around in Endgame, but it's not really worth a staffbot's turn to apply this. I'm just doing this because I have one idea.
First, I need Lucia to move off her square so I can put Nasir on it.
You might have spotted the A Rank Support Sanaki has with Tanith. Apart from giving her a friend, this gives her +2 Def, which is crucial to do...
This.
40 Resistance capped + 10 Res for standing on Wardwood + 5 Res from Night Tide + 7 Res from Ward + 2 Res from a Support + 1 Res for having WTA on Judge means Sanaki can negate Ashera's Judgement. Sanaki is the only character who can do this on Normal (although I think you might be able to make an argument for Nasir himself if he can scrape up the extra Res), although the +5 Res from Yune's Blessing helps a lot more characters make up that last point of Res they're missing.
Even if Ashera attacked Lehran or Micaiah, they can't get WTA on Judge, which screws them out of pulling this. Although there is an unused Dark-based Judge that could've helped.
...Well, that's disappointing.
I savescummed a hit on Sanaki just to have the screenshot. It felt appropriate.
This screenshot was about me putting Gareth and Ena in position, but now it's about how massive that command list is. Well, diversion over, time for fun.
Marcia moves here and doesn't attack. It's not in my interest.
Elincia gets Double Blood Tide and pulls off a Triangle Attack.
I knew there was a reason I Blessed Amiti.
Tibarn and Kurth notice the fight's almost over and secure one more kill each for the scoreboard.
And with Parity to overcome the ludicrous Avoid Ashera has from her terrain tile, Ike can finish off Ashera from here with ease.
A 3 turn clear of Normal Mode Ashera. And I thought the point of this update was to show off how scary Ashera is supposed to be. Well, don't I feel a little sheepish. I've never felt weirder about winning so handily at anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment