Chase

** WE LIKE IKE Intensifies ** So basically. I now have a red spam team. > Ike. Ragnell gives Ike distant counter built in, and he's a solid defensive unit. He'll also counter other swords pretty well thanks to Sbreaker. The only lance he's worried about is Sapphire he's so bulky (with HP+3). He's also already at level 41 Attack. .... at level 21.....Don't mess with this man's friends. > Ryoma. Basically the Ike that's able to distant counter mages better, and physical units worse. He'll double more than Ike though and he boosts speed, which might help the mercenary out. Also. It's Ryoma. He'll be fine. > Tharja. Between Ryoma and the next unit, she's going to get the Attack boost from Raurblade. And she's going to hurt any Knight that's alive past Ike falling or that crosses her path. A lot. And Threaten their res. Where Ike pushes the envelope with Lances, Tharja plays with blue tomes who thought they were safe. Assuming the swordsman can't distance cheese them themselves. > Olivia. Hone Attack. Dance. Annihilate. Rinse. Repeat. Feroxi Diplomacy. Gods, this is my kind of squad.

WE LIKE IKE! WE LIKE IKE! WE LIKE IKE! + Attack, - HP. is he good?

Jakob gets you Renewal. Karel a Wo Dao. thats pretty good, Cotton.

Soren looks like he's somewhere in between Nino and Merric in terms of stats. Mine is essentially discount Nino. He has +Speed, which matches pace with neutral speed Nino, and -Defense, which neither character particularly cares about. Soren is better able to tank magic attacks than Nino, and has more HP to work with. This doesn't make him a comparable res tank to Julia, but if you are like me and looking to pull off some hyper offense, his Res is worth keeping in mind. He falls well short in terms of inheritance, as he gets nothing special while Nino gets Gronnblade and Hone Attack. Merric has an anti-flying tome. Options. A: Anti-Horse-Mage Soren. The unit Soren truly outclasses is Robinne (F Robin) due to her being even all across the board statwise. He would essentially, as a niche role, take her Wolf tome and oppose the likes of Olwen, Reinhardt, Ursula, and Cecilia - much better than she could. B: Discount Nino. If you are like me and you don't have a Nino worth training up, go ahead and pass over Gronnblade to Soren. With speed help, he will be somewhat comparable (and compatible with) Tharja in a blade team.

Hahahaha. I'm usually contrarian with most everyone on this board. And many elsewhere. Don't personalize that. If anyone's the oddballl, it's probably me. I wouldn't have made the thread if Le Pen was dead in the water - but the point is that BOTH candidates are political unknowns in France to an extent.

The Path of Radiance arc is an additional main story arc, and not a paralogue. That means more orbs. Also. The way the chapters play out is FUUUUUUUN.

Mael. Is that right??? Yours looks like +HP, +Def?,-Res. Mine only has one IV.

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO- six orbs. one summon Bang. Mr. Soren here looks like a +Speed,-Defense infantry mage. That's. THATS GOOD ISNT IT? I mean. Soren's base defense is horrible. And speed is a good stat to go positive in. He also seems more geared to resist magic anyway. Is it good. I have to know.

I dunno, I think it's kinda nice, actually. dissenting all the time makes me less mysterious....or at least that's what that teen magazine said. I dunno. --- Somewhat news: Macron is officially endorsed by Hollande, adding to his pile of politicians giving him the nod. Le Pen, on the other hand, has decided to step down as leader of the French National Front in an attempt to re-shape her image ahead of the run-off. This sets up the now-unaffiliated patriotic far-righty vs. the socially acceptable and establishment-backed centrist. Le Pen, like Trump and Farage, has the same openings the two men had when it comes to inspiring turnout, but she has to overcome her family name being the butt-end of a political joke in France and she'll need to really make former Fillon voters spurn his endorsement of her opponent. She's still got a mountain to climb. I get the feeling this one is going to get ugly.

Happy BD, Troy. Thanks for always being a generally upbeat personality here. I appreciated your level-headedness as much as anyone else who has been able to serve on the auth team. Dunno if you're still around or not, but I hope life is treating you well.

Priority of pulls from this banner. > Green: Soren, Titania > Red: Ike > Blue > Colorless: Mist You're going to want to pull Greens because there is a bottom-line 6% chance of pulling either Soren -or- Titania in this upcoming banner. That is of course, if your goal is to pick up something from the World of Radiance in general. Soren's pretty interesting because he provides another option for Gronnblade if you're still looking for a green mage, while Titania is an alternative to Frederick and Gunter as axe-cavs (and the prettiest of the three...). The sheer rarity of the type of green both units are in the current roster makes both of them more compelling unit-wise than Ike. If you just want Ike - and that's perfectly understandable - you'll obviously be pulling reds. Ike will come at a base 3% focus out of red stones and you will probably need to pull him at Focus level - meaning he will always be a 5 star unit, but you for sure only have a 3/100 percent chance of pulling him for each red you select. Even if you aren't pulling red for Ike, there's plenty of great red units. Lords in abundance, such as Chrom, Lucina, possibly Alm, Seliph, Marth, Lyn and Eirika, There's also units like Ryoma, mages such as Lillina, Tharja, and Leo, and SI units like Lon'qu and Hinata (although that's not really a sell) that make red a profitable mainstay pull. Blue doesn't have a focus unit in it, but it provides combat units much more reliably than colorless units do, and with units like Azura, Ninian, Cordelia, Effie, and possibly Clair hanging around if the World of Shadows (1) batch ends the absent color provides a lot of compelling options. Magic-wise you could pull Olwen, Linde, MRobin if you haven't already, and a few other good options. Mist isn't worth pulling in my opinion. Slow is a decent little cleric attack, but Mist would need to prove she's Azama-like enough to pull it off with some ability to mitigate danger. If you purchase orbs in Heroes, you are likely doing so to get good combat units or characters you really like, and of all the Path of Radiance options, Mist seems really forgettable and won't be doing a lot in Arena matches. There's always Jaffar, Takumi, and Kagero..but then you're pulling for specific units, and you don't really know what chance you'll actually have to pull them without doing some digging into the size of the roster and the size of real-estate each character owns.

It's about dang time, Ike. I'm not all that excited about Heavy Blade, but it's a skill that needed to be in his kit. Ike essentially is Ryoma. Raijinto is to Ragnell as Aether is to Astra. He also counters Ryoma pretty hard with Sbreaker and will proc Aether one action faster than Ryoma would Astra. All that in mind, I think he'll be significantly slower than Ryoma.

Alright, so, in lieu of the UK snap vote that was mentioned in a recent thread by another poster, I'll call attention to ANOTHER European election because HEY! OTHER PEOPLE BE TALKIN 'BOUT POLITICS WOOOOO- --- In a stunning Round 1 finish, France is going to go places it hasn't been - either in some time, or never before. In this particular election - Francois Holland (I believe) will be replaced by either the center-left populist Emmanuel Macron, or "far-right" Marine Le Pen - neither candidate of which coming from the traditional Republican or Socialist parties that have been the most instrumental in modern French politics. --- Macron is not a party elite, and that makes his platform an interesting one, particularly because he needs to build a majority of seats in the French Parliament of traditional Socialist and Republicain members in order to effectively overcome what appears to be a divided France - WHILE not being officially the winner of the election. The French polling currently has the centrist polling better than Le Pen, but only because the traditional right-leaning party representative (the Republicain) immediately called for members of his party to support Macron, despite his slight leaning the other direction, for fear of a regressive France under far-right influence. While it's true polling was not as ironclad in the United States, or with the Brexit vote, French polling is notoriously accurate. For now, Macron gets the edge. It's also worth knowing that because this election knocked both traditional parties away from power, that sour grapes could make the run-off with Le Pen interesting as traditional party leaders opt not to endorse and back Macron. --- Le Pen is the daughter of another influential French politician, and the younger is essentially a female, not orange, French version of "candidate" Donald Trump or UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) leader Nigel Farage. Her platform seems to be centered on stronger borders and nationalism. She has claimed that the run-off vote with Macron will be "for the soul of France." - and like Farage, has ventured into steering France away from the eurozone. --- I'd like to formally give my endorsement, as an American neither candidate nor most of you here at Reborn care about, to Macron. While I have my doubts that the best bet for the European Union is to hold significant control over the governments it associates with, I don't think the world needs to be repeatedly subjected to having their own personal Donald Trump win every election. As a conservative, I believe that the far-right influence some of these candidates across the world have is alarming and not one that is good for the common person.

If I were a Brit, I would vote for May over Corbyn.

I cheesed the "easy" one with Ryoma.

Yes. 2* FRobin get. Ty Intsys. I hate Robins map. So. Much.

Ooh. a vote in FAVOR of the Brave Axe (given the circumstances - but still, it counts.) I have been pleased with Hinoka+Brave Axe, personally. Of course, many of you are much more involved with Arena matches than I am, so when trying to do things like quests, you -DON'T- run into Reds and Takumis all the time. Under that parameter, Camilla doesn't have so much to worry about. If I run into a Red Mage, I have Tharja or Ryoma counter it from a distance with his Raijinto/her souped up blade tome. If I run into a Red physical unit, Hinoka (who I have nearby almost on principle) usually has it covered no problem. Bows? Ryoma. I had a feeling the comparison to Reinhardt was a stretch, but Commander, I like the thought. Death Blow gives Camilla the strength she needs to take on some of the enemies she has trouble with when using Darting Blow. The problem is, I like how reliably Camilla quads enemies as is - and to this point I've had other options when Camilla finds her brick walls. Death Blow Camilla sounds powerful. Is it powerful enough to sacrifice Effie or Klein? Not so sure. RENEWAL. HOLY GOD THAT SOUNDS AMAZING. - Even if it's not so amazing, I have a four star Jakob waiting in the wings. This is one of those things that wouldn't be too much of a hassle to do. Especially because Camilla doesn't have a B skill assigned to her that I have to think about giving up. I'll take it. Seal is also something I could do, as I have a great wall of Oboro to sacrifice if I want to, but Renewal just sounds way more fun. I might inherit both B skills, just for the variety. I also really like Fortify Fliers in particular for C, but I'm pretty fond of Savage Blow too - and I don't have someone to pass me it even if I wanted it. That's not a no though. Flier Emblem would be pretty cool having Goad/Hone/Fortify on the same team when I throw Palla in the mix. --- After getting Camilla to 5 today, I was able to pick up the enhanced Brave Axe. Maybe this will change my tune about the weapon on Camilla into a more positive one (and with Hinoka around, it just might.) I really am struggling to pick up orbs these days. It's changed my enjoyment to building up my own units, sure...but I am ready for the next paralogue dump.

Doesn't Reinhardt have a brave tome though - or did you swap it out? Death Blow certainly sounds worth picking up - but because I have Hinoka, I do have the support to make Camilla thrive with Darting Blow, while also getting +6 Attack to play with. I'm sure any B skill is better than nothing - so keep throwing suggestions! Desperation seems like a real gamble. I'm not overtly attached to the Brave Axe set, but I don't have anything close to another axe to inherit. I was thinking Killer Axe+ though - because Camilla would then proc DracoGaze on every other action. (yeah. Next ill start using Texan slang and it will get even worse. Sorry.)

So, I was finally able to promote someone to ️️️️️️. I was essentially racing to see if I would get Red or Green great badges to determine if I promoted Camilla or Tharja first. Green won, so Flier Emblem prevails. Camilla happens to be -HP, +Def, which is about what I expected having used her a whole bunch as a ️️️️. Her value has dramatically increased since Hinoka arrived. The two Fates princesses work extraordinarily well together despite being arch rivals. Hinoka pushes Camilla's Attack and Speed to greatly effective levels, while Camilla deals with enemy blues and greens with Savage Blow, giving Hinoka a shot at cleaning up units she may struggle with. That being said, Camilla almost needs a flier that spurs or goads the Air Force, because she is a Jack of all - but mistress of none when it comes to stat distribution. As an Enemy Phase unit, her defenses are even Steven, which is a positive over other wyverns, but she really wants Iote's Shield in order to really own the defensive role she often plays on my team. She gets knocked on EP because of being tied to the Brave Axe. The worst thing though, is that Red and Takumi Emblem dominates the meta right now. That's certainly not a spa day for Camilla at all. I find that she's exceptional in most player phases, and serviceable depending on the opposing army on enemy phase. Hinoka or an equivalent makes for a much better Camilla - and I'm covered there. What should she consider skill wise?

Thanks for the clarification, guys. --- I think Sheep is right in saying Merric is viable because the bladetome boosts stack when you have some boosts from other sources (Sieglinde, Goad/Ward/Hone,Cav/Flier/whatever) providing enough attack for him to do some work with the tome while keeping his better rounded out stats. I like overkill personally, because if a unit is a master at something you can build a team around that unit - but Merric statistically is able to take hits better than Nino and is still very much able to use the tome effectively. As to which unit is BETTER for using the tome....well, that depends on playstyle. For me, I would pick Nino over Merric because I don't particularly want my infantry mages getting hit at all in the first place, so it's only a matter of dealing as much damage as possible. --- List of Projects: Robin: the Takumi Counter: So, not much has to be done to make Robin able to eat tacos without indigestion here. He already comes stock with the magic Blue Jays, so Takumi isn't safe from because he's a grey unit out of the box. The only skill I think I want (out of awareness at the moment, not in general) on Robin is Bowbreaker just to drive the point across. I already have the Setsuna in progress for the ritual... Cecilia, the Bladerunner: This essentially makes Cecilia a little better than average against Blue units. She's the only magic cavalier I have at the moment, and she comes stock with Toucan Sam, giving me another option against Takumi right out of the box. I want to replace this with Gronnblade, because it allows Cecilia to start dishing out pain. Lukas: I haven't decided if I want Death Blow on him or not, but essentially he'll be replacing Effie as a defense oriented character because he has better move. And I'm hyped for Shadows of Valencia. Hinoka, the Knight's Mare. Gotta get that Heavy Lance.

So.... I've heard of a few things as rumors. Defense mode - Most route enemies in a set amount of turns potentially permadeath?? (Considering people spend money on their summons. This better be situational if it exists at all.)

I think Eirika pairs well with any blade tome user, Mael. Eirika+Tharja is pretty popular. Its hard to say. If you are not running a dancer you may want your blade tome to be an infantry unit so Sieglinde can catch up to your Mage. That makes Nino stand out, but she's pretty frail. SpringCammy or Cecilia are pretty okay, but tying your wings to Eirika is lame. Cecilia is good. If you run a dancer for Eirika to stay close.

Gronnblade is more fun, but Greenbirb lets you fight Takumi with a flying magic. Both have value.

Lobster Bro is best Bro. (Little Cheese is pretty cool too. I like this avatar.) So. My tune is changing on Palla. I originally said her Ruby Sword was disgusting. She can actually hit green armors HARD now that Hinoka has her flier-boost skill (which is insane!). And she's still hot.

On the death penalty: Strongly opposed. Not only does a Christian worldview discourage wasting life, but there were three things that you couldn't do under my father's, the Defense Attorney's roof open the door seven hundred times and go in and out of the house. talk back. support the death penalty. The issue however is that FairFamily is absolutely right, even when it comes to the death penalty. The sentencing needs to discourage criminal activity from others -and- send a message to the original offender so that corrective behavior occurs. With a death sentence, the sentencer feels it is absolutely necessary to make you an example and that the corrective behavior is irrelevant because you are far too gone to salvage. If there is any reason behind the death penalty, and I'm not arguing for it, it would be that there's only a one-fold decision to be made. Kill the offender, and the community is saved from someone that has absolutely no control over themselves. Judges actually have a tradition of breaking and disposing pens used to make such death sentences official, because the totality of it involves taking a life. You can't fault a judge for making such a sentence. There is genuine heartache, often, about having to levy one. So, in order to truly justify getting rid of it in the United States, you have to be able to find a better alternative to dealing with people that will pose danger to others regardless of how strenuous your reformative programs are -or-how much money and time you sentence them with. Thankfully, the death penalty is an extreme, and can easily be worked on by pressure from opponents. --- On education. Obviously, if you give a man a fish, he'll eat dinner tonight. if you teach him to fish, he'll eat dinner for the rest of his life. Or something. Unfortunately, there is a total reform that needs to happen not only with schools and prisons, but with communities and pop culture itself. Music and visual media are some of the most interpretive ways to demonstrate false "social norms". For example, rap, hip hop, or metal music that espouses messages that indicate sexually abusing women is okay or that doing extremely dangerous drugs and upwards to things like murder is something to be proud of. Some of my favorite movies are movies like Scarface, where being a mafia member seems pretty cool. At the political level, communities need to be willing to fund education and provide kids opportunities to learn, and communities need to push for criminal reform programs over building new jailhouses. That's all fine and dandy - but if the kids are learning from the world around them what is encouraged - then a nice public school and a cooking class in jail isn't going to make a new person. On top of all this, you have to make crime -not- the means someone has to get by. That involves job training, but also buy in from the criminal in question. In other words, this is a very complex issue that isn't going to be solved by throwing money at it. --- on the misadventures of law enforcement and the justice system... GOD this is such a tired topic. If it's taking us centuries to overcome racism, is it really a fair expectation to say "we're going to be the generation"? In America, which I would say is actually a fantastic place to live in general, we still have organized Klans, and we still have people looking to fly the Stars and Bars in the Deep South. Of COURSE we're going to be dealing with judicial prejudice that is far from even. What's needed here? A TON of patience, a good chunk of hope, and continuing to reform. There's not really an end in sight for this one.