The Issue with Master Seals

[Superbus]

I'm doing OK in my current iteration of FE:DS; so far, I'm past chapter 14, and all those bloody pegasus knights, and looking good. I have acquired three master seals; one went to Rena, the other two are in storage.

Now, I'm still considering just what to do with them, because of a few things. For one, I don't know how many more I'm going to get, plain and simple. Just how many should I expect to get? Is there a way to buy them without going to that stupid online shop? What about my Pegasus Knights (I just got Est and Paola, but Sheeda's Lv. 14 and going strong).

I've got another unit closing in on Lv. 20, but that's Maria, and as a healer, she's not quite as good as Rena. I'd like to have a second promoted healer, but not at the sacrifice of promoting another good unit, especially considering the fact that I could promote two Social Knights (Abel and Freyr are looking awesome), as well as Sheeda, Doga, Maric, Linda when she gets to a good level, one of my archers (probably Kashim), Maji, and probably one of my sword users (either Navarre, Oguma, or even Caesar, if his stats hold up).

How should I approach this for the rest of the game? Should I burn a Master Seal on Rena, knowing that I'll make it up eventually? Or should I hoard them on my elite units, and go from there? And after all that, should I even waste one on a flyer, knowing I can get whips online, or should I even bother? If I see another chapter like 13 again, I'm going to cry.

[VincentASM is too important to have a messed up name]

Aside from going to the Online Shop, you'll only get a limited number of them.

There's:

1 in Chapter 10
2 in Chapter 12
1 in Chapter 16
1 in Chapter 17
1 in Chapter 18
2 in Chapter 19
1 in Chapter 21
5 in Chapter 23 (3 from the Secret Shop)

I'm not too good with choices, but I had a similar dilemma with my own Rena and I ended up promoting her later when Master Seals became more common.

I found she's only really good at healing, and since Magic only adds 1/2 HP for healing staves, keeping her unpromoted doesn't hurt her too much for healing purposes (getting her to Level 20 promoted only increases the healing rate by ~4 HP).

[Superbus]

I had no problem promoting Rena the moment she hit Lv. 19 (her 20 level-up was a dud); I figured hey, I could use another magic user in a time of need, she can at least defend herself, the extra defence and magic certainly don't hurt (her defence - at Lv. 19-3 - is still 5, but that's not TOO bad, and her magic is "up" to 8, which is much better than my Lv. 17 Maria, who has 3 magic, an almost useless 14 res (as there aren't enough magic users, it's only in chapter 15 that I'm finding a significant amount, go fucking figure), and 4 def (which should go up if she's promoted, at least)). My basic questions to myself are when I should promote some of the others; Linda started hot, but is tailing off, as I try to get Navarre more involved, I'm trying to get Caesar involved because his stats will out-do Oguma, two social knights (who are going to be worthless in stage 15, ahahaha), etc. And there's also Sheeda, Maric, etc.

I see there's going to be more Master Seals, but at this point, I'm just treading a fine line between "LV. 20 PROMOTIONS 4 LIFE" or "OK, enough of this shit, promote".

[FE3_Player]

Do not forget that Sages can use Staves.  If you already have a Mage, that is going to be your 2nd healer already.  No need to bring Maria along unless you aren't using Mages at all.

Go ahead and promote Rena.  Her durability sucks anyway with low defense and horrible HP (people tend to overlook HP).  Getting a head start will at least help her begin getting Tome levels.

Go ahead and promote your physical attack units at level 20, since most of them are still capable of holding their own before promotion.

[Superbus]

There's one thing that I forgot to mention:

I arena whore like a motherfucker.

So at the moment - stage 19 - I have Rena at 20/11, Maria (with me for this stage) at 20/10, and Maric at 20/5 and climbing. The only physical unit I've promoted so far is Maji, because I need a promoted axe user and Minerva doesn't cut mustard. Not when Katua is better than her - at Lv. 17 unpromoted - at EVERY SINGLE STAT. I don't remember Katua being that good in Monshou!

(Of course, I learned - thankfully without saving - that there's two ways to promote Pegs. That's bad; Katua can definitely take a promotion to Dragon Knight, but Sheeda NEEDS to promote to Falcon Knight. My Lv. 20 Sheeda, unless I want to take a hit in key stats, and put her into a position where she needs good growth in areas where she's weak, is now useless. Have I mentioned how much I hate having to schedule WiFi time for specific days to get specific items? That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen)

[FE3_Player]

Thinking about it more, the Master Seals you get throughout the game should be enough to fill an army that you plan on using.

Marth and Julian won't be promoting, so those are two solid units that won't have Master Seals wasted on.

Maji, if all else fails, make him a Hero.  Barts is the best Axe user, AFAIK, but Maji is still usable.  Caesar should also be able to use Axes, but don't forget that Swords get an attack bonus from weapon levels (causing Swords and Lances to dethrone Axes as the best weapon), and Heroes start out with a very low Axe weapon level, so Caesar may very well be using Swords anyway.

Katua was always amazing.  The fact that she gets better stat caps to fill in FEDS makes her even more amazing.  Paola is also still good, and is born to be a Dragon Knight.  If you do not wish to wait for Elysian Whips, simply promote like normal and just turn your Dragon KNights into Paladins.  You will lose the ability to fly, but Paladin stat caps are very similar to Falcon Knight's, but with better defense and Skill, and their growth rates are slightly higher in several areas except speed (which most Pegasus Knights have a very good base speed).  Paladin should be an excellent compromise if you don't want to wait for Elysian Whips.

[Superbus]

I'm using Maji because I lost my other axe users; Barts, Baji and Davos are all dead. I have bad luck with axes in this game, I guess. Maji's a good enough unit, though I'm balking at 8 defence at Lv. 20/1.

Paola's a decent little tank for a Peg, but in my game, won't cap speed before Lv. 20 (won't come close, actually), which is a virtual requirement for me to use them; Sheeda capped Speed and Luck, and came close on Skill, so her constant criticals (with a forged weapon) took care of her weak strength (8 @ LV. 20, with a +2 for an item), and Katua capped speed, too; Est will cap it easily, even if her skill is low.

As for Caesar, he's easily overtaken Oguma as my primary myrmidon, and with me having a less than impressive Navarre, and Raddy dead from arena, he'll be my primary sword user other than Marth. I can't afford to build up his axes.

[FE3_Player]

Paola's a decent little tank for a Peg, but in my game, won't cap speed before Lv. 20 (won't come close, actually), which is a virtual requirement for me to use them; Sheeda capped Speed and Luck, and came close on Skill, so her constant criticals (with a forged weapon) took care of her weak strength (8 @ LV. 20, with a +2 for an item), and Katua capped speed, too; Est will cap it easily, even if her skill is low.

Speed is an overrated stat for single player.  It's important for Link Arena for WiFi, but you honestly don't need Max speed to double everything in single player, and FEDS changes the dodge formula to make evasion less important.

Katua is still excellent since she gets other stats besides high speed, namely HP, Strength, and Defense.  I'm not too fond of Sheeda.  I honestly think Katua is better than Est as well.

Paola has enough speed to double things on Normal, and probably won't get doubled on Hard modes.

[Superbus]

The more I see of Sheeda, the less fond of her I am. When I promote her to Falcon Knight (two bloody days, or at least, tomorrow night), she'll still cap speed and luck, come close on skill... and still have the same pitiful defence and the same pitiful strength (which I've already increased once, from 6 to 8). Great, so I'll have a mage killer, which is nice in a game where only a few classes can have resistance, but still.

At this point, I'm concentrating on using my last few Master Seals on rounding out my promoted classes. Everyone that will get one is close to promotion, at this point. Caesar's going to hero. I have to pick a Paladin (Freyr has better rates, but Abel's stats at Lv. 20 are identical, save one more point in speed), Katua's promoted (and tore up the arena to get to 20/3), Maji's promoted, and just as tear-uppy (who cares about his defence? He's hitting for ridiculous damage), Linda's promoted, as is Maric, two healers (Maria's become the better healer! 15 magic), Sheeda needs promotion tomorrow night (STUPID, STUPID IDEA, IS), and Kashim's at Lv. 20, though his stats are not impressive.

[FE3_Player]

I stopped taking Sheeda seriously after she was the only character that couldn't get into the double digits in Str in FE3 at 20/1.  Her earlygame got buffed with the Wing Spear and the fact that she'll be one of the few that'll double on Hard 5, but I would recommend using her as some other class if you intend to level her up for the whole game (I prefer Mage, though Maric is much better).

and Kashim's at Lv. 20, though his stats are not impressive.

It's either Kashim, Gordon/Norn, or class swap.  Kashim is probably your best choice without class swapping some other character to become an Archer/Sniper.  I think Oguma makes a great hunter (as proven in a playthrough), and will have some sword levels off the bat upon promotion.

[Superbus]

Here's a question I've been wondering:

If I class swap someone, do growths change? In other words, let's say I make Maji a mage. Will he have magic growth, even if it's pitiful?

[VincentASM is too important to have a messed up name]

Yeah, growths rates do change, luckily. The growth changes are usually logical to guess as well.

[FE3_Player]

Every character has their on base growths, and every class has class growths.  Adding these two together nets the total growth of a character.

http://serenesforest.net/fe1ds/char_growth.html
http://serenesforest.net/fe1ds/class_growth.html

[Rakath]

Messing with the Growth rates is fun, if someone wanted to you could tweak class so that the growth rates would be minorly touch on weaknesses for the unit's personal growth... I might test with it after I finish my first playthrough.

I am liking having Wolf as a Berserker, taking his already obscene growths and making +2 HP a Mathmatical fact each level. The worst thing is there's no easy way to buff Atk growths on the Speed Class characters.

[Superbus]

Here's a decent little question for everyone:

I've got a Sheeda that's sitting around, useless. We've debated her usefulness in the past, but I'm wondering...

Would I be daft in promoting her (with a Master Seal, I don't have time to wait until Oct.

[Superbus]

Here's a decent little question for everyone:

I've got a Sheeda that's sitting around, useless. We've debated her usefulness in the past, but I'm wondering...

Would I be daft in promoting her (with a Master Seal, I don't have time to wait until Oct. 11, I'll be done with the damn game by then), and then doing a class change to swordmaster?

Even though she has a "C" in swords, I currently have a VERY nice (60K!) customized weapon that I gave to Julian. It's got a 30 crit rate, and as much might as you can give a class "D" sword. I wonder if I should give it to her and let her tear the enemy asunder... she'd be better than my Navarre, that's for sure.

[FE3_Player]

Go for it.  She'll need overpowered weapons to become useful late game, while Julian has other options to remain useful.

Sheeda's probably best treated as a sort of Jeigan (due to Wing Spear, utility value, and early game speed, or boss weakener as a Mage).

[Superbus]

Bringing this topic up again because I just have a slight question, I'm pretty sure I know the answer, I just want to confirm:

If I buy items for one game - such as Elysian Whips - I cannot transfer them to other games, correct?

It makes sense that I couldn't, but I'm pretty big on checking facts.

[FE3_Player]

The best you can do is buy for multiple save files on a single day, which I'm sure is possible.