Radiant Dawn woes.

[Saaji]

So I'm on my second playthrough and cruising through Part 3 Endgame. I was doing a number of things besides playing the game so I was a bit distracted. So my Nepheene has corriosion on her,and Edward boldly attacks her to be one rounded with ease. I didn't notice anything and was more interested in getting conversations with Zihark[who I recruited to the GMs in3-6] with the likes of Jill/Micciah and others. So my kill counter was high and i manage to see a few conversations appeasing my personal goal for the capture.

So Part 3 is done and I set up my parties for Part 4.  I go through my standard skill adjustments and what not and get to battle. I'm attacking the enemy force and destroying them with ease, and then i get to edward and check his inventory... Caladborg isnt there...
...
Instantly I start mentally screaming at myself... Nephenee destroyed his Caladborg... 

 and to add insult to injury i had saved over the previous chapter slot    now i didn't intend on using edward that much anyway but it his special sword made him usable in my last playthrough despite being underlevelled now he's just pure dead weight like his lv15 archer friend Leo.

[Harper_Meister]

Yeah, that kinda stings I suppose. I usually just sell Corrosion. That said, the Caladbolg is probably the worst of the unique weapons, since it only gives Luck (+7, was it?) rather than Speed and Defence like the others. Still, it does give Eddie the boost he needs for chapter 3. Since your on chapter 4 now, I wouldn't worry too much. If you have characters that are total dead weight, spread them among the 3 parties and simply de-select them during the battle setup. The stronger chars should be able to handle it.

In a similar woe, my Laura totally used up the sleep staff trying to make my arch-sage Illyana go to sleep and failing each time. What a waste! But not that crippling.

[Brave Axe]

Eddie has horrible luck. Each weapon gives what the character needs. Also, avoid the Dawn group. I've learned from beserk staves that character on character violence it a pain.

[hyde]

Eddie has horrible luck. Each weapon gives what the character needs. Also, avoid the Dawn group. I've learned from beserk staves that character on character violence it a pain.

Lolwut? Edward does not have horrible luck. His base is 5 and he has a 50% growth. That's good. If anything, he should be getting the boost to defence. Or better, resistance.

EDIT:

Oh, right, forgot they changed his and Leonardo's base level in the US version. But now he is level 4 with 8 luck, meaning that it's even better. His growth hasn't changed either.

[Neofox]

Also, avoid the Dawn group.

Why? The Dawn Brigade members generally average better than their competition. Only problem is that they have to work up from tier-1 while all the rest are at least at tier-2 when they arrive.

Also, the Caladbolg gives +8 luck, which means +8 dodge, +8 hit, and +8 avoid. Its a better boost than most give it credit for.

[camus the dark knight]

Yeah, luck is actually a good stat in this game, unlike say, Thracia 776 where all it does is increase evasion and and only half critical evasion, or Seisen where it's only evasion.

[theshim is the shimiest shim of all the shims that ever shim]

Whoa, whoa, luck boosts hit by an equal amount now?  How did I not notice that?  I bet it's the biorythym's fault.  Stupid biorythym. 

[LivingProse]

Am I the only one who levelled up all his dawn brigade members alot?

I am at Part 3 endgame and I had gotten Edward to Trueblade by making him a level 10 swordmaster and using the master crown on him. Combined with his tempest blade.... He still was NO match for my Mia.

A level 11 Trueblade leveled up the extra 10 levels. She can destroy entire armies.

Btw, just a silly question... When does Ike ever level up from Hero class?

[Lord Fuckboy]

Right when 3-F ends.

[Neofox]

Am I the only one who levelled up all his dawn brigade members alot?

You're pretty much required to in Part 1 since they'll all you have for a while, and in part 3 you need them to be at least decent enough to be able to survive the chapters you fight with them. The problem is that if you want them to reach the full 20/20/?? levels, you have to put a lot of effort into training them, and that usually means some part 4 favoring since they likely won't be as close to hitting the 3rd tier as the units on Ike's team.

Btw, just a silly question... When does Ike ever level up from Hero class?

At the start of Part 4.

[kryptonite]

Am I the only one who levelled up all his dawn brigade members alot?

I am at Part 3 endgame and I had gotten Edward to Trueblade by making him a level 10 swordmaster and using the master crown on him. Combined with his tempest blade.... He still was NO match for my Mia.

A level 11 Trueblade leveled up the extra 10 levels. She can destroy entire armies.

Well, he's outclassed... You also promoted him early... >_> But you should just stick to a few...

Maybe Micaiah, Eddie/Zihark, Nolan, and maybe Laura and Aran...

[Neofox]

Micaiah is manditory and an effective healer, not to mention easy to train in part 1. She should hit level 20 with ease. Edward is better statistically, but Zihark is easier to use, can be recruited to Ike's team, and has a superior affinity. Nolan is worth it, Laura takes a lot of babying, and Aran is probably only being used a lot in part 1. He makes an effective tank then due to his strength and defense growths, but unless you get lucky with his speed, those laguz will tear him apart when you hit part 3.

[Saaji]

Yes, the Dawn Brigade is quite hard to raise, from my experiences I seem only capable of raising one or two of them at all aside Sothe and Micciah... and hardly for Micciah either.

Especially with a badass like Zihark around the rest of the group doesnt have much hope of leveling decently.

Another note, on the Dawn Brigade in both playthroughs [with my second in process as we speak] the DB units suffer through horrible level ups hardly keeping par with their expected roles, however once they hit part 4 using em' like filler units they start getting 6+ level ups consistently. 

[LivingProse]

Yeah, I knew I should of just continued playing the chapter instead of asking when Ike leveled up..

But on the topic, are you kidding? My only character I accepted to lose and not restart for WAS aran. I let the stupid soldier die. Die indeed he did.

I had a good tank in Nolan, and leveled up Meg into a decent sword general. The only character I did rush, in the case of part 3 battles, was Edward. He needed to be a Trueblade.

By time I got him, Zihark was actually inferior to Edward. They were the same level when I started playing in part 3 battles.

My main concern now is the Hawk Tribe party I created. I stuck most of my useless Laguz on there.

[Dark Sonic]

Then simply de-select them in the battles. Elincia and Tibarn are perfectly capable of Soloing both of their maps, and leveling up anyone else just becomes that much easier thanks to your mercy skill (and leaving an untransformed Tibarn to deter the enemies from attacking your weaker units.) Heck, I was able to get every single Laguz (except for the one's I couldn't switch like Voulge) to at least level 30 in those two chapters alone.

In retrospect, I was also abusing Izuka's summoning ability to get a boat load of experience, and I had my Laguz start battling in human form as soon as they could survive the battle.

[LivingProse]

Uhm... Izuka...summons...?

Spoilers ~_~

[Neofox]

I'm pretty sure the spoiler rule was lifted whent he game was released.

That said, rest assured that knowing what he can do won't be helping you...

[Art]

Yeah. The Dawn Brigade units are hard as hell to level up. Hell, I let my Leo die WAY back in Part 1, Chapter 8, and I ditched Nolan after levelling him got him nowhere (Level 2 Warrior. Boyd was already better than him by a long shot. ). I also ditched Laura after Part 3, and Meg and Fiona had both been ditched back in Part 3, Chapter 6. Eddie (I refuse to call him Edward, damn it!) wound up being on my final team, but I had to BEXP him to 3rd tier in the prologue of Part 4. But it was worth it; he managed to cap strength, and then he dodged a lot of things while dealing a crapload of damage himself. (Astra FTW!)

But really, Eddie and Micaiah were the only units I found useful from the Dawn Brigade at the end of the game. (Sothe should count, but he was massively lacking in speed by the time the final chapter came around. And I know that Nolan rocks, but he was too underlevelled for me to use him.) So techincally, my final team consisted of Laguz Royals and Greil Mercenary members.

And Caladbolg? I can't make an honest opinion about it, since I never got Leo's weapon and Nolan remained too massively underlevelled for Tarvos to be of much use.

[kryptonite]

Maybe you used too many Dawn Brigade characters?

But Astra sucks massively... >_> I always hate it when Zihark/Lucia activated it in 4-5, because it shredded their precious weapons so much I had to make them new ones... They should have kept the ability to critical...

Zihark:
Gamble
Adept
Astra
Resolve
Resolve
Resolve
Resolve
Resolve
Astra
Resolve
*enemy dies, instead of dying from dual criticals as it could have >_>*

[Neofox]

You realize how overpowered Astra would be if it could critical, right? Besides, the Desciples of Order have high luck. Most of your units won't have the critical% it takes to have a decent crit chance on them unless you use a Killing Edge or something. Weapon usage shouldn't bother you too much since you'd have had to use up the same amount of uses on the weapon to kill the enemy if Astra didn't activate. Lastly, the Desciples of Order shouldn't be so durable that they can take that many hits unless they're an armor or something. I believe most of them will die to 3 or 4 hits at most.