One thing that sort of sucks about Halberdier is that there isn't a single unit in the game that is one or naturally sort of promotes into one, so you never get any kind of idea what the unit would perform like without spending some resources to change someone into it. I think instead of having both Lapis and Kagetsu as sword units, they should have made one of them spear based. Either make Kagetsu a Halberdier, or Lapis a Spear Fighter early on. Push first-time players to at least deploy a foot-based lance unit who isn't Timerra for at least a couple of chapters.
IMO Lapis should’ve had a Lance proficiency so she could promote to Hero with B lances. Kagetsu would be the Swordmaster, and Diamant sets himself apart from Lapis by using Axes in Successeur Then GOLDMARY should’ve been the Halberdier! That would’ve rounded things out… I love that she’s only 2 levels away from getting Brave Assist, but this way she’d be 2 levels away from getting Pincer Attack, and right before you get Sigurd back if you wanna give her extra movement for better Pincer Attack access
Lapis as Halberdier would basically make her a modern Nephenee, complete with the country girl knight who's embarrassed about her upbringing. Also, I think Timerra was meant to be the "natural" Halberdier character, but she's also a royal, so she gets her own unique class, which is arguably better if you invest in it properly. But soldiers/halberdiers definitely don't get enough love in the FE series as player units. Their class is so inconsistently available, despite enemy and green unit Soldiers being all over the place. Why can't players have Soldier units of their own? They were in Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn, not in Awakening, then back in Fates (though exclusive to Hoshido as Spear Fighters/Halberdiers, despite Nohr having Soldier units) and then absent again in 3Houses/Hopes (Soldier being a Novice class before every lance-based promotion was mounted) and finally brought back, only to have the single foot-locked Spear user also be a royal.
@@LAZERAK47V2 honestly maybe Louis or Jade should’ve been a Lance Fighter, I don’t think we needed 2 armors Bunet already covers Great Knight so… this way Louis could’ve been a bulky early game Lance Fighter, and a good pick for Halberdier since he’s slow but strong. Then Jade could keep her Axe Armor class I’d rather that than also give Jade lances, there’s already Alfred, Louis, and Chloe for early Lance wielders
@@LAZERAK47V2 It's why I like Lapis (Nephenee has ALWAYS been my Waifu since I first played POR! Helps the Soldier class was the first time I got to use it and not just the enemy and she helped me love it) Honestly I feel Amber should have joined as a Lance Fighter (since there is no playable Lance Fighter in the game, despite the class being their!) instead of a Cavalier (We already have Vander and Alfred! Hell Alfred should have been less "Defense Phased" focus since the game seems to be encouraging you to use VANDER in that capacity! Someone who SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN LANCE GREAT KNIGHT!) or at least Jade (either way both should have been something else! It was like the developers were trying to "encourage you to change them out of those classes! Should have instead had them FIT BETTER to their starting class with ways to TEMPT you to take them out of it! I mean Jade now has competition as a Axe Armor in the form of Madeline and Clanne's got Gregory! I don't think they were thinking things through!)
It's lackluster for you because you're playing it the wrong way. Halberdiers are supposed to be used by characters with high strength growths. Halberdiers don't want speed. They want raw strength. Chloé is going to be a very bad halberdier because of her low strength grow. She is great with a lot of different classes but halberdier is not one of them. Try somebody like Panette or Amber with ridiculous strength growth, they dont care if they have 0 speed growth, they can double/quad regardless of their speed. I know you don't play DLC much, but if ever you do play it, try it with Madeline. She's a beast as halberdier. I made Madeline a halberdier on my current playthrough right now, and she's one heck of a boss killer. I gave her Divine Pulse+ and Luck+12 and gave her also a couple of Goddess Icons (since my Anna already has max luck). And hit rate was never an issue for her even if she has 15% dex growth. I'm currently Chapter 24 and so far she mostly don't do major killing until it's time to kill the boss. She one rounds bosses easily with a +2 Brave lance with Leif engrave. My halberdier Amber on my last run had given me similar results too. She can usually pick off 3 bars of a boss HP bar in one turn with the help of Byleth and Seadall. You can also add one more move with Veronica. Trust me, Picket is also one of my favorite classes in the whole game and it has a very different playstyle with halberdier. Picket dives, kills, and retreats. Halberdiers play a support role by pulling/tanking enemies and damaging common enemies for other units to kill, and becomes a beast when it's boss killing time. You don't need to proc Pincer Attack all the time on common enemies to make your halberdier effective, the only time I ever make use of it is when it's boss battle where it's very easy to setup.
I find that if you are using a Halberdier you need to also use a Swordmaster. Run Through let’s you set up Pincer Attack easily while also letting you break axe units before you attack with Halberdier.
One thing i hate about pincer attack, if you bait an enemy to set up a pincer attack by putting them in range, you have to enemy phase. if you enemy phase you either get an enemy unit's health low or kill them if you enemy phase properly. at that point its pointless to quad them because they are dead or near dead.
Halberdier is still valuable as a reclass for when your great knights are no longer target because of their defense :) The other thing about Halberdier almost no unit can take advantage of is high magic cap at 29, but it's base and growth is so low the mixed attackers can't really take advantage, and the magic users will lack in strength, which is where most of its weapons reside. Mauvier is a perfect Halberdier, because he has defense, resistance, strength and magic, and pincers attack can address speed. Micaiah or Leif as Nos tank builds can be really durable.
The only time I ran halberdier, I mostly forgot about pincer attack lol. It's only useful if you have your units and enemies close to each other, like already meeting up for battle. If it's too far away, you basically demonstrate why it's difficult to set it up. One thing I remember, there's a clutch time where I can double a swordmaster and kill it (even most faster unit cannot double it), but then again if you remember to utilize it (most time I just forgot).
My biggest issue with Halberdier is that there is very little incentive to make one. No unit naturally promotes to one so it always needs a Second Seal and there are usually better options to reclass into like Hero or a Flier. Brave Assist from Hero is just a more universally useful class skill to have than Pincer Attack. I don't think the class is horrible or anything, it is just that there are too many less situational alternatives to the class. I also agree that it hurts that one of the Lord units basically gets a better version of Halberdier as her basic promotion.
Frankly if I'm using Kagetsu! Lapis who I ALWAYS use will be my "Halberdier" (because I love Nephenee and well, Lapis is a red haired Nephenee so why not LOL) of course I know with her SPD growths, she makes the class skill pointless (Engage has "issues" with how it utilized Class Skills (WHY THE HELL DID SWORDMASTERS LOSE ASTRA!) unless she doesn't get SPD Blessed enough to mitigate her low BLD (and then I gave her Hector to make up for that in the Enemy Phase and "low BLD" problem LOL). Frankly the only silver lining is I had to separate class overview by "Stats vs Class Skill" ESPECIALLY in the case of Swordmaster and Berserker (Fuck the developers for GIMPING those classes for no reason Class Skill wise!) And yeah, the only advantage "Non-Personal" classes get is some of them can't use S rank weapons! But the fact many of them are "locked behind LEVEL 5 DONATIONS" (fuck that) and the ones you CAN get are like "One" of each weapon type naturally with a few (And the S Rank Dagger is a FUCKING SMASH WEAPON WTF?!) it makes the Personals that usually reach at least A-B ranks weapons if they use more then one! Diamant is the best "Hero" Class with his Successor that lets him still use an S rank (his only counter being Goldmary, but I say her ONLY because I CANNOT forgive that atrocious outfit Heroes NOT Goldmary have to wear! WTF IS WITH HOW THE CAP IS POSITIONED?!) Frankly it's hard NOT to feel tempted to just use the Royals and their Personals (I admit, the only "Royal" I ALWAYS use no matter what is Hortensia and never outside her Personal as she's the BEST FUCKING STAFF WIELDER IN THE GAME! All my rarer staves go to her) Hopefully those who worked on the Fire Emblem's that had GREAT Growths and Caps will have a "word" with the developers and programmers for Engage who thought it was smart to "lower them the way they did!" (I would have said have the rings/Bracelets work similar to the Scrolls from Thracia 776 where they ALSO effect Growths if their equipped when a level up happens! Wasted Opportunity I say!)
Auto-double is a strong ability in FE. I think it's better to think about it as a boon for particularly hard situations, like boss fights, than as a requisite to be met every turn. A lot of units like to run Speed+ or Speedtaker to work properly, but with Pincer providing double on player phase, one can use the slot for either more damage, tanking or utility
I felt a punch to the gut when I saw this title. Just swapped my project Amber from Warrior to Halberdier since I wanted Merrin to use the Radiant Bow. Realized if I was going to make the shift, I should do it sooner than later since I need five levels to unlock Pincer Attack. So far Amber did extremely well on the map I played him on so far. But he is at the end of the days of his ability to double since I am around Chapter 19 and enemies are getting much stronger. I will say that this should give me a tool to nuke bosses down in a way that doesn't use up engages attacks. I don't really have that right now outside of Kagetsu's 80% crit chance.
In my last run i had changed a low investment amber into a halberdier and he was pretty effective there. One thing I did was that i eventually ran speedtaker on him to help him naturally double enemies after a few kills, but the pincer attacks helped with the feeding kills part since he was underleveled. Also due to the shape of the pincer attack, it was fairly easy to then come into the middle with a bonded shield or a byleth dance. I also found it effective as a tool to one round kill fast enemies with moderate res/def like wolf knight/swordsmasters. overall, its not a terrible option for high str/ mid speed chars and it was also very easy to get him levels due to pincer. I wouldn't recommend it for a hard carry, but it has a place on a backline/cleanup.
For me, I always thought setting up pincer attack was a fun little mini game in itself. Swordmaster has run through, you can use canto or override, or even set up a kill with warp Ragnarok. These situations are all kinda high investment (using multiple units and even engage skills) but if you're fighting a boss or a really strong unit you were probably gonna spend some resources anyways. Especially on my first run when I was way less experienced, pincer attack is a fantastic crutch.
I used halberdier Louis on my for-fun hard mode run, simply because I like him and wanted to use him beyond early game and get his Mov a little better.
Imo the right combo for halberdier is Sigurd on a crit build. Sigurd will give you the move you need to set up the pincer if it is required (especially once engaged), lance power will combo with overdrive. Crit build gives you the damage to kill stuff and you use the pincer if needed to kill tough enemies.
I do feel you on this class! Even if I like the Class. I practically aim at Lapis or Goldmary for this Class! Goldmary has the DEF to make it work and Lapis SPD and early access to Leif before Chapter 10 in case you want to get BLD+ skills along with her HIGH SPD stat also works in her favor! Hell any class with HIGH STR but low SPD are classes she EXCELLS in because her natural High SPD growth means she's barely effected by the low SPD modifiers of those classes....well unless you go General or something like that! Made her a Sword General once for the LOLS because I was reminded of the ONLY Sword Knight you got in Radiant Dawn Meg.....and then remembered the only RELEVENT Sword General in the series, BK/Zelgius! My MAIN MAN! Meg was Terrible, but I was amused on how fast she was compared to her father. Since Swordmaster/Berserker/Halberdier are pretty much just upgraded "Sword/Axe/Lance Fighters! They inherit the same strengths and Weakness! And Halberdier like the Lance Fighter seems aimed at being the BALANCED one of the Sword (Speed over Strength) and Axe (Strength over Speed) Fighter with Mag for the Flame Lance (which for the future, I'd say REALLY lower the weight of that weapon, I thought AXES were suppose to be the Heavy weapons in the series, but it's unreal how heavy that Lance is (Most wielders I give it too, like Halberdier Lapis or Griffon Knight Chloe tend to use it well if only because their SPD becomes so high that the High WT does nothing to gimp their SPD, and Goldmary DEF makes her LAUGH off the decrease in SPD since she can tank the hits that do damage her but again only used if a Knight/General/Great Knight DARES to look in their direction with a Spear weapon....hell even if they have an Hand Axe/Tomahawk they usually dodge and melt their asses) This means "No weakness, but no Strength either" it's why I'm willing to set aside my rule of NOT giving Lapis "Weapon Power" skills like Lance Power and Goldmary joins RIGHT before you get Sigurd back so she can get it. But this is a class you NEED to adjust to make useful, Pincer Attack is too fucking Situational. I'd like if it GAVE you another attack REGADLESS of if you can strike twice (attack THREE times) but I'm sure they thought of that and realized what's stopping us using a Brave Spear (and forgot that weapon is heavy so really a HIGH SPD character who can suppress the WT and attack FOUR TIMES can! Seriously still should have been another strike even if you strike twice!). But as I say, is it not great, Yes. Will I still use it "HELL YES I WILL"
I think the ideal scenario IS thought is having a unit that is fast enough to double on their own, but use heavier stronger weapons they can double with Pincer Attack to reach certain kill thresholds.
tbh the best units who are capable of being halberdiers are the ones who can manage to ohko weaker enemies with lance power + brave lance+3 and ike engraving without pincer attack. panette in particular makes a very good halberdier because you don't need to stress about her HP being full and bank on relying on crits to be able to one shot stuff where it can be very difficult to navigate around keeping her HP at a certain area for her crit builds. pincer attack should help you close the gap for killing off boss enemies and bulkier enemies rather than something you should be actively relying on
Where would be a good place to look up character build examples? Im slowing trying to see which characters i want to use for my maddening run. But so far i only have alear as a damage dealer, Chloe as a wyvern knight, and framme as a healer/ bond shield when i get lucina. I just got anna but i don't know what i should do with her. I've heard she can be a mage knight or warrior with a radiant bow. But i don't know which class would be better for her.🤔
You should just experiment my dude. I know Maddening is kinda intimidating by nature but by my experience it still leaves plenty of room for experimentation even if some become mid builds. If you want some ideas tho, I'm currently running a bow knight Panette with Lyn ring. I'm going to make her a Griffen soon tho just to see how well she'll do with only lances and staff utility will be nice. For a tried and true build I have a Griffen Pandreo with Sigurd. He's a huge damage dealer and pretty good dodge tank
@@vicentesanchezjr.3877 Yeah I'm pretty new/dumb when it comes to this kind of stuff. I already had to start over a few times because i used materials and money on weapons that turned out to be a waste. And i leveled up character's that i wanted to use but they weren't any good by chapter 10. (Alfred, etie, etc.) And i noticed on maddening mode if you wasted to much money early on, then your kinda screwed.
@@hitsumaru100 I'm glad you haven't given up! That's pretty cool. I think it's okay to restart a fresh file if you think you can do things better. In my experience and I believe many others you realistically can reach the end of the game even if you squander some resources. As for your initial question, this guy's channel is pretty good for learning about good builds and Titanium Legman has some interesting build concepts
@@IcedCoffeeGaming thanks! I'm just now starting to go through your engage playlist. I wasn't expecting that many videos though, Not that I'm complaining.😅
I had hear Louis would make an amazing Halberdier and maybe I was just unlucky but he definitely fell off around halfway through the story, whereas he was solid throughout when I kept him as General. His strength just wasn’t good enough to OHKO, and he’s too slow to double naturally. In his defense, I did forget about Pincer Attack a lot, but when I did remember it was just too much of a pain to set up.
The most fun way to aim for pincer is to have them roll next to a swordmaster with max avoid to dash through units and tank, and give a boots to the halberdier to keep up. It's not great.
It's not much, but the thief's pass ability can help you setup more pincer attacks. Takes less move than a flyer would. Would put your thief at risk though without dragon/covert corrin or a dragon tiki (gives fog breath).
A use case I am thinking with DLC could be to have a High str unit with Hector and ideally this unit has decent def and some damage boost (like Lance power) they'd get doubles on pincer and on EP with quick riptose. This is still mid though. As is halberdier in practice
Using Halb on Chloe instead of Alfred, the objectively best Halb user (imo). Smh my head I know you've seen at least a little bit of my boy's only run and Alfred is probably my best carry there. I'm not even running canter on most of my units and I've not had much problem setting up pincer attacks. Now, i will admit that draco hex makes it very easy to double bosses by your damage carries. So the classes usefulness overall is ehh. But honestly I'm starting to really like the class cause it just deletes those annoying-ass speedy late game swordies cause it doubles for free and breaks them.
I haven't watched the video yet but i know that any of your argument is wrong because Halberdier has the best drip in the game so So it's automatically the best classe in the game
I think the drawbacks to Pincer attack are more than justified though, because getting a free extra attack is a huge advantage. There has to be some kind of drawback for it, and while it's annoying to set up, it's not so terrible that it's impossible. Sometimes, you have to enemy phase, sure, but you can also funnel enemies through any form of terrain manipulation (Flame Wall/Ice Wall) if they're advancing on you, use staffs/dancers for relocation, Canter a unit who has already acted into proper position if there are multiple enemies, etc. If you really play around it, it's not such a big drawback.
I had to the stop the video because lance and spear is only really a thing in English. While other languages do have different words for different weapons, like for the Greeks they had the Dory (Hoplite spear), the Sarissa (longspear/pike), or the Xyston (spear used by cavalry), there isn't this distinction. Lance quite literally means spear which is why in most non English media that is typically consumed by American audiences anyone who uses a polearm with a pointed tip is called a lancer (like in the Fate/Stay night series or, Fire Emblem). That's what they're using, a lance. But because English is this weird bastard of a language created by the mixing of Old French (lance) and Old English (spere) we have two words for the same thing, like beef and cow, or ham and pig. What you should be annoyed by is the fact that they have a halberdier with no halberds! Granted, there aren't a whole lot of options for names for promoted lancers because how to do you tell the difference between the person with the pointy stick and the person with the pointy stick, but better?
Contextually in English a lance is basically an extremely long spear used from horse back and a spear is something much shorter that can be used on foot. I'd argue all day that Lance isn't the correct translation here in this game. Especially when a lance is supposed to be 15 feet long yet you have to let a dude with a hatchet hit you FIRST before your Great Lance hits them. Wut?
Still better than what they did to mage canoneer. Holy crap it's so bad like I get why it doesn't deal alot of damage and rarely can take a hit given it's a coward class that fights at a ridiculous distance, but the accuracy is so god awful it's never worth it.
Divine pulse and draconic hex, pulse lets you hit 0% hit rates and venom blast . I think it’s great for the last slot on you’re team once you start getting those 12-14 max deployment slot. It’s a class that can help you’re units kill that doesn’t require any engravings or emblems nice little support role. or you can go for lunar brace reprisal build on Roy and just destroy everything pannete has high strength and build so good hit rate on Roy will let you safely get your hp down for maximum reprisal damage
Halberdier is trying to fix slow units but slow units suck and you shouldn't run them to begin with but IF you do you should give them Great weapons that never double even if you're on Halberdier. so Halberdier is a solution to a problem that is solved better by other options.
One thing that sort of sucks about Halberdier is that there isn't a single unit in the game that is one or naturally sort of promotes into one, so you never get any kind of idea what the unit would perform like without spending some resources to change someone into it.
I think instead of having both Lapis and Kagetsu as sword units, they should have made one of them spear based. Either make Kagetsu a Halberdier, or Lapis a Spear Fighter early on. Push first-time players to at least deploy a foot-based lance unit who isn't Timerra for at least a couple of chapters.
IMO Lapis should’ve had a Lance proficiency so she could promote to Hero with B lances. Kagetsu would be the Swordmaster, and Diamant sets himself apart from Lapis by using Axes in Successeur
Then GOLDMARY should’ve been the Halberdier! That would’ve rounded things out… I love that she’s only 2 levels away from getting Brave Assist, but this way she’d be 2 levels away from getting Pincer Attack, and right before you get Sigurd back if you wanna give her extra movement for better Pincer Attack access
I actually use Halberdier Lapis. She can actually kill things without solar brace now
Lapis as Halberdier would basically make her a modern Nephenee, complete with the country girl knight who's embarrassed about her upbringing.
Also, I think Timerra was meant to be the "natural" Halberdier character, but she's also a royal, so she gets her own unique class, which is arguably better if you invest in it properly.
But soldiers/halberdiers definitely don't get enough love in the FE series as player units. Their class is so inconsistently available, despite enemy and green unit Soldiers being all over the place. Why can't players have Soldier units of their own?
They were in Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn, not in Awakening, then back in Fates (though exclusive to Hoshido as Spear Fighters/Halberdiers, despite Nohr having Soldier units) and then absent again in 3Houses/Hopes (Soldier being a Novice class before every lance-based promotion was mounted) and finally brought back, only to have the single foot-locked Spear user also be a royal.
@@LAZERAK47V2 honestly maybe Louis or Jade should’ve been a Lance Fighter, I don’t think we needed 2 armors
Bunet already covers Great Knight so… this way Louis could’ve been a bulky early game Lance Fighter, and a good pick for Halberdier since he’s slow but strong. Then Jade could keep her Axe Armor class
I’d rather that than also give Jade lances, there’s already Alfred, Louis, and Chloe for early Lance wielders
@@LAZERAK47V2 It's why I like Lapis (Nephenee has ALWAYS been my Waifu since I first played POR! Helps the Soldier class was the first time I got to use it and not just the enemy and she helped me love it) Honestly I feel Amber should have joined as a Lance Fighter (since there is no playable Lance Fighter in the game, despite the class being their!) instead of a Cavalier (We already have Vander and Alfred! Hell Alfred should have been less "Defense Phased" focus since the game seems to be encouraging you to use VANDER in that capacity! Someone who SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN LANCE GREAT KNIGHT!) or at least Jade (either way both should have been something else! It was like the developers were trying to "encourage you to change them out of those classes! Should have instead had them FIT BETTER to their starting class with ways to TEMPT you to take them out of it! I mean Jade now has competition as a Axe Armor in the form of Madeline and Clanne's got Gregory! I don't think they were thinking things through!)
It's lackluster for you because you're playing it the wrong way. Halberdiers are supposed to be used by characters with high strength growths. Halberdiers don't want speed. They want raw strength. Chloé is going to be a very bad halberdier because of her low strength grow. She is great with a lot of different classes but halberdier is not one of them.
Try somebody like Panette or Amber with ridiculous strength growth, they dont care if they have 0 speed growth, they can double/quad regardless of their speed. I know you don't play DLC much, but if ever you do play it, try it with Madeline. She's a beast as halberdier.
I made Madeline a halberdier on my current playthrough right now, and she's one heck of a boss killer. I gave her Divine Pulse+ and Luck+12 and gave her also a couple of Goddess Icons (since my Anna already has max luck). And hit rate was never an issue for her even if she has 15% dex growth. I'm currently Chapter 24 and so far she mostly don't do major killing until it's time to kill the boss. She one rounds bosses easily with a +2 Brave lance with Leif engrave. My halberdier Amber on my last run had given me similar results too. She can usually pick off 3 bars of a boss HP bar in one turn with the help of Byleth and Seadall. You can also add one more move with Veronica.
Trust me, Picket is also one of my favorite classes in the whole game and it has a very different playstyle with halberdier. Picket dives, kills, and retreats. Halberdiers play a support role by pulling/tanking enemies and damaging common enemies for other units to kill, and becomes a beast when it's boss killing time. You don't need to proc Pincer Attack all the time on common enemies to make your halberdier effective, the only time I ever make use of it is when it's boss battle where it's very easy to setup.
I find that if you are using a Halberdier you need to also use a Swordmaster. Run Through let’s you set up Pincer Attack easily while also letting you break axe units before you attack with Halberdier.
This feels like it would only make sense on broken wyverns like the super one on timerra recruit map and griffin knight hoardes for me.
Should also work with a thief using pass. Just walk through and attack from behind.
Could also give the halberdier advance to make up for movement.
One thing i hate about pincer attack, if you bait an enemy to set up a pincer attack by putting them in range, you have to enemy phase. if you enemy phase you either get an enemy unit's health low or kill them if you enemy phase properly. at that point its pointless to quad them because they are dead or near dead.
Halberdier is still valuable as a reclass for when your great knights are no longer target because of their defense :)
The other thing about Halberdier almost no unit can take advantage of is high magic cap at 29, but it's base and growth is so low the mixed attackers can't really take advantage, and the magic users will lack in strength, which is where most of its weapons reside.
Mauvier is a perfect Halberdier, because he has defense, resistance, strength and magic, and pincers attack can address speed. Micaiah or Leif as Nos tank builds can be really durable.
The only time I ran halberdier, I mostly forgot about pincer attack lol. It's only useful if you have your units and enemies close to each other, like already meeting up for battle. If it's too far away, you basically demonstrate why it's difficult to set it up. One thing I remember, there's a clutch time where I can double a swordmaster and kill it (even most faster unit cannot double it), but then again if you remember to utilize it (most time I just forgot).
My biggest issue with Halberdier is that there is very little incentive to make one. No unit naturally promotes to one so it always needs a Second Seal and there are usually better options to reclass into like Hero or a Flier. Brave Assist from Hero is just a more universally useful class skill to have than Pincer Attack. I don't think the class is horrible or anything, it is just that there are too many less situational alternatives to the class. I also agree that it hurts that one of the Lord units basically gets a better version of Halberdier as her basic promotion.
Frankly if I'm using Kagetsu! Lapis who I ALWAYS use will be my "Halberdier" (because I love Nephenee and well, Lapis is a red haired Nephenee so why not LOL) of course I know with her SPD growths, she makes the class skill pointless (Engage has "issues" with how it utilized Class Skills (WHY THE HELL DID SWORDMASTERS LOSE ASTRA!) unless she doesn't get SPD Blessed enough to mitigate her low BLD (and then I gave her Hector to make up for that in the Enemy Phase and "low BLD" problem LOL). Frankly the only silver lining is I had to separate class overview by "Stats vs Class Skill" ESPECIALLY in the case of Swordmaster and Berserker (Fuck the developers for GIMPING those classes for no reason Class Skill wise!)
And yeah, the only advantage "Non-Personal" classes get is some of them can't use S rank weapons! But the fact many of them are "locked behind LEVEL 5 DONATIONS" (fuck that) and the ones you CAN get are like "One" of each weapon type naturally with a few (And the S Rank Dagger is a FUCKING SMASH WEAPON WTF?!) it makes the Personals that usually reach at least A-B ranks weapons if they use more then one! Diamant is the best "Hero" Class with his Successor that lets him still use an S rank (his only counter being Goldmary, but I say her ONLY because I CANNOT forgive that atrocious outfit Heroes NOT Goldmary have to wear! WTF IS WITH HOW THE CAP IS POSITIONED?!) Frankly it's hard NOT to feel tempted to just use the Royals and their Personals (I admit, the only "Royal" I ALWAYS use no matter what is Hortensia and never outside her Personal as she's the BEST FUCKING STAFF WIELDER IN THE GAME! All my rarer staves go to her)
Hopefully those who worked on the Fire Emblem's that had GREAT Growths and Caps will have a "word" with the developers and programmers for Engage who thought it was smart to "lower them the way they did!" (I would have said have the rings/Bracelets work similar to the Scrolls from Thracia 776 where they ALSO effect Growths if their equipped when a level up happens! Wasted Opportunity I say!)
Auto-double is a strong ability in FE. I think it's better to think about it as a boon for particularly hard situations, like boss fights, than as a requisite to be met every turn.
A lot of units like to run Speed+ or Speedtaker to work properly, but with Pincer providing double on player phase, one can use the slot for either more damage, tanking or utility
I felt a punch to the gut when I saw this title. Just swapped my project Amber from Warrior to Halberdier since I wanted Merrin to use the Radiant Bow. Realized if I was going to make the shift, I should do it sooner than later since I need five levels to unlock Pincer Attack.
So far Amber did extremely well on the map I played him on so far. But he is at the end of the days of his ability to double since I am around Chapter 19 and enemies are getting much stronger.
I will say that this should give me a tool to nuke bosses down in a way that doesn't use up engages attacks. I don't really have that right now outside of Kagetsu's 80% crit chance.
In my last run i had changed a low investment amber into a halberdier and he was pretty effective there. One thing I did was that i eventually ran speedtaker on him to help him naturally double enemies after a few kills, but the pincer attacks helped with the feeding kills part since he was underleveled. Also due to the shape of the pincer attack, it was fairly easy to then come into the middle with a bonded shield or a byleth dance.
I also found it effective as a tool to one round kill fast enemies with moderate res/def like wolf knight/swordsmasters.
overall, its not a terrible option for high str/ mid speed chars and it was also very easy to get him levels due to pincer. I wouldn't recommend it for a hard carry, but it has a place on a backline/cleanup.
For me, I always thought setting up pincer attack was a fun little mini game in itself. Swordmaster has run through, you can use canto or override, or even set up a kill with warp Ragnarok.
These situations are all kinda high investment (using multiple units and even engage skills) but if you're fighting a boss or a really strong unit you were probably gonna spend some resources anyways. Especially on my first run when I was way less experienced, pincer attack is a fantastic crutch.
I used halberdier Louis on my for-fun hard mode run, simply because I like him and wanted to use him beyond early game and get his Mov a little better.
Imo the right combo for halberdier is Sigurd on a crit build. Sigurd will give you the move you need to set up the pincer if it is required (especially once engaged), lance power will combo with overdrive. Crit build gives you the damage to kill stuff and you use the pincer if needed to kill tough enemies.
I do feel you on this class! Even if I like the Class. I practically aim at Lapis or Goldmary for this Class! Goldmary has the DEF to make it work and Lapis SPD and early access to Leif before Chapter 10 in case you want to get BLD+ skills along with her HIGH SPD stat also works in her favor! Hell any class with HIGH STR but low SPD are classes she EXCELLS in because her natural High SPD growth means she's barely effected by the low SPD modifiers of those classes....well unless you go General or something like that! Made her a Sword General once for the LOLS because I was reminded of the ONLY Sword Knight you got in Radiant Dawn Meg.....and then remembered the only RELEVENT Sword General in the series, BK/Zelgius! My MAIN MAN! Meg was Terrible, but I was amused on how fast she was compared to her father. Since Swordmaster/Berserker/Halberdier are pretty much just upgraded "Sword/Axe/Lance Fighters! They inherit the same strengths and Weakness! And Halberdier like the Lance Fighter seems aimed at being the BALANCED one of the Sword (Speed over Strength) and Axe (Strength over Speed) Fighter with Mag for the Flame Lance (which for the future, I'd say REALLY lower the weight of that weapon, I thought AXES were suppose to be the Heavy weapons in the series, but it's unreal how heavy that Lance is (Most wielders I give it too, like Halberdier Lapis or Griffon Knight Chloe tend to use it well if only because their SPD becomes so high that the High WT does nothing to gimp their SPD, and Goldmary DEF makes her LAUGH off the decrease in SPD since she can tank the hits that do damage her but again only used if a Knight/General/Great Knight DARES to look in their direction with a Spear weapon....hell even if they have an Hand Axe/Tomahawk they usually dodge and melt their asses) This means "No weakness, but no Strength either" it's why I'm willing to set aside my rule of NOT giving Lapis "Weapon Power" skills like Lance Power and Goldmary joins RIGHT before you get Sigurd back so she can get it. But this is a class you NEED to adjust to make useful, Pincer Attack is too fucking Situational. I'd like if it GAVE you another attack REGADLESS of if you can strike twice (attack THREE times) but I'm sure they thought of that and realized what's stopping us using a Brave Spear (and forgot that weapon is heavy so really a HIGH SPD character who can suppress the WT and attack FOUR TIMES can! Seriously still should have been another strike even if you strike twice!).
But as I say, is it not great, Yes. Will I still use it "HELL YES I WILL"
Also if you have dlc if you dont mind spending extra bond fragments hector i think gives build at some point so i think it could help timerra.
Haha you said is if fun? Yes but is it good? No. But it doesn’t matter if it’s good or not - haha we’re here to have fun!
Based Fun enjoyer :)
I think the ideal scenario IS thought is having a unit that is fast enough to double on their own, but use heavier stronger weapons they can double with Pincer Attack to reach certain kill thresholds.
tbh the best units who are capable of being halberdiers are the ones who can manage to ohko weaker enemies with lance power + brave lance+3 and ike engraving without pincer attack. panette in particular makes a very good halberdier because you don't need to stress about her HP being full and bank on relying on crits to be able to one shot stuff where it can be very difficult to navigate around keeping her HP at a certain area for her crit builds. pincer attack should help you close the gap for killing off boss enemies and bulkier enemies rather than something you should be actively relying on
Halberdier Citrinne w/ Flame Lance :)
What about citrinne flame lance halberdier for budget dire thunder. It would be very funny
you are onto something tbh
Not gonna lie, sounds so fun no cap
It's mean to combo with swordmaster
> I dont kbow if I like canto/canter anymore, I'd rather just have a unit that can enemy phase.
Based
I agree. I only use canter on my support units if that.
Where would be a good place to look up character build examples?
Im slowing trying to see which characters i want to use for my maddening run. But so far i only have alear as a damage dealer, Chloe as a wyvern knight, and framme as a healer/ bond shield when i get lucina. I just got anna but i don't know what i should do with her. I've heard she can be a mage knight or warrior with a radiant bow. But i don't know which class would be better for her.🤔
You should just experiment my dude. I know Maddening is kinda intimidating by nature but by my experience it still leaves plenty of room for experimentation even if some become mid builds. If you want some ideas tho, I'm currently running a bow knight Panette with Lyn ring. I'm going to make her a Griffen soon tho just to see how well she'll do with only lances and staff utility will be nice. For a tried and true build I have a Griffen Pandreo with Sigurd. He's a huge damage dealer and pretty good dodge tank
@@vicentesanchezjr.3877 Yeah I'm pretty new/dumb when it comes to this kind of stuff. I already had to start over a few times because i used materials and money on weapons that turned out to be a waste. And i leveled up character's that i wanted to use but they weren't any good by chapter 10. (Alfred, etie, etc.) And i noticed on maddening mode if you wasted to much money early on, then your kinda screwed.
I have some example teams/builds on the channel but you might have to look through playlists
@@hitsumaru100 I'm glad you haven't given up! That's pretty cool. I think it's okay to restart a fresh file if you think you can do things better. In my experience and I believe many others you realistically can reach the end of the game even if you squander some resources.
As for your initial question, this guy's channel is pretty good for learning about good builds and Titanium Legman has some interesting build concepts
@@IcedCoffeeGaming thanks! I'm just now starting to go through your engage playlist. I wasn't expecting that many videos though, Not that I'm complaining.😅
I had hear Louis would make an amazing Halberdier and maybe I was just unlucky but he definitely fell off around halfway through the story, whereas he was solid throughout when I kept him as General. His strength just wasn’t good enough to OHKO, and he’s too slow to double naturally. In his defense, I did forget about Pincer Attack a lot, but when I did remember it was just too much of a pain to set up.
The most fun way to aim for pincer is to have them roll next to a swordmaster with max avoid to dash through units and tank, and give a boots to the halberdier to keep up. It's not great.
It's not much, but the thief's pass ability can help you setup more pincer attacks. Takes less move than a flyer would. Would put your thief at risk though without dragon/covert corrin or a dragon tiki (gives fog breath).
A use case I am thinking with DLC could be to have a High str unit with Hector and ideally this unit has decent def and some damage boost (like Lance power) they'd get doubles on pincer and on EP with quick riptose. This is still mid though. As is halberdier in practice
Using Halb on Chloe instead of Alfred, the objectively best Halb user (imo). Smh my head
I know you've seen at least a little bit of my boy's only run and Alfred is probably my best carry there.
I'm not even running canter on most of my units and I've not had much problem setting up pincer attacks.
Now, i will admit that draco hex makes it very easy to double bosses by your damage carries. So the classes usefulness overall is ehh. But honestly I'm starting to really like the class cause it just deletes those annoying-ass speedy late game swordies cause it doubles for free and breaks them.
Right I’m thinking this class is great for when none of your units double the 40+ Speed enemies late game
i just realised your whole back line has no weapons equipped 💀💀
In that run I was running low unit count
I haven't watched the video yet but i know that any of your argument is wrong because Halberdier has the best drip in the game so So it's automatically the best classe in the game
I think the drawbacks to Pincer attack are more than justified though, because getting a free extra attack is a huge advantage.
There has to be some kind of drawback for it, and while it's annoying to set up, it's not so terrible that it's impossible.
Sometimes, you have to enemy phase, sure, but you can also funnel enemies through any form of terrain manipulation (Flame Wall/Ice Wall) if they're advancing on you, use staffs/dancers for relocation, Canter a unit who has already acted into proper position if there are multiple enemies, etc.
If you really play around it, it's not such a big drawback.
Ngl I used this class on Goldmary purely for the stats.
I put mauvier a halberdier like before chapter 24 every class is not perfectevery class has at least 1 problem and wow timerra is not on ike for once
I had to the stop the video because lance and spear is only really a thing in English. While other languages do have different words for different weapons, like for the Greeks they had the Dory (Hoplite spear), the Sarissa (longspear/pike), or the Xyston (spear used by cavalry), there isn't this distinction. Lance quite literally means spear which is why in most non English media that is typically consumed by American audiences anyone who uses a polearm with a pointed tip is called a lancer (like in the Fate/Stay night series or, Fire Emblem). That's what they're using, a lance. But because English is this weird bastard of a language created by the mixing of Old French (lance) and Old English (spere) we have two words for the same thing, like beef and cow, or ham and pig.
What you should be annoyed by is the fact that they have a halberdier with no halberds! Granted, there aren't a whole lot of options for names for promoted lancers because how to do you tell the difference between the person with the pointy stick and the person with the pointy stick, but better?
I mean:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance
Contextually in English a lance is basically an extremely long spear used from horse back and a spear is something much shorter that can be used on foot. I'd argue all day that Lance isn't the correct translation here in this game. Especially when a lance is supposed to be 15 feet long yet you have to let a dude with a hatchet hit you FIRST before your Great Lance hits them. Wut?
Still better than what they did to mage canoneer. Holy crap it's so bad like I get why it doesn't deal alot of damage and rarely can take a hit given it's a coward class that fights at a ridiculous distance, but the accuracy is so god awful it's never worth it.
Divine pulse and draconic hex, pulse lets you hit 0% hit rates and venom blast . I think it’s great for the last slot on you’re team once you start getting those 12-14 max deployment slot. It’s a class that can help you’re units kill that doesn’t require any engravings or emblems nice little support role. or you can go for lunar brace reprisal build on Roy and just destroy everything pannete has high strength and build so good hit rate on Roy will let you safely get your hp down for maximum reprisal damage
Its still an enemy phase game lol halb just dont stand out
Halberdier is trying to fix slow units but slow units suck and you shouldn't run them to begin with but IF you do you should give them Great weapons that never double even if you're on Halberdier. so Halberdier is a solution to a problem that is solved better by other options.
Hortensia Free staff useEntrapping is super fun. Instant Pincer.