Strategy and Placing

[Tony]

So after playing the game a while and reading up on some of the guide points (mainly the Class and Army Guide) I realize that I'm very much not good at figuring out what to do with what I have. I mean beyond obvious things like "pair together tanks and ranged/healer" and "place units that help with UP first" I'm drawing a bit of a blank, which is bad when I'm staring at a stream of monsters and I have no idea what to place where.

So I thought maybe some discussion on what to do in certain scenarios might be worthwhile for anyone who is in a similar situation? Maybe even talk on certain niche units or classes (I know for certain I'm adverse to putting in anything besides the usual suspects in my team)? I dunno, just a thought.

[AigisWalker7]

There are always video guides on youtube that you can look at for harder missions. If you are a whale spender you will probably have alot of neat combinations you can do with units. Just practice and try to level up 2-3 healers. Try to place your healers in spots they can reach everything and place your 1 block units infront of ur soldiers.

[Tony]

Well, I know you can just look this sort of thing up, but I would rather have fun testing out things in a productive manner rather than just copying. I barely use half of my available units and something about not using them all to their full potential just bugs me.

[ZeroZet]

You may try out your units in the safe and controlled environment of lower-level story maps and 1-stam challenges) Particularly, Low Cost Battle lets you play with a huge number of different units thanks to the initial 100UP, while being very good affection farming map and dropping silver spirits pretty often.)

[kayfabe]

For overall strategy/adapting video tactics I mostly try to identify if the map mostly favors a "shooting gallery" approach with only light blocking (and by extension minimal healers) or a choke point strategy complete with low dps support units like heavies and healers. I say this because while it's tempting to look at your final formation and say "But Kayfabe, by the end of the map I'm using both blockers and shooters!" it's important to realize that on many maps there's an intermediate phase where your team comp should probably be leaning heavily one way or the other.

[slyyr]

Something I find interesting is units that do things another more common type does but in a different way. Examples : Ninjas and Rune Fencers, soldiers who heal, heavies who AOE, Bishops (extra range mages who part-time heal). Units like these add versatility when map slots are limited in some way, most commonly when ranged slots are limited.

Also if you have gaps in your lineup sometimes you are forced to use units differently to cover the gaps. I generally lack quality magic ranged damage so I use a Necromancer as a heavy hitting, better ranged Witch sometimes. Having Awakwened Sophie also adds a whole new strategy to my play as she works as a lightning rod, 3rd healer and burst heavy hitter.

[kayfabe]

Yeah, while I'd choose different examples I'd agree that I'm skeptical of always sticking within the narrow bounds of standard archetypes. Blacks and good plats are so powerful in part because they often have the stats necessary to stumble ass backwards into filling a secondary role on top of their class's usual specialty. For example, AW Elizabeth's primary shtick is dps but you might be surprised by how often she can end up working as a her own lightning rod thanks to her 2.6k health and 306 armor. Once paired with a healer you'll find that most ranged units will melt before her attack rate before they're able to polish her off. Yes, in a perfect world you'd probably want to trade some of her stamina in for even moar firepower but in the meantime that extra durability is hardly useless.

[Tony]

Speaking about how people use units, what does everyone think the very, very main use for some classes are. I mean, for example, Heavy Armors have high Def and HP and can block 3 to 4 and such, but if you had to choose the one thing you want it for what would it be?

[lolix]

Speaking about how people use units, what does everyone think the very, very main use for some classes are. I mean, for example, Heavy Armors have high Def and HP and can block 3 to 4 and such, but if you had to choose the one thing you want it for what would it be?

to do AOE dps


....oh wait

[buttlover]

to do AOE dps


....oh wait

Thats how deline's SAW came about

[IvanLedah21]

Speaking about how people use units, what does everyone think the very, very main use for some classes are. I mean, for example, Heavy Armors have high Def and HP and can block 3 to 4 and such, but if you had to choose the one thing you want it for what would it be?

A lot of the classes have an obvious "primary use" it's just some can fill secondary purposes as well.
Heavy Armor: Block; 2ndary: Lightning Rod (generally not good idea to block AND play lightning rod though)
Soldier: UP Generation; Secondary: Early blocker (some soldiers don't have Call for Reinforcements and are meant to be early dps/block)
Archer: Ranged physical damage; none of them are really good for anything else
and so on

A lot of the more recent classes are clearly dual-role though
Priest Warrior: Block + Heal
Angel: Lightning Rod + Gatekeeper
Mage Armor: Block + AoE magic damage

Some of the blacks and plats in a class can do additional roles as well though, simply due to stats and skills, like Deine can dish out massive hurt, Sophie can act as a weak field healer with AW, etc.