Mostly just for fun, but I was curious about how people feel about cashing in those master seals as soon as possible and promoting everyone at level 10, or maxing out the 20 levels of potential before promoting, or if there’s an in between.
For example, I tend to promote clerics and troubadours early unless they’ve got really good growths, low staff competition, and staff exp isn’t a nightmare.
Any thoughts or particulars of your own?
In vanilla FE, I always 20/20.
time to get crucified for my playstyle ig
I usually want to wait til 20 but I get extremely impatient and promote before hand. I do agree with ur comment about staff users. Usually ill promote them right away so they stand a chance.
staffers asap
everyone else, depends on if i think they need it or not
and if i think they need promotion, i usually bench them anyway so everyone else ends up around 15-20/20
so it doesn’t necessarily feel like you’re hamstringing the character, by say, promoting wendy at level 15 so she can keep up and get the promotion gains in FE6?
i don’t use armors in fe6 lol
i like having fun
serious answer: if i am using her and she’s doing well for herself, then i will yes, if she’s not really performing it’s likely i’m going to drop her once i can replace her, so i’m going to give that crest to someone else, like a cav
I hadn’t considered things like knight crest availability. that really does make the choice for you
I used to always 20/20 characters. Nowadays, I promote healers the instant they reach level 10 or I have a promo item available, whichever comes first. I will also promote other units around 15, since exp gain slows dramatically after that and the promo bonuses, especially movement, make for a more impactful gain. In general, promoting at 10 feels wasteful though.
So things like skill systems don’t make the decision for you? (Not that I’ve played many hacks who lock a skill behind level 20)
Ideal: 20/20.
Reality: 20/3.
I promote fairly early.
In games with good promo gains like FE5 and FE6, I usually promote at 10-12
In games with lower ones I go to 15ish
the real answer is case by case because ocd brain likes seeing good number
TLDR: ape brain want see big stat number now and FE7 is bad
Generally though, asap. The missing levels not to not really matter ever, the earlier the unit has higher stats the more of a difference they make (with an asterisk). FE3/12 Palla has insane stats and is essentially promo ready when she joins, they could be even more insane if I promote her now so fuck it why not?
The asterisk is bc that whole idea implies that the promo gains make a difference because some games (FE7) have absolutely garbage gains that don’t do anything for anyone, but at that point it’s less “I’m wasting levels” and more “I’m gaining more from leveling than promoting” which always feels shit.
Losing stats bc you didn’t wait is an extremely fringe scenario that most units don’t even even have a large enough gap between base and cap to experience in a way that makes a difference. (if they can even reach high enough of a promoted level in the first place because the games usually aren’t long enough for more than one or two focused units to do that)
Also level gains are random when promo gains are not so you have a decent chance of not even gaining anything from waiting.
Yeah buddy. What kind of masochist would 20/20 a cleric anyway?
fair point. I tend to wait with characters like joshua (or any myrms really) because seeing green numbers activates my ape brain, but theres a lot of factors I hadn’t haven’t considered, like weapon ranks and additions to options (Should I make my archer a ranger so they can attack on my phase? do I lug them around for another five levels?). and things like gaining canto, or when S rank weapons start showing up, on top of what and who can promote and with what.
Tons of food for thought to mull over
Me because staffers if they are sufficient enough are actually lowest on my priority list, I forgot about that while typing that college thesis of a post.
Also yeah WaywardTroper, there’s more than stats to consider which I also did not consider during that post. Dumb brain moment.
Are new weapon types, +wexp, +mov, all less than leveling, even ignoring that they still do give some stats? Even though gains in FE7 are low they still do a lot more for units than more levels would.
I understand that the 20/20 fantasy is almost always impossible, yet something at the back of my mind is always sitting, thinking about “…well, what if it DID happen?”
Besides that, promoting before the cap is just INCREDIBLY unsatisfying for me. I know I started on games where the promo gains are terrible, but I get way more satisfaction from “growing until you can’t grow anymore to reach your max potential” than “use this ring and you can use staves now I guess”.
So yeah, even if promoting at level 20 isn’t always optimal, it’s still more satisfying to do, at least for me.
I’m always a 20/20. in every FE game ever I’ve never promoted someone before 20/20. For some hacks if I know it’s ending soon because unfinished then I just spam promo items cause it don’t matter. Including… HEALERS (gasp).
Real question is where is the 20/30 from FE4 at? Where my lv30 bros at?
i usually do 20/20 for all characters or at least 15.
I like promoting my whole team at once. So, depends on what level they are when I get that last promotion item.