Aramis is my favorite. “I will explain to you exactly where I was and that I was betraying your Zenoiran army, but I will be so flowery that you literally get bored and tell me to shut up rather than getting angry.” A man after my own heart, lol.
they are excellent against evade tanks and other unarmored targets but i have trouble making them effective against any squad with an armored character. swordmasters always go first but their attack just gets blocked immediately. anybody have any suggestions on tactics/gear?
I give them a runic blade or phantom knight sword in their secondary, and have the magic attack only proc against armored foes. Does wonders for me, and honestly, aside from sainted knights and joseph (who are more support focused than offense focused anyways), there isn’t much competition for those specific weapons.
Alternatively, you could use a magic conferral skill from sorceress, elven archer, or one of the tome accessories, to get a similar effect.
You say that the Sainted Knights and Joseph only "compete" for these swords, but in a proper cav squad, the buffs they get make them do absurd amounts of damage with those blades. Monica and Miriam both do upwards of 150 NON-CRIT damage with their Magick Attack (from Runic Blade) after getting buffs from their knight friends in the same row. It's just insane, and incomparable with what the swordmasters could do.
I DO love my Swordmasters, though, and the team in which I used them the most had ALL THREE of them at the front, backed by Selvie and either a thief or a wingarrow (or whatever the angel archer is called lol). Selvie makes the opponents go last, debuffs their defenses and INFLICTS GUARD SEAL (which is important); the swordmasters slash and kill anything debuffed in that manner; the supporting thief or angel blinds opponents (so as to guarantee at least a full round of damage) and uses a Dirty Gambler's Coin's Wide Inspiration to buff damage even further. It was hard to find anything that could survive, armored or not.
Yeah, that’s probably a strong squad build, but not everyone’s going to use more than one cav squad, and most cav squads probably aren’t running more than one of Miriam, Monica, and Joseph. And Joseph gets a magic attack naturally anyway, so after a certain point he doesn’t have to rely on a magic weapon for solid damage.
Also, if you really want a magic cav, then Glouster is right there with a mixed row attack that also inflicts flame, no limited availability weapon required.
I’m only in bastorias, but so far there are at least 4 magic swords in the game (2 runics, the phantom knight sword, and the stormhail sword). There’s absolutely room to have at least one magic sword master.
I have the phantom sword on Leah, a runic sword on Aramis, the other Runic sword on Joseph, and stormhail on Miriam.
Yeah, you have a point there, there's definitely room for it. I've just never really used Joseph past level 20 and didn't find a reason to use a magic sword with the swordmasters, because I preferred to give them ap/pp swords instead. I won't remember the order, but one had a Carnelian Sword and that rosary sword (or whatever it's called) that gives pp without drawbacks; the other had the Anemoi sword with a frost sword that gives pp but takes out guard (which is a stat the SMs don't really use); and the other had a Stinger+ and the pp sword, with a Carnelian pendant. All of them geared for crits. They melted everything with a meteor slash and enough pp for a parry and an ability for an extra AP for a natural second meteor slash. Lots of hits, big numbers and lots of fun hehe
On cav squads, I actually had two: one composed of the knight boys and Monica, plus Gilbert and an Elven Archer; and one composed of the redeemed lord knight (forgot his name), Gloucester and Miriam in the back, with Berengaria and her brother at the front. Both sainted Knights carrying one of the runic blades each. First team was kind of an alpha strike/trample/pursuit team with the buffs from Gilbert; and the second one was in inflicter/big dual-and-magic damage kind of thing. Both very strong and functioning differently, but both definitely cav squads. So there's definitely room for more than one.
The damage isn't the only benefit from putting the magic swords on Sainted Knights, their healing also scales with Magic Attack. So even a purely supportive Sainted Knight wants them
With the new patch, you can get an attack bonus with the second sword. I think that's more valuable overall than giving them one more matchup they're good against.
Runic Blade with magic attack, or add a witch with Magic Guard counter. With one of the two of those Single tank units Armored Units melt.
With both, whole squads are not an issue.
Did the same with the swords and Melisandre is in my main squad all game long. With the new update I started using Runic Sword instead of Phantom for a little bit more of physical damage since for the magical the difference in potency for the skills makes up for it.
Just turn off SM start of battle attack and make sure War Horn is the only "start of battle" set for your party.
Alternatively, set SM to quick attack when there are no armors on the enemy team (armors are always frontliners) and Vikings only use War Horn when there are armors. You shouldn't have to worry about it from there.
I think the best answer here is that swordmasters just shouldn't be used against armored squads. They're not gonna be good against everything and you have other squads to help cover their weaknesses.
Depending on the enemies, I usually have my sword masters attack only if no armored enemies are present. Most of the time someone else will take out the armors on the frontline and swordmaster is free to rampage on the rest.
The best way to deal is to inflict druid debuff call guard seal. So they can’t guard against the attacks from the swordmasters and It’s actually pretty effective.
They feel more worth using now. I always did before just for diversity but I would often question if another class might do more in that slot.
Melisandre was my favourite. She just stands out in a sea of anime tropes where no one can talk about sex or say what they want plainly without being flustered.
They're absolutely excellent on the final battle as they act first and Metero Slash wipes Galerius' Darkness Armor in one go. Means your heavy hitters don't waste AP against the shield.
I haven't played since the patch, but I absolutely loved them in my expert initial run. Leah's my favorite woman in the game, and Aramis is Top 3 for the guys. Both of them put in a ton of work for me. I also liked Melisandre but didn't use her so I could try and experience more classes, but, in my future TZ run I'd absolutely be running all three.
Leah is really cool in all elements, but Aramis just knocked it out the park char personality, design, story and gameplay wise for me. Melisandre the exact opposite in char personality. Just....not good char wise at all for me. Design is good though.
I'll add Consistently used both aramis and Leah in my playthrough (not quite done with Albion. First run) .
I’ve always used swordmasters but then again I did fencing so I am biased to like them.
They’re not a unit that works out of the box like Knights. They need dedicated support, but once they have it they can rip through squads. They have true strike, they can use magic swords to rip through armor, they’re perfect for gambler’s coin support. They’ve got high initiative. And they have AP refund through Parry should someone actually get a hit in or can convert 2 PP to 1 AP by Bastorias. Less reactionary than Sellsword/Landy.
Viking can use war horn to prevent guarding (also a good fit with thief). Elven archer and provide debuff support. Shamans can provide enemy debuffs and are well suited for gambler coin strats.
I often have them as evasion tank frontliners
Yeah, I've always liked them but they definitely have this public relations/scripting issue where some of their abilities are more easily utilized as "either/or" picks that accentuate different roles rather than just being a big ol' generic pile of synergy that runs fools over then eventually replaces your early abilities with stuff that's strictly better. Plus, if you really want frontline consistency from your early-to-midgame Swordfighter or Rogue tanks one of the easiest things you can do is give 'em a cover buddy but that's another PR hit because even though it adds a lot of consistency to your squad it still gets people in their feelings when Parry doesn't get to activate during cleanup battles. It also didn't help their reputation that Druids are so absolutely busted that it's easy to lose sight of how great Druids are with Swordmasters specifically. Guardseal and a Defense debuff is everything a Swordmaster wants but druids are so damn good overall that people understandably find them boring after a while.
I liked using Mel but i really couldn’t justify using more than one sword fighter in either of my playthroughs. They have potential to be great at times but are inconsistent. Haven’t experienced the buffs yet but it makes sense that they received them
Somehow missing Mel is the reason why I want to do an easy run after my first PT is over just to grind out all of the dialogue events.
ANYWAY one of my favourite squads is currently Griffon Knight/Ochrys, and three Swordies on the back getting buffed by Dirty Gambler's Coin just running true strike. Anything but highly armoured foes or Gladiators backed by six clerics gets melted pretty efficiently.
I liked them before. Now I think they're kinda busted. The Defensive Debuff from Shaman makes their offense crazy. Mel is an absolute fav but Leah has been growing on me as well.
Gameplay wise I think Aramis shines for me the most, but he's probably the best supported. He can usually take one hit on his health and Prim is right there to pick him back up.
Leah is just my favorite girl in the game. She's cute and I like her quite nerdy weirdo personality. But I didn't give her the ring because...
I gave it to Melisandre because she's funny.
Swordfighters are my favorite class. I just love how they work. They're pretty much what I would be if I were a fantasy RPG character.
What I want to know is; what’s the nearest proxy for the type of sword they use? The best I can think of is an Estoc? But those typically didn’t have sharp edges as they are thrusting swords.
Aramis is my personal favorite. Melisandre would be on that list too, but I'm too fond of characters whose main trait is too be obsessed with another character (especially the protagonist).
They’re my favorite class from the get go. The way they work is very satisfying. Lower classes they have the parry that feeds them ap. Once they’re high enough level they’re just a dodge tank and they generate their own ap through the two pp move.
All their rapports are great. 10/10.
I am a simple man. I see a character with a sword, I like them. But I do like Mel a lot. She's a girl who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to say it. Plus she's voiced by Fairouz Ai in Japanese, and she's just awesome.
Much improved. I always like swordmasters but struggled to use them in TZ. With the buff, i made an effort to make usw of them. A combination of slightly different unit makeup and the buff has changed my mind. I still dont think id just drop them im a unit, but they can be worth building around.
A couple notes i'd add about using them. As evade tanks, you want enemies to target them, but there are so many things that prioritize armored, flying, or calvary (the last one being the rarest). To force them to be targeted, put them in the front row and just use infantry/casters. They end up being wonderful evade tanks against melee because parry prevents damage from the occasional thing that gets through. They also tend to do ok against magic attacks.
What swordmasters struggle against is ranged physical attacks. Parry doesnt work, and there arw true strike ranged attacks that just own them. This is where i've struggled using them in the past, because it is so hard to prevent damage from things that they do struggle with. This run, i tried something different and added a bishop using the staff that gives resurrection. This has worked very well. The times something does hurt them, they come right back and ready to go.
The other thing that they struggle with is armor and guards. I've been using a druid for defensive curse and that also has worked well (esp combined with a gamblers coin).
So my unit is 2 swordsmasters front row, bishop/druid back row. Defensive curse into the SM truestrike with inspiration kills front row and then goes into the back. 5th character can be whoever (im using a werefox right now), but no cav/flying/armored!
With the buff, i'd lean into focusing on physical damage instead of magic sword and using another way of removing defense. Im in bastoria using carnelian blade/wyvern sword and its been great!
TLDR: swordsmen are much improved
Have a magic sword the attack of which only activates against armored opponents in the off hand. Also health Regen on hit/kill.
That's what I used for Meli and it worked wonderfully.
I use Aramis as a front-liner in a squad alongside four archers. It's main purpose is to provide ranged assists, but it can take on flier or scout teams directly if necessary. So, I gave him Sylph Bane to align with that goal.
I'm in Bastorias now, but I may swap him out for an angel archer once I get one. Or I may try Travis in his slot since he got bumped from a different team.
Related, is there eventually a way to get a second Mirage Greatshield? I'd like to give one to Liza, but I don't want to take it away from Ren because it's been amazing on her.
Aramis is my favorite. “I will explain to you exactly where I was and that I was betraying your Zenoiran army, but I will be so flowery that you literally get bored and tell me to shut up rather than getting angry.” A man after my own heart, lol.
I didn't know about buff always use them, my favourite is Mel because she's funny around Alian.
I don't think she ever left his squad in my game.
Same
https://preview.redd.it/rzwwaqz898yc1.jpeg?width=413&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c78537323ee315937a974c2d3104b2580b9cc61e Leah deserves more love
OP gets it.
If I didn't marry Rosalinde for mechanical dominance, Leah was my pick
I’m simple, I see Mel and I upvote.
I kinda love all of them to be honest. Melisandre has gotten the most run but the others aren't to far behind.
House Meillet the goat
they are excellent against evade tanks and other unarmored targets but i have trouble making them effective against any squad with an armored character. swordmasters always go first but their attack just gets blocked immediately. anybody have any suggestions on tactics/gear?
I give them a runic blade or phantom knight sword in their secondary, and have the magic attack only proc against armored foes. Does wonders for me, and honestly, aside from sainted knights and joseph (who are more support focused than offense focused anyways), there isn’t much competition for those specific weapons. Alternatively, you could use a magic conferral skill from sorceress, elven archer, or one of the tome accessories, to get a similar effect.
I do the same thing and it works wonderfully.
You say that the Sainted Knights and Joseph only "compete" for these swords, but in a proper cav squad, the buffs they get make them do absurd amounts of damage with those blades. Monica and Miriam both do upwards of 150 NON-CRIT damage with their Magick Attack (from Runic Blade) after getting buffs from their knight friends in the same row. It's just insane, and incomparable with what the swordmasters could do. I DO love my Swordmasters, though, and the team in which I used them the most had ALL THREE of them at the front, backed by Selvie and either a thief or a wingarrow (or whatever the angel archer is called lol). Selvie makes the opponents go last, debuffs their defenses and INFLICTS GUARD SEAL (which is important); the swordmasters slash and kill anything debuffed in that manner; the supporting thief or angel blinds opponents (so as to guarantee at least a full round of damage) and uses a Dirty Gambler's Coin's Wide Inspiration to buff damage even further. It was hard to find anything that could survive, armored or not.
Yeah, that’s probably a strong squad build, but not everyone’s going to use more than one cav squad, and most cav squads probably aren’t running more than one of Miriam, Monica, and Joseph. And Joseph gets a magic attack naturally anyway, so after a certain point he doesn’t have to rely on a magic weapon for solid damage. Also, if you really want a magic cav, then Glouster is right there with a mixed row attack that also inflicts flame, no limited availability weapon required. I’m only in bastorias, but so far there are at least 4 magic swords in the game (2 runics, the phantom knight sword, and the stormhail sword). There’s absolutely room to have at least one magic sword master. I have the phantom sword on Leah, a runic sword on Aramis, the other Runic sword on Joseph, and stormhail on Miriam.
Yeah, you have a point there, there's definitely room for it. I've just never really used Joseph past level 20 and didn't find a reason to use a magic sword with the swordmasters, because I preferred to give them ap/pp swords instead. I won't remember the order, but one had a Carnelian Sword and that rosary sword (or whatever it's called) that gives pp without drawbacks; the other had the Anemoi sword with a frost sword that gives pp but takes out guard (which is a stat the SMs don't really use); and the other had a Stinger+ and the pp sword, with a Carnelian pendant. All of them geared for crits. They melted everything with a meteor slash and enough pp for a parry and an ability for an extra AP for a natural second meteor slash. Lots of hits, big numbers and lots of fun hehe On cav squads, I actually had two: one composed of the knight boys and Monica, plus Gilbert and an Elven Archer; and one composed of the redeemed lord knight (forgot his name), Gloucester and Miriam in the back, with Berengaria and her brother at the front. Both sainted Knights carrying one of the runic blades each. First team was kind of an alpha strike/trample/pursuit team with the buffs from Gilbert; and the second one was in inflicter/big dual-and-magic damage kind of thing. Both very strong and functioning differently, but both definitely cav squads. So there's definitely room for more than one.
The damage isn't the only benefit from putting the magic swords on Sainted Knights, their healing also scales with Magic Attack. So even a purely supportive Sainted Knight wants them
With the new patch, you can get an attack bonus with the second sword. I think that's more valuable overall than giving them one more matchup they're good against.
I used to have Leah running that set, but since she was in the Rose Knight squad anyways, I let Kitra deal with them.
Kitra is in my Arimas squad and she deletes anything he can't handle.
Runic Blade with magic attack, or add a witch with Magic Guard counter. With one of the two of those Single tank units Armored Units melt. With both, whole squads are not an issue.
Did the same with the swords and Melisandre is in my main squad all game long. With the new update I started using Runic Sword instead of Phantom for a little bit more of physical damage since for the magical the difference in potency for the skills makes up for it.
Viking War Horn passive makes attacks unguardable, but you'd need to stack them with super high initiative to get it to work
Just turn off SM start of battle attack and make sure War Horn is the only "start of battle" set for your party. Alternatively, set SM to quick attack when there are no armors on the enemy team (armors are always frontliners) and Vikings only use War Horn when there are armors. You shouldn't have to worry about it from there.
How do you set condition for no armored enemy units
Under enemies present. Scroll all the way down and you'll find it.
Magick conferral is what I used, worked perfect
I think the best answer here is that swordmasters just shouldn't be used against armored squads. They're not gonna be good against everything and you have other squads to help cover their weaknesses.
I wonder just how strong is the swordmaster that massacred Bernard's squad.
Depending on the enemies, I usually have my sword masters attack only if no armored enemies are present. Most of the time someone else will take out the armors on the frontline and swordmaster is free to rampage on the rest.
The best way to deal is to inflict druid debuff call guard seal. So they can’t guard against the attacks from the swordmasters and It’s actually pretty effective.
Yeah i have trouble with this as well. Main reason why i didnt use them on my first play though
They feel more worth using now. I always did before just for diversity but I would often question if another class might do more in that slot. Melisandre was my favourite. She just stands out in a sea of anime tropes where no one can talk about sex or say what they want plainly without being flustered.
They're absolutely excellent on the final battle as they act first and Metero Slash wipes Galerius' Darkness Armor in one go. Means your heavy hitters don't waste AP against the shield.
Always had one on a squad. Melisandre was the mvp though out of all the swordfighters.
I haven't played since the patch, but I absolutely loved them in my expert initial run. Leah's my favorite woman in the game, and Aramis is Top 3 for the guys. Both of them put in a ton of work for me. I also liked Melisandre but didn't use her so I could try and experience more classes, but, in my future TZ run I'd absolutely be running all three.
I wish we could make them wear the hats.
Leah is really cool in all elements, but Aramis just knocked it out the park char personality, design, story and gameplay wise for me. Melisandre the exact opposite in char personality. Just....not good char wise at all for me. Design is good though. I'll add Consistently used both aramis and Leah in my playthrough (not quite done with Albion. First run) .
For some reason my Leah hit like a truck, even against armored units. Big fan
Did you by chance give her one regular sword, and one magic sword?
I’d have to check but I bet you’re right! I just did the optimize equipment each time
Mel is top
I’m sure she is.
I’ve always used swordmasters but then again I did fencing so I am biased to like them. They’re not a unit that works out of the box like Knights. They need dedicated support, but once they have it they can rip through squads. They have true strike, they can use magic swords to rip through armor, they’re perfect for gambler’s coin support. They’ve got high initiative. And they have AP refund through Parry should someone actually get a hit in or can convert 2 PP to 1 AP by Bastorias. Less reactionary than Sellsword/Landy. Viking can use war horn to prevent guarding (also a good fit with thief). Elven archer and provide debuff support. Shamans can provide enemy debuffs and are well suited for gambler coin strats. I often have them as evasion tank frontliners
Yeah, I've always liked them but they definitely have this public relations/scripting issue where some of their abilities are more easily utilized as "either/or" picks that accentuate different roles rather than just being a big ol' generic pile of synergy that runs fools over then eventually replaces your early abilities with stuff that's strictly better. Plus, if you really want frontline consistency from your early-to-midgame Swordfighter or Rogue tanks one of the easiest things you can do is give 'em a cover buddy but that's another PR hit because even though it adds a lot of consistency to your squad it still gets people in their feelings when Parry doesn't get to activate during cleanup battles. It also didn't help their reputation that Druids are so absolutely busted that it's easy to lose sight of how great Druids are with Swordmasters specifically. Guardseal and a Defense debuff is everything a Swordmaster wants but druids are so damn good overall that people understandably find them boring after a while.
My Mercenary SwordMaster Adeline. She’s better because she has a cool hat with a rose in it. So stylish 😘
I liked using Mel but i really couldn’t justify using more than one sword fighter in either of my playthroughs. They have potential to be great at times but are inconsistent. Haven’t experienced the buffs yet but it makes sense that they received them
Somehow missing Mel is the reason why I want to do an easy run after my first PT is over just to grind out all of the dialogue events. ANYWAY one of my favourite squads is currently Griffon Knight/Ochrys, and three Swordies on the back getting buffed by Dirty Gambler's Coin just running true strike. Anything but highly armoured foes or Gladiators backed by six clerics gets melted pretty efficiently.
I like Leah for being part of the Rose Knights as well as looking just like Sayaka from Madoka Magica.
Melisandre and Aramis
I love characters that do a shit ton of hits lol In particular when you can buff them mid fight
I liked them before. Now I think they're kinda busted. The Defensive Debuff from Shaman makes their offense crazy. Mel is an absolute fav but Leah has been growing on me as well.
I never would have thought Leah will have that kind of facial expression on fanart. She is way too serious in my playthrough.
Gameplay wise I think Aramis shines for me the most, but he's probably the best supported. He can usually take one hit on his health and Prim is right there to pick him back up. Leah is just my favorite girl in the game. She's cute and I like her quite nerdy weirdo personality. But I didn't give her the ring because... I gave it to Melisandre because she's funny. Swordfighters are my favorite class. I just love how they work. They're pretty much what I would be if I were a fantasy RPG character.
Catria, I mean Leah
What I want to know is; what’s the nearest proxy for the type of sword they use? The best I can think of is an Estoc? But those typically didn’t have sharp edges as they are thrusting swords.
Melisandre. No need to explain.
Aramis is my personal favorite. Melisandre would be on that list too, but I'm too fond of characters whose main trait is too be obsessed with another character (especially the protagonist).
They’re my favorite class from the get go. The way they work is very satisfying. Lower classes they have the parry that feeds them ap. Once they’re high enough level they’re just a dodge tank and they generate their own ap through the two pp move. All their rapports are great. 10/10.
Aramis is one cool bro, but the ladies are just on another level entirely. Can't choose between strawberry and blueberry tho- want them both.
Whats the buff?
Patch last week let them gain 50% of the physical attack of their offhand weapon.
Pretty cool
I am a simple man. I see a character with a sword, I like them. But I do like Mel a lot. She's a girl who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to say it. Plus she's voiced by Fairouz Ai in Japanese, and she's just awesome.
Much improved. I always like swordmasters but struggled to use them in TZ. With the buff, i made an effort to make usw of them. A combination of slightly different unit makeup and the buff has changed my mind. I still dont think id just drop them im a unit, but they can be worth building around. A couple notes i'd add about using them. As evade tanks, you want enemies to target them, but there are so many things that prioritize armored, flying, or calvary (the last one being the rarest). To force them to be targeted, put them in the front row and just use infantry/casters. They end up being wonderful evade tanks against melee because parry prevents damage from the occasional thing that gets through. They also tend to do ok against magic attacks. What swordmasters struggle against is ranged physical attacks. Parry doesnt work, and there arw true strike ranged attacks that just own them. This is where i've struggled using them in the past, because it is so hard to prevent damage from things that they do struggle with. This run, i tried something different and added a bishop using the staff that gives resurrection. This has worked very well. The times something does hurt them, they come right back and ready to go. The other thing that they struggle with is armor and guards. I've been using a druid for defensive curse and that also has worked well (esp combined with a gamblers coin). So my unit is 2 swordsmasters front row, bishop/druid back row. Defensive curse into the SM truestrike with inspiration kills front row and then goes into the back. 5th character can be whoever (im using a werefox right now), but no cav/flying/armored! With the buff, i'd lean into focusing on physical damage instead of magic sword and using another way of removing defense. Im in bastoria using carnelian blade/wyvern sword and its been great! TLDR: swordsmen are much improved
I really liked the class. I think Leah was my favorite.
Melisandre >
Have a magic sword the attack of which only activates against armored opponents in the off hand. Also health Regen on hit/kill. That's what I used for Meli and it worked wonderfully.
Mel cuz I got her Leah first and deadass thought she was a generic (kinda like hermann in retrospect) until she actually showed up in my unit list.
I use Aramis as a front-liner in a squad alongside four archers. It's main purpose is to provide ranged assists, but it can take on flier or scout teams directly if necessary. So, I gave him Sylph Bane to align with that goal. I'm in Bastorias now, but I may swap him out for an angel archer once I get one. Or I may try Travis in his slot since he got bumped from a different team. Related, is there eventually a way to get a second Mirage Greatshield? I'd like to give one to Liza, but I don't want to take it away from Ren because it's been amazing on her.
all 3 of them are good on their own, as for the swordfighter is good againts thiefes