I'm glad you've decided to give yourself a break and simply upload regular Fire Emblem gameplay over some crazy challenge using a difficult unit. This montage is giving me great flashbacks of my own January. Time flies. Elder enthusiasts eating good tonight.
Fun video. I really disagree with anyone putting Vander bottom tier, even if he only contributes to the early maps in an "efficient" playthrough, thats better than being bad throughout the game.
Even if he’s not a great combat unit past Ch5, his high HP pool makes him a very good unit in taking hits to be healed by Micaiah Great Sacrifices or group Mends, and so he does help to provide exp to other units. He’s the only solid axe unit who can be broken in early game and so is great at baiting sword breaks immediately through to at least Ch10 whereas Bouch is just too weak without a training arc, Jade can’t be broken and other axe users need second seals/master seals to exist at a point where they’re scarce. He’s also a early promoted unit who can be second sealed into Griffin or Royal Knight for extra high move staff bot duties without needing a master seal, which can situationally make him a valuable support unit on teams where second seals aren’t in high demand, such as if using a ton of the royals who mostly want to stay in their unique classes. Also old man is funny,
He's not an insanely powerful unit that keeps up like Titania or Seth, but he provides what only Louis gives you within the first chapters, which is a front line damage soak and damage dealer. Without Vander you're in for a terrible time on the highest difficulty. He weakens foes down and can tank the blunt force of a loaded enemy phase which is super helpful early on where you don't have access to broken Emblems yet.
Unironically this was similar to my experience using Vander. Decided to give the dude a try, slapped Hector on him, gave him Starphere and used Legacy for a boost to Arena exp since he gets normal arena exp and more with that, then Canter for normal maps, and he was just as good as the other units I did that with. He even looks slick as hell engaged with Hector, so I like using the guy.
Before you ask: I am sure the devs are actually at the wisest when designing this Jagen archetype character. The manage to figure out how to make a "well-balanced" Jagen archetype character here in mind when "tanks enemies and nearly ORKOs them so that your weaker units can killsteal for EXP" thing factored. Vander might have low growths but he does maybe possibly catch up if you give him a lot of skrimsh exp later on. His growths are at least not exaggeratedly bad like the early FE games' Jagen archetypes. In fact, Vander is actually built perfectly for a Jagen type character: his stat build is so bulky. Boost his Def, Res and HP more, and he will survive attacks you think he can't otherwise. He's not speedy, but he will hit like a truck with Silver Greataxe.
ignoreing... this calling a jeagen bad is like calling your mom bad because she "falls off" in the late game like bro she took care of you when you at your weakest show some respect
Honestly vander perfectly fits the “crutch character” idea that jagens are “supposed” to be. He’s a bulky unit for new players to rely on but as players get better they’ll lean on him less in favour of other units (and by other units I mean Chloe). I just wish his hitrates were better and his personal didn’t make him more likely to steal kills.
I found Vander very useful as a tank after I gave him a dawn engraved iron greataxe, so it's cool to see that pushing that idea further works even better. That Ike montage was worth the buildup
Making him as Great Knight and pair him with Ike Ring, along the Anti-Follow up attack skill is like making a Walking Fortress with Hard Counter. Vander never be benched on my playthrough xD
Super super impressive video as always but like the most impressive thing to me is that you kept him paladin the whole time i went in expecting a switch to warrior or maybe wyvern but holy shit that was phenomenal
Of course one of my favorite characters in Engage would be a Jagen in one of the worst possible games for Jagens. Still love him to death, I’ll make to sure to give him a good build in Heroes when he is released and in Engage if I buy the game.
That was an INSANE video, jeez, he could tank crits just like Brom ! Honestly, it's also funny t osee that you almost managed to recreate the trailer moment where he crits....or maybe it's scripted I dunno? Or that random dude getting 2 23% crit Also emblems are really busted, also is it me or it's the second time some manages to get Aether and rekt everyone ? (we don't forget Roderick here)
Trying this without dlc and using Great Knight Vander instead My guy is still slaying, right now he can oneshot Griss' entire team in ch17. Never Slander the Vander
Dude your savs bugged it says paladin when he's a general. Taking 1 x 9 like it's nothing. Oh its double bugged since he is getting more crits than a berserker.
I think some Old School fans haven't accepted that Engage has made it EASY to make even VANDAR a JAGAN hard to fall off if you devote yourself to keeping them viable! Feels like they expect EVERYONE to play Maddening (I prefer Hard/Classic! It's a BALANCED setting that keeps it hard, but not unwinnable IF I'm smart, Maddening is good EARLY on, but DEAR GOD is it aggravating! I feel Maddening in the future SHOULD balance the "Extra Skill" Unbreakable/Veteran+ to be more REASONABLE! Veteran+ makes me think Veteran was suppose to be on Hard which is LESSER and still allows Effective damage to an extent! And not 100% remove Break! I really feel that would have been WISER for Hard! What I liked about Maddening in Engage was it felt like it barely increased enemy stats and convinced you to be smarter then "be more overpowered" but then the DLC went into "SNK Boss" mode on me the moment I made the mistake of waiting till Level 20 to do Hector and saw that DEF stat of his and realize you HAVE to do ALL the DLC the moment they are unlocked and get the Bracelets, Soren, Hector, Chrom and Camella especially or you will REGRET IT) Feels like they judge them on you going into Maddening and never equipping a Ring on characters to judge them, then are surprised. I kept hearing SOO MUCH about Kagetsu and frankly was disappointed! On his join map he's good against the final stretch enemies on Chapter 11. and maybe a slight bit on Chapter 12, but he struggled for real damage on chapter 13! This is without rings and was little different then Lapis who I love using more! Then I used the rings and he was about the same as Lapis! Low Investment really doesn't get explained WELL to understand what it means. Frankly it feels like "you use less books" but you STILL have to raise those bond levels and FORGE. Frankly every character has something you must work on! And the fun is seeing the FRUITS of your labor Vander for example is NOT SO GREAT in the Doubling Department, and is likely to get doubled himself! BUT his damage is on point and he can take hits. So work around that (same applies to Bunet! Choose what to make em and stick to it (You can even help with DEFENSE on Vander via making him a Great Knight! and now he has a second weapon....really feel two to three weapons needs to come back! Hated how Paladin was stuck with ONE weapon)
vander is not a bad unit per se i think if he is so low in the tier list it is because he is a very good tank at the beginning but he will be replaced and when we try to play him again it will be less strong
Not to be rude or anything, very impressive that you made him work, but isn’t this just putting a lot of effort into something other units can do better and with less effort…?