Hooray for having less assignments now!
Haven't been posting much on the blog cuz I just got Shin Megami Tensei IV second hand (which is eating up a lot of my time), as well as Pokemon Black (which I'll be using to transfer Pokemons to GEN VI).
Anyways, back to Apotheosis. So on my previous posts I did mention that I learnt a lot of stuff from playing this map. And here's the stuff I learnt.
1. Hawkeye combined with Luna+ sucks ass.
I have not tried Lunatic or Lunatic+ yet (cuz I'm still playing my Hard/Classic playthrough). I know that in Lunatic+ whenever this skill combo appears, you have to restart the game since you have no chance of defeating the opponent. But in Apotheosis, while this skill indeed sucks, you can counter it (though it's hard). This skill combo really sucks cuz it hurts you a lot and that it always hits, and that I died from the Berserker boss that uses these skills multiple times because of it. But there are some important things that you have at your disposal to counter this stuff.
2. Optimal pairings are important in children characters too.
A lot of people say that it is important to pair the right parents together to get a better (or more versatile) child character. But I think in preparation for this map, you'll also need optimal pairings for children characters because pair ups are so important in this map. One example was my Lon'Qu! Inigo (Assassin) who got S-Support with Virion! Kjelle (Swordmaster). When Kjelle paired with Inigo along with the use of rallies and speed tonics, Inigo hit a Speed stat of 84, which is enough to double any opponent in this map (since the highest speed units in the map has a speed of 70, anything 75 or higher can double them).
3. Support skills are important in this map.
Pair ups are vital in Apotheosis. In order to maximize on this, your supporting characters should be equipped with Dual Guard+ (most importantly) and some with Dual Support+. These skills can help a lot against opponents with Hawkeyes that hits hard (like the aforementioned Berserker). I didn't have units with these skills (which made the map hard), only Laurent and Chrom had it (but I used Chrom as a convoy, so it's quite useless for him to have it, and Laurent was paired with Nah, and she hardly attacked as I used Laurent as a support healer).
4. Galeforce is good (again).
One of the best skills in the game (and in some situations the most overrated of all the better skills) is Galeforce. While Galeforce is extremely useful for clearing a map of weak units ridiculously fast, or speeding your way to the boss, or even performing hit-and-runs against stronger enemies, it's greatest weakness is that if you fail to kill your opponent, you just wasted a skill slot as you can't move again. However, this skill is extremely good in Apotheosis as you would be prepared with max stats and paired up characters with stat boosts from rallies and you would be strong enough to defeat opponents and move again in this scenario. That being said there were occasions when the RNG didn't work in my favour and I didn't manage to kill the opponent to activate Galefore, and that Galeforce is not good for a Streetpass team (mostly cuz they can't pair up).
5. I didn't prepare enough Waste and Celica's Gale tomes.
Doubling an opponent is important in this map, and capitalizing your ability to outspeed your opponent with forged weapons is a must to complete this map. The best weapons to use in this map are weapons that allow you to attack four times if you double the enemy, so Brave weapons are essential in the map. However, I didn't prepare enough Celica's Gale and Waste (which are the Brave weapon versions for tomes), so my magic users (Owain, Noire, Laurent, and Brady), weren't able to capitalize on the kill. Fortunately Brady was paired with Cynthia who has Brave Lance and Bows, and Noire was paired with Yarne who has Brave Bows and Swords. Laurent was playing a support role, so it was okay I think.
6. I realized how useful Bows are again.
Don't get me wrong, Bows are good weapons for their ability to deal tripe damage to fliers. It's just that the Sniper and Bow Knight class (which are primary bow users) aren't the best classes in the game. However, in the hands of Gerome, Yarne, Inigo, and Cynthia, it really helped defeat the enemy fliers in one turn (even when they had Aegis+ with them), and Inigo was able to defeat Anna in a turn.
7. Mounted units are good, even though my main attacking force aren't mounted units.
Falcon Knights are extremely useful supporting units are they negate terrains and can use Staves (and Rally). Also, mounted units have great mobility and their some of their stats aren't that bad. The problem is I never use them for my attacking force (aka the children) because they have weakness. If you're able to defeat everyone in the area with mounted units then good for you. But if your units fail to kill that one Archer with Pavise+, you're screwed if you have a Flier nearby and Dual Guard did not trigger.
8. The best attacking skills in this map are Luna, Vengeance, and Astra.
Sol is still a top tier skill (especially against people with Counter), but if you almost always defeat the opponent in one turn with no damage received, then it's not that good. Ignis is okay, but it doesn't have a good damage output if you didn't max either Strength or Magic out (or if either one of those stats are your flaws). Aether is not really worth using, to be honest.
Luna is good in this map because it helps damage the opponent even more since they have Aegis+ and Pavise+. Vengeance is particularly useful against people with Hawkeye that deals a lot of damage since you'll be able to dish out the damage back to them if you're hit (it's even better if the Vengeance user is a Sorcerer with Nosferatu/Averssa's Night). And Astra, well, this is one godlike skill that enables you to deal a maximum of 28 hits to the opponent (Brave weapons on both paired units, Astra and Dual Strike triggered all the time), which will surely kill the enemy.
So yeah, Apotheosis Secret Path was one of the best experience I had with this game despite being tough. It is the best strategy experience you can get in Awakening. Even Normal Path is good too, since they also use different skill setups for the enemies that require you to think a bit more (but not to the extent of Secret Path, and you don't need the same amount of prep for Normal Path). Overall, this is one great DLC that you should buy if you have a stat capped team.
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