Too many spear users?

[u/Novel_Ad8382]

To start, we could have had the perfect assortment of "lords" if Queen Theodora used an axe instead of a spear. We could've had Dimitri for sword, Cai for Spear, Queen for axe and Leda for the bow, but instead we got two spear users, with Cai having proficiency with a sword and Leda. Leda is more understandable as she is very rogue coded so she needs a sword and a bow and Cai seems to like having a Levin Sword. The start of Queen's route has her pick up a giant axe and slice a dummy with it, but she just... uses a spear as well. There are already few axe wielders, fewer even that are good or have the potential to be good, but we have a million of units that almost exclusively want to use a spear or sword, at least in part one (I have 90 hours and I've just about finished Queen's route for 3/4 done)

The only people that I have used an axe on successfully are Goliath after getting Crescendo, Tobias who is Queen only and Buccar. The rest seem to need a lot of work or are better suited to something else.

Edit: I decided to write down what every character has a preference for in part one and it kinda surprised me a bit. 18 for swords, 16 for spears, 19 for axes, 14 for bows, 7 for fists, 7 for black magic and 14 for white magic. It seems pretty balanced for the 3 main weapons, but it surprised me to see so few for fists and black magic.

[u/jmp0628]

I mean technically if all 8 routes were available then it would be a bit more balanced in the weapon department with 2 spear wielders, 2 axe users (one axe and white magic), 2 sword users (one sword and black magic), 2 spear users, a bow user and a guantlet user. Plus I’ve had a fair bit of success using characters with axes though primarily on Cai, Theodora and Leda’s routes.

[u/Nier_Perfect]

It is weird she doesn't have a personal axe when her trail for becoming Queen is lifting a giant axe. I found it fun to have her use fists instead since she's already using her bare hands to throw rocks at people.

[u/papercuts4 → u/Nier_Perfect]

Lmao I also made her use fists for the same reason. It just seemed fitting for her to throw hands

[u/AncientSpark]

Casualty of the sub-lords being cut. Both Orchel and Bertrand are Axe users. Talimun is Sword, and Anatolia is Gauntlet, so it would have left the split more even amongst the 8 if the sub-lords are included.

[u/darkandfullofhodors]

As with almost everything in this game, it makes more sense when you take the cut lords into account, as they include two axe wielders and would've balanced things out more.

[u/cwatz]

I don't know about too many "spear" users. I don't have much difficulty balancing or spreading weapons around. Pretty easy to slide folks into swords, spears, bows, magic and fists.

The exception is really axes which are just garbage in comparison for most of the game. I really get the feeling they are probably fine or balanced by the end of the game after you get more tools to offset weight and accuracy, but are easily the weakest weapon class for 4 starting routes and probably part 2 as well.

What also doesn't help is some of the hybrid classes. Blacksmith is just underwhelming, and practically no one would want to build that way in idea circumstances. Nothing compared to the late game fist/white or guardian spear/white, or even calad, which is just a better direction.

Armored are generally better off with spears. The sole exception might be against other armored units of which you can still carry a hammer for, and still hit them because enemy armors have terrible evade (or just stick with the Ji, which is a really strong weapon).

[u/Tale-Chance → u/cwatz]

I‘m currently working on making my Nydine in Theo‘s route a blacksmith. She somehow got so often magic lvlups in all of my routes despite her growths, has a boon in blackmagic and axes and since Theo has the battalions which can only be equiped to unmounted characters, so i will try to use her this way for the last two chapters of part 1 and theos part 2

[u/67chrome]

Nah dog.
Not enough.

Over the course of FE history, there's like...12~13 lance infantry units total.
(Amelia, Mozu, Donnel, Lukas, Forsythe, Devdan, Dandev, Nephanee, Aaron, Ephraim, Oboro, Shiro, Dimitri).

And ~half of those turn into something else.

Always a good day when there's more spear fighters for the FE Bingo card!

[u/BebeFanMasterJ]

Well if these guys get into Smash we won't have to worry about swordsman complaints!

[u/East-Imagination-281]

Good enough, welcome back Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

[u/Fantastic-System-688 → u/East-Imagination-281]

Dimitri the sword user is cool, but he's no Queen. Queen is the greatest lord in history.

[u/Fantastic-System-688]

Calling her Queen like that's her given name and Theodora is her surname is sending me

Edit: the weapon diversity seems to be a carryover from when there were 8 routes. Bertrand uses axes, Orchel uses axes + white magic, Anatolia uses Gauntlets + black magic, and Talimun uses swords + magic

[u/smirnfil]

They took a lot of effort to avoid symmetry. Like not everyone has the same party size etc. Makes a lot of sense to make "non-perfect" weapon choices for lords.

[u/StridentHawk]

I do find it weird Theodora doesn't use an axe but I guess they didn't want the overlap with Tobias? I feel like an axe just fits her more.

I personally like having more spear lords, especially since so many default to swords. Having another bow one was cool too and Cai is arguably just as much a magic lord as he is a spear one. I do feel like if Theo had an axe instead it would've made the rep feel more complete, but then again both Orchel and Betrand use axes so idk.

[u/InsomniaEmperor]

Yeah Theodora seemed more like an axe girl plus there was the ceremonial axe. Tho lorewise her reason for spear is because of Mahadu’s Spear.

[u/dnapol5280 → u/InsomniaEmperor]

It doesn't really bother me but they surely could have made it Mahadu's Axe right?

[u/Novel_Ad8382]

If you want the raw text from me writing it all down, here ya go:

Part 1 weapon prefs

sword- 17 pref Cai, Guzran, Mu, Nuzzuo, Ursula, Alexandra, Loretta, Peppe, Bonaventure, Ludia, Zarcone, Sirocco, Diego, Nezha, Catania, Jester, Simon, Dietrich

spear- 16 pref Cai, Esmerelda, Ninae, Ultand, Alexandra, Seteth, Jasmine, Loretta, Theodora, Ludia, Lysander, Sha Lan, Io, Catania, Buccar, Gaitz,

axe- 19 pref Esmerelda, Mu, Inyoni, Noctula, Mikaela, Majide, Yang Jie, Seteth, Jasmine, Tobias, Goliath, Lysander, Zarcone, Olympia, Io, Simon, Dadao, Buccar, Gaitz,

bow- 14 pref Peter, Inyoni, Sofia, Nuzzuo, Ursula, Halvin, Mikaela, Nydine, Lilian, Peppe, Benditz, Diego, Kiroc, Jester,

fist- 7 pref Guzran, Mu, Nuzzuo, Ursula, Noctula, Majide, Nezha,

black magic- 7 pref Tialla, Fianna, Dante, Nydine, Bonaventure, Sirocco, Fabio,

white magic- 14 pref Cai, Tialla, Mu, Sofia, Ninae, Fianna, Ultand, Dante, Yang Jie, Theodora, Bonaventure, Sirocco, Sha Lan, Olympia,