Fire Emblem: Three Houses DLC Wave 2 Available Now (Maddening Difficulty, New Outfit for Students, Glasses for Byleth, Male Byleth's Voice Changed)

Soph · Sep 11, 2019

About the Dark Knight, I never used Lysithea.

My Byleth was a level or two higher then the rest and using gloves you can actually hit him twice, if you heal him on your own turns fully you should have no trouble. I found it rather odd, as gloves wasn't even his primary or secondary proficiency. Talking Lunatic difficulty here.

This DLC looks maddening, I'm up for a second run when I finish the first. This game is far too big for its own good.

Danielsan · Sep 11, 2019

HBK said:
There are always ways to read such things in a negative way. "Maddening" as in "it'll make you mad" can also easily be read as referring to madness as a mental disorder.

I don't really care what's it's called, but keeping a consistent naming convention helps players know what they're getting into.

Also we'll need to have more reports of later game Maddening difficulty, but I wish Normal was called Easy, Hard was called Normal, and we would have had a proper "Hard" difficulty between "Normal" and "Utter Suffering".

I'm happy for those who like those brutally hard modes, but Hard isn't even remotely Hard, so you basically have the choice between "Normal" difficulty and "Super Hard" difficulty, with nothing in-between.

Are we sure that the Maddening really is that hard? I've only played the tutorial mission so far, but that didn't seem excessive. The enemies were dead in 2 hits and if you used the terrain you could easily deal with 3 attackers on 1 character.

FF Seraphim · Sep 11, 2019

Novel Mike said:
Early game Maddening is very challenging. I completed chapter 2 last night and the lack of experience has you putting your level 1-2 characters (Byleth and Claude might be higher by a level or two) against level 9 characters that actually have good abilities. Thieves have pass, archers have +1 range (meaning they can counter curved shot which is really bad) and poison touch. Being higher leveled means that they will almost always double your characters and many can just 1 shot mages/archers and everyone else just barely survives. Oh the boss also moves now when you get within range. My strongest character was Byleth at level 5 at the very end of this map (going very, very slowly) and the boss doubled him and brought him down to 1 HP, he would've easily killed anyone else and I had to use Byleth to draw him out.

Also had to use all 3 Divine Pulses at this point. I think you normally start with 4 on hard and jesus do they feel needed here.

The level disparity also means you are doing really low damage so you need to use special attacks which means you also end up running out of durability a lot faster. I had 3 or 4 broken weapons at the end of the battle.

Is this a NG+ run?

Bomblord · Sep 11, 2019

Edit: nvm

HBK · Sep 11, 2019

Danielsan said:
Are we sure that the Maddening really is that hard? I've only played the tutorial mission so far, but that didn't seem excessive. The enemies were dead in 2 hits and if you used the terrain you could easily deal with 3 attackers on 1 character.

No we're not, which is why I'm asking for reports of later game Maddening difficulty where you can have a bit of grind to keep your units up to speed.

skLaFarebear · Sep 11, 2019

Danielsan said:
Are we sure that the Maddening really is that hard? I've only played the tutorial mission so far, but that didn't seem excessive. The enemies were dead in 2 hits and if you used the terrain you could easily deal with 3 attackers on 1 character.

There's a pretty big jump between the tutorial mission and the first mock battle. If you're playing BL for example, Dorothea alone doubles and can one shot dimitri and dedue.

That being said, gotta keep our eyes out for more later game footage. Seems like there might be more enemies/reinforcements but i can't confirm.

Xavi · Sep 11, 2019

Danielsan said:
Are we sure that the Maddening really is that hard? I've only played the tutorial mission so far, but that didn't seem excessive. The enemies were dead in 2 hits and if you used the terrain you could easily deal with 3 attackers on 1 character.

There's a pretty big jump in the difficulty between the tutorial and the mock battle

CarlSagan94 · Sep 11, 2019

The new costumes are fun but I really, really hope that the next batch of costumes are more serious or in-character for the students/teachers.

Haven't been convinced to buy the pass yet with recycling of existing maps for 'new' auxiliary battles and some cute costumes. I really hope the story dlc will sell me on it!

Xavi · Sep 11, 2019

Also, the new screen if you clear it on maddening is pretty lame, I was expecting something else.

Novel Mike · Sep 11, 2019

FF Seraphim said:
Is this a NG+ run?

No.

Ultimadrago · Sep 11, 2019

Xavi said:
Also, the new screen if you clear it on maddening is pretty lame, I was expecting something else.

What is it? Is there a screencap or footage of it anywhere?

Xavi · Sep 11, 2019

Ultimadrago said:
What is it? Is there a screencap or footage of it anywhere?

Someone posted it one page back

HBK · Sep 11, 2019

Xavi said:
Also, the new screen if you clear it on maddening is pretty lame, I was expecting something else.

Not sure what they could have done. The current "clear" screen is pretty neat.

Edit:

Ultimadrago said:
What is it? Is there a screencap or footage of it anywhere?

Basically it's ...

The current screen with a different lighting. There's like a big yellow light above the throne/Sothis.

blonded · Sep 11, 2019

Haven't got the game yet but how challenging is Hard mode?

Xavi · Sep 11, 2019

blonded said:
Haven't got the game yet but how challenging is Hard mode?

Part 1 is easy, part 2 gets more challenging but it is still a very easy mode.

Bonejack · Sep 11, 2019

blonded said:
Haven't got the game yet but how challenging is Hard mode?

Imagine a non-stationary, higher-level-than-your-people Death Knight without weakness to anti-cav skills and spells charging at you from turn 1.

E: Ah sorry, i mixed it with the new Maddening difficulty.

See Xavi's post. It's rather easy, but can get more difficult in certain chapters.

HBK · Sep 11, 2019

blonded said:
Haven't got the game yet but how challenging is Hard mode?

If you're an experienced player, "Hard" difficulty mode (as per game naming conventions) is slightly challenging while never being actually hard. You need to pay attention to what you're doing, but it's totally doable without having to plan multiple turns ahead, and simply by reacting appropriately to what's going on.

As for the new "Maddening" difficulty mode, it's still undergoing evaluation. It looks like it's brutal though. Like really, really, really hard.

Disclaimer · Sep 11, 2019

blonded said:
Haven't got the game yet but how challenging is Hard mode?

If you're a series veteran, it won't be very challenging, barring some exceptional maps. If you're a newcomer, it'd probably be just right. Normal, on the other hand, may as well have been named "Story Mode."

Then there's Maddening... which seems pretty insane. So overall, Three Houses is another entry with poor difficulty balancing between the modes. Pretty unfortunate.

Puffy · Sep 11, 2019

Is that it?

HBK · Sep 11, 2019

Disclaimer said:
If you're a series veteran, it won't be very challenging, barring some exceptional maps. If you're a newcomer, it'd probably be just right. Normal, on the other hand, may as well have been named "Story Mode."

Then there's Maddening... which seems pretty insane. So overall, Three Houses is another entry with poor difficulty balancing between the modes. Pretty unfortunate.

Yeah, I wish there was a way to have a "Hard+" mode or something.

Right now we have "piss easy", "remotely challenging", and "brutally hard".

Aka. "Easy", "Normal", and "Insane". With no "Hard" in-between.

blonded · Sep 11, 2019

Xavi said:
Part 1 is easy, part 2 gets more challenging but it is still a very easy mode.

Bonejack said:
Imagine a non-stationary, higher-level-than-your-people Death Knight without weakness to anti-cav skills and spells charging at you from turn 1.

E: Ah sorry, i mixed it with the new Maddening difficulty.

See Xavi's post. It's rather easy, but can get more difficult in certain chapters.

HBK said:
If you're an experienced player, "Hard" difficulty mode (as per game naming conventions) is slightly challenging while never being actually hard. You need to pay attention to what you're doing, but it's totally doable without having to plan multiple turns ahead, and simply by reacting appropriately to what's going on.

As for the new "Maddening" difficulty mode, it's still undergoing evaluation. It looks like it's brutal though. Like really, really, really hard.

Disclaimer said:
If you're a series veteran, it won't be very challenging, barring some exceptional maps. If you're a newcomer, it'd probably be just right. Normal, on the other hand, may as well have been named "Story Mode."

Then there's Maddening... which seems pretty insane. So overall, Three Houses is another entry with poor difficulty balancing between the modes. Pretty unfortunate.

So i'm guessing Maddening is a lot closer to Conquest Lunatic than Hard?

Xavi · Sep 11, 2019

blonded said:
So i'm guessing Maddening is a lot closer to Conquest Lunatic than Hard?

I'm still early on Maddening but I have the impression this is going to be harder than Conquest Lunatic.

Danielsan · Sep 11, 2019

So fucking excited by all these posts about the difficulty of maddening. Can't wait to get off of work and go through the first non-tutorial battle.

Sieglinde · Sep 11, 2019

Playing the mock battle in maddening and just realized i hadn't seen the Game Over screen before lol, didn't cross my mind that those are thing in my other playthroughs.

Disclaimer · Sep 11, 2019

HBK said:
Yeah, I wish there was a way to have a "Hard+" mode or something.

Right now we have "piss easy", "remotely challenging", and "brutally hard".

Aka. "Easy", "Normal", and "Insane". With no "Hard" in-between.

Yep. It's something they really need to work on improving.

skLaFarebear · Sep 11, 2019

HBK said:
Yeah, I wish there was a way to have a "Hard+" mode or something.

Right now we have "piss easy", "remotely challenging", and "brutally hard".

Aka. "Easy", "Normal", and "Insane". With no "Hard" in-between.

The closest thing to that with probably be a NG+ playthrough on Maddening. Still difficult early on, but having strong battalions as well as a shit ton of professor points and recruiting the best students will make you snowball faster than the enemies do.

You also get WAY more renown depending on how many routes you've cleared now.

Bonejack · Sep 11, 2019

I mean, yeah, they need to improve balancing difficulties in the next FE games, but i can understand them somewhat failing in this case. It really must be a bitch balancing something if you're giving the player some real freedom in terms of army and unit building.

Sieglinde · Sep 11, 2019

HBK said:
Yeah, I wish there was a way to have a "Hard+" mode or something.

Right now we have "piss easy", "remotely challenging", and "brutally hard".

Aka. "Easy", "Normal", and "Insane". With no "Hard" in-between.

I honestly don't think Maddening is brutally hard, specially if you're on NG+ although i've only played 2 chapters it doesn't seem like Awakenings lunatic+ level of stupid hard, is just challenging from what i've seen.

HBK · Sep 11, 2019

skLaFarebear said:
The closest thing to that with probably be a NG+ playthrough on Maddening. Still difficult early on, but having strong battalions as well as a shit ton of professor points and recruiting the best students will make you snowball faster than the enemies do.

You also get WAY more renown depending on how many routes you've cleared now.

Yeah you're right. I'll probably try that on a next playthrough. But even with good battalions, it looks like the first (actually second) battle will still be pretty hard though.

skLaFarebear · Sep 11, 2019

HBK said:
Yeah you're right. I'll probably try that on a next playthrough. But even with good battalions, it looks like the first (actually second) battle will still be pretty hard though.

Looks like bows and vulneries are definitely gonna be your best friend very early on. On the plus side you can cheese some of the magic users like Manuela into being completely useless once she runs out of casts and as long as byleth and your lord don't die you're fine.

HBK · Sep 11, 2019

skLaFarebear said:
Looks like bows and vulneries are definitely gonna be your best friend very early on. On the plus side you can cheese some of the magic users like Manuela into being completely useless once she runs out of casts and as long as byleth and your lord don't die you're fine.

Early game may be manageable.

But.

Welp.

There are pics of Silver Snow last battle enemy stats.

I've seen a mage with 80 atk (not joking) 25 AS, and 25 prt (and like 45 rsl).

Eeek.

Deleted member 4090 · Sep 11, 2019

HBK said:
Yeah you're right. I'll probably try that on a next playthrough. But even with good battalions, it looks like the first (actually second) battle will still be pretty hard though.

They'll at least be a fairly normal Hard mode that way. Do you have access to spending Renown before the mock battle?

Even without it, some battalions will push you out of Double range, or full to death doubles, and double the damage of some of the crappier units.

I do expect it to even out, but putting such a huge roadblock before you get any customization options seems like it is really ill-advised.

skLaFarebear · Sep 11, 2019

HBK said:
Early game may be manageable.

But.

Welp.

There are pics of Silver Snow last battle enemy stats.

I've seen a mage with 80 atk (not joking) 25 AS, and 25 prt (and like 45 rsl).

Eeek.

wtf bruh that's encroaching on some GD final boss type stats lmfao

PBalfredo · Sep 11, 2019

Xavi said:
I'm still early on Maddening but I have the impression this is going to be harder than Conquest Lunatic.

Oof. I bounced off of Awakening Lunatic early due to Frederick being the only one with a chance to not die instantly. I was really looking forward to a new difficulty mode that would feel more like Hard mode in part 2, since part 1 in Hard is a cakewalk. I don't know about committing to a full route of that, especially knowing how some of the maps in part 2 hike up the difficulty as is.

Deleted member 39744 · Sep 11, 2019

Game Over in the second map... this is going to be hard.

Why did they change Byleth's voice actor by the way ? Has something happened ?

Disclaimer · Sep 11, 2019

WiWi said:
Game Over in the second map... this is going to be hard.

Why did they change Byleth's voice actor by the way ? Has something happened ?

Original VA was a serial abuser who also broke NDA.

NSESN · Sep 11, 2019

Disappointed that no one posted a Golden ~~State~~ Deer Warriors pic

And I dont even have my switch with me to do it myself

Nayishiki · Sep 11, 2019

NSESN said:
Disappointed that no one posted a Golden ~~State~~ Deer Warriors pic

And I dont even have my switch with me to do it myself

This works?

Lumination · Sep 11, 2019

I thought Conquest Lunatic was the pinnacle of FE difficulty balancing. Maddening being maybe harder sounds... iffy. Hopefully I'll still be able to recruit everyone, but losing 1+ dark seals sounds rough.

Deleted member 43084 · Sep 11, 2019

The real disappointment is that the instructors and the Knights of Serios don't get to pump up and slam.

NSESN · Sep 11, 2019

Nayishiki said:
This works?

Thanks

HeroR · Sep 11, 2019

Xavi said:
Part 1 is easy, part 2 gets more challenging but it is still a very easy mode.

Part 1 does have early game hell, especially the mock battle.

Magnemania · Sep 11, 2019

Lumination said:
I thought Conquest Lunatic was the pinnacle of FE difficulty balancing. Maddening being maybe harder sounds... iffy. Hopefully I'll still be able to recruit everyone, but losing 1+ dark seals sounds rough.

It's about on par with Conquest Lunatic. Enemies are comparatively stronger than the ones in Conquest Lunatic but the player has weapon arts/gambits to spam (and two overpowered lords rather than one).

skLaFarebear · Sep 11, 2019

Magnemania said:
It's about on par with Conquest Lunatic. Enemies are comparatively stronger than the ones in Conquest Lunatic but the player has weapon arts/gambits to spam (and two overpowered lords rather than one).

As well as Divine Blessing, characters that can use any kind of weapon, etc. You have significantly more tools to handle the challenge compared to Fates.

Diarrhea Day-Lewis · Sep 11, 2019

Those items, can you buy them separately or just with the whole season pass? Would make my 2nd and 3rd runs easier

Xavi · Sep 11, 2019

bonesawisready5 said:
Those items, can you buy them separately or just with the whole season pass? Would make my 2nd and 3rd runs easier

They part of the season pass

Xavi · Sep 11, 2019

Lysithea memes will continue to live on

Cudpug · Sep 11, 2019

Has anyone else found the update causes their game to crash? No issues before downloading, now it crashes.

LunaSerena · Sep 11, 2019

Just in time for me to start my second run!

FF Seraphim · Sep 11, 2019

Xavi said:
Lysithea memes will continue to live on

So on maddening he just stays there?

Fire Emblem: Three Houses DLC Wave 2 Available Now (Maddening Difficulty, New Outfit for Students, Glasses for Byleth, Male Byleth's Voice Changed)

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