This crossed my mind while I was looking through my codex.
What weapons do you wish would be added to the game, or wish existed in Warframe? They can be concepts, variants, weapons with lore reasons or even types that don't exist yet.
I'm listing mine down because i have a few I would love to see in Warframe, might draw them if i had have the time to. As much as these might tip the balance of the game, just take it as good fun.
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• Original Weapon Concept (Own idea): Nikana/Two Handed Nikana with a Heavy attack that creates a burst of explosions. If you've ever played Spiral Knights and seen an Acheron's charged attack, basically that. It'd be so epic, even if it's just a short ranged explosion. And it'd make for some really cool Captura shots.
• Faction Weapon (Tenno, Grineer, Sentient, etc): Because of the Ghoulsaw, I've always wondered what would happen if there are different faction versions of it. Imagine the Corpus Assault Saw version, and doing the combo where you ride it creates a Tron light trail behind you that damages enemies. And It'd be in the same aesthetic as the Cycron.
• Variant Weapon (Primes, Vandals, Wraiths, Kuva, Tenets, etc): I still want that Daikyu Prime, but for the sake of not asking just for Primes. . . a Tenet Sonicor would be hella fun. I remember i used to love using the Sonicor when it was added, and was my favorite secondary until it was powercreeped.
• Syndicate Weapon (Entrati, Red Veil, Simaris, etc): I would actually love to see an Incarnon Bow weapon. I'm not sure if it was teased in the previous dev-stream but It would be really cool to have. Maybe it transforms into a crossbow the bar is filled.
• Lore Weapon (Weapon that should exist based on lore): For the longest time, I've always wanted Limbo to have an cane sword to accompany him. One that he holds like a gentleman while wearing the Magrite Alternate Helm.
• Arch Weapon: The idea of having an Archgun that's kind of like the Half-Life 2 gravity gun intrigues me. . .It does Magnetic damage though, but I feel like using it to catch Oxium Ospreys and throwing them back to their Corpus masters.
• Modular: I so wanted a Glaive Zaw. It might make the existing glaives power-crept but i had this idea of a system where depending on the grip, the blades could crate either a Glaive or Dual Swords/Daggers.

Those are just my random ideas, with no thoughts as to stats because I don't feel like doing the math unless i actually want them to exist.

What would you guys create or wish was in the game?

Still looking for that 10/10. Maybe it’s you?
I wanna talk about food, the dumb stuff you did today, our mutual appreciation for rear ends, and why cereal is the best late night snack. I like gin, cool words, watching food network and pretending I can cook, all of the worst movies, and making bread. Tell me something awesome about you, something crazy you've done, play a drinking game with me, or discuss whether a grilled cheese or a taco would win in a fight. Let's hang out and be pals.

The Foundations of Humanity 8 (Cultivation) - an NoP fanfic
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Thank you u/SpacePaladin15 for establishing the Nature of Predators Universe, and for allowing Fanfics to flourish!
Warning. This is disgustingly cute and very intimate with lots of touching. You have been warned.
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Memory transcription subject: Valek, Venlil-Human Partnership Program Participant
Date [standardized human time]: August 25th, 2136. Early morning
I knew the heat beside me before I finished dreaming, and I knew the arms around me before my eyes opened. Maeve was huddled against me, nuzzled into my collar wool as she dozed. I dared not move, as I knew she had another hour or more before a full rest.
While planning my extraction, I felt her pull harder and take a deep breath, before opening her eyes.
"Good morning, handsome,"
"Good waking, little leafy green." Maeve pushed her face further into my mane at that. "I know you have a longer sleep than we do, please don't wake up on my account."
"It's ok, I'm doing this as much for me as for you," she whispered, as she pressed her lips to my shoulder.
Maeve pulled herself from me and stretched the length of the bed with a loud groan, before settling back against me on her side, and looked at me with a smile, "I'll be honest you are very comfortable, I could see this becoming a habit."
It was only then I noticed, to my horror, my tail had found its way between us. I hoped she didn't catch on to the implications of my tail curled around her foreleg, but my shaking reply left no questions. "I think I could be convinced."
We giggled to each other, while she reached over and started to idly scratch through the tuft on my chest, to my immense satisfaction. I could only see half of her face around the pillow, but the look from that gleaming green eye was the closest thing to 'predatory' I've ever seen from Maeve.
"Well!" Maeve said with a start, lifting her hand from me, "as lovely as this is, it's time to get up, and I wouldn't mind a snack. Do you still want to try the rec room for art supplies?"
"Oh that would be wonderful! My parents couldn't afford art classes, so I only had public events to really try it."
"You didn't have art in school?"
"Well no, we couldn't afford it, that's what I said."
"Sorry, that's not what I mean," Maeve clarified, muffled through her changing of clothes, "Ok, first off, do the Venlil have a concept of public schooling? Education of subjects deemed necessary, paid for by the state, and free to the parents?."
"Of course we do! You can't have modern civilization without everyone knowing the basics of things like math and science."
"Well for humans, several of those subjects are art."
My ears snapped forward, utterly surprised, "Really?? Why??" I asked as we left the room.
"I'll admit, it is relatively recent; for most of human history, several hundred thousand years at least, artistic expression was something that humans just did, without any assistance or education. There were earlier instances of art being treated like a trade, apprentice learning from journeymen, but I think the earliest examples of formal artistic education were in pre-Christian Rome, so that would be… 3, maybe 4 thousand years ago? At that time and for a long time after, artistic education was only taught to the elite. Not because of pay or profit, but because the wealthy and powerful were cultural leaders and needed to be taught as much about culture as possible, including art."
"The concept of public education has come and gone several times in human history, but our current era started I think in the 1500's, almost 700 years ago, and even then artistic expression only became part of it around 300 years ago, or less. There were a lot of reasons why they included it: social reasons, political reasons, scientific… but it wasn't until after the Satellite Wars that such practices became ubiquitous. So now, almost every living human will have had at least one or two years of formal training in the arts by adulthood, to familiarize them with the concept of expression and creation."
"That's incredible!" I exclaimed as we entered the Mess Hall, to the shock of several Venlil and a few humans nearby, "I mean, Maeve! Your people's warlike history is well documented; why, by the sun and stars, would artistic education be compulsory for a species at war?"
"Like I said, there's a lot of reasons" gathering our food, we found empty seats by the window, "In fact, one of those reasons is precisely to prevent war." My mouth hung agape as I nearly dropped my tray; settling in, Maeve now had my full attention.
"You remember what I said about humans feeling too much?" I did, and the reminder of last waking's events did not help my nerves, but I nodded and Maeve continued all the same between sips of what I now know was coffee, "Humans appear to have incredible impulse, or as the Venlil call it 'instinct', control because we have had to learn and develop effective ways to control it. One of the most effective of which is Expression; to put that emotion out of your body and into the world in some way."
Having finished our meal, we started toward the rec room, "True, this can manifest in… unkind ways such as posturing, fighting, or just yelling, but it can also be expressed in others such as running, talking with someone who listens, and, of course, artistic works."
"So we started to teach our children how to express their imagination and emotions in non-violent ways such as the Arts. Not everyone continues practicing, and very few find professional success, but every human knows enough to understand and participate." The door to the Rec Room slid open in front of us, "Here we are, Valek. You said you checked this out on the first day, so how about you give me the tour?"
It was a large room, about the same as the bathing room including the drying corridor. The walls were lined with full bookshelves, colored boxes, and several large viewing screens with comfortable seating. Several tables made up the interior, some with what appeared to be a Pad-mount attached to a keyboard; some designed for humans, some for Venlil. I saw several pairs already engaged in activities; a mixed group of six were seated and watching what appeared to be a world of cubes, and several pairs appeared to be using their pads together, though I couldn't tell what they were doing.
“I didn't have anyone to show me around last time, so I’m not sure what some of this is. Social media is pretty big on Venlil Prime, so I think these are to communicate with the herd," I said, motioning to the Pad-mounts. “It looks like Humans are as fond of reading as we are, judging by the bookshelves. But I’m not sure what that is,” motioning to the large displays, “I think they're watching a movie? I’ve never seen one like that, though.”
“Oh! They’re playing Minecraft. Interactive media, such as video games, are really big with humans. The one they’re playing is a little more than a hundred years old now, but it never lost its appeal.”
“You said it's interactive? How?”
“Oh you just use the controller to… wait… um…” She seemed to be trying to find out how to begin, “So you told me the Venlil have, like, shows and stuff right? Well, just like those shows take place in a False World where the actions of the actors influence change upon it, video games also take place in a false world. The difference is; your actions in the Real World are interpreted as actions in the False World; it’s like you, the player, are the actor in these shows.”
“That’s so cool! I’ll have to try that sometime.”
Maeve and I explored the room further, I was especially interested in their library; what kinds of stories would I see here? About to pull a large anthology book with what appeared to be a large human holding a lightning bolt, I heard Maeve call from the other corner.
“I think I found the art supplies! So when you did your community art, were you a paint guy or a chalk guy?”
“Oh, chalk please! Most of our public works are temporary, so using something that washes with the rain is very useful.” Their artistic education is complex enough to teach different mediums? Such classes are prohibitively expensive to have, and every human learns this??
“Well I don’t see chalk, but that tells me you prefer a dry medium, so let's try pencil and markers.” Maeve said as she pulled out sheets of paper and two buckets of what I assumed were the art supplies.
We spent the next entire claw working together, drawing what fit our fancy. Maeve told me about the forests of earth, and how her family used to go camping. She explained it was like leaving home, to make a new home, in a place where a home has no right to be. I was still wrapping my head around that when she told me about the clear skies, and how her family would stay up late to see the stars, and share ancient stories about their shapes.
We were silent for a moment while we worked, when I heard Maeve speak from beside me, “Are those your woods from back home?” she asked about my drawing, “It's so colorful! Are these broad colors typical of Venlil styles?”
To the human eye, my work appeared as large swathes of color, with vague shapes representing direction and shape, rather than form. Emotion mixed with reality to create something that gave an impression of overall calm and nostalgia over the representational work.
“I do often see something similar in the parks when others are being creative. I have seen some Venlil try a style that is more detailed, but I like to show what I feel rather than what I see.” I explained, while making another long streak of golden sunbeam.
Maeve asked about my home, and I told her how we lived in a traditional burrow-style house; not an actual burrow, it was above-ground, but it made use of smooth lines and soft corners to lend structural support, spreading more out than up. We still had a 2nd floor, which was where most of our living and sleeping space was, but it looked like barely a mound against the modern stem-style houses, which was what used to be my university apartment. I was just talking about the kitchen on the ground floor when I looked over at what Maeve was working on. To my surprise, she was making an incredibly life-like imagining of our kitchen. It wasn't perfect, our dishes never stacked that high, but this could absolutely be someone else’s kitchen.
“How did you draw that?” I asked, unbelieving.
Maeve giggled as I stared, and answered lightly, “I did a lot of things back home, either as work or hobby, and one of them was room concepts and architectural design. I followed your descriptions as best as I could, with some artistic flavor. Some older human cultures also had burrow homes, so I took ideas from that. What do you think?”
“It’s incredible! This could absolutely be someone's kitchen, though it isn't ours. You even have the berry field in the window!” I was so enthralled by the detail I was seeing, I didn’t notice Maeve’s hand reaching for the work. She pointed to two figures in frame: a Venlil with what was clearly my salt-and-pepper pattern and…
“I’ve given it some thought,” Maeve whispered beside me, “and I think, yes. I would like to keep doing this.”
My heart leapt with joy and and my tail thrashed behind me; if any attempt at subtlety was made I clearly ruined the secret. Maeve smiled broadly, hiding her teeth in a vain attempt to hide her quickly reddening cheeks. We quickly packed up our projects, and I saw Maeve making to throw them away! “What are you doing?”
“Oh, I was…” She paused, not truly having an answer. I walked over and gently, wordlessly, took the sketches from her hand, and filled the space with my own paw. The message received, we exited to the corridor. "You mentioned something about camping, what is that?"
Maeve paused in thought without breaking stride, then asked, "You mentioned your favorite place was taking the road between The Grove and University. If you had the chance to live there, for a few days or a week, would you?"
I thought about this. It's a beautiful place, and I would find great joy in staying there for a time. But I remembered the look of that predator, "No. I know, in my head, that the predators in that forest would leave us alone; I'm certain it would be fine. But no, I don't think I'm brave enough for it."
"It's ok, and I won't ask you to. But Humans would, though that doesn't say much for our judgment." she added with a chuckle, "Most humans live in cities. Massive places of steel and concrete with more people than plants. Just like cities on Venlil Prime, they are comfortable, safe, and good places to live; but humans are drawn instinctively to the natural world. Despite our industry, we have to see the Earth and its bounty, or we get out of sorts."
We had reached the room and, picking up on human mannerisms, I invited Maeve to enter first. "Thank you, my good sir." She said through a giggle, "anyway, because of this many humans will leave the city to live in nature for a while. We have a lot of ways to make it more or less comfortable, and the varied ecosphere on earth combined with our diurnal cycle means we have to be very prepared. Personally I prefer a tent, rain cover, and camp stove; but some people take as much as a rolling house, or as little as a sleeping bag."
Maeve sat down on a chair, and I on the bed as we continued talking, "do you hunt when you do this?" I asked.
Carefully, Maeve spoke in measured words, "Not always, and myself never; the vast majority of people bring food with them to eat as-is or cook on site. But yes, some humans do still hunt, kill, consume, and use the dead of wild creatures. But I'd like to point out it has been regulated in most countries for a few centuries now, and even more so in the last few decades. These days, only a couple thousand animals are killed annually due to hunting practices, worldwide. And, as we continue to become more prosperous, cede more of earth to nature, and find alternatives to killing, that number will continue dropping to almost nothing." she said, matter-of-factly.
"But why do you still hunt at all? If you can eat plants, have domesticated livestock, and can now print synthetic meat, why is that number not zero?"
"it is a part of our history, and our culture; such things are very difficult to unlearn. Also, we humans have assumed the responsibility to maintain the ecologies of our world. This is done in large part as penance for the damage we did during our colonial and industrial ages, but that sense of guardianship still carries on. Answering that question is pretty complicated, and I won't dance around the fact that controlled murder is a big part of it, do you want me to keep going?"
I will never be totally ready for frank discussions of murder, but I felt this was nothing compared to what we've already done. With a deep breath, I steeled myself and flicked an affirmation.
"Ok, this is a phenomenon we have seen nearly everywhere on Earth, but we are going to talk about Yellowstone National Park, specifically. Yellowstone is a large evergreen forest that is host to a huge variety of wildlife, but early in America's history, the colonists eradicated the local Wolf population. True we had domesticated wolves earlier, but not here, and these wolves were more harmful than helpful to the colonists, so they killed them. What followed was a process called a Trophic Cascade."
"Wolves were a natural predator of Deer, so without wolves to control their numbers, the deer population exploded. The deer over-grazed on many things, most especially tree saplings. Without saplings reaching maturity, the forest couldn't create new growth, and this reduced usable living space for many small herbivores; so things like squirrels and beavers left the area. Without these small herbivores, small carnivores like the fox left as well, which made very small omnivores, like mice, also explode in population. These mice over-hunted grubs, beetles, and other detritus-eaters, so the forest floor stopped getting new nutrients, which made all plants, including trees, even sicker. With trees dying faster and still not able to make new growth, because the deer were still a problem remember, their root systems became weaker, which could no longer hold the soil. This exacerbated the effects of erosion, causing landslides to be more frequent, and even changing the course of rivers, leading to droughts in places that have never seen it"
"All of this because: we killed the Wolf. There were many examples, this is just the one I know best, but humans are well familiar with the effect of adding or removing a species from local ecology."
I sat for a long moment, letting this sink in. "You changed the shape of mountains, and the path of rivers… by killing wolves?
"Yeah!" She confirmed, with just as much surprise as I had. "We tried a few things to help heal the damage: manually planting more trees, shoring up at risk earth, even controlled culls of wildlife; this is where most of our modern hunting practices came from. But no matter what humans did, we just couldn't keep up with the forces of nature. So, Occam's Razor, we decided to try the obvious option: put the wolves back into the forest, using the natives' local cousins from further north. And you know what?" I flicked my tail expectantly, both ears swiveled on Maeve, "It worked! The wolves hunted the deer to manageable numbers, the trees had a chance to grow, the small herbivores came back… a complete reversal of all the damage I mentioned. So now, the only species that have an overall open-season are invasive species, like the European Rabbit in Australia. Among humans, it is both illegal, and socially taboo, to kill wild animals without specific cause."
This was… a lot. All of this made sense on its own, it logically followed, but I couldn't wrap my head around how everything could be so connected. Predators kill! That's all they do! How could killing be a good thing? Finding my voice, I spoke up, "I won't pretend to know what this means. I cannot get it through that everything is so dependent on murder. But I know you've told me the truth as best as you know it, so I'll leave it alone. Can we talk about something else? You mentioned something about stories in the stars?"
"Oh absolutely!" Maeve seemed to glow with this topic, I loved seeing her so excited, "so humans have a day/night cycle, but some of us would have to keep watch during the night while others slept; so we learned to entertain ourselves by telling stories. At night, and before industrialization, our skies were brimming with stars! So we would see shapes in their patterns, and tell great stories about who they represented. There have been stories since before writing, so sadly most have been lost to history, but one story, Orion, is about-"
A ping from my pad, and then hers, interrupted the lesson.
Please report to the Partnership Program lead office promptly. Suite 4006 on deck 4.
We shared a worried look, sharing an understanding of what prompted the summons. We would face it, together. We left the room and made our way to the elevator, mostly in silence. Sensing my worry, Maeve touched my shoulder, "It's ok, this will work out." I'm not sure I believed her. We stood apart in the elevator, and the distance felt cold. Walking down the hall of offices I felt more fear and anxiety than the past week, but I had to keep moving forward.
We reached the door, and as I reached for the handle, Maeve stopped me, and gently pulled me by the shoulder against her in a desperate embrace, as one would say goodbye. She whispered into my ear,
"Whatever happens in there, I want you to know I love you, Valek."
"I love you too, Maeve."
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Ok, so I am not an avid d2 fan. Most of my early arpg was bald yes gate dark alliance on PlayStation. In fact I barely played d2 back in the day, maybe act 1. I did however ultimately end up playing a lot of d3. I bought it initially off the name Diablo alone and because I had missed out on 2. Had no strong opinions either way at launch, kept picking up and putting it down. After reaper of souls I started getting into seasons and ended up loving rift gameplay. I love builds that are fun to execute. And I loved speedrunning rifts. There was a time that I thought to myself I wanted some changes, things that would make it more like baldurs gate. I wanted gameplay to be a little slower, enemies a pinch harder to kill, and less in number, I wanted all items to be potentially an upgrade not just legendaries. However by the end of my d3 career those are all things I didn’t want anymore, nothing that slows down my breakneck rift pace.
So when I started looking into d4 and saw some of the dev streams and some of their visions were thing I once wanted but no longer did I’ve been curious. I’ve been following with skepticism. Most recently I’m coming off a long lost ark run. Which I ultimately consider a bad thing, so my biggest fear coming to d4 was that it’d be too much (or maybe any) lost ark. I got into the early access for just one day which I played, got through the story, hit 25, did -most- of the side stuff. Played a Sorc, hodgepodge’d spells, whatever worked, a lot of chain lightning and hydra until stumbling into a “build” of icicles and nova here’s a few bullet points that I noticed
The atmosphere is great, feels dark and like what I’d want from Diablo, visuals are nice. Little things like seeing your character in scenes or your hair moving stuff like that.
Spell effects that I saw are largely pleasing. One design choice I hated in d3 was like your monk holding a staff which teleports to his back for him to punch, that seems to be changed to them acknowledging they are holding something. Instead of a goofy orange beam Sorc incinerate was a jet of fire and I liked it. The frozen effect being wind swept icicles was pleasing.
Combat is combat, it’s the same as alway, early mobs seem to be a little slower to die and it’s whatever. Later when I found my build I felt like being in d3 again. Walk up to a pack press 1 they all died.
The talent tree doesn’t seem nearly as big or complicated as I feel like I was anticipating. In fact, early in it hardly feels different than d3. As I got more acquainted and realized some silly but obvious things like I’m not required to take a skill from each tier or could take more than one I realized there’s some potential for builds. Still, depending on what there is we haven’t seen along the lines of legendary effects paragon or whatever. Builds seem a little stale but I don’t know
Initially the gathering was really annoying. Can’t describe it. It’s just not what I want in Diablo. Feels like it brings everything to a halt to click a shrub
Game feels like it really wants to be played multiplayer. Perhaps even with a party where the members specialize in trash cleasingle target etc. but that will depend on what builds look like down the line
Despite wanting to be multiplayer trying to get people in a party is a pain. Other players just kinda exist in your world but are less than easy to interact with very clunky. And the fact that I can’t simply right click their portrait for basic functionality that existed already in diablos was annoying
Many tooltips are not totally clear what they do. And at least for right now it’s often difficult to tell if an item would be an upgrade or not. There’s a ton of potential affixes and they are somewhat convoluted and would require a tremendous amount of figuring to math them all out
With how many stats there are and not know how they interact endgame builds could potentially turn into waiting for hyper specific items to drop
Many of the lost ark inspired elements or just many elements in general just feel stuffed in. No substance, just stuff added for the sake of more stuff.
Classes seemed very unbalanced, namely barb looks like it really takes some effort to get off the ground, I didn’t play it myself but I’ve heard it from several people
Some of the skills feel clearly better than others. Some skills are amazing and some seems bad, once again who knows how they end up with unreleased stuff if there is any? Or perhaps I lacked imagination. But chain lighting was fantastic. Great aoe but also shreds single target. Other skills seemed to be good at neither. The shock blast skill in the same tier could be cast like one time and you were oom and that was it. May or may not even kill something when it hits. Others just feel clunky, especially with how little mana I always seemed to have. Frost orb was ok for crowds but with almost all of its damage on the explosion it struggled against enemies that were close, fireball just seemed to not feel great, it would hit a few enemies and then you were oom, and if you had fire bolt that skill just feels like it struggles to anything. Which would be fine if chain lighting just didn’t feel like it was better than all of those skills at everything Balance In general seemed off.
Encountering the butcher was pretty cool. I just like the concept. But he feels bordering on impossible solo if you werent built with him in mind, and not hard at all if you have a party member
The mmo aspects I had limited interaction with. Getting into a party at all was not intuitive, very clunky even once I figured out how to invite and I was unable to get a single person to accept a party invite. Also the fact that there is no say chat channel to talk to people right next to me is ridiculous. Nor is it easy to whisper them directly because you can’t click on them, you have to operate through a social menu and go to the local tab, and it’s more like a past tense nearby tab because people you are looking at are never in it. It also seems to update slowly. Beyond that you’ll just occasionally see someone else in the world, and lost ark style they most likely won’t interact with you. And mostly their presence equates to a little pop up about how you got bonus xp for being near another player. Apparently there exist world bosses, I was told they were at specific times and I never got a chance to see it so I don’t know what it’s like. I assume just like lost ark overall the ui is not good. It’s quite disappointing.
It’s also hard to tell what endgame would be like. I personally loved running rifts in 3, If 4 is just resetting dungeons that could get stale, also if the pace remains kinda slow that could also get stale.
I’m not a build maker. Usually by the time I get into one of these games it’s so poured over everything has been figured out, and I just copy an existing one from somewhere. But actually doing it a little, and coming up with something that worked did spark a little something in me, and multiplied my enjoyment and excitement quite a bit
The level scaling is an issue, makes leveling not feel great, in conjunction if there’s actually a bunch of hidden complexity at the end this makes me extra worried about their vision for respec to eventually get to the point where you’d rather just make a new character than respec
To sum it up ultimately I did enjoy it, and I’m looking forward to next weekend so I can try more classes. But I have my doubts. Ultimately I think it depends on if you care about 70 bucks. I think at a minimum think the game is worth playing to level cap and seeing, to story was compelling enough especially when taken in combination with the lore that leads up to it. and I most likely will do that. But will it hold up past? I dunno. If 70 bucks is a big deal to you though I don’t know if I’d give it a shining endorsement at launch, maybe wait a few weeks and see what people say I feel like in some time with proper changes it could be a great game. I’m not certain it will be at launch.

Emblem Chrom is pretty dynamic, as it gives StSpd/Dex bonuses and +10 Mag along with decent Mag sync weapons when engaged. I was curious which characters made the most out of Chrom’s kit, so I did the math. Turns out, Chrom’s bonuses overall cater to fast characters with Killer Weapon access. 3 Str + Brute Force (4x crit) + Other Half (-10% HP) knocks ~10 StMt off of endgame ORKO goals, enabling a 24-26 Str character to reasonably ORKO stuff in the lategame.
For a quick TL;DR of my Weapon/ORKO analysis

• Crit Weapons > most others for general use as the game progresses
  • Roughly around/after Solm, your characters start to stop reliably ORKOing without Crits

So what about that +10 Mag when engaged? Is it worthless?
Some Mage Knights are Str weighted enough to benefit from the crit side of things, Spd weighted enough to double most things, and would really appreciate more Mag to hit their Mag/Mt goals. Mage Knight Merrin, Chloe, Pandreo, and Fogado are examples that fit this mold. Celine also parallels this crew as a Vidame, but notably slower without Starsphere (if you DLC, please Starsphere your Celine).
High Mag Bow classes, such as Warrior!Anna, Bow Knight!Mauvier, and Cupido/Warrior!Fogado also enjoy both the physical crit and Mag side of Chrom. For Anna and Mauvier in particular, the +10 Mag on top of a 25 Mt Radiant Bow enables them to ORKO lategame Generals without a crit even. So rather than relying on being engaged to do their primary job, the engage button would be contingent for busting a General. For most other characters, it’d reduce the Mag/Mt goal for Flier OHKO’s by 10, which could spare Radiant Bow from having to be +5’d and/or Engraved. That, or bring them closer to Warrior!Anna’s General smashing potential.
At the very least, the +10 Mag + the sync weapons are useful for chunking Armors, so you don’t have to dedicate a weapon slot to Armor Slayer or your own Levin Sword.
Edit: Chrom looks solid for Martial Masters too!
Following u/Over-Jello-7891's MM Chloe guide, Spd can hold up a Martial Master even more than their damage. Eirika gives 0 Spd, Chrom gives 4. When engaged, Chrom effectively injects ~9-10 Mt between the Str, Mag, and Robin chain attack. Given that most Martial Masters will be ~9-11 away from their lategame Atk/Mt goal, Chrom could pick up the slack. For reference, Eirika gives ~5 more Atk/Mt on average.
Chrom Case Study: Lindon
Lindon is a wonky character in Engage. He joins up as a weakish Sage with a personal skill that would really like access to crit weapons. If you dive into them with Warrior or Mage Knight, he’s often a hair too weak to effectively OHKO things until you get Roy or Celica back. With Chrom, Lindon will be OHKOing sooner and will have more StMag tech.
Straight off the boat in Chapter 19, Warrior!Lindon can Crit OHKO everything but the Great Knight, Wyrm, Mauvier (2 Str away, tonic?), and Marnie with Emblem Chrom (sync 12) and a forged Killer Axe (+5, or +3 w/ Tonic, you push Chain Attacks to 90% so a little thrift isn’t as cope either). A Radiant Bow+3 would cover the Great Knight when engaged without a crit. This is particularly noteworthy for the old man, as his passive brings Killer Weapons to 60% crit, over 70% with his dex, giving him >80-100% with a crit engraving or Wrath use.
Roy would have a similar effect, even without Brute Force, as Roy injects a butt load of Str into things. However, we’re a chapter away from getting Roy back here. Chrom lets this old goat kick harder sooner and even make use of Radiant Bow well. Roy has Hold Out built in though, which could let Lindon Vantage/Wrath tank more safely, but Brute Force means he could Vantage/Wrath harder. There are trade-offs on both sides. The main point is, Chrom!Lidon is effective.
Lategame, Chrom!Warrior!Lindon still stands to OHKO everything but Generals and Wyvern Knights with a crit. Radiant Bow (21 Mt) covers the Wyvern Knights when engaged, without a crit. Generals will probably need a crit.
Mage Knight Lindon is similar throughout, but has more of a balancing act going on and would like a Str Tonic for Chapter 19. He will also want to crit with a Poleaxe in the lategame to OHKO the Wolf Knights, where the Warrior’s higher Str gets the job done without an effective weapon.
Giga Levin Sword
Like most Engage Attacks, Giga Levin Sword is that friendly guaranteed hit that can nuke stuff in the early game but comes up short later on. For example, Wyvern Knight Kagetsu would have to use a Silver Blade+1, trigger Giga Levin Sword+, and have all 3 adjacent allies land their chain attack hits for it to OHKO an endgame General. Diamant wouldn’t come close with Georgios, as Kagetsu’s higher Str and Bld bonus from Flier surpasses Georgios. OHKOing aside, this is a solid “nuke” button for chunking a General.
Wyvern Knight Boucheron can maximize the Bld to damage side of Giga Levin Sword, so much that the damage is equivalent to Kagetsu’s if they’re using the same weapon. The lack of A Sword access here puts him behind though. Mysticals get half Mag to damage, but in the case of Celine, just using Levin Sword or Bolganone would be more effective.
Early Game Notes
Divine Dragon Alear getting their own personal Brave Assist friend when Engaged is fantastic, especially when you’re too poor to forge multiple Killer Weapons for everyone. Nothing really competes until you get Eirika, which, well, it’s Eirika. That, and Byleth or Corrin if you’re into those combos. All enemies 20% off, +St+Spd, you get the idea. Later on, it’s still cool, but not nearly as cool as Engage+.
For casters, the sync Levin Sword is basically a lower Mt/Wt Levin Sword/early Elfire. Idk if they goofed on the sync Thoron, but it's 1-2 range and can double, so its basically a lower Mt/Wt Bolganone. So if your physical characters are all set up and you’re saving the other Mag Emblems for later, the sync weapons and +10 Mag can be nice for your casters.
For Coverts, I'm interested to hear what maps the +1 move just gets Yunaka into cover. There are so many maps I feel we're just 1 space away, but I haven't looked into it at all.
I’ve only done Chrom's map once, did it early (after chapter 11), on Maddening, and found it to be ~easy/mod difficulty (like a 2-3/5). I hear people struggle with it once everything promotes, so you may want to get in before Chapter 14/15ish. I don’t LTC, but I can see how if you hesitate at pushing the objective,>! the water and horror terror wolves could get overwhelming!<. The crystals don’t regenerate unless they’re broken, so a little tip could be keeping a Ridersbane Louis alone on center with a half health crystal, as only Sword Cavs spawn there.
Closing
+StSpd/Dex, a free chain attack friend, +10% chain attack accuracy, and x4 crit is good, who knew? Chrom’s kind of like an Eirika that takes a little more effort to get free damage out of. If you’re wondering where to go with him, Chrom is strongest with crit weapons playing up Brute Force. The +10 Mag makes him even more useful for some split classes like Mage Knight, Vidame, and Radiant Warriors. It’s unclear if Chrom is their “best” option, but he’s a really good one.
If you're curious about Veronica, I did a lite analysis on her release. I like her on Backups so her summons always Chain Attack. Her Sync Weapons are solid for casters and for non-caster Armor chunking. Reprisal is OP. She's definitely a "works on anyone" kind of Emblem.