Quirino

Thanks so much for your work! The game looks more like a professional release by the day almost! Also being the dirty purist that I am, looking forward to the update without the QOL implementations!

I have a question for people who've finished a maddening playthrough. Do you think it's feasible to get Quick Riposte in time for the final few chapters (church route)? I'm toying with the idea of making either Byleth or Felix a War Master, since endgame enemies have ridiculous strength and speed from what I've heard, and quick riposte seems like a decent strategy to counter the most scary enemies. However, I'm afraid setting this up will be difficult, because axes won't allow me to double often and gauntlets have lower strength and no range. For Byleth my alternative would be Wyvern Lord and for Felix my alternative would be Bow Knight.

I got this. I don't drink coffee by the way.

Scales of the Goddess (post-timeskip monastery) is my favorite.

Does anyone know for sure what RN system this game uses? It's probably either 1RN, Fates RN or a new method based on what I've seen so far.

Even on hard mode I thought the battle of the eagle and lion (and its equivalent after timeskip) was one of the hardest chapters in the game. I wouldn't beat yourself over losing some units, since they only retreat. I would not be surprised if the chapter was designed with that in mind.

Bows helped me a lot in beating chapter 2, with which I struggled. Being able to chip with bows, then use a combat art with a strong unit to land the final blow kept damage to a minimum during player phase and allowed me to tank some of the enemies during enemy phase (those who can survive an encounter at least). When the enemy becomes less overpowered after like chapter 3, like Silly mentioned, you can start using hand axes/javelins instead if you want that character to focus on axes/lances. With the enemy count increased, I think the 2 chapters with a bow really won't hurt their weapon exp that much.

I was going to have Byleth focus to be a war master, but I am starting to have doubts. Apparently endgame enemies are really fast, and having quick riposte would make dealing with those a lot easier. However, quick riposte is only around for the last couple of chapters in the game in most cases, and I wonder if War Master is good enough until class mastery. Would it not be easier to have bow knight (rather easy for Byleth) or wyvern lord (a bit harder for Byleth) and use a impregnable wall for example? Then he has high move throughout the game and he's still able to lure endgame enemies without dying. Is War Master good enough before class mastery, as a footlocked class in maddening mode you reckon?

Okay I will try War Master! I've never used one in my previous playthroughs and I'm curious to see if infantry will indeed be more useful in Maddening. Thank you for the suggestion!

I'm currently playing Church route maddening (no NG+), and I wanted to try a different class for M!Byleth. In my previous playthroughs I've gone with Enlightened One each time. The tier list above recommends Falcon Knight for F!Byleth as a strong physical class with good movement, but I'm not sure what would be a good mounted class for M!Byleth. I wanted to see if perhaps Wyvern Lord or Bow Knight would suit him, since they are the strongest physical classes and have more move. Out of these two, is there one you would recommend in particular, or is Enlightened One still the best option?

Thank you for the reply! Would it be a good idea to give people who I want to train as wyverns a bow for this chapter only (I'm talking about Petra, Ferdinand, Edelgard and I wanted to try Byleth as a wyvern lord) for reliable chip damage? Like you mentioned, bows are safer. I think the advice to be wasteful with spells might come in handy, as I tried to save them as I thought I might need them for the boss. I'll just have to make sure to keep Dorothea and Hubert out of harm's way, since they will die to anything. I assume the same holds for Linhardt's healing? I was planning to focus Bernadetta as a bow knight. Perhaps it's not a bad idea to start working towards C lances at the start, to get tempest lance. She will need the HP boosts to make use of her personal skills indeed, because right now she's either at full HP or no HP.

I was about halfway through the first part of my black eagles playthrough when maddening was released, so I decided to start over. My first impression from maddening is that it reminds me a lot of Awakening Lunatic and Shadow Dragon H5, where enemy stats are increased to a point where they are so much more powerful compared to your units. However, unlike those games, there is no Frederick or Jagen around. I'm not typically a fan of this kind of difficulty increase and I think it's a bit lazy. Also I think the jump from hard to maddening is way too high, not unlike Awakening's hard -> lunatic jump. Having said that, I will try to beat it. I had just started my church playthrough when maddening was released and decided to restart it on maddening (no NG+). I'm really struggling in chapter 2, with those damned pass thieves, and I was wondering if some of you might be able to help me out. Bernadetta, Hubert, Caspar and Dorothea get ORKO'd by every enemy. I gave Caspar a hand axe to provide chip damage as this is the only way I can see him being useful (other than against archers). Petra gets doubled only by thieves, Byleth only gets doubled by thieves and archers, while everyone else gets doubled by everything. Furthermore, hit rates are generally low, which can be somewhat remedied by combat arts during player phase, but counterattacks during enemy phase frequently miss, which leaves me with damaged units during player phase against 3 enemies on full health, which is often too much for my team at that point. Can anyone share their strategy on how they got past this chapter with the black eagles?

I'll give my impression of all units after my GD hard/classic playthrough. Recruited Petra and Ingrid. My strategy was basically "make just about everyone wyvern lord or bow knight". The list is not in any particular order. Claude (Fighter -> Archer -> Sniper -> Wyvern Master -> Barbarossa): Had a bit of an average start, where he didn't stand above the other units as much as Dimitri did at the start of the BL playthrough. About halfway through the first part he really picks up pace and after timeskip he is unstoppable when he flies. Flying 1-3 range (which can increase with combat arts / failnaught) is just really good. Hilda (Fighter -> Brigand -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord): One of my three wyvern lords. Hilda I would say was the hardest hitting of the three. She had amazing strength and doubled just about everything. Also Freikugel is really good. Her durability became somewhat of an issue later in the 2nd part, but canto saves the day in that regard. Also wyvern lord is just that good. Petra (Brigand -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord): Recruited Petra again after being very satisfied with her during my BL playthrough and she once again did not disappoint. I decided to focus on her avoidance to help her average durability and this worked out really well. An evasion ring and guard stance+ really works wonders if you want to throw her into a group of enemies. Up there with Claude as my best unit this playthrough. Seteth (Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord): Gave him a speed ring once again to patch up his subpar speed when he joins, and this was luckily quickly solved. The worst of the three wyvern lords this playthrough, but still one of my best units overall, who requires almost no investment. Leonie (Soldier -> Cavalier -> Paladin -> Bow Knight): I heard good things about Leonie and I expected much of her, and by the end she was good but not great. She barely missed a few points of speed to consistently double by the end of the game. If she would have been able to consistently double, she would have been much better. Next time I play GD or recruit Leonie I might invest some speed items into her. Still, 1-5 range is very overpowered. She used pretty much only bows by the time she became bow knight. Ignatz (Fighter -> Archer -> Sniper -> Bow Knight): Ignatz was all right. Not good, not bad (thanks mostly to sniper/bow knight just being so good). His strength wasn't high enough to 2HKO many enemies, his speed wasn't high enough to double many enemies, but thanks to his personal skill and class he provided reliable chip damage. Lorenz (Monk -> Mage -> Warlock -> Dark Knight): All-around good, albeit not amazing, unit. He hit hard, his speed was good enough to double most things and his durability was good enough to take on several enemies consistently. I gave Lysithea his hero relic so he was stuck on 1-2 range for most of the playthrough. Also this guy grew on me! Lysithea (Monk -> Mage -> Warlock -> Gremory): I wanted to make her a dark knight, but I neglected her riding skill for too long and I realized I wouldn't get that and lances up to par in time, so I made her a gremory again. In my BL playthrough she often missed out on the action because of her 5 movement, even though she was ridiculously strong, but this time she managed to be around the action much more thanks to thyrseus. I think it was a good idea to give it to her instead of Lorenz, since he could keep up easier thanks to his mount. Next time I will probably try to make her a dark knight, because I'm thinking a mount + thyrseus + her incredible damage output will make her hilariously good. Marianne (Monk -> Priest- > Bishop -> Holy Knight): She was an alright healer. Her spell list isn't particularly impressive (save for physic), and her offense is subpar as well. Mercedes had pretty good offense in the first half which allowed her to get some easy levels. Marianne was quite a bit behind on levels throughout the entire game and didn't reach level 30 until like 3 chapters before the final chapter. Flayn (Dancer): My dancer. Her class was good. Rapheal (Fighter -> Brigand -> Grappler -> Bench): He just didn't cut it for me, like I explained a few posts above. I didn't end up using other units long-term. I did think about using Shamir, but I didn't use her long enough to give her a proper rating.

Thanks for the good suggestions all! I will take that on board 🙂 I will let you know how Caspar turned out when I finish the playthrough! Did you make Ingrid go the pegasus knight route? I used Ingrid in my BL playthrough and the GD playthrough. In the BL playthrough she got strength blessed I think because I never noticed how low her strength was (sure she wasn't the heaviest hitter but she got the job done). She was the most effective magekiller and I could send her into a field of mages with a 1-2 range weapon and she would wreak havoc. In the GD playthrough I also had a lot of problems with Ingrid's strength, to the point that I effectively benched her because she couldn't even ORKO magic users. It might be a good idea to go wyvern route as those classes give more strength. About Lorenz, I say he's about average. He's a jack of all trades, master of none. He was a perfectly serviceable unit as a dark knight, but not one of the stars.

In my golden deer playthrough I ended up ditching Raphael quite soon, but I see for many people that he is rated higher than I would've rated him and I wonder how other people make him work. Same goes for Caspar. I'm playing black eagles right now and it seems Caspar has the same problems and I'm thinking about benching him. I tried to make Raphael go down the brawler path because with axes he never doubled and often got doubled. However, the raw damage output was too low as a brawler, and enemy phase was just horrible. Right now I'm also facing the same problems with Caspar and I would like to make him work. How can I make Raphael and Caspar end up decent units?