Dunal

@ronlynYour units turned out pretty close to what's intended (by part 2 end) in terms of investment. Yeah Haar is still really good no doubt. No longer doubles but his STR/SKL has some extra levels to grow to make up for it a bit. Thunder magic is actually threatening to him now as well. I may reduce his DEF further which helps Brom's stand out a bit more. Don't think Brom needs a buff though -- if anything I think Neph/Brom/Haar/Heather might be a little too good in part 3 considering EXP in part 2 and general nerfs to the stronger GMs (Titania/Ike etc...). But since they need prior investment in Part 2 I'm sure its fine. Balance isn't intended to be perfect anyway (it just needs changing enough so that difficulty of the game is more-or-less consistent enough when use/deploying different units throughout the game. I mean, I'm sure that Haar will still be better than Lyre overall in this hack, but that's fine just so the gap isn't so huge). For the Laguz, Mordy was already good/decent in the original game so his power shift shouldn't really affect that. Overall a buff if you consider gauge changes and WEXP etc... Lethe could use a further change though (A bit more base STR should be enough + I can make her S rank a bit faster). Nealuchi isn't really supposed to be a Jeigan either, it's just that his availability is bad post part 2 so his stats and WEXP gain are higher to compensate that (same as ReDux). I think he should be fine (if BEXPed to ~20 in 4-P or something). Stefan has near capped HP/DEF/SKL at base with STR/SPD being good as well (middle ground between Edward's focus in STR and Zihark's SPD). So for 1 range combat, he's great. Although he barely has any MAG/RES/LCK so he essentially has no 2-range combat (Edward's isn't great either but still occasionally useful). Edward's overall the strictly better unit if you can patch up his SPD, since his stats are passable to great everywhere else (and Caladbolg lets him tank) but obviously requires the investment. ZIhark/Mia both have good 2-range especially the latter. Lucia's balanced all-around and can use any sword as a Wyrmslayer. She has the best potential for 4-E (even just because Alondite!Lucia in 4-E-3) but will need the investment earlier in part 4. Still undergoing testing currently, particularly with the various difficulty modes. To confirm, there's now a difficulty mode in-between 'Casual' and 'Standard' mode ('Novice'). 'Casual' is really meant to just be a sandbox-y mode to go wild and have complete freedom to break the game if you want to (skills won't cost anything, gold is near infinite, supports skip straight to A freely etc...). 'Standard' is still fairly challenging, just more forgiving than 'Intermediate' for blind runs. I think there's room for a difficulty between those (for a player who wants an easier/smooth run, similar to a normal mode in most official FE games, but still forces the player to play by the game's rules unlike 'Casual'). Personal deadline for the release is by the end of the year. I haven't been able to invest too much time into this recently due to work, but I'll at least have a couple weeks later on to make sure everything is ready before then. Also, as much as I've appreciated the feedback/criticisms regarding 'Elites'... I can't really afford to make experimental changes/additions to a singular available difficulty mode. Clearly something to avoid from now on. 'Elites' and enemy skills will be absent in every mode but 'Intermediate' (used to test benchmarks for difficulty/balance) until the full release.

Well, if you're playing it as intended (using all 6 units evenly to clear the map efficiently) then each unit will gain 4+ levels. If you want to grind a single unit, then you have the option to do so, but its no different than any other map. Thing is, the Crimean knights need more incentive to be used in order to keep up in levels long-term. By 2-3 and 3-9 giving a lot more EXP, then it'll now be feasible to do so. The alternative, should you max out BEXP, is funnelling the EXP into someone like Haar or Nephenee who already have huge availability. Therefore the only purpose of increasing the BEXP reward is buffing those units, since they're the best candidates for it. So you have two options: giving units with low availability a lot of CEXP to be stronger in part 4 (without falling behind) or giving BEXP to units who don't have the availability problem, in which you'd gain a lot of value out of doing so considering what % of the game they can be used. Therefore, the ~7 levels of BEXP is enough, if you consider what you're getting out of that. I mean, Neph, Brom, Lethe, Heather etc... are already gaining a lot more combat EXP in the maps they are available in part 2. Buffing the 2-3 BEXP is indirectly a buff to them in particular. Otherwise, units like Calill or Nealuchi should be balanced around not being given any BEXP investment (or much at all), since the player has less incentive to give them some in the first place. So yeah, any BEXP under this context is just making the Griel Mercenaries stronger. And I think the Crimean knights need the extra power more.

The amount of combat EXP you can get in 2-3 is substantially higher. Each unit can receive ~3-4 levels (Astrid doubling that). Meanwhile the maximum amount of BEXP is probably equivalent of 6-7 maximum on a single unit. It's better to kill enemies unless you absolutely don't want to use any of the knights long-term. You only need to want to use at least one of them (to favour kills to) for it to be worth it.

@Samuria86I've sent you a PM. Thanks for the feedback! Keep in mind that the unit changelog I provided indicates whether the changes are intended to be a buff or nerf from the original. Jill should be around the same as the original game since the only changes to her were her base level being increased to 16, but her promotion bonuses being buffed. If anything, it's a buff to her if you promote her early. Otherwise, enemy changes would have an indirect effect on her performance. Same goes for Nolan, who was slightly improved from the original. Yep. It makes Pure Water / Barrier occasionally quite useful to use on Oscar so he won't be targeted.

I've sent you a PM but, there's only one patch needed, for an ISO of the original game. Part 2 of course includes part 1, it's just the latest version of it. Just keep in mind that you shouldn't re-patch an ISO you've already patched. A and B patches are just for different ISOs that are out there (for US version of the game). So one of them should work. Just make sure to keep a backup of the original ISO.

Have you patched a fresh ISO? If so, it should be fine. I'll PM you in case you need some further help with that. Units shouldn't have a problem capping either way, so early promoting should be fine. For instance, Leo caps STR at 19/9. There's certainly room to level some units close to 20 if you want to do that, it's just useful to have anyone able to contribute in part 3. Meg for example could just promote when she hits 14 SPD (level ~13) to avoid being doubled by tigers in 3-13, while 2RKOing them back with brave sword. You can be pretty flexible in resource investment though. Otherwise, It's going to be beneficial to focus on a couple units since it's still largely the vanilla game. In part 2 you'll typically want to be using everyone just by nature of everyone having free deployment and some maps such as 2-3 having a low number of units (relative to enemies) as it is. Having certain units being the focus of EXP gain is a bit different though. If you want Makalov to gain 5-6 levels in 2-3, then you'll have the option to do that.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Re-Balance (Part 2) UNIT CHANGES For the time being, do not go beyond 2-E. Would be interested in some feedback regarding the difficulty changes. You should also receive a lot more EXP than the vanilla game (so you are rewarded for the higher difficulty, especially during 2-3).

With Micaiah being a main character and all, I think there's room to make her more than just reasonable. It's why I'd be less inclined to nerf Ike as much as some people might think he should be. To confirm, this is now Micaiah with further changes: MAG cap is 25 which she will reach on average. SPD growth is slightly lowered to keep her out of range of doubling (usually). Here is Laura who has had some further base stat improvements: Promoting at 15 before 1-E (with ~4 levels of BEXP total) would mean: HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES 26 7 19 16 21 13 10 13 I think that's really solid for a unit that does not share combat EXP, but may need a bit of BEXP to keep up. Either way, so long as she has 20 SPD by 3-6 she can double tigers and perform well. Only that benchmark needs to be reached for the most part. The base stat buffs since the initial release should be more than enough. Here is Meg currently: Should be a solid enough unit upon recruitment. (Just don't sell that fortune scroll!) Fiona is left unchanged outside of promotion bonuses (from initial release): The bonuses are: +3 HP, +4 STR, +2 MAG, +3 SKL, +2 SPD, +3 DEF, +2 RES Thing is, I don't mind if Fiona is intentionally weaker until a bit later on. It's true to being an Est archetype if that's what she's intended to be. That said, she's not even that bad with a near-instant promotion. A speedwing (or a few levels of BEXP) + arm scroll + silver lance gives her serviceable offence without any combat EXP investment (she wouldn't be much worse than base Zihark with that setup). The difference being that the player has the option of training her in 1-8 to make her better if they really want to make her powerful long-term. I had a very similar discussion when ReDux was much earlier in development. I could just make Fiona great at base level but that's not really true to her original design, nor does every unit need to be conventionally good or easy to use. Worst case scenario is that you instantly promote her for part 3 and she can chip enemies while self-healing (or block a choke-point in 3-13 with just healing items, since she won't be 1RKOed by tigers). She could still be a novelty unit and that's fine. The pay-off for using her should be higher than before though, and that's the important part. Don't play beyond part 1 for the time being. Part 2 will be out tomorrow. The hack will have more extensive changes beyond part 1 (than originally intended) since it'll ultimately be worth doing. The maps themselves will still be the same in layout but difficulty (and EXP) tuning have been modified quite a bit. It's not going to be the same kind of difficulty as ReDux, but should prove to be more challenging as a whole. Maps like 2-E are already quite fun to play so even just a difficulty bump (along with removing 1 or 2 turn cheesing) should make things more interesting. The main reason is so people have something to play while ReDux is still being worked on. Yeah, this rebalance will delay ReDux a bit more, but I think that's worth it if there's something to tide people over for a much longer period (comparatively). Putting a bit more effort into it should give people more of a reason to play (rather than just a bog-standard balance hack which wouldn't fundamentally change how the original is played beyond the novelty of some units being better; basically the reason I'm not usually too keen on balance hacks myself).

Thanks for the feedback. I've made some further changes recently which should address some of that but I'll respond to a few of them: With Micaiah the main purpose with her changes was to merely give her enough bulk to avoid 1RKOs as well as enough SPD to avoid being doubled. Otherwise I don't think her combat is considered to be that bad in part 1; mostly because of Thani. I don't believe that she should necessarily naturally double either. Still, she averages 17.5 SPD at LV20 now which is still pretty good. Otherwise, I could boost her MAG and increase the cap beyond 20 like in ReDux. A mag cap of 25/40/50 (with an even higher growth) would boost her ATK a decent amount. If she isn't doubling then hitting harder would be fine. The only problem with doing this is making her an even better healer (one of the reasons why in ReDux she doesn't have staves in T2) but eh... If you've trained her significantly then I'd imagine you'd want her for combat either way (and training her in part 1 just for a powerful staff bot is fine too I guess). With Leonardo there's a point where if I just give him a ton of STR/SPD it... wouldn't really be Leo anymore (even if it would obviously make him better). At the very least he is almost guaranteed to cap STR in tier 1 (at least with the recent changes I've made) which gives him 23 STR at 20/1. He's also able to use the steel bow at base now which does make his early damage respectable. The Iron Longbow also gives him a range advantage over any other unit, so there's that as well. Otherwise his stats are solid all-around even if they mean less for an archer. It would means that BEXPing his SPD is still potent later on, especially since STR can cap really easily at all tiers (as in, at 20/9 on average -- you can viably master crown him early for a powerful 3-range one-shot). I think the main difference with Laura now is that she has a realistic opportunity to become a great combat unit if the player wants her to be (and have it pay off). It would involve BEXP and/or the Spirit Dust etc... But the possibility of the player giving her more resources to shine is at least viable. Worth mentioning that she does have a 39 SPD cap at tier 3 (highest for a mage tied with Calill) so you can imagine her lategame is really good. Worth mentioning that I am keeping units mostly intact in regards to their original design/role. So for units like Laura/Meg/Fiona etc... they still need some kind of favouritism to be great, with the difference being that it now requires less for a better pay-off. Meg/Fiona I've covered in my previous response. Yeah, they still need BEXP or other resources to be great so that's consistent with the original game. But it's far easier to use them at least. Meg's mobility is at least better by virtue of ledges no longer slowing her down all that much (or not at all in the case of thickets, which makes her deceptively mobile in say, 1-6-1 or 1-8). I have buffed Meg's bases a bit more though and Fiona's promotion bonuses even further (so an early promotion would be viable in case you just want her to contribute a bit in part 3). Either way, Part 3/4 are going to be more difficult than the original game so growth-oriented units should prove to be more useful and/or worth given investment and I would imagine that applies to these units over others. Meg has 36 SPD at T3 for instance with great stats all-around. Fiona is a similar case. Doesn't necessarily mean that they are optimal units overall but they can be used without too much effort. With that said, maps beyond part 1 are getting some addiitonal changes. Part 2 now has fully promoted enemies in every map except 2-1. Part 3 enemies (typically in Ike's maps) have further stat boosts etc... There's some additional effort made to 'fix' the difficulty curve beyond just buffing/nerfing units at this stage.

Pretty much all of those are good suggestions. Some of which I've overlooked for the mini-patch so far. Mostly because a lot of the changes were done for it before I'd implemented them in ReDux (such as hidden items), so these changes you've listed would be worth including as well. This is already being done, particularly for any class past tier 1. I'll agree that diversity in classes isn't that great in FE10, so much like ReDux, there will be changes especially for SPD/AS. This also applies to some playable units as well. For example, Calill now has the base/growth to double consistently from base level, but I've reduced her SKL moderately so she also has be selective in enemy targeting (or tome use) to secure hits. Which at least makes her more interesting than just "Soren/Ilyana but actually having SPD". Things aren't as drastic as in ReDux in this regard but it does means that some of the lesser units from the original haven't just been flat buffed in some cases (which can lead to just homogenising units). With that said, the scope of it is a bit higher than originally intended, since I'm making further tweaks as I play through it. Yeah this will be boosted for the next update. Like in ReDux I'll make it so the find rate is further boosted by good Biorhythm, with a global % increase along with that. E tomes are increased to 2 currently but a global increase of 1 (for the rest of them) should be fine on top of that. A full change-log will be provided when the patch is complete. In terms of caps, they have been changed to be appropriate to each unit's growths (which aren't changed too much). And I've made an attempt to tune caps so that each class in the lategame are suitably good (obvious candidates such as Bishops/Gold Knights being improved overall).

I mean, that possibility isn't being removed entirely (we're talking lowering AS scaling to be more in line with GBA FE or slightly lower than that). It's more about just making AS scale more slowly and close the gap between AS on units as a whole, so that EXP is less of a factor on whether a unit doubles/gets doubled (your units are less pressured to keep up with the enemy's SPD since they also scale more slowly). On the plus side for faster units, it means that they remain doubling for longer with less investment (base stats would have more relevance than before). A base level Jill would now be able to double some enemies in 1-E, just on the flip side, she would require an insane about of investment (and/or speedwings) to double fast enemies. In the current release, Jill can gain 3 points of SPD in just 4 levels (on average). This would be changed to 6 levels with a ~50% growth. SPD values/growths would be in-line with the DEF stat. Caps alone doesn't really do anything especially early on after promotion, and will just make it so units will cap-ram their SPD fast (due to growth). That doesn't really prevent someone like Jill doubling fast units in 1-E since your units would be freshly promoted at this stage (and assuming her cap would be reduced to ~26 or something). Then the secondary problem to that would be being able to BEXP other stats quickly on the virtue of SPD capping earlier. Of course, caps would be changing as well. But lowering those without any other changes would cause more scaling issues than it solves. Promotion gains is a separate topic altogether since they define the power difference between pre and post promotion and not much else. For instance, if promotion bonuses are globally increased by 1, then base stats for all tier 2 enemies (or playable units) are also logically increased by 1 so nothing changes. The only actual difference this makes is the encouragement of an early promotion or the necessity of promotion to remain inside/outside doubling range. I do think that this needs to exist in some form since opportunity costs for promotion need to play a factor (as in, do you wait for a unit to cap their T1 SPD, or promote early to get that boost?) on certain units. Current release of ReDux hasn't changed. There is however a much more minimalistic balance patch released recently for Part 1, which will update very frequently as I test through it. Feel free to check it out. Full release should be within the next week or two.

That's not really being affected though. Pegasus/Swordmasters etc... would still be doubling your low/mid SPD units. The difference is that units would less likely to be SPD blessed (or have way higher SPD due to being over-levelled) to either not get doubled by them, or for someone like Jill/Sothe to start doubling them. Each class/unit still has their own tier of SPD, but due to lower growth, it means that EXP/promotion will have less of an impact on how units deviate from those. When I mentioned Aran before, that was referencing being doubled by Tigers or other Halberdiers by being under-levelled or SPD screwed. But his interaction with high SPD classes shouldn't change. Upon reflection it might even be something that's more of an issue currently than it is in some other FEs. SPD growth/scaling is higher than it is in say, the GBA games and EXP amounts are higher than the original FE10 for the most part (at least for the DB/Crimeans) so it's something worth looking into.

Regarding the Black Knight, I doubt those changes would have any impact since unless he's nerfed to the point where he cannot solo (like in ReDux) in 1-E then that won't really change him (you're still fighting tier 1 units keep in mind). I otherwise left him intact because it's true to the original game and his part 4 incarnation (and no real reason to arbitrarily lower his stats if it's not significant like in ReDux). For master seals, I don't really think that freedom to early-promote is inherently a bad thing when you consider how that affects the game (aside from skipping level 21 itself). The Dawn Brigade need any level acceleration they can get. And if you're buying master seals to early promote (implying that you're promoting more units than free master seals you are receiving) then increasing their cost would only be penalising using a larger roster of units as opposed to low-manning. By being cheap, it means that you can at least promote everyone for part 3 and have them contribute. Units also benefit far less from auto-promoting since stat caps are high in tier 1 (standard FE fare of 20 in most stats) so you're potentially losing stats long-term in order to do so. By making them less accessible you're essentially nerfing the less optimal style of play (for example, leaving Leonardo as an unpromoted level ~10-15 scrub because you can't afford him a master seal). If anything I'd add a base panel option under 'manage' to freely promote units if that were easy to implement. Master seals having a cost at all is just an illusion of value, aside from the short term power boost in early/mid part 1 (which can't be bought at that point anyway). Appreciate the feedback nonetheless. That is just my reasoning behind why I have/haven't changed those things in particular. Part 2 isn't available yet. It will come in 2-3 days. Speaking of low-manning I've been thinking of doing some scaling changes to ReDux, mostly in regards to SPD/AS (where growths/bases/promos etc... are reduced and scale less with EXP/investment). This would be beneficial to the game by making it so under-levelled units are faster and over-levelled ones are slower in relation to how they are now. But relatively speaking, anyone with moderate investment would remain around the game. Obviously enemies would be impacted the exact same way. It's the same with how the DEF stat functions currently, where a ~50% growth is on the very high end and even ~30% is an okay growth. The variation becomes lower between units. In the context of SPD, it would still mean that an average Jill will double most enemies, but extra investment won't suddenly make her double swordmasters for instance. The reverse being true for units like Aran being under-levelled where he'd be less likely to get doubled. It essentially just means that SPD scales less with EXP investment.

Fixed. Not sure why PPF-Studio automatically removes the extension. Something I've overlooked more than once..

The difficulty is slightly higher than the original (for part 1) past around 1-4. Before then it's a bit easier just by virtue of your mages being outside of 1RKO range and a few other factors (Nolan not getting doubled with a steel axe, Edward a lot more likely to remain in doubling range etc...). It's similar to ReDux in that regard, but not really the same type of difficulty (maps are still in their original form). Chances are I'm not going to make a separate version (I've instead made some additional scaling adjustments to the base patch) since there isn't any meaningful way to raise the difficulty further (during certain parts of the game) without actual changes to each map. Therefore, If I make some adjustments to the difficulty curve itself then that will be sufficient enough. Unit/class balance also contributes to that.

No, patch A and B are just for different ISO types. It's the same with ReDux so just use the same one (A or B) that worked for you before. Hard mode is the same as the original game. So just play on normal if you dislike it (no different from the original game). If anything it should be better than vanilla (in part 1) since unit quality is better on average. Plus, you have the option to instantly promote Ilyana if you want another Jeigan.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Re-Balance (Part 1) Patch A and B are included. As a confirmation, growth changes are fairly minor overall (base level/stats cover the majority of unit changes aside from global ones like stat caps) therefore units are mostly true to their original form (with some minor exceptions like Meg who has lowered base LCK to make Fortune immediately useful -- her growth for it is still good). As mentioned in the change-log, the base difficulty is slightly higher but that's mostly to offset buffs to playable units (therefore, the difficulty should be around the same). All difficulty modes are playable. I'll create a new topic for it shortly after it's finished. There won't be much post-release support for it once that goes ahead, so now would be a good time to provide any feedback.

I think they referred to the BK being doubled and 2RKOed by the Elite sage in 1-E as an indication that is representative of ReDux's difficulty as a whole (which obviously isn't true). And I think they might have just saw that without further context. I did not make any gameplay changes to Mangs' version by his request. I did offer to fix the gameplay bugs in the original game (such as Mist's Florete, Fiona's base level etc...) but they would prefer the game to be the same as how it was released (for consistency with other people playing the game and rating units etc... Mist obviously becomes a lot better with a magical weapon). There will be another release between FEE3 and before the end of the year (at the latest). Hopefully sooner rather than later (depends on feedback from FEE3 itself). Will go up to 3-2 and will have much more frequent releases after that. Also, for the rebalance, I think I'm going to release that in parts of over the next couple weeks. Part 1 I'll release tomorrow, with each part 2-3 days in-between. Essentially how long it will take me to play-test all the way through the game and make any further tweaks.

Yes, I plan to release it early this following week. Just trying to playtest it as much as I can before then. (Up until now, I've been occupied with 'converting' an LPer's save to a clear file... harder than it sounds).

Regarding Vika, keep in mind that BEXP is extremely efficient on Laguz and Vika/Muarim both have low HP/LCK growths for a Laguz and much higher STR/SPD. So if you want to use them, a couple levels in 1-7 plus 2-3 BEXP levels is enough to make them really powerful (on average). @Rengor1997Watched the beginning of the stream only just now; so making some further comments on other units/items. 1-3 Silence: 8 uses say hello. Put it this way, if your silence lands, you're essentially auto-killing a mage (they become zero threat) with the upside of feeding EXP to literally anyone with no risk. It's okay on Laura (her MAG isn't amazing) but transferring over to the GMs (for Rhys) is ridiculously good. More than anything though, it actually makes most enemies with status staves have far more counterplay. Far less obnoxious when their range is limited. Mage weapon ranks: Ignoring how relevant/superfluous it is in the grand scheme of things (to actually have multiple magic types) Sages (Calill/Tormod) having a lot of them is kinda their shtick and isn't that game-breaking due to their poor availability (in that sense, they can only realistically rank up a couple). Ilyana only has one but that's what she's designed around -- a melee brawler that targets RES. No different from Aran (another melee brawler) that targets DEF with only one weapon choice. Fiona: Her stats are fairly middling all around but training her to begin with is entirely optional. Her 10/1 stats aren't even that bad. The suggestion to just make her T2 has been raised before, but honestly her bases + promos from the get-go are okay when you consider that her healing niche in part 3 (again, free deployment) can be really useful regardless of stats. Want to make her a strong combat unit? Sure, go ahead... train her, it's perfectly viable to do so. But the need to do that keeps her consistent with original Fiona at least (I feel that making her a pre-promote is completely opposite to her initial incarnation which feels wrong somewhat). Jill: Yeah, she's still really good no doubt. Squishy sure, but that's more excusable for a flier with canto. Thing is, there isn't really any particular reason to make her weaker since she still has weaknesses. The fact that she needs to avoid both Bishops and Mage Knights later on do matter (maybe less so in part 1). And in part 3... the dynamic changes where being a glass cannon hurts more than it helps. That's a discussion for later though. Either way, if she's on the stronger side overall I don't really mind, and I'll explain that later in this post. Meg: You say that she needs a lot of EXP investment but that's making an assumption based on her starting level. A lower level just means that the unit gains more EXP so its better to apply more context to stats themselves. Her SPD is mostly the only thing that benefits hugely from levels. Everything else is sufficient for what she's useful for. 1-4 is also perfectly suited for training her while also increasing your efficiency on that map. I'm pretty sure that LTC'ing the map for maximum BEXP (in the next update) is out of reach without a decent usage of Meg herself. Still, she's an armor and has lower base move. It's always less tempting to 'train' a unit with that problem (although she ignores penalties from thickets and ledges, making up for it somewhat). Hpwever, she does pay off on average. Having effective damage for most of Part 3 is incentive enough. Edward: Comments where made that his growths aren't that befitting for a Myrmidon. That's entirely intentional to make him contrast with Zihark (it's boring when you have two units so similar to each-other, even if they are the same class). Edward is more of a Mercenary/Hero in the long-run. Caladbolg even pushes that further. Overall perspective of units being "nerfed": I'm sure you understand this at this point but the intention that units are "nerfed" isn't really accurate in context to everything else at play. Edward's stats aren't "worse" when you consider how much higher EXP is, early promotions, goals for difficulty etc... To say that Edward is stronger in vanilla hard-mode (promoted with greater stats) in 1-8 is highly debatable. We are talking about a game where Edward would struggle to double enemies past the Prologue (without a SPD proc), let alone be promoted and self-sufficient before part 3. I think you're underestimating how bad units have it in the original (when you consider that this hack is meant to be more consistently challenging than vanilla HM on "normal" -- as far as 'Intermediate' is concerned). One thing to keep in mind overall: It's still Fire Emblem and RNG can very much dictate how good/bad units can be. Judging unit viability after only 1-2 runs is naturally going to lead you into thinking that things aren't 'balanced' based on personal experience. The tuning/design of this hack so far is based on feedback of players who played through it 20+ times (granted, that wouldn''t necessarily prevent you from being sceptical to some tuning -- some things may not have obvious context in that regard). In any given run, you're bound to have units that over/under perform. It's just the nature of things. Not to say that there isn't room for improvement, but it's also important to mention that 'perfect imbalance' is the optimal design for FE as a whole (IMO). Designing units to be too equal/balanced can make the game boring/predictable (as in, Sothe > Aran is pretty blatant, but that doesn't mean Aran is bad or Sothe is OP -- it's just intentional that Sothe is 'better'). The way I see it, so long as units have a clear niche/identity (and interesting/fun to use), and aren't too weak/strong (for what they're intended to be) or too difficult to use then that's fine. Not to say that some units won't fall outside of that by any means (it's certainly been the case in the past) but I'm fairly confident that units in part 1 don't fall outside of that currently. Not to say that minor balance tweaks are out of the question; those are still ongoing. There's also a reason why I'd be less optimistic to 'buff' Ilyana (should she need buffing) in areas like MAG/SPD, because those aren't her strengths. Increasing those is making her boringly 'balanced' in all areas as opposed to making her distinct in what she's good at. So I'd be more inclined to buff her further in SKL/DEF even more if she would require that. After some consideration, some extra STR on promotion could be pretty valid (even if I consider it a placebo buff for the most part). Essentially, I strongly dislike 'balance hacks' that attempt to make everyone equal (by homogenising stats/traits). Sure, you can nerf the Jeigan to make him "equally viable/good" vs. anyone else from a tier perspective... but what's the appeal in playing something like that? This isn't really directed at you specifically by the way; just an opportunity to explain my thought process as a whole.

That perspective isn't wrong -- there's always an opportunity cost involved. Usually if I've decided to use Ilyana long-term then I'm either giving her Discpline on 1-4 & 1-5 or 1-6 (I don't think any other unit gets as much short-term value out of it; Meg can feasibly get C rank without Discipline before the Greatsword and Aran can use a forged Iron rather than Steel if need be). However if I'm not using her (and/or if she gets a couple bad levels in 1-3 for instance) then I won't really focus on her beyond killing some dracos on 1-5 (and dropping her later on). In that case the skill goes elsewhere. Of course, same logic can apply to any unit regarding resources. Volug without the energy drop is another example: might be your best option on average but there are plenty other candidates for it as well.

Levail has his 4-E stats. BK's stats (when playable) are only for part 1 (they increase afterwards) and his true stats will be comparable (if not higher) to Levail's.

It's something that I'll likely be able to fix by removing the code that triggers her death animation (so it returns to the map immediately and skips it, so the game doesn't wait for it to play out) but that will then apply to Meg as a whole (not a big deal). On the other hand, Meg purposely crashing the game is so troll-y that I might even allow it (as bad as it sounds to leave it in). The thing is though, if you're training Meg all the way to tier 3, wouldn't you reset if she died anyway? At least with Fiona or Sigrun beforehand, they didn't even need to be trained to get staves with an immediate promotion item. And in their case, forcing them into a T-pose is pretty sloppy (and sharing Mist/Elincia's animation occasionally caused other issues). With Meg... it almost suits her. On the other hand, if she has a staff equipped in 3-7 or 3-E... yeah you might not want to kill her if that's left in. But even if that did happen and the player was not aware, it shouldn't really be all that problematic... because reasons (she's the first enemy you ever fight/encounter on either map... Alone. So not much of a reset). Discipline on two maps is more than enough. Siege tomes also should give 4 WEXP (OP seems to be wrong). So 5 uses of Bolting will give 40 WEXP (2/3rd of the way to A rank) by itself with the skill. I think she's a top candidate for it on 1-4 to reach B rank for 1-5. Elthunder with a spirit dust is the alternative though. Should still put her in 2HKO range for most enemies in 1-7 (outside generals). As with any unit it can be down to RNG (can certainly get MAG screwed). It's feasible to drop her especially since the only map where she gets free deployment after 1-6 is 3-5 (in 3-2 you have more units than deployment slots now due to the cats/tigers).

Micaiah isn't designed to double and that's why her magic is as ridiculously high as it is (high enough where she deals as much damage in one attack as other casters would do with two). She actually had a lot more SPD in past versions (with less magic) but the problem with that is that she was more reliant on doubling to deal a lot of damage, so against swordmasters/cats etc... she would be worse than she currently is, where her raw damage is so good that high SPD or RES doesn't counter her. And as it stands, the slowest enemies (Generals) she has effective damage anyway and should 1HKO them. And if she still isn't doing enough damage than its better to give her a MAG buff than SPD. Again, SPD wouldn't help her damage at all against anything with decent SPD to begin with. It's also better design in the maps relevant to her later on. In 3-6 there's cats (that she wouldn't double regardless) and with Tigers if she was designed to double them then she'd easily 1RKO them with Elfire due to their low RES. Same with Hawks. In 3-12 there's plenty of armors and in 3-13 she's only using siege tomes anyway and wouldn't be doubling with them regardless. Otherwise, her SPD only needs to be high enough to not get doubled by mid-tier SPD enemies (Same with Ilyana or Aran) like Tigers. I think her worst performance out of any map is 1-E itself since is so movement oriented before the very end, and she still has uses there with the occasional Thani or Fenrir. She's a bit of a late bloomer either way -- she's intended to be the best unit in Endgame aside from maybe Kurth. Her tier 2 class is more of a tier 2.5 as well, so she's really good in part 3 or 4 as a whole. She does join with A but has 30 STR (so 41 ATK) with enemies averaging ~17 DEF. That's still 2RKOing except Generals. But then should gain a strike rank a map if used moderately. The reason she's designed that way is so her potential damage is gated behind needing combat EXP and not BEXP. Most of the royals are designed that way. Higher weapon rank would mean that BEXP is better which is more efficient on Laguz compared to Beorc come part 4. At least, that's the design intent. An easy buff if required is to just increase the MT on A and/or S (lowering the gap between ranks). 14 > 15 SPD and 10 > 12 RES are the planned changes, along with Aura on Alondite (which is effectively -6 damage taken total against anima as well). Also, Elites are being changed. They now no longer gain a flat SPD bonus to their bases but are a few levels higher for the sake of more EXP (still a net loss in SPD though). So I'd say that makes them slightly easier overall in return for more reward. The Elite Warrior shouldn't be doubling anyone anymore let alone the BK. Thing is, you need to think about how relevant those things are (less than you realize). For slower units like Ilyana (or Leo/Aran etc...), her AS is only relevant up until the point where she starts getting doubled by harder hitting enemies (so Warriors, Wyverns, Dragons, Tigers, Halberdiers etc...). Even when she's being weighed down by Arcthunder (immediately after promotion which will be 11 AS on average) she doesn't get doubled by enemies in 1-7 (~13 SPD) and on average gains 1 AS ~60% of the time on a level (either has to proc STR/SPD). Assuming average levels she'll never be doubled by enemies where it would matter. It's the same deal with enemies after she first joins where Elthunder doesn't put her down to a dangerous SPD either. Meanwhile, every enemy that would double her (SMs, cats, ravens, sages) would still double her unless she's a speedy unit herself. So when being in the 12-17 AS bracket, it doesn't matter where you land in that. Same with 18-24 and 24-30. Any variance within those rarely matters, only if you reach enough AS to move to the next one to double the previous bracket (or to not be doubled be the next one). There are exceptions to this where say, 15 AS is enough to double an Axe General, so it isn't always as simplistic as that. But for the most part, those are SPD groups you're looking at for 1E. There's units like Fiona/Muarim (or a higher levelled Nolan) where they can often be on the edge of this bracket (so it's more down to luck or needing a booster to start doubling). The other argument is that her MAG isn't good enough so her damage suffers. But is that really true (in context to how many rounds she needs to KO)? In 1-3 she 2RKOs everything except four enemies (the boss, two seers and the sword armor). In 1-4 her offence is great on Tigers (and if she can proc 1 SPD, then she doubles them with a forged thunder, meaning she's the only unit other than Sothe/Meg that can 2RKO them). In 1-5 she's likely your best unit aside from Sothe (and maybe Volug?) either 2RKOing or 1RKOing anything and bolting is available. 1-6-1 is the first map where she's not that great due to all the pegasi (although there are a few Wyvern) compared to other units who suddenly have something great going for them (Horseslayer!Aran, Bowgun!Nolan, Leo etc...). 1-6-2 is where bolting is at its best if you know what to do with it. At this point she solos the Wyvern group that spawns as well. 1-7 she 2RKOs almost everything with Arcthunder. 1-8 she fares pretty well in general (dragons, as well as reaching the point where her crit is ~30%, which is essentially a 1RKO several times during the map). 1-E isn't an amazing map for her and it's perfectly reasonable to drop her (over Tormod). Wind and dark magic are pretty common here so she may want Stillness if she is used (to avoid those) but that's a high cost. With a +DEF support she can tank the swordmasters just about as good as anyone can, so that's a plus. And bolting can chip away at the Sages (particularly the Elite one). Problem is, Tormod likely has higher priority at this point and can do the latter anyway. Although, if Nolan didn't have the Hammer or Aran the Brave Lance, I'd consider her better than those two. Her ATK with Arcthunder is only a bit lower than a forged steel for either of those... but she targets RES. Then you account for the massive crit% on top of that. She only needs to crit maybe twice overall to be more efficient. It's just that the hammer or brave lance secures a 1RKO rather than a random chance to. Still, dropping her in 1-E still makes her great for part 3. Wasn't going to reveal it yet, but it's Meg. I was initially against giving units/classes new weapons (aside from magic) without working custom animations since it T-poses them. But it's Meg. She's already a walking meme, so why not go all the way?

Here is footage of a run of 1-E that went pretty smooth. Other people have vods as well like Rengor1997 yesterday: It's one of those maps that you need to prepare for and utilize everything you have. Shine Barriers are excellent on this map (to split enemies), and you'll want to also want to utilize things such as Barrier/Pure Water/Laguz Gem/ etc... There'a also a fair amount of long-term preparation that you want to do (in terms of units to train and resources) beforehand. However keep in mind that this is still Intermediate mode, and a blind run will be best played on 'Standard' when it releases. It's normal for it be really challenging on an initial playthrough as it stands.