samthedigital

The Armorslayer and Ridersbane are situationally useful early on in the game. The Hurricane Axe can also be useful until it stops one shotting wyverns. I'm pretty sure that it takes 6 magic or something like that for any unit with a Hurricane Axe to one shot wyverns in the Roy paralogue for example; it doesn't take much. Otherwise yeah, they're pretty lackluster and require a lot of investment for them to do anything.

Are you just trying to beat Maddening or are you trying to do a specific type of playthrough?

There are a few maps where the enemy stat bloat is annoying, but that opinion is probably partially influenced by my latest playthrough which necessitated the use of some of the worst units in the game. Otherwise I can't think of anything in particular that I dislike when it comes to the difficulty mode, but I don't remember much of my HM playthrough besides chapter 17 either.

As with most I'll watch the video later, but I do want to point one thing out right now: This is arguing over the internet in a nutshell. There is no real resolution to that.

Xander in particular probably wants to go into Hero for Sol and Axebreaker. Swordbreaker helps too, but I don't really like staying in wyvern that long because he doesn't have swords. He probably wants Paladin for the endgame, but the game's basically done by then. Other units want classes that give them 1-2 range unless you just want some player phase only unit.

Looks about right if you compare them in their base class; I was looking at Mage Knight where the difference is 8HP/7STR/8MAG/3DEX/2SPD/12Def/8RES barring some small mistakes. More likely is that people don't want an old man waifu. On a slightly more serious note though I can fit him on my team even without any investment whatsoever. I just wouldn't go as far as to say that he's amazing or anything given his availability and all.

Depending on how loose your definition of Paladin is I'd put FE4 above FE9 because as good as Paladins are in FE9 they're not the best class in that game, and they don't hold a candle to FE4 Sigurd/Seliph/Leif. Otherwise I don't have much to add besides some of the games that you haven't listed. Engage: I don't have enough experience with Three Houses, but I'd have Engage Paladins around there near the bottom. Vander is pretty good early on, but he falls off really quickly. Similar to 3H there's no reason to reclass to Paladin once we can reclass everyone either. If Wolf Knights fall under the Paladin umbrella then I'd have them at around a B tier because there aren't any other physical classes with a good 1-2 range weapon. FE5: It's probably another B tier showing. They're fantastic for outdoor maps, but it's balanced by not being able to mount indoors and having bad combat because they're then locked to swords. Fergus is the only real exception to the rule. Conquest: It's tough; it's an A tier class until chapter 19 where it starts to drop off... Xander, Silas, and Jakob are all good showings, but eventually they want to reclass. It's also a great backup class, and Shelter is always nice to pick up. FE10: It's always a mess to rate units in this game, but maybe slightly below FE6? Titania is an amazing unit and has good availability. Oscar as a decent unit hindered by his speed cap. Geoffrey and Kieran have a similar dynamic to Titania and Oscar, but they're only available for a few chapters. Micaiah's group might be the only one without a good Paladin, but it's been a while.

It depends a little bit on who you're talking to; from what I'm told some people view Ike as one of the worst emblems, but that's probably more of an LTC perspective if true. Roy goes really well with a good physical carry like Kagetsu or Merrin though. I have a hard time saying that he's one of the less valuable emblems without including utility emblems just for that reason alone. edit: After thinking about it some I'd say that there are probably also some better emblems that are in less demand if that makes sense. I'm also having a difficult time trying to work out where I'd rank Roy because my opinion of him depends on the context.

He has a lot of bulk, a good strength stat, 2 speed, and 8 magic over Lindon. It's also not clear where the line is between stats and build; both are important unless it's a utility role. I'm also not quite sure exactly how effective Lindon actually is if we don't have the time to train him. He starts with 19 magic, and assuming he reaches 100% crit (not sure if he does or not at the moment) he still might have problems one rounding select enemies with weaker weapons if he can't double.

His bases are quite a bit worse that Mauvier's, and he might not get a whole lot of time to grow given the fact that we get Micaiah back after the next chapter. That's not to say that being filler is bad, and I'm sure that he can do cool shit with a small amount of preferential treatment.

I'm almost tempted to rate him higher for this joke alone, haha.

Looks like OP's mistake?

5/10 He's the definition of filler, but having a magic stat and a decent starting SP pool makes that a little more valuable than it sounds. People often mention the fact that he can pick up Draconic Hex for free, so I'll bring it up too. It loses some value because of the well, but it's still something. He can do Warp Ragnarok Draconic Hex shenanigans, provide decent enough utility as a Griffin Knight, or go into Warrior with a Radiant Bow probably. I went with Mage Knight when I used him; he's fine in this role even though he's worse than most units that have been trained at this point.

I noted her personal earlier; I don't know how many enemies are male off the top of my head, but it certainly can be effective. The defenses do help though depending on whether the unit is one rounding enemies or not and if they're only able to target the Bonded Shield user, etc. I am not sure what the general consensus is, but it's the other way around for me. Getting the AI to target the right unit isn't prohibitively difficult. edit: I also don't make use of 4 unit Bonded Shield circles. I want to ensure that my carry is getting the kills, so it helps that Alear can support any carry I want, but it's only 15? more avoid.

There are two enemies in chapter 17 with 28 AS and one with 25 AS. Goldmary probably isn't doubling those, but she doubles everything else on the map provided she hits 26 speed. It does get a little tougher by the next chapter; she probably needs Lucina or some other Emblem to help, but she isn't having too many problems there either. She will have problems doubling in chapters 19 and 20; those maps are littered with fast enemies that even the fastest units need a lot of help doubling; growths will only do so much against enemies with 30 speed. I would say that 2-3 speed is more accurate when she joins unless you're doing all of your paralogues as soon as they're available. She's probably not doubling much in chapter 19 or 20 because it's filled with fast enemies, but past that she can reach ~32+ speed which is certainly enough to double a decent amount. The faster units can probably double more by this point, but the problem is that by this point everyone has an emblem, and we'd have to determine what everyone is getting which makes it difficult to come up with concrete numbers for anything. Even if you know what you're doing you might not play the exact same way every time. Goldmary becomes more valuable relative to how few units we choose to give resources to in part 1. There are certainly a handful of units that are better than her there with investment, but it's also not a bad idea to focus on one unit to snowball for later instead of using every unit just to make a unit like Goldmary redundant. I also want to again note the Covert/Dragon Instruct and the Bonded Shield strategy. They do give her the ability to double more even if you might not like those strategies. Granted I have no idea about your opinions on Bonded Shield; you won't find that many units that are appreciably better than her in that role unless you specifically want Alear for their passive instead, and that will naturally create different complications.

We might not actually disagree in this instance. I'm not trying to suggest that Goldmary is the only option for this or even that we should always assume a Bonded Shield strategy. My greater point is that we shouldn't have a heavy focus on opportunity cost if we're not concerned with "high efficiency" gameplay; outside of that specific playstyle it doesn't really matter much. As you said there are a lot of ways to cook Engage. I will acknowledge that some emblems are in higher demand than others, but I don't think that this should mean that Goldmary never gets resources to help her improve her speed just because another unit might do it better. Wyvern is the other option by the way, but it depends on whether you want Ivy as your carry or not. I like that a little more than being forced into Martial Master, but there's merit to both classes. I'll give Enchanter a quick nod too even if it's not a part of the ratings.

Goldmary does quite a lot with Lucina. She has high defenses and can boost her avoid; if you're looking to abuse Bonded Shield those are the two most desirable attributes to get the AI to target the right unit. I don't play LTC either, but I've made good use of the speed and dragon Instructs in my playthroughs. As long as I can reach one round thresholds against most enemies I can spam Bonded Shield and have enemies attack into my Bonded Shield target. Reaching those thresholds will require some kind of Instruct on Maddening. I haven't crunched numbers for units that already have high speed, so maybe it's possible to get there with them, but it's certainly cheaper to buy speed+x, and speed is a more generally desirable stat than strength or magic individually. Using my latest playthrough as an example I needed the speed Instruct to get Citrinne to double the Wolf Knights on chapter 19; that allowed her to one round just about everything on the map on enemy phase. edit: I want to quickly note that LTCs and maximum efficiency playthroughs make heavy use of warp. It doesn't give them the time to train a lot or use enemy phase strategies; Goldmary is more useful for her bases than anything else. Not that I'm trying to nitpick your rating or anything; I don't really have a problem with that. Funnily enough if we're using Lucina!Goldmary it's more for the benefit of Ivy and Citrinne than for Goldmary for reasons listed above. It does let her double the 22 speed enemies on chapter 17 and lets her continue to double with the 28-33 speed benchmark listed in my last post throughout the game, but Goldmary probably is probably going to be attacking as a second option as a Wyvern or not at all if we go the Martial Master route. I agree that Merrin is better than Goldmary, but that doesn't mean that Goldmary can't double on her own, and Goldmary might find a place on the team depending on how many part 1 units we choose to invest in. She can also be a reposition/SP bot or whatever, but within a few chapters after she joins there's likely going to be an emblem for her, and her utility is going to be dictated by which one she gets to some degree.

You mentioned this as a criticism for Rosado as well, but it's not that difficult for most units to hit doubling thresholds. 28-33 speed is enough to double most enemies outside of Wolf Knights and Swordmasters up until chapter 24, and she can get there fairly comfortably provided she's using Lucina. Speed+X and a meal/tonic alone are enough to reach some benchmarks, and even the fastest units need those to secure doubles provided they don't have an emblem. A speed instruct is also an option, and while Goldmary is not going to my intended target for this she can piggyback off of a unit that uses the speed to better effect.

I can't comment on Three Houses, but I don't have any issues keeping my Brave Assist unit at full HP. I don't find Hero to be a good combat class generally speaking though, so I find myself using them as a Dual Assist+ bot that doesn't see much combat if I care to use one at all. Note that I don't really like this strategy much and only use it when I'm forced to use an underperforming unit. I've heard of people using a full Hero team with Dual Assist+, but that is probably more of a meme than anything else. At least it has that going for it I guess; a lot of the class skills in Engage are even more conditional and do much less.

The only real point of contention I have is with Roy being in low demand since he gives physical units 1-2 range and more raw damage than anything else provided they can already double.

6.5/10 She's a decent filler wyvern in a pinch with her starting SP, and she works well as a Bonded Shield bot with her bulk and personal. The obvious comparison is to Rosado since they join at the same time and are both physical units. Goldmary's offensive stats are a little better (+2str and -1speed), but Rosado eventually passes her combat with his growths. His defenses are much worse though, and she will always keep a significant lead there. There are also a lot of other units with better combat stats when she joins too (Kagetsu, Merrin, Panette, and a trained Amber to name a few), so it's tough to see her getting a damage emblem without some favoritism. She is also two levels away from Brave Assist for whatever that's worth. I'm giving her the slight nod over Rosado because she doesn't need to rely on growths to be effective and she can put the bulk she has to some use.

I'd recommend using an action replay code to bring back the QoL features if you ever feel like playing RD on hard mode; I quite like Hard with the enemy range viewer turned back on. Having played both though I'd say that Conquest is more difficult if only because it takes more time to understand the game's mechanics. Radiant Dawn otherwise has some more difficult maps in my opinion, but the difficulty is naturally a lot less consistent.

Do you plan on buying a bunch of boots in chapter 21? That will help mitigate the problem too.

It's been a bit, but the last time I played I got her to C at around chapter 14 I think. It gave her a handful of chapters worth of additional combat utility even if it's not that much compared to the carries. I'm not sure if enemies target Fae before or after her dragonstone stat bonuses, but you're right; I should have clarified. She's useful as a staff sponge and doesn't need to see any combat.

6/10 He's alright as far as filler goes, but it takes a while for his strength growth to fix his base stat, and we're spoiled for choice with physical combat units. He starts in a good class, but we get infinite seals two chapters after he joins, so at best he just saves a bit of gold if we don't have all the flying units we want already. It helps that he's fast, so he can use an emblem like Roy for damage, but when going up against late game enemies on Maddening it's much better to have a good magic stat or an overwhelming strength stat because fixing speed is easier to do, and Rosado just doesn't have that.