LoneRecon400

It takes 25 Strength to not get weighed down by a basic Iron Sword. At pretty much every point in the game, Weight -3 is going to be a relavant skill. Even if a unit wanted to equip a Training Weapon for extra AS, it'd still be useful in preventing units from getting weighed down by Shields and help out their durability by a substancal amount. On top of that, it allows unit with C Axes to take the Armor Knight Certifaction. That gives any unit a base 12 Defense regardless of how bad their defense was previously in any class of their choosing. The Armor Classes may be pretty bad in this game, but the skill is most certainly worth investing in.

It's completely skipped. You can tell because every unit will have maxed out motivation. Correct. They're also the same skills they are autoleveled in, so you can figure it from this.

It does not.

Vantage and it's Battalion counterpart only matter if you can one shot the enemy you're attacking. Without skills such as Wrath or Defiant Crit it's not really worth equipping, espically as Assassins don't see much Enemy Phase Combat due to Sealth. You should drop Close Counter if you don't mind applying the Gambit Retribution on them, since that makes able to counter attack at 1 Range without it. Firece Iron Fist grants +10 Crit and +1 attack. So the difference between Warmaster and Grappler is +3 Strength and +10 Crit versus guaranteed Triple hits and the ability to walk through rough terrain like without forest without penalty.

Here.

Here's some actual numbers behind Alert Stance + in case someone wants to know how long it take to pick up. Also for the record: Aux battles really skew how much Wexp a unit gets. Like it takes 1080 Wexp to go from S -> S+. A unit fighting just 20 battles in a Master Class even without a boon will still gain a 100 Wexp. With a boon and the knowledges gem, that's 180 Wexp. And that doesn't even include tutoring or weekly training. Speaking from personal experience, I've only gotten 2-3 units to S Rank, let alone S+. But that's mainly because I strictly ban any optional battles barring Paralogues and Merchant Battles. If one were to take full advantage of Aux battles, they can hit S+ fairly easily on a handful of units.

I'm fairly certain that wasn't the case. But seeing as I no longer have a Switch to test this either way, I'll concede this point.

You want Deathblow regardless of whatever class you want Byleth to end up as. That +6 Attack makes a big difference, and can even aid in Speed. Weight -3 is certainly worth getting if you want to double enemies on Maddening. Something as basic as a Silver Lance requires 45 Strength to wield without penalty. With Weight -3 and Deathblow, that gets lowered down 24 Strength. It also means Byleth can take the Armor Knight Certifcation for a base 12 Defense the moment they hit Level 10. Desperation does not activate on Enemy Phase, so it is useless when combined Vantage. I'd drop Sword Prowess on Byleth simply because they're are a lot more Swordbreaker enemies than they're Lance Breaker enemies, plus they don't benefit from the faire. I'd also put Weight -3 on Warmaster Byleth instead a desperation since they will not regularly quad anyways. Weight -3 will allow to wield heavy Shields like Aegis without any speed penalty and avoid being doubled.

How about practical demonstration.

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Magic.

The Strategy Here's a video from the person who made the strat, but be warned it is very laggy: https://youtu.be/F_ywAp-q4Cw

Here's a list.

You can get her to C+ rank, which lowers the requirement down to D+ Lances. Normally the game doesn't show + ranks, but you can check it with either by Sharing Meals or Choir.

Screams in rage over Byrce dropping a Speedwing rather than his Lance

You should really consider using more Battalions with support Gambits, such as Kingdom Archers or Kingdom Armored Company. The Archers come with Retribution (Makes 6 units able counter attack on Enemy Phase regardless of distance for five turns) and the Armor Knights come with Impregnable Wall (Reduces all damage taken and given to 1 to three units for one turn), both which can really help clear the area and allow your weaker units to move up. But the biggest help on that map would undoubtably be the Sacred Shield Gambit on Kingdom Heavy Soldiers. That Gambit's description claims it only nullifies attacks made from ranged physical weapons for three units for one turn, but it actually also works with Magic. It even goes so far to null the attacks from Edelgard's final form at range. So when combined with retribution, a unit can easily destroy any mage that would try to attack from a distance. A tip for the Dark Knight Reinforcements is it that while the siege mages are unblockable, you can prevent the Dark Knights from showing up by blocking the tile they show up on.

- Uncommon class picks like Mage Ingrid will have a very difficult time in the beginning. But they can become decent enough by the time they promote at level 20 due to class bases. Giving them good battalions and Blow Skills will also really help them out. - Most maps will have Allied units are autoleveled like enemies on the map. They're some exceptions though, like Felix's Dad on his Paralogue. - The Exp cut on Maddening isn't too bad with the Statue Bonuses, but it's still not recommended to field more than the deployment limit allows for. - Seige weapons can be pretty threating on Maddening since not only do they hit a lot harder, certain skills such as Poison Strike on Archers also apply. They're still tolerable thanks to gambits, however, as some such as Impreganable Wall or Sacred Shield can really nullify the threat of them. - Paralogues still give a substantial amount of Exp due to enemies being higher leveled than normal chapters.

760.

Fortress Knights can take a beating with the right set up. They have a class base of 27 Defense, so when combined with a +8 Defense from a good defensive battalion and a Silver Shield for an additional 4, that can lead them to having nearly 40 Defense without a single level up. That's enough to take 0 damage from enemies in Chapter 13. Issue with the class is that all they're good for is taking damage, and even then they're not great for that. Magic absolutely shreds them, Poison Strike from Archers still applies even if they take no damage from them, and Gambits really soften them up for other enemies to finish them off. Not to mention any unit is capable of taking hits with the Impregenable Wall Gambit.

Noted and edited. Should work now.

I already shown how a base Wyvern Lord can reach 42 Speed. Even with the 14 weight Brave Axe, factoring in Death Blow and Weight -3 they'd have 37 AS without any Speed Procs or Bull Heads. Offensively, they'd need Attack 62 Attack for Seteth and 60 for Dimtiri. The Class base Strength for Wyvern Lord is 22. With: Brave Axe (35) Axefaire (40) Deathblow (46) Empire Elite Wyvern Company (54) Rally Strength (58) They'd be only 4 Strength off, which they could get either level ups, Strength +2, or + Attack Supports. And keep in mind that this is assuming no growths. In an actual Playthrough they won't even need everything listed on here. If Heavy Draw is enough to defeat flier in one shot, so can Point Blank Volley. Like the Pegasus Knights in Chapter 13 require 72 Attack to Ohko, but when a Forged Silver Bow alone can deal 39 Damage , it's an easy benchmark to reach. And while it admittedly it take more investment to reach, it can help against hard to kill enemies such as Assassins or Swordmasters. And why are worrying about Rng Screwage when Leonie has some of the better bases among the recruits? Also, anytime you want point out enemy stats, here's a useful link for that: https://imgur.com/a/dSnk6C9

-It's not my view of efficiency, it's just how that's traditionally viewed around these parts. -The Speed base of Wyvern Lord 24. Add to that: Darting Blow (+6) Rally Speed (+4) Speed Ring (+2) Speed +2 (+2) Special Dance (+4) That's 42 Speed right there before even including any Speed Procs or even Bullheads. Really any unit can have an easy time one rounding late game bosses as long as they got a Brave Weapon and the skills to go along with it. - How is Heavy Draw better than an combat art that's pretty much trivializes almost every flier in the route? Felix also starts with only E+ Bows no matter when you recruit him compared to Leonie Autoleveling the skill. Him having more support partners isn't really relevant when they only give +2 Attack before the timeskip and they may not be deployed at all. A 15% difference in Strength is not enough to have that much of gap between the two and will not result in Leonie being RNG screwed. She starts with 16 Strength when recruited by Ch 6 with 20 Speed as a Pegasus Knight. There's no way a three tier gap that big exists between the two units. -It's quite realistic for Petra to obtain Alert Stance + before even the timeskip. Here's the math behind it. You also really underestimate her durability since she take 2-3 hits before going down with Blessing, never mind how the enemies have to get over her over 100 Avoid. While Gambits are admittedly an issue, they're relatively uncommon on enemies especially after the timeskip. Ranged attacks is also easily handled just by slapping on Retribution onto her. Thing is, where would a line be drawn between trivializing the difficulty and just it being useful? Take Ferdinand for instance. You commented how far away A Rank Lances is, but using the setup you described would have him gaining +32 Lance Exp a turn. That would mean the difference between him reaching Swift Strikes and Lysithea hitting Warp is no longer then a minute or so in real time. It doesn't break the game id say, but it's a clear advantage one without grinding wouldn't have. Should that kinda of thing be allowed?

-You may have wanted to lead with that comment about play style first. When people here discuss Efficiency, they usually do it from the prescriptive of clearing maps in the least amount of Turns rather than Real Time. It's why even though it'd only takes like five minutes for Lysithea to get to B Faith through Aux battles, some are going to be more leery about that than spending an hour fishing for Bull Heads. - Quadrupling with Braves tends to be enough for bulky bosses. Like a Base Wyvern Lord alone can hit 42 Speed just from various Speed boosts, almost enough to double most Maddening bosses with Brave Weapons. While it does rely on having certain skills and growths to an extent, most good units such as the lords and good recruits are capable of doing so with no more investment than most other units need. -I'd argue that the best attribute for dancer a Dancer would be having a Riding Boon for Movement +1. The extra Hit that Meteor provides kind of pales it prevents your Dancer from reaching a unit if a tile of thicket or Fire was in the way. -Leonie gets a +3 Attack Support from Alosis and has boons that are relevant to become one of the best classes in the game. What does Felix provide that makes a 3 tier gap between the two when he doesn't even have a notable statistical advantage over her? - Chapter 5 is admittedly a little of a stretch, but it's quite realistic to recruit Lysithea and have her get to B Faith by Chapter 6 as long as she willing join automatically through B support by Chapter 4. - If defensive Adjutants was all you cared about it in regards to Ashe, than literally any unit would do. It only takes 6 weeks for any unit that doesn't have bane in the relevant skills to certify as a Armor Knight without any tutoring. It's certainly not C tier worthy. I'd valued the Speed Carrot he comes with more highly than anything he claims as a unit. - Speed is quite relevant during the earlygame, but I'll admit that it's impact is quite dulled without Cooking. Still, Petra still has the capability of stacking a great amount of avoid with Alert Stance + and utilizing it Battalion Wrath to have a near 100 Crit rate. For Example.

My Thoughts over units: -I disagree with Bernie being in S+ Rank. While Vengeance is undoubtedly powerful, the setup it requires can be detrimental to skipping some maps easily compared to other options and the lack of bulk can be annoying when facing off things she can't kill in hit, such as monsters. - I don't see how Dorothea is a S tier unit. Her combat in the early game is very lack luster and lacks really any way way of fixing it that early while also doing really nothing to differentiate herself from other mages. About the only thing that makes her stand out is meteor, and by the time she obtains it most maps can already be completed 1 turn without it. While the Link Attack it can provide is alright, I'd hardly call it S tier worthy. - I also don't see how you can claim a recruited Felix for A Tier while having a Leonie ranked in D Tier when they have very similar bases, but Leonie has an easier time becoming a flier on top of having no Authority Bane and much higher base Defense. - Lysithea should not be recruited in Chapter 14 since that would mean she'd have E+ Faith. Considering that she's the only mage that learns Warp at B Faith and makes her capable of skipping chapters 5 and 6, she should be A tier at the very least. - Why is there a gap between Sylvain and Ferdinand? They're effectively pretty much the same unit. - There's no way Ashe is anything but a D rank unit. Acting as a Guard Adjutant is a role that can done by any other unit and is not exclusive to him. Are you taking in his paralogue rewards into consideration with his ranking? - While I agree with Petra's ranking, I disagree with reasoning. She has the highest base Speed out of any starting student, so she can regularly start doubling enemies once Bullheads come into effect. Having a boon in Flying means that she can also obtain Alert Stance + sooner than most and make good use out of her Battalion Wrath to destroy a lot of enemies on Enemy Phase. In general: - How is Monastery activities handled in general? Can we count on Fishing up for Bull heads to cook for extra Speed? How about Fishing for Professor EXP? What about Growing Stat boosters in the Garden? -Guard Adjutants aren't that valuable. While surviving on 1 HP can useful for unit like Bernadetta, you have to consider that it only applies when unit is being doubled, which most units aren't facing. Even when it does occur, reducing an attack by 30% at best isn't really worth much. - Most physical units also have the same 12 base Defense at level 10 considering how easy it is to certify as a Armor Knight. So I'd say most units don't have a durability lead on other units.