CarmineCoffee

I find the intermediate and advanced ones most useful (vantage, wrath, desparation, death/fiendish blow, pavise/aegis, etc). All the master classes minus quick riposte and defiant avoid really aren’t that great

Updated list since last time I posted. All four routes under hard/classic. If they’re not pictured, I didn’t use them enough to give an opinion. Edelgard B if she stays as the emperor class. A if you reclass her to a flier. Of the three lords I really think her unique is the most ill-suited. Honestly Annette/Hubert/Dorothea aren’t bad but why use them if you have Lysithea. Maddening mode came out and I’m not super far but I did find some uses for Annette’s rallies so maybe move her up to B. All the healers are good, with Mercedes being the best by a small margin. She could go A or B for me, I just don’t normally put healers up that high beyond “good.” I’m biased for Ingrid but B would be a fair evaluation of her too.

1. Don’t spread yourself too thin. You can only bring up to ten units in most maps and you’ll eventually have adjustants so you can raise a few characters on the side for those rare chapters where you can bring more. 2. Death blow is your friend for your underperforming archers in the early game (Bernadetta). +6 str and brigand will fix her str growths a little 3. Some advanced and master classes will ask for A ranks in certain weapons and flying/riding. Flying and riding are pretty difficult to hit if you’re trying to jump from infantry to mounted (for example, fighter —> brigand —> warrior —> wyvern lord) so put flying or riding as a goal really early on. I tried to do too much and my Petra stayed as an assassin until level 45...when the game was almost over

Petra and Ingrid. It’s amazing that you two almost never get doubled and rarely miss, really, but I think you two can afford to spare just a few points into strength. They both had around 20 str while in their advanced classes. Doing four danage twice is still only eight damage total... I did my time with Ignatz. I think he had less total stats than Lysithea’s HP. I just wanted to use him for the giggles but never again

I went Blue Lions > Golden Deer > Edelgard > Church. I definitely agree with everyone else saying that going BL first made me hate Edelgard and found her route extremely unenjoyable (although the BE cast is also to blame...they didn't feel as fun or close-knit as the other two houses). However, I did like going BL first because I felt that it hinted and opened up my mind to a lot of the plot and backstory without revealing any answers. As I played the other routes, I'd think "right, I remember this point being briefly brought up in BL. How are they going to dive deeper?" If you played BL 3rd or even 4th, you're going to feel like you learned nothing. I loved the cast for BL so much that I couldn't bear myself to play Edelgard's route right after so I went GD. Definitely separate GD and Church. Personally I'm glad I went the order that I did and would highly recommend it but just know that it may ruin Edelgard for you.

Maybe "good" is a bit of an overestimation, but he's keeping up. He always hits x4, so he'll get two hits in before the enemy counterattacks, and he almost always kills before they get to. He crits quite often for me, which is handy along with the x4 hits because he can clear through a monster's full HP bar even with barriers intact. So he clears a bar and cracks the barrier for the rest of my team to finish off. Again, I have limited myself to only using the GD cast + Sylvain and Petra. I haven't found him to lag behind the rest of my team. I have him at base 46 str at level 38 so I don't know if he's an anomaly.

Only finished BL and on Ch17 of GD. Only used Shamir, Petra, and the students of my houses. Both on Hard/Classic: Petra (Came to me as a Thief --> Mercenary --> Assassin --> Wyvern Lord): Good in the early game, great later on. Dex and spd was always high so despite her frailness she dodged a lot of attacks. Maybe I got screwed early on but her str was kinda low so even if she doubled sometimes it wouldn't be enough. Becoming a Wyvern Lord fixed her str so she went from good to great. Dorothea (Came to me as a mage --> Dancer): I think I just didn't make the best use of her, but she was only okay. Intended to make her a Gremory but she couldn't keep up with Annette and Mercedes so I eventually made her a dancer. Didn't get to take advantage of meteor because she spent more of her time dancing/healing. Byleth (Fighter --> Mercenary --> Mage --> Warlock --> Enlightened One): I think I tried to do too much with Byleth but despite all this she still consistently did well. I didn't know Enlightened One allowed her to use magic as well so I intended to make her a Mortal Savant. I wanted vantage from mercenary and then backtracked to mage because I didn't have enough reason to go straight into Warlock. Got to Warlock really late because I tried to raise my dex/riding for Petra and str/lance for Leonie while I was a sword-wielding mercenary (I realized too late that it was better to just bribe them with gifts instead). It was okay though since I picked up Fiendish Blow which patched up my low magic. Consistent all throughout, probably would be much better if I didn't mess with her so much and spread myself too thin. Dimitri (Fighter --> Cavalier --> Paladin --> Armored Lord --> Great Lord): He was good early on and then turned into a beast after time-skip. Hits like a freaking truck and it doesn't even bother me that his unique is unmounted since I had him charge straight ahead anyway. Picking up Aegis from Paladin really helped. Super high str, good enough spd to not get doubled, and good defenses. Dedue (Fighter --> Armored Knight --> Fortress Knight --> Great Knight): I used him to lure enemies into my team's attack range but he never hits hard enough when he counterattacked. Definitely tanky and enough HP to comfortably take a magic hit. Mostly used him because he was a good guy, but he was okay. Sylvain (Fighter --> Cavalier --> Paladin --> Dark Knight): Very good all-rounder. He's supposed to be jack-of-all-trades but master of none but he ended up more like master of everything in my BL run. He's slightly weaker in GD so far so I'll write off the BL one as good rng. Still really good. Spd is high enough to double enemies quite often. Decent spell list. Good mobility and having both magic and his Lance of Ruin made him super versatile. Decent defenses to take care of himself. Felix (Myrmidon --> Bench): Didn't use him because I couldn't stand his character. Rude to literally everyone (even Mercedes wtf). Only used him at first because I thought I only had my own house's units to pick from + maybe 2-3 recruits. Quickly found out that wasn't the case and benched his annoying ass immediately. Was pretty freaking strong early game though; he gets perma +5 dmg if no batallion. Ingrid (Fighter --> Pegasus Knight --> Cavalier --> Falcon Knight): Ingrid took me by major surprise. She was the real mvp after the timeskip. Her str was kinda bad early on so she was just really meh to me and I had to feed her kills. Kept her because she was my only flier. She had good spd but she couldn't kill anything without help and her defenses weren't good enough for me to safely send her beyond my team's reach. Then she raked up some levels and overnight she was constantly landing crits on everyone and dodged pretty much everything (by the last few chapters enemy hit rate peaked at 45%). Always doubled enemies. I think Paladin fixed her str for me. Took a bit of work but she was a solo player by the end of the game. Annette (Monk --> Mage --> Warlock --> Gremory): I knew Lysithea was the better mage but I didn't recruit her in time for my BL run so I stuck with Annette. She got the job done but Sylvain eventually beat her once she gained a few levels as a Dark Knight. Her crit rate was pretty good but she doesn't have access to Seraphim and her spell list is much less impressive compared to Lysithea's. Didn't recruit Lorenz for his paralogue, so Annette had low mobility and low range. She was okay. Mercedes (Monk --> Mage --> Bishop --> Gremory): Good unit. Has Live to Serve as her unique so she heals herself whenever she heals an ally. Not that I threw her out into the enemies, but constantly being near full HP + Nosferatu equipped meant I could position her within one enemy's range and still be okay with it. Never made her into a Holy Knight because I didn't want to lose the 2x white magic use, and physic has an insane range anyway. Fortify came in handy near the end when the game tries to overwhelm you with sheer numbers and you need to heal everyone. She was my early res tank when Ingrid couldn't do it yet. Good unit. Ashe (Archer --> Bench): I tried to use Ashe since he was a good kid but he really wasn't keeping up with anyone on the team. Base str wasn't good so if he didn't crit, it wasn't going to be worthwhile. Shamir (Sniper --> Bow Knight): Needed an archer on my BL run since I benched Ashe. Shamir filled the spot really nicely. High crit and good range. Kills enemies without being touched at all. Great unit. Claude (Archer --> Sniper --> Wyvern Master --> Barbarossa): Really strong, goodness. Crits all the time. Comes to you as a flier after time-skip and slays everything with an Iron Bow+. Nothing else needs to be said. Hilda (Fighter --> Brigand --> Warrior --> Wyvern Lord): Hits really hard. Speed was meh but she doesn't need to double to OHKO the enemy anyway. Good defense and avoids a fair share of attacks. Only needs an iron axe+ to get the job done, and maybe I've been lucky with stats but I have no accuracy issues unlike what I've heard about Edelgard. Great unit. Lorenz (Bench): His personality + pre-timeskip hair. Only good for his paralogue. Bench. Raphael (Fighter --> Brigand --> Grappler --> War Master): The biggest cinnamon roll of Three Houses. Use him. Good unit. Hits tons of enemies 4x and has good crit. Beefy enough to serve as my tank in GD alongside Hilda. He can go through a monster's full HP bar even without the barrier broken. Lysithea (Monk --> Mage --> Warlock --> Gremory --> trying to get her to Dark Knight): Everyone has already said it but she's great. Just make sure she's out of harm's way which isn't that difficult considering her 5-range with relic. Even if the relic comes with pavise/aegis, don't count on it. She's paper thin. Might try to pick up desparation/vantage while I play BE so she fares better in Lunatic but she's really good regardless. Use her. Ignatz (Monk --> Archer --> Dancer): I was going to bench him but he was a good kid so I tried to make him work. Raised his faith and made him a dancer. Even though his magic is kinda crummy at least he has access to physic. Wanted to use a different cast in each route to maintain their uniqueness so I limited myself to just one repeat character (Sylvain) and didn't replace Ignatz with Mercedes, Dorothea, or even Flayn. Wouldn't recommend him. Marianne (Monk --> Mage --> Bishop --> Gremory): I miss having Mercedes's Live to Serve/Fortify, but Marianne's a good unit as well. Most of my GD units aren't good with magic so her having silence to keep a mage down helps. Has access to Thoron. Good as a healer and a secondary mage. Leonie (BL: came to me as a Cavalier --> Wyvern Rider --> Wyvern Lord) and (GD: Cavalier --> Sniper --> Bow Knight): Good unit in both paths. Good crit and str. High def is nice for Wyvern Lord but as a bow knight it doesn't really matter. She can attack from a 4-range and then move to safety afterwards.

Have you tried going through the left side of the map? If you don't get in the range of any of the enemies on the far right side they'll actually leave you alone. Reinforcements do show up but I had Shamir stand on top of the staircases to prevent them from showing (and she has long enough range to still attack from her position). I had my whole team go through the left side of the center and Ingrid alone on the far left. There's a bunch of mages up top near Edelgard and the left but Ingrid should have enough res and avoid to safely handle them. You'll want to rush with stride + dance and have Dimitri or Byleth reach Edelgard asap and go at her multiple bars of HP. I don't know how underleveled your units are but I think everyone on my team was around lvl 45-48 on Hard/Classic except Mercedes.