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Used Linde with Thoron to weaken Lloyd for lvl ~20 4* Sharena/Lloyd. Infernal wasn't too much harder since the the unit I used to aggro, Celica, still worked. Kill the Green Axe, dance, reposition, etc

Did some pulling few days ago for Summer Tiki (+Hp/-Res) since it felt like Anna was too frail especially for autobattle. Took 93 orbs trying for Green, though a lot of other colors showed up. Finally did get another Shanna for Linde's Desperation 3 to correct my inheritance error from way back when the mechanic first arrived. 439 orbs in stock, and there's a number of the C12 and Chain challenges to go. CYH banner better be good.

Basically afk autobattled 90% of this Tempest on Hard 5, no stamina potions (up to 149 now lol). Lukas was my 1.2x bonus. Generally this tempest was easier since Linde +Spd +1 +Seal could double Celica and ofc blast everything else. But early on I realized I was surrendering with team 1 (of 4 5* units) just to breeze through with Linde and friends, plus was sometimes doing the Lunatic 5 maps just to burn through natural stamina faster, so I basically gave up the active grind. Team 1 was Lukas (Reposition), Masked Marth (Renewal/Reciprocal Aid, Fury 3), Celica (Renewal/Reciprocal Aid, Life and Death 2), Summer Tiki (Reposition, Renewal). Celica was actually quite impressive (+Res/-Atk) with QP Blazing Light, but I suppose I’m spoiled by Linde. The team was fairly bulky with self-heals, so they did reasonably well (for the AI) in auto. Not much chance the last map though, and really bad at using Reposition. <_< Regardless autobattle really trivialized things and took almost no real-time/attention investment, so it was pretty convenient for me. A bit more inspired now to actually spend some of my huge feather stock for the classic f2p Horse Emblem (Camus, Xander, Cecilia) for just this purpose.. Team 2 was the classic SI’d Linde/Eirika/Julia with Sakura. Obviously made for actually playing the game, but they usually could still auto steamroll a few maps and usually the rest of the tempest, albeit with sacrifices usually. Team 3 was some older team members and filler, Robin (TA/QR), Anna (Fury, Reposition), Olivia, Clarine (Wrys’ skillset). Usually could clean up if needed, since they only really came out near the end with all the Red/Colorless on the final map. A few times Team 4 had to finish things off, which was 4* Michalis, Cherche, Palla, Subaki. 5* Raven and Sanaki were still just partially leveled. >_> Anyways, managed to get Phantom Speed comfortably. Julia actually might find it useful since she’s mainly there to beat Green mages, and the occasional Soren usually can’t be countered which can be annoying (especially with dances). I run Life and Death 2 on Julia now with Fury/G Tomebreaker Sonya running about at 34 Spd neutral. So Phantom Spd stops Watersweep up to 36 Spd, 40 if Eirika is buffing.

Beat Infernal, though I had to burn a bit of that Tempest SP to give Summer Tiki G Tomebreaker 2 and Eirika Escape Route 2. Everyone else had the various needed skills already for one reason or another. Linde: I switched to Atk+3 b/c I thought Linde might have to take a hit from the Firesweep bow, which she barely does at 33 Hp/17 Def, but in the end I think the standard Fury 3 works, Desperation 3, Breath of Life 3 (clutch), Iceberg, Quickened Pulse. Olivia: Hone Atk 3, Fortify Res 1 Seal Eirika: +Def/-Res (neutral works since she’s attacked by one of each). Fury 1 b/c needed the 2 damage, but didn’t want more than 36 Spd to double the Green Axecav. Would mess up Luna timing. Escape Route was very important to this strat. Atk+1 seal also. Summer Tiki: +Hp/-Res. Close Defense, G Tomebreaker 2, Sol (don’t think it activated?), Hp+3 Seal was needed I think. Turn 1. Basically Eirika split the units up top by baiting the Red Mage and Green Axe, Summer Tiki on the right site tanked the Berkut, the other Blue Lance, and the Bow, while Linde/Olivia move to the bottom right corner. Turn 2: Linde onerounds Blue lance and Berkut, the latter with QP Iceberg. Eirika rewarps next to Tiki, hitting the Firesweep Bow with a double attack + Luna proc. Tiki finishes that Bow unit. Just barely had enough atk with Seals/Fury and such. Tiki needed Close Defense to survive so no Atk booster there. She needs G Tomebreaker and Linde’s BoL 2x to survive this turn. Eirika has no health to tank this turn, and again needed Fury 1 for the extra damage over the durability of Triangle Adept. Turn 3. Linde kills Green mage with Olivia’s help (edit: in hindsight, potentially Atk+3 > Fury 3 for this?), everyone moves out of range of the rest. Easy cleanup from there. I should really make the f2p/ghb unit horse emblem, which would probably simplify things. >_>

Beat Infernal though it did push some damage potential to the limits to blast the people on the defense tiles. Tried for a bit with double Olivia but in the end Eirika pulled through. Quick overview from memory. Used Linde (+Spd, +1 merge, Blarblade+, Moonbow, Fury 3, Desperation 2), Eirika (Reposition, Fortify Res Seal), Julia (Draw Back, Dragon Fang, Atk+3, Fortify Def 3, Quickened Pulse was needed I think), Olivia. Turn 1 Linde with all buffs baits just Green mage behind wall. Julia/Eirika are positioned to still give her buffs (Julia also behind wall but Green mage prefers Linde). Turn 2 Linde with all the buffs and Moon bow kills Blue Cav, Julia with Olivia kills the green mage from behind the wall. The positioning from the previous turn means Celica cannot reach Julia this turn. Turn 3 Linde move up 1 and kills Blue Cav with Desperation, Eirika Repositions her. Olivia moves to the right to dance for Linde. Julia Draws Linde to the left so she can oneround Celica with Desperation (+Spd was needed, though it seems Spd seal could be used if not merged). Only Alm and Green Flier are left and Eirika is in the chokepoint to tank them for this turn. Not the most elegant strat but it worked without additional SI beyond what I had. In hindsight the Reposition stuff probably wasn't needed if the positioning was arranged to Julia could move and Linde could be danced? Regardless, the damage thresholds were fairly strict for this team (arena team - Sakura + Olivia) just barely within the limits of not having to think too hard

Infernal was easy for my team, though I used 44 Spd Linde (+Spd, +1 merge, Spd seal). Basically TA QR Robin(M) tanked stuff, Celica+Olivia killed the Green Mage, Linde+Olivia killed the Blue mage who was on a Def tile and buffed by Spur Spd at the time. Desperation+Moonbow blows through him. Didn't even really pay attention to the details. >_> In general it's probably going to be harder to make challenging maps since Xander/Camus/Cecilia were free and are so strong regardless of pulls. Plus the 2 free Gunters for Hone Cav inheritance if desired and Olivia for support. I suppose more Legion-style maps are fine, but they probably want some variety too.

The grind isn't too bad if one has a team or 2 that's reliable for the Lunatic 7 maps. It's been fairly trivial for me once I realized I should swap the greens so the Robin(M)/Celica team has Anna for a physical unit, especially for the 4 flier map and so Linde/Eirika has Julia who can fight Veronica way better. Seems obvious I suppose but eh. Haven't been using up all my stamina, or really that efficient with it (still doing GHBs and some quests), and already have the 5* Marth, and easily on pace for the Pulse seal and perhaps a reward tier or 2 beyond.

Infernal was quite challenging. +Spd Fury 3 Hone Spd'd Linde (+1 merge, but Spd seal works) could double tho, and do good damage with Sieglinde+Hone Spd+Fortify Res buff and Moonbow. Also Julia had Axebreaker 1 from Misc skill inheritance, though I could have promoted one of many Laslows. Olivia was needed as well. Fury 3 Eirika was also not doubled by Legion and (with +Def) helped to tank hits as needed. Her Reposition was probably more clutch though. Also took some advantage of the enemy limit. It's not strictly on a timer, so in some cases it was beneficial to not kill enemies. Like first turn did not dance for Julia so the right Legion was low health and would break a wall. This resulted in only 1 reinforcement spawned on top next turn. I think it works that way? Don't have the stamina to figure out the details but some kiting and waiting was prudent vs. just hyperoffense with the Mages+Olivia.

+Spd/-Res Robin(M) (Triangle Adept, Quick Riposte, Draw Back), +Res/-Hp Julia (G Tomebreaker, Draw Back), +Res/-Atk Celica (Renewal, Reciprocal Aid), 4* Clarine (Rehabilitate, Hone Atk) seems to beat Lunatic 7 Battles pretty consistently. Just need to not choke early and then Julia and Celicia both fight Veronica fairly well. Not sure I'll have the time to actually grind it out though. >_> Linde, Eirika, Anna, Sakura are relegated to the backup team. Obviously Linde+Eirika combo is way stronger but it's harder to fit them in with Robin(M). Don't have any other 40% bonus characters, or really any more trained 5* units. Suppose could fit Olivia in there and filler some GHB units trained previously for arena, but they really shouldn't get past the Linde team anyways.

I mentioned this near the end of my post you quoted. Tharja gets 1500 feathers from victory, and it’s not easy to make up that difference through cumulative rank. I’m just outside the top 1000, and spent most of my flags with the 3x bonus on Linde’s, Julia’s, and some on Robin’s team. That yields 2600 feathers for the cumulative (I didn't have the other characters so I would rank even lower cumulatively without the 10% matching bonus). A Tharja supporter in the top 50k will get 1600 which is net 500 more. An unranked supporter gets 1000 which is just 100 less. Even a Tharja supporter that is unranked cumulatively vs. someone in the top 1000, only loses 500 feathers vs. someone who lost every round but ranked highly each round+cumulatively, which is barely anything. The best strat seems to be someone who won some rounds for 500-1000 victory feathers, and still got a decent number of 3x multipliers, so Leo->Robin, Robin, or Julia->Tharja. And at best they get 1000 or so more feathers compared to straight Tharja? Incidentally, this was pretty much the best strat for feathers in the previous gauntlets, so pretty much the 3x bonus didn't change anything given upsets are still so unlikely and feather yields are comparable. Like I said, we’ll need to see how Tharja’s supporters end up ranking. Which probably heavily depends on if they caught the early 3x chances or not, which is admittedly challenging for NA players.

You know, it’s actually pretty amazing how popular Tharja is. She’s a random side character that some casual players might kill instead of recruit, and her main-game portrait is fairly modest (she covers herself with a book). It’s the dlc and fanart and figures and basically the “has the nicest body” meme (not even in localized version) and such that she’s so boosted. She’s just below the toptier, around/above the popularity of Camilla who has a more recent game, is a much better unit gameplaywise, is far more of an important character storywise, and had cgi cutscenes emphasizing her assets. Anyways, we’ll have to see how things shake out but I’m not even sure the underdog team gets considerably more feathers. Apparently it wasn’t that hard to get a decent rank in Tharja’s army since everyone was saving flags, while it’s very competitive in the armies with the 3x bonus since everyone wants to spend during that time. I got 2500 first round spending around 1500 flags in Linde's army, but missed top 5k second round with Julia just barely since I missed some of the bonus, spending 1400/1510. Probably will rank in one of the two tiers in the 10k-50k range for Robin’s team this round. And 1k-5k range cumulative. Yeah Tharja team will have a worse cumulative, but with the victory bonus 500x3, it’s really easy to make up those ranks lost. Even being in the top 50k would be a net 500 feathers (if missing out on top 1k like me).

Tharja probably has burned slightly more flags percentage-wise than Robin because of the competition, but still has more overall flags which is what matters. Robin is going to need the underdog, anti-Tharja/waifu, Smash 4, etc factor, plus a good degree of luck and coordination.

It took 97 orbs for Celica, +Res/-Atk. I almost want to pull more for a better asset/flaw and to have a spare Distant Def for Camus or another DC weapon unit. >_> Also got +Def/–Atk Sanaki and 5* +Hp/-Res Lukas. And finally some Hinata/Henry so Linde/Julia can get their Fury 3/G Tomebreaker. Also found out the 5* Sakura pulled earlier is +Hp/-Spd since I forgot to check before. 161 orbs and still all the ones from new story chapters/quests to get.

Tharja did 2263 million once with the 3x, which means she can do 750 or so even without the multiplier. JP middle of the day and NA night is probably a time of high activity so imo this is reasonable. Julia is going to have to make up around 1500 million in the last session, even if it’s timed perfectly the last hour, so she needs like 2250 million which is like double her typical 3x round (highest is 1324, lowest is 798 million). Some Julia supporters may have flags in stock, but others might be running out. I used 1200 all with the bonus, and have 305, and missed a few 3x. However many flags Julia’s team has left, Tharja has much more in stock since she’s used less, and has more supporters. As Sanaki’s team discovered, it’s also harder than you think to time the final multiplier. Despite some efforts to coordinate, her team actually did the opposite of the necessary strat, speeding up the last few hours when she needed to slow down to get the bonus. We need another Jugdral Miracle. >_> If you really want to beat Tharja, you should save everything for Robin. Leo/Henry are significantly weaker than Linde/Julia so he should have a lot in stock. He’s more casually recognizable from Smash, is a very common Heroes character to have, and has memetic potential (shipping, etc). He’s definitely not favored but there’s a chance.

What’s the ruling on forges/food/capture/pre-split? I think a few +1-2 are fine but contested resources, since the smith can transform the right material after combining some. The food seems too inconsistent unless you reset for a good material to harvest. I’m not sure exactly how reliable Capture is. It tends to work after several chapters, even without material bribes, but not consistently? (and sometimes we can’t or don’t want to wait). Currently no strong opinion on pre-split chapters, it only affects a few characters and probably only a bit, but there is still some impact so there should be a decision on this. ##Avatar: 9.5 Probably the highest 9.5 I’m going to give (I’m thinking 2 others). I’m presently giving a good deal of credit for the lategame bosses kills like C25 and E (and maybe even C27?). Improving the efficiency of the final chapter by a noticeable amount is especially important since you have to also reset 27 which is at least 2 turns. It’s fairly nitpicky but imo it’s appropriate for the best few in the game. Corrin needs 71 atk to deal 33x2 vs. 65 hp, 26+1 Def. Shadow Yato is 16+1 (wta) +2 (B rank) mt, so 52 is needed from other sources which is pretty doable. A Brave Axe/Lightning user needs to deal 22x3 (4th hit dual guarded) vs. 65 hp, 26+1 Def, 22+2+1 Res, which requires 71/69 atk. Brave Axe is 8+2 (S rank) for 61, Lightning is 1+1 (wta)+3 (S rank) for 64 from other sources. I don’t think 1st gens can easily reach that, though others can correct me. There’s ofc also the possibility of baiting the boss to attack first on enemy phase (not sure AI is consistent), sacrifices (which I personally don’t really like), and double refreshes (I think those will take another turn) so eh. C25 is a bigger factor, considering a strat that doesn’t have Corrin do any action, or enter any combat, requires both switches which is quite inefficient. I don’t mind if we choose to mostly ignore this lategame bosskilling in later discussions, but my initial position is it matters since you do have many other options (of who goes for the switches), they are just less efficient. Anyways, +Mag Cavalier/Dragon talent can have some Str/Spd troubles early, but has some of the strongest post-Levin/promo game. +Spd Dragon is Jill basically a weaker Camilla (still amazing ofc), and +Spd Cav->Dark Knight doesn’t get Lunge/Trample/flight (Gunter can ferry tho). +Spd Cav->Malig lacks magical damage until Trample (no Axe rank unpromoted for Bolt Axe). I haven’t run +Spd in Hard recently so this is mostly iirc from Lunatic and extrapolating, so could be off depending on enemy stats. +Str Ninja has less move, though has advantages against Ninja and Diviner class enemies, which can matter for chapters like 17 (the very fast clear is an unreliable Killer crit). Silas with A Kaze basically does this build though, if you really want a bulky Ninja. +Hp saves a turn in C1 Corrin can also do Diviner or Dark Mage or a more Supportive build, but my impression is those are noticeably less efficient due to durability/mobility and such. Others more familiar can comment on those strats. I would probably give Corrin a slightly lower 9.5 than Camilla if the C25 boss doesn’t count much. I usually don’t give 10s unless a character mostly dictates the pace of the game, and has nearly full availability. Don’t think Corrin manages that because if she wants that nice +Mag Malig, her early/midgame is not as good as some others, and other boons/talents have minor issues as well. She does also have some of the pre-split or pre-Camilla chapters, and again much higher mag potential, so it’s still pretty arguable.

It's probably over? The gap needs to be around 257.6 million for the boost if Julia gets ~50 million by next update. Which means Sanaki needs the deficit to be 28.1 million larger, so she has to get less than 21.9 million next update (again, assuming Julia does around 50 mil). Given current trends, that's not happening. I only have Julia and Robin out of the remaining and Robin looks much stronger than Leo so Julia ftw.

This is too early for Linde to get the 3x since we’ve probably not getting another one. Even if we get like 850 million (almost double the typical 3x round, and again some of us are out of flags already) vs. 150 million to barely take a lead, Tharja has a few hours to pull ahead again. Sanaki needs to barely fight at all the next few hours because they need the deficit to be like 40-45 million more (240-250ish million) for the bonus, and there’s only 3 hours left (need 10% less before the final hour). The lead is only moving like 7-9 million per hour since Julia slowed down. Henry might comeback? It depends on what the scoring looks like next update. Robin is outscoring Merric even 1x to 3x so rip.

This kind of plot of the Robin vs. Merric lead makes it pretty clear it was a blowout, despite the score looking somewhat close. http://imgur.com/a/mVHTm Julia's team is strategically slowing down, such that at the current pace (just 7 million difference per hour), Sanaki won't get another bonus in the remaining 6-7 hours. Leo has a tiny chance of being sniped as his lead is increasing by 15 million or so, which may give a chance for another bonus round around 1.8 billion. Henry got 177 million last time with the multiplier so there's a (tiny) chance they do like 210 million the last hour while Leo tries to get by with 30 million. Leo can also slow down to avoid this though, or spend more in the final hour to guard the lead. Linde technically can also snipe but it's more unlikely since the last 3x she only managed 317 million (one of her worst updates), whereas Henry posted the 177 million last bonus (his best update) so Henry might have a bit more in the tank. Linde may be strategically tanking to time the final multiplier, but we'll still need some hidden supporters and Tharja to fall asleep the last hour. 496,110 is at 271 Linde, 1238 total. 10 flags in stock.

Linde is going to need to make up like 650-700 million in the last update and Tharja can at least do around 280 million without the 3x (she did 840 million in the one time she had the 3x bonus). So Linde actually needs to do like 900 million in the last update, which doesn’t seem likely since her highest so far is 535 million and some Linde members are running out of flags by now. Like I’m at rank 177 Linde, 710 cumulative, spending 1500 flags only with the 3x. I have 10 flags left. Basically there needs to be like 75% more “hidden” Linde supporters, we need to be just outside 10% in the last hour, and there need to be no “hidden” Tharja supporters (but they could afford to save flags, so this is very unlikely unless they just get lazy and choose not to fight the last hour). Henry/Merric also look to be running out as well. Julia’s team seems slightly larger but Sanaki might snipe them for the upset. Julia’s team should actually slow down so Sanaki doesn’t get the bonus. >_>

It’s still generally going to be hard to pull upsets because the losing team will eventually run out of flags, and do so faster. They also need to keep the lead manageable, which can only be done with spending flags. For example even if 10000 Linde supporters spend 200 flags as late as possible with the 3x bonus, vs. 20000 Tharja supporters spending 200 flags with just 1x, all using the team character for the 10%, Linde has to be within 220 million and we’ve seen previous blowouts in the billions. So far, Linde’s hourly peak with the 3x is around 480 million which suggests around 7000 hardcore supporters. There’s some indication the bonus kicks in when the deficit is around 10%. So for say Tharja/Camilla level characters, they can pull around 5.6 billion in the first round. A deficit of 560 million requires around 25000 Linde supporters to overwhelm 50000 Tharja supporters. And that’s if they perfectly got just outside 10% before the last hour. We get around 1500 flags per round, so overall there’s 7-8 bursts of 200 flags with the bonus. Merric for example has already had 6 bursts, hourly scores of 130-180 vs. 14-20k (not everyone can play during the 3x and some people are still earning flags, ofc). Robin should pull away soon, he’s like 5-6x the supporter base. Upsets can certainly happen, if the stars align in the last few hours, unlike the previous system where it was almost impossible (Ephraim was not really an “upset”, he was leading in the first hour vs. Chrom and was extending the lead initially, suggesting he simply had more supporters). Assuming things do work out as “expected”, Tharja might have a hard time in the finals vs. Robin. Robin can potentially conserve more flags since Merric/Leo are very weak compared to Linde/Julia, and Robin’s team doesn’t actually seem that much smaller than Tharja’s (a bit less than 2/3rd presently and will benefit later from underdogs+antiTharja factor). That smash4 bonus seems solid). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jI7MSCI6QuUPxLrQrYOxJk9cfuLuildhKurK-s7aOxE/htmlview?sle=true# (credit to u/starcrest13) The hourly gain tab gives some insight in roughly how large each team is. On another note, a lot of people on Linde’s team seem to lend their Linde, probably because they think Tharja’s team will have a lot of Tharjas? I haven’t seen any so far... Come on friends, bring something that can touch Julia/Nino. I’m giving you my Fury 3 Eirika for all your Blarblades. >_> Linde should pull slightly ahead at next update. It’s only 300 million and she seems to get around 400+ million during 3x sessions. edit post-update: rip Linde only 340 million. ;_; edit2: cantcount

Well it took ~200 orbs pulling Green as possible, but Julia (-Hp/+Res) finally decided to show up. Despite Red being the backup color to pull on this banner (and for Fury/G Tomebreaker), managed to get 5* Sakura, and +Spd/-Hp Linde (basically the game telling me to not drop Linde and invest the 20k for Blarblade already. Dat 43 spd at +1). And also 5* Raven, who is +Atk/-Hp so he might get some use. Stash is at 214 with a few tower quests to go.

doublepostsry

I promoted Anna from last time she was a bonus character, mainly because I like her rng blessings and needed the green, and I find her to be pretty useful. I run Fury to activate her weapon/Vantage and for a bit of stats. 40+ Spd is great, and her Res can somewhat tank Reinhardt/Linde/Spring!Lucina. She can even distract some Reds, separating the enemy, then tanking a hit and rewarping away. It can be good offensively too, like Linde kills something, Eirika Pivots over her, Anna rewarps to other side of Eirika to kill Ninian/Azura/Linde/Kagero that’s hiding back there. And some good combos with Reposition. She still has Astra for me (which never procs), but might give her Vengeance from Narcian now that we’re getting some GHB maps again. She’s particularly good at supporting my (Linde-centric) team since the biggest threat is Nino, and the ones Eirika can’t ohko, Anna can usually double to kill. Helps vs. Kagero too, to an extent. Ranged units seem stronger overall but I don’t really have any complaints for Anna as a melee Axe. Considering it’s possible to get into 5k-10k or 10k-30k ranges with a 4* bonus unit and an unmerged 3-person core (without burning crests for high scoring matches), and some weeks that you can pull a focus character, at most you’re moving up a score bracket or so which is around 500 feathers, meaning it’ll take like 40+ weeks to make up 20k (even more with SI). And this prevents you from 5 starring other characters you may like (more). then again I have 60k feathers and not sure what to spend it on. It might be time for Blarblade+!Linde.

"Good" def in the sense of 3 base, maybe 4 Def as a level 1 Cleric. Compared to Silque's 1 base. They both have 40% growth, 30 after class growth's -10. Tatiana has 3 base as a Saint and 20% growth after class mods. 3/12/1 Faye averages around 7 then. They can also wear Shields for a bit and counter with Nosferatu (but only 60% hit). Shouldn't really let them get attacked.

Merc is generally good because it’s a really solid early class due to the 10 Spd class base and Levin Sword (which is fixed at 15 att targeting Res), and Dread Fighter is still good lategame due to the 7 move, 18 Spd base, Res+Spirit Ward, and forges/crit weapons. Grey is probably the best Merc due to his personal Str base and growth though. His low Spd base/growth is bolstered by the class. There’s also diminishing returns with multiple Mercs since there’s only 1 early Levin Sword (thought that can work, ofc). Tobin’s main advantage is his personal Spd base so he’s good in any class early. He doesn’t seem to double as much later (in HM) unless he has Spd statue or statbooster buffer or got lucky with the growth. Mage is a nice choice since it’s the earliest Excalibur at level 6 (high hit at 95, low weight at 1, 5 mt, 20 crit spell), and Physic at level 5 Sage. Archer can chip to help. Kliff has good Spd/Def growths, but a terrible Spd base of 2. The 5 Cav base really helps him imo, and he has some stats over Clive (Spd, Luck, Res) and Mathilda (Def, until Gold Knight) later. Multiple Cavs seems fine since one rarely onerounds everything and Silque has limited Warp range. Mage works but you deal with bad Spd for longer since Fire weighs 3 and Excalibur is all the way at level 9. Archer again works for chip at a distance early, and solid lategame if he gets there (similar to Python with less Str, more other stats). Faye should probably be a Cleric for Rescue and Physic. She complements Silque rather than them competing. Pegasus Knight is nice, but it’s a bit less useful in Alm’s route given Silque’s Warp and less monsters (afaict). Faye is also not that fast, even in Pegasus/Falcon, so eh.