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I've just finished my first (and most likely last) run of Maddening. I decided to make one last TH run before moving to engage, and what better route and my favourite Blue Lions house. Since my brother summarized the difficulty as "Actually maddening", to the point of playing one map a day, I decided to make as smooth as possible - I had 50k renown for NG+ goodies, DLC and on casual mode (please don't eat me for this). My general experience was mixed. Thanks to NG+ bonuses, so giving everyone who had it, death, fiendish blows as well as free batalions, early game was much easier than I expected (contrary to horror stories I've read about needing entire team to down one enemy). I gave myself max professor level from the start, so it was smooth sailing all the way to time-skip. I was rather surprised how high skill presidencies were reached, no doubt thanks to much more rounds of combat in general, as well as slower leveling, even with statue bonuses - in fact, those characters that did need mastering some classes, did so without any grind. Nice, unexpected turn of events. Then came the dreaded 13 chapter. It took me only 2 tries - I had my Dimitri camp in bushes with killer lance+ and Byleth stay where he started. Dimitri managed to dodge most enemies, leaving them with low hp, some he even crited to death. When they clumped together I used Byleth's wave attack gambit to tattle them all and give myself breathing room. After Mercedes arrived and Dimitri could be healed, it was smooth from that point on. No one retreated. The rest of the game didn't pose too much of a threat save for one instance - fort merceus. I screwed up and had dimitri with battalion of only 4 endurance - his Optimal build was online, but a single hit would break it completely, and there was an abundance of ballistas and fire orbs. I also made Byleth an Enlighten One for this map, which was a huge mistake. In the end, Mercedes retreated - I just had too few units to wipe all enemies on the center of the map, two fortress knights remained and the second one finished her. After that it was a matter of one atrocity, and death knight was out. Side-note: despite this being my third AM run, this was the first time I saw the scene with Mercedes saying last goodbye to Emile. Apparently, you need to finish her paralogue, but I never recruited Caspar before, and on SS she does not have the scene. I was somewhat spooked. Final map went surprisingly well. This time, Dimitri had blue lion corps at 40 durability, perfect match. Mycen was vantaged, while everyone else went to clear the room on the left. Hapi's Banshee was invaluable to stop war masters in place, while Marianne silenced the one mage I couldn't reach in one turn. After that, I used impregnable wall (can you believe I didn't know it existed before?) on paladin Sylvain who went to take care of fire orb mage. Next turn, I used rescue to get him out of the range and used my entire team to kill the monster. After that, Optimal Dimitri did the thing: this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b67fgXJBW2k basically, just as great lord instead and without warp. He went from level 47 to 49. After all enemies save for monsters were out, it was time for hegemon. Only Dimitri, Byleth, Seteth and Sylvain were able to deal meaningful dmg, but I used impregnable wall to have Hapi and Marianne attack hegemon to break her shield, no dmg was required for that. Fun-fact - Edelgard gets a free attack if Dimitri is in range, which can activate his vantage and one-shot her healthbar and end her turn, before her shield regrows. Hilarious. Almost no units were killed - none on my side (casual), I recruted Lorenz and Ferdinand, managed to spare Leoni and Raphael by going around straight for Edelgard, and then sniping Cloude. Lindhard died - I never liked him, he's gay and asshole decided to walk into the central place on the map, that already caused me an actual headache. I had Dedue fist him to death. I'd like to share a few thoughts on my unit performances: Byleth - I usually keep him as Enlightened One, since I like this class, but time time went War Monk->War Master. It worked well enough, pre-timeskip he was one-rounding everyone with silver gauntlets, post time-skip, killer gauntlets as war master did the trick. +20 crit was also useful for sword of the creator. He was tanky enough (brawling avoid, hp drain from crest, high stats) to draw aggro and not die. I stand by war master being his best class, I don't think wyvern lord would be capable of ORKOs. Dimitri - pretty inconsistent. As a general unit, he was underwhelming - he had insane strength, but enemies have so much health, that without brave lance or atrocity, he would still not ORKO. His speed is high, but without darting blow, always ever so lacking to double. His defence is decent, but enemies deal so much damage tanking is out. He ended up with 85 HP though, so he could take some punishment. Then comes The Optimal Dimitri - b. vantage + b. wrath + killer lance + chalice of beginning == borderline exploit. Unless there were monsters or siege weapons, he was literally death incarnate. He fought so much, that he reached S+ in lances and authority before fort merceus. I highly recommend this build, since otherwise, he's not living up to his lord position. I used great lord class, since I really like his animations, but I now think there was enough time to make him war master, again, I don't think WL would be capable of ORKO, without brave lance or atrocity. Sylvain - I usually made him a dark knight, this time went with safe WL. Nothing to say really, he was spamming swift strikes like there is no tomorrow, and had high mobility. For the last few maps I used renown to make him a great knight, then a paladin - the latter was decently useful, but GK was a mess. Low mobility, low stats and axes still shredded him. My favourite class 😞 Ingrid - people suggest WL to fix her strength, but I went with dark flier. Her spells are solid, dark flier boosts her insane speed (she ended up with 45, no boosters) and fiendish blow + dark tomefaire + doubling was enough to ORKO almost all enemies. Gave her levin sword as backup. She could double some falcons, but not sword masters or final map war masters. Her offense still ended up low (had to give her some magic bosters), but I believe dark flier is her best class - magic dmg. is easier to salvage, since enemies have staggering defence on maddening. Felix - sword classes suck and I needed bow user, so made him a sniper. With quick repose, close counter and hunter volley, he was doubling regardless of phase, ORKOing left and right. Aegis Shield would proc frequently thanks to sniper's high dex, so he could even engage in melee. He started to lag behind by the end tho, that 5 mov is a dread. Since he could take all bows, maybe bow knight with brave bow would be a better idea. Still, a beast. Mercedes - mostly healing, but decent dmg. with reson spells. Could be a bishop, but I made her a gremory - I prefer her animations and i more mov. Used caduceus. Annette - poor girl. One of my favourite characters, but I just can't get her to work. She's a mediocre gremory, warlock has only 4 mov. I went with bolt/lightning axe wielding WL, but since WL bonuses directly contrasts with her personal, she ended up with mediocre numbers in every stat. If I ever play the game again I'll try dark knight/valkyrie with axes as secondary weapon. Marianne - my lovely girl was spectacular all run. As valkyrie she was hitting enemies for 90%-100% hp with 100% accuracy (bless uncanny blow) and healing with physic as necessary. She was briefly a dark knight, but I ended up with mortal savant - she was hitting with steel sword plus soul blade for 80 dmg. Her spd was pathetic from spending all game in mounted classes, so MS speed penalty was meaningless. Hapi - pretty easy path: mage->valkyrie-> dark knight. Gave her thyrsus, so with death T and dark range+, she had 6 range spells with 100% accuracy, which is pretty insane. Her swarm and banshee were invaluable throughout the game. Fantastic unit. Seteth - like Sylvain, not much to talk about - WL spamming swift strikes to ORKO everyone. Briefly made him great knight, with miserable results. With spear of assal and ochain shield, he healed for 40 hp every turn, so quite tanky. Dedue - pretty underwhelming. Went with war master, so he could reliably ORKO, but he was surprisingly easy to kill, and was doubled by everyone. Expected more. Flayn - she's adorable, but her proficiency are shit. I didn't want another dark flier, and she's a mediocre gremory, so made her my dancer. In the end, I rarely deployed her, I don't like using dancers honestly. Would I like to try maddening again? Not likely. Post-timeskip, stat inflation starts to get really out of hand, poison strike on every single archer makes certain strategies unusable, and enemies swarm you from every side. I can't imagine playing maddening without ng+. There were some things I liked though - thanks to slower leveling, no grind was required to master classes and reach high proficiencies. I also really liked more skills on enemies - like breaker skills, or armored strike on armors. If poison strike was just on snipers and not fricking bow knights, it would be fine. quick repose on 51 speed swordmasters is a bit much though. It also makes certain classes, which were already underwheling on lower difficulties, borderline unusuable. Great Knight, Holy Knight, Mortal Savant (mostly), Hero - all interesting and visually striking classes, which will cause nothing but pain, if you try to use them. I will never forgive them for massacring great knight this much. It's painful. Thanks to all that read this behemoth and let me end with this - whoever invented same turn reinforcements, should be sent to the galleys for all eternity, to swim on the sea kissel, with chief who loves water skiing. Maybe after 50 years, he could be given an oar.

So as the title says which change to Engage’s maddening mode you’re not a fan of? I’ll start: they made certain enemies and vast majority of bosses being immune to effective damage like wrymslayers and ridersbane. To me this severely limits the usefulness of most of your go to weapons. Especially when you have bosses being immune to being broken on top of that.

So far for my maddening run Amber is a level 15 cavalier and and Pandreo is a level 3 High Priest. I just did the Lyn Paralogue as well. For Pandreo, I’m not sure if I want to second seal him to either Sage or Mage Knight. Sage allows him to keep staves at A rank and get S rank tomes. While Mage Knight with sword and tome makes him more offensive. He’s got a good build stat so he wouldn’t get weighed down as much when using a Levin Sword or a Bolganone/Thoron. I do plan on making Framme an Enchanter once I get Soren (admittedly I didn’t think to do so before the end of chapter 10 so I didn’t get dagger proficiency). Plus I’m definitely using Ivy and Hortensia, so maybe having someone with an A rank in staves can round out my staff users nicely. Amber, who I have been hearing good things about of late thanks to his good HP, Strength and Luck growth, can become basically Panette 2.0. Certainly better than Diamant. I’m thinking either Hero, Wolf Knight, Warrior or Halberdier. I know that Paladin is okay but I have heard that having S rank in most weapons (aside from probably tomes) isn’t really necessary. Though S rank weapons really don’t matter until end game. I like chain attack spamming, though Wolf Knight for him would require only a master seal with a dagger proficiency (thank you Soren). Halberdier and Warrior feels like better fits for him, and I know how useful Warriors are. Any tips going forward would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

We were SO close last time.... Let's do it.... My 2nd attempt at the Maddening Iron Man begins now:

After a 2 month hiatus, we are finally back with our Fire Emblem: Three Houses Pick My Units Iron Man Run (on Maddening Mode) As a reminder, these were the units chosen for the PMU: Mortal Savant Hapi (by: Father Shrimpas) Warmaster Hanneman (by: Saint Rubenio) Swordmaster Raphael (by: Benice) Holy Knight Ingrid (by: Lonestar) Trickster Jeritza (by: Dayni) Wyvern Lord Annette (by: Sooks) Warrior Constance (by Dr. Shaky Jones) Valkyrie Lysithea (by: Ether) Sniper Mercedes (by: AnonymousSpeed) Paladin Hubert (by: Barren) Dismounted Falcon Knight Byleth (by: Ether) Dancer Edelgard (by: The ChoZen One) And the PMU Rules: - Maddening Mode - Iron Man (No divine pulses or resets, If Byleth or Edelgard dies, the run ends. No retreating. If a defeat condition is met, the run ends. Paralogues and all!!) -Units have to be in their respective chosen classes as soon as the classes to them are available and from the moment they are, they have to be used for every chapter battle (can only be changed temporarily during auxiliary battles when training to get skills) - Iron Man Officially Starts at Chapter 2 (Chapter 1 will not count to save time) - No Chalice of Beginnings, Start game stat boosters. - Ashen Wolves, Anna, & Jeritza are allowed - New Game+ - Using NG+ Renown to raise Skill level is not allowed. Only for supports (to recruit students) and to get Professor Rank A. - Abyss Renown items are allowed depending how difficult the run gets. As well as the Yellow Aux battles as well as carry over gambits from a previous new game file (including Ashes and Dust) But I will refrain from using anything I feel is not necessary. I will use these most likely though. - DLC classes are allowed. - I am allowed to look at map/enemy data on stream to check ambush reinforcement placements & triggers. - The battle of the eagle and lion will be treated as an iron man map. If someone dies, I can't use them again. - If a Unit dies, already start preparing your votes for the backup units I will use (Give a unit and a class you want them to be in). So far we have Warrior Ignatz and Armor Knight Manuela. Streaming Part 4 now!!:

There are archers everywhere and none of the fliers I have are very bulky to begin with. The flying doesn't really benefit them much if they can never go into enemy range anyways. I am not all that great at Fire Emblem so surely there is a reason people think they are the best. They are amazing in my favorite game Shadows of Valentia. I always use all three Pegasus Sisters in that game. Here I am doing Blue Lions New Game+ Maddening and Ingrid and Seteth suck. Ingrid has like 40+ Speed and still can't double all the time and when she can she doesn't even one round. She gets killed by anything that doubles her. Seteth just came too late I just unlocked Swiftstrikes and I am on like Chapter 20 and he is only level 32 and just got into Wyvern Lord when all my other units are like level 40+. I remember in my original Silver Snow run on Hard New Game Petra was like my best unit but Maddening is way different. Snipers and Warmasters just seem like way better classes with the Hunter's Volley and Crit bonus respectively. I grinded up Flayn into Dark Flier once I discovered she gave a might bonus to Byleth and I had to use her for Felix's Paralogue to stop the villagers from committing suicide. I will see if she is good with that on my next New Game+ for Golden Deer. I will also try to use Seteth more in that playthrough as well and give him more of a chance since I can get Hit+20 and Deathblow right away for him next time as well as give him Swiftstrikes. Claude is probably good too.

Your fellow Chosen One needs his sword hand (you guys) to accomplish this task!! I never tried a PMU and it sounds like a lot of fun honestly!!! I thought I was done with Three Houses and was gonna take a break from it after my Maddening Iron Man I streamed on Youtube.... But now I wanna stream a PMU of Three Houses next!! I want to make it more interactive and get you guys more involved in one of my playthroughs.❤ Let's make it REALLY fun!! Rules: - Comment a unit you want me to use. And the end class or class path line you want them to be in. (Has to be a master class, advanced class, or DLC class that you want me to get them towards by the endgame) Feel free to meme. 😉 (ex: Ignatz=Mage>Warlock>Dark Knight) - If someone else says a unit you want to vote for as well, mention that comment in yours and let me know you vote for it as well to add to the vote for that character for me to use. That will count as your pick and will add to the chance of me using that character. - This will be an Maddening Iron Man on Crimson Flower (Hilda, Catherine, Alois, Cyril, Flayn, Seteth, Gilbert, & Dedue won't be available in this route. But Hubie will 😉) - You guys get to pick the class for Female Byleth and Edelgard. Meme away. (Include this in your comment) - Hapi & Jeritza have to be 2 of the picks. You guys are allowed to pick their classes tho 😏 (Include this in your comment) - New Game+ (obviously, so we can recruit the guys you want me to use haha) - You guys are allowed to handicap my units as much as possible, so if you want them to be in a class that's REALLY unviable for them. Go ahead. However, I am allowed to use any New Game+ or dlc feature to compromise. I will try not to, depending on the severity of the handicap. If it's not that difficult, then I won't use anything, but I will adjust accordingly if things get TOO difficult lol Don't want things to get too unfair - Until we get 12 characters, I will then start the PMU Iron Man and stream it on Youtube. (If they're are more than 12, whichever 12 gets the highest votes are the ones I pick) -If a unit dies during the playthrough pre timeskip, the units who had less votes than the selected 12 will be the backup units I pick. -If there is no more than 12 or the remaining choices die. You guys get to vote for who I get to replace them with when and if that time comes. (Will update this forum constantly so you guys can be made aware when to vote during the playthrough if this happens. So if you want to be notified for when that happens, follow this forum) - Before I reach timeskip I will recruit every single student I can and you guys can vote for the 3 backup units we use if a unit dies during timeskip when that time comes. (They will serve as an adjutant until a unit dies) - Iron Man begins after the Mock Battle (no one dies permanently until afterwards). The Battle of the Eagle and Lion however, will be counted as an Iron Man map tho. Shoutout to my good friend Dr. @Shaky Jones and another amazing FE content creator @Atano, for inspiring me to try this out. Seen them into these type of playthroughs and thought, hey, I have to try this out for the first time on stream!! XD Seems super fun!! Go support their respective PMUs as well!! Shaky Jones is doing Shadow Dragon on the forums and according to him, that's based, so go give DSFE some love!! Atano is also doing FE3H on youtube, so go show him some love as well!! They are great!! I look forward to your guys' submissions, you have NO idea!! I am so excited for this!! The FE3H hype continues on my channel I suppose.... This been your fellow Hapi birthday cake lover.... and I hope to have a lot of fun doing this PMU with you guys and meet lots of new friends along the way on here and the stream!! 🥰

Hello everyone!! The PMU (Pick My Units) will begin soon!! The units have been officially picked by you guys and their respective classes!! Check out the Announcement video to see who has been CHOSEN (heh) and all the details on the run!! (I hope you enjoy the bits of satire in it xD I worked hard on it and had a lot of fun making this video 😄) I will update this thread constantly with the rules and my team again, and also when I start to stream it!! So make sure to follow this thread if you don't want to miss any updates to the run!! If you'd like, you can start picking more units for me just in case for my backup units, that way if anyone dies, we can quickly replace them if something goes wrong. Thank you and hope to see you all there!! We are starting today, stay tuned for the livestream!!

Iron Man Rules: - No resets, & no retreating. If a Defeat Condition is met, Run ends. Paralogues and all!! - No Divine Pulse AT ALL. This is a TRUE Iron Man run!! - Only 5 backup units allowed to replace potential deaths. Adjutants are allowed and are excluded from the 5. As long as they are not deployed on the battlefield as anything other than an adjutant after the death count exceeds 5. (This only takes effect after the timeskip) - No Chalice of Beginnings, Start game stat boosters. - Ashen Wolves, Anna, & Jeritza are allowed - New Game+ - Using NG+ Renown to raise Skill level is not allowed. Only for supports (to recruit students) and to get Professor Rank A. - No Abyss Renown items allowed. I must forge my Bolt Axe and Killer Knuckles if I want them lol. - DLC classes are allowed. - Endgame team can't have more than 2 units in the same class. (No full wyvern team, full dark flier team allowed, etc.) - I am allowed to look at map/enemy data on stream to check ambush reinforcement placements & triggers. - The battle of the eagle and lion will be treated as an iron man map. If someone dies, I can't use them again. I am beyoned excited to try this!! This is my first Iron Man on Maddening. And my second Iron Man run overall on the channel. This will be on the Crimson Flower Route and I will have japanese voices on just to change it up since I heard the game so many times on English, haha. This is going to be one of the craziest experiences on my channel so I appreciate all the support!! This is will be one of the only few fully commentated Maddening Iron Mans on Youtube. So I am excited to accomplish this challenge with you all!! I will be streaming this from today onward. And will update this forum with my team every so often to show you guys my progress!! We are LIVE right now with Part 1!!: https://youtu.be/biuLMiFpoNQ

This post will compile a list of builds people have used to beat the game on Maddening difficulty. A link will be provided that takes you to each build. I thought it would be nice to have examples of teams/builds that people used as they beat the game and for those examples to be easily accessible. This can serve as a good reference for people who want examples to look at whether they are attempting Maddening for the first time or want something to compare their own builds to. This also brings more exposure to some of the quality posts others have put in time and effort to share. To both appreciate those efforts and hopefully help more people enjoy and potentially benefit from them. If you'd like to contribute a build, here are some suggestions for the format and requirements for keeping this a decent quality reference (An example is posted in the next comment below): It should be a team build that you beat the entire game with on Maddening difficulty. Was it an NG or NG+ game? Indicate which house/route was used. Was DLC used? If so, to what extent? Would be nice to have a mid-game progress example as well, but not a requirement. For example what did the team look like in Ch 12/13? Information to include: characters' Levels, Stats, Skills, and Progression should be included. Other useful information can be about equipment setup and battalions. All this information is made easily visible if you take a snapshot of your character's information screen in battle from either the Inventory page or Battalion page. I think images are ideal but not necessarily a requirement as long as this information is provided. Images from the Roster Status and Skills pages also provide all this information neatly. It is nice to include comments you have on your play style and characters. Were they good in your build? strengths/weaknesses? How did you use each character, did they fill a specific role in your team? Would you do something different to improve your build? Etc. Feel free to comment on whether any aspects made certain problematic battles easier in some way. Anything you feel is important/relevant or just want to mention If you built a character in some uncommon way, maybe showcase the character's build with a few screenshots of what they're capable of or how you used them in battle. Even if it didn't turn out too great it would still be useful to know. It might make more sense to have the builds submissions each in their own separate post. Especially since people might want to discuss your build, but since we can link to specific comments as well, feel free to post in this thread if you prefer. Although, if you do want to comment on a listed build, then as per forum rules don't necro-post on an an old thread. And many of these builds are old threads (check the dates). Following is the (hopefully) growing list of builds that people have kindly shared. Please note that this list in no way rates how good the builds themselves are. I think the fact that someone beat the game on Maddening indicates that they are at least 'good enough' for the settings they played the game on (admittedly though, what's 'good enough' might differ from player to player or even run to run). But also note that some builds involved a significant amount of grinding. I leave it up to the reader to go through any individual build/guide they're interested in. If you have previously posted a build somewhere please let me know and I'd be happy to add it to the list. If you are new to the game, in case you’re not aware, please bear in mind that playing the game using DLC can be significantly easier than without, depending on how much dlc content was used. The same can be said for NG+ games compared to NG games. Builds achieved in NG+ runs might be impossible in an NG run. Minor Spoiler Alert: Inevitably these builds will have some minor spoilers like revealing story-related unique classes. Screenshots might include images of enemies or story-related classes. Also, the builds posts themselves may contain spoilers in the text depending on what the poster wrote. Usually build posts don't contain any major spoilers but I won't take responsibility for posts that do. =================================================== =================================================== Blue Lions / Azure Moon Example Builds: Build by @tchin, NG, with DLC, end game stats. Byleth: Lv45 War Cleric. Dimitri: Lv45 Unique Class. Felix: Lv45 Bow Knight. Mercedes: Lv45 Gremory. Dedue: Lv45 War Master. Sylvain: Lv45 Paladin. Catherine: Lv44 Swordmaster. Shamir: Lv46 Sniper. Annette: Lv46 Dark Flier. Ingrid: Lv46 Falcon Knight. Dorothea: Lv43 Dancer. Build & Guide by @DrDimentio, NG, no DLC, offline, end game stats. Byleth: Lv48 Gremory. Dimitri: Lv46 Unique Class. Dedue: Lv45 Great Knight. Ingrid: Lv60 Dancer. Felix: Lv44 Sniper. Sylvain: Lv45 War Master. Annette: Lv48 Dark Knight. Mercedes: Lv60 Gremory. Ashe: Lv45 Bow Knight. Flayn: Lv61 Gremory. Dorothea: Lv50 Gremory. Manuela: Lv33 Bishop. Build by @Geenoble, NG?, no DLC?, end game stats Byleth: Lv41 Unique Class. Dimitri: Lv47 Unique Class. Dedue: Lv47 Fortress Knight. Ashe: Lv37 Wyvern Lord. Mercedes: Lv37 Bishop. Annette: Lv36 Gremory. Felix: Lv44 War Master. Sylvain: Lv36 Wyvern Lord. Ingrid: Lv35 Falcon Knight. Ignatz: Lv41 Sniper. Lorenz: Lv39 Dark Knight. Marianne: Lv25 Dancer. Build by u/salteas on Reddit, NG, no DLC, offline, end game stats. Byleth: Lv47 Falcon Knight. Dimitri: Lv46 Unique Class. Felix: Lv44 Sniper. Sylvain: Lv43 Wyvern Lord. Ingrid: Lv46 Falcon Knight. Annette: Lv52 Dancer. Mercedes: Lv45 Bishop. Marianne: Lv43 Bishop. Lysithea: Lv47 Gremory. Leonie: Lv44 Bow Knight. Hilda: Lv43 Wyvern Lord. Ferdinand: Lv42 Wyvern Lord. Build by @Graveless, NG, DLC class used, then items used in final 3 chapters, end game stats. Byleth: Lv42 Falcon Knight. Dimitri: Lv43 Bow Knight. Felix: Lv41 Bow Knight. Marianne: Lv43 Gremory. Ingrid: Lv40 Wyvern Lord. Marianne: Lv 37 Valkyrie. Catherine: Lv39 Swordmaster. Lysithea: Lv41 Gremory. Dorothea: Lv42 Dancer. Hilda: Lv38 Wyvern Lord. Leonie: Lv42 Bow Knight. Annette: Lv42 Wyvern Lord. Build & Iron Man run video by @Atano (on Reddit), NG, no DLC, complete play through video stream available. Byleth: Lv42 Falcon Knight. Dimitiri: Lv39 Unique Class. Felix: Lv44 Wyvern Lord. Leonie: Lv39 Wyvern Lord. Lysithea: Lv44 Gremory. Mercedes: Lv36 Gremory. Annette: Lv37 Gremory. Dedue: Lv39 Grappler. Sylvain: Lv36 Paladin. Shamir: Lv38 Sniper. Flayn: Lv42 Gremory. Seteth: Lv34 Paladin. Ingrid: Lv38 Wyvern Lord. =================================================== =================================================== Golden Deer / Verdant Wind Example Builds: Build by @LoneRecon400, NG, no DLC, end game stats. Byleth: Lv46 War Master. Claude: Lv38 Unique Class. Lysithea: Lv41 Mortal Savant. Hilda: Lv40 Wyvern Lord. Leonie: Lv41 Wyvern Lord. Catherine: Lv36 Wyvern Lord. Cyril: Lv33 Sniper. Ferdinand: Lv37 Dancer. Build by @hdawgsizzle, NG, no DLC, offline, end game stats. Byleth: Lv43 Flacon Knight. Claude: Lv43 Unique Class. Felix: Lv42 War Master. Leonie: Lv42 Bow Knight. Petra: Lv41 Wyvern Lord. Ignatz: Lv43 Sniper. Lysithea: Lv42 Gremory. Sylvain: Lv42 Paladin. Hilda: Lv40 Wyvern Lord. Lorenz: Lv41 Dark Knight. Mercedes: Lv41 Bishop. Marianne: Lv47 Dancer. Build by @overklok , NG, some DLC without items, no stats provided. Byleth: Falcon Knight. Claude: Unique Class. Hilda: Wyvern Lord. Ignatz: Sniper. Leonie: Falcon Knight. Marianne: Dancer. Lysithea: Gremory. Lorenz: Dark Knight. Sylvain: Paladin. Raphael: Grappler. Linhardt: Bishop? Build & Iron Man run video by @Atano (on Reddit), NG, no DLC, complete play through video stream available. Byleth: Lv41 Wyvern Lord. Claude: LV41 Unique Class. Leonie: LV40 Wyvern Lord. Ignatz: Lv42 Sniper. Lysithea: Lv44 Gremory. Hilda: Lv40 Wyvern Lord. Ingrid: Lv44 Wyvern Lord. Lorenz: Lv40 Dark Knight. Felix: Lv41 War Master. Marianne: Lv35 Gremory. Flayn: Lv40 Gremory. Seteth: Lv31 Paladin. =================================================== =================================================== Black Eagles / Crimson Flower Example Builds: Build by u/Rengor1997 on Reddit, NG, no DLC, end game stats. All Rout rule. Byleth: Lv36 Wyvern Lord. Edelgard: Lv40 Wyvern Lord. Fedinand: Lv36 Wyvern Lord. Bernadetta: Lv41 Gremory. Petra: Lv37 Wyvern Lord. Jeritza: Lv38 Wyvern Lord. Caspar: Lv35 Grappler. Lysithea: Lv34 Gremory. Dorothea: Lv35 Dancer. Hubert: Lv35 Dark Knight. Shamir: Lv35 Sniper. Linhardt: Lv33 Bishop. Build by @SpearBerry, NG, DLC without items, end game stats. Byleth: Lv35 Unique Class. Edelgard: Lv38 Unique Class. Hubert: Lv36 Dark Bishop. Ferdinand: Lv36 Paladin. Petra: Lv35 Assassin/Falcon Knight. Caspar: Lv36 Grappler. Bernadetta: Lv35 Sniper. Dorothea: Lv35 Warlock. Linhardt: Lv35 Bishop. Jeritza: Lv34 Unique Class. Lysithea: Lv38 Gremory. Leonie: Lv35 Sniper. =================================================== =================================================== Black Eagles / Silver Snow Example Builds: Build by @Glennstavos, NG, no DLC, end game stats, with accompanying tier list. Byleth: Lv41 War Master. Caspar: Lv40 War Master. Alois: Lv37 War Master. Felix: Lv41 War Master. Petra: Lv40 Wyvern Lord. Ingrid: Lv38 Falcon Knight. Seteth: Lv39 Wyvern Lord. Lorenz: Lv40 Dark Knight. Ferdinand: Lv37 Great Knight. Dorothea: Lv43 Dancer. Linhardt: Lv39 Bishop. Ignatz: Lv43 Sniper. =================================================== =================================================== My personal reasons for starting this list: As I’m playing my first Maddening NG game, I found myself wondering how my progress is going compared to others. Also, while I was planning my game at the start, I wanted an idea about what to expect in terms of end game character levels and stats, or even for mid-game. While I did find a few posts online showing their end game team and builds, they weren't exactly easy to find and there's a lot of rich discussions on various possible builds or ideal builds for characters that's easy to lose oneself in. Another reason for wanting something like this is because the discussions I see often focus on what are the optimal builds for each character. While I love learning about and discussing optimal builds, sometimes it can feel pressuring that I have to use the optimal build and, at least for me, can make the game less fun if I feel like I have to build my characters a very specific way. Often, the optimal builds advice comes off to someone like me as "if you do anything else you're not gonna make it". But then again considering how people are able to solo Maddening, that can't possibly be the case. Thirdly, I feel that while there is a lot of discussion on character builds, I haven’t seen much consideration given to ‘team builds’. By this I mean how a character build might fit into the context of a full team or how they might synergize with each other. I’m hoping that team example builds can facilitate these kinds of discussions while serving as practical examples. There is a lot of discussion on what is the ‘best’ build for a unit, but the ‘best’ might not always be what a player is looking for. If you’re like me, sometimes a player wants to try something different or just something they enjoy and just wants to know that it won’t be such a bad idea that it’ll make a run impossible. By providing examples of what others have used to beat the game with, I hope this category of sub-optimal but ‘good enough’ builds might get exposed. Lastly, with examples to look at including stats, skills, and battalions, it can serve as a reference for those interested in specific examples of stats at the end game. It can also show real examples of the role that progression paths and/or rng can have on your final stats. Sometimes the devil’s in the details and why one person’s run went much better than someone else’s can have a lot to do with the progression path towards the same final class, how they split up instructions, exp, battalions, gear setup, stat boosters, adjutants, how they used them tactically, whether they grinded a lot or not, etc.

Let's do this!! Am I crazy? Maybe. But I am determined!! 🙂 Livestream link: https://youtu.be/Bi0yEmBIqRE

Okay so I might actually want to use Bernadetta for my upcoming Iron Man. Is Fortress Knight a good ending class for her? Can she be my team's tank? Cuz she has proficiencies in Axes and Armor, and this class allows her personal skill to be used often since she will be taking hits a lot. Maybe add some kind of wrath or vantage skill so she can crit more as an enemy phase unit? Maybe have bows as her secondary weapon so she can still use encloser? Let me know some tips. I'm not too experienced with Bernadetta. I made her my armored knight in my last iron man run but she was.... my least used unit on my main team so I didn't really learn much about her worth 🤣 (she sat on the ballista for the entirey of the GD Endgame) lol I want to use the BERNIE!!

Hello, I was just doing an other playtrough of Fire emblem three houses maddening mode. I was on chapter 7 ( battle of the eagle and the lion ) and I noticed that I wasn't able to steal the ring of precision from Edelgard. The strange thing is that I was able to steal Dimitri's one. Any one have noticed that or is it a bug or a mistake from me ?

I finished Silver Snow recently so now the only route left is Crimson Flower. I wanna finish my time with Three Houses off with a bang, so I decided to play it on Maddening Mode. But I couldn’t find a definitive “These are the best characters, and here’s how to build them” like I could with Awakening, so I took matters into my own hands and here’s what I came up with. Also if you have any tips on how to best spend my days off, please tell me. (Edited Specification) This is a fresh save with the intent on grinding for class EXP via waiting in defensive tile with a rusted/broken/no weapon equipped. THE TEAM F!Byleth (Required, Frontliner) Edelgard (Required, Frontliner) Felix (Frontliner) Petra (Frontliner) Bernadetta (Physical Backliner) Lysithea (Magical Backliner) Yuri (Offensive Jack of All Trades) Mercedes (Healer) Linhardt (Healer) Annette (Rallying Dancer) ADJUTANTS Caspar (Guard) Raphael (Guard) Balthus (Guard) MISC. Sylvain (Free Lance of Ruin) Lorenz (Thyrsus) Leonie (Linhardt’s Paralogue) Ferdinand (Lysithea’s Paralogue) Characters that get me Hero’s Relics Everyone else BUILDS BYLETH Final Class: Falcon Knight Abilities: Darting Blow, Death Blow, Hit +20, Lance Prowess, Swordfaire/Prowess Combat Arts: Windsweep, Tempest Lance, Healing Focus Class Progression: Commoner, Fighter, Archer, Brigand, Pegasus Knight, Wyvern Rider, Falcon Knight EDELGARD Final Class: Wyvern Lord Abilities: Darting Blow, Death Blow, Hit +20, Axe Prowess, Speed +2 Combat Arts: Smash, Lightning Axe, Healing Focus Class Progression: Noble, Myrmidon, Brigand, Archer, Pegasus Knight, Wyvern Rider, Wyvern Lord FELIX Final Class: War Master Abilities: Death Blow, Hit +20, Axe Prowess, Brawling Prowess, Quick Riposte Combat Arts: Smash, Nimble Combo, Healing Focus Class Progression: Noble, Fighter, Archer, Brigand, Grappler, War Master PETRA Final Class: Wyvern Lord Abilities: Darting Blow, Death Blow, Hit +20, Axe Prowess, Bow Prowess Combat Arts: Smash, Waning Shot, Healing Focus Class Progression: Commoner, Fighter, Brigand, Archer, Pegasus Knight, Wyvern Rider, Wyvern Lord BERNADETTA Final Class: Bow Knight Abilities: Darting Blow, Death Blow, Hit +20, Vantage, Desperation Combat Arts: Encloser, Curved Shot, Vengeance Class Progression: Noble, Fighter, Archer, Cavalier, Mercenary, Brigand, Pegasus Knight, Paladin, Bow Knight LYSITHEA Final Class: Valkyrie Abilities: Darting Blow, Fiendish Blow, Hit +20, Reason Prowess/Dark Tomefaire, Dark Magic Range +1 Combat Arts: Draw Back Class Progression: Noble, Monk, Mage, Archer, Pegasus Knight, Valkyrie YURI Final Class: Trickster Abilities: Death Blow, Fiendish Blow, Hit +20, Sword Prowess, Reason Prowess Combat Arts: Windsweep, Finesse Blade, Curved Shot Class Progression: Commoner, Fighter, Archer, Mage, Brigand, Trickster MERCEDES Final Class: Bishop Abilities: Faith Prowess, Miracle, Renewal, HP +5, Magic +2 Combat Arts: Draw Back Class Progression: Commoner, Monk, Priest, Bishop LINHARDT Final Class: Bishop Abilities: Faith Prowess, Miracle, Renewal, HP+5, Magic +2 Combat Arts: Draw Back Class Progression: Noble, Monk, Priest, Bishop ANNETTE Final Class: Dancer Abilities: Rally Resistance, Rally Speed, Rally Movement, Special Dance, Reason Prowess Class Progression: Noble, Monk, Mage, Dancer

Hello everyone. I am a youtuber known as The ChoZen One. I started a playthrough of me playing for the first time Golden Deer Maddening Mode but with a twist!! Not only will I not be using new game+ (so I get that golden title screen) but I will be restricting myself from using divine pulses. I want to have the ultimate challenge with this and play the game how the classic FE games were meant to be played. It will be a crazy experience as I have never played the hardest difficulty on any FE before aside from Sacred Stones (which is considered the easiest) I am a semi casual player, I like to use my favorite characters but have some decent knowledge on certain strats here and there, but nothing on the level of some hardcore players out there who study growths, viability etc. So come check out this madlad attempt such a crazy challenge. I would appreciate all the support. I want to interact with more FE fans on my streams and plan to make more content around FE in general. Subscribe if your new and hope to see you guys join me on this journey as we take on such a incredible challenge!! My first stream is linked below, be sure to check it out. There is a few parts out already and I plan to stream a lot this week continuing the journey!!

On July 17th of this year, I started my first time Maddening Mode run of Golden Deer with no new game + and with a twist..... NO DIVINE PULSE!! What a journey it has been. I always been quite casual when it came to playing Fire Emblem. but I have learned a lot on this journey. The struggles, to the restarts, to the hard as heck paralogues, to our blessed Ignatz!! All of it was quite the experience and has made me an even better Fire Emblem player. Join me today as I take on the final map of Golden Deer in the FINALE of my Maddening Mode run!! My hardest experience and greatest challenge with Fire Emblem thus far!! Ending it with a grand finale to remember.... Let's do this!! Live right now!!

I'm planning to start a Golden Deer run on Maddening now that I've finished Crimson Flower and and Azure Moon (on Hard). I'm trying to plan out classes and skill sets for my units but I keep running into issues. I'd love to get some advice about my units and definitely feel free to contribute any tips for Maddening in general as well. My planned roster is: F!Byleth Claude Hilda Marianne Lysithea Leonie Ignatz Felix Petra Sylvain Mercedes Linhardt I'm really excited about these units, but there are a few that are giving me issues as far as planning goes Least Problematic: Marianne - Dancer I used her as a Bishop and a Dark Knight on the previous routes so I thought I might try out Dancer Marianne since I've seen so many people recommend it. Linhardt - Bishop Healer. Holy Knight doesn't seem to offer much and when I used Marianne as a Dark Knight I was a bit underwhelmed by her ability to actually heal. Warp x 2 is also nice Mercedes - Gremory She's another healer. I think some people recommend Bishop over Gremory bc of the extra healing, but Mercedes doesn't really have all that many issues healing to full as a Gremory in my experience. The one extra movement is also nice I suppose. I'm definitely open to hearing a dissenting opinion on this though Lysithea - Gremory Standard Lysithea. I've seen some people use Dark Knight over Gremory for the -faire skill but that seems like a lot of effort for a unit that's going to one shot most everything anyways. Without the extra weapon ranks of Dark Knight I should be able to invest more into authority for a good magic-boosting gambit and more into reason to maybe get the range+1 and -faire skills Felix - War Master I used him as a Wyvern Lord last run and he was incredible. I've heard he's perhaps the best War Master in the game Claude - Barbarossa Excited to marry Claude. He's hot. For skills I was thinking Death Blow, Bow Prowess, Alert Stance, Close Counter, and then eventually the S+ Bowfaire. Only issue with Claude is that he's definitely going to want either the Rafail Gem or the Aurora Shield and he might have some competition... Could Use Some Advice: Ignatz - Sniper/Bow Knight Ignatz's ideal build would probably look something like: Death Blow, Bow Prowess, Bowfaire, Bow Crit+10, Mov +1. The issue is getting to those A+/S/S+ ranks. I'm wondering if I don't bother with his lance and riding skills for bow knight and just keep him focused on bows the whole way through (after the detour to get Death Blow) to rush him towards those better bow skills (and towards top tier battalions as well). Hunter's Volley seems extremely OP, so there's definitely an argument for keeping him a sniper the whole way through. Biggest downside is losing Mov+1, though I could maybe keep one of his rallies on him? I don't know how valuable one rally skill will be late game. I should also note that my plan is to run Ignatz with Raphael as a guard adjutant for the extra might. Bonus is that this should keep Raphael decently leveled through Ch. 13 as well. Leonie - Sniper/Bow Knight This is roughly the same dilemma that I have with Ignatz. I'm more tempted to eventually make her a Bow Knight and snag the Mov+1 even if I eventually turn her back into a Sniper for Hunter's volley. She has all the proficiencies of a Bow Knight. I could use some advice on her skill build overall. I'll definitely pick up Death Blow. I don't know if I should send her through archer to get Hit+20 or Pegasus to get Darting Blow. Getting all three seems like it would take way too long and might not be necessary. Sylvain - Wyvern Lord/Paladin Sylvain definitely wants to use Swift Strikes. I used him as a Wyvern Lord last Hard playthrough and he was great most of the way through but a bit underwhelming towards the very end of the game. He had trouble one-rounding some enemies and some hit rate issues too. A lot of people recommend against Paladin due to the speed penalty, though with all the enemies on Maddening gaining craptons of speed, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to try to keep up only to lose. Paladin has less strength but the right -faire skill. Since Sylvain wouldn't be flying/need that high of Axe rank, I could invest more into authority for a better battalion (this would also benefit other fliers since they are competing for fewer battalions). Also, I could give Sylvain a guard adjutant as a Paladin (preferably Ingrid for the extra might) which is always nice. But giving up flying is a big sacrifice... I also wouldn't know what skill build I'd be aiming for for Paladin Sylvain (Death Blow, Lance Prowess, Lancefaire, Aegis, Mov+1)? The Real Problem Children: Hilda - Wyvern Lord/Falcon Knight I used Hilda last route as a Wyvern and she was great! But she was also no Petra. Towards the end of the game she had a lot of hit rate issues. Originally, when I was planning the team I was going to run both Hilda and Petra as Wyvern Lords, though I soon realized that that I'd probably end up running the same build on each (Death Blow, Darting Blow, Axe Prowess, Alert Stance+, eventually Axefaire). I'm not sure that it's worth running Hilda as a Wyvern just to be a worse Petra. This would be exacerbated by recruiting Petra somewhat late so that her bases would be significantly boosted. Hilda could fill in the role of Falcon Knight on my team, which would see her using lances instead of axes. This could boost her hit rates a bit, and give her a bit more of a niche, with the one major downside being I'd be running Lance Prowess in a Lancefaire class e.g. Freikugel would take a significant nerf. She also seems like a more likely candidate than Petra to be a Falcon Knight since Hilda has a better resistance stat and would actually be able to do the mage killing that a Falcon Knight is expected to do. Byleth - I don't even know anymore My two previous runs I ran Byleth as a Wyvern and he was excellent. I've switched it up this time and went with female Byleth, and was curious about Falcon Knight. Ideally I'd like to have at least one Falcon Knight on the team since they are great at killing mages and a lot of later maps have siege tomes and such. My major issue with Byleth is also an issue with my team composition. I don't have a sword user on the team at all (besides Marianne, who really should be dancing every turn and whose Levin Sword/Blutgang isn't going to help out on the anti-magic armor monsters). Byleth seems like one of the most natural choices given her sword affinity, She also gets Windsweep which I anticipate would be quite excellent on Maddening since the enemies hit so hard. My original plan was to try to get Byleth as a Falcon Knight who used swords - this sounds really great, move in, windsweep, canto out - but in order to do that she'd need at least: D+ axe for Brigand to get Death Blow, B+ Lances to get Falcon Knight, A+ Flying for Alert Stance+, ideally S+ swords to get swordfaire to make up for not having Swordfaire as a Falcon (basically same issue if I tried sword user wyvern too)... And that's not even factoring in authority. Also that route would make it a lot harder to recruit Caspar for his paralogue, which means losing the Rafail Gem which wouldn't be ideal with so many fliiers. I also feel like going from Wyvern Byleth to the lower strength Falcon Knight Byleth with no -faire using lower might weapons on a mode where enemies are tankier... That's just setting yourself up to be disappointed. I could just make her a Falcon Knight and use lances, but that doesn't solve the sword issue. I could make her a Wyvern once more, which would be great but wouldn't solve the sword issue. My first time through the game on CF I had no sword units and regretted the choice due to sword-weak monsters and there just being a plethora of really excellent swords. Losing out on flying Byleth would be a bummer and would feel like I'm not using her to her fullest extent. Depending on what happens with Sylvain it would also bring the total number of fliers down to 3 or 4. I've heard that on Maddening flying is a little less important since maps are slower and incentivize turtling more, but 3 fliers would be much more restricting than 5. Losing flier Byleth would also make it harder for units to make use of the 1.2x boost in exp from Byleth's ability since Byleth can't canto next to them. I could run Byleth in a sword class, but I've never actually ran any of the sword classes (last run I just had Dimitri as a Great Lord use swords). Enlightened One seems very underwhelming. Mortal Savant seems like a meme. Swordmaster has pretty good abilities and growths but it's locked to 5 mov which is gross. Assassin certainly seems like the best choice out of these. No strength growth is a bummer, though Byleth has great base strength and the growth won't matter too much in the long run... I definitely need another opinion about the sword classes Petra - Wyvern Lord/Falcon Knight/Assassin/Swordmaster Wyvern Lord Petra is really quite incredible. So much so to the point where I feel as though using any other class with Petra would be misusing her. There is a possibility for Byleth to go Wyvern and Petra to become my sword unit. I've heard good things about assassin Petra for example, but I'm worried about her getting strength screwed. I could have her as a sword-using Falcon Knight but the lack of a faire might really hurt her damage output. And for assassin, losing the strength growth would hurt rough 3 or 4 points by endgame, which isn't huge but isn't nothing. Ideally she'd be a wyvern still, but that would mean Byleth would need to be the sword unit. This was a ton of text and I really appreciate if you've read through it. I'd definitely appreciate any advice on these units or on Golden Deer or Maddening in general. I'm also trying to figure out when exactly to recruit most of these. I'm probably going to stick with OG Golden Deer for the first few chapters until recruiting Sylvain (beginning of chapter 5?) for his relic. Felix and Petra want to be later due to the way their bases will be inflated. Petra should maybe be earlier since I want her to get both Death Blow and Darting Blow... Linhardt and Mercedes probably don't matter as much. Please give me critiques and let me know what you think. Thanks!

SPOILERS - kind of?: Idk the only real thing spoiled here is the final boss of Azure Moon, but I feel like that’s pretty obvious already. TLDR: I'm new to Fire Emblem, but decided I wanted Bylass to cosplay Aqua from Konosuba. (War cleric that's pretty useless.) These are my thoughts on my Azure Moon Maddening NG run as someone who is new to FE as a whole. Roster + Stats: https://imgur.com/a/IxR84dy I’m new to the Fire Emblem franchise (Three Houses is my first game), but I immediately fell in love with the game when I started playing it. When I started, I played on Normal and picked the Black Eagles, but quit a bit after the timeskip because my characters were hitting ridiculously hard, and I wanted a bit more of a challenge. I finished a GD Hard/Classic as my first full playthrough of the game which was a blast, but I’ve always been a fan of cranking up the difficulty so I proceeded to revisit the Black Eagles and finished a CF run on Maddening/Classic. I took a bit of a break, (but not long because I love the strategy gameplay of this game), and came back when the DLC was released. After playing the side story, I decided it was finally time to learn about the Blue Lions. I coincidentally was watching Konosuba at the time and I was talking to my friend about how hilarious it would be to do a run playing as the useless goddess Aqua herself. So I went and did it. (For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Aqua is a character from the anime Konosuba, who is a goddess/arch-priest but in actuality just a loveable, useless, piece of shit) The War Cleric class was absolutely made for the Aqua-run because not only did it allow Byleth to heal as an arch-priest do, but it also emphasizes the use of Aqua’s patented “God-Blow” fist attack that hits like wet tissue. Add that to the fact that Byleth is technically a goddess anyway (or at least merged with one) and we have a winning recipe. Anyway here’s how that went down: Note: I did use DLC stat boosters (because apparently I paid for them :p) but otherwise a standard Maddening/Classic NG run. Roster Breakdown/Review: I used everyone in the Blue Lions except Ashe. I don’t like Ashe. Sorry. Not sorry. I know it seems kind of stupid to rate units individually with numbers especially since they work and function as a squad/team, but keep in mind these numbers are relative to my particular playthrough, not my view of how good each character is in general. Aqua : Useless Goddess (War Cleric) (Adjutant Flayn as Fortress Knight, yes you read that right) 5/10 Now I don’t recommend anyone do this, but essentially you build Byleth as a priest whilst doing some sweet sweet brawling training with the faculty until you can unlock War Cleric. Then you’re set… for misery. If you didn’t guess already, this is… bad. Her strength was never able to keep up with the HP/defense of enemies and her magic growth was never high enough so she couldn’t do damage that way either. Basically she was just a unit with stupid high health and some okay healing ability... and I couldn’t have wished for a more accurate depiction of Aqua. Dimitri: EdGeLoRd (Great/High Lord) 8/10 When I started the run, I assumed that Dimitri would have to carry because Byleth was going to be useless, and I was kind of correct. He was really good early to mid game, but my decision to keep him in his cannon class meant his lack of movement hindered his overall ability. It was a bit frustrating that he wasn’t able to one shot units unless he used a brave weapon or got a crit, but at the same time, he was pretty difficult to kill as well so I can’t complain too much. Dedue: War Master 7.5/10 As you probably already know, Dedue’s personal ability made him incredibly useful in the early and mid game, but he fell off after the timeskip. Didn’t help that he was MIA for the first portion of post-timeskip either. Not terrible though. Felix: Bow Knight 8/10 I know this isn’t really his canon class, but getting rid of Ashe meant I needed another bow user. Felix was absolutely solid throughout the entire game. As an archer/sniper he did lots of good damage/killing in the early mid game, but once the endgame hit, his ability to double went away and became more of a mounted chipping machine. Or maybe that’s just because I gave him the Aegis shield. Actually, now that I think about it… fuck. Ingrid: I’m fast as FUCK boi (Falcon Knight) 8.5/10 I remember watching a Tier List video(I believe the most recent one from FED on YouTube) not reviewing Ingrid too highly (not that she was bad), and I had read some similar opinions somewhere so I had decided to set expectations low even though I knew about her insane SPD growth. Little did I know how clutch she was going to be in this run, especially in the final battle against Edelgard. Sending her into the throne room with Retribution and watching her go Lightning Mcqueen on Edelgard’s kitchen staff was absolutely hilarious. Now, I do admit her strength was a bit lacking, but she was good enough to deal with backline mages in almost any scenario, so I definitely give my vote of approval on her. Sylvain: Paladin 7/10 Swift Strikes is Swift Strikes. Nuff’ said. Joking aside, he wasn’t my best unit, but he was solid. Brave combat arts are broken considering how they let you not worry about SPD stats. I mostly used him to clean up units that had been chipped by units such as Felix or Annette. Speaking of BEST GIRLLLLLLL…. Annette: Dark Flier (Adjutant Gilbert as Wyvern Lord) 6.5/10 No she’s not ACTUALLY my best girl. Calm your redhead-loving selves. I decided to use a DLC class because I figured why not. I made her a dark flier and gave her Thrysus, and she deleted enemy armor units from two countries away. She didn’t have the best stats, but Fiendish Blow + Black Tomefaire was enough to let her do what she needed to do. Armored units are slowpokes anyway, so it’s not like slow ass magic users aren’t going to double them. I was excited to use Crusher since this is the only route you can get it (I believe?), but it was quite underwhelming. That being said, hearing “I’m your girl” from a barely 5ft girl riding a black pegasus, wielding an orange hammer bigger than her made me fuckin’ giddy. Mercedes: Bishop/Gremory 7/10 Healer. No offense to Mercedes for not writing much here. She was damn good at her job,, but that’s really all she did. Additional Units: Shamir: Crit, crit some more (Sniper) 9/10 Okay. I admit I had a little too much fun with this one. I gave any and all stat boosting items that had DEX or LUCK to Shamir. Shamir was stupid. Say she has idk, something like SEVENTY SIX crit chance and kills a unit with Hunter’s Volley on player phase. Okay nothing much to brag about right, but when you combine her personal skill that grants MORE DEX and STR and Special Dance and Annette’s Rally, and you see 100% crit rate on this roided-up big-tiddy goth girl, there’s nothing to do but cry laughing as your enemies pray to Sothis, I mean you, for mercy. You haven’t seen true comedy until you’ve tried this yourself. Catherine: Swordmaster 6/10 I used Catherine because I figured why not, I was already using Shamir. She was really great early and mid game, but like Dedue, fell off late game. Unlike Dedue however, she wasn’t very tanky, so she couldn’t really take too many hits either. She did, however, serve a good purpose in defeating Axe users as the only real sword unit on my squad. Dorothea: Dancer (Adjutant Hilda as Fortress Knight) Flayn: Since I was using her as a guard adjutant on Byleth for the linked attack bonus, I would sub her in as a Bishop whenever the map allowed 12 units, just because she had been gaining EXP as an adjutant. Rescue was especially helpful in chipping at Edelgard in the final fight. Playthrough Notes: I would say the hardest chapter for me was 13. I BARELY got out of it with only one divine pulse left. Considering how Byleth was pretty useless as she had not spent too much time in War Cleric so her health and defense were pretty shit, the first half was particularly rough. Luckily Dimitri’s battalion gambit staggers a portion of the map the size of Russia. I eventually had to slowly take them enemies with Annette's range and Dimitri in a bush in the beginning while Mercedes casted physics the whole time for her starting area where she was safe for a while. Once Felix, Ingrid and Sylvain joined the fight however, things sailed much smoother. The second hardest chapter was the final one. It was kind of laughable on my part, because I had outfitted everyone with their heroes relics (cuz in Blue Lions literally the whole squad is pulling up with that bling-bling) and the Apex of the World OST started playing, I was really feeling it. I was ready to take the fight to Edelgard, except I ended up hiding in a corner like Bernie in… every part of the monastery parts. Going in blind really screwed me. I had done Chapter 13 before so I knew at least a little bit on what to expect, but when Edelgard started doing her best Kobe (RIP) impression and shredding through my slow ass magic users, I knew it would be rough. I essentially had to send out Ingrid by herself equipped with Retribution on her so that she could take out the throne room while not getting hit. Once that room was cleared out, I could finally advance the rest of my units forward and it was okay after that. I know I could’ve made Dimitri a mounted unit to make him better overall, but I wanted to stick with his canon class just because yes. I tried a Professor XP strat I read from this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemThreeHouses/comments/e0vmpi/professor_exp_optimizations/ so credit to ____ for posting that. I reached Profesor Rank A as soon as I could and then spammed Paralogues until my units were too tired to even ask for a break. I must admit, being able to basically train almost all your units in skills every week because of how many teaching points you have was amazing. It made the Blue Lions feel every bit like the dunk squad they were. I did sometimes grind class masteries in the beginning for a few abilities such as Death Blow, Fiendish Blow etc. It was boring, but worth it. Better than trying to gain abilities via online adjutants at least. Overall: I wish there was a way to balance movement in this game. It just seemed like units with movement (paladin, fliers) made units that didn’t have as much movement obsolete. Towards the end game I was doing most of the “work” with my mounted units even though Dimitri and Dedue were just sitting on the bench saying “pick me, pick me!”, just because they could dip in and out of enemy range. Having played GD, I thought it was hilarious how Rhea is basically not relevant post-timeskip. "We gotta find Rhea ASAP. Or ya know, it can wait til tomorrow. She’s been gone 5 years, not like an extra day’s gonna change much…" - AM Seteth… probably. Can we just talk about the story of Blue Lions for a second? For some reason, I felt like it was more fleshed out and “put-together” than Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind. This is just my OPINION though, (before you keyboard activists decide to shit on me). But for example, most if not all of the blue lion characters have history with each other. There’s Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid and Sylvain being buddy-buddy and the whole Glenn fiasco which then ties in Dedue. Also Mercedes and Annette are buddy-buddy because they went to Hogwarts together. I can’t say too much about Ashe because I never used him and he died in Chapter 13. Like immediately. Sorry not sorry. Sorry, this took a lot more space than I thought it would. I have attached a link with all final stats for my roster if anyone’s interested. Also a pic of the squad looking fly with their hero’s relics right before I realize the final chapter isn’t easy at all. https://imgur.com/a/IxR84dy I’ve seen forum posts about some people struggling with Maddening, so as someone who is self-proclaimed “okay” at the game, but still relatively new to this awesome franchise, feel free to ask me questions!

Hey all, I’ve been using this site for a while for general stats/class info and stuff, and I’d like to think that I have a generally good understanding of the game. however after around 10 attempts, 4 of which I reached the final map on (2 azure moon, 2 Crimson Flower) I still cannot beat NG maddening. I’ve been using dlc Boosters, units, classes, battalions, additional paralogues, those online spirit things, hell I did my last run on casual, but I just can’t seem to get more than 2 or 3 units to a point where they’re useful. So, before I inevitably restart again, I wanted to try and retrace my steps on my latest run, to see where I went wrong. Before I get to team comp, I’d like to admit to three big mistakes i know i’m making. 1: spending too much time on the supports and paired endings aspect. I need to save that for normal and hard runs (or ng+). 2: overusing warp skipping (especially in BL). I feel like this probably led to my units being woefully underleveled for the final confrontation. 3: I’m stone cold broke cuz I spent all my money on things to trade for renown for the wayseer (see problem 1). Luckily I had enough to fix up most of my weapons for the fight, but yeah. Budget is non existent but anyways, heres what I’m working with Byleth: lvl 38 Wyvern lord hp 55 Str: 35 Mag: 18 Dex: 25 spd: 28 lck: 25 def: 20 res: 17 cha: 42 Abilities equipped Alert Stance lancebreaker axe prowess 4 hp +5 death blow inventory is sublime sword, hexlock shield, killer, steel, and training axe (all +) Arts are smash, helm splitter, and wrath strike (no better one to use :/) battalion: cichil wyvern co (5) Pretty Certain I went wrong here. Got relatively early wyvern lord despite not having req. lvls. I recruited every unit, so likely my lack of focus killed this one. But yeah, poor stats and a poor understanding of how much time I should be spending in certain classes was bad. Dmitri: lvl 39 great lord (masters halfway thru map) Hp 63 mv 9 (dlc shoes) str 38 mag 14 dex 27 spd 31 lck 19 def 26 res 11 cha 36 Abilities: battallion wrath lance prowess 5 mv +1 swordbreaker lance crit +10 inventory is silver shield, spear of assal, lance of ruin, brave lance, areadbhar, scythe of sariel. arts are tempest lance, knightkneeler, glowing ember. battalion is blue lion knights 5 Dmitri can crit p easily, and tanks alright, but can’t orko, so I need to soften units up beforehand, which can be a pain. Overall a little dissapointing for a lord, but far from my worst unit Lysithea: lvl 40 dark flier (certed for gremory) hp: 36 str 11 mag 42 dex 37 spd 37 lck 14 def 13 res 22 cha 23 abilities reason 5 dark mag range +1 mag+2 fiendish blow alert stance inventory is thrysius art is draw back battalion is Nuvelle Fliers Corps 5 lysithea has been a beast, but at the same time hasn’t been orkoing enemies like in previous runthroughs. I believe I spent too much time in dark flier (no mag growths), but canto and thrysius are a hell of a drug Constance: lvl 38 war cleric hp 44 str 31 mag 37 dex 21 spd 14 lck 14 def 16 res 17 cha 20 abilities: brawl 5 reason 5 fiendish blow brawl avo +20 miracle (I know I know) arts are mystic blow (woohoo) healing focus, fading blow and pneuma gale inventory is aura knuckles +, training gauntlets +, silver gauntlets, vajra mushti, magic staff and crusher. battalion is Leicester Dicers Corps 5 i make no apologies for this one. Mystic blow is so strong early/mid game and she can still orko p much anyone late game with aura knuckles. She’s also great with rescue, which has been a bonus. Marianne: lvl 39 dancer hp 46 str 12 mag 35 dex 21 spd 26 lck 22 def 9 res 28 cha 38 abilities: defensive tactics battalion renewal faith 4 reason 1 special Dance arts are wrath strike, sword dance, soulblade inventory is levin sword and healing staff battalion: seiros holy monks (stride) my best healer by far, I never use marianne offensively (as I have in other runs with blutgang), I wish I had just had Yuri cert for dancer to get sword avoid tbh, cuz I feel I missed out on a Great bishop. speaking of Yuri... Yuri lvl 43 Assassin HP 46 str 36 mag 24 dex 33 spd 53 lck 33 def 24 res 21 cha 28 abilities sword prowess 5 swordfaire sword crit 10 vantage duelist’s blow arts finesse blade, windsweep (never used) deadeye (to aggro enemies) inventory rapier +, wo dao +, thunderbrand, training bow +, sword of zoltan, fetters of dromri battalion: brigid hunters 5 (get that avo) my best unit and hard carry, nothing hits yuri, but yuri hits hard. High crit and stupid speed means he rarely loses a combat. Idk what classes I should maybe have taken him through tho, cuz I can see duelists blow and vantage being overkill. Canto is stupid good on him, also. annette: lvl 13 noble (woops) hp 34. All else irrelevant literally there to fill out the roster and be a rally bot, unfortunately cuz shes squishy af she cant get in hegemongard’s range, so she’s just useless. She does have blue lion dancers and rally str spd and res. hapi: lvl 37 valkyrie (certed in gremory) hp 39 str 19 mag 31 Dex 25 spd 20 lck 17 def 16 res 30 cha 20 abilities: fiendish blow uncanny blow move +1 reason 5 dark mag range +1 arts: tempest lance and draw back inventory: caduceus staff battalion: timotheus magi corps great utility unit, but heals for shit. Banshee and canto and warp are really good tho, so idk whether to use her in this or gremory. Hilda, Hilda, Hilda: lvl 37 wyvern lord hp 65 str 35 mag 15 dex 21 spd 31 lck 21 def 28 res 14 cha 32 abilities darting blow death blow alert stance + lancebreaker Axe prowess 5 arts: Helm splitter, smash, diamond axe inventory: seiros shield, freikugel, brave axe, training and iron axe +, silver axe battalion: galatea pegasus co. no complaints here. Very solid, got her up to B authority and it was worth it. She came with c+ lance so all I had to do was raise axe a lil then focus flying and auth. Darting blow will let her orko Bernadetta: lvl 39 sniper/bow knight hp 57 (i really wanted vengeance to work and it kinda has) str 31 mag 14 dex 39 spd 27 lck 24 def 26 res 22 cha 21 abilities bow crit 10 bow 5 close counter move +1 hit +20 arts: encloser, vengeance, deadeye, and hunters volley if sniper. inventory: failnaught, accuracy ring, iron bow +, silver bow, iron lance +, luin battalion: goneril valkyries great utility unit, I think she’s better as a sniper with hapi around. That said I could go either class. Generally been good for me whole game. caspar (I was surprised too) lvl 39 war master hp 64 str 38 mag 17 dex 22 spd 26 luck 25 def 22 res 12 cha 18 abilities axe 3 brawl 5 lancebreaker battalion wrath quick riposte arts: bombard, mighty blow, healing focus, war master’s strike. inventory: short axe, crit ring, killer knuckles, silver gauntlets, and training gauntlets all +, and silver axe battalion: bergliez war group recruited him at the last possible day, said “fuck it I’ll try it” for battle at garreg mach, and I’ve been switching between him and hapi/felix for the 10th slot. He’s a crit machine, tho in future I likely want Ferdinand or sylvain over him. to round it all out... felix: lvl 36 war master/wyvern lord hp 57 str 38 mag 17 dex 20 spd 32 lck 23 def 18 res 13 cha 15 abilities: lancebreaker death blow brawl 3 axe 5 hp+5 arts: helm splitter, smash, nimble combo inventory: iron axe, killer axe, and hand axe all +, silver gaunts, axe of ukonvasara, and crit ring. battalion is king if lions corps. felix has consistently been slinging massive amounts of damage around. His class is map dependant, but I’ve had him in war master for a fair bit now. anyways, thats my team. What things am I missing? What am I overvaluing. What am I underrating? Please help before I go insane. many thanks!

Hello everyone! Let me know if this is in the right place, and if it isn't please direct me to where it ought to be. SO. I'm in the midst of planning my final (we'll see, lol) run of the Crimson Flower route, and I want to do it on Maddening/Classic mode. I've done it on Maddening/Casual once, and it hurt because I was unprepared. Like, really unprepared. I don't want to make the same mistake twice, so I've been trying to plan my last run. To save on space, I'm going to put the character and build in a spoiler tag, and write my reasons for that build within the spoiler tag as well. The structure is going to be NAME -- CLASS (CLASS PROFICIENCY) -- CLASS ABILITIES, followed by bullet points that go ITEMS, ABILITIES, COMBAT ARTS, BATTALIONS, CLASS PROGRESSION, TOTAL SKILL REQUIREMENTS, and then an estimate from a calculator of their growths. Just a heads up, this is using Ashen Wolves clear data and NG+ data. I will be using AW characters, and their names will be used both in the spoiler tags and out. I'm leaving their names out of the spoiler tag because they were already announced, but if anyone would like me to put their names in the spoiler tags, I will make the edit. I already did Maddening without NG+ and it hurt my soul--you can't make me do it again, I refuse and will cry--and I'll also be using the prize from clearing the AW route, so if you haven't played AW yet, there's spoilers for that in here. When something is Italicized, I'm marking it as NG+ dependent and I will spend renown to get it. UPDATES WILL BE BOLDED AND IN THIS COLOR PURPLE. If I have decided between two options, the option itself will be bolded and recolored. Alrighty, here we go! We shall start with Byleth (we chug respect women juice in this house). Next is Edelgard! Next is the man who may not have actual eyebrows, Hubert! Next is Ferdinand Von Aegir! No longer in main party. I've removed his data (keeping it in a document in case the mods need me to keep it) and added his replacement, Ingrid. Snoozeman Linhardt is next! Since he's going to be a "switch" character (you'll see further down), I'm also adding another character's info. HYDA- I mean, Caspar. BERNIE BEAR Next up is Dorothea! ............................ I'm sorry, it's not Petra. I'm sorry. I love her a lot, it's just not Petra. She dies way too fast for my liking, so she's an Adjacent Unit. Instead, we have Constance taking this spot. Final main party member is the Secret Boy. AND THAT'S IT. For reserve units/adjuncts, I have Petra as a Pegasus Knight, Yuri as a Trickster and Hapi as a Valkyrie Ferdinand as a Fortress/Great Knight, and Mercedes as a Bishop (I can easily switch between Mercie & Lin depending on what I need from them, and since healers level very easily, I don't have to worry about either of them falling behind). I am exchanging Yuri & Hapi for Ferdinand & Mercedes so that they are reliably activated Guard & Heal Adjutants. Adjutants activation rate increases with support rank, and few Black Eagles have supports that become successful Guard & Heal classes, so I can settle my Ferdie indecision by switching him off the main party and use Mercedes to get better use out of their Adjutant roles. If I ever need to switch between Mercie & Lin, would be for utility -- Fortify vs. Warp. If I find that Mercie is more useful, then I'll probably upgrade her to Gremory and put her in the main role. Please let me know your thoughts, what I should patch up, etc. I know that DEF & RES are a little low, but I'm hoping that I can use the Holy Tomb to farm for stat boosters for an edge (My soft-reset technique is 3 Boosters, if there's a Seraph Robe or Black Pearl, make it 4. If I don't get 3/4+SR/BP, I reset until I do. It takes a while, but nothing else down in the tomb is really worth it when you can literally buy everything else from the Ashen Wolves or Anna). I also don't use stat boosts until everyone is in their final class, that way I don't miss out on free bonuses. THANK YOU EVERYONE, YOU'RE AMAZING ❤️ EDIT: Edited for clarity. My goodness, I have not yet mastered the spoiler tag. EDIT #2: Updated information.

Before you read further we should understand the rules by which this Tier-List was made and the restrictions/considerations that went into it. They are as follows: 1) The game is played on New Game, not New Game+ 2) No paid DLC items/benefits/characters can be used. 3) Efficient, but not LTC level play is assumed. 4) The Tier List represents my evaluation of unit performance on Maddening Mode throughout Crimson Flower after 6 playthroughs of the route. My fastest run is 19:57 with a healthy amount of messing around/testing/unnecessary exploration/doing unnecessary paralogues. I'm still mapping out a lot of the details but It's more than possible to shave 4-6 hours off of this time. S+ Tier: Edelgard: Not too much to say about this one, it should be fairly uncontroversial. She hits like a train, has access to the Peg-Knight Class, has Monster Breaker for big-hits, near-perfect availability, decent growths, and easy access to the Wyvern class line for flying and a Class-fare. Amyr is also hilariously broken, to add. Too bad her personal classes are garbage. F!Byleth: In my opinion, easy access to the Lance of Ruin (LOR) from her ability to recruit Slyvain with no requirements other than being female (lol) is the main thing that makes F!Byleth better than M!Byleth. She also can become a Peg-Knight, which is amazing for the ability to fly and access to Darting Blow. Sylvain is also an amazing guard-adjutant; recruit him before the Miklan chapter, get him a single level during said chapter and promote him to armour-knight when you're able to. On another note, She and Edlegard are among a select few who can reliably survive being exposed on enemy-phase without the use of Impenetrable Wall/Blessing, especially in the early/mid-game where it matters most. The Sword of the Creator is meh in the early game due to its weight but its 1-2 range and special Combat Art are nice. Though if you're attacking at range you're better off using an Iron Bow+ for the accuracy/lighter weight/lower cost and Curved Shot access unless you are also are exposing her on enemy phase without any means to switch her weapon. I generally focus on lances/axes on F!Byleth because of promotion requirements. The Sublime Creator Sword is fairly decent when you get it, though I rarely find myself using it. F!Byleth is solid all around, it's hard to go wrong here unless you make her a mage. Bernadetta: Probably the most controversial placement on this list. She is carried almost entirely by her early access to the Vengeance Combat Art, Pass Skill, and high-average Dexterity. Bernie's Vengeance has a C+ Lance rank requirement and synergizes well with her personal skill; this is easy to get before Chapter 5 with her boon in Lances. Bernie has easy access to the Cavalier and Peg-Knight classes early on, as well. She's one of the few units on your squad in the early game that can dish out heavy single attack damage, all she needs is a steel lance/bow and her personal skill activated for her to deal 20+ damage with Tempest Lance in the first few chapters The damage formula for Vengeance is as follows: (Missing HP + 2). This seems unassuming at first but is incredibly powerful. This means her attack value, when using this combat art, scales off her HP and STR, so her mediocre growths in those areas are almost entirely offset by their combined value and ability to boost to a class' stat bases. That said, she'll be able to use Training Lances and One-Hit-Kill (OHK) nearly every enemy generic throughout the game with 100% accuracy from the moment she unlocks Vengeance. Toss her the accuracy ring and a +hit battalion and you'll seldom need to think about accuracy. Continuing, the Paladin class has a base STR of 17 and a class modifier of +2 for a minimum physical attack value of 19. This boost, in conjunction with other modifiers like the HP +5 skill (the early game skill most people switch out) that effectively acts as a Fare-skill, battalions, strong weapons, HP boosters (Seraph robes also give her what is effectively +5 attack) and you can get to some insane numbers. Why is this important? Because every CF post-time skip map is defeat boss(es) and can be cleared quickly with warp/stride setups. She just so happens to be one of the few units who can reliably OHK even the most dangerous enemies in the game. Bernie also has access to the Pass skill via her Budding Talent. You can use this to ride/fly right through enemy formations that would otherwise hinder other potential boss killers. She also gets an insane attack bonus from the Paladin promotion due to the minimum strength stat adjustment in addition to the Class' HP boost and Lance-fare. Let's assume that you did Alois' easily one-turnable paralogue and gave Bernie the Seraph Robe you get from it. We're now at C12 and Bernie is a level 23 Paladin with roughly 41+5 HP, 20 STR and has a D-Rank battalion (Lv. 5 Empire Pegasus Co. ) that gives her +4 attack and +15 hit. Let's give her the LOR (22mt weapon) and the Str + 2 skill as well. After factoring in a STR rally, her personal skill, and other variables, this Bernie has, when using Vengeance, an attack value of 109. What does this mean in practice? !Maddening C12 Seteth has a maximum physical endurance of 97. Bernie can easily OHK him. !Maddening C12 Rhea has a maximum physical endurance of 90. Bernie can easily OHK her. Pass is useful to reach her easily. !Maddening C14 Claude has a maximum physical endurance of 92. Bernie can easily OHK him for a two-turn clear. !Maddening C15 Seteth has a maximum physical endurance of 114. Bernie is the only unit in the game who can reliably reach this value by this point in the game without grinding levels and/or stat boosters and/or getting RNG blessed. Use the +3 HP meals (which stack) to boost yourself to that number if you need to. Pass is useful to reach him easily and clear the chapter in 5-6 turns with a stride/warp setup. !Maddening C17 Rhea has a maximum physical endurance of ‭118‬. Use a +3 meal if you need to. Bernie, again, can easily OHK her by the time you reach this point assuming she gets average level-ups as a Paladin/Flier. !Maddening C17 Dimitri has a maximum physical endurance of 117. Bernie can easily OHK him by time you reach this chapter. This map can also be cleared reliably in 5-6 turns by setting up stride and warp; it can be cleared in 1-3 turns if you're willing to do some Amyr RNG abusing with an above-average strength Edelgard. This methods also ensures you don't need to survive a round against his 85 physical attack and 39 attack speed. There is a multitude of bosses that are far less durable than those listed above; Bernie easily slaps them and almost every generic you'll come across. Those that don't such as bosses with extreme physical durability like Gwendal and Gilbert are easily dispatched with effective weapons and magic. The main downside to using her in this way is that she has no enemy phase presence, restricts the use of fortify (if you're even using it) and cannot ever take a counter. However, this is almost a non-issue in an efficient playthrough as everyone except your dedicated combat units will get ORKO'd by Maddening mode enemies without the use of Impenetrable Wall/Blessing; you will need to find a way to keep people safe regardless. Thankfully FETH Maddening is among, if not the most player-phase oriented game in the franchise. She's best off of course as a Cav/Paladin/Flier, all of which have Canto and good movement; these traits in conjunction with the Pass Skill help in making sure she's safe after assassinating a target of your choice. TL:DR Contrary to the opinions of many, especially those of more prominent figures in the community, Bernie starts OHK'ing the vast majority enemies from the moment she gets Vengeance (which she can have as early as Chapter 4) and has myriad ways to reach OHK thresholds for many of every route's most dangerous bosses. She enables fast clears of CF Maddening (and Maddening in general) with minimal grinding/setup/thinking involved. She doesn't require any additional skills to function, unlike most other combat units which all pine for Death Blow and Darting Blow. The only skills she benefits strongly from is Hit+20 which is overkill in most cases if you're setting up linked-attacks for boss kills. Most units in my runs don't even promote to an advanced class before it's over. Bernie is 10/10 on CF and 9.5/10 on the other three routes. Two other units (Dedue and Cyril) also have Vengeance (both units need A-rank lances) but do not have the other traits that allow Bernie to make such excellent use of the Combat Art. PS: You can use guard-adjutants, shields, enemy bow users with poison strikes, rusted weapons (so that Bernie gets doubled), battalions and/or devil weapons to ensure Bernie gets dropped to 1HP with minimal difficulty. S Tier: M!Byleth: Mostly the same as F!Byleth, just without early flying access (which hurts) and early access to the LOR and a decent guard-adjutant in Sylvain. He does have access to Quick-Reposite but isn't that useful as he will usually be strong enough to not need it by the time you get it (which is late in the game as War-Master is a Master Class). Dorothea: Heal, physic and 1-3 range magic damage in the early game is useful. She doesn't require any special treatment if you're planning on using her as a dancer. Arguably, she's probably the best dancer option because of her high natural charm (don't have to worry about failing the dance contest/getting charm screwed) and access to the Meteor spell. She's able to equip Meteor to give an accuracy and evasion boost via supports to any of your units that enter combat in her range; it also helps with gambit damage/accuracy. She also has a boon in Black Magic which can help her hit A-Rank easier. She's fairly important in clearing maps quickly, setting up linked-attacks for boss kills, and just improving the reliability of any attack. Giving her the Thyrsus can also help with this (I don't use any combat mages so there isn't any competition for the item). A Tier: Linhart: Has warp, perfect availability, and a solid support spell list. He can also chip if you need him to. Can't really go wrong here. Manuela: She has Warp. That's enough for an A-Rank. Use her silence/ward spells to level up while other people do stuff. I suggest unlocking the magic +2 skill for slightly larger warp range, as well. Felix: I usually don't focus swords on Byleth but requirement Felix is usually worth it. You can get him fairly easily with a C or B support. He auto levels well and if recruited around C10-12 he'll be in a position to start scaling with a bit of favouritism/attention. Unlike other units, this favouritism translates into a fairly powerful unit. He also has supports with Sylvain (guard adjutant) and Ingrid (flying adjutant) that give him +1 attack per support level. Heavy Draw (+8) damage is also a decent combat art. I generally class change from Mercenary to archer then assassin then Wyvern rider or Sniper once he's gained enough skill ranks. He's among the few combat units worth using in a ground-locked class. B Tier: Ferdinand Von Aegir - team debuffer/buffer. I only use Byleth/Edelgard/Felix/Jeritiza as combat units so Ferdie doesn't get enough EXP to be combat viable. Swift-strikes is cool but requires A-Rank Lances, which sucks. I generally make him a Cavalier, give him a guard adjutant, and let him use Shatter Slash with Seal Speed to cripple select targets in the early/mid-game. This combination can make Golem/Monster-slaying really easy as well. His Crest also has a %30 chance to let him prevent a counter-attack, which is nice but never necessary. His Dex rally can help Bernie/Edel/F!Byleth reach 100% accuracy for boss kills, as well. Ingrid: She auto-levels like a beast and has generally goods stats all around. She usually has decent charm that synergizes well with her personal skill, making for a reliable offensive gambit user. She's arguably not worth training as a combat unit but she can definitely chip/finish off enemies. She has attack boosting supports with Felix and Sylvain, which can be useful. Her paralogue is also amazing as it gets you a flying B-rank battalion, the Luin (17 MT lance), and a devil weapon, along with some other less important items. This is one of the few paralogues worth doing. Jeritiza: By the time you get him you should have a team situated to clear the rest of the game. He's strong and has decent skill-ranks across the board. Lysithea: Don't recruit her pre-time skip. You can recruit her in C14 and deploy her in the month of C15 onward. She's level 29 when you recruit her post-time-skip and has excellent magic (29 at base). It is worth it to use a knowledge gem and do a single auxiliary battle to quickly get her access to Warp. It doesn't matter much if she's a Gremory or Bishop, she's only useful for the X2 Warp uses. You only get to use her for the last few chapters but she's far better than she otherwise would be compared to a pre-time skip recruitment due to not needing to feed her exp, not taking up a deployment slot, or risk her getting RNG-screwed. If you don't need the extra Warper then just bench her. Shamir: Decent option to fill a slot on your team if you need it. She has the earliest access to Hunter's Volley which can be nice. C Tier: Slyvain: Not worth using on his own in my opinion but he makes an excellent guard adjutant as he auto-levels in axes. Attach him to someone who needs a guard adjutant or someone like Felix to get the most mileage out of him. His paralogue also gives a stride battalion and the LOR if you didn't recruit him before the Miklan chapter and refuse to give the LOR to Rhea. Ashe: Auto levels in axes which means that he's a good option for a guard adjutant. He is recruited via Charm/Lances which is easy enough if you're playing F!Byleth. His paralogue can be cleared quickly with preparation, it also gives a consumable item that grants +1 move. It is debatable whether it's worth doing, though. Alois: Strength/luck rally. Use him as a guard adjutant when not rallying. Annette: Is kind of a pain to recruit, but her speed/str rally is useful. Though the speed boost is seldom relevant. She can be a backup gambit user as she auto-levels in authority. Petra: She usually ends up too frail and weak to fight efficiently on Maddening, she has no strong niches to compensate for this short-coming. Hubert: Huburt is super useful even at a low level. Mire can inflict -6 DEF on an enemy from 3-range. He can deal decent chip damage in the early game, debuff, and immobilize enemies; he has an easier time doing this with range boosting items like the Thrysus. You could have 1-6 range with the Valkryie Class but that's DLC so RIP. D Tier: Leonie: She can make a decent combat unit and auto-levels well. There are simply better combat units with more useful niches/traits. Hanneman: Meh. He's a decent mage with access to Meteor which I suppose lets him function as a dancer. I haven't found a good use for him, perhaps someone has a non-meme setup for him. Lorenz: Only useful for the Thyrsus. His paralogue can easily be cleared in 1-2 turns with stride and fliers. He can do some funny things with battalion vantage if you train him as a magic unit due to most magic users having high single attack damage. E Tier: Ignatz: He has what is probably the best personal skill in the game in Hit +20. I'm trying to find some uses for him but haven't had much success. Mercedes: You don't need another long-term healer. To be fair, she is hands down the best no-nonsense healer in the game (Fortify/Physic/Heal/Restore). I always ask her to assist with missions in the early game as her ability to deal decent chip damage and heal with physic is nice. She doesn't siphon exp away from your main squad like what would be the case with offense units you might ask for mission assistance. Marianne: Mostly the same as above, just slightly worse. Raph: You don't need a bulky male fighter-type character. He's good if you're playing casually but is mostly useless in a fast play-through. Casper: Male fighter with no redeeming traits. Among the worst units in the game along with Dedue and Raph. Flayn was excluded for what I hope are obvious reasons. Feel free to disagree/offer suggestions, just keep it civil.

If there is one FE I will beat on the highest difficulty, it will be Three Houses. Currently, my end goal is to beat all paths on Maddening NG after testing things out on NG+. As for units, here are my current plans for them. It is a WIP, as the Golden Deer is the only finished faction right now. https://docs.google.com/document/d/18EAi089k46UQ6640HEUtagbH-GYWQj3EE5Np1oMzO18 I am open to revisions and advice to be put on this thread.

Teasing some code I've been working on but could someone take a look at this for me and give some feedback. I've built a stat generator in python that uses the following as input (using a fan favorite for example): Char Lysithea Class Start End Noble 1 4 Monk 5 9 Mage 10 19 Warlock 20 29 Gremory 30 45 And gives you the chart below. It factors in class change, class base stats, character and class growths. All the goodness. Obviously this doesn't reflect the items you might use (might add that later?) There are still some bugs to work out. But I'm getting there. A few questions: What level do people generally end game at in maddening? Do people generally make the min level targets for class change there? Beginner at 5 Intermediate at 10 Advanced at 20 Master at 30 Is making a tool like this available for public use something people are interested in? Notice anything off? class hp str mag dex spd lck def res cha 1 Noble 22 4 11 7 7 4 3 4 5 2 Noble 22 4 11 8 8 4 4 5 6 3 Noble 22 4 11 8 8 4 5 6 6 4 Noble 22 4 11 9 8 5 5 6 6 5 Monk 22 5 12 9 9 5 5 7 6 6 Monk 22 5 13 10 9 5 5 8 6 7 Monk 22 5 14 10 10 6 5 8 7 8 Monk 22 5 15 11 10 6 5 8 7 9 Monk 22 6 16 11 10 7 5 8 7 10 Mage 26 6 18 13 11 8 5 10 7 11 Mage 26 6 19 14 12 8 5 10 7 12 Mage 26 6 20 15 12 8 5 10 7 13 Mage 26 7 21 15 13 8 5 11 8 14 Mage 26 7 21 16 13 8 5 12 9 15 Mage 26 7 21 17 13 8 5 12 10 16 Mage 26 7 21 18 13 8 5 12 11 17 Mage 27 7 22 19 14 8 6 13 12 18 Mage 27 8 23 20 14 8 6 14 12 19 Mage 27 8 24 20 14 9 6 14 12 20 Warlock 31 9 27 21 15 10 12 19 12 21 Warlock 32 9 28 22 15 10 12 19 13 22 Warlock 32 9 29 23 15 10 12 20 13 23 Warlock 32 9 29 24 15 10 12 20 13 24 Warlock 32 9 30 25 16 10 12 20 13 25 Warlock 32 9 31 26 17 10 12 20 13 26 Warlock 33 9 32 26 18 11 12 20 13 27 Warlock 33 9 32 27 18 11 12 20 13 28 Warlock 33 9 33 28 18 11 12 20 14 29 Warlock 33 9 34 29 19 11 12 20 14 30 Gremory 34 9 36 31 19 12 13 20 16 31 Gremory 34 9 37 32 19 12 13 20 16 32 Gremory 35 9 38 32 20 12 13 20 17 33 Gremory 35 9 39 32 20 12 14 21 17 34 Gremory 35 9 40 33 20 12 14 22 17 35 Gremory 35 9 41 34 20 12 14 22 18 36 Gremory 35 9 42 35 21 13 14 22 18 37 Gremory 35 9 42 35 22 13 14 23 18 38 Gremory 36 9 43 36 22 13 14 23 19 39 Gremory 37 9 43 36 23 14 14 23 19 40 Gremory 37 9 44 36 23 14 14 23 20 41 Gremory 37 9 45 37 23 15 14 23 20 42 Gremory 37 9 46 38 24 15 14 23 20 43 Gremory 37 9 46 38 24 16 14 23 20 44 Gremory 37 9 47 38 24 16 14 23 20 45 Gremory 37 9 48 39 25 16 14 23 20 Ideally you'd run the input 100 times and generate statistics on "There's a 90% chance you'll be in this range". Honestly that's a lot closer now that the generation piece is already done. Still big thanks to all who deliver content for Serene Forest 3 Houses.

I've playing FE games for a long time now, and I've had my share of difficulties. But I've never been this screwed before. I'm on my third route, Silver Snow, and I'm in maddening mode. Everything's been tougher. I appreciate that! I thought hard mode was a tad too easy. Now I'm eating my words. It's Chapter 13: Hunting at Daybreak. The same chapter happens in Blue Lions and, I've read, Golden Deer. It seems universally loathed and for good reason. Of my Black Eagles, I used Dorothea as a dancer, Bernadetta is a sniper, and Petra is a wyvern rider. Haven't used Caspar or Ferdinand, or Seteth for that matter even though he is in this scenario. My female Byleth is an Enlightened One. I can't get past this level. I have permadeath on, and even if I let everyone die I still can't make it through. I'm trying to lower the difficulty. I know it won't let me go back up after the round, but honestly I don't care about that. It says I'm not allowed to change the difficulty at this time. Is there somewhere else I can change the difficulty? Like if I retreat can I press something to open settings? There is no setup in this level. Have I just lost like 50 hours to be trapped forever?