What Units get better with NG+?

[CyberNinja]

So some units have their stats in weird places, terrible or awkward growths, and just bad bases for the classes they're meant to specialize in. Sme of these units could be fixed if they just- Yep, go figure, they suck at training that skill too.

So you spend the entire game raising that skill to get them in the class that'll fix their stats or make them half useful and now the game is over. So on NG+ you've got this nice pool of renown to buy those skills right back, let's say you've work yourself up quite the stockpile and are willing to spend.

What (crappy) units improve drastically when you buy up the skills to certify them in classes they'd never realistically get in normal play but would fix their bases, growths, or just make them useful?

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

Manuela comes to mind. Mostly because she has a nice Reason spell list with Bolting.

Hilda’s a somewhat similar case but better, as she has Thoron instead of Manuela’s Bolaganone. But WL is still the best way to go.

[timon]

Not for skills or certifications, but I think Felix and Hilda improve quite a lot (despite being already useful units) because you can buy back enough Authority to give them an actual battallion instead of dumping half your training into a weakness. That's especially true for Hilda since most of the time she'll be in the sky.

[Flere210]

Those that unlock quick riposte

[Stroud]

Manuela profits yeah, I think her growth implies that she could also work as a Wyvern Lord with her even Str/Mag. At least I just want to play around with it and not have her stuck as a mage. 

Caspar also has Authority disadvantage so he might profit from it.

Also all those who are bad with Authority or Riding and Flying. Especially Dedue can be turned into a Horse or Wyvern more quickly. And he has enough damage output with the right skills that his lacking speed does not hurt too much. Welp, but his exclusivity to BL is a shame for BL. 

Its a shame that Brawl is so limited. Annette with Aura Gloves would be pretty neat. But Mages cannot have it and Rider/Flyer also not what a shame.

Dorothy would also improve a little even if she is solid, because she has Riding Bane and could be made more easier into a Dark knight. 

Bernadetta has Axe Bane, which could be really helpful for her, I actually think she might be interesting with Vengeance. Also she has easier access to classes which can fix her lacking Str growth a bit.

[TrueNoble]

Oh, i can think of a few.~ In a game with such an excellent New Game+ feature, I think it's valuable to take note of special cases like these.

Raphael has the worst start of all the main Brawlers imo, but scales better than them all by a mile as an HP and Luck stacked juggernaut, with access to multiple self-heals through the brawler class rewards alongside his trait, further bolstered by an equipped Goddess Ring. On top of this, there's Quick Riposte to mitigate his enemy phase doubling issues. He's the most zero-to-hero of all the units, in my experience; going from barely surviving enemy phases at the start...to cleanly solo killing the end boss of Golden Deer. From the moment I saw his trait I knew it would be like that, despite what anyone else had said on his potential, and it really do be like that.

Lorenz with an early Life Taker and Fiendish Blow. The former for sustain as a front line caster, the latter for one-shotting on player phase to reliably get those heals.

Ferdinand with any combination of Armored Blow and Renewal, even Warding Blow later. This isn't to say he's inherently weak or starts out bad, as he is in fact one of my favorite most dependable units across all playthroughs, but he is admittedly slightly weaker pre-Prayer/Goddess ring, and pre-armored unit certifications for the bonus defense, and these skills can help with that on New Game+. Like Raphael, his trait is something to grow into it throughout an entire playthrough, but unlike Raphael he generally has an easier time doubling common enemies, and with Armored Blow and Warding Blow he can take less, at many times 0 damage from the counterattack if it lands, to better preserve his HP all throughout the run.

Darting Blow on Flayn, to help with her miserable starting Speed, works well with the added range of Caduceus.

Desperation on Bernidetta, to remove some of the risk from her high risk, high reward playstyle whether she's an archer, cavalier, or mage. Side note: do give her an Iron Shield so she can get hit when you need her to be in order to activate her trait, but not take much damage and still double most enemies despite the added weight.

Reranking flying on Ashe up to C, as it's quite useful to have him as a flier in conjunction with his lock picking, when needed. I like to certify him as a Bow Knight and Wyvern Lord on the same run to switch between, as I find there are definitely some maps where one is clearly a better choice than the other when taking Ashe's subpar bulk into account, and both options still have good enough mobility to run around and unlock doors + chests.

Theorycrafting now, for when I redo Blue Lions:

Life Taker on Felix, since he has no trouble killing things but lacks in survivability as the game progresses, especially if you opt to not give him a battalion.

Reranking Authority on Annette, to gain access to all the Rally skills (including Rally Movement!), I'm thinking of equipping all the rallies to buff like Felix or Dimitri with a Horseslayer to land the finishing blow Death Knight on his first appearance, after the usual Gambit spam damage chip. Otherwise, she has very limited use in this fight.

Speeding up Manuela's ransition into a FalcoKnight, probably pretty good with a Levin Sword.

 

And lastly, one that caught me by surprise:

Fierce Iron Fists (Grappler special combat skill) on Caspar actually helped me on the Remire Village encounter with the Death Knight, Hard Mode. He soloed it, albeit with his Dorothea adjutant coming in clutch to land the finishing chip of damage. xD Caspar's trait makes it easier to hit enemies even on top of forest tiles, and If any of those hits had crit it would have been clean.

 

[Technoweirdo]

Gonna echo that Raphael and Dedue would be insane if they get Quick Riposte early via NG+.
Hard to think of any other characters that could get so much from just one skill. Flayn maybe, but she can't be a War Master. >.>

Things like Darting/Fiendish/Death Blow and Vantage + Wrath are nice too, but they're not as nice.

[kremelover]

Aegis for low resistance characters and pavise for low defense characters.

[kremelover]

On 8/31/2019 at 3:51 PM, Stroud said:

Manuela profits yeah, I think her growth implies that she could also work as a Wyvern Lord with her even Str/Mag. At least I just want to play around with it and not have her stuck as a mage. 

Caspar also has Authority disadvantage so he might profit from it.

Also all those who are bad with Authority or Riding and Flying. Especially Dedue can be turned into a Horse or Wyvern more quickly. And he has enough damage output with the right skills that his lacking speed does not hurt too much. Welp, but his exclusivity to BL is a shame for BL. 

Its a shame that Brawl is so limited. Annette with Aura Gloves would be pretty neat. But Mages cannot have it and Rider/Flyer also not what a shame.

Dorothy would also improve a little even if she is solid, because she has Riding Bane and could be made more easier into a Dark knight. 

Bernadetta has Axe Bane, which could be really helpful for her, I actually think she might be interesting with Vengeance. Also she has easier access to classes which can fix her lacking Str growth a bit.

Annette with aura knuckles may suck, but I think Felix could pull it off nicely with mage>dark bishop>mortal savant!

[CyberNinja]

Started grinding out axes on Berrnie, she's one of my highness strength units now and an absolute crit monster. That said her strength only started to come online after warrior growths so on another new game I could have her go Pegasus knight until I unlock advance classes, stick her into warrior to force her strength to 18 and get those nice growths and finish her off as a bow knight when I feel her stat line is sufficient. Somehow I lucked out on caspar and he's decent this time around, that said I didn't do anything special for him, just standard warrior war master path. Units certainly benefit from crest items and relics from other classes, Ferdinand is really rocking the lance of ruin.

[Ivan Tridelan]

Literally anybody who lacks in Strength and Defense. How? Grind/Tutor them in C Axes/D Heavy Armor, maybe B/B if you're crazy like me and give them Armor Knight right off the bat. The extra Strength and Defense are HUGE for characters like Bernadetta, Ashe, Dorothea, Lysithea and Marianne. If you went B/B, Fortress Knight's base in each is 17! Even Armor Knight's are 9/13, a hefty boost at a mere level 10.

Beyond that, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned C bows for Close Counter, letting bow ranks be trained in combat without being almost strictly player phase.

Death Blow right off the bat for all them physical attackers, especially the ones who struggle in strength.

Flayn because she joins late, with weakness in Riding and mediocre bases and skill ranks.

[Stroud]

14 hours ago, kremelover said:

Annette with aura knuckles may suck, but I think Felix could pull it off nicely with mage>dark bishop>mortal savant!

Now that I look at it again. Felix has at least 30 Mag growth, while its not big he could make use of it with some luck and Aura Knuckle is just an alternative anyway.. And he learns Mystic Blow which he probably does not need anyway in NG+. But Mystic blow is one skill which really made me wonder why only Byleth and Felix learn it. Stil hope for a DLC class which at least makes some kind of use with female Brawlers..

[Tombstone88]

The units that come to mind off the top of my head are:

 

Caspar: Caspar's two biggest weaknesses are his low bases and his weakness in authority.  You can just buy his Authority in NG+ and you can buy his Heavy Armor skill to hit Armor/Fortress Knight while training him manually as a Wyvern Lord or Warmaster.  Buying Death Blow and Quick Riposte can also help him early on.

Annette: Annette's biggest hurdle is her early game.  Buy Fiendish Blow and Darting Blow for extra damage/AS and she's basically golden.  NG+ also carries over battalions, which, if you've done Crimson Flower, means you can give her Supreme Armored Co. for a boost to both physical and magical prowess.

Dedue/Raphael: Both have the same issues; buying Quick Riposte is very helpful, as is buying ranks in Flying/Riding to mitigate the grind.

Manuela: Grinding out her Reason is a slog; NG+ lets you completely bypass this major weakness.

Hilda/Felix: Authority weakness is a pain; NG+ fixes that pain.

[IzzyFresh]

Everyone becomes broken when you give them Blow  and Quick Riposte. Those two skills allow every male character to avoid getting doubled on Enemy Phase, and have a strong Player Phase. Raphael probably benefits the most from this, but anyone better than him benefits too.

Going through a grinding playthrough where you give every one those skills would not be a bad idea to prepare for Infernal Mode.