Golden Deer student builds

[Altrosa]

I’m having the hardest time getting going on the GD story from how confused the starter builds and bonus stats for the house’s cast is. Any suggestions on final classes to start aiming everyone for right away? (Including Byleth, of course.)

The only units I’m set on are Claude being his lord job and Lysithea becoming a Gremory, but both are basically slammed into those jobs. 

I’ve used Dark Knight Lorenz in my BL run, and Dancer Marianne in BE. 

 

But then it gets wacky. Would Leonie function best as your main horse unit, or make her a peg knight and keep Lorenz on a horse since Lysithea will outclass him anyway. Or, make Marianne a cav/peg knight and have Flayn play heals. Ignatz a healer or sniper? Do I need an fortress or can Raph just punch stuff forever? Would Cyril have use around Claude. 

Blue Lion students and Black Eagles had such obvious roles, lol. 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Altrosa

[Gamer76252]

Characters are super flexible, so if you want to do other things feel free to, but here is what I'll be doing.

Claude: Gets a personal class that's really good.

Hilda: Wyvern Lord

Lorenz: Dark Knight

Raphael: War Master

Ignatz: Bow Knight, but Dancer can work depending on who/how much/if you plan on recruiting

Lysithea/Marianne: Gremory

Leonie: Bow Knight

[Anathaco]

For my current Golden Deer run, I've basically had everyone in their most "canon" classes (like Gremory Lysithea, DK Lorenz, etc) with a couple exceptions.

Those were:

Cyril: I really like the War Master class, and I figured he wouldn't see much use as a wyvern, thanks to Claude basically filling the niche of a flying archer. So I decided to try Cyril as a WM instead. Honestly, it worked out really well- his insane dexterity means that he'll be getting a crapton of crits, especially as a War Master, with their passive Crit +20. He's also insanely fast, so he can quad pretty much anything with gauntlets, and his strength, while average, is more than enough to one-round things (even on enemy phase) once he starts critting.

My build for him was:

Axe Prowess Lvl 5

Gauntlet Prowess Lvl 5

Death Blow (he's basically ready to take a brigand exam as soon as you get him, and with gauntlets, this skill is a no-brainer)

Quick Riposte (he masters it anyway, and it helps against those pesky Assassins/Swordmasters running around with attack speeds way too high for the rest of your units. Having it negate enemy follow-ups as well was a pretty bad balance decision, but I'm not complaining)

Alert Stance + (I had to go out of my way to get his flying rank to A+ for this, but I think it was worth it- he only had to get axes/brawling to A otherwise, and it was a nice little side objective. It also boosted his enemy phase from "eh, it's probably not a good idea to leave him in range of so many guys.", to "Mwahaha! I just pressed the "wait" button! You guys are so screwed now!".)

Hilda: I just wanted a Falcon Knight. That didn't really work out for me though, she got completely strength, speed and defense screwed, so she barely made it to promotion thanks to Adjutant status, before she languished forever on the bench. Honestly, I don't know why I keep trying to use pegasus knights. They always get screwed for me one way or another. Moral of the story? Stick to Wyvern Lord, kids.

Raphael: The big boy himself. Thanks to Cyril being my War Master, and me really, really, REALLY not wanting a fortress knight, I decided to bite the bullet and make him a Wyvern Lord. His stat spread is different enough to Claude's that I felt it was a fair enough class-change. Turns out, the end result of that little experiment is a Fortress Knight with way more mobility, who gets hard-carried by WL's speed base, growth, and modifier, to the point where he can actually avoid doubles or even double some enemies of his own. Not to mention his strength becomes so high that he can even one-shot a lot of enemies with a Combat Art, or sometimes even without. Tl;dr; he's awesome. Seriously one of my best units right about now, along with Cyril, Byleth, Claude, and Lorenz. Just keep him away from mages, of course. 

Anyway, my build:

Axe Prowess Lvl 5

Lance Prowess Lvl 3 (I completely forgot Wyvern Lords needed a C in lances for their exam, so I kinda got started on his lance rank a little late)

Death Blow (seriously, this skill is so good)

Alert Stance + (he learned this naturally, even earlier than Cyril did, probably because he was actually in a flying class to gain experience towards this skill. Anyway, its not like he'll ever be the greatest dodgetank, but the extra 30 avoid, plus the fact that most enemies deal less than 8 damage to him anyway, means that physical units are going to have a really bad day against this beast of a man)

 

So, yeah, those are my bits of advice. Not sure about Ignatz and Leonie, because they kinda got benched really early on. Like, "as soon as I recruited Ashe and Felix" early on. If I kept using her, Leonie would have mad a great Bow Knight IMO, and Ignatz probably would have just stuck to Assassin or something.

 

[singularity]

Hilda’s best bet is being a Wyvern Lord. Leonie is fine as a Bow Knight. Marianne can be either Bishop if you want to stick her as a healer, or Gremory/Dark Knight if you want offensive capabilities as well(Holy Knight is for when you don’t plan to train her Reason, which has a pretty decent set in my opinion). Try making Hilda a Brigand and Marianne a Mage during class progression for Death Blow and Fiendish Blow respectively as well.

Ignatz can go Assassin, or Dancer if you find him underwhelming. Raph can be a gauntlet-toting War Master. Lorenz can go either Dark Knight or Paladin due to his mixed status.

[Crysta]

My current team is Byleth/Claude/Hilda/Cyril Wyvern brigade, Leonie is a Bow Knight, Raphael is a Warmaster, Marianne is my Dancer, Lysithea somehow failed her Gremory exam at 83% but she nukes everything anyway so whatever, and Lorenz is a Dark Knight. 

Currently I don't know what to do with Ignatz lol. He might make a good Assassin.

All my wyverns have Death Blow and Byleth and Hilda also have Darting Blow, but that's... probably overkill.

GD is OP af

Edited September 10, 2019 by Crysta

[Reality]

I went something like

Byleth - Assasin

Claude - Barbarossa

Lysithea - Gremory

Lorenz - Dancer

Marriane - Bishop

Hilda - Wyvern

Leonie - Wyvern

Raphael - Started War Master and then changed to Fortress Knight for a change of Pace

Ignatz - Benched, would have gone bow knight, but I took shamir to get 4 supports out of the way.

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Reality
forgot a char

[iavasechui]

In my second deer run Hilda is currently a magic beast with bolting she erases enemies from across the map and has the gall to say I put her on the frontlines XD Just decided to make everyone different Lorenz is a beast of a paladin who took a stint in warrior for death blow and Ignatz is currently trying to pick up lifetaker (Lorenz already has it thanks to new game +) Leonie is a wyvern lord Claude is currently a hero. Marianne is currently a falcon knight with her magic sword though her strength has gotten good enough that she almost use physical weapons on non mages XD since Lorenz isn’t using it atm Lysithea is borrowing his relic (he’s training his axe for that glouster axe) I only recruited Ashe of the non faculty because of how he rejoins in deer. I don’t Remember everyone else atm

[Shadow Mir]

Personally, my plans are:

Byleth: Personal class

Claude: Personal class

Hilda: Falcon Knight

Raphael: Bench (he's just terrible to the point I recommend benching him and recruiting someone from another house to use instead)

Leonie: Bow or Falcon Knight

Marianne: Gremory

Lysithea: Gregory

I am undecided as to Ignatz and Lorenz.

[Garlyle]

Here's what I had first:

• Byleth - Enlightened One (he was ahead of the class for a long time)
• Claude - Barbarossa (this class is just excellent for him)
• Hilda - Wyvern Master
• Raphael - Great Knight (I might try War Master instead)
• Leonie - Bow Knight (Paladin route)
• Ignatz - Bow Knight (Sniper route, let him stick with bows)
• Lysithea - Gremory (this is a no brainer, like she is)
• Marianne - Dancer (otherwise turn her into a healer. She can also make it into a Holy Knight)
• Lorenz - Dark Knight (I had the most issues with him)

[Shoblongoo]

I'm trying out Mortal Savant on Ignatz.

His damage output isn't the greatest, and being able to mix-and-match between magic attacks on high def targets + physical attacks on high res seems like it might help him out

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Shoblongoo

[Jakkun]

Claude:

Spoiler

Fighter > Brigand > Sniper > Wyvern Master > Barbarossa

Claude's unique since he gets the best class in the game for absolutely free. Unlike other Wyverns, he doesn't need to invest in flying or Lances (which he's bad at) at all to reach his desired end class. I think it's a good idea to train axes on him early for a little bit so he can get up to Brigand, and train him in Riding on the side for the majority of part 1. The end goal there being the Movement +1 skill. It's a very unorthodox class line, but it'll serve you well in the long run.

Hilda:

Spoiler

Fighter/Soldier > Brigand/Pegasus > Wyvern > Wyvern

Hilda's a very simple girl, and she only really wants two things. She wants a wyvern, and she wants lots of damage. Soldier is an alternative for beginner since Repo is the king of movement assist skills. Pegasus is an alternative for those who are confident in Hilda's combat without Death Blow and want their flier early.

Lorenz:

Spoiler

Monk > Mage/Cavalier > Paladin > Dark Knight

Dark Knight is one of my favorite classes in this game but the class progression is so akward it's not even funny. If you want Lorenz to keep using magic after Lv. 10 you have to saddle him with 4 move when he could have 7 by that point in the game, at least you get rewarded with Fiendish Blow. By Lv. 20 you want him as a Paladin because 4 move is just unacceptable at that point. 

Leonie:

Spoiler

Soldier/Fighter > Cavalier/Brigand > Paladin > Bow Knight

Unlike a lot of other characters, Leonie isn't fazed by Cav's garbage growths at all, and can make the most use out of the class. She can also try to pull a Claude make a detour for Death Blow, but make sure to get her on that horse by Lv. 20 at the latest.

Big Raph:

Spoiler

Fighter > Brigand > Grappler/Wyvern > War Master/Wyvern

Raph fits perfectly into the War Master lineup, of course grabbing Death Blow is a given so do that. Raph is also good at armor so you can tutor him in that (please for the love of Sothis don't make him a Fortress Knight) to grab Smite which is always great. However, Raph is good at axes and not bad at Lances or flying so I'm contractually obligated by the LTC Master race to recommend Wyvern.

Ignatz:

Spoiler

Fighter > Brigand > Sniper/Assassin > Bow Knight

Ignatz' main problem is damage. If you want to use this boy in the long term, Death Blow is essential to making sure he can actually kill things. Thanks to his personal skill, he has no real need to go Archer at Lv. 10, so he should get into Brigand as soon as you can make him one.

Marianne:

Spoiler

Monk > Mage > Bishop > Dark Knight

Soldier > Cavalier > Dancer

Depression girl is your healbot of choice, make sure to teach her Reason so she can get into DK. She's also one of the best dancer candidates, and if you plan on making her one, go all in on her Riding skill so she can get Movement +1 sooner.

Lysithea:

Spoiler

Monk > Mage > Warlock > Gremory/Dark Knight

Unlike a lot of other characters, Lysithea can get both of her best classes at roughly the same time, and just alternate between them depending on what the map calls for.

Gremory for warp utility, DK for combat. Not much else to say on her, aside from prioritizing her Faith first so she can get Warp sooner.

 

[daisy jane]

Claude:
fighter into archer into assassin into sniper [into his Wyvern Master/Barborosa final class]. 
(focus on flying from the get go and swords (as he gets a sword compatible w/his crest and it's A rank). I did dip into Mercenary to help him w/his strength (sword gains) and get him vantage. his dex is high enough he almost always crits - or triggers the elusive "lethality." I mastered Archer (for the hit20) and assassin (lethality). you don't need Lethality -

 

Leonie
I've had Leonie as a Bow Knight. (solider through cav through paladin through bow knight) - and she doesn't get speed screwed like everyone else. in this class. which works
but. the last few playthroughs, i've just been team flight. You could give her a bow - and have her be a Falcon Knight (you lose the range, but still). but this time I was really intrigued to see how she'd be as a full fleged Pegasus knight sans the bow. Answer: aa Terror. Great speed (already) better strength (than Ingrid - sitll get Ingrid). so she can punch through armours better. Ingrid is for the mages. (get the cav for dex 4 though so it still triggers her crits a lot). 

 

Lorenz
Bench.  like honestly - if you are Female Byleth - get Sylvain if you want a Dark Knight. he's stronger, faster, and he can do it better. (heck get Linhardt. he's SLOWER but can take more hits than Lorenz can). (to be fair. if you want you can make him into a great knight. his res should be good enough to take tanks  from magic and hits from other units but hes slow. the only reason why you even bother w/him is to get Thrysus for Lysithea). 


Lysithea
just train in magic. get her lance/riding up so she can be mobile. I've almost always had her for gremory (double warp) but i'd rather the horsey movement and have 1 warp (+ i always use Lindhardt so that's 2 warps. yes i know if she was gremory I'd have 3. 😉

Marianne
This girl can do much. and do it very well. I've had her as a holy knight for 2 maps, hated it and made her a gremory. much better. 
I've made her into a Mortal Savant. amazing
I've had her as a dancer. amazing. 
Marianne is one of the better utility mages imo. She's fast so she misses a lot of hits she's got sky-high res, so she can tank a lot of hits, she's got great dex, so she crits with most of her hits, and if you make her go through mercenary (vantage) she gets a TOUCH more strength so IF she needs to use a weapon close up (ie. levin sword). she can take a chunk out of you doing so. i mostly have her bounce around mage/priest whatever (remember that white magic gives you res + luck. while dark magic gives you mag and ... something else i forgot. but i bounce around growths). 

(Playthrough #6 i'm going to use her as a Falcon Knight. - to see if she's basically Ingrid 2.0 even though this removes Silence which comes in helpful). 

Ignatz

little bean can ... do whatever. 
he can be a Mortal Savant.. He can be a Sniper. (he could be a Dancer if you got his charm high enough). I always get Bernadetta and I've started using Shamir (a lot) so Ignatz has become bench food for the most part. (but having someone w/hit20 early is helpful. and I think hit20 stacks so even far away  w/accuracy ring, Ignatz is making shots that most other archers are going to miss. (he goes through the fighter through archer/assassin line for the spd + dex, mercenary (vantage per usual (for me), and if your really getting strength screwed get the axes up for death blow )

HILDA! HILDA

If you are anti flight. Warrior. (but take a little time to ger her bow prof up so she can have some growths in thief/assassin - to up her spd and dex) - i've never done this she's mostly always been good if i had her right away - Golden Deer (obv not a worry) and I purchased her A support to cultivate her on my BL path. don't even bother getting her if you are BE. you get her too late, and the oath is too short to really do anything if her ivs aren't to snuff. I take a bit of time to upgrade her budding talent in heavy armour (for seal speed), - because as a Wyvern (Mastery). for anyone she doesn't OHKO - they are reduced in speed and defense the next turn, leaving them WIDE OPEN. 

I sometimes give her pegasus duty (just to get the flying up) - but also for darting blow so she has "swift sparrow" on the player phase, (and again sealing def/spd if she doesn't OHKO) - and then perfectly safe on the enemy face. I had her learn solider (for repo).

 

Raphel
Bench. (or you know.Fighter through Brigand through Warrior to Warmaster). but I find Caspar is much better than he is. 

[singularity]

Personally, I’m not really a fan of turning Marianne into a Dancer unless you already have another healer recruited. Sure, she’s one of the few characters that doesn’t really get hindered by being one(in fact she benefits from being a Dancer for the Sword Avoid skill, even though dodgetanking is still up to RNG’s whim), but you end up sacrificing part of her healing and offensive potential for dancing, and I’d rather not give up a versatile unit like her(and if you didn’t use Mercedes/Linhardt, your only healer) to be relegated on that role.

Though it’s nice to have a Dancer who can actually fend off on their own, it’s still a support unit on its core, which shouldn’t really be engaging or being engaged against enemies on the first place.

[IzzyFresh]

Claude : Barbarossa

Raphael: Wyvern Lord

Hilda: Wyvern Lord

Lorenz: Dark Knight

Ignatz: Dancer / Bow Knight

Lysithea: Dark Knight

Marianne: Holy Knight / Bishop / Dancer

Byleth: Falcon Knight

Leonie: Bow Knight

 

These are their best classes, and I don't think there is much debate on it. Ignatz is likely the best dancer, but his low charm can make him lose the White Heron Cup, so make sure to drink tea with him to raise his charm. If it's too late make him a Bow Knight and make Marianne a dancer.

[Wuzzy]

Claude - Fighter -> Brigand/Archer -> Wyvern Rider/Sniper -> Wyvern Master -> Barbarossa

Hilda - Fighter -> Brigand/Pegasus Knight -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord

Lorenz - Monk -> Mage -> Warlock -> Dark Knight

Lysithea - Monk -> Mage -> Warlock -> Gremory/Dark Knight

Marianne - Monk -> Mage/Priest -> Bishop/Warlock/Dancer -> Gremory/Dark Knight

Ignatz - Monk/Fighter -> Mage/Brigand/Archer -> Dancer/Sniper/Assassin -> Bow Knight

Raphael - Fighter -> Brigand -> Wyvern Rider/Grappler -> Wyvern Lord/Warmaster

Leonie - Solider/Fighter -> Cavalier/Archer/Brigand -> Paladin/Sniper -> Bow Knight

Spoiler

• Claude - Brigand is mainly for Death Blow but, I never found Claude to have Str issues and his high Speed ensures he's going to be double almost every enemy (except Assassins and Swordmasters usually but, no one is really going to double them anyways) as the game progresses. Archer is better suited for a stronger unit early on due to +1 Bow Range at the expense of a weaker class mastery skill for Claude (Wyvern Master/Barbarossa does not have increased range so the +20 hit doesn't matter much to Claude). Wyvern Rider with a Bow focus is also nice for the added utility of a mount, while Sniper is generally a lot easier for Claude to attain (since Claude doesn't really need to focus on Flight honestly).
• Hilda - Best suited as a Wyvern Lord overall. Other skills to pick up on her would be Weight -3 (attained by C rank Armor which reduces the weight of heavy weapons such as axes which effectively gives her more pseudo-speed). Brigand and Pegasus Knight are both good options but like Claude, she doesn't really have Str issues so I prefer making her as speedy as possible with Darting Blow. Also the early flying utility on Hilda is very helpful early on.
• Lorenz - Paladin is a bad class for him because he doesn't have access to Swift Strikes and he'll be slow af (base Speed growth is 40%, as a Cavalier/Paladin it drops to 30%). Important skill to get is Fiendish Blow as a Mage, other than that all of his talents point him towards a Dark Knight. Important skills he should have is +1 Black Magic Range (S rank Reason) and +1 Movement (A+ Riding)
• Lysithea - Gremory is the best way to go for extra Warp uses but, Dark Knight is also another option if you don't really care for Warp and want the mobility. With Mastermind, it's easy for Lysithea to pick up the +1 Movement skill (A+ Riding) since she'll be able to level up her Reason/Faith ranks quicker in combat, and +1 Dark Magic Range (S rank Reason, effectively gives her +5 bonus range with Thrysus staff). If you plan on going the Gremory route, try to get her Faith rank to B asap for Warp and then focus on her Reason/Riding (Riding if you choose to do so).
• Marianne - Personally find her to be one of the best Dancers in the game but, if you make her a Dancer you probably want to use another dedicated healer such as Mercedes or Flayn. Anyways to start off, Holy Knight is a terrible class because White Tomefaire sucks (Aura is an ok spell but, it's heavy af, only has 3 uses, and is Marianne's only good offensive Faith spell). As a Dancer, she wants the March Ring, Boots (ideally), and the +1 Movement skill (she has a boon in Riding which will make getting to it easier). She also wants B rank Authority as a Dancer to use the secret Opera Dancer Battalion lategame which is basically an AOE Dancer Gambit. I personally like making all my healers Mages > Priests just for Fiendish Blow but, Priest makes it easier to go the Bishop route. Dark Knight and Gremory are 2 easy choices for Marianne to obtain since she has a pretty decent Reason pool so she can go fully offensive if you want. Skills you want on Dark Knight/Gremory will be +1 Black Magic Range and +1 Movement. Keep her as a Bishop if you want a dedicated healer, extra mobility from Holy Knight is cool and all but it isn't necessary with how large Physic's range is.
• Ignatz - Pretty mediocre Archer compared to Leonie/Claude who have better Str but, Ignatz's niche as an Archer is his hitrate (Leonie will have hit issues in Part 2 without the +20 hit skill) and high Dex. Death Blow is pretty much a must for me since Ignatz has really low Str but, Archer gives a smoother/easier transition to Sniper. He can go Assassin and rely on Lethality (procs on Dex, which Ignatz has a lot of) or Sniper and then move into Bow Knight. Ignatz has a decent ish spell pool with access to Physic and Cutting Gale (plus a budding talent in Reason), as well as the important Rally Speed (and a boon in Authority for the Opera Dancers Battalion) which allow him to go Dancer as well to allow Marianne to go into a different class. B rank Authority also lets him become a Stride bot with Gautier Knights (obtained in Sylvain's Paralogue) which also gives him +7 attack at Level 5.
• Raphael - Wyvern Lord's high base Speed fixes Raphael's Speed issue sort of by boosting it to 20 Speed and gives him a mount. Warmaster is another option with a Knuckles focus since it allows Raphael to double/quad during the player phase and is a lot easier to reach. Not much else other than that, he's pretty mediocre overall but can definitely still put in work. As a Wyvern Lord, Raphael definitely wants the Weight -3 skill since Axes are heavy but if possible, you can go all the way to A+ Armor to unlock Weight -5 to help alleviate Raphael's Speed issues. 
• Leonie - One of the best Bow Knights in the game overall. She can afford to go the Cavalier -> Bow Knight route due to her high Speed growth, and going this route definitely can improve her Str stat in the long run. Archer -> Bow Knight is also nice for the +20 hit skill since the further the target is away the lower the hit rate they'll be. You can go the Brigand route for Death Blow but, I prefer just making her a Cavalier to get her more Str that way (also like Claude, she doubles almost everything and can take them out as long as she has a decent Str stat) and it gives her a mount early on (plus gives her combat exp for her Riding rank).

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Lunarly

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

• Hilda: wyvern lord, warrior
• Marianne: bishop, holy knight, dark knight, dancer
• Lorenz: dark knight
• Raphael: war masterl, great knight
• Leonie: bow knight, paladin
• Lysithea: gremory
• Ignatz: assassine

[Shadow Mir]

59 minutes ago, Lunarly said:

• Lysithea - Gremory is the best way to go for extra Warp uses but, Dark Knight is also another option if you don't really care for Warp. With Mastermind, it's easy for Lysithea to pick up the +1 Movement skill (A+ Riding) as a Gremory for even more utility and +1 Dark Magic Range (S rank Reason, effectively gives her +5 bonus range with Thrysus staff). If you plan on going the Gremory route, try to get her Faith rank to B asap for Warp and then focus on her Reason/Riding (Riding if you choose to do so).

Doesn't Mastermind only apply for skill experience gained through battle? That means that it won't help with Riding unless you make her a relevant class (Cavalier or Paladin).

59 minutes ago, Lunarly said:

• Ignatz - Pretty mediocre Archer compared to Leonie/Claude who have better Str but, Ignatz's niche as an Archer is his hitrate (Leonie will have hit issues in Part 2 without the +20 hit skill) and high Dex. Death Blow is pretty much a must for me since Ignatz has really low Str but, Archer gives a smoother/easier transition to Sniper. He can go Assassin and rely on Lethality (procs on Dex, which Ignatz has a lot of) or Sniper and then move into Bow Knight. Ignatz has a decent ish spell pool with access to Physic and Cutting Gale (plus a budding talent in Reason), as well as the important Rally Speed (and a boon in Authority for the Opera Dancers Battalion) which allow him to go Dancer as well to allow Marianne to go into a different class. 

I don't see the point of recommending Lethality when the activation rate is so low you'd be better off running something else in that slot...

Edited September 10, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[daisy jane]

1 hour ago, singularity said:

Personally, I’m not really a fan of turning Marianne into a Dancer unless you already have another healer recruited. Sure, she’s one of the few characters that doesn’t really get hindered by being one(in fact she benefits from being a Dancer for the Sword Avoid skill, even though dodgetanking is still up to RNG’s whim), but you end up sacrificing part of her healing and offensive potential for dancing, and I’d rather not give up a versatile unit like her(and if you didn’t use Mercedes/Linhardt, your only healer) to be relegated on that role.

Though it’s nice to have a Dancer who can actually fend off on their own, it’s still a support unit on its core, which shouldn’t really be engaging or being engaged against enemies on the first place.

 

that is true. if marianne is your only healer, then you shouldn't make her a dancer. (OR. i mean. you could - I usually run Linhardt and Mercedes on most of my teams - because i build all three of them to destroy stuff). I think for me - just because they are "support" doesn't mean they can't also take and dish out a few hits.  I haven't found my Marianne lacking in healing or dancing it just depends on the situation. (But then i am always team offfensive healer and offensive dancer)

17 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Doesn't Mastermind only apply for skill experience gained through battle? That means that it won't help with Riding unless you make her a relevant class (Cavalier or Paladin).

I don't see the point of recommending Lethality when the activation rate is so low you'd be better off running something else in that slot...

you can usually cheese out the dark knight exam if you get her high enough in Magic and I do beieve you only need lance at C. so for me, I just trained both magics to B (until she got warp), changed to lances, and always tutored her in horseback riding. once i got the knowledge stone, i strapped her on someone's back, (equipped with a lance) and she easily got the C in lances where i didn't need her (usually in battle quests or rare monster drops). poof. instant.

yaeh. when someone's minor crest of whatever triggers more than lethality it's really poop. Claude and felix do trigger it rather often (more because i think they end up having sky high dex anyway). 

[Wuzzy]

42 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Doesn't Mastermind only apply for skill experience gained through battle? That means that it won't help with Riding unless you make her a relevant class (Cavalier or Paladin).

I don't see the point of recommending Lethality when the activation rate is so low you'd be better off running something else in that slot...

yeah it was bad wording on my part, I meant that with Mastermind Lysithea will be able to get combat experience on Reason/Faith to get them to a high rank quicker so she can focus on just Riding. Also I agree Lethality is pretty bad but, it's still an option at least if players want it if players want Ignatz to stay as an Assassin fsr.

Personally went for Brigand -> Assassin (then Bow Knight later on) for more move and it worked out ok, still think going Brigand -> Sniper is the best for the range.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Lunarly

[dragontamer]

Ignatz is Rally Speed on a stick, with eventually Rally Str (for +4 Speed/ +4 Str). That's pretty much the only defining attribute of the character.

 

I haven't figured out the optimal strategy yet. But I'm thinking Cavalier, Paladin, then maybe Bow Knight. The main issue is that Ignatz doesn't gain any Exp from Rally, so you need to feed him kills to actually level up. Bows should get there safely, but Archer / Snipers have low movement. I think Cavalier / Paladin / Bow Knight will give him the movement he needs to Rally effectively, but its mostly theorycraft from me still.

Edited September 10, 2019 by dragontamer

[timon]

I have to say the GD characters all "scream" for a class tbh, the only one who stand out as a bit harder to fit in are Ignatz and Raphael. I did do some weird stuff though, since GD was my 4th run and I could play around with NG+ stack.

Bow Knight and Wyvern Lord are definitely the better options there, but I do like to go Great Knight on Raph since he wishes to be a knight, and there are always too many wyverns (even more in GD).

Also Marianne is geared towards HolyKnight and I prefer her there for "flavour", but do go DK if you want a better unit, there's basically no advantage on HK.

On any Bow Knight, but especially so on Leonie, don't go cavalier, archer is FAR better for her. It doesn't screw up her unbelievable speed and gives her hit+20 which comes in clutch when you go to Bow Knight and obliterate people on the other side of the map. Lorenz makes for a better Cavalier, as he's already a balanced unit that doesn't stand out for anything else.

Though I actually ran him as a Dark Mage for the fun, and had Raphael as a Cavalier. btw I do recommend that a lot, not sure how doable it is without NG+ by level 10, but Cav!Raphael works like a Wyvern Rider before wyverns, incredibly tanky and with great Mov. Only lacks in speed, but he takes no (physical) damage anyways so whatever. Obviously you have to drop Gauntlets, but who cares about gauntlets.

Oh, and I had Hilda as a Mage>Dancer to try out that Bolting. Yeah, don't do it lol. Bolting is fun to see, but she has no Mag whatsoever, she still hit harder with a Hand Axe than with Thunder.

Edited September 10, 2019 by timon

[daisy jane]

48 minutes ago, timon said:

Oh, and I had Hilda as a Mage>Dancer to try out that Bolting. Yeah, don't do it lol. Bolting is fun to see, but she has no Mag whatsoever, she still hit harder with a Hand Axe than with Thunder.

LOL yeup. i've taken many a unit out with a simple hand axe + w/HIlda. 

[Altrosa]

So what I’m getting is half the Golden Deer kids are OPAF in multiple classes, while the others are better off warming the bench for recruits from the rival houses. No wonder I couldn’t get a good feel on them verses the other classes. 

Anyone try Marianne as a cav or peg knight? 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Altrosa

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Altrosa said:

So what I’m getting is half the Golden Deer kids are OPAF in multiple classes, while the others are better off warming the bench for recruits from the rival houses. No wonder I couldn’t get a good feel on them verses the other classes. 

Sounds about right. I can rely on Claude and the girls to pull their weight. Not so much for the other boys, especially Raphael, who is about as good as Little Mac's recovery (which is to say, he really sucks).

[IzzyFresh]

2 hours ago, Altrosa said:

So what I’m getting is half the Golden Deer kids are OPAF in multiple classes, while the others are better off warming the bench for recruits from the rival houses. No wonder I couldn’t get a good feel on them verses the other classes. 

Anyone try Marianne as a cav or peg knight? 

She is really bad as a Peg Knight. Lack of a magic lance on the Golden Deer Route really hurts.