Tips for no Online, no DLC, no New Game+ Maddening Classic run?

[Cysx]

1 hour ago, Xylaugheon Daily said:

See, we clearly feel differently about the investment. This was easy for me. I didn't have to sacrifice anything (the extra 30 from Hanneman could easily be made up in the two remaining weeks) and all the work was towards her endgame to begin with. Remember, she didn't see a single turn of combat. This would be even easier to achieve in the five or so forced battles prior to.

 

And I really don't understand the argument of Dark Spikes being niche. There are tons of tough units and bosses on horseback, and the spell is often times better than many other spells even against unmounted units. Having access to this spell early isn't JUST for Death Knight or other mounted enemies. Many early game one-shots are achieved using this spell. Grab it and try it out yourself. Then we can talk.

 

In regards to seminars, I'm not sure we're actually on different sides. There is certainly merit to both, and the conditions for choosing a seminar are many. It just so happened in this instance, it was definitely the best choice. Anyone who is playing on Maddening Non-NG+ is aware of how to properly exploit Exploring, and missing one day here or there, especially early on, isn't a big deal. From my second playthrough on I've achieved A Rank in Professor pre-timeskip, so this really is a non-issue. As for choosing Hanneman, it was actually really good. Two bow users and two black magic users getting 30 points, with the added bonus of getting bows on Leonie and Reason on Byleth? That's a super win in my book.

Oh I'm not saying it's hard, I'm saying there's an opportunity cost. Here, you focused exclusively on reason and forewent gaining professor levels and giving stat boosts to your troops to get a spell. That being said you're very much right that Dark spikes is really good, and I didn't mean to deny that. However, first off she won't OHKO with it until Fiendish blow anyway, and second you can get it naturally and not much later with zero focus on Lysithea. As a result, if you're getting it there, it's first and foremost to kill the DK, which is asinine. Frankly I just don't get your logic here; her being able to kill the DK in ch4 would mean nothing even if she could do it from base, it's incredibly unimportant.

Let's just look at the numbers once and for all. Lysithea needs 580 to get from her D base to B. She gets seven weekends before ch 4, meaning with a dual focus she'll get 24*7 = 168. So 412 left.
Then she gets at best 6 weeks of full tutoring if she mvped ch 1. On average, this gives her 6 * 24 * 1.65 = ~238, so since this is an average on a still questionable value, let's say 170 points are left. She gets +6 reason every time she hits an a target in combat, which can be assumed to happen about 30 times within ch 1, 2, the forces auxiliary, and 3. That's +90.
So on average she'd have 80 left normally, which can only be gotten with 2-3 seminars or getting lucky. And that's if you fed her specifically every week over other characters; that's not effortless, neither is it free, and there's pretty much nothing optimal about it. Then if you single goal her sure it'll work, but you hurt yourself long term.

I'm not convinced people know how to exploit exploring all that well actually, there's a massive amount of variables to consider. And there's no denying the simple act of giving your entire team +1 spd in the first chapters is extremely valuable. As for archers, they want C first and foremost, which doesn't require seminars to be reached in a timely fashion, and you're still sacrificing opportunities to feed them and thus tutoring, meaning in the end it's not a flat gain. Individually it's even a loss, though of course you can't tutor as many people at that point. Additionally if you were trying to recruit someone, you've pretty much pushed them back a month, when early Annette or Mercedes can make a big difference.
The only other who wants those seminars is Lorenz, because he's the only character in the game to get Ragnarok at B. But just like Lysithea with Dark spikes, he won't OHKO with it at that point.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Cysx

[Cor Leonis]

Speaking of exploiting Explore... Can I save my extra Tournament Bait for the next Fistsful of Fish event? Or does it become unusable after the quest is over? Gotta min-max my Professor Rank (even though I'm already about to reach B+ as early as Chapter 6).

[Cysx]

10 minutes ago, Cor Leonis said:

Speaking of exploiting Explore... Can I save my extra Tournament Bait for the next Fistsful of Fish event? Or does it become unusable after the quest is over? Gotta min-max my Professor Rank (even though I'm already about to reach B+ as early as Chapter 6).

It's lost, but fishing with it doesn't give exp anyway, afaik.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Cysx

[AxelVDP]

3 minutes ago, Cysx said:

It's lost, but fishing with it doesn't give exp anyway, afaik.

it actually does, but you need rng to give you non-tournament fishes, which is not super common, and iirc you can get only average fishes that give you max 20 points each

soooooooo not really the most efficient and fun thing

[Cysx]

8 minutes ago, AxelVDP said:

it actually does, but you need rng to give you non-tournament fishes, which is not super common, and iirc you can get only average fishes that give you max 20 points each

soooooooo not really the most efficient and fun thing

Woops, my bad then. Can't remember that ever happening to me.

[Cor Leonis]

Hey, any free Professor EXP is welcome. That extra 1000 or so points can go a long way.

[AxelVDP]

2 minutes ago, Cor Leonis said:

Hey, any free Professor EXP is welcome. That extra 1000 or so points can go a long way.

You'd have to constantly soft reset for non tournament fishes, and their spawn rate is not exactly high. I'd really not consider that worthwhile, especially considering that I'm pretty sure (don't quote me on that) that you'd reach professor level A+ on the same timeframe anyway.

Without soft resetting I guess you'd average around 300 professor points

Sure, if you have lots of patience go for it, tho I personally would not recommend it

[Silly]

The medium shadows have a good chance of spawning a non-tournament fish. The other shadows have 0 chance as far as I can tell.

[Okigen]

- In early game it's worth focusing on only a few characters so their stats are high enough to take some hits and do some damage. By middle of part 1 you should try to level up the remaining properly though, for chapter 13.

- I'm not sure if the sacred boosters (released alongside the Maddening update) are free for everyone. If they are, then those are your life saver in early chapters.

- Tempest Lance is your friend.  

- If you play BL then Dedue and Annette are your early game saviours.

[DefyingFates]

14 minutes ago, Okigen said:

I'm not sure if the sacred boosters (released alongside the Maddening update) are free for everyone.

They're part of the paid DLC, I'm afraid!

[Okigen]

15 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

They're part of the paid DLC, I'm afraid!

What a shame! That +3 speed really helps. I wonder if there is a recipe for Speed Carrot somewhere. I can only guess it's something with Root Vegetables, because it's a carrot lol

Edited October 2, 2019 by Okigen

[Johnzin]

Tips for Maddening Mode. I just finished BL NG and so only one perspective in a sense. And easiest early game with the best physical tank and strong units like felix and Dimitri. But for general tips.

Tip for GD, BL and SS. Train your lords/setheth and Byleth hard pre time skip and equipment with strong weapons (killer+/brave) because theyll need it to save the other students.

1. Early Game is difficult, you will be  needing a lot of iron bow shots. You will need lots of chip damage to kill enemies. You do not want a counter attack. Even a mage should carry one just in case, chipping away at a Peg knight or running out of spells suck.

2. Check enemy skills, some have pass (thief/assassin), vantage (snipers), and poison strike ( archer/sniper). This chips away on EP too fast. Even with a tank, they will lose HP faster than you would think. 

3. Plan ahead early for weapon ranks. Exp is very limited. If you know youre making someone a wyvern, plan from day one with goals/task and tutoring. 

4. Know what skills are important to have. death blow, vantage, fiendish blow, darting blow. Even S rank crit +10 is obtainable if you plan well. Plan those 5 slots from day 1.

5. Use money wisely, I find it better to burn your money to make the game easier by combat arting all the time.No one is getting bday flowers. Even in your own house. that is combat art money

6. Its okay to replace units for better ones, think ahead and thatll help out. I didnt train 2 of my units from my house and it helped my other units level wise. Ashe was dropped and annette was used only as a rally bot/gambit bot for 1turns. This helps out knowing who to tutor in the early game with the low professor ranks

7.  Optimize your months. In months of 4 weekends, 3 individual lessons. always explore the first 3 and do you paralogues on the last weekend before the mission chapter. Feed your students and when you have left over, faculty instruction. Then if you have left over points, tourney for money. This is oddly useful end game with that 10 activity points. I got 100k worth of gold since I knew what my weapon ranks were going to end at. Made bank and forged all my weapons and bought enough supplies for that

8. Look up the guide for farming the best stat boosters and tea times. You want that free charm stats for byleth. and i guess whoever youre talking to. 

9. Pre time skip Ch12?, equip all your back up units with weapons that need repair. And your ones youre using in that chapter. Repaired all my levin swords. Killer +, every weapon in my inventory was repaired. They cant be broken, just used,

The game gets a lot easier later, knowing to just turtle around the map. And you can still 1turn a lot of the maps with a warp/dance/flyer/stride/smite/reposition. I had my byleth pure sword with S+, A+ riding (never needed the +1 mov when turtling so was a waste), A authority and C white magic. His extra heals can help out last few chapters when you have some turns hes not trying to attack or tank.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Johnzin

[Elephantus]

41 minutes ago, Okigen said:

What a shame! That +3 speed really helps. I wonder if there is a recipe for Speed Carrot somewhere. I can only guess it's something with Root Vegetables, because it's a carrot lol

There is, actually.

You can get them either from Nordsalat Seeds or Pale-Blue Flower Seeds. More seeds and/or better cultivation increases the chance you'll get one, but it's possible with just a single seed and no cultivation.

According to the guide, the best recipe is probably 5x Nordsalat Seeds with Pegasus Blessings.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Elephantus

[eclipse]

6 hours ago, Johnzin said:

9. Pre time skip Ch12?, equip all your back up units with weapons that need repair. And your ones youre using in that chapter. Repaired all my levin swords. Killer +, every weapon in my inventory was repaired. They cant be broken, just used,

This also works for legendary weapons, too (unless it's changed on Maddening).  Managed to squeeze some extra uses out of Lance of Ruin this way.

IIRC, inventory carries over, so distribute all the good stuff before finishing the last school chapter.

[Cor Leonis]

Just tested my Tournament Bait idea. It's not worth it. You can only catch one non-tournament fish, and it only gives 10 EXP. They're also rare enough soft-resetting is pretty much out of the question. That said, you're still given 50 free bait, and you might as well just use it and hope for the best. I ended up getting an extra 180 EXP by the end. Nothing terribly game-changing, but it may nudge me into a higher Professor Rank down the line.

[Ivan Tridelan]

Tip for Felix's Paralogue: Keeping Rodrigue and the civilians alive is a huge pain, so I waited until Dorothea was a Warlock (Black Tomefaire + Black Uses x2) with Meteor and then just double-Meteor'd the Assassin boss in the top left to 1-turn the map. Lysithea Warping a Stride (and possibly Rally)-boosted Flier is also possible.

[Cor Leonis]

Ah... Those 180 extra points from the Tournament Bait ended up mattering a lot. It allowed me just enough wiggle room to pump out an A rank Professor Level right at the beginning of Chapter 8. A+ is definitely out of the question until the fishing grind next chapter, so I can finally stop focusing on Explore and hit up all these Paralogues.

I'm surprised how fair and relatively balanced everything has been on a fresh Maddening run. Lorenz's and Sylvain's Paralogues were tight but nothing unreasonable, and I managed to knock them out on my first tries as soon as they unlocked. Sometimes I feel like my stat ups from leveling have been subpar, but all my in-house (Golden Deer) units have been continuing to pull their weight despite it all. I've yet to truly hit a brick wall, and I haven't even touched my stat boosters yet (aside from some Speed Carrots to meet some key Attack Speed thresholds). They'll probably just rot in the Convoy until timeskip, honestly. The +1 Spd boost from cooking Bullheads every Explore session is really all I need to carry the team.

Edited October 4, 2019 by Cor Leonis