Should I train up all my physical units to get death blow (Maddening)?

[Mister Sunshine Sprinkles]

I'm at chapter 5 of Blue Lions: Maddening. Byleth, Dimitri and Ingrid had their axe ranks neglected, while my other physical units were well on their way to becoming brigands. My logic with Dimitri was that his axe weakness would make that route hard, but thinking back it would have been really easy to just bring him up to d+. That I might have made a mistake with optimizing my units is giving me conniptions, and it is tempting me to tank 9 hours of progress to start over and do it right. 

Should I restart from the beginning to give all my physical units axe ranks, so they can get death blow from Brigand? 

[Xylaugheon Daily]

It is certainly helpful, but it isn't going to make or break you. Is this NG or +? Regardless, using instruction to get to D+ is easy, and then if you want, abuse an auxiliary battle or two.

[Mister Sunshine Sprinkles]

New game.

would i have enough time before the timeskip to max out brigand and then another intermediate class for byleth, ingrid and dimitri? they all have e ranks in axes by chapter 5, and i'm already doing the milkan battle. 

[Jakkun]

Ingrid (as well as any physical leaning girl you recruit) should go into Pegasus instead, as Darting Blow can be considered just as good if not better than Death Blow, especially with how important speed is on Maddening. Ingrid's relic also gives her extra damage based on her speed so Darting Blow is doubly useful for her.

Dimitri is so swole that he doesn't even need death blow to do what he does. Actually, there's an enemy phase build with his battalion skills that more or less OHKO's everything. He probably wants to go Cav at Lv. 10. Just level Riding and Authority on him and he should be very self-sufficient.

Dedue and Felix should go Brigand, though Felix also makes a decent archer if you want to go that route. Sylvain can go with Brigand or Cav.

[Shadow Mir]

I would say no. As @Xylaugheon Daily said earlier, it helps, but it's not worth going out of your way for.

[PPPPPPP270]

It's certainly worth making several people brigands for death blow but just remember, the combat usefulness of brigand compared to pegasus knight, archer, and cavalier are inferior.

Not everyone needs death blow but it makes the late game a lot easier. It's possible master 2 classes before going advanced tier if you save some of those battle quests later then just use a knowledge gem and have them solo the map. Though depending on what other class you want to master, it could make going into your intended advanced class harder. Like if you made your bow units go brigand, they might struggle reaching sniper by level 20 unless you decide to forgo +20 hit.

Edited November 27, 2019 by PPPPPPP270

[Kiran_]

I personally got Death Blow for almost every physical character on my run through's. And any girl I could, I got Darting Blow. It definitely made the game easier, cause a lot of my damage was literally *just* enough to kill enemies on player phase.

But I also planned it out from the beginning. If you're only on C5, you should have time, but Dimitri doesn't necessarily need it. His Str growths are already great, but in Maddening it might help. My Byleth needed it, and Ingrid definitely does for her poor damage output. 

 

[Basileus777]

It's not worth it for units with a malus in axe skill growth. Even getting them to D+ takes too long for it to be worth the investment. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by Basileus777

[IonicAmalgam]

I spent 240 hours unlocking all the blows, vantage, quick riposte, flying S, and many other things in my first playthrough. Death Blow (as well as most of the blow abilities) aren't worth it since there usually are higher priority abilities.

Edited November 11, 2019 by IonicAmalgam

[De Geso]

Death Blow is about as good as it gets for a class mastery skill but it isn't like it's a requirement to clear the game or anything.

[Crysta]

Don't bother.

Byleth and Dimitri do plenty of damage without it, even on Maddening.

Ingrid is more iffy, but you could probably settle for Darting Blow.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Crysta

[Fire Flower]

10 hours ago, Crysta said:

Don't bother.

Byleth and Dimitri do plenty of damage without it, even on Maddening.

Ingrid is more iffy, but you could probably settle for Darting Blow.

I'd say on Byleth it's worth it still. Dimitri is definitely more questionable to get since axe deficiency, but Byleth can get it just fine and there's not many better options to take for skills anyway.

At least that's the case for male Byleth. On female Byleth, I'd attempt to get pegasus instead for darting blow first.

[boozebender]

Good for NG+, bad for NG

Axes have such a low hit rate that you won't want to risk a miss in maddening. and grind axe rank to C or to get death blow would actively hampering your capability to promote your units to a class you want.

It's very good on snipers, gauntlets/brave weapon users and those who can learn swift strike though. Bonus 12 damage on top of possible crest procs is no joke.