Thoughts on NG Maddening from a new FE player

[tchin]

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!

[Ika Musume]

Is it true that maddening is easier if you give all of your units gauntlets and bows? I heard it's like a cheese build but it sounds weird.

[Ertrick36]

31 minutes ago, tchin said:

 

• 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.

... *Deeply inhales*  W e l c o m e   t o   H o r s e   E m b l e m .

Yeah, almost 30 years later and they still don't know how to actually balance units with high movement in this series.  They came close with Mystery of the Emblem and Thracia, but then they abandoned the notion of balancing them for whatever reason.

34 minutes ago, tchin said:

• 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.

Pacing's another issue FE has been having, though it's more recent.  Like, they mention her at times, but by and large the focus of the story seems to mostly be the war, which doesn't involve Rhea at all (apart from in Crimson Flower) - it's only after the war that you finally locate her, and at that point she's just used for a gigantic exposition dump.

37 minutes ago, tchin said:

• 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.

There are some issues with Azure Moon that people have, but I think the volume of specially animated scenes in that path and the attention to detail in Dimitri's story prove which story probably had the most effort put into it.

41 minutes ago, tchin said:

 

• 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!

Well, I don't think veterans of the series particularly struggle with Maddening, but they think it's kind of a BS difficulty.  They're not fans of enemy-turn reinforcements acting on the turn they appear, as one can't predict the reinforcements unless an ally mentions them before they arrive and after one learns about them the surprise factor is utterly ruined, so the strat for dealing with them becomes you actively preparing for their appearance instead of passively staying ready for any situation.

43 minutes ago, tchin said:

 

• 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.

Everyone has trouble with that goddamn level.  It makes no sense how the random bandit that is Pallardo is a more difficult person to fight than, I dunno, a dragon or the Emperor of Adrestia.  But such is the whims of fate, as Owain from Fire Emblem Awakening would say.

46 minutes ago, tchin said:

 

• 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.

Yeah, fuck the meta, play by your own rules.  It's no fun using purely wyvern lords and dark knights, you gotta challenge yourself at times.

48 minutes ago, tchin said:

 

• 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.

Yeah, Professor EXP is completely busted if you know how to exploit the systems in place.  There's also an exploit for leveling up characters' skill ranks with broken weapons - the idea being that you go to the highest level skirmish you have available, lead enemies to either heal tiles or heavily forested tiles, and fight them with broken weapons.  Using the broken weapon exploit, especially in conjunction with skill EXP-boosting stuff like Lysithea's personal skill (she's hilariously busted, btw, especially in NG+) or the Knowledge Gem, can get your units' skill levels to A pretty early on even without NG+ benefits.

This also works with rusted weapons, but not magic.  You can grind magic, however, you just need to have the subject of the grind set as an adjutant instead of the lead unit.  Sure, there's a chance they'll attack the enemy if they're an offensive mage instead of a healer, but every time they enter combat they'll gain Reason or Faith even if they don't actually attack the enemy.

55 minutes ago, tchin said:

 

• 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.

My recommendation for grinding is always to take the system out of the dock and put on something to watch or listen to like a video, a show, or a podcast, as you grind.  It's what I did when grinding the Fistfuls of Fish event, and it's what I do whenever I use the broken weapon exploit.

[Shadow Mir]

Welcome to the forums. If you learned about this from Smash Bros, which I think you have, you might be familiar with this phrase:

 

1 hour ago, tchin said:

I was excited to use Crusher since this is the only route you can get it (I believe?), but it was quite underwhelming.

I feel your pain, man. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a video game pulls a Gungnir on me. Since you don't know what I'm talking about in all likelihood, I'll explain; the main character in the game can use the eponymous spear after plot stuff. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as good in gameplay as the game's story tries to lead you to believe it is. I honestly think most of the Heroes' Relics are guilty of being over-hyped in story and under-delivering in gameplay, with the Crusher in particular being the worst by far. Why in the name of Anankos would I use a weapon that is not only heavy and inaccurate, but also needs its user to be in melee range???

1 hour ago, tchin said:

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.

 

17 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

... *Deeply inhales*  W e l c o m e   t o   H o r s e   E m b l e m .

Yeah, almost 30 years later and they still don't know how to actually balance units with high movement in this series.  They came close with Mystery of the Emblem and Thracia, but then they abandoned the notion of balancing them for whatever reason.

Honestly, I think mounted units aren't THAT great in 3H. Other than Bow Knight and maybe Paladin, I think horse classes are underwhelming in this game. Also, Radiant Dawn was another game where being a cavalry unit didn't automatically make you a high tier unit. If you really want to talk about a Horse Emblem game, I'd look at Genealogy of the Holy War, Binding Blade, or Path of Radiance instead.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[tchin]

3 hours ago, Ika Musume said:

Is it true that maddening is easier if you give all of your units gauntlets and bows? I heard it's like a cheese build but it sounds weird.

From my experience, bows are super useful in the early game and maybe into the mid-game depending on the unit. The reasoning is that in the early game, although your units can die pretty quickly, the enemy units don't have more advanced classes yet which have armor/defense. Because of that, you can equip a unit that you don't plan on using bows in the long run (say you are planning on using Petra as an wyvern lord or something) with a bow because their strength and/or speed can usually help them chip away at enemies without taking damage that turn. 

As for gauntlets, idk. I will say gauntlets help a lot in player phase due to their two-hit nature though.

[tchin]

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Honestly, I think mounted units aren't THAT great in 3H. Other than Bow Knight and maybe Paladin, I think horse classes are underwhelming in this game. Also, Radiant Dawn was another game where being a cavalry unit didn't automatically make you a high tier unit. If you really want to talk about a Horse Emblem game, I'd look at Genealogy of the Holy War, Binding Blade, or Path of Radiance instead.

Bow Knight and Paladin are pretty good in my opinion as well, but I was referring mainly to (and my bad for not specifying) the flying mounted units. Being able to completely ignore terrain, move 6,7,8+ tiles, and canto ability? Busted. Add on top of that an extra 10 avoidance on classes like pegasus knight, falcon knight, and wyvern lord, and you wonder how Almyra hasn't taken over Fodlan by the time this game starts.

[Shadow Mir]

12 hours ago, tchin said:

Bow Knight and Paladin are pretty good in my opinion as well, but I was referring mainly to (and my bad for not specifying) the flying mounted units. Being able to completely ignore terrain, move 6,7,8+ tiles, and canto ability? Busted. Add on top of that an extra 10 avoidance on classes like pegasus knight, falcon knight, and wyvern lord, and you wonder how Almyra hasn't taken over Fodlan by the time this game starts.

Okay, but that's what I'd consider a horse of a different color, so to speak. As an aside, Almyra uses those (specifically Wyvern Riders and Lords) more on Crimson Flower. Anyways, the real limiting factor with regards to flying units is that there are only so many good flying battalions to go around.

15 hours ago, Ika Musume said:

Is it true that maddening is easier if you give all of your units gauntlets and bows? I heard it's like a cheese build but it sounds weird.

Bows are really good early on to the point where it's likely you'll be even having characters weak in them use them from time to time, especially on Maddening, given that missing an enemy that doubles you in return is a really, really, REALLY shitty position to be in. Case in point: chapter 2 Maddening throws 14 AS Thieves (AKA, guaranteed to hit your units hard twice) at you. On top of that, they have Pass.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[leesangstar10]

Damn idk how, but you either must have gotten extremely lucky with your lvl ups. I've never seen the orange bar in any of my maddening playthroughs. 

Also try using Dimitri's battalion vantage+wrath combo. Makes him an enemy phase monster

On 4/12/2020 at 6:11 PM, tchin said:

I would say the hardest chapter for me was 13. I BARELY got out of it with only one divine pulse left.

lol dw everybody hates that chapter. I hate this chapter the most because I can't find a way where I don't turtle(moving my units very slowly like one tile per turn).

On 4/12/2020 at 6:11 PM, tchin said:

I wish there was a way to balance movement in this game.

lol me too. GBA swordmasters and heros were my favorite class when I was a newbie, but then i got better and realized how broken mounts are. Idk why but they made mounts so broken in this game with dismount. (not geneology lvl thou)

On 4/12/2020 at 6:11 PM, tchin said:

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.

Imo it is the best written route, but has the least amount of lore. It has the best character development in Dimitri and overall really compelling story. However, a lot of the lore and plot gets shafted. Ex finding rhea, anything TWSITD related. Still imo best route.

On 4/12/2020 at 7:23 PM, Ika Musume said:

Is it true that maddening is easier if you give all of your units gauntlets and bows? I heard it's like a cheese build but it sounds weird.

Bows are super useful all throughout the game. I have at least half of my units that uses bows either as their main or secondary weapon(to provide 2 range option since javalin and hand axe sucks).

gauntlets for me are only decent in early and late game and it is unit dependent. Most units in maddening don't have enough strength to do significant dmg with gauntlets. I found using combat arts spamming with other weapons to do more damage than gauntlets. I do fine it useful late game on tanky units like dedue to kill swordmaster/assassin through combat arts, since late game there are swarms of them.