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Blue Lions, Maddening, NG--How do my plans look?


Marlowe
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Class Decisions  

35 members have voted

  1. 1. What should I do with Flayn and Marianne?

    • Dancer Flayn, Holy Knight Marianne
      11
    • Dark Flier Flayn, Dancer Marianne
      24
  2. 2. What should Felix do?

    • Sword/Bow hybrid
      20
    • Pure Bow
      15
  3. 3. How many people can I realistically build up?

    • 6 or fewer
      1
    • 7-10
      18
    • 10-13
      12
    • EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM
      4


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I get the impression that the devs made the holy knight to be an offensive white mage as well as a heal and run support. The idea makes sense but with nosferatu, seraphim, aura and abraxas being the only spells boosted by white tomefaire makes it difficult for it to work considering their limited uses. Granted Lysithea has 3 out of the 4 spells listed gremory is already a better option for her. And for Marianne, I know she's built for it but there are better options for her, like dancer, gremory, dark flier, valkyrie or even trickster if you want her to use swords.

Of course if you already have a physic healer as well as a silence user she could in theory try swordmaster to help her strength and speed growths but she'll struggle to inflict any serious damage unless you're RNG blessed. I would also bring up Mortal Savant as it allows her to be a hybrid attacker but the -10% speed drop though does hinder her growth. I know she's not the fastest off the bat but it is really worth it? 

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Update! Heading into the final month after a brief hiatus brought on by Xenoblade and getting back to work, I think things are pretty solid. Ingrid's been wrecking things ever since I gave her the Scythe. She's even made good siege-tome bait during the Fort Merceus battle. However. I have heard the double-battle finale for AM is full of siege tomes on Maddening. The way I see it, I mostly have two options: Dimitri and Ingrid. I'll lay out the builds and pros/cons I foresee.

Dimitri: In addition to the obvious Lance Prowess, Lance Crit+10, and Swordbreaker, I would give him Battalion Vantage/Wrath and a drained battalion to activate it, then use either the Chalice of Beginnings or the Retribution gambit from Indech Swordfighters to give him distance counter. Upsides: Between a Killer Lance+, Wrath, and the Crit+10 bonus, plus variable battalion bonuses, I'm guessing crits would be almost guaranteed, and with his monstrous attack he'll demolish everything. Downsides: This kind of pigeonholes him into EP wreckage, which means I'd have to find someone else to use the phenomenal King of Lions battalion—unless he wants its attack and crit bonuses, which means its fantastic gambit is going to be sorely underpowered without Auth Prowess, which would mean losing the Crit+10 skill, and...yeah. It might be minor, but it feels like some heavy tradeoffs.

Ingrid: Again with Lance Prowess and Swordbreaker, this time using Alert Stance+ along with Lance Crit+10 and Auth Prowess, and equipping the Scythe for high crit with the Chalice. Upsides: Doesn't sacrifice Dimitri's awesome regular usability, works pretty well with the build I'm already using for her, only making it more EP-based. Even so, she still have plenty of PP-ability with Cichol Wyvern Co Assault Troop, and could even get stronger resistance by using Galatea Peg Co (though that leaves Ashe without a great battalion, since he lacks A-rank Auth). Downsides: Typical hitrates for the siege tomes on her have been low, but not usually zero, and they hit like freight trains. Crits not as sure as with Dimitri build. Loses a tad of PP ability by ditching Darting Blow, but I might have to look and see if that's actually making a difference anyway. 

So that's the big question now. I'll give a brief rundown of the team I'm looking to take:

Byleth: EO, generally a support role with Sacred Power, Nosferatu dodge-tanking, and the Edmund Troops gambit. Not that great on offense.

Dimitri: If not the anti-siege tome build, then a standard crit-heavy build with Movement+1 to make him even more stupidly fun.

Dedue: War Master, punching or chopping. (Fun fact, his defense is lower than Dimitri's without the battalion bonuses)

Sylvain: Paladin with Swift Strikes and Stride. 'Nuff said.

Annette: Warlock with long-range magic. If I'm lucky with teaching and stuff she might even S-rank Reason and get a range buff for 4 total range (with Caduceus staff).

Mercedes: Bishop, hoping to get Bowbreaker but it's no big deal if I can't.

Ashe: Wyvern Lord with Hit+20 and Death Blow, plus Alert Stance+, Axe Prowess, and Lancebreaker—worth taking off any of these for Axe Crit+10 if he gets it?

Ingrid: Above build, but with either Lance Crit+10 or Darting Blow. Not sure which is better.

Bernadetta: Bow Knight, basically a crit-bow build with Failnaught and a couple crit boosters. Tried it out earlier and it seems to work pretty well.

Felix: Assassin with a Silver Bow+ when not using his Wo Dao or Sword of Moralta. Basically unstoppable.

Marianne: Probably bringing her as a secondary healer (as a Bishop, not a HK). Silence would be useful as well. Possible alternatives include Hapi, Catherine, or Shamir, in that order of preference.

Flayn: Dancer.

Edited by Marlowe
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15 hours ago, Marlowe said:

Ashe: Wyvern Lord with Hit+20 and Death Blow, plus Alert Stance+, Axe Prowess, and Lancebreaker—worth taking off any of these for Axe Crit+10 if he gets it?

I like to un/equip the Breaker skills situationally. Some maps, there are no lance eneies, or very few, so Lancebreaker would be worthless.

15 hours ago, Marlowe said:

Ingrid: Again with Lance Prowess and Swordbreaker, this time using Alert Stance+ along with Lance Crit+10 and Auth Prowess, and equipping the Scythe for high crit with the Chalice.

Are you able to get Defiant Avoid on her, through Falcon Knight mastery? I've found it to synergize super-well with Alert Stance+. You could probably drop Auth Prowess for it, if you're mostly using her on enemy phase.

Overall, though, these plans sound quite solid!

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16 hours ago, Marlowe said:

Ashe: Wyvern Lord with Hit+20 and Death Blow, plus Alert Stance+, Axe Prowess, and Lancebreaker—worth taking off any of these for Axe Crit+10 if he gets it?

I would say no. By the time the weapon crit abilities come into play (if they even come into play at all, that is), I'd personally have five better abilities in those slots.

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16 hours ago, Marlowe said:

Update! Heading into the final month after a brief hiatus brought on by Xenoblade and getting back to work, I think things are pretty solid. Ingrid's been wrecking things ever since I gave her the Scythe. She's even made good siege-tome bait during the Fort Merceus battle. However. I have heard the double-battle finale for AM is full of siege tomes on Maddening. The way I see it, I mostly have two options: Dimitri and Ingrid. I'll lay out the builds and pros/cons I foresee.

Dimitri: In addition to the obvious Lance Prowess, Lance Crit+10, and Swordbreaker, I would give him Battalion Vantage/Wrath and a drained battalion to activate it, then use either the Chalice of Beginnings or the Retribution gambit from Indech Swordfighters to give him distance counter. Upsides: Between a Killer Lance+, Wrath, and the Crit+10 bonus, plus variable battalion bonuses, I'm guessing crits would be almost guaranteed, and with his monstrous attack he'll demolish everything. Downsides: This kind of pigeonholes him into EP wreckage, which means I'd have to find someone else to use the phenomenal King of Lions battalion—unless he wants its attack and crit bonuses, which means its fantastic gambit is going to be sorely underpowered without Auth Prowess, which would mean losing the Crit+10 skill, and...yeah. It might be minor, but it feels like some heavy tradeoffs.

Since you mentioned doing this for the endgame maps... Dimitri can pretty much solo the endgame with this build. Like it's a little bit insane. Frankly the battalion is only there on him for the activation of vantage and wrath (plus some extra hit, avoid, and crit) so he doesn't even really need authority prowess. Warp him into the middle of everyone and watch him just destroy. If you really want to give him a boost give him a pure water in case a lucky hit gets in and you're golden.

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10 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I like to un/equip the Breaker skills situationally. Some maps, there are no lance eneies, or very few, so Lancebreaker would be worthless.

Are you able to get Defiant Avoid on her, through Falcon Knight mastery? I've found it to synergize super-well with Alert Stance+. You could probably drop Auth Prowess for it, if you're mostly using her on enemy phase.

Overall, though, these plans sound quite solid!

Thanks! I might be able to get Defiant Avoid on her instead of Swordbreaker. Most of the time Sylvain's my anti-sword unit anyway, so that's not a great loss. I do like the damage she can deal with her personal plus Auth Prowess 5. We'll see.

9 hours ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

Since you mentioned doing this for the endgame maps... Dimitri can pretty much solo the endgame with this build. Like it's a little bit insane. Frankly the battalion is only there on him for the activation of vantage and wrath (plus some extra hit, avoid, and crit) so he doesn't even really need authority prowess. Warp him into the middle of everyone and watch him just destroy. If you really want to give him a boost give him a pure water in case a lucky hit gets in and you're golden.

Yeah, I've heard that, but I feel like the tradeoff might be too great, particularly in actually getting a battalion low enough for the skills to activate. Right now he's pretty broken on both phases, so I'm not sure if it's worth losing most of PP for the sake of a hilarious EP.

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In the words of Ingrid and Dimitri: It is done!

Unfortunately I didn't get screencaps of final stats, but my final party ended up as follows, with commentary:

Byleth: I went for a more support-oriented build here, frequently relying on Nosferatanking with WM Avoid+20 and putting him just behind the front lines to make use of Sacred Power.

Dimitri: The mighty Savior King. I never needed to tap the broken Battalion Vantage/Wrath combo and he still wrecked most things. Ended up being like a pseudo-cavalier at the end, with Mov+1 giving him great reach, and Lance Crit +10 with a Killer Lance giving him crit rates regularly in the 50s. Despite his high avoid, also had pretty solid defense, on par with Dedue without statboosters.

Dedue: Speaking of! After being archer bait in the early game with the Chalice and getting slumped by his hiatus, he managed to make the comeback in time for the difficult endgame maps. Giving him the Seiros Shield made him perfect monster bait, and paired with Quick Riposte and the Duscur Heavy Soldiers meant his only vulnerabilities after a certain point were mages (one ambush siege mage at the endgame knocked him down to near single-digits). And that was without a single moment in the armor classes! Also special shoutouts for dealing the final blow, being able to tank Hegelgard's Vantage-Wrath crit without even dipping into half-HP.

Felix: What a stellar assassin he makes. Pairing Fraldarius Soldiers with a Wo Dao+ made him a crit machine for large parts of the game, and the Aegis shield gave him enough protection most of the time. He was probably the most fragile of my frontline units, tied with...

Sylvain: Once I stopped trying to make him a Great Knight, he excelled. I took a cue from enemy Paladins and gave him Weight -3, and later gave him Lance Crit+10. Even without those he was tremendously reliable with Swift Strikes, and Weight-3 helped his avoid against some enemy sword users when paired with his battalion. Mages were a problem, though, as were faster units and axes.

Mercedes: She was the best healer, of course, but she also did decently well as a fighter when pressed to it. Generally good for mopping up armors in the midgame, which frees another unit for something else.

Annette: Absolutely terrific. The Shoes of the Wind and Caduceus staff combined gave her tremendous range, and with the Macuil Evil Repelling Company she was still hitting 100% against grapplers and war masters with tomebreaker. The only flaw was that she lost some of her tremendous killing power as her speed plateaued compared to endgame enemies (like the aforementioned grapplers and war masters). But even then, her rallies sometimes made the difference between a chip and a double-attack for the kill.

Ashe: He went back and forth with being reliable and being bizarrely fragile, but after a while his avoid started picking up and he just took off. Hit+20 and Death Blow made him eminently reliable on offense, and Alert Stance+ helped the aforementioned avoiding when I occasionally didn't want Ingrid doing it.

Ingrid: She had me worried for a while, but then she pulled through. The Chalice made her the destroyer of siege mages, and Darting Blow kept her useful on offense. I gave her Defiant Avoid for the last map as a contingency in case someone hit her, but that pretty much never happened. Hell, she one-shot Myson on the first turn of endgame!

Bernadetta: After some mediocre work as a chipper, I decided to go for crits with Failnaught and a Killer Bow. She did decently well with that, as well as using Encloser to hold up particularly annoying units. Also married her.

Hapi: Yeah, I wasn't expecting to take her over Marianne, but I realized she had heal and Physic, plus superior movement, plus decent magic damage. Plus reliable drawing Hegelgard's aggro along with Dimitri for most of the endgame, which also meant she took beatings. But it was nice having a mobile healer who could deal some damage in a pinch.

Flayn: In addition to dancing, she was quite useful for Rescue on a few occasions, like saving Annette from Hegelgard one-shots in the final rush. I'd still like to try her as a Dark Flier sometime, but I'm going to be taking a break from this game.

 

So yeah. Even though a part of me wants to try Black Eagles routes with the DLC stuff like Jeritza and the new classes, I just don't have the energy for it. I'd rather work on my writing endeavors, play FTL as a relaxant from that, and maybe come back to it someday. Still, this was a lot of fun, great bonding for Dad and me, and mad bragging rights.

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