Characters hard to play (Excluded Lord)

[drattakbowser]

- Difficulty : All

- No NG+

- No paid DLC

[Etrurian emperor]

I always found Ingrid rather hard due to having so little strength. 

[Anathaco]

Admittedly I don't know how to edit polls, or even if you can, but might I suggest not making each house mandatory? I ended up having to choose Lysithea just because I don't think anyone from GD is hard to use or not worth using. Also maybe include the church characters as well, if possible.

Anyway I picked Ashe, Ingrid and Caspar- Ashe doesn't have anything special going for him, Ingrid always gets strength screwed for me, and Caspar just starts with poor stats- he doesn't really shine until he gets to Grappler/War Master.

[Punished Dayni]

Alright, so who have I had the hardest time using?

With BE, Caspar is kinda rough, but I've been still well able to use him, Bernadetta can also be a bit troublesome to use and Dorothea's offence can be also tough for me to get over. I feel like I have an issue with something for all the BE, but I think I'll say Caspar as Bernie has those combat arts while Dorothea has good magic options.

In the BL, Ashe starts kinda slow but WLwith a bow is worth the investment imo, Dedue's still perfectly useble despite disappearing for a few maps and I just keep getting Ingrids that do a great job. However, my experience with Annette was that her offences weren't as strong as I wanted and they just slowed her down enough to sometimes stop doubles and her magic was also disappointing.

As for GD, while I absolutely screwed my Hilda over by making her an armour in my first playthrough, Ignatz's offences could be better and Lorenz's speed has always bogged me down, Raphael always just has the worst growths for me. And it's a shame too, he'd be more fun to work with otherwise.

[haarhaarhaar]

Ashe has unfortunately always disappointed me. Valkyrie Annette worked well, but I have a feeling that might be the class - in general Annette hasn't been great for me. I've also had bad luck with Cyril, but I'm hoping that this run, with a greater focus on bows, will change that. 

[lenticular]

I ended up changing my answers multiple times, as I tried to decide exactly how to interpret the question. I ended up going with those characters that I feel are hardest to reach their full potential on. There are some characters who are relatively weak, but who are fairly straightforward to use, like Ashe or Raphael. They can leave me feeling they aren't contributing as much, but I don't think I've ever felt that that's because I've made mistakes in how I use them. Instead, I picked Bernadetta, Annette, and Marianne. All three of them have an interesting set of tools and no single clear optimal build. Having more tools also means they have more choices to make in battle as well. Is it better to attack or to rally? Is it safe to try to use Vengeance here or is it too risky? Stuff like that.

[Dandy Druid]

BE- I voted for Bernie. Reason being is that it's hard to try different builds with her. She only excels as a bow unit and can't really handle anything else. Although Caspar has his issues, at least I can put him on the front lines without worry.

BL- Dedue, because he goes missing for a portion of Part 2. If you're trying to get his riding up for Great Knight or trying to get him into a class he has no proficiencies for, it will be really difficult. Not having that instruction time for that long really can hurt his endgame performance.

GD- I voted for Ignatz initially, because he requires a lot of investment to be great. However, seeing Lorenz as #1 makes sense. His stats can either go physical or magical which can really screw up your build plans if you're unlucky.

[whase]

I voted none. Some characters may not fit my playstyle, but I never found any of these characters to be hard to find a use for. Only some of the church units on the church route are really hard to use. Though granted most of my runs I have used NG+ and haven't gotten far yet in maddening.

[drattakbowser]

Black Eagles :

- Bernadetta : Her passive (Useless if she get one shot)

- Dorothea : Meteor and Gambit dance (Need many unit to approch her)

Blue Lions :

- Dedue : Low speed and movement (Weak accuracy)

- Mercedes : Need to be a good position for heal

- Ingrid : No easy to play her must be a good position to attack and wait.

Golden Deer :

- Lysithea : Low range and squishy (if she don't have Thyrsus).

- Marianne : Useless and squishy battle if she only heal the party.

Edited August 3, 2020 by drattakbowser

[drattakbowser]

Caspar hard to play ? Strange. Last time in my Silver Snow i play as War Master with Dragon Claw and i have 7 MVP with him.

[Shadow Mir]

Black Eagles: Caspar. He starts with poor stats, and his poor defense means trouble if his speed can't keep up. An authority bane doesn't help either.

Blue Lions: Ashe. While everyone else in the lions has some way of standing out, he doesn't.

Golden Deer: Raphael. Poor growths in nearly all parameters ensure he needs a ton of effort to stay relevant. Also, Lorenz. He's pretty much the FE3H equivalent of a crapshoot.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Eagles: Caspar. Bad bases, bad talent list. 9+45 str and 6+45 spd compares poorly with the other physical Eagles (Petra has only 5% less str growth and way more spd, Ferdinand has 1 less str base but 2+5% more speed, everyone has more charm, etc.). Probably the one pick I don't consider debatable.

Lions: Probably Annette or Ashe. Ashe suffers from poor Str (8+35) and unlike Ingrid he isn't super-fast with flying talent/pegasus knight access to make up for it. Annette is also pretty problematic, especially on non-AM routes; her spell list is incredibly poor for a mage, which leaves her really only good at magical combat arts and rallies.

Deer: I could be argued it's any of the Deer boys (Claude excluded, obviously)... Ignatz is basically Ashe trading 1 speed for a better personal skill, Lorenz is a mage with a poor magical skillset and the worst magic stat of anyone who fancies themself a mage. Raphael ultimately got my vote because his low speed is a big problem for both offence and defence, and with DLC Balthus feels like he outclasses Raphael almost completely.

 

None of these characters is completely without merit, though; everyone in 3H is quite workable. For one thing, there's almost no such thing as a bad flier, Sniper, or Bow Knight, and even the weakest mages (i.e. Lorenz) can be built to OHKO many enemies at range 1.