Rate the Unit-Three Houses, Day 9: Dimitri

[Benice]

Rules

- Ratings are assumed to be on Hard or Maddening Mode. Also, they should be based on when the unit is first available. (When rating a unit, please specify whether you are rating assuming Hard or Maddening.)

- Votes need some explanation regarding their gameplay performance to be counted (unless they fall into the general parameters of the average rating, but reasoning is still strongly encouraged on those even if you just wanna quote people) — incredibly low scores or high scores without proper justification will not be counted. Don't put in some random text thinking it'd count as justification. Put in at least a little thought and give REAL reasoning.

- Numbers for votes, please - not something like "Marcus/10", etc. Proper Justification will be determined by me and whoever decides to help.

+/- ≤1 point extra regarding personality/appearance is okay, but no more.

- Votes out of 10, or something proportional to it. Makes it easy to calculate, please and thank you~!

-The rating you give to a unit assumes a good build for said unit-nothing among the lines of, "Dedue is 2/10 because he's a bad mage."

-The ranking assumes no grinding of any form, no DLC and minor, (one or two stat boosters per month) use of the Greenhouse.

- Make votes easily visible, please! "[Explanation text]: So, overall, I think X unit is a 7.5/10, with a +1 bias included for being hawt/cute/funny/etc.."

- Every ranking phase ends approximately at 20:00 PST. Do the math for your timezone, please!

-We will ask you to not use the "Not X unit" reason. Because it will be used a lot. I.E, do not say "Linhardt bad because not Lysithea."

-The Black Eagles may be assessed based on their performances in either Silver Snow or Crimson Flower, other than when not applicable.

 

Scores:

Edelgard: 9.00

Petra: 8.34

Ferdinand: 7.78

Bernadetta: 7.125

Linhardt: 7.11

Dorothea: 6.375

Hubert: 5.525

Caspar: 4.32

 

Average score for Black Eagles: 6.94

 

 

Day 9: Dimitri

[Dark Holy Elf]

All the house leaders are exceptionally good. Dimitri is probably the most flawed of the three, but also has incredible upside.

The good: Well, let's start with the stats. Royal Lineage amps the already impressive numbers further, but even without considering that... 12+60% str is the best in the game (along with Edelgard), 9+55% charm trails only Edelgard, 7+40% def and 28+55% HP both trail only Dedue and Raphael... and unlike Dedue/Raphael, he actually has a good spd growth of 50%, though being male and having only 7 base prevents him from being actively good at this. This might well be the best overall stat build in the game. His talent list is a bit of a mix, but having +riding and +lance gives him easy access to mounted classes, and +authority is always great, essentially compensating for a bane elsewhere.

But of course, being a lord, he picks up some things post-timeskip that make him shine even more. First is his personal, which now grants him +20 avoid at full HP. See all the comments about dodgetank Ferdinand, Dimitri can do the same things but even better. (Dancer Dimitri is hilariously effective.) Second, his unique relic combat art, Atrocity. Unless his target has a Null Weakness ability, this lets Dimitri launch a 53-might attack, which kills almost anything in one hit. How good is this? Bernadetta or Dedue need to lose 37 HP just for their Silver Lance Vengeance to catch up, before considering Dimitri's superior strength. And Dimitri can do this at any time, with any HP. Finally, there's Battalion Vantage + Wrath. While maintaining battalion skills is a bit finnicky (you have to be careful to avoid damage which might finish the battalion off), it's hard to argue with the results: roughly 100% crit on enemy phase, with monstrous strength, allows him to finish off all but the tankiest enemies (e.g. monsters) before they can even strike him. And since he can do this with full HP (and his evade personal active), he's in far less danger than normal Vantage/Wrath builds. He also builds to it more easily, just needing A authority (which you would get for him anyway), instead of mastering two mediocre classes.

Dimitri can make a wide variety of builds work: paladin or high lord for maximal lance damage, super-str wyvern in the vein of Edelgard, battalion vantage/wrath (can stack with either of the previous), invincible dodgetank. The only consistent thing is he'll be an amazing unit regardless.

The less good: Though an outstanding unit, there are definitely some weaknesses worth noting. One is his bane in axes, which slows his path to the only male flying class. The other is the fact that he goes through a four-chapter stretch where he won't train at all, so it's extremely important you get the key parts of his build (e.g. A authority) up and running before then. And for a unit with a claim to be the best in the game, he's not super-impressive in the early stages (i.e. before level 20); in particular, a lack of pegasus knight means the best female physical units (e.g. FByleth, who also has better bases) will outclass him during that stage of the game.

That said he still has a claim to be the best unit in the game, for all that I personally think he falls just short. He's incredibly dominant post-timeskip; just as Edelgard is on CF, I think Dimitri is the unquestioned MVP for post-timeskip AM. Overall, Dimitri gets a 9.5/10.

[Sooks]

10/10, Dimitri has a serious claim to best unit in the game. His base strength of 12 with his 60% growth gives him the best strength in the game, I believe. On top of this his growth in speed is FIFTY, and his charm is 60%. Needless to say, he is a monster in battle who boats a 55% HP growth and a 40% defense growth. He also gets easy access to mounted classes with a boon in lances and a budding talent in the riding (cavalier and paladin being the obvious contenders).

He will help you out pre time skip, but like every lord he will get some new toys to play with post time skip. At full hp Dimitri’s personal now grants 20 avoid, which can make him a fairly competent dodge tank even without being in a build for one, at least in his lord class (with his boon in swords, dancer Dimitri is hilariously effective but that’s besides the point). Starting from chapter 17 he will have access to Areadbhar, his relic lance that grants him a combat art that can OHKO most enemies, and that’s serious. With his phenomenal strength he will he consistently OHKOing, and him not getting countered lends nicely to his personal ability. It is worth noting that post time skip for the first four months you cannot tutor him at all, and that is pretty detrimental so you should want to make sure you get all the abilities and stuff you want on him for those chapters learned before then, if you can. It is understandable that this would be a turn off to some people, but he is so incredibly good that this doesn’t take off his score in my mind, I have no choice hit to give him a 10/10. Two lords with 10s, can you guess what I’m going to give Claude?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Dimitri

The bad: Let's get it out of the way, (4+0.20x) is a terrible Magic stat. His Reason list is skimpy, and while Aura at A-Faith might make Holy Knight attractive, I hardly see it as worth it. As might be expected, his Res (4+0.20x) is similarly poor. Beyond Reason, his only other bane is Axes, and this hurts. Axes are probably the worst bane for a physical unit to have, with how much they unlock (12 defense Armor Knight certification, Death Blow from Brigand, the Wyvern classes). He can still achieve these things, they'll just take more work. Dimitri also suffers on the basis of sex - Pegasus and Falcon Knight would be ideal classes for him, while he's ill-suited for such male-exclusive classes as Dark Bishop and War Master. Moreover, there's the case of his perfect attendance record - by breaking it post-skip, he misses out on four months of instruction, which sabotages his skill ranks. He gets a bum steer from the start of post-skip, too, by being forced to endure Hunting by Daybreak in a 5-move infantry class. Finally, his Crest - it's a powerful one, but the backlash should not be neglected. He can lose 10 durability from one Tempest Lance - that's a full third of an Iron Lance! And if you've already secured the kill, then the Crest going off is a pure negative. 

The good: Dimitri's other stats range from average to stellar. His HP (28+0.55x), Strength (12+0.60x), and Charm (9+0.55x) are particularly standout areas. He'll have one of the, if not strictly the, highest Strength stats in your army. With Felix and Dedue, he's among the Blue Lions' premier physical performers in the earlygame. And he'll be your most likely candidate to secure one-shots (or, with a Brave weapon, 2-shots) later on. As for proficiencies, his boon in Authority is always welcome, and combines well with his high Charm to net him high-damage gambits. Swords and Lances means he has options in what he specializes in, and which classes he goes. And Riding is a Budding Talent - getting Seal Movement means little, but a Riding boon makes Paladin (and Dex+4, and Mv+1) easily accessible. While his Crest has downsides, he can use it to access the monstrously-powerful Atrocity art on the Areadbahr lance. Combine with a Brave Lance, Crescent Sickle, and Javelin on a Paladin, and you've got a mobile player-phase powerhouse, right? Well, yes, but Dimitri has the strongest enemy phase build in the game as well - get his Authority to A, and he'll combine Batallion Wrath and Batallion Vantage. Slap a weakened Batallion on him, cast Retribution (thanks, Kingdom Archers), set him on a Forest tile, and watch half the opposing army fall. He can do this with lances, but there's a case for using a sword build - they're more accurate, have higher crit, and classes like Swordmaster add an innate Sword Crit+10. Even those he doesn't kill will have a hard time touching him - his Personal skill, already a mini-Paragon, upgrades to give him +20 avoid at full HP. Curiously, combined with his high Charm, and proficiencies in Swords and Riding, this means Dimitri is hardly your worst choice to make a Dancer (dancing in the streets, enemy-phase slaughterfest in the sheets?).

The verdict:

Dimitri has clear limitations and flaws. He has no penchant for magic, and he has a harder time getting into some of the best skills and classes for a physical unit. And if you don't have your ideal build for him finished by the timeskip, you may have a very hard time getting him there afterward. But he's strong from the beginning, providing a great service throughout part I. And with proper planning and support, Dimitri has the tools to become your single strongest fighter after the timeskip. On balance, I assess Dimitri to be an 8 out of 10.

Edited October 17, 2020 by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Typo. Accidental misinformation.

[leesangstar10]

I rate him 9.5.

Pros:

Battalion wrath+vantage combo

Amazing bases str and growths. 12 str + 60%

Great base skills level: D+ lance(tempest lance) and D authority

Great bulk. 28+55% hp, 7+40% def

Works well with multiple builds: Dancer/wyvern dodge tank, Paladin/high lord. 

Gets Windsweep

Cons:

Bad at axes. Makes it really difficult for wyvern.

Can't tutor for some time post time skip. Need to rush authority A to be effected post time skip

Low spd in the beginning(base 7 tied with Dedue does have 50%spd growth to make it up later thou)

 

Has pretty glaring weaknesses, but the strengths are amazing. One of the best units

[Dayni]

It's part 9 of RATE EVERY LAST ONE OF-

*shot

Okay, I'll stop. Dimitri is an absolute beast in story, but does he really hold up?

Dimitri breaks another weapon demonstrating his skill:

Spoiler

You know what, people have the right idea with that layout for Growth+Base, so I'll join the bandwagon (who started this so I can give them credit)

Anyways, 12+60% is the best Str combo for sure, this he should always be good at. He also has a very solid 7+50% Dex and Spd, which should help with his combat in general unless you're an idiot like me and leave him in Paladin for a good while. Meanwhile his 28+55% HP and 7+40% Def should mean that he has a good physical bulk if he has to take damage and 9+55% Cha should protect him from enemy gambits throughout the game to some degree. His 5+25% Luk is a potential crapshoot with higher crit enemies, while 4+20% Mag and Res are both bad.

His strengths and weaknesses do reflect him imo. Authority strength is big for him specifically and always nice, while Swords is nice for dancers or for one of his CAs and Lances is good for him for multiple options throughout the game. His weakness in Reason isn't a problem, but Axe weakness absolutely is. It makes trying to access WL, Warrior or even Brigand a problem for him, seeing as you won't have a knowledge gem for a good portion of the game. He also gets access to a budding talent in Riding, which is nice on its own but Seal Mov is just a poor skill in the game.

His magic is nothing much. His reason list is Thunder and Thoron, which to be fair he gets Thoron at least. Meanwhile his Faith list has H + N, Recover and Aura, which is barely better than Caspar and the only reason I'd see someone using his magic is to meme on the poor man while he's a dancer.

His personal gives him the exp boost in part I and then in part II it adds a nice little effect: +20 avoid at 100% HP. This is somewhat tricky to keep unless you make a dodge build, but do that and suddenly he's avoiding getting hit and hurting foes in return. His crest on the other hand is a double-edged sword. Because it doubles attack 10% of the time in CAs, which would be nice and all if it didn't double durability uses at the same time and it's more likely to be overkill. The reason I consider the durability a problem is because Lances are a weapon type that isn't the best durability wise, especially the iron lances which you're likely to be using with Tempest Lance on him early on. Suddenly your Iron lance that could be used for an EP has shattered and Dimitri's in danger if he hasn't anyone to trade with. It's not impossible to avoid, but it is a potential mess if you miss it.

His combat arts are alright enough. He gets Monster Piercer which can be situationally useful, Glowing Ember which syncs up with his good defence, Sunder, which is Wrath Strike but more crit and Windsweep. Imo, Windsweep does not get anywhere near enough credit for what it can do. Sure it doesn't raise might by much, but the ability to prevent a foe from doubling you, the sizable hit increase and the bonus crit all add up to a CA that works really well, as I can attest with my Byleth in Maddening and Dimitri can probably work with too. His Authority skills are also sizeable and while Rally Charm at S is irrelevant and Model Leader is irrelevant unless you're out to lowturn, he gets the ultimate combo of Battalion Wrath + Vantage, meaning he can make stupid OP builds with his 20% avoid, whatever else you want to give him and a damaged battalion with crit and all with nothing too obscure.

Meanwhile he has the Areadbhar, which is a pretty good weapon, but it's not Aymr. Having 19 might, 75 Hit and 10 Crit isn't something to sneeze at, but the Lance of Ruin is even stronger and has double the crit for 10 less Hit. It does grant Dimitri Atrocity which deals effective damage against everyone, so it's actually a 30 might attack. It also adds 20 hit, which is nice and thanks to his crest if it does activate good luck to anything on the receiving end because that and the rest of his attack just doubled and what he's facing just turned into a blood fountain. Sadly his classes are both infantry (I was expecting a horse when I first played, not gonna lie), which just give Charm and Lancefaire and growths which make his attacks more reliable. Paraselene, which he can possibly get in AM, is a solid 10 might but also adds 10 avoid and Dimitri then drags his ass back afterwards, which is something you could use if your opponent's just inside a siege tome's range and he wants to kill them......

Of course, there's one big problem for Dimitri in Part II. Before you beat Gronder, he can't get supports AND he can't be raised in weapon experience outside of combat, which is a bit of an issue and hurts his potential, especially if you, say, wanted to raise a weapon he's not the best with like axes.

What do I make of him:

Spoiler

I of course did get a strong Dimitri, hitting 40, though his speed was hampered by going into Paladin, while his Def was also very good at 32 (Higher than Dedue, if you can believe it). A solid unit stat wise, he was still hampered by his limited utility/movement and me deciding to focus on his sword rank as well as lance to the exception of everything else barring Riding. I definitely think a rethink would be needed, especially when I didn't try to take advantage of his personal (though it didn't help during RaD, did it?).

Being infantry locked in Reunion at dawn meant he drove me up the wall, I shudder to think what Maddening would have done to me with this man.

I was pretty underwhelmed by a route for him where I set myself up for failure. Based on my experience with him, I would almost have said a weak 8/10, maybe 7.5. Thing is, I know he can be so much better than I had him, but I don't think enough to rate the same as Edelgard. So he gets 8.5/10.

33 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Bernadetta or Dedue need to lose 37 HP just for their Silver Lance Vengeance to catch up, before considering Dimitri's superior strength.

At least Dedue can actually make that 37 in one round of combat, exceed it and live. 😛

Bernie also technically only needs an equivalent of 32, though the Str gap is far more noticeable.

This isn't to knock Dimitri though, just I think this isn't as bad as it could be.

[Dark Holy Elf]

5 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Bernie also technically only needs an equivalent of 32, though the Str gap is far more noticeable.

Well even if you add Persecution Complex directly onto Bernadetta's str, she's still behind Dimitri there, so yeah, it's actually more than 37 in practice.

Dedue at 40+ HP from max can indeed sometimes still take physical hits (almost never magic though). But that's probably a topic for tomorrow!

[Barren]

I will comment when I get home from work on Dimitri. For me there is a lot to say about him

[SumG]

Pretty much all the lords are fantastic on lower difficulties, but a bit disappointing on Maddening.  Due to Dimitri's great base stats and good growths, he's essentially at the outset of the game as he'll be one of the few units that can consistently face enemy attacks.  His strength is monstrous.  And while his speed isn't great, it's OK.  And, like the other lords, his charm is good which is very valuable for landing gambits.

Unfortunately, there's a ton of little niggling problems with Dimitri.  He has a bane in axes, which is the worst bane to have in the game as melee fighter.  It makes it more time consuming to get into Brigand to get Death Blow, and makes it a huge fight to get into Wyvern Lord.  Because of that, Dimitri doesn't have a fantastic endgame class.  You can choose to be a Wyvern Lord, but even if you make it there you either have to commit to axes (and give up on the hope of reaching S+ efficiency for an equippable Weaponbane ability) or lances (and give up on the class based Weaponfaire ability and his Hero's Relic).  You can choose Great Lord (and be footlocked).  Or I suppose you can choose Paladin (which is a middle ground, but doesn't have good growth rates).  Honestly, the class he'd love to be in is Falcon Knight, which specializes in lances, would give a much appreciated boost to speed, and is a flier, but he's genderlocked out of it.

If you're sticking with lances to use Areadbhar, you don't get any spectacular combat arts.  His personal ability, while the same as the other lords, is largely irrelevant.  And as mentioned previous, his speed just isn't good enough for Maddening.  It's all well and good he'll be doing 40+ damage per attacks, but other units that can either double naturally or use Combat Arts to guarantee multiple attacks will end up outpacing Dimitri in damage.  He should be fast enough not to be doubled by every enemy, but he'll likely be facing a good number of them.  He would absolutely love to have access to Darting Blow, but is genderlocked out of it.  And while he's bulky enough to stand up to that a bit, he can't be left to bait out large numbers of enemies and won't be evasive enough to dodgetank.  And while it isn't a huge issue, it should be noted that Dimitri can't be tutored and can't gain support for the first few chapters of Part 2.

Despite saying all that, Dimitri's raw stats are still overall very good.  On my Maddening playthroughs I never thought Dimitri was an MVP, but I also never minded having him in my active party.  Overall, I'd give him a 8/10.  In the endgame it'd be about a half point lower, but given how he can carry the party in the early game I was willing to give him a bit of leeway.

 

Edited October 17, 2020 by SumG

[DriftingWaterBottle]

9 / 10 on Hard

The good:

• Good early game offensive and defensive potential, thanks to good Str & Def base, okay Spd and Tempest Lance at base.
• Exceptional Str and respectable SPD growth for a physical-oriented unit.
• Battalion Vantage + Wrath: strong enemy phase, especially when supported with Retribution gambit.
• Good Charm growth: good candidate for offensive gambits and less susceptible of enemy gambits.
• Proficiency in Lance, Sword and Authority, as well as budding talent in Riding: Easier access to Paladin, Mov+1, high Crit Sword & Lance and strong battalions, also a good candidate for Dancer (dancing on PP, B V-W on EP).
• Post-time skip personal ability with Avo +20 at full HP: extra survivability and easy to maintain with healing or equipment.
• Situationally useful personal Combat Arts: Atrocity for effective damage, Windsweep for safe chipping, Monster Piercer for breaking barriers.

The mixed:

• Blaiddyd crest: No penalty with relics is nice, but occasionally double attacking with Combat Arts is not reliable enough to plan around.
• Free personal battalion with a strong gambit, but automatically assigned during Chapter 13, which excludes Battalion V-W strategy for this battle.
• +3 Mt with Dedue, but limited availability after timeskip.

The not-so-good:

• Axe bane: more hassle to access Death Blow if aiming for a player phase physical build, as well as more difficult to access Wyvern.
• Unavailable to tutoring during a few chapters immediately after timeskip, thus limited customisation and even more difficult if aiming for Wyvern dodge tank build.
• Automatically in High Lord class during Chapter 13, foot-locked and no Canto, which can be limiting depending on individual play style.

Edited October 18, 2020 by DriftingWaterBottle

[Barren]

4 hours ago, Barren said:

I will comment when I get home from work on Dimitri. For me there is a lot to say about him

Now that I am able to get on my laptop. Here I go: Here is my thoughts on him on Hard and some part on Maddening I did on my own time

This may not come as a surprise to those who play Three Houses that there is always a few select characters that are simply amazing. Edelgard is one. Now we talk about the main man in the Blue Lions Dimitri. Let me start off by saying that he can be potentially one of the most broken characters in the game. This is not an attempt to oversell this fact. Dimitri has a starting Strength stat of 12 which is 1 point point El's strength stat. But it's back by a whooping 60% growth rate. Both of his speed and dex start at 7 but they both have a 50% growth. Both of which are quite acceptable. Defense is also at 7 but has an acceptable 40% growth and a 9 charm stat with a 60% growth. These qualities alone make Dimitri a power house in the making that can actually survive a hit or two on hard/maddening. Him having access to tempest lance is also a great boon off the bat. I did some testing with him on maddening for the epilogue battle, he can one shot any of the level 4 thieves on maddening. His tempest lance has a 93% hit rate and deals 20 damage. The thieves have 19 HP. Edelgard barely misses the one shot with her smash. Despite the fact that she has one point of strength higher than Dimitri, her Smash combat art deals only 18 damage. Let that sink in for a moment. His crest also adds an additional attack to combat arts is also a nice feature but nothing you can really bank on to work.

He has a boon in lances, swords, authority and a budding talent in riding. This most likely suggests that he can fit in the lord class, mercenary, thief or cavalier line classes. Now I know what you're thinking "Why even bring up the lord class? They suck!". So the lord class is underwhelming at most and their mastery is even worse. El and Claude also have access to the lord class since they have their unique classes by part 2. However the one trait that tends to get glossed over is more experience in authority. In Dimitri's class leveling up authority quicker will allow him to have earlier access to arguably one of the most broken combinations in the game: Battalion Vantage and Battalion Wrath. He learns Battalion Wrath at Authority rank C then Battalion Vantage at Authority rank A. You can learn these two as early as before the end of part 1. Battalion Vantage and Wrath both act the same as regular Vantage and Wrath except that the battalion in question needs to be at 1/3 or less of it's endurance for them to activate.
 

Note worthy battalions would something like Fraldarius Soldiers or Goneril Valkyries. Why these two? Because they both add a higher critical hit chance. Now combine these with a forged killer's lance or a forged wo dao and his naturally good dex growth, makes him a monster on enemy phase. This makes him easily one of the best enemy phase units hands down. You can even add other abilities to keep this combo in check like Defensive Tactics in case he happens to take a hit, weapon crit +10, hit +20 to ensure he'll always score a critical hit. His naturally high strength will ensure that nothing lives his attacks. After all, he wants to kill them....EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!!!!

You can further strengthen this combo with either a Retribution gambit or if you're using DLC, the Chalice of Beginnings. His post time skip ability is also worth noting as he'll have 20 avoid as long as he is at full health. This makes him a potentially hard to kill character when you avoid stack him. Not to mention that when he gets the Arendbhar, Atrocity does major damage to all kinds of foes, making sure that nothing resists it.

His list of combat arts are also worth noting as well. On the sword side, he gets Windsweep, this allows him to get a free hit without any retaliation and this also allows him to safely soften up someone that happens to survive. Sunder is another combat art that you can use for a critical hit chance if you happen to train him in swords. Monster Piercer is occasionally useful in monster battles but nothing special beyond that. He also has access to Glowing Ember. That CA does more damage pending on his defense stat. A trait that he isn't exactly know and it ain't no swift strikes. But it's passable.

His budding talent in riding would grant him seal movement, an ability that feels like a wasted slot as it only decreases the enemy's movement by 1. Encloser this ain't. Though that said, turning riding into a boon would easily make him a Paladin. A class that while will give him some nice stat growths all around, will hinder his speed growth by 10%. So his speed will take a hit but in exchange he'll gain 8 move. He can also keep lancefaire but will have access to canto. Dimitri's Great Lord class is better than El's Emperor Class, but that's due to having a better move stat and growth as a whole. It's serviceable but there are other options he can take.

Dimitri can also fulfill a sword role for the party if need be, swordmaster or assassin are okay choices for him since both of them will offer something different for him to take advantage of. Swordmaster offers him Swordfaire, Sword Crit + 10 which would compliment the BV and BW combo. Assassin gives him 6 move, swordfaire and stealth. Allowing him to also move through bushes and thickets easily is also nice to have as well. Dimitri can also make good use of other classes like thief for more speed and dex, mercenary for a slightly higher strength and speed growth in addition to vantage. The lord class for faster authority level ups. He can even go down the archer route if you want for him to get Hit +20, in case you think he'll need a higher hit rate. His neutrality in bows makes it encouraging for the player to level up his bow rank for him to gain Curved Shot. His high strength growth will really make it hurt for something that is meant to be chip damage.

His bane in reason is non problematic but his bane in axes is a huge blow for him. No high octane physical attacker wants axes as their bane. This means that he'll have a hard time leveling up his axe rank. Granted it's not the end of the world for him as if you want him to be a player phase attacking machine, Death Blow is invaluable for him. Make him hit even harder than he already does. Optimally you want him to be a Wyvern Lord for going down the axe route, but he won't be able to access a flying class until level 20 where he'll first be a Wyvern Rider. But even if you make it that far, chapter 13 (THE ONE FIGHT THAT WILL GO DOWN INFAMINY), he'll be forced to be a High Lord. So for one chapter battle he'll be forced to be foot locked. Now if you think it's worth to have him muscle through his axe bane go for it. Wyvern Lord makes his growths rate absolutely insane. Another interesting option for him is Bow Knight. His own growths alone are really good. So him being a Bow Knight can just allow him to fire from further away and still have canto. Dancer is a funny option for him as sword avoid +20 will combo well with his personal ability upgraded but you lose your power house. You can bring sword avoid to one of his sword classes but then you lose your dancer.

Now my final thoughts overall, he is easily a 9.5/10 character. I rate him higher than El because Raging Storm, while amazingly strong, you can only spam it as long as you have Agarthium to spare. And that doesn't last forever. Whereas BV and BW you can easily manipulate your battalion's endurance and you can take measures to make sure almost nothing can touch Dimitri. His bane in axes hurt, but it could be a nice sign of restraint on the devs part to not go overboard with him. Dimitri is an amazing unit that can go any physical class you want. Just avoid the magic or hybrid unit. He would have been a perfect 10 if he didn't have an axe bane and the BV and BW could still go bust if not planned out right but alas. One last thing to mention to: due to story line reasons, he'll skip out on tutoring for the first half of part 2 so it's crucial to train him as early as possible then make up for lack of tutoring for the rest of the campaign.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Barren

[LoneStar]

Wow this guy. So he has pretty high base strength and the highest strength growth in the game. He has a weakness in Axes so getting into Brigand and potentially Wyvern takes more time, but he doesn't really need Death Blow honestly. I haven't played Hard mode in a while, but he probably destroys stuff there just fine. In early game Maddening he's great because he comes with Tempest Lance, so that is a great nuke. Chapter 13 is kind of rough for him. On Hard mode you can steal an Evasion Ring from Claude, and give him Swordbreaker, so he can passively beat everything on that map especially since he won't get doubled often or poison striked. On Maddening it's more RNG, but at least his personal battalion has a great range. Once you get over that hurdle you will have a unit that can consistently one round things even without specific investment. His high strength makes him a great brave weapon user and he can also exploit the Vantage/Wrath combo since he gets both battalion versions of this skill. Literally just give him Retribution, equip a Killer Lance, and he solos maps. His personal skill post time skip gives him evasion, so he can work as a dodge tank, or just not need to be healed too often.

Other good things are his combat arts. He gets Windsweep so that can let you safely chip something. Glowing Ember gets stronger than Tempest Lance so that's a thing. Then there is Atrocity from Areadbhar, and this thing is just a delete button effective against everything; Umbral Steel isn't even hard to farm.

He can can be a decent cavalier. Tempest Lance nuke frailer enemies then canto out of there. He has decent enough bulk to tank hits and retaliate with good damage ensuring that anyone of your other units can finish the enemy of the next turn. Something that I haven't tried is using his budding talent with Bow Knight. It's not Encloser, reducing the enemy's movement to one, but it can be useful to kite. Otherwise Bow Knight on him is probably decent, his high strength with Brave Bow should one round stuff.

As I mentioned before his personal skill grants him extra evasion, so with Sword Avoid from dancer he can become a pretty crazy dodge tank, and Sword Dance coming off of his high Charm is probably a decent nuke.

A major downside to him is that you temporarily lose the ability to unlock supports and tutor him for half of part 2, so you will have to put a lot of focus on what you want him to have in part 1. On my Maddening run I was just a few points short of getting A rank authority on him and though I would just gain those ranks in the next chapter, but when the time skip came the game recent all of the authority experience back to base B+, so that was annoying.

My Rating: 9.5/10. +0.1 for that immersive experience on my first play through with Chasing Daybreak, and his cute Marianne supports. 9.6/10

[Dandy Druid]

I feel like he shouldn't have a higher rating than Edel, mainly because of the 4 chapters where you can't tutor him can be detrimental if you're aiming for Wyvern Lord. I'm probably overestimating this, but it's a problem not many other characters have. He also can't raise support, which isn't a big issue in the long run but still an issue. I also like that Edel has access to Aymr, which is one of the best weapons in the game.

Is he strong? Yes. Does he have a lot of great things going for him? Yes. Is he a low maintenance unit? Yes. Does he have one of the best battalions in the game? Also yes. But I simply can't rank him higher than Edel, so 8.5.

 

[Anathaco]

10/10

Crap I might be late for this one, but uhhh.

Anyway, Dimitri's not perfect, but honestly he's close enough that I feel I can give him this and say that I gave a 10 to somebody

Not much to say that hasn't already been said, people have been quite comprehensive with this one. Only thing I'd add is that how big a flaw his axe bane is depends on the class you want him to end in- you can stick with Paladin or even Great Lord and that axe bane is only ever a problem when you want Death Blow- but even then its more an inconvenience than anything else.

So yeah, I think Dimitri is great.

[Glennstavos]

Dimitri's got the best stat growth's in the game. 60/50 Str/spd is top of the line, 55 charm, 55 HP, and 40 defense as well. Dude gets bulky. His level 1 performance may be even better than Byleth due to naturally having Tempest Lance on top of those base stats. Can't speak from experience, but if his first level up includes speed, I think he's in the clear for avoiding doubles from early game thieves while still sticking with lances. But yeah the real X factor is having exclusive access to both battalion vantage and wrath. Units who possess the latter already have an insane edge over units who do not, but being able to walk into a battle as an enemy phase powerhouse without needing to take damage first is a lot of fun to at least just try for a chapter or two.

Not being able to tutor Dimitri in post time skip maps hurts his late game scaling. You'll have to choose early on what skill ranks you want and why. His combat arts are definitely the weakest of the House Lords. Windsweep is amazing but I don't think you can justify all that skill exp getting swords to A. Hell, I'm not sure even Byleth can justify that, and he has access to faculty training and hundreds of activity points that won't be doing anything else important. The tutoring is better spent on axes instead for Death Blow and maybe even Wrath. I've heard from people annoyed about Dimitri in his personal class for Chapter 13. And while I agree it's an underwhelming class in a vacuum, if you haven't gotten him Wyvern rider, Fortress Knight, or Grappler I can't imagine anything better for that map anyway. It's very enclosed with mostly grass terrain so even paladins wouldn't move any further than the High Lord until you're past the toughest part of the map.

I give him a 9.0, and I'm of the opinion he has to be the second best unit in the game (Either version of Byleth is #1)The axe weakness and lack of tutoring for a quarter of the game really hurts his ability to get into good classes. I haven't played Blue Lions on Maddening, or Hard for that matter, but I imagine if I did, I'd make Dimitri a War Master. With that base strength gauntlets should be outperforming other weapons almost immediately, while keeping his AS as high as it can go. I just can't imagine any other class comparing in combat viability. Wyvern's another option, but he has so much more trouble becoming one than other units. And I'd only make somebody a paladin if they had swift strikes.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Glennstavos

[L3xandr3]

Ah, Dimitri! Possibly the single strongest unit in the game. (I assume I can still get my opinion in, seeing as this topic was opened 12 hours ago)

     Skill Levels:     D+ and a Boon in Lances is a thing, I guess. Lance skill in this game does a lot less than an Axe Boon, so… Dimitri also gets E+ Swords and D Authority with a boon in both. Of the two, the Authority is more Important, for reasons that will soon be apparent. His Budding Talent in Riding is possibly the worst in the game, as Seal Move is near useless, but more on that latter. As for his Banes, an Axe bane hurts him, but not as bad as it would hurt others, and Reason is irrelevant on Dimitri.

     Abilities:     Battalion Wrath at C and Battalion Vantage at A. You know what’s up here. Crits for days! Unfortunately, he can’t get normal Wrath is a timely manner, so his Crit build suffers for it. Model Leader is pointless, said simply. Rally Charm is all the way at S and he doesn’t get any other Rallies, therefore that is also pointless on him.

     Arts:     Ok, so Dimitri’s arts aren’t the best. Monster Piercer at C+ Lances is almost irrelevant as Gambits are a thing. Glowing Ember would serve better on someone with higher Defense, but it’s decent. For the Sword arts, Sunder is passable if you’re fishing for Crits. Windsweep is great, but he only gets it at A Swords so he doesn’t have long to play with it.

     Stats:     Oh, boy. Remember what I said about Dimitri being one of the best units in the game? Yeah, here’s why. At 12+60% Strength, he has the highest Strength in the game. 9+55% Charm is one of the Highest in the game. 7+50% Skill and Speed is respectable, and 7+40% Defense is well above average. 4+20% Magic is utterly irrelevant for Dimitri (Who in their right mind uses him as a Mage?) 5+25% Luck is a minor issue, meaning he will face a fair bit of Crit, but he’s so strong otherwise that a Crit will not hurt his that severely. 4+20% Res. This is his only real problem. Mages are a major issue for Dimitri, his kryptonite, if you will.

     Classes:     Beginer Classes- Soilder for Reposition or Myrmidon for +2 Speed

Intermediate- Mercinary for Vantage (Subbing for Battalion Vantage), Thief for the 10% Dex and Speed, or Cavalier for the Lance Proficiency and Move

Advanced- Swordmaster or Assassin for the Growths or Paladin for Lancefaire and Move

Master- Dimitri a) doesn’t suite any of the Master Classes and b) already has High/Great Lord

Personally, I like putting him down the Sword Line. Move is nice, yes, but it is nothing compared to the monster of stats that is.

          The Verdict

All said Dimitri is absurdly strong and is - in my opinion - stronger than the other 2 (3 if you count Yuri) Lords. He is not perfect, but he comes the Closest of all units in this game, so it is only fitting that I give him a 10/10. Enough said.

[Shadow Mir]

9/10. Fast and powerful, but is held back by not being able to be tutored for a good chunk of the post-timeskip period.

[Strullemia]

8.5/10 

Really powerfull unit but unlike Edelgard or Claude takes a bit of work to make bring out his full potential and the game makes it harder to get him to that point with his Axe bane and with there being multiple chapter where you can't tutor him.

 

[Lunarly]

haven't posted in a looooooooooooooong while but anyways... I'd rate Dimitri 9.5/10 mainly because of the Battalion Wrath + Battalion Vantage combo (this is based on Maddening Mode fyi).

Most people covered all the stuff about his growths/arts/bases etc. so I will be ignoring that since it's redundant and I agree with mostly everything that's been brought up, except the really random point on Dimitri having a low Magic growth + poor Reason list which seems very irrelevant since you'd never really bring Dimitri into a magic class anyways. With that out of the way, I think Dimitri deserves a 9.5 rating because of how hard Battalion Wrath + Battalion Vantage can allow Dimitri to solo parts of the maps without too much effort.

Dimitri is able to get A rank Authority around Remire (though I think I've seen people obtain it earlier by throwing him in the Lord class to increase Authority exp gain) and from then on, he really just needs a killer weapon and goes HAM on enemy phase. I don't think Death Blow is necessary on Dimitri (which is something I see brought up on how every physical unit needs Death Blow) because BW+BV Dimitri is an enemy phase unit and Death Blow requires said unit to initiate the battle. There's also another issue with Dimitri really needing chipped battalions in order to pull off the combo, which nullifies this strategy in Chapter 13 since he gets a new battalion and is footlocked in a terrain filled map. But, while chipping battalions is kind of annoying, I really didn't find it that big of an issue. Then there's of course the fact that Dimitri cannot be tutored for half of timeskip which gives you very little leeway to work with him since all of your planning needs to be done in White Clouds, but I found that he scales fine as long as he at least has BW + BV post timeskip. 

Personally, I did not find Dimitri absolutely needed Wyvern Lord in order to succeed (since most people have brought up his Axe Bane). I used Bow Knight Dimitri in this playthrough (Wyvern in Hard mode but looking at Mekkah's playthrough, WL Dimitri is putting in work in Maddening) and Bow Knight Dimitri still was very useful with BW + BV, and with Close Counter he didn't really need Retribution support which was an added bonus until the last chapter with the siege tome Gremories. The only maps Bow Knight/Paladin Dimitri struggled in was the Alliel chapter, Marianne and Bernie/Petra Paralogue due to terrain issues but, they were alleviated with stride/Warp/rescue. Wyvern Lord is still a better choice in the long run because of flight but, I don't think a BW + BV Dimitri in Bow Knight (or Paladin using Bows) is that bad of a choice to be ignored since it is easier to bring Dimitri through that line. Also with BW+BV build, Dimitri having lower Speed doesn't really matter if he's going to attack first with Vantage and more than likely one shot the enemy (fast enemies are usually Falcos/Assassins/Swordmasters which are all very squishy anyways).

Also just a side note, don't really understand how Edelgard got dragged into this discussion, when both units aren't even playable in the same route. Comparing 2 units like say, Dorothea/Hubert makes sense because they are all available in the BE routes and you can actually compare their (dis)advantages. But, comparing 2 units that aren't even playable in the same route is kind of random since both their routes play out very differently (different maps, objectives, different amount of chapters) and you cannot directly compare how each unit would fare against each other and it becomes more or less speculation. Also Aymr being a good weapon is something that should be said to boost Edelgard's ranking, not to hamper Dimitri's lol.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Lunarly

[Gordin]

10/10. Battallion Wrath+Vantage is busted. Dimitri himself has busted stats and growths. Just everything about him is busted. The only sad part is that he can't become a wyvern lord but he does well enough as a bow knight or paladin so it's fine. He can outperform any unit in combat anyway and if your Dimitri isn't oneshotting you're doing something wrong. 

[Ether]

He's a powerhouse to be certain, but he can't pull off the ridiculous map clearing feats that Edelgard can with raging storm, and his difficulty with axes makes him less versatile than someone like Byleth, especially with him eying FByleth's access to Falcoknight and drooling. Would be a 9/10 but he rubs me the wrong way, so using the full power of bias to give Mr King of Delusion an 8/10

[ruruo]

Away from home this is rushed, >_< but I gotta vote for my boy.

10/10, would give him 11/10 if I could for bias lol.

I just find him really easy and convenient to set up. All he really needs is Lance + Authority, even on Maddening. I usually abuse battalion wrath and vantage with his default class a lot late game so I don’t really find missing 4 Chapters or the Axe weakness a big deal. Hit+20 is really good, and mastering archer isn’t too out of the way, and I really like Curved shot for him as a ranged option. 

only issue is probably how he chewed through so many weapons with his crest early game when spamming Tempest Lance and Curved Shot 😅
 

 

 

[Dark Holy Elf]

6 hours ago, Lunarly said:

Also just a side note, don't really understand how Edelgard got dragged into this discussion, when both units aren't even playable in the same route. Comparing 2 units like say, Dorothea/Hubert makes sense because they are all available in the BE routes and you can actually compare their (dis)advantages. But, comparing 2 units that aren't even playable in the same route is kind of random since both their routes play out very differently (different maps, objectives, different amount of chapters) and you cannot directly compare how each unit would fare against each other and it becomes more or less speculation.

While I definitely see your point that they never compete, so the comparison is mostly moot, I think it's still a natural comparison to make because many people (including me) consider them the two of the best units in the game, often even the outright two best. In addition, unlike Claude or Byleth, we've already rated Edelgard, so a lot of us have that rating on our minds since she's really the best comparison for Dimitri so far. I suspect a lot people have thought things like "I gave Edelgard a rating of X/10, and Dimitri is slightly better/worse/equally good, so Dimitri gets Y/10".

[RaIsMyPet]

I would say Dimitri is 10/10, but please don't count my vote, as I don't think I understand how to best use Dimitri well enough because I only used him twice (Hard NG+, and Maddening NG), and didn't think too clearly how I would use him. Everything else people has said, and I'd like to add one more point: Dimitri might be the single most tanky unit during Part 1, due to natural high defense, and most importantly, early and almost unique access to Duscur Heavy Soldiers (Dedue doesn't really have the authority rank to use it). BVBW is busted, but I always found it slightly more limited than dodge+BW, especially considering so many ballistas and monsters in AM. Anyway, in AM you can have BVBW AND another dodge+BW as I did so that basically increases efficiency exponentially, and you have a choice between the two depending on the situation. This should also counts as Dimitri's plus side.

Edited October 18, 2020 by RaIsMyPet