General noob observations...

[Capt. Fargus]

Some general noob observations now that I done made it to chapter 30.

Marcus at this point sucks royally, and that Isadora is even worse. A promoted Kent and Sain got them beat by leaps and bound. Lowen aint worth a crap either. Too damn slow 

Ninian... I never used her in a fight when it was an option. Seems to not have much purpose at all

Jaffar.... good fighter but assassins cant steal except for chests with a lockpick. Dont promote your thieves 

Stealin from enemies is rarely worth the trouble unless your after something with a permanent effect. I wanted that damn angelic robe from the berserk bishop in ch 26x and had a heluva time gettin it. It took 3 flyers and a little luck

Guy.... Can slice and dice some axe fighters early, but wont need him once you pick up Raven

Saw on another site a fella raisin hell over the Battle before Dawn chapter. You can do it with one thief. I did

Archers aint worth the trouble either, except Rath once he reappears. They’re entirely too frail. At least magic users have some power to make up for that low defense

 

[AnonymousSpeed]

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Archers aint worth the trouble either, except Rath once he reappears. They’re entirely too frail. At least magic users have some power to make up for that low defense

FE7 archers are so, so bad. It's one of the most enemy-phase focused games on the series, and they have no enemy phase. Wil and Rebecca don't hit hard, they don't double for a long time, they level up slowly because they're so bad at getting kills- they aren't even good anti-flier units, because paladins can still one-round wyverns without effective damage. Which is x2 in the English version of FE7, making it practically worthless.

I have no idea what kind of sick joke they were playing with these units. At least Louise has a free Pent support.

[Parrhesia]

The point of your dancer is to give your best or most situationally useful unit a second turn. If you can keep her safe from harm, her fragility and inability to counterattack is her only weakness. It's not that she can't fight; she fights, in effect, as well as your best and strongest unit within five tiles, let alone the utility units. Not a style that's to everyone's taste, but dancers are always powerful.

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Lowen aint worth a crap either. Too damn slow 

The benefit of Lowen is his much higher defense growth. He is the tanky Paladin of the bunch.

 

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Ninian... I never used her in a fight when it was an option. Seems to not have much purpose at all

There is the real noob opinion. Ninian's ability to let one of your other units take another turn is really powerful, as bringing Ninian is like bringing another copy of your best unit, that you don't even have to train to use.

 

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

 

Jaffar.... good fighter but assassins cant steal except for chests with a lockpick. Dont promote your thieves 

Fun fact, Jaffar is a good fighter mainly thanks to absurd personal bases (I seem to remember some class randomizer mods really emphasize how much of that power comes from his personal bases and not his class). If you do promote your thief they rarely turn out as combat ready as Jaffar, so most agree that you shouldn't bother promoting them.

 

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

 

Stealin from enemies is rarely worth the trouble unless your after something with a permanent effect. I wanted that damn angelic robe from the berserk bishop in ch 26x and had a heluva time gettin it. It took 3 flyers and a little luck

Wait til you try HHM and have to steal your first guiding ring from a boss with Luna on a timed defense map...

 

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

 

Guy.... Can slice and dice some axe fighters early, but wont need him once you pick up Raven

Sounds about right.

 

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

 

Saw on another site a fella raisin hell over the Battle before Dawn chapter. You can do it with one thief. I did

They were probably thinking of the Hector Hard Mode version of that map. After your first clear on Eliwood Normal Mode you unlock Eliwood Hard Mode, and Hector Normal Mode, and after you clear Hector Normal Mode for the first time you unlock Hector Hard Mode.

 

1 hour ago, Capt. Fargus said:

 

Archers aint worth the trouble either, except Rath once he reappears. They’re entirely too frail. At least magic users have some power to make up for that low defense

I am surprised you though Rath was worth it on your first run. I like him, but he is one of the few units that people think ends up better if you skip Lyn Mode.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Ninian... I never used her in a fight when it was an option. Seems to not have much purpose at all

Yes, that's right. She should actively avoid getting into combat. But like your healers, that doesn't mean you shouldn't field her.

4 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Saw on another site a fella raisin hell over the Battle before Dawn chapter. You can do it with one thief. I did

On what difficulty? The issue isn't so much "getting every treasure" as it is "keeping Zephiel alive despite starting far away, plus getting a frail Nino to live and talk to Jaffar, plus plus keeping Jaffar alive when you can't control him".

4 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Marcus at this point sucks royally, and that Isadora is even worse. A promoted Kent and Sain got them beat by leaps and bound. Lowen aint worth a crap either. Too damn slow 

Being a "bad" GBA Cavalier or Paladin is still better than being a "good" unit in any physical infantry class. Owing to Cav/Pally's mobility and versatility. Once you discover Rescue-ferry-strats, you'll never look at them in the same way again.

4 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Archers aint worth the trouble either, except Rath once he reappears. They’re entirely too frail. At least magic users have some power to make up for that low defense

Elitist detected, this post is fake!

Kidding, of course. But I agree here. Bows aren't good at all in FE7, outside of niche situations. Louise and Geitz have their uses, but they're hardly top-tier. Rath benefits from a horse and (upon promotion) a Sword, at the very least. Wil and Rebecca just flat-out suck.

[AnonymousSpeed]

4 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Ninian... I never used her in a fight when it was an option. Seems to not have much purpose at all

Right, missed this.

Alot of people like to explain the use of dancers by saying they're like a second copy of your best unit, but I think that's not the best way to explain it. There's obvious a lot of difference between having two bulky paladins and having a bulky paladin move twice, some advantages and some disadvantages. Not as good for choking points, only one HP pool, but you can move farther and don't have to end your turn where you attack.

I think examples are better for seeing what makes dancers cool. I've listed some general examples of dancer tricks below, but watching other people do them in an LTC or the like will probably be a lot more inspiring. However, there is one general principle I'd like to mention: When you elect to deploy a "proper" unit instead of a dancer, you're getting your 8th pick or worse. A dancer isn't a second copy of your best unit, but if you have one unit who is most ideally suited to a certain situation, they will give you a lot more with a second action than a less suited unit would give you.

Spoiler

Movement probably is one of the more obvious and interesting advantages of dancers. Infantry can move about twice as far with a dance, a mount isn't necessarily going to get that every time because they move faster than the dancer, but this ultimately depends on their positions at the start of the turn.

Extra movement lets a unit engage a bunch of strong enemies before they get to your frailer units, more easily visit a village before cantoing out of enemy range, or reach a target that otherwise would be out of reach for them. You can fight enemies on opposite sides of the map in the same turn. Ballista and siege tomes have a range of 10- that's too far to cross all at once with a flier normally, but with a dance, they can close that gap in a single turn and defeat that pesky attacker before they even have a chance to deal damage.

Another great illustration of their power is when you have one unit who can reliably one-round a certain enemy type when the rest of your team can't. It's much more efficient to refresh this unit (one enemy killed per unit action) than it is to have another combat unit (one enemy killed per two or more actions).

Maybe you have fewer healers than you do units in need of healing. Fortify is one solution, but refreshing healers is another. One of the key advantages of dancers is flexibility- they don't just have to refresh your best unit, they can refresh whatever unit would be most useful to you.

Rescue-chaining is a powerful tool once you figure out how to do it, but there's a trouble. When you drop a unit, they can't act! Well, dancing can fix that, sort of. If you need a unit to be doing something halfway across the map, you can ferry them over with mounted units.

 

[Shadow Mir]

7 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Saw on another site a fella raisin hell over the Battle before Dawn chapter. You can do it with one thief. I did

The real issue is keeping Zephiel alive. Especially on Hector Hard mode.

7 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Guy.... Can slice and dice some axe fighters early, but wont need him once you pick up Raven

That sounds about right.

7 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Archers aint worth the trouble either, except Rath once he reappears. They’re entirely too frail. At least magic users have some power to make up for that low defense

As was stated before, what really kills archers is multiple things - the enemy phase focus of the game, the lowered effectiveness formula, their poor stats... yeah. Also, this is not a problem innate to Blazing Blade alone; many games in the series tend to have archers suck. Path of Radiance in particular is even worse for them than this game was...

[Capt. Fargus]

19 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am surprised you though Rath was worth it on your first run. I like him, but he is one of the few units that people think ends up better if you skip Lyn Mode.

Got a horse, gets to use swords once he’s promoted. There’s two pluses. Once he picked up a long bow he come in pretty handy for sticky situation here and there