Individual Unit Focused Runs - What I've Learned

[Archeleon]

Lysithea is interesting. She has naturally high Mag and Dex along with decent Spd. All of her other stats are very bad and wouldn't waste many resources trying to shore them up. That does mean she plays well with magic-based attacks (no surprise there), higher crit/crit rush damage and pretty decent CDR on Spells/CAs. That matched up with Unsought Power and her Crests she is obviously meant to spam magic based CAs and/or spells. What is not too obvious though is that she actually functions on any class you want once you master Mortal Savant and acquire Proficient Witstrike.

Mortal Savant itself is a very strong pick as you still get to spam spells, access to Swordfaire, and a decent elemental moveset. Trickster may not seem as good, but she has access to Thief's Wisdom, granting Dark imbue to the CLA, which is pretty good. She also learns a lot of good Sword CAs like Electric Grounder, Shadowblade, Firesweep and Astra.

When it comes to Lances Dark Knight is obvious due to Dark Magic+. She learns Knight's Wisdom to further fill up the Special Gauge when using DK CLA as well as the very powerful Frozen Lance, Dark Lance and Lightstrike. Hell, she can even use Lance Jab well due to her Spd and Dex.

When it comes to Axes, she doesn't learn anything particularly special but of course she learns War Strike, Smash and Crush; probably her weakest option.

She can function as a Bow Knight fairly well, learning Archer's Wisdom to tap into her Dex. She also learns Precision Volley and Thunderbolt. Not the best but better than axes.

She has obvious synergy with Tomes due to Apex Tome, but it is broken right now so it doesn't matter. Gremory is her only choice here so there is not much to talk about. She does get access to the most powerful Dark spells: Dark Spikes Tau, Hades Omega and Luna Lambda which can be spammed quite a bit due to Dark Magic Mastery and her high Spd.

In regard to general abilities, the only ones I feel are worth highlighting are Boost Critical, Lifeforce, Offensive Tactics, Luna, Wild Abandon, Specials Master, Battle Instincts, Burst of Resolve and Renewal. This isn't a very impressive list, as has been pointed out, but she doesn't really need much to function given other stuff she has. Boost Critical, Offensive Tactics, Battle Instincts and Burst of Resolve are probably mainstays in any of her builds. If you like risky play Wild Abandon and Lifeforce bring her up to another level of damage. That leaves two slots for you to tailor to whatever you need. 

In summary, I really do think that Lysithea can do very well as a Mortal Savant/Dark Knight > Trickster > Gremory and you can pick whatever class suits your style.

 

[Dark Holy Elf]

13 hours ago, Sire said:

-- As for Lifeforce, I'm not the biggest fan of the skill. It takes away too much HP for my tastes, especially when spamming skills. Some characters work better with it as they have access to equipment that regenerates their health, or have synergy with the Holy Knight class (which grants easy self-heals with its attacks). Sure, technically the Gremory (and Bishop) have self-heal options on their attacks, but Holy Knight just does it better. // Impossible Feat is much more easier to manage, since its just a constant tick over time.

I like Lifeforce a lot. It's so easy to find a break in the action to pop a healing item. Or heck, if you're worried about finding a window, just switch away. If you're achieving the damage S rank, you're guaranteed not to be taking enough "normal" damage to exhaust your item supplies, so you have plenty to spare in patching up self-damage.

I don't really care much about self-healing skills as a result, even for Lifeforce builds. All they do is save you that little bit of time, literally about 1 second of your 5 to 20 minute battle. When you consider the time saved by doing extra damage to enemies, it's a no-brainer.

[Sire]

Managed to get Claude up to 120, but haven't got the chance to fully master all of his classes yet. I suppose maining him with the Infantry EXP buff active and using Balthus' Merc Whistle item for gold didn't help (instead of going with my usual Knowledge Gem on everyone).
-- On that note, using Despoil (the skill) with Balthus' Secret Medicine item helps a lot when farming for gold. Getting everything forged costs a lot, even if focusing mainly on MT. Materials are handled via campaign playthroughs and trading excess building materials.

I will say I enjoyed using Claude as a Sword User, as he was one for the majority of my 2nd Golden Wildfire run. Using his Sacred Weapon and having the Riegan Crest helped a lot with offsetting the HP Drain from Impossible Feat, and the augmented Wind Attack from Mortal Savant is pretty cool. If I was to keep him as a Sword, Windsweep and Excalibur would likely be my CA/Magic of choice. Heck, I may even try using Lifeforce with him since Claude has decent self-sustain.
-- Near the end I ended up using Claude as a War Master, but that was more for class mastery instead of any desire to play War Master Claude.

As for using Claude in his actual class (Barbarossa), I did some quick testing in the Training Grounds before writing this post. His moveset still requires some thought and adjustment, although his Class Action is amazing. I noticed that when he does a "loop-the-loop," it'll lead into his "charge forward" strong attack (Strong 5) while the "barrel-roll" afterwards is the "shoot arrows at everyone around you" strong attack (Strong 6). Looking at the animations helped me a lot when figuring out his gameplay instead of manually counting the attacks and button presses.
-- Of course, we can't count out Wind God and Fallen Star, which are pretty great Combat Arts as well.

Claude Skills: (Weapon) Prowess, Wild Abandon, Boost Critical, Fiendish Blow, Dual Onslaught, Howl, Heaviest Hitter, Gauntletbreaker, Impossible Feat, Seeker of Greatness
-- I didn't have Luna yet, and that may end up replacing Fiendish Blow.
-- Absorb Dexterity also seems good, but that's mostly for when I main Claude myself. Having it on an AI Claude seems a bit worthless.
-- When I get back to using the Barbarossa class, I want to also use Leader's Ploy, but again lack the space for it. Same can be said for Apex Bow (if/when that gets fixed).

* * * * *

Overall, Claude is pretty fun, but needs some getting used to if using him as his primary class. I can see Claude work well as a Sword User due to the "Sacred Riegan Sword," but I imagine he's still best suited as a Barbarossa (or a Bow Knight). I would say his personals hold him back a bit, but Claude has good options and an excellent learned skill set, making him one of the better characters in Three Hopes.

[IonicAmalgam]

Mercedes passive seems to be quite strong as well, it builds up super quick and is a huge aoe armor break that interrupts attacks. She does quite well with Arrow of Indra (do damage with MAG) as a Holy Knight.