Your best, worst and most disappointing unit.

[lenticular]

Finally finished my first playthrough, so here's my thoughts. This was on hard/classic.

Easily my best unit was Chloé (griffin knight). I showed her a little bit of favouritism at the start, but once she got going she really took off. And then once I paired her with Lyn, she went through the stratosphere. Flight is always good, she was dodgy enough that very little could even touch her and even when an enemy did manage to get a lucky hit in, her HP was high enough that she never felt in any real danger. She was able to one-round most enemies, and given that she had the mobility advantage, was normally able to strike first and take out anything that could potentially have been dangerous to her. And on top of that, she had staff utility and all of Lyn's fantastic emblem abilities. Basically the only maps where she wasn't MVP were because I was deliberately holding her back to let everyone else get xp.

Other great units were Louis (completely shrugged off physical damage the whole game, and stopped caring about magic damage once I paired him with Ike), Alear (I kept her in her default class and built for avoid, which made her completely immortal, albeit her damage output wasn't great especially without any good 1-2 range options), Merrin and Yunaka (both kept to their default classes; daggers and high speed are both good in this game).

My worst unit who I actually kept in my team through to the end of the game was Céline. She was always adequate, never bad, but she never really stood out either. Pretty much everyone else that I usd had a time when they really shone, but Céline just didn't.

Units who I tried seriously using for a while but ended up benching because they just weren't getting the job done: Jean, Boucheron, Alfred, Jade. Not sure if I did something wrong with these, if they got bad level ups, or if they're just bad units, but they all fell into the cycle where they were underperforming which meant they weren't getting the xp they needed which meant they fell further behind until I replace dhtem with someone else.

[Ragnell17]

19 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Not units but I think both killer weapons and Brave weapons alike are pretty disappointing this time around. Killer Weapons without achieving a crit do shit damage and frequently aren't worth taking the risk. Brave Weapons meanwhile seem to have poor accuracy. In previous games they were among the more useful weapons but here I find them more a hindrance than a help. 

Killer weapons really need the Emblem Engravings to do work. Slap Eirika's or Lyn's +crit boosting engrave on em and you'll have high crit rates in the 50-60s which means you'll be critting with em very often. An Engraved killer lance on Timerra + sandstorm procs will reach triple digit damage.

[ruruo]

I'm freshly done with a Hard Classic run, and here's my thoughts: 

Best Unit - Alcryst
I did most of mid game with him as a Bow Knight with Axes + Luncina ring. I think it worked really well. The axes off set his low str, and the class also provided good coverage.
Later on I reclassed him back to his personal, and gave him Lyn. He's just bomb with Lyn and a Killer Bow. Luna procs with astra, and you can snipe things miles away off the map. 

Worst Unit - Chloe
She was really great up to mid game, but fell off pretty bad for me later on as Griffon Rider, the mixed magic/str didn't do her favours. I think the game is really generous when it games to staff users (late game I had Ivy, Pandreo, Hortensia and Mauvier  ). I would have liked her to carry the S rank Spear which sadly was too heavy. If I were to use her again I might keep her to exclusively a physical or magic class. 

Disappointing Unit - Diamant
He wasn't terrible, but not as amazing as the hype. I'm not sure if I'm using him correctly, I have him with Ike, but I don't think he can enemy phase as well as I like to, and for a first playthrough it took a while to get him Pair Up from Corrin. I mainly have him with axes as back up for chain attacks as he was out shone by Kagetsu with swords.

Units who surprised me:
Pandreo - He's really solid reclassed as a Sage. I had him with Celica, and Ivy with Ike refined Dire Thunder. I also at some points had him with Corrin and the Fire Dragon Vein was more useful that I thought, as it also reduced movement and can be used to stall groups of enemies at choke points.

Alfred - I tried him in both his personal class and as Paladin with Sigurd. His speed can be really dicey, but had quite nice str growths, he spend most of early playthrough mediocre, but everything changed when he got that Brave Lance.

Mauvier - So this dude makes for a really solid Martial Master with the Erika Ring, and is super tanky for both res and def. His speed isn't amazing, but Lunar Brace, that scroll with +5 speed, and Arm's brave effect was enough to make up for it. On Hard he can still quad some enemies. I was tempted to feed him all the speedwings and give him Speedtaker or +5 Speed from Lyn. 

Seadall - Canter+ is not brainer, but was also really nice with Quality Time for a little bit of healing 

Alear - More specifically with Roy. I know they are great with Corrin or Byleth for utility purposes. But for frontlines I had a good experience with Roy in their personal class. My Alear had quite low atk with good speed, and Roy gave a wooping +6 str which offset that, as well as Hold Out ++ and Advance. I interited Canter and Speedtaker. Admittedly I don't think their Engage attack is as good as with Corrin or Byleth, but past a certain point, I felt it didn't matter too much as another option was available if wanted to go on the offensive.

Happily no one on this playthrough was super terrible or unusable to the point of babying

Edited February 10, 2023 by ruruo

[Hecatia]

On 2/4/2023 at 9:42 PM, Usana said:

Him starting as a mage is actually kinda funny given his growths. He has 35 STR and 10 MAG. So as a Mage his final Growths are 35 STR and 35 MAG. So its like he was designed to go Mage Knight as his promote.

I actually promoted him as a Mage Knight and was sometimes slow and lacked the magic to do damage, so after he got lv20 I changed his class to Sage and him being 1 of the 3 people that have 4 mov doesn't matter much when I have a dancer

[Vicyus]

So on a second hard classic run and just recieved every available unit

Best: lyn. Lyn is just a busted emblem and makes any unit ridiculously good. She's made my paladin byleth a solo squander and I know if I gave her to anyone else she'd do the same for them.

 

Best unit: merrin has been really clutch. Easily the best falcon knight Levin sword user behind chloe, she's far more ready to go and can basically solo hold an area.

 

Disappointed: zelkov. Man just isn't hitting the same level yunaka did on my first run. He seems more suited for a different class but who knows.

[Cantabile_style]

Hmm I'm only on chapter 15? I think? But here's mine so far:

Best: Yunaka for sure! I've had to make her skip a couple of maps because the temptation to let her just kill everything is too strong if I don't....

Worst: Clanne... he's fallen very far behind and I have so many other mages... at least he can focus on the fan club now?

Most Disappointing: Lapis. I reaaallly wanted to make her work and I invested a bunch in her weapons and stuff... but she's still only okay. She can get a 50% crit rate but I only really use her on axe heavy maps now because otherwise she takes too many hits while trying to get a crit. Not the worst but just not as reliable as i'd like.

and then this is not part of the prompt but honorable mention goes to...

Pleasant Suprise: Amber! He was super underwhelming/underleveled when I first got him but I decided to bring him on a training mission and he got so many strength points leveling up! So I made him a Paladin and now he never gets hit, and even when he does he has so much health it barely matters. and he kills everything. I was expecting him to just be the traditional boring horseman character but I've enjoyed his supports and having him around!

[Taho]

Reached chapter 23 on Hard/Classic and I've reached lv 20 on promoted classes with most of my guys, so here's my experience on this:

 

Best units:

Timerra: Oh My God, Sandstorm is so busted. She averages 30+crit rate + 30+% chance to set off Sandstorm, and since she's got like 40+def with the Ike ring, she can tank anything and one-shot counter everyone on enemy phase, doing three figure damage (she did 217 max, I think). Watching her solo a whole squadron with great ether is a pleasure to watch as well.

Anna: she's basically a mini Lysithea. She started off as a warrior with the Radiant bow, and already she did great, but when she maxed her Mag at 21, I reclassed her to mage knight, and she's now capping all her stats and just doubles everyone. Bit of a glass cannon, but very reliable as a damage dealer. Also, her personal skil is priceless (pun intended)

 

Disappointing units:

Chloé: I know this is going to be unpopular, but I guess she just got RNG screwed. Her strength was really low and she didn't dodge as much as I would have liked her to. She did really great as a gryffin knight around lv1-5, but then everyone kind of left her in the dirt, and Rosado took over her spot on the team.

Lapis: I really liked her design, but ended up benching her to keep my earlier units. Later on, I picked her up as a replacement for Diamant and trianed her, but around lv 5 Hero, I stopped bothering, because to reach Diamant's level (and he's definitely not my best unit), she would have needed 100% Str, Spd and Def growth for ten levels... And she doesn't, so Diamant got back on the team. I might give her a shot in a second playthrough.

Jean: benched around lv 7. His level-ups just weren't worth all the babying it took to level him up, and very soon, deployment slots just meant he had to go.

Nice surprises:

Framme & Clanne: the loli stewards stayed on my team for a very long time. Framme still is, as a martial master, she can quad for a pretty high damage input and break annoying knife users. Clanne got benched to make room for Ivy, but he was a very decent sage, and his Mag wasn't as bad as it could have been.

On my second playthrough, I plan on picking up a whole new team, with only units I haven't used on my first playthrough. Should allow me to write a second post here in a couple of months.

[Anathaco]

Also on Chapter 23 Hard Classic, so since I officially have all units I may as well put my thoughts in here.

Most of my units are pretty busted so I feel like most of them will end up in the Best category but ah well.

Best:

Spoiler

Louis: Not much really needs to be said here. He's busted early game, we all know this. I kept him with Sigurd up until Chapter 11, but the sheer overreliance I had on him during those early maps gave him such a massive XP lead that he remained one of the best units on the team up until around Chapter 16 or so. He's fallen off a bit now but still good enough to deploy if I have the spare slots. Currently running Leif because I lack better options.

Jean: During the early game when I was still in awe of Louis' power, I had the epiphany that one Louis was awesome, but two would be even better. So I reclassed Jean into Sword Armour as soon as I could and leveled him up that way. The class change bumped his bases to the point where he could contribute immediately, and he was rocking a massive defence growth that surpassed even Louis. Went into General for his advanced class, then I looped him to Great Knight once he hit 20 in that. He's been running Ike for most of the game because I find it immensely funny how incapable enemies are of damaging him. Yes I did give him Pair Up as well. Hard carried so many maps.

Alcryst: I used him on and off up until chapter 16 when I decided to give him Eirika and a forged Corrin engrave Killer Bow. Tbf that's probably enough to make anyone amazing but Luna has still come in super clutch even with all that. Just a solid, reliable nuke, not much to say here. Also inherited Speedtaker for the fun of it.

Hortensia: Late addition to the party, since I only started using her at like Chapter 18, but I was able to take advantage of the DLC skill books to give her Hold Out from Roy, then slapped Micaiah on her once she came back (along with Divine Pulse+ from Byleth to keep her from missing vital attacks/offensive staves). She tanks with Nosferatu while engaged and has massive staff utility, so she's also carried me through her share of maps.

Pandreo: Damn. I swear I wasn't even trying with this guy, I was just using him as a staff bot + occasional chip. But he just kept levelling magic and speed, and suddenly he was one rounding half the damn map with an Elfire. I changed him into a Sage for the better tomes and higher offensive power, and no regrets. Seriously why is his combat so good he's insane.

Spoiler

Mauvier: Ok yeah I've only just recruited him but damn. I noticed immediately how balanced his strength and magic were so I turned him into a Martial Master. One silver corrupted skirmish later and he was able to inherit Lunar Brace from Eirika, and throw on Marth for the extra attacks because why not. As expected, he's a monster. Slight hit rate issues, admittedly, but Alear's Engage+ is helping patch that up. And goddamn. This is exactly the kind of punching action I've been missing in this game. Dude still has 12 build so I was able to use the Tiki engrave on a Flashing Fist art to buff the might while not even reducing his speed at all. I love him so much.

 

Honestly I don't really have a worst, most of my bad units fall more into disappointment because I tried hard to make everyone work. And the units that were bad I can't really say were my fault either because I just barely used them. Except Clanne he can absolutely go in worst tier.

Disappointments

Spoiler

Alfred: Honestly do I even need to go on. I really tried, I swear. He made it all the way to Chapter 11. I benched Diamant for this kid in the hopes I could make it work. But no. It was not meant to be.

Boucheron: Yeah it sucks, admittedly, since I tried using him in a few maps after I benched him initially (at like chapter 11 as well. He made the cut into the Lyn paralogue, and tbf did have a very clutch moment where he bodyblocked a bunch of enemies from reaching Anna and lived with 2 HP. It's safe to say I couldn't have done that map without him, but I figured it was better to let him go out a hero than drag his existence on longer than he was worth using.

Side note, but Boucheron's personal. I hate it so much. Why give the man a personal skill that literally cannot activate for the first 5 maps he exists on, when those personals are most useful, only to finally give him a way to activate it at the point where you're probably gonna bench him. It's not even terrible when it does activate, but it feels like the devs just enjoyed kicking this man to the dirt. Poor Bouchie.

Alear: screw this guy. I'll get the obvious out of the way, dragon utility with emblems is pretty great, but I hate the fact that that's it. I know lords in the most recent games have tended towards the stronger side of the group so I'm probably just salty that he's no Corrin or Byleth even, but damn. He basically contributes nothing apart from the ability to pick his own Dragon Veins, and is frail enough that he's basically running from any unit that looks in his direction. Anyone who made this guy work please tell me your secrets.

Weird

Spoiler

May as well throw in a bonus tier for particularly weird builds I messed around with, since they don't really belong in Best, but they're still interesting enough that I wanna mention

Ivy: She's been on and off on my team, but at the moment I'm running Hector on her in order to take advantage of her weirdly tanky statline. Quick Riposte is also great for patching up her speed on enemy phase, so she can actually perform quite well now. I initially wanted her to use the Runesword for self-healing as well, to make her an even better tank, but as it turns out, the Runesword uses half of your strength as your magic stat just like in Blazing Blade (I think). So she literally can't do anything with it. Although Jean and his like 40 strength would have a field day with it, I'm still pretty happy with Hector where he is, so I'll probably leave it for now.

Bunet: I absolutely cannot go a single playthrough in any FE game without doing something outrageously dumb, and Bunet is it in this run. I liked the look of his personal combined with Favourite Food from Celica, so I made it my goal this run to try and build around it. Unfortunately that meant A) he had to wait ages to actually use it because he joins at a really, really bad time to make use of any of those early Emblems (they totally did that on purpose Bunet would be too stronk otherwise), and B) if he wants to max his luck he needs to be in High Priest. Even then he can only activate Seconds 59% of the time (39 from his capped luck and an extra 20 from buffs since buffs cap at 20 as well). So its unreliable as all hell, but so satisfying when it works. I'm using this with Tiki because of how good she is while Engaged and its actually turning out not too bad? Like I was expecting it to be way more inconsistent than it actually is, or maybe I'm just lucky. Either way, Bunet low key OP (he's not this is a terrible idea don't try this at home).

 

 

[Taho]

On 2/19/2023 at 7:53 AM, Anathaco said:

 

  Hide contents

Alear: screw this guy. I'll get the obvious out of the way, dragon utility with emblems is pretty great, but I hate the fact that that's it. I know lords in the most recent games have tended towards the stronger side of the group so I'm probably just salty that he's no Corrin or Byleth even, but damn. He basically contributes nothing apart from the ability to pick his own Dragon Veins, and is frail enough that he's basically running from any unit that looks in his direction. Anyone who made this guy work please tell me your secrets.

 I don't understand how you can make Alear NOT work. Mine's just strolling through maps (and in the late game, like after a certain story event, it becomes almost funny to watch). The only danger is a chain attack band wagon on certain maps. Their damage input early game isn't great, but a forged +5 Libération +Sigurd engraving really solves that. Strap them with +10 avoid, alacrity and let their insane speed do the rest: they just maul through anything without getting hit.

[ra2bk]

Yeah refining and engraving Liberation is a must. I also gave him Dual Support by endgame, which raises his AVO considerably. You want to be next to as many people as possible for his personal skill and Bond Blast anyways.

Edited February 20, 2023 by ra2bk

[Etrurian emperor]

So far I think Clanne's bad reputation is kinda more like a meme than a real issue with him. A consequence of not looking further than the ''lol 10% magic growth'' and not taking anything else into consideration.

Out of your starting mages Clanne seems to be about the only one with reliable speed and the doubling that comes with it. That alone should already disqualify him from the ''worst unit out there'' category he's often placed in. Especially later on it becomes noticeable how Clanne's bulk and speed helps him out compared to someone like Citrine. 

[Dark Holy Elf]

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

So far I think Clanne's bad reputation is kinda more like a meme than a real issue with him. A consequence of not looking further than the ''lol 10% magic growth'' and not taking anything else into consideration.

Out of your starting mages Clanne seems to be about the only one with reliable speed and the doubling that comes with it. That alone should already disqualify him from the ''worst unit out there'' category he's often placed in. Especially later on it becomes noticeable how Clanne's bulk and speed helps him out compared to someone like Citrine. 

Citrinne is definitely different than Clanne, for better and for worse (frail, slow, but strong). Celine, however, is pretty similar - the only stats that are significantly different for the two are dex (favours Clanne) and luck (favours Celine by even more), which I'm sure you'll agree are not that important. The more meaningful differences are a slight speed win for Clanne and a slight magic win for Celine (i.e. she's a less extreme version of him).

I suspect Celine is used more than Clanne for a couple reasons - she has a hint of plot importance, and also she gets a battle to showcase Celica, and obviously if you leave that on her she'll feel a lot more valuable than him in part 1. Come part 2, Ivy and Pandreo pretty seriously powercreep all the previous mages, IMO. Additionally, if you get Olwen's ring, unfortunately that disadvantages other stats compared to just having magic (FEH Reinhardt, is that you?).

That said I would agree that Clanne doesn't deserve a bad reputation. Like many part 1 character he's competent enough, and while there isn't much reason to use him in the second half of the game unless you like him, he won't perform horribly if you choose to stick it out with him (and obviously he does get things like Canter well before part 2 mages, so there's that).

13 hours ago, Taho said:

 I don't understand how you can make Alear NOT work. Mine's just strolling through maps (and in the late game, like after a certain story event, it becomes almost funny to watch).

My experience is definitely closer to Anathco's, until I started leveraging dragon typing. I find it interesting you thought Alear was so good but had an underwhelming Chloe, but I think Chloe largely outclasses Alear at non-dragon things. Let's assume Alear has gained 2 points in each stat by the time Chloe joins (not perfect, but it's about the right total and works for easy math). The stat advantage for Chloe at that point is +2 HP, +6 dex, +4 speed, -2 def, +4 HP, +3 luck, +1 move, which is a pretty big win for Chloe overall. And flying is pretty obviously better than dragon typing early. Alear does have +10% growth in strength (probably the most notable difference) but Chloe's got that speed lead forever and the strength gap never gets that wide. Personally I found that with her superior speed and flight, Chloe was able to snowball very easily and Alear was not.

[Shadow Mir]

32 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Come part 2, Ivy and Pandreo pretty seriously powercreep all the previous mages, IMO.

And what about Hortensia?

[Anathaco]

9 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

So far I think Clanne's bad reputation is kinda more like a meme than a real issue with him. A consequence of not looking further than the ''lol 10% magic growth'' and not taking anything else into consideration.

Out of your starting mages Clanne seems to be about the only one with reliable speed and the doubling that comes with it. That alone should already disqualify him from the ''worst unit out there'' category he's often placed in. Especially later on it becomes noticeable how Clanne's bulk and speed helps him out compared to someone like Citrine. 

Yeah tbf Clanne was definitely useful to me early on, and I definitely don't think he's like worst in the game or anything like that. I basically just needed someone to go into my worst category and picked him because it was funny. He probably would have gone in disappointing for me as well.

I did turn him into a Wyvern Rider once I actually saw his growths, though by that point I think it was too late to salvage him.

16 hours ago, Taho said:

 I don't understand how you can make Alear NOT work. Mine's just strolling through maps (and in the late game, like after a certain story event, it becomes almost funny to watch). The only danger is a chain attack band wagon on certain maps. Their damage input early game isn't great, but a forged +5 Libération +Sigurd engraving really solves that. Strap them with +10 avoid, alacrity and let their insane speed do the rest: they just maul through anything without getting hit.

Yeah I definitely didn't forge Liberation at all. Though come to think of it I didn't even touch forging until like chapter 9 or 10, so by that point Alear had pretty much fallen off. I might have more luck with him on my Maddening run, both because fixed growths and because I've heard a lot of people talking about forging Liberation so I probably should try that.

2 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

My experience is definitely closer to Anathco's, until I started leveraging dragon typing. I find it interesting you thought Alear was so good but had an underwhelming Chloe, but I think Chloe largely outclasses Alear at non-dragon things. Let's assume Alear has gained 2 points in each stat by the time Chloe joins (not perfect, but it's about the right total and works for easy math). The stat advantage for Chloe at that point is +2 HP, +6 dex, +4 speed, -2 def, +4 HP, +3 luck, +1 move, which is a pretty big win for Chloe overall. And flying is pretty obviously better than dragon typing early. Alear does have +10% growth in strength (probably the most notable difference) but Chloe's got that speed lead forever and the strength gap never gets that wide. Personally I found that with her superior speed and flight, Chloe was able to snowball very easily and Alear was not.

Yeah Dragon typing makes sure he's always got something to make him useful. It might not necessarily make him feel very good to use but at least he's contributing. 

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

And what about Hortensia?

Hortensia is really good as well but she's less of a mage and more of a staff bot- she's way more likely to powercreep Framme than Clanne. Granted, her combat is decent as well and definitely workable, but that's more the niche she fills.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Anathaco

[Alexmender]

Almost finished my second playthrough on Maddening (I'm on chapter 25 so it's just that one and the ending) and boy do some units feel completely different than they did on Hard: 

Best:

• Kagetsu: I had the guy benched for a while due to how tight Solm is in deployment slots and despite that he still kept up with the enemies and snowballed into a killer unit. This time I changed him into a Wyvern Knight to make better use of his bases and gave him Alacrity and the Eirika ring to deal with Wyrms. 
• Panette: Vantage/Wrath crit machine with the Ike ring does a number on everything. She has a ton of Hp/Str and decent Dex and that's all she needs to shred stuff. Axes have shoddy hit but the Lyn engraving fixes that and also gives a good amount of Crit, the Mt loss is solved with forges. I also gave her a Killer Bow+3 with the Eirika engraving for sniping fliers, although I get the feeling that engraving could've gone to another unit. 
• Seadall: Dancer with Canter is OP. Byleth user lets him dance again in the same turn so he's even more OP. Used the Alfonse Bond ring for Atk Spur. 
• Hortensia: Best staffbot in the game. Needs Divine Pulse+ to hit with status staves but that skill is pretty cheap so it's not a big deal to get it for her and still have enough SP for Canter. She gets exclusive rights to the Micaiah ring as it increases her range, gives her Thani for some Armor/Great Knight nuking and is basically the perfect fit for her. 

Good:

• Alear: The early game roughness feels even worse on Maddening with the enemies being slightly faster so you can't double anything early game. Changing to Wyvern Knight during the midgame for better growths and then back to Divine Dragon during the endgame for making better use of Engage+ helped fix things and now Alear performs pretty well. Used a mix of rings ranging from Marth, Sigurd, Lyn and finally settled on Roy for the extra Str. 
• Fogado: I changed him to Warrior as soon as I got him because I saw some people clamoring he was amazing in that class. Turns out he can't hit anything to save his life without a bow with +Hit Engrave, he's frail and his luck isn't high enough to avoid stray crits. He came into his own after I got the Roy and Marth rings to fix his damage issues but he's still way too frail. Uses the Marth ring to bolster his Str/Spd and make him more of a dodge tank on player phase. 
• Ivy: Divine Pulse+ fixes her hit issues (for the most part) and she's still able to double Great Knights, which is all I need to consider Ivy a good unit. I gave her the Lucina ring because she gives Dex/Lck to increase her hit rate and because Dual Strike on a flier is pretty nuts. 
• Anna: This time I focused properly on making Anna work, although it took a while for her to start performing well. She's my defacto Byleth user and with Thyrsus and a forged Excalibur she can shred a lot of Wyvern Knights (and some Griffin Knights if she crits) safely. Her money niche didn't take off until like chapter 15 or so but it's a nifty thing to have as forge costs add up quickly. 
• Yunaka: She's nowhere near as useful in the dodgetank role due to how Maddening AI works but she still puts lots of work in the early/mid-game. I changed her into a Wolf Knight and gave her a Crit engraved Silver dagger+3 with the Lyn ring and Yunaka became my Swordmaster/Griffin Knight killer because she has like 42 Speed (before Speedtaker) and her Avo is still good enough to dodge a good amount of things. 
• Spoiler

  Veyle: She comes with good enough bases and just needs to patch up her Speed to have her as a legitimate threat. Early on I gave her the Corrin ring for Vein flexibility, then after getting Nova I gave her Divine Pulse+ for hit issues and the Celica ring for 3 range Echoes. Echo+Nova+Speedtaker is super silly and Veyle easily snowballs into a quad machine that will melt 2 foes in one action. Her crit rate is also pretty good for stuff she can't quad due to Nova's weight. 

Disappointing:

• Pandreo: This is less on Pandreo being bad and more on me thinking that due to his high bases I could bench him for a couple of chapters and he'd still be fine like Kagetsu. Turns out that's not the case and Pandreo struggled a bit to get back on track as one of the better mages, he recovered enough that he can easily double stuff now but his damage leaves a lot to be desired compared to Spoiler and Anna. He has the Leif ring because I didn't have anything better for him even if he only offers HP. 
• Goldmary: She's not as strong as she was on Hard but she's still an ok tank. She went from Great Knight to Paladin to make use of Brionac but most of her use is as an Override bot with the Sigurd ring to chip at a conga line of foes. It was funny during the Leif paralogue because she KO'd the mage knights and due to me giving her Speedtaker she got the +10 Spd in one turn, lol. Sadly the map was already over by the time she got rid of the mages so that Speed did nothing. 
• Spoiler

  Mauvier: He's a fine filler unit and I changed him into a Sage with the Mae S ring with a Thoron+1 with Ike's engrave for strong chip damage. The disappointment is that he's not on Veyle's level but maybe that's on me for not trying to give him a stronger build. 

Bad:

• Celine: I thought I could keep her around like I did in hard mode and make her a good Armor killer. Fixed mode showed me the shortcomings of her balanced stat spread (having everything but Def/Luck around 25 is horrid when enemies have like 16+ Res at minimum and she can only double Generals which is pathetic). I relegated to a Corrin/Heal bot with Thoron so at least she can contribute via healing, debuffs and map control with the Fire Vein. 
• Diamant: I was making my life harder trying to make him work on Maddening, as soon as he hit the bench shortly after I got Panette the game became a lot easier. I'm sure he can put work with the Ike ring but the opportunity cost of not giving the ring to Panette is too high, and the returns seem a lot worse when you compare an unreliable self-sustaining tank (22 Dex cap, lol) with a Crit machine that deletes anything that looks her funny. 

Special mentions (benched units that didn't make the cut due to limited slots but had potential):

• Alcryst: I benched him immediatly due to a lack of Master Seals but I think Alcryst has a good niche in Maddening due to his superb Dex. He's probably one of the better Griffin killing machines as those tend to be pretty dodgy and forced me to give Divine Pulse+ to a lot of my units just so I could get rid of them. 
• Chloe: Fixed growths means that her Str can't get screwed so she has an easier time keeping up and then becoming either a Wyvern Knight or a Levin Sword Griffin. I've heard that she makes for a good Martial Monk with the Eirika ring but that'll have to wait until my next playthrough. 
• Merrin: Excellent bases and only needs a forged Silver dagger to start putting work. I benched her only because I prefer Yunaka more and they perform similarly (accounting for the Energy drops I gave Yunaka, lol). I'll give her a shot next time when I'm not using Yunaka. 

Next run I'm going to try and challenge myself by only using the units up until Brodia (Solm is going to be hell with those limited deployment slots and enemies getting a power spike after chapter 17). I'd guess the DLC would make a Maddening run like that a lot smoother but I'll wait until the Xenologue drops before deciding if I want to buy it as I've read those DLC emblems trivialize the game and can easily make you overlevelled as you need to clear paralogues in order to obtain them. 

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Alexmender said:

Solm is going to be hell with those limited deployment slots

Tell me about it. Other than Solm Palace, I ended up having to leave off peeps I wanted to use.