Going against the meta. Combos I really enjoyed

[BloodRonin]

I've recently started another maddening run after failing a spin the wheel challenge Ironman maddening run.

 

While doing it, I had two characters I really enjoyed that were reclassed to nonmeta builds I guess you could say. I wanted to share and also hear any fun non meta combos you have done.

First is Martial Master Kagetsu. I was blown away by this. He looks so good as that class. His bases along with growths/max stats helped the martial master weaknesses. (And of course starsphere on top of it). I ended up going with a mix of Lucina on him when I needed the bonded shield(100% regardless) or chrom when I wanted max damage. Both give him speed and dex, but chrom gives way more damage, especially while engaged. With the flash fist, along with the speed from those 2 emblems, you will be quadding majority of enemies in maddening. I used a lot of books on him and got him lunar brace and speed/dex skills. Giving him over 40 speed and close to 40 dex.  I also engraved my weapons for crit. At max stats, with chrom you'll have over 40 str and be at exactly 40 magic. When engaged that magic goes up to 50.  So this gives you a viable option with Robin's magic weapons to attack from ranged, or to simply add even more damage to your fists due to how arts damage is calculated (str+magic/2). With the crit damage skill as well and lunar brace, I was just wreacking havoc on everything.  Plus Kagetsu looks so badass as a Martial Master. 

The other was Sage Chloe. No surprise here since Chloé is a solid unit in just about anything.  One thing to note though is her speed(+3 maxed) and she has growths that fit into a caster or hybrid. She looks great as a sage, and her personal skill is easy to proc for extra damage. (Works super well with the dire thunder ring)

I used Camilla on her just for the extra speed. And for flying status when needed (which came in super handy) I could go on and explain more, but I think you can imagine how well she does. Plus having a sage with over 40 speed and nova is great. (Overkill, but fun nonetheless). 

 

What nonmeta combos have you done?

 

[Saint Rubenio]

I did Mage Knight Boucheron in my first run. He was actually surprisingly good. Neither his strength nor his magic were that good, but he had great speed and build. He one-rounded a good amount of things just by doubling with the best damage type for each occasion, not to mention the fliers he ate for breakfast with the hurricane axe. I also found his personal skill becomes really funny later on, when you have Lucina it procs all the time.

General Alfred. I grew quite fond of Alfred and didn't want to drop him, but he wasn't cutting it as an Avenir. I took note of his high defense and strength, and thought, screw it, he'll make a good general. And he sure did! He actually surpassed Jade. His luck was way better, so he didn't eat as many crits later on, and his defense too was superior. I didn't think he'd end up being so consistently useful, but there he was, tanking stuff in the lategame. Not bad.

I also used Vandad long-term, because he's Vandad and I refused to let him fall off like a normal person. Threw him in lance fighter, still under the impression that demoting would increase EXP gains. It did not. I also misinterpreted halberdier's skill description until very late in the game and didn't utilize it to its full potential. Honestly, if I'd played better with him he would've done more than he ended up doing. But at least I got to kill the final boss with him, so that was nice.

Lastly, I did wolf knight SPOILER for thematic reasons, but that's not as interesting, because he's good in pretty much any class, really.

 

I'm on my second run now and I want to try something completely silly: High Priest Vandad. The plan quickly had a wrench thrown in it when I realized I'd have to wait until chapter 15 to get arts, since I want my first maddening run to be DLC-less. He'll run Sage until then, I guess. Shame, I really wanted a punching Vandad... Please don't try to convince me to make this one DLC allowance. I would break exceedingly easily. I can even use a mod to avoid the excess EXP / silver card from Tiki's map...

Edited April 13 by Saint Rubenio

[ChaosStar0]

From what I know, the meta is about the characters not being in their regular classes, so that's what I'm doing. I do like the characters in their regular classes, like Warrior Anna whose doing well regardless of whether she's using a Hurricane Axe, Silver Axe, or Radiant Bow.

[Use the Falchion]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

General Alfred. I grew quite fond of Alfred and didn't want to drop him, but he wasn't cutting it as an Avenir. I took note of his high defense and strength, and thought, screw it, he'll make a good general. And he sure did! He actually surpassed Jade. His luck was way better, so he didn't eat as many crits later on, and his defense too was superior. I didn't think he'd end up being so consistently useful, but there he was, tanking stuff in the lategame. Not bad.

I did Great Knight Alfred on my first playthrough, and he was AMAZING. (I did use Starsphere to get him to snuff after dropping him midgame and then reclassing and training him.) He and Roy were a phenomenal combination and a great heavy-hitter that worked with crowd control. I'm currently trying Great Knight Jade with Roy. She looks great in the class, but she isn't keeping up with everyone else. I may switch Alfred to Great Knight and keep him with Roy again...or maybe I'll do General Alfred! (Although on this run I'm a little opposed to it. I have Madeline as a General with Ike because the General/Ike combination is BUSTED.* General Jean with Micaiah for the Magical Girl Boy Armor and just for fun as a Magic Armor unit.** (Jean used to have Tiki, but she's my training Emblem right now.))

 

I also tried Martial Master Yunaka. It didn't work well, but it was an interesting attempt. I've since reclassed Yunaka to Wolf Knight and gave her the House Leaders Emblem. 

For Playthrough 2, I made Clanne a Martial Master, and he was one of my MVPs. He had amazing Strength, great Resistance, solid Luck, and the House Leaders. I was going for Deku 2.0, and this build did NOT disappoint. 

 

 

*I also didn't want to use Ike with Nil. Nil may give better synergy, but I just don't care for the character. 

**Madeline was my first choice, but getting her Magic up to snuff was painful and ultimately wasted time and effort. Jean had been a Griffon Knight beforehand, so he had as much Magic as he was going to get...which still doubled what Madeline had. 

[Punished Dayni]

6 hours ago, ChaosStar0 said:

From what I know, the meta is about the characters not being in their regular classes, so that's what I'm doing. I do like the characters in their regular classes, like Warrior Anna whose doing well regardless of whether she's using a Hurricane Axe, Silver Axe, or Radiant Bow.

Warrior is meta confirmed.

As someone who has yet to play more than a first playthrough and didn't get to reclassing anyone, I'm looking forward to some of these suggestions.

[Saint Rubenio]

Ended up doing the thing after all. High priest Vandad is a go.

First thing he did after taking up the arts was punch his kids in the face.

Or... Whatever it is high priests do when they crit with fists.

Off the bat, he's basically a slightly better Jean/Framme that can eat a hit or two thanks to his huge base HP, but since he enjoys massive amounts of favoritism, he already beat Ivy and Kagetsu into submission and abused Micaiah to get levels.

If the thread is still alive when I finish the run, I might post his endgame stats. I am determined to make this work. His first fixed growths level being HP will not deter me.

[BloodRonin]

High priest Vander is just hilarious. I am going to have to try this

[Barren]

On 4/14/2023 at 5:27 AM, BloodRonin said:

High priest Vander is just hilarious. I am going to have to try this

While this might not work on maddening, I made Vander a great knight with Hit +30 (no engravings) as well as Arms Shield+ with Erika emblem so he can activate that and Gentility at the same time when he has the weapon type advantage. Combine that with Allied Defense and he can take hits surprisingly well. I’m doing this on hard mode.

[BloodRonin]

8 hours ago, Barren said:

While this might not work on maddening, I made Vander a great knight with Hit +30 (no engravings) as well as Arms Shield+ with Erika emblem so he can activate that and Gentility at the same time when he has the weapon type advantage. Combine that with Allied Defense and he can take hits surprisingly well. I’m doing this on hard mode.

This does work well. I did the exact same thing with Jade. It is a great set up.

[Shadow Mir]

Would Great Knight Panette count? Because that's what I did after seeing that her performance as a Warrior was lackluster, even with Ike (and they say Panette and Ike is a dream team... I'd only agree if she's in General or Great Knight).

[BloodRonin]

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

Great Knight Panette count?

It would for sure. What skills did you use?

[Shadow Mir]

7 minutes ago, BloodRonin said:

It would for sure. What skills did you use?

I had given her Speed +3 and that was it (I hadn't thought of much else to give her, and the Speed +3 was before I thought she wasn't hacking it as a Warrior).

[Barren]

11 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I had given her Speed +3 and that was it (I hadn't thought of much else to give her, and the Speed +3 was before I thought she wasn't hacking it as a Warrior).

Have you tried Panette as a Wyvern Knight? There is also a Vantage+, Pair Up (if you want to block enemy chain attacks) or Hold Out for ensuring you live on 1 HP and Wrath if you have her piggy back off of Emblem Ike. Teaching her Wrath and giving her Emblem Roy can do the same thing. Also give her a forged Killer Axe with Lyn’s Engraving (or similar engraving that increases hit and crit rates) and she can most likely one shot most enemies on the map.

Edited April 19 by Barren
More info

[samthedigital]

10 minutes ago, Barren said:

Have you tried Panette as a Wyvern Knight? There is also a Vantage+, Pair Up (if you want to block enemy chain attacks) and Wrath if you have her piggy back off of Emblem Ike. You just give her a forged Killer Axe with Lyn’s Engraving (or similar engraving that increases hit and crit rates) and she can most likely one shot most enemies on the map.

Panette's Wrath/Vantage build is really flexible. I personally prefer Canter or Hit+X as her second skill (with Vantage always being the first) depending on what I want her to do during a map; Hit+30 gives her 100% hit rate against even the dodgiest enemies in the game. I've also heard that Panette!Leif is good while engaged if she doesn't unlock his bond conversation for more engage weapons. On paper it seems good (with a few key advantages and disadvantages to the typical Ike!Panette build), but I haven't tried it out for myself.

Edited April 19 by samthedigital

[Barren]

31 minutes ago, samthedigital said:

Panette's Wrath/Vantage build is really flexible. I personally prefer Canter or Hit+X as her second skill (with Vantage always being the first) depending on what I want her to do during a map; Hit+30 gives her 100% hit rate against even the dodgiest enemies in the game. I've also heard that Panette!Leif is good while engaged if she doesn't unlock his bond conversation for more engage weapons. On paper it seems good (with a few key advantages and disadvantages to the typical Ike!Panette build), but I haven't tried it out for myself.

That’s something I want to try out as well. Though the amount of bond fragments spent to unlock Hit +30 for her considering Maddening is where I am skeptical about. Hit +10/15 would be fine considering that you can still engrave her Killer Axe with something like Corrin for example.

[samthedigital]

1 minute ago, Barren said:

That’s something I want to try out as well. Though the amount of bond fragments spent to unlock Hit +30 for her considering Maddening is where I am skeptical about. Hit +10/15 would be fine considering that you can still engrave her Killer Axe with something like Corrin for example.

I only went up to around Hit+15-20 before the well came out, but I had enough to get 30 on maddening without playing the wyvern or fishing mini-game on the playthrough after it did. Admittedly a lower value would probably be sufficient to reach 100% hit rates, but I'm lazy and I also want to be sure that the build is as consistent as possible. I'm fairly conservative with skill choices overall though; most of my units get Canter (not+) and a second skill that usually not expensive depending on the unit's long term needs.

[Leoerus]

I am thinking of trying this type of thing actually

I want an enchanter jean or celine, but instead of having whoever be a support, they're instead a damage carry

This is something id throw starsphere on, but basically even with the lower offensive caps of enchanter being at 25 (I think jean has a magic modifier of 2) he gets that, a damage booster like hector (iirc he increases damage without weight added, that or soren?) and has no shit speed cap, I think its 37 speed cap. That + flashing fist, lunar brace, and speed + sounds fun

 

I also want to try sage yunaka, looking at her growths was interesting enough to want to put her there

[BloodRonin]

1 hour ago, Leoerus said:

sage yunaka

She looks amazing as a sage.  

[Anathaco]

On 4/20/2023 at 2:42 AM, Leoerus said:

I also want to try sage yunaka, looking at her growths was interesting enough to want to put her there

Sage Yunaka is a ton of fun- disclaimer that I put Starsphere on her so her performance in my run isn’t necessarily reflective of a normal Sage Yunaka, but she’s one of my strongest units. I’m stacking crit on her with wrath, her personal and a Corrin/Camilla engrave, with the idea being that she’ll be able to abuse Celica’s Echo to get multiple kills per player phase. Haven’t got Celica back to try it but even without she’s nuts.

[Saint Rubenio]

[Punished Dayni]

On 4/22/2023 at 6:17 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Cease, please, I can only laugh in awe so much.

I actually started a Maddening file with the intent of using a combination of as few lords and retainers from the four nations as possible (using none of them would leave me with too few units) and I'm debating how best to use Bunet in particular (by the looks of it the game's worst unit). I mean, skill wise it's a chance of getting to use favourite food twice in a map I guess? Could be just something like a support but I'm kinda walking into this.

[Saint Rubenio]

50 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Cease, please, I can only laugh in awe so much.

Remember the old days of the Levin Swordmaster Wrys meme?

There's a new boy in town.

50 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

I actually started a Maddening file with the intent of using a combination of as few lords and retainers from the four nations as possible (using none of them would leave me with too few units) and I'm debating how best to use Bunet in particular (by the looks of it the game's worst unit). I mean, skill wise it's a chance of getting to use favourite food twice in a map I guess? Could be just something like a support but I'm kinda walking into this.

I'm using him as a Wyvern Knight. I was curious to see how a combination of best class and worst unit would work out. So far he's... mediocre, in combat, but he can survive a round and dish out a half decent hit. I'm having him use Byleth, too, and it's proven not to be the worst decision I've made.

Seconds? is pretty worthless, though, even with that strat. Ignoring the fact that he can only get Favorite Food on chapter 21 at the earliest (and if he misses that opportunity he has to wait until after chapter 22), the luck% chance just destroys what little good the skill could have done. He has yet to proc even once in my run. Every chapter I've handed him the lunch pack in hopes it'll at least happen so I can go "hey seconds did something!" but it just never does lol

[Punished Dayni]

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

There's a new boy in town.

Speaking of, I plan on using him. Issue being in what as part of this, Halberdier could be good, but I can't deny the love for staff access and S tomes.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm using him as a Wyvern Knight. I was curious to see how a combination of best class and worst unit would work out. So far he's... mediocre, in combat, but he can survive a round and dish out a half decent hit. I'm having him use Byleth, too, and it's proven not to be the worst decision I've made.

I'm thinking Cavalry ball with Bunet carrying Lucina now, but not much has been decided yet.

[Anathaco]

14 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

I'm thinking Cavalry ball with Bunet carrying Lucina now, but not much has been decided yet.

Lucina's actually a really good idea I'd never considered. My dumbass Bunet theorycraft (assuming you have DLC) is Edelgard. Raging Storm burns all her engage turns, meaning he can attempt to get his Engage back on the following turn and basically spam Edelgard every couple turns. I'm trying it out on this run, haven't reached Chapter 21 yet but I'm nearly there. The one good thing about Bunet joining right after Celica leaves is that you have time to raise him with Starsphere and hopefully make his luck not shit lol. If I'm doing this, I'm going all out. 

[UNLEASH IT]

Decided to reclass Louis into a Paladin because the S-Rank Lances looked pretty strong and he capped his speed as a General. Defense is still really high with Ike equipped and he doesn't fall behind the rest of my army anymore.

Edited April 27 by UNLEASH IT