Dark Holy Elf

Interesting. That's actually the opposite of how I feel, if anything. My experience is that on Hard, a number of units, like Hilda (with Darting Blow) and Felix can get fast enough to double most things, allowing them to surpass Petra on offence since they have more strength. On Maddening, though? Forget it. Petra having 6-10 more points of speed than them long-term is suddenly a big deal, and often means she'll be able to double enemies like grapplers/warmasters, pegasi/wyverns, and heroes that other "pretty fast" units won't be able to. I'm sure the specifics vary with exactly what your level is at each point of the game, how much speed investment you do (Spd+2, Weight-3, Speedring, Speedwings, gardening), but there should always be a decent chunk of enemies she gets that most others don't.

I definitely second this. My preferred option would be for "Other" which would lead to a field where people could enter whatever label they feel most comfortable with, though I'm not sure how easy that is from a design standpoint.

Petra is really good. Everything about her seems calculated to make her excel as an offensive physical fighter. Wyvern Lord is the best class in the game and you'll be hard-pressed to find many better at it than Petra, outside the lords. The good: 9+40% str and 10+60% spd. The str is only average (though 9 is a nice base, a single str level from a bonus AS point), but the speed is screaming, and the combination is something no other unit can claim (Ingrid is weaker, Leonie is slower). With her easy access to both Death Blow and Darting Blow (something that isn't available to Felix, for instance), she can dish out high damage and double things that are very difficult to double on Maddening, like fliers and heroes. And virtually nothing in the game tears through monsters better than Petra with a brave weapon. The talent list also rules. +flying and +axes eases her route through the strongest general class line in the game (pegasus/brigand into wyvern), either freeing her up to train authority rapidly, train an alternate weapon like bows (yet ANOTHER strength of hers), or free up tutoring time for the rest of the team. With her strength in flying and super-high speed she's an outstanding choice for an Alert Stance dodgetank (and she's even strong in swords if you want to get those evade numbers as high as possible with sword prowess)... notably, she can expect to get Alert Stance+ before any other unit in the game, along with Ingrid. The less good: she doesn't have many weaknesses, but if you want to find them, you can look at her right-side stats. Her raw bulk is on the low end for a frontliner (a bit worse than Caspar's, though without the spd problem), and her charm is below average which puts a hole in her dodgetank game (her competition for this role, Ferdinand and Ingrid, are better off here), though it's good enough to be salvageable. Petra gets an 8/10.

There are five tutoring weeks before Chapter 3, so Dorothea gets 16x5 = 80 faith exp from having it was one of her two weekly goals (on Maddening). Two tutoring sessions should give her the other 20 she needs, so she should certainly have Heal by Chapter 3.

Dorothea's easily the best of the Eagles' three mages, and one of the best in the game, due to how ridiculously good her spell list is. The good: Dorothea's worth as a unit is summed up by her three most useful spells: Thoron, Physic, and Meteor. Thoron, first, is just an incredible spell, with 9 mt (highest of any spell typically earned before A rank) and 3 range, and Dorothea can have it by chapter 3. Only Hubert gets 3 range faster, and his doesn't deal as much damage. (The only other student mage who gets it, period, is Marianne.) Being able to strike from where others can't is a huge boon in this game, especially as mages start falling behind in move. Second, there's Physic. It comes a little later for her than for the primary healers (due to Faith being budding talent and starting at E), but she should still get it by chapter 4, and it automatically makes her a very useful healer. Finally, there's Meteor. I could write a whole paragraph about Meteor. In fact, I will. Tactically, striking from range 10+ is obviously useful (even only once or twice per battle); it allows you to make plays beyond where you should, chipping or finishing off enemies who would otherwise pose problems. You can also use it to aggro formations safely; an enemy attacked will start moving towards you, regardless of how much damage you deal or even if you hit. Meteor even strikes an area of effect as a bonus. But perhaps even more important than the spell's own usefulness when cast is its ability to hand out linked attacks, offering +7 or +10 for normal hits and +15 or +20 to gambits. Even if you want the Meteor-user to do something else that turn, it's a simple matter to equip Meteor, have allies benefit from its effects, then do something else with your mage. And if that something else is using Physic, Meteor even stays equipped! Dorothea, simply, is by far the best source of Meteor/Bolting linked attacks in the game. She gets it at A, off a strength in reason (i.e. around chapter 9, give or take). Hanneman has to wait until A+. Manuela is weak in Reason and can't start training it until Chapter 8. Hilda is neutral in Reason and her statline screams to make her a physical unit instead. Even the DLC characters don't really change this: Constance has a crippled support list, Anna has none at all. On Eagles runs, Dorothea supports everyone in her house (reaching A with all of them except Bernadetta). On Lions runs, she still supports the (IMO) three best in-house physical units not named Dimitri. Only on Deer runs does she not shine at this. In terms of stats... if you're the type who's more enamoured with damage, she also gets Agnea's Arrow (which helps keep her looking good on the damage scale even after her less impressive magic growth has had time to kick in) and Hexblade, though both do need some investment (A+ reason or C+ swords). I don't generally recommend giving up her amazing skillset just to optimize Hexblade via Assassin, but it's worth noting that if you do, she can OHKO every enemy on the dreaded SS Reunion at Dawn with it, for instance. It also makes Mortal Savant an interesting option for her, so she can get -faire on both Hexblade and her attack magic (by contrast, no class with magic gets Lancefaire or Axefaire), if one values move and melee damage over double Meteor. Her only particularly strong stat is her charm, though it's worth noting that she's got the best charm of the mages along with Mercedes, allowing her to land powerful magical gambits more easily. The less good: Dorothea's weakness lies in her magic stat. 11 base is right in line with the other best mages, but 40% growth is on the low end. It does mean that at Level 21 (chosen for easy calcuations and being midway through the game), she'll be 2 points behind Marianne or Annette, and 4 points behind Lyisthea or Hubert. But due to her getting stronger spells and/or Tomefaire, she actually keeps up with (or even ahead of) them better than you'd think, until the very late stages of the game (where magic falls off as a OHKO option anyway). She also has the usual mage failings of poor bulk and mobility, and the most mobile non-DLC magic class, Dark Knight, is a poor fit for her due to her riding bane. With regard to bulk, her def growth is quite bad even for a mage, although her respectable HP (the best of the non-Lorenz student mages) and Warlock class base make this not as big a problem as it could be. Her start is also not very good, thanks to starting with just a single D and E+ for skills and also Thunder being on the low end for uses, though I don't personally put much stock in this; she'll have her good toolkit of Thoron + Physic by the time you can reasonably recruit someone to replace her, DLC characters aside. The DLC classes Dark Flier and Valkyrie have created more options and have improved her competition more than her (particularly Marianne and Lysithea), but without DLC, I think she's got a very good case to be the most useful magical unit in the game. While the best mages don't compare with the best fighters, I think that's still good enough for 8/10.

Bernadetta may be the single character in the game I have the hardest time rating. I tend to think she works out to roughly average overall, but at times she feels either significantly better or significantly worse than that. The good: her personal skill and her combat arts. Her personal skill grants her +5 damage at anything besides full HP. It's not hard to get her HP below full, of course, and +5 damage is obviously great. Her str is thus closer 13+35% instead of the 8+35% she has on paper (not quite this good because it's not always active and doesn't affect AS). That puts her at base tied for the best in the game, and while thanks to growth she still falls behind the actual high-str characters rapidly, she will forever maintain a small effective str lead over more average scores, notably including all her fellow Eagles except Edelgard. Her combat arts are also an interesting set. Vengeance allows her to dish out some potentially extreme single-hit damage, though since it's melee and a counter will usually kill her, you do have to take steps to ensure she hits, as well as maintain her very low HP. While magical combat arts typically need Fiendish Blow to achieve such results and most other high-end combat arts don't appear until A rank or Advanced mastery, Bernadetta can get this started as soon as she hits C+ lances, so there's a stretch of the early-midgame (usually around chapters 4-6, give or take) where she'll be one of the most damaging options available. Later on, she also has Encloser (from A bows), which allows her to seal the movement of enemies who you can't kill this turn (particularly useful if you want to ignore a monster for a bit. Each combat art wants you to go a different direction longterm (Lancefaire for Vengeance, Bow Range+ for Encloser), but both are definitely nifty. Also from bows she has Deadeye, which doesn't get that much attention, but anything which expands range is good, potentially giving her offensive actions she wouldn't have otherwise. She also gets Pass which is occasionally very nice to have for all that I feel that FE3H map design rarely creates the types of enemy formations where it would really shine (unlike Conquest). The less good: her talent list and stats. Her talent list includes an unfortunate weakness in axes (making her one of the few physical units I never recommend wyvern for), although her access to Pegasus Knight certainly softens that blow. Her statline is also very problematic, with low str (8+35%) holding her back whenever her personal isn't active (and preventing her from having exceptional damage even when it is, Vengeance aside), a base spd of 7 that leaves much to be desired (though it grows well enough, and she can get Darting Blow), durability which is on the low end for a frontliner, and mediocre charm. Persecution Complex and especially Vengeance are also finnicky to work with. You won't have access to them turn 1 regardless, and then you have to be careful to not accidentally heal her to full (a couple of her fellow Eagles may sabotage her, between Linhardt's Crest of Cethleann and Dorothea's personal... and watch out for enhanced regen from the Inexhaustible, or Fortify!). Vengeance is even more annoying, of course, as getting good damage out of it also involves leaving her one hit from death, which can limit her use, especially since she's a poor fit for Assassin. Also, while not really a positive or negative per se, I find it very funny how she's probably the only character in the game who would be improved by removing her crest. A 10% chance of an extra attack (which does not work on combat arts) is too low to rely on, and being crestless would let her safely and easily lower her HP with relic backlash damage. I find that she's often a very solid unit in the early midgame (Vengeance, Pegasus Knight access) who falls off around Advanced tier as other characters get OHKO options and no Advanced class seems to really let her excel. Overall I give her a 5/10.

Caspar is probably the worst student in the game. He's not the worst unit in the game because joining late is a big downside, but otherwise... There's not much good to say about him, honestly. If I had to look for something, I guess I'd bring up the Bombard combat art, which gives him +3 damage and helps bring his strength up to Raphael level when specifically considering player phase punching... at least outside of Fierce Iron Fist. He also has a pretty good personal, giving him an effective +10 hit at melee and also helping out his allies. And finally, since I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel, I will emphasize that joining early is a big help; you can start training him however you want, get him useful masteries like Reposition, etc. This will be relevant when we discuss the actual worst character in the game. Otherwise, the bad... hoo boy. Let's start with his talent list. He only has +axes, which every physical Eagle gets sans Bernadetta, and +brawling. Brawling isn't really that great to start with, IMO (Wyvern Lord is the OP axe class, not War Master). But okay, let's say you disagree. His talent list is still bad because he's -authority. Compared to say, War Master Ferdinand (nobody recommends War Master Ferdinand), Caspar is +brawling but -authority, which will lead to about the same amount of training needed to reach for this build. The stats are also just terrible. 9+45% str is only fractionally better (either 1 base or 5% growth) than the far superior Ferdinand and Petra. 6 base speed is terrible. And while the growth is better than Raphael (the only other physical character to start this slow), it's still poor enough that on average, he'll only barely be ahead of the 14 speed base of all the Advanced tier physical jobs at Level 20... and behind the 20 speed base of Wyvern Lord at Level 30. His charm and res are both bad. His durability is also mediocre, with raw HP/def that trail Edelgard and Ferdinand being held back further by his poor spd, charm, and res. In other words: probably the worst stat build in the game. Caspar gets a 2.5/10.

If you won't even put in the bare minimum effort to use them, you aren't really in any position to judge how useful they are, and thus aren't able to contribute to this conversation.

I agree with a fair bit of this, but unless you don't buy Olivi Grass for some reason, that turn 4 should be turn 3, instead.

Ranulf also has enough speed to double absolutely everything in part 3 iirc (and if he gets speed at the clip I'd expect, will continue to double everything in the game generally). 36 attack is pretty good for someone you can say that about. The likes of Mia and Nephenee need to be in tier 3 to reach that sort of number, or maybe the very end of tier 2 after some BExp use, which they won't be anywhere close to when Ranulf joins. I'll grant that if you invest heavilly in Titania or Haar (especially by giving them Speedwings), then you can get someone with super-high atk who also doubles reliably, but, well, there's a reason they're generally considered two of the best units in the game. Yeah, I definitely agree with this! Arguably the single biggest problem with RD laguz is that they're useless on the first two turns unless you spend a Laguz Stone (and even then, they always miss player phase 1). In some fights those turns aren't important, but when they are, it's a big deal.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that your Ike naturally capped HP 8 times in 8 playthroughs. In order to cap HP without a stat booster, Ike needs to gain HP 37 times in 38 levels with a 75% growth. The odds of this happening even once are less than 1/1000 (possible, but highly unlikely). For it to happen so many times in a row is unthinkable. You're either misremembering your use of stat boosters, misremembering his capped HP, or you're lying to us. Luck is similarly improbable (needs 34 gains in 38 levels, off of 35% growth) For the rest, you just had good luck. It happens.

I definitely disagree with the idea that the second-tier offensive magical gambits (Resonant [...]) being meh! They cover as many as 12 panels, allowing you to rattle large, dangerous groups of enemies with ease, and you can centre the gambit within range 2, as opposed to 1 (unlike Blaze, which covers fewer panels anyway). Really, the only better offensive gambits are the ones from the lord battalions, and that's because they have 2 shots. A well-timed use of a large AoE gambit wins battles; it can allow you to overcome large groups of enemies who would be difficult to deal with otherwise. Two large gambits also instantly break monsters (and can even cover some nearby enemies) which is neat, although admittedly, you don't need charm in those cases (except against bosses). Obviously, Stride is excellent too, and I'm not trying to to devalue it.

Linhardt's the weakest of the dedicated house healers IMO, but he's still useful. The good: Linhardt has Physic, the uber-useful healing spell which allows you to heal regardless of position (and with the low move and most mage classes, that's big). He also gets Warp at A rank; I'm not the world's biggest fan of Warp, but it's still a nice addition to one's faith toolbox. Finally, he also has Restore, which is only rarely useful, but can be a lifesaver in those rare times (an enemy gambit incapcitating multiple party members can ruin your day). So basically, his faith list is one of the very best. He has boons in both Reason and Faith, by far the two most important skills for a mage, and no relevant banes (just axe and brawling, neither of which a mage is likely to care about except maaybe for armour certification for def). Excalibur lets him strike weakness on fliers and potentially OHKO them (it might need some optimization to get pegasi), though how valuable this is depends a lot on how many archers you are running. The less good: Linhardt's stats are easily worse than other mages, with only 5 base speed (the others have 7-8) and 10 base magic, as well as the worst charm stat in the game (both base and growth). His low charm encourages you to neglect his authority since he can't land Resonant [element] gambits and just use the E-rank Stride battalion, which is certainly a fine option, but this hamstrings his magical offence even further. He does not get a magical combat art either, and his Reason spells have low power, so it all adds up to him having the hardest time running magical offence of any of the mages: hardest time getting OHKOs, hardest time doubling faster armour and great knights. He's also squishy; memorably, he is the only one of the 24 students who is ORKOed by archers at base in chapter 2 regardless of what he equips. In summary, Linhardt has an excellent faith list and not much else to recommend him. If you're just looking for someone who can go Bishop and sling white spells, he's your guy. If you're looking for a bit of offence to go with that, you should look elsewhere. Personally, I find him useful on Eagles runs, either as a full unit or filler for when deployment slots are high, but untempting as a recruit, which puts him below Ferdinand. 5.5/10.

Takumi by far. While I dislike that losing kicks you back to before Garon's map, Takumi's map itself is really good, encouraging you to move quickly but also safely past a series of traps featuring a nice little mix of different enemy types. Anankos is second; okay but generic, not much going on. Garon I've never failed to kill in one turn and I'm not even the type who normally rushes boss kills, very anticlimactic.

I think this point is worth emphasizing. It's possible, with a little luck on the training RNG and a purposeful weapon choice in the forced aux fight, to have Tempest Lance (or in general, insert D-rank combat art of your choice here) by Chapter 2, and utterly trivial to have it by Chapter 3, on anyone you want. Most physical units will want to pick up D rank lances anyway, both because Tempest Lance is good but also because so many physical class lines require lances at some point. Starting with Tempest Lance is nice (at worst, it's 100 skill exp which can be spent elsewhere) but an advantage which evaporates extremely quickly. Yeah, I definitely second you on this. I'm the same (well, I imagine my average will come out to more like 5.5, but we'll see). Agreed that I'm not going to shame others for voting differently... in fact it doesn't matter if we use different scales, as long as roughly the same pool of people vote each time it'll all balance out.

I thought the laguz in PoR were very underwhelming myself, with the exception of Lethe/Mordecai and Muarim to a lesser extent early in the game, and then they were just good in the usual way prepromos are (but still compared poorly to Titania). They were only usable half the time, and you had no control over which half. Later in the game, once your beorc promote, laguz just get left in the dust; they're stuck with weapons which have 7-10 mt while beorc get forged steel for ~15 and forged silver for ~20, and also have ranged and weakness-hitting options, or brave. Laguz get the Demi Band to at least try to be available the whole time but at that point most of them start having stats which are extremely unimpressive. I liked them better in RD since you could manage the gauge yourself and decide when they were useful. And the better laguz (Volug, Ranulf, Janaff, Ulki, and obviously the royals) had really good stats, easily better than most of your human units until very near the end of the game. That said, they badly needed these good stats to make up for their disadvantages of gauge management and lack of 2 range, and so the laguz whose stats were less good (Lethe, Mordecai, Kyza, Lyre) ended up very underwhelming. Few laguz truly hit that happy medium of feeling properly balanced to me.

Ferdinand is a good unit, though I'm a bit surprised at how high some of the numbers in this thread are so far. Maybe my scale is a bit different. Anyway, the good: Ferdinand has talent in axes, lances, riding, with no banes, which sets him up well to go to any physical class he wants. The most likely candidates are Wyvern because it's Wyvern, or Paladin to enhance Swift Strikes. He also has a very good personal. At full HP, he gets +15 hit and avoid, which allows him to be a premier dodgetank. He's a great choice for Dancer because of how high his avoid can get, or just Alert Stance flying builds (though the lack of +flying and lower speed than Petra or Ingrid means they give him good competition for the latter role). Swift Strikes is a nice combat art, giving him quite good offence once he reaches A in lances, though not especially different than what other units can manage with Brave post-TS. The less good: Ferdinand's base stats are underwhelming, 8/8 offence compared to Petra's 9/10 or Edelgard and Byleth's 13/8, and his respectable but not overwhelming growths and lack of access to Darting Blow means he has trouble keeping up with the best physical fighters. Swift Strikes would be better if the Lancefaire classes availble to Ferdinand weren't a touch problematic (horses do poor things to one's speed) or if brave weapons weren't storebought as soon as we hit the timeskip. 6.5/10. He's solid, but only the third best physical fighter in his own house, and doesn't really start standing out until well into the game (either A lances or an evade build getting rolling).

It's possible but requires some definite focus. There are 18 weeks before Chapter 8. If Hubert trains Reason as one of his goals for all of them, that's 24x18 = 432. If you tutor him in 2/3 of those weeks (my general assumption for calculations) and you have Macuil statue's +1 reason for half of them, that's 12x6.5x(about 6) = 468 more, bringing him up to 1000. So he'd need another 320 which is probably around 80 combats (depending on time spent in each class), which is... a lot at that point. You'd probably want to tutor him a couple more weeks just to ensure you get there, or do some double-focus reason for some of this interval. Or play on a non-maddening difficulty and/or use the sauna DLC. So there are lots of way to make it happen, but you'd have to prioritize it. And seeing as Donkey Kong is just as easily killed by Knightkneeler from the Lance of Ruin, there's no need to make such an investment IMO unless the reason is for fun.

Hubert is a respectable magic unit but well short of the best, even before the DLC landed and gave other mages more options than him. Let's start with the good: Hubert has a good magic stat, at 12+55% it's roughly on par with Lysithea for the best in the game. In fact, his stats are reasonably solid overall, if short of outstanding: his speed is on the high end for mages (doesn't say much), his charm is okay, his bulk is unimpressive but well above the worst mages for this. He has several ways to use this magic stat which are nice. He gets Mire at D+ Reason, which he can potentially snag by chapter 2, and certainly by chapter 3, giving him quick access to 3 range (the quickest of any unit, though Dorothea comes close). This is a notable advantage over mages like Lysithea and Annette. Mire's power is a bit low, but fortunately he also gets Death as well, later. He also gets Banshee, which allows him to seal the move of any enemy with move <= 5 (in the first half of the game, this is everyone except mounted units). And finally he gets Frozen Lance, after just three tutoring sessions in lances (i.e. in chapter 3 or 4, most likely). Off of Hubert's good stats this attack is devastating, often claiming OHKOs until enemy res+HP climbs fast near the end of the game. Now for the drawbacks. First, his class options. Prior to Level 30, his class options limit him in a big way: he has no access to Dark Tomefaire, so his magic lead will be eroded if he goes Warlock and gets to watch other mages get +5 damage which he does not. Despite his magic stat, he trails Dorothea by 4 damage at Level 21 using his three-range tomes; he trails Marianne by 6. With two-range tomes, he's held back by topping out the 13-might Dark Spikes, so again he trails characters like Dorothea and even Lorenz at this stage in the game. You can go Paladin to get Lancefaire on his Frozen Lance, and I often do, but this involves giving up all his skillset and other advantages until you reach Level 30 (snagging Arrow of Indra helps, at least), making him a one-trick pony who can claim OHKOs at range 1 but is fragile. Level 30 is certainly a big help to him, but since he's locked to Crimson Flower, the game doesn't go on much longer after he reaches that. We're not considering the DLC for this, but it's worth mentioning that if you do, Hubert tumbles a bit further, because the female mages get even more options at Advanced tier which he lacks. His other problem is his garbage Faith list. Magic units have advantages (ignoring terrain, targeting res, faith utility) and disadvantages (worse stats, worse mobility, lack of double-hit attacks) compared to physical units. Hubert doesn't bring much to the table in terms of faith utility. When both his magical competition in the Eagles have Physic, that's a notable minus. And the temptation to replace him with Lysithea (Warp), Marianne (Physic and Silence), or Mercedes (Physic and Fortify) from another house is notable. In summary, Hubert is pretty good as an offensive mage, but not without flaws. It works out to an average unit overall. 5/10.

Honestly, even with the bane in bows it's not a big deal. To get the D+ needed to have a ~60% chance to qualify for Archer, she only needs to get 180 bow exp, which she can do in ~11 weeks of passive training (weekly goals), more than enough time to get it as her first Intermediate class (and even more time if you decide to master Archer after Brigand) and not much different than the ~9 a bow-neutral character would require. I don't personally prioritize getting Hit+20 – I find I can get enough accuracy from other sources, and prefer to pick up both Death Blow and Darting Blow if I decide to grab two intermediate masteries – but getting it is not an issue for her if you disagree. The amount of bow exp needed is just so small that one's talent for bows is not important unless one is going for a bow-focused build. Similar comments apply to anyone who joins at the start of the game who wants to go to an Intermediate class they're "weak" in (for instance, getting Death Blow for Dimitri or Bernie). The intermediate requirements are just so lenient. By contrast the advanced class requirements are more stringent: e.g. it takes only 180 to reach D+ for Archer, but 960 to reach B+ for Sniper. (or 300 vs. 1320 if you insist on a 100% certification rate).

The decision as to whether to give Edelgard 9 or 10 depends more on one's definitions of what consitutes a 10, I think. Certainly, she is not on the same level as some characters from other games such as Sigurd, Seth, and Titania (PoR), whose leads over their competition is insurmountable due to a large level and/or mobility lead. By comparison all FE3H characters are closer together for worth (everyone joins at comparable levels and has largely the same class options). But Edelgard is most likely the best unit in FE3H, and certainly is on her own route. So I figured I might as well use the whole scale for this game, and that means giving her 10/10, even as I acknowledge that I might not give her that score on a series-wide rating. The easiest answer to why she deserves a 10 is Raging Storm. 5 uses of "do massive damage, then take an extra turn", with an extra 5 for each of the final two maps (assuming you break the Titanus in Chapter 16) is a ridiculous advantage and makes her status as the best unit post-timeskip Crimson Flower unquestionable. The more interesting question is how good is she outside of that. And the answer is she stands out in two ways, both talent list and stats. In my opinion the most important talents for a physical unit are axes, flying, and authority, simply because Wyvern is the strongest physical class option. Edelgard has boons in two out of three, a distinction she shares with only Claude and Petra (Cyril and Seteth too, but this advantage is eroded by their join times). Additionally, she has a boon in armour, which allows her to easily snag Weight-3. While nothing about talents allows her to do anything other units cannot, it means that she can do them with less tutoring investment and/or achieve benchmarks faster. And of course, further helping her route to flying dominance is her access to Pegasus Knight, which also ensures an outstanding combat performance in Intermediate tier. Her stats are also extremely good. Part of this is that everything is amped up a little by her Imperial Lineage skill, which tends to give her about +2 levels given equal combat (which in turn is good for about +1 to each stat). Beyond that, 13+55% str is the best in the game (roughly equalled by Dimitri's 12+60%), which is very important in this game with how possible OHKOs are (and later, 2HKOs with Brave). Compared to her immediate competition in the Eagles she has 4-5 more base and 10-20% more growth, which is a big deal (a 10-point lead over the other physical Eagles by the game's end is typical). Her charm is also ridiculous, allowing her to both land her gambits reliably (something most other units struggle with early) and reduce virtually all enemy gambits to 20% hit rate. She has good bulk (HP/def are the best of the Eagles, along with Ferdinand, though in fairness the tankiest units are in other houses) with no weak stats to hold that back (that is, spd/res/cha). And finally she's surprisingly faster than her 40% growth suggests. 8 base helps, as does the fact that she mitigates more weight than anyone (high str + easy access to Weight-3), and finally the fact that she can pick up Darting Blow, which male units cannot. In fact, for practical player phase speed, she is significantly behind only Leonie, Petra, Ingrid, and Catherine, and is comparable to the likes of Felix (Felix leads by 1-7 raw spd at equal levels, but Edelgard's str, Darting Blow, and level lead counteract that). Her worst stats are dex and luck, but neither is below average by much and both are relatively unimportant stats because their effects are easily overwhelmed by other sources - e.g. the fact that she can A-support Dorothea and/or Hanneman (to benefit from Meteor linked attacks) more than counteracts her marginally below average dex. It all adds up to a unit who is possibly the best in the game even before relic combat arts are considered, and thus very likely is after.

I'm of the opinion that character worth does not differ significantly from Hard to Maddening. The same strategies work, and work mostly equally well, just everything is more effective/easier on Hard, relatively. I think it's perfectly fine to let some people rate based on Maddening and some people rate based on Hard. (side note, I rate on Maddening but I don't rate FE3H rallies very highly anyway, which proves that it's more of a playstyle concern than a difficulty one) I'm definitely not in favour of considering non-quest aux battles, they clearly feel like grinding to me. The other thing I feel strongly about is I'd vote for not considering fishing as a method of amping prof rank (not a full ban on fishing, just a ban on using it as an exp-grinding method). In general if an action is repeatable for a long time for a (near) indefinite boost, such as arena/boss abuse in earlier FEs or fish grinding/rusted weapons/letting enemies attack you over and over in this one, it's something I'd frown on.

Sounds good, I'm surprised we haven't done this before. Thanks for running this. I definitely agree on rating everyone based on their earliest availability, i.e. their own route, or AM/VW in the case of Catherine/Cyril. You can make a case for rating everyone on their best route although that's largely the same (I've seen some people argue Ingrid is a bit better out-of-house, dunno if I agree, should be about the same score IMO). I also think an attempt should be made to rate characters based on good builds for them, to avoid things like "I made ____ a [insert bad class for them here] and they were bad, 3/10".

I dislike both Silver Snow and Revelation, but beyond the fact that I think both of them are badly-written and seem to miss the point of the things I like about both games, I don't think they have too much in common.

A Hand Axe+ has 3 more might (with Axefaire) than an Iron Bow+, and if you're already using axes for their melee damage, then you probably already have Axe Prowess equipped, while Bow Prowess eats an extra skill slot. Unless you're going to set Curved Shot (or another bow combat art), I don't see much purpose for bows on a class with Axefaire, personally. Especially because you had to train axes just to unlock this class in the first place, while you may not have trained bows at all (quite a few of the characters with an axe boon have a bow bane). I've never been impressed by Hero's innate Vantage. To really shine you want Wrath (Battalion Wrath can work, but I find maintaining two separate thresholds is finnicky; that may be just me), and anyway, it's possible to get Vantage as a skill in other ways. Hero saves you a skill slot if you were planning to use Vantage anyway, but that just means other classes pay a skill slot to have 1-3 extra move and better stats. Obviously a better Hero would make this slightly more tempting, but it's still a fairly niche advantage in my opinion.