[Optimizing Apotheosis Recommendations]

Thanks for the advice, do you recommend any good places to read for up to date suggestions? It's kind of hard sifting through 200+ pages of the pairing thread, I already went through the first third when I stumbled on that post

[Optimizing Apotheosis Recommendations]

Hi all, I recently got Apotheosis and I'm the type of player who really wants to optimize their team and get the most out of it. I've lurked a ton on this site, reading up on pairings and suggestions (thank you czar_yoshi for the really helpful info), however there are a few fundamental things about pairings that I don't get. I'll mostly be referring to this post:

Anyway, when building your team the main thing to keep in mind is making sure the pairup boosts of your 2nd Gen pairs match their partner's main attacking stat, making sure every pair has at least one Galeforce/Proc unit, and making sure you have at least one pair with 75+ Spd. If you have all that, you can clear Apo pretty reliably as long as you make all the right ingame preparations beforehand (forge your weapons, use tonics etc). Male unit's physical/magical alignment tends to matter more than female's because all girls can access Bride, which attacks physically but gives +Mag/Spd. That said, most units depend on their parents and can actually go either way (sometimes simultaneously like Nah and Gerome).

Lucina: Physical (Olivia/Avatar), Magical (Maribelle/Sumia/Avatar)

Kjelle: Both (good Bride candidate)

Cynthia: Always Magical

Severa: Physical (Lon'qu/Stahl), Magical (Ricken), Both (Virion)

Nah: Physical (Vaike/Gregor/Stahl), Magical (Virion), Both (Henry)

Noire: Both (good Bride candidate)

Owain: Always Magical

Laurent: Always Magical

Brady: Always Magical

Yarne: Always Physical

Inigo: Physical (Chrom/Stahl), Magical (Ricken/Libra)

Gerome: Physical (Vaike/Gregor/Stahl), Both (Henry)

So, when putting a team together, Lucina gets first priority because she has DS+ which allows her to either support VV or safely fight more dangerous things. Her preferences are generally Avatar-M > Morgan-M > Laurent > Libra!Owain > everyone else, though she can work well with anyone and generally wind up as part of your best pair.

Second priority goes to Morgan. Morgan-M will prefer Lucina best with everyone else mostly equal (keep in mind Nah means no double Galeforce), Magical Morgan-F is generally Owain/Brady >Magical Inigo, Physical is Physical Inigo >Yarne/Gerome. I tend to prefer Owain to Brady, but the two are pretty much equal.

Third priority goes to Nah because she has no Galeforce and must marry a boy with Galeforce to be useful. Physical Nah is locked to Inigo unless Physical Morgan-M wants her, Magical Nah can go to any of the Galeboys.

Fourth priority goes to Physical Severa because her high Spd, natural Vengeance, loads of Breakers and inclination toward Physical give her a very large niche-filling potential. Namely, Lon'qu/Virion!Severa, paired with a Berserker and using All+2 can hit 75 Spd (the threshold to double every enemy in the game) as a Wyvern Lord, and are the only unit suited to do so besides Morgan. Gerome and Yarne are her best candidates, though Physical Inigo can work as well.

Everyone else can then get matched up however you like, there should be a magical Galeboy or two, Cynthia, Kjelle, Noire, possibly Laurent and a Galeforceless Berserker left.

Passing skills: Always Galeforce, if that's missing then DS+ is fine. Panne passes Str+2 or Swordbreaker unless marrying Fred in which case it doesn't matter. Donnel passes Underdog, for male-only skills Axefaire is good for combat and Despoil is nice for training.

End classes: Sage and Dark Flier are good for magical. For Physical, Assassins are weak but give +Str/Skl/Spd and have very high Skl, Snipers can attack at 3-range, give +Str/Skl and have very high Skl, Paladins are high-Mov and give +Str/Skl/Spd/Def, Berserkers are very strong/fast and give a ton of +Str/Spd but have terrible Hit, Warriors are very strong and give +Str/Def, Wyvern Lords are slow but have high Str/Mov and give +Str/Def, and Dread Fighters look cool. Brides attack physically but give magical pairup boosts.

Firstly, what makes one child a better support for someone than another child? And how do you decide which parent is better for which kid? Also what are good class pairings for physically oriented pairs? I know those pairs are meant to reach certain stat thresholds, but it seems overwhelming since there are so many different ways to pair up (and also what are those thresholds? I know some basic things like 220 Hit and 69/75 speed to double everything but I'm not really sure about Def/Res and how those calculations are made)

Also I've started a draft of some children, but I'm not sure who they should pair with nor what they should class into.

Sumia!Lucina X MaMu

Lucina!Morgan X Ricken!Owain

Virion!Severa X Vaike!Gerome (Physical)

Stahl!Inigo X Henry!Nah (Physical)

Donnel!Kjelle

Gaius!Noire

Gregor!Yarne

Lon'qu!Laurent

Libra!Brady

Chrom!Cynthia

Thanks for the help!