Shephen

This basically. Odin gets OHKOd in his join chapter on NM. On Lunatic the Paladins OHKOs him at 100% accuracy and doubles him while Odin does 1 damage. For the other losers on IK there is Saizou, Orochi, Belka, Harold, Elfie, Benoit, Nyx, Setsuna, Asama, Lazward, Pieri, and Zero. Rinka and Charlotte were excluded since their pair up bonuses are really good, but if you attempt to use them for combat lol. Elise also walks the fine line, but auras and staves are enough to save her from complete bottom(That level deficit is huge though for a staff lock). Saizou, Setsuna and Laz are probably the least terrible of the terrible units since Debuffs/1-2 range, Speed/Victory, and alrightish bases. They are still really bad though.

Its funny. IK practically takes the entire cast of both games, makes all of the pre-promotes great and then makes everyone aside from a handful of Hoshido units, the Beasts, and like Luna, and makes them nearly unusably bad. Shame as well since Nohr and Hoshido had some pretty great unit balance/viability. Yomi is the real winner of IK though and being like one of 3 people to actually get buffed in the legit way.

Staff accuracy is magic+skill+staff hit+weapon rank bonus Staff avoid is res*1.5+luck*0.5+terrain bonus/other bonuses

For Hoshido you need to save an arms scroll for Izana so he can wield the MoS staff to hit Garon and the Final boss with it. Not really a high demand for it in Hoshido since Ryoma basically covers everything you need in terms of combat. Baki/Hinoka would like it for their staff ranks as Falcons. In Nohr the first one is best on WL Camilla since by that point she should have hit B Axes. With the arms scroll she'll have A Axes and D Lances which lets her use the Horseslayer without going through the E rank grind. Luna and Zero also like it since it increases their staff ranks without much grind. In IK again best used on WL Camilla, and the rest can go to who ever you want to be relevant for the game. First gen should pretty much always get priority since they don't get the free weapon exp like the kids do unless you recruit them really early.

Pieri is meh. Least durable cav, but has better offenses than Silas. Weapon ranks are pretty good. If nothing else she can use the rescue trick to get another refresh out of Azura. Lazward is kinda in the same boat, but his bases are better except for his meh speed. He can take the armor slayer and put it to use in chapter 13 which is pretty useful but after that not much special is happening. Bow Knight is good though, but E-Bows isn't and he isn't high on the list of arms scroll dump.

Really the only units that need to reclass are Odin and Mozume. Luna and Lazward also perform better when reclass, but are still pretty good in their base class. I guess Asama also would like to reclass. Everyone else is better in their base class line.

10% is nothing to scoff at. For a unit like Hana she can't take many hits, 10% avoid lets her get hit less and either die less or require less healing freeing up your healers. For a wall like Hinata the extra crit lets him break through standoffs and keeps his offense pretty good. The passives are what I would say pushes Ryoma completely off the deep end since with the Rajin Katana, Trueblade passives, and a pair up boost he has +25 crit and +20 avoid which is just insane.

Worse stats than the Trueblade, no crit/avoid passives, and worse skills than Trueblade. E Axes and Lances is pretty terrible and doesn't really do much for them without an arms scroll. Its also generally inferior to Great Knight. Just never a real reason to go Weapon Master for anyone. Maybe Hisame would be good as a weapon Master since he can get auto leveled weapon ranks, but even then Trueblade is still better.

Alright let's talk about Hana. So first things first she is female myrmidon so RIP durability. She is I believe the frailest front line combat unit in Hoshido so she will need to rely on dodge tanking, be given constant durability stat boosters/tonics, aura, and staff bots to not be a liability in battle. Fortunately for her most of these are somewhat mitigated easily. As a samurai she gets Flowing Strike to make her more reliable on PP and Trueblades get a +10 avoid passive. You get a seraph robe in chapter 7 and she is a good candidate for it(Probably third best behind Hinoka and Kaze). Sakura has both the aura and staffs to help Hana if the player so desires. Now unlike most of female myrmidons of the past, Hana actually has some pretty amazing offensive growths with high str/skl/spd. Swordlocks got a buff since a majority of 1-2 range RIPd in Fates but swords now have Kodachies(while bad like Javelins and Hand Axes, it at least gives swords the option now.) Trueblade also has the best offensive skills to compound her offensive growths. Her personal is pretty meh and probably won't see any use in most playthroughs. Performance wise in Hoshido Lunatic she is alright. Her start is pretty mediocre since her bases are meh and she needs a couple points of speed to start doubling non-armor enemies. Her dodging isn't very good in the early game so she will need the constant staff bot like I was talking about earlier. Also the exp scramble is going on so she will need to justify taking exp from others to get self-sufficient and delaying them from becoming self-sufficient. Mid to late game is where she is at her best. Since her offensive growths are really high it will be pretty easy for her to ORKO starting in the mid game and she will have built up enough speed and luck where dodge tanking is more reliable. She holds up fairly alright during the Ryoma stomp unlike some units. Once she gets ahead offensive wise it is pretty easy for her to stay ahead without constant exp feeding. Late game is a mixed bag for her. On the one hand the Ryoma stomp is coming to an end and everyone else needs to start pulling more weight so Hana will be more useful. But if you haven't been giving her the durability boosters earlier in the game she has a very real chance of getting flat out OHKOd by the Generals and Great Knights. Also if Hana gets caught with a Reverse Katana against a Beserker she's basically done no matter what. However her player phase offense will probably be the third/fourth best on your team(behind Ryoma, Kamui and Hammer time Crimson.) So Hana has a pretty good return on investment. In comparison to her fellow Samurai Hinata(not comparing to Ryoma since that isn't fair to anyone really) she has substantially less durability and needs a lot more investment, but she has superior offenses and better return on investment. She is a solid unit and I would probably put her around the middle of the pact in terms of royal retainers. Eugenics/Reclassing wise, she doesn't need anything. Samura/Trueblade is just to good for her build. You could get Line of Death if you're feeling pretty ballsy. Priest doesn't do anything for her really and you have Sakura/Servant/Asama already as staff bots so she doesn't do anything special. She lacks the bulk to do anything else really. Her pair up bonuses are really good for units on the slower side of things like Silas and Takumi. Mother wise she will be good for just about everyone other than like Yomi's kid. Passing down Flowing strike or Astra with her str growth is a pretty great thing for the kids. Now in the context of IK Lunatic she is pretty useless. She joins with 2 less str for whatever reason and now the enemies are way better than they were in Hoshido. Joining for Ch9 doesn't help either and she will probably tink on nearly everything there without RInka/Gunter boosts. Her durability issues can't be solved as easily since the enemies are more accurate and hit way harder. Exp is very important in IK since you need to do a pretty hard commitment to most units for them to be relevant and she doesn't really offer much as a reward for being trained since overkill combat is handled pretty well by the Royals and she doesn't have any utilities like Debuffs/Flight/Staves/Rallies like some other units. Only thing she really has to offer is her pair up bonuses to the likes of Takumi. She does have Mozume's paralog to grind some exp and weapon rank to catch up sorta to not be useless in the coming chapters. Access to the ch10 stat boosters can also help her out if you give them to her. The only new options for her in IK are Laz and Flannel both of who would like her speed boosts a lot and Laz would like the samurai class. If only Laz was any good in IK... I guess also going a Fighter!Hero for HP+5, Round House and Sol would be good for her if she married Flannel. She isn't the bottom of the barrel of what IK has to offer though(which is pretty sad for the state of IK) and if you make the hard commitment to her over other units she will turn out alright probably. And the most important thing to discuss is that Hana has the worst Trueblade outfit. #Purplecoat4life

I'm pretty sure she has the default weapon master coat like everyone but Fuuga. Granted she should never be a weapon master unless the player really wants LoD since it's among one of the worst classes in the game.

Dang it. Had my Hinata write up all ready go. In the meantime while I do a write up on Hana as a unit, I will say she has the worst TrueBlade coat. Hinata's purple coat, Ryoma's lobster armor and even Odin's yellow coat are all cooler than her pink coat.

Voted Hinata. He is an interesting unit who most people will pass up on their first playthrough, but his bases are surprisingly good and he has a lot of interesting options to make use of which makes him standout fairly well.

Yukimura just joins so late and his combat isn't very noteworthy. I mean he can use the armor shuriken since the late game is littered with armors, but so can your other ninjas who have support built up and the crit boosts/Lethality/SV. I mean a leadership star is pretty dope so he can take a slot, but it isn't something incredible like in Thracia. Yuugiri is pretty great because her bases are really great for her join time, Yukimura's bases are average for his time.

Oboro is a way better mom for Matoi than Hinoka. They have similar growths for Matoi, but Oboro has better availability and pair up stats than Hinoka for main game practicality and they gave basically the same thing(Lancer Line). A thing Oboro has over Hinoka in terms of min-maxing is that Oboro can pass down Despoil(lvl15 Great Merchant skill) which lets Matoi ignore the downsides of LoD for a free +20 damage.

Deadly Breath isn't to help her, it's to help everyone else. It's a 2 range APE that saps 20% and makes it easier for other units(that are weaker than Cam) to pick up kills. Overbearing is fairly redundant, but Deadly Breath is pretty good.

The problem is Matoi may not exist for everybody so we can't really say she is the best when she may not exist for some players. Not everyone will use Baki or even pair Baki off so there is a pretty good chance Matoi won't exist. The Shockstick is pretty incredible since it is the only good 1-2 range option for Lances. Steel has the -3 to doubling which hurts enemy phase a bit and the Guard Naginata is still pretty weak when forged(only has +1mt on iron and 25 less hit). The mag isn't that big an issue because of mt of the shock stick is really good and Falcons get +4 and a growth increase. And mods don't matter for main game purposes since enemies don't get near caps.

A thing to keep in mind with Magic on a peg is that you don't actually need a whole lot. Hinoka is pretty much the best shockstick user in the game for Hoshido, but she only has base 4 and a 15% growth as a peg(25% as a Falcon). The primary reason is because a forged shockstick(which happens after chapter 19) is 13 mt, same as a Silver Naginata, and Falcon knight gives +4 mag on promo. Enemy res isn't to high aside from Paladins, Maids, Adventurers, and Sorcerers. But being able to bop Generals, Great Knights, Wyvern Lords, and to an extent Beserkers.

To be fair, 5K is a lot of money from selling something. You get 1k for selling a stat booster, but they cost 10k to buy. The economy is rigged against the consumer lol. Lilith why?

I mean you get a pretty dope Maid/Butler in chapter 2. I wouldn't say its unreasonable that Felicia/Jakob could have A or S-Staves by the time the S stave drops unless they've just been dedicated pair up fodder(Good chance for Jakob to be, but Felicia is better as a stand alone unit imo). It just doesn't have a lot use really. Maybe in Hoshido!27 and IK!Endgame but the rest are rush the boss without much fight.

Yeah they sell for 5k a weapon, which is a crap ton of money from selling stuff(can get you an effective weapon or about 75% of a brave weapon). The Axe and Tome come pretty early and their users are terrible. The Lance, Bow, and Shuriken may be useful depending on how much you are will to invest in the users. The Sword is dope for letting Ryoma do a crap ton to the final bosses. The staff is useless for the most part since you get it at the end of 26 with only the bosses left to fight.

In Nohr and Hoshido the S weapons are pretty worthless. You get the the Axe, Tome and staff in chapter 26 and aren't even that useful for the boss fights in 27 and E. The Shuriken in Hoshido is on Ganz in 24 for whatever reason. The Katana is on Iago in 25 and the Bow, Lance, and Stave are in the chests in 25. 26 isn't really a chapter. They can be used in the boss fights though for 27/E and also breaking through the generals that are always in your way. Funny enough they have way better availability in IK but most of the users are not that good aside from Ryoma and maybe Takumi and Kaze. So you are better off just selling them for money since you get jack in terms of money in IK. I think the only Arms Scrolls you get in IK are in chapter 10 and I believe 19. Granted you can buy 4 from shops but money is an issue.

Voted for Hagakure Katana because its pretty much the only one I use since Ryoma is really the only one who hits S-Ranks consistently. The Shuriken is cool as well the few times I dump arms scrolls into Kaze and Saizou.

Adding on to what Iysander said, pretty much everyone and their mother(literally) gives speed as a pair up bonus except a few classes like Priest. So you can really just pick any unit and tie a Samurai or Ninja down to them and their speed isn't an issue anymore. The most threatening enemies in Hosh Lunatic are the Generals, Great Knights and Zerkers. The generals and GK don't have much speed and the Zerkers can't do anything to Ryoma so late game speed isn't to big an issue. What Hosh really lacks though is str pair up which makes Rinka incredibly valuable pair up fodder, but more on that during her week.

For what its worth he does get doubled by the fastest enemies in Late Game IK Lunatic(Elite Ninjas, Trueblades and I believe Beserkers may have a chance to double him) and doesn't really double much aside from the slowest of the enemies even with Swallow Strike. Granted by that point his combat isn't that good(with exception to mag Baki with ShockSticks) and is mostly relegated to full support by that point, but DF could come in handy in a few scenarios for Baki.

Damn, if Sakura got an infinite use Vanish Disaster(rescue staff) as a prf she would be an instant top tier. That would be so amazing lol