incognit0

Expanding on what RFoF said, Micaiah is not going to be on the front lines. She will have all the magic she needs for healing from BEXP before 1-E (she is tier 1, so it's cheap, plus Magic is one of her highest growths). Plus, occasionally you need two heals in one turn and the Ally Bishop can't heal.

You can trade the Physic staff between Micaiah and Laura, and Fiona can even ferry it, not really like she has better things to do. Value on easy mode though? I would say Laura's healing, which is useful but not major on hard mode, is even more situational on easy mode, because of lower enemy density and the fact that everyone has better survivability. Also, why is Volug so high? He actually doesn't improve on easy mode due to the fact that A) there are less enemies for his strike rank and B) Jill or Nolan or both can carry the DB without him and C) he doesn't benefit as much from BEXP because he needs strength.

DId you finish the first run? If so, what was your final turn count? Also, what is the lowest recorded number online? Just wondering; my personal best on HM is 215, with transfers.

What I do in 3-6 is rescue the bishop with Fiona and then have the ally units target the bottom left corner. When you want him to heal, drop him and set them on roam. He can heal every other turn this way and the others don't interfere much at all.

Personally I would give Haar your speedwing if you still have it and send him to Hawk. TIbarn going south, Haar taking Hand Axe Forges (Haar one rounds all non-general/swordmasters and two falcoknights, needs a 16mt weapon to get 2 halbs)/Hammer west (accompanied by Elincia, Ranulf and Reyson, I also used Nealuchi for trading out the hammer and next to no chip) should easily 6 turn that map. I was close to 5 turning it but it required Pelleas making a 60% ish Fenrir hit. Don't forget about the 4-2 Warriors in your starting area too; the CRK (Kieran, Lucia, Danved, etc.) probably have nothing better to do. I would also send consider sending Ulki to Silver just because if you send Haar only to Hawk, then you don't need him in Greil.

In 1-2, the energy drop is in the chest near the boss.

Now that I checked I was wrong, Jill is not OK. Nolan can get by at around 20/15 with Paragon because he can double a lot of the Paladins and manages some decent offense getting some ORKOs with Tarvos (though it would need to be Hammerned) but not consistently ORKOing all Paladins until third tier. Last time I ran through I had Nolan at 20/15, Jill at 18/15 and Ulki w/energy drop and S strike and they, along with Naesala managed a pretty clean 4 turn although it is a lot harder with Jill. Still she can get at least 1 player phase KO with Leanne, scrub chip and Horseslayer. Still, I guess Paragon works well because like you said the DB EXP is more concentrated.

I meant that I planned on him comboing with scrubs (Sothe, Leo, Micaiah when she isn't healing) for kills. It really doesn't make a difference for me if you choose to go without wildheart and transform on turn three (with S strike he can't use the 0 dmg trick). Whether it is better to have him use Wildheart or not is not the point. That is highly dependent on whether or not you can still kill laguz fast with wildheart and without doing a playthrough I wouldn't know. My question is: why are we giving the DB paragon? Isn't it much better going to the mercs? They can only use it in 3-2 (Probably sending Titania north for self-improvement with Paragon) 3-3 (anyone? though it is not important here), 3-4(same as 3-3), and 3-5 (with one enemy phase whoop dee do) at first. But 3-7, 3-8, and 3-10 all have lots of CEXP and then having an extra paragon in 3-E is nice too. Point is, there is more CEXP in the mercs chapters than in the DB's, even when considering that laguz give loads of CEXP. And you can distribute it among the characters who need it more because Nolan and Jill are fine going into part 4 in tier 2 and it doesn't slow the DB.

I don't care about his ATK. Wildheart is to keep him transformed/increase his strike. He has 30 ATK which is terrible but he does 16 DMG to cats and 20 DMG to tigers. He will 3HKO tigers but once he is in resolve he 2RKOs cats which is passable. If Leo chips at a lvl 15 cat then Resolve Wildheart Volug finishes it. Beastkiller Sothe can also help combo for kills. Jill is so awesome with two robes, a drop and beastfoe that she basically replaces Nolan in being able to solo the north with healer support. You can take it off and it might be better that way, but I've always had great success with Wildheart helping strike rank. It's an option. I was more interested in exploring why the DB gets Paragon.

A question I have about DB part 3 is whether or not it is efficient to keep the Dawn Brigade's Paragon for part 3. Ilyana is sending over Celerity, Savior, Hammer, Brave Sword, Speedwings, Adept, Blue Gem, Arms Scroll and I don't think I'm missing anything so Paragon for the last slot. I still think you could get good turn counts on 3-6 with this skill configuration: Nolan: Wrath Vantage Volug: Wildheart Resolve Jill: Beastfoe Jill takes the north (she should be able to limit the amount of laguz she faces on enemy phase) and with two robes, one after promotion, she is able to take two tigers at around 20/4 (as soon as she gets 44 HP 18 Def). Jill starts OHKOing cats at 20/4 with a max MT steel forge, and she doesn't take a counter at 20/1 from tigers with the brave axe, since with the energy drop she has 51 might with the brave axe and quadruples. Nolan is MUCH worse than before I admit, but if he goes west with Volug they can easily shoulder the load. Volug should have 21 wildheart speed if you finished off a level of BEXP because he should proc speed (reset if he doesn't. is it really a big deal?). I say wildheart + resolve because as long as his AVO holds up (if he has B Nolan he will be fine) he can take a lot. 85 AVO with a support before Bio and terrain and 105 resolve AVO. He is 2HKO'ed by tigers so don't let him face two on enemy phase when he doesn't have bio in his favor. I say wildheart because staying transformed means more strike WEXP but that is something that is easily removable to increase his offense and defensive capacities. 20/3 Nolan (this is a guess) has 83 AVO (with B volug) before bio and terrain. He needs to have 41 HP and 16 Def to be 3HKO'ed by tigers with Tarvos (20/7 or maybe 20/6) and survives tiger + cat with 40 HP and 15 def (20/5). He 2HKOs cats with a max steel forge and forever 3HKOs tigers, except for 52HP 20 Def which 20/3 Nolan leaves with 1 HP when attacking with Tarvos but 20/6 Nolan 3HKOs. Then in 3-12 I doubt the extra levels from Paragon are that much of a help, and as long as Volug can double Ike in 3-13 (with 2 levels finished with BEXP for 30 SPD) I think you can get a relatively similar count there. Jill and Nolan should go to Micaiah's route and get Paragon and get crowned in the middle of 4-P (actually losing a turn is not that bad; they get most kills from enemy phase and crowns restore them to full hp). Seems like Paragon is better used to get the mercs into tip-top shape for part 4, as well as just in generally allowing characters to be better trained/more characters to be trained. Maybe I'm just overrating the effect paragon has on the mercs. Sorry for the wall of text. This is all hypothetical. I would do an efficiency playlog if people aren't getting too tired of those...

I recently just did 1-4 (7 turns, not the crazy fast 6), and I am thoroughly convinced that sending Sothe south is viable. Have him kill the tiger that starts down there (Beastkiller) and a bunch of Laguz will suicide into him. He should eat a vulernary, move next to the right jar and get the seal next turn, then head up to have the boss suicide into him, kill the untransformed laguz and then nab the robe, eating vulernaries when possible. In the north, break the wall on the first turn and send Nolan up where he can be hit by three laguz, then kill the boss untransformed (don't remember if you can when you send Nolan up this high. Point is send Nolan up ahead of your scrubs and be sure to kill the boss while untransformed.). By healing with laura, then rescue + dropping her out of the way so that Ilyana can chip Nolan does fine there. Of course I didn't use Eddie. Are you using him long-term?

In this game you are forced to get at least one stat per level so it's impossible to get nothing.

Rolf: Rolf's player phase becomes pretty awesome after a shaky start that keeps him down. In addition, he caps speed and strength naturally, something that Shinon doesn't (Rolf caps STR at 20/11 while Shinon caps speed at 20/11 and Rolf at 20/15). Heather: Most likely gets us a Rescue staff, energy drop, dracoshield, a physic (never actually done this myself) and is very useful for sending the blizzard in the west room of 4-4 to Bastian. How is this better than Rolf is my question? The Rescue staff can be obtained at more difficulty, though not outrageous difficulty without Heather, and while the draco, energy drop and physic are big losses, that compromises the entire worth of Heather, minus her awful combat. I've personally never seen her get this Ettard in 3-4 without sacrificing time that is not well spent, considering how money for a forge is not a problem. Marcia comes to the mercs in 3-11. When you field her, she offers little combat and a flying utility already provided by forced Tanith and Sigrun, and the hawks who are miles better than her at combat. No real need for ferrying people not named Leanne as long as you have a flying unit stand on a pitfall in the 3rd(?) row. Mists healing I won't even get into as comparing healers to combat units is stupid considering the plethora of other combat units you mentioned. Brom: Necessary in 2-1, not as much in 2-2. Very useful and makes the chapter a whole lot easier, but just about every unit here does. He is getting waaayyy outpreformed by Lucia, Neph, Neal, and Leanne for example. I don't know, maybe you put a lot of value into those two chapters, but I'm not seeing it. In 2-2 he's pretty much like Rolf for his entire existence, solid, but bettered by other units. Except Rolf has around 13 chapters compared to one. Although Brom is awesome in 2-1. EDIT: *facepalm* I'm too slow

Rather, Rolf can get them because, you know, the fact that we're USING Rolf (T) later in the game (endgame?) means that he is entitled to kills. "Don't give Shinon kills, (Ike/Haar/Mia/Titania/Gatrie) can put it to better use"

I'm pretty sure Shinon's advantages you listed there are the reason why he is a whole tier higher. You can't complain that Rolf (T) is using more resources than Shinon if he is already placed on the tier list accordingly. So 2% crit and mastery (and skills that are of little importance) are debatably as good as 6 STR? Although Rolf (T) can double without a crown, making his offense a little bit more than chip. This goes back to the argument about whether the tier player's goal is to do the fastest clear or use the character... because the whole point of Rolf (T) being so high is that after some effort, he becomes better than Shinon.

Do you even have to use the hammer to ORKO generals in 3-8? A promoted Titania with an A Mist support and a 16 mt steel axe forge has 47 mt, enough to cleanly ORKO all the generals.

Just send Jill (and probably Marcia) to the Silver Army and put paragon in the convoy. You already want them there for the desert.