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Getting C Faith for a brawler apart from Byleth/Balthus (the minimum rank to get the opportunity to class change) isn't an insignificant hurdle, but I think is achievable even on NG. And yeah, Quick Riposte and Fierce Iron Fist are amazing as well, and getting all three requires 500 Class Exp after Lv 20, which as you say is quite a tough ask. But it's mainly a question of resources allocation/what sacrifices you'll make to get the build. I did this exact build with Byleth on CF, and Byleth got Quick Riposte before the end of Ch. 16, having already gone through WM and Grappler. In my case, I made Byleth use a Knowledge Gem (and it was the only one I had at the time) whenever I deployed him as a War Monk in order to get him out of that class faster, and I also got every paralogue in the game (so quite a lot of Byleth deployment). And it was worth it - Byleth had avoidance over 90 for the endgame chapters without an Evasion Ring, and from the moment he mastered WM (Chapter 11 or so) he became my premier dodge tank. Brawl Avo +20 is only needed if you actually want your gauntlets user to be a dodge tank - obviously you can make Master class fliers or your dancer get higher avoidance if you wanted a dodge tank otherwise. But I can't think of any unit in the game that uses Fistbreaker/has advantage against gauntlet users, which means that Byleth's dodge tanking pretty much worked constantly (mages/falcon knights got lucky hits occasionally but that's about it). It's probably only one gauntlet user that's getting it per run, but for that unit at least I would even consider sacrificing Grappler mastery to get Brawl Avo +20. Ultimately yeah, this. It's probably situational. Sylvain will have better speed/avoid and probably better base strength as a WL, as well as unmitigated movement. Paladin has easier access to Mv +1, better Res and Lancefaire (so in theory better output for Swift Strikes). Paladin is hardly bad for Sylvain, although Wyvern Lord probably edges it on balance because fliers are just so amazing in this game. It'll really depend on context though.

My mistake - was thinking of not being able to hit 5 spaces as a Sniper and got confused. Magic Bow can hit from 4 spaces without a CA is what I should have said - and like you note about enemy units' magical evasion, your Sniper can still hit consistently provided they have Hit +20 and/or a good battalion. Regardless, 4 passive range is helpful for linked attacks, so there is some benefit there. In Awakening, Trickster and War Monk were quite similar in function to what they are in 3H. But unlike 3H, the niche that both provided in Awakening was fairly unique, and everyone who could access the class got enough magic/magic growths to make staves at least a useful support, even though the units weren't the best offensively. But in 3H, swords are usable in every class - so the incentive to turn magic-oriented units into Tricksters is quite low anyway. As for physical units, Trickster doesn't help their magic enough to make them either a serious threat or a support to rival your actual mages, meaning they're mostly there for growths that aren't significantly better than Assassin's (which is otherwise a better class for sword users anyway). In fairness, Physic and Warp are useful wherever they can be used, In contrast, mages can't use gauntlets (not that many would want to, but Aura Knuckles aren't bad at all), women can't use other gauntlet-oriented classes (and some would definitely want to), and as mentioned above War Monk provides a useful mastery skill for physical units, as well as some bulk and a Faire skill. Gauntlet users should still prefer Grappler to end up in, but there's actually more incentive overall for the people who might want War Monk to go WM than there is for people who are suited to Trickster to go Trickster. Despite his Reason budding talent, I've heard not-so-good things about Dark Knight Sylvain, basically along the lines of "you're still gonna be spamming Swift Strikes as a Dark Knight, but you won't have the Lancefaire". Across Reason and Faith it appears like his spells have a lot of utility, but I'm not convinced that his magic would hit harder than a Short Spear. Actually they might do with the faire skill, but it's definitely a concern. I wonder if there's any point in making Sylvain a hybrid when Sylvain is so good in physical classes.

Yeah Marianne's battalion is great, but it isn't obvious that Ashe/Bernadetta should be the ones to get it - Deadeye just isn't good enough on its own to justify it (compared to, say, a non-flying axe user, a less accurate mage, or even a different archer). I would also note just from personal experience in my last run that Edmund Troops and Hit +20 still don't give Bernadetta enough of a chance at hitting sword users or fliers beyond 4 spaces away. By enough I mean that while she was at around 60-70 hit with a Killer Bow from 4 spaces against late-game Paladins (which is enough for me), she was only at around 40-50 against late-game Falcon Knights from 4 spaces, and the same against Swordmasters/Assassins (worse if terrain disadvantage). So Deadeye is still a bit too much of a gamble under those circumstances. Perhaps Edmund Troops, Uncanny Blow, Hit +20 and an Accuracy Ring (which together will give +100 to her base hit) are all needed to make Deadeye a consistent threat For my purposes Valkyrie is completely fine because my next run is gonna be a sandbox run (NG+, and my NG+ chain has a ridiculous amount of renown). But while it's true that Reason is a detour, at most it would mean sacrificing a Bow rank overall. It'd definitely be possible for Bow Knight Bernadetta to run through even on NG, with a bit of advance planning around unlocking her hidden talent and training riding (you only need C Reason and B riding to get the opportunity to qualify into Valkyrie, and Bernadetta wants to get A+ Riding on a Bow Knight even on NG so will be training Riding anyway). Not an issue if you're thinking ahead, hopefully.

Yeah this is one of the only mixed builds I'd tried before this run, and it was disappointing. Catherine actually does slightly better as a Mortal Savant (but still not worth it for her) Yeah I think you're right - Lorenz isn't quite as powerful with Frozen Lance as most of its other users, but is a bit bulkier. I imagine similar to Hubert, it's a toss-up between Paladin and Dark Knight, and Dark Knight edges it for utility. Am thinking of doing this for my upcoming BL run - perhaps running her through mage > valkyrie > archer > sniper. Since AM gets every good bow in the game, I figure Mercedes can have Tathlum Bow too and no one else will miss it. Yeah am thinking of ending up in War Cleric for Catherine - she can grab Death Blow to prepare and perhaps spend time in Swordmaster/Assassin for the growths.

I really wish bows weren't punished this much on Maddening for extra range, though I do get why - either way, Deadeye tends to require linked attack boosts, gambit help, or some situational advantage to consistently hit beyond 3 spaces on Maddening. Am incidentally wondering if I could fix Deadeye on Bernadetta in my upcoming BL run by having her master Valkyrie. Uncanny Blow would offset the initial hit penalty for 3 spaces and Hit +20 would offset the hit penalty increase from 3 spaces to 4 spaces. Which means that in theory, a Deadeye hit from 4 spaces shouldn't be innately lower than a normal 2-space attack. Add to that a high-hit battalion, Accuracy Ring and BP5, and I might potentially be able to hit from 5 spaces or even 6 as a Bow Knight? She still probably won't hit sword users, but maybe she has a chance against everything else. So in this run I actually had Hanneman specialise as a Magic Bow Sniper, and his performance was absolutely outstanding - see my thread on mixed builds for details. Even without Hunter's Volley Hanneman did great chip, and I'm sure Yuri could do the same (although of course his magic is worse than Hanneman's). However, unlike Hanneman, Yuri shouldn't tolerate an enemy phase with the avoidance/AS that Magic Bow gives him. Yuri has little problem with dodge-tanking Wyverns with swords anyway. And assuming all other things are equal, the Magic Bow+ will only outclass Levin Sword+ on Yuri when attacking Falcon Knights on player phase - I can understand the impulse to use them, but since Yuri tended to be in range of enemies already, leaving Magic Bow equipped on him is an active demerit for me compared to swords. But yeah, this is clearly just a difference in approach.

I agree that Impregnable Wall is a brilliant gambit for this, but getting overwhelmed happens a lot in Part I, especially with the early game and the first few paralogues you do. Even once your units get good battalions/charm stats (and dodge-tanking gets better), there are still lots of occasions where enemies are spread out enough, tough enough and mobile enough to overwhelm you. Edelgard's paralogue or Petra's paralogue are good examples (in fairness Edelgard's paralogue is rough full stop). If you are ever attacked from multiple fronts (which happens at least sometimes on Maddening) then only having multiple Impregnable Wall users will save you. And offensive gambits don't solve everything, because some tough units will have high enough charm (or you'll have too low a charm stat) to reliably hit enemies. I guess in theory it's possible to play the game on Maddening without anyone being a dodge tank, and NG+ will make that more possible (especially with its supply of battalions for the early game). But not using high-avoidance units on a Maddening run sounds more like a challenge run than a normal tactic, at least because you are frequently not in a position where you can protect your softer units if the enemy is within range on their phase.

Yeah sorry if I sounded aggressive before. I agree that whatever Yuri does, he doesn't want any counters. Yeah Vantage was wasted on Yuri. I ran him through Mercenary in my midgame hoping to give him some bulk, which didn't pan out. In terms of the spell/range thing, Yuri should be carrying around a Levin Sword+ regardless of build. His magic isn't amazing, but he can still do his dodgetank thing with it, and it did better than Rapier+ against armours/cavs throughout the game (Rapier+ is great though). I found (having trained his Bows to B) that bows just weren't that helpful. Curved Shot with a Mini Bow+ is basically all he needs as an assassin - it will hit without Bow Prowess, and although it can't double from one space, I found its higher crit and not needing a skill slot for Close Counter worth the sacrifice on the rare occasion where Yuri had to have an enemy phase after using Curved Shot. In the first place, Curved Shot was a safety mechanism for if/when Levin Sword+ didn't hit, and I suppose Bow Prowess is useful in that every little helps. But the sword skills benefit Yuri (I think more tangibly) by enhancing Windsweep/dodgetanking - Yuri has great crit, but even his crits don't kill Maddening enemies late-game. While I suppose after a certain threshold it doesn't matter how much chip damage you do, that threshold is quite variable - I'd prefer to maximise Yuri's sword output (regardless of whether it ends up killing or not) rather than spend that skill slot increasing a Curved Shot hit by 8 or 10.

Agreed. Wt -3 increases most units' AS and avoid more than Speed +2 can throughout your run. The only reasons to run Spd +2 instead of Wt -3 is if the unit has Lance Jab, which scales on Speed, or if the unit is already strong enough not to suffer penalties from weapons (brawling units for example). Every unit has options better than armour to spend time in, and Great Knight (with its high certification requirements) is the only one that's remotely usable in combat. But if you do end up getting a unit with Wt -5 (and I'm not recommending that you train armour to A+ for that exact purpose, this is only if you happen to get there naturally) you'll find that combined with Strength boosts/growths from armoured classes, they suffer no AS/avoid penalty for every weapon, (though potentially a heavy weapon and a heavy shield might be too much). This is just not true. Or at least, I found that without ridiculously slow tactics like turtling, dodge tanks have to be employed on Maddening. I'm not a fan of them because Fire Emblem is one of those cursed series where enemies will kill you with 10% hit rates and you'll miss a kill with a 90% hit rate far more often than seems likely, but some missions all but demand them. Sometimes turtling isn't even an option because you can't protect your squishy units from Pass/fliers/archers/ambushes - dodge tanks aren't perfect, but you ought to develop at least a couple because they make many maps a lot easier. You won't develop a serious def tank outside of Dedue until the late game - I actually managed it with Sylvain by running him through Fortress and GK to get Pavise and Wt -5, and then gave him Aegis Shield and a high-Prt battalion. But even then Sylvain regularly takes damage from any unit that doesn't use swords or fists - dodge-tanking is the way to go, and can be utilised much earlier on Maddening than def-tanking. I also use predominantly player phase tactics, but there are so many enemies on Maddening, and reinforcements move on the turn they arrive, so it can be very tough to bait selectively and not die. So having someone reliably dodge things is often the best way to ensure that you can have a profitable player phase, otherwise you end up overwhelmed in your player phase or with casualties I've just done a Maddening run, and can safely assure you that Assassin is better than Trickster for Yuri. Yuri has a weird spell list which seems quite attack-oriented but is fairly useless on its own - the spells are only good when they double because Yuri's mag growths are so-so, and while Yuri himself gets some of the best speed in the game, you aren't doubling anything that has a sword or flies pretty much ever. And you faster primary mages (i.e. Constance) will be able to double the enemies Yuri can double with magic, so he doesn't add anything except Silence which is situational. I also can't recommend this - Yuri should have Curved Shot as a reliable way to hit threes, but he shouldn't seriously invest in Bows unless he's going for Sniper and Hunter's Volley. Deadeye is all but useless on Maddening - Yuri has good hit but even Hit +20 won't allow him to hit consistently further than Curved Shot. My Yuri build was as follows: Skills: Sword Prowess, Axebreaker, Lethality, Poison Strike, Vantage. CAs: Curved Shot, Finesse Blade, Windsweep (and Assassinate). Stick his Relic on him if you don't want to give it to Dancer Marianne, but otherwise a Crit/Evasion Ring is nice. As you can see I ran Yuri through Dark Mage - it isn't hard for him, and Poison Strike adds some much needed bite to his attacks. Lethality is worth a skill slot because why not, but Duelist's Blow is pretty useless (it was fun in CS, but it won't stop anyone who was already gonna hit a sword user from hitting, and it makes little sense to boost player phase avoidance in general).Vantage isn't necessary at all, because with his relic and his speed stat we're hoping never to sink below 50% health on enemy phase, but is there just in case he can crit someone before they kill him. Replacement skills can be HP +5/ Str +2 (Yuri wants help for Strength mainly, but HP/Def/Res as well, because if something gets through his dodge-tanking past midgame he's gonna die). Yuri is also a great candidate for Wt -3, and because of his low strength it finds immediate utility in increasing his avoidance (you should expect 70+ avoidance from him by endgame). If you can get Sword Crit +10/Swordfaire then definitely use the remaining slot on those in the late-game.

Sniper is still a great class even on low-Str physical builds like with Ignatz, and obviously characters like Shamir are built for Sniper so do great in it, but Hanneman is better than all of them. I normally don't bring more than one Sniper into an endgame team, and Hanneman beats the other Snipers I've had because of a few reasons. 1. Magic Bow+ is one of only a couple of bows in the game that can hit 3 spaces without CAs/class skills, which means that Hunter's Volley can hit from 4 spaces (which is the Sniper's max range, and you can only otherwise hit twice from that range with a Longbow or Failnaught). 2. The fact that Res stats still remain middling to low for most Maddening enemies means that Magic Bow's output is consistently high. There aren't many high-Mt bows (especially on Black Eagles routes) which means that sometimes Hunter's Volley has to rely on the crit to get the kill. Hanneman is just a bit more surefire (his Mag and Dex weren't as good as my other mages and bow users respectively, but with a decent battalion he was still reliably getting kills where they weren't). 3. Hanneman developed a unique and unexpected niche fighting monsters. When I started his build I ran him through Dark Mage without really thinking about it, but as a Sniper it means that he could delete an entire bar of health for a monster with Hunter's Volley (without counter mostly) and then Poison Strike chips on the next bar. In theory your other male snipers can do that too, but given how tough some monsters are on Maddening and how easy it was to run Hanneman through Dark Mage, I think he's best placed to do that. However, Hanneman's other CAs aren't all that special (Schism Shot and Ward Arrow have the same stats, so the only reason to run the latter over the former is in a mage-heavy map like CF Ch.16, and even then Hanneman is still capable of outright killing mages with HV so they're pointless). And Shamir saw use as a sniper who could fight back (Hanneman cannot be allowed in range of Falcon Knights and the like, although he can kill them on Player Phase). But yeah, Hanneman edges it for me. In theory War Monk ought to be worse, but weirdly this run saw me love War Monk (I only used it with Byleth on the way to a Fists build, which is probably why) and hate Trickster. Duelist's Blow has remarkably little use - if you're doing your Player Phase right, then units who get Duelist's Blow shouldn't be taking enemy counters anyway because they're getting the kill or hitting from range. And obviously it just takes up a skill slot on Enemy Phase. Foul Play was fun though, and although it would be game-breaking if it weren't class-locked, I wish anyone could get it. I actually ended up giving Edelgard a Bolt Axe+ in the lategame with the same thoughts. I didn't count it as a mixed build because I made zero effort to optimise her for it, but she was doubling often too (and Wt -5 meant she didn't suffer any penalties for using it), and the magic hit formula actually helps her hit rate a bit - Bolt Axe+ ended up being more accurate than any other ranged option she had barring a Hand Axe+. Of course, her hit is still shaky, but Bolt Axe+ was definitely capable of getting the kill. Did you do anything to optimise Cyril for Bolt Axe?

So I just finished (finally) my Maddening CF run, and this was my first run with all the DLC content. So I used it as an opportunity to test out some mixed builds (magic weapons/CAs in physical classes, or straight-up hybrids using spells and weapons). I've rated the characters I tried out below on how well they fit their builds (deeper analysis in the spoiler brackets), and I'd love to hear what mixed builds other people have tried out/how I could better optimise mixed builds for my upcoming Maddening BL run. Hubert - 8.5/10 Jeritza - 7/10 Dorothea - 5.5/10 Manuela - 4/10 Ingrid - 5/10 Ignatz - 9/10 Hanneman - 10/10 Special shout-out goes to Flayn, who I put in Pegasus Knight so that she could train her Lance rank up to A for Frozen Lance, but then couldn't be bothered to do that before Ch. 11, so I made her wander about Triangle Attacking everybody for no reason.

Don't forget Quick Riposte - of course, once you get it it becomes a question of whether you want your unit to be more player-phase oriented (Grappler) or enemy-phase oriented (WM, the crit+20 boost is passive) Does Quick Riposte have synergy with Battalion Vantage? That sounds super broken if it does, but I have to agree otherwise that Vantage only matters if/when your counter can one shot an enemy.

The Chalice of Beginnings ritual happens a decent while after the war - it's likely that the Apostles got their crests after the war (like we presume about people who got crests from the Saints) but it was the original Nabateans who fought in the war (perhaps they fought in the war without Crests and were rewarded with them or something). Aubin at least is first-gen, and although we can't confirm that the other Apostles were, the Elites gave their names to their crests as first-gen bearers, which would explain the naming system.

Your entire comment is full of good advice - anything I don't already do I will be learning from in my next serious playthrough. The big difference between our play styles is that I don't decide who makes my endgame team until quite late (normally midway through part 2, after units start getting master classes). It means that I'm planning, and attempting to carry out, specific builds for every character I recruit (which now that I'm experienced in the game means the majority of them), and giving them lots of time to 'prove themselves' through performance (I tend not to decide my endgame build based on the characters I like the most). Obviously on NG Maddening that just makes my life harder (not by a ton, though it obviously is less efficient), but I acknowledge that my preferred way of playing the game is not the most optimal.

The bolded part probably explains it - I tend to recruit as much as possible even on Maddening, and I'll try to raise paralogue units up until their paralogue even if they won't be part of my endgame team, which means my Part I is more diluted for everyone. I try not to lean on individual characters until I finish up with paralogues for good, and if I'm playing with a NG+ chain then I try and give every recruited character at least one mastery in an advanced class. So yeah, I've never seriously attempted to go for S+ before, or streamlined my army from an early stage so that it's easier to get. Agreed also that Maddening is the easiest difficulty to raise weapon ranks on, by far.

Yeah I've never achieved S+ without abusing aux battles, although Byleth on non-CF routes could definitely manage S+ I think. I suppose that may just be my lack of skill as a player. But if you can do it, having two Faire skills for one weapon vastly outclasses wielding a secondary weapon, unless that secondary is bows and you are a flier (and even then, the unit isn't obviously better, it'll depend on context). Alert Stance+ is definitely possible on a NG playthrough, although I'd imagine it would require a pretty strict schedule (Pegasus-Wyvern-Master Class for women, and a good amount of extra flying teaching for men) and even then I can't see it becoming available before Ch. 18 (assuming that you aren't really leaning on that flier beforehand). So yeah, limited utility, but on an NG playthrough all of your fliers will get normal Alert Stance, and it's only a minimum of one, particularly dodgy, flier who wants/needs Alert Stance+. It's definitely useful enough to warrant getting, and achievable enough to plan for. Paralogues that are automatically available (Ingrid and Flayn) net you the two that I assume you're referring to, then there's the default Seiros/Kingdom flier battalions and then the DLC (which also gives two useful flying battalions from Constance and Anna) . The D-rank flier battalions are obviously not as good as the average B-rank battalion, let alone the better flying battalions, but they aren't so bad as to put you off running fliers entirely - and a flier with Alert Stance+ and Seiros Pegasus still makes dodge-tanking more reliable than an Assassin with Brigid Hunters.

From a practical standpoint, I don't think she would have survived long enough to oppose the Agarthans in any meaningful way. Thales rocking up in Ch.9 seems more like a deus ex machina than anything else, given how his ability to interfere with Divine Pulses isn't brought up again, but I don't see how Thales with those powers lets a relatively high-ranking Agarthan like Kronya survive, when her surviving means not only the potential for Rhea to learn too much about the Agarthans, but her actively failing to perform the role Thales intended for her. It's also unclear how ideologically sincere the Agarthan characters all are - Kronya may genuinely believe Nabateans and their allies are so trash that she'd do Agarthan things just because, or to get back in Thales' favour.

Presumably Edelgard, even in lending him to Arundel, orders Jeritza to follow certain instructions. Which is why he doesn't care about the orders from the Western Church/TWSITD mage in Ch. 4. And his arc in Part I seems a little more Byleth-focused. He gets intrigued in Byleth after they pick up SotC, then the Flame Emperor prevents him from going all out on Byleth a couple of months later. It seems to me (and his dialogue throughout Ch. 8 would confirm) that he's only really in Remire to try and fight Byleth, rather than to protect Tomas. On Maddening, Tomas takes advantage of that and scurries off after the Death Knight, but the Death Knight doesn't really move to protect him at any point, simply charging forwards. Point being, he does what Edelgard says, but only fights for himself outside of that - if that happens to coincide with someone else's aims then so be it. Yeah I figured it would be for you, and it's a good thing you stated it like this, because often it comes across (probably unintentionally) that your arguments about a character's goodness are somehow objective, or at least that you expect a majority to agree and weight all these qualities in the same way you do. As long as you're happy that at least some people are going to disagree with you on a fundamental level, and that those kinds of differences won't be resolved by debate, then yeah go wild with knocking Dimitri or whatever.

Jeritza is a useful military tool. He becomes loyal to Edelgard personally, and is an effective fighter and general (putting aside the gameplay mechanics of how you beat the shit out of him like, up to 7 times in VW). While he is temperamental and murderous, he follows whatever orders Edelgard gives herself - his obstructionism rears its head mainly with respect to TWSITD, which suits Edelgard just fine. So Edelgard, in contracting Jeritza to fight for her, did the logically correct thing in accomplishing her goals, something which hindsight guarantees as the right call. Mercy has nothing to do with it, as far as I can see - it's a profit-loss calculation, and Edelgard sees greater profit in keeping Jeritza alive and indebted to her than dead. As far as Edelgard herself is concerned, she did the right thing, because she did what was best for her - if compassion or mercy was involved (and there is no evidence to suggest that it was) then it was entirely incidental/secondary. Jeritza, however, was in no position to refuse Edelgard's offer - that's what happens when you kill a noble (no matter how crappy they are). That doesn't change the fact that the situation Edelgard placed him in is one that entirely exacerbates his already fragile mental state. While we don't know the exact timescale between Jeritza killing his father and joining Edelgard, we do know that he killed his father in a rage. It's a precursor to the Death Knight personality, but it is not the Death Knight. The Death Knight is an example of Jeritza somehow harnessing a fragment of his personality and murderous instincts for use in battle, shown by the donning of the mask. But Jeritza did not choose to snap at the moment of killing his father. The incidents share similarities, like memory loss, and it's clear that this event ultimately led to the existence of the Death Knight. However it did not inevitably lead to the existence of the Death Knight. It is serving Edelgard that allowed Jeritza to habitually access this dysfunctional part of himself, and gave him an excuse to run free with it. In a world without mental health provision, that might seem like an acceptable release, but it most certainly is not. Throwing someone with a burgeoning dissociative personality disorder into violent situations is Bad Psych 101, and it is entirely Jeritza's status as a killing machine that gives him the leeway to endorse his own murderous urges. When your value is already defined as your role as killing machine, it is not only easy but likely that you adapt yourself to fit that new role. We see that exact process in the journey of the Death Knight in 3H. He never takes off his mask in non-CF routes because his entire reason for existing (on the battlefield, but also continuing to exist at all) is to kill - Edelgard's enemies just happen to be the people he's allowed to kill without punishment. Unless, of course, you complete Mercedes' paralogue - as an important person from his past, Mercedes has the ability to make him re-access his Jeritza personality, even if only briefly (she doesn't have the access or the opportunity to break down the Death Knight's walls any further than that). He doesn't remove his mask in CF pre-DLC either, although the DLC (presumably to cut corners/because you have so little time in Part II) decides to just reintroduce him without his mask, and no prior explanation of why he turns up and why he took off his mask in the first place, apart from gameplay convenience. But the DLC only confirms what being a tool of war has done to him - he is at first only capable of valuing others in terms of battle potential (hence his original attraction to Byleth), and as such is almost incapable of human connection even with people he spends a lot of time with, like his subordinates. He is constantly at risk of losing control over his actions (as seen where he goes Death Knight on Mercedes) despite Jeritza actively disliking who he is as the Death Knight. His Byleth A-rank is entirely couched in the language of murder and violence, despite the emotions behind them being that of attraction and connection. These unhealthy behaviours and his inability to communicate effectively began in him because of a traumatic childhood, but were ingrained in him through years spent existing purely for the purpose to murder on command - of course he develops an unhealthy attachment to killing and a whole personality developed around it when those actions are the ones reinforced by the only presence he accepts as having any kind of power over him. Tying this to my original thread, if it were in Jeritza's power to do so, he should turn his back on the war in a heartbeat. Beyond his contractual obligation he has no real reason to fight for Edelgard, especially when one of the costs is Mercedes' death. Of course, not only does he value holding up his end of the bargain, but it seems likely that Edelgard is providing him carte blanche immunity in return for working for her, so Jeritza really has little choice in the matter anyway - but it remains that he should betray Edelgard and not fight for the Empire, although he isn't in a position where he can. Now I'm pretty wary about speaking on Dimitri (because as you know I haven't played AM yet) but it seems like he is simply more rigid about morality. He can't stomach working with evil even if their goals coincide with his own, and he is less open-minded/relativistic in general. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just different to Edelgard. Having sympathy/compassion for more groups of people doesn't necessarily make you a 'better person', although I'd be the first to accept that opinions will and should differ on that. What I will say is that the fact that Dimitri would be more likely to punish Jeritza (and execution is potentially, but not necessarily, the result of such punishment) doesn't make him inherently worse than Edelgard. Feel free to argue that Edelgard is worse or better, just don't use Jeritza as evidence for that claim.

I can't speak for Jeritza's similarity to Dimitri, but I want to make sure you aren't suggesting that Edelgard handled Jeritza in the best way, or even in a particularly good way. Jeritza's entire life is one huge catastrophe, and Edelgard didn't save him from any of it - in fact she amplified his trauma. I'm not saying that she was under any obligation to help him, or that hurting him was her intention. But joining Edelgard just did not help Jeritza - it was certainly beneficial for Edelgard, but let's not imply that it was an equally beneficial relationship, or that any of the situations Jeritza was placed in were good for him.

In fairness, master class flying units can be certified into from rank C flying (provided they've met their other proficiency targets, which are certainly easier to reach) so it's not a given that any unit is gonna reach A+ flying by endgame. Alert Stance+ is only worth getting (without NG+) if you want a flier dodge tank. But Maddening all but necessitates some form of tanking, and Dedue is the only unit who could even potentially def-tank a Maddening enemy phase before the late-game (Great Knights with heavy shields, high-Prt battalions and potentially Pavise too can do it in the late game, but def-tanking in general isn't the trustiest of methods). Meaning you'll want at least one really high-avoid build, if not more. And fliers are the easiest units to get high avoid from, so it makes sense to train for Alert Stance+ for at least that flier. Obviously it isn't absolutely necessary, but pretty much no skill is.

just remember it also requires the thief certification (which is fine for you, but it means you can't class into trickster straightaway). You definitely get the opportunity to class into Trickster once you get B rank in one weapon and C rank in the other, so pouring everything into Faith (and temporarily reclassing Marianne into Priest if you have the cert) could make Trickster accessible by the time two in-game weeks have passed (one week for Thief cert, the second for Trickster).

Yep I don't disagree with this. Your comment I've quoted here doesn't contradict what I said earlier either, and both can be true at the same time. Out of interest is there any particular reason you defend Edelgard so intensely? Returning to the thread, what do people think of the (semi-serious) case for Anna "betraying her faction"? Anna is unlike almost every other character in the game, in that she is available to recruit in Part I or Part II, and her recruitment conditions are only: 1. Complete Ch. 2 2. Be in Garreg Mach So she is the only character who canonically sides with Byleth on every route, since the faction that Byleth joins inevitably occupies Garreg Mach in Part II. Her motivations for fighting with you are pretty mild (she just wants to do research, she claims), and she promises to make it worth your while. So in this case, for her to betray her faction, would be for her to aid whichever side Byleth opposes. Her motivations in general are to make money, and collect rare items. The best way for her to make the most money (and gain access to information) would be to play both sides - sell items and/or information to both armies. It wouldn't be a breach of her deal with Byleth, given that she consistently does pay the player for their services (Trade Secret quests every month and gives you half the share of treasure from her paralogue), but it would be a betrayal given that there's a war going on. Is there any reason for her to be loyal and only do business with Byleth's faction?

Hmm this sounds a little like pedantry to me. Byleth doesn't technically know (but they could feasibly suspect) a lot about their heritage until just prior to Fhirdiad where Edelgard has The Chat - before that point she never mentions Byleth fighting against their own kind, or Byleth's relation to Rhea, but keeps whatever she does know (it doesn't seem like that much anyway) to herself. I don't disagree that she's being vulnerable by speaking to Byleth privately throughout CF, but it's just as much about confirming Byleth is onside (because that is critical to her goals) as it is an emotional journey for her (because a big part of her can't bring herself to believe anyone would or could choose to walk alongside her). She's more afraid in those moments than actively manipulative - she obviously has plenty of reason to fear opening up to people. It just so happens that in this case her personal issues coincide with her public duty to win (and Byleth is key in both). So yeah, while I'm no shrink, it seems to me like she keeps asking Byleth of his choices as a way of explaining herself to them while affirming her own choices - not only is Byleth's approval paramount as the first person Edelgard has truly let in, it's also the scariest to obtain, because for Edelgard a lot publicly and privately rides on it (even if gameplay mechanics means that the player is locked in for the ride anyway). If you don't want to call that justification, that's fine though too.

Ingrid has great hit/avo, but low magic growths for a magic attacker, and Dark Flier doesn't help with that, even with Tomefaire. I've been having a fair bit of trouble making her into a powerful magic attacker - she works great as a dodge tank, but can't often get kills (am running her in a magic sword build currently). She does have a good Faith list though, and Thoron at C makes her a decent mage, if lacking in stopping power. Your Dark Flier build looks quite good. I personally tend to out-snipe Snipers where I can (Caduceus Staff with a 3-spell and/or Thyrsus do the trick before S-rank, and I don't normally run more than two attack-oriented mages in a party) because mages normally do better on player phase than on enemy phase (they're just too brittle, unless you're in one of the few situations where an enemy phase is magic-heavy), but in fairness I've never tried to make an enemy phase mage. How did it go?

I'm not trying to say Edelgard feels like she's doing the wrong thing (and the general point you're making here seems true) but it's all the more reason why she feels a need to justify herself to Byleth - Byleth has thrown away their birthright for her, and she's scared they'll regret it, especially because Byleth comes to mean much more than a powerful ally.