Barren

Is it because there aren’t that many mages to deal with on Birthright? Because if so then you would be right in saying that the need to dodge magic on this route would be very situational.

Sorry for the double post, but after doing some more research, I realized Heart Seals exists for Corrin to reclass into the talent of their choosing. I've been reading up on a couple of wikis (I'm taking it with a grain of salt) and typically either dragon or ninja are the best talents for corrin because of Malig Knight and Master Ninja respectively thanks to their abilities. I could also try Cavalier or Mage if I want Paladin or Dark Knight (though I hear that Male Corrin makes for a better Dark Knight thanks to Felicia).

Ahh I didn't realize that Levin sword isn't in Birthright. Thanks for correcting me. I am aware about Kaze's support needing to be at A (yes I was spoiled a long time ago). If Jakob can already promote into Paladin I wouldn't need to pair him up with Silas then. That's good to note. Though wouldn't Silas benefit from the Butler class since Tomebreaker can be helpful? If Levin Sword is not available in Birthright then I wouldn't mind starting over since I didn't get very far into it anyways. I can always revisit the +mag/-luck build for Conquest since I'm assuming has Levin Sword. If anything +speed/-luck is something I will now try out.

Hi. I have been meaning to try out Birthright Lunatic before going to Conquest (also bought DLC before Nintendo shuts down their servers next year). I did play Birthright a long time ago but never finished. I’m trying out a +magic/-luck build for Corrin with her talent being Samurai. From what I’ve read they have good skills to pick up including Swordfaire. Levin Sword I’m aware has it’s drawback like the avoid -20, but I do like the 1-2 range. Jakob is going to be my pair up bot as a Paladin (yes his ability is great early game). So I’m wondering if Swordmaster or Hoshido Noble Corrin is a good class to be in for the Lunatic setting? Technically Corrin as far as I’m aware can do better as a Malig Knight but I’m curious about Corrin being a levin sword user. I do want to try Malig Knight for Conquest eventually and I’m curious about Revelations if I can do either the same build or as something else. I might pair up Corrin with either Jakob or Kaze. I’ve read that both or really popular and my girlfriend once told me that having Jakob’s and Silas’ support up to A+ is a viable strategy and Jakob picking up Tomebreaker is recommended too. I’m not far into it yet, I’m actually in chapter 3 but any advice going forward on how to tackle Birthright Lunatic would be good. Thanks in advance.

I don’t think Heal +20 would even be necessary because Heal +10 is plenty good here. IS must have thought that maybe they give Holy Knight a try since they haven’t done pure offensive faith magic wielding classes before. Not counting Bishops from the earlier games of course. The problems are already stated so no need to be a broken record. Partly the issue is that there isn’t enough offensive faith magic to consider white tomefaire to be viable. Rally Spectrum would be a shadow of it’s former glory but a super buffed unit sounds cool nonetheless. I think the game is built at least well enough that you could get away with rallying just one unit. Awakening was pretty generous (perhaps I’m understating it) with how rallies function. I have used Fortress Knights before on maddening. If there is one thing I can give them credit for, it’s being able to shave off assaults from brawlers, thieves, cavaliers and to an extent pegasus knights. 27 defense at level 20 assuming you’re making someone a FK i.e. Hilda can serve a purpose. Stride/Warp/Rescue/Foul Play are some movement tech that you can use to your advantage. Plus on Azure Moon, you give them the Duscar Heavy Soldiers battalion for a whooping +10 protection and you pretty much have a very sturdy physical wall. Hit +20 obviously helps if you need them to retaliate.

A Byleth with a set of boons and banes that you can chose form is a great idea! I would also add in changing Byleth’s growths based on their birthday that corresponds to the boons and banes of your choosing. Like a mage Byleth would have a +10% in magic and res but -5% in strength and defense for example.

My quick take on this one is that I do see where they could have done something more interesting with Byleth being more than a silent protagonist. Like they could have him/her verbally speak the line you chose. Kind of how Mass Effect or Assassin’s Creed has their character talk. Would have been nice if they weren’t a bunch of one liners. Edelgard says at the beginning when you have her talk to Byleth that s/he has a strange aura about them. Which is how she is drawn to them. I’ll second what Shantae said about her being able to emotionally connect to Teach. Dimitri just went through something that was pretty fucked up and it consumed him until he was able to finally settle score with El. However she had nothing to do with the Duscar Tradegy but was still an obstacle for him to overcome in order to unite Fodlan under the Kingdom’s banner. Rescuing Rhea was an afterthought. Claude I wished had more of a starring role in his route. He felt like a passenger to me. Just along for the ride. Though his objective is clear and you know why he’s here. It just felt secondary. He’s also the most “protagonist” out of all the lords to me. Hopefully I’m making enough sense.

Dark Flier Ingrid only gives a notable boost to her speed. Something that she’s already proficient with whereas her damage output would still be a bit lackluster. But you could still go for fiendish blow, darting blow, bowbreaker and alert stance+ if you want her to punish snipers and bow knights for attacking her. She can even equip thyrsus or even caduesus staff to give her more range. Dark Knight Ingrid feels a bit better for her in terms of damage output since they offer a magic stat boost while dark flier doesn’t. But less flexibility by comparison in terms of movement though they both have 7 move. Uncanny Blow however offers +30 hit during PP which is huge for Blizzard, Thoron, and Fimbulvetr to connect. Movement +1 is also nice

Ahh very good to note @Shanty Pete's 1st Mate I mean I usually went with what works and have tried to expand my horizons a bit. But this is still something to consider

Yes I can see it better used on Bowfaire classes. I guess why that popped in my head was because of how flexible a forged magic bow can be in this game. Like how I once did Gremory Mercedes with a magic bow. If we were to do a magic bow Bernie, then I would think that you just have to invest into reason and bows and level her up as a mage/archer then certify as a warlock then sniper afterwards. Would she still want fiendish blow for magic bow afterwards as her primary source of damage or should it be served as a backup option against low res enemies?

What about Bernadetta with a forged Magic Bow? I can see where it’d be more effective as a Dark Knight since they kind of have better modifiers compared to Holy Knight but I think it gets 1-3 range. Sure it’s a higher ranking compared to Long Bow but it would be an interesting option for her against armored units at least assuming fiendish blow, magic +2 and hit +20. A bit off topic but, I used Annette as a Dark Knight on Crimson Flower and she was helpful for me on the final boss where Arrow of Indra, Fiendish Blow, Magic + 2 and Sacred Power to have her one shot an enemy Paladin using the Knightkneeler combat art. I know that we shouldn’t be comparing her to Bernie since both of them are suited for different roles. But at least both of them can make Dark Knight work in their own way.

I even tried Manuela as a Gremory on my BL maddening run. She was fine. 2x of Bolting and Warp did come in handy. The only thing for me at the time was that I didn’t build my team that was centered around her and her supports in order to take advantage of the link bonus she provides. That said, she is outclassed by Dorothea in that role since Dorothea has a boon in reason unlike Manuela and while Dorothea has a bane in faith, she has a budding talent which grants white magic avoid +20 adding flexibility for her. However, if Dorothea and Manuela where to be in the same party, she would benefit the most from Manuela since they share a special bond.

I would just look forward to the next fire emblem to be honest. If they are announcing a remake they might hopefully take this opportunity to fix some of the issues the original had and or maybe expand on what made the original so good and make it better.

Yes the first opportunity to do it is in chapter 9. I did that for all three routes of my maddening runs. It does take some time and preparation for it. You have to buy all the fishing bait every month and then eventually you just fish til it’s all gone. It got me roughly 1 1/2 a professor rank by doing this. I was at B professor rank at that point. I got all the way to A with just a few thousand points until I reach A+. Hell I even got to A+ by the end of chapter 11.

The only thing I can think of for Axes is War Master’s Strike with a forged Killer’s Axe. But that’s quite late in the game to acquire it since most players would rather just get Quick Riposte and take it to another class like Grappler or something. Lances, there is no class that has a lancd crit+10 ability like Swordmasters or Warriors have. I guess the Sycthe of Sariel would be the go to crit lance.

No worries. Topics tend to derail on a forum like this anyways. But back to the topic on hand. When I tackled maddening for the first time, I did Golden Deer and ran a Battalion Wrath set with Claude. It’s reliable because I wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not his crest (which restores HP) would activate. But if I were to ever revisit this (which may not be for a long time because I want to finish Silver Snow and put the game down for a while), I want to try something different for a non dedicated crit set. Same with Dimitri though I do admit I loved his b. vantage + b. wrath set since I feel these two are capable enough to run a different kind of set up. El having defiant crit I was met with mixed results as I mentioned before. Even though El is excellent on maddening too thanks to Raging Storm, it would seem that you just have to pray for her crest of flames not activating in order for her crit string to not be broken. Of course it was in a way a good thing that it did proc because I had 0 divine pulses left when I tried the strategy against The Immaculate One. Chapter 18 was the toughest fight for me yet. And god only knows when the Silver Snow final boss for me will probably top it.

I guess you could say I would. But from my experience I typically don’t really need a HV spammer to have a crit set unless it’s against monsters and monster bosses. For the most part a dedicated crit sniper with HV tends to be overkill for me. I mean I have KO’d most enemies without needing any additional crit than what the combat art provides.

I have used Dimitri’s B.Vantage + B.Wrath set. And I can gladly say that it was a god send. Particularly during the Anna Paralogue where he absolutely cleared out nearly everyone since that was a pain in the neck. Falcon Knight Byleth is also quite good on maddening. I used a defiant avoid built where nearly everything had like 1% chance to hit me after factoring in alert stance+ and an evasion ring with the Cichol Wyvern Co. battalion.

I have a curious question for those who have beaten this game on maddening or any of the earlier entries on the series on their lunatic difficulty. Are critical hit set ups overrated? I ask this because it seems to be an easy way out for those otherwise really difficult chapter battles. For example Claude can go Alert Stance+ and Battalion Wrath as a Barbarossa or Wyvern Lord and just score a crit with a forged Killer Blow after dodging an attack with retribution activated. Dimitri has the B. Vantage + B. Wrath set and we all know about that. Edelgard does not have access to B. Wrath. Just regular vantage + wrath+ defiant crit which everyone else can do. I recently beat crimson flower maddening using El as a WL with a defiant crit set. My goal was to have her score a string of critical hits while her HP being dangerously low against The Immaculate One using Raging Storm. It didn’t exactly work out because of her crest of flames activating and restoring her HP but it did bring her down to her last health bar before it broke. Makes me wonder if maddening can be beat without resorting to dedicated crit sets. I’m sure it probably can be beaten but does it make it harder to beat without crit sets or is it necessary anyways because of how difficult maddening can be by the end game?

As already pointed out, the Black Eagles doesn’t have the best start in terms of defense since your only tank by default is Edelgard. Later on Ferdinand can be one if you choose the armor route, but as a Fortress Knight he’ll have a miserable time getting around maps but that role can be alright in certain situations. Of course if you want the most out of Ferdie and even Petra for that matter, they should end up being fliers. In part thanks to Ferdie’s ability confidence which combos beautifully with avoid +10 and alert stance+. Their advantage over the other two is that they are more magic oriented so Hubert, Linhardt and Dorothea already have access to their offensive magic (Hubert with Miasma, Dorothea with Thunder and Linhardt with Wind once you tutor him for a bit in chapter 2). Plus Hubert may along the way during the battle learn Mire which can be nice for softening up enemies for your physical attackers to pick up and easy kill with a CA i.e Tempest Lance or Wrath Strike. Dorothea can be a pseudo healer with Songstress so have let’s say Byleth, Ferdinand, and Petra protect her while enemies approach, eat a hit and then get some HP back. It allows you too make better use of vulneraries this early in the game.

While it may be a bit late to point out considering how far you’re into the game already, but there are a couple of tricks to pull to bump up your squad’s stats by certifying them into certain classes. For example, if you certify someone as a armored knight, their base defense goes up to 12 at level 10. They will also gain an additional defense bonus as a class stat modifier if they stay in the armored knight class which would be increased to 16 . Plus later on if you certify someone into a fortress knight at level 20, they get their base defense increased to 17. If they stay in the class at level 20, their defense will jump up to 27. Same with Warrior which grants someone 19 strength at level 20. Wyvern Lord at level 30 by bumps up a unit’s speed to 20 then if they stay in the Wyvern Lord class their base speed jumps up to 24. You can pull this off with any character. As for Felix, Leonie and Shamir, yes they are great units and if possible definitely deploy them.

Interesting. So it's kind of a speed run or at least a no monastery run. I think the game will force you to pick a dancer though. Not entirely sure

I have seen rallies mess with the AI before and make them do something else so that makes sense. How are you approaching your maddening run? I typically do monastery, battle, monastery, battle then mission.

From my experience, if an enemy has a battalion equipped and they see that two or more of your units are bunches up, they will go for who they feel is the easiest target. So like someone who lacks a charm stat i.e Caspar would be a likely target. But only if he is within their range. Knowing that you could put someone else in range that has a higher charm stat to make the enemy waste their gambit. They will go for it because it doesn’t allow a counter attack. As far as Ignatz, Raphael and Lorenz, it depends on what chapter you are on and what their current level is. I know that at least training them up to be at least able to survive chapter 13 is for the best at that point that way if you wish to bench them you could. I personally was able to train Iggy to be a good enough Sniper where he’ll have no issues one rounding enemies with HV. To be fair the same can be said for other Sniper candidates but I think Ignatz is underrated even for maddening standards. He’s worth it if you’re actually planning on using him. He just takes a while to get going. Raph at least has high enough HP to not die in one round while being doubled. Lorenz imo is just there. Some find him underrated to since he does make a decent dark knight. Nothing wrong with them technically but I feel Ignatz is the better out of the three “meh” units. He is imo less meh.

That’s a fun Byleth build. I mean Byleth can make about any class work considering their starting base stats and growths. Plus with a battalion that offers high avoid and the white magic avoid +20 can be a cool combo along with canto. Marianne as a Mortal Savant is another solid pick for her for the reasons you mentioned. She has a lot of boons which is admittedly curious but she can certainly venture options outside of her typical bishop role.