Barren

You could do Yuri as well with his relic. He has a boon in authority so I can imagine that he can reach Rank A pretty quickly

I remember watching Mekkah's video on Catherine. And she is pretty much worth to recruit that early since she can actually take hits for your team

I think what I was trying to do is explain if they feel worth bringing to the team more often than not. Perhaps I should have worded it better but I hope that clears things up a little

Ahh good to note. Thank you for correcting me

I've been testing out pretty much all members of the church/knights of seiros and I can come up with characters I feel are worth using on a team. I would still recruit them anyways just for the faculty drills alone throughout part 1 and 2. But to use them in battle is a different story usually. Of course I am aware that if you don't recruit certain people you can defeat them for rewards like axe of zoltan or brave bow for example. But if you don't care for those weapons or you'll get another one anyways then I wouldn't worry about them. Edit: I forgot that enemies that replace the recruited members get these weapons as well. Thank you @Shadow Mirfor the correction On normal mode all of them are perfectly usable. But on hard/maddening mode I would like to discuss some potential options for them if possible Anna Boons Swords, Axes, Bows, Faith, Riding (Budding Talent) Bane Reason, Authroity Catherine Boons Swords, Brawling Bane Reason Cyril Boons Lances, Axes, Bows, Riding, Flying Bane Reason, Faith Shamir Boons Lances, Bows Banes Faith Flayn Boons Lances, Reason (Budding Talent), Faith Bane Heavy Armor, Riding Manuela Boons Swords, Faith, Flying Bane Reason, Heavy Armor Hanneman Boons Bows, Reason, Riding Bane Heavy Armor, Flying Alois Boons Axes, Brawling, Heavy Armor Bane Reason, Flying Gustave Gilbert Boons Lances, Axes, Heavy Armor, Riding Bane None Seteth Boons Swords, Lances, Axes, Authority, Flying Bane Riding Jeritza Boons Swords, Lances, Brawling, Riding, Flying (Budding Talent) Bane Faith, Authority These are my personal takes on these units. Though I do ask if you think any of them are worth using on hard or maddening mode? I'm really curious to see what you guys think. If there is any info I'm missing or misstated feel free to correct me.

She was pretty fun. I mastered Uncanny Blow beforehand. At least on normal mode (I'm just experimenting around really). Of course being a Wyvern Rider/Wyvern Lord fixes helps her strength issues a little bit since it'll jump from 35% to 45%, but her defense is still pretty poor. Her resist stat is still high enough to tank magic damage. So it's mostly a gimmick. Only rally she knows is rally dex so her rallying options is really limited to that. Her bane in authority also doesn't help matters since flying battalions tend to be more about physical attributes than magic. Her budding talent in axes exhaustive strike isn't really worth using unless you like breaking forged weapons over and over again. Though using smith stones to repair forged steel axes aren't the worst thing in the world. I just don't use it that much.

I was testing out Bolt Axe+ Hapi as a Wyvern Rider the other night, it does inflict magic damage as intended but I've noticed that it still triggers Pavise when going up against those titanus monsters. My guess it's because Axes are technically still recognized as physical weapons?

I see. That's a good history lesson in that case

I can respect that. It also gives me the impression that some old strategies like vantage + wrath for example while it still works, and it combos well with counter attack from retribution or chalice of beginnings, it can still be beaten by either being out ranged or enemy gambits. I wonder if maybe the developers were hoping that we take every combination now matter what was changed and try them for ourselves and see how they work. I recently tried out darting blow + battalion desperation and it I can confirm that it does work since they are both player phase skills unlike quick riposte and battalion vantage in which they both don't work together (someone in one my threads have tested it and confirmed it). Desperation both regular and battalion versions are supposed to allow you immediate follow up attacks as opposes to you hit enemy, enemy hits you and then you hit enemy again. I guess it can work if you're going to one round the enemy anyways without taking any damage in return. On normal mode I know it works well enough. I can imagine that it will be harder to pull off on the higher difficulties because of the enemies having higher stats. Oh wow. Luna was that strong huh? Good to note actually. I also remember a time when Vantage was busted too. I forgot which FE game it was but I remember it basically negated enemy phase (I could be misremembering something of course). Or in Awakening where Galeforce was one of the best skills in the game. I know they toned it down as of now with Edelgard's combart art since you can only use it up to 5 times I think.

I had no idea that Lifetaker was that bad now. Is it me or are the developers trying too hard to balance some things but ended up nerfing things way too much too hard? I know that is off topic but still

I have no doubt that he's perfectly usable on hard or maddening. While I don't have any experience with the higher difficulties as of yet (I do plan on tackling it eventually), from my experience using him, he was useful at securing KOs with Frozen Lance and a Silver Lance +. His above average across the board stat growths outside of luck and defense does open up a number of things he could do. I usually prefer to buff his magic growth by classing him as a monk then mage for fiendish blow before going into paladin because 40% speed is not spectacular to begin with. He's not as slow as say Raphael for example but faster units like Lysithea whose speed growth is 50% and Leonie's 60% is quite a bit for him to go up against when it comes to doubling enemies. For Lorenz, I find him to be useful for chip and dip damage as a Dark Knight with Fiendish Blow and Poison Strike against bosses and monsters in general. Plus him having access to Recover while it tends to be slept on can be clutch if you're looking for a super heal. He can heal and then get away provided that you utilize his high movement correctly

Lorenz was a DK in my GD play through (on normal so I have no experience with maddening just yet) and I thought he was fine. But I do also think that giving him something like movement +1 and black magic range +1 as a dark knight could help him out with his range. Plus he gets recover. A lot of people seem to sleep on that. However I still think that Lysithea is a better damage dealer than Lorenz but she has way less bulk. So I think it really comes down to how well you position them really. Poison Strike I can only see being good against bosses with high HP or even monsters since poison strike does carry over to their next health bar. Lifetaker I wouldn't really use either unless you know for sure you're going to one shot someone. So getting the dark seals for the most part on the higher difficulties it seems, doesn't feel like it's worth going after the Death Knight for. Hubert can take full advantage of it yes but why keep him as a Dark Bishop with 4 move when you can make him a Dark Knight instead?

The only good thing I can think of for Anna is that her crest can occasionally cancel counter attacks when in combat. So for the most part if you're ever going to use Anna at all it would be for that purpose only. She does have a budding talent in riding which gives her pass so she can do some neat things on a horse similar to Bernadetta as a Bow Knight if you so desire. You could also go for Movement +1 and Pass with her as a Trickster or Assassin since both of them are the fastest class options for her. And then there is Great Knight if you want her to go down the tanking route. She has a boon in Axes so her being a bad character going into a bad master class somehow makes it fitting. You would have to have her go down the armored knight route and just have her goal be set to Axes and Riding. As a matter of a fact, it's one of her suggested goals. It's called: "Journey to the Great Knight"

I tend to think that Caspar is just underwhelming to me. The moment I recruited Balthus I knew he was just better because his K.o.G personal ability gives him a +6 in Str/Def when under 50% health which combos with the Vantage + Wrath skill well. Use the retribution gambit or give him the chalice of beginnings and there you go. Caspar does have born fighter which is -10 avoid for adjacent foes but his stats are mediocre at best for me. I just think that Balthus brings more to the table than Caspar and certainly Raphael. Dedue at least has Staunch Shield which does mix well with defense +2 and you can even give him something like a goddess ring for some nice HP regen.

I honestly think it depends on who you recruit. Like for example if you want to Constance as your warlock since she has bolting ,she could replace Dorothea as the damage dealer for your team while Dorothea can be a dancer primarily and be a secondary healer/attacker with physic and thoron. If you like having Dorothea as a gremory/warlock instead you could always recruit Marianne. I find her to be another good pick for a dancer. Some will argue that since Marianne has a boon in riding they like to give her movement +1 and a march ring so she can be a dancer with 8 move. Therefore this makes her one of the best picks. Marianne has physic and thoron as well and a better magic stat growth than Dorothea

I can understand that. Riding does require a lot of investment for those who don't have a boon in it. The only exceptions I can think that can get into Dark Knight easily are Sylvain (provided you go for his budding talent) and Lorenz who can become a Dark Knight naturally. I personally don't think they are that bad but on some maps I can definitely agree that they would have a hard time getting around because of horses not being able to climb stairs really well for example. Would Dark Flier be a better choice then? Considering that if you master Warlock first to get Bowbreaker then go to Dark Flier you can at least give yourself an extra layer of protection especially since you'll just be spamming magic anyways

What about Dark Knights? I know that their movement/range compared to Valkyries are evened out. Dark Knights have 7 move Black/Dark Tomefaire and Valkyries have 6 move and Black/Dark Magic Range +1. I feel as though Valkyries are stepping stones to become a Dark Knight because you could combine Fiendish Blow + Uncanny Blow for maximum damage and hit. Couple that with Movement +1 and Black/Dark Magic Range +1 and better stat growths and you can hit something for high damage then run. Of course that combo is for females only so maybe characters like Annette or Marianne come to mind when being Dark Knights. Yeah the drop in speed sucks but it's only 5%. To me getting Reason to Rank S while it does take a long time I felt was worth it. Especially when you combine it with Thyrsus Staff. Dark Fliers though are lower requirements and has transmute which comes in handy at times and you can always go pegasus knight beforehand and get darting blow but you're limited to flying battalions which is my gripe with them. Other than the Nuvelle Flying Co. which boosts magic and hit, most other flying battalions focus more on the physical side of things.

I would think Leonie could work better as a Falcon Knight because she's naturally very fast and lance jab doing more damage based off of her speed looks really good especially with lancefaire. Having Bow at A rank also helps her out too giving her Point-Blank Volley as a distant attacking option. But that's just me personally

I tried War Cleric Constance on my GD run and she was fun to use. Though I would imagine that would be a one trick pony on the harder difficulties. I can see her however using something like brawl prowess level 5, brawl avoid +20, fiendish blow, magic + 2, and brawl crit + 10 if you want her to be getting higher crits with killer gauntlets and mystic blow or just her brawling in general

I suppose that's true. Desperation is probably better on front line units for sure especially when paired with a high crit weapon.

The only riding classes I feel are worth going for are dark knights and bow knights. Black/Bowfaire respectively and canto are good hit and run options for those classes and helps their mobility and allows them to inflict extra damage on top of that. Paladins while I acknowledge that Ferdinand and Sylvain brings out the best of these classes thanks to swift strikes and lancefaire, the speed drop could be the biggest issue here. But having 8 move is hard to turn down. Then there's Wyvern Lord which is harder if not impossible to turn down because fliers are great, unless you would rather have extra damage from lancefaire instead of axes.

I actually tested out darting blow + battalion desperation on ingrid and from what I gathered it does indeed work as long as you're able to double attack your opponent. So I'm wondering if perhaps if for a Dark Flier build for her one could try Reason Level 5, Fiendish Blow, Darting Blow, Bowbreaker and Battalion Desperation? It might not necessarily work all the time I would think on higher difficulties but the idea would be an effective hit and run strategy with magic. Transmute helps if you were to be targeted by magic but that is situational at best after some experimentation. But when it does activate the +3 to all stats makes it more manageable for the next player phase. I understand if Dark Flier Ingrid might not be optimal but at least classing her as a mgae then warlock should help out her magic stat a bit and having strong blizzards and thorons with a good crit chance can be fun to try out

Yea that's my thing too. If his growths in magic was a little better (maybe even speed which is at 50% and that is pretty good), then perhaps he could pull it off. But yea, Paladin Sylvain inflicting more damage then running off or Wyvern Lord Sylvain doing a fly hit and run with Swift Strikes seems to be more optimal than DK Sylvain. While somewhat off topic, I've always wondered if Wyvern Lord Sylvain is really better than Paladin Sylvain because Swift Strikes with Lancefaire does more damage than Wyvern Lord Sylvain since Paladins have Lancefaire as a class skill, making the strength class modifier for Paladin an effective +7 as opposed to the Wyvern Lord's +4

I've tried Dark Flier Ingrid on my GD play through. I had to class her as a Warlock so she can a buff in her magic and defense stat. With Bowbreaker along with fiendish blow and alert stance she did good in baiting in enemies and getting a stat buff thanks to transmute from enemy mages though that ability came through as situational to me. Warlock Hilda seems fun as well with 2x of black magic as well as black tomefaire. She gets Thoron and Bolting for some juicy long range attacks. War Cleric Catherine seems be fine as a front liner or guard adjutant. I've also done War Cleric Constance and while OHKO'ing low HP enemies with Mystic Blow or using Aura Knuckles was fun, she seems to be a one trick pony here. I never tried Holy Knight Ingrid though with I would think Dark Flier would probably be a better choice since flying beats riding and she can still use physic all the same. I've also seen Holy Knight Dimitri if you want him to function as a bulky healer. He also gets Aura too but his low magic growth isn't really worth it for him to use offensive magic to begin with. Even if Aura has a good critical hit chance, 20% I think. There's Dark Knight Sylvain which could work because he could function as a dodge tank with black magic and he at least has a decent spell list. Though he's more leaned towards physical classes than magic so getting him to be at least a mixed attacker can be tough pending on RNG I've tried Holy Knight Bernie. She has rescue and physic which is nice but her magic growth is bad unless you keep feeding her magic stat boosting items if you're that determined. At least Holy Knight Marianne can use white tomefaire and aura for good damage but 3 uses of it is really limiting. She her running around with a sword and sword avoid with blutgang and levin sword was fun. Giving her frozen lance was also a nice option too along with fiendish blow and dex +4 for more added damage

That's a good point. Dismounting is useful especially against enemy archers and snipers since it neutralizes the flying weakness