Alef Zero

I am prepared to be judged for that, but I'm not feeling bad. This is how I feel, and no amount of critique will change it. Still, I regret his death, he never wanted to take part in the war in the first place. I could've planned it better (maybe going left? But I didn't want to fight the monster there), but I hate that map and just wanted it to finish. If I ever play again, I'll try recruiting him to avoid this problem, at least Lysithea can have an ending other than with Hanneman. I don't think he's that much of a jerk, and I'm lazy as well. MAYBE on hard, maybe. On maddening, great knight Seteth with duscur battalion (10 def) was still taking around 20 dmg from warriors. And being doubled by literally everything, but that's a given. Poison strike also ignores all that defence, mages one shots them etc. It's much more trouble than it's worth, especially with ridiculous requirements. Hell, on my hard mode run, GK Ferdinand Von Aegir still couldn't 0-dmg. enemy swordmasters. And let's not forget, with only +1 str, without stuff like swift strikes, GK is not ORKO anyone. So a slow tank, that cannot tank OR kill enemies. Ugh. Actually, is this some kind of twisted joke? what was reasoning behind it? Felix is literally coded for this class (always talking about swords, hidden talent in reason, he even has a sword,reason training request) and it's terrible for him even on hard mode. I'd prefer vantage, wrath and retribution. I want to be like Dimitri, dammnit!

Personally, I find Gremory is her best class (as is the case for pretty much every magic inclined female character). Dark Knight is too much effort for too little gain imho, and Wyvern Lord Annette is, to be blunt, a shitty gimmick. Which you ended up finding out the hard way. Given than, as a Gremory, she was underwhelming even on hard mode, I cannot agree. Dark Knight gives her similar mobility to WL, while retaining her spell access. As a girl, she can go into valkyrie at level 20 as a stepping stone, b+ reason, b riding is achievable without much trouble. A riding for dark knight is a bit steep, but so is A flying for WL, she's neutral in both. She also does not need high axe rank - only enough for bolt axe (since crusher is E rank). If she learns uncanny blow, she has no need for axe prowess. Heck, she can even stay as valkyrie, black tomefaire would not enhance her axe attacks after all. In my opinion, the biggest problems of MS and GK are their bonuses. The ideas are solid - swordmaster with access to magic, and a fortress knight on a horse/paladin with heavy armor. The problem is their performance. Mortal Savant - give him about 5 more points distributed between str, mag and spd and change speed growth from silly -10 do respectable +20 and fill his third slow (I'd go for tomebreaker, it fits thematically with warding blow) and voila, a solid, valid class. Great Knight - 2 more str, 2 dex and 2 more def. What's the point of giving him him dual faires, if he has such low str, that wyvern deals almost the same damage without faires? But most importantly, fix his requirements - A lance OR A axe, B armor, B+ riding, would be fine. On the other hand, Holy Knight and Hero fail, as the idea for them is flawed - offensive white mage, in a game with little offensive white magic? A class with innate vantage, but no easy way to get wrath? This was doomed to fail. I could swear HK was supposed to be an upgrade to paladin - look at the model, it's clearly a paladin model with bigger shoulderpads and a cape. Maybe at some point they decided they want white magic equivalent to dark knight, all reason be damned? Maybe. Take holy knight, add all stat bonuses from paladin, change skillset to lancefaire, white tomefaire, canto, and requirements to A lance, B faith, B+ riding and you get a much desired master class for lance using males. Hell, this is almost exaclty what holy knight is in three hopes, what the hell? As for hero, I don't know why he couldn't have sol, since the skill ALREADY EXIST, in the form of crest of flames. Still, if he can't have then my idea is: +2 def, +2 luk, swordfaire, axebreaker, lancebreaker. This makes hero a strong frontline (as he should be) - solid defences, solid accuracy and dodge against axe and lance users. Nothing spectacular, but it would a great class for late comers, or just for units you have no idea for. And since we're fixing classes, give EO white tomefaire and GL swordfaire. It fits them thematically, and prevents those classes from having an empty slot. I agree, but on hard mode, his swift strikes are enough to ORKO even without lancefaire and I like flexible classes. Magic dmg. is usually better than physical, even basic fire is better than short spears and black magic avoid +20 is neat. Unfortunately, on maddening it would not be enough, and that's why I went with WL for him.

I've just finished my first (and most likely last) run of Maddening. I decided to make one last TH run before moving to engage, and what better route and my favourite Blue Lions house. Since my brother summarized the difficulty as "Actually maddening", to the point of playing one map a day, I decided to make as smooth as possible - I had 50k renown for NG+ goodies, DLC and on casual mode (please don't eat me for this). My general experience was mixed. Thanks to NG+ bonuses, so giving everyone who had it, death, fiendish blows as well as free batalions, early game was much easier than I expected (contrary to horror stories I've read about needing entire team to down one enemy). I gave myself max professor level from the start, so it was smooth sailing all the way to time-skip. I was rather surprised how high skill presidencies were reached, no doubt thanks to much more rounds of combat in general, as well as slower leveling, even with statue bonuses - in fact, those characters that did need mastering some classes, did so without any grind. Nice, unexpected turn of events. Then came the dreaded 13 chapter. It took me only 2 tries - I had my Dimitri camp in bushes with killer lance+ and Byleth stay where he started. Dimitri managed to dodge most enemies, leaving them with low hp, some he even crited to death. When they clumped together I used Byleth's wave attack gambit to tattle them all and give myself breathing room. After Mercedes arrived and Dimitri could be healed, it was smooth from that point on. No one retreated. The rest of the game didn't pose too much of a threat save for one instance - fort merceus. I screwed up and had dimitri with battalion of only 4 endurance - his Optimal build was online, but a single hit would break it completely, and there was an abundance of ballistas and fire orbs. I also made Byleth an Enlighten One for this map, which was a huge mistake. In the end, Mercedes retreated - I just had too few units to wipe all enemies on the center of the map, two fortress knights remained and the second one finished her. After that it was a matter of one atrocity, and death knight was out. Side-note: despite this being my third AM run, this was the first time I saw the scene with Mercedes saying last goodbye to Emile. Apparently, you need to finish her paralogue, but I never recruited Caspar before, and on SS she does not have the scene. I was somewhat spooked. Final map went surprisingly well. This time, Dimitri had blue lion corps at 40 durability, perfect match. Mycen was vantaged, while everyone else went to clear the room on the left. Hapi's Banshee was invaluable to stop war masters in place, while Marianne silenced the one mage I couldn't reach in one turn. After that, I used impregnable wall (can you believe I didn't know it existed before?) on paladin Sylvain who went to take care of fire orb mage. Next turn, I used rescue to get him out of the range and used my entire team to kill the monster. After that, Optimal Dimitri did the thing: this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b67fgXJBW2k basically, just as great lord instead and without warp. He went from level 47 to 49. After all enemies save for monsters were out, it was time for hegemon. Only Dimitri, Byleth, Seteth and Sylvain were able to deal meaningful dmg, but I used impregnable wall to have Hapi and Marianne attack hegemon to break her shield, no dmg was required for that. Fun-fact - Edelgard gets a free attack if Dimitri is in range, which can activate his vantage and one-shot her healthbar and end her turn, before her shield regrows. Hilarious. Almost no units were killed - none on my side (casual), I recruted Lorenz and Ferdinand, managed to spare Leoni and Raphael by going around straight for Edelgard, and then sniping Cloude. Lindhard died - I never liked him, he's gay and asshole decided to walk into the central place on the map, that already caused me an actual headache. I had Dedue fist him to death. I'd like to share a few thoughts on my unit performances: Byleth - I usually keep him as Enlightened One, since I like this class, but time time went War Monk->War Master. It worked well enough, pre-timeskip he was one-rounding everyone with silver gauntlets, post time-skip, killer gauntlets as war master did the trick. +20 crit was also useful for sword of the creator. He was tanky enough (brawling avoid, hp drain from crest, high stats) to draw aggro and not die. I stand by war master being his best class, I don't think wyvern lord would be capable of ORKOs. Dimitri - pretty inconsistent. As a general unit, he was underwhelming - he had insane strength, but enemies have so much health, that without brave lance or atrocity, he would still not ORKO. His speed is high, but without darting blow, always ever so lacking to double. His defence is decent, but enemies deal so much damage tanking is out. He ended up with 85 HP though, so he could take some punishment. Then comes The Optimal Dimitri - b. vantage + b. wrath + killer lance + chalice of beginning == borderline exploit. Unless there were monsters or siege weapons, he was literally death incarnate. He fought so much, that he reached S+ in lances and authority before fort merceus. I highly recommend this build, since otherwise, he's not living up to his lord position. I used great lord class, since I really like his animations, but I now think there was enough time to make him war master, again, I don't think WL would be capable of ORKO, without brave lance or atrocity. Sylvain - I usually made him a dark knight, this time went with safe WL. Nothing to say really, he was spamming swift strikes like there is no tomorrow, and had high mobility. For the last few maps I used renown to make him a great knight, then a paladin - the latter was decently useful, but GK was a mess. Low mobility, low stats and axes still shredded him. My favourite class 😞 Ingrid - people suggest WL to fix her strength, but I went with dark flier. Her spells are solid, dark flier boosts her insane speed (she ended up with 45, no boosters) and fiendish blow + dark tomefaire + doubling was enough to ORKO almost all enemies. Gave her levin sword as backup. She could double some falcons, but not sword masters or final map war masters. Her offense still ended up low (had to give her some magic bosters), but I believe dark flier is her best class - magic dmg. is easier to salvage, since enemies have staggering defence on maddening. Felix - sword classes suck and I needed bow user, so made him a sniper. With quick repose, close counter and hunter volley, he was doubling regardless of phase, ORKOing left and right. Aegis Shield would proc frequently thanks to sniper's high dex, so he could even engage in melee. He started to lag behind by the end tho, that 5 mov is a dread. Since he could take all bows, maybe bow knight with brave bow would be a better idea. Still, a beast. Mercedes - mostly healing, but decent dmg. with reson spells. Could be a bishop, but I made her a gremory - I prefer her animations and i more mov. Used caduceus. Annette - poor girl. One of my favourite characters, but I just can't get her to work. She's a mediocre gremory, warlock has only 4 mov. I went with bolt/lightning axe wielding WL, but since WL bonuses directly contrasts with her personal, she ended up with mediocre numbers in every stat. If I ever play the game again I'll try dark knight/valkyrie with axes as secondary weapon. Marianne - my lovely girl was spectacular all run. As valkyrie she was hitting enemies for 90%-100% hp with 100% accuracy (bless uncanny blow) and healing with physic as necessary. She was briefly a dark knight, but I ended up with mortal savant - she was hitting with steel sword plus soul blade for 80 dmg. Her spd was pathetic from spending all game in mounted classes, so MS speed penalty was meaningless. Hapi - pretty easy path: mage->valkyrie-> dark knight. Gave her thyrsus, so with death T and dark range+, she had 6 range spells with 100% accuracy, which is pretty insane. Her swarm and banshee were invaluable throughout the game. Fantastic unit. Seteth - like Sylvain, not much to talk about - WL spamming swift strikes to ORKO everyone. Briefly made him great knight, with miserable results. With spear of assal and ochain shield, he healed for 40 hp every turn, so quite tanky. Dedue - pretty underwhelming. Went with war master, so he could reliably ORKO, but he was surprisingly easy to kill, and was doubled by everyone. Expected more. Flayn - she's adorable, but her proficiency are shit. I didn't want another dark flier, and she's a mediocre gremory, so made her my dancer. In the end, I rarely deployed her, I don't like using dancers honestly. Would I like to try maddening again? Not likely. Post-timeskip, stat inflation starts to get really out of hand, poison strike on every single archer makes certain strategies unusable, and enemies swarm you from every side. I can't imagine playing maddening without ng+. There were some things I liked though - thanks to slower leveling, no grind was required to master classes and reach high proficiencies. I also really liked more skills on enemies - like breaker skills, or armored strike on armors. If poison strike was just on snipers and not fricking bow knights, it would be fine. quick repose on 51 speed swordmasters is a bit much though. It also makes certain classes, which were already underwheling on lower difficulties, borderline unusuable. Great Knight, Holy Knight, Mortal Savant (mostly), Hero - all interesting and visually striking classes, which will cause nothing but pain, if you try to use them. I will never forgive them for massacring great knight this much. It's painful. Thanks to all that read this behemoth and let me end with this - whoever invented same turn reinforcements, should be sent to the galleys for all eternity, to swim on the sea kissel, with chief who loves water skiing. Maybe after 50 years, he could be given an oar.

Thanks for the advices. I will put the game down for now, I've spent 2 hours trying to save mathilda and I haven't been this pissed since playing ninja gaiden on master mode. Maybe I will be back after engage, but this time definitely playing on normal.

Faye - pegasus knight, tobin - mercenary (myrmidon right now), gray - archer (sniper now), kliff- mage, the rest have their normal classe. Lukas is a knight and clive just got paladin. I have ridersbane, but gave it to claire - she has enough speed to still double some enemies with it, and she needs as much attack as possible, she can't deal any dmg. Only have iron and steel bows. Guess python gets out. I've compared some characters in my game with the document you've provided, and they have the stats above, sometimes even higher. You serious? I've always though that the 4-5 speed difference is too unbalanced, but this is insane. Low res is pretty usual for fire emblem, but then why do mages survive so much physical dmg? In neither TH nor awakening could they survive doubling from physical units, here I sometimes have to use three units to take out one mage. Well, if stats are not the problem for my units, what is? Is Alm's part just much harder than Celica's? I start to regret not making one more mage a cleric for him. Gray is barely doing anything and Faye while fine, could be better used healing, I think.

Hello, I'd like to ask for some help with the game. I'm a relative novice with the series, have only played three houses and awakening (engage waiting its turn) and I've found myself rather stuck with this one. I've just reached chapter 3, following Alm, and on the first random battle, I've lost half my team. If I wasn't playing on casual, I've have frankly thrown away my game. Is this a difficulty spike I've encountered? I feel like my only units that are doing anything are Alm, Faye and Kliff. Forsynth. Python, Clair and Clive are doing minimal dmg. and either get doubled or killed in one hit (or both in case of forsynth). Python is particularly worthless. There has been not a single encounter where I didn't lose an unit. On the other hand with Celica's team, there was only like, one situation when I did lost an unit. Is is possible my units got that rng screwed? When I promoted Clive to paladin he only gained 1 hp and 1 mov, so his stats should be fine, right? So why is he dealing 8 dmg to mages, and take 18 in return? I like the story and especially the voice acting, but Alm's levels are just excruciating at this point. Is there a trick I'm missing?