Criticism of my opinions before a Maddening playthrough

[Lagdou]

Hello,

I am a long-time player who would like criticism of his opinions on characters and emblem choices after 1.5 Hard playthroughs to test the mechanics of the game, before doing a Maddening play through.

I play according to the following self-imposed rules and would also appreciate to know whether I should adapt some of them in Maddening:

- During first play through, no use of Internet to build a character efficiently. Only using the Wiki and general articles to know which characters to use.
- No exploitations of mechanism that are specific to the game during my first playthrough if they are found on Internet. Test and find out.
- First play through in Maddening until being soft-locked by ignorance and decreasing to Hard.
- Playing "in the spirit of the game" by solving maps efficiently and resolving secondary objectives.
- No promotion in base class before Level 20.
- No use of "trick staffs". Only Heal, Cure and Remedy.
- No use of items giving statistics bonuses.

I note with a "None" what I did not attributed and "?" what I do not remember.

First Playthrough

I soft locked myself by Chapter 9 and decreased to Hard. After struggling in Chapter 10 and finding Chapter 11 tight, then seeing many potential party members joining in 3 chapters, I decided to exploit the "No Death" Skirmishes to level up a bit, test the mechanics of the game and see the potential of different characters. I did not keep track of the XP curve and ended up overleveled without realising it, because I did not know that the XP gain is faster in Hard than Maddening. The game was easier from this point.

Alear F - (Marth) (Avoid - Dual Support) - (Divine Dragon) - (Liberation +5 - Holy/Dawn Engrave)
I initially did not understand she was supposed to be a dodge tank and found her mediocre for a main hero. In my second playthrough, I make her inherit Avoid from Marth before Chapter 10 and plan to inherit Dual Support from Lucina. It seems to me that forging and engraving Liberation is an optimal strategy, and I used Holy engrave to further increase Avoid, but wonder whether Dawn would be a better choice.

Zelkov - (Corrin) (HP+ 15 - None) - (Thief) - (Silver Dagger - None)
He seemed broken potential when facing him. I accidentally read a guy on Reddit explaining how Corrin abilities was making him break the game. I tested and concluded that the Dragon Vein ability alone creates chokepoints that simplify the game. Then I realized that:
(i) Pair Up cancels his main weakness
(ii) +HP mitigates unfavourable RNG, and would help countering foes with attacks that don't miss if they existed
(iii) Arena training with Leif allows to inherit Knife Precision to make the Avoid further absurd if needed.
I concluded that this character breaks the game, but would like further opinions on the optimal build and the Engrave.

Kagetsu - (Roy) (None) - (Swordsmaster) - (Wo Dao +5 - None)
He was praised by everyone. I used it without investments and without an Emblem for most of the game, and he was performing normal. I forged the Wo Dao to turn him into the usual Swordmaster, and gave him Roy by the end of the game to cover the usual weaknesses of epeists: low HP, low STR, low Res. I realized that In Extremis solves the epeists issue of dying fast to unfavourable RNG or a counter unit. 
I did not search an optimal build because he was easily delivering, but I would appreciate some directions.

Ivy - (Lyn) (+5 Speed - None) - (Lyndwurm) - (Inferno - None)
The build is straightforward and probably intended by the developers to work as such. I further boosted her basic Speed stat. I noticed that Alacrity was less important, thus that a build with Speed +5 and Speedtaker would allow her to use another emblem, but she obtains technical points too slowly for that.
She is a powerhouse and I did not make further efforts to optimise her, and would appreciate some directions.

Chloe - (Eirika) (Dodge + 30 - Lance Power 3) - (Griffin Knight - Spear & Staff) - (Silver Lance / Javelin - None)
I decided to ignore Albert and gave her Sigurd. It never felt particularly pertinent, since being a flier mitigates the inherent Canto utility of the emblem, but the statistics bonuses seemed right for a flier. Losing the ring meant I had no directions to gave her. I tried Griffin Knight with Staff, but her magic is underwhelming. I reclassed her into Wyvern Knight, but without emblems she was not notable. I reclassed them again in Griffin Knight with Swords, and by the end of the game I found that Eirika was making her contributing. She always felt like she was a utility unit, never more or less.
Because Erika gives a Magic bonus, I concluded that the path to test was: Griffin Knight with Staff, train her with Sigurd in the Arena to inherit Lance Power. 
I would like to have opinions on that. I also did not test any weapons with her, neither engraving anything.

Panette - (Leif) (Defense + 5 - Resolve +) - (Berserker) - (Lethal Axe - Corrin)
I realized that some Engrave allows particular builds, and tried to exploit that with Panette and Lethal Axe. To make the build viable, I heavily invested into Arena training with Ike to make a physical tank holding the front line, but did not use Ike on her because she lacked flexibility (being locked on Lethal Axe). She inherited Leif by lack of alternatives, and because the idea of reinforcing the role of physical tank in situations of needs seemed at least a benefit.
She delivered. She largely simplified player phase and boss fights. She was rarely in danger of dying. There is nothing complex but it works well enough to solo the final boss. That's all. I would like to know whether this build is pertinent in Maddening

Diamant - (Ike) (Defense + 5 - ?) - (Successeur) (Silver Axe / Tomahawk / Silver Sword / Iron Axe / Iron Sword - None)
I struggled understanding his potential with Roy, who is not particularly good for him. Then I thought the Ike emblem weak because real players would not fall into the area of effect. I was using him as a regular unit because his status of main character was supposed to make him good. Once I developed more fluency with the game, and read on Internet to use Ike on him, he was severely under-levelled and never really catched up, but he was delivering on his role of physical tank with a versatile arsenal of weapons. Nothing more or less. I would like to know what I missed and what I am supposed to do from the very beggining to the final optimisation of the character, since many people put him in A-Tiers or even S-Tiers.

Anna - (Byleth) (Luck + 12 - ?) - (Warrior then Sage) - (Inferno / Thunder - None)
I missed understanding that she had to be promoted to Mage early, but I immediately understood her potential with Byleth. I reclassed her to Sage and she was a very solid character. In my second playthrough, I reclassed her rapidly to Mage with Celica, but I have no idea on which directions she should take from this point in terms of inherited abilities and engraves.

Pandreo - (? - ?) - (Sage) (Inferno/Thunder - None)
I saw him praised on Internet, and wanted to try the experience of a pre-promote that delivers. I never found him noticeable, except for his personal skills that increases his ability to be a problem solver. He is extremely vulnerable to hits and delivers the offensive power that you expect from a mage. I felt him like a mix between the Monk line and the Mage line. I made him a Sage to give him all the needed tools to contribute to the party, and did not expect to use him in my second playthrough. I would like to know if I should run him in maddening, and how.

Hortensia - (Micaiah) (Staff Mastery 2 - Resistance + 3) - (Sleipnir Rider) (Heal - Inferno)
Straightforward. I assume she remains in Maddening because she has offensive power. I am not convinced by Resistance + 3, I would like to give her the Magic + X of Celica.

Veyle - (Celica) - (? - ?) - (Mage Knight)
I used her to have a Celica user that was a magical glass canon, since Anna was using Byleth. I reclassed her to Mage Knight to unlock access to staff, sacrificing her versatile potential. She was underleveled than the rest of my party and I never saw her true potential, neither understood how to unlock it. Is she worthy to play in Maddening ? Is there a build with Byleth to have the +7 statistics bonus on everyone ? 

Merrin - (Lucina) - (Draconic Hex - ?) -  (Wolf Knight) - (Thunder Daggers / Iron Daggers)
Extremely hard to judge because Hard difficulty gives margin to the player. I never used the Special Attack of Lucina, neither her fusion weapons. The additional damages are great but most of the time they don't make a difference, since I build my party around characters hitting hard. Additionally, she is extremely vulnerable and does not dodge well. The only positive points is that she regularly delivers critical and that training her with Corrin in the arena allows to inherit Draconix Hex. I bench her for my second playthrough, but would like to know whether she is recommended in Maddening, since support is probably much more important.
 

Other characters:

Alcryst - (Lyn) - (None) - (Sniper) - (Silver Bow - Long Bow)
The build with Lyn was obvious and was my first test, because Three Houses made clear that Flying units are the most dangerous enemies, and GBA mechanics make clear that a good archers with Strength, Resistance and all the tools is the best support of the game. Paired with a dancer it largely simplifies problematic situations. I therefore immediately understood that Alcryst was meant to be used with heavy bows and both his Dexterity and Speed had to be taken care of. He was exactly doing this role, even better with the emblem abilities, and ended up the highest level member of my party. Then I benched him because I had understood what to expect from him, and I realized that Luna was a random, thus unreliable ability. And I have intellectual habits of not using random abilities in strategy games, because in my experience it's a bad choice. I tried using him again in late chapters, but without Lyn he seems to not shine.

Albert - (Sigurd) - (Dodge + 30 - Lance Power 3) - (Avenir) - (Killer Lance - Beginnigns)
I decided to invest in him than Chloe in my second playtrough because I understood that his difficult start was probably an adjustment of the developer to avoid him breaking the early game. Thus I decided to play him "as intended" and like the possibility to break the game with him existed. I gave him Sigurd and he was benefitting from the emblem more than Chloe. I engraved his weapon with beginnings and gave him the Killer Lance of Amber, and he really contributed. He still has Speed issues by the midgame, but it seems common to the Knight line, and his physical tank abilities are good enough to not have a problem, as long as he is not attacked by 3 ennemies. Good when played as intended, but is it enough for Maddening ?

Yunaka - Zelkov convinced me to build a second dodge tank in Thief with her. Zelkov was not using the additional Avoid of Leif, so it means that she does something similar to him, with 25 Avoid less by abilities, probably less Speed, but higher Def and Res. Thus I plan to pair up with Leif, and perhaps reclass her to Wolf Knight with Sword and Lancebreaker. I would like to know if this is pertinent, in my second play through she delivers as a support but I do not see the potential for carrying the team at the moment.

Timerra - I benched her immediately after reading on Internet that her unique class also has a random ability. 

Fogado - I tested the Radiant Bow with Anna Warrior, and it was so efficient that I crafted it to +5. I read on Internet that he was the best Radiant Bow user, but is it enough to justify a Maddening use ? How to build him, in that case ?

Lapis - I tried using her, but she does not deliver without emblems. Not enough STR, not enough durability on the first line, not enough movement to support by lack of dodge, no access to a range support in her base class. I gave her Roy in my second play though, since Kagetsu was absent, and she was doing much better. I was forced to bench her when Kagetsu joins, but it seems clear to me that this unit has potential, I just don't understand how to invest in her. And would it be worthy in Maddening ?

Citrine - I used her in second playthrough because Jean and Anna are in training at this time. She is nothing noticeable and has Speed issues. I benched her, lacking to see any potential. Does she have any particular utility outside of the early game ?

Jean - Currently used in my second play through. He is "Staff locked" and therefore grinds XP slowly, but I clearly see the potential. I just wonder what is the finality with him, and with which emblem.

Thank you for any comment.


 

 

Edited January 1 by Lagdou

[Eltosian Kadath]

I will start by saying, I have never been that into building units. In Engage, the only skill I tend to inherit on people is the best versions I can afford of Canter (on everyone I can get it on), Dual Assist (on all the backup units), Pair Up (on the units I use to tank), and Reposition (shrug). Also I tend to ignore peoples assessments of units and use the ones I am finding interesting (heck I am using Bunet now in the Linked ironman Screenshot LP of Engage I am doing on this very website, and my Bouchy Boy will probably always be a mainstay on my team unttil death). So keep that in mind with what I am saying.

I want to mention Chain Guards as useful for Maddening, but I lucked into an S Deirdre ring from the gatcha when I tried Maddening (haven't gotten around to finishing it though, got distracted by other things), which made it far easier to use...

 

27 minutes ago, Lagdou said:

- No promotion in base class before Level 20.

I would recommend against this constraint for a few reasons. First it even further incentivizes you to immediately drop your unpromoted units for the prepromotes the game gives you, which is almost a problem the game has. Second, you can use second seals to easily reset levels (either by changing class, or at level 20), and experience is entirely based in the character's internal level, so you don't miss out on anything by promoting early (except the potential cost of late game seals).

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

- No use of "trick staffs". Only Heal, Cure and Remedy.

As long as you are following the "in the spirit of the game" rule, I think this constraint is a bit unnecessary. Engage has a lot of interesting options for trick staves that you can use for rather interesting tactics (especially when combined with the Micaiah Emblem), which can really save your bacon in tight situations. Don't get me wrong, if you aren't following the spirit of the game, I can see why they might come across as almost detrimental to the experience.

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

 

Alear F - (Marth) (Avoid - Dual Support) - (Divine Dragon) - (Liberation +5 - Holy/Dawn Engrave)
I initially did not understand she was supposed to be a dodge tank and found her mediocre for a main hero.

I see Alear far more as a really good support Lord. Her personal is amazingly potent, adding 3 to the damage units deal with each attack, which is added after calculating damage (so every attack buffed by it will deals at minimum 3 damage per hit). You might have to get creative with position, so getting canter on her before you loss Sigurd helps with that a bit. Add into that the power a Dragon class gives to Emblems like Byleth (so +3 to all stats rally and Goddess Dance when engaged), and you have a fairly solid support unit. Giving her Corrin (assuming you aren't using the fog machine combo) is another great option, as dragons gets to chose which class's Dragon Vein they want to use every turn, which adds a shocking level of flexibility.

Also, I like promoting her as soon as possible (with the first seal if I can), as it helps to keep her more combat capable.

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

I concluded that this character breaks the game, but would like further opinions on the optimal build and the Engrave.

The fog machine combo (thief + Corrin) is less broken on Maddening, as enemies will never directly attack foes they have 0 hit (and 0 damage) against.

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

And I have intellectual habits of not using random abilities in strategy games, because in my experience it's a bad choice. I tried using him again in late chapters, but without Lyn he seems to not shine.

If that was your main problem with the build, you could try doing the same with Etie. She tends to have worse speed problems (but Lyn is still good enough to fix them), and better strength, for more consistent (but similar on average) damage. I used her on my first run with a similar enough build, and had what I suspect are similar results (although I will note that I was doing an ironman on hard throughout).

 

2 hours ago, Lagdou said:

 

Timerra - I benched her immediately after reading on Internet that her unique class also has a random ability. 

I will note, this is coming from an ironmanning perspective, but I rather like how her personal reduces enemy crit chances.

 

2 hours ago, Lagdou said:

 

Yunaka - Zelkov convinced me to build a second dodge tank in Thief with her. Zelkov was not using the additional Avoid of Leif, so it means that she does something similar to him, with 25 Avoid less by abilities, probably less Speed, but higher Def and Res. Thus I plan to pair up with Leif, and perhaps reclass her to Wolf Knight with Sword and Lancebreaker. I would like to know if this is pertinent, in my second play through she delivers as a support but I do not see the potential for carrying the team at the moment.

I think she fills the fog machine role better than Zelkov does, but in a way that I suspect you would dislike. Zelkov does not need that much avoid when fogging, and that higher resistance covers one of the fog machine's few weaknesses (that the Mystic class lines ignores foes terrain bonuses), and her personal gives her a much higher crit rate when in terrain. The fog triggers that personal, so she tends to randomly crit kill a LOT of units over the course of a playthrough.

Personally I am far less opposed to random sources of increased damage (from proc skills, and crits), as the way to incorporate them into strategies is to use them to chip, with that random increased damage giving you far better margins of error to cover misses, or to push in further with the additional actions those killing chip hits add in. I also find proc skills make the multi-hit emblem specials (like Leif's Quad Hit) noticeably better, as each hit has a chance to proc the skill.

 

[Bartozio]

Happy to see you're enjoying the game. I'll mention up front that Engage usually revolves more around using good skill combinations and using Emblems on right class and/or in the right way than that it cares about what units you use.

It's also not so difficult a game that you need to use all the best options to clear it on maddening, so feel free to experiment and use the units you think are fun to use with the strategies you find more enjoyable.

That said, I'll answer your questions with the options I think make the game the easiest and most fun, since I can't really speak for other people :P.

Quote

- During first play through, no use of Internet to build a character efficiently. Only using the Wiki and general articles to know which characters to use.
- No exploitations of mechanism that are specific to the game during my first playthrough if they are found on Internet. Test and find out.
- First play through in Maddening until being soft-locked by ignorance and decreasing to Hard.
- Playing "in the spirit of the game" by solving maps efficiently and resolving secondary objectives.
- No promotion in base class before Level 20.
- No use of "trick staffs". Only Heal, Cure and Remedy.
- No use of items giving statistics bonuses.

 

 

I'll echo Eltosian Kadath in saying that not promoting before level 20 and not using staves other healing ones will likely become a pretty big hinderance.

The units that join unpromoted already tend to fall behind the prepromotes in terms of stats, and waiting longer with promoting them will only make them fall even farther behind. You also don't really gain much from promoting them later anyway, since as mentioned, you can just reset levels by the time they reach level 20 promoted.

Status staves can also be absolute life savers in difficult maps, especially with the right build and Micaiah equiped. as you can suddenly just freeze or silence 3 to 5 enemies. Warp and rescue can also be great, even if you're not using them to 1-turn entire maps.

For the record, I'm pretty confident you can clear the game on maddening while following these two rules, but I feel like they heavily restrict your options which might make the game less fun that it could be.

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Alear F - (Marth) (Avoid - Dual Support) - (Divine Dragon) - (Liberation +5 - Holy/Dawn Engrave)
I initially did not understand she was supposed to be a dodge tank and found her mediocre for a main hero. In my second playthrough, I make her inherit Avoid from Marth before Chapter 10 and plan to inherit Dual Support from Lucina. It seems to me that forging and engraving Liberation is an optimal strategy, and I used Holy engrave to further increase Avoid, but wonder whether Dawn would be a better choice.

In general, I think most physical units you intend to use for combat work best in either Wyvern, Warrior or Wolf knight, which Alear is no exception to. Reclassing them to any of those classes after they promote will likely make their combat seem a lot better.

As mentioned above though, Alear also functions really well a support unit. You can keep them in their main class and eventually have them use Byleth to boost all stats, or have them reclass to martial master and use Lucina. Lucina can use Bonded Shield when engaged, and when you use this as a qi adept, it means you're guranteed to block every first attack on every adjacent unit. Alear is especially great for this, because they also support everyone and they give adjacent units a damage buff as well.

The Lucina strat also works when you reclass Alear into a flying or cavalry class, but then the 100% activation only applies to units of the same type.

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Ivy - (Lyn) (+5 Speed - None) - (Lyndwurm) - (Inferno - None)
The build is straightforward and probably intended by the developers to work as such. I further boosted her basic Speed stat. I noticed that Alacrity was less important, thus that a build with Speed +5 and Speedtaker would allow her to use another emblem, but she obtains technical points too slowly for that.
She is a powerhouse and I did not make further efforts to optimise her, and would appreciate some directions.

I think you're honestly on the right path with her. Her main issues are that she can have some issues with doubling without help and her accuracy can be lower than you'd want. If you fix those, you have a unit that can one round most enemies, take a hit or two and flies around while using staves. Usually it doesn't get much better than that 😛

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Panette - (Leif) (Defense + 5 - Resolve +) - (Berserker) - (Lethal Axe - Corrin)
I realized that some Emblems allows particular builds, and tried to exploit that with Panette and Lethal Axe. To make the build viable, I heavily invested into Arena training with Ike to make a physical tank holding the front line, but did not use Ike on her because she lacked flexibility (being locked on Lethal Axe). She inherited Leif by lack of alternatives, and because the idea of reinforcing the role of physical tank in situations of needs seemed at least a benefit.
She delivered. She largely simplified player phase and boss fights. She was rarely in danger of dying. There is nothing complex but it works well enough to solo the final boss. That's all. I would like to know whether this build is pertinent in Maddening

I think this build can work fine on maddening but I'm usually not a huge fan of using high defense units past the early game.

Basically, between Bonded shield, Ike and Vantage builds is pretty easy to have units survive enemy phase whitout investing in their bulk, and that means you can make them better at killing enemies instead. And by making liberal use of Corrin and freeze/silence/obstruct staves it's also possible to just not let enemies attack entirely.

For this reason, most people give Panette vantage+Wrath so she can just one shot every enemy that tries to attack her (the least dangerous enemy is a dead enemy after all).

If you do want to use a high defence unit though, I'd recommend getting them the pair up skill from Corrin somehow. It tends to be the main way enemies still break through your defenses.

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Diamant - (Ike) (Defense + 5 - ?) - (Successeur) (Silver Axe / Tomahawk / Silver Sword / Iron Axe / Iron Sword - None)
I struggled understanding his potential with Roy, who is not particularly good for him. Then I thought the Ike emblem weak because real players would not fall into the area of effect. I was using him as a regular unit because his status of main character was supposed to make him good. Once I developed more fluency with the game, and read on Internet to use Ike on him, he was severely under-levelled and never really catched up, but he was delivering on his role of physical tank with a versatile arsenal of weapons. Nothing more or less. I would like to know what I missed and what I am supposed to do from the very beggining to the final optimisation of the character, since many people put him in A-Tiers or even S-Tiers.

I think putting Diamand in A or S tier is severely overrating him. In my experience, beyond the early game he needs a good amount of investment to stay relevant in combat, and he doesn't offer too much outside of combat.

Granted, you do have the resources to give some of your units some strong forges and boost their speed up a good bit and give them Canter and I highly recommend using them. But there's several units you can make good like that (Lapis, Amber, Chloe, Alear, Clanne or Jaune reclassed to a physical class), and Diamant isn't that much better than any of those other options in long run.

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Pandreo - (? - ?) - (Sage) (Inferno/Thunder - None)
I saw him praised on Internet, and wanted to try the experience of a pre-promote that delivers. I never found him noticeable, except for his personal skills that increases his ability to be a problem solver. He is extremely vulnerable to hits and delivers the offensive power that you expect from a mage. I felt him like a mix between the Monk line and the Mage line. I made him a Sage to give him all the needed tools to contribute to the party, and did not expect to use him in my second playthrough. I would like to know if I should run him in maddening, and how.

In general I think mages work best in mage knight for combat, though Sage can still be better for more utility. Pandreo's main claim to fame tends to be that he's a magic unit that comes with good bases in a game where magic is really good. He's faster than Citrinne and Ivy and he needs a lot less investment than the other early game magic units.

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Veyle - (Celica) - (? - ?) - (Mage Knight)
I used her to have a Celica user that was a magical glass canon, since Anna was using Byleth. I reclassed her to Mage Knight to unlock access to staff, sacrificing her versatile potential. She was underleveled than the rest of my party and I never saw her true potential, neither understood how to unlock it. Is she worthy to play in Maddening ? Is there a build with Byleth to have the +7 statistics bonus on everyone ? 

I personally like using her in her default class with either Byleth or Corrin. Byleth for the stat boosts she gives to other units, whereas Corrin lets her use all dragon vein options while also stunning enemies from 3 range.

If you already have good options for those roles though, don't feel like you need to use her. She can be trained to a good magic unit as well, but there's no harm in just continuing to use the units you're already invested into.

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Citrine - I used her in second playthrough because Jean and Anna are in training at this time. She is nothing noticeable and has Speed issues. I benched her, lacking to see any potential. Does she have any particular utility outside of the early game ?

With enough help she can be made to double a decent amount of units in the midgame as mage knight I think. The main benefit is that she has a sky high magic stat, so once she doubles, she'll deal more damage than most other units.

The other option is going Sage and either hoping you luck out and get the Olwen S-rank bond ring, or just use her for chip damage and healing.

3 hours ago, Lagdou said:

Jean - Currently used in my second play through. He is "Staff locked" and therefore grinds XP slowly, but I clearly see the potential. I just wonder what is the finality with him, and with which emblem.
 

Jean can honestly go for almost any build, and his personal skill will give him good growths in the stat his class tries to focus on. Keeping him in his base class will have him headed for a magical class, but if you class change him early he can do physical classes just as well.

A quick tip for training him: If you equip Micaiah on him early, he can gain a top of experience from mending/great sacrificing several units at once in a turn. That way, he can easily gain several levels per map, so he'll catch up pretty fast to the rest of your units. You can also use that method for other units that might fall behind of course, like Clanne or Framme.

[Shadow Mir]

11 hours ago, Lagdou said:

Zelkov - (Corrin) (HP+ 15 - None) - (Thief) - (Silver Dagger - None)
He seemed broken potential when facing him. I accidentally read a guy on Reddit explaining how Corrin abilities was making him break the game. I tested and concluded that the Dragon Vein ability alone creates chokepoints that simplify the game. Then I realized that:
(i) Pair Up cancels his main weakness
(ii) +HP mitigates unfavourable RNG, and would help countering foes with attacks that don't miss if they existed
(iii) Arena training with Leif allows to inherit Knife Precision to make the Avoid further absurd if needed.
I concluded that this character breaks the game, but would like further opinions on the optimal build and the Engrave.

Imho, Corrin has better uses.

 

11 hours ago, Lagdou said:

Alcryst - (Lyn) - (None) - (Sniper) - (Silver Bow - Long Bow)
The build with Lyn was obvious and was my first test, because Three Houses made clear that Flying units are the most dangerous enemies, and GBA mechanics make clear that a good archers with Strength, Resistance and all the tools is the best support of the game. Paired with a dancer it largely simplifies problematic situations. I therefore immediately understood that Alcryst was meant to be used with heavy bows and both his Dexterity and Speed had to be taken care of. He was exactly doing this role, even better with the emblem abilities, and ended up the highest level member of my party. Then I benched him because I had understood what to expect from him, and I realized that Luna was a random, thus unreliable ability. And I have intellectual habits of not using random abilities in strategy games, because in my experience it's a bad choice. I tried using him again in late chapters, but without Lyn he seems to not shine.

The real problem with Alcryst? His damage sucks without Luna. And playing the "big damage or no damage" lottery isn't worth it.

[FashionEmblem]

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

- No promotion in base class before Level 20.

Engage has different mechanics than many other fire emblems and you should promote ASAP. The game works like Awakening where characters can Second Seal after hitting the level cap of 20 promoted back to level 1, so there are no lost opportunities to level from early promotion. Furthermore, the level curve for the game gives no penalty for promoting as it is based purely on internal level and promoting/reclassing does not increase internal level (by contrast, in Awakening promotion does increase internal level for the exp calculation). With no downside, you want to promote early for swifter access to class skills and improved class growth rates (though, these increased growths only matter at the margins, if at all).

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

No use of "trick staffs". Only Heal, Cure and Remedy.

I think this contradicts your point about the spirit of the game—the game's spirit is often encouraging you to use staves and several maps are puzzles you want to solve with staves. A good example is on the enemy's side in Byleth's paralogue, where Byleth is flanked by two warp staffers that will activate on your approach and warp not-Dimitri and not-Edelgard forward, then Byleth Goddess Dances the warpers, whom proceed to warp forward an additional pair of enemies forward. Finally, the warpers will even chain warp afterwards to warp one of themselves and an enemy even further into your backline to threaten more crystals to ruin your bonus objective. If the enemy AI can be clever about staff usage, why not the player?

The emblems give the players a lot of crazy strategic options and the game is designed—for the most part—around you using them so I don't think you need this restriction because the line is arbitrary (i.e., why no "trick" staves but yes to Bonded Shield, Goddess Dance, Corrin terrain, Dreadful Aura, Astra Storm AI manipulation, etc?) Of course, it is your playthrough so you can do whatever challenge set or restrictions you desire, but you can use a conservative amount of "trick" staves without banning them entirely—some maps very clearly scream for them (e.g.,

Spoiler

Micaiah Warp/Rewarp skip to disable the initial ballistae in Leif's paralogue, Micaiah group Silence against the Freeze enemy groups in Chapter 23, and Micaiah Rewarp + Rescue skip of at least the right-half of Chapter 25 into the center.

)

Overall note about skills is I'm not noticing many mentions of Canter—it is easily one of the strongest inheritable skills in the game and I stick it on nearly everyone except some of my more dedicated enemy phase builds. Also, in the proceeding section, some of my skill recommendations are SP intensive, but I'm assuming you will make use of the well and gain some SP books along the way.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Alear F - (Marth) (Avoid - Dual Support) - (Divine Dragon) - (Liberation +5 - Holy/Dawn Engrave)
I initially did not understand she was supposed to be a dodge tank and found her mediocre for a main hero. In my second playthrough, I make her inherit Avoid from Marth before Chapter 10 and plan to inherit Dual Support from Lucina. It seems to me that forging and engraving Liberation is an optimal strategy, and I used Holy engrave to further increase Avoid, but wonder whether Dawn would be a better choice.

Alear is more of a utility character than a dodge-tank or any kind of combatant really, but they can do dogetanking (and soloing the game with Alear depends on avoiding for survival). Main problem is Alear as a Divine Dragon lacks 2-range aside from Levin Sword off their weak magic stat to do any counters as a dodgetank. Forging Liberation early is good since it's fairly cheap to improve Alear's combat and get some experience rolling, but their combat does inevitably fall off and despite the forging so will Liberation itself. Dawn engrave is a big hit to MT and with Alear already being rather weak, you are hampering their combat even further. I personally use the Dawn Engrave on Shielding Arts for avoid on my support units, primarily Seadall (though, promoted Alear does use that for holding chokepoints as a dodgetank until Seadall's recruitment).

I recommend looking at Alear as a support/utility character instead of their combat contributions. With Emblems, Divine Dragon!Alear can control all terrains with Corrin or apply Rally Spectrum with Byleth's Goddess Dance/Instruct. Alear also makes a versatile staff user thanks to convoy access, which can be achieved with Micaiah or a reclass to Griffin Knight or Martial Master. Finally, as you are already aware, Alear can make a great Lucina user thanks to supporting everyone and the Dual Support skill. It's also nice that Alear has a 90% success rate for Bonded Shield as a Divine Dragon and 100% as a Qi Adept (which combines nicely with staff access in Martial Master or dagger chain attacks from the Enchanter DLC class). If you want combat Alear, go with a reclass to buttress strength such a Wyvern Knight.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Zelkov - (Corrin) (HP+ 15 - None) - (Thief) - (Silver Dagger - None)
He seemed broken potential when facing him. I accidentally read a guy on Reddit explaining how Corrin abilities was making him break the game. I tested and concluded that the Dragon Vein ability alone creates chokepoints that simplify the game. Then I realized that:
(i) Pair Up cancels his main weakness
(ii) +HP mitigates unfavourable RNG, and would help countering foes with attacks that don't miss if they existed
(iii) Arena training with Leif allows to inherit Knife Precision to make the Avoid further absurd if needed.
I concluded that this character breaks the game, but would like further opinions on the optimal build and the Engrave.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Yunaka - Zelkov convinced me to build a second dodge tank in Thief with her. Zelkov was not using the additional Avoid of Leif, so it means that she does something similar to him, with 25 Avoid less by abilities, probably less Speed, but higher Def and Res. Thus I plan to pair up with Leif, and perhaps reclass her to Wolf Knight with Sword and Lancebreaker. I would like to know if this is pertinent, in my second play through she delivers as a support but I do not see the potential for carrying the team at the moment.

In Maddening difficulty, enemies will not attack if they have 0 damage or hit, which mitigates Corrin!Covert dodgetanking. You can still use the strategy, but you want to keep enemy hit rates above 0, so going for engraves that give weaker avoid, ~10 in my experience (e.g., Genealogy or Rivalry engraves). Yunaka is actually the better choice here since she has more resistance—mystic units ignoring the 60 avoid from the fog are the Achilles heel of this strategy. Zelkov has better strength, physical bulk, avoid (thanks to his personal skill), and level, but the strength difference is small (2 if equivalently leveled) and not enough to compensate for Yunaka's better resistance and crit (from her personal skill in terrain). I recommend Steel Dagger +4 as a weapon since it has 10 crit and a good amount of might. Note that your damage will fall off as the game goes on because enemy bulk in Maddening is crazy high towards the late-game and Thief class strength stats do not keep up, but it's still helpful for softening enemies just beyond one-rounding thresholds and applying some poison (and a couple of crits can still net kills sometimes).

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Kagetsu - (Roy) (None) - (Swordsmaster) - (Wo Dao +5 - None)
He was praised by everyone. I used it without investments and without an Emblem for most of the game, and he was performing normal. I forged the Wo Dao to turn him into the usual Swordmaster, and gave him Roy by the end of the game to cover the usual weaknesses of epeists: low HP, low STR, low Res. I realized that In Extremis solves the epeists issue of dying fast to unfavourable RNG or a counter unit. 
I did not search an optimal build because he was easily delivering, but I would appreciate some directions.

Kagetsu has amazing base stats but is held back by Swordmaster being a mediocre class. Swordlocked means melee locked aside from the Levin Sword, but Kagetsu does not get good magic. 5 move infantry is generally unimpressive without some additional oomph (e.g., long bow chain attack and great physical offense stats from Warrior or Brave Assist Heroes). Kagetsu's base strength is amazing, but his growth is actually a little bit low—I recommend a reclass to a strength boosting class such as Wyvern Knight. Sword/Axe Wyvern!Kagetsu is popular since it's the quickest he will hit a reclass without DLC (axes from Ike after Chapter 13), but I think lances are also viable if you are patient (Eirika gives lances after Chapter 16) or have DLC (Edelgard with Dimitri and Claude, which is available with no divine paralogue) because lances have higher hit and more accuracy (late game enemy avoid is annoyingly high—Poleaxe in particular feel useless with it's super-low hit).

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Ivy - (Lyn) (+5 Speed - None) - (Lyndwurm) - (Inferno - None)
The build is straightforward and probably intended by the developers to work as such. I further boosted her basic Speed stat. I noticed that Alacrity was less important, thus that a build with Speed +5 and Speedtaker would allow her to use another emblem, but she obtains technical points too slowly for that.
She is a powerhouse and I did not make further efforts to optimise her, and would appreciate some directions.

This is a good build because Ivy wants speed (lots of it) and dexterity. In the long-run though, Lyn on a physical attacker is nice because many also need speed help and Mulagir is a great weapon that a mage like Ivy can't make use of. With the well update, you can easily get enough SP for Ivy to inherit Speedtaker and/or Speed+ from Lyn (or, even better, Speed/Dex+ from Chrobin with DLC) to free up the emblem. I actually like running Ivy with Sigurd since Override isn't as useful to me as Astra Storm nor Mulagir once Sigurd is back and Ivy can make use of Canter from the ring and focus on inherits for her speed and/or hit issues.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Chloe - (Eirika) (Dodge + 30 - Lance Power 3) - (Griffin Knight - Spear & Staff) - (Silver Lance / Javelin - None)

You mention it in your post, to some extent, but I'd say swords are the better way to go for a Griffin Knight Chloé. She is super strong in the early game thanks to flight and speed, but her physical damage can wind up lacking in the late-game. She can overcome this by running swords because Levin Sword >> Flame Lance for magic damage (Flame Lance has lower MT, lower hit, and weighs a bunch more). Eirika is also a good synergy because Lunar Brace boosts physical damage, the magic boost and bravery can boost magic damage and she's fast enough to double a lot of enemies and wring out the most out of the extra damage. Regarding skills, I'm very surprised by the lack of Canter on your high mobility unit that can swoop in, act, and most easily retreat to safety (or move forward for aggressive plays). Finally, and this is an unfortunate thing about Fire Emblem English, but avoid and dodge are different stats—avoid is lowering enemy hit and dodge is lowering enemy crit. Dodge probably is not doing much for Chloé, though I see the utility of some avoid on a speedy unit (but, that is cancelled out by a Sword/Lance Power skill, so she can't really stack avoid—especially without terrain bonuses as a flier). I'd say just go with Canter and Sword Power on a Sword Griffin.

I had a lot of success on a recent playthrough with Martial Master Chloé. Her solid mix of strength and magic means she gets solid physical attacks with arts on the average of the two stats. Her high speed modifier allows her to cap speed at 31 as a Martial Master, and equipping the A-rank Flashing Fist Arts adds an additional 5 speed up to 36, where a +2 meal or Speed Tonic brings her up 38 speed at which she can quad attack endgame Halberdiers. Combine quad hitting with Eirika's ring and you get a lot of damage, then for the skills you can inherit Canter (hit and run) and/or Speed+ (get her up to 43 speed with Speed +5 and she can now quad-hit endgame Heroes) or Alacrity++ (she will quad hit before a counter, often killing an enemy before suffering any repercussions). Alternatively, this build can run Lyn for crazy speed (Speedtaker is overkill, however) and inherit Lunar Brace for the damage. You do have to be a bit deliberate with class pathing (or DLC Starsphere) to ensure Chloé hits her speed cap and 9 build as a Martial Master so she does not get weighed down by the Flashing Fist Arts.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Panette - (Leif) (Defense + 5 - Resolve +) - (Berserker) - (Lethal Axe - Corrin)

Actually, I'd say Panette works better as an enemy phase unit thanks to her ability to stack crit so high. I recommend for skills inheriting either Wrath from Ike or Vantage from Leif and run the other emblem. Vantage/Wrath creates a semi-invulnerable combination on enemy phase where after taking enough damage to hit the Vantage threshold, you will counterattack and kill subsequent enemies with crit before they have the chance to kill you. With the extra skill slot you can fine tune the build with either more bulk (e.g., Hold Out, Resolve) or more hit/consistency (e.g., Hit+, Dexterity+, or Divine Pulse).

Berserker is a mediocre class, so I would recommend Warrior instead. You keep a similarly high strength stat, but gain access to bows for Long Bow chain attacks and maiming fliers. Leif in particularly synergizes well with Warriors, but you must keep their bond level below 10 (easily achievable since the bond level will stay locked at 9 if you never trigger the bond conversation). Adaptable on Leif will switch your weapon when engaged to always counterattack and for weapon triangle advantage. Warriors have the benefit that they can switch between a Killer Axe, Killer Bow, and Long Bow to best have the chance of criting/killing the enemy in the Vantage/Wrath set-up for 1-3 range. However, Leif can also switch to his engage weapons which messes up this strategy, so you want to stay below bond level 10 to avoid switching into the Master Lance (low hit, no crit) nor Light Brand (has some crit, but off magic instead of strength). For the Leif version of the build, I recommend inheriting Hold Out+ alongside Wrath to make it easier to hit the Vantage threshold (only at 25% if you don't level up bond further than 9).

For Vantage/Wrath, I would say Sacred Engrave is better than Corrin since it gives hit, maintains might (unlike Blazing engrave) and the penalty to dodge is mitigated by the Vantage/Wrath set-up (you should crit and kill your enemies before they have the chance to crit you). But, you likely want a crit engrave on all three of the aforementioned weapons in the Leif setup. The Ike variant can't swap weapons on a whim, so you are probably using two crit engraves for Killer Axe and Tomahawk.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Diamant - (Ike) (Defense + 5 - ?) - (Successeur) (Silver Axe / Tomahawk / Silver Sword / Iron Axe / Iron Sword - None)

Diamant is like, my most dissapointing child in this game. Love his design and character, he puts in solid work when he first joins, and then the game turns into the steady march of him falling off. Successor is unfortunately a mediocre class since it doesn't have any noteable niche. The dexterity stat is simply too low to rely on Sol, and amongst backup classes it's outclassed by Hero, Warrior, and even Halberdier. Unfortunately, Diamant doesn't make a great reclass candidate because his personal base stats are medicore and his stats are mostly carried by his personal class bases. As a Hero, his stats are mostly irrelevant as a Brave Assist/Dual Assist bot, but his innate proficiency is in swords so he is stuck at C rank axes or lances and no access to Tomahawks or Spears should he want to chip into combat directly. He does fine in Warrior, but he loses enough speed from Successor for it to be a problem and he's rather outclassed by many other potential Warriors. Diamant's stats are also too spread out to make things work for him—not enough strength, speed, nor defense to really pull off a strong physical presence in your army, unfortunately.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Anna - (Byleth) (Luck + 12 - ?) - (Warrior then Sage) - (Inferno / Thunder - None)

Sage has a low speed cap, so it's probably not the best magic class for Anna. Mage Knight has better speed combined with the Chaos Storm skill for even more speed. High Priest gives more luck if you want Anna to farm gold, but being stuck at B tomes is a notable penalty (access to A rank staves is nice though). Radiant Bow Warrior!Anna actually works quite well with her magic—she has an easy time one-shotting fliers with that since the bow has crazy high MT.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Pandreo - (? - ?) - (Sage) (Inferno/Thunder - None)

Pandreo is praised as the only mighty mage in the game with a good speed stat and a solid build stat (enough to ultimately wield Bolganone without being weighed down). Clanne and Céline have some speed but require investment to reach promotion level AND have medicore magic and build stats (and Céline's speed isn't even that good). Hortensia can promote on join and is speedy, but lacks a magic stat and tome rank and is really a staff utility bot. Ivy and Citrinne have better magic than Pandreo, but MUCH worse speed (and Citrinne has abyssmal speed). Pandreo stands-out among his native mage bretheren for being able to actually double a good slice of enemies with Bolganone without substantial investment.

Sage Pandreo is good since he gets A rank staves and his personal skill can improve hit rates. Sage's main problem is its low speed cap combined with Pandreo's negative modifer to speed—he caps Sage speed at a mere 29 (btu he does have a good growth/base to hit that cap surprisingly early). He wants an emblem that pumps up his speed a little bit more—Byleth for Thyrsus increased range alongside the magic and speed boost and Divine Pulse improving staff accuracy is my usual choice. If you wanted the luck from Byleth for Anna's gold farm, then Pandreo will do ok with a speed boost but no magic boost. Mage Knight is a better offensive variant since he isn't hampered as much by the low speed cap and can reliably double without particular emblem love (gives option to run Celica for more magic power, for example).

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Hortensia - (Micaiah) (Staff Mastery 2 - Resistance + 3) - (Sleipnir Rider) (Heal - Inferno)

Her offense is mediocre on fixed-growth Maddening. She just doesn't have enough base magic or growth and is stuck at B rank tomes. Her staff utility is unrivaled thanks to extra range, World Tree conservation, and flight, Skills wise, Divine Pulse is often a better way to boost her staff accuracy instead of Staff Mastery. Besides that, she wants Canter, especially since she is frail and wants to do her staff support and flee to safety.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Veyle - (Celica) - (? - ?) - (Mage Knight)
I used her to have a Celica user that was a magical glass canon, since Anna was using Byleth. I reclassed her to Mage Knight to unlock access to staff, sacrificing her versatile potential. She was underleveled than the rest of my party and I never saw her true potential, neither understood how to unlock it. Is she worthy to play in Maddening ? Is there a build with Byleth to have the +7 statistics bonus on everyone ? 

I am confused here. Mage Knight gives no staff access—did you mean Sage? Royal Knight? Byleth also does +3 to all stats for dragons, not +7. She actually joins overleveled in Maddening by a smidge due to the reduced experience curve. She's fine—most will run her (and Mauvier) if they've only been using 12 units up to this point since they join on level alongside the extra deployment slots they need. Her combat isn't too impressive in the base game—she's hampered by her low attack speed and near non-existent bulk (sometimes you want to one round armored opponents whom will oneshot her with Spears/Tomahawks). She does give dragon utility and can take over Corrin or Byleth from Alear as Alear maybe switches over to using Engage+. Veyle is one of the best Corrin users with access to all terrains and 3-range electric magic to apply Draconic Hex and Dreadful Aura with the most range flexibility. She appreciates the speed from Byleth, though I don't know if it helps her actually hit any particular doubling thresholds. As a dragon with daggers, she can do Lucina's Bonded Shield with an elevated 90% success rate while spreading poison with Dual Strike chain attacks (which is only outclassed by the DLC enchanter class).

With DLC, her combat is crazy strong with emblem Soren. Flare from Soren heals 50% damage dealt and doubles tome crit rate for dragons, yielding a crazy crit-Nosferatu build. The Fell Dragon exclusive Obscurite tome has 10 inherent crit, so a crit engrave (e.g., Fates or Revelations) will make her an amazing enemy phase combatant while engaged to Soren. Skills wise she wants Hold Out and probably a hit boosting skill (Divine Pulse is often the best choice among them).

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Merrin - (Lucina) - (Draconic Hex - ?) -  (Wolf Knight) - (Thunder Daggers / Iron Daggers)
Extremely hard to judge because Hard difficulty gives margin to the player. I never used the Special Attack of Lucina, neither her fusion weapons. The additional damages are great but most of the time they don't make a difference, since I build my party around characters hitting hard. Additionally, she is extremely vulnerable and does not dodge well. The only positive points is that she regularly delivers critical and that training her with Corrin in the arena allows to inherit Draconix Hex. I bench her for my second playthrough, but would like to know whether she is recommended in Maddening, since support is probably much more important.

Merrin is actually quite strong. Her base stats are very similar to Kagetsu with a little bit less strength but a bunch more magic, which is actually good for punching through high defense in the late game with magic weapons. I'm surprised you mention her failing to avoid since she is super speedy and one of my better avoid units—maybe a combination of bad luck on combat rolls or she was RNG screwed in speed for your playthrough? Alternatively, if her avoid is compared to a Dual Support Alear or Coverts in fog, then yes it will seem lackluster (but, as mentioned about Zelkov and Yunaka, you actually need enemies to have >0 hit for them to attack in Maddening difficulty).

Merrin's flaw is that her personal strength growth is on the lower side, so she wants a class that helps patch it up, which Wolf Knight does not. She does well as a Wyvern Knight or a Warrior to patch up her strength class base/growth. Warrior is actually a really nice option because she can apply her magic stat to the Radiant Bow to one shot fliers with its crazy might. For context, endgame Maddening Wyverns have 95 magical bulk (HP + Res) and Griffins have 96. Radiant Bow +5 has 24 MT, which equated to 72 attack against those fliers. Then you can use engraves to boost might further and end up with a surprisingly low magic stat to one-shot fliers, which Merrin can hit.

Regarding Draconic Hex—that's a great skill but probably best used by someone with 1-3 ranged attacks for the most flexibility applying the debuff. Finally, your Merrin probably didn't contribute much in combat due to the aforementioned Wolf Knight strength issues, especially since Lucina gives no strength.

Edited January 2 by FashionEmblem

[FashionEmblem]

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Alcryst - (Lyn) - (None) - (Sniper) - (Silver Bow - Long Bow)

Alcryst shouldn't be a Sniper, but his personal class (which is the word sniper in French). Agreed that Alcryst is all about building a gambling build, though his dexterity is so high he can turn into a surprisingly good gamble. I did use him with Lyn because he takes her speed to run off quading with the Brave Bow to roll more for Luna procs. It's ... fine. I find his gambling fun, but I will not deny it's a gamble and there are more consistent strategies, especially since Lyn is a highly sought ring. Somebody like Amber or Etie can put in a lot more consistent work by using their higher strength stat to double with Lyn instead of relying on Luna chances for damage. However, since they typically would want Warrior to maximize for strength, it is nice that Alcryst brings the covert bonus of 20-range Astra Storms and Luna can boost damage of each individual hit.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Albert - (Sigurd) - (Dodge + 30 - Lance Power 3) - (Avenir) - (Killer Lance - Beginnigns)

Alfred is mediocre. I think he's probably less bad than his bad start suggests—but on Maddening he gets doubled by so much of Chapter 5 and doesn't contribute much offensively by Chapter 6. His personal class line is also unimpressive—a gambling skill for defence when he could just go into Great Knight. Part of the issue is that even if he can grow out of some of his early mediocrity, what's the point when the game stacks so much power into later-joining units?

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Fogado - I tested the Radiant Bow with Anna Warrior, and it was so efficient that I crafted it to +5. I read on Internet that he was the best Radiant Bow user, but is it enough to justify a Maddening use ? How to build him, in that case ?

Radiant Bow is really strong and Fogado is one of the better users of it (second best behind Anna of those with innate Bow talents). Radiant Bow +5 has 24 MT, which tripples to 72 magic attack against fliers. Endgame fliers have 95-96 magical bulk on Maddening. If you do Radiant Bow, +3 MT engrave (e.g., Radiance), +5 magic from an emblem (e.g., maxed Celica) that is 27 MT x 3 = 81 MT + 5 emblem magic = 86 magical attack. Fogado instant promoted to Cupido has 9 magic to start, and can go up to 10 easily with a meal (or 11 with a tonic). Boom, Fogado at level 17 (promoted to Cupido, but gaining no magic levels since) has enough power to one-shot endgame fliers at level ~40 with the Radiant Bow. Since Fogado will grow his magic (guaranteed on fixed growth Maddening), you can reduce the MT of the engraving or use different emblems accordingly.

Cupido!Fogado works well with Eirika since his physical bows like Lunar Brace, the Radiant Bow appreciates Bravery and the magic bonus, and cavalry get a boost to power on Twin Strike. Cupido!Fogado is fast, so can potentially quad some things with the Brave Bow, buttressed by Lunar Brace. Warrior!Fogado has less magic, dexterity, and speed but much more strength and chain attacks as a viable alternative, though has less flexibility for weaker engraving to still hit Radiant Bow one-shots.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Lapis - I tried using her, but she does not deliver without emblems. Not enough STR, not enough durability on the first line, not enough movement to support by lack of dodge, no access to a range support in her base class. I gave her Roy in my second play though, since Kagetsu was absent, and she was doing much better. I was forced to bench her when Kagetsu joins, but it seems clear to me that this unit has potential, I just don't understand how to invest in her. And would it be worthy in Maddening ?

Lapis is ok. Kagetsu does invalidate her if you don't want to run both. Lapis is like Chloé without magic, which is to say notably much weaker since she can't Levin Sword her way through enemy physical bulk. Lapis, like Kagetsu, wants a reclass to a more strength focused class like Wyvern. Unlike her early game competitor, Chloé, she needs both a Master and Second Seal to get there. She can stay in speedy weaker classes if you are willing to buttress her damage through emblem/skills. She can easily promote into Hero instead of Swordmaster to try rushing Brave Assist for a damage support role since Lucina and Dual Assist are not too far off. Her big problem is she desperately needs an early game Master Seal for any of these machinations but has really stiff competition for them.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Citrine - I used her in second playthrough because Jean and Anna are in training at this time. She is nothing noticeable and has Speed issues. I benched her, lacking to see any potential. Does she have any particular utility outside of the early game ?

You can manipulate the bond ring RNG to get the Olwen S rank bond ring from Leif's set. Olwen S gives Dire Thunder, a skill that turns the Thunder tome into a brave weapon. This is quite strong and the easiest way to make use of her since her high magic lets her hit like a truck twice from three range. As enemy resistance increases this build falls off, but she can become more of a utility character with staff access as a Sage or High Priest. She can run Corrin for fire terrain as a mystical unit and 3 range Dracon Hex/Dreaful Aura from an electric tome. Otherwise, she can go Mage Knight and receive heavy favoritism to patch speed; inherit Speedtaker from Lyn and equip a +5 speed ring and she can hit doubling thresholds. 

On off-brand build I have considered is Sniper Citrinne. She can equip the Radiant Bow and put in good work despite the lower magic cap thanks to the crazy MT. Equip Lyn as her emblem to patch her speed and she can do 20 range covert Astra Storms off the Radiant Bow for big damage. As a downside relative to Alcryst, she will do little damage to enemy staff users, which are often the ones I want to one-round with Astra Storm from a big distance.

With DLC Citrinne can actually work on enemy phase with emblem Veronica. Veronica gives a skill Reprisal which converts up to 50% of missing HP into attack power. Combined with Hold Out to survive at 1 HP and Vantage, Citrinne has high magic to hit one hit kills with Thoron at 1-3 range with some planning (mostly stat boosters to ensure thresholds in HP and Magic are met). Just keep her away from 4 range attackers (e.g., wyrms) and break (Fracture staff and fisticuffs enemies) and she can do this surprisingly safely.

On 1/1/2024 at 1:33 AM, Lagdou said:

Jean - Currently used in my second play through. He is "Staff locked" and therefore grinds XP slowly, but I clearly see the potential. I just wonder what is the finality with him, and with which emblem.

Well, his gimmick is doubling class growths, so you can do whatever you want with him if you invest the effort. Most, including myself, would say he is not worth the effort, but the potential is certainly there. Jean suffers from the fact that you really want to promote a unit to an advanced class before reclassing them since you want to minimize time spent on base classes (especially for a character that cares so much about class growths). Since Jean joins at base level 1, he ideally wants to reclass to another base class immediately to align his growths and spend no time leveling as a Martial Monk (though, it at least gives more magic, so the reclass may not be necessary).

However, his paralogue opens up after Chapter 5 and there is no Second Seal in sight until after Chapter 8—feels like an oversight when proximal Anna's paralogue gives a Master Seal. For some form of mage build this is not a big deal since Martial Monk has a good magic growth, but for physical builds this is quite frustrating. With DLC you can do the Fell Xenologue early for a Second Seal reward on completion, but then you have a bunch of level 20 promoted characters in your army at Chapter 6 and have broken the game balance (and also broken the balance of Divine Paralogues and eventual skirmishes which scale level based on the average of your highest level units).

If I were opitimizing him for a physical class, I would probably defer Anna's paralogue until after getting a Second Seal after Chapter 8 (which also means deferring the Master Seal from Anna's paralogue ...), then bringing Jean to Anna's paralogue and Chapters 9 and 10 while spamming Great Sacrifice from Micaiah in an attempt to power level him to catch up with the team. It would work, but I have always just skipped Jean instead of dealing with all that.

Edited January 2 by FashionEmblem

[Lagdou]

On 1/1/2024 at 5:40 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I will start by saying, I have never been that into building units. In Engage, the only skill I tend to inherit on people is the best versions I can afford of Canter (on everyone I can get it on), Dual Assist (on all the backup units), Pair Up (on the units I use to tank), and Reposition (shrug).

Ok, so what you are saying is that some skills are objectively superior to others and it is therefore more efficient to invest in these skills rather than trying to find the build for each character

 

On 1/1/2024 at 5:40 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I would recommend against this constraint for a few reasons. First it even further incentivizes you to immediately drop your unpromoted units for the prepromotes the game gives you, which is almost a problem the game has. Second, you can use second seals to easily reset levels (either by changing class, or at level 20), and experience is entirely based in the character's internal level, so you don't miss out on anything by promoting early (except the potential cost of late game seals).

.I decided to drop this constraint after realising the game was meant to promote characters rapidly. I only managed to make a more complex game experience for myself when refusing to follow this new philosophy...

 

On 1/1/2024 at 5:40 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I will note, this is coming from an ironmanning perspective, but I rather like how her personal reduces enemy crit chances.

This is the reflection I made to myself. If I was playing with GBA full reset or in a mode without reset, I would suddenly find her very interesting to avoid RNG death to critical.

 

On 1/1/2024 at 5:40 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I think she fills the fog machine role better than Zelkov does, but in a way that I suspect you would dislike. Zelkov does not need that much avoid when fogging, and that higher resistance covers one of the fog machine's few weaknesses (that the Mystic class lines ignores foes terrain bonuses), and her personal gives her a much higher crit rate when in terrain. The fog triggers that personal, so she tends to randomly crit kill a LOT of units over the course of a playthrough.

Personally I am far less opposed to random sources of increased damage (from proc skills, and crits), as the way to incorporate them into strategies is to use them to chip, with that random increased damage giving you far better margins of error to cover misses, or to push in further with the additional actions those killing chip hits add in. I also find proc skills make the multi-hit emblem specials (like Leif's Quad Hit) noticeably better, as each hit has a chance to proc the skill.

 

Ah, thanks for this complete explanation on why Yunaka is better. Mostly, because I did not realise that Mage were ignoring the terrain effects. Indeed, I started realizing in my playhtrough that she made an interesting alternative, not really in terms of damages since her lower output is compensate by critical, but because Resistance covers the weakness of the strategy.

 

On 1/1/2024 at 8:18 PM, Bartozio said:

In general, I think most physical units you intend to use for combat work best in either Wyvern, Warrior or Wolf knight, which Alear is no exception to. Reclassing them to any of those classes after they promote will likely make their combat seem a lot better.

Ok, in a flexible promotion system, it is also about which classes are objectively better in the context of the game.

 

On 1/1/2024 at 8:18 PM, Bartozio said:Basically, between Bonded shield, Ike and Vantage builds is pretty easy to have units survive enemy phase whitout investing in their bulk, and that means you can make them better at killing enemies instead. And by making liberal use of Corrin and freeze/silence/obstruct staves it's also possible to just not let enemies attack entirely.

For this reason, most people give Panette vantage+Wrath so she can just one shot every enemy that tries to attack her (the least dangerous enemy is a dead enemy after all).

I think putting Diamand in A or S tier is severely overrating him. In my experience, beyond the early game he needs a good amount of investment to stay relevant in combat, and he doesn't offer too much outside of combat.

In general I think mages work best in mage knight for combat, though Sage can still be better for more utility. Pandreo's main claim to fame tends to be that he's a magic unit that comes with good bases in a game where magic is really good. He's faster than Citrinne and Ivy and he needs a lot less investment than the other early game magic units.

I personally like using her in her default class with either Byleth or Corrin. Byleth for the stat boosts she gives to other units, whereas Corrin lets her use all dragon vein options while also stunning enemies from 3 range.

The other option is going Sage and either hoping you luck out and get the Olwen S-rank bond ring, or just use her for chip damage and healing.

Ah, thanks for the Vantage tip. I did not read about it.

I am not surprised to read that average players overrate Diamand. He is good at best, but mostly because I feel like physical units are not stellar in this game. There is nothing particularly remarkable about him.

I note the best class for magical units is suggested to be Mage Knight. I am bit surprise about that since they have no access to staff (on contrary to GBA).

I started realizing that Pandreo is not that different than others magical units. They all have unremarkable defense and the only point about them is to double the enemy to inflict large quantities of damages.

So Veyle makes a good Byleth user. 

I thought she had an inherent built in Sage that was not needing the Olwen ring... Ok. By the way, I feel like it's an hidden reference to Vision Quest, since Titus is a bit unremarkable when he does not use his signature weapon (I remember struggling to make him gain enough XP without using the tome, so I had to use the tome in the last chapters before his promotion, which suddenly transformed him into a power house

On 1/2/2024 at 10:34 AM, FashionEmblem said:

I think this contradicts your point about the spirit of the game—the game's spirit is often encouraging you to use staves and several maps are puzzles you want to solve with staves. 

Alear is more of a utility character than a dodge-tank or any kind of combatant really, but they can do dogetanking (and soloing the game with Alear depends on avoiding for survival). Main problem is Alear as a Divine Dragon lacks 2-range aside from Levin Sword off their weak magic stat to do any counters as a dodgetank. Forging Liberation early is good since it's fairly cheap to improve Alear's combat and get some experience rolling, but their combat does inevitably fall off and despite the forging so will Liberation itself. Dawn engrave is a big hit to MT and with Alear already being rather weak, you are hampering their combat even further. I personally use the Dawn Engrave on Shielding Arts for avoid on my support units, primarily Seadall (though, promoted Alear does use that for holding chokepoints as a dodgetank until Seadall's recruitment).

I recommend looking at Alear as a support/utility character instead of their combat contributions. With Emblems, Divine Dragon!Alear can control all terrains with Corrin or apply Rally Spectrum with Byleth's Goddess Dance/Instruct. Alear also makes a versatile staff user thanks to convoy access, which can be achieved with Micaiah or a reclass to Griffin Knight or Martial Master. Finally, as you are already aware, Alear can make a great Lucina user thanks to supporting everyone and the Dual Support skill. It's also nice that Alear has a 90% success rate for Bonded Shield as a Divine Dragon and 100% as a Qi Adept (which combines nicely with staff access in Martial Master or dagger chain attacks from the Enchanter DLC class). If you want combat Alear, go with a reclass to buttress strength such a Wyvern Knight.

Ok, I am glad to be confirmed that this map can only be solved "properly" with Warp.

Thanks for the complete review of Alear, and for the review of all characters, they make a lot of important details to take into account.

[Bartozio]

6 hours ago, Lagdou said:

Ok, in a flexible promotion system, it is also about which classes are objectively better in the context of the game.

Pretty much, though keep in mind other classes can still have useful niches. For instance, I think Hero is inferior to Wyvern Rider when it comes to direct combat, but it's class mastery skill (two hits on chain attacks instead of 1) can be very useful. So if you have a unit who you're mostly using as filler anyway, getting them into Hero can actually be very useful.

The three I mentioned are mostly better for units who will see a lot of combat.

Quote

I note the best class for magical units is suggested to be Mage Knight. I am bit surprise about that since they have no access to staff (on contrary to GBA).

It's a bit more nuanced, sadly. Mage Knight is the class that will give you the best combat for your magical units. Sage being able to use staves makes them a better support class though. It can be important to make a distinction on your team between which characters you want to only use for combat, and which characters will (at least partially) fill a more supportive role.

[SnowFire]

I will solely say that the jump from Hard to Maddening in Engage wasn't that big.  I found a first-time playthrough on Hard quite gripping and challenging (I also did the "no promoting early" rule that required hitting L20 first, which I think is actually good if the GOAL is to make the midgame more challenging and exciting).  In my replay on Maddening, it was just a total snoozefest because I was winning too easily, with only the new DLC maps being challenging, and I got bored and stopped.  Knowing what you're doing is a huge, huge benefit to Engage and more than makes up for the mild stat creep.  (The Maddening stat boost isn't nearly as stark as Three Houses, where Maddening enemies are notably more badass than Hard enemies.)

[Lagdou]

Thanks for your replies.