Maddening NG Class Size

[The Black Pot]

I'm a chronic competionist, and that damn golden start screen is tempting me to do a Maddening NG run, likely Blue Lions since it seems the least painful and I've already done SS Maddening (albeit NG+) so I wouldn't want to do VW right after. Naturally I bought a lot of my way to victory with previously developed skill/support levels, so instruction and time management were rarely a concern. In my SS run I would attempt to fully clear maps to get maximum exp, and I expect I'd do that again here.

I'm currently unsure what I should be looking at in terms of roster size, between the enemy power levels and the need to be selective with instructing this time. I'm thinking going relatively low man, with 7 combat units, Byleth, Linhardt, and a dancer, so that I can pump the instruction into the 7 fighters and ignore the two support units in the classroom. Since maps go up to 12 units though, is it better to get as many hands on deck as possible?

[Hanes]

I mean unless you have a clear cut answer on how you will low man, I think having 12 will be better just because more units means you can kill more stuff faster and make your turn ones easier.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Most maps post-timeskip have space for 11 units, so I recommend using at least that many units. Basically, your current plan is good, but you might want to add one unit to it.

You probably already know this, but on non-Crimson Flower routes, it helps immensely if the units who start on the left side of Reunion at Dawn (Chapter 13) are all levelled up reasonably. If you're thinking of doing Blue Lions, that's Annette, Mercedes, and Ashe, so I recommend that you use them at least until that point, perhaps even making one of them your dancer if you don't like the idea of using them otherwise.

[SumG]

A few points:

If you're doing BL, you miss out on the early Sylvain recruit (assuming you're playing F!Byleth).  If you have the DLC, this is much less of an issue as you can recruit an Ashen Wolf early.  But just having an extra body to throw in your 10th deployment slot at the start of the game is useful (getting an extra attack per turn and another body to soak hits).  The early game in Maddening, particularly the first five missions, is brutal and you really just need bodies at that point.

If you use such a limited character pool, your chapter 13 will be extremely difficult.  You don't need to carry everyone indefinitely, but getting all your in-house units to level 20 and into advanced classes by that point makes things much easier.

You should use a somewhat limited character pool, but you'll have enough instruction and battles to train plenty of units.  At the end game, the typical weekly progression is Explore->Battle->Explore->Battle, and you get 7 instruction slots per teaching week.  So my suggestion is use all those teaching slots and have 14 usable characters plus Byleth.  One or two of those characters might not be the most useful, but it's nice to have flexibility.

You have less to worry about regarding weapon proficiency than you might think.  Because enemies are so much tougher and plentiful, you'll end up getting many more attacks by your units than on Normal or Hard.  If you're using weapons your units are proficient in, they shouldn't have a problem reaching S+ even using 14 or so units regularly and getting your house to level 20.

I find it's beneficial to do as many of the paralogues as possible for two reasons.  First, the rewards tend to be great.  Second, the maps tend to have a ton of enemies, which makes them efficient for training levels, class mastery, and weapon proficiency.  They are certainly better than generic auxiliary battles.  So even if you're not using many of the units in the long term, you should still be getting your recruitment on (yes, even Ferdinand and Caspar).  It's up to you whether or not you want to train those units for their paralogues, but bringing in extremely weak characters into difficult missions can be very challenging in some cases.

[Alistair]

My personal advice for a Blue Lions run:

- In terms of recruits, I'd recommend Caspar, Lorenz and Catherine. Caspar nets you a Part 2 paralouge with decent battalions and a Hero's Relic. Lorenz gets you Thyrsus, and is easy enough to one-turn provided you have a decent flier, if the defend condition is too hard. Catherine not only has a lot of ties to the Blue Lions, she's also part of Ashe's paralouge. 

- I think Ingrid makes the best in-house dancer for the Blue Lions, between her good evasion and riding proficiency (for Movement +1 in the late game). If you want an out-of-house dancer, then I find Dorothea and Marianne are good for similar reasons.  

- Dedue falls off in Part 2 for a variety of reasons, but he does make a killer adjutant/"backpack" for Dimitri, since they have Linked Attack bonuses and Dedue is very easy to get into a guard adjutant class (either brawling specialists or armors). 

 

[leesangstar10]

On 5/12/2020 at 4:03 PM, Dark Holy Elf said:

You probably already know this, but on non-Crimson Flower routes, it helps immensely if the units who start on the left side of Reunion at Dawn (Chapter 13) are all levelled up reasonably. If you're thinking of doing Blue Lions, that's Annette, Mercedes, and Ashe, so I recommend that you use them at least until that point, perhaps even making one of them your dancer if you don't like the idea of using them otherwise.

I second this especially the dancer idea. However, if you really don't want to use these units, I would recommend making Byleth a flier. It allows Byleth to fly to them and protect them(assuming you are going for a deathless run). 

Another advice is if you don't plan on using the left side female units, class change them into a flier as well if possible. It makes it much easier for them to escape danger. (I say female cause it will be hard for Ashe to certify as a Wyvern due to lvl. Annette and Mercedes is easier due to pegasus at lvl 10)

[AC6]

The Black Pot, 

If you want to unlock as much support conversions (unit x * unit y) as possible: you need to set 19 active units

 

Ideal number of active units for maddening is 15.

Edited May 16, 2020 by AC6