I do think you're way too harsh on Celine. Except for Dragon units, shes got the most utility. You're tiering her on one-round potential and not what all she brings. She keeps mystical type for better Emblem usage, she can use Excalibur to take out fliers, levin sword heavies, has enough strength growth to steel blade other mages effectively since she isnt doubling anyway unless you want to fix her speed, A rank staffs...etc. she contributes well to any group with no investment
on maddening her excalibur isn't really taking fliers out. radiant bow does that better owing to griffin res and wyvern health stats. I'm not even sure why you would want to Levin Sword with Vidame / Mage Knight Celine considering Bolg and Levin have the same weight iirc
@ellachino4799 it does and I'd agree with you usually but Celine has better strength growth than most people you'd put in mage knight. Sword power works on levin sword along with the physical stuff which makes it stronger than Bolg. It's also significantly cheaper to upgrade
Yeah. She's really good early game. Then gets drastically outclassed by Ivy and Pandreo. Any unit can run decent utility by just giving them a staff. Although Celine is positioned a little better since she naturally gets one if you choose to promote her. Gentle Flower also helps a bit, but mostly before she gets a staff. She definitely doesn't belong at the bottom of the tier list. She's got a viable position in a playthrough. I think Clanne and Bunet are the clear bottom 2 and deserve their own tier.
She really needs starsphere and Chrom to stay relevant as a damage carry. Early strasphere gives her enough build to wield levin sword, and Chrom is basically a big stat-stick that gives her everything she wants.
I see her as invaluable the first few chapters you have her, due to her ability to set up echo kills and warp rags on armors and snipable foes, but by the time you get yunaka she loses her teeth compared to citrenne. That’s around the time Anna can come online too when you get your first second seal. Thats when she becomes a passive bot or staff bot in my maddening playthroughs
I like that she has no bad emblems. To make her a combat unit takes more than many characters, but in just her one class she gets a lot of use out of every emblem.
@@GentlemanGarrote I completely agree. She's a monster early game. Chapter 4 basically seems to be designed with her in mind, as she can echo kill the first couple enemies, then warp over to Louis/Chloe and start bashing things in there. Being able to warp into the chapter 5 treasure room, catch up to the team in chapter 6 after playing rear guard is also really strong, or warp in near Anna's treasure chest ahead of the team is a big deal. She's just sturdy enough to avoid being 1 shotted by axe users and some bosses, which gives her a substantial edge over Clanne. The speed and durability also give her the edge over Citrinne as far as I'm concerned. Citrinne being one rounded by fliers in her starting chapter is not acceptable. I only use Citrinne if when I win the dire thunder lottery. Sadly, once the gold stardard for magic attacks becomes Bolganone and Levin Sword, Celine's build lets her down hard while Ivy and Pandreo dominate.
And finally someone singing Fogados strengths and praises! I also basically rated Fogado S, since like you said, hes basically a "free" insane damage dealer.
I just prefer him on his default advanced class. He doesnt start out great, but after a few level ups becomes crazy good. Just be sure to give him a upgraded Radiant Bow, and he shouldn't struggle with anything. Silver bow, brave bow, silver sword. Thats it. Hes a good candidate for Eirika emblem too. Warrior is his next best class, but imo worse, since it has less speed and doesnt make use of his magic stat as well, but is still strong. @@samleuba112
I still respect this man's sheer dedication to this game. Also happy to see you having crossed 10k, really providing some fantastic FE and other game content. Nothing much I could add since it's pretty much the same list from a couple of months back, and I agree with most of it. Timerra being S tier is pretty undeniable at this point. It's kinda insane how units which have one excellent build like Citrinnes Thunder get hyped into oblivion while a unit like Timerra who has like 3-4 S tier builds with different classes and emblems and still get questioned. Yes you have to learn how to handle her, but once you do you really have an absolutely fantastic all rounder unit. Also nice to see Mage Knight Veyle getting some praise, she really is a decent unit you get for free.
One thing that ppl don't mention is that Louis gets a ton of usefulness in the earlygame that jade misses out on and he has higher HP growth but 20% and def by 10% and only has 10% lower res growth while having higher base stats by the time you get Jade. He's one of the hardest units to play without whereas Jade can be ignored entirely and not effect a campaign at all. Side note: Jade's passive is literally worthless if you play correctly and give your phys tanks pure waters.
@@vitor102jade doesn’t have enough damage unless she’s using the s rank smash axe or a great silver axe and you just don’t have the bulk to do that effectively without general. And using power skills to boost her damage isn’t really worth it since she doesn’t double. And you’d always prefer a warrior on Ike if not a beserker on Ike. You don’t necessarily want high defense on your Ike tank since you want enemies to target them. You want a fat stack of hp. You also want them to be one rounding with their class specific 1-2 range option and be able to one shot fliers with a long bow if in warrior. Jade can’t do any of that.
@@ultimaterecoil1136 i prefer not killing people in enemy phase, that ruined my exp distribution on my first run, but paladin jade with gentility and pair up can tank everything in the game
@@vitor102 ok then ditch Ike for something better. If you aren’t using your Ike tank to clear massive crowds then at that point you’d genuinely be better off with one of the solid bond rings. Perhaps a warrior or sniper with Claude or a dire thunder user. And funneling the exp into one unit isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on the unit. Absolutely for jade in particular but someone like Jean as an Ike tank sure.
Glad that people are starting to come around on Alfred. Rough-ish start, but due to his bulk and movement he's never really a liability, and his strength/speed/defense balance is really quite nice later on. Also dancers don't just refresh your best unit, they refresh the unit best adapted to your current situation. That's more valuable than just the theoretical "best unit" imo.
Alfred isn’t really “bulky” on his own. He needs some form of speed support early game or he will get one rounded and you are gonna get better mileage off Sigurd on Louis. He can’t afford to be doubled especially early on. That said if you put Marth on him early because you are gonna do a support allear so he doesn’t need that much exp he really takes off.
I feel like you are underestimating Kagestus raw stats compared to Timmera. At IL 35, Wyvern Kagestu has the same defense at 26 and 1 more res at 17 instead of 16. Kagestu also has 7 more str, along with 3 more bld and access to axes. Kagestu can get similar damage to sandstorm through crits as well.
I think he is. I gave him a crit engraving on a killer sword and he carried maps upon joining. No stat boosters or any investment except maybe early spd+ depending how much of the map you want him to solo.
Kagetsu is ridiculously strong. Give him a killer sword with crit engraving and he solos maps as soon as he joins. It’s honestly kind of annoying how good he is since I’m pumping stats into my favorites and he murders straight away.
I do feel like avoid tank is slept on a bit because it’s true 0% chance to dodge means they ignore you but if you run different weapons to ensure every encounter is 10% or less then tanking doesn’t really matter any more.
I agree with her being S. I have never felt that she's high investment. I will say running online and DLC makes it way less of an issue. Online let's you second seal her to mage immediately. DLC lets you catch her up.
Yeah so I mega fed etie w/ starsphere, exp gain from edelgard, boosted her to hell, gave her boosters, and when I got Pannete they had = stats 😅 I literally thought I was popping off rolling with her and was just pannete stats
I think Roy on Berserker Jean is pretty underrated, it makes his offense and bulk both pretty insane when engaged, and he’ll have enough speed to double a pretty decent amount of enemies. Chapter 9 lets you refresh your engage meter for free, so he’ll be operating with those boosted stats for practically the entire map.
23:24 i can see magical jean builds, due to having a semi-natural stepping stone into it, being a, but physical ones being b due to how rough they are to get him into and grow into
Frame for sure S tier you can make her level 20 in a few hours in the starting chapters by doing chain guard strat. From there she can dive and do things you normally wouldn’t to making her a tank and archer/mage killer.
Surprise Cupido S rank but I agree. Cupido meets the 37 speed threshold at ilvl 40 with no other speed investment and has access to Radiant Bow which is the best weapon in the game.
My most broken units on my first maddening were Merrin as Martial Monk (almost untouchable and hits too hard on everything) and Alpaca Boy as Halberdier. Special mention to Kagetsu Dragon raider and Bunet as Warrior.
I missed if he was considering DLC in this tier list or not, but for me Etie always does well because of it. I usually start the DLC right when it opens up (I think it opens on chapter 6). Just pop 3 houses on Etie and have her one shot all of the dragons no problem. She has massive strength and dex growths which really makes her great for taking down fliers as well as normal units. Because of her high strength and dex she's a great candidate for Revanche. She doesn't normally double, but she doesn't normally need to. She hovers around 45%-65% crit chance with that axe. If you're really in trouble, just use raging storm to kill one unit, and then Revanche to kill another. She's durable enough to take a hit or two, and can one shot almost anything. Sure, a bit of her strength comes from the axe, but she's a great candidate for it, and she still gets B rank on bows. She's mostly a glass cannon, but works well.
Here to confirm that Sage Chloe w/ Byleth is really good. I gave her Lucina Engrave Bolg & she doesn't even need Bonded Shield to enemy phase. Usually just one Chain Guard is fine because her Avo gets so high with her Speed & engraving
Jean is the best if you immediately Second Seal him upon recruitment into Axe Fighter, then put him into Warrior path. He caps out almost all of his stats. Definitely requires a bit of babying for his first 6 levels or so, but he pops off sooner than you think. Plus it's funny to see the aspiring doctor get horrified by his efficacy at murder.
If Framme is S tier then Jean should be S for the same reason but much better growths. Even if you don’t turn him into a combat unit he can be a free exp healer and always turn him into combat later if your want.
IMO, an even better option is to Master Seal into Berserker. He'll need a little bit of help for the first few levels, but pretty quickly he'll kill everything with a Lyn engraved Noatun. These stats are assuming fixed growths (my preference). Once he hits Berserker level 17 he'll be on the verge of the dex cap, so switch him to Griffin Knight. At an internal level of 40 he ends up with 32 Str, 15 Mag, 35 Dex, 40 Spd, and 11 Bld. For reference, if you switch Kagetsu to Wyvern and leave him on it for the entire playthrough, at internal level 40 he has 32 Str, 8 Mag, 36 Dex, 34 Spd, 12 Bld. So Jean can kind of use Levin Sword and still has the same strength and way more speed than Wyvern Kagetsu. Plus he can wield a Brave Sword almost weightlessly. Absolutely broken
So half of the problem with Jean is that you CAN'T immediately Second Seal him because you don't get one until after chapter 8. By then his stats are too bad to feasibly train with Mercurius, so you need to spend your last two maps with Micaiah stapled to him to get him to 10 before you lose her (and at this point he's competing against way more units for Micaiah time), then ideally give him a couple maps with Lucina for Parthia...and once he gets there he actually is strong, but you get so many strong physical units in the midgame for zero effort. I've done it before, it can work, I don't think I'd do it again though.
I love that you put Anna in S-tier for the money, which isn't a small boon over time, but I honestly would've put her there for her combat alone. On my run she was my most powerful unit by the end. Maybe I was blessed by the RNG gods, maybe it was because I got her into Mage and then Mage Knight so fast, but it wasn't long before she was doing mad damage and doubling everything that moved. The only units that were as reliable as Anna were Panette (for sheer might and HP) and Lapis (no exaggeration, I don't think a single enemy touched her the last third of the game). Granted, I had to be very careful where I put Anna, because she was a bit glass cannon, but her player phase was monster. And at the other end was Lapis, who I would purposely walk into a group of eight enemies and watch her enemy phase turn into blood-soaked mayhem that she survived without losing a single HP. Good times.
The reason Hortensia S is not because she enables staff shenanigans or saves staff uses really, but it's more so because she's a flying staff/tome unit that has access to A rank staves and can use Excalibur to easily deal with fliers, even with low mag growth she's decent enough to kill armor knights as well.
Hortensia has too many downsides to be S. She is B tome and cant use XCal, only Elwind. It needs upgrades and engraves to 1 round flyers, but is decent air cover and flank coverage. It makes her acceptable for some targets at least. As combat unit she needs a lot of babysitting to avoid getting downed in 1 hit.
@@Bobucles yes sorry, I meant Elwind thx for mentioning it. But the reason I still think she is S if not at least top of A is because her combat is servicible, but you wouldnt run her as a combat unit and she is so fast she will live a hit from pretty much everything and do some decent chip damage at worst, and she is the best staff user in the game, tho sure not necessary, but there's really no reason not to run her since you get a ton of deployment slots anyway, as ICG says for other units, she's free. No investment at all except promoting (which isnt really investment)
The problem is that "servicible" isnt S rank material. As a support unit she can't transform a bad team into a good team. S units can. For example take a AVO bond stacked Framme. You can put her next to actual garbage units and turn them into map clearing monsters. Hortensia just, like, clears a flyer or heals pretty good. She carries her weight very well, but not much more.
Glad I am seeing Timerra finally getting the praise she deserves. Her ridicilously good bases, ensured that she would no matter what, be really strong regardless of emblem used. I actually had her solo entire lanes, because of her ridiculous defenses, and enemy phase performance. Gave her a javelin and she was dominating. Her passive also prevents units from being sniped by random crits. Which tends to hover between 1-2% for everyone.
I am finishing my first maddening playthrough having heard some of the rumblings and just creativity dumping from this video: - Celine should at least be low B tier, when she joins she is one of the only units that with low investment can kill armors consistently and safely, also being a good candidate for early promotion due to staffs. I do agree she falls off because all of her stats are absurdly mid, but corrin Utility or Micaiah staving utility can give her a role in your army, even if other units can perform it better. - I loved the Fogado analysis, I originally was planning on not using him, but I got lucky and got a radiant bow from the well and decided to put him as filler for the Timerra chapter and he was annihilating everything. Chapter 19 and he is still annihilating things with the Radiant Bow +3 and I haven't given him any skill or notable investment other than the kills that I definitely need from him. I will say his accuracy can be a little bit shaky. Any recommendations for Fogado skills?
rosado is expensive to work, but when he does he is great, second seal him to sword/axe wyvern, give him lunar brace and lief(and later give him break defences), now you have someone with enough build and speed to quad with brave axe or master lance(if you break thats 5x attacks basically), just from lunar brace thats 150% defence as damage, and to top it of, he has great str growths.
I never played Maddenning so I can't comment on that, but on my playthrough I remember Vander being terrible, Celine being one of my best units throughout most of the game, Alfred just kinda sucking most of the game but I brought him back reclassed because I really liked him as a character (even then he was just "okay" after I brought him back and reclassed him), and Timerra was insanely good from the moment I got her through the endgame. I basically didn't use the prepromotes at all (until Mauvier and Veyle at the end). I think I used Merrin the longest overall, though.
Cupido with radiant bow. That's honestly all he needs to be good. Anything on top of that just makes him better. Radiant bow has enough might to one-shot all fliers, and cupido has just enough magic to keep it relevant. On my first playthrough, I made him a warrior, and he was still pretty good as a physical carry. I was playing on hard, though, so take that with a grain of salt.
@@Omegalord92 yeah, his magic bases and growths aren't amazing, but radiant bow has ridiculous mt, and that's what gets tripled (?) against fliers. It'll do midling damage against non-fliers and can only ORKO low res units that aren't fliers. His str growth is also not amazing in cupido, so physical bows will usually do less damage than radiant bow. It's really his ability to one-shot fliers that makes him useful, and he only requires a master seal and radiant bow to be able to do that.
I like how Lapis is now The Gatekeeper. All units are now good only if they measure up to Lapis. Also, what's the difference between Mauvier and Cool Mauvier?
Great list! My only real diaagrements are Celine and boucheron. I did NOT believe in the bouche until my fourth playthrough. You just need one silver ingot to forge him an early tomahawk and he kills everything. The ease at which he power levels from there makes him great all game. Fix his strength with berserker, switch him to wyvern or paladin when he hits a cap. Im a bouche believer baby. And before anybody says you can just do that with chloe...why not run TWO hard carry wyverns? This is also a playthrough where i ran alfred, Anna, yunaka, and jean to endgame, so i had more than enough XP to go around
For Saphir, you could do Vantage + and Wrath and give her Roy as an emblem since it will give her strength +6 as well as Hold Out+++ when max bond. Plus you get Roy back at the same time she joins so that's an upside for her. Of course she can inherit Dual Assist + basically for free without needing to max bond her with Lucina if you want her to Long Bow chip.
I'm currently experimenting with a Goldmary build an which you rush her to Hero 5, get the Brave Assist and Dual Assist+ Passives and Reposition, and then refuse to level her up for the rest of the game. Honestly I doubt it is the most efficient strategy. The idea was to have a unit that could contribute while being low opportunity cost for XP, rings, weapons, and relative SP. The chip damage she provides might be debatable, since I think a more optimized team can kill without the chip. But the run I'm playing is not optimized at all. Especially since I ended up ruining my Anna and have a very weak Alear. So the chip build is actually really useful to me this run. The worry however, is that she costs a deployment slot. And will probably also be useless in the final map.
Also want to say that Citrinne is insane as a Sniper or a Bow Knight and is probably the best user of the Radiant bow, specially with Lyn to make Astra Storm do magic damage.
I watch every video this man puts out because I can’t stop resetting my runs over and over. My last reset I have tried funneling as much exp as possible to select units I like and do units have the ability to solo large parts of maps that I have definitely been sleeping on. With the strength of units that get thrown at you mid game maximizing exp is the way to go I feel since so many units get dropped.
Well, if you want to play "optimally", the best thing to do is to invest on a few unit early (like, if you REALLY want to be fully optimal, only Alear and Chloé), since you will get units at a high level without investment later. Also use Vander until chapter 11.
@@lacaserne9924 I did but it got too boring because Chloe is too good. I did a reset and optimally fed Alfred instead because I like him more. Plus he also has support with my main man Diamant 👍
@@russellg9622 Yeah + you don't need to play optimally. I always use Etie despite the fact that she is outclassed by Amber (but not as bad as some peoples want to believe).
@@lacaserne9924 there is so much carry potential with units as long as you plan your resources out you can go to town. Etie does confuse me, even if you invest all resources into her what does she look like afterwards?
@@russellg9622 You just put her on Warrior and give her Lyn, and she become one of your main carry. She don't requires more than that to one round everything.
I overvalue jean, but that's because I use tiki on Ana and leave michiah on Jean. When that happens jean comes online earlier and becomes an incredible mage unit super quickly. He can do combat with michiah thanks to Nosferatu and then I usually switch him over to chrom after she leaves. Yes it's cheating and yes he gets extra levels from the occasional dlc map, so I'm not saying he's going to be that good on a normal playthrough, but there's something to be said for how quickly he comes online with michiah.
@@russellg9622 I personally use framme (she is one of my favorite characters) as an enchanter. sadly it means i have to complete the fell xenologue every run early.
You need to look at Gregory again. With his personal, Pair him with Camilla, avoid 30, Speed+5 and give him an avoid engrave and rewarp yourself into a group of enemies and let him cook. Better still set the area around you on fire with dragon vein
I generally agree with this tier list but i think Clanne and Jean should be high A tier. In every run clanne always ends up as a bad kagetsu just like how Anna is basically bad pandreo. Jean investnent cost is mitigated by the fact he can become a hard carry better than 90% units. I also would put Anna in A tier, shes quite frail compared to other units. But at least not as bad as citrinne
If Framme is S then Jean should be S too but higher. He does the same thing with much better late game potential. He’s a staff bot at worst that can turn into a late game carry or combat unit if desired. Give him staff accuracy early and have him cast something every round.
@@russellg9622Thing is his support bonus and supports is lackluster tho. So he loses to Framme for the qi adept bonded shield strat. But everything else he wins. But investment cost is a thing and personally I would put all the pupils high A tier
Question about Chloe since you mentioned that Wyvern is best for early game. Is it worth it to switch her to Griffin around Chapter 17-18? Or would her magic be too low since she was in Wyvern for so long?
Her Levin sword Griffin is too strong. Pick a route and stick with it I think. If you want sword the levin griffin, spear Chloe then wyvern, but so many characters make good wyverns.
i think Alcryst should be at least low A Tier. sure he's only a player phase unit but he does it very well. he can insta promote after you get him to start working towards Luna. once you get Luna then he's able to kill a lot of enemies with a forged engraved Killer Bow. he works well with Lyn cause of Luna Astra Storm or Eirika cause of Lunar Brace/Gentility.
I agree with basically all the rankings, but maybe disagree slightly with some of the reasonings. On Hortensia: being a flying B-rank staff user is fairly rare (I think the only other options are Ivy, Pandreo, Mauvier and maybe Lindon?) and her +1 range on staves gives her manoeuvrability that other staffers lack. She can come in, heal, canter away over obstacles out of enemy range. Using one of those other options for this means losing a combat mage for a turn. Her massive luck also makes her one of the best offensive staff-users in the game with Divine Pulse, though I personally don’t use those too often. On Boucheron: if you were running him as Wyvern with Speed+5 AND Lyn/Lucina then you were definitely over-fixing his speed. He only needs Speed+5 and a meal to hit doub/quad thresholds for most enemies with Tomahawk/Brave Axe. His stats are relatively close to Succ Diamant (he has overall better bulk, -5 Str and +11 Dex. Spd/Bld is equal for both, though Bouch tends to level his Bld a few levels earlier than Dia). So he should run similar emblems to him e.g. Roy or Ike. Diamant will do more damage, but Bouch has better hit overall and way more reliable enemy phases. With Axe Power he easy clears any enemy he quads, and any tomahawk fail to kill are easy fodder for Speedtaker users. For Leif users since you were talking about him, the only other ones I’ve found that are reasonable are Jade!Griffin and Halberdier!Jean Jade’s speed is high enough with his build boost to not be doubled by the reg enemies, and she has the Mag to Hurricane Axe ORKO endgame fliers/Str to Silver Greataxe ORKO squishier enemies like mages. Arms Shield boosts her defence against other phys units and gives her break immunity, and she can run Resolve and Bravery to tank well. Jean’s poor personal growths means he usually ends up stat screwed in at least one important stat in a lot of classes, but in Halberdier his speed is fast enough to be fixed with Speed+5/Pincer Attack, Leif fixes his Bld, he has decent damage and Alcryst level Dex. It means he can actually use the Master Lance as a Brave 1-2 range weapon with solid accuracy that most other units can’t.
Timerra supremacy let’s go ❤ Do you plan to do a last Tier list for every important thing like skills, classes, donations and other things ? Would be nice am also already on my 400th game hour
Yunaka actually can go into bow knight with her high magic growth stat. She will get enough magic skill ups to make radiant bow powerful enough to do 50+ damage as soon as you skill her into it. Her only weakness is her lack of doubling when she gets access to the bow without speed fixing. She can’t enemy phase without Leif, but I feel like she can be better than fogado as a magic bow knight user. Her high res growth and high magic growth seems to fit that role well. Fogado comes in with zero investment though, so you need to move to use Papaya to do this. I feel like mage knight might possibly be okay as well, if you can fix her build and speed.
@@goroadachi9489 I am running her in a maddening play through right now and she is still going strong into chapter 10 because I upgraded her iron dag to steel super early. Without steel daggers she is borderline worthless, unless you make her a micaiah unit. It’s kind of a waste of mic though.
@@GentlemanGarrote Yeah but like, having to level her up to 21 is not it. I would rather just grab Zelkov, although I think Yunaka is slightly better, I hate having to train her sometimes.
I am pretty sure a lot of the hype behind Hortensia might also have something to do with her being a Flying healer. Meaning she has better movement to utilize Rescue and Rewarp. However, any flying unit with max bond on Micaiah can do the same thing. Ivy does it at base, most Griffon Riders just need enough bond levels, and even Wyvern Knights can do it. The only thing Hortensia has over them is that she can use Nodus and can sometimes save Staff uses with World Tree. Oh, and her personal skill. Some of those Griffon Riders might actually have more magic than Hortensia.
@@IcedCoffeeGaming Wow, amazing... I admire you. Keep up the great FE Engage content! This is what keeps me sane in maddening and prevents me from quitting after my third reset.
You had such a long Timerra rant and it's SO valid lol. I do not understand why there are people who think she's bad or useless. My Timerra has popped off in EVERY playthrough without fail.
Fadago is B tier for me. Anyone that uses bows should be a warrior not only can you use axes you are a backup type unit which helps in a number of situations throughout. He can work but compared to any warrior unit it’s not as good. There is hurricane axe, tomahawks, long bows etc.
Enchanter Framme is broken tier. Impossible to hit. Throws backup attack daggers. And can one round with flashing fist. So much role compression its bonkers.
I think Celine deserved at least B. You rated her as combat, but she's actually a staff user. She has 70% luck growth in Vidame and early access to Staff Mastery 2. Add divine pulse and Corrin. She's not as good as Hortensia, but I think I think she deserves at least B. 😊
I prefer to think of Celine as a Utility unit than a combat unit imo. She's the only mystical class where she can access swords, tomes, and staves. If speed is your main thing, I feel like she could be improved by running dire thunder which could help her proc Ignis more often. I do think she's worth being Bumped to B imo.
If you're running DLC, give her Starsphere and Chrom. By mid-Solm, she should have enough build to carry levin sword. Chrom gives her enough stats to be a good carry into the late game.
@@Andigames235 tbh it's my preference for how to play the game. I get that it skews exp gain and kinda trivializes the game, but I dont really enjoy games because they are challenging. I like to see how strong I can make a character with min-maxing their stats.
@@Andigames235 yeah, I just tried my own "royals only" run with DLC included. Maybe i didn't feed Alfred enough to keep him relevant, but avenir is just so bad. Not enough speed to double, not enough strength to OHKO. Passive wants to make him tanky, but def and res growths aren't enough to be tanky. ICG has talked about wolf knight being a good class, so I'm gonna try that in my current run once I get second seals. Clanne... idk I've never felt interested in using him. I bench him every run the moment I get Celine or any other tome user lol. I've heard he's serviceable as a physical bruiser, but I've never tried it.
Alfred on WK is pretty good and can EP/PP very well same with Clanne on MK. Clanne requires less investment than Alcryst long term in terms of forges/materials and is a fast mage knight that can run levin sword which makes him on average more consistent and valuable. He does have low HP but he has more potential with less effort while Alcryst needs forged engraved weapons and is player phase only.
Says Alcryst has bad EP and places him low then ignores that Fogado also has quite bad EP. I don’t think Alcryst>Fogado but Fogado’s EP on Cupido is bad. Fogado is basically just worse Merrin and Kagetsu (like he is genuinely just worse than Merrin in every way) who are themselves worse than Pandreo and Ivy for sure and debatably Pannette and Chloe. This puts Fogado comfortably outside of S. I also value Hortensia more than him since +1 Warp range isn’t huge but is valuable in 20, 21, and 23-26 more so than anything Fogado can do in those chapters (which is like half of his availability)
Fogado has 1 less hp, 2 less str, 1 less magic, 4 less dex, 2 less def, 4 less luck and 1 less bld than Merrin if both are Wolf knight base lvl and Fogado is even 1 lvl higher than Merrin. Fogado is indeed worse in every way other than that Fogado got innate bow and unique class. I agree with Merrin > Fogado
Good list, Ivy should be in the same category as Hortensia. She flies, that's her main perk. She is incredibly slow, she has horrible growths, terrible luck so she gets crit. Mathematically, no magic unit touches Anna. Except Pandreo, mostly cause the good bases.
I'm playing on maddening and it feels like my units are too weak to proceed in the main chapter, stuck at chapter 18. Is there a way to grind and level up on this game?
Personally I wouldn’t call any build that requires reclassing “low investment” there is heavy competition for second seals because almost the entire cast wants them and especially early not everyone is gonna get a reclass if they want one. Fogado is what I’d call low investment ( he technically still needs exp but minimum possible investment for combat realistically) and someone like framme is what I’d call no investment. You don’t really need stats to do stat things.
Any unit can shine in Fire Emblem, especially in Engage. Units can be S-class not just by being able to one-round an enemy or take hits and counterattack on enemy phase. For me, Alfred is my unsung hero. Hear, hear! Not sure if anybody noticed how Alfred is partnered with Lucina in the first chapter (the "dream" video) while the other lords are partnered with their respective country's rings. Also, Alfred has a dialog with Lucina during her paralogue. I think that that is proof that they are the intended partners. Also, look at Alfred's supports, there are a lot of cavaliers (Vander, Amber, Bunet, and you can decide to make his retainers and other units to be cavaliers as well - Celine, Yunaka, Alear) so that he and his cavalry team can survive in any battle (with dual support, and dual shield). Also, he can unlock Favorite Food early on so he can abuse this strategy.
I would not factor in enemy or player phasing as a criteria at all, those are unique user experiences and preferences to how they want to play the game. Engage is a very balanced game, which some people think that means a game is easy and easily broken, but that is not true it just means you can play how you want to play and win which is good, this is what we want games to be. Perfectly balanced would mean a game has no stand outs for insanely good or insanely bad things in it, but I think this is impossible to achieve ever, yet Engage is actually the closest game I have ever played to being in a perfectly balanced state. Alear does not need any investment to be good. Reason, she is a dragon and her passive is incredible, so even with zero investment she can still Byleth dance/instruct for most of the game and utilize her passive plus she has supports with every single unit so that is a hidden hit/avoid she gives to units as well. Alear - Vander [Starting chapters only] - Framme - Seadall - Louis - Citrinne - Anna - Veyle are all S tier. ~Vander, falls off a cliff after you get Yunaka, so he is trash after that point, but you could make him a Mage Cannoneer to use him all game for fun. ~Framme, only healer at the start of the game, fantastic passive for herself and Alear going with their speed, and has the growths to hard carry on the right class and set up, Martial Master if you just want a support, or Sage or Enchanter [Eirika Ring for super carry Enchanter Framme] if you want a support that can carry. ~Seadall, he dances. ~Louis, he is an immortal man on his tower of fortitude on his opening map. If you know how to use Generals, he remains as one of your best units all game. Madeline is a better Louis, but she is a DLC unit and still does not trivialize what Louis is capable of doing. ~Citrinne, only make her a Sage and she only uses Thoron with 4 empty slots for staves, and is your second true healer to join your army. Her level of low investment while still dealing some insane damage with Thoron is very good, and Gregory is not even a better version of Citrinne, he is just on par with her the entire game that is how good her base magic is. Base game, Citrinne is the only unit that fulfill this role. ~Anna, Bow Knight Radiant Bow is the best as she pops off immediately and Bow Knight's speed, dex, and luck goes with Anna's growths and what she wants, but she is only here for her gold making passive. ~Veyle, her passive is good and she is a dragon, is a better user for Byleth than Alear, and no one better to put in for the 14 units expansion. Good Thoron poker too.
Refreshers are inherently better than the units they're refreshing because they don't take experience from them. He, by existing on the battlefield, allows a unit to get double the amount of experience that they would otherwise be getting. Dancers are always the best units in the game because the second action of the unit the refreshing can be considered their own. Multiple unit kills worth of EXP gain is what makes Dancers the best class in the franchise.
Alfred: Pros: Good growths and the first units you get so you can fix his class setup. Cons: Very bad base stats and a bad default class. Neutral: Passive is decent, need to make him a frontline class to utilize it. (Worst passive in the game is by far Etie's.)
Endgame doesn’t matter. 19 is the last regular chapter in the game. How a unit performs up until then and in 22 is what matters. You might not like to Augment Warp but the fact that it exists absolutely changes the game. Try it in a run and see how it changes your perceptions.
The entire game doesn't matter. Prologue is the last regular chapter in the game. How a unit performs up until then and in chapter 22 is what matters. You might not like LTC, but the fact that it exists absolutely changes the game. Try it in a run and see how it changes your perceptions. (Shoutout to XS for LTCing this game) CH7 2 turn: ruclips.net/video/7ueyy23Tm8w/видео.html CH 8 1 turn: ruclips.net/video/WYQz5aCt6JI/видео.html CH11 1 turn: ruclips.net/video/f_GC43Wf5ik/видео.html
Personally I think Hortensia is too high, staff botting is not that unique of a niche, especially if you play the game somewhat optimally (basically abusing bonded shield), the plus 1 range rarely matters. I would argue even Citrinne is a better staff bot than her since she actually does damage with thoron and has better availability.
I do think you're way too harsh on Celine. Except for Dragon units, shes got the most utility. You're tiering her on one-round potential and not what all she brings. She keeps mystical type for better Emblem usage, she can use Excalibur to take out fliers, levin sword heavies, has enough strength growth to steel blade other mages effectively since she isnt doubling anyway unless you want to fix her speed, A rank staffs...etc. she contributes well to any group with no investment
on maddening her excalibur isn't really taking fliers out. radiant bow does that better owing to griffin res and wyvern health stats. I'm not even sure why you would want to Levin Sword with Vidame / Mage Knight Celine considering Bolg and Levin have the same weight iirc
@ellachino4799 it does and I'd agree with you usually but Celine has better strength growth than most people you'd put in mage knight. Sword power works on levin sword along with the physical stuff which makes it stronger than Bolg. It's also significantly cheaper to upgrade
Vander: Has a cool outfit, starts on a cooler class, S Tier
Kagetsu: Has a stupid outfit, starts on a lame class, F Tier
Lapis: Adorable country gal, S++ tier
@@kingofthejungle5338 Lapis wrestles bears, therefore animal cruelty. 0/10 and deleted by PETA.
LOL@@hisen3.146
@@hisen3.146your comment made me laugh out loud
@@hisen3.146lapis is hated by peta? S- tier
I always think of Celine as a strong early unit that can switch to a good utility unit once you start getting better units in the mid game
Yeah. She's really good early game. Then gets drastically outclassed by Ivy and Pandreo.
Any unit can run decent utility by just giving them a staff. Although Celine is positioned a little better since she naturally gets one if you choose to promote her. Gentle Flower also helps a bit, but mostly before she gets a staff.
She definitely doesn't belong at the bottom of the tier list. She's got a viable position in a playthrough. I think Clanne and Bunet are the clear bottom 2 and deserve their own tier.
She really needs starsphere and Chrom to stay relevant as a damage carry. Early strasphere gives her enough build to wield levin sword, and Chrom is basically a big stat-stick that gives her everything she wants.
I see her as invaluable the first few chapters you have her, due to her ability to set up echo kills and warp rags on armors and snipable foes, but by the time you get yunaka she loses her teeth compared to citrenne. That’s around the time Anna can come online too when you get your first second seal. Thats when she becomes a passive bot or staff bot in my maddening playthroughs
I like that she has no bad emblems. To make her a combat unit takes more than many characters, but in just her one class she gets a lot of use out of every emblem.
@@GentlemanGarrote I completely agree. She's a monster early game. Chapter 4 basically seems to be designed with her in mind, as she can echo kill the first couple enemies, then warp over to Louis/Chloe and start bashing things in there. Being able to warp into the chapter 5 treasure room, catch up to the team in chapter 6 after playing rear guard is also really strong, or warp in near Anna's treasure chest ahead of the team is a big deal.
She's just sturdy enough to avoid being 1 shotted by axe users and some bosses, which gives her a substantial edge over Clanne. The speed and durability also give her the edge over Citrinne as far as I'm concerned. Citrinne being one rounded by fliers in her starting chapter is not acceptable. I only use Citrinne if when I win the dire thunder lottery.
Sadly, once the gold stardard for magic attacks becomes Bolganone and Levin Sword, Celine's build lets her down hard while Ivy and Pandreo dominate.
And finally someone singing Fogados strengths and praises! I also basically rated Fogado S, since like you said, hes basically a "free" insane damage dealer.
It’s been 3 weeks since you commented this but what class do you recommend on him ?
Never used him in my other runs but I wanna try him 🙏🏼
I just prefer him on his default advanced class. He doesnt start out great, but after a few level ups becomes crazy good. Just be sure to give him a upgraded Radiant Bow, and he shouldn't struggle with anything. Silver bow, brave bow, silver sword. Thats it. Hes a good candidate for Eirika emblem too. Warrior is his next best class, but imo worse, since it has less speed and doesnt make use of his magic stat as well, but is still strong.
@@samleuba112
His unique class is S tier, just keep him there with Radiant bow and he one rounds flyers and armor
I still respect this man's sheer dedication to this game. Also happy to see you having crossed 10k, really providing some fantastic FE and other game content.
Nothing much I could add since it's pretty much the same list from a couple of months back, and I agree with most of it. Timerra being S tier is pretty undeniable at this point. It's kinda insane how units which have one excellent build like Citrinnes Thunder get hyped into oblivion while a unit like Timerra who has like 3-4 S tier builds with different classes and emblems and still get questioned. Yes you have to learn how to handle her, but once you do you really have an absolutely fantastic all rounder unit.
Also nice to see Mage Knight Veyle getting some praise, she really is a decent unit you get for free.
where do you look up these builds? Is there a website or forum?
One thing that ppl don't mention is that Louis gets a ton of usefulness in the earlygame that jade misses out on and he has higher HP growth but 20% and def by 10% and only has 10% lower res growth while having higher base stats by the time you get Jade. He's one of the hardest units to play without whereas Jade can be ignored entirely and not effect a campaign at all.
Side note: Jade's passive is literally worthless if you play correctly and give your phys tanks pure waters.
General Jade is a worse Louis, paladin Jade is the best Ike tank in the game.
Playing without luouis isn't that hard just position properly
@@vitor102jade doesn’t have enough damage unless she’s using the s rank smash axe or a great silver axe and you just don’t have the bulk to do that effectively without general. And using power skills to boost her damage isn’t really worth it since she doesn’t double. And you’d always prefer a warrior on Ike if not a beserker on Ike. You don’t necessarily want high defense on your Ike tank since you want enemies to target them. You want a fat stack of hp. You also want them to be one rounding with their class specific 1-2 range option and be able to one shot fliers with a long bow if in warrior. Jade can’t do any of that.
@@ultimaterecoil1136 i prefer not killing people in enemy phase, that ruined my exp distribution on my first run, but paladin jade with gentility and pair up can tank everything in the game
@@vitor102 ok then ditch Ike for something better. If you aren’t using your Ike tank to clear massive crowds then at that point you’d genuinely be better off with one of the solid bond rings. Perhaps a warrior or sniper with Claude or a dire thunder user. And funneling the exp into one unit isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on the unit. Absolutely for jade in particular but someone like Jean as an Ike tank sure.
Glad that people are starting to come around on Alfred. Rough-ish start, but due to his bulk and movement he's never really a liability, and his strength/speed/defense balance is really quite nice later on.
Also dancers don't just refresh your best unit, they refresh the unit best adapted to your current situation. That's more valuable than just the theoretical "best unit" imo.
I play insanity mode. The dancer always gets sacrificed in the next map. 😂😂😂
Alfred isn’t really “bulky” on his own. He needs some form of speed support early game or he will get one rounded and you are gonna get better mileage off Sigurd on Louis. He can’t afford to be doubled especially early on. That said if you put Marth on him early because you are gonna do a support allear so he doesn’t need that much exp he really takes off.
I feel like you are underestimating Kagestus raw stats compared to Timmera. At IL 35, Wyvern Kagestu has the same defense at 26 and 1 more res at 17 instead of 16. Kagestu also has 7 more str, along with 3 more bld and access to axes. Kagestu can get similar damage to sandstorm through crits as well.
I think he is. I gave him a crit engraving on a killer sword and he carried maps upon joining. No stat boosters or any investment except maybe early spd+ depending how much of the map you want him to solo.
Kagetsu is ridiculously strong. Give him a killer sword with crit engraving and he solos maps as soon as he joins. It’s honestly kind of annoying how good he is since I’m pumping stats into my favorites and he murders straight away.
Exactly what I did, homie has %75 crit every attack +Wrath + Vantage 💀
I do feel like avoid tank is slept on a bit because it’s true 0% chance to dodge means they ignore you but if you run different weapons to ensure every encounter is 10% or less then tanking doesn’t really matter any more.
ANNA LETS GOO
I agree with her being S. I have never felt that she's high investment. I will say running online and DLC makes it way less of an issue. Online let's you second seal her to mage immediately. DLC lets you catch her up.
That was a good watch. Love your devotion to actually testing things in practice and having that shape your opinion.
For the part about Archers not being worth using, an Archer with a Long Bow, Claude's bond ring and Canter/+ makes a very great unit.
Yeah so I mega fed etie w/ starsphere, exp gain from edelgard, boosted her to hell, gave her boosters, and when I got Pannete they had = stats 😅 I literally thought I was popping off rolling with her and was just pannete stats
Its cool to see you at the 10k subs mark!!!
I think Roy on Berserker Jean is pretty underrated, it makes his offense and bulk both pretty insane when engaged, and he’ll have enough speed to double a pretty decent amount of enemies. Chapter 9 lets you refresh your engage meter for free, so he’ll be operating with those boosted stats for practically the entire map.
23:24 i can see magical jean builds, due to having a semi-natural stepping stone into it, being a, but physical ones being b due to how rough they are to get him into and grow into
Frame for sure S tier you can make her level 20 in a few hours in the starting chapters by doing chain guard strat. From there she can dive and do things you normally wouldn’t to making her a tank and archer/mage killer.
Excel emblem strats?
@@IcedCoffeeGaming if you want to call it excelling yes. It works
Surprise Cupido S rank but I agree. Cupido meets the 37 speed threshold at ilvl 40 with no other speed investment and has access to Radiant Bow which is the best weapon in the game.
My most broken units on my first maddening were Merrin as Martial Monk (almost untouchable and hits too hard on everything) and Alpaca Boy as Halberdier. Special mention to Kagetsu Dragon raider and Bunet as Warrior.
I missed if he was considering DLC in this tier list or not, but for me Etie always does well because of it. I usually start the DLC right when it opens up (I think it opens on chapter 6). Just pop 3 houses on Etie and have her one shot all of the dragons no problem. She has massive strength and dex growths which really makes her great for taking down fliers as well as normal units.
Because of her high strength and dex she's a great candidate for Revanche. She doesn't normally double, but she doesn't normally need to. She hovers around 45%-65% crit chance with that axe. If you're really in trouble, just use raging storm to kill one unit, and then Revanche to kill another. She's durable enough to take a hit or two, and can one shot almost anything. Sure, a bit of her strength comes from the axe, but she's a great candidate for it, and she still gets B rank on bows. She's mostly a glass cannon, but works well.
Here to confirm that Sage Chloe w/ Byleth is really good. I gave her Lucina Engrave Bolg & she doesn't even need Bonded Shield to enemy phase. Usually just one Chain Guard is fine because her Avo gets so high with her Speed & engraving
Ran the same setup with Fogado. Worked out about the same.
Jean is the best if you immediately Second Seal him upon recruitment into Axe Fighter, then put him into Warrior path. He caps out almost all of his stats. Definitely requires a bit of babying for his first 6 levels or so, but he pops off sooner than you think. Plus it's funny to see the aspiring doctor get horrified by his efficacy at murder.
This has been my favorite build for Jean. I just wish you could get second seals earlier than post chapter 9 (outside of well RNG)
If Framme is S tier then Jean should be S for the same reason but much better growths. Even if you don’t turn him into a combat unit he can be a free exp healer and always turn him into combat later if your want.
IMO, an even better option is to Master Seal into Berserker. He'll need a little bit of help for the first few levels, but pretty quickly he'll kill everything with a Lyn engraved Noatun. These stats are assuming fixed growths (my preference). Once he hits Berserker level 17 he'll be on the verge of the dex cap, so switch him to Griffin Knight. At an internal level of 40 he ends up with 32 Str, 15 Mag, 35 Dex, 40 Spd, and 11 Bld. For reference, if you switch Kagetsu to Wyvern and leave him on it for the entire playthrough, at internal level 40 he has 32 Str, 8 Mag, 36 Dex, 34 Spd, 12 Bld. So Jean can kind of use Levin Sword and still has the same strength and way more speed than Wyvern Kagetsu. Plus he can wield a Brave Sword almost weightlessly. Absolutely broken
So half of the problem with Jean is that you CAN'T immediately Second Seal him because you don't get one until after chapter 8. By then his stats are too bad to feasibly train with Mercurius, so you need to spend your last two maps with Micaiah stapled to him to get him to 10 before you lose her (and at this point he's competing against way more units for Micaiah time), then ideally give him a couple maps with Lucina for Parthia...and once he gets there he actually is strong, but you get so many strong physical units in the midgame for zero effort. I've done it before, it can work, I don't think I'd do it again though.
@@serious6515 true but Ch 8 is about the time he’ll get lv 10 anyways.
Ok I swear alcryst actually snowballs hard.
I love that you put Anna in S-tier for the money, which isn't a small boon over time, but I honestly would've put her there for her combat alone. On my run she was my most powerful unit by the end. Maybe I was blessed by the RNG gods, maybe it was because I got her into Mage and then Mage Knight so fast, but it wasn't long before she was doing mad damage and doubling everything that moved. The only units that were as reliable as Anna were Panette (for sheer might and HP) and Lapis (no exaggeration, I don't think a single enemy touched her the last third of the game). Granted, I had to be very careful where I put Anna, because she was a bit glass cannon, but her player phase was monster. And at the other end was Lapis, who I would purposely walk into a group of eight enemies and watch her enemy phase turn into blood-soaked mayhem that she survived without losing a single HP.
Good times.
I always give aclrast the boots, super canto, and the ring that lets him shoot an extra square.
The reason Hortensia S is not because she enables staff shenanigans or saves staff uses really, but it's more so because she's a flying staff/tome unit that has access to A rank staves and can use Excalibur to easily deal with fliers, even with low mag growth she's decent enough to kill armor knights as well.
Hortensia has too many downsides to be S. She is B tome and cant use XCal, only Elwind. It needs upgrades and engraves to 1 round flyers, but is decent air cover and flank coverage. It makes her acceptable for some targets at least. As combat unit she needs a lot of babysitting to avoid getting downed in 1 hit.
@@Bobucles yes sorry, I meant Elwind thx for mentioning it. But the reason I still think she is S if not at least top of A is because her combat is servicible, but you wouldnt run her as a combat unit and she is so fast she will live a hit from pretty much everything and do some decent chip damage at worst, and she is the best staff user in the game, tho sure not necessary, but there's really no reason not to run her since you get a ton of deployment slots anyway, as ICG says for other units, she's free. No investment at all except promoting (which isnt really investment)
The problem is that "servicible" isnt S rank material. As a support unit she can't transform a bad team into a good team. S units can. For example take a AVO bond stacked Framme. You can put her next to actual garbage units and turn them into map clearing monsters. Hortensia just, like, clears a flyer or heals pretty good. She carries her weight very well, but not much more.
Glad I am seeing Timerra finally getting the praise she deserves. Her ridicilously good bases, ensured that she would no matter what, be really strong regardless of emblem used. I actually had her solo entire lanes, because of her ridiculous defenses, and enemy phase performance. Gave her a javelin and she was dominating.
Her passive also prevents units from being sniped by random crits. Which tends to hover between 1-2% for everyone.
HELP I CANT FIND THESE CHARACTERS IN STARFIELD!!! WHAT AM I DOING WROOOOOOOOOOOOONG!?!?!?!?!
I am finishing my first maddening playthrough having heard some of the rumblings and just creativity dumping from this video:
- Celine should at least be low B tier, when she joins she is one of the only units that with low investment can kill armors consistently and safely, also being a good candidate for early promotion due to staffs. I do agree she falls off because all of her stats are absurdly mid, but corrin Utility or Micaiah staving utility can give her a role in your army, even if other units can perform it better.
- I loved the Fogado analysis, I originally was planning on not using him, but I got lucky and got a radiant bow from the well and decided to put him as filler for the Timerra chapter and he was annihilating everything. Chapter 19 and he is still annihilating things with the Radiant Bow +3 and I haven't given him any skill or notable investment other than the kills that I definitely need from him. I will say his accuracy can be a little bit shaky. Any recommendations for Fogado skills?
rosado is expensive to work, but when he does he is great, second seal him to sword/axe wyvern, give him lunar brace and lief(and later give him break defences), now you have someone with enough build and speed to quad with brave axe or master lance(if you break thats 5x attacks basically), just from lunar brace thats 150% defence as damage, and to top it of, he has great str growths.
Making notes 📝
I never played Maddenning so I can't comment on that, but on my playthrough I remember Vander being terrible, Celine being one of my best units throughout most of the game, Alfred just kinda sucking most of the game but I brought him back reclassed because I really liked him as a character (even then he was just "okay" after I brought him back and reclassed him), and Timerra was insanely good from the moment I got her through the endgame.
I basically didn't use the prepromotes at all (until Mauvier and Veyle at the end). I think I used Merrin the longest overall, though.
Out of curiosity how would you build Fogado? Might be another end game build guide video 😮
Cupido with radiant bow. That's honestly all he needs to be good. Anything on top of that just makes him better. Radiant bow has enough might to one-shot all fliers, and cupido has just enough magic to keep it relevant.
On my first playthrough, I made him a warrior, and he was still pretty good as a physical carry. I was playing on hard, though, so take that with a grain of salt.
@@longers1028 im playing with him as a warrior now and didn't see the radiant hype, i guess i will try him again as a Cupido
@@Omegalord92 yeah, his magic bases and growths aren't amazing, but radiant bow has ridiculous mt, and that's what gets tripled (?) against fliers. It'll do midling damage against non-fliers and can only ORKO low res units that aren't fliers. His str growth is also not amazing in cupido, so physical bows will usually do less damage than radiant bow. It's really his ability to one-shot fliers that makes him useful, and he only requires a master seal and radiant bow to be able to do that.
I like how Lapis is now The Gatekeeper. All units are now good only if they measure up to Lapis.
Also, what's the difference between Mauvier and Cool Mauvier?
After I beat Baldur’s Gate, I’m going back to finish my maddening run I paused months ago
Great list! My only real diaagrements are Celine and boucheron.
I did NOT believe in the bouche until my fourth playthrough. You just need one silver ingot to forge him an early tomahawk and he kills everything. The ease at which he power levels from there makes him great all game. Fix his strength with berserker, switch him to wyvern or paladin when he hits a cap. Im a bouche believer baby.
And before anybody says you can just do that with chloe...why not run TWO hard carry wyverns? This is also a playthrough where i ran alfred, Anna, yunaka, and jean to endgame, so i had more than enough XP to go around
Ngl I jumped for joy when you put Pandreo at the top of S tier!
So based off this list, what would you say one of your favorite 10 person teams are?
For Saphir, you could do Vantage + and Wrath and give her Roy as an emblem since it will give her strength +6 as well as Hold Out+++ when max bond. Plus you get Roy back at the same time she joins so that's an upside for her. Of course she can inherit Dual Assist + basically for free without needing to max bond her with Lucina if you want her to Long Bow chip.
I'm currently experimenting with a Goldmary build an which you rush her to Hero 5, get the Brave Assist and Dual Assist+ Passives and Reposition, and then refuse to level her up for the rest of the game.
Honestly I doubt it is the most efficient strategy. The idea was to have a unit that could contribute while being low opportunity cost for XP, rings, weapons, and relative SP.
The chip damage she provides might be debatable, since I think a more optimized team can kill without the chip. But the run I'm playing is not optimized at all. Especially since I ended up ruining my Anna and have a very weak Alear. So the chip build is actually really useful to me this run.
The worry however, is that she costs a deployment slot. And will probably also be useless in the final map.
I did this with Vander one time wasn’t terrible
Also want to say that Citrinne is insane as a Sniper or a Bow Knight and is probably the best user of the Radiant bow, specially with Lyn to make Astra Storm do magic damage.
Ohhh this sounds so fun. I'mma take note of this for my next playthrough
I watch every video this man puts out because I can’t stop resetting my runs over and over. My last reset I have tried funneling as much exp as possible to select units I like and do units have the ability to solo large parts of maps that I have definitely been sleeping on. With the strength of units that get thrown at you mid game maximizing exp is the way to go I feel since so many units get dropped.
Well, if you want to play "optimally", the best thing to do is to invest on a few unit early (like, if you REALLY want to be fully optimal, only Alear and Chloé), since you will get units at a high level without investment later. Also use Vander until chapter 11.
@@lacaserne9924 I did but it got too boring because Chloe is too good. I did a reset and optimally fed Alfred instead because I like him more. Plus he also has support with my main man Diamant 👍
@@russellg9622 Yeah + you don't need to play optimally. I always use Etie despite the fact that she is outclassed by Amber (but not as bad as some peoples want to believe).
@@lacaserne9924 there is so much carry potential with units as long as you plan your resources out you can go to town. Etie does confuse me, even if you invest all resources into her what does she look like afterwards?
@@russellg9622 You just put her on Warrior and give her Lyn, and she become one of your main carry. She don't requires more than that to one round everything.
I overvalue jean, but that's because I use tiki on Ana and leave michiah on Jean. When that happens jean comes online earlier and becomes an incredible mage unit super quickly. He can do combat with michiah thanks to Nosferatu and then I usually switch him over to chrom after she leaves.
Yes it's cheating and yes he gets extra levels from the occasional dlc map, so I'm not saying he's going to be that good on a normal playthrough, but there's something to be said for how quickly he comes online with michiah.
He is just a better Framme to me even without any investment. They do the same thing but he has better potential I think.
@@russellg9622 I personally use framme (she is one of my favorite characters) as an enchanter. sadly it means i have to complete the fell xenologue every run early.
Chloe can 100% run sage I tested it. She caps on a lot of stats so it’s not the best use case. She caps on HP early.
You need to look at Gregory again. With his personal, Pair him with Camilla, avoid 30, Speed+5 and give him an avoid engrave and rewarp yourself into a group of enemies and let him cook. Better still set the area around you on fire with dragon vein
It's time you just make a full hour long Timmera supremacy video and get it out of your system 😂
Is Padreo like Pent is this what you are saying. And is Timerra like Seth/Marcus
Thoron poking on Citrinne? Sir we dire thunder around here
Ty for the insight
I generally agree with this tier list but i think Clanne and Jean should be high A tier. In every run clanne always ends up as a bad kagetsu just like how Anna is basically bad pandreo. Jean investnent cost is mitigated by the fact he can become a hard carry better than 90% units. I also would put Anna in A tier, shes quite frail compared to other units. But at least not as bad as citrinne
If Framme is S then Jean should be S too but higher. He does the same thing with much better late game potential. He’s a staff bot at worst that can turn into a late game carry or combat unit if desired. Give him staff accuracy early and have him cast something every round.
@@russellg9622Thing is his support bonus and supports is lackluster tho. So he loses to Framme for the qi adept bonded shield strat. But everything else he wins.
But investment cost is a thing and personally I would put all the pupils high A tier
@@godssword6501 he’s a qi adept as well, what am I missing?
@@russellg9622 look at the list of supports he has
@@russellg9622he doesn't have as many relevant supports as framme does so he'll get much less avoid from dual support
Question about Chloe since you mentioned that Wyvern is best for early game. Is it worth it to switch her to Griffin around Chapter 17-18? Or would her magic be too low since she was in Wyvern for so long?
Her Levin sword Griffin is too strong. Pick a route and stick with it I think. If you want sword the levin griffin, spear Chloe then wyvern, but so many characters make good wyverns.
i think Alcryst should be at least low A Tier. sure he's only a player phase unit but he does it very well.
he can insta promote after you get him to start working towards Luna. once you get Luna then he's able to kill a lot of enemies with a forged engraved Killer Bow. he works well with Lyn cause of Luna Astra Storm or Eirika cause of Lunar Brace/Gentility.
It would be interesting to see the top tier split into more tiers.
Like SS, S+ and S? or S+, S, S-.
OR
SSS
SS
S
OR
SSSnake
SSnake ^2
Snake ^3
I agree with basically all the rankings, but maybe disagree slightly with some of the reasonings.
On Hortensia: being a flying B-rank staff user is fairly rare (I think the only other options are Ivy, Pandreo, Mauvier and maybe Lindon?) and her +1 range on staves gives her manoeuvrability that other staffers lack. She can come in, heal, canter away over obstacles out of enemy range. Using one of those other options for this means losing a combat mage for a turn. Her massive luck also makes her one of the best offensive staff-users in the game with Divine Pulse, though I personally don’t use those too often.
On Boucheron: if you were running him as Wyvern with Speed+5 AND Lyn/Lucina then you were definitely over-fixing his speed. He only needs Speed+5 and a meal to hit doub/quad thresholds for most enemies with Tomahawk/Brave Axe.
His stats are relatively close to Succ Diamant (he has overall better bulk, -5 Str and +11 Dex. Spd/Bld is equal for both, though Bouch tends to level his Bld a few levels earlier than Dia). So he should run similar emblems to him e.g. Roy or Ike. Diamant will do more damage, but Bouch has better hit overall and way more reliable enemy phases. With Axe Power he easy clears any enemy he quads, and any tomahawk fail to kill are easy fodder for Speedtaker users.
For Leif users since you were talking about him, the only other ones I’ve found that are reasonable are Jade!Griffin and Halberdier!Jean
Jade’s speed is high enough with his build boost to not be doubled by the reg enemies, and she has the Mag to Hurricane Axe ORKO endgame fliers/Str to Silver Greataxe ORKO squishier enemies like mages. Arms Shield boosts her defence against other phys units and gives her break immunity, and she can run Resolve and Bravery to tank well.
Jean’s poor personal growths means he usually ends up stat screwed in at least one important stat in a lot of classes, but in Halberdier his speed is fast enough to be fixed with Speed+5/Pincer Attack, Leif fixes his Bld, he has decent damage and Alcryst level Dex. It means he can actually use the Master Lance as a Brave 1-2 range weapon with solid accuracy that most other units can’t.
Seeing Clanne not so low anymore makes me very happy
Timerra supremacy let’s go ❤
Do you plan to do a last Tier list for every important thing like skills, classes, donations and other things ? Would be nice am also already on my 400th game hour
Yunaka actually can go into bow knight with her high magic growth stat. She will get enough magic skill ups to make radiant bow powerful enough to do 50+ damage as soon as you skill her into it. Her only weakness is her lack of doubling when she gets access to the bow without speed fixing. She can’t enemy phase without Leif, but I feel like she can be better than fogado as a magic bow knight user. Her high res growth and high magic growth seems to fit that role well. Fogado comes in with zero investment though, so you need to move to use Papaya to do this. I feel like mage knight might possibly be okay as well, if you can fix her build and speed.
Yunaka does well on a variety of classes but she starts in thief, a low level thief at that.
@@goroadachi9489 I am running her in a maddening play through right now and she is still going strong into chapter 10 because I upgraded her iron dag to steel super early. Without steel daggers she is borderline worthless, unless you make her a micaiah unit. It’s kind of a waste of mic though.
@@GentlemanGarrote Yeah but like, having to level her up to 21 is not it. I would rather just grab Zelkov, although I think Yunaka is slightly better, I hate having to train her sometimes.
I did that because all of my archers are dead 😳 she’s behind in levels and needs some help for now but she’s getting okay damage with the radiant bow
paladin jade is actually the best ike user, she can tank everything easy
Hold up Sommie is a unis?
Always has been
I ran the merrin wolf Ike build on kagetsu and it was absolutely broken
I am pretty sure a lot of the hype behind Hortensia might also have something to do with her being a Flying healer. Meaning she has better movement to utilize Rescue and Rewarp. However, any flying unit with max bond on Micaiah can do the same thing. Ivy does it at base, most Griffon Riders just need enough bond levels, and even Wyvern Knights can do it. The only thing Hortensia has over them is that she can use Nodus and can sometimes save Staff uses with World Tree. Oh, and her personal skill.
Some of those Griffon Riders might actually have more magic than Hortensia.
Here is the thing, 2 range mend is too good
2 range Mend does sound good, yeah.
Is there some type of database for all these builds talked bout? No way that‘s all in your head.
No, I do these from memory
@@IcedCoffeeGaming Wow, amazing... I admire you. Keep up the great FE Engage content! This is what keeps me sane in maddening and prevents me from quitting after my third reset.
You can do it : )
Another Timerra archive interesting
You had such a long Timerra rant and it's SO valid lol. I do not understand why there are people who think she's bad or useless. My Timerra has popped off in EVERY playthrough without fail.
Martial master chloe is also a very good build with lucina or eirika
Pls dont mind the typo's
Am I the only one who thinks he did Louis dirty?
Fadago is B tier for me. Anyone that uses bows should be a warrior not only can you use axes you are a backup type unit which helps in a number of situations throughout. He can work but compared to any warrior unit it’s not as good. There is hurricane axe, tomahawks, long bows etc.
Sandstorm
Do a 6th version, where you include all dlc units. ❤
He said one piece at the end
Enchanter Framme is broken tier. Impossible to hit. Throws backup attack daggers. And can one round with flashing fist. So much role compression its bonkers.
Yo I need to finish this game
I used general wrath axeP panette on Roy she was broken
Tier list Fan
Vs
"I like playing with all my units" enjoyer
Tier list fan
Vs
"i want to play with the units i like."
@@fraregrace4763
This is the way
That's why I've watched more character build videos than tier lists
Timera for life.
I'm surprised Alcryst is so low, even behind Clanne of all people.
All Crits is aight, but Clanne has a Planne
Just reinstalled this game to do another mad playthrough. Must be destiny.
Boucheron better be at least in A tier.
Omg vander has use he always did because early game
I think Celine deserved at least B. You rated her as combat, but she's actually a staff user. She has 70% luck growth in Vidame and early access to Staff Mastery 2. Add divine pulse and Corrin. She's not as good as Hortensia, but I think I think she deserves at least B. 😊
I do love Engage. It's a shame I have a holdup about Forging that's keeping me from beating Chapter 13 Hard.
male Alear should have been ranked high B tier
Timerra gang rise up
amber is s tier if u reclass him to warrior asap
Im glad someone has recognized that Celine's pretty bad lol When everyone swears by her. I dont think shes quite as bad as Bunet, but still.
I prefer to think of Celine as a Utility unit than a combat unit imo. She's the only mystical class where she can access swords, tomes, and staves.
If speed is your main thing, I feel like she could be improved by running dire thunder which could help her proc Ignis more often.
I do think she's worth being Bumped to B imo.
If you're running DLC, give her Starsphere and Chrom. By mid-Solm, she should have enough build to carry levin sword. Chrom gives her enough stats to be a good carry into the late game.
@@longers1028 Currently running base game. There's a lot of unit fixing that can be done with Tikis ability.. so I'll explore DLC when the time comes.
@@Andigames235 tbh it's my preference for how to play the game. I get that it skews exp gain and kinda trivializes the game, but I dont really enjoy games because they are challenging. I like to see how strong I can make a character with min-maxing their stats.
@@longers1028 I'm probably gonna explore Alfred and Clanne. The +15 to growths seem like they'll be really potent on them two
@@Andigames235 yeah, I just tried my own "royals only" run with DLC included. Maybe i didn't feed Alfred enough to keep him relevant, but avenir is just so bad. Not enough speed to double, not enough strength to OHKO. Passive wants to make him tanky, but def and res growths aren't enough to be tanky. ICG has talked about wolf knight being a good class, so I'm gonna try that in my current run once I get second seals.
Clanne... idk I've never felt interested in using him. I bench him every run the moment I get Celine or any other tome user lol. I've heard he's serviceable as a physical bruiser, but I've never tried it.
you can’t convince my alcryst is not better than clanne or alfred
Alfred on WK is pretty good and can EP/PP very well same with Clanne on MK. Clanne requires less investment than Alcryst long term in terms of forges/materials and is a fast mage knight that can run levin sword which makes him on average more consistent and valuable. He does have low HP but he has more potential with less effort while Alcryst needs forged engraved weapons and is player phase only.
Says Alcryst has bad EP and places him low then ignores that Fogado also has quite bad EP. I don’t think Alcryst>Fogado but Fogado’s EP on Cupido is bad. Fogado is basically just worse Merrin and Kagetsu (like he is genuinely just worse than Merrin in every way) who are themselves worse than Pandreo and Ivy for sure and debatably Pannette and Chloe. This puts Fogado comfortably outside of S. I also value Hortensia more than him since +1 Warp range isn’t huge but is valuable in 20, 21, and 23-26 more so than anything Fogado can do in those chapters (which is like half of his availability)
Fogado can use more than bows, he can run different classes with his bases/growths. He can also use SWORDS on cupido.
Fogado has 1 less hp, 2 less str, 1 less magic, 4 less dex, 2 less def, 4 less luck and 1 less bld than Merrin if both are Wolf knight base lvl and Fogado is even 1 lvl higher than Merrin. Fogado is indeed worse in every way other than that Fogado got innate bow and unique class.
I agree with Merrin > Fogado
what the hell are you guys on about, alcryst one rounds a full bar from the fell dragon easy, and with half the gimmick damage reductions on
Don't sleep on Clanne Archer. He is a better bow-user than Etie when brought to equal level. He is just as strong and twice as fast.
Good list, Ivy should be in the same category as Hortensia. She flies, that's her main perk. She is incredibly slow, she has horrible growths, terrible luck so she gets crit. Mathematically, no magic unit touches Anna. Except Pandreo, mostly cause the good bases.
I'm playing on maddening and it feels like my units are too weak to proceed in the main chapter, stuck at chapter 18. Is there a way to grind and level up on this game?
Personally I wouldn’t call any build that requires reclassing “low investment” there is heavy competition for second seals because almost the entire cast wants them and especially early not everyone is gonna get a reclass if they want one. Fogado is what I’d call low investment ( he technically still needs exp but minimum possible investment for combat realistically) and someone like framme is what I’d call no investment. You don’t really need stats to do stat things.
Any unit can shine in Fire Emblem, especially in Engage. Units can be S-class not just by being able to one-round an enemy or take hits and counterattack on enemy phase. For me, Alfred is my unsung hero. Hear, hear!
Not sure if anybody noticed how Alfred is partnered with Lucina in the first chapter (the "dream" video) while the other lords are partnered with their respective country's rings. Also, Alfred has a dialog with Lucina during her paralogue. I think that that is proof that they are the intended partners. Also, look at Alfred's supports, there are a lot of cavaliers (Vander, Amber, Bunet, and you can decide to make his retainers and other units to be cavaliers as well - Celine, Yunaka, Alear) so that he and his cavalry team can survive in any battle (with dual support, and dual shield). Also, he can unlock Favorite Food early on so he can abuse this strategy.
I would not factor in enemy or player phasing as a criteria at all, those are unique user experiences and preferences to how they want to play the game.
Engage is a very balanced game, which some people think that means a game is easy and easily broken, but that is not true it just means you can play how you want to play and win which is good, this is what we want games to be. Perfectly balanced would mean a game has no stand outs for insanely good or insanely bad things in it, but I think this is impossible to achieve ever, yet Engage is actually the closest game I have ever played to being in a perfectly balanced state.
Alear does not need any investment to be good. Reason, she is a dragon and her passive is incredible, so even with zero investment she can still Byleth dance/instruct for most of the game and utilize her passive plus she has supports with every single unit so that is a hidden hit/avoid she gives to units as well.
Alear - Vander [Starting chapters only] - Framme - Seadall - Louis - Citrinne - Anna - Veyle are all S tier.
~Vander, falls off a cliff after you get Yunaka, so he is trash after that point, but you could make him a Mage Cannoneer to use him all game for fun.
~Framme, only healer at the start of the game, fantastic passive for herself and Alear going with their speed, and has the growths to hard carry on the right class and set up, Martial Master if you just want a support, or Sage or Enchanter [Eirika Ring for super carry Enchanter Framme] if you want a support that can carry.
~Seadall, he dances.
~Louis, he is an immortal man on his tower of fortitude on his opening map. If you know how to use Generals, he remains as one of your best units all game. Madeline is a better Louis, but she is a DLC unit and still does not trivialize what Louis is capable of doing.
~Citrinne, only make her a Sage and she only uses Thoron with 4 empty slots for staves, and is your second true healer to join your army. Her level of low investment while still dealing some insane damage with Thoron is very good, and Gregory is not even a better version of Citrinne, he is just on par with her the entire game that is how good her base magic is. Base game, Citrinne is the only unit that fulfill this role.
~Anna, Bow Knight Radiant Bow is the best as she pops off immediately and Bow Knight's speed, dex, and luck goes with Anna's growths and what she wants, but she is only here for her gold making passive.
~Veyle, her passive is good and she is a dragon, is a better user for Byleth than Alear, and no one better to put in for the 14 units expansion. Good Thoron poker too.
Refreshers are inherently better than the units they're refreshing because they don't take experience from them. He, by existing on the battlefield, allows a unit to get double the amount of experience that they would otherwise be getting. Dancers are always the best units in the game because the second action of the unit the refreshing can be considered their own.
Multiple unit kills worth of EXP gain is what makes Dancers the best class in the franchise.
Diamant is S tier
Maybe : )
S tier character, yes
Alfred:
Pros: Good growths and the first units you get so you can fix his class setup.
Cons: Very bad base stats and a bad default class.
Neutral: Passive is decent, need to make him a frontline class to utilize it. (Worst passive in the game is by far Etie's.)
Endgame doesn’t matter. 19 is the last regular chapter in the game. How a unit performs up until then and in 22 is what matters. You might not like to Augment Warp but the fact that it exists absolutely changes the game. Try it in a run and see how it changes your perceptions.
The entire game doesn't matter. Prologue is the last regular chapter in the game. How a unit performs up until then and in chapter 22 is what matters. You might not like LTC, but the fact that it exists absolutely changes the game. Try it in a run and see how it changes your perceptions.
(Shoutout to XS for LTCing this game)
CH7 2 turn:
ruclips.net/video/7ueyy23Tm8w/видео.html
CH 8 1 turn:
ruclips.net/video/WYQz5aCt6JI/видео.html
CH11 1 turn:
ruclips.net/video/f_GC43Wf5ik/видео.html
Personally I think Hortensia is too high, staff botting is not that unique of a niche, especially if you play the game somewhat optimally (basically abusing bonded shield), the plus 1 range rarely matters. I would argue even Citrinne is a better staff bot than her since she actually does damage with thoron and has better availability.
Etier is D tier