Probably the ability to not get 1-rounded by every single enemy in the game would be nice (this is a problem for many characters, but not everyone). Also she needs a battalion that gives hit to make Bolting reliable, which means putting her in her "canon class" dark flier is not a very good option, considering the limited amount of battalions that don't give minus magic and give hit. i still think shes good tho
I was kind of down on Ignatz when I started GD NG, but knew I didn’t want to use Raphael or skip Ch 13 so I trained him and he was great all game. He can train up some reason to grab poison strike if his strength falls behind, rally bot, debuffer, or just a reliable longbow user. Going to give him a shot as a recruit for Blue Lions next. Overall agree with your list.
She's the most viable siege tome unit in the game but only after she masters Valkyrie or else good luck hitting anything with Bolting and her very subpar dex and luck. I do like Rescue a lot so she has that to be useful until then.
@@DoTtA1123 Yeah I wasn’t suggesting she’s perfect, just that it’s weird to list three pretty solid strengths but then say “but that’s it” as if they aren’t significant.
You forgot one big thing about Ashe - on Black Eagles, he's the only way to get the shoes of the wind and so he's worth recruiting just for that paralogue.
But you could just recruit Catherine who only requires Lv. 10 Byleth (I think) and automatically comes with Thunderbrand But if you want my opinion if weather to recruit Ashe or not then I'd say, well yeah because he's like the best and sweetest soft boi in the game and also if you have RNG like mine he'd end up pretty much better then Bernadetta, Cyril, Leonie, Petra, Claude and Ignatz usually having 48Atk, 148Hit, 180Crit, 106Avo before the timeskip
@@Timothy_-ve2zp You can't recruit Catherine in Black Eagles. Or at least, not until Chapter 12 in one of the paths you can take, and by that time you're too late for her paralogue. So yeah, Ashe is the only way to get it in BE
@@davidacus956 oh what I didn't know that?! I thought she just leaves your party if you choose CF route instead of Church, much like Lorenz in AM and Ashe in VW
I think Ferdinand would be a good dodge tanker if one were to utilize his personal ability along with other abilities he can learn from. I had him learned duelist blow from the trickster class and if one were to wyvern lord him and give him alert stance + he may be able to be a good dodge tank.
Not until you make him a dodge tank dancer/trickster. I never heard anyone use Sylvain for those. It is probably because full health avo+ helped Ferdie a lot for dodge tanking, something Sylvain lacked.
The reason Doro's faith rank goes down is the game forces a recruitable unit to the base req for the class they join as. Monk requires D reason or faith, so the game forces her to have both
I feel Raphael and Hilda should be higher because of the Battalions they give. If you value Lorenz for his relic, it's silly to forget about what else doing a paralogue can give you. Ingrid gets a mention here too since good flying battalions are rarer. Also being a Monk is what automatically gives the students D Faith, they'll lose it when they change classes. I would bump Leonie and Ignatz a bit since they're great archers and the other routes don't really have a ton of them.
Ingrid's paralogue is awesome because you get Luin and the flying battalion. Completing the map is kind of a pain until you figure out how to work the script in your favor, but that's half the fun of the game, right?
To expand on the battalions point, here are some of the best ones you can obtain from pre-timeskip student paralogues: Hilda - Goneril Valkyries (also available post-TS) - Assault Troop, high Atk/Hit/Crit Raphael - Leicester Mercenaries - Blaze, high Atk/Hit/Crit Lorenz - Gloucester Knights - Assault Troop, high Atk/Magic Atk/Hit Sylvain - Gautier Knights - Stride, high Atk, +20 Avoid Ingrid - Galatea Pegasus Co. - Lure, high Atk, good flying battalion All of the DLC Ashen Wolves battalions are very good too.
@@DelanHaar6 yeah Gloucester Knights are amazing imo, but I always struggle to find a place to put the Gautier Knights. The stats are pretty good on it but taking a turn to use stride means that the bearer gets left behind and doesn't contribute to damage. So it's just very awkward
@@DNNYYCLR I tried a vantage/wrath build on a recent playthrough, but even with crits she couldn't kill anything not squishy in one hit, so she'd get attacked anyway and die. IDK, maybe she was strength screwed for me, but that's her problem -- getting strength screwed generally
@@flykiwibirb yeah I think she needs str boosters to be good which I would guess only if SS. @raxis the high speed for dodging isn't as reliable. Helps her out for doubling tho
@@flykiwibirb yeah, 5he biggest flaw lies in her strength stat and damage output. The only reason I made a comment on your statement was to give some inspiration to the commentsection.
Her str isnt even low tho. Its literally the same str as leonie. The difference between then is petra is EP based ( flier boon for early dodge tanking/battalion wrath ). Leonie is PP based ( PBV ).
@@maskedman1527 I don't know. I don't like armor on my Byleth. But at least I have you deployed on my current run of Silver Snow. You're gonna be a great Great Knight.
I think one could make a stronger case for recruiting Ferdinand: 1. Training some Heavy Armor and certifying for Armored Knight early on is not too bad actually, since the big boost in Def you get just by certifying makes a big difference early on. Byleth usually just needs to grab Death Blow (and Darting Blow if female) early on, then he/she's kind of just chilling as a Swordmaster midgame anyway, so there is plenty of room to train some Heavy Armor on the side. If you're going for Falcon Knight or Warmaster, though, you probably do need to stick to a very specific training regimen. 2. Ferdinand sets himself apart as a reliable dodge tank who can also reliably ORKO. Other Swift Strike users like Seteth and Sylvain are nowhere near as good as Ferdinand at dodge tanking, and their actual tankiness falls off hard lategame Maddening when dodge tanks are the way to go. On the other hand, other good dodge tanks like Ingrid and Petra have nowhere near the ORKO capability Ferdinand has with his high Atk and Swift Strikes. Also, for characters like Ingrid and Petra, they lose quite a bit of their dodge tanking capabilities after attacking anyway (Alert Stance), while Ferdinand still gets a boost as long as he's stayed full HP. This is especially true for Golden Deer, which lacks good physical frontliners compared to other routes (BL is full of them, and BE has, well, Ferdinand). ...then again, I might be a little biased because I just need hear "Waga na wa Ferudinando von AAEEgiru!" every time or I can't play this game.
Hi, you make good points and while Ferdinand makes a good unit, you have to ask yourself really all that investment is worth it. In the early game, tutoring Byleth is an extremely limited option, and it doesn’t help that on top of that, you have to use gifts and tea on Ferdinand. And number, dodgetanking itself is kind of niche for three big reasons. One, investment, it takes a lot of work to get there since he lacks base speed and starts at E in flying, on top of rushing for swift strikes. And two, it’s not entirely feasible to make a build that works without some sort of enemy phase skill like Wrath, so you may just wanna keep him in Wyvern Lord and maximize his playerphase offense, instead of using Alert Stance and wasting that.
I would have Bernie right about in the Middle of Must Have and If You Want because when recruiting her more than almost any other unit, it is about how you use her. She has some of the weirdest things you can do with her and still be effective, but you have to commit to doing those things fairly early. Bernie can make a super unique and useful dancer for instance by getting her Pass, if you want her for that utility. She can excel as a Sniper, Bow Knight, or even a Falcon Knight if that's your thing. She is Must Have if you want to try out her unique options and potentially powerful/useful gimmicks and If You Want, if you don't plan on investing or specializing her towards what she does well. How much a person is willing to invest, is how desirable Bernie will be as a recruit.
Yeah. Without investment bernie is mediocre when units like lysithea and felix are super good regardless of putting in effort, yet when done right can exceed the other two capabilities
Not really. Ferdinand is a pretty easy recruit if you know what you're doing. Just get his support to C+ and have D+ heavy armor. You get him straight up without having to wait for him to ask to be recruited.
@@Tom-vx7qh D+ heavy armor is a low investment that you can work towards over the course of several weeks. You don't have to get there all at once. Byleth can also use the d+ towards armor knight promotion for the defense buff if you choose to go that route. Again, it's not hard at all if you know what to do.
WELL I can see what you mean, but there are some key differences for certain playstyles. Constance has Rescue instead of Lysithea's Warp, and Warp is better for aggressive player phase strategies. Also, Lysithea gets Dark Spikes which can be used for killing Death Knight in early chapters, and her dark magic spells have extra utility effects that can be useful. Bolting is cool but both of these characters have AWFUL accuracy and Bolting also has low accuracy, AND Constance doesn't build supports with as many characters as Lysithea (and linked attacks are half of the power of Bolting). ALSO also Lysithea gets 2x skill experience from her personal skill, and Constance gets some stats. On Maddening if you aren't playing new game plus, these differences are actually important. FED videos are built mostly for that perspective, so that's why a FED list put them in that order. Constance DOES have the flying and the magic sword combat arts and the sword skill boon to make her very interesting and good, but try-hard Maddening mode can make small differences much larger, and Lysithea's differences make all the difference.
@@jefff6007 With my playstyle it’s not that big of a deal. I just use Constance and Lysithea as one shot units. And I have 700 plus hours in three houses. Renown isn’t a big deal.
You forgot to mention that you want to at least make sure you DO recruit Ashe if you're playing black eagles since with no cathrine in part 1 means you need him to get his paralog for the movement increase item. I'm not an Ashe fan but its an important thing to note.
I always recruit Bernadetta in Chapters 3-5. She will be a lvl 5-9 Fighter and she will have a D Rank in Axes, which means it'll be easier for her to grind to C so she can get Death Blow. I also keep her in Pegasus so she can get as much Speed as possible before going to Bow Knight, but I am those kind of guys who grind with broken weapons lol
I usually put character i want to grind as an adjutant on a tanky unit (dedue or sum) and just have the tanky unit be surrounded by other units while using a broken weapon. I could get like from E to A sometimes if i have enough enemies hitting me. Probly not viable on maddening but it's fun on hard
I would actually say Raphael is a really good recruit for both crimson flower and azure moon. He has linked attacks with a couple people (notably Bernie) and the battalion from his paralogue is really good for Dimitri, and really any physical attacker. Also I always recruit Ashe or Catherine for their paralogue.
@@biandanxious3438 even her 11 based at Magic which is decent is really not worth noting if we're talking about Raw damage with meteor if you want that Hanuman is by far a better option with higher basis and higher growth and even then he struggles to One-Shot with meteor
@@biandanxious3438 while physic is definitely useful recover also pretty handy and it's pretty debatable if her charm growth really matters too much most Dorothy I've seen run supportive gambits and are way way way too far in the back to ever be hit by any Gambit of the enemies same thing can be applied to Hahnemann whose charm growth is serviceable already but yeah she has a bit more utility than him but if we're talking about actual damage capability he will always be superior because neither one of them are doubling anyways due to her low strength and weight limitation and him due to his low growth in speed so Hanuman is by far a far more useful meteor user if we're talking about damage because Dorothea really does not have any way to Nuke people her magic growth is just far too low
Rengor has a guide on the best time to recruit characters. Most are best recruited as soon as possible, with some exceptions such as wanting characters like Hapi, Balthus, Constance, mages, and fighters being between level 5 and 9. That way they get free skill rating in important categories (Bernie comes with D axe as a fighter, Balthus gets D in bow, mages like Annette and Hapi get D in Faith, etc.)
I know this is an old video but I'm just now getting towards the end of my first play through of the game. I have had it for a number of years, just never got around to finishing it. My very first save file I went with Black Eagles, however I didn't like what I was forced siding with or against Edelgard, so I took a break from the game not liking either of the choices. I started a new game choosing the Blue Lions, I'm currently on chapter 21. I forget the name of the held item but it increases the amount of healing you do. I have Mercedes hold it, she is unbelievably good at healing. She tanks magic attacks taking no damage and she can heal your entire team. I would rate her as most have. Even when I was playing Black Eagles she was one of my first recruits.
Every student that auto levels through monk will have D faith because monk exam requires D faith. They drop to E when the change to mage since it has no faith required, unless they auto level faith
I have recruited Ignatz in every route and he never fails to deliver. Has very high luck stats, avoids almost everything and when I put him against a magic user he takes so little damage. And his crits are actually powerful and welcome. I've only played on hard, tho, and I know this is a maddening list, but he's my baby and I just wanted to let everyone knows how good he is even after 3 years of the video. Thank you.
I am doing a SS maddening run right now (NG+ albeit), and I made my Caspar a War Monk and he had some decent RNG luck so he hits hard and dodges often. DLC classes can totally change how your army is oriented.
Kinda late for this comment to be seen but maybe Dorothea's faith rank goes down to show that as the story progresses she becomes more disillusioned with the Church and the measures they're willing to take to enforce their views.
Or you could skip the preferred skills thing entirely and just pelt your chosen ones with gifts and meals and demands for mission assistance until your support is high enough that they’ll ask to join your house. Who says you can’t buy love?
Im just gonna say this before I even watch the video. But Bernadetta should be valued more on a blue lions run, due to being the only (canon) archer with a Crest. Which on the blue lions route, makes her the only one capable of using the Failnaught without suffering recoil damage.
Felix can get that train going much further than Bernie can since he joins at base and wants to be using Bows anyway because Bows are king in 3H. Bernie is still a good Failnaught user, but Felix has generally better combat stats for it than she does, and she's better off nuking enemies with Vengeance or forged Killer weapons via Vantage and Battalion Wrath.
@@cartooncritic7045 true he has generally better combat stats, which is why you want him as a frontliner unit, not a backline sniper. So he can mkae use of aegis shield, sword of moralta, and combat arts like nimble combo and sunder. Also his crest doesnt proc on hunters volley, which is part of why having him in a class like swordmaster or war master is generally better imo.
Okay, so I have a few critiques. Firstly, there is no way in hell that raising Armor to D+ or C is in any meaningful way that would make recruiting Ferdinand so difficult as to rank him that low. It can be done by Chapter 6 and won't take away from recruiting any other major must-haves even when playing Male Byleth (the Golden Deer can get by just fine without Sylvain and the LoR for a few chapters, Bows ftw). Y'all are either just poisoned by bad RUclips videos saying that Weight -3 is bad or just hate the idea of a hefty Bade 12 Defense to admit that training Armor is worth it. Similarly, in what universe is a free +4 Strength from Annette's rallies ever NOT useful? It's +4 goddamn Strength! With Death Blow that's +10 Strength for a full turn! That's can be the difference between killing a boss or not. Even if you don't think the +4 Speed or Resistance is that worth it, Annette will *always* have that +4 Strength rally. That alone would be worth recruiting her, especially if you're doing an LTC or 0% growths run. Hapi is a good unit, but her actual stats aren't much better than Linhardt's, whom she basically shares a Faith spell list with (Seraphim is the same thing as Restore, right?). Banshee is a great spell, but the Black Eagles will already have Hubert who can already use that spell by the time you recruit Hapi. Same thing with Linhardt and Physic. Warp is a great boon, but she'll always be behind Linhardt and even Lysithea in Faith (route depending, of course) and will always get it after them thanks to the former's boon and the latter's earlier learning rank. Like I said, she's a good unit, but I wouldn't go so far as to call her "one of the best in the game." A high A-tier, though. Petra > Ingrid in every way, including late-joining class growths. Petra is a great dodge tank that also can hit the kill thresholds for Maddening thanks to stuff like Mercenary's Vantage or Battalion Wrath at C Authority. Plus, Petra still levels up Axes so she can easily reclass into Brigand for Death Blow, can reclass into Pegasus Knight for Darting Blow with a little extra training, and can get to Wyvern Lord pretty quickly afterwards. Ingrid's damage even when recruited late is still pretty pitiful and she can't even reclass into anything useful without heavy investment. The only reason IMO to recruit Ingrid on Maddening is for the Galatea Pegasus Co. Battalion and Luin, and she wouldn't even be using either. Maybe Petra's not a Must Have-tier unit, but she's much better than where you placed her. Lysithea is still an S-Tier unit if only because of her magic damage and Warp. The aforementioned Armor promotion will solve all of her durability issues for most of the rest of the game, and a Paladin promotion not long after will solve all of her AS issues for everything afterward, which she really wants anyway on her way to Valkyrie and Dark Knight beyond. That's not even getting into Swarm, or Luna, or Dark Spikes, or Seraphim, or Soulblade, or anything else that makes Lysithea a great unit. Even with all of the silly Lysithea discourse in the 1.5 years since the game launched, she's still one of the best units in the entire game, and I frankly still can't fathom how Hapi could be seen as better than her given all of the latter's shortcomings.
the point is not that recruiting ferdinand is 'that difficult', the point is that it's not WORTH it. compare recruiting him vs sylvain- sylvain is the easiest character to recruit in the game, and he has a very similar stat spread. what does ferdinand give you that anyone else doesn't? training armor rank takes away from your other skills, and what advantage does ferdinand give in response to that disadvantage?
Am I really so unusual in valuing Bernie and Ashe for their Deadeye? On my maddening run it was the only thing that kept those infinite Wyvern pair spawns managable.
Can easily sum this all up in much less time - Recruit strategy = +1 mag range item, early Lance relic, and any backliner with Warp [until they use it up of course] Since those are the only things that matter in the entire game....riiiight
Man. I mean I disagree with you on a lot of semantics here, but in terms of Coco, you're just wrong. She's basically Lysithea with Bolting and a greater crest that refunds attack magic. Coco can link attack from across the map, rescue units in danger and hit like a freight train. She the best Warlock in the game, and I'd argue that's her ideal class, meaning she doesn't require a whole lot of investment to perform at a really high level. I'd personally say that if you intend to use her, wait until the chapter where she classes mage for that extra couple of magic points, and then set her goals to faith and reason, then bring her to choir practice. All of the wolves are really strong and Coco's the one who requires the least investment to excel.
So, am I the only one that made Felix a Sniper, gave him a crit ring and watched him crit on enemies every other hit? I haven't played on maddening, but it looks like he would kill most enemies on player phase. Also, Sylvain is a beast no matter what you do with him, I have made him a back up healer more than once, rounding out his lance abilities with some time in brigand and archer before throwing him into priest and bishop for more of a healing boost. I'm also a bit Linhardt fan. He is one of the best arguments against gender locked classes. I always teach him both faith and reason, and was so disappointed when I learned that I couldn't make him a gremory.
have done sniper felix on maddening, nice because crest and he can actually use failnaught (thanks claude). Kinda struggled to double without hunter's volley, but he did his job just fine. High dex and hit+20 meant he could very reliably hit from his full range with bow+1 (something I always have problems with for deadeye units). Definitely an option! Mixed phys/magic sylvain is also viable for maddening, did better than any hard mode ferdinand I've ever trained (I swear I'm cursed with him, he always turns out horrible). We were robbed of gremory linhardt and lorenz (and hubert). The fanart is always so cool. Let them be rich widows they deserve it. while we're at it can we get pegasus knight ferdinand/dimitri and war master hilda/edelgard plz???
You're very right about Ashe. He just sucks. People say he can be a cool flying bow user (budget Claude), but he'll be so weak. Use Petra for that instead and she can also dodge tank reliably. However, having him on your team lets you access his paralogue which grants you the movement plus 1 booster. But that's the only reason I want to recruit him (and I think you can still access that paralogue with just Catherine on your team). So I'd say he's a must have eventually on Black Eagles (as you can't recruit Catherine), but only for his paralogue. Also he leaves your party for a bit post time skip outside of Crimson Flower which is absolutely poop
best success I ever had with ashe was making him a paladin...then changing my mind and grinding for assassin and bow crit +10. very reliable crits especially on monsters, stealth keeps him from getting targeted and immediately crushed. If you have to have him and want to actually use him, very recommend. have tried budget claude and it wasn't nearly as useful.
@@brickwallace99 yeah, I recently tried using him as a sniper with deathblow and bow crit + 10 -- keeping him away from the front lines and being careful so I wouldn't need stealth. He was really good when I first got Hunters Volley as classing to sniper bumps his strength up to a good minimum. But it wasn't too long after that he just got so strength screwed that he would need both hits to crit to take down an enemy, whereas my Shamir only needed one (and sometimes neither) hit to crit in order to kill. This setup worked great for him being able to help in hunting by daybreak though.
Counterpoint on Ashe: recruit him ASAP so you can make him kill his dad then bench him forever. Top must-have there. Jokes aside, I think a point in favor of recruiting Caspar is that having him gets you access to Rafail Gem if you grab Mercie too. Though I know it's certainly no Thyrsus, and I imagine it's a pain on Maddening if you aren't using either of them, more crit/weakness nullification to go around is at least something, right? Also agree with the comments pointing out that you've underrated Constance hard, between being completely free, Bolting, and Rescue. And then there is that one hiccup in the 'recruit every church guy immediately' point: Catherine won't do you that much good in chapter 4, so getting her two levels higher at the start of 5 might be a worthwhile investment and give Byleth more time to grind.
The Death Knight Scythe is good enough reason to recruit Caspar. Seteth, Dimitri, Sylvain, Ferdinand, Ingrid, and even Ashe can all make use of that lance. Only takes 3 argathium to repair. You should get 12-15 just from that Cornelia chapter. Therefore recruit Caspar early and get Brigand ability and give Death Knight a good ol’ crit smack down
I think Petra is best as a Ch 6 recruit. On average she’ll have +13 in her stat total relative to a player raised Petra. That includes +3 HP, +2 Str, and +2 Spd. She’ll be a Lv 11 Thief, but she’ll have a C rank in Axes so she can be immediately reclassed into Brigand. With base D rank Flying, she’s well on her way to Wyvern. You’ll just need to focus on Lance training if you want to catch Pegasus Knight before then.
Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that ashe is viewed as less than stellar unit. In my first playthrough of 3h, my ashe had an high crit rate, allowing him to one shot with deadeye.
Problem with this list (even on Maddening) is all the characters are "if you want" i wouldnt say anything character at all is a must have. Even Lysithea haha
I’m tying a noble/commoner only run on BL, and lowkey I’m gonna bench ashe and recruit ignatz. Not being able to access hit+20 I think is gonna make him hard to use. I’m also aiming to recruit later than you normally would, since I’m not worrying about making ranks for certifications I’m hoping to get better stats on them if they’ve auto-classes into intermediates. We’ll see how it goes lol
@@envoy2500 His stats and unique combat arts are just not good enough to justify using him if he's not in your house; same goes for caspar and raph, although I'd say caspar is just as bad since he's a pain to recruit and raph is better since you might want a tank on black eagles (poor edelgard and her weird unique class). There's nothing wrong with using the units you like, though, and you can make any unit excel even on maddening with enough thought and investment put in (my personal favorite is assassin for him). Ashe is super sweet and has great supports, I'm glad to hear he's your favorite :)
@@brickwallace99 he's a rogue, but he's just so nice and wants to be a knight and is just an adorable little lockpick on a wyvern. I'm probably going to make a D&D character of him next time I find a campaign. I've only had him for a day and a half, but if anything happens to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.
@@envoy2500 Ashe in D&D sounds so wholesome. Tbh I felt bad making him an assassin, he would hate it so much! I always sent him in with Dimitri in all his kingly glory and poor ashe is stuck in his shadow shooting people with a killer bow. An unconventional knight but still a damn good one.
After using him myself for maddening, I think Linhardt is extremely overrated. He deals next to no damage, he’ll lag behind everyone else, his development is limited being a male caster. I think a lot of people just see warp and think instant S tier. If I wanted to have two physic users I’d just use Hapi, Mercedes, and Marianne. Especially the latter who is secretly the fastest caster in the game thanks to her easy darting blow and dark flier access
Finally found someone who agrees with me! Seriously Lin is outclassed in every way, even in Black Eagles it's better just to recruit Marianne or Mercedes because they do any job he can, but so much better.
Ingrid always turns out great for me like seriously she’s been a staple in all of my playthroughs she even soloed the entire final map of Azure Moon maddening for me.
@@pearsemolloy9656 Well anybody can be useful in three houses anyway XD My ingrid was god on normal however in maddening I use leonie instead, perhaps I should give Ingrid another try
@@ashen_roses tell me about it if you equip her with alert stance plus, defiant avoid and the chalice of beginnings she becomes a literal god bolting and meteor mages are no longer a threat she’s so much fun to use.
Dorothea is the best character in the game imo. Her Yuri lysithea and flayn as the magic users/ dorothea as the dancer is just sooooo dumb. Made maddening golden deer trivial. I'm sure you know the combo I'm talking about. Foul play/rescue/warp/dance. and you can give one stride too
yuri at chapter 4 is really nice so you have windsweep vs the deathknight. but if you have dimitri or lysithea to one shot him them wait till chapter 6
The reason Lysithea is as good as she's touted to be is Seraphim. Sure she doesn't have much healing but Seraphim can be the difference between killing the monster before the end of Player Phase and having to soak an attack from it.
Kinda confused about Balthus placement tbh. I've used him on a Byleth + Ashen wolves only run, and he contributed the least out of the 5. He's basically Raphael but with a crest: their growths aren't that different. Sure he's a great war master, but I wouldn't say he's more useful than Felix as war master. He still suffers from all of the issues with a slow tank
I don't really know what you were doing with Balthus, but he's a fantastic tank thanks to King of Grappling and the great combo of his Crest and Draining Blow. With a proper set-up he can become functionally invincible even on Maddening.
Just curious, and depending on your route, who do you typically give the Shoes of the Wind to? (As well as the Sacred Galewing shoes if you got the DLC)
I gave the +2 move boots to lysithia on BL maddening, never really regretted my decision, since she was Always able to reach enemies and keep up with a bunch of fliers :), giving the move items to your dancers is also a natural choice imo (though dancers will probably only need shoes of wind and no more). So typically to units that struggle to keep up or dancers, giving them to a generally strong combat unit that you rely on is also a good idea, as long as they don’t have a tendency to die when you send them in among a bunch of enemies (e.g a strong dodgetank or war master), but i’m also curious what others like to do with the move items :)
It's funny how much FED gushes on Linhardt, because I feel he needs the Sacred Galewing to not jog 3 turns behind the army in the late game. All good end game classes for magicians are female-only, so Linhardt will probably be stuck as a 4 move bishop. I made him my dancer one route just because I couldn't figure out anything else to do with him.
@@bificommander I think you’re right he falls off hard, but He gets warp and can use physic but offensively very useless, a better choice would be something like gremory hapi as healer and warper because you can also get +1mv with her boon in riding, giving linhardt the boots would indeed be some kind of twisted joke, better to give it to your best combat unit or something
I wish Sylvain had better Dex for Swift Strikes. The more I use him the more I notice the impact of those 70~80% chance to hit... Granted if I made more effort into mastering Archer it wouldn't be so bad but he just had to have a bane in bows to make it more annoying.
@@g.n.s.153 I highly recommend either gloucester knights (phys attack+6, hit+15) or edmund troops (phys attack+5, hit+40) to fix his hit rates. I've had edmund on him since i got it (made him a mixed attacker bc i felt like it) and didn't even notice the iffy hit rates. +5 phys is nothing to sneeze at, and it saves you an abillity slot and time getting hit+20
Felix as war master could kill anything on my maddening run and could often withstand atleast 2 enemies targeting him, with his shield and gauntlets the only thing sylvain outclasses him in is movement, and what i found SOO USEFUL was that he doesn’t miss the way sylvain and some of my other units did on my run, partly because of lower weight and no breakers for gauntlets, I’m curious how sylvain was better for you than Felix?? Even if you went around spamming swift strikes
Solid list the only thing I’d strongly disagree with you on is the placements of Constance, Mercedes and Ingrid they are all must have for me. Especially Mercedes who should have been placed beside Linhardt as they basically function the same. I’d actually say she’s slightly better than Linhardt due to her being more effective at healing due to fortify and having the option to become a Gremory while Linhardt is kind of locked at bishop unless you invest in riding for him to become a Holy Knight.
Mercedes’ magic stat is high enough that it makes the white tomefair redundant and making her a gremory gives her great offensive utility I always use Mercedes as more of a hybrid who can heal well and also dish out insane damage depending on the situation. Overall gremory is a much better class for her than bishop.
I have 3 Houses but haven't started yet because of a backlog of other games. I looked through some of the FED videos to get a baseline of what I should be expecting. It's my first Fire Emblem and really, Tactical RPG ever (besides Valkyria Chronicles but I didn't get very far). Should I worry about this right now as I'm a total min-maxer or just play?
Don't worry. Normal and hard difficulty are not really the big deal, extreme might be exactly that because FE games in general are also luck-based (bc of the growth rates) and some characters might turn out very bad. But usually if you use your lord, Byleth, Felix, Yuri, Balthus, Lysithea, at least one healer and Petra nothing can go wrong (more or less)
your first playthrough is going to be a complete mess lol. There are a ton of things to focus on and getting yourself oriented properly just takes time, so play on normal mode and just try some things out. Big takeaways, though, are that skill ranks unlock attack powers, abilities, and classes for your characters, so try to stay focused on a small number of skills for any individual character. It may not seem obvious but there are usually payoffs for leveling a skill to a higher level.
@@jefff6007 Awesome, thank you for the info! I was thinking of playing on Hard because I've heard Normal is very easy and playing with permadeath. I've watched play throughs of Radiant Dawn and kind of know what to expect, and I know there are a lot of quality of life improvements in 3H so I'm excited.
Ferdie has higher unkillable god energy, but Seteth can do more damage. Of the swift strike guys, church dad tends to have the best looking stats when I do runs plus he works really well with Flayn. Sylvain can dish out more damage when he's with the childhood friend trio. And Ferdie is diet Dimitri, which is to say absurdly powerful.
Depending on the route, Ferdinand is around much longer and will have comparable if not better stats and weapon ranks, more supports, and *much* more class mastery skills by the time Seteth joins. Both are still very good, and Seteth is obviously better if you're playing with 0% growths or if you recruited Ferdinand late, but generally-speaking I'd say Ferdinand is better.
@@AlexKlindt Seteth's stats look better because since the beginning of the game, he is levelling up in wyvern rider, reaping the benefits of the good growths of that class all the way to the point to when he joins your team.
I'm so shocked Sylvain is so useful because him and Ingrid were darn near useless in my BL route. He just died every battle. I'm also highly amused female Byleth makes him easier to recruit. What a skirt chaser lol.
In my BL run Sylvain was constantly getting crits, and stole my planned out finishing blows every time, especially if you get his lance of ruin early. His mv was super high bc I made him a Cavalier plus A+ Lance, by end game it was gross LMAO. Ingrid I never used though riip
@@EvisceratingDoubts I think Sylvain and Ingrid (and Ashe), are 3 BL characters that either they curb stomp mobs all through the game or they get RNG screwed on bad level ups and are absolutely dreadful - I keep seeing both great and bad versions of this trio - although I will say Swift Strikes and Hunter pretty much make Sylvain and Ashe usable regardless - I think only Brigand's Death Blow and consummables can save an unlucky Ingrid.
I think similarly but on maddening runs idc cuz I want to weaken the opposition as much as possible lol. Before maddening was release I definitely felt bad taking students from their teams felt like I was making an easy game even easier
I did Golden Deer first and it will always be special to me. I recruited and killed Leonie this morning in Blue Lions just to shut her up. Will continue to kill her from now on.
Dorothea's recruitment without support levels is quite bullshit... 25 charm and B in authority you will not be getting that by chapter 5 unless you use all your days off and farm byleth to like level 25 in that time. Her C+ support recruitment is do able though. Which should be possible before chapter 5.
I personally would switch Felix and Sylvain because I, as I said 100 times before, have very bad luck with him sadly and he is mediocre at best and absolutly unuseable at worst. My personal Highlight was in one of my extreme runs where he had as Lvl26 Paladin the following stats: HP: 42 - STR: 21 - MAG: 7 - DEX: 14 - SPD: 13 - LCK: 12 - DEF: 14 - RES: 7 - CHM: 9. That is a total might of under 100, 97 to be exact, charm which is supposed to be one of his best stats has a total increasement of 2 points, and for a lvl 26 character unargueably terrible stats in total. Felix on the other hand is absolutly perfect at the two most important stats: The attack stat and even more importantly the speed stat. And just that makes him good already, as he also becomes a dodge tank. I would also move constance up in the field to must have as she is one of the most versatile units in the whole game and she usually was the base of my tactics in my extreme runs (I cant even count how often she saved me). I would also move Ferdinand a whole lot more to ASAP as you will want him as dodge tank in the early game who can be fast enough as Bigand to not get doubled and avoid attacks very effectively. I would also move Marianne a bit up as she has 2 major Plus Points over Linhardt: She is better for combat due her better offensive spells and higher Magic and also can be made a flying mage which makes her more versatile than Linhardt who might also turn out to have an under average speed and gets doubled by everything (happened to me twice). For the same reasons I would also rank Mercedes higher than Linhardt as must have as shes better in everything then him besides Str, Lck and def and who cares for luck and the other two stats are either irrelevant or balanced out by her personal skill.
Linhardt having warp trumps stat weaknesses, it’s such a useful spell. Sylvain is trivial to recruit early if you plan for it with fbyleth, you literally get him for free and at worst he’s a meat shield until you get the lance of ruin. then he kills the death knight and you can either use him for guard adjutant or kill him if you don’t want his face crapping up your menus. Especially in maddening, what matters in recruiting is what the unit brings to the table that is unique, and how easy it is to get them. Stats are definitely important, can’t win if you can’t kill anything, but aside from extreme cases they’re not as important as unique spells and combat arts. Ferdinand is such a pain to recruit most people don’t bother; you’ll get seteth absolutely free to replace his swift strikes at timeskip, and sylvain and Leonie can do the job of early cav/Paladin in their houses (although that sylvain stat spread is very unfortunate, haven’t seen strength that bad on him even when doing a meme magic build haha). After timeskip, Dimitri’s personal makes ferdinand completely obsolete as a lance-focused dodge tank, and his speed growth is just as good. Mercedes’ fortify is nice, but you don’t always need to heal more than 2 or 3 units; it’s just not as useful as warp. It really depends on what you’re looking for in a recruit, but to succeed on maddening powerful tools like the second-earliest relic in the game and a warp staff are just incredibly valuable, especially if you don’t have to invest as many precious activity points into getting them.
@@brickwallace99 Well, it can't be that useful if I finished my two extreme runs without using it a single time and not even one dead unit, I even use the magic shield more often even if its just for leveling. And as for Sylvain, I usually play with male Byleth and the lance doesnt make him good. What use is it if he cant get even close to the enemies because he dies before he can kill them or just can't hit them because of his low in the best case to barely existent hit in the worst case? When I met the death knight, he was on lvl15, you have seen his stats at lvl 26, do you really think he could have had even the slightest chance of killing him? I did that with Balthus and Ferdinand. And while I agree with you that these stats are extremly unfortunate, even the better ones prove to be, well, underwhelming. In my 1st run he was on lvl 40 at the mission where you get Areadbhar and just could not kill anything and not tank anything, totally useless in short. In my 2nd run he didnt come to much use as I failed to recruit him. In my 3rd run he was decent, in my 5th, 6th and 7th run his defense stats were non-existent, those were things like 9 defense and 3 res at Lvl 22. In my 8th run he was nothing special, but usuable and the 9th is the terrible, terrible Syvain in my original comment. As for Ferdinand, he proved to be one of the most valueable units in my extreme runs. His speed growth is as high as Ashes or Hildas for example, if you choose the right classes he can become the most valueable dodge tank of your team. Ferdinand is one of the cases where the canon class isnt the best class, I would recommend Wyvern Rider>Brigand or Hero/Swordmaster>Thief. I can only repeat that that man certainly knows how to avoid getting hit, and that is extremly valueable in extreme where enemies usually two- or even onehit your units. Seteth doesnt have Ferdinands personal skill, so HE DOES NOT REPLACE HIM as valueable Dodge tank, also my Seteths are usually struggeling to not fall behind, he often only gets 3 points per level up, not enough to keep up with others, especially when one point usually goes to HP while he is too slow to avoid getting hit twice per round and usually loses 30-50 HP per attacking enemy (unlike Ferdie who doesnt get hit twice and tends to avoid getting hit). And as I dont even want Ferdinand as Lance-User I don't even have the Dimitri-Problem. Leonie is also not the rival of him due my class choice and as you know, My Sylvains are all inferior to Ferdinand by far. And I am not talking about Fortify I am talking about her personal skill and better growth rates (not in total but better distributed for a mage or healer) and offensive spells. And last but not least, I completly agree with your ending phrase. I am usually looking for fast units as I consider Speed the most important stat in general, especially in extreme since it can double up your own attacks while it aoids two attacks by the enemy what means 50% damage while raising the avoid chance of your unit what can mean if you have that little bit of luck -100% damage. It is of course nice if the units are also good at other things like Mercedes, Balthus, Dimitri, Felix, etc. but S P Double E D is my priority, and that has brought me though 7 Fates runs, 5 Awakening runs, 3 Echoes runs and 9 Three Houses runs without losing a single unit. I do not see the need to change my playstyle anytime soon. I have mine and you have yours and others have theirs, we can discuss units but one of the best things in 3 houses is that almost every unit is useable in some way, the only ones being not being Raphael, Gilbert and apparently my sylvains which appear to be a different unit than the Sylvains of others
N.I.C.K this tier list isn’t ranking which characters are good, it’s ranking which ones you want to prioritize recruiting. Most units will perform well with player investment and not-terrible RNG, so their unique attributes like spells, combat arts, personals/crests, and relics are what decide how much you want them. You don’t need warp to beat the game, I’ve done it without too, but it’s so useful and versatile that it’s worth recruiting someone to have it. Sylvain is so easy to get if you plan for it by playing female Byleth that you might as well take him at least to give the lance to someone else. Ferdinand is a pain to recruit due to his heavy armor requirement-he’s free on half the routes, but on the other half it takes so much investment to recruit him when on one you have Dimitri (who can do swords dodge tank better) and the other you can just,, not use a dodge tank. Mercedes’ personal is nice, but she’s a healer and very weak defensively, most people won’t put her in a position where she needs to be healing herself often. You’ll do just fine without her using Marianne and Linhardt in their routes, as they both have tools Mercedes doesn’t in exchange for not having fortify and her personal.
He missed up like Petra is the only person that won’t get double and will double. And her strength stat is weak but everyone top tier player understands that Petra is endgame must have.
Her Strength is honestly fine. It’s about on par with Leonie and Ferdinand without factoring class growths, and recruiting her at Chapter 6 as a Thief nets her some great physical bases that will continue to outshine Ingrid in everywhere except for Resistance and maybe Defense. Plus Petra can immediately reclass to Brigand for a good 10% boost, not to mention Death Blow. People really overexaggerate Petra’s Strength issues, tbh.
Honestly. Petra is too low. There is no reason why people like yuri to be above when she does all he does but better. In player phase, not only she have better base spd, but also gets darting blow. Yuri isnt really that fast when you realize he have 1 less base spd and only 5% moree growth ( only makes a difference in 40 levels. Which is unrealistic in a normal run ). Their str is the same, but petra gets bettwr weapons ranks for str classes like brigand and wyvern. She also have a flying boon for early dodge tanking. Battalion wrath is the best EP damafe dealing tool in the game. And access to darting blow lets her double some of the fastest enemies around when needed.
Cannot believe that Mercedes, the best healer in the game and therefore one of the best units in the game, is below lindhardt and considers optional. Her personal ability means that she can independently sustain herself after any non/fatal attacks, on top of her insane healing ability with physic and fortify and eligibility as a gremory (extra mov ). Lindhardt is a worse version of Mercedes’ with warp. As a male he’s locked to bishop and even has worse damage output. Just because he has warp doesn’t mean he’s a unique and must have unit above the best support unit in the game
I'd like Linhardt more if he'd get a sex change so he can actually use some decent end game classes. Bishop's 4 move hurts. I either give him the movement booster item, or make him the dancer.
1). Nice pfp. 2). This video grossly underrates a ton of characters who perform just fine on Maddening and are absolutely worth recruiting. Annette and Ferdinand especially got done dirty.
@@cartooncritic7045 1) Likewise 2) Yeah, though tbf he did say Ferdinand was a fantastic unit, only putting him around the middle due to probably being the hardest unit to recruit
@@orangeman3505 Idk, I kind of agree with him. I feel like her and Petra are absolutely fantastic in Normal and Hard mode, but really struggle to do much on Maddening. Luin definitely helps though.
Oh, then I guess I've been really lucky with Ingrid on the 3 runs of Maddening I've made. NOTHING could touch her and she hit like a fucking truck. Petra idk I think she's good as an Assasin or wyvern lord because people can't shut up about that class.
Lyn fart is so high when others like Dorothea and Petra are low! Why?? I’ve used all of the black eagles so many times. Petra is the Felix of black eagles! Dorothea is the most underrated character in the game. She literally can one shot boss units with meteor. And she is the best dancer. She starts out with decent speed too. And charm. She starts out with the same magic stat as Lysithea too.
Both Dorothea and Petra have lackluster attacking growths (40 mag/str respectively), which makes their damage output much less over time than units like felix and lysithea, who have very high offensive growths and both have crests to boost their damage. Linhardt’s magic kit having physic and especially warp is super helpful in higher difficulties as it gives you a ton of options for strategy (lys has warp too). meteor is less useful in maddening, as you’ll rarely one-shot anyone, period-it’s mostly good for link attack support across the field. Being a “good dancer” isn’t really a huge deal, as any student with decent magic and maybe physic will be a good dancer. To the ladies’ credit, Petra’s speed growth is so high you might be able to get her to double enemies even in maddening. Then, all you have to worry about is patching her strength. Dorothea’s early 3 range and white magic avoid is really good, I did blue lions first and I didn’t realize I was missing out on 3 range magic until later playthroughs. Marianne has thoron too, though, so that’s not a niche doro can fill on golden deer. they’re both good units, but there’s characters in other houses that do their jobs just as well, and they have less that sets them apart, so they’re not high priorities for recruitment strategy-wise. You don’t need another felix if you’ve already got one, but snatching linhardt’s warp or Dorothea’s thoron sounds good if you’re a blue lion. (Though again, you could just as well go for lysithea or Marianne for those two spells. it’s just a matter of whose kit you prefer and, for me, who I like to watch smiting monsters for 200+ damage haha)
@@brickwallace99 Just because Lysithea is op doesn’t mean all other attack mages lose their worth. Hilda’s a amazing unit but Edelgard is godlike. That doesn’t make Hilda trash.
@@brickwallace99 And Dorothea is the BEST dancer. Not just a good one. Marianne is also amazing. Don’t underestimate an amazing dancer. My Petra is an axe unit. She doubles with great damage and dodges. My team is always well thought out. Everyone has a role. Healer Dorothea is teamed up well with Edelgard or Sylvain or Ferdinand or Dimitri because of her natural ability giving more healing. And they all like to be at full health and take little damage. And she is the best nostferatu tanker because of her hidden talent. Don’t underestimate Dorothea. She can be anything and excel at it. Other than a physical attacker.
The only problem that i see that dorothea has is her growth rates, not to bad, no to good just normal.. She gets outplayed by Lysithea and Hubert in almost everything but she has excellent spell list and she is one of the best dancers in the game too :)
@@biandanxious3438 I never said lysithea is OP, and I never said Dorothea is useless. It's just a matter of who you're going out of your way to recruit, for whatever reason. If you start a golden deer playthrough, the game starts you with two excellent magic units. Their spells are good and diverse, so I see little reason to make recruiting dorothea a high priority unless I feel like using her. For blue lions on the other hand, annette and mercie don't get 3 range magic, so recruiting dorothea might be a good idea. I'd want a warper more, though, so I'd make getting linhardt or lysithea a higher priority. One thing dorothea has going for her that FED mentions is she's very easy for byleth to recruit. You'll be training authority on byleth anyway, and charm is one of byleth's best stats, so recruiting her is less investment than someone like linhardt, so it's easy to do both. dorothea's passive healing from her personal is really great early game when resources are low, but once you get to midgame it's too small to be significant and you don't want her next to your physical frontliners because she's just going to draw aggro they're supposed to have. you're better off keeping her at a safe distance to use physic, thoron, and meteor, or dancing them ahead of her. all a dancer has to be able to do is dance--historically dancers very poor stats, but they can dance, so they're still good. Magic use and specifically physic is probably the only thing that makes a 3h dancer better, but it's not required, and again, *any* student can be a dancer. Plus, you don't need a dancer to clear maddening, even to do it easily. You can take the sword avoid for someone like dimitri or ferdinand and use stride, dance of the goddess, rescue, and again, warp, to fill the role of enhancing movement. Byleth is arguably a better nosferatu tank, they get the same avoid skill and have higher speed to help it, plus higher hp and defenses in case they do get hit. It's not a question of are these units good. FED has already made a tier list for that. Pretty much anyone other than caspar and ashe is a very good unit, and even those two can be incredibly helpful if built right. This discussion is a matter of whether the role they fill and the tools they have are unique and good enough to want to spend time getting them on your team when they don't start in your house.
Mercedes is the best healer in the game! Why is she so low! And Hilda plows through any enemy. Lorenz is not better than Lysithea. There are so many problems with this tier list.
this list is about who to recruit which isn't necessarily synonymous with who is the best unit in the game. Lorenz you should always recruit because it gives access to his paralogue which gives the broken thyrsus staff.
@@IntrusiveThot420 Just because she doesn’t have physic for one map doesn’t mean she isn’t the best in the long run. And if you have renown (which everyone has unless your new) that point is irrelevant. She has physic and fortify and a crest that allows her to keep a use for healing once and a while. That and her great magic growths make her the best healer.
Honestly ashe is the most useless student his combat arts are awful and his personal skill is very useless because lockpick is on assassin and trickster like man he is just bad bernadetta Edit: also he LEAVE you in vw ss like what!!!!
He’s a bad unit, but there’s something to be said about the free Shoes of the Wind he nets you with his Paralogue, and on both Black Eagles routes recruiting him is the only way you can get that item. It’s not worth using him for anything other than as a Stride not on that one map he’s force-deployed on, but it’s at least something he can contribute.
Dorothea is the best Dancer in the game because she's the only one with Physic and Meteor and she is good in Charm so she'll win it pretty easily. I think she should be ranked higher on both scales.
Dorothea is a good Dancer, but there are two things that make me say Marianne is better for the class: 1). Meteor's Link Bonus effects got nerfed in a patch so that only units with supports between them get the bonus, and while Dorothea has plenty of support partners, she doesn't have hardly any for the Alliance or Church characters, which severely hurts her performance as a Dancer if you use a lot of those characters; 2). Dorothea has a bane in Riding, which keeps her from learning Movement +1 in a timely fashion, whereas Marianne can potentially have it just after the timeskip if you trained her in the horse classes for a bit beforehand. Besides, it's a bad idea to want your main healer to be your Dancer anyway since they'll want to be dancing more than healing. That's also a slight against Marianne, which is a big part of why Linhardt is a great unit to recruit for GD as well.
@@cartooncritic7045 I didn't know about the siege tome link nerf, that's lame :(. I agree linhardt is a better dancer recruit because you'll also get warp out of it. the charm requirement is so low it doesn't really matter, I literally did dedue dancer once and he was well over it even before the dance practice.
@@brickwallace99 I was implying that Linhardt should be recruited as a healer while Marianne became the Dancer instead. If you’re playing BE, go ahead and use Dorothea as your Dancer, but GD already has the best Dancer for free and Linhardt’s the best non-DLC support unit already, so IMO he’s absolutely worth the trouble.
Lorenz ia way too high in must have. He is not the most needed. There are lot more good unit to pick instead of him. Lysithea is way better than Lorenz to bdhin with
@JohnDevlin-q9w Yes of course I know that he has the right to think what he wants and to share his opinion. But I thought he was making a tier with objective statement also not just who he likes based on personal opinion alone
Why is Petra so low?? She is the fastest unit in the game! She dodges everything and in axe classes she deals lots of damage because unlike other axe units she can double.
I feel like Petra is much more of a hard unit. On maddening strength becomes way more useful than speed. Like FED said her strength suffers if you don’t recruit her fast. She’s a great unit on black eagles routes but very hard to use outside of them. (Obviously just my opinion.)
@@justinevans3999 I’ve used her on every route. She’s the black eagles Felix. But she dodges and he does more damage so it comes down to what your team needs.
@@biandanxious3438 I do love Petra, her character is interesting and beautiful, and her stats seem like they should be really good, but she just isn't fast ENOUGH when I try to use her on Maddening. Byleth and Edelgard are both several points faster than Petra is, and Petra struggles to contribute anything more than chip damage without a lot of work and resources put into her.
@@selfsustainedautocannibalVampi physic and thoron > Rescue and Personal skill which doesn’t help in enough chapters. A lot of very important chapters Constance doesn’t get mer mag buff in and her def buff is kinda pointless
Also Constance having high mag is kinda eh because dark magic is WAY better for high mag. Reason Is more just poke / chip with thoron and semi faster spells. So she’s overshadowed by Hubert/ Lysithea as a mage killer. Even hanneman is as good if not better at that then her cuz he has the same nigh magic and thoron. Though lacks valk/ dark flier
Well all i gotta say is that you are pretty low on given opinions on People's favorite characters, and I don't appropriate you telling people what to think of the characters either
“She’s got really high magic, she’s got rescue, and she’s got long range magic. But thats it.” .... what else do you want?
Probably the ability to not get 1-rounded by every single enemy in the game would be nice (this is a problem for many characters, but not everyone). Also she needs a battalion that gives hit to make Bolting reliable, which means putting her in her "canon class" dark flier is not a very good option, considering the limited amount of battalions that don't give minus magic and give hit. i still think shes good tho
I was kind of down on Ignatz when I started GD NG, but knew I didn’t want to use Raphael or skip Ch 13 so I trained him and he was great all game. He can train up some reason to grab poison strike if his strength falls behind, rally bot, debuffer, or just a reliable longbow user. Going to give him a shot as a recruit for Blue Lions next. Overall agree with your list.
She's the most viable siege tome unit in the game but only after she masters Valkyrie or else good luck hitting anything with Bolting and her very subpar dex and luck. I do like Rescue a lot so she has that to be useful until then.
@@DoTtA1123 make her a Gremory and stack her up to 1-shot with bolting
@@DoTtA1123 Yeah I wasn’t suggesting she’s perfect, just that it’s weird to list three pretty solid strengths but then say “but that’s it” as if they aren’t significant.
You forgot one big thing about Ashe - on Black Eagles, he's the only way to get the shoes of the wind and so he's worth recruiting just for that paralogue.
BY GOD YOU'VE DONE IT. YOU FIGURED OUT A NICHE FOR ASHE! You have no idea how long I've been trying to figure out a reason to recruit him.
But you could just recruit Catherine who only requires Lv. 10 Byleth (I think) and automatically comes with Thunderbrand
But if you want my opinion if weather to recruit Ashe or not then I'd say, well yeah because he's like the best and sweetest soft boi in the game and also if you have RNG like mine he'd end up pretty much better then Bernadetta, Cyril, Leonie, Petra, Claude and Ignatz usually having 48Atk, 148Hit, 180Crit, 106Avo before the timeskip
@@IntrusiveThot420 flying lockpick
@@Timothy_-ve2zp You can't recruit Catherine in Black Eagles. Or at least, not until Chapter 12 in one of the paths you can take, and by that time you're too late for her paralogue. So yeah, Ashe is the only way to get it in BE
@@davidacus956 oh what I didn't know that?! I thought she just leaves your party if you choose CF route instead of Church, much like Lorenz in AM and Ashe in VW
You could watch this video or RECRUIT EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!
They are my children now
I'm just going to watch the video. lol
Enemy Petra is hell.
fr she having 130 avo when fighting her, had to cheese with gambits to kill her alone.
I had a hilariously speedblessed Ingrid who quadded her to death with Thunderbrand and Battalion Desperation. It was amazing.
She was horrid my first playthrough but second time I gave a million statboosters to pegasus byleth and killing edge'd her.
Super scary !!!!
What hurts Ferdinand the most is that his doppelganger in comparison is the easiest unit to recruit, poor Ferdie
You mean Sylvain if you play as female Byleth?
@@federicovazquez9011 Yep
I actually couldn't tell the difference. I only focused on my deer students so Ferdinand and Sylvain were essentially the same character to me.
I think Ferdinand would be a good dodge tanker if one were to utilize his personal ability along with other abilities he can learn from. I had him learned duelist blow from the trickster class and if one were to wyvern lord him and give him alert stance + he may be able to be a good dodge tank.
Not until you make him a dodge tank dancer/trickster. I never heard anyone use Sylvain for those. It is probably because full health avo+ helped Ferdie a lot for dodge tanking, something Sylvain lacked.
The reason Doro's faith rank goes down is the game forces a recruitable unit to the base req for the class they join as. Monk requires D reason or faith, so the game forces her to have both
That's super interesting. Does that also apply to recruiting someone classed as a fighter? Would they have D rank axe, brawling, and bows?
@@flykiwibirb Yes. This is why getting Balthus in ch3 is so clutch, he joins with D bows despite his bane in them.
I feel Raphael and Hilda should be higher because of the Battalions they give. If you value Lorenz for his relic, it's silly to forget about what else doing a paralogue can give you. Ingrid gets a mention here too since good flying battalions are rarer.
Also being a Monk is what automatically gives the students D Faith, they'll lose it when they change classes.
I would bump Leonie and Ignatz a bit since they're great archers and the other routes don't really have a ton of them.
Ingrid's paralogue is awesome because you get Luin and the flying battalion. Completing the map is kind of a pain until you figure out how to work the script in your favor, but that's half the fun of the game, right?
To expand on the battalions point, here are some of the best ones you can obtain from pre-timeskip student paralogues:
Hilda - Goneril Valkyries (also available post-TS) - Assault Troop, high Atk/Hit/Crit
Raphael - Leicester Mercenaries - Blaze, high Atk/Hit/Crit
Lorenz - Gloucester Knights - Assault Troop, high Atk/Magic Atk/Hit
Sylvain - Gautier Knights - Stride, high Atk, +20 Avoid
Ingrid - Galatea Pegasus Co. - Lure, high Atk, good flying battalion
All of the DLC Ashen Wolves battalions are very good too.
@@DelanHaar6 yeah Gloucester Knights are amazing imo, but I always struggle to find a place to put the Gautier Knights. The stats are pretty good on it but taking a turn to use stride means that the bearer gets left behind and doesn't contribute to damage. So it's just very awkward
@@jefff6007 I tend to use that battalion for the +20 avoid more than anything else. The Stride Gambit is just bonus flexibility.
plus Leonie quest gives you a really really good bow so there's that
Petra's a high speed dodgetank with flying and axe boon and battalion wrath. Treat her as a Dimitri who dodges rather than hits first
Vantage, wrath and the cursed sword with high crit is the way to make her a top tier unit.
@@DNNYYCLR I tried a vantage/wrath build on a recent playthrough, but even with crits she couldn't kill anything not squishy in one hit, so she'd get attacked anyway and die. IDK, maybe she was strength screwed for me, but that's her problem -- getting strength screwed generally
@@flykiwibirb yeah I think she needs str boosters to be good which I would guess only if SS. @raxis the high speed for dodging isn't as reliable. Helps her out for doubling tho
@@flykiwibirb yeah, 5he biggest flaw lies in her strength stat and damage output. The only reason I made a comment on your statement was to give some inspiration to the commentsection.
Her str isnt even low tho. Its literally the same str as leonie.
The difference between then is petra is EP based ( flier boon for early dodge tanking/battalion wrath ). Leonie is PP based ( PBV ).
I may be the most difficult unit but I’m also the most important! Azure moon is incomplete without Ferdinand Von Aegir!
Tea
Nope, I love Dorothea's line about how we killed Ferdie. It's heartbreaking
@@Nubbletech I suppose it is, but why not recruit me once in a while?
@@maskedman1527 I don't know. I don't like armor on my Byleth. But at least I have you deployed on my current run of Silver Snow. You're gonna be a great Great Knight.
To the Ferdinand Von Pyre with you.
I think one could make a stronger case for recruiting Ferdinand:
1. Training some Heavy Armor and certifying for Armored Knight early on is not too bad actually, since the big boost in Def you get just by certifying makes a big difference early on. Byleth usually just needs to grab Death Blow (and Darting Blow if female) early on, then he/she's kind of just chilling as a Swordmaster midgame anyway, so there is plenty of room to train some Heavy Armor on the side. If you're going for Falcon Knight or Warmaster, though, you probably do need to stick to a very specific training regimen.
2. Ferdinand sets himself apart as a reliable dodge tank who can also reliably ORKO. Other Swift Strike users like Seteth and Sylvain are nowhere near as good as Ferdinand at dodge tanking, and their actual tankiness falls off hard lategame Maddening when dodge tanks are the way to go. On the other hand, other good dodge tanks like Ingrid and Petra have nowhere near the ORKO capability Ferdinand has with his high Atk and Swift Strikes. Also, for characters like Ingrid and Petra, they lose quite a bit of their dodge tanking capabilities after attacking anyway (Alert Stance), while Ferdinand still gets a boost as long as he's stayed full HP.
This is especially true for Golden Deer, which lacks good physical frontliners compared to other routes (BL is full of them, and BE has, well, Ferdinand).
...then again, I might be a little biased because I just need hear "Waga na wa Ferudinando von AAEEgiru!" every time or I can't play this game.
Hi, you make good points and while Ferdinand makes a good unit, you have to ask yourself really all that investment is worth it. In the early game, tutoring Byleth is an extremely limited option, and it doesn’t help that on top of that, you have to use gifts and tea on Ferdinand. And number, dodgetanking itself is kind of niche for three big reasons. One, investment, it takes a lot of work to get there since he lacks base speed and starts at E in flying, on top of rushing for swift strikes. And two, it’s not entirely feasible to make a build that works without some sort of enemy phase skill like Wrath, so you may just wanna keep him in Wyvern Lord and maximize his playerphase offense, instead of using Alert Stance and wasting that.
54 minutes of FED?
This would put a smile on Dedue’s face
Thank you FED, now I am ready to recruit everyone and trained them well in my Silver Snow.
I would have Bernie right about in the Middle of Must Have and If You Want because when recruiting her more than almost any other unit, it is about how you use her. She has some of the weirdest things you can do with her and still be effective, but you have to commit to doing those things fairly early. Bernie can make a super unique and useful dancer for instance by getting her Pass, if you want her for that utility. She can excel as a Sniper, Bow Knight, or even a Falcon Knight if that's your thing. She is Must Have if you want to try out her unique options and potentially powerful/useful gimmicks and If You Want, if you don't plan on investing or specializing her towards what she does well. How much a person is willing to invest, is how desirable Bernie will be as a recruit.
Yeah. Without investment bernie is mediocre when units like lysithea and felix are super good regardless of putting in effort, yet when done right can exceed the other two capabilities
Not giving Ferdinand a B support in part 1 was a crime
Nah. Made sylvain even better as the unmatched swift strikes user
@@pepeelghetto1231 Sylvain would still be unmatched, it'd just be more reasonable to get the Wyvern Swift Strikes trio outside of SS
Not really. Ferdinand is a pretty easy recruit if you know what you're doing. Just get his support to C+ and have D+ heavy armor. You get him straight up without having to wait for him to ask to be recruited.
@@davidjaye50 you say "have D+ heavy armor" like it's an easy thing to do that won't interfere with recruiting other characters and training Byleth
@@Tom-vx7qh D+ heavy armor is a low investment that you can work towards over the course of several weeks. You don't have to get there all at once. Byleth can also use the d+ towards armor knight promotion for the defense buff if you choose to go that route. Again, it's not hard at all if you know what to do.
Constance is literally bolting Lysithea.
They should not be so far apart. She one shots everything.
WELL I can see what you mean, but there are some key differences for certain playstyles. Constance has Rescue instead of Lysithea's Warp, and Warp is better for aggressive player phase strategies. Also, Lysithea gets Dark Spikes which can be used for killing Death Knight in early chapters, and her dark magic spells have extra utility effects that can be useful. Bolting is cool but both of these characters have AWFUL accuracy and Bolting also has low accuracy, AND Constance doesn't build supports with as many characters as Lysithea (and linked attacks are half of the power of Bolting). ALSO also Lysithea gets 2x skill experience from her personal skill, and Constance gets some stats.
On Maddening if you aren't playing new game plus, these differences are actually important. FED videos are built mostly for that perspective, so that's why a FED list put them in that order. Constance DOES have the flying and the magic sword combat arts and the sword skill boon to make her very interesting and good, but try-hard Maddening mode can make small differences much larger, and Lysithea's differences make all the difference.
@@jefff6007
With my playstyle it’s not that big of a deal.
I just use Constance and Lysithea as one shot units.
And I have 700 plus hours in three houses. Renown isn’t a big deal.
@@biandanxious3438 DAMN that's a ton of hours!
@@biandanxious3438 and I can see why you wouldn't put any value on Lysithea's personal skill, then
@@jefff6007
Don’t think I don’t love Lysithea’s skills.
Lysithea is in my top 3 favs.
Some well deserved love for Hapi! Yes! Almost makes up for Ashe being bullied by the game itself.
42:51 it took Adam a year and a half to finally say it, but here we are.
You forgot to mention that you want to at least make sure you DO recruit Ashe if you're playing black eagles since with no cathrine in part 1 means you need him to get his paralog for the movement increase item. I'm not an Ashe fan but its an important thing to note.
Honestly, Falcon Knight Ingrid saves my bacon in the final mission with BL. She picked off enemies and basically never got hit.
I gave her the chalice and the avo skills so she was basically a lightning rod for enemy ranged units in mine.
I always recruit Bernadetta in Chapters 3-5.
She will be a lvl 5-9 Fighter and she will have a D Rank in Axes, which means it'll be easier for her to grind to C so she can get Death Blow. I also keep her in Pegasus so she can get as much Speed as possible before going to Bow Knight, but I am those kind of guys who grind with broken weapons lol
I usually put character i want to grind as an adjutant on a tanky unit (dedue or sum) and just have the tanky unit be surrounded by other units while using a broken weapon. I could get like from E to A sometimes if i have enough enemies hitting me. Probly not viable on maddening but it's fun on hard
@@pancakeoverlord1886 it's doable on Maddening from mid game onward
@@Jorge.Painkiller I thought the stat inflation would make that impossible. But I guess I'll see when I do maddening.
@@pancakeoverlord1886 the best time is between Chapter 7 and 11
I would actually say Raphael is a really good recruit for both crimson flower and azure moon. He has linked attacks with a couple people (notably Bernie) and the battalion from his paralogue is really good for Dimitri, and really any physical attacker. Also I always recruit Ashe or Catherine for their paralogue.
Ok I was waiting on Felix so when I saw his rating I wasn't too disappointed.
*Before I watched this*
Dorothea starts out with a high magic stat and has meteor which one shots everything.
Her magic is actually pretty average only 40% even edelgard strangely has 45% magic which is kinda shocking
@@2nii2
I said her magic stat STARTS high.
I didn’t say the growth is super high.
@@biandanxious3438 even her 11 based at Magic which is decent is really not worth noting if we're talking about Raw damage with meteor if you want that Hanuman is by far a better option with higher basis and higher growth and even then he struggles to One-Shot with meteor
@@114bleachfan
By the time he is recruitable Dorothea will have a higher mag stat.
And she has physic. And she has a higher charm growth.
@@biandanxious3438 while physic is definitely useful recover also pretty handy and it's pretty debatable if her charm growth really matters too much most Dorothy I've seen run supportive gambits and are way way way too far in the back to ever be hit by any Gambit of the enemies same thing can be applied to Hahnemann whose charm growth is serviceable already but yeah she has a bit more utility than him but if we're talking about actual damage capability he will always be superior because neither one of them are doubling anyways due to her low strength and weight limitation and him due to his low growth in speed so Hanuman is by far a far more useful meteor user if we're talking about damage because Dorothea really does not have any way to Nuke people her magic growth is just far too low
Rengor has a guide on the best time to recruit characters. Most are best recruited as soon as possible, with some exceptions such as wanting characters like Hapi, Balthus, Constance, mages, and fighters being between level 5 and 9. That way they get free skill rating in important categories (Bernie comes with D axe as a fighter, Balthus gets D in bow, mages like Annette and Hapi get D in Faith, etc.)
I know this is an old video but I'm just now getting towards the end of my first play through of the game. I have had it for a number of years, just never got around to finishing it. My very first save file I went with Black Eagles, however I didn't like what I was forced siding with or against Edelgard, so I took a break from the game not liking either of the choices. I started a new game choosing the Blue Lions, I'm currently on chapter 21.
I forget the name of the held item but it increases the amount of healing you do. I have Mercedes hold it, she is unbelievably good at healing. She tanks magic attacks taking no damage and she can heal your entire team. I would rate her as most have. Even when I was playing Black Eagles she was one of my first recruits.
Every student that auto levels through monk will have D faith because monk exam requires D faith. They drop to E when the change to mage since it has no faith required, unless they auto level faith
Isn't the only good thing about Casper his use as a war master and his paralouge?
Like anyone can be a good war master soooo
Yeah i agree his paralouge is useful
I have recruited Ignatz in every route and he never fails to deliver. Has very high luck stats, avoids almost everything and when I put him against a magic user he takes so little damage. And his crits are actually powerful and welcome. I've only played on hard, tho, and I know this is a maddening list, but he's my baby and I just wanted to let everyone knows how good he is even after 3 years of the video. Thank you.
I am doing a SS maddening run right now (NG+ albeit), and I made my Caspar a War Monk and he had some decent RNG luck so he hits hard and dodges often. DLC classes can totally change how your army is oriented.
yeah sometimes I welcome the DLC classes and sometimes I wonder if they made things TOO easy...
Kinda late for this comment to be seen but maybe Dorothea's faith rank goes down to show that as the story progresses she becomes more disillusioned with the Church and the measures they're willing to take to enforce their views.
This is a tier list no one really asked for, but everyone needed 🤷♂️
Or you could skip the preferred skills thing entirely and just pelt your chosen ones with gifts and meals and demands for mission assistance until your support is high enough that they’ll ask to join your house. Who says you can’t buy love?
Im just gonna say this before I even watch the video. But Bernadetta should be valued more on a blue lions run, due to being the only (canon) archer with a Crest. Which on the blue lions route, makes her the only one capable of using the Failnaught without suffering recoil damage.
Felix can get that train going much further than Bernie can since he joins at base and wants to be using Bows anyway because Bows are king in 3H. Bernie is still a good Failnaught user, but Felix has generally better combat stats for it than she does, and she's better off nuking enemies with Vengeance or forged Killer weapons via Vantage and Battalion Wrath.
@@cartooncritic7045 true he has generally better combat stats, which is why you want him as a frontliner unit, not a backline sniper. So he can mkae use of aegis shield, sword of moralta, and combat arts like nimble combo and sunder. Also his crest doesnt proc on hunters volley, which is part of why having him in a class like swordmaster or war master is generally better imo.
@@noriega25 you still double everything with aegis anyway, except assassins and Falcoknights on maddening.
Laughs in NG+ Shamir with Felix’s crest
Okay, so I have a few critiques.
Firstly, there is no way in hell that raising Armor to D+ or C is in any meaningful way that would make recruiting Ferdinand so difficult as to rank him that low. It can be done by Chapter 6 and won't take away from recruiting any other major must-haves even when playing Male Byleth (the Golden Deer can get by just fine without Sylvain and the LoR for a few chapters, Bows ftw). Y'all are either just poisoned by bad RUclips videos saying that Weight -3 is bad or just hate the idea of a hefty Bade 12 Defense to admit that training Armor is worth it.
Similarly, in what universe is a free +4 Strength from Annette's rallies ever NOT useful? It's +4 goddamn Strength! With Death Blow that's +10 Strength for a full turn! That's can be the difference between killing a boss or not. Even if you don't think the +4 Speed or Resistance is that worth it, Annette will *always* have that +4 Strength rally. That alone would be worth recruiting her, especially if you're doing an LTC or 0% growths run.
Hapi is a good unit, but her actual stats aren't much better than Linhardt's, whom she basically shares a Faith spell list with (Seraphim is the same thing as Restore, right?). Banshee is a great spell, but the Black Eagles will already have Hubert who can already use that spell by the time you recruit Hapi. Same thing with Linhardt and Physic. Warp is a great boon, but she'll always be behind Linhardt and even Lysithea in Faith (route depending, of course) and will always get it after them thanks to the former's boon and the latter's earlier learning rank. Like I said, she's a good unit, but I wouldn't go so far as to call her "one of the best in the game." A high A-tier, though.
Petra > Ingrid in every way, including late-joining class growths. Petra is a great dodge tank that also can hit the kill thresholds for Maddening thanks to stuff like Mercenary's Vantage or Battalion Wrath at C Authority. Plus, Petra still levels up Axes so she can easily reclass into Brigand for Death Blow, can reclass into Pegasus Knight for Darting Blow with a little extra training, and can get to Wyvern Lord pretty quickly afterwards. Ingrid's damage even when recruited late is still pretty pitiful and she can't even reclass into anything useful without heavy investment. The only reason IMO to recruit Ingrid on Maddening is for the Galatea Pegasus Co. Battalion and Luin, and she wouldn't even be using either. Maybe Petra's not a Must Have-tier unit, but she's much better than where you placed her.
Lysithea is still an S-Tier unit if only because of her magic damage and Warp. The aforementioned Armor promotion will solve all of her durability issues for most of the rest of the game, and a Paladin promotion not long after will solve all of her AS issues for everything afterward, which she really wants anyway on her way to Valkyrie and Dark Knight beyond. That's not even getting into Swarm, or Luna, or Dark Spikes, or Seraphim, or Soulblade, or anything else that makes Lysithea a great unit. Even with all of the silly Lysithea discourse in the 1.5 years since the game launched, she's still one of the best units in the entire game, and I frankly still can't fathom how Hapi could be seen as better than her given all of the latter's shortcomings.
the point is not that recruiting ferdinand is 'that difficult', the point is that it's not WORTH it. compare recruiting him vs sylvain- sylvain is the easiest character to recruit in the game, and he has a very similar stat spread. what does ferdinand give you that anyone else doesn't? training armor rank takes away from your other skills, and what advantage does ferdinand give in response to that disadvantage?
Am I really so unusual in valuing Bernie and Ashe for their Deadeye? On my maddening run it was the only thing that kept those infinite Wyvern pair spawns managable.
Can easily sum this all up in much less time - Recruit strategy = +1 mag range item, early Lance relic, and any backliner with Warp [until they use it up of course] Since those are the only things that matter in the entire game....riiiight
Hapi is my favorite Fire Emblem character but I did not know she could be considered one of the best units in the game I am popping off.
Man. I mean I disagree with you on a lot of semantics here, but in terms of Coco, you're just wrong.
She's basically Lysithea with Bolting and a greater crest that refunds attack magic. Coco can link attack from across the map, rescue units in danger and hit like a freight train. She the best Warlock in the game, and I'd argue that's her ideal class, meaning she doesn't require a whole lot of investment to perform at a really high level.
I'd personally say that if you intend to use her, wait until the chapter where she classes mage for that extra couple of magic points, and then set her goals to faith and reason, then bring her to choir practice. All of the wolves are really strong and Coco's the one who requires the least investment to excel.
So, you're basically saying her crazy boasts aren't empty? Huh.
@@joshuagabrielcatindig7607, are you implying that the underground mad scientist isn't a genuine threat?
So, am I the only one that made Felix a Sniper, gave him a crit ring and watched him crit on enemies every other hit? I haven't played on maddening, but it looks like he would kill most enemies on player phase.
Also, Sylvain is a beast no matter what you do with him, I have made him a back up healer more than once, rounding out his lance abilities with some time in brigand and archer before throwing him into priest and bishop for more of a healing boost.
I'm also a bit Linhardt fan. He is one of the best arguments against gender locked classes. I always teach him both faith and reason, and was so disappointed when I learned that I couldn't make him a gremory.
have done sniper felix on maddening, nice because crest and he can actually use failnaught (thanks claude). Kinda struggled to double without hunter's volley, but he did his job just fine. High dex and hit+20 meant he could very reliably hit from his full range with bow+1 (something I always have problems with for deadeye units). Definitely an option! Mixed phys/magic sylvain is also viable for maddening, did better than any hard mode ferdinand I've ever trained (I swear I'm cursed with him, he always turns out horrible).
We were robbed of gremory linhardt and lorenz (and hubert). The fanart is always so cool. Let them be rich widows they deserve it.
while we're at it can we get pegasus knight ferdinand/dimitri and war master hilda/edelgard plz???
You're very right about Ashe. He just sucks. People say he can be a cool flying bow user (budget Claude), but he'll be so weak. Use Petra for that instead and she can also dodge tank reliably.
However, having him on your team lets you access his paralogue which grants you the movement plus 1 booster. But that's the only reason I want to recruit him (and I think you can still access that paralogue with just Catherine on your team). So I'd say he's a must have eventually on Black Eagles (as you can't recruit Catherine), but only for his paralogue.
Also he leaves your party for a bit post time skip outside of Crimson Flower which is absolutely poop
best success I ever had with ashe was making him a paladin...then changing my mind and grinding for assassin and bow crit +10. very reliable crits especially on monsters, stealth keeps him from getting targeted and immediately crushed. If you have to have him and want to actually use him, very recommend. have tried budget claude and it wasn't nearly as useful.
@@brickwallace99 yeah, I recently tried using him as a sniper with deathblow and bow crit + 10 -- keeping him away from the front lines and being careful so I wouldn't need stealth. He was really good when I first got Hunters Volley as classing to sniper bumps his strength up to a good minimum. But it wasn't too long after that he just got so strength screwed that he would need both hits to crit to take down an enemy, whereas my Shamir only needed one (and sometimes neither) hit to crit in order to kill.
This setup worked great for him being able to help in hunting by daybreak though.
My caspar just got absolutely broken level ups on my silver snow play through to the point where i had to get him
in my party
Counterpoint on Ashe: recruit him ASAP so you can make him kill his dad then bench him forever. Top must-have there.
Jokes aside, I think a point in favor of recruiting Caspar is that having him gets you access to Rafail Gem if you grab Mercie too. Though I know it's certainly no Thyrsus, and I imagine it's a pain on Maddening if you aren't using either of them, more crit/weakness nullification to go around is at least something, right?
Also agree with the comments pointing out that you've underrated Constance hard, between being completely free, Bolting, and Rescue. And then there is that one hiccup in the 'recruit every church guy immediately' point: Catherine won't do you that much good in chapter 4, so getting her two levels higher at the start of 5 might be a worthwhile investment and give Byleth more time to grind.
The Death Knight Scythe is good enough reason to recruit Caspar. Seteth, Dimitri, Sylvain, Ferdinand, Ingrid, and even Ashe can all make use of that lance. Only takes 3 argathium to repair. You should get 12-15 just from that Cornelia chapter. Therefore recruit Caspar early and get Brigand ability and give Death Knight a good ol’ crit smack down
"Mercedes is the ultimate healer. Let's put her below the mid-line of must have/if you want." - Seriously?
Love this layout, thanks for the video!
I had Caspar in my latest Blue Lions run for the supports he needed with some of those students. Made him the dancer. It’s hilarious.
I think Petra is best as a Ch 6 recruit. On average she’ll have +13 in her stat total relative to a player raised Petra. That includes +3 HP, +2 Str, and +2 Spd. She’ll be a Lv 11 Thief, but she’ll have a C rank in Axes so she can be immediately reclassed into Brigand. With base D rank Flying, she’s well on her way to Wyvern. You’ll just need to focus on Lance training if you want to catch Pegasus Knight before then.
Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that ashe is viewed as less than stellar unit. In my first playthrough of 3h, my ashe had an high crit rate, allowing him to one shot with deadeye.
i can't tell if you're being serious or not :P
Problem with this list (even on Maddening) is all the characters are "if you want" i wouldnt say anything character at all is a must have. Even Lysithea haha
I’m tying a noble/commoner only run on BL, and lowkey I’m gonna bench ashe and recruit ignatz. Not being able to access hit+20 I think is gonna make him hard to use. I’m also aiming to recruit later than you normally would, since I’m not worrying about making ranks for certifications I’m hoping to get better stats on them if they’ve auto-classes into intermediates. We’ll see how it goes lol
Ashe is probably my favorite individual character and basically no one ranks him high up
I knew it. Also Caspar and Raphael are pretty great people too...
@@envoy2500 His stats and unique combat arts are just not good enough to justify using him if he's not in your house; same goes for caspar and raph, although I'd say caspar is just as bad since he's a pain to recruit and raph is better since you might want a tank on black eagles (poor edelgard and her weird unique class).
There's nothing wrong with using the units you like, though, and you can make any unit excel even on maddening with enough thought and investment put in (my personal favorite is assassin for him). Ashe is super sweet and has great supports, I'm glad to hear he's your favorite :)
@@brickwallace99 he's a rogue, but he's just so nice and wants to be a knight and is just an adorable little lockpick on a wyvern. I'm probably going to make a D&D character of him next time I find a campaign.
I've only had him for a day and a half, but if anything happens to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.
@@envoy2500 Ashe in D&D sounds so wholesome. Tbh I felt bad making him an assassin, he would hate it so much! I always sent him in with Dimitri in all his kingly glory and poor ashe is stuck in his shadow shooting people with a killer bow. An unconventional knight but still a damn good one.
@@brickwallace99 I was thinking like 2 levels of Rogue then go into Cavalier or something like that
Can’t wait to do my Game of Thrones Black Eagles run. Byleth will be named Jorah Mormont
After using him myself for maddening, I think Linhardt is extremely overrated. He deals next to no damage, he’ll lag behind everyone else, his development is limited being a male caster. I think a lot of people just see warp and think instant S tier. If I wanted to have two physic users I’d just use Hapi, Mercedes, and Marianne. Especially the latter who is secretly the fastest caster in the game thanks to her easy darting blow and dark flier access
Finally found someone who agrees with me!
Seriously Lin is outclassed in every way, even in Black Eagles it's better just to recruit Marianne or Mercedes because they do any job he can, but so much better.
Yeah, but in terms of actually being a healer, he is only beat by Mercedes, due to the crest. He can get very high Res too, for magic tanking.
You must have Lorenz so you get his special weapon that it’s obviously gonna be for the white-haired waifu
Where can you find all the information about what stats and ranks the characters will come with when recruited at different chapters?
"There's no *bad* choices in Three Houses."
Don't worry Ingrid, 10th time is the charm with you.
Ingrid deals no damage :c
Ingrid always turns out great for me like seriously she’s been a staple in all of my playthroughs she even soloed the entire final map of Azure Moon maddening for me.
@@pearsemolloy9656 Well anybody can be useful in three houses anyway XD
My ingrid was god on normal however in maddening I use leonie instead, perhaps I should give Ingrid another try
Honestly Ingrid is a divine dodge tank, I see Sothis at work when she's up against an army that cannot scratch her
@@ashen_roses tell me about it if you equip her with alert stance plus, defiant avoid and the chalice of beginnings she becomes a literal god bolting and meteor mages are no longer a threat she’s so much fun to use.
Dorothea is the best character in the game imo. Her Yuri lysithea and flayn as the magic users/ dorothea as the dancer is just sooooo dumb. Made maddening golden deer trivial. I'm sure you know the combo I'm talking about. Foul play/rescue/warp/dance. and you can give one stride too
yuri at chapter 4 is really nice so you have windsweep vs the deathknight. but if you have dimitri or lysithea to one shot him them wait till chapter 6
38:00 "I'm not some authority on this." Just accept that you are the authority on english speaking youtube.
Lysithea should probably be above Lorenz since she hits so much harder. And isn't the Thyrsus paralogue both of theirs?
It's just lorenz, hence why he's higher
@@brickwallace99 that makes more sense.
The reason Lysithea is as good as she's touted to be is Seraphim. Sure she doesn't have much healing but Seraphim can be the difference between killing the monster before the end of Player Phase and having to soak an attack from it.
its crazy how not right this is 🗿
Kinda confused about Balthus placement tbh. I've used him on a Byleth + Ashen wolves only run, and he contributed the least out of the 5. He's basically Raphael but with a crest: their growths aren't that different. Sure he's a great war master, but I wouldn't say he's more useful than Felix as war master. He still suffers from all of the issues with a slow tank
I don't really know what you were doing with Balthus, but he's a fantastic tank thanks to King of Grappling and the great combo of his Crest and Draining Blow. With a proper set-up he can become functionally invincible even on Maddening.
Just curious, and depending on your route, who do you typically give the Shoes of the Wind to?
(As well as the Sacred Galewing shoes if you got the DLC)
I gave the +2 move boots to lysithia on BL maddening, never really regretted my decision, since she was Always able to reach enemies and keep up with a bunch of fliers :), giving the move items to your dancers is also a natural choice imo (though dancers will probably only need shoes of wind and no more). So typically to units that struggle to keep up or dancers, giving them to a generally strong combat unit that you rely on is also a good idea, as long as they don’t have a tendency to die when you send them in among a bunch of enemies (e.g a strong dodgetank or war master), but i’m also curious what others like to do with the move items :)
It's funny how much FED gushes on Linhardt, because I feel he needs the Sacred Galewing to not jog 3 turns behind the army in the late game. All good end game classes for magicians are female-only, so Linhardt will probably be stuck as a 4 move bishop.
I made him my dancer one route just because I couldn't figure out anything else to do with him.
@@bificommander I think you’re right he falls off hard, but He gets warp and can use physic but offensively very useless, a better choice would be something like gremory hapi as healer and warper because you can also get +1mv with her boon in riding, giving linhardt the boots would indeed be some kind of twisted joke, better to give it to your best combat unit or something
but petra can go into wyvern so easily.....
Sylvain >> Felix on maddening change my mind
lowkey,,, u right
I wish Sylvain had better Dex for Swift Strikes. The more I use him the more I notice the impact of those 70~80% chance to hit... Granted if I made more effort into mastering Archer it wouldn't be so bad but he just had to have a bane in bows to make it more annoying.
@@g.n.s.153 I highly recommend either gloucester knights (phys attack+6, hit+15) or edmund troops (phys attack+5, hit+40) to fix his hit rates. I've had edmund on him since i got it (made him a mixed attacker bc i felt like it) and didn't even notice the iffy hit rates. +5 phys is nothing to sneeze at, and it saves you an abillity slot and time getting hit+20
Totes
Felix as war master could kill anything on my maddening run and could often withstand atleast 2 enemies targeting him, with his shield and gauntlets the only thing sylvain outclasses him in is movement, and what i found SOO USEFUL was that he doesn’t miss the way sylvain and some of my other units did on my run, partly because of lower weight and no breakers for gauntlets, I’m curious how sylvain was better for you than Felix?? Even if you went around spamming swift strikes
Solid list the only thing I’d strongly disagree with you on is the placements of Constance, Mercedes and Ingrid they are all must have for me. Especially Mercedes who should have been placed beside Linhardt as they basically function the same. I’d actually say she’s slightly better than Linhardt due to her being more effective at healing due to fortify and having the option to become a Gremory while
Linhardt is kind of locked at bishop unless you invest in riding for him to become a Holy Knight.
Isn´t bishop a better class for healing anyway?
Mercedes’ magic stat is high enough that it makes the white tomefair redundant and making her a gremory gives her great offensive utility I always use Mercedes as more of a hybrid who can heal well and also dish out insane damage depending on the situation. Overall gremory is a much better class for her than bishop.
@@pearsemolloy9656 I preffer her as a bishop mainly cus It allows her to heal more hp, and that´s really the only role I need her for...
I have 3 Houses but haven't started yet because of a backlog of other games. I looked through some of the FED videos to get a baseline of what I should be expecting. It's my first Fire Emblem and really, Tactical RPG ever (besides Valkyria Chronicles but I didn't get very far). Should I worry about this right now as I'm a total min-maxer or just play?
Don't worry. Normal and hard difficulty are not really the big deal, extreme might be exactly that because FE games in general are also luck-based (bc of the growth rates) and some characters might turn out very bad. But usually if you use your lord, Byleth, Felix, Yuri, Balthus, Lysithea, at least one healer and Petra nothing can go wrong (more or less)
@@nick3805 Thanks for the reply, appreciate the input. Hopefully will get to 3 Houses after finishing FF7R unless I start another game beforehand.
@@soulonfirexx No problem! Have fun!
your first playthrough is going to be a complete mess lol. There are a ton of things to focus on and getting yourself oriented properly just takes time, so play on normal mode and just try some things out. Big takeaways, though, are that skill ranks unlock attack powers, abilities, and classes for your characters, so try to stay focused on a small number of skills for any individual character. It may not seem obvious but there are usually payoffs for leveling a skill to a higher level.
@@jefff6007 Awesome, thank you for the info! I was thinking of playing on Hard because I've heard Normal is very easy and playing with permadeath. I've watched play throughs of Radiant Dawn and kind of know what to expect, and I know there are a lot of quality of life improvements in 3H so I'm excited.
Not including recruiting, Who’s better: Ferdie or Seteth?
Ferdie. Dodge tank extraordinaire with swift strikes.
hard to choose, the memes are so good for both...
Ferdie has higher unkillable god energy, but Seteth can do more damage.
Of the swift strike guys, church dad tends to have the best looking stats when I do runs plus he works really well with Flayn.
Sylvain can dish out more damage when he's with the childhood friend trio.
And Ferdie is diet Dimitri, which is to say absurdly powerful.
Depending on the route, Ferdinand is around much longer and will have comparable if not better stats and weapon ranks, more supports, and *much* more class mastery skills by the time Seteth joins. Both are still very good, and Seteth is obviously better if you're playing with 0% growths or if you recruited Ferdinand late, but generally-speaking I'd say Ferdinand is better.
@@AlexKlindt Seteth's stats look better because since the beginning of the game, he is levelling up in wyvern rider, reaping the benefits of the good growths of that class all the way to the point to when he joins your team.
I'm so shocked Sylvain is so useful because him and Ingrid were darn near useless in my BL route. He just died every battle.
I'm also highly amused female Byleth makes him easier to recruit. What a skirt chaser lol.
In my BL run Sylvain was constantly getting crits, and stole my planned out finishing blows every time, especially if you get his lance of ruin early. His mv was super high bc I made him a Cavalier plus A+ Lance, by end game it was gross LMAO. Ingrid I never used though riip
Sylvain performs better out of house. Recruit him ASAP and he starts at level 3, which on maddening is insanely useful.
@@EvisceratingDoubts I think Sylvain and Ingrid (and Ashe), are 3 BL characters that either they curb stomp mobs all through the game or they get RNG screwed on bad level ups and are absolutely dreadful - I keep seeing both great and bad versions of this trio - although I will say Swift Strikes and Hunter pretty much make Sylvain and Ashe usable regardless - I think only Brigand's Death Blow and consummables can save an unlucky Ingrid.
Am I the only one who doesn't like recruiting? At least they make sense historywise like Constance with Black Eagles or Cyril with Golden Deer.
I think similarly but on maddening runs idc cuz I want to weaken the opposition as much as possible lol. Before maddening was release I definitely felt bad taking students from their teams felt like I was making an easy game even easier
I beat black eagles on hard and didn't see any of the dlc picks... also I found a girl Anna? Help
Where do you find recruitment weapon ranks?
I did Golden Deer first and it will always be special to me. I recruited and killed Leonie this morning in Blue Lions just to shut her up. Will continue to kill her from now on.
Dorothea's recruitment without support levels is quite bullshit... 25 charm and B in authority you will not be getting that by chapter 5 unless you use all your days off and farm byleth to like level 25 in that time. Her C+ support recruitment is do able though. Which should be possible before chapter 5.
I personally would switch Felix and Sylvain because I, as I said 100 times before, have very bad luck with him sadly and he is mediocre at best and absolutly unuseable at worst. My personal Highlight was in one of my extreme runs where he had as Lvl26 Paladin the following stats:
HP: 42 - STR: 21 - MAG: 7 - DEX: 14 - SPD: 13 - LCK: 12 - DEF: 14 - RES: 7 - CHM: 9.
That is a total might of under 100, 97 to be exact, charm which is supposed to be one of his best stats has a total increasement of 2 points, and for a lvl 26 character unargueably terrible stats in total.
Felix on the other hand is absolutly perfect at the two most important stats: The attack stat and even more importantly the speed stat. And just that makes him good already, as he also becomes a dodge tank.
I would also move constance up in the field to must have as she is one of the most versatile units in the whole game and she usually was the base of my tactics in my extreme runs (I cant even count how often she saved me). I would also move Ferdinand a whole lot more to ASAP as you will want him as dodge tank in the early game who can be fast enough as Bigand to not get doubled and avoid attacks very effectively. I would also move Marianne a bit up as she has 2 major Plus Points over Linhardt: She is better for combat due her better offensive spells and higher Magic and also can be made a flying mage which makes her more versatile than Linhardt who might also turn out to have an under average speed and gets doubled by everything (happened to me twice). For the same reasons I would also rank Mercedes higher than Linhardt as must have as shes better in everything then him besides Str, Lck and def and who cares for luck and the other two stats are either irrelevant or balanced out by her personal skill.
Linhardt having warp trumps stat weaknesses, it’s such a useful spell. Sylvain is trivial to recruit early if you plan for it with fbyleth, you literally get him for free and at worst he’s a meat shield until you get the lance of ruin. then he kills the death knight and you can either use him for guard adjutant or kill him if you don’t want his face crapping up your menus.
Especially in maddening, what matters in recruiting is what the unit brings to the table that is unique, and how easy it is to get them. Stats are definitely important, can’t win if you can’t kill anything, but aside from extreme cases they’re not as important as unique spells and combat arts. Ferdinand is such a pain to recruit most people don’t bother; you’ll get seteth absolutely free to replace his swift strikes at timeskip, and sylvain and Leonie can do the job of early cav/Paladin in their houses (although that sylvain stat spread is very unfortunate, haven’t seen strength that bad on him even when doing a meme magic build haha). After timeskip, Dimitri’s personal makes ferdinand completely obsolete as a lance-focused dodge tank, and his speed growth is just as good. Mercedes’ fortify is nice, but you don’t always need to heal more than 2 or 3 units; it’s just not as useful as warp.
It really depends on what you’re looking for in a recruit, but to succeed on maddening powerful tools like the second-earliest relic in the game and a warp staff are just incredibly valuable, especially if you don’t have to invest as many precious activity points into getting them.
@@brickwallace99 Well, it can't be that useful if I finished my two extreme runs without using it a single time and not even one dead unit, I even use the magic shield more often even if its just for leveling.
And as for Sylvain, I usually play with male Byleth and the lance doesnt make him good. What use is it if he cant get even close to the enemies because he dies before he can kill them or just can't hit them because of his low in the best case to barely existent hit in the worst case? When I met the death knight, he was on lvl15, you have seen his stats at lvl 26, do you really think he could have had even the slightest chance of killing him? I did that with Balthus and Ferdinand. And while I agree with you that these stats are extremly unfortunate, even the better ones prove to be, well, underwhelming. In my 1st run he was on lvl 40 at the mission where you get Areadbhar and just could not kill anything and not tank anything, totally useless in short. In my 2nd run he didnt come to much use as I failed to recruit him. In my 3rd run he was decent, in my 5th, 6th and 7th run his defense stats were non-existent, those were things like 9 defense and 3 res at Lvl 22. In my 8th run he was nothing special, but usuable and the 9th is the terrible, terrible Syvain in my original comment.
As for Ferdinand, he proved to be one of the most valueable units in my extreme runs. His speed growth is as high as Ashes or Hildas for example, if you choose the right classes he can become the most valueable dodge tank of your team. Ferdinand is one of the cases where the canon class isnt the best class, I would recommend Wyvern Rider>Brigand or Hero/Swordmaster>Thief. I can only repeat that that man certainly knows how to avoid getting hit, and that is extremly valueable in extreme where enemies usually two- or even onehit your units. Seteth doesnt have Ferdinands personal skill, so HE DOES NOT REPLACE HIM as valueable Dodge tank, also my Seteths are usually struggeling to not fall behind, he often only gets 3 points per level up, not enough to keep up with others, especially when one point usually goes to HP while he is too slow to avoid getting hit twice per round and usually loses 30-50 HP per attacking enemy (unlike Ferdie who doesnt get hit twice and tends to avoid getting hit). And as I dont even want Ferdinand as Lance-User I don't even have the Dimitri-Problem. Leonie is also not the rival of him due my class choice and as you know, My Sylvains are all inferior to Ferdinand by far.
And I am not talking about Fortify I am talking about her personal skill and better growth rates (not in total but better distributed for a mage or healer) and offensive spells.
And last but not least, I completly agree with your ending phrase. I am usually looking for fast units as I consider Speed the most important stat in general, especially in extreme since it can double up your own attacks while it aoids two attacks by the enemy what means 50% damage while raising the avoid chance of your unit what can mean if you have that little bit of luck -100% damage. It is of course nice if the units are also good at other things like Mercedes, Balthus, Dimitri, Felix, etc. but S P Double E D is my priority, and that has brought me though 7 Fates runs, 5 Awakening runs, 3 Echoes runs and 9 Three Houses runs without losing a single unit. I do not see the need to change my playstyle anytime soon. I have mine and you have yours and others have theirs, we can discuss units but one of the best things in 3 houses is that almost every unit is useable in some way, the only ones being not being Raphael, Gilbert and apparently my sylvains which appear to be a different unit than the Sylvains of others
N.I.C.K this tier list isn’t ranking which characters are good, it’s ranking which ones you want to prioritize recruiting. Most units will perform well with player investment and not-terrible RNG, so their unique attributes like spells, combat arts, personals/crests, and relics are what decide how much you want them. You don’t need warp to beat the game, I’ve done it without too, but it’s so useful and versatile that it’s worth recruiting someone to have it. Sylvain is so easy to get if you plan for it by playing female Byleth that you might as well take him at least to give the lance to someone else. Ferdinand is a pain to recruit due to his heavy armor requirement-he’s free on half the routes, but on the other half it takes so much investment to recruit him when on one you have Dimitri (who can do swords dodge tank better) and the other you can just,, not use a dodge tank. Mercedes’ personal is nice, but she’s a healer and very weak defensively, most people won’t put her in a position where she needs to be healing herself often. You’ll do just fine without her using Marianne and Linhardt in their routes, as they both have tools Mercedes doesn’t in exchange for not having fortify and her personal.
This Petra take is as cold as the arctic
Isn't this basically the exact same thing you did like almost a year prior? Is this simply an updated list or something?
He missed up like Petra is the only person that won’t get double and will double. And her strength stat is weak but everyone top tier player understands that Petra is endgame must have.
Her Strength is honestly fine. It’s about on par with Leonie and Ferdinand without factoring class growths, and recruiting her at Chapter 6 as a Thief nets her some great physical bases that will continue to outshine Ingrid in everywhere except for Resistance and maybe Defense. Plus Petra can immediately reclass to Brigand for a good 10% boost, not to mention Death Blow. People really overexaggerate Petra’s Strength issues, tbh.
Honestly. Petra is too low. There is no reason why people like yuri to be above when she does all he does but better.
In player phase, not only she have better base spd, but also gets darting blow. Yuri isnt really that fast when you realize he have 1 less base spd and only 5% moree growth ( only makes a difference in 40 levels. Which is unrealistic in a normal run ). Their str is the same, but petra gets bettwr weapons ranks for str classes like brigand and wyvern.
She also have a flying boon for early dodge tanking. Battalion wrath is the best EP damafe dealing tool in the game. And access to darting blow lets her double some of the fastest enemies around when needed.
Cannot believe that Mercedes, the best healer in the game and therefore one of the best units in the game, is below lindhardt and considers optional. Her personal ability means that she can independently sustain herself after any non/fatal attacks, on top of her insane healing ability with physic and fortify and eligibility as a gremory (extra mov ).
Lindhardt is a worse version of Mercedes’ with warp. As a male he’s locked to bishop and even has worse damage output. Just because he has warp doesn’t mean he’s a unique and must have unit above the best support unit in the game
I don't think best healer means one of the best units in the game. But I think you play differently than me, I didn't find myself desperate for heals.
Non fatal damage? She shouldn’t be getting hit. Also you are overrating healing.
Hapi es muy util?
nice list
I don't think you recruit leonie until chapter 9
"Whom should you recruit?"
If their name is not Ashe, then go ahead.
You forgot Dedue...
you can't recruit Dedue since he's Dimitri's retainer. Sad cuz he is best beefy boi.
Constance can be even better than lysithea, recruit her at chapter 3
Do you realise what you've done? You put all the WAIFUS in the MEH section!
I'd like Linhardt more if he'd get a sex change so he can actually use some decent end game classes. Bishop's 4 move hurts. I either give him the movement booster item, or make him the dancer.
Dang, not very many units worth recruiting in Maddening it seems
1). Nice pfp.
2). This video grossly underrates a ton of characters who perform just fine on Maddening and are absolutely worth recruiting. Annette and Ferdinand especially got done dirty.
@@cartooncritic7045 1) Likewise
2) Yeah, though tbf he did say Ferdinand was a fantastic unit, only putting him around the middle due to probably being the hardest unit to recruit
He did Ingrid dirty, she's easily one of the best characters in the game.
@@orangeman3505 Idk, I kind of agree with him. I feel like her and Petra are absolutely fantastic in Normal and Hard mode, but really struggle to do much on Maddening. Luin definitely helps though.
Oh, then I guess I've been really lucky with Ingrid on the 3 runs of Maddening I've made.
NOTHING could touch her and she hit like a fucking truck.
Petra idk I think she's good as an Assasin or wyvern lord because people can't shut up about that class.
Lyn fart is so high when others like Dorothea and Petra are low!
Why?? I’ve used all of the black eagles so many times. Petra is the Felix of black eagles!
Dorothea is the most underrated character in the game. She literally can one shot boss units with meteor.
And she is the best dancer. She starts out with decent speed too. And charm. She starts out with the same magic stat as Lysithea too.
Both Dorothea and Petra have lackluster attacking growths (40 mag/str respectively), which makes their damage output much less over time than units like felix and lysithea, who have very high offensive growths and both have crests to boost their damage. Linhardt’s magic kit having physic and especially warp is super helpful in higher difficulties as it gives you a ton of options for strategy (lys has warp too). meteor is less useful in maddening, as you’ll rarely one-shot anyone, period-it’s mostly good for link attack support across the field. Being a “good dancer” isn’t really a huge deal, as any student with decent magic and maybe physic will be a good dancer.
To the ladies’ credit, Petra’s speed growth is so high you might be able to get her to double enemies even in maddening. Then, all you have to worry about is patching her strength. Dorothea’s early 3 range and white magic avoid is really good, I did blue lions first and I didn’t realize I was missing out on 3 range magic until later playthroughs. Marianne has thoron too, though, so that’s not a niche doro can fill on golden deer.
they’re both good units, but there’s characters in other houses that do their jobs just as well, and they have less that sets them apart, so they’re not high priorities for recruitment strategy-wise. You don’t need another felix if you’ve already got one, but snatching linhardt’s warp or Dorothea’s thoron sounds good if you’re a blue lion. (Though again, you could just as well go for lysithea or Marianne for those two spells. it’s just a matter of whose kit you prefer and, for me, who I like to watch smiting monsters for 200+ damage haha)
@@brickwallace99
Just because Lysithea is op doesn’t mean all other attack mages lose their worth.
Hilda’s a amazing unit but Edelgard is godlike. That doesn’t make Hilda trash.
@@brickwallace99
And Dorothea is the BEST dancer. Not just a good one.
Marianne is also amazing. Don’t underestimate an amazing dancer.
My Petra is an axe unit. She doubles with great damage and dodges.
My team is always well thought out. Everyone has a role. Healer Dorothea is teamed up well with Edelgard or Sylvain or Ferdinand or Dimitri because of her natural ability giving more healing. And they all like to be at full health and take little damage. And she is the best nostferatu tanker because of her hidden talent. Don’t underestimate Dorothea. She can be anything and excel at it. Other than a physical attacker.
The only problem that i see that dorothea has is her growth rates, not to bad, no to good just normal.. She gets outplayed by Lysithea and Hubert in almost everything but she has excellent spell list and she is one of the best dancers in the game too :)
@@biandanxious3438 I never said lysithea is OP, and I never said Dorothea is useless. It's just a matter of who you're going out of your way to recruit, for whatever reason. If you start a golden deer playthrough, the game starts you with two excellent magic units. Their spells are good and diverse, so I see little reason to make recruiting dorothea a high priority unless I feel like using her. For blue lions on the other hand, annette and mercie don't get 3 range magic, so recruiting dorothea might be a good idea. I'd want a warper more, though, so I'd make getting linhardt or lysithea a higher priority. One thing dorothea has going for her that FED mentions is she's very easy for byleth to recruit. You'll be training authority on byleth anyway, and charm is one of byleth's best stats, so recruiting her is less investment than someone like linhardt, so it's easy to do both.
dorothea's passive healing from her personal is really great early game when resources are low, but once you get to midgame it's too small to be significant and you don't want her next to your physical frontliners because she's just going to draw aggro they're supposed to have. you're better off keeping her at a safe distance to use physic, thoron, and meteor, or dancing them ahead of her. all a dancer has to be able to do is dance--historically dancers very poor stats, but they can dance, so they're still good. Magic use and specifically physic is probably the only thing that makes a 3h dancer better, but it's not required, and again, *any* student can be a dancer. Plus, you don't need a dancer to clear maddening, even to do it easily. You can take the sword avoid for someone like dimitri or ferdinand and use stride, dance of the goddess, rescue, and again, warp, to fill the role of enhancing movement. Byleth is arguably a better nosferatu tank, they get the same avoid skill and have higher speed to help it, plus higher hp and defenses in case they do get hit.
It's not a question of are these units good. FED has already made a tier list for that. Pretty much anyone other than caspar and ashe is a very good unit, and even those two can be incredibly helpful if built right. This discussion is a matter of whether the role they fill and the tools they have are unique and good enough to want to spend time getting them on your team when they don't start in your house.
Flashback to when i used to say "Bernie bad unit"
My dude bernadetta is broken.
Mercedes is the best healer in the game!
Why is she so low! And Hilda plows through any enemy.
Lorenz is not better than Lysithea. There are so many problems with this tier list.
this list is about who to recruit which isn't necessarily synonymous with who is the best unit in the game. Lorenz you should always recruit because it gives access to his paralogue which gives the broken thyrsus staff.
@@paulschatz8399
Oh ok.
Mercedes is the ONLY healer that can't get Physic in time for Chapter 2, which on Maddening is the hardest map in the game.
@@IntrusiveThot420
Just because she doesn’t have physic for one map doesn’t mean she isn’t the best in the long run.
And if you have renown (which everyone has unless your new) that point is irrelevant.
She has physic and fortify and a crest that allows her to keep a use for healing once and a while.
That and her great magic growths make her the best healer.
@@IntrusiveThot420
And that map doesn’t need physic.
If you be careful with your healer you don’t need physic in that map.
Plus you only get 5.
ASHE IS GOD
Honestly ashe is the most useless student his combat arts are awful and his personal skill is very useless because lockpick is on assassin and trickster like man he is just bad bernadetta
Edit: also he LEAVE you in vw ss like what!!!!
He’s a bad unit, but there’s something to be said about the free Shoes of the Wind he nets you with his Paralogue, and on both Black Eagles routes recruiting him is the only way you can get that item.
It’s not worth using him for anything other than as a Stride not on that one map he’s force-deployed on, but it’s at least something he can contribute.
@@cartooncritic7045 good point but im only talking about the unit not the rewards tho
Dorothea is the best Dancer in the game because she's the only one with Physic and Meteor and she is good in Charm so she'll win it pretty easily. I think she should be ranked higher on both scales.
Dorothea is a good Dancer, but there are two things that make me say Marianne is better for the class: 1). Meteor's Link Bonus effects got nerfed in a patch so that only units with supports between them get the bonus, and while Dorothea has plenty of support partners, she doesn't have hardly any for the Alliance or Church characters, which severely hurts her performance as a Dancer if you use a lot of those characters; 2). Dorothea has a bane in Riding, which keeps her from learning Movement +1 in a timely fashion, whereas Marianne can potentially have it just after the timeskip if you trained her in the horse classes for a bit beforehand.
Besides, it's a bad idea to want your main healer to be your Dancer anyway since they'll want to be dancing more than healing. That's also a slight against Marianne, which is a big part of why Linhardt is a great unit to recruit for GD as well.
@@cartooncritic7045 I didn't know about the siege tome link nerf, that's lame :(. I agree linhardt is a better dancer recruit because you'll also get warp out of it. the charm requirement is so low it doesn't really matter, I literally did dedue dancer once and he was well over it even before the dance practice.
@@brickwallace99 I was implying that Linhardt should be recruited as a healer while Marianne became the Dancer instead. If you’re playing BE, go ahead and use Dorothea as your Dancer, but GD already has the best Dancer for free and Linhardt’s the best non-DLC support unit already, so IMO he’s absolutely worth the trouble.
@@cartooncritic7045 oh haha I missed that. Still agree 100%, you get one great dancer and one great healer from recruiting linhardt on golden deer.
Lorenz ia way too high in must have. He is not the most needed. There are lot more good unit to pick instead of him. Lysithea is way better than Lorenz to bdhin with
@@andreainter4988 it’s just for thyrsus
@JohnDevlin-q9w Yes of course I know that he has the right to think what he wants and to share his opinion. But I thought he was making a tier with objective statement also not just who he likes based on personal opinion alone
Why is Petra so low??
She is the fastest unit in the game!
She dodges everything and in axe classes she deals lots of damage because unlike other axe units she can double.
I feel like Petra is much more of a hard unit. On maddening strength becomes way more useful than speed. Like FED said her strength suffers if you don’t recruit her fast. She’s a great unit on black eagles routes but very hard to use outside of them. (Obviously just my opinion.)
@@justinevans3999
I’ve used her on every route.
She’s the black eagles Felix. But she dodges and he does more damage so it comes down to what your team needs.
y'all are going to flip, but I just decided to bench my Petra in favor of bringing in Lorenz in my current Maddening CF run
@@biandanxious3438 I do love Petra, her character is interesting and beautiful, and her stats seem like they should be really good, but she just isn't fast ENOUGH when I try to use her on Maddening. Byleth and Edelgard are both several points faster than Petra is, and Petra struggles to contribute anything more than chip damage without a lot of work and resources put into her.
Actually Yuri is the fastest character in the game. Based off of growths.
Dorothea > Constance
How? Is it just because she has phyic?
@@selfsustainedautocannibalVampi physic and thoron > Rescue and Personal skill which doesn’t help in enough chapters. A lot of very important chapters Constance doesn’t get mer mag buff in and her def buff is kinda pointless
Therefore they both offer semi equal Offense but Dorothea has 3 range with Thoron making her safer and then with physic she offers more utility.
Also Constance having high mag is kinda eh because dark magic is WAY better for high mag. Reason Is more just poke / chip with thoron and semi faster spells. So she’s overshadowed by Hubert/ Lysithea as a mage killer. Even hanneman is as good if not better at that then her cuz he has the same nigh magic and thoron. Though lacks valk/ dark flier
Well all i gotta say is that you are pretty low on given opinions on People's favorite characters, and I don't appropriate you telling people what to think of the characters either