Thank you for covering my favorite girl! Little correction here but she starts with Lance Prowess 2 thanks to her base D+ rank. Personally I like Soldier at lv 5, she can make great use of Defense +2 and Reposition is just so nice. In a more casual playthrough you can really throw Leonie into anything and she'll make it work. Even as a mage if you know a thing or two about class bases. The lack of bane combined with great bases makes her very versatile. I said it in the last video but Leonie being such a solid unit in Golden Deer that's always there when you need her makes her amazing, anyone that benches her is doing themselves a major disservice. Great video! I loved it!
It should be noted that Leonie’s B support isn’t accessible until chapter 10, making the other recruitment criteria the only way to recruit her if you want her in the early game in non-Golden Deer routes
Leonie's one of those units that I use on almost every run cause of how consistent she is. Even when I did my 'every character as their worst class option' run, as a mage her high speed and decent bulk still made her useful even though her magic never got that high, not to mention the fact she learns Physic.
@@JonoabboFE Interestingly enough I feel that my best mages have been fast physical units in meme runs. The class bases give them a lot of magic and then black tomefaire gives them even more. Literally the only good Ashe I’ve ever had was a mage since he got speed blessed and could double and kill basically any enemy that wasn’t an assassin or sword master or grappler
@@Boarbatrice Darting blow Mages are also quite good as well since a low enemy res is calculated twice there. This is why mage Ingrid gets so much fanfare.
One advantage of Bow Knight is access to Edmond Troops for +40% hit. She can pretty easily stack 195-200 hit with this and is a menace from far away. Even on Verdant Wind final map she can dismount for 6 mv and still cover 10 tiles. Also Defiant Speed is a consideration here because it's +14 AS with Darting Blow so she can turn completely busted.
Like you said Wyvern into Bow Knight is a good route and it's not even that hard considering she will only have to raise her riding to C+ or C(19 luck) to gamble.
I actually use Leonie for her Lances on Golden Deer, as they really have a hard time finding a natural good lance unit in the route. Using her natural Speed with Darting Blow and Falcon Knight allows her to make use of her natural Battalion Desperation and gives us someone who can dodge tank on Enemy Phase if needed while also having a strong Player Phase. It may not be super flashy, like her Point-Blank Volley, but it is something that doesn't require a massive amount of investment as you only need like D+ Sword, A+ Lance, B Flying, and C Axes along with at least C Authority, which can allow her to use Claude's Battalion if you are giving him something like Cichol later on.
Gotta say glad I found you I had the random urge to get back into fire emblem and play through on maddening and it’s been rough to say the least I’m not the best at fire emblem because I just don’t have game knowledge so these videos are nice
I'm surprised you didn't mention her enemy phase potential Her speed(second or third highest in the game, depending on whether you include the DLC or not) makes her a fantastic dodge tank, especially since she also has the bulk to take the occasional hit. If you want to invest in her, it also means that she's one of the best recipients of strength boosters, since she's one of the few units that can get to the point where she consistently doubles most enemies, even on maddening.
Cool video. I like that you broke down which of her many viable class options work best given the route you take. Good insight I will definitely be taking into account. Bow knight Leonie is my go to but maybe it is time to put her in those flying classes
I highly agree that bow knight is the way to go if you're looking for an extremely strong one rounding unit. Even aside from point blank Leonie makes even better use of the inexhaustible than Bernetta can since it won't potentially remove her extra damage, allows a brave weapon that's easy to repair (I end the game with 30-40 mythril typically, and only find Gravidus to be worth forging) and when needed the damage can easily be healed. Investing into heavy armor also gives weight -3 which is great for monster maps since it can allow Leonie to equip Seiros sheild without getting doubled which makes her a very safe choice for gambit baiting a monster and essentially removing it as a threat for one turn, or can be used on some maps to equip a hexlock and not get one rounded by mages. The biggest downside of being a flier is competing for battalions. Assuming NG play though the only decent flying battlion you get is unique and being mounted allows the use of some excellent battalions like the chamberlain maids at a whopping +8 mt and +10 hit/crit, which she benefits very well from due to her brave combat art. Keeping her out of a flying class also allows a very good user of stride early game since she will love to go into cavalier and stride+Canto is a great combo. She doesn't suffer much opportunity cost for this as she won't be consistently one rounding enemies until later in the game and makes a very good use of kingdom calvary on BL or Gautier Knights in the Midgame. This can allow her to support the movement of other units that can one round enemies early on while also providing a really nice front line unit. The good flying battalions can also be used by classes that actually become their best as a flying unit, such as Cyril, Sylvain, Claude, Ingrid, Petra, and several others. The only (melee) flying unit I used in GD was Claude and I had no issues with mobility due to Dark Flier + Rescue constance and warp on Lysithea with an occupational stride. Constance I obviously made a dark flier, and I kept Hilda a flier just to be Claudes adjunct.
Love the vids, I think Leonie is another unit that gets an advantage from not having a crest. she can chip herself down more easily for defiant crit, Defiant avoid or defiant speed (defiant avoid isn't that great for her but Falco is the worst of these classes anyway.) depending on what class rout you take her on. I guess you can also use wrath vantage on her but that kinda takes away from leonies skill set because it takes 2 skill slots that could be used for PBV enhancers. I know you always say that these breaking downs don't count for grinding but I think being able to do the chapter 2 forced aux battle grind does make a unit better. To do this you need to have a unit with 7 or more defense, place them down in the thinket with a iron shield and the +3 defense battalion and a broken or almost broken weapon. This means Leonie, ooh Sylvain, Dedue, Dimitri and more can get to high ranks to get valuable tools like Vengeance, brave arts, Windsweep and Battalion wrath vantage can be unlocked earlier. Leonie is the best VW unit IMO, I love using her. Great video BTW
Are we getting anymore of these? Love the series. It’s helping me pick my roster for my NG maddening run. Side note which is the easiest and hardest NG maddening run in your opinion? I know you really like CF so I’m likely going to finish my NG+ SS maddening run than do a NG maddening AS and CW
I like to give her speed+2, def+2, prot battalion and cheese for Rivalry with Sylvain's equal inverse personal skill, Philanderer. They combo together as a pair of canto dual-phase horseback units with prot/hp/speed(decent against mages compared to most prot types) and brave innate combat arts to chew up map portions very securely. They can perform utility actions for each other, or other units, and still provide each other the stat-boosts due to their high move canto from early on. It also gives them both all of Reposition, Swap, Tempest Lance and Curved shot available, alongside 7-move canto at level 10. Their decent charm stats also helps them cheesily bypass gambits here and then, furthering their strategic versatility a bit. The beginner skill profile is really easy to access and they won't often change the number of hits-to-kill with a potential deathblow before they have their brave arts anyways (personals and combat arts power high). So, the investments to beginner classes is not painfully lossy, imo.
I find Falcoknight to essentially just be a worse version of Wyvern Lord the majority of the time personally. The additional Strength from Wyvern Lord is really beneficial for Point Blank Volley, and whilst Leonie can make use of the extra speed from Falcoknight, I find opportunities for this are few and far between. It definitely isn't bad though by any means, and will still give you an extremely good unit.
Leonie is best girl and best unit in verdant wind Great damage, really fast, and good bulk. She has no weaknesses and also no crest for those low hp builds meaning she can do just about anything physical. Point blank volley is great for player phase, she can easily get into flying classes to get into Falcon Knight or Wyvern lord. Wyvern is better for the higher strength, HP, and defense but Falcon knight can patch up her awful res which is her only bad stat Like Claude is nice but Leonie is a one woman army. Give her a hand axe or a javalin and watch the enemies game end themselves and use PBV for those easy kills. Best unit, best girl. No cap
For planned-to-be-fliers, isn’t soldier better than fighter? Strength +2 is better than def +2, sure. But it’s reposition vs shove also. Where reposition is hands down better. Both Str+2 and Def+2 quickly get dropped for much better abilities too, whereas reposition is far more versatile opening up strategies map to map. Especially on fliers with canto
I disagree that Strength+2 gets quickly dropped - on a PP unit you could realistically keep it until the lategame. Prowess/DeathBlow/DartingBlow/H20 still leaves a slot open, and 2 extra damage per hit is nice. Also, whilst in the class, Fighter is better for it's one additional strength. Repo is nice for sure - and potentially worth picking up too.
@@JonoabboFEah see I wasn’t thinking of restricting her to just one weapon. I’d rather another prowess and run more than one weapon to up her variety. I’d still say defence + repo > str + shove on her, but I don’t think either is really a mistake. Cheers for the reply!
Every time I tried using Leoni she ended up having str on par with Lysithea or I turned her into a sniper for the entire game and she was fine. The best use I've gotten out of her was in my playthoughs where I use her as a guard adjutant for Alois. +3 damage on One Two Punch is an underrated strategy. I've only tried Bow Knight Leoni so maybe that"s what I was doing wrong or I sucked at the game 1½-2ish years ago. Sorry if you threw up blood at any point reading my cursed comment.
I wonder, is Darting Blow actually good in this game? At least for other than sword or gauntlet units. I mean, the enemies are so fast in maddening, even with the +6 speed, she will still get burdened by the weight of the weapon and on player phase, it´s preferable to just use a combat art, a brave one specially. Swords get the Thunderbrand which is very light and gauntlets are all light. Back on my first run, I gave Darting Blow to all the girls in my army and the only one to ever use it was assasin Byleth.
Imo the notion that speed is useless on Maddening is a myth. You won't double swordmasters because of Quick Riposte but I've managed to double some assassins before albeit with some setup. You can work without good speed of course but it's not a bad thing to have it opens more options. In the case of PBV, since it's a 1 range art, there's also inherent value from doubling from a distance. Helps your positioning and all.
@@g.n.s.153 I´d say investing in speed is good, for one unit. Whoever that will get the Thunderbrand should get all the boosters and rallies. Now, doubling with bows... Sounds absurd to me, is just too much weight. Maybe with Def. Speed, but just enjoy the next one and a half chapters... If positioning and doubling is something I really need, I would just go brave bow and call it a day.
@@marcoasturias8520 But bows aren't that heavy? Mini Bow is 3 weight, Iron is 5. I use brave weapons on my fast units too since sometimes I need to quad to take someone down. Personally I like keeping Darting Blow on Leonie until she gets Bowfaire.
@@JonoabboFE hey not a problem and awesome to hear. Lysithea was first unit I recruited and married and so I love any videoed involving her. Looking forward to more videos!
Thank you for covering my favorite girl!
Little correction here but she starts with Lance Prowess 2 thanks to her base D+ rank. Personally I like Soldier at lv 5, she can make great use of Defense +2 and Reposition is just so nice.
In a more casual playthrough you can really throw Leonie into anything and she'll make it work. Even as a mage if you know a thing or two about class bases. The lack of bane combined with great bases makes her very versatile.
I said it in the last video but Leonie being such a solid unit in Golden Deer that's always there when you need her makes her amazing, anyone that benches her is doing themselves a major disservice.
Great video! I loved it!
Thanks for the correction, and I;m really glad you enjoyed the video! I know Leonie is your girl so I hope I did her justice for you!
Gotta keep the tradition of someone hating on Leonie in any video about her I guess.
Leonie is the most consistent unit thought the all of madding.
She is certainly up there for sure!
It should be noted that Leonie’s B support isn’t accessible until chapter 10, making the other recruitment criteria the only way to recruit her if you want her in the early game in non-Golden Deer routes
Definitely something I should have mentioned, you are absolutely right!
Leonie's one of those units that I use on almost every run cause of how consistent she is.
Even when I did my 'every character as their worst class option' run, as a mage her high speed and decent bulk still made her useful even though her magic never got that high, not to mention the fact she learns Physic.
Agreed, she is incredibly consistent, and the fact you got her to work as a mage is incredible lol
@@JonoabboFE Interestingly enough I feel that my best mages have been fast physical units in meme runs. The class bases give them a lot of magic and then black tomefaire gives them even more. Literally the only good Ashe I’ve ever had was a mage since he got speed blessed and could double and kill basically any enemy that wasn’t an assassin or sword master or grappler
@@Boarbatrice Darting blow Mages are also quite good as well since a low enemy res is calculated twice there. This is why mage Ingrid gets so much fanfare.
One advantage of Bow Knight is access to Edmond Troops for +40% hit. She can pretty easily stack 195-200 hit with this and is a menace from far away. Even on Verdant Wind final map she can dismount for 6 mv and still cover 10 tiles. Also Defiant Speed is a consideration here because it's +14 AS with Darting Blow so she can turn completely busted.
Like you said Wyvern into Bow Knight is a good route and it's not even that hard considering she will only have to raise her riding to C+ or C(19 luck) to gamble.
Some very good points! Thank you for the input!
I call the bow on a Wyvern build "We Have Claude at Home", but I definitely feel validated in my choices to take Leonie down that path!
I actually use Leonie for her Lances on Golden Deer, as they really have a hard time finding a natural good lance unit in the route. Using her natural Speed with Darting Blow and Falcon Knight allows her to make use of her natural Battalion Desperation and gives us someone who can dodge tank on Enemy Phase if needed while also having a strong Player Phase. It may not be super flashy, like her Point-Blank Volley, but it is something that doesn't require a massive amount of investment as you only need like D+ Sword, A+ Lance, B Flying, and C Axes along with at least C Authority, which can allow her to use Claude's Battalion if you are giving him something like Cichol later on.
Battalion Desperation is definitely a very strong tool to make use of, I agree! The weapon flexibility is extremely beneficial.
Gotta say glad I found you I had the random urge to get back into fire emblem and play through on maddening and it’s been rough to say the least I’m not the best at fire emblem because I just don’t have game knowledge so these videos are nice
Really glad they are helpful for you!
I'm surprised you didn't mention her enemy phase potential
Her speed(second or third highest in the game, depending on whether you include the DLC or not) makes her a fantastic dodge tank, especially since she also has the bulk to take the occasional hit.
If you want to invest in her, it also means that she's one of the best recipients of strength boosters, since she's one of the few units that can get to the point where she consistently doubles most enemies, even on maddening.
If I could maybe possibly idk make a request... Hilda! Hilda! Hilda! She works well when you make her work.
Hilda is great! Looking forward to doing her when I get around to her!
Cool video. I like that you broke down which of her many viable class options work best given the route you take. Good insight I will definitely be taking into account. Bow knight Leonie is my go to but maybe it is time to put her in those flying classes
I'm glad you liked it and I hope it can be of help to you!
I highly agree that bow knight is the way to go if you're looking for an extremely strong one rounding unit. Even aside from point blank Leonie makes even better use of the inexhaustible than Bernetta can since it won't potentially remove her extra damage, allows a brave weapon that's easy to repair (I end the game with 30-40 mythril typically, and only find Gravidus to be worth forging) and when needed the damage can easily be healed.
Investing into heavy armor also gives weight -3 which is great for monster maps since it can allow Leonie to equip Seiros sheild without getting doubled which makes her a very safe choice for gambit baiting a monster and essentially removing it as a threat for one turn, or can be used on some maps to equip a hexlock and not get one rounded by mages.
The biggest downside of being a flier is competing for battalions. Assuming NG play though the only decent flying battlion you get is unique and being mounted allows the use of some excellent battalions like the chamberlain maids at a whopping +8 mt and +10 hit/crit, which she benefits very well from due to her brave combat art. Keeping her out of a flying class also allows a very good user of stride early game since she will love to go into cavalier and stride+Canto is a great combo. She doesn't suffer much opportunity cost for this as she won't be consistently one rounding enemies until later in the game and makes a very good use of kingdom calvary on BL or Gautier Knights in the Midgame. This can allow her to support the movement of other units that can one round enemies early on while also providing a really nice front line unit.
The good flying battalions can also be used by classes that actually become their best as a flying unit, such as Cyril, Sylvain, Claude, Ingrid, Petra, and several others.
The only (melee) flying unit I used in GD was Claude and I had no issues with mobility due to Dark Flier + Rescue constance and warp on Lysithea with an occupational stride.
Constance I obviously made a dark flier, and I kept Hilda a flier just to be Claudes adjunct.
Really appreciate you still doing these. Liked and subscribed. Can’t wait for the next! Well done
Thank you so much!
Love the vids, I think Leonie is another unit that gets an advantage from not having a crest. she can chip herself down more easily for defiant crit, Defiant avoid or defiant speed (defiant avoid isn't that great for her but Falco is the worst of these classes anyway.) depending on what class rout you take her on. I guess you can also use wrath vantage on her but that kinda takes away from leonies skill set because it takes 2 skill slots that could be used for PBV enhancers.
I know you always say that these breaking downs don't count for grinding but I think being able to do the chapter 2 forced aux battle grind does make a unit better. To do this you need to have a unit with 7 or more defense, place them down in the thinket with a iron shield and the +3 defense battalion and a broken or almost broken weapon. This means Leonie, ooh Sylvain, Dedue, Dimitri and more can get to high ranks to get valuable tools like Vengeance, brave arts, Windsweep and Battalion wrath vantage can be unlocked earlier.
Leonie is the best VW unit IMO, I love using her. Great video BTW
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
Overall a very solid unit. Thanks for the fun video!
Are we getting anymore of these? Love the series. It’s helping me pick my roster for my NG maddening run.
Side note which is the easiest and hardest NG maddening run in your opinion? I know you really like CF so I’m likely going to finish my NG+ SS maddening run than do a NG maddening AS and CW
You are doing great work man
Thank you so much!
I like to give her speed+2, def+2, prot battalion and cheese for Rivalry with Sylvain's equal inverse personal skill, Philanderer. They combo together as a pair of canto dual-phase horseback units with prot/hp/speed(decent against mages compared to most prot types) and brave innate combat arts to chew up map portions very securely. They can perform utility actions for each other, or other units, and still provide each other the stat-boosts due to their high move canto from early on. It also gives them both all of Reposition, Swap, Tempest Lance and Curved shot available, alongside 7-move canto at level 10. Their decent charm stats also helps them cheesily bypass gambits here and then, furthering their strategic versatility a bit. The beginner skill profile is really easy to access and they won't often change the number of hits-to-kill with a potential deathblow before they have their brave arts anyways (personals and combat arts power high). So, the investments to beginner classes is not painfully lossy, imo.
Great video! Leonie made a beastly bow knight for me.
Thank you! Glad to hear it!!
1:48
It also helps if you have female Byleth and have the super easy Sylvain recruit. I often do like to pair them up as my cavalry.
Dark flier is undoubtably her best class
Absolutely love Leonie as a character and unit, outperforming many with or without crests....next run I'm planning to make her war master 👊
Im suprised he didnt talk about her magic at all she has a decent healer lineup for white magic.
I've said it in my comment but she's really a unit that takes full advantage of a lack of banes.
"I'm top tier"
Leonie Pinelli
A good self assessment!
LEONIE IS MY GF
Glad you like her so much!
Relatable honestly, definitely my fav in the game
What about Falcon Knight? I almost alywas made her a FK, espacially in CF.
I find Falcoknight to essentially just be a worse version of Wyvern Lord the majority of the time personally. The additional Strength from Wyvern Lord is really beneficial for Point Blank Volley, and whilst Leonie can make use of the extra speed from Falcoknight, I find opportunities for this are few and far between.
It definitely isn't bad though by any means, and will still give you an extremely good unit.
Leonie is best girl and best unit in verdant wind
Great damage, really fast, and good bulk. She has no weaknesses and also no crest for those low hp builds meaning she can do just about anything physical. Point blank volley is great for player phase, she can easily get into flying classes to get into Falcon Knight or Wyvern lord. Wyvern is better for the higher strength, HP, and defense but Falcon knight can patch up her awful res which is her only bad stat
Like Claude is nice but Leonie is a one woman army. Give her a hand axe or a javalin and watch the enemies game end themselves and use PBV for those easy kills.
Best unit, best girl. No cap
For planned-to-be-fliers, isn’t soldier better than fighter?
Strength +2 is better than def +2, sure. But it’s reposition vs shove also. Where reposition is hands down better.
Both Str+2 and Def+2 quickly get dropped for much better abilities too, whereas reposition is far more versatile opening up strategies map to map. Especially on fliers with canto
I disagree that Strength+2 gets quickly dropped - on a PP unit you could realistically keep it until the lategame. Prowess/DeathBlow/DartingBlow/H20 still leaves a slot open, and 2 extra damage per hit is nice.
Also, whilst in the class, Fighter is better for it's one additional strength.
Repo is nice for sure - and potentially worth picking up too.
@@JonoabboFEah see I wasn’t thinking of restricting her to just one weapon. I’d rather another prowess and run more than one weapon to up her variety. I’d still say defence + repo > str + shove on her, but I don’t think either is really a mistake. Cheers for the reply!
Every time I tried using Leoni she ended up having str on par with Lysithea or I turned her into a sniper for the entire game and she was fine.
The best use I've gotten out of her was in my playthoughs where I use her as a guard adjutant for Alois. +3 damage on One Two Punch is an underrated strategy.
I've only tried Bow Knight Leoni so maybe that"s what I was doing wrong or I sucked at the game 1½-2ish years ago.
Sorry if you threw up blood at any point reading my cursed comment.
Hey, sometimes you just get super unlucky! It can happen! I would definitely suggest giving her another shot, though!
My opinion on Leonie has always been that she's underrated as a possible bow knight, but there are better options
I think she is usually rated fairly highly these days, although everyone has their own opinion so it can be hard to judge
I wonder, is Darting Blow actually good in this game? At least for other than sword or gauntlet units. I mean, the enemies are so fast in maddening, even with the +6 speed, she will still get burdened by the weight of the weapon and on player phase, it´s preferable to just use a combat art, a brave one specially. Swords get the Thunderbrand which is very light and gauntlets are all light. Back on my first run, I gave Darting Blow to all the girls in my army and the only one to ever use it was assasin Byleth.
Imo the notion that speed is useless on Maddening is a myth. You won't double swordmasters because of Quick Riposte but I've managed to double some assassins before albeit with some setup. You can work without good speed of course but it's not a bad thing to have it opens more options.
In the case of PBV, since it's a 1 range art, there's also inherent value from doubling from a distance. Helps your positioning and all.
@@g.n.s.153 I´d say investing in speed is good, for one unit. Whoever that will get the Thunderbrand should get all the boosters and rallies. Now, doubling with bows... Sounds absurd to me, is just too much weight. Maybe with Def. Speed, but just enjoy the next one and a half chapters... If positioning and doubling is something I really need, I would just go brave bow and call it a day.
@@marcoasturias8520 But bows aren't that heavy? Mini Bow is 3 weight, Iron is 5. I use brave weapons on my fast units too since sometimes I need to quad to take someone down. Personally I like keeping Darting Blow on Leonie until she gets Bowfaire.
@@g.n.s.153 Heavy enough, Leonie reaches 25 str around lvl 40, that´s just to not be burdened by an iron bow +
You probably get asked this a lot. But gotta ask. Lysithea when?
Please and thank you.
Hopefully in the near future! I have a rough idea of the order I want to go in but it's not set in stone!
@@JonoabboFE hey not a problem and awesome to hear. Lysithea was first unit I recruited and married and so I love any videoed involving her. Looking forward to more videos!
@@smithie486 Thank you so much!
The game is more enjoyable if you only master 1 class per class tier. It makes each character unique/special and requires more strategy.
20% mag growth. actually unusable 0/10
Smh, Not Lysithea/10
I despise Leonie
I have nothing else to say, good day to you all ❤️
Her personality makes her F tier 😉
I actually really like her personality lmao
No shot. Leonie was right to call out Byleth, and whenever she does say something about Jeralt, it’s not a big deal.
@@mihaimercenarul7467 don’t care. Leonie did nothing wrong