wissenschaft

@jonnymac110 I would just add that Lorenz was one of the MVPs for my GD maddening run. You need him to learn Fiendish blow and C+ Lances which takes awhile so hes just tanky chip damage in the early game. But once he has his frozen lance build up and running he will carry you all the way to the late game. With JUST his average growths, its very easy to get him to one hit KO enemies even in hard maps like Hunting by Daybreak. The ability to use Frozen Lance to one shot sword units in a forest with really high accurate is just amazing. Frozen Lance is just nuts. Its so strong I'd consider making Hubert into a Frozen Lance spam bot and even Marrianne. Its shocking how many times I see people claim Lorenz is just a unit to bench or just replace him with Sylvain. Lorenz is the one of if not the most consistent GD student given his frozen lance build will reliably one shot enemies almost regardless of his growths in magic. I find Hilda worked great for me, of course I made her a wyvern Lord, but her main weapon was actually a mini bow+. She was fantastic as a hit and run unit and latter on she can use axes and Freikugel to secure tough kills. She absolutely wants +20 hit to make up for the accuracy issues of axes. Bows are so strong, I ended up giving most of my team a Minibow+. Even units with a bane in bows end up being instructed in bow just enough to gain access to Curved Shot and minibow+.

Shez > Byleth in every way. I hope the devs see just how much people are going to love Shez and write MC with personality because that makes for a far more interesting story than a blnak bland protagonist.

Agree. Its one of the great and pleasant surprises in 3 hopes.

Hard disagree. I think the writing is fantastic. Not only is the game's dialogue and plot living up to 3 houses' standard, but its actually filling in holes that game's story had. How the world is set up to start has far more nuance this time. Also, Claude feels more relevant as well, which is amazing. As for how Shez join, it feels about the same as how Byleth joined. At least this time, Shez joins as a student and not the ridiculousness of a stranger suddenly becoming a teacher. Also:

I can't expressed how HYPED I AM FOR THIS GAME. I got the demo downloading right now, I'll be able to play latter tonight when I get off of work.

That just the last 2 to 3 chapters. Lysethia has trouble OHKO on those maps so basically EVERYONE DOES. It takes crit fishing to secure kills on those last maps. Do not judge characters based on the last 2 to 3 maps, those maps feature extreme HP bloat. For the rest of the game Lorenz is a OHKO champ whos one of the most RNG proof characters in the game. And yes, its a good plan to switch Lorenz into Dark Knight for the last few maps so he can better deal chip damage and recover his access to healing magic.

Crimson Flower: Edelgard. As you can guess, my favorite. Her white hair, violet eyes are just stunning. I like her personally quite a lot as well. (Her obvious crush on Byleth helps too) Azure Moon: Dorothea (because the AM girls are all boring) Shes a good dancer pick for AM and doesn't get overshadowed by best girl over here. Very flirty and cute personality. At first you might think she was a gold digger but shes not. Shes a real sweetheart at her core. I love her English VA, she did a great job. Verdant Wind: Shamir. She is our resident stoic goth hottie. Fantastic design (bonus points for the choker) #1 Runner up: Hilda. Shes my favorite Golden Deer girl and I'd be strongly tempted to pick her except that her ending with Claude is too perfect. And yes, her noble lady look for 3 hopes is fantastic.

Nothing will beat frozen lance spamming Lorenz. Its trivial to get him into OHKO benchmarks for frozen lance. Maddening melts to Frozen lance once Lorenz learns Fiendish blow. Levin Sword+ for Marianne and Lysithea have utility. Though more often I'll have a steel sword+ for Lysithea when soul blade can secure a kill without using up limited magic spells like dark spikes. Very situational but fun to use, not like theres really anything else to learn once she gets A in both magic skills.

Death Knight? Who that?: Assault at the Rite of Rebirth (BL Ch 4) - Commoner/Noble Only Maddening - YouTube Theres more than one guy whos cleared maddening with just the base classes but this guy shows some of the strategy to do it. Basically his strat involves grinding weapon ranks and he LTC several maps.

I try to get armor knight cert. for every unit without a bane in Axe/heavy armor just because the increase in defense is really nice in the early/mid game. Its helps that I get D+ axes anyway for almost all physical units just for deathblow so D armor is a pretty easy additional goal to reach. For example, its great when your going into GD Maddening ch 7 and Claude, Hilda, Leonie, Sylvain, Raphael, and Ignatz all have def 12. It helps your team survivability quite a bit, often its equivalent to giving a free silver shield to each unit. I ignore giving armor knight cert to my squishy mages, they will still get ORKO post time skip and before then Its not that hard to ensure they never get attacked. The delay in spell progression is not worth 12 def on a unit I never wanted attack. Though you can do amusing stuff like Lysithea Nosferatu tanking with 12 def + vantage + 20 hit (people have made some weird and funky builds and still beat maddening). The other great benefit to armor knight cert, is that it unlocks using Guard Adjutants which are a fantastic survival tool on maddening. My Ignatz ends up using a Steel Axe+ (you get one early game from a tournament) as his preferred weapon just because of its high might (he can accurately use it with his personal + linked attacks). Add Rapheal as an adjutant and Ignatz becomes decently tanky (he'll have 12 def as well from armor knight cert.) When I don't need Ignatz's speed rally, I can just switch this around and have Rapheal use Ignatz as a Guard Adjutant. This pair gives +3 MT to each other so its works great.

To be fair, this game is LOADED with mechanics that are easy to misunderstand or forget about.

Oh typo, I meant people dismissing Vantage/wraith builds as if they are too much trouble to set up. Though my point is still the same. Dodge tanks nor Vantage/wrath are necessary. But its not that hard to set up either. There are some maps vantage builds will be weak on but many others where you'll just wipe the map clear with them. They are not THAT hard to set up either. Any more than setting up Vengeance to one shot a boss.

I don't get why dodge tanking is being dismissed. Its not hard at all to make a dodge tank. Its also not necessary to use a dodge tank. Maddening is very flexible in what you can do. The more I play it the more open ended it feels. If you don't like the idea of using a dodge tank you don't have to use it. On the other hand its not hard to set up and you'll easily have AS+ in time to trivialize hunting by daybreak. But thats just one way to clear that map.

Its still a good idea to let Byleth pull out a Silver Shield to give to Seteth. Additional tankyness will help him survive.

AM Ch 13 is by far the hardest because you don't get either Felix or Slyvain on the left side to help out Byleth and Dimitri. For AM, your best bet really is a dodge F!Byleth with Alert Stance+. GD is by FAR the easiest version of the map. Claude starting as a flyer with a large AoE gambit trivializes the first group of enemies. Byleth doesn't matter as much on this route. He can be a ground based Grappler and used Blaze to help out. This map really wants you to use AoE Gambits. Hilda and Leonie coming in at the bottom left gives you two of your power houses. You'll want to make sure someone has impenetrable fortress gambit to making pulling groups of enemies easier. Frozen lance Lorenz can easily one shot a lot of those thiefs even with average growths in magic (Frozen lance is a pretty nuts combat art). Ignatz provides utility just by being another option for accurate Blaze use. Basically, with GD is very easy to set up several gambit nukes for quickly wiping out groups of enemies in a turn or two. And because of the gambits lock enemy movement, it feels pretty safe as well. You don't have to worry about pass when the thieves are rattled.