DaveCozy

Any fast physical unit works well. Standouts include Griffin Knights who can run a Brave Sword and a Levin Sword (for e.g.), or Cupido Fogado can run both the Radiant Bow and the Brave Bow well. Alternatively a Martial Master is a good suggestion too, as Arts have their own damage formula that uses both magic and strength but will activate Lunar Brace since they hit physical defense. Halberdier is a good class too, no magic, but with Pincer Attack set-up you can double (or quad with Brave Lance) any enemy in the game and reap the benefits of Lunar Brace and Gentility. You can let 2 crystals get destroyed and you'll still get the max rewards... which are a Talisman and an Elixir 🙃

^ The tier list referred to is in this thread:

You can actually just skip past Hortensia in ch10 by Micaiah rewarping a group of units past the door, you can use Dragon!Alear with Micaiah which helps for the extra range. I have 3 turned that map before, and I'm sure there's faster strats by now specially with DLC. Still that chapter is very much so an "all hands on deck" because even the units that aren't re-warping past the door have stuff to do; like picking up the Draco Shield from the chest and the Energy Drop Goldmary has (not sure how much they matter in DLC LTCs but I found the energy drop at least to be pretty helpful in just an efficiency run). I can see a Wyvern Lapis helping in that context too.

Mario & Luigi yeah? Fantastic game. I started playing it on NSO with my oldest kid spectating. He's loving it. Prayers with you.

It's only 4 level ups to get Pincer Attack. Inheriting Mentorship from Byleth can help with that too.

You can reclass him to Great Knight and he'll keep up okay in the midgame, will still have one of the best HP stats along with being able to use Silver Greataxes; which actually makes him a solid Ike user and Great Aether bait. This isn't necessary though as there are better units who can do that by then (Pannette), and enemy phasing is also more limited in LTCs. But he's better than you'd think in an efficiency context.

Speedtaker is not necessary on a Halberdier. That class is already capable of doubling with their class ability (Pincer Attack) on player phase, regardless of their speed stat. You can set up the requirement to have an ally on the other side of the target using Canter on other units after they perform their action. And it sounds like you do have other units with Canter too. Eirika or Roy are good emblems for Halberdiers. I would personally recommend going for skills that boost her damage output, like Lance Power or Gentility (for Bravery) if you aren't syncing her with Eirika. Brionac (S rank lance) and Brave Lance highly encouraged to maximize damage.

Smash weapons are worth investing on for a few reasons: Engage attacks. Most notably, Lodestar Rush with a Steel Blade ~Roy engraving early game can OHKO any boss before ch10. In the midgame, a Great Aether coming from Silver Greataxe ~Ike engraving can damage a large amount of enemies, certainly OHKOing any frail enemies in range or any chipped enemies for that matter. Enemy phasing; in particular if you have Vantage equipped. If Vantage is active, then you will hit first with your Smash weapon on Enemy Phase (only on enemy phase). Also a very good way to score OHKOs if the Smash Weapon is refined and engraved to do so. Same idea as crit stacking with a Killer weapon basically, but instead focusing more on raw Might than Crit.

I'd say Canter is the best skill to inherit before chapter 10 for any units that are frequently earning EXP on your turn. The utility of being able to move 2 spaces after your action makes it really easy to set up your formation for things like Micaiah staffing and Byleth dancing. But that said there are other notable skills that you can pick up over Canter if your unit is going to be waiting their actions more, or maybe you value a damage boost sooner instead; Momentum - on Cavalry and Fliers this is a pretty notable damage boost, albeit specific to your movement. Still it's not super unusual to get a +5 out of it on your mobile units. Strength+2 / Magic +2 - if your unit doubles that is essentially +4 damage from these skills, so it's not a bad choice for fast units. Unlike momentum these also work on enemy phase and doesn't depend on your movement to scale. I wouldn't go past +2 though, as the +3 upgrades are overpriced. Sword Power 1 / Lance Power 1 - basically the same thing as above but for a specific weapon instead, and they also scale better in SP cost. Vantage - for enemy phase units who want to use a high might smash weapon to hit enemies back with, or want to combo it with Wrath later in the game Unyielding - can help keep a tank healthy and is super cheap to inherit. Arms Shield - works off weapon advantage only but it's cheap as well and can help keep an enemy phase unit relatively tankier too. Just off the top of my head. In general though, Canter is still probably the best inherit for most units, so that's a safe investment if you're not sure on the rest. Note too that you will also get Axe Power sooner than later, so units using axes primarily can afford to wait instead of getting a damage boosting skill now. Don't have DLC Expansion, so that's the extent of my knowledge.

Dexterity+5 from Lucina, technically. And there's Sniper's No Distractions if you count class skills. But yeah, besides Wrath, nothing else really sticks out. That's where engravings come in.

That Jade Steel Greataxe hit on the Wolf Knight was neat. Did Chloe miss inheriting Canter? Is it impossible to get enough SP for it in Hard LTC context? Also... will you be using the Well that was added with the latest update? Or will you just ignore it for this run?

Canter elevates a lot of units in terms of positioning. Basically everyone who is earning EXP/SP on player phase can do well with Canter. The only actions that don't activate Canter are those which don't earn EXP/SP... such as Wait, Repositon, using an item, Instruct, Dragon Vein. Technically you don't need Canter to have your unit be good. Specially if you have specific plans for a unit that don't involve them player phasing or maybe you want a more immediate boost even then; Alfred for e.g. only activates his ability if he chooses Wait, and so if you are looking to use him longterm and take advantage of his ability in some way, then you may want to consider something else. Clanne is another e.g., a Mage unit who has pretty dodgy magic growth but great speed growth, so maybe you would prefer Mag+2 instead. Even then though, Canter is still there to help for most other player phase actions, so it's hardly ever a bad investment. Like I said in that post, I'd say definitely consider Canter at least for your units that get danced the most; let's say about 6~7 of them, at the very least. Including Alear and Seadall in that too. It makes setting up Goddess Dance a lot less cumbersome. Even Micaiah staff healing is easier too, even if you don't like skipping strategies there's net benefit there too.

In that Reddit list specifically, which I have a lot more issues with btw, I would personally say Str+2 and Mag+2 should be at B max. I agree with you on Canter, as all of your longterm offensive units should be inheriting it. I personally aim to have at least all my units who get danced regularly have Canter so that it makes the Goddess Dance setup much less cumbersome. A few of the other issues I have being: The weapon power 1 and 2 skills, which should be all at B max as well, while the rest should be lower too. Some + versions of skills being above their cheaper and earlier counterparts... I don't understand why Alacrity++ is higher than regular and + versions for e.g... if this is an inheritance list, then they should be really at the same tier, since it's better to inherit them first and build up to the + versions. All the Speed+ should be at A, or at least up to speed+3 given how cheap it is as you've pointed out. Speedtaker being higher than Speed+ is very questionable too given it requires setup and having multiple units with it means they step on each other's toes getting kills to snowball with it. Demolish... wtf is it doing at C lol. I can see it being helpful in a few maps with doors, but that should put it just above F imo. Just off the top of my head. Anyways, I know it's no one on this thread who made that list, just wanted to put that out there. Actually... The more I look at that Reddit list, the more it looks like it's an endgame list. It explains why they put some + versions higher too. Which is also another issue altogether, as it's ignoring immediate usefulness of what you can get to help you right then.

Both each are the same price as the Sword/Lance/Axe Power 1 skills (1000 SP), which also offer +2 damage but with that specific weapon instead. In general, a +2 boost to your damage translates to +4 if doubling and +8 if quadding, so it's quite impactful on fast units in particular. The avo drop I don't consider a disadvantage necessarily, I think that's something you can work around. The main disadvantage of the Power skills imo is that they only work with a specific weapon. Whereas Str+2/Mag+2 work with any applicable weapon, including Knives and Bows which don't otherwise have a Power skill available. Tomes too in the case of Mag+2. The main difference is how they scale. Sword/Lance/Axe Power 2 costs 2000 SP (1k if upgrading from Power 1) and boosts damage by 4. While with Strength+3 and Magic+3, you're instead looking at 3000 SP instead (2k SP if upgrading from Str+2/Mag+2). So the costs after +2 get more lopsided, and I'm guessing that's why the author of the Reddit thread ranked them at the bottom. Still, I don't see why you should limit your units to a single Power skill due to that. Aside Bow and Knife users, there's also several classes and units that want to be using more than just one weapon type. Emblems also grant access to other useful weapons too which might be out of the class weapon ranks but can use anyways thanks to the emblem; the Mulagir Bow from Lyn on a Wyvern being a great example. And nothing says you have to commit to inheriting the +3 versions either, you can simply stop at +2. After all you have another skill slot too that you can use SP to inherit something else. Of course. I'm also not saying the Power skills are bad. They're useful for units who just want to use one weapon type. What I'm getting at instead is that the Str+2 and Mag+2 skills are and should be considered similarly valuable.