Wuzzy

Since this a thread about Valkyries I only brought up the Strategist build that's has seen some successful use, her best build with 2018/9 Jakob's level of investment is going to be Malig Knight anyways (moreso in Conquest/Rev). 8 move is nice but, I hardly think Paladin Jakob is trivializing Chapter 8 considering he takes too much damage from the Fighters (mainly the ones with Steel Axes or Quick Draw + Iron Axes, he deals with the ones with just Iron Axes fine) and he can't counter attack the Dark Mages (yes he tanks them just fine). He's just a good unit in the chapter, calling it trivializing is very generous. This is moreso a Silas v. Jakob than Felicia v. Jakob comparison which doesn't belong in this thread. Touche on Safy but I also forgot she basically joins with C+ Staves (+ = she's close to B Staves) and that I should've also clarified that I meant both weapon XP and regular XP so she gets to Level 10 ASAP. Disagree on Pure Waters/Ensorcel mainly because you really don't need to constantly rebuff her to maintain the +7 Mag buff, +3-6 is still very good and Pure Waters/Ensorcel are better used early than late since lategame is entirely Warp-skipping. There's quite a few Pure Waters available from Chapter 5-8x and Ensorcel comes in Chapter 10. 30 Base Damage at level 1 is good on paper but realistically, how often is that going to happen. I still seriously doubt Nanna is this juggernaut that's capable of 2RKO enemies at 1 range without Str-scroll stacking, let alone at Level 1. Her base Speed of 7 is not the best and she takes a -1 penalty with her Con of 4 (she needs enemies like Brigands to roll down on Spd/Con and there's some enemies like Cavaliers/Mercs she straight up cannot double at base with their minimum Spd/Con). Her Spd growth also isn't that good (not to mention she takes an additional penalty indoors) and as you mentioned, Sety is a highly contested scroll. The only enemies she can double pretty consistently are Mages but, the entire cast are more than capable of doubling enemy Mages due to how AS works on Tomes and Armor Knights who have way higher Defense which she cannot 1 round at 1-range. Early promoting Nanna is definitely realistic, it just depends on how much you want to grind her (possible on casual runs especially if she's used as a combat unit, though Nanna is probably not seeing a promotion in efficiency/LTC). There's 6 Knight Proofs available from Ch6-10, if you are going to promote the usual suspects of Safy/Asbel/Fergus/Osian/Finn there's 1 leftover which is typically between Karin/Nanna and Salem/Homer can use the Knight Proofs from 12x/13 respectively (yes I left out Shiva and Mareeta on purpose but there's those 2 if players want to promote them as I know most of the community regard the 2 as top tier). "Amalda on the other hand is pretty good late game filler with her solid magic and high sword rank letting her use magic swords effectively, however joining with C-staves is unfortunate for her join time but she can still use status staves, Ensorcel and maybe Rescue during the endgame with grinding." Unfortunate is too harsh, I probably meant to say it's fine but could be better.

Paladin Jakob requires Corrin's S-Support for Wyvern access (obviously you could go with Camilla/Beruka but those supports take much longer and Camilla is one of the best moms for physical children so there's a huge opportunity cost for it) to get Str+2 and Trample, without those skills Paladin Jakob is basically Silas with more work since they have similar stats on average but Silas will scale slightly better due to his better growths. You kind of already answered your own question regarding Nanna. Her Str and Mag at base are balanced but, enemies have higher Def than Mag so she wants to be dealing more damage to heal more especially if a player is throwing her out in the frontlines with Wrath. Her magic is better and can be made much better a lot more easily than her Str, both Pure Waters and the Ensorcel Staff exist which gives her free +7 Magic and most importantly, her promotion bonuses giving her +3 Magic. Dismounting also lowers a Str slightly indoors and Magic Rings are less in demand compared to other rings so Nanna can monopolize them if she really wanted to. While Nanna has a lower Mag growth than Str, the Heim Scroll is available early and can be stacked with Ced/Fjalar if needed (Str stacking is possible but, Nanna will have to monopolize a lot more scrolls which are highly contested and Njorun comes a lot later). I really don't see how whatever she can kill at 2 range, she can do at 1. Already talked about Amalda in my post and mentioned all of those things It's not even necessary to skill buy for Felicia to get Samurai skills, that's just a really random assumption. I would assume one would automatically mean that she's getting the classline and therefore skills through support but, I guess I should've been clearer knowing the audience. Anyways... It doesn't take that long for Felicia to get Samurai access in BR/CQ (takes longer in Rev due to Hana joining later but, Strategist Felicia is easily one of the better combat units early on because she can actually do damage to the tanky Oni/Spear Fighters in Chapter 9 and the Cavaliers/Knights in Chapter 10). I also never mentioned that Felicia HAS to get Vantage/LnD very early so idk why this statement assumes Vantage/Lnd Felicia is going off in Chapter 7. Corrin/Felicia have a fast support and takes 6 Chapters to hit S-Rank (both are available in the prologue for easy C-rank and then Chapter 7 is an easy B-rank, there's also My Quarters abuse as well), meanwhile Hana/Felicia in BR requires 5 Chapters for the A-rank needed; this can be done quicker with the use of Mozu's paralogue and Invasion 1. Even then Felicia still holds her own as a normal Strategist in the early game or she can just stay as a Maid for healing support until she's close to Level 11 but, it'll delay her power spike.

only thing missing is a random derailment about Malig Knight or Niles Anyways... back to the topic at hand S-Rank n/a A-Rank FE4 - Ethlyn is by far the one of the best units in Gen 1 (even if she has 2 less chapters but even then, the units with good/perfect availability aren't that noteworthy aside from Lachesis/Sylvia/maybe Lex) while Nanna/Jeanne are pretty solid in Gen 2. Troubadours all have access to a horse (which benefits the movement bonus from roads), super canto, and staves. Access to the Return Staff is very good with all the backtracking needed in FE4 while Mend is very good for healing even with low magic, especially when healing items don't exist. One thing I haven't seen regarding Ethlyn and Nanna (Jeanne is moreso exclusively mounted utility) is that they have good combat and most people usually see them as more utility-focused. Ethlyn has both the sibling bonus and the marriage bonus immediately with 2 of the best gen 1 units in the game which gives her +40 crit if she's near both of them, this combined with her A-rank Sword rank + natural avoid makes a very formidable combat unit, and it gets even better with her promotion bonuses giving her +6 Str / +3 Spd / +6 Def. Nanna has all the benefits that Ethlyn has but, Nanna also has a very high Str growth and a servicable Spd/Def growth in addition to potential inherited skills depending on her dad. FE16 - Valkyrie is very solid class overall but, it is slightly tricky to obtain because there isn't an Intermediate class that will provide Riding and Reason XP during combat. Valkyrie is honestly pretty serviceable as an endgame class due to the higher move, Canto, bonus range on Reason and Certain Blow if you ever get that far (unlikely but it is a pretty good skill since more hit is always nice especially as enemies get pretty dodgy in the late game) gives it something over Gremory and it's a lot easier to reach Valkyrie compared to Dark Knight or god forbid Holy Knight. I guess Holy Knight should be mentioned since I mentioned Royal Knight and well, this class is pretty much not worth it because of how difficult it is to get and it's class skills are pretty sad but, it's still not the worst thing in the world as you still get a horse, Canto and spell access (I feel like it's in the realm of usable if you are doing like a SOYO or PMU but on a normal playthrough it's outclassed). B-Rank FE6 - Staves are very good in this game, especially the Warp/Rescue as they are both obtainable in the mid-game and come with a free 5 range minimum which is nice for Clarine who has very low Magic and Cecilia who has mediocre Magic. With FE6 being a seize-only game, having these movement staves are a huge benefit for moving around Roy and the very big presence of enemy status staves make having more than 1 Restore user a necessity. Both Clarine and Cecilia also have the benefits of a mount for extra move/canto/ability to rescue a good amount of the cast which makes them solid filler units, Cecilia has the additional benefit of A-rank Tomes allowing her to provide decent chip damage especially against Wyverns with Aircalibur. FE14 - Strategist is a very solid class but, I think Troubadour is the class that suffers a bit which drags the ranking down slightly. Personally, I don't think an early healer is necessary in Conquest so that already lowers my opinion on Elise to begin with (if you need healing, Felicia/Jakob are honestly better and Elise's performance is harmed by her performance in Revelations). Enemies really aren't that threatening early on (Lunatic/Hard Conquest enemies have the same stats, only thing that changes is enemy quantity and skills) so I find using a Vulnerary usually just works out more often than not. Though in Elise's defense, she is practically a free deploy for a good chunk of Conquest early game so she has that going for her. Now onto Strategist, it's generally a very good class between being mounted + access to good skills like Inspiration which can be obtained early by Felicia/Jakob and tomes being pretty solid. Felicia also has a really underrated early-game carry build being the Vantage/LnD Strategist (which uses the same resources that make people believe Paladin Jakob is busted in Conquest and it's practically free in BR/Rev) that scales very well into the late game. FE7 - Priscilla is a very good unit overall, between solid bases/growths, C-Staves at base early on, and all the perks of the Troubadour class mentioned in the FE6 breakdown. While statwise it has a better showing than FE6, the Rescue/Warp staves are available much later in this game and they also got pretty harshly nerfed with the removal of 5 minimum range and the need to cleanse status staves isn't really necessary aside from HHM's version of Cogs of Destiny and Chapter 29/31 so they are really just there for healing/rescue-dropping for the most part which is still nice to have. FE5 - Nanna kind of fell from grace considering her performance in FE4. Anyways, while Staves are top tier in FE5, not all staff users were made equally as Nanna is one of the worst staff users in the game. Between her low Staff-rank of E (she also competes with Safy for early Staff XP) and the fact she doesn't gain any Staff rank upon promotion compared to Safy/Tini/Salem makes her a lot worse in comparison as it'll take her a long time to grind up her Staff-rank to use any relevant staves. Nanna also has below averages bases, mediocre growths (which can be remedied with Scrolls but, this applies to the entire cast), and female Paladin promo bonuses getting shafted in FE5. Wrath Nanna is pretty fun due to the synergy with her Earth Sword but, it's not the most reliable thing in the world since enemies can just attack her with 1-range and she'll attack with her much lower Str stat instead. Nanna is saved by a few factors being her early game combat (especially in indoor chapters like 8x), her support bonuses, and Charm. Amalda on the other hand is pretty good late game filler with her solid magic and high sword rank letting her use magic swords effectively, however joining with C-staves is unfortunate for her join time but she can still use status staves, Ensorcel and maybe Rescue during the endgame with grinding. C-Rank FE13 - Valkyries aren't necessarily bad, I think the issue here is that being mounted isn't that big of a boon in Awakening so I find Sage generally a better option for their higher Magic. Valkyrie still has some perks with the extra Mov allowing it to use the Rescue Staff further away (in addition to all the perks of having more Mov in general) but, I don't think the advantages are that much of a dealbreaker. In regards to units with access to the line, it's really up to the player's preference on reclassing to Valkyrie (Lissa could go Sage/Dark Flier for GF, Cherche should just stay in her classline, Noire/Nah could go Sage/Sorcerer/Dark Flier for GF depending on their father) and Maribelle has an issue where she's sandwiched between an early healer who you've most likely been using a ton and probably outclasses her and 2 amazing prepromoted staff users that join not too far off with 2 desert maps in her way so she ends up being kind of underwhelming. FE9 - Mist is just fine overall. Mist starts out very weak at Level 1 during Chapter 9 as a stafflocked unit which is bad when Rhys has already been seeing quite a bit of usage prior but, she has the benefit of promoting into a horseback class in a game very kind to mounted units due to how open and spacious maps are + Canto. While being mounted is good, Rescue-dropping is better off done by any of the Cavaliers/Fliers due to their natural bulk + good combat (especially with Savior albeit Savior comes late) and when it comes to staff utility, Mist has competition for the Rescue staff by Soren/Rhys/Ilyana due to their higher magic and the range can be further increased by being dropped with some foresight involved. Sonic Sword Mist is unnecessary because Ike doesn't even have to beat the BK but, Arms Scrolls are practically not really needed so Mist can monopolize them if she wants (money is plentiful so selling doesn't do anything and Hand Axes are E-Rank instead of D-Rank so the promoted Paladins/Jill don't need it unless they want extra damage). FE8 - Valkyrie itself is pretty solid overall but, the ranking is dragged down by L'arachel. Regarding Natasha, while I think Slayer is a nice skill to have I personally don't think it is necessary to beat the game so having the extra utility from Valkyrie (rescuing + extra move) is pretty nice to have and should be considered when choosing a preferable promotion. L'arachel unfortunately needs no introduction, she joins far too late as an underleveled staff bot in a game that nerfed her classline's movement. D-Rank FE10 - Mist isn't bad for most people (I personally think she's quite bad/overrated) but, there's quite a lot going against her (and it's not the horseback-penalty, I've mentioned in the Cavalier ranking that I find the horse penalty only an issue for Fiona and no one else). Mist starts off weak, she has low base Magic, stuck with a weapon-type she cannot use well, and her personal weapon scales off Str. Once she hits Valkyrie, there really isn't anything different other than her higher move and she can rescue which isn't that drastic considering like, who is she rescuing considering the good infantries are going to be on the frontlines and she's too frail + offensively weak to rescue-drop someone without being in danger. The biggest issue I have with Mist is that she exists in not only a game where having a healer is unnecessary due to healing items being crazy good but, she also exists on a route full of juggernauts (Ike, Titania, Haar, Gatrie, Oscar, fed Boyd/Nephenee/Kieran/Brom, etc.) that will take very little damage to begin with. The GMs are already strapped for deployment slots due to the amount of solid units on the route and if you really wanted to deploy a healer for the GMs, there's no reason not to deploy Rhys over her when he has better chip damage with Light magic and stronger heals + more Physic range with his higher magic (this statement accounts for Mist's +1 Move as a Cleric fyi). FE17 - I will be counting Royal Knight as Engage's equivalent to Valkyrie and unfortunately... Royal Knight is pretty sad. The class is unfortunately pretty much outdone by Griffon Knights as the combination of flight + utility + weapon flexibility is just way too good to pass up. Royal Knights also don't have many (if any at all) notable advantages as the Cavalry class-line doesn't get many stand out perks from the Emblem Rings (only one I guess is kind of notable is it has a better Goddess Dance / Instruct but even then it's still pretty meh, Reforge sounds good on paper but I find it better as an enemy skill than a player skill).

Gonna drop some stuff, my suggestions are based on Maddening/Fixed Chloe - Far too high (especially above Kagetsu/Panette/Merrin/Pandreo). Even in casual runs where you are routing/feeding Chloe a ton (my reference is a Level 6, ASAP promote Griffin Chloe at Chapter 11 with heavy Mercurius usage), Chloe's stats aren't going to be on par with the top-tier-Solm-prepromotes to have her rank above all of them bar Ivy. The only way Chloe becomes on par is if you fed her all the DLC stat boosters but even then, she's only just on par with a ton of resources being used and still doesn't necessarily overtake them. I'm also assuming Chloe's score was based on Wyvern Chloe, which is serviceable in the midgame but scales poorly due to Chloe's low Str growth. Kagetsu - Imo he's definitely the 3rd best unit in the game. I know Kagetsu went through his "omg he's busted" phase and we are on the "overrated" phase but what makes him stand out amongst other physical attackers is he has access to Parthia for 2 Chapters before Panette and Merrin which allows him to start his snowball much earlier. Jade - She's far too low. I know Jade has a bad first impression being a worse Louis which I do agree with but, I think the trap here is that people feel like she has to stay in the General/Great Knight classline for some reason. Jade's personal bases and growths are very similar to Lapis (Lapis has much better Spd/Lck, Jade has better HP/Str/Mag/Def) and both desperately want to reclass out of their base classes ASAP so I don't see why one is ranked significantly higher than the other. Anyways, Jade also makes a pretty solid Griffin Knight as she has decent-ish base Magic plus a pretty good base Magic growth as well (she's also solid as either Sage/Mage Knight/Wyvern). Zelkov - Him being lower than Yunaka is strange, as anything she can do applies to him (using forged daggers, evasion strategies) well but better due to his much higher stats. His higher starting level also gives him better flexibility as he can get out of Thief a lot easier than Yunaka which is such a huge benefit as well. Don't really see a reason why she's ranked higher unless people really value availability or Chapter 6. Citrinne/Amber - Both kinda fall into the same category as they initially got written off because of their low Speed. Speed is a very easy stat to fix (Lyn/Lucina ring, Chaos Style, Speed + X being cheap, Tonics, Meals, etc.) so having a much higher Str/Mag stat is much more appealing. Both of them also have some advantages over their Solm-counterparts (Panette for Amber, Pandreo for Citrinne) as they can get really good skills like Canter or Momentum before they can. Veyle - I'm surprised she's ranked this high considering Saphir/Lindon/Mauvier all got blasted for having poor availability and got ranked lower as a result but, Veyle has the worst availability out of all of them. Even then, it's not like the latter 3 are completely unsalvageable either as I find them to be very competent filler units.

S - Tier FE9 - Marcia needs the investment through a huge BEXP dump but, she does pay it forward by being a top tier unit. She's able to comfortably deal with side objectives and she also thrives in chapters like 11-15, all of 17, 19, 20, etc. due to her flight and combat when invested. I know people generally will always talk about Marcia not gaining STR compared to Jill which means her combat is typically regarded as worse but, Marcia and Jill have the exact same STR growth, Jill just has access to Axes upon promotion for better combat. Even then, FE9 has low enemy quality so Marcia still thrives for majority of the game by just throwing Javelins (and is probably the best recipient of the Adept Scroll with her Skill cap and growth). Tanith is also very solid with her base Mag stat allowing her to use the Sonic Sword and Flame Lance with success, Reinforce is also a very good skill due to the Falcon Knight reinforcement being quite the juggernaut herself. Both characters also benefit from flight + rescue combo, super canto, and higher move overall. FE11 - I will be counting Dracoknights in the game since it is the natural promotion of Pegasus Knights. Caeda alone makes Pegasus Knight good because of the Wing Spear and how amazing effective weaponry is in the game. Dracoknights have access to the Ridersbane and Dragonpike is also a huge boon for the same reasons as the Wing Spear while also having the flight to traverse maps with a lot of annoying terrain like mountains and water so it's still a really solid reclass option for the likes of Jagen, Hardin, and honestly Wendell (but for different reasons). Minerva is not as dominant as Caeda but she still has good bases and access to Hautecleure, Hammer and Poleaxe at base. The Whitewings are pretty underwhelming, Palla has pretty decent bases and weapon ranks to use the Ridersbane and Dragonpike but joins sort of late, Catria is overrated (not sure where how people feel about Catria now but back in the day I generally saw Palla and Catria ranked side by side on tier lists) as she has noticeably lower weapon ranks and bases while also joining sort of late, and Est is well Est (though she is salvagable because she joins with the Ridersbane on a Cavalier-filled map so there is potential to train her up if you want to use her). A - Tier FE12 - Unlike FE11, I will not be counting Dracoknights in the game since Falcon Knights are available without the use of online services. Pegasus Knights are still a really good class at base for the same reason as FE11 Pegasus Knights (except now we add Forest tiles to the list of annoying terrain) and all the base Pegasus Knights bar 1 are all top tier units. While Dracoknights are generally better in the mid game - early late game for better STR, Falcon Knights are still a solid promotion choice for characters like Cecil, Athena, and Malice since they'll have access to the Lady Sword, flight and potential access to the Ridersbane/Dragonpike with some grinding. FE17 - I will be counting Griffon Knights as the equivalent of Falcon Knights, they fundamentally are the same class. Staff utility alone carries the class since being able to use Obstruct, Physic and Rewarp at base (with a Staff proficiency on the likes of Pandreo and Lindon they will add Rescue, Recover and Warp to the list) is amazing. Chloe is also one of the better candidates to feed early on due to how well she scales; I will say that Wyvern Chloe is a huge trap since the extra STR doesn't let her reach any relevant benchmarks compared to Griffon. In addition, Griffon let's Chloe scale as a solid Magic unit due to it's higher class Magic growth in combination with Chloe's high base Magic growth and since Magic combat is better than Physical combat, Griffon Chloe will ultimately do more with the Levin Sword alongside Staff utility. FE6 - Honestly I think the whole bad combat argument is overblown, specifically in regards to Shanna. On HM, there's very few units that can reliably 1RKO without effective weaponry or critical hits in play due to HM enemies having much high HP. Even then I'd still say Shanna's early combat is still better than the likes of Alance and the axe bros mainly because she doubles (5x2 is still more than the 7/9 Alance do, and all 3 get 2-rounded by Axe Fighters so using bulk isn't an excuse with average stats in mind) with better reliability than the axe bros so she's a better candidate for EXP regardless of whether you want to go to Ilia or Sacae. Shanna doubling consistently also results in her Lance rank going up faster which means she's able to be able to use better weapons (yes her Con is low but her Speed is going to be so high that it tends to cancel out the weapon weight outside of Steel Lances which are not good due to low hit, just stick to Iron Lances). Shanna definitely wants an early promotion due to access to Swords which makes her very good for the Shadow Isles, and her mid game combat will be fine with Silver / Killer Lances and the Armorslayer if she reaches D-Swords. Tate is also pretty serviceable on HM (she's really mediocre in NM because her base Speed is so low) due to having similar stats to a promoted Shanna but she obviously joins much later. I think the biggest mistake when it comes to talking about Pegasus Knights in FE6 is the immediate comparison to Milady, every unit (bar like Percival) will look subpar if you compare them to her so it's not exactly a fair comparison since she is the best unit in the game. Anyways with all that out of the way, flight alone makes the class really solid, especially early on like in Chapter 2 or 8x and I find the concerns of their bad combat to be overblown when most units in the game won't be able to reliably 1RKO regardless. FE8 - Same thing as FE7 where flying utility is very good (I wrote FE7's paragraph first but decided to rank FE8 higher) and they have canto however, FE8's enemy quality is much lower than FE7 so Vanessa gets away with lower STR (the extra Con from Wyvern Knight also enables her to use heavier lances and access to Pierce) and Syrene is a lot more salvageable despite joining late with mediocre bases. Tana joins later but has good offensive growths and requires babying but, she's still worth using long term. FE7 - Fliers are still good because of rescue dropping and normal canto. Lyn-mode Florina is very good and is one of the best candidates for Lyn-mode EXP but, I think HHM Florina is regulated to filler flying ferry (which is still a good role to have). Fiora is much better if you skipped Lyn-mode since she's at a higher level and she can grind up very easily in the next chapter against the mage reinforcements or the mages silenced by Kishuna. Farina does have a cost but, I find money not a problem in HHM and there's many monks she can take out for EXP. FE14 - Flight utility is useful in all 3 routes because of Fates' obsession with terrain gimmicks (open oceans, lakes, chasms, mountains, forests, caltrops, etc.) so even if your Falcon Knights don't turn out great, they'll always be relevant because of their ability to fly over terrain along with being able to use Rescue at base and Rally Speed. Falcon Knight also gives very good pair up bonuses which is more relevant in Conquest/Revelations Unit due to the Nohrian cast usually benefitting more from the pair ups than the Hoshidan cast. Unit wise, I think Hinoka is pretty overhated as she's typically regarded as the worst royal (gameplay wise, and I can think of 2 others that rank below her); Birthright has very low enemy quality until the last couple of chapters and she's also tankier than Subaki (same base defense, higher HP, and higher Lance rank that lets her use the Guard Naginata at base). Reina is fantastic in both routes she's availabel in, Subaki is alright, I usually relegate him to Rally Speed duties or ferry duties if I do use him but he's still useful as filler for the early game of Revelations since he's your only flier, and Shigure/Caeldori are pretty solid child units overall. FE13 - Pegasus Knight line gets some of the best skills in the game, between Galeforce, Lancefaire, and both Rally Move and Speed. Even if any of your Pegasus Knights don't turn out up to par, they still have really good utility through amazing pair ups and top tier Rally skills. With that said, unit wise Sumia and Cordelia are both really good overall and can get Galeforce around Chapter 15 (this assumes an early promotion at Level 10 and Lunatic mode for more promoted enemies for extra EXP), while Cynthia is one of the better child units because she can potentially inherit Galeforce as a result. I think a Pegasus Knight reclass is a bit overrated, it means trying to funnel exp into otherwise subpar combat units (Maribelle and Olivia) to quickly get Galeforce on them or the child units that can get Pegasus Knight through reclass (Kjelle/Nah/Noire with Robin/Gaius/Donnel as the father) won't get Galeforce at a reasonable time. FE5 - I know the bad combat thing got brought up again however, I also don't think it's as big of a deal in this game either. Scrolls exist in this game and the bonuses stack in addition to enemies from the early-mid game not being too threatening either. Both Karin and Misha have access to canto outdoors, rescue and flier utility (nice in chapters like 9 and 10) so they are still always going to be relevant even when uninvested. Their dismounted combat doesn't effect them too much honestly, Karin has a higher Sword rank and she's forced to use Swords for the majority of Manster so if properly utilized then she could potentially hit B Swords to use the Flame Sword (Karin's base Magic is higher than her Str) and/or C Swords to use the Rapier, Misha also has A Swords at base so she's able to use any Sword she wants. B - Tier FE15 - Honestly a borderline performance between A/B tier but ultimately went with B. I think it's a decent class overall, especially on Celica's route due to the swamps, deserts, and mountain maps but I agree with the notion that Clair and Est's poor performance drags them down to A- territory. I think Palla is a wee-bit overrated, especially the old super Palla builds that require backtracking to fountains (which means monster encounters) and to also get her to promotion level ASAP but, she's still very good; Catria is also very solid but not as good as Palla due to lower bases and level. FE16 - Pegasus Knight is a really solid class but suffers from not having a smooth class path towards Falconknight and also Falconknight generally being outclassed by Wyvern Lord while also having the same issues (aka flying battalions being limited), being genderlocked when certain male-characters would really prefer Falcoknight over Wyvern (Sylvain/Dimitri/Ferdinand) and being statistically very similar. Pegasus Knights provide Flight early on which enables some easy 1-turns (Lorenz paralogue for example) and a really good class skill through Darting Blow. Falconknight is outclassed but, it's still an easier class to get into compared to Wyvern for certain characters like Ingrid, Catherine, Bylass and maybe Bernie so it does have its uses. Dismount also alleviates their weakness to bows and the fact that they can dismount/remount any time and still retain the class's high move is a very huge benefit. FE10 - All the available Pegs are really solid combat wise (well Marcia has a rather shaky start) but they are here mainly because all of them have wonky availability. However all of them have their benefits, Elincia has staff utility and solid combat outside of 2-P, Marcia can help prevent fires and potential arson in Part 3, while Sigrun and Tanith have solid combat (Sigrun may have wonky growths but she has good bases and joins in a chapter that gives a free Master Crown, her combat is prefectly fine) with Sigrun being forced deployed in all of her remaining Part 3 and 4 maps is also a huge benefit. Triangle Attack seems gimmicky but, it's a pretty reliable way to take down Auroras in the tower. C - Tier FE4 - Erin unfortunately joins too late in her join chapter to be useful (would've been nice if she joined during Sylvia/Lewyn vs. Brigands) and doesn't really do much until the finale of Gen 1 where she's the only character that can reliably take down Vaha's Meteor Mages stationed on top of the cliffs. Fee/Hermina are better (moreso Fee since she can potentially inherit good weapons like the Brave Lance) but, they are still really just there to save the villages and to help out Leif/Nanna/Finn in Chapter 7. I'll admit I could be underrating Fee/Hermina but, I personally don't think they contribute as much. Also fliers don't benefit from roads so their movement ends up being slower than the horses.

Really going to write stuff for games that haven't been mentioned or if there's anything I want to add in addition to everything that's been said or if I disagree with. For the most part, I agree with a lot of the reasoning that have been stated previously. S-Tier (Best) Genealogy FE4 Path of Radiance FE9 Blazing Blade FE7 A-Tier (Solid) Sacred Stones FE8 Binding Blade FE6 B-Tier (Decent) 3 Houses FE16 - I think Cavalier is good enough but overshadowed by Brigand/Archer/Mage since they have sought after skills for any physical unit or Frozen Lance user. However, I think Paladin is a solid class overall. While Wyvern Rider/Lord is better and most physical units will want to strive for it, there's a big issue with going full Thracia being that flying battalions are not common, and good flying battalions are rare and are typically only usable with B/A authority. This means that Paladin is a pretty solid alternative for the likes of Sylvain, Bernie, Dedue, Leonie, Ferdinand, etc. Radiant Dawn FE10 - Hot take since Cavaliers got nerfed in this game but honestly, I think the flaws are majorly overstated. The 3 biggest issues that have been pointed out are Paladins low stat caps, unfavorable terrain, and indoor move penalty which I will address. In regards to stat caps, having a shaky/low Speed cap is a problem that only applies to Kieran, Oscar and Geoffrey and really only matters like in the 2nd half of part 4 onwards; Renning, Makalov, Titania, Fiona, and Astrid having Speed caps ranging from 33-35 will allow them to double all end game enemies except for Fire/Wind Wisps (Thunder Wisps can be doubled since they have an AS of 28, Fiona/Astrid can double all wisps at cap), Auroras (Astrid can double at cap), and Swordmasters (Astrid can also double them at cap). As mentioned earlier, the speed cap issue only matters for the 2nd half of part 4 onwards, as the typical average AS goes from about 22-26 to 28 for enemy Snipers/Warriors/Halbediers and 30-31 for Swordmasters (this also doesn't include enemies that they can typically double like Sages, Paladins, Generals and Tigers, and Oscar/Geoffrey will be able to double anything with 28 AS at cap, Kieran however will be struggling). Regarding the terrain issue, this really only affects Fiona the most as she essentially has Meg movement because all the maps she's available in Part 1 are indoors with ledges, Part 3 isn't a huge issue since they are basically defend maps. Titania and Oscar face 2 maps they struggle in being the swamp map and the mountain map where Ike/Ranulf must arrive but they are still very good units outside of those maps, the Crimean Royal Knights don't face any issue with terrain at all in their chapters (they join far too late into 2-E to be relevant). In Part 4, there are clear map issues with the desert map (which can be avoided with foresight), Oliver's mansion (which isn't a big deal since it's a rout map and the horses can clear the right side or stay down below to deal with reinforcements), and Izuka's swamp (not a huge issue since the enemies typically will go towards the army). Overall, while Radiant Dawn Paladins definitely got nerfed, they are still pretty solid outside of a couple maps and their flaws are pretty exaggerated (again imo). Unit wise, Titania is very good, Oscar is solid, Kieran/Geoffrey are decent tho they both have availability issues (moreso with Geoffrey), Makalov is mediocre and Astrid/Fiona have big issues with their bases. Renning is kind of overhated as I don't think he's as bad as people make him out to be, I don't think he's a standout or top tier at all but he's still pretty solid as tower filler with his bases (he'll need to have his last 4 levels to be rigged to cap his Speed tho but at that point you should have tons of BEXP lying around). Thracia 776 FE5 - Kind of borderline between Decent and Meh but I decided to throw them into decent in the end. Cavaliers are good, rescuing still exists and canto is still good but... Canto only works when the Cavalier is still mounted. Forced dismounting into indoor areas also sucks for quite a few of the cavaliers because they are forced to use swords (which effects the likes of Kain, Alva, Brighton, Finn and Glade who have low Sword-ranks). Shadow Dragon FE11 New Mystery FE12 - It's a bit of an odd place since I think Cavalier is fine early on but, Paladin is not good due to its very underwhelming stat caps (2 extra speed will certainly help with not being doubled compared to Dracoknight in the late gamebut, at that point you might as well go into Swordmaster). Female units will usually never want to touch Paladin and will go into Dracoknight, Falcoknight or Swordmaster (though I can see Paladin being useful late game for the extra Res against Sorcerers) while male Cavaliers will typically go to Swordmaster as a promotion. Fates FE14 C-Tier (Meh) Awakening FE13 Echoes FE15 D-Tier (Not Good) Engage FE17 - I'm going to include Wolf Knight since it is a class path for Cavaliers. Funnily enough, I find all the units that join in a Cavalier line class are all very solid units but all of them want to get out of the class ASAP. Cavaliers just don't have anything special going on in this game, the movement increase isn't big enough, Canto is something anyone can get, and they are still very mediocre stat wise (Wolf Knight is good for the mid game but kinda falls off late due to caps). Unit wise, Vander honestly pretty underrated I think he's solid from Firene-Brodia and can transition to Griffin for Reposition/Staves if needed, Amber is also just as underrated as I think people focus too much on his low Speed when Speed is a very easy stat to fix in this game so having high Str/Mag is a lot more ideal, while Merrin is obviously very good. If you count Mauvier he's good once he joins but he does join late.

They never really advocated for overgrinding units (let alone overgrinding in Act 1), they just brought up how you could grind Clive 1 level so he can promote into a Paladin for Zofia Castle and then using him like a normal unit for him to gain levels in Act 3. Anyways, I'm very certain they chose Zofia Castle as the hardest map because of the +20 Avo floor tiles that are practically everywhere on the map to make things tedious and unreliable, everyone knows Desaix is optional and a pain to deal with so I doubt this was the reason why.

Honestly, both Clive and Mathilda are basically the same but I do lean closer to Clive. Clive has a mediocre first impression but his viability really comes from how much you are willing to invest into him whereas Mathilda does come with solid bases and will outpace Clive as a Gold Knight which generally gives off a better first impression. For me I find that the resources needed to make Clive good are things that either he's the best candidate to use (Ridersbane until Zeke joins, his mobility + physical bulk helps in cavalier dense maps) or things that other top-tier characters don't really need (Speed Fountain, which who else in Alm's army really needs it since most of them have no trouble doubling). He joins 1 level away from promotion and I never really found it necessary for him to be a Paladin for Act 1 on Hard Mode. He'll probably be one of the first characters to promote after Act 1 which is a huge advantage unless you purposefully ignore him (which glancing at some of the posts above, people did). In regards to Sylvan Shrine's EXP fountain, I do find Clive is one of the better recipients of it since he'll be able to promote into a Gold Knight which will improve his stats whereas even if you gave it to Mathilda she'll still be 2 levels short of promoting anyways. I will say that I find the whole Clive has low res argument is quite overexaggerated. Witches in general have low AS and Clive will never get doubled by any of them regardless since Paladins have a base SPD of 8, adding on to Clive's high HP he'll generally be able to take a few hits. Also if your goal is to take out Witches, I don't see why you wouldn't want to send in a Sniper or another mage who can actually counter them. At the end of the day, it just comes down to how much you are willing to invest into Clive, personally I find the tools needed to make Clive solid are things other characters don't necessarily need or he makes the best use of but all of that is subjective so I can also see people who value Mathilda over Clive.

Going in order... Engage: Easily the best showing of the Warrior class. Backup is incredibly good and scales very well, and Warriors having access to Longbows for longer range backups (even longer with Wind God) is very good. Bow access is also very nice considering enemy fliers can be pretty threatening and Merciless is also a decent class skill. I'd probably rank this at A-tier Thracia 776: Dagdar is very solid overall with his bases + Charge. Orsin and Halvan are both good as well (obviously both promote to Hero so I'm judging them solely on their performance as Fighters), wtih Orsin having a incredibly good personal weapon. Marty is a meme but, he's still useful because he can capture/rescue units with ease due to his high Build. I would say this showing hovers around B-tier, could also make an argument for A-tier Radiant Dawn: Boyd is pretty mediocre overall (honestly overrated) due to his shaky base SpD while Nolan is honestly pretty great and is easily one of the better investments for the Dawn Brigade. If properly trained, Reavers are great tower candidates since they have a cap of 35 Spd which enables them to double endgame enemies like Halberdiers and Snipers if the cap is reached. Nolan also has the added benefit of not having competition for Urvan and the Brave Axe since he has Tarvos, which is better than Urvan anyways. I'd say this is a solid B-tier showing. Path of Radiance: Boyd is the best infantry unit and his combat pretty solid overall with 1-2 range + FE9's poor enemy quality but, he has issues because FE9 is another mounted emblem with Canto being busted and maps being quite large overall. I'd probably say this is still a B-tier showing despite it but, I'm also leaning closer towards C-tier because mounted emblem is just that good. 3H: Honestly, kind of weird since I think Brigand is very good mainly since it's the only way to get Death Blow which is very good and pretty much most physical characters will want it (with some exceptions like Dimitri since he's predominantly an enemy phase unit and maybe Bernedetta since she wants to stay as a Cavalier to abuse Pass). By the time you master Death Blow, your unit will either by switching to Archer for Hit+20 or promoting to advanced classes. Brigand is also one of the ways to rank up the Axe rank faster for Wyvern Rider promotion since it does get more Weapon Rank XP for using axes in combat. Besides Wrath (which is unnecessary for some units since they will probably use the easier-to-get Battalion Wrath), Warriors is a pretty poor class since they don't really stand out and anyone who plans on going Warmaster is better off going through Grappler for FIF. 3H imo ranks C-tier but that's predominantly because of Brigand. Awakening: Like other games, Berserker and Hero are straight up better classes than Warrior but, even then I don't think Warrior is that bad overall. Rally STR is good, Counter is only oppressive on enemies but pretty sad on the player. Bow access I'd say is pretty decent as enemy fliers are actually quite good in this game so having a way to deal with them does give them something over their competition. I'd rank this showing in either C-tier as well. Shadow Dragon / New Mystery: Honestly, I'm not 100% confident in my opinions of these games but... I do think Berserkers and Heroes are still a lot better since Berserkers can walk on water + higher SpD cap and Heroes will have access to Wyrmslayers. Fighters seem alright since it's a pretty solid transition into Dracoknight for male units (Male Kris, Draug, Barst, etc.). I'd probably rank it in C-tier but like 3H, that's mainly due to Fighter. Sacred Stones: Ross and Garcia would rather go to Berserker or Hero but, because FE8 is also a pretty easy game they could easily go Warrior and still do well in them. I'd rank it in C/D-tier (leaning closer towards C imo) Blazing Blade: Axe bros are fine early but they don't scale very well. Geitz is incredible but the cost of using him is not worth it and, FE7 provides you with multiple very good prepromotes anyways. This showing ranks in D-tier. Binding Blade: Another poor showing, Lot is eh, Bartre I've never really used since Echidna is better (the maps on his route are also a lot more annoying) and Wade is bad. Axes also have very poor hit rates in the game and are quite unreliable overall. Bow access also doesn't really matter since enemy fliers are very easy to deal with since almost all of them are weighed down by their weapons. This ranks in E-tier. Genealogy: The worst showing of the game. Johalvier is pretty awful in a game dominated by mounted units and he has an opportunity cost where his brother Johan is better since he's mounted (honestly Johan is also pretty awful as well, better doesn't always mean good). If you want to make use of the Brave Axe in Gen 2, Leif is a fantastic candidate for it. No contest, this ranks F-tier

Haven't touched online but... Agreed with the picks but I'd also add Bunet to the list as well. Prepromotes are rarely popular units in FE combat wise since people generally value early joining units that can grow. These characters have it the worse since they either get accused of stealing exp (Vander), aren't great at base (Bunet), join late (the last few peeps but, I'd hazard that one of them will be used a lot more of the final 4). One of them is also in a weird spot since from what I've seen, people actually don't know he's recruitable and assume he's just another sub boss. It also doesn't help that older looking characters aren't too appealing to the wider audience so they are probably not going to be used even if they are solid gameplay wise. As for the most used (when it comes to late game online battles), I'd probably guess Alear, the princes, the princesses, Yunaka, Anna, and Lapis are probably going to be the most common choices. The first 9 are pretty self-explanatory, 5 of them are the most important characters in the game and the latter 4 are important in their sub arcs which means they are characters that are probably going to be used in game, thus they'll be grinded up and be ready for online. Yunaka and Lapis are probably the 2 most popular characters within the game itself, with Yunaka probably being one of the more popular characters in the franchise and regarded as "the most busted character in the game" (whether I agree with the sentiment is another thing), while Anna's high scaling is appealing to those wanting to do online stuff.

(this is with maddening mode in mind) Best Merrin: Her bases are very good, coming with amazing speed (which is complimented by pretty generous build stat), mixed offenses which include 1-2 range daggers while having the magic stat to use the Levin Sword, and decent-ish bulk. Her growths are on the lower side but, her bases make up for it (plus there are plenty of ways to boost stats like engraves, rings, forges, etc.) Hortensia: Really good user of status staves because of the class skill for her personal class and also her personal skill. Comes with workable bases (mag is low but she does have very high speed and dex to use heavier/stronger tomes) and she can gain even more stats considering she's pretty much ready to promote once you get her (which means more magic). Kagetsu: Insane bases with high strength, speed, and dex while also having very solid bulk (considering his class) with a solid hp, defense and resistance stats. Swordmaster is alright on him but, because of his high bases I find him a very great candidate to reclass into the likes of Wyvern Lord, Hero or Paladin. Disappointing Alfred: When I used him he kept getting really good level-ups but still performed terribly since I always found him getting doubled since his base SPD is low (which means a lot of catching up to do) combined with low build. This ends up compromising his bulk which is pretty solid but, since he's prone to getting doubled it ends up not mattering anyways. The class skill of his lord class is good in theory but, Alfred has a low Dex growth so in practice it kind of doesn't really show up as often as you'd like. Lapis: Sucks that she joins 1 chapter before Diamant who has similar speed (with higher build) but comes with better strength and bulk, then Kagetsu shows up a few chapters later and completely blows her out of the water. Vander: Kind of a sad Jagen archetype because he doesn't really have the tools he needs to dominate the early game. He doesn't have access to any exclusive weaponry (typically silver weapons in older games) while enemy quality is very high which means he can't really just pubstomp as easily as older Jagens. I still think he does his role fine where he can soften up enemies and his growths are high enough where he can scale if given the investment, problem is that he's going to be stuck with underwhelming bases for a while until he can get double digit exp. Alear: Think it's moreso the expectation that the main lord will be good given that the last couple of FE games gave you really overtuned lords/protagonists. I find Alear okay it's just he's quite underwhelming combat wise due to his low strength growth but, they do get emblem type bonuses from pretty much every single ring so I guess it balances out? Jade: I don't think she's that bad but, it's just that her bases are so similar to Louis's who joins way earlier and will have more time to scale so she seems a bit pointless to use unless reclassed into something else. Bad Anna: Joins at a low level and desperately wants to get into a magic class as soon as possible to utilize her significantly higher magic growth. You end up having to decide to either suffer through 5 more levels of her as an axe fighter with low bases or you second seal right away and delay promotion even more. Don't really think money is tight in this game (unless you donated a bunch) so I don't find her personal skill anything special. Clanne: Suffers generally from slowly and steadily getting outclassed by like every mage (Celine, Citrine and Ivy) and has a really sad base magic growth. Still useful early for chip damage (especially against armors) and deployment slots aren't as tight but his late game scaling is very poor unless you get him up to level 10 and then reclass him into a physical class which seems like a lot of extra work. Overrated Yunaka: I don't think she's bad (I think she's quite good overall) but I don't really see her as the second coming of christ that people paint her to be (aka unhittable demon who can 1 round every enemy besides armors with 1-2 range). I found that she needs quite a bit of investment with her STR growth not being that high (still workable), not having any promotion gains unless she reclasses into a base class which would just screw over her exp gain, and there's also the issue where Zelkov does sorta outclass her due to better bases and he can fulfill the same role as her. I feel like if her and Zelkov traded places, people wouldn't be speaking highly of them. Jean: I find him alright, I just find the reasonings for him being busted is usually due to the DLC Tiki ring taking his high growths even higher being quite silly considering the DLC is kind of made to be busted. Other than that, I think the strength of him circumventing his low level through the exp gain from Micaiah's Great Sacrifice is also silly because any unit can do that gain a ton of exp? (what's with people thinking grinding is exclusive to some units). Either way, I think Jean being a staffer helps him gain exp safely and qi guard is also very clutch in certain situations.

I'll rate Lysithea 9.5/10, mainly because of her ability to get Warp the fastest and that really is it actually. Before someone says "Lysithea is good because she can 1-shot the Death Knight" or "Lysithea is good because she can use Thyrsus"... I'd like to add that the Death Knight is an optional boss that (in the chapters where 1-shotting him matters, which is Chapter 4, other appearances of the DK can literally be dealt with by anyone with Knight Kneeler + LoR). In addition, literally any unit can literally use Thyrsus, the ones that don't have the crest simply just take -10 damage each time. Pavise/Aegis are fine but, you really shouldn't be putting her in danger of physical units to make use of Pavise (not to mention it isn't guaranteed), and her res is high enough to where Aegis really only matters against opposing bow users. Only bringing this up because I've seen these to arguments brought up pretty consistently to support Lysithea's high placement. Outside of Warp, Lysithea is your traditional glass-cannon with low defenses but high magic and speed. Mastermind is great for allowing her to level up Faith really quickly, and having access to warp at B rank Faith as opposed to A rank Faith is also incredibly good. Warp allows you to cheese chapters like 5, 6, 11, 12, BL/VW 17, BL 18 and others. She has 2 crests which is cool but, I've honestly never found them useful in a mage build? Lysithea already has high enough magic where Crest of Gloucester is just overkill, and Crest of Charon really only applies to Soul Blade which you probably won't use as a mage. Her reason list is pretty impressive with Dark Spikes and Swarm for a speed debuff utility early on but, there's also the nature of dark magic having more might/weight and less hit. I can't really comment on Lysithea's hit rate/1-shot potential on Maddening since I more or less treated her like a glorified Lena/Silque/Safy that can defend herself or chip when she needs to but, I'm sure Shadow Mir will cover that later (if they do post). I did not find that Lysithea needed a crazy long Warp range in order to be successful (Mekkah's BL Maddening playthrough showcases this) mainly due to having other Warp users, Rescue, stride, Dance of the Goddess, a Dancer, etc. to help cover more terrain (not to mention that outside of CF route and VW final map, the bosses are very easy to reach in 1 or 2 turns and there's only 1 of them usually). One observation I've noticed that is used against Lysithea is the fact she doesn't benefit from Warlock, which makes sense on the surface since she doesn't benefit from Black Tomefaire or Black Magic x2. However, the most optimal path I found (and probably others) is to throw her into Bishop for White Magic x2 (which means an extra Warp use, since I remember someone pointing out that Lysithea needs Gremory for her full potential to have 2 warp uses). Lysithea doesn't really benefit from Warlock bases like say, Dorothea or Lorenz who both can get Magic screwed early on, since she probably will have a high enough Magic/Speed stat at the point (not to mention Dark magic has higher might anyways). Missing a tomefaire also doesn't seem to matter since on my Hard mode playthroughs where I used her as a combat unit, she always ended having better combat potential than the units who did go through the Warlock line, again due to her magic growth and Dark magic's higher might. Anyways to conclude, Bishop is still the best path for her regardless due to slightly better growths (in Charm) and extra White Magic uses. Overall, Lysithea's easiest access to Warp is why I gave her a very generous score. Lysithea having great magical combat is definitely a plus but, I think that's more like a bonus or an added luxury rather than what really makes Lysithea good in the first place (in my opinion). edit - really random thought but I feel like that talk about base stats of current house students (not out of house ones) is honestly kind of pointless, considering all of them bar the 3 lords/Byleth/Petra don't have the greatest base and they are not gonna do well early, and it makes sense because they are all meant to be growth units that scale. I feel like the talk about bases applies moreso to the church staff since they join later, but hey, I could be the only one on that.

haven't posted in a looooooooooooooong while but anyways... I'd rate Dimitri 9.5/10 mainly because of the Battalion Wrath + Battalion Vantage combo (this is based on Maddening Mode fyi). Most people covered all the stuff about his growths/arts/bases etc. so I will be ignoring that since it's redundant and I agree with mostly everything that's been brought up, except the really random point on Dimitri having a low Magic growth + poor Reason list which seems very irrelevant since you'd never really bring Dimitri into a magic class anyways. With that out of the way, I think Dimitri deserves a 9.5 rating because of how hard Battalion Wrath + Battalion Vantage can allow Dimitri to solo parts of the maps without too much effort. Dimitri is able to get A rank Authority around Remire (though I think I've seen people obtain it earlier by throwing him in the Lord class to increase Authority exp gain) and from then on, he really just needs a killer weapon and goes HAM on enemy phase. I don't think Death Blow is necessary on Dimitri (which is something I see brought up on how every physical unit needs Death Blow) because BW+BV Dimitri is an enemy phase unit and Death Blow requires said unit to initiate the battle. There's also another issue with Dimitri really needing chipped battalions in order to pull off the combo, which nullifies this strategy in Chapter 13 since he gets a new battalion and is footlocked in a terrain filled map. But, while chipping battalions is kind of annoying, I really didn't find it that big of an issue. Then there's of course the fact that Dimitri cannot be tutored for half of timeskip which gives you very little leeway to work with him since all of your planning needs to be done in White Clouds, but I found that he scales fine as long as he at least has BW + BV post timeskip. Personally, I did not find Dimitri absolutely needed Wyvern Lord in order to succeed (since most people have brought up his Axe Bane). I used Bow Knight Dimitri in this playthrough (Wyvern in Hard mode but looking at Mekkah's playthrough, WL Dimitri is putting in work in Maddening) and Bow Knight Dimitri still was very useful with BW + BV, and with Close Counter he didn't really need Retribution support which was an added bonus until the last chapter with the siege tome Gremories. The only maps Bow Knight/Paladin Dimitri struggled in was the Alliel chapter, Marianne and Bernie/Petra Paralogue due to terrain issues but, they were alleviated with stride/Warp/rescue. Wyvern Lord is still a better choice in the long run because of flight but, I don't think a BW + BV Dimitri in Bow Knight (or Paladin using Bows) is that bad of a choice to be ignored since it is easier to bring Dimitri through that line. Also with BW+BV build, Dimitri having lower Speed doesn't really matter if he's going to attack first with Vantage and more than likely one shot the enemy (fast enemies are usually Falcos/Assassins/Swordmasters which are all very squishy anyways). Also just a side note, don't really understand how Edelgard got dragged into this discussion, when both units aren't even playable in the same route. Comparing 2 units like say, Dorothea/Hubert makes sense because they are all available in the BE routes and you can actually compare their (dis)advantages. But, comparing 2 units that aren't even playable in the same route is kind of random since both their routes play out very differently (different maps, objectives, different amount of chapters) and you cannot directly compare how each unit would fare against each other and it becomes more or less speculation. Also Aymr being a good weapon is something that should be said to boost Edelgard's ranking, not to hamper Dimitri's lol.

Idk if I'd even consider Bernadetta underrated just because there are some people that don't like her. Edelgard and Dimitri each have a hate fanbase that will follow you around like the plague and tell you otherwise if you say anything close to positive about them (y'all know who you are), but they are far from underrated. Bernadetta still gets lots of love and calling her underrated because people have expressed their dislike for her (her ratio of people that like her vs. dislike her is probably skewed very favorably to the like side) is a big stretch. Another character that rarely gets talked about I feel (like Annette), is Mercedes. She's probably known as a pacifist and while she does have that very innocent aura to her (her being a faithful woman and being a canon healer/bishop), her bluntness and straightforwardness to characters like Sylvain and Lorenz was a pleasant surprise, also her kinda lowkey guilt tripping Hilda unknowingly was funny (there's quite a few shy, innocent, devoted female healers in the series and they all act the same except a few like Serra, Lissa, Elise, Maribelle, and Malliesia come to mind), so it's nice to have Mercedes stand out among the crowd if you dig into her supports. Though I don't think she's that underrated character wise, personally think she's like kind of in between and gets talked about here and there but, I have had people discuss how they feel she's a doormat and a pushover.

Cyril's lady Rhea obsession kinda makes sense considering he sees her as a mom and he's practically still a child (I mean he's like 13 at the start of the game so he got brought into the monastery when he was younger). People who say Cyril is just a crazed Lady Rhea fan and a 1-note character probably didn't view his supports which barely talk about Rhea (I think the only supports that talk about Rhea are with Seteth and Shamir I think, also in regards to Hubert/Edelgard's relationship people quickly love to point out his support with Ferdinand to show he's more than just a Lady Edelgard fan). He does have wasted potential since they could've talked a lot about his backstory within the story dialogue, especially in VW route but they didn't. Honestly, he's fine as a unit too since people are quick to dismiss him (specifically BL/VW Cyril), he joins early enough and it's really not hard to feed him kills in Hard mode (didn't use Cyril in Maddening so idk). Also nice he can reclass into 2 of the best classes in the game with his talents and his very early access to Point-Blank Volley is nice. Ignatz is honestly fine as a character, I know a lot of people who passionately hate him because of his design (I mean in the Korean FE3H poll he was like #2 most hated character in 3H iirc) and think he's ugly (he got the glow up at least). He's a bit boring for sure but his character is interesting and can apply to people irl where you have to decide between pursuing your passion or pursuing what other people want you to pursue. Ignatz as a unit is alright, has a lot of early utility and makes a pretty solid and accurate Archer which is nice. Hanneman isn't just a bootleg Dorothea, and I think he's better than her in Maddening mode (vice versa in Hard mode, though they are interchangeable honestly). His character is also very interesting character with his views on crests and nobility in general. His support with Manuela is also 10/10 and has a very cute ending too.

betting right now on the brave alts

Lyn - Probably the most boring lord in the entire series, not even sure what her purpose is in FE7 other than having Lyn Mode for a glorified tutorial (even then the plot of Lyn mode is so random, Lyn wants to talk to her long-lost grandfather but a bunch of people are trying to stop her and Count Caelin from meeting). She barely contributes in Eliwood/Hector mode outside the occasional bicker with Hector (which isn't even story relevant). She gets a lot of love which I find a bit strange since she's barely present in FE7 (and isn't even a great unit honestly, which quite a few people will argue against considering we had the whole Lyn vs. Marcus debate a while back, and I remember seeing a tier list than ranked her above Fiora/Heath/Farina) and feels like they just wanted to squeeze in Sacae representation somehow. Corrin/Kris - Both shoehorned protagonists in their respective games. Kris was dumb because they basically kept the story in Book 2 FE3 the same, just replaced some parts of the story with "Marth/Jagen did x/y/z" with "Kris did x/y/z" and then added the whole Katarina arc (which I did find sorta interesting tbf). Corrin is just dumb and gets bailed out by his "siblings" and Azura like 90% of the story, but yet the siblings still entrust Corrin with some pretty big decisions. Not to mention how the game goes out of its way to make everyone playable love Corrin (they really gotta make Takumi in CQ forgive Corrin, even though Takumi literally has 0 reason to do so) Bernadetta - Used to be neutral to her, but as I got to like CF route (used her twice prior in AM and SS) I found her progressively more annoying. Even in CF route where she does improve, she's basically the same person in my eyes (considering her supports are the exact same), she just comes out of her room a lot more often in the route. The amount of screaming and whining the character has in the supports annoys me, and the amount of "must protecc" posts makes me eye roll. Probably has the worst S support conversation in my eyes (Cyril you're safe) since any sort of character development she had with Byleth gets flushed down the drain (though TreeHouse is to blame for it since the Japanese one is vastly different). Azama - Basically the type of person that would annoy me irl, due to his nature on how he finds joy in getting under people's skin.

agree to disagree then

7 votes you can miss, as in if you miss a day you lose a vote. If there was a way to get 7 votes straight up then it'd be fine.

Basically for this chapter, I found that the best way to take it on is to divide and conquer. I'd also recommend giving Azura or Elise a Strength Tonic + Iron Axe so they can trade it to Camilla, and send her over to Oboro since she can 1 round her + get the DracoShield. Camilla should then move towards the center and get the Dual Club from the village (or from whoever has it) to deal with Hinata as well since. Corrin should ideally be in the center (assuming he/she is a Nohr Princess) along with Niles (to deal with Sky Knights since they tend to flock the middle and handle the Balista). If you're struggling, I'd honestly think early promoting Silas isn't a bad if you don't plan on using him long term (Xander and a trained Sophie outclass him in the late game). I've never done this chapter with Paladin Jakob before but, I'd assume he would be a very good asset in the chapter since he can 1 shot enemies + can take them very well. I think I saw someone use a Defense + HP Tonic paired with Effie to deal with Archers on the right so they don't reach the Balista, but I had Silas with a Javelin + Effie paired up to deal with them too so Nyx can handle the Magic Orb (to chip the Ninjas and Oni on the left). Selena + Beruka can deal with the Oni (after Nyx has chipped them) in the left and visit that village. Keep in mind the Sky Knight reinforcements are usually coded to aim for the seize point, and will ignore any of your units (even if they are in kill range). The Sky Knights also deal like no damage (I think Azura can tank 2 hits from the Sky Knights), but you gotta watch out for the ones with Darting Blow since they will double. Not sure if that helps but that's what I did.

random new 3H additions to the thread I hate the usage of buzzwords/phrases like "nuanced" or "morally-gray" when discussing 3H's plot. It just seems like another excuse to justify one character as good, and another as bad which defeats the purpose of using the terms to not see the characters as black/white. For example, if you like Edelgard and hate Rhea, it's almost always like "Edelgard is morally gray, Rhea is a murderer/tyrant" or if you like Dimitri and hate Edelgard it's "Dimitri is a nuanced character, Edelgard is 100% murderer/tyrant". Gets old really quickly and it's a claim I see sooooo often in the 3H subforum Dorothea isn't that good of a unit (unit not character), I frequently see her in the A or high B range in a lot of tier lists (and if she isn't that's usually the first point people argue over about). Meteor is cool but it's a luxury and the gambit boost/linked attack boost doesn't really make a difference to me and Physic is nice but she doesn't heal that much even with a Heal Staff (dual equip Magic + Heal staff and just switch between the 2) especially late game she heals around 20 ish HP. Not to mention she gets prone to get Magic screwed and really needs Warlock to really shine. Annette and Flayn are underrated as units, more so with Flayn imo.

I'll let you have Oswin

For me personally, it's just bringing up the family aspect is kinda lame because it's pretty much assumed that all (if not most) of the soldiers have a family, even if it's not Dimitri specifically, the KoS and the other Kingdom loyalists + BL students/allies have families. So to me it's just the "what's make you so special that you get to bring up the family aspect, when I'm sure the other fallen soldiers on both sides would've loved to be alive to reunite with their family". I would've been fine with Randolph if he just ended at calling Dimitri a monster and/or murderer and left it at that.

that last part seems like a random personal attack, there's no need to assume whether or not she played or did not play the game because she just so happened to view Fodlan in a different light than you do. edit- Also re:Randolph, personally don't really like his character, moreso in AM. Ladislava is a better general just because she's honorable (she shows that she cares about her comrades with her interactions with Ferdinand if he's an enemy and still defends the bridge to her last). In AM, I see Randolph slowly starting to morph into a coward when he brings up the whole family excuse which makes me eye roll in a sense. What Dimitri did was wrong since torture was very unnecessary but, to me it was one of those "...really" moments. Randolph is obviously portrayed vastly different in CF when he fought against Catherine + Rhea's army but, since I did AM before CF my 1st impression of him stuck. Also it's kinda funny how Fleche managed to accomplish more in AM than Randolph did, considering Fleche was able to infiltrate the Kingdom army (I believe she was the one that took out Kingdom messengers to the Alliance but idr if it was explicitly said, which ended up causing Dimitri to have beef with the Alliance since he thought that was the Alliance's doing) and also she managed to take out Rodrigue. She's obviously more capable than Randolph portrays her as (her surviving till the end of CF also shows she is quite capable), so I'm curious as to why Randolph prevented her from going into the front lines.